Since this is my blog, I guess I should occasionally write about stuff I care about. Anyway, I’m going to be a novelist! I just finished the third draft (102,000 words) to my novel which expands on a story I originally wrote piece by piece on this blog back in 2005 — Superego — which people seemed to really like (though, in retrospect, I think the writing was poor). It’s completely rewritten, though (maybe a sentence or two from the original was kept and the plot is now way different).
I still think it needs a lot of work to get to the final draft which SarahK is going to help with, but eventually I’ll need some other people to read it to get some other opinions on it if people are interested. And when it’s done — I’m not really sure. I don’t know what the path is for getting science fiction novel in this day and age, but I figure getting s finished, polished novel is the first step.
Are you excited? I don’t care if you are; I am. But if any of you know anything about novel writing, editing, or getting published, advice would be appreciated.
UPDATE:
Just to clarify, the goal is to not self-publish. I’m not really much of a marketer myself, so I don’t know how well that would go. Also, thanks for the offers to help edit; SarahK is going to first help me, and then I’ll see who else wants to take a look.
* So no deal on the debt ceiling yet. During the negotiations, Obama walked. Or maybe the Republicans walked away. Or maybe they both walked away. But they’ll need to make a deal soon because society itself will collapse if the government is unable to create more debt.
Wish we the taxpayers could walk away. I have drinking water and beef jerky; I say we default. Not everyone will be able to survive — I expect all the politicians to die off during winter — but then things should settle pretty nicely after that.
* The Huffington Post reports that a new “Super Congress” is being planned by the Republicans and Democrats. This could just be paranoid ramblings, but let’s assume it’s true and get upset. The last thing we need is a “Super Congress”; if anything, Congress needs less power. Instead, we need a new like “Kiddie Congress” where they can only pass resolutions and don’t have power to do anything or spend anything. You can’t help balance the budget, you go to Kiddie Congress.
Kiddie Congress is in Antarctica.
* Here’s an article from the Los Angeles Times on the Norway murders: “Muslims feel sting of initial blame”. Subtitle: “Non-Muslims feel bullets, shrapnel.” Really, who would think of writing an article like this? It’s as if there’s a plot to portray Muslims as either savage terrorists or whiny losers indifferent to Islamic terrorism. Yeah, why in the world would people see bombs and random murder and think “Muslims”? Where in the world would we get that crazy idea from? If Muslims are angry at anything other than the people in their own religion murdering people, they’re doing it wrong.
* Ron Paul is polling neck and neck with Obama, 41% versus Obama’s 42% in the latest Rasmussen poll. So either Ron Paul has become more popular, or that’s just how unpopular Obama is. I guess we need to see how Obama polls versus a turnip to decide.
RON PAUL!
* With the end of the shuttle, 1,600 have been laid off in Florida. Obama really racking up those jobs. Really, though, people getting off government jobs would be a good thing if there were private sector space jobs to go to. Lately in America, though, it seems like we’ve been trying too hard to skimp by to actually innovate. Is the private sector going to genetically resurrect dinosaurs and put rocket launchers on them any time soon? Probably not — partially because of oppressive regulations on rocket launchers.
* Red states have better schools than blue. You don’t need higher taxes to succeed, apparently; you just need standards and to break up those teachers unions. I mean what are teachers unions but an organization devoted to making sure your kids get the least amount of education for the most amount of money… plus they tend to be in bed with the Democrats who run the blue states. No amount of poor education will ever make liberals believe they’re not smarter than everyone else, though.
* Cern scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (not the Medium Hadron Collider or the Fun-Size Hadron Collider) think they may have caught a glimpse of the Higgs Boson particle. If you don’t know what a Higgs Boson particle is — and who does — I think it’s like the missing link between matter and energy. Anyway, I already know the twist ending to this: *SPOILER ALERT* The Cern scientists were Higgs Boson particles all along!
* New Crowder video! And it makes fun of Bill Maher which always seems both cruel and necessary:
Sorry, but I love RiffTrax. If you want to watch them make fun of a modern movie (though the movie is a few years old, they just released a riff for X-Men: The Last Stand which was hilarious) you’ll still have to sync that up yourself, but now you can watch on Hulu them riff old educational shorts and movies that no one has the rights too (which surprisingly includes Night of the Living Dead). Anyway, here is the educational short Drawing for Beginners: The Rectangle.
1) 49 states secede from the union leaving only California in the USA and holding the bag for all of the debt.
2) Form a new United States with the same constitution plus a balanced budget amendment and an amendment banning purse-dogs.
3) Anyone who suggests raising taxes gets catapulted over the wall & alligator filled moat into California.
Yosoff, it is such an honor to me that you read my blog.
