I participated in a panel about writing SF mysteries, in which we discovered a wide range of opinions concerning what actually constitutes a mystery. Also shared a presentation with Tom Easton in which we talked about how to ensure one’s fiction doesn’t get past the screener. (Like, writing a goofy cover letter.) Overall, there were a number of intriguing panels and presentations on display. And a round of readings and kaffee klatches. Athena Andreadis had several of us over to her place for dinner and an evening of animated conversation. Athena is the author of The Biology of Star Trek.
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Trains have always been pure magic for me, since the Christmas morning when I came downstairs and found a set of electric trains ready to circle a platform that included several houses, a station, and a half dozen trees. I was about four. So I decided to treat myself this year, skip the plane, and ride Amtrak from Southern Georgia to Boston. I took a good book along: Blind Man’s Bluff, a reasonably comprehensive account of submarine espionage during the Cold War, by Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew. I expected to spend a lot of time watching the scenery roll by, but I got tangled in the book and missed the landscape.
I finished it by the time I’d hit New York on the way home, so I picked up another one that looked good, Family of Secrets, by Russ Baker. This one purports to be a “hidden history of the last fifty years.” It caught my eye because it says it will explain why we went into Iraq.
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There was a time I thought that writers lived an extraordinarily leisurely existence. I’m currently working on the second draft of Firebird, which is due November 1. I’m actually only a few days into the second draft, which will be the first version that’s even remotely comprehensible. Most of my novels go to a fifth or sixth draft. One, Omega, went well into double figures. But no problem. I’d get going on it again when I got back from Boston.
While I was away, Maureen informed me that the final copy of Echo had arrived. It was my last chance to go through it before publication and fix whatever needed fixing. The day that I got home, the mass market copy of Time Travelers Never Die also showed up. My opportunity to take another pass through that. Have to do it; you just never know what might have escaped all the previous readings.
Meantime, on the train coming home, I had an idea for a short-short. The title, assuming it ever gets written, will be “Golden Age.” The idea emerged from John Horgan’s The End of Science. Is there an endless progression of great discoveries to be made? Or are we getting near the end? It’s a question I’ve wondered about whenever I introduce a scientist in the Alex & Chase books. In Firebird, we are probably going to find out that they don’t do blue sky science anymore.
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Finally, I want to recommend Starbound, by Joe Haldeman. It’s a sequel to Marsbound. I’ve never read a book by Haldeman that I haven’t enjoyed.