I’ve just finished reworking my story, “The Clockworks of Hanyang.” (Yay!) It’s one of those stories where it explodes in your mind in one form, gets reworked in another form, and neither of the two are really appropriate to the final form of the story. Some stories are like that — like bread dough, the demand to be kneaded and kneaded and bloody well kneaded. I’m pretty happy with how it’s come out at the moment, though I’ll need to set it aside for a day or two (no more than that) to see what I think of the changes …
Tag: WRITING
HP Lovecraft and the (Monkey) Puzzle of the “Good Lovecraftian Film”
I was talking with my friend Chris about a bunch of SF- (and, to a lesser degree, fantasy-) -related things the other day — one of those discussions where you are trying to get at the heart of how we read genre and why, reader/viewer expectations for genre texts and media, and so on. One of the interesting points that came up was how it’s so difficult to make a good Lovecraftian film, and the fact that people keep trying and trying. This has stuck out in my mind as a question to myself, since for a few months now …
Yeasts and Gaming and Why I Wish There Was 30 Hours in the Day
Well, there are things that are new, but I’m trying to stem the tide of crap and use my blog to talk about things either neat and shiny, or interesting and cool, or personal-but-not-complainy. So anyway, let’s see. Coming home to find the Bavarian Weizen I’m got brewing is cool. It’s pretty encouraging because it’s actually bubbling like crazy now. It took about 40 hours to start up, but now it’s going well.I’ll probably try to pitch a second wheat beer, same approximate grist but slightly different hopping, onto the yeast cake and build it up a little more, when …
The Smell of Progress, On Various Scales at Once
Progress. I’ve made some on a number of fronts, but the one I’ll mention is writing. I’ve been busy in the past week or so–grading, preparing a few lectures, baking, handling some stuff that needed handling–but I’ve made significant headway with writing. I haven’t leapt into the project I was hoping to get into this semester–though I will, hopefully later this month, or early next–but I have made significant progress toward getting a few new short stories, or reworkings of older ones, finished and ready to go out. For the record, I’ve: heavily revised “Asshole Island” (previously “Instead of Pinochets”) …
Traneing Up…
Some John Coltrane-related links, because yes, I’m working on that story that involves him again: John Coltrane, Avant Garde Jazz, and the Evolution of My Favorite Things is a thesis by Scott Anderson which he has generously (and stylishly) put online. It traces the development of the Coltrane Quartet/Quintet’s handling of the tune “My Favorite Things.” Also a wonderful example of how a project-focused website should look. A link I discovered on the above site, which is also amazing, is to Improviz, a project by Jon Syndal to render visual representations of jazz improvisations. There are links to various PDFs …
Brian Lumley’s Titus Crow: The Creeping Discomfort
So, a few years ago in an expat bar, I found a pile of hardback books in the pile of books left for anyone to take. Since I’d left a few books there myself, and since I was so shocked, I grabbed the books and made them my own. The books were the hardback Tor reissues of the Brian Lumley Titus Crow books–three volumes of them. About a year ago, when I was ill, I read the first trilogy, and, well, I didn’t really enjoy it. I packed up the books and took them to my office, putting them on …
I’m Flattered…
Rich Horton had nice things to say about, among a bunch of novellas, novelettes, and short stories that he considered “strong work” from 2010, my story in Shine. (And mentions, in the same breath, Alastair Reynolds‘ story that appeared right beside it, which was a favorite of mine from the anthology.) So yeah, I’m flattered.
To Do, New
In my last personal post, I mentioned how I was focusing on three things this semester: time management expectations management novel-drafting I mentioned how I need to get all three in the bag if I’m going to fulfill my goals for the semester. Allow me to back up a bit to explain. I came to Korea, in part, because I knew that in academic jobs, I could have more hours free during the day or week. This has materialized in a half-completed draft of one novel, a completed (first, roughish) draft of a second novel, and nothing else in long-form …
Jazz and SF
I’ve heard people, time and again, compare jazz to SF in terms of them both being very “American” artforms, and, along with the cowboy movie, among America’s original contributions to the common human repository of art and culture. The cowboy movie, I’m afraid, has roots that go way deeper than American history, which is why it resonates so powerfully with other forms of literature and narrative. I see a lot of the Gothic novel in the Western, and a lot of the Bible too. As for SF, let’s be honest: it didn’t really begin in America: the historian/theorists can fight …
Miss Jiwaku’s Film
I’ve never really participated in a filmmaking project involving people who knew what they were doing, and who wanted to make a successful film; I did teach a pilot class where students made a pseudo-documentary, but some of the people involved had lukewarm interest in the project, and none of us were properly trained in filmmaking. However, this weekend I participated (as a camera operator) in the filming of a short film (written and directed by Miss Jiwaku). I feel like logging my impressions, as well as what I learned from the experience; but since that’s not everyone’s cup of …