Science Fiction in Canada's Oldest Observatory

Canada's coolest English prof gave me a tour of the coooooooolest setting for a workshiop in scifi and cyberpunk yesterday. It's the Byrdone Jack Observatory on the UNB campus ... the oldest observatory on the planet ... within the geographic bounds of what is commonly referred to as Canada ... which is a place where everybody smiles because of Medicare. Just step into Maine, walk North ... you can't miss it. Beavers will greet you at the border. They'll be smiling.

So ... the Observatory was built in 1851 and is currently the flagship project in Canada's take-over-space-before-the-Leaf's-win-the-Stanley-Cup Program. It's a long-term thing. Some might call it a very long term thing. But the program is currently on sabbatical somewhere South of some border or other and they're letting me use the building to subject my scifi and cyberpunk (and maybe we'll even throw in a little urban fantasy ... and maybe some other stuff) writers to all manner of cruel devices to get them on the road to publication.

Unfortunately, they won't let me bring in my oriental weapons collection, but I have other ways. I have a gay cat,Pico. He hates my guts and tries to kill me each night by stuffing wads of paper into my ears. I've learned terrible things from him. Terrible literary things guaranteed to grab onto the inner writer and squeeze it into something people can read.

Here's what it looks like from the outside until I can get a better picture ... or remember to, like, take a picture of the outside of the place where I'll be subjecting innocents to all manner of unnatural cause and effect.

Here's a history of the Observatory. Click on the pic to read it.

This is what a picture of the universe looked like before you were born. You'll get to see more of these in the workshop. I may even ask you to make sense of them ... and then write about them in very speculative fashion.

And now, for some reason, Blogger won't let me upload anymore photos, so I'll get back ... hmm ... maybe tomorrow.