9/1 - "A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." -- Bertrand de Jouvenel (1903-1987)
9/3 - There's a story behind this photo. I'll probably never know the truth so maybe I'll make up one. http://tinyurl.com/kebld74
9/6 - So far I've spent the writing day in the head of a character with terrible grammar and all sorts of malaprops, and now I find myself thinking / speaking bad grammar and malaprops.
9/9 - RiP Graham Joyce - so sorry to hear this. I thought he was holding his own. A unique voice in fantastic fiction and, quite simply, just a great guy.
9/10 - This will look like a name-dropping exercise, but I do have a point to make. Genre hopping has its downside for writers, but upsides too. Like at last night's 40th Anniversary party for my literary agency, Writers House. All the writers seemed to cluster by genre or by agent and didn't intermingle much because they didn't know many outside their circle. But I was able to wander from Megan Abbott (we discussed gin and gimlets) to Ellen Datlow (who told me about her new reprint anthology) to Wallace Stroby to Neil Gaiman (he's got a beard now) to M.J. Rose to Laurell Hamilton to Daniel Waters, etc. Genre hopping allows me to feel at home with all of them. (It also helps to have been hopping since the Jurassic Age.)
9/11 - If you've been to the Borderlands Press Bootcamp you've no doubt noticed that I often reposition the word "only" in my line edits. Here's a great example of why you have to pay attention to where you place it in a sentence. http://tinyurl.com/khfebwd
9/12 - real newspaper header: "Statistics show that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25." (I have a feeling it's sooner than that.)
9/13 - Ha! Spellcheck surrenders! The 2nd Nocturnia YA novel Tom Monteleone and I are writing has so many intentional misspellings and neologisms that spellcheck just waved a white flag and said it can no longer keep flagging errors.
9/14 - A LIFE by Keef. Love the guitar stuff (I'm def going to change my electric to his 5-string open-G tuning - no wonder I could never get "Jumping Jack Flash" to sound right) and the scenes behind the scenes, but his junkie life is wearing me out. If he doesn't clean up soon I'm bailing.
9/16 - these were supposedly written by high schoolers. Don't know about that, but take a look: http://tinyurl.com/lpmhw9c [I kind of like number one, although it could be improved with specificity (e.g.: replace "farm equipment" with "back hoe")]
9/17 - Nice Publishers Weekly review of FEAR CITY:
"Set in 1993, the riveting final novel chronicling Repairman Jack’s early years (after 2013’s Dark City) finds the score-settling “fixer” living in Manhattan, straddling the boundary between both sides of the law. A brutal murder catalyzes the collision of several subplots developed in Jack’s two previous outings, notably the Ancient Septimus Fraternal Order’s backing of Muslim extremists, whose passion for bringing jihad to America sets them on course to bomb the World Trade Center. Jack loses several people dear to him in the destruction of the Twin Towers, and is witness to interrogations that come close to being torture porn, discovering just how cruelly the darkness inside him can express itself. Wilson skillfully cross-cuts between characters and their viewpoints as the clock ticks down to the exciting climax. If, as the author’s note suggests, this may be the last Repairman Jack adventure, Wilson has certainly sent the series off with a bang."
9/18 - Mark Twain: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
9/19 - the final 2 stops on the FEAR CITY tour are booked. (see WHERE I’LL BE)
9/20 - FYI - an amazing and helpful website for any reader who follows a series (or two or three): http://www.orderofbooks.com/authors/
9/21 - FaceOff - just heard from Steve Berry that it's sold an amazing 15,000 hardcovers and nearly 40,000 ebooks for a total of 55,000 units in its first 15 weeks. Unheard of for an anthology. All royalties go to ITW to keep it a dues-free writers' organization.
9/22 - Coolness and scariness all rolled into one: http://tinyurl.com/o48fq58
9/23 - One of my a.m. pre-work surf stops is Locus Online where I check to see if any writer I know has died. The good news: nobody listed today.
9/23 - "The Compendium of Srem" ebook pubbed today: http://tinyurl.com/l4qchhp
9/24 - THAT'S OKAY, MR. MANN. WE'RE GOOD!
Michael Mann at Loyola Marymount U: A student asked a question that led to mention of The Keep (the full interview is in The Hollywood Reporter)
Student: Is there any one film you wish you could make again?
MM: Uh, probably The Keep. [Laughs.]
Student: Which is a hard film to get to see.
MM: It's a hard film to get to --
Student: Why?
MM: It was a script that wasn't quite ready, and, [a hard] script to schedule, because of how the picture was financed. And a key guy in the making of it, a man named Wally Veevers, who was a brill -- wonderful, wonderful man, who was a very talented visual effects designer from 2001 all the way back to The Shape of Things to Come, tragically passed away, right there in the middle of our post production. And, so it became for me, a film that was never completely, never completely realized."
9/24 - my new wallpaper: http://tinyurl.com/l223ca8
9/25 - looking forward to this: http://thekeepdocumentary.com/
9/28 - This 240-year-old writing automaton is without a doubt the finest piece of clockwork you'll ever see. Ever. http://tinyurl.com/lzmxldp
9/3 - There's a story behind this photo. I'll probably never know the truth so maybe I'll make up one. http://tinyurl.com/kebld74
9/6 - So far I've spent the writing day in the head of a character with terrible grammar and all sorts of malaprops, and now I find myself thinking / speaking bad grammar and malaprops.
9/9 - RiP Graham Joyce - so sorry to hear this. I thought he was holding his own. A unique voice in fantastic fiction and, quite simply, just a great guy.
9/10 - This will look like a name-dropping exercise, but I do have a point to make. Genre hopping has its downside for writers, but upsides too. Like at last night's 40th Anniversary party for my literary agency, Writers House. All the writers seemed to cluster by genre or by agent and didn't intermingle much because they didn't know many outside their circle. But I was able to wander from Megan Abbott (we discussed gin and gimlets) to Ellen Datlow (who told me about her new reprint anthology) to Wallace Stroby to Neil Gaiman (he's got a beard now) to M.J. Rose to Laurell Hamilton to Daniel Waters, etc. Genre hopping allows me to feel at home with all of them. (It also helps to have been hopping since the Jurassic Age.)
9/11 - If you've been to the Borderlands Press Bootcamp you've no doubt noticed that I often reposition the word "only" in my line edits. Here's a great example of why you have to pay attention to where you place it in a sentence. http://tinyurl.com/khfebwd
9/12 - real newspaper header: "Statistics show that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25." (I have a feeling it's sooner than that.)
9/13 - Ha! Spellcheck surrenders! The 2nd Nocturnia YA novel Tom Monteleone and I are writing has so many intentional misspellings and neologisms that spellcheck just waved a white flag and said it can no longer keep flagging errors.
9/14 - A LIFE by Keef. Love the guitar stuff (I'm def going to change my electric to his 5-string open-G tuning - no wonder I could never get "Jumping Jack Flash" to sound right) and the scenes behind the scenes, but his junkie life is wearing me out. If he doesn't clean up soon I'm bailing.
9/16 - these were supposedly written by high schoolers. Don't know about that, but take a look: http://tinyurl.com/lpmhw9c [I kind of like number one, although it could be improved with specificity (e.g.: replace "farm equipment" with "back hoe")]
9/17 - Nice Publishers Weekly review of FEAR CITY:
"Set in 1993, the riveting final novel chronicling Repairman Jack’s early years (after 2013’s Dark City) finds the score-settling “fixer” living in Manhattan, straddling the boundary between both sides of the law. A brutal murder catalyzes the collision of several subplots developed in Jack’s two previous outings, notably the Ancient Septimus Fraternal Order’s backing of Muslim extremists, whose passion for bringing jihad to America sets them on course to bomb the World Trade Center. Jack loses several people dear to him in the destruction of the Twin Towers, and is witness to interrogations that come close to being torture porn, discovering just how cruelly the darkness inside him can express itself. Wilson skillfully cross-cuts between characters and their viewpoints as the clock ticks down to the exciting climax. If, as the author’s note suggests, this may be the last Repairman Jack adventure, Wilson has certainly sent the series off with a bang."
9/18 - Mark Twain: "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
9/19 - the final 2 stops on the FEAR CITY tour are booked. (see WHERE I’LL BE)
9/20 - FYI - an amazing and helpful website for any reader who follows a series (or two or three): http://www.orderofbooks.com/authors/
9/21 - FaceOff - just heard from Steve Berry that it's sold an amazing 15,000 hardcovers and nearly 40,000 ebooks for a total of 55,000 units in its first 15 weeks. Unheard of for an anthology. All royalties go to ITW to keep it a dues-free writers' organization.
9/22 - Coolness and scariness all rolled into one: http://tinyurl.com/o48fq58
9/23 - One of my a.m. pre-work surf stops is Locus Online where I check to see if any writer I know has died. The good news: nobody listed today.
9/23 - "The Compendium of Srem" ebook pubbed today: http://tinyurl.com/l4qchhp
9/24 - THAT'S OKAY, MR. MANN. WE'RE GOOD!
Michael Mann at Loyola Marymount U: A student asked a question that led to mention of The Keep (the full interview is in The Hollywood Reporter)
Student: Is there any one film you wish you could make again?
MM: Uh, probably The Keep. [Laughs.]
Student: Which is a hard film to get to see.
MM: It's a hard film to get to --
Student: Why?
MM: It was a script that wasn't quite ready, and, [a hard] script to schedule, because of how the picture was financed. And a key guy in the making of it, a man named Wally Veevers, who was a brill -- wonderful, wonderful man, who was a very talented visual effects designer from 2001 all the way back to The Shape of Things to Come, tragically passed away, right there in the middle of our post production. And, so it became for me, a film that was never completely, never completely realized."
9/24 - my new wallpaper: http://tinyurl.com/l223ca8
9/25 - looking forward to this: http://thekeepdocumentary.com/
9/28 - This 240-year-old writing automaton is without a doubt the finest piece of clockwork you'll ever see. Ever. http://tinyurl.com/lzmxldp
FPW
FAQ
"It means 'Ask the next question.' Ask the next question, and the one that follows that, and the one that follows that. It's the symbol of everything humanity has ever created." Theodore Sturgeon.