Well, I can’t actually say it’s “back to the grind,” because, just like with different coffees, each semester is unique. I realize I haven’t posted in ages, and getting back into that habit will be particularly tough given how busy I’m going to be this semester. Not that my classload is particularly onerous: I have only one class focused on writing, and another class which will involve written homework with any regularity. The other two courses are more related to speaking and presenting and so on. This is a change of pace for me, since I prefer the content-related courses …
Tag: WRITING
Without Beautiful, Perfect | Wings Upon their Backs
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/sWpERZAIy3E” width=”425″ height=”344″ allowfullscreen=”true” fvars=”fs=1″ /] I wrote this today: Why is it that our kind are our kind born without beautiful, perfect wings upon our backs? Yes, you know something is up when Gord starts writing verse again, though of course that is only one stanza. But only one poem today. Poetry is hard work. Have my final class this afternoon — just getting together with some students to look at a few projects that need to get class approval, and to wish them luck on their finals. Then I will finish preparing for my Korean lesson — …
Back in the [Korean Study] Saddle Again
Let’s see, in my notebook there are the following new vocabulary terms: 신상 정보: personal ID information 생물측 정보: biometric information 심리학: psychology 작업 멘트: pickup line 몸이 좋[지않]다: to [not] have a good body 핸드폰 번호 따다: to get [someone’s] phone number 세계 구역기구: The WTO 합병하다: to take over [something], for example, the WTO taking over the UN. 세상: universe (to be used in the context of discussing baby universes) 사고 | 나다: accident | occur (occur being the verb for accident) 화학전쟁: biowar[fare?] 증거: evidence These words, of course, are all related to the two stories I’ve …
In Jeju
That’s a touristy island in South Korea. So I’m not responding to comments much for a reasons. Having fun, even if it is raining like nobody’s business. Should clear up tomorrow, and in the meantime, I got some necessary work done. Two stories down, a few more to go. If I’m slow replying to emails, you know why. Feel free to call me if you like.
Breakthrough! (WIP Completed, New One Begun)
Well, with glee I can say I finally am back on track with the writing. For the moment I have set side the storyon which I’d been working for weeks, and am getting a crit from one person on the rough state of the story in the hope that it will help me with the editing to come, probably a week or so from now. While I cannot speak for its quality, I can say something of a new development in the process, which is that this story was quite a struggle. I think this is the case for a …
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 …
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 …
Ohrwurm: Capsule
Yeah, Japanese pop music. (“Shibuya-kei,” to be precise. Bsides its association with the district in Tokyo, I have no idea what this refers to…) Most of the songs on the album are a fair bit more ironic than the one below, or, well, maybe I’m mistaking earnestness in a foreign language for an arch tone and ironic sensibility? Anyway, this isn’t the best song on the album, but the only one I found and liked enough to post. This is today’s background music as I work on my most recent installment of my column for Cahoots: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVBUwmq0yz0 Here’s another video, …
Linky Stuff
Linky stuff is less fun than kinky stuff, from what I vaguely recall, but hey, this is the internet and we’ll take what we can get, right? When I was playing in a local student big band in Saskatoon, the guy on second tenor was the funniest person I’d met up until then. His name was Jason — I can’t remember his family name, but he was Jason the tenor player — and he once said of his job at a video store, “Man, I was so busy today I didn’t have time to take a sh*t!” Suffice it to …
Campbell Interviews
Mary Robinette Kowal, last year’s Campbell Award winner, is posting a series of interviews on her blog with this year’s nominees. This week is my turn, and you can read the interview here. There are links to the other interviews in the series at the bottom of the post, and I recommend checking them out, as they’re quite interesting. I’m, looking forward to the last two as well. Thanks for posting these, Mary!