Monthly Archives: February 2019

February 28, 2019 · 5:06 am

It’s like 10,000 short stories when all you need is a finished draft

So one of my goals this month was to finish a third short story, following No One Can Slay Her and Rabbits Indignateonem last month. I settled on Only the Lonely Can Slay, in which a mystery woman offers to kill my protagonist’s abusive husband for five bucks (yes, there’s a fantasy element).

It didn’t happen. Partly because I’m not a fast writer, but also because, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, the schedule I blocked out for February suffered the death of a thousand cuts. Plus I lost three days traveling to Mysticon. So I don’t feel I massively screwed up, which doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Part of the frustration is that I have so many short stories in various phases of completion, it’s hard to know which one to focus on. Which leads to the nagging fear I picked the wrong one. Would I be finished (or closer to finishing at least) by now if I’d concentrated on Bleeding Blue or Pro Bono instead? Is Only the Lonely a dead end? Am I wasting my time trying to finish it?

It doesn’t help that I know from experience my unsuccessful early drafts usually evolve into something good via repeated rewrites. But not always; a lot of drafts on my computer will probably never reach final form for one reason or another. So during the intermediate rewrite phases, there’s always a fear I’m just spinning my wheels and the story will never gain traction.

It’s like … a crazy maze (thank you Jack Kirby for that visual). And I don’t know which of my stories will lead me out (hopefully most of the ones I have under construction) and which will do it fastest.

I definitely didn’t get an answer this month. Hopefully March will do better.

#SFWApro. All rights to image remain with current holder.

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Filed under Short Stories, Writing

February 27, 2019 · 5:10 am

The magical Mysticon tour

So a week ago I headed up to Roanoke to visit some friends and then attend Mysticon, the Roanoke SF con, as a guest. TYG refers to my friends, Sam and Roxanne, as “the ones with all the books.” Hmm, I wonder why?

I actually wasn’t sure I’d make it because winter weather slapped Roanoke and its airport with snow. But I flew it into Roanoke on time and Sam got me home. As you can see, they did indeed have some snow.

And my bedroom window makes for great morning-light shots.

Annoyingly, I have to stop in Charlotte Airport (I have friends who find it hilarious the airport identifier code is CLT) rather than go straight to Roanoke. But I did get to see a gelato display that looks amazingly like, well, rainbow-colored poop.

Hanging with my friends was all about chatting, reading, and watching a video Sam made back in his Air Force days (nothing I can describe easily but fun to watch). And then Friday, Roxanne drove me into Roanoke and the con.

I had more fun than last year, because I now know more of the authors from Illogicon or the 2018 Mysticon: Jason Gilbert, Melissa McArthur, Stuart Jaffe, Alexandra Christian and a few others. I got to meet Wendy S. Delmater, who edits Abyss & Apex, which published my stories Affairs of Honor and One Hand Washes the Other.

I told the con organizers that I was willing to moderate any panel I was on … and I did. Which was a surprise, but it just meant thinking out a larger number of questions in advance. The other panelists said I did a good job, so I’m satisfied.

The panels? Writing Contemporary Fantasy, Using World Mythology in Fantasy, Time Travel and the Butterfly Effect, Surprisingly OK (a Sherlock Holmes/Sherlock panel), and a panel on the right POV for getting into your characters’ head. I also participated, again, in the author dating game (I did that at Illogicon) but once again I wasn’t picked. This time I played Monty from The Wodehouse Murder Case; maybe next time I’ll go as “Big Johnson” Galt from Atlas Shagged.

I also sat in on a couple of panels about self-publishing and indy publishing. I think I learned quite a bit.

And I sold books! I’d brought along copies of Atoms for Peace and Atlas Shagged and I sold them all. Darin Kennedy let me share space at his signing table and it moved them much more effectively than just mentioning them on panels did (though I did sell a couple to someone after the author dating game). I was smart enough to have plenty of small bills for making change, but hadn’t prepared for anyone to use plastic. Fortunately Darin and Stuart Jaffe found a work-around, but next con I go to, I’ll be ready!.

There was, of course cosplay. Michael Meyers below, was standing in a dark hall when two teens ran in and saw him. Holy crap, the shrieking that ensued. The real Michael would be proud.

The woman below was a composite Wonderland character.

And here are a few more images

The cake was a salute to Steve Jackson, RPG designer. VERY tasty. My compliments to the baker.

I was also pleased the hotel brought in one of the local coffee shops to provide coffee and (more importantly) tea. I wish they’d brought a little more — the British Breakfast was used up by mid-Saturday — but as it was pouring rain, I wasn’t going to trek to the coffee shop up the road.

Finally, after my panel Sunday, I headed home. An epic voyage I’ll talk about on Friday.

#SFWApro. Photos are mine. Right to cake design resides with current holder.

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Tagged as Mysticon

February 26, 2019 · 5:10 am

Real science links and DC Weird Science covers

As I’m getting reorganized after Mysticon a simple links and images post:

Hand transplant surgeons say they’re so routine now that they should be covered by insurance. Not everyone agrees.

A biologist discusses his feelings after an AI outperformed him. Another researcher says scientists using AI for data analysis are doing it wrong.

How much of the Internet is fake?

Flying cop cars!

A scientist offers revolutionary evidence that heart cells can regenerate. Years later, the results turn out to be bogus. The unsettling thing for me is that even though good science requires replicating results, repeated failures by other labs to confirm the findings didn’t seem to matter (one doctor dismissed the researchers as simply not being good enough to make regeneration work).

And despite the FBI’s claims, the science behind its photo analysis evidence looks dubious too.

#SFWApro. Covers (top to bottom) by Gil Kane, Ruben Moreira, Murphy Anderson and Anderson again, then Ruben Moreira. All rights to images remain with current holder.

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Tagged as science

February 25, 2019 · 5:10 am

Ad hominem does not mean what they pretend it means

As I noted last week, Rep. Ilhan Omar tackled Washington veteran Elliott Abrams over his record, which includes lying to Congress and helping cover up for massacres by U.S. supported governments. For a number of his colleagues, the idea Abrams should even be questions over his past actions was outrageous, an ad hominem attack! Why can’t we see the best in people instead of the worst?

An ad hominem attack is one based on the person, not their argument: You can’t trust X, they’re Jewish! However, as LGM notes at the link, sometimes it’s entirely appropriate to assess the person: that’s why we don’t allow pedophiles to teach in elementary school. It’s why we consider malpractice records when we decide if a doctor is trustworthy. Abrams record of lying about our allies’ atrocities is a perfectly valid standard for judging his role as envoy to Venezuela.

We also have some former diplomats and Foreign Service officials declaring “we should try to see the best rather than the worst in people” and “build bridges” and “not tear people down.” These are wonderful sounding sentiments, but they aren’t really a good basis for government policy. That requires seeing people as they are and sometimes at their worst.

Related: criticizing CNN for picking Sarah Isgur (a Trump spokeswoman and Republican operative who’s never worked as a journalist) as a political editor is also not ad hominem.

In other news:

Kansas lawmakers file a bill to end the state’s recognition of same-sex marriage. Tennessee filed its own. Just political posturing, or are they hoping that if this reaches the Supreme Court, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh can repeal Obergefell?

Meanwhile Trump administration plans to hammer Iran by pushing to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide. As discussed in comments at Joe My God! some good could come of this or it could turn into “well, we’re not going to criticize Saudi Arabia or Russia over a trivial matter like anti-gay legislation.”

True, slave-owners were men of their time. But so were abolitionists. And at some level, Fred Clark suggests, even the slave-owners knew theirs was the wrong side.

Bryan Fischer thinks the federal government should totally step in to protect Christian rights in state and local cases. Not if the rights involves Muslims.

A growing challenge for the legal system: interpreting emojis.

The rabbit-hole of YouTube conspiracy theories and the difficulty of reining them in.

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February 24, 2019 · 5:08 am

Holmes and a hunter: two books reread

I first read EXIT SHERLOCK HOLMES by Robert Lee Hall back at Oberlin and loved it; rereading, I still loved it. It’s 1903, Moriarty has returned and Holmes disappears to work against him (his “retirement” to Sussex is a cover story). Watson, inevitably, gets drawn into the struggle, and finds himself with questions — like why didn’t Holmes ever mention Moriarty was an identical lookalike? Why does Holmes have a secret lab in the basement of 221B Baker Street? Why did Holmes tell so little of his past? With the help of the grown-up Baker Street Iregular Wiggins, Watson realizes that to stop Moriarty, he’ll first have to find out the truth about Sherlock Holmes.

This is very much a fan’s book, judging by Hall weighing on some of the debates of Holmesians over the years (who was Watson’s second wife? Did Holmes have a thing for Irene Adler?) and giving Mrs. Hudson some backstory. It’s also very enjoyable, though it’s annoying Watson doesn’t get to do more detective work; Hall keeps him as loyal sidekick and lets Wiggins do most of the deducing. I also have a couple of reservations about the big reveal, but nothing that’s a deal-breaker.

Y/A author Lisa J. Smith is probably best known for the original Vampire Diaries trilogy and for the final book in her Night World series never coming out (it was imminent when I finished rereading the series back in 2012). Her best work, however, is THE FORBIDDEN GAME trilogy, which kicks off with The Hunter. Protagonist Jenny buys a board game for her party from Julian, a creepy but sexy salesclerk in a strange store. The game involves moving your pieces through a haunted house where you face your own nightmares — and isn’t that cute, when you start all the players have to swear that they’re staking their very lives on the outcome. Isn’t that funny?

One of the things I love about this is that the nightmares get so weird. So many “face your worst fear” stories make the fears a logical outgrowth of the characters’ personalities and in my experience, they tend to be much more random. Here we have one character with a nightmare that her messy room is a thousand times more filthy, the only way out is to dig through the piles of crap between her and the door. And when you do, it disturbs the roaches … Like Exit Sherlock Holmes, this lives up to my memories.

I read a bit more than these two but I attended Mysticon this weekend (details to follow) and didn’t bring my computer so I had to write this up before I left.

#SFWApro. Cover by Jordi Penalva, all rights remain with current holder.

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February 23, 2019 · 5:32 am

Runaways S2: Good, but not great (spoilers included)

The second streaming season of Hulu’s RUNAWAYS was a mixed bag; mostly very good, but after the death of Jonah, it ran out of steam until picking up at the end.

The first season established the premise: the six LA adults running the Pride charitable foundation are actually murdering runaway teens to sustain the life force of Jonah, their mysterious ET leader (comatose at the time). When the kids find this out and try to do something about it, the parents frame them as the killers so that the Pride’s corrupt cops can collect them and keep them silent. The kids become runaways themselves accompanied by Gert’s genetically engineered dinosaur pet, Old Lace (Jo Chen captures them on a comics cover).

In the comics the Pride represented all the MU’s strands of supervillain: mutant, time-traveler, mad scientist, ET, sorcerer and human crook. The TV series simplifies everyone down to either human villain or super-scientist, which worked fine (though I do love the Arrowverse for embracing the full range of comics’ insanity), but it does foreshadow why I had a problem with the season. In the comics the Pride are servants of the Gibborim, dark gods plotting to wipe the Earth clean of life. Originally six of the Pride were to be chosen as the immortal founders of a new race of humanity to serve the Gibborim; after they had kids, they decided the children would get the immortality. “Every teenager thinks their parents are evil — but these kids are right,” as the tagline went.

A subplot where the kids take in another teen, Topher, is a good example of the comics’ advantage. There it turns out he’s a centuries old vampire, preying on the kids’ willingness to believe the worst of his supposed parents. The Topher arc in S2 reveals he’s a troubled kid mutated by the same power source as Molly, the youngest Runaway. It’s effective enough, but nowhere near as good.

In S2 we learn the Gibborim are Jonah’s family (and himself), trapped in a buried spaceship. Getting it out will destroy much of California, but now the kids and the Pride are on the same side, uniting to stop him. After that, unfortunately, we have three or four boring episodes where the kids’ taken on the Pride’s crooked cops; we’re assured they’re tough, dangerous dirty cops, but it’s still dull (chopping the episodes might have been better). There’s also a subplot about Leslie’s father taking control of the Church of the Gibborim that doesn’t really pay off but does fill time. Alex getting a girlfriend was a better subplot but ultimately it didn’t go anywhere either.

At the finish, though, things pick up. Three of the Pride have been possessed by the Gibborim (one of the kids, too, but we don’t know which), who lead the other parents in an attack on the kids (playing considerably harder than the human parents wanted). Xavin, an ET shapeshifter who believes Carolina of the Runaways is their soulmate, has joined forces with the kids. Multiple characters are in various perils. It’s a good-enough cliffhanger to make me look forward to S3.

And the cast, as always, was excellent, despite the stories’ occasional flaws.

#SFWApro. All rights to image remain with current holder.

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February 22, 2019 · 4:30 pm

A not so productive week

First, for various reasons, I wasn’t working the whole week. And when I did work, it was another case of being nibbled to death. Enough distractions, spaced the right amount apart, that I couldn’t focus very much.

Tuesday morning, for example, I’d figured out a new approach to Only the Lonely Can Slay and was about to try it when the electrician arrived to fix our side-of-the-house floodlights. When he was gone the pups were freaking out (human! We wanted him to pet us! Why weren’t we petted?) and by the time they’d calmed down I had to call our alarm company with a couple of questions. By the time that was resolved, it was time to walk the dogs. And in the afternoon, I worked on my Leaf articles. So the new draft remains unwritten.

Tuesday night, I went out to the writers’ group and got thwarted there: instead of going out to eat afterwards, there was sleet in some parts of the area, so I thought it safer to go home. Initially I told myself I was probably worrying over nothing, then I saw there was ice on the car windshield. Not so nothing. Happily the trip home went fine.

So not much to blog about. But most of the current contractor stuff is done so next week should go a lot better.

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February 22, 2019 · 5:10 am

Out with the old, in with the new

So with some money Dad sent me for Christmas, I upgraded some of my electronics.

My iPad, after around 11 years of loyal service, was running out of steam. It couldn’t upgrade to a new iOS, the old one wouldn’t support the CW app or BritBox (the app for Doctor Who, among other things), and Hulu was glitching. So I put it out to pasture (technically; I still have to scrub all my data before I get rid of it) and got a new one.

It’s slightly smaller because a bigger one would have been a lot more money and a lifetime of struggling-writer income makes me very reluctant to spend more than I have to, even if I have it. But it can handle all the apps, it has 12 hours of battery life and the screen is certainly big enough to satisfy (my iPad is a small portable TV for watching in the kitchen or when I’m using the stationary bicycle).

I’ve had my DVD/VHS player even longer. I bought it after my last move in Florida (around 2006) so that I could transfer my off-the-air VHS tapes to DVDs, thereby saving massively on space. It’s a decision that paid off, I think, as I have several hundred movies in one drawer in the living room. Easier than sticking extras in my Netflix queue or paying Amazon streaming, even if they’re available. And we still have some stuff on VHS.

However the VHS player stopped working. So even though the DVD player still plays, I figured I’d upgrade to Blu-Ray. This one I did pay out a little extra for (after reviewing the choices with Consumer Reports‘ ratings). It was worth it. The images look really good, and it’s not freezing up the way the DVD player was starting to do. We don’t have any Blu-Ray discs but I’m sure that will change. For now though, I settled for one of my VHS to DVD transfers, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning as the initial viewing.

It’s nice to feel pleased with my expensive purchases.

#SFWApro. All rights to image remain with current holder.

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February 21, 2019 · 5:10 am

Because it’s Thursday, let’s link to sexism!

Women talk about seeing their lovers turn misogynyist and racist under the influence of right-wing videos. The Outline looks at how believers in the far right’s extremism convince themselves they’re completely logical. Which is not a new thing; I remember an article by one sexist years ago explaining that since his critique of feminism was perfectly logical and feminists disagreed, that proved feminists weren’t logical!

“Patriarchal Christian masculinity is a powerful drug. It makes many church men believe that the world desperately needs their perspective on everything. It makes their followers believe that asking such men to step aside from leadership is somehow tantamount to cruelty.” Stephanie Krehbiel.

Bilgrimage on the argument churches simply can’t rein in sexual abusers effectively: “let a church leader or congregation make a statement proposing ordination of women or acceptance and respect of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ people, and watch how quickly the supposedly ‘loose’ and ‘disorganized’ church structures act.” (hat tip slacktivist)

I’ve heard how reluctant doctors are to say yes when a woman wants her tubes tied, but the article at the link really puts everything in perspective.

Neomi Rao, Trump’s nominee to replace Kavanaugh’s appellate court position, wrote in college that a woman who gets drunk is partially to blame if she’s raped.

Fred Clark points out that when people talk about #metoo and how we didn’t know how bad it was before, “A third of all women worldwide were the victims of sexual assault and harassment. Those women all knew. Billions of them.” It’s more accurate to say we didn’t acknowledge what we knew. Case in point, despite lots of accusations against Jon Reese, a Georgia journalism teacher, he’s still teaching.

A judge blames a pair of tween girls in a Kansas case for being sexual aggressors in a case involving a 67-year-old who paid them for sex.

Pro-choice terrorism hardly exists, but the FBI’s very worried about it.

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February 20, 2019 · 5:10 am

Big scary monsters and more!

First a Kirby cover. Grottu was eventually killed by dousing him with sugar so his ant armies ate him alive.

Next, Virgil Finlay. I’ve no idea why they’re lying on top of the world.

Paul does the next one.

And we wrap up with another Kirby cover. The giant is a radioactive mutant scarecrow but it’s actually a good guy.#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders.