Genrewonk

February 5, 2010

Blogish Thing #1: The Amazon/Macmillan thing continues rolling on, making Amazon look more and more the villian to those of us who write for a living.  Reactions are varied, and I’d like to endorse Scalzi’s call not to boycott, but to buy books from the affected authors.

Also like Scalzi, I’ve decided to stop with the default use of Amazon as the “book buy” link on my pages.  I’ve tweaked my template to give you the option to get my stuff from Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, Powell’s, and Borders, as well as Amazon. As in the little screen capture to the right.

ON WRITING VILLAINS : One of the trickier aspects of writing fiction is coming up with believable villains. It’s tricky enough that some writers eschew the idea of a villain entirely, and simply have an antagonist who opposes the “good guys” for perfectly good and reasonable reasons. Nothing wrong with that approach, and some of the best drama can be drawn from the conflict of two mutually exclusive “goods.”

But sometimes you need evil.

Go read the rest.

Category: about the blog, blatant self-promotion, internet | No Comments »

February 3, 2010

Today I’ve a guest blog post up @ SciFiGuy.ca wherein I go and mull over my current obsessions on religion and space opera in the Apotheosis Trilogy.

Can you write SF about religion? It’s an interesting question because when people tend to think of Religion and SF, it almost always in terms of opposition. It is a dichotomy that tends to find advocates on both sides, from those of a religious bent decrying the inherent atheism of SF, and those SF partisans looking on and saying “yeah, so, your point is?”

Go read the rest.

Category: Apotheosis Trilogy, blatant self-promotion, internet, science fiction, writing | No Comments »

February 3, 2010

Here we see the cover of the Blackstone Audio version of Wolfbreed coming out March 20th.  Much coolness, and it’s interesting seeing a cover that’s clearly influenced by Spectra’s cover, yet different.  I can’t wait to get this on my iPod.

Category: blatant self-promotion, book covers, publishing, wolfbreed | No Comments »

February 2, 2010

Zoe doesn’t seem too impressed, but it may be because she can’t read.

If you want to buy it on-line, but you’re pissed at Amazon’s antics of late, you can buy it here. Or here.

Category: Apotheosis Trilogy, blatant self-promotion, book covers, pet pictures, photos, publishing, writing | 2 Comments »

February 1, 2010

I recently read a rather interesting sfnal riff on Obama’s state of the union speech, based on an administration reference to a “New Foundation”:

But I recall reading here or somewhere that Paul Krugman and several other leading economic and legal academic-policymakers had come to their professions wanting to be … Hari Seldon.  Deeply attracted to the idea of a mathematically-based psychohistory.

It reminded me of other references to Hari Seldon I’ve heard at convention panels and such, very often in connection with economics. The macro-economic idea of predicting and manipulating society as a whole pre-dates Asimov by several decades, but his view of psychohistory in Foundation has become a seminal influence in SF and, at least subliminally, beyond. . .

And, it is, in fact a horribly dangerous concept. If you’re familiar with my series through the Moreau books, the Hostile Takeover Trilogy, and currently the Apotheosis Trilogy, you’ve seen me use psychohistory as a weapon, which, if it worked, would be a horribly effective one. But that isn’t the main danger of Asimov’s idea. The danger is in the fact that it doesn’t work, and in the fact that the nature of complex chaotic systems means it may never work, but it is still such an inherently seductive idea that otherwise brilliant people can delude themselves into thinking it does work.

Our economy has taken a nose-dive, and continues to do so, because of smart men who believed that if they controlled the right variable, tweaked the right interest rate, raised the right tax or passed the right regulation, that society would do as it was told. It rarely does, and the more centralized the decision making, the more perverse the eventual outcomes— and the worse the result, the more drastic the reactions by the people who thought they were in control.

Category: politics, science fiction, writing | No Comments »

January 27, 2010

Well finally got to updating the counters for the WIP.  And I am now feeling the main issue that faces every writer with a day job, time.  There just isn’t enough of it.  Once you take time for commuting, writing, taking care of the animals and the day job itself, there’s barely a couple hours left to do everything else.  Including writing blog posts like this.

Here’s hoping for that movie option. . .

Category: real life, writing | 3 Comments »

January 25, 2010

Or so scary it’s awesome.

RAD OMEN – “Rad Anthem” from Nicholaus Goossen on Vimeo.

From here.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »

January 22, 2010

There is a certain class of people who combine stupidity, deep-seated insecurity with a pathological need to control.  The worst place to put these people is in a position where they are charged with keeping people safe.

Case in point: We have a report (found here) of an unnamed vice principal at Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School saw a student’s science project and, because there were wires in it, called the bomb squad and had the school on lockdown for two hours while the pros determined that, yes, this was actually a science project.  Bear in mind that this is a school that is supposed to teach technology skills.  “The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling.”  Seems to me it is the school administration that neds some counseling.

Also from here we find out that you can have a flight diverted for being too Jewish. (At least they weren’t profiling.)

And we also find out that the TSA are a bunch of merry pranksters.  When they aren’t pulling eight-year-olds aside for special attention.  (At least they aren’t profiling.)  But they do have their eyes on the ball, right?

Category: asshat, rants | No Comments »

January 20, 2010

I’m not up for much of a blog post for reasons I won’t go into, but since I opine on politics, and the Massachusetts senate race is probably the biggest political story for this half of 2010, I should probably make a comment about it.

To every Republican and Democrat out there: get over yourselves.  Guess what?  It is not some sort of sign from God that Massachusetts actually elected a progressive Republican, especially when the Democrats nominated a train wreck of a candidate.  Forget dissing local sports heroes and Fenway park or misspelling the state’s name.  You want toxic, Google “Coakley” and “curling iron.”

Democrats: this is just showing you what every poll has been telling you since August— your agenda is NOT popular.  You get one election win by not being Bush, but guess what, he ain’t president no more.  If a million people march on DC, ignoring them doesn’t make them go away.

Republicans: You better get your act together.  Brown’s win had little to do with the Republican leadership, and a lot to do with the kind of grass-roots campaign Obama wished he ran.  Looking at this as some sort of mandate, if you overdose on schadenfreude (as much fun as it is to picture Rham Emmanuel and Andy Stern gnashing their teeth and rending their garments), if you start acting as if the 2010 midterms as  an inevitable Republican landslide just because you are not Obama. . .  shall we just say that you can be just as stupid as the Democrats.

Fellow Libertarians: This may be the year to win something big.  With internet fund-raising, a charismatic candidate could successfully run against the hubris of both parities.

Category: politics | 1 Comment »

January 18, 2010

In case you hadn’t seen me twitter about this or posting on Facebook, the shortlist for the 2009 Phillip K. Dick awards were announced, and Prophets is on the list!

Here’s the press release:

Philip K. Dick Awards

c/o 153 Deerfield Lane
Pleasantville, NY 10570
(914) 769-5545
http://www.philipkdickaward.org
January 16, 2010
For Immediate Release

2009 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced The judges of the 2009 Philip K. Dick Award and the Philadelphia SF Society, along with the Philip K. Dick Trust, are pleased to announce seven nominated works that comprise the final ballot for the award:

BITTER ANGELS by C. L. Anderson (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE PRISONER by Carlos J. Cortes (Ballantine Books/Spectra)
THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO by Eric Garcia (Harper)
THE DEVIL’S ALPHABET by Daryl Gregory (Del Rey)
CYBERABAD DAYS by Ian McDonald (Pyr)
CENTURIES AGO AND VERY FAST by Rebecca Ore (Aqueduct Press)
PROPHETS by S. Andrew Swann (DAW Books)

First prize and any special citations will be announced on Friday, April 2, 2010 at Norwescon 33 at the Doubletree Seattle Airport Hotel, SeaTac, Washington. The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. Last year’s winners were EMISSARIES FROM THE DEAD by Adam-Troy Castro (Eos Books) and TERMINAL MIND by David Walton (Meadowhawk Press). The 2009 judges are Daniel Abraham (chair), Eileen Gunn, Karen Hellekson, Elaine Isaak, and Marc Laidlaw.

For more information, contact the award administration:
David G. Hartwell (914) 769-5545.
Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551
For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, http://www.psfs.org
Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 665-5752
For more information about the Philip K. Dick Trust: http://www.philipkdick.com
For more information about Norwescon: http://www.norwescon.org
Contact NorthWest SF Society: (425) 686-9737

Category: Apotheosis Trilogy, blatant self-promotion, publishing, writing | 5 Comments »