Today’s Willett of the Day is Christopher S. Willett, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor in te Department of Biology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I’ll let him explain his research: My research addresses the nature of genetic variation that underlies speciation and adaptation. Specifically, I attempt to unravel how genetic changes at the …
The “crack of the bat” at Major League Baseball games isn’t just a cliché, it’s also a safety hazard. This year alone, a coach in the visitors’ dugout and a fan in the stands, both at Dodger Stadium, have been seriously injured by chunks of broken bat. In both cases, the bat that broke was …
I’m posting this just before midnight on July 20, which, since I was born at 10:32 p.m. on that date in 1959, I guess means I can no longer deny that I have turned 49 years old. I found this old hospital bill my mother saved: apparently in those days it cost $67.95 to bring …
View Larger Map Not all interesting Willetts are people. There are also businesses, such as The Willett House, which “has made a name for itself as one of Westchester Country’s premier steak houses.” (Fair warning: its web site also features a really annoying theme song. ) Located approximately one hour north of Manhattan and hugging …
You asked for it (OK, maybe you didn’t, but you’re going to get it anyway): here are romantic scenes from my three high school novels, The Golden Sword (Grade 10), Ship from the Unknown (Grade 11) and The Slavers of Thok (Grade 12). For those joining the party late, I’ve previously posted the opening pages …
Shaun Duke has just posted a lengthy online interview with me over at his blog, The World in the Satin Bag. Check it out! It includes comments on religion, Marseguro, the upcoming Terra Insegura, and the differences between Canadian and American science fiction, among other things.
Proceeding with my sudden urge to bare all…er, literarily speaking…I present three action scenes from my high school novels, beginning, once again, with The Golden Sword. This is from page 144 of the manuscript, quite near the end: *** Suddenly there was a cry of triumph from the doorway and Cotin spun to face Kyle …
One of the panels I’m scheduled to be on at Denvention 3, the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver August 6 to 10, is called “Writers reading from their juvenalia.” Juvenalia is defined by Merriam-Webster as “compositions produced in the artist’s or author’s youth.” But not everyone who reads this blog will be in Denver. …
In the wake of discovering yesterday that I’m apparently writing a “gripping new trilogy” (who knew?) I thought I’d see who else has written gripping new trilogies. Other books described, on the pages linked to below, as the first in a gripping new trilogy (although in each case the phrase almost certainly originated with the …
The latest catalogue of the Canadian version of the Science Fiction Book Club arrived today, with Marseguro prominently featured atop one of the science fiction pages. Very nice! But I was a bit taken aback by that headline: “The first in a gripping new trilogy.” That’s very flattering, except, of course, I’ve only written two …
Today’s Willett of the Day is Allan Willett, who founded Willett International, an electronic coding and labelling system manufacturer that I’ve been running across for years while ego-Googling. I was pleased to discover this biography of him: Allan Willett was born in India in 1936. His father was a tea planter and a farmer in …
As a kid, I could never figure out what quarter-sections were. Eventually I learned it was equivalent to 160 acres, but why was it a quarter-section? A quarter-section of what? And where did that long string of numbers and letters used to describe it come from? Well, better late than never, they say, and now …
