Thursday, August 29, 2002
Test e-mail
 
Another test of new technology: I am e-mailing the blog. Lynda, it's the
last tab on the Blogger Pro settings screen.


Wednesday, August 28, 2002
 
Brain briefings
Short newsletters on neuro-matters from the SFN site: 'knocking noggins', brains in space, violent brains, dyslexia and language brain areas, pain, robotic limbs, artifical vision, neurological diseases, etc - plus their guide to the brain, Brain Facts.


 
Rambles on the Phone
Great fun last night recording our mutual interview. :-) Woke up this morning remembering bits that got missed when the first tape blanked out, of course, and imagined they were all much better than the stuff we got. The "one that got away" syndrome, no doubt. Grrr. Technology. As an educational technologist, I swear if the following saying doesn't exist, it should: "Equipment tested in trial conditions that exactly parallel intended use will fail in proportion to the importance of the event at issue." Or words to that effect.


Sunday, August 25, 2002
 
ORU Promo Disc
I think we'd be far better off shooting for Worldcon in Toronto next year, and giving ourselves time to do proper planning, get some dedicated time together to work out what exactly we want to do, and how to make the most of both the professional skills of the PG crew and our own abilities - starting with the planning now, of course. The audience at TorCon would be much, much larger and international; the CDs would see a far wider distribution, and the potential rewards in terms of audience are greater. I doubt Far Arena will be out by then, but it should at least be into production. If we get it finished soon!



I let Roman at D&M know by e-mail that need not rush for the VCON deadline. I think I may back off on my plans to do a reading at Books and Company in PG, also, until after things calm down at the U, with the new semester start up and all, and until Throne Price is available on Amazon.com

Lynda Williams




Saturday, August 24, 2002
 
I owe Garth an "Thank You"
Can't imagine why it took me this long to burble on the blog about this, but WOW. Guess what Garth Frizzel did for me? He gave me a present of six T-shirts with the cover of Throne Price on the front and on the sleeves a Garth-origional logo that reads "Born to Rel" with the word "Born" crossed out and "Bred" put in instead. David's comment was: "He's got it." :-) I will document with scanned image ASAP and intend a proper "thank you" on the ORU site, too. Owe the Conversion 19 folks one of those, too. And Brian, for the lovely cover and the launch. Don't think I've ever done a formal "thank you" for Brian. Guess I think of him as a constant. Is being taken for granted a compliment or an insult? But the lovely covers and the launch would be a good place to start redressing the omission.


 
Aug 30, 2002: two appointments

ORU Promo Disk

9 am I must do a meeting with Denis and Muntener to give our input for the promo disk. I hope to have it available for VCON in Vancouver and also for the PG Book Nook event, presuming I get my act together to register for that again. This means we must get in at least a short talk or exchange of ideas BEFORE then.

Frozen Ice Interview

Betsy Trumpener, CBC, has booked me for her ice-breaking Frozen Ink interview at 10:30 a.m. I need to capture a couple of Alison audio segments before then. About 1 minute on your favorite "working together" anecdote, and about that or a bit more of a typical conversation between us to do with co-authoring, or an answering phone message from you, on same. She will take what she wants, but may use both, also. The conversation one possibly as lead-in to an equally short interview with me, and a fade out. She will also use Jennifer's Unborn recording. Total time will be 6 minutes.


I know we are both working a lot at the moment but I'm excited about doing both things. Expect me to be littering your phone mail. :-)

Frozen Ink is Betsy's initiative. (That is also a working title, I'm not sure she's decided yet for sure.) She will be doing a series of interviews with Northern writers. She's one herself, with at least three prose pieces in print literary journals. A fourth piece can be sampled online in Reflections on Water. See Betsy's ROW Biography entry. A google search turns up two pages of references for Betsy, in connection with literacy and her CBC journalist day job, such as Through a wilderness of suffering: The Bear's Embrace, recounting a grizzly attack.


Tuesday, August 20, 2002
 
Conversion 19 Pictures
David has put some pictures from the con on the Lott Family site. Click to visit. Great one of the lot of us in the Edge booth. Thank you David! David was also the photographers, natch.


Sunday, August 18, 2002
 
Clarification
Ahem, for the sake of Lynda's reputation, may I state for the record that Lynda fell off the stage before the beer. And she actually fell stepping down onto a half step that had been placed against the platform but not secured and therefore flipped over when stepped on.



Yes, thanks. Blush. As David just pointed out to me, my summary was a bit misleading in that regard.

Lynda Williams




 
Arena/04
Been through it, accepted most changes, though you may not explain kinf'stan reproductive politics through Erien! As far as he's concerned that's TMI! I also trimmed the explanation of Dorn, since Dorn came on stage in the revised version of chapter 1. I liked Ranar freaking out about the prospect of Erien doing the Gelack thing - and Erien thinking 'huh?? Why should I?' It looks like becoming a standing sort of joke within the series that Erien, who Does Not Accept Fighting as a Solution, seems to wind up going toe to toe with the kind of people that 90% of the rest of the population would back away from verrry carefully and respectfully.



Didn't register that I had pawned such explanations off on Erien. Oh, to be able to footnote.Glad the Ranar/Erien dynamic worked for you. I liked that, too.

Lynda Williams





Saturday, August 17, 2002
 
ConVersion 19
We went, we launched, we drank beer. Well, I drank beer. And fell off the stage at my first panel. Sigh. But, although a dizzy spell later prevented me seeing Guy Gavriel Kay, I did exchange some e-mail with him after which made up for it a bit. We got to visit with publisher Brian Hades and meet Edge editor Cheyenne and their new sales person, Kim. Enjoyed most of the panels. Got to debate Robert Sawyer's right to watch me in the shower with him on the panel regarding the pros and cons of a transparent society and discovered that although his Neanderthals in Hominids have a very different approach to full disclosure of events than our Reetions with their arbiters, we were equally frustrated by criticism of tranparency which assumes there will be glaring flood lights on everyone's minute and private moments without any checks or sheer common sense. For example, if anyone could watch anyone, would we all spend our every waking moment doing that? As I understood it, Saywer's Neanderthals only devulge the record in their "black boxes" when called upon to do so by a trial investigating their guilt or innocence regarding a specific charge, and anyone interested in how arbiter-based social transparency works can, of course, explore those features on the ORU site. In a nutshell, there are consequences for being a peeking tom since that is ALSO on record and there is personal motivation for success even though there is no money economy of our kind. In fact, the accounting is far more refined and exact than it could ever be in a society without arbiters. Other highlights for me were the drinks and meals with fellow writers met only at cons, as a rule: Dave Duncan, Marie Jakkoker, Rebecca Bradley. And, of course, Alison. :-) This is the first con we've done together since I, also, became a "pro". People actually bought copies of Brian's very beautifully manufactured Throne Price and asked for authographs. This will never get boring. :-) My husband David Lott and I attended the Aurora awards, MC'd by Robert Saywer, at which Julie E. Czerneda claimed both the short fiction and novel categories. David checked out her web site after to enjoy the exictement there and scanned the program to send it to her. I've promised him I'll take a crack at reporting on the event to send on to her, if I can revive some of my old journalist skills, polished up with a little "creative non-fiction" instincts. :-) A big THANK YOU to all who attended the launch party or bought the book from the Edge booth. And to the con-going con organizers of VCON who have extended Alison and I an invitation to VCON in October. Thanks Fran! David has taken in the pictures we took for development. Life allowing, we will get them scanned, captioned, and on the ORU this weekend. I say "life". I should say--Family Fun Pizza Night. We are throwing one. Jennifer, Angela and Tegan are busy off to my right, as I type, rehersing the night's entertainment which will be the "Matchmaker" scene and song from Fiddler on the Roof.


 
Chapter 4 of Far Arena: My pass
Done. Uploaded to respository. I think I've tightened up the pacing. Mostly by trimming multple adjectives in favor of better verbs and such. Hope you agree. Minor twiddles with L'Vert's attitude which I think contribute better to the thrust of: a) Bryllit's religious take on Amel and the Reetions, b) House Bryllit ambiguity / pain about Vrenn. Also made an adjustment to make the possiblity of Erien challenging Nersallians to stop them more dramatic and less introspective by having Ranar act out alarm at the prospect. He's not wrong. Given how Erien ultimately stops Bryllit spacing people on Kali until Horth shows up.


Thursday, August 15, 2002
 
Hello everyone,
I have uploaded a picture of a military dragon.
http://www.okalrel.org/yukari/
As you can see, it is just a rough copy although it is in color.
Please give me comments and suggestions you may have.



Nice piece of art. Glad to see you post. The URL as a link, is: Yukari's Art Impressions of ORU Subjects.
Had we discussed Nersallian dragons, prior to my holiday trip? Oh, and Alison was disappointed that you took down your first "take" on Luthan, which we had decided resembles Alivda. Alivda, also known as D'iff in childhood, is not featured in Throne Price. She crops up in some short pieces, figures in later novels. Particularly Unholy War.

Lynda Williams




Tuesday, August 13, 2002
 
Hard Ground, by Amel - envoy period

It is hard to come down
when the sky is full of moods
that defy naming


To imagine the clouds into shapes
again, where none apply.


Heaven heaves, restless for worship
mighty atmosphere knotting
in its huge dome
grinding light and gray mass
thick with anger in the
knuckles of day-pierced clouds.

So unconscious, and so beautiful,
it stuns all aspiration to describe

And even the will to survive
is laughed from "how" to "why"..

It is hard to seek the ground
knowing how little you have filled
the sky.

See ORU entry, with commentary, at http://www.okalrel.org/works/bycharacters/amel8.html



Wednesday, August 07, 2002
 
Respectable scientific stuff
Two of my articles on medical genetics have made it into press at the CMAJ this week. This from the series I got started on back when I was Editorial Fellow, and then guiltily let languish a while. But they're there, the first The Very Youngest Science is a commentary introducing the series, and the second Genetics 101: detecting mutations in human genes is a potted review of current methodologies, and it was a brute to write. It went through 3 major drafts and 2 minor ones, and originated as 2 papers. Thereby proving the key is not in the writing, but in the rewriting. And the rewriting.


Haven't done the "Detecting mutations..." article justice but did take a look. Of course I thought immediately about genotyping. Strikes me that the need for good reference material would be a reason that proper geneotyping is seldom done anywhere but court. A discrimination would only be as good as the expertise, technique and templates employed. ??

Lynda




 
On not losing characters
Rereading Chapter 4 (I'll take my pass when you're done), it occurred to me that we should bring Kirkos back in later on. He's too good a character to let go, and Erien could use the help of a constitutional lawyer.


Okay. We'll have to discuss there where, when and how much, to what purpose parts. On the phone, no doubt.

Lynda




 
The Gibson Collection
'Tis a good time to be going to an SF Convention in Calgary.

The UofC Library has just been given the entire lifetime's collection of a 92-year-old local man, William Robert Gibson, 30 000 - 40 000 books and magazines covering from the 19th century on, meticulously catalogued, boxed and preserved, including vintage pulps on acid-filled paper. The librarians - wonderful people! distinguished by complete lack of snobbery about the nature of rare material! - are ecstatic. They also need money - half a million, they reckon - to get it all unboxed, cleaned, catalogued and appropriately stored. It won't be circulating, because of the fragility - so I bet the next project will be scanning/photographing.

So I expect we'll hear plenty about that in the con. Eat your heart out, Merrill Collection!

- Alison Sinclair, MD, UofC Class of 1999!


Monday, August 05, 2002
 
Arena 22
Added another bit. The answer should be, "Well ... yes," but this is Erien.

The Mozilla 1.0 build has been released for MacOS 8. So I have an alternative to IE for ProBlogger.


 
updates
Thanks for the warning re: Aug 16th deadline. Been meaning to get into my home e-mail all weekend. :-( Meanwhile, I've had a read of final chapter and offered some Ranar input to where you left off with Erien. Also prompted for no obvious reason to write Student briefing article on Okal Rel, by Ranar which I've added to the essays page of the ORU. Still working my way through Arena04 but made progress this morning.


Friday, August 02, 2002
 
And your mission, should you choose to accept it
In case you haven't been looking at your e-mail. Cheyenne would like a 5 pp single-spaced synopsis of Second Contact by August 16th. Heh heh heh.

Of course, I muttered to Brian about a synopsis of Far Arena at some point, too, so that should be my assignment. After this CME course is sorted, though.


 
Far Arena, final chapter
Deadlines are very useful for spurring one on to work ... on other things. The final chapter condensed on my way into work - I don't think I'm more than 2-3 pages off the end, plus the revision required throughout to get the threads leading up to the end woven through the story, so that final scene belongs to the story and has the emotional impact it should have. I can do more in the earlier chapters with the circumstances under which Erien came to Rire in the first place. See what you think - it's uploaded as Arena22 and today's date. And if you have any inspirations re: the ending, go ahead ...

What, you've never seen a phage before? Neatly sinister little apparatus, isn't it!


 
T2 Phage
My first reaction to something like this picture, encountered in a Genetics text, was "you've got be kidding!". It looks like something out of a late night, B-movie horror show. Maybe the producers of same are all flunked out biology majors. :-)

Image found at site: http://bio.winona.msus.edu/berg/308s01/Lec-note/19-new.htm vis google image search.



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