Quote from an everyday conservative:

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We weren’t happy with Bush, but every four years if you want your vote to count you have two choices, and in 2004 the two choices were between someone who wanted the US to win the war we were in, and someone who wanted the US to lose…

That’s a quote from one of the conservative commenters on John Scalzi’s blog, and it boggles me. Not “OMG SO CRAZY” boggle, but more of a “Really? You really believe John Kerry wanted the U.S. to lose a war? Really?”

Here’s the thing: I believe, honestly and forthrightly, that the militaristic voters in this country be they right, center or left (although most of them are very far right) actually put this country in danger. I believe that engaging terrorism primarily through bombs and waterboarding and dragging people from their homes in the middle of the night to humiliate them… I believe that makes us more likely to face another 9/11-type attack.

But I would never kid myself into thinking that’s what those militaristic voters actually wanted. I know they want U.S. citizens around the world to be safe, and they want the government to do what it has to do to ensure that.

I would never assume, though, that they were deliberately working against their own country. Misguidedly causing harm where they wanted to improve things? Yes. Trying to create defeat? No. I’m sorry. No.

“George R.R. Martin is not working for you.”

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I’ve been thinking about Neil Gaiman’s post on this subject for a little while, and prompted by Jim Hines’ discussion of it (and Gaiman’s followup), I thought I’d toss in my two cents, which no one asked for.

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The Blue Beanie

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For folks who like Samorost, Jay Is Games is offering a new free game: The Blue Beanie.

Created by a Malaysian artist studying multimedia in Australia, it’s a gorgeous point and click puzzle game about a ghostly woodland creature trying to retrieve, yes, a stolen Blue Beanie.

It’s beautiful to look at and the puzzle solutions are pretty logical. Also, if you’re stuck on what to do next, you can click on the ghost–he looks at the thing he wants you to work on next. There’s also a walkthrough at the top.

Wonderful. And kid-friendly.

You know what I hate?

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You know what I hate? Tasting my own blood.

Yeah, I went to the dentist today. No fillings or drillings were required, but the scraping and gouging still made my gums bleed.

In other news, I am making slow progress on Man Bites World. Not surprising. It’s part of my process (apparently) to start slowly and pick up steam.

I’m happy with the scenes I’m writing, at least.

Gosh, it sure seems drafty in here!

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Yay! I’m back at Man Bites World this morning, and Jeez it feels good to work on a first draft again. The only thing that would have made it better is if I’d exceeded my fifteen hundred word goal for the day instead of just meeting it, but hey, there was much reviewing of the story to be done, to remind myself where I was.

Also, although the current draft is about 32K words, I’m adding in scenes around the 6K mark. There’s a scene that needs to be in there, setting up one aspect of the plot and establishing a major character. I kept putting it off last time, and a third of the way in is much too late.

Unfortunately, every page I add to this section is another page before Cool Supporting Character appears, and I was told explicitly to bring her into the book as early as possible. It can’t be helped, though. I swear.

Also, there are a ton of things I’ve been meaning to write about here, including the torture memos and the President’s decision to hold back the photos, not to mention the progress health care reform is making. And TV. And movies. And holy cow: books.

I just can’t find the time to open the window and type it all in, though (and you’re probably all relieved, too). Someday, maybe, I’ll have time for more interesting posts.

Pop the cork on the champa–zzzzzzzz

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I just received confirmation from my editor that she received the (probably) final revision to Everyone Loves Blue Dog. Of course she’ll have to read it again to be sure it all works, but I should have the next couple months clear to tear into Man Bites World.

Yay!

Unfortunately, I have about 60,000 words to write before the end of July. That’s not impossible, but it does push at my limits, especially since I’ll also need to revise in that time (I always need to revise). We’ll see. Also, I’m tired. Have I mentioned lately that I’m tired? I say that all the time? Really? Well, it’s true.

And I got to meet Charles Stross last night at the Pike Place Brewery. Nice guy. Too bad I had a socialization fail. Ah, well.

Hooray for Wing-it!

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Recently, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce held a contest to award $35K for an office makeover (Sorry, and “extreme” office makeover!) and my friends at Wing-It Productions were one of the finalists.

And the won! Check out the hot linked image!

Can I get that size checks with duplicates?

Recognize that guy on the left? Huh? Huh?

Child of Fire Cover

Anyway, they put together a great video which you can watch at the Chamber web site. I’ve known Mike and Andrew for many years and I couldn’t be happier for them.

Congratulations, guys!

If I ever start talking like this…

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… please, someone, anyone, kick me in the nuts and shut me up.

In my view the bias against science fiction exhibited by so many mainstream critics and authors doesn’t map vaguely onto racial bigotry — it maps precisely onto racial bigotry. The literati have prejudged the entire enterprise. They know in their gut that SF is worthless, all Buck Rogers and ray guns and Star Wars, so they needn’t bother to learn anything about it. Sure, the literati will acknowledge the occasional exception like Ray Bradbury — a real credit to his race, that man — but this “some of my best friends write genre fiction” malarkey only reinforces the prejudice.

My eyes, they can’t stop rolling.

Seen via bookslut

Bad day

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Yesterday was a bad day, despite a bunch of good things happening.

It started with me at work on … Blue Dog (still). I had hopes of wrapping it up, but I was working very carefully over a sequence of pages that haven’t been as strong as it could be. Okay. I guess I’ve become a little obsessive about it, but I really want to do this right so I can be done with it. Probably I’m giving it too much time, but if it makes the book better…?

But that wasn’t what messed up my day.

Late in the morning, I had a conversation with the assoc. copy chief at Del Rey about last minute questions about the galleys for Child of Fire (Amazon.com or Indiebound.org).

No problem! I thought. I’d scanned all the galley pages I’d marked up before I sent them back, just in case. How clever I felt! Nevermind that my corrections must have been unclear somehow. I was ready.

Except, not. The questions weren’t about the notations I’d made on the galley. They were additional mistakes caught by the proofreader.

God, this stuff is mortifying. How many times have I read this damn book? Shouldn’t I have noticed the phrase “in the front” appearing in back-to-back sentences? Shouldn’t I have noticed that a character does not need to walk up to a door twice? Shouldn’t I remember that a very important item is not in the character’s pocket because not fifteen pages before he was grinding his teeth in frustration that another character was keeping it from him?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for every note. Improvement is improvement, and I want the book to be as good as possible. But I feel honestly ashamed that I never noticed these problems myself.

Luckily (for you guys), immediately after the call my wife and I ran out the door for a very nice lunch with an old friend I don’t see as often as I should. When my son got home from school later, we had a great time together. All of that gave me time and perspective to truly absorb the copy chief’s wrap up to our conversation: “This is a perfectly normal list of corrections we’re talking about. I’ve worked on books with many worse than this.”

So, yeah. I was too busy to post this yesterday, which means you get this lesser degree of whining. And I have it in perspective now, and I’m ready to finally finally kill off this second book.

Still humiliating, though.

I love this sort of thing

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