I'm very pleased that my story "Take it Off" will appear in Absolute Xpress' upcoming zombie erotica anthology, Rigor Amortis. For some of you reading this blog (or watching my Twitter/Facebook streams), this is old news: but now I have a shiny new link to the official website! Click it, you know you want to!
I'm delighted to be included with so many talented (and twisted) authors. Many thanks and congrats are due to editors Jaym Gates and Erika Holt for all their hard work in bringing this anthology to, er, life.
You'll be able to get your copy starting October 1 on amazon.com and smashwords.com
(The author assumes no responsibility if you experience sudden cravings for brainnnnnssssss upon reading...)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Unintended Benefits of Clarion West: No. 37 in a Series*
*(actually the first in a series, but there will be more.)
I expected to go to Clarion West and whip my writing into shape. I also expected that my body would surely suffer from lack of sleep, the endless hours of slaving away at an overheating laptop, my body sustained by poor choices of sustenance such as Fritos, moon pies and ice cream.**
As it turns out, I lost about 8lbs at Clarion West, and it wasn't due to stress, either. I didn't have a car in Seattle, so most of the time I walked wherever it was I needed to go: the coffee shops to write, to fantastic Korean hot-pot shops to slurp noodles, to the zoo (with a little help from the bus)...
I probably walked 2-3 miles a day and sometimes more. It made a big difference to my mood, my stamina, and general well-being. I've found that since I've gotten back to L.A. ("Nobody walks in L.A!") that I've been restless without those daily walks. I'm going to the gym 3-4 times a week, but it just isn't quite the same. Pushing for more active weekends helps.
My diet has changed a bit, too. I'm eating a lot less meat now--something I've been trying to do for awhile. Some of my fellow Clarionites were definitely an influence -- when you share meals you learn to enjoy what other folks love.
When I posted a couple of weeks ago that Clarion West changed my life, I wasn't just talking about the writing and the great new friends. This is the best I've felt in a long time, and I'm going to do everything I can to keep feeling this way.
**many gallons of ice cream were consumed at Clarion West. You have been warned, future workshop attendees.
I expected to go to Clarion West and whip my writing into shape. I also expected that my body would surely suffer from lack of sleep, the endless hours of slaving away at an overheating laptop, my body sustained by poor choices of sustenance such as Fritos, moon pies and ice cream.**
As it turns out, I lost about 8lbs at Clarion West, and it wasn't due to stress, either. I didn't have a car in Seattle, so most of the time I walked wherever it was I needed to go: the coffee shops to write, to fantastic Korean hot-pot shops to slurp noodles, to the zoo (with a little help from the bus)...
I probably walked 2-3 miles a day and sometimes more. It made a big difference to my mood, my stamina, and general well-being. I've found that since I've gotten back to L.A. ("Nobody walks in L.A!") that I've been restless without those daily walks. I'm going to the gym 3-4 times a week, but it just isn't quite the same. Pushing for more active weekends helps.
My diet has changed a bit, too. I'm eating a lot less meat now--something I've been trying to do for awhile. Some of my fellow Clarionites were definitely an influence -- when you share meals you learn to enjoy what other folks love.
When I posted a couple of weeks ago that Clarion West changed my life, I wasn't just talking about the writing and the great new friends. This is the best I've felt in a long time, and I'm going to do everything I can to keep feeling this way.
**many gallons of ice cream were consumed at Clarion West. You have been warned, future workshop attendees.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
How Stretchy is the Future?
The other day, I was listening to NPR's excellent Planet Money podcast--an episode on Prohibition and whether FDR drank moonshine before being elected president and getting the 18th Amendment repealed.
It's an amusing (and informative) show, but one of the things that struck me was the discussion on inelastic goods. These are things that people will buy no matter how high the cost rises. Some good examples are tobacco, coffee, and gasoline. Our insatiable demand for booze is one of the things that doomed Prohibition, in fact.
These are pretty classic examples, and have been more or less constant for the last century (if not much, much longer). Now I'm wondering about the next century...
What are the nearish future's inelastic goods & services? What will we be unable to live without?
I think bandwidth is a likely contender. Whatever the internet looks like in 100 years or so, we're going to want to get connected and stay connected. We seem to be on the road to augmented reality (virtual overlays on the real world through our glasses, iThingies, phones) and this information will only become more and more vital to our everyday living. See Jack Graham's excellent two-part post on shareable.net for more on that.
But what else? It's easy to believe that medical insurance (in the U.S. at least) will continue to be in high demand, despite the costs. I can imagine some life extension therapies might be high demand and high price, but I don't see them as commonly available as something like alcohol, but you never know.
Education, perhaps?
I'm also thinking if some of the worst predictions about global warming and resource depletion come true, we'll be seeing some pretty high prices on staple food crops--maybe even on the processed junk. People gotta eat.
What about water? Especially in the southwest, where drought conditions are already prevalent, how much would you pay for a glass of water? Would you have a choice?
A lot of question marks in this article, but it has got me thinking. Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
It's an amusing (and informative) show, but one of the things that struck me was the discussion on inelastic goods. These are things that people will buy no matter how high the cost rises. Some good examples are tobacco, coffee, and gasoline. Our insatiable demand for booze is one of the things that doomed Prohibition, in fact.
These are pretty classic examples, and have been more or less constant for the last century (if not much, much longer). Now I'm wondering about the next century...
What are the nearish future's inelastic goods & services? What will we be unable to live without?
I think bandwidth is a likely contender. Whatever the internet looks like in 100 years or so, we're going to want to get connected and stay connected. We seem to be on the road to augmented reality (virtual overlays on the real world through our glasses, iThingies, phones) and this information will only become more and more vital to our everyday living. See Jack Graham's excellent two-part post on shareable.net for more on that.
But what else? It's easy to believe that medical insurance (in the U.S. at least) will continue to be in high demand, despite the costs. I can imagine some life extension therapies might be high demand and high price, but I don't see them as commonly available as something like alcohol, but you never know.
Education, perhaps?
I'm also thinking if some of the worst predictions about global warming and resource depletion come true, we'll be seeing some pretty high prices on staple food crops--maybe even on the processed junk. People gotta eat.
What about water? Especially in the southwest, where drought conditions are already prevalent, how much would you pay for a glass of water? Would you have a choice?
A lot of question marks in this article, but it has got me thinking. Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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