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| Thursday, January 7th, 2010 |
ann_leckie
|
10:55a |
Sold a story, sold a story, sold a stooooory just now...
Yesterday afternoon my notifier popped up in the corner of my desktop to tell me I'd gotten an email from Electric Velocipede. "Ah, that'll be my rejection," I said to myself. Wrong! The editor of Electric Velocipede would like to accept my story "Night's Slow Poison." I'm extremely pleased. My Clarion West peeps might remember it as my Week 3 story, "Spacecrawl." My non-Clarion West peeps won't remember--because they weren't there--that during Week 1, two classmates turned in stories titled "Crawlspace." This was a complete coincidence, but very amusing. Another classmate joked that we should all turn in stories called "Spacecrawl." Two of us did--S. Hutson Blount's sold some time ago to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, under a slightly altered title. And now mine finally has a home--a lovely one. It's a story that, for various reasons, I'm irrationally extra-fond of, and I've been really hoping to place it somewhere cool. And now I have! Current Mood:  pleased |
| Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 |
maeve_the_red
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8:00p |
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| Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 |
catrambo
|
8:09p |
I'm Not A Girl and Haven't Been One Since I Hit Puberty
I've been trying to figure out how to phrase this without sounding bitchy, and I'm not sure I can. I'm delighted that RoF is doing an issue featuring female writers and I think it's a savvy move, given some of the flak they've caught in the past. I wish they didn't shoot themselves in the foot by referring to those writers as "girls", though. :( *facepalm*
In more productive areas of discussion, I'm at 10.5k words for 2010 so far, which includes one completed story.
Current Mood:  quixotic |
ktempest
|
10:30a |
AlphaSmart vs. Netbook (Or: Should I Dust Off My Old Tech?)
While I was looking for a picture of my version of the AlphaSmart for yesterday’s post I came across a post touting the superiority of the Neo (that’s what they’re calling AlphaSmarts these days) over netbooks. To say I was shocked is an understatement. In these times when netbooks flow from the heavens like water, why in the world would anyone still use an AlphaSmart? I was doubly surprised to discover that this guy is an SF writer (he went to Viable Paradice). Thinking on it, I’ve probably met him. But that’s neither here nor there, my main shock remains: AlphaSmart over netbook? No wai!
He even has the same netbook I do, a Samsung NC10. Yet he still feels that the portability and usability of an AlphaSmart is far, far better. He also cites battery longevity. Though I’ll agree that years of battery life is better than a few hours, ever since I got my NC10 I haven’t felt chained to an outlet. (It’s the 7+ hours of battery life, I love it, so.) And while it is great to have a machine that allows you to concentrate on just one thing, writing, the device is just a little too unitasking for me.
One of the reasons I stopped using my AlphaSmart is that it was crap for editing. Sure, it would allow you to get some words down on the screen and drive forward. However, you certainly can’t edit really well on that thing, or go back through what you’ve written and try to take stock in a meaningful way. And only seeing 4 lines of text at a time felt like far too little. You can’t edit already-existing text. And if you’ve typed a major chunk of your novel on the thing, good luck trying to get a sense of the structure.
Not that Marko claimed the Neo could do any of these things. These were just my reasons for giving the machine up. I needed a gadget that would allow me to do all of my writing tasks, from the first draft through to the editing stage, that was easy to carry, light, and had a reasonably-sized screen. Aftre I accomplished that with my Eee PC, my next goal was a netbok with long battery life so I wouldn’t have to worry about outlets. And here were are.
Having read through his whole review, though, do you think that the Neo has enough advantages over a netbook to justify putting the latter aside?
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| Monday, January 4th, 2010 |
ecmyers
|
4:22p |
advice on writing
One of the drawbacks of Twitter is by the time I follow a link someone posted, I forget who linked it, and it's really hard to find again. So I'm just going to repost this educational and supportive video of twenty-eight young adult authors (a smart group of people!) doling out advice on writing. I hope it's helpful; I know some of my friends are working on their first novels, and even though it isn't November, I imagine a lot of other people have made New Year's resolutions to finally write something. It never hurts to hear this stuff again, even if you know it already, and I think I agree with pretty much all of this advice--except for the laser printer thing :) If you don't read or write YA, don't worry, the advice also applies to books for grups. So here it is, "Everyone is Free (To Buy a Laser Printer): |
ktempest
|
10:30a |
Got Any Old Tech From The Last Decade Still Sitting Around The House?
I was rummaging through my closet looking for something when I came across an old Sony Discman bag from when I was a teenager. This bag was specially designed to hold the CD player, my prized possession for many years, plus some CDs and those crappy headphones everyone I knew worse. Of course, that all went to the garbage heap the decade before that last one. I vaguely remembered what I’d shoved in the bag since then, and opening confirmed it: My MiniDisc player and all of my minidiscs.
 What’s a minidisc, you might ask? It was the best thing since CDs, my friends, and I believe I bought my first one in the year 2000, ten years ago. The one in the bag was my second, as the first was either lost or stolen (can’t remember which). I loved this gadget to death and eschewed all others, including MP3 players.
Minidiscs were more awesome than the MP3 players out at that time. And even after the iPod came out it was still a while before I decided that an MP3 player would suit me better. Apparently I couldn’t bear to give up my beloved player, though.
Did you know you can still buy minidisc players? Weird.
I put the bag back in the closet on top of my Alphasmart, another device I couldn’t live without for a long time. It was my proto-netbook, though I was always yearning to do more with it. Still, it was a great writing companion. You typed whatever into the Alphasmart — which could hold quite a bit of text — then transferred it to your computer via the PS/2 keyboard port. No, it wasn’t perfect, and USB connectivity would have been more useful (that was the second generation), but it allowed me to carry around a device with full-sized keys that I could write on whenever I had some time, yet didn’t kill my back with heaviness. Like I said, proto-netbook.
 Next to the Alphasmart sits another bag with my N64 in it along with all of my games. I looked inside about a month ago and found my old Neuros MP3 player. Loved that thing, too…. until it broke. (After a year. It was pretty crap.) But yes, it’s still in there. Right next to my (now non-working) HP Jornada 545 PDA. Though that lasted much, much longer than a year — I believe it finally gave up the ghost in 2007.
Yes, I have trouble letting go.
I know I should get rid of all that stuff. After all, I obviously don’t use it, anymore. I have a new MP3 player, a netbook, and I don’t play console games much anymore. But every time I come across them I feel a wave of affection. At one time or another in the last decade, my digital life revolved around these devices. They were awesome, in their day, and just tossing them out (or even sending them to be recycled at Gazelle.com) doesn’t seem quite right. I’m sure I’ll feel differently if I’m ever forced to move, but for now the closet remains their home.
What about you, what gadgets do you still have around your house even though they’re no longer working or obselete? Why did you love/like them when you used them and what tech replaced them in your heart?
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ktsparrow
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5:56a |
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| Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 |
catrambo
|
9:43p |
Back!
Back and will be catching up with e-mail tomorrow. Wrote a 4.5 k story while up at what turns out to be San Juan Island, not Orcas (which those who headed out to see Mt. Constitution discovered). And got another one started, but it's dreadfully middleless at the moment.
Here's a teaser from the finished piece, whose title I dunno quite yet, it's still in 1st draft form:. This book was bound in thick black leather, and a brass clasp held its pages closed. It smelled bad – a whisper of scent reached Lucinda, redolent of dead things and sulfur. She knew to the core of her being that it was a magic book, and one that her father, her gentle tender-hearted father, should not be consulting. But she saw him open the brass clasp and take a knife to the tip of his finger, that he might lay a drop of shining red blood on the title page. Lucinda could not see very well from her vantage point, but it looked to her as though the book simply absorbed the blood, drinking it in thirstily through the white page.
She raised herself on her elbow to see better and made the smallest of noises as she did so. Her father turned, and saw her looking.
“Go to sleep, Lucinda,” he said. “This is an adult thing, and not for your eyes.”
“What are you doing?” she asked. She had heard tales of necromancy and demon-summoning, of the arts that black wizards practiced, but she had never heard them from her father, only the distorted tales told to scare naughty village children or the even more lurid versions that the children told each other. Fear seized her: her father was dabbling in dark magic.
“Researching,” he said.
“Researching what?”
But he did not answer that question, only repeated, “Go to sleep, Lucinda.” And with the words must have come a spell, for she found herself lying back down, suddenly drowsy and content and warm, feeling herself safe in bed, with no thoughts of dead things or evil arts, sleeping and not hearing the rustle of Del turning pages, his face intent on the words written there. Current Mood:  contemplative |
| Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 |
ktsparrow
|
5:26p |
Happy Palindrome Day!
In celebration, I went on a walk and saw two rare sightings: a bobcat and a salamander. This makes for a very auspicious palindrome day. Go 01/02/2010! |
ktsparrow
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7:11a |
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| Friday, January 1st, 2010 |
ktsparrow
|
5:27p |
Things I loved in 2009....
1. Learning to jog. Slow and not very far, but still, a revelation. 2. "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins and "How I Live Now" by Meg Rosoff. Both of them made me cry in the good way. 3. No one in my household having medical emergencies. Huzzah! 4. Beard Daddy's cream puffs. Odd name, luscious yum. 5. Getting to hear some of my short fiction up on Escape Pod and Pod Castle. It had been a long time since I'd written either of the stories, long enough that I couldn't remember them too well, and it's really lovely to get told a story by yourself. 6. Friends and family who make me feel lucky to know them, and who are firm in their support of my crazy schemes. 7. The surprise of story ideas that hit out of the blue in a shivery, almost spooky, way. 8. The mentally ill people who allow me to witness their lives and let me work with them. They pay people to do that? So awesome. 9. Alone time to walk around the woods and think about things, both real and imagined. And the things I love about 2010? The fact that the future is unwritten, and we get to make it together. |
ecmyers
|
4:06a |
the only year-end summary you'll get from me
I'm not too into introspection about the past year or decade or whatever. Move forward, I say! Do better, do more, etc. Stuff happened, much of it quite good, and I hope 2010 is even more awesome. It's certainly going to be interesting. In any case, Happy New Year to all! Someone recently asked me for my list of the best books I read this year. Goodreads tells me that I managed to read 67 books in 2009, mostly YA and MG (not counting unpubbed manuscripts, naturally). Of those, my top ten, in no particular order, are: Hate List by Jennifer Brown Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins Scott Pilgrim Versus the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley If I Stay by Gayle Forman Ordinary Ghosts by Eireann Corrigan The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz There were a whole bunch of honorable mentions, including How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff, Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, Saga by Conor Kostick, Deadline by Chris Crutcher, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine, Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, Candor by Pam Bachorz, Dull Boy by Sarah Cross, Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev, Ice by Sarah Beth Durst, The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki, The Magic Thief (#1 and 2) by Sarah Prineas, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan (a lot of Sarahs, aren't there?), Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, The Exchange by Graham Joyce, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, and many more... I already have a big stack of books to get through in January, so 2010 will be off to a good start! |
| Thursday, December 31st, 2009 |
catrambo
|
9:34a |
Oh, It's -That- Time
We're scrambling around this morning getting ready to head up to Orcas Island for a few days, which we've been doing for NYE for a few years now. It's odd how these days between Christmas and New Year's feel a little like a pocket of time that doesn't usually get visited. Everyone's writing up their end of the year retrospectives and lists, and thinking about what next year has in store.
I'm looking forward to next year. We've got some changes coming that will be interesting, including moving into Seattle, and some fun times planned. My resolutions for the New Year's are simple - to get back into hitting my word count each day and to get in better shape by actually using that gym membership. Did you make any resolutions? What are they and how do you plan to make them stick? Current Mood:  awake |
catrambo
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12:01a |
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| Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 |
mkhobson
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8:01a |
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ktempest
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11:00a |
Dollhouse, Mary Sue, And Trying To Figure Out Just What Is Wrong With Whedon
I’ve had this swirling around in my head since the last Dollhouse episode aired but haven’t had a chance to make it solid, so I want to discuss. I’ve been thinking about the whole concept of Echo being “special” and how this keeps being repeated over and over and hammered in, but we’re never really given a reason why. The show upped the ante with the recent revelation that Caroline (the pre-Echo) did something horrible to this Bennett individual which caused her to lose functionality in her arm and also to hold a very deep grudge. Bennett said something about how Caroline always charmed people and such, and that inate awesomeness apparently still comes through even though she’s Echo.
Thing is, I really just don’t buy this.
Not even just because Eliza Dushku’s acting doesn’t convey all this awesomeness terribly well. Beyond that, this whole concept feels really contrived and pushed on us by the writers instead of something the audience actually experiences. It’s very much like a Mary Sue plot, but whose Mary Sue is Echo?
You could say she’s Eliza’s since she is an Executive Producer and must have some say over plot elements. I don’t get that feeling, though. I feel like this is all coming from Whedon. That doesn’t disqualify this trope from being Mary Sue-ish (after all, Stephen Moffett just loves his female Mary Sues), but I wonder if something else is going on. Like, this is some weird male-centric fantasy that has the Mary Sue flavor but behind it is not some fantasy about being awesome and loved but a fantasy deeply centered in the male gaze and psyche.
Am I making sense? Are you seeing this, too? WTF is this all about? I am sure I’ve encountered all of this before but damned if I can remember a specific show, movie, or book.
Comments | Permalink |
| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 |
mkhobson
|
4:13p |
Nemontemi
 Per the Aztecs, nemontemi is the five days at the end of the calendar year, called the “useless” days. They are supposed to be a time of abstemiousness, fasting, prayer, and the general cessation of normal activities. They are also, it appears, a time of very bad luck for those who undertake to make soup. I thought I’d warn you.
After going out to play in the snow with the kids and dogs, I came home to find my much-anticipated chicken soup (made with stock I lovingly reduced overnight in a 250-degree oven) a charred pot of smoking tragedy. I was sure I’d left it to simmer on low, but apparently not. Husband did not notice my screw-up until the smoke alarm went off.
Sigh. Damn you, Aztec calendar. Now I have to make meatloaf for dinner. Yuck.
Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there. |
| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
catrambo
|
12:02p |
Writing Tools: Clicky
As mentioned before, Wayne got me a SmartPen for Christmas.
I do a lot of my writing by hand, but the pen doesn't seem well suited for that, since you have to use special paper for it. But I have used it for planning and found it useful. I sat down and generated a list of 100 possible ideas for the Phat Fairy series with the pen, and then used it to go back and expand on some of the notes by adding audio notes.
This seems one of the best uses for it to me, to annotate text, and it's been handy with this exercise, which I'm now using the results of to plot out subsequent books in the series. I've also taken an exercise I use in teaching fiction, looking at first paragraphs of stories to see what they set up, and used the pen with that, doing an analysis of two Kurt Vonnegut openings. Current Mood: awakeCurrent Music: Scissor Sisters - Tits on the Radio |
| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 |
ktempest
|
3:37p |
Netbook Posture
This Christmas I gave my niece a netbook[] and talked to her about how to care for it and online safety and stuff. What I forgot to mentioned was how to sit while using one. I’d completely forgotten about this post on GottaBeMobile about these 9 bad netbook postures. In fact, I think we were both doing that first one while chilling on the sofa and watching Animaniacs[]. I’m a bad example, just like always.
I wish this study came with 9 good postures for using netbooks, as it would be helpful to know.
Notes |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
mkhobson
|
1:40p |
Happy Happy, Merry Merry
 I hope you’re all enjoying a wonderful holiday. Here at Chez Hobson, presents have been opened, a luxurious brunch has been consumed, and now we’re all lazing about. The pleasure of my lazing is being greatly increased by the ARC of N.K. Jemison’s “Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” which was passed along to me by the angelic Rachel Swirsky. I’ll report more fully when I’m finished, but so far the book is utterly gripping and wonderful. Put this one on your must-read list for 2010, peoples!
In an hour or so, we’ll head over to my mom’s house for dinner and puzzles and more lazing. Tomorrow, there are plans in the offing to see Sherlock Holmes. And then it’s back to work, hammering away at my book edits. On that front, I’m quite pleased with how everything is progressing, having figured out how to smooth over some inconsistencies and infelicities.
All in all, life is good. I hope you’re all enjoying food, friends, and family in whatever proportion of those makes you happiest. 
Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there. |
catrambo
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12:01a |
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