Quote(s)

“Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science.” - Girl Genius, by Kaja & Phil Foglio

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Perspective, it's all about perspective ...

24 March 2014

Oops, I did it again

My on-line writing group just decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Spontaneously. During our meeting. We all signed up and requested each other as cabin mates. During the meeting. There were many giggles.

I'll be editing Rising Tide.

Maybe writing a new short piece as well.

It's camp.

No Pressure.

I think I'll be playing ukulele around the campfire now and then.



16 March 2014

I helped!

Some dude on the internet was lamenting what he perceived as the sorry state of science fiction. I didn't see his rantings myself. One of the things he said was that women are destroying the genre.

Well, that went viral on Twitter. As these things do.

In short order (about a half hour), the editor of Lightspeed Magazine, John Joseph Adams, decided they would do a special issue - Women Destroy Science Fiction. A kickstarter was set up for $5000.


The idea tapped into folks' outrage. Stretch goal after stretch goal was unlocked. The project successfully funded at over $50,000! There will not only be Women Destroy SF (out in June), but also Women Destroy Fantasy and Women Destroy Horror (in October). All the stories will be written and edited by women.  And early next year there'll be Queers Destroy Science Fiction.

I'm proud I helped make this happen.

My pledge package includes every issue of Lightspeed (#1-46), 24 issues of Fantasy (my choice among the 57 issues they had - Fantasy was rolled into Lightspeed several years ago), and 24 issues of Nightmare Magazine.

I haven't done the math, and probably won't, to figure out how many short stories I now have waiting to be read.  All these, plus two anthologies I purchased about a month ago.

Reading fuels the writing.

Maybe I'll acquire afterburners!


14 March 2014

Books Read So Far in 2014

Hi.  I'm still around, just busy.

So far this year I've managed to complete a total of five books. Five. Yeah, only five.

(1) Jonathan Strahan, ed., The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, volume seven. This is a Big Book, 624 pages in my trade paperback version. I started it last year. One thing about anthologies, they don't have the pressure of what happens next pushing you to pick them up again soon. But I finished it. Yay! Good, thought-provoking stories in here.

(2) Jo Walton, Among Others. Many wonderful things have been said about this book. They're true. This is the first book of hers I've read. I will seek out more.

When I was in junior high and high school, I always loved really thick books. Thick books meant you got to live in that story world longer. I still favor them. If you do, too, try these next three, at around 600 pages each!

(3) (4) & (5) Kate Elliott's Spiritwalker Trilogy:  Cold MagicCold Fire and Cold Steel
I read these last year, and they've been calling to me to re-read for quite some time - my subconscious, on the job. Now that I've completed them again, I noticed scenes to study for help with some of the issues in my current WIP (the novel, not the short stories so much).

I'm almost done with Catherynne M Valente's The Bread We Eat in Dreams. This is a collection of short works. There are stories in here I absolutely love, including "The Consultant," "The Wolves of Brooklyn," and "Twenty-five Facts About Santa Claus."

Not sure how much more book reading I'll be doing. I have many, many short stories to read. More about that in my next post.