So why am I here?

Why am I blogging? I mean, besides that everyone does?

I'm recently home from the 2008 Worldcon, this year's world science fiction convention. I saw old friends, networked, had fun -- and fretted about the state of the genre. Every Worldcon I attend seems smaller, and its attendees grayer. (Yes, I'm gray, too.)

I've read SF since, best guess, I was ten or eleven. Chances are I wouldn't have picked science as a career without the exposure -- and excitement, and sense of optimism -- SF imparted. I would have missed a lot. And I doubt I would have had a second career as a writer.

This blog is begun with the hope, however modestly, of giving back. Science and technology drive progress. They offer ways to tackle many of the world's ills (and yes, ways to create new ills). They satisfy the oh-so-human urge to explore.

So: I intend to post once or twice a week with thoughts about science, fiction, and science fiction. What's exciting. What's problematical. How SF as a genre helps or hurts science awareness.

(Will I mention my own books and stories? As examples, sure. My fiction, like this blog, deals with the things on my mind. But having said that, this isn't a commercial.)

That's why I'm here. It's time to post this and see who else is. Let's start a dialog!