So, today, I’m a bit sad so … The Sound of Silence by one of my favorite groups, Pentatonix:

The post A musical interlude that matches my mood first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

I recently published my first novel, Road Kill, a project which has been percolating in my head for over a decade although, technically speaking, it’s not my first novel, it’s just the first one I managed to complete. The larger universe in which Road Kill is set has been under development for over forty years and 99% has been created through sheer chaos.  A prequel and sequel could be available as early as next year, depending on how cooperative certain characters are.

Two primary characters, Meagan Robichaud and Hyperion, were the first components of my universe. Meagan is a woman that has the superpower of invisibility, but it only occurs when she’s scared. And, just to be contrary, knowing she’s invisible helps alleviate the fear.

Meagan’s situation established one of the plot components of the universe, useless superpowers that can, somehow, be forced into being useful. Numerous characters with these powers have come to life over the years, such as Jamie Sullivan, who has the power to cloud people’s minds and make them think she’s a coat tree. She got bored at a Christmas party once and ended up having to hold three coats, two hats, and an umbrella for a half-hour before she could escape.  She now works as a corporate spy, which pays enough to make the boredom worthwhile.  Jamie and most of the others have yet to make their way into any story, but they continue to bide their time.

Hyperion is a smart-ass, talking, European lynx. Nobody knows what secret government laboratory he comes from, or whether he escaped or was kicked out.  He’s annoyingly resistant to speaking about his past or how he came to be wandering on North Turner Mountain for Meagan to rescue. I like to think of Hyperion as the Batman of the stories. He has no powers, and only holds his own due to his intelligence and cleverness … and the fact that the humans put up with him beyond all reason. But then they’re fantasy stories. And he is kind of cute.

Into this setting, Road Kill was born when I had a dream. A lot of plot points come from dreams, but never whole-cloth because my dreams tend to be stupid. In this case, I dreamt I had the power to travel back in time to a point when an animal has been hit and killed by a car. I would then stop the assassination and return to the present. I’m guessing the dream came about because of the number of dead animals I see abandoned on the side of the road, and the several times I’ve seen drivers deliberately swerve, trying to hit one. At the conclusion of the dream, I was hauled up before the Time Cops because I saved a cat, which somehow resulted in the total annihilation of humanity. My defense of “The bastards had it coming” was not considered legally well-grounded. Once I woke up, Emily Charron got that power, minus the legal hassles.

Emily is a graduate student, closing in on her PhD, and so totally focused that she’s been ignoring everything and everyone else around her.  And once I had Emily, Chris Rodriguez popped into my head, cruising down a rainy road, volunteering to be the Watson to Emily’s Sherlock in a mystery revolving around a grand academic mystery that would, I hoped, somehow manage to include time travel, if only I could figure out how.  Chris is an IT security specialist, working to help law enforcement deal with cybercriminals while also trying to keep Emily’s life from imploding under the strain.

This brings up the final component of my plotting and writing style. Neither the plot nor the characters listen to me in the slightest. Chris transformed into Emily’s childhood friend and a romance began to bloom before the conclusion of the first chapter. Chris gained his own superpower, which inconveniently appeared while they were eating pizza. It took me entirely by surprise and I had to go back and sprinkle hints into previous chapters. And to solve the issue with the time-travel sub-thread, Emily popped back to save an animal just because, even though it was the worst possible time.

Once that happened, the rules of time travel quickly grew from a half-page of notes to several pages with timeline graphs and detailed breakdowns of all the permutations I could think of, one of which became the central premise for the sequel, The International Criminal Conspiracy.  But, more importantly, suddenly, the novel was no longer a mystery but instead an urban fantasy, geeky, romance, with a mystery sub-thread.

Worse of all, two-thirds of the way through Road Kill, Hyperion found a way to force himself into a novel he had no business being in. He just showed up in Chris’ living room, dragging poor Meagan along with him. This, in turn, dragged in Kristina Trantor, an individual with a questionable superpower who had been languishing, unused, on my dramatis personae since I had a dream back in the 80s.

The next thing I knew, a previously non-existent teenage daughter, Kaylee, apparated out of the ether and revealed herself to be Hyperion’s partner in sarcasm, forcing herself backward through time to a starring role in the long-suffering prequel, The Cat Who Came in from the Cold, replacing a lackluster neighbor that I never really liked anyway, plus shoehorning herself into the sequel as well.  I, merely the author, stood no chance.

So far, I’ve been posting snippets from Road Kill and I hope people are enjoying them and the novel as a whole.  But, this time I think I’ll provide a small sample of the prequel in which we are introduced to Meagan and Hyperion, and their characters are quickly established.

———————————————————————

The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

Chapter 1

Meagan Robichaud gratefully closed the large, circular, hobbit-styled outer mudroom door behind her, shutting out the rain and wind that still howled around her house and rattled the few outward-facing windows. An occasional crack of thunder made the walls rattle as well. She leaned her umbrella against the hall tree, making sure the tip was safely inside the rimmed rubber mat, and slowly unbuttoned her rain jacket with fingers still numbed by the icy rain.

It had been a long day down in Bangor, attending another boring business meeting that had come, once again, within a hair’s-breadth of convincing her to terminate her contract. Why they insisted on face-to-face meetings was a complete mystery to her. Why she insisted on dressing up for them was equally mysterious, but unfortunately could not be blamed on them, not that it stopped her from trying.

What had started as a worthy cause was fast devolving into a quagmire that only existed for the sake of existing, offering incompetent bureaucrats validation for their paychecks, and as a transparent ploy for staving off the inevitable audit for another month. Keeping the internet services running for the residents of the Sunshine Retirement Villages now seemed to have been totally dropped from the list of objectives, written or otherwise.

By trade, Meagan was an Information Technologies Security Consultant. It looked snazzy on a business card, but what it really entailed was hours in front of a computer screen, keeping people out of places they had no business being, and tracking them down for law enforcement’s attention when they occasionally managed to do it anyway. Fortunately, that could all be done from the peaceful sanctity of her lair, allowing her to totally avoid humanity except for groceries, doctor’s visits, and business meetings. The latter was what had forced her unwilling participation on a day that nobody should have been out on.

Today’s meeting, filled with face-saving and finger-pointing, had been called due to an automated report that somebody had inexplicably decided to read. Yes, there had been a minor breach. No, it has not been the fault of her security team. Yes, they had it under control. And no, it did not require several hours of pontification by people that couldn’t find the computer’s power button without an administrative assistant.

Kicking off her shoes, purchased for their professional look and certainly not their long-term comfort, she gave a sigh of relief and slipped into her clogs. The jacket and blouse would follow as soon as she could get upstairs, but at least her feet were now free from hours of torture.

From the kitchen came the thumps and bumps that signaled the approach of the cat. She smiled as she dropped her messenger bag on the hall tree’s bench and finally shrugged off her dripping coat. It was nice to be back home with those that actually liked her and didn’t just make a poor pretense out of social politeness. She hadn’t wanted to leave him for so long while he was recuperating, but at least her worry had been mitigated by being able to wrangle him a cat-sitter.

She hung the coat on an empty hook and turned to say hello when two heavy paws slammed into the wall on either side of her head. Instinctively she recoiled from the bewhiskered face that stared her eye to eye, causing the back of her head to bounce lightly off the wall.

“Welcome home dear,” the cat said. “Would you like a martini before dinner?” Without so much as a pause, the whiskers swept back in amusement. “What? No kiss?”

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The post The Creation of Road Kill and the Universe of Hyperion and Meagan first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

Dangerous Magic by Monica Fairview. Independently Published (March 3, 2021). ISBN: 979-8711512776.

This story begins with Elizabeth being told she must marry a man she’s never met because her magical talents are compatible with his. Darcy is the wizard that she is to marry and he’d just proposed to Anne de Bourgh—so he’s definitely not happy about the situation. But they understand their power is necessary to save the country from the French wizards who are currently helping Napoleon’s forces overcome the British. A forced marriage with a magical twist adds a number of new problems and unexpected dangers that Darcy and Elizabeth must overcome.

It doesn’t take long before things begin to go awry. Misunderstandings and assumptions on both sides keep them from working with each other. I often think most problems in any story could be solved in half the time if the characters would just ask questions and listen to the answers or answer the questions put to them honestly. However, keeping these characters’ beliefs, values, ethics, and actions true to the originals penned by Austen but comfortably living in a different universe, Darcy and Elizabeth continually think they know what the other is feeling and thinking without asking for clarification. 

So, there’s much angst, fear, hurt, and pulling back on both sides. At times making the reader wish they could reach into the story and give them a good talking to. To me, when the writer can get me so involved in the story that I find myself talking back to the pages, I know that the story has come alive for me.

Next, there’s a war on.  The French seem to have the upper hand and Darcy and Elizabeth’s magical talents are sorely needed by the British military. There’s deep paranoia that spies are everywhere and no one can be trusted. Class differences cause many to overlook the talents of lesser individuals. There are people who act on their personal agendas and forget that they are part of something bigger. It all adds up to Elizabeth not knowing who to trust and who to believe when so many are so open about their claims that she is useless and doesn’t belong among them.

There is a happy ever after eventually, but the journey from the angsty and angry beginning to the delightful ending is, in my opinion, one worth spending the time to enjoy.

The post Review: Dangerous Magic by Monica Fairview first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

Persuading Miss Mary by Leenie Brown is the fourth book in the Marrying Elizabeth series. So, if you haven’t read the preceding books you may need to know that Jane is married to Bingley, Elizabeth is married to Darcy, and Lydia is privately engaged to Col. Richard Fitzwilliam (by privately engaged—the families know but not outsiders). Mary and Lydia Bennet are staying with Lord and Lady Matlock in London while Kitty Bennet is a guest of Georgiana Darcy and is staying in Darcy’s London home.

Mary Bennet met Reginald Arthur Fitzwilliam, Viscount Westonbury (Wes to his friends), when he visited Netherfield to check on the health of his brother, Col. Fitwilliam. When Wes saw Lydia, he asked offered her money for a kiss which Mary immediately connected to the drunk man who requested a kiss outside the brothel in London which Elizabeth and Lydia had approached to ask for help when abandoned at night, alone and lost. Mary, of course, took an immediate dislike of him believing him to be immoral, irresponsible, and a rogue.

Wes, on the other hand, had always been able to win every woman of his acquaintance into liking him as he was Lord Matlock’s heir, rich, handsome, and charming. He found Mary Bennet fascinating and a challenge. It wasn’t long before he wanted to be her friend and if he could earn her respect and prove worthy maybe even her hand.

As Wes makes an effort to change to become a better man and earn Mary’s regard. He also learns that being an heir to a title and land is not just a matter of birth but also comes with a great deal of responsibility—something he’d never really thought about. Mary on the other hand begins to question her fierce devotion to rules and regulations. Lydia and Kitty seem to do well with their more carefree attitude to rules so maybe she should rethink how she behaves and acts.

There’s a lot more going on in the story with side issues involving friends and relations. But it is a clean, charming story of two people coming to understand themselves and each other better. One of the key things they learn is to communicate with each other rather than assuming they know what the other thinks, believes, or feels. Which I feel is key to any relationship and seems to be echoed in all these books.

You may start with this book and move back to the beginning as we wait for the final volume. There is enough information that if you are familiar with the base characters, you won’t be too confused with these plot variations. However, I advise treating yourself with the entire series and start with book one, Confounding Caroline.

The post Review: Persuading Miss Mary by Leenie Brown first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

I’ve got several health problems that all involve pain. Migraines. Fibromyalgia. Chronic fatigue. Arthritis. Each involves some degree of pain. Like most people suffering from these issues, I have good days and bad. And a lot of days when I can just ignore it and get on with life.

But, this past month has been a surplus of bad days. I work at home — self-employed mostly and so I make my own schedule. But this month (July 2018) has been just one thing after another. The weather affects my migraines (as the barometric pressure moves up and down rapidly) and we’ve been having one storm sweep in followed by a few nice days and another storm. There was nearly a week of heavily overcast days with intermittent showers — I mean the kind where you might as well been in the shower stall it was raining so heavily.

Add in the fact that due to the war on opioids that pain medication is hard to come by. So over-the-counter medications have to do but mostly they barely touch the pain. So, this month it has been a lot of time just meditating — or staring off into space hoping that I could push the pain just a bit off to the side and get on with things. Some days I’m more successful than others.

The upshot of the this is that this month I’m disappointed with myself. Usually, I’m so much better sometimes I can even hide it from my husband so he doesn’t worry. But this month, I feel like I didn’t succeed at all. I whined — a lot. I managed to get some work done but mostly this month was a complete waste. Most days there weren’t enough spoons in the county to do the bare minimum of what I expect of myself.

In fact, I surprised that I managed to actually get out of bed, check on the chickens and refill their water, walk down to the mailbox to get the mail (1/4 mile each way), and do some actual proofreading and writing. Managed to attend meetings and take notes and follow up later with what I promised to do. Maybe I did better than I thought now that I write it down — but, I feel I could have done more — I should have done more.

Maybe it is the “shoulds” that I didn’t do that cause me to feel disappointed in myself. Maybe I just need more spoons. I’m trying to keep up the exercise regime in spite of it all as that is really what helps the most to keep me going. I can’t afford to give up — but every day is a challenge. And, I know that others are having a more difficult time than I am so I slog on each day.

The post Living with pain first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

I loved the knitted items that I saw watching season one of Outlander so I was naturally interested in seeing what would be in Highland Knits. I was impressed that the items were definitely in keeping with the simplicity and usefulness. The book has patterns for four Cowls, two Caplets, two Gauntlets, one Arm Warmer, one Shawl, one Shurg, one Wrap, one scarf, three Boot Cuffs, and one Stockings.

About half the patterns call for bulky or chunky yarns and seem like they’d knit up fast. The rest of the patterns call for worsted or Aran yarn. So basically all the pattern are geared to keeping you warm and snug on those crisp fall days and nights and the colder winter weather. All of the patterns are classic enough to fit into current fashion for keeping one warm and different enough to stand out as special.

I read the digital edition. Sometimes knitting ebooks are difficult to work with because the photos are small and charts are hard to read. Highland Knits handled this by making all the photos and charts enlarge to screen size with a double tap. Some patterns are only written and others are written and charted. When there is a chart it tends to be simple so screen size is not the problem it would be with a complicated pattern.

I feel in love with the photo showing the Brimstone Faux Fur Cowl designed by Claudia Maheux. The yarn called for was Louisa Hardings Luzia (80% viscose, 20% nylon; 43 yeards/39.5 meters per skein, 7 skeins) and was listed as bulky. Knit on US size 10 straight needles. Reading over the pattern I wondered how faux fur yarn which I’d looked at often in various yarn stores could be called ‘bulky’ but then it said to use two strands held together. It seemed like an ideal pattern to try to learn by doing just how clear the directions actually are to follow. But I ran into a few snags.

The first snag was that the yarn that was called for was out of stock — and several sites implied it was no longer made — and the few places that carried it had prices that were marked up a lot — imagine 10 times or more the original price per skein which was rather high to begin with. Yeah, there was that to burst my bubble. But with Goggle-Fu, I managed to find several yarns that seemed to meet the criteria of the original yarn. I ended up using James C. Brett Faux Fur which I purchased from Loveknitting.com. It comes in several different shades and I choose a silver-ish version listed as H2. Each skein was 90 meters or 98.42 yards. The yarn is 90% Supersoft Nylon 10% Polyester. I ordered 4 skeins and doubled it was just enough as I had barely any left at the end of the project. Total project cost was about $26.00 US. The yarn is hand wash only and dry flat.

Here are two photos of the finished cowl. A front view and a side view. It’s very thick and heavy and my hubby was kind enough to model it for me while I took pictures. It’s also very, very warm.

My real problem came at the end of the project. When starting the pattern called for a provisional cast-on. The Glossary had directions for the Provisional (Crochet Chain) Cast-on. They were very clear and I followed them and had no problem getting the project started. The problem all came at the end when you pull out the crochet chain to expose the live stitches. That’s where it all when pear-shaped. The crochet chain wouldn’t pull out or at least it wouldn’t pull out easily. So, while I knit the cowl over 4 evenings it took me a few hours per night (or until I couldn’t keep my frustration in check for a week to manage to pick up the stitches. Even then I wasn’t sure I had all the live stitches, I’d seemed to pick up several extra as I tried to free the crochet chain from the live stitches but a little judicious pulling didn’t seem to generate any runs so I called it a win.

Next was to use the Kitchener st to join the beginning of the cowl to the end of the cowl to close the circle. This was faux fur and very fluffy it was difficult to see individual stitches using two strands together and I’d just fought a valiant battle with the crochet chain my reading glasses and a magnifying glass to finally get the 55 live stitches recovered so … I decided to do a three-needle-bind-off instead. The three-needle-bind-off was a lot easier on my nerves, solidly melded the two ends together and, more importantly, with the faux fur was hard to identify or see among the fluff of the fur.

I believe the provisional cast-on would have worked well if the yarn had been smooth but with the faux fur it just exceeded my personal capabilities and I should have realized that when I started. However, the final project came out beautifully and I’m looking forward to using it when I need warmth with a bit of class or even just when I feel I want to look special for me.

Looking over the patterns in this book there were several that looked great for gift giving as they used bulky yarn and would knit up quickly. This particular cowl that I made would have only taken several hours from start to finish if not for the provisional cast-on problem I ran into. I spent more time looking for a substitute yarn than actually knitting — if I don’t count the time trying to finish it off.

Check the book out online by using the look inside option. I think it is a good one to have on hand for making truly useful and stylish cold weather accessories.

The post Review: Highland Knits: Knitwear inspired by the Outlander Series first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

There are a couple of things that I can tell you right off. First, this edition has no sweaters for men. So the Henry VII and Henry VIII sweaters are missing. Second several of the women’s sweaters have been revised. There’s also a couple of new sweaters for women in the Tudor line.

[Reviewing Note: I own the original Tudor Roses, 1998 edition, and will try to give my impressions as to the changes as I go through this new edition. Note that I’m reviewing a digital advanced reader copy so while I have photos and text information, I can’t comment on instructions as this copy not formatted for reading the knitting instructions and all the charts are missing and formatting was problematical.

4/28/17 Update: I bought a copy of the newly revised hardcover edition of Tudor Roses because I feel in love with a couple of the new sweaters, now seeing others in these new richer saturated colors — well I found myself willing to buy this copy.]

Below is a photo of what I mean by richer colors. The photo from the new book is on the left and the old book on the right. Photo were snapshots with my phone’s camera with flash.

A major difference is the sweater photos in the 1998 version were mostly taken outdoors in natural settings. This new edition is more controlled with studio photographs (several of each knitted item) against a black backgrounds. This makes for more uniformity in displaying the knitted items and keeps the focus on the pattern, style, and colors.

All of the women’s sweaters from the 1998 version are in this version though the color choices have changed for many of the sweaters. There are also several new sweaters each named for a woman important to the Tudor line: Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, Lady Mary, and Mary, Queen of Scots. Though some of the sweaters for the women have changed as the sweater on the cover of the new edition is Jane Seymour’s and in the 1998 edition her sweater was a pullover.

Here’s a partial list of the differences between the 1998 version and this edition:

• Elizabeth of York’s sweater has also changed to be more of a bolero or vest instead of the original longer length though the stitch pattern is basically the same.
• Margaret Tudor’s sweater is shown in a cream and the sleeve pattern has been changed while the body is the same.
• Anne Bodeyn’s sweater has changed to a stunning fitted jacket that draws the eye with a contrasting thin stripe detail.
• Katherine Howard’s sweater is the same but the color is now dark blue with a liter blue for the diagonal stripes giving it a bit more drama.

Each section starts with a short letter from the point of view of the woman featured, giving a flavor of who she was and how she viewed her place in the world. I found these short notes to be touching and to bring this woman to life as a person not just a historical figure. Reading these notes made it easier to see how the sweater fit with their personality and position which added an extra layer of enjoyment to the book.

I’d suggest going to the Amazon website and take advantage of the Look Inside feature to determine if you wish to purchase this book. It is a beautiful edition with just enough changes to make it worth purchasing even if you do own the 1998 copy. However, others may have a different view of buying a new edition of an already owned pattern book. Check it out and decide for yourself.

The post Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore (Revised and Expanded) first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

Got a lot of exercise as well as fresh air walking about within a 1/2 to a mile of the hotel while in Columbus. However, had a couple of severe muscle spasm and a low grade migraine the last two day which got worse on the drive home to Maryland. The day before we left to come home, our cat sitter texted that the cat, Dorian, had a few accidents but was still greeting her when she came to the house and didn’t seem lethargic.

Just after Christmas last year, Dorian had a severe downturn in his health but recovered and is known in the vet’s office as the miracle cat because they didn’t think he’d make it at all. He’s got a heart problem and only 1 half of a functioning kidney and is 14 years old going on 15 (so in cat years that mid-70s). We got home to number of accidents (from both ends – use your imagination) throughout the house. We called the vet and took him right in. He was dehydrated and with really high levels in his blood work that indicate his kidney may be shutting down. They did some rehydration and gave him anti-nausea meds along with some other medications. We took him home and had to bring him in again today. He was there all day for treatment. His tests came back today much better in some way and yet still worrisome. He’ll go in again tomorrow and then we may, depending on his test results, have to start making some very hard decisions about his quality of life. He’s more active and moving about but seems not himself. I’m cautiously optimistic but still worried.

Afterall, what can you be but cautiously optimistic when the cat sits and stares at the bubbling water bowl for extended period so time. Maybe it is cat meditation. Currently, he’s crawled under the lowest level of the cat tree and is not sleeping but probably contemplating the universe and his place in it.

Meanwhile, the magazines (SFRevu.com and GumshoeReview.com) went up as planned on November 1st. However, I still have some things to do — essential the reviews I was doing still need to be finished and added to the contents as well as writing the overview editorial for each magazine. Hoping that a good nights sleep will finally vanish the migraine — it is really hard to think clearly when someone invisible is using your head for an anvil.

If the headache finally eases off with a good nights sleep, I can finish up tomorrow while Dorian, the cat, is again at the vets. But, with so much stress my allergies and asthma have kicked in. This puts a bit of perspective on the migraines — though on the whole, lots of pain vs difficulty breathing seem to be in a tie.

Life goes on so far.

The post Just another day fighting the tide. first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

Each day of the year has a quote from one of the novels of Jane Austen or from one of her letters to family. If you love all things Jane Austen then this is a lovely volume to have. It’s not a calendar but more of a jumping off point for meditation on family, friends, society, expectations, and daily life.

The post Review: A Jane Austen Devotional by Thomas Nelson, Inc. first appeared on A Curious Statistical Anomaly.

11:00 a.m. Beyond Strong Female Characters.
Panelists: Ellen Kushner (leader), Terri Bruce, Kathleen Howard, Delia Sherman, Natalie Luhrs. (No Photo)
Description: In a 2015 post on Tor.com, Liz Bourke puts forth that “volition and equal significance are better ways to think about, and to talk about, women’s narratives and storylines and presences in fiction,” rather than agency or strength. Bourke goes on to discuss the possibility of different types of heroism, and the possibility of a character being able to make choices in one form or another. The essay ends with the questions “Is the female character represented as having a will of her own? Does the narrative respect her volition? Does it represent her as possessing an equal significance with everyone around her, even if people around her don’t see her as equally significant? Does it, in short, represent her as fully human? Fully human, and not a caricature or a type?” Panelists will discuss ways to give women equal significance beyond physical strength.

NOTES:
Some comments in no particular order.
Need true well-rounded characters that come alive on the page. However, most writers are also readers and we all have some shorthand phrases to sketch characters and indicate a type or trope and most overcome that handicap when writing.

Noted that there’s never a program on going ‘beyond the strong male character’ which says a lot about how men and women are viewed when the term strong comes up.

Strength does not need to be physical — sometimes it is endurance, logical response to situation cues, or other non-aggressive reactions. Need mental as well as physical abilities — to think outside the box sometimes.

One way to tell if you have a well written character is to think would this anger me if written by someone else.

Character must learn and grow not be TSTL (Too Stupid To Live). Must be able to change and be adaptable.

My husband attended the panel on Colonization….

11:00 AM Colonization and Beyond: The Fiction and Science of Exoplanets.
Panelists: Diane Martin, Gregory Feeley, Jeff Hecht (leader), Vandana Singh, Ian Randal Strock.
Description: In the last few years NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered over 2,000 real planets around other stars (exoplanets). But can we ever reach them? This panel will explore the differences between science fiction’s portrayal of interstellar travel with the reality of such a journey. Speculative concepts for humanity’s eventual settlement of distant planets have been the stuff of science fiction for well over a century. How has science fiction addressed exoplanets, and what technology—now in place or still fictional—will get us to those worlds some day?

NOTES:
While the panel was billed as discussing exo-planets, the discussion really ranged over the more general topic of planetary exploration in general, based on the idea as one panelist put it: Exo-planets are the new mysterious thing to look at because we’ve explored the solar system and found it boring. There are no canals on Mars, and no jungles on Venus.

Several tried and true topics were rehashed, such as whether or not we have the right to explore other planets, and if so, how much care should we take to not contaminate any indigenous (most likely microbial) life we might find there. Do we have the technology to reach other planets? Most science fiction is still wrapped around fantasy elements like warp drive and wormholes which, while scientific in concept, still have no basis in currently workable scientific theory. Colony ships were mentioned, but dismissed with the warning that they’d either fail due to extreme complexity, or that the people that arrived wouldn’t really be us. An interesting point was that it may be impossible (or at least extremely difficult) for a pregnancy to come to term outside the normal gravity of Earth. The panel was divided into two primary factions. One that seemed to take the view that we either can’t do it (too expensive, too difficult) or that we shouldn’t do it (ethics). The other that we can and should. We may not be able to do it now, but that’s never stopped us before, we just need a bit more bootstrapping. A final topic discussed was on the tone of science fiction. Strock believes that we need SF to recapture some of the old fashioned feel of going out and having adventures … proving that humans can be a force for good, if for no other reason that to stop it from being so depressing. Others on the panel disagree, feeling that the current SF, as dreary as it is, is a more accurate portrayal of the foibles of humanity that still need to be overcome, not just waved away with magically diverse and accepting Federations.

NOON. Engineering in Fantasy.
This sounded like such a good panel and I went to the room and found it had been moved next door which was a smaller room. It was packed with a triple line of people standing in the back and already warm so I moved to another Noon panel.

NOON. Red Planet Rover, Red Planet Rover, Will Humans Come Over?
Panelists: Ian Randal Strock, Jim Kelly, Sioban Krzywicki (leader), Jeff Hecht, Lisa Cohen.
Description: With talk of private space flight and one-way trips to Mars, is any of it really likely? Is it achievable in the near future? Is there any real demand and is it possible to ensure it isn’t only for the fantastically wealthy? What would it take to make Mars a round trip, even if it is a very, very long layover? We’re discovering that the void of space is far more hostile to humans than we’d thought; can problems like radiation, weightlessness, and boredom be solved for the near future?

NOTES:
Strong agreement that money is always an issue.

Yes, we can go technically on all issues but should we since it is very likely to be a failure on many points?
Personally, I felt that they panelists were unduly negative, but I could see their points. It is highly likely that not all possible variables can be pre-planned for because for a first try there will be a lot of unforeseen problems and deaths are highly likely and probably inevitable to some degree, possibly for everyone sent.

Other issues discussed was the medical problems of weightlessness and effects on the body and balance/coordination, radiation, and boredom. Again, lots of negativity when, in reality, all of these items can be overcome, even if they haven’t been yet.

Lots of time spent on whether we have the right to go to another planet at all whether or not indigenous life exists or not. We’d be terraforming it just by being there and do we have a right to do that. Should we wait until we’ve done a better job searching for indigenous life? Frankly I think that part is overstated. Mars is a big planet. A colony in one spot will not destroy evidence on the rest of the planet.

What about children born on Mars or on the trip out? Could they survive back on Earth if that became necessary. Again, lots of frowning, but very little research has been done on these points to determine if they’re truly a problem or not.

Lots of interesting issues to contemplate.

1:00 P.M. If Thor Can Hang Out with Iron Man, Why Can’t Harry Dresden Use a Computer?
Panelists: Elaine Isaak, E.J. Stevens, Gillian Daniels, Andrea Phillips, Alex Shvartsman.
Description: In a series of tweets in 2015, Jared Axelrod pondered “the inherent weirdness of a superhero universe… where magic and science hold hands, where monsters stride over cities.” This is only weird from the perspective of fantasy stories that set up magic and technology as incompatible, an opposition that parallels Western cultural splits between religion and science and between nature and industry. Harry Dresden’s inability to touch a computer without damaging it is a direct descendant of the Ents destroying the “pits and forges” of Isengard, and a far cry from Thor, Iron Man, and the Scarlet Witch keeping company. What are the story benefits of setting up magic/nature/religion and technology/industry/science as either conflicting or complementary? What cultural anxieties are addressed by each choice? How are these elements handled in stories from various cultures and eras?

NOTES:
Someone made the point (and I don’t remember who and I’m paraphrasing anyway) that SF is about the futures that we don’t want or are afraid of while Fantasy is about possible wonderful pasts that we wish we’d lived in. Personally, I think we have a lot of SF that is about futures we wish we’d achieve also, but that’s just me.
There’s a lot of fear of old ways of life being driven out by new ways — makes people nervous and afraid.
Fear that technology will take away our humanity — becoming cyborgs or robots.
I believe it was Phillips that said: Whether something is science or magic depends upon whether you deploy the word ‘quantum’.

Isaak said sometime along the lines of magic tending to be a limited resource and not everyone could do it. Science on the other hand was something that everyone could do if they learned how — once the machine was set up anyone could turn the crank and make it work (flip the switch and you get lights).

Daniels made and interesting comments about why Iron Man, Thor, and Scarlet Witch could all co-exist. To paraphrase: It’s like Marvel bought up a lot of different properties with completely different rule sets and mushed them into one universe.

There was also a fair amount of discussion on whether magic really remains magic if it’s been reduced to reproducible, controllable, science-like principles, rather than the older philosophy of wild and unpredictable forces, or if it just becomes a less-explained replacement for science.

5:00 P.M. Tim Powers Interviewed by Gary K. Wolfe.
Photo Order: Gary K. Wolfe and Tim Powers.
Very interesting conversation where Tim Powers explained where some of the bit of information joined to give him the start on several of his books. He also talked about finding the fantastical/off-kilter bits of biographical information where you could hang a plot within the actual events of a historical person’s life.

We took the rest of the evening off.

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