Hello. Been a while. Three and a half months, actually.
If you voted for Donald Trump, but now realize that was a poor choice, good for you. If you did not vote at all, that, too, was a poor choice, since it gave the votes for Trump more power. And if you voted for Harris, good for you. I realize that millions of people were not sure if she could be a good President, but it’s clear by now that she couldn’t be worse.
That’s it for politics. I’ll try to stay away from that subject in this blog. No promises, but I’ll try.
My writing is still close to non-existent. However! After spending almost every day thinking about the novel and what to do next, I have a good idea. Now that I have a direction, I can start writing again. I still need to type more slowly than I prefer, because if I don’t the typos will flood the screen and I will use language unkind.
That’s a phrase I remember from my very young days. We had a little 78 rpm record featuring the singing of four current (then) baseball players—Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto, Ralph Branca, and Roy Campenella. Campanella teamed with Mitch Miller to write the song. One phrase is “To that our opponents use language unkind.”
Funny thing, my brother and I can still remember the song and sing it…if you charitably call what we do “singing.”
It was called to my attention that there were a few books by Isaac Asimov from his Foundation and Robots series that I had not read. So now I am. Since I last wrote here, I’ve read Foundation’s Edge, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation and Earth, and now Robots and Empire.
After reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz—many of both—reading Asimov is almost in another century. Well, yeah, his writing was in the other century. But King and Koontz make great use of colorful similes and metaphors and spend many many words on those devices.
Asimov uses about none. He tells great stories, interesting, with clear characters, clear settings, and solid plot, but, in Asimov’s own words, he has an informal style, also called an unornamented style. I like that term, because the opposite, an ornamented style, is a good description of Koontz’s and King’s style. Asimov also published dozens (hundreds?) of science fact books and other books not technically related to science—studies of the Bible, for example. And he writes them all with the same lack of colorful style. He’s published about 500 books.
He said once (or maybe more than once?) that his inspiration for that kind of writing came from Clifford Simak.
Recommendation: If you want to read some really good science fiction and science fantasy, read Simak’s work: City, Way Station, and The Goblin Reservation are all great. City is an iconic story covering many generations, many unexpected sources of intelligence, and even robots.
The Goblin Reservation is serious, but a fun read at the same time. I may have read City once in the last twenty-five years, but it’s been a long time. I think I’ll see if the library can lend me a copy of each.
I also should get some of Asimov’s non-fiction. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible would be a good one.
Hopefully, now that my writer’s block, for want of a better term, has eased a little, I’ll get back to this at least once a month.
One more mention of Prophecy of Honor, and I’ll sign off for now with my usual message: Please read!
If you voted for Donald Trump, but now realize that was a poor choice, good for you. If you did not vote at all, that, too, was a poor choice, since it gave the votes for Trump more power. And if you voted for Harris, good for you. I realize that millions of people were not sure if she could be a good President, but it’s clear by now that she couldn’t be worse.
That’s it for politics. I’ll try to stay away from that subject in this blog. No promises, but I’ll try.
My writing is still close to non-existent. However! After spending almost every day thinking about the novel and what to do next, I have a good idea. Now that I have a direction, I can start writing again. I still need to type more slowly than I prefer, because if I don’t the typos will flood the screen and I will use language unkind.
That’s a phrase I remember from my very young days. We had a little 78 rpm record featuring the singing of four current (then) baseball players—Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto, Ralph Branca, and Roy Campenella. Campanella teamed with Mitch Miller to write the song. One phrase is “To that our opponents use language unkind.”
Funny thing, my brother and I can still remember the song and sing it…if you charitably call what we do “singing.”
It was called to my attention that there were a few books by Isaac Asimov from his Foundation and Robots series that I had not read. So now I am. Since I last wrote here, I’ve read Foundation’s Edge, Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation and Earth, and now Robots and Empire.
After reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz—many of both—reading Asimov is almost in another century. Well, yeah, his writing was in the other century. But King and Koontz make great use of colorful similes and metaphors and spend many many words on those devices.
Asimov uses about none. He tells great stories, interesting, with clear characters, clear settings, and solid plot, but, in Asimov’s own words, he has an informal style, also called an unornamented style. I like that term, because the opposite, an ornamented style, is a good description of Koontz’s and King’s style. Asimov also published dozens (hundreds?) of science fact books and other books not technically related to science—studies of the Bible, for example. And he writes them all with the same lack of colorful style. He’s published about 500 books.
He said once (or maybe more than once?) that his inspiration for that kind of writing came from Clifford Simak.
Recommendation: If you want to read some really good science fiction and science fantasy, read Simak’s work: City, Way Station, and The Goblin Reservation are all great. City is an iconic story covering many generations, many unexpected sources of intelligence, and even robots.
The Goblin Reservation is serious, but a fun read at the same time. I may have read City once in the last twenty-five years, but it’s been a long time. I think I’ll see if the library can lend me a copy of each.
I also should get some of Asimov’s non-fiction. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible would be a good one.
Hopefully, now that my writer’s block, for want of a better term, has eased a little, I’ll get back to this at least once a month.
One more mention of Prophecy of Honor, and I’ll sign off for now with my usual message: Please read!
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