Gotham City

Apologies for missing last Sunday! It took me a few days to recover from the Art-a-thon, and my awake time was used primarily for work. I know you depend upon me to give you random amateur photos taken with a cheap-ass camera, because you couldn’t possibly find those anywhere else on the Internet.

Originally published at Calamity Cove. You can comment here or there.

So the whack factor ran a little higher yesterday. All to the good. After sleeping quite late (by my standards) and a morning workout, I met up with @howardtayler for a leisurely lunch off-site. We had a terrific conversation about writing, life and the value of kindness. Howard also did nifty caricatures of both our waitress and her manager. It was hilariously fun to watch them react with such delight.

Walking back from lunch, we passed a pretty radical steampunked car.



More photos later when I have the bandwidth to upload them. (That would not be right now, unfortunately.)

Back inside, I hooked up with Ellie Copperbottom of the League of S.T.E.A.M. to host a High Tea. Which was a blast, and very odd at the same time. After that, I recorded a brief podcast interview with them. Then I wound up down in the Vendor Room signing books, where we all but sold out of my stock at the table of Off the Beaten Path Books. Gail Carriger and I crossed paths there again.

Dinner consisted of me and a very helpful concom rep making a White Castle run. Sixty dollars later, the League and I were pigging out hard. From there, things devolved into an evening of music, hot tubbing (well, warm tubbing), drinking, and electroshock therapy. I managed to enjoy an electric kiss with a lovely young woman, as well as try out the new sport of electric motorboating. Plus people were doing shots off Boba Fett's icy head, but I eschewed that particular pursuit.

Today I have an author panel and a reading and a day of hanging out.

So, yeah. A lot of fun here. A lot of fun.

---

Photo © 2012 Howard Tayler, used with permission.

Your Sunday moment of zen.



San Francisco houses, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Easter Island statues had bodies — Did no one ever think to look?

CSR project aims to create a high-speed, carbon-neutral steam-powered locomotive — Oh, cool. (Thanks to David E. Vincent.)

Egos and Immorality — Paul Krugman on the Wall Street fairy tale.

Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history — This is stupid. The evolution debate has been history for a long time. What you have today is a combination of religious willful ignorance and conservative political opportunism. It's not a "debate" in any meaningful sense of the word, as the anti-evolution side has no evidence, logic or credibility.

Conservatives used to care about community. What happened? — They lost their fucking minds.

?otd: Ever been electric motorboated?

---

5/27/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Con time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate; Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht

First 13-hour double-shift ended. Second shift begins in a few scant hours, so of course I'm watching Shatner host Have I Got News For You.

Thank you to everyone who weighed in on the name change question. I'm afraid some of you will be disappointed, though. I can't let Varis and Vargas appear multiple times on the same page (much as I couldn't handle Kieran and Kiril), but there will not be any cute in-text reasons for this. (Okay, I say that now, but I may think of one later.) I just have to change it. The first reader who actually notices will get a cookie.

The true lesson to be learned from this is: there's no such thing as a throwaway name. At least if one is writing a series, anyway. One never knows when Random Character Bob will show up again, and when he does, you may regret naming him Bob.

In other news, Agent F just passed out while watching Animal Planet an hour before her bedtime. This is an unlooked for windfall of writing time, if I can manage not to pass out.

This book, which is supposedly about the ideal of selfless service, can be summed up as, "Hi, my name is Ram Dass and I'm a narcissist."

Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service

Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1041066.html. Comment here or there.

A clear, well-written, informative, easy-reading book for the layperson on the history and current conceptions of autism, and what that means for people with autism. Grinker has an autistic daughter, and includes his own experiences with her to illuminate larger issues. He primarily writes about the US, but has two chapters with snapshots of the situation in South Korea and India.

I particularly liked the lengthy section in which he makes his case that autism is not increasing, but seems to be because we are more aware of it. I don't have time to lay out his detailed explanations of how he came to each of his conclusions, but the reasons for the perceived increase are as follows:

- It is only comparatively recently that autism, like many other mental and developmental disorders, has become understood as a unique phenomena rather than lumped in with every other disorder else as "mad" or "simple" or some such. That is, autism has always existed, but was not called "autism."

- Parents and researchers agitated for more awareness of autism. Once people became aware, they started noticing it more: laypeople recognized kids with autism, and doctors became able to diagnose it. Previously, the same kids would have been labeled mentally retarded or schizophrenic or something other than autistic.

- Due to improved services for autistic kids, pressure arose to diagnose kids with autism rather than with some other diagnosis which entitled them to less or inferior services. Hence, kids who previously would have been labeled mentally retarded are now labeled autistic. (Autism is also less stigmatized than mental retardation.) For the same reason, kids who have less severe problems, who previously would not have been diagnosed at all but would have struggled and been called weird, stupid, or lazy, now tend to get an autism diagnosis so they can get help.

- A misprint in an early edition of the diagnostic manual DSM-IV - "or" instead of "and" - led to many kids qualifying for an autism diagnosis who otherwise wouldn't have gotten it. (Basically, it should have been "must have this symptom AND this symptom," but it was printed as "must have this symptom OR this symptom."

Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism

Crossposted to http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/1040761.html. Comment here or there.

Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.

Yesterday was even more entertaining that Thursday. I cracked my happy ass out of bed extremely late by my own standards, hit the health club for some time on the stationary bike, then caught breakfast in the Green Room. After some bloggery and email time and whatnot, I had my massage — And how cool is it that World Steam Expo has a masseur on retainer for the pros!? — and then went exploring. This eventually involved use of the hot tub, among other things.

I spent a decent chunk of the day hanging out with the inestimable Howard Tayler, who created a truly impressive steampunk caricature of me. (When I get home, I shall scan and post this, but at the moment it is my badge art.) Howard is his own self hanging out in the Aegis room, which is basically a camp for combat geeks. Inside the Con hotel, these cats have a rappelling tower, weapons training with actual pointy objects, a bunch of Nerf weapons, and a Victorian encampment. They are pretty much a real life incarnation of the Black Briar group in J.A. Pitt's Black Blade Blues [ Powells | BN ]. The Aegis group helped me make a notable entrance to opening ceremonies.

Also spent a lot more time partying with The League of S.T.E.A.M. and a whole bunch of other folks, including briefly running across the few people besides Howard that I actually knew before I turned up here. Specifically, Gail Carriger, G.D. Falksen (who has an important planet named after him in the Sunspin universe) and Evelyn Kriete (who is responsible for me being invited to this convention). I caught the last part of the The Men That Will Not be Blamed for Nothing concert.

I even got a bit more work done on Going to Extremes.

Today I have lunch with Howard, a High Tea to host, and a plan to hear some more excellent performances. A bit more programming tomorrow.

Interestingly, I am way off my normal schedule here, even my normal convention schedule. I'm not sure what clock I'm living on, but it's neither Jay time nor Con time. I'm just going with the flow. Which it turns out is remarkably difficult for me to do. I feel twitchy about not being up at 5 am exercising (hard to do when you're going to bed at 2 am) and why I'm not writing more.

But I'm here to have fun, which I am decidedly doing; and to see and be seen, which I am decidedly doing.

Is this what time off feels like?

Your Saturday moment of zen.



Playground equipment, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Book Review: Grants Pass, edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar — A review that includes an interesting comment on my story "Black Heart, White Mourning".

The Nebula Awards 2012: A Look Back And A Look Forward — James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel in HuffPo.

Calvin and Hobbes on unfettered creativity as a writer — Hahaha.

War of the Worlds: The True Story — A new indie flick coming out that looks pretty cool.

Star Wars Turns 35: How Time Covered the Film Phenomenon

Red Planet Becomes Blue In New Mars Image

Astronauts enter world’s first private supply ship

Impacts Spreading Life through the Cosmos?

Colonel Sanders resembles Confucius — Chicken, anyone?

?otd: Charles Darwin: Man or monkey?

---

5/26/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.5 hours (Going to Extremes proposal)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 7.0 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate; Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht

I PUBLICLY DECLARE MY LOVE. Liquid acrylics are my new favorite medium,* especially these pearlescent ones. I am so poor I had to give myself a hard dollar limit per pay period, which I have (so far) obeyed, but I can see what I’ll be purchasing with said limit for pretty much the foreseeable future, because I need every color in both pearlescent and regular. It’s mandatory. Why? Look at this:

The only colors are liquid acrylics, and the black is just regular ink. (Sorry about the poor image quality, but the scanner doesn’t pick up the pearlescence.) This bird took me ten minutes with a pencil and a paintbrush. The acrylics go on like watercolor but dry as fast as acrylics, and they blend a tiny bit but not too much. Did I mention they glitter? Because they totally glitter.

One of the best things is that they’re not opaque, so I can use the pearlescence over my regular marker drawings. At first I was timid and only put pearlescent green over regular green, or pearlescent gold over orange, but then I got brave.

I scribbled this with a Copic liner and used a few Copic and Prismacolor markers to color it. (It’s freehand, so please ignore the wonky anatomy.) I used purple over black and gold over pink, and came up with a rich result that isn’t even close to apparent in these crappy photos. Le sigh!

This is me:

… Oh yeah, and I got out my tablet again. I’ve been meaning to copy my friend San (hers is pronounced like the san in sandwich, and she doesn’t have a beard, so it’s easy to tell us apart). Her blog always has little doodles and animations on her photos, and I love it.

In fact, if I’d thought of it ahead of time, I probably could have made a really cool animation with this cat doodle’s liquid acrylic eye proving that even when the surface dried, there was still liquid inside.

 

* Well, you know, besides markers. When I think of things I’ll miss after I survive the zombie apocalypse, I think of Copics. ;__;

Originally published at Calamity Cove. You can comment here or there.

A Blessing of Monsters has been retitled. Big surprise, right? There’s no way I’d be able to keep that title. Anyway, the new title is: Epic Fantasy With No Dull Parts.

That’s unlikely to be the final title, either, I know. Titles are hard.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Let me drop this quick quote on you from a Writer Beware post:

The most financially successful self-publishers write more than their peers, and spend less time marketing. In fact, those self-publishers who marketed the most earned the least.

Authors’ online activity: Mostly good for having fun and maybe letting people know when something new comes out once in a while.

Mirrored from Twenty Palaces. You can comment here or there.

Quite a thunderstorm rolled through here this evening! Which is rare, in this part of the world.

It was a calm, warm, pleasant day–I was driving around in the Miata with the top down till after 5:00, and working in the yard for an hour after that–but then the sky darkened, and the wind picked up…actually, only part of the sky darkened, while we still had a placid, lovely evening to the west.

It was impossible to capture in a photograph, but this gives some sense, from before it started:

Bright sunshine and deep dark clouds.

And then the thunder! It rattled the windows. I never saw any lightning, but then, I wasn’t outside any more.

Then the fire department came by. Someone had called about a smell of gas; I thought it smelled like the ocean (or, well, a thunderstorm); nobody owned up to having called them; eventually they left.

By that point it was pouring rain, drenching, a dark downpour.

Then it stopped. Now it’s all peaceful out there.

I know this kind of thing isn’t such a big deal in parts of the country where they happen every day, but…here it’s kinda special.

Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.

Hola!

I am lifting my head from the morass of editing this one story I never want to see again¹ and drafting this other story I don't want to have to write² to tell those who find such things interesting that there's a new interview of me up online.

This one is a little different, being an audio interview for the Galactic Chat podcast, so you actually get to hear my voice. I'm a little nervous about this aspect of it, because I absolutely loathe the sound of my own voice on playback. Does anyone else ever suffer from this dissonance? I swear I don't sound as plummy in real life as I always end up sounding on playback. Or at least, I don't think I do, but who knows?

Anyway! The interview is live, and we touch on the Binding books, and my collection for the Twelve Planets series, among other things, and I had a whole heap of fun conducting the interview, so head on over for a listen!

1. This is completely normal and an encouraging sign that the process is all working out as expected. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. [↩]
2. Again. Normal. [↩]

Mirrored from Deborah Kalin.

I named a character once in The Bone Palace, an offhand reference that didn't warrant an entry in the dramatis personae but is still in print. Now I find myself needing to write more about that character and a) not liking his name much anymore, and b) finding it a bit too similar to someone else who shows up quite often. How many of you would be wildly irritated if I changed someone's name between books? (I doubt most people even remember that he was ever mentioned, but somewhere out there is the reader who will.)

Trillian found this darling house spider and her eggs in one of the cabinets working hard to guard our food! She is part of our army. I did a few macro shots of her egg basket too -- looks like we're about to have 50 babies!!! Cigars for everyone!

She's about the size of a lentil, her eggs might be the size of pinheads.

( behind this cut to avoid the freaking out of the people who would freak out if there was a spider in front of this cut )

Thanks to whafford for being the voice activated light stand.

Add me: [LiveJournal] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Google+] [Tumblr]
[Roller Derby Portraits]

Scenes from the Avengers movie were shot here. I have re-edited all photos from this set and added new ones, enjoy!



For more pictures from this set on Westinghouse Electric, click here - Flickr, 100 photos.

Follow me on Twitter and "Like" my page on Facebook!