Good evening, and welcome to 2008. Illness and travel have interfered with my posting the past few weeks. I do abase myselves (all mumblety-mumble of them) in the general direction of my fellow Brainiacs. *coff!* *coff!*

Part of it is that I don’t have much to post about. I have a major project at work, but it’s not something I can talk about just yet, as it will be sometime before we roll out the trumpets and red carpets and cast rose petals all about… Though I do have a bit of news, on the writing front: my editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, has made plans to visit NM soon, and as part of that will be providing feedback on The Work in Progress (a/k/a Feral Sapiens, the first in a series of novels I have planned set a few hundred years in the future). It’s currently scheduled for release in early 2009. Whee! I’ve been picking away at a couple of shorter stories set in the same universe, which I hope to complete and get out there soon. More updates as they occur.

Patrick is coming to New Mexico in part to help promote the launch of a new era in George RR Martin’s Wild Cards series: Inside Straight.

I managed to snag an early copy of the manuscript, and I must say, it is a compelling read: exciting adventure, chills — thrills — great characters. It’s a collection of stories that examines what heroism really means. The individual stories are integrated to the point that it reads more like a novel than a collection of short stories. It’s been my experience with earlier Wild Cards works that Martin has a deft hand as editor, and he delivers here. And his skills are well complemented by his sometime-co-editor, Melinda Snodgrass, who also has a story in this anthology. Daniel Abraham does an excellent job of weaving all the story elements together with the interstitial material, from the point of view of a pervy guy named Jonathan Hive. And as mentioned earlier, our own Caroline Spector has a kickass story in it. Highly recommended.

Meanwhile, I want my flying car. Dammit.

Patrick Nielsen Hayden shot me an email pointing me to this chart of ten well-known SF tales (some of them movies, some books) and the extend to which they map to Campbell’s notion of the Hero’s Journey. Star Wars, had the most hits, with 19 out of 20 criteria matching. The story listed with the least resemblance (only 7 matches) is Jumper.

Now, also in the list are things I wouldn’t necessarily consider classics, like, say, The Last Starfighter, but I was still chuffed to see my little baby in the mix with things like A Wrinkle In Time, Starship Troopers, and Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

From the comments over at my personal blog, Marcia S. tells us:

Not sure where else to post this, but thought you might find it interesting:

MIT LSC presents a free sneak preview of the film JUMPER
….The screening will be followed by a discussion panel about the film and the physics of teleportation featuring lead actor HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN, director DOUG LIMAN, and MIT Physics Professors MAX TEGMARK and EDWARD FARHI. (work-in-progress) next week Wednesday, 16 Jan, in 26-100 at 8:00pm…..

Damn, too far for me…..