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Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Not So Easy

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 30, 2021| Leave a Comment »

If you, like me, have spent the past week wondering how a ship like the Ever Given could get stuck so well for so long, here’s a fun interactive for you:

Steer through the Suez Canal

Navigating the Suez Canal is a high-stress, complicated feat that requires master piloting skills. To demonstrate, we worked with Master Mariner Andy Winbow and Captain Yash Gupta to produce this simulated passage.

Try your hand at traversing one of the most highly trafficked nautical thoroughfares in the world.

Aaaaaand, yeah, that’s a collision. Even in a simplified simulation like this one, it’s like trying to drive a freight train on ice. 

And that’s today’s experiment with “walking in someone else’s shoes.” Or wheelhouse, as the case may be. I find this sort of thought experiment useful, both as a writer and as a human being.*

Here’s to all those who do hard things!

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Photo by Ludvig Hedenborg on Pexels.com

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* Which I 100% am, no matter what my QR code says.

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A Little Problem

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 28, 2021| 1 Comment »

This will shock no one who knows me, but I miiiiiight have a bit of a problem with perfectionism.

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The important thing is to be in love with something.

— Ray Bradbury
Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

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Things I Know for Sure

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »

For today, I give you this highly-personalized, certainly particular list of #ThingsIKnowForSure:

  • Creativity is what’s important, not how or why or when you do it.
  • I eat less when I can taste more.
  • My garden deserves better.
  • Summer is a montage of awkwardly-placed mosquito bites. Still worth it.
  • The world needs a better brand of catnip.
  • Sometimes figuring things out is a matter of a good book and a long afternoon. If that doesn’t work, try a walk. Or a stiff drink.
  • That thing you don’t want to do is probably exactly what you should do (sorry!)
  • Sometimes a day just needs a thunderstorm.
  • Tonic and lemonade are good together. Also gin.
  • Some days there are just too many choices.
  • Touch ID hates me.
  • Sometimes you actually do need that ancient laptop you stashed in the closet.
  • A good book makes any day better.
  • I’m pretty much done letting other people define what’s “good” 🙂
  • Star Wars is the best movie ever (#1, now renamed #4 like a child whose parents changed their mind when she was ten years old. Who does that?)
  • Lord of the Rings is the best book ever. Even though I don’t read it every year (anymore), the effect it had on my life means that it will remain The Best Book Ever for always and ever and ever.
  • Kittens are hard to catch.

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Can’t go wrong with a kitten, right?
Photo by Henda Watani on Pexels.com

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Here on Earth

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2021| Leave a Comment »

This is a lovely piece about a ship, a bird, and making the most of even trying circumstances. It’s a message I think we could all use right about now:)

What a Songbird Lost at Sea Taught Me About Survival | Audubon

She has reminded me that all of us can find ourselves lost. Winds don’t only carry songbirds to sea.

And here, floating atop this undulating unknown, Homeslice reminds me I am still on Earth. There is air and water, light and dark, and there is life in all forms, including restless humans, migrating birds, and the symbiotic methane-fueled fan worms discovered on our trip. Including even the sort-of-living viruses that plague us. We travel the wind, walk on land, float in currents, or remain anchored in sediment. We’re all surviving on this spinning island in the cosmos. And there’s more than one way to survive, even at the bottom of a sea of Mondays.

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Female Scarlet Tanager, Ottawa, ON
Matt Osborne, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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More Notes on Writing

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2021| Leave a Comment »

A few days ago I talked about finding ideas, and even better, how to find good ideas. But what comes after that? After a writer sifts through the mountain of “not bad” and “ok” and even “pretty good” ideas and finds the one that is worth investing in, what comes next?

Because that’s what you’re doing, investing your time, energy, creativity, and care into this little story seed. How can you give it the best chance to grow up healthy and strong?

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Elizabeth Bear has a useful piece out about taking ideas to the next level:

A post office box in Schenectady.

“I used to despair of coming up with A Great Idea. Eventually I discovered that the way to make my not-so-great ideas better is to keep asking more complicated questions about them.”

For writing in general (and as previously discussed), a good first step is to check out Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain

Once you’ve done that, what’s next? I moved on to Stein on Writing.


And what do you know, I roughed out notes for that book too. If you’re interested, check out the PDF below!

my notes on stein

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And when it comes right down to it, this is some of the best advice on creativity I’ve seen:

can’t find the original post/s but here is a screenshot that was living under a digital rock in my computer files, next to many other fascinating and under-utilized resources

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And to be clear, yes, I like sparkle:)

Photo by 3Motional Studio on Pexels.com

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Rainy with a Chance of Taxes

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , on March 24, 2021| Leave a Comment »

What kind of day is it today? Cool, a bit busy, with rain and a chance of taxes. The kind of day where it’s nice to find warmth: a hot beverage, a fleece vest, or kittens, even if they are virtual:

Kitten Rescue Cat Cam

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Kittens not your thing? (Honestly?) Explore.org has dozens of other live cams for you, like NestFlix or ZenCams. 

Or puppies. Because who doesn’t like puppies? (Cue obligatorily adorable puppy shot!)

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Photo by sergio souza on Pexels.com

You’re welcome:)

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The Eagles are Coming, The Eagles are Coming!

Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 22, 2021| 3 Comments »

(Being me, I couldn’t resist a Hobbit reference, but this post is about migratory birds in general. No Goblins allowed!)

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We’ve still got two feet of snow on the lawn but the signs of Spring are everywhere. Melting ice, the smell of skunk in the night, and Canadian teenagers in shorts and T-shirts (it is above freezing, after all). And soon, the birds will be back. Last evening I heard a flock of Canada geese heading for the river, and they aren’t the only avian adventurers heading our way.

If you are interested in the when and where of bird migrations, you’re in luck. From now through the end of May you can track migration forecasts, get location-based alerts, and learn more about what’s happening in Birdlandia. 

BirdCast – Bird migration forecasts in real-time

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And as for those eagles, and other birds of prey? Check out this story about a suffragist and bird lover who established Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. It’s an incredible place, and is why I am lucky enough to know what it’s like to watch from the edge of a stone outcropping while hawks ride the thermals mere feet away.

Breathtaking.

How Mrs. Edge Saved the Birds | Smithsonian Magazine

The abundance of raptors at North Lookout owes a great deal to topography and wind currents, both of which funnel birds toward the ridgeline. But it owes even more to an extraordinary activist named Rosalie Edge, a wealthy Manhattan suffragist who founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934. Hawk Mountain, believed to be the world’s first refuge for birds of prey, is a testament to Edge’s passion for birds—and to her enthusiasm for challenging the conservation establishment. Bold and impossible to ignore, she was described by a close colleague as “the only honest, unselfish, indomitable hellcat in the history of conservation.”

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A story from that trip, with recipe:

Mrs. Shaw’s Chakchouka

(adapted from The New York Times Large Type Cookbook)

Notes from my father: Here’s the best story I have about this recipe; this happened at Hawk Mountain. We were there to see the raptor migrations in October. We were camping at a nearby state park and it was freezing, in fact it snowed. We were cooking chakchouka for 4 in a big pan over a Coleman stove. Right near the end of the cooking we picked up the pan to serve everyone and it tipped and spilled a large part of dinner into the dirt. You two were off running around in the woods somewhere, so we both looked at each other and then at dinner in the dirt, looked back at each other, then brushed the dirt off and put it all back in the pan. It was actually still pretty good. You know in statistics “robustness” means that you can violate the rules a lot and the results still hold, so you could say that this is a very robust recipe.

  • 3 links Italian sweet sausage, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 Tbs. olive oil
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 green pepper, diced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 2 potatoes, diced
  • 1 cup water
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  1. Sauté sausage pieces in a large skillet until browned.
  2. Add olive oil, onions and garlic and cook 3 minutes.
  3. Add green pepper, tomato and potatoes and cook 2 minutes longer.
  4. Add water and allow mixture to simmer, uncovered until potato is tender. Season with salt and pepper.
  5. Stir in eggs and continue to cook, stirring, until eggs are done, about 2 minutes. Garnish as desired.

Serves 4.

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Photo by Tim Mossholder on Pexels.com

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Consider the Muggles

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , on March 21, 2021| 1 Comment »

I came across this sentence a while back: 

“Please bear in mind that Somaliland has no Postal Service” 

Think about that.

Forget complaints about the cost of stamps rising by however many cents, or the extra day it took for your first class letter to reach Hawai’i. There are places on Earth with no postal service at all.

Want to mail a letter? Too bad. Want to send in your rent or mail tax forms or vote? Sorry. And if you want to do something crazy like send in a patent application or submit to Fantasy & Science Fiction, you are out of luck.

“Talent is equally distributed, opportunity is not.”

— Harvard, Stanford, and MIT Researchers Study 1 Million Inventors To Find Secret To Success, And It’s Not Talent
Photo by Elizabeth Kay on Unsplash

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I’ve mentioned my love of the mail system and other vital public infrastructure before. 

Adventure, Past and Future | J.R. Johnson

Even beyond the immediate usefulness, I find the concept of a system that ties us all together inspiring. Sure, the internet is obviously taking up a lot of that space (in ways both good and bad) but I also believe that there is also real value in its physical equivalent. 

I mean, Owl Post is great and all, but consider the Muggles.

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Photo by Serafima Lazarenko on Unsplash

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The Drabble, with Examples

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2021| 10 Comments »

There are a lot of ways to write, and a lot of types of writing. Fiction alone comes in novels, of course, but also novellas, novelettes, short stories, screenplays, etc. I happen to have a soft spot for the drabble.

A drabble is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long, excluding title. Explore the history of it at that link if you like, but for me the important part is the constraint.

One hundred words, no more, no less. 

It’s an easy number of words to produce, of course, but there’s something I find so satisfying about trying to build a story within the confines of such a concrete target. The limits inspire creativity, make finishing feel not only possible but inevitable, and provide a sandbox to play in, if you will.

It’s also a terrific way to dip your toes in the rapids of fiction. My first two publications were drabbles (thanks, Luna Station Quarterly!):

“Ray of Light.”
“The Witch.”

Go ahead, try it for yourself. And have fun!

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This is my latest drabble, “Adoption Papers.”

I was sixteen when I found the receipt. My receipt.

“What the hell, Dad?”

The paper was old and faded, one tattered corner poking from a manila folder marked “Family Records.” There were maybe ten lines on the page, with a stamp at the top that read “Beta: Final Sale.”

Dad shrugged, like it was no big deal.

“Are you pissed that you’re a bot, or that you didn’t cost more?”

I hadn’t even noticed the total. 

“Twelve and a half bucks? Seriously?”

He smiled. “We always said you were special.”

“Not on special!” 

I blinked. 

“Wait, I’m a what?”

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Photo by Alex Knight on Pexels.com

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2020 Nebula Award Finalists

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Here we are, folks, with the final list of Nebula finalists! Uncanny Magazine did great, my good buddy Murderbot is here (yay!), and I love seeing the good people at Diabolical Plots recognized as well. 

Links to full text, excerpts, or reviews for shorts, novelettes and novellas included where (easily) accessible. Because I’ve got things to do, people, not least of which is to read these stories!

2020 Nebula Award Finalists

Novel

  • Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
  • The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
  • Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey)
  • The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk (Erewhon)
  • Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)
  • Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom Publishing)

Novella

Novelette

Short Story

The Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction

  • Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet)
  • Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
  • A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
  • A Game of Fox & Squirrels, Jenn Reese (Holt)
  • Star Daughter, Shveta Thakrar (HarperTeen)

Game Writing

  • Blaseball, Stephen Bell, Joel Clark, Sam Rosenthal (The Game Band)
  • Hades, Greg Kasavin (Supergiant)
  • Kentucky Route Zero, Jake Elliott (Cardboard Computer)
  • The Luminous Underground, Phoebe Barton (Choice of Games)
  • Scents & Semiosis, Sam Kabo Ashwell, Cat Manning, Caleb Wilson, Yoon Ha Lee (Self)
  • Spiritfarer, Nicolas Guérin, Maxime Monast, Alex Tommi-Morin (Thunder Lotus Games)

The Ray Bradbury Nebula Award for Outstanding Drama Presentation

  • Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Christina Hodson (Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Entertainment)
  • The Expanse: “Gaugamela,” Dan Nowak (Amazon)
  • The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready,” Michael Schur (NBC)
  • Lovecraft Country Season 1, Misha Green, Shannon Houston, Kevin Lau, Wes Taylor, Ihuoma Ofordire, Jonathan I. Kidd, Sonya Winton-Odamtten (HBO Max)
  • The Mandalorian: “The Tragedy,” Jon Favreau (Disney+)
  • The Old Guard, Greg Rucka (Netflix)

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Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

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