Blake Charlton's Blog, page 8

Readercon 2010 Report

Well, I'm back the The Girl's apartment and her cats have deigned to let a lowly creature like me return to their kingdom. I just woke up from a nap and found both of them staring at me as if they were calculating how many calories my body might contain.

Anyway, this was my first Readercon, and it was a wonderful experience. As the name suggests, the culture of the con focused on literature. The programming (panel discussions, readings, etc) were very well planned and attended. The was a...

Tentative Publication Dates & Readercon Schedule

Dearly Beloved YOU PEOPLE:

Once upon a time, summer meant long days at the pool and evenings biking around the neighborhood until the streetlights came on. They were incandescent lights then, a white glow that lit the undersides of sycamores and made the twilight sky between the branches seem more luminous.

Alas that those days are gone. Summer is now full of furious work projects and travel. Not that those are bad things. Much is afoot. Let's go over the headline news:

Pub Dates

After speaking t...

Writer on the Verge: Mary Victoria

Fantasy literature is written the world over, but many readers—including me—tend to pick up only books written by our compatriots. That made sense in the past; a dead-tree book needs to catch our eye in the local (and I hope independent) bookseller. I suspect that Americans are particularly guilty in this regard: reading mostly contemporary American authors and perhaps a few British authors when delving into classic fantasy.

Cheer it or fear it, epublishing in particular and the internet in...

Powell's Reading, Portland, Spañguish, y Don Limpio

Two weeks from today I will be flying to Portland to read at Powell's Books.

But, Blake, you ask, which Portland?

The one on the left.

But, Blake, you ask, which Powell's?

The one at Cedar Hills Crossing, in Beaverton. (Click the link for location etc.)

But what if I don't really want to go to your reading; just, you know, catch up?

Buy a bottle of Mr. Clean, put it on your kitchen table, drink a beer, and talk to the guy on the label. Did you know he's named Senor Limpio in Latin America and Don L...

A Fitting Punishment for Human Folly

And unto Humanity did GOD saith: "Thou have become too Proud of thy gadgets and internets and planes that move thee across the span of My world in hours. Verily, thou are taking Pride in bobbles that by My Grace thou has invented, but which thou have used to Generally Screw Things Up."

And unto GOD did Humanity say: "Thou meaneth like the wars and the injustice and poverty and the oil spill and the…other stuff?"

"Verily!" saith the Alpha to the Omega. "So to smite thou in an Ironic Way—and I...

It's a Dangerous Business, Walking out Your Front Door

Traveling for pleasure is the most indulgent of luxuries, requiring expendable time, money and a desire to intrude the familiarity of one's self into the foreignness of new lands and cultures. No one wants to admit to being tourists yet Western Society has only two modes of travel. Are you in town for business, or pleasure? The efficient and the sly might combine or conflate the two, but the duality is firmly fixed in our minds. Business, or pleasure?

The entrepreneur and the consumer: the...

Gone Adventuring!

I'm off to hike the Inca Trail in the Peru. So I'll be dodging yeti (if they have those in the Andes) and away from the blog/internet until the 20th or there abouts.

Media Roundup

So during the winter of my blogging discontent, I did find the time to make a few appearances on podcasts and sit for a video interview. Thought I'd put them all in one place for the curious. Let's go newest to oldest.

Just a few days ago, I recorded a podcast with Functional Nerds, during which I shot my mouth off about the brain, most especially my favorite topics of neuroplasticity and neurodiversity. This should be a fun one. Keep your eyes open for it.

At a reading for Clayton Books, I...

First Draft & Food Poisoning

You have your whole life to write your first novel; for your second, you have a year.

Or so they say. Yesterday I wrote "THE END" on the last line of Spellbound's first draft. To celebrate, The Girl took me out to dinner, where I promptly managed to contract a classic case of food poisoning, from which I am just now emerging.

It was actually more than a little hilarious…now that I can stand upright and think straight. The Girl is a pediatrician researching malnutrition in Central America. As...

News Post: Book 2, Second Prints, Newspaper Reviews!

BLAKE'S INBOX: Yo, man, WTH?

BLAKE: (gazes off into distance with vaguely uncomfortable expression, listens to INTERIOR MONOLOG saying "Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two.)

BLAKE'S INBOX: Helllllooooo?

BLAKE: (Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two.)

BLAKE'S INBOX: Do you have any idea how full I am?

BLAKE: (Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two. Gotta finish book two.) Oh, sorry, what did you say? (Gotta...