Friday, October 22, 2010

Writing politics

There's an uproar going on about a blog post on Apex books, regarding gender and table of contents in anthologies. Actually, its a little more complicated than that, but you can see for yourself if you're interested. (If you are, read the comments - they go on and on and on, including links to other responses).

I clicked on Sophy Z. S. Adani's response, as she was one of the editors of Destination: Future, where "Light Stones" was published. Her blog entry regarding it revealed something new to me - turns out, my little story was most likely chosen (although I will probably never know for sure) because of my gender. My first reaction is to feel sad about that, but in all reality, that story is so terribly flawed that I can hardly read it now. The plot itself works, but the writing...I'd change so many things. I'm very fortunate that it stood out enough for them to get this far (and maybe some day I can clean it up).

The whole point I'm getting to - the last major controversy was Elizabeth Moon's political post, and only recently, WisCon pulled her as the Guest of Honor - a very strong reaction, but I'm not sure what else they could do, considering their stance as the leading feminist SF convention.

I've been writing for awhile now, and before that, reading, but only in the last year or so have I immersed myself into the nitty-gritty below the surface, which happens in the blogosphere and Twitter, mostly. It's crammed as full of opinion and color as the music world is, with ugly things scattered amidst the truth, with both peace-loving wise people and crazies arguing to have their voices heard. For me, it seems like the wisest thing to do is sit back and stay quiet, even when I believe very strongly about something. And then if someone wants my opinion, they'll ask for it. (I'm not quite important enough. Yet.)

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And am I stalling around on other blogs in order to keep from working on the alchemist short? Yes.

OKC fall

The weather today looks like the current background of this blog, only darker, blustery, and with driving rain. It's lovely, but I'd prefer to be at home on the couch with hot chocolate, rather than at the quiet office, watching it through the window.

We're robbed of fall here in OK in both temperature (yesterday, it was almost 90 degrees) and color - the trees are all green, still, or a boring sort of green/brown/neutral.

Except for the one tree in the front yard, which has exploded into orange. I kept forgetting to take a picture of it until yesterday, although by then, it had lost so many of its leaves.





I've finished fairly solid drafts of both Parasite & Round Robin, now, and have posted them on OWW. Already I've gotten some good feedback, although I'm certain Parasite has a ways to go yet. One friend called it 'fascinating and complicated,' which was the exact experience I had in writing it; I had to break all the 'rules' in writing it, given Josephine's disability, which continues to have no shortage of complications.

While I wait for crits on that, I'm bringing up the alchemist story again, in hopes that things might just suddenly happen (like the end of Round Robin did, which had gone endless for nearly 2 years). It's a lot to hope for, but you never know.

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I want to make some of these recipes this weekend, particularly the Red Velvet cupcakes. Cupcakes! Just look at those delectable pictures. Surely there's a way to make a less sugary frosting? But chances are John may not care for them, which leaves the responsibility of consumption up to me; and I'm too quick to give in.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Zombie girl

She's finally up! My little junior high girl that doesn't belong. I'm glad she has found a good home at Flash Fiction Online.

I was talking with my sister Shannon a week ago or so about it, and my bro-in-law Benny asked if the story was a social commentary about America. I said he was more right than he thinks.

Yesterday, John and I went kayaking on some river (yes, I do not know my Oklahoma geography) through a nature preserve, on a 'nature trip.' There was little nature to be seen - other than many adorable turtles (John wanted to take them home, but I said no) and a few 2-legged creatures sitting on lawn chairs near some random hill. But they posed little threat. And the water was gorgeous, and John didn't tip his kayak over, nor try to tip me over like at the reunion; all were civil, and it was a lovely trip.

Then, butternut squash soup and French bread, both of which were amazing. I had far too much bread, but it was like Holly's crack dip - you just can't stop.





Today is not a typical Monday, yet - I've caught up at work, read some unusually humorous (unintentionally so) slush, two shorts critted, and now I have to fix "Parasite." John and I talked about what a parasite really is, and now I have an idea of what the story needs. I doubt I'll be able to pull it off completely, but that's what my writing buddies are for. Right? Right.