I just finished the second draft of a science fiction story. That's why I haven't posted here for a while. It is 29 pages long, and it has taken about three weeks to get to the end of the second draft. I hope to do the third draft within the next few days, since most of the time spent on the second draft involved tracking down technical details. Now I just need to clean up the major and minor arcs of the story and integrate the structure.
Part of me wants to spend another month or year playing in the sandbox of the story, since it is a great escape from other things in my life.
But I also want to sell it, and a practical approach requires writing this amount of verbiage at a nickle a word every three days.
If anyone actually is reading this and wants to see the story, write me at zeitguide@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy of the draft.
9.10.03
mother-in-law
My mother-in-law is one of the most precious women I have known. She is 80 years old, and as vivacious as a debutante. Nick described her last year as "impossibly cute." Never at a loss for words, she is amazingly attentive to everyone around her while still keeping a firm grasp on situations that need leadership, as most do. Only her daughter is even more attentive and formidable in marshalling the loose ends of situations and offering them back in an artistic knot of advice, direction, and initiative.
She is visiting us with her husband, who is my wife's step father. He is famous among mystery fans for a prodigous output of books, radio dramas, short stories, etc which include the book for Orson Well's movie "A Touch of Evil."
Since Bob is so modest and sweet as a man, it is easy to forget that he has international stature as an artist. How many people do you know like that?
Last night we had baked salmon and rice with vegies after drinks and appetizers on the deck. The temperature was in the 80''s which is very unusual for October. We had a champagne toast and appetizers including Minnesota wild rice and artichoke salad. The oak and elm trees were going into peak color in the yards. The female berry-bearing elms in the front yard were like glorious gilded paintings seen through the living room windows.
During the conversation we discovered that Sara and I might be more old fashioned in our sense of etiquette than Bob and Jeanne. Jeanne provided presents, which included a deep red chenille shaw for Sara, some cooking spices and a framed picture of Sara for me, and a clever art deco alarm clock for Sam.
Bob and Jeanne think Sam is a wonderful, cultivated and socially adept young man. Bob has said on a few occaisions that he thinks highly of me because of how well my sons have been raised. I have to share some of the glory with Lisa and Sara and Neal, of course, but it makes me feel proud to have them recognize Sam for his character.
Jeanne looked like Gina Lollabrigida in her youth. She and Bob would dress for dinner and go out on the town in San Diego. They are clever and knowlegeable people who can hold forth intelligently on local and global politics, science and other issues.
I wish they lived here.
She is visiting us with her husband, who is my wife's step father. He is famous among mystery fans for a prodigous output of books, radio dramas, short stories, etc which include the book for Orson Well's movie "A Touch of Evil."
Since Bob is so modest and sweet as a man, it is easy to forget that he has international stature as an artist. How many people do you know like that?
Last night we had baked salmon and rice with vegies after drinks and appetizers on the deck. The temperature was in the 80''s which is very unusual for October. We had a champagne toast and appetizers including Minnesota wild rice and artichoke salad. The oak and elm trees were going into peak color in the yards. The female berry-bearing elms in the front yard were like glorious gilded paintings seen through the living room windows.
During the conversation we discovered that Sara and I might be more old fashioned in our sense of etiquette than Bob and Jeanne. Jeanne provided presents, which included a deep red chenille shaw for Sara, some cooking spices and a framed picture of Sara for me, and a clever art deco alarm clock for Sam.
Bob and Jeanne think Sam is a wonderful, cultivated and socially adept young man. Bob has said on a few occaisions that he thinks highly of me because of how well my sons have been raised. I have to share some of the glory with Lisa and Sara and Neal, of course, but it makes me feel proud to have them recognize Sam for his character.
Jeanne looked like Gina Lollabrigida in her youth. She and Bob would dress for dinner and go out on the town in San Diego. They are clever and knowlegeable people who can hold forth intelligently on local and global politics, science and other issues.
I wish they lived here.
8.10.03
Fortean Times Breaking News
Fortean Times Breaking News is the one stop shop for all your weirdness needs. Don't leave home on a spacecraft without it!
3.10.03
The Fleet Type Submarine Online
The Fleet Type Submarine Online is a fascinating and way too detailed look at the submarine service in wwII. See below.
out sick and submarines
Took two days off work to cough and loll on the couch, interrogate the cat about suspected activities, look for weapons of meow destruction, etc. Coughed successfully, but interrogation and weapons search turned up nothing. Also managed to read Tim Power's book Declare, and finish a book on WWII submarine experience called "Warfish" by George W. Grider.
Grider's book was an odd testament. Morose, vain, intemperate and ambitious, he was also evidently a very good captain of a submarine. Serving third or fourth officer under "Mush" Morton, he never managed to gain any glory or recognition however. A quick search of Amazon shows no Grider books in print. Morton's XO (executive officer) Dick O'Kane was given his own command just before Morton took the whole crew of the Wahoo to its death in the Sea of Japan. O'Kane wrote two books about his commands, and there are two other books about the Wahoo out there. It was a famous ship, and became a controversial story after the war when it was learned that Morton ordered gunfire on the men clinging to a troopship he had torpedoed...the men turned out to the Indian prisoners of war of the Japanese. What would be scandalously worried as an episode of shocking friendly fire deaths in "our" war was treated with a quick shrug and indifference in the world of 1942. C'est la guerre.
Submarines are fascinating to me now. It started with an idea for a science fiction story I am working on, and now I have about six books on the era and the technology and men of wwII submariner warfare. Nuclear subs aren't as interesting...there is something too doomsdayish, too eschatalogical about the whole nuke thing. WWII left room for individual character, and as Grider says in his postscript, sub warfare in WWII was actually a last vestige of 19th century warfare carried over into the 20th, when the gallantry and cowardice of leaders was clearly visible to their peers and subordinates. Character couldn't and wouldn't be hidden under a flurry of jargon or technology in those days, and character was the defining attribute of individuals, not systems. Grider finished his book with some ruefulness for the world his own son faced.
Grider's book was an odd testament. Morose, vain, intemperate and ambitious, he was also evidently a very good captain of a submarine. Serving third or fourth officer under "Mush" Morton, he never managed to gain any glory or recognition however. A quick search of Amazon shows no Grider books in print. Morton's XO (executive officer) Dick O'Kane was given his own command just before Morton took the whole crew of the Wahoo to its death in the Sea of Japan. O'Kane wrote two books about his commands, and there are two other books about the Wahoo out there. It was a famous ship, and became a controversial story after the war when it was learned that Morton ordered gunfire on the men clinging to a troopship he had torpedoed...the men turned out to the Indian prisoners of war of the Japanese. What would be scandalously worried as an episode of shocking friendly fire deaths in "our" war was treated with a quick shrug and indifference in the world of 1942. C'est la guerre.
Submarines are fascinating to me now. It started with an idea for a science fiction story I am working on, and now I have about six books on the era and the technology and men of wwII submariner warfare. Nuclear subs aren't as interesting...there is something too doomsdayish, too eschatalogical about the whole nuke thing. WWII left room for individual character, and as Grider says in his postscript, sub warfare in WWII was actually a last vestige of 19th century warfare carried over into the 20th, when the gallantry and cowardice of leaders was clearly visible to their peers and subordinates. Character couldn't and wouldn't be hidden under a flurry of jargon or technology in those days, and character was the defining attribute of individuals, not systems. Grider finished his book with some ruefulness for the world his own son faced.
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