corwin

John Scalzi's Blog

I’ve done my work for the day,
I’ve twittered random shit.
I’ve whined about immigration;
And I’m sure I displayed my wit.
I’ve drunk my supper, watched some porn,
And even fed the dog.
Now it’s time to be an idiot on John Scalzi’s blog.

He’s the president of SFWA
His comment strings are long.
Lots of people pay attention,
SO I HAVE TO PROVE HIM WRONG!
He wouldn’t dare delete my words,
Or the comment chain I’ll clog.
So I’m free to be an idiot on John Scalzi’s blog.

He calls his blog “Whatever”
And that’s just what you’ll see:
Whatever I must do
To get him to look at me.
In the atmosphere of discourse
I will be the smog.
I’ll be the biggest idiot on John Scalzi’s blog.

It isn’t that I hate him
Or that I like to fight
It’s just my means of self-expression
Now that I’m banned from Making Light.
When they call me assbag, troll, and jerk
I’ll jump up and down, agog,
Because it proves I am an idiot on John Scalzi’s blog.

I suppose I could go get a life,
Or read a book or three,
And maybe listen to some of those
With whom I disagree.
But it seems like so much effort,
Whereas falling off a log
Is hard compared to spreading crap on John Scalzi’s blog.

Hawk: Progress Report

The book is going slow.

It’s kind of interesting; the last time a book felt it was moving this slowly was Athyra, which I referred to as “that-goddamn-fucking-book-from-Hell.” In the end, I was pretty happy with it, but it was painfully frustrating at points. This one feels different. It isn’t frustrating, it’s just…slow. I’m grinding my way toward the end of chapter 5, and I feel like I’ve been there forever. But I make a bit of progress every day (at least, when possible given friends’ drama, my own medical crap, and my sister’s hospital stay).

I think part of it is that I’m experimenting–not with voice, or with structure, but with approach. This is the first time in a long time I’ve found myself forced to concentrate on plot in the first draft. I’m trying some stuff that, if it works, I’m going to really like; but it requires figuring out a lot of plot details early on. Usually, these are the kinds of details I let write themselves for the first draft, then go back in the rewrites to make them all make sense and feel natural and inevitable. This one just won’t work that way.

So, short version: this one will be awhile in the cooking. I really hope it ends up worth it. I know I’m feeling challenged by it, and I like that feeling.

On Behalf of Nate

For those of you don’t know which Nate I mean, you can safely ignore this post. Sorry about the distraction.

For the rest of you, Nate’s accounts (Livejournal, Facebook, Gmail) have been compromised and his passwords changed, so he has no access to them. When he gets new accounts, I’ll post the new ones here. Meanwhile, if he hasn’t replied to you (or sounds really weird), that’s why.

Update: Life keeps happening

Just random stuff that has, is, and will be happening. Let’s see. I now have health care. I have surgery scheduled for August 22nd to install a defibrillator in my chest which ought to help keep me alive and will make me a Cyborg. I now have a “partial denture,” which means that I can bite into things again, and great is my glee. I’m still working on Hawk, albeit slowly. I’m also working on an Incrementalist short story that my critique group savaged. (Well, that’s not fair. They didn’t savage it; they just said it didn’t work as is, and pointed to some ways to make it work. That sort of thing would annoy me if they weren’t right).

Yesterday, helped give my friend John Sjogren the best. birthday. present. ever.

I have a full physical–the first one in years–scheduled for July 23rd. I’ll be heading to Armadillocon at the end of the month. Then back for August and some of September, then I’m planning an East Coast road trip culminating in Viable Paradise in early October. Then I’ll be heading to MileHighCon in Denver.

I would love to have a first draft of Hawk finished by the time I leave for the East Coast, but it seems doubtful with how slow the damn thing feels like going. On the other hand, that’s because the plot insisted on getting all twisty on me. I kind of like it when a book does that–I think the last one that turned on me like that was Orca, and I was pleased with how it came out.

On Health Care in the US

I was asked to start a topic on the affordable health care act. Of course, it’s liable to go beyond that.

To kick it off, I’ll quote a Jay Lake tweet from just a few minutes ago:

‘Romney: “Obamacare puts the federal government between you and your doctor” Hey, Mitt, ever heard of the GOP position on women’s health? #fb’

Now, myself, I am no fan AT ALL of the act. In my opinion, as long as you accept that profit is more important than health, you cannot fix health care. But I’m sure others have different opinions.