Professor of Indeterminate Studies
Dear Glenn Beck and Tea Partiers,
Words fail me. (Read the comments too..
Lucky for me Lily Allen said pretty much exactly what I was thinking (NSFW), and much more attractively.
In fact, I think I’ll say it twice just in case you don’t catch on the first time. (I love this video.)
Yeah.
With cover art! And contributor bios! And a release date!
Rigor Amortis cover art
Rigor Amortis, coming soon via Absolute XPress.
So very exciting! Even if I’m actually a bit scared to read the whole thing…
I feel like I should explain a bit about the previous story and its “possible fanfic” attribution.
Yesterday was a beautiful late summer day, not as meltingly hot as it has been, and Nick and I had a picnic under along a trout stream in the next valley over. After dinner I watched the water ripples reflect on the willows and began to think about how I’d describe the scene in prose.
This made me very happy - my summer is such that I hadn’t written any fiction since June, nor even had much of a brain to think about fiction. Chaos is ebbing, my brain is starting to return, and ideas are once again bubbling up.
Last month I bought a copy of Elizabeth Bear’s Blood and Iron for my friend Laura since she hadn’t read any Bear and I was positive she’d like it (and she did). Of course I had to pull out my own copy and re-read it. I hadn’t looked at it since my first read, and now that I wasn’t as focused on what was happening, I could pay more attention to Bear’s prose. I think she writes fabulous sentences, and every so often she describes how she hones them.
Could I describe my streamside in something approximating the style of Bear? With a bit of story, and in exactly 150 words?
Having set myself that challenge, it seemed entirely reasonable to wish for a kelpie, and to borrow the title of Blood and Iron’s sequel (though not so much Bear’s kelpie. And if you haven’t read B&I or W&W? Go, now.)
So how’d I do? It was good practice. The description is largely better than usual, which says more about my usual than whether I achieved what I wanted. I don’t think the story came through very well in the subtle way that I tried to get it across and given the word count. But then, I’m not sure its a bad thing that there’s more than one way to read it. I may try revising it to see if I can keep the same length and style constraints but more focus.
My commentary is now more than twice as long as the story, probably because it didn’t take nearly as long to write.
Afternoon light drew long shadows before me, cast flickering stream ripples onto the overhanging willow trunks. I sipped slowly from the cup cradled in my right hand, peat drifting across my tongue.
I probably should have been surprised when the horse rose from the water. Droplets sprayed over me from his black mane as he paced up the bank. I lifted my cup, and the kelpie bent his muzzle to inhale the rich vapors.
Shakily I rose, his flank cold and damp where I leaned for support. He watched me from one eye, head canted back, silver tracery glinting on his dark leather bridle.
He knelt when I failed at boosting myself onto his back. Were his victims ever in need of so little coaxing, or so much help? Cruelty or compassion, I needed no glamour to ride him into the depths. Here, now, while I could make my own choice.
[Fanfic? Maybe.]
My latest post for Science in My Fiction, on the naming of organisms, went up on Friday. I wouldn’t mind at all if you read it and left a comment. Or two.
As I slowly dig out of my current pile of stuff, let me entertain you with this video that’s been making the rounds. This is highly entertaining, but decidedly not appropriate for the office.
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a video showing all known nuclear explosions from 1945-1998 - 2053 of them. Zipping past at one month per second, it’s a fascinating and disturbing picture of nuclear testing and warfare. It starts slowly, but the 1950s go flashing by. Even if you don’t want to watch the middle, having gotten the idea, do watch the recap from 12:10 to the end.
(via lauriepink)
Wikipedia offers a timeline and more detail on the various national testing programs.
Life has been so nuts that I haven’t even told y’all: my very short story “My Summer Romance” was accepted for the zombie erotica anthology Rigor Amortis, to be published by Absolute XPress.
This anthology went from random twitter conversation to table of contents in two months, publisher and all, due to the insanity hard work of Jaym Gates and Erika Holt.
The full table of contents should be released sometime soon. I’m looking forward to seeing who I share the roster with (though I know quite a few already through the magic of twitter), and to reading the whole thing when it comes out this autumn (I think?).
(Do note that this is a zombie erotica anthology, and thus not for everyone. From some things the editors have said, it’s definitely not for the squeamish.)
Like so many, I’ve been playing with the Write Like site. Like so many, I’ve gotten interestingly odd results:
Clarkesworld (more formal nonfiction): Arthur C Clarke
I suspect the author pool is rather small.
But that’s the little thing. The big thing: I got into Viable Paradise!
I’ve been in New Hampshire most of the week, working very long hours, and am heading to New Mexico first thing Sunday morning.
An insightful perspective on writing science fiction from David Brin:
They obviously didn’t show up here, but the words had to have gone somewhere, right?
Right.
Some of them went to the Crossed Genres July issue, my first short story sale.
More showed up in the Clarkesworld July issue. This one’s a non-fiction piece about controlled ecologies for space travel.
I like writing about science for science fiction writers. My latest Science in My Fiction piece is on plate tectonics and worldbuilding. This is part of a “science of worldbuilding” series that has covered biome placement and satellite images. The next installment, in August, will be about naming organisms: how will scientists decide what to call alien lifeforms? What will people who live with these alien species call them? I’m not sure what comes next: are there ecology or worldbuilding topics you’re interested in? Anything that can be used in science fiction is fair game, which really means anything is possible.
There were other things too: a zombie story submitted to an anthology, agonizing over a Viable Paradise writing workshop application. (If you’re interested in writing zombie stories, the deadline for anthology submissions has been extended to July 15).
And, you know, work, family, business stuff (busiest month ever, on top of everything else), houseguests, interminable yardwork. This was a ridiculously busy June, with umpteen deadlines, and for a while I wasn’t sure I was going to make them all. I did, but only because one thing I said I’d help with didn’t materialize (or rather, they didn’t need my help after all). Whew!
Plans for the rest of the summer: I’m teaching a weaving class in Albuquerque in a few weeks, and have to finish my class materials. That’s the top priority.
I have a novel to finish, and a couple of short stories to wrap up and submit.
I have a nonfiction book proposal that my mental map had finished a year ago, but isn’t.
I’m working on fiction database project that I’ll tell you about when it’s farther along.
I have some travel planned for work, and a week at Pennsic, but the whirlwind of houseguests is over, the major deadlines have been met, and I think this is doable. Even if contemplating it makes me want to go back to bed.
