Category: blog

Link change for Mad Rush vid

There is a new YouTube link for Karina’s Mad Rush vid for “Strings”. Karina has added a title at the beginning and credits at the end and re-uploaded the vid. I have fixed the link in the original post, but wanted to make sure people knew about the change.

I’m going to be spreading the word about the vid because I think it’s an absolutely awesome idea for generating online buzz for fiction, and a cool and intensely personal way for people to interact with stories they love. I’m totally jazzed about it.

Thanks again, Karina!

The faster I go, the behinder I get

I have posts…hmm, what are these posts doing? Are they simmering like stew? Are they building themselves up in my brain like coral on a reef? Are they brewing like tea? There are so many metaphors for the black-box backbrain process of writing, of bringing ideas together to the point where words may give them shape.

But I’m not there yet. I would be, except that I hate hate hate hate Windows! have experienced three hours a few technical difficulties this morning. And I have places to go and things to do, and the posts that are… mulching, fermenting, gestating: whatever they’re doing, they’re not done. And I really need to be finishing up the Humans At Work website because I want it ready for beta testing before I go off next week to sit for eight hours on uncomfortable chairs with some mind-numbing talk show blasting from a corner TV waiting for my turn to be rejected for jury duty.

Sometimes life is all about the details. I can handle details, but it’s not always a fun experience. My parents are both great at managing details. Why did I not get these cheerful give-me-a-list-and-stand-back genes? Because the universe needs a good laugh every once in a while, and today it’s my turn to pop out of the little box wearing a funny nose and waving my arms back and forth. And probably not getting as much done as I would like. Ah well…I’ve said before that I don’t believe in fate or god, but I can’t resist this quote:

I was put on this earth to accomplish a number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die. — Who knows who said this, but it’s true

However, do not feel sorry for me. I have become quite good at rewarding myself for entering the ninth circle of hell detail zone, and so one of the things on my list today is this.

Enjoy your day, whatever you’re doing!

Mad Rush for Strings

When I first wrote about vidding, I said:

I wish there were a way to respond like this to a novel or short story. Imagine. Wow. If someone did something like this in response to my work, I would cry like a baby and count myself blessed. — from my post “Vid it“

And today comes this from Karina Melendez — her response to my story “Strings”.

The words are taken (a bit randomly) from…”€œStrings”€. The music is by Philip Glass. The beautiful footage belongs to Patricia Rozema and Aaron Platt. — Karina Melendez, describing the origins of “Mad Rush“.

And so I’m crying and I’m blessed. I’m overwhelmed by this beautiful gift. It’s just astonishing.

Because apart from the incredible personal meaning this has for me, I stand in awe of what she’s done for fiction. It would never have occurred to me to use words in this way, and I think it’s fucking brilliant. This is not a “video of the story” — it’s a response that uses the story I wrote to show the story that she feels. This is not the story of “Strings,” it’s the heart of “Strings” — what music means, how it feels, what it does. And how what we keep inside us will always find a way out.

Watch it, please, please. And please go let Karina know what you think.

Saying thank you doesn’t seem like enough, somehow. And so I thought that along with my thanks, I would offer the story itself. Here is “Strings”. It’s one of my best. I hope you enjoy it.

Pandemonium

Daryl Gregory was at Clarion in 1988. At the workshop, he wrote a story about drag-racing demons, and I knew then that he was one of the good ones, someone who would go out and blow a hole through SF. He’s been publishing great stories for years, and getting a lot of well-deserved attention.

And I’m totally thrilled that today he publishes his first novel, Pandemonium. The book is already getting great reviews (Publisher’s Weekly, Locus, The Agony Column). And hey, the first taste is free — you can read the first chapter here.

Congratulations, Daryl! I’m excited for you. Go celebrate, man. I’ll be here reading the book.

Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory

Kinda I want to

It’s late August, and change is in the air. Autumn is close, the grey wind, the orange and red leaves, the wine, the fire. They are our days of rebirth, Nicola’s and mine. Autumn is for us the real beginning of our year, and like all beginnings I wish it would hurry up slowly…. I’m eager for the electricity and the fizz, and at the same time I never want to let go of these sleepy days, the heat and the smell of cut grass and the meandering afternoons that slide slowly into soft nights.

But autumn’s coming. I can feel it.

So here’s an autumn song. For those who’ve been following the music I’ve posted here recently, and who aren’t familiar with Nine Inch Nails (waving at parents), just let me say — this isn’t U2, and it’s not Traffic. This is the raw part of the landscape, the wilder side of where I live musically.

I played this song constantly when I was writing “Dangerous Space.” If you like that story then perhaps you’ll imagine that you are Mars in your studio, where you have always been safe until Duncan Black came into your life. And it’s 2 AM and Noir is there, sweating and grinning and juiced on music. Everyone’s doors are open. No one’s going home. Johnny says Let’s do this fucking song and they look at each other in the way you’ve come to know and then they do, they play. And Duncan sings. And you watch him, and you listen, and you put your hands on this music and lay it down.

When I went looking for the song, I found something unexpected — an X-Files Mulder/Krycek slash vid. I’ve written before about my interest in vidding, and I think the vid in that previous post (“Defying Gravity”) is gorgeous — seriously, go see it if you haven’t, it’s exciting and expansive and full of the particular joy of being completely oneself, even when that’s a scary thing to be or to have others see about you. Today’s vid is more…autumnal. All about longing, the unspoken conversations, the impulse to begin… Perfect for the song and the season.

There are no bad words or nudity in any of this, so perhaps it’s safe for work. Although I wouldn’t call it safe in any way, myself. And that’s autumn for you.

Calling all U2 fans

@U2, the U2 fan website that I write for, is sponsoring the first-ever academic conference about U2. “U2,The Hype and the Feedback: A conference exploring the music, work and influence of U2” will happen May 13 – 15, 2009 in New York. Special guests include esteemed music writers Anthony DeCurtis and Steve Turner, award-winning religion writer Cathleen Falsani, Jim Henke of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Matt McGee, who is my boss from @U2 (hey, Fearless Leader!) and the author of the forthcoming book U2: A Diary.

The conference is hosted by Cedarville University and is the brainchild — and long labor — of Scott Calhoun, an @U2 staff writer and a professor at Cedarville.

Many of the @U2 staff are involved in some aspect of the conference. I’m a member of the panel reviewing submission papers for the programming tracks, and I’m looking forward to this new light shining on the music and band I love. What will the academics say about U2? Should be interesting…

If you’re a U2 fan, or you know someone who is, please let them know about the conference. You don’t have to be an academic to attend — you just gotta love U2!

And just to show how serious U2 can be, here’s a clip from Rattle and Hum (1987) that includes a kickass version of “Desire”… and a very funny interview with a very stoned band.

Fear

This morning I read this on PostSecret:

Today I made a list of my fears. It wasn’t as long as I thought it would be. — an anonymous postcard from PostSecret today

Fear’s a tricky thing: some fear is there for a good reason, and it’s as if all the rest of our fear — our insecurities, our denials of self or others, our defensiveness, the way we turn from risk or adventure — piggybacks onto it. As if the fact that there are some things to be afraid of in the world makes it reasonable to be afraid of everything. Fear makes us think that everything will kill us in some way. And our culture makes us think that being afraid of anything makes us weak and wimpy and…. well, there are very few positive words.

Talk about a no-win situation. But here’s my take on it. Running away from someone trying to harm you = Good. Running away from our personal fears, in my experience = Fear Grows Bigger Teeth, Bites Harder, Rules Me More. But when I let that happen — when I let fear bite me in the ass — that doesn’t make me weak. It just makes me a person who is so scared right now that I put myself in a box to “keep myself safe.” And there’s nothing at all wrong with being safe. But it turns out that I can’t have all the things I want if I’m safely in the box, and so, as with everything else, I have to choose.

I’m not sure we always have to tackle fear head-on — we don’t always need that kind of stress, you know? — but I think it’s good to look it square in the eye and say I see you there. For me, knowing what I’m really afraid of at least lets me choose whether to take it on, as opposed to finding myself blinking in a box wondering how the hell did I get here?

I hope that person’s list was really short, and I hope the things on it are all things that will make her shake her head and say, okay, I can live with that, and then drop her box in the recycling bin on her way out the door.

Le destin, c’est moi

Nous tissons notre destin, nous le tirons de nous comme l’araignée sa toile. — Francois Muriac
 
We weave our destiny, we draw it from ourselves like the spider spins its web.

I don’t believe in fate. I don’t subscribe to the notion of a higher being with a plan for me. But I know life is not random, either, although there are times when the random delights or damages us for a moment or forever.

In my philosophy, the four most powerful things in the universe are love, joy, fear and choice. History is made from their stew. People live and die for them, from them. We stand tall or twist ourselves out of true by the choices we make from love and joy and fear. Most of those are small daily choices about whether to do, how to respond, what to let in and keep out. And from those things we weave ourselves. My life is the web of my choices.

Destiny is a funny word. I don’t believe in destiny spelled out in a Big Book somewhere, as if the universe was simply some giant cosmic puppet theatre. I choose not to see myself and my life reduced to that. So I do not think there is A Path I Am Meant To Walk, and yet it is clear to me when I’m doing things that… hmm. That fit with the essential core of me, the soul, the spirit, whatever you choose to call it. I know when I feel aligned and when I don’t. I know when I am out of true.

As I get older, I trust more and more my own instincts about these choices. I trust my sense of whether things are right or wrong for me, my sense of when to act and when to stand still. I trust that I can be hurt and survive, and so I no longer always need to blindly defend myself against the possibility of pain. I trust that I can be joyful without the other shoe dropping on me, and so I no longer always need to “deserve” happiness. I trust that I can live with complexity, and so I am no longer so afraid to feel whatever it is that I feel.

And even when the random intervenes, even when things happen that I did not choose, it is still my choice how to respond.

And so I make my choices and my life weaves itself around me. And many of those choices the last couple of years have been big ones, the kind that alter the patterns forever. I am not who I expected to be. And yet I am totally myself. I’m creating daily a destiny that can only be mine, because it is made of my choices, my love, my fear, my joy.

And just in case I’m sounding a little too far inside my own navel, I hasten to add that the Muriac quote from which spring all these musings comes from one of my favorite t-shirts:

Pense Pas Bête t-shirt from threadless.com

You can find all the quotes and translations here. Perhaps they’ll make you muse too, or perhaps they’ll just make you want to find a baguette and the nearest bottle of wine. Happy Saturday, either way.

Friday pint

Every Friday I transfer posts here from the Virtual Pint Archives.

Three pints today — 60 ounces of posty goodness. These three ended up being loosely related, all touching on reading somehow. Nothing particularly deep and meaningful. Just enjoyable (for me) little conversations with people who took the time to write in with questions or comments.

If you’d like to start a conversation anytime, use the Want to talk? link on the sidebar.

Cheers.

F&SF questions about online publishing

Gordon Van Gelder of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is asking for input about publishing short fiction online. His questions are an interesting indication of how print publishing, especially for fiction magazines, is changing. The responses are equally interesting. I’m in particular agreement with the folks who say with regard to magazines, free fiction online benefits the writers more than the publishers.