What *not* to put in your blog...

http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3485319,00.html

It's not a good idea to confess online that you've been sleeping with your husband's friend whom you're renting a room out to.

 
Voices in his head

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20030726/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_missing_player

This kind of thing fascinates me, and gives me grist for book three of the Aerie triology.

According to an arrest warrant, Dotson spoke to FBI (news - web sites) agents in his home state of Maryland after calling 911 and saying he needed help because he was hearing voices. The warrant says Dotson confessed to shooting Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him.

However, Dotson told The Associated Press after his arrest that he "didn't confess to anything."

 
On contradictory self-delusion

Just to follow up my own bit of self-condiction, Orson Scott Card indulges in some of his own in his book _How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy_. He writes the following under the heading "The writer's self-image":

1. The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in English.
2. The story I am now working on is worthless drivel.

He goes on to clarify:
"It's best if you believe both these things simultaneously, so that you can call on Belief 1 when you're deciding whether to mail the story out, Belief 2 when going over the story to revise it, Belief 1 when choosing the market it to submit it to, Belief 2 when the story is rejected (of course, I /expected/ to get this back), and Belief 1 again when you put it back in an envelope and mail it to the next-best market."

It's nice to know I'm not alone when I delude myself (for better or worse) to achieve my goal of finishing / selling my novel.

 
Heinlein Award Inaugurated

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-07/24/09.30.books
The first annual Heinlein Award, recognizing excellence in written science fiction or fact that inspires humanity's expansion into space, will be presented at Torcon3, the 2003 World Science Fiction Convention, in Toronto, Aug. 28-Sept. 1, organizers announced. The award is named for SF author Robert A. Heinlein and was created at the request of his widow, Virginia A. Heinlein, who died earlier this year.

The award will be given annually by the Heinlein Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Heinlein's legacy. The first award dinner will take place Aug. 29. Judges are Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Yoji Kondo, Elizabeth Moon, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Spider Robinson, Stanley Schmidt, Herb Gilliand and John Hill.

 
On the probability of rejection letters

Quote:
Now I *know* that's not probably (much less likely), but strictly speaking, it *is* possible, and that's what I'm holding in my head...


And you know, I think the people who do eventually manage to succeed at the writing game are those who can hold that kind of attitude/inspiration in their heads the longest--a sort of literary survival of the fittest. And as far as that driving you to craft your first effort the best you can, well, that's the best place to start I can think of.

--Lotus

Thanks, Lotus.

As I think that thought and write those words, I feel like I'm a chipper little freshman that hasn't earned the right to be cocky, but I feel that I'd be selling out if I didn't.

I guess the closest thing is the feeling that I attribute to Roy Hobbs when he stepped into that batter's box after being on the sidelines for so long.

I *think* I can knock it out, and I may have been able to in the past, but the only way to be sure is to dig in and swing away, and if that lightning bolt happens to crack down and knock the stuffings out of the ball, well, that's out of my hands.

If things run true to course and I have to earn my spurs one rejection after another until that great day arrives, I'm still writing and scratching and working it out with a spring in my step and a glint in my eye.

 
Aerie gets darker

These past 18 hours or so have been exhilarating.

An idea hit me yesterday that is considerably darker than what I was intending, and that suggested a tag-team flashback mode for the first book, and all that fell rather neatly into place.

I wrote it all up and scattered it about to my various friends and the feedback has been largely positive. The consensus seems to be to be honest with the story, to follow through with it, even if it is darker than intended.

I printed it up and let Linda read it in the van on the way to dinner in town last tight. She was into it, asking questions such. She didn't hate it, and that's a good sign.

So the first Aerie book has taken on a life and a tone of its own. Now's the moment of truth - it's time to start writing.

 
Pirates of the Caribbean (PC) a decent adventure game

http://www.gamersdepot.com/games/action/pirates/001.htm
Bethesda's new Pirates of the Caribbean, based off of the movie, places you in one of the better adventure games we've seen in awhile.

 
Linda's spagetti salad recipe

Spagetti Salad

cooked angel hair spagetti
cherry tomatoes, halved
summer sausage,cubed
carrot pennies
broccoli florettes
bottle italian dressing

add all ingredients into large glass bowls and toss. keep this chilled overnight and toss when you go to get a drink or you want to take a look. The tomatoes can be added the morning before you eat it. Sometines we add small cubes of cheese cubes before serving.

The proportions and ingredients vary according to individual taste. It is best when allowed to sit overnight.

 
The writer's dichotomy between public and private

The writer's life is an interesting mix of the public and the solitary.

For me, that means that I appreciate the times that I'm rubbing shoulders with people and the times that I'm by myself working through a problem in my own head, through my own keyboard, wrestling with pesky little issues or slaying dragons.

That also sometimes means that I sometimes wish for isolation when I'm surrounded by people asking the same questions that many others have and that I wish I had somebody - anybody - else around to bounce something off of when there's nobody in sight.

Writing, like anything else, is an exercise in conflicting extremes.

 
Templates

Not content to leave things well enough alone, I'm experimenting with some new ideas for templates. This blog will probably vary wildly until I find something that fits.

 
An update on crafting the Aerie novels

I've been reading quite a bit lately. Unfortunately, none of that has been for fun. I've been working my way through five different books on writing and other nuts and bolts things. I've finished two of five and am halfway through the other three - it shouldn't be long now and I'll have plowed through this section of necessary writing research and will be back to reading a bit on the side for sheer fun and creative relaxation.

I've learned a number of interesting things:

1) I have a good basic sense for what I'm doing.
2) Looking through the books in the stores, I'm already well past where most wannabees get stuck. I can be confident in my ability and my vision.
3) This wont' be an overnight thing. If I'm lucky, I might be selling stuff within five years. If I'm not lucky, I may never get to the place where I'm selling stuff. Until I'm established, "don't quit your day job".
4) There really is more to building a foundation for a novel or a series than I ever imagined. (File this under "Understatement".)
5) Finally - and most importantly - surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, a support network. Nobody's actually saying that, but it's in the air, and I've seized that particular nugget with both hands.

Getting down to nuts and bolts, I learned something concrete from Orson Scott Card today at lunch. I finished Chapter 3 of 5 today at lunch and I discovered that I'm writing an Event story, (as opposed to Milieu, Character, or Idea-based). This is good to know.

Each day, I'm learning new things and making new revelations. Some of those are personal, some are process-related, and some are (even) story-related. I'm thinking of making the personal observations on the blog at the the x-act list, the process-related observations on the blog and on the StormFort discussion list, and the story-related ones on the Phy's Place forums with alerts going out on the StormFort list.

I know that it may appear that nothing much is happening, but rest assured that I'm thinking about all this with all the spare thought cycles I have (in the car, in spare moments at work when I'm waiting on this-or-that, at home, in the yard, in the reading room, etc). As things continue to fall into place, there will be more and more actual writing. I did a scene at 1:30 this morning, for example (which I can't share because it takes place in the third book and sets up the ultimate climax, and involves one of the biggest spoilers in the series).

Things are percolating and starting to fall into place. Stay tuned.

johne (phy) cook
wisconsin, usa

blog: http://breezeway.blogspot.com
forum: http://forum.instagiber.com/index.php?h=1&pf=268
stormfort list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stormfort/

 
Harlan Ellison Doesn't Like Internet, Doesn't Get It, Either

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-07/23/09.00.books
Ellison Crusades Against AOL

SF author Harlan Ellison is pressing ahead with a lawsuit against America Online for copyright infringement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ellison charges that the Internet company didn't act fast enough when a fan posted some of his stories without permission on an online forum carried by the service. America Online says it's not to blame and that it removed the stories once it was aware of them, the newspaper reported.

While he is seeking money from America Online, Ellison told the newspaper that the suit is more a crusade to hold Internet service providers accountable for material pirated by their users.

In March 2002, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that the company wasn't liable. Ellison appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ellison's lawyers initially sought as much as $488 million from AOL, according to a court filing. But in his deposition, Ellison said he wants only "to get recompensed for the money I laid out," plus what his contributors gave and an extra $20 for each donor, the newspaper reported.

Harlan needs to get a little perspective, here. If he wants to stay in the unplugged world with a manual typewriter, more power to him, but making a crusade out of an otherwise run-of-the-mill situation is, in technical terms, wacked.

 
Kish as the outlaw Josey Wales

Oh, I just had a thought. What if Kish doesn't want to go to Aerie. He senses something about the planet that spooks him. At the end of the series, book three, the way that he saves Aerie is to entice the evil Eidolon to try to overtake him. He uses the good power of the Eidolon to withstand the combined assault of the assembled legions of the demonic horde and he sucks them into himself. Then, the only way to save Aerie is to leave the planet that saved him, that made him a hero, that makes him like who he is.

 
Hollywood trots out "Grieving Widow"

http://www.3dgpu.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=169
It's a cliche' almost as old as Hollywood itself - you show the obligatory shot of the Grieving Widow to put a human face on something. It's not really important who she is - she could be the widow of a vicious crimelord or Jackie Kennedy herself.

Ars Technica pointed the way to an article at silicon.com that blows my mind. Hollywood has apparently stooped to the point where they're running anti-filesharing clips in front of summer blockbuster movies designed to "put a face on suffering":

Studio staff, including set painters, stunt men and make-up artists, are among those pleading with file-sharers, using services such as Kazaa, to stop taking money away from the studios who pay their wages.

This campain is a calculated move designed to elicit an emotional response, which, by inference, suggests that "you people are too stupid to understand the facts, so we're going to try something else so that you'll see it our way".

Let's face it - we're still finding out what affects filesharing has on the media giants. Some studies suggest that the "try before you buy" approach that makes up much of P2P filesharing actually boost sales. If you download a movie and like it, chances are you'll seek out the DVD to get a better quality version, all the cool box art, and all the nifty extras that don't get passed around.

The brain trust behind this apparently doesn't understand the "backfire" concept. People that otherwise have no vested interest now have a face to put on it; greedy bastards exploiting common workers while they continue to line their pockets with your money. I have to wonder if this won't, in fact, encourage filesharing.

The clips are also part of an online campaign: http://respectcopyrights.org.

 
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