raymund

I'm a speculative fiction author whose middle American upbringing is a launchpad for journeys to the ends of the universe. My most popular works are military science fiction series The Confederated Worlds (novels Take the Shilling, Operation Iago, and A Bodyguard of Lies) and the Stone Chalmers series of science fiction espionage adventures (novels The Progress of Mankind, The Greater Glory of God, To All High Emprise Consecrated, and In Public Convocation Assembled). I have over ten other published book-length works and more than forty published short stories. My short fiction has appeared in Analog, Odyssey, Boundary Shock Quarterly, and the anthology Surviving Tomorrow, and has earned honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award in the Writers of the Future contest. My works are available worldwide in ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook editions. After circling the world by age five, I grew up in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri. I earned a B.A. and a Ph.D., both in biochemistry, from Rice University. Though I've been out of the lab for decades, hundreds of papers cite my graduate research. In addition to my writing career, I've worked in patent law, won a national quiz bowl championship, am a husband and father, and agree with Robert Heinlein that specialization is for insects. I live in Houston with his wife, son, and daughter. In case you're wondering, my last name has one syllable and is pronounced “eye-sh.”

The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – Star Formation

As we discussed in the last post, using the Drake Equation as a way of thinking about the Fermi Paradox, an estimate of the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible, N, is given by: N = R * f_p * n_e * f_l * f_i * f_c * L

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The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – Intro

Enrico Fermi was various kinds of brilliant. His estimate of the yield of the Trinity nuclear test by measuring the displacement of confetti by the shock wave is surprisingly accurate. In science fiction circles, of course, he is best known for the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox, for those unfamiliar with it, can be stated

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Con report: Apollocon 2012

Last weekend I spent Saturday at Apollocon, Houston’s leading sf/f convention. As usual, it was held at the Doubletree near IAH, so my three-year-old son had an exciting moment when a jumbo jet went loud and low overhead on takeoff. A fine hotel, free cookies on checkin, and passable service for drinks and meals in

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First World Problems

I understand the dismissive sentiment behind the phrase “first world problems.” If you can read this blog post, there are a huge number of ways in which you are more fortunate than most people who have ever lived. Even kings, popes, and emperors of centuries past would envy you. The death of your child is

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SFWA Grand Masters

As you may know, Connie Willis will be named an SFWA Grand Master at Nebula Awards weekend this May. She joins a long, distinguished list of recipients going back to the first honoree, Robert Heinlein, in 1975. (Sorry for the link to La Wik, but the link from Google’s search results to SFWA’s page of

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Driverless cars

Via Virginia Postrel, an op/ed piece by Bob Bruegmann has some thoughts on driverless cars’ impact on urban life.  Since sf colors how I think, I found the lack of thought-through details disappointing. The main take-away is “driverless cars wouldn’t necessarily lead to more sprawl,” which suggests to me the piece is intended to lodge

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