Doings at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
We have so many resources in St. Helena, including the fabulous collection at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum. I’m excited to help with developing this first-of-a-kind program for young writers, and on a tip from Stevenson scholar Dr. Trenton Olsen, began to research Stevenson’s advice on the subject. I found his principles distilled on this informative website, together with a discussion of the pros and cons of Stevenson’s approach. It is my hope to incorporate the most helpful elements into the camp next month.
Second Novel Update!
I spent a few summers and part of last fall working away at my second novel, Faelan and the Fall of the Gods. I’m happy to report that it is off at the publisher, who is preparing to release it in February of 2027! When I asked readers what they would like to see in the next Faelan book, many said that a map would be helpful. So I worked with friend and artist Nick Cann to include this map, which will help the reader track Faelan’s adventures. Looking forward to seeing the whole project in print!
A Year In Media (Res)
Faelan and the Miracle Machines was released one year ago, and one of the things I’ve most enjoyed is discussing various book-related topics, including history, teaching, Latin, and storytelling. I’ll eventually pin all off these interviews and talks to my Publications page, but I thought it would be good to capture the progress of the past year in a post.
Living Latin in New York
Happy to share that I will be one of the Latin-speaking presenters at the Paideia Institute In February of 2025!
Click on the link for more information: https://www.paideiainstitute.org/living_latin_in_new_york_city
A Manifesto for Ugly Times
I had been working on this piece for a few years, and it finally came together. I tried to shop it around to various publications, but it hasn’t found a home. Not great? Not good? Not partisan enough? Anyway, there are probably more photographs embedded in it than anyone wants to include in an article. So I headed over to Medium, which I haven’t written on in ages, and here it is: my political manifesto for Election 2024.
Book Signing in Napa
Hi friends! I’ll be in Napa at Copperfield’s Books on July 14th. Looking forward to signing books and visiting!
Heron of Alexandria
We tend to think of the modern age as the age of machines, but once we delve into evidence from the ancient world, we see that machine innovation has been an element of civilization for millennia. The invention of machines in the Greco-Roman world was generally the realm of philosophers, who created their machines as an outgrowth of their inquiry into the forces of the natural world and mathematics. That is, philosophers, who were concerned with a wide range of subjects that we have since compartmentalized into various academic professions (mathematician, physicist, astronomer, etc.), did not pursue making machines as their primary goal. So calling Archimedes or Heron an inventor only represents part of their work. They generally created machines to show how the elements (wind, air, fire, water) worked and could be harnessed to augment human activity, whether in everyday life or in warfare.
Archimedes is one of the most famous philosophers from the ancient world. Some of his most famous inventions were the Archimedes Screw and the Claw of Archimedes.
The Archimedes Screw is still in use today around the world.
Kinderdijk, modern Archimedes' screw in a Pumping station in Kinderdijk, The Netherlands. Picture by M.A. Wijngaarden. (via Wikipedia)
Graphic of the Archimedes Screw, created by Silberwolf (size changed by: Jahobr)
Heron, who lived in Alexandria in the first century AD, was also a philosopher whose creations tested the forces of nature. One of his most famous inventions that harnessed fire, air and water, was the steam engine. In a world where slave labor dominated and slaves outnumbered free citizens 2:1, this machine never found a practical use. (As an aside, what if it had? That, my reader, is a subject for an alternate history book! Go for it, it’s not my genre). Like Archimedes, Heron created machines that had practical and military uses. He also, however, seems to have had a theatrical side- that is, he created amazing automata, the primary purpose of which was entertainment. These devices worked on their own and told a story. Often, they wheeled themselves on and off stage. It was important for Heron that the theater be set on a slender pedestal or stand so that the audience could see that no tiny human was inside, working the machine!
This model, created by Prof. Richard Beacham and Janis Atelbauers, demonstrates how the theater worked. Powered by weights and a complex network of ropes wound around dowels, the system of the automatic theater is widely recognized as the first computer program.
These powers of intellect and imagination, coupled together, serve as one of my inspirations in writing. The philosophers of the ancient world did not view their work through the lens of limitation. We are easily surprised by how much they accomplished because we often view their world as simple and crude. In reality, their innovations have accompanied and inspired those of our age.