Monthly Archives: July 2013

xkcd’s Time: good science fiction in a new medium

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

For the past four months, perhaps the most unique work of science fiction I have ever personally seen has been playing out over at xkcd: Time. If you don’t know about the xkcd webcomics, you should check them out. They … Continue reading →

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You’d be surprised what a planet can live through

Posted on July 25, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Just one week left for Camp NaNoWriMo. I’m still on schedule with 40,641 words. In about 5 billion years, our Sun will run out of hydrogen in its core turn into a red giant, expanding by about 200 times until … Continue reading →

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Why Hollywood has it wrong

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

I’ve mentioned before how Hollywood movies suffer from a dearth of originality and how the quality control system in the industry is breaking down. But the biggest problem in this “year of the sequel” is not that there are so … Continue reading →

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Names, part 2

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Even when you have lots of resources to find them, names can be hard to get right. One of my recent experiences was particularly nerve-wracking. I’ve been planning my current project for Camp NaNoWriMo for a while now: a science … Continue reading →

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Comet ISON update

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

The Hubble Space Telescope has taken new images of Comet ISON, a sungrazing comet that, it is hoped, will become the brightest comet in living memory this December. The video above is probably the best look we’ll get at ISON … Continue reading →

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Names, names, names

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Names are hard. Your characters’ names are often the reader’s first impression of them. They have to sound just right–not just right in general, but right for the character and right for the setting, and they probably shouldn’t share the … Continue reading →

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Tatooine or bust

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

About half the points of light you can see in the night sky are binary star systems: two stars (sometimes more) orbiting each other. Sometimes, these stars are far apart, and planets can orbit just one of them with no … Continue reading →

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