Archives for January 2007

Okay, I’m back. I haven’t updated for a while because I’ve been busy working around the clock on my new story, trying to get it polished up in time for the first student reading series of the semester last friday. A huge crowd showed up, and I was a bit apprehensive about reading my new story, which I had literally just finished and hadn’t gotten any reaction to from a single person, but the crowd’s response was extraordinarily enthusiastic. I’m quite fond of the story myself. Hopefully some kindly editor out there will feel the same way.

After the reading we all went out to a night spot. One member of my posse, who is quickly becoming a legend in his own time, is a young lad I shall refer to by the impenetrable pseudonym of “Mr. Buckles.” Mr. Buckles has a bit of a drinking problem … and I only say this because last year while drunk he totaled his car by crashing it into a motor boat that was parked at the side of the road, and he is now without a driver’s license and is undergoing court-mandated alcohol counseling. Near closing time, Mr. Buckles was cruising the bar looking for half-finished glasses of beer that less thorough drinkers had simply abandoned. He raised one such vessel to his lips and detected some solid object floating amidst the liquid. He reacted by spewing warm beer all over the back, skirt, and stool of the classiest and best-dressed member of our party. As she squirmed in revulsion, Mr. Buckles scrutinized his beverage and remarked, “Whew. It was just a lime. That’s a relief.” Oh, Mr. Buckles, what will he do next?

Another member of my party described a screenplay he had written based on a series of interviews he did with a real-life junkie and small-time crook. This junkie had once been fleeing from the police and had crashed his pickup truck off a bridge and gone into the river. He swam to shore and took off down the bank. When a police helicopter started circling overhead, he smeared mud all over his body and stood with his arms outstretched, pretending to be a tree. This was apparently sufficient to fool his pursuers, who were looking for movement on the ground, and he got away. I’ll have to remember that one.

A while back I mentioned that I had shoved all the furniture in my bedroom into the middle of the floor, creating a “track” along the wall for me to pace. This has turned out to be one of my best ideas ever. Now when I’m writing a story, I’ll put on my iPod, dial up whatever current song gets my emotions flowing the most, then pace around and around the room, thinking over the events of the story and trying to get my emotional state ratcheted up as high as possible. Then, when I know exactly how the next few paragraphs or the next scene is supposed to go, I’ll sit down and type it out, then go back to pacing. This has meant composing my last few stories in a constant state of adrenaline-charged euphoria, which is fun for its own sake even if the story turns out to be crap. I’ve also gotten into pretty great cardiovascular condition doing this. Seriously, give it a try.

My short story “Blood of Virgins,” which appeared in the October 2006 issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine, is now available in audio format as a free download from Escape Pod.

Last night I went to an advance screening of the new documentary God Grew Tired Of Us, about the “lost boys” of Sudan. (In 1983, the muslim Sudanese government initiated a campaign to exterminate all christian males, regardless of age. Tens of thousands fled, and those that survived the harrowing death march eventually ended up in a refugee camp on the border of Kenya.) The film follows what happens to three of the “lost boys” when the U.S. government offers to resettle them in American cities. They’ve never seen electricity or plumbing before, and at first America seems like a land of enchantment. There’s a great deal of innocent abroad humor as they adjust to life in their new country. One laments, “In the U.S. you can only have one wife. That will take getting used to.” They hold soda bottles up to the camera and say, “This is ‘Pepsi.’ But in our country it’s called ‘Coca-Cola.'” Soon, however, darker undertones emerge. The men must work long hours at low-wage jobs to support themselves, leaving them almost no time to visit each other. They complain of loneliness. They miss the spirit of community that prevailed in the refugee camps, and note that Americans seldom acknowledge each other on the street and that in America you can’t go up to a stranger’s house and get to know them. The town asks the men not to travel in groups, because shopkeepers find them intimidating. The men wire money back home, but there are always more friends and relatives in desperate need who can’t be helped. As the years pass, you can’t help noticing that the men are smiling less and slumping more, and starting to look more and more like … Americans. By the end of the film, the men have started organizing reunions, as well as committees to try to get action on resolving the crisis in Sudan. The film gets most of its energy from the men themselves, who are each charismatic, funny, and thoughtful. What will probably strike American audiences most is the chance to see America itself from the perspective of a total outsider. In one scene, one of the men stands in a mall, staring perplexed at the gigantic Christmas tree and Santa’s house. He asks, “Why do you do this? Is it in the Bible? It is pretty, I guess. But what does it have to do with the birth of Jesus?”

I made some minor graphical tweaks to my website, including higher quality versions of the artwork for “Blood of Virgins,” “Seeds-for-Brains,” and “Seven Brothers, Cruel.”

I’m back in L.A now.

For a while now people have been telling me that I had to check out the low-budget British horror flick The Descent. I finally got around to watching it last night. It doesn’t do anything that you haven’t seen in a million other horror movies, but it does it all with an unusual level of verve and panache, and by the end I was really into it. It’s also noteworthy for its cast — all women, all capable. Give it a look.

Since one of my stories will be coming out soon in Escape Pod, I’ve been paying closer attention than I otherwise might to how many readers it has. The site has a “feedburner” bar that lists the number of readers, but that number fluctuates from about 4,000 to about 6,000, sometimes within a single day. Is there really that much turnover? Or is the number just wildly inaccurate? Anyone have any reliable estimate on how many people subscribe to Escape Pod?

I added some more photos (including ones of me) to my dad’s site.

Behold the stupendous awesomeness that is my dad’s new website. My mom and I put it together for him as a present. She registered the domain and I did all the layout and coding.