Along with this new website comes the first two chapters of Terra Insegura, which I’ve not only posted as text, but also as audio! You can read the chapters and download MP3 files here, or just click the players below to listen now. Chapter 1: [podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/terra-insegura-chapter-1.mp3[/podcast] Chapter 2: [podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/terra-insegura-chapter-2.mp3[/podcast] Once I have my own copies …
Welcome to the new, improved edwardwillett.com!
For a long, long time I’ve wanted to consolidate the bulk of my web activities under my main domain name, edwardwillett.com. After experimentation and thought, I finally decided WordPress was the logical way to go…and that I needed professional help. (No wise cracks, please!) At just about the time I came to that conclusion, Justine …
SF Signal book cover smackdown includes Terra Insegura
John DeNardo over at SF Signal is running a Book Cover Smackdown–and the Stephan Martiniere cover for Terra Insegura is one of them. So which do you like best of these three? Terra Insegura by…me! (Cover Artist: Stephan Martiniere)Haze by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. (Cover Artist: Sparth)Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (Cover Artist: Jon Foster) Of course, …
A universal theory of humour
[podcast]http://www.edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/A Universal Theory of Humour.mp3[/podcast] I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. You can tell how funny I am by reading my very funny writing. Like this paragraph. This paragraph is very funny. It must be because I am a very funny man. I have been …
My poster for Follies
I’ve just sent this poster of Lyric Musical Theatre of Regina‘s upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies (in which I’ll be playing Buddy) off to be printed. Designing these things is the closest I come to doing art any more. I always enjoy it! Oh, and let this be first notice of the production, if …
The artificial scientist
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/the-artificial-scientist.mp3[/podcast] As I’ve noted before, the very first science column I wrote, ca. 1991, was entitled, “What is a scientist?” Last year I re-ran that column with minor editing: the answer to the question hadn’t changed in 17 years. But it may have changed now. That’s because researchers at Cornell University have created a computer …
Programming matter
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/programmable-matter.mp3[/podcast] Remember the shape-changing T-1000 robot in the 1991 movie Terminator 2? It could disguise itself as anything—a policeman, the floor, whatever—and sprout tools and weapons as required. It turns out it may very well have given us a glimpse of a very real future (though hopefully without the whole Armageddon-like-conflict-between-robots-and-humans thing). Researchers right now …
An instantaneous, universal, programmable vaccine?
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/a-universal-instant-vaccine.mp3[/podcast] Efforts to immunize people against disease go back to at least 600 B.C., when the Chinese attempted to immunize people against smallpox by putting smallpox material in their nostrils (the permitting of which, I would think, would require a great deal of faith in your doctor). Modern immunization began in 1796 when a British …

