Jay Lake: Writer

[conventions|repost] Announcing JayCon XII

This is a repost, which I will roll forward about once a month through the spring

In celebration of my natal anniversary, JayCon XII, my 12th annual 37th birthday party, is Saturday, June 9th, 2012 from 2 to 5 pm at the Flying Pie in SE Portland. We’re partying because I was born, and because I have beat cancer again and again.

If you can read this, you’re invited. Prior JayCon experience not required.

Note that I am announcing this early because people always tell me, “You should have told me sooner!” Except for the people who tell me, “It’s too soon, remind me later.” (Sometimes these are the same people.)

Flying Pie Pizzeria
7804 SE Stark Street
Portland, 97215
(503) 254-2016

http://www.flying-pie.com/

[ Google Maps ]

As is traditional for JayCon, Paul M. Carpentier is specifically not invited.

Tags: Cancer, Conventions, health, JayCon, Personal, Portland, Repost

Posted: 4:42 am Thu May 03 2012 | Comments(1) |

[funny] Conversations in Omaha

On the way out of my hotel yesterday morning to head for work, I stopped to chat with the day manager, who was taking over from the night clerk. (I stay there so often we’ve all been on a first name basis for years.) We were discussing my burgeoning head of hair, and I mentioned that I’d managed to save the chest port from the recent surgery to remove it. We also talked about the fact that I had samples of my liver and my colon at home. She said, “Only a man would do that.” I said, “I carried this stuff around in my body for months and years. Don’t women keep their children?”

Later that same day, talking to a woman at the Day Jobbe office about the pronounciation of her unusual surname, she said to, “Yes, sometimes I look in the phone book for dates. I like to pick men with easy last names.” This cracked me up.

Ah, Omaha. Comedy gold.

Tags: Cancer, Funny, health, Omaha, Personal, work

Posted: 4:41 am Thu May 03 2012 | Comments(1) |

[links] Link salad has been hauled away by Mr. Peabody’s coal train

More Bad Book Covers — A blogger takes umbrage with book covers on one my Tor books, and one of Seanan McGuire’s books.

Fine-tuning Nanotech to Target Cancer — Programmable nanoparticles have shown promise in early cancer trials, and may finally fulfill the promise of nanomedicine.

Freezing Time — Targeting the briefest moment in chemistry may lead to an exceptionally strong new class of drugs. Wow, does that headline sound like a story title.

Oldest human blood cells found in well-preserved ‘iceman,’ say scientists — Oldest human blood cells: Discovered in 1991, the body of a man who was felled by an arrow in the Alps some 5,300 years ago still has intact red blood cells, scientists have discovered.

10 strange fast food items abroad — Strange from a USAnian perspective, of course.

Finally, a Shark With a Laser — Because sometimes life just has to imitate art.

1859′s “Great Auroral Storm”—the week the Sun touched the earth

A Mélange of Ice — What a beautiful photo.

Student left in cell 4 days recalls hallucinations — The War on Drugs, keeping you safer since, well, never.

The Self-Made Myth: Debunking Conservatives’ Favorite — And Most Dangerous — Fiction

Wife Of NC Amendment One Supporter: Husband Wrote Bill To Preserve ‘Caucasian Race’ — Ah, conservatives. Your racism and homophobia are just part of what makes us all love you so much. There is simply no liberal equivalent to this kind of institutionalized Republican lunacy, not outside the far fringes of the progressive movement.

Chris Christie’s Liabilities as GOP Running Mate — Heh.

‘Hyperpartisan discussion’ ends gay spokesman’s stint with Romney — I continue to be fascinated by this story, mostly in wondering about the psychological train wreck that is any gay American working for the Republican party as it is constituted today.

?otd: Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County, down by the Green River where Paradise lay?

5/3/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (2,600 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 60 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 8.0 (fitful)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie

Tags: Art, Books, Cancer, Cool, Food, gay, health, Links, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, race, Science, weird

Posted: 4:37 am Thu May 03 2012 | Comments(4) |

[writing] Back on Their Currents Turn Awry

I managed to bang out 4,600 words on Their Currents Turn Awry yesterday. I was feeling a little uneasy about my days-long hiatus from working on the book, though I recognize logically enough that the combination of the port removal surgery and the fourth anniversary of my cancer was deeply distracting.

It’s good to slip back into the headspace of the characters. My sense of muddling has receded from where it was a week or two ago, and I am definitely on the downhill run toward wrapping this first draft of Sunspin‘s second volume. I’m also definitely at the stage of thinking, “This is stupid, no one’s going to want to read this tripe.” In other words, situation normal for this author.

I started reading Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself a couple of days ago. Man, is he hard on his characters. Everything is fast and difficult from page one. Sunspin isn’t like that. I’m moving a different kind of pace, more deliberate. So at the moment, Joe is making me feel inadequate. Like I want to say to myself, “Quick, kill somebody!” Except this is a different book.

It’s funny how we look to others. I believe I’m a perfectly good writer who sometimes can trend towards great. (I have to believe that, otherwise I’d never sit down at a keyboard.) Yet there are so many ways to go about this. “There are nine and sixty ways / Of constructing tribal lays / And every single one of them is right.” And when I’ve chosen one path, all those other paths look so much more attractive.

Sort of like when you order the chicken parmigiana and then salivate over every other dish that comes out of the restaurant kitchen.

Ah, writing. Insecurity must really be part of the process.

Tags: Books, Cancer, Currents, health, Sunspin, Writing

Posted: 4:51 am Tue May 01 2012 | Comments(2) |

[travel] Off to Omaha again

I’m off to Omaha again. A bit short-slept, eager to be back on Their Currents Turn Awry after a weekend of cancer echoes and chest pain. We shall see. Blogging and email service may be irregular.

Whatever you’re doing this week, be well.

Tags: Books, Cancer, Currents, health, Omaha, Travel, Writing

Posted: 4:25 am Mon April 30 2012 | Comments(1) |

[cancer] Happy Cancerversary

Four years ago today I was admitted to the hospital with copious rectal bleeding, which turned into my cancer diagnosis.

Today I’m having family and a few friends over to celebrate the fact that I’ve survived four years with Stage Four colon cancer. As it happens, this past Friday my second chest port was removed, so we’ll be honoring that outbreak of optimism as well.

I got to keep this one:

So, yeah. My brain’s been kind of eaten these past few days, but the stress is basically good stress. Getting my life back, at least for a while.

Today: Happy Cancerversary. Tomorrow I’m off to Omaha, back on Their Currents Turn Awry, and back to real life

Photo © 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: Books, Cancer, Currents, health, Omaha, Personal, Photos, Travel, Writing

Posted: 7:01 am Sun April 29 2012 | Comments(4) |

[conventions] Write to Publish

Had a good time yesterday at Ooligan Press’ Write to Publish conference. kenscholes was there, as was ramblin_phyl, Jason Brock and a number of other folks. Plus I meant some neat new people, including Allison Moon.

It was a well-run conference put on by Portland State University’s student-run press. The panels were nicely moderated with some good questions. The mix of folks attending was rather different from what I see at SF conventions, et cetera.

I dragged a little more than I expected I would, due to pain and fatigue from Friday’s chest port extraction. Still, very glad I went. Wouldn’t mind going again next year if they do more genre stuff.

Tags: Cancer, Conventions, friends, health, Personal, Portland

Posted: 6:59 am Sun April 29 2012 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Having the port taken out

Yesterday, in a fit of optimism I had my chest port removed. The surgeon distracted me by chatting about publishing the whole time, while poor mlerules watched. She and the physician’s assistant N— both used my iPhone to photograph the procedure.

Under cut for potential medical ick…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cancer, health, Photos

Posted: 6:57 am Sat April 28 2012 | Comments(3) |

[cancer] Having the port taken out today

I’m off in a couple of hours to the clinic to have my chest port removed, for the second time. It’s a very minor outpatient procedure lasting less than an hour under local anaesthetic only. Which involves a doctor and a nurse digging about in my chest for most of that time, via an entry wound just close enough to my right clavicle that I can’t actually see what they’re doing. Fairly twitchy about that, even though I’ve had this exact procedure before. The last time, I was so nervous that I took two Lorazepam before I went in. By the time I got to the clinic, I could barely walk, I was so looped.

I think I’ll stick to one Lorazepam this time.

Of course, after mentioning last night to mlerules how well I sleep and how consistently I sleep well, I had a terrible night’s sleep. Though I wasn’t consciously worrying about the procedure today, I rather assume that medical stress played its part.

I’ve lunch with a friend from high school today, and I’m due at the Ooligan Press social tonight with lizzyshannon and the_child, otherwise I’d be tempted to pop two Lorazepam, call in a sick day, and sleep off the stress post-procedure.

So, yeah. Yesterday’s no writing was due to schedule whackiness (of the good kind, a nice potluck dinner, among other things) and me wanting a day of brain break between sections of Their Currents Turn Awry. It’s quite possible today will be no writing as well due to me being in a drug-induced haze and medically stressed out. Or not. We shall see.

Tags: Books, Cancer, Child, Conventions, Currents, friends, health, Personal, Process, Sunspin, Writing

Posted: 5:40 am Fri April 27 2012 | Comments(5) |

[links] Link salad likes both kinds of music

Endurance by Jay Lake — A review of my most recent Green novel from a feminist perspective. As it happens, this comes fairly close to my own view of the book.

Ancient language controls crime rings — Some gang members serving prison sentences are using an ancient language to try to keep control of their criminal organizations on the outside as corrections officers work fast to crack the code. (Via @lilithsaintcrow.)

Pop Culture’s 40-Year Itch

Europe as seen by… — (Snurched from Andrew Wheeler.)

Can You Make Yourself Smarter? — Maybe.

It gets to me, sometimes — Anonymous Doc on the endless round of struggle and pain he sees in the hospital. This line caught at me: That there are lots of people out there living their lives and enjoying them, and not waiting for the next shoe to drop. People who aren’t professional patients. People who aren’t just biding their time until their diagnoses come to get them. I’ve been a professional patient these last four years, especially these past three, and even now am biding my time until my diagnosis comes to get me. I’ve seen this bitterly from the other side.

Silent Hives — Colony collapse disorder and pesticides, fifty years after Silent Spring.

Global Warming & Climate Change Myths — Denialism, whether of global warming or evolution or just reality in general, is like criminal defense. The denialist pecks away at the evidence in individual chunks, never responsible for providing a coherent framework to explain the aggregate hypothesis. Each point the denialist attempts to make is under no obligation to interact sensibly with any other point. So large, well supported bodies of evidence can be safely ignored by otherwise intelligent people blinded by ideology or faith, who are being manipulated by cynical opportunists. Sort of like the OJ trial. (Snurched from Slacktivist.)

Vast Mexico Bribery Case Hushed Up by Wal-Mart After Top-Level Struggle — …a prolonged struggle at the highest levels of Wal-Mart, a struggle that pitted the company’s much publicized commitment to the highest moral and ethical standards against its relentless pursuit of growth. See, this is precisely why we need less government regulation of business, so companies will be free to cover up their misdeeds and protect their profits. Conservative paradise! Industry self-regulation for the win!

Can young evangelicals move beyond the Religious Right? — You know, it would be very easy for me to be snarky and cynical about the message of this piece, but I really want to take it seriously. Maybe this is a step in the right direction. (Snurched from Slacktivist.)

The Bourbon Democrats rise again? — “The Bourbon [Democratic-written] constitution of 1875 was a victory for prosperous . . . Alabamians who did not want to pay taxes to improve the lives of those less fortunate than themselves and who did not want to finance commercial development that did not benefit them directly.” What contemporary political party comes to mind?

Romney blames Obama for factory that closed under Bush — Considering that the entire Tea Party movement is founded on blaming Obama for things Bush did, why is this even news?

Sheriff Joe’s world crumbles — The controversial Arizona cop is prepping for a possible trial. But already, his closest allies have fallen. This amazes me. I always thought Arpaio was one of those conservative Untouchables, the real life version of what Republicans liked to pretend Bill Clinton secretly was.

?otd: Country or Western?

4/22/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (3,500 words on Their Currents Turn Awry)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.25 (solid)
Weight: 239.8
Currently reading: Somewhere Else by Sally McLennan

Tags: Books, Cancer, climate, Culture, Endurance, Funny, Green, health, healthcare, Language, Links, Mexico, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, weird

Posted: 6:20 am Sun April 22 2012 | Comments(0) |