The week updated Feb 18 2015

Last week was something of a struggle. I’ll chalk it up to a short week for the kids at school and other nagging outside stuff that I have zero control over but has a major degree of control over me and let’s leave it at that

Did two things I haven’t done in a long time this week. One was submit a story for publication. In this case, it was “Through the Limbs” which I should excerpt a bit of just so you can get a taste. The publication in this instance is THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. And the submission, while it’s one of the more interesting things I’ve written, I suspect will not find a warm reception.

Maybe that’s because I haven’t worried about genre convention and to some degree can’t be made to. This is the thorniest of crowns, if you want to write for a living, by the by. I don’t recommend it unless you like the bite into your temples as it’s daily applied. Lots of people have lots invested into the purity of the genres that they represent and it’s all fiction to me. This is a blessing and a hindrance. A blessing because I can sit back and laugh at people getting very very worked up about whether to call a thing “science fiction,” “speculative fiction,” or “fantasy.” Here’s the deal. It’s all fiction. It’s all made up. Truthfully, it’s all fantasy. Every last bit of it. Just because it’s “hard” SF doesn’t make it any more likely to actually ever possibly happen than the wildest and craziest collection of elves and dragons you care to think up. If you’re elevating the work because the science is strong, well, you might be missing the forest for the trees. Honestly, most hard SF that I’ve written doesn’t understand people a damn bit, and people are what makes the world work, no matter what the rules.

So, anyway, that’s away. As is BLUE HIGHWAY/BLACK TRACE over at Resurrection house. That’s still early into its three month waiting period. Again, not holding my breath, though it would be nice for something to break, y’know?

It’s funny. I see people giving writing advice and they say “just write all the time” and if only it were as easy as that. The push to finish things becomes measurably more difficult when the feeling is that there are very few who care if the work gets finished. You have to care, sure. And then you have to divorce yourself from that attachment when nobody else gives the back end of a bifurcated rat in response.

Oh, right, the second thing that I haven’t done in some time. I applied for a job. A writing/blogging job to be more precise. I expect nothing, though the outlet would probably be a good fit for my talents, I’m not sure that what they’re looking for at this moment is something I can deliver, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to check things out.

Rest of the week (and this one) spent in revisions. A short-is (6700 words) piece called “Cluster/Song” from a few years back and “Chunked,” which is me taking a little of my own medicine and writing a story about a thing instead of just stewing about a thing. Maybe that’ll even come across. Probably will start writing drafts for a couple different ideas as well, one indeterminate-future SF and the other present-day for a change, taking on the extended lives of franchise mascots and what they’re forced to do in the time of the revamp.

While with the kids on extended weekend actually went to the movies twice. First was JUPITER ASCENDANT which is a beautiful take on Cinderella in space (featuring some subtly-Warhammer 40k-influenced design work). Shades of DUNE and SOLARBABIES and a bunch of other pieces as well. My daughter (11 going on 15) loved it and I’m glad I got her out to something that was more aimed at her likes/dislikes/sensibilities because there’s already plenty out there for my son to dig. I might have some issues with the conclusion of the story, but it had its heart in the right place.

The other film I caught was the nobody-is-talking-about-this teen/SF movie PROJECT ALMANAC, which pulled off some neat tricks and had a solid story to wrap things around (though I found a lot of the cinematography distracting) and it was clearly written for Young Men. In many ways a very nicely dressed made-for-TV time-travel/Monkey’s Paw kind of affair, which will probably be rediscovered by retrologists twenty years from now and explored thoroughly.

Watching THE HIDDEN for a screencap exploration over at the Tumblr site, and oh yeah, too much time spent re-creating the main page of my home site. Actually used CSS for the first time (like a caveman might), but not sure how far I’ll get into it. Also turned on to the pilot episode of STARSTRUCK from 1979, the pilot of 1982’s MODESTY BLAISE and the 1966 film version (which is completely bonkers). Also rewatched ASSAULT ON PRECINCT THIRTEEN which I’ll probably have more to say about later.

Current listening: Dan Terminus (I’d recommend the album at Bandcamp, but it looks like it’s been yanked since Blood Music will be putting it out later this year) and Unit Black Flight’s very Carpenter-inspired TRACKS FROM THE TRAILER. The latest Carpenter Brut is also getting a lot of play.

Also read the first of Gene Wolfe’s BOOKS OF THE NEW SUN, SHADOW OF THE TORTURER and just wow.

Back to work.