michaeljasper.net
"Another Wrecked Web Site"
May 22, 2002
Surfacing momentarily...
Now Reading:
Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future (almost done!)
Now Playing:
"Songs from an American Movie, volume 1," Everclear
Man, what a week. I'm just glad it's almost over -- there's been a lot going on! The new Day Job is going well, keeping me busy, which is what I needed and wanted. I've got a lot to learn, but it's all interesting stuff, and most of all, a challenge. I feel good about this move. And thanks to my trusty duct tape, I'm no longer freezing my butt off in my office (there's a massive vent in the ceiling that was blowing Arctic air down on me all day, until I taped it shut this morning!). The first few days of a new job always are rough, so I'm glad I'm getting them out of the way now, and not when I come back from Oregon.
Speaking of, I'm still finishing up my reading for the short-story workshop that starts on Saturday (Saturday! Holy cow!). I have to read a Tony Daniel story, "Grist," before I can move on to the last antho, Worldbuilders. I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit of burnout. These hard SF stories are really taxing my weak brain. I guess I just like to read a fun, entertaining story. Having to work at it, well, that's not as fun.
Actually, that reminds me of another nifty topic I forgot to report on here. I got my contributor's copies of the July Asimov's last week, containing my story "Natural Order!" After over a year of waiting, it finally arrived. And it looked really good, but seemed short, and, well, sort of thin compared to the hefty stories I've been reading lately. I hope it doesn't get overshadowed by the other big stories in that issue. Oh well. It's outta my hands, and hey, it's Asimov's!!!
Now I must admit, there were a couple things that bugged me, like there was no illustration (though looking at some of the illos in this issue and others, it may have been a good thing!). I was hoping for a cool drawing of a greyhound or Miss Thompson dancing, but nothing. Only the Name Authors got an illo. The other thing that troubled me was that they said that "Natural Order" was my first published story. Um, no. And I would've liked it if they would've run my website URL. But hey, I'm just complaining here. I shouldn't be. It's an incredible honor to be in Asimov's, and it's a huge encouragement to me.
Nothing to report on the writing front, unfortunately. What with all my reading and the new job, I just haven't had the energy. So I'll just have to pick up chapter 10 of the Wannoshay novel when I get back in June. I started thinking about some of the characters this morning on my way to work, so that's an excellent sign. I'll get back into it.
But first I have to write an ass-kicking story or three in the coming week. Later!
May 19, 2002
More stories, web-slinging, and the others...
Now Reading:
Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future
Now Playing:
"Back Porch Music," WUNC
So how did it get to be 9:25 p.m. on a Sunday night? Yikes. My 4-day weekend ("That's what the [heck] I'm talkin' about!") is coming to an end, and I start the new Day Job tomorrow. I'm a little apprehensive about it, but not too bad. I guess I'm getting used to this job stuff. Should be fun, and hey, at least I've only got 5 days of work before I'm off to Oregon.
And I'm almost done with my readings for the workshop. Finished off most of the SF anthology, except for the super-duper long hard-science novellas, went back and read a bunch more mystery stories (until my eyes crossed from the similarity of them all -- how do folks read mysteries ALL the time? So formulaic!), and then started the first of the two Dozois-edited anthos about distant future worlds.
This Supermen anthology is actually really good. So far my favorite has been David Marusek's "The Wedding Story," even it's one of the longest stories in it, and I also liked Geoffrey Landis' story (surprisingly, as it has no characters, but it's fascinating) and even liked Greg Egan's "Border Guards," which has an unbelievably unreadable first 5 pages, depicting some sort of "quantum soccer" game that is totally unnecessary to the rest of the story. I still have the Ted Chiang and Tony Daniel stories to read. Should finish it all up tomorrow. Then it's on to the terraforming anthology. And I'll be caught up. More or less...
My writing's pretty much been on hold, which sort of sucks. I'll have plenty of time for that next weekend, starting on Saturday, I know, but I'm feeling a bit rusty.
Elizabeth and I used this weekend to get caught up on our sleep and catch some movies. We finally made it to "Spider-Man," which I enjoyed a lot. It's the best comics adaptation I've ever seen, one that was completely true to the original. My favorite bits were Spidey hanging upside-down and (still-fakey-looking-but-close) web-swinging he did through the Big Apple. Tobey Maguire made a perfect Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Dafoe was okay as the Goblin, though his dialog pretty much sucked throughout. And Kirsten Dunst is no Mary Jane Watson, but she did an adequate job. Lots and lots of fun, and the theater was packed, which always makes it fun.
And no, I did not see "Attack of the Clones" (I hesitate to even call it "Star Wars") and probably won't for a while. Maybe by the end of the summer. It looks painfully bad.
And tonight we watched "The Others," with Nicole Kidman, which was really really good. I loved the twists at the end, and I was half-right about who was who, and Elizabeth was half right about the other folks. We knew there was a surprise ending, so we were guessing throughout. Good movie, a bit slow, not a lot of scares, but pretty engrossing and clever. And the kids were very good actors.
And that's my weekend. Lots of reading, some good movies, a date with Lizzie, and some good relaxation. See ya later!
May 16, 2002
I is tired of dis reading ting...
Now Reading:
The Year's Best Science Fiction, 18th edition
(done at last, mostly...)
Now Playing:
"Fight Songs," Old 97's
Reading some of the stories I've been putting off until the last possible minute in the Dozois collection has made feel very dumb. Of course I saved the longest works for last, but that's not why I feel stoopid. It's the stories -- or should I say novellas. I'm not science-savvy enough to really appreciate them. I'm slowly realizing I'm not a real SF writer.
I'm a hack!
Actually, I am a fantasy writer who dabbles in the shallow end of the SF pool. I steer way way clear of the 12-foot depths of the hard SF writers like Greg Egan and Paul McAuley and Peter F. Hamilton. These writers actually understand the science behind their stories, and the science actually works! What a concept. I just can't seem to enjoy their stuff much, though the Hamilton novella was pretty good, just too damn long for me to read in one sitting.
I've got just a week left, y'know. And two complete anthos to read, plus over half of another one. And, um, a magazine I agreed to review for Tangent. Doh! But I'll get to the magazine tomorrow, as well as half-antho (it's mystery and crime stories, so I should be able to breeze through it). And the magazine is The Silver Web, which contains slipstream and odd/surreal fantasy stories, which I enjoy.
But that hard SF stuff, especially the hard SF novellas(!) -- I just canna do it, cap'n!
Oh yeah, I like writing horror stories too, and reading scary stuff as well. High fantasy, urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy, mythic fantasy, dark fantasy, horror. That stuff's more fun, to me.
And one of these days I'm gonna get back to some writing. I'm getting very, very antsy to create some words. I haven't done that for over a week, and it makes me grumpy.
I did read a kick-ass novella today: "Crux" by Alber Cowdrey. It's a far-future, post-apocalyptic tale that moved along wonderfully, and had a great ending. Cowdrey has two other stories in that world that I'll read. After the workshop! Later.
May 14, 2002
Can you say "puttering"?
Now Reading:
The Year's Best Science Fiction, 18th edition
Now Playing:
"Riviera," Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Today is sort of a catch-up day for me, as I do all the miscellaneous "puttering" type of things I haven't had a chance to do for a while, for one reason or another. And I've been messing around on the Horror Writers Association's bulletin board, putting up some notices here and there and introducing myself.
With my sale to Gothic.net I've decided to get some more horror stories out into circulation, and I did some research for a possible horror story this morning, copying and pasting some web stuff into a Word doc for the story workshop coming up in 2 weeks. It's fun pulling info like that for stories. I also dug up a couple other horror story ideas that I could work on, and I resolved to be an active member of the HWA by year's end. Only one more pro sale to go!
I also revised the novelette that I took from chapters 2 and 5 of the Wannoshay novel, and in the process cut a bunch of words and an entire scene. Sent the revised novelette back to the editor, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed in hopes that he likes the fixes. The novel slipped back to 57,600 words! Doh! Someday soon I plan on hitting 60k. Really.
And now I've got to get some other work done. Just thought I'd drop in and say hi. Later.
Today's Quote:
She dropped the first disc, labeled 4/2/16, into the fire. Grabbing an old paperback dictionary she'd been using to keep her desk legs balanced, she ripped pages out to feed the fire. More discs followed, melting and giving off an acrid blue-black smoke. Ally fanned the smoke out into the summer air as best she could.