Forces of Nature

"Like a force of nature" is a common enough simile. I suspect I've used it on occasion. Hopefully I haven't used it trivially, because the forces of Nature are (in another too often trivialized term) awesome ...

The forces of Nature in this post aren't similes. In recent, post-Hugo, post-Worldcon comments, I mentioned that my wife and I took a vacation immediately after the con. Three destinations on our itinerary offer opportunities to reflect on the true forces of Nature.

(And speaking of my recent posts, an aside. If, when you read this, it's still September 2015, you might want to check out my too narrowly titled post "Holiday-weekend reading." One of my publishers is running a month-long special on ebook editions of two of my non-series novels. For one of these novels, you can choose your own price. Even free. Now back to today's topic ...)

Clements Mtn. (with glacier)

First, Glacier National Park in Montana. One force of Nature, forest fire, manifested in a thick haze well before we arrived. Until a few days before said arrival, I wondered if we'd even be able to make this stop. Parts of the park remained off-limits to tourists throughout our visit.

We never got close to any of the eponymous glaciers, and smoke softened some spectacular vistas. One glacier, glimpsed from a distance -- with the haze from recent forest fires all too evident -- is shown above. And surely the seismic forces that raise such mountains likewise demonstrate Nature's incredible power.

We also drove through sections of the park where everything had burned, the landscape reduced to the appearance of a telephone-pole convention. I don't have any pictures of those sad, bare, scorched trunks. We followed the park rangers' admonitions not to stop along that part of the road.

Holiday-weekend reading

I'm playing catch-up -- still -- from twelve days away for Worldcon and an immediately following vacation. But my overflowing to-do list doesn't mean you should go without something of mine to read ...

Phoenix Pick, the publisher (more precisely, the re-publisher) of a couple of my novels, is featuring both books throughout September. Small Miracles, a near-future medical-nanotech thriller, is available all month as an ebook for whatever you choose to pay. 

Beware miracles with a mind of their own

Meanwhile Fools' Experiments, a near-future novel of artificial intelligence and artificial life, is deeply discounted. Try either. Or try both.

We are not alone ... and it’s our own damn fault.

Curious? Of course you are. Check out the Phoenix Pick deals of the month. Or click the cover image of either book to read a bit more about it on my authorial website.

And in any event ... enjoy your holiday weekend and the end of summer.

The Hugo Awards / life goes on

First things first! During my week-plus, post-Hugo Awards disappearance from social media, many people emailed, messaged, or otherwise contacted me with well-wishes and support. Some people inferred from my silence that I was taking it hard that (a) "Championship B'tok" did not win a Hugo in its category and/or (b) the Puppy-related nominees (my story being in that category) were, as a group, rebuked in the voting.

To everyone who reached out: thanks! I apologize if I caused anyone undue concern. I appreciate the kind notes and solidarity. (And I will respond, directly and individually, to each of you. It'll just take a few more days.)  

Ed & Ruth at Hugo reception

Would I have liked to take home a rocket? Sure. Even more, though, I'd have preferred -- as will be discussed later in this post -- that the overall awards situation had been different.

But in the greater scheme of things? I'm good. No, better than good. The con was fun. I caught up with friends from around the country, went to some great parties, met with lots of fans, and took part in interesting panels. I even brought home a memento I can wear at Worldcons ever after (click/enlarge the image above to see my official Hugo Nominee rocket lapel pin).

My recent absence from the web has a simple explanation: Ruth and I went from Sasquan in Spokane straight to Glacier National Park in Montana. From there we went to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, then to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. I'm just now back online. Someday, perhaps, I'll blog about those parks -- geology and ecology are also apt topics for SF and Nonsense.

(Either way, there's nothing like seeing up-close and personal the truly awesome power of Nature to put our petty squabbles into perspective. And if I'd had a decent Internet connection -- which, usually, I didn't -- I had different goals for my vacation time than hanging out on the web.)

For today, I'll focus on the Hugo situation. I'll begin by offering the sentiments I had hoped (but not expected) to have the opportunity to share at the Hugo ceremony. The people I would have recognized that night still deserve to be acknowledged and appreciated.

So -- after some happily surprised stammering -- what would I have said had the balloting gone differently?

An honor just to be nominated

That my story "Championship B'tok" made it onto the final ballot for this year's Hugo awards? It was a surprise and an honor, notwithstanding the accompanying puppygate controversy. To share the novelette category with four such fine stories -- including two by fellow Analog-ians Mike Flynn and Rajnar Vajra -- only enhanced the honor.

2007 version

That was April. It's now August, and the votes have been counted. Thomas Olde Heuvelt will be taking home the rocket. Let me be among the first to congratulate him.

That's all I'll say for now about the news ... but in a few days, I may have something to add.

Stoopid clock!!

Going really fast and dropping into a gravitational rabbit hole are both proven ways to make time's passage slow down. Having too much that needs doing? That seems to have the opposite effect.

So: no post for awhile. With luck, next week.

Short stuff

I've largely spent 2015 completing InterstellarNet: Enigma, serializing it, supporting the publisher's launch efforts, and attending the latest Nebula Awards weekend (plus bunches o' personal activities -- all good, just not relevant here). But don't take that emphasis to mean there's no other writing going on ...

Are you done with steampunk? (That's SF re-imagined as though progress ended with Victorian science and technology.) Editors Thomas A. Easton and Judith K. Dial were ... and they put out the call for SF stories set in a later, but still retro era. The result -- and see the gorgeous cover nearby -- was Deco Punk: The Spirit of the Age. My contribution to the anthology was "Judy Garland Saves the World (And I Don't Mean Oz)."

I had so much fun with that foray into the era between the World Wars that I tried my hand at another such story. That became "Soap Opera," in an upcoming (but as yet unscheduled) issue of Analog.

Analog, of course, is a frequent home of my shorter writings. So you'll likely not be surprised that I have more things in their pipeline:

And now for something (in fact, many somethings) completely different

I read mostly SF and current science/technology. For a change of pace, I recently pulled off my shelf a thick volume that I had forgotten even owning. It's been years -- at the least -- since I bought it.

But this book was well worth the wait.

Highly recommended

The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself, by Daniel J. Boorstin, is as ambitious as the title suggests. Boorstin, if the name isn't familiar, was Librarian of Congress from 1975 to 1987. An historian, educated at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, his writing is as solid and meticulously detailed as anyone could want -- and for all its encyclopedic depth and breadth, eminently readable.

The Discoverers takes on -- and admirably discharges --  the project of  surveying how our modern scientific understanding came about. It's a scholarly salute to the pioneers of dozens of fields, from explorers to clock makers to archeologists to ... you name it.

Beyond fascinating and cogent introductions to many scientific topics, and the often quirky biographies of the key players, Boorstin provides context. Why did a particular advance occur when it did? Why in one part of the world, or in a particular culture, and not others? How did deference to Ptolemy, Aristotle, Galen, and Confucius, among many,  inform -- or impede -- the development of science? How did prevailing beliefs, both religious and philosophical, advance or impede particular revolutions in thought? How did seemingly disjoint scientific awakenings pave the way for whole new disciplines?

The Discoverers examines geographical exploration, the invention of objective methods of measurement, standardization of calendars and chronologies (how else can one even hope to talk about world history?), evolution, economics, anthropology, the discovery of prehistory, advances in astronomy, and much more.

But beyond its fascinating narratives and diverting anecdotes, The Discoverers offers food for thought. Throughout mankind's millennia-long career, the common understanding(s) of our world's true nature has undergone revolution upon revolution. Much that we moderns immodestly take to be proven fact is of very recent vintage. Most science dates back no more than a few centuries -- and some branches are younger than that. Peer back even a few decades at what was then perceived wisdom, and it looks quaint. Cutting-edge technology from that same era already often seems primitive. It's enough to make one wonder: how much of what we feel certain about today will likewise seem misguided mere decades hence?

The Discovers, by Daniel J. Boorstin. Highly recommended.

Hugo voting closing soon

Many visitors to SF and Nonsense, not surprisingly, read SF. Some are also, through a membership at last year's or this year's Worldcon, eligible to vote for this year's Hugo awards. If that's you, please note: voting closes on July 31. That's this coming Friday! (Where does the time go?)

The envelope please ...

As this year's puppygate controversy continues to swirl, it's more important than ever that nonpartisan readers (as I imagine visitors here to this blog to be) participate in the awards process. The more fans who -- turned off by all the squabbling and posturing, politicizing and agend-izing -- sit out this awards cycle, the more at risk this prestigious award becomes. The squabblers and politicizers will vote.

Full disclosure (though not news to regular droppers-by): I have a novelette on this year's final Hugo ballot. If you should find "Championship B'tok" award-worthy, that's keen. If you don't care for it, or think another(s) of the candidates is worthier -- fair enough. I thank all Hugo voters -- however they chose to vote -- who assess the nominated stories on their intrinsic merits.

(And if you're curious about my take on the controversy, see, "Of Hugo Awards, Sad Puppies, and notoriety.")