I am pleased to announce that Prime Books has accepted my novella, “Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh” for publication as a single-title book in 2011. The story is a contemporary dark fantasy about extreme body modification, murder and childhood innocence.
More here from the publisher.
Posted: 6:19 am Tue December 21 2010 | Comments(0) |
Your Tuesday moment of zen.
Posted: 6:17 am Tue December 21 2010 | Comments(0) |
Apparently in the French edition, my novel Green is Jade
Yesterday’s post on the worst writing advice I ever got has generated some interesting comments: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal | Facebook ] — As is so often the case, the ones disagreeing with me are especially intriguing. If you’re interested in the topic, all three threads are worth the read. (And in the next day or two, I’ll make a parallel post about the best writing advice I ever got.)
My new, post-cancer hair: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — Someday it shall be long again.
The ghost towns of China: Amazing satellite images show cities meant to be home to millions lying deserted — I’ve actually passed through one of these cities by train, Erenhot in Inner Mongolia.
Breakthrough in TB Diagnostics — A rapid genetic test for tuberculosis could have a huge impact on global health. Speaking as someone who once had tuberculosis (at age 16, detected by chest x-ray before it had fully expressed) this is good.
The Problem with Speed — Centauri Dreams on interstellar mission profiles. In space, no one can hear you airbrake.
Progress — Ta-Nehisi Coates on the causes of Confederate secession. Ah, the glorious revisionism of Southern conservatives.
?otD: Ever seen a lunar eclipse? How about a solar eclipse?
12/21/2010
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (revisions, WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 5.5 hours (interrupted, couldn’t see the eclipse)
Weight: n/a (forgot)
Currently reading: Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
Posted: 6:15 am Tue December 21 2010 | Comments(0) |
Right after work, I went and got my first post-chemo haircut. We threw some color on as well…
Photos © 2010 B. Lake.
It’s a clunky cut because I’m in the first stages of the multi-year process of growing my hair back out. (Assuming further chemo doesn’t derail me somewhere along the way.) Still, it was fun.
After that, The Child and I went up to the McMenamin’s Kennedy School to have dinner with T— and J—. Post-prandially the four of us attended the Willamette Radio Workshop‘s production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, presented (and recorded) as a radio play. Standing room only, and unfortunately for us, we were among the SROs, but it was a lot of fun.
Later, I have the alarm set to see if we can get a look at the lunar eclipse. Doubtful given the cloud cover, but around here anything is possible.
This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 10:01 pm Mon December 20 2010 | Comments(6) |
I’ve been thinking about life lately, for obvious reasons. Life, and illness, and the changes that come upon us all. I’ve also been writing a lot lately. The fascinating thing to me is how much of those deep and difficult thoughts emerge in my fiction. Filtered through the machinery of my subconscious (hi, Fred!) and then again through the lens of the story.
The worst writing advice I ever received, years before I grew good enough to be published, was “Writing is not therapy.” I have come to believe this is very nearly opposite the truth. I think what the advice-giver meant was “don’t write thinly disguised romans-a-clef about your emo bullshit”, but even that isn’t really true. For one thing, that is an unkind but accurate description of The Specific Gravity of Grief, which I think is a story that succeeds precisely because of the raw emotion I poured into it. As a result of that advice, I was left for a very long time with a vision of the craft of fiction as somehow being a noble pursuit separate from the grubby realities of my own life.
Yet good fiction must work at the emotional level first and foremost. Badly plotted, poorly characterized, ineptly-written fiction can succeed because of emotional appeal. Brilliantly wrought prose can fail because of a lack of emotion. We’ve all seen examples of both. It is our own strongest emotions that force the power into those words on the page. Not our control of them.
To me, the process is inseparable from my own experiences. At this point, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
(And on a related note, yesterday I had cause to remark to a friend anent my execrable poetry that my prose is often poetic, but my poetry is always prosaic. Speaking of emotional vehicles.)
What’s the worst writing advice you ever got?
Posted: 6:17 am Mon December 20 2010 | Comments(10) |
Your Monday moment of zen.
The Niece, 2007. Photographed by the_child. © 2007, 2010, B. Lake
This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 6:09 am Mon December 20 2010 | Comments(0) |
Help: Researching Year’s Bests and Online Venue Representation — Sean Wallace is crunching numbers. Check it out, and see what you can offer.
xkcd on illness — Yeah, this.
The United States of Autocomplete — Strange Maps is a little stranger than usual.
The day Niagara Falls ran dry — Cool photos from a 1969 engineering project. (Thanks to danjite.)
A lunar eclipse Monday night — Check the weather in your area, as this will be viewable across North America, skies permitting.
A New Enemies List — Scrivener’s Error is cranky about the Senate’s weekend DADT vote. (With reason.) Though Senator Manchin (D-WV) certainly deserves a dishonorable mention as well for his particular profile in courage.
?otD: What’s the toughest thing you’ve ever had to let go of?
12/20/2010
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (revision work)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
This morning’s weigh-in: 248.8
Currently reading: Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
Posted: 6:07 am Mon December 20 2010 | Comments(0) |
This morning, Subterranean Online has accepted my novelette, “A Long Walk Home”. I am mos def pleased.
This is another piece of the Sunspin continuity. It’s also a story idea that came to me in the late stages of chemo, when I could barely sign my name, let alone write fiction. So call this a bit of a personal victory on more levels than the usual headrush of selling a story.
Anent the Sunspin shorts, here’s a list of them so far, with a little bit of commentary.
| Title | Comments | Publication information |
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| “Permanent Fatal Errors“ | About 1,200 years before the narrative present; concerns the Before Macaria St. Maduabuchi | Is Anybody Out There?, ed. Nick Gevers and Marty Halpern, DAW, June, 2010 |
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| “A Long Walk Home” | About 1,100 years before the narrative present; concerns the Before Aeschylus Sforza | Subterranean Online, forthcoming |
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| “To This Their Late Escape” | About 850 years before the narrative present; concerns the Before Skanderia Knaak and the Before Raisa Siddiq | The Sky That Wraps, Subterranean Press, August, 2010 |
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| “To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Yourselves” | About 700 years before the narrative present; concerns the Before Michaela Cannon, the Before Raisa Siddiq, and the shipmind Polyphemus | The New Space Opera 2, ed. Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, Eos, June, 2009 |
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| “The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future” | Immediately before the narrative present; concerns the Before Michaela Cannon, Lieutenant Shinka, and the shipmind Third Rectification | To be announced |
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| “Torquing Vacuum“ | In the narrative present; concerns Domitian Spanich, the Imperial Household, and the shipmind Mare Ibrium | Clarkesworld, February, 2010 |
Posted: 7:42 am Sun December 19 2010 | Comments(1) |
In the car yesterday, on the way to her grandparents’ house for a pre-Christmas party.
Posted: 7:02 am Sun December 19 2010 | Comments(2) |
Your Sunday moment of zen.
The Niece and the Cousin cooking together, 2007. Photographed by The Child. © 2007, 2010, B. Lake.
This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 7:00 am Sun December 19 2010 | Comments(0) |