The Land Of Wind And Ghosts

I got in my flash at Liberty Hall! It's great to be doing that again, and I'm glad for the accomplishment. I know the story itself is bobbling all over, but at least it's not super lame. Okay, it's a little lame, but not super lame. Or at least I don't think so. I'm sill on that rush you get as you're going right down to the wire. I think I got it in with about two minutes to spare, something horrible like that. I seriously don't want to read it, as gosh knows how many goofs there are.

If you've never tried a LH flash, you have seriously got to give this a go! It's wicked fun, really.

Don't forget, we're going to flash together on the first, must try! Be there or be some odd shape *g*

I wish we could hire some of this work done on the house. I've gotten some things done, but there's so much! It's really a bit scary, to think of everything there is to do. My hands are bad, I don't think B really appreciates that I simply cannot paint all of the trimboard and score all of the wallpaper in one day. Things that take him 30 minutes to do takes me a few hours. Isn't that sad? I feel like he thinks I'm letting him down.

Anyway, it was great to flash, and I hope that you do, too! The more the merrier, you know.

3) Why I am not a Christian, and other essays on religion and related subjects, by Bertrand Russell

Although I knew from the title that I probably wouldn't agree with a lot of this, I found it a very enjoyable read. It includes essays of varying lengths (the shortest is less than two pages, the longest 27), on the existence of God and ethical questions in general. On the more general questions, Russell is definitely a liberal, opposed to forced conformity and social hypocrisy, and his views are pretty close to mine. I particularly enjoyed a couple of historical pieces - a review of two books on medieval history and a sketch of the life of Thomas Paine.

On the existence of God, the most interesting of several pieces is a transcript of a radio debate between Russell and a Jesuit, where Russell clearly wins the argument about logical proofs, doesn't make as convincing a case on ethics, and has no answer to the question of religious experience. (The Jesuit misses a chance to push Russell on what I have always seen as the weakest point of his side of the argument, that science and logic are not in fact able to explain the whole of human experience; and the anti-God response tends to be to pretend that things which don't fall into the domain of science and logic don't need to be explained, which is then a tautology.)

I still prefer Russell's approach to that of, say, Richard Dawkins, because Russell seems to me to have a better grip of the problem: he quite rightly attacks dogmatic beliefs, be they Christian or Communist, held tyrannously by anyone, and advocates free thinking and debate; and one of his arguments against religion, in particular Christianity, is that it usually fosters and leads to this sort of tyranny. My own view is that it is a categorical error to blame this pattern of human behaviour, which is found and has been found among rulers of all religious backgrounds and of none, on religion per se. (There are also plenty of examples of states with a strong religious consciousness which none the less practice or practiced pluralism, but Russell discounts them as not being religious enough, which by his lights they aren't.)

The book finishes with a long (40 pages) description by the editor, Paul Edwards, of an incident where Russell was barred from taking up a professorship at the City College of New York as a result of an outrageous court judgement, combined with political machinations by (ultimately) Mayor LaGuardia. It is a depressing story, and illustrates that the American system is not always all that it is cracked up to be; but this is perhaps less newsworthy in 2008 than it was in 1940.

Friday we had our first exercise and workshop tip day. It was quite interesting actually and began with about 30 minutes of lecture and then we read our new first paragraphs and people talked about them. I think everyone got useful tips from the process since it was handled more casually and with one of the beer stories there was quite a lot of laughter actually (we actually got Jim laughing too) so that added to the fun.

Then we celebrated mckitterick's birthday which I think actually did surprise him. He already had plans for dinner with one of the instructors so our little impromptu party made him blush.

  We HAZ cake!
  Disembowling the toys...
  Chris displaying his GIFT - we decided he had identified Sadaam Hussein's weapon of mass destruction at last...a swiss army knife...

much fun and cake were had by all...

Oh yeah, those promised tips...
- Put your character in a recognizable place
- Use at least 3 sensory impressions in a scene
- Do not write against a blue screen (empty background)
- Don't float people in space
- Think about your verbs and use unusual nouns
- Static quality has active impact
- Science Fiction is the literature in which the metaphor can be read literally
- "then" signals a lack of linear development
- Draw info from action not narrative or info insertions (authorial intrusion)
- Be relevant
  -  Have an interesting idea
  -  Progress dramatically
  -  Add dimension
  -  Move your characters through metaphor, symbol and cultural references
- Make your world feel complete (this separates the mechanically okay versus the really complete)
- It is important what you know and leave out
- Get the words right!

4-day "No to this, but I look forward to seeing more from you" from Fantasy.

I will reading from Shimmers & Shadows today at CONvergence, on the 22nd floor of the hotel in the Literary Lounge. We are treating this as the book release party, and will have donuts and soft drinks, along with copies of the book for sale.

The convention programming guide gives the time as 11:00 am, but THAT IS WRONG! At 11:00am I will be at careswen's Living with a Writer panel. I am reading at 2:00 pm. I hope to see some friendly faces!

One of the primary reasons I moved back to the town I grew up in is that we do a wicked cool Independence Day Celebration - and the best part, of course, involves blowing things up.

The annual tradition (going back eight decades or so, with a hiccup in the early years, but steady since the 50's) is called the Firing of the Anvil.

Around 4 am, the town's elder statesmen get together at the old church (which is now the Coppervale Studio) and set an anvil in the middle of the crossroads. On top of that, a black powder charge. On top of that, another anvil, upside down. Then they light the powder with a flame on a ten-foot pole.

It goes off like a cannon, and throws the top anvil about five feet up. Then, the local Jennings Band (named for the old drum they still use, which Renz Jennings brought across the plains in 1878) start playing patriotic music while on a flatbed trailer. By 5, the whole town is awake and lining up behind the firetruck with the anvil and the flatbed, and we follow it around in a train (stopping three more places to light the anvil at each one ten more times per stop) until the whole town is awake and honking horns.

Then the usual stuff: rodeos, barbecues, fireworks. But the anvil is pretty much Our Thing. And lots of people come home just to get up and follow it around.

That's the other cool thing about coming from a small town: a guy can call out your name, and you know right away it's a friend you had at age six, whom you haven't seen in decades - but the shared memory is stronger than distance or time.

Boom. Happy Independence Week.

Thanks to D.T. Friedman for spotting this.

Comments? -- Link

Yes, husband and I managed to escape sans children yet again, this time to see Hancock on our ownsome. Hey, is it MY fault there happens to be so many grownup movies I want to see when I happen to have a built in babysitter? :) We both thoroughly enjoyed the movie, although it was in no way what I expected - I think that made it even better. I LOVE that the trailer material I've seen has had zilch in the way of spoilers, which made it all the more cool. My twist radar must be down, cos I couldn't pick it at all!

Highly recommended, especially with a burly bloke to keep you warm and snuggly beside you (or, for my male flisters not of that particular persuasion, insert appropriate female figure there) :)

Laptops stolen from Claron West Students — Ouch.

Legendary Swords’ Sharpness, Strength From Nanotubes, Study Says — The relationship between Damascus swords and carbon nanotubes. The things you learn doing story research…

APOD with a cool image of a comet between fireworks and lightning — You need to scroll to the right to get the full effect.

The Wall Street Journal promotes the offensive hagiographication of Jesse Helms — Shorter version: Without Helms, liberals would be nothing, so never mind the bigotry. Meanwhile, C.E.P. is cranky about it, too.

7/5/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (still recovering from surgery)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: n/a

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

9-day nice reject from Fantasy

"Maiden aunts are invariably nice, especially, of course, when they are rich; ministers of religion are nice, except those rare cases in which they elope to South Africa with a member of the choir after pretending to commit suicide."

(Answer.)

2) Collected Short Stories, by E.M. Forster

I'm ashamed to say that the only one of Forster's novels I have actually read is The Longest Journey, though I have seen film versions of A Passage to India, A Room With A View and Howard's End, which all came out at a time in my life when I saw more films than I do now. I knew that one of these stories is "The Machine Stops", a riposte to H.G. Wells' visions of a mechanised future, but I expected the rest to be vignettes in Forster's distinctive but generally naturalistic aesthetic style. I was therefore surprised to find that of the twelve stories, ten can be classified as fantasy (and "The Machine Stops" as science fiction) with only the last one, "The Eternal Moment" having no overtly unrealistic elements. And they are interesting stories, too, sometimes giving a wicked spin to traditional concepts of death and the afterlife, sometimes just being wicked. I hadn't really considered Forster as a genre writer before, so it was quite a revelation.

One trick he does rather well is the unreliable narrator - a couple of his viewpoint characters are overconfident men who reveal enough of themselves that the reader can be sure that the writer does not sympathise with them. I hope this isn't flogging a dead horse, but ninebelow reminded me a couple of days ago of why I have found other uses of the "unreliable narrator" so unsatisfactory, if there is no discernible hint that (to adapt Achebe's phrase about Conrad) the character enjoys anything less than the author's complete confidence. Forster can drop those hints entirely discernibly without damaging the integrity (or readability) of his narrative; one of the things that makes him a great writer.

This sucks:
http://albionidaho.livejournal.com/85598.html

Some moron broke into a dorm of Clarionites and stole a number of things, including four laptops. Of course, right now the laptops are very important to them, so if you can do anything to help, don't hesitate.

from albionidaho
This morning someone came into the Clarion West house where we're staying and stole four laptops, some bags, clothing, and possibly other items.

Of course, these are our lives, especially right now.

We are all okay, and the house is secure, even more so now, but I was like to ask the SFF community for help.

Those who lost their laptops will not be able to replace these without detriment to their financial situation. These are essential for our writing, particularly over the next four weeks.

If you would like to help donate laptops or funds to those students who had their laptops stolen, please contact Leslie or Neile at infoATclarionwestDOTorg. More donation information may be forthcoming.

Thank you.


Please feel free to repost this and to link to this.

<***>

Just in case anyone sees them:

One black Dell Inspiron 1520.
One Silver colored Sager with a 17" screen.

EDIT: Clarion West is asking for help for these four students. If you have (or know of anybody who has) a spare laptop that could be permanently donated to one of them as a replacement, please email one of the administrators at info @ clarionwest . org (remove spaces). Or, if you're able to donate something towards the cost of replacements, no matter how large or small, you can donate directly through this page, making sure to mark your donation "for Computer Replacement." All donations are tax-deductible.
http://www.clarionwest.org/donate

The day's tweets. Because you don't get enough of my minutiae already.

• 10:20 Day off, slept in, baby's napping, drinking a cup of estate grown Kona coffee. Life? Not so bad. #
• 21:38 just watched fireworks from the balcony. Great view! #

3-day rejection from Fantasy, with encouragement to send more.

Wonderlands is a new social networking site for Fantasy & Spec Fic writers, readers, fans, etc. At first I thought 'oh no, another one', but after seeing it posted and reposted on several blogs belonging to writers, editors and agents I'm acquainted with, I caved in and signed up.

You'll find me here. Hope to see you over there!

EDIT - the sign-up page is a lovely light yellow font on white background, so if you can't see what the fields are just click & drag over each one to highlight it.

If it's not already too late, girliejones, don't read Peeps! Scott Westerfeld is a diabolical man. Everybody else, you should read this book! And those others he's written too. Don't care how old you are, Westerfeld's brand of YA is not just for teens. Some of it, I'd say, is not EVEN for teens! :) Peeps is funny and gruesome and gross and cool and clever. Like like like!

My birthday and Father's Day lingered from last month to today when my oldest son visited home from college. He'd been unable to be home for my birthday, and then was on an archaeological dig in Missouri during Father's Day.

For one of my late birthday/Father's Day gifts he gave me a 12th edition paperback copy of Robert A. Heinlein's short story collection "The Past Through Tomorrow." My reaction was "fantastic, I've been wanting to read his short stories!" I came very late to Heinlein, as you can read here. We've been reading through his juveniles, but I'd not read any of his short works yet.

I flipped through the book. It was in excellent like new condition, and was from all appearances, an unread copy. It did have the name of an owner written on the first cover page with a date next to it. A thought hit me, and I blurted out, "any chance it's signed?!" I flipped to the title page, and...sure enough: Robert A. Heinlein's autograph, right across the top above his printed name! I haven't had time to take a picture and post it, but it matches this one and others I located online.

My son had no idea! He had bought two Heinlein short story collections that day from a used book sale. After buying one and leaving the sale, he told me by phone what he'd bought. When I expressed interest, he went back and got me this book. He's going to check the other book for autographs when he returns home this week. Needless to say, this is one of the cooler things to have happen.

It's been a great July fourth for our family, and hope the same for you all.... I'm looking forward to my son's pictures from his dig.

UPDATE: Money donations can be made directly through the Clarion West website. If you’d like to contribute, please do so through that paypal button and mark it for Computer Replacement, or something like that — so the recipients know it isn’t part of their regular drive. All donations are tax deductible; Clarion West is classified as a non-profit educational organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (Federal EIN 91-1352168)


HELP if you can, please!!!

July 4, 2008 Progress Notes:

Above

Words today: 2000.
Words total: 65,500 MS Word, 79,250 SMF.

79,250 / 85,000 (93.2%)

Reason for stopping: Quota.
Munchies: Pasta and limeade.

Darling du Jour: Violet sang grace in her grace notes and in her regular ones too, because that's where a body keeps grace: in music, so it don't go sour or bad.

Words Matthew Won't Admit to Knowing: subsides. We also had a repeat of the trouble with amends.
Mean Things: Having your life's work taken away through stupid, stupid random shit. And then, after your work, your life.
Research Roundup: Tardive dyskinesia, and along those lines, antipsychotics.
Books in progress: Robertson Davies, The Lyre of Orpheus.
The glamour: Slave of the Book Mines! Also, the returning of the two windowboxes I bought whose brackets don't fit my balcony, and the returning of a dress that makes me look wide. And let me tell you, when I notice something makes me look wide, it is damn apparent.

---

I strongly doubt I'm actually wrapping this up in just under 6000 words. 10k, maybe. We'll see.

More reviews of Clockwork Phoenix coming in:

A short comment from Matt Staggs.
Nick Gevers at Locus, apparently from next month's issue.
And time_shark is offering e-galleys for anyone interested in reviewing it on their blog.


I have no other bloggable news as of this moment, so I shall retire to bed, and hopefully be more interesting tomorrow. :p Goodnight, internets, and happy Fourth to those of you who celebrate it.