You are viewing ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
kristajhl's Friends Page
You are viewing kristajhl's Friends Page
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The search for the winner of this year's Meager Puddle of Limelight Award for Best Short Story Title continues with heat eight (the last of the preliminary heats). There are nine heats in all. The winners (or joint winners) from heats one - eight go straight through. The second place finishers battle it out in heat nine to see which title joins the others in the final round. What's at stake? Bragging rights for the winner? An interview and/or guest post here on An Englishman in New Jersey, as well as signed copy of my book, Fur-Face, and a couple of I are a writer! pens, as shown in the pic below. Poll #1842793 2012 MEAGER PUDDLE OF LIMELIGHT AWARD FOR BEST SHORT STORY TITLE: HEAT 8 OF 9 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None, participants: 8 From the following list, please select any short story titles which you think should progress to the final round
View Answers
Links to the other Heats and the final: Heat one Heat two Heat three Heat four Heat five Heat six Heat seven Heat eight Heat nine Final Round Voting in Heats 1 through 8 will close on Sunday, June 3rd 2012 at 6:00pm (US/Eastern). Heat nine will take place soon after. Good luck to all who take part! Vene, vidi, puddli! 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
|
|
| |
 Book Club SelectionsMay: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh; Discussion Date: 05/30/12 June: God's War by Kameron Hurley; Discussion Date: 06/27/12 July: Among Others by Jo Walton; Discussion Date: 7/23/12 All discussion dates are subject to change. You can find Calico Reaction all over the internet! Just take a look:  1) WordPress2) Goodreads 3) Facebook 4) LibraryThing 5) Paperback Swap FAVOR!! When I review a book you've read and reviewed yourself, would you kindly provide a link to your review in the comments of mine? I love seeing what others think, and sometimes I see those reviews when they're originally posted, but don't read them as I don't want to spoil myself on something I know I'll read in the future. The problem, then, is I often forget to go back and read the reviews I missed! So please, if you've reviewed something I'm reviewing, shoot a link my way. :)  ChallengesTHEME PARK: Want to receive a monthly notification for what's happening in the 2012 book club? Details are here. Mount TBR Challenge: Here's my goal for 2012: 25 books. Want to sign up? Click here. Got a reading challenge you'd like to promote? Please comment. You may also comment to promote giveaways, but those links will be posted on my Facebook page. This Week Monday: A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison Tuesday: Wednesday: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh (maybe. I hope!) Thursday: Friday: Currently Reading: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh 2012 Reading Total: 45 books, 1 DNF, 9 short stories 2012 Comics Total: 236 comics |
|
| |||
|
Am pleased and proud to announce that I’ve been accepted into Launch Pad this year. For those who don’t know, Launch Pad is a NASA-funded astronomy workshop for writers, held on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie. You can well imagine how valuable something like that would be to a science fiction writer and geek. I mean, I’ll even get telescope time. Dude. Let me tell you, this is not an easy gig to get. I’m thrilled and honored to be studying with these fine folks. Please permit me a small woo-hoo! So. What are you doing this summer? ETA: The one downside to all this that Launch Pad conflicts with OSFest. I wish it weren’t so, but there’s no getting around it. To those who are attending, have a great time, and I’m sorry I won’t be there with you. Current Music: "A Place in My Heart"--Joe Bonamassa
|
|||
| |
 The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees (2011)Written by: E. Lily Yu Genre: Short Story/Fantasy Published by: Clarkesworld Rating: It's a Gamble And at last, we come to the final short story nominated for the Hugo, and incidentally, it was my least favorite of the bunch. Yet, despite knowing it won't get my top vote, I went ahead and read it for a second time before reviewing. My first read was filled with interruptions, and as a result (or maybe the interruptions themselves were a result of the following), I had a hard time grasping the shifts in perspective, of understanding when we'd moved from a human perspective to a wasp perspective to a bee perspective and then back and forth again. On the second read, I had that trouble one specific time, in the beginning, despite knowing what to look for. After that, I was okay with the shifts, and honestly, the story's not so badly written that I should have trouble. Instead, it requires careful attention. A reader must pick up key words to recognize the shift, and a second read really helps in this regard. My first read was not one where I gave full, careful attention, so I'm glad I gave this a second shot for the sake of review. As previously mentioned, the writing is good. It should be, given the publisher in particular, but the style of prose is enjoyable once you understand the type of story you're getting. It's kind of fable-esque, an allegory, given that we get the point of view of both the cartographer wasps (which is an utterly fantastic premise) and the anarchist bees, reminding of stories like Orwell's Animal Farm, though this isn't nearly so bleak. There was an interesting discussion in the comments as to whether or not this story merited the term "science fiction" (for the record, you can read this story for free and its comments on Clarkesworld's website, and I've got a direct link to the story above), and my first reaction was, "Hell to the no." I'm all for soft and/or social science fiction stories, but short of a commentary on colonialism, there was little to nothing here that lent this story to any kind of SF label in mind. Rather, and you'll notice this distinction in the genre tab above, I felt this story was clearly fantasy. There's a whimsical quality to the story, to the world-building, that lends itself to magic more than it does to SF, and despite some debates I've seen online, a story about colonialism does not immediately make a story SF. Colonialism might be a common theme in SF, but it is not a staple of the genre. Then I noticed the author's comments regarding the genre of the story, referring to entomology and how many people don't consider it a hard science, but it is, and the author seems to acknowledge the fact that this story pushes many a genre envelope (really, it's best just to call this sucker speculative fiction and be done with it), I got the impression that she, too, considers it science fiction. Interesting. Entomology is the study of insects, and certainly, given her world-building, the author has put a great deal of real-world research into her cartographer wasps and anarchist bees (I think I read someone that bees can ACTUALLY be anarchists? Fascinating!). But I resist the label of science fiction in particular. On one hand, one can argue that this is a story heavily based in science, and therefore science fiction, and I'd roll with that rather begrudgingly. On the other hand, I'm not entirely certain that just because a book requires scientific research in order to convey accurate world-building necessarily makes the resulting piece of fiction science fiction. To me, it's more of a matter of keeping things authentic and real, so that one's story isn't so bogged down by bad research it isn't taken seriously. It can go either way. But this is too fantasy/allegorical/fable-esque for me to roll with the hard SF label. Of course, I know next to nothing about wasps and bees, let alone insects, so who am I say for sure? Maybe this is the greatest piece of hard SF ever… if you're a entomologist. All of this musing came after the second reading, and I'm grateful for it. I missed the colonialism on my first read-through (yeah, that's how distracted I was), though I did wonder on that first read if the author wasn't perhaps positing a theory as to the disappearance of honeybees? Yet there's a prevailing feeling of, well, I don't want to say hope, but persistence. Because despite everything that happens, ideas never die. They find a way to keep going and infecting others, and on my second read, that's what I walked away with. It's an utterly creative and interesting story, one well worth discussing. Yet compared to the other Hugo nominees, it failed to inspire any emotional connection. "The Paper Menagerie" hit me in the heart. "The Shadow War" made me laugh. "Movement" engaged my intellect on an active level, the kind that gets me genuinely excited for the material. "Homecoming" tried to engage my heartstrings and my wonder, failed utterly, but it did try. Poor "Cartographer" was a fascinating piece of work, and while it engages my intellect, it doesn't do so on an active level. I'm not inspired to learn more about wasps or bees or anarchy or any of those things, and for my two cents, if a story is going to truly engage me on an intellectual level, it must hook me in a way that makes me see the world through a completely new lens. It must fascinate me, engage me to the point of obsession. This is a personal thing, and it's not the author's fault that "Cartographer" didn't grab me. Which is why the rating is "It's a Gamble." It's an interesting story that's worth reading, with the most fantastic title out of the nominated bunch, but your mileage may vary, and you may need to read it again just to make sure you didn't miss anything the first time. |
|
| |
|
Originally published at Eric James Stone. You can comment here or there. This week’s Russian pop song: “I So Want To” by Infiniti. I must say the music video isn’t exactly the most entertaining one I’ve seen, but I like the song a lot. Here are the translated lyrics (courtesy of Google Translate and megalyrics.ru):
|
|
| |
|
We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons. MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could push characters into more cardboard, stereotypical roles and — if other shows are any example — drag out for far too long. Instead, Asami’s character quickly developed more depth and conflict. The plot moved along, changing her role in the story. The conflict between Korra and Asami progressed through conflict into understanding and sympathy. I loved the quiet moment at the end where Korra tells Mako, “She’s going to need you.” I’ve seen that pacing elsewhere, and I appreciate that the show doesn’t seem to get bogged down. There’s always a sense of movement.
Complexity: The scene with Tahno’s character really jumped out at me. This is a character who’s introduced as a full-on asshole. He’s arrogant, he cheats, and you really wanted Korra to kick his butt in the tournament. Instead, the White Falls Wolfbats won … and thus became the targets of an Equalist attack. In the next episode, you see Tahno without his powers, and he’s utterly broken. Korra feels for him. She knows what he lost and how close she came to losing her own bending. It was a fairly short scene, but that’s all it took. The relationship between Tenzin and Lin Beifong is another interesting example. Their history, the contrast of their apparent discomfort with how well they work together in a crisis … I have no idea where that’s going, but I like the dynamic, and at this point I’m trusting the show not to go somewhere overly cliche with it. While there are certainly characters who seem flat-out Evil, at least at first, I appreciate that things generally aren’t presented in a simplistic black-and-white way. Neither people nor power are simple, and this show respects that fact. The Animation: This is a very pretty show, particularly in the way it portrays movement and the grace of the different benders. I get done watching, and other cartoons suddenly seem clunkier. Trusting the Viewers: I was trying to figure out how to phrase this last bit, and “trust” is the closest I can come. I’ve never seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Korra. It doesn’t surprise me that they wanted a show that could welcome new viewers as well as old, but it struck me that there just isn’t a lot of exposition or hand-holding, period. There’s no talking down, no assuming that things will be too complicated or difficult to understand. Elements are explained as they become relevant to the story. I know there are things I’m missing from Avatar, but I can catch up on my own, and I like that they don’t slow down the story to spoon-feed information. In Conclusion: Okay, I get it. I’m officially a fan, and I have added Avatar: TLA to my list of things to catch up on (when I find the time). Mirrored from Jim C. Hines. |
|
| |||
|
What Happens After Writing 3 or 4 Books a Year (Elizabeth Spann Craig)
|
|||
| |||
|
I've been suffering apathy regarding my garden this year. After 1)all the damage the dogs have done, and b)spring going straight to summer, I'm just having trouble getting myself out there to work in the yard. The chrysanthemums are already blooming. OK, the gardeners here will know that's weird for early May. My irises are already shot, and the Texas Lilacs (vitex) are setting blooms now rather than in August. That means the rest of the summer will be mostly bloom-free. I understand why the plants are doing this, but it does freak me out. ______________ Allergies and lack of Diet Coke are also taking a toll. Because of the humidity this year, mold is way up....and that's the primary thing that triggers my allergies. Since I've been working on cutting it back to NO MORE than 1 Diet Coke per day, my caffeine balance has been off. Between the allergies, hormones, and caffeine troubles, I'm having sinus headaches. Not congestion (so don't bother to suggest a neti pot), but swelling. I try not to overdo the sudafed, but it's been necessary... ______________ I've been re-reading Dreaming Death, as I'm contemplating whether to re-write it or not. So I'm not getting wordcount. Shironne is fun to write. I really do hope I sell this novel one day. ;o)
|
|||
| |
|
One of the hardest things about having two toddlers in the house is that they don't always occupy themselves with activities. Sometimes you have to find things for them to do. Thank goodness, then, for the concept of a playdate, in which parents of different children can bring them together in hopes that the children will play with each other, learn, and leave us alone. :-) My The Brookline Parent column for Brookline Patch today, Occupy Playdates, is all about the playdate phenomenon as it applies to Muffin and Squeaker. And it gets philosophical at times. Go read it, and you'll find out: * How being a middle child led Michael to make a certain decision about his own family; * How not having a car influences the playdate decision; * Which YA fantasy writer lives in Brookline, has three children, and is happy to have her kids play with Muffin and Squeaker; * Which playgroup Muffin and Squeaker rate four thumbs up; * And why it is that even at this age Muffin and Squeaker may already be spoken for. Enjoy! |
|
4 (15.4%)
excited
Lin Beifong continues to be awesome. In many ways, I think she’s my favorite character. Partly because she’s an older woman kicking all sorts of ass. Partly because she, more than anyone else I’ve seen, seems to take full advantage of her bending abilities. The firebenders throw fire. Earthbenders throw rocks. Beifong, on the other hand, manipulates metal cables like Spider-Man, grows blades from her armor to punch through mechs, and seems to push the “What else can I do with this?” angle.
cheerful
blah