...now listed on Amazon.com.

Note: There are two editions of the novalla—hardcover and jacketed hardcover—but I can't tell which Amazon entry refers to which edition. Hopefully that will be clear once the book is listed as officially available.

Meanwhile, the novella review tour continues with upcoming reviews from polenth, doc_lemming, and pauljessup. zweipunktnull has joined in the fun with a review and photo of his own copy here.

Your Sunday moment of zen.



Me in 1971, probably Hawaii. © 1971, 2009 J.A.K. Lake



This work by J.A.K. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

A bit more on Interzone 225 — With novelette "Bone Island" by calendula_witch and me.

Get Fuzzy on the perils of authorship (again)

The Extraordinary World of Ex Libris Art — (Via Dark Roasted Blend.)

Best Use of Exploitative Tactis — Drawn! with a very strange, short animation. Cool, and vaguely NSFW.

Cassini buzzes Enceladus once again — Mmm, photographic goodness.

Why do we hate? Academics seek answer in new field — (Via Freakonomics Blog.)

JFK nephew barred from communion: report — Mmm, I loves me some separation of Church and State. And what is it about religious people that makes them want to force the rest of society to abide by their particular beliefs?

?otD: Do you feel like you're king of the hill?

---

11/22/2009
Body movement: 120 minute suburban walk (about to depart)
Hours slept: 6.25
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (not yet)
Currently reading: Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

Have not needed to leave the house yet, as Fishwrapper does not publish on Sundays. However, enjoyed the show put on by Neighbor, coming out of his shed and doing a classic bannana-peel whoops! on the ramp. He got up immediately and proceeded as if undamaged, so we can indulge in vaudeville-giggles with a clear conscience. Besides, he's young and strong and healthy.

That household was probably in mourning already, anyway. Daughter is a cheerleader*, and Our Town lost the state championship high-school football game yesterday. Woe.

Sun up now, and frost melting apace.

*I try not to hold this against her.

So, I did it. I made the schedule I talked about here, and have (of course) already deviated from it. ;) However, it has definitely helped me to become more aware of the time I have available during the week, and how I can best use it. I'm sticking with the experiment - I am getting up earlier on days off from the Day Job, which is good for getting in a solid hour of catching up on blogs & email before I start on the writing/revisions.

Also, I was talking with my friend (and brilliant author!) triciasullivan via email the other day, and as usual she had much wisdom to share. Here's some of what she had to say (quoted with her permission - although she laughed at me for thinking she's wise *g*):

The physical act of making a timetable will help to pull your intentions together and let your brain know this is serious, you really mean it. And it's fun.

Yes! It was fun! I'll have to post a picture of my super-colour-coded timetable. LOL!

Fail? No. Try and think about it this way. Writing is hard. There are a lot of obstacles and distractions. The timetable and the intention behind it are not a magic bullet. But if you DON'T take an active role and responsibility for carving out the time, it ISN'T going to happen by itself. So this is a huge positive step, and you're not looking for perfection. You're looking to use the timetable as a tool to help you do more than you would have done without it. If you find it's giving you more aggravation than results, you can take another approach. Don't shackle yourself, just get on your own side.

Isn't that perfect? Don't let her tell you she doesn't know what she's talking about! I'm very lucky to know her.

So yes, I am struggling with the process, but I am also aware that I've made a commitment to trying harder at fitting in my writing around all the other things in life. Or should that be the other way round? I'm fitting the other things around my writing! Any tool that helps me to take this work more seriously - to give it the importance it deserves - is worth trying. And whatever doesn't work can be thrown out and I can try a new approach. Nobody is judging me apart from me.

One thing I've discovered - or maybe just confirmed - is that I don't find it easy to work in complete isolation. However... neither can I write with music playing. And yet, I can work pretty well in cafes. Ah, the contradictions of being a writer. However, most cafe-music is more like... muzak, so I don't find it particularly distracting. And I like the hustle and bustle of the cafe environment; there's stuff going on, but none of it directly involves me. Maybe that's why I worked well when I wrote THE IRON WITCH. Most of the first draft was written at my mum's, sitting at the dining table. She would be doing things around me and in the next room, but I quite liked it. I had company - I didn't feel completely alone - and yet I could still concentrate.

Most of BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS was written in a cafe, and that flowed quickly.

What I'm finding with revisions is that my mind wanders off far more easily than when I'm writing a first draft. I really procrastinate and resist the process. That's why I am allowing myself to keep Twitter open while I write. I was discussing this with a friend the other night - Twitter feels a bit like having that 'cafe buzz' in the background; people are chattering but it doesn't have to impact on what I'm doing. However, if someone sends me an @ repy or mentions me, I can jump in and say something then get straight back to my work. For me, this seems to be working. So far... ;)

Which is how you, swisstone, managed to escape your spanking yesterday. But, as you know, swisstone (and Bob), the Sparkly Paddle of Birthday Wonderfulness always catches up with you sooner or later, rain or shine, total eclipse or apocalypse.

So come on down, brace yourself, and assume the position!

Hope your day was outrageously fantastic in every way and that you are now embarking on a year that is nothing less than even more outrageously fantastic, with total nonstop Awesomes! With whipped cream, sparkles, and extra kittens!

And hey--I mean it, now, or nobody gets any ice cream--don't forget to live forever!

smallship1 has a new album. All instrumental. There's a preview track (just below the album cover art). Strings, flute, drums, piano, harp. Nice.

Anybody have any new music they want to promote?

ETA: Zander clued me in about the preview.

Several groups trying to re-ignite New England's faith are theologically conservative, such as the Southern Baptists, Presbyterian Church in America and the Conservative Baptists' Mission Northeast. They say a reason for the region's hollowed-out faith is a pervasive theology that departs from traditional Biblical interpretation on issues such as the divinity of Jesus, the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation and homosexuality.

From Yahoo News

Thanx to womzilla

So far as I'm aware, none of the trans people I've known have been the victims of violence, fatal or otherwise.

That said, violence against transgendered and transsexual people does happen, and I would like it to not happen.

rozk wrote a beautiful post. I haven't been feeling well enough to think of something to say myself.

Electric Velocipede didn't want the story I sent them. Neither did Strange Horizons. EV doesn't even have the time to give detailed rejections anymore, which was one of the main reasons I sent it to them.

It's always so frustrating to get rejected and not know what the editor didn't like. I understand, after all there's only so much time and energy one can put into the slush pile, and I've been on both sides of it in the past, present, and likely even in the future. Doesn't mean it makes me entirely happy, but...

Time to find somewhere else that'll take my kinda funky 6600 word urban fantasy piece. Or someone willing to read and critique it and tell me where I'm going wrong. (Someone not related to me by blood or marriage, preferably, I'm weird that way. :> )

Anyway, just thought I'd surface briefly. Later, I'll tell you what the heck I've been up to...

Oh, and don't forget, the submission period for Scheherazade's Facade is open, and will remain that way through February.

Husband Man did some more chemical pouring and snaking, but it turned out he did have to call Roto-Rooter (which happened while I was out of town), and it was just as well--turned out to be tree roots.

• 15:23 Just visited a house full of harps and dogs. #
• 17:52 Pizza stone has been pronounced a major success. Yum! #
• 17:52 Also, just got my contributor's copy of Talebones. Lovely illustration. Very sad to see this magazine go. #
• 19:23 About to watch the first "Saw" movie. First horror movie I've seen since "Black Water" with Kris. #
• 20:39 Holy cow, got selected for this! www.orcasartsmith.org/residencies.html #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

New York Book Show 09 Winners!

- Lauren Panepinto - November 21st, 2009

The New York Book Show is an annual competition held by the Bookbinders’ Guild of New York, which is a professional publishing organization focusing on design & production of all kinds of trade, academic, and specialty books. It’s one of the few design competitions every year that focuses just on books, and I entered some of our Orbit titles from 2009.
The judging was just completed, and Soulless by Gail Carriger & Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler both won in the mass market paperback cover design category. Thanks to everyone who was involved in the cover designs, especially Donna Ricci, our model for Alexia Tarabotti & mistress of all things Steampunk Fashion, and Sharon Tancredi, the illustrator for Tempest Rising. Go Team!


This entry is ghosted from the Orbit site, here.

My family loves me, but their timing stinks. :-)

I had gotten to sleep at a reasonable hour for once, but D woke me up to see if I had made some sort of noise (I think he said it sounded like something fell). Nope. I was in dreamland. I had *just* gotten the cat settled and back to sleep good when my phone beeped with a text. Cassie was telling me she has to be at work at 3:45 in the morning on Black Friday. By the time I got done texting her back, I was wide awake.

::sigh::

1. I got an invitation in the mail today. *TO JOIN THE FRICKING AARP*. No, people, that is NOT funny. If I am old enough for AARP, I want Medicare. Now. Ah, I thought so.

(Seriously. WTF??? Did they see a picture of me somewhere on the net, take one look at the white hair, and decide I must be their demographic? What gives? I am unaccountably miffed. This is... reverse carding...)

2. Okay, so I am a Grinch Girl. Be afraid. Be very afraid...



3. This place where I live, it thinks it's a cruise ship sometimes, and it's gotta come up with "Activities". Today it was the "3rd Annual Turkey Trot" - billed as a "5K Run/Walk" (not quire sure what that K stands for. If we were in a nice metric context I might have taken it to mean kilometers, but we ain't, and K cannot possibly be acronymmed away to mean "miles" - and if it means 1000 (as in, 5000) then the question that begs to be asked is 5000 what?

But all that aside. The flyer for the event features two panicked-looking turkeys apparently fleeing for their lives. That should be enough to give you pause, but then, after a small form provided for registration, you get the disclaimer. It is grandly entitled, "Assumption of Risk, Release of Liability and Warning!" (all punctuation is original). What follows... is astonishing:

"In consideration for being allowed to use SV Recreation programs, services, facilities I voluntarily agree to assume all risks involved in participating in, or using SV programs, services, facilities and equipment. I understand that direct supervision by SV staff may not be provided and by participating in or using the programs, facilities, services of SV Recreation I expose myself to the risk of injuries including but not limited to temporary or permanent muscle soreness, sprains, stains, cuts, abrasions, bruises, ligament and/or cartilage damage, head, neck or spinal injuries, loss of use of arms and/or legs, eye damage, emotional trauma, disfigurement, drowning or death. I also recognise that there are both foreseeable and unforeseeable risks of injury or death that may occur as a result of my participation in, or from, or use of SV Recreation programs, services, facilities and equipment that cannot be specifically listed. I also recognize that the actions other users of SV Recreation programs, services, facilities and equipment may cause harm or loss to my person or property and agree to assume the risk of same"

Emotional trauma? Loss of limbs? Drowning? DEATH? What are they DOING on this Turkey Trot?!?

And no, folks, I'm not entirely certain I want to come along. You guys... have fun. And make sure that your wills are in order...

4. I was lying in bed last night writing haiku in my head. As the character from the current WIP. How twisted is this...?

5. Got my Space and Time Winter 2009 issue in the mail today. My story's in it. Looking good...

Twilight Of The Sparkly Midnight New Moon

Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight books, but they are popular. And the two movies? Huge.

To give you some idea, let's point out that the Grand Rapids area biggest line this week was not at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Woodland Mall. No, we're talking about the midnight showings for Twilight: New Moon.

Long considered the staple of SF/F and Star Wars and Star Trek geeks, the midnight showings locally were taken over by a largely female crowd of all ages. Only a teen phenomenon? Oh, puh-leese. Pictures on the local news and in the Grand Rapids Press showed many middle-aged women who were not all mothers chaperoning their teens or pre-teens.

When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened on 19 May 1999, Studio 28 had a midnight showing in Theatre 1, then had it running in 3 other theatres for the first 24 hours. Fast forward to 2009 and while Studio 28 is gone, the same chain's Celebration North mulitiplex opened New Moon in all 17 non-IMAX theatres at midnight -- over 3500 seats -- and sold out. Systemwide, they sold something like 14,200 midnight tickets, exceeded only by one of the Harry Potter's at 14,600 (and Celebration North opened it in 14 theatres at midnight).

While some of this is marketing and choosing to open extra theatres and offer more seats for the midnight showings, one needs to point out another set of interesting factoids about West Michigan: (1) this was on a school night and (2) with (most?) West Michigan schools on trimesters, final exams start like on Friday. And still the teens contributed to the surge.

The Inevitable Complaints

Last Sunday, I showed up for part of a 10am panel at WindyCon 36 on "Rowling and Meyer" and what young readers are reading. J.K. Rowling's writing poor and predictable? Stephenie Meyer can't write either and her vampires aren't (sniff) canonical? Does not seem to be hurting the sales, folks. Even the NPR news quiz show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on Saturday tried to argue that all these Twilight fans are going to be unprepared to go up against real vampires. (grin)

Look, I haven't read any of the Twilight novels or seen the movies. And I know some people who have and their heads didn't explode -- some of them really like them. But they are successful and I won't begrudge either writer, stars or studio their success. Did I mention that Mister Werewolf in New Moon is a local boy from Michigan? (grin) While not all these readers and moviegoers are going to become lifelong SF/F fans of all genres, there will be some who go on to read more books and see more movies.

A rising tide raises all boats. Wrestling a tsunami is a little harder. (grin)

Dr. Phil