The following are journal entries from several years ago. Instead of dealing with an old fashioned "journal", I've started keeping the blog on the main page. Much more recent logs can be found there. Maybe I'll change this page to "Historical Journals."

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7/02/02: My my, it's already been another month since I last wrote. I keep meaning to update this thing...but...you know the drill.

I just got married in Carmel, CA, and have been very busy with moving stuff and writing-related things, so I suppose I have an excuse. Northern CA is so excessively nice. I tend to think that everyone who lives out there is spoiled by the weather. No seasons, just 60 degrees and sunny all the time. Unlike here, where it's currently over 100 degrees with heat advisories, extremely humid, and we get no relief in the winter, with negative 30 degree windchills and multiple feet of snow. Of course, I only have a month left in Chicago...

Yes, the move to Paris is still set for the beginning of August, though things will probably be extremely chaotic at the end of July, right up until we collapse in our apartment. Still no word on long-stay visitor visas, which are what you need if you want to stay in France for longer than three months. And I've been told by the people at the French consulate in Chicago that it could well be eight weeks from June 3rd by the time we hear anything. So, I'm thinking, August 3rd...oh man...

And it's even more complicated, because our flight leaves August 5th, but if we get there and then get the visas, we would have to fly all the way back to Chicago and have them attached to our passports and leave again, before they would take effect. Good times.

So I'm praying that they arrive in the next couple of weeks. Needless to say, we might not get them at all. Urg.

Hope's End is available in paperback, by the way, to anyone who didn't want to buy the hardcover. There's also a little excerpt/teaser at the end of it from Hope's War, which I may try to get put up on this website very soon.

Hope's War is still scheduled to be in stores August 1st, so look for it around then.

I'll let you know when I hear anything about plans for book three, tentatively titled Hope's Rebirth. It's still in preproduction, you might say.

So anyway, I'm married, done with school, and preparing to move thousands of miles and seven time zones away. Keep reading, and I'll keep writing.

5/28/02: Oh yeah. How about that? I just finished my last day of classes, and after I take another test in a few days and turn in one more paper, it will toda bueno.

My undergraduate career is currently envisioned as a car teetering over the edge of a cliff, with the protagonist sitting in the front seat, trying to climb out without turning the steering wheel. Of course, if he slips on the steering wheel, the car will plummet to the bottom of the rocky chasm and erupt into flames and an impressive explosion, which will kill our hero.

I'm not sure who I am in that analogy.

I think the guy in the car is ...

Okay, so it doesn't really work, but I just thought about that, and I think the car teetering does work. My undergraduate career is about to plummet to an impressive, melodramatic finish. After all that driving, all the chase music and shooting back at the bad guys and finding and defusing the bomb under the passenger seat, I'm sitting here on the edge of a cliff, and I'm thinking, "Wow, so this is the end of fifteen years of school..?" So...

Ever heard that Weird Al song, "Dog Eat Dog", which is a pseudo-parody of the Talking Heads? Pretty funny.

Watch out, it's dog eat dog, and while I won't be climbing up the corporate ladder anytime soon, unless the cold, harsh and strangely metallic blade of the real world comes crashing down at the back of my neck, I still have that, "Gee...shucks...guess I'm done with school, huh?" BA in History. Aw yeah.

And yeah, Widdle's laying on my mouspad again, looking too damn cute. I need to get some more pictures up on this site, of Paris and the kitties and us in Paris. Or maybe another with somebody hunched over, shrouded in half-shadow, looking particularly angst-ridden as he tries to conjure the muse...

Guess what?

I'm done with school. Que emocionante. Finalmente. Let's hear it for higher education.

5/20/02: Three days of school left. After tomorrow...two days will remain. I need to get some things written for these classes, etc., and Widdle's currently laying on my mouse, half-asleep. Every time I reach up to click on something, he starts purring.

So yes, he's pretty damn cute.

I'm a big fan of Star Wars. I grew up with the first three movies, as I'm sure many of you out there did, and when I was a kid every time I got sick and stayed home from school, I would watch all three. Now, a lot of people like complaining about Episode II: let me tell you something, as far as I'm concerned, Lucas has done a darn good job of bring all of the excitement, etc. from the first three back into it. Yes, there are a few moments when the writing wanes, but other than that, I think the movie rocks.

Also, I'm not going to stand here and defend Episode I, as, yes, he should have known better. But, it wasn't as bad--if you ignore Jar Jar and the pseudo-racial aliens--as people have made it out to be. Everyone complains, "Oh, it's not as good as the original three", but those people didn't like all of the first three.

You get these people who love to bitch and whine; let me say it again, as far as I'm concerned, Episode II rocks. And Episode I makes sense in its context. Hey, calm down people, of course it's not as dark as the others-- that's the whole point. So.

Three days of school left.

5/15/02: Boy, it's been awhile since I've written anything here. I apologize for that. Chicago's been very rainy and cold recently, but today we've finally got a day that feels like spring. I've opened the windows and the cats aren't sure what to make of it. I'm going to try to get some pictures added to this website soon of Paris and the cats, Widdle and Mamasan.

I have exactly four days of school remaining in my undergraduate career. To the untrained eye, it may look like a lot more than that, as I'm not done until the very end of May. But to the patient observer--nevermind. I only have class two days a week.

Actually, I've been working a lot more on writing than on school, which is usually these things go. I'll be sitting in class, doodling, and then the next scene will hit me. Four days everyone.

Did I mention I'm almost done with school?

More intimidating than anything else at the moment, is the prospect of moving. Not necessarily going to a foreign land where everyone speaks French or even moving the cats--as they will probably be none-too-appreciative--but actually packing up this apartment and making it so someone else would want to live here. We're pretty messy, and we have many many many books laying around in large piles. We ran out of shelf space a long time ago, so it's kind of like that scene in "Ghostbusters", when Dan Ackroyd says something like, "Symmetrical book stacking . . ."

Bill Murray: "You're right...no human being would stack books like this..."

And books in boxes are hea-vy. Having moved many of them in the past, I can safely say that lugging boxes of books up and down stairs and along sidewalks and placing them in the beds of U-Hauls in one of the least pleasant experiences one can hope for.

Maybe that's slightly extreme--I just finished reading through Joan of Arc's trial. There are worse things, I suppose.

Widdle is currently trying to step on the keyboard...okay. Anyway. Sorry it's been so long since I've written in the Journal, and I'll try to remedy that.

And did I mention I have four days of class left?

3/25/02: Still cold, and it snowed yesterday. But not in Paris.

Went to Paris last week, and man did those French aristocrats know how to build them. Great city, and it looks like we've got an apartment and everything set for next year over there--just have to finish the visa-related- stuff. One more quarter of school, and yes, I realize that I'm in one of those "only write in sentence fragments" phases, but oh well.

Still no word on cover art for book 2, but when I know, the webpage will know-- and then you, the reader, will also know. I need to work on my French. I bought "French Now! Version 8.0", but have not yet mastered the language. Nor have I used the CD on a very regular basis, beyond watching people in cafes babble to one another while text is mysteriously highlighted over on the side of the screen--which is kind of what it was like in Paris. Except with more wine, and less highlighted text. And more crepes.

Did I mention that city is a great place? Wonderful food, nice people--don't believe them when they say the French are rude; it's the visitors who expect the coffee to be weak and the restaurants perpetually open who are rude. Heck of a place, if you haven't been and you can, I highly recommend it. It's also the most beautiful city--possibly the nicest looking place, period--I've ever seen.

So let's talk writing, shall we? Just a reminder: Hope's End will be available in paperback for all of you who like it to me more manageable on the train or in the bathroom. Honestly, one of my friends complained when he heard it was going to be released precisely because of how cumbersome it would be in one of those situations. I'll let you guess which.

I know, that was a juvenile thing to talk about. C'est la vie. Except that I'm not sure if that's how you spell that. Pretty much, I mastered asking for "Lo", which I later learned is actually spelled "Le'Eau" or something similar. That, of course, means water. Exactly what the two "e's", the "a", and the "u" are doing in that word, I haven't figured out yet. And where's the "o"? I know a little Spanish, and I got to use it at one point on the Metro when someone tried to ask me something in French, and I replied with my witty "Je ne parle pah Francais". (Naturally, none of my spellings in these French sentences will be correct, so bear with me.) We then proceeded to converse in broken Spanish, when my other standard phrase, "Parle vous Anglais?" failed.

French conversations often went like this for me:

French Person (Possibly a waiter or random passerby): Babble-babble-babble- vous?

Me: Uh...Je ne parle paus Francais ... Parle vous Anglais?

French Person: No.

Me: Ah. Okay then ... Lo, por favor?

Honestly, it was less painful than that, as every third person in Paris speaks passable English. Usually when we'd try to order or something in French, they'd respond in perfect English. So there you have it. I think of it as trying to learn English in New York City. Slightly more challenging than picking up the language via conversations in the middle of Kansas, I have a feeling.

But, like New York, Paris es una de las ciudades mejores en el mundo. And yes, my Spanish is only going to get worse.

I'll try to write these things more frequently in the coming months as we get closer to the book releases, etc. Oh, and for anyone in or around Bowling Green, Kentucky, I'll be at the Southern Kentucky Writers Festival in a few weeks--stop by. They've got me signed up for some kind of presentation on the state of science fiction in the world today or something, so it should be interesting. And I'll probably do it in English.

3/4/02: Man, is it cold.

Whew. Just walked up to return a video and stop by the grocery, and my lungs were congealing with little pieces of ice. You know how it gets really really cold for a few days and then all of the snow on the ground just turns into slippery ice? up--me too.

You know what bugs me? When movies or television series replace one actor with another in the same role. Just rewrite the thing so that it's a different person, but don't try to make me believe that that woman is the same crewmember we saw in the last movie. No dice.

So I just finished reviewing the first pass off the copyedited manuscript for Hope's War and looking over the formatted pages of the paperback version of Hope's End, and I finished up the rough draft of my forty page BA paper.

Just reminds me why I like writing fiction. Who in their right mind wants to read forty pages about the cultural status of London, Amsterdam and Paris at the end of the seventeenth century as dependent on the emerging role of trade- based economics in England and the United Provinces, with more reliance on the emerging tax-based system in France? My mom, that's who. Anybody else?

Nope, didn't think so.

Also, I'm officially looking for a "patron". If you are insanely wealthy, do not know what to do with those funds, and would like future science fiction and fantasy novels lovingly dedicated to you and your children, send me an e- mail.

I suppose publishing houses are sort of like patrons, except that I keep reading these letters in which various writers thank wealthy barons and counts, etc. for writing them blank checks. And I think, "Hmm..."

Trust me, Tor, God love them, doesn't write blank checks.

2/18/02 Never buy a car.

So I'm finally adding something to this journal. Yes, I know, it's been months, and yes, I know, all the old Journal entries, except for the first one, have mysteriously disappeared.

Here's the deal, you want to read those pages and pages of old Journal entries, send me an e-mail and I'll give them to you. If not, we'll just stick to current events. Sound good? Good.

So I bought a car a few months ago; a 1990 Mercury Sable, which I acquired for the low-low price of $450.00 Sound too low? It was. I pumped another five- hundred plus into it, it lasted two months, and now it needs over a thousand more dollars of work.

Nevermind that the car is actually worth $1500.00 - $2000.00. These repairs will probably cost another 1500 and then I've got to worry about whether I can sell it in four months.

Stupid car.

Other things are happening as well, for those of you who have been good enough to check this journal. As you may have noticed on the main page, the second book, Hope's War is listed on Amazon now. Still no cover art, etc. On Barnesandnoble.com they have the paperback edition of Hope's War listed, with a tiny image of the cover, which has the word placement reversed and a miniscule quote that is unreadable. Not sure which quote that is on the cover, so we'll all find out together.

Right now I'm hoping to sell a few more books and planning to move to Paris. Yup. The plan is to pretend to be Hemingway in the city of lights for at least a year. So I'm also messing with Visa stuff. Don't ask me about my 50 page BA paper.

Again, the bottomline is that I hate pumping thousands of dollars into worthless automobiles and will be happy when I live someplace--such as Paris-- where it's actually more convenient not to own a car.

Thanks for reading this Journal, and I promise this will be the beginning of a devoted set of brand new entries--which will occassionally be more than me complaining about things.

8/20/01 Yes, this webpage is overdue, and yes this Journal will be a means for ranting and posting the occasional obligatory 'Wrote some stuff today; most of it was pretty terrible', but I think it's worth doing anyway."

"Mission statement: I want to try and convey some of what I've been going through in publishing and writing, etc. No, that's not a good premise. I'm 20 years old, have just published my first book, Hope's End in hardcover, and- no that's not a good hook either. How about this? I'm going to keep a kind of memoir, a'la Neil Gaiman's americangods.com. Will this be interesting? I dunno. Will it be worth reading? Good question. I'm twenty years old, it's 95 degrees in Chicago right now and my air conditioning has to be switched off or the power will surge, which causes my computer to restart, erasing whatever I've been writing. This Journal will be honest-meaning that some days it might just be 'Wow, that old Far Side cartoon I read while my coffee was brewing has a lot of nerds drawn in it' or 'Ha! Have you seen the newest Onion?'-but it will be true. My name is Stephen Chambers, I'm twenty years old, in school at the University of Chicago, and my first book has just been published: this is my story.

That last bit sounds like something you might read on a tombstone, doesn't it?

The pictures "Vel", "Jak" and "soldier1" to the right are all the designs that I sent to Tor that were used by the artist in his rendition of the cover for Hope's End.

Hope's End available for order on Amazon.com and elsewhere.

Email: schambers@sff.net