Here’s the update: I’m now 100% definitely going to Seattle for the Clarion Workshop. I’ll fly out on the 17th, and I’m going to try to get a ticket that allows me to stop by my mother’s place on the way back to Korea, six weeks later. I’m now in the thick of marking. It’s just not pretty. But one thing that is really making me happy is that a lot of my students seem to have really picked up what I’ve been trying to get them to learn — things like structure in their writing, or a certain kind …
Category: WRITING
Clarion Advice
Here’s some advice for myself written by someone who attended Clarion West 98. Mostly posted for my own future reference, ie. when I’m on the other computer.
“IMF wins new powers to police global economy”
When I saw the title to this article, which is the title of this post as well, I gaped. Why? A theme in an old, abandoned novel was the life of a WTO-UN soldier who was policing economic-development zones: a Chinese soldier, one of the many “extra” men who could not marry in Chinese due to shortages of women, who was serving in Africa. But he was literally “policing” the development of the economy in whichever country I plopped him into. I think this character needs to make another appearance, as the idea is pretty cool. But maybe it’d be …
Why not indeed?
Katolik Shinja asks why the Church doesn’t just go ahead and excommunicate all Pro-Abortionists from its ranks like it did with Segregationists. Here’s my thinking: My suspicion is that the population of the North American and European Church — or pretty much the Church in any developed country — would diminish to a small portion of its current size. I suspect that’s why this would never happen. Of course, that, and the fact that Segregationism was a social practice, thus more easily detected and repudiated; abortion, as a medical procedure, is performed in isolation, and is not so easily detectable. …
오예, 베이비!
The title of this post is “Oh Yeah Baby!” written in Korean. It’s something I once taught some kids at one of those camps I used to work every summer and winter in Jeonju. Hearing tons of kids laughing and teasing one another on the bus and then following up with, “오예, 베이비!” — in fact they were saying it in English but with the cutest little accents — brought me such joy. It’s a happiness comparable to what I feel right now, having just heard that it’s very likely I will, in fact, be able to attend the Clarion …
Race and SF
During my review of the film Primer, I discussed an essay by Pam Noles and noted that I would get back to her central topic soon — after all, I was riffing on her issues about the underrepresentation of nonwhite people in science fiction and fantasy literature and media, but riffing in a very odd way. (You can read the Primer review if you want to know more.) It’s taken me a while to get back to the issue, but now I’m ready to say something about it. The first word that comes to my mind, as a white male …
BIG NEWS!
I gotta check on whether I definitely, absolutely have the time off, and whether I can get to Seattle, Washington by July 18th, but anyway, I just got a call and I was invited to participate in the the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop. Which is, like, a very BIG deal. I feel complimented since they haven’t sorted out the list of attendees and therefore couldn’t say for sure whether a scholarship would be in the works. So it looks like my schedule this summer will be, June 17th – July 28th — Seattle, Washington, followed by as quick a jaunt …
Rupt — an experiment in fiction
Well, after several months of trying and trying and trying again, I just may have gotten the ending for this story I’ve been trying to write, “Rupt”. The draft I’ve got now, numbered version 3.5 (.5 always means almost ready, but I need feedback) is pretty different from what I started with. The last day or two saw me cutting several characters out partially or completely; and a major subplot was excised. This plot wasn’t contributing much anyway, and when I removed it, I realized what was missing in the story was a third character, a necessary character, a child …
Urville, France and Other Imagined Places
Apparently I missed out on the attention that was lavished upon this film about am autistic artist who has created an imaginary city in France. (That link is to a video page. I’m partly posting it so I get a chance to see it on my other PC; it’s not loading well on the laptop so I’ll try at the office.) I found the link on Maureen McHugh’s blog, but apparently boingboing also had a post about it. It triggered for Maureen a post on worldbuilding, which is interesting. I haven’t actually gone on a binge of mapping and worldbuilding …
Some ten things things
via Elizabeth Bear: ten things I am mostly ignorant about Japanese history. Microbiology. Truck and tractor pulls. Sub-Saharan African political geography. Modern visual art. Parenthood. Contemporary Mainstream Literature. Belgian cookery. The War of the Roses. What has been going on with Macs in the last ten years since I jumped ship. ten things I, like Clive Barker, don’t really know much about–but do know enough to get myself into trouble with: The Korean language. Wacky new cutting-edge physics. Raver culture. Central Asian political geography. Modernist poetry. Keeping a pet. The New Weird. The flashy side of Indian cooking. (I never …