August 19, 2008
Frenetic in the Frontcountry
The trip was wonderful. I fell in love with the higher trails–ridges of high dessert veined with narrow creeks that were themselves filled with boulders, flowering lupine and castillja. We slept the first night at Nobel Lake. I hopped into frigid waters and started to swim laps. Being a cardio-addict, I can usually go for 3 kilometers without too much of a problem. But at 10,000 feet, I nearly sank after a single lake crossing. Bit of a humbling experience. We would have continued in the high desert, but a member of our party developed acute mountain sickness that night and we had to hotfoot it down to lower elevation. Read the rest of this entry »
August 10, 2008
A Painful Calculus, or Should I Delay Publication by a Year?
The last two days of Worldcon have been wonderful, but I’m going to hold off on a recap because I need your help. Probably.
Last post I mused about the price one pays for an interdisciplinary life. In the spirit of embracing that sacrifice, I’ve spent the last days of Worldcon brooding over the difficult and painful calculus of timing three books and an MD. I’ve had wonderful conversations with authors I respect and with my editor. The results are a bit surprising. So rather than explain the dilemma to friends and family over and over, I’ve posted the situation below. If you have any advice, please *please* pass it along. Read the rest of this entry »
June 25, 2008
Blog Abuse and Recuperation
It’s been…entirely too long.
So much has happened since my last post: finishing up first year, setting out on Spellbound, and receiving the edits of Spellwright. That whole time, a small voice in the back of my head was continually piping up with comments about how a certain experience–say, for example, learning how to conduct a pelvic exam–would make an amazing blog entry. And yet no sooner would I sit down to try to write when another such experience–say, for example, holding an infant’s preserved heart in my hand–would come along and wipe out all ability to process previous thoughts and feelings. Read the rest of this entry »
March 24, 2008
After the Storm
Apologies for the blog neglect. Like some brooding and unavoidable storm, Winter Quarter Finals loomed on the horizon of my life for the past few weeks and then enveloped everything in a maelstrom. The shear amount of material was staggering. The reading in particular troubled me as it forced me, for the first time as a medical student, to face off with my disability. For a month or so, I had to wake up at 8am, bike into the med school for lecture/lab until 5pm, wolf down dinner, and then read and/or memorize in the computer lab until 2am. At which point I would bike home, pass out, and wake up at 8am the next day to do it all over again, 7 days a week. According to the second years, this will be the worst quarter with regard to time pressure. I really and truly hope that is accurate. Read the rest of this entry »
August 5, 2007
Catchall, Recovery Post of Sighs
So when I came back from the islands, ‘real life’ hit me like a hammer…mostly because my editor sent me his comments on book one. No major changes but a fair amount of polishing needed. Add to that my determination not to lose momentum on book two (27/100k words and climbing) and you get me in front of the keyboard 7 plus hours each day. But wait! There’s more! Stanford Med, of course, can’t be neglected. So there’s a paperwork maze to get into the university healthcare system, to document my disability, to meet all the hot, single, slightly geeky female grad students who…oh, wait…scratch that last one; that’s my overactive imagination. *First sigh* Read the rest of this entry »
June 21, 2007
Simple, Solemn, Stupid
Voltaire once wrote that “Anything too stupid to be said is sung.” I’d agree with that statement if I could add ‘that’s profound but is’ after ‘Anything’. I’d especially agree with it with regard to love. True, stupid love lyrics that lack profundity abound, but that’s not really what I’m after. A large part of Spellbound’s story involves a romance between Nicodemus and a spellwright who didn’t make a solid appearance in book one. (You’ll never guess.) Read the rest of this entry »
May 22, 2007
Neognomancy
So I’m spending most of my hours now in coffee shops dreaming up semi-mysterious ideas that might fit into a book two.
Only 5k words of the manuscript presently exist, so obviously it might take a totally different path…but as of right now I’m guessing that much of the story will revolve around the idea of “neognomancy”.
Let’s go ahead and define that:
Neognomancy: a semi-magically process that allows one to think thoughts that were previously unthinkable.
In Nicodemus’ world, neognomancers are spellwrights capable of crafting texts that once cast on a mind allow it to think incomprehensible thoughts. It follows then that these neognomatic spells allow one to understand more of the universe and correspondingly perceive more of the universe. The obscure is revealed; indecipherable texts become readable. Read the rest of this entry »
May 8, 2007
Anticrastination
So I’m procrastinating by doing a lot of non-writing work for Spellbound. Mostly that means outlining and researching a number of random topics–savanna ecology, oak trees, lycanthropy, virology, Californian Indian culture, early Moorish culture. Also writing this blog I guess counts as non-manuscript work. So does updating the website. Just set up a graphical web counter that will note from where each visitor is tapping into spellwright.com. Soooo geeked about that. I can tell already I’m going to be adding checking said counter to my list of things to do on the Internet when I don’t feel like working. Also thinking of buying a cartography program some rpg gamers use. It’s not cheep but considering my drawing talent could be outdone by a drunken epileptic doodling while riding on a derailed train.
So I’m in a state of procrastination. Funny word, procrastination. I mean I guess it makes sense: pro, “forward or for” and crastinus, “of tomorrow”.
But then shouldn’t we be able to anticrastinate when we’re getting things done before they need to be done? Or what about simply crastinating when we’re doing what we ought when we ough.
Okay, I’m’a go work my way into anticrastination.
Science, Magic, Medicine Show 