Snow for Thanksgiving

Nothing like an empty train station to make going to work fun.  We each got our own door getting on...

We got snow for Thanksgiving, as usual, even though it was 55 degrees in the morning.  Early 20s now.  Quite the drop.  But that's normal too...

I cooked my first turkey yesterday, with a friend, and it worked well.  Oven bags work...  We got a 15 lb. bird but then a family of six bailed, leaving less than ten of us, with three vegan/vegetarians, so there are a few leftovers...

I finished Pirate Cinema with mixed feeings, and now am returning to one of the books that scared the bejeesus out of me as a kid: Salem's Lot, by Stephen King.  When vampires were scary and didn't have detective agencies, fated romances, or comic timing.  And small towns were... well, what they always are in horror novels.  Very very small.

I forgot it started with the opening for Hill House as an epigram.  Very few writers can open a story like Shirley Jackson and terrify instead of evincing giggles.  I spent last weekend watching youtube videos of exploring abandoned farmhouses and rural mansions and hotels (like the one in The Shining), so Marsden House is extra vivid as King describes it.  Not sure I'm gonna sleep until it gets light out again at night...

Near-future fic with bite, and not so much

I've been out of it. Trying to find a used car before it snows to replace my truck that liked to slide around and fishtail even with 200 lbs of sand in the back, and just finally found something affordable yet decently kept up. The GF's son is getting married. Much planning and shopping and stressing.

I've mostly kept up with audio magazines and podcasts because they're hands- and eyes-free on the lightrail and at the gym.

But now I see there was a creepy near-future science fiction story in the New Yorker recently. It was timely, as a friend just succumbed to getting her daughter an American Girl and my niece had an American Girl party. Parents pulling their hair out all around me. Well, the mothers, anyway. Both fathers keep their heads shaved because with daughters, what else can you do...

Here's the link: . There's an interesting interview of the author up there too.

I've had this idea in my head for a story that's vaguely similar, and have been doing lots of reading about globalization and such to try and crack the nut that makes it not work very well. This story inspired me to try harder.

Another similar story that's very effective is Joanna Sinisalo's "Babydoll," which was nominated for a Nebula in 2009 and appeared in the Hartwell Cramer Best Of SF anthology for that year. This is the stuff I'd like to see more of in SF, stories that get at the socio-cultural-economic walls that the media-military-industrial complex has us up against. I like hyphens...

I just started Cory Doctorow's new YA release, Pirate Cinema. So far it's interesting but the main character is not very appealing and the corporate-government constant surveillance and domination premise even more overstated than Little Brother.

Teen boy protags whining about how oppressed they are while their mom fights the state for her disability benefits and dad tries to keep up at work to pay for the internet service teen boy throws in the toilet so he can make fanfic videos he won't even acknowledge making in ten years... they do not hook me from the get-go.

And as usual smart, tech *and* social-savvy teen girls are just the love interest backdrop and sexual objects, however hard the narrative works to give them more credit than usual for brains and strategic skills.  Why they want to service the protags with loyalty, sexual favors, and affection is generally unclear to me, but then, I'm biased.

(Momentary rant, likely somewhat unfair- These novels appreciate the presence of women, but don't really need them for the narrative to unfold, except as booty gained in the game. And look, a juiced-up Frankenbox just lands in your lap when you run away from home and lose your laptop on your first day of freedom. Oh, that's right, you did do some work on sll those sweatshop- produced parts...  And somehow you never have to consider selling your body or worry about rape while living on the streets and in squats deep in druglord territories. So oppressed, when Disney Inc. is the only real threat...)

But Pirate Cinema does have the usual tech and econ infodrops that make up for all that.  I will keep reading.  For the Win was less parochial and sheltered than the LB books and this one, as much as diversity is inserted here and there.  Sad it got less hype.

Of course,  Wired loves it.  Can ID more with the love letters to hacking chic...

Goblin Secrets

Will Alexander won the National Book Award for Children's Lit'r'ture!!  Writer's Night Out regular, Rain Taxi contributor, fellow alum, he's awesome, and Goblin Secrets is really good.

More here.  And a snippet from Ursula K Le Guin's review is there too.

We watched the live tweeting last night at WNOut and then did a little dance, sort of.  There was merriment. 

October is busy

Alif the Unseen

I am reading G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen, while listening to Shirley Jackson's creepy We All Lived in the Castle.

Alif has been getting a lot of attention.  So far it's interesting enough.  The setup is a good one- all the reviews cover that.  The setting is a nice change.  But large swaths are kind of lackluster for cyberpunk, with more of a dreamy fantasy pace.  (It combines elements of both.)  It's very heterosexual as well, in the way Oscar Wao is- lots of time in the head of a red-blooded if respectful young man.  The females are worship objects for him at the same time as they are capable smart players in their own right.  It's the loveable geek guy hero thing.  After reading Cory Doctorow recently,  I'm a little tired of that protag/POV...

The Jackson is just creepy.  She's almost too good at that.  Can't listen to it while falling asleep.

Cool!

Quite the find.   Though we don't all have acres of permafrost in the backyard.  What will they think to do with all this rich data...

This (last- post publishing delayed by Virgin/Sprint fail) weekend's Gaylaxicon was quite enjoyable, and much more approachable than I was worried it might be.  They had a meet and greet on Friday night where people seemed to be enjoying themselves and mingling and mixing beyond who they already knew.  I'm shy, so I can't say I was overly outgoing, but met some new people...

The panels were interesting.  I went to a discussion of YA that talked about different books that the usual recent bestsellers, with author Ginn Hale (The Wicked Gentlemen) making some good comments.  My panel went well.  People had some good ideas about why women underattend and what can and can't be done about it.  Kudos to Naomi Krirzer for organizing it last minute.  A panel on writing across genres was lively and interesting food for thought.

The GF busily ran her 10 mile warmup Saturday and then the TC 10 mile race on marathon Sunday, between panels.  There were some big meals interspersed to keep her from eating arms or legs.  Dim sum with a bunch of writers was fun and even had enough vegetarian options for three participants, dim sum being an iffy proposition sometimes.

Now I have a day off and can run tons of errands.  My truck decided to throw the enigine light and I have to decide whether to studiously ignore it while looking for a new car, or not...  Time to get something that doesn't reinjure my leg every time I drive it... 

I may not actually get much accomplished today though.  Already I'm like, "Is it naptime?"  While the dogs are looking at me like it's first walk of the day time.  This does not bode well for productivity.

Sensawunda

That's the thing:

"I think the sense of wonder that science fiction offers is closely related to the feeling of awe that science itself offers."

-from an interview of Ted Chiang 

A story can be good and not evoke this.  It can be very original and still not have that thang.  The thing I go to SF for that other fiction doesn't do.  That's what does seem to be missing lately.  As the critics keep saying, there's a lot of.competent and even great writing out there, but very little that gives that science fiction fix. 

I don't think this about diversity as in representation of more marginal peoples.  I think it's about diversity in terms of interests in different styles of fiction drawing new writers in; some bit of herdishness and magazine core feel and focus drawing more of the same; the very strong influence of TV and movie scifi - which has a very different focus and feel; the difficulty of envisioning nearish futures at the moment without missing something key that's already clearly in motion to other eyes, and the difficulty of optimism that isn't cheerleading and pessimism that isn't dehumanizing and lacking a sense of agency in some important way.  Writing stuff with the SF feel is very hard.  It takes energy, verve, and real research and application of some sense of logic.  Right and left brain work.  I think the other factor is so many people grinding out work to contract and focused on volume.  As the economy sucks and people are stressed and working too hard, and having difficulty seeing the opportunities, the change, and the posibilities vs. the obvious failures.  (SF also takes some mental distance, which can be a flaw.)  All coming together.

Fall camouflage

This weekend Gaylaxicon comes to town.  When did it become October? 

I'm on a panel about "Where are all the women" because Naomi Kritzer asked me to join.  I'm not sure I have any answers, but so far the panel topics aren't particularly intriguing.  I've heard there are always cute boys by the pool, but that's not really a draw for me...  I guess it's a fair question.

Should be a lot of interesting people in one place though.  I'll probably be excited once I'm there... 

There has been a lot of queer-focused SFF popping up lately, but little I've been very excited about.  I read some non-SFF YA I liked tho- Becoming Emily by local author Rachel Gold was a good basic trans teen read.  It managed to depict internal angst and family drama without falling into melodrama or cliches.  Or being pedantic.  Coming out stories are not easy to navigate these days, when it's not all new and silenced yet many teens face silencing, erasure, suppression, lack of information and community, and abuse nonetheless.

Now I'm listening to Elizabeth Hand's Radiant Days, which is technically fantasy but has more of a nostalgic feel really.  Lesbian protagonist in late 70s DC meets Rimbaud through a magical bum's lock house on the C&O canal.  She lays out decent historical DC graffiti writer background, I can say having just researched that, but the white chick protag taking credit for inspiring Disco Dan is whack, if sort of brashly Xenaesque.

I'm also reading lesbian author Carol Anshaw's latest novel, Carry the One.  It's weird and oddly grim and funny at the same time, like all her novels, which is to say I'm liking it so far...

Lynx move on in a squeaker!

One point up, Seattle time out wirh 3 seconds to go.  They all seemed tired, but it was a good game.

C in the sky tonight

Oh lord...  Wasn't that the song?

C in the sky keeps on turnin' I don't know where I'll be tomorrow Wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'...

I'm running down that dusty road...

Actually light rail to the Lynx game, hoping they can pull it out to beat Seattle and make it to the finals.