Gwenda, Author at Gwenda Bond

Thursday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / September 29, 2005

Birnbaum vs. Paul Collins. Check it out.
San Franciscans go see Miss Cecil Castellucci and Her Purple Daisy Electric Guitar on Friday. Details here. For the record: This whole writers who can also play music and make movies and have tons of other talents thing is just totally unfair.
Make sure you check out all Tingle Alley‘s fine content related to The People of Paper, a most excellent and wonderful novel.
The tireless Dan Wickett on the origins of the contents of BASS.
Lucius Shepherd reviews Paul Di Filippo’s The Emperor of Gondwanaland and Other Stories in the WaPo and finds much to like.
They’re coming for you.

Shiner Alert

Uncategorized / By Gwenda / September 28, 2005

Lew Shiner, one of the best writers (period), is interviewed over at S1ngularity. Sez he:

The bottom line is, I have to find projects that excite me enough that I want to write them no matter what–whether they get published or not, whether anyone but my friends ever see them. That way I can focus on the process of writing, and actually take pleasure in that, instead of being obsessed with trying to crack the bestseller list. And the thing that is most satisfying to me is to produce a book that I’ll still be proud of down the line.

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VeronicaMarsTalk (updated)

10 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / September 28, 2005

I feel kind of a poseur even proposing a Veronica Mars chatty chat, but hey, I got UPN so I could watch this season off one episode. So, if people show up to discuss the season opener, we’ll make this the second weekly TV show chatty thread and if they don’t, it will never appear here again. Here’s the episode description for "Normal is the Watchword":

After the summer fireworks caused by a dangerous confrontation with Lilly Kane’s murderer and a surprising visitor at her door, Veronica attempts to settle into "normal" life, complete with a new after-school job and a return to the popular fold at Neptune High, but she gets pulled back into the investigation business when Wallace is kicked off the basketball team for testing positive for drugs.

Meanwhile, Keith sits down with reporter Julie Chen (guest starring as herself) to discuss his new book on the Lilly Kane murder, "Big Murder, Small Town." Later, after seeing his father arrested for murder and being charged and tried for murder himself, Logan seeks refuge from the paparazzi and relaxes poolside at the Casablancas mansion with buddies Dick and "Beaver" and their sexy stepmother Kendall (guest star Charisma Carpenter).

Steve Guttenberg guest stars as Woody Goodman, a charismatic major league baseball team owner and leading candidate in the local mayor’s race; UPN’s AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL winner Naima Mora guest stars as journalism teacher Ms. Dumas; and Jeffery Sams guest stars as a famous baseball player from Goodman’s team.

Oooh, an ANTM (feel free to work in chat about that as well in this thread) product, I mean person, placement. See you later. Maybe.

Updated: This was apparently the most viewed episode of VM ever, which can only be a good thing. (Thank you, Miss Tyra.) This is the same general ratings area as Gilmore Girls, so hopefully that bodes well for the network to continue to stand by the show.

VeronicaMarsTalk (updated) Read More »

Who hates hippies? Are you with me?

1 Comment / LitBlog Co-Op / By Gwenda / September 28, 2005

Then please go over to the LBC and help defend me against the ones who can’t take a joke. Yeah, I finally posted about this round’s selection. Also, some questions at the end (which will be clearer in context):

Are there any story-within-a-story books or American-Jewish fantasies any of you want to recommend or discuss? Writers left off the list? You hate Neutral Milk Hotel?

Y’all smarties go over there and weigh in.

Who hates hippies? Are you with me? Read More »

GilmoreGossipCircle (updated)

8 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / September 27, 2005

A whole new Tuesday is upon us. The WB’s Damn New Gilmore Girls’ site keeps shutting down my browser, so this is an episode description snatched from the Unofficial Fansite (it lacketh salient details like who wrote and directed the ep) Stay away from the black hole that is the Warner Bros site and go only to the WB:

The UnGraduate: Excited about catering the wedding, Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) pressures Lorelai to set a date, but Lorelai won’t commit. While completing her community service hours, Rory (Alexis Bledel) takes a job at Emily’s (Kelly Bishop) DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) office. Convinced that she has a rival for the job of DAR president, Emily uses Rory as her spy. Logan (Matt Czuchry returns from Europe and returns to Yale, forcing Rory to confront her true feelings about dropping out of college. Lane (Keiko Agena) and her band return from their summer on the road. Luke (Scott Patterson) agrees to take care of Lorelai’s dog, Paul Anka, while she works late at the inn, and ends up rushing the dog to the vet. Finally, Lorelai admits to Luke her reason for putting off their wedding.

Yanic Truesdale and Lisa Weil also star. Michael Zinberg directed the episode written by David S. Rosenthal.

Whew. Lane’s back. See you later… (And hey, PokerBoy , two weeks of absence from the GGC is unacceptable!)

GilmoreGossipCircle (updated) Read More »

Jeff Ford Week Continues

Effing Genius / By Gwenda / September 27, 2005

Over at Jeff Ford’s: Present From The Past. Do. Not. Miss:

After my mother finally quit drinking, she entered a brief epoch of peace in her life. Gone were the paranoia, the accusations, the belittlements, the bitter rage of judgment, her look of fear. For years, nearly every day a lost weekend, she had been possessed by the dark amber ghast of gag-sweet Taylor Cream Sherry. Living with her back then had been like living with a vampire whose bite drained but never conferred immortality. What eventually brought about her unexpected exorcism, I can now only guess, but when she resurfaced she was quiet and ready to laugh. She was watching and listening.

Jeff Ford Week Continues Read More »

From Two to Four

2 Comments / Nattering / By Gwenda / September 27, 2005

I have very complicated feelings about glasses. Not the kind you drink out of (I like those), the kind that slip down your nose.*

I got glasses in second grade. About a week before my adored teacher, Mrs. Gay, who had a huge-throaty laugh and huge pillowy breasts to match, told my parents she thought I needed to see an optometrist, I was riding in the back of my parents rainbow-colored station wagon, looking far out over the green horizon and thinking what great eyesight I had. I could see EVERYTHING.

…

From Two to FourRead More »

From Two to Four Read More »

Tuesday Hangovers

5 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / September 27, 2005

Battlestar Gallactica interruptus reviews: at Strange Horizons by Dan Hartland and by Abigail Nussbaum at Asking the Wrong Questions. The truck-drivable-through holes in the most recent episode (President Roslin’s complete and convenient disappearance halfway through being the most rankling) were par for the course, but I’m still liking the show despite its flaws. Both these reviewers give insightful takes.
Chris McLaren’s got lots of goodies, including Harlan Ellison being Harlan Ellison and a post about words we don’t have words for in English.
Meanwhile, Writing Queen and Birthday Girl Justine Larbalestier (Happy, Happy!) and Writing King Scott Westerfeld post competing chronicles of the running of the bulls in San Miguel de Allende. I know those pics they’re posting are envy provoking, but rest assured, having stayed in that house and knowing it’s actually even more Eden than in the photos, all our eyes should be completely green.
Islam in science fiction. (Via Morrow Planet.)
Pam McNew posts at Short Form about two stories in the current double issue of F&SF that I also really enjoyed: Dale Bailey’s "Spells for Halloween: An Acrostic" and Jeff Ford’s "Boatman’s Holiday." (Yes, yes, I know it’s all Jeff Ford all the time around here lately, but tell me, you have picked up The Girl in the Glass, right?)
Moorish Girl posts some responses to Author’s Guild Vs. Google Print. If only I could work up the care about this one. Get with the future, people. (Also, check out this entry about Salman Rushdie asking her to sign his copy of her book…)

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Monday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / September 26, 2005

Toni Causey writes a beautiful post about her own Louisiana. A small taste: Like my dad, I was born there, in pure Cajun country. Unlike my dad, I would never know the language, not in its full, rich glory, neither French, nor a corruption of it, but an altered language, spoken still in old cafés with threadbare linoleum and formica countertops in small towns, dim and dusty and far from the interstate. My dad spoke only Cajun until he was in the first grade, when the teachers had been instructed to force all of the kids to speak only English, and stabbed a heritage in its soul without a single blade falling.
Jed Hartman on several upcoming movies and the development-ridden Last Unicorn, along with some other interesting Peter Beagle updates.
An extremely entertaining Night Shade thread of guessing about the identity of John 12 Hawks (you remember, that guy, turquoisey mirrorshade ads for his book guy); Tod Goldberg‘s popping his head in is the best part. (Via the S1ngularity blog.)
C‘s been reading The Futurians and he dug up this fabulous photo of Carol and Ed Emshwiller at the 1959 WorldCon.
These people are just not getting the Banned Books Week spirit: Meanwhile, in Newark, New Jersey, parents such as Greg and Tina Angeletti are waging a campaign to ban Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison’s book Song of Solomon from high school English classes. According to the Angelettis, Morrison’s work is “pornography”. School officials disagree, pointing out the whole “Nobel Prize-winning author” thing. Proof that it doesn’t only happen in states that start with K. (I was thinking of Kansas.)
Poetry and politics at the National Book Festival. (Great piece.)
You lost me after the first two…
Is this pointing out the obvious or is it just me? (Perhaps it’s really controversial.)
Finally, a piece on Curtis Sittenfeld and Prep in the Guardian, with some charming bits. (I updated the Reads column over on the left this weekend with my own nominee for best boarding school book of the year; mileage may vary.) This is my favorite part: ‘Most, if not all, of what I experience now I’ve experienced a variation of it before,’ she goes on, jadedly. ‘If I went to my first dinner party, I’m sure I would notice everything the hostess said and everything people were wearing and everything people talked about; now I’ve gone to enough that they just blur together. These are the biggest chunks of blue cheese I’ve ever seen in a salad,’ she adds as our food arrives, endearingly rubbishing her point. This seems perhaps not the best strategy for experiencing, y’know, life. The end of the article says her next novel is called The Man of My Dreams, but I’m sure it’s litrature and not chick lit.

And on that note of snark–which hurts me, really and truly, it does–happy Monday. At some point this week expect posts on: life in glasses, Marcy Demansky’s fabulous novel Twins, television goodness and conspiracy theories. Or at least some of that stuff. A few other Monday items below…

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More on Storyteller

Write Talk / By Gwenda / September 26, 2005

Cory Doctorow joins the chorus of praise for Kate Wilhelm’s Storyteller (must read!); I suggest you check out his take. He excerpts some practical advice from the book which I now unashamedly steal for here:

When beginning a story, do not:
* Let your viewpoint wander
* Confuse immediate setting with background and let your camera eye wander in, out, and about randomly
* Start with a lecture in anything — history, physics, biology — anything. Expository lumps anywhere are to be avoided if possible, but they are deadly in the opening.
* Start in the middle of a scene. This is why flashback openings are a mistake almost every time. You interrupt an ongoing scene to tell us something that happened earlier that results in ongoing scene. Once started, the scenes should be concluded before you move on. An ongoing conversation is hard to catch up with. Who are these speakers, what is their relationship, what kind of voice should I be hearing in my head? Introduce them before they open their mouths.
* Mislead the reader with false information or try to create suspense or arouse curiosity by withholding necessary information. What you arouse is mistrust and annoyance.
* Sprinkle around neologisms or made-up words that cannot be found in a dictionary.
* Use words that only you and a few other people in your speciaility can understand.
* Use contractions if you can avoid them, and only sparingly no matter what.
* Have your character look into a mirror or other reflective surface in order to work in a description of her.
* Let your character talk to an animal or inanimate object in order to give information to your reader about what is going on.
* Play games with the sex of your character.

Related Link: Small Beer also has a page of "Memories and Lessons Learned at the Clarion Writer’s Workshop" from Doctorow, Jeff Ford, Gordon Van Gelder, Jim Sallis, Kit Reed, Greg Frost and Nancy Kress. Check it out.