Five Determined Things

The family news that was upsetting last night is still upsetting, and it's not the sort of news that will go away with a good night's sleep. So hopeful e-mails are still quite welcome, not any less needed than last night.

On the other hand, it's not news that's going away any time soon, so we do need to go on and think of other things around here. Towards that end:

1. lotusice's post reminded me: my story Making Alex Frey is up at Baen's Universe. You can read a bunch of it if you follow that link, but for the whole thing you'll need to either buy an issue subscription or a year's subscription. (Or, I suppose, more than a year's subscription, if you like.) The first taste is free, is their general model here. Go. Taste. If you like it, you know how to get more.

The illo was just right. Says the not-very-visual person.

2. snurri took an extremely awesome photo in line at the Obama rally last night, at my beloved Palace Of Hockey (the Xcel Energy Center). Best political sign EVAR. I love this state so much.

3. My mom came and did a whole bunch of really useful stuff for us yesterday. It is now no longer hanging over anybody's head or nose. One of those things -- sorry, Ma, I am going to publish Your Secret Shame over the internet, because it makes me giggle every time I think of it -- was fetching my library books. She accidentally yoinked someone else's reserved copy of The Sweet Far Thing! I thought about requesting it myself, and I decided I'd get it later, and then there it was on my stack when Mom got back from the library, so I checked the printout, and it had been saved for someone else. Hee! Apparently I was supposed to read this book now, not later. "You told me that couldn't happen!" Mom protested, and in fact and indeed I did tell her that. Apparently I was wrong. Heh. (I would be more contrite if I didn't know that they bought a million and one copies of The Sweet Far Thing, so whoever didn't get this copy has half a dozen other copies waiting for them.)

I also seem to have exposed the library system's loss of the only copy of The Forgetting Room, but I don't remember why it was on my list anyway, so I'm not too upset about not getting it.

4. markgritter was in engineer-brain mode last night and has suggested that we could try having me work on book revisions on the TV screen downstairs, which is, lo, very huge. In case the size or being able to change the angle or something helps get me longer stretches of computer time before the vertigo starts to really get me in a particular session. (This entry, like most of my entries of more than two lines, has been written over the course of a couple of hours with breaks.) I don't know that this will work, but it's worth trying. Engineer-brain is at least entertaining, and sometimes useful.

5. There is a picture of a sea slug on my desk. It has nift. It will go somewhere other than my desk, but it only arrived yesterday.

Channeling explanations

In the context of a longer post, callunav asked, "If you write speculative fiction - yes, you, even if you never show it to anyone - how do you convince yourself to quit it when you catch the explaining bug? I don't have enough experience with it, and it's annoying me no end."

And I said, "I channel the explaining bug into character. If it's sidetracked me from story, I think, 'All right, who believes that? And what does it do to their actions that they do believe it?'"

This is, of course, in the situation where trying to come up with lots of explanations for all the details of your story is counterproductive. Sometimes it's productive. Those times -- I just go with them.

In case anybody else might find that thought useful, I guess.