Category Archives: Society

Side Effects of Growth

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Giving big sums to charity via our own Foundations can be rewarding…  and it helps evading taxes. But most of us do it with any recognition.

So this demo tried to follow me as I strive to found my small company offering something, but eventually ending up only speculating. Speculating is needed to render exchanges more efficient, like oil lubrifying the mechanic. But too much wealth in speculator’s hands begets a sea of oil in which float a few services/goods. Hence a relative scarcity of money for most valuable endeavours (education, health, transportation…) and new jobs.

I don’t have a billion in my pockets to create jobs. But I am training myself to put every profit dollar to good use; invested away to make other work for me.

(The French words aura de respectabilité means “appearing respectable”. )

 

Wealth and Growth

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As your business grows, you reach a point where you stop creating wealth, and jobs.

Problems? Problematics?

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This is a particular problem in French language, and many French-speaking locutors are unconsciously copying the English usage of the word problematic.

The adjective form is the same in both languages.

A problematic (noun) is a  thing poses a problem; the word problématique in French means an ensemble of problems linked by a common root cause.

In English the usage is in plural form only: the problematics are the uncertainties or difficulties inherent in a situation or plan.

Example: Something that poses a problem or difficulty: “[a book that] poses the problematics of memory in another light altogether”

So translating this comic has posed a problem!

Evolution of the Subs

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The evolution of the SF magazines submission system in comic form, from paper to the advanced Internet systems

Most mags now have “dormant” submission periods. Yes, one does open its subs page at midnight.

I can’t finish without mentioning that one brave editor, David G. Hartwell (of Tor Books), passed away yesterday. He was always nice to the new authors and visited often our Canadian SF conventions (here at Anticipation but I also met him in Boréal 2010 and Ad Astra 2014). He and his exuberantly colored ties will be missed.  

My Resolution Run

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Yes, we do watch the X-Files !

The Resolution Run is an annual event by organized by the Running Room. They hold bi-weekly runs open to every one, and in winter it is better to run in a group, because of the danger of falling on ice.

There was not much snow at the 2015 RR, but half-melted, darkened snowpacks were abundant. Despite what the comic may let you think, there were crews presents, cheering us at various points on the 5-km route, so no “dark” places. 

It was a good run with the moon peeking through the branches, ominous and magnificent.

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Merry Christmas!

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A glass of water at a signing table…

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Thanks to my fellow colleague Yves Bourgelas for the anecdote!

Those mishaps happen, from time to time, when the place is packed full.

And my calendar is packed, hence the delay!

Book Blunder – Part II

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A signed book is a treasure.  I buy a lot of books from my fellows SF writers!

(This blunder really happened: I’m known for my absent-mindedness, but no book was harmed nor thrown on the floor in the telling of this event.)

FYI: Yves Meynard is also a Tor Books published author.

Book Blunder

 

What happens at the end of a long day!

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This slight mishap happened at the end of a long day…

My colleagues are respected writers, Philippe-Aubert Côté wrote Le Jeu du Demiurge, and Yves Meynard has published The Book of Knights  and Chrysanthe at Tor Books.

My own science-fiction book, L’Écologie d’Odi, and my 16th novel, received an enthusiastic review.  It is the first time that I write a story in a shared universe.

My 16th novel

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in French, from  Porte-Bonheur