Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad wishes Dad a happy birthday

Endurance Sweepstakes! — tor.com with a giveaway of my forthcoming book.

Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal — Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers. (Via several sources, including my Dad.)

What killed Steve Jobs? — Pharyngula with more on Steve Jobs’ cancer. (Thanks to feorag.)

Fusobacterium Linked To Colorectal Cancer

The Quest for the Holy Grail of Storage – RAM Cloud

Movie: Approaching Light Speed — APOD with an interesting little video about the optical effects of relativistic speeds approaching c.

Alfred Hitchcock and Angry Birds

Rare Keaton Music Typewriter — (Snurched from Dark Roasted Blend.)

California Velocipede Map — An 1895 bicycle touring map of the Golden State.

Failing dreams: California faces its own Great Depression — It is less than 20 miles from the pristine surfing beaches of the California coast to a scene of Third World deprivation.

The Rise of Crime-Sourcing — (Via David Goldman.)

How News Media and Blogs Have Eyed the Presidential Contenders During the First Phase of the 2012 Race — Your Liberal Media, fluffing the conservatives as always. This is excellent news for John McCain!

Rick Perry officials spark revolt after doctoring environment report — Scientists ask for names to be removed after mentions of climate change and sea-level rise taken out by Texas officials. This is exactly how the Bush administration handled these things, too. When the facts are biased against you, delete the facts. It’s a very Soviet approach to ideology, ironically enough. (Thanks to danjite.)

For Bachmann, God and Justice Were Intertwined — Confidential to GOP in America: Freedom of religion means freedom from religion. Which decidedly protects you every bit as much as it protects the rest of us.

Democrats Court the Wall Street Protesters — Karl Rove in The Wall Street Journal. Before they go much further with this courtship, the president and other Democrats need to remember it’s always dangerous to associate with people who are just plain kooky. The mind boggles that Rove could say this with a straight face. Has he looked at the GOP base? Science denial? Christianism? The forced pregnancy movement? Gun psychosis? Those are the pillars of his own house. (Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars.)

?otD: Tuesday already?

10/18/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo recovery)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.25 hours (fitful)
Weight: 218.4
Currently reading: The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod

Tags: amazon, Art, Books, California, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Contests, crime, ebooks, Endurance, healthcare, Links, media, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:40 am Tue October 18 2011 | Comments(0) |

[contests] Endurance ARC contest results

A few weeks ago, I announced an Endurance ARC contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. Only three brave readers entered the contest, which kind of croggles me, so I’m declaring three co-winners!

The winning entries are:

etcet: There were slings and arrows, of course, and while her fortune was anything but outrageous, her accuracy with the slings, arrows, and several other tools of the trade certainly was. Too young to contemplate retirement seriously, and still, in her heart of hearts, enjoying her work to a certain extent, this left her feeling uneasy and a bit untethered.

It wasn’t easy, being Green.

Original here

Trey: What about Green? Sold by her family, raised in cruelty to a specific standard of courtesan, used as a weapon and on and on. She should have broken under all that. But she keeps on. She endures. She grows and changes.

I like her prickly pride, stubbornness, wit and temper. She’s also deadly as a viper. In all of these, she reminds me of Venera Fanning (Karl Schroeder’s Virga series) and Jamethiel Dream Weaver (of P.C Hodgell’s Kencyr series), with a touch of Hezhi from Greg Keyes Waterborn. I like reading about her though I doubt I’d want to deal with her regularly (sort of like Dr. House in that regard), and right now I want a copy of the sequel Endurance to read.

Original here

Greg: Green is a girl of a poor family sold into service of a forign power trained as an assassin and courtesan whom looks back on the stoic bull of her family as a symbol if her separation from her fate…

Original here

So, go you guys for being players! And winners! Please email me with your contact information so I can send out the ARCs. And thank you for playing.

Tags: Books, Contests, Endurance

Posted: 5:38 am Thu September 29 2011 | Comments(0) |

[writing] Flash flash flash, it’s a gas gas gas

Yesterday’s “Flash me, baby” blog post [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] was fun. Thank you to everyone who played along with flash bits, WIPs and discovery draft snippets.

My favorites are by Joe Richardson, Jim Van Pelt, and Ruthanne Reid. I’ll give top honors to Joe, just for the heck of it.

Joe, give me your contact info and I’ll drop an Endurance ARC and a bonus book in the mail to you. Everyone else, thanks for being part of it. Maybe we’ll do this again in a month or two.

Tags: Contests, Endurance, Writing

Posted: 5:39 am Wed September 14 2011 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad is resting down in Cornwall writing up its memoirs

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Authors Say Agents Try to “Straighten” Gay Characters in YA — In case you missed it. I’ve written a number of incidentally gay or bi characters (ie, not “gay fiction”, just characters who happen to be people with those orientations) and no one’s said a word yet. Which is exactly how it should be, I think.

Bring Your Questions for Willpower Authors Roy Baumeister and John Tierney — Freakonomics with a discussion of willpower. Writing novels, and finishing them, more to the point, is a profound act of willpower.

Why US Pays More for Health Care Than Other Nations

An Objective Way to Measure Pain — Researchers use brain imaging to detect patterns of brain activity associated with pain—a potential boon for doctors and drug developers. I’ve often wondered about the validity of the pain scale. My calibration of 1-10 changed utterly once I’d undergone abdominal surgery, for example. It’s so subjective.

Giant balloon to be launched to test climate fix hope

Glasgow University in bid to create ‘inorganic life’ — Scientists in Scotland are undertaking pioneering research to create life from inorganic chemicals. As tipster David Goldman says, what could possibly go wrong?

Soyuz rocket flaw found?

Wait, what? Atheists don’t understand stories? — Pharyngula on some very bizarre religious thinking about the non-religious. Some people really are idiots, blindered by the need to justify their own beliefs at the expense of objective reality.

Jimmy Carter: ‘We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war’ — Perhaps the best ex-president we’ve ever had.

After 20 Years, Missing CEO Reappears — Apparently only little people pay taxes. Big people just vanish behind their cloud of money.

A Bit of The Post-American World 2.0 — madwriter with some interesting comments on Fareed Zakaria’s book.

Shockingly Petty: News Corp. Outlets Attack Obama Over Paper Clip — And conservatives wonder why the rest of us find you guys a little crazy.

Tea party crowd about sick man without insurance: “Let him die” — Ah, family values. Compassionate conservatism in a nutshell. Right there. This reinforces my view that contemporary conservativism arises out of a poverty of imagination and a failure of empathy. The people jeering this man’s death simply can’t imagine themselves or someone they love in his situation.

Deep Thought — Given the GOP fixation with death, how would they treat a fetus whose mother is on Death Row?

?otD: Where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you through?

9/14/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (revisions to Kalimpura)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 8.25 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 222.0
Currently reading: Inversions by Iain M. Banks

Tags: Books, Contests, Endurance, gay, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, Tech, Writing

Posted: 5:37 am Wed September 14 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad puts its bet on number one and it comes up every time

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

A Reader Reacts to Steampunk Tales #1 — Including my story “Benedice Te”.

Amazon e-book subscription? Publishers should join — Ever since Amazon’s blatant and inappropriate abusive behavior punishing Macmillan print authors for an only tangentially related ebook pricing dispute last year, I simply don’t trust them not to burn us again and again. Their business ethos clearly does not encompass the rhetoric of do no evil.

Fish oils block chemotherapy drug — Hmm. Grr. I take fish oil. (Thanks to reader M.)

Insulin Via Nasal Spray May Slow Alzheimer’s

Supercomputer predicts revolution — Alas, poor Mike, we knew ye well.

6 months into Japan’s cleanup, radiation a major worry

Arizona church is house of prostitution, police say — “We certainly respect First Amendment rights. However, religious freedom does not allow for criminal acts,” Martos said. What, like illegal protests at abortion clinics? Refusing medical or pharmaceutical services based on the practitioner’s beliefs? Religious freedom privileges all kinds of acts, some of them criminal and some of them just nuts. At least it does so for mainline Christians. (Thanks to bravado111.)

We refuse to live in fear! — Glenn Greenwald on American behavior in a post 9/11 world. [T]he very idea that America hasn’t been converted into a paramilitarized Nation of Fear is absurd on its face. Most foreign policy and domestic civil liberties erosions are grounded in little other than that.

The Tea Party and the GOP primary electorate — They’re almost one and the same. Shocking, I know.

What is Socialism and what is not — Addressing GOP/Tea Party/FOX newspeak. Which is admittedly pissing in the wind, but they’ve been awfully good at redefining loaded terms in nonsensical ways. (Via Steve Buchheit.)

Tags: 911, Books, Cancer, Contests, Endurance, healthcare, Japan, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, Tech

Posted: 5:38 am Tue September 13 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad came back with a lock of your hair

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

benpeek is clever about the latest Orson Scott Card disgrace

Writer Ed Bryant needs some help — A combination of healthcare and housing issues threatens him.

New Implant Can Monitor Tumors Continuously — Researchers ultimately hope to combine the tiny sensor with a device to deliver targeted chemotherapy only when the tumor becomes more aggressive.

The Trouble With Homework

Gaddafi’s Creepy Love Den

Another faith-healing death of a child puts Oregon City parents on trial — I find it very difficult to summon sympathy for the actions of these parents. Why is religion allowed to so pervasively privilege what would otherwise be unacceptable behavior in civil society?

Postal Workers: The Last Union — More on the GOP’s relentless dismantling of the American middle class and opportunities for job security and upward mobility. (Via David Goldman.)

The Years of Shame — Paul Krugman on our responses to 9/11.

US will never be at war with Islam: Obama — Almost literally the only thing I respect George W. (“OK, you covered your ass. You can go now.”) Bush for was his insistence on this point. Of course, his advisors and supporters muddied that water horribly for electoral reasons, so the point was largely lost.

How much has Obama learned? — The president’s speech to Congress and the Republican presidential debate last week should have taught us that we are no longer in the world of civics textbooks in which our political parties split their differences and arrive at imperfect but reasonably satisfactory solutions. To be more accurate, the GOP is not in that world. The Democrats keep trying to govern, and get kicked in the teeth by Republican electioneering every time. Viz Senator Lott’s highest stated legislative priority — not jobs or deficit spending or dealing with Mr. Bush’s wars, but ensuring that Obama is a one-term president. That’s not governance, that’s politics in bald-faced nutshell.

?otD: That night that you planned to go clear, did you ever go clear?

9/12/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.0 hours (naps plus fitful overnight)
Weight: 223.0
Currently reading: Antiphon by Ken Scholes

Tags: 911, Books, Contests, Endurance, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, Writing

Posted: 5:32 am Mon September 12 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad for the 9/11 anniversary

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

A reader reacts to Green — A positive review from gerryhuntman. Among other things, he touches on the (baffling to me) negative response several reviewers have had to the dedication.

Those darn fan letters (or, you know. Emails) — Urban fantasy author J.A. Pitts talks about his fanmail. Touching.

Charlie Stross asks “What do you think is the most important novel of the past 10-and-a-bit years (published since January 1st 2000)? All male authors are disqualified.” — Interesting comments.

Scientists Reveal How Hummingbirds Sing with Their Tail Fethers

NASA fanfare for Orion progress as welds begins on the OFT-1 vehicle

World in Transit Hides ‘Invisible’ Planet in Its Solar System

Witnessing Hell — Writer Sonia Lyris on looking back at 9/11.

9/11 dwarfed the films about it — Roger Ebert on 9/11.

Ten Years after 9/11, Do the Arabs value Democracy more than We do? — Some critics trace the debt and budget crisis to the Bush wars, but in a $14.5 trillion a year economy, the $1 trillion spent on the wars over a decade was not decisive. The real cost of the wars of aggression was a decline in the standing of the US abroad, a gutting of the UN Charter and international legal norms, and a de facto repeal civil liberties at home.

9/11: The Decade Since — I have profound respect for 9/11 and what is meant to this country, but not for our response it. 9/11 killed slightly under 3,000 people. In that same year, 2001, 29,573 died of gun violence in the United States. 931,108 of cardiovascular disease. Other major causes of death in 2001 were cancer, 553,768; accidents, 101,537; Alzheimer’s disease, 53,852; and HIV 14,175. Those numbers have held up every year since, as deaths by terrorism have not. We did not go on trillion dollar+ parxoysm of needless security theatre and foreign wars-of-choice under knowingly false premises and runaway deficit spending and dismantling of civil liberties and politicization/rank partisanship as a result of those vastly higher death rates, many of them highly preventable. We did not open commissions or establish payouts for the victims of all those other deaths. Which saddens me for our social priorities. Was 3,000 lives worth what we did? Wouldn’t a better memorial to 9/11 and its victims have been improving conditions at home across the board rather than degrading our national standing aboard?

?otD: Where were you that day?

9/11/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo)
Body movement: 0.0. hours (chemo)
Hours slept: 11.5 hours (badly interrupted)
Weight: 225.0
Currently reading: Antiphon by Ken Scholes

Tags: 911, Books, Contests, Endurance, Links, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, Writing

Posted: 8:19 am Sun September 11 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad gets slowly infused

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

A reader reacts to Endurance — He liked it.

Queering Shakespeare: reflections on damaging tropes, and some positive alternatives — Julia Rios at Outer Alliance on Shakespear, queers and the peurile vileness that is Orson Scott Card’s worldview.

On 9/11, astronaut looked down on horrific scene

Rollback from GRAIL’s Rocket — APOD with a neat time-lapse photograh.

NASA successfully tests five-segment solid rocket motor — World’s largest, apparently. I originally found this story through a FOX news site, but I refuse, even to link to them as a source.

Saturn Moon Has Thin Atmosphere, Astronomers Discover — Icy body Dione may have dilute layer of oxygen air, study says.

Scientists develop blood swimming ‘microspiders’ to heal injuries, deliver drugs — Fantastic Voyage, anyone? (Thanks to cornwynofamber.)

The Battle Over Zomia — Scholars are enchanted by the notion of this anarchic region in Asia. But how real is it? (Thanks to danjite.)

They Messed With Texas — Perry and the death penalty.

California Republicans Going Extinct? — Given Prop 8 and the recent history of the California govenorship, I don’t actually believe this, but it’s an interesting read.

How the Apocalyptic GOP is Dragging us Into Civil War — But for the new GOP, compromise of any kind defeats their central purpose, which is political totale krieg. This party’s entire reason for being is conflict and aggression. There is no underlying patriotic instinct to find middle ground with the rest of us, because the party doesn’t have a vision for society that includes anyone outside the tent. That’s what happens when you religionize your politics, and brand anyone who stands against you sinful and a traitor. I’ll looking at you guys Atwater, Aisles and Rove.

?otD: How many drips in a drop?

9/10/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo)
Body movement: 0.0. hours (chemo)
Hours slept: 17.5 hours (maps, lenghty overnight … ah, chemo)
Weight: 227.0
Currently reading: Antiphon by Ken Scholes

Tags: Books, California, Contests, Culture, Endurance, gay, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, Texas

Posted: 9:52 am Sat September 10 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad at D’Anjite’s Bridge

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Keeping Track of Wordcount — Carrie Vaughn Is Sensible. And given that her sales numbers are 50X mine or something like that, maybe she knows a thing or two.

25 Things You Should Know About Queries, Synopses and Treatments — (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

The Elephant in the Room — Editor Gabrielle Harbowy, a 9/11 survivor, talks about coping now with the tenth anniversary looming.

9/11 and its great transformations — After 9/11 we lost our way, but buried beneath many wrong turns is a character that has been redeemed in the past.

The Mosaic Pre-Man — Newly excavated Australopithecus sediba fossils exhibit a mixture of primitive and more modern features. I originally read this headline as an Old Testament reference, which certain caused some mismatched expectations. Creeping Creationism!

Board Game Brings the Difficulties of Climate Negotiations Home — Mmm, Catan. (Thanks to martang.)

Hail to thee, our alma mater — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the links between private Christian schooling, racism and Dominionism.

Republican candidates, global warming, evolution, and reality — How we’ve gotten ourselves to the point where one of the two biggest props in our political system requires willful ignorance on the part of the candidaates in order for them to succeed…

Obama and Jobs: Why I Don’t Believe Him Anymore — Yeah, well. Sigh. I hate hold-your-nose voting, but that’s what the next election is going to come down to. I enthusiastically voted for Obama last time. This time I’ll be voting against [insertAntiRealityGOPLoonHere].

?otD: Churn much waste lately?

9/9/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 227.2
Currently reading: Antiphon by Ken Scholes

Tags: Books, Contests, Culture, Endurance, Links, Personal, Politics, Process, Publishing, Religion, Science, Writing

Posted: 6:33 am Fri September 09 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad looks over the horizon

Don’t forget the new Endurance ARC contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Footprints and flags on the moon won’t last forever — Footprints, anyone?

A drink a day linked to healthy aging — Good news for all you budding lushes out there.

A fall from grace — Roger Ebert on his health, and frailty. I know whereof he speaks.

A 7-ton Satellite to Fall on Earth This Month

Climate Scientists’ Pole-to-Pole Greenhouse Gas Survey Near Completion

Wildfire Smoke Plumes over Texas — This is a terrible problem. I have friends and relatives whose property (and potentially lives) are threatened. Still, I think Pharyngula comment on the Texas drought perfectly applies to this as well. To my conservative friends who claim to believe that natural disasters are a form of divine commentary: Why is God punishing Texas?

Banning All Religion — An interesting squib from Australia.

Channeling FDR: The Moral Case Against Unemployment — Unfortunately, our politics has become downright punitively Calvinistic about the unemployed. Even more unfortunately, nearly half the electorate seems to be fine with this.

The Myth of Conservative Purity — A conservative view of the Right’s no-compromise tendencies.

Dick Cheney praises Hillary Clinton — Also, this just in: monkeys have flown out of my butt to deliver hockey sticks to Hell.

Asymmetrical War — Ta-Nehisi Coates on Republican obstructionism. As he says of Obama’s view of Boehner and McConnell, And we wonder what portion of “Government is the problem” he failed to understand.

Pass, Fail and Politics — Call me crazy, but I actually want someone smarter than I am in the Oval Office. Unfortunately, millions of my fellow Americans demonstrably would rather have someone they’re comfortable having a beer with. A valedictorian president or a frat boy president? Is that really our political divide?

?otD: Where would you go if you could?

9/8/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.0 hours (fitful)
Weight: 226.0
Currently reading: Antiphon by Ken Scholes

Tags: Australia, Books, Contests, Endurance, healthcare, Links, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Religion, Science, Texas

Posted: 5:05 am Thu September 08 2011 | Comments(1) |