(1) “It appears there’s a Northwesteros football team,” reports Tom Galloway. “Personally, I find this amusing given that when he was at Northwestern, George R.R. Martin was a mainstay of, not the football team, but the chess team (he’s written a story where the starting point is a real life match against the arch-rival UChicago team).”
(Photo posted by Northwestern Athletics.)
(2) The decision to stop using Lovecraft’s image on the World Fantasy Award was, needless to say, unpopular with many commenters on H.P. Lovecraft’s Facebook page.
(3) Nick Mamatas is running a poll asking “What should the New World Fantasy Award be?” – where participants get to choose among his own satirical answers.
(4) Sam Kriss explains, in “The Englishman and the Octopus”, why Spectre is really a Lovecraft story, not a Bond movie.
This film doesn’t exactly hide its place within Lovecraftian mythology. You really think that creature on the ring is just an octopus? Uniquely for a Bond film, it starts with an epigraph of sorts, the words ‘the dead are alive’ printed over a black screen – a not particularly subtle allusion to the famous lines from the Necronomicon: ‘That is not dead which can eternal lie/ And with strange aeons even death may die.’
(5) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will launch a new SF/F book line edited by John Joseph Adams reports Locus Online.
The new list, called John Joseph Adams Books, will begin in February 2016 with print editions of three backlist Hugh Howey titles. Adams will serve as editor at large for the line. He began his association with HMH when he became series editor for the Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy series, launched this year.
(6) Buddy’s Antique Auction in Arab, Alabama might not be the first place you’d look to buy a genuine Lunar Rover — but it should be! That salvaged LRV recently in the news will be there for sale to the highest bidder on November 21 at Noon.
We are proud to announce that we have been commissioned to sell at public auction this very special piece of historical value. This Lunar Rover or “Moon Buggy” as it is comonly called is a prototype from the mid 1960s. NASA engineers were studying ways for the astronauts to be mobile while on the moon. This buggy never went to the moon but has been authenticated by a retired NASA scientist and he believes Wernher Von Braun was photographed on this buggy. “Moon Buggies” were used on the moon and three are still there. This is definitely a piece of history some space enthusiast could lovingly bring back to its original glory….
This is a special auction and will be for the Moon Buggy. This will be the only item in this auction and will be held at 12:00 Noon at the Worley Brothers Antiques building.
More photos here.
(7) Sarah Chorn writes frequently about accessibility, and her latest post at Bookworm Blues is a status report in general about conventions’ support for special needs.
I saw a lot of praise this year about conventions that had sign language interpreters in attendance, and I thought, “Good. I’m glad that conventions are finally getting this accommodation, but what does it say about us that this is something to be praised rather than part of our normal convention going experience?”
That’s the thing that really irks me about this issue. Accommodation is still something to be praised rather than a normal thing. It’s an event rather than an occurrence. Furthermore, there are still times when there are problems and people get excluded or edged out due to these problems. The dialogue about this is still minimal in the genre. There is still almost no discussion about these problems until something happens and there is a small outcry.
(8) Roger Tener gave permission to reprint his account of Nancy Nutt’s memorial service from Chronicles of the Dawn Patrol.
Saturday [November 7] was the Memorial Service for Nancy Nutt.
David and Sherrie Moreno, Cathy, and I drove up to Kansas City It was an opportunity to spend time with friends to comfort each other and remember Nancy.
There was a couple of tables set up in a small room with pictures that Nancy had taken over the years. Nancy’s family told us to take any of the pictures we wanted. There were several pictures of Fans and airplanes. More specifically airplanes that I had flown Fan gatherings.
During the service many us fans told various stories of Nancy that brought a smile. (Like Mickey Mouse committing suicide in the back 52 Tango while flying over Walt Disney World.)
After the service many of us gathered at Genghis Kahn for supper. After we ate we stood outside the restaurant and talked and talked and talked in the finest Fannish tradition.
We will miss you Nancy.
(9) Kameron Hurley, asked “Do Goodreads Ratings Correlate to Sales?”, answered affirmatively. (Her post is inspired by Mark Lawrence’s earlier “What do Goodreads ratings say about sales?”)
(10) Misty Massey says there are reasons for not “Breaking the Rules” at Magical Words.
And one more that’s happened recently (and been done by more than one person) “If you’re new to us, send us a writing sample of the first five pages of your published work.” And instead, you send us a link to your website. Sure, that website may have oodles of your work on it, but you just showed us that you can’t follow simple instructions. Why would I believe I should work with you?
The point of all this is to make sure you guys who DO follow the rules and who DO read the guidelines carefully know that we on the other end of those guidelines appreciate the effort you take. We may not open our next letter to you with the words “I see that you followed our guidelines” but you can just bet that you’re even hearing from us because you did. And one other thing to remember…publishing is a tightly-knit business. If you behave in a jerkish manner, breaking rules and skipping guidelines for one editor, don’t be surprised when another editor seems uninterested in working with you. Word gets around.
(11) Rachael Acks’ contribution to SF Signal’s MIND MELD: Must hear audio fiction, accidentally left out of the main article, appeared today.
I listen to a lot of audio books, because I’ll have them playing while I’m describing core, processing data, or driving. (And I tend to listen to them over and over again, since I will miss things sometimes.) The two authors whose audiobooks I own the most of are Lois McMaster Bujold and NK Jemisin. I’m not sure if that’s because their work lends itself particularly well to the format, or just because I love everything they write anyway. I actually didn’t own a written copy of any of Bujold’s books until this year, and reading it normally felt weird—so many things weren’t spelled the way I thought they would be. This also made reading The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms after I’d listened to it first a slightly odd experience.
(12) Jim C. Hines says it’s time for a “NaNoWriMo Pep Talk” about hitting the wall.
This is the time in Jim’s writing process where, like Charlie Brown kicking at that elusive football, I lose my footing and end up flat on my back, staring into the sky and wondering what the heck just happened.
My shiny new idea isn’t quite so shiny anymore. I’ve gotten lots of words down, but they don’t exactly match what I was imagining. And this next part of the outline doesn’t make any sense at all, now that I think about it more closely. Good grief, the Jim who was outlining this thing last month is an idiot. And now I have to fix his mess….
(13) Today’s Birthday Boy
- Born November 9, 1934 – Carl Sagan
(14) Today In History
- November 9, 1984 – Silent Night, Deadly Night premieres. To protest the film, critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel read the credits out loud on their television show saying, “Shame, shame, shame” after each name.
(15) Contrary to what some people may believe, John Scalzi’s cat Zeus does not require any more attention from the internet than he’s already getting.
One, he’s perfectly fine, merely not at the center of my public discussion of cats in the last week as he neither a) a kitten, b) a newly-passed on senior cat. You should be aware that Zeus has been perfectly fine not being the center of media attention in the last several days, as he is a cat and has not the slightest idea either that I write about my cats here, or that any of you have any idea who he is. But he is alive and well and doing what he does.
(16) “A Death Star Filled With Plastic Stormtroopers Is a Better Bucket of Army Men” opines Andrew Lizsewski at Toyland.
If there’s one toy that defines cheap and mass-produced, it’s those buckets full of tiny green plastic army men. They really stop being desirable once you turn six, except when those plastic soldiers are replaced with tiny white stormtroopers led by an equally tiny Darth Vader.
(17) Alastair Reynolds tells what it was like to be a huge fan of the original Star Wars at Approaching Pavonis Mons by balloon.
Through that summer, I collected complete sets of both the blue and red-bordered bubble-gum cards. In that autumn, as I started at The Big School (Pencoed Comprehensive, where I still help out with creative writing workshops) I got hold of George Lucas’s novel of the film. Yes, it was amazing, wasn’t it, that George Lucas had not only found time to make this film, but also scribble down a novelisation of it? It was only later that Alan Dean Foster was credited, but not on my edition. It was a shiny paperback with a yellow cover and a set of colour photos stitched into the middle. It was a holy relic, as far as I was concerned, and when I accidentally dented one of the corners, I felt as if my world had ended. I also got the 7″ disco-funk version of the Star Wars music:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meco
Which was only the third record I’d ever bought, after the Jaws theme and Queen’s We Are The Champions.
(18) If Reynolds doesn’t know these 12 facts about Yoda already, he soon will.
When Stuart Freeborn, the make-up artist who was tasked with creating Yoda, looked into a mirror, he saw Yoda. No, it wasn’t a Disney magic mirror, but rather it was Freeborn’s own reflection that inspired Yoda’s final look.
When Freeborn modeled himself and started sculpting Yoda, he emphasized his bald scalp, wrinkles, and pointed chin in order to bring Yoda into the world. According to Freeborn, the only part of Yoda that wasn’t based on himself was the upper lip, in which he removed the famous mustache of Albert Einstein and ported it onto Yoda’s face. This move was meant by Freeborn to trigger a subconscious association in the audience with Einstein’s intelligence and wisdom, thus making Yoda appear intelligent before he even spoke a word of advice in his lovable, fractured English.
(19) Even before the internet you couldn’t believe everything you read as Matt Staggs proves in “Four Times Science Almost Flew Off The Rails: Bat Men On The Moon, Phantom Planets, Ghosts, and The Hollow Earth” at Suvudu.
2) When We Thought Bat People Lived On The Moon Ah, 19th century New York City: a place where the lanterns burned all night, Bill the Butcher and his gang of Know-Nothings spattered the streets with blood, and four-foot tall bat people looked down upon it all from their home on the moon. What, you don’t know about the flying lunar bat people? That’s because they were the invention of a master troll named Matthew Goodman, editor of the Sun newspaper.
(20) “Mariah Carey To Run LEGO Gotham City” says SciFi4Me:
Singer and actress Mariah Carey has joined the cast of The LEGO Batman Movie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, she’ll voice the mayor of Gotham City. This report is contrary to a Deadline report that she would be playing Commissioner Gordon — which only works if she’s playing Commissioner Barbara Gordon from the animated Batman Beyond. Of course, that’s completely possible, too, given how the first LEGO Movie mashed up characters from all over the story multiverse….
The LEGO Batman Movie is scheduled for release on February 10, 2017,
(21) This just in – eight years ago.
Alrugo Entertainment, bring you: ITALIAN SPIDERMAN Unearthed for the first time in 40 years and lovingly restored at Alrugo Studios Milan, this rare theatrical trailer for the 1968 Italian classic ‘Italian Spiderman’ is a real treat. Featuring Franco Franchetti of ‘Mondo Sexo’ fame in his last ever role before being killed in a spear fishing accident in 1969. Alrugo entertainment will be releasing the FULL, remastered ITALIAN SPIDERMAN film on the web starting MAY 22. STAY TUNED
Italian Spiderman has its own Wikipedia article!
Italian Spiderman is an Australian film parody of Italian action–adventure films of the 60s and 70s, first released on YouTube in 2007. The parody purports to be a “lost Italian film” by Alrugo Entertainment, an Australian film-making collective formed by Dario Russo, Tait Wilson, David Ashby, Will Spartalis and Boris Repasky.
Ostensibly an Italian take on the comic book superhero Spider-Man, the film is a reference to foreign movies that misappropriate popular American superheroes such as the Turkish film “3 Dev Adam”, and licensed series such as the Japanese TV series “Spider-Man”, both of which alter the character of Spider-Man for foreign audiences. Other notable entries include the Indian version of Superman (1987), I fantastici tre supermen (3 Fantastic Supermen) (1967) and La Mujer Murcielago (The Batwoman) (1968).
(22) A Robot Chicken video, “The Nerd on The CW,” parodies Arrow and The Flash.
[Thanks to Mark-kitteh, DMS, Tom Galloway, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peter J.]
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First?
@Alan: There is no first. Only fifth. And now I am fifth.
Second Third fifth!
No. 5 (heh)–that’s great. John Joseph Adams is one of the best editors around. I adore his anthologies.
4th Fifth!
Actual Fifth – some assembly required.
I like Nick’s poll, and I’d totally vote in it, but not if I have to sign in. I like the Chimera Option.
(19) The hollow Earth theory of Symmes is a major driving force of The White Darkness which I haven’t mentioned in …. days at least.
Re: (12)… well actually just chiming in because I want some abuse from Meredith to bounce me out of the ‘I suck’ part of my daily cycle.*
15,825 words.
*The Iphinome NaNoWriMo Daily Cycle. Number seven would melt even Scrooge’s heart.
1: *yawn* What’s next in my outline? Oh that’s dumb but I don’t have anything better in mind so here we go.
2: That was 1667-2000 words that didn’t quite match my outline and two awful Star Wars jokes what was I thinking?
3: Change outline to reflect what I wrote, remove what didn’t get used if no longer needed, move the rest to later if possible, make a note that it needs to be inserted earlier and where otherwise.
4: This is all crap, the plot is too thin, why did I use first person, I hate first person?
5: This is going to be the worst thing ever and with an outline that’s grown to 7000 words I still don’t have enough to go much past 60000 words.^
6: Forget 60, I don’t have enough to get to 50000 words, NaNoWriMo will be failed.
7: Make plans to change name and move to another city to escape the shame.
8: Hey my protagonist has felt that level of shame and she… *scribble scribble* Hey that explains a lot.
9: If she reflect on that incident here and then I change this thing coming up to be a little bit more like it, I’ll have another day’s worth of material, I’m saved!
10: Huh? Time to write again, let’s open up the outline and take a look.
^Current location in the cycle.
3. Chimera
19. Is this the origin of the word “moonbat”?
Actual second fifth.
Violence seems to work for me.
Iphinome: That’s a familiar pattern…
For demi-wri-mo I’m at 6,381, and a scene end.
So far this is a mind-f*** story. As in, the two MCs have both had their heads badly messed with. I’m also a little weirded out by how hard my own relationship with my elder son is colouring the female lead’s story. The *plan* had called for an NT child…
My suggestion for a new WFC statue continues to be the bust of Gahan Wilson, rendered in the style of Lovecraft.
I’m still going to agitate for an etched-crystal globe as the standard element in all World Fantasy Awards, with a different dragon (many-tentacled horror, whatever) for each convention.
Doctor Science: I’m still going to agitate for an etched-crystal globe as the standard element in all World Fantasy Awards, with a different dragon (many-tentacled horror, whatever) for each convention.
Ooh, now that idea I really like.
I am now tempted to propose that the new WFA should be a bust of Italian Spiderman.
It should be a really nice statue but when you look at it out of the corner of your eye you think you see the old Lovecraft statue, so you turn but it is just the lovely statue you saw before, so you turn back again and you get this sense of two goggly racist eyes starring at you and so you become obsessed with it and install a video camera to record the statue when you are not watching and everything looks fine and you are about to turn the footage off and then just briefly there is a single frame and you see the Lovecraft statue again, but then when you check it is just the same sweet statue that you won but you can’t get it out of your head and you dream that it is watching you while you sleep and when you wake up you think it has moved but you aren’t sure so you check the video again and THERE IT IS the two eyes bulging out and starring, just starring at you, judging you for your heritage, your genes, your ancestors but at least you have proof, actual direct proof that the statue had changed, so you take a screenshot and you email it to everybody and post in on your blog but all your fans and followers are like ‘wtf? Its just that nice statue’ except for some 4chan trolls who are like ‘yeah totally HPL, you nutjob’ and yet when you look at the image file it is that same ugly face looking at you but everybody denies it because they must all be in on it, they must all be in league with H.P.Lovecraft and they must have been all this time, including your editor and your publisher, and your spouse and that guy who runs your fan website, they are all in on it and now you know your books were awful, all those people were just pretending to like your books because Lovecraft told them to and now you know you must kill them all and even as the police come to take you away you know you have discovered the truth about everything, you’ve seen beyond the eldritch angles of the false geometries of the universe. Or maybe they should have a goblin whichever is easier.
Rev. Bob:
I fifth that.
@Camestros
Gah!
Okay, fair warning. I’m about to shout at some clouds…
Why in hell does every computer accessory these days have to come with pointless LED lights?
I use a laptop for work. I’ve had an inexpensive stand for years. It tilts the keyboard up a bit, and there’s a handy fan that plugs into a USB port to help keep the laptop cool. It’s simple, efficient, lightweight, and gets the job done. Well, it did, until the fan died a few days ago. So now I’m looking for a replacement.
The first problem is that I like the active cooling, so a simple stand is Right Out. I also like to use the computer at places which are not desks, so there go most of the “flat surface with itty bitty legs to add height” options, as well as the Baba Yaga Specials that are shelves mounted on posable legs that are way longer than anything I need. The laptop’s a big 17″ model that actually lets me get work done, so there go all the “up to 15-inch” options.
Apparently everyone else fitting this profile is a gamer geek who is obsessed with having blue lights attached to every scrap of tech they possess. Seriously, why do fans in a laptop stand need LED lights? First thing you do is put the computer on top of the stand, blocking your view… so why put lights there to draw power for no damn reason? News flash, sparky – I work alone in a closed room, and I’m an adult. I don’t live under the delusion that having lights on my computer is going to (favorably) impress anyone. Just gimme a stand with a decently-long cord and I’ll be on my way…
I swear, I’m tempted to hop down to the nearest parts place and pull a Carlin. Throw the old one up on the counter and say, “That one worked real good. Gimme another one o’ them.” If I thought it’d work, I’d try it.
@iphinome: 32,444 as of this morning. Meredith can bully you, but I can do worse, I can taunt. Cruelly. Muahahahaha. (Wait. Mua ha ha ha ha. More wordcount that way.)
On (7). Sarah Chorn mentions sign language.
When it comes to Worldcons (or World Fantasy Cons for that matter) sign language seems to me to become pretty complicated. There are many sign languages. OK in the US and with a majority US attendance ASL may be the obvious language to use. When Worldcon was in London should BSL have been the sign language used (based on location and majority of attendees) despite it not being intelligible to ASL users? What about Worldcon75 – should SVK (Finnish Sign Language) be used – that is unintelligible to ASL and BSL users? Yes, there is something called International Sign but I do not know how widely understood that is in the general deaf community (for BSL users even the finger-spelling will need to be learned afresh), or how wide the vocabulary is. All that with a massive Worldcon programme – well over 10 programme items taking place simultaneously, with the programme extending to about 10 hours or so over multiple days. Of course there are also a lot of people with hearing loss, especially those who have recently lost their hearing, don’t know sign either. So sign provision shouldn’t trump other accommodations – hearing loops and for some items STTR (CART for you USians).
I’m not trying to say that accommodations should not be made, but trying to point out that for large international conventions like Worldcon accommodations for hearing loss are more complicated, and probably less well-understood, than for physical disabilities. Sign isn’t a panacea.
Rev. Bob:
We used to call those SF-panels with lots of little lights “impressor panels”. It is my guess that the led lamp on the fan have the same function. To impress. Even if we aren’t that impressed! 😀
The Goodreads Readers Choice has hit semi-final stage, with 5 write-ins joining the original candidates.
The write-ins for SF are:
Armada by Ernest Cline
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
Aftermath (Star Wars: Aftermath #1) by Chuck Wendig
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink
And for Fantasy:
The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2) by Samantha Shannon
The Invasion of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling, #2) by Erika Johansen
The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #2) by Brian Staveley
Burned (Fever, #7) by Karen Marie Moning
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
I think the results in SF are rather interesting. Some obvious big names in Armada and Aurora coming in, some serious Nightvale fan action, and of course Star Wars:Aftermath shows again that it is so hated by the fans that they’ve written it in here as well as propelling it to NYT bestseller status.
(3) I was going to vote for ‘dragon’, too (Hi, Meredith), but I don’t want to sign in either. Then I read Doctor Science’s suggestion of the crystal ball with different etching each year. *That* could be a really cool thing!
(6) Nice to know the LRV model will probably go to a good (rich) home.
(9) I was totally confused about this metric at first. I thought they meant the actual rating a book got on Goodreads! That wouldn’t work. Then I realized they meant the *number* of people who rated a book at all might work as a proxy to estimate the number of books sold. Have no idea if it would work, but at least it makes some sense now. :^}
(21) I’d watch that.
(22) Wouldn’t watch that, not campy enough.
::tick::
(2)
It would appear that by now many of the most inflammatory comments have been pruned.
One cannot help but notice that while an apparent majority of those supporting the decision have been on the whole reasonable, polite, logical and humane in their arguments, a significant proportion of of those opposed to the decision have been, as others have observed, offensive and hateful.
That page’s host has said:
(16)
How tiny are those cheap plastic Stormtroopers?
O.o
I may have found the Holy Grail for science fiction tabletop gamers.
I am more concerned with the price.
A tub-o-stormtroopers is useless if they add the Disney markup.
Look, it’s the WORLD Fantasy Award so the award design needs to reflect that. That leaves a single obvious choice: it should be a replica of the New York World building.
Camestros’ idea was good too though.
@Peace
Lots of angry comments on The Guardian regarding the Lovecraft statuette.
It’s pretty much divided along political lines.
Rightwingers outraged that some people don’t want a fugly statue of a racist anymore.
I really can’t understand why it’s caused so much ire, it’s like these people have a pathological need to fight back against anything they regard as ‘progressive’.
I think there is a bit of an outrage developing here.
No John C Wright. No Michael Z Williamson. No Declan Finn.
Happy birthday, Neil Gaiman. NPR just announced this.
Which explains why my e-book IQ alerts are exploding with offers on cheaper Neil Gaiman books. Still, Happy Birthday!
Just finished The Bone Doll’s Twin. Wow. That book is. Messed. Up.
The sequels shall be ordered immediately.
The story goes that when the UNIVAC was called upon to predict the 1952 presidential election, they had to put in special brighter lights that would be observable on television.
Even then the television producer understood the power of blinky lights.
Worldbuilders 2015 has started. Worthy cause, worthy prizes.
@Steve Wright
The problem with that is I’m competing with my own self-doubt, not with you. Not knowing what to fill the empty spaces with, wondering how so much planned stuff has already been used up, not knowing if I’ll come up with enough ideas to keep the story moving _and_ put my characters in the state of mind they need for the next major plot point. Those things eat me even more than knowing what’s already typed out is pure crap.
So when you say you’re doing more, I say good on you, there’s someone who knows what they’re doing. There’s a big fat outline so why don’t I know what I’m doing?
Some nice abuse though, that hits the spot. Too many people will say things like ‘you can do it.’ Anyone can do it, butt in seat hands on keyboard right? Say I can’t do it and I _will_ prove you wrong.
17523 words.
Contributing editor of the day? Me? Really?
Wow.
* embarassed shuffle*
And even more chuffed to find an item about Alastair Reynolds in there today; we were born in the same town.
@iphinome: I’m afraid I’m actually fairly lousy at providing abuse, unless the target has actually roused my ire in some way. (Fear the ire!)
Unfortunately, slacking off during NaNoWriMo isn’t enough for you to arouse my ire, since I’ve done far too much slacking myself… which would be why I am posting this comment rather than working on my story, for example.
As Jim Hines points out, self-doubt is normal, whether it’s during NaNo or not. Trouble is, knowing that it’s normal doesn’t actually help in dealing with it.
Now I must get some coffee, and then figure out what to do with one of my characters, who has just realised she is a character in a novel and is trying to come to terms with it. (No, she hasn’t realised she’s being written by me – that would be a trauma no one should have to cope with. She’s realised she’s being read by someone else. Who is also being read by a third person, whom the first character is reading about…. Remind me, why did I ever start digging myself this hole?)
@Iphinome
Back when I was doing more stuff In Public (readings, speeches, dance displays, etc.) I used to get my sisters to tell me I was rubbish and everything I did was going to suck beforehand because it was strangely calming. I can do better than rubbish and now that was the standard so it would all be fine. Someone telling me I’d do great was just pressure. I also compete mainly with myself, because I’m the most important person to beat. No-one else is going to have the same learning curve or progression as me so why worry about what someone else is doing? So basically: Yep, I get it.
Anyway…
You call that a word count? My grandmother writes faster than that and she never even learned how to read! Get your ass back in the chair, open that word processor and write! I don’t care if you have to describe every table, gesture, and ornament in excruciating detail before you move on with the plot but I’d better see some more progress by tomorrow,
soldierwriter!(Howzat? Better?)
ETA: PS. My grandmother does know how to read (and is quite good at telling stories, because she had demanded younger siblings). Just um. For the record.
By your command. *opens scrivener*
And thank you.
@Kyra – I’ve read that series. If you think the first book was wierd, strap in and hold tight.
The author is one of the nicest, sunniest people I’ve worked with at cons. Which only made her readings that much more disturbing.
Iphinome
Also, the lighting. Look at the mileage Rev. Bob got out of it upstream, and steal it, sorry, be inspired by it!
The problem with that is I’m competing with my own self-doubt, not with you. Not knowing what to fill the empty spaces with, wondering how so much planned stuff has already been used up, not knowing if I’ll come up with enough ideas to keep the story moving _and_ put my characters in the state of mind they need for the next major plot point. Those things eat me even more than knowing what’s already typed out is pure crap.
I can’t convincingly spout the abuse you’re asking for, because I’ve had all those doubts in prior NaNos, too. And I’m always pleasantly surprised by what the mind forces out under pressure. But each person’s pressure is different, and the pressure that works for you would just hurt me.
So instead I will sit here and say, you can do it! Your story is just gonna be fine.
Of course, I’m just saying that so your well of words will dry up and you’ll stop and crash and burn so I, who am aspiring to half the words you are, will end the month looking at your failure and your piddly word count, and say “Mwa-ha-ha. I could do better than that and I wasn’t trying!”
And that series (Tamir Triad) is especially weird & disturbing (in a good way) if you come into it having previously read her Nightrunners books (written earlier, set a few hundred years later in the same world, and much lighter adventure fare, albeit not without a dark undercurrent at times).
5) When does John Joseph Adams sleep?
12) I’m not doing a full Nanowrimo, but I’m trying to write every day in November for about a half-hour per day. (If I’m going to take my fiction writing seriously, getting into a daily habit instead of weekly/occasional sessions would probably be a good move.) So far, I seem to be managing about 300-400 words per session. I found, though, that the 12-hour shifts I work on weekends blow that “write every day” thing out of the water. But my Friday night shifts, when I spend eight hours in the guard shack logging occasional radio calls from the roving security guard and writing in a blank book during the empty moments between log entries, usually produce from 800 to 2,000 words, so that makes up for the lack of Saturday or Sunday writing sessions. I also did a double-session Monday morning, a full hour, which produced nearly 800 more words.
The story in progress is… what am I thinking?… a short Western story. For which the potential markets are, shall we say in hilarious understatement, thin on the ground. (I briefly considered adding in zeppelins and other Steampunk trappings to increase marketing potential, but no, that would only be window dressing, so a straight Western story it is.) Western is a genre I’ve never done before. Plus I’m trying to write the main character as gender-unspecified; setting that in a period when society was strongly divided along gender lines presents occasional *ahem* difficulties. So writing the story at all may, perhaps appropriately for the Western genre, be shooting myself in the foot. Still, I’m having fun with it.
I also wonder when JJA sleeps. Interesting to see the first project is print only deal with Hugh Howey as he’s stated in the past he would only sign another deal with a trad publisher if all contracts for other writers contained certain things. Hugh has nothing on his website about the new deal.
Iphinome:
Are you reading this? Are you READING when you should be WRITING? You’re rubbish, do you hear me rubbish and your only hope is to sit and write that rubbish out!!! Make your wordcount or I’ll spell your name iPhinome! (Which I almost did anyway but that was YOUR fault because you weren’t done WRITING yet!) If you run out of ideas have something kick the door in with a fire extinguisher and worry about why later!! It’s probably hopeless because you don’t have the stick-to-it-iveness to do something like this but WRITE!
Oh wait, did you just want abuse from Meredith? Um. If the above abuse is unhelpful please ignore…
Lenora Rose (and Iphinome but only if that will be helpful):
You need to write also, but you’ll be great. Don’t worry about getting it perfect on the first go-round; this is the getting the words out there stage. You need to write to have something to clean up later, but all kinds of cool details wiggle their way out onto the page in the actual writing stage.
Dr Science:
I love the idea for the WFA. The crystal globe for the “world” part (also crystal ball for fantasy) and then maybe a changing base like the Hugos have?
Camestros Felapton:
Your idea is also really good, except 1) very difficult to carry out and 2) we should sit down and ask ourselves if we really want all the people who receive the WFA going mad. It might seriously cut into their writing output. Unintended consequences are a thing that can happen, folks.
Bruce Arthurs:
Go you! Have fun with it! If it’s a story you can’t sell, every story is more practice writing. I had a friend who decided she was going to skip writing the songs she got ideas for that she thought weren’t going to come out very well–and when she got a great idea she was like “I can’t remember how to do this anymore.” The bad songs are practice to keep your creative reflexes in shape to write the good ones. (And every song is a ticket to the Wow I Outdid Myself This Time Raffle.) Probably the same goes for “wrong genre” stories.
For those who don’t know, the guys behind Italian Spiderman also did the batpoop instane TV series Danger 5, which is on Netflix right now. Go check it out, and for the love of god, kill Hitler
… Tenth Fifth.