Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 103

The Oil Spill # 2

I am -- of course -- watching the oil spill in the Gulf spread. It seems to me that the New York Times is giving it less coverage than the Icelandic volcano, which is a small volcano, as the Icelanders kept pointing out. An inconvenience for air travelers, but not a tragedy except for the farmers living right next to the eruption. No one died.

The oil spill has the potential to ruin the economies of four American states, as well as several Caribbean countries. Not to mention the ecology of th...

The Oil Spill

This is a photo of the oil rig fire from Talking Point Memo. To me it looks like a science fiction book cover: a space station exploding in an interstellar war. Though it would have to a structure on a planet, since we can see the ocean. An amazing photo.

We are in the future.

Photos

Photos by Boaworm, licensed under Creative Commons. The top two are the original eruption, the photogenic lava fountain. The bottom photo is the ash plume from the second explosion under the ice. This is what closed down Europe.

Pictures of the Eyjafjallajokull Eruption

I decided to get rid of my collection of pictures from the Icelandic eruption, since it occurred to me that the photos are protected by copyright; and while I was happily grabbing images from all over the Internet, I didn't bother to get the credit information.

So here is a selection of photographs from the Boston Globe, which have been properly credited.

I'm Sorry, I just Love These...

This is strombolian activity at the Icelandic volcano.

Per Wikipedia:

Strombolian eruptions are relatively low-level volcanic eruptions, named after the Italian volcano Stromboli, where such eruptions consist of ejection of incandescent cinder, lapilli and lava bombs to altitudes of tens to hundreds of meters. They are small to medium in volume, with sporadic violence...

The tephra typically glows red when leaving the vent, but its surface cools and assumes a dark to black color and may...

Contemporary SF & F

Having written a sane, calm post about making it in fantasy/science fiction, I went to the Barnes & Noble in the HarMar Mall and got thoroughly depressed by the number of books by authors I find unreadable. These people have sold a fair number of novels.

Their work strikes me as unimaginative and boring and not well written. Much of it is cheesy wish fulfillment.

Mixed in is work by very fine writers, authors I really respect. But there is a lot of what strikes me as crap.

It's midlist or bre...

Thinking about YA and Midschool

I like the fact that YA novels are comparatively short, though they are getting longer; and coming of age and finding oneself is a great theme.

Historically a lot of good and great fantasy has been written for the young, though people who like fantasy often read across age lines. I do. I don't care if Diana Wynne Jones is shelved at Children's or YA or Adult. I read all of her.

I like fairy tales, folk tales, myths, legends, adventures -- the stuff you used to get as a kid and maybe still do. ...

Breaking Out

Lyda and I were talking about what makes a break-out writer.

I have some sense of what makes a mid-list writer: competent writing skills, reasonable production, the ability to listen to advice from agents and editors -- who may not always be right, but do have some idea of what's commercial. It's how they make their living, after all.

But I have not a clue what enables a writer to break out. Luck is part of the answer, I think. Another part is help from a publisher. Books tend to do better if ...

More Icelandic Horses

In the interests of posting a picture with easily visible horses, here is an Icelandic farmer with a pair of animals he lost in the ash. You get an idea of the size of the animals. They don't exactly loom over you.

Icelandic Horses Under the Plume

The picture reads better if you click on it and get a larger size.