james_nicoll

Long time Cardamom Addict readers know this handsome boy to the left--this is, of course, Mr. Bean. If you follow my @cardamomaddict Twitter account, you know things have been rough for this dear old cat these past few weeks. Unfortunately, one week after being diagnosed with both liver and pancreatic cancers, this lovely boy passed away.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

splinister

There are times when I go into the woods and it seems to open up and show me vistas of ethereal beauty. Those heart-stopping moments don’t always translate well to photographs. Photographing inside of woods is difficult. It tends to come out as one undifferentiated blob. Plus, there is the constant problem of the shade from the canopy (as a rule I never use a flash).

Every now and again the mystery combines with good light and gives me a decent image.

Of course, like all images this is just an approximate, but it is close enough to make me smile.

Today I found entire sections of Coole Park carpeted in bluebells. It was transcendent. The light didn’t help me out, alas, but I got a couple of decent images.

Minnie even got into the action.

But, there are many plants and flowers at this time of the year pushing up and out, which are just as attractive, but easily overlooked.

I love ferns. They are ancient plants, and a testament to the durability of good design. At this time of the year they practically radiate green life.

And the ordinary, ever-lovely daisy. I’m constantly charmed by this flower. I cannot imagine how anyone would not want a lawn speckled with them.

We are always surrounded by beauty. Even in the smallest, most ordinary things.

~ Originally published at Splinister. You can comment here or there. ~

shakennstirred

http://www.gwendabond.com/bondgirl/2013/05/tuesday-hangovers.html

• Whoops, sorry to disappear, but I predict a return to more regular entries starting now. At least until circus edits land. In the meantime, I'm accumulating research material for a new thing and pecking away at a collaborative project with C that has been major fun so far. And soon now The Woken Gods will be dipping its myth-infused toes into the waters of People Reading It Early and so I must. stay. busy. But what easier way to dip my non-mythical toe back into the blog than the sharing of some amassed links and the closing of tabs? There isn't one, so.


• Speaking of The Woken Gods, I started a little pinboard for it, if you want a look-see.


• You may have seen this already, but I love it so here it is anyway: a photographer does a series of photos of her five-year-old daughter not as a princess but as various heroic real women.


• The cast of Better Off Dead, where are they now? (I want my two dollars!)


• Great think piece by the fabulous Anne Helen Petersen: "The Enduring Post-Feminist Dystopia of Bachelorette."


• Excerpts of letters from Italo Calvino are running at the New Yorker: "I’m a regular guy, I like well-defined outlines, I’m old-fashioned,
  bourgeois. My stories are full of facts, they have a beginning and an
  end. For that reason they will never be able to find success with the
  critics, nor occupy a place in contemporary literature." Good reading.


• This news story about the resurfacing of a 27-year-old CIA wig is just about perfect.


• Terrible magicians in pop culture. LOVE. (Via David.)


• An interview with Hot Key's editorial director that has some interesting insights into UK sales figures.


• Janni Simner kicks off her "Writing for the Long Haul" blog series with a wonderful piece from Cynthia Leitich Smith. (I, too, have an expensive grocery habit.)


• This post Austin points to sums up a large part of why I still keep up this blog, and probably always will, and why I don't really worry about how many of you there are (just grateful that you stop by, period). (Also, in the age of platform purchases and inevitable migrations, I believe that having a space you own becomes ever more important.)


• And, finally, two things via the Awl: Replacement similes for after all the animals go extinct ("(18) Brave as a lion = Brave as a freelancer") and the annotated wisdom of Amy Poehler ("Right now I'm singing along to books on tape. I typically pop in something like Stephen King's The Stand, and I love singing along to that kind of stuff.").

james_nicoll

Alec Ash: How did you start writing science fiction?

Fei Dao: When I was at middle school, 16 or 17, I started to read a lot of sci fi. I read the magazine Science Fiction World, and became more familiar with sci fi literature. I liked it because there was a lot of imagination and novelty in it. At that time, my dream was to become an author. When I started out, I didn’t think at all about writing science fiction. Back then I felt sci fi was very difficult to write, and needed some knowledge of science, so I could only appreciate it but not write it myself.

Like many post 80s authors, I started out writing campus stories about young people in school. But I couldn’t get them published. Until one day in university, I wrote a science fiction story on the side, and sent it in to Science Fiction World. I was just giving it a go, I had no idea that that first story would get published [in 2003]. A year later, I had another idea, and that second story also got published. So that encouraged me, and I started writing sci fi.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

james_nicoll

It seems some companies don’t enjoy free publicity. Due to legal protests from Ferrero, which owns the Nutella brand, the organizer of World Nutella Day has said she is canceling the unofficial holiday, as well as the event website and Facebook (FB) and Twitter accounts dedicated to celebrating the creamy, chocolatey, hazelnut spread.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

james_nicoll

May 14th, 2013 - The day started early, as days in Washington tend to do. I was up before my alarm, already thinking about the day ahead of us: a day of meetings, events, handshakes, introductions, and effort. The Planetary Society was in D.C., and we were there to help save Planetary Science.

james_nicoll

Series	                      Total	Female	Male	F/T
Numbered paperback series	73	4	69	0.05
Unpublished titles 	         2		2	0
Hardcover titles	        10	1	9	0.1
New design	                62     12      50	0.19

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are  comment(s); comment here or there.

james_nicoll

I’ve argued this point in a couple of essays, but I’ll repeat myself: that once upon a time the road to space lay all before us like a dream of dawn. We were going to have hotels on the moon and trips to Pluto by the twenty-first century; instead of which we have nuclear piles the size of tumble-driers upon which microprocessors the size of scrabble-tiles fly silently and coldly past the outer planets. And nothing else.

Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are comment(s); comment here or there.

planetalyx

The latest Buffy rewatch is up at Tor–the episode is “Spiral.”

Kelly and I spent most of yesterday hanging out with a friend. We tried to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario, but it was closed for the holiday so we ended up snuggling on the Henry Moore statue outside.

Originally published at A.M. Dellamonica. You can comment here or there.

matthewsrotundo

Life.  Sometimes, it’s just crazy, man.

Day job and various personal engagements have conspired to utterly wipe out my schedule, and the insanity ain’t over yet.  Admittedly, much of this is self-inflicted, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

Other than database updates and getting few mss back into circulation, the most meaningful progress to report is that I have decided to put off the rewrite of Apocalypse Pictures Presents for the nonce.  “The Winter Palace” is also in need of a new draft, and that will be a much more manageable project, one that will potentially pay off sooner.

Or so I had decided, until last night, when another rewrite request came in.  And as this one has a hard deadline, it will have to come first.

For those keeping score at home, that’s now three rewrite projects on my desk.  It’s a good problem to have, I suppose, and I have a pretty good track record working with editors.  But still.

Maybe it’s for the best.  I’ll be traveling this week, and past experience has taught me that some rewrite work is my best shot at actually being productive.

Seriously—life.  Crazy.

Write Club update:  A tier two bounce from Wily Writers.  Response time, seven weeks.

I’m out.

redheadedfemme

The images coming out of Moore, Oklahoma are just incredible.

51 people dead (as of this writing). A mile-wide swath of destruction. At least an EF-4 in strength, perhaps an EF-5. 200+ mph winds.

catherineldf

Hi everyone! I’m Susan Jane Bigelow, and I’m here today to talk about my new book, The Daughter Star. It’s the story of trade ship pilot Marta Grayline as she tries to care for her sister Beth, get answers to her questions, figure out her relationship with her long-distance girlfriend, and find the freedom she so desperately craves against a background of interplanetary war and alien intrigue.

 This book is the first of three focusing on the three Grayline sisters, Marta, Violet and Beth, and their roles in changing and shaping their world. It’s also about truth, tenacity, faith, growing up, family, love, and a whole host of other things. It’s been an amazing and challenging series to write so far, and I still have the third book to write!

 This story started out as a “pace book” to The Spark, which is the third book in the Extrahumans series. See, The Spark was a very stressful and emotionally draining book to write for me, and every once in a while I felt like I needed a break. So I started working on a fun space adventure story to distract myself when I felt burned out on The Spark. I created the character of Marta, who so enthralled me that I soon found myself lost in her world, and the character sketching I was doing soon began to stretch into a full-fledged novel. I worked on both books concurrently, and actually finished the first draft of Daughter Star before I finished The Spark.

 However, it turned out that The Daughter Star needed a ton of work. This was partly because of the somewhat odd and offhand way in which I’d written it. I wrote at least five different endings before I found one that really worked for me, and led into the next book in a way that made sense. I eventually tightened the story up, made it more serious in places, and gave both Marta and her world a lot more depth.

 I learned a lot while writing this book. I’d probably never do the “pace book” thing again, though it was fun and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I also learned that there’s nothing like a massive load of revisions and a looming deadline to focus my creativity. But what I learned that I value the most is that I can still write the kinds of books that I really want to read and share with everyone else.

 The book releases on 5/28, and will be available on Amazon, BN.com, the Candlemark & Gleam website, and retailers both electronic and physical worldwide. I hope folks check it out!

 Thanks to the amazing Catherine Lundoff for having me on!