reece

I know these repetitive posts begging for votes can be annoying, but the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll is only open until the 14th, so I may only post one more entry like this before it's over and done with. Besides, right now I seem to be in the top ten in several categories (http://www.critters.org/predpoll/tally.html), but that could change. I still need all the votes I can get, especially since I have multiple entries in at least a couple of the categories. Since I don't have a large circle of real-life friends, family, and colleagues, I'm relying on my on-line friends to come up with the votes.

So, if you haven't already voted in the annual Preditors & Editors Readers Poll (http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/perpoll.htm),  please consider voting for my works in the poll.

"The Haunted Castle" and "Wandering Ole Willow" both received nominations in the poems category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poem.shtml

"Speculative Poetry: Past, Present, and Future" received a nomination in the non-fiction article category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfiction.shtml

"West Dingleton's Loss of Humanity" and "Temporal Crack" both received nominations in the artwork category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/artwork.shtml

My cover-art for Abandoned Towers Issue #3, "A Leviathan Ascendant", received a nomination in the magazine-e-zine cover artwork category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/zineart.shtml

I received nominations in both the poets and the artists categories:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poet.shtml
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/artist.shtml

If you do vote for me and my works, please vote for only one entry in each category. If you have already voted, thanks!

I've realized I've played Shadowrun too long when I hear of a new gadget and immediately think of a game use.

http://www.qinetiq-na.com/products-ears.htm

Immediately know where a gunshot came from?

Probably quite useful for military science fiction stories too.  Although if it is available now I'd have to think of a reason why futuristic snipers wouldn't know about it.  Or how this could evolve.

Just over 20 years ago, I first met my future wife. Our lives together have now been longer than the years of our lives before we met.

Sixteen years ago today, we were married, and it has been the most wonderful and amazing 16 years of my life. Definitely looking forward to another 16...20...40 years together!

Yes!  Yes!!!

SCORE!!!!

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

So I have a blog ...Warren has a blog ...and yes, now Shawna has a blog. 

I wanted to talk a little bit about disappointment this morning. This comes from several different conversations I had over the past week or so.

We live in an odd culture. I was reminded of it when I spoke to my father recently. We talked about a visit and he said, “At least you’re over there. Here you walk out on the street and all you see are pissed off faces.” “Pissed off” expression comes naturally to most city-born Russians: life is hard and if you look pissed off, you’re less likely to be mugged. If your life is good, no need to rub it in by smiling too much.

In US, we’re conditioned by society that any negative emotion must be securely hidden from the outsiders. We’re encouraged to put on a happy face. If you’re grieving, do so in private and please be at work as soon as possible. I remember when my mother died, my company rep said, “You can take a day off, if you would like.” If you’re a pessimist by nature or if you are traumatized and saddened by some tragic event in your life, the society assures you that this situation should be corrected and offers an array of mood-controllers to bring you back to the default and normal state of happy. Otherwise, you might make other people aware of your negativity.

It’s curious, because as a society, we don’t have much to be happy about: we have the least amount of social safety net among developed nations and we work the longest hours. According to Forbes, we didn’t make it into the top 10 happiest countries. We get richer as we grow older, just not happier. But we’re encouraged to pretend that everything is fine and to carry this pretense into absurdity: nobody is obese, they’re just big boned; everybody is gifted and special; everybody is a winner.

But underneath all of this real world still exists. And occasionally it chews us up in a rather detached manner and spits us out. It’s not personal.  Afterward, we’re left to deal with things like disappointment, for which we have no coping mechanisms in place. Hiding negative emotions doesn’t make them go away. Wallowing in them and pretending to be a martyr and climbing on a cross isn’t healthy either, but that’s another post.

For writers, disappointment is a constant companion. The system we have in place now tells us that as long as we make an effort, we’re entitled to a reward and success. It doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you make all the effort you can and you get nowhere. And if you failed, you have no right to self-pity. No, you pick yourself up and dive right back in, and work harder than ever before.

Bullshit.

I’ve talked to several people this past week. Someone was disappointed in their numbers and their publisher shared in that disappointment, and their contract was not renewed. Someone was disappointed in the launch of their new title. Someone was disappointed in their agent. And the dominant thread through the conversations was, “What’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I do better? Why do I suck so much?”

There is nothing wrong.

We all feel disappointment.  Writers feel bad about our sales, about our reviews, about lack of enthusiasm from the publisher, about being passed over for an award.   People in other professions feel  disappointed at being passed over for promotion, at being asked to take a pay cut, at losing benefits. Those are terrible, awful events, and they require time  and often support of others to go away.  It’s the universal reality of life. We’re not designed to be permanently stuck on happy. We bust our asses, working like crazy, and in the end we still can fail and often do. There are no guarantees in life. Disappointment happens and we have to own it before we can move on. So the next time you fail, I suggest taking two-three days and letting it rip.

Just let it go. Email your friends. Tell your family – or at least those members of it who are not predisposed to judge you. Get some human contact and let your friends help you out, whether it’s a movie together or a cup of coffee.  Lift some weights, go for a run, turn the music up and dance. Accept that this is normal and it too will pass and just go along with it. And then, when your three days are over, go back to work, not because you have to pretend to be unaffected, but because while we’re not meant to be constantly happy, we usually feel better when we’re productive.

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

Interesting news this morning:

From Bakka-Phoenix 2009 Bestseller List:

“Just for interest’s sake, we took a look at which titles were our bestsellers in 2009. And because we know you’re interested too, we thought we’d share. The top five in each category, in order:

Mass Market Bestsellers
1. Ages of Wonder, Julie E. Czerneda & Robert St. Martin, eds.
2. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
3. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
4. On the Edge, Ilona Andrews
5. Tyrant, Christian Cameron

Trade Paperback Bestsellers
1. Wondrous Strange, Lesley Livingston
2. Black Man, Richard Morgan
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
4. Cast in Silence, Michelle Sagara
5. Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, Adrienne Kress

Hardcover Bestsellers
1. Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
2. Makers, Cory Doctorow
3. Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff
4. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
5. Give Up the Ghost, Megan Crewe”

Ahem. Muhahahahahahahaha! Muhahahahahahahaha!

IN celebration, here is more frogs. The Ninja Frog is especially funny, because we just watched Ninja Assassin, which must be the bloodiest ninja movie of all time.

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

Update: 

The package I got yesterday was from a friend in good ol' Germany.

There were christmas cookies, made by her.
Fluffy, pink socks with magenta and white stripes, chocolate and a piggy, that moves.
It has a vibrating thingie inside, somewhat like a cellphone, and when you pull out the clover that is connected to its butt with a string, it moves.
(I can't explain that very well, sorry.) 

How stupid are some parents? Pretty stupid, apparently. And some parents don't realise that home-schooling is no excuse for doing something blatantly dumb (not to mention illegal):

Parents Arrested for Failing to Register Home-Schooled Kids

Actually, I will admit to being a bit torn over this issue. I home-schooled my daughter for about ten years, until she started college full-time. I do know first-hand how much of a pain-in-the-neck all that paperwork can be. Plus, I understand all too well that it's not always easy, and rather stressful at times, to get a curriculum together and get all the necessary paperwork handed in to the school district. Not to mention, New York seems to require more paperwork than most states. However, I think stories like this could potentially give home-schoolers, already seen by some as being "on the fringe", an even worse reputation. It paints home-schoolers as a bunch of anti-establishment wackos thumbing their noses at the system, instead of reasonable people trying to take responsibility for their children's education into their own hands, within the guidelines established by the system. Why do something illegal, when you are already doing something seen by some as abnormal? Why make yourself a target? Are you hoping for trouble?

It sounds as if the kids were getting an education. Once the parents did hand in a curriculum, the superintendent approved it. So I doubt that this story is an instance of educational neglect. Still, neglecting the legal responsibilities that come with home-schooling is pretty low.

For about ten years, I had to drive myself nuts searching out a proper curriculum each school year, and then getting all the paperwork filled out and handed in. Instead of educating their kids under the radar for seven years, these parents should have done the same.

The Magic Does Things part of the website has been updated with two bio’s.  We’ll try to put up more as we go along.

Link: http://kate.ilona-andrews.com/

Tiny Snippet:

It’s generally not a good idea to growl at law enforcement officers.  They tend to frown on that.  I gulped my coffee instead.  The coffee was the temperature of molten lava.  Spitting it wasn’t an option, so I heroically swallowed it.  Hopefully my tongue wouldn’t fall off.

Also Princess Coconut introduced the lot of us to a new anime. Since this song is constantly playing in my head, I will now infect you.

Suffer:

Mirrored from One Crazy Dame. Comment here or there

The biggest challenge of writing for a living (in my opinion) is getting paid on time and not getting fucked.  --Brian Keene

The comments section after his article is also revealing.

I've been thinking about the novel. I want it to be hard and grim. But not cold.

I don't think it's a fine line. But I want to be careful about it coming off as cold. That could be a problem.

I spent most of the day reading the stories and some of my old notes. At first I toyed with the idea of cut/paste story sections and writing around them. But, of course, that's really not going to work at all. For a lot of reasons. This will have to be rewritten from the ground up. Again, not a problem, just more work load. Ugh.

The story "Haxan" is the major framework for the novel. Other things that happened in some of the stories will be worked in as sub-plots. I see them dove-tailing nicely and giving everything an arc. The novel will allow me to explore things I never had time or room in the story, like how Marwood deals with taking on the job of Marshal and the roadblocks that would be in his way. There's a lot of stuff to write about there that would fit well into the overall idea of the novel, I think.

I want to keep that Haxan-voice people have come to know in the stories. I think that's really important. I constantly worry I won't find it. But that's silly it will be there when I need that. I'm just obsessing. When push comes to shove I trust myself and what I'm able to do.

These are just some of the little niggling details I'm working out. Nothing special I just wanted to share the thought process bc I said I would and some people said they were interested.

I'm giving the remainder of the week on doing all this brain-work stuff, which, let's face it, I'm barely qualified ot handle. Next week is slated for starting the novel.

I'm still excited about the project* but it's gonna be a lot more work than I originally thought.


*As excited as I get nowadays about writing. Remember, I've been doing this for quite a while. It's more of a grind now than a love. That's just another normal progression, I think.  It's a job, not a hobby.

A reminder: I have received nominations in several categories in the annual Preditors & Editors Readers Poll (http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/perpoll.htm). Please consider voting for my works in the poll.

"The Haunted Castle" and "Wandering Ole Willow" both received nominations in the poems category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poem.shtml

"Speculative Poetry: Past, Present, and Future" received a nomination in the non-fiction article category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/nonfiction.shtml

"West Dingleton's Loss of Humanity" and "Temporal Crack" (which I assume is my "Temporal Crack" illustration) both received nominations in the artwork category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/artwork.shtml

My cover-art for Abandoned Towers Issue #3, "A Leviathan Ascendant", received a nomination in the magazine-e-zine cover artwork category:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/zineart.shtml

And I received nominations in both the poets and the artists categories:
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/poet.shtml
http://www.critters.org/predpoll/artist.shtml

If you do vote for me and my works, please vote for only one entry in each category.

Thanks! And thanks to all those that have already voted. Much appreciated!

After uncharacteristically blowing it off for a couple of months (shame on me), I'm back to posting entries in the Niteblade Art Blog. And this time around, I feature the Fantastic Art of Garret Dechellis. An avid fan of all forms of illustration, and an artist equally comfortable using traditional and digital media, Garret creates some interesting imagery. Check out a few samples of Garret's works of wonder at the Niteblade Art Blog.