2023-10-06 19:50
As with my father, I was asked to deliver the eulogy for my mother’s funeral. What follows is the text from which I worked last Saturday. I can’t promise that this is exactly wha… Read More
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Steven H. Wilson - Author Blog
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Author, Publisher, New Media Artist
2023-09-22 20:31
Meta, via Facebook, has taken the place of the newspaper in society. In the pre-Internet days, newspapers did significantly more than report on foreign wars and partisan multi-generation due… Read More
2023-09-16 12:57
My apologies to the handful of you that already read this under a different title. The fact is that most of my traffic comes from the social media site that’s recently added a new algo… Read More
2023-09-09 15:02
I started The Rational Rebel a couple of years ago to share thoughts related specifically to my home in Howard County, Maryland. These may not be of interest to all my regular readers, eithe… Read More
2023-08-24 21:41
I keep my political life relatively quiet here. I don’t necessarily keep my opinions about issues quiet, but I haven’t talked much about my day-to-day political activities. I hav… Read More
2023-07-27 00:02
July 25, 2023
It was 22 days ago that I wrote that Kirby was home. It was three days ago that we said goodbye to her. Start to finish, our journey with her illness was 28 days. I knew on… Read More
2023-07-06 15:54
The headline is the important thing here. Inverted pyramid style, I put the most important fact even above the lede. That Kirby is home is the most important piece of news I have to share th… Read More
2023-06-13 00:13
I was not planning to review this book. I have read it countless times. Recently, when my grandson asked me to name my favorite book, I named two: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (to give him a… Read More
2022-11-29 20:34
There is much pontificating among science fiction media fans about how damned moral we are, because we watched these TV shows and movies that taught a moral lesson. Oh my God, we are so mora… Read More
2022-09-26 15:18
So, right up front, there’s some doubt about the name of this story. It is consistently called “The Hell-Bound Train” wherever mentioned in The Hugo Winners, Volume I. Wiki… Read More
2022-09-19 12:40
The other day, I talked about why I don’t like fiction in the fantasy genre. I admitted that I was using a rather specific definition of fantasy, and I went over a specific example… Read More
2022-09-12 20:04
(Or…Why I Don’t Like Fantasy, Explained, Part One)
Short intro…
Dragon Lords…
What I don’t like about it…
What is successful fiction?
W… Read More
2022-09-02 21:26
After promising a weekly blog, I posted on two successive Fridays, then skipped two Fridays and did a Monday. I started this one resolved to miss only one week, assuming I posted it by F… Read More
2022-08-27 15:12
This week, while working on a blog post about Scottish politics (not kidding—just got back from Scotland and was fascinated by some comments made by an excellent tour guide),
I… Read More
2022-08-22 20:41
August 9, 2022
This story has always haunted me. They made us read it in 8th grade, and my almost-next-door neighbor Brian had told me the story of the film. He told me the stories of… Read More
2022-08-05 16:07
Review – Rissa Kerguelen
This is my second time reading this book. Actually, the first time I read it in two parts. The publication history is confusing. Rissa Kerguelen was pub… Read More
2022-07-29 19:00
Review: The Darfsteller by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
It’s been a while since I blogged. When I started blogging weekly, a decade ago, I did reviews of books, comics and movies, with occ… Read More
2022-01-25 15:34
Many readers of my blog don’t keep up with social media—a healthy practice, these days. For them, here’s a capsule description of the events I’m writing about:
Ren… Read More
2021-12-29 21:57
[SPOILERS AHEAD – I wouldn’t want to disappoint you before the movie itself does.]
“There’s a new movie on Netflix with Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio,”… Read More
2021-08-03 21:54
I told previously how Sandy and I had discussed, even before OktoberTrek 92 began planning, that she might step down as the financial backer for the convention, and we talked about me st… Read More
2021-07-28 20:57
Sunday, WBFF TV / Fox45 showed up to do a smear piece. We were selling porn to children in the dealer’s room!
“Ethel, they’s pitchers o’ Cap’n Kirk an’… Read More
2021-07-26 21:55
Previously in Steve’s life: Thinking back on the friendship I shared with Sandy Zier-Teitler, I’ve been documenting her zine and con adventures. OktoberTrek 92 was pivotal in our… Read More
2021-07-08 00:40
July 7, 2021
Dear Jessica —
Yesterday marked thirty days.
Thirty days since we last looked on your beautiful face.
Thirty days since we watched you draw your last bre… Read More
2021-06-18 22:52
June 15, 2021
Dear Daddy –
Jessica died nine days ago, just after 11 in the morning. Ethan was with her, holding her hand. Renee and I were there. Ethan’s best friends, Tim… Read More
2021-01-20 23:50
2021 is here, and, so far, I’m not impressed. But, as the year laughs at my meager expectations for it, throws them down in the mud, stomps on them, urinates all over them, and then fl… Read More
2021-01-20 23:42
I got the notion to watch an old favorite a week or so ago. Back when it aired in 1993, I was a huge fan of seaQuest DSV. I liked its dynamic of an older Captain leading a young, energetic c… Read More
2020-12-19 21:02
If you’ve found this piece because you want information on The Forsyte Saga, you can skip my personal ramblings by clicking here.
Those of you who have kept up with me recently (tha… Read More
2020-08-04 19:15
July 30, 2019
Dear Daddy—
I have spent the last 82 days writing and editing a single letter to you. By the time this sees print, it will have appeared, chopped up into six pieces… Read More
2020-07-29 18:08
It wasn’t long after that that I convinced the rest of the family that it was time to take you in for evaluation for dementia. You had left plenty of evidence lying around to support m… Read More
2020-07-21 20:58
And, of course, after all of this, you filled out one of those damned sweepstakes forms that arrived by the dozens every day. You faithfully put your new phone number on it, even though we h… Read More
2020-06-22 22:13
I began to work with our local Office on Aging, trying to identify mental health services that might reach out to you. I had been told by a social worker that they had an elder mental health… Read More
2020-05-20 21:27
After the go-round with the phone number, things were quiet again for about six months. You stopped answering calls coming from 876 area codes. Mother and I thought things were done, now tha… Read More
2020-05-06 03:14
The officer investigating informed me that the Department took calls about cases like yours every day. He wished there was more they could do to help, but there really wasn’t. The numb… Read More
2020-04-22 23:52
MAY 9th, 2019
Dear Daddy–
I still find them occasionally, as I clean up a corner in the house, or go through a box of papers. Most of them try hard to look like official communic… Read More
2020-04-15 21:18
May 2, 2019
Dear Daddy–
By the next time I write you, you will have been gone for two years. So much has changed, and so little.
This is a huge task you left me–have I m… Read More
2020-04-07 13:20
April 24, 2019
Dear Daddy —
The garage and shed. The mice were in the garage. I suppose today will be mostly a day for outside work. I’ll be starting late. It was already 1… Read More
2020-03-27 21:06
I announced late Tuesday night, possibly early Wednesday
morning, that I had deleted Facebook’s apps from my phone and tablet and closed
the perpetually open browser tab for it on… Read More
2020-03-18 22:03
April 10, 2019
Dear Daddy–
It’s been another busy week–or how many days?–since I
wrote last. Taxes still loom over me. I have to delay paying until my next
payc… Read More
2020-03-11 19:06
March 5, 2020
Dear Daddy—
When did I last write? I don’t know. Months. Not good
months. No one is to blame. Life gets too busy to handle. One person’s
anxieties clash… Read More
2020-01-09 02:21
Last year my friend and mentor Howard Weinstein floated me a call for submissions for an anthology. Then untitled, it was to be published by Five Star Press, who published Howie’s exce… Read More
2019-11-22 00:32
April 2, 2019
Dear Daddy–
So much has happened in the last six weeks, it’s been hard
to keep up. Mother was in the hospital… Jim Heller died… Christian got a… Read More
2019-11-14 23:12
March 6, 2019
Dear Daddy–
A friend asked me recently, “You’re under a lot of
stress, right? Like, all the time?”
I had to say, “Yes.”
I am und… Read More
2019-11-04 23:43
He pulled the legs off crickets, just one per customer. The crickets would hop in circles, suffering.
He would torture, but not kill, a mouse; and he usually let it
escape. We had mai… Read More
2019-10-23 20:07
Thursday Night – looking drained.October 17, 2019
You get that feeling that you’ve heard this story before…
Almost two years ago–shy five days–I post… Read More
2019-10-08 02:01
At 1701 hours on September 26, my old friend Lewis G. Aide,
West Point graduate, IT Wizard, Convention Magician and actual magician, first
responder, senior center volunteer and Neig… Read More
2019-09-26 20:55
February 21, 2019
Dear Daddy–
It snowed yesterday, and pretty much everything shut down. I
suppose, if you could plan a snowstorm, this one would count as being pretty
well-plann… Read More
2019-09-20 18:09
Dear Daddy —
I wrote this entry in a time of turmoil. Your house was
suddenly ours. Mother was still in the nursing home. My employer was still
settling into a new office building a… Read More
2019-09-09 21:57
January 23, 2019
Dear Daddy —
We’ve come to a crossroads. Is that the right turn? Maybe
it’s a fork? Anyway, we’ve decisively chosen a path.
The document beg… Read More
2019-09-05 01:13
January 2nd, 2019
Dear Daddy —
Our first full year without you has come to an end. 2018
was, well, an adventure, I suppose, as every year is. It’s become popular on
social… Read More
2019-08-27 16:43
December 19, 2018
Dear Daddy —
I was talking about the basement, and the accumulation of
STUFF. Most of that stuff is gone now. Here’s how that happened.
The ruts left… Read More
2019-08-19 23:11
“The Heat is On”
December 12, 2018
Dear Daddy–
It’s officially Winter. Actually, it’s not. Winter comes in
nine days, I believe. But the days of below… Read More
2019-08-13 17:44
December 5, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Tonight I’m cleaning up the basement a bit more. Still
working in the train room, as I’m calling it now. “We have a train
room… Read More
2019-08-06 21:06
November 15th, 2018
Dear Daddy—
I once played a squirrel in a school play, in fifth grade.
Nutty the Squirrel. I would say that you would recall it, but I don’t think y… Read More
2019-07-30 21:33
November 7th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Well, it’s November. Was it November the last time I wrote?
Maybe. It’s been a very hectic week, and I don’t remember.
Last… Read More
2019-07-24 12:13
November 1st, 2018
Dear Daddy –
This morning I insulated the well. I’ve written about the
well before, and how you and your father installed the pump yourselves all
those y… Read More
2019-07-16 20:48
October 24th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I won’t lie, I’m not very happy with you right now.
“He’s been in his grave for 18 months,” my mother
says. &ldq&hell…Read More
2019-07-01 22:54
Once again I remind my kind readers that this entry was written some months ago. It is not a cry for help. I simply believe that, if you’re going to document an experience, it’s… Read More
2019-06-24 23:19
Hey, everyone, Steve here. Apologies for the unannounced hiatus. I published a non-Colonel’s Plan reflection, and then I had to take a week off to put intense effort into a presentatio… Read More
2019-06-11 14:26
“It isn’t personal,” they say. “Don’t take it
personally,” they say.
Well, I take things personally. Always have. Probably always
will. For me, there… Read More
2019-06-04 17:19
September 25th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
It’s been a bit since I’ve worked on the pink bathroom.
Susan was having surgery, and Dawson was coming to stay, so I wanted to get… Read More
2019-05-28 03:31
May 27th, 2019
Dear Daddy —
The walkup steps to the basement have been pretty neglected lo, these many years. In your honor for Memorial Day–because you always believed… Read More
2019-05-20 22:10
September 24, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Yes, it’s been almost two weeks. Yes, it’s been a bad time.
Yes, there’s a lot I’m not saying.
So… It’s b… Read More
2019-05-07 00:17
Two years ago this evening, my father died. He was 94. I began this blog immediately, to mark the changes and passi… Read More
2019-04-30 00:46
August 29th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Your youngest grandson turned 19 this week and spent his
first birthday without us. Of course, he was with us the Sunday before; but for
his actual… Read More
2019-04-21 19:37
June 13, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I’ve been able to do part of my work on the back porch today, when I wasn’t smearing grout all over myself in the master bathroom. The weat… Read More
2019-04-13 14:59
August 22, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I found the missing tile! Ethan took apart my general purpose room, where all the tile had been moved last Spring, in hopes of finding a stray box. I… Read More
2019-04-10 00:03
August 15th, 2018
Dear Daddy—
I took this week off to finish the bathrooms so that the plumber can get the sinks, toilets and shower/bath faucets completed in time for the August… Read More
2019-03-31 16:51
March 30, 2019
Dear Daddy–
I don’t have time to write much this week. Too much going on, and I’ll tell you about it later. Plus my late model MacBook Pro has become o… Read More
2019-03-23 14:57
March 22, 2019
Dear Daddy–
The three most brilliant men I ever knew were all taken down by dementia. You were one, Yoji Kondo was the second. We lost you and Yoji within the spac… Read More
2019-03-16 22:51
August 8, 2018
Dear Daddy –
We have chickens. For the first time since 1971, we have chickens. Christian proposed the idea for my birthday, and the others conspired to keep… Read More
2019-03-08 17:21
Please note that this was written seven months ago. It’s all still true. I have made no decisions. I am still in the same job, and still thinking that it might be interesting enough to… Read More
2019-03-02 20:40
February 27th, 2019
This one is a little late this week. Busy week, with Fire Station visits, meetings and … Read More
2019-02-22 22:14
July 25, 2018
Dear Daddy –
We had another death in the family this week. Different family. My Fire Department family. I didn’t know Nate well, and can’t summon a memo… Read More
2019-02-15 21:01
February 13, 2019
Dear Daddy —
Clearing the tree. Simpson Road has always been tree-lined, but, today, a lot of the trees were horizontal.This is another letter I’ll publis… Read More
2019-02-06 20:53
I missed posting last week, and have not readied one of my collection of “Colonel’s Plan” posts for this week, because it’s Farpoint season. Farpoint, for the uninfor… Read More
2019-01-25 01:21
July 18, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I didn’t write to you last week, and I just realized I’ve skipped sharing these letters on my website for two weeks. It’s been a busy… Read More
2019-01-17 23:12
July 4th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
The green bathroom is almost ready for the plumber to come. It’s been quite the task to get there. It’s the biggest of the bathrooms. It adjoins… Read More
2019-01-10 21:55
The astute reader will note that this post bears yesterday’s date, not one six months in the past. It’s been a rough week. Hell, it’s been a rough year and a piece. It was… Read More
2019-01-04 19:40
Sorry for the missed week, everybody. I was out of town for Christmas, and writing and vacations do not mix for me. Even though these blogs are written six months ahead, I didn’t even… Read More
2018-12-21 00:36
June 20th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
The 1982 Impala leaving its yard-mate, the 1981 Chevette.
Last time I talked about the cars you let leave here under their own steam. As your dementia set… Read More
2018-12-13 20:57
June 4th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Christian unearths the wreck of the Chevy Malibu
The green bathroom is well underway. I have only the section of wall with the actual shower plumbing on it… Read More
2018-12-07 03:55
May 30th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Happy Memorial Day!
Well… not really. I spent most of Memorial Day weekend at Balticon. Balticon is Maryland’s oldest science fiction con… Read More
2018-11-30 22:10
May 23, 2018
Dear Daddy –
As I said above, well, well, well…
I’m talking about the actual well, the one you had dug in 1967. Recently, the faucets began spitting air. The… Read More
2018-11-28 21:00
Sunday I saw Superman: The Movie in the theater for the second time. The first time was the year it came out—1978. It was December. I was 13. I was there with my best friend, and… Read More
2018-11-22 15:34
“Come walk with me on a backwoods road, Where few tracks, if any, are found…” My Aunt Frances Wilson HIggins’s poem seems appropriate as unexplored roads lay ahead… Read More
2018-11-15 22:30
May 16, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I took this week off to work on the green bathroom, among other things. It’s Wednesday at 2:52 in the afternoon, and I wish I could say I had gotten mor… Read More
2018-11-08 22:50
May 10, 2018
Dear Daddy –
A few years ago, I called you one evening and asked how, in all your years of working with people, you had managed to not lose your temper—and probably… Read More
2018-11-01 22:45
May 2, 2018
Dear Daddy —
Entropy. Let’s talk about entropy.
The first definition is right up your alley. In physics, entropy is “a thermodynamic quantity representing the u… Read More
2018-10-29 20:48
Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a political curmudgeon. I’m usually outspoken supporting underdog candidates—like Gary Johnson in the 2016 Presidential election. My un… Read More
2018-10-24 23:08
April 25, 2018
Dear Daddy—
I cleaned the basement for about two hours last night—not that you’d really notice. It takes a long time to make a visible dent in rooms where so… Read More
2018-10-17 22:18
April 18th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I still have a house, too. I’ve talked so much about yours, you might have forgotten that I don’t live in your house. I’m just there a l… Read More
2018-10-12 23:40
April 11th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
I resolved one bathroom ago that I was never going to use all the tile you bought. You had planned what are now called “vintage” bathrooms, in… Read More
2018-10-03 22:14
April 4th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
A year ago today, you came home from your last visit to the hospital. You came in an ambulance, because you were too weak to even get in and out of a… Read More
2018-09-29 19:02
Damien!!!!!
I admit it, I love the original version of The Omen. I loved the sequel as well–Damien: Omen II. From the moment Damien appears, seen walking with fire befo… Read More
2018-09-19 22:25
March 27th, 2018
Dear Daddy –
Aside from doing the joints and painting the walls, the blue bathroom is finished. All the plumbing and electrical are in place and working. I had a… Read More
2018-09-14 00:24
I’ve written about Lost Horizon before. The 1937 film is one of my favorite movies. Recently, more than one person has commented to me that they love the film too, and then they’… Read More
2018-09-11 00:13
Sometime while I was in college, I believe, the dreaded metal cabinets arrived. These were, of course, surplus. They’re a blue-gray in color, with light gray doors and dusty orange she… Read More
2018-09-05 03:33
March 7, 2018
Dear Daddy —
Two weeks ago, I wrote about The Thing out in the yard by the basement door. Last week I actually had hazmat experts come out and test it. I had asked a coup… Read More
2018-08-31 22:23
David had pillowed his head against Saavik’s shoulder and now snored gently in sleep. Saavik had never heard snoring before—she had slept in close proximity only to Vulcans, who… Read More
2018-08-28 00:39
February 28, 2018
Dear Daddy —
Christian works to reveal o9ne of many wrecks buried under fallen trees and overgrowth–the 1971 Malibu.
It’s going to take years to reclaim t… Read More
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