23 November AD 2009

Longswords flicker in the harsh neon light.

Four swords describe a Schielhau, their reverse edges swishing across the church hall like the prows of Viking longships---

( Read more... )

Together, the nine of us dance the dance of swords. The rhythm ruptures the foundations of our Modernity, opening a crack all the way down to where the storm of steel still churns the ever-living past. A tendril of that maelstrom snakes up through the five-hundred-year-fissure, and for an hour or so a chilling breeze from the Middle Ages reminds us that we are alive.

• 22:42 @spacemerlin LOL! I am, sadly, familiar with that situation... #
• 22:44 @ladyozma NO tie. The need for a tie as a component of "professional physicianly dress" is a social construct that needs to die. #
• 00:04 Cmar-bloggery: beards, beer, and SCIENCE, or #HoNoToGroABeMo Day 24 - bit.ly/86VAHG #

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• 18:43 The Muppets do Bohemian Rhapsody www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY #
• 20:17 Oh sweetheart, say you love me, and crawl underneath my rug. You're one in a thousand billion, baby. Oh, won't you be my bug? #
• 20:32 @formerfatboys Actually I said "thousand billion" which is a trillion. Just wondering if anyone can figure out what song/film I was quoting. #
• 22:53 I always thought the word "prerogative" was spelled "perrogative". Now I have to go relabel my old mix tapes from 1989. #

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So.

Lola's been in some weird Exchange-sex scene, and Perry got attacked but she dealt with it like her training taught her to do, and now I'm on chapter 9 where my brain surprised me by putting Gavin in again to say hi to Perry. (she gets the odd-numbered chapters, Lola gets the even ones) And a new character appeared -- well two new ones: Fossil, the would-be attacker, got too much _Streptococcus_ in him, and Marguerite, who's a Neo of last year's colony. And she's kind of uber-exuberant, because she's a LAMB (lactobacillus all the way)... But really all I consciously know about this chapter is that Perry's going to have her first experience in a Bac bar, and her first Exchange (her first voluntary one).

LOL, ebenstone, I think I'm getting worse than you about teasing...

Ended up with 32,741 words.

Ideas:

sigh, nada

But I'm creeping along, step by step.

• @Televixen – I feel the same way, though maybe not for the same reasons… in reply to Televixen 02:26:00
• Fans of THE BIG BANG THEORY may notice some scientists with familiar names in my new novel STAR TREK VANGUARD: PRECIPICE… 02:27:09

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

I give you stats for the dirigible/pony-express story with zombies, the Goodnight-Loving trail, and a 19-year-old Union veteran who’s stuck with a mechanical foot.

Project: “Reluctance”
New Words Written: 2885 (uh oh)
Present Total Word Count: 7525 words
Goal: 5000 words by November 29





Details: Aw, crap. Way too long. Will shelve it for now, and try to fix it next week.
[:: headdesk ::]

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

• @ecmyers – I thought there *was* a band. Guess I had enough to drink, after all. ;-) in reply to ecmyers 07:17:43
• RT @GlennHauman – Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe: A career in telly – http://ow.ly/Fg7w (VIDEO) – It hurts because it's true. 12:58:51
• @LucienneDiver – Thanks, Lucienne! in reply to LucienneDiver 15:57:54
• Today's helpful hint: Velveteen and Velveeta are =not= the same thing. Just FYI. 17:40:40
• Thought for the evening: Hell hath no fury like a geek proved wrong on a message board. 19:46:18
• http://bit.ly/8hQlSK Huffpost – "Charities Running Out of Turkeys" … then the poor remember that Congress is full of 'em. 19:50:30

Mirrored from davidmack.pro/blog.

Snowman’s Chance: Time to announce a new story, I think.  This one’s slated for the upcoming anthol.. http://tinyurl.com/yk6ha9t

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 08:02 My 3-year old has finally discovered all the fun to be had by throwing random items into the toilet and giving them a swirly. #
• 08:37 Every KC newscast starts with rpts about shootings & whatnot, but they're shocked that KC is listed as a dangerous place to live. Hello? #
• 09:11 Well, the new ramp meters on the I-435 corridor in south KC worked about as well as I expected them to..... #
• 09:21 @DanaKCTV5 I avoided them & stayed on the highway but I could see they weren't working right. Backups on the ramps vs. decent traffic flow. #
• 09:22 "It's a Saturnalia miracle!" RT @jvancitters Great news everybody! McRib is back! It really IS the season of miracles! #
• 09:26 Dear City of Kansas City: Why is it that the only thing you're able to do with any consistency is jack taxes from my paycheck? #
• 09:35 C'mon, @Rhiannon_Ally & @DanaKCTV5: How can a list like this not have Perez Hilton on it??? tr.im/FFIl #
• 09:59 QFT! RT @kmellon Seems like every year there are tweet arguments as to the best Xmas film. Sorry kids, Die Hard will win every time. #
• 13:30 I may have to give this a try... RT @ jcsimonds RT @todayspolitics: The Write Like Palin Contest #politics bit.ly/8ahtOG #
• 15:55 @TrekMovie Re: Shatner scene - I'm torn. Love the Shat, but I think someone said it best: The new crew earned their right to close the film. #
• 15:59 @angelajames Not funeral potatoes? #
• 17:09 Because I was just thinking, "What's the most obnoxious Xmas present I can buy this year?" www.tweetbookz.com/ #
• 17:31 @TrekMovie Re: Trekkie vs. Trekkier - Call me an unabashed Trekkie :) #
• 19:39 @TrekMovie Re: Trekkie vs. Trekker - Trekkers are Trekkies who care what other people think. :) #
• 19:50 RT @geekgirls: GGN is holding a Thanksgiving Haiku Contest! And @ThinkGeek is graciously donating a $50 gift cert tinyurl.com/yb77ru9 #
• 19:53 She's prepping for #boobiewed! RT @geekgirldiva Pic of the Bella Twilight Doll on the shelf, in the box. Topless. pic.gd/3c96a1 #

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Thanksgiving to-do list.

Wednesday:

bake apple pies
set bread to rise
cranberry sauce
prep dressing
prep pumpkin

Thursday:

assemble relish tray
bake bread
roast garlic
roast turkey
bake stuffing
bake pumpkins
bake yams
boil potatoes for mashing
mash
make gravy
peas and onions
mull wine

Jason Sizemore has reported in that the selections for the anthology he is editing have now been made. The anthology is titled Dark Future: Tales of SF Dystopia.

I will release the complete Table of Contents shortly. Authors have already been notified so some of them are announcing it in their blogs.

1501 words today, for infinite virtupitude. That brings me to a total of 23,005 words, or 118 pages, which is a significant chunk of a book. It feels like we're well and truly embarked upon this journey, and the characters are starting to shake into their voices and roles.

Slowly, the structure comes together.

There's still entirely too much people sitting around and discussing philosophy when they should be blowing up planets, but that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

118 / 400 pages. 30% done!

Our sister site, NebulaAwards.com has an essay by Larry Nolan on “International SF” and Problems of Identity

We live in a world that increasingly is not defined by national borders.  Depending on where one goes, one can hear “Me encanta,” “Ich liebe es,” or “Love ko ‘to” whenever a McDonald’s jingo plays on the radio or television.  Levi’s, the quintessential American blue jeans, are not made in the United States anymore, but in factories across the globe.  Watch many of the “Adult Swim” shows on the Cartoon Network in the US and one is bound to find Japanese anime-influenced animation.  In some ways, the “global village” espoused by Hillary Clinton and others over the past two decades has come to fruition.

But what about Science Fiction?  Why is there such a buzz happening now, over two decades after many other pop cultural trends, for “international” SF?  What has taken so long for a literary/cultural mode to catch up?  These questions may be nigh impossible to address adequately in a short article, but they do bear some consideration, especially as we move toward potential conflicts within and outside the various “international” groups of SF writers and fans.

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

"Successful teams have their best players playing because they can play."

Christmas puddings mixed and steaming on the stove top, Christmas lights up outside (but not operating quite right yet), Thanksgiving goodies assembled to take to family gathering, suitcase ready to be packed for LosCon over the weekend --

Yes, it's beginning to look a lot like the holidays are approaching.

Pitchers and catchers report Feb. 18, 2010!!!! Only 85 days away!!!!

by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

…heeeeere’s Tweetbookz!

Tweetbookz will turn your tweets–those 140-character electronic messages about what you had for breakfast this morning or maybe something more interesting or important, but either way, quickly written and just as quickly forgotten–into Real Paper Books. That’s right. Your evanescent 140-character pearls of prose (or not) can be enshrined for the ages in softcover or hardcover.

You can include up to 200 tweets (though you can’t add new ones or alter old ones to make yourself look smarter or more witty), and choose from four different designs. The cost: nothing upfront. But if you want to buy the books–as gifts, maybe, ’cause, yanno, all your friends who are already following you would love to have a permanent version of the tweets they missed because they were tweeting too, and maybe an actual physical book o’ tweets might convince your parents or your spouse that “twittering” isn’t a waste of time (oh wait, maybe not)–it’s $30 for the hardcover and $20 for the softcover.

Curiously, you cannot buy others’ tweetbookz. But you can buy gift certificates, to encourage your friends to create their own.

Really. I mean, really. Does anyone need this silly service (apart from its founders, who hope to make money from it, and no doubt will)? Could vanity publishing get any more vain? On the other hand, I do find it kind of interesting, in that we’re daily bombarded by paeans to the brave new digital world–yet here it is, defaulting back to print.

Please, if anyone is thinking of gifting me with their tweetbook(z), or with a gift certificate for one of my own…don’t. Just…don’t.

Because of the lack of reader eyeballs over the holidays, I won’t be blogging again till next week. Happy holidays, everyone, and safe travels!

Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/literary_luminaries_sign_sarah_palin_book_for_charity_144175.asp?c=rss

At the 2009 National Book Awards, Gawker cornered some of the literary world's brightest writers, having them sign a copy of Sarah Palin's memoir, "Going Rogue." Now they are auctioning the book on eBay for charity.

Signatures now include NBA Fiction winner Colum McCann, actor and Columbia MFA graduate James Franco, and author and publishing figure Sloane Crosley. On a semi-related auction note, the handwritten Bible we so carefully covered sold for over $15,400.

Here's more about the auction: "All proceeds from the auction will go to Save The Children. They've done great work bringing literacy programs to kids in need across the country, among other great things they've done for kids that otherwise don't get things done for them that should be."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Also, you will pry my pen from my cold, dead fingers.

But I can't....not yet....let's just say I have something very big to be excited about.

I such a jerk.

I'll have a normal post up later tonight.

Author Kevin Killiany pointed this out, an article on the American HUmanist Association’s new Christmas ad campaign.

What sort of ads? Their press release says this:

“No God?…No Problem!” proclaim the ads, featuring an image of several smiling, Santa hat-clad individuals. The ads will kick off in Washington, D.C. in time for Thanksgiving weekend, running inside 200 buses, fifty rail cars and on the side or tail of twenty buses. The campaign will continue with ads appearing on select buses in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco starting in early December.

And they have a website devoted to their ad campaign, too.

Frankly, I think this is kinda cool.

There’s more to being good than being godly. Christmas is a lot more than a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ; many of the things we take for granted with Christmas — like Santa Claus, like the tree and presents and misteltoe — are accretions from pagan religions. Eating roast beef for Christmas owes more to Mithras than it does to Christ.

There’s no reason that atheists and the irreligious can’t celebrate Christmas. Hell, I’m probably going to work on getting my Christmas cards ready this weekend.

And yes, I said Christmas cards.

I never have a problem with wishing someone a Merry Christmas.

True story. About five years ago, at EB Games, on a weekly conference call, my district manager brought up that he was going into stores, and the employees were wishing people a “Happy Holidays.”

One of my fellow managers said, “But, they’re trying to be inclusive. We don’t want to offend anyone.” And then, he said, “What does Allyn think? He’s an atheist.”

To which I said, “I wish people ‘Merry Christmas’ all the time. None of this ‘Happy Holidays’ stuff.”

The reason was simple. “Merry Christmas” really isn’t offensive, precisely because Christmas has become the secular, commercial holiday that it is. If someone takes offense to being told “Merry Christmas,” they’re probably looking for any reason to be offended.

Or you could be like a friend of mine, and wish everyone a Happy Chrismahannukwanzukah. No, that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue naturally, but once you’ve practiced it a few times, it comes out pretty well.

I really like Christmas. I love listening to Christmas music; I’ll listen to it year-round. Why, just today, I was listening to Tori Amos’ Midwinter Graces and Enya’s When Winter Comes. And I’ll probably listen to the Fab Four’s two Christmas albums in the days to come, and Jethro Tull’s Christmas album, and Christmas Inspired by Lord of the Rings, and dozens more. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas if you’re an atheist. Hell, Richard Dawkins does, too.

Originally posted at allyngibson.net. Cross-posted to LiveJournal.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/awards/recession_advice_from_nba_finalists_144156.asp?c=rss

At last week's glitzy National Book Awards (NBA) ceremony, the recession seemed far away. These celebrations create the illusion that some authors are beyond the everyday struggles of regular writers.

GalleyCat kept the bad economy front-and-center on the red carpet, quizzing the award-winning authors on their survival tips for aspiring writers. In this two-minute video, we collected the best advice from these NBA finalists: Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of "American Salvage;" YA finalist Rita Williams-Garcia, author of "Jumped;" fiction finalist Marcel Theroux, author of "Far North;" YA finalist Laini Taylor, author of "Lips Touch: Three Times;" poetry finalist Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, author of "Open Interval;" and nonfiction finalist Sean B. Carroll, author of "Remarkable Creatures."

For more NBA coverage, check out our exclusive videos. We interviewed NBA fiction winner Colum McCann about New York City and grace. We also interviewed NBA nonfiction winner T. J. Stiles about his own struggles as a writer this year. Finally, we quizzed the nominees on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight Saga.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/contests/new_york_magazines_political_fictions_contest_144162.asp?c=rss

Sick of political memoirs yet? Get revenge at New York magazine with the Political Fictions Contest.

Between now and Dec. 7, the magazine is accepting short stories, movie treatments, or mini one-act plays about real life political figures--Washington DC fan fiction. The contest will help promote the new issue's short political fictions by writers like Mary Gaitskill and Paul Rudnick. The best stories will be featured on the website. Judges will pick three winners for prizes.

Here's a list of the fabulous prizes: The first-place winner will receive a one-night stay at Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel, site of Client No. 9's infamous dalliance with Ashley Dupre. Second place: dinner for two at Blue Hill, Barack and Michelle Obama's date-night destination in May. And third place: a copy of Going Rogue, by Sarah Palin--plus a one-month membership to Playgirl.com, of course."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Back in September, I posted a link to a story about a Census worker in Kentucky who was found hanged with the word "FED" scrawled on his chest.

Well, after an investigation, it turns out that the guy apparently hanged himself.

This is why you don't jump to conclusions. Yeesh.

Thanks to liamstliam for the link.

Snurched without guilt or remorse from torenheksje:

CollegeHumor.com: "5 Star Wars Status Updates"



Among my favorites:

Obi-Wan Kenobi: She's your sister, bro.

Luke Skywalker: wut.

Han Solo: I AM SO IN.

The Buzzard read it and *instantly* picked out the one original paragraph I retained.

It was THAT BAD.

1. Even though I have the overall arcs planned, it still gives me plenty of new things to squeak over. *bounce!* Characters! You are too cute! (Your angst is delicious to me.)

2. Lines like, "That was the first time a dragon had killed him."

3.


Wait, that's a ferret! Oh well. Close enough. (Imaginary post: How stories are like ferrets.)

So...I started this job a little over 20 months ago.

Almost precisely 10 months later, my previous employer had massive layoffs. I don't know if I would have been chopped, but I don't feel confident that I wouldn't have been on the block. My old department didn't lay anyone off, but that's because they were not allowed to hire anyone during those ten months, and were 5 people under their supposed "normal" staffing level when the cuts happened. At the very least, I'm sure I would have been restructured into a position I would not have enjoyed.

Rollback:
Four or five months before I got this job, I had interviewed with Bloomberg Press, and they had, to put it mildly, loved me. No job was forthcoming, because their love of me was unfortunately offset by the fact that someone else had been offered the job six months earlier, then locked out by a hiring freeze. I was their backup in case the original guy didn't take the job.

Well, just saw in PubLunch that Bloomberg Press is closing. They'll be trying to incorporate the staff into other positions (they were very nice people, so I'm glad for them in that regard), but still. I'm blinking at my random luck of wonky timing.

My current place seems stable. Of course, anything can happen (::knocks on virtual wood::), but right now I feel phenomenally lucky. I love my job, and I'm glad I came here when I did.

Last night I attended the annual SFWA Reception (aka the Mill n' Swill) in NYC. I kicked off the evening by grabbing dinner with the geek posse. Tried Indonesian food for first time (thumbs up!)

In the previous years I've attended this shindig, the Mill n' Swill has been held at Society of Illustrators Museum. This year, the venue changed locations, to Planet Hollywood, in Times Square. I wasn't sure what to make of this change (especially since it plunked us down in the middle of "Tourist Central"), but I have to say that major props should be given to SFWA on this front. There was more space to move around, and while I didn't eat any of the appetizers (stuffed from dinner), the spread looked a lot nicer than it has in previous years. The staff was very nice and helpful too, and while it was still hot inside (very crowded), I don't think it was nearly as hot as previous years. I find myself hoping the reception will be held here next year.

As to the reception itself, it's a lot like a mini-con. In particular, it's almost like going to the Meet the Pros party at WFC, but it's a little more diversified, because there are a lot more agents, publishers, art directors, etc. Saw a lot of familiar faces, met a number of people for the first time, and I passed out a bunch of complimentary copies of the latest issue of RoF (February 2010--on newsstands soon!)

I also had the rather novel experience of attending a con-like atmosphere for the first time since I was named Editor at RoF. It's amazing what a little old title like Editor will do. All of the sudden I was being approached by people I didn't know, talking to me as if we did know each other. I got used to it soon enough, but it caught me unawares early on. Regardless, I'd like to give another round of thanks to all the folks who congratulated me last night, or congratulated me again in person. Yes, this community has its blow-ups (and yes, I've been involved in them a time or two), but overall we're a good bunch of people who tend to root each other on.

I had a good time as always, and to finish, I will share my highlight of the evening. I was chatting with Irene Gallo, the Art Director at Tor Books (not to mention, Forge, Starscape, and Tor.com). When I first received the promotion to Art Director at RoF, Irene was one of the first people I emailed, asking if she had any advice. As you might expect, she passed along some of her awesome wisdom. Anyway, I had seen her once since then, but I only spoke to her for a couple of minutes. So when I saw her this time, I made it a point to say hi and talk with her a little more at length. So while we were chatting, she mentioned that she hadn't seen the December 2009 issue yet. As luck would have it, I had one issue left in my bag, of that particular issue. So I passed it along to her. So she flipped through it while we were talking, checking out the art, talking about it with me. And then she told me, "Good job."

Honestly? If I had a tail it would have been wagging. As I confessed to Irene, it's a lot harder for me to be an art director than it is an editor (of fiction or nonfiction). Yes, you tweak the nonfiction from time to time, maybe adding a new column or replacing a columnist, or maybe you have an idea for a themed issue. And yes, other little things pop up along the way. But the way RoF is structured, so long as I stay on top of the deadlines, the nonfiction tends to run itself. RoF tends to use the same columnists each issue, and most of them have been with the magazine for years. They know what they're doing. As to the fiction, heck, I've been reading fantasy since age 11. I've studied under a number of editors. I've been handling the assistant editor duties at RoF for almost five years. I know what I like when it comes to fantasy fiction, so slushing is second nature to me. And I love rolling up my sleeves and working with authors on rewrites when necessary.

Fantasy art? I know what I like too. But it's a different animal entirely. There's a lot more to learn (for me), and no matter how detailed of a sketch you might see, you'll never know for certain if the art will be awesome until the final product is turned in. There's a lot more uncertainty. It's just the nature of the beast. With short fiction, boom. You like it or you don't. Or maybe you like it, but not quite enough, or it's not quite right for your venue. Maybe it needs some revisions, maybe not. But if you reject the story, there's a more suitable one waiting in those piles somewhere (there always is). But if the final art to a story should prove to be no good ...well, it's back to square one. In this respect, it can be a lot more stressful. So to have someone like Irene tell me "Good job" really made my night. Thanks, Irene.