Brooks – Story Engineering

I bought and read this book prior to attending a seminar led by Mr. Brooks. The workshop was far better than the book. The book can be useful but has extremely low information density. Mainly it is a ranting manifesto … Continue reading

Capek – Rossum’s Universal Robots

Revenge of the Robots RUR is a play, first produced in 1922,  remembered for introducing the word “robot” into the English lexicon. The story is, lifelike robots are manufactured by the millions to be servants and laborers so humans will … Continue reading

The Population Bomb

A colleague, Skylar Kahn, once met Isaac Asimov and subsequently wrote an interesting rememberance of one his speeches from the 1970’s (www.copperarea.com/pages/isaac-asimov-womans-role/). The theme of population growth concerns me and inhabits my latest sci-fi novel in progress. In his concern … Continue reading

The Mystery of Mysteries

Phoenix, Arizona is not very coastal but Left Coast Crime held its annual mystery and crime-writing conference there recently. The conference’s definition of “coastal” is anyplace west of the central time zone and that includes PHX (mountain time). Next year … Continue reading

What Are Stories For?

Recently I’ve been reading some of the classical Greek plays, notably Aeschylus: Agamemnon, The Persians, and Seven Against Thebes; Sophocles: Ajax. I took a couple of Classics courses in college and enjoyed them, and this re-visit broadens my understanding. I’ve … Continue reading