Monthly Archives: February 2004
What Agents Are Good For
Posted on February 29, 2004
A writing project my fiction agent has been sending out has been rejected by two publishers in less than a week, and you know how I feel about that? I feel good. And here’s why: Without an agent, those two rejections could have taken up to two years to get to me. Plus, I got […]
Oscar Predictions 2004 — Final
Posted on February 27, 2004
As I usually do with my Oscar predictions, here are my revisions to my earlier predictions on Oscars, which I made just after the nominations came out. This year, I’m doing almost no revising — but I also note that several categories are much closer than I suspected they would be. As background, read my […]
Bandwidth
Posted on February 26, 2004
Bandwidth is going through the roof — not because I’m getting so many more visitors recently (although I am — hi there, new people! Check out the groovy digs!) but because someone on Livejournal linked to a picture here. And the thing is, when you link to a picture on livejournal, it not only gets […]
My Right to Same Sex Marriage (in Massachusetts)
Posted on February 26, 2004 2 Comments
Uh-oh, here I go again: One of the typical responses to the whole “gay marriage” thing is that gays and lesbians won’t actually lose their equal rights by the passage of an amendment that limits marriage to only one man and one woman, because gays and lesbians can marry a man (if they’re a lesbian) […]
Building the Perfect Goth Girl
Posted on February 26, 2004
Goth girls are made, not born, and so in the interests of Athena developing that essential patina of removed disdainful alienation that will serve her well to mask her insecurities and neuroses through high school and college, we got her this little goth doll, whose name, if I recall correctly, is “Malice,” and is very […]
As Long As You’re Here —
Posted on February 25, 2004
Readership is up quite a bit in the last couple of days, and since today I’m not going to be posting much of anything on account I need to make some money (plasma drive, here I come!), I encourage newcomers and veterans both to check out IndieCrit, in which I highlight cool music from indie […]
Addendum
Posted on February 24, 2004 8 Comments
Yes, yes, I know. I’ve been tiresome about gay marriage recently. But you know, look. As soon as I got done typing the last entry, I went over to CNN’s Web page to find that our president backs an amendment to our constitution which would, if passed, be the first time our government has specifically […]
Leviticans
Posted on February 24, 2004 11 Comments
On occasion people ask me what, exactly, it is I have against Christianity, inasmuch as I seem to rail against it quite a bit. My general response is: I have nothing against Christianity. I wish more Christians practiced it. The famous bumper sticker says “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” but I often wonder just how […]
Pictures of People’s Souls
Posted on February 22, 2004 7 Comments
A question for you. 20 years from now, and presuming a certain level of the ability to feel shame at one’s own public stupidity, which people in the photos below do you think will be more ashamed of their actions at the San Francisco City Hall last week? These people: Or these people? And just […]
Fake Cover, Real Book
Posted on February 20, 2004
I got a couple of e-mails asking for a better look at the cover I made for my CafePress run of The Android’s Dream. So, here you go: It was made by fusing together a picture of a sheep pasture in New Zealand with a picture of the Whirlpool Galaxy by the Hubble in Photoshop. […]
I Am Married
Posted on February 20, 2004 7 Comments
I keep hearing how allowing gays to marry threatens marriage. Fine. Someone tell me how my marriage is directly threatened by two men marrying or two women marrying. Does their marriage make my marriage less legal? Does their love somehow compromise the love I feel for my wife, or she for me? Is the direct […]
Get Me Rewrite
Posted on February 20, 2004
I’ve terrified Tamar with a comment I made in the Novel Postmortem thread, so it’s worth clarifying. In the comment thread for the entry, John Popa asked: “As an aspiring-to-be-published writer, I’m curious as to how much rewriting you expect from this point? How ‘done’ is this ‘done?’” My response, in part: I rewrite only […]
Mack Daddy Day
Posted on February 19, 2004
Today was the mack daddy day for cool stuff in the mail. First to arrive: My personally inscribed copy of Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow, shipped from Borderlands Books, San Francisco’s finest purveyor of Cory Stuff (he’s doing a signing there this very evening! If you’re in SF, go!). Second: My review copy of […]
Ode to Librarians
Posted on February 19, 2004
One thing I love about librarians — aside from their natural inclination to think books are the coolest things ever — is that if you scratch their mild-mannered, book-shelving exteriors, you find fire-breathing proponents for the rights of the individual lashing back at you. Last night one of my librarian friends called me in an […]
Novel Post-Mortem, Volume One
Posted on February 16, 2004 2 Comments
All right, now I’ve had some sleep. Allow me to share some thoughts about finishing up The Android’s Dream: * First, I’m amused (as always) at how the writing process works, at least in my case. I started writing The Android’s Dream (henceforth to be acronymed as “TAD”) at the beginning of May, 2003 and […]
Done
Posted on February 15, 2004 1 Comment
So, yeah. I finished. 111,677 words. Now I’m going to collapse into unconsciousness. Will write more about it later.
100,000
Posted on February 14, 2004
For all of you keeping score at home regarding my novel progress, this is just a note to let you know I just cracked the 100,000-word mark, which makes it my longest novel ever. (Agent and Old Man were both in the 96,000-word area of things). Patrick, if you’re reading this, never fear: There’s just […]
I’d Pull Out My Hair if I Had Any
Posted on February 11, 2004
Okay, so, I’m like this close to finishing my novel — close enough, in fact, that it’s driving me nuts that it’s not done, and I’m in a mad frenzy to get it banged out and out the friggin’ door. What I’m trying to say is that I’m taking a break until I get this […]
They Say Phenylalanine Does Things to Your Brain
Posted on February 9, 2004 1 Comment
Sometimes, when a Diet Coke and a Minute Maid Light Lemonade really love each other, they’ll ignore all the naysayers who demand that their passion for each other be kept a dark, desperate secret, and flaunt their desire for each other for all to see. And sometimes, through the purity of their love, a fruit […]
Whatever Everyone Else is Saying