Saturday, March 6, 2010

What I'm Reading

The Starry RiftI decided to take a break from Fantasy for a bit (I just finished SM Stirling's Sword of the Lady with an appalling realization -- that I have to wait till September to read the next chapter!) and picked up a nice little anthology from the discount table at Chapters. The Starry Rift (edited by Jonathan Strahan) has sixteen SF short stories that harkens back to the golden age of SF. Some nice works here, including stories by Neil Gaiman and Alastair Reynolds among many others. I'm about a quarter way in so far, and definitely digging the shorter format; admittedly, I'm hoping for inspiration for my own endeavours.

Couple quick notes on some of what I've read thus far:

Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld: This was a very simple story, and the one that most inspires me for the story I'm currently working on. A very straightforward concept (involving such a basic item as a bathroom scale of all things) with a cast of only two characters. And yet, in only the very limited number of pages available, the author manages to form that wonderful bond between protagonist and reader. There is a nice little bit with a connection of sorts to a work of classic fiction; a theme I noticed showed up in a few stories in this anthology.

Orange by Neil Gaiman: I've read a few stories by Neil Gaiman; I suppose the thing I can most say about this one is that it was the most unique format I've seen used in a short story. He certainly had me wondering where he was going with this one.

If you enjoy a good SF yarn, this is a nice little book to pick up, with a good selection of popular authors. Check it out. The book cover links to Amazon if you're interested in purchasing the book.

The long road to making it to print

So I'm realizing that publishing a book is not as easy as I had hoped (although deep down I kind of figured). I've had two rejections so far out of three submissions on my first real novel. I feel rather... well... rejected. But alas, I shall remain hopeful! I'm still confident (or arrogant) and I truly believe The Savage Queen is worthy of print; I just need another approach.

Well, on the advice of the interweb and googlepedia, I am going to pursue another avenue; the short story! This is a genre I've struggled with in the past. As a writer of all things fantastic or science fictiony, keeping the page-count down has always been a little tough. I guess I can view this as an opportunity as they say back in the real world. I suppose the short story is a valuable skill that I'm long overdue in spending some time on.

I've pulled from the dregs of my hard drive a little story I puttered with nearly ten years ago, a SF/comedy piece that I was always rather proud of. I think it's a good piece that shows I can write in different styles as well as genres. Here's hoping the publishers agree.

Here's an excerpt from what I have so far:

The Unremarkable Marcus Frinkle

He turned, content with the current status of his dinner, and ready to return once again to prime time. He jumped back, when to his surprise, he noticed a gigantic black man, with no fewer than four arms crossed mightily over his chest, standing directly in his way. The gigantic creature was successfully blocking the view of the room behind him, where Marcus noticed that for some odd reason he could no longer hear the television.

The giant, dressed in a neatly pressed and obviously custom-tailored tuxedo, adjusted his mirror-like shades, and nodded as if to an old friend. "Good to see you, Mr. Frinkle," he said in a deep voice, like the rumbling of tectonic plates, deep below the surface and ready to do something unexpected. "We have a table waiting for you, Mr. Frinkle. I'm Pip, and if anyone messes with you, just send' em my way. Ms. Steve don't like nobody messing with her guests, especially the special ones."

6 Weeks 6 Days

I can hardly believe it's been two weeks today since my wife peed on a stick, and our lives changed forever.

Since then, she's been sick, tired, and sick some more. She has turned out to be one of the lucky ones that gets to suffer miserably pretty much all the time while pregnant. I watch from the sidelines, wishing I could do anything to make her feel better; and realizing there is really little I can do, besides being as patient, understanding and loving as I can.

For those that don't know me personally, that's a tough list indeed!

This all means we have had zero moments to actually enjoy the fact that we are expecting. Privately, I can browse the internet for infant related items (blueprints for the cradle I keep wistfully saying I plan to build), and think about what it all means with a certain amount of giddiness. Then I see her clutching one body part or another in pain as she struggles to keep from vomiting (the title morning sickness is a cruel, cruel joke!) and that seemingly remote future vanishes in a cloud of empathy. I hate seeing her go through this, but at the same time I'm rather excited; it's a tough place to be, and we have a long, long ways to go.

But it's the weekend, and we both will have the chance to catch up on sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will see us in a happier place, and maybe we can have a chance to stop and think about the future in a positive light; I'm thinking a stop by Babies R Us might be fun. And likey she'll want a baked potatoe with the works for dinner. Again. And I'm cool with that.