Because Not Everyone Can Get To Cons

I did a mini-reading from Araña and recorded it.

There you go - if you're interested in my work but don't live in this area and/or can't afford to go to the cons I'm at.

It's just a teaser, but...

The Saga "Ends" - Reactions to Rise of Skywalker

Okay, so, first of all? I liked it.

I liked it.

But I understand why some people didn't, because oh my gods the fanservice.

I liked the overall storyline. I liked the bickering between Finn and Poe. Everything else is spoilers, so I'm going to, ya know...blank line some here.

Is Betelgeuse About to go "Kaboom"?

You may or may not have noticed there's something a bit off about Orion lately.

His shoulder's missing.

Betelgeuse, otherwise known as Alpha Orionis, has dimmed dramatically of late. Now, Betelgeuse is a variable star - not entirely stable, the star's brightness does differ over time. However, we've never seen it drop by a full magnitude over the space of no more than two months. Most likely, Betelgeuse will spring back to life in a few weeks...

...but there's also an outside chance the red giant is about to go supernova. The star has the right level and kind of mass to explode, and scientists know it will at some point...but it could be thousands of years in the future.

Or it could already have happened – Betelgeuse is 640 light years away, so we're seeing the star as it was a few hundred years ago.

So, what happens if Betelgeuse becomes a supernova?

The star will become, for a while, a hundred times brighter than Venus, easily visible in the daytime if you know where to look.

We'll be close enough to get some interesting data about supernovae, but far enough away that any gamma ray burst from Betelgeuse won't reach us (the estimate for that is about 50 light years).

Mostly, we'll just get to say we actually saw a supernova. And that will be cool...but unlikely. More likely, Betelgeuse will return to "normal" soon enough...

Happy Holidays

This blog is going to go dark from tomorrow until December 27.

In the meantime, a couple of updates.

The first draft of The Secret History of Victor Prince is now finished and on the shelf to "rest," as it were.

When I get back I plan on pulling out a secondary world fantasy I wrote a few years ago, polishing it off, and sending it to betas.

(If there are any writers who would like to do a beta trade on a secondary world fantasy that involves dragons, a pretty non-traditional world, and a very lesbian MC...please let me know).

Planet Hunting

The CHEOPS satellite was successfully launched (after they had to reboot the entire mission due to a software error).

The satellite will focus on systems where we have already located exoplanets with a focus on large exoplanets (gas giants). The idea will be to determine more about them, especially their density.

The satellite has now made contact with its ground station in Antarctica.

Which is called Troll.

What Scandinavian named this?

She Dropped Her Gum...

...and as a result we know what she looked like.

Nicknamed, "Lola," the woman lived about 5,700 years ago in what is now Denmark. They were able to sequence her genome from birch pitch, which she may have been chewing to prepare for use in making tools...or she may just have been chewing gum.

She was of eastern European, not Scandinavian ancestry, likely indicating that people were moving around a fair bit.

And she looked like this:

You can see what she, well, isn't. (The gene for fair skin was around in Europe at the time but had not yet become dominant, and didn't until after we made the full transition to agriculture. The likely reason: A diet with less vitamin D in it).

She's shown with a duck, probably her dinner, hazelnuts, and a fish trap. We don't know anything about her, but we know that face. It's the face of one of our ancestors.

Who dropped her chewing gum.

(Picture source: Gizmodo)

RIP Rene Auberjonois

This one's late because of the launch.

René Auberjonois was, of course, best known as our very own Odo (to the point where I can't quite envision his face without the makeup). he was also Peter Mulcahy in the MASH movie, Hugo Miller in Warehouse 13 (I miss that show so much) and Paul Lewiston in the hilarious Boston Legal. He also did a lot of voice work and had a gorgeous singing voice.

Auberjonois had a long career across a variety of genres, and I don't have time to list everything. He will definitely be missed.

Araña Countdown Post: It's Tomorrow!

Official launch is tomorrow! I'll be posting links to my website possibly as soon as right after midnight EST (depending on how tired I am).

Free Netgalley e-ARCs (uncorrected proofs) will continue to be available until December 31. If you take one and write a review, please follow the instructions here to share your review on retail sites. As usual, the book may not show up on Apple or Barnes & Noble for a couple of weeks. Remember that reviews are one of the most important ways you can both support authors and help out your fellow readers.

I'll be answering questions about the book on my Facebook page tomorrow evening.

The first opportunity to get physical, signed copies from me will be Farpoint Convention at the Book Fair on Friday night. If you can't be there on Friday, just corner me at the con and I'll find you a copy.

Araña Countdown Post: The Light Barrier

FTL is one of those things which is acceptable even in fully hard science fiction, because our stories don't work without it.

So, what are our chances of cracking it in reality, by the laws of our presumably non-fictional universe (presumably, because we can't actually prove we aren't all living in a computer simulation...)?

The very short answer is: Probably not.

The longer answer is, well...we don't actually know yet. The more we learn, the more the loopholes (wormholes?) seem to close.

The big problem with faster-than-light is that as you approach it, you need ever more energy to increase speed. Theoretically, going faster than light speed (a bit under 300,000km/s in a vacuum) requires infinite energy.

The most promising idea is the Alcubierre warp drive, which works pretty much...like the warp drive in Star Trek. It creates a space-time bubble that squashes in front of the spacecraft to pull it, and then one which expands behind. The problem is that to start the process you would need to...

...convert the entire mass of Jupiter into energy. Maybe if we had a dyson sphere...

And then you would have to keep producing that much energy. In other words, the warp drive is not impossible, merely impractical.

There's also the possibility of wormholes, but they just aren't big enough to drive a spaceship through. We have no idea what it would take to build a stargate (a controlled wormhole large enough to fly through).

The system I use in Araña is even less likely, but more fun. The idea of crossing into a layer of space in which the light speed barrier is higher and then back is pure science fiction. I mean, it's what they use in Star Wars, which probably crosses the line into fantasy.

But it's the only trick that allows for some of the events in the plot to happen. Sometimes the science just has to bow to the plot...

Araña Countdown Post: Starships and Probes

So, space exploration.

In reality, it's mostly done by robots. But that's no fun, so in fiction we tend to have starships. Will we?

It's an open question. We have yet to send a true interstellar probe. The Voyagers have entered interstellar space, but it took them a long time to get there and they certainly aren't expected to reach another solar system.

The Interstellar Probe concept mission has been presented to NASA, but it has a major downside: It will take at least 15 years to get to its planned distance of 200 AU. That's outside the solar system, but it's not...ya know.

Not actually going anywhere. The point of the mission would be to study the heliosphere, which doesn't work the way we thought it did. We have a much more solid bow wave than we thought, which may protect our solar system (and others) from higher levels of radiation in true interstellar space.

We're a long way from creating a probe that can go to Proxima Centauri, unless we crack FTL any time soon. Given FTL may or may not be possible...

But for science fiction, we want human exploration. In Transpecial and Araña, the complicated flow patterns in hyperspace are easier for an organic mind to handle than an AI, which makes human explorers more necessary. This is unlikely to actually be true (in fact, it's probably more likely that interstellar ships will be robots that fly themselves. Even the ones carrying humans). It's just a lot less fun that way.

I'll talk about FTL and possibilities tomorrow, but right now I'm still daydreaming of some drive that will get a probe to another system within my own lifespan. And I'm not getting any younger...

Araña Countdown Post: Heinlein

Ah, Heinlein.

I don't think I have a more ambiguous relationship with any writer, living or dead.

Robert Heinlein is one of the greats of our genre. He also couldn't write women to save his life and had some seriously strange ideas about sexuality (I'm not at all averse to healthy polyamory, but if you're a fan do I have to say more than "Wake her up the best way"?)

The Transpecial universe started with an unpublished and honestly not very good story entitled "The Veteran," which was written for (and soundly rejected by) a Heinlein tribute anthology. It was meant to engage with Starship Troopers. Because of that I made the main character Latino, like Johnny Rico.

That character eventually became José Marin, although most of the original story was ditched in the creation  of Araña (the ship was originally more of a colony ship with families on board).

So, there's a lot of influence of Heinlein here, but hopefully none of the creepy stuff ;).

Araña Countdown Post: Star Trek

I've been thinking a lot about my Star Trek influences this week, mostly because of the loss of D.C. Fontana.

Araña is, as the author's note (which is at the end) says, in conversation with Star Trek. Openly so. Characters refer to the show, it's in the ship's database. I made this as a conscious decision.

Star Trek is more than just 'that science fiction show,' it's part of our popular culture. Which means some of its tropes and assumptions are in our head. The Prime Directive, the way starships work. Araña engages with those tropes.

So I'm hoping it will appeal to Star Trek fans. And I'm hoping that it will in some ways touch on that milieu.

After all.

We all have that strong desire to go "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Friday Update

Okay, so...not much news. (It's December, and pretty soon publishing kind of shuts down).

Araña is on track for a December 14 release, but if you want a copy early, have a NetGalley account and are willing to do a review, you can go here.

The book I'm currently drafting, The Secret History of Victor Prince is at 35,000 words. I'm aiming for somewhere between 75 and 80k. This is a prequel to the Lost Guardians series.

That's everything I can actually talk about for now.

Domestication

This article explains something I've long suspected.

The oldest domesticated animal is: Man.

Domestication syndrome is, in animals, a series of physical changes that are related to distinct changes in neural cell migration. These changes reduce fear and improve the desire to cooperate. For example, the first person to ride a horse was almost certainly also the first person to fall off a horse. Through breeding for these neural change migrations we bred horses who had enough of a desire to cooperate that they don't mind carrying us around. (With a few exceptions that generally end up working at rodeos).

Side effects of domestication syndrome include floppy ears (There are very few floppy eared horses due to the negative impact on their social lives and floppy ears in cats are associated with cartilage disorders), patched coats, and neoteny - childhood features surviving into adulthood.

By mapping the genes involved in domestication syndrome we've discovered that...yup. Modern humans have domestication syndrome.

We've domesticated ourselves.

We've selected for higher levels of cooperation, for reduced fear of the other (although not enough, yet). And the side effects appear to be things like smaller teeth, our lack of brow ridges, and both physical and mental neoteny.

Oh, and still being here, unlike the "wild" Neanderthals and Denosivans. (It was most likely our diseases, but did domestication play a role?).

Being domesticated allows us to live together in cities, it allows us to cooperate on huge projects from the pyramids to the space race to...what comes next.

So, it's not really a bad thing.

Not at all.

A Small Part of her Katra is in All of Us - R.I.P. D.C. Fontana, 1939-2019

The news broke yesterday after I posted. Dorothy Catherine "D.C." Fontana passed away after a "brief illness" on Monday night.

Fontana was part of what shaped Star Trek. This remarkable woman was trusted by Gene Roddenberry with something very important: The planet Vulcan.

Her worldbuilding and writing skills, combined with the brilliance of Leonard Nimoy, brought the character of Spock alive. She created the characters of Sarek and Amanda, she was the one who established why Spock is half-Vulcan.

Roddenberry first hired Fontana to work on The Lieutenant - as his secretary. She already had writing credits at this point. He invited her to write Charlie X, the second episode of Star Trek. This was when Spock started to "speak to" her.

She proceeded to write eleven episodes of the original series including "Journey to Babel," and "The Enterprise Incident." She also wrote one episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. She wrote or cowrote five episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

She was the "story editor" for Logan's Run and also wrote episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, War of the Worlds, The Legend of Prince Valiant, Babylon 5, Captain Simian & The Space Monkeys, ReBoot, Earth: Final Conflict, Silver Surfer and Beast Wars: Transformers.

She worked as a lecturer. And she may have completed one last work we haven't seen. According to IMDB she was working on the pilot for a TV show based off of Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang. (This is somehow the first I've heard of its existence. I really hope she finished it and the show goes forward as one last piece of her legacy).

It's no exaggeration to say that without D.C. Fontana, Star Trek would not be the cultural phenomenon it is. She was a major part of what makes it more than just a TV show.

And if Star Trek was not what it was I would not be who I am. Not only has Star Trek...and most especially Fontana's work on the Vulcans and the way it inspired Diane Duane's work on the Romulans...been a major influence on my writing.

It's also how I met my husband.

I am not exaggerating when I say that without Dorothy Catherine Fontana I would never have met the man with whom I have spent more than twenty years and whom I call by the Romulan endearment "sahe."

I have never met her, but she had an impact on my life that many people I have met could not understand.

The correct words are, I believe, "I grieve with thee."

But the voice I can hear in my head says "Live long and prosper."

Asteroid Pool

The target has been finalized for the DART mission, which will be a test of concept to see if we can actually redirect an asteroid.

The method is simple: We're going to fly a robot into it.

The ESA has taken on the role of launching a probe, Hera, which will examine what the DART mission did, verify whether it worked, etc.

If this works we may have a plan to deflect the next citykiller (or planetkiller) before it hits Earth. Of course, we still have to track them all.

Farside Observatory

Those who know me know that one of the things I hope humanity builds at some point is an observatory on the far side of the moon.

The moon is tidally locked to Earth, meaning anything constructed on its far side has the bulk of the moon between it and our planet. This bulk blocks radio signals from Earth, making the lunar farside the perfect place for radio astronomy.

We now have our first radio observatory on the far side of the moon. As part of the Chang'e mission, the Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE) will spend the lunar night sitting on the far side of the moon doing radio astronomy.

Obviously this is not the permanent facility I might envision as a science fiction writer, but it's a proof of concept that should give us useful science...and perhaps pave the way to such.

In Araña I called the first lunar farside settlement Chang'e City. Perhaps...

The Internet is the Next Earthquake Detector

...and no I'm not talking about people reporting tremors, although you should.

An experiment shows that it's possible to send a certain signal down a fiber-optic cable that turns the cable into a seismic detector. The next step is to see if doing it on cables that are actually in use (lit) will work without interfering with your streaming.

If this works, it will give us unprecedented knowledge of undersea seismic activity, which is very hard to measure.

Happy Thanksgiving

For everyone who celebrates. Please do remember the true origins of the holiday and that we should not just be thankful, but treat everyone with respect and acknowledge their contributions.

For those who don't, happy Thursday.

2I/Borisov

It's a comet from another solar system. And it may tell us a lot more than 'Oumuamua did. Why?

Because 2I/Borisov has a tail.

Yes, that's the Earth for scale...the tail is huge. The comet's closest approach to us will be about 190 million miles...in the next couple of weeks. Telescopes trained on the tail may be able to tell things about the building blocks of another solar system, and thus about planetary formation. Just like with comets from our Oort cloud, we can use spectroscopes to identify what the tail is made of. Most likely we'll see the same things we see in local comets - things like water (yes, water, that's why science fiction writers like to crash comets into planets), carbon monoxide, cyanogen, etc. Also a lot of dust.

But we may still learn something.

2I Borisov will make its closest approach to the sun on December 8 (at which point its tail will be at peak) and to the Earth on December 28. Look for it in the constellations Crater and Hydra. For typical US latitudes, this will be fairly low and to the south two hours before sunrise. It's not naked-eye visible, though...you'll need a good scope.

The comet is not predicted to be captured by the sun, and will undergo only a minor course change as it passes through our solar system to parts as yet unknown. (Yes, it is theoretically possible for an interstellar comet to be captured and pulled into a solar system orbit and indeed possible that some of our local comets came from somewhere else, but this is the first time we've known for sure.

Bow Ties Are Cool

So, the trailer for the next season of Doctor Who dropped over the weekend...and you get a bow tie, you get a bow tie, you get a bow tie!

There's a scene of the entire squad dressed up for a swanky party. Guess who's the only one who doesn't look perfectly put together. (And yes, the women are in menswear, it's awesome). It may be a Bond homage (which would be ironic, because the Flash is doing one of those too...)

I really want to know why.

And Cybermen!

It also implies there may be more of an arc this season, but we'll see.

And we have to wait until early 2020. However, season 13 is already in the works, so hopefully we've sorted out the filming schedule issues (for which I blame Bradley Walsh).

I just want Thirteen in a crooked bow tie.

So...

...is it possible for planets to form in the accretion disk of a black hole.

The math says: Yes.

Supermassive black holes have huge accretion disks that contain far, far more dust and debris than the much smaller accretion disks that form around stars.

Any such planets would have very interesting orbits indeed: They could be as far as ten light years from the primary. Needless to say there would be no life, at least not of any time we would recognize, on such a world. There would not be enough energy.

At least as far as we know.

But there could be huge numbers of these planets orbiting, say, the black hole at the center of the galaxy. With current technology we can't detect them.

Could they be useful? Perhaps...

Cover Reveal: Arana

So, here it is!

The Mars War is years over. Earth lost. And Earth's first starship has gone out into the black. José Marin is crew on the second, a war veteran seeking a place to belong away from a world which has not welcomed him home. But when the Atlantis sends a distress call, the Endeavour must go to their aid, and discover a tangled web that Marin will be drawn into the very heart of. Now he must help find a way to save a world while his own world crumbles...''

Arana will be released just in time for Christmas on December 14, 2019.

Oops

Yup, SpaceX had a rocket blow up during a pressurization test again.

Here's the thing. SpaceX understands that when you are designing new stuff, especially for space, you have to accept that you are going to blow up a few prototypes. (And possibly kill a test pilot, although you do try to avoid that).

Their design philosophy of testing and improving rather than trying to anticipate every possible failure profile before building is what's going to get us there. It's faster, it's cheaper, and it's more efficient.

We just have to accept a few explosions along the way, and make sure there aren't any people in them. (Which is why SpaceX IS doing tons of testing on, say, launch abort and human escape systems).

Or Maybe We'll Just Freeze People

And right as we start speculating about hibernation, somebody manages to cryogenically freeze...and safely revive...a human.

The technique has nothing to do with space travel. The idea is to give ER doctors more time to save a dying patient...a couple of hours rather than a few minutes. It's possible that the time limit will be too short for a trip to Saturn.

But it's a proof of concept. (And, even more important, will save lives here on Earth).

Sleeping to Mars

A science fiction staple – human hibernation is now being seriously studied.

Hibernating astronauts would need a much smaller spaceship, which would be easier to shield from radiation. They would not need to carry as much food. Sleeping through it would also reduce the risk of psychological issues causing inter-crew conflicts that are also a science fiction staple, but a very real risk when you have a small group of people that isolated.

We don't have a reliable way to induce long-term hibernation in humans yet, but we're looking into it.

The astronauts would, like bears, have to store body fat for the trip. In fact it might even be that the first Mars crew to be sent using this would be selected for being what livestock people call "easy keepers." In other words, people who put on weight at a drop of a hat would have a higher chance of surviving long-term hibernation in good condition.

They're predicting that it would take 2 to 3 weeks for the astronauts to recover (muscles not used for five months are going to be weak, for example). But that mission cost would be overwhelmed by the advantages.

What do you think? Should we sleep our way to Mars?

Sigh...space rocks

So, are we all going to die? The alarmist headlines are back.

The latest ones talk about a rock named 2009JF1, which according to the alarmists has a 1 in 3,800 chance of hitting Earth on May 6, 2022.

So, should we all be preparing for the worst?

According to both NASA and ESA, 2009JF1 does indeed show a close approach risk on that day.

But! The alarmists are saying this rock has a 420 ft diameter.

Nope.

It has a 43 ft diameter. Still bad, yes, but it makes me skeptical about whatever else they have to say.

(I'm also seeing 52 ft, so we're probably not 100% sure on the exact size, but it's def. not 420 ft!)

So, what would actually happen if 2009JF1 hit us?

Let's assume 50 ft as a reasonable size for this beastie.

Let's make the reasonable assumption it's dense rock, being a rogue asteroid.

Let's assume a typical impact speed.

2009JF1 hits us.

It breaks up in the upper atmosphere into lots of tiny fragments. Unless one lands on your head, you'll be fine. And if you're directly under it and standing near a window, you might be in trouble (Pro tip: See a fireball, get away from windows).

We already know what an impact of this size does if it "hits" a city. It's called Chelyabinsk.

In other words, somebody added a 0 to the size of an asteroid and panicked and now it's spreading.

(Out of interest, what would happen if it was 420 ft? I ran that too. Nice big crater, and you wouldn't want to be under it, but not by any means a planet killer).

Sigh.

Look, I get it. We need planetary defense. But inaccurate alarmism is not how we get it.

Weekly Updates

Okay, so news is:

Edits are back on Araña. I've started going through them and expect to be contacting my cover artist some time next week. This is a companion book to Transpecial and should appeal to people who liked that one. It's better, too.

The Secret History of Victor Prince first draft is at about 15,000 words, before I stopped to worry about getting Araña out there.

I still don't have a formal release date, but it should be within the next few weeks. After last year, I intend to avoid a Black Friday release. I've been advised that it's a bad idea to do Black Friday releases and promotions because people are tired of advertising. I am already!

Got an old pooch?

The Dog Aging Project is looking for 10,000 aged canines to participate in a massive study about aging. They may be trying an anti-aging drug on some dogs. But mostly it just means they want vet records.

If you have an older dog and would like to help study aging in dogs (and eventually humans), you can nominate them here.

Fluctuating Oxygen On Mars

So, this is real interesting.

Mars does have seasons.

And the oxygen level is showing seasonal fluctuations.

Which are not stable or what we predicted.

What creates oxygen? All kinds of chemical processes, but we just can't explain this.

Mars may still be, barely, a living world. Do we hope for that or not?

(And how do I use this in a story).

Interstellar Probes

The Voyager probes have taught us a lot about the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. We weren't expecting there to be a "wall" at the heliopause.

So, maybe it's time to send a proper interstellar probe. Voyager 1 and 2 took 40 years to leave the solar system, but we know a good bit more about building probes now. Using gravity assist, we might be able to get a probe to the heliopause in a much more reasonable decade or so. Solar gravity assist would be faster, Jovian assist would allow more science on the way. (My suggestion would be to actually do both).

We need to take good measurements of true interstellar space. It's colder, it's denser. What else is different? We don't know yet.

And we don't know why the boundary is so sudden. Why the solar system is encased in a bubble. Understanding that could tell us many things about everything from how life is nurtured to the base structure of the universe. (How much is our view of space skewed by being inside our bubble).

We don't know yet, and it's time to find out.

Philcon Roundup

I didn't get to any programming except for the wonderful improv people that are Steamfunk. (Cosplay Night Court is a blast if you can manage to stay reasonably reliably in character for an hour. And sometimes even more hilarious if you can't).

Thanks to everyone who bought books.

No thanks to the hotel for the lack of heat (this was resolved to my satisfaction, but I hear some jobsworth was telling disabled attendees that they could not have heat in their rooms because it wasn't December yet. Communication would have resolved the entire problem before the mass complaints).

Got to hang out with some wonderful and amazing people, as usual.

Updates and Philcon

Updates early because I'll be leaving for Philcon pretty early in the morning.

I'll be in the dealer room selling books and in the bar celebrating sales (hopefully!).

So, updates:

The puppy finally let go of Arana this week. I am currently a bit over halfway through on this round of edits. Then I'll be contacting my editor.

Needless to say the edits have priority this week and likely next (If you want them done faster, buy my books so I don't have to spend as much time on client work ;)).

Which makes that pretty much it for this week. No post tomorrow, likely, but will post on Monday.

Here be Dragons

Somebody just dug up a 33 foot long sea serpent (plesiosaur) in eastern Poland. Imagine if the person who dug it up had been a peasant who didn't know about dinosaurs?

I'm guessing they would have found a dead "dragon" and the stories would have, well, spread.

(Then again, what the heck is the difference? It's a sea dragon for all intents and purposes).

Review: The Collected Short Fiction of C.J. Cherryh

Cherryh is an author who works best in longer forms. In fact, often in very long forms - her Foreigner series is pretty much science fiction's Wheel of Time.

This curated collection of the best of her short fiction, though, does contain some true gems. My favorite was probably "Of Law and Magic," a novelette originally published in Moonsinger's Friends. I also liked "Gwydion and the Dragon," a novella that earned a World Fantasy award.

And even her bad stories are better than a lot of people's good ones. You can see how she earned her place as a Grand Master.

I did find the science error in the Sunfall stories somewhat egregious. I won't say what it is, but read for it and see if you can find it.

Even if you already own Sunfall and Visible Light you might find this worth getting as the best stories are the ones not from those collections.

Her novels are still better, but this collection is worth a read.

Care Package to the ISS

...okay, so the astronaut resupply mission contains something I know I would want if I was an astronaut:

An oven. And cookie dough.

They're going to find out if you can bake cookies in microgravity, something that future space colonists everywhere sure want to know.

(Also on the slate for experiments, some carbon fiber that may be used in medical implants in the future for a space exposure experiment, and new anti-radiation gear).

New release and Updates

Be warned, this is not a nice story.

Miniatures

I've started work on the first draft of The Secret History of Victor Prince, which is a prequel book to the Lost Guardians series.

Arana is coming, but somebody gave my last remaining beta reader a puppy. A very adorable, very active and very distracting puppy. He's gonna get written into something scathing ;).

Writing Contests

So, I do this every so often. But this week I've had to send not one, but two, emails to Writer Beware about iffy writing contests.

So, I figured I'd post my list of contest red flags again. Some reasons why you should probably not enter a contest:

1. Disproportionate entry fees. Sometimes a smaller publisher will run a contest as a revenue generator. The one I found recently was a $20 entry fee for a $250 prize. This means they only have to get 13 entries to cover the prize. I've also seen $10 with the prize being publication...at one cent a word. Many legitimate contests do charge a reading fee. The fee is to cover the prize money and also costs like juries and paid slush pile readers, honorariums for the judges, etc. Look at the ratio of fee to prize money. Smaller publishers may be paying slush pile readers, but are generally judging the contest themselves.
2. Weird judges or critiquers. The same $250 prize people are also offering a "review" of the story by an "award-winning film producer." Many legitimate contests will not name their judges for privacy concerns, but they should give you some indication of their qualifications. Named judges are a good sign, and check previous years too: They may name the judges after the contest when it's too late for entrants to track them down and try to bribe them.
3. Rights on entry. Do not enter a contest where you sign away anything when you enter the contest. The rights grab that triggered this post was a contest which was claiming full, exclusive rights in all languages and media for life of contest on all entries. This happens. If they are providing a sample contract, read carefully and make sure you aren't agreeing to it when you enter (or that if you are, it only refers to the winner and is terms you are completely happy with). Also, bear in mind that if a publication takes rights on submission or entry and returns them on rejection you are screwed if they never actually respond. A red flag I've only seen once, but which alerted me right away: A request for all stories to never have been submitted to anyone else.

Also, as a note.

Sign away only the rights a publisher or contest actually needs and will execute. Only sign over audio rights if there's a good chance they'll use them (Some podcasts and audio zines will buy only the audio rights). Don't sign movie rights to a publisher. "All media" is not a phrase that should be in anything but a ghostwriting contract, which is a different world, and there's a reason ghostwriters tend to be paid rather well...

Because I'm getting annoyed...

Paleontology - the study of fossils
Paleoanthropology - the study of early humans and their ancestors through fossils and physical remains
Archaeology - the study of past cultures through tools, artifacts, ruins, etc (Collectively called "material culture.")

Archaeologists do not dig up dinosaurs, people! Well, intentionally...

Probing Mars...

So, apparently no matter how hard they try they can't get the InSight heat probe far enough into the surface of Mars to get results.

It seems there's a really solid soil layer not that far under the surface.

You know, if this was Earth, we'd be saying "Permafrost." There can't be that much water on Mars, but there's definitely something going on.

Or we're all wrong and it's permafrost.

(More likely it's old soil that's just dried out solid, but it resembles concrete).

Mars is weird.

Stellar...Twinkies?

So, this is interesting.

Apparently white dwarfs, which are the corpses of stars like the sun, may have centers filled with "cream" - churning quantum liquid that can last trillions of years.

I can't think of anything but stellar twinkies. Sorry not sorry.

Three Body Problem...

...or rather, three suns, one planet.

Actually, there is probably more than one planet in the system, but LTT 1445Ab is about 1.5 times the size of Earth and appears to be a terrestrial/rocky planet.

There's no way it's habitable - it orbits one of the three suns in a very tight orbit. But it might still teach us something.

And, yeah, the complex orbit of the trinary system is, shall we say, interesting. As in, we have no idea whatsoever how it actually, well.

Works.

Planetary Exploration

This is a long and perhaps rather convoluted read, but it's worth checking out:

Planetary Mission Concept Studies.

This is all stuff NASA is considering doing and it includes the first proper mission to Neptune, a mission to work out if there has ever been life on Ceres (which would also cover stuff we need to know if it does end up the refueling station for the Belt), dropping a lander on Mercury, and Enceladus (I've talked to NASA scientists who would much rather send a mission to Enceladus, with its convenient off-gassing, than Europa).

Excited? Some of these will be a decade in the making (the next feasible launch window to Neptune, barring a major propulsion milestone, is in 2029), but...

Neanderthal Glue and Civilization

So, Neanderthals glued tools together. This might seem like a simple thing, but the fact is?

Glue's not easy to make.

The specific glue they used was birch tar. Birch trees would likely have been common in Ice Age Europe, much as they are today in the upper Midwest, Scandinavia and parts of the UK.

And the thing is:

They were using this glue on relatively simple tools. Which means they were producing it in quantity. Producing it in quantity requires heating it to about 350F, which may be familiar as a common temperature for baking meat in a modern oven.

They likely did this by heating the bark in a clay vessel buried under earth, a primitive form of oven.

We tend to assume that Neanderthals were primitive. But these discoveries may indicate that far from being less advanced than anatomically modern humans...

Put it this way, the Neanderthals disappeared about 40,000 years ago.

The oldest pottery yet found was 20,000 years old, in China.

But if the Neanderthals were making clay ovens, then they had pottery. Maybe it was an accident the first time, heavy soil being heated and them discovering it fused.

They were at least as advanced as anatomically modern men at the time and may have been more so. Likely, this was due to their harsher environment driving technological innovation faster.

We already know that people don't invent things they don't need. A harsh or changing environment pushes innovation.

(Now, technologically superior doesn't mean superior in any other ways. But it does mean they were smart. And how much did we learn from them?)

So...

...the old concept of the Von Neumann machine is back. The tabloids are saying we've been invaded by nanoprobes.

What scientists are actually saying is that the use of nanoprobe swarms for deep space observation is feasible. Nanoprobes would, of course, use very little fuel and could be sent to "candidate" systems to observe and record data without being detected by any local civilizations.

(Which given we can't be trusted not to blow things up...)

But that doesn't mean they're out there.

Or does it?

Capclave Roundup

Due to being chained to a dealer table ;) (No, I really don't mind) and also doing the mass signing, I only made it to two program items. One of them was Dr. Inge Heyer's wonderful roundup of current Mars science. She caught me up.

(Arana doesn't go to Mars, neither does the untitled Transpecial sequel, but I plan on going back there eventually. The Red Planet has a place in my heart).

The new layout for the mass signing was a vast improvement. I got far more traffic and actually sold books. However, the Short Takes reading was slot-of-deathed opposite Robert Sawyer's interview and ended up being canceled :(.

Speaking of Robert Sawyer, he really is very nice. So is Martha Wells.

Next year will be Capclave 20, and it promises to be an epic party.

Off to Capclave

Getting ready to leave for Capclave. I will be at the Rantings of a Wandering Mind booth during dealer room hours and also participating in "Short Takes" at 1pm on Saturday.

Friday and Saturday evening you'll probably find me in the bar or something.

And yes, I will have books. And candy. And possibly other experimental goodies...

Did Viking find life on Mars?

Most likely, no, but the controversy has been stirred up again by a scientist who is, basically, complaining that we haven't been looking hard enough into certain sample results that may (but most likely didn't) indicate the presence of microbes in the Martian soil.

This crops up every so often, and the scientific consensus is that what Viking found proved absolutely nothing.

Of course, it didn't disprove life either...

Review: A Night Without Stars by Peter F. Hamilton

This is the sequel to The Abyss Beyond Dreams, and you do really need to have read the previous book. It helps somewhat if you've also read the Void trilogy.

I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't stand alone at all, but it sadly doesn't do so all that well. It's still a good book. It exists in the Commonwealth universe, which is a high tech space opera world, but this book comes more down to Earth, or rather Bienvenido. It's set on an isolated world located outside our galaxy, and the inhabitants enjoy about a 1960s level of technology, complete with astronauts going into space in reverse engineered Soyuz capsules.

The characters are solid, but in a couple of cases it suffers from the fact that some of them are essentially superheroes, due to a vast disparity in tech. The biggest flaw is a twist that is so obvious it had me rolling my eyes. YMMV, of course.

Overall, the plot is interesting, and the stakes rise through the book until they hit planetary levels with....well, spoilers, but the world nearly ends. Of course, that is mitigated by the fact that this is one isolated human colony, with the entire Commonwealth still out there. But he does make us care about the characters, if not the world of Bienvenido itself. (It's rather messed up).

It's a solid read, but I'm taking off half a star for not standing alone and another half for the insultingly obvious twist.

Four stars - Recommended

Black holes...

...keep getting more and more interesting.

I'm linking this video rather than embedding it because it haas a strobe effect and I don't want to give anyone seizures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V-sjuOzVVA

This is an active black hole in the process of eating a companion star, and look at how black it isn't. (Yes, this is an artists' impression, but black holes generally aren't)...

Marvin!

Actor Stephen Moore, who voiced Marvin the Paranoid Android in the Hitchhiker's Guide TV show has passed away at the age of 81.

He also showed up in Doctor Who, playing the Silurian Eldane.

But he'll be best known as the iconic Marvin...and thus remembered by those of a certain generation with fondness.

On the topic of better spacesuits...

...NASA claims that the next astronauts on the moon will have suits that allow them to, well, not bunny hop around ridiculously.

They're also solving suit fit problems with modular suits and 3D printed components, meaning we're one step closer to the science fiction ideal of the fully custom pressure suit.

But we still shouldn't be canceling missions because of suits, so...

NASA Reschedules All Woman Space Walk

NASA has rescheduled the all woman space walk for October 21.

The original was infamously canceled because one of the astronauts discovered that a suit which fit on the ground no longer fit in orbit. They are assuring us that this time there will be no suit fit issues...

Let's hope so.

(We need better spacesuits. Badly).

"Batwoman and the Male Gaze

So, I watched the long-awaited pilot for Batwoman, the CW's replacement for the long running Arrow show.

It was not perfect. It had a certain amount of what I hope was pilot-itis (the storyline was a bit cliched and I wasn't too keen on the flashbacks).

But it had something else that makes me hope this show soars.

Kate Kane, ably played by Ruby Rose is, in the comics, Bruce Wayne's cousin. She's also canonically a lesbian.

Batwoman has thus been marketed as the first TV superhero show with a lesbian lead. Which it is, but this show goes past that.

This is our girl in street clothes. Look at that aesthetic.

Kate isn't just the first lesbian superhero to lead her own show.

She's unashamedly, completely butch.

This is a female character who won't be weaponizing her femininity, because she doesn't have any. If she does something feminine, she'll be wearing a costume as heavy as the batsuit. (The trademark red hair over the cowl does not show up right away, but apparently will later, there are pictures).

It's not just the hair, the clothes. Ruby Rose, who is non-binary and exclusively attracted to women, moves and sounds like a butch woman. (Although she identifies as genderfluid, she still uses she/her pronouns as far as I can tell). She brings a gender ambiguity to the role.

The second really huge thing the pilot does is this:

The bad guy, Alice, played by a brilliant woman named Rachel Skarsten, gets into a fight with Kate.

It is something you almost never see:

A fight between two women that is not a chickfight. (Now, I have to admit. The bisexual part of my brain enjoys chickfights. But...) When the two get together physically it is a knock down, drag out brawl. It is ugly.

This is female characters being allowed to be ugly in a fight.

There was nothing in the pilot that was put in there for straight men. Nothing of the male gaze. It does not put a lesbian on display, it does not make of her kisses and loves something for others to enjoy.

Batwoman is seen entirely through the gaze of queer women. It is by us. It is for us. It's not as good as Black Lightning.

Yet.

And if it fails it certainly won't be the fault of Ruby Rose.

(And, of course, it is being utterly panned on Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe we need to go give it some love).

Get Your Flu Shot

Friendly annual reminder: Get your flu shot now.

Flu season is already underway and the first deaths have happened. If you're going to fall conventions, it's even more important to protect not just you but the people who come to cons who can't be vaccinated for any reason.

So, get your shot. Please. I don't want anyone getting hurt... (Even if you do get the flu, it will be milder).

Mind-controlled exoskeletons?

French researchers built one. It's a proof of concept, but it did allow a completely paralyzed volunteer to walk again, albeit in the constrained world of the lab.

Whether these will become common is uncertain, although the volunteer is also using his surgically implanted hardware to control a wheelchair, an approach that seems much more likely to become available.

Cost is obviously another issue with the technology, but we now know that it can be done.

Review: Thin Air by Richard K. Morgan.

Richard K. Morgan's Thin Air is not quite being marketed right - I have seen no mention that this novel is set in the same world as his earlier Thirteen/Black Man (US/UK titles). This might be an attempt to distance the new work from what's often considered not to be one of Morgan's better works.

Personally, I loved Thirteen. But Thin Air is night and day better. It's a thick book and the action takes place entirely on a noir vision of Mars, and a surprisingly reasonable one. Mars has been colonized with the help of atmosphere-holding forcefields and biological improvements that allow the colonists to survive on a lot less oxygen.

The title is, like the original UK title of Thirteen, something of a pun...except even more so. Thin Air refers not just to the Martian atmosphere but to the mysterious disappearance at the center of the story.

Our protagonist, Veil is, like the protagonist of Thirteen, a genetically engineered human "variant." Unlike the earlier book, he was not created to be an aggressive super soldier, but rather to be an overrider - a human pilot who is pulled out of cryosleep when a long distance spaceship gets into trouble. But he's still basically a super soldier. And one who got mustered out after a screw up and left stranded on Mars. His goal: To get back to Earth.

But he gets pulled into a wonderful web of crime, conspiracy, and arguments over the future of the "high frontier."

Thin Air is part noir, part cyberpunk and even a good chunk western. Morgan is the master of noir cyberpunk, and it shows in this book, which demonstrates a mature writer on the top of his game. The book is morally ambiguous, deals with themes of nature, nurture, and breaking free of both in a way that almost equals (in a very different way) the work of C.J. Cherryh. We get a deep view into the mindset of somebody who is at once very human and not quite so.

This is Morgan's best work yet, and I highly recommend it to people who like noir, grittier futures, and a reasonably decent mystery (I wouldn't call this a mystery book, but...)

Content warning: This book contains explicit violence and somewhat explicit M/F sex.

We Need To Check Enceladus

Analysis of the Cassini data shows that plumes coming from Enceladus contain proteins that could easily turn into amino acids.

I've already talked to scientists who actually think Enceladus, not Titan or Europa, is the best place to look for alien microbes (We're not expecting to find anything more due to the low amounts of energy available). And that those plumes are part of why - no need to drill through the ice.

Unfortunately, and I blame Stanley Kubrick, people are more interested in Europa. "All these worlds are yours" and all that.

But Enceladus may teach us a lot about how life starts. Or even doesn't start.

...and maybe it's not a black hole at all...

...because maybe we're completely wrong about black holes. I don't actually buy it, but I'm going to leave this here while I go off and try to finish the short story that's kicking my butt.

https://www.livescience.com/black-holes-may-not-exist.html

No, Near Earth Asteroids are (Probably) not Alien "Lurkers"

Yeah, the paparazzi are at it again. We're being watched by alien probes disguised as asteroids.

The originator appears to be James Benford, and he has a point: If there are alien probes, disguising them as near earth asteroids would be a good idea.

However, it's pure speculation (sorry Dr. Benford) and there's absolutely zero evidence of the theory.

Of course, examining near earth asteroids is a good idea anyway, especially given the potential threat they pose.

Is Planet 9 a Black Hole?

So, here's the latest theory on the mysterious planet-sized mass out in the Oort Cloud: It's a black hole.

To be more precise, it's a primordial black hole. And that's why we haven't found it yet. We need to also look in gamma rays, etc.

If it is a black hole, don't worry. It's a pretty small one, about ten times the mass of Earth, and it won't start sucking in the solar system or anything. It will sit out there in the Oort cloud messing with orbits indefinitely.

Now, there's no actual evidence it is one...it's just a thought to consider.

Understanding Hollywood Negotiations

"I'm never doing another Bond movie."

"Spider-Man is leaving the MCU."

Both of these statements have two things in common:

1. They have to do with entertainment.
2. They turned out not to be true.

It's become routine in entertainment industry negotiations for one side to say they are not, nope, not doing something, never going to happen in public.

And guess what?

It's a negotiating ploy. Fans get upset about the thing which isn't going to happen, which puts pressure on the other party. It's about one thing, generally: More money.

(In the case of actors it can sometimes be something else they are holding out for. For example, Daniel Craig got the right to choose his own Bond Girl in No Time To Die. I'm fairly sure that mattered to him more than the money).

Does this mean we shouldn't clamor for the thing which isn't going to happen? Nah.

But it does mean we shouldn't panic and should be very careful about which nos and nevers we actually believe.

Spider-Man was never going to leave the MCU. Sony just wanted more money. And we can't really blame them for that.

Space is beautiful

I'm running slightly behind today but I have to share this video:

It's a visualization of the accretion disk of a black hole in false color. According to one of the scientists working on the project, the accretion disk would more likely actually be white if you were in a spaceship orbiting at a safe distance, as it radiates across the entire visual spectrum.

(I asked this question because it was relevant to the Withering World Starfinder Society scenario I was working on).

Memories of Venus

There's long been a theory amongst some scientists that Venus may have once harbored life. New computer models increase the likelihood that the planet had, for an extended period of time, shallow oceans and temperatures suited to our kind of life.

Now, Venus is a hellscape. Why?

Earth is kept habitable by plate tectonics. Earthquakes and the like cause surface changes that sequester carbon dioxide. Venus does not have a strong enough magnetic field and these processes stopped a long time ago. Carbon dioxide and water vapor then built up into a runaway greenhouse effect. Essentially it hit a point of negative feedback. Venus' water boiled away into space (although a few scientists still think there may be surviving Venusian life in the upper atmosphere of the planet).

(As bad as climate change is, don't worry, we would have to burn ten times as much coal and oil as exists in the Earth's crust to trigger a full blown runaway. It is likely that this is the ultimate end of life on Earth, but only in a billion years or so).

So, what does Venus tell us?

First of all, it reminds us that for long term habitability a planet needs a magnetic field.

Second of all, we may be able to colonize Venus due to the fact that there's a point in the high atmosphere with gravity and pressure and temperature the same as Earth. In Venus' thicker atmosphere, our concept of breathable air is a lifting gas. Which is why cloud cities on Venus are slowly becoming a science fiction staple.

Third of all, Venus is likely a better candidate for terraforming than Mars is.

Fourth of all, Venus may have been habitable for three billion years. Remember those dinosaurs on Venus?

In fact, there may have once been Venusians...

"Don't just book It" and Memories of the Pre-Internet Era

I'm old.

Okay, I'm not grey wrinkly hospital visits every month old.

But I'm not a spring chicken, not any more.

I have memories of going to the travel agent in the grocery store (loyalty bonus!) and looking through catalogues of package deals. We'd pick the one we wanted and that was it.

Now, I spend hours on the internet and do the travel agent's job, customizing our itinerary, finding hotels. As it happens, I enjoy it. For those who don't, the package deal still exists.

Which brings us to "Don't just book it. Thomas Cook it!" The 1980s slogan of the British package deal operator that dramatically collapsed, stranding 150,000 tourists overseas and ruining the trips of over half a million. Because, yes, that many people are still booking package deals.

The company started in 1841 with day trips by rail from Leicester to Loughborough (where I attended high school!). They arranged day trips for temperance society members and Sunday schools. In 1845 they opened it up commercially and the first overseas tour was in 1855. Which was also the first true package deal, as far as I know.

Cook spawned countless imitators. Their red-branded store fronts were, in the 1980s, everywhere. We used smaller operators (loyalty bonus!) but "Thomas Cook" meant "package holiday" to many people. When the age of mass air travel hit in the 1960s...

Enter the internet. Hotels used to rent rooms they couldn't fill cheap to the tour operators. Expedia has bought up much of that stock (As a note: I never use Expedia or similar services and do not recommend them).

More people are able to plan their own trips. Hotels can now sell direct to customers all over the world, with varying degrees of success. You can get a better deal on flights by just buying from the airlines. Kids these days don't go through glossy brochures in a comfortable office while their families discuss whether to go to Rhodes or Crete.

It really was a different time. The internet existed in the UK in the 1980s for rich people (you had to pay by time for the dial up and then again by time for your access).

And the collapse of Thomas Cook feels like some part of that era has gone inexorably into the past, never to be recovered. I want to live in the future. But, I suppose, I also have the same vulnerability to nostalgia as anyone else.

Foreign Stars, Dawn Sisters, and the ISS

Unless it's important to the plot, a lot of science fiction writers forget a basic fact:

Significant orbital hardware is often visible from the planet surface. People already play satellite spotting now - it's likely to be just like plane spotting if we start building space hotels and the like.

People including me - I was fortunate enough on Friday to get a very clear view of the ISS as it passed over. Clear as in I could make out the solar panels naked eye. There can't have been much moisture in the sky at all.

I can think of two series right now in which orbital hardware observations get interesting.

One is C.J. Cherryh's ridiculously long (but brilliant) Foreigner series. The native atevi perceive the arriving colony ship as a foreign star from which the humans then descend on petals (parachutes).

The other is Pern, where the three ships that brought the colonists have been abandoned in geo stationary orbit and become the Dawn Sisters, fixed "stars" that sailors use for navigation.

Here's the small issue:

There's no mistaking the ISS for a star. Now, true, the ISS is in low earth orbit, not really that high up at all. Which also means it has a higher relative motion.

But even with the naked eye, it is clearly not a disk. Unless your orbital hardware is perfectly round, then it's not going to be mistaken for a star.

It's more likely that your aliens or colonists will put it in an object category of its own. They might not know what the heck it is, but... For example, the Dawn Sisters were large colony ships. While it's possible they were spherical, it's much more likely that they were cigar shaped and given the size could have easily been determined as such naked eye. It did take the reinvention of telescopes to work out what they actually were. But stars? Nah.

And don't forget that orbital hardware is visible from the planet below. Even small satellites can be tracked with a telescope.

The ISS is about the size of a football field in total, 356 feet by 240 feet. For a sci fi contrast, the Enterprise D is 2,108 feet long (the Federation should never have agreed not to develop or use cloaking devices!). Babylon 5 is 5 miles long. That's how big a large station is. Now, admittedly, a station like that would be best located at a Lagrange point. In our system the primary station for Earth would be at L4 or L5 (In the Transpecial universe the L4 and L5 points are occupied by Launchpad, Earth's primary shipyard, and a large trading station respectively). That's about the same distance from Earth as the moon is. A five mile long Lagrange station would be naked eye visible and would probably show some shape, bearing in mind that on a very clear night you can see Venus' disk.

So, when writing about advanced planets, don't forget that you can see that honking great station from the planet it serves, assuming you know where to look. It's up to you how this affects life on the planet, but at the very least you can imagine a kid in their back yard, possibly with a set of binoculars,  with an app on their phone (or whatever equipment they are using) to tell them which station is which. "Daddy! I saw a ship dock!"

Humans like to find and observe things. It's part of what makes us human. Don't forget that.

And it's here! The Lay of Lady Percival LIVE

If you didn't preorder, you can get your copy now.

And bug me on Facebook all day with any questions about the book. I'll be here most of the day.

Rome has fallen and the eagles have flown. Left alone with her child when her lover, Arthur, leaves these shores, Persephone finds her world changed when he returns - as war duke and then King of Britain. She has the one thing he needs:

His son.

But he will not accept her as herself.

Thus is born the legend of Percival.

Purchase links:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Smashwords

DriveThruFiction

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Guinevere

Guinevere has almost as many different versions as Merlin.

In some stories there's an attempt to make a feminist "Strong Female Character" Guinevere by casting her as a warrior queen who fights alongside her husband. The most famous example of this is probably King Arthur (2004) which became the lesbian date movie of that year (trust me, it did) likely because of a scantily-dressed Keira Knightley as a Pictish Guinevere.

Guinevere is very seldom portrayed positively, and when she is it tends to be that same warrior queen perspective. She is adulterous and/or bigamous. Sometimes she is outright wicked, in the fairy tale sense. Modern authors sometimes change this...arguing that it's all Lancelot's fault or that she was already in a relationship with him when she met Arthur. The BBC show Merlin has her as a pauper princess who becomes a good queen.

My Guinevere is an antagonist, and not always a nice person, but she is not wicked. She is a devout Christian who wants to convert everyone (and at one point is trying to marry off most of the single men at Camelot). She is a good queen, but she is burdened by childlessness and a loveless, political marriage. And yes, she has affairs...because people who are trapped in loveless, political marriages tend to.

I have always seen Guinevere as a tragic figure, but not a wicked or evil one.

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Lancelot

Ah, Lancelot. Lancelot du Lac, Guinevere's paramour. Arthur's favorite knight and best friend.

...right? Right.

It's actually strongly believed now that Lancelot was...invented in the 12th century, by the French poet Chretien de Troyes. He has elements of certain classic stories. Changelings are common, appearances at a tournament by a warrior in three different disguises shows up many times. Lancelot originally had nothing to do with King Arthur.

Of course, neither did Merlin.

But the adulterous love triangle almost certainly was invented by Chretien, rather than being part of the original story.

Now, I've never really cared for Lancelot. The love triangle, though, is great for establishing the tragedy...and at its heart the tale of Camelot as we now know and love it is a tragedy. But Lancelot is as much Christian metaphor as knight, as much independent folk hero as friend to Arthur. And I honestly find him boring.

So, instead, I went with a different best friend for Arthur - Kay, who in most versions is his foster brother.

And I replaced Lancelot with a completely different character. It's obvious who it is from his fondness for a short spear (Lance-lot means small lance in French). But he's my own creation entirely...

The Helsinki Winter Garden

All I'm going to say is this wasn't a plant I expected to meet in Finland.

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is. In Finland. I mean, it's in a greenhouse, but still!

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Merlin

The reason I never liked and still don't like T.H. White's Once and Future King: Merlin aging backwards.

For some reason this killed my suspension of disbelief dead, even as a child. I could simply not deal with it.

Merlin is an enigmatic figure. Over the years he's been the son of a nun (or a princess) and an incubus, part fairy (the approach I take), a scion of Atlantis, or the Doctor. (Yes. It is canon. The Doctor is or will be Merlin). He's been a man, a woman (and not just in fanfic, although I can't find the book concerned), and a title held by multiple individuals. He's been the hero, the villain, and all things in between. Sometimes in the same work.

Merlin's story generally ends when he lusts after the wrong witch and she locks him up.

The fact is that Merlin was invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who conflated Myrddin Wylt, who originally had no connection to Arthur, and various tales associated with Ambrosius Aurelianus. Myrddyn Emrys was the result. The latin Merlin rather than Merdin probably has something to do with the French word "merde" which means, uh, manure. Yeah.

So, Merlin was never part of the original Arthurian legends. But he is so much part of them now that we can't imagine them without him. His role in the story is sage, advisor, prophet, druid. And his disappearance from the story almost always triggers the final tragedy...

Scooby Dooby Doo!

It's Friday the 13th.

It's a full moon.

...and...

...it's the 50th anniversary of a certain crime fighting Great Dane and his buddies.

Yup. The air date of the first Scooby Doo was September 13, 1969. The lighthearted adventures of the Scooby gang were in response to concerns that kids' cartoons were too violent and horrific. There was a feeling that kids needed more comedy, less dystopia, less anger.

The original show, Scooby Doo, Where Are You! ran for seventeen episodes including the pilot "What a Night for a Knight." It was formulaic, with the monster-of-the -week always turning out to be a person and always calling them meddling kids! at the time. But kids loved it. Parents loved it. A further 8 episodes were ordered in 1970.

Since then, there have been:
13 further Scooby-Doo series, one of which is currently in production by Boomerang (which also holds the rights to the original).
1 web series
4 made-for-TV animated movies
33 direct-to-video animated movies
1 animated theatrical movie
2 live-action theatrical movies, of which I'm one of the dozen people who liked them.
2 live-action made-for-TV movies
1 live-action direct-to-video movie
5 TV specials
8 direct-to-video specials
8 TV shorts
2 direct-to-video shorts, released with longer works
32 web shorts
13 comic series
13 one-off comic books
7 film strips
20 video games
5 plays
Millions of jokes about what's really in those scooby snacks.

Scooby also appeared in episodes of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Johnny Bravo, Harvey Birdman, Batman, Supernatural and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.

And, of course, Buffy would not be the same without the obvious influences and homages.

So, Scooby Doo? It's not just a cartoon. It's a freaking cultural phenomenon. We all know who those kids are. Most of us who were born since 1969 have been those kids at some meaningful level.

(And we all know what's really in those scooby snacks).

The Lady of Lady Percival Countdown Post: The Grail

The entire story of the Holy Grail has always kind of amused me, even when it's not being ably parodied by Monty Python (why yes, that is still my favorite Camelot movie).

Because, the thing is, the cup that was used at the Last Supper, assuming it happened, would have been a simple pottery or wood chalice. Nobody there was rich.

But, of course, the Medieval grail stories speak of a silver cup. In the book this is a plot point.

In reality?

Covering relics with silver was a thing which happened throughout the Middle Ages. In the Eastern church there is also a habit of covering icons with silver. Gold was also used when the church could afford it.

So, the writers of the Medieval romances would obviously have assumed that a relic that important would warrant a silver, or even gold covering. This then, as relics became less important, shifted to the cup being made of silver.

Most likely what they were envisioning was that the original simple vessel was encased in a silver reliquary to both elevate and protect it. Which brings up the interesting possibility:

There may at one point have actually been several grails floating around Europe and it wouldn't have been considered odd. Just as there were multiple pieces of the true cross, so there might have been multiple pieces of the holy grail. Most likely none of them were real (it's said that you could build a ship with all the claimed pieces of the true cross).

In the 4th century, though, that habit wouldn't have started yet...

Preorder links for The Lay of Lady Percival:

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The Helsinki Workers' Housing Museum

This museum is quite simply...adorable. It's contained within a row of 19th century apartments built for municipal workers.

The fact that the one room flats were considered a significant improvement says a lot about how people used to live. (In some cases, seven people were sharing rooms about the size of my bedroom, heated by the cooking stove). They did have one improvement...dry toilets in the basement, not the yard.

Most of this style of housing is gone, but the fact that this row has been preserved, with rooms furnished as examples of specific families (with details of who they were. In two cases, the contents of the room were donated by the previous inhabitants or their estate).

Just a fascinating little museum for the social historians amongst us that I suspect a lot of people miss.

The Lay of Lady Percival Countdown Post: Elaine

The tale of Lancelot and Elaine is perhaps one of the most, uh, problematic of the Arthurian "romances."

Elaine, a lovely young woman, falls in love with Lancelot. He, of course, only has eyes for Guinevere. When he turns her down she...

...pines away and dies.

Seriously. Even by Medieval romance standards the story (which is probably French) is really, shall we say, showing a low opinion of women.

Women don't just pine away and die because they can't get the man they want. Now, broken heart syndrome is a real thing, but it's also not the same thing and generally isn't about 'I love you I'm going to waste away.'

It's a story that most Arthurian retellings don't even want to touch. So, one of the challenges I set myself in Lay was to fix it.

It's a tragedy, because Arthuriana is a tragedy, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's still a tragedy. But I hope that what I did with it...

Is there an Arthurian story you personally want to fix?

Preorder on Amazon to find out what happens to poor, dear Elaine.

The Lay of Lady Percival Pre-Orders!

If you want an ebook of The Lay of Lady Percival now's your chance! The release date has been moved forward to September 20, but in the mean time preorders are available so you can be the first person you know to read it.

Preorder links:

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As Look Inside is not activated on preorders, here's a brief excerpt from the opening:

The ancient hill fort loomed, torn by the wind that came off the sea. From its ramparts one could almost see Gaul, the narrowest part of the sea splashing, beneath it, against cliffs as white as snow. Tucked below, not far from the port, the villa seemed cozy in comparison, hints of flickering light coming from the windows.

The young woman had walked some distance from the villa. The ships she watched were all leaving the harbor. Galleys, and even from where she was, she heard the drums. Beat, stroke. Beat, stroke. She imagined the slaves, large men, bare torsos sweating in the summer heat as they bent to the oars.

On the decks, the soldiers milled a little, finding places offering a modicum of comfort. Was her soldier amongst them, the last of the Legionnaires to depart Britain's shores? Rome could simply no longer afford to garrison these far reaches.

The Empire had not fallen with a resounding thud, but slowly, withering away like an unpicked grape. Persy watched. Was he with them?

He had been an officer, a leader of men, but would he stay for her? She felt her heart lift towards her throat. If he stayed, they would wed. Even in these uncertain times, with the Saxons on every shore and the Norsemen a-viking in the north, marriage meant something.

The fact that her soldier was of those northern bloodlines meant nothing. If he stayed, then she would know he had chosen...

"Are you Briton, Norseman, or Roman?" Her own words from the last time they had spoken echoed in her head.

"Did I not agree to a handfasting in the old style?" Even the recollection of his voice was enough to cause a stirring within her.

It had been properly done, quietly, by a woman who still remembered such things, who had not fallen entirely into the Roman style of worship. Dangerous, these days, with the Christ-cult now the only religion it was legal to practice.

Persephone lowered her hands to her belly. It was still flat. She had not told him, wanting him to stay for her, not out of obligation to a child. True, by the old ways, he should wed her, fertility having been proven.

She simply did not want to hold him, to trap him.

So young, he was, for the position he had held. Too young to retire, but under normal circumstances, he would have wed her and stayed. Many did, legionnaires and auxiliaries sent to serve in other parts of the Empire, where it was felt they would be less likely to desert.

Persephone had a childhood friend who's skin was as dark as wood, her father having come from some place far to the south. From Nubia, south of Egypt.

With what seemed like the strokes of a thousand oars, the ships streamed south. A tear rolled down her cheek. He must have gone with them. He knew where she waited. He would have come by now.

Slowly, she turned, and walked away, but not to the villa. There had been a grove, once, past the fort. That was where her steps led her. The Christers had not yet claimed the site, as they had so many others, for their temples.

They were almost like a plague, she thought. Some were good men and women, but some...

Some did nothing but try to convert everyone in sight. They had, no doubt, rejoiced in Constantine's conversion. And it seemed that they were always miserable.

Persy would not follow their path, which would condemn her child as a bastard.

#

"Gwydion, Gwydion, slow down!"

The toddler stopped, but punctuated it with, "No."

She had chosen a British name for her son. Perhaps it was because they had to be British now, not Roman. Perhaps because she did not want to remember the other half of his heritage.

There was much of Arthur about his features, although he had his mother's dark hair, sure to be black before he matured. She quickened her pace, caught him up in her arms. "Do you want to see the warlord or not?"

He squirmed, but briefly. The warlord. The man the tribes had chosen to lead their united warband. Dux Bellum, the Romans would have said.

His name flowed through her mind and almost reached her lips. Arthur. It could not be her Arthur, yet...the name was the same. How rare a name was it? Rare in Britain, yes, but not in the lands of the Norse and the Dane and the Saxon. Thor was one of their gods.

He had been named after a god, just as she was. Yet, had he stayed, he would have come to her on that clifftop. Had he stayed, she would be at his side now, and Gwydion riding on his shoulders.

For a moment that vision was clearer than the reality. The one servant she had brought helped her clear a way through the crowds.

He would be acknowledged outside the Cathedral, a nod to the Christians. That was not how it should be. They should be in the great royal circle of Avesbury, not that teeming city, diminished yet still vibrant.

Gods. Persy hated Londinium.

Yes, there they were on the steps, the most important of the royals of Britain, gathered. She should be with them, her blood was as good. Something about her urgency was picked up by the crowd, who parted, leaving a clear route to the center of it all.

Gorlois of Lyonesse, his wife Ygraine and daughter Morgan. Lot of Orkney, with his wife, Gorlois' sister Morgawse...once considered the most beautiful woman in the land. Their two sons...Gawain and Galahad, the latter barely fourteen. And Leodegranz of Wales with his daughter, the fair Guinevere.

She knew she should not, but nonetheless she let her track drift to the edge of the group.

A white horse came through the crowds. It bore a figure in armor akin to that a Roman general might have worn, but a longsword rested at his side.

The warlord dismounted and removed his helm, and her heart skipped a beat. "Arthur."

His eyes turned to her, lingered, and then glided away. It was almost as if he did not recognize her.

No, his eye had gone elsewhere once it had rested not on Persephone, but on Gwydion. It was the child he denied, and the mother with him.

Then he turned to face the Kings. The Bishop of London stepped out onto the steps, where the highest of the druids, Merlin, should have stood.

"Arthur," he greeted. "Do you truly take the charge of leading our defense?"

"I do." His eyes were entirely on the bishop now.

Persy's were entirely on him. As were Gwydion's, the boy too young to understand but fascinated by the ceremony.

"Then..."

It was Morgawse who interrupted. "The Christian kings will accept him. But for those of us who follow the old ways, we want more."

Arthur turned towards her.

"If this man is to lead above even the Kings, he must be bound to the land."

"Meaning?" That word came from the bishop, and in it sounded a volume of disaste, every aspect of his tone and the shift in his stance revealing that he wished nothing of such pagan rites.

"He must wed a woman of our royal line." Morgawse's eyes fell first on Morgan, then on Guinevere, then, after a long moment, on Persephone.

She bit back 'He already has'. Why was he betraying her? For his eyes did not move towards her.

Instead, he regarded the two other women, one dark, one fair who faced him. And she knew the truth of his choice. Morgan was as pagan as they came, rumored to be both a powerful witch and priestess of the terrible Morrigan. Leodegranz was Christian, as, one could presume, was his daughter.

"Then, I will wed Guinevere of Wales."

Hatred and confusion boiled up within Persephone's heart. She would see him brought down. She would...

...she could not. Without one unified leader, they would fall. So, instead, she stood there, watching.

Watching as he vanished into the church. Then, she understood. Arthur had converted to Christianity. A wife named after a Greek god could be nothing but an embarrassment to him and a bastard child could only be worse.

Yet, he owed her. Could he not see that?

She vowed to speak with him, before he could wed fair Guinevere. She had one thing that delicate, blonde woman with the slender hips did not.

She had his son.