Inter-connections
Nov. 11th, 2009
08:10 pm - Finished!
Finished my required short story for this week. It's definitely a plotless literary one. There's a story, to be sure, but I can tell I've written something I don't possess all the tools to evaluate.
Maybe I'll write full on plotted stories later with the characters from my literary ramblings. The Tangoing Psychiatrist Versus the Aliens!
Anyway...Nano stats:
Finished:
Winecask Bellies and owl Wings- 1600 words
Dead Angel Diana: 400 words
It Takes One to Flamenco: 2200 words.
Total words written:
8217 words on 13 different stories.
Average: 747 words a day.
(I'm aiming for Half-Nano: 833 words a day)
07:12 pm - [travel] The day that wasn't
My flight left Portland this morning in the pre-dawn darkness, and landed in Philadelphia this evening in dusk's last failing light. I spent almost eight hours sitting on airplanes, with a 40 minute break in the middle in DFW. Talk about your lost days... On the other hand, I did Day Jobbery work, got 3,900 words in on "The Specific Gravity of Grief", answered a couple of interviews, and took two naps, as well as reading a good chunk more of The Jade Man's Skin.
I did wear the stupid fricking mask. Boy did that get old after a while. I also pretended to OCD and used hand sanitizer frequently. We'll see if any of this helps stave off respiratory infection. Much like the city's alligator watch, we'll never know unless it fails. My state of mind in this regard is left as an exercise for the reader.
Dinner tonight with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
klingonguy, valverdi and their friend D—, who likely has an LJ handle but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. Quite nice an evening.
The Philadelphia Airport Marriott, on the other hand, is yet another Marriott property without wireless. I don't get it. For what these rooms cost, they shouldn't have any problem doing what every Motel 6 and mom-and-pop coffee house in the country can do. I'm done staying at Marriott properties, given how many other hotel chains seem to manage this minor issue just fine. I can't believe they don't get constant pushback from their business travel customers over this.
Tomorrow is a roadtrip from Philadelphia to the Pennsylvania hinterlands for Day Jobbe meetings. At least I'll see the sun tomorrow. And then off to San Francisco Friday, and my sweet calendula_witch.
07:04 pm - TB 39
Talebones #39, the big order, arrived today. I'll probably be stuffing and labeling on Saturday. I'm sure Townhouse Talebones wouldn't mind a few visitors...
09:42 am - snapshot
Ross Lockhart just Facebooked this photo of me & Jetse de Vries taken in a room party at World Fantasy Convention, San Jose. It pretty much sums up the whole WFC experience for me. FUN!
02:00 pm - Network Maintenance: Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 04:00-06:00 UTC/GMT
On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.
Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.
We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!
As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.
01:30 pm - C'mon Google, Work With Me!
I think it's finally time to retire my old blogs, and it's not easy. I have six or seven of those things crawling around the web. Some haven't been touched in 3 years.
I have several on Blogger, because I wanted to separate things by subject, which was in vogue at the time. Blogger also didn't have the entry tagging abilities that LJ has and most of my writing friends are over here now, so I moved. Problem is, I can't seem to access my old accounts.
It doesn't help that I have two (maybe even three) gmail accounts. I gave up on one because it was too generic and it seems everybody in the country with my first initial and my last name use it as a generic email for filling out any possible form that requires an email but they don't want to get those emails. Instead, they send them to me, and I have to put up with dinner invitations in Ohio, special deals on sex toys in Atlanta, and personal photos of not-so-cute kids doing neither-funny-nor-cute things from Texas.
Now I can't log into the right blogger account to get to the old blogs. C'mon Google, help me out. Send me a password! Let me know what email account I used, for crying out loud!
03:19 pm - Philcon TAFF auction
If things go according to schedule, there should be a TAFF auction at Windycon this weekend (I meant to send Anne some things, but plum forgot - so those will go to... a TAFF auction at Philcon.
Donated items for the Philcon TAFF auction so far include:
An Astroboy clock!
An Ultraman blaring alarm clock!
Romulan Bird of Prey (old style, from "Balance of Terror") with blinking lights and sounds!
Fossil ammonite!
WWII army helmet!
A license plate that declares "May the Schwartz Be With You" (from a car dealer named Schwartz)
The souped-up RoboRaptor!
A Cyberman (from Dr. Who)!
Misc. DVDs and VHS (!) tapes!
A Lost in Space lunchbox!
A Tuckerization from Lawrence M. Schoen (A Tuckerization is where the author names a character after YOU!)!
Who knows what other random things will show up in my mailbox before they get carted off to Philcon for the auction.
In addition, we're still scheduled to start the online auctions for various Tuckerizations (from Cory Doctorow, Charlie Stross, David Brin, Elizabeth Bear, Nalo Hopkinson, Julie Czerneda, and Mary Robinette Kowal, and a whole slew of other awesome writers) the day after Thanksgiving! That same day we'll start online auctions for first editions of "1984" and "Hiroshima"!
If anyone out there wants to donate anything, or any authors reading this want to donate a Tuckerization, send me an email at FWu@FrankWu.com !!!!!
10:38 am - running quiet
I haven't been Posty Mcpostalot lately, sorry. Seems like a lot of Big Life Stresses collided in the same week or so, and I've gone all turtle. Mostly, I'm trying to be gentle with myself... my brain isn't up for deep thinking or much damage control (outside of long naps).
And yet I've been more social in the last two weeks than I have in months. I went to the jaylake, catrambo, Jeff Johnson, and Jeff VanderMeer reading on Friday. I've been to the glass studio. I went to the Body/Mind/Spirit fall expo (I did the spring one if you recall) over the weekend with secretpink. Yesterday I visited faetal to drop off dog hair and fabric. Later this week I'll see jens_fire and kenscholes and the girls.
It feels weird, being so social... like I've been sick for a long time and are just seeing folks for the first time in ages. But I *am* just seeing folks for the first time in ages... just without the long illness. The megastress makes me feel incredibly socially awkward, though. I'm out of practice at chatting and smiling and hugs. I should probably do more stretching before Orycon, otherwise I might pull something.
But now I kind of want to clean the apartment and invite folks over, fill the house with warmth and chatter and snacks. There's been talk of maybe hosting a writing day, we've got plenty of seating space and I do like writing with company. Or maybe having folks over for Skivins. (I'll most likely be working, which makes it hard to get to NJ for holidays with the family ON the actual holiday.) (So if you're lacking Thanksgivingish plans, lemme know!)
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/juicy/cutealiens/refreshed_a.gif){kind=small}
quiet12:35 pm - various lunchtime tidbits
- I finished the first draft of "Salt, Milk, Blood, Tears" this morning. It closed out at 7K words, as do so many of my first drafts. Now that I have a better sense of what's going on in the story, wrt plotline, backstory, character actions, wants and needs, I can tackle the rewrite and focus on the core while filling out with relevant character details. (It sounds so fancy when I say it like that, as opposed to the pell-mell scattered typing that really happens).
- But for now, I have to finish up an editorial revision requested in connection with a recent sale. It's a interesting revision, as it's the first substantial revision request I've ever received and it will be tough to balance editor's (very relevant) feedback with my own investment in the story.
- This Saturday is the second math contest I'm running, this time for Middle School students (6th-8th grades). Registration has gone well, with just about 60 entrants, and the planning appears to be coming together nicely. As always, it's a lot of work but the enjoyment is in having a contest that goes well, is well received, and where students have fun.
- My daughters are home today (Veterans' Day Holiday) and when I walked into the family room they were watching a Looney Tunes cartoon featuring The Chipmunks. ("You go first.", "No, you go first. I insist." - those Chipmunks). I then proceeded to recite the plotline, start to finish, based on the few seconds I glimpsed. Ah, the junk that is stored in my brain.
- Apparently, someone on Fox News used footage from someone else on Fox News to mis-represent what happened at an event run by a Fox News political darling, and Jon Stewart caught them at it. Anyone surprised by this? Anyone? Bueller? Fox News: We Distort, You Decide.
10:44 am - Vampire Interview & Other Quandary
Being interviewed today over on Vampire Film Fest. Here's a sample:
VF: Any favorite vampires from lit, film, or TV?
GC: I don't think he really counts, but I love Dorian Gray. I have a real soft spot for Mina Murray in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman graphic novel series and I adore the character of Drusilla on Buffy. Not to sneak in werewolves, but I was turned to the furry side by Klause's brilliant YA novel Blood and Chocolate.
And, in leau of a proper blog (life, my dears, is hitting me hard) I give you one of my favorite recent blogs, all about how urban fantasy and paranormal books have headless people on their covers. The Curious Case of the Headless Heroine, Or the Torso Rides at Midnight
Gail's Daily Dose
Your Infusion of Cute:
Octopus keds.
Your Tisane of Smart:
Scots Aim Lasers at Landmarks
Your Writerly Tinctures:
All about attitude in query letters
CAKE in Space: Back from agent, but now I don't have time for it.
Blameless: Handed in!
Quote of the Day:
"I never want to see anyone, and I never want to go anywhere or do anything. I just want to write."
~ P. G. Wodehouse
calm07:04 pm - I am told…
…by a reliable source (twitter) that several of the Walker Papers are at half price at Audible.com.
I went and got a flu shot today, because we’ll be spending 30+ hours in a metal tube with dry recycled air over the next few weeks. The nurse said, as they’re inclined to, “This will feel like a sharp pinch.” I dunno. I’ve pretty much always thought it didn’t feel anything like a pinch, but that it feels a lot like somebody sticking a needle into your arm. :)
I was beginning to think today was going to be another “you spent four hours working and are still 95 pages from the end of the book” day, but I seem to have finished the major revisions. I have to revise at least two scenes still (& go back and put something in that got cut in the last revision round, I’m pretty sure), but it’s not all new material, so it will go much much more quickly. And now I only have 82 pages to go to the end of the book!
And I finally reached 250K for the year today.
miles to Minas Tirith: 44.6
ytd wordcount: 250,500
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/juicy/cutealiens/apathetic_a.gif){kind=small}
okay06:55 pm - Recent reads
Been a while since I last updated this:
- Winter Song by Colin Harvey. The planet of Isheimur was terraformed centuries ago, at the height of humanity’s resources and ambitions. But everything was lost in the subsequent intergalactic war, and Isheimur has been slowly sinking into decay, recycling every year the bases of its survival–knowing that each piece of technology that breaks down can never be replaced. Into this dying world stumbles Karl, a human marooned after the destruction of his ship. Karl is desperate to get home; but the atrophied subsistence society of Isheimur might not be ready for the radical shock of his presence…
A very cool read. There are no earth-shattering ideas, but the characters are very well-drawn, believable and sympathetic without being sappy. The slowly dying society is terrifically depicted, and while I know some people might disagree, I absolutely loved the ending. I love that there are no compromises or shying away from brutal truths. - Blindsight, Peter Watts. I picked this one up mainly on the recommendation of the BF, who heard Peter Watts speak in Montreal and was apparently very impressed by what he had to say. Earth becomes aware of an alien presence when thousands of miniature objects survey the planet. A mission is hastily put together to see what the aliens could possibly want: headed by a genetically engineered vampire, Theseus aims to achieve first contact. Its other members are a pacifist soldier, a heavily-robotised biologist, a linguist with multiple personalities, and the narrator, a ex-epileptic with half his brain removed, and who acts as a detached observer to report back to Earth. But his detachment may be the one thing that ends up dooming him…
Wow. This was full of terrific ideas about cognition, consciousness and sentience. As a bonus, it was also an awesome first contact story, with none of the plausibility problems I usually have with those stories. There are a fair amount of explanations about biology, but always done in a fascinating fashion; and it’s got the Chinese Room experiment playing a huge part (yes, I’m a geek) . It played a lot like a tremendously intelligent horror story in space, for all the SF trappings (the vampire is a huge clue, but not the only motif that’s been taken from horror).
Word of warning: it’s also very, very dense. My report to the BF was basically that he had to read it, but that French would probably be easier on him than English…
Cross-posted from Aliette de Bodard
Leave a comment at original post, or comment here.
09:21 am - My Little Sewer Monster
So I'm coming out of the upstairs bathroom, when charging at me up the stairs is what appears to be a giant, sodden sewer beast. I freak out for a split second before realizing it's Teisel, recently emerged from the bath.
He's been a busy cat.
08:54 am - Thanks so much!
I really appreciate the community out here – there were many post and retweets and the like to celebrate the Wings of Creation release yesterday. It makes a writer (at least this writer) feel surrounded by family even when she’s off at work and wearing her other, more mundane hats.
Congrats to Sara A. Mueller for winning the full set of the series-so-far in hardback . Drop by her lovely blog, Clockwork Curiosity. By the way – Sara may be a writer to watch. I haven’t seen her work or read it, but we’ve been at some of the same conventions, and I’ve heard her talk about her work in a way that makes me want to read it! Thanks to every one else who entered the contests, too, and I wish everyone could have won.
So now this writer is going to go go play in the sunshine, garden, and think about robots.
Mirrored from Brenda Cooper.
06:00 am - A Good Review
The Midwest Book Review posted their thoughts about The Radio Magician and Other Stories recently. In a nicely poetic style, they said, "There is much in the stars to captivate the imagination, as there is much on Earth to captivate the imagination. "The Radio Magician and Other Stories" is a collection of short stories from James Van Pelt, tackling a wide array of fiction and offering it to readers as a melody of science fiction, fantasy, and more general fiction about the contemporary world. Sure to entertain for hours, "The Radio Magician and Other Stories" is a read that is sure to entertain as it stimulates the imagination."
The reviews for the book have been very positive across the board. I know I'm not supposed to pay attention to reviews, but it's certainly more gratifying to see positive reactions than negative ones.
![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/juicy/cutealiens/energetic_a.gif){kind=small}
bouncy03:30 am - [photos] Your Wednesday moment of zen
Your Wednesday moment of zen.
© 2005 M. Lake, all rights reserved, reproduced with permission.
03:27 am - [links] Link salad thanks a veteran
Call for masks — A way of sticking it to my cancer.
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books gives a shoutout to Green [ Powell's | Amazon
Foreign Service Journal reviews Escapement and Green here and here — (Thanks to my Dad.)
Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You — Um, yeah. (Thanks to lillypond.)
The Very Serious Paradox — The Poor Man institute calls out conservative doublethink on the role of government in society. (Admittedly not hard to do, but this one's still a doozie.)
?otD: Who will you thank for Veteran's Day?
11/11/2009
Body movement: n/a (traveling)
Hours slept: 5.75
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (forgot)
Currently reading: The Jade Man's Skin by Daniel Fox
Nov. 10th, 2009
10:30 pm - tweets for the day
(Posted here for reference. At twitter, I'm "yeff")
- 15:46 the pile of papers and magazines on the work office desk is officially out of control and creeping, Thing-like, across the surface #fb #
- 21:23 Bikanervala, or Shamji? Tough choice... #fb #
08:27 pm - Tenday of dominance
another 3500 words today, bringing me just shy of 37K. Did not get nearly as far on the chapter as I wanted, but this section of the book is going to be a lot of quick cuts, as important things happen all over the ship at the same time.
Literally. It feels good to use that word correctly. And applying it to the sentence before it gets a lot easier when you’re writing science fiction.
Go figure.
Needs me to put some some chicken in MAI BELLY. Might write a bit more later, but it’s also a big TV night. I’d also like to get some sleep, so I’ll coast into 40K tomorrow instead, with my eyes on 45.
Originally published at Bhagwan @ Large. You can comment here or there.
08:23 pm - [art|cancer] Call for masks
Since I'm not going to be at OryCon due to the thoracic surgery, and I'm kiboshing the Sunday visitation plan for reasons of respiratory health (will try to make the Skype thing happen, though), I have a new idea.
Jay Lake masks.
Could be stick masks, casts, abstracts, whatever. If you're an artist, or a crafter, or just want to have fun with it, make a mask of me. There's a kazillion photo references on my Flickr account. Bring it or send it to OryCon, or to your hometown con, and while I'm laid up from surgery (and later, chemo), I can be with you. I'll make a Flickr pool for the project, and later on we can have prizes and stuff.
But mostly for fun, and so I can go on being out in the world with you guys.
Make me a mask, if it pleases you.
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