At Confusion, right after a panel on “Are Podcasts/YouTube the Next Fanzines?” with co-panelists Mur Lafferty, Christine Daigle, BluRaven Houvener, and Chris M. Barkley (left to right), all of us gathered around Chris Barkley’s prodigal Hugo Award.
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Utopia Ain’t What It Used to Be
Utopias and Sci-Fi. Essay. 1100 words, 6-minute read. Utopia Ain’t What It Used to Be By Ray Tabler. The concept of utopia has been with us for a long time. Plato envisioned a perfect society in his Republic. Sir Thomas Moore coined the term in 1516 with a book about…
Magical Confusion 2026
Jan 30- Feb 1, 2026, at the Sheraton Detroit Novi hotel. See you there! I’ll be speaking on 6 panels at Confusion 2026: Magical Confusion science fiction convention, Jan 30- Feb 1, 2026, at the Sheraton Detroit Novi hotel. See you there! My panel schedule: Friday, January 30 12:00pm EST,…
UoL Magazine
Received the fall/winter 2025 issue of the UofL Magazine (for University of Louisville alumni) in the mail. Found a notice in the Bookmarks section mentioning my latest novel, The Diesel-Powered Starship. Thank you UofL Magazine! #louisville, #UofL.
Neurotic Physicists
Staring Into the Abyss. Essay. 1100 words, 6-minute read. Neurotic Physicists By Ray Tabler. Do you know any physicists? I know a couple. They both seem like stable individuals. But then, they’re applied physicists, employed in industry, working on practical problems, required to produce results. I strongly suspect that theoretical…
Jetpack Dreams
“Where the f(#k is my jetpack?” Essay. 1100 words, 6-minute read. Jetpack Dreams By Ray Tabler “🎶Where the f(#k is my jetpack?🎶” – Tim Wilson, singer/songwriter, troublemaker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brr4RNGlts0 There is no more iconic sci-fi icon than the jet pack. Followed closely by the flying car, which is simply a jetpack…
The In-Between Time
Happy new year! Essay. 500 words, 3-minute read. The In-Between Time By Ray Tabler. The ancient Roman year only had 360 days in it. We enlightened people of the modern era know that there are actually 365.25 days in our year, which also needs periodic adjustment via leap years, leap…
Planets 4 $ale Postmortem
Accidental honesty. Essay, 1000 words, 5-minute read. In case you didn’t know, I serialize novels on my Substack. Recently completed was Planets 4 $ale, the tale of McGee, an interstellar con man, who plays three-card-monte on a planetary scale. You can read the whole serial here: https://raytabler.substack.com/s/planets-4-sale-serial Below is retrospective…
Sci-Fi Spinoffs
More story to tell. Essay. 700 words, 4-minute read. Sci-Fi Spinoffs By Ray Tabler Television production must be a funny place. There seems to be a sort of schizophrenia involved. The same people who will roll the dice on a totally unproven concept are the ones who will cling tenaciously…