The ongoing saga of David D. Levine's writing and other adventures.
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I'm a geek, fan, and writer who lives in Portland, Oregon.
For more information about me, please see my
web page. If you have questions, comments, or just want to chat, you can send me e-mail. Or you can post a comment on my LiveJournal. |
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Word count: 5420 | Since last entry: 4436
My first collection, Space Magic, can now be ordered from http://www.wheatlandpress.com! Also, don't forget that I have a reading and signing at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon this Wednesday, May 14, at 7pm.
Yesterday I finished the first draft of the story I was working on, and it's now in the hands of my crit group. This was an interesting and difficult story, for some reason. I just couldn't get motivated to start work on it until a week before the deadline (actual deadline is June 1, but I had to have it done by yesterday in order to get it critiqued before then), and once I did start it just refused to take off. On Wednesday I realized that I'd written 3500 words, out of a maximum 5000, and the conflict hadn't started yet. My protagonist wasn't protagging -- it was all exposition and backstory. I spent the day cutting exposition and got it down to 2500 words, but it still wasn't going anywhere. Thursday I cut some more, but I couldn't see how I could get all the necessary information in before the reader got bored.
I thought hard about the problem for a day or so and decided to use a trick: I would cut the climax into pieces and distribute them throughout the story, starting at the beginning, so that all that exposition becomes flashback. I started doing that Friday, and also cut more exposition as it became clear which pieces I could do without. Then I spent basically the whole day Saturday pounding away at it -- about 2600 words in one day (hard to say for sure, because I took out a lot I'd already written as well). The result is satisfying -- a real pulse-pounding adventure, I think. We'll see what my critters think of it.
On Friday I was the guest of the Immaculate Novelists' Kult writing group in Vancouver, WA. They made me very welcome, let me talk about myself for four and a half hours, and gave me a lovely parting gift (a basket of fruit, chocolate, cheese, crackers, pens, a notebook, and a Powell's gift card). I'm overwhelmed.
Saturday I attended the Diet Soap issue 2 launch party at the Writers' Dojo. Interesting space, great people, and I got to participate in the reading even though I'm not in the magazine (I read an excerpt from "Falling Off the Unicorn", the Space Magic bonus track). Fun stuff.
Also, we went to Ikea and bought shelves. Two assembled, two more to go. Whee!
Posted 05/11/2008 17:19 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 984 | Since last entry: 360
Wednesday, May 14: I will be reading from and signing Space Magic, my first collection of short stories, at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing in Beaverton, Oregon at 7:00 PM. Tuesday, May 20: Another Space Magic signing, at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 12:00-2:00 PM. Friday-Sunday, May 23-15: Wiscon, at which I will be appearing on the following panels:
- Saturday at 4:00 PM: "The 'Real City' of Urban Fantasy" with Ellen Kushner, Richard Bowes, Karen Healey, and Julia Starkey.
- Sunday at 1:00 PM: "Get Out Your Secret Decoder Ring" with Catherynne M. Valente, Lesley Hall, Janine Young, and Tisha Turk.
- Sunday at 2:30 PM: "Like Quills upon the Fretful Porcupine" (Reading) with Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Ellen Kushner.
There will also be a Space Magic launch party at Wiscon, Friday night at 9:30-ish in Suite 611. Wheatland Press is sharing a party with Electric Velocipede and Scribe Agency and Farago's Wainscot, 'cause the more the merrier!
If you can't make it to any of the above, Space Magic can now be pre-ordered from Amazon.com and should be available from Wheatland Press shortly.
Posted 05/05/2008 15:39 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 624 | Since last entry: 624
Apparently if I'm not writing, I'm not blogging either. But I'm back on the horse, producing words for a theme anthology with a deadline that seemed luxurious when I got it but has shrunk to only a couple of weeks. More deadlines loom meyond that. Aiee!
I'm back from the Nebulas, as well. I did not win, alas, but it really is an honor to be nominated, and I can't fault the voters for selecting Karen Joy Fowler's "Always." But even if I didn't win the shiny, I was the best-dressed guy at the banquet in my new vintage tux (which I inherited from a recently-deceased writer known to many of you). Unfortunately, my camera died just before the trip and no one else has posted a picture of the tux online yet. But I hope that it will be in the next Locus and Jayme Lynn Blaschke has posted a fine photo of me and Kate. You can also see me accepting my nomination certificate and a group shot of the nominees. We had a good time in Austin hanging out with such notables as Jennifer Pelland and Mary Robinette Kowal and eating, well, like Texans on vacation (I gained about five pounds over the long weekend).
The sting of losing the Nebula has also been lessened somewhat by the arrival of a contract from Ellen Datlow: "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" will be reprinted in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2009. I also have some other good news that I hope to be able to share with you shortly.
While we were in Austin, Kate sprang a very accurate faux Amazing Race clue envelope on me, directing Team Bento to drive 30 miles to the town of Spicewood, Texas. We soon found ourselves at Cypress Valley Canopy Tours, where we were fitted out with harnesses and helmets for a trek through the treetops by zipline! (Technically it was neither a Roadblock nor a Detour, since we didn't have any choice and both of us did the same thing, but what the hell.) I hadn't expected to find so many large trees in Texas, but the tour was fun and educational (zipping from tree to tree
as we float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia) and too short. Again, camera died so no pictures. I love my sweetie.One last thing before I fall over: my friend Katy King pointed out a strong coincidental similarity between this XKCD strip and my story "Fear of Widths" (saying "I like your version better"). I am amused.
Posted 05/02/2008 23:59 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Heading to Austin for the Nebulas, where I expect to lose to Karen Joy Fowler, but it really is an honor just to be nominated. I realize from reading Jennifer Pelland's blog just how blase' I've been about the whole thing so far. My heart will probably start to pound when we sit down for the banquet.
Sorry for the last couple of weeks' radio silence. I've been distracted. Haven't done a lick of writing or editing since the novel workshop, though I've nibbled around the edges -- collecting notes, outlining, writing character sketches for a short story. I may be in the same sort of post-novel funk/recharge period that Elizabeth Bear has mentioned.
Most of the last couple of weeks, it seems, has been spent on the bathroom remodel. The bathroom seems to be even harder than the kitchen (or perhaps it's just fading memory of how hard the kitchen remodel was) because the room is so small -- everything is a game of inches. For example, there's exactly 37" between the door and the toilet, and that is where the sink must go. There are plenty of 39" wide sinks (consoles and vanities) and plenty of 30" wide sinks (mostly pedestals) but not much in between. However, I recently realized that the current wall at 37" might be movable, by at least a couple of inches, which might allow us to use a 39" Villeroy & Boch that looks great. But even if it can be made to fit, will that impinge on one's elbow too much when sitting on the toilet? And we haven't even begun to decide on colors yet.
Other items I would have blogged about in the last two weeks if I'd been paying attention: Rob Vagle and Ximena Hernandez's wedding in Eugene (the most amazing wedding I can recall, it was staged as a silent melodrama complete with sneering mustachio'd villain), a couple of science fiction writers' events at the Mount Hood Community College library (at which I got to spend much time with Camille Alexa among others), performances of Sweeney Tood and A Streetcar Named Desire, and a square dance in Palm Springs.
I have miserable airport karma in Palm Springs. I've been there maybe ten or twelve times in my life, and on at least four of those occasions I've had some kind of "issues" getting there and back. Last year I was stranded in Phoenix overnight. This year, when I got to the airport I found that I could not get a seat assignment for my PSP-LAX flight because it was overbooked, and I was told I would only get on the flight if someone with a seat volunteered to be bumped. I asked if there was any alternative, and after some kerfuffle one of the gate agents suggested that they were already sending some other people (who had been in the same situation and failed to get on the previous flight) to LAX via taxi. So they put me in the same cab.
A taxi. From Palm Springs to LAX.
It was a $300+ fare, but it was United's nickel and, because technically I volunteered to be bumped from my flight, I got a free round trip ticket too. (I'll be using that to get to Albuquerque for Taos Toolbox in June.) There was some traffic, but I got to LAX in time for my connection and made it home fine. I don't know if the other people made their connection, which was a lot tighter. If they missed it, I feel bad because they were delayed a few minutes waiting for me.
One last thing before we board: if you're in Portland, don't forget that I have a reading and signing of my first collection of short stories, Space Magic from Wheatland Press, at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing on May 14, 2008 at 7pm. I hope to see you there!
Posted 04/24/2008 10:26 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Back from the Oregon Coast and the novel workshop led by Dean Wesley Smith. My novel was very well received and there was much writerly schmoozing. More details to come.
While at the coast, I received word that I have been accepted into the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop. This is a NASA-funded "crash course" in modern astronomy for SF writers. Copyediting goddess Deanna Hoak, Paul Witcover, and the incomparable Mary Robinette Kowal are also attending.
I also got an email from my mother, who has set up a signing of my collection Space Magic at Panther Bookstore in Milwaukee in May 20, right before Wiscon. Local boy makes good!
Posted 04/06/2008 21:10 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
The project is finally complete! All 19 back issues of our tiny little fanzine Bento are now available online, at http://www.bentopress.com/bento. All issues are available in HTML format, and all but the first 3 are available in PDF format as well.
Mind you, the onine edition doesn't have all of the illustrations. I will try to get more of them scanned in in the future, but don't hold your breath.
Please let me know if you spot any formatting or other problems.
Posted 04/03/2008 18:31 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
So we're still trying to declutter the house.
One of the things I want to get rid of is this big pile of stuff upstairs.
One of the biggest components of that pile is the old PC which we replaced with a shiny new iMac in October. I've gotten rid of a lot of old computer hardware but that PC (and its monitor, keyboard, etc.) are still there because there is some data on it that I have to get off of it before I can send it away.
The biggest piece of the data is 16 out of the 19 issues of Bento, which are in FrameMaker binary format. FrameMaker is not available for Intel-based Macs (it's a Classic app), and there's just about nothing that reads FrameMaker binaries other than FrameMaker itself, so if I'm going to get those issues of Bento out of FrameMaker and into something else (like, say, posted on bentopress.com) it will have to be done on the old PC. (I could install Windows on the Mac, of course, but I don't want to have to maintain a Windows environment. Too much work to keep it updated and secure.)
So I've spent most of the last three days turning those old Bentos into PDF, PostScript, and HTML format. This is an unfortunately manual process, especially the HTML part. FrameMaker does have an HTML export option but both the usability of the workflow and the quality of the emitted HTML are crap. So I've been going through and inserting the HTML codes by hand.
A big part of this process is doing the opposite of a lot of the things I did when I created these issues in the first place: turning em-dashes back into --, un-curling quotes, and so on. (I could turn them into the equivalent HTML codes like ’ but that would be error-prone and even more work.) It's tedious and repetitive and takes longer than I'd hoped, but once I have done that, the rat will begin to gnaw the rope, the cat will begin to chase the rat, the dog will begin to chase the cat, and I will finally be able to get rid of this fershlugginer PC.
The good news is that I get to re-read thirteen years of Bento. There's some good stuff in there. It will be posted to the web soon, once I've finished (just an issue and a half to go) and Kate has proofread it.
Meanwhile, we've been having fun with people from Seattle. Dave Howell crashed on our futon Thursday night, Hal O'Brien is there tonight, and we just came back from a lovely Thai dinner with Janna Silverstein (Jay Lake, Adrienne, and Bronwyn were there too, along with Robin Catesby, Dave Howell, and Karen Abrahamson from Vancouver BC). And tomorrow is Kate's birthday.
Posted 03/29/2008 21:47 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
At Potlatch thepussinboots handed me a bunch of pictures based on my stories "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" and "Babel Probe." This is one of the coolest things that can happen to a writer, I think. Click on each one to see it at a larger size.
Posted 03/26/2008 11:34 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Looks like it's been over a week since I blogged, and I don't even have the excuse of an Easter-weekend convention. I guess if I'm not writing, I have nothing to say. It's not that I've been completely unwriterly, but I've been spending my writing time reading for the upcoming novel workshop. I have completed critiquing 7 chapters-and-outlines and am now slogging through my one full novel assignment, an 800-page naval adventure. Fortunately I am enjoying that one.
The author of the naval adventure is, meanwhile, reading my novel, as are Dean Wesley Smith, my agent, and a few of my writer buddies. I hope they don't ask for major changes. The first novel was recently rejected by a small press and is off to another even smaller. Also, I was disappointed not to make the Hugo ballot, and I don't hold out much hope for winning the Nebula (by the way, if you are a SFWA member, remember that the Nebula voting deadline is 3/31). In this situation it's a bit more work to retain the necessary optimism. Writing requires a combination of great sensitivity (for writing and revision) and a cast-iron ego (for submitting and rejection).
Being in town for Easter, for the first time in who knows how long, we went to our neighborhood Easter brunch. Lots of people there from blocks around, many of whom we don't know, but the food was great and we had a fun time.
We talked with several people at the brunch about bathrooms. Yes, having failed to learn our lesson from the kitchen remodel, we're going ahead with the bathroom. It's a smaller room, so should be easier, right? On the other hand, doing without a kitchen for eight weeks might just be a tad easier than doing without our one-and-only bathroom for the same time. (You know the story about which body part is in charge and why, right?) We have already found -- and purchased -- The Perfect Tub. Despite the fact that we don't even have a signed contract with our designer yet, or more than a vague idea of a floor plan, this 1930s tub we found at Rejuvenation was just too wonderful (and rare!) to pass up.
Apart from that I've been running a lot of errands and doing a lot of to-do list items, including some decluttering (not enough, must get back on the stick about that). I also have met with my financial adviser, tax guy, trainer, hairdresser, and doctor. They all tell me everything is in pretty good shape for a guy my age. Later this week we have several out-of-town friends visiting, and next week Missy the organizer will show up for another day of decluttering. The days, they really are just packed.
Posted 03/25/2008 16:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 129179 | Since last entry: 787
"The Dark Behind the Stars," my second novel, is now a finished manuscript! This is the first time I've printed the whole thing out. (I bought a Brother HL-5250 to do it, since the HP 1022 I wanted doesn't seem to be made any more...) Copies will shortly be on their way to my agent and other beta readers.
Posted 03/17/2008 07:22 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 128392 | Since last entry: -24
The -24 words above is hilarious. I have been writing very head-down this week and have chopped off the entire last half chapter, replacing it with a new chapter-and-a-half. And this just HAPPENS to almost exactly equal the word count the last time I blogged. In point of fact I've removed almost 5000 words and written the same number of entirely new words. I hope to have a new complete draft ready to send to my beta readers today or tomorrow.
In the last week I also saw the excellent touring production of Twelve Angry Men, with Richard Thomas as Juror Eight, and have done a bit of decluttering. I've also been mildly sick. Not too surprising given the number of sick people at Potlatch.
The main reason I'm blogging right now is that I posted the following as a comment in kmckiernan's blog, and I thought it might be helpful to others.
For tracking story submissions I use an Excel spreadsheet with a separate sheet for each story. The name of each sheet is the story's filename (titles change, but I keep the same base filename for all versions) and has the following columns:
Each row represents a submission (well, technically a state change, because I also have rows for Wrote, Critiqued, and Edited for each story). The Days Out is automatically calculated from the Date Out and Date Back (or, if Date Back is blank, the current date). The Response field has the following values:
- Date Out
- Sent To
- Date Back
- Days Out
- Response
- Comments
I also have a Summary sheet with a macro that pulls together all of the rows in every sheet into a single sheet (adding the name of the sheet, which is the story title, as an additional column at the beginning). I use AutoFilter on this sheet to display only those rows where the status is Awaiting Response, and that's my summary of stories out and how long they've been wherever they are.
- ? - Awaiting Response
- R - Rejected
- D - Withdrawn
- X - Other Non-Sale (e.g. market closed)
- W - Rewrite Requested
- A - Accepted
- P - Published
- T - Trunked
One important thing about my spreadsheet is that each sheet includes not only past submissions but future ones. The first few rows of each sheet have Wrote, Critiqued, and Edited in the Sent To field (with start and end dates and no Response value). The remaining rows are all markets, in the order in which I intend to send this story. I make up this list as soon as the story is finished. When I send the story out, I fill in the Date Out field. I use the Days Out field in my Summary sheet to see how long it's been out and to prompt me to query.
When I get a response, I fill in the Date Back and Response fields, and if the response is a rejection I just look down one row to see where I'm going to send it next. (If I already have a story at the next market, I move the next open market up a row and send it there instead.) This helps me to keep stories in submission. I rarely have a story sit around for more than a day or two. If the response is an acceptance, I remove the remaining markets and replace them with rows for Contract, Check, Galleys, and Publication for tracking the story through production.
Here's an actual example:
Date Out Sent To Date Back Days Resp Comments 16-May-06 [wrote] 26-Jun-06 41 22-Jul-06 [crit group] 05-Aug-06 14 16-Aug-06 [revised] 17-Aug-06 1 18-Aug-06 F&SF 28-Sep-06 41 R "Many thanks for sending [this] my way, but I'm going to pass on this one. As it happens, I just bought a post-Katrina New Orleans ghost story." 28-Sep-06 Asimov's 16-Jan-07 110 R "The story is quite sweet, but I'm afraid it doesn't quite work for me." 16-Jan-07 Strange Horizons 27-Mar-07 70 R "This has some moving and evocative moments, but the whole thing with the ghosts feels too straightforward to me." 31-Mar-07 Realms of Fantasy 26-Sep-07 179 R Queried after 6 months and got this back: "I emailed Shawna about this one but never heard back. I'm fairly certain she passed on this one." 07-Oct-07 Glimmer Train 14-Dec-07 68 R Marked as "Complete" (i.e. rejected) on their online status form 14-Dec-07 Weird Tales 06-Jan-08 23 R "I'm not convinced it all worked for me, particularly the ending." 06-Jan-08 Brutarian 68 ? 1/16/140 Interzone Aeon Lady Churchill's Black Gate TalebonesThe story is currently at Brutarian and has been for 68 days. The notation "1/16/140" is the minimum, average, and maximum response times for that market posted at the Black Hole market list.The Comments field in the actual spreadsheet includes the entire response (usually I can just paste this in from the rejection email); I've included only a representative snippet above.
Posted 03/14/2008 08:23 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 129587 | Since last entry: 1171
The seaplane from Seattle to Victoria was way cool -- a terribly civilized way to travel. With only four passengers on the plane (us, plus an off-duty pilot and his charming daughter, bopping over to Victoria for a picnic) the formalities of boarding, customs, and preflight check took only a couple of minutes; we had neither the hassles of Homeland Security nor the waits of the Peace Arch border crossing. The flight took 45 minutes and the whole thing was like the cool bit at the end of a jet flight where you can see all the individual houses and cars below.
We stayed at the Empress, also terribly civilized. The location was superb, service excellent as you'd expect, and the beds supremely comfortable. But the room was rather small and located in the newer wing, so while tasteful was not particularly Empress-y. I'm not sure I'd spring for that splurge again. However, we did enjoy the curry buffet at the Bengal Room, along with many other very fine meals. Actually, we had excellent food karma this whole trip, including a breakfast on the last morning at the Cafe Vieux Montreal, where I was not expecting to cross a language barrier as we passed through the front door. Really looking forward to Farthing Party now!
Apart from eating, we had a relaxing time wandering around, shopping for books and CDs, and poking around a cool old cemetery and a museum or two. Took a nap every afternoon. Life is hard. We also attended a stitch-and-bitch at a local coffee shop, where I played the Dear Husband, sitting in the back and working on my novel. I only wrote on four days during the trip, but the 1100 words noted above actually represent 1600 words taken out and a new scene of 2700 words written to replace them: a new and more emotionally-significant death for one of my main characters.
Our flight back to Seattle was much more popular, so much so that we not only used the larger 10-passenger plane but also added a second plane. Never been on a flight that was so full it required an overflow aircraft before.
The weekend was spent at the "Rain Festival" square dance fly-in (but it'll always be Geoduck to us), ably called by Andy Shore and Darren Gallina. GCA caller Osamu Miyabe from Toronto called a couple of really exceptional Advanced and Challenge tips, notable for fast and surprising choreo that really flowed. A caller to seek out!
Listening to Osamu call "Light and Reft Gland," I realized that the reason it seems to our ears that the Japanese get the L's and R's backward every single time is that they have only one sound for both. You know the optical illusion in which a gray circle looks dark against a white background and light against a black background, even though both circles are exactly the same shade of gray? It's the same with the Japanese L/R sound. When encountered where we expect an L, it sounds like an R, and vice versa.
During the fly-in we enjoyed the gracious hospitality of Ulrika and Hal O'Brien, not to mention Sarah the dog and Tinka, Lefty, and Spike the cats. Though Sarah did step on a very tender portion of my anatomy ("she has deadly accuracy," said Ulrika) and we never did see scaredy-cat Spike. We also stopped in briefly at the Seattle fans' pub meet on Sunday before heading home. Alas, there we learned that some good news we'd been hoping for had not come to pass. Darn.
Since being home I've felt extremely pressured by the amount of stuff left undone during our travels. I decided this morning that I would try to do four things for at least an hour every day this week: writing, to-do list items, decluttering, and exercise. Did all four today (allowing for some creative accounting on the time spent decluttering) but I got some new information toward the end of today that may require shifting into all-writing-all-the-time mode for a day or two starting tomorrow. But for now, to bed.
Posted 03/10/2008 23:50 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 128416 | Since last entry: 0
In conjunction with the launch of my first collection, Space Magic from Wheatland Press, I will have a reading at Powell's in Beaverton on Wednesday, May 14 at 7pm. Watch this space for more details.
Posted 03/03/2008 17:57 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 128416 | Since last entry: 0
Potlatch has been good so far. The hotel is fabulous and many of my favorite people are here. We've had excellent meals with friends old and new, and bought girl scout cookies from Edd Vick and Amy Thomson's daughter Katie.
Yesterday I was on a panel called "Man and Aquaman," about biological and technological modification of humans. The panel started off slow and diverged radically from the original idea, but we had fun talking about what defines "human" and "self." In the afternoon I gave a reading, which was well attended, probably because I came in just at the end of Pat Murphy's reading and most of her audience stayed. I read the zeppelin story, which made some people want to know what else happened in that universe (I never have written two stories set in the same universe, never mind sequels, but I'm thinking that I might try that one day soon). The panel on atheism was fun and intriguing and made me say "what, is everyone in this regiment a woman?" I think that atheists really need to be more open about our beliefs, so that more people will realize how common atheism is and how we really are good and moral people.
Saturday evening was the Clarion West benefit auction, and I'm pleased to say that items we donated raised over $200. I also made out like a bandit in the "chocolate for trivia" event preceding the auction.
No writing since leaving home. Really ought to do something about that.
Oh, one more thing... got a hint of a possibility that maybe I will be getting some good news soon. Perhaps. Fingers crossed.
Posted 03/02/2008 09:01 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 128416 | Since last entry: 23
Nothing like getting a rejection, a difficult critique, and a deadline in the same week.
I've been spending every waking hour not spent on something else (yes, that's a tautology) on getting my second novel ready for the April novel workshop. The deadline isn't until March 10, but as we're leaving for Potlatch this morning and won't be back home until March 9 I have to get it in the mail today.
As I mentioned in my last entry, I put down the revisions a couple of days ago and have been working on the synopsis and other supporting documents. It took me about a day and a half to write a 22-page synopsis, then about half a day to cut it down to 14 pages.
What a load of fetid dingoes' kidneys.
Writing the synopsis gives me a 40,000 foot view of the novel and shows me all the places the plot doesn't fit together, all the places the characters are just marching in place and angsting over the same things over and over, all the places I set something up and never followed through, all the places I had something happen without proper setup, all the places I did the right thing in the wrong place. As with the last novel, the synopsis makes more sense than what's on the page. But this time I intend to take what I've learned and make the novel more like the synopsis (after the workshop).
In a couple of cases this is going to be a challenge. Specifically, I decided to take the critique feedback I got on the ending and write a completely different ending in the synopsis (with a few related changes in the last few chapters to set it up properly). I feel that I can get away with this here because most of the workshoppers will only get the first 50 pages and synopsis. Only two workshoppers will get the whole novel, and that isn't going out until later. So I have from now until later to rewrite the ending to match the synopsis. How late is "later"? I don't know, but probably shortly after March 10. Which means I should try to work on this while I'm on vacation. That didn't work too well while I was in DC, but we'll see. Worse comes to worst, the two workshoppers who get the whole manuscript will get to compare and contrast the two endings (but I don't want to do that, it would be unprofessional).
Yesterday I also got a rejection on my first novel. It has now been rejected by all of the major publishers and several of the more respected minors. It has maybe three minor publishers left to try before I trunk it. The rejections have been fairly consistent and the problem is structural. Basically, I should never have tried such a nonstandard time structure in a first novel. Theoretically I could take the novel apart and rewrite it with a more normal structure, but I think that time would be better spent writing another novel from the ground up. I also thought about chopping the novel into short stories, but I don't see any single section that can be made to have a satisfying ending.
I remember how good I felt about that first novel when I finished it.
And now I look at this pile of scribbled-on paper ready to go to the workshop and I wonder why I bother.
Waah.
Nebula nominee Nebula nominee Nebula nominee.
(Doesn't help as much as you might think.)
Posted 02/29/2008 08:26 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 128393 | Since last entry: 827
As you may recall, my actual birthday this year didn't go as well as I'd hoped (it didn't suck, but it wasn't special) so I rescheduled it for 2/25. This turns out to have worked quite well. The day started with Kate playing me John McCutcheon's birthday song "Cut the Cake", a much cheerier alternative to the usual Happy Birthday song, and presenting me with a delightful card. I also got a card from the Rosetown Ramblers.
In the morning I had a haircut, went to yoga class, and stopped at Powell's to pick up a couple of copies of the recently-published anthology Transhuman, which includes my story "Firewall". I haven't yet received my author copy, so this was my first opportunity to hold the book in my hand. Hardcover, even.
In the afternoon I worked on revisions. I'm putting in two or three hours a day but not making as much headway as I need to in order to finish by 2/28.
In the evening, Kate and I went for a birthday dinner at Caffe Mingo. However, Caffe Mingo was closed for a private wine tasting (which, if they had a web page, I might have known, grr) so we walked down the block to Lucy's Table, where we had a really excellent dinner. I had the vegetarian meatloaf with a parmesan-panko crust and housemade ketchup, which sounds oh so pretentious but was totally yummy.
So. An excellent David's Birthday (Observed).
Today started off at the gym, where I met with my trainer and discovered my dissipated lifestyle is catching up with me... I weigh more now than I have in, like, ever. Admittedly that's still only 141 pounds, but the trend is in the wrong direction. I must resume my previous good habits of diet and exercise.
In the afternoon I worked on revisions some more. However, I also received an email telling me that I need to send in only the first 50 pages on 2/28... plus query letter, cover letter, and two different synopses. As I have not yet written any of those, I'm going to put the revisions on hold for a little bit and work on the supporting documents instead, starting tomorrow. This may mean spending part of my time in Seattle and Victoria and Seattle next week finishing up the revisions, because I will have to send in the rest of the novel soon.
I also received email comments from a member of my critique group, indicating that the ending of the novel (which he missed critting on Saturday through no fault of his own) is broken. The other crits of the ending were also, alas, mildly to moderately unenthusiastic. I see his point, and though I don't think I have the time to make all the changes he suggests I want to try to make some of them. I really don't want to lose the SF maguffin from the ending, even though every single one of my critters says it doesn't work. I know that a broken ending can be made to work, without change, by changing the setup, though this would require a lot of rewriting; alternatively, I might have to slay that particular darling and write an entirely new ending, which would require even more rewriting. Color me not completely happy about this. Still, better to find out the problem exists before submitting the book.
In the evening we had a lovely dinner at the home of Barb and J.C. Hendee, authors of the Noble Dead series, who just recently moved to Oregon. Very nice people.
And so to bed. Another busy day tomorrow.
Posted 02/26/2008 23:19 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 127566 | Since last entry: 104
"Titanium Mike Saves the Day" is on the Final Nebula ballot!!Congrats to all the other nominees, especially fellow first-timer Jennifer Pelland, and condolences to those who didn't make the cut.
Posted 02/22/2008 08:47 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 127462 | Since last entry: 179
I was born on February 21, 1961. Today is February 21, 2008. I'm just getting over a mild cold. Kate got it too, but she's a couple of days behind me, coughy and achy and low on energy, so she didn't have the wherewithal to get me a card or anything. That's okay. And my parents are away on a trip to Phoenix, so they didn't send a card and couldn't call today, but they gave me a call yesterday. That's okay too. At least I got an e-card from my dentist.
In the morning I did some revisons, then we went to a play (A Feminine Ending, which I greatly enjoyed) and had a nice lunch at Henry's and did some preliminary research for our forthcoming bathroom remodel, but in the early afternoon we ran out of energy and fell over until dark. When it came time for dinner, Kate said "you eat, I'm not hungry."
As I was making some toast to put leftover curry on, I decided that... well, I have pretty low standards for birthdays, really, but this doesn't cut it.
So I have decided to reschedule David's Birthday (Observed) to 2/25 this year.
Posted 02/21/2008 20:07 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 127283 | Since last entry: 2134
Unlike the last trip, I did not get stranded in the Tri-Cities by a snow storm this time. In fact, the weather was quite pleasant. I just didn't get around to blogging about it until now, due to busyness and a general lack of energy. Kate and I are both mildly sick.
Radcon was fun, if a little strange. 1800 people at the convention and I knew about 30 of them. It was like a weird alternate-universe OryCon where almost all of the fans had been replaced by similar, but not identical, other fans. Even though I was Short Story Guest of Honor, I had very little interaction with the fan-on-the-street, and spent most of my time hanging out with other writers and a few Portland-area fans I knew. I was on eight program items, of which two were cancelled due to complete lack of audience and one (my reading) was attended only by writer friends of mine.
The highlight of the convention was the presence of a stack of pre-publication copies of my collection Space Magic at the Wheatland Press table. Deb sold all but 6 copies and I signed most of the ones she sold. It's a real book! The cover is gorgeous! I am so thrilled! The final edition will be available for order from wheatlandpress.com in May, and will also be at Wiscon.
The other highlight of the convention for me was a tour of the Hanford nuclear reservation on Friday morning, with Jay Lake and Adrienne Loska, G. David Nordley and his wife Gayle Weiner, and author/editor Lizzy Shannon. Hanford's entire job today is cleaning up the mess of nuclear waste that Hanford made over the last 50 years. The coolest thing we saw was the FOLDTRACK, a hydraulically-powered device designed to fit down a 12" pipe, fold itself into bulldozer mode, then push radioactive, toxic, caustic, explosive sludge into piles so it can be sucked up and out of the tank for proper disposal elsewhere. Jay Lake has posted a video, toward the beginning of which you can hear me exclaim "it's a miniature folding robot bulldozer!" as I realize what we're seeing.
Another cool thing was the Heroes panel on Friday, which started off with me and writer Rhonda Eudaly doing the usual "writers talking about some random TV show" thing but changed character drastically when media GoH Dragon Dronet arrived and dumped Hiro's samurai sword and armor on the table. The actual props. We spent the rest of the hour talking about how the props for the show were made, changes that occurred at the last minute, and the thrill and panic of life in Hollywood. I had to duck out a few minutes early so I could be on TV -- one of the local news channels was running a live feed from the convention and I got 40 seconds at the end of the program.
Bob Brown, Radcon's programming head, treats the attending pros very well. We were given plenty of food, and provided with both a Green Room and a Small Press Room to entertain ourselves in when we weren't on programming. But he was very cruel to us in the Artists Vs. Writers Pictionary game -- the writers had to try to draw such concepts as "gay Vulcans," "genital herpes," and "the Pythagorean theorem," while the artists were given clues like "cow." We'll get him next year.
So even though I knew hardly anyone at the con, I had a good time hanging out with people I did know: Jay Lake and Adrienne Loska (who very kindly provided transportation there and back), Ken and Jen Scholes, M. K. Hobson, Sara Mueller, Deb Layne of Wheatland Press, and Kami and Carole of the Immaculate Novelists Kult (who bought me a very nice dinner and invited me to make a presentation to their Kult in May).
And I was there when Janna Silverstein got humped.
After I got back from the convention I put up a bright pink stickie on my bathroom mirror that said "This week, writing IS the day job." But I failed to actually take any action at all on Sunday or Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday, though, were good solid writing days. I am now about 30% through the novel on the first revision pass (which might be the only pass it gets this time around) and have added over 2000 words of new material to address comments I got from my critique group over the last year or so.
Also today, we met with the lawyer and signed my new will, which now includes a clause establishing a literary trust to manage my writings after my death (based on this sample will provided by Neil Gaiman). We also signed our medical advance directives. It's all gray areas, and no fun to think about, but it's done. You should do the same, if you haven't yet.
Posted 02/20/2008 23:07 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 125149 | Since last entry: 35
Back home from Washington DC.
On Thursday before the fly-in we spent the morning at the Air and Space museum, goggling at such actual craft as the Gossamer Condor and SpaceShipOne, and also saw a Greatest Hits exhibit of the under-renovation American History museum (including Abe Lincoln's last hat, Judy Garland's ruby slippers, Mister Rogers's sweater, and part of ENIAC).
We had lunch at the Museum of the American Indian, whose cafeteria includes Native American cuisine from all over this hemisphere, then toured the museum. But though I loved the architecture, I had trouble respecting the cosmologies presented, which looked to my European-American eye like the stories of very small children (a creation story: "all the people were living like ants in a hollow log, but then a holy man came and let them out, but one woman was pregnant and couldn't get out." Huh?)
After a nap, we headed out to Silver Spring for a dinner with fans, arranged by Colleen Cahill, at a Burmese restaurant. Fine food and conversation, marred only slightly by a train breakdown that left us sitting on the train for 15-20 minutes on the way back.
On Friday, another local fan, Peggy Rae Sapienza, who had not been able to make it to dinner, volunteered to help us move from the Tabard Inn to the fly-in hotel. And, as long as we had the use of her car, we visited the other Air and Space museum, the one by the airport.
The other Air and Space museum is bigger than the Tillamook blimp hangar and features the space shuttle Enterpise, a Concorde, an SR-71 Blackbird (which Kate thought looked like a bad guy's spaceship), and the Enola Gay. Also Willy Ley's Hugo (for Conquest of Space), a Babylon 5 Usenet fans' jumpgate symbol (<*>) pin, and a spider that flew on the Space Shuttle (in formaldehyde). We could't possibly see it all, and eventually hunger drove us to a nearby strip mall for surprisingly good Vietnamese.
Peggy Rae took us back to the hotel, from whence we immediately took off for the Renwick museum, a very small branch of the Smithsonian that has some surprisingly good modern American craft-art (by which I mean furniture-making, glass-blowing, and other "craft" activities raised to the level of fine art). Recommended. And then it was time for the fly-in to start.
Had a great time at the fly-in, where the quality and especially the energy level of the dancing were phenomenal; I had faster and smoother dancing here than at some lower-level fly-ins. We also had a grand time on Saturday night playing "Munchkin" with friends C.J. and Stephen (I won).
On our last day it was bitterly cold -- we stopped at Filene's Basement to buy gloves and earmuffs -- and we visited the lobby of the Willard Hotel (said to be the place where the original "lobbyists" hung out) and the National Building Museum, which had an amazingly impressive atrium and several keen exhibits including one about David Macaulay. Then we flew home, uneventfully. That was Monday.
We've spent the last couple of days mostly scrambling around to try to get everything done we didn't do during our week in the nation's capital and getting ready for our next trips. I'm going to RadCon, where I will be Short Story Guest of Honor, and Kate's going to a knitting workshop in Tacoma.
On Tuesday we saw an excellent production of Twelfth Night (the funny parts were actually funny, the songs were left in and actually worked, and Viola and Sebastian actually looked a lot like each other). Before that I got in an hour's work at the coffee shop, where my Wheatland Press editor Deb Layne stopped by and handed me a copy of Space Magic. It is an actual book! And the cover is even more goreous in person! There are still a few glitches inside, but copies of this preview edition will be available at RadCon.
Note that I said "an hour's work" rather than "an hour's writing." My goals for February are in revision hours rather than words written -- my goal is an hour and a half per day but I'd really better do two hours or more every day if I'm going to get this thing revised and the synopsis written by the end of this month for an April novel workshop. I didn't do any writing work while we were in DC but I did an hour and a half on the plane and have kept up at least that pace since. Don't know if I'll be able to keep it up while I'm at RadCon.
Today: more errands, more editing (two hours, and now I've got all my notes from chapter critiques typed up), and our virtual Valentine's Day dinner, as we will be apart tomorrow night.
One last thing: last week we met with our lawyer to add a clause to my will about what should happen to my creative works in the event of my death. Nobody likes to think about this sort of thing, but every writer needs to do this. Neil Gaiman explains why, and provides a sample will. Don't put it off.
Posted 02/13/2008 23:13 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 125114 | Since last entry: 2206
I am in Washington DC, touristing about before the "ACDC" square dance fly-in.
First off, I finished the first draft of novel #2 on the plane. I typed THE END just as the pilot was telling us to shut down all electronic equipment for landing. I am right chuffed about that.
After we landed we had an amazing dinner at Bistrot du Coin, a fabulously authentic French bistro in Dupont Circle. Excellent food, not pretentious at all. Our hotel is the funky and character-filled Tabard Inn, which doesn't seem to know if it's a hotel, a restaurant, or a bar, but it works.
Today we started off with a visit to the Eastern Market, which is unfortunately under construction and has been temporarily replaced by a small, characterless stand-in. We also got a quick visit to the Supreme Court, which was not in session, where we were accompanied by a crowd of attractive college-age young women, all with long dark hair, and most with the Ash Wednesday cross on their heads. (Who were they?) I have never seen so many ashy forehead crosses as I saw today; I guess it's true that Portland is one of the most unchurched cities in the country. Then we joined local fan Colleen Cahill, a librarian at the Library of Congress, who treated us to lunch at the Senate Office Building and then gave us a whirlwind tour of the Library.
We got to lunch, half a mile away, via a bewildering series of tunnels, stairways, elevators, and little trains and passed through at least three security checkpoints in each direction. At one point I had to eat part of my luggage (okay, I had a Clif Bar in my belt pouch, and ever since the anthrax scare, food cannot be taken into the Capitol by tourists). Lunch was very nice, but we did not sample the famous Senate Bean Soup. Back at the Library, we got to see the Great Hall, a view of the Reading Room, a keen exhibit of the Bob Hope vaudeville collection, and the even more keen vault and backstage areas of the maps section where Colleen works. She took great delight in showing us many old maps of Portland. We also saw a group of Chassidic Jews, who I realized after a bit were all deaf. (Two had cochlear implants, and they were all signing to each other; I don't know if it was ASL or Hebrew sign language.)
After that we were exhausted and took a nap. Dinner was at Heritage India, upscale versions of Indian street food. Much was unlike anything I've ever had before, and by selecting various small dishes we had a very nice meal for not very much money.
And then I got back to the hotel and checked my email, and found that artist and writer Darin Bradley has posted the cover design for Space Magic, which I have been aching to show you ever since I first saw it. Is it not gorgeous? Here's another link in case you didn't click on the first one.. I also got to see Bruce Holland Rogers's introduction to the collection, which is amusing and very complimentary (he spends the whole introduction urging the reader to stop reading the introduction and read the stories). It's almost a real book!
No writing today. Probably not tomorrow either. Still a good day. A capital day, even.
Posted 02/06/2008 19:45 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 122908 | Since last entry: 3683
Posting via the free wi-fi at the Portland airport. (I love this town.) We're on our way to Washington DC for the ACDC square dance fly-in, with a few days of touristing beforehand.
I'm into the final section of the novel, and I expect to finish the first draft on the plane today. Nothing left but one final crisis and an emotional resolution for the surviving characters. But I'm a week and three days behind The Plan, and with the amount of traveling we're doing this month I'll have in effect about two weeks, rather than than a whole month, to revise the novel and write the synopsis. That should be enough, though. I'm not sure how much revision I'll be able to do while we're in Washington, since my critique comments are all in a file drawer at home, and I don't know how much time and energy will be available after a full day of touristing or dancing anyway. But there are some high-level and word-level things I know I want to do and I can take a first pass at the synopsis. I don't have a grand revision strategy, but will probably take several passes (one to perk up the main character, one to remove redundant adjectives, etc.).
Meanwhile... the Hugo administrator points out that nominations close in about five weeks. May I suggest that you consider "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" for Best Short Story (you can read it here, for free), Kate Yule for Best Fan Writer, and Bento for Best Fanzine? Anyone who is a member of Denvention or was a member of Nippon 2007 is eligible to nominate.
Posted 02/05/2008 06:59 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 119225 | Since last entry: 7115
We're finally back from Kennewick. Actually, we came back on Tuesday, but it's been crazy busy since then as we tried to get done everything that we should have gotten done while we were away. (As noted here and here, we were stranded in Kennewick for five days by an ice storm.)
As disasters go, it was a doddle. We were at Kate's parents' house, where we were warm and dry and got hot homecooked meals every day. I like Kate's folks (the big stinky dogs? not so much) and it was actually kind of nice to get to hang out with them for an extra couple of days. And I got a ton of writing done. I've been saying I needed a writing retreat and this is just about that (except for the can't-go-home-even-if-you-want-to part) -- though I did more writing before we figured out how to connect my laptop to their wi-fi. (The two LJ posts linked above were posted from my phone.)
I am now within a few thousand words of the end of the first draft. The carnage has been massive -- I've slaughtered almost sixty humans (at least five of them named characters) and thousands of aliens (only one named character there, but I made sure every one of those deaths was meaningful to the viewpoint characters) in the last week. The writing here has been fast and fun, as I'm writing stuff that I had in mind from the beginning of this book, over a year ago. It hasn't come out quite the way I envisioned it back then, but on the other hand I'm finding ways to tie in themes, characters, and details from earlier in the book that I hadn't realized could be tied in. It's faster, heavier, fresher than I'd thought it would be. I just hope it's big enough emotionally to justify the amount of sturm und drang I'm putting in...
Also in the last week I read over the page proofs for my collection, which is now definitely called Space Magic. Reading all these stories, some for the first time in five years or more, I'm actually very impressed with them. It's been long enough that I can actually enjoy them as stories rather than seeing the flaws. I hope that I will feel this way in five years about the stuff I'm writing right now.
I'm getting really excited about this collection. It's now listed on Wheatland Press's home page, there will be a signed and numbered limited-edition hardcover available exclusively from Wrigley-Cross Books, and I have seen a preliminary cover design which is Totally Made Of Awesome. (I'll share it with you as soon as I can.) A special pre-publication edition will be available at RadCon, at which I am Short Story Guest of Honor, and the real thing will be released in time for WisCon.
A whole book, just for me! ::squee::
I have one other bit of writing news to share, which is that Baen Books is currently offering a story of mine as a sample chapter from the anthology Transhuman (which is scheduled to be published in February, which means that copies have probably already shipped, though I haven't seen one yet). So if you want to read one of my stories, you can read "Firewall" for free here. I don't know how long it will remain available. Two other stories and the Introduction are also available (in a nice framed interface that lets you set bookmarks and adjust the font) here.
Posted 01/31/2008 08:58 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 112110 | Since last entry: 2103
This being the final chapter, there's been a lot of death and destruction. In fact, I just murdered almost all of my human characters and stranded the few survivors thousands of light-years from home.
Fortunately, I have a plan.
In other news, I have been accepted to the Taos Toolbox Writers' Workshop! This two-week workshop (in Taos, New Mexico in June), taught by Walter Jon Williams and Kelly Link with special guest lecturer Stephen R. Donaldson, is a "graduate-level" workshop for writers who have already been to Clarion or Odyssey and/or have made some short fiction sales, and has an emphasis on the craft of the novel. It should be a lot of fun. (If you're interested, and have two weeks and $2800 to spare, applications are still being accepted.)
The only downside is that it conflicts with the Fourth Street Fantasy Convention. Oh well, there's always next year.
Posted 01/24/2008 23:50 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 110007 | Since last entry: 1279
Neglected to mention in yesterday's blog entry that I also got our hotel for the Worldcon yesterday. Unlike many people, I got a room through the hotel's web page (we picked the Courtyard because it looks like it has a bit of character and is equidistant between the convention center and the party hotel) and didn't have a lick of trouble doing so -- we even got a rate that was lower than what the convention web page quoted. I did pounce as soon as reservations opened.
Today we watched half of the last Lord of the Rings movie, decluttered one shelf and one drawer (mostly videotapes -- we have 17 pounds of videotapes to go to GreenDisk now), and I shifted to the new wallet I just bought. This is my first new wallet in at least 15 years; it's noticeably smaller than the old one and has Velcro of Titanic strength by comparison. This is going to take some getting used to.
The 1279 words of writing above includes about 250 words of chapter-level outline. This is a tricky chapter and I felt I needed to outline it a bit before beginning. Those words of outline will gradually be replaced by actual text as the chapter grows towards its end -- and the end of the book. The end is in sight!
About 2/3rds of that was written at the coffee shop with Jay, Ken, Karen, Grant, and Theresa. A good day's work and I'm getting to bed before 11pm, woo hoo!
Posted 01/22/2008 22:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 108728 | Since last entry: 1204
I had a half-dozen things to do on my list for today. I did almost none of them, but did many other useful things instead. Got a haircut, went to the gym, did dishes, bought a new wallet, bought an outdoor thermometer and hung it up on the porch so we don't have to stick our noses out the door to find out how FREAKING COLD it is out there. Also nailed down our travel plans for the first week of March.
As we have a science fiction convention and a square dance, both in Seattle, on the first two weekends of March, we thought we might be able to go to Victoria BC for the week in between. Well, for a while there it looked like it wouldn't be possible, as the ferries don't run very frequently during the winter. But there is also a seaplane option...
Seaplane? And it's only... how much?
So we're going to take a seaplane from Lake Union to Victoria's Inner Harbor. And then (as if that weren't cool enough) we're going to stay at the Empress. See Kate's blog for details.
The writing has slowed down a little bit. For the last couple of days I have not quite made the thousand words a day I estimated I needed to finish by my deadline, and I did just 568 words today. But I stopped today because I just hit the end of the next-to-last chapter and I haven't the energy to start right in on the next one (especially since it's a PoV shift).
Yes, I have only! one! chapter! to! go!
And I have ten days to write it, so I should be okay.
Just goes to show what happens when you put your nose to the grindstone. This is two or three times my average daily pace from previous years.
For my next trick, I will figure out how to maintain this pace and still get eight hours of sleep a night.
Posted 01/21/2008 23:45 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 107524 | Since last entry: 3088
Spent a good chunk of today completing the decluttering of the mantelpiece, by taking down everything that remained on both the mantel and the old Panatrope-Radiola (a beautiful antique radio the size of a sideboard, which we always meant to rebuild into a cabinet but never completed), dusting it, and putting back only those pieces that really wanted to go back. The Hugo and James White award trophies now rest in the place of honor at the center of the mantelpiece, where books to be read were once piled, and are surrounded by photographs of family. I also took the time to polish the silver James White trophy, which had become quite tarnished.
We took some of those photographs to the frame shop and found frames for them. These were photos that had been displayed, some for years, in the cardboard folios provided by the photographer. One of those was a tintype of my grandmother, from approximately 1929. The cardboard folio on that one is a beautiful embossed thing but I still think a frame is better.
A few other errands, a lovely dinner and dessert with square dance friends Bo and Don, a thousand words on the novel, and that was the day. The writing is going quite rapidly now, a big bombastic scene of violence and destruction as the Big Bad bursts out and threatens to destroy the entire universe. Only a little more than a chapter to go, if I stick to the outline. Mind you, I'm having trouble getting everything from the outine in. I might have to do one additional chapter if I decide everything has to be there.
Yesterday was another lovely dinner and dessert, with SF fan friends Marc and Patty, followed by a viewing of Cloverfield with them and another friend, Anthony. I'd call it the best monster movie in years, though it's not suitable for anyone who's susceptible to motion sickness or has problems with flashing lights. Kate got through it only by closing her eyes for half the film. Even I got a little woozy and headachey, and I don't have issues with motion sickness at all. I understand the desire for the immediacy of a post-9/11 cellphone-cam-verite style, and there's no question it's a technical achievement, but I really think that 90 solid minutes of unrelieved unsteadycam was too much.
Oh, one more thing... Wheatland Press has officially announced the release date and title of my collection. It's called Space Magic and will be released on May 1, with a special pre-publication edition available at RadCon (at which I am Short Story Guest of Honor) in February. I have also received the galleys to be proofed, which is a first for me. I hope to have a cover to show you soonish.
Posted 01/19/2008 23:15 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 104436 | Since last entry: 1003
Today kind of vanished, starting with yoga class and continuing with a variety of small tasks that had me waiting around for someone else to show up. For the whole middle of the day I don't think I had more than 45 minutes at a stretch of continuous, focused time. But I got some bills paid, handed off some decluttered stuff to be auctioned for the Sue Petrey Fund, and met with a guy about moving the OryCon and OSFCI websites to a cheaper, better hosting company.
This was my second yoga class ever (the first was last week). Kate's been going for a while and asked me to join her this term. I'm finding the poses much less difficult than I'd expected, though after the first class I was surprised how sore I was the next day. I'm not seeing a lot of benefits so far, but I forsee that it will help my core strength, stability, flexibility, balance, and posture, and possibly also calmness.
In college I took calculus 101 and physics 101 at the same time, and each one helped me to understand some aspects of the other (calc gave me a better understanding of the math I needed in physics, and physics showed me how calc was useful). Yoga and training at the gym are similarly complementary, both being about improving the body and learning to use it better, but having different focuses. I'm also seeing that yoga, weightlifting, meditation, tantra, and Body Electric are closely related -- nearby points in a multi-dimensional space, each having some aspects of the others. One thing they all have in common is concentrating on how to breathe.
Yesterday, I see I failed to mention, I spent a good chunk of the day clearing out the large quantities of stuff that had accumulated on the floor on my side of the bed and atop my bedside table. This was one of my Yuletide presents to Kate: a pledge to clear the mantelpiece and my bedside by January 15. Deadlines are useful things.
I filled a bag of paper to recycle and a box of books to be sold, generated a foot-tall stack of reusable paper for the printer (good, we'd been running low), added a dozen books to the to-be-read shelf (which is no longer on the mantel, but upstairs), and made the pile of fanzines to read in the bathroom nine inches taller (that's a problem for another day). I also dusted and vacuumed the place where all that stuff had been. I am pleased.
One of Kate's Yuletide presents to me was the Lord of the Rings extended edition DVD box set. We're about halfway through. A fine, fine set of films, though I'm finding that some of the added material is a little draggy (the hobbits sitting around reminiscing about Gandalf right after his death in the mines at Moria comes to mind). Most of the added material, though, is an improvement, and I'm glad I'm finally getting to see the films as the director intended they be seen.
We also saw The Bucket List in the theatre. Save your money.
Another thing I see I failed to mention is that I passed the 100,000 word mark on my novel. Yay me. I anticipate around 120,000 words for the first draft, just like the last one. I am currently working on the last chapter but one. All of the secrets are out in the open now (well, except for one thing that a character's been hiding from herself and won't come out until the denouement), and all that's left now is the climactic, physics-defying battle. It's going to be fun.
To bed at a fairly reasonable hour, for once!
Posted 01/16/2008 23:21 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 103433 | Since last entry: 4912
A good night writing and chatting at the coffee shop with Jay Lake, although most of tonight's output is a huge expository lump that will probably have to be slimmed down and redistributed later.
Late last week I finally got fed up with the fact that the space bar on my iBook's keyboard was ever so slightly intermittent. It probably worked four times out of five, but that was bad enough to be annoying. I even turned on the squiggly red lines in Word, which I hate, to help me spot the missing spaces. Fortunately, the computer is under warranty. I called Apple and they said that if I mailed them the computer they'd fix it... but I didn't want to be without my computer for who-knows-how-long, and I knew that the iBook keyboard is a user-replaceable part. So I insisted. Eventually I convinced them to ship me a new keyboard. The package arrived the very next day... but it was a standard desktop keyboard. I called back and tried again, and again I had to insist that the iBook keyboard is a user-replaceable part. Finally I got the right keyboard in the mail. It took about 15 minutes to install. Happy spacebar. Now I can turn the red quiggly lines off, and my writing speed is ever so slightly faster.
Posted 01/15/2008 22:28 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 98521 | Since last entry: 2304
The Preliminary Nebula Ballot has now been officially released, and "Titanium Mike" is on it! The story is now available for everyone to read at the F&SF website.
Also, we've (semi)finalized our travel plans for the year. It was really hard, because although we're no longer limited by vacation days there's still the danger of burnout, so there are many events that we could attend that we have reluctantly decided not to. Here's where we're pretty sure we will be:
January: Christmas in Kennewick (as many of Kate's relatives are too busy on Christmas to do Christmas at Christmas). February: ACDC square dance fly-in in Washington, DC, with a few days touristing beforehand, and RadCon SF convention in Pasco (at which I am Short Story Guest of Honor). March: Potlatch SF convention in Seattle, followed by Rain Festival square dance fly-in in Seattle the following weekend, with four days in Victoria BC in between. April: Novel workshop with Dean Wesley Smith, and Rob & Ximena's wedding in Eugene, and probably Peel-Off square dance fly-in in Palm Springs, and probably the Nebula Awards weekend in Austin. May: Wiscon SF convention in Madison. June: TBA. July: Touch a Quarter Century, the gay square dance Worldcon, in Cleveland, and Readercon SF convention in Boston. August: Denvention, the science fiction Worldcon, in Denver, and Farthing Party in Montreal. September: Push Open the Golden Gate square dance fly-in in San Francisco. October: World Fantasy Convention in Calgary. November: OryCon SF convention in Portland, and Weave the Rain square dance fly-in in Vancouver BC. December: Christmas in Germany, details TBD.There are, believe it or not, a few additional events that we are still waiting to find out more information before we commit. Also we will be remodeling the bathroom. Whee!
Posted 01/11/2008 12:47 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 96217 | Since last entry: 2758
I've been very good at meeting my 1000-words-a-day writing goal since the Solstice, and the result has been that the novel is absolutely flying by. Compared to the months I spent thrashing around in mid-year, things are now happening so fast that I'm having trouble keeping it all in my head. This is both in terms of events per chapter and in terms of events per writing day, though mostly the latter.
The events per chapter count is definitely much higher, though. Where I felt before (in mid-novel) that I had to come up with more stuff to fill out the chapter, I now (just finished chapter 13 out of 16) am having trouble getting everything from the outline into a chapter of reasonable length. There may be some rebalancing and squishing-about of stuff in the revision phase.
My current writing pace has me finishing a chapter a week rather than a chapter every three weeks. At this rate I'll finish the first draft by the end of this month, as planned. Look at the uptick at the end of this chart!
I have to point out that I have not increased my writing speed, only my writing productivity. I still draft at around 300-500 words per hour, but I'm putting in more hours per day. The downside is that most days I've been getting to bed after midnight (but still generally waking up around 6:30, a habit from my working days I have been unable to break). What I should really do is start writing earlier in the day (duh!) but the press of Other Things (chores, decluttering, email, LiveJournal) and stupid inertia has prevented that so far.
Today is going to be a busy day and I should really be doing something more productive than graphing my word counts in Excel (I tried to use iWork, but I couldn't figure out how to import data from a text file) and blogging.
Posted 01/08/2008 08:44 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 93459 | Since last entry: 2405
Here is The Plan for completing novel #2:
I have a large printout of this on the wall near my writing chair. I will put a star on the calendar for every day that I write 1000 or more words or spend at least an hour and a half editing.
It has stars on every day so far.
Meanwhile... Edd Vick has blogged his recent trip to Portland, including our expedition to Glowing Greens, a pirate-themed underground black-lighted (blacklit?) miniature golf course. It was, as Amy Thomson said, like playing mini-golf in a cheap carnival dark ride, but it was fun and very silly.
And if Edd ever invites you to mini-golf? Beware. Total shark.
Posted 01/05/2008 08:50 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 91054 | Since last entry: 2396
New Year's Eve was a pirate-themed party at Willow Cottage. Despite the fact that we'd known for months about the theme, did we start work on our costumes before Thursday? We did not. And there wasn't a decent tricorn hat to be found anywhere. So Kate knitted me one. Yes, she knitted a tricorn, and it was fabulous.
The party itself was a little strange at first, being populated by large numbers of young people that we didn't know. Turns out this was the children of the household, who used to run around underfoot, then had their own party upstairs, and now were the party. After midnight things quieted down a bit and we got to chat with Howard and some of the other folks our own age. The first thing on the iPod when we got in the car to head home was "League of Notions" by Al Stewart, followed by "My Boyfriend's Girlfriend" by Must Be Tuesday (MP3), which both seemed incredibly apropos in a difficult-to-explain way.
New Year's Day brought the usual potluck brunch at the home of our friends Marc and Patty, which marks the 23rd anniversary of the day Kate and I met.
January 2nd we had a professional organizer come in and help us de-clutter. Kate blogged it, so I don't have to. Personally, I got rid of at least three large boxes of papers and old diskettes (the diskettes are going to GreenDisk today) and we're both jazzed up and will keep chipping away at it for the rest of this month.
All during this time I kept up with my quota of 1000 words a day. Sleep? What's that?
And this morning I learned that "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" qualified for the Nebula preliminary ballot, with 12 recommendations. At least, it's on the draft ballot that was posted this morning for inspection. So it's on the preliminary preliminary ballot, and there's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip. But it's still very encouraging news.
More decluttering today, more writing, more great stuff. Happy 2008, all!
Posted 01/03/2008 10:29 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
Word count: 88658 | Since last entry: 4586
2007 was a heck of a year. We traveled to Singapore, Thailand, and Japan, and I retired from my day job. From a writing perspective, it was mixed -- focused on my next novel, I only wrote one new short story and made only two new sales (one of which was to a market that folded before the end of the year). But I saw a lot of stories in print, including my second in F&SF, a bunch of translations, and my first Gardner Dozois Year's Best appearance. I also sold a collection of my short fiction to Wheatland Press, and "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" got at least 8 Nebula recommendations (I'll find out soon, I hope, if it made the 2007 preliminary ballot... even if it didn't, it has until April to pick up 2 more for the 2008 ballot).
In 2008 we plan to do a lot of travel. We're seriously considering 7 science fiction and 6 square dance events, plus at least two writing workshops and a trip to Germany in December. There will probably also be more travel that we don't even know about yet. I'll post a travel calendar when we get a few more details sorted out.
Last year's resolution was to finish my second novel. I didn't make it -- got 12 chapters out of 16 -- but I think I made a good effort. My resolution this year is to write 1000 words, or do the equivalent amount of revision, every single day. (Not yet sure how to measure revision or what the equivalent amount to 1000 words is. Maybe an hour.) That's two or three times as much as I've managed in previous years, but I've been doing it for at least a couple of weeks now and I think it's doable.
At that rate I should finish up the first draft of novel #2 by Groundhog Day. I'll spend February revising it, send it off to the novel workshop on or before March 1, and workshop it at the beginning of April. Then I'll do whatever revision it needs and get it in the mail as soon as I can, hopefully by May Day. After that, short stories, at least for a while (though I have a couple of novel ideas fidgeting in the waiting room).
Posted 01/01/2008 15:33 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]
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