::Urraca:: A blog on writing and books

From an IM exchange with Lacy:

Cesar: what do you think about this moustache?
Cesar: http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/26520148.html
Cesar: i’m afraid to admit i might like it on him.
Cesar: is something wrong with me?
Cesar: have i made a bad turn in life?
Lacy: no, it works.
Lacy: it actually works quite well.
Cesar: it’s hot….
Lacy: don’t question yourself, Cesar.
Lacy: Question those who can’t appreciate the facial hotness
Lacy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29142540@N02/2730093969/
Cesar: lacy, i’m in love with those two wooden dudes
Cesar: do you think they’re single or a couple?

No Comments »

Why, oh why, can’t people cozy up to the idea of a grasshopper taco?

Rick Bayless agrees with me. This link is a bit dated, but in today’s scary food climate, the intention is still appropriate. If most people bothered to find out how cattle, chicken and pork are raised in this country, they’d be scooping up grasshoppers, grubs and ants in their backyard so they could find a protein source that wouldn’t make them want to barf. Also, you can see a nice bit of food

Come on, just a little bite. It’s not like it’s going to jump out of the thing.

And by the by, this is definitely on topic. Remember Carapace has something, or all, to do with insects, right? Crunch crunch.

No Comments »

I’ve been blogging here in this meager pamphlet named Urraca in full since January, after taking off more than a year a half from it. As many of you know, one of the main reasons I returned to the blogosphere is because I think writing is my nearest and dearest artform, and I think it’s important to communicate with other people. In today’s environment, technology is an indispensable component of reaching out to others with your thoughts and words, and don’t let any old curmudgeon tell you any different. We’re no longer in a simple paper-based world.

When I finished my first complete novel manuscript, I knew I it was time to get back to my blog. If I was to get serious about getting my work published, chronology and process were important. Finish the work first, and discard all distractions, including blogging. And once I was done, well, the challenge was to incorporate blogging into a regular writing schedule. I think I’m doing all right in that department.

But today’s entry is less to do with me, than with someone else. One of the biggest influences, or rather, the biggest influence on how I devised the editorial guidelines for this blog came from the novelist Caitlin R. Kiernan. She’s written several novels that don’t easily cozy up to a single genre, and she writes about themes that really speak to me. She goes deep into gender, gender fluidity and sexuality, “steampunk,” science fiction, youthful characters on the fringe (as well as older ones on the fringe), overpowering dread and foreboding, and even Lovecraftian interdimentional horror. Her novel “Daughter of Hounds” will be on sale in September in paperback, you should get it.

What you should also do is check out Mericale, Hughes, Scheheraz’Odd & Touchshriek, Inc., Kiernan’s thoughtful blog, which is fed also off Live Journal for any of you LJ fanatics out there. She writes about the mundane details that usually only writers care about: word counts, manuscript edits, writing process. But that’s not all. She’ll also reveal interesting happenings in her professional capacity as a paleontologist, mention books and movies she loves and hates, and in general, provide a professional window into the life of a published writer and a singular human being. Hers is the only writer blog in my RSS feeds that I read with Germanic regularity. I never miss a single entry. She writes in her own voice without affectations, and from time to time, delivers candid views on more controversial topics. She also has a fondness for flora and fauna, which is a recurring theme here on this pamphlet, though I favor birds and insects, as you well know by now.

I think Kiernan’s blog (as well as Neil Gaiman’s and a handful of others), are the way these literary, bookwormy blogs should be written. Her Live Journal is informative, opinionated (but balanced), and of course, interesting. It also really helps inform the reader on the most important part, her fiction. Though I have no published novels under my belt, I blog using Kiernan as a model on how to do this little sleight-of-hand trick the right way. And if you, Gentle Readers, ever catch me biting her blog style, well now you can pinpoint the thing that makes my eyes glitter with good-hearted envy. You should read her blog, and you should buy her books. If you buy her books, she can write more. It’s that simple. True of any writer you enjoy.

All right, so it’s time to get back to work. All of it. The words. The day job. The calisthenics.

And you should too. You’ve been surfing all day, ignoring the thing you’re really supposed to be doing. Go! Work!

1 Comment »

Well, my flight back from my mini-holiday in New Mexico is delayed, and I’m blogging for the first time using my mobile phone. I’ve been dying to put some words down all weekend, even though I told myself this was going to be a relaxing, spa getaway in the Santa Fe mountains. Yet there’s an itch more powrful than ringworm on moist feet that haunts me. Yesterday morning I rummaged through the hotel room to find stationery on which I could take a few notes. The friend I was traveling with looked curious and mildly alarmed. Please, I wanted to tell him. These notes are as thrilling and salacious as a stack of paper napkins. I just needed to write something, anything. Mostly character sketches for Carapace.

And well, here I am now, at the gate at the Albuquerque Sunport (what the hell kind of name is that?), and I am finger tapping, feeling relief come over me again. Words. Delicious words. I can only toss them internally for so long. Eventually they have to escape.

The trip itself? It was relaxing, for sure. I don’t think I’ve had that much dedicated time to reflect and dabble in introspection in a long time. The resort was tranquil, and my friend and I spent much time together without idle chatter. Breathing in the thin mountain air, listening to the buzz of the hummingbirds and relaxing in the Japanese style hot spring/whirlpool, I dug deep inside myself. When I reflect this way, I find the monsters first: ugly, misshapen parts of my psyche that lurk with gaping jaws and gnarled hands like a Grand Guignol show. My findings, once I confronted them? I reconfirmed whay i already know: I have the potential to be self-righteous, snobbish, demanding, glib, icy as a glacier and menacingly silent as stone. Hardly someone you’d want to spend time with, much less get to know better..

Of course, the mind and personality of a person does not simply contain tumors and cancerous mutants. There’s good in there too. And I thought a lot about the good, how it is really helping me focus on all my current goals, and how, if I work at it, I can touch and connect with other people. Yeah, there’s some pretty things inside of me, as well.

And so I went on and on this way for three days. And I reached some conclusions.

I’m resigned to the following: Keep working steadily on my current career and academic goals; finish Carapace this summer; put aside nihilistic thoughts about how I am perceived by people (am far too old to care at this point if anyone thinks I’m a frigid a–hole); focus on giving lots of care and love to those who really engage with me on artistic, professional and personal levels; and as always, Live.

So there we have it.

Incidentally, “Hybridae” is going out this week to the magazine editor. Yippers. And Market Days is coming up this weekend. My ass is going to have to get up early Saturday so I can write before meeting up with friends. I hope my liver survives the two-day party.

Oh great. They just announced a longer delay. Guess I might post again on this here pamphlet later today. At least I have an Iain Pears novel, a DS, RSS reader and snacks to get me through. Oh yeah, Twitter too.

Presing on.

2 Comments »

Here at my day job, we often need to work and communicate with partners or staff in Europe. The Europeans have it good. They get at least six weeks of vacation or more, and they most often take their time off in the summer months. As in now. So lately, calling the Europe offices is an odd experience. Sure, there’s someone there to hold the fort down, but over the line, you can hear the sound of…wind and tumbleweeds rolling on by.

What’s this got to do with Docket Thursdays?

Well, I religiously stick to the regimen on Thursdays to make sure things get done. But this week’s a little different. I’ve got some summer traveling to do (though sadly, I don’t get six weeks vacation), and this special episode of Docket Thursdays will consist of laundry, cleaning and errands. Terribly exciting, I know. “Hybridae” should be ready to go out soon, but it won’t be until next week. While traveling I won’t be doing much writing, because I want my brain to just stop shouting at me. Peace and quiet, please. Relaxation is the prime directive here.

And we press on.

No Comments »

Technology changes human beings, even though we may fool ourselves that we are the ones in charge, controlling the technology.

We can’t deny the impact of the Internet, cell phone technology and other new interfaces, such as video games and other devices. Though I am a voracious reader, I have to admit that I have definitely lost a few hours to the Web over the years. Is that time that is lost to me forever? Should I think of it as wasted time?

No matter what your opinion, you have to admit that technology is changing the way we read. That’s nothing new of course, because the invention of the printing press changed the way people ingested information, and with the advent of newspapers, pamphlets (woot!) and other written forms, humans.

So what do we do now? I do spend dedicated time reading books, beacuse I think the act of reading a book is a more focused and challenging way of reading. No distractions, no pinging, no IM alerts. Just reading.

My current reads? “El Secreto del Mal” by Roberto Bolaño, and the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Omnibus, Vol. 1″ a trade paperack that collects all the early Buffy comics in one.

No Comments »

I did get quite a bit done yesterday. “Hybridae” is close to being finished, or as finished as I can ever wish it to be. At a certain point, you have to put down the thing and just let it be free. I worked on its 6th draft yesterday, and I know there’s at least one or two more in store this weekend.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print from yesterday. I didn’t work on Carapace, since I am nearing the final lap on the short story. Tomorrow I will also try to squeeze in some writing time, though the schedule looks full. It’s still summer out there, and I have to go enjoy it.

There’s other stuff cooking, in terms of finding markets, as well as other lofty professional goals, but nothing I can announce quite yet here at the pamphlet. Stay tuned.

Anyone else out there doing anything fun this weekend? Oh yeah, I got a free ticket to go see Matmos Sunday. Hurray!

No Comments »

It’s been a while since I updated on a Thursday, hasn’t it? I’ll keep it brief today.

Last night, odd nightmares about a family trip to an otherworldly theme park located somewhere outside Chicago. No, not Six Flags. This was…different. The place was full of animatronics, dinosaurs and odd, noir-ish attractions that work only at night. Spooky. Just as we were about to leave the park, military planes burst forth just a couple of miles away from where the park was located, and in their formation, headed to presumably attack or defend, someone or something, nearby. Lit from beneath by the lights from the military base they sprang from, their underbellies were bone white against the night sky. Their screaming, whistling engines might have been the worst sound I’ve ever heard. Thoroughly frightening.

Today, I’m working on Carapace to get me up and running toward my weekly 5,000 word count. I don’t have much to say about it other than we’ll see what happens when I sit down. I’m right in the middle, and it’s possibly the hardest part of the project. We’ll see.

In industry news, Sony has opened up its Reader to other formats. Seriously? There is yet hope for Sony, and the publishing induistry at large. Opening up formats and minimizing DRM will incur big changes, but those changes will be a good thing for people who love books and knowledge. Applause for Sony.

No Comments »

Not all of you may know this, but I worked for quite a few years for Tribune Company in its online publishing arm of its newspaper division. I consider myself lucky to have had the chance to develop and grow as a journalist there. I was fresh out of journalism school, I had Web skills, and they needed young people to come in and start producing.  The conditions were right: the Internet bubble was fat (this was in the mid 90’s) and in many ways, it was the job of my dreams.

Things are changing fast over at the Tower, and some of these adjustments may signal the end of an era. Tribune’s getting rid of its standalone book reviews at its paper The Los Angeles Times.

Full post via Galleycat here.

What do you Gentle Readers think about these changes? In this age of blogging and user-created content, are reviews of books still relevant? The forum’s now open for discussion.

No Comments »

Well, summer hours continue around this place. Yes, this sunny, warm place called Gotham City Chicago. Let me update you first on what I’ve been up to, and what’s to come. As we talked about before, I am on summer hours on this here blog, in order to facilitate summer living. Don’t worry, I’ll turn into a humorless hermit in winter again. I can promise you that.

During the day, my day job has truly ramped up, and the seasonal lull in summer that we experienced last year is exactly the opposite now. There are myriad projects, all of them high priority, and there doesn’t seem to be any plateau in sight. So, things are busy at the ol’ cubicle.

In the meantime, I joined a gym not far from my office. About two and a half years ago I went through some major personal changes, which included a major breakup, a change of jobs, rejection of former bad habits, as well as a lot of personal stress. If you had seen me around that time, I was looking ROUGH. Overweight, cranky, exhausted. I had bags under my eyes so deep that friends would ask me to hold on to their cell phones and loose change from time to time. If you’ve ever been in the spot, you know how these terrible events pile up. You know the kind: britttle, crumbling relationships, interpersonal conflict, terrifying self-reflection, as well as the occasional bouts of self pity and doubt that plague anyone who qualifies as a human being. At around this time, I got really wrapped up in triathlon training. It helped me a ton, and the bags faded. Incidentally, back then I was doing high-rep, lower weight strength training in the comfort of my own home. Two dumbbells, a kettlebell and a yoga mat were my only equipment for more than two years. But now things have changed. I want a bigger challenge, and I’m doing less racing and more focused training to build strength and yes, add some more muscle. My new gym is the perfect way to accomplish it. Using the discipline I’ve built up from my writing schedule, I’ve started adding a trip to the gym on top of my weekly running and biking. Is this the early warning signs of a gym bunny? I hope not. I just want to look good, y’all.

So, there’s more weight lifting, more kick boxing, more Power Plate silliness in my life as of late. As we’ve discussed before, you Gentle Readers know that a fit body, produces a fit mind, which hopefully can write some decent fiction on a weekly basis.

There’s also a lot of living in the form of hanging out with friends as of late. I’ve been staying up a little later than usual on some nights, and that’s all right. It’s summer, right? And if I don’t go and enjoy street festivals, the beach and barbecues now, I’ll be whining in winter that I wasted the best months of the Chicago weather.

Also, I saw “The Dark Knight.” Twice.

And the writing, you say? How’s that going? Quite well, thank you. I’ve been spending more time rewriting “Hybridae”, though I can’t say Carapace has received the same treatment. It stands at half a manuscript, with the August 17 deadline looming like Godzilla behind the skyline. I continue working on it, week by week. Only 40,000 words to go. And then re-writing time, which I expect to last until Thanksgiving, easily. I plan to send out “Hybridae” to the market by August 1st, so things are moving.

I want to hear from you writers and other creative people how you’re balancing the beauty of summer against your workload. You living? You also creating? I hope you are.

No Comments »