28 Mar 2007

By Saturn’s Hexagon!

posted in: quirky, science, science fiction | 0

At last—a new oath for space opera heroes! And a really cool feature on Saturn’s north pole—an enormous hexagonal feature, viewable in the infrared, that rotates along with the planet’s rotation. Check out the Saturn hexagon at JPL’s web site, including motion picture images from the Cassini spacecraft. (Thanks, Charlza, for the link.)

There are the usual typical scientific attempts by scientists to explain the phenomenon (atmospheric vortexes, dynamical patterns, blah-blah-blah). Nobody even mentions the most obvious explanation:

It’s a giant hex-wrench socket left by aliens! They’re storing the brains of abductees in the center of Saturn!

My God, what else might they be doing???

22 Mar 2007

Ultimate Science Fiction Writing Workshop

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

For any of you in the Boston area…

I will soon be co-teaching a 10-week SF and fantasy writing workshop, along with Craig Gardner. Here’s the official press release:

The Ultimate Science Fiction Writing Workshop starts its second run! Two veteran SF/F writers—Jeffrey A. Carver and Craig Shaw Gardner—will teach elements of the craft and tricks of the trade, and conduct intensive workshopping of your work. This is a serious workshop for people seriously seeking to improve their science fiction and fantasy writing. It’s a workshop for people eager to work hard, and willing to learn.

Between them, Jeff and Craig have written forty-some novels and a like number of short stories. Jeff has been a Nebula finalist, and Craig has made the NY Times bestseller list. Both have wide teaching experience. For more information about Jeff and Craig, visit their web sites at http://www.starrigger.net/ and http://www.craigshawgardner.com/.

The workshop costs $400, starts April 2 at Pandemonium Books and Games in Central Square, Cambridge, and runs ten Monday evenings, 7:30-9:30, from April 2 until June 11 (Memorial Day excluded). Advance registration is required. You can pick up a registration form in the store, or request one by email from the instructors. Don’t delay!

For more information, call Pandemonium at 617-547-3721, or email the instructors at jeff [at] starrigger.net or csgcsgcsg [at] aol.com.

If you’re in our area, and you’re an aspiring writer, I hope you’ll come join us!

21 Mar 2007

Sunborn Rewrite

posted in: science fiction, Sunborn, writing | 0

I’ve been putting off writing this post, because I’ve been having a hard time dealing with the subject. If you’re new here, I turned in my newest novel, Sunborn, back at the beginning of December. This is the long-delayed, way-overdue new volume in my continuing story called The Chaos Chronicles. It was a vast relief to have it done at last, and out of my hands. Gone. Done. Finished. On its way.

Well, my editor finally finished going through it and came back to me with revision requests. This is not unusual, and is part of the normal editing process. But…I so badly wanted to be done with this book that it hit me like a ton of bricks. (No, I do not want to rewrite the first fifty pages for the umpteenth time! I’ve been there, done that, don’t want to do it again. I’m sick of it, do you hear me? Sick of it.) Well. That and a long scream will get you a headache.

So…I’m working on a revamped opening for the novel. I can’t say I’ve gotten very far. Chalk some of it up to getting sick (cough cough), and some of it to our having a visiting Japanese exchange student for a week (what a sweetheart—but sometimes we were definitely lost in translation). But chalk most of it up to my brain’s reluctance to go back to where it so recently trod…and trod…and trod.

I’ll get there. But send good rewrite vibrations my way, okay? I need them.

Oh, hey—happy first day of Spring, everyone! (Everyone in the northern hemisphere, I mean. Happy first day of Fall, downunder!)

Celebrate by looking at a particularly beautiful picture of the moon, as seen from the International Space Station!

21 Mar 2007

Strange Visitations

posted in: blogging, science fiction, technology | 0

As I’ve mentioned before, I like to check the Site Meter logs to see how many people have visited my blog (and my other web sites), what countries they’re from, and so on. One of the things I can see is what the referring sites are—that is, where someone clicked a link to get here. The vast majority of links to my blog—or at least those which are identifiable—are either from my regular web site or my writing course, or from search engines. It’s the search engine clicks that are interesting, because they show me what kinds of queries land people on my blog.

Lately, hands-down, the winner has been Daisy the Goose. I cannot believe how many people have searched for the Daisy the Flying Goose story and wound up at my blog. There has, in fact, been an upswing in visitors the last couple of weeks, and at least part of that is attributable to the goose. Another perennial search favorite is information about snakes, such as someone recently looking for “cool names for snakes.” Google searches for images of “girls wrestling” are pretty common. I wondered at first if they were people looking for mud wrestling or whatever, but then realized they were coming from search pages that actually showed the images of high school wrestling, so I’m guessing it really is mostly people genuinely interested in girls participating in the sport of folk wrestling. More than a few people come looking for articles on intelligent design or “will people steal my story ideas.”

Hardly anybody ever clicks through on the ads, by the way. After two years, I finally racked up enough earnings to get my first check for a hundred big ones. (I mistook the envelope the check was in for junk mail and nearly put it through the shredder.)

The blogosphere’s a funny place. But you already knew that, right?

22 Feb 2007

Star Trek New Voyages

posted in: science fiction | 0

Speaking of obsession…and I mean that in the best possible way…

If you love Star Trek, you must visit Star Trek New Voyages. A fan group, with the permission of Paramount, has gathered the time, money, and talent to produce a series of all new classic Trek episodes, available for free download online. It is a completely nonprofit operation, and yet they’ve gotten the support and participation of many veterans of the original series, including George Takei, Walter Koenig, writers Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold (from whom I learned most of what I know about it), and even professional directors. So far, I’ve downloaded the first two episodes, but have only watched snippets. (I wanted to wait to watch the shows until I could get them burned to DVD and watch them on my TV.) The production values are astoundingly good. They have reproduced the look and feel of the show with incredible precision, and the special effects are up to the standards of current television shows.

The only thing that takes some adjustment is seeing a new generation of talented amateur actors play the parts of Kirk, Spock, and all the rest. Okay, they’re not Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley—but who could be? My initial impression of their work is very favorable.

Talk about fans throwing themselves into something they love! These people are amazing.

http://www.newvoyages.com/

(By the way, getting it onto DVD is easy in principle, if you have DVD burning software. But Sonic MyDVD, usually my Old Faithful, couldn’t handle it, nor could Roxio MyDVD. Finally I tried Nero, and that worked very nicely. Note, this is precisely the opposite of the experience of the person who wrote their FAQ page.)

Oh—two other fan-created productions are also in the works, at:
http://www.startrekofgodsandmen.com/ and http://www.ussintrepid.net/.

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.

19 Feb 2007

Boskone and Beyond

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

Last weekend was Boskone weekend here in Boston. Boskone is a convention run by members of NESFA (the New England Science Fiction Association), who are possibly the most organized people on the face of the planet, and who have a wonderful publishing program in NESFA Press, bringing back into print in beautiful durable editions all kinds of great classic stuff. A couple of blog readers said hello at the con, which was very nice (Todd, John, good to meet you). During the course of the weekend, I had a very pleasant conversation with David Gerrold, a lovely dinner with Jane Yolen and my own family, and a nice chat with SF artist Rick Berry (who, I had not realized, lives in my town—and whose wife and mine had actually worked together on a school-related thing, without my ever having made the connection).

Boskone this year was held at a new hotel, the Westin Waterfront, which was a nice hotel situated next to Boston’s new convention center, in the midst of a concrete wilderness way out, yes, on the wharf. Let’s hope they plant some trees and build some restaurants in the area soon. On Friday, I took public transit, which is easy enough except for the quarter mile walk across the icy, wind-swept wilderness. Leaving that night, I walked with a fellow Boskonite (Boskonian?), a woman of slender build who would have been carried off by the wind if she hadn’t grabbed my arm.

Which brings me to a very strange news story that my wife came across online today: a German paraglider training for competition in Australia survived after being sucked up into a thunderstorm and carried to an altitude of 32,000 feet (that’s jetliner altitude and higher than Mt. Everest), during which time she blacked out from hypoxia while being pelted by hail and surrounded by lightning. Miraculously, she escaped with some frostbite and bruises. A Chinese paraglider, caught in the same storm system, did not survive.

On a much lighter note, today’s Sheldon comic is the funniest I’ve seen in a while. You will especially appreciate it if you have ever visited an Ikea store, as I have—once.

7 Feb 2007

SciFi.com’s Site of the Week? Who Knew?

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

Well, I suppose a lot of people knew. But I didn’t. Thanks to an alert young writer who emailed me, I found out that my free online writing guide, WriteSF.com, is currently listed on SciFi.com as Site of the Week.

Flattery will get you…well, I’m not sure what. It reminds me that I’ve been meaning for ages to spend some time finishing the thing, and finding some better graphics, and eventually even getting some video clips up. (Stick that on my to-do list, will you? Along with revamping my regular web site. Thanks.)

25 Jan 2007

Upcoming Appearances

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

I probably ought to let people know where I’m going to be appearing in the near future. (Other than at the supermarket, I mean.) It sort of defeats the publicity angle if I don’t let anyone know.

This coming weekend, I’ll be at a small convention called Vericon, held at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass. In conjunction with that, I’ll be signing books at the Harvard Bookstore in Harvard Square. (Saturday Jan. 27, at 1:00 p.m.) According the schedule, I’ll be signing along with Marie Brennan. I don’t know her, so this will be a chance to make a new acquaintance.

The weekend of Feb. 16-18, I’ll be at Boskone, New England’s largest regional convention. That’s in Boston, at the Westin Waterfront. I don’t know my schedule there yet.

Starting on March 19, I’ll be teaming up once more with Craig Shaw Gardner to teach “The Ultimate SF Workshop,” in the basement of Pandemonium Books and Games, in Cambridge. It’s a 10-week intensive workshop for people who are really serious about learning the craft of SF writing. We ran our first workshop last fall, and it was very successful. Terrific group of writers, many of whom I definitely expect to see in print one day soon.

In April, during the school spring break, we’re hoping to run a workshop strictly for teens. More on that later.

The weekend of May 11-13, tentatively, maybe, if I can afford New York City prices, I’ll join a horde of other writers, editors, agents, etc., for the Nebula Awards weekend.

Later in May, I’ll be teaching for the second year at the New England Young Writers Conference, at Bread Loaf in Vermont.

In July, I plan to be at Readercon, near Boston.

You know, I’d better put all this information up on my web site right now while I’m thinking of it. Excuse me while I go fire up Dreamweaver….

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