Still working busily on this third Rocket Johnny episode. Tough scene that I need to get through, er , right now. (I should be doing that instead of writing this). And then, it's packing and cleaning in preparation for our trip. We leave either Saturday night or, more likely, Sunday morning.

My wonderful wife has locked me out of my e-mail. No, it's okay, I asked her too. The less internet I'm around, the better. Web 2.0 and Social Internet is wonderful stuff, but it IS distracting, especially when you can be as compulsive as I can. And I've got too much stuff to get done to be able to afford a day lost to just staring at the 'net.

I'll probably maintain this blog while I'm on the road. I can do entries from my phone after all. Then again, I might also go completely Dark for the couple of weeks we're gone. I'm sort of keen on that idea too. More keen the more I talk about it. But we'll see.

I have a list I made of "things that I need to get written." It's a long list. Novels, comics, short stories, serials. It's a long, long list. And depressing, in a way. Sort of like being very badly out of shape and very badly overweight and looking up at all the stairs in the Statue of Liberty. Ah well. It's good to have too many ideas than none at all.

...

I have just had, as I typed that last paragraph, a major idea for Rocket Johnny. which changes everything. So I am going to end this post and go engage in a tried-and-true writing technique which is: wash dishes and stare into space.

The title only sort of refers to the sound my pen makes as it puts words on paper, further advancing an episode that I am determined to get out of alive. It more refers to the feeling in my throat, and metaphorically, the feeling in my head. I am rapidly going from "sore throat and ugh" to "sore throat and sick..."

This fails to surprise me, since we leave for our trip this coming Sunday. Therefore, Zach and I will both get very ill before we go. And Something Unexpected Will Happen. What? I don't know, it will be unexpected. This is the nature of just-before-trips.

Right. Time to put small human to bed, then see if I can fix the house internet, and then get back to writing. And then go to bed thirty seconds before I sick-crash totally.

I am mid-episode, and it is midnight. Seems like a good time to pause for a moment and make a blog post.

(I like blogging. And I miss blogging. And because I want some gentle way to keep in touch with the world, especially during my upcoming trip, I think I may use blogging more. We'll see.)

I'm halfway through episode 3 of "Rocket Johnny". This is the final part of three-part opening story. It's a bear to write. I'm not enjoying this episode, I may as well tell you now, and I only enjoyed the last three pages of the previous episode. This one is such a slog.

But I'm plugging away. Writing serials is mostly about faith (I suppose it applies to lots of other writing too). I continue to not enjoy myself and work on this slog of an episode, keeping faith that somewhere in the future will be an episode that will shine, that will flow from my fingertips as if the gods themselves are channeling it. An episode that can do no wrong. Keeping the faith means that THIS episode is a bear...but maybe the next one, episode 4, will be that episode. And if it isn't, well, it might be episode 5...

We humans are a great one for faith. The next lottery ticket, the next votive candle, the next job application, the next girl-asked-out, the next story...might be the big one. And if it isn't, then there's the one after that. It's probably survival instinct. Or hilarious, to whatever cosmic entity is watching.

And if this post makes no sense to you, well, it's a little past midnight now and all the sensible and non-fiction-writing parts of my brain have gone to bed. (I mean the parts that don't write, not the parts that write non-fiction).

...

I am still reading The Best of Michael Moorcock and New Tricks by John Levitt. And I am feeling increasingly guilty about both. They are both being read to review on SFSignal.com, and it's taking me a long time to read them. Partially because I got sidetracked by a series of seven Star Trek articles.

But partially because the Moorcock book is just slowing me down. I don't want to really talk about it, because then what's the point of a review...but I'm not really keen on it. Which makes it hard to focus.

Especially when I have a book called The Physics of Superheroes whispering to me from the table. It's fantastic and funny, the thirty pages I've read so far. And very, very useful.

Okay. Enough bloggerel. Time to get back to writing. A couple more scenes before sleep happens, I hope.

(123)A testy testing post is what this is. just to see how well it works.

(hm. But why doesn't the "subject" of the text message turn up in the "title" of the post?)

So I've been watching a show on the Discovery channel, called "Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment," in which ten people are dumped in Alaska, given a destination (which they don't know, and don't know how far it is) and then must try to survive. I started watching it because it's in the same vein as Survivorman, which I jones for.

The ten people are various things. Bus driver, police officer, lawyer (and an aside: it is a little depressing to see the successful twenty-four-year-old cop, and the twenty-six year old lawyer, and think "they're my age, and I am a bum." But that's the writer's life.) and various other things. Not exactly wilderness men.

I started watching for the survivalist aspect of it. But increasingly, what I'm watching it for is the fascinating example of group psychology and just basic human structures. Because as a writer, or something, I can't help noticing that shit... :)

It's fascinating, though. The group lost all the members that had any outdoor/survivalist training (funnily enough, they all went home first in exasperation). So it's a bunch of city slickers. But what happens is that without even discussing, they fall into interesting patterns. One gentleman is a particularly good hunter, you can tell he has a very sharp eye and very good aim and although everyone takes their turn at hunting, HE brings home the food. And that elevates his status in a non-spoken way.

One of the women, the lawyer, sort of likes cooking. And so she does all the cooking, a lot of the gathering. Another lady (a school bus driver) helps her, but she's definitely in charge. Stores the food, gathers it, all that.

Another guy is particularly creative. And what usually happens is that he's the one who knows how to repair cabins they come across, or get a fire going without burning the place down, or where to make a shelter...or he's the one who says "Wait, stop," and checks the map and compass and gets 'em back on track.

It's fascinating. It's interesting watching the little human community regulate itself. The survival aspects aren't bad (I find myself shouting at the TV and wondering, have they EVER watched a Discovery channel show; "Pluck that while it's still warm!" "don't jump on that log you'll break your damn leg!" "take off your coat you're going to get hypothermic!") but the survivalism is just in there. It's really fascinating to watch the people adapt and take on roles.

Humans are really pack/communal animals who just happen to have the ability to survive on their own (although not well, psychologically, really). It's interesting to see how the community takes shape. Take ANY ten people and put them out there, and almost the exact same thing would happen. It's pretty fantastic.

So. This is what happened.

Last night, we all watched our nightly episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. And because there have not been any new episodes aired in, frankly, it feels like months, we watch either "Clean" or "Move" every single night. Last night, we watched both. And then we gathered up Zach and went into his bedroom and put him in his crib, to go to bed. He cried and made noise for a bit, then went to sleep.

My wife went off to work on her homework. I stretched out and read Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe for a bit.

We listened to the rain. We fell asleep.

This morning, we hear Zach whining a little, and it's time to get up anyway. So we get up, we stagger out like morning zombies, open his door...

...and Zach is not in his crib. Zach is sitting on his floor, and he is whining because he can't pull his blanket out through the bars of the crib.

To say that Renee and I were shocked is probably to understate the matter.

So! It would seem that, as of tonight, we are switching from crib to bed. The bed's already in there, we were just talking about making a gradual change. Instead, it'll be rather sudden.

That's been my morning. It started raining last night around seven, and come this morning, it is still pouring rain. The grassy stretches in front of my windows are submerged, and we're under all manner of flood warnings and watches which are, for Minnesota, business as usual when the tornado watches aren't in effect.

Just to update the "Pete & His Books" area of the blog. A list of what's come into the house today, and what I'm currently reading.

Just Arrived

"Soldier of the Mist" by Gene Wolfe - I haven't read this one by him before, but I've long wanted to. The joy of a campus university library is that they have odd books like that, in the sprawling and catacomb like basement areas. What I also got from the university library was...

"Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine - which I've read before twice. I had a chance to buy it, didn't, and have not stopped regretting it. So now I want to read it again. It's my favorite Douglas Adams book. It was also Douglas Adams' favorite Douglas Adams book, so that has to count for something.

and books I've bought today were:

"Castleview" by Gene Wolfe - I've never read it, I've barely heard of it. I found a used paperback of it in my local used bookshop and couldn't resist.

"The Fabulous Riverboat" by Philip Jose Farmer - I read book one of the Riverworld series ("To your Scattered Bodies Go") and was enthralled and floored by the sheer creativity in it. What a magnificant novel! And it ends on a cliffhanger, which put me into a frothy rage (well, a wussy sort of froth) because book 2 is really hard to find. So when I found the second copy today, I snatched it up. Thank God for used bookshops.

"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester - this is one of the best examples of SF literature there is. What an amazing book. I haven't read it in years. Harlan Ellison describes it with beauty in a segment on the old show SF Vortex, which ran on the Sci-Fi Channel (which is now called the "SyFy Channel" just to make you shoot milk out your nose). If you haven't read this, you need to. In a society of telepaths, how can you get away with murder? And it asks some amazing questions. Such a good book.

--

What I'm Reading

"Mattimeo" by Brian Jacques - Because it's spring now, and I find that Redwall books are perfect Spring reads. They leave you happier at the end, they're good stories, well-told and beautiful. Brian Jacques is charm itself. I can't read too many Redwall books all at once, but once in awhile, it just brightens my day.

"Three Fates" by Nora Roberts - Yeah. I'm reading Nora Roberts. Don't judge me. It's been in the house for some time now and I decided that, well, since I've been having jokes at her expense for years now, I may as well give it a whirl. I'm only about fifty pages into it. It is...not bad. We shall see what I think when I've finished.

...

I have just finished reading an anthology, but you'll have to wait to hear what I think about it, because the detailed review for it is going to SF Signal. Once it goes up (once I write it...) I'll post a link.

And that's the book update for today.

Today, the weather forecast promises me lovely upper-forties temperatures. And while I'm not actually sure those exist anymore, after this long winter, I am looking forward to it. I may bundle up small toddler and head out for a nice walk. But in the meanwhile, it's not that warm yet, so I may as well blog.

Let's see. In no particular order:

- Yesterday, as an experiment, I made a single cup of Earl Grey tea and then put a little bit of heavy whipping cream into it. I'd never done that before, but wanted to make the experiment. I have a small handful of teas that I can't just drink casually. They're too strong and bitter for me. I always hope to soften them into something drinkable, but I don't care for sugar, and milk hasn't done much for me. I was curious about cream, and decided to try it in a tea whose taste I knew and already liked (So I'd know if it worked or not.)

To my surprise, it worked wonderfully. It was delicious. So I'll be very curious to try, say, a cup of Pur-Erh tea (all by itself, it's too strong for me) and see how that comes out.

Right now, though, I think it's time for me to make a pot of tea to see me through the morning. And I think it'll be Lapsang Souchong.

...

I've been twittering a record of what books I'm reading. When I start, when I finish, and what I read next. I'm enjoying it. If I understood Twitter a little better, I'd figure out how to had a #hashtag to the book Twitters, so that extremely bored internet denizens could just read the record of what I'm reading. As it stands, I'll try to just mention it here on the blog and give these posts labels.

I have just recently finished "Planet Janet" by Dyan Sheldon. It was enjoyable. The journal of a self-centered British girl going through a self-proclaimed "Dark Phase" and becoming intellectual and stuff. She's completely self-absorbed (she's sixteen, naturally) and does not notice life happening around her, throughout the book. It was a good read, but I kept wanting to reach into the book and shake her. Or at least have someone yell at her really sharply. No one did, but it ended well enough.

I am still working my way through "Roma" by Steven Saylor. I like his Rome stuff, I have a number of his books about Gordianus the Finder, and I enjoy them. I like this one too, but it's rather long. Not a bad thing, but having reached about the halfway point, I think I'm going to set it aside, read another book, and then come back and finish it. I don't know what other book yet.

It's not really a problem, but one observation I have with Saylor's book is that for quite a lot of the book, he forgets about any sort of story and just offers up historylessons. And they're good history lessons, well-told, and he always brings the story back around, so I don't mind. But it does effectively mean that you never lose yourself in the book and get swept away. Still, the book hasn't made me want to put it down yet, so that's fine by me.

I'm not sure what to read next. I've got a history book by Nathaniel Philbrick called "Sea of Glory" that I want to read. Then again, I am also really interested in re-reading Gene Wolfe's "Book of the Long Sun" series. So I may do that instead.

A related note: There is a wonderful Gene Wolfe book club, and I've been staring at it for days trying to decide if I have the time and carry-through to join up and participate. It's such a fantastic idea.

...

Of particular excitement, I have a serial to write! I'm pretty excited. I resurrected God in the Machine late last year, in November...and it never went anywhere. Just for the simple fact that the episodes are extremely long and very complex. the episode that came next hit a single snag, and I couldn't find the time or concentration to work through it. (One day, I will. I know what happens next for quite a long ways. It's down, but not out.)

So while that does nothing, I sit around grumpy, wanting to do a serial and not getting to. The past few days, I've put together a solid idea, fulla plots, and begun building a simple little site for it. I don't want to talk about it too much, not until I've got something written. That's how to find out whether or not all your ideas have legs after all. But know that it exists, and it makes me happy.

It'll be hard work. It's set during World War II, and the nature of it is going to require a lot of research, in some places (in some other places, nothing at all except pie-in-the-sky dreaming and a lifetime of reading). But I'm working on it. I hope to write the first episode, or most of it, this afternoon. And I hope to stop browsing the fascinating World War II web-sites long enough to do it. Who knew there was a World War II timeline web-site? On the internet, of course there is.

...

By the way, the occasional random picture or small nearly incoherent message that appears on this blog? That's not me blogging drunkenly. That's me blogging or sending photos from my cell phone. You probably already figured that out, but I wanted to make sure.

Right. Off to make tea, breakfast, and get to writing.

P.S. This template really is hideous, isn't it? I need to put something else up and make the blog prettier, don't I? I shall do that today too. No, honest!

P.P.S. There. New template. A bit narrow for my tastes, but I quite like it. It'll do for now. Problem solved.

Test

Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. 

Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. 

Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. Just to see what it does with two posts. 

And it is being done from my phone just to see how well it works.