We have a winner!

Posted on 28 November 2009 by Michael Spence

Ladies and gentlemen, let me proudly announce that the estimable Elisabeth Waters has passed the 50,000-word finish line, making her a winner in the 2009 National Novel Writing Month. Reviving Fate is officially a going concern.

To prepare for it, I strongly recommend that you read Changing Fate, published by DAW Books and available in e-book, Kindle, and desecrated-Ent-corpse editions. Shapeshifters! Gods and city-state politics! Romance! Intrigue! and all without any need for vampires (sparkly or otherwise)!

Me? I’m going to continue work on my own piece (working title: Crown’s Jewel, although I expect it to change), a scifi-fantasy mashup set in our Treasures universe but taking an unusual turn therein. I’ve learned a lot from NaNoWriMo, including how answers can pop out at you from unexpected corners and how the standard advice “Just plant it in the chair and WRITE” can yield unexpected dividends. Stay tuned.

Posted in SFF: People, SFF: Writings, Writing: The process | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nathan Lowell and Brand Gamblin: Workingman’s SF

Posted on 18 November 2009 by Michael Spence

Clerk’s Log, MJDate 55153.21: *ahem* As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted …
 

Tales of space encounters abound in the annals of SFF literature, from the romances of Cyrano de Bergerac to H.G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon to Bradbury’s S is for Space to Niven’s Ringworld stories and far beyond. Indeed, when one says “science fiction” the common response seems to be “Oh yeah, that Star Trek stuff.”1 Even though there’s much that we still don’t know about our own planet, it’s still too familiar, too well mapped to have any “HERE BE MONSTERS” sectors remaining; for the fast transport to wonder, therefore, we choose the Up-and-Out. Spacecraft ply the wormholes and warps and jumpgates and plain-vanilla-vacuum between the stars, finding strange and novel experiences — which, one hopes, enlighten our approach to life back in the mundane here-and-now.

What the storytellers don’t spend time on is the actual day-to-day business of making a living out there in the deep dark. Continue reading →

  1. Just as an earlier generation said, “Oh yeah, that Buck Rogers stuff.” [↩]
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Nathan Lowell and Brand Gambli[ CONTENT OVERRIDE: KILROY2.0 IS HERE!!! ]

Posted on 27 October 2009 by Michael Spence

Clerk’s Log, MJDate 55131.5: Although Labor Day is well behind us, the Fourth Quarter of 2009 is just under way. On that businesslike note, therefore, allow me to highlight some stories you might wish to investigate.

Continue reading →

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Signpost: The Book of Ecclesiastes

Posted on 27 September 2009 by Michael Spence

BEEN THERE
DONE THAT
SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO

Posted in General, Leaven-line, Signposts | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

About the “prime directive”

Posted on 13 July 2009 by Michael Spence

In his parting words Jesus said, “You shall be my witnesses.” He did not say, “Over there are two truckloads of rocks, boys. You know what to do.”

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Three servant-leaders in social media

Posted on 9 June 2009 by Michael Spence

Item IV.D of the preceding philosophy of education gives the rationale for what, in the American evangelical church, is commonly called “servant leadership.” It’s the idea that true leadership has less to do with someone’s outward signs of rank than with that person’s willingness to serve others. Put more crudely, it’s based not on what the leader can do to people but on what he or she is willing to do for them.

Mark 10:42–45, the concept’s primary text, is typically thought to apply only to life within the church of Jesus Christ. As with so many good ideas, however, this one can be observed in the world around us, where it simply makes good sense. Let me show you three individuals who have demonstrated it to a degree we can only touch upon here.

Continue reading →

Posted in Podcasting, SFF: People, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why I teach what I teach

Posted on 5 June 2009 by Michael Spence

Clerk’s Log, MJDate 54987.52: Applications for faculty positions usually ask you to state your “personal philosophy of teaching.” Here’s mine.
Continue reading →

Posted in Theology | 1 Comment

It’s a Movie Mantra!

Posted on 27 May 2009 by Michael Spence

Awhile back I was privileged to read Movie Mantra number 64 for the estimable Martyn Darkly, and it’s apparently getting some buzz. Here’s the link.

Martyn takes lines from memorable films (or memorable lines from not-so-memorable films) and presents them for our consideration. Sometimes those screenwriters are pretty sharp.

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Metamor City Sidebar: What IS magic, anyway?

Posted on 22 May 2009 by Michael Spence

“The whole machine isn’t possible. Personally, I believe color television to be impossible too. But since it does exist, I will act as if I believed in it. We must do the same for the Energy Damper.”
— Illya Kuryakin, in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Dagger Affair, by David McDaniel

In the world of Metamor City, magic and technology evolve side by side. This juxtaposition makes for a delightful variety of stories, and suggests that The Metamor City Podcast will have something for everyone to enjoy. Still, it raises1 a worrisome question. We know what technology is: it’s applying what we know about how the physical universe functions — e.g., physics (and its parent, mathematics), chemistry, biology — to the performance of “work,” i.e., getting physical tasks done.2 But what exactly is magic?

Continue reading →

  1. Not “begs” — people, please please please look up “begging the question” in a book on logic or rhetoric. [↩]
  2. In other words, technology is to the hard sciences as religion is to theology: the second element is what we know about The Way Things Are, while the first is what we do about it. [↩]
Posted in SFF: Writings, Writing: The process | 2 Comments

Abortion — such language!

Posted on 20 May 2009 by Michael Spence

Thirty-six years after Roe v. Wade we’re still tossing around the same irrelevant labels. Neither the side favoring legalized abortion nor the side opposing it is “anti-life.” Nor is either side “anti-choice.” They do differ on what “life” means, and when legitimate choices can be made. If we’re going to focus on the differences, let’s get to the point.

Anyone have suggestions?

Posted in Leaven-line | Leave a comment