ICFAdventures

Happy Easter, to those of you who are into that sort of thing!

I'd never been to a conference or convention or anything else before last week. It's usually a money thing, sometimes a scheduling thing, but the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts is a Florida thing, and I'm a Florida thing, so I can drive there and not sweat the hotel, so that helps. I'm going to be name-dropping like a muhfuh here, so get used to it.

I swung up to Orlando for the pre-conference party the Tuesday night before last and met some cool people there including Kathleen Ann Goonan. I felt a bit like a dope because I knew I'd read something by her, but couldn't remember what. I met quite a few Scandinavian writers and academics and a couple from Australia. I felt dumb after asking Peter Halasz if he was Adam-Troy Castro. But Castro lives in Florida, I figured he might be there, and I've only ever seen tiny little pictures of him on Facebook. I spoke to Guest Scholar Constance Penley who teaches about the intersection of feminism, porn and related matters at UC Santa Barbara. I saw others whom I knew by seeing their photos online (after the Peter Halasz incident, I should probably say I "thought" I knew them) but I didn't see a non-intrusive way to say hello. I had some great conversation with Diane and Lee Weinstein, who have been involved with science fiction for, I think, thirty-five years. Diane answered lots of questions that I had about her years of slush reading for Weird Tales and told me the story about how she was hired by George Scithers.

Mango Feed Is Fixed

My boss, who is a newly converted fan of Beware the Hairy Mango, told me he wasn't able to access the first forty-nine episodes of the show. I realized that I had to adjust the thingie on the site that handles such things and have done so. All the episodes should be available now. I'm seeing them on my iPod, anyway. If you're still not seeing the first episodes, wait a few days, check again, and if there's a problem, let me know at upwithgravity@gmail.com.

As I told the boss, it took me maybe twenty episodes or more to really figure out what the show was, so there are some shows that don't feel as Mangoey today because the stories are just weird, rather than weird and funny. So, bear with it. You shouldn't necessarily start at the beginning with the show and I always, always, ALWAYS warn folks not to listen to them all in a row, because I am best taken in small doses. You'll burn out, people. Of course, listeners regularly ignore that advice. Proceed at your own risk.

Updated Works

I updated the list of my stuff that you can read and listen to. You can see that here, over at http://bewarethehairymango.com/about-2/. I added links to three or four stories, updated a couple of other links and sadly removed quite a few other links to sites that are no longer in working order. Some of those stories were ones I actually removed from this blog when they were published at another side. I'll have to add them back when I get the time and remember. Perhaps I can post the others here as well. I should have another Fiction Crawler to add to the list in a few days.

Caterina Mota: Play With Smart Materials

Hop on the train, folks! From TED:

Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That)

Stumbled upon this video today and it made me eye-wateringly happy. Not only is it Flight of the Conchords material I haven't seen, but it's a fantastic song performed brilliantly with a story behind it. Donate to the charity that inspired it all, Cure Kids. Enjoy!


 

Stop Motion

Just saw this on Facebook. Too wonderful not to share.

The Novel, She Is Done

I just finished my first novel, By Any Other Form, and shipped it off to New York to find its way in the world. This is number 139 in The One-Thousand, and boy, does it feel good to change that tally again. This was the longest thing I've ever done (90,000 words, a year and a half of my life) and I feel the best thing I've ever done. Grant Stone tells me I should throw a party. At the moment, I'll settle for a shower.

In the immortal words of Ned Flanders, "Godspeed, little doodle."

Wasa

Via Boing Boing:

Wasa from Mathias Lachal on Vimeo.

Perks

The daughter and I saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower last night. Being a bookstore guy, I've sold many dozens of copies of the book over the years, many of them since the film came out. Not having a TV, however, I only saw the trailer for the movie about a week or two ago. I mentioned to my daughter that I wouldn't mind seeing it. It magically appeared in the mailbox soon after (Though I'm pretty sure she planned on watching it before I said anything).

To my surprise and delight, I discovered in the opening credits that the book's author, Stephen Chbosky, not only wrote the screenplay, but directed the movie! I can't recall ever seeing something like that before. How wonderful that an author could be given the opportunity to interpret his own work for the screen. Other credity magnificence: Joan Cusack is in it! I'm sold, buddy!

It was one of those wonderful movies you sort of wish you could have lived, especially if you were one of the millions of teenagers that didn't get invited to a whole lot of things, or, like me, lived in a place where you were surrounded by cows and corn. I watched it, wondering if any of the characters in my novel could stand up to the movie's characters. Some of those in the movie were really good, especially as an ensemble. Ezra Miller truly shone as Patrick, our wallflower's outgoing gay friend. I'm convinced I've seen him in something else, but I haven't seen any of his other work. What's left is that he either reminds me of someone I've known, or his acting was so strong, I felt a sort of déjà vu.

In a cast of fucked up characters, Charlie, the protagonist, stands out as powerfully fucked up and we're drawn in, watching the complete depths of his inner mess unfold throughout the movie as he struggles with dealing with anyone and everyone.

If a film makes me want to hang with its characters, like Whip It did and like this one did, I've got to call it a great film. I haven't yet read the book, but purchased it today. Go watch or read or whatever you want to do with it.

Audio Love With Chaos Motor

Okay, remember that story I told you I wrote for John Mierau's anthology, Walk the Fire? Well, now you can listen to it for free. Or at least the first part for now. The second part will be coming soon and it too will be free. In fact all the stories from the book either are or will be available in audio on John's site.

To refresh your memory, my story is called Aborted Love with Chaos Motor at Lucky Pierre's. It's a fun little story about Congolese feminist revolutionaries, teleportation, a machine that does a bunch of crazy crap, a relentless fiancé, and a shitload of snails! Click the book cover up above to buy your copy of the e-book and/or click the link below to listen to the first part of my story:

Aborted Love with Chaos Motor at Lucky Pierre's, part 1

I'll post a link to part 2 when it's up!

StarShipSpider

Only one day left to join StarShipSofa's latest event and learn from the legendary Spider Robinson! Here's a link to my post that has the details: 

http://theonethousand.blogspot.com/2012/11/write-with-spider.html

After you register, don't just sit around and wait all day, listen to the latest episode of StarShipSofa!

StarShipSofa No 273 Jack Vance Part 2

Fact: Hugo Review Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by Andy Tomaswick

Main Fiction: The Moon Moth Part 2 by Jack Vance

Promo: Rompod

Narrator: Josh Roseman

Or, start with the one before this, since it is the second part of a two-parter.

A Writing Update

So, as I said, I finished the beta version of the novel. I'm waiting to hear some feedback on that so I can fix any problems. I've asked my beta readers to get back to me by February 15th. As I'm waiting, I'm tinkering, however, making little improvements to chapters as they occur to me. I hope to have the final version done and off to an editor by March 1st.

I got the latest Mango out late and looked over what needs to be done between now and the end of May. As you may know, I do an episode a day in the month of May. Then there are the regular episodes between now and then, including an April 30th episode, which I don't normally do, but since I still owe you folks an episode for last October 15th, I'm doing one. So, I think I have to produce thirty-eight episodes between now and the end of May. I haven't figured out when I'll record, but if I spend an hour a day on the writing, it'll be no problem. An episode usually takes about three hours to make. Two to write, one to record, edit and post. Those are rough numbers. Maybe I'll record, edit and schedule them as they're finished. That would produce a little over two episodes a week, which would work.

Then there are the short stories. I've got eight-hundred and sixty-two short stories to write in a little over six years and three months. That means a short story every two and a half days. Hmmmm. I'm trying to figure out a system that could make this happen. I'm working on it. If you're curious, the novel will count as a story.

That's it for now. I have some stories to write.

Steamunk!

Hey, gang! Check out episode 145 of Beware the Hairy Mango! Steamunk!

http://bewarethehairymango.com/episode-145-steamunk/

Drool

A writing update and excuses for all of you. I finished the novel early this morning and have sent it out to my beta readers. Far from my first novel ever started, it is my first ever finished. Yes, I know I have more work to do. Shut up.

 In order to finish the novel for today, I slept for two and a half hours last night and three and a half the night before that. I had an episode of the Mango due today. I haven't even started writing it. The plan was to write, record and post it this evening. Even after a forty-five minute nap, I am staring at the screen and drooling. I'm betting it's not happening tonight.

Sorry.