Year: 2013

Writing Fast, and Why Twitter is Awesome

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So it’s been a while. And I’d apologize for that, except I finished not one, but TWO books in that time. So no apologies. I was getting stuff done. Better, both books are inching perceptibly towards being published. No details yet, because no contracts have been signed and nothing it as yet written in stone, but I’m starting to feel more and more confident that yes, this is really going to happen. Which still feels a little unreal. So what wisdom have I learned in the past few months? First, I’ve learned that I can write far, far faster than I ever realized. If I’m really pushing myself, it’s not at all unrealistic to write 1,000 words in 30 minutes, which translates into 4,000 words a day if I write for two hours in the evening.  And it’s not easy. It feels a little like you’ve run a race, honestly, but it means I can come home from work, cook dinner, and write 4,000 words. It means, if I keep up the momentum (which I’ve …

Weaver @2013, Jenn Lyons

Marduk’s Rebellion Concept Art: Mallory McLain

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Meet Lieutenant Mallory McLain, code-named “Weaver,” an Intelligence Operations agent working for the Solar Independence League, the fancy-schmancy title for what most folks just call ‘The Rebellion.’ She’s one of the best of the best, a solo operative who specializes in break-ins: computer, prison or research lab. Only now that the aliens the human race has been fighting for almost a century are suing for a treaty and withdrawing from their occupation of Earth, there will finally be peace and she’s going to be out of a job. Right? Works in theory. Updated: The great thing about posting this is that after staring at her for a few days, I’ve decided to return her to being a blonde. The character is happier that way, if that makes any sense.

Why Momma Needs Her Stories

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Anyone who doubts that the worlds we create in fiction can have a profound effect on the reality around us should go read this article on world-wide fertility rates. If you’re anything like me, you grew up being told several unassailable facts: one, that the world-wide population was booming to unsustainable levels and two, this was because  third world countries were having too many kids. I remember hearing incredible numbers: the population of the planet would be at 10 billion by 2010, which would of course lead to everyone starving and killing each other over that last piece of broccoli  Except this hasn’t quite panned out. The chaotic system turns out to be just a little self-adjusting, and it’s not necessarily for the reasons you’d think — certainly for no reason Darwin would have suggested. Population growth has slowed radically in the last twenty years. Virtually every part of the world but Africa is now operating at near ‘replacement’ levels of population growth — i.e. populations that are either self-sustaining or shrinking. Africa is still seeing …

The Best School

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Last year this article started making the rounds on facebook and social media. Various other sources have picked it up because…well go on, read it. It’s amazing, isn’t it? The core idea is like Lord of the Flies with knowledge instead of blood as the punchline. They took one thousand tablet PCs, still in boxes, dropped them off at two villages, and left. No instructions. No lesson plans. Then…they let kids do what kids do best: get into shit they’re not supposed to be messing with. Six months later, those kids had not only figured out how to use the computer to teach themselves, their parents, and everyone around them to read and write but had taught themselves hacking in order to turn back on some of the tablet features (like the camera and internet access) that had been turned off originally. Would those kids have done all that if they’d been forced to? Marched into a school, sat down and given a strict lesson plan with at least three hours of homework? Maybe…I’m open …

Dark Son

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Another reposted story from There by Candlelight: ——————————- Marty Lucas walked into the principal’s office like he was about to receive an award, maybe something for bravery or valor — a citation for standing up to a bunch of punk bullies who thought they could get away with beating the candy out of every kid who was weaker, smaller and different from what they thought was ‘cool.’ The difference in posture was transforming: most of the kids who knew him in class wouldn’t have recognized him. Marty normally walked through the world with his head down, his hands stuffed into the pocket of his tan jacket, his eyes on the street, lost in his own thoughts. Today only, he walked like he owned the place, like he was a foot taller and could take on anyone who gave him the wrong look. The school secretary, Nina Collington, looked distinctly bemused as she observed him. Nina was saucy looking redhead in her mid-thirties with short page-cut hair and mod cat’s eye glasses who has worked for the school …

On the Road

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An essay worth reading by Vanessa Vaselka. [Edited to add: Read this piece too. I think I love this woman.] I remember when I was twenty-one, and working as a graphic artists for a newspaper in Los Angeles, two of my female co-workers left for a year to travel around the world together. It was not a good time for American women to be traveling around the world, but then again, I suppose one can argue it has rarely ever been. There’s always some reason it’s safer to stay at home. I was jealous of their bravery and their financial means (although they were not traveling in anything like style — this was $5 a day hitchhiking stuff they would be undertaking.) I was astounded that they could want to do this. Weren’t they scared? What if something should happen? Were they really going to hike through India? China? The same imagination which is so beneficial to me as a writer also would have tied me up in anxious knots about such a journey. A …

©2013 SnowSkadi

You See a Gazebo

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It’s one of the most famous stories in tabletop gaming history. I was well into my gaming career when I first heard it, as well as a little amazed that I hadn’t heard it prior because I had, for a brief time, gamed with one of the Cal Tech RPG groups, and you’d think that’s just the sort of thing that they would have gleefully shared with anyone and everyone. But heh, I was was also that rarest of creatures (at the time,) a female gamer, so maybe they didn’t think think it was the right way to impress me. Follow the link above for the full and complete tale, but to paraphrase: once upon a time a group of terrifically smart people got together for an evening of make-believe and during the session, the DM explained that there was a gazebo. It was white, it was large, it was just sitting there. What followed was worthy of an Abbott & Costello routine, because it never occurred to the DM  that his player might have no clue …

Concentration and Focus

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I’ve used a lot of tricks to keep myself focused on writing (not always successfully.) Some of my books have whole musical playlists, a kind of unofficial official sound track that I can sometime use to put me in the right frame of mind. Sometimes though, it seems as much a distraction as a help. Lately I’ve been playing with increasingly popular idea of using sounds that suppress the limbic system, thus allowing me to concentrate. I’ve grown quite fond of a combination of methods, namely the site above, Focus@Will,  which has both free and subscription services. They are a small start-up and thus very worthy of love, but I’m also fond of their customer service: when users complained that a popular beta feature had been removed, it took less than 24 hours for them to have to feature returned. Now that’s responsive. The second web site I find myself using a great deal is Coffitivity, a free beta service which does nothing more or less than sound like a coffee shop. Combined with Focus@Will, I can …

©2013 Kalen Chock

To Conlang or not to Conlang?

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I am a fan of world-building, as anyone who knows me can attest. This stems largely from my first novel (still in the process of being re-written,) called Game of Empire, which was based (as so many fantasy novels of my generation are) on our weekly D&D games. Now, said games were undeniably epic, and the primary DM (my ex-husband, as it happens) was truly a genius at crafting suspense, pacing and riveting, edge of seat excitement. He could reduce grown adults to tears. We thanked him for it. A campaign world for a D&D game doesn’t need need to be fresh and original. In fact, I think you could make the argument that it’s better if it’s not. If a player can hit the ground running with an elevator treatment like ‘My character is an elf from the forests who has left her home to find the magical artifact stolen by a band of orcs in the raid that killed her parents‘ it’s really all to the better. Thanks to Peter Jackson, everyone knows what that …