Either/Or
Yeah, I know. Bad time for the ‘crawl to go into therapeutic coma, what with all the nifty neuroethical and neurocognitive and neurodeep-sea-mineral-exploitation stuff piling up on the feeds. I’ve jammed out on this month’s Gibraltar Point workshop as well, if it’s any consolation. On the plus side, though: 80,000 words down on State of Grace (a relatively crappy first draft— the second fifth is still more a disconnected pile of vignettes than a coherent narrative — but then, they always are at this stage).
So both the quality and the frequency of posts on this venue will continue to be abysmal for the next month or so at least. But you get an actual novel in exchange. (Even if the editor for said novel no longer works for the publisher of said novel and will be fitting said novel in around the edges of a lucrative west-coast job in the computer game industry. And more power to him.)
If you’re really starved for my opinions in the meantime, you can find them other places. Charles Tan is interviewing this year’s nominees for the Shirley Jackson Awards; mine went up a few days back, and you can find it here. ( I’ve also done interviews with a couple of other outlets, but they aren’t live yet so I’ll leave them be for now.) And we’re closing in on the August debut of my new monthly column in “Nowa Fantastyka“, for those of you conversant with Polish; sadly, “Polishing the Turd” does not translate as elegantly as I had hoped, so it’s going to be called “Ślepopisanie” instead. (Which, according to Google Translate, means “Ślepopisanie” in English).
I’m going back to work now. 82K by nightfall.
PS. I may also squeeze a few more fiblets out in the meantime. Once they’ve been sanded down.
We missed ya over here.
Because we are spoiled, we expect to lay back and be entertained, you know, but that is not the only reason we missed Teh Crawl. In re Gibralter Point: hope they didn’t stick you in the bathroom this time, as entertaining as I’m sure that was.
I almost forgot – OMGWTFBBQ!!11!!!!!111. I have never gone into a chain bookstore, gone to the sci fi section, and seen one of your novels. I have to make them order them. Last weekend, I went into a B&N in Harrisonburg, VA, and there was Crysis, big as life, on the shelf!
No worries, Peter. Thanks for stopping by to give us the exciting update. I still remember reading years ago (and respecting) Neal Stephenson’s explanation for why he couldn’t do both fan service and serious writing at the same time (http://web.mac.com/nealstephenson/Neal_Stephensons_Site/Bad_Correspondent.html). We’re all very grateful for the effort you put into sharing both your mind-warping novels and your periodic commentary on all the truths stranger than fiction. Stay in the Selectric Bunker as long as you need. We’ll be waiting when you emerge.
Cool. It will be fun to read your column in “NF”. It is also a good enough reson to start buying the magazine again, since it’s gotten quite crappy in the last few years.
By the way.. “Polishing the Turd” ..
.. *sigh*
Polishing a coprolite would work, since coprolites are fossilized turds.
When you say “monthly” do you mean that you are writing a column that comes out every month, or that there is a monthly column that exists and you are doing one of the monthly issues?
Also, 82K by sunset? dude, you are wordcore.
Ps. Blindsight gets some pretty cool covers. I picked up a book called Generative Art which uses processing for the language that goes with the concepts, and I’ve a mind to try and make images from Blindsight… but I am not sure I can accomplish that! It’s hard to get those ideas down in algorithms.
Ślepopisanie – blind writing, obviously referring to Blind-sight – Ślepo-widzenie.
heh, i was wondering why there had been no entry drawing parallels between deep sea mining near thermal vents (the apparent source of the rare earths) and Starfish.
As for the other two topics, thanks for the links. Now on to reading.
Hell yes, my friend. Not that we don’t love ya, but get yourself back in the shuttered basement and get to writing! State of Grace or Bust! I am psyched.
I figured you were in the zone. Glad to hear from you, though. The odd, sanded, fiblet would help to alleviate those gnawing, hunger pangs. Until next time.
Novel! Novel! Novel! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Oh great, right when I thought I’m done with “Nowa Fantastyka” for good(honestly, I don’t really like this magazine) I’m going to start buying it again – because of your column.
Well, due to imminent deadlines and other (more personal) short-term disasters, the first couple of installments will basically amount to updated reprints of postings I’ve already made here — so if you’ve been following the ‘crawl for a few years, you can probably skip the August issue at least.
So glad to hear that you’re back to serious writing. The last year of this blog (and your life) has been epic; but I’d rather these events had happened to fictional characters. Cheers and keep well.
You won! Congratulations!
(And the interview was pretty cool, too. I had resisted the Carpenter movie for ages out of misplaced snobbery, but you’ve convinced me to take a look.)
Why is it that fate shits upon you so splendidly?
First clown-shoed thugs, later that flesh-eating bug, now a colonscopy and other disasters?
Where will it end? The biases in me keep telling me you must’ve done something awful .. but that’s just that.. biases.