The Days Are Just Packed     
The ongoing saga of David D. Levine's writing and other adventures.

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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12/31/08: 2008 in review

Count me among those who are more than happy to see the back of 2008. Although most of the year was very good for me, the last month or so has been a real train wreck. Illness and weather conspired to deprive us of both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I'm only now beginning to recover from Post-Travel Stress Disorder brought on by our unplanned week in DC on the way home from Germany. We've also had some hassles with health insurance, and the ongoing financial meltdown has taken a psychological toll. I haven't written a word of fiction since October.

However, when I went to prepare David's Index, my annual numerical summary of my writing year (which I started doing in 2003 and has since become a meme), I discovered that I'd had a really good writing year up until then. I finished and submitted my second novel, The Dark Behind the Stars. My first short story collection, Space Magic, was published by Wheatland Press. I gave a reading at Powell's, which was a huge success. And "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" was nominated for a Nebula Award. (It didn't win, but it will appear in the anthology Nebula Awards Showcase 2009.) I attended the Oregon Coast Novel Weekend, Taos Toolbox, and Launch Pad writers' workshops, and I was the Short Story Guest of Honor at RadCon.

This year I wrote more stories and sold more stories than in any year since 2003. It was also a better-than-average year for publications, with "Firewall" in Transhuman, "Falling Off the Unicorn" in Space Magic, "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and "Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven" in Realms of Fantasy, plus "Charlie the Purple Giraffe Was Acting Strangely" (reprint) in The Mammoth Book of Extreme Fantasy, appearances in two podcasts, and translations of "Titanium Mike" into French and Czech. Six stories are on deck to appear in 2009.

We remodeled the bathroom. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but the result is gorgeous. We also worked with a professional organizer several times this year, and the house is now much less cluttered. There's more work to be done, to be sure, but it's been a great stress reliever and gives a huge sense of accomplishment.

We traveled a lot. I mean a lot. I spent at least one night in: Kennewick (where we were stranded for five days by an ice storm); Washington DC (square dance); Pasco (SF convention); Seattle (SF convention), then Victoria BC, then Seattle again (square dance); Lincoln City (writing workshop); Eugene (wedding); Palm Springs (square dance); Austin (Nebula Awards); Milwaukee and Madison (SF convention); Taos (writing workshop); Cleveland (square dance); Laramie (writing workshop), then Denver (SF convention); Montreal (SF convention); San Francisco (square dance and a reading); Seattle (SF convention); Calgary (SF convention); and finally our vacation in Germany and Austria: Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melz, Vienna, Munich, and Washington DC (where we were stranded for six days by an ice storm). It was fun, but I don't think we'll be doing as much travel in 2009, and I certainly hope for better weather.

(We did have a good time in Germany and Austria, honest, though the disasterous trip home does tend to color my memories of the experience. Trip report coming soon.)

My resolution for 2008 was to write a thousand words a day, every day. That lasted about two months, but it did get my novel finished in time for the April workshop.

My resolution for 2009 is inspired by the fact that we did not get to celebrate several major holidays at all in 2008: In 2009, I will celebrate the major holidays. By "celebrate" I mean put up decorations and share a festive meal with friends. By "major holidays" I mean the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving (Vancouver fly-in counts), Winter Solstice, and something in the vicinity of the Spring and Fall Equinoxes (hey, any excuse for a party).

I also intend to write every day, exercise three times a week, watch what I eat, and keep the house clean and decluttered, but those are just goals, not Resolutions.

Happy new year, everyone, and best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous 2009.

Posted 12/31/2008 16:57 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Novel words written: 40,521
Short fiction words written: 33,972
Notes, outline, and synopsis words written: 8,163
Blog words written: 40,048
Total words written: 122,704
Novel words edited out: 8,955
Net words written: 113,749

New stories written: 6 (5 fiction, 1 non-fiction)
Existing stories revised: 1

Short fiction submissions sent: 28
Responses received: 25
Rejections: 10
Acceptances: 8 (6 pro, 1 non-fiction, 1 semi-pro)
Other responses: 2 (rewrite requests)
Other sales: 3 (1 reprint, 2 audio)
Non-responses: 2
Awaiting response: 4

Short stories published: 9 (3 pro, 1 non-fiction, 1 reprint, 2 translations, 1 audio, 1 previously-unpublished story as part of collection)

Novels completed: 1
Novel submissions: 4
Rejections: 3
Acceptances: 0
Awaiting response: 2

Nebula nominations: 1
Nebulas won: 0

Collections published: 1

Happy New Year!

Posted 12/30/2008 22:32 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Since my last post...

• The December Internet Review of Science Fiction was posted, including Greg Beatty's long and thoughtful review of Space Magic. "[T]his collection makes it clear that David D. Levine is a writer to watch."
• The December Locus arrived, including Gardner Dozois's review of Transhuman: "There are probably no award-winners in [this anthology], but there is a respectable amount of good solid core SF. Best story here is by David D. Levine, but there are also good stories by Mark L. Van Name, Paul Chafe, Sarah A. Hoyt, Wen Spencer, and others." I'll take it.
• Locus also included the annual Forthcoming Books section, which told me that both Gamer Fantastic and Witch Way to the Mall will be published in July 2009. I'd been wondering when those were coming out. Also, Transhuman is going to be reissued as a mass-market paperback in April 2009.
• There was also a photo of me and Lou Anders at World Fantasy Con on page 5. In color, no less!
• I received my contributor's copies of the February 2009 issue of Realms of Fantasy, including my story "Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven." I love, love, love the illustration they gave it.
• The audio version of "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" (ably read by BCS editor Scott H. Andrews) was posted at Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It's also available from iTunes.
• A five-minute video of me blabbering incoherently, recorded by Bill Johnson of Willamette Writers at OryCon, was posted on YouTube. I thought it would be an interview, but once the camera was rolling I was informed that, no, I should just talk about whatever I wanted. I had nothing prepared. *cringe* Other writers fared better.
• I learned that Aeon Magazine, the next issue of which was going to contain my story "The True Story of Merganther's Run," is suspending publication. I think this is the first time I've "killed" a market. However, the story is supposed to appear in an anthology, The End of an Aeon, some time in 2009.

(Sorry to use bullet points in a blog post, but I was a technical writer for 15 years and sometimes I revert to type.)

In addition to all that, there have been several Real Life issues which are annoying and mildly worrying. We have options, though, and there's nothing to get too concerned about, I hope. I have a list of seven "items I am waiting for", three of which have notations such as "aargh!" next to them.

We leave for Germany today. Um, did I mention that? Our itinerary:

• December 5-6: fly Portland to Frankfurt
• December 6: Nuremberg
• December 7-14: Cruising the Danube on the Viking Spirit (stopping at Nuremberg, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Melz, and Vienna)
• December 14-16: Vienna
• December 16-20: Munich
• December 20: fly Munich Portland

I'll post from the road if I can.

Posted 12/05/2008 08:16 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

My fever broke overnight, and Kate's on the mend as well. We're still not 100% but we were recovered enough to have a nice Thanksgiving luncheon of turkey pilaf, with pumpkin custard for dessert later. Apart from that we had a quiet day of reading and watching Torchwood. So, although we're missing our friends, it wasn't such a horrid Thanksgiving after all.

I am grateful for Kate, for our lovely home, and for being generally in good health and able to do whatever we want (though we have just been quite sick and couldn't do what we wanted because of it, that was a temporary aberration).

Posted 11/27/2008 21:51 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Well, now I'm sick too. Not as sick as Kate was -- I haven't thrown up, at least -- but I'm feverish, achy, and completely lacking in energy and appetite. So we're putting Lise on a cab to the train to Seattle and will stay at home for the weekend. We may or may not have anything resembling Thanksgiving dinner, depending on how we feel tomorrow.

Happy turkey day to those who are in a position to celebrate it.

Pout.

Posted 11/26/2008 18:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

At Orycon I thought I was having a pretty good time, though I recognized that the con was passing in a blur because I was so heavily programmed. Seeing other people's con reports afterwards, though, I realize now that I missed an awful lot of people... in fact, I feel like I practically missed the con. There were many people there I saw only in passing or not at all, I attended only two program items that I wasn't on, and I had only two meals away from the con hotel: I walked down to the farmers' market by myself for a quick lunch, and we had a very nice French dinner with friends from Seattle. Every other meal was either eaten in the noisy sports bar or snagged from Hospitality or the Green Room, because I didn't have time for anything else.

Next time I will try to remember that panels are not my only Orycon program commitment. I was only on 6 panels, but in addition to that I had a reading, a writers' workshop, auctioneering the Sue Petrey Auction, and Opening Ceremonies (which included a runthrough beforehand and the Endeavour Award ceremony). Jay Lake phoned while I was at dinner on Saturday to ask if I could help out with Whose Line, but I begged exhaustion. Orycon is my hometown con and I feel I owe them a lot, but next year I think I need to tell Programming to schedule me on only one panel-qua-panel per day to leave room for all that other stuff.

At the end of the con Kate was very low in energy and we left early. Our friend Lise is staying with us for a few days post-con, and we took her around for some touristing in Portland today, but Kate was pretty draggy all morning and after we got back from lunch she threw up and went to bed. She's been sick as a dog all afternoon, poor thing. I hope that our Thanksgiving plans will not be affected, but she's really out of it. Neither Lise nor I is affected, at least not yet.

Posted 11/24/2008 19:48 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Well, it's been about two weeks since my last substantive entry, and, as is usually the case, when I'm not blogging, I'm also not writing. I did write a few hundred words on a short story last Tuesday at the coffee shop, but I don't really feel like it's going anywhere and I haven't been motivated to continue it. I've been kind of mopy, downright depressed in fact on a couple of days, and beating myself up for being a failed one-shot-wonder has-been hack.

Today I reminded myself that I completed and submitted a novel -- only my second -- at the end of October. Perhaps this is post-novel ennui. In any case, I deserve a couple of weeks off, dammit.

It's not like I've been idle in those two weeks, either. We went to Calgary for the World Fantasy Convention, which was very enjoyable. Good people, good conversations, good dinners. Calgary felt exactly like a cross between Dallas and Minneapolis: oil companies, friendly humble people, an emphasis on beef in the cuisine, and skywalks. I didn't make any big deals during the con, but I did talk with some editors and I had a good time hanging out with my writing peers.

Something about the geology of Alberta is conducive to fossils: in addition to the oil and coal industries, it is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, one of the finest paleontology museums anywhere. We rented a car on Thursday before the convention and took off for a day trip there with Ellen Klages, who made an excellent traveling companion. The Tyrrell features a very impressive collection of fossils, including no fewer than three T. Rexes, a whole herd of Ceratopsidae (e.g. Triceratops), two Plesiosaurs, and numerous other complete skeletons, as well as an excellent exhibit on the deeply weird creatures of the Burgess Shale (which is nearby in British Columbia).

One of the highlights of the museum was the quirky, informative videos starring this guy who seemed vaguely familiar (perhaps he was a member of Second City) and kept falling victim to amusing natural disasters. There was also one skeleton in the first major hall that looked to me exactly like the Utahraptor in panel 4 of Dinosaur Comics, but not one person to whom I noted this resemblance had ever even heard of the webcomic. Philistines.

The little town of Drumheller, where the museum is located, knows a good thing when it sees it and has gone completely dinosaur-mad. Every possible thing in town that could be decorated with dinosaurs is, and there are fossil stores galore (had to pass up the $40,000 Triceratops skull, alas, even though that's only about $32,000 in US dollars). There were also a few cavemen in the decor, but I'll try not to hold that against the good people of Drumheller.

Coming back from the convention we were surprised to find that our seats for the flight to Vancouver (row 13, seats A and B) were at the very front of the plane, facing backwards. Not only did they not recline; not only was there no tray table, no window, no underseat storage, and no overhead storage; not only did we have to play footsie with the people in the next row, but we spent the whole flight feeling like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE PLANE WAS LOOKING AT US! Exceptionally weird.

Upon return from the con I found two acceptances in my mailbox: one from Esther Friesner, for a humorous YA werewolf story in anthology Strip Mauled, and one from Cecilia Tan, for a gender-bending humorous erotica short-short in anthology Up for Grabs. Yay! Also a rejection from Asimov's, to keep me humble. That story really wants to go to Strange Horizons next, but they are currently on hiatus, so I decided to hang onto it until January. The annoying thing is that if I'd been home when the rejection letter arrived I would have gotten the story to SH just before they closed for the year.

Also in the mailbox: the November Locus, with Gary K. Wolfe's lengthy review of Space Magic. "An interesting portrait of a new writer who's either impressively versatile, or still in the process of trying to define himself, or maybe just dealing with attention deficit issues." I'd tell you what I think about this, but... ooh, look! A leaf!

The weekend after WFC was Wordstock, "Portland's Festival of the Book." This is the fourth or fifth year of the festival, but the first time I've participated as an author instad of just an attendee. Jay Lake and I had 25-30 people for our joint reading, and I had an absolute blast. They treat the authors really, really well.

The day before yesterday I did something I've been meaning to do since I retired, a little over a year ago: I went out and bought a new digital flatscreen TV (not enormous, only 26") and a TiVo. I had some difficulty getting the TiVo to play nice with my WiFi network, but now it's up and running. I'm impressed with the UI, as expected, though it's a little on the busy and flashy side. And I was surprised to find that the new TV, hooked up to the same old analog cable, picks up nearly 60 additional digital channels, some in impressive HD. Too bad the TiVo HD can't see them (at least, not without additional hardware which I haven't yet sprung for). I have not yet found anywhere a comprehensive list of those channels, which include both the expected digital versions of Portland's over-the-air channels and dozens of unidentified others.

Today's newspaper included a couple of sentences from my letter to President Obama, which I'd cc'd to the paper. Unfortunately they were misattributed to one "David Levin," but I'll take what I can get.

This coming weekend is OryCon. Our friend Lise from New York will be staying with us for a couple of days before and after the con (the bathroom remodel was completed in time, huzzah!) and my programming schedule looks like this:

Friday:

• 1:00-2:00pm: First Novels: the road to the editor's desk in Eugene with Mary Rosenblum, J.C. Hendee, and Mike Shepherd-Moscoe
• 4:00-5:00pm: Social Networking sites: the good, the bad, and the really, really ugly in Salon G with Petrea Mitchell, John Hedtke, and Phyllis Irene Radford
• 7:00-8:00pm: Opening Ceremonies in Salon E with Ginjer Buchanan, Harry Turtledove, Jeff Fennel, and Cecilia Eng
• 10:00-11:00pm: Erotica readings in Eugene with Edward Morris and Theresa Reed

Saturday:

• 10:00-11:00am: Ask Dr. Genius: Ad-Lib Answers to Audience Questions in Salmon with Alan Olsen, Rick Lindsley, Louise Owen, and Jim Kling
• 11:00am-12:00pm: Writers' Workshop with Mary Rosenblum (not open to the public)
• 12:30-1:00pm: Reading in Salem
• 2:00-3:00pm: Discovering new planets -- what are they like? Can we even tell? in Medford with Melinda Hutson, G. David Nordley, and Marilyn Holt
• 4:30-6:00pm: Sue Petrey Auction in Mt. Hood with Tom Whitmore

Sunday:

• 11:00am-12:00pm: A look back at 30 years of OryCon history in Eugene with Patty Wells, Debbie Cross, and Paul Wrigley

Hope to see some of you there!

Posted 11/16/2008 23:13 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Spent the evening among friends. We cooked a quiche, which was well received. One guy in the corner was filling out his ballot during the party and rushed out right before the deadline; I believe he did make it to the ballot collection location in time. When the election was called (we got the news from Comedy Central's Indecision 2008) there was a big group hug and singing of patriotic songs. Then the champagne and single-malt came out.

I've been reading 538 obsessively for the last few months, so the election went pretty much as I'd been expecting it to. Which means that my main emotional note at the moment is a profound relief rather than anything more in the joy spectrum. But still...

Okay, let me give you an analogy, because that's what I do. Right after I retired, I got rid of the last PC in the house, replacing it with a shiny new iMac. Since then my overall stress levels have been down noticeably, because I can ignore all the news about Windows patches, Windows bugs, and Windows viruses. I suspect the next year will see an even more noticeable reduction in stress, because I will no longer have to worry about what that asshole in the White House is going to do to us next.

It won't be perfect. Obama will disappoint us in some areas. But all in all, it's going to be much, much better than it has been.

Thank you, America.

California? Not so much.

Posted 11/05/2008 08:30 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 120224 | Since last entry: -435

My second novel, The Dark Behind the Stars, is complete and in the mail to my agent. We'll talk soon about where he's going to send it first. The -435 words shown above is a bit of a surprise; I'd thought it was up a bit since my last blog post. Whatever. It's been see-sawing around 120,000 words for the last week, because even as I've been adding text (mostly deepening Rachel and the Anvilites' religious lives) I've been continuing to try to tighten it. In many cases I was able to resolve a problem simply by cutting a paragraph or two. (For example: The Anvilites' concept of the Devil was inconsistent -- now it's not mentioned at all.)

One of the key open issues was exactly what Rachel thinks has happened in the climax. Did she kill God, or just a powerful alien being? I had left that unspecified in previous drafts... I think I was hoping the reader would draw their own conclusions, but I see now that this was a cheat. But I now know Rachel well enough that for her to see what I see happening in the climax (yes, she killed God) is not in character for her. So I let her reach a different conclusion than I would have in her place (she killed a powerful alien being, who may or may not have been the God of the Old Testament, but there is still an ineffable something... still more to the universe than that which can be observed and measured.)

One other change is that a main character now dies onstage instead of off. The weird thing for me is that, even though I jumped straight to that page and just dove in and wrote it without even reading the scenes leading up to it, I still cried (a little). Shows how important it was to show the character's death, I think.

I also spent a good hunk of the last two days trimming the 14-page synopsis down to 7 pages. I think it's too choppy now, and leaves out too much, but I'm assured the previous one had too much detail. I accept that I am not yet good at synopses, and move on.

I'm not sure I agree with all of the comments I decided to do something about, but almost all of them came from more than one person so I think they were worth doing. I also ignored a lot of other comments. I did the best I could with some other comments, but don't feel I've completely addressed them. I think the book is stronger than it was, but it's still imperfect -- abandoned rather than completed, as they say -- but what the hell, it's done.

Also done: the bathroom is now effectively complete. We've hung the shower curtain and everything. There's still a few minor details, which will probably be taken care of while we're in Calgary, but mostly now the ball is in our court (we need new bath mats, curtains, trash can, etc.). When we return from World Fantasy Con I plan to get the house professionally cleaned to get rid of lingering dust.

And finally: we voted. Oregon is 100% vote by mail, and I took my ballot to a voting party at a friend's. We didn't discuss the partisan races (just about all of them are no-brainers anyway)... the big discussions were around ballot measures, such as the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't Measure 57. No consensus on that one, but at least I feel I've made an informed choice.

Heading to Calgary tomorrow for WFC. You may or may not hear from me before I return. If not, Happy Halloween, and don't forget to vote!

Posted 10/28/2008 22:11 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 120659 | Since last entry: -91

I think the reason this revision process is going so slowly and painfully is that I am trying to do something (specifically: get into the head of a religious character) that I know I tried to do in the first draft, and tried harder to do in the second draft, but the comments I received told me it wasn't working, so I'm trying again, but I don't really believe I can do it. This is the biggest problem the book has (several reviewers have commented on it) and I'm really worried about it sinking the book's chances.

Wherever possible, I am trying to address specific comments either by removing the problem passage or rewriting it so that it is shorter as well as addressing the issue, which is why the word count keeps going down. This is good, but I don't feel I'm being very productive.

The bathroom, though, is very close to complete. Today was a bit of a goat-rope, as the electronic exhaust fan timer the electrician had ordered when the first one didn't work wouldn't work either. (The first one required a neutral wire, and the second one didn't but turned out to be for incandescent bulbs only.) We looked into a number of possibilities, including running an additional neutral wire (the relevant wall isn't accessible from above or below) and putting the timer on a different wall (kind of a pain now, since the paint and stuff is already done), and finally settled for an old-style spring-wound timer which is not as pretty as the electronic one but works. All of this while the painter was trying to paint the trim in the same tiny bathroom.

Just a little more work to do -- sealing the tile, painting trim in the hall, attaching door and window hardware, etc. -- and we get our house back. This may or may not happen before we leave for World Fantasy Con (where, by the way, I am currently scheduled for a reading at noon on Saturday with Garth Nix) but should definitely be done by the time we get back.

Posted 10/24/2008 22:32 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 120750 | Since last entry: 20

Over the weekend I read Brother Astronomer, which was a lot of fun and gave me some good insights into the thought processes of a person of both science and faith. I really wish I'd read it with highlighter in hand, though, because I may not be able to find the best passages again.

At the coffee shop yesterday I had a lot of trouble getting started on incorporating what I'd learned from my reading into the book. I finally decided to write a stand-alone scene, about 500 words in a separate file, introducing Rachel and the Anvilites by showing her interacting with a non-Anvilite while loading the ship. The exercise helped me clarify my thoughts (much of this information is already in the book, though it's scattered), but the scene was boring, static... it would be a much weaker opening than the one I have. That's okay, I wrote it as an exercise anyway. (I know a lot of writers do this sort of thing all the time, but I generally don't write text I intend to discard.)

Tonight I was able to take about half those words and integrate them into the existing opening. The overall word count only went up by 20 because I added the new material as a replacement for existing text, and also cut back the opening to speed it up, reduce false tension, and eliminate unnecessary detail. It's funny how a scene I went through and cut just the other week can give up another couple hundred words of cuts on a second look.

I hope that this addition will address the comments I had about wanting to know Rachel's backstory and the Anvilites' beliefs in the opening chapters, though I know it won't address the issue that the Anvilites' theology isn't well enough worked out or expressed. That will take more work, touching many chapters.

Bathroom is coming along well. You know how the first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% of the job also takes 90% of the time? We're into that last 90%. Lots of fiddly little details, like installing the light fixtures and towel racks, and painting the trim. The new toilet is in, along with the sink and tub fixtures, though I'm holding off on showering in the new bathroom until the tile is sealed (next Monday). The tub got badly stained during its months in the back yard (the crap that got dumped in it by various workmen after it was installed can't have helped), but an entire can of Zud and a whole lot of elbow grease have helped enormously. More scrubbing tomorrow.

Posted 10/22/2008 21:41 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 120730 | Since last entry: -281

Usually if I'm not blogging I'm not writing, and if I'm not writing I'm not blogging. In this case I have been writing, an hour a day or so, but the bathroom remodel and the election have been taking up too much of my mental energy to leave room for blogging. It's gotten so stressful around here, with strangers banging about and making strange smells and all, that listening to the public radio pledge break was actually relaxing by comparison.

The above word count change represents a week's worth of editing, incorporating comments from my agent and other first readers. Where possible I have been trying to address comments by taking words out rather than adding new ones, but I did substantially beef up a couple of scenes.

I hate editing, because it's like trying to make a change in an assembled jigsaw puzzle. Even if all you want to do is change the color of one piece, you might also have to change several of the pieces nearby, and even other pieces halfway across the puzzle that might be related. Changing the shape or position of a piece is even worse. Everything is connected, on a word and sentence and paragraph and chapter level.

The big editing comments yet to do have to do with clarifying, deepening, and strengthening Rachel's backstory and motivations, and the Anvilites' theology, and I don't really know what I can do about them. The problem is that I don't know Rachel's backstory and I don't really understand the Anvilites' theology. What the heck was I doing having my main character be a member of a contemplative religious community? I know nothing about that mindset. (I know how I got in this mess, actually. In my original concept of the story the religious people were the villains. But then one of them turned into a protagonist...) I will try reading Brother Astronomer this weekend to see if I can glean any ideas from it.

Despite frustration with the bathroom remodeling process, progress continues and it is supposed to be all done in less than two weeks. The tile work took almost a week longer than originally estimated, but it is almost complete now and looks phenomenal (see below). The lavatory is also very nice, a serene expanse of cool white that nicely offsets the busy detail of the tile. We had a lot of trouble finding a wall color that we liked; after buying three different sample quarts and being unsatisfied with all of them we decided that the green color of the sheetrock, of all things, was what we wanted. Hey, we knew it looked good.

I had a pretty good mail day on Tuesday: a countersigned contract for one short story, a check for another, and a check for audio rights (so look for "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" in audio format from Beneath Ceaseless Skies at some point in the future). Also a 41-day rejection from F&SF, alas.

Speaking of BCS, they have a message board where people can discuss my story. One of the readers ranted (his word) that it "relied too heavily on symbolism," which I find baffling, but I'm sitting on my hands, not wanting to get into an argument. Now that the story has been published, it belongs to the readers.

Finally, as you may know, the website SF Signal has a regular feature called "Mind Meld" where they ask several SF writers to contribute brief essays on a single topic. I was honored to be asked to participate in the latest Mind Meld: "Which authors and books have most influenced your writing?". Other participants include Joe Haldeman, Lois McMaster Bujold, and Dean Wesley Smith. Check it out!

Posted 10/17/2008 21:48 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 121011 | Since last entry: -562

I've finished with this pass through the manuscript. My attempt to cut 30,000 words has failed; I cut a grand total of 8162 words, and in the next pass I suspect the word count will go back up a bit as I add backstory and a few other things requested by my beta readers. But I believe all those words are needed. If a publisher asks for cuts, I'll just ask them what they want cut. At least it is tighter than it was.

Work on the bathroom continues apace. The tile has been laid on all the walls up to and including the mosaic band all the way around, and a little bit of it includes the chair rail above that. It looks gorgeous, and will look even better once it's been grouted. There's still a couple of days' work to do on that. This weekend we will pick out cabinet knobs and the paint color for the walls.

In other news: my story "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" is now available for everyone to read for free as part of issue #1 of the new webzine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The direct URL is http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/story.php?s=9. There's also a discussion forum if you want to talk about the story with other readers.

Also, the schedule for Wordstock, "Portland's Festival of the Book," has been posted. Looks like Jay Lake and I will be appearing together on the Community of Writers Portland Stage at 10:30am on Sunday, November 9. I hope to see a bunch of you Portland people there.

Looking a little further forward, there'll be a group signing by a number of local SF and Fantasy authors at Powell's at Cedar Hills Crossing on November 20. Mark your calendars; more details will be provided later.

Posted 10/10/2008 22:37 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 121573 | Since last entry: -216

The bathroom remodel is driving me insane.

The cabinets were installed today, and we are not completely happy with them. The linen cabinet was over four inches too tall; we were able to have enough cut out of the middle that it fits under the ceiling, but some drawers are higher than we'd like. I think we'll live with that. The medicine chest is too shallow and has no shelves and no mirror; one of the drawers in the vanity opens on the wrong side; some of the drawer fronts don't fit properly. Those will have to be addressed. The cabinet installer, who is Ukranian like the tile guy, was heard to mutter something in Ukranian that included the English words "professionalism" and "idiots." Also, part of the wallboard had to be torn down to move a backing block that was misplaced (it was supposed to be fixed before the wallboard was put up) and there are some chips in the tub's enamel that I don't think were there before.

We should not have to hover over the workmen to make sure that everything is built and installed according to the approved plans, nor to ask them to not damage the items that have already been installed. Grr.

But the sink is in and looks gorgeous. The tile floor is very nice (though we now wish we'd laid out the design rotated 90° from what we did). And the toilet is back, at least for tonight... though there's no door on the bathroom. Still an improvement from the outhouse we've been using since Monday.

Also today we met with our financial guy. Our financial plan anticipated that there would be a couple of downturns during our retirement, but the size and timing of this one are unfortunate. However, unless things get much worse than he anticipates, I should not have to go back to work.

I put in an hour of work on the novel tonight but was not able to cut more than a couple hundred words. These climactic chapters are pretty tight (or else I'm just too much in love with them). There is one scene that I might be able to go back and cut if I really need to, maybe a thousand words' worth, but it does contain some useful information and character moments I don't want to lose. At this point I'm resigning myself to a final word count around 120,000.

I wish there was something we could do to relax that didn't involve calories.

Posted 10/08/2008 23:13 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 121789 | Since last entry: -597

Spent about three hours at the coffee shop this afternoon, mostly reading over my own deathless prose. Unfortunately, all of it seems necessary, and I only managed to cut a couple of paragraphs here and there for a total of about 600 anti-words. Also, it sucks. (How can it suck so badly when every individual sentence is so brilliant? Ah, the gymnastics of the writer's mind...) Nonetheless, I will soldier on and complete these cuts, followed by a few brief additions and tweaks to address some review comments, followed by another stab at the synopsis. With luck I will have a completed package ready to be elevator-pitched at World Fantasy Convention over Halloween weekend.

No, "elevator-pitched" does not mean "pitched down an elevator shaft."

Vasily the tile guy has completed the floor and is now working on the wall tile, starting with the baseboard. The bathroom is looking better and better even as the bathroom project drives our daily lives farther and farther from sanity. Currently we are using a porta-potty in the front yard (and isn't that fun when the need arises in the middle of a rainy night?), the clothes washer is not usable until the cement in the basement sets, and the living room is half-full of boxes of tile and the just-delivered cabinets (which are beautiful, but stink of fresh stain).

Did not watch the debate. Frantically refreshed various political websites for reactions and post-debate polls, though. Cautiously optimistic.

Posted 10/07/2008 20:56 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 122386 | Since last entry: -392

Work on the bathroom resumed bright and early this Monday morning, when the tile guys arrived. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that we did not have the "bullnose" tiles (with one rounded edge) needed for some outside corners. Fortunately, those tiles are a stock item, and Pratt & Larson Tile is right nearby, so with the wave of a credit card they were quickly obtained. The tile guy set up his water-cooled saw on the porch and with many a cheerful "gzannng!" he began laying out the floor.

Unfortunately, laying out the floor required removing the toilet, and it won't be back for a few days. We have a portapotty for the nonce. Whee.

While the tile guy was "gzannng"-ing away, the plumbers returned to complete the jackhammering-up of the rotted pipes in the basement. The good news in all this is that the next stretch of pipe proved to be in better shape than the first one, and so they didn't have to carve quite as large a trench in the basement floor as they'd expected (this also implies that the sewer pipe beyond our basement wall is also in good shape).

In the afternoon I got an email from a friend who recently spent some time in the hospital and needed help with her grocery shopping (she's not yet able to drive, and pushing a shopping cart is also a bit much to ask). I seized the opportunity to escape the noise, and instead went to Costco. This was only a slight improvement in terms of reducing my stress levels, but I can use the karma points.

After a nice dinner of Tomato-Miso Soup, I heard a cheery voice from outside: "Ahoy the house!" This turned out to be our friend Sam, who has been known to pop by unexpectedly and is always welcome. We showed her the progress on the bathroom and basement (the basement was finished when I got back from Costco, and we scratched the date and a peace sign in the wet concrete) and chatted most amicably for an hour or so.

Then I sat down and cut about 400 words from chapter 10. Less than desired, but better than nothing.

Posted 10/06/2008 23:10 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 122778 | Since last entry: -277

A rare day with no workmen. Took it easy: slept in, gym, laundry, dinner with friends, watched The Amazing Race. Edited one chapter, but couldn't manage to squeeze out more than 300 words of cuts even with two editing passes. Some days are like that.

Posted 10/05/2008 22:59 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 123055 | Since last entry: -3233

So there I was, reading through chapter 8, unable to cut more than a sentence or two every dozen pages. It all seemed necessary.

And then I realized... it was all equally necessary.

Did I really need this chapter at all?

I'd gotten some feedback that this chapter was on the slow side. There were also some technical issues with the main conflict in the chapter (some readers found it implausible that anyone on the ship would seriously consider not letting the alien stay on board, given the kind of people they are). The conflict itself was also, perhaps, a false one... a problem dropped in to raise tension which didn't exist before this chapter and didn't have any effect afterwards.

So I cut the whole conflict -- about half the chapter -- which also allowed me to cut a page or two in the previous chapter that led up to it, for a total cut of 3200 words. It's kind of late for me to tell whether I've plastered over the seams well enough (hmm, where did that metaphor come from?), and I feel bad about losing some of the little character moments in there, but I feel good about this. If I need any of those paragraphs back, they're available... I always keep earlier drafts around.

Still probably won't make it all the way down to 100,000 words, but the shorter the better, eh?

Posted 10/04/2008 23:32 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 126288 | Since last entry: -772

The bathroom remodel has been more than usually stressful today.

The plumbers came to unclog the basement drain. We knew it was bad, but it proved to be even worse than they'd thought. The drain pipe in the floor had completely disintegrated, which means that for the last no-one-knows-how-many years, every time we used the kitchen sink or dishwasher at least some of the wastewater went into the soil beneath the house rather than into the sewer as it was supposed to.

They had to jackhammer out six feet of rotten pipe from the basement floor, leaving an open a trench in our basement floor and dirt everywhere. They decided to leave it open until Monday so that the sodden dirt under the floor can dry out a little. Next week they'll jackhammer out the remaining eighteen feet or so, then fill in the trench with concrete.

At least we can use our kitchen sink and dishwasher, though not the clothes washer, this weekend.

The few of you who have read the magic lesbian plumber story (which has now been at F&SF for over 40 days, which indicates they are at least giving it serious consideration... either that, or the rejection got lost in the mail) will be amused to know that the problematic basement drain is the same one that, right at the beginning of the story, has a nixie living in it.

One thing about remodeling a bathroom is that you get a real feeling for the bones, sinew, and nerves of your house. Also a real feeling that whoever did the plumbing for this place back in 1913 was an IDIOT! He had no sense of the fact that water is supposed to run DOWN and air UP, and a real tendency to cut through important structural elements of the house's frame to make his plumbing life easier.

The other bathroom-related thing that happened today was that the plasterers came by to put on a second coat. But it's been cold and rainy, and the first coat wasn't nearly dry enough for them to do anything. So they'll be back tomorrow (Saturday), and until then there's been a constant roar of fans and space heaters in addition to the intermittent jackhammering.

I couldn't concentrate too well today, for some reason, and wound up cutting less than 800 words. But more than the small number of words removed today, I'm concerned about the fact that I'm on page 245 of a 572-page manuscript and I've cut less than 3000 words in total. No way I'm going to cut 30,000 words at this pace... I might get 10,000 if I'm really ruthless. I'm either going to have to do a second and probably a third pass, cutting stuff I'd really rather keep, or go ahead and submit it at about 120,000 words. Currently I'm leaning toward the latter plan. We'll see how far I get in this pass... maybe I'll find a whole chapter that can be excised (though even that would only buy me 5000 or 6000 words.)

Posted 10/03/2008 21:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 127060 | Since last entry: -1129

If you'd told me two years ago that the Vice Presidential debate would be shown live at half the movie theatres in town, and that the Bagdad (our local) would be completely sold out, with crowds out the doors at every bar down the street, I'd have said you were crazed.

We watched some of the debate and heard most of the rest on the radio. I didn't get the amusing Palin meltdown I'd been hoping for, though her insane policies and rigid adherence to preprogrammed talking points frightened and appalled me. Biden seemed confident, intelligent, and well-qualified. I was worried that a lot of people would find that Palin's heavily-coached-beauty-queen-at-a-job-interview performance made her "someone I'd like to have a beer with" but the post-debate polls are encouraging.

If she'd said "9-11" (maybe she did and I didn't catch it) I would have gotten a bingo. I was playing card 4 from the linked site, though not paying really close attention.

After the debate we went to square dancing, then I got to the heavy cutting of the one scene I mentioned yesterday. 1129 words cut in less than an hour's work. Yay.

Posted 10/02/2008 23:13 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 128189 | Since last entry: -600

One year ago today was my last day at McAfee.

In the last year I've traveled to Ashland OR, Seattle WA, Saratoga NY, Vancouver BC, Kennewick WA, Washington DC, Pasco WA, Seattle WA, Victoria BC, Seattle WA, Lincoln City OR, Palm Springs CA, Austin TX, Milwaukee WI, Madison WI, Taos NM (while Kate went to Guanajuato MX), Cleveland OH, Seattle WA, Laramie WY, Denver CO, Montreal QC, San Francisco CA, and Redmond WA. We've also seen a lot of live theatre and music and attended many cool events right here in Portland, such as Wordstock and Orycon, and planned and began executing a bathroom remodel. Whew!

Today, as it happens, we attended a talk by our financial adviser to a bunch of his clients, explaining the current economic mess and how we got into it. The situation is worrisome but there's no need for panic. I don't expect I'll have to return to work, but the timing of this meltdown is annoying. We'll be meeting with him individually next week.

Cut 600 words from the novel today, below quota but still respectable. I also got about halfway through a scene that needs major cuts, but decided not to begin deleting words from the file until I figure out what the scene as a whole really needs. (I'm marking up a paper copy, then performing the cuts in the file at the end of each day to determine the actual word count.) Tomorrow's negative word count should be much better than today's.

And Space Magic has received its first review, a comprehensive and generally positive review in The Fix. Money shot: "I hope that the volume does more to make this very worthwhile writer better known to the reading public."

Posted 10/01/2008 22:56 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 128789 | Since last entry: -390

My goal for the month of October is to get this novel down to 100,000 words or less. As I'm starting at 130,000 words, that means I have to average 1000 anti-words a day. I thought I'd done that today -- surely the cuts I made added up to at least four manuscript pages -- but the word counter does not lie; I made less than half of my goal for this first day. But these early chapters have been pretty heavily edited already, and I hope that some future days will involve whacking out large chunks and entire scenes.

In other news... I've been asked to join the faculty of the Iron Springs Writers' Retreat (next June on the Olympic Peninsula); an interview with me has been posted on the Nebula Awards website; my bio has been posted on the website for Wordstock, so I guess my participation there is official; and Danny O'Brien, blogging about my SF in SF reading, referred to me as "The Ted Chiang of Toontown," which is a mighty fine epithet if you ask me.

Posted 09/30/2008 22:00 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 6050 | Since last entry: 2841

The above word count actually represents 4543 new words and 1702 anti-words, because the first draft of the werewolf story wound up at about 7700 words and the maximum for this market is 6000. I completed the story, got a real quick critique, and handed it in person to the editor, Esther Friesner, at Foolscap last weekend. It's not a guaranteed sale, but the reactions the story has received so far make me cautiously optimistic.

We'd waffled until quite late about attending Foolscap, but I'm glad we went. Many friends were there, some of whom we hardly see at any other cons, and the new location had a lot to recommend it (in a hotel inside one of those "streets"-type shopping malls... corporate, yes, but a wide variety of dining options within walking distance). I did a reading of my just-completed werewolf story, and got a good crowd and a good reaction; my reading was followed by Esther reading her werewolf story (not for the same anthology) about a six-year-old werewolf who lives in the Plaza Hotel. Hilarious. Other highlights for me included portraying the alien bartender Asteroid Al in the radio theatre production of Buck Godot: PSmIth (adapted for audio by Phil Foglio himself, who was sadly not at the convention) and helping out with the auction. It was the first time I'd been an auctioneer since back in the Midwest mumbledy years ago, and I was a bit concerned, but I had a blast.

The previous weekend we attended the annual West Coast Gay Advanced & Challenge Square Dance Weekend, which went very smoothly and was a lot of fun. We skipped out Saturday night for my SF in SF appearance at the Variety Club downtown. It went really well. The small theatre was comfortably populated with about 30 people, including both new friends and old (and four square dancers). And it was recorded for Rick Kleffel's "Agony Column" podcast. You can hear it in 3 parts: Nick Mamatas reading his Carver/Lovecraft mash-up, me reading "Charlie the Purple Giraffe", and the following discussion between us and Terry Bisson. The podcast is also available from iTunes.

The bathroom renovation has turned our house into a miniature third-world country. It's noisy and dirty and the power and water are unpredictably intermittent. But the tub's in and we have the mosaics in hand -- it's going to be gorgeous. Kate has pictures over on her blog.

Lots of other stuff happening. A few highlights: Bento 20 is now online in HTML and PDF formats; my story "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" will appear in the premiere issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which is scheduled to go live on October 9; and Space Magic will be available soon from the Multnomah County Library system. My book's in the library! I'm somebody!

One lowlight: novel #1 was rejected again and I haven't yet managed to contact my agent about where we want to send it next.

October is my month to finish novel #2 and get it in the mail!!

Posted 09/29/2008 20:58 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Strangers entered our house some time during the day Wednesday. They came in through the front door with, apparently, a large crowbar, and really made a mess of the place. However, nothing seems to be missing except the tub, sink, and several walls, which are now piled in the front yard. At least they left us the toilet.

Having your only bathrom renovated is remarkably stressful. For the last couple of days I've felt like I haven't been able to take a proper breath (or a shower).

Posted 09/21/2008 22:11 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 3209 | Since last entry: 1660

A thousand words today on the werewolf story. (Did I mention I'm working on a werewolf story?)

A sale! "Galactic Stress" to Mike Brotherton for Diamonds in the Sky, an online anthology of stories demonstrating astronomy concepts. It's not the most literary story I've ever written, but I hope it helps some students understand just how freaking big the galaxy is. Thanks again to Elise for the title.

An email from Wordstock, "Portland's Annual Festival of the Book," acknowledging that I will be a speaker this year. According to the Oregonian, this year's festival will have a focus on popular genres such as SF, mystery, and graphic novels.

A Google search reveals that "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" has been translated into Czech, in the Summer 2008 issue of the Czech edition of F&SF.

We attended a delightful Al Stewart concert, which Kate has blogged about.

I attended a workshop (well, it was more of a talk with extensive Q & A, but still worthwhile) with monologist Mike Daisey. He had some interesting things to say about how and why he does what he does, and some of it was applicable to writing, especially the four questions he asks himself when he's creating a new show: Is it essential? (Does it cut to the essence of what you mean to say?) Is it disruptive? (Does it shake up the status quo?) Is it cathartic? (Does it take the audience to a place they could not have reached on their own?) Is it broken? (Art should be broken; if you polish off the rough edges it is no longer compelling. Don't be a good student.) We also talked a bit about Nikola Tesla, and I went to the library after the workshop and checked out a book on Tesla. I feel a Tesla story trying to sneak up on me, but it will have to wait... after I'm done with the werewolf story I must must must edit novel #2 and get it out the door.

I've been reading an old Pogo collection. When I was a kid I hated it, but I know a lot of Pogo fans, so I thought I'd give it another try. Turns out I just wasn't sophisticated enough for it. It's sharp, witty, topical, and yet humane, with a keen ear for dialog, and just tons of fun to read. I'd thought it was a surreal strip like Krazy Kat, but apart from the boat (whose name changes from panel to panel) it's extremely linear; even the little bugs and worms in the background have their own consistent stories (and some great little side gags) from panel to panel.

And one bit of bad news for balance: the lenses of my glasses were getting kind of scratched up, so I had new ones made (covered by the warranty on the anti-scratch coating) and I just got them today. Unfortunately I think there is something wrong with the left one: an area of distortion and bad focus like a tiny black hole just a little below and to the left of center. I hope they haven't sent the old lenses back yet.

Posted 09/15/2008 22:41 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 1549 | Since last entry: 1011

Kate was off at a knitting workshop most of the day (and also succeeded in getting a third iPhone -- this time for sure!). I stayed home and wrote. I wasn't as consistent as I would have liked (AIM is seductive) but I did get a thousand words down. More tomorrow.

Posted 09/11/2008 22:42 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 538 | Since last entry: 538

We've seen some amazing things at this year's Time-Based Art (TBA) Festival. This is TBA's sixth year and the first year I've attended. In the past I looked at the glossy, over-designed festival program and figured it was too artsy. I was partly right, but partly wrong. Friend Janet Lafler explained to me that it is, in effect, the Portland Fringe; it's full of amazing theatre, interesting lectures on architecture and urban planning, and hands-on workshops. There's also weirdo performance art, tedious ballet, and strange art-like installations, but you don't have to attend those. I'm sorry I waited this long to try it.

Here's what we've seen so far:

MONOPOLY!, a monologue by Mike Daisey (probably best known for 21 Dog Years, a monologue about his time staffing the tech support phones at Amazon). This performance wove together the game of Monopoly, filming a training video with Bill Gates, the life of Nikola Tesla, one town's surrender to Wal-Mart, and trying to create a one-man show about Tesla featuring a giant Tesla coil. Not all the pieces really fit together, but it was absolutely hilarious. At one point, when Daisey was describing Microsoft Word as being like a neurotic ex-girlfriend, the audience was laughing so hard we couldn't even hear him, but his waggling fingers as he described how Word fiddles with your text just made everyone laugh harder.

A lecture by historian Carl Abbott and architecture critic Randy Gragg about the history of Portland's South Auditorium District, which is simultaneously an urban renewal horror story (54 blocks of Italian and Jewish neighborhoods were torn down in favor of office parks and condos) and an urban renewal success story (three of the world's finest parks were created). Lots there I didn't know, much to think about.

The Portland tour of Tilburg. Okay, picture this: lay the map of the town of Tilburg in the Netherlands over the map of Portland. Now take a group of 30 tourists across Portland on a walking tour of Tilburg, hitting all the major historical and artistic sights, pointing out interesting features of the cityscape, and discussing the impact of urban planning and new development -- all without leaving Portland. Our guide Khris Soden started us off with a brief lesson in Dutch, then led us at a brisk pace across "Tilburg." He described a sculpture while gesturing at a parking meter, then opened an invisible door to allow us into a Tilburg shopping mall that in Portland was an ordinary street. (We were provided with booklets of photographs so we could see the Tilburg streets we were walking along, but they were optional.) It was a fascinating exercise. It was like watching one movie while listening to the soundtrack of another. It was a unique way of getting a real, physical understanding of another city, including its size, the relationship of its parts, and its overall "feel." And after TBA winds up, he'll be jetting to the Netherlands to present The Tilburg Tour of Portland! See Khris Soden's web page for more on this fascinating tour. Note that the pictures in the "Greetings from Tilburg" postcard are actually pictures of Portland and vice versa.

On Saturday I'll be attending an extemporaneous autobiographical monologue workshop with Mike Daisey, and on Sunday we're going to an Al Stewart concert, which isn't part of TBA but should still be very cool.

Meanwhile...

• The wordcount above is for a new story about werewolves in suburbia, which I should really be spending much more time on than I have been.
• Bathroom remodel planning is all done. We have obtained almost all the pieces it is our responsibility to obtain. Demolition begins September 17.
• I've decided to try this "instant messaging" thing that all the hep kids are talking about. My AIM screen name is my email address (dlevine at spiritone dot com). I'm not online very much, but if you see me online feel free to chat.
• Kate dropped her two-month-old iPhone and shattered the screen. The "repair" (a replacement phone) cost $200, which is exactly what the phone cost in the first place (better than buying a new phone over the counter, which is $400 if your two-year contract is not yet up). But the replacement phone seems to have a problem with its accelerometer and will be going back to the Genius Bar tomorrow. Argh.
• We've decided, at about the last possible minute, to attend Foolscap.
• Don't forget that I will be giving a reading in San Francisco on September 20, part of the SF in SF reading series. Nick Mamatas will also be presenting.

Posted 09/10/2008 22:29 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 4560 | Since last entry: 689

Finished up the story I started on Sunday (it's titled "Galacic Stress," and thanks again to Elise for that) at the coffee shop tonight, and sent it out for a real quick critique. It'll go in the mail tomorrow.

Went to dinner afterwards with Jay, Karen, and Carole, where I managed to emit three witticisms in quick succession that literally left Jay speechless. He immediately blogged the first one, right there at the table, and the third one was "Did I make milk come out your nose? You aren't even drinking milk, are you?"

None of us can remember what the second one was. But it was a good'un.

Posted 08/26/2008 21:12 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 3871 | Since last entry: 3299

Today started off at Rejuvenation, the lighting and house parts store, for lighting for the bathroom. (Me to Kate: "I want to go to Rejuv today." Truly, we live in a science fiction world.) Demolition on the bathroom is currently scheduled to start on September 17 and we have to have all the lighting and other accessories in hand before then.

Shopping trips to Rejuv can easily take all day, but in this case we already knew pretty much what we wanted and we were back home, with lamps in hand, by lunch time. (All but one fixture, which will be shipped later this week.)

In the afternoon, while Kate went online in search of towel rods, toilet paper holder, and other such oddments, I sat down to work on a story inspired by something I'd learned at Launch Pad. This one really has to be in the mail this week, and although I started it yesterday, I only made about 500 words yesterday and I was concerned that I wouldn't finish in time at that pace.

I needn't have worried. I wrote almost 3300 words today (even with a trip to Rejuv and making dinner). That might conceivably be a personal record. I think this was possible largely because I'd already thought the story through quite thoroughly; also, it has a linear plot, only one real character, and is based on science stuff I already know pretty well (though I have a couple of web pages open for reference). As literary fiction it's pretty thin, but I think it will work for the target market.

Now I need to come up with a plausible climax. I know what has to happen, but not exactly how. I don't doubt I'll finish tomorrow. The question is, should I even try to get a quick critique before I send it in? It would have to be 24-hour turnaround, and I don't feel I can impose on my critique group as I haven't been able to attend a meeting lately (nor will I, until October.)

To bed now. More writing tomorrow.

Posted 08/25/2008 23:27 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Finished editing the magic lesbian plumber story and put it in the mail. Also finished putting the labels and stamps on the mailed copies of Bento #20. Also went to the gym, had lunch with a writer friend, and did some other errands.

I had a humungous list of to-do items when we got back from Denver. It's now almost two weeks later and I've gotten most of the stuff in the "do today" and "do this week" sub-lists done, and part of the "do next week" list. I knew at the time the list was insanely ambitious, so this is reasonable progress. Still much to do before we leave for Farthing Party, a week from today.

One of those to-do list items is to blog about a contract issue. I mentioned this issue at lunch with some newer writers during the Worldcon, and they suggested that I ought to blog it as a public service announcement.

A while ago I got a contract from a market I'd never sold to before. It included the following clause:

Author hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher against any cost, loss, damage, expense and judgment resulting from any breach of Author's warranties and representations herein, including, without limitation, any settlement payments and attorneys' fees and expenses, costs and disbursements.

Can you spot the problem?

At first glance this seems harmless (you should pardon the expression) enough. It means that if I, the Author, mess up and violate the warranties set up earlier in the contract -- that is, if the story is not original, or is not my own work, or has been published before, or contains slanderous or libelous material -- it's my fault and not the Publisher's, and I have to pay the damages.

The problem here is that the clause is missing the magic words "action finally sustained." As written, it enables the Publisher to respond to anyone who comes to them with an unsubstantiated claim like "this story of the Author's sends out klystron radiation that sterilized my cat!" by saying "okay, here's a million bucks" and it's the Author, not the Publisher, who has to pay it (plus attorney's fees and expenses).

Of course, you don't expect the Publisher to actually do that. But one of the rules of contracts is that you have to assume that the moment the contract is signed, both you and the Publisher will be hit by a meteor and the Publisher will be replaced by your worst enemy in the world. The purpose of contracts is to protect both sides from anything like that.

So. Adding the magic words "action finally sustained" means that the Publisher can't just settle any random claim using the Author's money. It means that you only have to pay out if the claim stands up in court.

I responded to the contract above by suggesting the following new language:

Author hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Publisher against any cost, loss, damage, expense, and judgment in any action finally sustained resulting from any breach of Author's warranties and representations herein, including, without limitation, attorneys' fees and expenses, costs and disbursements.

The Publisher accepted this change and thanked me for suggesting the new language.

The moral of this story is to read and understand your contract, look for the magic words "action finally sustained," and don't be afraid to negotiate.

Posted 08/21/2008 22:49 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

At the Worldcon, Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor asked me to edit my blog posts about Launch Pad into an article for the tor.com website. I did so, and it's just been posted here.

Posted 08/20/2008 16:31 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

I still owe you a Worldcon report, but here's a brief "I'm not dead" report consisting of several miscellaneous items.

I came home from Denver to a mile-long to-do list. I've been terribly busy and productive in the last week, but not so much with the writing. Lots of "writing-related program activities," though, including galleys, submissions, self-promotion, and such.

I was on jury duty. As it happened, I was called down for one jury but not selected. But I have done my civic duty.

At a Worldcon panel, Tom Whitmore defined "famous" as "more people know you than you know people." (This implies that anyone with a poor memory is "famous," but never mind that.) Apparently, though, I am famous, because after I mentioned in the jury panel that I am a science fiction writer two people came up to me to talk with me about it. And when I deposited my most recent check at the bank, the teller looked at the check and said "what's this about a Nebula award?" so I explained to him that the story hadn't won but will be appearing in the annual Nebula anthology. I gave each of these three people a Space Magic promotional card. I feel so professional. (But see above about writing-related program activities vs. actual writing.)

Now that it's been officially announced, I can reveal that I sold short story "Sun Magic, Earth Magic" to new webzine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. The first draft of this story was written for a challenge from my Writers of the Future 2002 alumni group, which was to write a story in 24 hours on the topic of caving or cave diving. It was inspired by the story of caver Floyd Collins, who was trapped in Sand Cave in 1925. Another story written for the same challenge, "We Are the Cat" by Carl Fredrick, was published in Asimov's.

As previously mentioned, I will be appearing in San Francisco on September 20, as part of the SF in SF reading series. The new news here is that my co-presenter will be Nick Mamatas.

Posted 08/16/2008 11:32 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Okay, this time I really will be brief. We have to make an early start tomorrow.

We started off the day with a talk by Ruben Gamboa on computing in astronomy. Modern astronomy is all about computers -- the days of staring through eyepieces and developing film in darkrooms are over. Computers are used for controlling equipment, automating repetitive tasks, organizing data, and building scientific models. Computers are very good at boring tasks like looking for comets and supernovas, so most comets these days are named after discoverers like NEAT (Near-Earth Astronomical Telescope) rather than Hamner-Brown. The next generation of survey telescopes will generate 30TB of data per night (that's half a Library of Congress or 1/20 of YouTube). Google is working with LSST to build a system to manage all this data. And scientific models (usually systems of partial differential equations) are now being used more and more with brute-force computational techniques rather than by being solved in the conventional way (many useful models can't easily be solved). In the future, scientific models will be computer programs rather than systems of equations.

Jerry Oltion then gave a loose, interactive talk on humans in space and astronomy in fiction. A few tidbits:

• The human body does not explode in vacuum. One NASA volunteer was exposed to hard vacuum in a space suit test accident; he passed out after 14 seconds (his last conscious memory was of the water beginning to boil on his tongue) but they restored normal atmospheric pressure quickly and he survived just fine.
• Space capsules and space stations tend to stink badly, and this is a serious problem.
• Air in free fall does not convect, which means that everything that heats up has to be cooled by fans; the space shuttle is LOUD inside.
• Sex in space has almost certainly happened, but Jerry thinks that the reason nobody has talked about it is that it's not all that good. In space your nose stuffs up, you smell, perspiration doesn't evaporate, your blood pressure goes down, and experiments on the Vomit Comit have shown that even hanging onto each other and achieving penetration is a hassle.
• Stan Schmidt warns writers that it is extremly unlikely to have a habitable planet around a star with a name. (Named stars are all bright, and the bright stars tend to be too hot or too large for Earth-like life.)
• There is an "extra" day in the sidereal year (vs. the solar year) because the Earth rotates once per year due to its orbit around the sun, in addition to its daily rotation. For every 365 times the sun rises, the stars rise 366 times.
• If the moon is visible in the West, the tide is going out (generally speaking). Similarly, if it's visible in the East, the tide is coming in.

Mike Brotherton's grad student Rajib Gauguly then gave a talk on quasar absorption lines ("studying gas you can't see using light that isn't there") which was highly technical, but after six days of this we had the background to understand it. Mostly. I'm not going to try to summarize it here.

We finished up with a brief talk on the search for exoplanets (there are 228 known exoplanets around nearby stars, some as small as 5 times the mass of the Earth), an open Q/A period, evaluations, and logistics for getting everyone home. We all went out to Laramie's only Thai restaurant for dinner, then went back to the dorm and packed.

All done. Whew. What a week. I learned a lot, hung out with some great people, and ate way too much.

We head off to Denver for the Worldcon bright and early tomorrow. My program schedule:

• Wed 11:30: Launch Pad: Astronomy for Writers
• Wed 16:00: Reading: David Levine
• Thur 10:00: Short Fiction: On its way out or a way to break into the market?
• Thur 14:30: Have blogs and listservs replaced fanzines?
• Fri 10:00: Clarion West Writers Workshop: How it Helped My Career
• Fri 13:00: Signing (45 minutes)
• Fri 14:30: Kaffeeklatch
• Sat 11:30: Clarion West Student Readings, the 21st Century

I'd greatly appreciate it if you'd show up for my reading and Kaffeeklatch. I can promise fun conversation and silly noises.

Posted 08/05/2008 22:23 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Woke up early enough today for breakfast in the dining hall (which is only open 7-8am, what were they thinking?) and conversation with about half the gang. The downside is that I got less sleep than usual and am now tired and headachey, so this entry will be shorter than yesterday's (if I know what's good for me).

Mike Brotherton started off with a lecture about galaxies and cosmology. Almost everything we can see with the naked eye at night is in our own Milky Way galaxy (this is, apparently, its actual name -- I expected it to have an official scientific name like Galaxy Number One or something, but no). One exception is the Andromeda galaxy, which is barely visible as a hazy star near Casseiopeia.

Herschel tried to determine the shape of the galaxy (1785) but didn't do very well because so much of it is obscured by interstellar dust and gas. The galactic plane, in fact, is well above the bright line we can see, but obscured by dust. We can use wavelengths that are not obscured by dust (e.g. infrared) and "standard candles" such as Cepheid variable stars, whose absolute brightness can be determined from their periods, to determine the galaxy's actual shape.

Stars in the galactic disk have nearly circular orbits, while "halo" stars outside the disk have highly elliptical orbits. The orbits of stars in our galaxy and others show that most of the mass of the galaxy is distributed smoothly throughout the galaxy rather than concentrated in the center. The speeds of the orbits tell us that there is a LOT more of this mass than we can account for through visible objects such as stars. But what is it?

Could this dark matter be ordinary dust and gas? No. We know the abundancies of baryons (protons and neutrons) in the universe from studying the Big Bang, and there aren't nearly enough to account for the invisible mass.

Could it be WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) such as neutrinos? No. Although neutrinos don't affect normal matter much, they do affect it, and we have performed experiments (using large quantities of dry cleaning fluid) that show there aren't enough of them either. A theoretical WIMP called the "axion" has been proposed but never observed.

Could it be MaCHOs (Massive Compact Halo Objects) such as black holes and brown dwarfs? Maybe, but probably not. We can detect these objects through "gravitational lensing" (a distant object changing its brightness or apparent position as a MACHO passing in front of it warps its light) and we don't see enough such events to account for the missing mass.

Could it be that we are simply wrong about gravity? No. MoND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics) seemed plausible until 2006. The Bullet Cluster consists of two clusters of galaxies that have recently passed through each other. We can see the hot gas of these two clusters (which is normal matter) using X-ray telescopes, but we can also find their centers of mass using gravitational lensing of the galaxies behind the cluster. The two centers of mass are farther apart than the visible gas. This tells us that the majority of the mass in the two clusters does not interact with itself or with the matter of the clusters in the same way as normal matter. (This Scientific American article includes a very helpful video simulation.)

I must say that I was both confused and skeptical about the very weird stuff called "dark matter." (Note: not to be confused with "dark energy," which we talked about later.) I didn't understand why this strange non-interacting stuff had to be invoked when it could just be, well, matter that was just dark. But the Bullet Cluster was for me, you should pardon the expression, the smoking gun.

Many galaxies have spiral arms. If you look at a picture of a spiral galaxy it looks just like water going down the drain, or a hurricane, and you think you can tell which way it is rotating. The actual rotational direction is the other way. Spiral arms are, in fact, standing waves in the interstellar medium. At the leading edge of these waves (the inside edge of each sickle-shaped arm), new stars are born as the interstellar medium impacts the shockwave. The bigger, hotter stars burn out first, so the leading edge is brightest, fading away to blackness as most of the newborn stars burn out or fade away.

We can measure the distance to other galaxies by using Cepheid variables and type Ia supernovas (these are white dwarfs in binary systems that collapse when they accrete too much matter from their companion -- we know exactly how bright they are because they explode immediately when their mass rises to a certain value). These "standard candles" tell us that distant galaxies are moving away from us with a speed proportional to their distance.

The galaxies aren't moving through space, as any fule kno... it's space that's expanding. This expansion is happening everywhere, but it's only visible in intergalactic space because at smaller scales the force of gravity is greater than the expansive force. This is why the galaxies are getting farther apart instead of just bigger.

By studying the three degree Kelvin background radiation that is the echo of the Big Bang, we can determine the initial conditions of the universe and determine that the total mass of the universe is almost exactly what is needed to make the universe "flat", meaning that it will neither expand forever nor contract in a Big Crunch: the expansion will slow down and stop at some point. But there isn't enough matter, even including dark matter, to account for this flatness, and when we measured the rate of deceleration, we got a surprise: it wasn't slowing down at all, it was speeding up!

Turns out there's a "cosmological constant" in Einstein's equations, which was thought to be zero, but if we set it to a negative value it explains both the accelerating expansion of the universe and the missing mass. The missing mass is the mass equivalent of this weird anti-gravitic energy. We don't know what this "dark energy" is -- it has never been observed directly -- but it makes the equations balance.

It may be that the cosmological constant itself is increasing. If it stays the same, the universe expands so fast that all other galaxies will eventually fade from view. If it is increasing, it will eventually get big enough to overcome atomic forces and everything in the universe will be torn apart: the "big rip." For now, though, it's less powerful than gravity and other forces, meaning its effect is only visible at the very largest scales.

After that cheery reassurance we went to the computer imaging lab where we got a talk by Chip Kobulnicky on imaging in astronomy. Raw images from the Wide-Field Planetary Camera on the Hubble space telescope look awful. They consist of four rectangles (three large, one small) with big visible seams between them, speckles of noise, and cosmic ray streaks. Scientists and technicians have to do a lot of processing to make them look all pretty and colorful. We also got some hands-on experience using a program called ds9 to combine the R, G, and B images of the Ring Nebula that were taken at WIRO on our field trip the other day into a single color image. Here's the result:

(It's kind of grainy because the exposure was short.)

The day ended with a talk on SETI by scientist/philosopher Jeffrey Lockwood. This talk was a bit of a surprise as we spent the whole time talking and writing about what messages we, as writers, would send to aliens, ignoring questions of transmission mechanism and language. It was an interesting writing exercise, and thought-provoking, but was so different from the hard science focus of the rest of the week that some of us felt kind of whiplashed.

One of the things I wrote during this session was a message to express the importance of "pattern" to humans while simultaneously encoding the Fibonacci sequence:

Instance.
Instance.
Another instance.
It happens again.
Why does it happen again?
Can we predict what the next instance is?
By observing phenomena, we learn about the universe and learn to predict events.
We find patterns and recurrences in all kinds of physical phenomena, from molecules to stars, simple to complex, insert and alive.
Once we have discovered a pattern, we can build devices, craft new experiments, build more knowledge on top of what we have already learned, and even begin to make changes and improve our environment.

We finished the evening on the roof of the physics building, looking at binary stars, globular clusters, the planet Jupiter, and various satellites (including the International Space Station) with night-vision goggles, binoculars, and two very nice amateur telescopes.

Apparently I do not know what's good for me. Night, all!

Posted 08/04/2008 23:30 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Very busy. Having much fun. I keep forgetting keen stuff and encourage you to read other attendees' blogs for the full Launch Pad experience (and photos).

Yesterday started off with a talk by Jerry Oltion about amateur astronomy. In the astronomy world, "amateur" is not a pejorative. Many pro astronomers are also amateurs, and many significant discoveries have been made by amateurs. Even if you have an 80" scope at your day job, you might want to have a smaller scope in your garage because you can use it whenever you want and point it wherever you want.

Cheap telescopes often brag about how much they magnify, but the important thing for astronomy is not to make the image bigger but to make it brighter, so as to see objects too dim for the naked eye. For this reason, size counts, but the diameter is more important than the length (ahem). One danger of amateur astronomy is "aperture fever" -- the desire for a bigger and bigger scope. It used to be that you had to grind your own mirrors, but machine-made mirrors are now good enough that hand-grinding is no longer necessary (though it's still a rite of passage). You can now buy one-meter mirrors for a not unreasonable amount of money.

Telescope mounts include Dobsonian (tilt and swivel, like a cannon), equatorial (also tilt and swivel, but with one axis aligned with the North Star, making it easier to follow an object as the Earth rotates), and Jerry's own "trackball" mount (a sphere mounted on rollers). You can get computerized scopes with GPS, once you've aligned them you can just key in a desired object and they swing right to it, but the affordable ones tend to be cheaply made and the set-up time may cost you as much time as you save in finding each target -- also, you lose the learning opportunity and the fun of the hunt.

Why do bright stars appear to have four points? This is due to diffraction effects from the "spider" that supports the secondary mirror, which usually has four supports.

Mike Brotherton then gave a high-speed, high-density lecture on "everything you always wanted to know about stars."

People have been studying stars for a long time and there are many "palimpsests" of earlier ideas. For example, information about stars used to be presented in charts in color order, from blue to red. Now that we know that blue stars are hot and red stars are cool, the X axis of these charts now represents temperature rather than color, but they're still shown with the blue (hot) end on the left, so the temperature increases from right to left! And the reason the spectral classes are the order OBAFGKM (Only Bad Astronomers Forget Generally Known Mnemonics) is because the original spectral classes were in order of strength of the hydrogen line in their spectrum (A = strongest, O = weakest) but we now know that O stars are the hottest and M are the coolest. What happened to C, D, E, H, I, J, and L? They were duplicates and were dropped. But the letters are still used.

Stars can be graphed on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with spectral class (temperature) on the X axis and luminosity (total amount of light output) on the Y axis. Most stars fall in a roughly diagonal band from hot-and-bright (upper left) to cool-and-dim (lower right), which is called the Main Sequence. This is a tidy sequence of mass from about 18 solar masses at the top to 0.1 solar masses at the bottom. It is not a temporal sequence! Most stars spend most of their life moving slowly across the width of this band.

A star's properties are uniquely determined by its mass and chemical composition. Bigger stars burn hotter and have shorter lives.

Stars are born in areas of dense gas and dust. Something, such as a shock wave from a supernova, causes an area of the gas to begin to condense. These protostars get hotter and brighter as they condense, but after a while their luminosity actually starts to go down, even as their temperature increases, because they are getting smaller. Shortly after fusion begins they blow off their surrounding coccoon of dust and gas and become visible; this transition is called the "birth line" on the H-R diagram, even though the star is really "born" when fusion begins. The star continues to condense and stabilize, throwing off jets of material which may in turn shock the interstellar medium into new protostars, until it eventually settles down on the main sequence at a point determined by its mass.

When a star reaches the end of its life, what happens depends on its mass. A typical star will move off the main sequence toward the upper right (becoming a giant star, which gives much more light than a main-sequence star of the same temperature because of its larger surface area), then blow off its outer envelope, leaving a white dwarf remnant in the lower left (hot but small, so not very luminous). A smaller star cools to a brown dwarf; a larger star explodes violently as a supernova.

After class we drove up to the Wyoming Infrared Observatory (WIRO), which despite its name is used only for optical observation these days. When we arrived the sky was overcast, but we toured the facility, which consists of a very ordinary-looking small house with a giant dome attached. Inside that dome was the telescope, a bus-sized spindly contraption with an eight-foot mirror on one end and a three-foot cubical box on the other. We gawked and took lots and lots of pictures. The moment when they cranked open the roof was just awesome.

Now we waited for the sun to set and hoped the clouds would clear. We ate our dinner, talked with the two grad students staffing the observatory, amused the cat (Nu Bootes, pronounced "new booties," successor to the previous observatory cat Mu Bootes, pronounced "mew booties"), played cards and chess, and enjoyed the view. The view from the mountain was spectacular, looking like a Star Trek matte painting as the sun set. Just then it started to drizzle and they had to close the dome.

Oh well, I thought, at least we got to see the telescope. But right around the time we were getting ready to bail, the clouds parted. Huzzah!

We headed back into the dome to see the grad students charge up the instrument cluster with liquid nitrogen to reduce noise. Then we were shooed out, presumably to prevent being crushed as the giant machine turned in the pitch dark of the dome.

I spent the rest of the evening alternating between the control room, where I saw live pictures of the Ring Nebula on computer screens and asked lots of questions, and the gravel lot outside the dome, where the Milky Way came out and we gawked at the night sky. We had a pair of night-vision goggles, through which I saw a satellite and the Andromeda Galaxy.

Very, very cool. I got back to the dorm around 1am, which explains why I didn't blog yesterday.

Today started out with a nice hike around Turtle Rock in Vedauwoo, which offered spectacular views), a little rock climbing, and pleasant temperatures, but took a lot longer than originally budgeted, throwing off the rest of the day's schedule.

After lunch we met in the university's small planetarium, which is rare in that it is still equipped with a traditional optical "starball" (AKA "planetarium projector" or "giant ant"). Modern digital projectors are more flexible, but there's something about the smooth motion and ineffable "directness" of the old-fashioned starball that makes it a more engaging way of learning about the night sky. Unfortunately, optical starballs are difficult and expensive to maintain... many features of this one were not working. Our host Jim Verley gave a very entertaining talk about both the workings of the planetarium and about night sky basics.

Mike Brotherton then continued his talk about stars. More than half the stars in the galaxy are members of binary (or more) groups. Stellar evolution in binaries is complicated and depends on the two stars' relative masses. For example, in a pair that consists of a big star and a small star, the big star will blow up into a giant star first, and its smaller companion will have the opportunity to pull away some of its outer atmosphere. If the smaller star pulls away enough mass, it may become the bigger member of the pair. Later, when it becomes a giant, the white dwarf remnant of its formerly-larger companion may pull away some of its mass in turn. In some cases the larger star may completely absorb the smaller, which can take as little as a couple of months.

If one member of the pair is a white dwarf, the matter coming into it from the other star is whipped into an accretion disk due to conservation of angular momentum. This infalling gas is incredibly hot, and may outshine the original star and emit large quantities of X-rays. Hydrogen may also settle on the surface of the white dwarf in sufficient mass to begin fusing. If this occurs, it ignites all over the star at once in a spectacular explosion: a nova. Because this only affects the surface of the star, it may happen again and again, even periodically.

Our sun will eventually (5 billion years) expand to a red giant about the size of Earth's orbit. The Earth wll move out slightly, because the sun's mass will have decreased by then, but it's really an academic question whether it's broiled by falling into the sun's atmosphere or merely toasted by proximity. Either way it'll be a mighty warm day. Eventually the outer parts of the sun's atmosphere will be blown away (comparatively gently) and the core will settle down as a white dwarf.

Massive stars (25 solar masses or more) burn hydrogen at the core for about 7 million years, then helium for 500 thousand years, then carbon for 600 years, then oxygen for six months, then silicon for one day. At this point the star resembles an onion, with a silicon-burning core surrounded by an oxygen-burning layer surrounded by a carbon-burning layer, and so on. Silicon fuses to iron, but iron doesn't fuse at all. When all the silicon is used up, the core collapses, beginning a reaction that destroys the star in a massive explosion: a supernova, which produces a flood of neutrinos and creates all kinds of heavy elements. Every atom in the universe that's heavier than iron is the result of a supernova explosion. The remaining core becomes either a neutron star or a black hole, depending on its mass.

Supernovas are rare, occurring about once every hundred years per galaxy. Most of the supernovas we see are in other galaxies. This is a good thing, because a nearby supernova (within about 100 light-years) could kill us with the neutrino flux.

By the way, we are "on the verge" of building gravity telescopes, which could detect such things as binaries consisting of two black holes or two neutron stars, which don't emit radiation but do emit powerful gravity waves. The basic principle is to very carefully measure the distance between two masses. If that distance decreases, that means a gravity wave is passing through, changing the shape of space.

After a supernova, if the remaining stellar core is less than 3 solar masses it becomes a neutron star, with all the protons and electrons smashed into each other to create an incredibly dense solid mass of nothing but neutrons. As the core collapses, angular momentum conservation makes it spin faster and faster, with a period of a few milliseconds. The same collapse amplifies the magnetic field by a factor of 10¹². Plusars (objects that pulse rapidly in the optical and radio bands) are believed to be rotating neutron stars, the magnetic pole of which is not aligned with the rotational pole. Every time the magnetic pole points in our direction we see a pulse. It may be that all neutron stars are pulsars, but we can see only the ones where the beam from the pole happens to shine on Earth. Some pulsars wobble as well as pulsing, indicating the presence of planets.

If the core is greater than 3 solar masses, its gravity is greater than the forces within the atom and collapse continues past the neutron star phase. There is no known mechanism to halt the collapse of a compact object of more than 3 solar masses. It keeps collapsing down to a single point: a singularity, or black hole.

Escape velocity from the surface of an object of given mass goes up as the object gets smaller and denser. The point at which the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light is known as the Swartzchild radius. If the object is any smaller than this it doesn't matter. The Swartzchild radius is the "event horizon" beyond which nothing can ever be detected. This radius scales linearly with the mass of the object (3km for an object the mass of the sun, 30km for an object of 10 solar masses... a galactic-core black hole of 1.5 billion solar masses has an event horizon as big as Saturn's orbit).

Black holes, it is said, have no hair. This means that they lose almost all of the characteristics they had before they became black holes. The only characteristics left are mass, angular momentum, and maybe electrical charge. Electrical charge is a maybe because it's thought that a charged black hole will quickly attract enough matter with the opposite charge to neutralize it. A black hole's angular momentum is interesting because a rotating black hole will drag the fabric of space around with it, a phenomenon known as "frame dragging." Even though black holes do not emit anything, we can detect them by their effects on objects around them, or by gravitational lensing of the light coming from behind them.

Because of general relativity, a clock falling toward a black hole will appear to an outside observer to slow down, and stop as it passes the event horizon. At that point the light from the clock is red-shifted, meaning that it gradually fades from view. I don't completely understand this. However, from the clock's perspective the event horizon is undetectable (it's like driving past the point where you don't have enough gas in your tank to return home). However, in practical terms, long before it reaches the event horizon the clock will be torn apart by tidal forces. This phenomenon is called "spaghettification" because the object is "stretched into spaghetti" but this is far too tidy... in reality the object is ripped to pieces because every piece of it is being pulled either up or down relative to every other piece.

One last bizarre astronomical phenomenon: gamma-ray bursts (GRB's). These are short (a few seconds) intense bursts of gamma rays. They were first detected by the military, who were looking for space-based atomic explosions. They are thought to be jets of radiation from "hypernovas" (deaths of very massive stars over 25 solar masses) in galaxies billions of light-years away.

As detailed as that was, I've left tons out. I can barely take notes as fast as the slides go by. This really is Astronomy 101 in a week, but I'm having a ball.

And even while I'm in Laramie, assiduously not writing, my stories are still out there and working. I just sold a story (to a market whose name I am not yet at liberty to reveal), and "Titanium Mike" will be podcast at StarShipSofa. More details as they become available.

Posted 08/03/2008 22:58 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Launch Pad is Astronomy 101 in a week. Some of us are already getting a little crispy around the edges.

Steve Gould has a cute tiny Asus "eee" laptop. I have discovered that you can get Mac OS X to run on it. ::wants::

Mike Brotherton started off the day with some introductory remarks. Observational astronomers, he says, are night owls; theorists are the ones who schedule 8am classes. He revealed that in academia it's standard to pay for publication of your accepted papers ($150 a page or so); this helps keep the academic journals afloat. He also shared some useful URLs, then gave us a lecture on the electromagnetic spectrum.

Almost everything we know about the universe outside of the Earth (except for some moon rocks and space dust) comes to us in the form of light and other electromagnetic radiation. He explained the relationship between frequency, wavelength, and the speed of light, and how light refracts and is broken into the spectrum by a prism because the speed of light in glass is lower than it is in air and varies according to the wavelength (the frequency stays the same, but the wavelength changes as the velocity of the wave goes down). Light is also a particle, of course, and the energy of each photon is determined by its frequency. This isn't the same as the intensity of the light, which explains why you get sunburn from high-energy UV photons but no harmful effect from even a very intense green light.

"Black bodies" are objects that absorb light equally at all frequencies. These objects also emit light at all frequencies when they are hot. The term "black body radiation" refers to the characteristic spectrum of such a body, which peaks at different frequencies depending on its temperature. The total amount of energy emitted also depends on the temperature -- if you double the temperature (measured in degrees Kelvin, i.e. degrees above absolute zero) you increase the energy by a factor of 16!

Telescopes come in two basic flavors: refracting (lens) and reflecting (mirror). Reflecting telescopes are lighter and don't have chromatic aberration (the red and blue fringes you can see on bright objects when you look through the edges of thick glasses like mine), but the focal plane where the image appears is on the same side of the mirror as the object being observed -- this is not much of a problem in real life, you can put the sensor there, or a mirror to redirect the image somewhere else, without interfering with the telescope too badly. Reflecting telescopes are also much easier to make big, and the bigger (in diameter) the better.

Modern professional telescopes use adaptive optics (tiny rapid changes in the mirror to compensate for atmospheric disturbances) and long-baseline interferometry (using several small telescopes to simulate a much larger single telescope) to achieve results nearly equivalent to space-based telescopes. However, space-based telescopes can see frequencies no ground-based telescope can see through the atmosphere, including infrared and X-rays.

Danny Dale then gave us a lecture on dust in space (say it with me: "Duust... iiiinnn... SPAAAAAACE!") which was reasonably interesting, but as much of the presentation was seemingly meant for other astrophysicists (lots of charts) I didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked.

Jim Verley led us through a hands-on exercise in which we got to look at glowing tubes of several different gases through diffraction gratings, trying to identify the gas by comparing the spectral lines we saw with charts of several common elements. The exercise was very cool and a lot of fun (I have never seen a band of pure teal light before), and clearly showed us that the difference between theory and practice is always smaller in theory than it is in practice. I was reminded of the classic Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass.

Next up was Jerry Oltion with a couple of exercises in back-of-the-envelope calculation. He started off with an easy one: how much does a cow weigh? The answer, no shit, started off with "posit a spherical cow of uniform density...". The next question was "if we want to build an accurate scale model of the solar system, including Pluto, inside this 30' long classroom, how big is the sun, how large are the planets, and how far are the planets from each other?" Jerry brought an assortment of spherical objects to help visualize this ("I have the minor planets here in a bag...").

We started off with a beachball-sized sun, which makes the Earth a 1/10" diameter BB 100 feet away; Pluto would be an insignificant speck 4000 feet away (nearly a mile!). From there we made the sun smaller and smaller (softball, tennis ball, ping-pong ball, marble...) until we finally got down to a 0.9" mustard seed. At this scale the solar system (well, not the diameter of the solar system, but all the planets strung out in a line to scale) just fits in the classroom. Earth is a tiny speck 9" away, Jupiter is smaller than a grain of salt at 45" away, and Pluto is an even tinier speck 30' away. There's a whole lot of empty space in the solar system. Furthermore, at this scale Alpha Centauri A and B would be a pair of mustard seeds 20-30' from each other... 31 miles away!

The width of your finger held at arms' length is about 1 degree of arc, by the way.

The final exercise was to view the space station docking scene in 2001 and determine its gravity, using the equation v²r = g. The station rotates once per minute and, based on the heights of the people visible in some windows, is about 150 meters in radius. This means the circumference is about 1000 meters, so v is 1000 meters per minute, which yields a simulated gravity about 1/6 of Earth's -- the same as the moon (though the people inside move as though the gravity is Earth-normal). The very tidy numbers suggest that Arthur C. Clarke told the special effects guys exactly what to do.

I had a lot of fun with the back-of-the-envelope calculations. My father did this sort of thing with me all the time when I was a kid. Some other members of the workshop were left behind, though. I imagine they must feel the way I feel when I see tanned and fit people on sailboats who just hop into the water and swim to shore for lunch.

The day ended with a party at Mike Brotherton's house, where we chatted with members of the UWyo astronomy faculty and saw the Milky Way (faintly) and a couple of meteors. Tomorrow night we go to the big WIRO telescope up on the mountain.

Posted 08/01/2008 11:59 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Jay Lake coming back from the shower, singing "Cinnamon Girl" while holding his glasses in his mouth, sounds very very odd. Kind of like Czech.

Breakfasted on a real New York bagel hand-carried by Mary Robinette Kowal, then walked to a nearby grocery store in search of kleenex and other necessities. However, the store seemed to consist of nothing but a meat counter (and why, pray tell, did the sign say "Groceries" and not "Meats"?) and the nearest full-service grocery was too far to walk.

All the Launch Pad people gathered in the lounge (they have all the men on one end of the 5th floor, the women all the way on the other end, and married couple Steven Gould and Laura Mixon sharing a room near the middle) then walked in a group to the classroom, which is about 15 minutes' walk away. Very much like Clarion, back in the day, except that breakfast, lunch, and snacks are provided.

First day of classes was very full, beginning with introductions all around, filling out forms about our math expertise and what we want out of the workshop, and an initial test of our astronomy knowledge. I'm fairly confident I knew almost everything on the test. (One exception: "which color of star is hottest, red, yellow, blue, or white?" I knew it was either white or blue.)

Mike Brotherton led off with a lecture on the scale of the cosmos, including a viewing of Charles and Ray Eames's short film Powers of Ten. Apparently, astronomers prefer to use numbers between 1 and 10 (sometimes up to 100) and use different units (kilometers, astronomical units, light-years, parsecs, redshift units) to keep the numbers in that range. I was surprised to learn that, using satellite-based telescopes, we can now use parallax to measure the distances to stars up to 1000 parsecs away.

Discussion of the size of the universe got a little weird and metaphysical. The observable universe is 28 billion light-years across, because the big bang was 14 billion years ago and we can't see anything farther back than that. However, the universe as a whole is much larger and definitely doesn't have an edge, but may or may not be infinite. Questions like "how can the universe be bigger than all the way back to the big bang?" proved to be difficult to answer for this audience at this time. Maybe more later, when we discuss cosmology.

Jim Verley then gave a lecture on public misperceptions of astronomy, starting with the film A Private Universe which reveals that even Harvard graduates can't explain why we have seasons (one popular false explanation is that "the Earth is closer to the sun in summer") or why the moon has phases ("it's the shadow of the Earth falling on the moon").

The basic problem is that students don't come to school as blank slates. Many people have incorrect private models in their heads, which must be identified and confronted on an individual basis before the student can really internalize the standard model. Even if they learn the standard model well enough to pass the test, if the private model isn't explicitly displaced it may return years later after the standard model has been forgotten. We then looked at a bunch of different pictures purporting to explain the phases of the moon and identified how they could mislead the student if the student doesn't already understand the standard model. For example, the illustration in the Wikipedia article on the phases of the moon could easily be misinterpreted as saying that the moon goes through all of its phases every 24 hours.

It turns out that understanding moon phases, which involves simultaneously considering the Earth-Moon system as seen from above and the moon as seen from the Earth while keeping in mind the separate 28-day lunar orbital period and 24-hour Earth day, is remarkably hard. One solution proposed for elementary students is Kinesthetic Astronomy in which the students move their own bodies to help understand astronomical phenomena. As ad-hoc science educators, we SF writers have only words at our disposal, but we can still "show, not tell" to help get the concepts across and be damn sure we're getting it right.

Jerry Oltion then gave us a whirlwind tour of the solar system, including information about what you can see through various types of telescope (illustrated with photographs he took through his own scopes) and some of the latest data from Titan. I took copious notes.

We went from there straight to dinner at the vegetarian Sweet Melissa, which responded to an unexpected influx of almost 20 people with rapid service and exceptional food. Highly recommended.

After dinner we decided that, rather than poking fun at the bad science in Armageddon ("nearly one mistake per minute"), we would watch the Twilight Zone adaptations of "The Star" and "The Cold Equations". Both adaptations were flawed, but prompted some interesting discussion.

I really should be asleep now...

Posted 07/31/2008 22:56 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Travel day today. Awoke 5am for a 6am cab that actually arrived at 5:50. I don't think anything was left behind in the resulting mad scramble, though I did forget to empty my water bottle, which was duly confiscated by the TSA. Grr.

Uneventful flight to Denver, where I said goodbye to Kate, who is going to spend the next week relaxing and enjoying nature in the vicinity of Pikes Peak. Jay Lake and I had lunch, then wandered about the airport for some time looking for an unobstructed, working electrical outlet with something resembling seating nearby. We settled for sitting on the hard marble floor behind some garbage cans. What is it with airports and electrical outlets, anyway?

All the Launch Pad folks arrived by 4pm except for Nancy Kress, whose flight was delayed. We piled into a van and were driven to Laramie, where we were treated to dinner at the dome-topped Library restaurant (though we had to pay for our own drinks -- no alcohol on the taxpayer's nickel!). After dinner we had a whirlwind tour of the campus, then checked into our rooms.

The dorm is a lot like Clarion West (as it was when I attended, not the sorority house with personal chef those soft kids today have). Hard little beds, hard little chairs, bathroom down the hall. But it's only for a week, and there's Ethernet.

And the stars are gorgeous, even when seen from town. Which is, after all, why we are here.

Posted 07/30/2008 22:08 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Finished revising the global-warming/honor-killing story and sent it off. I fixed some of the worst probems, but I'm still not completely happy with it. The characters are deliberately unsympathetic, which will probably kill the story for many readers, and I still don't think I've succeeded in establishing their motivations for a couple of key reversals. But the world of the story is so grim that I don't want to spend any more time there, so off it goes. It may not sell, but at least I took a risk and tried something different.

Next up is revision of the magic-lesbian-plumber story, which should be much more fun.

I picked up a copy of Dozois's latest Year's Best and discovered that "Babel Probe" (Darker Matter), "Moonlight on the Carpet" (Aeon) and "Titanium Mike Saves the Day" (F&SF) all snagged Honorable Mentions. Go me.

One more thing before I go and take a nap: I found the following in a two-year-old email and decided that it's worth sharing.

I saw a stupid TV show on MTV the other day, called something like "Why Can't I Be You?" In this show, a person who isn't happy with their life contacts the producers and says "I wish I were more like X," where X is some former classmate or co-worker or random person on the street. In this particular instance it was some uptight barista who wanted to be more spontaneous, like this guy he knew in high school. The producers found the guy, put the two of them together, and told the guy "we want you to take this barista along with you everywhere for 48 hours and show him how to be like you, while we film everything. We'll give you a thousand bucks."

The result was only mildly entertaining and somewhat appalling, but it got me to thinking: what would I do in this situation? Which led me to ask myself which of the two roles I envisioned myself in. After a while I realized I could see myself in both roles. Which made me think of the show in this way: if the me who is depressed, angry, and antisocial came to the me who is happy, flexible, and outgoing (for I contain both people, as I'm sure most people do) and said "I want to be more like you," what would I tell me to do?

It's an interesting way to approach the question of how to make my life more like what I want it to be. No answers yet, but taking risks and reaching out to friends are part of it.

Posted 07/27/2008 15:12 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post. Apologies.

The first week of that time was spent in Cleveland, at the annual gay square dance convention. Convention was fun as always, though as I commented on Sunday night "the more friends you have, the shorter Convention gets." We had a great time at the Cedar Point amusement park, riding roller coasters. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is an excellent museum, with clear informational signage and videos answering not only the question "what is this?" but "why is it important?" As for Cleveland itself... this city makes me realize just how good we have it in Portland. It's a rust-belt city with crumbling infrastructure, the restaurant situation is dire, and the downtown area seemed almost completely unpopulated even in the middle of a weekday. They're trying, Lord knows, with much new construction and investments in mass transit, but it feels desperate. I wish them luck.

The following week we put together a new issue of Bento. As usual, we went from "omigod we have nothing, what we do have sucks, this is never going to come together in time" to "hey look, it's a zine!" with head-spinning rapidity. It's back from the printer already, even. We'll be handing out copies at the Worldcon and mailed copies will be sent shortly thereafter.

Planning on the bathroom remodel continues apace. We just signed the contract and will have the final walkthrough meeting (with the ceremonial handing-over of the first ginormous check) next Tuesday. Teardown starts shortly after we return from the Worldcon. We have only the one bathroom. We'll manage somehow.

At the moment Kate is in Kennewick, helping our niece with Project Destroy Grandparents while Kate's sister is in Sweden for some kind of martial arts thing. Yes, Sweden. Who knew it was a hotbed of kendo?

I'm batching it (should really be "baching it," I suppose, but that doesn't suggest its pronunciation) here in Portland for the nonce. I've been working on revising a short story but it's going really slowly. I hate revisions. Too bad I have a lot of them to do right now.

Kate returns Sunday. On Wednesday we both leave for Denver, where we will disperse: me to Laramie for the Launch Pad astronomy workshop, Kate to a rustic lodge near Pikes Peak. We'll rendezvous back in Denver the following Wednesday for the Worldcon, where my schedule is as follows:

• Wed 11:30: Launch Pad: Astronomy for Writers
• Wed 16:00: Reading: David Levine
• Thur 10:00: Short Fiction: On its way out or a way to break into the market?
• Thur 14:30: Have blogs and listservs replaced fanzines?
• Fri 10:00: Clarion West Writers Workshop: How it Helped My Career
• Fri 13:00: Signing (45 minutes)
• Fri 14:30: Kaffeeklatch
• Sat 11:30: Clarion West Student Readings, the 21st Century

And, looking a little further into the future, I'll be giving a reading in San Francisco on September 20, part of the SF in SF reading series. This does mean skipping out on Saturday evening of the West Coast Gay Advanced and Challenge Square Dance Weekend. The perils of living in multiple fandoms.

Oh, one more thing: The signed and numbered hardcover of my collection Space Magic is now available from Wrigley-Cross Books.

Posted 07/25/2008 12:04 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Sitting at the airport waiting for our flight to Cleveland for the annual gay square dance convention. Internet connectivity may be spotty for the next week.

I haven't done any writing in the past week and I'm probably not going to do much during the convention. I think I am blocked by the story I need to revise. It's the bleak nasty one that was (deservedly) given a fairly tough critique at Taos. I dislike revision at the best of times, and this story needs a lot of it. Also, to revise this story I'll have to force my head back into a very uncomfortable place.

I could revise the other Taos story instead, the one that's fun and light and I think people will really enjoy, but I think if I do that one now I may never get to the other one. And I think the other one is worth revising. It may never be published, but if it is I think it may piss people off in an interesting way.

Everyone have a great Fourth of July!

Posted 07/01/2008 10:02 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

I had a big list of things to do on Monday after getting back from Taos. It's now Friday. How'd that happen?

We did attend a delightful lecture by Peter Schickele (of P.D.Q. Bach fame) on humor in music, and a performance of Avenue Q. I greatly enjoyed the latter, and I was particularly impressed with the performer for the puppets Kate Monster and Lucy The Slut. Not only did she play two vertices of a romantic triangle, sometimes both on stage at the same time, but she was visibly pregnant -- not something the romantic lead could get away with in most shows.

I've been thinking a lot about what I learned at Taos Toolbox. Although it wasn't the life-changing experience that Clarion was, I did learn a few things...

The (unplanned) theme of the workshop seems to have been that one's greatest strength often turns out to be one's greatest weakness. This is true of characters (for example, the character who is most kind and trusting is taken advantage of by the bad guy) and of writers (for example, the writer whose dialog is the most natural and powerful is tempted to use it to paper over plot holes). For me, this strength and weakness is plotting -- I am constantly amazed how much difficulty some writers have in figuring out what happens next (for me, it's always inescapably obvious) but the downside is that my plots tend to push the characters around.

Beginnings are really, really important, because they set the reader's expectations. For example, we read a YA novel excerpt which opened with the main character diligently sorting jelly beans by color. Many of us figured she was autistic, obsessive, or just preternaturally tidy, and assumed that this would be significant later on. But no -- according to the author, it's just what the character happened to be doing when the story started. The thing is, at the very beginning, a story has no forward momentum. It's standing still, and from that point it could go in any direction with equal ease. The opening tells the reader which direction the story will be going, whether deliberately or not, and once the reader understands that direction it takes a substantial effort to redirect that momentum. A beginning that points the reader in the wrong direction can cause them to make incorrect assumptions that will make them throw the book at the wall later when the book doesn't line up with their expectations.

Symbolism and foreshadowing are powerful tools, which I do not yet know how to use consciously. The opening of Casablanca, in which the viewer is prepared by the cinematography and the other characters' reactions to understand how significant Rick is before Bogart even appears on screen, is one example of foreshadowing, but Nova uses it over much longer stretches of the book. Symbolism... it's like radioactivity to me. It's always present in the environment, I know that it is powerful and can be used safely if appropriate care is taken, but I'm afraid of it.

Too much dialog in works by beginning writers is "on the nose" -- characters saying exactly what they mean. Dialog that is "indirect," that is, in which the character doesn't say what they mean or says something that could be interpreted in multiple ways, is more realistic and also increases the density of the prose (by, for example, imparting information and revealing the character's emotional state at the same time). I use indirect dialog some of the time but I want to use this tool more effectively.

I am very fortunate to have a community of genre writers here in Portland. Most of the other people at Taos Toolbox lacked an in-person critique group back home, even the one from Los Angeles. I have an in-person critique group, a bunch of writers to hang out and write with at the coffee shop once a week, a semi-monthly authors' lunch, and two local writers' organizations, not to mention OryCon, Wordstock, and the Writers' Dojo. I'm aware of two or three other in-person critique groups in Portland just for SF/Fantasy writers, not to mention the Wordos in Eugene.

Now I have two stories and a novel to revise. I hope to have both stories in the mail in the next couple of weeks, and the novel done and out the door by the end of August. This plan is complicated by the upcoming square dance convention (July 1-8), trip to Seattle for a Clarion West party (July 18), Launch Pad workshop (July 30 - August 5), Worldcon (August 6-11), and Farthing Party (August 28 - September 1).

Oh, and we will also be putting out an issue of Bento and continuing to plan a bathroom remodel during that time.

This is fun. Really it is. But next year we will not be traveling quite so much.

Posted 06/27/2008 23:12 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

On Thursday we had three critiques and Walter talked about magic (magic is the violation of natural law by human will; it can only be used by certain people or in a certain spiritual state; if anyone can do it by following a formula it's really a technology) and aliens (Hegel said that you define yourself in regard to other people, e.g. the definition of Me is that I am not The Other; Sartre said that if another person views the same landscape as me, in some ways every object in the landscape is shared between me and The Other).

Thursday afternoon we found that nobody could get online. The hotel's wireless servers were providing a signal but not an IP address. A few of us, depending on location, were able to get an intermittent and weak connection from an open network nearby, but it was rarely enough to download an entire web page. I finally gave up and used my phone to check my email. That worked okay, but when I sent a reply and Cc'd myself, I got a bounce: my mail to myself had failed because my mailbox was full. Argh!

It was time for dinner. I couldn't get online. I knew that anyone trying to send me mail was failing. And I had no way to correct the situation.

I went down to dinner (steak night!), where someone told me that the convenience store had a pay Internet terminal. It was working, though it was a terribly slow Windows 95 machine, and I was able to get on and delete a few very large and replaceable emails from my inbox. That fixed the mail bouncing problems, for a few days at least, and because it took me less than two minutes I wasn't even charged. I felt much better and enjoyed my dinner.

After dinner we got together and watched Cloverfield. I was leery of it, because I'd had some motion sickness problems when I saw it in the theatre, but someone said he hadn't had any problems watching it on video, and indeed it was no problem at all. Though the characters were equally stupid on the small screen. Also, though I looked as carefully as I could in the very last shot (and we watched it a couple of times), I was never able to spot the meteor which you can supposedly see descending.

Friday was the last day of classes. We had two critiques and Kelly talked about the Young Adult market (including picture books, easy readers, and middle grades). As near as I can tell, the only significant difference these days between a YA novel and an adult novel is that a YA novel is shorter (50-60,000 words) and has a young protagonist (typically 15+ years old). The only firm rules in YA seem to be: don't be boring, and no bestiality (but there are a few exceptions to the latter rule). After that we had a general Q and A, where Walter and Kelly answered questions about pacing, person and tense, and challenges. Mostly, though, we sat like a bunch of clubbed seals.

We had a couple of options in the afternoon: a trip to town and a mountain hike. I chose to stay home, pack, and write up my requested evaluation. These didn't take nearly as long as I'd expected, and the Internet was still down, so I found myself reading email on my phone and wishing I'd gone out. That's when the thunder crashed and hail started rattling the windows. The hikers came back a while later, shivering, and immediately hit the hot tub.

Friday night we all went out to dinner at a fancy Bavarian restaurant, located a mile and a half further up the mountain on a scary dirt road (posted "four-wheel drive only"). I really have to wonder who their customers are, especially during the summer, but the food was good; I had sauerbraten with spaetzele and rotkohl. We presented Walter and Kelly with gifts and certificates of appreciation. Then we all came home and gathered in one of the condos to finish off the wine, beer, pie, and ice cream. Eventually the group dwindled down to just a few, dishing industry gossip, which was great fun but I fell over around midnight.

Woke up too early this morning. Nobody was around: they had all either left already or weren't up yet. I ate breakfast alone, took my bag to the car, sat around for a while looking at the place the workshop used to be. Very sad. Still no Internet. Eventually Walter came by and I helped him pack his stuff out to the car. A few other people did come by for goodbyes, then we (meaning me and two other people whose flights were at about the same time) hit the road. It was a little earlier than planned but there was nothing to do here and we figured we'd make use of the free wireless at the airport.

Three hours' drive and a nice lunch later, we arrived at the airport. Our flight was delayed, and delayed again... my traveling companion will almost certainly miss his connection, but I have a three-hour layover in Denver so it's no crisis for me. But there was no Internet! Argh! I had a good strong signal and was able to get a connection and an IP address, but no web pages. Pinging the router whose address was provided by DHCP gave the error "Host is down" or nothing at all. I tried manually configuring a few other likely addresses, but that didn't help. Weirdly, a few other people were online. My guess is that they got on before the router went down, and are working with cached DNS data.

So I sat in the gate and wrote this, to be posted later...

...and, it's later. I'm in Denver. I found a cheap, quick, fairly healthy dinner at Itza Wrap, and DIA now has free (ad-supported) wifi. But the ads on the free wifi prevented me from using FTP, so I could check my email and such but couldn't update this blog.

...and, it's later still. The plane from Denver to PDX pulled out of the gate right on time... and then someone a few rows behind me was violently ill. The plane returned to the gate, paramedics took her off, and then a clean-up crew had to be called. We finally left DIA an hour late and I got home about 1am Sunday.

Whatever.

Anyway... that was Taos Toolbox. In some ways it was like another two weeks of Clarion, but with better accomodations and less oxygen. I didn't learn as much as I did at Clarion (not too surprising, as I'm starting from a much more experienced place), but I did learn some new things, especially about novel-writing, and I think I had more fun. I made some keen new friends, some of whom I would label as Writers To Watch (at the risk of alienating those not mentioned, I'll say that the two whose writing impressed me the most were Will McIntosh and Deborah Roggie). I wrote two new stories, one of which was risky and experimental and may not be publishable, the other of which was much more like my usual and came out really well. I probably gained a lot of weight.

It's been a workshop. Now it's good to be home.

Posted 06/22/2008 01:05 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Two critiques Monday, a talk by Walter on characterization, and a talk on Kelly about some reasons that submissions get rejected, leading into a discussion of reversals, the proper use of cliches and stereotypes, and the use of accents and diction to indicate characters' class. I did a couple of critiques in the afternoon... not quite sure where the time went. There was an exercise I was supposed to do, taking a personal anecdote and expanding it into a story, which I could not do because I couldn't think of a single anecdote. I'm usually slopping over with anecdotes, but they are invariably triggered by something in the conversation... "hey, think of an anecdote" gets me nothing.

In the evening some of us watched Father Goose (1964, with Cary Grant). Movie night was a little underpopulated because lots of people were trying to complete stories or critiques.

Today we had three critiques, including my lesbian magic plumber story. It was very, very well received. There were some suggested improvements, including building up the growing love between the plumber and the undine, mentioning earlier that undines are incurable romantics, and changing the plumber's ex (who shows up several times) into several separate exes to demonstrate the plumber's previous personal history. A few people didn't understand the references to Hawthorne and U-Hauls.

After that, Walter talked about worldbuilding. Walter's special tip for creating a world: follow the money! If you understand who raises the food, how it is transported, where it changes hands, and how much it costs, you will have a much better sense of how your invented world works. Also: "Things are the way they are because they got that way." What is the history of your world? Kelly then talked for a bit about the mainstream story "A Conversation with My Father" by Grace Paley, which I personally didn't care for. In the afternoon some of us drove to Arroyo Seco, the nearest town, for coffee, gelato, french fries, and a little souvenir hunting (I didn't find anything).

In the evening, most of us attended a round-robin traumatic reading of Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 13) by Laurell K. Hamilton. We were able to read half the book (in which the main character takes a phone call, drives to the airport, talks with the FBI guys, checks into her hotel, and has sex -- yes, that's all she does in 140 pages), aloud, in only two hours. By explicit request, I read the infamous Chapter 6 using Charlie the Purple Giraffe's voice for the character of Micah.

If we are lucky we will not be thrown out of the hotel in the morning.

Posted 06/18/2008 22:33 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 5830 | Since last entry: 2026

I should really be asleep right now, but I don't want to get too far behind on the blogging.

Sunday was largely devoted to writing. I wrote 2000 words and did a couple of editing passes to complete what I am now prepared to call "the magical lesbian plumber story." I like it. We'll see what the rest of the gang thinks in a couple of days.

Sunday night Stephen R. Donaldson came to give a guest lecture. I thought we were only going to dinner, so I didn't bring a computer or notebook. Fortunately, one of the other students agreed to share her notes with me. He talked about various forms of writer's block and a variety of literary techniques. Interesting tidbit: he only works on one thing at a time, ever since he took a little time off to write a fantasy novella between books 3 and 4 of the Gap series. That effort drove so much of the Gap universe out of his head that, when he was halfway done with book 4 and proofread a copy of book 3, he discovered he'd completely forgotten half the plot threads from the earlier books. Never again, he swore.

We all went with Donaldson for a very nice dinner at the Apple Tree restaurant in Taos. He didn't talk much at dinner, but just as we were getting up to go I asked him if he was familiar with Northrop Frye's theory of modes. He was (he was working on a doctorate in English Lit when he stopped to write full-time), so I asked him to comment on my idea, which I had way back in high school, that Thomas Covenant is an Ironic character in a Romantic world. He replied that that's a valid way of looking at it, but his original concept of Thomas Covenant was as the inverse of King Arthur: where Arthur was a perfect man brought down by imperfect people around him, he wanted Covenant to be an imperfect man raised up by perfect people around him. Glad I asked!

A full day of classes today: three manuscripts critiqued, a lecture on synopses, and another lecture on contracts. Right after class I had my one-on-one with Walter. I didn't really have a lot of questions, but he did say that I am a "very talented writer" (gawrsh). I wish I had had a novel ready for this workshop, because we're mostly focusing on novels, but novel #2 has already gotten plenty of feedback and novel #3... well, I don't even know what novel #3 is going to be yet. But based on my conversation with Walter about how careers work, it should probably be SF rather than fantasy. Although I have a more fantasy ideas, it seems to be my SF stories that sell more consistently and attracts more critical attention.

We had only a couple of hours free in the afternoon, with two manuscripts to critique for tomorrow and a brief exercise to write (describe an office three times: from the perspective of a character whose mother has just died, a character who has just had a proposal of marriage accepted, and a character whose rival has just been promoted over his/her head).

After dinner (spare ribs and corn on the cob) we got together for readings and movie night. Everyone was asked to prepare a three-minute reading of their own work. They were all astonishingly good! Then the movie, which was Trouble in Paradise (1932). I had never even heard of this movie before, and the only actor I recognized was Edward Everett Horton (the narrator of Fractured Fairy Tales), but it was delightful.

After the movie, hot tub. We talked about agents and conventions and solved the problems of the world. And so to bed.

Posted 06/16/2008 22:52 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 3804 | Since last entry: 3804

Friday morning we critiqued three stories, the last of the batch submitted before the workshop started. Four people have already turned in stories for next week, and the rest (including mine) are due by noon Monday.

Friday afternoon we engaged in a group plotting exercise, kind of like television or movie writers in a writers' room. Starting with the concept of "steampunk to the stars!" we wound up with Nellie Bly, Oscar Wilde, and Prince Edward on a colony planet where alien celery (we never nailed down whether or not it was intelligent) gave women intense orgasms and caused mutations in their children. We also had some made-up characters, including a Doctor (the villain) who was an ex-lover of Nellie's and a gay Archivist who was in love with her in male disguise. The "act outs," or big finishes to each act, were as follows: Act I, Nellie's true identity is revealed by the Doctor; Act II, Nellie has her first experience with the alien celery (see the title of this post); Act III, Nellie and the Archivist form a mutually satisfactory relationship with the alien celery, world is changed, happy ending. Very silly, yet educational.

The workshop fee includes basic food for breakfasts and lunches and a nice catered dinner on Monday through Thursday nights, but for Friday through Sunday dinner we're on our own. This Friday, at Kelly Link's suggestion, we had a progressive dinner in which each condo (we are divided into several two- and three-bedroom condos, each with a fully equipped kitchen) would prepare a course. It was fabulous. We wound up with an overwhelming amount of food, including a great Greek salad, gaspacho, fennel-carrot soup, stirfried beef with mushrooms and celery (that was me, and the rice turned out fine), and rhubarb-strawberry pie a la mode. Even the condo that consists of three guys who can't cook produced a three-bean salad, with Kelly's help.

After dinner I finally started drafting my week 2 story. For a variety of reasons I decided to use on a story idea I had a long time ago about a magical plumber who meets an undine. Yes, it's a story all about water, it's set in Portland, and I'm writing it in the desert. Go figure. I stayed up until 1am and got about a thousand words down.

I promised myself if I got to 3000 words before lunchtime today I'd allow myself to get out and do some touristing. I made 2300 words -- close enough. Six of us went to Taos Pueblo, which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited community in the US (1000 years old). The guided tour emphasized how many awful things the white man has done to them (reserving greatest scorn for the Spanish who imposed Catholicism, and Roosevelt who turned their most sacred lands into a national recreational area), and yet St. Jerome's Church is the central structure of the pueblo and the people are buried under crosses in the graveyard. They strike me as being like the Amish, but more extreme in their rejection of the white man's technology and culture. Also, the Amish came here on purpose, while the pueblo dwellers were here first. Anyway, after that we hit Taos itself, a touristy little town, for lunch and a little shopping.

I've been writing pretty steadily since then, with a brief break for dinner, and I'm up to 3800 words (3400 if you don't count the outline of the second half of the story that's lurking at the bottom of the file). I'm stopping now because my brain has stopped working, but I anticipate I should be able to finish tomorrow without staying up too late.

Exterior view of Snakedance Condos

Our condo's kitchen

Our living room -- the spiral stair leads to my loft bedroom

Posted 06/14/2008 22:06 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Just got back from a group viewing of Chinatown. Walter pointed out how many aspects of the ending are foreshadowed, including the way Faye Dunaway's head falls forward onto the horn. Creepy.

Yesterday my global-warming honor-killing unreliable-narrator second-person-present story was critiqued. Reviews were mixed. I was applauded for tackling such a difficult subject and technique, and the second-person-present narrator seems to have worked. But the murder was insufficiently motivated, the setting (which was praised) vanished in the second half, the husband was cardboard, and I was chided for turning the abused wife into a monster. Also, the twist ending didn't work for most people, and the honor killing wasn't really one (apparently real honor killings are community-motivated, not individual). It was sugggested that I rewrite the story without the twist ending, but I'm not sure there's any plot at all without that... just despair. I will probably patch it up a bit and send it out, but I won't make extensive changes and I won't really expect it to sell. If it does sell, I guarantee some readers will hate it.

I remind myself that I deliberately challenged myself and risked failure; I appear to have succeeded. Or something like that. I have talked with Kelly Link about the exercise (and a number of other things, such as how to make the story I'm working on now weirder and more unique) and it's been helpful. I'm still feeling a bit down. Though nowhere near as bad as I did at Clarion.

I have written over 3000 words of notes and outline on the next story, which I must turn in by Monday. It's much more conventional in structure and style, but I'm trying to make it as rich and personal as I can. There's also one voice trick I have in mind, which will require a little more research before I even know whether or not I'm going to attempt it. I'm going to be doing a lot of typing in the next 3 days. Also preparing a dish for a progressive dinner Friday night. I've never made rice before without a rice cooker, never mind at an altitude of 9200 feet. It would probably be a good idea to fix the rice in the afternoon, in case something goes wrong, and heat it up just before dinner.

Yesterday we went out around sunset to see the space station and space shuttle go by. They never did appear; either they were behind the mountains to the south or we were off by an hour on the time. Oh well.

We've had a talk by Walter on plot structures and techniques, and another talk from Kelly on how publishing works. Not much new for me there. Walter also gave us a detailed walk-through of the plot of Nova, showing that it was richer and more carefully structured than I thought it was. My first reading of the book came off as a very thin plot padded out with a bunch of unrelated incidents and infodumps, but rescued by a number of extremely cool scenes (like the party on the Ile de France, which reminded me a lot of The Stars My Destination). I missed most of the parallels, most of the foreshadowing, much of the symbolism, and the fact that the main character was black. I don't fault myself for missing the implied homosexuality -- the book was written in 1968 and it was really deeply coded.

We've also had a couple of brief exercises. One was to outline a published novel, find the turning point, change the turning point, and write a new outline from that point forward. I chose The Mote In God's Eye, identified the turning point as the point at which MacArthur's sailing master deduces the existence of the Warrior caste, and wrote a new ending in which the humans do not learn about the threat and enter a trading agreement with the Moties. The Moties expand into human space, gradually building up their numbers and covertly breeding Warriors towards the point where they are powerful enough to decapitate the Empire. But Kutuzov, who never trusted the Moties, discovers and exposes their plan at the cost of his ship and his own life. Blaine, realizing he's been played for a fool, assembles and then launches a massive attack on the Moties; he succeeds in destroying the Moties in human space, at a cost of billions of human lives. The remaining Moties, penned up in their home system with a massive Warrior breeding program already underway, immediately go to war with each other over the remaining resources. Due to the savagery of the combat and the addition of human technology to the equation, Motie civilization falls so hard that it may not ever rise again. The book ends with Blaine looking down on the devastated Motie homeworld and regretting that they were unable to overcome their own biology; he hopes that humans will be able to do better.

Mine wasn't nearly as funny as the one that rewrote the last act of Romeo and Juliet with mass arrests and executions. Really. You had to have been there.

This afternoon I wanted to make sure to get out in the sunlight, because it is supposed to help one sleep (I've been waking up much earlier than I'd like to). I passed on the group hike, because it involved a river crossing and I don't have the right shoes for that, but I did get out for a nice 20-minute walk by myself. The wind up here right now is amazing, roaring across the landscape picking up large quantities of dust. It feels like a storm's blowing in, but so far there have been no clouds and no rain.

We've been warned that New Mexico is #1 in the USA for deaths by lightning. If the bears don't get you first.

Posted 06/12/2008 23:20 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

I'm going to say right now that I don't promise to blog every day.

Three critiques today. On one of them I was the only one who spoke about a particular issue that I thought was pretty serious. I must ponder the significance of this (there may be none). After critique, Kelly Link spoke about the economics of publishing. Much there that I already knew, but it was interesting to get it from the perspective of a small press publisher.

In the evening, a guided viewing of Casablanca which I found out I didn't know as well as I thought I did. For example, I thought Peter Lorre had a much bigger part. Walter pointed out that most significant characters are prefigured before their first on-screen appearance (the long, long build-up to the first time we see Bogart's face is delicious and shows you just how important he is). The young Bulgarian couple (for whom Bogart cheats at roulette) appear many times before their first significant appearance; their situation with Renard parallels and inverts Bogart's situation with Ilsa and Victor. Victor's super power is that he makes everyone who comes in contact with him a better human being. And the plane in the background during the final scene? Tiny cardboard mock-up, with midgets as aircrew. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.

I should be writing now...

Posted 06/11/2008 23:18 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

The first full day of classes began with a nice breakfast, though the butter wouldn't melt on my English muffin right out of the toaster. I assume this is an effect of the altitude. Most meals are provided; I'm not sure what the options will be for Friday and Saturday's dinners, which aren't.

We convened in the lobby at 10am for opening remarks by Walter Jon Williams and Kelly Link and introductions all around, then jumped right in with critiques of two novel excerpts (everyone had to submit something for week 1 before the workshop started). Both works were of high general quality but interestingly flawed. The quality of the critiques was also quite high, with almost every one adding something interesting to the conversation. After lunch (I had cold leftover pizza from yesterday's dinner, a rare indulgence) Walter gave us a brief lecture about Two Surefire Ways to Keep a Reader Reading.

In the afternoon Walter led a hike; Deborah Jacobs, Allen Moore, and I came along. (Many of the other students ran off to Taos to purchase supplies, but I think I have everything I need.) I was a bit nervous about tackling the exertion, after the way the altitude kicked my ass yesterday, but Walter promised a fairly easy hike and, indeed, I had no difficulty. It was almost entirely uphill, but not too steep, with crisp mountain air and gorgeous views.

We also met a very cute dachshund-chihuahua mix on the trail. We have been warned about the dangers of the local wildlife (Giardia! Hantavirus! Bubonic plague! Bears!) but this one seemed harmless enough.

I'm drinking Gatorade, taking lots of naps, and generally taking it easy. Lots of good, juicy conversations over meals, on the hike, and in the hall between sessions. So far so good.

Also: is blogging from Mexico! Go say hola.

Posted 06/09/2008 21:18 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Long day yesterday. Up at 5am, cab to the airport, uneventful flights to Albuquerque via SFO, picked up rental car, drove 130 miles to Taos Ski Valley. Some confusion over the various Taoses (Taos, Taos Pueblo, Taos Ski Valley, Taos Ski Valley Village) but we only got lost once.

Looks like a good bunch of people. As this is a "graduate-level" workshop, almost everyone here has attended Clarion or Odyssey or Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp or some such. It's also an older crowd than my Clarion and Writers of the Future classes (for once I am not the Old Guy).

The accomodations are fabulous. I have a huge loft bedroom with a spectacular view, sharing a 3-bedroom 3-bath suite with Jerry Weinberg and Allen Moore (no, not that Alan Moore). The spiral stair is very keen but getting my humungous bag up to the loft was a trial, especially as I was suffering mightily from the altitude, with a wicked headache and dizziness verging on nausea.

I fell over hard at about 10pm, and after a good night's sleep the symptoms are greatly reduced. I will strive to keep hydrated, avoid alcohol and caffeine for the first few days, and not overexert myself. First critiques at 10am today. Whee!

Posted 06/09/2008 07:21 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

(But then you knew that.)

Kate left for Mexico on Friday, for two weeks of Spanish language immersion. I'm leaving for New Mexico bright and early tomorrow, for two weeks of Taos Toolbox writing workshop with Walter Jon Williams, Kelly Link, and Stephen R. Donaldson. Whee!

Posted 06/07/2008 18:47 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

It's been an eventful few days for me, writing-wise. I completed the requested rewrite, and received an almost immediate acceptance: "Aggro Radius" will be appearing in Gamer Fantastic, edited by Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes. I also received my contract and check for "Midnight at the Center Court" from Witch Way to the Mall and my contract for "Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven" from Realms of Fantasy. And today's mail brought a pleasant surprise: a package from F&SF with a copy of its French edition, containing "Titanium Mike à la rescousse!"

The French edition of F&SF is confusingly entitled Fiction and claims to be edited by "les moutons électriques." According to its web page, "Fiction présente chaque semestre le meilleur de la science-fiction et du merveilleux. Tout simplement." So I'm honored my story was selected for translation. And, even better, "tome 7" of this fine magazine features zeppelins on the cover.

I also took half an hour to whomp off a 500-word vignette for a nonprofit project. This was an educational experience. I remember at Clarion I protested mightily when Candas Jane Dorsey asked us to write a 500-word writing exercise as well as our weekly story. It was work! Eight years later it's like rolling off a log, and not only that I think the resulting piece is pretty darn good. (Admittedly it's funny and fanfic-ish, which made it easier.) Ever watch a professional jeweler replace a watch battery or watchband? It's like that. Do something often enough, even something fairly complex, and it becomes almost automatic. Which only goes to show the value of writing more.

As I was adding the Gamer Fantastic story to my spreadsheet I took a moment to tot up some figures. I've written 45 stories since I started getting serious in 1998 (wow, that's 10 years ago). Of those, 4 are in submission, 4 have been critiqued and are awaiting revision, 1 is awaiting critique, 5 have been trunked, and 31 have sold (some of them multiple times). That's a pretty decent sell-through rate, if I do say so myself.

Posted 06/04/2008 23:24 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 2890 | Since last entry: 2890

For some reason, since returning from Wiscon I've been very low on energy and generally feeling swamped by life -- certainly too overwhelmed to blog about the con. I mean, yes, it was a con and I didn't get a lot of sleep, but usually I'm not this derailed by the experience. In any case, I seem to be mostly recovered now.

It's not because I had the stomach bug, norovirus, WisCholera, or whatever you want to call it. Kate have gas and threw up once, but we think now that it might have been a reaction to some iron pills she had just started taking rather than The Bug. It certainly didn't lay her out flat like it did many of the other people at the convention.

The con itself was great fun; all of my favorite people were there. In fact, I kept saying "I have too many friends!" because I saw so many of them only in passing. But I had many fine meals with many fine people, and the hallway conversations were varied and stimulating. One in particular stands out: talking with Barth Anderson about the precautions everyone was taking to prevent coming down with the bug and how much they reminded me of the things people did to try to avoid the Black Plague (ring around a rosie, pocketful of hand sanitizer, ashes ashes all throw up). Later Benjamin Rosenbaum and Sean M. Murphy joined us and it turned into a discussion of the appropriate Hebrew prayer for applying Purel. I also distinctly remember Sarah Monette demonstrating the magical utility of her corset by pulling a variety of useful objects out of her cleavage. (I really wish there were something for guys to wear at cons that was as sexy, yet socially acceptable, as a corset.) My best meal of the con for both food and conversation was on Monday, I think, when we joined enthusiastic Australian bookseller Ron Serdiuk at Dotty Dumpling's for fried cheese curds and one of the best burgers I've had in years (mine was bison, but the beef ones also got rave reviews).

I was rather annoyed that we'd failed to snag a Governor's Club room (we'd waited until a mere ten months before the convention to reserve our room, by which time they were long gone), not only because I missed the free breakfast but also for the hanging out with con people in a quiet and convivial space. The number of times someone said "well, look for me in the bar" (meaning the Governor's Club bar, inaccessible without the right flavor of elevator key) made me so determined to not repeat this experience that I set an alarm for 8am Monday to make my reservation for next year. Good thing I did; Governor's Club rooms were gone by 10:30am.

I didn't attend a lot of programming, but the two panels I was on ("Get Out Your Decoder Rings," on fiction that requires knowledge from outside the story to understand, and "The 'Real City' of Urban Fantasy," which turned into a general discussion of the value of cities in fantastic fiction) both went very well, with rapid-fire and meaty discussion. The Fretful Porpentines reading (me, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Ellen Kushner) was well-attended, although I'm afraid the noise of the coffee maker made it a less satisfying experience for the audience than I'd hoped for. I also participated in the Sign-Out for the first time, as I finally had a whole book to myself, and it went pretty well... I signed about ten books and had a nice time talking with tablemates and passersby.

The best program item I attended was the Mid-Career Writers' salon on Monday afternoon. This is an opportunity for those of us who have achieved some success to compare notes and complain about the problems that newer writers think they wish they had. One theme of the salon was that everyone described themselves as being in a weird transitional phase (I think this is just the human condition) and that success and happiness are both heavily influenced by the expectations set beforehand.

Since returning home, I have written a story for the Taos Toolbox workshop (for which I leave a week from today, ack). Thinking back to Clarion, I decided to really challenge myself -- try new things and risk failure. The resulting story is very different from my usual. It's the bleakest thing I've ever written, a grim tale of despair and honor killing in the wake of catastrophic global warming. It uses thematic imagery (of flood, storm, and collapsing levees), which is something I don't think I've ever done consiously. It's only 2800 words long. It has an unreliable narrator. And it's written in second person present tense. Why? Well, I just started out thinking about the main character talking to herself, and her voice kind of took over the narrative. I don't yet know if it's the most emotionally powerful thing I've ever written, or a complete failure. We'll find out in less than two weeks.

In other writing news, I got a rewrite request on a story which I think is very likely to turn into a sale. I'll get to that rewrite in the next couple of days. One of the many things I have to do before leaving for Taos.

Posted 05/31/2008 19:05 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Word count: 6053 | Since last entry: 633

From left to right: Kate, Dave the owner of the Safe House, my dad, me, my mom

We're in Milwaukee. Sold and signed 11 copies of Space Magic at Panther Books this afternoon, mostly to friends of my parents', followed by a wonderful dinner at Kincaid's. We're staying at the Art-Deco-styled Hotel Metro. Having a great time and looking forward to Wiscon in a few days.

I finished and submitted the story I'd been working on and I've been doing my novel crits for Wiscon. Once I finish those I must immediately begin work on another short story for Taos Toolbox, which is due June 1. It's going to be a challenge for me...

Posted 05/20/2008 19:41 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

Last night's reading at Powell's went very well: just about every chair was filled, with people from all my various communities (fandom, writing, work, square dancing, Clarion, neighbors, and even a few people I don't know). I read my story "Nucleon," an old favorite I haven't read in a while, and signed bunches of books. The 36 attendees bought 27 copies of Space Magic, out of 32 in stock, plus 4-5 other books of mine (um, by which I mean anthologies containing one story of mine each). Peter from the bookstore says that's some kind of record for proportion of attendees buying the book. I'll post some pictures when I get them.

And then today I got an email indicating that Esther Friesner is buying my story "Midnight at the Center Court" for her anthology Witch Way to the Mall. Two sales and a book launch in one week, not too shabby.

Other things are happening, though, some good, some not so good (maybe very not-so-good). More news as the information becomes available.

Posted 05/15/2008 16:15 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

I mentioned a while ago I had some good news I couldn't yet share. Well, it's official now: I sold short story "Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven" to Realms of Fantasy (my third sale there).

This is my "bureaucracy in Heaven" story, which I originally wrote at Clarion West (2000). It was the best-received of the lot and I knew it wouldn't take very much to make it publishable. And indeed I didn't make a lot of changes to it... it just took me until 2006 to get around to them. And then it took two years and eight rejections before it finally sold. Just another overnight success.

This story is the bookend to "The Curse of Beazoel", my "bureaucracy in Hell" story, which appeared in the anthology All Hell Breaking Loose (2005). However, although "Beazoel" appeared first, "Joy" was written much earlier.

One last reminder for Portland folks: I have a Space Magic reading tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) at Powell's in Cedar Hills at 7pm. Hope to see you there! And if you aren't in Portland, after tomorrow you should be able to order a signed copy from powells.com. Or you can order an unsigned copy from wheatlandpress.com and get it in front of me somehow, and I'll be happy to sign it.

Whee!

Posted 05/13/2008 23:33 [e-mail me] [post comment] [permalink]

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:

• Date Out
• Sent To
• Date Back
• Days Out
• Response
• Comments

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:

• ? - Awaiting Response
• R - Rejected
• D - Withdrawn
• X - Other Non-Sale (e.g. market closed)
• W - Rewrite Requested
• A - Accepted
• P - Published
• T - Trunked

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.

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
                Talebones

The 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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