Tropism

Worldly and Fantastic!

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Wed, 6 Aug 08 15:01:00 UT

I saw the final list earlier today at work, but was waiting for it to pop up online somewhere before blogging it. So: Hart & Boot & Other Stories is a World Fantasy Award finalist in the collection category! (Complete ballot here.) I doubt I'll win, but I'll get a little pin of Lovecraft's head, and that's reward enough! There's some great stuff on the ballot. Especially pleased to see John Klima there twice, once for his 'zine and once for his antho Logorrhea (which also has two great stories on the ballot by Dora Goss and Daniel Abraham). Nice to see Kim Newman on the ballot twice, too. I don't know the guy, but I've been a big fan of his work for many years. And Shawna McCarthy, who's published more of my stories than any other single editor. And... hell, congratulations to everyone on the ballot!

(Alas, I will still not be braving the frozen north to attend the convention in Calgary.)

Rivers and Islands

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Tue, 5 Aug 08 16:54:00 UT

Lessee. Rose at the crack of dawn today to take River to a doctor's appointment, to see his pediatric opthamologist. They checked his eyes (which entailed much screaming, because River was up at 5 and by the time the doctor saw him he was sleepy), and determined that River is nearsighted from the glaucoma. Which means... baby glasses! Indestructible rubber frames! Elastic strapped to his tiny head! It's sad, and glaucoma pisses me off, but it'll be cute.

We can't technically afford to buy him glasses just now, though things are about to get better. My editor just sent me the marked-up manuscript for Spell Games, and it's just a line-edit, with no substantive edits requested (she didn't even send an editorial letter!). Juliet has kicked my ass on a couple of manuscripts, so it means a lot to me when she tells me a book is clean. It's close enough to done that she put through the delivery portion of my advance, so sweet money is on the way! Now I don't have to worry about paying taxes next month, buying groceries next month, etc.!

(I feel a bit silly complaining about poverty when we're, you know, going to Hawaii at the end of the month, but that's a funny situation -- we got some surprise money, pretty much exactly enough to cover a really nice vacation after taxes, and decided to throw caution to the wind and book the trip. In retrospect we probably should have saved the money for a rainy fortnight, but, hell, the tickets are bought, and in five years I'll still remember the trip, while I'll have forgotten the pain of having no disposable income for a few weeks. Sometimes the irresponsible choice is still the right choice.)

Tomorrow I go back to work, to a strangely empty office -- pretty much everybody else there is off at Worldcon. I hope they have fun! (I'm not really disappointed about missing the convention. Worldcons can be fun, but they're exhausting, and going to Denver and Hawaii would be too much travel in too short a time for my taste. Plus, see above re: no money.)

Me and the kid have had a good time today, though we've stayed inside the apartment, since his eyes are dilated and he's even more light-sensitive than usual. We played, made a tent in the living room out of a sheet, flew around, ate liquid turkey and vegetables (he did, anyway), and baked cookies (he supervised from his high chair). I also made some effort to get ahead on my pr0n reviewing for the month, so I won't feel the pressure of falling behind while on vacation. TOO MUCH PORN.

Man. That vacation is a beacon. I can't wait.

Game Boat

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Fri, 1 Aug 08 22:38:00 UT

The life of my son River (whom we often call Riverboat, Mr. Boat, the Boatman, and other such things) is a succession of first times. First time in a playground swing. First time eating mashed apples. First time a booger got stuck to his nose. First sneeze. First time on a plane. First taste of juice. First laugh. First time pulling himself to standing. First time he fell over and hit his head after pulling himself to standing. He reminds me how nice it is to do things for the first time -- to not be bound by routine -- and reminds me to notice and appreciate when I do venture beyond the everyday boundaries. It can be scary, you might get hurt, it might taste bad, but the kid, he doesn't hesitate, he embraces the new. He reminds me to try to do the same. (This applies, of course, to writing. But it also applies to, say, eating strange Mexican candy or oddly-named fruit, or listening to music in a genre I think I won't like, without even trying it, or and so on.)

***

Good, strange Meghan McCarron story in Clarkesworld: "Tetris Dooms Itself". (Good Dora Goss story, too, but I've read it before; hadn't read the companion essay, though, which is also interesting.)

Tangentially, I play a lot of Tetris (PC emulation of the Nintendo version) when I'm plotting or otherwise trying to figure out something about a book or story. It occupies my upper attention and lets my subconscious work stuff out. My high score is about 230,000 points. (I start on level 7 in the A-type game, where you get about 10,000 points for every Tetris.)

***

At some point, I think I became a novelist. I always said I preferred writing stories to writing novels, but selling a story brings beer money while selling a novel brings car money or eradicate-credit-card-debt money, so novels it is. But stories, they were the thing I loved.

But I've been writing stories for the past few weeks ("A Steadfast Tin Soldier," "Unexpected Outcomes," and "Origin Story," which is the superhero story I mentioned a few entries back, all done in July! A good month!)... and while I'm enjoying it, and think the stories are good and weird and adventurous, I miss having a big novel to sink into. I do hope I get to write more Marla Mason novels (the jury's still out, should know in the next month or two or few though). But either way I should write SOME kind of book... I miss the total creative immersion.

Things Done and Undone

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Wed, 30 Jul 08 22:07:00 UT

(Clearly, I should do more things.)
Bold the things you've done. Add one.

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink.
02. Swam with wild dolphins.
03. Climbed a mountain.
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive.
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid.
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone.
08. Said "I love you" and meant it.
09. Hugged a tree.
10. Done a striptease.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sun rise.
15. Seen the Northern Lights.
16. Gone to a huge sports game.
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables.
19. Touched an iceberg.
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby's diaper.
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon.
23. Watched a meteor shower.
24. Gotten drunk on champagne.
25. Given more than you can afford to charity.
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope.
27. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment.
28. Had a food fight.
29. Bet on a winning horse.
30. Taken a sick day when you're not ill.
31. Asked out a stranger.
32. Had a snowball fight.
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier.
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can.
35. Held a lamb.
36. Enacted a favourite fantasy.
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip.
38. Taken an ice cold bath. (I put somebody with a fever into one once...)
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar.
40. Seen a total eclipse.
41. Ridden a roller coaster.
42. Hit a home run.
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days.
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking.
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day.
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
47. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment.
48. Had two hard drives for your computer.
49. Visited all 50 states.
50. Loved your job for all accounts.
51. Taken care of someone who was shit faced.
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
53. Had amazing friends.
54. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country.
55. Watched wild whales.
56. Stolen a sign.
57. Backpacked in Europe.
58. Taken a road-trip.
59. Rock climbing.
60. Lied to foreign government's official in that country to avoid notice.
61. Midnight walk on the beach.
62. Sky diving.
63. Visited Ireland.
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love.
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them.
66. Visited Japan.
67. Bench pressed your own weight.
68. Milked a cow. (If only they'd asked about goats!)
69. Alphabetized your albums.
70. Pretended to be a superhero.
71. Sung karaoke.
72. Lounged around in bed all day.
73. Posed nude in front of strangers.
74. Scuba diving.
75. Got it on to "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye.
76. Kissed in the rain.
77. Played in the mud.
78. Played in the rain.
79. Gone to a drive-in movie theatre.
80. Done something you should regret, but don't regret it.
81. Visited the Great Wall of China.
82. Discovered that someone who's not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog.
83. Dropped Windows in favour of something better.
84. Started a business.
85. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken.
86. Toured ancient sites.
87. Taken a martial arts class.
88. Sword fought for the honour of a woman.
89. Played D&D or another RPG for more than 6 hours straight.
90. Gotten married.
91. Been in a movie.
92. Crashed a party.
93. Loved someone you shouldn't have.
94. Kissed someone so passionately it made them dizzy.
95. Gotten divorced.
96. Had sex at the office.
97. Gone without food for 5 days.
98. Made cookies from scratch.
99. Won first prize in a costume contest.
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
101. Gotten a tattoo.
102. Found that the texture of some materials can turn you on.
103. Rafted the Snake River.
104. Been on television news programs as an "expert".
105. Got flowers for no reason.
106. Masturbated in a public place.
107. Got so drunk you don't remember anything.
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug.
109. Performed on stage.
110. Been to Las Vegas.
111. Recorded music.
112. Eaten shark.
113. Had a one-night stand.
114. Gone to Thailand.
115. Seen Siouxsie live.
116. Bought a house.
117. Been in a combat zone.
118. Buried one/both of your parents.
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off.
120. Been on a cruise ship.
121. Spoken more than one language fluently.
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone.
123. Bounced a check
124. Performed in Rocky Horror.
125. Read - and understood - your credit report.
126. Raised children.
127. Recently bought and played with a favourite childhood toy.
128. Followed your favourite band/singer on tour.
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars.
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country.
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did.
132. Called or written to your MP/Congressperson.
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over.
134. ...more than once?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge.
136. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking.
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did.
138. Had plastic surgery.
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn't have survived.
140. Wrote articles for a large publication.
141. Lost over 100 pounds.
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback.
143. Piloted an airplane.
144. Petted a stingray.
145. Broken someone's heart.
146. Helped an animal give birth.
147. Been fired or laid off from a job.
148. Won money on a TV game show.
149. Broken a bone.
150. Killed a human being.
151. Gone on an African photo safari.
152. Ridden a motorcycle.
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph.
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced.
155. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol.
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild.
157. Ridden a horse. (Er, do kiddie pony rides count?)
158. Had major surgery.
159. Had sex on a moving train.
160. Had a snake as a pet.
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing.
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours.
164. Visited more foreign countries than US states.
165. Visited all 7 continents.
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days.
167. Eaten kangaroo meat.
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground.
169. Been a sperm or egg donor.
170. Eaten sushi.
171. Had your picture in the newspaper.
172. Had 2 (or more) healthy romantic relationships for over a year in your lifetime.
173. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about.
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions.
175. Gone back to school.
176. Parasailed.
177. Changed your name.
178. Petted a cockroach.
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes.
180. Read The Iliad. (Well, in translation.)
181. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read.
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them.
183. ...and gotten barred from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you.
184. Taught yourself art from scratch.
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt.
187. Skipped all your school reunions. (So far.)
188. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language.
189. Been elected to public office.
190. Written your own computer language.
191. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream.
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care.
193. Built your own PC from parts.
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you.
195. Had a booth at a street fair.
196. Dyed your hair.
197. Been a DJ.
198. Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal.
199. Written your own role playing game.
200. Given a tramp a sponge-bath
201. masturbated a caged laboratory animal
202. pretented you liked kevin-smith movies when you secretly didn't
203. deliberately, personally, and purposefully insult someone to their face to cause as much harm as possible
204. sold any part of your body, or any product from it, for money?
205. had a secret published in post-secret?
206. sent food or wine back in a restaurant?
207. and regretted it?
208. Seen a bioluminescent tide.
209. Robbed a grave?
210. Taken a microgravity airplane (or spacecraft!) ride?
211. Inspired a painter.
212. Puked on someone's dirty dishes.
213. Fallen in love with a close friend's girlfriend (or boyfriend, husband, wife, etc.).

Bechdel's Law for Writers

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Sun, 27 Jul 08 22:49:00 UT

Don't think I've done the Bechdel's Law thing for my books, and I'm seeing it pop up meme-style online, so here goes. Bechdel's Law, from Alison Bechdel, is a test to see whether a movie is worth watching from a feminist perspective. To qualify:

1. It has to have at least two women in it,

2. Who talk to each other,

3. About something besides a man.

I don't make movies, but as for my books...

Rangergirl: Passes, though I'll admit Marzi and Lindsay do spend a lot of time talking about a man. Marzi and Alice and Marzi and Jane talk about other stuff pretty often, though.

Blood Engines: Yep. Actually all the Marla books pass. Off the top of my head, Marla and Susan Wellstone certainly talk about things other than men (like trying to kill each other), as do Marla and the cannibal witch Bethany. In Poison Sleep Marla and Dr. Husch talk, and Marla and Genevieve talk, and Marla and Nicolette talk, and so on. In Dead Reign we've got Marla and Dr. Husch again, plus Marla and the Chamberlain, and Marla and [spoilers redacted]. Spell Games is very boy heavy, being mostly about Marla's brother, but she does have another chat with Nicolette and with the Chamberlain. Marla has a lot of female business associates and adversaries, so it's pretty easy for those books to pass.

The Light of a Better World is kinda dicey -- it's got a male protagonist (my only novel where the major viewpoint character is a dude), and the two most important female characters almost never spend any time in the same scenes together... and when they do, they largely talk about the aforementioned male major viewpoint character (or the male antagonist). Hmm. I think it passes, since they spend some time insulting each other, but it's a close one.

It's useful stuff to think about. Not in a prescriptive way -- I wouldn't go inserting scenes into a story just to bring it up to code, because there can be quite legitimate reasons for a story not to pass (I recently wrote one where the only characters are a dead body, a stick, some snow, and a rock, for instance, and I'm sure I've written an all-boy story or two) -- but if a lot of your work fails the test, it might be worth confronting some unconscious assumptions.

I smell a Wiscon panel! (Not that I'd actually propose one. I go to Wiscon to socialize and drink, not to do panels.)

Boat Trips

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Sat, 26 Jul 08 09:22:00 UT

I love sitting out on the balcony watching the sailboats on the weekends and the kayak/canoeing/rowing classes and/or teams practicing during the week. Drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, surrounded by flowers (thanks to Heather's diligent gardening), or drinking some wine at night. It's a little beautiful pocket of peace in our lives.

This week I revised my Simulation story ("Unexpected Outcomes") one last time and put it in the mail to a magazine. I haven't written much, except for freelance obligations. Starting to feel that itch to write more strongly. I have some story ideas, so on my day off I picked one and just hurled myself against it. Did about a thousand words. It's the superhero idea I got when I slipped out to watch The Dark Knight last week. It's... odd. The superhero never actually appears in the story. We'll see how it turns out. The idea is promising, but I don't think it should overstay its welcome, so I may attempt to keep the piece short. Trying to decide if I want to explicitly set it in the world of "Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters" or not.

I contributed to another SF Signal Mind Meld, this time about worldbuilding. I don't so much build worlds as insinuate weird things into the real world, so some other answers are more interesting than mine...

In other news I cannot friggin' WAIT for our trip to Hawaii.

Common Language

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Thu, 24 Jul 08 11:08:00 UT

My son sits in his high chair (white
plastic from Ikea), face smeared with organic
summer vegetables in baby-friendly
mashed form, and in between bites he

speaks.

Open-ended vowels, a few
consonants here and there: Ah na
na ma ma mum. He looks very serious but
then he occasionally giggles, and I
wonder if he's commenting on the quality
of the food (which I sampled; it's
pretty foul). Eight months old
and already a critic. I think about
how, after a day of unusual excitements
(a plane ride, a book signing, one
of the too many times he's had surgery
already on his eyes), he shouts and
babbles and grumbles and earnestly
explains. My wife and I always say he's

telling us about his day. It's amazing

watching him drink down the world, and is
it any wonder he tries to talk
it over, talk it through, talk to us
the way we talk to each other? He's trying
to invent a common language from first
principles. He's unlocking
one of the great secrets of the human
universe here, and kid, believe me,

I'm listening.

Granular Detail

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Thu, 17 Jul 08 22:17:00 UT

John Scalzi's latest Book Haul entry mentions Dead Reign, and it's extra amusing because it's a video blog entry and because my book fights one of his books, which is being published on the same day. Rawr, bookfight!

Speaking of ol' DR, the first review is online, written by the diligent Mentatjack. (He's also giving away copies of the first two books in the series.) Dead Reign will be out in like three months, which seems both very far away and very soon...

Other highlights and lowlights of the past week, as they occur to me:

Buffalo burgers are tasty.
My bank account was diminished to double digits, but fortunately I got a paycheck and a freelance check deposited before anything could actually bounce. (I made a lot of money writing last month, but I used it all to pay down debts and buy yummy food. Sigh.)
River is completely over his adventures in anesthesia, and reverted to a normal sleeping-through-the-night night last night. (That's a lot of nights in that sentence. Sorry about that. And that's a lot of that's in those sentences. I'll just stop.)
Our new clean balcony is awesome.
I got really nice fan mail from someone in charge of a US government organization.
I'm completely and totally not writing any fiction. I should write more stories but I want to write novels and I'm between novels but I guess I could write a novel on spec but I don't know which one. Too many ideas, none sufficiently ripe. I'm waiting for a story collab to get bounced back to me -- maybe that'll spur me into action.
For various reasons I took River to work two full days this week and he was great both days -- today he slept like five hours, a long nap in the morning and a longer nap in the afternoon. I got a ton of work done.
I'm reading various things with my shattered attention span and watching bad movies Tivo'ed off HBO. (Two stars? Good enough for me! Though my theory is that two-star movies are the worst -- they're usually just boring. One-star movies are often so hideously bad that they're entertaining.)
Listening to Neko Case and Beck.
Watching DVDs of, yes, The O.C., which is a better show than it has any right to be. Melodramatic and silly and occasionally ridiculous, but sometimes the writing is really sharp, and I love some of the characters a lot. I also like The Middleman, though I don't love it. I might love Wendy's character, but the titular guy doesn't do much for me, and some of the little quirky things that were cute in the first couple of episodes are beginning to grate with repetition. Oh, and, yeah, Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, I love that, just like almost all of you do. I'd watch Felicia Day in almost anything. The Guild, which she writes, is awesome too, perhaps more so if you're a MMORPG player....

Like Eddie Vedder says at the end of "Dirty Frank" -- I think that's enough.

Fish and Lizards

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Sun, 13 Jul 08 16:14:00 UT

Take a look at the latest pictures of River, including shots of baby in a tiny hospital gown.

Here's a link to some fan-damn-tastic artwork by Dan Dos Santos including the cover for Dead Reign and a really sweet piece commissioned for the new Hellboy movie. I so lucked out getting this guy as my cover artist.

A few of my stories are going to appear at PodCastle, the all-fantasy fiction podcast spin-off from Escape Pod. I sent them "Cup and Table," which they accepted, and then the editor mentioned that she'd just read my collection Hart & Boot & Other Stories, and wanted to publish "Komodo" and "Bottom Feeding" too! (The latter is the one Greg van Eekhout always calls "Shiteater," my first Asimov's story, and one I'm happy to see get new life.)

It's been a busy weekend here. We did a trip to the Farmer's Market yesterday, and lunch at the Coffee Mill, and assorted shopping, and a lot of walking. The kid is still out-of-sorts, and his sleep schedule is scrambled, from the anesthesia (it takes a day or two to get all the way out of his system). He wound up going to bed way early (and waking up briefly at 2:30 a.m. and then 5 a.m. for good, oof). Heather went to see a dance show with her sister in the city last night while I took baby duty, which wasn't too difficult, since he slept. I watched some Doctor Who and did some reading before bed.

Today we actually got off our proverbial butts and did some work on the house, getting the disastrously messy balcony organized, working on the baby's room (piling up clothes he's outgrown, oh my!), and etc. Feels good to get stuff done, even if I'm all sweaty now... The baby has been cranky all day, but I'll take a cranky baby over a sad recovering-from-surgery baby!

Tonight: fajitas for dinner, with fresh guacamole and handmade tortillas and mango/papaya salsa and other fun Farmer's Market/Trader Joe's ingredients. Should be yummy.

The Eyes Have It

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Fri, 11 Jul 08 15:59:00 UT

I hadn't realized how stressed I was until the doctor came into the waiting room and told me River wouldn't need surgery today. WHOOSH. Giant weight lifted off of my chest. The doc says River's left eye looks "phenomenal," and while the right eye doesn't look as good, it doesn't need surgery. (We'll come back for another check-up in two months.) This is fantastic news. River's previous surgery was almost four months ago, and he's had no medication at all for the glaucoma in the interim, and his eyes still look this good! It's great news.

It also makes our immediate future more pleasant. No getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for a follow-up appointment. No taking shifts sitting up with him all night tonight to prevent him from clawing off his bandages, and watching him for days to keep him from rubbing his eyes. No antibiotic eye drops four times a day plus glaucoma drops twice a day. (No eye drops at all!) He's groggy from the anesthesia and has giant dilated pupils, but otherwise, he's our adorable wonderful little boy. I feel SO much better, and all the other stresses in my life are suddenly a lot less dire and more manageable.

Under the Knife

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Thu, 10 Jul 08 17:00:00 UT

Stressful week. The baby goes into the hospital for (probably) surgery tomorrow, so that's been weighing on my mind. There's some job/scheduling upheaval stuff going on, too, which I think will work out (not ideally, but in a way that will allow me to, you know, keep having a job), but it's been a source of agitation in an already over-agitated week.

I managed to escape into work pretty well yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, I finished a draft of the simulation story. Then, on my afternoon walk with the baby (I walked, he napped), I started thinking about a story I'd had an idea for years and years ago. I'd taken a stab at writing it, but didn't get very far before giving up, partly because I thought it was so damn odd I'd be unable to sell it anywhere, and partly because there was a thorny point-of-view problem I couldn't find my way around. But while pushing the ol' stroller I figured out a way around the problem, and came home and wrote "A Steadfast Tin Soldier." (Only 1300 words, but they're good ones.) I'm really pleased with it, I have to say. Heather pronounced it good, and it seemed perfect for a project I was invited to recently, so I sent it off. Heard back today; they love it, so it's one of those rare stories that's written and sold in a day. (The project is under wraps for now -- hence the coyness. I'll tell you more when I can.)

I was so in the writing-zone I revised the simulation story yesterday, too, adding a scene, cutting and rearranging others, and it's not as bad as I thought. (Tentative title is "Unexpected Outcomes.") Needs another run-through or two, but I think it's basically sound. It'll go the usual rounds once I get it buffed up.

Losing yourself in work is good, and it helped a lot, yesterday. But I doubt I can write while sitting in a hospital waiting room with my kid under the knife. Even if it is a very small knife.

Many Fronts

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Wed, 9 Jul 08 12:45:00 UT

Congratulations to David Moles and Elizabeth Bear for winning the Sturgeon award! (This is the first time two winners have been named, and yes, the stories are indeed that awesome -- they're both Hugo finalists too, though in different categories.) Heather and I were just talking yesterday about how our friends and acquaintances are gradually becoming some of the most celebrated and significant writers in the field. We're lucky to know such talented people.

I had a pretty productive morning. Got my freelancing done, and did a few pages on a collaboration, and finished a crappy draft of my simulation story. It may be so bad it can't be salvaged, but I printed it out to read, so we'll see. At any rate, I was feeling stuck on the story and by extension stuck in general, and now I can move on to a new story, which is good.

I'm in one of those moods where I can't find anything I want to read, or re-read. I have promising books heaped here and there, from the weighty to the lightweight, but I can't get past the first couple of pages in any of them, which tells me the problem is not in the books but in myself. I have been reading some short fiction, so maybe I'll stick with that for a while. The new Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet has great stuff in it, especially Charlie Anders's "Love Might Be Too Strong a Word" and Kristine Dikeman's "Dearest Cecily." And I just got a new issue of Black Static, always a treat.

This afternoon I'll probably load up the baby and take him for a walk, do a little shopping and go to the bank and such. With luck, he'll nap, and give me time to get some editing done. And if not, hey, it's fun to hang out with my kid. He goes into the hospital on Friday, maybe for surgery, maybe not (though we suspect yes), but either way he'll be a bit out of it for a day or two from the anesthesia. We'll enjoy perky happy bouncy baby while we can!

Linkily

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Tue, 8 Jul 08 07:40:00 UT

Busy lately, but a couple of things:

Nick Mamatas has a very interesting, thought-provoking post on Greatness. (Me, I don't especially aspire to be great. When I was 16 I did, desperately -- hell, when I was 25 I still did, though I was beginning to doubt my prospects -- but now I just want to be happy. If I write a great story in my lifetime that'd be nice, but I'll probably never know about it anyway, since enduring greatness intrinsically requires a long view. As long as I'm enjoying my work -- and enough readers enjoy it to keep my family fed! -- I'm content to let posterity sort itself out. Doesn't mean I'm not always striving to do better work, though. Part of keeping myself entertained is continuing to challenge myself.)

Neat interview with Dave Schwartz over at Bookslut.

Forthright

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Thu, 3 Jul 08 13:48:00 UT

Happy July! Submit stories to Flytrap! (I've gotten some, rejected some, put some others aside to think on, let some sit unread in the inbox, for now. I need more!)

I took part in a roundtable discussion with fellow urban fantasy authors Kelley Armstrong, Keri Arthur, and Jenna Black. It appeared in the first issue of Spectra Pulse and now it's online. Go read! (I'd really like to write a Marla Mason prequel novella, about her rise to power, if I can find someone to publish it. Always tricky with novellas. I have some cool ideas about it though.)

We went to Whole Paycheck last night. Nice store, hadn't been to that particular branch before, very shiny. Got dinner there -- a wonderful sweet smoky pulled pork sandwich for me, crab cake sandwich for Heather. We also bought random stuff like truffle oil and odd cheeses and other stuff. Not a place I'd go for regular shopping -- we spent over a hundred bucks and walked out with only two sacks of groceries -- but it's fun for splurgy or oddball things. We've been eating well lately. Our tentative plan is to buy more buffalo steak this weekend and cook 'em up at Holly's at some point over the holiday weekend. My pan-seared-with-wine-sauce preparation worked out so well I'm willing to cook it for people who aren't married to me... And at some point in our near future I will make truffle macaroni and cheese. Mmm. I can taste the decadence. If that level of pleasure is indicative of civilization in decline, sign me up.

Have a good weekend, all, especially my fellow Americans for whom it's a long weekend. (Which excludes the ones working retail and food service and other such jobs, I know -- I worked my share of holiday weekends, and hated them all. At least things will explode in the sky for your amusement!)

The Deliciousness!

tim[at]tropismpress.com — Mon, 30 Jun 08 21:21:00 UT

Pretty good weekend. We hit the farmer's market on Saturday morning, where we bought lamb sausage and buffalo steaks, both of which are still to be eaten in my future, YUM. And we splurged on some good Kona coffee. (We also bought fruits and veggies and such of course, but coffee and meat are my department.) Then we did River's last swim lesson (for this series of lessons, anyway -- when he's a bit older we'll enroll him in the next course). He had a fantastic time. Saturday night dear Amelia came over and babysat for us, so Heather and I could stroll to the Parkway and see Iron Man, which I quite enjoyed. (I also enjoyed the pizza and three pints of beer! We drank a pitcher and then went back for more!) After we got home and bid Amelia farewell we watched the new Futurama movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs, which I liked, though not as much as Bender's Big Score. It was movielicious!

Sunday we worked on stuff around the house a bit, and in the afternoon went to my boss's house for his birthday party. Barbecued meat and good company and champagne and etc. -- all very nice, though we couldn't stay too long, since the baby's bedtime is seven. We took him home, put him to bed, and watched some episodes of Doctor Who. Thank goodness Stephen Moffatt episodes appeared on the Tivo. That Agatha Christie episode was dire. You'd think an episode dedicated to an author known for her tight plots would have featured a plot that, oh, made a single shred of sense. Ah well. The library two-parter was much better.

It was back to the A Certain Magazine mines today, where I wrestled with configuring a wireless router and did some layout and researched dead people and so on. The usual. Nice weather out on the deck for my break, at least. And a long weekend to look forward to! Wonder if we'll be able to see fireworks from the balcony on Friday night... hmm...

Later: I made pan-seared buffalo steak with a red wine sauce. Holy crap that was good. I'm going to do it again only next time with more buffalo. Heather loved it too, really loved it, and she's not usually down with the bison.

Dinner's over. Sadness! After weeks of relaxing (read: slacking off), I'm going to start writing fiction again... now.