point of view

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Point of View: Lessons Learned

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Lessons Learned - Deposit Photos

I’m fifty-six years old. I’ve watched this planet swing around the sun for 224 seasons, seeing winter melting into spring, spring blossoming into summer, summer sizzling into autumn, and autumn falling headlong once again into winter. When I was eighteen, I knew everything, and each new year since has been an exercise in realizing just how much I don’t know. And yet, I have learned a few things on this long road, life lessons that have served me well. I’ll share some of them with you here, in no particular order, i they hope that they might be helpful. Almost … Read more

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Point of View: Writing (Really) Short

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Haiku - Deposit Photos

Over the last eight years, we’ve constantly been searching to cope with a world turned upside down. Mark and I have tried a variety of self-care methods – long showers, walks through the neighborhood, spending time in a coffee shop. But last year we discovered a new method. The daily haiku. The New York Times had an article about expressing yourself this way, and we thought “what the heck?” So we started sending each other a short poem each morning, encapsulating our hopes, fears, dreams and delights in seventeen syllables a day. We’ve since shared the practice with a few … Read more

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Point of View: The Unsettling Pace of Change

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Wayfarer's Chapel - Rancho Palos Verdes

We live in one of those interesting times that the old (purported) Chinese curse speaks of. Change is happening all around us, epitomized by that greatest one of all, climate change, but also evident in our technology, politics, and society. In just twenty years, the idea that a man like me could marry another man went from patently absurd to an accepted reality. In just eight years, we went from the end of the term of our first black president to this churning reality we find ourselves in now, holding our collective breath while seemingly suspended over the abyss. And … Read more

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Point of View: Hiding Easter Eggs

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golden easter egg - deposit photos

One of my favorite things about writing is the idea of the “Easter egg.” This concept started out in video games, where developers would hide a surprise in a bit of code that might trigger a secret weapon, a cache of gold coins, or some other cool thing that wasn’t an official part of the game. The term has since evolved in fiction to mean a bit of information in a story that connects one work to another, but only for readers who are familiar with both. I’ve been writing regularly again, which makes me very happy. I’m going about … Read more

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Point of View: My Life is Political.

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rainbow flag people - deposit photos

I’m going to do something authors are never supposed to do, because they tell us it will drive away potential readers. I’m going to talk about politics. I’m not doing this to be divisive. Far from it. I’m doing it because I am scared to death at what might be coming, and the only way to release some of the pain and fear is to talk about it. There was a long time, growing up, when I cared nothing for politics. I’ve voted in every election since I turned eighteen, but I never worried much about what it might mean … Read more

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Point of View: BayCon!

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BayCon Book Launch Party 2024

Just got back from BayCon and am madly running around putting things away and processing inventory and sales data, so today will be brief. We had a great time. We ran the LimFic table with Marvin Neu, Bel Sikes, Sheryl Hayes, Denise Tanaka, Amanda Cherry, Lillian Csernica, RL Merrill, Mike Karpa and Sumiko Saulson, and sold a decent amount of books. This was the first year for BayCon under new management – Mark and I are charter members of the reorganized con. And for the next two years, WesterCon and BayCon will merge, so we’re hoping for even more good … Read more

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Point of View: Making the Cover – The Death Bringer

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It’s time once again to share the making of a cover. This time, for the final book of “The Tharassas Cycle” – The Death Bringer. The fabulous Kelley York and Sleepy Fox Studios crafted this one for me. We started with a few possibilities: We tried the last one, an alien creature who looked a bit like a hammerhead shark: Not quite there. So I asked Kelley to try the fourth one: It needed… something. How about some creepy eyes? And finally for the coup de grace… a tail: Put it all together, and: I’m thrilled with the final result, … Read more

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Point of View: What Will It Mean to Be Human in an AI Future?

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humans staring at a robot in a job interview waiting room - deposit photos

I’m a sci-fi writer, which means, among other things, that I am tasked with thinking about the future and how it will unfold and sharing this with my readers. And there’s a lot to think about these days. There’s climate change, first and foremost – if it goes unaddressed, it will eventually smash human civilization to bits. There’s the rise of right-wing populism, which threatens to upend democratic institutions around the world (and already has in many places). But nothing has captured the public imagination at this moment more than Generative AI, and its impacts on the human condition. Something … Read more

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Point of View: It Matters What We Do, and that We Do It

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artist - deposit photos

I recently saw a disturbing quote from Elon Musk (I know – is there any other kind?): “It’s hard to say exactly what that moment is, but there will come a point where no job is needed,” the tech billionaire said. “You can have a job if you want to have a job — sort of personal satisfaction — but the AI will be able to do everything.” I normally try to keep this column (and my life in general) a Musk-free zone, but I think he’s getting at something important here. We are moving into an era where it’s … Read more

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Point of View: The Importance of Listening

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man listening - deposit photos

Last weekend, we attended Placer Pride. It’s one of the smaller local Sacramento area prides, but it’s also the most vibrant. It was launched just two years ago in a fairly conservative county, and the people who come to the festival are always thrilled to have us there because we provide something they have in short supply. This year, for the first time, some of the haters found the event too. Three young white men stood at the edge of the park with a bull horn and speaker (right behind our author booth, as luck would have it) and spent … Read more