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Write101x: University of Queensland Free Writing Course!

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Marianne de Pierres recently brought this course to our attention.  Run by Dr. Roslyn Petelin, the course aims to provide an introduction to grammar, syntax, and style in the English language.  Anyone can audit the course for free, meaning you can get access to all of the course’s materials.  If you’re interested in improving your writing, this is a great way to do it from the safety of your home! Full details about the course can be found here. If you do take the course, let us know how it goes!

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Book Review: Last God Standing

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Lando Calrissian Darnell Cooper is a standup comic in Chicago. He has a lovely girlfriend, Surabhi, and two feuding separated parents; he’s just trying to be like one of us. Lando, however, is also the decanted incarnation of the retired god Yahweh, the God of Christians, Jews, Muslims and Mormons. What is God trying to do being a stand-up comic in Chicago?  Trying to make a living at being an ex-God, that is. Power abhors a vacuum, however, and Lando’s mostly deactivated status as a deity means that the rest of the retired and supplanted gods out there can smell blood in the water. A chance to get back on top, perhaps? Or just eliminate the God of the Hebrews and re-establish the old order.  Worse, there are hints that a new power, a new God for the age, might be looking to eliminate the competition and the old regime — to wit, Lando. And all Lando wants to do is find the right time and moment to propose to his girlfriend. Oh, and to kill them on stage.

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My Superpower: Tim Lees

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Tim Lees to talk about how the power of Obstinancy relates to The God Hunter. —————————————————- Iron Man is “The Invincible”, the Hulk is “The Incredible”, and I am “The Obstinate”. This quality is also, according to my wife, my greatest weakness. Or at least my most annoying trait. No doubt Superman annoys people as well. Let’s hope he isn’t married to them. On the face of it, obstinacy is not a pro-survival feature. It’s a failure to adapt, an inability to respond to changing conditions. When the lungfish tells you that the pond is drying up and you should drop your gills and join him, you say loudly, “No it’s not,” and attempt to wallow in your last few micrometers of water. Obstinacy is a label many people go to great lengths to avoid. Obstinate politicians recast themselves as “principled” while their enemies call them “bloody-minded”. Obstinate actors become “difficult” or “driven”, implying they possess some special vision their directors somehow failed to share. And so on. I, however, am just obstinate.

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English as the Center and Its Privileges

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Daniel José Older recently uploaded an appropriate video titled Why We Don’t Italicize Spanish: This incited reactions from several people, including Bryan Thao Worra: [View the story “Bryan Thao Worra Reacts to Why We Don’t Italicize Spanish” on Storify] Previously, I once asked an editor why we italicize Filipino words. “Charles, there’s a difference between away in a manger from away in a manger.” (Away being the Filipino word for fighting.) There is, of course, context:  readers should be able to immediately distinguish if people are moving away from the manger, as opposed to a fight taking place in a manger, if such a sentence was used in a story. But I doubt if the style guides of various publishers (including the one I work for) will be changing anytime soon.

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Book Review: The Silk Map, A Gaunt and Bone Novel, by Chris Willrich

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Come, come, sit by the hearth here with me. This fine traveler’s compound doesn’t get much traffic this time of the year. The snows are threatening to close the passes to the west of us. You *are* going  home to the West, of course.  How did I know? No, no I am no sorcerer or magic user. I don’t need such things. The color of your skin, similar to mine. The cut of your clothes. The manner of your speech, when you bargained with the innkeeper for food, drink and a room. The load of porcelain and jade you are carrying, as evidenced by the small white jade ring you have kept for yourself and are wearing on your left hand. The manner of your shoes. I notice these things, I’m a storyteller. I notice details. And, as you see, the common room here is relatively empty. I find that my skills are best honed when I practice them, and I’ve not been able to ply my trade. I’d like to tell you a story.  No, I wouldn’t say no to you buying me another cup of wine, you are very kind. Now, I heard this story from a storyteller named Chris, of the family of Willrich. A fine man, Chris. He tells tales of a poet and a deathless thief, Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone, a married couple, who adventure across the world. You’ve heard of them already, perhaps? Their adventure against the sorcerer Spawnsworth, maybe? The story I want to tell you on this cold night, though, is about their adventure on a Silk Road very much like this one. It begins in the western part of Qiangguo…

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