Talk about terrible titles…

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David Hines recently recommended a book called Meditations on Violence: a Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, and of course I snapped it up.

I’ve barely started it, but one of the early points the author makes is that too many people are willing to discount their own personal experience because it does not jibe with what a self-appointed expert tells them. One of the author’s fellow prison guards, a man who had a great deal of practical experience in fighting, did exactly this during a class of martial arts techniques.

My first reaction was: People don’t really do this, do th– And then I thought about Absolute Write.

The AW forums have see a regular traffic of newbie writers asking permission to do the most basic things. “Can I have an protagonist do unlikable things?” “Can I have an unhappy ending?” “Can I write this book in third-person present tense?” “Can I write a love story where the couple breaks up at the end?”

Frankly, that stuff drove me crazy. I wanted to say “Pick up a book! Read it! Does it work? Can you make it work? Why are you asking permission?”

And it would turn out that some person on some message board somewhere said books need happy endings, or maybe an agent wrote a blog post expressing their personal dislike of present tense. And none of that should dictate what a person can or should do.

Of course, the hard part in all of this is examining my own assumptions.

As an aside: today is the first day all week that I hit my daily word count goal. Yeesh. Tomorrow will be better, I hope.

Links to amuse and amaze!

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  1. Very few people in this world have ever thought to themselves I wonder what tops the bestselling list at Amazon.com’s “Apparel” section? To those few people, I say: Wonder no more! (I have to say, the comments on that product are hilarious. I laughed myself dizzy at work today.
  2. Divorced Brit refurbishes his apartment to look like the set of Star Trek: Voyager. Honestly, it has to be seen to be believed. Don’t skim by this link without a peek. This guy’s apartment in crazy-amazing, and to top it all off he drove himself into bankruptcy with a company called 24th Century Interior Design–apparently, he believed Trekkies from all over would hire him to do this to their homes.  Still… fucking Voyager???
  3. Best and Worst tattoos ever! I’m honestly amazed to see Centaur Patrick Swayze in a Chippendale shirt, with the double helix rainbow. I shouldn’t be, but I am.
  4. Six Creepy Abandoned Places! No explanation needed.
  5. Don’t practice your backflip in the kitchen!
  6. More Photobombers! These aren’t as funny as the ones I posted last year, but damn, that humping dog is an all new level of “Oh John Ringo No.”

Have a great day, everyone.

Quote of the Day

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Actually, two quotes:

“I would also point out that CO2, carbon dioxide, is not a pollutant in any normal definition of the term. … I am creating it as I talk to you. It’s in your Coca-Cola, you’re Dr. Pepper, your Perrier water. It is necessary for human life. It is odorless, colorless, tasteless, does not cause cancer, does not cause asthma.”

“If you think greenhouse gases are bad, life couldn’t exist without greenhouse gases. … So, there is a, there is a climate theory — and it’s a theory, it’s not a fact, it’s never been proven — that increasing concentrations of CO2 in the upper atmosphere somehow interact to trap more heat than the atmosphere would otherwise.”

— Representative Joe Barton (R-TX)

“a holocaust of prose”

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seen via Justine Larbalestier:

The Worst Review Ever, a blog where writers, actors, musicians, etc, can submit the worst review they’ve ever received. Personally, I think some of these are extraordinarily cruel (Hello, “a candy-coated turd”), but I’ve been known to hate on a book or two in my time.

I do disagree with Justine Larbalestier when she says its “awesome” that people react so intensely to her books. When I have a powerful negative response to a book, it’s not because of its engaging qualities, any more than Charles Manson should feel warm and snuggly inside because he’s evoked strong feelings from me.

Hey, authors, have anything you want to send?

Lightning-powered!

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We had a thunderstorm last night, which is pretty rare for Seattle. We get lots of rain clouds, but little in the way of fireworks. Still, it’s cool to look at.

Which brings back a question I wonder about now and again: Why don’t we use lightning for our utilities?

Obviously, we couldn’t run everything on lightning power, but it seems to me that, with the right kind of capacitor, the energy from lightning strikes could be used to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use.

I imagine the real kink in this plan is “right kind of capacitor.” Is someone working on this? I can’t imagine there’s no one, but I haven’t seen anything about it.

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.

Continue reading

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.