Rob's Journal o' Stuff

I had a bit of a mix-up with the OWW in handling my membership dues, but I guess things are cleared up because I'm back in as a full-paying member.  I've been editing along through the novel making some good cuts, at least I hope they are. I need to do some critiques because for some reason, that always energizes me to re-examine my own work.

I made some headway and edited three chapters today, so things are moving along pretty well.

One thing I try to do, with less success than I'd like, is to pare down my writing.  I sort of threw everything onto the page as I was writing through this novel and planned on trimming the fat on the second and subsequent passes. I try not to get too wordy or overly descriptive in any of the fiction I'm writing and I usually do this on the second and third passes of chapters.  I am learning, through the helpful critiques at the OWW, that I'm not as good at trimming as I'd hoped. 

I revised my first two chapters slightly and posted the third in the Workshop yesterday.  I've been reading about a submission a day and I'm pretty impressed with some of what I read.  I never know how to feel about what I'm writing. Strike that reverse it, I usually feel pretty good about it once I finish it but then I go and re-read it and I'm not satisfied.  I think that's good, though.

I think I'll begin using my LiveJournal account to track my progress in the Online Writing Workshop.  I've reviewed about four submissions so far and just reviewing them helps to put me in a better frame of mind when I go to tackle my own writing.  As it stands now, I have two submissions in the OWW, the first with 2 chapters and the second submission as the 3rd chapter. 

With the folks who've come out of the OWW like R. Scott Bakker, Elizabeth Bear, Joshua Palmatier, and Chris Evans, I think I'm taking the best step towards selling and publishing my writing.

Time will tell.

New ‘Watchmen’ Trailer Goes Online; Check Out A Gallery Of Our Favorite Images!

Posted using ShareThis

It is banned books week so go out and buy and/or read a banned book. If you want to make a meme of this, for both the authors and books, Bold and Italicize the ones you've read.

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1) And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell - Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2) The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier - Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3) Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes - Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4) The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - Reasons: Racism
6) The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7) TTYL by Lauren Myracle - Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou - Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9) It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris - Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10) The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. "The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved," both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

The most frequently challenged authors of 2007

1) Robert Cormier
2) Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
3) Mark Twain
4) Toni Morrison
5) Philip Pullman
6) Kevin Henkes
7) Lois Lowry
8) Chris Crutcher
9) Lauren Myracle
10) Joann Sfar

Ironic that this is Banned Books week - the same week Sarah Palin, who supposedly wanted books removed from the library for objectionable content, will be participating in her first Vice Presidential debate

It's the end of an era, so to speak as my career as a Marketing / Business Development Editor / Specialist in the Engineering Consulting industry has come to a close. At least for now, the old adage of never say never is a truth in which I find myself believing. I spent just about five years in the industry through a strange set of circumstances and it is scary how quickly those five years flew in my life. I met some really interesting, strange, brilliant, eccentric , funny, kind, amazing, and wonderful people, some of whom, I hope to keep in touch with in the future. Some people who may be reading this know to whom I refer, whether an acquaintance or those reading it directly.

Now; however, I'm going back to the publishing industry. Essentially the rots of where I began my true professional career. There were many things I enjoyed about the publishing industry, and since I'm an admitted biblioholic, I'm thrilled to be going back to my roots. Granted, the last publishing job I had kind of chewed me up and spit me out, but the situation was completely different than what it is now. Since then, I've grown both emotionally and intellectually and am eager to face this next challenge in my life.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the new job is the next town over from where I live, cutting my commute by 2/3. This is great because it will allow me (hopefully) more time to devote to my writing.

Never, in my 15+ year association with Rutgers as an undergraduate and alumnus did I expect the football team to be ranked in the top 20, to be undefeated, or to defeat a top 10 team. Well, I suppose I know what the Red Sox fans were feeling in 2004 when their team won after so many years of not winning.


By no means is the season over. Now, it gets interesting. The football program has respect, something its been lacking ever since it went Division 1. Right now, I'm just enjoying the win and all the talk on ESPN and the radio about the Scarlet Knights.


The school has always had a nice academic reputation, but this is nice, too.

Win a signed ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of the novel The Cracked
Throne and read it before its release in hardcover on November 7th, 2006!
All you have to do is post a copy of this contest description in its entirety
onto your LiveJournal, blog, or webpage sometime during the month of September,
thus infecting all of your friends on your friends list. Then email Joshua
Palmatier at jpalmatier@sff.net with your name and a link to your posting.
I’ll draw a name at random on October 1st, 2006 and announce the winner on my
LiveJournal.


But wait! There’s more!


Preorder The Cracked Throne or The Skewed Throne at
Clarkesworldbooks.com between now and October 31st and for each order
you’ll be entered into a contest where you could win one of the following
prizes:

Grand Prize: A signed ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of the novel
The Cracked Throne, five copies of The Skewed Throne so you can infect
your friends, and a pen shaped like a dagger.

First Prize: A signed hardcover edition of the novel The Cracked
Throne and a pen shaped like a dagger.

Second Prize: A signed hardcover edition of the novel The Skewed
Throne.

Third Prize: A signed paperback edition of the novel The Skewed
Throne.

Order multiple copies and be entered into the contest once for each copy
ordered! See the complete official rules at Clarkesworldbooks.com.

I know I may be a bit late in singing the praises of scott_lynch’s debut novel, but I should hope this doesn’t make these praises any less worthy. After just finishing Infoquake, I suppose I can consider myself lucky at having read two of the best debut novels in their respective branches of Speculative Fiction in the past few years. So far these are the two best books I’ve read this year, although Sean Williams The Crooked Letter might make it a three-way tie for my top pick from this year’s bunch of books.

The Lies of Lock Lamora was a great, entertaining, balls against the wall story. Its no wonder the book has been optioned by Hollywood, Mr. Lynch writes with a very cinematic style. Few people have as good a pen for dialogue as him, except maybe Matthew Stover. For a book that isn’t explicitly comedy, it has some of the best one-liners in any genre or book.

I loved the alternating chapters, between Lock’s “now” and his youth with Chains. It's a good technique to shuffle the reader’s perceptions about the characters with each past revelation. It also worked to build the tension enough at the end of each chapter with the slight shift in tone from past to present.

The book reminded me in parts of Steven Brust, Goodfellas, Matthew Stover and the film Snatch. This works great for me since I love Brust and Stover’s writing and count Goodfellas as one of my top 10 favorite films.

Besides, how can you NOT like a book that’s got a quote for the crazy old closer from the Phillies, Mitch Williams?

I’ve a strong feeling* The Lies of Lock Lamora is just the tip of Lynch’s iceberg. This is a very good thing indeed.


*well duh, the second book comes out next year and just about everybody who reads in the genre knows about the projected 7 books in the series, not to mention the <a href="http://scott-lynch.livejournal.com/213929.html>three novellas</A>.