This NASA image caught my eye on The Atlantic’s website. (Click the link if this embed code doesn’t work. Ah, nope, it doesn’t. Click the link.) Cloud vortices off Heard Island, south Indian Ocean, from NASA’s Aqua satellite.
Worldcon, Spokane, and Wildfire Smoke
posted in: appearances, cons, nature, science fiction, travel, worldcons
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We’re enjoying the start of Sasquan, the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention (aka worldcon) in lovely Spokane, Washington. The Spokane (rhymes with can) Convention Center is located right next to the aptly named Spokane River, with a beautiful riverside park. We’ve already seen a number of friends, and I listened to a great talk by a Vatican astronomer on astronomical models that were almost right, but not quite—usually because the astronomers of the time didn’t make the leap from the data they had to imagining the right questions to ask.
The air, however, is a bit thick here. Washington state and neighboring Canada have a lot of wildfires going, and it makes for uncomfortable breathing at times—and eerily red sunsets. My phone camera failed to catch the effect, so I don’t have a good picture. But here’s a map of the fires currently going, and you can see that the U.S. Northwest and Canada are getting the brunt of it. But the smoke is actually carrying all the way across the U.S. on the jetstream.
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| http://www.smokeybear.com/wildfire-map.asp |
On our drive from Seattle to Spokane, we stopped off to see the Grand Coulee Dam, and I talked to a U.S. Forest Service guy who had also stopped to see the dam. He was on his way to a fire. I asked what his role was. He said he manages a group of helicopters that takes firefighters in to rappel down close to fires in hopes of cutting them off before they can spread. Gottta hand it to those guys!
Meanwhile, if you’re attending the con, I hope you’ll stop by one of my events and say hello. Today (Thursday) I’m on a panel about Book View Cafe, an author collaborative. Saturday I’m autographing, and also participating on a panel on Space Opera.
Summer’s Here! And So Is Our New Rhodo!
posted in: nature, personal news, weather
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After all those pictures of snow last winter, I thought it’d be nice to post a picture of our new, baby rhododendron, at the front of our house. It was in full bloom just a few days after we planted it!
Can you suggest a name for it? (Free ebook to the person whose suggestion we use!)
Turkeys Afoot!
posted in: animal friends, nature, personal news
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It was about six weeks ago that I first encountered the family of wild turkeys on the bikepath near our house. I was walking Captain Jack when I came upon them: two adults and four youths, taking their own stroll. They didn’t seem very concerned about us, and Jack didn’t seem terribly interested in them, which struck me as odd. Here they are on August 6.
We’ve run into them probably about once a week, since then. Here they are today, September 17. The young’uns are quite a bit bigger now. I took this picture about ten seconds before Captain Jack pulled the leash out of my hand (I was trying to email the picture) and bolted after them, chasing them into the trees. No one was hurt. No harm, no fowl. Heh.
Two Views of My Novel
posted in: nature, The Reefs of Time, work in progress, writing, writing retreats
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I found this rock on the first beach walk of my retreat, a sea-scoured nugget of quartz. It seemed to me a perfect metaphor for my first draft: a gem (or crystal, anyway) in the rough, all of its facets and inner beauty temporarily concealed. I probably won’t polish the crystal, but I will polish the novel. (In fact, I’ve made good progress on a couple of thorny problems while down here.) So, here are two different views of my work in progress:
And while I ponder the book, here’s the Landshark scanning the sea for signs of its marine brethren:
First Writing Retreat of 2014
posted in: nature, The Chaos Chronicles, The Reefs of Time, work in progress, writing, writing retreats
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I’m on Cape Cod for a few days, to clear my head and try to get some traction in the rewrite of The Reefs of Time. I’ve got the whole book loaded into Scrivener now, with notes all over the place, and Scrivener has already proved its usefulness in letting me move the chapters of different subplots around like chess pieces. I think I’ve got them lined up the way I want them, though of course I might feel differently as the rewriting proceeds.
Part of what I love about coming to the Cape is a chance to walk along the beach and the dunes, and refresh my brain with ocean air. Whenever I do that, I seem to see patterns in nature that somehow connect with what I’m writing. The tide coming in over the sand, for example, creates little ephemeral rivers that remind me of the starstream, a cosmic structure of my own imaginary design which figures prominently in the new book. (See From a Changeling Star and Down the Stream of Stars for more about the starstream, which was born of a supernova and a long cosmic hyperstring.)
I’m not sure what these vistas of sand dunes remind me of, but I felt strongly that they symbolize something in the story I’m writing. I guess I’ll find out what, later.
In case you think I just stole these pictures off the internet, here’s one of me standing where the dunes give way to the beach and the water. (Would you trust this guy with your daughter? Hmm.)
How about this guy? (He claimed to be rollerblading. But it was way too cold to be rollerblading. What was he really doing?)
I Wish I Were a Painter!
posted in: nature, personal news, solar power, wishful dreams
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Home now from the writing retreat, but I thought I’d leave a last few images from Cape Cod. After leaving my motel, I went further out on the Cape to the National Seashore and biked part of the Rail Trail out there. At one stop, I sat on the beach for a little while, watching the surfers.
I suddenly wanted a painting of this scene, but different. I wanted a night sky, and the ocean sloping out to the horizon and merging seamlessly into a liquid ocean of stars, with perhaps the spark of a distant starship or two streaking out toward the Galactic center. That thin white hump on the righthand side of the horizon would be undersea cities, perhaps the jumping-off point for intelligent sea beings setting out for the stars. I wish I could paint it myself, but that’s not my skill, alas. Just a dream…
Here are a few more parting images from the Cape:
Tomorrow, the crew comes to start installing solar electric panels on our roof!
Nature’s Reset Button
posted in: nature, personal news, writing, writing retreats
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Amazing how the writing mind can bounce back with a little time away, and some exposure to nature. The last two days have been great. Here are a few pix I took of, and around, Quechee Gorge in Vermont.
That bridge you see way down is Vermont Rt. 4, but was originally the bridge for the Woodstock Railroad.
Downstream of the gorge.
Another shot downstream, but this one with accursed Japanese bamboo weed in the foreground. I hope it hasn’t taken over by the next time I visit.
Forest along the gorge.
This sculpture replicates the movement of an eagle’s wings when maneuvering in a steep bank prior to diving. If you walk between the two bars and glide your hands along the metal with arms outstretched, your arms move in a reproduction of the eagle’s wing motion.
A cool wind sculpture near the nature center, caught in three different positions.
And now I head home, with hopes that I can keep some of this lodged in my forebrain for a while.
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
posted in: nature, personal news
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Here’s hoping that you all have a wonderful day, and that you have much to be grateful for. If you’re outside the U.S., you might not have the day off, but I hope you’ll join us in spirit. Think of something to be thankful for, and share it with someone you love!
Oh, and if you happen to run a large retail corporation, and you’re thinking of starting “Black Friday” on Thanksgiving Day, how about thinking again? Why not treat your employees (and your customers) with dignity and respect, and let everyone enjoy their holiday before you throw open the doors with your sales? We can wait. Really, we can.
Hunkered Down for Hurricane Sandy
posted in: nature, personal news, public affairs
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Like millions of others in the eastern U.S., we’re battened down, waiting out Hurricane Sandy. We’ve got bread and batteries up the wazoo, extra water in the basement and garage (I knew those big plastic cat-litter containers I’ve been saving would be good for something, someday), gas in the cars, and I even got a couple of the window air conditioners pulled for the winter before it started blowing. Where we are, outside Boston, the main concern is downed trees and wires (and I’ve already called in one of each from my earlier outings).
Here’s what Sandy looks like from space:
Interesting sequence of photos:
http://www.space.com/18236-frankenstorm-hurricane-sandy-satellite-photos.html
Edit: We came through it just fine. I wish the same were true of our neighbors down the coast!