What I’m Reading
Darknet – Matthew Mather
I ordered this on my Kindle about a week ago and I’m still reading it. I find the premise of an AI machine program cloning people fascinating and perhaps a bit larger than this book and it’s that sense of scope that’s lacking that sometimes pulls me out of the story.
The Geek Feminist Revolution – Kameron Hurley
Last year a group of sci-fi authors who were in the neighborhood popped over to Sweden to discuss a variety of topics, from Gods and Religion in stories to pushing the boundaries. One of these authors was Kameron Hurley, who I met at a book signing at the local sci-fi bookshop (I’m sure she remembers me, right? I was the geek in the room). I already had her latest fiction book on order and since you can’t go to a book signing without a book to be signed, I picked up a copy of The Geek Feminist Revolution.
I then brought it home, slipped into a dark depression and woke up around January. Today, I picked up the book from one of my book stacks and started reading it. I couldn’t put it down. The whole time I kept saying, ‘Yes!’ or ‘OMG, this is me, but in a different body.’
A book all women anyone who writes speculative fiction should read. A book all writers should read, whether you write speculative fiction or not. A book all feminists should read. A book anyone who wants equal anything should read. In other words, you should be on your way to order this book.
Omgiven av Idioter – Thomas Erikson
For those of you who don’t speak Swedish, this translates to Surrounded by Idiots. I don’t normally read in Swedish. Mainly because I understand only about 75% of what’s written. Even if I am able to guess at a word’s meaning because of the context, if I saw that word again, I doubt I’d remember it because it’s just one in a thousand that was new to me. Reading in Swedish takes a lot of mental energy for me and more often than not I end up with a headache.
But a co-worker recommended this book, so here I am. It’s an interesting book dividing people into color categories based on their personalities, an exercise we did at the paper. When I worked at the paper, I almost always made it into the green category. I’m not sure this book uses the same color personalities, though.
Personality books are always fun. I tend to read them like an excited four-year-old looks at a giant Easter basket filled with candy, ooohing and aaahhing over every thing I do in each category. I like to be silly! Oh, that’s so me. I hate rules! Oh, no, I’m definitely green. Seeking new knowledge is my thing. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks which color I really am =).
What I’m Writing
I’m on yet another revision of the Intergalactic Credit Union. Revision number five? Six? I think I have almost all the changes ironed out. In fact, I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to look at this story any more! I’ll finish these latest changes, which are minor. Adding a sentence in at the beginning tying back to a later point. Adding a few more lines of dialogue between two characters that heighten a dramatic moment. The nuts and bolts of the story are there. Once the changes are made, I’ll let it sit a week or so before submitting to readers for one final pass. Then I’m done! I’m actually quite proud of this story — how it evolved, and what it has to say. The only thing left is a proper title!
I’ve also received feedback on my sci-fi novella and it looks like I’ll be adding some words to that story as well. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive – encouraging news considering the quality of writers in my feedback group! The big recommendation was ‘more, more, more!’ I will expand the story, currently at 18,000 words, which will stretch it from a novella into a short novel. When I peer down the tunnel of story writing looking for the light at the end, I begin to stress a little. Instead, I’m just going to tackle this project by thinking about what needs to be added and not where I need to end up.
Cas Blomberg Communications 