Wrapping it up

(Exquisite artwork by Allen Douglas)

I'm late. The book (AIRS OF NIGHT AND SEA) was due July 1st. It's now done, and I'm two chapters away from the final revisions, and yet . . .

It's legendary among writers that we hate to come to the end of a story. We hate saying goodby to our beloved characters, to the world we've inhabited for however much time--three years, in this case--and we hate letting all of that go out of our hands into far less sympathetic ones! So, although I wrote like a demon (for me, anyway) and have apologized to my editor for being late,and have promised to have it in her hands by next week . . . still. I keep putting off that last look, that final touch.

Come on, Marley. (Well, Bishop.) Finish it. Send it. Move on.

Plotfinding

Some writers are great at plot; me, I'm better at characters. But, just as several of us discussed at Armadillocon not long ago, the Current Events of today give us a plethora of plot material.

For example, at this URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/21/AR2007082101662_pf.html You can read all about the White House manual for handling dissent at the President's public appearances. If I had made this up for, say, THE MAQUISARDE, I surely would have taken flak about stretching the realms of possibility. But no, gentle reader, no stretch is impossible. And if we as writers have any difficulty making things up, we can always turn to the current administration for wicked ideas.

Witness: dissenters must not be seen by the (supposedly democratically elected) president, nor must they be in the area of his motorcade. They may be advised by the police--kid you not, the police--that there is a "dissent area" where they will be allowed to assemble and protest. Wear a t-shirt with a negative message? Get arrested. Read the article, it happened. That couple just won $80 grand from the government for unlawful detainment. Aren't you thrilled at that particular expenditure of your taxes?

I feel a story coming on . . .

Stop doing!

When my son Zack was small, and I was busy with the myriad things young mothers are busy with, he used to pull on my pants leg and say, "Mommy! Stop doing!" We all thought it was awfully cute. Now I'm beginning to think he was on to something.

In Yoga Journal today there's an article about the ways Americans think they relax. In part, it says: "The majority of Americans are doing what I call default relaxation activities, which yield lower levels of process benefits," says author Schor, who's also a professor of sociology at Boston College. Process benefits are the pastimes correlated with higher levels of human satisfaction. "Watching TV and shopping, for example, are shown to have low process benefits," Schor says.

Mathur, the meditation teacher, says, "In modern society, when we say we're tired, we usually mean our mind is tired." Often, though, we fail to listen up and give it a rest. Instead, we hunker down on the couch with the remote in hand. "With TV, you're adding input rather than clearing out or cleansing. In a way, your mind is going to be even more tired when you're done."

Liz Newby-Fraser, academic dean at the California Institute for Human Science, explains this in physiological terms. "Watching two hours of television is not relaxation. With TV, there are stimuli that activate the sympathetic nervous system, rather than the parasympathetic, which is associated with real rest."

Hmm. My sainted grandmother, a painter, used to say that sometimes you need to take a day and just lie on the couch. I'm thinking hard about all this, and wondering if I have the backbone to cut out some things in order to free my creative mind, as we do in Savasana, Dead Man's Pose, in yoga. It's a pose we hold at the end of a practice, in which we lie as still as death, perfect rest, mind empty, body tired and relaxed.

What could we cut out? Restricting television is no problem for me. Restricting time on the internet or listening to news might be a challenge. Exercise is necessary, of course, and play time, too. But why do I have so much trouble finding time to read? And why have I felt, particularly in the last two or three years, that my creativity is not at its best?

Worth meditating upon.

Farewell to Futurama

Anticipation of being the Guest of Honor at one of the best reader's cons in the country was half the fun. The other half was simply enjoying Armadillocon, the panels, the discussions, the lively--REALLY lively--chats in the bar, meeting a few new readers (each and every one appreciated) and making a few new fans (hope they stick with us!)

But now it's time to move on, I suppose. I'm not much for basking in past glories. I have Kimm's artwork for my Futurama head, and I'm going to frame it for my study. I have copies of the program, with Kay Kenyon's hilarious introduction of me. I have a new friendship with the artist Gary Lippincott, who was Artist GoH, and a thoroughly charming, tall, silver-fox sort of man. Gary has a great voice by the way, deep and resonant. I felt right at home.

So, looking to the future! There's a lot happening. I begin teaching for the Long Ridge Writers' Group soon. I'm a guest at Les Utopiales, in Nantes, France (which unfortunately conflicts with World Fantasy, but--if you're invited to France--I mean, what would YOU do?) I have a book to write and a proposal to turn in, and the second Toby Bishop book has been announced for December 18th!
This is just a thumbnail. Allen Douglas, the artist, sent me a nice version of the whole thing, without that pesky printing on the front, and I just have to figure out how to make it small enough to use on LJ!

Farewell, then, to Futurama. It was a joy having my head in a jar. I'll miss it.

The death of argument

I went to a lovely outdoor party last night (yes, I actually left my house). It was a gathering of educated, intelligent people, very like the ones I grew up with and attended college with. In high school, a bunch of us used to gather regularly to argue the issues of the day. The word ARGUMENT is an interesting one, from the Latin, ARGUMENTUM, or ARGUERE, which means to make clear, to prove, to offer evidence. We had a great time with this, back in the day, chowing down my mother's apple crisp or cream puffs while we debated Vietnam, medical care in America, premarital sex . . . you name it. We ARGUED for hours, and our friendships were never in doubt. Those kids--now middle-aged--are still my friends.

Is this no longer possible? A woman asked me a question last night (thinking no doubt that I might know something because I write sf), and in answer I asked if she had seen "An Inconvenient Truth". The response shocked me so much that I kept waking up all night, hearing it again. She said, "No, I never will." When I asked why, this beautiful, smart woman said, "Because I'll never believe anything that comes out of that man's mouth." Never mind the science, never mind the evidence. It was all about politics, all about hating Al Gore as a representative of a political stance, all closed-minded determinism as set out by Fox News or its like. It was emblematic of this great divide that has split our country down the middle.

Vitriol has replaced argument. I don't even care, in this case, whether the arguer accepts my own position on global climate change or holds fast to another view. The point is that we're no longer able to have discussions with people who disagree with us. Slogans have become conversation-enders. Hatred has supplanted reason. How are we, as a people, to solve the issues we face if we can't even talk about them? I don't have an answer, but I'm sad this morning.
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