words

Another interview with me

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Actually, this will probably be the last one, and it’s text rather than an audio file. It’s at Write On Online, and it was done by Debra Eckerling.

It’s a writing site, so there’s writing advice on there, for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

God, it’s been a weird day for me. Is it weird for you? I’m doing the preliminary work on Next Project and polishing Man Bites World, and I canceled our cable TV. It’s been a decent enough day, but I feel all disjointed.

Huh. I just realized that it’s 9:45. I woke at 4:20 this morning after an horrifying nightmare, and I forgot to eat. I’m going to make a bit of food, and then we’re going out. Keep the internet interesting while I’m gone, please.

“Religious symbols don’t give you superpowers.”

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In a weird quirk of fate, two audio interviews I’ve done has gone live on the same day.

One is an interview I did with Author Magazine associate editor Jeff Ayers. It’s the longer of the two interviews, but since I’m the only interviewee, it’s a shorter listen. Hear the advice I give to aspiring professional writers! Long-time readers of the blog will not be surprised to discover that it involves self-recrimination.

The other is the interview I did with Seattle Geekly. I’m the first of four authors interviewed (the others are Ben Thompson, Ken McConnell and Caitlin Kittredge,) and they cover other geeky topics, too, including the Jet City Improv Christmas Show. The world, it is small.

You always wondered what my voice sounds like, yeah? Well, it’s no great shakes, but you can hear it at either place.

Latest state of the self report:

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I was late to the day job this morning (second day in a row) because I got sucked into the revisions of Man Bites World again. Luckily, my supervisor was late, too. We rode up on the elevator together.

Yesterday at dinner, my wife started talking about our plans for this evening–we’ll be checking out the gingerbread house displays downtown, as well as having a nice dinner and maybe ride the Westlake holiday carrousel. I’d completely forgotten about those plans. This morning, when I called her from my desk to catch up with whatever, I’d completely forgotten about them again. Note to self: don’t take the usual bus home tonight.

Anyway, Newtonmas is next week. The boy’s birthday party is this weekend. Shopping is not finished. MBW is still not finished, although I expect to have a draft I can send to my agent very, very soon. Unfortunately, I can’t work on it this Saturday because of the party.

Did I mention my trip to the dentist? I had a cavity that needed filling, and while it was the best visit I’ve had in a long, long while (a new guy took over this practice and I think he’s great) it was still a lot of added stress and pain.

I’m also criminally behind on my sleep. What this all adds up to is that I’m stressed, exhausted, forgetful, and negligent of my own needs. I can’t keep more than three things in my head at once (and the health care reform bills insist on being one of them no matter how annoying the news gets), and I spend most of my time feeling slightly sick.

So you can imagine my state of mind this morning when I received an invitation to Norwescon. Actually, you don’t have to imagine it. It was Oh, hell no.

For those who don’t know, I’ve never been to a sf convention. I’ve been avoiding them partly because of cost and partly because they seem to be large social events full of people who already know each other. I don’t do well in crowds and I’m not comfortable with big groups of strangers.

Also, just yesterday I was reading Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer (btw: I’m reading Booklife and it’s interesting. More on that later) and he said it was best for authors to skip the types of promotion that make them uncomfortable.

“Perfect!” I didn’t say out loud on the bus. “I guess I don’t have to mingle with large crowds of strangers now!”

But then this email came today, and I’m currently over-fucking-whelmed with crap and you know what? I’m going to go anyway.

What the hell. It’s not until April, and considering my crazy schedule I will only be able to attend on Saturday, but the truth is that it scares me and makes me uncomfortable, and that’s reason enough to give it a go. The real downside is going to be the loss of my most productive writing day. Whatever. Once I do it, I can say I did it and never do it again.

They’re asking me to be on programming, which is a big huh? but okay. They’re also asking me to list people I don’t want to be on a panel with. I’m tempted to make up a name to two as a joke, but maybe they don’t have time for that. How am I supposed to know who to avoid?

Anyway, as grim as this post sounds, everything will be fine. I just have to buckle down a bit more and make sure I stick with sensible choices (for instance, going to bed when I’m stressed out instead of wandering my apartment like a ghost). But all this is doable and my wife has been very understanding. I just have to get through it.

Sorry this post is so long.

Recently purchased books

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As an unrelated question, when is the December issue of Locus supposed to reach bookstores?

Randomness for 12/16

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1) Library book overdue by 99 and a half years.

2) Humans vs. Zombies, the live game. Photos of the event. (Humans won! Yay humans!)

3) Connecting fructose and childhood diabetes.

4) And, for a different sort of unhealthy ingestion: Blood drinking 101

5) A wooden castle–built from 396,000 popsicle sticks.

6) Lawsuit seeks to remove atheist from public office. It seems North Carolina’s state constitution bars atheists from holding public office. It’s an unenforceable law, thanks to a decades-old Supreme Court decision, but it’s the basis of a suit seeking to have Cecil Bothwell removed from a city council seat.

7) In contrast to my Author’s Big Mistake post from earlier today, a hilarious book review with a very smart author response.

Win a copy of CHILD OF FIRE

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Even better, win a copy of many, many, many other books on Pat Rothfuss’s blog. Here’s the blog entry where CoF is mentioned, but don’t start there.

In case you’ve been on a media fast or something, Pat Rothfuss is having a second fundraiser for Heifer’s International, a charity that provides livestock for the world’s poor. Read this FAQ to find out more along with a critique of Batman (heresy!)

Seriously, it’s a great cause, and some of the prizes are big time–signed ARCs, marked up manuscripts, critiques of unpublished novels by industry pros, and lots and lots of books. I only wish I could have sent more than one book–that was literally my last copy. (I’ve ordered more from Random House, but these things take time.)

Check it out. Celebrate the season by helping those who need it. Get book-related swag in return. Seriously, this is what the internet was created for.

Randomness for 12/14

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1) So infuriating and depressing: What happened to Hope Witsell.

2) In a less awful note, Dominick Dunn: bestselling writer with appalling taste.

3) Comfortable interstellar travel

4) Terminator Offers Some Lessons for the Salvation of Your Novel

5) One thing that continually astonishes me about people is the way they leap to the defense of the powerful. Some seem to want to side with authority as a matter of habit. But before I could write about this–and about Dr. Peter Watts’s experience at the U.S./Canadian border–Jo Walton did it better than I ever could.

6) Frank Frazetta’s son smashes through the Frazetta museum with a backhoe to steal $20 million dollars worth of his father’s paintings. via James Nicoll

7) Joe Lieberman promises to filibuster health care reform. His current rational is that he’s against the expansion of Medicare. He had the opportunity to negotiate with Senators on this issue but refused to show up for those meetings. Of course, he previously supported the policy when he ran for VP. He doesn’t want to negotiate; he wants to obstruct. He’d previously opposed the public option for completely counterfactual reasons; in fact, he seemed about as knowledgeable on the subject as trolling conservative commenters on John Scalzi’s blog. Why did Connecticutters vote this asshole back in?

Writing marathon, day two.

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I’ve had my first pint of coffee, caught up on (most of) my email, and skimmed my LJ friends list (thank you f-list). I decided not to dabble in today’s internet outrage, mainly because I don’t see why this is a big deal. Publishers have always released hardbacks first, then other editions later. If readers want to pay less, they have to wait.

I certainly do. While I am no longer clinging desperately from a slender sapling over the Cliffs of Bankruptcy, I still can’t afford to buy hardbacks. Earlier this week, I rushed to the new books section of B&N to pick up a copy of A Young Man Without Magic by Lawrence Watt-Evans (and to count the copies of Child of Fire they still had on the shelf–I know. I suck.) I’ve been waiting for this book for a while now, and when I saw it was a hardback, I had to put it back. That sucks for the author, but what can I do about it? Even trade paperbacks are a strain right now.

But for readers with the cash and the urgent desire to read now!, they can have the book in an expensive format.

As for e-books, it’s another format–and less profitable, too, especially since Amazon.com has been slashing prices so hard. Why is it such a shock that publishers are delaying their release? Various commenters in the linked post above claim that, if the e-book release is not the same day as the hardback, they will forget about it completely, which seems pretty doubtful to me. You also see the usual “I guess they want to encourage piracy!” statements, which isn’t worth addressing.

Also in the comments there, I believe I’ve seen the first instance in the historical record of a dedicated e-book reader stating that they would be willing to pay hardback prices for their e-books. Mark the date!

Jane at Dear Author thinks e-book buyers are “being punished” because of the ongoing price wars, which is not only wrong, but way too personal. Not being able to have the thing you want when you want it is not punishment.

It’s possible all this will change. It’s possible that someday movies will be released into movie theaters, on DVD, and on Netflix streaming on the same day. I guess. I’m just not particularly upset at having to wait for an edition I can afford, and I suspect that, in time, e-book audiences won’t be, either.

Added later: Or is it all about reining in Amazon.com?

Now, back to Man Bites World. I mentioned in a general way that yesterday was a productive day, but damn am I grateful for YouTube and its videos of “demonstration fires.” How did writers survive before the internet?

I still have fixes that need doing, but conceptually I think I have a handle on them. Now it’s just a matter of going through and addressing everything in square brackets (not to mention smooth out that prose. Christ.)

Here I am

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I’m sitting in Starbucks on a day when I’d normally be at Day Job. I’ve taken two days off this week to work on Man Bites World. Hopefully, I’ll have it close enough to done that I can send it to my agent on Saturday or Monday.

Research has been concluded (I hope). Internet squabble dabbled in.

Time to work.

RPG-7 Question

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Here’s something I haven’t been able to find out for myself: If person with an RPG-7 fired an anti-personnel grenade into an apartment, would it destroy the walls, floor and ceiling of the apartment? Would it blow out the windows of those other apartments?

I’m assuming it wouldn’t collapse the building.