Reviews of Child of Fire, part five

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More reviews behind the cut. Continue reading

Jo Walton posted these links on her LiveJournal

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In two linked posts, NY Times Bestselling author Jennifer Crusie posts a NaNoWriMo-riffic rough draft, and two days later posts about her process for analyzing the scene for revision.

Jo Walton and other smart people discuss it here on her LJ. I’m in there talking, too.

Personally, I do something very like this when I have a scene that doesn’t work but I can’t figure out why. I don’t normally think in terms of antagonists and beats, though. I usually examine scenes by the character goals, the resources it needs/introduces, and the work it’s supposed to do.

I hadn’t considered the concept of “frames” before–I think I’m going to steal that one. As for identifying the antagonists, well, in the Twenty Palaces books, pretty much everyone is an antagonist. It’s identifying the non-antagonists that gives me headaches.

Anniversaries

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No, I’m not talking about my wedding anniversary, although that comes in less than a week. My wedding day is less important than the day my wife and I moved in together. (She still gets a present and a nice card, of course.)

Tomorrow is November 13th and Monday is the 16th. Those two dates represent the day I left Philadelphia (by train) and the day I arrived in Seattle. It’s been twenty years.

I’m trying to think of a way to celebrate. The first thing that comes to mind, obviously, is Philly Cheesesteaks, not that I can find the right rolls, and who’ll cut the chip steak for me? Growing up, there were corner delis within walking distance of my house where I could pick up a pound and a half in 30 minutes. Here we have a supermarket butcher, but I’ve never even spoken to those people.

The event must be marked somehow, but I’m not sure how. As for Monday, I figure I’ll make salmon for dinner and stand out in the rain a while.

In which I go to a party

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A party of sorts, at least. Tonight after work I’ll be heading to 15th Ave Coffee and Tea for Cherie Priest’s BONESHAKER party. Details! I won’t know anyone there, which is usually a red flag for Socialization Fail, but who knows? Maybe this time my internal (conversation) editor will be a mere whisper.

If you live in the Seattle area and like steampunk/zombie/Seattle-apocalypse books, come buy a book and give me a hello. I look like this.

In other news, progress on Man Bites World continues. I really like this book, but this has to be the most ragged first draft I’ve written since well, my previous book. It has a small(er) cast of characters (which will be a huge relief to my agent and editor, I’m sure) and the story is more personal. All good. I just need to freaking finish it and get it out of my life.

Randomness for 11/12

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1) Detroit: failed city/urban planning petri dish. via James Nicoll

2) New ocean forming in Africa.

3) Superfreakonomics and horseshit. via Paul Krugman

4) Elegant wedding reception breaks down into moving brawl. ‘The fighting ruined the reception and some of the guests and wedding party members headed to their hotel nearby where the fighting erupted all over again in the parking lot of the Marriott Residence Inn which is located at 4312 Boy Scout Boulevard. A woman put the groom’s 74 year old grandmother, Mary Wright in a choke hold.

Wright told 10 Connects that she was trying to calm down the crowd and tell them not to fight on such a special occasion. She says that’s when her attacker said “I’m going to have to choke you out.”‘

5) 50,000 lost soldiers found, 2,500 years after they were lost.

6) Google auto-complete reveals class and education differences. “Someone once told me that there is nowhere we are more honest than the search box.” via Ezra Klein

7) TV cook accidentally does science. Here’s your big surprise for the day: eating decent food improves schooling. I know! Shock!

8) White privilege even extends to virtual environments. Fer Chrissakes.

Belly Power

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Jim C. Hines put up a post about his exercise program and his diabetes today. It was interesting reading and reminded me of the work I’m supposed to be doing on my health.

Unlike Jim, I don’t have diabetes. Also unlike Jim, I’m very much overweight and my cardio health is crap. I hate that I have to worry about the health of my heart, and some months ago I’d decided that I would skip the whole “heart attack” part and get right to the post-cardiac arrest lifestyle.

But that hasn’t happened. Continue reading

What counts as “front list?”

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Here’s a quick question for the group-mind: While I realize that the front list drives sales of the back list, how many types of writing can qualify as “front list?”

To be more specific, does short fiction or magazine articles drive the sales of novels, to any measurable degree?

A study in contrasts

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On one hand: ACORN employees give advice to professed criminals about hiding income from the IRS and establishing underage brothels, and are stripped of government funding.

On the other hand: Blackwater officials pay millions in government bribes to cover up the killing of 17 civilians and still retain government contracts worth millions.

So, give advice to criminals? Bad. Kill people? Low-level prosecutions and continued government money.

I say this not to make excuses for what those ACORN employees did, because fuck them. ACORN has done good work in the past, but there’s no letting those employees off the hook for that 13-year-olds at the brothel crap. I don’t care how well-funded that sting operation was, there’s no excuse.

But when is Blackwater–the whole of the organization, not just low-level employees–going to face congressional sanctions for what its people did?

Tragedy is when I cut my finger…

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I was going to put this link into a “Randomness” link compilation post, like this:

Texting teen falls into open manhole. Oh, how I laughed. via tnh’s Particles

Go ahead and read it. I’ll be waiting here.

Done? Good. Did you laugh? I already admitted that I laughed, too. But I still feel sorry for that kid.

Now, I’ve heard a couple people say what a shame it is that her mom plans to sue over this, but I’m on their side (pending further facts, ‘natch). Leaving aside the fact that Americans aren’t nearly as litigious as our culture seems to think, workers shouldn’t leave an open manhold without warning cones or something around it. I don’t really care if she was texting at the time. What if she’d been distracted by something else? What if she’d been in the middle of an intense conversation with the friend beside her? What if she’d been on her cell, trying to get the latest on her grandmother’s ailing health?

By all reports, texting is incredibly distracting. Almost off-the-scale distracting. But that doesn’t mean the incident was all her fault. Workers have been cordoning off open manholes for longer than text-capable phones have been around, and for good reason. So I hope she gets a settlement that helps cover her doctor visit, at least.

I still laughed at the story, though.

11/11

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