Reading Recommendations: The Freelancer’s Survival Guide
I highly recommend Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s online work-in-progress, “The Freelancer’s Survival Guide.” I am quoted in it. I have learned from it. I have learned from Kris in other ways. And to top it off, Kris is a damned fine novelist as well as being one of the best sf short fiction writers of our generation.
At the moment, she’s working her way through recommendations about online networking, and if you’ve been struggling with how to do this well, drop in and see what Kris has to say.
Reading Recommendation: January by Becca de la Rosa
I loved this lyrical and fun story. I listened to it on a drive over Snoqualmie Pass, flecks of almost-snow mixed with lots of rain as I wound down toward the farmland that fills the eastern half of Washington State. As usual, the quality of the podcast version from Clarkesworld was great. Becca’s story only turns out to make some sense, but it’s so magically told, and with so much authority, that its very nonsense ends up exactly fine. In fact, the story felt as well-done and authoritative as a Neil Gaiman story. So for the lovers of strange fantastical tales….I suggest you read or listen to “January.”
Reading Recommendation: Non-Zero Probabilities, by N.K. Jemisin
This was my walking-the-dog story today – I listened via podcast, but it is also available in print from Clarkesworld. I figured there must be a reason it is on both the Hugo and Nebula ballots, and it actually is a delightful short. It’s subtle, different (yeah!), and quite well-written. If you haven’t read or heard it yet, I highly recommend that you wonder off and do so.
The iPad: After Week Two
This is just a quick update, and then I’ll do my next iPad piece in John DeNardo’s Mind Meld on the topic next week, returning this blog to it’s regularly scheduled programming.
I still love the iPad.
Promised experiment on reading: Not as good as the Kindle, but it is readable. Hint: turn down the screen brightness to save your eyes. I have one book I’m reading on both the iPad and as a physical book (don’t ask) and I am going to the physical book when I can. I don’t have the same preference with the Kindle (which is a better way to read a novel). But I am liking the news reading more and more, and I bet I cancel my Times sub for the physical paper soon and ditch the guilt over the ads.
Promised experiment on writing. I did write a story on it. It got easier as I went, and I’m pretty sure it will be fine. Don’t know if the story is any good. But that’s a different porblem. It’s actually nice to work in a word processor that isn’t loaded with stuff I don’t need, and which can’t be interrupted by email. Maybe I don’t want the multi-tasking after all. Verdict? It won’t become my favorite thing to write on, but it may become my mobile writing platform. Maybe I’ll switch all my computing to Apple. It’s a better user experience. I knew that, but stuck to Wintel since I use that at work and I am the CIO, after all. I should the food I feed the organization. But mobile is becoming the driving force in my life, and Apple is so much better there.
Question for the group mind: Anyone using Mobile Me? I could get files ONTO the Mobile Me from my wintel desktop – no problem. I could see them on the ipad. But I couldn’t move them to the iPad. It’s like Apple just doesn’t want me to actually put content on it that isn’t inside an app. I would have been happy to just copy them from MobileMe into Pages, but that didn’t work, or I didn’t know how. Not sure which. How are the rest of y’all doing that? Google Docs?
The iPad: After Week 1
I’ve had my iPad for a week now, and I promised I’d blog about it. So here’s blog #1.
In general, I like it a lot. I love Scrabble (I know – BORING – but I do). Maybe it’s the writer in me. The household teenager takes it for Tetris. Clearly a casual gaming hit.
There is no real newspaper yet. There’s BBC news which is well-done but not updated as often as I want (doesn’t replace the morning paper). There’s a tiny version of the NYT, but no full version. It does give me hope though – the newspaper experience is WAY better than the Kindle if that NYT teaser is any good. Not that it would be hard to beat the Kindle on newspapers. There’s no Seattle Times. I’m going to keep getting my physical Seattle Times until I can read a leading decent newspaper on a device I like. The iPad may deliver, but it doesn’t yet. You can get a full version of the Wall Street Journal, but I’ve lost interest in that since it went to Murdoch. Also – the newspaper reading experience has odd flaws. For example, I can’t re-size text on the NYT app (and I need to – it’s about 6 point type and I need reading glasses), I can do it on BBC News.
I love the feel of using it — it’s nice to get my media on a flat, light device on my lap. It’s just a whole jump in form factor. It’s also quite zippy. Video is phenomenal. And it’s thin enough to use on an airplane seat.
To some extent, the thing is still a promise waiting to appear, though. Part of why I bought the first generation is that I love Wired magazine, and they have a great video about their iPad app. Unfortunately, the app itself isn’t available. Note the missing NYT I mentioned – I had expected that to be available, too.
I have been sad that my books aren’t on the kindle (I still am). But I am pleased that three of them are out on the iPad (Building Harlequin’s Moon, Reading the Wind, and Wings of Creation). It would be extra handy if the first book in the series were also out, since I have to imagine that would help the sales of books two and three, but that’s hopefully a matter of timing and will get fixed. The Silver Ship and the Sea is still in print in paper, so I guess I just have to pray it either stays in physical print or someone besides the hackers digitizes it. The iBooks app is not nearly as good a book buying experience as the Amazon store yet. It’s not as good as iTunes yet. For example, the science fiction category only showed about 20 books. The only way I could find my books was by searching for my name. This will not do a lot for drive-by book buying for those of us climbing up the mid-list. But I’m still in a better position than I was before iBooks. To be fair, I have a very long relationship with Amazon and they know what I like even with my eclectic tastes.
The lack of multi-tasking drives me nuts. Now that Apple has announced 4.0, I bet some of the apps I’m waiting for won’t be out until I can upgrade to the new OS. Which keeps the iPad in the shiny toy category until then. It is not a replacement for my iphone or my Windows PC; it’s yet another electronic device to plug in, feed, carry, etc.
Next up:
Actual reading. I’m already pretty sure it will be a Kindle win here — the Kindle disappears in my hand and I am not reading a machine, I’m reading a story or a novel. The iPad does not feel that way so far. But I’m going to read a book on it and see what I think. I was writing this week, and so I didn’t have time to read a lot. I did manage to email myself my manuscript and get it into the writing application, Pages.
Actual writing. All the lagging pieces and parts have finally arrived and I’m going to try to write a story on it start to finish. I’ll report back on how that goes.
Short summary? I really can’t tell yet how much I’ll use it. I actually spend about as much time creating content as consuming it. The iPad is a content consumption device, at least so far. But it is lovely.
Reading Recommendation: The Love We Share Without Knowing, by Christopher Barzak
I just finished this book as my reward for a long (and pleasant) convention and getting 5K or more words done as well. After I read the last page, I realized I had been putting it off because I didn’t wanted to get to the end. It’s so magical and sweet and faintly sad I loved being inside it. It was deeply satisfying. Not in the way that I usually enjoy books. It has no real visible plot, no single protagonist. It is elegantly structured, and beautifully written, and tender. I might describe it as a prose version of one of those poems you read for pure pleasure and then suddenly realize was actually a sestina, and then you take a deep breath and appreciate the art of it.
If you like good literary fiction, I think you will like this one. It does have speculative and magical elements, although the center of this stage is the human sense of self.
Norwescon Schedule
For those of you who will be around Norwescon this weekend, here’s where you can for sure find me:
Friday, 9:00 a.m., Cascade 7
Climate Change in the 21st Century
There is more CO2 in the atmosphere now than at any time during the last 650,000 years. Climate alterations are expected to be serious: more intense storms, more pronounced droughts, coastal areas more severely eroded by rising seas. At the high end of the predictions, the world could face abrupt, catastrophic, and irreversible consequences. Is there any chance at all that we can alter people’s behavior enough to slow down global warming?
If not, are there engineering solutions to climate change? Can giant space mirrors or salt water sprays realistically solve our problems?
Mary Rosenblum (M), Kurt Cagle, Brenda Cooper, Derek Zumsteg
Saturday, 10:00 a.m., Cascade 7
The Ethics of War Machines
The military is investing serious bucks in military robots. Some are perfectly benign, like robot logistical transport vehicles. But last year one blew up a house in Pakistan, killing 18 people. What happens if we give robots the decision-making authority of when and whom to kill? How will you feel about the Marines looking for a few good circuits? And who does the programming for these machines? What happens to the 3 Laws?
Brenda Cooper (M), Mike Brennan, Robert Grey
Saturday, 11:00 a.m., Evergreen 3 & 4
Bureaucratic Mechanisms to Hasten (or Retard) Humanity’s Conquest of Space
What can we do to push space exploration through the labyrinth of political agendas, funding faux pas, and bureaucratic stalemates? Is it even possible? Are there alternative possibilities (public and private)? Are self-sufficient space colonies a possible reality or a fantasy?
Derek Zumsteg (M), Greg Bear, Brenda Cooper, Vernor Vinge
Saturday, 2:00 p.m., Evergreen 3 & 4
Autograph Session #3
Sunday, 11:00 a.m., Evergreen 3 & 4
Space – Humanity’s Best Hope for Long-Term Survival?
People like Stephen Hawking have said that self-sufficient, off-Earth settlements are humanity’s best hope for long-term survival; and of course, such settlements were at the heart of much of the 20th century’s
science-fiction. Is it possible that, in this century, the idea could move
back to center stage? Is pursuing space just a distraction from the life-and-death priority of cleaning up the mess we have made of Earth?
There is no other planet in the solar system that can support life “as is.”
Can we create a reasonable habitat within the solar system or find a habitable planet that is not already in use beyond the solar system?
Brenda Cooper (M), Guy Immega, G. David Nordley, Vernor Vinge
Sunday, 2:00 p.m., Cascade 6
Science as Weapon
In today’s world, everything can be a weapon, for war or terrorism. What kinds of scenarios are really possible when biotechnologists, nanotechnologists, and other fanatic mad scientists get together? Is bioterrorism old news and what we really need to worry about now involves mini black holes or silicon-digesting nanotech?
Jim Kling (M), Brenda Cooper, Brent Kellmer
Arundhati Roy: The Woman of True Words
Arundhati Roy came to Seattle last night and spoke to a sold-out crowd at Town Hall. The rest of my family stayed home in an odd resonance: the family teenager was putting the finishing touches on a school project about Gandhi. If they don’t yet, schoolchildren will be studying Arundhati. For those who don’t yet know her name, she is a the Booker Prize winning author of “The God of Small Things,” an international bestselling novel. Instead of using her new fame and her gift with words to create another literary novel, Arundhati has tirelessly worked on crafting a better world.
Now, let me set this. Town Hall is a beautiful, old building that began its life as a Christian Science church and has become a community treasure used for concerts and lectures and readings. The floor is a sort of red and pink fleur-de-lis pattern and the stage is a battered olive green wooden monstrosity with the paint chipping and electrical cords run across the bottom like colorful snakes. In a way, the stage looks upside down, like leaves on top of flowers. On the stage, a truly tiny woman with a bright smile stands behind a single large lectern and reads to us. She speaks with both her voice and her hands, her hands nearly as expressing as a hula dancers hands. In a fairly soft and deeply accented voice, she speaks of the dangers of the democracy, of the greed or corporations, and of the fate of the poor.
Many activists poke fun at the United States. While Arundhati does this well, she also reminds us that the abuse of power is not a problem owned by the United States. It is a problem of ours, and of India’s, and of China’s; of humanity. Last night, one of the things she read to us what the beginning of an essay about the Indian Government making war on its own indigenous people for access to natural resources. This is essentially what we did a hundred years ago. She talked to us about Indian farmers committing suicide by drinking pesticides. She spoke at length about the dangers inherent in the privatization of water. She read to us from the introduction to her new book, titled “Field Notes on Democracy.” In this, she is wrestling with a question that I also have: what happens next? Our current political systems are not working. What will work in an overpopulated, warming, and also educated and connected world? What must we create to survive?
During the question and answer session, she spoke well on any topic. I have one image clearly left from this moment – a large American man with Middle Eastern roots asking this diminutive Indian woman what she thinks of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that was in the news today. It is not her answer that I remember the most (it boiled down to all nations should shed all nuclear arms) but the image of this tall and studious looking man from a culture not known for honoring women earnestly asking this tiny woman about a world-sized problem.
Another theme in the questioning was Arundhati’s own safety. She told us that to be afraid is to cripple yourself.
For a small taste of her voice and her fierce intellect and heart, you might watch this video of her last talk at Town Hall. The talk was in 2006, but is no less interesting.
I did get to speak with her briefly and to shake her hand at reception after the talk, and I found myself tongue tied, able to only really get out a thank you. It felt like being in the company of someone who truly knows how to turn her words into a powerful plea for our future – all of us. She makes me want to be as brave with my own words.
Reading Recommendation: Bridesicle by Will McIntosh
Nice. I listened to the Starship Sofa podcast. It’s also available as a PDF from the Asimov’s site (at least for now – it’s a nebula nominated work). I almost didn’t even try to get through it because the title just wasn’t very attractive to me, but the story is quite moving. It turned out to be one of the stories I stayed out for an extra long walk to get finished in one session. The dog didn’t mind.
Reading Recommendation: Flesh and Fire, by Laura Anne Gilman
Flesh and Fire: Book One of The Vineart War
