Good Night, Irene

Aug28
by berry on August 28, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

My mother-in-law remains stuck in her town, no electricity, but the water is still running. She’s on a hill, but on the coast. The low-lying areas had evacuated yesterday in preparation. She said she’d come here if the power didn’t turn on tomorrow. Looking at photos, that looks like it’ll be the case, but who knows if she’ll make it out of town.  Downed trees and power-lines block many of the roads. Crazy. The various Connecticut power utilities are reporting over 500000 homes without power: a third of the state! Possibly a week before they get everything back to normal. Good thing Irene had calmed down by the time it got there.

In comparison, we experienced higher than normal winds this evening (40 km/h gusting to 60), and some pretty rose-tinted clouds, but that’s about it. Should’ve taken a photo, but I didn’t. Sue me. My mother — 200km down the road — on the other hand has dealt with quite high winds all day (starting at the 65km/h mark and rising), and the forecast calls for 50mm of rain overnight. Fun stuff. If her power goes out too, the kids can have a grandmother party this week :).

PS: Good Night, Irene is IIRC, one of me mum’s favourite songs. Correct me if I’m wrong, Mum. I know you are reading this…

 

 

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Can-Con Ramping Up!

Aug26
by berry on August 26, 2011 at 10:15 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

So! Can-Con has put up a tentative schedule! w00t! Panels look interesting and fun, and they contain, on a quick skim, a good cross-section of Canadian genre fiction writers (including half the Tesseracts 15 contributors), artists, fans, and Ed the Sock. They even have a panel in the pool area on Sunday! That’s a bit silly, but hey! Why not?

Am I excited? A tad.

PS: short post as I already wrote 1200 words in the last 90 minutes! And I’m getting all exclamation marky from lack of sleep! Wheee!

PPS: a note from Farrell McGovern: Please note, due to Duncan McGregor being ill, there are some major mistakes in the schedule…it also includes some people that we don’t know if they are showing up…or may not have asked! Don’t go yelling and screaming to them saying we have scheduled them…it’s because we are pulling from multiple sources and some things/people we hoped to be there may not have been contacted or agreed yet. I did say *tentative*!!!!
This is a “many eyes catch many bugs” scenario! So let us know so we can fix it!

 

ED: They updated the link, so I did too!

 

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Methodology

Aug24
by berry on August 24, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

I’m in the midst of a new story now. My usual technique, discovery writing, has left me with three novels in the trunk with only two that have a solid enough foundation to re-rewrite into something viable. This time I’ve tried something  a bit different. Ideas swirl around in my head all the time, and I’ve had a couple of characters that I have the voices for, but haven’t been able to stick into a story. I’ve discovery-written with both of them over the last few months, but kept dead-ending after a few thousand words; the stories didn’t go anywhere interesting.

Enter the shower (I believe I don’t actually have male pattern baldness. I believe I get stuck on ideas while showering, and proceed to rub the hair right off my head). I had an Archimedean moment a few days ago: towel wrapped around my waist, still dripping, office curtains pulled for modesty’s sake (big picture window right next to my computer chair), I pounded out a rough four-page outline for a story that combines both of my characters in a satisfying way, saves some of the groundwork that had come before – including a fairly well realized civilization – and gives me a way to extend the story into more than one book. Go the shower!

I’ve never really followed an outline though, so it concerns me a bit. Will I get bored with the process, since I already know how it’s going to end? I don’t know. I hope not though.

 

PICT2349.JPG

For the interested, here’s some info about the three novels in the trunk. Two of the stories stand up to re-reading (at least by me), but need enough polish that I’ll likely abandon them: one time-travel SF/mystery set along Hadrian’s Wall, the other a “Hunt for Nazi gold” thriller with some spectacularly cheesy dialogue but some decent (so says I) action sequences. I just looked at number three and half the chapters have zero bytes. I don’t know how I feel about that. I admit that it is an auto-biographical piece of dreck written more to quell old ghosts and to get my hands moving, but still, I wrote it, dammit! I’m not terribly worried, though, it’s backed up somewhere.

 

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A Happy Hugo Award Recipient

Aug22
by berry on August 22, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

As I mentioned last post, Chris Garcia really, really appreciated winning the Fanzine Hugo. Now you can see him enjoy winning too!

Hat tip to John Scalzi for the link. Note that you’ll have to sit through a brief ad. Just turn your brain back on when it’s done.

 

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Hugo Awards wrap-up

Aug21
by berry on August 21, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Posted In: Uncategorized

I had a great time watching the Hugo awards last night. I wished I could attend, but this worked for me. Good job to the techies that set it up! The provided stream glitched on me only a couple of times, and while I had to bear ads every once in a while (that ate into the live broadcast, for shame!), the system would let me choose when to show them. Sorry Jay Lake and Ken Scholes, but I chose you. You had enough screen time anyway.

Highlights of the broadcast:

  • GRRM intoning “Fuck Me Ray Bradbury” during the BDP, Short Form presentation
  • Chris Garcia completely losing his composure when he won for Best Fanzine. I’m not sure I wouldn’t do the same in his position. He got it together in the end, though. It really shows how much these awards mean.
  • Bob Silverberg dragging, and dragging, and dragging out the Novella category, just because he could.
  • Lou Anders’ acceptance speech for Best Editor came from the heart, and had some quotable lines, such as, “Editors are the first fans a book ever has”
  • Tara O’Shea’s glee at receiving her award. “It’s a Hugo. I have a Hugo now. Hugos are cool!”

all in all, everyone’s enthusiasm really struck me. I wished that I could be there sharing it with them.

So, here are the winners, taken from the Renovation website. There is also a PDF on site that gives more detailed information about how the vote panned out (remember that this is an AV style system, and not first past the post). I’ve used this data to make my inline comments:

2011 Hugo Award Winners

2100 valid voting ballots were counted, 2086 electronic and 14 by postal mail.

Best Novel (1813 ballots)
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)

I picked this as number two, while my number one came last. Too bad, it’s a really good story.

Best Novella (1467 ballots)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)

Again my number two. At least this time my number one came in second!

Best Novelette (1469 ballots)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)

I intended on putting this as my number one, but something stopped me. I don’t know what. It ended up in my three-spot, while my number one ended up in fourth

Best Short Story (1597 ballots)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)

A complete swap here: I had Mary’s story in third, with Peter Watts’ “The Things” in first.

Best Related Work (1220 ballots)
Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (Mad Norwegian)

Another second placer for me. It seems that I’m just on the edge of current popular opinion! I had Writing Excuses in first, but I guess it wasn’t the year of the WE crew, as they never managed to walk the boards last night.

Best Graphic Story (1263 ballots)
Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

I’m actually disappointed in this one. I thought at least this year, someone would get past the mighty Foglio family. I guess not. On a brighter note, on accepting their award, they stated that they’d excuse themselves from the ballot next year so someone else could have a go. The Unwritten, which I found the most compelling of all the nominees, came a dismal last. Too bad.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form (1755 ballots)
Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner)

Given. I didn’t vote for this one myself only because of the CanCon in Scott Pilgrim, and I figured it would need all the votes it could get. I figured correctly, as it came in last as well.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (1466 ballots)
Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)

Disappointed that “Fuck Me Ray Bradbury” didn’t make it, but my number two did, so hey.

Best Editor, Short Form (983 ballots)
Sheila Williams

Didn’t vote, as it would have been a shot in the dark.

Best Editor, Long Form (898 ballots)
Lou Anders

Ditto.

Best Professional Artist (1304 ballots)
Shaun Tan

I took a shot in the dark here, didn’t come up with Shaun Tan, though.

Best Semiprozine (1112 ballots)
Clarkesworld, edited by Neil Clarke, Cheryl Morgan, Sean Wallace; podcast directed by Kate Baker

The only Semipro that I read at the moment, namely Ansible, just missed the cut this year. Had it not, I might have voted for it. As it is, I skipped this one too.

Best Fanzine (870 ballots)
The Drink Tank, edited by Christopher J Garcia and James Bacon

Drink Tank is awesome. Chris Garcia is awesome. I debated just putting in a vote for them, but I changed my mind. Didn’t matter in the end. Click the link and read all of them RIGHT NOW!!!

Best Fan Writer (814 ballots)
Claire Brialey

Again no vote for me, as I’m not familiar enough with everyone on the ballot.

Best Fan Artist (993 ballots)
Brad W. Foster

Interestingly enough, I picked everyone but first and third place “correctly” in this category. Next year, Mo.

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (1138 ballots)
Lev Grossman

I’ve actually started looking at The Magicians, by Lev Grossman. Really good so far. I didn’t vote in this one either, since I thought, “hey, maybe Lev and Lauren Beukes deserve consideration, too!” Turned out that everyone else thought so, since they finished one-two.

So, hopefully they stream again next year, as I know I can’t able to make it, and I really enjoyed this! Jay (possibly Ken) joked that next year’s BDP:Short Form ballot should include Chris Garcia’s acceptance speech, and if they save the stream, I’m sure it will end up there. :).

 

(ED: whew, long post! Hopefully you stayed to the end!)

 

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