Computer Glasses
I’m been myopic and needed glasses since I was in middle school. Around the time, I turned 40, I asked my optometrist about when I might need to start using reading glasses. He looked over his glasses at me and said, “You’ll know.” Sure enough, a few years later, I discovered my arms weren’t log enough anymore and I got progressive lenses.
I’ve been very happy with progressive lenses for most things: you just rock your head up and down and things generally just come into focus. When you’re first getting used to them, you have to be careful because there are certain things you simply can’t focus on anymore — like your feet — and it’s easy to trip until you get used to it.
During the pandemic, I got a second monitor and set it up in portrait mode next to my computer. It’s awesome for looking at whole documents (and most responsive web pages). But, I discovered that it was really hard to focus on the top region of the monitor because I had to tilt my head way back. So I decided to invest in some “computer glasses”.
Computer glasses are dedicated to a single, middle-distance focal area. Stuff is out of focus both close up and far away. But the whole region of the computer is in perfect focus, which makes all kinds of stuff easier. It’s been a great investment and makes doing my computer work significantly easier.
I’ve also found they’re great for cooking. I had never noticed, but it’s hard to read the spice bottles over my head above the stove. With the computer classes, the whole range, counters, and cabinets are in focus.
Best investment I’ve made in years…
Hospitalized
In mid-February, I needed to be rushed to the emergency room and spent 12 days in the hospital. It’s the first time I’ve been hospitalized since I was a child. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the emergency room and hospital for family members, but being there for yourself is different.
I was particularly crushed because I ended up missing Boskone. I had been selected to moderate and serve on panels, I was scheduled for a reading, and I was the primary representative of the dealer table for Water Dragon Publishing.
That said, it was fascinating, as a biologist, to see medical science up close. I underwent a number of procedures that generated fantastic amounts of data and it was interesting to see how the medical practitioners used those data to falsify some hypotheses and make others. I discovered a lot about myself and much of it was reassuring: I do have some chronic medical conditions that will require long-term treatment. But many of the scariest possibilities were excluded and it was encouraging to learn that those that remain can likely be managed.
I was cared for by more than 50 people during my stay, the majority of them nurses. Nurses are amazing. I have new-found respect for nurses who must accomplish many thankless tasks while providing emotional support yet, at the same time, must be prepared to enforce the rules on a patient that deviates from the care guidelines. It’s a delicate dance.
It gave me an idea for a new Better Angels story which will hopefully make it to the Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy before too long: the working title is “Better Angels and the Nighty-Night Nurses.”
Note: I selected the image for this post because it is my “medicine basket”. Many years ago, I traveled to the desert southwest and visited a museum where, among the displays, was a medicine basket that had been discovered in a archaeological dig which had a whole variety of interesting items inside: ground minerals, feathers, dried plants, bones, etc. which researchers believed were used by a shaman for ritualistic purposes. And I was seized with the inspiration to make one for myself. So I purchased a basket at a native market and have collected all kinds of weird things that I keep in mine.
Coming Soon
Although it was bitterly disappointing to not be able to attend Boskone, I was pleased to see that Revin’s Heart sold reasonably well, in spite of my absence. The next installment, Then They Fight You, will come out in March. The final part, Rewriting the Rules, is scheduled to come out in June. The fix-up volume, that will collect all of the parts plus three side-stories is tentatively scheduled for January 2024. And I’ve finished drafting a follow-on novella that will come out after.
After the interest generated by The Better Angels and the Very Scary Halloween, I was invited to submit a couple of new Better Angels stories. They have not yet been scheduled for publication, but look for them in the coming months at The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy. In fact, I couldn’t stop with just two new stories and I wrote three. And then, after my hospital stay, I was inspired to write another that is plotted but not yet written. So you’ll be seeing a lot more of the Better Angels very soon.
I will giving a talk at NERDSummit on Saturday March 18, 2023. I was one of the co-founders of the NERDSummit conference (which evolved from Western Mass Drupal Camp, that I also co-founded). I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned about publishing in the last couple of years, in part because it gives me an opportunity to reflect on and organize my experiences.
I have been selected as a participant for Flights of Foundry April 14-16. I don’t think the times are firm yet, but it looks like I’ll have an hour (!) for reading. I remember last year, the readings were great as they allowed significant opportunity for attendees to ask questions and discuss topics with authors. I’m hoping people will come by to chat with me and I’ll have enough interest to read some of my newer unpublished stuff, rather than just my published work to push book sales.
In addition to the reading at Flights of Foundry, I will also be a panelist on “Geology for Worldbuilders” which is a topic near-and-dear to my heart. One of my particular interests is the intersection between geoscience and ecology to have plant communities reflective of the underlying geological conditions. Of course, not every protagonist is a naturalist and can rattle off the plants and minerals by name. But that I know them guides me in terms of the descriptions I can write in terms of the look and feel of the landscapes. And I appreciate the increased verisimilitude, even if no-one else does. My next novel, tentatively entitled “The Ground Never Lies” is about a geomancer, and my knowledge of geoscience has been critical in setting up the story and many of the key scenes.
Unfortunately, after my hospitalization, it appears that face-to-face events are going to be off the table for the foreseeable future. I had planned to attend BayCon this summer but, unless things change, that now looks unlikely. But I really can’t complain as things could have been so, so much worse.
