Jay Lake: Writer

[personal|travel] Home from Texas

I got home from Texas yesterday afternoon. Managed to jam in some good work on the Little Dog synopsis, including an audio readthrough. Also wrote a requested short called “The Cancer Catechism”. I may have overshot the mark a bit on that one, it’s a lot more intense than the market might be wanting. I guess I’ll find out when I send it in.

Yesterday when I posted about Tuesday’s open dinner, as my cousin N— reminded me, I totally forgot to talk about the funniest part. Shortly after we’d been seated, and a while before our party filled the table, people started coming up to us and asking if we were atheists. This happened three or four times in the space of fifteen minutes. We were absolutely baffled as to what was going on. It was hilarious.

Turns out the Atheist Meetup was happening that night at Threadgill’s, and we’d accidentally been given their usual table. The hostess had confused us with that group — I can’t imagine why.

Little Dog is now off for some expert reading on gender issues in the book. “The Cancer Catechism” is now off to my usual gang of first readers. And, erm, there’s this radio interview today.

What, me, busy?

Tags: Books, family, Funny, interviews, Little Dog, Personal, Religion, stories, Texas, Travel, Writing

Posted: 4:46 am Thu March 22 2012 | Comments(1) |

[food] Last night’s open dinner

Last night’s open dinner was terrific. We had nine people, including me, meeting up at Threadgill’s in south Austin. My old friends Chris W. Johnson and Brendan Boerner, whom I’ve known since about 1986, turned up. So did my cousin N—, whom I see only once every few years. She came up from San Antonio. Some of the usual suspects were there, including mrtact, Sean Kelley, @dratz and Mrs. @dratz, as well as Austin area fan and writer John Gibbons.

A good time was had by all, and many calories were consumed. The cross-pollination was fun, too.

Me and my cousin

Photo © 2012 D. Reynolds, reproduced with permission.

Tags: family, Food, friends, Texas

Posted: 3:06 am Wed March 21 2012 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is a regular Frankie fan

Subterranean announces their Spring, 2012 table of contents — Including my Sunspin novella, “The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future”.

A photo of me and my siblings ca. 1974 — (Via lillypond, a/k/a my sister.)

Girls’ Time Travel Attempt Leads To Suicide In China

Cube laser virtual keyboard for iPhone & iPad — :: wants ::

Cloning and resurrecting the mammoth? Not so fast

Human fossils hint at new species — The accompanying photo of a skull looks a lot like Darth Vader. Homo sith, anyone?

Disturbing and poignant video about a self-aware robot tests game-engine’s limitations — (Via willyumtx.)

A 77-year-old man from Oklahoma cannot deny human-caused climate change — Slacktivist Fred Clark on Republican Senator Inhofe’s allegedly Bible based climate change denial.

Abortion bill raises KU Med accreditation concerns — Why would anti-science conservatives even care?

Georgia Republican Compares Women to Cows, Pigs, And Chickens — Stay classy, conservative America. It’s what you do best. And people, when you vote GOP, whatever your reasons, you’re enabling and endorsing a hell of a lot of very destructive crazy, just like this. Are you proud of your Republican party?

Democrats ride Romney’s Planned Parenthood remark — As well they should. Romney was being honest about the destructive GOP agenda. Keeping that in the minds of voters is the right thing to do.

Under what party did gasoline and oil prices reach their peak? Republican, of course — Not that the historical record stops the GOP from flat out lying about this.

Don’t you know that it’s different for hippies — Or why conservatives are protected from the consequences of their actions. Dixie Chicks vs Rush Limbaugh, anyone?

?otd: Was it great when it all began?

3/15/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.5 hours (WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.0 (fitful)
Weight: 236.6
Currently reading: Blood of Orange by Lizzy Shannon; Requiem by Ken Scholes

Tags: cars, China, climate, Cool, family, gender, Links, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, Science, sex, stories, Sunspin, Videos

Posted: 5:19 am Thu March 15 2012 | Comments(2) |

[food] Mmmm momos

Yesterday’s momo [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] party was great good fun. the_child and I arrived at Dad and (step)Mom’s place around 10:30. Friends J— and T— showed up shortly thereafter to help cook. lillypond (a/k/a my sister) turned up as well, then tillyjane (a/k/a my mom) and the Niece came by as well, as did lizzyshannon and Mother of the Child.

We made vegetarian, chicken, lamb and buffalo momos, as well as apple filled and onion filled momos. Various folks brought relish trays, vegetables, cheese and so forth. A magnificent feast was had, and lots of good conversation.

Tags: family, Food, friends, Personal

Posted: 6:33 am Sun March 11 2012 | Comments(0) |

[personal] Stuff and things

This morning I walked ninety minutes. That’s the longest walk I’ve taken since before I got sick again in the spring of last year. I think I’m about ready to start hiking, hooray!

Today I am having a momo [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] party for my family and a few friends. Much cookery and conversation will abound.

Tomorrow mlerules, the_child and me are going downstate to Springfield to hear my friend Dave Raines preach. Yes, this atheist is going to church.

Somewhere in all this there will probably be more work on Going to Extremes, and a few other bits of WRPA maybe — I owe a blurb and an interview, among other things — but pretty much I am Having a Weekend. Like a normal person.

Tags: Books, Child, Extremes, family, Food, friends, Oregon, Personal, Religion, Travel, Writing

Posted: 8:07 am Sat March 10 2012 | Comments(1) |

[personal] Mild illness and anxiety dreams

Ever since coming back from Rainforest Writers Village, I’ve been experiencing intermittent mild joint pain and excessive (but not overwhelming) fatigue. That’s part of why I fell off the wagon on walking in the morning, though I have stuck to the stationary bike in keeping my basic body movement up. I’ve just needed to sleep a lot more than ought to be normal for me right now.

I thought this was me having overdone it over the weekend, but yesterday on the group mailing list it came out that a bunch of folks who were there had developed a full range of symptoms up to and including full on flu. As I had a flu shot last fall, it’s quite possible I also got the flu but have been fighting it relatively easily. At any rate, it’s good to have some explanation for my mild symptoms since returning.

Last night I had a classic anxiety dream. This was so mundane I hesitate to report the thing here, except that I find it amusing. I was living in the back room of a hip warehouse office in the imaginary downtown of some imaginary city that was a subconscious stand-in for Portland. Dad came by to see me, and I wanted to go back to his place to have lunch with him and Mom. I kept worrying about where all my cars were. I couldn’t quite remember how many I had and where they were all parked. So instead we walked to the elevated train, except as we were mounting the steps to the station, I suddenly realized I was naked and they wouldn’t let me onto the train that way. Dad handed me a towel, but it wasn’t enough.

Exciting being me, ain’t it?

Tags: cars, Conventions, dreams, family, Personal

Posted: 6:45 am Wed March 07 2012 | Comments(3) |

[personal] Leap day mumblings and miscellaneous updatery

I do a fair amount of event work — master of ceremonies, charity auctioneer, and whatnot. Plus the occasional bit of improv comedy. Plus tons of convention panels. One important lesson I’ve learned over the years of being on stage or behind the podium is never try compete for attention with a cattle auctioneer. (Trust me on this.) No one can possibly be as loud, snappy or entertaining as someone who does that professionally.

Another important lesson I’ve learned in that situation is never try to compete for attention with a clown on a unicycle in a strait-jacket. (Trust me on this, too.) After he came on, I lost the audience completely.

Last night, I added a third rule. Never compete for attention with puppets. (Really, really, trust me on this.)

Luckily, Mary Robinette Kowal is so utterly charming that even when she is destroying you socially and crippling your book sales with a totally unfair comedic puppet show you can only be amused and enchanted. And we did have a good time being hosted by the terrific booksellers at the airport Powell’s. the_child and most of the rest of my family were there, which was terrific. Some friends even turned up. And we did sell some books.

In other news, the_child and I head out to Seattle this afternoon for Mark Bourne’s funeral tomorrow morning. I’ve got the eulogy in a full and nearly final draft. This is one of the toughest things I have ever written. My profound thanks to everyone who has contributed stories, information and time to review it.

In other, other news, somewhere in the next few days Calamity of So Long a Life (Sunspin volume one) will soon be tottering to a close. For obvious reasons I’ve been a bit distracted from my focus on that goal these past few days. So I’ll miss my self-imposed deadline of, well, today, by two or three days. It’s in a good cause, however.

I still haven’t had a chance to decompress and process my feelings even from the new cancer information of the past few weeks, let alone the deaths of Mark and Kathryn. I sort of wonder if I’m going to have a screaming meltdown at the Rainforest Writers Village this weekend. (Hopefully in the privacy of my own cabin, if so.)

Off to be busy. Happy Leap Day, everyone.

Photo © 2012, B. Lake

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

Tags: Books, Calamity, Cancer, Child, Conventions, family, health, Personal, Photos, Seattle, Sunspin, Travel, Writing

Posted: 6:46 am Wed February 29 2012 | Comments(6) |

[photos] Peerless Magnarc Lamp, Jones Theatre, Westcliffe, CO

Peerless Magnarc Lamp, Jones Theatre, Westcliffe, CO

Photos © 2012, 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: Colorado, Cool, family, Personal, Photos, Tech

Posted: 6:30 am Tue February 28 2012 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Visiting Monarch Pass, Colorado

Saturday we drove up to Monarch Pass in the Gunnison National Forest. Cold but fun.

Me at the Continental Divide

My aunt and her sweetie

My mom and my aunt

A ski-ready dog we met in the parking lot at the top of the pass

The visitors’ center, apparently closed for the season

The funicular, likewise closed

An old mine head in the pass

Another view of same

Photos © 2012, M. Bryant and Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

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

Tags: Colorado, family, Personal, Photos

Posted: 6:35 am Mon February 27 2012 | Comments(0) |

[travel|writing] Heading home from Colorado amid a weekend of loss

I’m heading home from Colorado today. tillyjane (a/k/a my mom) and I had great fun Friday night watching my aunt (her youngest sister) act in The House of Bernarda Alba. Saturday we all loaded up in my aunt’s car and toured about to Monarch Pass, as well as Salida, CO and various other points. Photoblogging to come, watch this space for more.

I also finished the machine-assisted audio walkthrough of Calamity of So Long a Life. That was a highly beneficial process. I’ll have more to report after I’ve mulled it over a few days, but this will definitely be a critical step in future novel manuscripts.

Finally and most importantly, there is of course the news of the passing away of my dear friend and fellow writer Mark Bourne. It was sudden and unexpected. My deepest condolences to Elizabeth and all his family and friends. This saddens me deeply.

Likewise, I’ve been told (but not yet confirmed) that Kathryn Daugherty passed away yesterday. She was a fan, a friend, and a fellow colon cancer patient. My condolences to James and all her family and friends.

More to come, when time permits.

Tags: Books, Calamity, Colorado, family, friends, Travel, Writing

Posted: 5:18 am Sun February 26 2012 | Comments(2) |