Author's posts

I’ve sold another novel!

Great news today: my agent, Ethan Ellenberg, phoned this morning to let me know that DAW Books will be buying a second novel from me. It’s not a sequel to Lost in Translation, which they’re bringing out in mass-market paperback in October (although that remains a possibility for the future) but a brand-new stand-alone science …

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Some summer science

The thermometer and the calendar both agree: it’s summer. And as you lie in your hammock listening to whine of the mosquitoes, certain questions about summer may float to the surface of you otherwise placid mind. For instance: What causes sunburn and tanning? Red skin is inflamed skin, and inflammation is the body’s effort to …

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Our dark and sinister solar primary

Check out this fascinating photo of our sun in three wavelengths of ultraviolet light. There’s a lot more going on up there, 93 million miles away, than meets the eye. Not that it should meet the eye, of course, not if you value your eyesight.

Film of historical nuclear testing…

…not at 11, but right now, right here. Fascinating and frightening at the same time. (Via New Scientist Short Sharp Science blog.)

Now that’s an unusual racing move:

Former Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who has raced exclusively in Formula One for the past six years, is stepping into a NASCAR ride. What? You’re wondering if you wandered into the wrong blog by mistake? Didn’t I mention at some point that my favorite sport has always been automobile …

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That’s a lot of bugs

A Wisconsin mayfly hatch shows up on radar like a storm. Yuck! (Via The Corner.)

Who says people don’t like eBooks?

The World eBook Fair, a one-month experiment in free downloadable books produced by Illinois-based Project Gutenberg, only began last Tuesday, and already more than 1.5 million books have been downloaded.

Robert J. Sawyer wins world’s top juried SF award

I thought I blogged this last night, but somehow it never appeared: Robert J. Sawyer has won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best SF novel of the year for his book Mindscan. Rob is the first Canadian to win all three major SF novel awards–the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Campbell–and one of …

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A photo of Mozart’s widow…

…has been found. Constanze was 29 when Mozart died in 1791 a the age of 36. The photo was taken in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. (Via Normblog.)

Photo of the Day: Light and Shade

More photos here.

Photo of the (Yester)Day That Was Actually Taken Today: Flower Face

More photos here.

Etched in Time:

A gallery of amazing art created with an Etch-A-Sketch. (Via Drawn.)