NaNoWriMo is still going

My word count is just a tad north of 45K. Finishing today will be a challenge. I'll try, but no guarantees.

I'm attempting a space opera this year. I went into it with a ludicrously abysmal level of world building. Which means basically there wasn't any. This type of story requires the creation of planets and cultures and non-human sentient species and technology and ... and ... and thinking the story would happen without all those things was, in hindsight, just the kind of craziness NaNo is all about.

This story has more [bracket info needed] than anything I've ever written before. I've even given up on naming characters! [person name] [character name needed] [somebody] are far too common in this document!

I suspect my future self will have some succinct, unprintable-type words for my present self.

BUT

Cover! That's a first for me, having a cover. Over Thanksgiving dinner, my daughter, her roommate and I were discussing the story and came up with a pulp science fiction magazine type cover idea. One of those with Strong Man Holding Weapon in one hand with other arm wrapped around Woman With Arms Raised and Mouth Open to Scream and an especially Menacing Tentacle wrapping both of them.

I really liked it.

And while procrastinating thinking about the story, I googled pulp SF covers and discovered this AMAZING website where you can make your own cover! Of course, that image already in my head wasn't available. C'est la vie, n'est pas?

There then passed a mumbly mumbly amount of time. But I has cover! (Several actually, but I think this one is the best.)

So now I must finish writing the story. 

(The phrase "unrealistically sexy" is homage to Shadow Unit and its unrealistically sexy FBI agents.)

Link Gumbo - Worldbuilding

I'm up for critique next month in SPAMmers.  A science fiction short story that got out of hand and meandered on toward novelette during NaNoWriMo last November is calling to me today.  It needs tightening and a focus.  A title would be good ...

It also needs some worldbuilding.  I checked my handy file of linky things on the subject.  Here are a few that I particularly like: 

http://matociquala.tumblr.com/post/46254831406/people-too-often-conceive-of-worldbuilding#_=_ Scott Lynch via Elizabeth Bear:  "Some parts of it you can measure almost scientifically.  Some parts are mad whack inscrutable alchemy." 

http://www.redwombatstudio.com/blog/?p=5484  Okapi butts and worldbuilding as only Ursula Vernon could present it.  "... there's no okapi there at all, it's basically a big striped butt on a stick that the writer is waving through the undergrowth."

http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/  Patricia Wrede's wonderful list of thought-provoking ideas.  Unpack at your leisure. 

So this weekend I may intersperse preparing my taxes (I've industrially pushed the file around my desk for a month; push must move on to shove) with poking at this SF story. 

A lot of coffee will be consumed.  Probably with chocolate.

Dithering

I can't settle on a blog topic, so here's a mix of stuff as it occurs to me.

Princess Cruises sends me emails with enticing sales.  I dithered for weeks in late January/ early February about taking a 14 day trans-Atlantic cruise before finally deciding I'd buy a new computer and attend at least one writing conference instead.

About writing conferences:  I'm going to WisCon, a science fiction writing convention.  It's in Madison, Wisconsin.  Shame they didn't name it MadCon ...

Another email from Princess Cruises.  This time I only dithered for a few days (up until today, actually) about a 12 day cruise around the British Isles that includes England, Ireland and Scotland, even the Orkneys!  Still need to buy that new computer, and this cruise, though shorter than the trans-Atlantic one, was half again more expensive.  I guess because there are more ports.  Really don't have that kind of money, but it sure is fun to dream.

I can't explain why this makes me so excited, but my blog got two hits from KERIBATI, someone searching on red imported fire ants.  Hi, Keribati person!  I sure hope Solenopsis invicta hasn't invaded your islands.

The Inkwell, a sort-of novel I wrote with a friend, is completely posted now - see tab at top of my blog here.  There are 40 sections of roughly 2000 words each.  We learned collaborating on a story can be so much fun it's amazing it's not illegal.  Have a look if you're so inclined.

I really enjoyed the cruise to Alaska last year and hope one shows up in these sale emails that actually fits my budget.  The sea, it is calling me ...

Three interchangeable responses to "You're a bitch!"
1.  You say that like it's a bad thing.
2.  Everyone has to have a hobby.
3.  And?

On Monday I finished reading a book (The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond).  Since then I've purchased three books (The Fire Ants by Walter Tschinkel; Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling; and Shattered Pillars by Elizabeth Bear).  My TBR pile will never disappear.

Perhaps I need a large writing project to keep my mind focused.  (Rising Tide version 3 is out visiting Beta readers.)  Without one ...  ooooh shiny!

Cat Valente is Brilliant

I just finished reading one of Cat Valente's short stories that was published more than a year ago:

 "Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time" by Catherynne M. Valente

Serious geeky writer envy!  O. M. G. This story interweaves science and myth and life in ways that made me laugh and cry and feel that I should just hang up the keyboard 'cause I can't imagine writing like this!  As a follow-up to my blog on opening lines, here's the opener for this story:  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a high-density pre-baryogenesis singularity."

Also I am eager to read more of her work.

Thanks for stopping by; comments welcome.

Science Fiction - What to Read

A while back, NPR requested listeners to recommend science fiction and fantasy books.  A blog I follow (Book View Cafe) did a similar thing, but separated SF and F into two lists.  Today BVC put up the SF list, along with a link to the NPR list: 
 Book View Cafe's recommendations for SF

The BVC list is marvelous!  It has many of my favorite authors as well as some I've never heard of.  And I'm ashamed of how little of it I've read.  Gotta get to work on that.  Soonish.  I have two of the Vonda McIntyre Starfarer books sitting right here ...

Catch you later.