Worldbuilding opinion has it that if you create a situation where aliens come to Earth, they must be ‘aggressive’. I’ve thought about this a long time in terms of population ecology (which is what I was trained to do) and have come to the conclusion that yes, this is correct,…
Cora Buhlert tweeted a link to a very interesting article in the German magazine Spiegel Online. The article is in German, but I found an English article about the German article, with some of its own conclusions. This is not a translation, rather a commentary. Unlike the English article, I’m…
A while ago, I posted some pictures of this house in Amsterdam, which I’ve used as model for Johanna’s house in the first book of the Ghostspeaker Chronicles. In book 1, Johanna goes into the store room to eavesdrop on her father in his office with a guest from the…
Amsterdam is known for old houses like these. Many of them were built in the Golden Age, which started around the 1600’s. Some of the most elaborate and pretty houses can be found at the Herengracht, built back in the 1600’s to house the city’s nobles (Heren = Lords). Walking…
Shifting Reality is set in a space station orbiting Epsilon Eridani b. The planet, which my characters call Sarasvati, is a gas giant which I have given rings, and the station’s main industry is the harvest of ice from these rings for the production of water, oxygen and fuel. The…
The lives of real scientists are quite different from the way they are often portrayed in fiction. If you’re looking for some reality, then here are a few pointers. Some background info: I lived and worked with science types for many years. I married one (until he decided to go…
Fertility-related topics commonly pop up in SF and even in fantasy. One such trope is the notion that some time in the future/on another planet, women will no longer give birth, but that babies will be designed and grown in an artificial environment, or carried by a surrogate. There are…
Because looking up the difference between a comet or asteroid drives me nuts. They are both: Small chunks of “stuff” that hang around in the solar system. Most describe some sort of orbit, but some pass once and we never see them again. The vast majority can’t be seen with the…
A crash course in SCUBA diving for writers. Because, y’know, I like it when people get it right. If you go diving, you need two essential parts of equipment: a tank with breathing mask, and an inflatable vest. That’s it. Well, you may need a diving suit, because you might…
The May 2013 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact contains my story Geospermia. Martin Shoemaker alerted me to a discussion on the F&SF forum about the issue in which a few people mentioned my story Geospermia. For those who have followed me on various social networking sites, this is…
