Jay Lake: Writer

[contests] Endurance caption contest: We have a winner

Art by Dan Dos Santos

In order to celebrate the availability of the Endurance ARCs. I declared a caption contest on the following photo:

Very locked door, Bonspur, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

With 52 votes cast, we have a winner!

With 15% of the vote, Gerry Huntman takes the honors:
Neil Gaiman getting possessive with his BBC-gift replica of the Tardis

Second place goes to goldfishsara with 13% of the vote:
The family always locked Fluffy up when company was expected.

Special judge’s mention to saveswhat:
Lockpunk

All three winners will receive inscribed copies of the Green trade paperback and the Endurance ARC. Please contact me with your shipping information, guys!

Tags: Books, Contests, Endurance, Green, Polls

Posted: 4:08 am Fri June 24 2011 | Comments(2) |

[photos] Your Friday moment of zen

Your Friday moment of zen.

Somewhat inexplicable sign, Douglas County, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, signs, zen

Posted: 4:05 am Fri June 24 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad heads for the Emerald City

I open my mouth only to change feet (with apologies to @jay_lake) — @cacatopos on our Twitter exchange of yesterday regarding books and reader reactions, specifically anent Mainspring. Methinks the gracious gentleman takes too much mea culpa, but this is both amusing and interesting. (And here I am perpetuating the metaexchange by linking to his post.)

More Evidence for Enceladus Ocean — Surf’s up, dudes. Interplanetary kowabunga.

TV and soda: Small habits cause excess pounds — Duh?

There’s something magical about watching patterns emerge from data — Ben Goldacre on study sizes.

New Math in HIV Fight — Statistical Method Evolves From Physics to Wall Street to Battle Against AIDS.

Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong — St. Reagan did it!

Top Expert: Disputed McKinsey Health Care Study Akin To Push Poll — Gosh, even more conservative distortions about healthcare. Inconceivable, such pandering from our paragons of moral rectitude on the Right.

Sometimes, we make progress — Pharyngula on flat Eartherism, which has ever bit as much Biblical and empirical validity as Creationism, and should be treated with absolutely the same level of respect.

Ga.’s farm-labor crisis going exactly as planned — Golly, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of conservatives. When you live in the land of magical counterfactuals, getting what you wish for can be a dangerous thing. Meanwhile, out here in the reality-based community…

Christian conservative group calls on Sen. Vitter to follow Weiner’s lead and resign — I don’t agree with hardly a thing these guys stand for, but I have to applaud a conservative group for actually being intellectually consistent and standing against the rampant hypocrisy of their own movement.

Romney’s Dilemma — Mitt Romney, abortion and the Republican voter base. Good luck with that one, Mittens.

?otD: Seattle or Portland?

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6/24/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (Kalimpura revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 229.8
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: bokks, healthcare, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, tags: links, Tech

Posted: 4:04 am Fri June 24 2011 | Comments(3) |

[writing] Foils! Cursed again!

I mean to get up early today and write before work, as I did yesterday. It looks like I can still chip out a bit of time, but I slept longer than I thought I would. Instead of writing I dreamt that Game of Thrones was taking place in a high-tone shopping mall, mostly involving a wedding party, and that Canadian writer Michael Hiebert was Jaime Lannister.

Ah, sleep, that great healer.

Tags: Funny, Personal, Writing

Posted: 5:04 am Thu June 23 2011 | Comments(2) |

[process] Endings, just bit thereon

I recently wrote a piece on crafting endings in science fiction and fantasy stories for a forthcoming project. (Details TBA, that’s all I can tell you right now.) I’ve been thinking about that since, especially given that several writer friends have just this week made rueful comments on their troubles finding the endings to various projects in hand.

In my piece, I made some comments about Cordwainer Smith and endings that I think I can amplify here without stealing any thunder from the forthcoming project. Essentially, the point I want to make is this: the completion of the written narrative — ie, the manuscript — is only coincidental to the completion of the story arc. That’s generally how we like to do things in the Western story telling tradition, but it ain’t necessarily so.

Cordwainer Smith had a habit of using a Chinese narrative style in which the opening of the story handed you the completion of the arc. Or to use a different example, almost no one ever goes to see a production of Hamlet or Oedipus Rex expecting to be surprised by the ending. We already know what is going to happen, we’re there to experience the narrative.

In other words, it’s worth considering that notion the ending is about how the reader’s journey through the story plays out, not about how the character’s journey through the story plays out. The next time you’re stuck on an ending, sparate the manuscript experience from the story, and see what that tells you.

Your thoughts?

Tags: Process, Writing

Posted: 5:02 am Thu June 23 2011 | Comments(1) |

[photos] Your Thursday moment of zen

Your Thursday moment of zen.

Cleft, Moses Coulee, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Photos, zen

Posted: 4:59 am Thu June 23 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad thinks about meals it wishes it hadn’t eaten

The voting poll for the Endurance caption contest will be open for another day or two

A reviewer talks about swords and sorcery in sub-Sahara Africa — Holds up Mainspring as a negative example of 19th century attitudes. Except Mainspring is in large part about 19th century attitudes, so from my perspective, it’s an odd critique. And though it’s not germane to either reading or critiquing the book, I did in fact spend some years of my life living in sub-Saharan Africa. As always, the story belongs to the reader.

A reader responds to Mainspring — They liked it, a lot.

Lessons From the Gutenberg Bible for Publishers Going Digital — Gutenberg’s reward for the invention of the printing press was financial ruin, but others figured out a unique way to keep the printing business afloat.

HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?

A Start-Up’s Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later — Interesting. More from Tech Review. (Via David Goldman.)

St. Jude Postdoc Faked Images — A former postdoctoral researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fudged images published in two papers, one of which has since been retracted. Faking cancer research results… I have no words.

As arctic ice shrinks, so does a denier claim — You know, reality wouldn’t have a liberal bias in the first place if conservatives didn’t insist on ideological counterfactuals over actual data.

Despite horses and buggies, Amish aren’t necessarily ‘low-tech’

Bible condemns a lot, so why focus on homosexuality? — Bigotry, pure and simple. If this was about the written word of God, the Christianists would be campaigning just as vigorously to ban shrimp, mixed fabrics and crop rotation. (Via @willshetterly.)

Quench Not the Spirit — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the doctrine of Hell. This is inside baseball for a part of the culture that isn’t my game, but I still find it pretty interesting.

Christian Faith Requires Accepting Evolution — I have no objection to people denying evolution if that’s their interpretation of their faith. What I have enormous objection to is people projecting the deliberate irrationalities and counterfactuals of their faith onto the political and social landscape, as if a personal opinion could substitute for reality.

Surprise! Bachmann Supports Creationism in Schools — Apparently she thinks this is a scientific issue of reasonable doubt. Repeat after me: Just because you believe it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Michele Bachmann’s Holy War — The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter Yes, Virginia, the GOP’s deliberate fostering of the crazy in their base to drive votes does have consequences.

“Gooble, gooble, one of us!” — Digby on conservative pacifism.

Journalists Reportedly Outnumber Voters At Huntsman’s GOP Campaign Events — Your Liberal Media, fluffing Republicans every day.

?otD: Ever eaten live eel soup?

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6/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Kalimpura revisions, plus a little WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 230.2
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: Books, Cancer, Contests, Cool, Endurance, Fiction, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Polls, Religion, reviews, Tech

Posted: 4:58 am Thu June 23 2011 | Comments(6) |

[writing] Kalimpura revisions and looking forward

Kalimpura revisions continue apace. The book is due to my editor casacorona next week, according to both my working schedule for this project and my revised, cancer-limited working schedule for the year.

I’m expecting one more deep(ish) critique from a first reader, but mostly I am done with the line level work. What remains is one more careful read through, both for general flow and style, and for a couple of minor but recurring issues with the story.

Here is where I am tempted to be a lazy writer. I know I’ll get revision notes from both my editor and my agent. This isn’t done. And while I love this book — I really feel like I have tied up the three-volume cycle quite well and given poor Green some resolution to her life and times, without closing off the narrative to potential future stories — I’m rather tired of re-reading it. This isn’t the muddle in the middle, this is the muddle at the end. Or some such.

Nonetheless, I decline to be a lazy writer, and as of a few minutes from now will be doing that close read. Because that way the book will be better. A better book is always my goal. And yes, I should complain about having such problems as not wanting to re-read my contracted book again in draft, but remember my Theory of Problems [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. This is the writing problem I have today. It’s a good problem to have.

This will be in before the end of June. After that, I will write the last 60-70,000 words of Calamity of So Long a Life, which is the first volume of my Sunspin space opera project. I expect to have that draft effort completed by about Labor Day, which is roughly when I will re-enter chemotherapy, post-surgery.

Resuming the Sunspin draft will also require reading, as I’ll need to re-read the 130,000 words already written on that first volume, as well as the 125 page outline in order to recapture the voice, plot threads, and so forth. That’s one reason my outline is so deep and detailed — to help me manage such an ambitious project over a long period of time.

I hope to do some revisions on Calamity this fall, and if my writing brain holds out long enough under the deepening of chemotherapy and its discontents, I’ll also do some serious cancer writing.

But for now, Kalimpura.

Tags: Books, Calamity, Cancer, Green, health, Kalimpura, Process, Sunspin, Writing

Posted: 4:34 am Wed June 22 2011 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen

Your Wednesday moment of zen.

Another view of the greenwater pond, Moses Coulee, WA. © 2007, 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: nature, Photos, zen

Posted: 4:18 am Wed June 22 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad wanders into summer

Some favorable reviews of the Polish edition of Trial of Flowers: [ QFant | Fantasta | Ksizki Polter ] — Courtesy of my Polish translator.

The Sun Is the Best Optometrist — So that’s why I drive a ragtop… (Via David Goldman.)

Robot Hand Design — This is cool.

Star Found Shooting Water “Bullets” — Stellar sprinklers may help irrigate cosmos, study suggests. Huh? What?

A Feat of Engineering That Doubles as a Home — I’ve been on dates like that. (Thanks to Dad.)

Living the Good Lie — Therapists who help gay and lesbian clients stay in the closet. Hmm…

Shame Of America: Desperate Man Robs Store For One Dollar In Order To Go To Jail To Get Health Coverage — Best healthcare system in the world. Ask any Republican. (Via willyumtx.)

Two more pundits who don’t count — More on the irrational and counterfactual pundit obsession with politicians and personal pronouns. Seriously. Yes, these comments are made by adults with ready access to objective information that disprove their assertions.

Tory MEPs defy David Cameron over greenhouse gas targets — Though this seems to be based on an issue of economic policy (ie, something that liberal-progressives and conservatives can and probably should disagree over), it’s worth noting that conservatives in the UK are also anti-science loons. What is it with you guys and reality?

For Press, Secession No Longer Campaign “Roadblock” For Gov. Rick Perry — Ah, yes. Conservatives and their deep reverence for the Constitution.

?otD: Do you remember the summer of ’69?

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6/22/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Kalimpura revisions, WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 5.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 229.8
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: Books, Cool, gay, healthcare, Language, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, Trial, Videos

Posted: 4:17 am Wed June 22 2011 | Comments(0) |