And I'm out ....

Didn't make it into the Age of Wonders anthology.

Poop.

WooHoo!

I got my very first non-friend/family fan email for my story "Annus Mirabilis" in the Writers of The Future XXI! Now how cool is that?

Mike

Hmmm

I've just read the previous post and didn't see any cliffhanger stuff. Do you think my friend Steve lied to me just that he could get a mention in my blog?

Gonna have to watch that one.


Mike

I'm alive

I've been told by one of my best friends, Steve Potoczny (yeah, he wanted a mention), that I left my last post with a bit of a cliffhanger. Sorry about that. I'm fine. I got the eyes checked and have a stigmatism. It's a mild form, but evidently impacts my eyesight at the exact range I normally look at things. Anyway, I got the glasses and the headaches have all but disappeared.

Still have a CAT scan scheduled for June, just to keep the tension up a bit :)

I'm up to Chapter 33. Should be done by June 27, which happens to be my birthday just in case you wanted to send me presents.

That's about it.

Mike

...oh, yeah

Working on Chapter 30. Roughly 20,000 words to go.


Mike

Cool Things

It has been an interesting month so far.


Got an email notifying me that another story of mine has been shortlisted. Won't know the final decision until June.


Got my glasses and they are helping. I've only had them for a week, but I haven't had any headaches in that time either.


Went to see Rob Sawyer give a talk at the Oshawa Library. He gave me an interesting perspective on the Star Wars saga and how we the audience willingly dismiss the less than noble natures of the story's supposed heroes. In a nutshell, science fiction should and must be a reflection of social consience, and more importantly, be proud of what it does. 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away...", though a good hook, dismisses everything that follows, and therefore the science, as a fairytale. Many would argue that the science within is a fairytale.

I still enjoy all the Star Wars movies, probably 1 of 5 people in the world who would admit such a thing. I enjoy a good FX spectacle, and honestly never thought much about the Aurthorian plotline. I had always treated them as movie entertainment and nothing more.

However, it is a dangerous entertainment, because it does trivialize a genre that has always worked hard to gain respectability in the literary world.

Anyway, it was a good talk. Afterword, there was a short Q&A, then Sawyer did a 10 minute reading from his book.


Lately my youngest daughter, (1 yr 9 mths) is insisting on going for early morning walks. The other day we traveled a good distance for a small kid. Today I took her to Heydonshore, a park on the shore of Lake Ontario. It was a beautiful day, though swarming bugs were everywhere. Anyway, the local airport has the yearly Canadian Aviation Expo, and the local stunt pilot decided today was a good day to practice his tricks over the lake, so I got a free airshow.


That's about it. Have a Happy Mother's Day.

Mike