Some nice comments about my story, “Your Own Personal Genie” up on Every Day Fiction.

Cool.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

I’ll post a World Fantasy Con update soon, but first i need to clear out some of these tabs before my browser drowns in content.

Jeff VanderMeer’s “Book Life” looks pretty interesting. He also posted a list of reasources on the book’s site.

Been playing with spreeder.com. It supposedly increases your reading speed. We’ll see.

Sarah got me all excited about Ray Bradbury’s “Death Is A Lonely Business.” When i get home, i’m going to pick it up from the library. Nina says the protag is from “Dandelion Wine,” cool!

Wanna pick up a set of these Linux Stickers to trick out my laptop.

I twittered this, but i want to remember this List of Anarchist Science Fiction, there’s still stuff on here i haven’t read.

LOVE Virtual Box, i love it love it love it. With this install of XP, i doubt i’ll ever need a full Windows box again. *Squee*

How To Write Badly Well by Joel Stickley was pretty hilarious. Want to read the rest of it at some point.

Couple of pay-work sites i need to look over for Extanto: 10 Great Places to Find Web Design Jobs and
10 Great Places to Find Graphic Design Jobs (some overlap in both.)

This site rules: shareable.net is a list of resources and guides for open-sourcing the world.

My God, can U.S. healthcare be any more disastrous? Here are some charts on how we rank against other countries. Pretty bleak.

Creepy and strangely beautiful. This guy crafted a big head mask of himself.

I’m kind of delighted that Christopher Lee got knighted.

[UPDATE] *ahem* E.J. points out that this Magnetic Fields album is from 2004. But is still lovely.

Apostrophe, learn how to use it!

A couple of info-mapping Linux programs: FreeMind and Semantik.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

I’ll be a panellist at both World Fantasy Convention and OryCon.

World Fantasy:
Oct 29th – Nov 1st
San Jose, CA

OryCon:
Nov 27th – Nov 29th
Portland, OR

I’ll be doing signings and readings. Come see me!

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

So, as i’ve probably mentioned, i’m *ahem* a writer. Though lately i haven’t written much of anything. This must change.

Here’s what i wish i was doing lately:

1. Finishing the first 50 pages of “Losing Candyland.” (Some folks think it’s fine and i should just send it out. Others think it’s broke. I just want to do one last reorg and polish and send it out.)
2. Polishing the short stories i have and sending them out.
3. Writing a story a week.
4. Submitting to the major markets regularly.
5. Figuring out this !@#$ MFA thing.
6. Starting the next big project.
       Either the next novel.
       or a comicbook script.
       or a screenplay.
7. And i note that NaNoWriMo is right around the corner.

Some complications are that i will be travelling this month, am a panellist at TWO conferences (see next post), have lots of pay-work to do and am generally feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Furthermore, being sick and stuck in the house has left me really stir-crazy.

So here’s the plan:

1. Get out of the house.
2. Break everything down to reasonable chunks and only worry about the chunk currently in front of me.
3. Set a timer to force myself to take breaks.
4. Schedule each category for each work day. So some pay-work, some writing, some long term planning, some downtime.
5. Don’t spend all my downtime online.

I do want to do NanoWriMo or something similar, so part of this will be scheduling a chunk of time everyday to chip away at that.

So i might add a daily update to the bottom of my posts: What i’m working on , how it’s going, what comes next. We’ll see.

Who knows, maybe i’ll do another of my insane challenges or contests. I’ll keep you posted.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

I really appreciate you all for writing. Thanks.

I notice that i don’t really know how to move on here. What’s the next post after talking about danelé?

I think the worry that comes up is that it’ll look like i don’t care if i move on too quickly.

Screw it. I still care about danelé, i still miss her and feel sad.

But i have stuff to do, so new post to follow.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

danelé was a fighter.

Often for other people, sometimes against them, sometimes against herself. The adrenal cancer was supposed to have killed her years ago, but she stuck around and got on with living her life.

She spelled her name lowercase, so as to be more humble.

She collected people, cared for many. There was no one danelé would give up on. She was a crazy mix of wonder and fears. She was funny and infuriating and complex. I have regrets around my relationship with her, but i remember her explosive laugh and i’ll always owe her for the the years i was part of her family and for the years i got to help raise her son Ayden.

danelé believed in God. I hope she found everything she was sure came next.

She passed peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends. I hear that Ayden was supported by a group of friends who rarely left him. I’m glad. I hear she filled these years with celebration, connection, service and love that paralleled the suffering. I’m glad.

I’m not sure if i miss her yet. We weren’t talking and … well, I feel sad and a little empty and a little numb. It feels weird to write about her. I feel embarrassed, like i shouldn’t be talking about myself or how i feel. She went through five years of cancer, not me. She died. I’m still here.

Still, what else can i do?

I wrote her a tune. I don’t know if it says anything, but it made me feel better.

Actually it makes me smile thinking that she wouldn’t have liked it. I should have written a folk song. Anyway, here’s the track i wrote today ” For danelé. ”

danelé Joy Cousins
March 23, 1971 – October 22, 2009

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Recording tracks after 7pm seems to be becoming a trend.

Eh, i figure if i’m avoiding writing, i might as well be doing something creative.

Sarah asked me to make her a song. This is really just a sketch, only rhythm tracks, and i haven’t even begun to think about lyrics, but let’s just say it’s the thought that counts. K? Right, hon? Right?

Pop for Sarah, otherwise known as Popfors.

Now maybe i’ll go do a little writing before bed. :p

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Of dubious and questionable value to anyone. Last night i played around with making a glitch track.

After too much work, i gave up and went to bed. Upon listening this morning … well, *ahem* i present “Dude, What are you doing?”

You are warned.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

My novel, gently edited by one, or both of my little bundles of joy. Where’s the water bottle?

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Also, if you want to see our stories made into a slightly over the top music video:

and UPDATE on the Update:

For the folks who requested it, here’s my acceptance speech at the ceremony.

or just watch the vastly superior version Rhiannon made:

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Guess i should at least mention how it was to go down to Writers of the Future, right?

It was cool and crazy and sleepless. Met some really cool people, made some new friends… awesome.

If you’re a writer, and you aren’t yet eligible for SFWA, you should be submitting to this every quarter. Some people have concerns about the organization behind the contest. I’ll let Frederik Pohl address that. Writers of the Future gave me more money for a single story than i’ll ever likely see again.

They put me up in a hip, swank hotel.

My fellow students were talented, funny and just great to be around.

They made me write an entire story in 24 hours.

And while the first half of the ceremony was imperfect. The second half was amazing and touching.

Notice Hercules in the lower left corner.

That's Eric Kotani on my right. He was full of rule.

Before the ceremony, they unveiled our story art. I was blessed to have mine done by Ryan Behrens. You should watch for this guy’s name and/or hire him. He’s immensely talented.

Me with my artist, Ryan Behrens

The signings they arranged had their problems, but i generally had a great time and it was good practice for doing signings at cons.

I cut a rubber stamp specially for this book and stamped every book i signed. Whew. It was so many books that i used up an entire ink pad!

So, let’s sum up, class. It’s surreal, a decent little boost for your career, pays well and is a lot of fun.

Do it!

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

John E. Rogers, Jr. writes on the Asimov’s Forum:

“LIFE IN STEAM by Gra Linnaea
(Illustrated by Ryan Behrens)

The first truly superb story in the anthology. Answers the age-old question of what would have happened if James Blish had tried his hand at Steam Punk. This would. I hereby dub this sub-sub genre Steam Monk. Religious intolerance, agents of the Inquisition, artificial “Babbage” brains made of wood and brass, chasms full of clanking and hissing machinery, an impossibly alternate world where travel upward into the “heavens” involves spider ships that crawl along the fixed, solid firmament of the sky, crises of intellectual and spiritual “conscience,” and some good, old fashioned action. What’s not to love?”

I feel a little squee.

UPDATE

John goes on to say later:

“Linnaea’s bizarre, rule-breaking steam monk story “Life in Steam” exhibits a form of literary bravado (and bravura) we need to see more of.”

More squee!

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

What can i say, i have a lot of interests …

CATEGORY: Awesome

Paul Cornell picks the thirty best comics for next year’s hugo awards. Neil’s recent Batman comic is on there, which *ahem* prompted me to finally go read it. Good job, Neil!

Of the comics on the list, the Secret Six arc charmed me the most.

CATEGORY: Politics

Mamaherb: I love this site. It’s a non-profit wiki that lists real home remedies and herbal cures. What an amazing idea, get free health information into everyone’s hands.

Marion Nestle discusses, “What you should eat, and what companies want you to eat, are not necessarily the same thing.”

Listing of which seemingly friendly local organic brands are really owned by which major corporations.

CATEGORY: Writing Stuff

The Sarah pointed me at these cool articles on Avoidance speech, and Uncontacted_peoples

From there i found an article on the Taboo against naming the dead

Sarah also challenged my to write a story about Carousel horses, so i bookmarked this.

I have this weird idea to write a creepy story around the long and strange history of the song Hey Joe.

Oh, and Joe Hill mentioned this classic haunted house, and i wanted to look into it further.

My good friend Damien wrote this article on how authors can find their digital readership.

Sarah’s bugging me to submit to this Good Housekeeping story contest. They pay a ton!

CATEGORY: Techie

Developers create a tiny super fast OS in machine language.

If i ever have any money, munna get me a netbook!

This is awesome. SUSE linux has an online linux tester. You can build a linux install in your browser and then download an ISO of your exact build. Sweet!

I’m really pleased to see Sony moving away from DRM eBooks.

Also awesome. These hardware hackers have built a scalable modular motherboard. This is possibly the future of computing hardware.

CATEGORY: Learnin’

Still looking at MFAs. Here’s some northwest possibilities:

Courses in British Colombia. (Though i hear they arn’t down with non-realist fiction, especially traditional genre.)

The Whidbey Island Writing Workshop sounds really cool and they offer a MFA. Hmmm…

Which reminds me, i need to get my old transcripts from Central and Colombia.

Ok, enough for now.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Dear Bob,

There’s this thing called the Uncanny Valley, and you’ve apparently built a summer home there.

Yes, i agree, technology is really cool and computers are pretty sweet too, but you see, we wacky humans have this response to “nearly human” stuff. When you get close to human, but not quite there, we get really creeped out.

When you made your first zombie flick, The Polar Express, i know you didn’t mean to make children cry, but when zombie Tom Hanks takes the train full of zombie children to zombie Santa …

Uncanny valley, Bob.

Then came Beowulf. Sure, i know Grendel is supposed to be scary, but you know, when zombie Ray Winstone macks on zombie Robin Wright Penn, but then gets seduced by zombie Angelina Jolie, it’s not sexy, Bob, it’s kinda creepy.

It’s partially the dead eyes that don’t quite track the way they should. it’s somewhat the poorly articulated hands that seem to grope at things LIKE THE LIVING DEAD. *ahem* sorry.

Now you’re making the uncanny valley zombie version of A Christmas Carol

… will zombie Jim Carrey and … oh you get the idea, it looks really disturbing and … it’s time to stop, Bob.

We love special effects, Bob. We really do. The world is ready for another live action Contact, or Forrest Gump, or even another Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Back To The Future, Bob.

Come on, come out of the valley.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

So,

I notice i’m spending a sizable chunk of my time and attention on NOT WRITING.

This is an issue.

Ok, sure, i’m researching MFAs (or feeling overwhelmed and getting nothing done about MFAs) and my Writers of the Future award and workshop are coming up fast, but … i feel grumpy about not writing.

Me no like.

I think it might be time for me to do another DIFFICULT AND LUDICROUSLY PUBLIC CHALLENGE.

I have some ideas, but nothing has quite come together yet. May have to wait till i get back from WotF. But i know it’s going to involve YOU and will be about setting daily goals and completing them and possibly CASH challenges.

Stay tooned.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

My browser is getting out of control again, so …

CATEGORY: Awesome

I was thinking about where countries get their names (especially the names other countries call them), so Sarah sent me this neat list of Country Name Etymologies.

Wow, 100 Years of Design Manifestos, cool! (thanks, Noah!)

Emma Bull started this coolio writing project based on her love of Man from U.N.C.L.E., Shadow Unit!

My God, World of Goo is the most addictive game ever! (Thanks, E.J.)

I think Neil sent around this. An archive of comic book scripts. I’m thinking my next project after the novel will be a script, so, very useful. I also have been looking at a few how-tos, this and this weren’t too bad, but you should probably start with Scott McCloud’s Making Comics, and maybe this or this.

Oh, and i don’t want to forget this cute place in Montreal. I’m hoping to stay there sometime soon. *squee*

CATEGORY: of no interest to anyone

I have some work coming up where i need to program in *ack* Silverlight. Ignore this section.
Silverlight
Windows Presentation Foundation
Extensible Application Markup Language
Windows Presentation Foundation
Silverlight training vids and WPF training vids
.NET framework
move along, move along…

CATEGORY: Techie

I’ve got big plans for this here page. Hoping soon to make a splash page with my publication covers and would love to have some separate feeds going for music and fiction.

The wordpress site has some interesting info on how to do it here.

And these plugins have a lot of potential for setting up what i want: WordPressMU, WP Hive, Virtual Multiblog, and Multiply.

Oh, and i need to hold onto this. I’m helping Sarah get a webcam for her ancient iBook.

CATEGORY: Learnin’

Because i’m stupid, i’m thinking about going back to school to get my MFA. (Advice welcome in the comments section.) A bunch of my Clarion friends have been helping out.

Actually, i should hit up Nalo, she’s pretty much doing what i’d like to do (traveling around, teaching courses everywhere and writing amazing stuff.)

Here’s a bit of what i’ve been thinking about:

Jeff Vandermeer started this exciting thread on MFA programs who respect “Non-Realist Fiction,” mostly in the UK.

My friend Monica pointed me at this MFA blog.

Obviously wherever i go has to respect speculative fiction. I’m seriously looking at Stonecoast, Warwick, Middlesex, Napier, University of Kansas, CU-Boulder, Chapman, Syracuse, University of Cincinnati, USC, The New School, and CCA.

I’ve also got tabs open for FAFSA and The Pell Grant.

Ok, that’s enough for now. Only three tabs open. Ahhhhhhh…

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Sarah sent me this. It’s touching and amazing and you should watch it.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Sarah sent me this. It’s touching and amazing and you should watch it.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

Ever since i found this i just can’t get it out of my head. I’ve infected Sarah, Em, J, Diana, and a bunch of other friends with it. (Em-Bear hates it though.) I’ve watched it at least once a day for the last four days and one of us randomly brings it up every hour or so. It’s … hypnotic.

Mashups make people sound crazy, but frankly the source interview is just totally insane.

———————————————

I’m now so addicted to shatner music that i have to watch this one daily too.

Go ahead, watch it, feel the zen.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.

All wired after a night a literary snarkery, reliving one of my favorite nights at Clarion. Real content and writing challenges coming soon, but for now, Tab Close!

I don’t think i quite have the hang of how Neil does this. But here’s what’s currently open in my browser:

—————————–

Been meaning to read Benjamin Rosenbaum’s “Biographical Notes to
‘A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes‘” for forever. I love his stuff and Sarah opened this on my computer. Soon, soon…

Also, possibly the single best short story title ever: Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs By Leonard Richardson

—————————–

Want to read this Washington Post article on the posible upswing of the economy.

—————————–

I’m slightly embarrassed that i started researching the rational behind the creation of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Moving on…

—————————–

East coast Em wants me to write a story about Sephardi Jews. She says Benjamin Rosenbaum will give me a cookie if i do.

The second i started actually doing research for a story, i became instantly addicted to Google Timeline.

Speaking of research, i want to write a story for John Joseph Adam’s The Way of the Wizard Anthology set during the Portuguese Inquisition. I think this map will be useful.

Sarah pointed me at this article about The Nemesis for said story. I mix all this together and i get … who knows?

—————————–

Really digging on Lilith Saintcrow’s Writers And Social Media: The Shoulds and Should NOTs.

—————————–

Ahhhhh … that makes my browser much more slim and easy.

Originally published at Grá Linnaea. Please leave any comments there.