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Downloads

I've made my first novel, Ventus, available as a free download, as well as excerpts from two of the Virga books.  I am looking forward to putting up a number of short stories in the near future.

Complete novel:  Ventus

 

To celebrate the August, 2007 publication of Queen of Candesce, I decided to re-release my first novel as an eBook. You can download it from this page. Ventus was first published by Tor Books in 2000, and and you can still buy it; to everyone who would just like to sample my work, I hope you enjoy this version.

I've released this book under a Creative Commons license, which means you can read it and distribute it freely, but not make derivative works or sell it.

Book Excerpts:  Sun of Suns and Pirate Sun

I've made large tracts of these two Virga books available.  If you want to find out what the Virga universe is all about, you can check it out here:

Major Foresight Project:  Crisis in Zefra

In spring 2005, the Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts of National Defense Canada (that is to say, the army) hired me to write a dramatized future military scenario.  The book-length work, Crisis in Zefra, was set in a mythical African city-state, about 20 years in the future, and concerned a group of Canadian peacekeepers who are trying to ready the city for its first democratic vote while fighting an insurgency.  The project ran to 27,000 words and was published by the army as a bound paperback book.

If you'd like to read Crisis in Zefra, you can download it in PDF form.

Short Stories

I'll be adding new stories here periodically.  First of all, you can try my Aurora-award nominated short story "Hopscotch."  The year this was nominated, another of my stories was also nominated:  "The Toy Mill," which I wrote with David Nickle.  "The Toy Mill" won the award; but I've always been fond of "Hopscotch."  Here it is, in its entirety excerpted from my collection The Engine of Recall.

Personal tools

Consulting & Foresight Analysis

Recent Technology Foresight Activities

  • Participated in a round-table discussion on the future of space development on TV Ontario's popular show The Agenda.  The episode was taped at the Perimeter Institute on October 19, 2009.  You can watch it here:
  • One of 200 invited guests at Science Foo Camp 2009, held at Google headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA, July 9-12, 2009.  Other invited guests included George Dyson, Louise Leakey, Lee Smolin, Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis.  I gave a seminar on "An alternative to the technological singularity" which was well-received.
  • Participant in SciBarCamp 2009, held at Hart House in Toronto on May 8 and 9, 2009.
  • On board of directors for SciBarCamp, a "barcamp"-style two-day conference initially held March 14-16, 2008 at Hart House in Toronto.  SciBarCamp seeks to bring scientists, technologists, innovators and artists together to creatively plan "next step" activities, research programs,  social movements and businesses.
  • Scenario designer, facilitator, presenter and writer for Global Security Scan for Canadian Science Capabilities (2015-2020), held at DRDC, Shirley's Bay, Ottawa, March 21-23, 2007.  This was the second annual security foresight workshop with, again, about 60 people in attendance from across Canada.
  • Scenario designer and facilitator for PACT workshop on future health care, March 19-20, 2007, Toronto, Ontario. 
  • Scenario designer, facilitator, presenter and writer for Prospective Protective Futures workshop at DRDC, Shirley's Bay, Ottawa, March 27-29th 2006. This was a foresight exercise for security experts, attended by about 60 people. It was highly successful, and I managed to have a hand in all the critical exercises and activities.
  • Contracted to write a dramatization, “Crisis in Zefra”, for the Defence R&D Canada (May-June 2004). This dramatization is a novella-length scenario detailing what military operations might be like in thirty years.
  • Facilitator and scenario author for the 2004 NRC Foresight Symposium, March 21-22nd 2004, held at NRC headquarters in Ottawa. This year's topic was the future of biotech and health care in Canada.
  • Canada 2025, a two-day workshop held by the "Science and Technology Foresight Pilot Project" of the National Research Council, March 19 and 20, 2003, NRC headquarters, Ottawa. I was one of 80 specialists from numerous professions called upon to make predictions about where Canada will be in 2025. Our predictions were presented as a policy paper to Cabinet.
  • One of four panelists in a two-day colloquium with some of 2002's Canadian Millennium Scholarship laureates, September 27-28th, 2002. The Millennium Excellence Awards National Conference, which has the title Think Again 2002 -- Exploring New Paths, took place in Ottawa, Ontario.

Invited Talks and Readings

  • Keynote speaker at O'Reilly Publishing's Open Source Conference 2009, held in San Jose, California, July 24, 2009.  The subject:  "rewilding" the human species.

  • Keynote speaker at Toronto Public Library's Reader's Services Committee annual meeting, June 18, 2009.  Subject:  the future of publishing and writing.
  • Moderator, Green Careers panel, University of Toronto Careers Centre, January 24, 2007.
  • Keynote speaker at 2004 Defense R&D Canada Science and Technology symposium, April 21-22, 2004. The theme of the symposium was "Computers Everywhere and in Everything". My keynote speech was on Imagined Worlds.
  • Keynote speaker at the 2004 National Research Council Foresight symposium, March 21-22nd 2004, held at NRC headquarters in Ottawa. This year's topic was the future of biotech and health care in Canada.
  • I was invited to address members of the American Library Association at their annual convention. The seminar, held on June 21, 2003 was very well attended (over a hundred in the audience). A written version of my talk subsequently appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction under the title "Traitor to Both Sides".
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