Author: Joe Vasicek

Joe Vasicek is the author of more than twenty science fiction books, including the Star Wanderers and Sons of the Starfarers series. As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus. He claims Utah as his home.

Running the gauntlet

In the past five days, I have written somewhere on the order of 10,000 words. None of them has been fiction (at least, not explicitly–more BS, if anything). One monster history term paper, one middling poli sci essay, and two exams requiring 2,000 and 1,000 word essays. Blegh. Like pulling teeth. The upside is, it’s… Continue reading Running the gauntlet

Brief intermission

The last two weeks have been crazy.  And it’s not over.  Papers, finals, projects–it’s all coming due right now.  That’s why my writing (and blogging) has been sparse. Fortunately, after Friday, almost all of my work is behind me.  Just two more days…

Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh

“The stars, like all man’s other ventures, were an obvious impracticality, as rash and improbable an ambition as the first venture of man onto Earth’s own great oceans, or into the air, or into space.” Thus begins Downbelow Station, an epic tale of man’s future beyond Earth. The outer colonies of Earth have rebelled and… Continue reading Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh

The end of an era

Today was my last writing meeting as Quark writing vp. :'( It’s been a good run, two years as leader of the Quark Writing Group at BYU. I remember how it was when I started–I was still just a hobby writer, with a nebulous interest in getting published someday but without any real goals or… Continue reading The end of an era

Genesis Earth 1.0 word cloud

Hey, check this out! I used this site to create a word cloud for the rough draft of my novel, Genesis Earth. I did the same thing a while back for my other novel. Pretty interesting.

Semester endgame

Seven days!  Seven days! And then the semester is over!  Hallelujah! Unfortunately, in the course of those seven days, I’ve got three major papers to write. It’s going to suck. But then it’s over! Thank goodness.  This semester has been pretty crazy–not in terms of work, but in terms of motivation.  A lot of the… Continue reading Semester endgame

Some thoughts

This is going to be real quick, since it’s 1:30 am and General Conference is tomorrow.   The revision is going along really well for Genesis Earth–I am really excited about this project.  My only regret is that I don’t have more time to dedicate to it.  As it is, I’m probably putting too much time… Continue reading Some thoughts

This sucks and I’m a horrible writer

It’s getting really, really hard for me not to believe that statement, especially as I finish up with the middle part of this novel.  I’m starting to realize that I made a whole bunch of mistakes pages and pages ago, and that the climaxes just aren’t working without everything set up right. I know, cognitively,… Continue reading This sucks and I’m a horrible writer

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Welcome to Mars, a magical world of ancient ruins like giant glass chess sets and canals of wine and sandy desert seas. A world inhabited by golden eyed people who can telepathically project hallucinations–some of them still live up in the hills. A desolate, empty world, the next frontier for a new generation of pioneering… Continue reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury