incipit vita nova

Hillbilly Blood and Ladies' Handguns

I was mesmerized by a History Channel show on the "hillbillies" the other night.  This show was narrated by Billy Ray Cyrus, now best-known as Miley's dad.  I had no clue that the primary ancestry of "hillbillies" was Scots Irish, i.e. similarly to my own, on the non-Jewish side.  Now, it seems as though the early Scots Irish settlers of Appalachia, who had the clan structure and nature of their contentious, tough forebears, came a little bit later than my Scots Irish ancestor came to Nova Scotia (1610) - but I know the type.  It seems that Squire Doak set up a whiskey trading post in Doaktown, and the "hillbillies" started with native rum, moved quickly to whiskey and then to moonshine.

I always thought "hillbillies" were cool and I could relate to their reputed hot tempers and sense of right, wrong and independent natures.  Now I know why - and I truly did not know that was the underlying history of the "hillbilly" before watching this show.

I've given some consideration for a number of years to purchasing a gun in addition to my fishing gear and so-on.  I had a .22 as a young person.  I typically used a pellet gun, because I didn't like the type of bruises one gets from a shotgun, or when you're a kid, even a small rifle.  My grandfather, who was the Constable (Sheriff) in Redlands, taught me about the various types of weapons and I used to go hunting with him - those are some of my fondest memories.  They have all these short-barrel .38's that are supposed to be "ladies guns."  One of the Taurus .38 short barrels even has a pink pearl grip.  I also thought about a lady's shotgun.  This was supposed to be the best defensive weapon, my grandfather always said (not lady's shotgun, just plain shotgun).  It's not like you're not going to pay later if you use a shotgun, but it's also darn hard to miss.  One of my favorite stories was when Serena Powers told me about going out in the alley and scaring the creeps away that were harassing them in Santa Ana before they moved out of the area (Santa Ana got really bad for a while - it's not that bad these days but sure was for a while there).

So here I was watching this "hillbilly" show and thinking - "You're a hillbilly!"  Through and through.

Why I am Not a Great Sci Fi Writer

Answering John C. Wright, who I think is a marvelous writer, a cool and fun person with a great mind and sense of humor, I finally hit on what it is with me.

First, of course I am a dilettante.  Though of late I have committed to using the skills acquired over a lifetime in nonprofit, community and business leadership (and in the classroom) to what passes for my writing "career," I never approached writing with anything like the dedication I have approached numerous other things in my life.  My friends, coworkers and students know me to be a compassionate, honorable and empathetic person.  I am the person who shows up to work when feeling at death's door, who goes the extra mile, and who spends a great deal of time thinking about the best way to accomplish the tasks at hand, and to perceive that change can occur and see ways to make that change for the better come about.

I am my father's daughter - the man who memorized the dictionary "for fun," always at a slight remove from what I really think, or really feel.  I am the daughter of the man who, when I told him, "Daddy, I want to be a science fiction writer" when I informed him quite ashamedly of my plans to attend the Clarion SF Writer's workshop, replied with tongue in cheek and heavy Yiddish accent, "Oh, like Ah-ZEE-Moff?"

So, in answering John C. Wright's commentary at the SF Site on the dozen-year-old video of Harlan Ellison arguing passionately for the definition of "SF" as science fiction or speculative fiction vs. the cruder and common term "sci-fi," it struck me. 

I am not a great "sci fi writer" for the exact same reason that Harlan is not a "great sci fi writer."  As I pointed up to John, Harlan has such an enormous heart, and such humanity, that he could NEVER be a great sci-fi writer.  As I've told Harlan on several occasions (including IN WRITING as part of the PERMANENT RECORD), he is a great WRITER.  A great motivator, a great entertainer, a man with the most amazing perception and gifts.  This is a thing so far beyond the main body of science fiction - this odd branch of the literary tree so tied to Western culture, so inextricably linked to rationalism, to humanism, to racism and sexism, and the bizarrely-related twisted roots, from Aristotle and Augustine onward of "Lemme tell ya what I think so you can be mindcontrolled by my brilliant observations and converted to my Right Ways of Thinking" -

It is assumed by those who believe they know what "sci fi" is that it is a literature of ideas.  Yes, a certain sort of ideas.  There is an inflexible, eternal, Platonic fixed-in-the-cave quality to the classic Sci Fi (or SF) that is of course why it is on the downswing in the present day.  If one's mind doesn't work that way, it is absolutely the "literature of the Golden Age of Twelve."  At twelve or thirteen, a bright child is looking for answers.  Those answers are presented clearly in much classic SF.  Of course they aren't really answers at all - for any literature that disdains the spiritual as so much SF does cannot contain even the truths found by Plato.  

Every time we open a box of secrets in this world, we find another box nested inside.  There is no eternal moment.  We cannot stay twelve forever.  Our very best writers from this field are those who understood that instinctively, who sought to grasp the mystery and wonder, not to define some elusive "truth" and pin it to the paper like the endless rows of stuffed birds I saw in the museum as a teen, like the entomologist's butterflies pinned in a tray.  I cut my teeth on Harlan Ellison, and on Ray Bradbury.  I had, with great fortune, a gift for sight and a gift for language.  And language, being the only tool we have to reach to each other, to tell each other stories, is the one box that we can open, and see what is inside, and share with the world.

Now, in a world that truly is "sci fi," where I am here writing to total strangers I will never see, in an emphemeral medium that is changing by the moment, not even by the day, what remains is not these attempts to fix the butterflies ever-unchanging, but to - as Harlan said to me - swim in the stream of life.  All of life - what Tolstoy wrote about, what Faulkner described as the one reason to write, to cover the truths of the human heart.  To write about the things that the beautiful child Ray Bradbury wrote.

That is why I am not a great sci fi writer.  And never was, and never could be. 

Not Politics: International Relations

The biggest problem in America is that, while we really are in an economic recession and people probably need to learn how to do something useful, or do something useful, for a change, everyone is obsessed with celebrities, sports figures, and nasty gossip about them.

Meanwhile, the "Sovs" are back with a vengeance.  Pravda, the former Soviet propaganda organ, has a constantly-maintained website full of nasty anti-American and anti-Western European slam articles and opinion - right alongside numerous sexy Anna Kournikova pictures, and today - for some weird reason, Pravda's tribute to beautiful Betty Page, who recently passed on.

Check out Igor-the-Russian-Scientist's predictions about what's going to happen to the US as the economic crisis continues.  Igor's apparently been saying this crap for a decade, but events of recent months have given him a tiny bit more traction.  It's all b.s. but . . . this really is the official Russian-language slamfest of the West.  Why people cannot comprehend that while communism was temporarily beaten back, the real underlying hegemony - i.e. worldwide domination and enslavement of normal people everywhere - is very much alive and well.  If the sheer idiocy and crudeness of that Pravda website doesn't scare you, then nothing will.

It's playing to C.M. Kornbluth's "Marching Morons."  Mike mentioned the other day that he'd seen a movie that had elements of "The Marching Morons" - i.e. people said "Would ya buy it for a quarter?" and drove cars that topped out at a speed of 20 MPH but belched flames out of their tailpipes so the drivers thought they were going "really fast". 

It only makes sense.  When in Russia, it's not a party of five, it's a Party of Putin, here in the U.S., people divide their time between Miley Cyrus (who they can't seem to see is really homely as all get-out - it's just too exciting to think of a girl barely age 16 promising sex) Brangelina and Plaxico Burress. If I had been born in Israel, there is no question I would have fought to defend my country, and I did consider joining the military here up until I aged-out of joining and going to OCS.  There have been numerous members of the military in my family, and I am just sorry that I was the wrong generation and wrong gender to have been able to serve.  Many of my students are current and former military. 

I have just one thing to say to "useful idiots" like Scientist Igor, who thinks that when the U.S. splits into 6 entities the Chinese will "take over the West Coast" because "San Francisco is 53% Chinese" (say whut?) and like U.S. Citizens who take their freedom and the incredible way of life this country has built up for all of us completely for granted:  Do you think that Vladimir KGB Putin is going to let the Super Bowl continue?  Aw Hell No.  If you won't fight for the Super Bowl, for the World Series, for Brangelina and for Miley "Hodad" Cyrus and for Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Rockettes - who will you fight for?  Yourself?

* * * * * * * *

And for the creative community out there, which includes performing artists, writers, fine artists, filmmakers, scriptwriters, new media artists, etc. . . Where does You Tube come from?  Where is MySpace based? (Beverly Hills).  Where are nearly all of our films and television shows made?  Are they made in MOSCOW?  BEIJING?  No - and any other world creative community is based in a FREE COUNTRY or one that is moving there, like India.  There's no creativity in totalitarian societies.  Do you want to make movies about the "Life of Putin?"  Emulate some of the fine totalitarian Soviet artwork?  If you're an artist, your life is at the greatest risk under these totalitarian regimes.  They only have interest in you so far as they can use you.  If you make your living off of selling your imagination and dreams then you, more than anybody else, has a literal vested interest in freedom.  The First Amendment is not a Soviet or "Russian" concept.  It is American.  It is what gives me this blog and you your books or films or TV shows.  If you hate someone who's elected for a MAXIMUM of 8 years in this country badly enough to destroy your own creative freedom, then more fool you.  Because what we fight for is the right to be free.  No one is truly "free" in this world.  But as a woman, I understand more than most what it means to be silenced.  All people of a minority race or religion should understand what it is like to be shut up, silenced, and in some cases, tortured, persecuted and killed for who they were born to be.  Gay/Lesbian people as well - do you think there is a friendly and free reception to the gay lifestyle and gay marriage in the former Soviet Union or China?  Hardly.  To this day, they are persecuted, hated and sent to prison, and sometimes tortured and killed. 

But by all means - play into these evil hands.  We have been there before:  how short memories are, and what fools people can be.

Chee-Zee Tee-Vee (Sanctuary and Flash Gordon)

I'm sure I would be Queen of Cheeze too if I ever got off my butt and activated my Chees-O-Meter for the Sci Fi Channel bundles of goodness.  I really tried hard to find the 2007 Flash Gordon hawkmen - I saw the original show and Meredith saw them on You Tube and said they were going around and people were laughing their butts off at them.

That is just the regular Flash Gordon trailer, but it does show Flash and the extremely un-hawklike Hawkmen in their Pleather Hawkcoats.

This is a Hawkman (I forgot that Timothy Dalton was in the classic Flash Gordon - Queen Remix)

But Flash Gordon was just cheesy and cheap and idiotically-written.  There must be something good about the Sci Fi Channel series Sanctuary because I keep watching it.  I am not sure what that something would be, however.  If anything, the writing on Sanctuary is worse than the deservedly deceased 2007 Flash Gordon. 

On this week's episode, the horribly-named "Magnus"'s father showed up (pretty sure I saw the old coot in a prior episode, where he was squeezing through cracks with other homeless rubber-boned men) and, after having a giant hideous insect removed from the "muscles" at the base of his skill (lending new meaning to the old insult "muscle brain"), Senior Magnus told Junior Girl Magnus that he just had to leave after not seeing her for over 100 years - couldn't stay.  Why?  Because he wasn't included in future scripts!  Duh!

Everybody just randomly lives forever, teleports, and does whatever on Sanctuary. Will "Sexy Guy" Psychologist/Psychic turned into a pale greenish Junior Hulk in this most recent episode, and almost had to kill his fake TV Script Racially Correct Asian Married to Black Woman Friend, except his other friends, including the suddenly wimpy and non-wereWarthog Henry showed up and saved him, and in 20 seconds, his slimy brain cockroach was removed and he was turned back into Bruce Banner or Wimpy Will again.  I suggested last night that the scripts on Sanctuary were so painfully awful that maybe the actors were writing them -- but maybe, the better parts are written by the actors, and the worse ones, the show writers.  Amanda Tapping produces this "star vehicle" for herself and she isn't short on ego. There's definitely a Sanctuary-like quality to her web page - as if she were actually this bizarre immortal, "forever young" character, Helen Magnus. 

"Hello father," Helen informs the smelly, nasty old man found in the go-low mutant Fight Club arena.

"Arrr matey," says the old man in a Jersey accent.  Oh, wait!  No, he didn't say that.  He began to verbally "spar" in idiotic repartee with this woman who just informed him that she thought he was her father.

Turns out, he really was her father - and he remembered this after the slimy brain cockroach's tentacles were ripped untimely from the muscles of his backbrain.  The horribleness of this old gent's schizoid Joisey-Christmas Carol accent cannot be overemphasized.  "You were born in Yorkshire in 1820, Slumgullion Magnus . . . you were the finest scientific mind of your time."

"I got ter finish moi studies!" declares Slumgullion to the other hazily-filmed quasi-Victorian gentlemen brandishing their backlot canes and pince-nez at him.

It's so horrible.  But I keep watching it.  And to Amanda Tapping, who piqued my interest because I truly didn't recognize her as the same actress as the blonde, tough Stargate captain, and because I guessed she was Canadian based on her mannerisms, and had some wondering moments re: the weird Magnus accent - she is born in the UK, but raised from an early age in Canada.  She seems to be a pretty cool person, and she is very full of life and interesting - but tone the ego down!  Holy @@%!@@!! - acting is a job not a calling.  And - if Sanctuary is written by "writers" - heck, Amanda - go ahead and write it yourself.  There is no doubt you and your friends could do much, much better.  Oy.

Buy Books From Bookview Cafe

Sarah and Vonda have set up a great page of internet resources for independent bookstores.  As many people know, there's a strong push on to help support our independent bookstores across the country.  While independents have faced tough times for a while now, our changing economy means they are more at-risk than ever.  However, since credit is basically unavailable and may be for some time, we could also be at risk of losing our major bookstore chains.  It's possible that independent stores could come out on top after all.

Believe it or not, yours truly is very much in print.  Visit the Book View Cafe web page for independent bookstores.  Or try this search of the absolutely awesome Powell's Books for 17 choices - Imago and Without Absolution are totally still in print.

Freebie of Day: "Mad for the Mints"

 Freebie of the day at Book View Cafe is "Mad for the Mints."  Now that I've been reviewing my backlist, holy @!!@#!!  This is what I get for not paying any attention to anything.  By the time all the stuff is uploaded, it'll be a pretty cool little library of completely lunatic, subversive, twisted and . . .

Look forward to "The Universe at the Bottom of A Cereal Box" soon - which sort of seems like YA Larry Niven on Crack.  No kidding.

And in addition to being a few people's favorite story, "Mad for the Mints" is good-natured, postmodern, Worst German in the World material.  Wo bist das mints?

And total FREEBIE is Alltop.  On one page, you can review and catch up with all the SFF news and blog sites.

Children:  I canz writt.

The Inniest Outlier Ever

I have really enjoyed reading the insights of Malcolm Gladwell, and today there is another great interview courtesy of Goodreads.   

I'm also getting tired of all of the typepad "improvements," but that's another story for another day.

Are you an "innie" or an "outie?"  Malcolm Gladwell, based on his own years of interviewing and experience, and incredible skills of observation, came up with the idea that those who achieve "outlier" success in any field have first invested 10,000 hours of effort - or ten years, in another perspective, to achieve that goal.

Am I a master writer?  I don't know.  I know I can do things today that I most certainly could not have done ten years ago.  I know that it all lies in my own perspective as to what I want to do right now, and what I choose to do each day.  I know that I've put the 10,000 hours in, and more, and coincidentally, I write in almost the same manner as Malcolm.  He said he prefers to write for a few hours in the morning, then go have lunch and read the paper, and may or may not return to the writing afterward.  I frequently tell people I'm not worth much for any intense writing after 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., but that doesn't mean I haven't engaged in semi-mindless writing after those times, on many an occasion, because it was work that had to be done.

I also prefer to teach in the morning.  That's why I have all those 7:30 a.m. classes, and had even at one time, the 6:00 a.m. classes.  I am more energized at that time, and I think I do a better job.  I think I lose steam as the day goes by, and probably am more responsive and engaged in the earlier morning hours.  I saw a friend from Chapman yesterday, a wonderful teacher named Kris Bromberger.  It was great to see her, and it also reminds me - I am coming up on the "mastery" level of hours with teaching as well as with writing.  How - why?

According to the Goodread's review of Outliers, Gladwell's "answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing."

I don't know as if I'm comfortable with that, although I will say that I've identified the "rehab" generation, to which Malcolm himself belongs, and as far as idiosyncratic experiences go, well, not too many people did surgery on their Barbies to find out how they worked -- in fact, every time I tell people about that, they are shocked and deny ever having heard of such a deviant behavior.  And as far as culture?  I never questioned that I ought to try to do my best in whatever situation I was in, although I think I learned to give myself permission to "opt out" when appropriate, which I don't think was an option for those of earlier generations - at least not a guilt-free one.  And the big question, for nearly all of Malcolm's examples are male-oriented, what does it mean to be "me?"  Obviously, no man would casually have received the type of crap I have - not even the average gay man - although I think transgendered people do experience extreme prejudice and probably are not seen as "people" by most - but what happens to them isn't casual and is not taken for granted - most people realize that they are exhibiting bias and prejudice when they maltreat an obviously "different" person such as a transgendered person, whereas when they take dumps all over any female, it is so accepted that it is literally unnoticed and subject to instant denial.

And the bigger question is of course, not what others have done to me, but what I have done to myself.  I do not have to own what others do to me or give them power over me in any way. That's all that any of us has control over.  Some might think me extraordinarily unlucky, while I think the opposite - like Malcolm Gladwell, who views himself as extraordinarily lucky.  Yes, I am lucky.  Unbelievably lucky.  Lots of things have not come easily, but they certainly have come.  I really am doing everything I ever wanted to do, and I am the luckiest person in the world.

Help Vera Nazarian Save Her House

From Ashley McConnell:

"Vera Nazarian, who is a longstanding member of this group, is in deep trouble and may lose her home.  A community has been formed on LiveJournal to try to help, and we have been asked to spread the word, knowing that tomorrow or next week or next year, it could be any of us in similar trouble. 

Please go to http://community.livejournal.com/helpvera/751.html to read the details, and to http://community.livejournal.com/helpvera/ to see how you can help.  You don't need to be a member of LiveJournal to read or post."

Here is a live link to the LiveJournal community.  Vera needs a substantial amount of money by December 20th to stop foreclosure on the home she shares with her mother near Pierce College, where I used to teach when I lived in Woodland Hills.  Vera has been a wonderful friend for many years.  She is a loving, caring, wonderful person and extremely talented writer.  Vera was totally there for me when Anthony died.  I have contributed as much as I can.  I don't think I know anybody who needs extra-fancy, expensive Christmas gifts this year.  Vera's health is not the best and her mother that she takes care of needs her help.  These ladies should be able to stay at home for Christmas.  I know if we can get Vera past this hurdle, she will be able to use some of the mortgage assistance that is coming out every week.  Los Angeles County will receive more than $1 billion.  So, it's up to us for now, and I think she will be able to get more relief later.

Beware the Wood Sprite

I had thought to wait a bit before describing any of the humanlike magickal creatures one might find in traveling the Wide World.  But the Wood or River Sprite is a creature that is best learned about early in one's magickal education.  A child, perhaps, might take this creature for a wholesome playmate.

But woe to such child, for the Wood Sprite is fickle, and mayhap, such child might venture forth into the wild woods and never be seen again.

It is said that, like pixies, the Wood Sprites are curious creatures, although their capacity for memory is such that, should they learn one thing one day, it is forgotten by the next.  And most of all, such Sprites are fascinated by children and their doings.  That is the reason why their childish playmates may never return home, for as the Sprite plays each day with the child, during the night, such play is forgotten -- and each new dawn, the Sprite believes she or he has found this child in the woods for the very first time.

It must be said that, although the sadness caused by Sprite kidnappings is deep, with many a mother and father mourning for years, the Sprite does not wish for such sadness.  It is just that in their Sprite-like imaginings, each day begins anew, and therefore, time does not mean the same for a Sprite as it does for you and me. 

Do not, whatever you do, make to bargain with such a creature.  With memories such as the Sprite's a bargain made one day is quickly forgotten.  And you might find yourself turned to a tree stump, or a toad.  Best, if you see one, to make quickly for the forest's edge.  The Wood Sprite will not pass into open fields or cross a road, so find ye either of those two things, and the danger will soon pass.

I'm Keeping on Keeping On

I can't speak to "black Wednesday" the way so many people who've devoted their lives to the publishing industry have.  In fact, when I read commentary like Maud Newton's, all I can do is feel very respectful and proud of the people who have devoted their lives to publishing great books that people love.  Yes, of course, the business is all about money; I may be a little bit rare in being a sort-of literary writer who "gets" that entertainment is the point, and selling entertainment and making money is the business. 

It's hard to be anybody anywhere near the business world and not see similar things to "black Wednesday" happening everywhere around - it has already happened over the past year or more to the real estate, financial and insurance industries, and its in the process of happening to Detroit right now.  Certainly big bastions such as healthcare can't be far behind - in fact, there's been a rash of physician retirements or midlife career changes recently.  Doctors are fed up with economic pressures - the ever-rising cost of malpractice insurance, and the way that paperwork has taken over, leaving medicine far behind.

I had a substantial conversation today with a program officer for one of the major foundations in the U.S., who candidly told me they've been hurt badly in the recession.  Of course they have.  They are still granting, but have been given greatly reduced amounts to spend, and are on strict budgets. Miss Liquid Cash here is actually sitting around wondering how it was that my lazy inertia actually saved me from a huge financial disaster.  I've done better with secure deposits than anybody with any type of mutual or bond fund.  My mutual funds are in fact, horrifically sucktastic, just like everybody else.  And the type of stock devolution we've had, coupled with the horrible permeation of crap mortgage securities surprised even me - being ten years or so out of date with how pervasive this stuff had gotten.  I was aware of the bad mortgages -- I just never imagined how they'd permutate the hurt on such a broad scale.

The recession is very apparent in South Los Angeles.  It started earlier, and today, the difference "on the street" between now and a year ago is striking.  There are men standing on every street corner now, and there are fewer and fewer young moms out and about.  The homeless with their shopping carts are on every corner now as well, and the small mom & pop shops are closing in great numbers on every block.  Buildings are being boarded up again, that were unboarded and coming into use, finally, as the long, slow buildup to recovery after the riots has occurred and the neighborhoods have changed.  It's all in reverse, and it's not happening slowly, it's building rapidly, day by day.

However, I want to say that "black Wednesday" for the book industry, while sad, sobering and potentially tragic, doesn't look quite like that to me.  It looks like, in the presence of the horrible credit markets, that these publishers are doing what they must to survive and stay in business.

As to me, this reminds me of when I graduated from college in 1983, and worked a string of the most horrific part-time jobs imaginable, until I finally landed the first good fulltime job I'd ever had - it took 18 months of a lot of persistence and a great deal of commitment, and there were some times when I felt that I'd never get ahead.  Here I am, working seriously as a real novelist for the first time.  And folks are literally being fired out right from under my book and whole divisions that might have seriously considered my work are being merged into the textbook division (grossly exaggerating).  My daughter and students - these young people are going to face what I did in the early 80's, or even worse - a need to really hustle, and really take every opportunity for all that it is worth.  This is where it is at.  And I plan on keeping on keeping on.  Because, it is all any of us can do - and besides - I know how to feed myself in the outdoors, and I can dress an animal, a bird, or a fish too, and know several ways to catch them.  I'll leave the vertical gardening to those better-suited, however.