Brenda Cooper's Blog, page 32

Squeel! New Ted Chiang

I was walking through Kirkland Honda when I looked down at the table in the waiting room and spotted a picture of a very contemplative and lovely Ted Chiang on the cover of City Arts magazine.  Yes, Ted is lovely – writers aren't supposed to overuse adjectives, but Ted is a lovely geek.  Inside the magazine, there is an interview with Ted, who has a new novella coming out from Subterranean Press.  So I immediately went off and ordered it.  Physically.  For a chunk of money, to be mailed in...

Reading Recommendation: WWW: Watch

I have been getting in more reading lately due to long drives (and audiobooks), the coming Hugo vote, and the fact that it's  a bit easier to read than write at the moment.  Yes, I'm doing both, but in different proportions than usual.

Anyway, I loved Robert Sawyer's WWW: Wake, which I recommended long before it got noticed for awards.  Well, the sequel came out this year, and I loved it, too.  It pretty much hits all of the things I read SF for.  Sawyer has taken a geeky topic (Emergent AI...

More Happiness with The Girl….

I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest in audiobook on my way down here to Bend, Oregon (a seven hour drive). Its the third book in Stieg Larsson's wonderful trilogy.   They are titled correctly — every one begins with the "The Girl Who…"  and that is exactly who the books are about.  The girl. Lisbeth Salander is without doubt the most unique and interesting character I've come across in fiction on years.  Yes, there are also strong supporting characters.  But I'd be willing to...

Reading Recommendation: The Windup Girl

I realize I'm late to the party for this award-winning book.  The Windup Girl is one of my favorite kind of books:  complex, plausible, a little scary, brilliantly written, and satisfying.

Paolo gets a lot of points from me on world-building.  I believed this place and time. Of particular interest, I believe that we have come to a world where the balance of power is affected by corporations at least as much as by governments.  This book captures that, although it isn't "about" that.  I think t...

Starry Heaven: Last Full Day

Wow.  All done now except the closing party.  I'd call this a rousing success.  Highlights of the last two days:

We attended a great wine social event complete with excellently interesting science people at The Wine Loft last night.  I could have kept talking to them for hours.  Everyone was interesting and erudite.

I'm quite ready to jump back into The Creative Fire now, and I'm certain the book will be better for the workshopping.  I've workshopped three out of four of my published novels in ...

The Oceans

The oil spill isn't on the front page any more.  But it hasn't slowed down.  Even though I have been paying some attention, I was surprised to see that BP has collected over one million gallons of oil so far.  Yipes! We know they haven't collected most of what's gushing out.  The live camera down at the bottom of the sea is hard to watch.  But it's clearly becoming yesterday's news for many people who aren't directly affected.

This month, in my Today's Tomorrow's column at Futurismic, I chose ...

Starry Heaven Day 3: The Phase Shift

Workshops have rhythm.  The rhythm for Starry Heaven starts with critiquing the beginnings of each others' books.  Beginnings matter – they are what sells manuscripts to agents and publishers, and what initiates readers into the world of the book.  So we have been sitting in a large group sharing impressions of each others beginnings. 

Today, we move to a new phase where a few people will have read each completed manuscript; the same dance only smaller and deeper.

If you want to follow some of ...

Starry Heaven Day 2: Fire, a Walk, and the Night Sky

A great morning of critiques.  Excellent food.  We followed that by spending the day hiking.  Good thing we went today since they are going to close the forest tomorrow or the next day.  The fire is still burning, and has gotten bigger.  It is still not too near us, and has burned no structures, although it is doing no favors for the dry forest.

It is really wonderful to be in the company of writers for so long.  It is like tribe.  It feeds the soul.

The top picture is Bill Shunn by sitting...

Starry Heaven Post 1: Fire over Flagstaff

I am in Flagstaff. Arizona, at the Starry Heaven writer's workshop.  That means there are 11 of us critiquing each other's novel manuscripts.  We've spend months prepping, and it's quite fun to meet in person.  I knew two of the people from before, and had met a few of the others in passing.  Some are new to me.   It's a great group so far.

With so much other stuff going on in my family right now, and a new boss starting at work next Monday, I'm glad I committed to this months ago. ...

Reading Recommendation: The Specific Gravity of Grief, by Jay Lake

I'll start out by quoting myself twice – the following blurb is on the back cover of the book:

"We tend to clothe cancer in pretty words, to hide its savage nature from our innermost frightened hearts.  In The Specific Gravity of Grief, Jay Lake used pretty words to clothe cancer in the rags of fear that it deserves."

That was based on reading it in manuscript.  The book arrived yesterday in my mailbox, and I said this about it on Twitter:

"Pretty book to hide such knives of words."

There are...