1) Woman laughing alone with salad.
2) “How’s Your Poor Feet!” Manly slang of the 19th century.
3) The year according to Tom Toles. Excellent.
4) Amazon.com pulls ebook that explains how to game its sales rankings. What? You mean Amazon’s sales rankings aren’t worth anything? Who could have known?
5) Are you a Comic Sans Criminal?
6) Countries winning the fight against poverty, in a way that’s so simple no one in the U.S. will believe it.
Don’t mind me. I’m just hanging up this dirty laundry. It needs airing.
You know how I discover that the Hugo and Nebula nomination season has opened? Dozens of writers start listing their yearly sales to say “Here’s my eligible stuff!”
Which is fine. It’s important to them and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. And really, Pikachu forbid that I or anyone else tell people what they write on their own blogs, which I choose to read without paying a penny.
But I’m not going to do that, not this year or any, because the sort of books I write don’t win those awards. And that’s cool. I think of Hugo and Nebula awards as things of importance within the science fiction community and I’ve never really been part of that. [1] It’s like seeing the BAFTA winners, I guess; I’m happy for those people in that foreign country.
It does prompt me to look back over the year, though. Game of Cages came out at the end of August, of course, and it’s been doing pretty well. I also took part in A Glimpse of Darkness. But that’s it.
Many of the other writers I see out there had a couple of novels come out in 2010 along with a string of short stories. I envy them their productivity. Me, I had a tab open on this computer for three days which held an article about being productive and getting things done, but I couldn’t find time to read it, so I just closed it. (Not kidding).
So, my 2010? It’s been a frustrating year for me, writing-wise. The publishing end of things has been great–Del Rey has been doing a terrific job with my books, and I was glad that Child of Fire got a second printing.
But the first third of the year was spent finishing up Circle of Enemies, seven months past deadline. Yikes. I did not want to be that writer, and yet, there I was. I think it’s a solid book, maybe the best thing I’ve ever written, but it took so much time…
After that I spent months working on a proposal for The Buried King, a Harry-Bosch-in-fantasyland rhino killer, done my way. But there was something wrong with it–I’m not even sure what. I knew it would be difficult to translate a procedural to a second-world setting (a major part of the appeal of a police procedural is iron clad research and a glimpse into a privileged world, but how does that work when the author is making it all up?) but I guess I didn’t the the solutions in place. It didn’t get very far.
Then I went to work on A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark and… Jesus, what am I thinking here? Do people really want an urban fantasy with a 65-ish year old heroine? Who’s a committed pacifist?
I took a whack at the story once already, but none of it held together. right now I have, here beside me at the coffee shop, nearly 200 pages of manuscript for The Auntie Mame Files, about 30K words. I’m about to drop it into the mail for my agent.
If she can’t sell it, 2010 will have been a total wash, writing wise, except for the short chapter I wrote for A Glimpse of Darkness.
What the hell, right? It’s what I did. Hopefully, when the end of 2011 rolls around, I’ll be able to look back on a more productive year.
[1] That’s not meant as a condemnation. I’m just not much of a socializer
I don’t know why the header has disappeared, but the header has disappeared.
I’m starting to hate you, WordPress.
I had to install a security update to WordPress, which meant I needed to upgrade my theme. Of course that reset everything to the default, and now, after fussing with it for way too long, I have the links back to the color I want, and I fixed the tables, and I put my picture back in place instead of theirs, etc.
But the font is different. I swear, it’s different. It looks awful and is annoying the hell out of me.
Personally, I’m not one of those people who want to change their websites every few months. I like it to be simple and legible, with a little green thrown in. But it’s always an assload of work to update the stupid software.
Stupid WordPress.
Yesterday was Christmas.
Today is my son’s ninth birthday.
I don’t plan to be online today. Have a great day, everyone.
I seem to be having some difficulty getting and sending at least a portion of my email. Maybe all of it.
It may take a while for this to sort out, so don’t be upset if my response times are a little slow.
Writer/Director Kevin Smith left a long… rant? Let’s call it a speech–on Twitter about being what you want to be, rather than wanting to be it. He talked about spending time–years in many cases–believing in yourself and pushing until you reach your goals.
He makes a good point. There was a study in creativity not too long ago (Google won’t turn up the actual study) that asked people to exercise their creativity. Many folks who had boring jobs and didn’t think much of their own creativity scored quite low. Not a surprise, right?
But then the people giving the study asked them to answer the questions as though they were someone else. Someone creative, like a sculptor or other artist.
Once instructed to respond the way a creative person would, they began to give very creative answers. It wasn’t a lack of creativity, it was that they didn’t think of themselves as creative people, and so didn’t try hard to think creatively.
And this is true of many aspects of writing. One of the tricks I use all the time when I’m stuck is to ask myself “How would a professional writer fix this sentence?” (I know, don’t tell me, I know). Or “What would a best-selling/award-winning author have these characters do?”
You can substitute the name of an author you already admire, it can be some sort of platonic ideal, or you can picture yourself in some advanced, evolved state. I usually choose option 3. The fact is, this trick really helps. It opens me up to solutions that weren’t accessible before, because I was all wrapped up in who I think I am and what I think I’m capable of.
So, go Kevin Smith.
2) The Gawker Media security breach gives us a chance to see the 13 most common passwords.
3) Ten building converted to bookstores. Very cool photos. via @victoriastrauss
4) Wikileaks cables turned into comics.
5) Eleven weird D&D questions from The Dragon’s “Sage Advice” column.
6) Why you should never fry gnocci. Video.
7) Yogi Bear is like District 9 but way more depressing. A really interesting review of a really uninteresting movie.
First things second: Does anyone reading this record their computer game play sessions? I mean the way you see them on YouTube, where the screen shows the game with the player narrating. It would have to be Mac-compatible, of course.
I’ve done a bit of research into different programs, so I’m not looking for links to reviews. I’m looking for folks who are using a certain piece of software and feel they can recommend it. iShowU looks like a winner for this. Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.
Second things first: The science books I’ve been using for our homeschooling just suck. I have to admit it. They’re ass. Is anyone using a book/set of books/something else they like? They’re for a bright but only half-interested 8 year old.
Thanks very much.
1) The Suck Report. WTH, internet?
2) Musical PVC. Love it. Video.
3) Apparently, the latest thing in NY is “Crack Pie.” Meh. Call me when someone adds bacon.
4) “Warning, overfeeding can cause some pigeons to become aggressive.” Video.
5) The Assassination of Yogi Bear by the Coward Boo Boo. Video.
6) How the London riots demonstrate the tactics of ancient warfare. NSFW because of language.
7) All the tricks and stunts this dude does are awesome, but it’s the over-the-top music that makes it. Video.
7+1) The World According to Freshman Comp Papers (a poem)
^ WordPress turns that into an emoticon if I put the number 8. That’s why these always have seven entries. UNTIL NOW
9) Man makes his Christmas light display into an interactive game for his neighbors. Video.