Grasping for the Wind

Personal Note: My Favorite Animal

HT: Cute Overload Yes, I do read it. ;-)

Ugghhh

Up at 3:40 AM this morning after going to bed at 12:01 AM the same morning. Not happy.

Personal Note: Spain

Back in 2006, my wife and I spent 9 days in Madrid and Granada learning all about Spanish history and art, along with several homeschooled students. My wife, the talented designer, has created a scrapbook of the trip you can see here, if you are interested.

Huh...

In the unusual things to happen to me category, for some reason a short essay I wrote for this blog back in January of 2006 has turned up at Urbanministry.org. I don't remember ever submitting the article, (and maybe I didn't) but it is still cool. I think this is one of the better things I have written, actually. Still, I had forgotten all about it and I'm not sure why it has turned up here except that maybe one of the folks I know who work on the site stuck it up there.

The article is about making short term mission trips more holistic, and was the answer to a question in one of my Chalmers Center courses. The Chalmers Center is a correspondence school that is teaching Christians about integrating business and missions.

I know a couple of the folks at Techmission.org, who run the site where the article was posted, but hey, if people find it helpful, more power to them.

Still, its weird to see your name and being called a speaker/author like you actually have some sort of validity and importance to your random thinking.

Featured on Red Room

My interview with Rosemary Jones, author of the Forgotten Realms novel Crypt of the Moaning Diamond has been featured on the homepage of Red Room.com!

Redroom is:

... the online home of the world’s greatest writers. Through original, author-generated content, we offer a trustworthy and creative social network unlike any other. Here, you can connect with your favorite authors, access current industry news, and comment on engaging features. By fostering true community between authors and readers, Red Room showcases esteemed writers and inspires the next generation. We also give back to the community we aim to nurture with our commitment to the Causes We Support.

Thanks to Rosemary for posting a link to our interview at Red Room, and to Red Room for thinking it worthy enough to put on their homepage!

Germany 2008

I'm back from Germany! It was a great trip and everyone had a lot of fun.

Please enjoy these pictures from my trip last week to Germany. We saw lots of sites, including Munich, Rothenburg ob de Tauber, Neuschwanstein, Bacharach, The Rhine Valley Region, Trier, and Burg Eltz.

You will need Flash player to view it. If you can't, you can visit the Flickr page instead.

Blog Temporarily Suspended

I'm headed out of the country tomorrow to take a bunch of teenagers to Germany to learn about art history, so this blog will be on a ten day hiatus. I'll be back in April with lots more stuff. I'll tell you all about the trip when I get back, and will have lots of pictures to share!

A St. Patrick's Day Treat

Well, looks like I know more people with some notoriety than I thought. The husband of a former teacher of mine is giving a Celtic guitar performance on WRFG FM Atlanta at 8:30 tonight! His name is Robert McMillan, and he is quite a gifted guitarist. Tune into the site to listen live at 8:30 EST.

And for your viewing enjoyment, check out this awesome custom guitar! (Click the picture to go to the seller's page.)

Tri-doku

And in the I know someone sort of famous category, we have Japheth Light (the first "h" is silent) a guy I went to church with when I was teaching in Palm Bay, Florida and whose wife was the third grade teacher to my fifth/sixth grade.

It turns out that my friend is the inventor of a new, harder version of Sudoku called Tri-doku. A math guy through and through, Japheth thought that standard Sudoku was too easy, so he and a friend invented this new form. His first collection of puzzles has been published by a renowned puzzle publisher.

I'm not a Sudoku fan, (I prefer crosswords) but if you are, and think standard Sudoku is too easy, you might try my friend's newer version. (and if you understand these rules, I bow before your awesome prowess.)

Tridoku uses a triangle rather than a square for its format and the rules are as follows:

No. 1, the large triangle rule: The numbers 1-9 must be placed in each of the nine large triangles in the puzzle.

No. 2, the inner triangle rule: The numbers 1-9 must be placed in each of the three legs of the inner shaded triangle. Notice the numbers in the corners of the inner triangle will each count for two legs of the inner triangle. So the 3 in the left corner counts as the 3 for the top shaded leg and the left shaded leg of the inner triangle.

No. 3, the outer triangle rule: The numbers 1-9 must be placed in each of the three legs of the outer shaded triangle. As in rule 2, the numbers at the corners each lie in two legs of the outer triangle (i.e. the 2 at the top counts as the 2 for the left and right leg of the outer triangle).

No. 4, the hexagon rule: No two neighboring (touching) cells may contain the same numbers. This rule goes for any two cells that touch -- regardless of whether the cells meet along an edge or at a single point.
In other words, no numbers can be repeated within any small hexagon in the entire puzzle.

Try one of the puzzles here.

And see the solution here.

Congratulations to my friend Japheth on his achievement, and his other creation to be released next year, Snowflake Sudoku.

On Selling Myself

Recently, an author acquaintance of mine suggested that I start submitting my reviews and other thoughts to various e-zines and other trade magazines devoted to spec fic. But as I think about it, and do a little research on payment types and methods, I’ve come to the conclusion that it really isn’t for me.

I didn’t start this blog with the intent to find work. I have a very good paying job with benefits that I really like. Not only that, it is a job that, while making me a capitalist pig, also lets me have plenty of free time, during work, to write posts for this little hobby.

Nor is this blog an attempt to promote my own fiction writing. I have no training in creative writing whatsoever (except for a few classes in my undergrad studies, and they were just for fun). I am a trained elementary teacher for goodness sake! The best I can come up with is, “See Spot Run,” and even that is pushing it. I have no agenda here other than the gratification of myself. (I know where you just went. When you stop giggling, read on.)

I like to think. You know, that thing your brain is for? And to be honest, since giving up television (except for movies and boxed TV shows through Netflix) I have time on my hands that can be put to a purpose. Sure, I could volunteer at my local hospital, but I’d be the ugliest candy-striper you ever saw. People would die just to avoid my entrance into their room. Honestly, I know sci-fi and fantasy. It’s what I enjoy. So I blog about it. (Not that I don't still volunteer for charitable organizations, I just don't pour all my time into them, or seek positions of responsibility in them.)

And of course, there is the fact that selling your writing is a full-time job. It’s a lot of work, as any freelancer will tell you, and it lacks any real security, something my oldest child obsessive personality cannot handle. I need security, and I’m not ashamed to say so. I looked at some of the requirements for publishing writing at various e-zines and trade mags, just for my own information, and it’s tough to get them to accept your work. I have to say, I really respect those folks who can do it.

Would I like to write a novel in my lifetime, see my name in print for my non-fiction or short stories? Sure, that would be nice, but am I willing to make the sacrifice necessary to make that happen? No, not really, and I’m mostly okay with that.

I’d rather pour my energy into making this blog better and better, so that you can enjoy what I enjoy, without feeling like I’m selling you something. My opinions on books are as honest as I know how to make them, and though I am rarely disappointed, I will let you know when I am, with no apologies to whoever sent me the book to review.

I just don’t see myself as someone who needs to go through the effort of publishing my material. If someone wants to borrow and republish what I have written with my permission, more power to them. (SF Crowsnest has done this a few times already.) And if I get paid for it, even better. But I am not going to seek these folks out.

I get paid well at my job, I like what I do for a living, and the mediocre amounts of money that could be produced by trying to put my name into print are so pitiful compared to my salary that it just isn’t worth it to me in terms of money.

I’m just a speculative fiction fan with a critical mind who likes to apply it to the thing he loves. I seek neither money, nor glory (although that would be nice, I won’t deny it) just an open forum to express my thoughts and opinions, a good way to meet authors I respect and whose writing I enjoy, and a useful tool for those of you trying to decide what book to read in your spare time.

I hope I’ve met those expectations in the last six months since this blog took off, and I plan to meet or exceed them in the future.

Dragon*Con

I just bought my membership for this year's Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Anybody else planning on going?

Two of my articles in the February SF Crowsnest

I get not one, but two articles in this month's SF Crowsnest.

Speculative Fiction and the Value of the Formula

and

Weaving the Colors: An Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet

I am kind of disappointed with the first one. As I reread it, I find a whole lot of flaws and mistakes, and even once sentence that said the opposite of what I meant! Oh, well, it is still a useful tool to get people rethinking their use of the word "formulaic".

My wife's photo included in online map guide

This picture, taken by my wife, was recently chosen to be included in the online map provider Schmap. You can see the page where the photo was included here.

The picture itself is of a tomb located along the Ancient Appian Way in Rome, Italy. My wife and I have traveled there several times and loved it. I hope you enjoy the picture.

Dachshund Snow Dollop

Well, We have had snow twice this week in North Georgia. This is an unusual and unprecedented (to my knowledge) thing.

We also found out that Darra really likes the snow. Both times she has played in it, by choice, by going through her doggies door. She will stay out there for a few minutes and then come racing back into the house to play. All the while she is dripping wet.

This is my favorite photo of her playing in the snow. See the dollop of snow on her nose? So very cute.

It's Me Birthday Tomorrow!

Since I usually don't post on the weekends, I thought I met let all and sundry know that tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be turning 28. (but I'm still younger than my wife. I often like to say that while she robbed the cradle, I robbed the grave. ;-)

Anyway, my present to me will be: A nap with a dash of reading on the side.

(That's our little red dachshund Darra by the way, she just loves to nap with us.)

I hope you have a restful Saturday, I know I will.

Another interview of mine posted at SF Crowsnest

My interview with John Joseph Adams, slush editor at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has been re-published in this month's SF Crowsnest.

Personal Note: First Date

For those of you who read this blog, you know that I don't personalize very much of what I write ( although I hope you get some of my reactions to books in the reviews) and I almost never post anything personal. I'm just not so good at talking about myself, which is weird considering how arrogant I am.

It is also Because the wife has a blog that covers the personal stuff I avoid talking about, so I don't really feel the need.

So she has been slowly putting up some reactions from her journal around about the time we first met. This second installment of O-History is about our first date. I did not know it was a date, so perhaps that is why it went so well in the end. If I had thought otherwise I would have been shaking in my boots! I know for sure I would have been sweating unduly. I just wanted to use a gift card I got for Christmas that easily paid for two meals. (and yea, I thought this chick was hot. So sue me.)

So enjoy a little story about me and my gorgeous wife, if you like.

Feel Free to Applaud

Stephen Hunt of SF Crowsnest contacted me a month or so ago after I posted my interview with Brian Ruckley. They wanted to repost it over there. It was flattering, I must say. I said yes, and so it is up in the December 2007 issue.

After all, the November 2007 issue circulation was: 702,831 readers, who read 2.31 million articles, generating 39.7 million hits. That is a lot of traffic!

SF Crowsnest is one of the best and most well known online magazines of the speculative fiction genre. It's monthly content is always great and interesting. And guess what? I've joined those other great article writers. He even put me up there as third on the list, just after Scifichick and Aidan, both bloggers who have been at this much longer than me and whose content far exceeds mine in quality. Very cool. I'm grateful to Stephen Hunt for giving me the opportunity.

Feel free to congratulate me in the comments. ;-)

Notes: A Lecture by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

These are my notes from a lecture given by Pulitzer prize winning author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich on September 19, 2007. This feisty gray haired lady presented a fascinating case for continued work in understanding the history of women, and in breaking down stereotypes. Phrases in quotes are direct quotes from the lecture.

“Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”
A Lecture by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Pulitzer prize winning author of A Midwife's Tale)
Margaret Mitchell House and Museum Literature Center

See the webcast at www.atlantaforumnetwork.org

Books, Activism, Memory

- Read first few pages of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History in order to define the phrase succinctly.
- Phrase comes from her first article in history in 1976 on Puritan Funeral Sermons
- Kay Mills found it, accidentally changed “seldom” to “rarely” hence two different quotes
- In 1996 Jill Portugal of one angry girl designs asked permission to print it on a t-shirt.
- Kacey Jones sang a song incorporating the term on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion – the song can be found in the book.
- Sania Mirza, Indian Muslim tennis player has taken it as a slogan for herself

So what does “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” mean?

- Ulrich enjoys ambiguous titles for books
- Good Wives is about normal women dealing with prescriptions for good behavior vs. actual behavior
- Age of Homespun is about frontier violence and the intersection of Native Americans and the English
- Well behaved women are often characterized as Emily Dickinson types.
- Well behaved women are those who do what is appropriate for her culture and preserve the status quo
- “Well-behaved” is not referring to good or bad behavior (i.e. Rosa Parks was chosen as the example case against segregation precisely because she was well-behaved, yet she made history.)
- Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History is about “celebrating the impact of the women’s movement of the 60’s and 70’s on knowledge.”
- “Because women tried to make history they discovered the past.”
- Those who want to make history seek to know history.
- “Caring about history we make history”

Book Structure

- Book is set up with three women in three libraries in different time periods and countries.
- Christine di Pizan – 15th century “The City of Ladies”
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton – 19th century leader of women’s rights movement
- Virginia Woolf – reference to famous British Museum doodle leading to the writing of fictional account Shakespeare’s sister Judith where in frustration at lack of success, raped and abandoned she kills herself.
- Woolf was wrong – Elizabeth Carey was forced to marry like Judith but was popular writer (more popular than Shakespeare) in the same time; Artemisia Judelefsky – raped, seduced like Judith, became famous artist
- Tells stories and shows parallels between the three women and retells their stories through the lens of the scholarship of the last 30 years.

A Renaissance in Women’s History

- Christine di Pizan loved the Amazons (800 year kingdom).
- Ulrich retold the story of the Amazons in light of recent scholarship including funny story about Amazon.com being sued by a women’s bookstore called Amazon for copyright infringement. Amazon tried to say they were named after the river rather than Amazon’s of myth. Ironically the river was named by a Spanish explorer who thought he had found the ancient kingdom found in the myths.
- Quilt documentation projects came to light.
- Ordinary people asked new questions
- “academic historians do not own history.”
- Well-behaved women don’t think their lives matter so they don’t preserve their own history by keeping diaries, etc.
- So being misbehaved means preserving ones role in history, no matter how small

Questions

Where are we in terms of male response to women?
- “I’m a historian” not a sociologist
- Ulrich is depressed when she goes into bookstores and only sees books on war
- The book marketing world thinks history is for men and fiction for women – a holdover of the 18th century
- “Our knowledge of history is not very deep, let alone women’s history.”

Was there someone in this new book that touched her like Martha Ballard of A Midwife’s Tale?
- not in new book, no one ever will
- new book is about many women rather than being a microcosm like A Midwife’s Tale.
- Ulrich was touched by the new book’s multiplicity
- Ulrich had to rely on other people’s scholarship
- Writing out of her comfort zone
- Moved by how much scholars and good citizens have done in research.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Jarrett Smith and abolitionist helps Stanton meet a slave named Harriett Powell. Ulrich does research on the underground Railroad and ends up connecting two disparate organizations in New York and Canada who have information on this person.

If Ulrich were to be a history advisor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign what characterizations should Clinton avoid or identify with?
- Hillary has an interesting dilemma, she is both new and old, but is likely the first female presidential candidate who can make it.
- Should not identify with Woodhull – first woman to run for President in 1870’s
- Nearly 20% of the women who have served in Congress have succeeded husbands who died in office.
- Hillary Clinton is in peculiar position of being a pseudo-widow because she is potentially following a husband into office that is not dead. She will be both helped and hurt by his legacy, unlike the ones who follow dead husbands.
- The more interesting question is why it has taken so long to get to this point in the US when other developed nations have already elected women.

How has technology changed getting published?
- it is harder to get published
- her first book was her Doctoral Dissertation, and now he own publisher won’t even look at doctoral dissertations.
- “The Internet is fabulous and terrifying” but is helpful in making connections.
- She would like funding of digitization of primary sources not just go to the 19th century notion of history.

Would we be better off if women had been ruling the world for a while?
- “NO!” Emphatically
- She is a social historian, great things happen when lots of people make small changes, not rulers.
- Women are not always better peacemakers, that is a stereotype.
- See her chapter on the Amazons.
- Women have been warriors for as long as men have and have been just as violent.
- Gender is an important variable but it doesn’t explain everything.

Why are we reluctant to elect women?
- women themselves have a lot do with Nixon’s veto of childcare act.
- Can make the argument that 19th century women had more effect on moral culture and society than men did (child-rearing)
- Women have had economic and political power in the past, but it was directed toward the home rather than those spheres as we understand them.
- Women had a new politics, a moral imperative (more important than the others even)
- Conservative women destroyed the early feminist movements, not just men.
- Activist women disagree.

What was Ulrich’s impetus for becoming not well-behaved?
- committed to study
- marrying young and having a lot of kids
- history changed her life
- Grew up in Mormon Rocky Mtn. West, Idaho.
- Heard about noble pioneers from childhood and felt diminished by their story leading to questions and research.
- Some of those pioneer grandmother’s were not so well-behaved.
- Mormon’s were just as radical in the 19th century as the Elizabeth Cady Stantons, even though they were polygamists as well as feminists and suffragettes.
- Ulrich’s stereotypes were blown away.
- Being a pioneer was creatively dealing with the circumstances, as women who make history should be today.

My Name in mental_floss Magazine

Back in August, mental_floss magazine asked a question on their blog. They were beginning a series on issues affecting the 2008 election, and were planning to begin the series with an article on immigration policy.

Well, I sent in a question.

Surprise, surprise, they used my question (see below or number 24 in the blog post) to create a sidebar in the current issue ("The Golden Lobe Awards" and Einstein's picture grace the cover), detailing immigration policy from 1882 to the present day. I was flabbergasted, and happily surprised!

#24 John Says: August 23rd, 2007 at 6:53 am

What quota’s still exist for whom we allow to enter legally? I know that in the great wave, only certain numbers of people from certain countries were allowed in. (i.e.) for every 3 Irish, one Russian.) Do ethnic or national quota’s still exist and what are they? Are there other quota’s used now?

This was so cool! And as a special reward, my name appeared on page 8 of volume 6, issue 6 of mental_floss: Where Knowledge Junkies get their fix. The picture below is a scan of the mention.

I may not be an author, but I can ask good questions! It was kind of a neat little thing, I wanted to share this little piece of personal joy with all of you, my faithful readers! And I thank mental_floss for being so kind in printing my name at the top of the list.

Such fun!

10-20-30 Virus

My friend over at Provocative Church tagged me with the 10-20-30 virus. The idea is that you write about what you were doing 10, 20, and 30 years ago, then tag five other folks to do the same. It's a nice little way to learn about people whose blogs you might read for info, but not because you know them personally and provides a little extra linkage as well. So here goes:

10 years ago: I was living in Atlanta, working at a Chick-fil-A roughly twelve hours a day, six days a week. I was going part-time to college using the nearly invented distance learning by mail at the University of Georgia. I had graduated early through homeschooling and was saving up to go to Covenant College after I turned 18. What free time was left, I spent reading fantasy fiction. I was particularly into Terry Goodkind and Robert Jordan then.

20 years ago: I was seven, and devouring books voraciously. I had few if any friends, and reading was my one great passion. At the time, I loved detective fiction, and was reading Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle over and over again.

30 years ago: I didn't exist. My parents had not yet even met at U of D, and I (being a surprise first child) was not something either of my parents, after they were married in '78, were wanting yet. I suppose God knew who I was, but nobody else did, that's for sure.

So I'd like to tag a few other bloggers out there: Tia, Imani, Remy, Chris, and SQT, tell us all a little about yourself.

7 Reasons I Write Book Reviews

Criticism, that fine flower of personal expression in the garden of letters. ~ Joseph Conrad

I felt that with the growing (an appreciated) success of this blog. That it was about time I did a little explaining about why I do what I do. (Doo-doo. See? I can be funny.) There’s a lot to cover so either bear with me, or stop reading now and save yourself the time. (I mean, you could be playing squash right now, and wouldn’t that be better?)

For those of you who have decided to stay, thank you. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.

Reason #1: I am opinionated.

Really opinionated. And if there is one topic you can get me talking about for hours, it is fantasy fiction. I’ve been reading it since I was very young, and have read a wide range of its authors and subgenres. So what better place to express those opnions than a blog that all the world can see. (This goes hand in hand with my vanity, which is profound. I mean, its pretty vain to think anyone actually cares about your opinion, right?) So hence the blog and the title, Grasping for the Wind keeps me humble every time I see it displayed at the top of every page in this blog.

Reason #2: I got bored.

In my workplace, there can be times of great busyness, and times that are really slow (like the Friday afternoon when I wrote this). There are only so many websites you can visit before you get bored of surfing, so I thought I might contribute to the web instead of being a passive observer. And fantasy fiction is what I like and what I care about, so I began to write book reviews.

Reason #3: Francis Schaeffer made me feel bad.

“Americans don't read enough (that's true) and Americans read too much (that's true too). What I mean is that many don't read enough material to really be informed, and yet they read too much because what they do read they often do not stop to assimilate and think through. They whiz through it and get what I call a first-order experience, a sort of mystical feeling, not a genuine understanding. I urge you, with all my soul, in such a day as ours to really, truly learn to read." ~ Francis Schaeffer

Okay, so if reading means thinking through and assimilating material, then writing a book review, something more than a summary, something that really digs in to the writing would be a good thing, right? Of course, I don’t think Mr. Schaeffer meant fantasy fiction when he wrote those words (I suspect he wanted me to read more classics, actually) but to each his own. This is my world, and I am going to think about it critically.

Reason #4: Free Books

Mercenary as it may seem, I like getting free books from publishers and authors. Without them, many of the books I have recently enjoyed, I never would have read. I’m not a rich man, so free books is a great way to stay up on what is going on in fantasy, and getting introduced to some really great authors.

Reason #5: Because it helps readers.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well; the chiefest part of whic