Robert J. Sawyer expounds on Robert A. Heinlein's rules for writers. more...

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I had what seemed to be a pretty good idea for a short story, or possibly a series of short stories on the way to work. Of course, since I was driving, I could not write it down. Traffic was crazy, I couldn't even pull over to write it down.

So the idea fled. And I'm left with the recollection that it was a darn good idea. Ah well, maybe it'll come back sometime!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hmmm...

Fondness for small cups of intense coffee. CHECK.

Uses an iPod. CHECK.

Jots in a Moleskine. CHECK.

Do I pass the coolness test?

Nah.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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He had an ordinary face. He seemed an ordinary person. As ordinary as many others who stepped in during the end game. You see many people like this during a disaster; people who step up to lend a hand, without being asked, without being paid, even without being thanked. more...

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The last time he really truly saw her was the day of graduation from college. And even then you could not really say he saw her well. Her mother was there, and her stepfather, and her mother did not care for her much. As did his parents; they thought he was wasting time with her. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 02:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So having a iPod (finally, I buy a gadet before it is obsolete!) and having had some "downtime" at the firehouse last night, I downloaded a bunch of these "podcast" things I've been hearing about. Still having a dial-up connection at home, large downloads are not really an option there.

The new revolution? A way of knocking old media off of the pedestal? Maybe, but probably not. There's an interesting contrast in the podcasts...and the better podcasts are those with money, talent and quality behind them.

Here's an example: William Gibson did a book tour to support his latest novel, Spook Country (still on my personal Mount Toberead). During the course of the book tour he gave probably a couple of thousand talks, interviews, readings and what not (or, it felt like that). I know I've read one of the key phrases he's been using this go round—how if you walked into a publisher in the 1970's and pitched a SF novel with a global pandemic (AIDS) and a climate problem (AGW), you'd be shown the door and they'd call security—several times now. Most of the interviews have hit that highlight a few others.

BoingBoing had Gibson on for one in their short-lived podcasting series (they then moved on to doing short video webcasts but I think that has died as well). It was short. Gibson seemed to be talking to them over a cellphone while outside, so you could hear wind. One of the people from the BoingBoing end of things was dialed in on something (internet telephone?) that had latency problems. Two of the others also had audio quality problems. They kept tripping over each other, and their guest, in asking questions and interjecting useless noise.

Contrast that with this interview done by Rick Kleffel at The Agony Column. The interview runs quite long so you get more than soundbites on how we're living in the future. The interviewer allows Gibson to speak, only interjecting himself when necessary to get things moving again. Gibson even contributes two readings from two novels.

Podcasting may be the radio of the future, but quality will show. I'll be returning to hear more from The Agony Column; on the other hand, I won't be sad about the demise of the BoingBoing effort for long.

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Via Baen Books...Get writing!

Announcing the 2nd annual Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest!

Since its early days, science fiction has played a unique role in human civilization. It removes the limits of what "is" and shows us a boundless vista of what "might be." Its fearless heroes, spectacular technologies and wondrous futures have inspired many people to make science, technology and space flight a real part of their lives and in doing so, have often transformed these fictions into reality. The National Space Society and Baen Books applaud the role that science fiction plays in advancing real science and have teamed up to sponsor this short fiction contest in memory of Jim Baen. more...

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Wil McCarthy has a "wiki" where you can contribute to one of three collaborative tales. Will this be a bold new writing frontier? Or a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth?

Boundary Condition

Plant

Release Notes

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I went t the bookstore yesterday in the hopes of picking up two books that should be out. One of them is Michael Swanwick's The Dragons of Babel. I'm not as much into fantasy as I am interested in science fiction, but Swanwick, at his blog, has been writing about the process of writing the book for some time now and it has me hooked enough to want to read the book.

(The other book I was looking for was The Ruby Dice by Catherine Asaro. True, both are "January 2008" releases. However, I did manage to pick up a couple of other "January 2008 releases yesterday. Go figure.) more...

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Combined review can now be found here.

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Via Zoe Brain, what not to do when you write science fiction.

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A few random bits from my morning reading.

John Scalzi comes across what might be his favorite negative review of Old Man's War.

A biopic on Philip K. Dick...not!

My favorite Brother Astronomer has a new book out! more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:53 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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National Novel Writing Month is coming up fast! I'm not sure if I can manage a whole novel, but maybe a short work? Anybody else have something in the works?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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