John C. Wright's Blog, page 193

Congress to Vote on Head of Vecna --- Summon Carnivorous Apes to use Scimitar

Congress to Vote on Head of Vecna --- Summon Carnivorous Apes to use Scimitar
"No Way This Can Fail!" Promises Druid Stenny Hoyer.

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From Steve Jackson Games website....

Many years ago (back when we all were still playing D & D), I ran a game where I pitted two groups against each other.
Several members of Group One came up with the idea of luring Group Two into a trap. You remember the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna that were artifacts in the old D&D world...

Progress Report

It's Done! What may, if I can make the sale, turn out to be the first volume of a trilogy is finished. One last read-through, little bit of polish on the rough spots, and I will print it out and mail it to my editor. The work is 121000 words, about 430 manuscript pages, and I sat through 963 revisions, first version dates May 2005. That is not 900 complete drafts, merely 900 writing sessions. Still, it's done!

As a free sample of the work, here is a snippet from near the beginning. Menelaus Mo...

Table of Contents for Clockwork Phoenix 3

Marie Brennan, "The Gospel of Nachash" Tori Truslow, "Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day" Georgina Bruce, "Crow Voodoo" Michael M. Jones, "Your Name Is Eve" Gemma Files, "Hell Friend" C.S.E. Cooney, "Braiding the Ghosts" Cat Rambo, "Surrogates" Gregory Frost, "Lucyna's Gaze" Shweta Narayan, "Eyes of Carven Emerald" S.J. Hirons, "Dragons of America" John Grant, "Where Shadows Go at Low Midnight" Kenneth Schneyer, "Lineage" John C. Wright, "Murder in Metachronopolis" Nicole Kornher-Stace...

Wright's Writing Corner: Visceral Reactions -- and Happy Saint Paddy's Day!

My lovely and talented wife is at home cooking the Corn Beef and Cabbage to celebrate yet another saint's day from the Roman Catholic calendar, this one Saint Patrick, who drove the snakes out of Ireland. You see, the sinister conspiracy of Paleopapal Roman Catholicism has its talons in all corners of the globe, and perhaps beyond the circle of Sulva! Just when you think your society is safely secular, Caths leap from their drunken barstools, reeking of incense, garbed in green, ready for ano...

How SF Books are Written

The esteemed Charles Stross (esteemed by me, at least; I regret he does not return my feeling for him) has an interesting and honest description of how his SFF novel evolved, interesting in particular because of the take on genre-crossing. His describes FAMILY TRADE books as 'Science Fiction in Fantasy drag'; his take on the difference in genres is that fantasy is nostalgic and conforting, whereas SF is revolutionary.

There are in his peice nuggets of numbered wisdom for any would-be writer t...

Favorite Cover of the Year

The fine fellows over at SFSignal are discussing which was the best cover art for this year.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2010/03/mind-meld-recent-sffh-book-covers-that-blow-us-away/

I note with pleasure that the TITANS OF CHAOS cover by Scott Fischer attracted applause, as did the PROSPERO LOST cover by Sam Weber.

One odd little anecdote about the first time I saw that gorgeous Scott Fischer cover: The wife and I were at a New York party, to meet the man who would become her literary agent...

Gene Wolfe

The wife just came home from the bookstore, and, as a present, gave me Gene Wolfe's THE SORCERER'S HOUSE. Mr. Wolfe's writing is a hit or miss affair with me. Some of his works (ON BLUE'S WATERS, SHADOW OF THE TORTURER) I like without reservation. Some I like and think have a confusing or not-quite-right ending (FREE LIVE FREE, DEVIL IN THE FOREST) . Some I think are just not for me (CASTLEVIEW, THERE ARE DOORS). Nonetheless, he is the only living author I will buy in hardback just on the str...

Poet dead for 200 years told to pay TV licence

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3121159/Poet-dead-for-200-years-told-to-pay-TV-licence.html

Friedrich Schiller, one of Germany's favourite poets and playwrights, has received reminders to pay his television licence - despite having been dead since 1805.

Two notices were delivered by GEZ, a licence-collecting agency, which threatened to mount legal action against the literary hero, who is best known for his poem Ode to Joy, which was put to music by Beethoven, unless h...

National Day of Prayer and Fasting

I decided not to eat today. It is not a difficult decision, seeing as how what is being voted on in the halls of power in my nation could turn the stomach of even an indifferent man.

Today they are voting, among other things, whether or not to fund aborticide with my tax dollars. Those dollars represent hours and days of my life I have spent doing useful work, hours I would have rather spent doing something else. They are taking those little bits and pieces of my life work and devoting them t...

Gondor, Byzantium, and Feudalism

The often imitated but never duplicated Tom Simon (who fights crime under his secret identity as Superversive) holds forth on the issue all legal scholars, historians and political theorists who happen to be fans of JRR Tolkien have often pondered. What is feudalism and how is the political system in Byzantium different from it? What are the parallels between Byzantium and Gondor?

http://superversive.livejournal.com/85354.html

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 To begin with, Tolki...