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Book Debut! SASQUAN! Soooooo tired.

8/19/2015

So as of this post I have been awake for 19hrs and have driven well over 600 miles.
"Dying Embers" debuted at Sasquan with no hitches ...well there were a few. Like the main bulk of the books didn't arrive until the booth had been up for a few hours. But I had a few copies on hand to hold their place until then. Ah US parcel post. It gets there.
Lots of pictures coming tomorrow.

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Sasquan! Worldcon 2015!

8/19/2015

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In two days time I will be setting up at a booth at Sasquan! That is the 2015 Worldcon being held in Spokane, WA. I will soon have further information on where the bookseller's book will be and when I will be tending it. I will be there Wednesday through Friday and look forward to meeting a lot of new people as well as selling a few books.
"Dying Embers" will be debuting on the 19th at Worldcon and online everywhere.
It will be a long drive but I've got a hotel room waiting for me so naps will be had!

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Kaiju in the West

8/18/2015

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Today involved a long drive, as is often the case for wildlife biologists, and it very soon developed into a discussion of kaiju, as if often the case for wildlife biologists. The cultural fascination with these cinematic creatures which even hardened scientists can't resist, coupled with the sheer biological impossibility of their existence, let alone their more spectacular abilities makes them fodder for delighted debate and contemplation in many scientific circles. Today's topic drifted more towards the cultural than the hard biology though. Mainly we were wondering at the multi-layered cultural influences that wove back and forth through the most recent kaiju movie to his the big screen. A concept born in Japan, raised to super-stardom across the ocean in North America, and brought to giant, CGI, cinematic life due to the childhood dreams of a small boy in Latin America.
Here's to every monster that crawled out of the Pacific to give us nightmares and inspire such delights as this.

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Cloudy With a Burst of Energy

8/16/2015

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One of the critical elements of building a believable character is to give them at least one, perhaps a few unique characteristics that sets them apart from normal. The best way to do this is to take examples from real life. This works in two ways. The first is that it sets your character apart from the larger portion of the population and makes the character stick in their minds.
"Ah, that is interesting and odd. "
Will run through their brains and leave a lasting impression. The second way is that it helps another portion of the population relate to your character. The basic principle is this. If a quirk or a physical feature shows up in one individual in a population, no matter how odd, it will show up in others
So go ahead and craft a character that gets a sudden burst of energy when the first clouds of autumn roll in.

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Birthdays and Bumblebees

8/15/2015

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Having housemates can mean a great chance to observe someone with a different family, different traditions for writing fodder. (I'm sure it had other benefits too but I am an author and that is how my brain works.)

Dialogue line for a story about a little girl...
*gasps* "Did you just recycle history?"

I will have to invent some context for it but that line is golden!

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Stress

8/14/2015

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Stress comes in many forms. Today I got to use my first aid training. That was stressful. Tomorrow I may get to use my fire safety training. That might be stressful.
I also learned a new cloud name. Pyroclumulus. Caused by big fires.

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Pixie Cups and Legends

8/14/2015

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Some legends are just head scratchers. A modern person looks at a constellation or a rock feature on a mountain and wonders why on Earth their ancestors thought that it resembled a head or a hunter or a beast. However the sources of some legends are not only obvious but quite delightful. These wondrous little fruiting bodies on a bed of moss show quite well where the stories of pixies and their cups came from. One can easily see a svelte little form flitting up and supping out of such a ephemeral goblet.

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The Perfect Description

8/12/2015

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To be an author is to describe. No matter what an author's medium or genre the goal is to take an idea; be it a feeling, an image, a sound, a smell, or a sensation and communicate it so that the reader senses the same thing. The best descriptions are by no mean the longest, or the most eloquent. They are simply the ones that translate best from one mind to another. One of my favorite authors, Patrick McManus once described a walk through the woods as "splashing through ankle deep puddles of sunlight".
Sometimes it is incredibly difficult to capture and contain a description. One day as a child there was a peculiar and beautiful cloud formation over my parents' farm. I stayed and watched it in rapture until it was gone and then immediately rushed in to try and describe it in my journal. I wrote for pages but never quite managed to capture that feeling. The local paper simply published a full color photo but even that was a pale imitation.
On the other hand some experiences are easy to describe and relate perfectly. For instance I had to use a different rig at work today due to circumstances and experienced an entirely new sensation in the cab. I also relayed that sensation to my co-workers with a single sentence such that they immediately understood it in its fullness.

"Why does the Chevy smell like a pack of JuicyFruit puked up in the cab?"

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Weedy Writing: It's Been Done

8/11/2015

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For an author it is a good thing to know a little about various herbs and their uses both for healing and harming. Weather an author is writing a historical novel or a science fiction drama set on a far away world knowing how people have historically interacted with the plants around them can add wonderful details to any story. In a pinch a common weed can be turned into the saving grace for a world, or its bane.
It has been done many times and like falling in love and bitter betrayal it is a useful trope. My coworkers and I were delighted to discover that we had all read a book in common as children. The main plot of the book centered around a medicinal herb that was introduced to an ecosystem and then wrecked havoc, only to be controlled by fire.

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TVs are Getting Way Too Smart

8/7/2015

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So my landlord has been extremely generous and installed a widescreen smart TV in the apartment. . .the kind that listens to your conversations and tailors its advertisements to your special interests. So I took control of the set up and made good and sure that baby couldn't talk to my computer behind my back. I just don't want my little baby Asus being corrupted by the cable networks.

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