Lakeshore

Chasing Ray reviews Escapement [ Amazon ] — She liked it.

Matt Hughes is SF's best-kept secret — Je suis d'accord.

Roly poly fish heads continue at Nuevo Rancho Lake — Still working on that salmon head soup...

Where Are They? — Technology Review on SETI and exoplanets. Includes the cool concept of a "probability barrier", but there's a lot of assumptions (and some glancing blows at science) in this article with which I am uncomfortable. Interesting reading, nonetheless.

Hubble telescope captures crashing galaxies — (Thanks to lt260.)

Dry spell almost killed off race — How close did the human race come to a personal ELE? (Thanks to tetar.)

Let's Say You Want to Date a Hog Farmer — Online dating for Objectivists... (Thanks to my dad.)

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus — A fascinating article about the cognitive cost of television to society as a whole. Money shot: "the critical technology, for the early phase of the industrial revolution, was gin." Lots to argue with here, lots to think about. (Thanks to danjite.)

John McCain on American occupation of foreign countries — "For us to get into nation-building, law and order, etc, I think is a tragic and terrible mistake. But the argument that somehow the United States would suffer a loss to our prestige and our viability, as far as the No. 1 superpower in the world, I think, is baloney. The fact is, what can hurt our prestige, Mr. President, I'll tell you what can hurt our viability, as the world's superpower, and that is, if we enmesh ourselves in a drawn-out situation, which entails the loss of American lives, more debacles like the one we saw with the failed mission to capture Aidid's lieutenants, using American forces, and that then will be what hurts our prestige." Of course, that was when Clinton was president, and so everything was completely different.

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4/28/08
Time in saddle: 20 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 273.8
Currently reading: The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia [ Amazon ]

I am extremely pleased to report that this week's issue of Publisher's Weekly has a starred review of Escapement [ Amazon ].

I'm not sure if I can reproduce the whole thing here, but I'll quote my favorite bits:

This lively and thought-provoking sequel to 2007's Mainspring expands Lake's alternate 19th-century world of baroque politics and gothic clockwork. ... Lake effectively anneals steampunk with geo-mechanical magic in an allegorical matrix of empire building and Victorian natural science.

(Thanks to arcaedia for the original tip, and thanks to another benefactor for forwarding the review itself.)

criada hath just pointed out to me a serious (albeit trivial to the plot) error in Escapement [ Amazon ]. I refer a number of times to the island of Java as being north of the Equatorial Wall, when in fact I meant Sumatra. I simply flipped them in my head.

This little detail — which was entirely and solely my doing (it's my book, after all) — escaped all the readers who looked over the book in various official and unofficial capacities. It's far too late to fix the hardback now. So when you buy your copies of Escapement (as you all are planning to do, right?), please take a blue pencil, and wherever you see the word "Java", gently cross it out and write in "Sumatra".

Ah, the bliss of geographical ignorance. I am so damned embarrassed.

The first review of Escapement [ Amazon ] — I've been Klausnered!

The clubhouse question — In which many answers are revealed, including yet another True Account of My Secret Origins.

I'm going to Launch Pad — W00t!

From frankwu, a reminder that the 2008 Locus poll closes 4/15 — You don't have to be a subscriber to vote. And if you liked my stuff, go vote for it!

book_pimp on Escapement [ Amazon ] — Also some love there for timpratt's If There Were Wolves [ Amazon ]

Some of the reviews are out for Paper Cities — That one is very worth checking out.

Breakfast for Barry — A Hugo campaign of a reasonable sort. Check it out, give it consideration.

muneraven gets into an argument about the Hugos — Despite a certain amount of crabbiness all around, the comment thread is highly informative concerning the machinery of Hugo-dom, if you care about that sort of thing. Good on muneraven and kevinstandlee for having an interesting discussion.

The perils of Craigslist — This is just bizarre. Someone gave away a man's belongings on Craiglist. (Thanks to lillypond.)

Higgs bosons are us — CERN goes god hunting.

Weather Engineering China — Olympic sized ambitions.

Spirit, seen from space

NASA funding cut for Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity will shut them down at least temporarily — This will save NASA $4 million dollars. To put this in perspective, $4 million funds about 15 minutes of the Iraq War. Gosh, I feel safer already.

California requires certification for home schoolers — I have strong (and unpopular) views on home schooling, but I can see why this makes a lot of people on all sides of the fence uncomfortable.

McCain's free ride from the press — It's like Bush in 2000 all over again. Your Liberal Media, hard at work distorting the truth for the benefit of conservatives.

Last week the clockmaker came to set up the grandfather clock my parents recently gave me. My grandparents brought this 19th century piece back from Germany in the 1950s, so the original provenance is unknown, but I have strong early childhood memories of its gentle ticking and mellow chimes in the stained glass light of their front hall in Gainesville, TX. Somehow it seems apropos that this elderly gentleman shares a room with my display copies of Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon | Audible ] and Escapement [ Amazon ]. (I gave copies of the books to the clockmaker as a thank you.) It's a two-weight weekly winder, for those that care about such things.

( A few photos. )

As usual, more at the Flickr set.

Don't forget the new caption contest — Another ARC of Escapement [ Amazon ], as well as an Audible.com gift card, are at stake!

A review promotional mention of Trial of Flowers [ Powell's | Amazon ] — Complete with dwarf disclaimer. In Portuguese.

Green Man Review rather liked Paper Cities [ Powell's | Amazon ] — They especially liked "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable". The story is in the Flowers continuity, concerning the life of Biggest Sister, leader of the Tribade at the time of Trial of Flowers.

kenscholes on the agonies and wonders of the writing process — Definitely worth a look.

Agent Joshua Bilmes on the coming changes in Borders bookstores — "You can either see this as the complete dumbing down of the bookstore, or as salvation as somebody attempts to think out of the box and do something new in a bookstore for the first time in decades." (Thanks to devonmonk.)

Some interesting comments in last night's post on dialog, btw.

Cheese fear — Engrish.com takes on cheese. (And yes, I owe a cheese blog from Rainforest. Busy here.)

The state of Tennessee shows some real class and economic foresight in dealing with illegal immigrants — This one's a doozie.

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3/14/08
Time in saddle: 20 minutes
Last night's weigh-out: n/a
This morning's weigh-in: 278.8
Currently reading: Field of Fire, by James O. Born [ Powell's | Amazon ]

pnh with the true adventures of tor.com

scalzi is nice about Escapement [ Amazon ]

ericjamesstone answers one of my minor but important wishes — He points us to this compact combo power strip and USB charger. Now if the darned thing would only come into shipping availability.

Living in the shadow of Chernobyl — (Thanks to RadCon Bob.)

The Locus poll is up — Go vote. I'm on there in three places, if'n you like my stuff. You do not have to be a current subscriber to participate. (Thanks to lasirenadolce.)

Language Log on sounds, meaning and ideophonics

In Praise of Ancient Light — Centauri Dreams on the very early and true history of the Universe. (Or God's careful deceptions regarding same, if you happen to be a Creationist.)

Constructing 3D models from a single photo

Adaptable Polymer Inspired by Sea Cucumbers — That must be at least the headline of the month.

"Malling-Hansen Writing Ball," 1867 — :: wants ::
I actually describe one of these in the Flowers books. Lord Mayor Imago has one in his office in the Rugmaker's Cupola. (Thanks to scarlettina.)

The fabulous ARC contest, which was somewhat disrupted by the great disk crash of ought eight, has come to a conclusion. The voting poll is now closed. As you may recall, the challenge was to offer a limerick or haiku concerning why you should receive a rare ARC of Escapement [ Amazon ].

Without further ado, the winner is etcet with:

Lake dangles a prize;
Cavorting words hope to win.
"Dance for me, bitches!"

etcet, please drop me an email with your shipping info.

I also offered a special judge's prize of an Audible.com gift card to my personal favorite. The card can be used for two Audible titles, including Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon | Audible ] or any other title, including Old Man's War, A War of Gifts: An Ender Story or any of the Dune books. This is awarded at my sole discretion because it's my contest, dammit.

By strange coincidence, the winner is etcet with a different entry:

Limerick? Haiku?
Jedi do not crave such things.
Nantucket beckons.

Basically, I nearly wet myself laughing at that one the first time I read it.

There will be another contest shortly, so hang in there.

Remember, you heard it here first on roller derby.

Lessee...last month was busy.

I powered through the revisions to Madness of Flowers, which managed to dangle over slightly into March.

I executed first drafts of "Shedding Skin; Or How the World Came to Be" and "To Repair Man".

I submitted 6 stories and 1 reprint, received 1 rejection, and sold 3 short stories: "The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and Into the Black", "An Elderly Pirate Recalls the Death of Love", "Bringing the Future Home", and one novella: "America, Such as She Is".

I received the ARCs of Escapement [ Amazon ] and the book club editions of Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon | Audible ].

I was on the road 16 days, attended RadCon V and the South Carolina Book Festival, as well as business trips to Omaha, Denver, and Omaha again. ETA: lasirenadolce pointed out that I was also at Potlatch on 2/29.

Now on to March.

Free stuff from Tor — Including desktop wallpaper of the cover of Escapement [ Amazon ].

Don't forget the ARC contest voting poll

Taxidermie mécanique — I'll bet even you non-Francophones can sort out this title... The page is disturbingly awesome. (Thanks to therinth.)

Survey targets 'ghost mountains'

Biological ice nucleators — Is rain caused by bacteria?

Biohybrid constructs — Weird science on the hoof.

Here's the results of the first phase of the fabulous ARC contest. I asked that either a limerick or a haiku, tell me in comments why you should receive an ARC of Escapement. Props for being mad funny or over the top.

This is the voting poll to decide the winner. I will also invoke judge's discretion and award an Audible.com gift card to my personal favorite. The card can be used for two Audible titles, including Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon | Audible ] or any other title, including Old Man's War, A War of Gifts: An Ender Story or any of the Dune books.

Of course, you can always pre-order Escapement your own personal self...

Poll #1146304 Escapement ARC Contest
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Which limerick or haiku is most deserving of an Escapment ARC?