the future isn't what it used to be

I should let you know that the new issue of Electric Spec is now available. It includes a story called "The Comfort of Mirrors" by some Thomas Braun guy. It has lots of other stories in it too. And it's free. So you should check it out.

If you're one of those people who likes to print stuff out to read it, you can get a Adobe Acrobat PDF version right here. Actually, you're going to have to view the stories in PDF for PRC format to see the full versions. For most people's computers, this should be no problem. Just click the links provided.

I haven't had a chance to read the other stories yet, but if they're up to the standards of Electric Spec's usual fare, they should definitely be interesting! There's also an interview with grizzled SF veteran James E. Gunn that should amuse the geeks in the crowd.

A word of warning if you are one of the people that read Best Day: this is completely unlike it.

Comments and criticisms welcome. Enjoy!

nano schmano

Anyone can write a novel in a month. NaNoWriMo - pfft! Writing a novel in a weekend, now that's where it's at!

Incidentally, while I applaud those brave an no doubt highly caffeinated souls, I don't think I shall be joining them! I find just 5,000 words a day to be pretty exhausting. And I don't think I have that kind of time this weekend anyway.

writer in peril

My buddy Joel and I have been playing computer games online together about as long as such a thing has been possible. Starcraft is a favorite of ours, but we've also played several more action-oriented games including First Person Shooters. We've even attempted the D&D-based RPG "Neverwinter Nights" together, although we didn't get far.

In November, Joel bought World of Warcraft.

I'm sure you know it, but if you don't, it's a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMO for short) which involves paying a monthly fee to participate in an online world with thousands of other players. In WoW's case the world is Tolkien-lite, with elves and orcs and dragons and the like.

Joel has spent dozens of hours in that world as an elven archer, slaying monsters, completing quests and honing his trade of choice (which I believe is fishing). He puts in quite a bit of time each weekend, and probably an hour or two most weeknights. He's not addicted, but it keeps him busy.

He keeps trying to get me to join.

I've been resisting. In my misspent youth I burned the midnight oil on far too many projects and papers because I couldn't resist working my way up one more level on whatever computer role playing game was at hand. I spent days as a conflicted Jedi when Knights of the Old Republic came out. I was totally immersed in my wide-eyed super-soldier in the futuristic political thriller Deus Ex. When Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines came out I prowled the streets of noir Los Angeles for dozens of hours.

Those were single player games, games with finite endings - you put in thirty or forty hours and you're done. I can assure you that know writing (and not much of anything else) got done while they were in progress.

World of Warcraft has no end, at least, if there is a point at which one has seen and done everything, it is hundreds of hours in. And there's always the endless game of social interaction and conflict with entire nations of other players. That never stops. I worry that if I got started it would be six months before I put digital pen to digital paper. Sigh.

I've refused to buy the game, but that may not help. Joel is threatening to get me a copy for my birthday, a couple of months away.

Gulp.

who watches the watchers?

I'm back! You're thrilled, I know. My tour of the West Coast has no doubt left me inspired and eager to get to work on my novel!

Well, not actually. I like travel but I find it a little draining over time. For me creativity begins at home. I have to go into this very focused head space, and that's where the magic happens.

Anyways, I'm one of those people that plans their writing in advance pretty thoroughly so that's what I need to do here. If I have a good blue-print for what I'm writing and I'm excited about it, the actual story will come relatively quickly. This phase is where I try to overcome all those little hurdles of laying out a plot.

Hurdle #1: how do you make someone being watched exciting? Let me explain: the phrase "I am being watched" has sort of a thrilling dread to it, and I could easily begin this novel that way (I won't). OK, but where do you go from there? Being watched is a very passive activity. A vague sense of dread won't carry you for very many pages. And how does the character even KNOW they're being watched? What clues them in? If they're not a counter-intelligence expert or a computer hacker but instead a teenage girl, how do they uncover evidence of constant, high-tech surveillance?

This is the question I must immediately answer.

Anyways, I need to get back into the habit of writing. I haven't done much of it for a the last month and a half. This will help me above all get into that creative head-space. Trouble is I can't write The Novel if it isn't mapped out yet, but that's what writing exercises are for. If I come up with any that aren't completely embarrassing or totally boring perhaps I will post them.

notes on a mirror

Electric Spec sent me the edits to my short story, The Comfort of Mirrors, and I was relieved to find that they were fairly minor. I was a little worried because the editors over there make a big deal about trimming the fat, the idea being that people don't want to read as much on a computer screen. I secretly wonder how true that is; I know that I read massive amounts of stuff online every day. In fact, I recently read a complete novel, Blindsight. It may be a generational thing.

At any rate, I was concerned because Mirrors is actually a fairly efficient piece of storytelling, by my standards. I eschewed stylistic flourishes for the most part; the story is told in the voice of a mathematician and is laid out in a terse, matter-of-factual manner. It's not so long, either, so I was worried about what and how much they would cut. It turns out my concerns were unwarranted. I don't miss what they took out and in several places they enhanced the clarity of what was being said, which is I think exactly what a good editor should do.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for January 31st, the very witching hour.

I'm a little nervous about how people who know me will react to this story, my official first. I joke about it being about suicidal clones, but it really is about clones who are killing themselves. It's not a happy story, you know? There are some dark patches before the end.

I know some people look at a story as a window into the writer's soul, and certainly any story reflects on its author, but often not in ways that you would expect. I'm not someone given to suicidal impulses, I promise. Or someone who revels in suffering and misery. To me the attraction of the story is the way in which it concisely and clinically explores one facet of the human condition.

At any rate, I'm very proud of the story and I stand by it. I hope people will take it in the spirit that it was written. One of my passions is for a deeper understanding of who we are and that's something I've always been able to explore through writing.

gone fishing

Well I spent the New Year being sick: fevers, nasty cough, the whole nine yards. Now that that's done I am off to the West Coast for a week or two of weddings, funerals, etc. (yes I am in fact attending both). So things will continue to be quiet around here. I have packed the new Lois McMaster Bujold book for the long flights cross country. Any other suggestions? I'd really like some good SF as well.

When I get back, I start in (hopefully) on my New Year's Resolution: the writing of a novel!