A challenging few days

Please excuse all the little tangents in this post. I thought about editing them out and decided to leave them so you can better see how busy and scattered I've been.

I'm heading out for DALMAC before the sun rises Wedenesday morning. This trip is unlike any other travel I've done before. Not only will I be biking long miles for five days strait (Lansing to Mt Pleasant to McBain to Elk Rapids to Petoskey to Mackinaw City), I'll also be camping. I've been camping with Buster a few times, but never a progressive camp where you have to tear down, move to a new location, and set up again each day. And I've done only one other multi-day bike trip. That was two days riding in California's Russian River Valley with a really wonderful friend that I don't see nearly enough of. She was a bridesmaid at my wedding and that trip was a bit of a bachelorette party with a touch less drinking and a lot more exercise than normally called for at such events.

That's us at Hop Kiln. We stayed in a great little Inn and had a wonderful time. But back to the point. A multi-day bike trip combined with camping is a new experience for me.

I'm a little bit of a nervous traveler. I spend days before any trip thinking about what I need to pack and gathering things and making sure things at home are taken care of and generally preparing. I'm even worse when it's some new kind of trip. So, I'm very very excited about DALMAC and I've been stressing myself out a little trying to get my things together and get ready to be gone from home and work for a week. I've also been trying to ride my bicycle as much as possible. So I've had a pretty packed schedule for the last couple weeks.

In the midst of my DALMAC preparation, I've had some fun family things to do. My challenging few days started out with some family friends in Bloomfield. They have a very nice house with a beautiful swimming pool and they invited us and the K's for a mid-week BBQ and pool party. BK was in town from San Francisco with her adorable daughter. I don't see them nearly often enough and BK is the big sister I never had. So I took half the day off to go play with my family.

I had a really nice time swimming with the girls and talking with BK and everyone else. I wish I would have stayed for the whole thing!

I left the party a bit early so I could meet up with the aabts in Plymouth for a ride on Hines Drive. As I was pulling out of the the neighborhood, one of these:


driving one of these:


was stopped at the stop sign in front of me trying to make a left hand turn in rush hour traffic. It was taking an awful long time for traffic to clear and he got frustrated. So he threw the giant SUV in reverse and backed strait into my poor little Ford Escort without a single glance in the rearview. (ok, the driver was a little older than the one depicted above, but not much.) We were on a residential street and I keep wondering, what if it wasn't my little escort, but somebody's dog, or worse yet, a child that he blindly backed into? It makes me a a little sick. And frankly, I must be getting old because it also makes me question the wisdom of allowing 16-yr-olds to operate dangerous machines.

In any case, now I have to deal with this:


That looks minor, but it's nearly $1500 in body damage to bumper and hood. On top of that, the car now sounds like someone tore the muffler off. My trustworthy mechanic (I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but Fox Auto on Dexter Rd in Ann Arbor is fantastic) took one listen and told me it's most likely a cracked exhaust manifold. Indeed, much to my surprise, some parts of the exhaust system are right there up front and they're brittle. He told me the accident almost certainly caused the damage.

The poor kid driving the SUV was quaking in his boots and near tears at the thought of giving me his insurance information or filing a police report. So I got his name and phone number and gave him mine and told him to have his parents call me the next day. (This is me being too darn trusting... Live and learn.)

By the time I arrived in Plymouth for my bike ride I was too late to ride with the club, but all was not lost. My friend Courtney was also a bit late so we had a nice ride together on Hines drive.

To add to the annoyances, before the family party I'd gotten a call from my sister-in-law, Sarah. She's married to Buster's brother so we also share the same last name. UofM health labs sent my blood test results to her. While I like and trust my sister-in-law, I'm a rather upset that the lab is not more careful to avoid a breach of privacy like this. I plan to call and complain and ask them to be more careful in the future. If they do it again, I'm thinking I might be calling a lawyer. (fyi, blood tests all came back normal and healthy. That's the good news. The bad news is I still don't know why I'm having such a miserably difficult time losing weight.)

I got up Friday morning and went strait to Dusty's Collision to get an estimate to fix the damage to my car. Then I went to my sister-in-law's office to pick up my lab results. Here's where she works:


That's the Deke Shant. It's owned by the fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon, and houses their national offices. Sarah works for the national office. She gave me a tour of the building. It's smaller than I thought, but still very impressive. I especially liked the stained glass windows on the upper floor. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures.

By the end of the work day Friday (clearly I didn't get much work done) I still hadn't heard from the SUV kid's parents. I googled the phone number he gave me to verify that he wasn't trying to pull a fast one. The results matched the name he gave me and also spit out the first names of his parents and their address. I love google. I called and left a polite message on their answering machine asking them to return my call. I'm naturally a bit too trusting but I was really getting suspicious at this point.

The car thing was definitely stressing me out so I needed my Friday evening bike ride and post ride beer more than ever. Sadly, not quite half way through the ride the storms and rain that were only 30% likely landed right on top of us. We got soaked. So the ride was a bust but dinner and beer with my bicycle friends at Casey's was just as fun as ever.

Saturday, with a list as long as my arm of things I wanted to get done and still no word from SUV kid, I was getting very very frustrated. I called the number the kid gave me again around 11:30am. The mother answered. I told her I wanted to come up to Bloomfield and file a police report and go through insurance to get my car fixed and I told her about Dusty's estimate and the cracked exhaust manifold. She told me she would call me back in 20 minutes when her husband had left. She didn't want him to find out. She called back at 12:30pm to tell me she'd changed her mind and wanted to wait for her husband to return because it was so much money. When the husband/father finally called around 2pm he had some outlandish plan to have my car taken to his buddy's body shop in another town to be fixed. I handed the phone to Buster.

Buster may not always be the most sensitive or romantic of husbands but he always knows when and how to stand up for me. And that's way more important to me than flowers and candle light. He flat out told that guy NO. We would either do the right thing and file a police report and go through insurance or he would give us the money to get the car fixed here in Ann Arbor.

Michigan is a no-fault state so my insurance pays to fix my car when I'm involved in a traffic accident no matter who's at fault. And there was no damage (that I could see) to his giant SUV. I'm sure his insurance would be made aware of the accident, but I doubt they'd change his premiums unless the kid was issued a ticket. And I don't think it's possible for the kid to get a ticket since we didn't call the police to the scene. I can't figure out why filing a police report and going through my insurance to fix my car was a problem for him.

I could only hear Buster's side of the conversation but they were definitely not coming to an agreement. Buster told him we'd be filing a police report the next day. When he hung up he asked me if I had time to go right away. I hopped in the car and headed for the Bloomfield township police department immediately.

I expected to get chewed out for not calling the police to the scene. I didn't. The officer that took my report was very nice. When he asked if I'd called the other party to have them to come in and file the report with me I told him about the conversation with the father and that I simply wasn't comfortable contacting them again (honestly, every Hummer I saw in Bloomfield made me a little nervous). The officer gathered all my information, gave me a complaint number and sent me on my way within just a few short minutes. He told me he was going to follow up with the other party immediately. I was relieved.

I ran home, showered and dressed, and headed for Monroe (in my noisy car) where some close family friends were renewing their vows. I missed the beginning of the ceremony but the end was lovely and the party was great fun. I'll post pictures when I get them.

I was confident that the stress and hectic running around of the last few days was over as I pulled into my drive near midnight last night. It was a pretty warm evening and I was looking forward to walking into my air conditioned house and changing out of my dress clothes and relaxing with Buster for a bit. Only, when I walked in the door, the house was way warmer than it should have been, it was only slightly cooler than outside. oh dear...

So, on top of my mis-routed medical information, my messed up car, nearly getting screwed by rich people driving large scary SUVs, missing one bike ride and getting soaking wet on another, our AC was broken. Waah!

I bought myself a new pair of these to make myself feel better:

Some girls buy Manolo Blahniks, I buy Sidis. Also, I found a new favorite bike shop.

I feel much better now.

One Hundred Miles

One hundred point six to be exact. It's a bit of a long way. It's even longer when you're on a bicycle.

I finally completed my first century of the summer this past Sunday (egads! it's almost fall! took me long enough!). I've done other centuries in years past but this is my first one that wasn't part of an organized tour with dedicated food and rest stops. This was an AABTS club ride called the Sleeker Senile (S)Century. Sleeker hosts this ride on third Sunday of each month. I regret not bringing my camera. The scenery was great, but there was a chance of rain and I was paranoid.

The ride began at 8am in Dexter. 8am and I are not the best of friends, but I made it and I was ready to ride. Sleeker handed out cue sheets (for those that might not know, a cue sheet is a list of cues or directions including the distance between turns and the total mileage at each turn). At the top of the cue sheet it said "Olivet Out n Back 130". 130? 130 miles? Oh Boy! Ok, that was not what I had in mind but wasn't really a problem, it's an out and back route so I could turn around at 50 miles instead of 65 and have my century without killing myself. Click through to see my route.

We pulled out of Dexter and within a few short miles I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the pack -- "the pack" being three very fit guys. About the time we reached Chelsea (shy of 10 miles into the ride) the guys had disappeared into the distance and I was firmly on my own. The weather was lovely and I pedaled along, quite happy to be riding at my own pace and enjoying the day. There was a bit of a headwind but I didn't let it bother me -- I knew it'd be at my back helping me along when I turned back toward home.

Around 25 miles in I was in need of a restroom and some water bottle refills. Just as I began to think about ducking into the woods to take care of the restroom portion I came upon Waterloo Recreation Area. This is where hulluva ride stops for lunch. I pulled in to the campground for a quick rest and refill.

Back on the road and about 45 minutes later I came across an unmarked intersection. The mileage showing on my bike computer wasn't quite right to be the turn I was looking for, but a construction detour in Chelsea and my detour into Waterloo had me a fair amount ahead of the mileage on the cue sheet. Maybe I had miscalculated. I was in completely unfamiliar territory so I pulled out some old maps from helluva ride and tried to figure out if I was still on them. While I was trying to decide which way to go another cyclist pedaled up and asked if I needed help. Her name is Dawn and she rescued me.

Dawn took a look at the cue sheet, pointed me in the right direction and offered to tag along for a bit. So I rode and chatted with Dawn for the next hour or so. When we reached the border of Jackson County she turned back and headed for home. I rode on into Ingham County toward Onondaga.

Onondaga is a teeny tiny little rural town about a dozen miles south of Lansing. The cue sheet recommended stopping here for food, rest, and refills. There was a nice little gas station/convenience store with picnic tables outside. I had a little lunch and a lot of water and Gatorade and I visited with another group of cyclists stopping for a snack. They'll be on the same dalmac route that I'll be on next week. Perhaps I'll see them there.

The Onondaga stop was just shy of the half-way point if I wanted to make a full century. So I got back on my bike and pedaled on up the road until my bike computer read 50.5 miles. The extra half mile was just to be sure. Better that I arrive back in Dexter with 101 miles than 99 miles because really wanted that century and I knew when I got back within sight of my car I'd be all done no matter what the mileage.

I passed a working oil well on my way up the road... Thought that was kinda cool. I didn't know we had those in Michigan. I reached the border between Ingham and Eaton Counties just as my bike computer reached 50.5 miles. So I turned around and headed back without entering Eaton. Three counties is enough for one day. The way back seemed shorter, though I had less company. I never really realized how pretty Michigan is until I started biking. This ride covered some very nice territory. The roads were more familiar on the way back and a gentle wind was helping me along so I rode a little easier and took more time to look around and enjoy the scenery.

I stopped again at Waterloo and went down by the lake this time. There were lots of families playing in the water and sitting on the beach and eating ice cream and generally enjoying the lovely weather. I hadn't planned on staying longer than it took to fill my water bottles and empty my bladder. But, with 75 miles down, I was getting tired and needed a little stretch and a short rest.

The last 25 miles were the most familiar and seemed to fly by. I had thought I might stop in Chelsea, ten miles from my destination, but when I got there I still had a full bottle left and was anxious to finish up. So I soldiered on.

As I rode the last stretch into Dexter I glanced down at my bike computer and relieved to see I wouldn't need to add any extra laps around town to reach the century mark. I was sore and exhausted and it felt wonderful to get off the bike. I had a few aches and pains but nothing serious. It was nothing like the time when my hand went numb on a century a couple years ago and I couldn't open a jar for two months. Or the time when I got saddles sores so bad on another century that I rode the last 5 miles without touching my poor tush to the saddle and couldn't wear underwear for a week. Or the time when I arrived home so dehydrated that I had a headache for two days. Yes, I think I've finally got this century thing figured out. My knees didn't even hurt the next day!

Not five minutes after I arrived in Dexter, two of the fast guys pulled in. They had done a full 130 miles. They must have set a blistering pace and they both looked at least as exhausted as I felt.

In case you're wondering, my ride time for 100.6 miles was almost exactly 7 hours. That's an average of 14.3 mph. The whole ride, with rest stops, took 8 hours. The 130 mile guys probably spent a little less time resting and probably averaged between 17 and 18 mph. That, in my opinion, is WICKED fast for that long of a ride. Someday maybe I'll be that strong! In the mean time, I'm pretty proud of my 100.6 miles.

The 2008 Hugos, part II (response to comments)

Wow! I've apparently attracted some attention with my Hugo post. Check out the comments on the previous post.

First, Mary Robinette Kowel has bunches of free fiction online here. Also, catching up a little on her blog after posting my Hugo rundown, I see she just sold a story to Subterranean Press. I, too, love Subterranean Press. Their books are treasures, both because they tend to choose wonderful stories and because they print and bind them with top notch materials and include the most beautiful art work. A Sub Press book is a tactile and visual pleasure as well as a good read. I'm looking forward to reading both Mary's online work and her Sub Press work. (Wow, a Hugo winner commented on my blog! That is so cool!)

I also got a comment from Nadine. I'm not sure who she is, but it sounds like she either knows Michael Chabon professionally or she's a knowledgeable fan. She indirectly pointed out that my rant was a bit harsh. She's right. I'm not sore about Michael Chabon, in particular, publishing SF under a mainstream imprint. To be quite honest The Yiddish Policeman's Union caught my eye even before it landed on the Hugo nominations list. I haven't read it yet simply because I'm a somewhat slow reader (especially during bicycling season) and my to-be-read pile is taking over my house.

Here's the problem: I can't decide if it's in the best interest of the science-fiction/fantasy community to hand a Hugo to a book printed under a mainstream imprint. On the one hand, the Hugo is and always has been a genre award. Is it a good idea to award Hugos to books that aren't publicly considered SF when there's so much excellent SF out there? On the other hand, this sort of thing might attract new readers and writers to the genre. By poking our heads out in the mainstream world and saying "hey, that mainstream novel is actually SF and we really liked it," we might make the literary world aware that a great deal of SF is literary, relevant, well written, accessible, diverse, and worth reading.

Did we award a non-SF work an SF award? Or did we recognize an outstanding SF story wrapped in a mainstream package?

Nadine's comments about alternate history are worth addressing here also. Alternate history has been a popular SF element for quite some time. PK Dick's The Man in the High Castle comes instantly to mind and is probably the most classic strait up example. Mary Gentle's Book of Ash series includes some fantasy elements as well as alternate history. The Axis of Time series by John Birmingham is a recently popular SF alternate history of WWII. I haven't read any Harry Turtledove, but he's known for writing fantasy alternate histories. I've read a ton of Tim Powers. Much of his stuff is considered secret history which I would consider the fraternal twin to alternate history.

I'm not particularly well read when it comes to modern mainstream fiction. If alternate history actually is a fairly common mainstream element, I'm not aware of it. Also, if the alternate history element in The Yiddish Policeman's Union doesn't make it SF, what does? Because if there's no science fiction or fantasy elements, it may very well be an excellent novel, but it shouldn't have been eligible for a Hugo. I don't care how amazing a book is, I think we want to exercise some care about what we set out there as the best sci-fi/fantasy novel of a given year. Anyhow, I'd better go read it before I get myself into any more trouble here.

To be perfectly honest, most of the angst in my rant comes from my brief experience with McCarthy's The Road. You see, when The Road first hit the shelves I was told I must go read this book. "It's SF, you'll love it," I was told. Oprah had just endorsed the book. Oprah's endorsement tends to be the mark of the beast in my mind. I just plain don't like the same books Oprah likes. The novels she endorses tend to be chock full of loneliness, misery, and woe. The Road is no exception. I stood in the middle of the bookstore and popped that book open to the middle (as I often do when I want to sample the flavor of a book) and started reading. I barely got through two pages before realizing that if I didn't set it down right away I was going to send it flying into into the far wall of the store. If mainstream readers think this is a good example of sci-fi... oh sweet lord save us my genre is doomed.

Look, Oprah, if you want to read loneliness, misery, and woe, go ahead, read The Road. If you want to read a well written, literary, post apocalyptic novel go check the SF shelves for A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller. That's my favorite of the many post apocalyptic novels I've read. The post apocalypse is a super popular old school SF theme. It's been done a zillion times. Don't go thinking The Road is something new and different, because as far as I can tell, it's a miserable example of a well worn theme. It just got stacked on a different shelf.

So my angst about The Road got mixed up with my mixed feelings and reservations about handing a Hugo to a main stream novel that is of unclear sf-ness.

Directly, I apologize for calling Chabon a jerk. That was totally out of line. I'm sorry. I'm sure he's a very nice person and I'm impressed to learn from Nadine that he's a member of the SFWA. Also I don't find any fault with his inability to attend WorldCon. I'm even fairly sure I'll like his book when I read it. While I remain skeptical, I promise to withhold final judgment regarding the book's Hugo worthiness until after I've read it. It's now firmly on my winter reading list and I plan to report back here.

2008 Hugo Awards

The 2008 Hugo results were announced last weekend. If you're not a Science Fiction fan or a follower of literary awards in general, then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

Science Fiction has two major awards, the Nebula and the Hugo. Nebula winners are chosen by the Science Fiction Writers Association (SFWA). The voters are professional writers so the winning works tend to be more literary and often more edgy or groundbreaking. The Hugo winners, on the other hand, are ostensibly chosen by the fans. The Hugo voting and awarding both happen every year at the World Science Fiction Convention. Attendees and anyone that wishes to pay for a supporting membership to the convention are permitted to cast a Hugo ballot.

Here's a rundown of this year's Hugo winners:

• Best Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins; Fourth Estate)
• Best Novella: “All Seated on the Ground” by Connie Willis (Asimov’s Dec. 2007; Subterranean Press)
• Best Novelette: “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean Press; F&SF Sept. 2007)
• Best Short Story: “Tideline” by Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s June 2007)
• Best Related Book: Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction by Jeff Prucher (Oxford University Press)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Stardust Written by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman Illustrated by Charles Vess Directed by Matthew Vaughn (Paramount Pictures)
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who “Blink” Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)
• Best Editor, Long Form: David G. Hartwell
• Best Editor, Short Form: Gordon Van Gelder
• Best Professional Artist: Stephan Martiniere
• Best Semiprozine: Locus
• Best Fanzine: File 770
• Best Fan Writer: John Scalzi
• Best Fan Artist: Brad Foster
• John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Mary Robinette Kowal
  

Starting with the novella (I'll come back to the novel at the end):

Connie Willis is my all time favorite. I love her. If I ever met her I would go all gaga-fan-girl and drool on her shoes and beg her to sign everything I own including my arm. I own at least one copy of every novel she's ever published, including some of the early ones that are hard to find. She is brilliant and funny and engaging and witty and... you get the picture. I could go on and on. I won't. I will tell you "All Seated on the Ground" is good, but not my favorite of her works. I believe it's filler while she works on a rumored massive novel set during the blitz in London that we've all been waiting for forever now. She's been publishing these little novellas every year for the past several years. None of them are bad (we are talking about the goddess of humorous science fiction here, after all, she's not capable of "bad"). But even the best of her novellas can't touch her novels. I'm really craving that next novel. These little novellas are lovely and enjoyable but it's like a little nibble of a snack when what you really want is a four course meal. I want that blitz novel.


On to the Novelette:

I haven't read “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” but I've heard good things. I'll have to track it down. Answer me this, though: What the heck is a novelette? I understand that there's a word-count definition available here (SFWA says a work between 7,500 and 17,500 words) but that, in my opinion, is a silly way to categorize literary works.

The difference between a novel and a short story is clear in the structure. Generally a short story has a single major beat to the plot and no more than one or two developed characters. Often all the characters are simple sketches or stereotypes and none are actually developed. A short story usually contains a single major idea -- a theme that can be summed up in a single sentence.

A Novel generally has a plot line with several beats usually accompanied by subplots and tangents and played out by one or more well developed major characters, who grow and change (or pointedly don't) as a result of the plot. A novel can easily contain several complex themes.

If a short story is a single at bat, then a novel might be a whole season of play or even the entire life's story of the batter.

Given those definitions based on literary elements rather than word count, I'm satisfied with the concept of a novella as something in between. For example, "All Seated on the Ground" has a plot with several beats, but a single theme and only one somewhat well developed character (the narrator).

So, can someone please differentiate a novelette for me without using word count? If it can't be differentiated without word count, why the heck does it deserve it's own award category?


The Short Story:

Ahhhh! E. Bear. Prolific, brilliant, literary, challenging, wonderful Bear. I can plow through a Connie Willis novel in 2 or 3 days. A novel of the same word count written by Elizabeth Bear might take me a month. She's a challenge to read because her work is layer upon layer packed full of ideas and allusions and complex, fascinating, often abused, and usually broken characters. Bear expects her readers to be intelligent, attentive, and well read. And I love her for it even if some of her stuff does fly right over my head.

I read "Tideline" in Asimov's when it was first published last summer. I didn't actually like it the first time I read it. I re-read it a couple months ago and walked away with a completely different opinion. It's fantastic. For some odd reason, the second read made me think of "Puff the Magic Dragon". In any case, it's a good story. Go read it for yourself and tell me what you think.

Bear better make some space on her mantle for all the awards she's going to win over the next few years. The woman is talented. And prolific, did I mention prolific?


The rest. Gonna skip a few categories here and just briefly comment on others:

Drama, Long form: Stardust by Neil Gaiman is a fantastically amazing brilliant and wonderful book. It's a fairytale in the spirit of the brothers Grimm -- dark and chilling and magical and heartwarming all at the same time. The movie was... eh.. pretty good. It sort of rounded off the edges, and the edges were the best part. But we're grading on a curve here and I suppose Stardust the movie was slightly better than the Golden Compass movie (also a far far better book than movie), and the rest of the nominees weren't even in the same league. So there you have it. Ok movie, worth renting. If you're a reader, go read the book instead.

Drama, Short form: Umm... I have a confession. I really don't get the fascination with Dr Who. I've tried watching it, I just can't get into it. Maybe, in the shadow of Farscape and Firefly (best SF TV shows EVER!) I'm expecting too much from my SF TV?

Locus, semiprozine? Locus pretty much is the journal of the professional SF world, so far as I know. Also, no fiction in Locus. huh. I guess I don't grok that category. ("grok": That word would likely be found in the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, winner of best related book Hugo, which I just added to my amazon wishlist.)

Hey! Scalzi got a Hugo! For best fan writer? Umm.. hey guys? News flash: Scalzi is a professional published author and his blog, The Whatever, while wildly popular and quite fun to read, is a promotional tool. Shouldn't best fan writer go to someone writing fan-fic? Oh well, Scalzi deserves a Hugo. And this one will have to do until we hand him one for best novel or the Hugo folks add a category for best SF blog/podcast. Which, really, they should do right away because blogs and podcasts are contributing to the SF genre in a major way these days.

Best new writer, Mary Robinette Kowal... umm... where's the work? 'cause really I wanna read it and I can't find it. I've read and very much enjoyed her blog. I've listened to her read a few different stories and fell head over heels in love with her voice. Seriously, she could read the telephone book out loud and I'd enjoy listening. She's very active in the SF community but I honestly can't find her stories and I really want to read them.

Ok, going back to best novel:

I apologize in advance for my rant. I'm just a wee bit miffed about this one. Why? Oh why? Why in the world? Why on god's green earth would SF fans vote for some jerk that won't even allow his work to be filed in the SF section of the bookstore? I don't care how good his novel is, I'm quite hesitant to put my hard earned book money into the hands of some fool that writes SF but is too darn good to admit he's an SF author. What is wrong with you people? You're promoting this author/publisher/agent that thinks you're just a bunch of useless geeks with no literary taste!

All right, all right. Maybe Chabon himself doesn't think he's too good for SF-fandom but his publisher and his agent must. And that's just as bad. The Audrey Niffeneggers (Time Traveler's Wife), the Cormac McCarthys (that post-apocalyptic rip-off dung-heap called The Road), and the Micheal Chabon's of the world can all go piss up a flagpole. They want to use the tools of SF (time travel, post-apocalypse, alternate history) without being directly compared to other writers in the genre. They don't want to be considered genre authors. By denying that their work is SF they further and promote the idea that SF cannot be literary or relevant, that it does not speak about values and concepts and the ways in which we choose to live our lives.

I have news for you fools that think you're too good for the SF shelves.

You are too good to sit alongside Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, a book that shows us the dangers of mass media and the cautions us not to shut out concepts and ideas that diverge from the popular.

Your novels too important to rub shoulders with Orwell's 1984, or Huxley's Brave New World, or Zamyatin's We. Distopias all, without which we would not have the concepts or a healthy fear of Big Brother, groupthink, or soma.

And don't forget Asimov's Foundation about fate and free will. Or Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness about gender politics.

How 'bout Frank Herbert's Dune? Among it's other epic themes, it's about winning the hearts and minds of a religious desert people who control a vital economic resource -- that couldn't possibly be relevant today!

Then there's Elizabeth Moon's The Speed of Dark about an autistic man. This book raises critical moral and ethical questions about our advancing medical skills and technology.

Oh, and you certainly wouldn't want your work to be seen near Peter Watts's Blindsight, a deeply chilling and utterly brilliant novel about the nature and utility of self consciousness.

Your novel is literature and these are science fiction, and never the two shall meet! I wonder, Michael Chabon and Harper Collins, will you stamp "Hugo award Winner" on the next printing of this book? Or "by the Hugo award winning author" on your next release? Will you now embrace SF, after initially shunning it, now that the SF community has recognized you as one of our own and embraced you? Maybe, just maybe, you'll discover that we're not all geeky Star Trek obsessed adolescent boys.

Will I eventually read The Yiddish Policeman's Union? Yes, most likely I will. I've made a point in the last several years of reading all the past Hugo award winners and reading many of the past nominees. And, there's a flip side to my rant here... Perhaps by recognizing a main stream novel with a major SF award we will make the non-SF reading community aware that SF can be, and often is literary and well worth reading. Maybe a few literary snobs out there read this book before we handed it a Hugo and will now think "Hey, I read that, I liked it. It's SF? huh. Maybe there's other SF out there worth reading." And that would be a victory for SF.

So maybe there's a silver lining, but I'm still grouchy about all these folks that write SF but are squeamish about being labeled as SF writers.

There you have it, the 2008 Hugos and my opinions.. and my rants . Check out the Denvention Hugo nomination page to see a list of all this year's nominees. Most of the shorter works are available online, linked from that Denvention page. And if you prefer to give them a listen, escape pod podcasted four of the five short story nominees including Bear's "Tideline".

If this post bored you to tears, I promise there's more biking content coming soon, and probably other stuff too... and if you enjoyed this, well, there's more SF commentary in the works as well. I'm gonna try to shorten things up around here and post a little more often. I don't make any promises, though.

A Baby Shower

More biking and knitting and maybe even a little bit about my fiction obsession to come. Today, a baby shower.

A week and a half ago we had a baby shower for Baby K. Sorry it took me so long to post about it. It took a while to sort through all the pictures. First a picture of Baby K himself:


Hope Mom and Dad don't mind me posting that. As you can see, there's very little doubt about this baby's gender!

Here's my favorite picture of Mom and Dad:


And my favorite picture of Big Sis:

Isn't that just the cutest smile you've ever seen?

(Ok, some folks might think it's strange that we're having a baby shower when this is Mom's second baby. Allow me to explain. Big Sis is Dad's step daughter and Dad's family and friends didn't want to miss out on all the baby shower fun so we insisted on throwing a shower. There, not so strange, after all.)

There were lots of guests. I've got pictures of only a few.

Here's my mom sitting with Grandma K and the baby's Dad.


Here's one of the baby's Grandmas sitting with her sisters:


Here's a few old friends and neighbors:


And more friends. That's baby's other Grandma on the right:


And the food was absolutely amazing. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but I was too busy eating it. There was a lovely appetizer plate with steamed asparagus and little melon balls and fancy crackers and this super delish savory cheese cake bite with roasted red pepper. Then there was the main dish with super yummy salad greens and berries and an amazing vinaigrette dressing, a wonderful little crab cake, and a sandwich wrap. For dessert we had cream puffs and fruit flan. My mouth is watering just remembering all that wonderful food!

Then we all had great fun watching Mom and Dad and Big Sis open presents:


They got all kinds of goodies for the little one: a whole bunch of books and lots of cute little outfits, adorable toys, a high chair and a car seat and a play mat, and all sorts of brown and blue bedding and decoration for the baby's room.

Mom and Big Sis share a laugh while Dad tries on baby's new panda bear hat (can you see the little ears?).

We all had great fun and I even had fun cleaning up. After the tables and chairs were all stacked in the garage I got to chase Big Sis around the empty living room and tie her pigtails together and find her ticklish spots. I think Big Sis is gonna love having a little brother. I hope I get a chance to babysit!

If you want to see a few more pictures, or you want to download the full size files, you can find them here: http://www.lunar.net/~sara/pictures/kaye-baby-shower-7-27-2008/