Writer At Large

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:12:00 +0000

Our long national nightmare is over.

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:51:00 +0000

We can all rest easy. The greatest mystery of our age as been solved.

Anna Nicole Smith's baby daddy has been revealed!

And the winner is, um, the guy who wasn't her attorney. Honestly, I refused to pay enough attention to the blairing headlines about this stupidity. I guess that guy gets the half a gillion dollars or whatever she inherited from the old guy she married way back when.

We can all be glad that it stands revealed. The truth is now known. Maybe now Fox, CNN, and MSNBC can do something like cover actual news.

I hear there's a war on somewhere

Post Christmas Blahs

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 05:15:00 +0000

If I may get all schmaltzy, Christmas is the time of year when I think about my late grandmother the most. Every holiday, she would make her famous sticky buns. Since her death, I've sort of taken over that role. This year, I tried a healthier alternative as an experiment, making a batch with whole wheat flour and Splenda (TM) instead of white flour and sugar. I think they came out pretty well.

Unfortunately, I picked up a cold this weekend and cheering the Eagles beating the Dallas Cowgirls on Christmas night pushed it into laryngitis. It cost me a day off work. Lying in bed for three days made me think more about the rough times my family has endured this year. My sister's impending divorce ranking near the top. Now I'm in that blah period between Christmas and New Years where everything in the media is a retrospective of the year's events and/or predictions for the coming year. I'm feeling both nostalgic and anxious for the future.

Let's see what 2007 brings.

Quiet Day

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:01:00 +0000

Today was a quiet day at work. Nearly the entire office was out killing deer, so I had a nice day of sitting in my cube contemplating life and writing.

One big relief is that my dog is doing better. After nearly two weeks of seizures and three trips to the vet, the medication is finally starting to help. She's going to be taking this stuff for probably the rest of her life.

I don't know how people with kids handle it. Rosie is more than enough responsibility for me and Maria to handle. I can't imagine dealing with sick kids, or even worse, kids with long term health and/or emotional problems. I'm screwed up enough by myself. I guess this incident is the final straw. Maria and I are destined to be kidless and happy. We spent Thanksgiving visiting family, which includes a grand total of three nieces and two young cousins. Kids are fun, but I'm happy handing them back to their parents at the end of the day.

I'm fully happy with this decision. Not everyone is meant for parenthood and Maria is even more convinced that this lifestyle isn't for us than I am. In a way, it's liberating. Without the added weight, I'm free to pursue my wannabe writing career and my hobbies.

Life is good.

So long as I remember to give the dog her meds.

Santorum's out

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:08:00 +0000

Rick Santorum has been defeated!! Woo hoo!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:20:00 +0000

Santorum says Scientists are amoral

Ugh. Sometimes this sanctimonious ass just makes me sick. As a scientist, I have to strongly object. Most scientists are not "amoral" as he claims. Most scientists that I know went into the field because they wanted to do something that would better humanity's understanding of the world around us.

Unfortunately, we're up against a political class that believes continued ignorance is a virtue. Or at least, keeping the masses ignorant is a very useful tool for them.

Interview II

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 03:59:00 +0000

Today's interview went well. I guess.

I got a bette vibe off of the people who interviewed me last Wednesday.

Hopefully, I'll hear from one or the other soon.

Patriot Day

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 03:52:00 +0000

It was inevitable. I knew the moment people started calling 9/11 "Patriot Day", it would happen. The day would come when the murder of 3,000 Americans would become just another excuse to hold a white sale at Penny's or an extended happy hour.

Today at work, I saw a flier advertising a "Patriot Day Picnic". I felt immediately sick at the sight of it. Soon, 9/11 will simply replace Labor Day as the unofficial end of summer. With each passing year and our memory of the events on 9/11/01 fades, the remembrances will become downplayed. How many people even know which wars that Memorial Day and Veterans Day were originally created to commemorate? It's over.

Sure, we could just not question it all. Just happily call it Patriot Day. After all, who could object to celebrating patriotism? Good patriots love their country. Of course, the cynic in me sees this trend as part of the concerted effort to remind us all to be good patriots. And that means to never, ever question the administration.

At least until another Democrat gets into the Oval Office.

We are officially damned.

Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 05:09:00 +0000

I think the job interview went well. They seemed to like me. It's just a lateral transfer, but one that I hope will have more opportunities for promotion down the road.

Anyway, more good news: I have another interview for a different job on Monday.

Hopefully, something will come of it.

I surrender

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:55:00 +0000

Fine. I give up. Against the unrelenting barrage, I hearby surrender and I resign from the reality based community. It's just too hard to argue facts and reality in the face of unrelenting belief.

It's just easier.

I want to believe that the WMD were found in Iraq, even though the Pentagon says they weren't.

I want to believe that reality TV isn't staged, even when it obviously is.

I want to believe that Wolverine is the coolest comic book character in the universe, even though he's nothing but a homicidal maniac.

I want to believe intelligent design because I'm told it's better than believing we're descended from monkeys, even though that isn't what the theory of evolution says.

I want to believe that Rick Santorum really does live in Pennsylvania, despite his own admission that his spends about a month total here.

I want to believe these things. But I can't. Because I can't shut my brain off long enough.

Good night, America. I have a job interview tomorrow.

Thursday blues

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 05:13:00 +0000

Losing too much sleep lately. Barely making it through the day. Can't fall asleep at night. Can't stay awake during the day. It's playing havok with the writing.

Scifi announced this week that Stargate:SG-1 has been cancelled. Bummer, but ten years is a good run for any show to be proud of.

This is interesting. Bush and Rummy want to take more control over the national guard from governors during natural disasters. Bet they'll still blame the governors when the next hurricane hits.

Who wants to be a trainwreck?

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:49:00 +0000

I don't get reality TV. I think it's the stupidest thing ever created in the entertainment industry since someone made the mistake of giving Tom Cruise his first screen test.

However, as a comics fan, I decided, what the hell, I'd give Stan Lee's 'Who Wants to be A Superhero?' a shot. Like many reality TV shows, the premise revolves taking a diverse group of people, put them together in a house and then publicly humiliate them with demeaning challenges, after which, one person gets eliminated. The twist here is that everyone has adopted a superhero identity and the challenges are designed to test their commitment to, well I'm not sure exactly what their commitment is, maybe to self-delusion. Or the how badly they need to be committed.

After three episodes, half of the originals have been told to "turn in your costume" by Stan Lee. The winner apparently will get a one shot comic written Stan Lee about their character and a made for TV movie to air on Sci-Fi's Channel's SF Saturday night. So, the whole premise of the show is to help the Sci-Fi Channel develop another low-budget cheesefest. I'm already betting that the eventual winner will be Major Victory, since he seems to be the most deluded of the bunch. I'm not sure at this point which is creepier, Major Victory's vamping around the set or see Stan Lee make godlike pronouncements over closed circuit TV.

The show does illustrate how disconnected Mr. Lee is from the company he helped create and the current comics industry in general. Stan repeatedly lectures one failed contestant how "superheroes don't kill people, they help people." I guess that's why Marvel puts a homicidal maniac like Wolverine in every one of its team books these days. Another point he makes is that superheroes never give up their secret identities. One of the examples he uses is Spider-man, who just publicly unmasked himself as Peter Parker in Marvel's big "Civil War" crossover event.

But the basic flaw of the show are the challenges. Since they acknowledge that they can't actually test the contestants on the superpowers that their character allegedly possesses, the test are designed to test issues of moral integrity: courage, honesty, commitment, etc. The problem is, the people Stan Lee is testing are reality TV show contestants. And testing people on reality TV for integrity is like giving Stevie Wonder an eye test. It's totally worthless. It's not surprising that most of them consistently fail the tests.

Useful Idiots

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:23:00 +0000

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Too much to do around the house, teaching three nights a week, and working the crappy day job. I made the mistake of watching the taking heads last night lament over the Lieberman getting the boot in the CT primary. You know the voters are on the right track when both the conservative and the liberal pundits are bemoaning the election results.

The communists in the old Soviet Union used to call American communists "useful idiots" - deriding them as naive idealists but at the same time, happy to make use of them for propaganda purposes. Today, Joe's biggest mistake was in allowing himself to become a "useful idiot" for the republicans. His sycophantic behavior on shows like Hannity and Colmes coupled with his willingness to attack his fellow democrats was his undoing. Many conservatives in the blogosphere have been making much about his liberal voting record, but in politics, perception is reality, and the preception of Lieberman was that he was Bush's lapdog.

On the other hand, Joe has also developed a severe case of incumbantitis. The symptons include disconnect from one's constituents and feeling of entitlement that manifests as annoyance at the very idea of having to actually campaign among the great unwashed in order to keep one's position.

So, the republicans are lamenting the loss of their favorite useful idiot, while establishment democrats are unhappy because if an 18-year vetaran of the Senate and former VP nominee can lose in a primary, anyone can. The talking heads will debate for the next week whether this is good news for the dems or the GOP, ignoring that it's actually just bad news for the incumbant class in general. People are fed up with politics as usual and want a new breed of leader. No more politicians. No more useful idiots.

We need some actual statesmen (and women) for a change.

Tasteless Protest

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 04:48:00 +0000

I usually take a walk around the state capital during my lunch break. Today, I saw something that almost killed my appetite: Three large moving vans with aborted fetuses circling the capital building.

Ick.

Now, whatever you think about the abortion issue, there are some things that are just tasteless., so this blog is directed at the contingent of the pro-life movement that thinks parading pictures of aborted fetuses are a good idea for demonstrations. Such tactics serve no purpose in converting people to your side of the issue and only offends people. Don't tell me that the shock value is intended to make people think about why abortion is legal. It doesn't do that. It only makes people sick and turns them against you.

The people who run those truth.com anti-smoking ads try to use idiotic performance art to achieve the same ends. So do many of the anti-fur groups. Here's a clue: throwing blood on people or coverting around in a rat suit doesn't advance you're agenda. It just makes you look like an idiot.

And so does driving around in a truck painted with aborted fetuses.

The one group of protesters I do like are the animal rights activists that come to Harrisburg every spring to protest the Ringling Brothers Circus. The usually feature a topless girl in a cage in full body paint. This year, she was a tiger. That's what will get me to support your cause: Topless women. We need more of that.

Pro-lifers, paint topless women on your trucks and I promise to never have an abortion as long as I live. Truth.com, have topless women had out your "gotcha memos" about the tobacco industires practices from 20 years ago, and I will pledge to never take up smoking.

See how easy I am to convince?

Happy Birthday to Me

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:38:00 +0000

Yep, today (7/6) is my birthday. I spent most of it visiting my mother-in-law in the hospital as she recovers from knee replacement surgery. So, think good thoughts for her, please.

I'm feeling very philosophical about turning a year older. My writing is going better than ever and I still have my health. I have a great wife and some good friends. So, life is going good for this Writer at Large.

And yes, the podcast is still coming!

Spoke too soon

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 03:02:00 +0000

Okay, so I didn't get the podcast up this weekend. I had a full podcast recorded and Audacity crashed the f*&ker! Starting over sucks, but it's all a learning experience. I'll have it started up this next weekend.

And this time I mean it.

Rolling on

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 04:25:00 +0000

The podcast is going up this weekend! All technical and health problems are resolved and it's time to record. I just need to setup the libsyn acount and we're good to go.

In other news, I finally sent the first of ten query letters to an agent for my novel, Postmodern Prometheus. The novel is done and is under review by an editor, but I need representation to help sell it. The plan is to send a query to ten agents and see if anyone bites. If no one bites, then I'll send ten more queries.

I've got a few other writing projects that I'm not ready to discuss, but I have a few opportunities that I hope to get working very soon.

Bummer Day

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:44:00 +0000

I didn't have a very productive day. I got all of a paragraph done on my latest story. I hate days like this. It wasn't writer's block so much as mild attention deficit. I was easily distracted and found myself surfing the political blogs.

Which is always a great place to see the decline of American political discouse. Political blogs are where anyone to the left of Ann Coulter is a socialist who hates America and anyone who doesn't think that Bush is the worst president ever is a fascist.

Sigh.

Well, there's always tomorrow.

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:54:00 +0000

Oh. My. God.

I never watched this show, but when I came across this video, I just had to share it. Truth is, I can't stand either Maury or Connie.

I've always found Connie Chung rather irritating as a newreader, but I never imagined her singing could be this awful.

This is just one of those things you have to file under "what the hell were they thinking?" I have no idea what key she's singing in. I don't think she does either. But her really loud grunt as she slides off the piano is just hilarious.

Cheese Book

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 05:30:00 +0000

Confession time: I don't speak Spanish, so when I first saw the ads for the new Jack Black vehicle, Nacho Libre, my best guess based on the few Spanish words I did know and my rudimentary knowledge of Latin roots, was that the title meant "Cheese Book." A friend who knew better let me know that Libre is a name for Mexican masked wrestlers and Nacho is the name of Black's character.

The movie debute this past week and the reviews are almost universally bad. Some have even gone as far as calling the movie racist in its portrayal of Mexcians. And that made me wonder about how movies are actually pitched in Hollyweird. Jack Black as a Mexican wrestler? Was there actually even one person who heard this pitch and thought this was a good idea? Was their a producer somewhere with millions of dollars just lying around and nothing to spend it on? Just watching the trailers for this movie made me wished he'd spent it on a new boob job for his trophy wife.

I felt the same way when Monkey Bone came out. When movies like this are being shot, do you think that the cast and crew are aware that they're making a bomb or are they actually thinking that this is going to be great?

How can you make a piece of garbage like this and not realize it?

Sickness

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 03:44:00 +0000

I've been sick for the past several days with a vicious sinus infection and that's put the podcast project on hold. Sucks.

I think there's a conspiracy with the cable stations to motivate people to go to work even when they're sick. My basic cable package (yeah, I'm too cheap to spring for the premium package) has over 70 channels but the only thing on TV during the day is soaps, Jerry Springer, and Law and Order.

Actually, the various incarnations of Law and Order are pretty much on 24/7 these days. So I've watched a lot of L&O these past few days. There's something comforting about hearing that "dong dong" in between scenes. You know no matter how messed up these cases get, everything will be resolved in an hour. Not like reality, in which a special prosecutor can tie things up for two years and then announce, "Hey, we know something sleezy happened here, but we're not going to indict Karl Rove after all."

Sheesh.

Anyway, as much as a sinus infection really sucks, I guess I'm better off today than Ben Roethlesberger. Big Ben takes a spill on his motorcycle and breaks his jaw and fractures his skull. I find it ironic that a guy who wears a helmet in his job doesn't think he needs to wear one when he rides a motorcycle. I mean, isn't his main responsibility during the spring months staying healthy?

Of course, the real irony was the thousand or so cyclists who held a rally just the other week to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the repeal of Pennsylvania's mandatory helmet law. The reasoning behind the repeal still escapes me. We're in the middle of this national "click it or ticket" campaign telling drivers that you'll get two fines if you're pulled over and you're not wearing your seat belt. But motorcycle riders don't have to worry about any safety precautions. What makes their "personal liberty" more sacred than mine if that's what the repeal is all about?

Of course, the sensible thing to do when driving is wearing your seatbelt, law or no law. And the sensible thing when riding your motorcycle is wearing a helmet. The one thing you can't legislate is the common sense to realize this. Big Ben has already gotten heat for his "role model" status. Maybe this lessen will teach him that his moral responsibility, whether he likes it or not, extends beyond his own skull. Kids do imitate their heroes.

Maybe they shouldn't but they do. Big Ben, wear the helmet.

Podcasting Update

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 04:54:00 +0000

I recorded my first podcast! Once the editing is done, I'll have it ready for downloading soon, very soon.

Balticon III and podcasting

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 04:58:00 +0000

The highlight of Balticon was giving my reading of my fiction. I figures Jeff, Eric, Becky, and one or two other people I knew would show up, but not only I have about ten people listening to me, but they recorded me for the con's podcast.

Balticon had about six panels in their podcasting track and I managed to get to most of them. I learned tons from the experienced podcasters, so it's time to announce my own jump into podcasting. I'm planning on putting the first cast up with weekend!

The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 02:55:00 +0000

Paul Levinson takes a departure from his Phil D'Amato series with his newest book, The Plot to Save Socrates. It's 2042 and Sierra Waters is working on her graduate thesis on the development of the ancient Greek language when one of thesis advisors gives her a copy of what appears to be a lost Socratic dialogue. The dialogue appears to describe a discussion between Socrates and a mysterious visitor just before the philosopher is forced to drink the hemlock. The visitor appears to offer, using words that a person of 400 BC might understand, to take Socrates forward in time and leave a clone behind to die in his place.

Was this dialogue truly written by Plato or is it a clever forgery. Sierra isn't sure, but her advisor mysteriously disappears, leading into a secret society of time travelers. Who is truly behind the plot to save Socrates and what is his true motive? Is it even possible to save him? And, more importantly, does he even want to be saved?

The book is told in a nonlinear fashion that jumps forward and backward in time and from the perspective of character to character in each chapter. Some fans may find this a little confusing to follow, but Dr. Levinson manages to keep things fairly tight. He's also done his research on the period and the subjects. At 266 pages, the book is a short by modern SF standards, but the author crams a lot of information in those pages.

I found The Plot to Save Socrates very satisfying, not too long or pretentious, but also respectful of its subject matter. It neither insults the reader's intelligence nor tries to be above them.

Highly recommended.

Balticon II

noreply@blogger.com (Den Wilson) — Mon, 29 May 2006 03:05:00 +0000

I'm pretty wiped. It's the end of day three of Balticon and I'm having a great time.

Most cons, I tend to focus on the small press authors because I can pick up books that usually can't buy at the local Borders or B&N. Sci-Fi and fantasy authors are some of the most accessible writers in the business and the small press authors are even more so. Having gone to Balticon for a few years now, I've gotten to know many of the small press authors fairly well and the best part is just having a chance to just chat them up live on what's going on in their careers.

I have to give special notice to Danielle Ackley-McPhail, who just relaunched her novel, Yesterday's Dreamers this month. Dani, who was also the editor of the anothology, No Longer Dreams, had a great launch party despite the lousy AC that made the room sweltering.

A lot of podcasters came to Balticon this year and I managed to get to several of the podcasting panels. I picked up a lot of tips this weekend as I prepare to start up my own podcast.

My own reading went well. I real my satirical story, Election 2040 and the con's podcaster recorded it, so maybe I'll end in the official Balticon podcast.

More to come after tomorrow's panels.