What's New

Website

This website is new! I have a lot of things I want to add to it, as "my copious free time" allows.

Writing

Novel
My current work in progress is Ladysmith, a prehistoric novel set in Europe around 3000 BC, the time of the "Man in the Ice" whose body was found thawed out of a glacier a while back. The novel actually begins with him... and goes on with the assumption "what if he wasn't alone?" There have been a lot archeological discoveries dealing with that time period in recent years, and a lot of speculation to go with them...and a lot of arguments among archeologists. There is still so little hard data about the cultures of the time, however, that I have plenty of room for educated-guesswork. I get to combine my long-time interest in anthropogy with my science fiction worldbuilding in this novel; I've wanted to write this book for a long time. (And it's been taking a long time, thanks to the chaos of my realtime life in the mundane world....) Ladysmith should appeal to readers who like worldbuilding/cultures-in-collision science fiction; and also fantasy readers, since magic was a very real part of life for the people of this time. I hope this book will reach a wider readership as well, of course, and increase my general readership, since I'm not getting any younger.

Novelization
I took a hiatus from Ladysmith to write the novelization for the new movie Lost in Space, which is based on the old tv series from the sixties. I really had a good time writing the book; the story line is more like the original vision of the series--an adventure with some good wisecracks--than like the campy comedy the series swiftly became. The book is coming out in hardcover first, like the Independence Day novelization did, I gather.

The female characters have been updated , in the sense that they get to do more than look worried and make coffee: Maureen has a PhD in Life Sciences, and Judy is a doctor; Penny is clearly destined to become a science fiction writer...!

The movie stills I've seen look terrific ($70 million budget, and massive quantities of special effects being done for it). It's either coming out April 3 (anniversary of the show's first episode), or else on the high-karma date of Memorial Day Weekend--I've heard both reported.

(By the way, for those who grumble when writers "lower our sights" or "get lazy" by writing novelizations--yes, many people do ask why we do them--I'll tell you why: We need the money. Having said that, however, I must add that most of my novelizations have been a lot of fun, and in writing them I've learned things about pacing and building a scene that have made my own writing stronger. Even in the worst cases, I do the best job I can...sometimes the challenge is simply to make, if not a silk purse, at least a leather one out of a sow's ear. But like Tom Lehrer once said: Life is like a sewer--you get out of it what you put into it. It's all grist for the mill.)

Comics
I've begun working on a comic-book adaptation of Catspaw, with the encouragement and guidance of a friend, comics writer Mike Baron. It's a lot like writing a screenplay, which I've always wanted to try doing--and probably has a better chance of actually being produced! I've always enjoyed books with illustrations, as well as movies, and have read comics off and on all my life. After quite a long hiatus my son got me started on them again a few years ago, and I've become addicted: During the past couple of decades the level of writing has grown much more sophisticated (not unlike in the SF field,) and so has the art--add computerized coloring and the final effect can be stunning. (I also like Japanese anime and manga.) I hope I can join those ranks, at least as an adapter....

Dolls

Yes, oddly enough, dolls. I've also always loved dolls, although I didn't realize that until my children were born, and I could find an excuse to hang out in the toy department again. Recently my right brain's artistic urge has reasserted itself, and over the last year or so I have begun making one-of-a-kind dolls in polymer clay, and their costumes myself as well. Several of them are portrait dolls of characters from my novels; I've displayed them in a couple of convention art shows and gotten good feedback on them. I hope to do more dollmaking in the future, and am offering the dolls for sale--both to support my "habit" (as well as help support my family) and to keep my house from filling up with them.

Life, the Universe and Everything

This has been a busy year; more on that at a future date, except to say that I taught at the Clarion East Writers' Workshop for the first time this summer (after three times at Clarion West), and it was a wonderful experience. Not only was it full of very talented writers, it was full of really great human beings. I not only got back to doing my own writing in that energized atmosphere, I was reminded of how much I enjoy teaching. Yet another thing I'd really like to do more of, if I live that long.

I just got back from my second trip to Portugal a couple of weeks ago, to attend the second annual science fiction convention held in Cascais, north of Lisbon. Last year my whole trip was so flawless--wonderful people, beautiful place, no huge snafus on the extremely long plane flights--that I knew this year couldn't possibly be as intense an experience. And indeed, a lot of the aggravating things one expects of a first trip--stomach ailments, bad plane flights, etc--occurred. But I did see a lot of friends from last year, and made some wonderful new ones, which was great. This year, thanks to my new friends, I got to do some major sightseeing after the convention, including a trip to a Neolithic-period megalithic site--a circle of standing stones with solar alignments for the solstices.

Though not covered over, the stone circle was distinctly womb-like in shape, with an opening aligned with (I believe) midwinter sunrise. The granite boulders were not cut, but set into the ground in their natural rounded form, and an incredibly beautiful, powerful sight. The circle lay on the southern slope of the highest hill in the area, just short of its peak.

On the peak was a grove of cork trees--which, I discovered, are actually a member of the oak family, complete with acorns. The corks we put into bottles are made from their thick spongy bark, which is cut off each year like a sheep's wool, and grows back for next year. Truffles grow hidden among their roots. The acorns apparently taste better than the ones that grow in North America (which generally have to be leached with lime water to remove their bitterness); my friends told me that in Portugal people roast acorns and eat them like chestnuts.

I could go on and on...and will, at a future date. But I'm out of time, and energy, for now. So until then, adeus.