Great Time at Bread Loaf

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I returned a few days ago from the New England Young Writers Conference at the Bread Loaf campus of Middlebury College, in Vermont. It was a wonderful experience, just as it was last year. Approximately 200 high school students and home school students were in attendance, with something like 20 professional writers there as workshop leaders. Among them, I was the one SF guy (though the conference director has written fantasy); there was also a mystery writer, several YA authors, a slew of poets, and some nonfiction people. The kids were amazing. I once more was blown away by the quality and originality and daring of their work. When I was in high school, I was nowhere near their level. Plus, they were a pleasure to work with, and genuinely supportive of each other.

The writers were a great bunch to hang out with, as well. During one of the readings, I was sitting there surrounded by new friends, and thinking what a blessing it was to spend time with such interesting people. Some were folks I’d met last year, and some were new friends. I like getting together with SF people, but this was different; it was warmer somehow, maybe a little less competitive, because there was so much cross-fertilization and we all have our areas of specialty. Several of us were wishing we could all have stayed on another week, just writing and hanging out during meals and after hours.

Why not check out the web sites of some of the folks I spent time with:

Better yet, try their books:

A room without books is like a body without a soul. —Cicero

Extragalactic Dark Matter Ring

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Okay, just one more entry before I head off! This image of a 2.6-million light-year-wide ring of dark matter, surrounding a cluster of galaxies, is too incredible to pass up.


To see a gorgeous, full-sized image of it, look to Astronomy Picture of the Day.

For further explanation, read the news report at space.com. One thing they don’t say there that they do say on the APOD page is that the large blue ring is a digital modeling that has been superimposed over the Hubble image. I’m a little puzzled at the discrepancy there, and am not sure at this point whether the blue cloud is entirely a false-color representation or not. It must be, though, because the thing about dark matter is that it’s, well, dark. You can’t see it. (Except in a scene late in my novel Sunborn, but that’s another matter.)

To get a better grasp of the science behind the conclusion, check out this short Hubblecast video, which describes the gravitational lensing effect that actually supports the thesis that this really is dark matter being depicted and not just some camera artifact.

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In a complete change of subject, I’ll just note the passing of Jerry Falwell, who probably did more to promote the cause of bigotry and intolerance in our society than just about anyone claiming (in a chillingly distorted way) the banner of Christianity. I don’t wish him ill; but I do hope he’s seeing things a little differently now.

“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist.”
—Robert A. Schumann

One More Thing

(As Lt. Columbo would say.) This will probably be my last entry before heading off to the N.E. Young Writers Conference at Breadloaf. One of the things I’ve been doing in preparation is adding to a list I’ve sort of been maintaining of quotes by writers, so that I can pass out some of the best ones to the students. There are quite a few of them. So I thought, why not share them with you? If I sign off every blog entry with one, I’ve easily got a year’s worth.

By the way, did you all hear that Ray Bradbury was recently awarded a special citation by the Pulitzer Prize Committee, for his lifetime of contribution to literature? I think that’s pretty cool, and well deserved.

See you all after the conference!

I’m going to leave you with a link to another cute video: sea otters holding hands.

“Storytelling is how we survive…. That’s how we learn from each other, it’s the best way. That’s why literature is so important; it connects us, heart to heart.” —Alice Walker

Writing/Chaos Chronicles Update

As I’ve mentioned before (but for the benefit of any new readers who may have found us here), I’m doing final revisions now on Sunborn, the long-delayed fourth novel in the Chaos Chronicles series. I think I’ve got the hardest part done—which was redoing the first half dozen chapters for improved pacing, etc., per my editor’s request. I hope I can wrap up the rest of the edits in the next few weeks, and have the book in the pipeline for publication next spring.

When I was at the Nebula Awards event last weekend (see entry below), I heard a great quote. Well, great from an ironic point of view, anyway. Author D.G. Compton (The Unsleeping Eye) related the quote, but it actually came from the late Edgar Pangborn (Davy), whose agent said to him, on the occasion of a disappointing royalty statement: “You’ll never make much money writing books like that. But the very best people will come to your funeral.”

Compton, with a wry smile, looked out over the roomful of SF writers and said, “It looks like all the best people are here. What do you suppose that means?”

Interesting Things Afoot for the Future

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A couple of opportunities have recently come my way, both involving travel:

A long-planned family trip to Ohio is now going to include a book signing—on July 4th, in Sandusky, Ohio. We’re going to be there visiting relatives and taking a young niece and nephew to the great Cedar Point amusement park. The book signing is a new addition to the plans, and will take place at the Kalahari Resort, which apparently boasts one of the country’s largest indoor water parks. So if you’re going to be near Sandusky on July 4th, stop by!

Less than two weeks later, I’m scheduled to wing my way to Laramie, Wyoming, to attend the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop—a NASA-sponsored, week-long program intended to give some intensive astronomy experience to a selection of writers. Here’s part of the mission statement of the workshop: “Our primary goal is to teach writers of all types about modern science, specifically astronomy, and in turn reach their audiences. We hope to both educate the public and reach the next generation of scientists.” It’s funded by NASA as a part of their education and outreach program. Cool! (I’ll be reporting on that in due course.)

And, of course, I leave in just a couple of days now for Breadloaf, Vermont. (More on that below.)

More Progress on Rewrite

After yet another rewrite of the opening of Sunborn, I feel as if I’ve finally got it. I haven’t yet heard from my writing group or my editor, but this version—a hybrid of my original approach and the alternative version I’d attempted on editorial request—feels right to me. We’ll see if others agree. (And eventually, we’ll see if you the readers agree.)

Progress was impeded somewhat by two rites of getting-on-in-years: a routine colonoscopy (not bad in itself, but the preparation—oy!), and a few days later, a kidney stone. (!!) I’ve gotten off easy on the kidney stone, so far; it wasn’t fun, but neither was it the excruciating pain I remember from a previous incident, years ago. But an X-ray says it’s still there, so it ain’t over till it’s over. If you hear a muffled scream, that could be me with a fist in my mouth. Right now, though, I feel fine. (Another glass of water? Why, thank you—don’t mind if I do.)

Kurt Vonnegut, 1922 – 2007

Kurt Vonnegut has died, from brain injuries resulting from a fall. He was 84. (See New York Times obituary.) An iconoclastic writer, he had a big influence on me during my college years, circa 1970. I remember first encountering his work with Cat’s Cradle, which I started and at the time didn’t finish. It just didn’t grab me, somehow; probably I was looking for something more like “normal” science fiction. I also tried Player Piano and didn’t like that, either; it was too normal, and seemed like just another take on the familiar Brave New World theme.

But then he came to give an informal talk at Brown, where I was in school, and I went to hear him. I was an aspiring writer, and he was a sensationally popular author. In person, he was fascinating, very unassuming and welcoming to questions from the students. I remember someone asking him what his favorite novel was (I believe this was before Slaughterhouse Five), and he said that he had had the most fun writing The Sirens of Titan. That title had seemed so preposterous to me, so unserious (I was pretty serious about my SF back then) that I hadn’t even thought of reading it. But I got a copy of Sirens—and I loved it. Somehow that story infected me with Vonnegut’s sardonic sense of humor and absurdity, and from there I went back and tried Cat’s Cradle again; and it was all different this time. On the second attempt, I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. Finally I read Slaughterhouse Five, and that one did me in, not just for the heavy-hitting themes inspired by Vonnegut’s witnessing of the Dresden fire-bombing in World War II, but for the silly stuff, as well. The line, “Kazak wuzza dog. Kazak wuzza dreat big chronosynclastic infundibulated dog” has been embedded in my mind ever since. (I hope I got that right. I typed it from memory.)

Reading those books was an intense emotional and intellectual experience for me, but one that was never repeated. His later books didn’t do it for me, and my world-view now is pretty different from what it was when I was in college, so I don’t know how the books would stand up to rereading. But I’m profoundly grateful to him for what he gave me then and there, when this aspiring writer needed it.

Rest in peace, Kurt Vonnegut.

Writing Blues

You know, sometimes rewriting can be kind of fun, and sometimes it really sucks. Currently, I am in the latter phase, trying to redraft the opening section of Sunborn in a way that will grab new readers, as opposed to smoothly moving returning Chaos Chronicles readers back into the story. I’ve been working on a new version for a few weeks now, and ran one attempt past my writing group tonight. While there was some disagreement among the group about what worked and what didn’t, there was nevertheless general agreement that it’s not there yet. I’m still waiting to hear what my editor thinks, but I suspect he’ll agree. I told him that trying to restructure the opening felt like trying to fit bricks into a Mason jar. That’s still pretty much what it feels like.

Rrrrr. I shoulda’ been a cat herder.

Saturn—Curiouser and Curiouser

So, I don’t pretend to really know what’s going on out there at Saturn, but the images coming back from Cassini really are telling a strange tale. On the one hand, we have Saturn’s north pole:

which is clearly a hex-wrench socket of alien design, though we don’t know its function with certainty (could be to open up the planet, could be to adjust its orbit, could be something even more fiendish).

And then we have Saturn’s south pole, which at first glance appears to be the place where you stick a Saturn-sized inflation needle to maintain internal pressure with, presumably, a giant bicycle pump:

But a closer look reveals that the south pole is…well, you decide:

Now you just tell me that’s not an eye. The window onto the soul of Saturn. And if it’s not related to a whale’s eye, I’ll eat my hat.

Who says the space program doesn’t pay its own way with dividends of new knowledge. Remember Senator Proxmire? If he’d had his way, we wouldn’t know any of this stuff.

By the way, these photos are all from JPL and NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. I love those guys, don’t you?

Teens Only SF/F Writing Workshop

Our general SF workshop for all ages had to be canceled, unfortunately, because of too few people registering. (Too bad, our workshop last fall was packed, and was a great group.)

We are, however, offering one other workshop—a writing workshop for Teens Only. It’s to run during the public school vacation week, which starts April 16. Here’s the blurb, as it went out to some local email lists:

This notice is for teen writers (and parents of teen writers)! Are any of you (or your kids) aspiring fantasy and science fiction writers, or do you have friends who are? Starting during April vacation week, I’ll be teaching a teens-only writing workshop along with fellow Arlingtonian and veteran SF/F writer Craig Shaw Gardner. We’ll be leading three 3-hour afternoon sessions of discussion and brainstorming to help you get moving with your fiction, followed by two Saturday sessions for group critique of your completed stories.

Be ready to write, stretch your mind, and write some more! You’ll learn the craft of writing—and just as important, the art of workshopping, with the support of your peers.

So who the heck are we, that we would propose to mess with your minds this way? Well, between us, we’ve written forty-some novels and a like number of short stories. My work has been a finalist for the Nebula Award, and Craig’s has made it to the NY Times bestseller list. We’ve both even written Battlestar Galactica novels, based on the new series! You can find out more about us by visiting our web sites at http://www.starrigger.net/ and http://www.craigshawgardner.com/.

The workshop costs $200, runs April 16, 17, 18 (1:00–4:00 p.m.)—that’s school vacation week—and then will be followed by two Saturday sessions, April 21 and May 5 (also 1:00–4:00) to workshop the stories you’ve written.

We’ll be meeting at Pandemonium Books and Games in Central Square, Cambridge. (For directions, visit the Pandemonium web site at http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/.) You must register in advance. You can pick up a registration form in the store, or request one by email from me. Don’t delay!

For more information, call Pandemonium at 617-547-3721, or email either of us at jeff [at] starrigger.net or csgcsgcsg [at] aol.com.

–Jeffrey A. Carver

So if you’re local to the Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts area, and you are a teen (or have a teen in your house) with an interest in a cool writing workshop, get in touch! Preferably right away!

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