One of my biggest peeves in the footie world is the constant unwarranted criticism of David Beckham. First off, let it be said that the man has his deficiencies. He’s slow. He can’t tackle. He drifts out of games fairly regularly. He has a temper. He collects stupid cards. He’s not the brightest. He’s way overexposed in the media. His wife looks like an alien. But when he’s on, he’s fairly amazing.

I watched Becks destroy Deportivo almost single-handedly last weekend. Anytime he had more than two yards of space, he whipped in cross after remarkable cross. The poor Deportivo keeper was beside himself because there’s nothing he could do. The ball comes in so fast and is always bending away from goal. All it takes is a touch from anyone—attacker or defender—and its in. Because Becks is most well-known for his free kicks, his crossing ability during the run of play is too often ignored by the media. The problem is that it’s not nearly as highlight worthy because Becks isn’t doing the one scoring.

And to all the US journos out there: do not confuse “penalty kick” with “free kick.” Many an idiot American reporter has said “What’s so special about a guy who takes a special penalty kick?” The question itself reveals ignorance. A penalty kick is taken twelve yards out from goal as a result from a foul inside the big box around the goal. It’s an unobstructed shot and looks like this. Besides the pressure of having a billion people watching, it’s not that hard and has a scoring rate of 85-90%.

Free kicks are taken outside the box, meaning they’re 18-30 yards away from goal. Usually two to four players stand in a wall ten yards away to block the shot. In order to score, the ball must be struck hard and it must either curve around either side of the wall or dip over the top.

It’s hard to do, but there are lots of players who do it well. But Beckham is one of the best, and this changes a way a team defends. They can’t give away cheap fouls around the box.

Take a minute and watch the goal Beckham scored against Greece in World Cup qualifying. England needed to draw or win at home in order to qualify. They were losing. With the final seconds ticking away, there’s a foul outside the Greek penalty area. Becks steps up and the rest is history. The slow-motion replay about half-way through tells you everything you need to know about free kicks. The pace and movement on the ball roots the keeper to the ground.

Happily, Beckham is playing out of his mind for Real Madrid right now. I’m excited to see him arrive in LA and see what he can do in Major League Soccer.

Current Mood: Plain |

Right, so WisCon is less of a sprint and more of a marathon as it starts Thursday in bits and continues to mid-day Monday. I skipped Thursday’s meet-n-greet and didn’t actually head up to the convention until Friday night about six, when I went out to dinner. See two posts ago to get a recap from Friday, but I met Eileen Gunn (who was super nice) and Patrick Swenson, editor of Talebones Magazine. I made home around 2:00.

Saturday I slept in a bit and did some things around the house before heading up to WisCon around 1:00. I’m not big on the panels because they’re so hit or miss, and I didn’t do a good enough job researching the readings to know who was reading when. From 1:30 to around 4:30, I hung out at the Prime Books table, talking with people who stopped by. I autographed a few copies of Weird Tales #344, including one for my next door neighbor. The funniest part of the day was when I was introduced to someone and he asked if I had a LiveJournal handle, to which I said yes: burnt_njal. Both Nick Mamatas and Hannah Bowen, who I was sitting with, simultaneously said, “That’s you?” (which is better than, say, “Oh, so you’re that idiot…”) Nick is currently in a low-residency MFA program and Hannah talked about her troubled time in Emerson college’s MFA program, and I got to tell them of the unparalleled delights and blissful nirvana that is my UW-M program…

After that I got a late lunch/early dinner at Nick’s Cafe with Rebecca and Tenea, followed by coffee and a good, long conversation with Tenea. A guy in the coffee shop (who turned out to be an English professor) overheard us, and the three of us started talking about Ursula LeGuin, Sam Delany, and Kelly Link. Only at WisCon. That night was more party suites, and hanging out with Blake Charlton, Rajan Khannan, Erin Cashier, and JJA, and I also got to meet Scott Janssens (who works the slush for Escape Pod) and his lovely partner Deborah Green. I stayed out till 3:30 and was happy to hear WisCon would pick up my cab ride.

By Sunday it’s all becoming a blur. My wife and I went to lunch with Tenea, Rebecca, and Kelly Link, which was wonderful. Kelly’s surrounded by people wanting a piece of her at all of these conventions and it’s ten times worse when she’s a Guest of Honor. But it gave us all a moment to catch up and hear what’s going on in each other’s lives, both in writing and out. And I’m glad Amy finally got to meet these people, since they’ve heard so much about each other.

Sunday afternoon was the Strange Horizons Tea Party where I cornered Alan DeNiro and asked him if he’d be interested in coming to UW-M for a reading and a talk, which he seemed enthusiastic about. I went to dinner with JJA, Erin, Raj, and Stephen Segal and Sean Wallace of Prime Books, and later Blake rejoined us as we crashed on some couches and talked about every sci-fi movie ever made and lots and lots of fiction. Another highlight of the weekend. Sunday night was really very mellow and everyone was beginning to crash. The parties were muted, but happily I was able to finally meet Mary Rickert and talked to both her and Rick Bowes for a nice long time. She was also good enough to introduce me to Chris Barzak, who is super nice, and I got him and Catheryn Valente excited about the prospect of coming to UW-M in the future as well. I was home by 12:30.

Monday, I had a panel at 10:00 on “Teaching SF/F” and I think it went really well. I brought a syllabus for every class I’d taken at UW-Madison as an undergrad and at UW-Milwaukee as a grad student with sf/f content, and I think people really liked looking at it. The discussion went very well (even through the Monday WisCon haze) and I got a chance to talk a little more with Pat Rothfuss, who has a lot of great ideas about teaching at the university level. After that, I said my goodbyes to everyone I could find and was home by 12:30.

If WisCon was twice a year, it would kill me; but I had to get my fill this time around because next year we’re planning to be in Spain over Memorial Day so I’ll miss it. I guess I switch off between WisCon and the Iberian Peninsula. In 2005 it was WisCon, 2006 we were in Portugal, 2007 at WisCon, 2008 we’ll be in Spain. I can live with that schedule.

Current Mood: Still Pooped |

My WisCon 2007 has mercifully ended. It was a wonderful time and I loved just about every minute of it, but now I’m hoarse and dead tired. I met a ton of wonderful people for the first time and talked with a lot of people I met at previous WisCons or World Fantasy. Here’s a list of who I had at least one meaningful exchange with just to give you a flavor of who was there. I wish I had the time and energy to give a meaningful link to each. Maybe later. When I remember who else I forgot to list.

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Blake Charlton | Patrick Rothfuss | Mary Rickert | Rick Bowes | Chris Barzak | Megan McCarron | Catherine Valente | Nick Mamatas | Hannah Bowen | David Schwartz | Alan Deniro | John Josepth Adams | Erin Cashier | Rajan Khannan | Sean Wallace | Stepehan Segal | Ekaterina Sedia | John Klima | Juliette Ulman | Greg van EekHout | Scott Janssens | Deborah Green | Tim Pratt | Heather Shaw | Vylar Kaftan | Nina Kiriki Hoffman | Eileen Gunn | Kelly Link | Gavin Grant | Ted Chiang | Richard Russell | Kelly McCullough | JJ Pionske | Cat Rambo | Liz Gorinsky | Tenea Johnson | Rebecca Rowe | Eileen Gunn | James P. Roberts | Patrick Swenson | Kristin Livdahl | Karen Meisner

---

And, for the first time ever, when I was introducing myself to people a few said, “I recognize that name” or “I’ve read your stuff.” Which was surprisingly wonderful. Not many, but a few. Which is more than zero. And I also found out that one of my stories is lined up for an anthology, which was awesome new (but the book hasn’t been announced yet so I will hold my tongue).

I also spoke with a bunch of writers from Minnesota to Ohio about coming to UW-M to do readings and maybe talk with the creative writing program. Enough expressed a sincere and genuine interest that I’m wondering whether I couldn’t try to set something up on my own. The UW-M writing program surely won’t go for a 100% speculative fiction reading series, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t set up something in conjunction with the department and Schwartz Books. This is all pie in the sky stuff right now but there’s serious potential. I’m sure I don’t even know half the writers in the Chicagoland area. I wonder if I could find grant money for this kind of thing…

Now I need to catch up Spanish, healthy food, and sleep.

Ready. Set. Go.

Current Mood: Conned |

/
Had a lovely night last night chatting people up at WisCon. Went out to eat and had a few drinks with Clarion homegirls Tenea Johnson and Rebecca Rowe and had some great conversation about the boundaries of sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream, China Mieville, Octavia Butler, genetics, babies, foreign wars, European football, and probably a lot else. Gosh, I love our Clarion crew.

On to the party suites where we got to talk to superwoman Nina Kiriki Hoffman, our Clarion instructor from week one, for a nice spell. I spent a good long time talking with bud John Joseph Adams of F&SF fame, mostly about his new anthology Wastelands which is slated to come out in February 2008. It’s fascinating to learn about the publishing side of things and all the work JJA went through to secure the reprint rights and get the anthology sold. Good on him!

This afternoon I’m heading back over the convention in just a little bit. Editor Stephen Segal invited me to sit awhile at the Prime Books table and sign some copies of Weird Tales #344 for the legions of adoring fans.

More updates as they happen…

Current Mood: Fine, Thanks |

With great anticipation did I watch my first Fire game of the season two weekends ago. They lost 3-1 to Toronto who, at that point, had yet to score a goal. Fine, whatever. So then last week I watched the Thursday match against Dallas, one of the teams I love to hate. And watched the Fire limp to a 2-1 defeat.

Tonight, it was all going to change. I had no particular reason for believing this, but still had faith that the team could pull it around. News sources said the Fire hadn’t had a four-game losing streak in five years. I forgot the TV listing showed eastern time and tuned in about a minute after kick-off…and missed the first goal. The goal had hardly been replayed before the Fire went two goals down. Two goals down. In three minutes. Brilliant.

They looked quite good for about ten minutes after halftime but my expert analysis revealed two crucial weaknesses: offense and defense. Carr and Barrett are a terrible strike partnership and the defense has been absolutely awful on the goals they’ve conceded. Offense is a case of taking your chances; defense is a case of allowing as few chances as possible, and limiting them to half-chances when you can. Altidore and Angel scored for NY tonight and there wasn’t a Fire defender within an arm’s reach on any of the goals. Unacceptable.

Their attack has no spark with Rolfe out. Justin Mapp needs Rolfe to draw him into the game, otherwise he tends to run like the proverbial chicken or he just runs the sidelines, expecting magnetic attraction to bring the ball to him. The rest of the midfield is solid but lack any creativity. Hmmm, sloppy defense, impotent offense, boring midfield. Sounds like the perfect team to be playing against.

I’m slated to see the Fire play in a few weeks but on recent performances, I’m not sure I want to. Of course, I will go, and I will shout myself hoarse, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.

Current Mood: Pooped |

Good lord, I just checked out my list of short stories out in the world as well as those queued up for launch and one thing is for certain: I don’t need to be working on any more short stories this summer. This is actually a blessing (or a curse) since that means I ought to focus entirely on novel writing.

School busyness created a bit of a backup in my submissions and now I have a whole lot queued up. I run all of my stories past the big three print mags first—F&SF, Asimov’s, and Realms of Fantasy—generally starting with Gordon since he turns stories around anywhere between two weeks and two months. Asimov’s is usually around 90 days, Realms around 120. If I think a story fits, I’ll send it Analog—but it almost never fits and I’ve never gotten anything but form rejections from Mr. Schmidt.

Next I’ll usually try Strange Horizons and, depending on the type of story it is, usually on to Weird Tales and/or Fantasy magazine, as well as Interzone and/or Black Static. That’s my normal grouping, ordered in terms of distribution and general prestige. After the top four markets, I think places get more selective in what they want. And if the wait is too long at one, I’ll often skip down to an open market unless I really, really think it needs to wait for a certain market to open.

However, if you do the math you’ll note that it takes a single story about nine months just to clear those top four markets; and I’ve got three or four stories heading out on their maiden voyages this month. The timing should work okay to keep my work in front three of the top four for the summer and well beyond (F&SF excluded for their fast response times) without writing another story.

Of course sales happily throw a wrench in my ordering system, but that’s the kind of problem you like to have.

Current Mood: Medio Medio Aún |

I’m about half-way through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Children of Húrin and I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed. It’s not that the story is bad necessarily, but rather it just doesn’t feel right. The tone is stuck somewhere between the archness of The Silmarillion and the closer perspective of Lord of the Rings, and it doesn’t work well. This treatment diminishes the impact of Túrin’s story, told sparely and more effectively in The Silmarillion, and rather beats the reader over the head with the moral. The word “pride” for instance appears 1,235 times in the first half of the book.

Or maybe I’ve got a distorted view of it. In doing my senior thesis on the nature of free will and predestination in Tolkien, I obviously pored over Túrin’s story numerous times; I also wrote an academic paper on Tolkien’s influences and dedicated a portion of it comparing Túrin’s fate with that of Kullervo of the Finnish Kalevala. And anyway, of the two key stories in The Silmarillion, I’ve always been a much bigger fan of the story of Beren and Lúthien. Túrin always struck me as kind of a dick; in order for heroes to be tragic you have to be won over by their personalities, and Túrin has never won me over.

Anyway, here’s a hint regarding Tolkien’s cosmology: take extra special notice anytime anyone has something “come into his heart” or “felt in his heart,” versus anytime someone wells up with pride. All of this “heart” business has to do with the Catholic conception of divine grace, and all the “pride” business has to do (more or less) with original sin. This is consistent in all of Tolkien’s work (except for a few gaffs in The Hobbit) and in addition is consistent with the Catholic idea of free will. I would argue that you can’t fully understand what’s going on in Tolkien without understanding these key concepts of his Catholic cosmology. But such sweeping statements always land me in trouble…

WisCon this weekend! The programming schedule is now online; I volunteered to be on the panel entitled “Teaching SF & F” held on Monday at 10:00, along with JJ Pionke, Kelly McCullough, Cat T. Rambo, and Pat Rothfuss. I met Pat’s sister through a weird coincidence a few weekends ago and had no idea that he was the author of the wildly popular Name of the Wind that’s been getting crazy-good reviews. I look forward to meeting him.

And you, if you’re reading this! Please stop me and say hello if you see me hanging around.

Current Mood: Medio medio |

My lovely wife Amy graduated from her Nurse Practitioner’s program at UW-Madison yesterday. It’s been a three-year slog of classroom, clinicals, and working the daily grind at her day job in the allergy clinic. Now, after completing her summer clinical hours, she’ll be a Nurse Practitioner; if you don’t know what an NP does, maybe it’s time you found out.

Amy also nominated one of her instructors for a teaching award and then (horrors!) found out she had to present it. Amy does not like public speaking but she bucked up and did just fine, even in front of a room of 1000 people.

And finally, some pictures of the accomplished grad in our garden.

Yay Amy! We’re all very proud of you!

Current Mood: Proud |

Via the Onion:
Favre Demands Trade to 1996 Packers

I’m almost done with China Miéville’s King Rat and I’m really enjoying it. Miéville doesn’t waste any time launching into the plot in this one. It’s an updated and urban version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, only it takes place in London. Like Perdido Street Station, Miéville treats the city not as a backdrop but almost as a character. That being said, the London’s seedy underbelly isn’t described in the same painstaking terms as New Crobuzon, and the book is relentless in its story, never slowing down to reflect or even catch its breath. Overall, I think this works for King Rat; it may lose some of its snap if it got much longer.

I also started A Scanner Darkly by Philip K Dick on audio and it’s great so far, too. It’s read by Paul Giamatti who does a great job replicating the flat affect that typifies Dick’s writing without going monotone.

I’m planning out all of my writing projects for the summer and I’m in pretty good shape. I’ve got a dozen things out floating around, many of which haven’t done many rounds. There are also some short stories that I want to finish polishing and get them in the queue as well. So it should be a summer of recirculating stories which frees up time for novel writing.

The question remains whether I can write the book I want to over the next three months, writing full-time. But there’s only one way to answer that…

Amy walks for her graduation tomorrow even though she technically doesn’t finish until August, and there’s very likely some post-Masters work in her future as well. As it stands in the graduation program, she’s getting her Nurse Practitioner’s degree with an emphasis in Women’s Health, and most likely further certification in Adult Health as well. Because apparently to the various governing bodies of medicine, women aren’t adults or adults aren’t women.

Current Mood: Still Quite Relaxed |

Amy called Dish Network to protest a pay-per-view movie neither one of us ordered (keep it clean—it was Casino Royale) and found out about a new promotion that allows us to get the expanded HD package that, after incentives and what not, costs the same as what we have now only we get HD DVR and 20 more HD channels.

Normally, this wouldn’t be very exciting because the majority of the HD channels in the expanded pack aren’t anything I’d go out of my way to watch, but there are a couple enormous bonuses for me, especially since there’s the DVR function. Ultra-massive bonus is La Liga (the Spanish soccer league) has a game or two a week on WorldSport, which is friggin’ awesome. The second bonus is ESPN2 which I believe shows many MLS games in HD as well.

Food Network and the Discovery Channel (showing “Iron Chef America” and “MythBusters”) are the only other two channels I’ll probably watch, and I’m not sure those shows are broadcast in HD. This is a trick they pull—for example, not everything on ESPN2 is shown on ESP2HD. You tune in to a normal broadcast that’s bookended on the screen by HD graphics. Not HD.

It’s a good thing the Spanish league ends in a couple weeks or I might have had a real problem on my hands. The whole she-bang is set up Monday and I’m a little excited.

Current Mood: Relaxed |