Announcements

This has nothing to do with specfic, but it still is an impacting moment for me. I was a fan of Ledger ever since 10 Things I Hate About You. Brokeback Mountain and Four Feathers were both excellent films and he damn well deserved every bit of credit. He actually made me want to see that new Batman movie even though I’m not really a fan of Christian Bale and I’m one of those guys that gets pissed off when anyone other than Michael Keaton plays the dark knight. Needless to say, Mr. Ledger will be sorely missed by me, by his family, and by all those that loved his work. It’s sad that he had to go so young. His life was not yet lived and he had so many more great roles to play. This is a dampener on a relatively uneventful day. Goodbye Mr. Ledger… (You can read the article about it here) (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

I would like to announce that I have officially started writing The Spellweaver of Dern, book two of the Satin Bag sequence (a working series title at this point). I’m 400 words into Chapter One (entitled Of Dire Passages) and it’s looking to be an interesting beginning of the book. For those of you who might need a refresher about what is going on, here it is:James and his friends have escaped the mainland of Traea, slipping away from Luthien in a last ditch effort to make a run for the city of Ra. But the Strait of Loe is a dangerous place dominated by a violent, fast-flowing current. If the current doesn’t topple the Luu’tre, then the maze of reefs and rocks along the coast of Traea will prove an even more dangerous task.And what of this mysterious city of Ra in the Isles of Loe? Ancient legends speak of it as a lost city and a place where no man has ever returned. It’s a place that even the dark ruler Luthien fears. What will such a feared city hold for James and his companions? Will they find sanctuary, or will unknown forces pull them into the dark? The short non-synopsis style reads as such:James has come to Traea and rescued his friend, only to find that his actions and his existence in the land of Traea has sparked a war that has been in the works for hundreds of years. Having run from Luthien and convinced the captain of the Luu’tre to risk his life and take he and his companions across the ocean to the city of Ra, he now finds himself being battered and tormented by the rough seas in the Loe Strait. That’s where this novel starts. I’m skipping ahead a few weeks intentionally. It works out better that way I think. On some side notes: I have two interviews coming up and anyone interested in that Eaton Conference please contact me as I’d like to go! And apparently nobody wanted a free $10 for creating something fun for the WISB world. So, I guess that was a waste of time. Oh well! Until tomorrow!

I’m going to go out on a limb here. A friend from school told me about this conference at the University of California, Riverside. It’s a three-day conference talking about Mars (in the scientific and literary context) and there are going to be a whole bunch of science fiction writers there including Greg Bear, Ben Bova, David Brin, Kim Stanley Robinson, Gregory Benford, Frederick Pohl, and others. Basically, HUGE names in the SF field are going to be there.I’m wondering if anyone out there would like to go with me. The reason is that I’m a UC student and I’m not rich, meaning that I can’t really afford hotel fees on my own. Since I’m a UC student I get quite a discount on registration, but again, that hotel stuff is going to bite me. So if anyone is interested in going to this with me please let me know either through email or in a comment or however. It would be nice to split costs and have some like-minded people to hang out with. We could share a room, carpool down, or whatever, and work it all out. Multiple people will really cut things down. Let me know! This is proving to be a really awesome conference and I really would like to go! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

It was raining all day and my backpack leaked…now my autographed, personalized advanced copy of The Dead & the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer is ruined and the copy of The Awakened Mage by Karen Miller, which SQT sent me is almost in little pieces from the water damage. I’m absolutely livid…literally, my entire week has just gone to crap…I’d curse right now, but this isn’t that kind of blog… GAH! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this)

Just thought I’d mention that my link lists on the right side have changed somewhat. I was tired of the old look as it was a bit disorganized, so I decided to update it a bit to make it easier to navigate. Enjoy! P.S.: Some personal things have changed too, which is probably good since some things I was sort of planning to do that would take quite a lot of time or money now are not on my list of things I need to do. That opens my schedule to do other stuff now. Good news right? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)