Monday, March 30, 2009
 
Guide to the Okal Rel Universe now available from Absolute XPress

It's up! The new incarnation of the guide to the ORU, now the Encyclopedic Guide to the Okal Rel Universe. This one includes more pictures, updates on publications, revised content and a new section of "fun stuff".

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Twitter brain storm for ORU

Staring at Twitter's "What are you Doing?" prompt and wondering "Who cares?", I suffered a brain storm. What do I chat to friends about when we're together in person? It's not what I'm doing, it's what's happening "in world". So I've decided to twitter bits of my current progress with the saga, definitions to intrigue the uninitiated, and other details. It will feel much more natural. And it will be more interesting to believers. :-) Believers. I like that. I need a good word for people who are into the Okal Rel Universe and since I'm working with the Luminaries who believe in Amel, at the moment, it fits. Of course, ORU believers could believe in the Arbiter Administration, instead; or the mission of Tatt or the Academy; or something else. But it does seem to me many of my characters struggle to find something to believe. So it's apt that their supporters be believers in their rel (struggle).

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Good news from artist Richard Bartrop
Sharing an e-mail from Richard Bartrop, an artist who has done work for the Okal Rel Universe.

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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Saturday Morning Reading Last Week
 
Saturday morning reading at Lott/Williams household March 2009 Just love this Saturday morning picture of my husband David Lott and our middle daughter Angela with the cat, Honey, in the background. Every Saturday morning we hold a crepe breakfast at our house for the family and any friends who drop by, followed by a reading. I read from what I'm working on. Guests read from their own work, or from favorite books. (Angie's friend Holly is currently regaling us with the adventures of Artemis Fowl.) It charges my rel-batteries for another busy week. :-)

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Monday, March 23, 2009
 
Reg Feyer of CFIS 93.1 FM
Here's some shots of the CFIS 93.1 studio where I read aloud the first chapter of The Courtesan Prince, last week. The community radio station will use segments of the reading on their Storytellers feature, Monday nights.

Courtesan Prince, part 1 of the Okal Rel Saga, about to be read aloud by author Lynda Williams for CFIS 93.1
This is station manager Reg Feyer.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009
 
http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/engage08/budgethero/

Budget Hero (click title or image) is a game created by "American Public Media, the largest operator of public radio stations". They're a non-profit with a financial model based on sponsorship of programs rather than direct advertising. At least that's my guess given a quick once over of their web site. What intrigues me about their game, Budget Hero, is how it empowers players to vote for budget allocations rather than electing parties whose representatives take care of the actual allocating. I have long viewed direct participation of citizens in budget proportions as part of the Reetion Administration, in the Okal Rel saga. Voting citizens, organized into councils, administer decisions about how resources are used and set policy. About 10% of the Reetion population, at any given time, are in the Voting category of citizenship. One can gain and lose the status depending on expertise, track record and personal priorities and a Voting Citizen's special status functions only within his or her area of expertise. That's why there are so many. But when it comes to allocation of priorities for shared resources (i.e. the budget) the whole population of Rire votes. Well, all citizens in categories Lawful or better, that is. Supervised and Dependent Citizens don't necessarily have all the rights of the majority, depending on why they are in those classifications. For simplicity's sake let's just say all Lawfuls or better get to vote on allocation of resources. The idea here is that the general populous determines the priorities for the use of shared resources in a direct way, rather than via representation. But Voting Citizens - as the expert-elites - still steer the use of these resources. I envisioned checks and balances to prevent fads endangering long-term plans, with some past decisions fixed and committed for a fixed period of time.

Of course, I never expected anything like the Reetion Administration to emerge on Planet Earth in my lifetime. The initial reactions to it at a sci-fi con circum 2006, after Courtesan Prince came out, were knee-jerk ones equating arbiter surveillance with the Orwellian "big brother" dystopia, despite my efforts to point out everyone can watch everyone so there is no central controlling force to become corrupted. (Robert Sawyer made the same point in connection with his Neanderthal-civilization's version of "the record" at the panel I am remembering. In his system, all memories are stored against the need to appeal to them in criminal cases or for other culturally condoned "need to know" reasons, making deception as hard to profit from among civilized Neanderthals as it is in Reetion culture.)

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Thursday, March 19, 2009
 
Semantics of fan in web 2.0 Puttering at my delicious bookmarks today I spotted the fan word on their page as per the image here and made up my mind once and for all - I gotta let go of my squeamishness about the word 'fan'. I'm a fan of any site I bookmark or group I join! It's that simple in web 2.0. My balky feelings about the word spring from my discomfort with what I have dubbed the "pro-speak" culture of my early days as a published writer. In pro-speak, a fan is a mindless wallet whose role is to buy whatever commodity a creative entrepreneur is hawking and to stroke the ego of the artist but keep the hell out of the business of being creative herself. I hated the blind arrogance of the usage. I wanted a word for my readers that expressed my respect for their good taste and my acute awareness that they were complex, inspiring people who happened to like my books as well. If any of the creatively talented ones wanted to write or do art in the ORU, I especially didn't want to use a word that would put them on the wrong side of the pro-speak divide between those who 'can' and those who 'buy'! I believe the line is blurring and the branding of products and aggressive categorizing of people integral to pro-speak is melting down under the egalitarian influence of the web. No change comes without a price, and there is always the challenge of navigating the surplus to locate the materials of choice for you. But 'fan' in web 2.0 is not the same word as the 'fan' of pro-speak. In pro-speak, fan and pro are hard and fast categories. In web 2.0 we are all fans and all creators, taking on different roles in differet contexts. And that's a usage I can snuggle up to and embrace without feeling icky.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
 


My friend Denise Torgenson brought my attention to this interesting take on the creative process, and everyone's natural share in it.

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Received the following lovely thank you from Andrew Bailey, Editor in Chief for Over the Edge for my presentation Saturday at the Canadian University Press conference on campus at UNBC.

******

Hi Lynda

Thank-you so much for talking at our conference on Saturday. We here at Over the Edge are extremely grateful to you for giving up part of your weekend to help make our conference successful. UNBC had never held a Canadian University Press conference before but after hosting such an awesome weekend I think we will no doubt have more oppurtunities to host in the future, thank-you for making this possible for us.

Don't Forget to Live
Andrew Bailey

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New Buttons in the works
 
Justyn Perry, Lynn Perkins and Mel Farrow are helping me give Kathy Plett input on which quotes from Part 5: Far Arena to use for buttons. We're thinking of using Lynn's art for one button and one or two of Mel's chibies for others. Kathy Plett will pick eight ideas from our list. She's got the tough job. :-)

Here's a quote from Lynn on one of the prospects for a button:

>"May the gods ignore you" has become a houshold saying here;-)
>--Lynn

Justyn really liked Horth's infamous quote from this book.

> Some people need killing. (this is my biggest favourite)
> -- Justyn

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Monday, March 16, 2009
 
Lynda Williams speaks on the how the messages plays in all media these days at UNBC gathering of university newspaper journalists

The Message Plays in All Media



Lynda Williams, author of the Okal Rel Saga and editor of the ORU Legacies
series, spoke to a gathering of university newspaper journalists on how the flow of information not only across different media but across barriers of societal classification. Lynda has taught applied computing for twenty years, received three awards for pioneering in social uses of computing, managed the Centre for Teaching and Learning at UNBC from 1997 to 2006 and holds two post-graduate degrees in information-related topics. Lynda has also worked as a professional journalist, blogs at "Reality Skimming", ran an online literary journal from 1999 to 2006 and currently writes a monthly column for the Northern Log. She is a member of the UNBC Arts Council.



Many thanks to Samantha Farrow for the invitation. Audience members are shown here looking over the review Samantha's daughter, Mel, wrote of the Okal Rel Saga for the UNBC student newspaper Over the Edge. Samantha is arts and entertainment editor for Over the Edge.

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SF Creatives March 2009
 
New member John Bell attends SF Creatives We had a small but friendly turn out to the SF Creatives on a cold Wednesday evening March 11, 2009. The regulars were there, minus Nicole and her mom who are enjoying a holiday in a warmer clime. John Bell joined us for the first time. I met him at the CFIS 93.1 interview. John is pictured here wearing the "Write from the Heart" button. And here's Nathalie talking with her hands. :-)
Nathalie Mallet at SF Creatives March 2009 in Books and Company Prince George

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Friday, March 13, 2009
Okal Rel Box by Angela Lott
 
Okal Rel Box by Angela

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Pretenders at Stacey's Book Club
 
Part 3 Pretenders will be March pick for book club of Stacey Schiller Here's Stacey Schiller, a friend and former employee of mine, who kindly asked her book club if they'd take on Part 3: Pretenders for their March book. Always a pleasure to be adopted by a book club. I've asked her to report back on how people fared with starting on book 3 and the reactions of non-SciFi readers as well.

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Setting up on Facebook page Started working on a facebook page yesterday. Want to consolidate the 'gathering' function online. Come sign up! The URL is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynda-Williams/69101973948. David Lott is helping with technical problems. You can reach him at david@okalrel.org

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RFF Utah Homepage revamped

Readers for the Future have a new web page up. David Glenn Anderson is the ORU connection with them. I also web published my short story Angela's Wisdom through them. That was back when I was teaching computer science and Angela was struggling to learn to read. Now she's 16 and disappears for days at a time reading the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer. Delighted that she also likes the Okal Rel Universe stories, too.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Di Mon going to get braided?
 
On Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:10:14 -0600, Mary Schmitz wrote:
> Hi Linda
>
> I need to have as specific a gene description of Di Mon, Liege
> Monitum as possible.  I am trying something with colours and I
> thought Di Mon would be the best to start with.
>
> Mary

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
 
Author Lynda Williams starts profile on Amazon Devoted an hour to setting up an author profile on Amazon. Jeez! It's hard for linear geeks to figure out how to be web 2.0 geeks. So many places to click, so little time. Wonder if it is better to have multiple partly completed presences on the web or be a web 2.0 recluse? :-( Still, great idea and glad Amazon has made it possible for authors to do this.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
 
Neo-Opsis includes annual Neat Stuff CD in Issue 16

Neo-Opsis included it's "Neat Stuff" disk in Issue 16. Here's one of the pictures from the CONs section. That's me on the left and Paula Johanson on the right. Paula is the author of the Tower in the Crooked Wood from Bundoran Press.

Courtesan Prince appears in the Neo-Opsis bookshelf in review section of Neat Stuff 4 Delighted to see copies of ORU books (like Courtesan Prince and Throne Price in this illustration) appear in the Neo-Opsis bookshelf, in the "reviews" section.

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Okal Rel Saga Part 2: Righterous Anger poster on door of Rob van Adrichem's office

Couldn't resist snapping a picture of this poster of the cover of Okal Rel Saga Part 2: Righteous Anger, on the door Rob van Adrichem's office. Rob is the director of Media/Public Relations at UNBC. The poster replaces Horth's face, on the cover, with Rob's picture. Chuckle. Better not tell the Nersallians or they may be gunning for the jokester who created this chimera.

Okal Rel Saga Part 2: Righterous Anger poster on door of Rob van Adrichem's office

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Monday, March 09, 2009
 
Readers, contributors, supporters, the intrigued and the curious are invited to call in tonight to my interview on CFIS FM 93.1 during the Storytellers hour, 6-7 p.m. Apologies to any individuals I sent out the wrong time to, by e-mail. Sigh. I've asked David to review my "sent mail" and fix that. The website for the station is http://www.cfisfm.com/ which has the dial-in numbers.

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SF Creatives March 11 2009
 
Jan 2009 SF Creatives Meeting

Nathalie Mallet and I will be doing SF Creatives again on Wednesday, March 11, at Books and Company in Prince George, B.C. The picture is from our January session. Readers and writers drop in to share their favorites in print or in process with each other. Sometimes we have artists visit to do show and tell as well. Each person gets a turn and takes part in discussion about other people's choices. Informal, friendly and positive! With a focus on SF: science fiction and fantasy. We start at 7 pm. Done about 8:30 pm

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Thursday, March 05, 2009
Jots for March 5 2009
 
Jots on connections March 5 2009

  • Exchanged e-mail with Paul Strickland who is working on a few profiles for Bridges to feature a handful of the wonderful people who intersect the Okal Rel Universe. Paul is struggling through the painful work of sorting out family estate business, as well. Remember, Paul, Rel pilots make dock! That's my way of saying somedays it is winning just to survive.



  • Received a nice "hail" from ORU-friendly contact Tatjana Takseve (formerly Chorney), who teaches English at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. She has passed along my call for ideas about taking part in Bridges in June and the invitation to take part in anthologies to her students. She says life has become more complex for her her in a good way, which intrigued me! But that's all I got. I do know she's spending time in Europe this year for work-related reasons. She is a renaissance lit scholar. I recommended her to Marie Bilodeau as a possible inclusion in the first book of people who intersect the ORU. I am hoping Paul's profiles will contribute to Marie's work, too.



  • Also heard from Reg Feyer of CFIS FM 93.1 about my offer to bring copies of Part 3: Pretenders to the interview for his station next Monday, as gifts for callers. He says "Sure. Bring some books. We don't often get callers, but you never know." So if you know someone who wants a copy, get them to tune in to CFIS FM 93.1 Monday March 9, 2009 at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and give us a call.

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Wednesday, March 04, 2009
 
Lynda Williams will be interviewed about the Okal Rel saga Mar 9 2009 by CFIS 93.1
I will be doing an interview with host Reg Feyer and fellow guest John Bell, this coming Monday (9 Mar 2009), at CFIS 93.1 in Prince George. I love community radio! It is a treat to be able to talk about my passion for a whole hour, and share it with others who are interested in the ideas and characters.


(from e-mail Mar 2 2009 from Reg Feyer, Operations Manager 93.1 CFIS-FM)
Hi Lynda;

Just wondering if you're available next Monday (March 9th) for a live interview on the Storytellers show. We would start at 6pm and go for as much of the hour as we can fill. We'll also have the phone lines open for listeners to call in. I've invited John Bell to sit in with us as well. He's a regular listener and contributor and is very interested in your efforts as a sci-fi writer.

Reg Feyer

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Far Arena part 5 Okal Rel Saga available as pre-order

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Buttons and Books at LTUE 2009
 
Some happy news from Charlie Harmon, an awesome organizer and Amel-friendly soul mate who shares books and buttons for me with some special people.


(From e-mail Feb 23, 2009)
>LTUE went very well. Over 500 attendees. Educator's Conference had
>over 20 for each event.
.
.
>I heard several comments about the Okal Rel Universe and the
>buttons. The comments I heard (and I didn't attend the EC, just
>popped in from time to time) were that the quotes on the buttons were
>great, and the idea of sharing the Okal Rel Universe was great. :)

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