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Unsurprisingly, some people at UW-M have found my website and said they’ve tooled around it. I don’t know how many, if any, regularly read this blog because none have commented (though you’re welcome, nay, encouraged to comment.) It’s fairly common for students to Google each other, and I’ve noticed a spike in the number of people who find this site by searching my name. (Which is better than finding this site by searching “priapism pictures” or “somnophilia video” which are currently tied for fourth-place. But let’s forget that for now.)

During break at one of my classes some other students and I talked about writing and publication, and I mentioned that I’d made some sales. Sales, in many minds, are the sign of a Legitimate Writer, and I can’t argue that. But this isn’t to say unpublished writers are illegitimate. Looking at my own bibliography, I’ve made fewer sales than I’ve wished but more than I’ve expected. I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of people.

But the only way you get sales is by submitting stuff, and submitting often. I haven’t crunched the numbers for awhile (and the computer I’m on doesn’t have Access for me to check my database) but I think I’m around 20 rejections per sale. Awhile back, I wanted to lower this ratio. Now, not so much. The only stat that really counts is sales because that’s all anyone sees. If it takes you 1000 rejections to get 10 decent sales, it’s okay because no one sees the other 990. You don’t put them in a cover letter. They don’t go in your bio.

Here’s what I believe: writers of all levels should always be trying to improve but they should simultaneously always be sending stuff out. I feel like a lot of writers only want to send out works of pure genius. Which are hard to come by. A better goal is to try and send out competently written, entertaining stories while you work towards that magnum opus.

The other irony is that a lot of people who give you credit for having some decent sales will never have read those stories. They could be terrible stories for all they know. They could be the kind of story that you read and think, “Hell, I write better than that.” But there’s no doubt that even a few decent sales earn a lot of street cred.

Writers really only control what they write and where they submit. And really, that’s for the best. I’ve been guilty about assigning meaning to the numbers but I’ve cooled on that. A few stats do matter: words written; stories submitted; sales. The higher the first two, the more likely that last one will be higher too.

None of the above is original. I know that. But it’s funny how sometimes the same writing advice means different things to you at different points in your career and the writers you encounter. I’m surrounded by a lot of burgeoning writers who are producing publishable and near-publishable work, but I’m worried they’ll never know it. Sometimes I feel like saying, “Do me a favor: promise you’ll send this story/poem out at least ten times.”

Maybe I should.

Current Mood: Headache |
Currently Listening To - CPR Streaming Classical Music

First, some gloating. The Ars* lost again tonight, this time to Fulham, which puts them a full 16 points off the top of the table after wins by everybody’s favorite teams from Manchester and west London. I was sure their title ambitions ended at the weekend; this puts the fork in them for even the most ardent Ars*nal supporter. Couldn’t happen to a nicer team, the bastards.

Spurs, who have had a less than stellar season so far by anyone’s reckoning, are just three points short of their norf London rivals. Spurs were hoping to push for a Champions League spot this year; the Ars* thought they were title contenders. You tell me: who has fallen further?
Hint: The answer is Ars*nal

Do you ever feel like books somehow find you? Farewell to Arms is fantastic so far. But I’m glad I didn’t read it any sooner. I don’t think it would have the same impact if I wasn’t studying Spanish. The book reads like it was written in Spanish and translated into English. The sentence structure during dialogue is Spanish, and the language has a totally different feel to it.

For instance, they use the word “rare” in a way an English speaker wouldn’t. They find a machine gun and it’s described as “rare,” then later, Robert Jordan is told to finish off his “rare” absinthe so he can have some wine. English speakers wouldn use something like “special” or maybe even “lucky” depending on the context. But these aren’t English speakers, and while “rare” indeed means “difficult to find” (like a rare book) it has a slightly different connotation in Spanish. So even though I’m listening to English, it feels Spanish. Which is cool.

I mentioned the book Four Front a few posts ago, and the short stories in the book were written in Gaelic and translated into English. Beckett’s Mercier and Camier was written in French by Beckett (whose first language was English) and then, years later, translated into English. It also has a translated texture to it. How or why this happens, I don’t know. But it’s cool. Maybe one day I’ll master Spanish enough to try and write some fiction. I did win an honorable mention for a short story I wrote in German as an undergrad, so it can be done.

Current Mood: Discontent |

Okay, the Packers suck. Even in HD. They should have had Seattle buried in the first half and it’s their own fault they let the Seachickens back into the game. However, a team this bad doesn’t deserve to get killed by the refs. Two calls on the Seattle drive—a blatant holding no-call on the drive’s longest passing play and the wrong-call on the roughing the passer penalty—totally put the knife in them. And that sucks.

I am wholly unconvinced by Mike McCarthy. I wasn’t a huge fan of Sherman but he held the team together for a number of years. The team has nose-dived thanks to a series of bonehead front office moves and I don’t trust that the vaunted blocking scheme we’ve heard so much about will ever pan out. Ray Rhodes got the axe his first season in charge because the team looked rickety. I’d say the same about McCarthy, but he’s keeping his job. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

A busy weekend in England. Spurs rolled over Wigan 3-1, the Ars* threw in the towel on the title race, and Chelski earned a point at Man Ure. Advantage: Chelski.

Will the second half of the season be as interesting as the first? I bet not. Watford and Charlton need to turn things around quickly if they want to climb out of the drop zone, and I bet that doesn’t happen. If this is true, then that means there’s only remaining club to go down, and it’s got to be Sheffield United. The clubs above them will likely be able to do what they need to and keep out of the drop zone and I can’t see Sheffield United doing enough differently to get out of their predicament. I think they’re a quality side but they just can’t seem to get over that hump and win games.

At the top of the table, I can’t see Man Ure keeping the pace. I can very easily imagine Chelski picking up another 40+ points before May but I can’t say the same about United. As was mentioned all over the place this past weekend, Man Ure has a weak bench compared to the Russians and that will make the difference over the long haul. No one is within touching distance of either of them, so it’s a two-horse race. Better than a one-horse race, I guess.

Chasing the final Champions League and UEFA Cup spots will be the most gripping table drama, I suppose. (yawn) If I had to pick today, I’d take the Ars* and Bolton for spots 3 and 4, and Liverpool or Villa for 5th. Pompey can’t keep it up and hot-and-cold Spurs aren’t likely to make a serious push as long as their distracted by European competition.

The picture will be much clearer in a few weeks. If you’re unfamiliar with the English league, there’s a fixture crunch around the holidays that sets the stage for the second half of the season. The points won and lost in the period usually consign a team (or two) to almost certain relegation and the title contenders step to the fore. I can’t see any major shake-ups at the very top or very bottom, and I feel the usual suspects will fill their assigned roles (this means mid-table mediocrity for Spurs in case you were wondering).

Maybe I’m just being pessimistic. The Champions League should be fun from here to the end, though. All the English sides look a good bet and I also wonder if this is the year Lyon can shake off their Champs League funk and actually make a serious run. Not that I’m rooting for them. I spent a few days in Lyon once. It rained and we were treated like merde by the waitstaff at the city’s only open restaurant. And I’m disturbed by Juninho’s monobrow.

I gave up on A Tale of Two Cities and wonder whether Dickens might be something I need to read rather than listen to. Instead, I started For the Whom the Bell Tolls and practically smacked myself in the head as I listened to the first couple chapters. As in, “Why didn’t I read this sooner?” I know what the story is about, but I didn’t put two and two together until I remembered what it was about ().

It’s early days, but I’m really digging it. Hemingway had me hooked at formal Castilian. The soldiers as depicted are overwhelmingly…well, Spanish. And therefore stubborn, proud and fascinating. And lines like this: “There are two rules for getting along with the Spanish: give the men tobacco and leave the women alone.”

Lord, why didn’t I pick this book up sooner? (smacks self in head) And why have I been putting off Death In The Afternoon for that matter?

Much reading to do, and wasting too much time blogging. Signing off.

Current Mood: Full |

Woo-hoo! I’m all registered for the spring semester. Here’s what I’m taking:

* - I’ll likely drop this class even though it sounds good

I was a little worried I wasn’t going to get into the fiction writing seminar but it’s a done deal now. Six hours of class on Wednesday is a tall order but I’m doing it now and it’s not so bad. These are also two classes I’m most excited about, both for their content and for the professors teaching them, so I think it’ll actually be a good day.

This schedule also means I’ll only be away from home one night, either Tuesday or Wednesday night depending on which day I decide to have class. I’m leaning towards Tuesday since I feel like I should be taking classes about American literature but the Thursday class on the English Renaissance also sounds really good (Donne, Foucault, Marlowe, More) as well as an Irish Classics class that’s at the same time on Tuesday that sounded great. My cup runneth over with options this semseter.

I’m addicted to Spanish. There’s always a little hesitation to sit down and study but it’s pretty remarkable what I’m able to say. I had my tutoring session this morning and I said “mis sobrinas estaban llorando en la noche media” pretty much off the cuff (i.e. “my nieces were crying in the middle of the night”.) After thirty minutes of constant Spanish, I find myself trying to translate all my thoughts.

I’m also seeing a new dimension to the program. The patterns don’t just help you learn faster, they’re actually the key to conversing fluidly. Right now, here’s the way I communicate:
Hear Spanish sentence–> Translate to English –> Think of response in English –> Translate to Spanish –> Reply in Spanish
If it isn’t obvious, this takes a lot of time and it’s easy to forget what you’re trying to say, or what the original question might have been. The goal is this:
Hear Spanish sentence–> Reply in Spanish
Once the patterns are beaten into your head you can pick out the bits (i.e. the subject of the sentence [I, you, we, etc.] and the verb + tense [present, future, past] and the other nouns and descriptive phrases) and communicate much faster. Practice makes perfect with all of this (hence the tutoring sessions) but mostly I think it’s just repetition over a long period of time.

All for now. I’ve got a paper to write.

Current Mood: Okay |
Currently Listening To - Mississippi John Hurt - “The Complete Studio Recordings (Disc 1)”

Whew. Lots of crying babies here. My nieces are adorable when they’re fresh but when they get a little tired and ornery, look out. They’ve got some pipes.

Bolton 3, Ars* 1 — You’ll be hard pressed to find me cheering for Bolton’s best rugby side, but today is one such day. Hello Arse. That’s you, twelve points off the title chase. Thanks for playing.

I can hardly wait to see what Arse Whinger has to say. There are a number of reasons why I can’t stand Ars*nal and the incessant whining (from both managers and players) ranks right up at the top. Apparently, Whinger feels that other teams need to open up and let his side walk the ball into the goal and has said a thousand times that their opponents play negative football. And while that may be true, aren’t they doing that to Man Ure and Chelski as well? Yet those teams have a dozen more points. Hmmm.

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I finished In Cold Blood Wednesday and thought it was great. Amy got Capote through Netflix and we watched half of it last night. I’m relatively unimpressed. Hoffman does a great job being Capote but the film has a scattershot feel to it like it’s trying to do too much. They probably would have been better served to focus on a single element: the effeminate Capote trying to pull the story from the rural Kansas folk; his searching for the story amidst the research; Capote’s relationship with Perry Smith. The last is clearly the film’s intent but, if that’s the case, then too much is made of the others. There’s also an inordinate amount of focus on Harper Lee. I find her part in the larger story fascinating, but this is a two-hour movie, not a two-week miniseries. For a writer, I think the tandem of reading the book and following up with the movie is great. I’m getting a lot more out of it than if I’d had one without the other.

I’ve also been reading Fourfront, a selection of modern Irish short stories originally written in Gaelic and then translated into English. This is an assigned reading for my Current Literary Scene class and I’ve really enjoyed it. The stories have a definite “translated” feel to them, whatever that means, and they also have a lot in common with speculative fiction. Or “literary” speculative fiction. Whatever that means. Reading stuff like this for a class feels like a bonus. I would have never checked out this book but it’s really making the wheels turn.

Current Mood: Okay |
Currently Listening To - Some Odd Take on Holiday Music

My web stats show that investor confidence is low in the Always Insightful Insights of yours truly. Eight days left in the month with a holiday weekend crammed in there and I’m stuck at a 10-month low in hits, visits, and sites. All the venture capital keeping this site alive is going to back out if I don’t have a strong fourth quarter.

I did have two searches on “beautiful marjorie m. liu at world fantasy convention pictures.” Unfortunately, I found this wedged between searches for “priapism pictures” and “big-breasts-77.” I hope for her sake that the searches are unrelated. It does say something about the content of this site though, doesn’t it?

Maybe I need to change my marketing strategy and target a younger, hipper demographic. Now that I’m on the wrong side of thirty there could be the (mistaken) assumption that I am not, and never was, cool. But there’s strong evidence to the contrary. See? Mohawks are cool, aren’t they kids? Kids? Hello? Helloooo? (sigh) I don’t have enough hair to pull off a mohawk anymore but at least I’ve got a more respectable goatee now. I wish I knew where that Jägermeister t-shirt went though…

Maybe I’ll just drown my sorrows in pumpkin pie…

Have a happy Thanksgiving and travel safely if you’ll be on the roads. The weather doesn’t look too bad here in the upper midwest for the next several days.

Current Mood: Blah |

I’m avoiding working on “Miss Pavlichenko” even as I type. I’m trying to add in some new scenes to help flesh her out a little but it’s like trying to move a boulder in a river bed. I need to post a final draft Thursday night (although I could get an extension) and I guess I’m grateful for a deadline, otherwise it would just sit. But that’s what I should be doing right now instead of blogging.

The iTrip firmly belongs in the “Does Not Work As Advertised” category. I’d heard bad things about iPod FM transmitters for cars that don’t have tape decks, but I’d also heard that it was only a problem in larger cities where most of the radio waves had been claimed. Not so.

We bought the iTrip for our Portugal trip and found that you can indeed hear the iPod through the car speakers—sometimes. Rarely without static. And only after holding the iPod in three hundred different positions until finding out it only gets a clear signal if you hold it at a precise angle between your feet. And then that only lasts for a few miles before you need to find a new position because the signal’s faded and now all you get it blaring static. In a word, this product sucks and there are painfully few alternatives if you want to listen to your iPod through your car speakers that doesn’t have a tape deck.

On the other hand, the JBL On Stage is a product that performs better than advertised.. I keep mine within touching distance at all times. It’s basically a set of speakers for the iPod and, despite its size, it puts out hefty volume. It also charges the iPod while you listen. I use it when I’m working in the kitchen, when I’m at the in-laws, and it has become my solution for audiobooks during my commute.

The new car has a plug in the dash, so I just pop this in and go. When I get to Milwaukee, the iPod is all charged for a day on campus so it actually works pretty well. I still wish I could listen to the iPod through the stereo speakers (as you can’t really crank music this way) but it’s not a terrible solution.

Is anyone else already tired of hearing about the Microsoft Zune? Oi.

Version 1.0 of my Christmas/birthday list is now available. Don’t worry, this list will grow between now and mid-January, but this is a good place to start. Go to it.

Current Mood: Unispired |

18 Hefty bags of leaves, vines, and muddy mulch later and the annual backyard clean-up is over. The reward?

Whew! I’ve been seriously under the gun at school since World Fantasy. Things have come back to being manageable. I have the final draft of “Miss Pavlichenko” due on 11/23, an eleven page paper due on 11/29, an in-class exam 12/6, a twelve-page creative writing portfolio due 12/13, and a ten-page term paper due 12/15. That’s it for the semester. Only three weeks of class left.

Once again, whew.

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I’m reading Claire Messud’s The Hunters, primarily to study the short novel “A Simple Tale,” which is about a Ukrainian woman who survives WWII and becomes a maid. There are some characterization problems in “Miss Pavlichenko” and I asked my professor for a suggestion of a similar story to look at, and he pointed me to Messud.

That’s the way I like to work. I like to look at stories that I’m trying to aspire to and figuring out how “good” happens. After 50+ pages of my story, some people in class said they still didn’t get a good sense of Lyudmila Pavlichenko’s character. This is somewhat intentional as she’s supposed to be walling herself off, but it needs to be done differently. After only a few pages, I feel like I have good sense of who Maria Poniatowski, Messud’s main character in “A Simple Tale,” is all about. Now I need to look at all the little details that make Poniatowski come alive and see if I can work in the same kind of details about Pavlichenko to make her more three dimensional.

Right now, I consider myself a competent fiction writer, but who wants to settle for competence? A teacher in my high school had the words “All writing is in progress” painted in a script on the wall. The statement “All writers are in progress” could probably be up there as well.

I’ve listened to about half of In Cold Blood and I’m enjoying it. I zoned out a little during a long digression about Perry Smith (one of the killers) and his past, but otherwise I’ve been engrossed. I’m interested in doing a little research on homosexuality and this book because there’s a definite subtext here, and I understand Capote himself was openly gay. In Cold Blood is also interesting to read in the wake of Grapes of Wrath, in terms of “have’s” and “have nots.”

I’ve mentioned this before, but I need to pick an area of concentration for my PhD studies and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be 20th Century American fiction, as I find the years between 1900-and 1960 (or so) fascinating. It’s kind of odd because I originally thought it would be medieval European literature, and while I still find that gripping, I feel more emotionally connected to American literature. That and the fact that studying medieval literature (understandably) requires the mastery of a number of medieval languages. I’m not interested in that part so much, and I guess I’m content settling for translations.

It’s been an interesting year in English footie so far, hasn’t it? I didn’t expect Man Ure to be leading the pack after three months and enjoying a three-point lead and a healthy advantage in goal differential. I’m pleased as punch that the Ars* are running hot and cold and are now ten points off the top. Unfortunately, Spurs are running hot and cold, too; hot in Europe, cold in the league. Typical.

Not that you’d notice, but Major League Soccer implemented a new rule which basically opens the door for some big names to come over from Europe, by means of loosing restrictions on the salary cap and having the teams themselves (as opposed to the league) go after these players.

This is big. How big remains to be seen. I was skeptical that David Beckham would play in the US but this changes things. The question, however, is what this means for the league. It should be clear by now that a big name isn’t enough to change a team’s fortunes. The right core players in the right situation, however, can help a lot. The Chicago Fire did this right when they brought in Peter Nowak, Jerzy Podbrozny, Roman Kosecki, and Lubos Kubik. Not exactly household names, but these guys formed a strong core to build around and I believe the American players on that team—DaMarcus Beasley, Chris Armas, Carlos Bocanegra, CJ Brown, Jesse Marsch—learned a ton from those guys, and they all went on to have solid careers.

In many ways, getting a handful of competent, experienced players is better than getting one Beckham, one Figo, one Ronaldo; guys who want to pull an easy paycheck and be adored for past achievements. Of course, names allegedly fill the stands, but do they? I think fans would rather see good footie and a winning team than watching Goldenballs trot up and down the sidelines, occasionally getting whacked by Johnny Noname.

This is a pivotal test of general manager competence around the league, and also raises some concerning questions. Will Columbus, Kansas City, and Salt Lake be able to compete with Boston, Chicago, New York, and L.A. in luring star players? Only time will tell.

And as long as I’m mentioning US Soccer, will they announce Jürgen Klinsmann as the new national team coach already? The only surprise will be if they announce someone else, despite the repeated attempts at misdirection. If it’s not Klinsmann, we’re in trouble because he’s available (or made himself available) after the World Cup and the US job is vacant (or made vacant.) This is either going to be the worst kept secret of all time or a titanic failure on the part of US Soccer.

If you’ve read my About Me page, you could probably guess that Jürgen Klinsmann is my all-time favorite player. Just sayin’.

Current Mood: Relieved (and Tired) |
Currently Listening To - Cat Power - “You Are Free”

Gah! Today marks the high point of the month in terms of workload. I just need to get through two classes today and I’ll almost be home free. I have one class Thursday, but after that I don’t go to class again until November 28th. We’re heading out of town Wednesday for Thanksgiving and my Tuesday class was cancelled, so that means eleven days off. There’s plenty of work to be done in that time so I’m not completely off the hook, but there’s also breathing space. Which I need.

How good is Mississippi Fred McDowell? Very good, I say. My iPod tells me I have 54 songs by Fred in my collection. Although I know very few by name, they’ve got a tremendous amount of energy. Like Fred says, “I know what the blues is.” I need to add to my collection…

Also on music: if I was president, I’d pass a law that 80% of all music must prominently feature either a harmonica or kazoo.

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We watched the documentary The Corporation for one of my classes and I highly recommend it. I’ve had many people question my belief that A) multinational corporations are the root of all evil, and B) multinational corporations are the major problem with American politics. Point B isn’t mentioned at all in the film, but it supports Point A quite well.

Is there another side to the story? Of course. I’m not an economist so I don’t know what limitations on corporate power would do to the economy, but I do know that I don’t need products to be dirt cheap in America at the expense of public health and the environment. Seriously, watch this film and see if it changes your mind.

Current Mood: Coffee’s Done |