Inside Straight A Wild Cards Novel Edited by George R.R. Martin

Inside Straight A Wildcards Novel edited by George R. R. Martin is a bit different than most novels. It is written by a team of authors, Daniel Abraham, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Carrie Vaughn, Michael Cassatt, Caroline Spector, John Jos. Miller, George R. R. Martin, Ian Tregillis, and S.L. Farrell. Each chapter is written by a different author. The novel still holds together well. It is like a hybrid between a short story and a novel. They call it a mosaic novel.

The reason I think this still works is because, the Wildcards series was first started in 1987, so the outline of how the novels are supposed to be written is pretty clear to the writers. There are already seventeen books in the series. That is pretty long if you think about it for a set of superhero novels.

The premise of the superpowers is that in 1946 al alien virus that rewrites peoples dna was released over New York City. 90% of the people died, 9% turned into mutated misshapen creatures some with powers, others with none, and 1% turned into human superpowered archetypes. The world this happens in is called Wildcards. The world is recognizably different than it is today.

The opening chapter begins with a successful assassination attempt against the ruler of the “New Caliphate”, by a terrorist of unknown origin. The New Caliphate is a kind of muslim fundamentalist superstate.

Then the novel switches to reality television show in 2008 called American Hero. The producers have recruited superpowered aces for a chance to become the new American Hero. Tryouts are run and 21 superpowered individuals are chosen. Some of the different “Aces” are toadman who looks like a giant toad, stuntman who can be beaten up repeatedly, Jonathan Hive who can turn himself into insects, Earth Witch who can split and reshape the earth, and many others.

They are broken into teams– diamonds, hearts, clubs, and spades. Different challenges are given to them. Save people from a burning building, stop a mock bank robbery, find some hidden statues, and other activities. Whoever doesn’t succeed has to eliminate team members.

Jonathan Hive who is blogging about this event gets eliminated early. He ends spying on the producers of the show, eventually becoming involved in an epic struggle between the “Living Gods”, ace protectors of the joker community in Egypt and the New Caliphate. The New Caliphate blames the “Living Gods”– embodiments of the gods of ancient egypt for the assassination of their leader. Some of them include Isis, Sekhmet, Osiris, Ptath and Thoth. Serquet, the scorpion goddess and Taweret, the hippo goddess of fertility were kind of weird to read about.

Jonathan Hive travels to Egypt accompanied by Lohengrin, an invincible ace with a ghost sword, indestructible ghost armor, and a motorcylce. He is a kind of ace crusader. He is essentially the embodiment of western interference in the middle east. There he battles the Egyptian army and the New Caliphate as the jokers of Egypt and the Living Gods flee the New Temple. Jonathan Hive systematically recruits the eliminated aces to join him in Egypt to support the fleeing “Living Gods.”

There is an interesting dichotomy between the contest American Heros, and the fight in Egypt. This novel touches on a lot of very interesting issues, racism, sexism, colonialism. I was not sure that I originally wanted to write about it. There are some rather interesting passages in it which will be uncomfortable for some people to read. The characters drink alcohol, argue, fight, and have sex with each other. There is some foul language and interesting sexual situations.

There is of course a hidden evil adversary manipulating the situation in Egypt. As a final piece, the Aces who are in Egypt are recruited to help the United Nations after they defeat the armies of Egypt and the New Caliphate preventing a massacre in the desert.

I am not sure how to describe this book. This is not your typical superhero novel. However, it is well done for the genre. Most superhero novels are considered science fiction. There is a lot that is entertaining about the novel, but also there is some disturbing content. I enjoyed reading it.

Thoughts for Today

I went to the library today and dropped off a book. I really didn’t stay like I usually do. Then I went to my local produce store and bought some watermelon and grapes. It was very nice out, cool and crisp. When I got back I wrote the essay on Deep Economy.

Last night I watched Duck Soup starring Grouch Marx. I have always liked Harpo Marx the most. I especially like his scissors. It is part of our 100 Essential Films collection. It was a nice break from blogs and reading.

I was invited to join http://www.bloggeries.com a couple days ago. It is a blog forum which reviews and comments on blogs. The title and logo make more sense than most traffic generating sites. Before I could ask for a blog review, I had to make ten comments on the forum. I did this dutifully.

All of the sites have some kind of gimmick you have to do. I’m glad it wasn’t to put anything on my site. I requested a review of my site then. On Bloggeries suggestion, I stretched the banner out on top of my blog and changed the color of the words “Book Calendar.”

There seem to be a million of these things available now. I was also invited to join Bloggers Showroom but I declined because I had to add a widget to my site. I already have too many widgets on my site. Every so often, I go through and erase widgets.

Every day, I get invited to join something new, the names are all very odd, Spott, Quasia, Squidoo, and various other things. Most of the names are nonsense words. Somehow, these things are supposed to increase my blog traffic. It is already almost too much to keep track of all the different traffic widgets on my site.

Deep Economy– Bill McKibben– Review

Deep Economy The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben. This book says a tremendous amount about the benefits of making economies smaller in scale. more focused on producing better quality products, and more sustainable. It is a direct challenge to the idea of unlimited growth and development as a model for human needs and happiness.

This book is much more than a book on environmentalism. It posits we have a choice between having more and having better. There simply are no longer the resources for unlimited growth and we need to start figuring out how to make things better, both in terms of quality of life and in terms of producing goods.

One of the central ideas in this book is that at one time increases in production made us happy, but now this is no longer true. Americans have gone from being #1 in quality of life to #13 in quality of life among nations. Hyperindividualism and excess focus on consumption have destroyed many American communities.

Because we are so focused on goods, we let big box stores like Walmart move into our communities and replace the local barbers, markets, and services. For every job that a Walmart creates we lose the equivalent of one and a half jobs. I am glad that I still live in a community where I can go to the local produce store, visit the bike shop, and go to the corner deli.

Bill McKibben posits that it is best for us to consume locally. He talks about how small farmers produce better quality produce and more produce per acre. He focuses on his personal experience of buying all of his food locally as well as the benefits of organically grown food. As part of this he attacks agri-business for feeding Americans huge amounts of corn syrup and wrecking many peoples health.

He also describes how to consume energy in a more local manner. Energy efficiency is the big winner is his mind, fluorescent light bulbs, insulation, double paned windows, and more efficient appliances are all part of his life. He tells you that one of the best ways you can support energy independence is to encourage your local politician to put in bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, and improved public transportation. This will make it easier for the average consumer in the United States to have one car instead of two.

This book is a challenge to the notion that globalism in its current form is a good thing. He claims China will get tired of producing the goods for the United States eventually. What China is doing is unsustainable. Also, it cannot be a model for the rest of the world, because China is already taking away manufacturing jobs from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mexico, and India.

Also as the world changes many countries are not willing to go along with the demands of globalization. Globalization is not happening the way the United States envisioned it. We are steadily running into problems with global warming, peak oil, and environmental challenges. Many countries do not want to follow the standard industrialization model where big agribusiness comes in, then the displaced farmers go to work in factories in the cities.

There is a tremendous amount of information in this book. Almost every page talks about an importaint economic or environmental issue. Because the book is focused on what you can do locally, it gives you ideas on how to eat better, get more involved in local politics, be more energy efficient, and have an impact with your decisions on personal consumption.

There are quite a few things which I found odd in this book. There is a decent amount on local public radio stations and local community involvement which I did not get completely. I found in places that the ideas were not complete, and sometimes a bit incoherent.

Some of the examples like urban agriculture in Cuba and the Brazilian public transportation system in Curitibia are a little bit too far off the political left spectrum for me.

If you are interested in environmental lifestyle and philosophy this is a very interesting book. It is also a very personal book. It is not how to solve global warming or end the oil crisis. It is more about how to make a personal impact by being green.

This is a link to a talk by Bill McKibben. Part of the talk was available on Youtube, but the not whole thing. I decided it would be better to include a link to the talk rather than 7 minutes from Youtube.

http://fora.tv/2007/03/20/Deep_Economy

Playaway Audio Device

I decided to try a playaway audio book which is a new format. It is a preloaded digital audiobook. http://www.playawayaudio.com/ I checked out Petty Crimes by Gary Soto a few hours ago. The total playtime of the preloaded audiobook is 3 hours and 45 minutes. It consists of ten short stories. I will be able to skip the stories which I don’t particularly like.

They have packaged the device in an interesting way. Essentially, they put the device into a larger vhs container about three inches by six inches. There is a padded pounch inside the video container containing the playaway. The playaway requires earphones like an ipod would have. For safety reasons we insist that people use their own earphones. It would be unsanitary for people to put in used earphones. I spent a dollar and got some earbuds so I can listen to the playaway. We are selling the earbuds at cost.

The cost of the playaway is much cheaper than an audiobook. It is about $30-$35 for a playaway that can be used repeatedly by a library. We have some audiobooks that cost as much as $100 each. Most are about $60-70 each.

Because the playaway is a new piece of technology, we still are not certain what the exact problems or issues we will have with them as a library.

It makes me a little nervous listening to something on the train. I said, I wouldn’t do this thing normally, but the device is intriguing enough for me to play with.

I checked to see if the playaway worked. The battery had run out. We had to replace the battery for Petty Crimes by Gary Soto. After listening for a few minutes, I decided that I didn’t much care for Petty Crimes.

I checked out a different playaway, I am Rosa Parks by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins. Narrated by Patricia Floyd. The story is good, but the playaway makes tiny little skipping noises. This is annoying. The sound is still pretty clear.

I checked again and I realized that I hadn’t plugged in the headphones all the way. My mistake. Anyways, this recording was blessedly short. 1/4 of an hour, just about the attention span of your average ten to fourteen year old. This audiobook is written for between 5th and 8th grade listening level. It is also a book which is regularly assigned for children and young teenagers to read. Some people like to listen to their assignments rather than reading them.

There was a brief advertisement from Recorded Books, the publisher of the digital audio recording (playaway) at the end of the reading. It encouraged you to buy audiobooks on their 30 day layaway plan. It was brief much like the audio recording.

The playaways which we have were purchased by our teen librarian. She purchased mostly assignment titles which teenagers could listen to if they wanted to. Books like Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston, or the previously mentioned Petty Crimes by Gary Soto.

On Writing Well The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction– William Zinsser– Review

On Writing Well The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Sixth Edition, Revised and Updated, c1998 by William Zinsser is a guide to writing nonfiction. I found this book to be quite interesting. It is one of the first books that I have ever read that specifically focuses just on nonfiction writing. Almost every previous work I read on writing was focused on creative writing or poetry.

Much of the book is how to find your unique voice and not write like other people. He encourages people to develop an individual style different from other writers. The book reminds the reader that writing is more than about making money. It is about personal satisfaction. Zinsser describes how his mother would clip articles from newspapers for him to read that were examples of good writing.

For Zinsser that are two main focuses for the nonfiction writer. These are person and place. Every activity involves people and the best way to write about activities is to find out about the people who do them according to Zinsser. The other corresponding things which goes with people is place. All activities occur in a particular space. Zinsser describes his trip to see a camel caravan in Timbuktu as one example of an interesting place to visit.

The many different types of writing he covers: sports, memoir, travel, science and technology, humor, business, and the arts and criticism seem incidental to his focus on creating consistent craftshmanship. Zinsser comes back to a set of principles; write clearly and concisely, avoid jargon, use words people understand, and write about what you are interested in.

Writing is a process for him, never completely done, and always with room for improvement. He admonishes the novice writer to stick to their principles and insist that editors not change things without looking at the work first.

Nonfiction is as much literature in this book as fiction is. There is more nonfiction written than fiction being written every day. Journalism is just as valuable in Zinsser’s creed as novels.

There was quite a bit of biographical information sketched into the book on writing. We learn that the author enjoys traveling, is a native of New York, is a city person, and loved writing for newspapers.

The one section I have some trepidation about was on how to interview people. I have been quite nervous about the idea of interviewing people for this blog. I have trouble rewriting what people have said. I often find myself being quite meticulous about quoting what people have said. I like to go back to ask people for clarification most of the time when I quote people.

If you are looking for a clear guide on how to develop a unique style, voice, and write clearly for nonfiction, this book is worth reading. The book, however does not cover a huge amount of material on grammar or usage. I think the book would make an excellent companion read to The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. E.B. White is quoted several times in On Writing Well.

This book could be used to improve a lot of the blogs which I have been reading on the internet. Too many are focused on selling a product or service and do not have a personal voice, or a unique style.

Morning Poems, Blook

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Good morning, It is Valentine’s day, February 14, 2008. I am going to try something new today. We are doing read a favorite poem today where I work. I think I may introduce the program with what is considered the most famous love poem of all time as well as Shakespeare’s Sonnet 141:

How Do I Love Thee?

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints.

I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

William Shakespeares Sonnet 141, In Faith I Do Not Love Thee With Mine Eyes

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,

For they in thee a thousand errors note;

But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise,

Who in despite of view is pleased to dote;

Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,

Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,

Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited

To any sensual feast with thee alone:

But my five wits nor my five senses can

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,

Who leaves unsway’d the likeness of a man,

Thy proud hearts slave and vassal wretch to be:

Only my plague thus far I count my gain,

That she that makes me sin awards me pain.

I thought I would open the day with some classic poetry appropriate for Valentine’s day. Don’t forget your loved ones on this day. Both Shakespeare and Browning are thoroughly out of copyright. Anyways, I thought I would open with some poetry to start the day off.

I finished reading the Howard Zinsser On Writing Well book on the subway and took some notes on the content in blue ballpoint pen. When I get home, I will write a review on the book.

I pulled a truck of books to bring to the poetry program I am doing today to bring to the program today, a mix of poets; Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, Hart Crane, Alice Walker, Charles Bukowski, William Carlos Williams, Diane Wakoski, Sylvia Plath, Audre Lord, Rimbaud, Robert Frost, Theodore Roethke, Daniel Berrigan, Li Po, Ha Jin, Bei Dao and others.

I am going to the supermarket at lunch time to get some cake, mini-muffins, and juice. The room should be set up with a microphone downstairs. Going to the supermarket to get things for programs is always an interesting experience. This is the first time I am attempting to do a poetry style program at the library.

Not a huge amount of people came, eight people, and a few people came in and out to look at the room as well for other events. There were a few people who promised to stop in, but never came. A few people took flyers for other programs.

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Anyways, I was just thinking about something I saw about blogging. My blog would officially be called a blook– or a book blog. It is one of those supremely silly terms which technologists come up with. It ranks with the idea of web 2.0. It is a rather entertaining term. It might be a new way to combine words in language. For example there are splogs– spam blogs. Maybe someone will create a blook splog for peoples enjoyment. It would be on how to make money auctioning blogs over the internet.

Feedburner, Morning Thoughts

This blog is always under construction. It is improved a little bit every day.

I have been thinking about how I can increase use of this site. One of the things which people suggest is to create a feed so people can subscribe to the site. I just added a feedburner widget in my widgets section so people can subscribe to the site. I get about 115 visits a day right now. This is not a huge amount of visits. I am glad to have broken 100 visitors a day. I am aiming by the end of they year to have 500-1000 visitors per day.

Right now, one of the reasons I have asked for feedback is to see how I can improve the site so it can be more appealing to the average visitor. I also adjusted one of the widgets this morning to a smaller format for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

I also took some time to update the Powell’s list of books I have read. I am working late tonight, so I can spend a little bit of time to update my site this morning. Going to work late when it is snowing can be interesting.

Right now, I am still reading On Writing Well. I think it will take about three to four days for me to finish and write a review. The writing is very dense and there are lots of examples on how to improve writing quality. I can already tell that my writing quality will improve from reading this book. I thought about breaking up the review of the book into three sections. But, I realized although each chapter can be read separately, they are not meant to be reviewed individually like a short story, but as part of a whole book.

Things have been very very busy at work and at home. I have had a bit more time to read On Writing Well on the subway. At the job, I have been weeding the Job Information Center and preparing a big order of job books, entrepreneur books, resume books, civil service test books, and educational test books. It has taken up most of my day doing this. Combined with a long committee meeting that lasted about two hours, it has been interesting.