Al Bogdan

page 2

Entry 666.6 in the Macquarie Thesaurus is "lust".

The schoolboy in me is easily amused.

Waiting for Angel to do something stupid is neither a very satisfying nor a very long-lasting form of entertainment.

I still remember. With love.

SML
6-29-70 to 7-6-99

Ellen Datlow reports on the death of Thomas M. Disch
http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/93886.html

Much unhappiness here.

gf

I just noticed that the introduction to John Joseph Adams' upcoming zombie fiction anthology The Living Dead is now online. Here's my characteristically pithy contribution: David Barr Kirtley, author of "The Skull-Faced Boy," says that there are two reasons we find zombies appealing. "One, I think there’s an enormous segment of our brain that’s evolved for running away from packs of predators, and zombie stories give us a rare opportunity to take this primal part of our psyches out for a spin," he says. "And, two, zombies are a great metaphor. The great mass of humanity often comes across to us as unreasoningly hostile and driven to consumption, and the image of the zombie captures this perfectly." Read the complete introduction.

It's been a productive five days. I turned in the intro for the German collection earlier today. I started my final (for now) revision to The Mermaid's Madness. Not only that, but I sent a short story out this morning. I can't remember the last time I did that.

I will still be bringing the laptop along on the trip. I'm hoping to get some more done on the book tomorrow on the drive up, assuming my brother-in-law's beagle gives me any peace in the car. And I'm sure I'll take some time over the next week to work on the book. But I won't be obsessing about it the way I would have if I hadn't stayed behind.

I haven't exactly enjoyed the past few days, but I'm feeling much less stressed, and I think I'll have a better time up north as a result. I'm looking forward to actually seeing my wife again, and being able to take my kids out in the paddleboat, or just watching them run around and play in the water.

So, any guesses what I'll forget to pack? Who knows, if someone gets it right, I might even toss out a little prize. How about a sneak preview of the first part of Stepsister Scheme? Only one guess per person, please.

Have a great week, everyone. And thanks for the comments and chatter over the past few days -- virtual company is far better than no company at all. I'll see you next Monday.

and come back to learn Tom Disch has committed suicide and some scumbucket stole the laptops from four students at this year's Clarion West Workshop.  What a lousy weekend for the sf communitiy.  However, since I'm coming back at the end of these ordeals, I do see that at least the Clarion West Workshop tale of woe had a nice ending, as the SF community rallied to raise the funds to replace the lost laptops ...in mere hours!

Well done, my sf peeps!

Break down and recycle our growing cat litter box collection, CHECK.

Finish 1st draft of comic script (I think my first western genre story ever, in any medium), CHECK.

Post a "Guess my 400th Rejection" Contest on the friday of a holiday weekend to maximize the likelihood that readers won't be online to see it, CHECK.

Get supplies for my first figure drawing class (first drawing class ever!), CHECK.

longer, fictional comic (not journal) for my sequential summer class. this time i'll post it every day instead of all at once :)

Every month, AnthologyBuilder features several authors and offers a dollar off if you add a stories by one of those authors to your personalized Anthology. (So the price drops from 14.95 to 13.95 for up to 350 pages of awesome fiction you pick yourself!)

And I'm pleased to be among that number this month!

I have two stories up for sale at AnthologyBuilder:
"The Stains of the Past" is my first published story (Feb. 2006), set in the same 'universe' as several of my other works including my WIP. (In fact, one of the characters in Devil in the Details is the granddaughter of two of the characters in this story.) It's a speculative fiction romance, and is the story of mine that was cited in an article on an academic blog. (I still find that incredibly bizarre.)

"A Hand for Each" was first published in the Shimmer Pirate Issue (November 2007). The polar opposite of the first offering, it's a sea-faring horror story styled on the writings of Richard Dana (Two Years Before the Mast).*

So, if you're looking for something to read this summer, AnthologyBuilder is the place to check out. And if you buy something of mine, you could save some money as well! (which everyone knows I like)

_________________________________________________
*I like to think of this as a 'guy' story.

We Can't Believe the Response of Some

After yesterday's post on the Clarion West laptop thefts, I looked at some of the comments on some other blogs, and Mrs. Dr. Phil and I cannot understand some of these.

Read some of the comments on jimhines Jim C. Hines blog and Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing posts and tell me -- am I overreacting?

"Are there no poorhouses? Are there no orphanages?"

Get a pencil. Use a computer center. Shakespeare didn't have a laptop.

Uh-huh. And if your car is stolen, is it appropriate to point out, in the spirit of the Fourth of July over which this incident took place, that Thomas Jefferson rode a horse and never needed a car? I don't get it.

You're at an intense six-week workshop, perhaps the most intense and concentrated writing experience of your life, and something like this happens. Even if you have the rider on your house or renter's insurance, you're in Seattle, away from policy numbers, phone numbers, serial numbers -- you don't need this crap on top of your life. And some people who understand wanted to help out. Is that so hard? So wrong?

I Tried Hard To Keep Out The Snark...
( Here are a couple of the postings I made: )

And from the Clarion West FAQ page:

Do I have to stay in the dorm?

Yes. Clarion West now rents out a sorority house for the duration of the workshop and we are charged rent based on the number of students in the workshop. As a nonprofit organization, we can't afford to pay rent for students who live off-site. Besides, living in the house together is an integral part of the Clarion West experience, and in the past students who didn't live in the dorm regretted it. They missed the midnight runs to the pancake house, the best gossip (which always happens after midnight and at odd times on the weekends), not to mention the "running down the halls screaming half-naked because the damn character just did something weird and the story is due tomorrow morning" bonding moments. They missed the opportunity to hang out with the instructors at meals and when they stopped by the living room for an hour, and missed chats with famous authors who stopped by for a visit. And, hey, who wants to miss that kind of fun?

Many Thanks

To Cory Doctorow, Jim C. Hines, Jay Lake, Cherie Priest, Nick Mamatas and others who helped pass on the info. And to those who could donate, or thought about donating, to help out.

To writers who think they might be interested, those who have been through the grinder (grin) or who would like to support those who might in the future, I give you the links to The Clarion Workshops: Clarion, Clarion West and Clarion South (Australia). Plus the related Milford workshop in the U.K. and Odyssey here in the States.

To be fair, most of the people questioning the merits of the "call to arms" (call to alms?) were not writers or had not done a Clarion. Some wondered whether Clarions produce any good writers. Some suggest... Naw, the hell with the asshats... these postings weren't meant for them anyway.

Feel free to disagree with me. Just get the hell off my lawn.

Dr. Phil

Trying to frame a post here.

I keep getting as far as:

"Sitting here" [about the con, and pending volunteer work, and upcoming travel and other big events]

"Saw" [about who I saw at ApolloCon and the holiday week following]

"Went" [about the wedding I attended yesterday, which was a hoot and half]

"Want" [about my office, or about writing, both of which I have let languish while I worked on the con]

"Feeling" [about my shoulder, or my post-con fatigue, or maybe something else]

"Thinking" [about the process of information gathering, about filtering, and about coming to one's own conclusions]

"Wishing" [about a whole lot of things]

Since I can't seem to get any further on any of those, I leave you with the beginnings, and you can either fill in the rest or use any of a variety of interview methods to pursue the ones of interest to you.

A bit of John M. Ford hilarity from the archives: "Shakespeare by Damon Runyon by John M. Ford," oh yes. (via mrissa)

And, James Gurney has a blog! I adored Dinotopia when I was younger. I still love the artwork, and that perennial question of which ecology niche I'd choose to serve in - the sky, as a skybax rider? Along the waterways and rivers? Deep down, part of me is convinced I'd end up in the mountains with the wooly mammoths - it looks so peaceful and quiet up there. (via jaylake)

These were created for a Star Wars Fan Film Contest:

STAR WARS FAN FILM CONTEST

VOTING PAGE: http://www.atom.com/spotlights/starwars/challenge/

Ponda Baba go alone against the Empire in this extravaganza action packed short. Featuring Bossk, Boba Fett, Darth Vader, C3PO and more awesome characters! All caught up in a crazy violent adventure titled RAW DEAL SEE IT HERE:

http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/sw_grindhouse_raw_deal/

DON'T GO IN THE ENDOR WOODS were you can see Ewoks are not at all cuddly teddy bears. Where hot sexy ladies get tortured, degraded, murdered and eaten alive by this furry forest dwellers. DON'T GO IN THE ENDOR WOODS will shock you and remind you NOT GO IN THE ENDOR WOODS. SEE IT HERE:

http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/sw_grindhouse_endor_woods/

Today's word is "Michifan" found in a report on Torcon I the first non-USA worldcon and the first in Canada which happened sixty years ago this week.

http://efanzines.com/WCSFA/WCSFAzine11.pdf

• Brutal Women: Terrified Waitresses & Chicks Who Kick Ass
  Kameron Hurley mediates on Sarah Conner. Very interesting thoughts. Go read them, or you’ll be terminated.
  (tags: kameronhurley SF terminator film)
• Words For Hire » Blog Archive » 5 Things Freelancers Should Know About Sales
  (tags: business freelance sales)
• A Sample Blogging Workflow | chrisbrogan.com
  (tags: blogging clients communication socialmedia workflow writing)

Originally published at JeremiahTolbert.com. You can comment here or there.

In a file on my computer, I have a word document that says, in huge letters,

Let it go.

It does not matter.

Let it go.


Sometimes I open up the file and read the words, and they make me feel so much better.


It doesn't matter. Let it go.

Ringo's Birthday Wish List – "Peace & Love"
Ringo was recently asked by Access Hollywood what he hoped to receive for his upcoming birthday (July 7th). Ringo's answer was unconventional, he said, "just more Peace & Love."

Then he expanded his wish further, "it would be really cool if everyone, everywhere, wherever they are, at noon on July 7 make the peace sign and say "Peace & Love."

Wherever you are in the world, join him in making the peace sign and saying, singing, shouting, whispering, signing, writing or quietly thinking one simply beautiful and universal message: "Peace & Love."

While some will do this on their own other folks may be gathering at Abbey Road in London; Capitol Records in LA; Strawberry Fields in NYC.

I see that everyone from Cherie Priest to Cory Doctorow to William Gibson has already blogged this, so I'm not sure how much more my spreading the word can help, but albionidaho reports that four Clarion West students had their laptops and some other things stolen. But really, they're writers at a workshop, so it's about the laptops. They have loaners for now, and Clarion West is taking donations to help defray the cost of replacement.

ETA: It appears that the cost of replacements has been met. But I'm sure that any donations to help Clarion West continue their work in general will be welcome.