I guess I shouldn't be surprised that The Hurt Locker won the Oscars last night. After all, it's a movie that shows how rotten war is... for Americans. And how war really takes a heavy psychological and physical toll... on Americans. And how it's really unfair... for Americans... to be put in these dangerous threatening situations. Not much is heard from the Iraqis in this movie. Why should they have a place? They're not important, they're just the villains who set up the big set-piece explosions. What matters in this story is the (white, male) American hero, not the sand niggers that his army has been sent over to kill.
Imagine if this movie had been made about a German soldier in Poland. ("You know, just fighting for his country.") Or a Japanese one in Manchuria. ("Hey, protest the war, but not the brave guys out there doing their duty.") Or (dare I say it?) an Iraqi soldier fighting a war in, um, Iraq. I wonder how many Academy Awards that movie would have won.
No, never mind. I don't need to wonder.
For a more thoughtful parsing of Hurt Locker (and Avatar, its main competition for the Best Picture Oscar) from an Iraqi (who?) perspective, check out this brief article, written about 2 weeks ago:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/022610a.html
Of course, the above was written by an Iraqi journalist, so you know, what the hell does he know about anything? Like movies, or pain, or fairness, or war.
The party goes global...
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
NOW I'M NO LONGER THE MOST FAMOUS PERSON FROM FARMINGTON, CONNECTICUT 06032
...Actually, I don't know if I ever was.
But now I am definitely not, as Farmington's own ERIN PAC has won a bronze medal in bobsled at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Here's a link to her official page. Please note her hometown:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/athlete=2327/bio/index.html?__source=binganswers
And a slideshow gallery (no video? Boo hiss!):
http://www.nbcolympics.com/photos/galleryid=445718.html?&s=1
So, I'd never heard of Erin before last night, but I like to think I probably went to high school with her mom or something. Hey it's a long shot, but whatever gets me rubbing elbows with fame, man.
Congratulations, Erin, and you too, co-pilot Alana. That's some sled you've got there.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Some comics I'm reading these days
Ahoy.
Not much time to chat today, as I'm drowning under a flood tide of freshman comp papers (oy), but I thought I'd toss up a few covers to some comics I've been reading these days. Not much common ground here, maybe, although four of the five titles are published by Vertigo (all except for Viking), and they are all, I supposed, targeted to "mature readers," which means some swearing and violence. All are available at you local neighborhood comic shop, and they're all worth a look, in my opinion, if you like stories wit' pitchers, as I do. All these books have also been collected into bound volumes containing several installments each, so you can sample them and get a sense of whether it's the kind of thing you want to come back to every month.
Briefly:
The Unwritten - an odd story about a character form a series of children's books (think Harry Potter) who has, apparently, come into reality in this world. But things get interesting as the author explores the idea that fictional worlds a.) have their own physical realities, and b.) can collide with our own. Oh and there's a vampire.
Greek Street - modern-day retelling of the Greek myths--Oedipus, Madea and all the rest--transported to modern-day London's red light district. Lots of nudity, sex and violence, which is to say, it's pretty faithful to the source material.
Northlanders - fairly low-brow comic about Vikings, or at least Norsemen, or at least people who lived in cold places. A series of loosely-connected vignettes of anywhere from one to eight issues apiece, following various characters and their stories from roughly AD 950-1050. The surrent storyline is set in Siberia, but check out the two-parter "The Shield Maidens" for some killer artwork.
Madame Xanadu - modern-day witch/priestess located in Greenwich Village dabbles in the occult and tries to help people out. Hilarity ensues. MX used to hang with King Arthur, and her horrid sister is Morgana le Fay, so there's all that going on too, fairies and so forth. It's less dumb than it sounds.
Viking - possibly the dumbest book on this list, but it's Vikings, what do you expect? Nicely oversized, with killer painted art, the story is fairly incomprhensible--I'm pretty sure there's a feud, and somebody makes some bad choices and a lot of people get whacked. Beyond that I'm pretty much lost, but the art makes up for a lot. Did I mention it's about Vikings?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Greatest band in the World.
A little overdue here, as I've been listening to them for maybe three years. But anyway here they are. TINARIWEN. Look 'em up. New record out is great, as are all their albums.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Na'vi protesters storm the Wesk Bank
I guess the Avatar hype really has gone global. Protestors in Palestine, who march every week against the continued presence and expansion of the Israeli-built (and USA-funded) wall that divides their territory into ever-smaller pieces, dressed up as Na'vi, the aliens from James Cameron's epic.
Pretty clever, considering the movie's indigenous-rights subtext and it anti-militaristic POV.
Plus, just seeing a blue space alien with a tail holding a Palestinian flag pretty much makes my day...
Here's a link to the other pictures:
Rock and Roll Will Never Die...
...not even in Lahore. You can't say they aren't trying to kill it, though.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/28/lahore-rock-pakistan-conservatism
I don't know this Basim guy, but the writer he mentions, Michael Muhammad Knight, is the writer of this seriously strange book, which I reviewed for Dawn last year:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/mixing-it-up
It's worth a look, especially for anyone more interested in the weird fringes of things than the well-trodden middle ground.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/28/lahore-rock-pakistan-conservatism
I don't know this Basim guy, but the writer he mentions, Michael Muhammad Knight, is the writer of this seriously strange book, which I reviewed for Dawn last year:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/mixing-it-up
It's worth a look, especially for anyone more interested in the weird fringes of things than the well-trodden middle ground.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Our books are back.
I guess I can stop boycotting Amazon now.
For now.
Hey, that was relatively quick... I wonder how long before the next bit of stupidity?
For now.
Hey, that was relatively quick... I wonder how long before the next bit of stupidity?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Well worth reading
I've heard of this guy, never read his stuff, but he's a Macmillan author with an interesting view on the Amazon debacle. Also very much worth reading are the comments.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/02/a-call-for-author-support/
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/02/a-call-for-author-support/
PLEASE BOYCOTT AMAZON
As of today, my books and Uzee’s Trespassing are still not on Amazon.com . Neither are the other Macmillan authors.
I am asking anyone who cares about authors to boycott Amazon. There are some people (see the previous post) who think this misses the point, and maybe it does, but fuck it, Amazon is boycotting me.
Meanwhile, here's an open letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
Dear Mr. Bezos,
You don’t know who I am, so allow me to tell you: I’m a writer whose books you are currently refusing to sell. This will not significantly harm my publisher, St Martin’s; nor will it benefit you in any meaningful way. The only consequence of note is that I will lose a few sales. As best I can understand, you are doing this out of a drive to acquire a monopoly on e-books.
Mr. Bezos, forget the monopoly. Amazon.com is a powerful force on the internet, and a reasonably profitable business as well. You should be satisfied with this. Take your earnings, count your money and be happy. If you get bored, you can count your money again. You have a great deal more than most people could dream of.
My publisher, Macmillan, has every right to determine a fair price for their product. That is what manufacturers do. If Amazon wishes to devalue the product—in this case, a book—by selling it below its market price, then Macmillan has the right to withhold the product from you and from anyone else who does this. They will make it available to other retailers, such as Apple, to sell at a fair price. Some time down the road, when the price drops, Amazon will then sell it for whatever you want.
Are you with me so far?
There are plenty of examples of this model already. Movies are released in theatres months before the DVDs are on sale. A DVD might cost $20 new, which is the price of just two movie tickets. If a family wants to see a movie, why would they spend $40 at the theatre when they can buy the DVD for half that? They will not (unless they’re willing to pay the extra cash to get out of the house and see the big screen). So, DVDs are held back for a few months so that the product—the movie—is not undervalued.
Do you need another example? Paperback books, which are cheaper than hardcovers, typically come out a year or so after the hardcover is released. Same idea. Let people pay more for something they get right away; otherwise, they can wait a while and pay less. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Consumers get to choose what they want. Fair, right?
Now let’s talk about you, Jeff. You want to sell your ridiculously overpriced and overhyped Kindle reader, but nobody will pay $300-$500 for a box they don’t need. So what do you do? You drop the prices on e-books—all of them, new, old, just-released, whatever—to $9.99 or less. You are actually losing money on every e-book you sell, but that’s okay, because you are giving people a reason to buy that electric box. This has the effect of cutting in to book sales, which hurts authors who rely on sales to get a few bucks back for their effort as opposed to the nickels and dimes they get for an e-book royalty. But you don’t care about that, because you’re after the monopoly. Over time, fewer writers will be able to be writers, because they won’t get paid, so they’ll have to work second and third jobs (many of us already are) but you don’t care about that, because you’re after the monopoly.
Macmillan took the step of saying, “Well, okay then. If you refuse to respect our pricing ladder, we won’t do business with you. We’ll release our books to places like Apple, who will sell our books for a fair price, and then, once prices drop to what what you want, we will make them available to you, too.” This is a step which, I stress, has many precedents in the arts and commerce today. See the above examples.
Your repsonse was to stop selling my books, and Uzee’s book, and many other people’s books.
You know what, Jeff? That’s stupid. That’s fucking idiotic.
Punishing authors will not make you more money, and it won’t get you that monopoly. It simply alienates the people you rely upon to make you your living. Your tidy fortune exists, Jeff, because of people like me, who create the things that you sell. Without people like me, and Uzee, and Hilary Mantel and the Rolling Stones and Black and Decker and every other artist and manufacturer whose products you retail, you would have nothing.
So here’s an idea: respect that.
I realize that talking to a peddlar about respect is like talking to the government about efficiency. But it’s the only thing I can think of that might get through. And also this: until my books are back on sale on Amazon, along with all the other Macmillan authors’ books, I will be boycotting Amazon. Uzee will too. Will anyone join me? I can only hope. Maybe it’s a forlorn hope, but maybe not. Maybe people will return some of their business to their local bookstores, which are run, often, by people who actually read and care about books.
Oh, and another thing? Yesterday I read that Amazon’s stock prizes dropped 5% since the argument with Macmillan. One might even call it “market forces.”
Sincerely,
Dave Maine
I am asking anyone who cares about authors to boycott Amazon. There are some people (see the previous post) who think this misses the point, and maybe it does, but fuck it, Amazon is boycotting me.
Meanwhile, here's an open letter to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
Dear Mr. Bezos,
You don’t know who I am, so allow me to tell you: I’m a writer whose books you are currently refusing to sell. This will not significantly harm my publisher, St Martin’s; nor will it benefit you in any meaningful way. The only consequence of note is that I will lose a few sales. As best I can understand, you are doing this out of a drive to acquire a monopoly on e-books.
Mr. Bezos, forget the monopoly. Amazon.com is a powerful force on the internet, and a reasonably profitable business as well. You should be satisfied with this. Take your earnings, count your money and be happy. If you get bored, you can count your money again. You have a great deal more than most people could dream of.
My publisher, Macmillan, has every right to determine a fair price for their product. That is what manufacturers do. If Amazon wishes to devalue the product—in this case, a book—by selling it below its market price, then Macmillan has the right to withhold the product from you and from anyone else who does this. They will make it available to other retailers, such as Apple, to sell at a fair price. Some time down the road, when the price drops, Amazon will then sell it for whatever you want.
Are you with me so far?
There are plenty of examples of this model already. Movies are released in theatres months before the DVDs are on sale. A DVD might cost $20 new, which is the price of just two movie tickets. If a family wants to see a movie, why would they spend $40 at the theatre when they can buy the DVD for half that? They will not (unless they’re willing to pay the extra cash to get out of the house and see the big screen). So, DVDs are held back for a few months so that the product—the movie—is not undervalued.
Do you need another example? Paperback books, which are cheaper than hardcovers, typically come out a year or so after the hardcover is released. Same idea. Let people pay more for something they get right away; otherwise, they can wait a while and pay less. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Consumers get to choose what they want. Fair, right?
Now let’s talk about you, Jeff. You want to sell your ridiculously overpriced and overhyped Kindle reader, but nobody will pay $300-$500 for a box they don’t need. So what do you do? You drop the prices on e-books—all of them, new, old, just-released, whatever—to $9.99 or less. You are actually losing money on every e-book you sell, but that’s okay, because you are giving people a reason to buy that electric box. This has the effect of cutting in to book sales, which hurts authors who rely on sales to get a few bucks back for their effort as opposed to the nickels and dimes they get for an e-book royalty. But you don’t care about that, because you’re after the monopoly. Over time, fewer writers will be able to be writers, because they won’t get paid, so they’ll have to work second and third jobs (many of us already are) but you don’t care about that, because you’re after the monopoly.
Macmillan took the step of saying, “Well, okay then. If you refuse to respect our pricing ladder, we won’t do business with you. We’ll release our books to places like Apple, who will sell our books for a fair price, and then, once prices drop to what what you want, we will make them available to you, too.” This is a step which, I stress, has many precedents in the arts and commerce today. See the above examples.
Your repsonse was to stop selling my books, and Uzee’s book, and many other people’s books.
You know what, Jeff? That’s stupid. That’s fucking idiotic.
Punishing authors will not make you more money, and it won’t get you that monopoly. It simply alienates the people you rely upon to make you your living. Your tidy fortune exists, Jeff, because of people like me, who create the things that you sell. Without people like me, and Uzee, and Hilary Mantel and the Rolling Stones and Black and Decker and every other artist and manufacturer whose products you retail, you would have nothing.
So here’s an idea: respect that.
I realize that talking to a peddlar about respect is like talking to the government about efficiency. But it’s the only thing I can think of that might get through. And also this: until my books are back on sale on Amazon, along with all the other Macmillan authors’ books, I will be boycotting Amazon. Uzee will too. Will anyone join me? I can only hope. Maybe it’s a forlorn hope, but maybe not. Maybe people will return some of their business to their local bookstores, which are run, often, by people who actually read and care about books.
Oh, and another thing? Yesterday I read that Amazon’s stock prizes dropped 5% since the argument with Macmillan. One might even call it “market forces.”
Sincerely,
Dave Maine
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
You may be getting bored with all this, but it's pretty important to me
The lastest on Amazon's monopoly attempt and supposed backdown:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/authors_guild_defends_macmillan_in_amazon_price_fight_150730.asp
I'm giving them till tomorrow to start carrying my books and Uzee's, after which I'm officially requesting that people boycott Amazon and shop from B&N, Border's or--best of all--your friendly neighborhood book seller. Like this one from my hometown:
http://millracebookshop.com/about.html
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/bookselling/authors_guild_defends_macmillan_in_amazon_price_fight_150730.asp
I'm giving them till tomorrow to start carrying my books and Uzee's, after which I'm officially requesting that people boycott Amazon and shop from B&N, Border's or--best of all--your friendly neighborhood book seller. Like this one from my hometown:
http://millracebookshop.com/about.html
No, my books still aren't on Amazon...
...so I guess there's nothing to do in the meantime, but have a cup of coffee. Which some people claim is good for you:
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/10497/9-reasons-to-drink-more-coffee/
Not sure I believe this, but what the heck. It's something to do while fuming.
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/10497/9-reasons-to-drink-more-coffee/
Not sure I believe this, but what the heck. It's something to do while fuming.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
More on the Amazon fiasco...
Don't know if this is true, but according to the publisher, "the plan would allow Amazon to make more money selling Macmillan books and that Macmillan would make less." This sounds, to me, altogether too believable. Full article is here:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-31-amazon-ebooks-pubs_N.htm
Another sobering point made in the article is that, according to Amazon, "The company now sells six digital copies to every 10 physical ones of books available in either format."
And here's an interesting batch of comments on the issue from boingboing.net, a tech-oriented web site. (DRM, by the way, stands for Digital Rights Management, which is essentially electronic copyright, but is also apparently a mechanism by which Amazon can delete books that readers have bought, paid for, and downloaded.)
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/30/macmillan-ceo-on-ama.html
The times, they are a-changin'.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-31-amazon-ebooks-pubs_N.htm
Another sobering point made in the article is that, according to Amazon, "The company now sells six digital copies to every 10 physical ones of books available in either format."
And here's an interesting batch of comments on the issue from boingboing.net, a tech-oriented web site. (DRM, by the way, stands for Digital Rights Management, which is essentially electronic copyright, but is also apparently a mechanism by which Amazon can delete books that readers have bought, paid for, and downloaded.)
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/30/macmillan-ceo-on-ama.html
The times, they are a-changin'.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Yes, our books still exist...
...they just don't exist anymore on Amazon.com:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html?ref=economy
In brief: Books published by the Macmillan group, which include all of mine, Uzee's Trespassing (pub'd by Picador) and many others (Hilary Mantel, Ishmael Beah, Janet Evanovich) have been removed by Amazon because of a disagreement over pricing of e-books. Amazon, which sells e-book downloads for its Kindle reader, prices everything at $9.99, which doesn't leave much to go to the publisher and author after Amazon takes its cut. (Typically, I make between 75 cents and one dollar per new book sold; if a new book is ten bucks, I'll get 50-75 cents per copy. Publishers will also receive less, which leaves them less cash to pay writers for their books. Amazon will net less also, but will be spending less on warehousing, shipping, paying staff to pull the book and pack it, etc).
Publishers have been pressing Amazon to raise prices to around $15, which would be more in line with a new book price after Amazon takes its usual huge discount (which us writers also pay for, by the way). Amazon has been refusing; meanwhile Macmillan has offered its list to Apple, which is launching its own e-reader and has agreed to a pricing formula more in line with what Macmillan wants.
So in retaliation, Amazon has pulled our books. Thanks, guys! This is why I hate business, pretty much.
I can't tell people where to buy their e-books, so I won't; but I will say that if you're shopping for something of mine, or for Uzee's Trespassing or anything else that's suddenly vanished from Amazon, you can still find it all at barnesandnoble.com, borders.com, or--maybe best of all--through an order at your local independent book store, the one run by the nice old lady and/or the cynical bearded guy and/or the weird grad students with all the piercings. Hey, stop in and say hi, they'll appreciate the business...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html?ref=economy
In brief: Books published by the Macmillan group, which include all of mine, Uzee's Trespassing (pub'd by Picador) and many others (Hilary Mantel, Ishmael Beah, Janet Evanovich) have been removed by Amazon because of a disagreement over pricing of e-books. Amazon, which sells e-book downloads for its Kindle reader, prices everything at $9.99, which doesn't leave much to go to the publisher and author after Amazon takes its cut. (Typically, I make between 75 cents and one dollar per new book sold; if a new book is ten bucks, I'll get 50-75 cents per copy. Publishers will also receive less, which leaves them less cash to pay writers for their books. Amazon will net less also, but will be spending less on warehousing, shipping, paying staff to pull the book and pack it, etc).
Publishers have been pressing Amazon to raise prices to around $15, which would be more in line with a new book price after Amazon takes its usual huge discount (which us writers also pay for, by the way). Amazon has been refusing; meanwhile Macmillan has offered its list to Apple, which is launching its own e-reader and has agreed to a pricing formula more in line with what Macmillan wants.
So in retaliation, Amazon has pulled our books. Thanks, guys! This is why I hate business, pretty much.
I can't tell people where to buy their e-books, so I won't; but I will say that if you're shopping for something of mine, or for Uzee's Trespassing or anything else that's suddenly vanished from Amazon, you can still find it all at barnesandnoble.com, borders.com, or--maybe best of all--through an order at your local independent book store, the one run by the nice old lady and/or the cynical bearded guy and/or the weird grad students with all the piercings. Hey, stop in and say hi, they'll appreciate the business...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
R.I.P., Holden.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_salinger
I read it in tenth grade, which was more or less the perfect time for me. Great book then, great book now. Probably the most perfect opening 5 or ten pages ever written, ever, by anybody.
I read it in tenth grade, which was more or less the perfect time for me. Great book then, great book now. Probably the most perfect opening 5 or ten pages ever written, ever, by anybody.
Monday, January 25, 2010
The Coolest Funkiest Site on the Internet
In case you were wondering--well, now I've found it.
Run, don't walk to http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/ and have yourself a ball. This guy named Frank, who now works as a DJ in various hotspots worldwide, spent a good many years living in Africa, notably Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Calling him "a record collector" would be like calling Imelda Marcos "a woman who liked shoes." His specialty was 1960s and '70s funk and soul from places like Ghana, Benin, Guinea and maybe Mali.
So what he does is, he collects tons of old, rare, out-of-print records, cleans them up, converts them to mp3s and makes playlists of roughly an hour apiece, then posts them on his blog, along with observations about where he's been and a few tales of the tight spots he occasionally finds himself in. The star of the show, however, is not Frank, but the music he unearths and posts for the rest of us. You can click on it to just listen, or right-click to download it and stash it in your PC, or burn a CD for the car, or play on your iPod or whatever.
Until the day comes when these rare and out-of-print records find their way to a legitimate release--a day that is unlikely to ever happen--this is the only way to hear this music, short of trundling off to Africa yourself and buying the records (if you can find them). The nice thing is that occasionally, some of these songs do get compiled onto legit collections, and then the artists involved do see some royalties. I'm all for that. But in the vast majority of cases, this simply isn't going to happen, so if you want to hear this music, this is the way to do it.
And maaaan, it's worth hearing... Some of the links are dead at the moment, but most of them work, so dig around a little. I believe Frank is in Africa as I write this, and we he returns, I'm sure the links will be fixed.
Time to rock.
Run, don't walk to http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/ and have yourself a ball. This guy named Frank, who now works as a DJ in various hotspots worldwide, spent a good many years living in Africa, notably Conakry, the capital of Guinea. Calling him "a record collector" would be like calling Imelda Marcos "a woman who liked shoes." His specialty was 1960s and '70s funk and soul from places like Ghana, Benin, Guinea and maybe Mali.
So what he does is, he collects tons of old, rare, out-of-print records, cleans them up, converts them to mp3s and makes playlists of roughly an hour apiece, then posts them on his blog, along with observations about where he's been and a few tales of the tight spots he occasionally finds himself in. The star of the show, however, is not Frank, but the music he unearths and posts for the rest of us. You can click on it to just listen, or right-click to download it and stash it in your PC, or burn a CD for the car, or play on your iPod or whatever.
Until the day comes when these rare and out-of-print records find their way to a legitimate release--a day that is unlikely to ever happen--this is the only way to hear this music, short of trundling off to Africa yourself and buying the records (if you can find them). The nice thing is that occasionally, some of these songs do get compiled onto legit collections, and then the artists involved do see some royalties. I'm all for that. But in the vast majority of cases, this simply isn't going to happen, so if you want to hear this music, this is the way to do it.
And maaaan, it's worth hearing... Some of the links are dead at the moment, but most of them work, so dig around a little. I believe Frank is in Africa as I write this, and we he returns, I'm sure the links will be fixed.
Time to rock.
Uzee's book gets some love
The Geometry of God, Uzee's new novel, has gotten some rave reviews from The Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/dauntless-and-female-in-pakistan/
...as well as Kirkus reviews, which named it one of The Best Books of 2009.
Also piling on the praise is the always-astute Oprah Magazine:
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/The-Geometry-of-God-by-Uzma-Aslam-Khan-Book-Review_1
While I am hardly an unbiased source, I'd like to add my voice to this growing chorus... It's a great book, check it out.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/dauntless-and-female-in-pakistan/
...as well as Kirkus reviews, which named it one of The Best Books of 2009.
Also piling on the praise is the always-astute Oprah Magazine:
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/The-Geometry-of-God-by-Uzma-Aslam-Khan-Book-Review_1
While I am hardly an unbiased source, I'd like to add my voice to this growing chorus... It's a great book, check it out.
One More Time...
I know I've said this before, but the new book, An Age of Madness, is (once again) finished and sent off to my lovely and talented agent, Scott. Will he love it? Will he send it to my even lovelier and more talented (sorry Scott) editor, Jen? Will she love it? Or will disappointment once again rain crashing down upon all our heads? Stay tuned.
Sorry. Feeling a little dramatic this morning. It's this whole "just finished the book" thing.
Sorry. Feeling a little dramatic this morning. It's this whole "just finished the book" thing.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Not a slow season especially, just slow around here
Greetings, humans -
It's been a while since I put anything here. I've been working this fall at three, count 'em, universities in town, teaching variations on English 101. It's been okay and the students as usual range from fine to great, but boy it takes a lot of time. There's this rumor going around--maybe you've heard it--that I'm a writer who writes books, but as of, say the end of September there hadn't been much evidence of this.
Meanwhile, Uzee's novel The Geometry of God was released by Clockroot Books in September/ooctober and has gotten a nice review from The Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/dauntless-and-female-in-pakistan/
A slightly silly title but a very nice review. Long, too.
What else has been happening? 1. I'm spending way too much time playing my fantasy football league, something I was invited into for the first time this fall. I always thought I'd be good at it, as I am somewhat obsessive and meticulous. present ranking is 3 out of 12 with five weeks left in the "season," so you be the judge. (Weeks 14 through 16 are the "playoffs," at which point it becomes instant elimination.) On the other hand, the league is presently being led by a 12-year-old kid, so you may want to take my claims of expertise with some grains of salt.
2. Obama won the fucking peace prize. Don't get me started. Okay I'll start anyway: he's continued the war in Iraq, while expanding the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has failed to close Guantanamo or release the photos and videos (yes there are videos) of the abuses in Abu Ghraib or further pursue those responsible for the abuses. He has, in short, done nothing to encourage peace, while doing very nearly as much as Bush to maintain a climate of war. For this he gets a prize.
3. I have also, despite my claim to the contrary, been creeping to some sort of conclusion with my current novel. At the moment my hope is to be done by the end of the year, sort of as a more-or-less birthday present to myself. Let's see.
4. I've been reading a lot and reviewing some books for Dawn, the newspaper in Pakistan which occasionally prints my writeups in their Sunday books section (which they still have, unlike say the LA Times). Here are a few of my more recent ones:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/monkey-business
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/tongue-twister
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/marginal
5. We saw District 9, which is a great movie. One of the better sci-fi movies of the past many years, I'd say. Oh and Uzee and I went trick-or-treating with my pal Brendan and his family, which was actully pretty entertaining. Boo! etc. (These two events are not actually linked, even though they are both listed as #5.)
6. In order to teach my students about the unreliability of Wikipedia, I opened a Wiki page about myself and wrote a brief bio. I then told my students to log onto the page and write whatever nonsense they could think of, the point being that, hey, if they could add this stuff about me, then anybody could write anything about, say, global warming or evolution or World War I or whatever. So far, there is only one questionable sentence. See if you can spot it (toward the end).
And yes, feel free to log on and screw things up. I ask only that you not actually delete anything that's there--my info is correct. Just add stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Maine
And I guess that's all for now...
It's been a while since I put anything here. I've been working this fall at three, count 'em, universities in town, teaching variations on English 101. It's been okay and the students as usual range from fine to great, but boy it takes a lot of time. There's this rumor going around--maybe you've heard it--that I'm a writer who writes books, but as of, say the end of September there hadn't been much evidence of this.
Meanwhile, Uzee's novel The Geometry of God was released by Clockroot Books in September/ooctober and has gotten a nice review from The Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/15/dauntless-and-female-in-pakistan/
A slightly silly title but a very nice review. Long, too.
What else has been happening? 1. I'm spending way too much time playing my fantasy football league, something I was invited into for the first time this fall. I always thought I'd be good at it, as I am somewhat obsessive and meticulous. present ranking is 3 out of 12 with five weeks left in the "season," so you be the judge. (Weeks 14 through 16 are the "playoffs," at which point it becomes instant elimination.) On the other hand, the league is presently being led by a 12-year-old kid, so you may want to take my claims of expertise with some grains of salt.
2. Obama won the fucking peace prize. Don't get me started. Okay I'll start anyway: he's continued the war in Iraq, while expanding the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has failed to close Guantanamo or release the photos and videos (yes there are videos) of the abuses in Abu Ghraib or further pursue those responsible for the abuses. He has, in short, done nothing to encourage peace, while doing very nearly as much as Bush to maintain a climate of war. For this he gets a prize.
3. I have also, despite my claim to the contrary, been creeping to some sort of conclusion with my current novel. At the moment my hope is to be done by the end of the year, sort of as a more-or-less birthday present to myself. Let's see.
4. I've been reading a lot and reviewing some books for Dawn, the newspaper in Pakistan which occasionally prints my writeups in their Sunday books section (which they still have, unlike say the LA Times). Here are a few of my more recent ones:
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/monkey-business
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/tongue-twister
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/marginal
5. We saw District 9, which is a great movie. One of the better sci-fi movies of the past many years, I'd say. Oh and Uzee and I went trick-or-treating with my pal Brendan and his family, which was actully pretty entertaining. Boo! etc. (These two events are not actually linked, even though they are both listed as #5.)
6. In order to teach my students about the unreliability of Wikipedia, I opened a Wiki page about myself and wrote a brief bio. I then told my students to log onto the page and write whatever nonsense they could think of, the point being that, hey, if they could add this stuff about me, then anybody could write anything about, say, global warming or evolution or World War I or whatever. So far, there is only one questionable sentence. See if you can spot it (toward the end).
And yes, feel free to log on and screw things up. I ask only that you not actually delete anything that's there--my info is correct. Just add stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Maine
And I guess that's all for now...
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Slow season
Greetings, Earthlings. There hasn't been a great deal of activity on this blog lately, largely because there hasn't been a great deal of actitity in my life lately that makes for interesting reading. Uzee went to karachi and came back; I've been working on the new book; I've been prepping for the four (count 'em) sections of English comp I'll be taching in the fall. And also listening to music and watching Lost on Netflix (yes, I'm lame) and doing laundry and making food and so forth.
The big news? I'm trying to eat better and lose weight. "Better" = "more salad." Aren't you glad you're reading this?
My pal Brendan seems to be writing a movie screenplay of The Book of Samson. Maybe he'll call it The Movie of Samson.
The other big news is that the Pakistan military seems to be making inroads against militants in the northwest of the country, and that's a good good thing. The US continues drone attacks against villagers in the area, which is not a good thing, but at the moment the advances made by the country's own army seem to be outweighing the damage done by the US attacks. Hopefully this equation will continue to be balanced in this direction.
I am, maybe, a couple weeks away from sending in my newest manuscript to my editor, for Round II. (The editor won Round I quite handily.)
Football season is still a few weeks away, though preseason games start tomorrow. (Thursday? What is this, communism?) With Tom B back, the Pats will hopefully steamroller all opponents en route to SB #4 in nine years. Boy oh boy that would be sweet.
That's all for now, except this link to an excellent article of Uzee's:
http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/articles/pakistan-women-and-fiction-today
The big news? I'm trying to eat better and lose weight. "Better" = "more salad." Aren't you glad you're reading this?
My pal Brendan seems to be writing a movie screenplay of The Book of Samson. Maybe he'll call it The Movie of Samson.
The other big news is that the Pakistan military seems to be making inroads against militants in the northwest of the country, and that's a good good thing. The US continues drone attacks against villagers in the area, which is not a good thing, but at the moment the advances made by the country's own army seem to be outweighing the damage done by the US attacks. Hopefully this equation will continue to be balanced in this direction.
I am, maybe, a couple weeks away from sending in my newest manuscript to my editor, for Round II. (The editor won Round I quite handily.)
Football season is still a few weeks away, though preseason games start tomorrow. (Thursday? What is this, communism?) With Tom B back, the Pats will hopefully steamroller all opponents en route to SB #4 in nine years. Boy oh boy that would be sweet.
That's all for now, except this link to an excellent article of Uzee's:
http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/articles/pakistan-women-and-fiction-today
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Bachelor, ep. 1
So, Uzee is going to Karachi for a couple weeks, and I have drummed up a modest list of things to keep me busy in the interim:
1. Finish my book. (You know, the one I've "finished" several times already in the past year.
2. Get up at 6:00am and go swimming. (We'll see.)
3. Go to Costco and buy paper goods. This can take most of the day.
4. Go to the dentist.
5. Read the Flannery O'Connor biography Flannery by brad Gooch, which I bought a few weeks ago and haven't gotten to yet.
6. Watch a few choice morsels of classic-movie fame, to wit: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), The Land Unknown (1968), Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), and others.
7. Not do any more grocery shopping until everything in the fridge, freezer and cupboards has either been consumed or thrown away. Wish me luck. Milk is exempted.
I'll let you know how I do.
Currently reading: Theft by Peter Carey (Great book.)
Currently listening to: Focus Level by Endless Boogie (the perfect name for, maybe, the perfect band) and Some Sweet Relief by Speck Mountain. (Very mellow and dreamy, also habit-forming.)
1. Finish my book. (You know, the one I've "finished" several times already in the past year.
2. Get up at 6:00am and go swimming. (We'll see.)
3. Go to Costco and buy paper goods. This can take most of the day.
4. Go to the dentist.
5. Read the Flannery O'Connor biography Flannery by brad Gooch, which I bought a few weeks ago and haven't gotten to yet.
6. Watch a few choice morsels of classic-movie fame, to wit: I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958), The Land Unknown (1968), Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), and others.
7. Not do any more grocery shopping until everything in the fridge, freezer and cupboards has either been consumed or thrown away. Wish me luck. Milk is exempted.
I'll let you know how I do.
Currently reading: Theft by Peter Carey (Great book.)
Currently listening to: Focus Level by Endless Boogie (the perfect name for, maybe, the perfect band) and Some Sweet Relief by Speck Mountain. (Very mellow and dreamy, also habit-forming.)
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