Newsletter #102 — Ubiquity: It’s Everywhere!
March 15, 2025
Newsletter #102 — Ubiquity: It's Everywhere!
Serendipity— A writer's life is full of serendipity: the occurrence of events by chance, in a happy and beneficial way. Maybe all lives are full of serendipity, but perhaps writers (and maybe playwrights, song writers, and such) just notice it more.
Many are the times I've been in a group of writers discussing books we've written and the problems we encountered in doing so, and somebody brings up a serendipitous event that helped them with a problem. Usually a plot problem, but sometimes one of cause-and-effect or character motivation. Writers are very aware of serendipity.
Which is why this newsletter features the photo it does. On a Friday of a few weeks ago, I was reading the science fiction novel Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Cory. In the book a character named Fred instructs a character named Holden to use the word ubiquitous in his very first sentence of communication if his communication is not being controlled by captors. I sat bolt upright as I read this, mainly because I thought, "How in the world is anybody going to work the word ubiquitous into his first sentence of communication?" As it turned out, Holden did a great job with this.
The next day Phil and I went to the Art Institute to see the exhibit Project for a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of PanAfrica. The exhibit consisted of twelve rooms of panAfrican art. As I turned the corner from one room to another, I was confronted by the record cover you see above. As you can imagine, the word Ubiquity grabbed my immediate attention.
This experience was truly one of serendipity. But was it one that will help me solve a writing problem? As far as I know, I'm not experiencing any writing problems at the moment. But maybe the serendipity is telling me something. I first encountered the word ubiquitous when I was nineteen and reading Moby Dick. Is it possible that there's a Great White Whale in my future? Or is this a sign that I should walk two blocks, enter Pequod's Pizza, and grab a bite to eat?
Only the universe knows.
The Gift of Fire: Justice Matters — This, my fourth blog collection, is coming along steadily. By the end of March I hope to have the paperback fully formatted and ready to publish. And I'm very happy to announce that friend Robin Koontz will be designing the cover. Robin designed two of the other three blog book covers: Scrape, Rattle, and Roll; and Adventures in Self-Publishing.
More importantly, she designed the covers of all my independently published books. I've seen her cover for The Gift of Fire and it not only captures what the book is about, but it's also visually very striking. Which, I think, helps sell books.
Suggestion from a Subscriber — A subscriber to this newsletter has offered a suggestion based on my previous blog ("The F Words, More Than Ever"). He suggests (and I agree) that in addition to or as an alternative to engaging in public protest, you can call your elected officials and let them know what you expect of them. Phone calls may carry more weight than emails.
He also suggests an app called 5Calls that provides you with the phone numbers for your representatives in the House and Senate: all you do is type in your zip code. 5Calls also provides scripts if you want help expressing yourself.
CONvergence 2025— Received the bill for my vendor's booth. Paid it. Received the discount code for hotel reservations. Made them.
Science Fiction — Here's a link to my March 15 blog, "Rediscovering Science Fiction."