James Van Pelt's Blog, page 85

Vampire Causes Car Accident

I can make this stuff up, but why bother?  All I need to do is pay attention to our local news.  Fruita is where I teach high school.  It's also known for its Mike the Headless Chicken celebration.

Western Slope Woman Blames Vampire for Car Crash

I wonder how often vampire sightings are reported to the police?  For that matter, what's the national statistic for werewolf sightings or ghosts?  Has anyone ever called 911 because they saw the Mummy?  How about Godzilla? 

Of course, if you ask a que...

Speaking of Verisimilitude in Setting

So much of what we see in settings we can't get into words.

I went on a hike right a sunset today.  These were clouds to my north.

The other topic I was thinking about as I hiked this evening is how much of existence we leave out of our narratives.  Every single step on the trail was a potential adventure (especially if you are as clumsy as I am!).  I mean, every moment is experienced but so much of it is lost.  It's lost in narrative certainly, because how boring would that be if you recounted...

Leveraging the Internet for Verisimilitude in Setting Descriptions

Pretty wordy title for the post, don't you think?

I'm writing a story that takes place in the Olympic rain forest, which I know a little about because I've gone to the Rainforest Writers' Village on Lake Quinault the last couple of years.  While I was there, though, I took pictures but no notes.  Why this is a problem for me is that if I want to invoke the landscape in the story convincingly I need the telling detail that sounds so believable, that is so visceral and real, that the readers wil...

The Search for the Ultimate Writing Tools

When I started teaching, it didn't take too long before I discovered I was on the search for the perfect pen.  It had to feel right in my hand and leave a good looking mark on the page.  I've settled on the Pilot G-2 07 for all my grading.  It's retractable, has a rubber (but not gushy) grip, and it almost never skips or blotches.

I have the same sort of search for my computerized writing station.  I settled on an Asus X83V laptop, which is a pretty robust system with a 1G graphics card in it,...

Colorado Book Award

The Radio Magician and Other Stories won!

Today the Colorado Humanities and the Colorado Center for the Book gave their yearly awards for books by Colorado authors.  The selectors chose 43 finalists from the 146 works submitted, and then from the finalists they chose a winner for each of the thirteen categories.  The ceremony was in Aspen.  My book won in the "Genre Fiction-Sci/Fi/Fantasy category.

A good artist and high school teacher friend of mine, who won a best of show award last year in  ...

Discipline

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now, but summer stuff kept getting in the way.  On June 14, Joe Haldeman made a post on one of the requirements for his Master's Degree in Creative Writing, which he earned from the University of Oklahoma in 1961.  He said his professors required the students to write 1,000 words a day, and to carry the latest week's worth of writing with them at all times so if they ran into a professor who wanted to talk about the writing, they had it ready.  Ha...

What Happens When the Very Literary Get a Hold of Your Stuff

An old college buddy of mine, Eric Shaffer, who is one of the smartest guys I've ever met (conversations with him made me want to take my brain out for a rinse every half hour or so--he has a doctorate in American literature), read Summer of the Apocalypse and posted a very thorough reaction to the book at Goodreads.  That's what I call a review!

He's a review or two down in the list.

I liked Topher's review also, which is just above Eric's.

The Best of Talebones

Patrick Swenson, the editor of the lately passed and much lamented Talebones has announced the table of contents for The Best of Talebones anthology.  There are a lot of great stories listed here.  It will be a fat book!

My "The Yard God" will be included.  I'm really looking forward to this collection.

The Fairwood Press site has listed a November release date for the book.

Speaking of Talebones and Fairwood Press, the annual Rainforest Writers' Village, which Patrick Swenson hosts, has added a...

The Greatest Rock and Roll of All Time

Top ten lists are fun, but I always have a problem limiting myself to ten.  It's not that I can't do a top ten, but I've got to be able to put twenty titles in it.  It doesn't matter what the category is either: top ten films, top ten novels, top ten actors, etc.

So, Rolling Stone magazine decided not to namby pampy around with only a top ten, top twenty-five, or even a top 100.  They put together an issue of the magazine that they proudly declare contains their list of the "500 Greatest...

Fan Mail and Fan Fiction

I occasionally get mail from readers, which is entirely gratifying and welcome, particularly on a bad day when I'm hip deep in grading and the dishes haven't been done for two days.  Today's mail was a bit unusual, though.  A fan ordered a copy of Summer of the Apocalypse through Perma-Bound and then sent it to me for an autograph.  He wrote a flattering letter along with the book, but he also included his ideas for a sequel: Winter of the Apocalypse.

As soon as I saw where the letter was goi...