Spring 2010

I was editing an RFI at work today that mentioned the date, "Spring 2010."

My immediate thought was, "My book comes out in Spring 2010."

I've started to associate that ENTIRE PHRASE "Spring 2010" with the release of God's War.

Heaven forbid when I actually get a solid release date.

Kcast 1.0

I'm working on a project to record all of my short fiction in podcast form (and hopefully some GW snippets soon). These will go up on my website once it's live. The header (Kcast and etc.) will likely change, and I'd like to get a better audio recording device, but here's a taste of what I'm up to:

The Women of Our Occupation (.m4a)
The Women of our Occupation (.wmv)

I'll probably record this a couple more times to get the tone right.

Next up is "Wonder Maul Doll," which pretty much nobody's ever read (it originally appeared in a little anthology called From the Trenches), but it's a seriously brutal women story. Hurrah!

Thoughts?

Is This was Women's Suffrage was Like?

It's fascinating to watch the three steps forward two steps back tidal wave of social change. I can't help but think this is what it was like with women getting the right to vote... This slow, building tide. One state here, one state there, until the whole country finally realized:

1) The world's not going to implode when something "changes"
2) You can't stop the tide of a cause that, well, actually makes sense

Hate may have a long lifespan, but it'll eventually topple in the face of human goodness and decency. That's what I want to believe, anyway.

It's why I'm a fantasy writer.

One for the Road

Empowering our Daughters

"Men don’t want to fuck feminists, and if no one wants to fuck you, what power have you got as a woman?"

I Really Hate April Fools' Day

The news is already absurd and fabricated. I don't need people to deliberately absurdify and fabricate it.

White Phosphorus Used in Gaza

These jelly-fish cloud bursts are about what I imagined Nasheenian/Chenjan bursts would look like in God's War.

As noted in the video, it's illegal as per the Geneva conventions.

House Photos are Up!

Check it out!

What Audio Books Should Be

I want one!

Words for the Road

"A man [sic] is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."
- Bob Dylan

One for the Road

I Can Haz an Old Victorian House

Holy crap, I officially have keys to a big old fucking Victorian house. Yes, it's huge. It's 5 bedrooms. With a basement. A garden. Near a park. Bathroom and a half. 5 bedrooms, did I mention? And a turret room. A fucking turret room.

Holy crap. Holy crap.

J. and I got a Chipotle lunch to go and just sat up there and had lunch today in this big, gorgeous, empty house. My official move date is the 20th, but we have keys. And a big new stove. And washer/dryer will be delivered the 23rd.

God, this is a big, amazing house. I never dreamed I would live in a house like this, even if it's just a rental. It's just... I just can't believe it. We were sitting up there and I was just... I just couldn't believe it. It's amazing.

And it's all ours! Just the two of us in this big, huge, but amazingly cozy house. I'm in love with this house.

I love my life. I can walk to work.

I can walk to work!

It's just... I am just utterly stunned at this house. I can't believe I'll be living here. I just kept wandering around. I just can't believe it.

It's this huge writer's house. It's just right for a writer! It's like where a writer would live! It's like... it's a great house.

I realize we're all in danger of losing everything at any minute. All of us, every one. I know that better than... well, much better than I did before. I totally get that. And it's why I love the good things so much fucking more now. I could lose them any minute, but this one, wee moment where I have them?

Oh, it is glorious, like summer in Alaska. The most glorious thing in the world, that bright, brilliant summer glory after 8 months of winter.

I have a house!

Why I Wrote God's War

I'm on page 92 of The Electric Church. I picked this one up because it's about a Gunner, an assassin, who gets hired by the government, puts together a team, and goes after a religious organization. This should sound a tad familiar to those who've been following God's War. The main character is snarky and poor and uneducated but good at what he does. Huzzah! Good times.

So now, as said, I'm on page 92 and our wise-cracking white male hero just put together his team for the job.

And, you'll never guess it!!

His team?

Our wise-cracking white male hero's team?

Wait for it....

It's full of wise-cracking white male heroes!!

No, I'm serious. I'm on page 92 and the only woman in here with a first and last name paired with any kind of power or authority (or, you know, action) is the one he "accidently" killed at the beginning of the book.

I think, at one point, there were some people described as yellow. And some people from Ireland. I think there was a (male) Hispanic sounding character named at one point.

This is the sum total of cultural diversity in NYC 2050!

Oh man.

See, this is why I HAD to write books.

At some point they have to have a token woman character as the love interest, right? RIGHT?? And maybe she'll be Hispanic or something, right? RIGHT???

Oh well.

Another Wicked-Cool Cover

Here's to hoping that the God's War cover will be this awesome:

My Kind of Jane Austen

I never really got the whole Jane Austen thing. They were amusing books, sure, and well written, but I could take or leave them.

I admit that I'd heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies several weeks ago. I thought it was a stupid joke. Then I thought it sounded silly. I mean, come on, what is that, a mashup of Jane Austen and Zombies? What the hell does that mean?

Today I found a sample of what it means, and I have to say it:

This is my kind of Jane Austen.

Writery Updatery

Now that GW line edits are back safely with my editor, I also have an official "first week of June" turn-in date for book 2, so it's time to polish it up.

Working on getting through the stalled line edits on Black Desert now so I can get it out to first readers by March 1st.

It's good to feel like there's progress again. Things had stalled out there for awhile. A good thing, since it meant I could concentrate on my day job and personal life for awhile, both of which are full of win.

I'll be moving into a new place - an amazing restored Victorian - in this neighborhood come March 20th. Big housewarming party is nigh! (check out some of the other rehabbed houses in the neighborhood here).

It's an amazing house, and it makes me feel old, respectable, and writerly.

Better yet? It's shaking up my life a bit for the better. I always do better work when I'm living my life just a little bit on the edge (like trying to figure out how I'll be paying for heat!).

Honestly, These Speeches Just Keep Getting Better

I haven't been proud to be an American in over 10 years. I'm still, not, particularly, but I have hope that someday soon I will be.

Penelope

My God, James McAvoy is hot. The pictures just don't capture it. He's pretty and all, but he goes from nice-looking to hot really quickly on camera. The first few scenes I'm like, "Huh, yeah, generic lead." Then he starts warming up and I fall for him hard. He gets hotter every damn time I see him.

Also, why hasn't Reese Witherspoon played actual leading roles likes this? Please, somebody write me a film where we see more of her range like this. Awesome.

The rest? Eh.

I was holding out for her to keep the nose the whole way through. Reads too much like, "Love yourself and you'll magically transform into society's expectation of beauty," (tho the touch with the mother commenting on her looks after the nose vanish was brilliant) not "love yourself, and you'll be just the same - only happier."

Eh, parts of it seemed like progress? Other parts (wicked mother, evil witch, benevolent dad, aforementioned "beauty transformation" and I'm-really-not-buying-these-two-falling-in-love things) not so much.

What I'm Doing Tonight

Editor's line edits are done. There are a few all-over book edits from the editorial letter that I need to squeeze into the narrative now, and the best way to do that is to read what I've got currently and adjust accordingly. This is my last big chance to get everything into the book that needs to be in the book... and pull out all the extraneous bits.

Good times ahead.

And yes, that's my bug-tracking spreadsheet on top there. As you can see, I plan on filling out most of it during the read through.

The last two massive edits I did on this book prior to acceptance (for an editor at another publisher and for my agent, respectively), I added in a bunch of world building crap that I honestly have no memory of (magicians are allergic to gas lamps???).

I need a crash course in God's War.

Public Responses to Sexist Behavior

I love how absolutely dazed and perplexed he looks in this video, like he has no idea he did something completely rude and inappropriate.

This is what got me about the whole boobgate thing. I realize that we, as women, are taught to make nice. We're taught to just smile and take it. "Ha ha, yes, I'm just a squeeze toy." But the more people who publicly make it clear that this behavior is not OK, the less we'll see of it.

You'll note his response to the incident later, "The real scandal was that she slapped me - not my boob grabbing!" There's a whole subset of people who believe this is totally OK behavior.

I know we're taught to grin and bear it. But that's not the way you change the world.