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| 2009-06-29 04:30 |
| [links] Link salad comes back from Iron Springs |
| Public |
| books, cool, culture, escapement, green, links, personal, photos, politics, reviews, science |
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Jay Lake's Green: A Departure for the Clockwork King — ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) jeffvandermeer with a brief interview of me about Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ].
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mordicai comments on Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]
1909 Russia in living color: The photos of Sergey Prokudin-Gorskii — A piece of history most of us don't see much of.
7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics — (Thanks to jaborwhalky.)
SETI: A Detectable Neutrino Signal? — Oooh. With bonus Antarctic science pr0n.
To fight deflation, abolish cash. Could Japan make reality of 'science fiction'? — Curious news from the economic front.
The Redder They Are, The Harder They Fall — WaPo somewhat disingenuously asks why Democrats "get away" with more sex scandals, apparently ignores their own answer - it's the hypocrisy, stupid.
Ante Up or Leave The Table — Conservatives and climate change denial, specifically the low cost of such denial in personal, political and social terms. One thing this analysis leaves out is how conservatives have been dead wrong in their opposition to just about everything in the past century or more — child labor laws, women's rights, civil rights, minimum wage, interracial marriage, opposition to entry in WWII, support for the Iraq War. An America run on the principles espoused by conservatives in every one of those losing battles would be a much bleaker, harsher place. Why do they have any credibility on climate change?
?otD: Who put the "Mon" in Monday?
6/29/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride, 10 minutes of stretching and meditation This morning's weigh-in: 221.4 Currently reading: P.S. Your Cat is Dead by James Kirkwood
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| 2009-06-19 14:32 |
| [travel] Home again, somewhat to my surprise |
| Public |
| books, california, child, china, endurance, escapement, mainspring, portland, travel, writing |
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After a day of incipient but unrealized travel fail, I am home. Three segment flight. Slept through one, wrote through the other two. Got 6,600 words knocked out in 2.25 hours on Endurance. I doubt I'll do more today, but I might be inspired this evening, so I'm not calling that the total yet.
In the Denver airport I spotted a mmpb of Mainspring, which was new from last Monday when the same store had only an mmpb of Escapement. That means the book is still being (re)ordered and (re)stocked fourteen months after its release, in airport bookstores, which are notoriously competitive ecosystems. This one had maybe 300 sf/f titles. I'm proud of my little book.
Also, ran into old friends in the San Francisco airport, coming back to Portland on the last leg of their move-home-from-three-years-living-in-China flight. What is it with me in that airport?
Have a therapist appointment soon, then a dinner with (different) visiting friends, then an early evening of it. kenscholes and jens_fire's baby shower tomorrow, to which I am taking tillyjane and the_child. Looks like a dinner tomorrow night with saycestsay. And of course, more bookage.
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Fantasy Literature likes Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]
"The Medusa and the Snail" — If you can't make a hell of an SF story out of this, you're not trying.
Lifes Persistence through the Bombardment — Centauri Dreams on the Late Heavy Bombardment.
Giant Lens May Be Distorting Echo of the Big Bang — I question the use of the terms "supersonic" and "subsonic" with respect to the velocity of the solar wind in a vacuum, but perhaps I am ignorant. Interesting squib in any case.
7 WTF Military Weapons You Won't Believe They Actually Built — (Thanks to danjite.)
Intellectual Monopolies Kill: Two Examples — (Thanks to danjite.)
?otD: Baltimore or Baltiless?
5/22/2009 Body movement: n/a (travel day) This morning's weigh-in: n/a (travel day) Currently reading: The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold; A Long Line of Cells by Lewis Thomas
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So far this morning my magical Internet-slaying powers have not manifested. Waiting for the flight to San Francisco. Usual security line grumbles — "No, really, the Frequent Traveler lane is for people who that they have to take their shoes off." The bookstore inside D concourse had three paperback copies of Mainspring, which I signed. None of Escapement, oddly.
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| 2009-05-06 09:34 |
| [links] Link salad takes a day off to recover, sleeps in |
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| books, cool, culture, escapement, funny, language, links, personal, process, reviews, science, tech, videos, weird, writing |
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A reader reacts to Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ] — Not so much with the liking, unfortunately.
Video of me and kenscholes writing at Borderlands
This won't hurt a bit: 1937 — Shorpy documents my day yesterday.
Language Log with extensive linguist geekery on sentence style
The real story behind Van Gogh's ear — I wonder if they had a hearing? (Thanks to tetar.)
R. Crumb meets The Muppets — Made of 100% USDA Grade-A pure, crispy delicious WRONG.
Nanosatellite Carries Drugs into Space — No, really. I also don't think this is a correct use of "nano-".
John Steinbeck on the economic crisis
?otD: How much did your cat scan?
5/6/2009 Body movement: n/a (sick) This morning's weigh-in: 215.4 Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville, Engine Summer by John Crowley
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A reader reacts to Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]
More on Google Books from The New York Times
Mum fined for calling son a poof? — Language Log dips into queer sociology in the UK.
Subgroup analysis, wishful thinking and research fraud
US History for Dummies — Helpful hints for conservative "patriots". Warning: actual facts will conflict seriously with your cherished political beliefs. But if you're a conservative, you've long since grown inured to that. (Thanks to danjite.)
?otD: How many angels can dance on the head of a pinata?
4/26/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride This morning's weigh-in: 217.4 Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville; The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
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love_of_anime asked in comments here:
Can I ask you a off topic, writing related question? You mentioned recently in a post that you were ready to send off your current piece to first readers. My question is what would be the criteria in choosing first readers? Are they just average people, or other writers? I first understood years ago, in critique workshops, how widely varying individual readings of any text are. Individual experience, genre and sub-genre, vocabulary choice, social or emotional relationships between the reader and the writer — all these and much, much more color the way stories are read in manuscript. Add to that "workshop effect", which is to say anyone reading a manuscript critically will find something to critique, by definition. All in all, reader reaction around a workshop table will be rather different from reader reaction in real life. At the same time, it's what you have to go by. I haven't workshopped regularly in a few years now, except as a guest pro. That's a combination of logistics, life choices and evolution in what I need from a workshop. Longtime readers of this blog will recall my prior disquisitions on the three basic types of workshops. One thing I've come to realize is that for me, at least, in order to be effective, a workshop needs to allow me to "play up." If I'm the most experienced writer in the room, I'm generally getting the least personal development out of the process, however rewarding it may be at many other levels. What I've done is substitute an increasingly wide and varied network of first readers. To your question, what I look for in first readers can vary considerably. If a reader is able to offer cogent critique, that's absolutely a win. Also, strong line editing skills. (These two foregoing are decidedly not the same thing, though some people do have both.) But I also look for reader reactions. From relatively naive readers (ie, not deeply embedded in my genre), from experienced readers, from readers of different generations and temperaments and outlooks, from readers with specific subject matter expertise as well as from readers with wide general knowledge bases. I've learned to pretty effectively analyze my own work critically. That was the job of my workshops for many, many years. But I can never read as if I were all those other people. Each of them brings a different experience, a different tone, a different outlook. Some will like a given work more than others, some will understand it better. In both cases — workshoppers and first readers — the single most important element is me understanding where they are coming from. Joe Superfan reading my work with an eye toward what was done first, better and more powerfully in the New Wave gives me very valuable feedback which I can only exploit if I understand the viewpoint from which he is reading. Likewise Carolyn Rocketscientist, who will make passing comments on physics, science and math which I take very seriously even if I don't at first understand them. My dad, an old State Department China hand, read Escapement for me, because of his insights on everything from Chinese history to Wade-Giles transliteration. Criteria for first readers: A variety of experience and viewpoints, ideally including people who are not necessarily fans of you or your work. They should have the ability to effectively communicate their reactions to you. (Though "I didn't get it" can be the most valuable feedback of all, under some circumstances.) And they should care about writing, because that is how yours will improve.
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At PDX, waiting for my plane to SFO, I wandered into the Powell's Books in terminal C. Three faced copies of the mmpb of Escapment [ Powell's | Amazon ], one spine-out copy of the mmpb of Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ]. W00t, I think, I am in Powell's at the airport!
I go to the counter to ask the gal there if she'd like me to sign them. She says sure, so I grab the stock and head back to the counter, and she says, "I know who you are, I have you friended on LJ." It was cute and funny. I, of course, misheard her LJ handle, so I can't shout it out here, but if you're reading, nice Powell's bookseller, say "hey" in comments. We talked for a minute about supporting local authors, then I signed and moved on.
That moment was fun and funny and cute and even a bit sweet. Made my afternoon, at any rate.
Now, off to San Francisco, calendula_witch, and matters literary with kenscholes tomorrow.
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| 2009-03-11 04:28 |
| [links] Link salad looks into the eyes of the sun |
| Public |
| books, culture, escapement, links, personal, politics, process, publishing, religion, reviews, writing |
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lonfiction with a lengthy review of Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]
The Ten Most Influential Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthologies/Anthology Series — Huh. I co-edited one of those, and have been in two others.
Jeff VanderMeer has sex so you don't have to — On writing and sex scenes.
The Price of Disability Law
Sandstorm in Riyadh — Some amazing photos. As danjite said, "At least snow melts."
Sea levels rising faster than expected - scientists — There goes that liberal bias in the data again.
A coming Evangelical collapse?
?otD: But mama, where is the fun?
3/11/2009 Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride, 10 minutes of isometrics and stretching This morning's weigh-in: 219.2 Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville; Watchmen by Alan Moore etc.
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Longtime readers will recall my Excellent Cancer Adventures of the past year. Had my quarterly followup with my cancer surgeon today, during which we scheduled the colonoscopy and CT scans for the one-year followup this coming May, just after the one-year anniversary of my surgery.
Afterwards, in the car, I had an outbreak of The Fear. (See also here: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ].) I've recently experienced an odd moment of grief [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ], and since then, some deep melancholy, on the day Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ] was released in mass market paperback. (That was an echo of the fact that I first went into the hospital on the day that Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ] was released in mass market paperback.)
This was different.
I'd been talking to my doc about what we were looking for in the tests. Specifically, tumor recurrence in the colon, lymph system or liver; as well as any polyps which might have been too small to be detected last year when various medical professionals went spelunking in my fine and private places. This was pretty sobering, although not particularly alarming in medical terms.
After the consult, I felt fussy, angry, stressed out. I sat in my parked car talking to calendula_witch about the tests and what they meant, then suddenly burst into tears. Just overwhelmed.
Because I am afraid of what we might find.
My doctor is as optimistic as he can be, but until we look, we will not know. We must look, we must know, but for a few minutes I was back in the Big Cancer Fear of last April and May. calendula_witch was very sweet and understanding, talking me down in part by telling me I'd gone to a dark and scary place. In the context of colon cancer, this suddenly seemed very funny. It's hard to laugh and cry at the same time.
The fear is purely emotional. Medically I'm as good as I can be. These tests are purely risk management and good followup. Yes, something might be there, but if it is, I'll beat that like I beat this last round of cancer. Emotional or not, it's real.
And today I realize that the Big Cancer Fear will never really die. It doesn't keep me awake at night or stalk my dreaming mind, but it's with me. It always will be. With my own strong heart and the love of my friends and family, I will always be better than The Fear.
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Tourbillon has acquired an official production title of Pinion. That makes the three book arc:
- Mainspring (Tor, 2007)
- Escapement (Tor, 2008)
- Pinion (Tor, 2010)
And so we rock on.
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arcaedia on the mmpb release of Escapement [ Powell's thb | Amazon thb | Amazon mmpb ]
Footprints authors announced
Shorpy with auto polo here and here.
A Hole in the Genome — A small chunk of DNA linked to schizophrenia, mental retardation, and autism may change the way we think about disease. Some interesting biomedical stuff from Technology Review.
?otD: Father? Yes, son?
3/4/2009 Body movement: n/a (travel day) This morning's weigh-in: n/a (travel day) Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville; Black Blade Blues by John Pitts
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I am pleased to note that Escapement [ Amazon mmpb ] was released in mass market paperback today.
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hollyking reacts to Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]
Undeliverable: 1925 — Shorpy with a photo which is strange and sad on many levels.
The South Pole Telescope — Which I learned about from Centauri Dreams in this article, with an intensely cool accompanying photo.
Reckless driving on the Internet — How someone broke the Internet. (Thanks to lillypond.)
French sub unaware it rammed Royal Navy vessel in mid-Atlantic nuclear crash — Now that's what I call safety. (Snurched from Gizmodo.)
Obama's Elf — Kill me now. (But wait til I'm done laughing.)
Cheney and the Goat Devil — Maureen Dowd on a falling out among thieves.
?otD: Did you see in the morning light?
2/18/2009 Body movement: 45 minute stationary bike ride This morning's weigh-in: n/a Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville; Passion Play by Beth Bernobich
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As I mentioned in link salad this morning, I hit the Locus recommended reading list twice this year. For all your reading and award-nominating needs, they liked novel:
Escapement, Tor Books, June, 2008, ed. Beth Meacham [ Powell's | Amazon ]
...and short story "The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and into the Black", Clarkesworld, March, 2008
"The Sky That Wraps..." also got picked up for the Dozois-edited Year's Best Science Fiction, so that story is doing me proud.
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| 2009-02-02 05:21 |
| [links] Link salad saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac |
| Public |
| books, culture, escapement, language, links, personal, photos, politics, science, stories, tech |
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My photos from yesterday's Chinese New Year Expedition:
Family members [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Portland Classical Chinese Garden [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Lion dance [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Escapement is on the Locus 2008 Recommended Reading List — So is my Clarkesworld story, "The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue into the Black". Double-header. W00t!
The upper-case phoneme — Language Log takes on Iain Banks. Funny stuff, and interesting reading.
Get Fuzzy talks reviews — And zombies! Hahaha.
Grassy Railroads — Somehow I don't think they meant this. (Snurched from Dark Roasted Blend)
GPS-Laced Footballs to Offer Keen Play by Play — Umm...
Skeptic etiquette — I told her that the universe is wonderful enough on its own. Space, stars, planets, black holes, galaxies, suns. The fact that out of all the elemental soup, people like us have evolved to walk and talk and create art, music, white wine, patent leather stacked mary jane shoes, Cocoa Puffs cereal, truck nutz, chocolate chip cookies, surf boards, and the Neiman Marcus cosmetics department is AMAZING. All by itself. Saying, "god did it" is heartbreaking. It pisses on the sheer wonderousness of it all, you know? I don't need more.
As Obama Talks Of Bipartisanship, Definitions Vary — some Republicans are wondering whether Obama's outreach, appreciated as it was, may not extend to agreeing to the compromises they want. "We got the sense that he was very genuine," said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.). But "if he comes and meets with us like that and it doesn't have an impact, it begins to hurt his credibility." Confidential to Your Liberal Media and to Your Republican Party: Do the impossible and stretch your memory all the way back to 2006 and visit this issue in terms of the Permanent Majority playbook. Obama is giving the GOP minority delegation in Washington an order of magnitude more credibility and attention than "I'm a uniter, not a divider" Bush ever gave the Democratic minority delegation. Hello? Ring any bells? Nah, didn't think so.
?otD: What did that voice inside your head say?
2/2/2009 Body movement: 40 minute ride on the stationary bike This morning's weigh-in: 221.4 Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
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| 2009-01-26 05:33 |
| [links] Link salad has never told you, quite as often as it should have |
| Public |
| books, culture, escapement, language, links, personal, politics, process, reviews, writing |
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An Asian-language review of Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ]
How many rejections have you had? [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — Comments thread of people talking about their fiction submission histories, and the relationship between rejections and sales.
The Making of a Writer, Part 1 [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — A casual exploration of my personal history.
Denon in Egypt — James Gurney on the perils of exploration. Worth reading if you write (or game) about people going down into dark, abandoned places.
Rational use of Russian bowels — Language Log with more (as ever) on the perils of mistranslation.
A Prayer for Archimedes — Some seriously cool textual history, and, palimpsests! (Thanks to danjite.)
Should Auschwitz be left to decay? — A fascinating pair of editorials via the BBC. My own experience of visiting Dachau at age 18 was profound to the point of life-changing, so my instinct would be to not let the memories fade into the earth.
From Juan Cole's blog, Jonathan Lyons takes a very long view of the relationship between the West and Islam — I suspect this essay will generate a "yeah, right" response from some American readers, but it's worth noting that many in the Islamic world refer to us as "Crusaders", which precisely fits this narrative. (Thank you very much to libertango for the correction.)
Bush by the numbers — Just in case you still somehow think of the Bush administration as a success, a review of the government's own numbers on job growth, income etc. (And for those of you who proudly take refuge in Bush's record on terrorism, remember the Bin Laden memo he waved off in the summer of 2001 — the rest of us sure do — and consider that terrorism incidents worldwide have risen sharply under his watch.)
?otD: Have I told you 'bout the swans, they live in the park?
1/26/2009 Body movement: 40 minute ride on the stationary bike This morning's weigh-in: 221.8 Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
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| 2009-01-25 06:17 |
| [links] Link salad has stacks of green paper in its red right hand |
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| books, cool, escapement, funny, links, personal, photos, politics, religion, reviews, science |
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A reader reacts, unenthusiastically, to Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]
How many rejections have you had? [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — Comments thread of people talking about their fiction submission histories, and the relationship between rejections and sales.
How Old Are You — An age rating guessing game. (Thanks to Bryant.)
9 Ways NASA Can Tackle Climate Change — Cool stuff. Nice to see our government willing to do something besides obstruct, destroy and stand athwart calling, "Halt!" (Thanks to lt260.)
Aeolus Airship — Ooooohhh... (Thanks to ericjamesstone.)
The Scunthrope Problem — An oldie but a goodie.
APOD with an awesome photo of an annular eclipse
The New York Times on liberalism — A plausible minimum list of ingredients for 21st century liberalism would include liberty under law, limited and accountable government, markets, tolerance, some version of individualism and universalism, and some notion of human equality, reason and progress. My very original definition of liberalism and conservatism, arrived at by observation when I was about 11, was that conservatives are people who know the other guy is wrong, and liberals are people who think the other guy might have a point, too. That definition has never fully broken down for me. (Note that by this definition, many Democrats are not liberals. Duh.)
Illinois moment of silence ruled unconstitutional — Good. Speaking as someone who was coerced with religion as a child, back in the days when that was not only allowed but encouraged, I favor very strong limits on religion in the public square and especially in the public schools. That's one of those little Constitutional details the strict constructionists on the Right dislike as much as the Left dislikes gun rights.
Pope readmits Holocaust-denying priest to the church — Vatican lifts excommunication on renegade British bishop who declared: 'There were no gas chambers' Classy, very classy. Tell me again why American voters should be listening to this guy?
Obama swiftly lays Bush era to rest — At a crossroads, at midnight, with a stake through its heart, I should hope. This nation is already coming to look back on Bush the way it looks back on Nixon and McCarthy — a source of pride to some crazed dead-enders, but national shame to the rest of us. Ironic that being the only American president appointed to the office by judicial fiat may turn out as his greatest claim to historical significance. The sad part is that I don't see how Bush in his profound incuriosity and impermeable disinformation bubble will ever come to any understanding of the damage he has done.
?otD: Which way to the aggress?
1/25/2009 Body movement: 40 minute ride on the stationary bike This morning's weigh-in: n/a (got distracted again and forgot to weigh) Currently reading: The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade by Herman Melville
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