Well, to make up for the week of torrential downpours, nature treated us Saturday and Sunday to absolutely stunning days. Clear skies of crisp blue. Cool temperatures with almost no humidity and a sweet breeze. I read a lot on the deck while I watched the hungry birds swarm our feeders. (For a couple of days we had been putting food "on" the deck because it required wading to reach the feeders.)
I'm still finding reading on my Kindle 2 a pleasing experience. It's nice to always have a perfectly flat page, I'm finding. I also discovered earlier in the week that Amazon has quite a number of free Kindle books available for download, including a Robin Hobb fantasy and a Lee Child thriller. However, I must confess that I actually put in an order for printed copies of several of the books I've already read on my Kindle. I just really, really like having printed books around me.
On Saturday, Lana and I went to a few garage sales in Abita Springs. Word had gone out Friday that the town wide garage sale plans had been postponed, but some folks either didn't get the word or decided Saturday was too lovely not to have a sale. Despite having to walk through mud in places, a good time seemed to be had by all. Lana bought quite a few pieces of the colored glass she loves, and I bought........drumroll please.......books! It's hard to pass up any book that you might one day read when you get them for 25 to 50 cents.
I also got in a couple of good walks, and Lana and I went Sunday afternoon to one of the local nature centers. I'm sure she'll have up some pics this week.
And in the evenings, writing was accomplished.
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Monday, March 30, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
What a Week
First, hard drive failure on Monday: No writing accomplished. School work only.
Second, reloading reformatted hard drive, Tuesday and Wednesday: Minimal writing accomplished.
Third, driving through torrential downpours going and coming from work Thursday: Still, some writing accomplished.
Fourth, wide scale flooding in the neighborhood on Friday. I managed to make it out of the neighborhood Friday morning but coming home I had to park a couple of miles away and hoof it through waist deep water for a good ways before making it to semi-solid land. We then waited out storm cell after storm cell, with rain coming in sheets while the black sky blammed with lightning and thunder, and with the water creeping steadily higher in our yard: Writing not even attempted.
It turns out one of the pumping stations in Abita Springs broke down and our area got the worst of the backup during the day and early night on Friday. Fortunately, neither of our cars were damaged. Nor was our house. And this morning the sun is flaming from a wide blue sky and the swamp in our yard is gradually receding.
Will there be writing today? We'll see.
By the way, Lana has a flood pic and more info on the experience at her blog.
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Second, reloading reformatted hard drive, Tuesday and Wednesday: Minimal writing accomplished.
Third, driving through torrential downpours going and coming from work Thursday: Still, some writing accomplished.
Fourth, wide scale flooding in the neighborhood on Friday. I managed to make it out of the neighborhood Friday morning but coming home I had to park a couple of miles away and hoof it through waist deep water for a good ways before making it to semi-solid land. We then waited out storm cell after storm cell, with rain coming in sheets while the black sky blammed with lightning and thunder, and with the water creeping steadily higher in our yard: Writing not even attempted.
It turns out one of the pumping stations in Abita Springs broke down and our area got the worst of the backup during the day and early night on Friday. Fortunately, neither of our cars were damaged. Nor was our house. And this morning the sun is flaming from a wide blue sky and the swamp in our yard is gradually receding.
Will there be writing today? We'll see.
By the way, Lana has a flood pic and more info on the experience at her blog.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Hard Drive Failure
Well, my work computer entered a terminal loop Monday morning when I tried to boot it up. Our ITC department came to pick it up and I found out today the hard drive was completely fried. Our expert was unable to save anything and had to reformat the entire machine. I got it back Tuesday afternoon with a mind wipe.
Fortunately, I'm rather obsessive about backing everything up and didn't really loose any data. I did loose many hours of work, though, since most everything I do these days involves computers and email. That meant I had about six straight hours of work at home that evening, work I should have gotten done at school.
Between that and having to restore all my files on the computer on Tuesday, I had to let visiting blogs slide completely. But I should be able to get back on track tomorrow.
*****
In other news, I got some more copies of my books in and can offer signed copies at something of a discount if anyone is interested. The prices are below, and these prices include shipping and handling, which makes the discount fairly reasonable.
Cold in the Light: $12.50
Any Individual Talera novel: $14.50
Any Two Talera Novels: $28.00
All Three Talera Novels: $40.00
I'll throw in a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunancy, which has a story by me and is subtitled "The World's Silliest Anthology," for $5.00 with any order. (I only have 3 of these, though)
If you're interested, email me at kainja@hotmail.com
Until later!
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Fortunately, I'm rather obsessive about backing everything up and didn't really loose any data. I did loose many hours of work, though, since most everything I do these days involves computers and email. That meant I had about six straight hours of work at home that evening, work I should have gotten done at school.
Between that and having to restore all my files on the computer on Tuesday, I had to let visiting blogs slide completely. But I should be able to get back on track tomorrow.
*****
In other news, I got some more copies of my books in and can offer signed copies at something of a discount if anyone is interested. The prices are below, and these prices include shipping and handling, which makes the discount fairly reasonable.
Cold in the Light: $12.50
Any Individual Talera novel: $14.50
Any Two Talera Novels: $28.00
All Three Talera Novels: $40.00
I'll throw in a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunancy, which has a story by me and is subtitled "The World's Silliest Anthology," for $5.00 with any order. (I only have 3 of these, though)
If you're interested, email me at kainja@hotmail.com
Until later!
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Saturday, March 21, 2009
I Appear to be Fabulous!
James Reasoner nominated me for this award last Sunday, and a little later Shauna Roberts also nominated me. I much appreciate it James and Shauna. It’s nice to be recognized.
To accept this award I’m supposed to post five things I’m obsessed with, and also nominate five other fabulous blogs for the award. Now I don’t believe there are five things I’m “obsessed” with in the clinical use of that term, but I certainly can find five things that I spend a lot of my spare time doing. Those will have to do. So, my “obsessions” first.
1. Reading: This is closest I come to an obsession in a clinical sense. I’m virtually a compulsive reader. Last night I was reading a book I’m not enjoying very much. Lana and I were also having a conversation, and I found after a few minutes that I’d read ten pages of the book without actually paying attention to anything more than the bare words. I read everywhere, and anything. Have book? Will read!
2. Books: I suppose this goes hand in hand with number 1, but in addition to reading compulsively, I also really just enjoy being around and handling books. I like rearranging my shelves, and going through piles of unread books to select one that I want to read. I like to see my collection add up as I finish a new book and put it on the shelves. This is one thing that my Kindle 2 will never replace, and it’s a biggie.
3. Food: I rather love to eat. And I eat a lot. I’m no gourmet, though, and I’m no kind of chef who carefully prepares his meals according to some inner creative fire. I want food on my plate. Hearty food. Large amount s of it. And I want to say mmhymmn when I fork those bites to my mouth.
4. Nature: I love living in the country, to awake in the morning to the sun streaming through the trees. I love to get out and hike. I love having living things all around me other than human beings. The natural world is so incredibly beautiful. I couldn’t truly live without it.
5. Imagining: This one is a riff off of Shauna’s selection of “creating.” I simply love the act of imagining things. For the Talera series, for example, I’ve got a large number of plants and animals and cities and landmasses etc. that have not yet appeared in the books. I just loved making them up. And I’ve mentioned my habit of making up stories for myself as I lay down to go off to sleep. Much of my day is spent interacting with my own imagination.
It's hard to choose only five people from among the many wonderful blogs I read. My choices are five blogs that in the past year have expanded my horizons or helped me be a better writer. Thanks to all of them:
Greg Schwartz: Greg is a very fine poet; I have several of his collections. Reading his work has taught me a bit about how to use dark humor in poetry, something I’m not very adept at but which I admire. He also often has great info on markets and I’ve sold a couple of things to magazines he’s linked to.
Hello Ello 2: Ello has funny children, very, very funny children. Or else Ello is funny enough herself to make her children seem tremendously funny. For some good humor, sometimes from what America’s Funny Home Videos call the “naughty file,” check her blog out.
Wayne Allen Sallee: Wayne is an immensely talented writer, and also a friend of mine. Even though we’ve only met once in person. Whether in his blogging or his fiction, Wayne always writes close to the bone.
Sidney Williams: Sid is another friend of mine, and also a very fine writer. I’ve got at least 7 or 8 of his books on my shelves. Sid doesn’t post very often but he always has something interesting to say when he does. He also runs the very interesting Fear on Demand
Heff: Heff doesn’t read much, as he’s happy to tell you. But he talks a lot about food and drink, one of my obsessions, and about heavy metal and hard rock music, which is the only kind I listen too. Whenever you’re tired of reading blogs about writing and writers, hop over to Heff’s for something completely different. Besides, he owns a bar, and where else are you going to go if there’s a zombie outbreak?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Philosophy Corner: Mild Rant Ahead
At lunch yesterday I had a debate with a colleague and friend of mine about fairness. We were first talking about students doing group projects. I said I always hated them in school because I ended up doing the work while others loafed, and that I thought of them as inherently unfair. That’s one reason I never assign them to my students. My friend said that’s one reason he does assign them. He felt that students needed to learn now that the world is unfair. In other words, that’s just the way it is.
Damn but that phrase and that argument bother me. Any reasonably intelligent and experienced person knows the world isn’t fair. But the fact remains that the world should be fair, and it’s important—I think—to say so. It’s important to strive for fairness in our dealings with the world, and people who work toward fairness can make a difference in that world, sometimes small ones, sometimes big ones.
Although I’m sure that not everyone who has supported equal rights for women, minorities, and gays over the years has done so without ulterior motives, I firmly believe that many have done so out of a sense of fairness. It’s simply not right for women to be paid less than men for equal work. It’s not fair for African Americans or gay couples to be discriminated against because of their skin color or sexual orientation. Yet, there have been times (and sometimes those times are now) when such discrimination has happened. Did the fact that women once lacked the right to vote mean people should have accepted it because that was “just the way it was?”
I don’t typically think of myself as an idealist, or even a liberal. I’m certainly no saint. And I don’t really care if my friend assigns his classes group projects. What I do reject, though, is the attitude of that’s just the way it is. I refuse to accept it.
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Damn but that phrase and that argument bother me. Any reasonably intelligent and experienced person knows the world isn’t fair. But the fact remains that the world should be fair, and it’s important—I think—to say so. It’s important to strive for fairness in our dealings with the world, and people who work toward fairness can make a difference in that world, sometimes small ones, sometimes big ones.
Although I’m sure that not everyone who has supported equal rights for women, minorities, and gays over the years has done so without ulterior motives, I firmly believe that many have done so out of a sense of fairness. It’s simply not right for women to be paid less than men for equal work. It’s not fair for African Americans or gay couples to be discriminated against because of their skin color or sexual orientation. Yet, there have been times (and sometimes those times are now) when such discrimination has happened. Did the fact that women once lacked the right to vote mean people should have accepted it because that was “just the way it was?”
I don’t typically think of myself as an idealist, or even a liberal. I’m certainly no saint. And I don’t really care if my friend assigns his classes group projects. What I do reject, though, is the attitude of that’s just the way it is. I refuse to accept it.
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Something New?
Here's something that came to me last week. Mainly just a scene. I'm not quite sure where it's going, and so far haven't figured out exactly how to advance from here. But, for what it's worth:
Razored Land
No cross. No flowers. No marker at all.
He didn’t want the grave found.
After scattering the leftover dirt from the hole he’d dug and then filled, he made a broom from a pine limb with its needles still attached to wipe away his footprints and the unnaturally smooth cuts of the shovel into the soft forest loam. Dead leaves and twigs added to the camouflage over the grave, and when he finished his work and stepped back, he thought: Nothing will find you here. And nothing will smell you either. Not the animals. Not even the Others.
At the bottom of the hole, over the lacerated body, he’d interlaced layers of fresh cut pine boughs. They made a fragrant shroud, redolent with a spring season this dead one would not see again. Over that he’d put a paving of stones.
A fragment of sound brought the man’s head up. His right hand dropped to the .357 at his hip, rough fingers curling around the worn grip. Nostrils flared. His yellow-brown eyes searched the surrounding wood. He smelled longleaf pine, and Yaupon holly, and the first blooms of the blackberry brambles. He smelled other things, new things on the earth. But these new things weren’t dangerous. And he saw only the same things he smelled, and no movement except a flutter of leaves and pine needles in the breeze that soothed his sweat.
Perhaps an acorn had fallen. Or a twig. Still, he did not relax. He never completely relaxed. Not any more. But the steel spring tension in his muscles eased slightly, and the breath slid once more into his lungs through tight-drawn lips.
The sweat had dried on his chest and back now, and he walked over to the tree where he’d hung his shirt and hat. The shirt was cotton, and had once been white. The hat was flat brimmed, of black leather. He slipped them on, then picked up the shovel and his rifle and walked away from the grave of the little girl he’d just buried.
--- end ---
So, did he kill the child? Find the child dead? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? And who are "The Others?" What do you think?
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Razored Land
No cross. No flowers. No marker at all.
He didn’t want the grave found.
After scattering the leftover dirt from the hole he’d dug and then filled, he made a broom from a pine limb with its needles still attached to wipe away his footprints and the unnaturally smooth cuts of the shovel into the soft forest loam. Dead leaves and twigs added to the camouflage over the grave, and when he finished his work and stepped back, he thought: Nothing will find you here. And nothing will smell you either. Not the animals. Not even the Others.
At the bottom of the hole, over the lacerated body, he’d interlaced layers of fresh cut pine boughs. They made a fragrant shroud, redolent with a spring season this dead one would not see again. Over that he’d put a paving of stones.
A fragment of sound brought the man’s head up. His right hand dropped to the .357 at his hip, rough fingers curling around the worn grip. Nostrils flared. His yellow-brown eyes searched the surrounding wood. He smelled longleaf pine, and Yaupon holly, and the first blooms of the blackberry brambles. He smelled other things, new things on the earth. But these new things weren’t dangerous. And he saw only the same things he smelled, and no movement except a flutter of leaves and pine needles in the breeze that soothed his sweat.
Perhaps an acorn had fallen. Or a twig. Still, he did not relax. He never completely relaxed. Not any more. But the steel spring tension in his muscles eased slightly, and the breath slid once more into his lungs through tight-drawn lips.
The sweat had dried on his chest and back now, and he walked over to the tree where he’d hung his shirt and hat. The shirt was cotton, and had once been white. The hat was flat brimmed, of black leather. He slipped them on, then picked up the shovel and his rifle and walked away from the grave of the little girl he’d just buried.
--- end ---
So, did he kill the child? Find the child dead? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? And who are "The Others?" What do you think?
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Friday, March 13, 2009
Still Busy
Not much writing going on in my world. Midterms are done but everything else that backed up behind that is now due. I've got two IRB proposals on my desk today, and I've already dealt with two others this week. IRB stands for Internal Review Board, and we are the committee on campus that reviews any research involving human participants to make sure no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, I'm the chairperson. Sigh!
Ninety-five percent of the studies we review are just surveys, with virtually no chance to cause a participant any discomfort. In those cases, I'm the only member of the committee who has to review the project. The main issue is making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed so we won't get into trouble with funding agencies. This wouldn't be so tough if professors weren't a lot like students in their failure to read instructions.
A submitter told me once, "Wow, I guess it would have made your job a lot easier if I'd proofread my proposal before turning it in."
You think?
One bit of good news, though. One of my horror haiku from Wanting the Mouth of a Lover has been nominated for the Rhysling Award in speculative poetry. This is the award given annually by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). I know who nominated the poem and I much appreciate it. It's a great honor.
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Ninety-five percent of the studies we review are just surveys, with virtually no chance to cause a participant any discomfort. In those cases, I'm the only member of the committee who has to review the project. The main issue is making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed so we won't get into trouble with funding agencies. This wouldn't be so tough if professors weren't a lot like students in their failure to read instructions.
A submitter told me once, "Wow, I guess it would have made your job a lot easier if I'd proofread my proposal before turning it in."
You think?
One bit of good news, though. One of my horror haiku from Wanting the Mouth of a Lover has been nominated for the Rhysling Award in speculative poetry. This is the award given annually by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). I know who nominated the poem and I much appreciate it. It's a great honor.
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Comfort versus Discomfort
Well, I finished mid-terms and now I’d like to go to sleep. Unfortunately, I have a late meeting this afternoon so I’m still in the office. I’ve got some writing I want to do, but I thought a quick post might be in order.
Over on her blog, Patty Abbott asked where writers tend to set their scenes, and about where writers feel comfortable. That got me thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. And sometimes silly.
I guess there are two sides to that question. Where does a writer feel comfortable, in the sense of being familiar with a place that is featured in a scene? And where does a writer feel emotionally comfortable?
I think it’s important, although not always absolutely necessary, to at least link your scenes physically to places you are familiar with. Or, you need to make yourself familiar with those places. Cold in the Light is set in Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, an area I’m intimately familiar with. The Talera books are set on another planet, and I’ve…only been there a few times. But what I haven’t seen in person I try to make up for with research. As writers, we live in a boon time for that. Just about every place has been photographed and those pictures are online. It’s not a complete substitute for actually walking the ground of a place, but it can sure provide many important details. If I need to get an idea of what a jungle waterfall looks like on Talera, I can at least start by checking out photos of jungle waterfalls here on Earth.
On the other hand, when it comes to emotion, I tend to think writers should work from a position of discomfort. I don’t think you want to feel too emotionally comfortable in your fictional world, or else a good source of story tension will be lost. I think this is especially true in some genres. Take horror fiction, for example. I think the best fiction comes when writers are experiencing at least some of the same emotions they want the reader to experience. I realized from Patty’s post, that I like to use claustrophobic situations in my horror. I like to use the dark woods. And those kinds of situations make me intensely uncomfortable myself.
What say you? Is it different for other genres? Or does the rule generally hold true?
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Over on her blog, Patty Abbott asked where writers tend to set their scenes, and about where writers feel comfortable. That got me thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. And sometimes silly.
I guess there are two sides to that question. Where does a writer feel comfortable, in the sense of being familiar with a place that is featured in a scene? And where does a writer feel emotionally comfortable?
I think it’s important, although not always absolutely necessary, to at least link your scenes physically to places you are familiar with. Or, you need to make yourself familiar with those places. Cold in the Light is set in Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, an area I’m intimately familiar with. The Talera books are set on another planet, and I’ve…only been there a few times. But what I haven’t seen in person I try to make up for with research. As writers, we live in a boon time for that. Just about every place has been photographed and those pictures are online. It’s not a complete substitute for actually walking the ground of a place, but it can sure provide many important details. If I need to get an idea of what a jungle waterfall looks like on Talera, I can at least start by checking out photos of jungle waterfalls here on Earth.
On the other hand, when it comes to emotion, I tend to think writers should work from a position of discomfort. I don’t think you want to feel too emotionally comfortable in your fictional world, or else a good source of story tension will be lost. I think this is especially true in some genres. Take horror fiction, for example. I think the best fiction comes when writers are experiencing at least some of the same emotions they want the reader to experience. I realized from Patty’s post, that I like to use claustrophobic situations in my horror. I like to use the dark woods. And those kinds of situations make me intensely uncomfortable myself.
What say you? Is it different for other genres? Or does the rule generally hold true?
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Sunday, March 08, 2009
Starting and Stopping
Three days! After my last round of grading I had three glorious days to work on Wraith of Talera. Since it had been a couple of months since the last time I worked on it, most of those three days was spent in a careful rereading and revision of material already completed. I had to refresh my memory as to where I was in the story. Right about the time I got back to “new” material, mid-terms hit. I managed to get some needed plotting done, but not much in the way of new writing. Since then I’ve been grading. Just grading.
Starting and stopping is one of the hardest things to deal with in on a novel length project. And, unfortunately, that’s the nature of the teaching biz. You have moments of down time, then moments of insanity. And this semester I’m teaching a non-fiction writing class, which means a lot more paper grading than in most semesters. There’s always in academia, in addition, the need to do at least a couple of scholarly type writing projects a year. Those provide more interference with any long-term fiction goal.
But it’s not just the academic job that interferes. I had a couple of really nice opportunities to do some short fiction and nonfiction. They were things I wanted to do and that were good for my career, so the novel went on the back burner. For too long.
I wish I could end this post with a lesson I’ve learned, or a technique for dealing with slow downs. Ain’t gonna happen. I’ve got more grading tomorrow, and on Monday I’ll have a pile of late papers to grade so that I can get midterms turned in by high noon Tuesday. Right now I’m pretty tired and am going to bed. I’ll try to make my blog rounds tomorrow, but Monday and Tuesday are likely to be no shows for me. After that I might get back to a semblance of normalcy for a while. Then it’ll be final exams and all the hassle surrounding graduation.
Just gotta hang on. Gotta hang on.
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Starting and stopping is one of the hardest things to deal with in on a novel length project. And, unfortunately, that’s the nature of the teaching biz. You have moments of down time, then moments of insanity. And this semester I’m teaching a non-fiction writing class, which means a lot more paper grading than in most semesters. There’s always in academia, in addition, the need to do at least a couple of scholarly type writing projects a year. Those provide more interference with any long-term fiction goal.
But it’s not just the academic job that interferes. I had a couple of really nice opportunities to do some short fiction and nonfiction. They were things I wanted to do and that were good for my career, so the novel went on the back burner. For too long.
I wish I could end this post with a lesson I’ve learned, or a technique for dealing with slow downs. Ain’t gonna happen. I’ve got more grading tomorrow, and on Monday I’ll have a pile of late papers to grade so that I can get midterms turned in by high noon Tuesday. Right now I’m pretty tired and am going to bed. I’ll try to make my blog rounds tomorrow, but Monday and Tuesday are likely to be no shows for me. After that I might get back to a semblance of normalcy for a while. Then it’ll be final exams and all the hassle surrounding graduation.
Just gotta hang on. Gotta hang on.
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Thursday, March 05, 2009
Kindle 2: Update
Well, I've found new reasons to like my Kindle, and one reason to not be quite so happy.
First, battery life continues to be outstanding. I hardly ever read more than a couple of hours straight and so far that has posed no problem. And even when I leave the machine running between reading bouts, it has a sleep mode that protects battery life.
Second, and most wonderous, the process of "Kindlizing" many of the ebooks I've already downloaded from the public domain has been virtually effortless. You sign in at Amazon, go to your kindle page, where they have already assigned you an email address based on your registration email address. For example, if the email you registered at Amazon was Nomorecarrots@hotmail.com, your kindle address would be nomorecarrots@kindle.com
You then type in any email address you want kindle to recognize as acceptable, such as a home or work address. You attach files to an email from that address and send it to nomorecarrots@kindle.com. They kindlize it and return it to you. This happens within a minute or two. You can have the kindlized version returned to your computer, or sent directly to your kindle. There is a 10 cent charge for having it sent to your kindle. They add this to your credit card and charge you after you run up $3 bucks worth. It's free if you have the file sent to your computer but then, of course, you'll have to download directly through a USB cable.
Note, however, the kindlizing process is not perfect. It will not, for example, except docx (vista) files. It will recognize MS doc files, and text files. Regular MS.doc files translate almost perfectly to Kindle, although the table of contents for Swords of Talera was formatted with some broken lines. Other than that the formatting was perfect. Text files also translate very well into Kindle, but the kindlizing process seems to take out line breaks so you don't see a break between chapters. I fixed this for my text files by typing in a ----- after each chapter, before uploading. Kindle translated this as a line, thus giving you a break between chaps. Paragraph indents work fine in text and doc files
The one frustrating thing involves PDF files, of which I have a lot. Although the "words" from PDF files translate just fine, the formatting is often screwed up. Paragraph breaks sometimes don't show up, and page breaks are non-existent. This can affect the reading experience and for me it means I won't be routinely uploading PDF files to my kindle. Is there any way to convert PDF files to text or word?
Fortunately or unfortunately, last night, instead of writing, I spent my evening uploading public domain text and word stories to my Kindle. Project Gutenberg has a lot of public domain stuff, including some old horror, fantasy and SF that you can download to your computer as text only, then upload to your Kindle. (Remembering to type in the -----, of course)
But now I have some very cool old fantasy novels to read by the likes of David Lindsey and Lord Dunsany, and some more modern stuff by Hamilton and Carr, and even some "Spider" stuff by Norvell Page. These are things that are hard to find in print, or if you do find it you don't want to read it because the book is falling apart.
Read on!
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First, battery life continues to be outstanding. I hardly ever read more than a couple of hours straight and so far that has posed no problem. And even when I leave the machine running between reading bouts, it has a sleep mode that protects battery life.
Second, and most wonderous, the process of "Kindlizing" many of the ebooks I've already downloaded from the public domain has been virtually effortless. You sign in at Amazon, go to your kindle page, where they have already assigned you an email address based on your registration email address. For example, if the email you registered at Amazon was Nomorecarrots@hotmail.com, your kindle address would be nomorecarrots@kindle.com
You then type in any email address you want kindle to recognize as acceptable, such as a home or work address. You attach files to an email from that address and send it to nomorecarrots@kindle.com. They kindlize it and return it to you. This happens within a minute or two. You can have the kindlized version returned to your computer, or sent directly to your kindle. There is a 10 cent charge for having it sent to your kindle. They add this to your credit card and charge you after you run up $3 bucks worth. It's free if you have the file sent to your computer but then, of course, you'll have to download directly through a USB cable.
Note, however, the kindlizing process is not perfect. It will not, for example, except docx (vista) files. It will recognize MS doc files, and text files. Regular MS.doc files translate almost perfectly to Kindle, although the table of contents for Swords of Talera was formatted with some broken lines. Other than that the formatting was perfect. Text files also translate very well into Kindle, but the kindlizing process seems to take out line breaks so you don't see a break between chapters. I fixed this for my text files by typing in a ----- after each chapter, before uploading. Kindle translated this as a line, thus giving you a break between chaps. Paragraph indents work fine in text and doc files
The one frustrating thing involves PDF files, of which I have a lot. Although the "words" from PDF files translate just fine, the formatting is often screwed up. Paragraph breaks sometimes don't show up, and page breaks are non-existent. This can affect the reading experience and for me it means I won't be routinely uploading PDF files to my kindle. Is there any way to convert PDF files to text or word?
Fortunately or unfortunately, last night, instead of writing, I spent my evening uploading public domain text and word stories to my Kindle. Project Gutenberg has a lot of public domain stuff, including some old horror, fantasy and SF that you can download to your computer as text only, then upload to your Kindle. (Remembering to type in the -----, of course)
But now I have some very cool old fantasy novels to read by the likes of David Lindsey and Lord Dunsany, and some more modern stuff by Hamilton and Carr, and even some "Spider" stuff by Norvell Page. These are things that are hard to find in print, or if you do find it you don't want to read it because the book is falling apart.
Read on!
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Info Dumps in Fantasy Fiction
Typically, info dumps occur when a writer gives a good chunk of background or explanatory information in a story all at once. For example, I seem to remember in The Da Vanci Code that our first sight of the Louvre is followed by a couple of paragraphs of information “about” the building and its history.
Info dumps can sometimes be quite interesting on their own right, but they do seem to slow down the action of a story, and they are often considered a mark of lazy writing. Info dumps don’t accomplish any of the primary story goals, which involve developing characters and moving the plot along.
The problem of info dumps is, I think, exacerbated in fantasy, and probably SF, where huge amounts of information often need to be given the reader before they can truly understand the story. If you have your character transported to another planet, then the reader needs to understand something about the nature of the planet before they can truly involve themselves in the story. While much of this background material can be revealed gradually as the character interacts with his environment, that just doesn’t always seem possible.
Here’s an example from Wraith of Talera. One character comments about a particular race of beings by saying: “They breed like heen.” “Heen,” of course, is something I just made up that moment. They’ve never appeared before in any Talera book. So I have a dilemma. I could leave heen without any explanation and trust the reader will mentally replace heen with something like rabbits, which is the intent of the statement. But that feels incomplete to me. What if the reader just says WTF (fill in the meaning yourself here), and tosses the book aside?
The other choice, it seems to me is to give a quick info dump. Something like: “I knew of the heen. They are rat-sized predators that hunt in huge packs. In appearance, they are like miniature monkeys with big heads, but they have the teeth and feeding habits of piranha. They are notorious for the rapidity with which they reproduce.”
Personally, I feel OK about such short info dumps for two reasons. First, the dump is given from Ruenn’s point of view and it’s already established that he is telling, and eventually writing, this story down in first person for others to read. Since he knows “his” readers won’t know what a heen is, he explains it. I’m OK with that.
Second, I’ve actually always kind of enjoyed such little asides in Sword & Planet fiction, and I’ve been told by other readers that they kind of like them too. It just seems a kind of intimate way of learning little tidbits about the world and cultures that would not normally be examined in the main plot of the story.
So what do you folks thing? Should one let the readers figure out for themselves what “heen” means? Does it distort the flow of the story too much to have such asides? Or do you enjoy such things? And is there a better way to do it? I’m wondering.
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Info dumps can sometimes be quite interesting on their own right, but they do seem to slow down the action of a story, and they are often considered a mark of lazy writing. Info dumps don’t accomplish any of the primary story goals, which involve developing characters and moving the plot along.
The problem of info dumps is, I think, exacerbated in fantasy, and probably SF, where huge amounts of information often need to be given the reader before they can truly understand the story. If you have your character transported to another planet, then the reader needs to understand something about the nature of the planet before they can truly involve themselves in the story. While much of this background material can be revealed gradually as the character interacts with his environment, that just doesn’t always seem possible.
Here’s an example from Wraith of Talera. One character comments about a particular race of beings by saying: “They breed like heen.” “Heen,” of course, is something I just made up that moment. They’ve never appeared before in any Talera book. So I have a dilemma. I could leave heen without any explanation and trust the reader will mentally replace heen with something like rabbits, which is the intent of the statement. But that feels incomplete to me. What if the reader just says WTF (fill in the meaning yourself here), and tosses the book aside?
The other choice, it seems to me is to give a quick info dump. Something like: “I knew of the heen. They are rat-sized predators that hunt in huge packs. In appearance, they are like miniature monkeys with big heads, but they have the teeth and feeding habits of piranha. They are notorious for the rapidity with which they reproduce.”
Personally, I feel OK about such short info dumps for two reasons. First, the dump is given from Ruenn’s point of view and it’s already established that he is telling, and eventually writing, this story down in first person for others to read. Since he knows “his” readers won’t know what a heen is, he explains it. I’m OK with that.
Second, I’ve actually always kind of enjoyed such little asides in Sword & Planet fiction, and I’ve been told by other readers that they kind of like them too. It just seems a kind of intimate way of learning little tidbits about the world and cultures that would not normally be examined in the main plot of the story.
So what do you folks thing? Should one let the readers figure out for themselves what “heen” means? Does it distort the flow of the story too much to have such asides? Or do you enjoy such things? And is there a better way to do it? I’m wondering.
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Sunday, March 01, 2009
Kindle 2
Well, I broke down and bought myself a Kindle 2. It arrived Friday and I’m just about to finish reading my first book on it, Scorpio Reborn, by Kenneth Bulmer, writing under the pseudonym Alan Burt Akers. Bulmer was actually a major influence on my decision to buy a Kindle. His Dray Prescot series of Sword & Planet novels ended at #37 in the USA, but continued for a number of books more in Germany. The series was actually written in English, however, and, recently, Mushroom Books began to release the remaining volumes to English audiences. Unfortunately, they were only available as ebooks, and as much as I wanted to read them I just didn’t think I had the strength to try that task on my laptop. Then I found out there were Kindle editions of the books, and, additionally, that a lot of the classic public domain ebooks I have are, supposedly, relatively easy to "kindleize.” So I bit the bullet.
Let me say I’m glad I did. The Kindle 2 is very well balanced so it’s easy to hold. It weighs about the same as a small hardback. Not all of that is screen, of course. The screen is a little smaller than an old Ace Double Paperback, but since you can change the font size with a couple quick button presses that doesn’t pose a problem. The previous page/next page buttons are well situated for ease of use, and the menu button and small internal mouse work very well. There is a key pad at the bottom of the device, with buttons small enough so that hunting and pecking is required, but they are spaced so that you won’t hit two buttons at once unless you really have sausage fingers.
Within fifteen minutes of opening mine, and after spending only a few of those minutes looking at the manual, I was already ordering books online from Amazon’s Kindle store, and was reading. Since I have an account at Amazon, ordering books from them was very easy, and they arrived on my device in less than a minute.
As for the reading experience, it feels different from a book, although I think that feeling will dissipate as I gain experience with it. After all, I’ve been reading regular books for over 40 years. The different feeling isn’t really a barrier to enjoying an ebook this way, however. I’ve certainly enjoyed the one I’m reading first. The battery charged up pretty quickly, and I spent several hours yesterday and today reading without experiencing any problem with a low battery. I think that’s going to really make this device handy.
I worried about the difference between reading on a screen and on a page, and I have noticed one difference. During regular daylight, the Kindle screen is at least as easy if not easier to read than a paperback page. I do seem to notice a little more glare from the screen under artificial lighting, however, and I think you have to be more careful to position the Kindle under a light source than you would a regular paperback. It has not been a serious issue for me, so far.
The Kindle 2 is not a book. You can’t stick it in a back pocket and you have to be much more careful about dropping it than you would a paper book. But it also has advantages. Instead of packing 15 or 20 different books to take with me on a trip, I can just take the Kindle. It also has a read-to-you function as well, which is actually kind of nice (although I hear there are likely to be audio rights issues with that). And my fifty year old eyes sure like the ability to change font size.
All you need to hook your Kindle to your computer is a USB cable, and then you should be able to move books back and forth between the two devices, and even download music to Kindle. I haven’t done these things yet so I'll have to get back to you on those tasks. In the meantime, though, I’m off to finish my first Kindle ebook.
Happy reading to all.
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Let me say I’m glad I did. The Kindle 2 is very well balanced so it’s easy to hold. It weighs about the same as a small hardback. Not all of that is screen, of course. The screen is a little smaller than an old Ace Double Paperback, but since you can change the font size with a couple quick button presses that doesn’t pose a problem. The previous page/next page buttons are well situated for ease of use, and the menu button and small internal mouse work very well. There is a key pad at the bottom of the device, with buttons small enough so that hunting and pecking is required, but they are spaced so that you won’t hit two buttons at once unless you really have sausage fingers.
Within fifteen minutes of opening mine, and after spending only a few of those minutes looking at the manual, I was already ordering books online from Amazon’s Kindle store, and was reading. Since I have an account at Amazon, ordering books from them was very easy, and they arrived on my device in less than a minute.
As for the reading experience, it feels different from a book, although I think that feeling will dissipate as I gain experience with it. After all, I’ve been reading regular books for over 40 years. The different feeling isn’t really a barrier to enjoying an ebook this way, however. I’ve certainly enjoyed the one I’m reading first. The battery charged up pretty quickly, and I spent several hours yesterday and today reading without experiencing any problem with a low battery. I think that’s going to really make this device handy.
I worried about the difference between reading on a screen and on a page, and I have noticed one difference. During regular daylight, the Kindle screen is at least as easy if not easier to read than a paperback page. I do seem to notice a little more glare from the screen under artificial lighting, however, and I think you have to be more careful to position the Kindle under a light source than you would a regular paperback. It has not been a serious issue for me, so far.
The Kindle 2 is not a book. You can’t stick it in a back pocket and you have to be much more careful about dropping it than you would a paper book. But it also has advantages. Instead of packing 15 or 20 different books to take with me on a trip, I can just take the Kindle. It also has a read-to-you function as well, which is actually kind of nice (although I hear there are likely to be audio rights issues with that). And my fifty year old eyes sure like the ability to change font size.
All you need to hook your Kindle to your computer is a USB cable, and then you should be able to move books back and forth between the two devices, and even download music to Kindle. I haven’t done these things yet so I'll have to get back to you on those tasks. In the meantime, though, I’m off to finish my first Kindle ebook.
Happy reading to all.
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Friday, February 27, 2009
The Curse of the Carrots
Travis Erwin is right in what he says about vegetables. They are the devil's food. I decided to cut back on fattening snacks and replace them with carrots. Dutifully, I bought some baby carrots at the store recently and over the course of a couple of days I "treated" myself to a few when I felt the urge to snack. This was not a wise decision on my part.
My body knows how to handle fatty treats. It responds appropriately. But apparently my body had no idea at all on what to do with carrots. My internal structures from the stomach on down are in wild revolt. Believe me, my brain has gotten the message. I imagine the exchange went something like:
"Hey there, Waste Elimination System, the brain wishes to inform you that the white flag is up. Surrener is imminent. What are your demands?"
*Waste Elimination System makes some untranslatable remark here. But the brain apparently understands and translates it as: "Send in the cupcakes and no one gets hurt."*
"Cupcakes on the way. Please release the intestines from the cramp restraints."
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My body knows how to handle fatty treats. It responds appropriately. But apparently my body had no idea at all on what to do with carrots. My internal structures from the stomach on down are in wild revolt. Believe me, my brain has gotten the message. I imagine the exchange went something like:
"Hey there, Waste Elimination System, the brain wishes to inform you that the white flag is up. Surrener is imminent. What are your demands?"
*Waste Elimination System makes some untranslatable remark here. But the brain apparently understands and translates it as: "Send in the cupcakes and no one gets hurt."*
"Cupcakes on the way. Please release the intestines from the cramp restraints."
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
How Much Violence is Too Much?
In the early 1990s I found some 25 books in the “Edge” series of westerns at a used book sale. They cost a little over a buck all together so I bought them. All but the first had a subtitle of “The Most Violent Westerns in Print” on the cover. Well now, I was already writing horror fiction in those days so I felt like I knew something about violence. These sounded right up my alley. They weren’t. I read the first one, The Loner, and it was definitely violent. But to use an overworked term, the violence seemed gratuitous. I didn’t read anymore, but I kept the rest of the books anyway.
Flash forward to 2009. Someone mentions the Edge books on a blog and I pull out my old collection and give book #2, Ten Grand, a go. I seemed to remember from the first book that the violence seldom had a point, and this book reinforced that in spades. Edge is a brutal psychopath. He is a true anti-hero, amoral, vicious, and bent only on using others for his own ends. He beats and mistreats women whose only fault is to mistakenly link their lives to his. The only saving grace is that he usually doesn’t go ‘out of his way’ to mistreat folks. He prefers to be alone, but woe to anyone who ends up associating with him.
I was hoping for Edge to get gut shot within the first twenty pages of Ten Grand, but since I knew the series ran on for something like fifty books that wasn’t going to happen. After finishing book #2, and knowing I wanted to do a blog post about violence in books, I started book #3, Apache Death to see if it was any different. It was equally violent, but at least this time Edge didn’t beat up or kill any women so I found it a bit more tolerable.
I must also admit that there are some redeeming features about the series. They are fast paced, easy reads, all coming in at around 140 to 160 pages. The prose style is readable and even has a bit of poetry here and there, although the grammar is sometimes atrocious. They also have quite a bit of black humor about them, which softens the brutality a bit. You can see, I believe, a spaghetti western influence. Still, they are not my type of books and I simply don’t like the character of Edge. And the endings seem mostly of the type I’d call “convenience.” Edge is about to find a treasure but something happens and he loses it. Then it’s on to the next volume.
I prefer to be careful slapping the gratuitous violence label on anything. Cold in the Light was accused by one agent of being gratuitously violent. I believe she misinterpreted the book. The Warkind in that book are a warrior caste of a non-human species. Violence in defense and attack is essentially the reason why the Warkind exist. So, although they are violent, the violence is part of their very biology and not gratuitous. Or so I argued to myself.
On the other hand, I’m going to label the Edge books as indeed gratuitously violent. Over and over again we see violence that is not directly necessary to the scene. In Apache Death, for example, we see several women killed during an Indian attack on a fort because, for reasons unknown, they run from their hiding places into the open. It looks like they ran out from hiding just so they could die hideously. We also see in books #2 and #3 various women who have their breasts hacked off. I wonder if the breast hacking theme continues through other books in the series.
Like with sex, it’s always an open question as to how much violence is too much. The issue is complicated for me because most of the books I read certainly contain violence, while relatively few contain graphic sex. I’m inclined to think much the same way about the two issues, though. Violence, or sex, becomes too much when they are no longer integral to the plot of the story, when they appear to be there just for their own sake and not because the story demands them.
What do you think? How much violence is too much? And are there any violent books where you think the violence is absolutely gratuitous? I wanna know.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009
So How Much Sex Do You Need?
How much sex do you need?
In your reading?
I just finished reading book 279 in The Trailsman series, which is an example of an “Adult Western.” There are, or have been, several such series, including an even longer running one called “Longarm.” These types of books appeared as a subgenre in the 1970s, and though they’re pretty standard western stories in most ways, they always contain a few scenes of explicit sex. They generally have a somewhat higher level of violence than the westerns of earlier days, as well. The sex, in particular, is actually required by the series guidelines. If you don’t put it in, you don’t write for the series. The sex is also much more of a male oriented sexual fantasy than the female oriented one you find in romance and urban fantasy.
I’ve only read one Longarm, years ago, and a couple of the Trailsmen books more recently, the latter because they were written by friends of mine. Depending on the skill level of the writer, and both my friends are very fine writers, these books can be excellent examples of the western genre. I almost said a “rousing” adventure, but that skates the pun line a bit too close.
Now, I like westerns and have read a lot of them in my day, but I started wondering why I’ve read so few of the Adult Westerns, despite the fact that many are available. I realized that the explicit sex actually detracts from the story for me. (I found the same thing when I tried to read one of the later books in Laurell K. Hamilton’s series, although at least there has been something ‘more’ than sex in the Adult Westerns I’ve read.)
What happens is that I get involved in the adventure and the suspense of a “story,” then the characters go hopping into bed. I’ve got to page through to get back to the story line. And it’s not because I’m a prude. I don’t flinch at the explicitness of the sex; I don’t screw my lips up in a faint moue of disgust. I just don’t really want to experience “Story Interruptus.”
There is certainly a place for sex, even explicit sex, in fiction. I had a fairly explicit sex scene in Cold in the Light. I’ve also enjoyed some sexually explicit books where the story itself revolved around sex. But when I read fiction I’m reading for the story first. Usually, for me, sex is a garnish where fiction is concerned. And I hardly ever eat the garnish when I order a meal at a fine restaurant.
So, how much sex do you need…in your reading?
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In your reading?
I just finished reading book 279 in The Trailsman series, which is an example of an “Adult Western.” There are, or have been, several such series, including an even longer running one called “Longarm.” These types of books appeared as a subgenre in the 1970s, and though they’re pretty standard western stories in most ways, they always contain a few scenes of explicit sex. They generally have a somewhat higher level of violence than the westerns of earlier days, as well. The sex, in particular, is actually required by the series guidelines. If you don’t put it in, you don’t write for the series. The sex is also much more of a male oriented sexual fantasy than the female oriented one you find in romance and urban fantasy.
I’ve only read one Longarm, years ago, and a couple of the Trailsmen books more recently, the latter because they were written by friends of mine. Depending on the skill level of the writer, and both my friends are very fine writers, these books can be excellent examples of the western genre. I almost said a “rousing” adventure, but that skates the pun line a bit too close.
Now, I like westerns and have read a lot of them in my day, but I started wondering why I’ve read so few of the Adult Westerns, despite the fact that many are available. I realized that the explicit sex actually detracts from the story for me. (I found the same thing when I tried to read one of the later books in Laurell K. Hamilton’s series, although at least there has been something ‘more’ than sex in the Adult Westerns I’ve read.)
What happens is that I get involved in the adventure and the suspense of a “story,” then the characters go hopping into bed. I’ve got to page through to get back to the story line. And it’s not because I’m a prude. I don’t flinch at the explicitness of the sex; I don’t screw my lips up in a faint moue of disgust. I just don’t really want to experience “Story Interruptus.”
There is certainly a place for sex, even explicit sex, in fiction. I had a fairly explicit sex scene in Cold in the Light. I’ve also enjoyed some sexually explicit books where the story itself revolved around sex. But when I read fiction I’m reading for the story first. Usually, for me, sex is a garnish where fiction is concerned. And I hardly ever eat the garnish when I order a meal at a fine restaurant.
So, how much sex do you need…in your reading?
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Forgotten Book Friday: Kalak of the Ice
Growing up, I read everything I could get my hands on by Jim Kjelgaard (pronounced Kyell’-gard). I’ve already reviewed his Desert Dog here, which is my favorite of his works. Some other very good books by him were Snow Dog, which reminded me of Call of the Wild, and Big Red and Irish Red.
Although Kjelgaard wrote mostly about dogs, he did write a cat book, Swamp Cat, and he wrote one about a polar bear. The latter was called Kalak of the Ice and is my topic for today. I read “Kalak” way back yonder and have always remembered it very fondly, but it is one of the hardest of Kjelgaard’s books to find. I finally got a copy off a used book site and just reread it this week.
Did it hold up? Not quite… I found the ending a little weaker than I remembered. But I also found myself once more compelled to turn page after page of Kalak’s story. And I’d probably still have to rate it my second favorite among Kjelgaard’s books.
Kalak, whose name is, I believe, from an Inuit word meaning something like “Bear of the Mist,” is a female polar bear. Through bad luck and human agency, she has lost her last few sets of cubs, and much of the book relates her attempts to protect and teach her new set of three cubs. There is substantial anthropomorphizing of the bears throughout, of course, or we wouldn’t have a book. But Kalak and her cubs are in no way just humans with fur. There really is a sense of bearness about them. At least to me.
Kalak of the Ice also features an Inuit tribe, and I enjoyed getting to know some things about the Inuit as a people. Kjelgaard is able to show the conflict that happens between the bears and the Inuit without making either side out to be the villain.
All in all, this is a great Y/A book. I wish I’d had a copy when Josh was little so I could have gotten him to read it. Well, maybe it’s not too late.
Forgotten Books Friday is the Encephalo kinder of Patricia Abbott.
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Although Kjelgaard wrote mostly about dogs, he did write a cat book, Swamp Cat, and he wrote one about a polar bear. The latter was called Kalak of the Ice and is my topic for today. I read “Kalak” way back yonder and have always remembered it very fondly, but it is one of the hardest of Kjelgaard’s books to find. I finally got a copy off a used book site and just reread it this week.
Did it hold up? Not quite… I found the ending a little weaker than I remembered. But I also found myself once more compelled to turn page after page of Kalak’s story. And I’d probably still have to rate it my second favorite among Kjelgaard’s books.
Kalak, whose name is, I believe, from an Inuit word meaning something like “Bear of the Mist,” is a female polar bear. Through bad luck and human agency, she has lost her last few sets of cubs, and much of the book relates her attempts to protect and teach her new set of three cubs. There is substantial anthropomorphizing of the bears throughout, of course, or we wouldn’t have a book. But Kalak and her cubs are in no way just humans with fur. There really is a sense of bearness about them. At least to me.
Kalak of the Ice also features an Inuit tribe, and I enjoyed getting to know some things about the Inuit as a people. Kjelgaard is able to show the conflict that happens between the bears and the Inuit without making either side out to be the villain.
All in all, this is a great Y/A book. I wish I’d had a copy when Josh was little so I could have gotten him to read it. Well, maybe it’s not too late.
Forgotten Books Friday is the Encephalo kinder of Patricia Abbott.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
For Want of a Better Post
Many of you know that I’m a big fan of Robert E. Howard, who is best known for creating the character of Conan the Cimmerian. Seeing as how work is still kicking my butt much like Conan kicks butt, I thought I’d post a few Conan haiku today. (Using the term haiku very, very loosely.) Eventually, I’ll return to a semblance of normalcy.
Conan walks into a bar. Bar collapses on impact.
Conan is approached by Senator Craig in public restroom. Problem solved.
Conan goes to Hell. They give him Hell.
Conan named Vice President. Stimulus bill passes.
Conan goes to Wall Street. Street name changed to Wasteland.
Conan is thrown from horse. Horse apologizes, then commits hari-kari.
Conan gets drunk. Ale makers have a very good year.
Conan believes the guts of his enemies will sharpen his sword. Conan is right.
Conan is bitten by a poisonous snake. After hours of intense agony, snake dies.
Conan falls onto a bed of nails. Nails now useless.
Conan is downsized. Bad move.
Conan meets Captain Kirk. Kirk must have phaser surgically removed from ass.
Conan meets Captain Picard. Finds that Picard’s bald head adds great shine to boots.
Conan meets Spock. Spock neither prospers, nor lives long.
Conan meets Oprah. No steak available. Conan eats Oprah.
Conan meets Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil tells Conan he has anger issues. Dr. Phil cancelled.
Drunk again, Conan stumbles onto field at Super Bowl. Conan wins.
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Conan walks into a bar. Bar collapses on impact.
Conan is approached by Senator Craig in public restroom. Problem solved.
Conan goes to Hell. They give him Hell.
Conan named Vice President. Stimulus bill passes.
Conan goes to Wall Street. Street name changed to Wasteland.
Conan is thrown from horse. Horse apologizes, then commits hari-kari.
Conan gets drunk. Ale makers have a very good year.
Conan believes the guts of his enemies will sharpen his sword. Conan is right.
Conan is bitten by a poisonous snake. After hours of intense agony, snake dies.
Conan falls onto a bed of nails. Nails now useless.
Conan is downsized. Bad move.
Conan meets Captain Kirk. Kirk must have phaser surgically removed from ass.
Conan meets Captain Picard. Finds that Picard’s bald head adds great shine to boots.
Conan meets Spock. Spock neither prospers, nor lives long.
Conan meets Oprah. No steak available. Conan eats Oprah.
Conan meets Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil tells Conan he has anger issues. Dr. Phil cancelled.
Drunk again, Conan stumbles onto field at Super Bowl. Conan wins.
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
All Work and No Play
Work has been kicking my butt this week, and that'll probably continue through next week. Then we'll have a little break for Mardi Gras. I don't really plan to do any parading. Been there, done that. I'll be home relaxing and reading. About all I've been able to get read is a couple of items I'll briefly review below. I also haven't been able to visit blogs as regularly but will try to get caught up today. My blog list is so big by now, though, that it's become pretty tough to make it through every post. I'm typically seeing about 80 posts a day.
Books Read:
I So Don't Do Mysteries by our own Barrie Summy. I am very much not the audience for this book. I think its target audience is 9 to 12 year old girls. There was still a lot of humor in it that I caught, and the writing was perfect for both the characters and the audience. I believe a lot of young girls will enjoy it very much. There were certainly many twists and turns, and most chapters ended with neat cliffhangers.
The Nightmare Collection by Bruce Boston. I very much am the audience for this book, which is a collection of Boston's speculative poetry. It's chock full of poems as well, weighing in at 95 pages, which is a tome compared to the typical poetry chapbook of 25 pages or so. And everything here is very good. Boston is quite possible the best speculative poet working today. His works have received numerous awards, but the proof is in the reading. Consider, "A small woman wearing a sheathe of dark feathers," or "I build engines from ivory and scrimshaw and the jaw-bones of apes."
Let me end with a quote from one of Boston's prose poems.
"When capital severed the tongues of science, when
politiicans sat in boardrooms, when the great religions of
the world would not stem the rising tide of mouths and
hands and the Earth began to wobble under the weight of
our species, you may remember that our family would often
gather for a sumptuous Christmas feast."
Nuff said!
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Books Read:
I So Don't Do Mysteries by our own Barrie Summy. I am very much not the audience for this book. I think its target audience is 9 to 12 year old girls. There was still a lot of humor in it that I caught, and the writing was perfect for both the characters and the audience. I believe a lot of young girls will enjoy it very much. There were certainly many twists and turns, and most chapters ended with neat cliffhangers.
The Nightmare Collection by Bruce Boston. I very much am the audience for this book, which is a collection of Boston's speculative poetry. It's chock full of poems as well, weighing in at 95 pages, which is a tome compared to the typical poetry chapbook of 25 pages or so. And everything here is very good. Boston is quite possible the best speculative poet working today. His works have received numerous awards, but the proof is in the reading. Consider, "A small woman wearing a sheathe of dark feathers," or "I build engines from ivory and scrimshaw and the jaw-bones of apes."
Let me end with a quote from one of Boston's prose poems.
"When capital severed the tongues of science, when
politiicans sat in boardrooms, when the great religions of
the world would not stem the rising tide of mouths and
hands and the Earth began to wobble under the weight of
our species, you may remember that our family would often
gather for a sumptuous Christmas feast."
Nuff said!
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Writers Who Haven't Influenced Me
I love when writers talk about their influences. I find it endlessly fascinating and have done it myself. Some of my major influences would be Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John D. MacDonald, and Louis L’Amour.
But it occurred to me, twisted soul that I am, that authors almost never talk about writers who had no influence on them, despite the fact that they'd read one or more of that writer’s works. So, let me give you a list of my top non-influences.
1. William Faulkner – I’ve read a couple of Faulkner’s books and some of his short stories. I like the stories better, and believe Faulkner was a pretty good writer. But his style of telling stories, and his characters, just aren’t for me. And they are so different from my style and characters that I just can’t see how I could ever be influenced by him. Perhaps that’s to my detriment. But I just can’t see a Faulkner Effect anywhere in my writing.
2. Raymond Carver – I’ve read one collection of Carver’s stories and didn’t like any of them. People tell me he’s a good writer. OK. But I want characters who act, for good or ill, and Carver’s characters don’t act. They talk. I also find his characters unbelievable. I've never met any real life people like them, for example. Perhaps to my detriment again, I would strive very hard to not write like Carver.
3. Franz Kafka - I read The Metamorphosis and found it profoundly silly. I believe the basic themes have been done much better by other, and in a much more believable fashion. I can see nothing of Kafka in my work.
4. Hunter S. Thompson – Now here's a writer whose work I actually like. I’ve read several of his books and various of his essays. I’ve enjoyed them, but that style of “gonzo” journalism is as far beyond me as differential equations. Nothing from Thompson has spilled onto me. Except maybe some booze.
5. Tom Clancy – here’s another writer I like fairly well, but his subject matter and way of expressing himself on the page are very different from mine and I don’t see any sign of Clancy graftings in my own work.
6. There are other writers who I’ve enjoyed who I think have had little if any influence on my own work. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, John Grisham, Richard Laymon are among them. All are fine writers, and I’ve very much enjoyed Asimov and Clarke, but it’s their stories that resonate with me, not their style and approach to writing.
How about you? Who weren’t you influenced by? And it doesn't have to be writers. Heff could tell us who didn't influence his drinking. Or Lana could tell us who didn't influence her art. The possibilities are endless.
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Sunday, February 08, 2009
Sunday Roast, and Writing Quiz
David McMahon did his Sunday Roast interview with me this week. I appreciate David taking the time to run it. I enjoyed answering his questions. You can check it out on his blog if you've a mind to.
I haven't mentioned much here about the writing class I'm teaching this semester but so far it is going well and I seem to have a pretty good crew of students. Below is the first quiz I gave them. I'll bet you all get them correct. Or else you'll want to argue with me about the correct answer. ;)
Writing Quiz. Each blank = 1 point.
1. In trying to communicate specific information, the main
advantage of writing over talking is: _______________________
2. The main disadvantage of writing is: _________________________
3. (1 Pt). Which of the following is NOT one of the "good"
habits that I suggested you develop to improve your writing?
a. Schedule a time for writing and stick to it.
b. Use a dictionary to look up words that you are unsure about.
c. Write only until you get tired, then stop for the day.
d. Read a wide variety of other people's writings, from textbooks
to novels.
e. All of these are "good" habits.
4. Since your audience is not present when you are writing a
paper, you must think more carefully about what you are going
to say than when you are having a spoken conversation. Name
two things that you can do which could help you figure out the
kinds of questions readers might ask.
a. _________________________
b. _________________________
True/False (1 point each). (Please circle your answer).
5. T. F. The only reason for writing is to communicate ideas.
6. T. F. Writing skills depend upon inborn verbal abilities and
cannot be learned.
7. T. F. Once you have found a formula for writing a successful
term paper, you should stick with it so that you
will always be guaranteed to get good grades.
8. T. F. I suggested that you should just assume that the first
draft of your paper is not good enough to hand in.
9. T. F. Writing is easy.
10. T. F. There is only one way to write a good paper.
11. Name the most recent book that you have read (or are
currently reading): ____________________
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Answers: (AS I See Them)
1. You have time to consider your full argument without having anyone waiting impatiently to see what you're going to say.
2. You don't get immediate feedback about your success, or lack of it, at conveying your message to readers.
3. I think "C" is a bad habit. I urge my students not to write to exhaustion but to push themselves.
4. A. Develop your own critical reading habit.
B. Ask peers to read your work and tell you where they got confused.
For the True/False, 8 is true and all the others are false.
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I haven't mentioned much here about the writing class I'm teaching this semester but so far it is going well and I seem to have a pretty good crew of students. Below is the first quiz I gave them. I'll bet you all get them correct. Or else you'll want to argue with me about the correct answer. ;)
Writing Quiz. Each blank = 1 point.
1. In trying to communicate specific information, the main
advantage of writing over talking is: _______________________
2. The main disadvantage of writing is: _________________________
3. (1 Pt). Which of the following is NOT one of the "good"
habits that I suggested you develop to improve your writing?
a. Schedule a time for writing and stick to it.
b. Use a dictionary to look up words that you are unsure about.
c. Write only until you get tired, then stop for the day.
d. Read a wide variety of other people's writings, from textbooks
to novels.
e. All of these are "good" habits.
4. Since your audience is not present when you are writing a
paper, you must think more carefully about what you are going
to say than when you are having a spoken conversation. Name
two things that you can do which could help you figure out the
kinds of questions readers might ask.
a. _________________________
b. _________________________
True/False (1 point each). (Please circle your answer).
5. T. F. The only reason for writing is to communicate ideas.
6. T. F. Writing skills depend upon inborn verbal abilities and
cannot be learned.
7. T. F. Once you have found a formula for writing a successful
term paper, you should stick with it so that you
will always be guaranteed to get good grades.
8. T. F. I suggested that you should just assume that the first
draft of your paper is not good enough to hand in.
9. T. F. Writing is easy.
10. T. F. There is only one way to write a good paper.
11. Name the most recent book that you have read (or are
currently reading): ____________________
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-----
Answers: (AS I See Them)
1. You have time to consider your full argument without having anyone waiting impatiently to see what you're going to say.
2. You don't get immediate feedback about your success, or lack of it, at conveying your message to readers.
3. I think "C" is a bad habit. I urge my students not to write to exhaustion but to push themselves.
4. A. Develop your own critical reading habit.
B. Ask peers to read your work and tell you where they got confused.
For the True/False, 8 is true and all the others are false.
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