Christmas

How was my Christmas?

Not as good as my Thanksgiving.

Bah humbug and then some.

MK

Red Dog Art

Recently I answered a few questions for the artist over at Platinum Giraffe. Now I have cool art. Merry Christmas to me!

I thought you might like to see it too.

A Brief Red Dog Q&A (fool human)

The artist over at Platinum Giraffe asked me a few questions about Red Dog recently and I thought it might be interesting to the other three people who read the blog to see the questions and answers as well. (And no, I am not going to explain the nidus and the vespiary!)

Does he have antennae?

Yes, standard millipede with maybe just a touch of the moth-like feathering to help pick up pheremones.

How does he hold things?

Cilia and chitin hooks (think of the ridges on a preying mantis' front legs.) The cilia are also sticky.

How are his back legs spaced?

Millipede standard, one pair per segment. That's a bunch of legs and they go all the way up. He turns his upper segments upright to use the front legs as arms but every segment has legs.

How does he smell things?

Like most pseudo-insects, he smells very differently from humans. Antennae polyps give him pheremone and veremone access while, like crickets and some other true insects, he also breathes through his knees and has lesser chemical receptors there as well. (Bugs are built WEIRD.)


Double mandibles. Is it one set inside of the other, or one set in front of another?

One set inside the other. An outer, larger set for gripping prey and a smaller inner set that is more beak-like for ripping it into digestable chuncks.

Can he curl up into a ball like a millipede?

Yes although, because his is old and large, not as tightly as a younger and smaller Cillian. As a result, he's more likely to "hunch and bunch" than truly curl up, especially since curling is a defensive posture and Red Dog doesn't really do defense.

Calamity's Child Art 5x5 (part two)

So, this is what I ended up painting. I called it Selous' World (the reference should make sense if you've read the book.)

Now, one of the neat things about the 5x5 canvases is that they are stretched around a wooden frame that is a bit over an inch deep. To a guy that likes to use chapter titles as a way to add content to a book, I thought, why not use the side too? This is the angled view.

Despite my considerable lack of skill, the canvas was, indeed, purchased.

Another Calamity's Child Review

http://www.wonderlanddecksanddelights.com/2013/11/14/calamitys-child-m-keaton-review


Just thought I'd bring this very flattering review to your attention:

Hope you enjoy it. (Hope the stupid interweb lets the link work, otherwise you're back to pasting the link in the browser again.)

http://www.wonderlanddecksanddelights.com/2013/11/14/calamitys-child-m-keaton-review

MK

Calamity's Child Art 5x5 (part 1)

The Arts Center of the Ozarks (ACO) has every year as a fundraiser an event they call 5x5. The 5 refers to the inches of canvas. In brief, people are allowed to paint a five inch by five inch canvas for the Arts Center and the center auctions them off. Believe it or not, I--with my stick-figure art skills--was allowed to participate. I must say that I was quite happy to be involved because ACO is a charity that I cannot afford to donate to and they always let me (and anyone else) in to view their exhibits for free.

So, I painted. What did I paint? Here's a hint. This is my practice page of studies on acacia.

Fleet: Great mil. SF now in print

I tried to insert the cover image of the magazine here but I have a suspicion that it's not going to show up. Stupid interweb. Just wanted to let everyone know that there's a story of mine in the October issue of "Outposts of Beyond." Fleet is a violent little novella full of exploding star ships. I like it. I wrote it but even I like it. A bit of trivia for those who care: Fleet was inspired by the cover of the Ray Gun Revival issue in which Subject Real ran for the first time. I loved the cover even though it didn't fit Subject Real at all so I wrote a different story. Further trivia, Fleet is set in the same universe as Chuin Sartre's Wall but on the other side of the Stellar Crescent about fifty years later. If you happen to be a beta-reader, you might see some of the tech curve of that universe in this story. What was cutting edge research in CSW is now standard weaponry in Fleet. Anyway, I put the link to the magazine in the sidebar and hope you enjoy the story. As an added bonus, the mag. also has an article by my Dreams of Steam editor Kimberly. Update: Of course there's not picture. Plus my paragraph breaks are disappearing. Either stupid interweb is getting dumber or I am. (Smart money is betting on "both.") I have GOT to get a new kitten before the entire website and blog fall apart. =sheesh=

Home Safe

Home in one piece. Off to sleep and hide for a few weeks. Wonderful time. MK

Off to 'Clave--Take a look at these other blogs

I'm headed north to ConClave this weekend. My schedule is still a bit tentative but the Facebook page should have it when I'm sure. If you're familiar with me at conventions and especially ConClave, then you know that the fastest way to find me is just go to a panel, I love 'em, I do as many as I can sneak on. I'm flying up and that means moving light so I'll not be doing any kind of report during the convention itself. May I suggest, instead, that during that time you take a look at two other very special blogs. The first is my very favorite art site "Platinum Giraffe" run by one of the best up-and-coming artists I know. (Ask her to post a picture of the Baconmobile--it's incredible!) platinumgiraffe.wordpress.com The second is a more serious and closely related to my own mental health issues. It is the blog of a lady who survived a brain tumor and who discusses frankly her own experiences. I especially recommend the post "A Letter to My Neurologist." http://prismbalance.wordpress.com/ If you're in the Michigan area, drop by, say hello, and buy a copy of Calamity's Child in the dealer's room. If you ask, I might even give you the "Evil Uncle" signature. There's also a rumor that "Purple Wings and Troll Snot" may show up in children's programming. Come and see--you know you want to. Update: For reasons I will not go into because it makes me very angry, the convention book dealer will not be carrying my book. I will have a (very) limited number of books with me that I can sell to you directly.

Calamity's Child, the Interview (repost)

And here's the interview for Calamity's Child.


An Interview with the Author of Calamity's Child

Q: How'd it all get started?
A: Originally, there was no Calamity's Child; there was only a short story. In fact, before there was a short story, there were two authors at a convention...
I had known John Scalzi for a few years previously. Old Man's War had only recently come out and he was gearing up to edit a special edition of Subterranean. It was to be a theme edition and he chose sci-fi clichés. All the old, ugly, beaten-to-death ideas that filled every submission guideline under the heading of "Do not send us this", but done right. He asked if I'd send something in and, after a bit of noodling, I came up with Subject Real. Its cliché was one of my own pet peeves—the holodeck episode. (If a machine messed up half as often for no more benefit than various incarnations of VR in sci-fi, then we'd lynch the inventor and outlaw the premise. My challenge was to make the risks of the technology worthwhile; I vent a bit of my own opinion when Ivan insists that anyone trapped in VR deserves to stay there.)
In the end, the story didn't fit the issue. John tracked me down the next time we were in the same building and made sure I knew it was a matter of making the issue consistent in tone (he opted for more hard sci-fi than space opera); he was quite happy with the story. (John's a class act that way and he doesn't blow smoke. If he'd disliked it, he'd have told me that too. I'd expect no less and I respect him for it.) To digress a bit, it is ironic that,in the Foreword to the book, the editor compares Calamity's Child to Scalzi's work (as well as Mike Resnick's).
I shopped the story a bit but, as most RGR (Ray Gun Revival) readers know, space opera is not a sellers market (though, with the benefit of hindsight, I probably could have sold it to Jim Baen’s Universe). To shorten a long story a bit, a reader of mine pointed me at RGR and asked if I'd send something over. I sent Subject Real and overall, I think everyone was happy.
Several months passed and I didn't give the matter much thought, but I kept getting mail asking where the rest of the story was—the object real part. Roughly parallel to this, timewise, I pitched a serial to RGR (“FT7" for those who've read the slush). That story didn't go, but out of the ensuing give and take emerged Calamity's Child.

Q: After Speakers and Kings, why space opera?
A: Timing mostly. I had actually started work on two other books—one epic fantasy, the other military sci-fi, also on an epic scope—when RGR (and Double-Edged Publishing) picked up the pitch for Calamity's Child. In addition, after S&K, I felt that I needed to do more work on character development and character-driven stories.

Q: You're happy with the characters in Calamity's Child?
A: I am. One of my biggest worries was Kylee herself. I was really worried over whether I could present a teenage girl accurately—that split between little girl and grown woman at the same time. Plus, she has a good deal of other problems mixed in as well. I worried that, in presenting her baggage in addition to the 'normal' behaviors of that age, she might come across as forced. As it is, I've had a couple of early readers tell me that I hit it spot on.

Q: Why write space opera at all? It's not exactly a hot commodity with publishers these days.
A: More's the pity, assuming it's true and I'm not so certain it is. I am sure that the reading public has an appetite for it.
To understand space opera, you have to understand the history of the entire genre. First, space opera is part of a larger block of literature: the literature of the frontier. It includes space opera, westerns, H. Rider Haggard, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, and a host of others. With the recent success of shows like Firefly, a lot of people have the misconception that space opera is westerns in space—Bat Durstans—but it's a lot more that that. It's the literature of man on the edge, away from 'civilization' and truly free. To paraphrase Kipling, it's where a man must be who he is and do what he must.
The one great defining theme of all these works is loyalty, with honor and duty vying for second. I believe that, while these themes may go out of vogue with publishers, they will always have a place with readers.
As for space opera specifically, it all began with the pulps. Most readers and almost every writer fondly remembers a childhood diet of Doc Savage, Tarzan, John Carter, the Lensmen, and Tom Swift or their equivalents. You have to ask yourself why. The pulps were the gateway to science fiction, the entry-level books. They were clean and simple. You could enjoy them without an extensive knowledge of the genre or literary theory and the science involved didn't stand in the way of seeing the story. Many were poorly written, but there was always an earnest energy to the writing and a feeling of mutual enjoyment between the author and the reader. The honest enthusiasm, straightforward presentation, and sheer fun of the books hooked more people on reading, and on reading science fiction specifically, than all the fancier, 'better' books around at the same time. More importantly, without these books—these much-maligned pulps—the 'better' books would never have been read at all, because it's the pulps that suck you in. Come for the gunfight, stay for the show.
Somewhere along the way, we lost a lot of that. Science fiction talked about itself and to itself more and more often. As it did so, the reader base dwindled. That's not an accident. You have to start reading somewhere; it's unrealistic to assume that the average reader is going to jump straight into the hard core dystopias of John Brunner or Gibson's cyberpunk. And heaven forefend that a reader's first exposure to science fiction is the Left Hand of Darkness, because then they're gone for good.
To come full circle, look at the excitement for Firefly, Star Wars, and Scalzi's Old Man's War. They're the pulps come back again with a new coat of chrome; the stories of war and the frontier, good versus evil, the stories of and for the Everyman.
Without space opera, we give up our childhood. To dismiss space opera and pulp as 'junk' is to disdain the very heart and love of the science fiction genre itself.
Q: The obvious question then is: what did you do with Calamity's Child to stay true to that history and still give a good story for modern readers?
A: Good storytelling is timeless; worrying about the 'modern reader' as opposed to any other reader is largely a waste of time better spent writing. For Calamity, I set certain guidelines for myself early on. The story should be clean enough for young adult readers but deep enough for the hard-core sci-fi fan. I wanted to keep the main themes of loyalty, duty, honor, sacrifice, and the frontier ethos intact without turning the characters, even the antagonists, into mere caricatures. Ivan, for example, is initially presented as a grizzled, cynical bounty hunter; a stereotype that the reader starts to see through by the second chapter. I also wanted the story to be approachable to anyone, not just science fiction readers. That meant I had to back off the fancy technical descriptions, keep the vocabulary simple, and really focus in on the story itself and the characters. In some ways, it's harder to write that way because all your bells and whistles are put away and you're back to the basics of the craft.
That's not to say the book is simple; it's not. There's depth, but it's the kind of depth that springs from the characters themselves, not the fancy technology or sweeping worlds. Good versus evil is primal and basic, but not simplistic.
I also tried to make certain that my aliens, the few that there are, were truly alien, not just humans in funny hats; and that my humans, like the Kwakiutl, were real and diverse as well. That meant a lot background work on biology and cultures that never made it into the novel. Especially in the case of Red Dog; if you've got a few hours to kill, ask me to explain the nidus and the vespiary.

Q: Last question. Overall, which is a better book, Speakers and Kings or Calamity's Child?
A: Apples to oranges. S&K is about big, sweeping gestures: language, communi-cation, the coming of age of an entire race and what it means to be unique. Calamity is about the smaller scope. It's more intimate, more driven by characters than plot. If I were to guess, I'd say with S&K either you love it and it really sticks with you or you don't get it at all. Calamity offers entertainment over a wide scope but might not strike as deep. S&K was serious and consciously thematic. Calamity is just a fun ride.

Springdale Library Local Author Event

I'll be at the Springdale, Arkansas Library this weekend (Oct.5th) for the Local Author Event. It runs 2-4pm if you want to drop by and say hello. (I may even have the new book--they shipped Monday so it's a bit of a track race to see if they get there in time.) MK

Calamity's Child Music (Part 3 of 3) (repost)

Character specific music:
Ivan Steponovich
Freedom's Child by Billy Joe Shaver
Stone of Destiny by Steve McDonald
Handful of Rain by Savatage (esp. Handful of Rain and Chance)
The Highwayman by Danny Doyle
Snowblind Friend by Hoyt Axton
Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins

Red Dog
Lost in the Beauty You Slay by Sacrilege
The Best of Rob Zombie by Rob Zombie
Projekt Gothic by various artists (esp. When You're Evil by Voltaire)
Euthanasia by Megadeath
Bombtrack by Rage Against the Machine (esp. the one with all the bad words in it--I won't do what you tell me!)

Kylee Steponovich
Summer Storm by Wild Mercy
Lullabies (Celtic Twilight 3) by various artists
The Best of Rob Zombie by Rob Zombie (most esp. More Human Than Human)
Ugly As It Gets by Ugly Kid Joe (esp. Cat's in the Cradle)

Quicksilver Rose
Fallen and The Open Door by Evanescence
Nina Simone, The Definitive Collection by Nina Simone
Another Town... by The Whole Shabang
The Druid and the Dreamer by Draiocht

Ivan and Rose together
River of Dreams by Billy Joel (esp. Blond Over Blue)
Titania, The Fairy Queen by Mike Rowland

Rainmaker and Solomon (Cajuns in Space!)
Bayou Deluxe by Michael Doucet and Beausoleil
Mardi Gras Mambo by Cubanismo
Bobby Bare Super Hits by Bobby Bare

Pharaoh et. al. on Selous
Zambian Acapella by Zambian Acapella
Nina Simone, The Definitive Collection by Nina Simone
Lady First by Bob Thompson
On the Beach by Edgar Wallace Jr.
Fiddler On the Roof Soundtrack from the MGM movie

Calamity's Child Music (Part 2 of 3) (repost)

Chapter specific music:
1-Subject Real
No music, just the background crash of a SF/F convention and a long bus ride

2-Potlatch, 3-Suicide Straight, and 4-Domino
Dead Winter Dead by Savatage
Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche
Bond by Bond
Americana by The Offspring

5-Skip a Rope
Skip a Rope by Jimmy Dean
Kansas Super Hits by Kansas
A Rose for Iconoclasts by Steven Brust

6-Dante's Fourth by Gaslight
Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Idomeneo, The Abduction from the Seraglio, Don Giovanni by Mozart
The Four Seasons by Vivaldi
Canon (D major), Suite Number 6 (B flat major) by Pachelbel
Suite (G major), Concerto (D major), Symphony (G major), Symphony (A major) by Fasch
River of Dreams by Billy Joel

7-Rodeo Bull Ballet, 8-King in the Corner, and 9-Ransom in the Fall of the Mountain King
Snowblind Friend by Hoyt Axton (especially Water for My Horses, Funeral of The King, and Seven Come)
Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs by Marty Robbins

10-Ave Maria
River of Dreams by Billy Joel
Stigmata Movie Soundtrack by various artists (esp. Mary Mary)
Timeless Crime by Labyrinth (esp. Save Me)
Unleashed, The Half Tail by Wolfstone
Man of La Mancha, Original Cast Recording

11-Object Real
Handful of Rain by Savatage (esp. Taunting Cobras)
For the Sake of Revenge by Sonata Arctica
Timeless Crime by Labyrinth

Calamity's Child Music (Part 1 of 3) (repost)

Presenting the Music behind the writing of Calamity's Child! Yes, the list of music the Thin Man found essential to focusing his mind during the writing of the novel. It's a long list so I'll spread it over several days. Please note, the music listed is not an indication of good taste, the author's specific listening preferences, or an endorsement of some of the music. Also remember that the various albums were freely intermixed (for example, for every chapter with Rose in it, there was an Evanescence album in the rotation, even during the writing of the fight scenes). It is simply what put him in the right frame of mind. I hope you find it an interesting (and probably terrifying) look inside the symbiosis of music and writers.

General background music:

The Book of Secrets, The Visit, The Mask and Mirror by Loreena McKennitt
Another Way to Travel by Cats Laughing
Once Upon a Time... The Essential Ennio Morricone Collection by Ennio Morricone (esp. The Mission Suite)
Poets and Madmen by Savatage
Highlander, The Original Scores by Michael Kamen, Stewart Copeland, and J. Peter Robinson
Music Inspired by J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings by Andy Street
Beethoven's Last Night by Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Eroica Trio by Eroica Trio
The Planets Suite, St. Paul's Suite by Holst

Fight scenes:
The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection by Yngwie Malmsteen
Blade, Movie Soundtrack by Mark Isham
Stigmata Movie Soundtrack by various artists
A Tribute to the Four Horsemen by various artist (Nuclear Blast records)
Brave New World by Iron Maiden
The Planets Suite (Mars thru Saturn) by Holst

Calamity's Child Returns--EBook and Hardcover

What happens to a really good book if the publisher goes under just after the book's release? It's not pretty. But in an ideal world, a bigger, better publisher would pick up the book and bring it back out. Every so often, some things go right. Calamity's Child is back in print. Now with Dark Oak Press, it has a new cover, re-edited and cleaner internals, and is available in EBook, Trade, and everyones favorite: HARDCOVER. If I were asked, should I buy this book? Will I enjoy it? My response would be a polite, quiet, "Yes, I think you would like it." But if I were honest, the response should be, "Oh, heck yeah! This is space opera the way it should be done, old school with laughs and violence. I even managed to pull off good characters. You think Firefly was good? You ain't seen nothing yet. You want to talk about the 'rebirth' of space opera and what's good? This is the best, over-looked book in the genre in the last ten years at least. This book should be on the shelves in every bookstore, grocery store checkout stand, and Wal-Mart bookrack. You know someone who misses westerns? Throw them a copy of Calamity's Child and even if they don't know sci-fi from beans they'll fall in love with the book." And yes, I do think it's that good. If for no other reason than the incredible responses I got from its first run. But, you may say, I already own a copy of the original. Why should I buy it again? Did I mention HARDCOVER? Plus, everyone needs two. One to keep and one to loan. Christmas comes at least once a year and I've heard some people get birthday presents too. So, you should buy...oh, maybe twelve copies ought to be enough. I can hear you now, I'm not made out of money! Of course not but I think we can all agree that a good book is more important than most of what we buy like food. Seriously, if you already bought and read the book, then you know how good it is and you know how the story ends up. And I also know that most of my readers are, like most readers, unable to afford all the books they want. (That's an understatement.) If you want to buy a few more, I'm not going to argue but, if you already own the book, the best thing you can do for me (and the reading public in general) is not to buy another copy. Instead, go find ten people who haven't read the book and convince them to read it. The E-version is very cheap and, after they've read it, they'll want a hard copy for themselves. If you help spread the word, I think this book is good enough to sell enough copies so that by this time next year, I can afford to travel to all kinds of conventions and sign all those copies. The other thing I can offer is, if you've already bought the book in the first edition and you buy it again, I'll sign the new one with the "Evil Uncle" signature...and Evil Uncle is probably worth more than the book cost. (If that doesn't make sense, hopefully someone who knows the EU stories can post and explain because I'm not going to.) So spread the word, review the book on-line, and do what you can to help people find a book, back from the dead, that they might otherwise miss. (If you need promotional images, permissions for quotes, interviews, or anything else you might want to put on your own site, facebook, twitter, etc. simply email me or post the request here on the blog and I'll do what I can to help. If you have any questions about the book or the characters that you think I should discuss on the blog, similarly feel free to post.) Thank you.

Calamity's Child Relaunches

I've had so many projects fall through or be delayed lately that I've been keeping this under wraps until everything was certian. Dark Oak Press has aquired the rights to Calamity's Child and is bringing it back out. New cover, much better internal formatting and editing, and available to a larger audience. (And, unlike the first printing when the publisher went out of business, the author will actually get paid royalties!) I'll post again when it's out but feel free to spread the word. CChild is coming again. MK (PS-Make sure people know to buy the Dark Oak version.)

Classic Reading List

Golly, I hope the formatting holds on this. My sincere apologies if it doesn't. Classic Fantasy Recommended Reading List Although many respectable works that need no reintroduction have been left off, the following list is an attempt to bring to light a portion of the rich legacy of fantasy literature. You'll notice a good deal of science fiction and horror have crept in—illustrating that, while there is not room for fantasy in sci-fi or horror, there is room in the fantasy genre for everything. Consider it, if you will, a brief history of lost or forgotten works. How many have you read? Please email me (mkeaton@archangelpress.net) if you find any goofs or believe I've left something off that absolutely must be considered for future lists. Orlando Furioso Arosto, Ludovico The Foundation Trilogy Asimov, Isaac A House-Boat on the Styx Bangs, John Dendrick The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Baum, L. Frank The Stars Are My Destination The Demolition Man Bester, Alfred A Case of Conscience Blish, James The Sorcerer's Ship Beyond the Golden Stair Box, Hannes Stand on Zanzibar Brunner, John A Princess of Mars Tarzan Burroughs, Edgar Rice The Biography of Manuel The Cream Of The Jest Jurgen Domnei Cabell, James Branch War With the Newts Capek, Karel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Carroll, Lewis Thongor Against The Gods (see also the Flashing Swords! anthologies with Lin as editor) Carter, Lin Red Moon And Black Mountain Chant, Joy Fancies and Goodnight Collier, John They'd Rather Be Right (w/Frank Riley) Clifton, Mark The Phoenix And The Mirror Collected Fantasies Davidson, Avram Babel-17 The Einstein Intersection Delaney, Samuel R. Lest Darkness Fall (possibly the first ‘alternate history’ novel) de Camp, L. Spraque Don Quixote de Cervantes, Miguel The Man in the High Castle Dick, Philip K. The Lost World (see also the two sequels The Poison Belt and The Land of Mist) Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan The King of Elfand's Daughter At The Edge Of The World Beyond The Fields We Know Don Rodriguez: The Chronicles Of Shadow Valley The Charwoman's Shadow Dunsany, Lord The Worm Ouroboros Mistress Of Mistresses Eddison, Eric Rucker To Your Scattered Bodies Go Farmer, Philip Jose The Moon Of Gomrath Garner, Alan The Serpent Atlan The City Gaskell,Jane She The World's Desire (w/Andrew Lang) Haggard, H. Rider The Forever War Haldeman, Joe Greyfax Grimwald Hancock, Niel Double Star Starship Troopers Stranger in a Strange Land The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Heinlein, Robert A. Dune Herbert, Frank Conan the Barbarian Howard, Robert The Lost Continent Hyne, C. J. Cutliffe Flowers for Algernon Kayes, Daniel Walkers On The Sky Lake, David J. The ‘Color’ Fairy Books Lang, Andrew The Left Hand of Darkness LeGuin, Ursula K. Swords And Deviltry Gather, Darkness! The Big Time The Wanderer Leiber, Fritz Out of the Silent Planet (see also the two sequels Perlandra and That Hideous Strength) Lewis, C. S. Vril:The Power of the Coming Race Lytton, Edward The Princess and the Goblin MacDonald, George The Moon Pool The Metal Monster The Ship Of Ishtar Face In The Abyss Dwellers In The Mirage Merritt, A. A Canticle for Leibowitz Miller, Walter M., Jr. Paradise Lost Milton, John Lud-in-the-Mist Mirrlees, Hope The Knight Of The Swords Stormbringer The Jewel In The Skull The Chronicles of Corum Moorcock, Michael Jirel Of Joiry Moore, C. L The Chalchiuhite Dragon Morris Kenneth The Glittering Plain The Water Of The Wondrous Isles The Sundering Flood Three Works The Well at the World's End The Wood Beyond The World Morris, William Ringworld Niven, Larry A Mirror for Observers Pangborn, Edgar Rite of Passage Panshin, Alexei Gormenghast Titus Alone Peake, Mervyn The Space Merchants Pohl, Fredrik The Blue Star Land Of Unreason (w/L. Sprague de Camp) Pratt Fletcher A Time of Changes Silverberg, Robert City Way Station Simak, Clifford D. Hyperborea Smith, Clark Ashton The Lensman Series Smith, E.E. Doc Witch Queen Of Lochlann Smith,George Henry The Faerie Queene Spenser, Edmund Armor Steakly, John Earth Abides Stewart, George R. E Pluribus Unicorn (short stories) More Than Human Sturgeon, Theodore Day Of The Minotaur The Weirwoods Green Phoenix Wolfwinter Lady Of The Bees Cry Silver Bells Swann, Thomas Burnett La Gerusalemme liberata Tasso, Torquato The Dying Earth Vance,Jack Slan Van Vogt, A.E. The Island Of The Mighty The Song Of Rhiannon Prince Of Annwn The Children Of Llyr Walton, Evangeline We Zamyatin, Yevgeny Nine Princes In Amber Jack Of Shadows This Immortal Lord of Light Zelazny, Roger The Odyssey Homer The Illiad Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision (1977) Scholes, Robert and Eric S. Rabkin, Oxford University Press

MidSouth Con: Wit of the Staircase

I just got back, in good health and spirits but very weary and mentally groggy. I'll try to to a full con report later and it could be a long one. Because other people were ill or unable to make panels, I was able to expand my own schedule and stay comfortably busy. I'm sad other people had trouble but, as most of you know, I LIKE doing panels. But that's for later. This post is to let you know I got home safe and that I hope everyone else did too in spite of the weather. It is also a chance for me to post the little things that I forgot to say on some of the panels, information I couldn't remember, and some tidying up. Dark Oak has aquired Calamity's Child and will re-release it VERY soon (as in a few weeks). The old link box for it on the side here will be replaced when that happens. Please, order the new one, don't accidentally get the old one. The new one is better edited and the formatting problems are fixed plus, if you buy the old one, I don't get paid for it. Instead, do be so kind as to find ten friends and stand by to order the new one as soon as it's available. After this, you may begin to lobby for the Red Dog stuffed toy. Also, if you don't want to keep checking back on this blog and watching the tumbleweeds, post you contact info or email it to me and I'll send you an email when it comes out. Steampunk: "Dream of Perpetual Motion" was written by Dexter Palmer. Read it. The other good overlooked steampunk books I forgot were "Farlander" by Col Buchanan, "Court of the Air" by Stephen Hunt, and "Stormdancer" by Jay Kristoff. The end of the world: I didn't get a chance to mention that there is a company called Apocalyptic Ammunition (apocalypticammunition.com/) that sells gold and silver bullets based on the concept that then you can shoot OR barter. Timeless: I didn't have enough copies to give out so I'm going to try to post my list of classis SF/F books as a seperate blog post. (I'm afraid of the formatting and don't want it to mess up this post.) I'll pre-schedule that as a blog update for later in the week. Finally, thanks so very much to everyone who made my return to the world after two years of withdrawal wonderful and safe. I can't wait for Conclave (although, come to think of it, they haven't invited me yet. Hmmmn.). I will be at Pulp-Ark in April because, if you run a convention so close to where I live that I can sleep in my own bed at night, you have a very good chance of getting me to come (and the organizer is the editor on the revised Calamity's Child and he was rather insistent). Absolutely want to do "Dark and Stormy" every year from here on. And, again, thank you all so very much. It is a pleasure and honor to serve such an excellent, kind, and intellegent readership, both those who made it to Midsouth and all the rest of you. And Selena still hits.

Midsouth Con

Below is posted my schedule for Midsouth in Memphis this week. This is an...interesting con for me this year. It's the first con I've gone to in over a year. I've been having a pretty rough time with depression this year and this will be my first trip "back into the world" so, I'm scared of it. I'm not worried about the people--Midsouth people are second only to Conclave people when it comes to care and kindness--I'm worried about me. I'm still feeling, kind of permanently tired, frayed around the edges, and generally frazzled. (My good lady wife is going with me so I'm in the best of possible hands.) Mostly I'm nervous about "dark and stormy" and keeping my energy level up. I've checked the other panelists on my schedule and I'm never stuck on a panel without a friend who knows my issues and who looks out for me so I'm not working in a vacuum either. So, if I'm a little tired this weekend, just be patient. And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the convention. Friday 3/22/13 9:00 p Would You Rather?: Would you rather see your name come out of the reaping bowl... or the goblet of fire? Would you rather wash Severus Snape's hair.... or brush Gollum's teeth? Join our panelists for a game of literary dilemmas. 10:00 p Be A Better Con Guest: Industry pros discuss how to get on the con circuit and the ins and outs of working with conventions Saturday 3/23/13 1:00 p How to Take Your Lumps: Learning how to work with beta readers and editors without getting your feeelings hurt 3:00 p Pro Row Sunday 3/24/13 2:00 p Packing for the Apocalypse: Find out what these writers and publishing industry professionals would pack in their "bug out" bag 3:00 p Dark and Stormy

Pogroms

As a rule, I try very hard to avoid politics and current events in my blog. I make an exception for science and the politicization of science but that's about it. Having said that, given the current trend of the news, I'm going to waive my "no politics" rule today. I am very concerned by the trend in the discussions of school and public safety. There's the usual knee-jerk gun debate with all the usual arguments on both sides but there is also a growing, dark undercurrent of shifting the blame to the "mentally ill." I have heard, in just the past week, the following suggestions or statements (made, I must add, not by crackpots on the street but by "public officials," many very highly placed). --The suggestion that we should create "a national registry of the mentally ill modeled after the sex-offender registry list" so that people can know if there are any mentally ill in the area and "take appropriate measures to protect themselves." --The suggestion that the mentally ill should have their right to bear arms "and possibly the right to unmonitored free speech" suspended. (Oddly enough, no one thinks there's any reason to stop insane--or stupid--people from voting.) --The widespread premise that all mental illnesses are equal (and by extention, that any mentally ill individual is a potential serial killer waiting for an opening). --The statement (made by several individual in various forms only slightly less offensive that the one quoted here) "When a people reach a certian point, mentally, they can no longer contribute to society. At that point, when they can't be productive members of society, then...I mean, if my dog is suffering I'd put him down. It would be a mercy, we should go ahead and euthanize these people." (Again, I'd like to remind you, these are statements from elected officials.) --"No sacrifice is too great for the safety of our children." (Multiple speakers mouthing this slogan all the way to the top. In some ways, I find this the most offensive statement of all since it can be used to justify anything and it is a false assumption.) I have more quotes but this post is already getting long and I think I've made my point. Normally, I'd blow off this kind of thing as the usual media hype and political posturing and wait for the next celebrity crime. Instead, it's growing. I think it's due, in part, to converging interests. On the one side, it's a lever to further an agenda of social control. (Especially since the term being used is "mentally ill"; a term that applies to over fourty percent of the population, as opposed to something more specific such as "immeditate threat to himself or others.") On the other side, mental illness is a convinient scapegoat to shift the discussion away from gun control. (I'm opposed to gun control myself but mental illness should be a seperate discussion, not a political tool.) Couple these two driving engines with a mass in the middle fueled by a hysterical, reactionary media and steeped in ignorance and stigma regarding mental illness and I fear we have a slippery hill and a handbasket. So, I ask you two things. Am I the only one seeing this? And, what should be the logo that we non-neurotypicals should wear on our armbands and put in our shop windows? (Endnote: For anyone actually interested in an honest approach to school safety, I refer you to the incredible and extensive work done by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. http://www.killology.com/school_safety_notes.htm Here is a man who has worked in this field for years and whose work I respect immensely rather than some knee-jerk babbling head.)