Saturday 31 August 2013

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

If you have spent any time browsing Wikipedia, you know of the Wikipedia Effect - that is, you quickly look up some fact on Wikipedia (say, the year Wayne Gretzky joined the Oilers) and three hours later you're six degrees of separation away (say, the history of nylon). Unfortunately there's a wiki out there that is eleventy times worse for this, TV Tropes. Let me warn you, clicking on that link will suck up your entire Labour Day weekend!

Despite the name, TV Tropes covers movies and books and catalogs all sorts of archetypes, metaphors and literary devices creators use. Just take a look at....

Citizen of the Galaxy

SLAVE

Brought to Sargon in chains as a child - unwanted by all save a one-legged beggar - Thorby learned well the wiles of the street people and the mysterious ways of his crippled master...

OUTLAW

Hunted by the police for some unknown treasonous acts committed by his beloved owner, Thorby risked his life to deliver a dead man's message and found himself both guest and prisoner aboard an alien spaceship...

CITIZEN

Unaware of his role in an on-going intrigue, Thorby became one of the freest of the free in the entire galaxy as the adopted son of a noble space captain...until he became a captive in an interstellar prison that offered everything but the hope of escape!



I wouldn't call myself a huge Heinlein fan. Some of my favourite works were those that were adapted for old time radio, such as "Journey" and "Green Hills of Earth". Starship Troopers, the movie, is still on my bucket list, I abandoned The Moon is a Harsh Mistress three quarters of the way through, and am still A Stranger in a Strange Land virgin. 

The back cover copy was irresistible, though. Citizen of the Galaxy is so full of tropes that I wonder how many went over my head when I first read it years ago. The trouble with reading is that one can read a writerly work in a readerly way - sort of a Point A to Point B - where the more writerly approach is more thinky, for lack of a technical term. You know it's happened when you read reviews about a book or movie that you loved for its ideas, only to find others were puzzled because it didn't deliver the readerly experience. A writerly work will have layers of meaning to uncover, as the book's TV Tropes page lists. It's also a good reminder that even with all the cliches and archetypes out there, not to get discouraged because an idea has been "done before". It's all been "done before" as long as people have been making stories :-) 


Bonus trivia: The cover art was created by Darrel K. Sweet, and I'll send you to yet another database to discover his decades of SF&F cover art. Don't lose track of time now!

Thursday 29 August 2013

Ode to Kobo

I always thought I would be the last person to have an eBook reader. I grew up at the public library, worked at the public library, and became a library technician because being anything else was almost unthinkable*. You might think that library folk swore a sacred oath to protect books and all knowledge because discarding or cutting up books for collage produces such a visceral reaction in me. Someone once gave me Wreck This Journal as a Christmas gift and I gave it to another friend because I could simply not...wreck this journal. 

Eventually my nerdy love of gadgets overcame my nerdy love for dead tree books and I'm still fond of the original Kobo Touch after two years. Any gadget, however, comes with its own special anxiety - What if it goes obsolete? What if the format is incompatible? - and so forth. Plus there were so many choices - Sony, Kindle, Kobo or Nook - always knowing that a new and better model was surely just around the corner. Since I could find a Kobo at Chapters or Indigo, touchable, tappable and thoroughly examinable, my mind was made up. And yes, the Vox came out right after I bought it. Funny, the new, recently announced Kobos don't seem as wonderful as my Touch.


Indie author Scott Hunter shared a great link last month about a book dealer who can't go back to dead tree format. The all or nothing attitude strikes me as extreme...but as someone who dearly wanted an SLR, finally got an SLR, and then donated the SLR after experiencing the convenience of digital, I can understand. The Touch has made me appreciate paper books, but also the good reads that can be had online.

It really is foolish to think that paper will ever go away. The proof is in how much paper my office goes through in a week or how much snail mail still gets delivered. Art books, comics and technical manuals don't have the same feel on a small or colour display. Oddly, what has gone away for me is the anxiety that my books will be damaged. Call me a nut (go ahead! right now!) but somewhere along the line I developed a preciousness about them. Books were (and are) an expensive luxury, hence why I lived in the library. The fragility of the printed word was readily apparent - water, food, creases - why, sending a book out into the world was a dangerous business. Even more so if a friend borrowed it and bent or scuffed the cover! Or made it limp by cracking the spine. 

Oh, then of course, there is space. Our combined book collection takes up six Billy bookcases. An eBook reader has kept a seventh at bay. It fits in my purse and I never have to hem and haw over which book to take with me. Usually convenience will trump all, but it's still good to breathe in the particular fragrance of a favourite read. To each their own, and to each a good book regardless!



*Actually, I wanted to go to art school, but was too afraid to let my folks down - at least I would have marketable skills, I guess?

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Tea for Tuesday

The best thing about working downtown in summer are all the free samples. Well, maybe not for the poor university students hauling giant bags of potato chips, dispensing coffee from giant backpacks, or, as I saw today, dressed in zentai suits to promote a radio station. Somehow a group of people in a human rainbow reminded me that I had samples of Four O'Clock tea from back in May. Silly brain!
It's always four o'clock somewhere!

Even though it was 32 C in our house tonight, it's never too hot for tea. I ripped open the licorice spice and the scent of it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I boiled some water and hoped it would be just as delicious. Licorice tea has always been somewhat of a turnoff. The Ten Ren brand from the Asian supermarket has very little body, and Stash's version has an odd, glue like taste (although, trust me, I don't know what glue tastes like). If the Stash brand sits too long, it develops a sharp, nasty taste.

Four O'Clock did not disappoint. Apparently all the ingredients are fair trade and organic, and maybe this is why it was so rich and tasty. So smooth, not bitter at all, and it really was a rare treat for the taste to match the fragrance. Four O'Clock only seems to be sold in health food stores, so I'll need to make a special trip to find some. I'm sure the rooibos chai will be just as flavourful and fantastic.

Saturday 24 August 2013

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Every genre has it's own visual shorthand that makes books easier to spot for the reader - and then along comes one that breaks with convention and makes it easier to spot amongst its own kind. If it works for peacocks, it also works for...

Dominant Species

George Warren - Dominant Species
Not Your Typical Fantasy World...

At first glance the great water world Nuvelkebek seems the perfect backdrop for an epic fantasy. Certainly all the necessary elements are there: vast armadas that must do battle with sea demons; a land church that traffics in miracles and deal with divinities; strange creatures with incredible powers that lurk in the night....

But when onto this stage strides Oak, a young adventurer as strong as his name implies, fantasy becomes reality and all the sacred mysteries profane. Oak may come to regret his success at uncovering the mummery of alien exploiters: for what change have swords against blasters, or bronze-clad armies against atomic weapons? Perhaps humanity would have been better off left to the delusion that it was after all the dominant species.


I just love how the swoops in at a 45 degree angle and the chunky 70s font screams authority. After quizzing Identifont, my best guess is that it is a modified version or cousin of Impact. The bright green is eye catching, and certainly unusual in a world of blacks, blues, grays and maybe purple or orange. Personally I would have put the gold sea demon in front, not back, Generally warm colours advance while cooler and darker colours recede, but both are beautiful specimens of the imagination. This 1979 book seems to be one of only a few works by George Warren, who has a sparse page on the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. Better luck was had in tracking down the illustrator of the cover, Stephen Hickman

Dominant Species looks to be like a wordy saga, and perhaps a bit of a giggler (the callout paragraph before the title page includes this sentence: "Her eyes went back to Oak, who at that moment lost his valiant battle to remain erect, to fight the spell that was overtaking him.") The back cover copy intrigues me!

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Escape From The Clutter Trap!

"Out, darn stuff! Out, I say!" That was me a few autumns ago, embarking on a major household declutter. Maybe it was because I had reached LP speed (33 for the young folks) or maybe it was the major life change that rose up as my old workplace downsized. 

In the months that I plotted my escape from the clutter trap, our city finally rolled out a blue cart recycling program. Prior to this, recycling meant loading up the hatchback, driving to a drop off location and hoping for empty bins. Now try doing this in a Canadian winter. It was easier to let stuff pile up in the basement and garage. I was also becoming more pressed for time. Creative time was nonexistent. Anxious and hemmed in, my brain finally realized what my heart was feeling:

"I'm so tired of looking after stuff! What if I spent less time looking after stuff and more time looking after myself?"


Since I'm a big nerd, I even calculated just how much left the house by way of trash bag, copy paper box or blue cart. Are you sitting down? 249 cubic feet. That would fill three quarters of my home office.

No corner of the house was spared. I gave away clothes, old furniture, half the plants. Chipped dishes, broken this and that - out! Called up the Girl Guides and donated a big box of craft supplies. Took all the old paint cans down to the eco station. Donated the giant chest freezer to a charity. Giving became a huge source of satisfaction. 

These tricks worked for me:
  • Put belongings and clothes in a box, seal, and if unopened after a year, donate
  • Enlist a friend to help - they're impartial and will offer support
  • Photograph items being discarded or donated (especially helpful if a memory is associated with the item)
  • Make piles - keep, sell, donate, recycle/trash
Of course, there are lots of websites to help you out (Unclutterer is my favourite).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's all too easy to wind up with a giant collection of something. Instead of opening my own Horse Gift Emporium, I kept my most cherished horsey things and found a few horse crazy girls who were thrilled to be given figurines, bags and t-shirts. I emphasized to close friends and family that experiences were better than things. They could show their affection without stuff - time with them is the best gift of all - instead of something that collected dust or could break.

A kind of ripple effect occurs when one escapes the clutter trap. Suddenly everything is up for evaluation. It became easier to find better ways of doing things and manage mail, plus the sense of accomplishment that went along with my newfound free time and space. My goal had come true - I was looking after the things that mattered more than just stuff! 

And it was great. It is great. Getting rid of the physical clutter had gotten rid of the mental clutter. The ripple washed over my husband and my mother. Mr. Potenti found himself with a workspace after hauling away four shopping carts of old computer equipment at Staples. Mom, who was never good at letting go because it was such an emotional process, found the same relief I did as she sorted, tossed and donated. The mental aspect of hanging on to stuff cannot be overlooked - and the difficulty individuals face is very real - but can be overcome. 

The best part of all is that what went out has not come back in. It’s not perfect, and maybe some day my house will look like an IKEA catalogue. Some people go really hardcore and try a 100 Thing Challenge. Do a few hundred books count as “one thing”? Yes? No? Well, you can't get rid of every thing sometimes!

Saturday 17 August 2013

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Long before we were married, I discovered this gem on Mr. Potenti's bookshelf and was actually quite excited. There was a lot of press about this author and the Internet subculture that sprang up around his works in 2000. If you guessed John Norman, take a look at...

Hunters of Gor

Three lovely women were keys to Tarl Cabot's career on Gor, Earth's orbital counterpart. 

They were,

Talena, daughter of Gor's greatest ruler and once Tarl's queen.

Elizabeth Cardwell, who had been Tarl's comrade in two of his greatest exploits.

Verna, haughty chief of the untamed panther women of the Northern forests.

HUNTERS OF GOR finally reveals the fate of these three - as Tarl Cabot ventures into the wilderness to pit his skill and his life agianst the brutal cunning of Gorean outlaws and enemy warriors.


It pleased me greatly because this was back in the day before proper ebooks existed. If you wanted a copy, you had to hope to find one online and wait a couple of weeks. Finally I could read the author's words instead of just reading opinions. I found the writing a little stilted and the story pretty standard men's adventure fare. Unfortunately this copy of the 1974 story has seen a lot of wear and tear.

Personally, I expected a lot more to the cover than this. Picture a Frazetta like landscape with a maiden clasped to a warrior's leg, that kind of thing. Or, more befitting the plot, a showdown with a Red Sonja like swordmaiden. And there's so much wasted space above the heads of the figures. Instead, Verna looks more dour than defiant, and Cabot's hairstyle makes it seem possible his parents were hoot owls.

Monday 12 August 2013

Tales of the Weird!

Some days I look at myself in the mirror and say, "Jill, what is it that makes you a weirdo magnet?" And then I almost want to smack myself in the forehead while repeating "Bad Jill! Bad! Stop attracting weirdos!" Now, lest you think I'm the judgmental type, it takes a lot for me to label someone a weirdo. A weirdo in my book is someone who really crosses a line or makes you want to cross the street. It's not just someone who happens to dress differently or is eccentric.

Just a few weeks ago, I came home, found Mr. Potenti in his man cave and said as much to him. Jack rolled his eyes and stubbed his index finger into his chest. "Trust me, you're not that weird! Get this, so there I was, standing on the corner..."

So there I was, standing on the corner, waiting for the light to change, when a young man next to me mentions that it's a long light. "Yeah, it always is, but I don't have to be anywhere in a hurry." I replied, giving my big tumbler a rattle. It had already seen four refills, so oppressive was the heat that day.

We chatted about the recent rainy and thunderous weather, just like any normal folks would do. But normal is the weirdo's specialty. They are masters of disguise and seldom come with a t-shirt that says DO NOT ENGAGE in big letters. As we crossed, keeping pace with each other, there was nothing about the young man that would have made me scoot a little faster. Yet.

"I have to catch the 86, I work at the Cineramaplex." he said as he kept checking behind him.

"Oh yeah! We go there a lot. " I said brightly. "We want to see Pacific Rim, so maybe I'll see you there tonight!"

"I can't wait to see Grown Ups 2!" he suddenly exclaimed.

"Well, heh, it has a stellar cast." I said, although some would have laughed instead. He did fit the demographic after all, and we all have a right to have our guilty pleasures, even if they rate 7% on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Did you see Jimmy Fallon last night?" Perhaps he had thought in Jill Potenti a kindred spirit.

"No, I don't watch TV."

"Man, you'll never guess who was on! Jesse and the Rippers!"

"The Rippers?" There was a big huh what? behind those two words.

"On Full House? They had John Stamos and the band."

"Oh yeah, heh, it's been years! I used to watch it every Friday. It was on for, like, ten years?"

"Eight."

"Oh! Really. I thought it was something like that." Maybe he was a little confused about my age. That happens a lot.

Then he pronounced a similar love for Saved by the Bell. "They should have made a Full House movie." he said wishfully. "Even a reunion one."

I know I said something like "That's the trouble with those shows, everyone ages." I tried to grasp at some thread of conversation about something I hadn't seen in twenty years. This kid was pretty devoted to his reruns! I couldn't imagine, or even stomach the idea of Bob Saget or any of the girls reprising their roles.

There's a gap I can't reconfabulate, but our time together was almost over as we approached the bus terminal. "I don't listen to new music anymore. It's all Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber." he confessed.

Perhaps I wanted to humour this guy a bit. "I hate to say it, but that happens. Music stopped for me in 1998." Not entirely true, however.

"Lady Gaga is a slut. Or as I call her, Slut Gaga. She comes on the radio and I'm like 'Arrrgggh!' "

Well, that was out of nowhere! Being a natural diplomat like most Libras, I replied, "Heh, well, she does sound like Madonna. And, ooh, that one song sounds like Cher. She's a smart lady, she takes old songs and makes them familiar enough to be popular again."

"She's still a slut." he said with great conviction and veered off for the bus shelter. I walked along a little bit and breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn't trapped on a bus with him. Five minutes with this guy seemed like forever. I was afraid at that point what he might tell me next. I guess he didn't care much for me praising Lady Gaga's business savvy, or hinting that she might be, you know, not a slut.

Now, if I was the more confrontational type, I might have been more direct. The first rule of weirdo engagement is Never disagree with the weirdo. You don't have to overtly agree - an "Oh yeah" or non-committal noise will suffice. The weirdo doesn't care about your opinion. He just wants someone to hear it. The second rule is Agreeing with someone is the fastest way to get them to leave you alone. And as weird as he was, I couldn’t help but think of the fantasy worlds he watched and might live in, where mothers and adult women don't really exist. There's something awfully sad about that made me think he was lonely. But the truly bizarre thing is that he thought another woman wanted him to hear him call another woman a slut. Weirdos. They're out there! Beware!


If you made it this far, I'd like to offer you a coupon good on Smashwords for my book. Just enter NP24K when you check out on Smashwords. Click here! Buy now! Quantities are unlimited!

Saturday 10 August 2013

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

One of the problems with only having so much time to consume so much media is that one is only able to know so much. True, classic works are always available, but the prevalence of some themes makes me wonder when they started. I'll bet one hundred years ago authors weren't writing feverishly about defeating evil empires, such as in...

Alpha Centauri or Die!




Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the Solar System...only 4.3 light years away. To Kirby and his followers it meant freedom - freedom from the tyranny and repression of Earth's dictatorship.
But that freedom would have to be earned - the flight to Alpha Centauri would mean five years jammed in the belly of an obsolete spaceship, five years of praying that the food supply would last, five years of fighting off the Government ships sent out to intercept them...
And if they did manage to reach the unknown planets that were their goal, what would they find? Freedom? Or a fate more terrible than any they could have faced on Earth? 






Chances are if the name Leigh Brackett doesn't ring a bell, you have certainly watched her writing in action on the big screen (hint: she wrote The Empire Strikes Back). Although this cover is from the 70s, this book was published in 1963 and looks like a quick read. I'm quickly noticing that circles and eyes are popular motifs, and this one cleverly has both. See how cleverly the planet Earth forms the pupil? And what is with the broken tape machine? Stare at some covers long enough, and they seem to stare back at you, which is exactly what the creepy couple is doing. Let's take a closer look:



Is one of them an inhabitant of Alpha Centauri? Is the other suffering the effects of five years in a tin can? I guess I'll have to read to find out!

Thursday 8 August 2013

Your Life - You Choose by Peter de Pradines

As a Kobo fan, a trip to Amazon's Kindleland was a new and recent adventure. I met Peter de Pradines purely by chance on a G+ community and finished reading his book, Your Life You Choose - Practical Paths to Success and Happiness, a couple of days agoSomehow Amazon was convinced that I lived in Beverly Hills, 90210 so it could be downloaded on my smartphone. Once back on my desktop, however, I was subject to Amazon's geographical whims and could not leave a review.

Thank goodness Blogger cares not for such things. When I have some more time I'll try again to fiddle with the location settings. 

Your Life - You Choose is an excellent, practical guide (just like it says on the cover). Written in a friendly, sage and often humourous tone, Peter is your personal mentor who sets about to help you change your life by "GOYA". Now, I read a lot of self help books, went on a big reading kick when I was a youth mentor a few years ago. Some titles get bogged down in too much information or long anecdotes, but Peter respects the reader's time by providing the right amount of advice in a well organized fashion, and all of it is useful. 

I found what was most remarkable about the book was the sheer breadth of topics covered, which is unusual. Whereas some books will focus on one topic, such as goal setting (which is included), Peter explores mind mapping, decision making, mentorship and SWOT analysis. Finding it hard to get something done? Peter explains how to break it down into manageable chunks. There's even extra help for procrastinators. Along the way, his natural optimism shines through as he encourages to find and maintain enthusiasm and motivation for their dreams. It's vital for people to realize that change is within their power - it truly is something than an individual can choose.

Another shining example of the book's practical nature is the way Peter describes a method for problem solving that challenges the reader to be more analytical and critical of a problem (say, a flat tire). Instead of just reacting, the reader learns to understand the cause or "why" of the problem. Eventually this "cause analysis" can be applied anywhere and to anything - a good way to avoid life's pitfalls. If you need a nudge to change, or are feeling the need for a change, Your Life - You Choose is a great place to start. Check out the GOYA website for more information and downloads mentioned in the book.

Saturday 3 August 2013

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Nowadays we can look up early works by musicians and actors with ease, but the early works of authors can still be well hidden. Whether stashed away on microfilm, stuck behind a pay wall or just out of print, be prepared for digging and delving. That was why I was so surprised to find today's book on our bookshelf. Squinting at the cover, the familiarity of the author's name took a while to sink in.

Then it hit me. Long before he wrote North and South, John Jakes was doing a different sort of time travelling in 1972...

Time Gate

The Fourth Dimension had finally been opened up, thanks to the invention of the Time Gate. Now man could journey into the dim past or venture into the far-distant future. 

But the Time Gate had to be kept a top-secret project, manned only by Tom and Cal Linstrum and a few carefully selected scientists - for in the wrong  hands, it could become the most potent weapon yet created. Travelling through time, even one man could alter history enough so that everyone on Earth would simply cease to exist. Of course, it woudl never happene because only a madman would even try to distort the time stream. 

Then one horrifying day, it did happen. And Tom and Cal found themselves chasing through a rapidly changing panorma of history, trying desperately to capture their enemy before they and their whole world vanished forever...!


There's so much to love about this cover. It clearly says "Hey you, nerd, pick me up! We belong together!" The glowy sphere and handsome young man on the cover totally sell the fantasy. Admittedly, I'm only just into chapter four and so far it's a good young adult science fiction read. The age and condition of the book causes me to hold it very gingerly for fear of putting a bend in it.

Oh, the book is also set in 1987, and serves as a window to how bad people tend to be at predicting the future, which - trust me - I will be looking at in the very near future.