A Little Happy Dance

My short story Can Sucker has made it to the second round of reviews for Escape Pod's science fiction podcast. Woot!

Looks Like a Sale for "The Saturday Dance"

Hey, gang-

It looks like I've just sold my Voudoun-based short story, "The Saturday Dance," to Lore magazine. I'm jazzed because Lore is a great magazine. I'm also happy because it's print - a new world for me. It will come out in Lore 4 in either September or October of this year.

It wasn't about the free stuff, Mitt (political rant)

It wasn't about the free stuff, Mitt - we just didn't like you.

We didn't like the way you flipflopped like a gaffed salmon. We didn't like the brazen way you did it, or your Etch-a-Sketchin' aides, or the way you ran from your biggest achievement in the primaries (healthcare, by the way, not LBOs), only to circle around and try to take credit for it again in the general election. To us, it looked like more than cynicism - it looked like contempt for your fellow Americans. Did you think we wouldn't notice? Or that we wouldn't care?

We didn't like the stories of you as a high school bully. It would have been one thing if you had owned up to it, demonstrated an understanding of what you had done, and apologized like a man. Instead, you weaseled away from it, like a politician.

We didn't like the outright lies, like that commercial about shipping car production to China. Neither did GM - car company repudiating a Republican candidate? First time ever. (See Paragraph 2, above, "Did you think we wouldn't notice?")

We didn't like your belief that a low capital gains tax is sound economics, but low interest on college loans is a handout.

And finally, all of us moochers didn't like your selective blindness to your own free stuff: an exclusive, expensive education; guaranteed connections to powerful networks of friends and family; access to family loans for, say, a first house. We didn't like your blithe assumption that the poor are poor because they don't share your work ethic, as opposed to not sharing your head start. Yes, you worked hard. So do janitors, administrative assistants, porters, waiters - we ALL work hard. Do you really believe that breaking up companies does more for this country than nursing?

Good-bye.

How much would it take to storm-proof New York?

What we want to avoid...

Interesting article in the Atlantic.

Storm surge barriers, built-up dunes, effective levees, underground power lines. The cost is big, but not insane, considering the damage already done by Sandy.

The storm surge barriers are pretty impressive. What is it about the really big civil engineering projects - they always feel like they're just on the cusp of science fiction.

Bloomberg Just Cancelled the NYC Marathon

Someone saw reason at City Hall.

At the best of times, the marathon is a mixed bag for NY residents: great and a fun thing to watch (or even do) once or twice. It boosts tourism. It also snarls traffic hopelessly, packs the sidewalks, and turns otherwise quiet neighborhoods into bedlam. Worse, it demands an increased police presence, increased sanitation, increased engineering and transit presence, and so on. Meanwhile, there are still big chunks of the city without power. My take is that when they decided to go on, the mayor's office hadn't really understood the extent of the damage.

ETA: The marathon boosts the NYC economy by $350 million a year. Understandably, that's a lot of bucks that might be used to help recovery efforts. But that's money that only goes to emergency services partially, indirectly, and over time, in the form of taxes. And what of all the businesses that can't take advantage of the marathon, because they have no power? Closing it - still the best decision.

Sandy Is Coming

2:30 PM. Want to buy batteries at the Duane Reade? In and out in five minutes. Want to buy delicious crostini at the Trader Joes? The line is around the block.

Heh-heh-heh.

Make sure you get your pesto and your olive tapenade, my beautiful, impractical neighbors.

I Met Tippi Hedren

For reals.

HBO's doing this docudrama about Hitchcock's abuse of her. Having met Ms. Hedren briefly, I'm on her side.

I was working as an electrician on a low-budget indie film (I never saw the finished product in theaters, but years later, in Vienna, I saw it running on a hotel TV under the title "Der Labyrinthen Der Leydenschaft"). Tippi was one of the supporting players. She still looked great, and she was gracious to everyone.

And that's it. Nothing more to say - although it was admittedly great for a recent film-school grad to be on the same set.

Scored the Annotated Alice

Long ago, my brother and I had a copy of The Annotated Alice, Martin Gardner's astounding edition of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass which explained all the mathematico-logical in-jokes and history that Carroll had scattered through the books.

Well, I just found a copy in the "put-a-penny tak-a-penny" bookshelves of my building's laundry room. I will bring down all my thrillers and the Millennium Trilogy in return.

Yes, I'm a massive nerd. We've met, no?

Where Have I Been?

The Rocket Museum

They Also Do Math

I know, wonder, wonder, wonder. Well, as you may remember, I was spending a bunch of weeks looking at hotels in my fair city and writing them up for NewYork.com. In the process, I relearned about a super cool museum out in Queens, the New York Hall Hall of Science. Not only does the NYHS have gen-yoo-wine, honest-to-goshness ROCKETS (Mercury and Gemini and a chunk of an Apollo) but it also has interactive science exhibits. In fact, they're so cool that one of the earliest, Mathematica, was designed by Charles and Ray Eames, of beautiful chair fame.

And then I was doing some contract work for my alma mater - roar, Lion, roar! - and the day rate was sufficiently high for me to focus on that work to the exclusion of this beloved (but unpaid) blog. But I'm back. And I'm working on Book Two of the Wrong Sword trilogy, Hero's Army.

And I learned enough about Dreamweaver for Windows to know that it is the Devil's work. EVIL!

Write, write, write...

"He knew that the sort of exuberant badness which so often achieves perfect popularity cannot be faked ..."

Gore Vidal had it sussed. Writing is actually not that tough, if you're freed from the fear that it will be bad. It's the desire to write well that makes writing so hard.

Why I Love the Middle Ages

Went to the Cloisters today. Check it out.

So beautiful. More to come.

K.W. Jeter Is Following Me on Twitter.

Shouldn't you?
@excalibur61

Seriously - I'm in a fanboy daze. If it weren't for KWJ, we wouldn't have the Court of the Air, Perdido Street Station, Girl Genius, Lovelace and Babbage...

He is one of the progenitors of steampunk. Hell, he COINED THE TERM "STEAMPUNK." How many writers can honestly say they midwifed a whole new genre?

The man wrote two of the earliest steampunk fantasias: Morlock Nights and Infernal Devices (the latter of which was the earliest example of "clockpunk.")

Shout out to you, KWJ.

Industrial Revolution Mark Two

So I was watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. I was a little puzzled. These are the first opening ceremonies I've seen, so I don't have a yardstick. But...flying Mary Poppinses? A nod to the NHS?

I did like the ending, though. Forging the rings...hmm. Tolkien reference.

Still, I can see it appealing to the Steampunks among us. IKB rules!

Who Loves Ya, Babe?

We practiced with these

Because I want nothing but the best, most accurate prose for you, my faithful readers, I took a sword fighting class on Tuesday. Broadsword, specifically (although we practiced with katanas). I learned about true edge (the one opposite your supporting thumb) about upper and lower lines, and about not going to the hospital. Cool!

There's something deeply satisfying about holding a weapon - and I say this is a committed gun-control proponent. Also the instructor was really cute - she had this Callie Thorne thing going on. But the next day, my ankles - hoo, boy! Yikes. That's why middle-aged men are generals, not swordsmen.

What I do for my fans.

Have You Met...George?

George Orwell, that is. Yeah, yeah - Animal Farm, 1984, I know.

But many people don't realize that Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair, his real name) was an even better essayist and journalist than he was a creator of fiction. He had the ability - born of native talent and long, careful effort - to convey the most complex and nuanced ideas in simple, powerful language.

You want to improve your writing? You want to wring all the mush, stale clichés and tired description out of your prose? Then read Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language. Go ahead. Do it now - you can thank me later.

A Shameless Library Plea

You know one of the most important ways for libraries to decide what books to acquire? Patron requests.

You - yes, you! - now have a chance to change your world for the better. The next time you're at your local repository of timeless wisdom, request your favorite e-book of all time...The Wrong Sword!

Let's Open This Up

Hi, Melissa!

When I started blogging, I kind of intended to talk just about things related to fantasy, history, science fiction, and The Wrong Sword. But you know what? Heck with it.

I am vast, I contain multitudes. I'm going to blog about whatever sets my little heart a-flutter, from Melissa Rauch to deconstructionist textual criticism to the latest goonery and thuggery  from our Fearless Leaders. (See if you can guess which FLs I'm talking about as the posts progress...)

By the way, j/k about that deconstructionist thing.

Damage, Nerds, and Mr. Grey

There's nothing like standing on a street corner in Brownstone Brooklyn and yakking about science fiction. Really, try it some time.

So I was talking to my buddy S. (who will be coming out with a YA dystopian in a year or two that will knock your socks off) and we got onto the topic of escapism. S. made the point that spec-fic fans are damaged. (Now, before anyone gets huffy, bear in mind that S. is a fan, she writes the stuff, and she will cheerfully cop to being damaged herself...even though anyone who met her would see just a cool, good-looking chick in her early 30s who is totally in charge of her own life.) Her point was that spec fic is about escapism, if you need to escape on a regular basis you're unhappy in your life, and that unhappiness indicates or is the result of damage.

Four or five years ago, I would have fought this. I would have said that some people just like F/SF. I would have said that it was a stereotyped statement. I would have been King Denier. But now, I think she's right, and I'm okay with it. Because you know what? We're ALL damaged. Not just the F/SF fans. The romance novel industry makes science fiction's revenues look like chump change. And how about all those folks reading detective novels? What about action movies, TV police procedurals, American Idol?

So the real question isn't "do you want to escape"? It's "what do you want to escape into?"

Maybe some kinds of escape are better than others. Maybe escaping into (say) a novel that invites you to think about the universe in new ways is better than escaping into a novel in which technology just offers you new ways to be more powerful and take your revenge on others. Maybe stories that reinforce passivity and power-worship...>cough< Twilight >cough<...are immoral, but novels that make you think, even as you're escaping, are good. What you might call a book "with its heart in the right place."

More on this, eventually.

Actual Books!

Holy wood pulp, Batman - it looks like there might be actual hold-in-your-hand books forthcoming from my publishers. But here's the catch: They'll be promotional copies. So I have to figure out how many we'll need...

Get the Word Out!

If you've read The Wrong Sword, review it on Amazon!
If you haven't read The Wrong Sword - well, why the hell not? It's fun!

I know, I know-
I'm just a bottomless sucking vortex of neediness.

But seriously - reviews are GOLD. If you read TWS and like it...YOU HAVE THE POWER.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.