Walking on Air

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I've added another item to my bucket list:  Walk across the Hudson River.  I approach the whole bucket list thing differently than the movie tells me I should.  I don't add anything to it until I've actually done it.  So when I look down the list -- win a Nebula . . . marry the most beautiful woman in the world . . .  raise a son . . . visit Finland and China . . . and so on -- I have the satisfaction of knowing that I've done it all.  How many of us can say that?

Yesterday I went onto the Walkway Over the Hudson.  Fabulous thing.  They took a 1.28 mile long railroad bridge and retooled it for exclusively foot traffic, connecting Poughkeepsie and Highland, New York.  So Marianne and I took a leisurely stroll on a perfectly beautiful day high over the river.  For most of human history, this simply wasn't possible.

Above:  The Mid-Hudson Bridge, as seen from mid-river.

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Cool People I Hang With

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One of the perks of being a science fiction writer is the cool people you get to hang out with.  Physicist-writers, for example.

I was hanging with David Hartwell yesterday when Greg Benford called.  He said he'd just been at DARPA's Hundred Year Starship Symposium, and that so far as he could tell he was the only one there who'd blogged about it. 

Then I was hanging with John and Pauline Cramer and John said that he'd recently had the pleasant experience of being on an airplane sandwiched between two Benfords -- Greg and Jim.  That must have been lively conversation!

John also told me that he'd been en route to the Symposium when news broke about the supposed faster-than-light tachyons.  So he immediately logged onto the Web and read the articles about it, and then the original paper.  After running a few calculations, he contacted the symposium organizers and asked if they'd like him to do a presentation on that morning's news.  They said yes, so he quickly wrote a science article on the topic for Analog. 

I was just chatting, so I can't synopsize Cramer's argument with any accuracy.  Essentialy, he said that the numbers didn't come out consistent with the claims.

You can read Greg's blog here.  You can read John's article in Analog in the not-too-distant future.

Above:  My shadow visiting Lester Park in New York State.  Those rock formations are 490-million-year-old fossil stromatolites.  That just made my month.

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APPEARANCES -- Sunday Update

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I've added a new item, a panel in praise of Ursula K. Le Guin on the 19th. This is part of a month-long celebration of Le Guin at the Center for Fiction, and if you're within striking distance of NYC, you'll want to check it out.  You can find the entire lineup of events at this convenient page, crafted by sponsor Tor Books here.

October 15-16:  Capclave

                            Gaithersburg, MD

 October 19:  The Wave in the Mind: a Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin

                         7 PM, the Center for Fiction

                         NYC

November 1:  Murray Leinster Tribute

                        7 PM NYRSF Reading Series

                        NYC

November 10    Wold Newton Reading Extravaganza (reading)

                                 The Way Station

                                 Brooklyn

November 18-20:   SFContario 2

                                   Toronto

And in 2012 . . .

Aug. 31- Sept. 2   Chicon 7

                         Chicago


Above:   Jim's Pretty Good Books in Westport, NY.  Jim used to sell groceries, but that brought in too many customers.  So now he sells books.  Not all of the books in the store, mind you.  But some of them.

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Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!!

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Look at those shelves of books!  Do you find yourself involuntarily salivating?  Then tomorrow you should go to the Dragon Press Store at 10 Champlain Street in Westport, New York.  Which is your quintessential open-by-chance-or-appointment used book store.  The kind you wish would open somewhere near you.

I'll be there too. Details here. Or in the flyer below.

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Another Reason to Love Orkney

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I visited Orkney some years ago, after driving slowly through the highlands of Scotland, which is one of the most beautiful countries on Earth -- and it managed to trump Scotland!  Incredible but true.  The land is low and dun and almost treeless, but it tugs at the heart.

On my second day there, I got into a rental car and visited the Ring of Bookan, the Ring of Brodgar, the Barnhouse Settlement, the Cairn of the Hounds, and Maes Howe . . . and then broke for lunch.  I'd traveled less than ten miles down the road from my landlady's house.  Which I could see from the top of Maes Howe.

I could go on and on, but I won't.  Instead, I'll note that archeologists have found an "anomaly" in Loch Stenness.  It may be an ancient monument, a quarry, or something else.  You can read about it here.


And as always . . .

I'm on the road again.  I'll be home briefly late tonight, but in the morning I'll be jumping in the car and off on the road again.  So if you're waiting on me to do something I've promised and I'm behind schedule . . . well, that's why and don't hesitate to send me a reminder.


Above:  Science illos.  Gotta love 'em.

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Thrillin' at the Mill 'n' Swill

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Check it out!  I went to the SFWA editors and publishers bash -- known informally as the Mill 'n' Swill -- on Monday.  It was held at Planet Hollywood in NYC and it was thronged as hell.  But fun.  The big players mostly stayed for the first hour, did serious business, and left.  Young new editorial people drifted through in small clumps of friends, looking hopeful and optimistic and unaware of how much power they're going to wield ten years from now.  And writers hung out with other writers . . . because it wouldn't do us any financial good whatsoever and because it felt good.

And do I walk the walk, you ask . . . ?

Yes.  And to a degree I would not ask of you.  Last night, I checked out to see if Terry Pratchett's new novel Snuff is available yet.  And I discovered two things:  First, that the American edition comes out in one week.  And second, that you can buy a book that would cost you twenty-six bucks from an independent bookstore for only fourteen dollars from Amazon-- less than it costs them to buy, merchandise, and sell!

So I'm buying it from one of my local independent bookstores.

It's crazy to pay that much more than I have to.  But I do it because I can afford it, and because I want those bookstores to stay around.

You, though, being more reasonable than I am, might want to go with the loss leader and then take that extra money to your local bookstore and buy something nice.


Above:  Master editor David Hartwell and master writer Tom Purdom.  I can just barely imagine not having a great time in the presence of one of them.  But two?  Not possible.

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An Astonishing Pile of Manuscripts

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I was in the Asimov's offices yesterday to meet Sheila Williams, who was taking Tom Purdom and me out to dinner.  And, while there, I took the above photo of a stack of story manuscripts on Sheila's desk.

Would you care to guess their significance?

I'll give you a second to ponder and then, in the very next paragraph, give you the answer.

Made your guesses?  Good.  What you see above is all the paper manuscripts that Asimov's received in the past month.  Every single one of them.  The other manuscripts, something like five hundred of them, were all submitted electronically.

The world is changing fast these days.

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