Browsed by
Month: May 2020

Warren with "An Image of Voices."
Knocking off the zeerust

Knocking off the zeerust

By Jan S. Gephardt Science fiction writers with long careers may be forced to decide about knocking off the zeerust from some of their older works.  What is “zeerust”?  We’ve all seen it–it’s what you might call “retro futuristic” ideas, looks, or concepts. It’s “zeerusty” if at some point in the past it seemed futuristic, but now it just looks quaint or dated. We can thank Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (and so much more!), for this word. Another description might be “Raygun Gothic,” which…

Read More Read More

The Veggie Project on the ISS
Growing Rana Station’s agriculture

Growing Rana Station’s agriculture

By Jan S. Gephardt Rana Station‘s agriculture is a big part of my vision for the primary backdrop of my characters’ lives. If you’ve read my first novel, What’s Bred in the Bone, you’ve possibly gotten an inkling that very little arable soil inside the tori of my characters’ habitat space station home lies fallow. Even small spaces are nearly all devoted to growing food. I’ve blogged in the past about how humans will feed themselves and provide enough protein to live permanently in space. I’ve long…

Read More Read More

Here's a detail of flowers in G.'s garden.
How does your garden grow?

How does your garden grow?

By G. S. Norwood How does your garden grow? I am not a master gardener, but I love tending a garden. I am not a practical gardener, but I love to have flowers around me. I am not a prize-winning gardener, but I deeply prize my time in my garden. From the time I was a tiny child, toddling around in my sister’s footsteps, I have loved gardens.  Our mother had beautiful iris in a flower bed in front of…

Read More Read More

Come back to the concert hall when we all get out of isolation: The Dallas Winds celebrate A Star-Spangled Spectacular at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas, July 4, 2013.
Civilization and Music

Civilization and Music

By G. S. Norwood Civilization and music go hand-in-hand. Human civilization does not exist without music. I’m not saying that Music creates Civilization.  I’m saying that music has been an important part of every known human culture, as far back as we know human cultures to exist.  Archaeologists have found primitive musical instruments dating back 40,000 years, and some evidence suggests civilization and music date back 400,000 years. It’s a pretty safe bet that, almost from the dawn of humanity…

Read More Read More