23 Dec 2007

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and All That

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

It’s been a busy time here, as I’m sure it has been for many of you. This will probably be my last entry for 2007, because my family and I are in the throes of getting ready not just for the holidays, but for a two-week trip to London! It’s been about twenty years since I was last in England, and it’ll be very interesting to go back. It’s in some ways a crazy time to go—the exchange rate and costs are insane, and we’re all absurdly busy—but we have a place to stay with family, and that really is what’s making it possible. Plus, as my wife points out, chances to take this kind of trip as a family are rapidly vanishing: one daughter in college and the other headed that way soon enough. I’m sure it’ll be a fine and memorable time. (But there’s no internet access where we’re staying, so chances are I won’t be posting during the trip.)

Writing update: For the last couple of months I’ve been wrestling with the storyline I’m trying to unfold in The Reefs of Time. My old outline didn’t really hold up, and I’ve been rethinking the direction of my story following the end of Sunborn (which of course you haven’t read, because it hasn’t been published yet). Looks like the plot is taking some unexpected turns—unexpected to me, that is. Figuring out what it means is taking some time. Still, I like the new direction, and it’s sparked a new interest in the story on my part. While that’s been going on, I just wrapped up the SF writing workshop I taught with Craig Gardner. We both thought we had a terrific group again, and were excited to see so much promise in their work.

As always, there are many things I’ve been intending to write about but haven’t gotten to. So I’m going to sign off with just this news item:

Young chimps beat college students in memory tests! How can you not love this story? In short-term memory tests on a computer, some young chimpanzees bested their young adult human competition. Go monkeys! You read it here first. (Actually, you probably didn’t. But if I’d written this sooner, you might have.)

“We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.” —Robert Wilensky

6 Dec 2007

Autographed Books Make Great Gifts!

posted in: personal news, writing | 0

Late as usual, as one of my high school teachers liked to say to me. Still, I hope, better late than never.

This is my not-quite-annual reminder that if you’re searching for an excellent gift for that special someone, there’s nothing quite like a personalized, autographed book direct from the author. (That would be me.) Clearly I’m way behind the curve on Hanukkah. (But while I’m on the subject, Happy Hanukkah, everyone!) But for Christmas shoppers, it’s not too late.

If you’d like to peruse the books that I have available for sale, go to my web site: http://www.starrigger.net and click on book covers for information about the books themselves. Click Bookstore, and then Price List to check on availability of various titles. You can order by email, if you use Paypal. Or to order by snailmail, print out the order blank and send it with a check.

I hope you are all having a great December. I got our blue LED lights strung up on the big pine tree in front of our house yesterday, so I’m finally, sorta-kinda getting into the mood myself!

It’s surprisingly hard to take a picture of an outdoor Christmas tree,
especially when you’re hopping around
because you didn’t take time to put a coat on!

“The two most engaging powers in an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.” —William Makepeace Thackeray

29 Nov 2007

Update on the Weirdness

posted in: personal news, quirky, writing | 0

Well, first I’ll update on the copyright infringement weirdness, just by repeating what I already said in the comments section to the last post: The guy never answered my email, forwarded through his domain-name service, but he did take my story down. And not just my story; he took the whole blog down! And recreated it, under a new name (but same URL). Odd. But life is odd.

And speaking of odd, it’s time for another roundup of links to the stupid, the strange, the weird and fun:

New Scientist has a couple of interesting columns, starting with a roundup of strange products. The first comes under the heading of, as they put it, fruitloopiness: bottled water that has had music played to it, so that it might better calm your inner feng shui. That would be H2Om, the world’s first “vibrationally charged, interactive water.” You gotta see it to believe it.

On a more down-to-earth note, also from New Scientist: Do fish get thirsty? Maybe…maybe not… It all depends on the kind of fish.

Now, I’m not a Mac lover and I’m not a Mac hater. I simply note that the Mac user in the family seems to gripe about poor performance and annoying quirks from her machine at about the same rate as the PC users. I personally find the Mac incomprehensible. But I intend no political or religious statement with the link to this video; it’s just too funny not to point to: Why Macs suck.

If you have friends, and lots of them, and you like to bike together, you gotta have a Conference bike. Don’t worry, it’s only a little over $12,000! Isn’t that worth it for a tricycle made for seven? They even have a video, if you’re interested. (Turn the sound down, though, unless you want the music to drive you mad.)

But seriously now, the gift-giving season is nearly upon us. And you should not go into it without being armed with Dave Barry’s Holiday Gift Guide. I’m eyeing the Flying Alarm Clock, myself.

And saving the best for last. Be Rocky the Flying Squirrel! (But wait until your kids are grown up and able to support themselves, in case you, er…well, you know.) This looks like so much fun, I have to do it someday. Fly like a bird! Or at least like a flying squirrel.

My writing quote of the day definitely applies to me:

“Very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.” —Anne Lamott

19 Nov 2007

Copyright Infringement Strikes Close to Home

posted in: blogging, personal news, writing | 0

Before I start: One reason I haven’t posted for a while is that I’ve actually been focusing on working out some things about the storyline of the new book—not Sunborn, but the following book, The Reefs of Time (working title). It’s been sending out shoots in some unexpected directions, which I guess is consistent with the theme of The Chaos Chronicles—but disconcerting.

There are a number of things I’ve been meaning to write about here, but what actually kicked me into gear is a just-discovered case of copyright infringement involving one of my short stories. I have several stories up for free on my web site, and each of them has at the top a copyright notice, along with a plain language statement that it is not permissible to reproduce them elsewhere on the web. Nevertheless, someone named “Jim” has chosen to do just that.

The story in question, “Shapeshifter Finals,” was published in 1995 in the anthology, Warriors of Blood and Dream, edited by Roger Zelazny. I’ve had it up for readers to enjoy for quite a few years. Earlier today, I did something I’ve done from time to time but not lately, which is to take a line at random from my online works and run a search to see if anyone has stolen the source. To my astonishment, I came up positive with this story. It’s been posted online, in its entirety, on a blog called Tales and Tributes. The blog owner apparently lifted it directly from my website, and gave me credit as the author but neglected to ask for permission, or to reproduce the copyright notice—thus giving the false impression that the work is in the public domain. The work is not in the public domain; it is copyright © 1995 by Jeffrey A. Carver.

I would contact the blog owner, but the thing is, “Jim” has no contact information on his blog. Apparently he doesn’t want to be contacted. Another thing is, according to a Whois.com lookup, the domain name, jimblogs.net, was created on the very same day my story was posted. How odd is that?

I have contacted the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) to see if they can assist me in dealing with this, and I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it eventually. But in the meantime, if any of you out there in blogland know anything about jimblogs.net or “Jim,” I would appreciate hearing from you.

“The problem is when you’re not writing you don’t know if you’re lying fallow or if you’ll never write again.” —Norman Mailer

22 Sep 2007

Book Signing, September 29-30

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

I almost forgot to post here (because I put it on my web site), I’m doing another book signing in Sandusky, Ohio, at the Kalahari Resort. This will happen the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 29 and briefly again Sunday morning. (Details) The occasion, aside from the fact that I had a great signing there in July, is that my Huron High School reunion is being held there that weekend. I haven’t seen many of my classmates in several decades, so I’m going out for that—and the book signing will, I hope, help to defray the costs of the visit.

“I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.” —William Faulkner

17 Sep 2007

Sunborn Excerpt Now Online!

posted in: Sunborn, writing | 0

By popular request (well, by request of one or two people, anyway), I have uploaded the first three chapters of Sunborn, so you can get a taste of what’s coming. I finished the final final final drop-dead revisions on the early chapters last week, and it should be going into production shortly. (Going into production, of course, means that it’ll be out in a year. But even if I drop dead now, the book will survive me. Which, er, ought to be some consolation.)

Anyway, check it out, on my website at starrigger.net.

“I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.” —Moliere

12 Sep 2007

Return of the Ultimate SF Writing Workshop

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

Craig Gardner and I are running another intensive writing workshop this fall, starting on October 15, at the Pandemonium SF Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Obviously, this will be of interest mainly to people who live within easy commuting distance of Cambridge! But maybe some of my blog readers fall into that group.) It’s aimed at aspiring professional writers, and runs the gamut of subjects, for ten successive Monday evening meetings. It’s also intended as an intensive workshopping experience: learning to work as a group to provide mutual support. (Our last group went off and formed their own writing group afterward.)

All the details are online at http://www.starrigger.net/workshop.htm.

“A writer is a man who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.” —Donald Barthelme

30 Aug 2007

Lunar Eclipse and New Writing

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

I wasn’t able to see the August 28 lunar eclipse, but Jerry Oltion—SF writer, amateur astronomer, and member of our Launchpad astronomy team—sent us a photo he took. I thought it was so beautiful, I asked his permission to put it here on my blog:

Photo by Jerry Oltion

Seeing the photo reminded me of one of the NASA pages I read prior to the eclipse, suggesting that we imagine what it would be like to stand on the moon during an eclipse, surrounded by that incredible copper-glowing landscape. I think it would be a pretty mind-blowing experience. And as Jerry said, “Imagine what the Earth would look like from there. A dark hole in the sky with city lights glowing in it, surrounded by a ring of blood-red atmosphere.”

Here’s a montage Jerry put together, of the phases of the eclipse:


Jerry has larger images on his website, and they’re worth a look; these smaller reproductions don’t do them justice.

Meanwhile, I’ve been putting finishing touches on a short story (my first in many years!) that I hope will find its way into print eventually. More on that when I have something to report. (The name of it is “Dog Star.”)

Starting a new book is often just about the hardest thing in the world for me, and I’ve been having a devil of a time getting anywhere with the beginning of the next Chaos book, to follow Sunborn. Tonight, I decided to take Buckbeak out for a spin after dinner, in hopes that the night air would clear my head and bring some inspiration. It worked, at least a little bit. I came home with a couple of new thoughts on how to make this beginning work, and I’ve started putting it down in pixels and electrons. Feeling more hopeful, and now let me get back to it!

“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” —Leonardo da Vinci

16 Aug 2007

The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Lose

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

A few days ago, I got an email from a reader, telling me she and her family had informally named their dog Lopo Lupeko, and she thought I’d like to know. I sat there scratching my head for a little while, thinking, why did she tell me that? Did she confuse me with another writer?

Finally a tiny bell starting ringing way in the back of what passes for my mind. Something…but what…? I opened up the directory on my computer where all my book files are kept and did a search for “Lopo.” Sure enough, what popped up was my novel Down the Stream of Stars. As soon as I opened the file and found the spot, it all came back in a rush. Of course! Lopo is a dog-like creature who lives in the circ-zoo on the starship my heroine Claudi is traveling on! Lopo helped save everyone from the Throgs! How could I forget?

In my defense, I did write the novel over 15 years ago. But still, you’d think a writer would remember his own characters, wouldn’t you?

Maybe not. The next night I took a short story I’d just drafted to my writing group for vetting, and Richard says to me, regarding the main human character, “Didn’t you have a villain named Jarvis in one of your novels?” I sit scratching my head, willing to believe anything at this point. Then I remember: Jarvorus, the false-iffling in Dragon Rigger. Close enough!

I wonder if it’s time for me to reread all my own stuff, so I won’t keep redoing it.

“Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.” —Anonymous

6 Aug 2007

Sunborn Pub Date—Finally!

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

I’m happy to report that Sunborn (Chaos Chronicles #4) finally is firmly in the Tor schedule. I’m less happy to report that it’s been pushed to Fall 2008! (As I recall, I went all-out to get it finished so it could make the 2007 schedule. However, revisions and delays and various back-and-forthing has resulted in its being pulled and reslotted several times. So, Fall 2008. To those of you who have been waiting so patiently and understandingly, thank you and please stick with me just a little longer. (Now, don’t mind me while I go off in the corner here and quietly scream: “Aaaaaiiiiiiieeeeee!”)

The good news is, there’s now more lead time to solicit quotes from influential voices—not so much, as you might think, to adorn the cover, but more to generate enthusiasm within the sales and marketing halls of the publisher. Yes, expectation is everything, and if those responsible for selling it are excited about it, chances for a successful promotion go way up. (Now, that’s all assuming it gets good quotes. Let’s not put the rocket before the nosecone.)

Anyway, there you have it: Tor Books, Fall 2008.

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” —Mark Twain

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