Blurred Line

A bit of preamble here: Obviously, I've been on holidays. I meant to get into the whole end-of-the-year meme business, but when I returned home my internet wasn't working (routers are a bitch, to put it bluntly). Anyhow, I'm reconnected now, so I'm going to condense it all into one big Cavan on 2006 post.

My impressions, actually, are pretty simple: I've never been happier to boot a year out the door. With the notable exception of finding a great new apartment (complete with great roommate), 2006 was a massive bust on just about every possible front. Tons of unhappiness in my personal life (which I've only been coming out of in the past month or so), a number of financial worries and, to top it all off, I'm pretty sure that I only wrote about 10,000 words this year. Pathetic.

On the upside, though, this has been a year for personal growth. The Cavan of January 2006 is a very different person than the Cavan of December 2006. So, even though 2006 wasn't exactly a banner year for me, I'm not particularly displeased with it. I mean, if you're taking something positive away in the end, like improved self-awareness for example, having had a bad year isn't such a terrible thing in the long run. Of course, I'd rather have gained self-awareness from bathing in piles of money and being fed grapes by beautiful women. But, hey, you win some, you lose some, right?

With that image in mind, I'd like to set out some writing goals for 2007. I've got personal goals, too, but they're, you know, secret. My writing goals for 2006 were somewhat ambitious, but I was fresh off my first semipro publication. Only now do I realize how lucky I was to get that, having seen firsthand some of the high quality writing that comes into token payment markets. Anyhow, as for the goals.

Obviously, the main goal is to actually write. For me, writing has never been a form of escapism. Instead, it's something that I need to do with a clear mind. So, with all the things that went on in 2006, it's not a huge surprise that my production was pretty much non-existent. So, goal #1 is to write at least 50,000 words this year. Even with my slow writing taken into account (I've never been able to churn stuff out quickly), this should be a realistic goal.
Publish at least three stories. At what level, I don't care, but it'd be nice to have at least one of them go to a semipro or pro market. As always, Strange Horizons and Futurismic are #1 and #2 on my hit list, so if I get picked up there, I'll be ecstatic.
Finish Mass Romantic. This was one of my goals for last year, too. Instead, I only added about 2000 words, which is kind of depressing. However, the story keeps turning itself over in my mind and it's still my favourite of all the stuff I've ever written, so I will finish it eventually.
If I'm feeling really ambitious and all the stars align correctly, I might even start up on Archive again. Of course, I've been out of the BL/GERA world for so long that I'm not sure it'll happen. Nonetheless, Archive remains my pet project. I don't really see myself starting on a novel this year, as I've decided that it's somewhat beyond my talents at this point, but I've also got vague ideas for a novel based on the world in "Learning Magic From Mint" and one based on the world in "Between Eternities" and "Spam". So, if either of those resolve themselves into something more concrete, I might just start on that.
Lastly - get accepted into Clarion. I don't even know if I could go, the money situation being what it is. I don't care. I'd kill to go to Clarion (seriously - I can make it look like suicide).

To finish off, I think it's time for a look into the future, astrology style. Don't deny it, you totally love horoscopes, even if they're only accurate with some real flexible interpretation:

Gemini thrives on change, variety and mental stimulation. You will attract these in all areas of your life, making for a very exciting year. (Really? More change? Can't I just kick back for a while?) Your ability to feel connected with people will help keep strong relationships going this year. Treat life's challenges as projects and you will inevitably figure out what's going on. (Hey, wait...isn't this the kind of non-specific claptrap that could apply to absolutely anyone?) You will make long strides in your career this year -- as long as you keep faith in yourself. The energy you put into your work will allow you to experience many material blessings in your home environment. (Sweet! I guess this means I'm going to graduate, find a real job, and buy a PlayStation 3.) Pay close attention to your own creative ideas. (Don't worry, I've got that covered.) Many new inspirational ideas are coming your way and you will benefit by putting your ideas into action in your career. (So, not only will I have the ability to pay the bills, but it looks like I'll have a ton of awesome writing ideas, too.) You attract a variety of people with your great charm, and you have a natural ability to gain admiration. (I am, after all, a suave and dashing gent.) You are much more in need of sharing yourself in a one-on-one relationship than ever before and, lucky you, an adventurous lover is in store for you as your radiance attracts someone very special during the first three months of the year. (A real job, a PS3, writing muses going full tilt, and a girl? Looks like 2007 is coming up Cavan.) For most of the year, communication will be top priority, and you'll be asked to articulate your inspirational ideas in some kind of writing project. (Some kind of writing project!? Hey, maybe these horoscope people do know what they're talking about.)

Well, I'm off to celebrate. Looks like I have a lot to look forward to next year.

To sum up the last week: I'm done! Nine semesters of school down, one to go. Woo-hoo! The next two days, of course, will likely be dominated by blinding drunkenness, which should make work interesting. So, you know, wish me luck with that.

After that, I plan to bombard all of you with those wonderfully pointless end-of-the-year memes. Save for the period between the 23rd and the 27th, when I'll be off celebrating the holidays (actually, I'll just be driving between four different cities, making brief celebratory stops - seriously, I'm going to have to spend about 20 hours in the car over the course of four days, which, let's face it, just isn't worth it unless there's a beach resort and/or a really attractive girl at the end of the road).

I've read through the bulk of stories that have come in so far at Fusion Fragment and I just wanted to mention the main reason behind my rejections. Actually, this issue was behind a lot of the rejections for Goodbye, Darwin, too, so if you're a writer, you might want to listen up.

A significant number of the stories I've received are perfectly serviceable, solid pieces. But that's all they are. It seems as if the writers have come up with an idea, a character and then written the story with a "let's get in, write the damn thing, and get the hell out" kind of mentality. What this produces, ultimately, is sterility. And I'm reading a lot of sterile stories.

Let me put together an analogy here. Remember in grade school, when you had to do presentations on stuff? I had to do them all the time. Anyhow, you'd get marks on the academic side of things and you'd also get marks on your presentation skills. Now, in an SF story, your characters, plot and ideas are your academic marks. If you don't have those...well, then you don't have a thing. The kid who gets up in front of the class and makes something up that's way off base, or stammers out a whole lot of nothing until the teachers tells him to sit down...yeah, that's you. But most kids, they have all that stuff. Most of the people who have submitted stories to me so far, they're getting full academic marks. But when it comes time for the presentation, they're reading information off a bland piece of bristol board in a monotone voice. There's no life, no spark. Everything's related matter-of-factly. All the sentences sound the same.

So, how to punch it up? Well, if you're writing a short story, I'm a big fan of switching to first-person. Benjamin put up an interesting post on writing in the first-person yesterday, in response to somewhat who asked if it was detrimental to do so. Well, a lot of people dislike first-person, but I don't count myself among them. For short stories, I actually prefer it. Why? Well, you've got about 5000 words to tell a whole story, which doesn't leave much room for characterization. I like to use first-person because it allows me to rely on voice, which is a terrific way of both letting your reader identify with your character and also for injecting a little flair into your story.

If you're opposed to the first-person, make sure you're thinking about your sentence structure. Sure, it might sound boring, but if all your sentences sound the same, well, then you sound boring, which is exponentially worse. You might also want to aim for some interesting settings. Some people rail on against stories with a lot of description, but you know what's prevailing in the stories I've received? No description of setting, or very cursory and obvious ones. Don't be afraid of a paragraph of description every now and again - it's not going to alienate your reader unless you go overboard on the frequency of descriptions, or you have purple prose issues.

So, those are the tips from the editor for the day. Questions? Comments?

So, I have to comment on Jeff Noon's Vurt. Because, well, it's the kind of book that you just have to have an opinion on, whether you enjoyed it or not. I count myself among the former, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as the book is essentially really bizarre cyberpunk. I mean, really bizarre. Vurt is cyberpunk wacked out on LSD. There's dogmen, mind-reading shadow girls, half-robot everything, virtual reality aliens that somehow get transmogrified into the real world, snakes that inject virtual reality into you, and bullets that get you high and slowly turn you into a Technicolor light show.

Oh, and the story, you ask? Well, Scribble and his friends, who form a gang called the Stash Riders, are Vurt junkies. Virtual Reality games, in the novel, are essentially drugs. Low-level ones are legal and can be purchased at convenience stores, while homemade (and sometimes lethal) ones are only available illegally. So, anyway, Scribble and his sister (who also happens to be his girlfriend, by the way) do a Yellow (the most dangerous of all Vurts, because you can't pull out unless you die or beat the game). Well, his sister gets sucked into the Vurt and a giant green blob from the Vurtworld gets spat out. So, as you can imagine, Scribble and his gang have to go on a rescue mission to find his sister.

Now, I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, but Noon's novel is genuinely fascinating. He's also got the noir style down to a science, so the book has style to spare. Be sure to check this one out.

Funny thing about living in the internet age is that you can have an idea one day and have it brought to fruition the next. Even if, say, that idea is a science fiction e-zine. Maybe one day you're checking out web designers and thinking about what kind of stories you want during study breaks and the next day, after you come home from your exam, you've got a fully functional website and you're ready to start taking submissions for your first issue.

That's right, people. It can happen that fast.

I've been kicking around the idea of setting up an e-zine over the past couple of days. Obviously, I got to wear the editor's hat while reading submissions for Goodbye, Darwin, but even then I had to share, so I think I'd like to give it a go on my own this time. Plus, whenever I look at places to submit my work, of all the lower-level paying markets (ie. the ones who give token payments), there aren't many who focus purely on SF - it always seems to be fantasy, horror, or "dark"/"bizarre" SF. And what kind of writer complains when another spot to shop their work opens up?

Anyhow, I have a huge chunk of free webspace sitting around in my Apodis account, so I'd set up shop there, with the e-zine having a loose affiliation to Apodis (I'm thinking maybe some anthologies could come of this). Well, it's all just speculation right now, but don't be surprised if something comes of this in the new year.

I tend to prattle on every now and again about how everyone should read short stories (well, come on, you should). Anyhow, I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention a holiday special being offered by Sybil's Garage. If you've never heard of it, Sybil's Garage is an amazing little mag (not only are the stories great, but it looks great, too), that's perfect for those of you who prefer their science fiction with a big helping of literary-ness instead of...umm...science-ness. Anyway, go buy a copy - with the special, issue #3 is five bucks, plus you get a free PDF download of issue #2.

Speaking of the holidays, I just have to bring up what my mother wants for Christmas. Stuff for the house? Nope. Clothes? Not even close. Cheap little trinkets that express true feelings of love? Well, getting warmer.

My Mom, for Christmas, sent me a questionnaire (along with an SASE, by the way - she'd fit right in here in the writing world). There's a lot of "favourite" questions on there, but the important ones have to do with stuff that happened during the year - what was my most embarassing moment, what was my biggest accomplishment, etc. Now, for those of you who don't know, my brother and I live in Ontario, while my Mom lives back in Alberta (for those of you in the States who don't know their Canadian geography, think New York to Montana). We talk about once a week, but only get to see each other once every two years or so. So, you know, get your Mom something nice for Christmas.

Maybe some Sybil's Garage?

I figured it was high time I put a new song up on Cavan Radio and since about 50% of the stuff I'm listening to these days is garage rock, I thought I'd take that avenue. The Sights, like a lot of the best garage rock acts around these days, are based out of detroit. I picked up their self-titled album (disc #3 for the group) a couple of months ago and have been pretty impressed with it. It's (for the most part) terrific hard-rocking stuff, with a liberal dash of that Motown soul. You can't hear it too much on this track, but the band also has a great keyboardist, which seals the deal for me. This track, "Last Chance", is a great little song with one hell of a catchy guitar riff. If you like the song, you might want to check out the album on Amazon. As usual, just press the "ZAP" button on the player to get started.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, is it a sign of maturity that I really want a pair of slippers for Christmas? My feet are freezing!

In the tradition of slacker university students everywhere, I pulled another all-nighter last night, working on an essay on The Faerie Queene. Not a great essay, but hey, I'm just going for a pass. Also managed to squeeze in an extra day at the office, and a party where my Snakes and Ladders drinking game (a Christmas present from last year) was finally taken out of the box and put to good use. Apparently, I'm not particularly good at Snakes and Ladders.

I also had the pleasure of reading an absolutely terrific book, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I absolutely love family sagas, and this is one hell of an interesting family. The book, narrated by Cal Stephanides, kicks off with Cal's grandparents, two Greeks living in Turkey, who are forced to emigrate to the States due to war. From there, we have the story of their lives in Detroit, and that of Cal's parents - from rum-running in the Prohibition era, to war in the Pacific at the close of WWII, to the city's race riots in 1967. In fact, as much as the story is a stirring family saga, it's also a fantastic portrayal of the evolution of a country. But, of course, all of these stories are only apocryphal. Because this novel is about Cal, born Calliope, who is raised as a girl until the age of fourteen. Cal is, in fact, a hermaphrodite, and eventually chooses to live as a man (don't worry, I'm not wrecking anything - that's established in the first few pages). So, you have a family saga, a coming-of-age story, and a fascinating examination of prejudice (whether by race and gender). It's just a fabulous book. Go read it.

And, for those of you whining and complaining about why there's no ultra-hip Moonbase yet (isn't that what kids talk about these days?), your prayers have been answered. NASA has plans to have a permanent staffed outpost on the Moon by 2024.


Profile Editor. Writer. 9-5er. Lord of the Dance. Blurredline.com Apodis Publishing Fusion Fragment cterrill(at)blurredline.com Buy Goodbye, Darwin Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format Buy Blurred Line Amazon.com Amazon.ca Chapters.ca Barnes&Noble.com Read it free in PDF Format The Short Stuff "Learning Magic From Mint" - published May 2007 in Atomjack "Between Eternities" - published October 2005 at Speculative.ca "Smoke and Mirrors" - published June 2005 in Byzarium Submissions Log Total Subs: 25 Acceptances: 3 Rejections: 17 Withdrawals: 3 Subs Out: 2 Quality Blogs Scalzi's Whatever Dave's Blogography Bookslut The Struggling Writer SF Signal the0phrastus Paperback Writer Scribe's Writing Desk Nathan Bransford Lyons Literary LLC The World in the Satin Bag Book In The Oven The Word Perhaps We Learned Something... Words, etc. Archives March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 Et Cetera Cavan @ Last.fm Cavan @ LibraryThing Feeds Atom Feed RSS Feed	Sunday, December 31, 2006 - A Look Back and a Look Forward A bit of preamble here: Obviously, I've been on holidays. I meant to get into the whole end-of-the-year meme business, but when I returned home my internet wasn't working (routers are a bitch, to put it bluntly). Anyhow, I'm reconnected now, so I'm going to condense it all into one big Cavan on 2006 post. My impressions, actually, are pretty simple: I've never been happier to boot a year out the door. With the notable exception of finding a great new apartment (complete with great roommate), 2006 was a massive bust on just about every possible front. Tons of unhappiness in my personal life (which I've only been coming out of in the past month or so), a number of financial worries and, to top it all off, I'm pretty sure that I only wrote about 10,000 words this year. Pathetic. On the upside, though, this has been a year for personal growth. The Cavan of January 2006 is a very different person than the Cavan of December 2006. So, even though 2006 wasn't exactly a banner year for me, I'm not particularly displeased with it. I mean, if you're taking something positive away in the end, like improved self-awareness for example, having had a bad year isn't such a terrible thing in the long run. Of course, I'd rather have gained self-awareness from bathing in piles of money and being fed grapes by beautiful women. But, hey, you win some, you lose some, right? With that image in mind, I'd like to set out some writing goals for 2007. I've got personal goals, too, but they're, you know, secret. My writing goals for 2006 were somewhat ambitious, but I was fresh off my first semipro publication. Only now do I realize how lucky I was to get that, having seen firsthand some of the high quality writing that comes into token payment markets. Anyhow, as for the goals. Obviously, the main goal is to actually write. For me, writing has never been a form of escapism. Instead, it's something that I need to do with a clear mind. So, with all the things that went on in 2006, it's not a huge surprise that my production was pretty much non-existent. So, goal #1 is to write at least 50,000 words this year. Even with my slow writing taken into account (I've never been able to churn stuff out quickly), this should be a realistic goal. Publish at least three stories. At what level, I don't care, but it'd be nice to have at least one of them go to a semipro or pro market. As always, Strange Horizons and Futurismic are #1 and #2 on my hit list, so if I get picked up there, I'll be ecstatic. Finish Mass Romantic. This was one of my goals for last year, too. Instead, I only added about 2000 words, which is kind of depressing. However, the story keeps turning itself over in my mind and it's still my favourite of all the stuff I've ever written, so I will finish it eventually. If I'm feeling really ambitious and all the stars align correctly, I might even start up on Archive again. Of course, I've been out of the BL/GERA world for so long that I'm not sure it'll happen. Nonetheless, Archive remains my pet project. I don't really see myself starting on a novel this year, as I've decided that it's somewhat beyond my talents at this point, but I've also got vague ideas for a novel based on the world in "Learning Magic From Mint" and one based on the world in "Between Eternities" and "Spam". So, if either of those resolve themselves into something more concrete, I might just start on that. Lastly - get accepted into Clarion. I don't even know if I could go, the money situation being what it is. I don't care. I'd kill to go to Clarion (seriously - I can make it look like suicide). To finish off, I think it's time for a look into the future, astrology style. Don't deny it, you totally love horoscopes, even if they're only accurate with some real flexible interpretation: Gemini thrives on change, variety and mental stimulation. You will attract these in all areas of your life, making for a very exciting year. (Really? More change? Can't I just kick back for a while?) Your ability to feel connected with people will help keep strong relationships going this year. Treat life's challenges as projects and you will inevitably figure out what's going on. (Hey, wait...isn't this the kind of non-specific claptrap that could apply to absolutely anyone?) You will make long strides in your career this year -- as long as you keep faith in yourself. The energy you put into your work will allow you to experience many material blessings in your home environment. (Sweet! I guess this means I'm going to graduate, find a real job, and buy a PlayStation 3.) Pay close attention to your own creative ideas. (Don't worry, I've got that covered.) Many new inspirational ideas are coming your way and you will benefit by putting your ideas into action in your career. (So, not only will I have the ability to pay the bills, but it looks like I'll have a ton of awesome writing ideas, too.) You attract a variety of people with your great charm, and you have a natural ability to gain admiration. (I am, after all, a suave and dashing gent.) You are much more in need of sharing yourself in a one-on-one relationship than ever before and, lucky you, an adventurous lover is in store for you as your radiance attracts someone very special during the first three months of the year. (A real job, a PS3, writing muses going full tilt, and a girl? Looks like 2007 is coming up Cavan.) For most of the year, communication will be top priority, and you'll be asked to articulate your inspirational ideas in some kind of writing project. (Some kind of writing project!? Hey, maybe these horoscope people do know what they're talking about.) Well, I'm off to celebrate. Looks like I have a lot to look forward to next year. Cavan blogged at 10:45 AM \| 5 comments Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - Done! To sum up the last week: I'm done! Nine semesters of school down, one to go. Woo-hoo! The next two days, of course, will likely be dominated by blinding drunkenness, which should make work interesting. So, you know, wish me luck with that. After that, I plan to bombard all of you with those wonderfully pointless end-of-the-year memes. Save for the period between the 23rd and the 27th, when I'll be off celebrating the holidays (actually, I'll just be driving between four different cities, making brief celebratory stops - seriously, I'm going to have to spend about 20 hours in the car over the course of four days, which, let's face it, just isn't worth it unless there's a beach resort and/or a really attractive girl at the end of the road). Cavan blogged at 7:52 PM \| 1 comments Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - A Little Personality? I've read through the bulk of stories that have come in so far at Fusion Fragment and I just wanted to mention the main reason behind my rejections. Actually, this issue was behind a lot of the rejections for Goodbye, Darwin, too, so if you're a writer, you might want to listen up. A significant number of the stories I've received are perfectly serviceable, solid pieces. But that's all they are. It seems as if the writers have come up with an idea, a character and then written the story with a "let's get in, write the damn thing, and get the hell out" kind of mentality. What this produces, ultimately, is sterility. And I'm reading a lot of sterile stories. Let me put together an analogy here. Remember in grade school, when you had to do presentations on stuff? I had to do them all the time. Anyhow, you'd get marks on the academic side of things and you'd also get marks on your presentation skills. Now, in an SF story, your characters, plot and ideas are your academic marks. If you don't have those...well, then you don't have a thing. The kid who gets up in front of the class and makes something up that's way off base, or stammers out a whole lot of nothing until the teachers tells him to sit down...yeah, that's you. But most kids, they have all that stuff. Most of the people who have submitted stories to me so far, they're getting full academic marks. But when it comes time for the presentation, they're reading information off a bland piece of bristol board in a monotone voice. There's no life, no spark. Everything's related matter-of-factly. All the sentences sound the same. So, how to punch it up? Well, if you're writing a short story, I'm a big fan of switching to first-person. Benjamin put up an interesting post on writing in the first-person yesterday, in response to somewhat who asked if it was detrimental to do so. Well, a lot of people dislike first-person, but I don't count myself among them. For short stories, I actually prefer it. Why? Well, you've got about 5000 words to tell a whole story, which doesn't leave much room for characterization. I like to use first-person because it allows me to rely on voice, which is a terrific way of both letting your reader identify with your character and also for injecting a little flair into your story. If you're opposed to the first-person, make sure you're thinking about your sentence structure. Sure, it might sound boring, but if all your sentences sound the same, well, then you sound boring, which is exponentially worse. You might also want to aim for some interesting settings. Some people rail on against stories with a lot of description, but you know what's prevailing in the stories I've received? No description of setting, or very cursory and obvious ones. Don't be afraid of a paragraph of description every now and again - it's not going to alienate your reader unless you go overboard on the frequency of descriptions, or you have purple prose issues. So, those are the tips from the editor for the day. Questions? Comments? Cavan blogged at 6:10 PM \| 5 comments Monday, December 11, 2006 - Vurt So, I have to comment on Jeff Noon's Vurt. Because, well, it's the kind of book that you just have to have an opinion on, whether you enjoyed it or not. I count myself among the former, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as the book is essentially really bizarre cyberpunk. I mean, really bizarre. Vurt is cyberpunk wacked out on LSD. There's dogmen, mind-reading shadow girls, half-robot everything, virtual reality aliens that somehow get transmogrified into the real world, snakes that inject virtual reality into you, and bullets that get you high and slowly turn you into a Technicolor light show. Oh, and the story, you ask? Well, Scribble and his friends, who form a gang called the Stash Riders, are Vurt junkies. Virtual Reality games, in the novel, are essentially drugs. Low-level ones are legal and can be purchased at convenience stores, while homemade (and sometimes lethal) ones are only available illegally. So, anyway, Scribble and his sister (who also happens to be his girlfriend, by the way) do a Yellow (the most dangerous of all Vurts, because you can't pull out unless you die or beat the game). Well, his sister gets sucked into the Vurt and a giant green blob from the Vurtworld gets spat out. So, as you can imagine, Scribble and his gang have to go on a rescue mission to find his sister. Now, I'm being tongue-in-cheek here, but Noon's novel is genuinely fascinating. He's also got the noir style down to a science, so the book has style to spare. Be sure to check this one out. Cavan blogged at 10:12 PM \| 0 comments Friday, December 08, 2006 - Fusion Fragment Funny thing about living in the internet age is that you can have an idea one day and have it brought to fruition the next. Even if, say, that idea is a science fiction e-zine. Maybe one day you're checking out web designers and thinking about what kind of stories you want during study breaks and the next day, after you come home from your exam, you've got a fully functional website and you're ready to start taking submissions for your first issue. That's right, people. It can happen that fast. Cavan blogged at 7:37 PM \| 4 comments Thursday, December 07, 2006 - An Apodis E-Zine? I've been kicking around the idea of setting up an e-zine over the past couple of days. Obviously, I got to wear the editor's hat while reading submissions for Goodbye, Darwin, but even then I had to share, so I think I'd like to give it a go on my own this time. Plus, whenever I look at places to submit my work, of all the lower-level paying markets (ie. the ones who give token payments), there aren't many who focus purely on SF - it always seems to be fantasy, horror, or "dark"/"bizarre" SF. And what kind of writer complains when another spot to shop their work opens up? Anyhow, I have a huge chunk of free webspace sitting around in my Apodis account, so I'd set up shop there, with the e-zine having a loose affiliation to Apodis (I'm thinking maybe some anthologies could come of this). Well, it's all just speculation right now, but don't be surprised if something comes of this in the new year. Cavan blogged at 5:50 PM \| 0 comments Wednesday, December 06, 2006 - A Holiday Special I tend to prattle on every now and again about how everyone should read short stories (well, come on, you should). Anyhow, I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention a holiday special being offered by Sybil's Garage. If you've never heard of it, Sybil's Garage is an amazing little mag (not only are the stories great, but it looks great, too), that's perfect for those of you who prefer their science fiction with a big helping of literary-ness instead of...umm...science-ness. Anyway, go buy a copy - with the special, issue #3 is five bucks, plus you get a free PDF download of issue #2. Speaking of the holidays, I just have to bring up what my mother wants for Christmas. Stuff for the house? Nope. Clothes? Not even close. Cheap little trinkets that express true feelings of love? Well, getting warmer. My Mom, for Christmas, sent me a questionnaire (along with an SASE, by the way - she'd fit right in here in the writing world). There's a lot of "favourite" questions on there, but the important ones have to do with stuff that happened during the year - what was my most embarassing moment, what was my biggest accomplishment, etc. Now, for those of you who don't know, my brother and I live in Ontario, while my Mom lives back in Alberta (for those of you in the States who don't know their Canadian geography, think New York to Montana). We talk about once a week, but only get to see each other once every two years or so. So, you know, get your Mom something nice for Christmas. Maybe some Sybil's Garage? Cavan blogged at 5:06 PM \| 0 comments Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - "Last Chance" I figured it was high time I put a new song up on Cavan Radio and since about 50% of the stuff I'm listening to these days is garage rock, I thought I'd take that avenue. The Sights, like a lot of the best garage rock acts around these days, are based out of detroit. I picked up their self-titled album (disc #3 for the group) a couple of months ago and have been pretty impressed with it. It's (for the most part) terrific hard-rocking stuff, with a liberal dash of that Motown soul. You can't hear it too much on this track, but the band also has a great keyboardist, which seals the deal for me. This track, "Last Chance", is a great little song with one hell of a catchy guitar riff. If you like the song, you might want to check out the album on Amazon. As usual, just press the "ZAP" button on the player to get started. Also, on a completely unrelated note, is it a sign of maturity that I really want a pair of slippers for Christmas? My feet are freezing! Cavan blogged at 9:17 PM \| 0 comments Monday, December 04, 2006 - Another Week in Review In the tradition of slacker university students everywhere, I pulled another all-nighter last night, working on an essay on The Faerie Queene. Not a great essay, but hey, I'm just going for a pass. Also managed to squeeze in an extra day at the office, and a party where my Snakes and Ladders drinking game (a Christmas present from last year) was finally taken out of the box and put to good use. Apparently, I'm not particularly good at Snakes and Ladders. I also had the pleasure of reading an absolutely terrific book, Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. I absolutely love family sagas, and this is one hell of an interesting family. The book, narrated by Cal Stephanides, kicks off with Cal's grandparents, two Greeks living in Turkey, who are forced to emigrate to the States due to war. From there, we have the story of their lives in Detroit, and that of Cal's parents - from rum-running in the Prohibition era, to war in the Pacific at the close of WWII, to the city's race riots in 1967. In fact, as much as the story is a stirring family saga, it's also a fantastic portrayal of the evolution of a country. But, of course, all of these stories are only apocryphal. Because this novel is about Cal, born Calliope, who is raised as a girl until the age of fourteen. Cal is, in fact, a hermaphrodite, and eventually chooses to live as a man (don't worry, I'm not wrecking anything - that's established in the first few pages). So, you have a family saga, a coming-of-age story, and a fascinating examination of prejudice (whether by race and gender). It's just a fabulous book. Go read it. And, for those of you whining and complaining about why there's no ultra-hip Moonbase yet (isn't that what kids talk about these days?), your prayers have been answered. NASA has plans to have a permanent staffed outpost on the Moon by 2024. Cavan blogged at 9:24 PM \| 0 comments	Progress Zilch! 0/0 Listening A.J. Croce - "Maybe I'm Amazed" My Music Reading Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney My Library Watching Black Book: B Sweet and Lowdown: C Breakfast on Pluto: B Wishlist Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo Rachael Yamagata - Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart