tychoish, now without a net

On Monday, that is next Monday (there! a firm week from now–if slightly relative–commitment) I’m going to start a posting to a new blog. This isn’t breaking news to readers of this site as I’ve been talking about this with some of you for weeks, and mentioning it sporadically on the blog. Let me tell you about the site, and what I intend for it.

The site will be called Critical Futures, and it will be a fiction blog where I (and possibly others) will post a new piece of science fiction every day. Not necessarily, as 365 Tomorrows posts an new independent story every day, but rather a new section or part of an ongoing story. I mean sometimes I might fit a whole story into a single post, but that’s not a goal that I’m aiming for as a writer.

[ETA: The site isn't, of course, up yet, but you can read the about page if you want a sneak preview. Remember next Monday.]

I’ve really grown to be fond of the regular blogging rhythm, and I think it would be nice to expand that habit into fiction writing. So the prospect of having a regular commitment to write and polish fiction for publication, will be a good thing. Kind of like the 365 projects, only different.

And I’ve been talking for a long time about a few things for a while: how blogging as a medium has potential for story telling, about how I want to write a story intended for online distribution. So I’m going to do it. Now. Because there’s no time like the present, and because I think that the most important thing for me to do right now is to just get content out there, and I think I’m at a point where I’d rather write toward a digital rather than a print audience. All the stars seemed to align, and in these cases I think it’s important to seize the moment and get stuff out there. So that’s what I’m doing.

So stay tuned. I’ll be posting little mini-entries here to announce the stories when they start to go up, and I have an entry for tomorrow that will cover/overview the story projects that I’ve been working on for the site. I’m really excited about this.

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I just wanted to post a little note.

First of all I want to thank you all for the birthday notes. It’s great to hear from you, and it was great to hear from so many of you. Thanks.

I’m out of town, and likely completely out of touch starting tomorrow morning blindingly early until Monday afternoon/evening. I’ll be at this, and it’s an event that I never take a computer to, so I won’t have anything meaningful to say to you until then.

I’ll probably be harping on this for a while, but I put out a call on the twitter (with an offer of a beer, in compensation) for “Virginia Woolf Steampunk” stories. This is either for deritive Woolf fiction with a steam punk flare; or with better luck, Woolf as the heroine of a steampunk story. My friend Sam Tung posted the first, on facebook, I think though it was close, but Miss Violet had a good one as well.

I’d love to hear more of these stories folks… Keep them coming. Maybe we can do a collection?

Anyway… Have a good memorial day, and even though I plan to have a blast at my thing, I’ll confess to being a little jealous of the folks who are going to WisCon and Balticon. Enjoy, and I want full reports folks.

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Ok, it’s been a quiet weekend, as I half predicted. I did get some writing done and other work done, but nothing is quite ready for prime time yet. I fear that I’ll be done with six entries all at the same time tomorrow afternoon, and that wouldn’t do at all. And I haven’t posted a general *how’s the tycho doing” report in a while, and I haven’t been writing these things here much.

I know that the post of the beginning of the latvian dreaming sweater might have happened a little fast, so I’m going have a series of quick posts that explain my reasoning here. Also, if you’re interested in doing a cardigan, I’ll cover that as well.

So here goes on the report, as much for archival purposes as anything

My grandmother had her right knee replaced a couple weeks ago (those of you who were playing along at home will remember that she broke a knee cap in January; that was the left one, which seems to be quite alright at the moment). My father and I–despite cold symptoms (his) one working voice (mine) and minimal preparation (ours)–trekked across the state to visit her in rehab. Turns out she’s doing great, but it was a really good thing that we were able to visit and help her out a little.

Then this weekend my entire family has to go to a wedding. Feh. I hate weddings, a lot. Though the couple in question lives locally, they’ve decided to have their party half way across the state. And we live in the midwest, so that’s a schlep. And since my father is going to be the best man (ugg) we can’t exactly swoop in for the ceremony grab a nosh at the reception and swoop out. Two nights we have to be there. Have I mentioned that while I think I live in a pretty nifty little city, the rest of the state is… somewhat less interesting. Mom and I are brining our spinning wheels, and are going to sit around in some yarn fiber store and cuss. If I post some rant against weddings and marriage, don’t take it personally.

On Thursday morning it’s May day, which means I have to get up at the crack of dawn, put on my morris dancing gear and dance the sun up. If the sun doesn’t rise, blame me, in other words. If you’re in St. Louis, email me for directions!

Then, from the wedding I’m going back to stay with my grandmother so I can help ease the transition back from rehab. That’s another week, though I hope that I’ll be able to get settled this time.

I have to rush back here on that friday, because I think I have to work and teach a knitting class that weekend. And then. As if that weren’t enough, I start my summer job that Monday. Which means I have a lot of things to take care of before that happens. The job is cool, it’s a shame that it isn’t more long term. My main focus of this summer–other than writing another novella and knitting 3 sweaters–is going to be finding a job for the fall and beyond. No pressure.

That’s the state of the tycho. I think I need another cup of tea.

Onward and Upward!

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So I’m off in a few to go visit with my grandmother who has recent had a knee replacement. (Indeed this means that the blog has been down one reader for a few weeks–rehab centers not having wifi and all–and likely will for another week and some change.) While there is high speed internet (how do you think said grandmother reads the blog,) my posting time might be a little bit sparse.¹

My goal is to post the first bread crumb of the latvian dreaming tonight.

I did want to share a couple of links that I’ve been collecting over the past few days and weeks.

• sockpr0n’s schacht matchless - This blog posting has some useful info on “hybrid” double drive setup, where you can do double drive with two separate bands rather than one band. This means you can have a finer degree of control over tension like you would with a break band, except with the evenness of double drive. Rock. On.
• y knit - I started listening to this as I was spinning with my mother this morning before getting ready to go. It’s great. Perfect length, great guys (hi mike!), nice insight. I’m generally pretty nonplussed towards the Stitch and Bitch stuff (the “consumer feminism” wigs me out, as does the hipster stuff.) but hearing Debbie Stoller talk makes me like her more, even if the aura isn’t something I”m into. I suspect I’m the last person to be getting into this (I’m generally 3 months behind on getting into new podcasts, at least), but if you’re not listening to this one, work on it.
• Tea Gadget - I got an email from the marketing department of this company, that makes this portable loose leaf tea brewing thing. I think the website might be an interesting place to start a semiotic study of advertising, and the contraption looks interesting. I’m not sure if it’s right for me, but you might be different. I think getting this email either means that I’ve arrived, or I’m officially passed my prime.

Anyway. Looks like that’s all the news that’s fit to sing.

Brownie points to the first person to figure that one out. That isn’t family.

Onward and Upward!

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tagged: Announcements • interwebs • knitting

So I/we’ve been trying for the past few months to get a new cat.

A dancing friend’s daughter’s (siamese) cat had kittens, and we were already to take one of those kittens that hadn’t found a home, but it turns out that they had. No new cat.

Then a friend of a friend found a cat, and given the previous experience we decided to be very affirmative and officially put dibs on the cat (given that the chance of cat psychosis was probably pretty low) and I even made an appointment with the vet (that has cared for the family’s animals for 25+ years).

And then the friend of a friend decided to keep the cat in spite of one of her family member’s allergy.

So we were 0 for 2, in the cat getting. And admittedly, we weren’t trying that hard.

But then over weekend a friend’s (the friend through which we were connected to cat number 2) new cat–an adopted stray–much to everyone’s surprise, had a (small) litter of kittens.

We’ve put dibs on one of the cats. With luck this one will work out.

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I heard back from WesternState Flagship University today.

No go.

Which is disheartening, mostly because I thought my chances were so good to begin with.

On the up side, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to being in WesternState so perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. Though I was really looking forward to the career possibilities that this program provided. So, yeah, a little hurt and angry, as well, frankly.

I’m beginning to think about contingency plans–of which I don’t have anything particularly good–even though I still have two, technically three, applications still outstanding. The two main ones are, pretty much up in the air, which is sort of crazy.

Anyway, I have to program for a radio show that I’m doing this afternoon, and I want to knit, and tonight is the my grandfather’s yahrzeit, which I think often makes this time in march more stressful than it would otherwise be.

So, I’ll be in touch. You be too.

Yours in struggle,
tycho

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