As I was writing the novel Semiosis, I realized that the colony would need a Constitution (read it here), and it would have an influence on the plot. I also knew that writing a constitution from scratch would be tedious, but perhaps I could copy one. The United States has its Constitution, which I’d studied … Continue reading The source of the Constitution of Pax

In 2014, a lot of trees in Chicago parks began dying, infected by the Emerald Ash Borer. The Chicago Park District and Chicago Sculpture International created the Chicago Tree Project to turn those dead trees into public art. This recently transformed tree is Green Lady/Mother Peace by chainsaw artist Gary Keenan, which you can also … Continue reading Dead tree art

A friend asked if I could discuss what makes a good book review. I said that a good review is a creative response to a creative work. He asked if I could say a little more. Okay. Book reviews come in four main kinds. One: for people who are considering reading the book. They want … Continue reading How to review a book: a few considerations

For Father’s Day A patch of fog glowed pink in the sunrise and curled around the reeds at the shore of Spring Lake in central Wisconsin. Birds warbled, frogs splashed, and a nearby field of alfalfa gently scented the air. All that goes without saying, so the outhouse story, as I’ve always heard it, leaves … Continue reading Blarney, bees, and bare behinds: a true story about my father

I’ll be at two virtual events this week open to the public: Science Fiction as Activism: Sharing Futures Thursday, June 11, 8:25 to 9:45 p.m. (BST) Over the past eight weeks, science fiction writer, researcher, and pleasure activist Ama Josephine Budge has helmed a voyage with seventeen burgeoning speculative writers as part of Free Word’s … Continue reading Virtual events June 11 and June 13

See more Prairie Ecologist memes here, and explore the site for additional wisdom, beauty, and foolishness.

The river flows.… Can you hear it? Can you hear the murmur and harmony of millions of raindrops mingling and flowing to the sea? If we tried, could we hear the river’s desires? Its hopes, its promises? And could we speak for it? Or … we could stop kidding ourselves. It’s a river, not sentient … Continue reading Hear the river

Chapter 1 of a novel I’m writing now, Princess Magpie, has been posted at the Decameron Project. I began writing it when I was living in Spain. Nine hundred years ago, Queen Urraca ruled over the Kingdom of Leon. The novel begins with her betrothal in marriage at age eight and follows her life as … Continue reading “Princess Magpie: Chapter 1” at Decameron Project

  Last year on Mother’s Day, I blogged about my new favorite plant, a Rhipsalis creuscula or coral cactus. In April 2019, my brother sent me some cuttings from his plant by mail. His plant came from cuttings our mother gave him almost thirty years ago from her own plant. She died in 1994. That … Continue reading My new favorite plant from Mom – one year later

Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe describes itself this way: “A fun-filled discussion of the big, mind-blowing, unanswered questions about the universe. In each episode, Daniel Whiteson (a physicist who works at CERN) and Jorge Cham (a popular online cartoonist) discuss some of the simple but profound questions that people have been wondering about for … Continue reading A podcast interview, the Semiosis Wikipedia page, and a couple of things I wrote