Why is Warren reacting llike that? Is Lizardbreath's "diamond" made from kryponite? Was Warren once tortured by a jeweller? Does he have a hand phobia?

lnhammer and bondgwendabond say useful things about the problems with assuming YA and adult SF/fantasy publishing is a zero sum game in the first place. Because with the exception of a few lines like Starscape and Mirrorstone, YA SF/fantasy isn't sold by imprints of adult lines, but mostly by completely separate imprints of completely separate publishers that think of themselves as YA imprints first, with SF/fantasy, mysteries, adventure stories, gossipy contemporary novels, problem novels, and all the rest sold side by side.

From a YA imprint's point of view, that YA fantasy trilogy is competing not with the adult fantasy trilogy on the other side of the bookstore, but the bestselling Gossip Girls book and the award-winning animal story on the same shelf, as well as with other YA fantasy trilogies. A YA reader is debating between Stephanie Meyer and Judy Blume, not Scott Westerfeld and George R.R. Martin.

One could argue that in spite of this in the big-picture view adult sales are still dwindling because folks are shopping in the YA section, but I'm not sure I'm convinced it's quite so cause and effect. I think--especially since there are differences in the types of stories being told even when you factor out the coming-of-age thing--that it may be more like adult SF/fantasy is for complicated reasons failing to connect with older readers as well as it used to, at the same time YA SF/fantasy is succeeding in connecting with younger ones (and some adults) in greater numbers than before--that these two things are happening for two mostly different reasons.

As lnhammer and bondgwendabond say, the two "genres" really do act mostly independently of each other, and there are only a few people who even could decide to focus on YA instead of adult SF/fantasy because it sells better.

 Week 6 was blessedly brief in comparison with the previous two.

Sunday, May 4th:  St. Ephrem Giants 13 @ St. Anselm Lady Hawks 1
Yet another remarkable game by our girls.  Christina went 2-for-3 with two singles, two walks, a pop-out, and she scored twice.

Tuesday, May 6th:  St. Ephrem Cyclones 11 @ St. Anselm A's 5
The boys moved into a tie for second place with this win..  Austin was 1-for-4, with a single and three strikeouts.

Friday, May 9th:  St. Ephrem Giants @ Our Lady of Angels Little Rascals
A rainout, which was fine by us, as Christina would have missed this game anyway to attend a family function.

Season stats:
Austin: 5-for-14 (.357), 3 Singles, 2 Doubles, 3 Walks, 2 Hit by Pitch, 9 Strikeouts, 2 RBIs, 3 Runs, 6 Stolen Bases
Christina: 12-for-20 (.600), 12 Singles, 6 Walks, 1 Strikeout, 3 Groundouts, 3 Pop-outs, 3 RBIs, 8 Runs

Team records:
St. Ephrem Giants: 7W 1L
St. Ephrem Cyclones: 6W 1L

Next games:
Tuesday, May 13th: Giants @ St. Bernadette Lady Knights
Wednesday, May 14th: Cyclones v. St. Pats B
Saturday, May 17th: Cyclones @ St. Anselm Cubs (with whom we are tied for second)

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/288668950/1536

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

The Petrified Party

Bloomberg News's Al Hunt explains why our noble colleagues across the aisle are walking around pining for the days when Tom DeLay would deliver them magic ponies by swinging his awesome hammer:

Republicans in the U.S. Congress are petrified about a November debacle, a fear stoked on May 3, when they lost their second straight special election in a district held by Republicans.

The party's fundamental situation is terrible: Republicans are saddled with an enormously unpopular president, a war, a troubled economy and a Democratic opposition that's being energized by important constituent groups.

"The generics are as bad as anytime since I have been here," said Representative Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican and one of the most politically astute members of Congress in either party.

In short, Democrats are flush with cash, more energized, fielding better candidates, and we have the Worst President in History with which to saddle the opposition. The one apparent lifeline Republicans have, says Hunt, is a guy they've spent years mocking and vilifying: John McCain. But his coattails already seem a little tattered:

"McCain comes across to some as a different kind of Republican," [DCCC chair Chris] Van Hollen said. "Yet he has fallen in line with the Bush agenda on the fundamental issues: the war and the economy."

A huge percentage of Americans agree with Barack Obama that we need a prudent plan to get the hell outta Mess-O-Potamia and let the Iraqis exercise their own sovereignty. And Bloomberg's latest poll shows that We The People are in no mood for Bush and McCain's whitewashing of the bad economic news that trickles down day after day:

More than three-quarters of voters said they believed the economy was in a recession, and about a quarter said they thought the downturn was be [sic] mild. The same percentage said the recession was serious.' ... Seventy-seven percent of voters, and 76% of adults overall, said the nation was "seriously off on the wrong track. ..."

[A]mong the 78% of voters who said they believe the economy has slid into a recession, 52% would vote for Obama, compared with 32% for McCain.

And on that note, fellow Democrats: Have a nice Monday.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

I don't like Mother's Day much. I don't like days where Hallmark attempts to force the other people in my family to display affection under the threat of much displeasure. Son loves me, check (I was of course thrilled to receive the decorated flowerpot and the book "What is Special About Mom," but that's different.) Husband loves me, check.

But the day is a big deal to my mother, so we try to do something with her. Unfortunately between her mobility issues and her weight issues taking her out is...challenging. She's got a wheelchair now, but it's an electric and it won't fold down far enough to fit into either of our cars. Fortunately, we've found a home medical supply place, where we can rent a sturdy chair that's comfortable enough for her to use. Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs and walrus buckets which made getting her in and out of the car even more fun than it really needed to be.

However, despite all this, everything went relatively well. We went out to Zingerman's Road House for their mother's day brunch. The food was good, the service was good, even the tea was good. The chocolate pudding was INSANELY rich and amazingly good. Alexander patiently sat through the extended meal, his eyes glued to his latest Magic Tree House book, except for trips to look at the display case of kitchy salt and pepper shakers. Mom enjoyed her outing and her present, and especially the card her grandson made.

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=743

James Frey’s latest book Bright Shiny Morning gets a rave in the New York Times.

Wait until they find out that this novel is actually a memoir.

More seriously, if Frey has come out of this whole experience as a better writer and a less grasping opportunist, well, then, good for him. Nice to see people have a learning curve.

That said, I could probably say something here about the irony of a writer who has screwed up so badly as Frey still getting lots of ink while other writers of similar or better quality who plug along not lying about their text toil in obscurity. But in fact it’s not irony, it’s just superior marketing.

I’m guest blogging today over at miladyinsanity!

Unless this chapter does something totally unexpected, I’m not going to finish this book today. Knowing this makes working on it somewhat less fun. Unfortunately, if I don’t work on it, I won’t finish the damned thing tomorrow, either, and I have *got* to have it turned in by Wednesday because I’ve got AAs to do for HANDS OF FLAME, and they’ve already given me a week extension on those while I try to finish up TPC.

Also, surprisingly, someone sent me a Lilith Saintcrow ARC to read. I have absolutely no recollection of being asked to read one, so I don’t know if I’m just a random fortunate recipient or if they’re hoping for a cover quote. :)

(x-posted from the essential kit)

Somehow I managed to twist my knee while sleeping the other night. Ouch.

Happy Day-After-Mom's Day! My mom and I went shopping and Wii'ing and out to eat on Saturday, and yesterday we ordered in pizza. Lots of casual fun. My mom is one of my best friends and I love her lots. Even if she did whip my butt at Wii bowling with 7 strikes in a row . . .

Today is all about writing. 3,000 is a good goal. Word by word.

9 days until the Memorial Day Mystery Trip! Okay, it's not a mystery to me. I know where I'm going. It's going to be a blast, but I'll blog more when I get there.

Here's the prologue from THE STARS DOWN UNDER, illustrated by the wonderful Paul Abbamondi pabba. I think he did an outstanding job with the colors and conflict. Paul's done the first 3 chapters for me, and they'll be appearing here this summer. The first three illustrated chapters of THE OUTBACK STARS are over at theoutbackstars. Enjoy.

I just received a transferred membership in the past week. This morning, I remembered that I will be helping one friend move on Saturday and attending a different friend's wedding in Milwaukee on Sunday. As such, I won't be able to attend most of the con. It seems silly, and a little mean, to keep someone else from going. So, does anyone still need a membership?

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sfscope/~3/288638940/top-box-office-grossers-first-9.html

http://sfscope.com/2008/05/top-box-office-grossers-first-9.html

A new blockbuster bashes its way to the top spot, an old stand-by makes a reappearance, and three genre films leave the top 25...

Except I skipped Prom for a gaming convention.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/getrichslowly/~3/288638476/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/?p=1801

My wife has always maintained a sizable savings account, but having extra cash is new to me. Until recently, I had always lived paycheck-to-paycheck, often treading close to a zero dollar balance in my checkbook for months at a time. Now, though, I’ve not only established an emergency account, but set up a couple of targeted accounts as well. (One is for vacations, and the other is for a new car.)

My method works for me, but others have different approaches. In her book Debt-Proof Living, author Mary Hunt suggests a sort of “emergency fund plus“. Often when people struggle with money, she says, it’s not the predictable monthly bills that are the problem. People cannot cope with the unexpected things — not just emergencies (like a severe illness), but irregular expenses like auto maintenance, wedding and birthday gifts, or a new pair of shoes.

To deal with all of life’s surprises, Hunt recommends a Freedom Account. Here’s how it works:

1. Determine your irregular, unexpected, and intermittent expenses. Because the past provides a good indication of the future, look at your records for the past year or two. Make a list of your expenses that don’t occur on a monthly basis. Divide them into broad categories and calculate our approximate monthly spending on each.
2. Open a second checking account. Most of the tactics we discuss at Get Rich Slowly involve multiple savings accounts. Hunt advocates opening a second checking account to act as a Freedom Account. She further warns that “under no circumstances should you accept overdraft protection, ATM privileges, or a debit card for your Freedom Account”. This account is not for daily use.
3. Authorize an automatic deposit. When you open your Freedom Account, instruct the bank to schedule an automatic deposit from an existing account based on the average monthly total of your irregular expenses. Pick a day of the month that works based on your cash flow. For me it’s best to have automatic transactions occur soon after I get paid.
4. Start a logbook. “As far as the bank is concerned, you have a second checking account,” Hunt writes. “But you are going to treat your new Freedom Account as a collection of sub-accounts.” To do this, take the list of irregular expenses you created earlier and start a page for each category. For example, you might have pages for clothing, vacation, property taxes, and auto maintenance. Each month when the automatic deposit is made into your Freedom Account, you will divide that among the sub-accounts in your logbook. For example, if you transfer $200/month to your Freedom Account, you might manually add $25 to vacation, $25 to clothing, $100 to property taxes, and $50 to auto maintenance.
5. Make a deposit every month. “This is going to feel weird in the beginning,” Hunt says. She’s right. It felt strange to me when I began to keep sub-accounts at my credit union, but now it’s second nature. I like having my money divided based on its intended use. With your Freedom Account, you’ll be transferring from your primary checking account to a secondary checking account on a specific date each month. Then you’ll further divide your money by hand in your logbook. It sounds like a lot of work, but it’s really not.

Hunt notes that Freedom Accounts can be a great marital aid. By giving each partner a Freedom Account, both spouses can have their own pool of money to budget independently.

This sounds like a viable alternative to a standard emergency fund. I don’t plan to implement a Freedom Account for myself — I like my current system — but it’s something I would have considered during the three years I was working to pay off my debt.

---
Related Articles at Get Rich Slowly:

• Ask the Readers: How Do You Prepare for Enormous Debt?
• One Uncle’s Advice About Money
• Reader Story: Ask to Save!
• Ask the Readers: Should I Prepare My Own Taxes or Go to an Accountant?
• What Motivates You to Pursue Smart Personal Finance?

Iceberg With Meltwater Pool, Jakobshavn Fjord, Greenland, 2007 Photograph by James Balog

Icebergs, including one with a sapphire pool of meltwater, clutter Greenland's Jakobshavn Fjord near the village of Ilulissat. The glacier that produced this flotilla has receded some four miles (six kilometers) since the year 2000.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "The Big Thaw," June 2007, National Geographic magazine)

Buy a print of this photo.

As a special service announcement, LOL books decided to present the real cause of writers block. Previous LOL books are available at http://jimhines.livejournal.com/tag/lol.

Today we have the classic Watership Down [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], by Richard Adams.

http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=742

A couple of things relating to books of mine:

* I finished and delivered an updated manuscript for Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998 - 2008 to Subterranean Press last night. See, I told you having a clean office makes me productive. There had been a previous version of the book that went up to 2005, but when we decided to tie the release of the book to the 10-year anniversary of Whatever, I went back and updated. The book now features material from 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well. This made me happy because it gave me an opportunity to cut out some of what I thought was the less successful material from the previous version, and to re-sequence the book to make it more like the Whatever reading experience. The end result: a much stronger book overall.

That said, the majority of the text in the book is still from 2005 or before, i.e., before more than the large majority of who reads Whatever today showed up round these parts. I think for a lot of these folks it will be an interesting exercise in blog archeology.

For those of you hankerin’ for Hate Mail, the release date is September 13, 2008 — the ten year anniversary of me starting the Whatever. Subterranean is going to release it very much like it released You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop Into a Coffee Shop, which is to say it will be a signed, limited edition. Naturally, me being me, I’ll let you know when the pre-order page is up over at Subterranean Press.

* The UK version of The Ghost Brigades just had its release (they’re a bit behind the schedule over there) and got a nice review in The Guardian, which wrote that the plot was “a neat scenario, allowing Scalzi to pose questions of identity and morality while telling a fast-paced, entertaining action adventure story.” Well, yes, that was the plan, so I’m glad the reviewer thought it worked. The review also noted that I was writing military science fiction “without the triumphalist excess of most American examples of the sub-genre,” which for some reason made me giggle. The Old Man’s War universe is just not set up for triumphalism, you know?

* For those of you staying up nights wondering when, oh when, the German version of The Last Colony would be out, the answer is: next month. There, now you can sleep well for the first time in months. Also, note the cover art, which is the exact cover art of both the German versions of Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades, with the exception of the background color. It’s nice to see my publisher getting some good mileage out of their purchase. That said, I wonder if Mark Salwowski, the artist, got paid three times or just once. Hopefully three times. I also wonder if Ken MacLeod is annoyed with me for stealing his cover art three times now. Sorry, Ken. Bring it up with Heyne.

New Scientist online has posted a list of five science fiction films that they feel get the science, if not right, then at least righter than most films in the genre.  The list does not take artistic considerations into account.  

It's a curious selection.

The first film on the list, 2001, would seem hard to quibble with in terms of its straightforward presentation of scientific matters.  HAL of course is pushing the envelope, and there are those who believe that AI will never be possible, but to me, the suggestion of a coherent science behind HAL, which we see most clearly in the sequences where the computer is shut down, carries the day.

It's more of a stretch, it seems to me, to praise the scientific accuracy of the other films on the list.  

The very question of what constitutes scientific accuracy in a work of art reminds me of the mundane sf movement.  But as a writer and a reader, and a viewer of movies, I've never felt any need for strict adherence to scientific understanding, either contemporary or extrapolated.  All that really matters to me is some kind of internal, logical consistency in whatever science or pseudo-science is present.  Films like Dark City and Primer, and even the first Matrix movie to an extent, all possess this quality.

It's a quality that seems ever rarer in films and in novels.  Is this just a matter of taste?  The privileging of a kind of a gaming sensibility over a more traditional approach to narrative and structure?  Help me out here, Darryl!

Many thanks for invites to this - alas, at the moment, I'm having to cut back on net time, so must decline.

http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2008/05/12/i%e2%80%99m-beginning-to-feel-like-an-elephant/

No, that title has nothing to do with the fact that it’s bathing suit season and I still have Winter Weight. No, it’s a different thing altogether. Hm… where to begin?

An elephant’s gestation period lasts about 22 months (630-660 days), the longest gestation period of any mammal. (Source: Toledo Zoo Website)

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, because basically, the lengthy gestation of the elephant is basically mirroring the evolution of my latest project. Lemme ‘splain. No, there is too much, lemme sum up. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

April 25, 2007: I’m at Romantic Times in Houston (and actually kind of wondering what I was doing there) when I stagger up to my room to check my email. One pops up with the subject line, “A Proposal.” I figured I’d just won the Nigerian lottery again or that some long-lost relative had passed away in Hong Kong and left me a small fortune if only I’d be so kind as to share my bank account information. Because I’m perpetually curious, I checked anyway.

No Nigerian lottery. It was an email from an editor introducing herself, saying that she’d read Adiós to My Old Life and most importantly, that she’d loved it. She went on to say that ever since her twin sister had taken a university course on the character of Carmen and all her various iterations, they’d both been in love with the story and she (lovely editor) thought it would make a nifty young adult novel. Having read Adiós she thought I’d be a great person to give it a go, was I interested?

(*insert momentary break for much squeeing*) Um, that would be a yes.

May 2007: I come up with proposal for a young adult story that’s set in the world of drum and bugle corps. With a dancer. And an intense music prodigy. And a soccer player. (No, seriously, this works.)

June 2007: Lovely editor thinks it’s great, we’re a go for Carmen. (*and there was much cheering and celebrating throughout the land*)

September 1, 2007: Turn in first draft of Carmen. Wait anxiously for editor’s reaction.

Late October 2007: She loves it, but of course, there are revisions that have to be made. It needs to be beefed up in places, some character motivations need to be clarified, in other words, good stuff.

January 2008: Turn in revised manuscript. Wait anxiously for editor’s reaction.

Late February 2008: She loves it, but now that some things have been clarified, there are other places that need work and as a whole, what we need to focus on is streamlining overall. Economy is key. This time, she’s sending the actual manuscript along with the revision letter. (*insert break for Barb to freak mildly because this letter is longer than the first one*) Many darlings have to be killed for the good of the story, but overall, revision is accomplished without too much bloodshed otherwise.

April 15, 2008: (no, I’m not kidding on that date) Turn in revised manuscript again. Wait anxiously for editor’s reaction.

April 29, 2008: Just past a year to the day that Lovely Editor first emailed me about this project, she emails me back and raves over the revision. She loves it. I really pretty much nailed everything she was looking for this time around. (*pause for giddy celebration*)

However.

We’re going to need one more pass, we’re so close, but there are some pacing issues towards the end. While this did induce a mild *headdesk* moment, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. I knew when I turned in the second revision that I’d made some changes to the beginning of the manuscript that were in all likelihood going to necessitate further changes towards the end, but I didn’t feel comfortable making those changes until after I knew how Lovely Editor felt about the changes at the beginning of the MS. They’re easy fixes, all in all and combined with her other suggestions, will only make the MS even stronger. More darlings will have to be sacrificed, but that’s okay. That’s what the deleted scenes section of the website is for, right?

May 8, 2008: We had our Big Talk and discussed which of her proposed changes were totally right on and which ones I thought we needed to compromise on and end the conversation completely on the same page, if you’ll pardon the pun.

June 2, 2008: Proposed date for third revision to be submitted. Hopefully, this is the last overhaul before line edits and copy edits and galleys and all that good stuff. Oh, and we still have to come up with a title.

Proposed birth, erm, release date?

July 2009

(*counts on fingers*)

That’s… twenty-seven months. Hey, look at that—I’ve got the elephant beat!

But, like actually giving birth, I know this is going to be so worth it. It’s been such a labor of love for both my editor and myself. We’re both so emotionally invested in this, which is why, even though it feels like it’s taking forever, ultimately, it’s okay. I know it’s so that every part of the book can be as fully developed as possible. Actually, elephant gestation analogies aside, this process can also be likened to something like making homemade bread—it’s something that requires time and patience and multiple stages in order to pull the perfect loaf from the oven.

Elephant gestation to bread making. No, my brain isn’t completely fried as of late.

Anyhow, have you had one of those in your life? Any kind of project that meant so much to you, that even though you were anxious to get it “out there” you were also willing to be infinitely patient and wait to get the perfect result? Tell me about it. Entertain me so I have happy stories with which to retreat into Revision #3.

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sfscope/~3/288585600/tors-freebies-for-this-week.html

http://sfscope.com/2008/05/tors-freebies-for-this-week.html

Tor Books is offering Kate Elliott's Spirit Gate and wallpaper by Eric Fortune and Pablo Defendini for free this week...