Victorian pulp scifi. . . is there anything more wonderful?
Here’s an i09 article (http://io9.com/5832671/how-science-fiction-cover-art-got-its-pulpy-sense-of-wonder?tag=pulps – links are still broken) on early pulp magazine covers. They are VERY special. . . see?
Here’s the bit you steampunks are probably most interested in:
The Victorian aesthetic appeared from 1820-1900 and is characterized by tons of ornamentation, both in imagery and typography. Most book and magazine covers escaped excessive imagery, but faltered under cluttered typography. Captions often accompanied images to narrate the moment of action rather than allowing the image to speak for itself. Images portrayed a single moment in the story meant to captivate passersby with feelings of adventure and excitement. Actions and poses were stiff and often awkward. Color was expensive, and not commonly seen until 1900.
You’ll want to scan through the pictures for yourself, so here’s that address again.
http://io9.com/5832671/how-science-fiction-cover-art-got-its-pulpy-sense-of-wonder?tag=pulps
Are writing courses worthwhile?
This Huffington Post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-joseph-davis/mfa-programs-_b_929183.html – links aren’t working today) argues that they are.
In my opinion, the most important pieces of information writers should get from such courses are:
Spelling and grammar (don’t laugh; it’s necessary)
The ability to follow submission instructions (so, so necessary)
Industry manners – eg don’t ever reply to a rejection
Some realism about (a) How long things take (b) How much writers earn, and (c) How few unpublished novels ever get published.
In my (reasonably limited) experience, none of these are taught in writing courses. But some other useful things are. Perhaps more importantly, you meet other writerly types, and may end up with a decent critique group.
Pictured: not a decent critique group.
Philip Pullman books part three
“The Amber Spyglass”
Oddly for a trilogy, I’m not sure this is the strongest book in the series.
The rest of this review is at Comfy Chair, where I get paid for it.
Quintuple Chocolate
Some people reckon triple chocolate desserts are impressive – to which I say HAH!
Triple chocolate is merely the canvas.
I began with triple chocolate Cadbury ice cream – chocolate ice cream with real chocolate chips and ribbons of chocolate sauce throughout.
I added choc mint ice magic (a brilliant invention that turns hard when drizzled on ice cream).
I garnished the dish with one-qurter of a dark chocolate cherry ripe.
This, my friends, is what quintuple chocolate looks like:
I considered also sprinkling this concoction with Milo (which, for you Americans out there, is like Ovaltine but a million times better – mainly because of a distinct crunchy texture), but I decided hey, I’d hate to overdo it.
The up side of nausea
If you’re sick enough, doctors advise you to eat anything you can – literally anything. Sadly, at that point there’s generally very little you can even look at without feeling ill.
But then you improve a bit. And a bit more. And then comes the shining day when chocolate goes back on the list of things you can eat.
From that point on, you’re in a grey area. At some point, you need to focus on health rather than just “Whatever doesn’t make me nauseous today”.
So yesterday, having dreamt (literally and metaphorically) about junk food bingeing for three months, I celebrated the impending end of the grey area by eating about 70 grams of chocolate*.
As you may have gathered, I am improving – so there’s still hope I’ll be well before January. But if that does happen, then I’ll be eating healthily (oh, the horror). To be fair, I am actually eating pretty well at the moment (excluding green vegetables, which are still pretty much impossible to eat without a lengthy recovery time) – and this week I gained 0.8 of a kilo, which is about what I was hoping for (it means I’m gaining roughly what I should, thus proving that I’m not over-eating).
In spectacularly exciting news, I AM reducing my medicine (very very carefully), I’m able to drive to work and home again (with careful planning), and – wonder of wonders – I managed to grocery shop a little yesterday (very impressive because it means being around food AND standing up for more than three seconds at a time), and I’m now doing two minutes of extremely slow riding on my exercise bike most days.
Nausea still runs my life, but I usually have two or three hours to myself each day. And I find out in eight days whether I’m having a boy or a girl!
*And yes, it made me nauseous. But not as nauseous as what I would consider a “true” binge – which could be as much as half a kilo of chocolate and lollies in a day. Hopefully I won’t do that again for a good long while. Or, possibly, never.
Shopping Spree
There are two awesome things about being pregnant. First, you get a baby at the end. Second, you get free stuff.
Some of my relatives and close friends have already given me various items, but it was the parents of a student of mine that decided to clear out their storage. . . and send soooo much sweet sweet baby loot my way. This is only the first section – a safety chair, a play mat, and a vast pile of girls’ clothing*.
I sorted through five bags, and took out some of the items I found the cutest.
Pregnancy is a lot like engagement, in my view. It is a time when a huge chunk of overpriced merchandise is sold to women at their most emotionally vulnerable, who are forcefully told that they MUST spend thousands of dollars or their future family is doomed.
My reaction is to take it as a personal challenge to spend the tiniest possible amount. So far, the total I’ve spent is $0 (excluding hundreds of dollars on medicine). I’ll let you know how it goes – but I suspect I’ll do very well (I have a mother who expresses her love through gifts; I have a baby shower coming up; I have no shame and well-known poverty; and I have a late-pregnancy Christmas).
*The boy clothing is on its way. They asked if I wanted to wait until I knew which gender Mini-Me is, and I said no. Whatever happens, we plan to have another child (and I suspect second pregnancies don’t involve as much free stuff, so I’m making the most of the time I’m in).
Two tales by John Scalzi
For today’s miscellaneous Monday, here are the links to two comical short stories by writer and blogger John Scalzi.
Interview with the nativity innkeeper
And here’s a bonus cat pic, taken as I did some winter writing:
Conflux 7: From here to there
Conflux 7 is a speculative fiction conference in my own home town – Canberra. The official program is here (and currently incorrect), but I’m guessing the bits you want to know are:
It’s not about the money. . . or is it?
I’ve said about a million times that if you don’t enjoy writing for the sake of writing – don’t write.
Crime pays more often than writing does, and I’m willing to bet there are more millionaire fraudsters than there are millionaire writers.
On the other hand. . .
If you want to get published, you need to actually connect both with individual readers (ie you need to make sense, and to CONVEY all that emotion in your imagination) and with the market (ie you need to obey certain conventions, such as a 60,000-80,000 word length in young adult books).
Lynn Price of the Behler Blog talks a bit about the difference between “writing for the love” and “lazy writing” here.
Speaking of lazy, I keep telling Ana that leaving muddy pawprints on my notes does not constitute co-writing. It doesn’t seem to bother her.
Philip Pullman book review # 2 of 4
“The Subtle Knife” is the second book in the “His Dark Materials” trilogy. Lyra – and several friends in unusual places – is still vital, and so is Will. Will is from our world, and he needs to find his father – an explorer who found something powerful enemies wanted, and hasn’t been seen since.
The rest of this review has been moved to Comfy Chair, where I get paid for it.
