15 May 2007

Interesting Things Afoot for the Future

posted in: personal news, writing | 0

A couple of opportunities have recently come my way, both involving travel:

A long-planned family trip to Ohio is now going to include a book signing—on July 4th, in Sandusky, Ohio. We’re going to be there visiting relatives and taking a young niece and nephew to the great Cedar Point amusement park. The book signing is a new addition to the plans, and will take place at the Kalahari Resort, which apparently boasts one of the country’s largest indoor water parks. So if you’re going to be near Sandusky on July 4th, stop by!

Less than two weeks later, I’m scheduled to wing my way to Laramie, Wyoming, to attend the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop—a NASA-sponsored, week-long program intended to give some intensive astronomy experience to a selection of writers. Here’s part of the mission statement of the workshop: “Our primary goal is to teach writers of all types about modern science, specifically astronomy, and in turn reach their audiences. We hope to both educate the public and reach the next generation of scientists.” It’s funded by NASA as a part of their education and outreach program. Cool! (I’ll be reporting on that in due course.)

And, of course, I leave in just a couple of days now for Breadloaf, Vermont. (More on that below.)

25 Apr 2007

More Progress on Rewrite

posted in: personal news, Sunborn, writing | 0

After yet another rewrite of the opening of Sunborn, I feel as if I’ve finally got it. I haven’t yet heard from my writing group or my editor, but this version—a hybrid of my original approach and the alternative version I’d attempted on editorial request—feels right to me. We’ll see if others agree. (And eventually, we’ll see if you the readers agree.)

Progress was impeded somewhat by two rites of getting-on-in-years: a routine colonoscopy (not bad in itself, but the preparation—oy!), and a few days later, a kidney stone. (!!) I’ve gotten off easy on the kidney stone, so far; it wasn’t fun, but neither was it the excruciating pain I remember from a previous incident, years ago. But an X-ray says it’s still there, so it ain’t over till it’s over. If you hear a muffled scream, that could be me with a fist in my mouth. Right now, though, I feel fine. (Another glass of water? Why, thank you—don’t mind if I do.)

11 Apr 2007

Writing Blues

posted in: personal news, quirky, Sunborn, writing | 0

You know, sometimes rewriting can be kind of fun, and sometimes it really sucks. Currently, I am in the latter phase, trying to redraft the opening section of Sunborn in a way that will grab new readers, as opposed to smoothly moving returning Chaos Chronicles readers back into the story. I’ve been working on a new version for a few weeks now, and ran one attempt past my writing group tonight. While there was some disagreement among the group about what worked and what didn’t, there was nevertheless general agreement that it’s not there yet. I’m still waiting to hear what my editor thinks, but I suspect he’ll agree. I told him that trying to restructure the opening felt like trying to fit bricks into a Mason jar. That’s still pretty much what it feels like.

Rrrrr. I shoulda’ been a cat herder.

11 Apr 2007

Easter Coda

posted in: personal news | 0

I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend, especially if you celebrate Easter. Ours was, well, interesting. Came home from church to find that our boxer, Hermione, had devoured an entire 9-ounce solid dark chocolate Easter bunny! Not just any chocolate, but Williams Sonoma chocolate, which had come as a gift. Oh yes, plus a 3 ounce Lindt Easter bunny.


So she was right up there close to the level of toxicity. Which meant we got to give her hydrogen peroxide to make her throw up (and she did—ugh!) and then spend the afternoon taking a trip to the doggie E.R. to be checked and fed liquid charcoal. What fun! (She’s fine, and at no time did she actually act sick or bothered in any way. Well, except when I gave her the hydrogen peroxide.)

I’m pretty sure Hermione and Moonlight the cat are channeling our departed beagle friend, Sam. Neither one used to get into serious trouble from stealing food, etc. But recently Hermione has been thieving food all the time, and the cat has learned to get up onto the pantry shelves so that she can knock her food container onto the floor. Sam, tell them to stop!

28 Mar 2007

School Committees and Other Snake Wranglers

posted in: personal news | 0

Well, a big chunk of my day today (evening, really) got chomped by a school committee meeting. No, I’m not on our local school board—I wouldn’t take that job at the point of a gun—but I’ve found myself at their meetings a lot more than I ever dreamed possible. Tonight’s occasion was a special session for public input on whether our superintendent is out of his mind for not renewing the contract of our middle school principal. (Hint: He is.) The woman he’s trying to get rid of is extremely capable, immensely popular, and unanimously supported by the staff and faculty of the school. Everyone loves her, including me and my family. (Even after my younger daughter pulled out to home-school, she continued to support and encourage us.)

The school committee blocked out two hours for public input, and even though neither of my kids is in middle school anymore, I felt I should put in a statement of support for her. Which meant taking some time to write it first, then waiting my turn for a very long time, sitting in the school gymnasium. Tons of people turned out. Thirty-some spoke, including me, and all but one or two were adamantly in support of Ms. Bouris. It was pretty amazing.

But did we have any effect, other than emotional? Too soon to tell. The school board cannot legally overturn the superintendent’s hiring decisions, and he didn’t show much sign of wavering. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I learn more and more about local governance. As the great late House Speaker Tip O’Neill said, “All politics is local.”

I saw myself on TV later—in an incredibly poor-quality video feed to the community access cable channel. I thought I did okay. I also thought: man, that dude needs a haircut, something fierce. Shouldn’t his wife tell him, or something? (Oh wait—she did. About three weeks ago. Okay, now I believe it.)
______________

By the way, Daisy the Goose continues to lead the pack in search phrases that bring people to my blog. (Some portion of it, anyway.) But someone recently did a search for “snake propaganda,” which I thought was sort of interesting. Why would someone do that?

13 Mar 2007

Where Does the Time Go?

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, personal news | 0

The last two weeks sure went fast (at least in blog years). The nasty head cold that I’d been dodging all winter while people fell to my left and to my right finally caught me (and most of my family). With perfect timing, it came just before we were to receive a Japanese student to stay with us for five days. We took a lot of vitamins and Echinacea and green tea, and prayed. She arrived today, and is a total sweetheart. I know we’re going to want to adopt her.

A week ago, the high school wrestling team had its annual end-of-season banquet. To my immense relief, someone else produced a video of season highlights, so I didn’t have to. To my immense pride, my daughter Lexi (a graduating senior) received the Coach’s Award for outstanding contribution to the team. She was taken completely by surprise, because she hadn’t had a winning season. But the coach gave a very moving tribute to her hard work and discipline, and her willingness to compete head-on in a sport completely dominated by boys. It was a great moment.

I wrote a while back about the impressive work that Star Trek fans were doing in creating all-new Star Trek episodes. It seems that the producers of Battlestar Galactica have noticed all the fan activity, also, and have decided to facilitate it. They’ve created a video toolkit of special effects, sounds, etc., that anyone can use to produce their own four-minute BSG spinoffs. They’ve even got a couple of samples up. They’re running a competition, and the winning piece will be shown along with an actual BSG episode. (Speaking of which, I’m a few weeks behind in watching, so don’t anyone post any spoilers about what happened to Starbuck in the next-to-last episode!)

Finally, here’s another interesting link, courtesy of my wife:

How about a dance club that’s built their dance floor on top of piezoelectric elements, so that the bouncing of the dance steps provides the electricity to power the club? Go to http://www.inhabitat.com/, and scroll down a little ways to Sustainable Dance Club for a short video. Gotta dance!

2 Mar 2007

Conquering Chaos

posted in: personal news | 0

One of the things I promised myself I’d do after finishing Sunborn was take a week and clean my office…really clean it, from top to bottom. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve done this, and it’s looking more than a little messy. I’m surrounded by mountains of half-read magazines, unread books, printouts of web pages, nearly-finished tax returns, unfiled bank statements, and a lifetime of photos, which I set out to organize (or at least box neatly) about six years ago. Didn’t get very far on that one.

But I’m not getting very far on the new book, either. (By which I mean Chaos #5.) I figure if I do this, I’ll feel better, and the feng shui, the chi, the karma, and the Yin Yang of my work space will all smooth out in a Harmonic Convergence that will bring my brain back to life! Also, I’ll be able to vacuum. Or at least turn the Roomba loose.

I started on it this week. It’s about the only job I can think of that competes with doing taxes for making me want to scream. Nevertheless, I will prevail. I think a week may be a little optimistic, though. I have decided that cleaning my office will be a major part of my Lenten devotions (also known as 40 Days of Faith—and boy, will this take faith).

22 Feb 2007

Wikis and Pedias and Obsessions, Oh My!

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

Somehow or other, I stumbled across the existence of Scifipedia, an SF-oriented wiki developed by SciFi.com. Of course, I looked to see if they had a good section about authors, and specifically about me. The answer: authors, yes; me, no. So I set about to remedy the situation. You wouldn’t believe how long it can take to compose a simple encyclopedia article about yourself, especially when most of the information already exists in various documents readily at hand. Nevertheless, I got it done, and you can read all about me and my stuff at Scifipedia | Literature | Authors.

Well, one thing leads to another, and soon I was checking to make sure that various articles about Battlestar Galactica included information about the novels. (They didn’t; I fixed that.) And that led to the discovery of Battlestarwiki, and a search to see if the books were properly referenced there. At first, the answer seemed to be no. A search for novels didn’t lead to much, but eventually I found an article titled “List of Books,” which probably isn’t the best title for search purposes, but never mind. That led to the discovery of a detailed page about my BSG novel, which is truly mind-boggling in its excruciating attention to detail. Some of their speculations are interesting and fun, and some lead me to scratch my head. I’m torn between awe at the energy and intelligence devoted to this, and wanting to say, “Get a—!” But no, no, that’s the last thing I would say to fans! Amazing, truly amazing what these people have pulled together.

16 Feb 2007

Fun in the Ice

posted in: personal news, quirky | 0

It’s been a funny winter, here in the Boston area. Here it is, mid-February, and we still haven’t had a proper snowfall. On the other hand, yesterday was a carnival of sleet, sleet mixed with snow, and freezing sleet. Last night and today, everything was ice—including the snowplow ridges at the ends of the driveways. Ours was no treat to get out of, but we were better off than a neighbor who decided to drive over the ridge.

Here is the result, caught by my cell phone camera.

15 Feb 2007

What’s in a Name, Mozy?

posted in: personal news | 0

Back in the mid 1980s, my novel The Infinity Link first saw print. The main character, a young woman named Mozy, had her complete mind and personality uploaded to a spacecraft that was going to investigate alien visitors in the solar system. (Side note: The novel took me five and a half years to write, a record I hoped never to match. I just exceeded it, with Sunborn.)

The other day, I was reading in the latest issue of The Atlantic Monthly an article about computer backup systems. One of them is called Mozy. Writer James Fallows says, “Mozy mirrors your computer’s data not on a detachable drive or another machine but somewhere in the galactic cloud of Internet storage.” Now, that coincidence struck me as being pretty cool. If it’s not a coincidence, that would be even more cool. I emailed the company and asked them where their name came from. I’ll let you know what they say.

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