Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad parties with the pros in San Jose

“Into the Gardens of Sweet Night” by Jay Lake — A review of my 2003 Hugo-nominated novella.

Stone Age Cinema — This is cool.

Brain Stimulation Can Boost Math Skills — The study was small-scale and is not something that should be replicated at home, because of the possibility of harm/ Ya think? (Via David Goldman.)

Farm Equipment That Runs on Oats

Huge Rock Crashes Into Moon, Sparks Giant Explosion

Climate research nearly unanimous on human causes, survey finds — Of more than 4,000 academic papers published over 20 years, 97.1% agreed that climate change is anthropogenic. Reality’s well-known liberal bias is not an inherent property of the physical universe. Rather, it’s an emergent property of conservative privileging of ideological thinking over evidence-based thinking. Conservatives would serve themselves and the country as a whole a great deal better if they relied less on arguments from authority and more on arguments from reality.

Justifiable Cause — The Obama administration is making the case for conservatism better than Mitt Romney ever did. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The Great Benghazi Conspiracy and Republican Forgeries — As I said on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, GOP makes up fake White House Benghazi emails, cons news with fakes, now can accuse White House of covering up when real emails are released. Classy. The worst part, it works. Keeps their white men angry over outright lies.

QotD?: Have you handicapped the Nebula ballot?

5/18/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (WRPA)
Hours slept: 4.25 hours (solid, but yikes!)
Body movement: n/a
Weight: n/a
Number of FEMA troops on my block covering up evidence about Benghazi: 0
Currently reading: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Art, climate, Cool, history, Links, Personal, Politics, reviews, Science, space, stories, weird

Posted: 6:01 am Sat May 18 2013 | Comments(2) |

[writing|cancer] We can write the gospels so they’ll still talk about us when we’ve died

Some years ago, I was in a discussion with the mighty, mighty Tim Pratt about why we write. At this point, I cannot recall if it was private conversation, email, a Con panel, bar chatter, a joint interview or what. What I do recall quite strongly was me making some fairly high flying statement about literary ambition and being read even after my time as a writer had passed. Tim claimed that he wrote to pay the rent.

To this day, I’m not certain how serious he was. I absolutely deserved to have my leg pulled at that point. I’m pretty sure I was overfilled with my own sense of self-importance in the moment. Pegs needed to be taken down, and whatnot. But even so, there’s a valid discussion here.

For one, I don’t write to pay the rent. I have a Day Jobbe for that. It pays reasonably well, is moderately entertaining, minimally stressful, and I like what I do while working with good people and for a good employer. Chances are pretty strong that if we ever talked about it, I’d bore you to tears, but I like my work. That’s what counts.

But the writing? I write because I want to write. I write because I’m in love with the language. I write because the buzz I get from doing a really nifty thing on the page is tangible. I write because I like to be read. I write because I like having readers. And, yes, in I write for posterity. (Which statement could be argued to mean that I write to make an ass of myself, but that’s the English language for you: riddled with half-baked puns and deceptive etymologies.) Money is mostly a way of keeping score, and far from the only method of doing so.

Literary posterity is a funny thing. The author of The Epic of Gilgamesh is anonymous. Most people with much of an education can name Homer as the poet who wrote the Odyssey. Some people know about the Illiad, or that he was supposedly blind. I don’t think anybody but Classicists knows much else about him, even in terms of what tradition says. By the time you get to Sophocles and his lot, there’s at least a little biography attached to the texts. William Shakespeare has entire fields of study around him, complete with academic controversy, revisionism and all the other fun of postmodernist thought.

Who writing today will be subject to that kind of literary posterity? Not me, certainly. But it’s hard to tell. Edward Bulwer-Lytton was the great hope of nineteenth century English letters. Today, his work is literally a joke. His contemporary Charles Dickens was widely reviled by the academic and critical establishment of the day as a hack. Who is the more widely read now?

My guess is of twentieth century authors in popular American letters, we’re most likely to see Stephen King and Nora Roberts on college reading lists a century from now. Not the only ones, of course, but I cannot pretend to know which critical darlings and academically significant authors will also be read.

What I can and do know is that I will not be among them.

I’m okay with that. My vanity is a little disappointed, of course, but my common sense knows better.

What I do hope for is to stay on the shelf a while after I pass. It comforts me that some people love Mainspring or Green or some of my short fiction. It please me that I’m in translation across at least a dozen languages. It pleases me that my work will always be at least footnoted in the history of various awards. It pleases me that people have read me, and for a while at least, will continue to read me.

In a way, that’s always been why I write. To raise my voice a little higher, and have it heard a little longer. The end is coming, and I won’t write all that much more in my life, but I’m happy with what I’ve been able to do. I only wish I could have done more.

Tags: Cancer, friends, health, history, Personal, Publishing, Writing

Posted: 5:24 am Tue May 14 2013 | Comments(17) |

[links] Link salad prove to you that it’s no fool, walks across your swimming pool

It’s hard to rely on my good intentions, when my head’s full of things that I can’t mention — Lisa Costello on how my cancer news is affecting her.

Game Theory and the Treatment of Cancer — Thinking about cancer as an ecosystem is giving biologists access to a new armoury of mathematical tools for tackling it, such as evolutionary game theory.

The History of Typography – Animated Short — This is kind of nifty. (Via threeoutside.)

Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More — Ancient languages and eccentric professors. It doesn’t get any better! (Via my Dad.)

Dull Flag and Tongue of Gangsta: The Laugh-out-loud Place-names of Shetland and Orkney

Beatnik JFK: 1957 — For some reason, I find this photo very funny.

Researcher Analyzes Oldest Fossil Hominid Ear Bones Ever Recovered

Fossil Amber Challenges Theories About Glass — Scientists discover that glass doesn’t flow like a liquid.

Kangaroos have three vaginas — Mmm, marsupials. (Via David Goldman.)

One Small Step for Geoengineering — or Is “Ecoengineering” Better?

Space Oddity — David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. We are indeed living in the future. (Via David Goldman and others.)

‘Einstein’s Planet’: New Alien World Revealed by Relativity

Climate Sensitivity Stunner: Last Time CO2 Levels Hit 400 Parts Per Million The Arctic Was 14°F Warmer!

The Dark Art of Racecraft — Jason Richwine’s place in the long history of research on race and IQ. Ta-Nehisi Coates is powerful on race and racism in academic tradition.

Infographic: Is Your State’s Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably) — I’m so proud of America at moments like this. With all the budget problems of government, and all the human suffering in our debated economy, we still have our priorities straight. (Via danjite.)

Japan WWII ‘comfort women’ were ‘necessary’ – Hashimoto — A prominent Japanese politician has described as “necessary” the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops. Oh, God. Really? Not only seven kinds of wrong, but disgusting and morally depraved. China indignant at Japanese politician’s “comfort women” statement.

Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals — A new analysis of implicit bias and explicit sexual orientation statements may help to explain the underpinnings of anti-gay bullying and hate crimes. Also, this just in: water is wet. Inside a great number of angry conservative bigots is a fabulous gay man struggling to get out.

Naked TSA Protester’s Appeal to Be Heard Tuesday — A story of local interest here in Portland. It would be pretty funny if it weren’t so darned serious.

Police search for 19-year-old man shooting, wounding of 19 at New Orleans Mother’s Day parade — Because an armed society is a polite society, and guns make us all safer. Think how much harder it would have been for this shooter to exercise his theoretical defense of essential liberties without the smiling protection of the NRA and the Republican Party.

Right-wing media check up: still crazy — The right-wing media hasn’t learned anything from its failures in 2012. It’s the same-old ‘Obama is evil’ conspiracy theories.

Gates: Administration Critics view of US Military Capabilities in Benghazi “Cartoonish” — Former Bush and Obama administrations secretary of defense Bob Gates, a lifelong Republican, replied to some of the GOP fantasies about the possibility of a US military mission into Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. The Republican obsession with Benghazi is just as bizarre and counterfactual as the vast majority of their other obsessions. Not that bizarre counterfactuals stopped Whitewater from morphing into the Clinton impeachment. Essentially, the GOP has been unable to accept the legitimacy of any Democratic president since LBJ.

Government secretly obtains phone records from journalists — Prosecutors targeted the Associated Press in an attempt to learn who leaked information about the CIA and an apparent terrorist plot in Yemen. If proven out, this is seven kinds of wrong. I don’t care what your politics are, this isn’t what our government does or should be doing. Should these allegations be substantiated, Attorney General Eric Holder needs to go, and Obama needs to answer for this. If nothing else, can this administration give us accountability? And some counterpoint on this.

QotD?: What is it that you have got that puts you where you are?

5/14/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (1.25 hours of revision, plus WRPA, editing METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 5.0 hours (fitful)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: m/a (forgot)
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Cancer, climate, Cool, economy, gay, guns, health, history, Japan, Language, Links, media, nature, Personal, Photos, Politics, race, radiantlisa, Science, space, sports, Travel, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:15 am Tue May 14 2013 | Comments(4) |

[links] Link salad thinks of its mothers

The Latest on the Women in SFF Debate — Cora Buhlert with some interesting analysis and a number of links.

That Monkey Don’t Swim: Maps, Sex and Violence — Pongoid anthropology and cartography.

Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation — Kids today. Everyone knows the past is golden, our generation is noble, and the youth are wastrels. It’s always been true!

Plague Helped Bring Down Roman Empire, Graveyard Suggests

Nontoxic radioactive Listeria^at is a highly effective therapy against metastatic pancreatic cancer — Huh.

A patient’s view on the Oregon Medicaid experiment — (Via threeoutside.)

Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus — Another stunning image from APOD. A Maxfield Parrish sky in real life.

Then he heard the ice coming — Wow, this is weird. Several houses were destroyed, the Winnipeg Free Press reports, after “a massive ice floe rose out of Dauphin Lake” in central Canada.

The Coming GOP Civil War Over Climate Change — We should be so lucky. I was struck by this: Soon after his experience in South Carolina, Emanuel changed his lifelong Republican Party registration to independent. “The idea that you could look a huge amount of evidence straight in the face and, for purely ideological reasons, deny it, is anathema to me,” he says. Hello? You were a Republican? Virtually any GOP position requires precisely that approach.

QotD?: Where is your mother today?

5/12/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (WRPA, editing METAtropolis: Green Space)
Hours slept: 9.75 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.2
Number of FEMA troops on my block digging for fossils in the yards of God-fearing Republicans: 0
Currently reading: Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Cancer, climate, Culture, gender, healthcare, history, Links, Oregon, Personal, Politics, Publishing, Science

Posted: 8:04 am Sun May 12 2013 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad tools up to head to southern California

David: Illness and Death — Debbie Notkin with a thoughtful narrative on her brother’s death from cancer.

‘Death cafes’ normalize a difficult, not morbid, topic — Yeah, well. Welcome to my dinner table. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Genomics to reshape endometrial cancer treatment — This is very similar to what we were hoping to do for me.

Banned Baby Names: Justice Just As Bad As Anal And 4Real, One Country Says — Ah, New Zealand.

How to play chess properly — Hahahah. (Via willyumtx.)

The Robie Metric System — Because he could? Wow… (Thanks to Lisa Costello.)

Le cigare volant est Francais! — x planes with a particularly weird piece of French aviation concept art from the 1950s.

Nasa telescope has close shave with Soviet satellite

What’s Next for Curiosity? Mars Mountaineering

Bones reveal a tale of desperation — Scientists find evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony.

Bring Your Camera — Some stunning images of arctic ice, courtesy of NASA.

The Twitter Account to Watch If You’re Worried About Climate Change — More reality-based liberal lies, of course. Ask any conservative.

While Sequestration Cuts Programs For The Poor, The U.S. Ranks Second-To-Last On Child Poverty — That’s what conservative social policies get you. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

GOP fundraising video mocks grieving Sandy Hook mom who lost 6 y.o. — Ah, those moral stewards of compassionate conservatism. Are you proud of your Republican party? The gun culture has absolutely no shame or conscience.

2-Year-Old Girl Shot, Killed By 5-Year-Old Brother With Rifle He Recieved As A Gift — Because guns make us all safer, right?

Toomey doubts second Senate gun-control vote any time soon — The toughest thing to do in politics is to do the right thing when your supporters think the right thing is something else,” Toomey said. That’s the GOP in a nutshell. In their own words, the right thing isn’t what their own base thinks the right thing is. On guns. On taxes. On deficits. On education. On climate. On jobs. On immigration. And their leadership knows better. No shame. No conscience. Are you proud of your Republican party? Doing the right thing since never, once again in their own words.

Poll: 29% Think Armed Rebellion Might Soon Be Necessary — 44% of self-identified Republicans say that “in the next few years, an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect our liberties.” Once again, are you proud of your Republican party?

Pat Buchanan joins Manhattan Declarers in ‘civil disobedience’ fappery — All this talk of “civil disobedience” from anti-gay folks like Buchanan and the Manhattan Declarers is just posturing. It’s part of the fantasy role-playing game in which they stroke their egos by pretending that they’re heroic champions of morality. Bigotry is bigotry, no matter how much you abuse the language of civil rights and victimhood to self-valorize. Gay marriage compels absolutely nothing upon people who disagree with it, and takes absolutely nothing away from them. The basic Christianist argument is “My right to take away your rights trumps your right to exercise rights that have nothing to do with me.” That’s about as un-American as you can get.

QotD?: Ever been to San Diego? Why not?

5/2/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.5 hours (WRPA editing work on METAtropolis: Green Space, plus lots of time prepping for San Diego trip)
Hours slept: 8.5 hours (interrupted)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 248.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block helping welfare recipients buy cell phones and big screen tvs: 0
Currently reading: The Truth by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Art, Cancer, Christianists, climate, Cool, Culture, economy, Funny, gay, guns, health, history, Language, Links, Mars, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, space, Videos, weird

Posted: 6:13 am Thu May 02 2013 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

Reviewing the Nebulas: The Novellas — I’m not a fan of Lake’s writing. Generally, I find it hard to parse his stories, it’s something about my brain stumbling over his word choices. I’m also no fan of steampunk. So the fact that I enjoyed this story, that it’s the best thing of Lake’s I’ve ever read, is some sort of minor miracle. Heh.

My Reddit Fantasy AMA — Essentially an open source interview with me by several dozen questioners.

For Whom the Bell Tolls — The inexorable decline of America’s least favorite pronoun.

Interactive map plots locations of more than 100 million species — This strikes me as being awfully useful for writers as well as scientists.

What Happens When You Wring Out a Washcloth in Space — Mmm, science. (Via shelly_rae.)

Exploring the Grand Canyon — The view from space.

Dinosaur ‘fills fossil record gap’

Poor, cute bunnies likely to get eaten when the snow melts early — Hares change coat color for winter based on the calendar, not the conditions. Nothing to do with climate change, of course. Just ask any Republican.

Barcodes let scientists track every ant in a colony — A team of Swiss scientists glued barcodes to hundreds of ants living in six laboratory colonies and recorded all of their movements for more than a month. Now, there’s a job description.

Brain Research, as Only Vegas Can — Weird doings.

Psychedelic Portuguese Man-of-War Photos Prove God Is a Stoner — (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

When tragedy turns to joy — People doing good. (Via threeoutside.)

The Chosen Few: A New Explanation of Jewish Success — Congregationalism and individual literacy?

Fathers and Sons and Chechnya — Juan Cole on the heritage and family dynamics of the Boston bombing suspects.

Chechens, Czechs, whatever — This kind of ignorance drives me batty. This is basic knowledge about the world.

Building a Picture of the Bomb Suspects through Social Network Analysis — Police can obtain huge quantities of social network data, but must sort out the junk to glean useful information. Hmmm.

Pre-Viking Tunic Found In Thawing Glacier Shows How Climate Change Aids Archaeology — Ah, a benefit of climate change. (Via corwynofamber.)

How did Jesus come to love guns and hate sex? — One of many, many reasons I am an atheist is issues like this. Because matters of faith are heavily privileged in our society, religion has a vast power to make people very stupid without ever being challenged on it. Mind you, that’s not an inherent property of religion, and likewise people make themselves stupid in myriad other ways, but the confluence of faith and stupidity is toxic. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

LePage Spins Windmill Conspiracy Theory — It’s hard to trust any policy stance of someone who is either so incredibly gullible or is willing to cynically and habitually lie in such a transparent way in order to advance his own agenda. Um, that would be every single conservative politician in the United States. At least every conservative who won’t condemn evolution denial, doesn’t stand up to climate change denial, won’t condemn Birtherism as arrant racist nonsense, believes in supply side economics, or supported the Iraq War. Like I said, every single one.

NH GOP back in news – for the wrong reason — Once more, conservatives in the gun culture exhibit their justly famed calm rationality in the face of perceived adversity. Are you proud of your Republican party?

Architecture review: Bush presidential library is fittingly blunt — Really, they could have installed it in a restaurant booth. How much room do you need to store My Pet Goat? That’s about all they have left after shredding the incriminating evidence.

QotD?: Did your bear have no hair?

4/20/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (1.25 hours and 2,300 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin)
Hours slept: 10.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (injured foot)
Weight: n/a (couldn’t stand on scale due to injured foot)
Number of FEMA troops on my block checking the magazine sizes of gun owners: 0
Currently reading: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Awards, Boston, Christianists, climate, Cool, Culture, guns, history, interviews, Language, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, space, stories, weird

Posted: 9:25 am Sat April 20 2013 | Comments(4) |

[links] Link salad sorrows for Boston

War of the worlds: who owns the political soul of science fiction? — In the sci-fi genre, two diametrically opposed ideologies are battling it out as leftwing writers embrace otherness, while the rightwingers look up to authority. Although my personal sympathies should be blatantly obvious, why should anyone own the soul of SF, so to speak? Right wing fiction has as much to say as left wing fiction, regardless of my individual opinions. (Via an interesting linkdump from Cora Buhlert.)

Literature from Librarians: Great Reads Written by the Experts

Landfill Harmonic: An Upcoming Documentary About the ‘Recycled Orchestra’ in Cateura, Paraguay — People are amazing. (Via threeoutside.)

This is your brain on music

Google Glass hits production — The first Google Glass devices have been finished and are expected to ship imminently, the company has confirmed. I would love to have these, but even if I did, I couldn’t use them until they’re available with prescription lenses.

The Planetary Super-Surface of San Bernardino County — BLDG BLOG gets interestingly weird about commercial architecture.

Is Nasa looking in the wrong place for life?

Dark matter experiment CDMS sees three tentative clues — Researchers have revealed the first potential hints of the elusive material called dark matter at an underground laboratory in the US.

Human cycles: History as science — Advocates of ‘cliodynamics’ say that they can use scientific methods to illuminate the past. But historians are not so sure. (Via Daily Idioms, Annotated.)

Duplitectural Marvels: Exploring China’s Replica Western Cities — Wow. This is strange. (Via scarlettina.)

Margaret Thatcher and misapplied death etiquette — The dictate that one ‘not speak ill of the dead’ is (at best) appropriate for private individuals, not influential public figures. This bit is especially to the point: Demanding that no criticisms be voiced to counter that hagiography is to enable false history and a propagandistic whitewashing of bad acts, distortions that become quickly ossified and then endure by virtue of no opposition and the powerful emotions created by death. When a political leader dies, it is irresponsible in the extreme to demand that only praise be permitted but not criticisms. (Via goulo.)

Are there Any Solid Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage? — The case against same-sex marriage seems, to me at least, muddled, odd and paltry. A Christian blogger talks about the opposition, and finds the same point progressives have made for years. When you take away bigotry cloaked in religious freedom as an excuse, there is no rational opposition to same sex marriage. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

The Limits of Good Faith — Ta-Nehisi Coates on Rand Paul. Rand Paul went to Howard University, lied, and then got his ass kicked. That’s not so bad. I got my ass kicked regularly at Howard. That was the reason my parents sent me there. But having gotten his ass kicked, his answer is to not to reflect but to make an allegation of racial discrimination.

John Kerry: Foreign Students Aren’t Studying In U.S. Because They Fear Guns — From a certain conservative perspective, I suspect this is good news.

Guantanamo Commander Orders Single-cell Living For Detainees — Lifetime imprisonment without charges or trial, in solitary confinement. Yes, America is definitely a beacon of liberty and the rule of law the world over. (Via danjite.)

Patriots Day bombings in Boston — Slacktivist Fred Clark with some modest wisdom.

PSA: Ignore the news — The brilliant Charlie Stross is wise about the Boston bombings in his own lateral way.

Boston Marathon Calamity Shows Value of Social Media — It might be no surprise that immediately after the explosions at today’s Boston Marathon, social media sites became the best way for the public to obtain on-the-scene reports. But notably, it also became the best way for classic news media to report. Even more than that, the long minutes after the news broke showed just how superior social media is for finding answers to your own personal concerns. (Via David Goldman.)

Can the Boston Bombings increase our Sympathy for Iraq and Syria, for all such Victims? — Terrorism has no nation or religion. But likewise its victims are human beings, precious human beings, who must be the objects of compassion for us all.

Trapped by the Base — I see little reason to believe that the staunch conservative bloc will wither away or splinter; it will remain a dominant force in the GOP and on the national stage. At the same time, however, I see no indication that its ideas about policy, governance and social issues will gain new adherents. They are far beyond the mainstream. (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

QotD?: What do you think?

4/16/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (60 minutes and 1,700 words on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin, 15 minutes of WRPA)
Hours slept: 8.0 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 246.4
Number of FEMA troops on my block checking the magazine sizes of gun owners: 0
Currently reading: The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Boston, China, cool videos, Culture, gender, history, law, Links, media, music, Personal, Politics, Publishing, race, Science, space, Tech, UK

Posted: 5:26 am Tue April 16 2013 | Comments(3) |

[writing|process] Yet more work on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin

Two questions emerged during yesterday’s efforts on Original Destiny, Manifest Sin. One is a character issue, the other is stylistic but at a very deep level.

Regarding characters, klwilliams commented thusly:

“No female perspective for Manifest Destiny? [sic] I think you’re missing a good opportunity if not.

This flushed out two issues for me. One, the stated issue she cites, that I don’t have a female POV on the Manifest Sin side of the plot dynamic. Two, that despite decades of careful effort, I’m still quite capable of unconscious sexism in my writing. Of the seven protagonists named in yesterday’s post, one is female. Four are white men, though one of them is essentially undead through most of the book and another is a ghost through much of the book — I don’t think that lets me off the hook. One is Native American and one is Chinese, and one of the white men is gay.

This is why we have first drafts. To find such issues and correct them. Because while I don’t labor at political correctness, I am perfectly aware that world today is constituted of far more people who are not straight-identified white men like myself than it is of people who look and sound and act like me. I am also perfectly aware the historical reality is likewise constituted of far more people who are not like me. It just makes sense to me to write about the world in all its complexities. Plus that’s just more interesting. I’ve held this view since long before I had a writing career. And still my unconscious defaults can take hold when I am not paying attention.

Stylistically, yesterday I drafted the first dialog between Original Destiny and Manifest Sin. Oh great Ghu is it bad. I’m talking junior high school poetry bad. Declamatory text, fruity diction, overwrought emotional color. Stinky, stinky, stinky. Very wrong for what I want and need in this book. Yet what they are actually saying to one another is almost exactly what I do want and need.

Long experience tells me not to revise while I’m drafting. I know some writers do that, but I’ve also seen a lot of writers fall down that hole and never come out with a finished manuscript. Again, this is why we have first drafts. The dialog says what it needs to say, however badly it does so. I’ve satisfied the structural and thematic needs of the book here. Later, on revision, I’ll go back and rip it out and try again to capture the voice and flow and rhythm and speech register and sensibility I want there. For now, this steaming pile of angsty crap will serve as a placeholder and carry my intended meaning until I’m ready to do those dialogs proper justice.

Later, though. I have a book to write in the mean time.

Tags: gender, history, ODMS, Original Destiny, Process, race, Writing

Posted: 7:21 am Sun April 07 2013 | Comments(7) |

[links] Link salad plays croquet behind white-washed walls and drink its tea at four

Jay Lake 2013 Hugo Nomination — A short video clip from Norwescon of my nomination being read out. (Thanks to corwynofamber.)

So…I Bought A Firetruck — I love this. (Via danjite.)

The Great British class calculator — People in the UK now fit into seven social classes, a major survey conducted by the BBC suggests.

The Paper-and-Pencil Cosmological Calculator — Ever struggled with the problem of converting redshift into parsecs, your worries are over thanks to a new cosmological distance chart based on the very latest data. For all your science geekery needs.

The Cicadas Are Coming …Hungry?

The Falsity of Living Fossils

Least visited countries in the world — Oh, to have the time and money…

Ponce de León, Exposed — Ah, history.

Nothing personal: The questionable Myers-Briggs test — (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Climate Maverick to Quit NASA — Weird choice of words in this headline about James Hansen.

40% of Pak youth think Islamic law is best for country: Survey — I just don’t understand how some people think. Especially religious conservatives, in any culture.

The NRA’s Next Assault on Gun Control — Because neither your safety nor mine matter a whit to the people in the gun culture. Nothing matters to them but maximum guns, at any rationalization.

QotD?: What are all your favorite fruits?

4/3/2013
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (WRPA, specifically critique)
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bike)
Weight: 243.0
Number of FEMA troops on my block building solar arrays to undermine the American fossil fuel industry: 0
Currently reading: Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Awards, cars, climate, Cool, Culture, England, Funny, guns, history, Links, nature, Personal, Politics, Religion, Science, Travel, Videos, weird

Posted: 5:17 am Wed April 03 2013 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad mucks about with writer and fans

Why America Is Called America — Amerigo the beautiful… (Thanks to Dad.)

Why More Patients Should Blog About Illness And Death — (Thanks to kimberlywade.)

Saying ‘Vagina’ During Biology Class Leads To Investigation Of Idaho Science Teacher — Because conservatives willfully ignorant fools. Every time I’m tempted to concede some rational motivation to conservative thought, something like this reminds otherwise.

Michigan GOP committeeman under fire over antigay Facebook post — “The Republican party believes every American deserves the utmost respect and dignity and we are a party that believes in traditional marriage,” Frendewey said. “But that should never be confused with any form of discrimination or hate and any message to the contrary undermines the optimism and solutions that our party provides to people.” What Republican party does this guy belong to? Not America’s GOP, which is pretty much fueled on firearms paranoia and gay hate.

Guns don’t offer protection – whatever the National Rifle Association says — The insistence that guns protect people from rape and violence is not rooted in scientific reality. Your guns do not make you safer. Your guns sure as hell don’t make me safer. So tell me again why widespread private gun ownership is a good idea?

QotD?: Are you coming to my reading this afternoon?

3/28/2013
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (WRPA, specifically critique)
Hours slept: 7.5 hours (solid)
Body movement: 0.0 hours (overslept, but plenty of con walking to come)
Weight: n/a (away from home)
Number of FEMA troops on my block building solar arrays to undermine the American fossil fuel industry: 0
Currently reading: Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett

Tags: gay, guns, healthcare, history, Links, Personal, Politics, Science

Posted: 7:43 am Fri March 29 2013 | Comments(0) |