2 Mar 2006

President Bush is an Alien

posted in: public affairs, quirky, science fiction | 0

Or controlled by one. That seems the best explanation, to me.

I just finished reading an SF novel by Timothy Zahn called, Night Train to Rigel, an entertaining yarn about mystery and intrigue aboard an interstellar train. At the risk of giving away a teensy bit of the plot, I’ll reveal here that one aspect of the story involves alien mind control over important leaders. Not in itself a new idea, but it works well in the context.

It also works well in the context of puzzling out the bizarrely un-American behavior of our current administration (and here I’m using “American” in the good sense—that is, standing for peace, justice, and equal rights under the law). Now, some of you probably think I’m just harping on the same old thing, and I suppose there’s some truth to that. But not without reasons. The most recent two are the failure of Congress to haul White House officials up on the illegal wiretapping of American citizens, and the recent article in the New Yorker about high-level condoning of abuse and torture of prisoners. Garrison Keillor, writing on Salon.com, has efficiently summarized the gist of the article, or you can read the entire article in the Feb 27 issue of the New Yorker. I couldn’t find the article online, but there’s an interesting Q&A with the author of the article, Jane Mayer.

It’s more of the same, of course, always more of the same. And now, today, from the Natural Resources Defense Council, comes news that Bush is yet again trying open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, this time by putting it into the federal budget package. No matter how many times we knock this madness down, it keeps popping up again like a weeble.

So I’m almost right there with Garrison Keillor—there’s more than enough reason to impeach the sonofabitch. Except…that would leave Dick Cheney in charge. And he’s the head alien pod-person. So I guess the only hope is to go after the aliens themselves, before they take control of more of us.

Before they…ohno they’re coming after mew#$f^zzzzzzzzzzz…….what’s that buzzing in my ear…?

What was I saying? Oh, I remember now. I like our president….

1 Mar 2006

Happy Birthday!

posted in: personal news | 0

Lest I seem all dark and gloomy, let me hasten to add that today was my wife’s birthday! (Well, it’s yesterday now, but it still feels like today to me.) We’ve been together for over 20 years now, and it was a joy to celebrate with her and with the girls. She’s a supportive and trusting wife, an intelligent and funny companion, and a bedrock to the raising of our daughters. And the best friend I ever had. Happy birthday, Allysen!

1 Mar 2006

More on Octavia Butler

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

A fine remembrance of Octavia Butler appeared in the Washington Post.

I heard from a friend in Seattle—who isn’t even an SF reader—that a memorial reading is planned, in which many SF writers from the Northwest will take turns reading from her work. That seems very fitting.

Too much death and threat of death around lately. I have one dear friend whose husband is dying of cancer, and another good friend whose health is failing and whose life has been so hammered by legal and financial injustices that he is dependent upon charity for medical care.

We all know that life isn’t fair. But sometimes you really wonder.

28 Feb 2006

We Lose Another Great: Octavia Butler

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

Science fiction author Octavia Butler died last weekend, following a fall outside her home in the Seattle area. And the science fiction world, and all of the world, have lost another great treasure. She was the first black American woman to rise to prominence as a science fiction writer, and the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Foundation genius grant. She was also widely acknowledged to be one of the finest writers in the field, regardless of race, gender, or another other arbitrary distinction. By the time you read this, there will probably be a number of stories online, but the two I saw first were from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Chicago Tribune.

I never knew her personally. But I feel her loss as a blow to the community I’m a part of—really, two communities, the one of humanity, and the more narrowly defined one of science fiction lovers. It also makes me think once more about the fleeting nature of life on this world, and how it seems a shame to do anything but try to use our time well.

21 Feb 2006

Writing Dialogue: Get Fuzzy

posted in: writing | 0

Followers of Get Fuzzy know that Bucky Katt has been hard at work on his film project. I’ve already mentioned it as guidance in how (not) to workshop a script. Today there’s a good illustration of a quick and easy way to…um, make sure that your dialogue is vivid and realistic. Check out today’s Get Fuzzy. Give a man a piece of dialogue, and he’ll write for a day. Teach him to write dialogue, and he’ll write for a lifetime.

And if you haven’t been following, jump back a few weeks in the archive and work your way forward.

21 Feb 2006

Boskone, and News about Galactica

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, personal news, science fiction, writing | 0

Well, I had a thoroughly pleasant time at Boskone. This took me a little by surprise, only because I was feeling all grumpy and not really in the mood to go out. I had to, though, because I was scheduled to be on panels. And once I got there and started seeing old friends, and making some new ones, I got into the spirit of it. I also thought this was the liveliest and most interesting Boskone I have seen in a number of years.

One pleasant result was encountering some fans who had already read Battlestar Galactica: the Miniseries. The feedback was all good. Perhaps the nicest was from a young woman who happens to be a Commander in the US Navy, and who is about to become captain of a guided missile destroyer. She said she thought I’d captured the feel of the story very well—and I took that as significant praise, coming from someone who actually knows what it’s like to run a military vessel. (The only ones I have ever been aboard have been museums, rather like what Galactica was scheduled to become before the pesky Cylons interfered.)

An encouraging sidelight was hearing from one of my writing buddies that he’d met with his editor and confirmed the sale of a new trilogy. Earning a living as a writer is not easy for any of us, and he’s no exception. I don’t know if I should mention his name here, so I’ll just say that it rhymes with Craig Shaw Gardner, and his writing style is very similar. I’ll let him announce the details once everything’s been inked.

And finally, I came home to see an email from my editor, telling me that Galactica has sold to a British publisher and has had a book club sale. Given that my biggest rationale for writing the book was to get my name back in front of the public (I didn’t know then that I was going to enjoy Galactica so much), this is very good news indeed. More readers, and—who knows—maybe even a little more money, in the long run.

(Which reminds me of something I want to write about—readers versus money. But later. Remind me if I forget.)

17 Feb 2006

Touching Base

posted in: writing | 0

I’ll have an update for you soon on progress with the book, end of wrestling season for my daughter, beginning of drama and cosmology season for my other daughter, and my piercingly wise observations about the state of the world. But now I’m getting set to head downtown to one of the big Boston SF conventions (Boskone), where I’ll be doing panels and signing books and stuff. If you’re in the area, I’ll be signing (sez the schedule here) tomorrow, Saturday, at 1:00 p.m.—and giving away a half dozen more reading copies of Battlestar Galactica.

Later.

8 Feb 2006

Forthcoming Appearances

posted in: writing | 0

I realized I hadn’t updated the Appearances page on my web site in ages, so I’ve done that now. Here’s the list of conventions and conferences I plan to be at between now and this summer:

I’m scheduled to attend the following upcoming conventions:

  • Feb. 17-19 — Boskone (Boston, MA)

  • March 24-26 — I-con (Stony Brook University, Long Island, NY)

  • July 7-9 — Readercon (Burlington, MA)

I’ll be participating in programming such as panels, autograph sessions, and whatever else the programming committees ask me to do. Please stop by and say hello!

I’ll also be a guest instructor at:

7 Feb 2006

Hi. I’m Still Here!

posted in: writing | 0

That’s about the longest I’ve gone without posting, and I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been so successfully cranking away on Sunborn. And while indeed I have been working on Sunborn, it’s been slow progress. Life has been very full on the family front: wrestling meets with my older daughter (who is now a junior in high school), various homeschooling activities with my younger daughter (eighth grade, but just starting to tackle a college intro course in cosmology, which she is auditing), new job for my wife, and…well, it’s all great stuff. The only down side is, when I do sit down to write, I’m having to reach hard to find creative energy.

So I’ll be leaving this to get back to that in a moment, but I wanted to record some stray thoughts prompted by today’s reading. Followers of the comic strip Get Fuzzy—and I’m as big a fan as they come—have no doubt been enjoying the last week’s worth of strips featuring Bucky as a budding screenwriter, and Rob as his source of feedback. If you don’t get it in your local paper, read it online. You might start with the February 1 strip, and work your way forward. (How not to workshop your writing!)

The Washington Post online today points to a very interesting article from PC World, Hollywood vs. Your PC, Round 2. In brief, the digital video equipment in our near future is going to be full of barricades to prevent us from recording desirable content on TV. (Same with high-def radio.) Digital rights management being pushed by the entertainment industry will screw the consumer, in order to guarantee continued huge profits to the content providers. (Probably not to the writers behind the content providers, but that’s another discussion.) Sony’s recent escapade with CD protection could be just an opening round. As one pundit put it, the only way to prevent it might be for consumers to just refuse to buy the equipment they’re getting ready to offer us. (Not a big personal issue there for me. Any piece of entertainment electronics over $200 is unlikely to make it into our house in the near future. So we won’t be buying high-def real soon, anyway. But I’m sure going to keep recording those great old movies on Turner Classic, while I can.)

Okay, I said I was getting back to the book, and that’s what I’m gonna do. So long, for now!

21 Jan 2006

Battlestar Galactica Audiobook

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, personal news, science fiction, writing | 0

I have finally received my copies of the audiobook edition of my novel Battlestar Galactica: the Miniseries. It’s read by Jonathan Davis, and it sounds good! (Well, the first ten minutes sound good, which is what I’ve listened to.) If you enjoy audiobooks, you might like to give it a try. (It is abridged, I should point out.)

This is the first of my books to be put into audiobook format, so it’s a new experience for me. It’s also the first time I’ve had one of my books abridged, and that takes a little getting used to. The method was not, as I expected, to go through and remove phrases and shorten sentences. Instead, they simply removed entire sentences, probably about one in every four or five. I think it works okay, though to my (prejudiced) ear, there is something lost. Still, it’s instructive how much you can cut and still have it work. I don’t know who did the cutting.

Note, I’m still calling the novel “the Miniseries,” because that’s what it is, notwithstanding the fact that someone along the way—certainly without asking me—took that informative subtitle off the cover of the book. At first they changed it to “the original hit series,” and when I pointed out how misleading that was, they took it off, but didn’t restore “the Miniseries.” I hope no one is confused by the packaging into thinking that the novel reflects the series that followed. It doesn’t. Some future novel might, though.

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