Marty Halpern's Blog, page 37

Wild West Show Rides Again....

Annie Oakley bottle


On March 4, I published a blog post about my father's collection of Wild West whiskey decanters, many of which he designed himself.

Since my parents' house was for sale and, in fact, three days later, on March 7, I signed the paperwork that placed the house in escrow, I was desperate to find a home for these bottles. There were thirty-three of them -- too many for me to display at my house, too many for me to even store at my house. I was hoping to find a place, a museum of some sort, preferably, where the decanters would forever be safe, and still be able to be seen by the public.

Thanks to Cory Doctorow, my blog post was cross-posted on BoingBoing.net -- and between the two posts, the response from readers was overwhelming, with suggestions of possible resources both in and outside the state. I was elated. I contacted the Autry National Center (formerly the Autry Museum of Western Heritage) and the Santa Clarita Historical Society, among others, and I even visited Walker '47 -- a Western-themed gun store in Anaheim only three and a half miles from my parents' house, with quite the historical display throughout the shop, and chatted briefly with owner Andy Cauble.

Within a couple weeks I had actually found a home for the bottle collection, but I haven't been able to say anything until now: the official "Deed of Gift" forms have finally arrived.

My father's collection of Wild West whiskey bottles have been acquired by the Autry National Center (Twitter: @TheAutry); from their website:

The Autry is an intercultural history center dedicated to exploring and sharing the stories, experiences, and perceptions of the diverse peoples of the American West. Located in Griffith Park, the Autry’s collection of over 500,000 pieces of art and artifacts, which includes the collection of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, is one of the largest and most significant in the United States....

My initial email communications were with Jeffrey Richardson, Gamble Curator of Western History, Popular Culture, and Firearms at the Autry National Center. I provided him with a link to my March 4 blog post, and then provided whatever additional information I was able to in response to his many questions. After expressing an interest in the collection, Jeffrey introduced me, virtually speaking, that is, to Steven Walsh, Registrar & Project Manager at the Autry National Center. There were some telephone calls along the way as well. Steven arranged a meeting at the house on Thursday morning, March 22, to pack up all the bottles and transport them to the Autry.

Steven arrived on schedule, along with a couple dozen or more bankers boxes, a ton of styrofoam packing peanuts, plastic bags, bubble wrap -- and a car that I thought was far too small to hold everything -- but it did!

Even though the collection was now in the Autry's possession, it was still not a done deal. On Wednesday, April 4, the Accession Committee was to meet to review my donation of the ceramic decanter collection. The final decision was up to this committee. Later that day I received a telephone call from Jeffrey Richardson, informing me that the collection donation had been accepted by the Autry. But, it still wasn't official just yet: I had to wait to receive the "Deed of Gift" forms, which, as I have already said, are now in my hands. These forms consist of thirty-one pages (two pages contain two entries) describing each of the thirty-three decanters, with a place at the bottom of each page for my signature and date. The letter that accompanied the "Deed of Gift" forms states in part:

It is with great pleasure that the Autry National Center accepts your donation for the museum. The Accession Committee, whose members review each donation to ensure that it meets our acceptance criteria, were delighted with the donation and feel that it will make an important and lasting addition to the museum's collection.

[...]

Please accept our thanks for your gift to the Autry National Center. Your interest and support is greatly valued, and your generosity in making this donation is sincerely appreciated.

[signed] Steven Walsh, Acquisitions Registrar

I, in turn, wish to thank all the readers -- both here and at BoingBoing.net -- for their support, and especially their suggestions. I didn't know there were so many speciality museums! I particularly want to thank Pamela Kruse-Buckingham, who went the extra step with some additional suggestions on museum donations.

Jeffrey Richardson has informed me that the museum plans a special exhibit in 2013 that will focus on the Wild West in American pop culture, which will include my father's decanter collection.

Thanks again, everyone!

Nancy Kress: After...Before...During the Fall

I'm delighted to announce here that I have editorial credit on the recent book by multi Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Nancy Kress: titled After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, the novella (38,300 words) is published by Tachyon Publications.




In addition to proof reading, line editing, copy editing, and other such editorial stuff, the manuscript also required a bit of fact checking, given the story's sense of place in the three ultimately intersecting timelines: future, past, and present: 2035, 2013, and 2014.




I submitted the final, edited manuscript to Tachyon Pubs on June 13, 2011. A couple months later, on August 24, I received the following email from Jill Roberts, Managing Editor at Tachyon:

Marty --



From Nancy [Kress], re the copyediting job you did for After the Fall:

"Whoever the copy-editor is, he or she is the best one I've ever had: thorough, sharp-eyed, and willing to be editor instead of a co-author. Please thank him/her for me."

Pretty sure I told her it was you, but I will again. And I totally agree with her. Well done.




Cheers,

Jill

Obviously, at the time Nancy Kress sent that email, she didn't know I had been assigned to her manuscript; but thankfully Jill rectified that fact. When one [me!] is conscientious about a project, makes every effort to do the best job possible, those two sentences from the author can be extremely gratifying. Such praise typically isn't expressed often enough -- I mean, I'm just doing my job, right? -- so when it is, it makes the long hours I spend on a manuscript well worth the effort.




Later, I had an opportunity to briefly chat with Jill and Nancy about the project when we met at Tachyon Publications' "Sweet 16" birthday party at Borderlands Books on September 11, which I wrote about in a previous blog post.



After the Fall... has gotten some great press, and I believe the best way to give readers a taste of this novella is to share some excerpts from those reviews.




The first review (and the longest review) is courtesy of Stefan Raets on Tor.com:

Superstar SF and fantasy author Nancy Kress returns with After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, an elegant novella that combines several wildly different science fiction ideas into a tight package. There's a little bit of everything here: time travel, hard science, environmental collapse, aliens, post-apocalyptic dystopia. It may sound hard to combine all of these in such a short format, but Nancy Kress makes it work.




The novella's slightly unwieldy title refers to the three plot lines described above: the survivors in their Shell in the future, the mathematician trying to solve the "crimes" happening in the present, and the environmental changes. What makes this much more than just another story told from three separate points of view is the time travel angle: as the novella progresses, the stories occasionally connect and weave through each other. After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall is really a series of interlocking flashforwards and flashbacks that continuously provide new information and different perspectives about each other to the reader.




[...]




The characters eventually lose [the misconceptions built into the story by the author] as everything inexorably works its way to a convergence, but until that happens there's constant tension between the three plot lines. It's this tension that ultimately makes After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall a great success. Expect to see this one on the final ballots of the major awards next year.

It's 2035 and the 26 survivors of tsunamis and biological plagues that wiped out the rest of humanity exist in a dome [the Shell], imprisoned by the alien Tesslies, who they believe were responsible for the planet's destruction.... Kress succeeds in tackling major themes – societal responsibility, the stewardship of the planet and mother love – and the twist-in-the-tale finale, despite the role of the Tesslies being unresolved, is wholly satisfying. Recommended.

This next review, an uncredited mini review dated 03/19/2012, is on PublishersWeekly.com:

...Gruff teenager Pete makes brief runs back in time from the desolation of the year 2035, using alien technology that can only transport children, to pick up fresh supplies and recruits. Julie, a mathematician in 2013, finds a pattern in a series of kidnappings. They are, of course, Pete's expeditions, and as the two head towards their inevitable collision, the clock ticks down on the catastrophe that will turn Julie's orderly world into Pete's devastated landscape. Kress handles the crisscrossing timelines with cool elegance, making a complicated story clean and easy to read. Some readers may find both the setting and the characters a little severe, but the ultimate message of hope and understanding resonates strongly.

The fourth and last review that I wanted to share at this time is from The Denver Post in which reviewer Fred Cleaver writes:

...After the Fall, a small group is living in the Shell.... Pete is one of the children with various deformities who have been born in the Shell.




...Before the Fall, mathematician Julie Kahn is consulting with the FBI on a series of kidnappings. She's one of the few who sees a pattern and believes the claims of monsters stealing children and vanishing into thin air.




Connecting the stories of the future and the past are short episodes on various ways the environment is changing and leading toward cataclysmic events.




...Pete is an angry teenager in a very unjust world who is lashing out at all around him. Julie is making a life with her daughter while her analytic skills are telling her something is very wrong. Kress makes us care about both of these characters as well as the fate of the whole planet.

Pete is a child of the future living in the Shell and using alien technology known as the "Grab" to return to the past; Julie is an FBI agent, caught up in an ill-fated relationship while trying to work out the pattern she perceives in a series of kidnappings. These two lives -- timelines -- intersect During the Fall.





If I may, I'd like to conclude with one more sentence from Stefan Raets's Tor.com review: "Pete, one of the six children born in the Shell, is the story's most interesting character and one of the most tragic figures I've encountered in SF in a long time."

March Links & Things

This is my monthly wrap-up of March's Links & Things. You can receive these links in real time by following me on Twitter: @martyhalpern; or Friending me on Facebook (FB). Note, however, that not all of my tweeted/FB links make it into these month-end posts. Once again there is a lot of content, so please return if you need to to take full advantage of all the links. Previous month-end posts are accessible via the "Links and Things" tag in the right column.




Unfortunately, words of warning to authors are an endless stream, and even more so in this digital age of publishing. This month's word of warning concerns Dorchester Publishing. Author Brian Keene details the current mess surrounding this publisher (with numerous links to other sources). In one place Dorchester states they are closing down; yet elsewhere they continue to buy new material and sell existing material, even when they no longer have the authors' permissions to do so -- while owing their authors advances and royalties. Bottom Line: DO NOT DO BUSINESS of any kind with Dorchester Publishing.


This was brought to my attention via Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) along with a warning for those who travel with digital comics on their cellphones, laptops, and tablets, particularly in Canada (though there are other countries far more repressive, certainly, than Canada). Everyone who travels with digital comics really needs to read this.... The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) reports "Criminal Charges Dropped in Canada Customs Manga Case." This case involved defendant Ryan Matheson, a 27-year-old comic book reader, amateur artist, and computer programmer, who ended up in this criminal and legal brouhaha because manga comic books were found on his computer. The total legal costs in this case exceeded $75,000 -- and contributions are being sought to help pay off Matheson's huge remaining debt: $45,000.


On March 13, Encyclopaedia Britannica announced that -- after 244 years; since 1768 -- they will discontinue the 32-volume print edition once the current inventory is gone. But, they add: "...the encyclopedia will live on--in bigger, more numerous, and more vibrant digital forms." (via @HuffPostBooks)


From The Guardian UK: Lloyd Shepherd, author of The English Monster , found a request to pirate his novel on the discussion board Mobilism; so, he decided to respond to the request himself, to open up a dialog with said individual. Frustration and anger followed with this individual's responses, so Lloyd opened a topic himself entitled "Novelist seeking understanding" on the main discussion board. (via @ebooknewser)


Brad Torgersen guests on Kevin J. Anderson's (@TheKJA) blog, with a blog post entitled "On Not Quitting." Brad writes: "One week ago, I got a call from the President of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He told me that my novelette, 'Ray of Light,' was nominated for the SFWA Nebula Award.... Being nominated for a Nebula means my story not only connected with readers, it connected with a readership composed of my peers.... I can say from now on that my fiction is 'Nebula quality,' something I find more than a little astounding when I consider the fact that I didn't have a single word in professional print prior to 2010. How did it happen? Simple: I didn't quit."




Kay Kenyon (@KayKenyon) shares with writers "Eight things I wish a pro had told me." She goes on to say: "It's a hard post to write because we have to admit we didn't know these things when we needed to." And just what are these 8 Things that Kay discusses? 1) Don't major in English. Don't enroll in graduate writing courses; 2) Set an ambitious weekly goal of new pages and stick to it; 3) Rigorously question your story premise; 4) Lighten up; 5) Learn to turn off the Voice in your head; 6) Take feedback, but take control; 7) Learn from the marketplace; and 8) Don't shred.


Kameron Hurley (@KameronHurley) gets down and dirty with a blog post entitled "The Dirty Little Secret to 'Imaginative' Worldbuilding." -- "I'm continuously tinkering with my draft of Rapture [volume 3] right now, banging my head against some chapters set in Ras Tieg, which is a country that readers of the Bel Dame Apocrypha haven't really seen before. It's no surprise, then, that I haven't seen it either. No, really. I've never been to Ras Tieg either. I'm MAKING THIS ALL UP, you guys. Shocking, right? Thing is, when you're building a place from the ground up, you have to take a lot of stuff into account. It's not just about where these people came from, what they believe, how they view the world and their place in it, it's also about creating a place that could not exist anywhere else."


This entry is from January, though I just learned of it this past month. Self-publishing author John L. Betcher decided to participate in a free book promotion as part of the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program. He reports his results on his blog, which includes such details as "Free Promo Facts and Figures," "Paid Results from Promo," and "Kindle Books Sold in First Seven Days After Free Promo." And according to the Duolit blog, which also reported John's results, he increased his Kindle sales by 3,600% in just one week! (via @PYOEbooks) John posted an update to the KDP promo program on March 3.


The six finalists for the Arthur C. Clarke Award were recently announced, and author Christopher Priest was far from being a happy camper over the shortlist. In fact, he not only didn't like any of the books, he didn't like any of the judges, either. Call his blog post a rant, a harangue, a plea for some literary oversight, whatever you like. It's an interesting read (unless you are one of the shortlisted authors or one of the judges!). One of the most astute responses to Priest comes from Catherynne M. Valente (@catvalente) in a blog post entitled "The Tears of Christopher Priest." Cat writes: "Well, it looks like Priest has taken up the leather for us this year. And I'm fine with that because someone has to do it. Someone has to move the Overton Window ever so slightly toward high art. High art gets crapped on all the time, and even the phrase is basically a self-reflexive accusation/admission of elitism. But things get shitty, Sturgeon's Law applies, the center cannot hold, and very occasionally, as high-maintenance lunch-to-literature conversion machines, we need Mommy and Daddy to not be proud of us to spur us on to write better books, to synthesize the high and the popular a little better every time. You will find a thousand authors arguing that what is popular is ipso facto good and anyone who says otherwise is a pseudo-intellectual heel. One guy should be able to say the opposite." [Note: If you've recently heard the term "internet puppy," Priest's post is the source -- and Charles Stross was the target.]


After you read this next entry, refer back to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund entry above. From Marvel Comics: "beginning June 2012, all Marvel super hero comics priced at $3.99 will include codes for free digital copies of those same issues on the Marvel Comics app for iOS and Android devices at no extra cost! That's right, the most-talked-about comics in the industry--including Avengers, Captain America, Invincible Iron Man, The Mighty Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine & The X-Men and more--will come packed with a code to ensure fans have the most critically acclaimed stories with them anytime, anywhere."


Are most readers familiar with the term "crowdsourcing"? Essentially, this is when a project that doesn't have financial support from other, more "official" sources, like a publisher, asks for funding support from the public. Crowdsourcing of books and music is typically what I encounter. But here's a new one: BBC News (@BBCNews) is reporting that "A website has been launched that aims to get the public involved in the search for extraterrestrial life." The project is being run by Dr. Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research. But whereas most crowdsourcing projects need money, this SETI project needs brainpower, so to speak -- "Participants will be asked to search for signs of unusual activity. It is hoped the human brain can find things the automated system might miss." So, here is your chance to help search for ET; add your own brainpower to this SETI project.

February Links & Things (This Post Not Quite Past Its Sell-by Date)

To say that my February wrap-up of Links & Things is a bit late would be a gross understatement. After spending two separate weeks in February in Southern California (see this previous blog post for some background), I was just too overwhelmed with catch-up in the first half of March -- and then preparing for my next (and hopefully last) trip to SoCal in the second half of the month -- to deal with February at that time; and now, here it is April 1! But there were some excellent resources in February and I didn't want to simply overlook that month entirely, so here they are, February's Links & Things: better late than never.

Consumers in greater numbers are finally questioning the source of their food (and what is in it), which has led more and more people to begin growing their own. So I wanted to take this opportunity to inform you that the long-out-of-print (1995) book Homestead Year: Back to the Land in Suburbia , by author (and my friend) Judith Moffett, is now back in print courtesy of the Authors Guild Back-in-Print program. [Note: I appear, though not by name, in Homestead Year, in a paragraph on "September 4" (page 258 in the original hardcover edition) in Judith's journal; she refers to me as a "[book] collector in California."]
What was undoubtedly the biggest news of the month (and yet I've seen no further details on this since): On February 6 Reuters reported that Amazon "plans to open a physical store in its home town of Seattle in coming months to showcase and sell its growing line of gadgets, including the Kindle Fire tablet..." (via mediabistro.com's @galleycat)
A website entitled BookBub has recently come to my attention, and if you are an avid eBook reader, then you'll want to sign up at the site's home page. BookBub describes itself as "an alert service that keeps you updated on great book deals. We only notify you about deals that meet the following criteria: Free or Deeply Discounted, Top Quality Content, and Limited Time Offers." When you register for BookBub's newsletter, you can select the categories of books in which you have an interest. View the latest BookBub Deals.
Author N. K. Jemisin (@nkjemisin) shares with her readers an essay she wrote for a forthcoming anthology entitled The Miseducation of the Writer -- essays by writers of color on genre literature -- edited by Maurice Broaddus, John Edward Lawson, and Chesya Burke, to be published by Guide Dog Books, the nonfiction imprint of Raw Dog Screaming Press. From the essay: "Not so long ago, at the dawn of the New World, black people were saved from ignorance in darkest Africa by being brought into the light of the West. This is bullshit." This is a must-read essay for all writers (and editors, too).
James L. Sutter's guest post on SF Signal (@sfsignal) deals with "Technology in Fantasy." Sutter writes: "Some people prefer technology that precisely matches that of a given real-world historical era. Others see nothing wrong with mixing and matching, combining swords, laser pistols, zeppelins, and dinosaur-pulled chariots. Some feel that technology itself should be the defining feature of the world (hence the ever-popular steampunk genre). Yet whatever path you choose when designing worlds for your fiction or RPG setting, there are a few important technological issues to consider." And he deals with each of these issues: 1) Anachronism; 2) Multiple Technology Levels; 3) The Question of Magic; and 4) Common Technologies, in which he covers these specifics: Airships; Sanitation; Medicine; Printing Press; Steam Power; and Firearms.


Artist Lee Moyer (who designed the More Red Ink logo on this blog) analyzes the cover art on two sequential series books by M. K. Hobson -- The Native Star and The Hidden Goddess; and why the first book sold well and was nominated for a Nebula Award, and why the second book didn't sell nearly as well. Is the author to blame? Or the cover art?
And speaking of cover art, the Philip K. Dick Trust has put together an awesome collection of more than 650 covers of various PKD books from around the world. There are 28 covers alone of novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, of which 18 are from other languages (including Greek, Polish, and Portuguese). I'm assuming, of course, that readers of this blog know who Philip K. Dick is -- and the influence his writing has had on the movie industry, ever since Blade Runner was released in 1982. (via @brainpicker @bittersweetdb)
From The Atlantic on February 16: "Late one night in the summer of 1977, a large radio telescope outside Delaware, Ohio intercepted a radio signal that seemed for a brief time like it might change the course of human history. The telescope was searching the sky on behalf of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the signal, though it lasted only seventy-two seconds, fit the profile of a message beamed from another world. Despite its potential import, several days went by before Jerry Ehman, a project scientist for SETI, noticed the data... Ehman circled [the signal] in red ink and wrote 'Wow!' thus christening the most famous and tantalizing signal of SETI's short history: The 'Wow!' signal.... In his new book, The Elusive Wow , amateur astronomer Robert Gray tells the story of the 'Wow!' signal, and of astronomy's quest to solve the puzzle of its origin." (via @spacefuture)
SyFy channel's Dvice blog (@dvice) recounts a recent talk given by Professor (and former astronaut) Neil Armstrong about his experiences in the X-15 suborbital flight program. From Dvice: "The X-15 was America's first dedicated high speed, high altitude, rocket-powered suborbital space plane, and back in the early 1960s it was busy paving the way for the commercial spaceflight development that's one of the most exciting things happening in space today." [Note: If the X-15 program interests you, then consider the book X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight by Dennis R. Jenkins, which is available from NASA as a free e-book in a variety of formats.]




From my personal space memorabilia collection.


News of Alien Contact

While I was slogging away in the nether regions of fabulous Orange County throughout February and March, two reviews of anthology Alien Contact were published in online 'zines.

The first review, published on February 21, is courtesy of Josh Vogt (@JRVogt), Speculative Fiction Editor for examiner.com. From the review:

Alien Contact is a new short story anthology taking readers through 30 years of extraterrestrial fiction. As with many short story collections, there's a little bit of everything here. From the humorous to the horrifying, the inspiring to the incomprehensible. Often, I count an anthology successful if it leaves a lasting impression with at least a couple stories--and this one hits the mark more than once.

He goes on to review a few of his favorite stories, stating: "Of them all, 'Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's,' by Adam-Troy Castro, reigned supreme." Josh concludes his review with:

Alien Contact is a strong collection of science fiction short stories, well worth a hefty slot in your reading schedule. As with any anthology, there are entries that fall a bit flat, or leave you wondering what the point of it all was--but these are few and far between here. For all those who've wondered whether we're alone in this universe (and desperately hope this isn't the case), this collection will uplift your imagination and give you access to a wider reality where anything is possible.

The second review, from Laith Preston, appeared on The Dragon Page (@dragonpage) on March 1:

I'm always on the lookout for good reading and new authors to follow. Alien Contact is something of a veritable who's who of the current genre greats, with some names I'm not as familiar with in the mix as well.

With twenty-six short stories telling tales of man meeting with other intelligences, Marty Halpern has pulled together an anthology filled with hours of enjoyable reading.

One of the reviewer's favorite stories in the anthology was Harry Turtledove's "The Road Not Taken" -- "An extremely well told tale of the first meeting between two races, one more advanced than the other, and the unexpected outcome of that meeting." Laith sums up his review with: "I would highly recommend this anthology to fans of good short form Science Fiction."

And if you prefer listening to Laith Preston's review rather than reading it, The Dragon Page also has a podcast available.



And now for something related, but completely different:

Ernest Hogan (@NestoHogan), one of the contributing authors to Alien Contact, has finally published his long-out-of-print novel, Cortez on Jupiter, in various eBook formats.



His story "Guerrilla Mural of a Siren's Song" -- in Alien Contact -- formed the beginning of novel Cortez on Jupiter. And if you think "Guerrilla Mural..." is/was the zaniest story you ever read, just wait until you read the full novel!

From the novel's PR material:

"All cultures have some acceptable form of human sacrifice. And if you really want to cause trouble, try taking it away."

Mythoteching. Splatterpainting. Zapware. A wild young Chicano artist who covers Greater Los Angeles with fantastic graffiti. A beautiful African telepath who opens the door to communications with the deadly Sirens of Jupiter.

Not since Ayn Rand's Howard Roarke has there been an artist as iconoclastic, as idealistic, and as splendidly spectacular as Pablo Cortez. Combining hard science fiction with pyrotechnics worthy of the young Alfred Bester, Cortez on Jupiter, tells the story of the painter who founds the Guerrilla Muralists Of Los Angeles, goes on to make Mankind's first contact with the sentient life-forms of Jupiter, and ends as the Solar System's most revered -- and least reverent -- artist.

Cortez on Jupiter is currently available for a whopping 99-cents at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.



In July 2011, I posted on this blog the complete "Guerrilla Mural of a Siren's Song" in three parts; so if you haven't read about Pablo Cortez as yet -- that over-the-top, crazy-as-an-artist Chicano painter -- then this is your opportunity: you won't read anything else like it! Here's the link to Part 1.

Recently, on his blog, Ernesto has been sharing excerpts from a number of Cortez on Jupiter reviews from back in the day of its original publication (Tor Books, 1990), including what he has termed "the worst review" ever. If you're an author, you'll appreciate how Ernesto has tweaked a blurb from that negative review into something very positive.

"Our house is a very very very fine house..."

My apologies for the lack of posts this month, but the exigencies of life often get in the way of more desirable (and preferable) options. So, I thought a status report was in order....

This past weekend I returned from my third week-long trip (the two previous trips this year were in February) -- and what I hope will be my final trip -- to Southern California for the purpose of cleaning out my mother's house in preparation for its sale. Funnily enough, even though my father passed away in 1998, most of the required work at the house was for his "stuff," as evidenced by my March 4 blog post regarding the Lionstone Old West liquor decanters that he designed.

I signed with realtors The Lappin Team on February 1 for the sale of the house. Facebook users can search for "Lappin Team Real Estate" to learn more -- and if you have property in Southern Cal that you wish to sell, trust me, these are the folks you want to have promoting your house. I lucked out connecting with them: Archie Lappin went to high school years ago with the neighbors' son from across the street -- and when I asked the neighbors for a referral for real estate agents, The Lappin Team was on their list. In fact, the Lappins put together a YouTube vid of my mother's house as part of their promotional efforts. When I first watched the vid, and saw how Kelly Lappin had "staged" (her word) the various rooms in the house using her own décor, my reaction was like "Wow! That's the same house?"

So as I said, I signed with the realtors on February 1, but I wouldn't let them place the house on the multiple listings service until I had an opportunity (two weeks worth) to clean the place up as much as possible. The Lappins could show the house themselves -- in fact, they had an open house on Sunday, February 19 (I arrived at the house around 4:00 p.m. that day for a week-long stay; the open house had ended around 2:30) -- but I wanted to hold off opening the house to other realtors. The house was finally placed on the multi listing service on Sunday, February 26, and I signed the acceptance paperwork, which placed the house in a 30-day Escrow, on Wednesday, March 7. Amazingly, the house sold (with multiple offers) within ten days of being placed on the multi listing! And the buyers? A husband and wife; he grew up two doors down, graduating from the same high school as Archie and the neighbors' son (and me as well).

My wife Diane and I have our hands full managing our own house, but I have also had responsibility for managing my mother's house -- and her affairs -- since August of last year (she passed away in October), and with the added complication that I live nearly 400 miles away. But hopefully in two weeks, when Escrow closes on April 6, most of this will be behind me; all that will be left will be the disbursement of my mother's trust.

Within about a week and a half or so I hope to be able to announce some good news regarding the status of the Lionstone whisky bottles: one official hurdle remains (though I believe it's more of a formality), which should be resolved next Wednesday, April 4. Keeping fingers crossed....

In addition to these whisky bottles, my father had a history of other such creative endeavors. Back in the 1950s and early '60s, he was an amateur photographer (living in Pennsylvania at the time), with a penchant toward circuses, if you can believe that. This was long after the Ringling Brothers Circus fire (1944), so the only circuses still performing under the "big top" were smaller, family-owned circuses. He would sometimes visit as many as two different circuses in a single day across the state, photographing the shows and the performers themselves, often before or after the show, back in the trailer areas, which was typically off limits to the public -- but not my father. As a "thank you" for their posing for his pictures (slides, actually), he would gift them with a set of slides from his previous visit. To make a long story short, I found a box of slides from various circuses from the late '50s and early '60s: Cole Bros. circus, Hagen Bros. circus, and quite a few others. I contacted the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and shipped off the 500 or so slides last Thursday to the attention of archivist Peter Shrake. In addition, I found my father's old movie-making equipment: a Revere movie camera, circa 1955; two tripods, one brand new and still sealed in the original packing box; two title-making setups, both brand new and sealed in the original boxes; and a ton of title-making letters, in gold, silver, red, blue, and black. I packed up two huge boxes of this stuff, and shipped it to the photography teacher, Victoria Byers, at Silver Creek High School, where my daughter had attended. She always spoke highly of the class and the photography teacher, who has since retired, so I wanted to make this material donation to the school. Schools continue to need our support, particularly for the elective classes.

Upon cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, hall closets, and garage storage areas, we filled two trash bins (one regular trash, one recycled; but note that I had filled two dumpsters, each holding 80 cubic feet of trash, during my previous visit); we also filled the rental SUV from back to front with a Goodwill donation (this was my fourth, and final, trip to Goodwill since October). And the realtors promised me that they would find good homes for all the remaining furniture.

So, that was how my wife and I spent our spring vacation. And why I have been absent from this blog for most of the month.

Wild West Show Closing Down....

Wells Fargo Agent
  

This blog post is not about books; it's not about publishing or editing or any such related topic. So I'll understand if you click on the Back button, or some other fave link, and go elsewhere at this time. This blog post is about my father... Well, not exactly about my father, but rather about the product of one of his creative endeavors.

I spent two of the past four weeks in February staying at my parents' house in Southern California, cleaning the place up so that the house can be sold, while trying to come to terms with the detritus of the nearly 50 years that my parents -- together, and then my mother alone -- lived in that house.

I filled two 80-cubic-feet (each) dumpsters; I made three trips (carloads) to Goodwill, with a fourth trip already set aside which the realtors have promised me they will take care of, because a pickup truck is required; I made two trips to the hazardous waste disposal center; I filled two city-provided recycle bins and one trash bin four times each (with special thanks to the neighbor across the street who graciously hauls the bins to the street for me, and then returns them to the backyard after they are emptied the following day). And yet still there is more to do....

This also explains why there have been few blog posts this month; I wish that my time in SoCal was all that was required of me, but even when I'm home there are phone calls to be made, forms to complete, and, alas, bills to be paid.

My father, Al Halpern, had many hobbies; one might say "passions" rather than hobbies because he often went over the top in his pursuit of these hobbies -- even, occasionally, to the point of what I would call craziness. If you had seen the house right after he passed away -- and the backyard shed that I just emptied a week ago -- you would have understood.

Pictured at the top of this blog post is an example of the fruits of one of his passions. This is a full-size whiskey bottle -- or, to be fancy, decanter -- which depicts in authentic detail a Wells Fargo agent from ye olde Wild West. Note the liquor tax stamp on the back: the agent's head is actually the top of the cork. My father designed these bottles in the '70s for Lionstone Distilleries in Kentucky. The "Wells Fargo Agent" bottle is just one of about thirty or so bottles that I need to find a home for now that their home for the past forty years will soon be sold.

My father was a resident of Anaheim at the time, and the Orange County Register ran a full-page article on his work in Section B (the "Local" news section) in the November 21, 1972, issue. I've scanned the article as best I could and will include it here with your indulgence; since it's a full-page spread, it took four scans to capture all the photos and text. If you click on each section, that section will appear in a larger form in a separate window, and thus should be easier to read. The Register will do a more succinct job explaining my father's hobby than I ever could.



The triptych of bottles pictured at the beginning of the article -- and showcased at the end of the article in my father's hand design -- is the "Shootout at the OK Corral." When I lived at home, I was totally taken with this set: the detail was mind-boggling, particularly the horses on the middle bottle. But I haven't seen these in years and years, decades actually; they weren't stored anywhere at the house, so I assume at some point my father (or possibly my mother, after his passing) sold them.




Bar Scene1


So, as I said, there are about thirty of the individual, full-size bottles, and I need to find a home for them. If I can find the right home, I would be more than happy to "donate" the entire set. I have already contacted Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, but their representative informed me that they already have so many items in storage that they are being forced to dispose of them. I have also contacted the Anaheim Historical Society and the Orange County Archives -- all to no avail. I am hoping to find a home for these in Southern California to avoid packing and shipping them outside the area, which would be very expensive (a minimum of eleven boxes at least), with no guarantee that every bottle would survive the journey.

If you can think of a resource, an organization, an individual, etc. in the Southern Cal area who might be interested, please do have them contact me, and/or post a comment below. There are already offers on my parents' house so I may only have a few weeks at most to relocate these decanters. They are all up for adoption, but I'd like to keep the family together.

Here's the "Annie Oakley" bottle:





Annie Oakley


And here's a group shot:





I'll close with just one more graphic. If you are a fan of the Gunsmoke TV series, you may appreciate these two photos of the show's cast:



Pictured in both photos are Al Halpern and Miss Lionstone (I believe her name is Regina Shermer). In the photo on the left they are posing with "Doc" Adams, played by Milburn Stone, who is holding the Lionstone western doctor bottle; you'll note that Stone has autographed the photo to my father. The photo on the right features Miss Kitty, played by Amanda Blake, and the bartender, played by Fred McDougall; each is holding their respective Lionstone western bottles. (The photos are actually quite fine; the distortion is due to the glare from the glass caused by the camera flash.)

Again, any and all thoughts and suggestions on finding a new home for these decanters would be most appreciated.





---------------

Footnote:

1. If you've managed to stay with me this long, I figured I would share an anecdote about the "Bar Scene." The last bottle on the right has a painting on the wall, which the "gentleman" on the right is studying. Due to the angle of the photograph, the painting isn't discernible -- it is the painting of Goya's Nude Maja. There's an interesting story here: some states (at least at the time this decanter was manufactured) have laws that prevent nudity to be shown/advertised with liquor. So two versions of this bottle were manufactured: the Nude Maja, and a version in which the Maja was scantily clothed. This allowed Lionstone to market the series in all 50 states, the version of this bottle sold dependent on each state's laws.

ASUS Zenbook: The Zen of Ultrabooks

On January 10 my ASUS Zenbook (UX31) arrived at the Microsoft Store in the Valley Fair mall in San Jose. I had to do quite a bit of hustling in order to give the store my money for this little gem. You see, back in December, when I began my search for an Ultrabook -- and eventually decided on the recently released ASUS Zenbook -- I discovered that this PC was in such high demand that they were completely sold out at all local stores1, and online as well. Even Amazon sellers didn't have this particular model available.




The Microsoft Store at the Valley Fair mall had one on display, but none were in stock; I was told that a new shipment (though the store didn't know how many would be in the shipment) should arrive before Christmas. After the Christmas weekend came and went, I was told that the store was still expecting delivery later that week. And then, New Years weekend came and went -- and still no Zenbooks. So I contacted a number of Microsoft Stores across the country and discovered that the Zenbook was in stock in Colorado, and elsewhere. I spoke to a manager at the Colorado store: she was willing to ship a Zenbook to the Santa Clara store, but the request had to be initiated by that store. So, I contacted the Valley Fair store once again, explained the situation, and they agreed to do a stock transfer from another store; the store they chose, for whatever reason(s), was in the District of Columbia.




I was motivated to purchase the Zenbook from the Microsoft Store for a number of reasons: I liked what I saw at the store -- the layout of the store and the hardware on display that was available for hands-on use, the store personnel who were there to assist and answer questions; also, the store was running a special offer that would save me $200, and provide me with two years of free support and maintenance, along with a full copy of Microsoft Office 2010; and lastly, all PCs sold through the store go through a "Microsoft Signature" review -- the PC is tuned, bloatware removed, etc. Given the problems that had been reported with the initially released Zenbooks, I felt the "Microsoft Sig" touch would ensure that my Zenbook wouldn't have bad pixels, problems with the keyboard, etc.




As I said, the Zenbook arrived on January 10; I was handed a brown corrugated ASUS shipping box at the store, which I greedily opened as soon as I arrived home. Unfortunately, in my eagerness, I neglected to snap any unpacking pics, and that outer box has since been disposed of. However, inside this outer box was the nicely crafted Zenbook box (pictured below) -- a multi-level box that contained the Ultrabook, a padded brown fabric carrying case, and a few booklets in an envelope-like enclosure mounted to the bottom. A section along the right side of the box held the power supply, along with a matching brown fabric pouch that contained the VGA and Ethernet adapters.







Here's an excerpt from Dana Wollman's Engadget review, which speaks far more eloquently of the Zenbook than I probably could:

...the UX31 is stunning in person. Here at Engadget, we see more products in a week than we have time to review and in general, it behooves us to take a detached, almost clinical approach to handling gadgets, lest we get distracted by the toys piled high on our desks. With the UX31, though, we couldn't help but feel struck by the tremendous craftsmanship. It just feels like an exceptionally solid, well-made product. The dark gray, metal lid has a pattern of etched concentric circles that lends it a modern, industrial look, backed up by a brushed aluminum deck and smooth metal keys. Even the bezel feels tough, while the lid is markedly sturdier than the [Acer Aspire] S3's.

I've provided the link to the Engadget review if your interest is piqued enough to pursue it further. In the meantime, and not to overly bore you, let me just add a few of the specifications:

Intel Core I7 2677M Processor

256GB SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD)

13.3-inch 1600x900 display

4GB RAM

USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports

SD/MMC card reader

Bluetooth

and more...

... plus a whopping 7+ hours of battery life. (Note: Even under Engadget's grueling battery test, the Zenbook lasted 5 hours and 41 minutes.)




Aside from the amazing battery life, the Zenbook weighs 2.9 pounds, and measures a mere 3mm in height at the front and only 9mm in height at the rear. I'm a lousy photographer, to be sure, but hopefully this next photo will give you some idea as to how thin this Ultrabook really is. (Note: it looks a golden brown color but that's the reflection of the lights/flash. It really is silver.)







And the beauty of the solid state drive is that the Zenbook boots in 20 or so seconds -- and awakes from sleep mode in about 8 seconds. I turn on the Zenbook, and then by the time I sit down and get comfortable it's ready for work.



As I noted above, during my research on the Zenbook in December, I read about the numerous difficulties users were having with the initial production models: flaky wireless, erratic touch pads, problematic keyboards, displays with bad pixels. Yet even those who encountered such problems still spoke very highly of the Zenbook.




One program that ASUS provides that other manufacturers do not is an ASUS driver update; in fact, just yesterday there were 8 updates -- one "recommended" and the other seven were optional. Twice now since owning the Zenbook I've had driver updates, and from the very beginning I've not encountered any of the problems that early users had reported. I've not lost wireless, my bluetooth mouse works flawlessly, and though I'm not much of a touch pad user (thus the bluetooth mouse), I can still get by using the touch pad when necessary -- and the only problems I encounter are directly related to my lack of skill in using said touch pad.




The keyboard, however, can still cause me some grief. I am a speed typist: with a familiar keyboard, with just the right touch (like the one I'm now using with my desktop PC), I'm good for 70+ words per minute, with maybe a couple errors. I can usually catch an error as soon as I type it, correct it, and still make close to my 70wpm. But on the Zenbook, I simply can't speed type. I have to purposely hit each key solidly and in the center, otherwise the key strike doesn't register and I end up with words with missing letters. Frustrating, to be sure, since I am a speed typist. But I can live with this since I typically only use the Zenbook when I travel, or when I watch the NFL playoffs for 8 hours a day, for three weekends in a row.



---------------

Footnotes:




1. I did find a UX31 at the local Office Depot -- but the store had none on display, only one still in its original shipping box in the back inventory area, which I wouldn't even have known about had I not asked a salesperson (who then had to ask yet another salesperson). So, I made an assumption that this was probably an original shipment Zenbook -- one with all the initial problems that users had been complaining about -- and so I passed. Also, I refused to support Office Depot's return policy: 14 days and store credit only.

Two Holes-in-One and a Bogey

This blog post has absolutely nothing to do with golf -- sorry, golf fans... -- I just happened to like this title that I came up with to represent the three recent reviews for my anthology Alien Contact (Night Shade Books).




I'll start with the two holes-in-one because we always want to boast first about the best -- our best golf swing, the humongous fish we caught, stealing home....




This first review is courtesy of Bob Blough, and published on Tangent online on January 30. After providing readers with the complete list of stories included in the volume, Bob opens his review with the following:

Alien Contact is an intelligently edited anthology of 26 first contact stories. And thankfully, Mr. Halpern has decided to mine the last 30 years for his selections, eschewing more well-known and oft-reprinted old favorites from earlier decades. So, this is a huge anthology favoring more contemporary SF and it acquits itself wonderfully. I do not agree with all of the editor's choices and can think of others I would have preferred, but so many terrific stories are gathered together in one place that everyone who likes this theme or is interested in learning more about it will perhaps find some new gems.

In the review, Bob focuses on "a few of [his] favorites." In particular, he singles out Pat Cadigan's story "Angel," which he refers to as "the best story of the batch (and one of my top SF stories of all time)."1 Bob's other faves include stories by George Alec Effinger ("a story with the perfect title"), Neil Gaiman ("read it and revel"), Mike Resnick ("a sadly moving tale, albeit a joy to read"), Michael Swanwick ("a complex and beautiful novelette"), Molly Gloss ("bravura performance"), Robert Silverberg ("a terrific read"), Nancy Kress ("clever and a delightful entertainment"), and Stephen Baxter ("the final story is one of the best").




Bob concludes his lengthy review with this paragraph:

These are but a double handful of my favorites; others by Paul McAuley, Bruce McAllister, Jeffrey Ford and a number of others serve this anthology well. If you are new to most of these stories or want to reacquaint yourself with some favorites – get this book. I thank Mr. Halpern for his knowledgeable selections. Alien Contact was a kick to read.

With its impressive list of authors, Alien Contact looked very appetising. Odd stuff would lurk in the corners, no doubt, but the appeal of such well-known names as Stephen Baxter, Orson Scott Card, Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Elizabeth Moon, Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick and Harry Turtledove was enough to nudge aside any doubt regarding complete literary satisfaction....Alien Contact contains twenty-six stories. In short, editor Marty Halpern has gathered an awesome collection of stories and as soon as I've finished writing my review, I'll actually place an order for a print copy of this one to put on my shelf. I have no doubt I'll be re-reading it.

One of the annoyances of ebooks, states Kelly, is the inability to quickly flip back and forth, particularly to the table of contents. "So I began at the beginning...and worked my way to the end. I'd forgotten most of the author list by the end of the first story...." Kelly then writes:

...and mumbled in pleased surprise when I "turned the page" and saw a story by Neil Gaiman....Then I flipped another electronic page and stumbled across another author I knew. This trend continued, almost unabated, through the end of the anthology. Self-professed geek I am, I actually got quite excited as I found Orson Scott Card's story, then one by Ursula Le Guin. I might have squeaked when I discovered Michael Swanwick had an entry, I bounced when I saw a Cory Doctorow story. At that point, I was only about halfway through the book. My favourite authors kept rolling past, eliciting pleased squeals and excited exclamations. By the time I finished the last one, I felt I held in my hands more than an anthology. Alien Contact is more than a "year's best." Marty Halpern has delivered an accurate and outstanding representation of contemporary Science Fiction and the people who are writing it.




So many stories gave me reason to pause, but none more so than the final entry, "Last Contact" by Stephen Baxter. At the end, I actually said, "Wow!" which reflected my feelings about the story, but also its choice as the final one in the collection and the anthology as a whole.

Kelly continues her review by commenting at length on three stories in particular: those by Stephen Baxter, George Alec Effinger, and Adam-Troy Castro. This too is a lengthy review, which Ms. Jensen concludes with the following paragraph:

So, I've hardly mentioned the stories by those huge names on the front cover, but as I've said before, I don't have to. They will be read, as will every other story in this collection. Alien Contact is a fantastic achievement on the part of the editor, publisher and the authors whose work is included. In my opinion, this is one of those essential anthologies; every halfway serious Science Fiction fan should own a copy. It would be well worth the money at twice the price.

If I was humbled by Bob Blough's first review above, imagine how I felt after opening the link -- and reading -- this review just a few hours later! "Wow!" is what I said as well! As an editor, it's a pure joy to read reviews such as these -- not just because they are stunning reviews (which, of course, they are), but, even more importantly, because the reviewers actually "got" what it was I had hoped to accomplish.





Which brings me to the bogey. First, a clarification: the reviewer in this third review implies in the first paragraph that Alien Contact is an anthology of original stories: "Marty Halpern's editorial brief was for writers to concoct their narratives around first encounters with aliens and, duly noted, numerous authors are represented here with perfectly tailored schemes." However, this is not the case. As the book's back cover text explicitly states: "Editor Marty Halpern has gathered together some of the best stories of the last 30 years, by today's most exciting genre writers...."




The review, entitled "Looking for Wit in Sci-Fi Lit?: 'Alien Contact' Has It," by Dr. Gabrielle Malcolm, appears on PopMatters, a multimedia review site, and was also published on January 30.




Dr. Malcolm comments on stories by Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, and Orson Scott Card, and then states: "So far, so predictable; in short, there are no real surprises here. There's a business-as-usual element to the collection, which doesn't weaken it, but doesn't really strengthen it, either."




And yet, she says the Le Guin story "is suitably cryptic and shot through with a wry and clever quality." King's story is described as "nicely creepy." And lastly: "However, I think I reserve my most sumptuous praise for George Alec Effinger's 'The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything.' Looking for wit in Sci-Fi lit? This story has it in ample quantity." And then Dr. Malcolm goes on to describe the Effinger story in detail.




She concludes the review with this final paragraph:

This collection from Night Shade Books is quite an achievement. It is, understandably, predictable and breaks no boundaries in the main. However, along with Effinger's contribution there are other witty and quirky examinations of the genre. The short story format is quite a liberating mechanism at times for authors, and this collection certainly displays that tendency. You feel that there's some experimentation happening here and there, alongside the ones that have phoned it in.

So, what do you think: Is this review one over par? A bogey? I do know that when I read (and reread) her words "There's a business-as-usual element to the collection...." Jeffery Ford's description of his story "Exo-Skeleton Town," included in the anthology, came immediately to mind. So I dug up my copy of his short story collection, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press, 2002)2, and turned to the story's afterword. Here's what Jeff wrote about his own story:

This story got turned down more times than my Visa card. What's not to like? It's got giant alien bugs, Hollywood stars, balls of aphrodisiacal insect shit, drug consumption through a spigot in the crotch, and Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, shooting herself in the head. Anyway, at least I thought it was great....

"Business as usual" writing? You be the judge.





---------------

Footnotes:




1. You can still read Pat Cadigan's "Angel" online, for free, in its entirety, at io9.com.



2. Disclosure: I acquired and edited Jeffrey Ford's The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories for Golden Gryphon Press.

January Links & Things

I returned this past weekend from my trip to SoCal, only to have to schedule yet another trip in a couple weeks. My mother's house in Anaheim, California, will be on the market toward the end of this month. In my youth I used to walk to Disneyland from that house, but it was/is a long walk, though not for a teen -- and from the house you can watch, and hear, the D-land fireworks at night, with no interference from any structures. It really is a great house. When everything becomes official, I'll post some photos and more details.




If you have an interest in my recently published anthology Alien Contact (Night Shade Books), please consider clicking on the "Like" button (if you haven't already done so) in the Facebook widget in the right column of this blog. This will add the anthology's updates to your own news stream on your FB Home page. You won't be inundated with posts, probably on average a couple per week, I promise.




And I best get to January's Links & Things before I run out of time this month as well. You can receive these links in real time by following me on Twitter: @martyhalpern; or Friending me on Facebook (FB). Note, however, that not all of my tweeted/FB links make it into these month-end posts. Once again there is a lot of content, so please return for a second visit if you need to to take full advantage of all the links. Previous month-end posts are accessible via the "Links and Things" tag in the right column.




Via author and friend Bruce McAllister's FB page, I learned of a new magazine with a very strange title: rFISHc. Bruce has a short-short story in the first issue. Submission guidelines, payment details, etc. at the link.




Do you write fantasy novels? -- HUGE fantasy novels? If so, then you need to consider taking David J. Parker's "The Fantasy Novelist's Exam." Here are the first 5 of 75 questions: 1) Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages? 2) Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage? 3) Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it? 4) Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme bad guy? 5) Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world? Let's just say that you don't want to be answering "yes" to very many of these questions. (via John Shirley's FB page, shared from David Brin)




Princeton Alumni Weekly -- "an editorially independent magazine by alumni for alumni since 1900" -- recently published a feature article on books entitled "What Princeton students are reading." You may be interested in learning what their "comfort food" reading actually entails. (via Gordon van Gelder's FB page)




From the UK's Guardian (@guardian): "YA novel readers clash with publishing establishment," and subtitled: "A row over the status of the bloggers who fuelled the success of young adult novels has been raging across the net." Apparently YA authors and their agents and publishers do not like negative reviews. I'm shocked, shocked I say.... So, among other things, they have been publicly discussing rigging the Amazon and Goodreads ratings to improve the visibility of good reviews, and thus "hide" the negative reviews. They've also been ganging up on the YA book reviewers/book review bloggers. The Guardian article concludes with a very special note to authors: "And if you can't stand the heat of the blogosphere – don't Google yourself." (also via Gordon van Gelder's FB page)




I write these month-end recaps on my computer, directly into a blog post, because I need access to the links/articles and often reference material, etc. But the drafts of most of my other blog posts are written in longhand; that's right, I take pencil to paper and actually write (well, more like scribble, since I'm the only one seeing the draft). I do this because I have a tendency to overedit when I compose online, and thus I never complete the text because I'm too occupied with editing. (Did I tell you that I'm an editor?) But writing on paper avoids a lot of this, and words actually do get written. Yes, I'll scratch out text, squeeze in changes, draw an arrow to the bottom of the page to something I want to add -- but the energy continues to flow, words continue to be written, and eventually the piece is completed. And then I edit as I type the text into a blog post. Evidently I'm not the only writer who works this way. Timmi Duchamp, of Aqueduct Press fame, also uses longhand, particularly when she needs to write additional material that will be inserted into an existing file. In a blog post entitled "The magic of writing longhand," Timmi says: "[In the past, before personal computers] whenever I wasn't sure where the story was going, I would retype the entirety of the scene I was working on, to give me a sort of running start. It never failed. I didn't feel I could do that when I switched to a word processor. So then I'd write out some of it longhand, and continue from there. Writing longhand has thus come to seem a sort of magic...." (via @charlesatan)




io9.com (@io9) lists "10 Writing 'Rules' We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break." Following are the first and last rules, I'll leave you to jump to the other 8; plus, as always on these io9 features, the article includes specific examples from the literature, cover art, movie stills, and other goodies. 1) No third-person omniscient; and 10) No "unsympathetic" characters.




Comic writer Cullen Bunn (@cullenbunn) takes the reader step by step through the comic writing process in a blog post entitled "Plot to Script: This Is How I Do It." An excellent, detailed blog post that covers such points as "Planning the Scenes," "Planning the Page Turns," and "Roughing the Script." With plenty of examples, including outlines, panels, and more. Be sure to read the tenth comment as well. (via @RickKlaw)




On Amazon's Omnivoracious blog, Susan J. Morris provides readers with some of the DOs and DON'Ts of "Total Reader Immersion: Writing Evocative Descriptions." Ms. Morris writes: "Have you ever read a book whose language was so lush, so vivid, so incredibly realistic that you felt, even just for a moment, that the characters, places, and events of the book must actually be real? That's total reader immersion, right there. The holy grail of writing...."




Gerard Jones shares his heartfelt story of "Why I Write...Today" -- the "Today" doesn't mean he won't be writing tomorrow, or the next day, or even next year, but rather that his reasons may change after "Today." Jones talks about his life's ups and downs, his marriage, his son's illness, and how all of this contributed to, or led up to, his life as a writer..."Today." Here's a brief excerpt: "Fortune just kept turning her wheel in my favor. Will [Jacobs] and I landed an agent and sold a humor book. It sold well and got us interviews and reviews all over the country. The editor of the National Lampoon called and asked us to write for him. I even quit my day job. Joy and love were rewarded. The trouble with Fortune is that she never knows when to stop the goddamn turning. Our second book tanked. We couldn't sell the third." (via Jason Ridler's FB page)



[January had an abundance of links pertaining to editing and copyediting, though I've only included a few of them here. Did I miss something? Was January National Editing/Copyediting Month?]


Lynnette Labelle writes: "You have a critique group and the members love, love, love your work. They've been nagging at you for months to send it out. You finally got up enough courage to submit and even received requests for partials and fulls, but in the end, nobody liked the manuscript enough to take it on. What gives?" This paragraph opens Ms. Labelle's blog post entitled "Editors Passed on Same Book Critique Group Loved" -- in which she presents 6 reasons why... I'll leave you to read the details, but just always remember: Editors (and publishers) buy manuscripts, critique group members do not. (via @AndrewMackayBP)




At Self-Publishing Review (@selfpubreview), Boudica Foster complains about the quality of Kindle books: "Over the past few weeks I have been concentrating on reading Kindle book files. I say concentrating because the urge to take out a red pencil and slash all the grammar, spelling, punctuation and capitalization errors is overtaking my urge to read. My eyes hurt. The worst ones are, sadly, self-published books." The blog post is entitled "Their, There and They're: Dude (or Dudette) You Need A Proofreader." And yet...and yet, Ms. Foster admits in a comment response: "...I have a few flaws in my own works as well. I can't afford a proofreader and we do the best we can...." Sigh.... I wonder if she's been reading her own Kindle books?




John E. McIntyre (@johnemcintyre), editor of the Baltimore Sun , expresses his frustration over the current lack of copy editors on newspapers nationwide. His column, entitled "Gag me with a copy editor," includes a link to an editorial in the Columbus Dispatch in which editor Benjamin J. Marrison (@dispatcheditor) bluntly states: "Thursday's [January 5] front page made me want to vomit." Marrison was referring to the errors on the front page, including the misspelling of the president's name -- twice! But back to McIntyre who postulates the two assumptions newspaper owners (who fire the copy editors) are operating under: first, "readers, comfortable with the lack of editing standards on the Internet, would be fine with low-grade stuff in print"; and second, "reporters would pull up their socks and make greater efforts at accuracy, knowing that there would be fewer checks on their articles." McIntyre follows up this latter assumption with: "How's that working out for you?" Some of the 20 comments are a hoot, too. (via @EditorMark)




"Are You Afraid of Editors?" is a post on the Working Writers blog in which the author admits to a fear of editors when she first began submitting magazine articles: "When I was new, I would turn in my (then, magazine) articles and then sweat it out while my editors would scratch out words on my typewritten pages. I fully expected that I'd never get hired for another assignment again." But after the first few assignments, Cherie "realized that editors were good for us. They helped our writing become polished and fit within the needs of the magazine or website we were writing for." Though this post deals primarily with nonfiction article writing, the author covers two important topics: "What If the Editor Is Wrong?" and "When to Fight for Your Words." (via @AuthorAnswers)




When I worked on the Alien Contact anthology, only one of the stories was by a deceased author: George Alec Effinger -- and his literary estate is handled by his ex-wife, author Barbara Hambly. Being an author herself, Barb understands the value of GAE's fiction and she also understands the importance of keeping his work -- and memory -- alive through the publication of his fiction. As an author, you want to make sure that your literary estate is in the right hands, and that that individual understands explicitly your instructions (which also need to be in writing) as to how you wish your literary estate to be handled. Too often I hear editors complain that a family member is managing an author's estate, a family member who thinks their loved one's short story should be worth thousands of dollars, which, typically, no editor/publisher can afford -- and thus over time that author simply becomes forgotten because their work is long out of print, and unread by later generations. Jeff VanderMeer recently wrote a blog post on this very subject entitled "Writers and Their Literary Estates: Story Reprints," which is a must-read for every author. Jeff also links to a Neil Gaiman post on "wills" and such, and provides a few additions to what Neil has to say. But don't just read their words, you, as an author, need to act on them as well. (@EllenDatlow via @jaymgates)




In an article in the Technology section of the Wall Street Journal online, we are informed that Barnes & Noble is considering "splitting off its growing Nook digital-book business from its aging bookstores." And though the Nook business has been hugely successful, it has all come at a cost: "Developing, manufacturing and promoting e-readers and tablets requires heavy upfront spending. Barnes & Noble's spending on advertising has more than tripled since 2009...." (via @thecreativepenn and @PYOEbooks)