Jay Lake: Writer

[links] Link salad spills hot tea where the sun rarely shines

An Italian reviewer who doesn’t like Mainspring so much — What amazes me is that he dismisses the book as “a pamphlet for intelligent design.” Which is pretty much the diametric opposite of my intent for the text, in which I am mocking Intelligent Design. The story belongs to the reader, however much I may disagree with their interpretation of it.

Canary Islands Eruption: Undersea Volcano Now Just 70 Meters from Surface — It came from beneath.

Archeologists Discover Vampire Skeletons in Ireland — Or something. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

Sunspot Castle — A lovely image from APOD.

Protesters occupy home facing foreclosure — Slacktivist Fred Clark on a fascinating expansion of the Occupy movement. As the man says, If this becomes the next big wave of Occupy protests — fighting foreclosures house-by-house, then I can’t see the protesters losing the battle for public opinion, even if they don’t always defeat a particular foreclosure effort.

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the OWS Protests — Much more than a movement against big banks, they’re a rejection of what our society has become. (Via tillyjane.)

Start-ups and Safety Nets — The United States ranks 23rd in business startups, specifically because of our lack of social safety net. The leader? New Zealand. Where a person can start a business without having to go without health coverage. Hardly the libertarian paradise so many on the Right long for.

Chart of the Day: Reagan Loved Tax Hikes

‘Personhood’ effort still alive after Miss. defeat — Apparently vicious, punitive vileness never goes out of style with the Family Values crowd. I think this is what Christianists call loving thy neighbor. Reason number 3,419 I’m not a conservative. I couldn’t live with myself if I were on the same side as these lunatics.

Bushism vs. Conservatism — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on W. The self-serving narrative was a way of claiming that movement conservatives had somehow managed to remain principled and conservative while the Republicans they supported had gone astray. This weird idea that Bush was some kind of leftist is one of the more bizarre things I’ve heard wafting over from conservativeland lately. The Party cannot fail you, only you can fail the Party.

How to be a Retronaut

?otD: Did time stop for you?

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11/12/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: n/a (too sick)
Hours slept: 10.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 211.2
Currently (re)reading: The Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Christianists, Cool, Culture, Links, Mainspring, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, weird

Posted: 9:06 am Sat November 12 2011 | Comments(0) |

[publishing] Out of contract blues

Now I’m going to complain about something that will probably irk some of the aspiring writers who read this blog. It’s one of those established writer problems that can look ridiculous from the outside, but is perfectly real and serious from the inside.

I’m out of a trade publishing contract for the first time since 2006. And it feels very weird to me.

Mainspring was originally contracted by Tor in 2006 for a 2007 release, along with a second book to be named later, which was eventually Escapement. Near the end of that contract cycle, Green and Pinion were contracted. Near the end of that contract cycle, Endurance and Kalimpura were contracted.

Well, now it’s 2011 and I’ve delivered Kalimpura for 2012 publication and, well, here we are. It’s not that Tor and I have parted ways. It’s not that we haven’t parted ways. We simply haven’t had the discussions, nor have I entered into discussions with any other trade publishers.

Some of this is my own doing, as I decided to write the Sunspin series as spec books rather than proposing them to Tor. Some of this is the cancer, which has stolen half my writing time in past two years, slowing down my ability to deliver a spec book in time to propose it to Tor, or anyone else, within my usual contract cycle. Longtime readers may recall that had I not experienced another metastasis this year, I had planned to write all three volumes of Sunspin by this fall. The book package would have been ready to go to market last summer, except for cancer.

And now, thanks to the travails of chemo and my resulting inability to execute on important revisions recommended by la agente, Sunspin‘s first volume won’t be ready to go to market before next February or March at the earliest. So I’m going to stay out of contract for quite some time to come, unless we take the rather unusual step of trying to sell on proposal plus unrevised draft.

All of which makes me feel very weird and insecure about my career. I’m in danger of missing the 2013 publishing cycle. I’m going to take a financial hit, to boot, simply because of delayed contract and payment timelines. But mostly, I worry about simply disappearing from view.

So I’ve got the out of contract blues, magnified by my cancer woes. And it doesn’t make me very happy. Another penalty of cancer, another thing being taken from me by this disease.

Tags: Books, Cancer, Endurance, Escapement, Green, health, Kalimpura, Mainspring, Pinion, Publishing, Sunspin

Posted: 5:53 am Thu October 27 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad goes right to the moon

Sympathy for the Devil, ed. by Tim Pratt – Ray Gun Reviews — With a passing favorable mention of my story “The Goat Cutter”.

Steampunk Ebooks for $2.99 — Getcher Mainspring ebook on the cheap from tor.com.

Murakami on Fiction, Truth, and Lies

How translation software helped crack ‘unbreakable’ code in 1866 secret society manuscript

‘Android Dreams’: Time-lapse video of Tokyo set to ‘Blade Runner’ soundtrack — In case you needed some cool in your morning.

Why Names Matter — SCIENCE! It works, bitches. And a serious discussion of the same issue.

Time – and brain chemistry – heal all wounds

Panel recommends that 11- and 12-year-old boys get the HPV vaccine; now given to girls — I have a question for all you folks who oppose the HPV vaccine because “oh noes, kidz and teh sex!” We’re talking about lifelong protection here. Do you seriously want your children to grow up and never have sex? Stunted lives and no grandchildren is the logical result of your objections.

US dismantles most powerful nuclear bomb

NASA Is Considering Fuel Depots in the Skies

In, Through, and Beyond Saturn’s Rings — Another awesome APOD photo.

Hardiness Zone Changes — More liberally biased facts about climate change. Which is ridiculous. Climate change wouldn’t be a partisan issue if right wing ideologues hadn’t made it one. I can even understand why evolution denial, as fundamentally moronic as it is, has become an issue. But climate change denial? It doesn’t even make as much sense as Christianist tripe, which at least comforts some wilfully ignorant people who are scared of the future.

Rand retracts report on pot clinics and crime — Think tank says researchers failed to realize that data used in the study did not include LAPD statistics. It plans to recalculate its analysis. WHo’d a thunk it? Distortion and hysteria over pot use. I don’t do 420 myself, but I’ve never seen the point of criminalization of pot.

Chart comparing Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party — Heck, yeah.

Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund — Some seriously funny snark.

Islamic Law not a problem in Bush’s Afghanistan & Iraq, but a Problem in Libya? — If secular, communist Afghanistan was made fundamentalist by Reagan and Bush, or if the relatively secular Baath Party of Iraq was overthrown by W. in favor of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Islamic Call Party and the Bloc of Ayatollah Sadr II, that is unobjectionable and not even reported on. But if there’s a Democratic president in the White House, all of a sudden it is a scandal if Muslims practice Muslim law. Not a Democratic president, a Kenyan Muslim socialist president. Just ask our friends in the GOP and Your Liberal Media.

Televangelist Pat Robertson Calls GOP Field Too Extreme to Win General Election — You know you’ve hit rock bottom when one of the most radical, hate-spewing figures in America calls you “extreme.”

Michele Bachmann’s misstatements may be catching up to her — The Republican presidential candidate’s supporters seem to like her mastery of what she presents as facts — but they often aren’t. Hey. Someone finally noticed.

?otD: Ralph or Norton?

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10/26/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemo fatigue)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 217.4
Currently (re)reading: Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

Tags: Books, Christianism, climate, Cool, Culture, drugs, ebooks, healthcare, Iraq, Japan, Links, Mainspring, Occupy Wall Street, Personal, Photos, Politics, Publishing, Religion, reviews, Science, sex, stories, Tech, Videos

Posted: 5:39 am Wed October 26 2011 | Comments(0) |

[writing|process] Poetry and fiction

Yesterday, the inestimable jimvanpelt made a terrifically interesting post about recasting prose as poetry in order to more effectively see what kinds of language choices the writer had made.

Being me, I of course immediately had to try this. It’s, well, interesting. I give you several examples.

The opening to Mainspring, recast as poetry.

The angel
Gleamed in the light of
Hethor’s reading candle
Bright as any brasswork automaton
The young man
Clutched his threadbare coverlet
In the irrational hope
That the quilted cotton scraps
Could shield him
From whatever power
Had invaded his attic room.
Trembling
He closed his eyes

The opening to Green….

The first thing I can remember
In this life
Is my father
Driving his white ox
Endurance
To the sky burial platforms
His back was before me
As we walked along a dusty road
All things were dusty
In the country of my birth
    Unless they were flooded
A ditch yawned at each side
To beckon me toward play
The fields beyond
Were drained of water and
    Filled with stubble
Though I could not now say
Which of the harvest seasons it was

The opening to Death of Starship…

“Z-flotilla’s gone over to the rebels!”
Shouted one of the comm ensigns
Sweat beaded on the boy’s
Shaved head
He was still young enough
    To be excited by combat
NSS Enver Hoxha‘s battle bridge
Was wedge-shaped
Command stations
    At the narrow aft end
A giant array of displays
    At the blunt end
All finished out in military-grade carbonmesh
    And low-intensity gel interfaces
A dozen duty stations
Arrayed before and below Captain Saenz
Eighteen officers and men
Laboring wet-backed and trembling
In the service of their own
    Imminent death
Everything reeked
Of panicked men
And distressed electronics

That last one’s a little strange, but I think they all three hold up okay. Am I poetic? Lyrical? Who’s to say from three opening passages?

How does this work on your fiction?

Tags: Books, Green, Mainspring, Process, Starship, Writing

Posted: 5:51 am Wed October 12 2011 | Comments(2) |

[books|writing] Keeping score on my novels

Not that anybody was asking, but in an attempt to corral my own thoughts, here’s a list of all the novels I’ve ever written/co-written or am committed to writing, time and my health permitting. I make this seventeen completed manuscripts, two in-progress manuscripts, and six on the table to be written. In addition to all of the below, kenscholes and I have discussed doing a YA gonzo SF trilogy together, once he’s done with the Psalms of Isaac.

Who has time for cancer?

Written but unpublished

The January Machine (time travel/millenial SF, project abandoned)
Rocket Science (zero draft)
Death of a Starship (zero draft)
The Murasaki Doctrine (space opera/military SF, could not sell)
The Heart of the Beast (with Jeff VanderMeer, project abandoned)
Our Lady of the Islands (with Shannon Page, at my agent)
Other Me (YA lost colony/identity paranoia SF, awaiting rewrite)

Written, in progress or planned

Rocket Science

Death of a Starship

Mainspring
Escapement
Pinion

Green
Endurance (forthcoming)
Kalimpura (forthcoming)

Trial of Flowers
Madness of Flowers
Reign of Flowers (not a committed project)

Calamity of So Long a Life (in progress)
The Whips and Scorns of Time (to be drafted in 2012)
Be All Our Sins Remembered (to be drafted in 2012)

Original Destiny, Manifest Sin (American Old West fantasy/AH, to be drafted in 2012 or 2013)

Black Tulip (Dutch historial thriller/mystery, to be drafted in 2013)

The Rockefeller Plot (1970s diplomatic thriller with Ambassador Joseph Lake, in progress)
[untitled Biafran war novel] (1960s diplomatic thriller with Ambassador Joseph Lake)

Tags: Books, Calamity, Endurance, Escapement, Green, Kalimpura, Madness, Mainspring, ODMS, Pinion, Publishing, Sins, Sunspin, Trial, Whips, Writing

Posted: 10:35 am Sun September 04 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad wallows into Monday

My open questions thread is still open: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Mainspring has a gorgeous German cover as Die Räder der Welt: Roman — (Via my translator Marcel R. Bülles.)

Saint Gaudens’ Three Guiding Principles — Art writing guru James Gurney quoting some good advice for creative Producers.

What Killed American Lit. — Today’s collegians don’t want to study it—who can blame them?

New Economics Rewrite Book Business

Examining the Mystery of Skeleton, Sugar and Sex — Oh, the opportunities for cheap laughs on this one.

No Surprise for Bisexual Men: Report Indicates They Exist

A few Catholics still insist Galileo was wrong — They say Earth is the center of the universe, embracing church teachings of four centuries ago. That idiocy is no more silly than evolution denail, and just as worthy of intellectual respect.

Can the Government Suppress Lies?

?otD: FOLFIRI, anyone?

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8/29/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (chemotherapy)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 9.5 hours (overnight plus naps, yikes!)
Weight: 223.8
Currently reading: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Tags: healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Process, Religion, Science, sex, Writing

Posted: 5:27 am Mon August 29 2011 | Comments(2) |

[links] Link salad heads for the Emerald City

I open my mouth only to change feet (with apologies to @jay_lake) — @cacatopos on our Twitter exchange of yesterday regarding books and reader reactions, specifically anent Mainspring. Methinks the gracious gentleman takes too much mea culpa, but this is both amusing and interesting. (And here I am perpetuating the metaexchange by linking to his post.)

More Evidence for Enceladus Ocean — Surf’s up, dudes. Interplanetary kowabunga.

TV and soda: Small habits cause excess pounds — Duh?

There’s something magical about watching patterns emerge from data — Ben Goldacre on study sizes.

New Math in HIV Fight — Statistical Method Evolves From Physics to Wall Street to Battle Against AIDS.

Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong — St. Reagan did it!

Top Expert: Disputed McKinsey Health Care Study Akin To Push Poll — Gosh, even more conservative distortions about healthcare. Inconceivable, such pandering from our paragons of moral rectitude on the Right.

Sometimes, we make progress — Pharyngula on flat Eartherism, which has ever bit as much Biblical and empirical validity as Creationism, and should be treated with absolutely the same level of respect.

Ga.’s farm-labor crisis going exactly as planned — Golly, it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of conservatives. When you live in the land of magical counterfactuals, getting what you wish for can be a dangerous thing. Meanwhile, out here in the reality-based community…

Christian conservative group calls on Sen. Vitter to follow Weiner’s lead and resign — I don’t agree with hardly a thing these guys stand for, but I have to applaud a conservative group for actually being intellectually consistent and standing against the rampant hypocrisy of their own movement.

Romney’s Dilemma — Mitt Romney, abortion and the Republican voter base. Good luck with that one, Mittens.

?otD: Seattle or Portland?

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6/24/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.5 hours (Kalimpura revisions)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (solid)
Weight: 229.8
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: bokks, healthcare, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Religion, reviews, Science, tags: links, Tech

Posted: 4:04 am Fri June 24 2011 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad thinks about meals it wishes it hadn’t eaten

The voting poll for the Endurance caption contest will be open for another day or two

A reviewer talks about swords and sorcery in sub-Sahara Africa — Holds up Mainspring as a negative example of 19th century attitudes. Except Mainspring is in large part about 19th century attitudes, so from my perspective, it’s an odd critique. And though it’s not germane to either reading or critiquing the book, I did in fact spend some years of my life living in sub-Saharan Africa. As always, the story belongs to the reader.

A reader responds to Mainspring — They liked it, a lot.

Lessons From the Gutenberg Bible for Publishers Going Digital — Gutenberg’s reward for the invention of the printing press was financial ruin, but others figured out a unique way to keep the printing business afloat.

HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?

A Start-Up’s Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later — Interesting. More from Tech Review. (Via David Goldman.)

St. Jude Postdoc Faked Images — A former postdoctoral researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital fudged images published in two papers, one of which has since been retracted. Faking cancer research results… I have no words.

As arctic ice shrinks, so does a denier claim — You know, reality wouldn’t have a liberal bias in the first place if conservatives didn’t insist on ideological counterfactuals over actual data.

Despite horses and buggies, Amish aren’t necessarily ‘low-tech’

Bible condemns a lot, so why focus on homosexuality? — Bigotry, pure and simple. If this was about the written word of God, the Christianists would be campaigning just as vigorously to ban shrimp, mixed fabrics and crop rotation. (Via @willshetterly.)

Quench Not the Spirit — Slacktivist Fred Clark on the doctrine of Hell. This is inside baseball for a part of the culture that isn’t my game, but I still find it pretty interesting.

Christian Faith Requires Accepting Evolution — I have no objection to people denying evolution if that’s their interpretation of their faith. What I have enormous objection to is people projecting the deliberate irrationalities and counterfactuals of their faith onto the political and social landscape, as if a personal opinion could substitute for reality.

Surprise! Bachmann Supports Creationism in Schools — Apparently she thinks this is a scientific issue of reasonable doubt. Repeat after me: Just because you believe it doesn’t mean it’s true.

Michele Bachmann’s Holy War — The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter Yes, Virginia, the GOP’s deliberate fostering of the crazy in their base to drive votes does have consequences.

“Gooble, gooble, one of us!” — Digby on conservative pacifism.

Journalists Reportedly Outnumber Voters At Huntsman’s GOP Campaign Events — Your Liberal Media, fluffing Republicans every day.

?otD: Ever eaten live eel soup?

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6/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.0 hours (Kalimpura revisions, plus a little WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 230.2
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: Books, Cancer, Contests, Cool, Endurance, Fiction, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, Personal, Politics, Polls, Religion, reviews, Tech

Posted: 4:58 am Thu June 23 2011 | Comments(6) |

[links] Link salad wonders if it should have been born a Cancer instead of a Gemini

Don’t forget to enter the new Endurance caption contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — I’ll probably be closing it this evening and constructing the voting poll.

A reader reacts to Mainspring — Much with the liking.

METAtropolis reviewed in Romanian — Not so much with the liking of my novella, “In the Forests of the Night”.

Fantasy Literature reviews Green — Not so much with the liking here either, I am afraid.

Scientists predict rare ‘hibernation’ of sunspots — (Thanks to lillypond.)

How to Have Fun Like Monkeys, Whales and Foxes — I’ve been on dates like that.

How to Switch Off Friction In Nanomachines — A new technique could reduce friction with the mere flick of a switch, say physicists. I’ve been on dates like that. Also, I have to ask, what is a “one dimensional surface”?

Deep sewer diving under New York — Wow… (Thanks to danjite.)

Are All Gay Girls Secretly Men? — Julia Rios blogs at The Outer Alliance on this difficult and disturbing story of appropriation.

Tea Party Summer Camp: The Experience of a Lifetime — Freaky. (Thanks to shsilver.)

Five myths about the American flag — Ah, reality. If this were a Wikipedia article, Palinites would be editing it right now to remove those biased facts in favor of conservative “truths”.

Why Do Republicans Hate Clean Water? — The EPA does a lot of really good things for every American, regardless of political affiliation. And free market corporate self-regulation didn’t exactly keep our rivers and air clean. In fact, forming the EPA was one of Richard Nixon’s better moves.

The New Religion of Global Warming — Conservative ideological resistance to reality is observably hardening. As I’ve said before, no one comes to global warming denial on the merits of the data. They start there for ideological reasons, then look for data to support their beliefs. It’s a lot like Christian apologia.

The G.O.P. Debate — Eventually, the winner of the Republican nomination will move away from the Tea Party’s anger to try to appeal to a broader electorate that has higher priorities than interfering with laws on same-sex marriage and upending Congress’s decision to welcome openly gay and lesbian soldiers. I know! Let’s put the GOP back in power to fix the economy they ruined in the last decade!

?otD: What do you get if you multiply your blood type by your zodiacal sign?

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6/16/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Dad time instead)
Body movement: 30-minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 hours (solid)
Weight: 234.4
Currently (re)reading: A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin

Tags: Books, Contests, Endurance, gay, gender, Green, Links, Mainspring, Metatropolis, Personal, Politics, race, reviews, Science, stories, Tech, weird

Posted: 4:48 am Thu June 16 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad is patently pleased

A reader reacts to Mainspring — They liked it.

I have a reading in Seattle the evening of June 6th

In which I am awarded a patent — Pretty cool, huh?

Viewpoint Selectivity — James Alan Gardner being smart. (Snurched from Steve Buchheit.)

Conquilt — Conquilt is a record of nearly one hundred of the attending authors, editors, publishers and illustrators to Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention held in Melbourne Australia in September 2010. Including yours truly. They will be auctioning this off for benefit soon. Check it out!

The Kindle Tablet’s Bookish Legacy — The leap from iPhone to iPad made sense. The leap from Kindle to Kindle Tablet is less linear. What does it mean for Amazon? Ah, Amazon. One of my least favorite companies, given the way that they treat authors.

Anonymous Doc on bone marrow transplants — Once I would have found this funny, in a bleak way. Given my health history, I now read this as tragic.

Don’t Let Oncologists Make All the Decisions — Oncologists just aren’t trained to break the brutal fact that the chances of cure are always near zero for patients with metastatic solid tumors. Um, that would be me, with my second metastatic solid tumor right now. Still here, still working for a reasonable chance of full cure. And wow, do I find this piece personally offensive. What’s my life worth to me, after all?

Help A Friend or Relative: Give Blood — Dave Reynolds banks blood in my name, and urges you to do something similar to support the ailing people in your life. Thank you, sir.

Penguin huddle secrets revealed with time lapse footage — Penguins!

Deep-Earth devil worms — sA newly identified species of nematode lives miles deep in the tight, hot crevices of the Earth’s crust.

Starship Fuel from the Outer System — This is frakking cool.

Federal Adult Schools — Vintagraph with a 1937 retraining poster. I find the orientation of the hemispheric map quite interesting. It’s rather unusual for USAnian artwork or cartography.

The Canon of White Supremacy — Ta-Nehisi Coates with a powerful essay on slavery, race and the distortions they bring.

The Mask of Concern Slips from the Anti-Choicers Face — Unlike many conservative positions which seem to be based either on bigotry or wishful thinking, I can actually see and respect a principled opposition to abortion, regardless of how deeply I may disagree with that position. However, most people in the forced pregnancy movement don’t strike me as very principled at all, not when judginging them based on their words, deeds and ambitions.

The GOP’s dueling delusional campaign ads — The ad accuses Huntsman of (1) worrying about excessive partisanship; (2) wanting to put a price on carbon emissions; (3) describing health care as a “right”; (4) promising to “put people first”; (5) supporting John McCain for president; and (6) drawing political support from Democrats and independents. No, seriously, that’s what it says. And in case you are wondering, yes, those points are all meant as derogatory accusations. [...] In a normal universe, being for cooperation, against pollution, for health care, for people, for your party’s presidential nominee, and winning lots of votes would be admirable positives, not critical deficiencies.

Huckabee, Bachmann: God’s candidates? Not likely — Yep.

?otD: Have you ever tried to mail letters of marque and reprisal?

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6/2/2011
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (revised non-fiction project, 900 words on a new short fiction project)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.75 hours (solid)
Weight: 230.2
Currently (re)reading: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

Tags: Books, Cancer, Conventions, Cool, Culture, ebooks, health, healthcare, Links, Mainspring, nature, Personal, Politics, Process, race, Religion, reviews, Science, Tech, Writing

Posted: 5:31 am Thu June 02 2011 | Comments(0) |