because the internet needs more Cowbel, baby…
I don’t know what you’re doing this weekend, but Karin’s going to be at SiWC. This will be her second time there, and she’s really looking forward to it. You can expect to see a lot more action from her on Twitter this weekend if you’re interested in knowing what’s going on.
If your favourite author is there, she might be able to get a signed copy of one of their books for you: list of speakers.
I was reading this article today about the fees that some airlines are charging for checked bags, or in some cases carry-ons.
It’s not like I’m a frequent flyer or anything, but as these fees continue to rise it does open up some other possibilities. It’s not uncommon in some science fiction stories to feature disposable clothing, or paper clothing.
As far as I know no one is currently serving this market, or otherwise renting clothing or anything like that. Now the baggage fees aren’t probably quite to the point that people would seriously consider it, but still it looks as though we might get there sooner rather than later.
Might serve as writing prompt for someone who’s writing something in a near future era…
Everyone probably knows all about this already, that in October Karin took over the ownership of Abandoned Towers, since then we’ve been doing all sorts of work on it (most of it behind the scenes). Well we’re pretty close to being ready, so we’re now looking for some people to beta test the new site for us and provide some feedback. If you’re interested in doing some testing or even just taking a sneak peak let us know.
I’ve finally managed to get around to reading Mirror Shards, that would be the Anthology in which Karin is published. Because of that I wanted to do a careful reading of all the works in the anthology, and write reviews of them. Because of the desire to write reviews it’s been on my “to read” list much longer than I’d like. Partly because other books were out of the library which puts you on an actual deadline, and partly because I mostly read before bed. When I read before bed it’s pleasure reading, which isn’t appropriate for something that I want to review. Not having anything out from the library at the moment (or at least not that I haven’t already finished reading), it made it possible for me to get started.
So the first story in Mirror Shards: Extending the Edges of Augmented Reality, Edited by Thomas K. Carpenter is El Mirador by Alex J. Kane.
I was very much caught off guard by the story. I really didn’t have any idea what to expect based on the title, but I definitely had not expected a second person story, but that’s what I got. Interesting choice that. The ideas are good, the pacing is good, the story overall is good, although it left me wanting more. More depth, more detail, more Tzitzi. I guess realistically being left wanting more is definitely a better thing than wanting less. I also expect that it’s something that’s totally common among people who are primarily book readers, and even more so in my case as I primarily read series. So going from stories which typically are told in hundreds of thousands to millions of words, and instead down to something that’s more appropriately counted in hundreds of words. Odds are that it’s going to leave you wanting more. Even stories that very clearly have a completed arc are likely to leave you with questions like: but what happens next?
Bottom line, I enjoyed the story and would consider reading more work by Alex J. Kane, but at this point I’m not going to go to any particular effort to seek it out.
This has become a bit of a catch phrase of a friend of mine, feel free to change the genders or what have you, but I think you’ll find that it is pretty versatile, perhaps not on the same level as the following suffixes:
“…said the actress to the bishop”
“…in bed”*
There are more of these, and feel free to suggest your favourites. I wonder how it would work as a writing prompt to have to write a section of dialogue where one of your characters is (or is feeling) immature and elects to use (or overuse) one such suffix. Could make for some funny reading… or not.
* this being primarily used for fortune cookies…
In a strangely similar vein to Santa Claus the NaNoWriMo Charter has just left Vancouver with Karin aboard, it’s a convenient supersonic writing jet which propels you through time zones until you reach your 50,000 words or hit the international date line…
Hopefully Karin will cross the finish line in enough time for the jet to get her back before morning… Fingers crossed!
This is actually probably a good thing, but the amount of room remaining on our PVR seems to be inversely proportional to how many projects Karin has on the go… with NaNoWriMo and GISHWHES very little TV is being watched. Which might mean that we’ll still have something new to watch when we start running into the holiday reruns…
Thanks to Twitter @randomsynapses (that would be Karin for those of you who don’t refer to people by their handles) we found out that Brandon Sanderson was doing a signing today at Chapter’s Metrotown. We decided to head on up. There was a brief Q&A, and then a lot of signing, we were in line for about 2 hours, but we got our books signed and met the man.
There’s more to be told to this story, but I’d like to give Karin the opportunity to tell most of the rest of it.
For those of you who may not have heard of Brandon Sanderson he’s one of the hosts of Writing Excuses, the author of the Mistborn Trilogy (and the new novel for which the signing was being held is a Mistborn novel, but not part of the trilogy), the Alcatraz novels (which starts with Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians), oh and he was selected to finish of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (he didn’t apply, he was chosen).
He first came to my attention because of the Wheel of Time thing*, subsequently I came across Writing Excuses and we started to listen to that. Unfortunately, at times they assume that you’re fans and that you’ve read their books. I hadn’t. So I had to pause listening to Writing Excuses and go and read both Brandon’s and Dan Wells’ books so as to avoid potential spoilers in the podcasts.
I’ve now read most of Brandon’s stuff, although none of the Wheel of Time books, as I am waiting until the final book is out and I can just finish the series before I start in on it again. But what I have read, I quite enjoyed, and I’m looking forward to his future novels and the one’s that he’s written which I haven’t yet read (Elantris and Allow of Law).
* note: years separated these two events.
It feels strangely as though NaNoWriMo came early this year. Karin and I went out to the library shortly after she got home, grabbed some food, and she then proceeded to spend the next 4 hours writing on the couch with her laptop. It’s not even November yet!
Nine more days until I’m at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference! SO EXCITED!!
Thanks to my birthday gifts, I’ve paid for the conference. I feel so incredibly supported in my writing endeavor…so much love to everyone. By luck of dates, my birthday lands right near Thanksgiving…some years right on Thanksgiving, like this year. I am definitely super thankful for all of the support that I received, financial, emotional and physical (I don’t think I’ve cooked anything more complicated than cold cereal for the last month, at least…)
KE Abel Official