Reading: Hidden Empire by Kevin Anderson
Music: Violent Femme's Freak Magnet
TV/Movie: SLC Punk!
Link o' the Day: The Bathroom Readers' Institute

There's an interesting discussion going on at the fictionmags mailing list regarding editor Horace Gold and Galaxy magazine. Gold had a reputation for being a bit heavy when it came to editing writers' works. He once told Daniel Keyes, author of "Flowers for Algernon" to make the ending happier.

Anyway, a fellow fictionmagger named John Boston pulled this quote which I think is interesting from the writer's perspective:

"I had some basic editorial requirements for material. One was, if you've got a premise, start with it. Don't end with it. Don't end with, 'My God, it's a time machine!' Or, 'My God, it's Adam and Eve'--or whatever. If you've got a time machine, well, fine. Now what? "The second thing was, if it's an old, trite idea, then take it literally. Turn it inside out. Carry it as far as it will go, even beyond the snapping point. If you're writing about overpopulation, then why isn't overpopulation not only good but necessary to maintain your society? If there's a depression, perhaps it is caused by underconsumption--that one turned out to be Pohl's 'The Midas Plague.' Third, seek paradoxes. In Alfie Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION, I suggested that since everybody could go anywhere instantaneously, by teleportation, the very rich would be carried in sedan chairs. . . "In every issue I always had at least one 'bridge' story to appeal to newcomers, and I always made sure that I had at least one story that appealed to women, and one that was a real breakthrough. . . ."

--H.L. Gold, "Gold on GALAXY," in Pohl, Greenberg and Olander (eds.), GALAXY: THIRTY YEARS OF INNOVATIVE SCIENCE FICTION (Playboy Press 1980)

Show of hands. How many of you, at an early stage of your writing, composed an Adam and Eve story? Yup, me too. Ain't no one ever gonna see it either. It was back in high school, and hopefully buried in a landfill. I _do_ have a time machine story in my current stockpile, but it's got a twist and is a pretty good story if-I-do-say-so-myself. (Mankind, in hopes of defeating an alien assault force, reaches back in time for the ultimate commander who turns out to be a primitive man. Things get worse.) And I, of course, have the "suffering artist" story. It's a shame that this is my favorite piece, and it will likely never be sold. (Doesn't mean I won't keep trying for some time to come. I'm a touch bull-headed like that.)

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Today's link is in honor of one of my favorite series of books, The Uncle John's Bathroom Reader books at the Bathroom Readers' Institute. These are not only perfect books for the bathroom, but for city bus rides, cigarettes on the porch, just before going to sleep, and standing in front of firing squads. If I'm ever about to be executed, I want at least ten minutes with one of these books before I make my final shuffle.

Enjoy!