The Author’s Den
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A fireplace burns, casting light into the writing den. You can see the walls are lined with books across multiple disciplines. There is a writing desk with a computer and many large computer screens. The ceiling fan wafts the smell of freshly brewed coffee. All looks peaceful, except you see me tying a final note on a squirming figure cocooned in rope. A strip of duct tape covers his mouth.
I look up at you. “Good Evening. Welcome to my writing den. Don’t worry about him. He’s just my inner critic who has been rather bad lately and needs a timeout.”
All “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” joking aside, I welcome you to this month’s edition of the Speculative Pulse. My original plan for this newsletter was to explore a sci-fi drama series I had been working on for a few months. That series is on the preverbal shelf for now.
Meanwhile, after a recent trip to Hermann, Missouri (a place my wife and I visit when we need to get out of town for a weekend), I turned my attention back to a genre I have been published in—but combining it with science fiction. You will read below about the town of Teutoburg, Missouri, which will be the primary setting for a new story universe. I hope you will join us.
I will also write about being a polymath and stoicism in our modern age.
What is a polymath? Have you ever heard the saying, “A jack of all trades, but a master of none?” My parents used that quote to try to focus my interests. It didn’t work, mind you. But I didn’t learn the full quote until only a few years ago. I doubt they ever knew it. But it explains polymathy well. The quote is, “A jack of all trades, but a master of none. Better than a master of one.” To quote Wikipedia, “A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.
“Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man, often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual.”
On another note, you may have noticed a change in my email address. Apparently, my old business email address, david@davidalanlucas.com, somehow failed to get renewed by my previous website host. (Despite having my payment details.) After more years than I want to think of, I will let it go and use my other email address, davidalanlucas@explorationbeyond.net. I know…it is quite the mouth full. However, I don’t expect to get any more weird junk mail from people trying to contact a different David Allen (not how I spell my name). Unlike others who have that spelling of Allen, I neither run a mechanical business nor am I a serial killer—at least in real life, that is.
