Did I Notice Your Book?

The lovely Ciara Night graciously asked me if I'd like to be a part of her 'Did I Notice Your Book' blogfest today, and I couldn't say yes fast enough.

To put it plainly. I'm tasked with putting a book I've noticed recently up on my blog, and seeing if the author notices my post. Sounds like tons of fun. It's also a grand experiment in how memes can spread. Ciara has been doing this for a while now, and a surprisingly high percentage of authors eventually find their books, even without knowing anything about the blog post before the day begins.

The blogfest is highlighting authors from several genres, please visit Ciara's blog today to see how well this experiment plays out.

My genre? Science Fiction.


My choice, well, it was tough. I had something in mind right from the beginning, then thought better of it and chose another book from another author, then changed my mind again and again. In the end I went through about 5 or 6 books before I settled on one.

So, without further adieu:

Neanderthal Swan Song, by Rick Novy

From the blurb:
The world of anthropology would have been excited when a perfectly preserved Neanderthal body is discovered in the Greenlandic permafrost, if authorities would allow the details out. When an American anthropologist involved in the excavation is denied access to the body, she uses an illicit tissue sample as source material to carry the Neanderthal’s clone to term herself.

Meet Ike Mudge, twenty-first-century Neanderthal man. Self-educated and raised in a laboratory thirty-thousand years out of his time, he is alone in a world of billions. Will it drive him insane, or will he make a final contribution for his kind–a Neanderthal Swan Song?


For what it's worth, this book sounds amazing to me. So, Rick, if you're out there, please drop me a line in the comments below and let me know that you found your book profiled here today, and how you discovered it.

I'm Trying Real Hard...

... But stuff keeps happening in real life that tries to derail me from writing. I'm at around 42k words and am running out of time to get the word count I wanted to for the month, which I'm sure you've already guessed is 50k.

All the other novels I've ever written have been in the 60-70k range when done. Very short. This one is shaping up to be a much longer project. Hard to tell though, I may end up cutting a lot. But I'm thinking it will still be around 120k when done. Long by my standards. And I think at the upper limits of what any publisher would even look at for a paper book from a unknown author.

So, here's hoping I have a couple of days free of too many other distractions, because... damn... you just wouldn't believe the stuff that's been happening.

If You Are a Turkey, Let Me Start By Telling You How Sorry I Am

For those of us here in the States, it's Thanksgiving. A day that was ordained long ago that we must eat Turkey and watch football. Funny, I really don't like Turkey. Don't know why we eat it so much this time of year, they're difficult to prepare and are often dry, breeding grounds for bacteria, and of course, make me sleepy.

What I find interesting is that they have been bred to have such large breasts that it encumbers their ability to live a normal life. Yes, those butterball turkeys are so malformed that they can no longer breed in nature.

Every turkey in an American supermarket was artificially inseminated. Every. Single. One*. Because they literally, cannot do so on their own - they're too big to have sex. In fact, forget sex, many of the Turkeys sold in supermarkets are so large that they can't even walk.

With a name like that, it's hard to say no.

I mean, they don't even taste that good. That's what gets me. Granted, I have had one or two amazing birds over the years, but I don't want to appear to be waffling on the issue. I'm making a stand. I'm going to buy what is called a 'legacy turkey.' That's a bird that has been allowed to be breed naturally, one that is several times smaller than the typical thanksgiving bird. Because I'm a good person, it's important to me.

Well, hang on. Some of them can cost up to $9 a pound. WTF? Forget it then. I'm not going to pay $100 for a skinny bird. I don't care that much.

Enjoy the holiday folks. I'm thankful for much. Be happy.

*That's totally untrue. I'm just trying to make it more black an white here. You know, for drama.  But most of them are.

Check it out... I'm Batman:



I actually laughed at this. Honestly laughed. That doesn't happen too often.

Look! Stuff!

I like history. Probably because it's like time travel, except without the actual travel part. So it's like time, except past time. You know, history.

Damn. I'm sure everyone sees why I dream of being a writer. That's some good stuff right there.

Anyway, I like history, it's full of stuff that's usually way weirder than fiction. I know it's a cliche, but it's true, real stuff is way more bizarre. I think the reason fiction works so well is that it allows us a sense of justice, or closure, or whatever, that we rarely see in real life. No, in real life, nice people get struck by lightning on their honeymoon and die. Or the biggest ass in town wins $43 million in the lottery and makes all the people he's bullied and spat on his whole life suffer even more. Because that's real life (Ironically, I made up the one about the lottery, I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head).

Whoa, I didn't mean to take this to such a dark place. All that is just to say I found the National Archives Flickr stream yesterday and spent some time being mesmerized. Please, go waste your time there just as I have mine.

Global Warming: Totally Natural

Too many jokes... I can't choose between them! 

Retirement home my ass. They put granny in a sweatshop

My Nano Disaster

A metaphor for my novel

That's a strong word - disaster. I'll just call it a bit of an oversight. You see, a large portion of what I thought was the plot for my current story is actually not a plot. Yeah, I know, a rookie mistake. I thought I had a this great meta-story and then this really good personal story to tell. You know, love and betrayal, all that.

Well, that meta-story is really more like a backdrop. You know, like WWII isn't a plot for most novels, it's something that's going in the background while the actual plot unfolds.

Oops.

I'm not writing a literary novel, and I don't think I can carry the story using just the love pentagon I've developed. Sigh. Problems problems.

Even when I take the day off work, Monday's still find a way to suck.

Saturday Quickie

Folks, just imagine what could have been...