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November 24, 2003

high art, low art, and somewhere in between

Stephen King receives the National Book Award. And if you read the article, you'll see some of the same politics I've encountered in my own genre's community in the past.

Halfway through CHAPTER the FOURTH. I am starting to get to the point where I am having a hard time getting to sleep at night, because I'm having attacks of dialogue. I see scenes in my head, and suddenly I'm interlocutor to two or three or four people in my head.

I know this all probably sounds crazy, and I do apologize for that. I assure you that socially I am very well adapted and even fun to be around. It's when I'm alone and bored that funny things start happening on the way to the forum.

Posted by sdshaver at 11:25 AM

November 23, 2003

Today's words: bipennis and oases.

Today's words: bipennis and oases.

Chapter Three is done. My knee is doing something very disturbing, and is a little swollen from me walking down a stair, so I probably won't go to aikido tomorrow. There's a little voice telling me I'd probably be fine, but there's no CTRL+Z in reality, and on the off chance that this isn't just a little something, I would rather sacrifice a day of practice than potentially lose several months of it.

There are six characters currently running around in the foreground of the story, and two of them are main characters. I know exactly how many of these characters will die by the end of this novel, which may or may not be good. Death is transference of power in the universe I'm writing in (as it can often be in the universe I live in), and since there is a lot of weird power in my written universe, there is a lot of death.

We watched Finding Nemo. Disney has it all wrong. It's not the hand-drawn animation that's causing their movies to bomb at the box office, it's their utterly wretched formula they insist on pouring all their films into. Finding Nemo is pretty AND well written AND different from previous Pixar films (the main character is a Dad! A DAD!) I love it.

...which doesn't explain why Hayao Miyazaki films fail to take well in the USA. Several reasons for that, really. For one, there's rarely a clear-cut good or evil in his stories.

Or maybe it's the marketing. Everyone I know who saw Spirited Away loved it, but no one knew a thing about the film when I told them to go see it. I think a simple title change could have saved that one. Like Alice in Wonderjapan or Non-Sucky Movie about a Little Girl Who Saves Her Parents or Chihiro and the Happy Fun Dragon. Something. Anything.

Anyway, Pixar is single-handedly saving the American animated film industry, and Cartoon Network is saving the television side of things. God bless 'em all.

Posted by sdshaver at 01:34 AM

November 18, 2003

backups.

I am one of those morons who actually HAS lost a book due to a computer meltdown. But, on the bright side, it was a REALLY BAD BOOK, and I can't guarantee that it wasn't the reason the hard drive died. Bad fiction has that effect on digital media, y'know.

(It was eight years ago, Apple Powerbook, and the reason I never bought Apple again.)

So my elaborate backup system involves mailing copies to other computers I regularly use, and online directories (off the web root, of course) where I keep zips of my fiction. And on that note, I wrote several pages this evening. A shame I have to be up in...six hours. To go to work. URGH.

I like using words like "thuja".

Posted by sdshaver at 01:06 AM

November 17, 2003

rejection slips

What is it about rejection slips that just makes me want to write more?

Maybe this is a sign. Maybe I should be writing short fiction and submitting it to more magazines/anthos if this is the result. It definitely lit a fire under my ass last night.

Half of Chapter Three is done. Chicago this weekend, and much extracurricular webwork owed to various friends and family, so writing this week will be limited. Maybe I'll get some done on Weds. night.

Posted by sdshaver at 10:37 AM

November 16, 2003

Kaiji is cursed.

Chapter Two is done. On to Chapter Three and the attack of the (not really) killer tomatoes. Or, as my sensei put it this morning: attack of the killer otomo. This after I dove across a room and did a forward roll in order to get to him in time to accept his hakama.

Yes, I know. Aikido joke. Shut up and go back to writing, Steph.

"Binder" didn't sell after all. Maybe I'll revise it and submit it elsewhere. Yeah. Sure.

We swung sticks this morning. It was fun and made me think of Myr. Whee!

Posted by sdshaver at 10:54 PM