Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 45
August 13, 2012
ALERT: Telephone Scam From Jamaica
But not everyone is online all the time, and not everyone keeps up with the latest trends in fear and loathing. Some of us date back to an earlier time, when the phone only rang because someone you knew was calling you, when there was no email, when it hadn’t occurred to criminals in...
August 6, 2012
Answering Reader / Listener Feedback – Atheism and The Arbiter Chronicles
Last weekend was an annual pool party hosted by my friend Greg, whom I’ve known since my library days way long ago. A lot of the local podcasters are to be seen at Greg’s parties, and this year my friend Paul Fisher (the Balticon Podcast) cornered me to discuss his thoughts on Unfriendly Persuasion, my novel which premiered in February and which is currently running bi-weekly in audio format on the Prometheus Radio Theatre podcast feed.
Paul’s question centered around the por...
July 30, 2012
My Shore Leave Schedule
Shore Leave is coming! Next weekend, in fact, to the Hunt Valley Inn. Shore Leave is the DC / Baltimore Metro area's oldest surviving SF Media con. We used to call them "Trek cons," but, well, SO many other fantastically fictional properties have come along since the first Star Trek convention was held in 1972, the term just no longer serves to describe the goings-on at one of these events. True, Shore Leave and its sister-con, my own Farpoint, still have names derived from Star...
July 23, 2012
How I wish people wouldn't react to the shootings in Colorado...
Many of us in the United States had a similar story to tell last Friday morning, that is if our morning routine includes any contact at all with the world outside our home, be it via television, newspaper or the Internet. Shortly after midnight, a crazed gunman had sprayed a theater audience in Colorado with bullets during the first ticketed showing of The Dark Knight Rises. Twelve people died, and dozens more were injured.
As could be expected, the news media have had a field day. They loudly...
July 17, 2012
REVIEW - The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
Asimov is renowned for his Foundation trilogy, considered one of the most important works in science fiction, and winner of a 1965 special Hugo Award for best all-time series. Its 1982 sequel, Foundation's Edge, won the annual Hugo, and spawned a host of sequels by Asimov and others. Despite the acclaim by the SF Community, I never particularly cared for the original trilogy, and so never read the sequels. Someday I do plan to read "Edge," and perhaps Prelude to Foundation, sinc...
July 16, 2012
Taking a Day Off
July 9, 2012
“Axel’s Song” – part of ReDeus: Divine Tales
Those of you following me on Facebook and Twitter already know that, for the past two to three weeks, I’ve been frantically working to complete a 13,000 word story on a very tight deadline. I wasn’t at liberty to say why I was suddenly doing this, since it was part of a project that wasn’t mine to talk about. Now that the story is finished and accepted for publication, I can reveal what’s known so far.
ReDeus is the brain-child of four prolific authors: Robert Greenberg...
July 2, 2012
REVIEW – “Harvey” by Mary Chase, presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Mary Chase’s “Harvey” is playing currently at the former Studio 54 in New York City. My family, friends and I traveled to see it for a couple of reasons. First, of course, the play is an old favorite for a lot of us. The Jimmy Stewart film version is an American classic, and it’s hard to imagine any actor better capturing the gentle spirit of Elwood P. Dowd, a well-to-do but out-of-work man who hallucinates (we assume) that his best friend is a 6’3” white r...
June 25, 2012
REVIEW - John Carter Comics in the 21st Century
With the coming of the movie this past Spring, there was suddenly a surge of interest in John Carter of Mars, a character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 years ago for his first published work, "Under the Moons of Mars," later released as the novel A Princess of Mars. Carter was a Confederate Captain gone West to be a prospector after the Civil War ended. Attacked by a band of Apaches, he takes shelter in a cave and finds himself - his spirit, at least - transported to the plane...
June 18, 2012
REVIEW: D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths
I changed schools in the middle of third grade. I was floundering in an overcrowded classroom, a "gifted" student in a time when Gifted and Talented programs didn't exist. I didn't know my multiplication tables, and the teacher didn't like my attitude. (Truth be told, few people like my attitude. I try not to take him anywhere that's public. When I have to bring him along, I try to make him sit in the corner with a stack of comic books and behave. Doesn't always...
