Stuck, but not stuck, just kind of stalled.

Need an unstuck day.  A day to play around on graph paper and doodle.  To poke at high idea generators with a stick, and then have the low idea generators to poke back at me with crit and thoughts.  Time to play around with plot lines and theme and other creative hiccups.

Hail, mistress of the end of the middle book blues!

I'm not actually depressed about this, just irksome in that I want to make shiny things now, and I am full of "MEH" at where to go next.

Did figure out that the chosen few are only for the actual operation, and the children of the movement will be providing distraction and destruction duties.  Think WIPO mayhem.

I want to make this glitter and gleam.

(an aside:  I have a perfectly formed idea for a 6-9 panel comic about elisem's jewelry from the PoV of a bead.  Wish I could draw :| )

So, finally recovering from RSA 2008, enough to give some brief observations of this years conference. This time I'll start with some of the social observations.

Group dynamics:

One of the things about RSA is that it's an interesting mix of groups competing for attention and recognition. You've got the academics, who are giving the smack down on next generation of crypto attacks and workarounds (looks like the SHA family may get retired soon). There's the technical security geeks, who are working out all the kickass attacks against the infrastructures that the product peddlers are pitching to enterprises as the silver bullet for security and compliance.  Then there are the CISO/CSOs and other business middle management trying out how to navigate the swarm of buzzwords and hype both in the expo and in the technical tracks.

The technical security geeks are for the most part trying really hard not to rag too heavily on the commercial products out there, because most of them work for someone who might get offended. They're also really bumming because they would much prefer giving this presentation at DEFCON/Black Hat/CCC and staying up til 3AM with proper hackers. They can't drop the f-bomb or call a product or technology a complete piece of shit, though sometimes they slip up.

The product peddlers are all calling like fishwives that their product will magically cure your enterprise of security woes. Of course that'll probably require a professional services agreement, and a couple advances of six to seven figures. You have the staff for that, right? If not, we can put you in touch with a nice group for outsourcing some of that work, as well. They're under the mistaken assumption that anyone in the financial services industry has a flush budget this year, and wilt when the news and attendant shaking of heads occurs. Well, there's always the 2009-2010 budget allocation...

The academics are generally burbling around, playing with the shiny schwag and ogling at the few remaining misogynistic marketing enticements ("booth babes"), or closeted with high level business people and peers running over the latest bombshell someone just dropped on a protocol exchange attack. Mostly harmless.

The government crowd has their reality distortion field in full effect: negating the technical security geek observations and findings, suppressing the impact of the academics' attack on their latest approved vendor technology and unable to realize that companies operate with fewer than fifty people to a department. They toss out TLA bombs and GAO report findings as badges of merit. Your choice: oblivious or malicious?

The business crowd, slowly nomming away the core of academics and technical security geeks, rubs elbows with the partner companies, shakes hands with the "permitted vendors" and stares glassily at the milling crowd. Somewhere in this mix they have to find the appropriate vendor list and market buzzwords to take back to upper management on where they need to be/buy in the next 6-18 months. The well funded take names and technology promises with aplomb, the less wealthy try and deconstruct the root of the offerings into cheaper point solutions that they can get past purchasing/upper management.

( I am made of Win! )

At the RSA security conference this week.  While it's less dramatic and shiny than something like DEFCON or a Black Hat briefing, I can actually convince the company to send me to this conference (mass transit to conference, no hotel?  Ok.)  Sometimes I really do feel like I work for some sub-department of the Laundry, without all the cool magical underpinnings.

I'll have a con report afterwards, but for now, let me just say that I'm always both thrilled and terrified by the attendee population.  I got to listen to Bruce Schneier's annual state of thinking speech, which was nifty. 

Now excuse me, I have to go write my daily allotment of prose before all of my remaining grey matter curls up in a quivering mess.  Oh, and super limited email and LJ activity as I'll be there for about 10 hours a day and then transiting for another 2.  Bleagh.

Random bits from conversation with voidmonster prompted me down this trail... Sharing shiny information can lead to more material for your own hind-brain and the next story. 

• The Computer Chaos Club Guide to lifting and faking fingerprints:  (I heart the CCC, proper hackers, them)
  http://www.ccc.de/biometrie/fingerabdruck_kopieren?language=en
• Armadillo Aerospace's News Archive: Amatuer rocketry projects since 2000 from John Carmack (yes, that JohnC)
  Start at the beginning for a soup-to-nuts progression of  tech exploration, struggles and triumph.  Was four guys, a girl and a armadillo, but they've since expanded.
  http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home
• A new site I picked up, Ben Saunder's North Pole Speed Record: (solo trek to the North Pole, carrying all his supplies)
  http://north.bensaunders.com
• For a smorgasborg of technical security email lists check out: http://seclists.org/
  
  • Full Disclosure has a high noise to signal ratio, but is exactly what channels are like when dealing with InfoSec.
  • NMap Dev is a great list for getting the feel for a OSS project as it is improved over time.
  • The rest, just set down and sample away... just never subscribe, at least until you understand the implications of giving thousands of security geeks your email address.
    
• Terra Nova, a website dedicated to computer gaming and world concepts, from an academic bent:
   http://terranova.blogs.com/
• I've mentioned it before for sailormur and gregvaneekhout, but I've found Build It Solar as a great first tier starting point for energy-related home improvement and cost-savings.  
  http://www.builditsolar.com/

Let me know if any of you have interesting or new resource that prompted something inside your brain.

 

It's been a while since we'd had a proper VPX/writer's gathering, so I'd dropped some of the party tending skills.  However, I think overall things went well.  I've also got new names for the invite list next time around.  I'm going to try and expand it each time it is at my place to incorporate more and more VPers, prospectives and support staff.

The weekend started off well for me when voidmonster arrived after a grueling trip up from SoCal.   I got him partially decompressed and then we stayed up entirely too late chatting about just about everything.  From absinthe to weird food to my complete and utter lack of a coffee grinder. 

voidmonsterworked on convincing dsmoen to come to the party, but fate intervened, as it did for several other potential party members.   I'll have to plan more carefully for attrition in the future.

The next morning we hand-ground the freshly roasted coffee between two pieces of ceramic to try and get the beans down to proper brewing size for the Aero-press.  Which I still think looks like an "enhancement pump".   However, the coffee from it  was tasty and strong, so I'll have to look into acquisition.  Plus it makes the perfect amount of coffee for a bachelor.

We tottered out shortly thereafter to Indian, and the acquisition of a functional coffee grinder.  What takes ten to fifteen seconds of a mechanical grinder takes quite some time when crushing beans between ceramic... that and we desired more caffeine content. 

The rest of the day was spent with me pottering around the house fidgeting and probably driving voidmonster nuts with random questions.  Sometimes they were neurotic host questions: "Do I have enough food and drink?".  Others more writerly: "What motivates you to write?"  We chatted over story ideas and themes, pros and cons of research and primary sourcing for tech in stories. 

Then evangoer showed up with his support Sarah (and chocolate peanut butter nummies), and we launched into the party.  sparta5 showed up with tasty cheesy things and mead.  Jax from VP:VIII was made welcome amongst the crowd of VPXers, athenais and her support John wandered in.  Writing group dynamics and foibles were discussed, as well as genre shows, homeschooling and misspent youth.  The difficulties of short fiction to novel and vice versa were mulled over.  Wistful sighing was made for the state of print and e-zines. 

The kirizal's CCC cookies were hoovered up with great apolmb (the lack of a "P" food was commented on).  Absinthe was sampled, distinguishing characteristics were discussed.  Cats briefly made forays into the party space, only to scatter quickly at boisterous laughs.  (have I mentioned my cats are wusses?)   Time flew by, and before I knew it it was 11:30 and sparta5 was leaving with some books in hand as voidmonster and I did a brief tidy before crashing.  Though I think voidmonster spent some time awake giving kirizal a nice post-party report.

The thing that continues to amaze me is how diversely we all approach writing, reading and our careers, and how much we all have in common at the same time.

Next time maybe we can setup a skype and gaim/pidgen livechat to other VPers amongst the household clutter.   I'll let the others cover the party with far more wit and charm now...

I just bought the Core DnD rulebooks for my cousin Guy who is recovering from mono, and as a belated birthday present.  Working to subvert his mother, my aunt, and give him a more fun reading material while he's whiling away time. 

Final checkout price after taxes, including a starter dice set:

$66.66

Oh, the irony.

Until the Bay Area unofficial VP Party. 

We will be entertaining the weird.  People may be thing'd.   There will be strange booze and good food, a yard to wander in and cats to be ignored by.

Can't wait to see everyone!

I've been quiet on what is going on in the past while, had the flu for five days solid. Exhausting stuff. Now I'm onto party preparations and spring cleaning, which is tons more fun than the flu. (seriously). It looks like we're going to have a few other years of VP represented, as well! And potential attendees. If someone had only warned me going in what I was getting into... :)

Anything we should make sure to consume, chat over? I might even take a picture of my workspace for gregvaneekhout. Weather looks to be fairly pleasant so there's a porch and backyard to enjoy, as well as a tub to soak feet in, random things like that. And stars to gaze upon later in the evening (yes, you can see stars here). Can't wait to see people and hope everyone gets along/has a good time.

Two weeeeeeeks [/paperboy]

Alumni, Instructors, Staff and Hopefuls are welcomed to an unofficial Viable Paradise writer's bash March 29th.

When: From 5PM PST, onward.
Where: My house, in scenic Concord, CA (RSVP for intel)
Who: The aforementioned and guests.

What to bring: Tasty treats or tasty drinks for other party goers.

I hope to see you there!

Dear developers,

When one's web application requires the use of JavaScript and cookies, it is considered good form to provide error notification to end users of this fact so that they can accomodate your site design requirements. Failing silently when said users submit several hundred words or more of content is not good form.  

I'm looking at you, WordPress and plug-in devs.

Regards,

Paranoid security settings man.

p.s. You too, Blogger.

Well that sucks.  Just read on the /. that Gary Gygax had passed.  Other than my parents and a couple exceptional teachers, I cannot think of one other person who more completely transformed my childhood development.  Not to mention the hours in game systems he designed, wrote for, or otherwise influenced.  Or the MUDs/MUSHes written for.  Or my attempts at modules that started me off in creative writing.   I'd met him at a con once, and he was really nice about my horribly awkward questions and geekery.

montecook's reaction thread HERE.
/. memorial  HERE.

More later after I figure out how to get through the rest of the day.  Bah.

[I will not obsess over agent feedback, I will not obsess over agent feedback...n+1]

No, really, I shouldn't but it gives my lil beasties something to do while I struggle with the Body Mod. Instead I think I have to weed and do yard work tonight for house inspection on Friday. I need to stop whitewalling, but I'm still futzing around with "what happens next", even though I know structurally what does. The difference between plot points and story, I suppose. And then there's the revamp edit of the current query to the next round of agent subs.

We will not speak of the financial world, other than to say I'm a wound enough dynamo to power a small house.  This crud cannot end soon enough for me.

.. and onto more fun things!

Congrats to jenwrites  for her shout out at John Scalzi's "The Big Idea". That should drop some nice traffic Helix's way for Unwelcome Bodies (and hopefully more sales).

[Bad username: ]

Got to chatting with some of my VP:X cohort, and decided it's been too long since we'd had a west-coast writer's assembly outside of con activities. So, on March 29th, I will be hosting a gathering at my home in scenic Concord, CA. (daily highs then in the 65-77 range)

Our usual gathering dataset applies: support spouse/partner or fellow writer welcome. I own cats, but they can be sequestered for the day and attempts a strenuous defurring will be made for those allergic. Baseline food and drink will be provided, but please bring something tasty to share. Food preferences/allergies are catered to if forewarned. Bring book recommendations and your moleskin equivalent, !shiny! tends to get tossed around quite often.

Keeping the details fairly generic until I get a better feel for the scope. I've got plenty of space, though, so don't feel shy. All tribe welcome. We may even get a Canadian envoy to attend.

RSVP to: dru-vp-party [that at sign] fribble [fullstop] org

and I cannot wait for WorldCon and won't be going to Potlatch...
I'm contemplating a VP / Writers get-together in March at my place. Since many people may have spring holidays or easter weekend obligations with family, I was thinking that March 15th or 29th might work best.

Usual format, bring a writer friend or support spouse/unit.  The usual caveats would apply:  I own cats, would cover a starter base for food and drink, then BYOF&B extras.

If I get enough positive pings, I'll start filling in more details. I will also post this to the general AW VP forum once I get enough response pings.

Let me know what ya'll think.

Oh, I live in scenic Concord, CA, which is east-east SF-BAY.

Death Metal Öpheliä will be making a return debut in Denver this August. Tickets are expected to remain available for any and all takers.

This message brought to you by the heavy metal umlat.

We need a better vocabulary in the writing world. Hell, maybe even in the entire creative expression world, because I see these battles come up in all of the arts I've ever involved myself in. I'm sure I'm putting my foot in on this one, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This month has seen a lot of discussion regarding the classic "literary vs. genre" battle. This time around there appears to be a lot of
grumbling from both sides of the discussion. I find it somewhat bizzare to hear sff and other genre writers get so up in arms about "literary writing", when sff in particular is often all about "other" and playing with previously fixed forms of address, style and characterization. Likewise, I've never really understood why "literary" writers take issue so strongly with the diversity of forms in our shared art.

I think a lot of the discussion is that people have a view that works created for commercial purposes cannot be crafted with the same care and eye for tone and pace as another work, created in a market vacuum. I really wonder if all "high art" writers think that people write genre fiction just to be published for commercial success/popular acclaim. I submit that there are just as many people trying to craft the perfect hero's journey or noir mystery as those struggling with a stylized interpersonal family dysfunction drama. I just don't think commercial success/popular acclaim is a motivating factor for a majority of writers of any ilk. A secondary motivator, maybe, but unless they have their head stuck someplace without a 'net connection, odds are they know the stark reality of a writing career. People just want to write the best story they can. I understand that once established in a market, the game changes, but I'm talking about getting into writing in general. Maybe I'm hopelessly naive.

Regardless of the roots and definitions of the crisis, I do find something really troublesome. That is amazingly creative people of all stripes treating the act of creation in a particular portion of the creative spectrum somehow diminishes the potential energy and value left for their portion of the creative spectrum. Creative expression is not a zero-sum game, people. In fact, it is more likely to create a multiplier effect amongst the creators and purchasers of that content.

The larger the "surface area" of presented creative expression each person experiences, the more likely they are skitter across the "surface" trying out different forms of creative expression.

A thought experiment:

• There are ten different markets available in the creative writing space. A reader will make some number (for our example let's use 3) of attempts to find a market that fits their interests and world-view, after which they might give up on a particular market. The marketplace in this case is highly stovepiped/segmented. There's a total thirty different purchases each reader can make before they have exhausted the possibilities in that space.
• Instead, posit a marketplace that has a hundred markets. A reader will make the same number of attempts to find a market that fits their interests and world-view. In this case, the marketplace is diverse enough to support multiple forms of segmentation, which means it takes longer for our reader to reach a market equilibrium. using the same requirements to "dry up" a market, the reader will have to have selected 300 different books in the marketplace.

So outside of the fixed number of hours someone can pursue and a fixed budget, the more diverse the marketplace is, the more likely people are going to be running into your writing. Afterall, how many markets can you think of that only two or three authors represent the entire pipeline? The more diverse the marketplace is, the more likely someone can also create a comparison that is favorable to you. "She writes like him, but with a bit more plot focus over characterization." Not to mention tastes change over time, and people develop new interests as they age and experience new things in life.

Realizing why you detest or what bugs you about a particular style can be very informative about your own creative process. Mine are all related to force-feeding during high-school and college. Poetry? Ruined by Dickenson/cummings zealots. Lit-fic? Pretty much ruined for me by guerrilla writing fans. Short fiction, shoved down my throat by every English and creative writing instructor I had for credit. These are my hang ups, and I'm slowly training myself to let go of my gut reaction to them. I think my writing is improving because I'm now starting to look at those forms with a critical eye towards craft and less emotionally. Phew, it is hard to de-tune that gut reaction, but the writing is improving by my exposure to it.

Maybe we/I need to look at how we define things and work outside of the publisher's definitions to determine the quality and type of prose. Maybe now is a time for creative tolerance and civility, an acceptance of the differences in personal taste.

• So instead of "I hate XYZ", I hope I can find a term that equates to "I don't find XYZ compelling because I orient along plot - emotional transformation axes instead along language use - style axes".
• Instead of "ABC is boring" it becomes something that denotes "I find ABC ineffective because the use of second person present tense is confusing or hard for me to keep track of."
• "MNO is ridiculous" could become a term that means "I'm a big fan of fictional realism above all else."
• "My art is 'high art', and yours is 'low'" can become something that encompasses "I wish readers and publishers valued my creative expression more and allowed me the kinds of monetary remuneration I see other artists receiving"
  

I'm the wrong guy for wordplay and knowing all the academic terms (infosec terminology just doesn't fit), so suggestions on good ways of phrasing things are welcome. Goodness knows I need all the help I can get with good terminology.   Maybe there's a academic resource or journal that covers these things in simple language for the layperson.  I'd love to know if there is.

I'm not saying people shouldn't have their own preferences and tastes. Just that the shortcuts of rating entire segments/genres of material in creative expression can often create some ill-will between parties. People get defensive when you denigrate their hard-wrought work. What I'm asking everyone to consider is to visualize yourself in the shoes of three other creators (especially in markets you don't write in), and get to the root of what you don't find compelling, and address that instead of making a blanket assertion.

I'll be doing the same... modulating my irritations and figuring out if there might not be something in a particular genre or market that I might like or could learn from.  Being mindful, but I know I need to work at it myself.

I realize I'm probably only addressing the winds in the cave, but I thought this was worth a stab. Wish I could cross link all the threads I'm pulling these reactions from, but swamped at work. Comments welcome and encouraged. 

Arrived in the bit bucket this morning (at least I reviewed it then):

"Subject: Kill your pain with generic SOMA, cheap and tested."

Remember to take your SOMA, citizen!

Alright people: roll call.

Who is attending WorldCon 66/Denvention 3 this August, when and where are you staying? I need to book a room, while they still have a few. I'm booking in spite of my little January mortgage surprise. Some people are coming in Wednesday and others Thursday. Recommendations from the pro con attendees?

This is only my third con attendance, meep!

Well, I will say this of having to stay at home for most of the weekend: It gave me plenty of time to do some writing (2K+, yay) and let the story demons simmer around some. I pushed Martin further up a tree from a sideline character/issues that I thought was going to be tertiary. How cool is that?

Struggling a bit with how to handle chat/IRC type communications. Guess I'll just be consistent and fiddle with it later in the process for now.

I'm abusing the crit group a bit as I start out, because I'm stitching stuff together and giving them a bit more raw material than normal, but I need some push-back on a couple chemistry bits from each scene, and don't want to travel too far with out feedback.

It's been a real struggle with first person, not so much as keeping with the character, but I find myself slipping into present tense with it too often. I think the present tense might work alright for thoughts and character asides, but not for action and normal observation. What do you folks think? I do love present tense, but only when well crafted, and I know it is a huge turn off for most people, so I'll steer clear where possible.

I'm really irritated with the Mega-D worm/botnet/spam vector. I've been getting close to an additional 500 spams a day with it, and I think I may have missed communications from some peer/mentors that I sent out about the agent search. So frustrating. I can't noodge, that'd be too rude, but it is so hard to tell if people got your email and responded when you've got over a thousand emails in your spam filter. Grr.

In other news, could the Superbowl ads for that sales place get any more racist? Ranks them right up there with the Go Daddy morons.

Random question for the week: Anyone know what the wordcount requirements are for ANY YA sf imprints? I'm drawing a complete blank.

Back to my addled consumption of hot medicinal beverages.

[[EDIT: Also saw an extended trailer for Jumper. Yay! Looks like tasty fun.]]

You know you're too paranoiddeeply entrenched in post-apocalyptic fiction when:

• You detail your first 12, 24, 48 and 72-hour plans for event types (zombie, natural disaster, bio-attack, nuke, magical resurgence)
• You assess your workplace for choke-points for fending off gangs, zombies, murderous animals or infectious agents.
• You do the same for each building you enter.
• You assess your heating and cooling environment for survival without electricity
• You calculate how long you could survive off the water stored in your toilets, bathtub, spa or pool
• You calculate how far away from town you would need to get to avoid fallout of direct attacks on nearby cities for various event types
• You practice displacement and conflict avoidance techniques with irritated coworkers to validate methods of dealing with gangs, posses and other roaming bands that might outnumber you
• You locate the nearest garden store, grocery, pharmacy, and hardware outlets for quickest access for end runs of sustainable goods
• You create prioritized acquisition lists for above locations
• You cache-cycle bleach, bottled water, medicine and dry-storage foodstuffs
• You critique survival action/methodologies of protagonists in survival movies on a regular basis
• You create plans for long term, weatherproof supply caches in strategic locations
• You identify the closest library for entertainment, sustained lifestyle activities
• You learn various off-grid lifestyle skills for the purposes of being prepared: paper-making, weaving, medicine, farming, etc.

Feel free to add anything you've done or could see yourself doing

Just a quick note.

Ya'll rock. Just in general, but also big shout out to avocadovpx and athenais for the point to gregvaneekhout 's blog posting about getting representation. And dagnabbit, why don't I have Greg on my VP list anyways?!

It's so awesome to have ya'll are on the lookout for me.

Likewise, if I can help with anyone's own agent search, since I've invested all this time in learning names and records and whatnot, feel free to ping me.

Just re-learning more of my VPX lessons again.

Popped open my folder of The Body Mod snippets, teasers before I knew what was going on 100% in the story, and wow I really cannot tell the awesome craft day from the "in a rush and just pounding something out" or "I hate this I hate this it is crap writing".

So the instructors were right on two counts.

You can't tell which day was which well after the fact (2 months)
AND
Your voice is what happens when you write. It just comes out.

Sometimes you have to travel down the path a few times to really understand the trip. Freaky that something can still have this kind of impact, over a year and a quarter later. Sort of like creativity-PTSD.

Back to humility and some more BIC time this afternoon to get things arollin'.

What cross-platform messaging system are you folks using these days? 

In the rare moments I'm actually logged in at home, I'd like occasionally to chime in on IM with ya!  Unfortunately, everyone's got a different preferred platform, and instead of managing the major clients all at the same time, I figured I would see what ya'll are using:  Trillian, Miranda, Jabber?  

If you have an opinion about said methods, please let me know.  Thanks!

Right now I only have a YIM account... so sad, the mundane unconnected to the aether.

Right.  In my cleverness of putting together the process for whowants10, I realized I got in front of myself a bit in terms of process.  Sort of jumped the queue, and forgot that I should be using any of my resources that I could.

I'll put it plain and simple.  Does anyone know of an agent in the sff market who is open to both YA sf and non-YA sf?  I'd like to find someone who could handle Flight and not be turned off by my other novels.

Not asking for a recommendation or a contact (I wouldn't turn them down, mind you), but I just want to know if I'm missing anyone in the space that ya'll can think of.  I'm constantly amazed by who everyone knows, so I figure some of you might have an opinion.  I've got a pretty short list of possibilities from the pretty extensive mining of the Locus sales sheet, and want to make sure I'm not missing some bleedingly obvious choices.

Thanks in advance.

Well I *thought* I was over the cold around Thursday-Friday, but then it decided that I needed my face gnawed off by invisible rats. I have having colds. Especially when there wasn't much I could do about it, being viral and all. The storm kicked the dish out of alignment, and being drugged to the gills sort of kills my ability to focus on written word. At least I didn't loose all my utilities like the maternal unit did. Yick on the weather. I hope it mellows out as it travels across the US.

Not even sure if it's worth going into work if I feel like this. I had to make a run to the grocery, to restock on soup ingredients. I bought more stock and pickles in one trip than I typically do in months of bachelor chow-dom. When two weeks worth of soups make your body go YUM, you know something's out of kilter. I do love soup and stew, but I don't typically get excited about buying a week's worth.

Well I guess I can finish watching hockey and scribbling illegibly about agents on my graph paper. Another casualty of cold meds, my abilty to focus well on the scratch pad. Definitely have a bunch of thoughts on the agent search now I've been working on it a bit more.

Hope everyone else is doing better than I am and that you had a good weekend!

Just a quick couple of notes to the crickets in the corner while I work on agent selection issues:

Viable Paradise

Viable Paradise 2008 is now open for submissions until the end of the second quarter. If you're wondering about the merit of attending, let me assure you that my experience at Viable Paradise 2006 was worth every penny. The experience of being steeped in the collective experience of the instructors, the swirling banter of my classmates and the unforgettable activities was more than I could have hoped.

Highlights:

• tnh tipping over when greg and scott deadpan proclaimed their love
  
• voidmonster's education of my palette with kickass tequila, tea and other various liquids
  
• wandering along the seawall the class
  
• playing ophelia as a southern belle death metal rocker (thanks to my backup singers)
  
• being immersed for a week ofhirez andkrylyr's speech and sleep patterns
  
• having my work sliced, diced and julienne fried and coming back for more (after a good nap)
  
• room 50, 'nuff said
  
• getting to read my classmates' stuff and realizing how incredible and diverse the sff spectrum is
  
• lessons and input that is still unwinding in my head almost a year and quarter later

For me, VP was a lot like Neo's experience in the Matrix. The Oracle (instructors, staff and students) told me exactly what I needed to hear, and I think they do the same for everyone if you're open to the message. If you're serious about taking things up to 11, and feel that you need a bit of shakabuku to the cognitive processes, I really recommend Viable Paradise. At a single week, it can fit into almost anyone's schedule. Apply today and make your own wonderful memories and tame your own creative beasts.

And if you do get in, participate with the instructors. These people want you to succeed and learn and flourish. The world needs more good writers!  You can also checkout the keywords: viable paradise, vp, vp:x, vpx and writing in this blog for more on what I've learned from my time at Viable Paradise.

Playing for Keeps:

As many of you know, I'm typically not one for podcasts, as I don't spent a lot of time in passive listening moods, being the production value freak that I am, but Mur Lafferty's (murlafferty)   Playing for Keeps has been an unexpected pleasure. It's been turning all the things I hate about capes and cowls superhero fiction on its tail with a vengeance, not unlike Bendis' Powers or Alan Moore's Top Ten.

Mur's voice talent has been increasing with time, and since she's been one of the forerunners of the regular podcast movement, that means a lot. This time around she has a crew of people helping out on the production values, artwork and fan participation avenues, and it really shows. She's gone and ratcheted things up to 11 for me, and I'm happily listening at every opportunity. So even if you aren't typically a podcast type of person, I think Playing for Keeps is worth a good episode or five to figure out if it's your cup of tea.

And now, if you don't feel like the podcast format, you can pick up Playing for Keeps in print format! Right Here. Or check out the website for the RSS feeds, community features, artwork, etc.

Mur's someone who definitely understands the new Attention Economy, and boy does she know how to pull people into her worlds.   If you're serious about understanding new media, I think everything she has to offer is worth consideration.

--

Now back to trying to figure out the best way to capture which agents to pursue over on whowants10.

Final Thoughts

I loved my Sydney experience. It is an amazingly cosmopolitan city, with a great mix of cultures. I'm now ready to take on more of Australia once I have another opportunity. Once the sticker shock wore off, it was well worth the cash outlay for a once in a lifetime chance. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I hope I get another chance to visit the Sydney offices and use them as a springboard to see more of the Southern hemisphere.

If you have any questions about the experience, feel free to inquire within.

Well the good news is that I had a relatively fun vacation period with family and friends and that overall I've enjoyed my time away from work. The bad news is that in the course of visiting with all said family members I picked up a bug which effectively killed my "by myself" vacation time in which I was going to do some more writing.

I did manage to get an amazing blocking session in for _the Body Mod_, so I'm now very energized about it. I managed to block out the gross linear weave for the plot while in Malibu. Getting away from sameness sometimes really does bring out the beasts to play.

In other news, I should be able to post more on whowants10 about the summary and agent search. I managed during one of the more clear moments of the sleep and medicate haze to filter through a huge list of agents down for _Flight_. The target for the new year is at least one agent per week on average.
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Which brings me to an impromptu question for you novelists:

How many scenes on average would you say you novels are? Not chapters mind you, unless your chapters are scenes, in which case chapters are allowable.

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Oh, and saw the latest trailer for _Jumper_. Man does it look rad (oh man, I just said rad), and likewise like a moderately good transfer between mediums. Neat website, even if it shoves way too much flash down your throat.

Goodbye 2007, Look out 2008!