Friday, February 25, 2011
"Oooh! Ooh! Pick ME!"
I have a book idea, a SF story, that's rattling around in my head, busy trying to get written. I'm being disciplined and while I wrote down notes for it and characters, the sketch of the plot, I haven't indulged myself and started work on it, since I have to eat my broccoli (wait, I actually like broccoli) -- but I'm working through the finalization of the book I mentioned the other day before I launch into something new. Maybe (maybe) when I get that one finalized, I'll dive in and work on that new one -- I imagine it trying like hell to get my attention from the back of the line: "Me! Me! Oh, pick me!!" So, I just might do that, because I think the story has a good concept, and a lot of potential, and because, so far, I haven't actually written a SF novel (I have a SF novella I've been slowly expanding to novel length, but that's it). Thus, it'll be new ground for me, which'll make it more fun.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Violinish
B2 loves the violin. He's apparently fascinated by it, says it's his favorite instrument. I played it in middle school, but I don't have my violin, anymore. Anyway, I'll be curious if B2's interest in it continues. If it does, I'll find him one to play when he's a little older. I'm curious how that became his favorite instrument, but the image of him playing a three-quarter-sized violin is terribly cute.
I'm amused when B1 watches "Curious George." B1 says "George likes to spread chaos. He destroys everything." That cracks me up. Both boys will say "Oh, George, NOOOO--!" when he does something like turning off the safety systems at a nuclear power plant, or the equivalent.
I'm amused when B1 watches "Curious George." B1 says "George likes to spread chaos. He destroys everything." That cracks me up. Both boys will say "Oh, George, NOOOO--!" when he does something like turning off the safety systems at a nuclear power plant, or the equivalent.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Dis and Dat
Well, I resolved the bureaucratic stuff with the utility yesterday, thankfully. I talked up the gruff customer service rep and actually won her over about halfway through our interaction, which made the whole deal easier. I'm polite to nearly everybody, but am always extra-polite to customer service, retail, and wait staff, just because their jobs have to suck and why throw sand in the gears by being an asshole? Almost any human interaction can be a dance or a death march, and the former is much preferable to the latter, so I hew toward the former, and everybody wins.
I'm continuing to work on Book 5. I'm about halfway through this rewrite/revision. I don't know if anybody'll be able to pick up this one. It's a good book, but it's also an odd one, and for a new novelist (I chafe at that term, since I've been novel-writing seriously since 1999; but since nothing counts until a novel's published, I'll still be a "new" novelist at some point), it might be a hard sell. I guess I'll see if anybody picks it up. The important thing is just finalizing it, so I can move onto the next one, and so on. It's an uphill climb, by the way -- as I'd mentioned at the outset, my triage had the quickest finalizations coming up first, the ones that required the least amount of tweaking and rewriting to go out the door first. As I move through the catalog, the pieces require more from me. The sanguine outcome of this is that once they're finalized, I can set them aside (and send them out) and focus on new works. I won't let a backlog like that pile up again.
It's easy to do, because the writing of books is more fun for me than the marketing of books. But, as I see it, the writing of them is the hard part for most. Plenty of people think they can write books, but the vast majority don't ever try, or give up along the way, or find better things to do. I've got the book-writing part down; it's the book-selling part I need to master next.
I'm continuing to work on Book 5. I'm about halfway through this rewrite/revision. I don't know if anybody'll be able to pick up this one. It's a good book, but it's also an odd one, and for a new novelist (I chafe at that term, since I've been novel-writing seriously since 1999; but since nothing counts until a novel's published, I'll still be a "new" novelist at some point), it might be a hard sell. I guess I'll see if anybody picks it up. The important thing is just finalizing it, so I can move onto the next one, and so on. It's an uphill climb, by the way -- as I'd mentioned at the outset, my triage had the quickest finalizations coming up first, the ones that required the least amount of tweaking and rewriting to go out the door first. As I move through the catalog, the pieces require more from me. The sanguine outcome of this is that once they're finalized, I can set them aside (and send them out) and focus on new works. I won't let a backlog like that pile up again.
It's easy to do, because the writing of books is more fun for me than the marketing of books. But, as I see it, the writing of them is the hard part for most. Plenty of people think they can write books, but the vast majority don't ever try, or give up along the way, or find better things to do. I've got the book-writing part down; it's the book-selling part I need to master next.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Deadly Dancing
I'm rather fond of recut trailers, and this one amused me...
If David Lynch had filmed "Dirty Dancing."
"Lynchian" is almost a cliché these days, but it still amuses me, especially when fused to something like "Dirty Dancing."
If David Lynch had filmed "Dirty Dancing."
"Lynchian" is almost a cliché these days, but it still amuses me, especially when fused to something like "Dirty Dancing."
Flurry
We got some snow yesterday; just a dusting, really, nothing terribly exciting. Today's primary election day, so I'll do my civic duty, as ever. Not terribly sanguine about the mayoral prospects; I know who is most likely to win, but I don't want that candidate to win. We'll see how it goes. There are some real snakes in this election.
Speaking of snakes: the search for giant anacondas! Woo hoo!
Speaking of snakes: the search for giant anacondas! Woo hoo!
Monday, February 21, 2011
Trouble with Quibbles
Watched some of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" -- the boys love the starship fights in that one...
Enterprise v. Reliant
Anyway, watching Khan deploy the Genesis Device, it occurred to me that Kirk need only to have beamed a few people aboard the crippled Reliant (since he had declared to Khan to "prepare to be boarded.") and then just fire a phaser or two at the Genesis Device, disintegrating it -- since it's already been well-established that phasers can disintegrate any number of things, it seems logical that a phaser could simply eradicate the Genesis Device in a nimbus of plasma or whatever it is that phasers turn matter into.
And if even that's not good enough for you, how about another old standby: the Genesis Device is sitting in the transporter bay of the Reliant, and Khan is busy dying on the bridge, all of his crew slain. So, Kirk et al. need only beam the Genesis Device up and keep it in suspension -- as Chekhov puts it in "Day of the Dove" -- "Nonexistence; that's exactly what they deserve."
No Genesis Device detonation, no death of Spock, no problem. Of course, since the plot points in "...Khan" were milked for two other Trek movies, that might pose problems for them, too, and lacks the dramatic, Ahabesque finale for Khan, and the drama of Spock's (temporary) death in the service of the Enterprise.
Just the same, though, it bugs me that two simple methods of dealing with the Genesis Device weren't considered, and, instead, Kirk just defaulted to getting the hell out of there.
It's like one of my frustrations in "The Empire Strikes Back" (certainly the best of the actually good "Star Wars" movies) where the snowspeeders repeatedly try frontal assaults on the AT-ATs (the Imperial Walkers), even though it's clear that their primary weapons are on the front. Luke et al. continue to charge the AT-ATs head-on, and (big shock) take heavy casualties because of it. Why not lateral attacks, back and forth, from side-to-side, avoiding those big guns? Next you're going to tell me the Rebels are going to use trench warfare against the AT-ATs. Oh, wait....
Marginally related to the above...
Star Trek: The Sexed Generation
This is a masterpiece of editing! Given that the piece is nearly 10 minutes long, they had to have worked for a very long time to compile this.
Enterprise v. Reliant
Anyway, watching Khan deploy the Genesis Device, it occurred to me that Kirk need only to have beamed a few people aboard the crippled Reliant (since he had declared to Khan to "prepare to be boarded.") and then just fire a phaser or two at the Genesis Device, disintegrating it -- since it's already been well-established that phasers can disintegrate any number of things, it seems logical that a phaser could simply eradicate the Genesis Device in a nimbus of plasma or whatever it is that phasers turn matter into.
And if even that's not good enough for you, how about another old standby: the Genesis Device is sitting in the transporter bay of the Reliant, and Khan is busy dying on the bridge, all of his crew slain. So, Kirk et al. need only beam the Genesis Device up and keep it in suspension -- as Chekhov puts it in "Day of the Dove" -- "Nonexistence; that's exactly what they deserve."
No Genesis Device detonation, no death of Spock, no problem. Of course, since the plot points in "...Khan" were milked for two other Trek movies, that might pose problems for them, too, and lacks the dramatic, Ahabesque finale for Khan, and the drama of Spock's (temporary) death in the service of the Enterprise.
Just the same, though, it bugs me that two simple methods of dealing with the Genesis Device weren't considered, and, instead, Kirk just defaulted to getting the hell out of there.
It's like one of my frustrations in "The Empire Strikes Back" (certainly the best of the actually good "Star Wars" movies) where the snowspeeders repeatedly try frontal assaults on the AT-ATs (the Imperial Walkers), even though it's clear that their primary weapons are on the front. Luke et al. continue to charge the AT-ATs head-on, and (big shock) take heavy casualties because of it. Why not lateral attacks, back and forth, from side-to-side, avoiding those big guns? Next you're going to tell me the Rebels are going to use trench warfare against the AT-ATs. Oh, wait....
Marginally related to the above...
Star Trek: The Sexed Generation
This is a masterpiece of editing! Given that the piece is nearly 10 minutes long, they had to have worked for a very long time to compile this.
Today
Happy President's Day! Woo hoo! Yeah!
Today I have to wrangle with one of the utilities, get a SNAFU all sorted out. Good times. It should be the kind of thing that could be fixed in about 30 seconds, if I end up with somebody paying attention and being meticulous. If I end up with an F Trooper, though, it may be more of an ordeal. We'll see.
(later)
Well, that was quick. They're closed for President's Day. Alright, then.
Today I have to wrangle with one of the utilities, get a SNAFU all sorted out. Good times. It should be the kind of thing that could be fixed in about 30 seconds, if I end up with somebody paying attention and being meticulous. If I end up with an F Trooper, though, it may be more of an ordeal. We'll see.
(later)
Well, that was quick. They're closed for President's Day. Alright, then.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Bleah
Kind of in the doldrums today. Just battling a cold, winter appears to have remembered that it's not over yet, and I've been cleaning the apartment. Nothing terribly exciting, but it's left me a feeling of being both down and restive.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wonder Woman
Saw this display while out and about today. Yeah, Wonder Woman, beat that fashion-challenged Medusa! Defeat Medusa's "Drab Ray..."
Gruh.
Guh. Yesterday was annoying. Just some logistical stuff I have to deal with. One of the utilities is being obstinate and unhelpful, so I have to try to sort that out Monday (since their offices are closed on the weekend, naturally).
Had a sweet moment last night, when doing the kid transfer -- B2 said "Wait a second." and ran back to me and gave me a huge hug. I loved that. B1 followed suit. It touched me, because when I'd heard him say "Wait a second...." I had thought there was some toy or something that he'd forgotten, but he'd just wanted a goodbye hug. So sweet.
One of the bad effects of this momentary warming trend in the weather is the building's ample heat is momentarily off, so the place is chilly. I've been living in flannel the past couple of days. This usually happens in March -- what I call March Madness -- like as it gets less cold outside, landlords tend to dial back on the heat, even though it's still frickin' freezing. Anyway, I'm almost grateful for a return to normal cold, as it'll mean the heat comes back on properly.
I've been working on lots of queries. Trying to craft queries around three novels at the moment. I really loathe query-writing. I don't like it anymore than I like writing cover letters. It's a vital, necessary adjunct to professional writing, but it's still irksome. So, today I'll sling a bunch of those out. I'm opting for snail mail, just because I think it might have more resonance, oddly enough, to get a physical object, versus an e-submission. Even if it means including the dreaded SASE, my least-favorite thing.
Had a sweet moment last night, when doing the kid transfer -- B2 said "Wait a second." and ran back to me and gave me a huge hug. I loved that. B1 followed suit. It touched me, because when I'd heard him say "Wait a second...." I had thought there was some toy or something that he'd forgotten, but he'd just wanted a goodbye hug. So sweet.
One of the bad effects of this momentary warming trend in the weather is the building's ample heat is momentarily off, so the place is chilly. I've been living in flannel the past couple of days. This usually happens in March -- what I call March Madness -- like as it gets less cold outside, landlords tend to dial back on the heat, even though it's still frickin' freezing. Anyway, I'm almost grateful for a return to normal cold, as it'll mean the heat comes back on properly.
I've been working on lots of queries. Trying to craft queries around three novels at the moment. I really loathe query-writing. I don't like it anymore than I like writing cover letters. It's a vital, necessary adjunct to professional writing, but it's still irksome. So, today I'll sling a bunch of those out. I'm opting for snail mail, just because I think it might have more resonance, oddly enough, to get a physical object, versus an e-submission. Even if it means including the dreaded SASE, my least-favorite thing.
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