Entries Tagged 'writing' ↓

Hey, nifty, I’ve got a new short story up at Strange Horizons called Birds. It was really great to work with them.

Also, I put together a ‘works‘ page to keep track of published pieces and other projects. I think I forgot some, but they’ll come to me eventually.

Update: Ah, it appears that Superficial Flesh‘s current issue went live today as well. I have a short essay and photographs on Brazilian graffiti in this issue, and there’s an interview with me as well. Once you register at their site, you can access the entire issue.

Have a great Monday!

I haven’t done as well as I’d like keeping up on healthcare bills and the news and the progress of Obama’s presidency (when I have a new project going, a lot of other things — like keeping good track of the churning of the news — get dropped. Word count is 83,212 words, incidentally). I have certainly heard impressive amounts of criticism from all sides, and reserved optimism, too.

But from afar, here are two writer-related items that just makes me feel incredibly happy to have a president that is so radically different than our last.

#1 – Obama sent Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, a fan-letter. (!)

Martel says:

“If there was a way of tattooing it on my back, I would. What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you would know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he gain? I’m not a US citizen. In no way can I be of help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi.”

There is irony here, since Yann Martel has been on a multi-year campaign to send Canadian Prime Minister  Stephen Harper a book a week, along with an inscribed letter from him, in order to raise arts awareness. This is all documented on the website http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca. In the most recent post (in which Stephen Harper receives a copy of King Leary by Paul Quarrington, guest author Steven Galloway gives a sort of nice tagline for the site:

“In a way, you’re in what must be the world’s most exclusive book club, albeit somewhat unwillingly. I bet Mr. Obama is jealous!”

Read Obama’s letter on Fiction Writer’s review

#2 – Look at the edits that Obama put on this speech. Just look at them.

I’m sure to someone receiving an edit like this on the job (speech writer Jon Favreau) it must be frightening, but right now the only edits I see are mine. Pages like this are gold — it means that the text has been worked, and worked hard. That someone cares about what is said, and how it is said. The piece has been honed. Bravo.

All other things aside, I really love having a smart president.

Original article here: Editor in Chief found via John Scalzi’s Whatever

Apparently Amazon.com pulled all books by Macmillan yesterday in order to threaten them over an ongoing spat about ebook pricing, as they work toward cornering the market in ebooks.

I think this is officially not-cool.

John Scalzi makes some excellent points about it.

Like I mentioned last year, I’m interested in becoming a morning person. I am by nature a night-tinkerer, a fiddler and futzer, a midnight walker and a just-one-last-thing-er. And these night meanderings can last easily until 2, 3, 4am in the morning.

My logic goes something along these lines:

- I’m happier when I’m creating something — specifically, writing every day

- Because of kids and work obligations, I don’t really have time until after the kids are in bed

- at which point, I’m tired enough that I feel like consuming media, not creating it.

So the logical time to do this — when I have no other concurrent obligations — is early in the morning before anyone is awake.

For the last ten days I’ve started my writing schedule at 5:30am, and I’ve been faithfully churning out a thousand words a day. It feels fucking great — partially because I’ve really begun to like the project, but also because no matter what happens for the rest of the day, there’s this pillar of accomplishment there, first thing.

I’ve tried several times to become a morning person and failed — but now I believe I may have found a secret, back-door entrance to being a morning person. I’ll come right out with it, with no extra cost to you. It’s called: SIX HOURS OF JET LAG. Pretty awesome secret, no? All you have to do is have a nice long stay in Brazil (UTC/GMT -3 hours), and then try like hell to preserve that jet lag when you get back.

No, it’s not the cheapest way to becoming a morning person, but it works great and the weather is nice. I find I can barely keep my eyes open by about 9:30pm (3:30am in Rio de Janeiro), and that I’m awake somewhere between 4 and 5am, ready to go. And for whatever reason, months of non-productivity have suddenly given way to a wonderfully vigorous writing routine. Sweet.

I miss Salvador, though.

Arthur

Brigitte (kebab)

Stilt Pirates

I had a blast tonight.

If you’ve found yourself here late in the night of Nov. 20th or early morning Nov. 21st, it’s likely because you found yourself involved in my little after-hours texting thing.

Thanks again for playing along.

For fun – I’ll try to post a few stats here on after-hour participation, if I have them.