[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/06/Cognitive-Shortcuts-to-Obesity.mp3[/podcast] When we think about how we make decisions, we tend to imagine that we consider the facts of a situation carefully and logically, in a straightforward, step-by-step manner. But that process is, indeed, imaginary. The truth is that our brains prefer to do as little actual thinking as possible. They like shortcuts—and sometimes those …
Category: Blog
The first sentence I wrote today…
After several minutes of cleansing her mouth and hair with snow, she regained her composure enough go back under the blue canopy and look up at the surviving passenger of the…flying device. Words today: 3,594 Total words: 14,854 A mixture of brand-new and once-rewritten material today. I spent several hours at it, aided by the …
“Great space opera of the extra-pulpy variety”
That’s how Michael H. Payne sums up Marseguro and Terra Insegura. About the latter, he specifically has this to say: This one has a few more “snags” than the first book–some places where the plot machinery creaked a bit and where the characters acted to further the story rather than in a way anyone in …
The first sentence I wrote today…
Brenna peered out into the snow-filled courtyard as best she could through the thick winding vines of frost-drawn ice covering her bedroom window. Words today: 3,859 Total words: 11,238 I had two good writing sessions today, although the rather high word count is a bit misleading: much of today’s “writing” was little more than retyping …
Book review: Defining Diana by Hayden Trenholm
Defining Diana by Ottawa author Hayden Trenholm, published by Bundoran Press, is a near-future police procedural, a combination of mystery and science fiction that I personally find irresistible if it’s done well–and Defining Diana is definitely done well. I’ll let the back cover copy handle the set-up: Found naked and alone in a locked room, the …
My preview of the ballet Don Quixote…
…being presented this week by Class Act Performing Arts Studio and Do It With Class Young People’s Theatre (and in which, full disclosure, my daughter Alice is playing a chicken), is in today’s Regina LeaderPost. An excerpt: Eduardo Ventura, one of the ballet instructors at Class Act and Do It With Class, will dance Basilio. …
Terra Insegura is a bestseller!
Not, alas, on the New York Times‘s list, but at one store in Saskatchewan, anyway. It shows up as the fourth-bestselling mass-market paperback at McNally Robinson, which then translates into number nine on the overall bestseller list published by the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, which includes hardcovers. Thanks to Robert J. Sawyer (whose new novel Wake is …
The first sentence I wrote today…
Lord Falk schooled his face into a steely, expressionless mask as he strode away from Prince Karl’s chambers. Words today: 2,116 Total words: 7,379 All fresh stuff today; in my first attempt at writing this story I didn’t introduce Lord Falk (don’t get too attached to these names, they may well change) as a viewpoint …
The first sentence I wrote today…
The moment the door closed behind Lord Falk, Tagaza, with a huge sigh of relief, tugged a cloth-of-gold kerchief from his puffy blue sleeve and mopped his tattooed pate with it. Words today: 2,670 Total words: 5,263 Much of what I’m working on now already exists in a previous draft when I was casting this …
The first sentence I wrote today
Two hours later, clothed–indeed, swathed in towels as if he were a baby just taken from its bath–Karl sat in the sitting room of his chambers in the Palace, sipping a strong, sweet yellow cordial. Words today: 1,512 Total words: 2, 592
The first sentence I wrote today…
Not three good strides from where Prince Karl lolled all-but-naked on the soft green grass, a blizzard raged. Words today: 988 Words to date: 1,081 Short session today, what with other errands and my science column. The word count should be higher tomorrow, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, as my mother used to …
Disease-Hunting Scientist: Marta Guerra and Ebola
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/06/marta-guerra-and-ebola.mp3[/podcast] Here’s one last column condensed from a chapter in my new children’s book Disease-Hunting Scientist: Careers Hunting Deadly Diseases (Enslow Publishers): In the movie Outbreak, researchers from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have to figure out how to stop a kind …
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