Brenda Cooper's Blog, page 37

Kudos to the citizens (that's us!)

I got a new ipod for Christmas with radio, which meant that while I was at the gym yesterday I watched the news.

Obama got it exactly right.  He said the government needs to investigate and learn and get better.  The government's part is pretty much what you do anytime you have a failure, whether you're in government or business.  You look for lessons learned and try to do better next time. Yes, the information needed to keep that guy off the plane existed, and it either didn't get to the...

Writing in a Comfortable Place

In general, writing is pushing an edge for me – a new technology, a new type of character, an attempt at a new voice.  But sometimes it's more like a hot cocoa by the fire.  I spent years grabbing the newest Mercedes Lackey books from the shelf as soon as they came out.  When I got older, I often handed the Valdemar books to teens who needed a good place to read about.

Valdemar is a fantasy kingdom with real (and usually clear) good and evil, a fairly safe place from which Mercedes Lackey...

Reading recommendation: The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver

Fair warning – this is not a genre book, not fast paced, not adventure, almost but not quite devoid of plot twists.

But there are other things for books to do.  One of those is to comment on who we are, to use story as a way to teach.

I have been in awe of Barbara Kingsolver's writing ability since I read The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.)img[image error]The Poisonwood Bible (which you might note is still in print and available in almost every possible edition even...

Animal Stories

My futurismic column for this month deals with animal intelligence –it's entitled "What are the Animals Becoming?"  I just popped over to Nancy Kress's blog to see how she's doing, and it turns out she just blogged on the same topic (or at least mentioned the prevalence of stories about genetically altered animals in her blog entry titled Good Stories).

I have a novel about that (The Downbelow Girls) which doesn't yet have a pub date, and I've tried multiple times to write stories about...

Reading Recommendation: Podcasts

I don't know how many of you out there are listening to science fiction podcasts.  I've been listening to audiobooks for years, particularly on long drives. or long weekends in the garden.  When the narration is done well, it's great entertainment.   So podcasts wasn't much of a jump.  Here are the ones I listen to:

Escape Pod is great for short fiction – the last two I chose were about 45 minute programs, and about 40 minutes of them were fiction.  That's perfect for my current winter...

On Health Care: Fairness vs. Fear

I've been listening to the health care debate for some time now.  Health care is one of the top things we need to fix to improve our economy (the others are education, broadband, and – most importantly – preservation of the world we live in).

I'm not enough of an expert to write intelligently on the details of any one type of coverage.  I suspect that we need certain elements like removing the profit motive from basic care and insurance, and  from at least parts of the rest of the system...

Reading Recommendation: Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse

Sometimes old favorites need to be revisited.  I won't tell you how long ago I first read Siddhartha, but it was published in 1922, which is before I was published.

At any rate, I chose to listen to it on my way down to Orycon (the drive is from Seattle to Portland, or 3 hours and change) and back.  I think partly out of yearning for something beloved and familiar, even though I haven't read or heard it in a decade and maybe for two.

I'm pretty sure this is my third time through this book, and ...

Orycon Schedule

I will be enjoying Thanksgiving with family, but Friday night through Sunday I'll be at Orycon.

Here's my schedule:

Saturday, 10- 11 SFWA Regional meeting

Saturday 11:00 – 11:30 Autographing, table 2

Saturday 12:00 – 12:30 reading  in the Madison room.  I'll read from the world of my current series, probably a bit from an unpublished story near the beginning of Fremont's settling.

Sat 2:00 – 3:00 I want my neural interface! Hawthorne Room.

Saturday 5:00 – 6:00 Broad Universe Reading - I'll read a ...

Tonight's Wayward Reading

I now have a new thing for tonight's reading at the Wayward Coffee House (8:00 PM).  For geeks, the Wayward is worth going to whether you're there to hear me read or you want to drop in another time.  It's very geekly and the coffee and atmosphere are great.

So I already promised fiction set in the world (but not from the books) for the Silver Ship series.  I might read from one of the books, too.

A free copy of Wings of Creation for one attendee (and heck, I might bring along a Zombie Bunnies ...

Thanks Tony C. Smith

I had a great time guesting on a podcast called "Sofanauts" hosted by Tony C. Smith.  The other guest was Richard Morgan, and I'm going to go off and buy his book Altered Carbon (GollanczF.)imgimg[image error]Altered Carbon today.  Richard impressed me quite a bit.  I got tongue tied a few times not knowing much about the state of publishing or the publishers in England, but I was able to talk a little clearer on other topics.  I love listening to Sofanauts and...