| Gabcussion Boards |
|
|
| 02:31pm 14/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  optimistic
|
Yes, I do know the Armageddon MUD discussion boards are currently down. The problem is apparently at Dreamhost's end. Do not panic and remain in your seats. They will be back. |
|
| |
|
Read 1 - Post |
| |
| Snausages |
|
|
| 09:34pm 13/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  amused
|
I don't usually engage in technolust, but this is tempting me sorely for next time I have cash to burn.
Some of the Armageddon staff are reading Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds and getting ready to discuss it. I'm hoping to make that a regular thing and contemplating Raph Koster's A Theory of Fun for the next book. I keep hitting passages in the Bartle book and going "Oh, that's so on the mark, I never thought of it that way." Highly recommended if you're interested in game design.
Does anyone in the LJ hivemind have Connie Wilkins' e-mail? I'm moderating a WisCon panel she's on, and I'm trying to contact the participants for some beforehand discussion. If you have it and could let her know mine and that I'm trying to reach her, I'd greatly appreciate it.
|
|
| |
|
Read 4 - Post |
| |
| And how war yore maggies? |
|
|
| 10:37am 13/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  busy music: Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
|
Some catching up:
1) I came back from vacation to a wealth of discussion on "The Stolen Word", the story by Lisa Mantchev we ran while I was gone. I thought much of the discussion was informative*, and I appreciate a swift kick in the assumptions from time to time, since that's often a good way to learn. Personally I tend to be gentle when challenging other people's assumptions since my belief is that people listen better that way, but a case for effectiveness could be made on either side of that. I'll note that "Lighten up" or "This is just fantasy" don't work well for me as responses - for one thing, I don't believe you can look at a piece of writing as something divorced from the material circumstances or culture that produced it. I like the story and look forward to seeing more from Lisa.
2) The Russian specfic magazine, Esli, will be reprinting "Kallakak's Cousins". Since my college Russian is extremely rusty, I'm going to try to knock some of the rust off by reading the story.
3) I'll be at Wiscon in a couple of weeks and look forward to seeing people there. After that comes the Locus Awards and the beginning of Clarion West, where I'll be volunteering once a week in the classroom again. Somewhere in the summer comes ReaderCon, which ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) krisname has talked me into attending.
4) I got my copy of the SteamPunk anthology, which has many lovely zeppelins drawn in the front by the dashing and dynamic Team VanderMeer. Looking forward to reading it. You've got a couple of days left if you want to take advantage of their sale price and special personalization.
5) I highly recommend this Barth Anderson story appearing in Strange Horizons.
6) I'll be participating in the Clarion West Write-a-thon again this year. More on that when the page is up and ready, but I'm promising a story a week and will be doing the weekly mailing with snippets for supporters once more.
7) The OBX trip was awesome, overall. My favorite moment would be the Beatles karaoke session, since there's something touching about a roomful of people belting out "Hey Jude" in unison.
8) And now I need to go finish up the terrorism study guide.
*My only major irritation in the thread is that it's scummy to not attach your name to a comment attacking something. That's cowardly and mean-spirited. You know who you are. |
|
| |
|
Read 6 - Post |
| |
| Last Day of Vacation |
|
|
| 12:04pm 09/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  thankful
|
The ocean is made of marvelous stripes of teal and greeny-brown and farthest out, a chill serene blue. I just came in from taking pictures of the dolphins swimming along the beach, and was lucky enough to have a vee of pelicans swoop and dive through the frame at one point. The weather is contradictory - sunlight while rain is falling, undiluted sun, and then clots of heavy, solid rain. It's the day for everyone doing their last things - finishing up conversations, stocking up on salt water taffy for friends back home, a final walk along the water.
Tomorrow is for traveling, but Sunday I'll catch up on e-mail and discussion boards and all the other bits and pieces I've been away from this week. I just wanted to let you all know how marvelous the dolphins are. |
|
| |
|
Read 4 - Post |
| |
| Up, Off and Away |
|
|
| 09:37pm 02/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  giddy
|
My hair is newly pinked and we're up at 4 am tomorrow to grab our plane and head off to the annual Armageddon Staff Gathering on the Outer Banks. In other years I've been able to combine it with visiting some non-game folks, but this year because there's a lot going on, I'm focusing on game stuff as we rev up for Armageddon 2.0. I apologize to the people I'm missing - hopefully I'll see you at WisCon or ReaderCon. This year we're hitting somewhere around 30 people at the gathering, and I get to meet my goddaughter, Leeloo. Hurrah!
If you're absolutely mystified as to what I'm talking about -- this is it and I've been doing it for over fifteen years. (Yes, I am about as geeky as they come.) But the main thing is - I'll be scarce next week, but will be enjoying myself sitting watching the waves, drinking coffee, and playing Rock Band with my posse -- and hope that you all enjoy yourselves as much as I will be. I wouldn't count on swift answers to e-mail. |
|
| |
|
Read 1 - Post |
| |
| Theme issues and anthologies |
|
|
| 02:01pm 02/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  contemplative
|
In theory, I think these are nifty. I like reading theme anthologies, seeing how different people have riffed and run with the same thing. It's a lot of fun.
As an editor, though, they make me a little sad. I turned down a story earlier that I would have taken, if it hadn't been for all the other stories using the same theme that have started coming in this month. I can understand writing a story for one if the theme provides you with a spark -- any reason for writing is fine and dandy. But writers who focus on them and say "Editor X is doing an anthology on Giant Mice Who Drive UFOs and I'd love to be published by them" and starts jotting down rodent names may be doing themselves a disservice because while that story may be great for the anthology, if it gets rejected, it starts out the race handicapped when another editor looks at it and thinks "Oh, another mouse UFO story, I'm already running one of those next month."
Generally, I think writers should think about the story first and the market only much much later. Do I submit to such anthologies and issues? Sure. But I look at the guidelines and think about what I have that might fit, usually, rather than creating something out of whole cloth.
What do you think? Am I off the mark in this? Anyone still got stories languishing from themes past? Which comes first for you, story or market?
|
|
| |
|
Read 26 - Post |
| |
| Upcoming in May's Fantasy Magazine: Sisters and Mirrors |
|
|
| 08:56am 02/05/2008 |
| |
mood:  accomplished
|
Coming up this month in Fantasy Magazine:
Lisa Mantchev has brought us "The Stolen Word", about a child so bad that her mother sells her to a travelling peddler - with interesting results. It's a fun, funny story, told with her usual strong voice. It's a great story to start us off.
Following that is the more somber "Mirror Images" by Rachel Swirsky, who asks what happens when the reflection in the mirror isn't the person you used to be? Look for another Swirsky story in June as well.
The third week, we'll be publishing Holly Phillips' "The Small Door". Two girls investigate a mystery next door in a lovely story about coming to terms with impending grief.
We finish with another mirror story, Mari Ness's "The Shadow in the Mirror", who asks in turn -- what if that reflection isn't you at all? As it turns out, the answer is on the ominous side.
If you sent a submission in April and haven't heard yet with either a rejection or an "I'm holding onto this", feel free to drop me a query. What "I'm holding onto this" means is that I thought it was worth Sean taking a look at so we could discuss it - right now I've got fourteen in that folder, and we'll probably take two or three from it.
And I got my first snarky reply to a rejection - after the author asked for more feedback and I gave it to them! People never fail to surprise. |
|
| |
|
Read 9 - Post |
| |
| The Great Ant Menace |
|
|
| 03:37pm 30/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  exanimate
|
We have have ant problems the past year or so, but I thought we had reached a cordial detante, much like the agreement with the spiders in the bathroom. Alas, they have decided to venture into new territory, as I discovered today when I opened a cupboard, and they're not just scouting, they've made it an all out invasion. From the look of things, they're coming up inside an inner wall.
I have resorted to this. As noted inthe article, it is indeed a freak show - there are now seething masses of sugar ants on the places where I dribbled the sweet, sweet poison. Eat hearty, my little friends. If this doesn't work, I'm scattering a lot of ant traps around before we leave, because this is unacceptable. I went to mail a package the other day, and as I'm standing there filling out the form, I was trying to unobtrusively flick the several dozen ants that had apparently decided they wanted to go traveling off onto the floor. I'll never feel alone again.
Any hints or further advice on repelling the hordes are welcome. I do understand that keeping things clean might be the best step at all. :p |
|
| |
|
Read 17 - Post |
| |
| To Quote Dyrinis: ADFRHAFDHACVRFEHSCYA |
|
|
| 10:38am 30/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  aggravated
|
I'm banging my head against the wall. I was feeling organized and starting to get on top of things, including finishing off an assignment for last night for a company. And then I finish writing it up today and realize that, despite the morning I spent painstakingly going over it, I did it a day late because I got confused about dates, and there's a good chance they won't take it as a result. I don't mind screwing up when I -know- I'm screwing up, but it's somewhat disheartening to be happily cruising along and then feel the plane drop out from under you. Blah. Blah blah blah. Am I on vacation yet? I can't be, I guess, there's still too much to finish before leaving on Saturday.
On the nice side of things, both "I'll Gnaw Your Bones, the Manticore Said" and "The Surgeon's Tale" made it to the Million Writers Award's list of Notable Stories for 2007. |
|
| |
|
Read 8 - Post |
| |
| an argument follows |
|
|
| 04:21pm 28/04/2008 |
| |
mood: busy
|
This makes me feel like watching less television. A lot less television.
Excerpt:
So I tell her all this stuff, and I think, "Okay, we're going to have a conversation about authority or social construction or whatever." That wasn't her question. She heard this story and she shook her head and said, "Where do people find the time?" That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, "No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you've been masking for 50 years."
Left to do before leaving Saturday morning: send in the last two terrorism units, send in another gentle nag about getting feedback, order 4 sets of mother's day flowers, pack, rewrite an essay on Dave Beck, write up questions for two interviews, determine the Newegg.com return policy and ship back the docking station, prep for Wed's class, mail several things, pick up Leeloo's present, mail the tax guy, write up a restaurant visit, finish this mss. and send to first readers, call the doctor about one lost prescription, call the pharmacy about a misordered prescription, finish the Fantasy Mag slush, edit four stories, send out rejections and acceptances, go to the bank, get WisCon tickets. Argh.
|
|
| |
|
Read 4 - Post |
| |
| Meanwhile on Zalanthas |
|
|
| 11:29am 27/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  annoyed
|
...yet another argument on the boards about why we should have sexism in the game because it would be "more realistic" and "more interesting". And because this is not the official game board and my personal journal, I'm going to go full out and say I think it's very telling that the idea of having a game deliberately structured so female characters have just as much opportunity to tell interesting stories as the male characters is so psychologically troublesome for some people that they feel compelled to start this discussion over and over and over again.
It makes me want to go hit things. Seriously. |
|
| |
|
Read 9 - Post |
| |
| Boobs |
|
|
| 11:02am 27/04/2008 |
| |
mood: busy
|
Like many, I have followed the furor over the OSBP. It's been great to see so much discussion, some of which I agree with, some not so much. But of all the posts that came out of it, this seems one of the more thoughtful and on the mark.
And can I just say -- it breaks my heart every time I see a woman saying something like "I'm not a feminist, but...." because to me that's about the equivalent of saying "I don't believe women should have rights, but..." Argh. |
|
| |
|
Read 6 - Post |
| |
| agglaggagglomeratively asaspenking |
|
|
| 03:01pm 23/04/2008 |
| |
mood: busy music: Talking Heads - What A Day That Was
|
The suggestions for merchant gods yesterday seriously rocked, you guys. I'm going through them and some that don't go in the novel may actually end up in a short story because they're too funny and wonderful not to.
I've spent the last few days trying to wrestle sections of the novel around so they...make sense chronologically. (This may be the peril of not writing in Ch1, Ch2, Ch3, etc order.) And now, I believe, it actually does, although I discovered two or three missing scenes in the process. So...supply several scenes, address the 181 comments I have marked down while doing the rearranging and read through, and then it starts looking like it's ready for first readers.
And because I've been talking about it so much, I thought I would provide an excerpt as a bit of a tease :p
Skilto hesitated over violets like sparkling amethysts, and lilies that smelled like apple wine. One great red rose had three blue butterflies, colored like summer skies, perpetually circling around it, attached by whisker-thin lines. In the end, though, he took irises, colored like Tabat’s own blue and gold flag, patriotic and yet poetic in their graceful shape, the hard stems wrapped in damp orange newspaper imprinted with a listing of auction items, and marched out the door, off to his first siege in the Battle of Love. |
|
| |
|
Read 3 - Post |
| |
| Achieve Immortality! (of a minor sort) |
|
|
| 10:41am 22/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  creative music: Dropkick Murphys - Barroom Hero
|
So here's the deal.
One of the concepts of the novel I'm working on is that the Merchant caste has a lot of gods, each of them overseeing a particular aspect of transactions, ranging from very broad concepts to very specific ones, such as the God who oversees the practice of tipping excessively in order to make a good impression. Other possibilities include the God of Word-of-Mouth Advertising or the God of Loss Leaders. Despite the word "God" there, they can be female, male, both, or neither.
I'd like to introduce a slight element of randomness to this process as I'm filling in some of the blanks here, and so I'm offering up this:
Come up with a concept for one of these gods, post it in the comments, and if it fits, I'll use it somewhere in the book and try to name them in a way that reflects their origin, i.e. an anagram of your name or something similar. |
|
| |
|
Read 34 - Post |
| |
| Sometimes.... |
|
|
| 03:38pm 21/04/2008 |
| |
mood: amused music: Tiger Lilies - Banging in the Nails
|
...being an admin on Armageddon is like being a third grade teacher. "We both know you have been told not to eat the paste. Please stop."
|
|
| |
|
Read 7 - Post |
| |
| What I'm Doing: Notes on Process |
|
|
| 11:17am 19/04/2008 |
| |
mood: busy
|
I remain pretty much incommunicado -- right now it feels like 99% of my energy is going to wrestling with this book, and I apologize in advance for the stuff I'm neglecting. I need to get this to first readers by May 2, when I leave for vacation. So far I'm on track. More later when I get the today's alloted chunk finished.
|
|
| |
|
Read 4 - Post |
| |
| Bland as Pigeons |
|
|
| 09:02am 18/04/2008 |
| |
mood: busy
|
This is brilliant, and it's been my philosophy for dealing with toxic nut-cases, both online and in RL, for a long time. Found via the_flea_king
Frantically trying to get everything done that I need to before May. Where did April go?
I'm doing a read-through of the novel draft, writing on the hard copy and avoiding the temptation to start massaging the computer file until the read-through is complete, so I can keep as much of it in my head as possible at once. I'm very happy with what I've gone through so far - I'm at Chapter 15 and things fall together more coherently than I had dared to hope -- so far. |
|
| |
|
Read 6 - Post |
| |
| idlers' wind turning pages on pages |
|
|
| 12:35pm 15/04/2008 |
| |
mood:  jubilant music: Dead Can Dance - Indus
|
And done! Ladies and gentlebeings, we have one shaggy, lopsided but complete draft, weighing in at 112,083 words, which I intend to massage down into 90,000 words, smoothing out certain....irregularities as I go over the next two weeks. |
|
| |
|
Read 35 - Post |
| |
|
|
|
bouncy