Writers of the Future: 25 Years

Last night I attended the 25^th Anniversary Writers of the Future Awards ceremony in Hollywood. The event was lavishly produced. I was lucky, in that I got to meet K. D. Wentworth, from whom I've received two critiques for my Semi-Finalist entries in previous quarters. She actually remembered the stories, which was certainly flattering, considering how many critiques she writes. I also got to introduce myself to Contest Director Joni Labaqui, who, rightly, emphasized that perseverance counts for much more than talent in this enterprise. My goal last year was to submit every quarter, which I've accomplished, and I'm sticking to the same objective for next year. Why mess with a good formula?

I only noticed the small irony of the Presidential theme to my evening after the fact: the ceremony was held in the Roosevelt Hotel (in the same hall in which the very first Academy Awards were presented), and the main street off which I live is similarly named Roosevelt. So there's a meaningless connection for ya.

Mild People-Phobia

Today I went to Ikea with a friend to help, logistically, with the purchase of some furniture (well, quite a bit of furniture actually, which is why my presence was useful) when I had a little insight.

Walking back towards the car, I started to feel alleviated – something more than just the relief of having accomplished the task at hand.

Then I remembered that when I was a little kid and my parents would take me to places (a museum, shopping, whatever) I would often, though not always, become inexplicably tired and somewhat cranky.

Today I realized how my increased sense of well-being and those childhood experiences were connected. I have a mild form of people-claustrophobia.

Being in an enclosed space, jostling with lots of people, or simply being in a large area where I can see a lot of people tends to wear me down a little. It's like my brain begins to go haywire trying to absorb the details of each individual, but there's too many, and after a while it gives up with a disgruntled sigh of dissatisfaction at what it self-perceives as incompetent processing abilities. Like a kind of psychological squint, where you try to resolve a multi-pixel image into its individual constituents, but only end up with a foggy blur instead and then just become fed up at the impossibility of the enterprise.

That also explains why my mind would wander more, perhaps, than some of my seven and eight and nine-year old friends', whenever we were in a crowded place (shopping mall, etc), and it's probably the reason I'm quite comfortable spending wholesome chunks of time on my own. And I'm sure this is all connected to my being writer in various straightforward and not-so-straightforward ways, too.

Canada: My Worldcon Schedule

It looks like the good folks organizing this year's WorldCon in Montreal are in the final steps of their schedule preparation. That said, I'm thrilled to be participating in the three panels listed below (and moderating the last one). I'm really looking forward to meeting my co-panelists, some of whom I know through their work and by reputation.

If you have any comments or suggestions on specific items you'd like to see me bring up or feel should be addressed, don't hesitate to comment here or drop me a line via e-mail!

When: Thu 17:00
Location: P-518A
Title: Putting the World into Worldcon
Session ID: 549
All Participants: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Jetse de Vries, Tore A. Høie, Kyoko Ogushi
Moderator: Jetse de Vries
Description: Our information about SF outside the English language is often provided by (mediated by) Anglophone experts who have been to the foreign land in question and brought back what interests them. Here, instead, we gather experts from SF/fantasy traditions outside
English to tell us what we should look out for.

When: Fri 19:00
Location: P-511BE
Title: What's the Score?
Session ID: 400
All Participants: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Chris Becker, Inanna Arthen, Nir Yaniv
Moderator: Inanna Arthen
Description: If music be the food of SF movies, play on. From
Bernard Herrmann to John Williams to Danny Elfman, who are the great composers of SF movies and why should we care?

When: Sat 15:30
Location: P-518A
Title: A Fine Line
Session ID: 621
All Participants: Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Gordon Van Gelder, Karen Burnham, Paul Kincaid
Moderator: Yourself
Description: "Publishers have got to live, like anyone else, and you cannot blame them for advertising their wares, but the truly shameful feature of literary life before the war was the blurring of the distinction between advertising and criticism. [Reviewers] churned forth their praise: 'masterpiece', 'brilliant', 'unforgettable' and so forth - like so many mechanical pianos." (George Orwell) Is this still true (if it ever was)?

Double Jujitsu

After surviving the trip to SLC last week I learned at work today that I'll be traveling to Bellevue as well. So, SFMHF, watch out.

Finished new hard sf story last week and completed numerous drafts over the weekend. Another one in the hands of the Slush Gods now.

Started a new story today and wrote the first 1,300 words; about a quarter of it, based on my outline/notes.

In an unprecedented double chocolate jujitsu, I enjoyed some chocolate molten cake AND some chocolate mousse as well. All in all, not a shoddy day.

Oh, and the strawberries were good too.

66th Worldcon, Denvention 3

I'll be participating in some panels at the 66th Worldcon, August 6th-10th. The finalized programming schedule should be available by the end of May, and I'll post the details here as soon as I have them. In the meantime, a brief bio of me and a pic have been added to the Program Participants page. Hope to see you there!

Water, In Various Tempos

So yesterday after work I went for a walk around a lake bordering the Hilton at which I was staying. I found an idyllic spot of pristine lawn, with a beautiful tree to sit against. I sat there, under the gentle sun and the fair breeze, and reached for my bag, so I could whip out my laptop and do some writing. But I paused, overcome by the Perfect Stillness of the moment. Some ducks from the lake approached and sat beside me. Alright, I thought, giving in, this is just too perfect--I don't like taking pictures and hadn't packed a camera, but this seemed like the textbook time for a snapshot. So I whipped out my cellphone, positioned the camera lens--

And just then an intricate system of high-velocity sprinklers shot off with an industrial sound, jettisoning freezing water in all kinds of directions, including those which I'd chosen to inhabit while resting against the tree. Getting drenched did little to ruin the good mood, though it did cause a change of clothes and a more acute awareness of suspicious declivities in unused lawn going forward.

I stayed at room 279, by the way. I mention this so that fifty years from now, when scholars attempt to reconstruct my travels and re-enact the most Transcendent moments of my journey along this mortal coil, it'll be a little easier for them to emulate the flapping motion of my arms and my dripping self as I moved from the lake to the entrance opposite the High-Rise entrance and all the way up to the room next to the room with the loud neighbors (277), whose door was left open by them (an invitation to trouble?) and who scattered empty and dirty toppled wine glasses on the carpet outside their door (an invitation to jealousy?).

The Perils of Travel

... are largely tedium, dehumanization and forced proximity with specious individuals (of which you are one to others).

Sitting at the airport right now, my flight from Salt Lake City to Orange County has been delayed, apparently by four hours. Oh well. In an attempt to assuage the riotous passengers, Delta has just announced a $7 voucher for food. Feed the masses to keep them quiet when there's time to be killed? I wonder if I can use the money to buy a book instead.

So now I have an unexpected window of time in which to read, work on my latest story, etc. Not so bad at all.

Third Suite

Finished the first, second and third drafts of the new story. Revised some sections ten times. I'm going to let it rest today and go over it again over the weekend, hoping I'll essentially just be tweaking it at that point.

My mom is staying over! All the way from Spain!! Only seven days in all, but it's still hella cool. Our plans do not include any daring feats of extreme sports, but are more inclined towards the simple fun and the comfy. Yesterday we watched the Bonus DVD that comes along with this outstanding cd. Astonishingly beautiful.

April's fitness goals achieved! Tasting a diversity of foods yesterday was like taking my taste buds on an excursion to the zoo -- and then getting to open up the cages and gobble all the specimens! Sorry for the cruelty of that image. Besides, I would never eat the Hippo. I couldn't, not after reading Ford's "After Moreau."

Looks like I may be work-traveling to Bellevue, Washington sometime during May, so I get to add that to my 08 travel tally.

Einstein Lane

Great fun in Rutgers/NY!

My three friends from University, whom I hadn't seen in four years, remained largely unchanged, and we were all in fine spirits.

Thursday night we walked around Rutgers in search of food (late at night) and I ended up getting the largest tuna sub I have ever seen--it was about four times larger than a normal sub.

Friday was NYC day. Much walking, from Penn station on 5th, Times Square, Empire State Building, St. Patrick's Church, also Central Park, great late lunch, then the Strand bookstore (18 miles of books), then a massive Barnes & Noble, down 7th and back to the train. Pretty impressive acrobatic break-dancing as we walked out of Central Park. It was a full day.

Saturday morning was Princeton village, the Institute for Advanced Study (look, there's Einstein lane! Look, there's Maxwell lane!), nice lunch, and then Princeton campus (look, Nash lived there!). Saturday afternoon was preparations for my friend's engagement/birthday get together later that same day: and then it was upon us, guests starting to show up at around 6 pm and all the way through 10 pm, part-ay time!!! It was awesome, a really eclectic mix of about 40 guests, from all walks of life and nationalities. Food was tasty, and I found unexpectedly enjoyable conversation. Our friend Carlos made some delicious, authentic tortilla-de-patata. For the record, the carrot cake clearly oven over the cheesecake. And how do you order veggie pizza when you're buzzed and it's really late? Tell them you want "every veggie, just everything!" At about 3 am my buddies decided to play rugby in a nearby park and then strip to their underwear and jump into the adjacent river. I chilled at home while they got chilled. After much conversation and merrymaking we called it a night around 5 am.

And as of this time, I still have not found any evidence to support the claim by my friend Marcos that Sartre was voluntarily or involuntarily homeless for four years. Sorry bud!