2202/2017August 4, 2020
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Borkowski Returns: Action Figures

Rob Borkowski] Iron Maiden Eddie Action Figure, astride a plastic horse on his desk.

Thus, errant writer Rob Borkowski returns from hiatus. Yeah, it’s been a while. Time to get back into the habit of posting regularly here, because it’s a sad day when a writer posts his latest work for all the world to buy and read and rave about, and the world, with the exception of said writer’s mother and friends, shrug and ask, “Who is this schmuck?” Today’s post is about Eddie, the zombie mascot of Iron Maiden, or at least, my personal version of him. When my friend John died years ago, I inherited many of his belongings, among them, the...

1904/2014August 4, 2020
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Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone World Only 5,000 Years Away

Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone World Only 5,000 Years Away

Feel like visiting Kepler 186f,  the new planet the Kepler Space Telescope Scientists recently found? Pack a lunch. It’s 500 light-years away. Even at 10 percent the speed of light, low-balling the theoretical velocity scientists appear to think is achievable with a drive using a plasma – vaporized stream of pellet-sails proposed by Dana Andrews (discussed by Centauri Dreams and proposed for use by at Project Icarus – thanks to boingboing.net for pointing me to it) , the trip would take 5,000 years. By way of comparison, the closest star, Alpha Centauri, is just 4 light years away, but there’s no evidence of Earth-like worlds orbiting there....

2003/2014August 4, 2020
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Spring is Here!

Spring is Here!

So much since my now-distant last post, referencing spring in the future tense, has transpired. So much that today, Spring itself as a tangible, 50-degree, blue-skied reality has arrived. I’m happy, and surprised at the same time – could I really have had my nose to the grindstone so long? While my recent layoff initially gave me a supposed surfeit of time to work on my writing, it turns out LOOKING for work is itself a full-time job. Also, thankfully, I lead a full life outside of my work, so the anticipated advances in my writing have not materialized. There is...

2202/2014August 4, 2020
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Spring is Coming…

Spring is Coming…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSg_gJkU7ko Winter is already here, and if I had any trouble remembering that, I need only do a quick mental inventory of the aches I’ve accumulated this winter, the vast majority of them localized in my lower-back, entirely shovel-related. But, here at the Cranston penthouse, this aspiring author reminds himself that Spring is Coming. Spring is coming, and when frozen water stops falling out of the sky in real life, when the flowers poke out of the ground again, Game of Thrones returns – all the more reason to focus on the near-future. Of course, the fourth season of Game...

2002/2014August 4, 2020
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Super Teens? Very Meta

Super Teens? Very Meta

Some folks don’t know it, but Michael Bailey’s a recreational stage combat buff whose lanky flexible frame lets him affect a definitively Spider-Man-esque pose now and again. It’s a good thing he’s only into the fake sword fighting, since he’s got enough reach to win most of the time in a real duel. (It’s also a practical reason to be friendly with him, though not the best reason.)  Bailey does more than affect superhero poses in his novel, ‘Action Figures’, the first-person tale of Carrie Hauser, new in town, freshly recovered from an identity crisis and keeping a lid on her...

1702/2014August 4, 2020
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Welcome to The Fantastic Forum

Welcome to The Fantastic Forum

So begin my fledgling steps into the entrepreneurial world of online self publishing, self-promotion, self-marketing and the ensuing adventures. My first toe in the water was a flash fiction short, Wight Christmas, a tale of grinch and ghost, published through Amazon.com a few weeks before Halloween. Many thanks to the Nobscot Niblets, who will remember this tale from my narration with a shudder, I think, given the shocked stares after I was finished. Also thank you to the talented George Courage for the cover. I sold a little more than a dozen copies. Granted, the price wasn’t ideal – the lowest Amazon will...