Criminal Minds Episode

Watched Criminal Minds episode last night. Mary called me to watch because the promos had mentioned that the episode was about a science fiction author. In the event it was an okay if slightly predictable program, but the part that Mary and I couldn't help reacting to was when they were dealing with a couple of university professors.

In one scene a professor of post-modern literature takes the FBI agents back to her office, and as soon as the office came on screen, Mary and I collapsed into helpless laughter. Not only was her office HUGE (five time regulation size for a prof, at least twice the size of the office of our University President) but it was palatially and tastefully furnished. Obviously, none of the writers nor set designers has ever been to university, because they have obviously never seen a prof's office. Real profs offices are tiny spaces piled high with books, ungraded student papers, and empty coffee mugs. None of my colleagues have expensive art on their walls; they have their diplomas, a couple of conference posters, and a collection of Dilbert (or substitute appropriate subject-specific alternative) cartoons plastered on a bulletin board.

At the end of the scene, the prof calls her personal assistant to pull some files for her -- I nearly choked on my drink at that line because the last round of budget cuts left us with a half secretary shared between all 45 faculty members, and we're the faculty the other faculties all complain is "bloated with support staff". Mary did choke on her drink, laughing at the thought of anyone having "files", but that may be just her. (Though who has paper files any more? You'd just bring it up on the computer.)

In another scene, they stop a second prof in her car, and Mary shouts out, laughing, "Hey, it's a Lexus!." I'm 55, at the top of my game, and last year bought my first new car ever, and it was a Honda Fit. To be fair, my mentor drove a Lexus, but he admitted that he'd made the money to buy it in land speculations, not off his salary -- and that was in the good old days, the lost golden age when government's still considered universities as a good investment....

He has an axe

Great TV commercial (forwarded from Karl Johansono):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5uxs4wQAhI

Tigana on Front Page

Photo by David Rossiter

In addition to this photo on the front cover of the Lethbridge Herald, Tigana was also interviewed on CTV news yesterday on the space camp she is attending. Since she had her picture in the paper just last week, and this is now the fourth time she has had her photo in the paper, she is slightly insufferable.

So where was space camp when we were kids, that's what I want to know...

Mary Featured in Lethbridge Herald

Photo by David Rossiter

Mary was the feature interview on the cover of the Careers Section of the Lethbridge Herald today... The headline was "Are You a Workaholic"; story was by Dave Mabell. It's currently on-line full text at the Herald site, if you care to read it, and if it is still up when you read this post.

Mary was reasonably pleased with how it turned out, felt the reporter was professional and competent. One is always a little nervous how the press is going to report something one is involved in, but this came out more or less intact. (Mary felt the punchline was missing -- that the last line of the story quoting Tigana missed that 'this was a bad thing'. But close enough.)

Benoit Book Launch Successful

Following her successful virtual book tour (including a stop here, see below) M. D. Benoit held her official live book launch of Synergy in Ottawa June 19th, and sends this report:

"My book launch went smashingly well. I sold tons of books, and, most important of all, people came! My knees were shaking so much when I did my reading I could barely stand afterwards but apparently only those who know me really well knew I was nervous. The combination art gallery (venue), music (artist playing music about one of the themes of my book) and reading pleased people no end -- and so did the munchies and wine, I gather. Most people stayed an extra half hour and we had to kick some out because the gallery owner wanted to close.

I can go back to my cave for a while, now."

(I apologize for being behind in posting this and other entries, but I've been on the road most of June -- more on that shortly, I hope.)

Tigana Art

Kasia, our 3.5 year old, is crazy for My Little Pony. Her mother has therefore redone her bedroom with an My Little Pony wall paper border and stick ons. Tigana, not to be out done, contributed this portrait of a pony on Kasia's blackboard.

videos

Some excellent video recommendations from Keith Fenske via Randy Reichardt

Gervais (originator of "The Office")
fund raiser satire.

A brilliant short called Spin

a short skit on Medieval "Helpdesk

And a couple that I found for my Ed 4391 Course on cyberculture:


What if you could see 10 seconds into the future

Cell phone problems and more more problems and yet more problems and finally, crime deterrent

The Relative Merits of Saving the World

I spent most of last night fighting off alien invaders. I am pleased to say that I was successful in defending Earth.

But I must admit a certain disappointment upon waking to discover that my wife and children were not in awe of my feats of daring-do in protecting our city. I may have gone so far as to mention to my wife that I deserved some special consideration this morning for saving Earth.

Her response: "I dreamt that I had to take both Tigana and Kasia to the dentist."

Me: "Okay, you win."

A different approach to politics

Not your typical campaign speech -- I really love the last two lines especially. (Forwarded from Charlton Barreto).

Literature meets technology

Not sure how I react to this one...

Twitter is a website that updates one on what one's friends are doing at any particular second (Twitter describes itself as "A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing?") That's already an awesomely "we have the technology so we're going to do it whether it is socially reasonable or not", but someone decided to use a twitter feed to read James Joyce's Ulysses, one line every 15 minutes. To quote the original mandate:


Booktwo is currently using Swotter to read James Joyce’s Ulysses to the world. Aside from it being one of our favourite books, it also contains enough strangeness to make anyone coming across it at random pay attention. Possibly.

You can see how it’s getting on at http://twitter.com/booktwo. If you’d like to subscribe, get a twitter account if you don’t have one, and make friends with booktwo.

Ulysses, in the Gutenberg plain text edition, has 24765 lines. Reading one every fifteen minutes, it is going to take 257 days (about eight months) to read Ulysses to Twitter. Swotter started reading on the 28th of February, 2007, so should finish around the middle of November.

Mom

An older photo of my Mom, before she went into extended care home

Easter Decorations at West Edmonton Mall

One of dozens of Christmas Trees up at West Edmonton Mall over Easter

 

 

 

 

 

We were in Edmonton briefly over the Easter Weekend to celebrate my mother's 98th birthday and Mary's mother's 75th birthday. But no trip is allowed to Edmonton without a stop at West Edmonton Mall so that Kasia and Tigana can have a quick round of bungie jumping on the Center of Gravity trampolines.

This being the Easter weekend, we were a bit concerned by the sight of Christmas trees everywhere throughout the mall. At 800 stores, WEM is one of the largest malls in the world, but Edmontonians have long held the suspicion that it is only a matter of time before it, like other malls before it, starts its slow decline into ruin. The apparent lack of staff or funding priorities to take down last Christmas' trees seemed a pretty blatant sign that the mall's collapes was nigh.

However, as it turns out, it's not that at all. The mall is the location for a movie and the trees are props. To quote the WEM website:

West Edmonton Mall to star in major Hollywood picture

With the official Christmas holiday having been over for several weeks, many people have wondered why West Edmonton Mall has not taken down its Christmas decorations. Now the answer can be explained. Christmas will soon be coming again to West Edmonton Mall as it has been chosen as the primary location for the major Hollywood motion picture `Christmas in Wonderland.`

I guess I'm reassured.

M. D. Benoit Interview Introduction

M.D. Benoit, on Virtual Tour

M.D. Benoit's third published novel, Synergy, is coming out this week, prompting this virtual book tour. I had the opportunity to interview Dominique over the course of the last several weeks, and tried to focus on areas not likely already covered elsewhere in her tour. So let me just briefly introduce her book:

Synergy is a near future (perhaps alternate history) novel set in Ottawa. The plot concerns a genetic researcher in a future where genetic research is so tightly controlled as to be effectively banned. The illegal research attracts the attention of a local drug lord, government regulators, and the statistician hired to help analyze the data (unaware that the research is unauthorized). Some interesting speculation on genetics, the role of dreams in innovation, and the ethics of research form subthemes within the larger narrative, but mostly this is an actioner -- especially in the second half of the book where it becomes quite a page-turner.

In another interview, Benoit mentions that she would cast John Cusack as protagonist Torver Lockwood, and Natalie Portman as statistician, Demetria Greyson. I would have said Kevin Spacy for Lockwood, but I get Cusack: the point is he's not your typical scientist hero. Indeed, none of the characters in Synergy are exactly sympathetic; instead of simple black and white dichotomies, Benoit gives you complex people with their own agendas, some of whom end up more on the side of the angles than others, but all of whom have their dark sides.

For more on the book, check out
The Synergy book launch page

The Synergy video

Win a free copy of Synergy

And so, on to the interview:

M. D. Benoit on Publishing

M. D. Benoit on Virtual Book Tour in front of famous rail bridge, Lethbridge Alberta, via this blog

Interviewed by Robert Runté

Robert: As the big monopoly publishers increasingly focus on a few blockbuster-style titles/authors with sales in the millions, we've seen the emergence of many more regional and specialty presses to fill the vacuum for titles with more limited local or genre appeal. I'm interested in how authors decide where to position themselves in the market. What made you choose to go with a small specialty press like Zumaya, rather than a more mass market publisher?

Dominique: In the beginning, I tried the large presses (Tor, Baen, etc.) and I had some nibbles, but the responses always ended up as "we like what you write but we can’t fit it anywhere." I've learned that large publishers are not flexible with mixed genres or difficult to classify books, and my books definitely are. So I decided to look for a publisher that could be more flexible in its approach. I found this is the case with small independent publishers. I liked what Zumaya Publications published, so I submitted to them.

Robert: What drew you to Zumaya Otherworlds specifically?

Dominique: The imprint was created last year. Even though they’re small, Zumaya puts you through the same rigorous submission and edit process as any other respected publisher. They're very professional, but because they have little overhead, they can spend more time with their authors. All the books they publish are different. I liked that, too. Instead of feeling like a misfit, I feel I found a home. Yet, even though Zumaya Publications takes in a different kind of fiction, it doesn't accept every manuscript that comes across its desk. They receive about 25 submissions a week. The rate of acceptance is around 1-2%. They’re looking for quality writing as well as the different.

Robert: Some small presses make a point of providing much more intensive support for authors than the big mass market houses do these days, in hopes that the extra editorial support will compensate for the lack of big $ advances. Other small presses make a point of “not tampering” with the author's manuscript, protecting them from the over zealous (and not necessarily SF-savvy) copy editors sometimes encountered in the big publishing houses. Where does Zumaya fall on that continuum in terms of the kind of editorial support you have received? What has working with Zumaya been like?

Dominique: At Zumaya, you can develop a relationship with your editor. There’s a real give-and-take, but the editor has the final say in some cases. Once trust has been established, as happened with my editor, Liz Burton, there’s a sort of symbiosis that happens. A lot of the editing is done through Instant Messenger, a sign of the times, I guess. We’ll discuss something through the chat, the same way it would’ve been done on the phone or through email, and we solve issues a lot faster.

M. D. Benoit on Cover Art

Cover of M.D. Benoit's latest novel, Synergy, now available from Amazon.com.

Robert: Most writers have stories (positive or negative) about the cover art for their books. Did you choose the artists, or did the publisher?

Dominique: The publisher chose the artist, but I did have some input into the creative process. For instance, I didn’t want people in my covers for the Jack Meter Case File series, because I don’t really describe my main character, Jack Meter. Martine Jardin, the cover artist and designer, came up with the door opening unto the universe, which we’ll keep for the entire series. I liked the concept.

For Synergy, Moor Dragon (who worked on covers for Ursula LeGuin) did the cover. Again, I wanted something that evoked DNA and time. Hence the ribbons and the DNA ladders on the cover.

Robert: How much input did you have over what your covers would look like? Did you get to see preliminary sketches, or did the final cover just turn up as a fait accompli?

Dominique: As I said, I was able to suggest some things, and I saw the covers several times before they were firmed up. I didn’t have final approval, but I didn’t feel ignored, either. On the Synergy cover, I suggested a couple of things I didn’t like, and they were changed.

Robert: How well do you feel the covers reflect the tone/theme/story of the novels?

Dominique: All the covers I have relate to the story inside, which cannot always be said in SF. I’m satisfied with that.

Robert:W hat would your ideal cover for Synergy have looked like?

Dominique: Hmm. That’s kind of a trick question since I’m not an artist. As I said, the cover of Synergy reflects the story inside.