(This is a reprint of an essay I did for Small Beer Press–I’m headed to the airport and pressed for time. Next week, I promise, back to stuff about food, dogs, and TV.)

When I was in Mr. Fish’s class in fourth grade class at St. Columban, we had a mock election for President and I voted for Nixon. He won by a landslide. Granted, that was the year Nixon was re-elected in a landslide, but I proffer this bit of personal information as evidence that I am, at heart, a rather conservative person. I don’t want to be a conservative person. Studying literature and art, it becomes very clear that the really good writers and artists, the really important ones, are not conservative people. They are the people who institute change. Who make us see and think in different ways. So much of my life has been an effort to somehow convert myself from a mildly anxious, essentially conservative Catholic school girl into a radical, free-thinking writer. Read More »

From yesterday’s Wildcards signing in Albuquerque:

Click to embiggen.

They really did sign for the entire two hours.

Caroline, of course, is standing on the left side. (But it’s not her left. Hmmm.) From Left to Right:

Caroline Spector, Carrie Vaughn, Gail Gerstner-Miller, Vic Milan, Daniel Abraham, Sage Walker, George RR Martin, John Joseph Miller, Melinda Snodgrass, Chip Wideman, Ian Tregillis, and Walter Jon Williams.

John’s hidden in every shot I took, darn it.

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.

As most of y’all have figured out by now, I am not, by nature, a cheerful sort.  But it being That Time of Year when everyone and their dog is making up lists of The Best, Worst, Blah-Blah-Blah of 2007, I thought, why the heck not get in on some of that action?

But, as I am in touch with the great powers of the universe, instead of looking back, I’d like to make my predictions for 2008.  I’m certain I will do just as well as any other real psychic.

In 2008, all the school boards across the US will simultaneously decide that creation “science” isn’t, and will boot all references to it from classroom text books.  They will also remember that one of the most basic tenets of our democracy is the separation of church and state and will start teaching that in school. But they won’t ignore the historical significance of religion, and will teach how it has affected our world — both for good and ill.  

In 2008, Americans in droves will voluntarily give up their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles.  They will also pressure the government to support real energy reform, not just crony giveaways to develop ethanol.

In 2008, Americans will demand that oversight in government be reinstated.  Democrats and Republicans will drop their petty bickering and unite to clean up government, realizing, at last, that everyone loses when the government is run like a banana republic.

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This is just way too cool. An Earth-bound version of Quidditch has come to college campuses.

Check out this post by Scientist, Interrupted, who has lots more details.

For the first time in my life, I’m envious that I am no longer even remotely college age-able, and can’t play too. Maybe I should see if I can get a local amateur team together. In my copious free time, of course.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (click here for soundtrack in different window.)

Ooh, oo-oo-oo-ooh (Ooh-oo-ooh)
Ooh-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh
Ahh, ah-ah-ah-ahh (Rag doll, ooh)
Ooh-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh

(Hand-me-down) When she was just a kid her clothes were hand-me-down
(Hand-me-down) They always laughed at her when she came into town
Called her rag doll, little rag doll
Such a pretty face should be dressed in lace

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Everyone on the planet (and Harry Potter readers in the asteroid belt) has heard by now that Ms. Rowling has publicly declared that Dumbledore was gay. While this does in fact show some amount of support for GLBT issues, it does not, after all, do near as much as if she had shown the character as gay in the books themselves.

Here’s a particularly good analysis by Columbia Law Professor Michael Dorf at Findlaw linking the intention of fiction authors to the intentions of the Framers of the Constitution:

These principles may seem obvious enough when considering the relation of a fiction writer’s intentions to her text, but they are highly contentious when it comes to legal documents. In the balance of this column, I will explain why James Madison is no more of an authority on the meaning of the U.S. Constitution, than J.K. Rowling is on Dumbledore’s sexual orientation.

and

In the end, though, an author of a work of fiction is, at best, first among equals in interpreting that work. Her intentions do not control the meaning of the text.

Just in case anyone wonders. Every character I ever wrote in my books is gay. Also handicapped. And a woman. No matter what the books say.

And finally, from Andy Borowitz at the Huffington Post:

Just days after Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that the popular professor character Albus Dumbledore was gay, President George W. Bush told the nation that he would seek a ban on fictitious gay weddings.

I was looking up some examples of Nigerian 419 scams and just typed in “nigerian419.com” on the chance it would lead me to a site that was appropriate. Instead it took me someplace I’ve been before, but not in a long, long time.

Some of you are too young, or not geeky enough, to recognize this place so I’ll give you a hint.

Elizabeth Bear reads slush for Ideomancer. She tries really hard to inform the submitter why she passes on something. Sometimes they respond to this kind advice. Badly. Link.

Each year in the first half of October over a hundred thousand people descend upon my city for the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. I don’t know the statistics for this year, but in 2006 there were 700 balloons registered and when the wind is right, they float right overhead and land in the park behind my house.

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So, I’m engaging in this pretty pointless but kinda understandable search to see what everyone is saying about the Yumper trailer. Understandable because a lot of people (over 700,000 on YouTube alone) have seen it and a lot of them think it’s really cool. But also pointless because others are pissed because the movie doesn’t match the book and a small minority who’ve never heard of the book still think the trailer looks (I kid you not) “Gay.”

Cory Doctorow was describing this phenomenon at VP last week. He called it the “Turd in the Punch Bowl” phenomenon. No matter how delicious the punch and how small the turd, you just can’t get the turd off your mind.

I won’t point you at raves or pans but I did run across this funny one by Liz Miller at The Daily Reel. There she says:

Oh, man. So it’s just another Friday night and I’m lounging with my best BFFs at the the latest fabulous Hollywood see-and-be-seen (don’t ask me where, please — I wouldn’t want to make you feel embarrassed). And we’re enjoying some light cocktails and hard drugs when the topic of conversation turns to, as always, “Who would win in a fight — Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, or Billy Elliott?”

It’s a pretty controversial topic of conversation, as we all know. After all, Mace Windu’s got that badass purple lightsaber, and Billy Elliott has those sweet dance moves, and Anakin Skywalker’s all pouty and sad… The debate wages on as usual for an hour or so, and then my friend Jill says, “Wait. Guys. What if they had the power of teleportation? What then?”

And we are just like, “Whoa.”

link

A farmer born in the town of Bulach in the Swiss Lowlands, Billy Meier says his first extraterrestrial contacts occurred in 1942 at the age of five with an elderly extraterrestrial human man named Sfath. Contacts with Sfath lasted until 1953. From 1953 to 1964 Meier’s contacts continued with an extraterrestrial human woman named Asket. After an eleven year break, contacts resumed again (beginning on January 28, 1975) with an extraterrestrial human woman named Semjase the granddaughter of Sfath.

You can read lots of stuff about nutjob, Billy Meier, here, here, and here.

A man named Michael Horn, a martial arts practitioner who designates himself as the “Authorized American Media Representative for The Billy Meier Contacts,” recently sent an email to the science-positive podcast The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.

“I suggest that I appear on your radio show to both answer the false charges below and have you defend them. I have a rather vast readership and I will be glad to announce the details of the interview to them. Failure to provide me with such an opportunity or to respond to this request will be construed as a withdrawal by you and an apology for these widely circulated false claims and will be publicized as such. The following disinformation, defamatory, and libelous claims are attributed to you.”

He then refers to clips from the Encyclopedia of Skepticism and the Paranormal written about ten years ago summarizing the Billy Meier UFO Hoax.

After some discussion Dr. Novello and company have decided to decline Mr. Horn’s oh-so-generous offer. As one of the regulars on the show, Rebecca Watson of SkepChicks, said, “If he doesn’t give us a pony, that means he’s an idiot.”

Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.

Her death, of natural causes, was announced today by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, A Wrinkle in Time, which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.

– New York Times

Here’s a 2004 NPR interview with her about the Television Production of Wrinkle In Time.

Well, hell. I’ve been thinking a bit this week about writing about the whole Craig / gay / Republican / hypocrisy ball of maggots.

I spent a couple of decades living in the Montrose in Houston, which is probably the third largest congregation of gays in the country, now that New Orleans is no more. I didn’t think I had anything all that unique or brilliant to say, but I do have some thoughts on the subject.

But Erin O’Brien just ruined it all for me with this post. It’s damn near definitive. And sad as can be.

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As proof that, like Larry Craig, but completely unlike him in every way, I Am Not Gay, I’d like to offer that I really get a thrill out of this pic of Erin’s puppies. Hey, even if I was gay, I’d certainly respect them.

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(So, maybe you’re thinking it’s unseemly to have a pic of Erin’s puppies on the dignified and scholarly front page of EOB. I have lots of pics of cute pussies – that Steve took! – that I can post instead.)

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Once upon a time I was an unpublished author. What time? Well, looking at my bibliography you could tell that this was about 27 years ago, this month. (The September issue of Analog showed up in late August of 1980.) I was mumbledy years old. Uh, okay, I was 25, though the sale happened while I was 24. It was Analog/Astounding’s 50th anniversary so they’d commissioned a bunch of special stories and “The Touch of Their Eyes” had to wait for a slot.

It took me a couple of years after that to sell the two more stories that let me become a full member of the Science Fiction Writers of America. (Quite a bit later, the organization’s name became the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America but the single F is understood to have another F right under it. How’s that for fantasy?)

We all wanted to join the club (though it isn’t a club, though it often acts like one; the sort of club with a sign that says “no gurlz aloud.”) If you were in the club, you were an honest-to-god writer. You got to get into the cool parties at WorldCon. You stood around and listened to heads older-and-wiser (and often drunker) than you.

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