WIP: “The Biggest Sarge Ever”

This is one of those updates that writers who blog sometimes write. However, I’m getting a kick out of my current WIP, to which I added about a thousand words this morning. It’s a tough project, partly because I’m trying to blend two different kinds of jargon — futuristic environmental and technical stuff (the SFnal part) with futuristic extrapolations of the Pick-Up Artists’ scene (the cultural/flavoring/comedic part, riffing heavily on Neil Strauss’s popular and widely-reference book The Game). Since, from what I’ve read, there are lots of nerds and geeks in that subculture as it is, I figured, why not …

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Home Again, Home Again

… jiggety jig. I was a busier this weekend than I have been in a while, in a social way. My friend James came up to Seoul and ended up crashing at my place in Bucheon on Friday night, and then on Saturday we headed into Seoul and met up with Roger Wellor Charles Montgomery and his lady (the BLF, as he calls her on his site), as well as the Korea/NZ scholar Stephen Epstein and a number of other interesting people. Now it’s Sunday, and I’m listening to the new Sofanauts podcast, which just came out the other day, …

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If Yo Ass is Doing WorldCon

Then yo ass might appreciate these bitlets: The 2009 Hugo Voter Packet, kindly assembled by John Scalzi, is now available for everyone who is eligible to vote. If you’re attending or a supporting member, you are eligible to download it. More details on Scalzi’s blog — it’s freaking huge, and full of amazing stuff… including Campbell Award nominees’ stories, so, yeah, a few things from me. And you know what, buying a supporting membership would also essentially be a big savings for you cheap bastards who wanna get a pile of novels, novellas, short stories, an audiobook, and more, all …

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Woot Canawr, Stage 1.

If you’ve seen that episode of The West Wing where Ceejay (C.J.?) visits the dentist, you know what’s going on. I got me a root canal today. Well, I got myself a part of one, anwyay: Yeah, baby. Stage 1 of my root canal. I’m not feeling pain yet, but I know I’m in for some tonight, baby. Stage 1 involved remving the gold filling, drilling down to the roots, and digging out the meat. The meat! I got these little glimpses of the implements used for the latter — they look like miniature pipe cleaners, or like the mouthpiece …

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