[cancer] Just when you thought it was safe…
Under cut for digestive and medical TMI. You were warned.
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Posted: 4:04 pm Thu November 18 2010 | Comments(6) |
[personal] A bit of updatery
Busy workday today in Day Jobbe land. Thanks to a combination of vacation, holiday and business travel, I won’t be back at my desk after today for over two weeks. So lots of makeup ball to play in advance.
After work I scramble madly to pack and be ready for Steamcon. I am setting out rather early Friday morning in hopes of making my noon panel, weather and I-5 traffic permitting. calendula_witch is already in Seattle, and will meet me there Friday afternoon. We’re home late Sunday afternoon.
In other news, I found a wet patch in the basement carpet this morning in a location which can only signify a foundation leak. I am virtually certain this will be the opening salvo in a messy and expensive problem, and I’m not very happy about it. At least it’s only the house that’s having potentially major issues and not, say, myself or another family member.
Kalimpura beckons, with me trying to lay down some more wordage before work.
Posted: 5:42 am Thu November 18 2010 | Comments(2) |
[process] Every time I think I understand my own writing…
Kalimpura is cooking along. I wrote 7,800 words in three elapsed hours yesterday. That’s averaging 2,600 words per hour. It was broken up over three distinct writing sessions. I managed 1,700 words in one half hour session.
I am looking at myself and saying, WTF?
It’s been a truism of mine for a while, for some very good reasons, that my writing needs to slow down. I’ve worked on reducing my drafting speed and focusing more on the line level prose as well as the deep structure, to the degree that I can consciously control those on first draft.
This book is not behaving that way. And though it’s impossible to tell with any validity from my place in the middle of the process, neither the prose quality nor the deep structure is suffering.
The best way I can think to explain it is to say this book really, really wants to get out. I don’t feel like I’m rushing it. It’s just moving fast. That is almost certainly in part due to the third book effect I’ve mentioned before. Likewise, I clearly have a lot of pent-up creativity in this, my post-chemo world. But still, I feel like I meant to turn on a hot plate and got a flaming gas jet instead.
In fact, this state of flow is fairly similar to what happens when I’m near the end of a book. Often I’ll put on some pretty freakish bursts of speed and productivity as everything wraps on my head and needs to come tumbling out onto the page.
Today’s a very busy day, then it’s SteamCon weekend, so I’ll be quite surprised if I manage to be more than minimally productive again before next Monday. Still, this is quite a ride. And one I decidedly do not understand.
Posted: 5:37 am Thu November 18 2010 | Comments(0) |
[photos] Your Thursday moment of zen
Your Thursday moment of zen.
The Niece at age 3. © 2006, 2010, B. Lake.
This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 5:34 am Thu November 18 2010 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad coins a phrase
Cascade Writers Workshop is now open for registration [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — If you’re interested in working with me, David Levine and Beth Meacham next summer, here’s your chance. Plus, how can you go wrong with a long weekend out on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula?
Language Log with more on the recent Jane Austen arguments
The B-side of Steve Jobs — Apple and the Beatles.
Other generations growing weary of Baby Boomers — Speaking as someone too young for Boomerhood and too old for Gen X, I’m weary of this whole generational dialectic.
How do you really know what time it is? — io.9 on the brain and time. I found this fascinating, because some of the assertions cited from neuroscience researchers don’t seem to apply to me. For example, the idea that the human brain is poor at assessing the objective passage of time. If I’m rested and not ill (ie, not on chemo), I almost always know what time it is to within 15 minutes, whether or not I have recent access to a clock. I can also tell myself when to wake up, and this will work almost all the time, again, even if I cannot see a clock from where I am sleeping. Interesting read.
Louisiana Citizens Horrified that there’s Evolution in Science Books — And yet somehow we have survived into the 21st century as an industrialized democracy. Why are we as a nation even having these conversations? We might as well be horrified that the Earth is not the center of the solar system.
That’s the Story? — Sigh. Anatomy of another of the endless parade of Republican lies that are reported without analysis or rebuttal in Your Liberal Media. With, you know, actual cites and facts and stuff, in case you think this is just more liberal bias.
?otD: Heads or tails?
11/18/2010
Writing time yesterday: 3.0 hours (7,800 new words on Kalimpura, to 77,400)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 5.5 hours (interrupted)
This morning’s weigh-in: 248.2 (!)
Yesterday’s chemo/post-op stress index: 2/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, emotional distress)
Currently reading: Act of Will by A.J. Hartley
Posted: 5:32 am Thu November 18 2010 | Comments(2) |
[conventions] Cascade Writers Workshop
The Cascade Writers Workshop (née Writers Weekend) is open for registration now. I’ll be teaching there, along with Hugo Award winning writer David Levine and Tor Books executive editor Beth Meacham. I know registrations are already coming in, so if you’re interested in working with us, sign up soon!
Particulars:
July 21-24, 2011, at the Ocean Crest Resort in scenic Moclips, WA, out on the Pacific side of the Olympic Peninsula
http://www.cascadewriters.com/
Hope to see you there!
Posted: 4:04 pm Wed November 17 2010 | Comments(3) |
[process] On Word Count
I made the following remark on Twitter and Facebook yesterday about word count:
“Wondering how much writers are intimidated by wordcount… novels used to seem impossibly long to me.”
The responses, especially on Facebook, were interesting and varied. Click through that link and go read. I’ll still be here when you get back, I promise.
One thing that I found fascinating was how few people seemed to share my orginal assumption. Specifically, when I first started writing, the idea of completing a novel-length manuscript seemed horrendously intimidating to me. This is related to, but not bound up in, my concept of “span of control“. High word count seemed unattainable. That is to say, I shied away from big, complex stories.
Another interesting bit is how many people seem to be indifferent to word count, at least in my comment thread. While I no longer am spooked by it (Sunspin will be 600,000-750,000 of first draft, I believe), I also don’t obsess about it. But word count is a useful tool for measuring daily productivity and assessing the progress of a project. And in Microsoft Word, at least, the word count is in the window footer, until you hit the bug at 100,000 words. (That application was clearly not designed by anyone who wrote at length.)
Like I said, to me word count is just a tool. An interesting one, with applications ranging from idea sizing to market targeting to contractual factors to productivity measurement and progress assessment. My emotional relationship with word count has improved immeasurably as my career progresses.
What does it mean to you? How closely do you pay attention to word count? Why?
Posted: 5:55 am Wed November 17 2010 | Comments(8) |
[conventions] Steamcon Programming
This coming weekend, calendula_witch and I will be at Steamcon II from Friday to Sunday. I am up for an Airship Award for my Mainspring series, which pleases me immensely.
Programming is as follows:
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| Friday, November 19th | |
| Noon – 1:00 pm | Sub-genres of Steampunk |
| 4:00 – 5:00 pm | Becoming a Writer |
| 5:00 – 7:30 pm | Airship Awards Banquet |
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| Saturday, November 20th | |
| 10:00 – 11:00 am | The Airship Ambassador interviews author Jay Lake |
| 11:00 am – Noon | What Makes a Novel Steampunk? |
| 12:30 – 1:00 pm | Reading by Jay Lake |
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| Sunday, November 21st | |
| 10:00 – 11:00 am | Autograph Session |
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See some, all or none of you there!
Posted: 5:52 am Wed November 17 2010 | Comments(1) |
[photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen
Your Wednesday moment of zen.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 5:41 am Wed November 17 2010 | Comments(0) |
[links] Link salad gets puffed
METAtropolis: Cascadia has launched — Go check it out. Might be a nice Christmas present for someone in your life. Maybe even you…
A Cynic Looks At Life by Ambrose Bierce — An interesting review.
The Straight Dope on our Pacific Northwest slugs — With some great reader feedback.
Organs Made from Scratch — “Building blocks” containing gels turn cells into different types of tissue. Speaking as someone missing part or all of four major organ systems thanks to cancer surgery, erm, yes.
Carbon dioxide outburst spurred warming 40 million years ago — Nothing to see here. Your political dogma is mightier than the data. Move along, citizen, move along. (Snurched from Bad Astronomy.)
House Republican Wants His Government-Subsidized Health Care Now — More of that justly famed intellectual consistency from the highly principled American Right. A candidate who promises to repeal HCR wants to know what he will do without health insurance. What about the rest of us, Republican man?
How can Silvio Berlusconi still be in power? — The tragic genius of Berlusconi is that he appears to have convinced millions that his destiny is their destiny: everyone who is scared of becoming a victim of judicial persecution, who feels overtaxed, who fears that foreigners are condescendingly critical of the Italian way of life is subtly persuaded that getting rid of Silvio would leave them vulnerable and isolated. Wow. You could say almost the same thing about the Republican party in American life. Tragic genius, indeed.
?otD: Got steam?
11/17/2010
Writing time yesterday: 3.0 hours (7,900 new words on Kalimpura, to 69,600)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 248.2 (!)
Yesterday’s chemo/post-op stress index: 2/10 (fatigue, peripheral neuropathy, emotional distress)
Currently reading: Act of Will by A.J. Hartley
Posted: 5:39 am Wed November 17 2010 | Comments(0) |