Don't Wear the Writer Crazy Hat

Or there might be monkey poo a-flinging.

Does this stem from writers getting a big head from repeatedly creating worlds where the characters do one's bidding? I wish my characters would do my bidding. They keep trying to do their own bidding.

Oh wait, maybe that's a good thing. I mean, who wants to be the Great And Powerful Oz? I'd rather be a flying monkey, myself.

One Sentence Challenge

Risa at Cosmic Variance is passing along the One Sentence Challenge:

Physicist Richard Feynman once said that if all knowledge about physics was about to expire the one sentence he would tell the future is that “Everything is made of atoms”. What one sentence would you tell the future about your own area, whether it’s entrepreneurship, hedge funds, venture capital, or something else?

My favorites are comments 14, 15, 23, 32, 44, 48, 49.

What's my contribution?

"We don't have to be mean because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are. " (Buckaroo Banzai)

"One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star!" (Nietzsche)

"Some say he is a holy man; others say he is a shithead." (Principia Discordia)

Hottus Chicas Scientificas Unite

We need tshirts, ya think?

Razib over at the GNXP blog ended up with way more than he bargained for when he pronounced his surprise over finding a "hot chick" who read science fiction. Enough people have already denigrated and defended Razib, so I'll only touch on a few things here, but if you read or write science fiction/fantasy then you should check out the blog entries on this topic, such as the following:

Aetiology: Science, Intelligence and the Pretty, by Tara C. Smith

Mixing Memory: Piling On, by Chris

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Gender profiling at the wine bar, by Janet D. Stemwedel

Doc Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge: Hot or Not? by Dr. Joan Bushwell

I'm just supremely tired of the stereotype that women don't like science fiction. We do. A lot of us do. A lot of us don't. Whether I'm hot or not is irrelevant (even though, I am hot, incidentally...), just don't treat me like an anomaly. I am not unusual because I am female and (insert favorite anomalous pursuit here).

Razib said in his long "I, Coolie?" explanation post: "And yes, when I see beautiful women I do stand in awe, and worship even."

Just don't. Don't put beautiful women on a pedestal. Because if they want to discuss Hyperion, you'll be too befuddled to listen.

One commenter on Aetiology seemed to think that D&D/Sword and Sorcery stuff was a good sample of the science fiction/fantasy genre. Have you ever worn chainmail? Let alone a chainmail bikini? What is the purpose of a chain mail bikini anyway? It might protect one's nipples, that's it, and sometimes not even that.

No, thanks. I don't even think about those kinds of books when I think of science fiction and fantasy. I almost consider it a separate "D&D Genre," though I do see some overlap. Technically I suppose it's part of the science fiction/fantasy genre, but it certainly isn't a representative sample.

Admittedly, I have a tendency to read mostly female authors. It's just who I'm drawn to, not a consciously Feminist decision. I do read male authors, certainly, but the stories that have stuck with me are generally by female authors. And there quite a few of those. I would add to this list Kay Kenyon and Elizabeth Bear.

I would also point you to a New York Times article on this topic:

Women and Science Fiction by Susan Schwartz

Oh, and for some fun, check out Ernest Cline's recipe for Geek Porno. (Not for the faint of heart, BTW.)

But I don't wanna watch this misogynist he-man woman-hater porn.
I want porno movies that are made with guys like me in mind:
Guys who know that the sexiest thing in the world
is a woman who is smarter than you are.

You can have the whole cheerleading squad,
I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:
Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.
Oh yes.
First I want to copy her Trig homework,
and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her
for hours and hours
until she reluctantly asks if we can stop
because she doesn't want to miss Battlestar Galactica.
Summa cum laude, baby!
That is what I call erotic.

American Title Contest

My friend Lindsey Brookes made it to the second round of the American Title contest! Yay Lindsey!

Please help support her. Voting for her is as simple as sending an email to webmaster@romantictimes.com and putting OPERATION: DATE ESCAPE in the subject line. You can get more information from her website: http://www.lindseybrookes.com/

To busy to write? Nearly, but not quite.

I've been working my mouse finger to the bone lately, and not in the way you're thinking. First off, I designed my first ever book cover! It's for my longtime friend, critique partner, and yes, fellow Gerry Butler fangyrl Leslie Dicken. Leslie has three books available right now in addition to Taboo, so please check her out.

I also just recently finished the site design and WordPress CMS installation for Romance author Tawny Weber. Next up, a template design for Renee Luke, another Romance author who also just got a deal to write under her Young Adult genre pseudonym Nyomi Scott.

Thanks Leslie, Tawny and Renee for keeping me busy and therefore out of trouble!

And still, no Gerry

People magazine just published their "Sexiest Man Alive" issue and it's once again George Clooney. No surprises there, and for the most part the others listed in the issue are the usual suspects with perfect cheekbones and physiques.

Salon magazine has come out with their own list and it includes the likes of some of my favorite celebrities who didn't make it on the People list: Alton Brown, Neil Patrick Harris, Richard Dawkins, Alan Rickman and Jon Stewart.

And yet, Gerard Butler isn't on either list. What's up with that? What's wrong with you people? You'd think his role in critically acclaimed Dear Frankie would have gotten him some street cred. Of his role as the Tall Dark Stranger, he said:

"That’s what I love about this. If you just tell the story of what the story’s about, then it sparks curiosity but I think it also arouses suspicion, as you say, that it could be overly sentimental. But it so isn’t. And I think it was all about doing the inner work and then underplaying everything. And so I know for me, that’s what I was constantly thinking was just, “Bring it down. Give it truth. Give it realism.” Because if you can do that and an audience can relate to you as a human being who’s not purely good or purely bad, but he just is who he is, then that’s what sucks you in. In a way, that’s what sucks you in to this beautiful little fairy tale."

Salon recognized this bit about geeky chef Alton Brown, but ignores Gerry?

"...when he explains in serious, caressing detail the differences between a chewy cookie and crunchy one, it's downright hypnotic. And when he strides around kitchen stadium as commentator of "Iron Chef America," he's a reassuring authority, an eager fan, and a conspiratorial insider letting you in on the secrets of taming fire itself. He's the ultimate caveman and the uptight professor, and if that's not a twofer fantasy figure right there, I don't know what is."

Don't get me wrong, I adore Alton. He's at the top of my Tivo To Do List. I even know the inside jokes about the puppets. But we need to tell People magazine to get with the hunky guy program.

If you're a writer, you write.

Jennifer Jackson has a post on quitting the writing life, and randomfreshink has posted an inspiring response. The last few paragraphs really struck home for me, but most especially:

"You write because the people in your head won't shut up until you do--and you really do not want therapy. You write because you probably should get therapy. . .

"You make time to write. You steal lunch hours and early mornings and late nights. You fit writing into note pads on short breaks. . .

"You also avoid writing because it's like a fickle mistress who won't always put out, but who knows that unpredictable reinforcement is the best way to form an addiction. You also want to avoid writing because sometimes it's just bad, and that breaks your heart. And you can never write anything that's as good as the images and ideas in your head because words stumble."

Keep writing. Don't ever give up.

The Pressure of the Time Crunch

The pressure of trying to write as much as I can in a half an hour over my lunch seems to be working for me. When I've tried to write with more time on my hands recently the words just aren't there. So I'm going to continue to write in short bursts, like a mad race to get as much down onto paper as I can in 30 minute intervals. We'll see what happens. So far I'm up over the 4K mark. I don't have high hopes that I'll me the NaNoWriMo challenge, but at least I'm writing and it feels good!

Last night I got a bit more insight into my hero, Jake Tucker, when I wrote the first scene in his POV. Here's an short excerpt:

Jake jumped to his feet and swung toward the Specter. He used his momentum to propel both of them toward the wall, toward the portal. He rode that dark wave down to Hell and he'd keep going until they were all gone. There would be more after Catherine and now Sullivan too. He hoped he could stop them all.

I hope it gave you the shivers too. :)

NaNoWriMo Progress

I've written over 3,000 words so far! Yay me!

In honor of this crowning achievement, I give you a recent article from Wired called "Very Short Stories," where they challenged established writers to write a story in six words. My favorite is, of course, from Joss Whedon:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.

I know these are supposed to be stories in and of themselves, but some would make excellent opening lines. So in that spirit, I offer the opening of Ghost Hunter, my project for NaNoWriMo:

In the winter of 1985, when I turned 14, I died. An accident, I fell through the ice on the lake we Sullivans had skated on for generations. When they pulled me from the water I had no pulse.

The bright white light, the angels singing, it's all just endorphins flooding the brain at death, right? I want to believe in what science says, but when I'm honest with myself I know that it was indeed the Otherside. And it's never let me go.

Remember, it's a draft. Go easy on me!

Hat tip on the Wired article: John Hawks blog.

Deep Peace of the running wave to you

I used to co-moderate a Celtic listserv called The Celtic Well. I still maintain my old Celtic web site and occasionally receive e-mails with questions about all sorts of Celtic stuff gu leor.

Today I had a question about the source of an "ancient Gaelic blessing" that I had heard of before, but didn't immediately know the source. So I had to do some researching. It's easily titled Deep Peace and is an ancient eolas or charm of healing put on the fairy fool Amadan by the blind poet Alan Dall. It was supposedly translated by Fiona MacLeod and can be found online here in her "Under a Dark Star, Volume III."

Bill Douglas also did a choral version of it in his eponymously titled Deep Peace CD, which I have and thought of immediately. Anyway, it's deeply inspiring, pensive and restful at the same time, and I think quite appropriate for this time of year. An excerpt:

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the sleeping stones to you!

Le meas.

Lunch Writing Bonanza

Holy carp I wrote almost 1,000 words in a half hour. There's hope for me yet!

Because I'm Insane, That's Why

I signed up for the National Novel Writing Month challenge, and you'll see from the graphic in my sidebar that my progress isn't enough to even show up on the graph yet.

Yeah, I'm nuts. But I need to do something to jumpstart my writing, which isn't happening at all right now. I probably won't hit the 50,000 word challenge, but I'll have written something, anything. So, it's my lunch hour and I'm off to write. Wish me luck.

Science Monday

Science Monday is back! For your reading pleasure:

• Mirror Neuron, Mirror Neuron on the Wall. Who's the most empathic of them all?


• Beauty Knows No Pain, Even by Nanodot Lead Poisoning


• CephaloPod (Ok, so it's not science, but it's darn cute)


• Microbial Methane Farts* Might End the World as We Know It

*Is that a Terry Pratchett novel? Or a cool bandname?

Todd the Vampire

So I'm utterly caught up in J.R. Ward's vampire series and I'm only on the first installment, Dark Lover. I keep laughing out loud at the vampire names though: Wrath (the hero), Tohrment, Rhage, Phury (which I keep reading as "Furry") and Zzadist. And the heroine, a half-breed, is named Beth.

I keep thinking that Beth and Wrath are going to have a baby down the line and she's going to want to name him Todd. Todd the Vampire. Guard your virgins everybody, Todd's got his fangs out and he's ready to rumble.

Eris, Gummy Bears and The Shire. Oh my.

Two posts in two days from me. Can you contain yourself? I just had to post about some fun things I found on the Internets today.

First off, they've named the 10th planet Eris, the Goddess of Discord. I think it suits her prefectly, although I think they should have named her satellite General Disarray instead of Dysnomia.

I have to get me a set of the Gummy Bear Tarot. When you're feeling low, whip out those adorable treats and cheer yourself up. You don't even have to shuffle a spread, just gaze into their cuddly-wuddly faces.

Last but not least, a new housing development in Oregon called The Shire. I'd love to live there, so long as they promised me I wouldn't get sued for violating copyright. (Much thanks to Mara for this one.)

It Makes My Mother So Proud

Yeah, it's been forever since I posted anything. Sorry! I've had a lot going on in my life. I left my job of 13 years and moved to another state. Things are settling down again now so I hope to be posting more often.

Some fun:

Science Monday: Second Sun, Poo Hustlers and Nano Goo

Since I do write sciene fiction, every Monday I'm going to point my readers to some interesting science news. Today's edition:

--The Binary Research Institute (BRI) thinks Sol might have a twin in the recently discovered planetoid "Sedna": Evidence mounts for sun's companion star.

--This isn't strictly science news, but by way of the Uncertain Principles blog, Locus magazine had a funny typo this month:

Alex Irvine's "New Game in Town" is an exquisite story of small-time crooks and poo hustlers that takes a sharp turn into uncanny SF.

--When being quirky is a good thing. Quantum cryptography may get some play in my new novel, so I've been reading up on it.

--By way of Razib at Gene Expression: Neandertal mitochondrial DNA analysis stacks more evidence for rapid replacement theory.

--Via SpecRom's blog, "The sky is falling!" Nano gray goo will take over the planet. Does this mean I can get a HUD on my cornea for my iPod playlists?

The Toy in Daddy's Pants

Longmire does it again, with a whole slew of paraody Romance novel book covers. My favorites: I'm About to Let One, For the Love of Scottie McMullet, The Deflowering of Marie Osmond, The Toy in Daddy's Pants

But my overall favorite is the parody of Kelley Armstrong's Industrial Magic, here re-titled Chili Supper for Satan, since I'm just finishing up Armstrong's Otherworld series with the latest Broken. I've loved all of Armstrong's books, but really only liked the original Lucia Kim tradeback cover of Bitten. The newer covers all have pentagrams on them, not that there's anything wrong with pentragrams, it's just there aren't any in the books. Sure, the characters are werewolves, witches, sorcerers, demons, necromancers, but they aren't drawing bloody pentragrams on the floor and dancing naked around them. They're too busy chasing the bad guys for that.

Full Steam Ahead

Give out a cheer to my writing buddy Tawny Weber, who just sold her manuscript "Undercover Seduction" to Harlequin Blaze. We always knew Tawny was a "Read hot read."

Way to go Tawny! Click here to read an excerpt.

Gimme a High Five!

My longtime critique partner, Leslie Dicken, has had an offer of representation from Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency. Yay Leslie! Leslie is one of the most talented and determined writers I've ever known. She's put in the time and the effort and she will soon realize her dream of being published. Way to go!

Another writerly friend, spooky writer Terri Garey summarizes Leslie's background well.