This from EvilMadScientist.com, maybe too old school BSG for some of you, but I thought it was AWESOME.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween!
This from EvilMadScientist.com, maybe too old school BSG for some of you, but I thought it was AWESOME.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday Cat Blogging
Sunny happy kitties…
Oh yeah!
If I weren't so comfy I'd kill something.
See, speak, and say no evil.
Evil, overflowing its basket.
Dignity and grace in all things.
What Coconut said, but with added evil.
Oh yeah!
If I weren't so comfy I'd kill something.
See, speak, and say no evil.
Evil, overflowing its basket.
Dignity and grace in all things.
What Coconut said, but with added evil.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Totally Old-School
I just did something that I'm not entirely convinced other writers do on a regular basis. I just updated my static web site.
I know, weird, right?
Now, I'm going to be REALLY weird and update my psuedonym's page!!
I know, weird, right?
Now, I'm going to be REALLY weird and update my psuedonym's page!!
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Looking for Solutions, a Future
Unlike Eleanor, I'm not in the least bit concerned that I have no interest in mainstream novels. For me, it's a matter of taste. I like carrots. I don't like tomatoes. Science fiction excites me; mainstream, not so much.
However, her thoughtful post made we consider WHY I like science fiction so much better. The conclusion I've come to is that science fiction (in general) tends to focus on solving a problem. (Unlike mainstream novels, which seem, IMHO, to wallow in them.) Even dystopian focused science fiction novels or movements, like cyberpunk, more often than not end with corrupt governments exposed, defeated, etc. The hero, like Case, might still be living in a back alley, but he will have used his powers for good... or made a valiant try.
This is why I consider THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy to be mainstream, not science fiction. The ending is bleak and the character's lives simply go from terrible to awful.
That's not science fiction to me. Science fiction is ultimately hopeful.
Of course, not all science fiction novels are deep and meaningful. Because modern science fiction came out of the pulp tradition, sometimes it's just plain fun. I can read books like THE PLUTONIUM BLONDE (John Zakour and Lawrence Ganum) and just enjoy it for what it is: a ripping good yarn.
I don't usually find the same entertainment value in reading about someone's family dysfunction.
However, her thoughtful post made we consider WHY I like science fiction so much better. The conclusion I've come to is that science fiction (in general) tends to focus on solving a problem. (Unlike mainstream novels, which seem, IMHO, to wallow in them.) Even dystopian focused science fiction novels or movements, like cyberpunk, more often than not end with corrupt governments exposed, defeated, etc. The hero, like Case, might still be living in a back alley, but he will have used his powers for good... or made a valiant try.
This is why I consider THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy to be mainstream, not science fiction. The ending is bleak and the character's lives simply go from terrible to awful.
That's not science fiction to me. Science fiction is ultimately hopeful.
Of course, not all science fiction novels are deep and meaningful. Because modern science fiction came out of the pulp tradition, sometimes it's just plain fun. I can read books like THE PLUTONIUM BLONDE (John Zakour and Lawrence Ganum) and just enjoy it for what it is: a ripping good yarn.
I don't usually find the same entertainment value in reading about someone's family dysfunction.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Science Fiction
This is long, but I had to get it out of my system. I have been posting about literary fiction over on my blog and ended by writing this.
I talk mostly about science fiction, but most of it also applies to fantasy.
*
Literary fiction clearly bugs me. Most likely because science fiction and fantasy still don't get the respect they deserve from most of the literary community. But I don't know enough about contemporary literary fiction to criticize it.
So I will talk about what I like about SF & F.
What people think is important. But I am more interested in how people act and how societies change. Technology is important, science is important, because both change our lives and how we think. NASA's Astronomy Photo of Day opens our minds, and lets us see the extraordinary beauty of the universe. It can move us -- mentally -- hundreds of thousands of lightyears. The Internet enables us to hold conversations that go around the planet. For the first time, we can find out what's happening at the level of individual experience everywhere. The New York Times ignored Occupy Wall Street at first, and has not covered it well since it began paying attention. But we have the videos of cops pepper spraying and beating demonstrators, which were taken by cell phones and put on line. We've seen what the demonstrators look like, heard what they have to say. Their signs and stories are all over the Internet.
When I was a kid in the truly strange 1950s, science fiction was the only fiction that explained the world I lived in, which might at any moment be destroyed by nuclear war. Most adults pretended the problem did not exist. Nuclear war was no worse than any other kind of war. All you needed was a fallout shelter in the back yard or a school desk to hid under. But I remember waking up terrified when a siren went off in the night. Science fiction was real. MAD magazine was real. Comic books were real. Because all knew reality was strange and scary and uncertain.
I subscribe to New Scientist and Technology Review. Science and technology are moving too fast for me to keep up; and it isn't one kind of science or technology that is moving fast. They are all going like gang busters. I figure SF is the best way to describe this astoundingly fluid world, changing from moment to moment in a hundred plus ways.
Did you know that slime molds can run mazes? And they could be used in city planning, though no one is doing this yet? They will find the most efficient way to go from A to B; you could use them to lay out a highway system. How do I know this? Some guy ran slime molds over a map of Tokyo. They laid out a highway system as well as city planners.
What do you do with a piece of information like that? I imagine using slime molds to plan cities. Someone is likely to do it. I also think of an organism that is usually single celled, but can become multicelled -- two different kinds of multicelled, if I'm remembering correctly, one a network and one a kind of hierarchy. The guys on top of the hierarchy get to reproduce. I am trying to imagine an alien society which is usually an anarchy, but can form two kinds of social organizations when needed. In a sense, Occupy Wall Street is like this: separate individuals coming together to form a network with distributed power.
I guess I will give one more example or pair of examples: Margaret Atwood's famous novel The Handmaiden's Tale and Suzette Hayden Elgin's far less well known science fiction novel Native Tongue.
I started The Handmaid's Tale, but gave up on it. Atwood established her idea: the US has turned into a religious patriarchy that enslaves women. But as far as I got into the novel, there were no more ideas, and I couldn't see why I should read a depressing book that was going to go on and on, with nothing new happening. (Many SF fans loved Atwood's book, by the way.) Elgin began with the same idea, then added her ideas about language, which are respected among linguists. (She was a linguist, teaching at the university level.) And she added aliens. I finished Native Tongue and read the sequel.
One idea is not enough in this world, where change comes from every direction, unless you are writing a short story.
I talk mostly about science fiction, but most of it also applies to fantasy.
*
Literary fiction clearly bugs me. Most likely because science fiction and fantasy still don't get the respect they deserve from most of the literary community. But I don't know enough about contemporary literary fiction to criticize it.
So I will talk about what I like about SF & F.
What people think is important. But I am more interested in how people act and how societies change. Technology is important, science is important, because both change our lives and how we think. NASA's Astronomy Photo of Day opens our minds, and lets us see the extraordinary beauty of the universe. It can move us -- mentally -- hundreds of thousands of lightyears. The Internet enables us to hold conversations that go around the planet. For the first time, we can find out what's happening at the level of individual experience everywhere. The New York Times ignored Occupy Wall Street at first, and has not covered it well since it began paying attention. But we have the videos of cops pepper spraying and beating demonstrators, which were taken by cell phones and put on line. We've seen what the demonstrators look like, heard what they have to say. Their signs and stories are all over the Internet.
When I was a kid in the truly strange 1950s, science fiction was the only fiction that explained the world I lived in, which might at any moment be destroyed by nuclear war. Most adults pretended the problem did not exist. Nuclear war was no worse than any other kind of war. All you needed was a fallout shelter in the back yard or a school desk to hid under. But I remember waking up terrified when a siren went off in the night. Science fiction was real. MAD magazine was real. Comic books were real. Because all knew reality was strange and scary and uncertain.
I subscribe to New Scientist and Technology Review. Science and technology are moving too fast for me to keep up; and it isn't one kind of science or technology that is moving fast. They are all going like gang busters. I figure SF is the best way to describe this astoundingly fluid world, changing from moment to moment in a hundred plus ways.
Did you know that slime molds can run mazes? And they could be used in city planning, though no one is doing this yet? They will find the most efficient way to go from A to B; you could use them to lay out a highway system. How do I know this? Some guy ran slime molds over a map of Tokyo. They laid out a highway system as well as city planners.
What do you do with a piece of information like that? I imagine using slime molds to plan cities. Someone is likely to do it. I also think of an organism that is usually single celled, but can become multicelled -- two different kinds of multicelled, if I'm remembering correctly, one a network and one a kind of hierarchy. The guys on top of the hierarchy get to reproduce. I am trying to imagine an alien society which is usually an anarchy, but can form two kinds of social organizations when needed. In a sense, Occupy Wall Street is like this: separate individuals coming together to form a network with distributed power.
I guess I will give one more example or pair of examples: Margaret Atwood's famous novel The Handmaiden's Tale and Suzette Hayden Elgin's far less well known science fiction novel Native Tongue.
I started The Handmaid's Tale, but gave up on it. Atwood established her idea: the US has turned into a religious patriarchy that enslaves women. But as far as I got into the novel, there were no more ideas, and I couldn't see why I should read a depressing book that was going to go on and on, with nothing new happening. (Many SF fans loved Atwood's book, by the way.) Elgin began with the same idea, then added her ideas about language, which are respected among linguists. (She was a linguist, teaching at the university level.) And she added aliens. I finished Native Tongue and read the sequel.
One idea is not enough in this world, where change comes from every direction, unless you are writing a short story.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Blogging and Facebooking
I read the Jim Hines conversation about doing stuff on the Internet. I blog and am on facebook. I have mixed opinions re blogging. I have a blog so people can find me via Google. The blog has an email address attached so people are able to write me. Sometimes this is useful. Not everyone has a copy of the SFWA Directory. I keep the blog up, because it tells anyone looking for me that I'm still alive and still able to write.
But I am not a natural blogger. I find it hard to do, and it takes a lot of time. I think the effort I put in is obvious. My style is not fluid, chatty and fun. It's like chainsaw sculpture. Okay, this guy cut a bear out of a tree trunk. Well, it's not much of a bear. Looking at it, all you see is that it was hard to do.
But the blog gives me a place to put my poetry, and it gives me a place to think out loud, and people can find me. So it's worth it. I think.
I love facebook. Unlike the blog, where I mostly speak to silence, I get immediate feedback. The length constraints -- 420 characters -- mean I am forced to write short notes, mostly about the weather and what I had for breakfast and whatever I've done lately that was fun. I love how trivial all this is.
And I post links to articles and images I like, rather than writing about them. Here, this is the NASA photo of the day. Here, this is an article in The Guardian about Occupy Everywhere.
It can eat time, but I don't feel the effort I feel when I blog.
I don't think any of this is especially useful to my writing career. Yes, it has helped John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow, but they are exceptional. I figure, do what you want, so long as you still have time to do your real writing. It makes you more visible on the Internet, and a little visibility is not going to hurt.
I feel I've written or said this before. Well, I mull a lot, and come back to the same topics. Sometimes the mulling proves useful and sometimes not.
But I am not a natural blogger. I find it hard to do, and it takes a lot of time. I think the effort I put in is obvious. My style is not fluid, chatty and fun. It's like chainsaw sculpture. Okay, this guy cut a bear out of a tree trunk. Well, it's not much of a bear. Looking at it, all you see is that it was hard to do.
But the blog gives me a place to put my poetry, and it gives me a place to think out loud, and people can find me. So it's worth it. I think.
I love facebook. Unlike the blog, where I mostly speak to silence, I get immediate feedback. The length constraints -- 420 characters -- mean I am forced to write short notes, mostly about the weather and what I had for breakfast and whatever I've done lately that was fun. I love how trivial all this is.
And I post links to articles and images I like, rather than writing about them. Here, this is the NASA photo of the day. Here, this is an article in The Guardian about Occupy Everywhere.
It can eat time, but I don't feel the effort I feel when I blog.
I don't think any of this is especially useful to my writing career. Yes, it has helped John Scalzi and Cory Doctorow, but they are exceptional. I figure, do what you want, so long as you still have time to do your real writing. It makes you more visible on the Internet, and a little visibility is not going to hurt.
I feel I've written or said this before. Well, I mull a lot, and come back to the same topics. Sometimes the mulling proves useful and sometimes not.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Buried What Now?
Sometimes my subconscious digs up buried treasure and hands it over. Sometimes what it digs up just needs to have the dirt kicked back over it.
Sunday it produced 80 percent of a 1st draft at a poem that I'm fairly happy with. The words just spilled out of my brain and straight onto the paper. Treasure!
Today it gave me "Amaranth Bloodhagen First Lordmaster of Ghu." Excuse me? Amaranth Bloodhagen? That's not a name, it's an ice cream flavor for vampires. Which is doubly silly since everyone knows vampires are lactose intolerant.
*pauses, blinks*
You know, maybe my inner humorist could do something with that. The ballad of Amaranth Bloodhagen, perhaps? But, later, when the current book is done.
Sunday it produced 80 percent of a 1st draft at a poem that I'm fairly happy with. The words just spilled out of my brain and straight onto the paper. Treasure!
Today it gave me "Amaranth Bloodhagen First Lordmaster of Ghu." Excuse me? Amaranth Bloodhagen? That's not a name, it's an ice cream flavor for vampires. Which is doubly silly since everyone knows vampires are lactose intolerant.
*pauses, blinks*
You know, maybe my inner humorist could do something with that. The ballad of Amaranth Bloodhagen, perhaps? But, later, when the current book is done.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Whoo-Hooo!
I finished my WiP last night!! Now it's off to beta readers, and then I'll put on a final polish (and, if you listen to Wyrdsmiths, entirely re-write the book in a day and a half) and then... it will be turned in! Yay! Super-yay!
It's funny, but even after all the books I've written and turned in, I follow the advice I gave myself at the beginning: celebrate every step. Thus, after typing "THE END," my partner and I opened a bottle of champagne (yes, we always keep some around,) and toasted another book written.
It's funny, but even after all the books I've written and turned in, I follow the advice I gave myself at the beginning: celebrate every step. Thus, after typing "THE END," my partner and I opened a bottle of champagne (yes, we always keep some around,) and toasted another book written.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Cool Blogs
We need more links to cool blogs discussing writing. I say this because I have trouble finding cool blogs that discuss writing. Help would be appreciated. Laura Anne Gilman is doing a series of posts on being a writer at the Book View Cafe Blog, but that's about all I know about right now.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday Cat Blogging
Turn the damn heat on, Monkey!
Evil IS my day job.
Om nom nom?
Shoot me now.
Noble Coconut is noble.
It's good to be the king.
I keel you with my mind.
Or, you could bring me another treat.
Evil IS my day job.
Om nom nom?
Shoot me now.
Noble Coconut is noble.
It's good to be the king.
I keel you with my mind.
Or, you could bring me another treat.
The Fictional 1%
Because so many superheroes actually exist in Marvel's version of New York, this was bound to happen: "Super-Rich Superheroes Respond to #OccupyWallStreet: We are the Fictional 1%."
As a long time Marvel fan, I have to say they NAILED Iron Man (please notice that he wrote over "buy Scotch and lingerie models" with "Fight Communists") and Dr. Doom. However, notably missing is Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Fantastic Four) and Warren Worthington III/Angel (X-Men).
Meanwhile, very likely WITH the 99% would be Spider-Man, who I believe HAS had to deal with Aunt May's home foreclosure/not making rent in canon.
As a long time Marvel fan, I have to say they NAILED Iron Man (please notice that he wrote over "buy Scotch and lingerie models" with "Fight Communists") and Dr. Doom. However, notably missing is Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Fantastic Four) and Warren Worthington III/Angel (X-Men).
Meanwhile, very likely WITH the 99% would be Spider-Man, who I believe HAS had to deal with Aunt May's home foreclosure/not making rent in canon.
Friday, October 07, 2011
Flyer for St. Paul Art Crawl This Weekend
I couldn't get the flyer text to load here, but it goes as follows:
THE WYRDSMITHS WRITING GROUP
Eleanor Arnason
Bill Henry
Douglas Hulick
Naomi Kritzer
Kelly McCullough
Lyda Morehouse (Tate Hallaway)
Sean Murphy
Adam Stemple
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Whatever Else We Feel Like
http://wyrdsmiths.com/
http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com/
***
Patrick found a web site that lists book signings by the Wyrdsmiths all Saturday and Sunday. I didn't tell the Art Crawl to promise that. People who want signatures will have to make do with mine; or -- if asked -- I will sign for other Wyrdsmiths.
And the lovely image is by Bill Henry for our group's new cool website.
Friday Cat Blogging
Noble Meglet is very noble!
When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you.
Duuuuude!
Mine! Mine! The blankie is all Mine!
Every side is MY good side.
Utterly delicious. I concur.
More please.
When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you.
Duuuuude!
Mine! Mine! The blankie is all Mine!
Every side is MY good side.
Utterly delicious. I concur.
More please.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Ave, Steve Jobs
I wrote my first book on a used Apple Macintosh that my friend Ted Davis gave me. Yes, a Macintosh with no modifiers, the very first of the line. I used MacWrite (II, I think). I never sold that book, but I fell in love with writing while I was doing it. I also fell in love with the Mac. It was so much simpler to use than any other computer I'd tried working on. It didn't get in my way I was able to just write and not worry about the machine I was working on.
I think I was in the middle of my second book when I upgraded to a slightly newer used Mac, this one with a hard drive. That lasted me through my third book and the beginning of my short story phase. That gave way to my first Mac laptop, a little Powerbook 140 that I bought new. Then a 145b where I wrote the short version of WebMage, my first story to sell.
I wrote WebMage the novel on my next Mac, a clamshell iBook slate. The form factor helped inspire the version of Melchior's laptop that most of my readers are familiar with. Two white iBooks followed, carrying me through the first couple of WebMage books as well as three novels that are still looking for homes.
I'm writing this on the successor to those machines, an aluminum MacBook, a tough beautiful machine that has lasted longer than any of its predecessors. It's seen me through the end of MythOS, SpellCrash, Broken Blade, Bared Blade, half of Crossed Blades, and The Eye of Horus. I also own an iPad that I use to take notes at Wyrdsmiths meetings and to read ebooks including eARCs.
My history with the Mac is my history of writing. I won't say that I wouldn't be a writer without Steve Jobs and Apple, but it would have been a lot harder and a lot less fun.
Steve Jobs, you made my life better, and you helped me bring my art into the world. Thank you!
I think I was in the middle of my second book when I upgraded to a slightly newer used Mac, this one with a hard drive. That lasted me through my third book and the beginning of my short story phase. That gave way to my first Mac laptop, a little Powerbook 140 that I bought new. Then a 145b where I wrote the short version of WebMage, my first story to sell.
I wrote WebMage the novel on my next Mac, a clamshell iBook slate. The form factor helped inspire the version of Melchior's laptop that most of my readers are familiar with. Two white iBooks followed, carrying me through the first couple of WebMage books as well as three novels that are still looking for homes.
I'm writing this on the successor to those machines, an aluminum MacBook, a tough beautiful machine that has lasted longer than any of its predecessors. It's seen me through the end of MythOS, SpellCrash, Broken Blade, Bared Blade, half of Crossed Blades, and The Eye of Horus. I also own an iPad that I use to take notes at Wyrdsmiths meetings and to read ebooks including eARCs.
My history with the Mac is my history of writing. I won't say that I wouldn't be a writer without Steve Jobs and Apple, but it would have been a lot harder and a lot less fun.
Steve Jobs, you made my life better, and you helped me bring my art into the world. Thank you!
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
On the Write Agenda and Writer Beware
Lyda's post below reminded me that I wanted to put in my two cents on this. Basically, I'm with Writer Beware, Scalzi, Hines, and the rest of the professional writing community on this one. The Write Agenda is so wrong in so many ways it's hard to catalog them all, though Writer Beware is doing an excellent job in that direction. The core issue of course is that Writer Beware does outstanding work at preventing the literary predators from making money off of gullible new writers, and this makes the literary predators unhappy, which is good.
Keeping Up on the Kerfluffles
The latest writing realated "mess": The Write Agenda vs. Writers Beware (Jim C. Hines take) and (from John Scalzi) "Writer Beward and the "The Write Agenda."
Girl Geniuses!
How Stuff Works blog has an interesting article about the Top Ten Things Women Invented.
Number 1 (and possibly a surprise to some): KEVLAR.
The least surprising? Tied, IMHO, with the chocolate chip cookies and the dishwasher.
Number 1 (and possibly a surprise to some): KEVLAR.
The least surprising? Tied, IMHO, with the chocolate chip cookies and the dishwasher.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Broken Blade preview
Heyo folks.
If you're interested in what I've been doing since SpellCrash, toddle on over to me website and read the preview chapter from the first book in my new series, Broken Blade.
If you're interested in what I've been doing since SpellCrash, toddle on over to me website and read the preview chapter from the first book in my new series, Broken Blade.
Monday, October 03, 2011
Triskaidekaphobia
I'm officially overdue on my WiP (Precinct 13, see amazing cover art below.)
And, I'm beginning to wonder at my wisdom of naming it with such an inauspicious number in the title. After all, there have been a series of unfortunate events that have lead to to this book being late. My father has been ill on and off, quite seriously, which would be trauma enough... BUT, I also had a computer crash (literally, as I dropped the computer on its hard drive) which resulted in a complete loss of everything I'd written on the book to-date.
Coincidence?
:-)
And, I'm beginning to wonder at my wisdom of naming it with such an inauspicious number in the title. After all, there have been a series of unfortunate events that have lead to to this book being late. My father has been ill on and off, quite seriously, which would be trauma enough... BUT, I also had a computer crash (literally, as I dropped the computer on its hard drive) which resulted in a complete loss of everything I'd written on the book to-date.
Coincidence?
:-)
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Me, Blogging Elsewhere
I commit guest bloggery over at The Night Bazaar today. The topic? "Duos & Ensembles"
I like to think I took it in a direction less expected. Check it out!
I like to think I took it in a direction less expected. Check it out!
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