Archives
The end of an era: my science column leaves the newspaper
Roughly two decades of writing a science column that appeared in print in Regina came to an end today when I received a letter from the Regina LeaderPost that said:It is with regret that I inform you today that effective March 11, 2009, we will no longer be in a position to publish your Science column.Because of new financial and space restrictions imposed by our parent company, Canwest Publishing, we have been forced to readjust our freelance copy for the daily Leader-Post. Unfortunately, your column is one of the items our editor-in-chief has chosen to give up.I first began writing the column late in 1990, I believe, when I ...I make the news in Meadow Lake!
The Meadow Lake Progress has posted an article about my visit to that community the weekend before last for a library reading. It's a good article, although I wouldn't take the quotation marks around what I supposedly said very literally...You can read the whole thing here, but here's how it starts:Regina-based science fiction author Edward Willett isn’t your average writer. Actually he’s not average at all.The literary dynamo and actor stopped by the Meadow Lake Library during the evening of November 15. He did a reading from one of his books, but also interacted with the crowd and answered questions.Willett has ...Election thoughts
Well, I'm glad that's over.Congratulations to President-Elect Obama. He seems like a smart guy, so I hope he's smart enough to govern from a more centrist position than some of his background might indicate. (Remember, I'm as centrist as they come, according to those I'm-sure-entirely-accurate quizzes you can take.) We'll see.It'd be nice to think this will squelch some of the deranged nuttiness that's been coming from the left side of the political spectrum recently (overheard recently: "If Obama loses there'll be blood in the streets! And that's what we need! Blood in the streets!" followed closely thereafter by the claim that "It's scary! Bush has established a private militia!", though I didn't hear exactly ...Who can I sue?
Oh, brother:A prize-winning novelist has won a settlement of more than £100,000 after she claimed to have become so intoxicated by fumes from a nearby shoe factory that she was reduced to writing thrillers.I’m looking around my neighborhood, trying to find out what environmental factors have driven me to the sad state of writing science fiction...there must be someone I can sue...There’s a book in this tale for someone…
"11 Rescued 3 months after Russian shipwreck"There’s a book in this tale for someone…
"11 Rescued 3 months after Russian shipwreck"A 737 hitchhiker?
This is literally unbelievable:MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - A 15-year-old boy from the Urals suffered acute frostbite after riding the wing of a Boeing-737 plane on a two-hour flight from Perm to Moscow, Russian radio station Mayak reported on Monday. After clinging on for the entire 1300-kilometer (808-mile) flight to Vnukovo Airport, the boy, named Andrei, collapsed onto the tarmac. His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes, the radio station said. What on Earth is there to hold on to on a 737's wing? At 900 kph?More likely he was in the wheel well, if this incident really happened at ...CBC moves Moose Jaw to Alberta!
From a CBC.ca arts story this morning (here's the link, but I would suspect this will be corrected soon, which is why I've appended the screen shot below)*:Vancouver writer Ivan E. Coyote, Moose Jaw, Alta.-based poet Daniel Scott Tysdal and Victoria's Bill Gaston have won ReLit awards.Moose Jaw, Alta.? The whole town up and left Saskatchewan? You'd think it would have been in the papers...*UPDATE: Yes, it's been corrected.Self-contradictory headline:
"Study: Abstinence doesn't delay sex."Hint to headline writers: even though you've got limited space, there are certain words you cannot leave out. Like the subject of the sentence, for example. In this case, "abstinence" is actually an adjective modifying the word "programs." Leave out "programs" and abstinence becomes the subject of the sentence itself, leaving you with a headline that says, in effect, "Not having sex doesn't delay sex," when, obviously, it does. Why, if you remain abstinent, you could go your whole life without having sex. Remarkable, but true.(But maybe I'm being too hard on the headline-writer, considering the first paragraph of the story proper begins "A long-term study of abstinence ordered by Congress ...BIblical illiteracy at the CBC
From a story about a controversial new Victoria production of the George Frederic Handel oratorio Samson that casts Samson as a suicide bomber in 1946 Jerusalem, we get this nugget about the original story:He (Samson) is chained in the temple by the Philistines and forced to witness a sacreligious act. He pulls down the temple, killing himself and thousands of others in the process.Um, no. Samson doesn't witness anything in the temple; he'd had his eyes gouged out by that point, as anyone who attended (and paid attention) in Sunday School ought to know.Here's the story as told in the New International Version, Judges 16:21-30, picking it up after Samson is captured, thanks to ...
Edward Willett is a The Shards of Excalibur, Book 1: Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel, coming in October from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
