Jack McDevitt4 days ago1 minMerry McDevittOur daughter Meredith passed away yesterday after a long struggle. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be in pain at the end. We’re indebted to the Altamaha Heal...
Jack McDevittMar 151 minBlog #52My dad took me into center city Philadelphia to the Mastbaum Theater one evening in the mid-1940s to watch “Wonder Man,” a comedy starring Danny Kaye. I was ...
Jack McDevittFeb 291 min Blog #51Neil DeGrasse Tyson published Letters from an Astrophysicist last year. It’s a collection of questions and comments posed to Tyson by readers. The questions ...
Jack McDevittFeb 142 minBlog #50Mitt Romney made history last week. He is the only senator in U.S. history to vote against party lines to convict an impeached president. Which brings us to ...
Jack McDevittFeb 22 minBlog #49I don’t think I’ve ever met a reader who hasn’t mentioned an inclination, or a flat-out determination to become a science fiction writer. Ask why it hasn’t h...
Jack McDevittJan 142 minBlog #48I just finished Charles Gannon’s Marque of Caine. It’s a wild ride through alternate universes and star systems controlled by a variety of aliens. The protag...
Jack McDevittDec 30, 20192 minBlog #47Christmas always arrives with intriguing gifts, jigsaw puzzles, communication devices, Eagles sweaters. Most interesting, usually, are books. This year I rec...
Jack McDevittDec 14, 20192 minBlog#46People ask: “Where do you get your ideas for science fiction stories?” Harlan Ellison’s famous answer was ‘Sheboygan.’ I suspect, if Harlan had been caught i...
Jack McDevittDec 4, 20192 minBlog #45Why You Say It, by Webb Garrison, is an intriguing collection of why certain phrases have taken hold in our language. For example, the term pipe dream was co...
Jack McDevittNov 16, 20192 minBlog #44The most common question that comes up at workshops is how can I know whether I have enough skill to write professionally? The answer is simple enough: If a ...
Jack McDevittNov 2, 20192 minBlog Post #43One of the advantages writers experience, one that people generally don’t hear about, is that publishers and other writers send them a lot of free books. I h...
Jack McDevittOct 15, 20192 minBlog #42There’s evidence that what we make of our lives is largely determined by where we are born and grow up. We are all influenced by our environment. Kids who sp...
Jack McDevittOct 1, 20192 minBlog #41Readers with writing ambitions frequently ask about the common mistakes they might make. What are the most frequent errors made by someone trying to get publ...
Jack McDevittSep 18, 20192 minBlog #40Recently I posted a statement that Midnight in Paris was the best time-travel film I’d ever seen. A week or so ago I saw The Final Countdown for a second tim...
Jack McDevittAug 30, 20192 minBlog #39Astronomy Magazine has a cover story: life on other worlds could be more diverse than on Earth. I haven’t gotten my copy yet so I’m not sure what they mean b...
Jack McDevittAug 15, 20192 minBlog#38My last blog mentioned Gregory MacAllister, the journalist who appeared in several of the Academy novels. I should have added that Mac is the viewpoint chara...
Jack McDevittJul 31, 20192 minBlog #37Gregory MacAllister, the discursive critic of the Academy novels, was inspired by Henry Mencken. That doesn’t mean he writes anywhere close to Mencken’s leve...
Jack McDevittJul 17, 20192 minBlog #36Edgar Rice Burroughs was among the first authors I ever read. Only one Tarzan book, I think. But I loved John Carter, and I got thoroughly hooked later by Ca...
Jack McDevittJun 30, 20192 minBlog #35Short fiction has always seemed to be the natural narrative form for SF. Ask most readers for their all-time science fiction favorites and they will usually ...
Jack McDevittJun 17, 20192 minBlog #34The Milky Way has, at last count, about two hundred billion stars. Billions of them are G-type main sequence, the same as our sun. Which means they are stabl...