Happy new year to everybody out there! May it indeed be happy, healthy, successful, safe, and fulfilling. Carol and I and Dash are still in good shape. Dash is 15 1\/2, so he\u2019s slowing down. Carol and I, well, we\u2019re in damn good shape for being in our 70s. July will be 56 years since we met. October will bring our 49th wedding anniversary. We are more deeply in love and friendship than ever before.<\/p>\n
It may not be what I\u2019m remembered for in years to come, if I\u2019m remembered at all\u2026but my relationship with Carol is what I consider the finest thing I have ever accomplished, and she what I am by far the most thankful for. Every year brings more and better for us. Yes, friendship is the cornerstone of our love, and how it all came about. Every year that passes makes that clearer.<\/p>\n
But friendship is also the cornerstone of the human spirit, and I\u2019m thankful for all the years that many of you have been reading me here and elsewhere, and offering me comments and suggestions and commendations. Stick with me; more words are on their way. <\/p>\n
The Everything Machine<\/em>, my fourth novel (or fifth, if Drumlin Circus<\/em> counts as a novel) hits the streets this year. It\u2019s the \u201cbig\u201d drumlins story, set in the same universe as The Cunning Blood<\/em>, but on the other side of the galaxy. It incorporates my novelette \u201cDrumlin Boiler,\u201d which Asimov\u2019s<\/em> published in 2002. The manuscript is complete. I\u2019m in discussion with an artist for a cover. I wrote the back cover copy yesterday afternoon. We\u2019re getting there.<\/p>\n I did a long, close copy edit on it across the last couple of weeks. Some people have suggested that I should hire an editor to do a pass over it. I considered for some time, and finally decided against it. One reason is that while there\u2019s plenty of action in The Everything Machine<\/em>, what I put most of my energy into was the creation of the characters. Characterization was always my weak spot as a writer. This project has been a deliberate effort to improve that skill. I\u2019m still an ideas guy, but this time, I\u2019m giving my characters equal time with what I consider my finest SF concept in all the years I\u2019ve been writing. There\u2019s deliberate nuance in the characterization, and I\u2019m leery of having someone else miss that nuance and unintentionally polish it away.<\/p>\n One of my alpha readers gave me a compliment that suggests it\u2019s working: Joe said that he could always tell which character is speaking in the story, and that each has a distinctive voice and presence. Here\u2019s an example of how I\u2019m trying to do this:<\/p>\n Orsi staggered back, his eyes widening. \u201cSo you are the girl who tortured Gad Roche\u2026with your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Maristella bit her lower lip. \u201cThat shitpile had a gun to my head. I did what I hadta do.\u201d Maristella pointed down at the deck. \u201cSo do we got us a deal or not?\u201d<\/p>\n Orsi took several long breaths. McKinnon thought he was trembling. \u201cProve to me\u2026that this is\u2026a starship.\u201d <\/p>\n Consul David Orsi is weak, taking intermittent breaths, and coughing a great deal. Maristella is a bright 15-year-old farm girl who had been tossed out of grade school for being \u201cweird.\u201d The Bitspace Institute murdered her father and is holding her mother captive. She is angry, and more bitter than a teen girl should be.<\/p>\n I\u2019m expecting some grumbling about how complicated the story is. There are several story arcs and more major characters than I\u2019ve put in a novel before. I think it works, and my alpha readers think it works. We\u2019ll see how it goes over with the readership at large. <\/p>\n It\u2019s taken more time than my other novels, in part because I\u2019m not 50 anymore, and in part because I had to set it aside for a year to update my assembly language book. I rewrote several parts of it more than once. I got the idea waaaaaaay back in 1997, and it will be a boggling relief once it\u2019s finally completed and on sale.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll keep you posted.<\/p>\n In the meantime, there are electronics to play with, and a solar maximum to allow station K7JPD to be heard farther off than California. I\u2019m guessing that it\u2019s going to be a mighty good year. So good luck and make it happen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Happy new year to everybody out there! May it indeed be happy, healthy, successful, safe, and fulfilling. Carol and I and Dash are still in good shape. Dash is 15 1\/2, so he\u2019s slowing down. Carol and I, well, we\u2019re in damn good shape for being in our 70s. July will be 56 years since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,19],"tags":[18,20],"class_list":["post-5328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideasandanalysis","category-memoir","tag-sf","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5330,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions\/5330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.contrapositivediary.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n