The Page 99 Test

A while back, I did the Page 69 test. Now, the Page 99 test seems all the rage, and since I'm not one to pass up any opportunity to promote my book, I will of course do this as well.

As a preamble to this section...this is actually the last page of a chapter, so it's a bit short. In this scene, Dominick finds himself facing some difficult choices. He has always been a Christian, and has a very strong belief in God, but he's beginning to see that his belief in God and his belief in the Grand Patriarchs may not be the same thing. He's recently found out that his best friend has been aiding the resistance, and since his best friend is also one of the Charismatics (think Christian Gestapo), the task of killing him falls on Dominick...

Once he no longer heard her footsteps, he went and knelt before the altar. “Lord,” he said, “I need you more now than I ever have. One of your commandments states that we’re not to kill, but the Bible is filled with murder. My life is filled with it. Is killing ever acceptable? When?”
He stared at the crucifix for several seconds. Was he really expecting a response? “I believe in you. I believe in the Grand Patriarchs, but I’m confused. Please, Lord, give me guidance. Give me strength.” He thought about his task for the next day. “Yes, Lord, please give me strength so that I may kill my best friend in your name. Amen.”
He stood up and headed for bed. As he was leaving, he stared back at the crucifix. The words from his speech came back to him. Was it a sign, or just a trick of memory? Why can’t it be like the old days? Dominick would give his life for a burning bush, but God no longer worked that way. Dominick shook his head and began to climb the stairs. Maybe guidance would come in a dream. Maybe God would speak to him as he did to Daniel in the realms of the unconscious. More likely, he’d just see Martin’s face, and he wouldn’t sleep at all.



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Swallowing my pride

Reality can be a cold-hearted bitch! The simple fact is that I have to be able to eat and pay my rent, as well as feed the little demon that lives with me, and I simply can't do it for what most jobs are willing to pay me...so I have to go back to Subway. Effective June 4th, I will be the assistant manager at the store I used to manage. I can't say that I'm happy about the situation, but it's better than some of the other alternatives...and at least the guy who owns the franchise is an incredible person. The benefits are better than what are offered by most companies, and the pay isn't bad...in reality, if I wanted to make this much from most other places, it would require a 45+ hour work week. This will be 37-40.

Still, it is Subway...I keep leaving and saying that I'll never go back, but because of reality I have no choice.

I guess I can always hope to get hit by a bus on my way into work my first day...................................

30 years ago today

I'm sure this is going to be the hottest blog topic today among geeks, but I wanted to get my say in as well. 30 years ago today in 32 theaters across America, a little film called Star Wars opened. I was seven at the time, and I can honestly say that I don't remember hearing about the opening.

However, once the film got big, I had certainly heard about it. As a kid, I was a card collector, baseball, football, hockey, and yes, Star Wars cards. I hadn't even seen the movie yet, but I had almost every card Topps had put out. I remember the original set had blue borders, and for some reason, the card that most sticks out in my head was the scene with Vader pointing at Leia when he's accusing her of being part of the Rebel Alliance. After collecting all of the cards, I couldn't wait to see the movie.

Then one night my dad took me to see it. I seem to remember that he had pop cans or something...I think they were for use as discount tickets. Keep in mind that a full price adult ticket cost about $3 at that time. At that price, it's still hard to believe that Star Wars is the number two movie of all times. That's why it still kind of annoys me when people talk about the great openings modern movies have. If you were compare those openings in absolute dollars to what The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi did, I'm sure there'd be no comparison.

The movie blew me away, to say the least. By that age, I had already become obsessed with space and science fiction, and this just took me to a whole new place. I went on to collect all of the action figures, and generally lived for Star Wars for years. Even now, 30 years later, I still love that movie, and the rest of the original trilogy (Empire was the best of the three), and I have no idea how many times I've watched them, and I know that I will watch them quite a few more times in the decades to come.

Who would have thought that a little space western would go on to have such a huge effect on so many people...

I love the post office

Last Monday I ordered some things on-line, and they shipped via priority mail on Thursday. Here we are, a week later, and I still don't have my order...and all the tracking tells me is that the post office has received the shipping information.

Now, what makes this really pathetic is that the order was for stamps placed with the post office. It should not take more than a week for a priority package from the post office to get here.

I suppose if it's not with tomorrow's mail, I'll have to start raising hell...like that really does any good with government employees...

War Pigs-The Iraq version

As I mentioned in my last post, I've always been a bit of a metal head, and of course one of the founders of metal was Black Sabbath, and I've always loved their music. They're not exactly great musicians, but they were ground breakers, and they were a huge influence on the genre. It's kind of like Isaac Asimov to science fiction. He wasn't the greatest of writers, but where would any of us be without him (and before anybody has a hissy fit, I love Asimov's stories, but he wasn't the greatest "writer" and that's ok.)

One of my favorite Sabbath songs was War Pigs, which was written about the Vietnam War, but can easily be applied to today's war...which is just what someone has done with this YouTube video...

I thought I'd seen it all

I'm taking a break from my usual ranting and self-promotion for a bit of a laugh.

I'm getting to that age where I don't think there is anything that can surprise me, and then I learn about a new metal band. For those of you that weren't aware, I am a bit of a metal head (as if the long hair didn't give it away.) But this band isn't like most metal bands. Yes, they do play that annoying metal with the lyricist who could never sing if he wanted to, but still they're different than most.

Why? It's a Klingon metal band...that's right, the haters of tribbles now have their own band. If you click on the title of this entry, it will take you to their MySpace page. The music's not much to listen to, but the pictures are certainly amusing...

A story idea

Here's an idea for a story. Yes, it's been done several times, but bare with me on this one...

Imagine a country at war, a country that is slowly losing its civil liberties, a country run by a man (or group) more interested in his own political career and his own religious agenda. Now imagine that this man is slowly losing his power to a disgruntled electorate. What can he do? There has to be some way for him to grab more power. Here's an idea, what if the man implemented a policy where he could take control of the government if there is some kind of emergency...say a natural disaster or a terrorist attack?

Sounds like a pretty good idea for a story to me...or maybe it sounds like something the White House is actually planning to implement. Read here for more information.

In the document, it basically says that in the event of a disaster, the President would be able to take control of the government, basically to make sure that things continue to run the way they're supposed to, and to make sure that the Constitution is upheld. But I have to ask, when has this President ever put the Constitution ahead of his own personal agenda?

I wonder what's going to happen now that I've linked to this document and ranted about it in this blog...do I end up on some watch list? If I'm not already on one...

Toning down evidence on global climate change

These days, talking about global climate change is like talking about the existence of God. Everyone has their beliefs, and there's not much that can sway one from their views.

However, this article discusses the fact that the Smithsonian toned down information in a recent display to appease the Bush administration and Congress. No matter what side of the debate you're on, you have to agree that it's wrong to suppress scientific data in order to please politicians!

Odd stats

A while back, my novel The Opium of the People was added to the search inside feature at Amazon.com. I was just over there, and it gives these odd little statistical breakdowns for the word usage in the book. I thought it was kind of a fun little feature, but I'm not sure how helpful it really would be to a potential buyer. About the only thing I think you can really draw from it is that my writing style is very approachable. I don't try to overwrite. More often than not, I'll use simple sentences and words as opposed to trying to impress people with my vocabulary. I often think of myself more as a story teller than a writer..but that's for all of you to decide.

So, since I found this neat little feature, I decided I would compare my book to the two books I bought last night, Rollback by Robert Sawyer and Everfree by Nick Sagan. Both of these writers are what I would consider very approachable. So, here goes...

For readability, they have three categories: Fog Index, Flesch Index, and Flesch-Kincaid Index. The Fog Index is supposed to tell you how many years of formal education you need to have in order to understand the book. The Flesch Index gives a score between 1 and 100. The higher the score, the easier it is to read. The Flesch-Kincaid Index tells you what U.S. grade level you need to have in order to understand the text.

Fog Index:
Opium: 8.0
Rollback: 8.2
Everfree: 8.5

Flesch Index:
Opium: 74.7
Rollback: 71.6
Everfree: 69.6

Flesch-Kincaid Index:
Opium: 5.7
Rollback: 6.2
Everfree: 6.4

Complexity is broken into three categories: Percentage of complex words, syllables per word, and words per sentence.

Complex Words:
Opium: 9%
Rollback: 8%
Everfree: 10%

Syllables per word:
Opium: 1.4
Rollback: 1.5
Everfree: 1.5

Words Per Sentence:
Opium: 11.4
Rollback: 12.0
Everfree: 11.3

Again, I don't think these numbers really mean anything. It's just kind of fun to look at.

Order a copy of The Opium of the People

More on Sawyer

I did make it Robert Sawyer's signing last night, and I have to say that he is one of the classiest guys in the field today. He showed up early and went through the crowd introducing himself and talking to people for a while. He remembered me, not by name, but by face, and even had to snap a picture. I hate pictures, and I'm sure it showed, but we'll know for sure when he posts it on his blog...

He did a brief reading of Rollback, and then took a lot of time to answer questions. One thing he addressed was the shrinking SF field, and what he had to say made a lot of sense. I can't put it as well as he can, but here is basically what he had to say.

1) It's Arthur C. Clarke's fault. Not really, but he did point out that the future imagined in 2001 didn't come true, and a lot of other things predicted by SF haven't come true. Also, science fiction failed to predict the world wide web. To those of us in the field, it doesn't really matter because we read the fiction because we love it, but to people outside of the field, there's the idea that science fiction is a predictive fiction, and when it fails to accurately predict the future, then it's no different than fantasy.

2) Science fiction is basically a fiction that revolves around evolution. I won't go into his argument on that point, but I think most of you would agree with that. The problem with that is that evolution has become more or less a taboo subject, especially in America. Therefore, when it's just glossed over in science class, people don't learn enough about it to understand what SF is trying to do.

3) People can now get their SF fix from a lot of different places, and this is a lot different than it was in the 40's, 50's, and 60's.

All in all, it was quite a good time. I got my book signed, which I usually don't do, but I figured it was worth it for him. I also met another Denver author, Warren Hammond, whose first book will be released by Tor next month.

And, even though I'm pretty much broke, I also had to pick up a copy of Nick Sagan's Everfree. It's the final book in his first trilogy, and I've really been looking forward to getting my hands on it since it came out in trade paperback.

They also had a bargain price on Asimov's Guide to the Bible, which I've always wanted to have, but I decided to pass on it. Maybe once I get a job, I'll head back down there and pick that up!

Robert Sawyer

Assuming these ominous thunder heads pass over, I will be going to the Tattered Cover in Denver tonight to see Robert Sawyer read and sign his newest book Rollback. I've done two conventions with Robert, CopperCon in 2005 and MileHiCon in 2006, but I've never had the chance to hear him read. There was always a conflict of interest.

I first read his work just before CopperCon and I was very impressed. At the convention I was doing a signing, or at least I was sitting in the dealers room with no one else in there, when he came in. He took the time to come over and introduce himself and then talked to me for a couple of minutes. He didn't have to do that, but he's just a nice guy. I've done conventions where the guests of honor didn't even like to talk to the other writers unless they had major book deals. To them, it seemed like it was some kind of contest..."Just how big is your book deal?" Not Robert Sawyer. He always seemed to have time for the fans, and I respect that a lot...plus the guy is an amazing writer.

Hopefully, that will be where I am tonight...

Bias in media

Recently Don Imus was fired for making what could best be called stupid comments. Recently an on-air personality here in Denver made the comment that all Muslims in this country, even citizens, should be forced to wear tracking devices. Here's an article about the incident.

This guy still has a job. Why? Because he's a conservative, plain and simple. I don't necessarily think the guy deserves to lose his job, just like I don't think Imus deserved to lose his, but the simple fact is that in our "liberal" media, any conservative can pretty much get away with saying whatever they want. Limbaugh once told an African-American caller to take the bone out of his nose and call him back. And we don't even need to begin to go into the things O'Reilly says on his show. But if a liberal says something controversial, then they usually lose their jobs. That to me is bias, and clearly shows that the idea of a liberal media is no longer true. Let's face it, Rupert Murdoch is now one of the most powerful people out there, and he's no liberal, folks.

The idea of tracking citizens probably sounds like a good idea to Bush and the other neo-cons as they continue to try to establish a fascist state here in America, and this guy just made the mistake of actually voicing those interests. To those of us that read, it's starting to sound like 1984. Believe me when I say that if they were to implement a policy like this, it wouldn't be long before tracking devices were put on other people...especially those that oppose the current regime.

Having said this, why don't I think the guy should lose his job? Simple, I do tend to agree with people that say we're too PC anymore. Although I do think we need to be respectful of other people, I think that we should still be allowed to express our opinions, even when they differ from common sense. As long as you're not preaching hate, and I do think there is a difference from what this guy said and true hate, I don't think you should be censored. Of course, I didn't hear the entire broadcast, so I don't know if there was more to it, and I also don't know if this guy preaches this kind of stuff on a regular basis. But no matter what he says or does, we as citizens have the right to not listen to him, or to boycott products, or to boycott stations.

John Scalzi has declared himself Writing Dictator

For any of you that are writers, John Scalzi's latest blog entry is a must read. If you're not familiar with his blogging style, you should know that he likes to be a bit sarcastic as he tries to get his point across...but you should be used to that if you've been reading my blog for very long.

Simply click on the subject line of this entry to go and read...

Why am I an Atheist?

I seem to get this question a lot, and my answer that the whole idea of a supreme being doesn't make sense to me is never accepted as an answer. It's generally assumed that I was brought up in a very religious family, and that I'm somehow rebelling against that, which also doesn't make sense to me. Although that is true for some Atheists, it can't be applied to all of them. That would be like saying someone is religious because they were brought up in a very Atheistic household.

That argument, to me, makes as much sense as saying gay people should not be allowed to have kids because then they would be gay as well. First of all, I see nothing wrong with being gay. Second of all this would imply that straight people would only have straight kids. If that's true, then how do you explain Ronald Regan's son or Dick Cheney's daughter? I won't get into that...it's a whole different rant.

So, why am I an Atheist?

Neither of my parents were religious, but I did have religious grand-parents, and I even went to church quite a bit as a youngster. However, when I was at church, I would listen to the stories the preacher would tell, and they didn't make sense to me. I was one of those kids that always asked why, and apparently that never went over well in church.

When I was seven or eight, I started reading a lot of books on science, especially astronomy. I was fascinated by the stuff. I couldn't get enough of it. Not much of a surprise that I would become a science fiction writer!

When I read those books, they made sense to me, and in a lot of ways they seemed to contradict what I was hearing in church, and what I'd read in the Bible. Yes, I first read the Bible when I was in 2nd grade...and it was the real Bible, not one designed for kids. Let me tell you, the Bible is not good reading for kids...I can remember some nightmares that book caused for me.

When I was ten, everything came together for me. PBS ran a series by Carl Sagan called Cosmos. I was a bright enough kid that I understood most of what he was saying, and the best part was that it all made sense to me. Here was a guy that was telling me what sounded like truth, or as close to truth as any of us can ever hope to be.

It was at that point that I realized it didn't make any sense for there to be a supreme being, and from that moment on, I was an Atheist.

More on the job hunt

I'm now to the point where I'm going to start applying to some of the retail places around me. My plan was to start on this yesterday, but my shower broke...and by the time maintenance fixed it, it was too late to go out. And this morning I woke up feeling like death warmed over...

I'm still hopeful that my old boss might be able to "create" a position for me. He was such a great guy to work for, I almost hate the idea of having to put up with some unknown boss.

In other news, I was just reading that gas prices hit another record today. I'm so glad that gas boycott yesterday helped!

Jerry Falwell died yesterday. I find myself almost wishing there was a God, because I'd love to be able to see what Falwell's response would be when he finds out just how misguided and screwed up his attitudes had been in life.

Con Panel ideas

One of the things I love about MileHiCon is that they often ask the panelists for ideas about what kind of panels they'd like to do. This gives those of us that are going to be panelists even more of a chance to participate.

And since I'm going to be there again this year, I thought I'd open it up to discussion...if you were going to an SF convention, what kind of panels would you like to see? Yes, Keith, I know you had kind of a bad experience the one time you went to a Con, but only some of the people are that scary...

Most of the panels I do are literary, but I'll occasionally do one about the other aspects of the field...or I'll let someone embarrass the hell out of me on an Alien Archaeology panel...

More on postal rates

For those of us that send out manuscripts via snail-mail, and a lot of markets still require that, there's a bit of sticker shock with the new rates.

For oversized envelopes, it used to be 63 cents for the first ounce and then 24 cents for each additional ounce. They've now changed that. It's now 90 cents for the first ounce and 17 cents for each additional ounce. So, if you're sending off a novel synopsis and the first three chapters, you probably will save some money, but for shorter manuscripts, it's going to cost more, and for the first couple of ounces, it's pretty significant.

One other thing, the post office doesn't have a 90 cent stamp yet. It would require some weird combinations to make it work. It used to be that you could stick a first class stamp and a post card stamp on the envelope and you'd have 63 cents, but that's no longer the case.

Couldn't they have come up with a more logical way to make this work?

Still, all things being equal, I am looking forward to the new Star Wars stamps. What can I say? I'm a geek!

My problem with the Bible

I realize that a lot of people are religious, even some of the people that visit this page are religious, and I'm okay with that. You're free to worship Jehovah, Allah, or The Flying Spaghetti Monster for all I care. I just ask that you don't push your beliefs on me.

And that's where my problem with the Bible begins. There's a small percentage of Christians that believe that they have to convert all of us heathens to their way of seeing the world. In fact, the Bible even tells them they're supposed to. I have a lot of friends that are religious, and basically, they don't try to convert me, and I don't try to convert them to atheism...and we get along just fine. There are some heated debates, but they're debates and not arguments...my friends are generally smart enough to know the difference.

However, the second that someone I don't know, or barely knows, tries to convert me, I get a little hot under the collar...especially when they try to tell me that the Bible is the literal word of God, and that the events in the Bible all really happened. At that point, it's war!

So, today I'm going to refute two of the most popular stories in the Bible, and by that I mean that I'm going to show they can not be the literal word of God. For starters, I'm going to ignore the heinous contradiction of the fact that thousands upon thousands of people are murdered in the Bible at God's will, even when he's preaching, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Let's just leave that glaring contradiction to one side for now. Instead, I'm going to pick a story from each of the testaments and refute it, as it's told by the Bible.

Let's start with the New Testament and the resurrection of Christ, and I'm only going to use one source to refute this...the Bible itself. When I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and the other chapters of the Apostles, two questions quickly come to mind...

1) Where did Christ appear?

2) To whom did he appear?

Now remember, I'm trying to refute the people who believe that every word of the Bible is the literal truth. Why do I ask these two questions? It's simple. These chapters of the Bible contradict one another. Some say he appeared in his tomb, others say that he appeared outside of his tomb, and still others say that he appeared in a nearby town. Some say he appeared to one or more of the apostles, some say that he appeared to Mary, and others say that he appeared to Mary and Mary Magdalene.

If every word of the Bible is literal truth, how can these contradictions be possible? If I wrote these kinds of contradictions into a novel, the book would never appear.

The second story is the easiest to refute, and the most ridiculous story in the Bible (again if you accept it as literal truth.) This is the Old Testament story of Noah's Ark. I'm sure you all know the story, so I won't repeat it, but here are the problems...

1) Assuming that it rained for 40 days, and that on that 40th day, Mt. Everest was covered with water, it would have to rain one inch every 10 seconds. Have you ever had an inch of rain dump on you in a ten minute period? It's miserable, can you imagine a inch every ten seconds for 40 days? Also, who in the hell is bailing out this boat as it fills with water?

2) There simply isn't enough water on and in the Earth to flood that much.

3) The water vapor created by this kind of rain would raise the atmospheric pressure on Earth to the point that it would crush Noah's lungs.

4) Where did the other ethnic groups come from. There's clear evidence that they existed before the floods, so how did the all die off and then come back?

5) There is clear evidence of habitation all throughout the world before, during, and after the flood...and in the same structure. That kind of rainfall could pretty much destroy most of the man-made structures of the time.

6) The flood does not appear in other religions of the world at the exact same time. There are stories of floods, but they don't coincide with the Biblical flood.

7) There is no geological evidence to support a world-wide flood. There is evidence of a massive flood in Turkey at roughly the same time as the Biblical flood. There is also clear evidence world-wide of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs...and that was long before the flood. It should have left some geological evidence.

8) There is no evidence of New World and Australian animals living in the Middle East at the time of the flood. How did the spider monkeys and other new world monkeys, as well as the marsupials of Australia get on this boat?

9) Speaking of the Ark...just how big was this thing? In order to get two of each animal on this thing, it would have to be huge!!! Again, how did one family bail the water out as it was falling at an inch every ten seconds?

10)
This picture claims to show the Ark on Mt. Ararat. Further studies have show this isn't the Ark. In fact, this is such a highly glacial area that any wood remains that might have ended up here would have been destroyed.

The story of Noah is basically an exaggeration by Jewish priests of the story of Gilgamesh and other pre-Judeo Christian stories. Much of the Old Testament was borrowed from earlier religions.

If you want to believe that the Bible is a great source for moral guidance, that's your right. And in fact, once you strip away the death, mayhem, and destruction that proliferate the Bible, there are some good moral lessons...but please don't try to tell me that it's the literal word of God, and that these things really happened...

Let's go to Mars

Since I was nine or ten, I've been passionate about Mars. More than any other body in the universe, it's always been Mars that's held my attention. For any of you that have read my fiction, that's probably pretty obvious, since Mars is a setting for many of my stories.

Using the ideas set forth by Robert Zubrin, we can go to Mars...not in twenty years, but now. With the money we spend in a day or two on the War on Terror, we could fund a crewed mission to Mars...a mission that would stay there for more than a year.

I don't know if the Science Channel will be showing Mars Underground again any time soon, but if they do, you should definitely watch it. For those of you who might be interested in a more detailed explanation of Zubrin's plan, I would strongly recommend his book The Case for Mars. This book has influenced not only my own writing, but many of the bigger hard science fiction writers out there.

There's no reason for us not to go, so let's do it!

The count

I've gotten several e-mails in the last month asking how many stories I've sold, so I figured I'd post the count here. I've also been asked a couple of times what genres I've been published in, so I'll break it down here.

Keep in mind, this is just original sales. There are no re-prints in this list (I've lost track of those a long time ago)...

38 science fiction
1 dark fantasy
1 children's fantasy
1 horror

And the novel, The Opium of the People is science fiction.

My day at the airport

I had to get up early today so that my friend Josh and I could take our friend Vik to the airport. She's going to Russia for a little over six weeks.

This was only the second time that I've been out to Denver International Airport, and when I say out, I mean out. It feels like you're driving half way to Kansas when you go out there, and then all of a sudden, rising up from the plains, is what looks like a bunch of circus tents. I really think our airport is one of the ugliest I've ever seen. It looks like Bozo the Clown was on acid and decided to just throw up some tents. They say that it's supposed to represent the mountains, but it doesn't look like it to me.



The area where they built this airport is highly prone to tornadoes (they had one almost touch down the first week it was open), and since it's built on the plains, when it snows and the wind blows, it's almost impossible to reach. Great planning, Denver!

This was also the first time I'd been to any airport since 9/11, and I have to admit, I was really tempted to scream "Jihad," but I decided not to. We got their insanely early, which you pretty much have to do with international flights, and got jerked around by some moron from United, basically telling us we couldn't go to the international ticketing line even when we'd already been told we were supposed to go there. Some people get to wear a uniform and they think it somehow makes them special.

The one thing I found most amusing is that while we were at the counter, I was watching the two, yes, two, baggage handlers that moved stuff on the conveyor belts. I would guess that there was maybe one bag every two minutes that got loaded onto the belt. One person would make sure the bag would go through the little hole into the "automated" system, and the other would grab a little carrier to put the bag in if it was soft. Yes, it takes two people to do this job...and they probably get paid very well.

Overall, I was very unimpressed with the airport and the airlines, and definitely with the security. It doesn't seem that much better than it was before 9/11. Sure they have that little puffer machine that's supposed to be able to detect explosives, but from what I've heard, the thing really doesn't even work.

Very unimpressed.

My Meez

I saw that Jim Van Pelt had made one of these on his LiveJournal, and it really does kind of look like him...so I just had to try it for myself.

Surprisingly, it does kind of look like me...

The horror of it

I was recently having a conversation with a friend of mine about horror, and why I don't read it. It's not that I don't like horror, it's just that it doesn't really scare me...which I think is the point. I'm much more terrified by what I see on the nightly news than what I read in a horror novel. And vampires, serial killers, and zombies don't scare me anywhere near as much as George Dubya Bush and the neocons.

Still, if a writer can touch something that does actually scare me, it sticks with me. To this day, the drowned zombie from Dan Simmons' Song of Kali haunts me, and the reason is that I'm hydrophobic. The idea of drowning scares the hell out of me, so he was able to tap into that personal fear. The idea of something being under the bed or in the dark doesn't scare me, so those horror tropes don't seem to work for me.

Horror, I think, works more on people who have lots of fears...I guess I'm just not one of them.

Wondrous Web Worlds

I've just delivered the final edited version of Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 7 to Tyree. This collection features work from regular visitors Keith Graham and Marva Dasef, as well as from occasional visitor s.c. virtes. It's hard to say when the book will actually be released. We still have to design the cover and find a place to put it into the publication schedule. These collections are usually put wherever we can find room because they're not big money makers. We mostly do them as a tribute to our contributors and as a tribute to James Baker who, along with me, got this ball rolling many years ago.

I'll keep you updated as I learn more.

A cycling detour

Yeah, I'm going back to being a cycling geek for the day. On Saturday, the Giro d'Italia starts. This is a three week race, and next to the Tour de France, it's the biggest thing in cycling. This year, however, the winner of last year's race won't be there. Ivan Basso who dominated the race in 2006 and then was thrown out of the Tour before it even started because of his connection to a blood doping scandal won't be riding. Since early July, he's been denying any involvement with the blood doping scandal called Operacion Puerto, but this week he admitted that yes, he was involved, but he didn't actually dope. He was only planning on it. So, he'll probably be suspended for a couple of years, and I don't see anything wrong with that.

But it really makes me wonder if you have to cheat in life to get ahead. Athletes do it, politicians do it, I've even heard of some writers trying it. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned honesty?

Before anyone asks, the writers cheating thing I'm talking about is the fact that some writers (usually small names) will try to post bad reviews about other writers' books...I'm assuming in the hope that it will make them look better. Sadly, it does happen...

It's becoming clear

I think I'm starting to realize that if I want a job that I can use my writing and editing skills at, I'm going to have to go back and finish my second degree. The other option would be to get a lot of professional credits, but school would probably be easier and take less time. Still, even with professional credits, I probably wouldn't have much of a chance because they'd be in science fiction, and that's just looked down on...

Maybe it would be a good idea for me to just settle for a crappy job for the next few months, and then start taking classes. Not really sure what I'm going to do, but I suppose this is an option I should consider.

In general, I don't hate the idea of going back to school, but I do hate the fact that I'd have to have a minor, even though I already have a BA. If you ask me, it's just the school's attempt at trying to get more money out of me.

Decisions, decisions...now I have to get back to work...

My Story at Science Fiction Story of the Day

My "cyberpunk" story "A Chronic Mistake" is up at Science Fiction Story of the Day for May 6th. Click on the title of this post to read it...

Thanks Keith!

The new postal rates

I'm not sure if any of you have checked out these new changes the USPS is making to their rates. It's pretty absurd. Now different sized packages have different rates, and reading through the rate lists is about like those stupid word problems I hated so much in algebra. If Johnny wants to ship a package to Cleveland that's 8X11 and Suzy wants to ship a package to Seattle that's 14X12, what's the square of the hypotenuse?

For writers and small press publishers, this is going to be a major hit in the wallet. I would imagine some of the smaller publishers will actually be pushed out of business by this, and some writers will limit themselves to only submitting on-line, which greatly hurts their chances of ever making it.

But, this is the cross we must bear, so I guess I should just shut up and deal with it...

The Imperial March

I have a music player on my MySpace page that holds 75 songs (when it works right), and one of those songs is The Imperial March from Star Wars. I was wondering if anyone hears that piece whenever Bush is walking to the podium to speak? I know I sometimes do...

The Problems with the May 15th Gas Boycott

This has been circulating for quite a while now, and I think everyone needs to realize that the entire boycott is based on a faulty paradigm.

Here's why...

1) The idea that this worked in 1997 is actually an urban myth. From the reading I've done, there seems to be no evidence to back up this idea.

2) The oil industry isn't effected by something like this as other industries might be. Even if you boycott on the 15th, you're still going to buy gas on the 14th or the 16th, and the oil industry will just make back the money they lose on the 15th.

3) The oil industry does not work on a daily profit and loss schedule. Although it is true that they will raise their prices if there is a terrorist attack, hurricane, or something else that might effect their production, they're not going to lower prices just because people don't buy. They know you're going to have to at some point. They work more on a weekly and monthly basis, as do most corporations, and one day's losses are not going to mean much to them.

4) The major gas stations will not be hurt by this as much as the small mom and pop stores. A day of boycott could hurt a small store, and if we lose those, it's just that much easier for the big boys to charge whatever they want.

If you really want to make a difference, take mass transit, or if you have to go to the store and it's just a couple of blocks away, walk instead of driving...and don't just do this on the 15th. Do it on a regular basis.

My trip to hell

One of the things I like about freelancing is that I can sleep in. I'm a chronic insomniac, so I can get a little extra sleep if I can sleep in. Maybe that was one of the reasons my last job almost killed me. I usually had to get there between 5 and 6 a.m.

So, rarely in the last ten months have I gotten up early...in fact, I think the last time I did was Christmas, but today I had to get up early...because I had to go to hell. That's right, I had to go to the DMV!!!!!!

I've been needing to get a new ID for a while, because let's face it, who really wants to go to the DMV. I went a while back, and after waiting something like three hours, I was told that my documentation wasn't adequate because I had a county issued birth certificate instead of a state issued one. This was after the woman at the door reviewed my documents and said they were ok. So, I had to send off to Ohio to get a new birth certificate...and of course, they raised their prices while my check was on its way...so I had to do the whole thing all over again.

Today I was going to be smart. I got up early, walked the 45 minutes to get there, arriving just before they opened...and there was a long line. So, I got my number sat down and waited. It didn't take too long, but the woman who recorded my information entered it wrong, so it ended up taking even longer.

Still, I was only there for an hour, which is not bad for a trip to hell...er the DMV.

I was surprised that I had to give a fingerprint. I guess it's just one more way for the government to keep track of us. Another strange thing is that here in Colorado, you don't get your ID right away. They mail it to you after 2-6 weeks. They claim that it's because of the Patriot Act, but I know other states where you get the ID the same day, including Florida...

The bees!!!

Jim's been mentioning the bees disappearing in America quite a bit lately on his site, so I thought I'd post this link I found through Jay Lake's page. Click on the title of this entry to check it out. I especially like the last theory!

There's really not much going on...

It's kind of a boring day today. Still looking for a job...still having trouble finding one. I seem to be either overqualified or under qualified for whatever I'm looking for.

Still, there's really not much to talk about, so feel free to ask me questions...

Interview

The "Authors of MySpace" page has done a brief interview with me. They're interviewing a lot of the people on their "friends" list, but it's still pretty cool answering questions about writing. You can read the interview by clicking on the title of this entry, and then going to their May 2nd blog.

Future Syndicate reviewed again

SFRevu has reviewed
Future Syndicate. It's not a glowing review, but the reviewer didn't hate the book, so I guess that's a good thing. It seems, and this is just opinion on my part, that the reviewer went in expecting something else, which always taints how you really feel about a book.

As Jay Lake always says, at least they spelled the names right...

A New Story

It's been a few months since I posted a new story on my website, so today I posted "A Chronic Mistake." This story was my first, and so far only, foray into Cyberpunk. I only occasionally read cyberpunk, but I usually enjoy it, and so this was my big experiment in that sub-genre. Some day, I'm sure I'll go back and write more...it's kind of fun...

Just for Jim

I saw this video, and it made me think of Jim's rant on his blog, so I just had to post it...

The Page 69 test

Apparently this is something that has been going around the web for a while, although I just became aware of it after reading about it on Robert Sawyer's blog. The idea is that if you're interested in a book, you pick it up and read page 69, and that should tell you if it's worth reading. I tried it with my book, and found that it actually does give a lot of important details, and might just intrigue enough people to buy it...so, here's page 69 of The Opium of the People...

CHAPTER TWELVE
Edward 4:1

“How much have things changed at the lab?” Edward asked.
His friend Bill smiled a half smile. His weathered black face showing some of the life it once had. “We’re still doing research, but it’s nothing like we used to.”
“What do you mean?”
“Edward,” his friend said glancing around, “Do you really think we should be talking about this? Didn’t you just get interrogated a couple of days ago?”
Edward waved his hand in the air. “They can’t arrest me for asking innocent questions.” Bill just looked at him. Edward laughed. “Okay, maybe they can, but I think it’s alright.”
He glanced around as well. The street was well lit and fairly crowded. It was market day, and many of the vendors had yet to pack up their belongings for the evening. People walked around in their most colorful clothes, laughing and smiling as if all was right in the world. The vendors called out the names of their goods in loud voices trying to drown out the competition. Many of the items being sold were useless in Edward’s opinion. How many different types of prayer beads could one person own? Some of the vendors brought food items in from the country. There was nothing like farm grown chickens or milk from a hand-milked cow. Edward noticed a man in a black uniform two stalls behind them, looking over some fabric. As Edward watched, the man glanced up and looked right at Edward and his friend.
“Maybe it isn’t safe.”
Bill followed Edward’s gaze. He shook his head and sighed. “They don’t hide most of their research from the public, so we can talk about that. I wouldn’t talk about the top secret stuff anyway.”

The world is stranger than any writer could ever dream up...

I heard a strange story today that just proves to me that the world doesn't make sense.

Many many many years ago there was a reporter at a Denver TV station named Bill O'Reilly...that's right, THAT Bill O'Reilly. This was right around the time that TV stations were first starting to make a big deal out of live shots.

It would seem that a recent study showed that Aspen had the highest cocaine use in all of Colorado, so this station sent O'Reilly to Aspen to do a report on it. Live on TV, standing in front of a very expensive house, O'Reilly made a comment that seemed to imply that the owner of the house might be trafficking cocaine.

Now, the owner of the house was a very rich man (obviously), and he used his power to get O'Reilly fired. None of this might strike you as strange, obviously O'Reilly is good at saying things he shouldn't say, but where it gets strange is when the owner of the house is revealed...

...the owner was Rupert Murdoch...that's right, the man who owns Fox. The very network that runs O'Reilly's propaganda show...

Truth really is stranger than fiction!

Where do the mousies go?

This is a major change in subject from where I've been...and maybe it's a question that Keith or Jim or any of the other cat owners can answer for me.

I often give my cat these little toy mice to play with. She throws them in the air, bats them around, and generally practices her hunting techniques. She often walks through the house carrying them in her mouth like she's just come back with the greatest kill of her life. Sometimes, she'll even play cat fetch with me. For those of you not familiar with cat fetch, here's how it works. I throw the mouse. She runs and gets it. Then she brings it back to me and drops it just beyond my reach...cat fetch.

Now my question is: What happens to these things? After a few days of playing with them, they disappear...never to be seen again. She's an indoor cat, so I know she's not taking them outside. I've searched every place I can think of, but I can never find them. They're not something she can eat, so I know that's not where they're going. So, where are they?

Sometimes I think cats have a connection to another dimension that we humans are just too stupid to find...maybe that's where they go...

The Video

Here is the video I referenced in the last post...

People believe what they want

Recently, Bill O'Reilly had Richard Dawkins on. Dawkins is one of the premiere evolutionary scientists in the world, and O'Reilly assaulted him with his usual closed mindedness. I have to admit that he wasn't as acerbic as I might have expected...but his basic argument was that he believes what he believes, and Dawkins believes what he believes...even though Dawkins was trying to make some legitimate points.

The one thing that really teed me off about the discussion was O'Reilly made the claim that Hitler was an Atheist...basically implying that this Godlessness was the reason for why the Nazi party did the things it did. Since that time, I've seen a lot more rhetoric on the Net echoing this idea. It's basically a matter of people hearing someone they believe and respect (O'Reilly), and accepting his word as gospel...if you'll excuse my use of that word.

The truth is that Hitler was a Christian, and even when Dawkins tried to point this out, O'Riley dismissed it. As evidence, I give you this...

I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. [Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 46]

I know a lot of atheist, and I can't imagine any of them saying something along those lines...although I can hear a lot of the more radical Christians saying these kinds of things...

It's pathetic that people just want to believe whatever they hear, and then accept that as what is right in the world. Nine times out of ten, if I hear something that fits with my worldview, I'll at least double check to make sure it's accurate...it's really not that hard, but Americans tend to be herd animals, and only want to accept things that fit into their small, narrow view of the world. Thus the reason why we're in the situation we now find ourselves in.

Why Can't I Buy a Canadian?

Someone posted this as a MySpace bulletin, and I thought it was worth re-posting it here...don't take offense at the title, Jim...



Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance.
The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by an East Coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15 :19- 24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,
Moishe

Possible habitable planet found

Again, the title of this entry will take you to an article about an extra-solar planet that has been discovered that could be habitable. There's still a lot of research that needs to be done, but this is the first possibly habitable planet ever discovered...so I thought I'd make a big deal out of it...

...now, go back to worrying about the fascists...

10 steps to fascism

The title of this entry links to a great article that goes through step by step what past governments have done to institute a fascist government, and then it shows how the Bush administration is doing the same thing.

Any of the items listed in the article may not seem like anything to worry about when looked at in an isolated manner, but when you look at them as a whole, it's pretty obvious that we're in trouble...as I've been saying for quite some time.

Wait is that a knock at the door? Maybe it's the NSA......................

Opium Reviewed

Quality Book Reviews has just posted a review of my novel, The Opium of the People. Click on the subject of this entry, and it will take you right to the review. It's not a bad review. They genuinely seemed to enjoy the book, other than some typos...but what book doesn't have typos anymore? Sadly, they're even creeping into the major publishers books more and more often...

Yet another sale

After a period of drought, I'm suddenly having a pretty good run on sales of late. My short story "Hunted" will appear in the March 2008 issue of Tales of the Talisman. This will be my second appearance in Tales of the Talisman. My first story, "The Ancient Ones," appeared in the March 2006 issue. Before ToT was born, Dave Summers had a magazine called Hadrosaur Tales, and I had a story in issue 20, which was the last issue. Hadrosaur was a great little digest magazine, but I really love the look of Tales. It's a full-sized glossy zine with amazing artwork from Laura Givens.

Now I'd better get to writing some more short stories because I'm starting to run out...

I'm a pixo-stained technopeasant wretch

For those of you who have been following the controversy at the SFWA, I've decided to contribute as well. You can read my contribution at my LiveJournal...click on the title of this entry, and it will take you right over to it.

My modeling debut...sort of...

Most of you that have been reading here for a while will remember that a few weekends ago, one of my friends and I went on a photo shoot with the phenomenal local artist Laura Givens. She's created some new works using those photos, and you can see them by clicking on the title of this blog.

I'm in "Hair of the Dog" and "By Fire and Steel."

My friend Vik is the ninja-geisha in "Rites of Spring."

The Job Hunt

For those of you keeping track, the job hunt is not going well...so far. Keith pointed out some places to look, so maybe that will help. Here's a basic break down of the problems I've been having...

The jobs that I'd really like to do require a degree in English...mine's in psychology, and they don't seem to be equal...

The jobs that I'd be willing to do are either on the other side of town or they require a "professional" appearance. The problem with jobs on the other side of town is that I don't drive...never have, probably never will...and I'm not really willing to commute two to three hours by bus for a job. The professional appearance is the bigger problem...that usually means short hair for men. For those who have never actually seen what I look like, my hair is about half way down my back, and I have no plans on cutting it...but I will keep applying.

At this point, it looks like I'm going to get stuck with a job in food or retail...I'm hoping for retail...

Search inside Opium

It's taken a lot longer than it was supposed to, but Amazon now has it set up so you can search inside my novel The Opium of the People. Simply click on the title of this entry, and it will take you there. You can get a little taste before you decide to buy it...because you know you want to...

Can we just pretend that this week never happened?

The last week, eight days, whatever it's been, have just sucked. I hate that word, but I really don't feel like trying to come up with something different.

First we lost Kurt Vonnegut, then I find out that one of my old friends is in prison for a horrible crime, then Virginia Tech, then last night was just the topper. One of the twins cats was hit by a car. How are you supposed to explain that to a six year old? Especially when you're not even around...

I just wish I could have stayed under the covers all week and ignored the world.

And don't even get me started on the job search...

Beware of the quiet loner!

The media keeps portraying the V-Tech shooter...he doesn't deserve to have his name mentioned...as a quiet, loner that wrote disturbing works. They seem to think that that is the reason for why he did what he did.

Let me introduce myself, I'm a quiet guy who usually only talks when he really feels he has something to say. I live alone...just me and my cat. Often times I'd be perfectly content to stay home for days on end without talking to people. I don't really have a need for social interaction except on the rarest of occasions. Dark fiction...have you ever read my stuff? People die in my stories all the time; sometimes even the main character...and I also like to use torture in my fiction.

Based on what the media is saying, I must be someone that should be watched out for. Bullshit! I'm a firm believer in Issac Asimov's quote from Foundation: "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." I'm one of the least violent people you could ever meet. The fact that there are several Subway customers and employees still alive should attest to that fact! If by some freak of nature I should ever decide that I need to kill myself, believe me, I will only take myself out...after I found a home for my cat...

Now, from the completely morbid side of my brain...and this is pretty tasteless, so you might want to skip it:

I just read that between the two shootings, the gunman went to the post office to mail some stuff to NBC...I guess that explains why it took him two hours to get to the other side of the campus.

DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!!!

Hate Mail

I've just received my first official hate mail as an author. I guess this means that people are beginning to take notice of me as an author...but I think I could have done without this kind of notice.

Here is the text of the message...the spelling is his...

"Your book sucks! I can't believe anybody would write this kind of trash. It's obvius that your just an atheist asshole who wants to ignore everything that God teaches us and try to make us think like you.
Why don't you go back to Irak with the rest of your kind.
It should be illegal to write anything that gos against the word of God, and you should be arrested or killed for writing this.
Hope you enjoy your time burning in hell."

Originally, I'd thought about responding, but instead, I decided to pass this on to my webhost and let them take care of it.

I think it would be safe to say that this person has never read my book. My main reason for saying this is because the book is not about atheism. In fact, nobody is labeled as an atheist in the book. The three main protagonists are Jewish, Taoist, and Pantheist. The book was written about fundamentalism...I just chose Christianity because it seemed the most plausible in the United States.

Hopefully this will be the last hate mail I ever get because to be totally honest, this is a bit disconcerting...

And now for something completely different...

I had been considering another post about what happened at VT, especially in light of the fact that science fiction author Michael Bishop's son was among the victims, but instead, I've decided to do something a little lighter. I'll let the darkness inhabiting my soul right now come out in my fiction instead.

I rarely talk about other writer's works on here, but I decided I would make a brief mention of Tyree Campbell's new novel The Dog at the Foot of the Bed. I'm not going to do a review or anything...I rarely read reviews, and it's even more rare that I actually write them. If memory serves, I've only written one during my career.

For a very brief time, I was trying to start a literary agency, which was a very bad idea since I hate marketing my own stuff...why would I want to do it for someone else? Simply put, James Baker had asked me to, and it was always very hard to say no to him. So, Dog was one of the books I was trying to sell. I didn't have any luck, but it wasn't because the book is bad (it's actually great), but more because I was a bad agent...that's why I got out of the business.

From the back cover: Sixteen years ago the Shannen children were attacked and their home was destroyed. The oldest...twins Ovin and Siobhan...barely managed to whisk their siblings away to the safety of a remote planet. Seeking revenge for the attack, Ovin became a hired assassin, while Siobhan entered corporate security service to bring about law and order...and to bring Ovin to justice.

Now someone is trying to kill the Shannens again. And another threat has surface: a terrible new weapon is cracking planets open like nuts and destroying them...a weapon that could be used on the Shannens' new home. Ovin has to find out who is behind these murderous projects and stop them...but in order to find out who, he first has to discover why...and he's going to need Siobhan's help to do it.

But if he succeeds, he could lose his twin forever.



"Campbell's novel is a guessing game that will keep you wrong-footed until the last page."-Edward Cox, UK reviewer.

From me, this is a great book, and you should really read it...sure, it's not profound, but who cares?

If you'd like to order a copy, you can order it from The Genre Mall.

Why it can be hard to be a science fiction writer

If you don't like down and out and depressing entries, skip this one!!!

I'm often asked if it's hard to come up with ideas. The answer to this is, no, it's not hard. What can be hard is coming up with plausible ideas. I like for my SF to have a ring of truth to it, and given what's going on in the world right now, it's hard to come up with plausible ideas because, quite simply, I'm really beginning to doubt that the human race has a future.

More than 30 people were massacred on an American college campus today. People are blowing themselves up in Iraq for political (read that as religious) purposes...meanwhile, our government continues to wage a crusade against Muslim nations. Notice that I didn't say wage a war...I said wage a crusade. Other than the obvious economic reasons (oil) for us to wage war on these countries, the main reason we're over there is for religious reasons. As always, I'm just spouting opinion, but I think there's some truth to these opinions.

Bush and the neo-cons are highly religious individuals...even evangelical, and they are doing whatever they can to wage war against a rival religion. As many of you know, I'm an atheist, and basically have no use for religion. If someone wants to believe in some kind of higher power, that's their choice...just don't force your beliefs on me...and that's what's starting to happen in this country. Various school systems are trying to implement the teaching of "intelligent" design, while trying to ban anything that has to do with evolution. I read today that a school system in Kansas banned Pokemon because of its evolutionary overtones. I don't know enough about Pokemon to know what in the hell they're talking about...but there it is.

I'm more than a little curious to find out what the reasoning for the attacks in Virginia were, but it makes you wonder where people are safe anymore? We had a school shooting here in Colorado last year, and then there was the shooting at the Amish school. What's wrong with people?

A long time ago, a friend told me something that has stuck with me...I'm not really sure if it was his quote...he was a bright guy, but this sounds too profound for him. We had been discussing the fall of the Roman Empire, and we'd basically agreed that there were no longer any barbarians to come over the hills. To which he responded, "When there are no longer barbarians to come over the hills, a society will create its own." That's exactly what has happened. The United States has abandoned so many of the ideals that made us at least somewhat of a great nation, and has instead decided to embrace, religion, Brittney Spears, and American Idol.

This country is in serious decline, and sadly, much of the rest of the world wants to be just like us.

This, my dear readers, is why I find it hard to be a science fiction writer. How are you supposed to write about the future, when there probably won't be one?

More cycling geekdom

There are at least one or two people that read here that are actually interested in cycling, so I thought I'd at least post something more for them.

Yesterday's Paris-Roubaix looked like it was a great race, but the coverage on Versus left a lot to be desired. All totaled, they showed about half an hour of the race, and the race is about six hours long, so you can kind of fill in the pieces as to just how bad the coverage was. They showed about six sections of pave (bad cobbles) and the finish. They would go to commercial breaks and then come back 30 km further into the race. The announcers had recorded their coverage from France live, so the problem was obviously with the editing. Several years ago they showed it live, and that was still the best coverage I've ever seen of the race.

Usually the race is cold, and often times wet, which devastates the field, but yesterday was the hottest Paris-Roubaix on record, and the race has been run since 1898. The week before they had one of the hottest Ronde Van Vlanderaan ever...makes you wonder.

At least Stewart O'Grady won...he's been deserving of this kind of victory for quite some time...

Less depressing news

While out shopping with Vik and Josh today, one of the twins called me to tell me that she'd lost her first tooth! It's a momentous day for her!

People change

I got a MySpace message from my friend Spencer this morning, and I'd have to say that I'm still kind of reeling from it. When we were in high school, we had a friend, who we'll call "D." Now D was a nice kid...shy, kind of quiet...a little weird (but so were most of my friends.) He was one of those people you knew you could always count on, provided his mother would actually let him out of the house.

The message was a link to information about D's criminal record. Apparently he was arrested for attempted sexual assault! It's still hard for me to believe, because he never really seemed like the type, but I guess it shows you that people can and do change over time. It also makes you realize that everyone is capable of violence. No matter how much we've evolved, there's still enough of the wild in us that we can be capable of horrible acts against one another. Most of us are able to control those urges, but they're always right there below the surface.

Maybe that's why as a writer, I like to create characters that are flawed. Many of my protagonists seem to be on the verge of doing something horrible almost all the time.

As I think about D, I wonder how much of this is a result of the way he was brought up. His mother was domineering and tried to control almost every aspect of his life. Maybe if she would have lightened up a bit and let him live, he wouldn't have turned out this way. Still, no matter what his mother did, it was still his choice to commit this crime, and as a result he bares all responsibility for it.

I'm still in shock!

The Locus Poll closes tomorrow

I posted this a while ago, but since tomorrow's the last day to vote, I figured I'd post it again...Click on the title of this blog to vote...

Locus Magazine has opened up its annual readers' poll, and this year, we've decided we're going to try to make a dent in it. The chances of us winning in any category are pretty slim because this is a MAJOR award, and most of the candidates are BIG NAMED writers. Still, Tyree and I have always had a little Don Quixote in us...so we're going to make a run for it, and at least try to get some recognition for Sam's Dot!
Below you will find a ballot that we've put together that we'd like to encourage you to follow. The main difference between this and the P&E poll is 1) It's a lot harder to stuff the ballot box on this one, and 2) The only nominations that appear on the ballot are those that came from the magazine...which means that you have to do a write-in for all of these nominations. It's kind of difficult, and time consuming, but if you love Sam's Dot...it's worth it. The ballot we put together contains mostly people and stories from Sam's Dot, but if we had extra room, we also tried to come up with some names of people we like as well...
One final note, you can vote for up to five in each topic, and the ballot below lists people basically in the order that we came up with them, not necessarily in the order that we think they belong (so no hurt feelings if you think you're better than someone ahead of you.)
SF Novel:
1) Friends in Dark Places by John Bushore
Best First Novel:1) Friends in Dark Places by John Bushore
2) Forbidden Cargo by Rebecca Rowe
Best Novella:
1) The Battle for Newhome by Terry Hickman
2) Urbania by L.A. Story Houry
3) Tower to Heaven by David Wright
Best Short Story:
1) Generation Gap by Tyree Campbell
2) Points of Departure by Jennifer Crow
3) Abstinence by Sarah Kelderman
4) An Asteroid by Any Other Name by David Lee Summers
5) Entropy by J Alan Erwine
Best Magazine:
1) Aoife’s Kiss
2) Beyond Centauri
3) The Martian Wave
4) The Fifth Di…
5) Champagne Shivers
Best Book Publisher:
1) Sam’s Dot Publishing
2) Nomadic Delirium Press
3) LBF Books
4) Apex Publishing
5) Perplexed Puffin Press
Best Anthology:
1) Erwine-Ecotastrophe
2) Campbell-Esperance
3) Erwine-Just Because
4) Campbell-Bondage
5) Erwine-Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 5
Best Single Author Collection:
1) Flashing the Dark by Bruce Boston
2) Long Way Home by R.D. Robbins
Best Editor:
1) Tyree Campbell
2) J Alan Erwine
3) Cathy Buburuz
4) Teri Santitoro
5) Terrie Leigh Relf
Best Artist:
1) Laura Givens
2) Marge Simon
3) 7ARS
4) Jolene Flasher
5) Anselmo Alliegro

Even more on Kurt

Denver sports writer Woody Paige even commented on Vonnegut's death. Click on the title of this blog and you can see what he had to say...there's a nice twist for those of you in Denver...

More on Kurt

People who watch sports are upset when an athlete they like dies. The same is true for people who watch movies when an actor dies. But for those of us who read, I think losing one of our favorite authors might be harder. The reason I say this is because we actually get to know that person a little. No matter how hard an author tries to keep themselves out of their writing, there's always a part of them in there. Their viewpoint, a bit of characterization, something that is them...and the more you read of that author, the more you see the similarities, and the more you're able to piece together a little of who that person is. I don't think people get that same connection with an athlete or an actor...unless of course they actually get to meet them, and get to know the real person.

Maybe I never met Kurt Vonnegut, but he certainly left an impression on me, and who knows maybe he even helped to form a little of who I am...I know he did as a writer.

I've read a few other postings about him that I'd like to direct you to...


David Louis Edelman's blog

Keith Graham's great story

Jim Van Pelt's LiveJournal story

So it goes

This is a video I found on YouTube. It's not put together very well, but I still found it interesting. I'll have more to say later...

R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, author of Slaughterhouse Five and many other great novels died Wednesday apparently as a result of head injuries suffered in a fall a few weeks ago.

His writing has played a huge role in my development as an author. I've always been a fan of satire, and in my opinion, no one did it better than him. He was once quoted as saying, "I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," and for anyone who knows me...they can see why this man's writing would appeal to my sick and twisted view of the world.

Vonnegut, along with about a dozen authors, are probably the reason why I became a writer...but now you have one less person to blame personally.

Vonnegut will be sorely missed...

Just because I'm a cycling geek

I decided to go with something a little different this time. Some of you might know that I'm a huge cycling fan. I'm into European Road Racing like most Americans are into football. I used to race as a junior...in fact, one of the guys who now rides in Europe (once finished 3rd in the Tour de France), Bobby Julich, is a guy who used to kick my butt all over the Rocky Mountains.

Anyway, I decided to post a cool video I found about cycling...



...and since this weekend is the biggest one day race of the year, Paris-Roubaix, I decided to post a little video about the most notorious section of cobblestones in that race. The riders have to go through the Arenberg Forest...in fact, the road they're riding on was first laid down by the army of Napoleon...

The wait is over!!!

That's right, folks...we finally know who the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby is!!

Now, my next question, who really cares? This is the top news story? It's entirely possible that the US is planning on attacking Iran soon, global warming might be destroying the planet, there's genocide in Darfur, natural disasters all over the world, and this is what people are talking about?

What happened to people caring about real things?

I'm quickly going into bitter mode when it comes to the human race...must be time to crank out another satirical short story...

For now I leave you...just to keep all of you from feeling my wrath...

Amazon Reviews

I've noticed a trend lately where some writers try to plug their novels by pointing out all of the great reviews they're getting on Amazon. Inevitably, most of the writers doing this have had their books published by a vanity publisher...one of those groups that charges you a ton of money so they can publish your book, and rarely do you make that money back.

It's ridiculous to use Amazon reviews as a way of promoting your book. The main reason is that anybody can post a review on their site. So, all an author has to do is go out and get all of their friends to say nice things, and all of a sudden the book is rated five out of five stars, but that doesn't really tell you anything. On the flip side of this, if you piss someone off, they can go to your book's page and pan it, and then they can get all of their friends to do that as well...and yes, this really does happen.

I'll admit that I'm glad to see that one person has reviewed The Opium of the People, and given it five stars, but that doesn't really mean anything to me. For all I know, this might have been a friend of mine who was just trying to be nice. Has it helped me sell anymore copies? Probably not.

If you have a book, and you want real reviews, then you have to try a lot harder. In order to be taken seriously, you have to have reviews from major sources. This is very hard to do for a small press novel, and almost impossible to do for a vanity published book. But it is the only way you'll be taken seriously, and it's one of the best ways to sell more copies...

Characters

Since this is the celebration of Spring, and a Pagan holiday, I decided to get a little lighter today than I have been. Spring? It's snowing and the temperature is below freezing...and we've had quite a bit of freezing drizzle, which is almost unheard of in this area...

Today I thought I'd talk about something that I get asked about a lot. Where do my characters come from?

My protagonists are generally victims of the world they live in. Strangely, as anti-military as I tend to be, a lot of my characters are soldiers...but they're usually soldiers with a conscience. They view the nasty world of war from inside, and don't like what they see. Often that consumes them...yes, I have a bad habit of killing off my characters.

I view oppression in the world as one of the greatest evils, and thus my characters are often oppressed...by religion, society, the corporate world, whatever happens to be bugging me on the day I write.

I also use scientists a lot...and they usually realize that whatever they're doing is being perverted by the government they work for. Are you starting to see a theme here?

As for antagonists, I often try to use people that I can't really understand. Again the military is a big one for me. I know this will piss my friend Vik off, but if you join the military as infantry, fighter pilot, marine, and such, then it means that you are willing to kill. Somewhere in your psyche is the ability to take another human being's life, and that is something I can't comprehend, so I often use those characters. Same could be said for using CEOs of major corporations. I've never understood the goal of raping and pillaging the planet and its inhabitants just to make a buck...so they're often my antagonists. I suppose it's an attempt on my part to better understand these people.

More than anything, my antagonists tend to be amorphous concepts (oppression, environmental damage, war, hatred). There may be people filling those roles, but they're part of a bigger whole, and at times even my antagonists are victims more than participants.

Basically, I guess you could say that my characters tend to be caught up in a world that they have no chance of truly understanding, and they have no chance of being able to control it. Still, it's their struggle that makes them who they are, and even if they fail, they usually give a good fight.

The World is Grey

Yes, I realize that I'm not using the American spelling of grey, but I like the way this one looks so much more.

When did the world become so polarized? These days it seems you're either a liberal or a conservative...you either support the troops or you're against them...you think illegal immigrants should either be deported or given complete amnesty...etc. etc.

There are no right and wrong answers in the world, there are just varying shades of grey. A while back we were discussing global warming here, and it seems like you have to either agree that humans caused it, or they have no effect on it. The answer actually lies somewhere in the middle. I think most of the people who visit this blog probably agree with that, but the people who come here aren't like most of the people in the rest of the world...if you are, why are you reading?

Here in America, nothing can even get done politically anymore because people are so polarized in their ways. Bush or the Congress are either completely right or completely wrong...it doesn't make any sense to me. I'll be the first to admit that I think Bush is one of the worst presidents we've ever had. Just because I believe that doesn't mean that I'll dismiss everything he says, but that seems to be what's called for in America these days. No single political party has the answers to everything, and believing that to be true is ridiculous...but until we stop all the pointless bickering over party politics, we're not going to be able to accomplish much.

On the idea of troops it seems that if you don't want them in Iraq, then that means that you don't support them. This is an idea that is certainly being propagated by the current administration, but it's absurd. My personal feeling is that we never should have gone there in the first place, and I don't want to see anymore of our guys getting killed over something that has been going on for centuries, and is going to be solved by making them become democratic.

I have never been a big supporter of the military. Our military budget has taken away from programs that could have actually helped humanity. Yes, true, we do need a defense, but if we improved out international relations with others, we would have fewer problems.

Once again, I'm not saying anything that is big news to anyone here. In fact, I would imagine that most of you agree that we need to stop seeing the world in black & white.

The War on Terror

Global Climate Change seems to have cooled down here on the blogs, so I'll bring up another hot political topic...the war on terror.

First of all, let me say that most of what you're going to read in this entry and in my other entries are just opinions. There are certainly data to back up my opinions, as I don't usually mouth off about things unless I know a little something about them, but I don't feel like documenting where I'm getting info from...I'm just telling you what I think and feel.

Now, having said that, let me say that the war on terror is a stupid concept!!! You can't wage a war on terror and hope to win. Terror is something that's always going to be with us. As long as there is a group that feels they're being oppressed (and there always will be) terror will be a viable way of striking back at a target that can't be defeated face to face. Believe me, if terrorist backed countries had powerful armies, they'd come after us that way...but they don't, so they resort to terror.

What was one of the first well known terrorist attacks on American soil? Most people would say Oklahoma City, but you have to go back a little further than that. Let's say back to the Boston Tea Party. That's right, America, your country was formed by a bunch of terrorists. Granted, that's an extreme oversimplification of the facts, but there certainly was an element of terror to our revolution against the crown of England.

As a writer, terrorism has always fascinated me. It shows up in a lot of my work, much of it dating to before 9/11. The Opium of the People, which was written before the terrorist attacks has America being governed by a theocracy, and the heroes...the common everyday people like you and me...have to resort to terrorism in order to get their point across. A lot of people don't think that's possible in this country, but look at the civil rights movement and the activities of AIM, the Black Panthers, and others. Or, look at the eco-terrorism we're starting to see here in America from Earth First! and ELF. Believe me, if white Republican America suddenly found itself oppressed, or ignored, terrorism would certainly be an option...although the Neo-Cons are already waging their own form of terrorism on us...but that's a topic for another blog.

Another thing that bothers me about the War on Terror is that this is a religious war against Muslims. If you were to listen to Bush and his cronies, you'd think that only Muslims committed terrorist acts...but what about ETA in Spain, the Colombian cartels, the Chechen rebels, the Russian and Asian mobs? Granted, none of those organizations has every directly attacked the US, but they don't seem to be a priority in any way shape of form for our government. For years I've been reading reports that there are now possible links between the Russian mob, the Asian mobs, and the Colombian cartels. If those organizations really were to link up, they would probably be a lot more dangerous than Al-Qaeda. No, this war on terror that we find ourselves in is completely based on religion and a thirst for oil.

Until the US chooses to deal fairly with the Arab nations, they will continue to hate us and the threat of terror will continue to be there. The US policy is that we only support nations with elected governments that the people are ok with (yes, that is once again a gross oversimplification, but bare with me for a moment.) One of our main allies in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, a nation with a monarchy that is unpopular with the people of Saudi Arabia, and yet we still deal with them. When we demanded that the Palestinians vote in a government, they agreed. Then when they voted in Hamas, we refused to recognize the government. What kind of signal does that send to the other nations we're trying to "liberate?"

I don't advocate terrorism...I'm basically a pacifist by nature, but my point in all of this ranting is that the US is basically responsible for creating the situation we now find ourselves in. Until the US begins to acknowledge that there is more to the world than the white Judeo/Christian viewpoint, people will continue to want to bring us down...and invading countries to "liberate" them only makes the situation worse!

Silly writers

I was just reading on someone's LiveJournal where they and several other writers were offended by the fact that they got a form rejection from Asimov's. What did they really expect? They get several hundred submissions a month, and I'm sure most of it is crap...they're not going to take the time to actually respond to every submission.

I pretty much expect a form rejection everywhere I go, and I'm genuinely surprised when I get a personal rejection. I myself almost always use something like a form rejection as an editor. The main reason I do that is because many writers take it as a personal attack if you don't like their story, and if you try to tell them what's actually wrong with it, they throw it back at you as if there's something wrong with the editor. Who needs that?

Any writer who is going to be offended by form rejection letters should just get out of the business right now...

Ancestry

On Saturday, after the photo shoot, several of us decided to go to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in south Denver...The Saucy Noodle. I think Spencer will know what I'm talking about.

During dinner, we got to talking about ancestry...one because we were trying to figure out where our waitress was from (Brazil), and also because my friend who was with me is from Russia. Anyway, I mentioned that I'm 1/8 Chickasaw, and of course someone then asked me if I was registered. You see, with the Chickasaw tribe, you just have to be able to prove that you had someone on the Dawes Rolls of 1890, which my Great-Great Grandfather was on. That means that if I wanted to go through the paperwork, I could have myself declared Native American.

And of course, everyone thinks that's a great idea because then you can get money from the casinos. Of course, not every tribe has a casino, and the majority of native peoples living on reservations actually live below the poverty line...but you wouldn't think so with the propaganda spit out by the government.

However, I am yet again digressing. There are a couple of reasons why it can be a good idea to register. For one thing, if there are casino, oil, uranium residuals and such, I could get a portion. Also, if the tribe receives any kind of aid from the government, I would also be eligible. In addition, I would be able to check the little box that says Native American rather than white, and there could be all kinds of benefits to that.

Why don't I? It's actually pretty simple. I don't feel I deserve any of that. I am very proud of my heritage, and would certainly like to help in any way that I could, but I've never lived on a reservation. In fact, I basically grew up in white suburbia, so I don't really know what it means to be an Indian. Therefore, I've never felt that I deserve any of those benefits. Not only that, but anything that I could get would have to be taken from someone else...and there are a lot of people living on the reservations who need a lot more help than I do. I'm basically poor because I choose to be poor...it's called wanting to be a writer.

Not really sure what prompted this post, but there it is...

Love that feeling

One of the best feelings in the world is putting the finishing touches on a new story. You type the last correction, format it, print it out, put it in an envelope, and then walk to the mailbox. That feeling is amazing. The only thing better in the world is selling a story!

Tonight I put the finishing touches on my new story "The Magenta Equations," and when I finished it, I just had that feeling that this was something special. Most writers know that you write story after story, and then one day you write something that's beyond anything you've done before. That's the feeling I get from this story. I really feel like I've just taken a major step in my evolution as a writer. Now I'm just hopeful that some editor will agree with me...

Well, I guess now I have to try and top that story...

This one is priceless

Keith Richards has admited that he snorted his father's ashes mixed with cocaine. Click on the title to read the entire article.

How is it that this man is still alive?

Skeleton of the Onondaga

My first ever horror story has been published by AlienSkin Magazine. This isn't one of my strongest stories, but you're certainly welcome to read it. Simply click on the title of this entry, and it will take you to the story...

Get to know J

I have a couple of political posts that I'm thinking about writing, but every time I start on them, I get too lathered up...so maybe those will be for the future.

For now, I thought I'd open up the forum for you to ask me questions...nothing too personal...but feel free to ask me whatever you'd like.

It's your chance to find out who the guy is behind all of those disturbing stories...

It helps to pay attention

Earlier today I was updating the Sam's Dot website a bit. Tyree had sent me the cover and table of contents for the new issue of Beyond Centauri. So, I'm renaming the file to make it easier to work with when I notice my name on the cover...

Apparently my childrens' fantasy story that I thought was going to be in an unnamed anthology, was acutally published in this issue of Beyond Centauri...and I had no idea. It's not really a problem because BC is a great zine, and I've never had my name in their before, so it works. It just kind of took me by surprise.

Anyway, if you'd like to read the story, you'll have to buy a copy of the issue. You can order it from The Genre Mall by clicking on the title of this post, and looking for this...

These are great

I hope Locus is going to keep these up for a while. They're the magazines ideas of good April Fool's jokes...

News Roundup

Study Finds Rejection Makes Writers Sexier

K.J. Anderson in Hostile Takeover of Niven's Known Space

Re-Creative, Inc.: Making Genre Writers Useful for a Change

New award established "to honor excellence in science fiction awards"

Neil Gaiman One Step Closer to Sainthood

The Poet

As many of you know, my career was basically launched by James B. Baker of ProMart. Jim's no longer with us, but I've been doing everything I can to keep his memory alive.

Now, Nomadic Delirium Press is pleased to announce the re-release of The Poet by James B. Baker.

Max checked out of reality fifty years ago. When he comes back, he finds himself to be a bum dressed like a priets. He also finds himself to be the only potent man in an otherwise impotent America.

Max eventually reaches the west coast where he finds himself the host of an hour long TV show watched by billions. His adoring fans begin to call him The Poet, and they see him as the savior of the world.

Joined by his triplet lovers, Max sets out to change the world; a world that is more than a little resistant to his efforts. Smothered by his adoring fans and dogged by men intent on killing him, Max's multiple personalities fight their own battle in his mind, and no one is ever sure who will win.

$16.99 + $3.00 S&H

Pre sale price: $13.00 + $3.00 S&H

ISBN: 1-4196-6578-2

If I'm going to die...

...I might as well post some more pictures from the photo shoot...although these were taken by someone much more talented than me...