|
Cup-A-Prose, November Infodump November 13, 2002 (Selected republication of old entries from the pre-Movable Type journal...) 
Last Sunday (this is ten days ago, not three), we had the first pseudo-meeting of Cup-A-Prose," a writer's critique group in the Triangle area. Mike Jasper, a writer I "met" online a while back through fellow Hamster Toby Buckell, mentioned to me that he was thinking of starting one up when I first wrote about moving to the area. My only real contact with Mike was through a Group Writing Dare I participated in from September 1 through September 11, 2001. It was supposed to go to the end of the month I bought a television antenna on the way home from work on that Tuesday, September 11, so I was a big quitter. Glad he forgot about that when he asked me to join.A bit of logistic problems marred the first meeting. All five members attended, but I only met two of them. No, it's not that I lack obervation skills, in spite of what you might think from my writing. See, we agreed to meet at a coffee shop, but that coffee shop is a chain. Drew Williams and Jason Lundberg went to one, and I met Scott Reilly and Mike at another. Scott and Mike are great people. I had a lot of fun talking about writing. Sometimes it's just nice to know you're not the only crazy one in the world. I enjoyed Mike's and Scott's writing and company, so that'll make for a pleasant time once a month, methinks. And of course I think we can really benefit from each other. If we're lucky, maybe we'll all meet at the same place as Drew and Jason so I can make that blanket statement about everybody next time. And the name? Jason thought it would be cool to have a name for the group, and Scott said how his girlfriend suggested "Cup-A-Prose." As writers of of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, I think our mission should be to tell stories more interesting than this one. I made up the fancypants logo you see above and to the right. Not anything official, but neither is the Hamsters logo I made and you can still see below. I replaced a Journal Award that linked to a site that no longer exists.
Saw Michael Moore's new documentary, Bowling for Columbine that same weekend in a packed independent theatre. I think it's easily his best work yet, aside from a
But Bowling Columbine changed my mind back again. It's the message, not the medium that matters. Great film for afterwards discussion. I'm just glad it's "appropriate" for the film to actually get some press and interviews (though his appearance on Donahue conspicuously never aired, unfortunately; a transcript appears here which is worth a read) this time around.
In other "I hate hardcover" news, fellow Hamster Maureen F. McHugh's Nekropolis was released in paperback yesterday. Haven't read it yet,
What else is new? My site's server now has more bandwidth, more disk space, and a MySQL database. Haven't done much to take advantage of it, but it's nice that it's a nice problem to have when it's both necessary and profitable to pay more for hosting. It's one of the ways Alexander Wilson Studios is steadily evolving as a business. Next step is a new desk and some software purchases, probably by the end of the year. Editor Mark Rapacioli emailed me out of the blue, saying Planet Relish was returning in 2003 and wanted to reprint "Paths to Autonomy" in a preview/best-of issue through the end of 2002. It's an old interactive story I wrote. Glad to hear Mark and PR are both back in action. I've been thinking of getting involved again in the "online writing community" with the Rumor Mill and all, so this comes at a good time. Now I just need to find some free time to "involve myself." I kind of scoff at instant messaging, like ICQ and AIM, but I'm hearing that more and more writers and editors are using them to network. Maybe there's something to it, moreso than socializing and time-wasting (not that the former is always bad thing) as I previously thought.
Busy at work. Busy at home. It's nice to be busy. I'm less stressed about overload than I've ever been before. Good news all around.
 
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournal(original comment from November 2002) Hey Alex! Cool logo! Glad to have you in the new group -- your feedback helped me immensely. Hope you're working on something to share with us in December... Posted by: Mike Jasper at September 11, 2005 11:55 AM 
(Original comment from November 2002) Glad to hear it helped. Yup, finished a story over the weekend. 5500 words. I'll try to trim it down before submitting it, but more edits are bound to just make it longer... Posted by: alex at September 11, 2005 11:55 AM
(Original comment from November 2002) How come Cup-a-prose only has guys in it? ICQ and AIM are indeed nice. I end up talking to Mike sometimes, when he decides to get on, and every once in a while, Ellen Datlow will be on and so will Nalo Hopkinson. And no, I'm not giving you their ID's and Yeah, I'm TOTALLY name dropping here. Posted by: Samantha Ling at September 11, 2005 11:57 AM
(Original comment from November 2002) Hey Sam! I'll email you back privately, but in answer to your first question... (shrugs) Ask Mike. I've only been in the state for three months. All the writers I know are through Mike and all of them happen to be men. I've only met two of them (Mike's one of them) and I've probably had more email exchanges with you than any of them other than Mike. Which says a lot. Know a lot more women than men here, actually. But they're all grad students with my wife and none of them write, though one of them has expressed an interest in writing children's books someday. You're not in the area are you? If so, I'm an idiot for not remembering it. Sorry. If you are and you're looking for a group, I'll happily recommend you. Thanks for stopping by. Posted by: Alex at September 11, 2005 11:58 AM
by Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com. |
few incredible segments on his canceled show, "The Awful Truth" and a few particularly biting chapters of 