Private Mars Rocket II

Herewith is my schedule for the Seattle in 2025 World Science Fiction Convention, to be held in famously sunny downtown Seattle August 13 - 17. I don't have room assignments here - visit the link to get that.

Wed 12:00pm-1:00pm
Table Talks 4
basically a meet-and-greet

Sat 9:00am-10:00am
War - From Star Trek to the Expanse
We'll be presenting and discussing many of the great science fiction literature and movie franchises to explore how and why space warfare has evolved and where it is going. We'll look at key advancements and challenges. Especially, what needs to come next. Finally, we'll discuss how to keep stories fresh and contemporary without compromising innovation.

Sat 4:30pm-5:30pm
Writing to Trend or Writing the Book of Your Heart
You may have heard the advice to write to market if you want to be successful. But does that mean you have to ignore the book of your heart? Why not both? We'll talk pros and cons of writing to market vs writing whatever you want, and how to fuse your love of writing with marketability to create a unique work of art that also sells well.

Sun 1:30pm-2:30pm
Man Versus Extraterrestrial Nature
Not every novel needs a villain because the universe is filled with inhospitable environments. From Sands of Mars to Missions of Gravity, planetary environments have provided challenges to science fiction protagonists for decades. How difficult is it to write a believable alien environment? What are some of the best-imagined dangerous worlds?

An update on The Weekend That Was in three parts, as befits a three-day weekend:

1) Parade - I walked in Darien's 4th of July parade with my Rotary club. It was warm and sticky, but the threatened rain didn't happen.

2) Home repair - as mentioned in a previous post, the anti-siphon valve on my outside faucet decided to become a water fountain instead. (One has to have dreams, you know.) I had to order a part which came in on Saturday. The installation from opening the package to done was a five-minute job.

3) Entertainment - back in Ye Olde Dayes of cable, many of us saw parts of movies as we were channel-surfing. In my case, I saw parts of My Cousin Vinnie. Over the weekend, I streamed the full movie, and found that it deserved the hype.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton



North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn



South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton



Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton



Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton



Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean



New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris



New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark



New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple



Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry



Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery



Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott



New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

One of the true joys of owning a house in a well-regulated suburb is that you don't have to worry about your neighbor painting their fence Pepto-Bismol pink because they don't like you. (Ask me how I know this.)

One of the not-so joys of suburban living is that you too have to follow rules. Today's case in point is that the faucet for my outside hose has an anti-siphon device, as required by city ordinance. Alas, said device has now failed, becoming a water fountain instead. So, I have to replace the device. Per Home Depot, these devices are not interchangeable, and they only sell one brand, which is not the brand that I need.

One of the joys of living in a townhouse is that my neighbor has the exact same outside faucet. The faucet on this device tells me it's a Mansfield anti-siphon device. (Mine does not have any useful outside markings on it.) Via that Source of All Knowledge, Google, I have found a place to order a replacement device. (Fingers crossed that it's the right one.)

More updates as events warrant.

I suppose I can report it - I am in Westville. My dad had a stroke on Father's Day and I drove down from Darien as quickly as possible.

The good news is that my dad was released from the hospital on Wednesday. He has some slurring and trouble swallowing, but no loss of cognition. He's as mobile as he was before the stroke (read: "not very") but gets tired very easily.

I have been in Westville all week providing support as needed. I will be making an overnight trip to Darien then returning to Westville for another week of "assistance as needed."

More updates as events warrant.

So, you may have heard that the new nickname for Trump's tariff "policies" on Wall Street is "taco" = Trump Always Chickens Out. Comes news in the past hour or so that Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly imprisoned in El Salvador, is coming back to the US. I also see that he is to face charges of helping traffic 'thousands' of migrants.

Personally, I suspect the Trump Administration will no more be able to make these charges stick then they are capable of landing a man on Venus. However, I actually don't care. If Abrego Garcia did in fact traffic or smuggle illegal immigrants, then he should go to jail. What I DO care about is that he gets an actual trial, in front of an actual judge and and an actual jury. It's called Rule of Law and I'm for it.

So, I'm glad that today Trump chickened out.

Two quick personal updates:

1) When I went to the dentist today for my cleaning, the hygienist told me she'd read my book!

2) Over the past weekend, I had drinks with my parents at Rosie's Tavern, the oldest continuously-operated tavern in Westville. As "Rose's Tavern" it appeared in my book.

As reported earlier, I am downstate at my parent's house. Although I tend not to have as much free time when I'm down here as I do at my house, I brought two Genuine Paper Books down to read. One was recommended in the Chicago Tribune and the other I found via John Scalzi's "The Big Idea."

The first was Vanishing Daughters: A Thriller by Cynthia Pelayo. I found it to be the opposite of thrilling. The story is very much set in and of Chicago and written by a long-time resident. However, it's Just. Damn. Slow. I have abandoned it at about the 50% mark.

The second story was Stolen Sisters (Mangas County Mysteries) by Lif Strand. It's Book 2 of a series and I'm 50% through the novel. I'm enjoying it enough that I've ordered Book 1.

Back in the day, I used to subscribe to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. There was a reviewer - Charles DeLint (sp) for the magazine, and I eventually determined that if he liked a book I would not like it. I'm beginning to detect a similar pattern with the Tribune. If they like the book, I probably won't like it, while with the Whatever I have a better chance.

There are scams targeting everybody in every walk of life, but in my other job, writing, I find there are several persistent types of scams. Anon, a list, but first a general thought as to why.

Writers have a story they want to tell. They think it's a good story, because they like it, and they usually have somebody else who tells them that they like it. (That somebody may be their mother, who kept their kindergarten fingerpainting on the refrigerator until it yellowed with age, but Dear Old Mom is a somebody.) So, it is very easy for a writer to become convinced that if they just Got The Word Out people would buy and like their stuff. Alas, this is not entirely true - you can get the word out to me about your gay Regency romance until you're blue in the face but I'm not buying it. (Not saying there's not a market for that, just that I'm not a member of that market.)

Herewith cometh the list:

1) Interviews: This is (to me) a fairly new one. Somebody with a Filipino accent and a bad VoIP line calls you and asks you to appear on a TV interview. A bit of Googling on the interviewer's name will produce a number of hits proclaiming them to be an "award-winning TV journalist." A deeper look will reveal that these links are self-referential and that the person in question used to work on-air for a major market US TV station but is no longer affiliated with it. The scam is that if you want your interview to stay up on their sparsely-visited website for more than an instant, you need to pay. You are also heavily encouraged to pay for (scattershot and spam-y) marketing to drive traffic to said website.

2) Marketing & PR firms: This is a more ongoing and broader category. It runs the gambit from the Filipino calling you to be a publicist and represent your book at international book fairs to websites promising to market your book to their "thousands of online followers." Frankly, since I don't like to talk to marketers on the phone, I have no idea if the "publicists" do anything. The online folks will at least put your ad on their feed, but I find that I typically have better uses for my money. (We all have people we follow on socials who are constantly plugging something - when was the last time you actually clicked on a link they sent you?)

3) Publishing sites: This is the granddaddy of them all, going back to the "vanity presses" of yore. The harder they work to proclaim that "we want to get you published" (bonus points if they mention "New York publishing gatekeepers") the less likely it is that you'll get anything of value back. Basically, you (over)pay, they deliver just enough so that you can't sue then they laugh all the way to the bank.

Again - writers have a story they want to tell, and there are a host of people who promise you that they can help. For a price, of course.

Apparently I am officially old, as I am wearing furniture out.

Firstly, my office chair. 4 years and 10 months ago, I bought an office chair for my home office for $200, including a 3-year warranty. Last week, the plastic pedestal which attaches the seat to the leg broke. The chair is (for the moment) usable but it's wobbly and I don't trust it. In my defense, all of my previous office chairs were bought for occasional use, but now that I work from home, there's a lot more cheek-in-seat time for me. A new and higher-end chair with a 10-year warranty is arriving soon and I'm using another chair in the interim.

Secondly, my kitchen table. My house has a small area, really a breakfast nook, separated from the kitchen by a counter. I furnished it with a 3-piece dinette set that I inherited from my grandmother's house. That set, a low-end model to begin with, resided on their enclosed front porch and is probably older than I am. The wicker bottom from one of the seats is busted, presumably from age. It's not as urgent a replacement, but I do occasionally use both chairs when I host a Rotary meeting.

In both instances, I got what I paid for and at the time they served my needs. Now my needs are different.