Mount Orégano

I translated the Spanish medieval novel Amadis of Gaul as a blog and I learned a few things about the Middle Ages. You can read some excerpts here and here.

1. Sword fights and jousts are horrible ways to die. I always knew that, but now I know it with detailed anatomical accuracy: the book was written by people with real-life experience.

This is from Chapter 39: “Agrajes took the sword … and went after him, but the Duke turned to give him a blow or two, and turned again to flee. Agrajes cursed him and followed and gave him such a blow on the left shoulder that it cut through the chain mail and the flesh and bones almost to the ribs, so the Duke’s arm was left hanging from his body. He cried out, and Agrajes grabbed his helmet and pulled, and because the Duke was already partially paralyzed, Agrajes knocked him from his horse. One foot remained in the stirrup, and the Duke could not take it out as the horse fled, dragging him all around the field until … the Duke was dead, his head smashed by the hooves of the horse.”

2. Chastity belts didn’t exist in the Middle Ages, and they certainly don’t appear in this book. In fact, it was eventually condemned for corrupting young women with its sometimes casual attitude toward sex. Amadis’s brother Galaor in particular has quite a way with the ladies.

For example, in Chapter 25 he finds himself alone with a damsel he has just rescued: “and as she was very beautiful and he was eager for such sustenance, before the meal was brought and the table set, together they unmade a bed that was in the hall where they were and made the damsel a woman, which she had not been before, satisfying their desires, which had grown great during the brief time they had spent gazing at one another in the flourishing beauty of youth.”

3. I don’t always get medieval humor. Earlier in Chapter 25, Galaor enters a castle by means of a large basket that was lowered over the walls and brought back up with a winch. I know this is funny because of the way it’s presented, because Galaor is often a comic character, and because I’ve seen passing references to this in other medieval books as some sort of sexual joke. But medieval scholars still don’t know exactly what’s so funny.

The comic strip xkcd got it right when it said, “There’s no reason to think that people throughout history didn’t have just as many inside jokes and catchphrases as any modern group of high schoolers.”

4. Pampered princesses dependent on heroes? Not in this book. And that’s why the book became a favorite among female readers. Women and girls appear in every chapter in all sorts of roles: beneficent sorceress, powerful queen, brave and daring damsel, practical best friend, wise old woman, efficient messenger, beautiful temptress, rebellious daughter, stubborn fool, courtly schemer, capable healer, and even damsel in distress. Although women don’t fight (just as well, see Lesson 1 about horrible ways to die), they can do just about anything else — while riding sidesaddle.

Our romantic fantasies of princesses and women’s roles came from later on in history, from the Renaissance’s supposed progress that ushered in progressively more limited female roles, from Romantic-era depictions, from bad history, and from satire confused with truth.

In short, I’ve found proof of what L. P. Hartley said in the opening line of his 1953 novel, The Go-Between: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Windycon is Chicagoland’s longest-running science fiction convention. It’s now in its 52nd year and will be held October 9 to 11 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel conference center in Rosemont, Illinois.

The convention is relatively small, no more than 1000 people, and literary based — that is, focusing more on written works than movies and TV, although those won’t be forgotten, and astrophysics will get consideration, too.

Windycon 52’s chair, Austin “Alchemist” Regan says, “This year’s theme, Sanctuary Among the Stars, was inspired by the countless alien worlds, distant civilizations, and unlikely alliances that fill the science fiction we love, and by the people who gather here to celebrate them.

“Across books, movies, and series, we are shown again and again that the universe is vast, strange, and beautifully varied. We meet beings from worlds unlike our own, speaking unfamiliar languages, carrying different histories, values, and ways of seeing reality itself. Yet the stories that stay with us are the ones where those differences do not divide, they connect.”

Here are the panels I’ll be on. There will also be games, cosplay, crafts, theater, an art show, workshops, a vendor’s hall, readings, music, and parties.

If you want to come for a day or for the weekend, you can register at the door.

Slower than Light Interstellar Societies, 6 p.m Friday, October 9, Mirabel Room. How can a unified society exist when communication can take years and travel can take decades? If every journey is a one-way trip, how can planets stay connected? Sue Burke, moderator; Clif Flynt, Geoff Strayer, and Jim Plaxco.

What’s the Right FTL Method for Your Story? 8 p.m. Friday, October 9, Narita A Room. Science fiction has given us multiple ways of reaching other stars quickly — warp drives, jump gates, long-distance teleportation. Each one comes with pluses and minuses. Which one fits best for your story? Sue Burke, moderator; Mark Roth and Mimi Aruguete.

Speculative Literature Foundation Deep Dish Reading, noon Saturday, October 10, Paris Room. Join the Speculative Literature Foundation for the next installment of its Deep Dish Reading Series, which celebrates the work of local Chicago science fiction and fantasy writers. I plan to read Meditate Like the Stars. Alex Kingsley, moderator; Gregory Stark, G.E. Moore, Richard Chwedyk, Brendan Detzner, Alex Jennings, Llewella Forgie, Sue Burke, and Fannie Price.

Worldbuilding: Creating a Universe from a Blank Page, 9 p.m. Saturday, October 10, Tegel Room. It’s time to create your epic book or game series, and you want to set it in a rich and vibrant universe. How do you approach such a daunting task? How do you keep it familiar enough to be relatable, but also unique enough to carry the reader away to a brave new world? Do you start by creating an exhaustive bible outlining the characters, politics, and environment before writing the first word of the narrative, or do you jump into the story and then keep track of the details as you go? We’ll talk about all of this and much more as we guide you through this formidable challenge. Sue Burke, moderator; Malda Marlys, Victor Ladis Schultz, and Andrew Gaska.

To Live Forever: The Longest Human Dream with Larry Niven, 12 noon Sunday, October 11, Charles De Gaulle Room. Humanity has been trying to cheat death for as long as we’ve been telling stories. From ancient legends of magical fountains and miraculous potions to modern medicine and the latest promises of longevity, the desire to live longer has inspired everything from profound discoveries to bizarre schemes and dangerous extremes. Join legendary science fiction author Larry Niven for a wide-ranging discussion of our fascination with immortality and the many paths humanity has taken in pursuit of it. We’ll explore the history, science, speculation, and fiction surrounding longevity, including the ethical questions that arise when extending human life becomes possible. How far would humanity go to defeat death? And what might happen if we actually succeeded? Larry Niven, moderator; Paul Hah and Sue Burke.

The Theory Behind Utopia, 1 p.m. Sunday, October 11, Mirabel Room. What does a perfect society look like, and what can imagining one teach us about the world we live in? Utopian science fiction has a long and fascinating history, using imagined societies to explore ideas about politics, technology, culture, equality, freedom, and human possibility. Join us as we explore where utopian science fiction comes from, the theories and ideas that have shaped it, and the many forms utopian thinking has taken across science fiction and fantasy. From visions of ideal societies to stories that challenge the very idea of perfection, we’ll examine how these imagined worlds reflect the hopes, fears, and aspirations of their creators. Most importantly, we’ll consider why utopian fiction still matters and how imagining different ways of living can influence the way we think about our own society and the future. Sue Burke, moderator; Terry O’Brien and Alex Kingsley.

A title should not merely identify a story or novel, it should make readers eager to find out more. Sometimes writers have the title before they start — in fact, a perfect title can be the prompt for the story, like The Door Into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein. A few writers depend on agents, publishers, or critiquers to supply the title. This is how my novel Interference got its title. But most writers do it themselves, so here are some ways to create a good title.

1. Steal it

Take it from public-domain poetry, quotations, lullabies, songs, famous prose, clichés, jargon related to your story’s milieu, catch phrases, or slang (new or old). You may want to reverse or play with these phrases.

Examples: All’s Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Cradle will Fall by Mary Higgins Clark, or “A Dog and His Boy” by Harlan Ellison.

But beware of “pushbutton” words that are too cliché. For example, “The Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue” by John Scalzi.

2. Take it from inside the story itself

A phrase or concept used in the story might be catchy enough for a title.

For example: “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” by Ernest Hemingway, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, or “But the One on the Right” by Dorothy Parker.

3. Use significant words from the story

Make a list of the important words from your work: names, settings, theme, times, action, characters, or information. Then start to play with them in different patterns.

• Noun and Noun: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

• Noun for Noun: “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes

• Noun of Noun: “The Iliad of Sandy Bar” by Bret Harte

• The Noun Who: The Man Who Came to Dinner by Kaufman and Hart

• Possessive Noun: “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin

• Prepositional Phrase: In the Heat of the Night by John Ball

• Adjective(s) Noun: “Too Early Spring” by Stephen Vincent Benét

• Noun + Prepositional Phrase: “A Novel in Nine Letters” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• Adverbial Phrase: “After the Procession” by Jorge Edwards

• Prominent Verbs: “May Angels Lead You Home” by Sharon Sheehee Stark

• Significant Word(s): “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka

Beware of confusing titles, such as a name that might be mistaken for the author’s name, or an ambiguous title like Scorpion Kisses by León Arsenal, which is speculative fiction but has been repeatedly shelved in romance.

Exercises

• We all know Hamlet, The Handmaid’s Tale, Game of Thrones, etc. Think of five possible alternative titles for a well-known work — and to help spark your imagination, make one of them the worst possible title.

• Think about a work of your own that needs a title, and write five possibilities. Share them with friends or fellow writers. What invokes the best reaction?

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I live in Illinois, and like other US states, it has many state symbols. These include: flower, violet; fossil, Tully monster; fungus, giant puffball; insect, monarch butterfly; exercise, cycling; animal, white-tailed deer; dance, square dance; and microbe, Penicillium rubens.

Some of these are projects initiated by school children, but that microbe comes with some serious history.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming showed that Penicillium rubens had antibacterial properties, but penicillin was difficult to produce. Meanwhile, by the 1940s, World War II was underway, and the Allied troops needed a lot of antibiotics.

The US National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research got to work in Peoria, Illinois, searching for the right strain of the fungus to use for mass production. That strain was found in 1943 in a moldy cantaloupe from a local grocery store. Soon, millions of doses of the antibiotic were ready for the invasion of Normandy. As the result of government support for scientific research, the world was made safe for democracy again.

The Land of Lincoln stands proud.

I will be attending the 84th World Science Fiction Convention. This year it’s being held in Los Angeles, California (actually in Anaheim), from August 27 to 31. It’s called LAcon V because this is the fifth time it’s been held in greater LA.

For most of the panels on my schedule, I volunteered to be on them, especially as moderator, because the topics have something to do with projects I’m working on. Moderators get to ask the questions — a sneaky research technique! If you’re not attending but you’re interested in my workshop on first paragraphs, you can find more information and the handout here.

All times PDT:

Virtual Table Talk with Sue Burke, Online 6 | Thursday, August 27, 9 p.m. — Do your houseplants hate you? No. Do they want to take over the world? Yes. Do our machines want to take over the world? Maybe, and what could stop them? Do you want to save the galaxy, or are you tired of trying? Let’s talk about all this.

Beyond the Pantsers and Plotters Spectrum virtual webinar, Online 2 | Friday, August 28, 10:30 a.m. — The writing process isn’t a binary, it’s a wide open universe. Panelists discuss different ways they approach story creation and the many metaphorical descriptions that people may find useful, including gardening, exploration, architecture, musical structures, outlining, “night driving,” and more. Participants: Ada Palmer, moderator; Dr. Phyllis Eide, Sarah Pinsker, Susie Williamson, Sue Burke.

Translation Tightrope, Redondo | Friday, August 28, Noon — Taking literature in one language and transforming it into a new work in another language is an art with plenty of tension and high stakes in terms of transmitted meaning. Come hear the translators and the translated bemoan and celebrate the pitfalls and powers of translation. Participants: S. Qiouyi Lu, moderator; Alex Shvartsman, Andy Dudak, John Chu, Sue Burke.

Interstellar Life: Trade in a Sublight Universe, 261 B | Friday, August 28, 3 p.m. — Humanity will eventually spread to the stars, but travel between these systems will take years if not decades. Is there anything that will be worth physically transporting from one star system to another? Will trade be exclusively in information transmitted at light speed? How will prices be negotiated, given the years-long delays? Will systems simply send information out there and trust that others will do the same? Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; Debora Godfrey, Geoffrey A. Landis, Humphrey Price, Mat Kaplan, WA Thomasson.

Do Extraterrestrials Really Need Water? 253 B | Saturday, August 29, 3 p.m. — Does extra-terrestrial life really need water? From the building blocks of galaxies and stars to the known environments of planets in our Solar System and beyond, we can seek clues about the nature of potential life. This panel will discuss these connections including elements in the universe, cells as factories, and extra-terrestrial habitats to see what life needs to survive: in science or in fiction. Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; Angela Horner, David Tucker, Ph.D., Joanna Rivers, Sam Scheiner.

Clarion Presents: It’s a Start: A Workshop On Your First Paragraph, Avila B | Sunday, August 30, 9 a.m. — A good opening paragraph for a story or novel will carry the work to success. In this hands-on workshop, we will consider seventeen different ways to start a work of fiction, such as action, philosophy, frame, or setting. We’ll explore how each one will affect the reader and evaluate the promise it sets for the story. Come ready to write and try out some new approaches. You’ll leave with a handout to use these in your work! Presented by Sue Burke.

Dark Skies: What Changes As The Stars Disappear? 256 B | Sunday, August 30, Noon, — With the majority of the population living in light-polluted cities, it is becoming harder to look up and see constellations in the night sky. Ideas like beaming light to places on Earth from orbit, or orbital billboards are being seriously explored. How does losing access to the stars affect our sense of wonder and our understanding of our place in a vast universe? Participants: R-Laurraine Tutihasi, moderator; Howard V. Hendrix, Logan Uber, Norman Sperling, Sue Burke.

Is Interplanetary War Possible? 258 AB | Sunday, August 30, 4:30 p.m. — Interplanetary warfare is a staple of SF, but the realities of the technology required to survive and travel in space might render warfare moot. Come explore the physics and economics of interplanetary war — are the distances too vast for offensive operations to succeed? Might there be a point in time when the spread of technological civilization renders all forms of conflict that force an unwanted government on others effectively impossible? Participants: Sue Burke, moderator; G. David Nordley, Mark Roth-Whitworth, RM Ambrose, WA Thomasson.

I’ve read all the Hugo-finalist short fiction: novellas, novelettes, and short stories. I was underwhelmed by the novellas, which were fun to read but nostalgic and predictable. I’m more excited by the novelettes, so I’ll share my thoughts about them.

This year’s Hugo Awards will be presented at this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, LAcon V in Anaheim, California, USA, on August 30, 2026.

Here is my ranking:

6. “Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells (Reactor, July 10, 2025) — Delightful, but the story is only meaningful if you’ve been following the Murderbot series. I love Murderbot, and you might not, and that’s okay.

5. “The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed (Reactor, April 2, 2025) — In a world ruled by savage corporations, a human body and life holds little worth, and daughters struggle as they must. Horrific and mostly believable; however, it feels like the first chapter of a novel.

4. “When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M. Valente (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 65) — A woman has a heart-to-heart talk with a vampire preying on her husband. Outstanding voice, although vampire stories are nothing new.

3. “Never Eaten Vegetables” by H.H. Pak (Clarkesworld, Issue 220) — A ship carrying embryos to populate a new colony has a near disaster, and there are other terrifying problems with the mission. The ending holds a surprise. I wouldn’t mind if this won.

2. “Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) — A monster tries to convince Earthlings to stop doing suicidal things like exploding atomic bombs. Humanity does not listen. Great voice and humor.

1. “The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 67) — Magicians compete. A thoughtful story about truth, illusion, and identity.

This year’s Hugo Awards will be presented at the World Science Fiction Convention, LAcon V in Anaheim, California, USA, on August 30, 2026

I’ve read all the short fiction finalists, which has some overlap with the Nebula finalists. This is my ranking of the short stories — but there are other opinions, too. I wouldn’t mind if any of my top four stories won the award. Overall, I thought this year’s finalists represent a good overview of the current field with its strengths and faults.

6. “Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg (Diabolical Plots, May 16, 2025) — A woman who uses a wheelchair discovers that superpowers will not overcome indifference to accessibility needs. Although the story won this year’s Nebula Award, I think it’s almost a rant and adds no nuance to ongoing concerns about accessibility.

5. “Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro (Clarkesworld, Issue 226) — Slim SFnal thread but deep characterization. A woman and her clone meet in adversarial circumstances, although I wonder how the narrator knew all those things.

4. “In My Country” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld, Issue 223) — In a strange country, people are permitted by law to speak plainly or not at all. This story is sort of a parable, and its telling is not plain, and it holds a lot of unspoken but deeply felt feelings.

3. “10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 63) — In the end, this is a very short love story, or rather a story about how love can endure along with survival. Grim and yet humane.

2. “Wire Mother” by Isabel J. Kim (Clarkesworld, Issue 229) — A teenage girl is blamed because she cannot love AI “people.” She can sense the harm they’re doing to her world, but she has little means besides her own fury to fight back. A close second.

1. “Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson (Uncanny Magazine, Issue 62) — Liza is sure she needs to change to find peace because a corporation is persuasively selling its services for change to vulnerable, anxious people. But what to change and why? This was also my choice for the Nebula Short Story Award. The story may be a hard to understand at first because Liza is self-deluded, a truly unreliable narrator who reflects our times where ads and influencers try to convince people they are sick when they are not.

The Spanish word esquirol looks like the English word “squirrel,” but that’s not what it means. The name for the animal in Spain is ardilla, which comes from an old Iberian language word. In Spanish, esquirol means “strikebreaker.”

Here’s what happened: In Catalonia, in eastern Spain, the word in the Catalan language for the animal is esquirol, which comes from the Latin sciurus, which comes from the Greek skiouros. The English word shares the same root.

Toward the end of the 19th century, in a town near Barcelona named Santa Maria de Corcó, an inn had a pet squirrel in a cage at its entrance. Eventually the town began to be called “L’Esquirol” after the Inn of the Squirrel.

In 1902, 1908, and 1917, textile workers in the nearby towns went on strike, and workers from L’Esquirol offered to work in place of the strikers. So “strikebreaker” became esquirol — a term of disrespect, like scab in English.

That’s how the Latin-based word for “squirrel” finally entered the Spanish language. But the term has no connection with the cute little animal except for that minor historical accident.

When words travel from one language to another, they don’t always arrive safely.

Squirrels themselves are concerned about their own safety. Urban squirrels seem to believe that they’re safer close to noisy streets, even though they might become roadkill, because cars scare away their predators.

Here in Chicago and many parts of the United States, the animal that symbolizes a strikebreaker is a rat, specifically a rat named Scabby. The giant inflatable rat, often used by labor unions in street protests, is protected by free speech laws.

Chicago’s actual rats are preyed on by our urban coyote population, which traveled from the countryside to our streets, and we’re glad to have them.

“Tiny” means one millimeter or less: a tungsten carbide ball sintered (fused) at 1400ºC for hardness, then polished, but not perfectly smooth. The ball at the tip of a ballpoint pen is textured. Tens of thousands of tiny pits called divots on the surface are connected by channels to assure the presence of ink and to grip the writing surface. The ball fits into a machined brass socket that holds it snugly and ensures the consistent flow of ink from the internal reservoir.

A ballpoint pen exemplifies the marvel of precision engineering. It’s something I use every day but could never make myself, even if I could get the raw materials.

The quill pen was used for writing by my European ancestors in medieval times. I suppose I could stroll into the park next door, tackle a Canada goose (unwise), nab some feathers, and make my own pen. But a common ballpoint pen costs about a dollar (when you can’t get them free as a give-away), less than the medical care needed after a goose attack. In that way, acquiring a ballpoint pen shifts the danger of production onto other people. Sintering sounds potentially hazardous.

But — did the ball point pen kill cursive handwriting?

Probably. Cursive was originally developed to accommodate the limits and flourishes of quill, steel-nib, and fountain pens.

In “How the Ballpoint Pen Changed Handwriting,” Josh Geisbricht wrote (probably on a keyboard), “Fountain pens want to connect letters. Ballpoint pens need to be convinced to write, need to be pushed into the paper rather than merely touch it.”

Likewise, Justin Ohms wrote in his Medium column that fountain pens love gliding. “Cursive is a perfect match for this, flowing, continuous, it just happens to be the handwriting style that treats a fountain pen like it’s on a moving sidewalk.”

Myself, I was required to learn cursive as a child, but as an adult, I worked for a long time as a newspaper reporter back when we had no better technology for taking notes than a rugged (ballpoint) pen and paper. I learned to write fast, a jumble of block letters and ligature that incorporated shorthand strokes. Cursive is beautiful, but it’s artificial, slow, tedious, and unnecessary, and I have no more patience for it than today’s young people.

I’ve been asked if there’s anything new coming out. I have some short stories looking for a home, and if they’re published, I’ll announce it here.

As for another novel, I’m most of the way through a very shitty first draft tentatively titled A Nice Galaxy. It tries to deal seriously with the size of the Milky Way, which is almost unimaginably vast. Suppose we humans have settled the galaxy. How can humanity remain united when even something as basic as a radio transmission becomes too attenuated to decipher less than a quarter of the way across the galaxy, not to mention the thousands of light-years it would take to arrive?

Imagine no handwavium shortcuts like faster-than-light travel. Then imagine humanity’s many self-destructive foibles and the problems of survival in a galaxy mostly hostile to human life. That is, imagine trying to carry out the impossible task of keeping humanity connected.