 |
 |
|
This blog is also available (with commenting) at LiveJournal. June 1, 2009DisconnectNo real way to look at my brain healing progress test results as positive news, and no real advantage to looking at them as negative. Not giving up or anything (though I think I've had enough of failing different medications), but I need to focus on what my options are, what kind of life I want to/can have should this be the norm from now on, as well as how to pay for continuing treatment. I've been treating my brain injury as an obstacle, doing almost every reasonable thing I can to maximize my chances of recovery, but I haven't figured out how to live with it. Just so sick of not being able to rely on my own body and sick of it being such a big part of my identity. So I'm unplugging best I can, and I'll be even less available online than I have been lately, at least through the end of the year. Tidbits before I disappear: Wiscon was amazing. Met so many cool new people, but in spite of being in bed by ten most nights and other precautions, I got sick again at almost the exact same time as last year SUnday afternoon. I'll have to make even bigger leaps in my healing progress before I commit to returning next year. Missing my own reading and one of my panels Monday was just too embarrassing. Or would have been, had I been there. No, still embarrassing. Among the wonderful people I met this year but kinda already knew online was my Thoughtcrime Experiments editor Sumana Harihareswara, who let me know that Erica Naone reviewed my story (along with all the others in the online anthology), calling my Mrs. Claus "one of the most badass characters I have ever read." Thanks, Erica! One blessing since the accident has been the others with mild traumatic brain injuries who have contacted me with their frustrations and I've been able to at least point them toward a book I found by sheer luck (researching a science fiction brain story in the library): Brainlash by Gail L. Denton. Almost everything I've learned in the last eighteen months was either directly or indirectly because of this book. Even the typeface and linespacing are designed to increase let those of us who have trouble reading (more than a few paragraphs in one sitting) focus on it a little longer, and it remains the one non-audio book I've been able to get all the way through since the accident (not that I've retained much; might have to start it again this week). So if you have an MTBI or PCS (post concussion syndrome) and most of the other resources you've found are rightfully dedicated to more severe brain injuries, this might be the book you're looking for. I'll continue to check email (alex AT alexwilson DOT com is the one that gets the least amount of spam, thanks), pop in for occasional Twitter conversations (and I don't autofollow, so, please let me know if I should be following you back, oh friends with obscure usernames), put up free Creative Commons audio as their five years are up at Telltale (including The War of the Worlds last week, yo!), and check messages/requests on Facebook once a month or so. But if you've posted something on LiveJournal or any other site, chances are pretty good that I've missed it. And I'll try to break silence and post here again when/if I have big news because I still have a backlog of writing I'm trying to sell, even if the new stuff is coming achingly slowly. Yes, still writing and trying to read every day. And when I come back, we can talk about that instead of brain injuries, cool? Be well. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal, Prose and Poetry May 27, 2009Telltale Interview, Thoughts on Spoken Word Audio, etcMomentarily caught up on all the free Telltale releases, maybe for the first time since we hit the five-year mark in February. Late last year SF author Charles Platt interviewed me for a Boing Boing article, but his column ended before the piece ran. He has since agreed to let me run the Q+A portion here. For what it's worth, I figured Charles would edit me down to something less longwinded... CP: Why does spoken-word audio seem to be the poor stepchild of book publishing? My editor friends are utterly uninterested in it, and are a bit condescending about it, as if "spoken word" really means "recordings for people who are too lazy to read." Is this kind of snobbishness the root of the problem? Why are audiobooks so absurdly expensive? Why do we have companies like Audible trying to trap the buyer into "membership" schemes which are even worse than you'd find on a porno site? Do book publishers make it difficult for anyone to buy audiobook rights? ALEX: I've never worked for a major publisher, so I can't speak to motivation, but I see things getting better. They're experimenting, figuring things out, whether it's MP3-CDs (like Neil Gaiman's _Anansi_Boys_) or DRM-free downloads with or without watermarking (like digital downloads from The Teaching Company). This is a large, slow-to-change industry, and the numbers they're looking at are likely just too new for them to predict the economies of scale. Looking at the cost and availability of audiobooks when I launched Telltale just five years ago... I bet they're adapting faster than they're comfortable with even if to you and I it looks like dragging feet. And professional audiobooks are still expensive to produce. Sure, electronic delivery cuts costs, but, as with the big music labels, there's still a significant investment required--audio engineers, studio time, performers, etc--on top of what has already gone into producing a text in paper book form. So they kinda understandably want to see how at least the hardcovers perform before they make decisions on further investment. Now, the last audiobook CD I purchased retailed for $30 while the hardcover retailed for $26. Not too bad, but not exactly a cheap piece of entertainment. Until that comes down even more, there will always be those who won't consider audiobooks (just as I try to avoid buying hardcover when possible). But I can't predict the speed or likelihood of that happening. Going back to the music industry comparison, one of my visions five years ago with Telltale was to encourage an "indie recording scene" alternative to the big publishers, where people with home studios or even narrators with prosumer recording equipment in their closets could produce something of reasonably high quality. And indeed the earliest Telltale contributors included as many indie musicians with recording gear as stage actors interested in trying something new. Obviously I wasn't the only or first one to have this idea. Podcasting became huge within the next twelve months. Don't know about audiobook listeners being called "lazy." Was it recently that you heard this? I guess I'd want to have a conversation with them about it. And while I'd respect any _author_ who specifically didn't want her work released as audio (beyond where required for vision-impaired readers), I think it's probably short-sighted for someone in an industry that's competing with video games and television to insult customers if they don't agree exactly on how to best enjoy a product. Can you imagine a director admonishing his audience ("What, they couldn't be bothered to see my film in the theatre? Fuck them and their stupid couches.") and refusing to release a DVD? I haven't looked at it in depth, but I'm not sure I have a problem with Audible's subscription model. The DRM there's the dealbreaker for me as a potential customer. Without the DRM, you have something similar to eMusic's audiobook program, which I'd argue is a pretty good deal for listeners. And if the subscription _is_ a problem for a customer, then Audible offers a good portion of its catalog a la carte in the iTunes store via a different DRM scheme. I don't know about book publishers making it difficult for others to buy audio rights to things. I don't think so. I think they either purchase the audio rights to a work or they don't. Certainly short fiction moves around more freely. I have no knowledge of the specific deals, but I believe Audible has worked directly with authors and/or agents for many of their exclusives, and eMusic has commissioned content from McSweeney's (and/or its contributors). And I've worked with authors directly for their short fiction reprints, as have podcasts like Escape Pod and PodCastle. CP: Do you know how many audiobooks are in circulation from all sources? Is it still a niche market, and could it be bigger? ALEX: No idea about circulation, sorry. I think it's a shame audiobooks don't get more "foot traffic," in that you aren't likely to find them if you aren't specifically looking for them. The selection in brick and mortar stores is tiny. Searching for audiobooks on Amazon can take a few extra steps (probably to avoid confusion for those simply wanting a "traditional" book). I'd bet this makes the tiny "Audiobooks" button in the iTunes store a huge deal for spoken word visibility overall. It'll be interesting to see whether the major sellers and publishers are going to be too late in adapting. Podcasts already fill a lot of that spoken word niche for the digitally connected, and there's only so much audio one can listen to in a day. If those hours or minutes are filled with free, equally interesting NPR interviews, then $10+ fiction has a tougher fight ahead of it. And woe to them if they think they're in the "audiobook business" rather than the "entertainment" business, and have nothing to worry about from those silly little people with their cute computer mics. It's really a matter of what you want to listen to. Some of my favorite authors have never had work available in audio, many only abridged, a bunch of others only in out of print cassette formats, and a few with DRM that's on one side or other of the tolerable fence. So my own listening is often a study in second choices. If you can be flexible (I want to listen to x genre, and/or I can wait a week to get it), you'll find it, free or otherwise. If you're looking for something specific (Miranda July's story collection on eMusic as of 12/2008), you'll probably be disappointed, especially when the item doesn't yet exist in any audio format. CP: I tend to think that if audiobooks were cheap enough, they'd be very popular. Does your experience support this? ALEX: I think podcasting proves it, though ease of use is also an important factor there. I never owned a portable CD player, but I keep more than 24 hours of spoken word content on my MP3 player at all times. CP: Why did you start Telltale Weekly? Has it been as successful as you hoped? Will it continue? Do you plan to expand it significantly? I was interested in new business models, micropayments, Creative Commons licensing, literature, and acting (other things, too, but I couldn't fit them into Telltale). I also wanted to be a singer-songwriter and I sold off my recording equipment when it was clear I was only pretending. I think in the back of my mind I was always looking for an excuse to buy some of it back. But specifically: I had a road trip ahead and I wanted to listen to certain public domain works on the drive. Though they were all freely available in text form at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere, audio versions were either hugely expensive, out of print, or completely non-existant. I think I ended up re-listening to a Sarah Vowell audiobook, which was fine. It's funny, but if podcasting had taken off a few months earlier, I probably never would have started the project. The big goal was to continuously fund and build a spoken word library by producing and selling work and then releasing it free after five years. We're about to see that start to pay off, because--while I've released some work for free without ever selling it--I started with multiple, weekly releases in February 2004. The focus eventually changed to fewer, longer works (and making fun of the site name), but that's just a "listening to the audience" thing. I had other goals and milestones which I changed and/or missed completely, and a lot of that has to do with podcasting becoming so big within Telltale's first two years. But I can't and won't complain too much about this, because podcasting was born from the same technology and ideas that made Telltale possible with little upfront investment in the first place. The big thing is that, after failing to build and/or manage a significant network of insultingly-compensated audio contributors, I hit the point where Telltale's growth was limited by how much I could do, how much I could record and edit myself, and how many contributors I could work with as essentially a one person operation. This was about the time that projects like Librivox and Escape Pod were starting up and rapidly, successfully assembling networks of volunteers to provide similar services in entirely free, donation-based models. Their good work was helpful in a few ways. It showed me that I might be many things, but I'm not much of a leader. I decided there was a ceiling on how big I could grow, and I became okay with that. And it encouraged me to focus more on recordings that interested me--the texts which inspired me to start Telltale, like Bulfinch's Mythology--and less on trying to broaden the selection so much. I believed then and believe now that there's a place between podcasting's free audio of variable quality and "professional" recordings of Twain or Poe stories for which we're somehow expected to pay a dollar per minute because they are our only option. So it's not something I'll ever be able to do full time, but even this past year--when I've been recovering from a mild traumatic brain injury and was severely limited by what I could do for the project--there's never been any doubt that Telltale would still make good on its promise, and there are over a hundred audiobooks which will be Creative Commons licensed in the next five years, thanks to just a few wonderful contributors. The future? There'll be a higher ratio of free stuff, by the nature of the project. I might sneak and read some of my own published fiction once in a while. I'm working on an original comedy project, but I haven't decided for sure whether that's going to be under the Telltale umbrella. It's been fun. I was more of a physical actor when I started Telltale, but I think I've learned a trick or two. Always happy to surprise my contributors with larger than expected royalty statements (which somehow only works after you set the bar low enough...). A narration I did for Escape Pod resulted in a film option for the author, for which I should totally take credit but unfortunately it was a good story. Hey, I get to discover and study great literature and introduce them to new audiences. What could be a better hobby? [Though it's tempting to edit and clarify what I wrote back in December, I'll leave it be and just add: Thanks, Charles!] Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal May 14, 2009Wiscon 33 ScheduleMemorial Day weekend (May 22-25, 2009): Program can change, but the schedule is public. We'll get there Friday night and leave Monday afternoon, I think. I'll be posting my whereabouts frequently on Twitter (@alexotica) if you're trying to find me or (I'm guessing) look for the #wiscon tag to keep track of more than just me over Memorial Day weekend. But I'm kinda required to show up for these: Saturday 10AM Joss Whedon's Dollhouse with Jenny Sessions, Sigrid J. Ellis, Britt Flokstra, Annalee Newitz, Deb Stone, and Alex Wilson. This one should be fun. Sunday 1PM The Obligatory Workshop Panel with Keffy R.M. Kehrli, Julie Andrews, Erin Cashier, Tina Connolly, Alex Wilson. I'm a late edition to this one, but I should be able to remember some of what happened at Clarion. Monday 8:30AM Tech Tools For Writers with Morven Westfield, Kelly Jones, S. N. Arly, Caroline Stevermer, and Alex Wilson. I might end up talking more about brainhacks, if the more traditional tools I'm using are as well covered as I think they are. Monday 10AM SFPA Reading with F. J. Bergmann, Sandra J. Lindow, and Alex Wilson. Haven't decided what pieces I'll do yet, but I'm convinced that readings should be fun. Very cool: for the second year in a row (and my second time attending the con), a former Cajun Sushi Hamster (my old critique group) is guest of honor: Maureen McHugh last year, and Ellen Klages, this. Go Cleveland. With Trinic-con canceled and uncertainty about my brain injury, this is the only con I'll be doing this year. And afterwards, I expect to be available online even less than I have been, while I catch up on Telltale and other projects, figure out what I can and should be doing during this stage of healing, etc. FWIW I have started to grow my hair out, but haven't decided whether I'll still have it by the end of the month. Looking forward to seeing people! 3-15-09 ETA: I've been added to the workshop panel on Sunday. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Con Reports, Journal, News May 12, 2009The Last Makeover of Mrs ClausOkay, if you haven't read The Last Christmas of Mrs Claus as discussed here, go ahead and do that before I spoil you with some spoilish spoilers below. And if you don't care to read the story, what follows will be confusing and uninteresting, so you might as well skip this, too. For everyone else, you may only skip it because it's uninteresting. Cool? Wanted to talk about two of the changes the story went through, specifically the ones I probably wouldn't have made if it hadn't been for the suggestions of some very smart people. Generally speaking, the humor's more broad than most of what I write (clarification: most of the unpublished stuff I write, and someday I'm sure I'll see a correlation there), and I did get suggestions from my Clarion buddies as well as the editors to remove a few of the more esoteric gags (i.e. the stuff I enjoy most). I acquiesced often, but fought to keep the ones that I felt were important in another area of story, theme, or character. In my 2006 Clarion draft, the most often-asked question in the workshop circle was "What was Santa making in the toy factory if he wasn't making toys anymore?" To be honest, I just didn't think it was so important to the story. In an earlier outline, where this was the first chapter of a larger, way-too-didactic narrative, I think it was Abercrombie & Fitch sweatervests, but thought, in short-story mode, that that would've pulled focus. So the story ended without that reveal. At least one Clarion critiquer had thought, with all of Santa's "crystal" talk, that I was telegraphing crystalmeth, thinking that his dark secret was drug use instead of (or in addition to) adultery. Now, I'm not sure exactly what this says about me, but at the time I had four or five other irreverent, deconstructionist Santa stories (mostly intended as comics) either ready to get outlined or starting to get fleshed out, and one of my weaker plots cast Santa as a drug dealer. So when I revisited the story mid-2007 before sending it out, methlabs struck me as a particularly good fit with both Betty's isolation and the hint of possible socioeconomic consequences of Santa's labor policy. Ta da! And, though I probably tweaked a sentence or two after most rejections, the story stayed where it was until editors Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson asked for a rewrite. There were multiple areas where their questions and suggestions led to marked improvement in the final draft, but the one thing they helped me focus on most was in the finding the balance between Mrs Claus's ignorance of her husband's affair, and her intelligence and strength as a human being. And, while no single change solved everything, focusing on that balance for the final revisions led to at least a dozen tweaks in wording and detail, where things have begun seriously falling apart only in the last few years vs Santa's always been like this; he just used to be better at hiding it. There were multiple revisions of the final gunshot especially: she can't take too long it figuring out the bear's identity, but she's no premeditated murderer either. Hopefully the end result worked for those who read the story through the end. Finally: few readers questioned (to my face, anyway) the veracity of Betty as an ex-marine who was stationed in the Middle East. My Thoughtcrime editors wanted me to cement the story in time (so I put her at Camp Doha post-Desert Storm), but otherwise I owe additional debts to the sources of background research I did prior to outlining. In the Spring of 2006, I read Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams and Jarhead by Anthony Swofford, and I stayed with a marine buddy at MCBH and picked his brain for a week or so. Still, I didn't yet know how or if any of that stuff would be applicable to this or any other story. I was just... interested. Thanks to all those who helped make the story work, and especially for letting me keep the byline on the end result. Filed Under: Journal, Prose and Poetry April 30, 2009"The Last Christmas of Mrs Claus" in Thoughtcrime Experiments (out now)I share a table of contents with some amazing authors this week in Thoughtcrime Experiments, an online anthology created and edited by Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson. (Direct links to my story The Last Christmas of Mrs. Claus and to the free PDF. Print-on-demand book version coming soon.)  Can't think of what else to say about this one that I haven't talked about before. I'm usually good with titles, but this was the initial working title and I've struggled unsuccessfully at least since 2006 (alone, with my Clarion classmates, and with the editors here) to figure out a better one. Best alternatives: A Whistle of Wind and Snow Betty Doesn't Glaze Here Anymore North Pole, Half Mast Mrs Claus and the Crystal Kissoff The Things in the North Pole That Kick All Kinds of Ass Blood and Eggnog Mrs. Claus's Last Oorah In the Snows of Far-off Northern Lands Mrs. Fucking Claus But nothing I loved and nothing I liked better than the original title. I would like to talk about the ending when I'm feeling up to it, but I'll wait until a few people have a chance to read it before I make with the spoilers. For those interested in how these things sell, this one got nine rejections and a few more non-replies before selling to Thoughtcrime (after requested rewrites). The editors have been awesome to work with. I almost didn't write "Mrs Claus" IIRC. I'd outlined it long before Clarion and it was only when another story fizzled that I dug up this outline in desperation and turned it into something. I only remember that abandoned story because it had such a great title. What a shame. Filed Under: Journal, News, Prose and Poetry April 19, 2009"I Get Half" Screening at Duke tonightResurfacing for a minute because I just found out a short film I wrote (back in 2007 maybe?) is finished and screening tonight at Duke University at 7PM in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Center. It's a free and catered event, and that's about all I know.  I'm not even sure about the title; my screenplay was called "I'd Rather Owe It to You Than Cheat You out of It" but I think the director liked my working title better: "I Get Half." I have a tiny bearded cameo (filmed in late 2007, I think), though that might've been cut. It's the last Duke/Freewater Screening listed for the spring calendar, and I have no idea who you'd contact for more info. Glad I'm not driving because I don't know my way around the Duke campus, but I believe it's the same theater where I saw Chip Delany and David Gordon Green speak for the Festival of the Book in 2006. Filed Under: Acting, Journal, News, Pretty Pictures April 1, 2009Spoils of Springfield in Shimmer #10, out now! Plus an Interview! Exclamation point!Shimmer #10 is out now, and includes a pseudo-early story of mine "Spoils of Springfield," which is kinda my first attempt at zombie fiction, but not really because it cleverly fails to satisfy any of those things readers look for in their zombie fiction. Yes, it's a complete mystery why I don't sell more fiction, why do you ask?  There's also an online interview with me, which was conducted over email shortly after my brain injury. I vaguely recall being hesitant to answer any questions for public record at the time because I was so uncertain of what would come out of my mouth, but then I realized that many of the first interviews I read as a kid were with musicians who were coked out of their skulls and I turned out okay. The issue is available via subscription, individual issue, or (and they don't do this every ish) free PDF. I've long been a subscriber to Shimmer and I'm so happy to finally be a part of it. And thanks to the crack editorial staff for confronting me during copyedits about my compulsive overuse of hyphens. I've been clean for almost three paragraphs now. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry March 30, 2009Telltale Audio: March 2009Originally recorded/for sale five years ago; now free with a Creative Commons license: The Magic Shop by H G Wells Leaves of Grass Book I: Inscriptions by Walt Whitman A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Switft  And then there's a new one you'll have to pay for: Lost Hearts by M R James An early ghost story by James about a kidnapper/dabbler in the occult who has a keen interest in removing the hearts of children. You're welcome. Filed Under: Audio Projects, Happy Fun Log, Journal, News March 13, 2009New Phone, Twitter Bidness and Future DumpingWhen I signed up for Twitter in August, I saw great potential for use in the future (especially for finding people at cons/on the road), but right then it seemed like just one more thing to keep track of. But at the end of last month, I upgraded phones to something that can do Twitter, and--just in time for Jon Stewart & co. to make fun of me for jumping onto a fad--I'm finding it useful now. The brain injury is what makes this interesting. Yes, it's perfect for my attention span--I currently have trouble processing long blog entries I want to read, and writing them can exhaust me. And yes, making my less filtered thoughts so accessible is more likely to attract train wreck fetishists than friends and readers. Still. Though this lowers the barriers of entry to communicate with my online friends and peers, I'll have to be careful. But I look at it as a way to jump in and out of conversations as my energy levels and processing abilities permit. No scheduled chats, and less pressure to keep track of everything that was previously written (I say "less" because I'm a too much of a completist to not want the whole story.) And--while Twitter's not meant to be a permanent archive or anything--my memory sucks right now. Which means I don't remember who I've told what to and where. So there's going to be twitterdumps/crossposting involved for my benefit more than for anyone else's, to alexotica.livejournal.com, but not to alexwilson.com/journal/ (which is what LJ mirrors for me). Most people can keep reading/ignoring how they are now. But I know not everybody likes Twitterdumps (I tend to skip over them myself), so if this is something you just don't want as part of my blog, you can pick your poison: http://alexotica.livejournal.com - Journal with commenting, includes Twitterdumps. (RSS Feed) http://www.alexwilson.com - Journal with no commenting, no Twitterdumps. Some basic tagging. (RSS Feed) LJ Syndicated Feed of original blog without Twitterdumps. (where I won't see comments, but hey it's still LiveJournal) http://twitter.com/alexotica/ - My Twitter feed only (@alexotica) Enjoy or ignore. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal, Vanity Smurf March 5, 2009SALE! "The Last Christmas of Mrs. Claus" to Thoughtcrime ExperimentsThe title might change, the story revised multiple times, but my Week 3 Clarion Story has been purchased by Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson for their online anthology Thoughtcrime Experiments. Very helpful feedback from the editors both on this story and on another subbed story which they didn't end up buying (though, with their comments, I think I now know how to sell it elsewhere). And Leonard has posted some interesting postmortems on the slush process on his weblog: Lab Report 1 Lab Report 2: What The Slush Pile Looks Like Lineup Thank you Clarion friends, and thank you editors! Filed Under: Clarion, Happy Fun Log, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry March 2, 2009Micro Award NomineeMy LCRW story A Wizard of MapQuest was a nominee in the 2nd Annual Micro Award for very short fiction published in 2008, which means (if I understand correctly) I was a pick of at least one of the three judges. Thanks for the note and for running the Micro Award program! Filed Under: Journal February 28, 2009Voicemail Dead ZoneMy phone finally gave up the ghost yesterday, but because of some technical/connection difficulties at the wireless place (yes, I will one day look back and enjoy that), there was a longer than expected time period between the time I last checked my (now paved-over) voicemail and the time my new voicemail system replaced the old. Though it occurs to me there's almost no overlap among the people who read my blog/livejournal/twitter and those who I communicate with on the phone, if you called yesterday and haven't had a call back, that means I didn't get the message and never will. Please call again or thank whatever deity you feel appropriate that you don't have to face any embarrassment over yesterday's drunk dialing session. Thanks. --The Management. Filed Under: Journal, Vanity Smurf February 27, 2009Telltale Turns FiveI'm here to come through on a promise. I launched Telltale Weekly/Spoken Alexandria on February 27, 2004. Five years is an especially big deal here, because, as longtime followers of the audiobook project might remember, the heart of the business model is how inexpensive recordings are released free under Creative Commons Licenses after... yup. Five years. Since Telltale started out with multiple, weekly releases (vs the focus now on fewer, longer works and making fun of the site name), expect regular additions to the free podcast (iTunes page) for a while. Of the three "Funding a Free Audiobook Library" recordings released that first week... The Glove and the Lions by James Leigh Hunt was free from the start. Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry broke its 25-cent bonds early. It's been free since 2006. Don't remember why I did that. Maybe I was trying to impress somebody. And today A Dog's Tale by Mark Twain joins them. This one was only recently unseated by Edgar Allan Poe's Tell-Tale Heart as the bestselling title since the launch. Still one of the most popular recordings, but, boy, did I talk fast before I found my narrating groove.... Yes, there will continue to be new releases (some cheap now, free later; some free from the start) as my health improves/allows. In other news: Sold another story today! I'll share details when I get the editorial go ahead. Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, News February 17, 2009Help out Karen Ellis!Real quick: Webcomicker Karen Ellis (of the wonderful Planet Karen) just lost everything in a housefire. More details in Rachel Edidin's blog Please help if you can. Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, Peers & Peerless, World of Importance February 10, 2009Summer in Paris, Light from the SkyLast November I got the chance to narrate "Summer in Paris, Light from the Sky" by Ken Scholes. It first appeared in Clarkesworld last year, is currently on the Nebula preliminary ballot, and is the featured story this week on the free science fiction podcast Escape Pod. Enjoy! My previous work for EP: Down Memory Lane by Mike Resnick (Asimov's) Robots and Falling Hearts by Tim Pratt and Greg van Eekhout (Realms of Fantasy) Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, Peers & Peerless February 6, 2009Deviated Septum FTW!Yay! Yes, this is another medical post, but I've been refraining from posting until I have something positive to talk about, so... GOOD NEWS TIME! I almost never got sick before the brain injury. Then it took me five weeks to recover from my WisCon-induced cold and I'm now starting month _four_ of yet another sinus sickness, instigated by a cold, but exacerbated/perpetuated by the ticcy ticcy side effects of drugs my brain specialist wanted me to try. Boo. My general practitioners have taken an antibiotics-or-nothing approach, which hasn't been the straw that broke the cold's back either time. And I don't have an infection now. So I skipped another trip to the GP and went to an ENT yesterday, confirming one of the many things I asked my other doctors about last year. ALEX: "Could I have a deviated septum? I was in a car crash, after all." DOCTOR: "I can't understand what you're saying. You must have a deviated septum." ALEX: "Really?" DOCTOR: "Ha ha. No." Well, it turns out I do have a deviated septum. Which of course doesn't make my doctors incompetent or my injured brain functional. It just means that one of my questions wasn't as stupid as the rest, but--by the time I got to it--they were done listening for the two times a day this stopped clock was going to be right. I'm excited. Happy. Because it's a problem more manageable than the assumed "weakened immune system since the accident" status quo, just part of the guesswork and hope that make up the entirety of my brain injury treatment. DOCTOR: "Now we'll try this prescription drug that's so similar to meth it's scary." ALEX: "Will it help?" DOCTOR: "Ha ha. Dunno." But a deviated septum? That's even got the hint of a "Theory of Everything" answer to maybe more than just these sinus issues of the last year (the longevity and frequency; yeah, I still would've caught some/all of these colds and such without a deviated septum). Not only is breathing important to every aspect of of groundbound life (which you never understood, Aquaman, and that's why we never worked as a couple) but we don't know whether the deviation formed slowly over time, or was for certain damaged in the accident 13 months ago. If the former (perhaps instigated by a broken nose in high school, the cause of which I can't recall, your honor), then that might even explain why it took me so long to shake my Clarion crud in 2006 and some of my (assumed just stress-related) health issues in the year before the accident, which means I'm not just becoming a fragile old man! I'll stop short of believing it could be a contributor to my slow progress in recovering from the brain injury, but the brain _is_ a needy crybaby when it comes to oxygen. (STFU Aquaman. Nobody's forcing you to read my blog. Stalker.) Haven't decided how I'll take care of it. Probably surgery, because I have that intense dislike of taking drugs--doubly so when all they do is treat the symptoms. Not happy about the surgery, but I'm not happy about the feeling sick all the time, either. But it'll be nice to figure out how to breathe clearly again, so I can refocus my efforts on how to think clearly again. And here I've been reducing and eliminating the last of my bad eating/health habits in hope of improving my health? All those vegetables and fish died for like no reason! I'll apologize to the plants tonight. Aquaman, will you talk to your friends for me? AQUAMAN: "Well, look who's suddenly returning my calls now that he needs something..." ALEX: "Would you like to discuss it over steak and corn syrup?" AQUAMAN: "Ha ha. Score." Filed Under: Brain Injury, Clarion, Journal February 1, 2009Two Writing Lessons from Film1. Enjoyed both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (as I do pretty much all of Christopher Nolan's work), but winced at the last awkward monologues of both in first and subsequent viewings. I don't think I'm spoiling any plot here, when I reveal the final lines of The Dark Knight (which come after one of the main characters state one of the film's big themes, just in case we'd missed it in the actual story): "A sentinel* guardian. A watchful protector. A dark knight." After hearing that for a second time now that TDK's out on DVD, I want to strip every adjective out of my fiction forever. Which'd probably help more than it hurts. (*Apparently I hear "sentinel" where everybody else hears "silent." Don't care. It's two words where one word is stronger.) 2. I've never gotten further than the outline stage of a feature length screenplay, but one of the ones I've spent the most time on (off and on between other projects) is about a modern man's difficulty making other male friends. Since I'm not a very competitive person and because I try to view ideas as problems to solve rather than trade secrets, I felt that itch was scratched to my satisfaction when I saw something similar enough, Patrice Leconte's lovely Mon Meilleur Ami last year. I put it aside for a few months and only recently have figured out how some of the original things I have to say with it might make it worth continued development. But! I never figured out the biggest thing my outline was missing until I saw an ad the other day for I Love You Man, which seems to be even closer to my conceit than the Leconte: a sense of urgency. It's right there in the trailer. Guy needs a male friend because he's getting married and needs a best man. Not ingenious, not terribly high stakes (I had a groomswoman in my wedding in 2001, so it can't be that uncommon nowadays), but completely believable as a story mover. But because I was writing about an already-married man with a daughter (which mattered elsewhere in my story), it just never occurred to me. Time to set it aside again, at least until I see the film. Ah well. Other problems to solve. Filed Under: Journal, Peers & Peerless, Prose and Poetry January 30, 2009I Don't Go to Many Concerts But Was Totally Born Yesterday Joshua Radin (or, sure, could be Dar Williams) at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC, as viewed by my 6 centipixel cameraphone. Favorite part of any show? When the pretty young man with the George Clooney speaking voice says he remembers passing through Carrboro and how we were the best crowd of that entire tour. And we're all "OMG! Carrboro!? That's us!" I would've liked to see Radin on his tour with Ingrid Michaelson, though. Especially if they would have played together for a good part of the night (they've got an iTunes exclusive duet available IIRC). Dar Williams has an amazing voice. Before this week I mainly knew of her through Cry Cry Cry, which has been a favorite album of mine for almost a decade now. I've got some catching up to do. Filed Under: Journal, Peers & Peerless January 26, 2009The Campbell Award (or I Dream of Tiara)So I'm in my second and final year of eligibility for the John W. Campbell Award (for new writers of science fiction and fantasy). I believe any Worldcon member who can nominate for Hugo Awards can also nominate for the Campbell. Deadline's the same, too. I know it's a difficult category to nominate for; eligible participants are by definition obscure. So I appreciate you taking the time to look at the list of 2009 eligible authors and to decide who amongst us would look the best in a tiara. But of course I hear what you're saying. You're saying: "But Alex! I can't nominate someone who doesn't need a tiara! You're a pretty, pretty man and no thing on your head could ever improve on that! Which I assume is why you're bald. The only reason, I'm sure."  (Yeah, that's right. I defy you to tell the difference without looking at the captions.) But (!) if nominated, I pledge to lose both Campbell and tiara to a far more worthy writer of novel-length fiction. Because I believe, in this century, the only years in which short story writers have taken home the Campbell have been U.S. election years: Cory Doctorow in 2000, Jay Lake in 2004, and Mary Robinette Kowall in 2008 (I don't _think_ any of them had novels out by the time they won). So nominate with confidence! Here are a few highlights of my eligibility period:
If you're a Worldcon member and would like a hardcopy or email of this or other work for Campbell Award consideration, please email (alex [at] alexwilson.com) and include whichever type of address. With my award-caliber reasoning abilities, I'll be able to tell whether it's a postal address or email address without you even telling me. Sorry I can't make these available to all right now. Too many familiar names on the eligibility list to recommend them all, so I'll just point out my Clarion friends* Sarah K Castle and Livia Llewellyn, two short story writers actually in danger of winning even during a nonelection year. You've been warned. (*EDIT: the site wasn't showing me the first-year eligible authors for some reason, so it looks like I missed Rahul Kanakia's name first time around.) Filed Under: Journal, Peers & Peerless, Pretty Pictures, Prose and Poetry January 20, 2009Inconsequential Art #3 and #4 - Out NowThe final issues of Inconsquential Art, my minicomic/zine, are available now. Just in time for the Presidential Inauguration! Has nothing to do with the Presidential Inauguration! They make Valentine's Day gifts!   IA #3 features the never-before-seen "The Mighty Have Pollen" (seven comic strips) and "Church of Saturn" (SF story-poem). "Church of Saturn" first appeared in Murky Depths #2. IA #4 features "Casey at the Booth" (SF story-poem), and a gag cartoon by Wilson and Constantine Markopoulos. Cover by Markopoulos.   These are businesscard sized items of 12 pages (including cover) each. They're $1 per issue or $5 for two sets of all four issues (one set for a friend you don't want anymore). Or you can get eight copies of any individual issue for $5 in case you want to read it more than once and have greasy fingers. And--while this wasn't always true of the first two issues--they include these very cool plastic minisleeves to keep them tidy.I do plan on playing again with minicomics and reprints of my work. But next time they won't be quite so mini. (FWIW I quietly made these available in November, but wanted to make sure I was well enough to fulfill an uptick in orders before promoting them here. Yeah, that took longer than expected.) Filed Under: Comic Stripping, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry January 8, 2009"A Wizard of MapQuest" in LCRW #23 - Out Now The latest issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet includes my flash fiction story "A Wizard of MapQuest." It was my first-week Clarion story, is my first Clarion story to see print, and is my first appearance in LCRW. Subscribe! A bit more about the story behind the story here. Yes, I know this has been out for weeks now; still playing catchup here. Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry January 7, 20092008 Submission Log Weeks 46-52Submissions 594-606 Atlanta Film Festival (my 1st sub there) Clarkesworld (7th) Podcastle (1st) Escape Pod (1st) SuperGrrrl Adventure Comix (2nd) Apex (6th) Sybil's Garage (2nd) Interfictions (1st) Weird Tales (10th) Virginia Quarterly Review (2nd) Delacorte Press/Random House (1st) Arabesques Review (1st) Writers of the Future (22nd) Micro Award (1st) Rejections 438-450 Ideomancer (36 days) Isotope Minicomic Award (22 days) F&SF (28 days) Clockwork Phoenix (27 days) Clarkesworld (1 day) Podcastle (1 day) Asimov's (42 days) Kenyon Review (72 days) Realms of Fantasy (47 days) Farrago's Wainscot (76 days) Talebones (116 days) WotF (86 days) The Chimaera (72 days) Of interest Thus ends my 2nd and final year of eligibility for the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. I'll put together a few selections for Hugo voters in the next week or so. 2008 for me was too much about recovering from that brain injury and its complications, and I fear a good part of 2009 (hopefully not 2010 and beyond) might be similar. So it goes. Hold request from GUD, 66 days. Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal December 30, 2008Tale of Two Hard DrivesSo two hard drives failed beyond recovery in the past week (well, beyond recovery that doesn't include giving a thousand bucks to recovery specialists, that is). I'm not superstitious or anything, but the fact that my recent spat of medical calamity and other hellishness started on the morning of January 1, 2007, right as my Campbell Award clock started ticking, is not lost on me. So should things start to look up after tomorrow night? And if so, does that mean the economy's my fault as well? When our credit card number was stolen last Tuesday (exactly a year after my accident, wouldn't you know, and I got the call from the bank within a few minutes of when I was flipping my car in 2007), it reminded me how I used to do a nuke and pave reinstall of all my computer system software and workfiles every three months or so when I was running Windows, mostly for speed improvements but also to keep malware at bay. On the Mac, the slowdowns come, well, slower, so there's not that incentive there, but it's not impossible for a keystroke logger to make it onto my machine. So of course in the middle of the reinstall, one of my backup drives has to go and not work anymore. I do backup the essential stuff regularly, but this is an external drive I don't really have a system in place for. I mainly used it for working on files too big for my laptop, so my comics projects are all on hold until I get a replacement (which I won't get until after the replacement credit card arrives, grr). What stinks is I don't know the whole extent of what I lost. Now, that's not entirely the fault of my (human) memory. I was in the middle of doing that reinstall (and, after working for days on trying to bring this drive back to life, I kind of still am in the middle of it), and before that I'd been sorting and moving a bunch of things to it, getting ready to burn backups of (mostly) nonessentials. The big thing I do remember and am kicking myself for: after a year of light Telltale releases, I finally had enough uncompressed source audio to fill a DVD, and had moved (and deleted) all those files from other drives a day before to consolidate them together in a 4.2 gig folder on the dearly departed drive, ready to burn both backups and redundants of that important folder... Thankfully, the other one was the Tivo, which I realize we've had for six years and I've had to replace the drive every two years almost exactly. We're looking at it as a good excuse to pull the plug on cable TV (and probably sell the Tivo once I get the still-under-warranty replacement drive from Maxtor). We got cable in the first place because when we finally hooked up to broadband, there was a deal to get TV on the cheap, and we liked what we'd seen of The Sopranos on DVD and of The Daily Show in hotel rooms. But Sopranos has long been over (as has our too-brief subscription to HBO), the costs have steadily increased, and I realized a few months ago that--even if you include the broadcast TV and PBS stuff we try to catch--we could get everything a la carte on iTunes for almost a tenth of the monthly cost of cable TV. I'll miss the films on IFC and some of the syndicated shows we're finally catching, but it's nothing that upping our Netflix subscription to more than the current $4.99 plan wouldn't fix. Time Warner service has been spotty at best anyway, enough so that we thought the ending to The Sopranos was just another poorly timed hiccup. Happens during The Office all the time. My, we've come a long way. Sure, I bought a TV after graduating from college so I could watch films, but it wasn't until September 11, 2001 that I even picked up an antenna on my way home from work so I could catch the news, see what was going on in the world (I think I was still with NetZero for internet at the time, which was still free at the time, and still worth every other penny at the time). In a few months, I'll probably be buying an antenna again after the HD changeover, but what's the hurry? Now we're talking about going to the same Indian restaurant we went to on New Year's Eve 2006, and going with the same couple, too. Do-Over? or Do-You-Have-Any-Brains-Left-At-All-Over? We've eaten there many times since, without event. On the bright side, I'm almost over the latest bout of notwellness, ready to give 2009 an uncontaminated kiss and hug hello, as long as it doesn't arrive too late. I do have to be in bed by ten, you know... Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal, Vanity Smurf December 24, 2008The Night Before Christmas I don't expect this to make up for some of the irreverent treatments of Mr. Claus I've done in the past or will likely do in the future, but here's a reading of "A Visit from St. Nick," part of the free Spoken Alexandria podcast. Safe travels and happy end-o'-year, all. Subscibe to podcast via iTunes All Christmas Audio at Telltale Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal December 23, 2008"Chance of Snow" in Flytrap #10 - Out NowThe final issue of Flytrap is available now, and it includes my story "Chance of Snow." Sorry to see the series end, but so happy to have been a part of it. My small contribution: a choose-your-own-adventure type story about falling in love with a woman who is made out of snow.  I wrote a few silly interactive fictions back in college, and I even found homes for some of them (probably my best one, "Paths to Autonomy" is currently reprinted in Inconsequential Art #2), but I probably wouldn't have revisited the format if it weren't for my friend Robert Levy, who at Clarion demonstrated how it could be used to create something more emotionally interesting than just a fun curiosity. Which hopefully "Chance of Snow" is more than. Is. English really is my first language. Filed Under: Clarion, Journal, News, Peers & Peerless, Prose and Poetry December 19, 2008File 770 #154 - Out NowThe latest issue of the multi-Hugo Award Winning fanzine File 770 includes a gag cartoon written by myself and illustrated by Constantine Markopoulos. I believe issue #154 premiered at a con last month, but this week the online edition has appeared. (Right hand side of the File 770 site or direct Link to PDF.) Cartoon's on page 28.  Filed Under: Comic Stripping, Journal December 16, 2008Telltale Audio - December 2008The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F Scott  Fitzgerald, in which our hero is born as a fully grown man and for the next seventy years grows toward infancy. Narrated by me. (All Fitzgerald audio)The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall by John Kendrick Bangs, a humorous ghost story about a particularly damp apparition appearing on Christmas Eve. Narrated by Susie Berneis. (All Christmas audio) Bulfinch's Mythology: Phaeton by Thomas Bulfinch, in which a young man finds out he's the son of the god who drives the Sun around, and suddenly he feels all entitled to take the family car out for a cruise. What could possible go wrong? Narrated by me (and part of the free Spoken Alexandria podcast). (All Bulfinch's Mythology audio) Still hope to do a free narration of "The Night Before Christmas" before the 25th, but no promises. Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, News December 12, 2008Back SoonA lot to talk about, but the last six weeks or so I've been beaten by some bad reactions to medications that are supposed to help with the MTBI symptoms, followed by some bad withdrawals. I've got three more I'm supposed to try, but I think I need to detox until the new year. Back shortly. Thanks. - The Management. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal December 1, 2008Ten YearsAlmost missed this. Yesterday I sent out my 600th writing submission into the world. My first sub (and my first blog post, though we old folks called it "jounaling" back then) was in November 1998. Yes, it can take that long, and I'm still barely on the cusp of knowing what I'm doing and where I'm going. Here's to the next ten. May the mistakes be less embarrassing, the attitude more humble without being self-disparaging, and the outlook as rosy as the disposition of someone who is known for having a rosy disposition. Who likes to dance, too. Might not seem so important now, but it totally matters in the long run.. Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal, Prose and Poetry, Vanity Smurf November 20, 2008LEGO: Black Santa vs Ninja-Powered Evil Car(Just getting over yet another multi-week sickness. Eh. Looks like my brain's not my only fragile bodypart since the accident. I expect to surface more regularly in December.) I made this a while back for a Eurobricks contest, in which we created/imagined our own Lego product lines as though this crazy Capcom box was part of a new series. Click for larger pix. Theme: MIDLEGO CRISIS WARS Set: Black Santa vs Ninja-Powered Evil Car MSRP: $35 Pieces: 361 Description: No one is safe! Rocket will kill Santa! Seven minifigs and motorcycle! Go Santa Go!    I did this when I was still learning how to photograph on the small Lego scale with my (admittedly decent) point-and-shoot, so the rest of the photos look worse than the above wide shot. But here's a view of the car's interior along with the bare-chested cowboy villain of the piece. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal, Lego, Pretty Pictures November 6, 2008Can and Has and Sometimes Doesn't(Final public political thoughts for a bit.) Have to admit that a part of me felt duped into votepairing for Kerry instead of giving my vote directly to Cobb four years ago, because Edwards on the ticket was supposed to give the Democrats a chance in hell of competing in North Carolina. Maybe it was in play, but NC still went down like a bad analogy on a political post that nobody wants to read. (FWIW A bigger part of me felt terrible for not holding my nose and doing more to help Kerry get elected, and I actually voted for Gore, not Nader, in 2000. But it's time to look forward, not back.) So in spite of my liking Obama more than any other major party presidential nominee since I first started voting--enough even to give money to his campaign--I was still tempted to vote McKinney. For once, I'm glad I threw my vote away again on the Dems. (Also very happy to be currently wrong about the trend in voter turnout as extrapolated in Casey at the Booth.) Obama wins North Carolina, Presidency. How about that? I've never voted for the winner before in presidential politics. Yes, I cried. Late Tuesday night, and a couple times yesterday. Yes, I'm happy. I imagine it's an elation unique to this event rather than an "oh, this must be what if feels like to have your guy actually win..." but it's good news. Lord, keep him safe. But while I think Obama has the potential to be the greatest American president of my lifetime (I know, I know. With a bar that low, he just needs to keep from tripping over it.), I have no illusions that he's perfect. Every election is about compromise, and I imagine only a few of the biggest die-hards in either major party agree with their official platform 100% of the time. But I feel particularly disappointed with the wishy washy support the Democrats (and Obama) currently put behind the fight for civil rights. In the brief moments when they weren't silent on the issue, the Democratic leadership dismissed homophobic legislation in California, Florida, Arkansas, and Arizona as merely "unnecessary" rather than abhorrent. And that's why all four passed. That's why Democrats let millions of Americans lose their rights on Tuesday. Yes, it sickens me as an American that these measures were even being considered, and, it grieves me as a Christian that they were often supported or justified in Christ's name. Preventing gay marriage (and adoption? Are you kidding me?!) demonstrates not only a lack of respect for the rights of others, but also a clear lack of faith in God above government and in the value of marriage beyond its legal status. Yet on any year when there isn't an election going on, Democrats pretend to know better. "The hottest places in hell," quoth Dante... So, anyway. That's the big reason why I'm still an independent. Not because Democratic leaders are too conservative or not libertarian enough on too many issues (though they are or aren't, IMO), but because they're cowards. Do better and I'll reconsider. As for this year's post-election regrets, I knew what I was getting so I don't anticipate buyer's remorse with Obama. But I'm already wishing I did more to fight homophobia than merely send a couple bucks to California. Here's to the future. Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance November 3, 2008Casey at the BoothA Filk of the Republic Sung in the Year 2088 by Alex Wilson, with love and respect to Mr. Thayer. Illustration by Constantine Markopoulos.  The choices weren't inspired for the voting sect that year. Both parties nommed their same-olds based on safest taste in beer. And since the latest Bush bombed Laos for something England said, Democracy was wearing thin the further out it spread. And worse! A thing unnoticed when th'electorate was fit, When voters in the country numbered nearly half of it: When many folks could ration, share a fraction of disease, No single person's portion meant more than an itch or sneeze. By Casey's year, these burdens weighed more heavily than ever With each remaining voter who retired life or lever. And that is how the public curse of every sin we'd do Got yoked and concentrated as a plague upon the few. Of course we tired veterans urged vote-virgins to jump in; But they just ridiculed the compromises on our skin! They treated us like lepers while we looked on them as bread Who might absorb our saucy sores by voting in our stead. So congress made us killers when they forced the peace on Guam. The White House proved us negligent by selling Chad the bomb. Still! Some of us yet held out hope that evening's end was near, For Casey would turn eighteen on election day this year! Oh, Casey, golden swing vote! With that new citizen smell! Whose peers took sudden interest where at us they'd just rebel. He _led_ these kids, a generation yesterday aloof! Tongues bloody roared: "We'll boycott hell, with Casey at the booth!" We almost felt remorse to look on Casey's freckless skin, Like undead who might suck his youth that we might live again. He strolled up to the counter with his virgin throng behind, His arm around his nubile girl, his noble chin reclined. Like Christ himself, he stretched his arms and said: "This is my charge. These ballots are a burden, but a privilege just as large! A better day and world," he cried. "Where all can share the blame! Where pussing sores puss half as much! A pressure valve for shame!" But darkness crossed his visage, when what should derail his cheer: His girl taking a ballot from a crusty volunteer. Away great Casey yanked her, as though fearing she had brushed Against one who would sacrifice her moisture into dust. They locked eyes for a beat, then Casey 'scused himself to pee. "I'll be right back," he managed. "There's no need to wait for me." Th'assembly got all chatty, neither voting nor reversing. His girl said, "Left my license in the car," before dispersing. The years pass and we still feel we're outside that bathroom door: The lovelies still avoid us, there's more sin in every sore, And Casey sleeps in cardboard, but insists he sleeps quite well, Because he remains beautiful. It's not his fault, this hell. November 2008 First appeared in Inconsequential Art #4 Also available: Spoken Word Audio (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AAC), Text File This poem is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/ No need to ask permission to republish/redistribute in any medium big or small, though I'd love to hear about where it ends up. Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry, World of Importance November 1, 20082008 Submission Log Weeks 42-45Submissions 575-593 GUD (my 4th sub there) Clockwork Phoenix (3rd and 4th) Space and Time (2nd) Apex (5th) Clarkesworld (6th) Actor's Theater National Ten Minute Play Contest (7th) Strange Horizons (19th-21st) McSweeney's (11th and 12th, one to the Quarterly, one to Internet Tendency) Sybil's Garage (1st) F&SF (24th) Realms of Fantasy (11th) The Believer (6th) Isotope Awards (2nd) Asimov's (20th) The Chimaera (1st) Ideomancer (8th) Acceptances 77-79 As mentioned previously: "A Wizard of MapQuest" to LCRW #23 "Chance of Snow" to Flytrap #10 and Werewolves Playing Poker (gag cartoon) to File 770 #154 Rejections 421-437 A literary agent (32 days, full manuscript) Clockwork Phoenix (36 days and 21 days) vMeme21 (10 days) McSweeney's Internet Tendency (7 days) Strange Horizons (51 days fiction, 11 days poetry) Apex (8 days) Asheville Film Festival (118 days)Fantasy (9 days) Analog (34 days) Shimmer (20 days) The Believer (9 days) The Pedestal (36 days) Clarkesworld (3 days) Writers of the Future (123 days) (finalist) Of interest The WotF rejection is the biggest news. Congrats to the winners. Got some positive feedback from one of the judges via Joni. It came with a sudden wave of 5 rejections in a 12 hour period, so I've been on autopilot getting the other four pieces back in the mail. I haven't yet been able to sit down to think about whether to start submitting the finalist piece elsewhere immediately, or hold off until the published finalists are announced. Though I'm pleased with how it came out, the story in question is very different than what I usually write (and what I'm interested in writing in the future). Because this is also the only piece that's made it past the coordinating judge... that leads me to doubt I'll get another/better shot at publication at getting into the anthology, so maybe I should take my chances. Getting positive feedback on about 2/3 of my rejections lately, which is promising, though the more an editor seems to like something of mine the longer they hold onto it before ultimately rejecting it. Is it always darkest before the dawn or is that just before the sun goes out? Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal, Writers of the Future October 28, 2008SALE! "A Wizard of MapQuest" to LCRW #23!Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Flytrap are two of my favorite zinelike entities (I subscribe to both, and you should, too), so finally breaking into both makes for a solid end to the year. And just as cool: "A Wizard of MapQuest" is my first Clarion story sale. It's a tiny thing, well under 1,000 words. I wrote the first draft quick in the first week of Clarion, because I didn't want Chip Delany to choose either of my godawful application stories for a class critique. It ended up being the first non-application story to dare the gauntlet*. Consequently it was critiqued not only by all my classmates and Chip that day, but also by all the subsequent instructors (including LCRW coeditor Kelly Link) looking for my writing samples. So thanks, all! Couldn't have sold it without ya. Response time here is tricky to figure. I actually sent it to LCRW in February of 2007. I pulled it six months later so I could rewrite it and send them something else which I thought would be more appropriate (still under consideration, as is my judgment). About six months after that, LCRW's other coeditor Gavin J Grant emailed to ask whether I'd sold it elsewhere. I hadn't, and I asked if they wanted to take another look. Six months later, he asked for a bio. So twelve months. Or six. Or it was a requested submission, so it doesn't matter. Also, it was my 4th and 7th submission to LCRW. Also, you don't care. Which BTW isn't the most database-incompatible journey for a story of mine, and probably not even the strangest for this particular tale. Among other things, I think "A Wizard of MapQuest" got me my first "I love this, but..." rejection from a SFWA-qualifying editor. But I should probably stop before this entry becomes longer than the story it's a story about. Dontcha love it when people in good moods won't shut up? *But since "MapQuest" was barely flash fiction and the critiquing order was Chip's decision, I have to point out that the first real non-application story we critiqued belonged to Steve Berman, whose normal-length story immediately followed. Man deserves credit when he writes eight words in the time it takes for me to write one. Filed Under: Clarion, Happy Fun Log, Journal, News, Prose and Poetry October 26, 2008Telltale Audio - October 2008Just in time for Halloween: three new ghost stories since I last brought Telltale to your attention here...The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H G Wells The Romance of Certain Old Clothes by Henry James The Haunted Dolls' House by M R James Horror titles are consistent bestsellers at Telltale even when it's not October. The above were narrated by Robert Bethune and Susie Berneis. Find more... Horror at Telltale (with loads of Poe) Spoken word audio by H G Wells Ghost stories Narrations by Bethune and Berneis Enjoy or ignore! Filed Under: Audio Projects, Journal, News October 23, 2008To Which Chopped Liver Always Replies...Collecting (probably final) pre-election thoughts... (a PSA we did in 2004) Was in Barnes & Noble for the first time in a while (had a gift card, needed a magazine). There were at least five magazines turned backwards, which of course prompted me to pick them up, see what they were, and what was so provocative that someone might not want his or her kids to accidentally glance at them. Huh. They all had photos of Obama on the cover. See, I love petty in my fiction. Damon Wayans keying the bad guy's car in The Last Boy Scout is one of my earliest childhood memories! But in real life, petty is just sad. I mentioned it in passing to the clerk. "Yeah, that happens all the time," he said. Reminds me of my experience last year (also with a gift card!), hearing about Vonnegut theft at B&N. Another reason to shop independent. I voted early for Obama and a bunch of other nice looking people. Disappointed that there wasn't a Green or Libertarian candidate up against Lawson and Price, because I wasn't too pleased with either. Long lines in Carrboro even this early, indicative of a healthy voter turnout. Which is fitting because I wrote a short satire this year extrapolating on voter apathy reaching all time highs and turnout hitting the single digits. I've also never voted for a winning presidential candidate before, so McCain fans can take heart! I wish Molly Ivins was still with us. Though I did vote for Gore and Kerry (as a votepair anyway, where I voted for Kerry in NC, and a Democrat in a non swing state said he'd vote for Cobb; no idea whether he actually did), we actually gave money to a major party candidate for the first time this year. So if Obama wins, that's gotta say something positive about the value of the American dollar. Or ours anyway. Still officially unaffiliated, and I still think Obama's too conservative on most issues, but I'm with him on more issues than I ain't, and like more things about him as a leader than I don't. I do think the Green and Libertarian candidates are quite solid this year. If NC wasn't in play, I'd probably vote McKinney, and Barr isn't the cringe-inducing ass he used to be. And there are other third parties. I firmly believe the only way to throw your vote away is to not vote. If you don't like either major party's guy for president, voting for someone else (real, not animated) is how you can make it known. I'd like to see Obama publicly oppose CA's Proposition 8. He doesn't need to actively campaign against it or decide it's a national issue instead of a state one right this second, but the silence is disappointing. One year, when I was getting my license renewed, an old man cut in front of some thirty-something guy who neither asked him to go to the back of the line nor simply shrugged it off. Instead this ass made passive aggressive comments for fifteen minutes about how the rest of us had to wait in line, "but sure, you just go right ahead, because you're more important," which the line cutter appeared to not hear. I remembered this while watching the final debate. McCain started out on fire--which I found impressive and engaging--then spent the rest of the night making snide comments. If he woulda stuck with angry or matched Obama's eery calmness, he might've made even me a little less leery of a McCain presidency. But the middle of the road here just means being a passive aggressive ass. I think my favorite talking point of all time has to be the one where Republicans call the Democratic P and VP candidates the "first and second most liberal members of the senate." I remember variations from 2000 and from 2004. To which Chopped Liver always replies "What am I? Dennis Kucinich?" Don't forget to vote, America. Woah, hold up. America? That name sounds kinda foreign, dontchathink? Filed Under: Journal, World of Importance October 20, 2008Mind RacingTook me a while, but this weekend I did my first thirty-minute continuous run in almost ten months. While the main reason I've been running is to increase my energy levels post-accident, I have to admit it was higher than expected bodyfat and BMI (because the bodyfat scale's rather cheap) that's been a big recent motivator. I've never had great metabolism, but before the head injury I could stay reasonably healthy with mile+ walks almost every day and one or two intense workouts per week. Just bad luck that my being unable to do much more than walks for an extended period just so happened to hit at that early-thirties time in a man' s life when he's no longer in his twenties. This was not as obvious as one would think. I haven't decided whether or when I'll try again to train for a marathon. Now's probably not the best time, but I'm probably going to move toward a running schedule designed to establish an aerobic base for it, if only because I do much better when I have direction/goals in mind. And I guess the biggest goal right now is life extension. My dad died at 53, his dad at 54. Time's finite. If this year's a wash creatively, maybe I can give myself a do-over. Got a nice comment from a reader last week about someone going through something similar with her head. She's in year three out of (a neuropsychologist-predicted) five (five!) year healing process, which is both daunting and encouraging, since my doctors/neurologists so far have only said "it takes as long as it takes," but I'll finally see a neuropsychiatrist (or neuropsychologist; can't remember which) this week. Filed Under: Brain Injury, Journal October 14, 2008Heinz Kicked to the Ketchup KurbSince my Klean Kanteen story seemed to be of interest, let's talk some other baby steps towards eating better, starting with probably the one brand I thought I'd never, ever give up. Heinz Ketchup (Catsup? Garfield, you've ruined me for crosswords). For the record, I believe I'm on a gradual course towards eating properly. If I live to be 200, I'll eventually become a vegan with benefits who only eats local, organic, unrefined foods, all in healthy moderation, but I won't because I won't. While I don't believe, at present, there's an organic solution to famine or malnutrition on a global scale, I do believe many of our (perhaps necessary at the time) inorganic, quantity over quality solutions to the same have made eating well more difficult than it needs to be. Huh. Apparently I thought this soapbox was full of ketchup. So. I'm not a huge brand-loyalty kind of guy, but for some reason I was in my late twenties before I was willing to switch to a non-Heinz ketchup. Maybe the commercials were really good when I was a kid, I don't know. I only remember the Hunt's commercials where one guy would trick the other person into please for the love of all that's holy won't you try something new? And the other guy would kick his ass because Hunt's was for losers. Or something. I had a short attention span as a kid. But of course as an adult, my tastes matured, even if I still put ketchup on hot dogs sometimes (deal with it, Chicago!). And even when I longed for that more sophisticated taste, I stuck with Heinz. Anybody else remember the disappointment that was Heinz Ketchup Zingers or Kickers or Zesters or something in the first half of the decade? Added that fake garlic aftertaste? Okay, maybe it was real garlic, but it tasted fake. And the aftertaste didn't last too long. I mean, I'm over it. Well my loyalty finally waned a few years back and I did some experiments. Don't remember which bottles I tried, but the winner was something I didn't expect. Not "as good" as Heinz, but actually better!  As for switching back to Heinz, now that they've go their organic line going? I don't think I can. I still have Heinz ketchup in restaurants and such and... my tastes have changed. I taste more salt than anything, which is odd because the Muir Glen has slightly more sodium. Ah well. Give it a try. Break free from the stranglehold of mindless brand loyalty, though it might make you feel bad for making fun of Hunt's commercials, because maybe their ketchup wasn't so sad after all. We'll never know. Unless, I guess, we try it. Or something. Filed Under: Journal, Well Awareness October 3, 2008Stop the Buck! (and share this comic!) Click for larger (so you can, you know, read it) as well as for creative commons info, and for a free print-quality, one-page PDF, which you are encouraged to redistribute. U.S. Voters! Register to vote (and find local deadlines for registration, which in many cases are fast approaching!), verify your registration, and learn about early voting in your area by entering your zip code at WWW.MAPS.GOOGLE.COM/VOTE. Filed Under: Comic Stripping, Journal, Lego, News, Webcomics, World of Importance October 2, 2008Mini-acceptance! Gag cartoon in File 770.I've got a fantasy/werewolf gag cartoon in the next issue of Mike Glyer's six time Hugo Award winning fanzine File 770. Illustrated by my friend Constantine Markopoulos, whose backup stories have appeared in Dave Sim's (and Gerhard's, let's not forget Gerhard's) Cerebus (I'll dig up those issue numbers for y'all when the cartoon's available). Filed Under: Comic Stripping, Happy Fun Log, Journal October 1, 20082008 Submission Log Weeks 36-41Queries Sent my first query to an agent on September 1. Manuscript requested on the 19th. Breathe. Submissions 551-574 A literary agent GUD (my 2nd and 3rd subs there) Abyss & Apex (2nd) Talebones (8th) Doorways (1st) Clockwork Phoenix (2nd) Strange Horizons (18th) McSweeney's (9th and 10th) Algonquin Press (1st) Chronicle Books (1st) Shimmer (5th) Dark Horse (1st) Analog (12th) Asimov's (20th) Kenyon Review (3rd) The Pedestal (3rd) Best of Science Fiction & Fantasy 2008 (1st) Farrago's Wainscot (12th) Writers of the Future (21st) vMeme21 (1st) Fantasy (8th) File 770 (1st) Phew! Acceptances 76-77 As mentioned previously: "The Whores in Trinidad Need Witnessing to" to Outlaw Territory II (not a slush submission) and "Chance of Snow" to Flytrap #10 (41 days). And I'm currently a finalist for WotF, so... watch this space? Rejections 407-420 Beneath Ceaseless Skies (18 days) Colbert Report (McCain Greenscreen Challenge Thing) (69 days, assumed rejected when final entries announced) Fantasy (81 days and 42 days) Talebones (27 days) F&SF (52 days) GUD (13 days and 16) Abyss & Apex (23 days) Algonquin Press (19 days) McSweeney's (221 days, 24 days, and 17 days) Shimmer (20 days) Assumed Lost, Etc. 72 Actor's Theatre of Louisville's National Ten Minute Play Contest. I usually hear by now, but it's safe to assume that what was my weakest entry yet has not passed muster. Of interest Decided to take matters into my own hands re: the long McSweeney's response times. Since they don't outlaw multiple submissions, I decided I'd send them a story a month, so it wouldn't be six months between rejection letters from them anymore, and I could send them more than one story per year. The result? I got all rejections (8 months, 1 month, no month) all at the same time. Okay, new plan... It was fourteen months between my first SFWA-qualifying sale and my second. We've just passed the fourteen-month mark since that one. I get that, if Active Membership eligibility (three "pro" sales) is a priority, I should have been more aggressive about pursuing SFWA-qualifying markets above/instead of other ones. And I get that Jen and my medical issues started dominating my time literally within hours of the start of my Campbell clock. But it's still embarrassing, innit? FWIW, about a few of these, I'm more optimistic than I've been in a while. Current tally as I'm a month away from my ten year anniversary of submitting my crap into the world:
Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal September 29, 2008SALE! - "Chance of Snow" to Flytrap#10!So pleased. I'm a subscriber to Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt's Flytrap, and I've been receiving rejections from Tim at least since 2001 (when he was poetry editor of Speculon. Anybody else remember Speculon?). "Chance of Snow" was my fourth submission to "the little zine with teeth." And this was the first place I sent this particular story. That never happens! Flytrap #10 should appear in November, which adds at least a tiny bit of cool because November marks ten years since I sold my first story to a little online zine called Jackhammer, which also published a few early stories of a little-known writer named Tim Pratt (not sure whether we ever shared a ToC). Filed Under: Happy Fun Log, Journal, | ||||||||||||
