The Plague Documents

Gratuitous Icon Post

2009-10-02T00:08:59Z

Hello Ardi! Ardipithcus ramidus, Lucy's great great great great great...grandmother.

I am delighted to meet her :-)

Review!

2009-07-24T17:47:56Z

It's not new (dated Nov, 2008), but I've only just run across a review of Neo-opsis #15 on "The Fix". The review of "The Knife in the Mirror" is generally favorable, and the criticisms gave me some things to think about.

Where were you?

2009-07-20T14:24:48Z

Yeah, yeah, I know. A lot of you weren't born.

NASA's new enhanced version of the original footage (which they apparently taped over years ago and had to retrieve copies from news outlets)

Long time, no updates

2009-05-04T02:01:33Z

Because I haven't been doing much with my fiction for quite some time. I am currently working on something, and actually have a rhythm going, which feels great.

In the meantime, I do have a scientific publication coming out soon in Birth Defects Research Part B: Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology. I'm not sure exactly which issue it will appear in, but I went over the galleys about a week ago.

The experience got me thinking about the profound differences between academic writing and publishing versus fiction. For one thing, I was required to sign over copyright to the journal. Well, not me personally, but rather our deputy director had to sign over copyright for work coming out of our Office on which I am first author.

Open access to scholarly works is an issue in itself. A little information on a proposed bill that would prevent the NIH from requiring that publications based on tax-payer funded research be freely available to the public can be found here. I'm not sure what the current status of the bill is, but I know I sure appreciate having free access to scientific literature online -- when I want to research something for a story (because I don't abuse my work library privileges!).

From a writing standpoint, scientific literature seems to be slowly moving away from the obligatory passive voice for everything. Which is good, up to a point, until it's not. Interesting essay by Geoff Nunberg at the end of Fresh Air the other day on when and how the passive voice should be used. Someone posted a comment on the podcast linking this hand-out from UNC; I thought it was both concise and useful.

Happy Darwin's 200th Birthday!

2009-02-12T23:14:15Z

I think it is amazing and wonderful that Darwin and Lincoln were born on exactly the same day.

Furlough Friday the First

2009-02-06T19:50:59Z

So I guess I'll be having more time on my hands. I'm trying to find the silver lining, in that I have recently started writing again. The long dry spell was more about time and exhaustion than being "blocked" per se; still, I have noticed through the years that I seem to have more creative drive when life is not going so well. So maybe that bodes well for a bit of renaissance here ;->

Woo Hoo!

2008-09-30T15:48:45Z

Issue 15 of Neo-Opsis is in print, including my story "The Knife In the Mirror." Just got my contributor's copies yesterday, and I am a very happy camper!

Countries I've visited

2008-06-19T01:04:45Z

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

It's a little deceptive, as my two days in St. Petersburg makes it look like I've been all over the former Soviet Union... But still, kind of a fun little exercise.

Baycon, 2008

2008-05-30T01:51:47Z

Baycon is a commuter event for me, which is good, because I don’t have to spring for a hotel and can sleep in my own bed. It is also bad, because it allows me get away with not schmoozing, and I miss any and all evening events. This year was worse than usual, because I haven’t been entirely well (though nothing compared to the Wiscon plague!). Also my oldest son was home from college for the long weekend and I wanted to spend time with him. So, my attendance was pretty limited.

I arrived Saturday around noon, in time to register and grab a rather nice grilled chicken sandwich out by the pool. Then headed off to the 1pm panel on "Plot Point Research." Panel members were: Kage Baker, Tim Powers, Irene Radford, Walter Hunt, Lisa Goldstein, and Tony Todaro. Although I didn’t learn a whole lot that was new to me, it was good to have confirmation that I’m not going about it in some blinding wrong way. Nor am I the only one who has a problem with getting so involved with researching minutia that the writing gets neglected. Except that this bunch manages to get stuff written somehow... I was hoping for an answer to "Considering that you’ll never know everything knowable about your subject, how do you decide when enough research is enough?" Tim Powers admitted that he used research as a procrastination technique, which was not something I needed to hear.

Irene Radford mentioned a yahoo group, "joysofresearch," that operates something like little_details. Tim Powers said he does most of his research using books, and typically makes his own little index on the flyleaf for the weird stuff he wants to keep track of. I was unduly pleased by this, as I typically use post-it notes with indexing notations to do the same thing. Not surprisingly, each writer had their own unique means of organizing research materials. A couple used electronic systems, but most of the group expressed a preference for notebooks or index cards. Above all, what left me happy in the end was hearing how Tim Powers and Lisa Goldstein both tend to work by reading up on stuff that interests them, and then sparking off unexpected connections or coincidences; mining the intersections, as it were. I love doing exactly that, and it’s nice to know that in the right hands it really can lead to something.

I had planned to stay for the Tim Powers interview at 4 pm, but was feeling so lousy that I decided to leave early instead. I did spend some time catching up with my dear friend Nora, who was working at the art show this year. Went home around 3:30, and went to bed.

Sunday morning, I felt a bit better, so I headed out and made it in time for an 11:30 panel on small press. This one was moderated by Marty Halpern, who edits freelance for Tachyon Publications, Nightshade Books, and other small presses. Other panel members were Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Derek McCaw, Jennifer Brozek (Edge of Propinquity), and Norman Sperling (Journal of Irreproducible Results). The session was generally aimed more at small press book and anthology publishing than short stories in print or ezines. Again there wasn’t much new to me, but it’s always good hear what’s going on first hand. The panelists were in agreement that for selling a first novel, it’s no bad thing to have published excerpts or spin-offs as short stories. It helps to convince publishers that your work already has an audience that can be built upon. Margaret Fisk said something which did surprise me: that a short story in an anthology published as a book "counts" as a book publication in the eyes of publishers. Norman Sperling emphasized that in working with non-traditional publishing methods (small press, POD, even self-publishing) there are a number of elements or tasks which must be done, but do not necessarily need to be done by the same company (as they would be by a traditional publisher). These include copy-editing, printing, and marketing. He advised looking closely at what a publisher offers, and making sure you can fill in any gaps by other means (i.e. either do it yourself or pay someone else).

The last panel I attended was "You Don’t Even Know!" which started at 2:30. Panel members were Kage Baker, Leigh Ann Hildebrand, and Sandra Saidak. The somewhat cryptic title was referring to writers creating characters of a gender, race, culture, religion, or sexual orientation other than their own. Bad idea or good idea? What is needed to do this well, as opposed to cringe-worthily? I thought the panel was somewhat hampered by consisting strictly of white women, but then maybe it was a good thing as these three white women were clearly quite different from one another. Again, nothing startling: pay attention, be respectful of your characters and their different backgrounds, do your homework, and remember that at base we are all human with human concerns (even our alien characters, as they are written by and for humans). Long after the panel was over, I did think of a couple of questions/comments I wish I had made but didn’t think of in time. Age never came up, and I think it should have. Obviously, no matter how old we are, we’ve been younger, but what about young authors trying to write accurately from the POV of older people? Also, I was trying to think of an author, any author, who fails utterly at one sort of character (cardboard women, for example), but who writes other types of characters well. I couldn’t think of any examples. Writers either seem to "get" the art of writing rounded, realistic characters...or not.

And that was pretty much it for me. I visited with my friend, Nora, some more, and checked out the art show and the dealers’ room. Beautiful costumes for sale, as well as lots of tempting books. I resisted on the grounds of no room/not much call for costumes. I have already hit the library, however, and have resolved to do more reading in genre.

All in all, I think I did get the kick in the arse I was hoping for. I’ve also requested a couple of the books calico_reaction reviewed favorable in her quest to identify good books for recovering from procrastination/block. The former of which is much more my problem than "block" per se. I do have a lot of competing interests (work, family, horse), but I also am inclined to fritter, which is what I need to stop doing if I’m ever going to get back to producing more than a few scribbled notes now and then.

Woo Hoo!

2008-01-22T16:20:27Z

Neo-opsis is buying "The Knife in the Mirror"! I don't have details on the issue yet, but will post as I get more information. I am so, so, so pleased about this!

In other news, I have my copy of Potter's Field 2. Beautiful color cover and black and white illustrations. Not to mention eleven creepy and wonderful stories. All horror lovers should buy a copy immediately!

I'm afraid I'm still finding myself slug-like and disorganized when it comes to actually completing anything new. The essence of the problem is too many competing obligations and interests for my time, which makes procrastination way too easy. I'm working on it, and recent good news can only help.

No, I'm not dead, and Woo Hoo!

2007-12-03T02:23:02Z

The Potter's Field 2 anthology is now available from Samsdot Publishing -- with my story "The Resurrection Men." I haven't actually seen it yet, but from the website, the cover art looks beautiful.

Otherwise I don't have much of anything to report: a bit of pottering, but I haven't finished anything new in...way too long. I'm failing at making the time to actually write (rather than simply scribble hurried notes) or post and comment much here either. *vows to do better*

Also, I want to apologize to a couple of people whose comments on the previous post I accidentally deleted when trying to get rid of some spam. Sorry. I appreciate the comments and did not mean to delete them.

Updates to reading blog

2007-08-11T21:34:46Z

I've made some additions to my much-neglected reading blog, You Are What You Read. New entries are notes on:

The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore.

Living Dangerously; The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong by Mark Cotta Vaz.

and

Imaginary Weapons; A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld by Sharon Weinberger.

Also, I wanted to mention a round-table discussion on biological sciences in science fiction organized and published by the journal Nature. Write-up available here Participants were:

"Ken Macleod took a master’s in biomechanics and worked as a computer programmer before becoming a full-time writer based in Edinburgh. He is the author of the Engines of Light novels, the Fall Revolution novels and most recently of The Execution Channel.

Joan Slonczewski is a microbiologist and a professor of biology at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She is the author of six science-fiction novels, most recently Brain Plague.

Paul McAuley has been a full-time writer, almost exclusively of science fiction, since the late 1980s; before that he was a lecturer in botany at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His latest novel is Players.

Peter Watts says he has a spent much of his adult life trying to decide whether to be a writer or a scientist, ending up as a marginal hybrid of both. Having done research in marine biology, he is the author of the Rifters trilogy and most recently of Blindsight."

Submission

2007-07-10T01:01:53Z

One away to Aeon.

In other news, I just finished listening to the audio version of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, which was both interesting and hilarious. She covers pretty much all optional fates for human remains including: organ transplant donor, anatomical dissection, rotting for study in a forensic experiment, cremation, composting, cannibalism, crash-test dummy, and so on. Brought back a lot of old memories of anatomy labs, as well as the time a lecturing professor stumbled into the cabinet holding the class skeleton, which proceeded to pop out on its sliding hanger like something from an amusement park haunted house. Except that said professor never missed a beat, just kept right on talking. Good times.

Monthly round-up (June 2007)

2007-07-06T00:42:15Z

Not much new to report.

Rejections from Strange Horizons and Heliotrope. Still on hold with subs at Neo-opsis, Trabuco Road, and Renard's Menagerie. I'm planning to query that last one, as I've heard nothing yet and it's been awhile.

Potter's Field 2 is now filled, and scheduled for publication in October 2007, with yours truly on the TOC *happy dance*

I had some cards made on the free offer from "Moo Cards", and I have to say they are really nifty. Wish I'd had them to give out at Baycon.

Biggest news is that eldest son graduated from high school this month. It didn't seem like it would be that big of a milestone (it's not like him finishing was in any doubt), but somehow, it IS. He's off to college in the fall, and I'm torn be between being happy for him and desolate at the thought of his being gone. I do have plans however to get younger son to move his computer in the vacated room (where there's an internet connection). Yes, I realize he'll have less supervision, but I'll get my office back in the evenings!!!!!!

Monthly round-up (May 2007) and Baycon

2007-06-02T01:28:05Z

Stories pretty much in a holding pattern.

One in the slush at Strange Horizons

Another in the slush at Renard's Menagerie

Two stories in second read piles, one at Neo-opsis, and one at Trabuco Road.

So that's everything I have completed: either sold or out home-hunting.

A story WIP, that exists in scattered notes at this point. And bits and parts for a novel, that I really would like to get back to, but I want to finish the story first (at least a proper draft).

I probably won't get much done for the next couple of weeks. Eldest graduates high school next week, and my parents are arriving tomorrow. *sigh* I'll do my best to steal some time on the alpha smart.

Spent Sunday and Monday at Baycon 2007. Saturday I let my husband talk me into going kayaking at Point Reyes (Tomales Bay to be more precise), which actually turned out to be pretty fun. Oh, and part of the novel I'm supposedly working on is going to be set in that area, so it was a writing-related trip ;->.

Anyway, I have to confess I'm not a great con person. I'm shy, I'm not good at parties, and I can't remember names for the life of me :-(. Still, thanks to a dear old friend from college who is on the staff and knows everyone, I had a wonderful time. The most interesting talk I went to was by Janice Voss, former astronaut, currently Science Director for the Kepler Project, the purpose of which is to seek Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars. Most of the other sessions I attended had to do with various aspects of publishing. At one session on editing, the editor of The Journal of Irreproducible Results had a list of topics he'd like to see articles on. I grabbed it with glee, as there were several subjects listed that are things I've been interested in for some time. I'd love to have something published there, so I do plan to give it a try.

I'm not dead!

2007-05-10T16:14:20Z

...it's just that my home office tends to be full of noisy family during non-work hours, so I'm chased away from my internet-connected computer after 5 and on the weekends. Darn that pesky husband and kids!

Anyway, some progress to report:

"The Resurrection Men" will be appearing in Potter's Field 2. Woo Hoo!

Trabuco Road and Neo-Opsis are both holding stories for further consideration.

Other stories in the slush at Strange Horizons and Renard's Menagerie.

I am puttering away on something new, but sad to say it's not coming very fast.

Baycon is coming up over Memorial Day Weekend. I have bought my membership! My husband is dragging me off kayaking on the Saturday though, so my actual attendance is likely to be spotty.

And that's about it!

Submission

2007-04-03T01:25:57Z

Subs out to Potter's Field 2 and Renard's Menagerie.

Trying again to post the Apex Digest banner...

2007-04-02T03:50:14Z

Edited to add: YAY! It worked!!!

Doh!

2007-04-02T03:39:12Z

I forgot to include that I subbed a story to Asimov's on January 16. Haven't heard anything yet.

Also, I had a response already from my query to Neo-opsis, and my story there is still under consideration. Fingers crossed!

No, I'm not dead

2007-04-02T01:42:09Z

Just haven't had much report lately. In February we took a 10-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera, which conveniently originated in San Francisco. It was lovely until we left Cabo for the 2-day sail home, during which time my oldest son came down with a nasty case of Camphylobacter jejuni. He was very ill for a couple of weeks. No sooner did he finally get pretty much back to normal, when our area was hit with an outbreak of Equine Herpes Virus-I, a highly contagious and potentially fatal horse disease. No vaccine, no 100% effective treatment. So all the local barns/ranches have been on voluntary quarantine, and precautions have been extraordinary. Fortunately, the efforts appear to have paid off, and while we're not completely out of the woods yet, it's been about 3 weeks since any new cases have appeared.

Excuses, excuses, but seriously, writing has been on a back burner. I have been pottering around a little with a new story, but am no where near even having something like a draft at this point.

In the meantime...

Yesterday I received a rejection from Weird Tales for a story I'd submitted in early March of 2006, and withdrawn back in August. Good thing they didn't decide to buy it, because afaik it's still under consideration at Neo-opsis (although I just queried them today, as it's time...).

Polite rejection from The Harrow

Polite rejection with helpful comments from Clarkesworld Magazine

Form reject from IGMS

Other than that...I'm thinking to participate in the oww's annual April critithon. I should get moving, I think it started today.

Also, Baycon is coming soon to a town near me. Unfortunately, I've nothing to submit to the writers' workshop this year, but I'll definitely be attending at least part of the time. Anyone else going?

Submission

2007-01-19T06:01:13Z

"The Oracle of Building 42" went off to Asimov's today. One of the pro reviewers from the Baycon workshop said he thought it was something Sheila Williams might like. So, I figure it's worth a try!

Now I have no more excuses for not either starting something new (out of one of the half-~~baked~~formed ideas floating around in my head), or getting serious again about my NaNo novel.

Submission

2007-01-13T05:10:03Z

Stories off to Clarkesworld Magazine and The Harrow this week.

Someone posted to The Rumor Mill about a sale to Neo-opsis. I've had one there since the beginning of August, and was notified some while back that it went into a 2d read pile...so maybe there's still reason to hope.

Also have one that's been in the queue at
IGMS since mid-October. The editor mentions on his blog that they're down to about 100 stories out of several several thousand. Hopefully mine is in that pile. Though of course maybe they've just lost it (which has happened to me all too often), and even more likely they'll reject in the end *sniff*. But heh, in the meantime, I have hope.

In fun news, I got a big box of goodies from Apex Digest: issue #8, my copy of Aegri Somnia, and (how could I resist?) a global domination mug. So, I'm all set.

Revisions to "The Oracle of Building 42" underway at long last.

Update; Happy New Year!

2007-01-05T01:46:47Z

The holidays were pretty much insane, and before that I wasn't very well for a couple of weeks following Thanksgiving. So I am ashamed to admit I didn't accomplish very much in December at all.

A few things have happened though, so I will report:

"White Death" is now online at The Harrow. Yay!

I WON the Apex Digest drawing for displaying a banner for Aegri Somnia on my journal. My prize was a copy of Scott Nicolson's novel, The Farm--autographed and everything! My prize has arrived (thank you, Jason! *blows kiss*), and though I haven't had a chance to read it yet, it looks great!

Otherwise the only change is that "The Stampeders" came back from Aberrant Dreams. So I'm looking for markets, and easing back into a workable routine of writing and critting. Also among my New Year's resolutions are logging into this journal more often and being more sociable :-)

Monthly round up (November 2006)

2006-12-02T01:55:08Z

Well, NaNoWriMo is over for another year, and at 25,998 total words, I am not a winner. But, heh, I'm not a loser either :-). I really did get what I wanted out of the effort: it forced me to establish some better writing habits and learn to make use of little dribs of time.

Regarding my putative historical-fantasy novel, it's going to take place in at least two different eras (possibly three), so at least I now have a definite handle on what I want to do with one of those eras (characters, scenes, and what details I *have* to research to make my scenes work).

Out of force of habit, I kept working on it this morning *big grin*

In other news...

The only change from last month is that "The Resurrection Men" came back from Horror Library 2. Their note makes it sound as if they gave it serious consideration, but maybe they were just being polite. I'm not sure where to send it next. At 5,500 words, there aren't that many markets left that I haven't tried yet. Call me defeatist or curmudgeonly, but I can't be bothered with subbing to Weird Tales or Cemetery Dance (even though I enjoy reading both these publications). I'm just out of patience with waiting for six months plus for no response at all. So I'm thinking maybe Talebones or Potter's Field Two.

My goals for this month are to whip "The Oracle of Building 42" into shape and send it out, and to look serious at spinning off a short story from my NaNo ramblings. There seem to be several age of sail/pirates themed anthologies seeking subs at the moment, which dovetail nicely with what I've been working on.

And that's it for now! New "Dr. Who" and "Battlestar Galactica" tonight -- woo hoo!

Monthly round up (October 2006)

2006-11-10T01:11:06Z

"The Resurrection Men" is still in the slush at Cutting Block Press's Horror Library, Vol 2".

"The Proust Effect" is at Intergalactic Medicine Show, awaiting its turn ~~for rejection~~.

Aberrant Dreams has had "The Stampeders" since the end of July. Their guidelines say 1-5 months, so I guess in another month I can start to whine ;-).

"The Knife In The Mirror" is still waiting hopefully at Neo-opsis.

"The Oracle of Building 42" has been up on the oww, and has gotten some very useful feedback. As soon as NaNoWriMo is over I will take it down, polish it up, and send it winging on it's way into the world.

Another positive review of my story ("Promise Them Aught") in Apex Digest #7 up at SFRevu. Also, nice comments from Michele Lee on her LJ at leatherzebra.

Speaking of Apex, Aegri Somnia, an anthology of work by featured authors (including our own Jennifer Pelland!) is available to preorder. I'll post the banner, just as soon as I can figure out how to make it show up...

As for NaNo...I'm at 8,806 words as of yesterday, which is behind, but an absolutely amazing total for me. Wrote some more this morning, but haven't downloaded it off my alpha smart yet. "Win" or not, there'll be no losing. It's great discipline for me :-D

Right, back to NaNo with me for now :-)