Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 92
July 12, 2010
Launch Pad, Day One: Jim Verley on The Seasons, the Moon, and the Misconceived
Mike Brotherton points out that he's put together an online astronomy resource list for writers. "If you want to get the same kinds of things I would get, when I'm doing research, they're online, you just have to know how to find and access them." He also points out that many of the slides he uses in his lectures are available as powerpoints on his site. He's also posted a summary of last year's launchpad, along with some youtube videos of lectures from the class.
Next, Jim Verley is giving a ...
Launch Pad, Day One, Mike Brotherton Lectures: SCALES OF THE UNIVERSE
When we were hearing this lecture, we got to see slides illustrating it. I don't have the slides for you, but author David J. Williams found this website: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/ which gives you similar images so you can follow along. (Click on the images to see larger versions of them and more information.)
Just a note–any lecture wanders a bit, so I just plunked the tangents down when they happened, in parentheses. In future, I might experiment with adding them as footnotes, or...
Guest Bloggers!
Symptomatic of the year, I'm behind on even announcing that there will be guest bloggers from July 15th through August 15th, in addition to Rachel Swirsky's daily blogging about Launch Pad. (Some guest bloggers I still owe passwords and logins!) I'll let the guests introduce themselves when the time comes, so it'll be a surprise.
I'll still pop in every once in awhile as I have time. But you'll want to check back here every day, as there may well be a ton of content.
Jeff
Launch Pad Day One, Who We Are and Why We're Here
It turns out that liveblogging generates a lot of material! So I'm going to split up each day into several entries.
First our instructors gave us their perspectives on the workshop.
Mike Brotherton: "I'm not going to be able to teach the world astronomy. But I can teach you people, in a week. Either give you a step up from what you learned in college, or some of you may not have a lot of math and science background, but we can give you a place to start, contacts, places to get information and ...
Launchpad, Day Minus One
I tried to post this yesterday, but the website crashed on me, so expect this post to be followed up with today's Launch Pad post.
Several months ago, when I went to Orlando for the Nebula Awards, my husband and I received a piece of mail from NASA. "Hey!" shouted my husband, waving the unopened mail. "It's our tickets to the shuttle launch!"
"Not necessarily," I pointed out. "It could be materials about launch pad."
"You mean…" said Mike, pausing significantly, "We're getting _two_ pieces of m...
July 11, 2010
Comic-con Schedule, Including Hilton Bar Interlude
I can now confirm that Ann and I will be hanging out in the Hilton bar from around 1pm to around 4pm on the Saturday of Comic-Con for anyone who would like to stop by and shoot the breeze. You can also find us at some party on an aircraft carrier Friday night.
In other news, our event has been name-checked by the Washington Post, made io9′s list of spotlighted events, and made the LA Weekly's list of the recommended events from the Sunday schedule:
SUNDAY, July 25th, 10:30-11:30 Spotlight on...
July 9, 2010
Urban Fantasy, From Whence Came You? And Where Are You Going with That Trope?!
(Image taken from this Ecstatic Days post.)
The magnificent Carrie Vaughn, whose writing I really like, posted a timeline of the development (or transference) of the term "urban fantasy". It's an interesting timeline, but as I mentioned to her in an email, I seem to clearly remember around 2007 a couple of publicists or editors at major houses making a concerted and deliberate effort to introduce the term "urban fantasy" in a new context, in place of terms like "supernatural or paranormal...
July 8, 2010
Aqueduct Press: 50-6-1
My feature interview with Timmi Duchamp about Aqueduct Press is now up on Amazon's book blog.
I don't know if readers realize this, but Aqueduct has reached the 50-book mark in just their sixth year. That's a significant achievement for any press–both the longevity and the quantity, not to mention the quality and the focus. Not to mention that Duchamp is a class act as a publisher dealing with writers.
What does the 50-6-1 in my title mean? 50 books, 6 years, 1 reader at a time. That's how...
