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Book! (Again)
This time, I wasn't surprised by an unexpected advance copy of the book. Rather, I'd ordered some copies to have them here for a launch party I'm hosting. So when the box showed up, with the side labeled in large letters "RANKING THE VICE PRESIDENTS", I pretty much knew what was going to be inside. Nevertheless, I'm very excited to announce the ( Read more... ) -
BOOK(S)!
Why, you may ask, have I not gotten any work done today? Let me tell you: it was the final negotiations, following by the signing, of contracts for TWO new books, to be companion volumes to my Presidential Book of Lists. I'd written them as one, but the publisher thinks they'll go better as two separate books, so, one focusing on the Vice ( Read more... ) -
Quantum Short
The Centre for Quantum Technologies is once again running their Quantum Shorts fiction contest, and once again, I've entered. The big prizes are judged, but the also have a popular vote award (people's choice). One of the important points of the contest is that all submitted stories are available on the web site, so if you'd like to take a look at ( Read more... ) -
Predicting the future?
I'm expanding my guest editorial from the April issue of Analog. It's called "Yay! The Future... Oh, Damn." and talks about science fiction's predictive powers, both the successes and the failures. I'm looking for specific examples, both positive and negative. For instance, in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor (1994), a 747 is purposely crashed into the ( Read more... ) -
Writing as Performance
I've mentioned in the past my view that books are becoming souvenirs; tangible take-aways from performances, as flashlights were when my parents took me to the circus as a child. Now here's an article about the writing itself being the performance: Here's The $7 Custom Poem I Just Bought In The Subway From A Poet Who Makes $700 A Week by Libby Kane ( Read more... ) -
Book suggestions?
For the current work in progress, I'm currently reading "Harry S. Truman" by Margaret Truman, which is filled with the stuff I need to bring the character of Harry to life: "Dad felt this, even though all his advisors disagreed," or "Dad always said this, except in public," or "Dad was worried about this, but he didn't say anything until Mom left ( Read more... ) -
Writerly encouragement
While looking for that reference about the writer who wore a suit to work every day (turns out it was John Cheever), I stumbled across this interview with Susan Cheever, which I present as encouragement for the writers out there. -
New story coming
Something strange is happening in the universe. Just check out the cover for the April issue of Analog (see this post). Gasp. -
Writers as performers
Running Gray Rabbit Publications/Fantastic Books, I've been talking about the future of the book as somewhat akin to the circus flashlights I remember from when I was a kid: a physical memento the audience can take away after a performance. Of course, for that to be the case, there has to be an enthralling performance. And when that take-away ( Read more... ) -
A pointer for my writers
One of the things I find myself repeating in my editorial letters to writers is repeated use of several crutch words. This is a pointer to another article saying the same thing, perhaps in different words. Maybe this will get through: writing