Jay Lake: Writer

[sale] “A Long Walk Home” to YBSF29

I am pleased to say that Sunspin novelette, “A Long Walk Home”, has been accepted by the inestimable Gardner Dozois for reprint in Year’s Best Science Fiction 29. For those of you wondering where this piece fits with the novels-in-progress, it’s deep backstory, about the Mistake. So while it doesn’t directly inflect the plot, “A Long Walk Home” definitely carries some of the world-building and future history.

I’m particularly pleased about this because it means Sunspin continues to receive favorable attention in the field. That hopefully will help drive the future reach and success of the novels.

If you’d like to read it now, the original appearance of the novelette at Subterranean Online is here. I also note with some pride and optimism that Subterranean Online will soon be running a Sunspin novella, “The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future”, which is in a sense chapter zero of the novels, and takes place immediately prior to the opening of the story in book one, Calamity of So Long a Life.

Further, I will make the observation that this novelette is probably my best candidate for Hugo or Nebula award consideration in the forthcoming award year. So if you’re an eligible voter, please consider having a look at the above link.

See also my Facebook thread of yesterday for a number of comments on the sale.

Tags: Awards, Books, Calamity, Sale, stories, Sunspin

Posted: 6:22 am Tue November 29 2011 | Comments(2) |

[movies] Hugo

Yesterday, Mother of the Child took me and the_child to the cinema, where we saw Hugo [ imdb ].

My advice to you is that if you have any love whatsoever for movies, stop what you’re doing, go to the cinema, and see this pronto. I’m very afraid it won’t last long, given the broad tastes of the American film-going audience, and if I’m right, that will be a crime. Then come home and make notes for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. I certainly plan to nominate Hugo for a Hugo Award.

This movie is a love letter from Martin Scorsese to the early history of cinema, and specifically the films of French director Georges Méliès. Méliès made some of the first science fiction and fantasy films, so it is topical to our field (and its award processes) in that sense. Furthermore, the movie itself while not a fantasy per se is decidedly inspired by the breath of the fantastic. It’s also got some glorious clockpunk, cool steam trains, Paris in the years between the wars, and a heart-rending story. I wept at the end.

Hugo is a visual feast, and also talks a lot about the creative process, both explicitly in the film’s narrative and implicitly in the way the film was made. I cannot recommend this highly enough, and I suspect the movie will need all the audience support it can get due to a lack of explosions, car chases, star destroyers and whatnot so beloved of holiday films. I very much I hope I am wrong about this last.

Tags: Awards, Movies, Process, reviews

Posted: 8:47 am Sun November 27 2011 | Comments(3) |

[awards] Hosting the Hugos

My thoughts are still somewhat muddled by exhaustion, and the process of picking back up my real life, but I wanted to post a bit about my experience of co-hosting the Hugos with the mighty kenscholes.

In a word, it was an awesome experience. Draining, difficult, amusing, wonderful, and many other suitably bipolar adjectives.

We’d been working on the script off and on for well over a month, interrupted by my liver resecting in mid-July. We had read-throughs and rehearsals Thursday and Saturday at Renovation. We had a magnificent tech crew supporting us across the board on site, with able leadership from Sharon Sbarsky and John Maizels. But when it came down to the moment, it was still me and Ken walking out on stage in front of 1,500 2,500 people and a handful of video cameras.

Things went wrong. Somehow we started on page two of the script. No one seemed to notice. Somehow we lost the last four pages of the script mid-show. (This included the entire Best Novel segment.) I scrambled on the dark stage during the clips of Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form to locate the missing pages, which I found in the pile of discarded pages from earlier in the show. Yet it all worked.

I know the scripting was obvious from the audience. I wish we could have done the whole thing more naturally, ad lib — that’s how I do my best work — but there were way too many details and checkpoints and hard cues to leave to a set of bullet points and our wit for two hours. Plus the need to coordinate between the two of us. When I hosted the World Fantasy Awards a few years ago, I worked without a script, but I was hosting solo with a ceremony where I only had to provide the main introduction, not manage the timings between award segements. (It’s a much less technical show than the Hugos.)

A real treat for me was that much of my family came to see the show, including my dad and (step)mom, my sister and her boyfriend, the_child and her mother. Most of them had never been to a convention before, so they experienced Worldcon Saturday, then the Hugos. And dressed for the occasion, too. It’s the first time in my life I can recall seeing my dad in an aloha shirt, while my sister and the_child were all steampunked out. Everyone looked very elegant, and it meant a lot to me that they were there.

I’ve also learned that while I’m emotionally bulletproof about bad reviews of my fiction, I’m only mildly bullet-resistant about bad reviews of my live performance. It’s an interesting distinction, doubly so because live performance is such a relatively small part of what I do.

This was so much fun. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Plus if I’m ever invited to host the Nebula awards, I’ll have made a trifecta of hosting the major awards in our field.

I want to thank Renovation, and especially Patty Wells and Sharon Sbarsky, for inviting Ken and I to do this. I want to thank John Maizels and the tech crew for making the show possible and making us look good. I want to thank kenscholes for doing this with me. And most of all I want to thank everyone who attended, or watched remotely, for being part of the event.

It was a blast.

Tags: Awards, Conventions, family, friends, Personal, reviews

Posted: 5:32 am Tue August 23 2011 | Comments(6) |

[links] Link salad believes in rock and roll

A funny photo of me and Ken Scholes hosting the Hugos — (Thanks to Irene Gallo.)

…this report of my death was an exaggeration. — Making Light on the state of publishing.

On Habitable Worlds and Their Moons

Aurora Over Greenland — Another awesome APOD image.

Lego Milling Machine Creates Amazing 3D Sculptures — It is to boggle. (Via David Goldman.)

Animal’s genetic code redesigned — Researchers say they have created the first ever animal with artificial information in its genetic code. (Thanks to lillypond.)

Study Shows Animals Starting to Move to Higher Latitudes, Elevations — There goes that liberal bias in reality again. Actually, it’s just a reality bias, but I repeat myself.

In defense of the low road — The reality of mocking Christianist fundamentalism. (Snurched from Slackivist.)

Comic’s PAC Is More Than a Gag — Stephen Colbert continues to hack the US political scene. (Via my Dad.)

Maxine Waters to tea party: Go to Hell — A prominent tea party group shot back with a statement calling on Obama to check the members of his party and to condemn the rough talk. I love it when conservatives whine about Democrats playing rough. Typical right wing hypocrisy. GOPAC memo, anyone?

?otD: Can music save your mortal soul?

8/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (convention exhaustion)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 229.6 (yikes!)
Currently reading: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Tags: Awards, Conventions, Cool, Links, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Tech, weird

Posted: 5:00 am Tue August 23 2011 | Comments(0) |

[personal] Home, home again

I am home. Thanks to various issues, did not get back til 1 am, which is my current state of health is very destructive. I have taken part of the morning off work, though I am now picking that up again.

The Hugos were awesome. My wonderful family made the trip from Portland to see me onstage, along with 1,500 of you guys. I’ll have more to say later when I have had a chance to pull my thoughts together, but for now I just want to thank everyone for all the love and support and good wishes, which were an overflowing abundance.

Also, thank you for laughing at the right places during the ceremony.

Tags: Awards, Conventions, family, Personal, Travel, work

Posted: 10:26 am Mon August 22 2011 | Comments(5) |

[links] Link salad gets home from Renovation

Recorded stream of the 2011 Hugo Awards — In case you missed it.

Astronaut Suicide Photos Inspired by Shuttle Program’s End

A rocket’s resurrection?

Teen Taps Into Power of Fibonacci to Harness the Sun

Why Software Is Eating The World

?otD: Back at work?

8/22/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (convention exhaustion)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 hours (solid)
Weight: 229.8 (yikes!)
Currently reading: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Tags: Art, Awards, Conventions, Links, Personal, Photos, Science, Tech, Videos

Posted: 10:16 am Mon August 22 2011 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] And it’s Hugo day

Yesterday was very busy. The high point was being flashmobbed by 40-50 people in dealer room, all wearing aloha shirts and cheering me. Otherwise, I paneled, I had meetings, I rested, I had meals, I even went to a party.

Today, brunch with my family, one panel, Hugo rehearsal, nap time, dressing for Hugos, pre-Hugo receptions, Hugos, Hugo losers party. Sense a theme? I hope you’ll be there, either in person or virtually. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Then I am going to collapse of exhaustion.

Tags: Awards, Conventions, Personal

Posted: 9:14 am Sat August 20 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad celebrates Hugo day

The Hugo Awards ceremony will be streamed — If’n you want to watch me and kenscholes do our thing. Or, you know, the winners.

Strewth, scientists discover how the kangaroo got its hop — Scientists have discovered the origin of the kangaroo’s hop after sequencing the genome of a type of wallaby.

Doctors wary of Perry’s stem cell treatment — So Rick Perry, an apparent front-runner of the party that opposes science and especially stem cell research, has had stem cell therapy? Hypocrite.

Perry and the Cliff —

?otD: Where Hugo, do I go too?

8/20/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (convention madness)
Body movement: 30 minute urban walk
Hours slept: 6.25 hours (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Tags: Awards, Conventions, Cool, Links, Personal, Politics, Science

Posted: 9:04 am Sat August 20 2011 | Comments(0) |

[conventions] Worldcon, Day One

Not much to report. Traveling wore me out so much that I laid low in my room yesterday, save for one brief errand. I’d kind of expected that, and so had scheduled nothing. I did manage 5,500 words on Sunspin in transit. (Which may be part of why I was so tired.)

Much busier today, with getting reg’ed, lunch and dinner dates/meetings, Hugo rehearsals this afternoon and programming this evening. I’ve already bumped into some folks, including Jeremy Tolbert and Ken Scholes, and quite confidently expect to bump into a lot more folk as the weekend wears on.

I have booked a scooter, but I’m realizing that the logistics of getting from the Peppermill to the convention center and back are going to make it only marginally useful to me. Sigh. Still, it’s clear to me I will wear out too fast if I am not very careful.

It’ll all work out. See some, all or none of you around Reno today!

Tags: Awards, Books, Conventions, friends, Sunspin, Travel, Writing

Posted: 8:05 am Thu August 18 2011 | Comments(0) |

[travel|awards] Heading for the Hugos

I’m off to Reno shortly. Won’t be around the con much today, as I figure I’ll spend most of it in my room, recovering my energy from travel stress. Look for me starting tomorrow. I’ll be there…

In other news, yesterday I had my head Hugo’d.

Looking like a low-rent superhero

The rocket is painted on

The final product

We’ll see how it holds up with my minimal head fuzz.

Photos © 2011, Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and JD.

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

Tags: Awards, Conventions, Funny, Photos, Travel

Posted: 5:09 am Wed August 17 2011 | Comments(3) |