The Plague Documents

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.

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 ;->

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.

Got my contract all sorted out, so "White Death" should be appearing in the January 2007 edition of The Harrow.

Otherwise, I'm working away on revisions to "The Oracle of Building 42."

Got my 2d bee as a reviewer on the oww, which means I've done 150 reviews on the workshop =8-O. Only 200 more, and I get a 3rd bee! Anyway, new icon of bees from an Audubon print in celebration.

Also posted completed draft of "The Oracle of Building 42" to the workshop.

And that's all the news for now. I'm off to Tai Chi class.

Looks like my story, "Promise Them Aught," will be appearing in issue #7 of Apex Digest, as I got an "Issue Seven Contributor news" email from jason_sizemore today. Yippeee :-).

Finished (finally) a draft of "The Oracle of Building 42"--the story I've been working on for about a month. I want to look it over again tomorrow and then post it to the oww. I'm still thinking to submit this one for the Baycon Writers' Workshop. It will be my first experience with face-to-face humiliationworkshopping. Somehow it seems much easier to take in the relative anonymity of online...

Speaking of the oww, I've been participating in the "April crit marathon," and have come pretty close to my goal of a crit per day. One more, and I'll have my second bee!

I swiped some pics from the Caltrans website of the damage to the Coast Highway. Here's one:



Not only are there boulders and huge cracks in the asphalt, but the entire road-bed is sliding down the cliff into the sea.

Apart from the serious inconvenience to all local residents, I am having deja vu concerning one of the first stories I ever wrote (and the only one I've ended up trunking to date, in fact I don't even know where it is now). It had invasive species and an alien farmer who got people addicted to the rare alien fruit available only at his fruit-stand. Thing is, I located this stand at the entrance to the farm where my horse is now boarded. At the time of writing, I hadn't even imagined I'd ever have a horse of my own, nor did I know there was boarding at that farm. In my story, the same stretch of road was damaged (which is nothing new, it happens regularly), and my protagonist was so desperate to get to this fruit stand, that she tries to talk her way past the officer guarding the roadblock by telling him she had to go check on her poor horse. Is the universe trying to tell me something?

Other than all the above, I've been listening to the audio-book version of A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester. It's about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 100th Anniversary of which is coming up on April 18th.

I need some. Or else I should be committed...

I signed up for the oww March Madness Writing Marathon in hopes of jump-starting the novel I toyed with during NaNo. I needed to do some background research before I could start writing, and now I've done that, so... I set a modest goal of one hour per day, which is doable even on fairly bad days. I've never been good with word-count goals, but I may try that once I get started. I'll aim for more time too.

Miss horse is settled into her field now with her not-so-little horse friends, and it's expected to pour with rain for most of the next couple of weeks. So, I should have more time at my computer.

And thanks to Apex Digest for a boost to my self-confidence :-)

*cracks knuckles and puts fingers to keyboard*