Sharing Knife Began On Spec
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Lois McMaster Bujold’s new novel, The Sharing Knife: Beguilement, which combines fantasy and romance.
Jennifer Morgue Is 007 Homage
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Charles Stross’s latest novel, The Jennifer Morgue, which riffs on good old 007.
Plus, as a special treat, the photo that appears with the interview was taken by me too.
Furniture
I’ve never had to buy actual living room furniture before, so I’m not sure how much this stuff should cost. I was browsing this furniture store today, which is going out of business and so has clearance sales, and I found a couple love seats I liked (which is really the only thing I’m looking for). What I really want is a love seat that also has the leg rests that pop up like in a recliner. At this store, they had several of those to choose from, ranging from around $800 for leather models and $600 for fabric models. Is it just me, or does that price seem kind of high for something that’s on clearance? I could be totally off-base, and this might be a good price though; as I said, I have no experience in this realm. Any advice?
I’ve seen inexpensive love seats elsewhere, but none that had the foot rests I want. I’m figuring this love seat will be my primary television-watching seat, so being a comfortable item is muy importante.
Remix
This is an interesting idea: Jeff VanderMeer just released a special edition of his collection Secret Life, which is being called the “Select Fire Remix.” I can’t say I’ve seen a collection remix before, but the idea intrigues me. It says here on the letter enclosed with the book:
This remix contains new material (including graphics), edited original material, and a far greater sense of play. It also excludes five stories that [VanderMeer doesn’t] think hold up under scrutiny (although they are still present in a way).
In addition, the story notes have been greatly expanded, the title story now snakes its way through the whole narrative, and [they’ve] added a meta story on what traditionally would be blank pages.
The letter also promises other changes that the editors will leave it up to the reader to discover.
While on the subject of remixes, I’ll go ahead and blather on about metal for a bit. Trivium recently released a new album, whose title track, The Crusade, is a virtuoso instrumental piece with brilliant, complex guitar work. But. My only gripe with the song is that instead of concluding, it merely fades out, which felt to me like a complete let down. The reason I bring it up in relation to remixes is that this is a song that could really be remixed — if only to change the ending. And the thing is, I think the right ending is right there in the song; there’s one part of the song that, if brought back around at the end, seems to me like it would have been a perfect return to what I think is the best part of the song, and would be a way to conclusively end the damn thing, rather than trailing off. I’m tempted to play around with it in Audacity, to make my own remix, but I fear that it’s probably pretty complicated and would only frustrate me.
Six Weird Things About Me
Mary Robinette Kowal tagged me to do this meme, though IIRC, she violated one of the rules by not leaving a comment on my blog to inform me of this tagging. Thus my delay in participating. But then again I’ve been insanely busy lately, so I wouldn’t have had time anyway, and I’ve been so inundated with blog comment spam, perhaps she did comment and I just missed it.
Here are the rules of the meme:
Each player of this game starts with the “6 weird things about you”. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says “you are tagged” in their comments and tell them to read your blog.
There are probably at least six weird things about me that are apparently obvious to everyone who knows me or reads this blog, so I’ll attempt to list six weird things that might not be immediately apparent.
- I have titanium rods attached to my spine.
- I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. (This doesn’t seem weird to me, but enough people have expressed surprise at this trifecta that I have come to think of it as an unusual quirk of mine.)
- I’m a dietary creature of habit: I eat the same thing for dinner almost every day (and will usually eat that same thing for lunch if I’m not working); at work, I eat at the same Chinese place every day for lunch, and I order the same thing every time (I don’t even have to say anything when I enter the place; they just start making my order).
- I lost 190 lbs.
- I have to make notes to do things all the time or else I’ll completely forget; sometimes I still forget, even with the notes.
- I almost never take my contacts out, even though the instructions say to take them out once a week (and to dispose of them after a month). Instead, I just wear them until they start bothering me, then I take them out and throw them away.
I’m not going to bother tagging anyone since I’m coming to this meme late, and a lot of people have probably done it already. Well, no, I’ll tag The Slushmaster; I don’t think he’s done it yet. Speaking of which, I find it incredibly amusing that when you google “Slushmaster” (to grab the URL), google asks “Did you mean: flushmaster“. But I guess that works too: he takes the hopes and dreams of the writers submitting stories and flushes them right down the toilet…
Free Cliches!
SCI FI Wire Roundup
Here are a few SCI FI Wire pieces I’ve had published recently, but didn’t have time to link to when they were initially posted.
Laurell K. Hamilton: Hamilton Bares All In Candy
Scott Lynch: Locke Lamora Mixes Fantasy And Cons
Fiona McIntosh: Odalisque Talks Turkey
Marjorie M. Liu: Eye Is ‘Electrokinetic’
Orson Scott Card: Card Details Empire‘s Scope
Robin Hobb: Son Messes With Birthright
Orphan Has Arabian Feel
SCI FI Wire just published a piece I wrote about Catherynne M. Valente’s new novel, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden.
What Was Lost Has Been Found
God bless the men and women who work at the Hampton Inn Austin-NW/Arboretum. The maid who cleaned my room did find my iPod and set it aside in the lost and found. I imagine my room was somewhat confusing, as I actually left quite a bit of other stuff in there–a few books and pamphlets from World Fantasy that I didn’t want to pack and take with me (and also the broken strap of my watch band), but of course the iPod was not just a really good tip. The fact that I’ll be getting the iPod back restores my faith in humanity.
I’m not really sure why the hotel didn’t call me immediately once the maid cleaned the room, to inform me that I’d left some stuff in there, but I can’t complain about the end result!
Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software
I don’t know why I never thought to google the phrase “transcription software,” but it occurred to me today, and up came the website for Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software. It looks like it used to be shareware, but is now freeware. I downloaded it and played with it a bit, and it seems to be pretty great. It has an audio player built into the same program as a text editor, so you can play your audio file, transcribe in the same program, and use the function buttons to execute transcription commands, such as the most essential one of all: rewind. And you can even set how far back it jumps each time you hit rewind — 5, 10, 15 seconds, whatever works best for you. It also has a rather useful feature that slows down the audio speed, so that when transcribing interviews, it’s easier to type what the subject is saying. I’ve used something like this before, but this is much superior to anything I’ve tried, as it manages to slow the speech down, yet has very little distortion.
If you have need of such a thing, I highly recommend checking it out. Not only does it seem to work pretty great, but the price is also right: free.