Thoughts on the “New 52”

Leave a reply

For those of you who don’t follow comic books, you may or may not know that DC Comics (which is responsible for characters like Superman, Batman, etc) did a reboot of all their comics, starting everything over at #1. I don’t follow these things too closely, normally. I’ve gotten a little burnt out by their unending series of crossover events. But there was a lot of energy around this so I asked my local comic shop guy to hook me up with the new line of #1s so I could see what it was all about. I figured, at the very least, this would be a chance to read about some characters I don’t normally read about. Overall I’ve found it to be a bit incomprehensible.

Continue reading →

One week with 99% less high fructose corn syrup

1 Reply

Well, seven days later I weighed in again. I had only one item with a high probability of having HFCS, a “pepperoni dog” at the Orange Julius in the Seattle Center. (I also fudged at the coffee shop this morning, but that was after weigh in.) There was no other significant change in my diet. I ate other things with sugar, I ate out several times, I didn’t consciously change my calorie intake (aside from not drinking non-diet soft drinks), I didn’t get in anything more than incidental exercise.

The result?

Continue reading →

My First Clarion West Workshop

2 Replies

This weekend I attended the first of Clarion West’s one day writing workshops. This first one was titled “Alive in the World” and focused on the interaction between character and setting. It was taught by Molly Gloss, who I hadn’t heard of before, but others in the class were familiar with her work. I think this more a sign of how spotty my SF/F reading experience often is. I felt like the class was pretty good. I offer up my thoughts for you on the subject.

Continue reading →

An Experiment in Diet

Leave a reply

In totally non-writing related news, the wife and I have been trying to cut out high fructose corn syrup. For her it’s been part of a process of elimination of different things to see what improves her well being. After reading about last year’s study at Princeton, I’m wondering if that has influenced my weight gain over the years. So, an experiment.

Continue reading →

Writing in Scenes

2 Replies

My friend and fellow writer, John Worsley, asked me to recap what Nancy Kress taught in her workshop. So this is the very summarized view, recreated from my notes. Since I’m not the best note-taker, this whole post will be kind of rough. I’m trying to recreate the main talking points without me filling in gaps with false details that I’ve confabulated. There were also handouts, which we referred to throughout the course of the talk.

I don’t remember exactly when each page was covered, or what order they were presented in. (I’m mainly vague about #2 and #3 in terms if which came first.) I’ll try to mention them when I think they make the most sense. Part of the delay in this post was that I was waiting for PNWA to post the handouts to their site. I can guarantee the links work now. But I can’t guarantee they’ll be there forever.

For those who would like more information from the source, Nancy Kress has three books on writing that have been published:

Ms. Kress, I’d like to apologize now for any butchering or incorrect statements I make regarding what I learned.

Continue reading →

2011 PNWA Summer Conference: After Action Report

Leave a reply

This year I attended my second conference run by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. This year was a very different experience from last year in many ways. It was at a different hotel, I was able to attend on Thursday and Friday, and I wasn’t pitching to any agents or editors. This led to some good moments, some bad.

Continue reading →

1 Reply

Several weeks ago, while talking about my submission to Cobalt City: Dark Carnival, my friend Torrey pointed out with faint surprise that I actually had fun writing my story about Snowflake. And, I’ll admit, I have had stupid fun writing for all the other Cobalt City stuff I’ve participated in. I can’t say that it’s strictly a matter of the publisher. My entry into Growing Dread was a very difficult thing to write. But I think overall my Cobalt City stories have allowed me the opportunity to cut loose and play with the topic a bit.
Continue reading →