A World of Speculation

A garden of music

One of my favorite places in the world is the Portland Chinese Garden. It’s a block surrounded by some of the busiest streets in Portland. On one side is an office building; on another a single-room-occupancy hotel; just a couple of blocks away are the downtown...

A speculation on Transfiguration (reprise)

In honor of tomorrow’s Feast, I’ve dug out a 2005 speculation on the Transfiguration. It starts with a metaphor and ends with “What if” and meanders through time, literature, heaven and earth, and the Communion of the Saints to arrive at the...

When genres collide

I know it’s been done from science fiction to western (as in the television series Firefly and Molly Gloss’s The Dazzle of Day). But Steve Ely’s introduction to “Cloud Dragon Skies” talked about how often science fiction is about meeting...

Which font should I use?

The last writer to arrive at the workshop, a 50-something medical professional, is an attractive woman with large earnest eyes. Under her arm, she carries an 800-page manuscript (I’m estimating a 250,000 to 300,000 word count) that she’s planning to pitch...