I disapprove of deliberately misleading titles, but the title of this post is deliberately misleading. I couldn't help myself.
I'm not talking about the kinds of memories that bedevil us and interfere with sleep. We all have those, surely. Rather, I'm talking about not being able to remember things - a memory that doesn't function properly, in other words.
My memory has always been awful. If anything, it's not quite as bad now as it was when I was a kid. I think I've developed coping mechanisms, as they say, such as being sure to write things down and using a calendar program on my PC. When I was a kid in school, my inability to remember, coupled with poor hearing and poor vision, sometimes got me classified as either stupid or naughty, depending on the teacher. I can understand why it must have looked that way.
If this problem is hereditary, it must have come from my mother. My father has always had a remarkable memory. He's now approaching 100 and complains about how bad his memory is nowadays, and it's still better than mine. Gads, what will happen to me if my memory does start deteriorating because of age, as it normally does with everyone? Maybe it's not hereditary. Maybe it's yet another aftereffect of my mother having to get up in the middle of the night while heavily pregnant with me and trundle down a few flights of stairs to the basement, dragging two sleepy daughters with her, because of the German bombers coming overhead. It's the fault of the Germans, you see. They started it. They invaded Poland. (Fawlty Towers joke.)
My inability to remember is an oddly intermittent, patchy thing. I can remember books and movies from decades ago, which causes Leonore to insist that I have an extremely good memory. Somehow, my brain handles that kind of information differently from practical info, such as where I'm supposed to be on a certain day and at what time. Or what I did last weekend. Maybe that's not uncommon, though. Years ago, in an online discussion, the writer Damon Knight talked at length about which stories by which authors had appeared in which issues of a particular science-fiction magazine around the time of WWII. This was all from memory. I expressed amazement that he could remember that. He responded that it was because it was important. I guess I need to train my brain to regard future appointments as being as important as old books and movies. That might be impossible.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sunday, July 08, 2007
They Aren't Making Fairies the Way They Used To
Wasn't there a day when fairies granted wishes and so on? And of course genies and all sort of other supernatural critters. Where are they now?
I'm about to start ironing shirts. There's a big stack of short-sleeved waiting for me, and underneath that is a bunch of long-sleeved shirts that have been sitting there since the cold weather ended. We have a perfectly good ironing board and iron, all set up, and I was sure that if I waited long enough, the Ironing Fairy would do his?her?its? job. But, no. The stack just sat their, wrinkling, and finally I'm going to have to give in and do the hot and unpleasant work myself.
Same applies to the Dirty Dish Fairy. If we stack the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and ignore them, the next morning, they're still there! That's another fairy falling down on the job.
I'm disgusted.
Don't even get me started on the Beer Supply Fairy. Lazy bastard.
I'm about to start ironing shirts. There's a big stack of short-sleeved waiting for me, and underneath that is a bunch of long-sleeved shirts that have been sitting there since the cold weather ended. We have a perfectly good ironing board and iron, all set up, and I was sure that if I waited long enough, the Ironing Fairy would do his?her?its? job. But, no. The stack just sat their, wrinkling, and finally I'm going to have to give in and do the hot and unpleasant work myself.
Same applies to the Dirty Dish Fairy. If we stack the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and ignore them, the next morning, they're still there! That's another fairy falling down on the job.
I'm disgusted.
Don't even get me started on the Beer Supply Fairy. Lazy bastard.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Vanishing C
Or Low C. Or No C. See? There's nothing to C! And so on.
I've changed the working title of the it's-only-some-notes-so-far possible next novel, and so the working codename for it changes from BBC to BB.
Which is scarcely worth a post, except that it made me think about internal company codenames for upcoming software releases and how they sometimes change, which is really idiotic.
As I understand/remember, codenames came into use to foil industrial sabotage in big companies (and just where are those beautiful Chinese industrial spies, I ask you?) and to simplify referring to the next release in small companies. You can't use the number, as you might think, because nowadays the marketeers will dictate some illogical number based on their perception of the market's perception. E.g., what should logically be Version 3.2 will instead be released as Version 4.0, or vice versa. Or, even worse, what should be 3.0 will be released as 3.3, just to fool all those apparently really dense customers. But if internally everyone refers to it as Umslopogaas (anyone get that reference?) (without using Google!), then the marketeers can do their silly stuff without messing up all the internal documents, which always use Umslopogaas. The code names were meant for internal consumption only and never revealed outside the company. (But if any beautiful Chinese spies want to try to wheedle such information out of me, I encourage them to try. Nothing will force me to give away secret company information. No matter how hard they try. Or how long. Or what amazing beautiful-spy techniques they resort to. Why, I'm shocked and horrified and repulsed just thinking about it.)
Later, software giants like Microsoft and Apple started using those codenames very publicly as a way to build the buzz and excitement for their boring releases. Wronghorn will change the world! Jackoffyouare will change the paradigm itself! Wow. Whole new ways to rename or delete files. New looks for old icons. Yawn.
But ignoring Gates and Jobs, real software companies have no good reason to change the codename. Doing so would contradict the reason for using codenames. And yet I've been in smallish companies where exactly that happened. Just when you've got it straight in your head which set of features is associated with Umslopogaas and when it's likely to be released, suddenly you get an e-mail that henceforth that version will be known as Des Moines, while the name Umslopogaas will be reserved for future use. Or not.
Utterly absurd.
Well, I suppose it helps confuse those beautiful Chinese spies. (I can help! Call me!)
I've changed the working title of the it's-only-some-notes-so-far possible next novel, and so the working codename for it changes from BBC to BB.
Which is scarcely worth a post, except that it made me think about internal company codenames for upcoming software releases and how they sometimes change, which is really idiotic.
As I understand/remember, codenames came into use to foil industrial sabotage in big companies (and just where are those beautiful Chinese industrial spies, I ask you?) and to simplify referring to the next release in small companies. You can't use the number, as you might think, because nowadays the marketeers will dictate some illogical number based on their perception of the market's perception. E.g., what should logically be Version 3.2 will instead be released as Version 4.0, or vice versa. Or, even worse, what should be 3.0 will be released as 3.3, just to fool all those apparently really dense customers. But if internally everyone refers to it as Umslopogaas (anyone get that reference?) (without using Google!), then the marketeers can do their silly stuff without messing up all the internal documents, which always use Umslopogaas. The code names were meant for internal consumption only and never revealed outside the company. (But if any beautiful Chinese spies want to try to wheedle such information out of me, I encourage them to try. Nothing will force me to give away secret company information. No matter how hard they try. Or how long. Or what amazing beautiful-spy techniques they resort to. Why, I'm shocked and horrified and repulsed just thinking about it.)
Later, software giants like Microsoft and Apple started using those codenames very publicly as a way to build the buzz and excitement for their boring releases. Wronghorn will change the world! Jackoffyouare will change the paradigm itself! Wow. Whole new ways to rename or delete files. New looks for old icons. Yawn.
But ignoring Gates and Jobs, real software companies have no good reason to change the codename. Doing so would contradict the reason for using codenames. And yet I've been in smallish companies where exactly that happened. Just when you've got it straight in your head which set of features is associated with Umslopogaas and when it's likely to be released, suddenly you get an e-mail that henceforth that version will be known as Des Moines, while the name Umslopogaas will be reserved for future use. Or not.
Utterly absurd.
Well, I suppose it helps confuse those beautiful Chinese spies. (I can help! Call me!)
Monday, July 02, 2007
Seduction of the New
A while ago, I nattered about living in the next book. I was trying to emulate my hero, Anthony Trollope, Tony the T, The T Man, The Teester! (Okay, I'll stop.) I was thinking of a couple of possible next books, actually, not one; both of them have been hanging around on my hard drive for a number of years, in partial form.
Today, somewhat out of the blue, a new book blossomed into ... well, not existence. Potential existence. Serious ideahood. Virtual bookhood. (The B Thing! The Bookster!) It would be mainstream, light but not frothy or shallow. Interesting characters, with a central story line that I've actually been thinking about for a long time but didn't know if I'd ever have a way to write. And it should be possible to do it with a lot of humor, even though the basic subject is quite serious. I love writing humor and do it only rarely in fiction. My last novel, Business Secrets from the Stars, was all humor, as many yucks per page as I could cram in. One reviewer complained that there were too many yucks. Hmph. I had a ball writing it, though. Interestingly, that book begins with its protagonist, Malcolm Erskine, getting an idea for a book and being sort of possessed by it. I'm not possessed with this one, but I am entranced by it.
The seduction part is that I'm eager to get to the new novel (which I'll refer to by an in-house code, just as software companies do for forthcoming releases: BBC) and I'm suddenly feeling impatient to be done with Time and the Soldier so that I can jump into BBC. Gotta fight the temptation to switch in midstream. The end of TimeSold is ... well, sort of almost visible. Must be self-disciplined!
Today, somewhat out of the blue, a new book blossomed into ... well, not existence. Potential existence. Serious ideahood. Virtual bookhood. (The B Thing! The Bookster!) It would be mainstream, light but not frothy or shallow. Interesting characters, with a central story line that I've actually been thinking about for a long time but didn't know if I'd ever have a way to write. And it should be possible to do it with a lot of humor, even though the basic subject is quite serious. I love writing humor and do it only rarely in fiction. My last novel, Business Secrets from the Stars, was all humor, as many yucks per page as I could cram in. One reviewer complained that there were too many yucks. Hmph. I had a ball writing it, though. Interestingly, that book begins with its protagonist, Malcolm Erskine, getting an idea for a book and being sort of possessed by it. I'm not possessed with this one, but I am entranced by it.
The seduction part is that I'm eager to get to the new novel (which I'll refer to by an in-house code, just as software companies do for forthcoming releases: BBC) and I'm suddenly feeling impatient to be done with Time and the Soldier so that I can jump into BBC. Gotta fight the temptation to switch in midstream. The end of TimeSold is ... well, sort of almost visible. Must be self-disciplined!
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Earthrise - Apollo 8
See here for the famous photo and some commentary about it.
At the time, I was a 25-year-old kid working as an aerospace engineer at NASA/Houston - the Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Johnson Space Center. The rumor was that the Roooooshians were planning some kind of lunar mission to steal our thunder, so we had to get there fustest with the mostest. So a special mission was crafted from existing hardware and lunar-landing plans. It would only be a pass around the moon, but it would establish the primacy of the U.S.A. over the dastardly U.S.S.R. USA! Number One! Number One! But it wasn't supposed to look quite that smug. The mission, to be called Apollo 8, was announced suddenly, because of them Roooooshians, and I remember spending days doing computer runs analyzing navigation. 24-hour days. Literally. We all stumbled around like zombies looking at printouts of numbers that had ceased to have any meaning. That's paper, right? With numbers? Can I go home now? No!
I had a deep sense of foreboding. This isn't going to work. They're not going to be picked up by the Navy when they splash down.
As history shows, the mission worked very well. The astronauts read Biblical verses from space, reminding everyone that it was Christmas and we had triumphed over Godless atheistic Communism, which drove me, an atheist, crazy with anger and a sense of betrayal. This shit was not what I had worked for! This was not what I dreamed about as a space-crazy kid! LBJ said something; I can't remember what. The Rooooshians sulked, and it turned out they hadn't had a mission ready after all.
Later, this wonderful picture showed up, and none of the above mattered. What mattered to me was that the space-crazy kid had played a part in getting Man to the Moon.
Later still, NASA printed up a gazillion fancy prints of this picture to give out to members of Congress and others, only to realize too late that they had all been printed in reverse, in mirror image. Oops! Your tax dollars at work! So they handed out the reverse prints to us, the engineers, the guys who had made it all possible. Give it to those guys. They'll accept anything!
Despite the mirror-imageness, Leonore and I loved it. We had it professionally framed, and now it hangs over the couch in the living room of our house in Denver. I still stare at it in amazement and delight. No matter what else happens in my life, I'll always be able to say that I was part of that great anonymous army: I helped send Man to the Moon.
(I also worked on Apollo 12 and Apollo 15. Apollo 13 is the fault of other people entirely.)
Meaningless postscript: One day at NASA, I passed Wernher von Braun. He was visiting from his home base in Huntsville, Alabama. Houston was hostile territory because of the bureaucratic battles between his base and MSC. He was a tall, smug, fleshy-faced fellow surrounded by a clique of pandering pukeheads. His autobiography was title I Aimed for the Stars. The comedian Mort Sahl said that it should have been subtitled "but Sometimes I Hit London." When he was shooting off his V2s, I was a baby in England at the receiving end. I wish that when I passed him I had jumped up and down and sung, "You missed me! You missed me!" But I probably would have been fired.
At the time, I was a 25-year-old kid working as an aerospace engineer at NASA/Houston - the Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Johnson Space Center. The rumor was that the Roooooshians were planning some kind of lunar mission to steal our thunder, so we had to get there fustest with the mostest. So a special mission was crafted from existing hardware and lunar-landing plans. It would only be a pass around the moon, but it would establish the primacy of the U.S.A. over the dastardly U.S.S.R. USA! Number One! Number One! But it wasn't supposed to look quite that smug. The mission, to be called Apollo 8, was announced suddenly, because of them Roooooshians, and I remember spending days doing computer runs analyzing navigation. 24-hour days. Literally. We all stumbled around like zombies looking at printouts of numbers that had ceased to have any meaning. That's paper, right? With numbers? Can I go home now? No!
I had a deep sense of foreboding. This isn't going to work. They're not going to be picked up by the Navy when they splash down.
As history shows, the mission worked very well. The astronauts read Biblical verses from space, reminding everyone that it was Christmas and we had triumphed over Godless atheistic Communism, which drove me, an atheist, crazy with anger and a sense of betrayal. This shit was not what I had worked for! This was not what I dreamed about as a space-crazy kid! LBJ said something; I can't remember what. The Rooooshians sulked, and it turned out they hadn't had a mission ready after all.
Later, this wonderful picture showed up, and none of the above mattered. What mattered to me was that the space-crazy kid had played a part in getting Man to the Moon.
Later still, NASA printed up a gazillion fancy prints of this picture to give out to members of Congress and others, only to realize too late that they had all been printed in reverse, in mirror image. Oops! Your tax dollars at work! So they handed out the reverse prints to us, the engineers, the guys who had made it all possible. Give it to those guys. They'll accept anything!
Despite the mirror-imageness, Leonore and I loved it. We had it professionally framed, and now it hangs over the couch in the living room of our house in Denver. I still stare at it in amazement and delight. No matter what else happens in my life, I'll always be able to say that I was part of that great anonymous army: I helped send Man to the Moon.
(I also worked on Apollo 12 and Apollo 15. Apollo 13 is the fault of other people entirely.)
Meaningless postscript: One day at NASA, I passed Wernher von Braun. He was visiting from his home base in Huntsville, Alabama. Houston was hostile territory because of the bureaucratic battles between his base and MSC. He was a tall, smug, fleshy-faced fellow surrounded by a clique of pandering pukeheads. His autobiography was title I Aimed for the Stars. The comedian Mort Sahl said that it should have been subtitled "but Sometimes I Hit London." When he was shooting off his V2s, I was a baby in England at the receiving end. I wish that when I passed him I had jumped up and down and sung, "You missed me! You missed me!" But I probably would have been fired.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Oldest Guy in the Office
No, this is not a whine about being old. Really.
The post by alternatefish referring to not yet having a job reminded me of how it felt, when I started working, to be the young kid in the office, lo! those many decades ago. I kept thinking of myself that way - as the youngest kid in the office - even as the years passed and intellectually I knew it was no longer true. That was my self-image.
Then, suddenly, at some point it struck me that I was one of the oldest people in whatever company I was then working for. Very soon, I was almost surely the oldest person in the company. I'm fairly sure that's the case at my current employer, Quark.
No profound insights in this post. (Aww! You've all come to expect them!) (Okay, so you haven't.) Obviously, this is a common experience. But it seems powerful and unique to me right now. What am I rambling on about? Cognitive dissonance, I guess. It hits one in various ways in connection with aging. That fellow in the mirror is just some fat, bald, old guy with sagging jowls instead of the kid who's supposed to be there. Who kidnapped that kid and substituted his grandfather, damn it? Again, this is obviously a common experience, but lately I've been thinking about how odd it feels, almost otherworldly or detached from reality.
The post by alternatefish referring to not yet having a job reminded me of how it felt, when I started working, to be the young kid in the office, lo! those many decades ago. I kept thinking of myself that way - as the youngest kid in the office - even as the years passed and intellectually I knew it was no longer true. That was my self-image.
Then, suddenly, at some point it struck me that I was one of the oldest people in whatever company I was then working for. Very soon, I was almost surely the oldest person in the company. I'm fairly sure that's the case at my current employer, Quark.
No profound insights in this post. (Aww! You've all come to expect them!) (Okay, so you haven't.) Obviously, this is a common experience. But it seems powerful and unique to me right now. What am I rambling on about? Cognitive dissonance, I guess. It hits one in various ways in connection with aging. That fellow in the mirror is just some fat, bald, old guy with sagging jowls instead of the kid who's supposed to be there. Who kidnapped that kid and substituted his grandfather, damn it? Again, this is obviously a common experience, but lately I've been thinking about how odd it feels, almost otherworldly or detached from reality.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
328 Weeks
From next Tuesday is my planned/hoped-for retirement date.
Putting it in weeks makes it sound not all that far away. 328? Heck, that's nothing!
Putting it in weeks makes it sound not all that far away. 328? Heck, that's nothing!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
NOT A MILLION MILES!!
At Amazon.uk, an online reviewer said this about Daniel's and my alternate history novel, Dawn Crescent:
THIS PLOT IS NOT A MILLION MILES FROM WHAT HAS ACTUALLY OCCURRED!!
Well, er, that would be because it's alternate history.
THIS PLOT IS NOT A MILLION MILES FROM WHAT HAS ACTUALLY OCCURRED!!
Well, er, that would be because it's alternate history.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Slightly off the Mark
After a good writing session, I was feeling up and building castles in the air, as usual. This is the one! This is the book! It's going to happen at last! I can feel it! Etc.
Leonore reminded me of the early years, when I was pouring out my first novel and oodles of short stories and was constantly enthusiastic about it all. Back then, I was sure I would make it and become a full-time writer before I turned 30.
Oops! As Maxwell Smart used to say, "Missed it by thaaat much."
Leonore reminded me of the early years, when I was pouring out my first novel and oodles of short stories and was constantly enthusiastic about it all. Back then, I was sure I would make it and become a full-time writer before I turned 30.
Oops! As Maxwell Smart used to say, "Missed it by thaaat much."
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
I Still Feel Like a Kid
Can't help obsessing about age. These guys aren't helping.
That's the site for the exhumation (excarvation?) of a car that was buried exactly 50 years ago. That's also when I arrived in this country, a skinny immigrant kid, shivering in the cold, speaking no English*. It used to seem like it was just yesterday, but now those bastards in Oklahoma have converted it into ancient history. The nerve!
* In the interests of nitpickery, it was summer, I was pudgy, and English is my native language. But that doesn't fit the standard stereotype at all.
That's the site for the exhumation (excarvation?) of a car that was buried exactly 50 years ago. That's also when I arrived in this country, a skinny immigrant kid, shivering in the cold, speaking no English*. It used to seem like it was just yesterday, but now those bastards in Oklahoma have converted it into ancient history. The nerve!
* In the interests of nitpickery, it was summer, I was pudgy, and English is my native language. But that doesn't fit the standard stereotype at all.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Recursive Blogging
This is getting strange.
My post about the search terms people used to get to vampire stuff on my Web site has resulted in people getting to that blog post via similar terms. So in searching for, say, vampire sex they got a blog post about people searching for vampire sex.
The post about the Web site and blog hits from Turkey has resulted in blog hits from people doing searches involving the word Turkey. There have also been a couple of cases of hits from Turkey where the exit click was to the Turkish site which has the translation of my unemployment essay - what started that thread in the first place.
It seems inevitable that this post will result in hits on the blog by people searching for information about looking for stuff on blogs.
Or something like that.
My post about the search terms people used to get to vampire stuff on my Web site has resulted in people getting to that blog post via similar terms. So in searching for, say, vampire sex they got a blog post about people searching for vampire sex.
The post about the Web site and blog hits from Turkey has resulted in blog hits from people doing searches involving the word Turkey. There have also been a couple of cases of hits from Turkey where the exit click was to the Turkish site which has the translation of my unemployment essay - what started that thread in the first place.
It seems inevitable that this post will result in hits on the blog by people searching for information about looking for stuff on blogs.
Or something like that.
Monday, June 11, 2007
David's Definitions for August 2007
Patrimony
This can refer specifically to an inheritance, such as what's left to you in a will, or more generally to your heritage, such as the customs and laws handed down to you from previous generations. It derives from the Latin word pater, father, and originally meant what you inherited from your father. Thanks to the Romans, a lot of our words derive from pater. Some are obvious, such as paternal and patriarch. A less obvious one is patriot. The Romans referred to a man's country as his patria, his fatherland. Thus, a patriot is one who is devoted to his fatherland.
Hmm. Getting a bit political, this time.
I've decided to start putting these on my Web site, all in one page so far, here. I'll add this most recent one after the August issue of Community News comes out.
This can refer specifically to an inheritance, such as what's left to you in a will, or more generally to your heritage, such as the customs and laws handed down to you from previous generations. It derives from the Latin word pater, father, and originally meant what you inherited from your father. Thanks to the Romans, a lot of our words derive from pater. Some are obvious, such as paternal and patriarch. A less obvious one is patriot. The Romans referred to a man's country as his patria, his fatherland. Thus, a patriot is one who is devoted to his fatherland.
Hmm. Getting a bit political, this time.
I've decided to start putting these on my Web site, all in one page so far, here. I'll add this most recent one after the August issue of Community News comes out.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Anyone Read Turkish?
This blog has been getting hits from various places in Turkey. Some of them come from my Web site, and the hits there are coming from a discussion forum in Turkey, where a long post ends with my Web site's URL. I'd love to know what it's all about.
The Turkish post in question is here.
Maybe someone from Turkey who ended up here because of that post will enlighten me.
The Turkish post in question is here.
Maybe someone from Turkey who ended up here because of that post will enlighten me.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Oh, Vampires! Oh, Oh, Oh!
Because I've published two vampire novels (and there were supposed to be two more, sob!), and because I have an essay about vampires on my Web site, I get a fair number of hits via search engines (overwhelmingly Google, by the way) where the queries have the word "vampire" in them.
I tend to keep track of what search terms bring people to my site, and I've noticed a pattern in those vampire hits. I decided to take the time to filter out the hits from May that had "vampire" in the query. A few of them seem to be from people who think vampires are real and who also think that Google, which knows everything, will give you the real skinny on real vampires. Most of them, though, seem to fall into a very specific category. It's hard to detect. You'll have to apply all of your analytical skills. Hint: look for a certain word that appears along with "vampire" in most of the queries.
So here are the search strings that brought people to my site during the month of May 2007.
(Oh, and to the person whose search string was Vampire novels suck, I just want to say, "Yeah? You too, man!")
sexuality of the vampire
vampire sexuality
vampires have sex
how do you have vampire sex
vampire convert
vampire rules
what do vampires represent
what are the vampire rules
vampires and sex
vampires sexual
vampires sex
Vampire appeal
vampires and sexuality
vampire novels
vampires rule
Erotic Vampire Story
erotic vampire tales
vampire sex appeal
vampires sex
vampire sexual
sexuality vampire
vampire and sexuality
vampires sex
vampire zombie short stories
modern vampires
Vampire Rules
vampire novels
erotic vampire stories
erotic vampire stories
vampires sex
vampires having sex
vampires and sex
vampire erotica short stories
modern day female vampires
modern day female vampires
vampire sex novels
vampire sexuality
vampire sexual bloodlust
vampires sexuality
vampire sexuality
VAMPIRES HAVING SEX
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
do vampires have sex
vampires having sex
Vampire Novels
modern vampires
VAMPIRE SExuality
vampire rules
are vampires having sex
vampires and sexuality
vampire sexual beings
Vampire Sex Novels
Modern vampires
do vampires have sex
writing a vampire story
writing a vampire story
vampires and sex
modern vampires
modern vampires
modern vampires
vampires having sex
rules about vampires
Short Erotic Vampire Stories
vampire sexual
vampire rules
things vampires are afraid of
things vampires are afraid of
vampire romantic fiction
vampire romantic fiction
vampires sex
vampire sexuality
allure vampire
vampires having sex
vampire sexuality
vampires sex
VAMPIRES SEX
sexual vampires
vampire rules
vampire sexual
vampire sex
vampires sex
vampire sexuality
vampire sex fiction
vampire rules
vampires and sex
Vampires having sex
sexuality and vampires
Writing a Vampire Story
vampire sex
sex and vampires
sex and vampires
rules of a vampire
the modern vampire
modern vampire essays
vampire novellas
the modern vampire
the modern vampire
the appeal of vampires
a girl vampire controlling a human girl to have sex
Vampire novels suck
vampire and sex
vampire sexual
Vampire Rules
vampire sex
Modern Vampire
things vampires are afraid of
erotic vampire stories
vampire sex
vampire attraction symbol
rules for a vampire
what are the appeals of vampires?
vampire sex
Vampire and sex
vampire sexuality
vampires sex
sexual vampire
vampire novels
Vampires and sex
vampires sex
vampires having sex
vampire sexuality
Vampire Rules
vampire sexual
Vampire Sex
vampire rules
vampire sex images
vampires sex
vampire sexual
vampire rules
vampire sexuality
vampires and sex
vampires and sex
vampires love essay
modern vampires
can a vampire have sex
vampire sex
Vampires modern
vampires can they have sex?
vampire novel
can vampires have sex
vampires and sex
vampires rules
vampire and sex
sex of vampire. com
sex of vampire. com
modern vampire
vampire sexual
vampire sexual
modern vampire
vampire rules
Vampire's having sex
vampire sexuality
vampire
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
Vampire sexuality
modern vampire
vampires sex
Vampire: their hearts beat
sexuality of vampires
vampires sex
vampire allure
Sex vampires
vampire sex
vampires sex
vampires sex
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
sex and vampires
vampires and sex
vampire-sexuality
vampire-sexuality
vampires sex
vampires sex
vampire sex
vampire rules
vampires sex
vampire sex
vampire sexuality
vampires and sex
vampires having sex
romantic vampire novels
sex vampires
Vampire rules
Sex vampires
modern vampire novels
beautiful male vampire
appeal of vampires
appeal of vampires
vampire rules
VAMPIRE NOVEL
rules of the vampire
vampire sexuality
sex and vampires
sex with vampires
vampire sexuality
sex vampires
vampire sexual
vampire sexuality
vampire sex
vampire appeal
the allure of the vampire
vampires - sexuality
vampire sexual
vampire encounters sex
vampire sexuality
the vampire rules
modern vampire
vampires having sex
vampire sex novels
vampire have sex
vampires having sex
vampire rules
vampires having sex
vampire rules
vampire sex
vampire rules
vampire novels
vampire novels
vampire novels
vampires - sex
vampire et sex
vampire sex seduce
vampire sexuality
allure of vampire
I tend to keep track of what search terms bring people to my site, and I've noticed a pattern in those vampire hits. I decided to take the time to filter out the hits from May that had "vampire" in the query. A few of them seem to be from people who think vampires are real and who also think that Google, which knows everything, will give you the real skinny on real vampires. Most of them, though, seem to fall into a very specific category. It's hard to detect. You'll have to apply all of your analytical skills. Hint: look for a certain word that appears along with "vampire" in most of the queries.
So here are the search strings that brought people to my site during the month of May 2007.
(Oh, and to the person whose search string was Vampire novels suck, I just want to say, "Yeah? You too, man!")
sexuality of the vampire
vampire sexuality
vampires have sex
how do you have vampire sex
vampire convert
vampire rules
what do vampires represent
what are the vampire rules
vampires and sex
vampires sexual
vampires sex
Vampire appeal
vampires and sexuality
vampire novels
vampires rule
Erotic Vampire Story
erotic vampire tales
vampire sex appeal
vampires sex
vampire sexual
sexuality vampire
vampire and sexuality
vampires sex
vampire zombie short stories
modern vampires
Vampire Rules
vampire novels
erotic vampire stories
erotic vampire stories
vampires sex
vampires having sex
vampires and sex
vampire erotica short stories
modern day female vampires
modern day female vampires
vampire sex novels
vampire sexuality
vampire sexual bloodlust
vampires sexuality
vampire sexuality
VAMPIRES HAVING SEX
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
do vampires have sex
vampires having sex
Vampire Novels
modern vampires
VAMPIRE SExuality
vampire rules
are vampires having sex
vampires and sexuality
vampire sexual beings
Vampire Sex Novels
Modern vampires
do vampires have sex
writing a vampire story
writing a vampire story
vampires and sex
modern vampires
modern vampires
modern vampires
vampires having sex
rules about vampires
Short Erotic Vampire Stories
vampire sexual
vampire rules
things vampires are afraid of
things vampires are afraid of
vampire romantic fiction
vampire romantic fiction
vampires sex
vampire sexuality
allure vampire
vampires having sex
vampire sexuality
vampires sex
VAMPIRES SEX
sexual vampires
vampire rules
vampire sexual
vampire sex
vampires sex
vampire sexuality
vampire sex fiction
vampire rules
vampires and sex
Vampires having sex
sexuality and vampires
Writing a Vampire Story
vampire sex
sex and vampires
sex and vampires
rules of a vampire
the modern vampire
modern vampire essays
vampire novellas
the modern vampire
the modern vampire
the appeal of vampires
a girl vampire controlling a human girl to have sex
Vampire novels suck
vampire and sex
vampire sexual
Vampire Rules
vampire sex
Modern Vampire
things vampires are afraid of
erotic vampire stories
vampire sex
vampire attraction symbol
rules for a vampire
what are the appeals of vampires?
vampire sex
Vampire and sex
vampire sexuality
vampires sex
sexual vampire
vampire novels
Vampires and sex
vampires sex
vampires having sex
vampire sexuality
Vampire Rules
vampire sexual
Vampire Sex
vampire rules
vampire sex images
vampires sex
vampire sexual
vampire rules
vampire sexuality
vampires and sex
vampires and sex
vampires love essay
modern vampires
can a vampire have sex
vampire sex
Vampires modern
vampires can they have sex?
vampire novel
can vampires have sex
vampires and sex
vampires rules
vampire and sex
sex of vampire. com
sex of vampire. com
modern vampire
vampire sexual
vampire sexual
modern vampire
vampire rules
Vampire's having sex
vampire sexuality
vampire
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
Vampire sexuality
modern vampire
vampires sex
Vampire: their hearts beat
sexuality of vampires
vampires sex
vampire allure
Sex vampires
vampire sex
vampires sex
vampires sex
vampire sexual
vampires having sex
sex and vampires
vampires and sex
vampire-sexuality
vampire-sexuality
vampires sex
vampires sex
vampire sex
vampire rules
vampires sex
vampire sex
vampire sexuality
vampires and sex
vampires having sex
romantic vampire novels
sex vampires
Vampire rules
Sex vampires
modern vampire novels
beautiful male vampire
appeal of vampires
appeal of vampires
vampire rules
VAMPIRE NOVEL
rules of the vampire
vampire sexuality
sex and vampires
sex with vampires
vampire sexuality
sex vampires
vampire sexual
vampire sexuality
vampire sex
vampire appeal
the allure of the vampire
vampires - sexuality
vampire sexual
vampire encounters sex
vampire sexuality
the vampire rules
modern vampire
vampires having sex
vampire sex novels
vampire have sex
vampires having sex
vampire rules
vampires having sex
vampire rules
vampire sex
vampire rules
vampire novels
vampire novels
vampire novels
vampires - sex
vampire et sex
vampire sex seduce
vampire sexuality
allure of vampire
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Wings of the Heart
That's the title of a horror short story by yours truly, which will be published in World Audience Magazine #6. Brief description of the story: Great quantities of blood.
World Audience is a fairly new quarterly print magazine that has a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and plays. It's a non-paying market for now, although the editor and founder, Mike Strozier, is hoping to change that eventually. He's always open to submissions. He's also a small publisher.
Their Web site: http://www.worldaudience.org/
World Audience is a fairly new quarterly print magazine that has a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, poetry, and plays. It's a non-paying market for now, although the editor and founder, Mike Strozier, is hoping to change that eventually. He's always open to submissions. He's also a small publisher.
Their Web site: http://www.worldaudience.org/
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Anti-anti-war
This one has been around for a while, but for those who haven't seen it, here's a photo of a dimwit who was demonstrating against a group of anti-war demonstrators. He wrote his own caption.
That's supposed to distract attention from the lack of posts describing my writing progress. They're lacking because progress is lacking. In my defense, we were away a lot - driving to Kansas City and then to Minneapolis, staying a few days in Minneapolis, then driving back to Denver, and only a few days later flying to New York to take the city by storm (it seems not to have noticed).
Right now, I'm doing some major Web site maintenance for a friend and student of Leonore's, something I had volunteered to do before we left on the first trip.
Then I'll get back to writing.
That's supposed to distract attention from the lack of posts describing my writing progress. They're lacking because progress is lacking. In my defense, we were away a lot - driving to Kansas City and then to Minneapolis, staying a few days in Minneapolis, then driving back to Denver, and only a few days later flying to New York to take the city by storm (it seems not to have noticed).
Right now, I'm doing some major Web site maintenance for a friend and student of Leonore's, something I had volunteered to do before we left on the first trip.
Then I'll get back to writing.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
A Worldwide Phenomenon
Kinda cool. According to sitemeter, the counter I use for this blog, this map shows where the last 500 visitors are located:
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Gawking Rubes
And just a small selection of what they gawked at.
First, the obvious. I must have passed this 50 years ago, when I was a wee immigrant child on the deck of a ship heading towards Hoboken, but I was too entranced by the neon lights along the shore to notice the heavy, symbolic stuff. That had to wait for sober late middle age.
Meanwhile, back in the city. Here's a nice contrast between grand old showpiece and new glass and steel.
Leonore was intrigued by the Chrysler building and took oodles of photos of it.
Gnarly, man! This is a tree at Wave Hill, an estate on the banks of the Hudson River. Mark Twain and Toscanini both lived there. Handsome old buildings and lovely gardens, of both of which our photos aren't as good as I had hoped. You can look across the Hudson at the Palisades on the New Jersey side. Naturally, as a Coloradan, my main reaction was, "Good God! Lookit all the water!"
This is the famous Wall Street bull, posed as you don't normally see him. In real life, he isn't sitting there all alone. Tourists are crawling all over him. Also, he's not on Wall Street, but rather on Broadway, a couple of blocks south of Wall Street.
Rather undignified for the poor chap, don't you think? But he looks like he's about to get his revenge via his hind end.
First, the obvious. I must have passed this 50 years ago, when I was a wee immigrant child on the deck of a ship heading towards Hoboken, but I was too entranced by the neon lights along the shore to notice the heavy, symbolic stuff. That had to wait for sober late middle age.
Meanwhile, back in the city. Here's a nice contrast between grand old showpiece and new glass and steel.
Leonore was intrigued by the Chrysler building and took oodles of photos of it.
Gnarly, man! This is a tree at Wave Hill, an estate on the banks of the Hudson River. Mark Twain and Toscanini both lived there. Handsome old buildings and lovely gardens, of both of which our photos aren't as good as I had hoped. You can look across the Hudson at the Palisades on the New Jersey side. Naturally, as a Coloradan, my main reaction was, "Good God! Lookit all the water!"
This is the famous Wall Street bull, posed as you don't normally see him. In real life, he isn't sitting there all alone. Tourists are crawling all over him. Also, he's not on Wall Street, but rather on Broadway, a couple of blocks south of Wall Street.
Rather undignified for the poor chap, don't you think? But he looks like he's about to get his revenge via his hind end.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A Hell of a Town
We stayed in the Bronx, which of course is up, and went on a harbor tour that started in the vicinity of the Battery (down), and we walked around a fair part of Manhattan (in between).
We were in NYC for four days, getting back home last night. Unfortunately for us, the original forecast of cool weather was wrong. It was hot and humid (by our Denver standards, anyway) all the time. Nonetheless, we did lots of touristy things and walked great distances and ate much food. The food part seems to be a constant in our trips to other cities, which is probably why our bathroom scale covers its ears when we get back, so that it won't have to hear the cries of, "Oh, no!" and "However did that happen?"
We stayed with Lisa, a college friend of Leonore's whom she hadn't seen since Lisa visited us in Denver 30 years ago, and Lisa's husband, Andrew, whom neither of had met before. Anna Lee, another college friend of both of theirs, whom Leonore hadn't seen in almost 40 years, was able to come down for a day from Connecticut. I met Lisa at Indiana U. when Leonore and I were dating, but I didn't know Anna Lee in those days.
I've been to New York before, but only as a child, both coming to this country and leaving it, and my memories from then are faint and vague and childlike. This time, I was a sober adult. Well, except for when I was a gawking tourist, staring at all the big buildings and getting in the way of the rushing Manhattanites. Managed not to get run over. I learned quickly that traffic lights, including Walk signals, are just quaint things that New Yorkers ignore. I guess you learn that quickly or you go home to flyover country in the airplane's cargo hold.
We took absurdly many pictures, as we always do. I haven't looked at any of them on the computer yet, so I don't know if there are some good ones among them. If there are, I might post one or two here. Watch this space!
Update
On second thought, don't watch this space. I'll put a few photos in a new post. We'll see if Blogger objects to my uploading a fair number of bytes.
We were in NYC for four days, getting back home last night. Unfortunately for us, the original forecast of cool weather was wrong. It was hot and humid (by our Denver standards, anyway) all the time. Nonetheless, we did lots of touristy things and walked great distances and ate much food. The food part seems to be a constant in our trips to other cities, which is probably why our bathroom scale covers its ears when we get back, so that it won't have to hear the cries of, "Oh, no!" and "However did that happen?"
We stayed with Lisa, a college friend of Leonore's whom she hadn't seen since Lisa visited us in Denver 30 years ago, and Lisa's husband, Andrew, whom neither of had met before. Anna Lee, another college friend of both of theirs, whom Leonore hadn't seen in almost 40 years, was able to come down for a day from Connecticut. I met Lisa at Indiana U. when Leonore and I were dating, but I didn't know Anna Lee in those days.
I've been to New York before, but only as a child, both coming to this country and leaving it, and my memories from then are faint and vague and childlike. This time, I was a sober adult. Well, except for when I was a gawking tourist, staring at all the big buildings and getting in the way of the rushing Manhattanites. Managed not to get run over. I learned quickly that traffic lights, including Walk signals, are just quaint things that New Yorkers ignore. I guess you learn that quickly or you go home to flyover country in the airplane's cargo hold.
We took absurdly many pictures, as we always do. I haven't looked at any of them on the computer yet, so I don't know if there are some good ones among them. If there are, I might post one or two here. Watch this space!
Update
On second thought, don't watch this space. I'll put a few photos in a new post. We'll see if Blogger objects to my uploading a fair number of bytes.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
LAA - League of Arthritic Authors
We here at LAA have a few thoughts we'd like to share with you. But first, we have a question for you:
Okay, so I've been thinking about age a lot lately. Rather, I've been thinking about being old. More specifically, I've been fretting about being an author and not being young. Most specifically, I've been hyperventilating about being a non-famous, non-established published author who is not young.
Why? Because I have the impression, or perhaps it's really an irrational fear, that what I said about myself above will cause my next novel to be dismissed by agents and/or editors simply because I'm a non-famous, non-established published author who is not young.
Some months ago, I asked Miss Snark about this. My question was never answered, but another, very similar one was. (She said she had been asked this before, meaning that at least three of us are hyperventilating about this matter.) Her answer was that an agent you query of course won't know your age and, more important, won't care about it. Don't worry about it, she said. She ended with her usual, and very good, advice: Write well. Just concentrate on that.
However, over the years, I've heard of authors being dropped by their publishers because of their age. I've also heard of second/third/etc. novels not being picked up, despite a good sales record for the published books, because of the author's age. I just hope this doesn't apply to genre writers. We don't have to look young and beautiful. How often do you see one of us on a TV talk show? (And it's a good thing you don't....)
I can't quite help the fretting, but while fretting I'll also write well. (I'd say "Continue to write well, as I always do," but that sounds awfully conceited.) (Oh, heck. Why pretend! When it comes to my writing, I am conceited.) I'll also keep fretting.
You hear that, sonny? Eh? What? Speak up!
Eh? What was that, sonny? Speak up, God damn it! You young people today, you all mumble. And your music -- !
Okay, so I've been thinking about age a lot lately. Rather, I've been thinking about being old. More specifically, I've been fretting about being an author and not being young. Most specifically, I've been hyperventilating about being a non-famous, non-established published author who is not young.
Why? Because I have the impression, or perhaps it's really an irrational fear, that what I said about myself above will cause my next novel to be dismissed by agents and/or editors simply because I'm a non-famous, non-established published author who is not young.
Some months ago, I asked Miss Snark about this. My question was never answered, but another, very similar one was. (She said she had been asked this before, meaning that at least three of us are hyperventilating about this matter.) Her answer was that an agent you query of course won't know your age and, more important, won't care about it. Don't worry about it, she said. She ended with her usual, and very good, advice: Write well. Just concentrate on that.
However, over the years, I've heard of authors being dropped by their publishers because of their age. I've also heard of second/third/etc. novels not being picked up, despite a good sales record for the published books, because of the author's age. I just hope this doesn't apply to genre writers. We don't have to look young and beautiful. How often do you see one of us on a TV talk show? (And it's a good thing you don't....)
I can't quite help the fretting, but while fretting I'll also write well. (I'd say "Continue to write well, as I always do," but that sounds awfully conceited.) (Oh, heck. Why pretend! When it comes to my writing, I am conceited.) I'll also keep fretting.
You hear that, sonny? Eh? What? Speak up!
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