Buffy vs Edward

Now that's funny!

Hat tip to my friend Erin, who first saw it on Perez Hilton

2009 Toronto Small Press Spring Book Fair

Just a quick note to let those interested know that I will be hosting the Dragon Moon Press table at the Toronto Small Press Book Spring Book Fair.

I'll have copies of my own book available (autographed, of course) and copies of other books by Dragon Moon Press authors, all at good prices. Should be a lot of fun for everyone.

So if you are around, come on down. Here's the information:

Daniel Levinson at Stratford

Daniel Levinson is one of the best Fight Directors in the business. He has deep knowledge of acting, stage violence, direction and human nature, all gained through years of experience.

He's also a friend of mine and one I don't see often enough. We both have busy lives and their no longer in the same business, unfortunately.

This year, Daniel Levinson is one of the fight directors at the Stratford festival, and if you go here you will read a great article where he talks about his work. And buried in the article is a video of him doing his work.

Dan is amazing. My wife and I are going to Stratford this summer, and his work is one of the big reasons.

Geek Link!

Giant dinosaur posture is all wrong.

What did your mother tell you? Stand straight!

100 Pages In!

Actually 107, but it sounds more dramatic this way.

I've had to change my schedule, decrease my workouts, increase my sleep and decrease my writing time, but the net result is better progress. I reached 107 pages last night in the Cold Magics edit.

It's been interesting analyzing how I write when doing my first draft (which is part planning and mostly stream of consciousness). Things get said two or three times that onlly need to be said once. Other things aren't said at all because I think I've written them when in fact I've only thought them. Oops.

I am also proud to report that I've managed to knock off 35 pages from the draft. This means I only have another 165 pages to cut. No problem, really.

Oy.

Saw the New Star Trek Film

Awesome. Absolutely awesome. Loved it.

They set out with this movie to renew a franchise which, let's face it, has been slowly dying out. I think they just might succeed, if they can keep the writing tight and the movies looking as good as this one.

Loved the guest appearance.

Now That's Just Neat!

Fit to Print

Imagine being able to go into a bookstore and order any book in existance and have it printed. This is the first step.

It will, I think help revitalize the publishing industry if they do it right, and can certainly do wonders for bookstores. As well as keeping what's new nd popular on the shelves,they would be able to print up the books as they are ordered, including all the backlist stuff that is so hard to find, and that makes Amazon so popular.

Neat!

God, I Hate Technology

Okay, I don't really, but tonight I've got something of a passionate hatred for it since it's taken me two hours and two calls to the service centre to get the wireless network hooked up to my computer.

Everything is set and working and now we have a home wireless network, but oy veh!

I'd like to thank the D-LINK support service people who were unfailingly polite and helped me run through this whole mess. It's a massive pain, but they sorted the mess.

And now, editing, though it's going to be token because I am already tired.

Finally Saw The Watchmen

Excellent film. Absolutely amazing some of the things they did visually, with the soundtrack, and with the story.

I found a few parts overdramatic, and the gore level was a bit high for my taste, but considering one of the major focuses of the movie was man's capacity for violence, it did serve a purpose.

Overall, a great movie.

Of course, most of you reading this have already seen it, so there's not a huge amount of sense in my talking about it. Still, good film.

Meanwhile, editing away, I'm several chapter in now and Cold Magics is looking like it's going to be a very good book.

Once I get it cut down by 50,000 words or so. Sigh.

Geek Link!

Baby Mammoth!

Vey cool discovery. Amazing picture.

Unfortunately, the first page and the first paragraph of the second page is a writer's dramatic reconstruction of the baby mammoth's death.

But once you get past the fiction, there's some excellent stuff in here about the discovery, loss and rediscovery of this little mammoth, how it was preserved, and what they learned from it.

Really, really neat stuff.

And the edit continues...

And I am back at the beginning. Again.

This edit is becoming something of a frustrating process for me. I spent a week editing the prologue, which was too long and, when I finished editing it, was still too long.

That's when I realized it was also unecessary. Completely. A waste of paper.

So I've cut it.

And now I am editing the new begining for the book, and am hoping to make some better speed, though so far it hasn't been happening. We shall see, though.

Back to it.

Erik at Ad Astra

Was looking around the web one day...

All right, I was looking to see how many mentions there were of my name. This is a valid marketing exercise and should in no way be construed to be me desperately attempting to stroke my ego by finding signs of my popularity.

Really.

No, really.

Anyway...

I discovered Nick's Musings, which is a blog by a literature student from Waterloo. On there I found this post about Ad Astra, which featured some great pictures of panels, including this one of me:




















Nick, great photo. I especially like that you caught Small Magics in the shot, too.

Fantastic Creations

My friend and favourite sword- and prop- maker, Chris Warrilow, now has a website for his business.

Fantastic Creations is the best little prop house in Toronto. Great selection of stuff, amazing prices, and really, really good quality. I have a broadsword, rapier and dagger all made by him and all fantastic. Daniel Levinson of Rapier Wit has swords made by Chris 15 years ago that is still going strong.

So, if you are in the market for a prop or weapon for the theatre, film, or TV, give Chris a call. I highly, highly recommend him.

Performance Art at Its Best

I'm sure many people have heard of them already, but I just found out aboutImprov Everywhere, a group that works to make people's lives slightly more surreal and a fair amount more amusing by putting together strange, wonderful, interactive performance art pieces.

Looking at their website it looks like they started in New York, but have certainly spread around the globe, especially with the success of their No Pants Subway Ride.

It takes a certainly level of madness to be this creative. My hats off to them.

And They're Off!

I began the edit of Cold Magics this week. I've run into a slight snag in that I'm sick as a dog right now, but plan to be going again very soon. Will attempt some tonight, but not much. I'm for bed in half an hour.

Impossibilia

I just finished reading PS Showcase #5: Impossibilia, a collection of short stories by Douglas Smith. I've had the great pleasure of meeting Douglas at a few Conventions now, and the even greater pleasure of hearing him read. He is excellent live, which is good, because it takes an excellent reader to bring out the quality behind excellent writing.

Impossibilia is a wonderful book, with three of Douglas's short stories: "Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh," about art, death and psychic time travel, "Spirit Dance," about northern Ontario, native spirits and shapeshifting and ""Going Down to Lucky Town," about what happens when you can see good luck... and bad luck.

Each one is an example of how a master at the art tells a story -- and I'm saying this out of sheer envy. I write a decent short story, but Douglas has fine tuned the art of writing short prose to the point where he says very well in 10,000 words what other writers would take 100,000 to say.

Impossibilia is an amazing little collection and if you like the short story form I recommend it.

Douglas is rumoured to be working on a novel. I can't wait to see it when it comes out.

Geek Link!

For all you archaeology buffs out there, possibly the coolest archaeology geek link I've come across in a long while:

The Archaeology Channel

This is a great website. All sorts of neat videos on all things archaeological. I watched a really interesting one on the relationship between early steel forging and the deforestation of part of India.

Very cool.

Great Weekend!

I just finished up at Ad Astra, and I want to say, I had a blast!

As with every con I've been to (all three now) folks were friendly and fun, panels were great, the other speakers lots of fun to discuss and argue with, and everyone very nice. Some great costume work, too.

So, lots of fun was had, lots more to be had. My next goal is Worldcon in Montreal in June, and I'll be blogging more about that soon. And now, I need a nap and then, I need to do homework.

Ad Astra - Quick Saturday Blog

Having a great time so far at Ad Astra. I actually had people at my reading of Small Magics! It was amazing. Especially when you realize I was opposite the guest of honor meet and greet and the pajama party. I damn near left myself.

And I had my camera in my pocket and was going to take pictures but I forgot. Sigh.

I had a great time. I met the woman who will be editing my next book for Dragon Moon Press: Gabrielle Harbowy. Nice woman, great sense of humour was willing to listen to me ramble on for far too long.

Got to hear Douglas Smith read one of his short stories. He's amazing. Great writer. Has his first novel nealrly done and I can't wait to read it.

(Word of advice to folks out there: long periods of low sleep + too much caffeine = babbling idiot)

Today, I've got a panel in the morning and an autograph session in the afternoon. Then I get to come home and miss entirely the evening sessions in favour of grinding out this report which we should have done far more on by now. Oh well.

Off to shower and shave, then off to the Con!

A Little Bit of Luxury

It's troubled times, we all know, and there's many folks facing a lot of hardship. Those of us who have jobs are working hard to keep them, and those who don't are working hard to find new ones.

In the midst of all this struggle, though, a little luxury is a fine, fine thing. Here's a great little article on luxuryfrom CBC. It's also a great reminder that luxury doesn't have to mean having all the fancies.. It can just mean treating yourself once in a while.