| Today, I’ll be hanging out and mostly just enjoying myself as part of the 24th annual celebration of the successful defense of my dissertation. I like to think of April 2nd as my own personal holiday, and when possible take the day off from work and spend it as self-indulgently as my nature allows.
In preparation for this I’ve knocked out most of the things had been looming over me. I spoke to the evil, former accountants and confirmed that they (at last!) have sent out the paper work needed by the delightful, current accountant. I finished, proofed, and submitted a shiny new Amazing Conroy story. I drafted the content for a website about this summer’s qep’a’ wa’maH chorghDIch. I sent payments off for all the outstanding bills. And last night I even cleaned up my office and sorted through the mountain of crap on my work table. All of which means I’m free to enjoy Doctoral Day with a clear conscience. And now I know you’re squirming in your seat, eager to ask the obvious question: Hey, Lawrence, how do I celebrate Doctoral Day? Huh? How?? The answer falls into one of two camps. If you have a PhD (or some other flavor of doctorate) simply dress in some comfy clothes, treat yourself to a fine meal, surround yourself with some good friends, and wax pompous. Really, it’s that simple. If you haven’t achieved that level of terminal education, you can still observe this special day. Simply find someone with a PhD and do that person a kindness. This could be something as simple as acknowledging by word or deed how fucking awesomely brilliant they are. Trust me, hearing that never gets old. Or get him/her a big cook e. Who doesn’t like cookies. Mmmmmmm. |
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News
Doctoral Day 2011
Small Joys & SFWA
As you know, Bob, for the last few years I’ve had the responsibility of being the SFWA Election Officer (or chair of the SFWA Election Committee, if you prefer that phrase). Mostly this involves preparing the forms which eventually get photocopied and shipped out (not by me) to the membership, and organizing the counting of the election ballots on the appointed day.
A lesser known perk (at least to me) is that all of the ballots get mailed to my home. At this time of year, every day brings a stack of new mail from SFWA members. It gives me a small bit of joy to flip through these envelopes (they remain unopened until the day of counting) and see the names on the return stickers or handwritten addresses in the upper left corners. Many many authors, big names and little, people I’ve read and people I haven’t, are all sending me mail.
What can I say, I find happiness in some odd things.
2011 Nebula Deadline
| As you’ve surely been already informed throughout the intarwebs, today is the deadline for members of SFWA to cast their votes for the Nebula Awards (by 11:59pm PDT, to be precise).
While my own fiction did not make the list (curse us and crush us), I’m very pleased that one of the novellas from Alembical 2, J. Kathleen Cheney’s “Iron Shoes,” is indeed on the ballot. I would normally encourage you to vote early and often, but since you’re almost out of time I’ll limit my suggestion to voting often. |
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New Paper Golem Project?
I’m supposed to be working on finishing up a short story for an anthology, but for some reason I seem to be in Publisher mode this morning, not Writer mode.
I’m toying with the idea of starting a new book project / series. A small anthology, maybe 20 or so stories, from 20 different authors. The catch is that all of the authors write their stories starting with the same handful of prompts, likely a person, a place, and a thing.
I like the idea of an anthology that has a very loose theme, and seeing where so many different authors would go given the same simple starting points.
The pay would likely be limited to a pro-rata share of any profits after expenses, so barring some insane best-seller fluke, no one (least of all me) would get rich on this. Still, I’m curious what (if any) the reaction might be among readers of this blog.
We’re Made of Meat! (with apologies to Terry Bisson)
Categories: News
Tags: Birthday, Dining
My friend Adam had a birthday this past week. Although Valerie and I spent much time with both him and his wife, Lesley*, last weekend, enjoying their company on the drive to and from Lunacon, that time was (let’s face it) all about me! Tonight, to celebrate his birthday, the four of us will head off to the Chima Brazilian Steakhouse in Philadelphia where we will consume vast quantities of MEAT!
For one not unreasonable price, we will be encouraged to eat unlimited amounts of:
Leg of Lamb, Baby Top Sirloin, Beef Ribs, Chicken with Bacon, Filet Mignon, Flank Steak, Lamb Chops, Top Sirloin, Pork Loin with Parmesan, Pork Ribs, Ribeye, Salmon, Sausage
They also have a vast salad bar with traditional fixings as well as speciality salads. And finally an assortment of desserts (what exactly is Walnut Cream?), but seriously, we’re going for the MEAT!
As you might imagine, I am foregoing my usual Saturday Chinese buffet brunch today. We have reservations for Meat-a-Palooza at 5:30pm.
Happy Birthday, Adam!
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*my deepest apologies to Lesley, whose name I had misspelled in the original version of this post.
2011 Hugo Nomination Deadline
I’ve just sent in my nominations for this year’s Hugo Awards. Best of luck to everyone.
If you haven’t sent yours in yet, the deadline is tomorrow, Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 23:59 PDT.
My sincere appreciation to any of you who enjoyed either “The Wrestler and the Spear Fisher” or “Mars Needs Baby Seals” enough to throw a nomination my way.
And thanks to if you supported any of the amazing novellas published this year in Alembical 2:
“The Paragon Lure” by Tony Pi.
“Second Chance” by David D. LeVine
“Iron Shoes” by J. Kathleen Cheney (already nominated for the Nebula Award!)
A Friday’s Thoughts on Self Publishing
I posted the following as a comment over on Amy Sundberg’s blog, and I encourage you to head over there to take a look at the context and other voices in the discussion. My own two cents seemed coherent enough that I wanted to include it here as well:
My concern with self-publishing, as with small press publishing and big press publishing is the issue of the signal to noise ratio.
It’s useful to remember Sturgeon’s Law, that 95% of anything is crap. Ideally, gatekeepers exist to address this point, to weed out the good from the sea of bad, and present only the worthwhile (accepting for the moment that you agree with a given gatekeeper’s operational definition for what is worthwhile).
At a large press, a good editor or editorial team takes on this role, and for those portions of “worthwhile” defined as “profitable” there’s a marketing team involved as well. As a small press (for example, the one I operate) there may only be one or two editors working on a project and the question of “how much money will this book make” may not even come up at all (though the question of “how much do we stand to lose” usually does).
In self-publishing, there may not be a professional editor and the author has to shoulder the responsibility of both creative artist and gatekeeper. And more often than not, objectivity goes out the window. Most of the authors I know (and I’m including myself) are rarely the best judge of whether their own work.
I run a small press and from day one made the decision never to publish my own work. Why? For the same reason I don’t expect people submitting novellas to me to include rave reviews from their mothers. There’s no objectivity there. At best there’s an attempt, but c’mon, writing is a very subjective, in-your-own-head kind of thing.
If you’re going to self publish, that’s fine, but unless you bring in an outside editor (and while you’re at it, let’s go with a proof reader and copy editor as well), my best guess is you’re going to land in the wrong portion of that 95% / 5% divide.
Health Report for March 2011
Last week I was in to see my doctor. There’s been some question about “protein levels” in a previous blood screening a few months back, and so we did a follow-up. Yeah, nothing particularly alarming, but he wanted to up my levels of B12 and D3 (vitamin D3 in particular being the new darling of the vitamin research world).
While I was there, I asked him about the pain I’ve been having in my left arm, which my Pilates instructor diagnosed as tendinitis. He agreed, performing his own rudimentary and direct test of this hypothesis by applying pressure just forward and around from my elbow and asking “does this hurt?”
“Yeah, it does, and you can stop now,” was my reply. At which point we kicked around likely causes (I suspect the curl exercises I’ve been doing in Pilates) and my options to either let it heal (a long, slow process) or go in for some steroid injections to deal with the pain while I let it heal.
Unless it becomes worse, I’m foregoing the shots. The pain is minimal most of the time. On the downside though, there are times when I seem to have almost no strength in my left hand, limiting what I can carry or lift. I’m starting to think of my left arm as my T-rex arm, comparatively wimpy and useless, but good for waving around. And so it goes.
In other health-type news, I’ve put back on some of the weight I’d lost. Part of this can be blamed on succumbing to various yummy treats at the Lunacon parties (damn you, Ian!), but only part. My exercise regimen also took a hit in the last couple of weeks from conflicting appointments and travel. I need to get back the Improved Nutrition and Exercise horse and resume my slow decline in mass.
And that’s about it Health-wise. I’m still hitting the gym several times each week, doing four miles on the machines when I’m there, and I’m also having my ass kicked by the Pilates instructor twice a week. Time will tell if the miracle D3 does anything for me when I head back to my doctor’s in about four months for a new blood panel or two. Till then, the goal is to continue with eating better and less, and moving more.
