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Auction Stuff

skzb — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:33:32 +0000

Bunches of cool stuff are up for auction this week, all proceeds going toward Reesa Brown’s medical expenses. There are even a few things from that Brust guy, in case anyone around here is interested. The auction runs through Saturday night, so those of you who don’t get paid until Friday will still have time to spend your pennies in a good cause!

EDIT: from Brad — “As incentive to everyone to bid higher…I’ll match the auction total. Yup, so everyone’s bid is worth double.” That’s right, any bid you make will double the help we get towards our medical bills, so go visit http://spinathon.reesabrown.com/auction and make your bid, you have until 11:59pm Saturday May 15th!

Auction Stuff

They’re Spinnin’ & Grinnin’ I’m Screamin’ & Streamin’

skzb — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:34:48 +0000

Yes, friends, today I will be on streaming video, live from the Spinathon, starting at 1pm Central Daylight Time. What will I be doing? Probably standing around looking like an idiot. But I’ve said I’ll do it, so I will, if I’m not in jail.

(Edit: our main website went down, of course while our admin is in transit and therefore away from the ‘net. However, we’ll still be recording the show and will have it embedded on the site this evening. You can also see it while live from the direct UStream link in Round Rock starting at 1pm CDT. Paypal donations can be sent directly to eposia@yahoo.com, we’re less than 7 hours from making our 48-hour fiber-spinning goal!)

Re-Edit: SpinAThon site is back up and you can watch the cams directly here: http://spinathon.reesabrown.com/node/5

Final Edit: SpinAThon finished at 42.8 hours, and much lovely fiber spun by several talented women. The fiber spun during SpinAThon will be available for bidding along with other finely crafted products in next week’s auction! Steve played for 3.5 hours and we will be posting videos from his performance within the next few days on the SpinAThon site. Thanks to everyone who participated, you all rock!

They’re Spinnin’ & Grinnin’ I’m Screamin’ & Streamin’

Spinathon!

skzb — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:12:23 +0000

Yes, it’s a Spinathon! What, you ask, is a Spinathon? I have no idea, but we’re having one.

Okay, okay. In order to raise some money for medical expenses (Reesa, if you recall, just had a radical mastectomy, which is major surgery, which they charge money for), volunteers are going to be spinning yarn (or knitting) for as long a time as they can get sponsored, up to at least 48 hours. We have 23.5 hours covered so far. This is going to happen this coming weekend (May 1-2) here in Austin (well, technically Paige,TX and Round Rock). As extra incentive, if we raise enough sponsorships to cover the second day of SpinAThon (that’s Sunday, May 2 in Round Rock TX for you local folk), I’m going to be showing up to the event for several hours and maybe doing some tunes and signing some books and pretending to be a celebrity. Reesa will also be on-site for part of both days if you’d like to meet and chat with the person who inspired the event.

If this sounds like something you want to get involved in, follow the links below:

To skip the rest and go directly to the donate button, click here for the main SpinAThon page and then click the handy donate button, found just above the letters from friends.. (We tried to link to the button directly but the link expires after a certain amount of time.)

A link to the SpinAThon main page, as well as the FAQ page.

Reesa wrote a post compiling several links and information about SpinAThon that might be useful.

Only a few more days available for you to help out with SpinAThon! We also have an auction scheduled for after SpinAThon that will be putting up for bid the yarn and knit things made during the event, as well as other donated unique pieces from artists.

Spinathon!

Reesa’s health status

skzb — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:40:28 +0000

For anyone wanting to keep up with my girlfriend’s health situation, the details are here.

Reesa’s health status

Characterization discussion: Internal Logic

Reesa — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:21:53 +0000

Among the many and ongoing interesting discussions at our home, we’ve been talking about the concept we’re calling “internal logic” for a character. Internal logic here means that, among other things: an action that to an outside observer appears irrational, wrong, or evil, from the internal viewpoint of the character will be a justified, logical, and right action to make. It’s a useful thing to examine for most characters, but especially helpful in creating believable antagonists in a story.

Tolkien got around the need to deeply explore this by creating a world where evil really did exist, and some creatures did things because they were bad evil things to do. In this sort of scenario, you don’t have to worry too much about internal consistency for a antagonist’s actions as long as you have the formula “evil is good”. Unfortunately, Tolkien’s many imitators have generally not done as well as he did, and these days most people who encounter the Evil Overlord stereotype are likely to assign a label of “campy” “trite” or “overdone” to whichever story has the latest iteration of the trope.

Another loophole to spending a lot of time with discovering a character’s internal logic is the “Rendezvous with Rama” effect. For those of you who haven’t read or don’t remember the original story *spoiler alert skip to the next paragraph* an alien ship passes through our solar system, refuels from our sun, and departs. We send a ship out from Earth to explore the large alien ship, see lots of really interesting things, and learn nothing much about the aliens who created the ship. It’s the ultimate story in creating aliens with very alien motives that have little to nothing to do with humans except in passing.*end of spoilers*

Similarly, in Steve’s book Issola, the Jenoine are massively powerful and very alien, doing things that from the view of both the reader and the characters are hard to understand. Since that’s rather the point, we don’t really need to understand further about the Jenoine’s internal viewpoint.

With both of these examples, the unfathomability is the point of both the alien ship and the Jenoine. With characters that come closer to human-like actions and understandings, internal logic considerations become more of a factor. The world from the outside-looking-in and the inside-looking-out are often far different for people, and even for non-POV characters you might need to know something about their internal motivations. So how do you depict this?

One of my own characters tends to organize their environment in ways that to my first impressions seem counter-intuitive. It’s not a way that I would organize things, and sometimes doesn’t seem to make logical sense from my perspective. However, when I ask myself “why would [said character] arrange their things in that way?” I nearly always have an answer that comes to mind that makes sense from the viewpoint and life experiences of the character. Even if the internal explanation for the room arrangement doesn’t make it directly onto the written page, the fact that I as the writer understand why the character does a certain thing means that it’s more likely to reflect that knowledge in little bits of characterization throughout the story that will bring that understanding to the reader.

-Reesa

What springs to mind is the skeptic’s mantra: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. As it applies to fiction, it seems to me that the more bizarre the thought processes of the character, the more you have to convince the reader that the character really does think that way. The fun part is: how do you do it?

I was remembering Will Shetterly’s first novel, Cats Have No Lord, in which the antagonist’s primary motivation was fear–he did all sorts of horrible things because they seemed to be the best way to keep himself safe–and Will sold it so thoroughly that I never questioned it. Will did it with a hint here, a comment there, which was enough to clue the reader in to what was going on. Generally, I like the “less is more” approach when practicable.

The most fun way to approach it, for me, is to fall completely into the head of that character, and then write it in first person from his POV (I did that in Agyar), but there have to be other ways. I’m wondering what other people have used, or noticed.

-Steve

Characterization discussion: Internal Logic

Quick puppy update!

Reesa — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:36:40 +0000

Last two puppies

We placed another one, yay! We’re down to only two puppies, Males #3 and 4, pictured above. You can get all the details at the original post over here, but the quick info is that these blue heeler mix puppies are free, with their first round of shots, healthy and well-socialized, and my mom will deliver within a reasonable area (North or Central TX). Let’s find these last two guys homes!

Quick puppy update!

Who wants puppies? (Greater Texas area)

Reesa — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:13:33 +0000

UPDATE: Good news! Females 1& 2 and Male 1 have all found homes! Please keep spreading the word to anyone you know who might be interested so we can place the last three. Thanks for the help so far!

My folks found a stray dog on their property that they very carefully decided to ignore and not feed and hope it would go away…until the next morning when my mom found many more new dogs in addition to the stray. That’s right, a very pregnant dog found the right suckers to help her through the tough childbirth time, hehe. My mom and stepdad have decided to tentatively keep the mother (though they’d prefer to find her a home with a farm and actual cattle and pay for spaying her; she’s very obviously an abused dog and will need special care for a while), as she is clearly not feral and very well-behaved, but they just can’t provide a home for the puppies long-term. My mother has asked me to spread the word about the need for good puppy homes to anyone who is within reasonable (reasonable by your standards if you want to come pick it up, or by our standards if we’re dropping off) travel distance of the gigantic DFW Metroplex (or Austin/Central TX area, since I can help with the transfer as well if needed) in Texas. Here is what she said about the dogs:

I plan to only keep them for two more weeks (Friday they will be 7 weeks, I plan to keep them until 8 weeks old). Let me know if anyone would like one and I will bring the puppy to them!

Momma is a Blue Heeler, about 50 pounds. I cannot seem to find a Blue Heeler rescue club in Dallas. Do you or any of your friends know of a blue heeler rescue club? (Blue Heeler = Australian Cattle Dog)

Puppy weights at 6 weeks ranged from 7.3 (Female 2) to 13.2 (Male 2). Doc thinks Male 1 and 2 could reach 100 lbs. She thinks maybe the father (or fathers) is a Lab/Anatolian or Pyrenese mix (for the larger puppies).

For anyone who knows dogs, you’ll remember that herding dogs in general are more intelligent and independent-thinking than many other dog breeds; if that’s the sort of trait that appeals to you these dogs will likely reward you. These puppies have been human-handled since birth every day (including ears and feet), and for anyone who wants to provide a home to one my mom will not only not charge you for the privilege, they’ve also all received their first round of puppy shots. The vet report says they are incredibly healthy and very well socialized and have obviously been well-cared-for.

As a final lure I’ve included the pictures of the litter. (Click on the picture to reach the larger version.) So far none have been claimed, though if we get good results from this post I’ll update here as necessary to let you know which ones are no longer available. If you’re interested, contact me and provide a linked email address in a comment to this post and I’ll put you in touch with my mother more directly for canine negotiations (or you can use the more direct contact provided in the pic).

Blue Heeler mixes ready for new home!

Who wants puppies? (Greater Texas area)

Rescue Ride now complete!

kit — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:30:16 +0000

All five parts of Reesa Brown’s Rescue Ride can now be found on Continuouscoast.com. This tale, part of our open source shared world project, tells an exciting story of Mikasa Rider as he attempts to save the lives of ‘fuges’ from another universe.

If you enjoyed the rescue ride, you might want to read the transcripts of recent Gurge Rider chats, or visit our upcoming chat tonight.

Kit

Rescue Ride now complete!

CC Fiction: Rescue Ride Part 3

kit — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:45:22 +0000

The third part of Reesa Brown’s Rescue Ride is now available.

Cheers,

Kit

CC Fiction: Rescue Ride Part 3

CC Fiction: Rescue Ride, Part 2

kit — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:30:40 +0000

Part 2 of Rescue Ride is now available. Written by Dream Café’s Reesa Brown, it is part of the Continuous Coast shared world. Enjoy!

Kit

CC Fiction: Rescue Ride, Part 2