My Name is Timothy R. Keen

This is my web page, where I will talk about the books, stories, and essays I write, and share interesting experiences like visiting museums and other attractions.

I’ve divided my musings into categories:

• Publications. This is where I list anything I’ve published. Most of my work is self-published on Amazon, but I keep hoping for the best.
• Rocks and (no) Roads. This is the major place where I post. This blog focuses on geology for non-professionals; I have several geology degrees, but this is intended for someone who is interested in the earth as a hobby. I try to keep it simple and supply links to any special topics, and there is lots of speculation.
• Reading Monkeys. This is where I post short stories I’ve written and reviews of books I’ve read. I’m not a literary critic, so my reviews are not much more than my opinion; however, I read carefully and my critiques are serious, even if sometimes short. Sometimes the short stories are rough drafts.
• Current Events. I don’t comment much about politics, instead being interested in larger trends within society/civilization. I have recently experimented with AI-assisted essays, and I am pleased with the outcomes so far.
• Dao De Jing. This was originally an analysis of the Dao De Jing, but it has expanded into a general philosophy blog. I don’t claim to post original ideas here, but only my thoughts and opinions on topics such as empirical cognition (e.g. common sense) and human cognition in general. I have found this ancient Chinese collection of poems/prose to be inspirational, but I’m afraid I don’t think about it much recently…
• Local Sights. This is a new addition, which is intended to replace a lot of reports on museums and other local attractions that I used to post on Facebook. I wish it were possible (i.e. easier done than said) to transfer a lot of material from Facebook, but that isn’t going to happen.

I’m also on Facebook, but that is mostly a mirror of this web page.

About me.

I haven’t always been a writer. I can’t claim to be a good one either, although I am improving constantly. I hope my books are imaginative and fun to read. I started writing after I retired from the Naval Research Laboratory, where I conducted oceanographic research for twenty years. My writing career began when I finally had time to think about something other than my research and raising my two children, who have both finished their educations and begun their careers.

Writing fiction for me began with my pet peeve about aliens visiting earth and doing all kinds of things, like creating humans, flying around for no apparent purpose other than mutilating cattle and sexually assaulting people, etc. I was going to write a short story with a much simpler narrative for unexplained phenomena which, as a scientist, I accept as real in a universe we are only beginning to understand. There is just so much superstition, misinformation, and downright lying associated with anything that will get attention. We don’t have to invoke gods and aliens to explain the unknown; however, in my science fiction I am more than willing to invoke metaphysical explanations. It is science fiction, after all, but I’m not mislabeling it as fact.

I’m also interested in conspiracies, although I am very skeptical of complex explanations of events that are easily understood as a calamity of errors. I’ve written about one conspiracy I think is very reasonable.

I guess you could say that I don’t have a favorite genre to write about; however, I can’t write poetry and I cannot imagine writing literary fiction because I simply don’t have the vocabulary. We’re all safe from that calamity.