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.
Following the LiveJournal poll I posted, I brought a handful of books on my train trip east. Here’s a quick write up of them:
Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers I’m going to be reading more of these, but I wish I’d saved this one for later. It’s the book where the two leads finally marry, and while reading the beginning I was very aware that it was paying off a long setup that I had barely touched. Still, it was a terrific book, surprisingly layered, with an interesting portrayal of the British class system of the time.
It was also the strangest cozy ever. Where most mysteries end with the killer discovered and everything set right, this one took a close look at the cost of setting things right. Terrific book.
With a Single Spell by Lawrence Watt-Evans This one got the most votes in the poll and it was great fun (and a bit of a pick-me-up after the end of Busman’s Honeymoon. An elderly wizard dies after having only taught his apprentice to cast one spell: how to start a fire. Too old to be taken on by another wizard, and with no local ties, he sets off into the wider world.
Which sorta sounds like the plot to a whole bunch of other fantasies, but this is an lwe book: misunderstandings between characters build until they have a sensible conversation to clear the air, high adventure is something to be avoided if at all possible, crimes are something that make you look out a window wondering what all the ruckus is about, and people generally act like the regular folk you encounter in real life. Oh, and there’s no secret “Chosen One” powers to solve the plot at the end. It was a fun book and a nice antidote to a few overblown fantasy novels I can think of.
The Outfit by Richard Stark Zoom, this book races right by. Parker is an armed robber who has been targeted by the mob. This ticks him off, and he gets himself a little revenge with a gun and… a letter-writing campaign.
Which sounds nuts, but the independent criminals he’s been partnered with have always left mob-owned businesses alone. They have a truce of sorts. Parker lets word get out that the Outfit is leaning on him, so if any of his old partners see a mob joint ripe for robbing, now is the time to hit it.
Which means this is a Parker book without a lot of Parker in it. That turns out to be fine by me, since Parker is a bit of a pill on the best of days, and I sometimes have a problem with the way he kills a whole bunch of people for the sort of payday that would cover Joe the Plumber’s bills for a few months.
A good book, solid and exciting.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris At first I found the voice of Sookie Stackhouse difficult to believe in, and the generic nature of Sam and Bill’s names confused me sometimes, but before I knew it I was sucked in by the story and racing along with the plot. Yeah I guessed the killer early, and I had a hard time believing that anyone would believe a “vampire virus” would let sufferers levitate, but Sookie’s relationship with her brother was wonderfully complicated, and she’s an engaging character.
I hated the TV show, but I enjoyed this.
Halting State by Charles Stross I’m only half-way through this sf high thriller, but it’s pretty damn good so far.
According to PW, Borders has suspended payments to some publishers.
At this point it looks as though Borders has no way to avoid bankruptcy, and the big question is whether they will take a bunch of publishers down with them. Small presses are especially vulnerable here, and Borders has been very hard on the whole small press scene for years, using credit from returns to order books on a much faster schedule than they actually paid for books sold.
As for Borders itself, it was once a great place to buy books–the staff were knowledgeable and the selection excellent, and while Joshua Bilmes offers a clear narrative of Borders’s descent into crappiness (quick warning about that link: very interesting), he doesn’t mention that the stores tried to control sky-rocketing rents by locking in long-term leases… right before the economy collapsed. Now their expenses are high and the revenues are low, and who’s going to suffer?
Well, authors for one. And publishers for another. Readers, too, because if we have one major chain store, as Joshua Bilmes points out, there will be certain books that readers won’t even get to see. Months and months ago, James Nicoll asked who was the most powerful but unrecognized person in sf/f, and the answer was the sf/f buyer at B&N. Without Borders, his decisions will sustain or destroy even more writers’ careers.
Hey, I know people like to see this stuff as the “Death of Traditional Publishing.” Isn’t B&N also closing stores (in high-rent areas, during a strained economic recovery)? But that’s just not the case here. Borders has been struggling for years, mainly because their upper echelons have no idea that selling books isn’t like selling other products. The economic crash simply exposed these long-term problems.
What does that mean for you? Well, if Borders isn’t paying publishers for the books they sell, you might want to stop shopping there. I know I will.
Check out this article about Span of Control by Jay Lake. The term refers to the size and shape of the story he can hold in his head at one time, to make it a coherent single entity, esp in first draft form
Me, I don’t have that. Or maybe I should say I don’t use that. I tend to create a situation for the characters to solve, add multiple antagonists, then begin working through the conflicts. I don’t try to hold a part of it in my head as a coherent story idea, because I feel more like I’m riding a wave of whatever goal/setting/resource/conflict is ongoing at the moment.
Eventually, I realize that the story has been running long enough and needs to be wrapped up. All I do then is continue the conflicts, but the conflicts begin to resolve themselves. Sometimes that means it’s time for people to stop surviving the dangers they face. Sometimes it means they need to break down emotionally and surrender. In any event, stuff starts to resolve.
So, everything is outside my span of control, and maybe that’s why I find writing such a painful, laborious process.
Also, I loved Rocket Science.
In a few weeks, Black Gate #15, which includes my story “Eating Venom”, goes to press. Here’s the artwork that accompanies it (and since you’re online, you get to see it in color–it’ll be B&W in the magazine):
Cool, huh? It’s by Malcolm McClinton. I’d never have thought to imagine the characters that way which is why I’d be a terrible artist, but I love it! Click the link to see more of his work.
About that story: I sold it over three years ago, so it’s a bit of a time capsule of my writing style and technique. I’ll be interested to reread it when it comes out.
How it came about: Some folks will remember a few years back when Janine Cross’s Touched by Venom came out, there was an online row about the writing style, and the way the style was criticized in an offline gathering.
While all that was going on, I thought There has to be a story idea in this somewhere. Not that I’d read the book in question: all I knew of it was that it’s erotic, boundary-pushing second-world fantasy. But a real writer would be able to generate a story or twelve out of it, right?
Some folks know that I don’t get story ideas easily or often–I’m just not that sort of writer. Still, I was sure there was something worthwhile there, and after a bit of work (and more than one false start) I came up with the idea of a sort of basilisk fugu and wrote “Eating Venom”.
It’s full of my usual obsessions: outright bastards, flagrant lies and manipulation, decent people trapped by honor and expectation, magical elements that are largely backgrounded for human conflicts, screwed-up social/political structures, bitter resentments, and much stabbing with sharp pieces of metal. I’m proud of it.
You guys are reading Black Gate magazine, aren’t you? It’s full of adventure-oriented fantasy of the kind I love.
Anyway, I’m off to have Xmas Eve lunch with my in-laws (and the holidays have me way behind on all my online reading). Best wishes to everyone reading this, whether you celebrate Christmas or not.
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.
Thanks to everyone who voted in my book poll yesterday. Is it perverse of me that, now that I’ve seen which books are leading in the voting, I want to pack the least popular choices? Yes. Yes I think it is.
One of the weird things about traveling by train is that they let you check three big bags. I almost have too much luggage space for my trip, and I’m tempted to add some extra gifts to make the boy’s holiday super special.
And speaking of extra gifts, I have one more to buy, but I have to buy it online, download it to my desktop, then make a Christmas card for my son so he knows to look for it on that happy morning. Strike that. I have to *remember* to buy it. And it can’t be while he’s awake, either; I’ll have to do it in the groggy early morning hours, when it’s impossible to remember anything. ::shakes fist at mirror::
Anyway, today’s kind of a big day. It’s not my son’s birthday, but it is his birthday party. We’re only having 3 other kids (by his choice) and we’ve reserved time at the local parkour gym. They’ll get a lesson and then some birthday pie. (We’re not People of the Cake.) Then it’s home to eat his favorite dinner food (expensive delivery pizza) and open the rest of his presents.
Unfortunately, we’ve had heavy winds overnight and too many neighborhoods are without power. I’m not sure what will happen if the electricity is out there. It’s not like they have a ton of electrical equipment (more like mats, boxes, and pipes to walk on) but light and heat will be totally necessary.
And, weirdly, I had a horror movie moment this morning. While I was waiting for the bus that would take me and my gigantic bag of library books to the retail core, I looked down the street to see if the bus was coming. It was weirdly dark. Like, Encroaching Shadow of Evil dark.
It gave me a silly thrill and made me determined never to write a scene like it in a book.
Now I have to get the barista to rinse the grounds out of my mug, then refill me so I can get back to work.
Which books should I take on my train trip? Vote in my LiveJournal poll.
Here’s the thing: I’m not going to be reading Edward Docx’s rant about literary and genre fiction in the Guardian. I’ve skimmed over a couple of other people’s summaries, and it seems he’s not saying anything new, interesting, or specific.
Nevermind the idea of comparing the worst of one group with the best of another. Nevermind the empty fantasy of fat checks for genre writers. Nevermind that the Guardian is just trolling for traffic again.
The truth is that literary history isn’t going to be written by Docx and his little post. He and his opinion don’t matter. I’m glad there are folks out there willing to swat at the ridiculous memes he’s pushing, but his sort of crap is completely useless.
And does he really kick Larsson for translated texts?