As one of the many folk involved in "Hobby Games: The 100 Best," I'm excited to say we're all up for an ENnie Award at Gen Con this year. Many thanks and most of the hosannas should go to editor James Lowder, and more to my fellow article writers in this good book.

For those wanting to see the book in question, click
http://www.greenronin.com/store/grr4001

For those fans wishing to vote on this book--which is nominated for "Best Regalia" (non-game material that supports games; it's among the #4 choices in the following link)--the ENnie voting starts tomorrow (July 21) and runs through the beginning of August. Go here for more on that:
http://ennieawards.com/08/2008noms-1.html

I'm very proud of this book and the many folks with whom I share a wriitng credit in it. Please support the fan awards (http://www.ennieawards.com/index.html) whether you're going to Gen Con or not. After all, if more fans vote on what they like, the producers and companies will produce more of what they like.

Thanks for the opportunity to plug another product; hope you all are having great weekends.

I prithee, get thee to thine nearest booksellers and support thine author who be not quite starving save only for royalties. ;)

http://www.amazon.com/Dimension-Next-Door-Martin-Greenberg/dp/0756405092/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214361496&sr=8-1

I havest a marvelous copy of the cover art, but alas, thine author hath not the patience to upgrade his difference engine this morn for its splendidness to be displayed, alas.

Hie thee to the hills, and I promise to stop with the pseudo-Elizabethan lingo next time.

Steven
whose latest short story comes out today

PS: If this push isn't enough, nifty authors like Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Jody Lynn Nye, Anton Strout, Irene Radford, Fiona Patton, Chris Pierson, and others have stories in this anthology too.

Still alive, still functioning as a sapient individual (at least most days).....

We've been busy either working or bouncing from hither to yon, making the most of Sarah's vacation and my ability to juggle work via the laptop.

This week, we're off to the land where Lactose Intolerance is a hate crime--Wisconsin--to visit with my family for a few days. Hopefully I'll keep plugging on my self-imposed deadlines and keep cranking 2K+ words a day on at least one of four ongoing projects right now.

No conventions for me in the next month; I'll be getting down to Gen Con in August, but no Chicago Comicon, no Origins, etc.

Wishing you all health and good luck on your own deadlines...

Steven

Made it through another birthday yesterday--my 41st, for those keeping score at home.

Nice lazy day with Sarah, starting with the Farmer's Market and ending with the destruction of the Death Star II in Lego Star Wars. This was preceded on Friday evening with a get-together of folks to celebrate the start of summer (at least as academics measure it) and three birthdays (Mitch's on Wednesday, mine on Saturday, Sam's today--Happy Birthday, Sam!).

In any case, it's been a great weekend. Once again, I'm reminded that I have great friends and family, for whom I am very grateful. And thanks again to all those who mailed, emailed, or phoned their best wishes.

Luckily, my friends and family know I like some scotch every now and again. I'm a drink or two from the bottom of some lovely scotch my wife bought me as a gift in 2006 (Glenfiddich Ancient Reserve 18 year). Friday saw the end of some 10-year-old Auchentoshan (brought unto us by Colin McComb of the Clan McComb for our wedding reception last summer). I've now got to flip a coin as to which bottle to open next--the Laphroiag 10-year-old my in-laws gave me on my wedding day in 2007 or the birthday gift I got on Friday of the 8-year-old Glen Garioch (of which I've not heard before, but it's a Highland single malt, which can't be bad...).

Any votes or recommendation as to other single malt scotches I should look for in the future?

Steven
who may pour that Glenfiddich in a glass to sip tonight

PS: Saw Iron Man this morning and loved it to death. Is anyone else expecting to see the bald warlord back in the next movie as the Mandarin? And Jeff Bridges back in Iron Man III as the Living Laser (come on--is there any better/easier origin than what the movie set up)? Giddy as a school boy am I over this movie.....

Just got back from the book signing of one jimhines.

He had a book signing up at the Alpine Schuler Books and I had to make sure to attend, both for fellow authorial support and because I wanted to both shake his hand and get him to sign his books.

A well-behaved crowd of about 12 showed up to query the author, chat, and hear him read an excerpt from his upcoming Stepsisters Scheme, and it was marvelous fun.

May I just say Jim's one of the best authors I've ever met at doing readings. Seriously. Aside from Ed Greenwood and a few folks who were actors before they were writers, I don't think I've ever had a better listening experience to an author reading an excerpt from a to-be-published ms. Don't let the fact that I'm 57% deaf deter that statement--the fact that I followed his narrative without having a transcript in front of me is a big deal for this Hard-of-Hearing guy, and I appreciated that immensely. The fact that the story was loads of fun that made me listen more intently just helped that along as well.

It was great to meet Jim and another fellow writer dr_phil_physics, natter a bit as authors do, and generally work to convince Jim that Gen Con 08 needed another author, if only to add to the literary nature of the pub crawls.

Also learned tonight that Jim and I are fellow authors in a DAW anthology for next year, which I hope we'll be cleared to discuss soon. I'm looking forward to kicking that story out the door and seeing it in print ASAP (or at least in time for Gen Con 09, so I have something else to sign in Author's Alley).

We'll see what happens. Regardless, a good evening spent with a good person and author whom I hope to get to know more in the future (which I will as I plow through his three books Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and Goblin War).

Good writing get-away....many words on paper, as it were (alas, not all on one manuscript or novel, but much backstory and some forward momentum on said novel).

For some reason I found this...and am loving them immensely. These would be great shirts for Gen Con....
http://www.printfection.com/retro-future/Retropolis-T-Shirts-Page-1/_s_59947

http://www.printfection.com/retro-future/Retropolis-T-Shirts-Page-2/_s_62638

http://www.printfection.com/retro-future/Vintage-Futurism-T-Shirts-Page-1/_s_60003

I really, really want that Trees for Tomorrow shirt. I'm just saying.....

May post more this week; may stay away to get more words on page. We'll see....

Oh, and no, I didn't take time out to see IRON MAN. I'm sure it's fun. I'll get around to it...and then I'll read my pal Steve Sullivan's book:
http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Man-Junior-Novel/dp/0060821973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209955865&sr=8-1

Have a good week, all.

SES

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/29/wright/index.html

Sarcasm, it seems, is not entirely dead as an art form. Glenn Greenwald shows how it's done.

(And if the MSM put 20% as much time discussing John McCain's ties to John Hagee and forced him to comment on HIS comments as they do with Obama and Wright, we'd have a much more interesting political arena...)

I'm outta here for the rest of the week. Going into seclusion in hopes of generating many gross tons of words on the pages....

SES

I'm not as measured or gifted as some of my writerly friends when talking about my/the writing process. Even so, a lot of them have been chatting up the intricacies of how they do what they do, et al. It's made me kinda self-conscious as I'm fighting the impulse to over-intellectualize (and rationalize) what I'm doing.

And to be blunt, all I'm trying to do day-to-day is get my bloody word count on the page. Cuz that's 90% of the battle. Get the words down. The toughest part is letting go of the editor brain that wants to lurk on my shoulder and tsk at word choices, mutter under its breath as I just get a sentence down, knowing it's not quite what I want to say but I want to maintain forward momentum and gosh isn't this a long sentence?

Ahem.

Here's my thought of the day (before I go to flog more words on the page for class tonight): You've heard the old chestnut about how sculptors carve things right? ("Take a block of marble and carve away anything that doesn't look like an elephant" is how you carve an elephant.)

That's what writers have to do on two scales, and to me it explains what most writers don't get--we refer to our work as "Crap" or other less family-friendly terms because in first draft it often is. It's rambling, it's sometimes incoherent, it's definitely unpolished, and it's raw ore from which we hope to mine diamonds...or chalcedony....or at least a little fool's gold that seems shiny to some.

Here's the thing--that first draft is our block of marble that we have to create in order to have the real material with which to work.

The second or successive drafts are where we chip away anything that isn't an elephant (or a rocket ship or a beer-sodden private eye or a goblin with a god-complex)--In other words, carve what you meant to say out of the massive block of words-on-the-page-that-did-get-past-the-mental-editor.

So I'm off to continue creating a few large blocks of grammatical matter from which I hope to carve a beer-sodden goblin private eye and his elephant-with-a-dog-complex sidekick. (And yes, I'm aware of the typo but it's funnier to me, more creative, and actually a very silly story idea borne from random ramblings I might just have to play with....if Jim Hines doesn't want to take the ball and run with it....)

Steven
who'll be away from this Internet for the rest of the week, if his nefarious plan works as expected....

That's pronounced "Whee!"

I just need to say that MARIO KART WII rocks. A lot.

But my wife, Sarah, rocks so much more. And not just cuz she surprised me this afternoon with it.

I loves me wife, I does.

Now I get to play a little bit of Wii since my brain won't let me write tonight. I'll finish the class notes in the morning. :D

SES

Penned a letter and emailed it off to about 10 papers, local and national. Wonder if it'll get printed at all.... Figured I'd share with the gallery....SES

Dear Editor,

Last week, ABC News revealed that the highest levels of the Bush administration met regularly in the White House to discuss and approve specific torture techniques to be used on prisoners in U.S. custody. ABC's source said CIA officials "acted out" certain kinds of torture and senior administration officials "choreographed" the way the torture was to be done.

On April 10, President Bush admitted that he knew about these meetings and approved of them, despite the fact that some techniques under discussion are outlawed in the United States and under numerous international treaties such as the Geneva Conventions.

The lack of coverage this story has received makes it seem more people are interested in one word by Senator Obama or whether or not Senator Clinton does shots. This is untrue. This simply underscores the apathetic inability of the mainstream media to cover issues of substance over personality-based politics.

I don't believe enough Americans are aware that top Bush officials were intricately involved in discussions of specific torture techniques. I strongly doubt that, like me, most Americans approve of such things being done in their name. The former Attorney General John Ashcroft was quoted in the ABC piece objecting at the time to holding such meetings in the White House saying, "history will not be kind." That is an extreme understatement.

The reviling of torture mattered in 1864 with the creation of the Geneva Conventions. It mattered back as 1789 when the Constitution established that the people of the United States of America unequivocally believed torture to be wrong. It should matter just as strongly today...but our newspapers are filled with empty debates about minor talking points instead of substantive issues such as this.

To even harbor a discussion about torture in the White House, let alone approve of it, is reprehensible. The people today, not just future historians noted by Mr. Ashcroft, should not be kind to those who would undermine the Constitution or the integrity of the office of the President.

The people want answers, because integrity matters in America. Or at least it should...

Steven Schend
A concerned citizen

Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney's "Nine Old Men" (i.e. the original animators of Disney Studios) died. Sigh. I may have to find time to watch Snow White or Pinocchio again soon and wonder at how they did all that beautiful stuff with simple pencils and paint...and gave it vastly more heart than 99.9% of what computers can do so easily now.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7349962.stm

Found this Mencken quote this morning and laughed bitterly...

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Without spoiling the story, anyone with an interest in Mencken should seek out Connie Willis' novella INSIDE JOB. It's a brilliant story. Trust me.

And before you think I (or Mencken) am just being a curmudgeon, here's another quote of his I liked:

"If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."

Have good days, all.

Steven

At least when you find a bunch of old paperbacks in the used section for good prices (like $1 each).....

Very happy that I found the following today at Schulers:

Swordsmen In the Sky (Anthology edited by Donald Wollheim; Ace 1964); stories by Poul Anderson, Leigh Brackett, Otis Adelbert Kline, Edmond Hamilton, and Andre Norton)

The Sorcerer's Ship by Hannes Bok (Ballantine, 1942/1969)

Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett (Ace, 1953)

The Ginger Star by Leigh Brackett (Ballantine, 1974); Volume 1 of the Book of Skaith

The Reavers of Skaith by Leigh Brackett (Ballantine, 1976); Volume 3 of the Book of Skaith

Blades of Mars by Edward P. Bradbury (Lancer, 1965); this is Michael Moorcock under a pen name, if I'm not mistaken...and it's Book 2 of his Michael Kane of Mars series

Rogue in Space by Fredric Brown (Bantam, 1971)

And if I'd not been in research mode and reading a lot of pulp stuff, I might have passed all this good stuff up without notice.

Scuse me, again. I've some reading to do....

Steven

Seems I can't let myself look at LJ too often or I lose tons of time that I need to spend writing. Thus, if any friends are annoyed with me that I'm not responding to F-Listings, mea culpa. I just need to get two spec novels done this year (and at least one in final form, not draft stages) in addition to any paying work I can scrape up. Thus, I'll be bopping in and out, but not regularly. Hopefully I can keep up semi-regular posts on my progress and other things.

I finished a draft of a short story last week, and what a good feeling it was to finally finish that. It's with readers and critiquers right now, and I'll pick up working on that Thursday or Friday with hopes of sending the final draft off to its anthology editor on Monday. When I can, I'll mention the title of the story and the anthology.

What else? I'm plotting some promotional work and PR for my upcoming novel release this September 2.

What else? I've prepped my notes/handouts for the Game/Adventure Design class tonight. We'll be mapping out our first fully fledged scenarios and they'll have two weeks to prep for a playtest of my scenario. I'm doing what works best for campaign building--start at intro/1st levels for the scenario. The first through thirds full adventures will be increase at slightly higher level increments, so at class' end, the students will have at least 6 scenarios and some degree of 18 adventures as well as the knowledge on how to build these whenever they need them.

I'm planning to block out my previous World Building notes and construct a book pitch by the end of the summer. Here's hoping it goes well and/or I can do the same with the Game Design notes. I could stand to be a nonfiction author as well...whatever brings in the royalties works for me....

What else for the blog? I'll try and avoid political rants, though given the year's importance, we'll see....

So, today's been a slow wakeup. I walked the dog and beat the rains to come, so I'm happy with that, at least.

Now to bury myself in words down in my basement lair ("I Have a Lair!" :D).

Be good, smile a lot, and find a puppy to play with (or whatever else can immeasurably improve one's day and one's mood). We'll talk later.

Steven

Dropping by with a quick link and a shout-out to Jeff Grubb, whose blog put me on the path to finding THIS on YouTube. I just wish I'd found it on Saint Patrick's Day....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU&feature=related

Go on, click. It'll make you smile.

Work continues on many a project, and one of these days, I'll spend more time here to tell y'all about them.

Just not today.

Have a good weekend, all.

Steven
who might find some time next week to talk about something geeky, like George Perez's worst comic-book costume design or something

PS: Don't misunderstand. I worship at the Church of Perez as an artist. Still, he and others--Mike Grell, we're looking at you, dude...--have inflicted some truly awful costumes on the spandex set over the years.

Must get things done. Many things. Some of them come with deadlines.

Thus, no Internet this week for Steven.

If you need to reach Steven, call him. If you don't have his number, too bad. I'll be back in a week or so.

No worries--just deadline wrangling. Oh, and his first anniversary is Friday and he wants a peaceful weekend, thus lots of working ahead on things and no time for da Internets.

SES

Apparently, Gary Gygax died in his sleep last night. He'll forever be remembered as one of the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons games.

I've no personal stories or recollections to share re: Gary Gygax. My tenure at TSR, Inc. was well after he had left the company he had founded.

That said, I wanted to thank him in memoriam for his indirect role in making me the writer I am today. While not the only piece of the puzzle, D&D looms large in my professional development as an editor and writer since TSR, Inc. was my first job out of college. Much of what I learned about editing and writing came out of the trenches of game design and deadline doom in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Thanks to my job with TSR and Wizards of the Coast, I've met thousands of great people and fellow fans and made scores of great friends in the game industry.

D&D and Gary are also personally important to me as well. I've a few lifelong friends I met 25 years ago because of this game of Gary's. Even if nothing else, I'm grateful to him for that and all the fun we've had over the years with Dungeons & Dragons games.

Rest in peace, Gary. You deserve it.

My 2nd novel has a cover posted on Amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/Blackstaff-Tower-Greenwood-Presents-Waterdeep/dp/0786949139/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201371846&sr=8-1

Now if I could just get the enlarged image to open so I could see what the heck is going on here.....

Lovely when Firefox and/or Amazon locks up on me.....

SES
who's still happy about getting another sense that the book is real and happening....

It's book release day for our esteemed colleague, Anton Strout. His book DEAD TO ME is now available for purchase at your friendly neighborhood bookshop or at the goliath of Internet venues: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441015786/

It's urban/contemporary fantasy and the cover looks marvelous; I only hope that when my first non-work-for-hire novel comes out, it's got a cover at least that snazzy.

I've not had the chance to read it, but as he's a fellow genre writer and a member of the Gen Con Writers' Symposium (for which we both toil this August--see http://www.jeanrabe.com/page3.html), I'll plug his book happily. If you want to know more about this new author (who also happens to work for Penguin), try http://www.antonstrout.com/

And in other news, it's snowing again here in Grand Rapids. Lovely morning to take Ella for a romp through the snow, sniff at everything (the dog, not me, except when we got near the coffee shop), and generally be happy to be outside. Beautiful snow clinging to every branch and very little wind, which helped the enjoyment (the last few weeks of blowing/drifting was awful for walking dogs).

Even so, it made me wish that Grand Rapids had an ordinance to get people to shovel their blasted sidewalks. Nearly twisted my ankle three or four times due to ice and crud underneath the new snow, and it makes it bloody difficult to walk when you've got 15 inches of half-packed snow/ice/slush in your way. I understand when there's not enough city budget to plow every street clean, but is it too much to ask that the sidewalks be passable? (Another traffic hazard here is the number of people walking in the streets because it's easier than trying to hazard the unshoveled sidewalks. Between the cars parked too far from curbs, pedestrians, and potholes, most streets in GR have about 85% of a lane clear...and that's for two lanes....)

Okay, my rant's done. I just hope everyone stays safe and drives carefully in the snow today. Let's not have the local news open tonight with scenes of pileups due to idiotic driving in bad conditions....

Now I'm off to finish a new story idea that popped in while fighting with myself to write another one. Guess I may have two different stories to throw at an editor who wanted one for an anthology....which makes the one she rejects an automatic submission to various and sundry fiction mags like F&SF (for starters) or BLACK GATE (if they ever reopen to submissions).

Have a good day, all.

Thank the gods, the House found its spine....twice in one day! Good going, House Dems (and the only 3 honorable GOP members who stayed and voted)

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/house_passes_contempt_votes_ag.php
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/todays_must_read_277.php

...and the House Rethuglicans ("led" by John Boehner) decided they'd be quitters rather than do their jobs.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/house_gop_stages_walkout_durin.php

Harry Reid talks the talk, but we already have seen how he walks the walk....
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/02/reid_bush_attempting_to_manufa.php

And yet, the B.S. continues out of 1600 Pennsylvania....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/15/bush-says-congress-puttin_n_86811.html

Guess without Karl "The Turd Blossom" Rove on hand to spin and obfuscate, it's more easily noticed when the Shrub cries "Wolf!" like he does every time they need a distraction from a scandal or they want something. Maybe they should try "Hey look--it's Elvis!" and gesticulate wildly.



In other non-news on my front, I've walked the dog, made some spaghetti sauce that'll slow-cook on the stove all day now, and I've started the laundry. This meant-to-be-brief blog moment got longer...so I guess I'll wrangle that impulse and go write my 3000+ words for the day on the short story that's been brewing in my brainpan....like I should have done this morning....

Have great weekends, all of y'all. Talk to you later.

Steven

The games that infuriated me were the idiotic dances the Senate did in allegedly resisting giving Bush everything he wanted...and then giving him everything he wanted. If only there were more Democratic Senators like Dodd and Feingold and less like Feinstein or Rockefeller. Don't even talk to me re: the lock-stepped GOP voting block (which, in every other way, is fleeing association with Bush in the election cycle).


Sigh. Another rant out of the system.

In other games, most of you know I used to work at TSR/Wizards of the Coast as a game designer. When TSR was bought out, many of us in R&D interviewed and went out to Wizards to get a sense of how our jobs would change (other than moving 2000 miles). Paul Randles was one of the first people I met at WotC and he helped shepherd me around Seattle, helped me in finding apartments to rent and so forth. Heckuva-nice-guy hardly comes close to a guy who kept his cube decorated for Yule/Christmas the whole year through. He was also a good game designer, but alas, he passed away five years ago.

Now I'll turn the floor over to Mike Selinker....

Paul Randles' Final Game: Key Largo
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

In February 2003, Pirate's Cove designer Paul Randles died of cancer. That
story didn't have a happy ending. This one does.

A year earlier, Paul drafted a deep-sea diving board game he called Treasure
Hunt. Players would salvage treasure from shipwrecks off the Florida coast.
The game had pop-up boats, and little cardboard shipwrecks with treasure
disks. Paul wanted a European publisher to publish it, but it wasn't good
enough yet. A solid 6 on the scale of 1 to 10, he said. It better at least
be a 9 before it hit the street.

Then he got sick. I didn't know how to help. My wife did. Evon suggested I
ask Paul for Treasure Hunt. I'd develop the game with him, and then find a
publisher to put it out. For the last months of his life, we worked on the
game together.

I gave him a 21-Nerf-gun salute at his funeral, and told the legions of game
industry folk there that I was shopping Treasure Hunt. It was a pretty good
game by this point. Maybe an 8.

At an Ohio convention, I met Bruno Faidutti, the French designer of
Citadels. He knew of Paul and wanted to help. Within a month he had
restructured the game he was now calling Treasure Island into a great game.
A 9 for sure. Gone were the pop-up boats and the cardboard shipwrecks,
replaced now by full-size boats and card decks of sunken treasure. Now we
could find someone to publish it.

Every publisher wanted to see the game, because Paul had a lot of friends. A
major American board game company wanted to convert it to a dungeon-crawl
game. I thanked them and declined. (Side story: Based on this, I did design
that dungeon game, with my co-designer James Ernest of Cheapass Games. That
game, Dungeonville, came out from two more publishers, Z-Man Games and
Pegasus Spiele. So Paul's game has a son, and he's bilingual.)

Then Tilsit Editions of France made an offer, which Bruno, Paul's widow
Katty, and I accepted. Editor Nicolas Anton proposed adding people you could
meet on the island, the last thing the game needed to become a 10 out of 10.
Tilsit renamed it Key Largo, gave it a fancy cover and a modular board, and
released it in 2005 in German, Italian, and French. Which was great, except
I don't speak any of those languages very well.

But I do speak English, and I do know Lisa Stevens, the CEO of Paizo
Publishing. Lisa was looking to start a new line of board games, which
eventually I helped forge into Titanic Games, the publisher of the color
version of Kill Doctor Lucky and Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game.
Titanic needed a third game, so I looked at the name of the company and
said, "How about one about sinking ships?"

How about it indeed, she said. And so, in February 2008, five years to the
month after Paul's passing, Titanic Games will be releasing the full-color
English version of Key Largo, with all-new art and all-new components
delivered by graphic designer James Davis. The English edition has a large
one-piece board, nice wooden boats, fifteen delightful divers, and beautiful
cards with art from Ben Huen and Andrew Hou. Everyone we've shown it to says
it's a work of art. I like those people.

The game has undergone a lot of facelifts since Paul's fun little prototype,
but there's something unmistakably Paul-ish in the final version. That's why
the money in the game bears the inscription "E Paulibus Unum," which I can
pretend means "In Paul We Trust."

I can't play Key Largo with Paul, but now I can play it with you.

Mike Selinker


http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/t/titanicGames/v5748btpy7ymg

All right. I've not exactly held my breath or voice when it comes to my disgust with the GOP and with the Bush Administration as its spokesmodels.

That said, it's an election year, and perhaps the only election where we can break the choke-hold the GOP has had over due process, the rule of law, etc.

All their strutting and talking about how the GOP is the only party that can handle homeland security (a term that still makes me think of fascists in black trenchcoats asking for your papers) is utter b.s.

This is but the first in what I'm sure will be many times in the next few months I'll call b.s. on Bush and his cronies for when they do exactly the opposite of what they claim to do.

Case in point, the 9/11 Commission's Privacy and Civil Liberties Board Oversight Committee has been allowed to go dark, simply because the Bush Administration can't be bothered with such petty things as bipartisan oversight (after all, how often have they flipped off Congress since Nov 06?).

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/02/privacy_board

And don't even get me started on the same b.s. with the Federal Election Commission.....

Is this partisan hatred? Nope. I truly just want our legislative and executive office holders to do their jobs (and allow others to do theirs) to the best of their abilities and to tell the truth. It's what we USED to expect from people we called "leaders." When did the bar get so low that you could trip over it?

And yes, I'll call bulls*** on the Dems if they fall down. Trust me--you don't want to hear my rant about how ineffectual Pelosi and Reid appear to be while seeming complicit with Bush and the GOP at the same time....

Okay. Rant done. Hopefully I won't be posting another any time soon....but I doubt it....

Because of Jim Hines (http://jimhines.livejournal.com/342798.html), it's Blog Sharing Day.

Go to Grubb Street! Celebrate Jeff Grubb Day--it's only 5 days away!

http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/index.html

I'm sending packs of Internet primates toward Jeff's blog, as the most consistently amusing and thought-provoking blog I read on a regular basis. Here's what I said at Jim's site:

I'll heartily recommend http://grubbstreet.blogspot.com/index.html as a blog to read. Jeff's an old friend and mentor from TSR, Inc. and his blog ranges from natterings on game design to musings about the state quarters or anything else under the sun. Always tongue in cheek, and always spot on with healthy doses of humor and irony--just like you'd expect of someone with 25 years of experience as a professional writer.

Remember--it's not how you celebrate Jeff Grubb Day. Just that you do.

Steven
who'll try and find the file to repeat the story of Jeff Grubb Day at the appropriate time....

Damn. Seriously cold. And this coming from someone who grew up in the Midwest.

7 degrees with a wind chill I believe at -15 degrees.

I only was outside for perhaps 5 minutes taking the garbage and recycling to the curb, and my moustache, beard, and face got covered in snow/ice that's blowing around.

Yeah, it's a good day to stay indoors unless you absolutely have to. My real clue? The dog, who's happy to stay outside in downpours and snowstorms usually, has only gone out twice and only for about a minute at a time. It's THAT cold.

On the plus-side, the lovely Sarah(TM) is home as Kendall College is closed due to weather. Alas, I've still got too much work to do to have a lazy day on the couch finishing Six Feet Under Season 3. Must get class notes done for tomorrow (banged out 5700 words yesterday and figure another 1-2000 ought to finish out my thoughts on developing magic systems for fantasy worlds) and then put together a job application and another book pitch.

So perhaps taking every other day away from teh Internets is a good thing, productivity-wise.....

Steven

If anyone's looking for me tomorrow, don't look for me here.

Teh Internet's a time-sponge, and I've too much to do.

I get one check of email after breakfast for any emergencies (or work) and another after lunch. That's it.

No LJ, no job-check sites, no nothing.

Staying away from teh internets to get words down on paper (okay, pixels on the screen, but you get the idea).

Not that I'm feeling fatalistic or anything, but I'd like to get another draft of this spec novel I've been writing off/on for 8 years done before I suffer some ignominous fate like the start of a Six Feet Under episode....

So I'll be back Wednesday or Thursday. Wish me luck (and may all your typewriters/keyboards be inspired as well).

http://otter.covblogs.com/archives/024598.html

Nice that even on nights/mornings when one can't sleep, you can troll the Internet and find reviews of things you've worked on. :)

Now to go downstairs and get some work done, since sleep is apparently not an option. At least I get to go see CLOVERFIELD later today....

Steven

I've just been informed of the next few books in which my work gets published, so here are the links (as I don my hat of shameless PR/marketing):

I know I've already mentioned it, and it's been out since January 2, but I'm in PR mode and it's handy to have all the links at once. FELLOWSHIP FANTASTIC is out with DAW and it's got my "Concerning a Gambit of Fraternity" short story in it. If you like contemporary fantasies, I hope you'll check this antho out. If you need other reasons, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Alan Dean Foster, and many other great authors have contributions herein.

http://www.amazon.com/Fellowship-Fantastic-Martin-H-Greenberg/dp/0756404657/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201372307&sr=8-1


Next up is the second DAW anthology I'm in this year, which apparently ships in early July: THE DIMENSION NEXT DOOR. It's another contemporary fantasy of the same universe as the story noted above. This time, we find out what happens to libraries containing cursed books and grimoires best left alone in "Unreadable."

http://www.amazon.com/Dimension-Next-Door-Martin-Greenberg/dp/0756405092/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201372393&sr=1-1


BLACKSTAFF TOWER is due out September 2, and it's my second full-length novel. For those fans who care, yes, it takes place in the 4th edition timeframe, so it's in 1479 Dalereckoning. Even with that time shift, there's lots of lore hidden in these pages to fill some backstories of the intervening times. In short, our heroes help the Blackstaff against a conspiracy that claimed the life of her predecessor and could shift the balance of power all over Waterdeep.

http://www.amazon.com/Blackstaff-Tower-Greenwood-Presents-Waterdeep/dp/0786949139/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201371846&sr=8-1


And here's where I send a shout-out of "Great job/Great working with you!" to both of my editors--Kerrie Hughes (on the DAW anthologies) and Susan Morris (at Wizards of the Coast). You ladies both do exemplary work and you push me to make my writing better each and every time. Thanks so much for your support and aid.

So, if anyone's looking for something to read, I hope you'll give the above a try. I'd give you each a cookie if I could (I wonder if that'd help my signings in Authors' Alley at Gen Con.....). ;)

Have a good weekend, all y'all.

Steven

http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/

My brain hurts...and not because I can't sleep and I looked at this link sent by one of my students....

It's Cthulhu in the land of Hello Kitty. At least I know Mystical Forest will enjoy it. I'm still utterly stunned by the neck-deep irony and sarcasm involved....

My world cannot process Hello Chthulhu without coffee.....

Steven
who hopes the site will amuse folks on a Friday

I'm fully in support of Chris Dodd's and Russ Feingold's fillibuster of the FISA legislation that LETS CORPORATIONS AND THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH RETROACTIVELY BREAK THE LAW. Yes, I'm internet-yelling. Sue me. I'm p-o'ed about this.

I'm even more annoyed by the fact that Harry Reid has allowed the Republicans to block more than half the bills in the Senate with silent fillibuster methods but never forcing them to stand up, actually fillibuster, and show the American people that the folks quickest to scream "look at how they're interfering with getting work done" are the ones who seriously impede the process at every turn since Nov 06. (Then again, looking at vote counts and bills passed by the previous Congress shows you how little the Republican-controlled Congress did in comparison.).

That all said, Harry Reid is either dumber than a bag of hammers by forcing to light major splits among the Democrats in Congress or he's smart by showcasing the Democrats going to the wall for the rule of law. If only the mainstream media were paying attention....sigh....

My rant's about over, but please do call your senators and get them to support Dodd/Feingold and make sure that the Constitution is upheld. After all, if we can't count on the Legislative Branch to do its part in checking/balancing the powers of the corrupt Executive, we'll have nothing to stop them. After all, with the Judicial Branch so much in the pocket of the right thanks to 6 years of GOP rubber-stamping appointees, there's no guarantees of balance there all the way up to the Supremes.

The chocolate cake for tonight's cooling on a wire rack. Despite a delicate consistency (and normally made in 9n round pans), I made the cake in this:
http://www.chefsresource.com/nordicware-castle-bundt-pan.html

It came out fine and it's nice to take a medieval castle to friends for dessert instead of a ruined modern-day castle cake. ;)

In other silliness, there's these links, just for time-sponge-use on Friday afternoons:
http://www.toroller.com/2008/01/03/amazing-weired-statues-manuments-sculptures-of-the-world/
http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/
http://www.lahacal.org/gentleman/ladies.html
http://www.herbsguide.net/
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/


And the best link of all...
http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

I've been to see the Fremont Troll (in the sculpture link above), but none of the others, all of which were fascinating and intriguing. Then again, maybe I'm just more appreciative of art/sculpture, as I've now got a spouse who knows this stuff (and can explain some of it to me, rather than me just making up new names for paintings and sculptures in art museums, an old past-time in college at Madison, WI).

Anyhoo, Happy Friday, everyone. Have a safe, fun, and warm weekend (i.e. those of us in Michigan--be smart and read a book indoors this weekend!).

Steven