Lakeshore

A writer talks about the “Keys to Publishing” contest in which I am featured —

“Slow life” and its implications — Wow. This is profoundly SFnal, with some very cool things to consider for both terrestrial biology and exobiology.

Soil tests on Mars spawn a mystery — More exobiology! (Thanks to lt260.)

Ancient moss, insects found in Antarctica — Freeze-dried fossils, so to speak. (Thanks to lt260.)

Philanthrophy gets personal — Freakonomics with a fascinating piece on the intersection of wealth and poverty.

U.S. Agents Can Seize Laptops
— Who needs those pesky Fourth Amendment rights? I wonder how those conservatives who are so ardent about the Second Amendment will respond to this. I’m guessing the quiet chirp of crickets, myself. Now if the Federal government announced they could indefinitely seize firearms we’d see some outrage. But you know, far more people are killed by computers than by firearms. Right? Right? (Thanks to lillypond.)

How conservative greed and corruption destroyed American politics — An unsurprising read if you’re a liberal-progressive, and doubtless a pack of lies if you’re a conservative. Darn those biased facts — reality makes it hard for a Republican to function with a clean conscience these days. (Thanks to my Aunt M.)

8/7/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (extensiv city walking today)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: n/a

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Well, it’s definitely a WorldCon. We blew down from Laramie fairly early. Oddly, I was able to get my room at the Hyatt Regency around 10 am. That was good because it allowed me to unpack and take a rest break. Then it was off to the terribly long reg line, a lunch with Ken and Jen Scholes, John Pitts and Rani Graff. After that I hit the room again, then dealt with some too-complex logistics concerning the upcoming party.

Mid-afternoon I hit the dealer’s room, scored my Secret Project stuff for Saturday’s Hugos, signed some books, tasted chocolate honey, and schmoozed like crazy. Dinner and parties followed to midnight, including a couple of bouts of BarCon.

Tomorrow I have a business breakfast, a business dinner, and a two-hour stretch at the SFWA table. The true madness will reign Friday and Saturday.

Definitely a WorldCon. See some, all or none of you here.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Friday, August 8th

11:30 am — To be Announced: we pick the panel, audience picks the topic
I am moderating Greg Bear, Connie Willis and Chris Garcia. This will be a drop-down laff riot.

1:00 pm — The History of the Campbell Award
I am moderating with Dr. Schmidt. Which mostly means he will talk, I think, since his experience of this history is all first hand. I really hope Chris Garcia and Jim van Pelt can be there, because they’ll get bumped onto the panel if they show up.

5:30 pm — Sidewise Awards
Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ] is up for this award, though I am highly doubtful of my odds given the excellent competition.

10:00 pm — Match Game SF
kevinstandlee will be running this hilarious topical remake. I will present for the first round only, with some of my books on tap as prizes.

Saturday, August 9th

9:00 am — Strolling With the Stars
Me, Frank Wu and Stu Segal, I believe. Though if I’m up rattling around, I’m likely to appear on other days.

10:00 am —Kaffeeklatch
Sign up that morning for an hour with my undivided attention.

2:00 pm —Rosenbaum/Lake/Strange Horizons Party
In the SFWA suite at the Sheraton.

2:30 pm —Signing
The astute reader may notice a schedule conflict here. Ahem.

5:30 pm — Hugo Reception and Ceremony
I will be making a very special announcement at the reception, and I will be presenting the Campbell Tiara at the ceremony.

Sunday, August 10th

11:30 am — Making a living telling lies

Failing all else, I’m likely to be in the bar, whichever bar seems most likely.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

A reader reacts to Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ] — Reading this review, I think I’ve realized something important about Mainspring I didn’t know before. It’s written in a dialectic of faith. I’ll need to explore and comment on this further when I have time. (Escapement, on the other hand, is definitely not written in that dialectic.)

Centauri Dreams bets on solar sails

G.O.P. Drops in Voting Rolls in Many States — After all those years of Republiaan triumphalism, this couldn’t happen to a nicer party. O Permanent Majority, where art thou?

Our Gilded Age — The Edge of the American West with a transcript of Bush 41 and Bush 43 talking to Rush Limbaugh. Note the reference to “Our man Ailes.” That would be the same Ailes who is the news director of “fair and balanced” FOX News. Yep, no bias at that network — just ask any conservative! (Note for those who are not media geeks: Ailes was one of Reagan’s key campaign strategists. Nowhere in the ‘liberal’ media will you find a Democrat of similar stature working as a news director.)

Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors — Campaign finance wonkery, for the most part, concerning rather shady Republican fundraising. Also this just in, sun rose in east this morning. The gem in the story is this money shot: The McCain campaign saying “”We strictly follow campaign finance law.” Hahahaha. Except when they don’t. There’s an extremely clear case for the McCain campaign having egregiously violated the McCain-Feingold Act when they pledged their Federal matching funds as loan collateral, then later turned around and withdrew from the Federal matching funds. That’s the kind of Straight Talk you’ll have trouble finding in Your Liberal Media, on account of all that liberal bias, but there’s a very real lawsuit going on over it right now.

8/6/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (long city walk this morning)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: n/a

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Well, Launch Pad is over. I should probably post a deeply intellectual retrospective or something, but maybe I’ll just say “AWESOME” and leave it at that for now.

We’re off fairly early tomorrow for Denver, so I’ll be rattling around Denvention tomorrow afternoon and onward. All my dinners are already booked, but I’ll be generally available for other forms of socializing and schmoozing, within the parameters of my schedule.

See some, all or none of you there.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

A very clockpunkish telescope from the early part of the twentieth century, found in the University of Wyoming astronomy and physics building.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

2008, K. Hull

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

SF Signal reviews Seeds of Change

slushmaster notes that the art for “Roger Lambelin”, published in Realms of Fantasy, is up for a Chesley — That’s a story by specficrider and me.

Dr. Roundbottom is at it again — “Interview with a steam rat” at clockpunk.com. (Thanks to lt260.)

Travel guides to remember — Weird old travel guides. (Thanks to danjite.)

Endangered primates found in Africa — A new population of western lowland gorillas has been found in the Congo.

World’s smallest snake discovered — Think of the places that little dude could slither in to. (Thanks to lt260.)

Radio-Vitant — Some 1920s medical weirdness from Shorpy.

8/5/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (long city walk this morning)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: Launch Pad Workshop class materials

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

The Department of Irony checked in today with two pieces of news about Mainspring [ Powell's | Amazon thb | Audible ].

First, Tor notified me that the hardback is being remaindered, and offered me an opportunity to buy additional copies. This isn’t bad news — it’s a normal part of the life cycle of a book, and we’re all quite pleased with the sell-through — but it’s still a little disappointing.

Second, my lovely and talented agent posted the news that the mass market paperback is tied for #9 on the Locus bestseller list. This is good news, and quite balanced out my thinking for the day.

The fact that both these bits of information landed on my desk on the same day is stretching the irony meter just a little bit, though.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

At dinner, immediately after a round of rather off color comments, Mike Brotherton says in a slacker voice: “I have a Ph.D. in Astronomy.”

My response in a similar tone: “Yeah. Astronomy starts with ‘ass’…and ends with ‘me’.”

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

A few slightly weird images from here in darkest Wyoming…

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

voidampersand liked Escapement [ Powell's | Amazon ]

Call For Submissions - Footprints — Now it can be told. Eric Reynolds and I are editing a hard(ish) SF anthology, for which the reading window opens soon. Bribes cheerfully accepted, though they won’t influence the reading process at all.

Nancy Kress talks about Launch Pad

James Gurney on the design of alternate history — A very nice post.

8/4/08
Time in saddle: 0 minutes (long city walk this morning)
Last night’s weigh-out: n/a
This morning’s weigh-in: n/a
Currently reading: Launch Pad Workshop class materials

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a few shots of the wild where the Launch Pad attendees hiked today…

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Teh Flickr finally cooperated. Here’s a few shots of Launch Pad attendees in the wild…

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Sunday morning the Launch Pad crew, or at least most of us, went for a hike at the Vedauwoo rocks outside of Laramie. We hiked around this rock feature (which fills most of the center of that aerial view), which is about a three mile trail a bit above 8,000 feet, with moderate elevation changes.

Having already walked half an hour that morning, I charged right into this hike like nothing had ever been wrong with me. A little less than a mile in, Steven Gould, Paul Witcover and Deanna Hoak decided to do a non-technical ascent of one of the rock faces. I followed them up perhaps a hundred, hundred and fifty feet. We hung around, took pictures, had our pictures took, scrambled down again and resumed the hike.

I haven’t done anything like that since long before I got sick. And it felt amazing. The energy from that hike has buoyed me mentally and emotionally through the day since, even as my body is bitching a bit about the effort expended. Amazing stuff. I feel better than I have since the excellent cancer adventure began.

Unfortunately, I only got a few of the photos loaded before some combination of weirdness between Flickr and the campus network here made uploading impossible. So I will give you this one photo of the area, and with luck post many more tomorrow:

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

One of today’s Launch Pad events was a visit to the planetarium here at the University of Wyoming. Mary Robinette Kowal, Alma Alexander and I went over early with instructor Jim Verley as he set up, so I got some photos of the projector and starball. These were shot under very low light conditions, so they’re not ideal, but they’re still pretty cool.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Three days in to Launch Pad. I did a bit of photo blogging [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]. My fellow attendees have done some lovely commentary. It has been pretty amazing. This is a great group of writers, and the workshop is absolutely stuffing our heads with Real Science ™.

Shortly we’re going hiking at Vedauwoo. I walked for thirty minutes as soon as I woke up, so the planned three miles will be slower paced for photo stops and whatever else presents. The altitude might be an issue too, depending on the elevation changes, but I’ve been doing enough walking since I got here not to be too concerned.

This afternoon we’re doing planetarium stuff, and a discussion on the human element in space, with a reduced schedule for a bit of break. The next two days are crammed very full, then off to Denvention Wednesday.

Personally, I’m having a ball. I still don’t have the dawn-to-midnight stamina I used to, but my energy levels are back to normal, and almost all the GI stuff has cleared up, so long as I keep a weather eye on my food intake. This is a hell of a lot of fun, and I am profoundly thankful that I’ve been able to enjoy it fully.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

And some shots from around campus here…

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

I rather like this photo of Alaska author David Marusek, taken at lunch Friday here at Launch Pad.

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.

Late yesterday afternoon we all hauled out to the Wyoming Infrared Observatory…

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.