| Squee! |
[May. 5th, 2008|12:03 pm] |
I mentioned, if only by reference, by Paul Krugman.
My day is good.
EDIT: The whole brief, relatively gentle slapfight can be seen here, here, and here. |
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| Free Stuff! And Hugo Nominations Too! |
[Apr. 28th, 2008|04:01 pm] |
For them what's interested, my story The Cambist and Lord Iron is (at long last) online.
It's late getting out, and it's up against Ted Chiang, David Moles, and Greg Egan (twice), so if y'all could do me a favor and repost that link, I'd be obliged.
The other stories are also available through the Denvention page for such things. |
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| The Dark Secret of Leonard Cohen |
[Apr. 19th, 2008|07:05 am] |
I had a dream last night that someone discovered a lost notebook of Leonard Cohen's, and had discovered the lyrics "So I have to say I love you in a song" and also a chant-like song called "The World's a Small Place After All" with a note besides it "needs work".
Sometimes I love my subconscious. |
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| Thougth for the day |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|11:46 am] |
Gilligan's Island as Seven Deadly Sins
Gilligan == Sloth
Skipper == Wrath
Mr. Howell == Greed
Mrs. Howell == Gluttony
The Professor == Pride
Ginger == Lust
Maryann == Envy
Take that, Lost . . .
(and thanks to Walter Jon Williams for pointing this out) |
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| Momentary reflection |
[Apr. 12th, 2008|08:09 am] |
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It is sobering when, half-asleep, you realize you are in the guest bed of a man who could shoot you to death in the night with more or less total impunity. |
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| You can take the sky from me, really . . . |
[Apr. 10th, 2008|12:21 pm] |
I'm in the airport, heading out to New Orleans for a couple days' research on the next book and teaching a couple workshops on science fiction. I have the cover copy for Unclean Spirits by MLN Hanover to look over, a draft of Jay Lake's Green to read on the flight, and my old buddy Diana Rowland meeting me at the airport in NO.
It strikes me once again that for a man who hate travel, I travel a lot. . . |
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| Transition |
[Mar. 30th, 2008|01:27 pm] |
So when the Darling Wife decided (quite correctly) that it was time for her to get a computer of her own for her new office, it dovetailed with my own desire to get a new laptop. And what with Windows Vista being a swamp of creeping evil . . .
Well, I'm writing this now on my new Mac laptop. Or "MacBook" or "iBook" or whatever cutesy "I'm so creative" moniker I'm supposed to use for it. Now I've spent some time living in and around OSX before. I like it. It's a gui on a unix system. That was *always* the right thing to do, and I was pleased when Mac did it. I've got firefox and thunderbird going because I've never bonded with safari and mail. I downloaded the trial version of Scrivener and the most recent stable build of Open Office. Thus far, I'm feeling pretty good about the shift.
The big thing I'm noticing about Mac v. PC is the number of small, thoughtful touches in Mac. The power cord for the laptop? Yeah, it's magnetized, so it sucks right onto the computer. The corporate masters at the Mac store sent me an email with two printable bar codes I can take to FedEx to ship my old computer out to be recycled for free.
I'm pretty much email, light web browsing, word processing, and that's it. I cold almost do all this with a stone tablet. But so far . . . well, so far despite being so carefully designed it borders upon twee, I'm actually kind of liking this. |
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| HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY |
[Mar. 25th, 2008|03:13 pm] |
Okay, yeah, nominated for the Hugo is way cool, but *this* . . .
The Kid turns two next month, and has just been accepted into the school I was hoping against hope she'd get to go to. It's Montessori, it's connected to a local arts center, it's about a half a block from her grandparents' house (also where I have my little writing studio), and while it's ohmigod expensive overall, it's per-hour cheaper than what we've been doing.
My days starting fairly soon here will be:
Weekdays:
1) Get up, get some tea and breakfast. Make three lunches.
2) Take wife to work
3) Take kid to school
4) Have seven hours of writing time with a little lunch on the side
5) Pick up kid
6) Run errands / play with kid / watch kid sleep / whatever
7) Get wife from work
8) Make dinner
Weekends:
1) Hang with wife and kid
2) Do stuff around house
3) Don't write, because I've already got FIVE SOLID WEEKDAYS to do the thing.
I am on air. |
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| Rev. Wright sermon reviews |
[Mar. 22nd, 2008|08:50 am] |
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Seems like this and this could stand a little more exposure. I do not love the soundbite culture. |
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| Now it can be told . . . |
[Mar. 21st, 2008|08:32 am] |
http://www.denvention.org/hugos/08hugonomlist.php
Specifically:
Best Novelette
"The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics" by Daniel Abraham (Logorrhea ed. by John Klima, Bantam)
"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang (F&SF Sept. 2007)
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (Asimov's Oct./Nov. 2007)
"Glory" by Greg Egan (The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan, HarperCollins/Eos)
"Finisterra" by David Moles (F&SF Dec. 2007)
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Yes, I am mentioned in the same breath as Chiang, Moles, and Greg Egan (twice). Counts as a good day, just for that. |
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| Good day |
[Mar. 18th, 2008|06:32 pm] |
1) One of my buddies from Clarion West '98 just sold two novels to Bantam. Go Diana!
2) I've just seen the over art for The Price of Spring, the last book of the long price quartet.
3) None of that is the good news I can't talk about.
It's a good day. |
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| What kind of day has it been II |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|07:05 pm] |
For someone without a day gig, my life is too damn full.
Right now, I've got proofs on one book (A Betrayal in Winter -- mass market paperback version) due on the 20th, revisions on another (Unclean Spirits by MLN Hanover) due in mid April, and a proposal for the Next Big Fantasy to deliver to Jim Frenkel by midsummer, and the the last book under contract (A Bright and Shining Darkness by MLN Hanover) due in October.
Plus which, I owe short stories to Weird Tales and Clarkesworld, and there are still a few comic books scripts to finish up for the Dabel Bros Wildcards comic book.
And taxes are due at the accountant's soon.
And I'm moving Saturday.
And I have at least three books I need to read as research.
And I have at least one book I've been asked to blurb that I'm *really* looking forward to.
And I have a 2-year-old.
On the one hand, it poses a lot of problems. On the other hand, dammit but these are the problems I always wanted. |
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| [THUMP THUMP THUMP] |
[Mar. 10th, 2008|10:05 am] |
Great big nifty news, but sworn not to speak yet.
[insert sound of Daniel's head thumping against the wall.]
Aaah! Cognitive dissonance! |
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| Kids with Cancer |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|08:24 pm] |
Okay. This is the coolest thing I've seen recently. A couple of my friends are participating in the St. Baldrick's Foundation fundraiser for pediatric cancer.
Here is nationally known watercolorist Jae Drummond's before shot. Check back in for the after, available shortly. |
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| What kind of day has it been? |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|08:17 pm] |
So, I hear you cry, where the hell have you been, Daniel?
For those of you I haven't been complaining to, I'm still in the middle of a move to a new house. I've also been finishing up a book under my pseudonym MLN Hanover (it's off to the editor even as we speak) and a couple short stories and the scripts for the Wildcards comic book Hard Call for the Dabel brothers.
With my deadlines now behind me, I hope to actually return to the world of social networking. Just as soon as I take a little nap and get a little less high off the fumes from the redone floors . . . |
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| Worldcon |
[Jan. 21st, 2008|11:25 am] |
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Just a note. Hotel rooms for Worldcon in Denver went on sale today. You can go here to grab one. They're going to go fast, so if you need one, do it now. |
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| An interesting take on Iowa |
[Jan. 4th, 2008|11:40 am] |
When I was in college, I worked at the the campus newspaper for a few years. I was mostly doing layout and production, but I got to watch a little bit of the media in action. I have distrusted the news ever since. I really like a few long-form outlets where I can get pieces from someone who has spent a lot of time on a subject and has a long enough essay to include some context and interpretation, and even then, I assume I'm reading one person's informed opinion.
And still, now and then, I see a bit of free floating data that reframes some issue in an interesting way.
For instance, Iowa. |
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| Post Xmas Shopping Opportunity |
[Dec. 28th, 2007|05:25 pm] |
If any of y'all were just waiting to buy a copy of A Shadow in Summer when it was really cheap, Amazon has the hardback out for something like six bucks. Cheaper than a mass market paperback. Or with the next book for under $23. And they'll ship it right to you.
I'm just saying. I'm cheap and easy. Cheap. Easy. That's me.
;) |
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