The Writer Crash-Lands

Reviewers

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:46:54 GMT

Hmm...

Just putting the idea out there that I'd like to find a second short fiction reviewer to do some of the smaller zines.

Not an official call... but I'm definitely looking. If you know someone good, let me know.

Typesetting, Cooking, Writing

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:47:26 GMT

Trying to keep up with this posting thing.

Doing a lot of IROSF typesetting today, trying to get everything ready for the new issue. Then I'll be getting things ready for my interview tomorrow (bus schedule and the like) and continuing to get used to the new place and to being downtown in general.

I've been cooking lately, which is unusual for me. So far it's mostly cooking stuff in bulk and then freezing it individually, but I actually did actual cooking at least twice this week. That's pretty much a big win for me.

Later, I'm hoping to get some time in on a story that I wrote for my study abroad class while I was in Ireland. It was due at the end of August, but with the overtime for the game, the separation, the moving, and a mountain of other random shit, I'm pretty sure I'm pressing the limits here, even for my extension. Good thing I was auditing the class and don't get a real grade for it. Still, I really respect my professor and would like his input on what has become a way more complicated story than it really needed to be. I'm happy with how it's shaping up, though.

Day Jobs and Night Jobs

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:56:01 GMT

I never know how to start these things.

May as well start with the most exciting news: Aion launched on September 22nd (in North America... Europe launched on September 25th), making me officially a published video game writer. Our writing team worked on the project for nearly six months, rewriting the raw translation from the original Korean and "westernizing" the text as a whole. It was a lot of fun and was easily the single greatest job I have ever had, with the greatest group of people I have ever worked with.

I have an interview on Monday for a different video game, which is rather well-known, so I won't mention it here just yet. Feeling good about it, though. We'll see.

As far as IROSF goes, I'm really excited to say that we just obtained our first-ever monthly horror column, courtesy of nick_kaufmann. "Dead Air" will premier in our October issue, which should appear on Wednesday. I am really very excited about it. IROSF has also started to get more submissions on a more regular basis, which is fantastic. Good thing we've picked up a couple more editors.

On that note, I'll leave you with an image of our awesome game: the Aion Limited Collector's Edition, complete with Aiva (who comes in the box).

A Smattering

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:39:11 GMT

I haven't been doing much updating.

Not that I did so very much before...but I've been doing even less, it seems. In fact, I'm pretty sure my last post was the announcement of The Day Job.

Still working on that and it's still awesome. The game launches on September 22nd and so far the reviews (from the beta events) have been pretty positive. It's really exciting and I'm just having so much fun with it.

My trip to Europe is coming up really quick--I leave next Friday morning. I'm trying to get two issues worth of IROSF done while simultaneously trying to get my new editors situated. Hopefuly Blunt can finish where I leave off when I go. I'm starting to get a bit nervous, having never actually left the country before, but I know it's going to be great, so...just have to take deep breaths and remember that.

Went to the Locus Awards last weekend. It was my first time there and I had a lot of fun. (Nothing extensive to report...pretty much just that I went. Go me.)

I should get back to getting this month's issue out. Need to kick it out the door tonight.

"Jon can give you cancer, then he'll turn into a car."

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:04:53 GMT

So I finished reading Watchmen last night, then today I found the Saturday Morning Watchmen thing.

I'm sure most everyone has seen it, but... "wow" is the only word I can come up with.

I really liked the novel, but--while I can definitely appreciate the complexity of Watchmen--I think I still prefer V. Maybe because I spent more than a week reading, taking notes, and rereading for that paper.

On an unrelated note, I have a job interview tomorrow, so... go me.

Post-Undergrad Life

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:24:46 GMT

Lots of stuff going on in this general direction lately.

Geb and I set our date and the tail-end of last month, so that was cool. This past weekend we went to a couple stores to register. Naturally, anything that we simultaneously pointed to was about to be discontinued, because we're awesome like that. Still had fun, though.

Also, may I just say that holy fucking shit, invitations are expensive.

In other news, last week was the first attempt at a Seattle-area writers/editors meeting thing, organized by Jak Koke. It had a low turnout, but we've got high hopes for its continuation. During this meeting, I remembered the YA series that I started before I moved to Seattle for school and haven't looked at too much since then (I have a hard time balancing school and... basically anything else). I've already pulled it out and re-read what I've got. It definitely needs work, but I still love the characters. I'll probably do a lot of rewriting this week.

I think I do better in general with longer projects. It's hard for my brain to work in short stories. I find it difficult to get any real plot going, so most of them read: "This thing happened. Isn't that weird?" I'm working on improving this.

So that's been my post-college life so far. Getting a ton of stuff done. I'm about halfway through Watchmen right now, so hopefully I can finish that up soon. So far, I gotta say, I liked V better.

New IROSF

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:28:09 GMT

April's issue is now live and available here.

Full of good stuff, including another article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch regarding the economic situation, this time focusing on attitude as a huge factor.

Lots of good reviews and criticisms, too. Check it out.

Save the Semiprozine

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 15:39:04 GMT

Neil Clarke has a great post about the Semiprozine Hugo category here, emphasizing the value of the semiprozine to the genre as well as promoting a new site that will "[feature] specific venues, providing current news, and offering some of our opinions on the state of the field as well as the Best Semiprozine Hugo."

The site is semiprozine.org and it sounds like a fantastic idea.

Drumroll...

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:42:10 GMT

I am officially a college graduate.

That's all. You're free to wander about your day.

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:51:41 GMT

Today, I'm getting over a cold (or so I'm telling myself) and trying to study for tomorrow's final. I'm really excited that IROSF is so far ahead of schedule this month.

What I really want now is an article that will stir up as much conversation as Kris Kathryn Rusch's Signals this month. Besides bringing a lot of people into the discussion, it brought a lot more people to the website, which is always great.

Unfortunately, my head is so clouded with finals week (and this damn cold) that I don't know what that article might be. Hopefully it will come to me.

Snarky Sunday

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:50:26 GMT

Sometimes, I read something that was written by a person suffering from delusions of grandeur. Simple things that many other people are able to do without the fanfare end up elevated to the status of the gods. It's almost like reading something that says,

I drove my car today. I saw a speed bump coming, so I slowed down. I slowed down because I saw the speed bump, and I knew that simply by my one act of slowing down, I was making a difference. Because--do you know what? The guy behind me slowed down, too. And the guy behind him. All because I slowed down. It's moments like these that remind me what an inspiration I am. An inspiration to the world.

I find it truly annoying. I may have a lower tolerance at the moment, being sick and all.

In less obnoxious news, Wednesday night marks my final class as an undergraduate. Then I whore my resumé around the greater Seattle area and hopefully get an (entry level?) editing job in a bus-friendly location. I've been looking through Monster and CareerBuilder with no huge success, but we'll see how it goes. In the meantime, I can work on my fiction and be grateful that Geb still has a job.

Three more days.

If You're Looking for a Good Debate....

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:28:49 GMT

Then you might be interested in the comments that follow this month's Signals.

Economic troubles, the (print) publishing industry, internet publishing... cue the heated debate. Big fun.

New IROSF

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:15:53 GMT

March's issue is live!

(And because I am so tired from all this crazy end-of-quarter nonsense, I almost wrote the tag out as href="live" ...yes, I am awesome.)

In any case, this month's ToC:

Editorial:
* Branching Out and Moving Forward by Stacey Janssen

Special Feature:
* Off-Season at Jay Lake: An IROSF Special Feature
by Michael Hiebert

Interview:
* Confessions of a 3am Writer: Interview with Ken Scholes
by Brent Kellmer

Feature:
* Signals 18 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
* Parallax: Sneezing Your Way Through Selection by Rob Furey

Essay:
* My Search for the Wild Hunt by Lezlie Kinyon, Ph.D.
* What Science Fiction Leaves Out of the Future #2: The Day After Tomorrow
by Gary Westfahl

Review:
* Short Fiction, March 2009 by Lois Tilton
* Of Monsters and Metaphors: Review of Monster by A. Lee Martinez
by Mark Tiedemann

We're running a single piece of fiction* this month ("Off-Season at Jay Lake") as a special feature to raise cancer awareness, and will be accepting funds to donate in whole to cancer research. It was originally part of an anthology written as a tribute to Jay Lake by a group of writerly friends upon discovering that he had cancer last year.

As I am remembering my dad's anniversary this month as well, I actually take a special interest in this piece and the idea behind running it. You can go straight to the story here.

*No, we are not accepting fiction submissions. Seriously. Don't send them to me.

A Few Recent Random Facts

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:04:05 GMT

Today, I was informed by a random person whom I do not know that I must be Dutch.

I will be going to Ireland for two weeks in July. This is especially fantastic because I have been trying to go for two bloody years, but was foiled in both attempts. It's a writer's workshop class through SU that I didn't think I'd be able to take this year, since I graduate in under a month, but my professor did some kind of magic trick and now I'm going. I love magic.

On the same note as my rapidly upcoming graduation, I now have my resumé up at Monster and CareerBuilder so that I can feel the sting of high unemployment rates due to the economy for as long as possible.

I finally read V for Vendetta. Holy crap, it's fantastic. The movie is next, because I'm actually doing a case study for my SF Film class on the graphic novel vs. the film, why Moore thinks the film is dribble, etc. There is no cooler assignment than, "Go read a comic book and then watch a movie. Report back."

Uncorking party tomorrow night! Our wine is done and sitting on the kitchen counter in bottles (we just bottled it last night, in fact). I'm really looking forward to the party. What I'm not looking forward to is finishing all the cleaning, but it must be done.

That's it!

The Lion King and Other Stuff

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 07:21:05 GMT

Geb and I went to see The Lion King at the Paramount last night with my cousin and some of her Americorps people (because group discounts rock). It was pretty amazing and I was intrigued by how they did the costuming. Most of it actually stuck a little too close to the movie for me (the voices were almost identical as were most of the inflections), but I guess they expected people to want that.

It had a fantastic little meta moment, though. When Simba is about to sing "Can't Wait to be King," the curtain falls briefly and Zazu gets stuck on the house side of it by himself. He looks up at it and says, "This wasn't in the cartoon..."

At the end of the song, he gets stuck on house side again, examines the drapery and says, "It looks like a shower curtain from Target..." I have to say, it was my favorite part.

Today I helped Geb organize resumes, headshots, and cover letters to send out to agents and casting directors so that he can try to get some commercial work between shows. Then I worked on typing up a couple of my new stories, because I still insist on writing most of them longhand. No one's sure why.

Radcon and Lamentation

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:45:24 GMT

Radcon was fantastic. My panel went well and talked to a lot of people that I had previously been known to uncomfortably smile and nod at. I'm finally starting to get used to the con atmosphere, I think, and I feel a lot more comfortable than I did for the first handful.

The Small Press Room was a hit and the party was huge fun. More on this over at tbclone47's journal, including pictures, can be found here and here. There are also a ton of pictures featured over at Red Rocket Station.

But wait, there's more!

TONIGHT, for all of you in the Seattle area, Ken Scholes will be in the U-district, reading and signing for his new book, Lamentation, so head down to the University bookstore if you can. More on that from kenscholes here.

New Story

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:48:02 GMT

My short story, "The Choice is Yours," is up at Big Pulp. You can see it here if you are so inclined. All the italics are mysteriously missing, so... there that is.

Ton of stuff I would change now, but I'm probably not supposed to advertise that. And I don't suspect I'm the first to say those words.

In any case, it's pretty neat.

Red Rocket Station

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:22:59 GMT

IROSF has more real estate!

We've just launched Red Rocket Station (or, if it's a station, have we anchored it?), a sort of SF networking site, where you can post or comment on blogs or pictures or any number of other things. Head on over!

Also, at our last editors' meeting, Marti presented me a Jayne Cobb hat. There are pictures over at the Station. It basically rocks.

New Issue and New Stuff

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:57:29 GMT

February's IROSF is live with a poll and a T-shirt contest. We also now have "Share" buttons (or whatever those crazy kids call 'em) so that you can link the articles to Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, or your other random website of choice.

Also, in case you haven't had a chance to notice yet, we have taken down mandatory registration and all articles can be viewed by anyone at any time.

But! I think we can all agree that the coolest thing to come out with this new issue... is my new icon. That I made. Because I rock.

The issue's pretty cool, too.

Hugo Season

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:01:12 GMT

Just a reminder that IROSF is eligible for "Best Fanzine" this year and its contributors are eligible for "Best Fan Writer."

Also, if you're thinking of sitting out the Hugo voting all together this year, then you really must read this article: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/morgan_02_09/

IROSF and the Internet

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:07:19 GMT

Twitter.

Facebook group.

Facebook fan page.

We are networked out. Join one, join all, point and laugh, whatevs.
New issue coming out on Wednesday, hopefully with fun new stuff.

Radcon

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:02:47 GMT

Just got my Radcon schedule:

Sat Feb 14 3-4pm
Sage- Self Editing
Bluejack Jackson, Stacey Janssen, Maureen McQuerry, Danielle Parker, Vicki Mitchel

Sat Feb 14 5-6pm
Cobalt- E-Books
Jim Fiscus, Sheri Gormley, Jeff Ayers, Stacey Janssen, Bobbie Hull

Sun Feb 15 1-2pm
Ruby- Because I Can
There are many motivations for villany. Sometimes simple is best. Are we tired of the misunderstood villan and just ready for evil?
Alma Alexander, Patricia Briggs, Steven York, Stacey Janssen, Lori White

This will be my first time on a panel, so I'm a little concerned. Blunt's on the first one with me, though, so I'll be with at least one person that I know. Should be a good time. I've been looking forward to Radcon and the small press room. Last year was pretty much fantastic. I expect more of the same.

Meme Thing, Day 5

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:34:47 GMT

Origins: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

Today's Awesome: One of the stories that I submitted yesterday was returned. Yes, this is what made me happy. Few things please me more than a quick submission turnaround. Rejections don't actually affect me much (and to be frank, I don't understand writers that lament over one for days at a time). It has since been sent back out into the world.

I spent a lot of today working on the ending of the story that I tore apart yesterday. Somehow, I have added nearly 2k words to the thing. I don't really like where it started going toward the very end, possibly because I tried to type it straight into the computer and many things that I write that way end up awkward, especially if that first part was done longhand (I know, my brain works strangely). I've printed it out and I'll try to work out the ending longhand tonight or tomorrow.

Meme Thing, Day 4

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:14:55 GMT

Origins: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

What made me happy today was that I spent pretty much all day ripping one of my stories apart. While this may not sound awesome, it means (in theory) that I have improved it exponentially. It is a slight pain in the ass because the entire ending essentially got shaved off and I've yet to put anything in its place yet, but still, it's definitely improved and that pleases me quite a lot.

Also, I managed to get three other stories sent out into the void. Fewer than I was hoping, but better than the last three months combined, so I'm marking it as a win.

More Proof that I'm Secretly 800 Years Old

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:29:19 GMT

(Besides the fact that I really do feel the need to capitalize the first letter of each word in my subject line.)

I find it strange that something like spacing between sentences can turn into such a huge deal. The last thing I read about it (a big debate just a moment ago, in fact) seemed to land on the impression that only people over the age of 65 (slight exaggeration in progress) are determined to use their double spaces, while the younger crowd gets by with their wanton single-spacing ways.

I learned to type with two spaces, though, and no one has ever chided me for it. Seeing this big debate, however, I'm starting to wonder if it gives editors the impression that I'm some stodgy old broad who can't figure out proper formatting for the 21st century--or, alternately, if they care at all.

At least I don't end manuscripts with -30-.

Now then, I'm off the listen to my record player...