Gwynne Dyer interviewed by Embassy re: his new book, Climate Wars. I don't know how long it has before it goes behind a paywall...but the content reminds me of the H2O backstory as put together by Paul Gross and John Krizanc. And Dyer's likely done more homework.

Frightened yet?

I'm watching CBC Newsworld coverage of the hijacking of the oil tanker Sirius Star right now.

Something that struck me: the interviewer describes that ship as being "three times the size of an aircraft carrier" - not specifying which class in which nation's service at the moment - and I read on the CBC web page linked above that the ship's been running with a multi-national crew of 25.

Twenty-five.

And the anchor claims astonishment that this could happen at all.

(As an aside, here's a link to the press release covering the naming ceremony. Notable for at least one first in Saudi history on the face of it, and it's one of the youngest ships in the fleet of its owners.)

I'm astonished that something of this sort didn't happen earlier on.

I'd also like an answer to this question: have any comics or novel writers tried on this sort of crime as a plot premise before? The closest I can come to saying "maybe yes" would be a Tintin book or two...

Addendum: Thanks much to mercuryeric for his suggested reading.

Also: Check this linkage out. One more reason to wean ourselves off of the existing setup ASAP, methinks. (Mind you, I'm not so sure of that particular author's opinions of the future of Prince Edward Island...)

Passed along by fellow OSFS member Alex Binkley:

Friday October 24 at 6p in Room A of the National Library on Wellington a talk from science journalist Dan Falk on Understanding Time which supposedly includes time travel same day at 7p same room Stephen Brockwell on Quantum Mechanics and Black Holes.

Sunday noon (just before the OSFA meeting) Reinventing Gravity with John Moffat a revision of the theory of relatiivity. Moffat doesn't believe in dark matter.

The rest of it seems to be the usual literary palaver.

For more on what else the Writers Festival has to offer, check this site out.

Oh yes. Still practicing my deficit of imagination here in titles for my postings. Unfortunately, I'm on the run a bit at the moment. So...

First: Noticing the vandals and threats in play in Toronto and Halifax in connection with this year's federal election. I am Displeased with this behaviour and would prefer that it stop. Yesterday. Failing that, I may get signs from all four federal candidates for the family lawn by way of sending a message. Much as I dislike a great deal of what certain of the Big Five parties have been pushing for in their platforms, these kinds of shenanigans must not be tolerated by any of us. Ever.

Second, a shout-out to the_moo about the latest issue of Canadian Screenwriter, published by the Writers' Guild of Canada: you may be interested to note that Mr. Gross and his new movie Passchendaele are the cover feature of that issue, now on sale in better newsstands across Ottawa and Confederation as a whole.

Third, a weekly meeting moderated by the aforesaid Moo is going to be held at the Nihao Tea House at Gloucester Centre Mall tonight at 7 PM. It's called Pen and Paper, and it's a workshop for writers of all sorts: poetry, short stories, essays, novels, plays, and so on. Open to one and all, at least as far as the fire safety regs will permit, and I'll tack on a poster I designed to advertise these events...


Can't promise that I'll be there, but I think it'll be worth your time if you've any interest in writing at all.

Back to you...

My first attempt at professional fiction writing in some time...finally done and submitted tonight.

Now I wait for the verdict...and move on to other stuff while I wait.

Here's hoping.

Talk about an attention-getter of a title, huh?

Anyway. Went to the OSFS meeting, had fun as we discussed the science of finding extrasolar planets. I was mildly surprised by the relative lack of attendance, but it's the first meeting of the fall and the room was smaller than we've gotten used to. Our old space at the Dalhousie Community Centre has been modified with hardwood floors for dance classes to be held. Not good for moving folding tables and stackable chairs.

Feels like the home stretch on the short story SF project, but I'm still trying to nail down a few details here and there. Some of it's trying to listen to the characters, one or two things are research issues.

My camera. My good and loyal Canon A70, after six years...is starting to get cranky about battery pack issues. I know I charged up and loaded a fresh batch not 48 hours ago, and it keeps the auto-shutdown dance. Most recently, just minutes ago in mid-upload to my iBook. Not convenient, and I may have lost all the pictures of the last 2 days in the process. I may just decide to buy one of those discontinued but still being sold models at Henry's tomorrow.

If the day job leads that sprung up on Wednesday and Thursday don't deliver tomorrow, that is.

Whirlwind of sorts.

Finished putting my latest APAzine for Legends together. It's being printed as I type this, although there's some weird and interesting font glitches occurring in the hardcopy. Random characters that should be bold printing as italic, unexpected font substitutions, and whatnot. Not quite sure why this is happening, but at least the actual text is still there, as are the photos and the map. Must've happened when I saved from Pages to PDF.

Rain's coming down here at the moment. Not too heavy, but just enough to make you go for the umbrella. Gentle film noir rain, if there's such a thing.

OSFS meeting tomorrow at the Dalhousie Community Centre on Somerset West and Empress. Details at ottawa_sf for anyone interested, and the topic is extrasolar planets. Given the current count is a little over 300 such objects...ought to be fun for anyone who shows up!

Short story's past 5,500 and closing fast on 6,000. Here's hoping it's coherent when it's done...

Back to you.

Broke the 5,000-word barrier on the short story project. Hoping to actually be done this weekend. Even better, whatever the word count, I hope to have it hold together as a story.

Making further progress on Velvet City, realigning a creek and adding a few streets, and planting an International Airport. More on this anon, but I don't plan on posting every set of changes. Maybe after I've designed the runway pattern, set down the public parks layer, and designed a "freeway interchange" symbol?

Just found out at ComicBloc that there's a revised edition of the DC Encyclopedia out from DC and Dorling-Kindersley. Knew it was in the works, but wasn't sure of the release date.

Anyone here know of listings of Canadian-based Trek fan groups?

I hope to have some good news on the writing front over the next month or three.

More details if they firm up. Wish me luck in the meantime.

I stumbled across something today on Wikipedia that struck me as Interesting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_revolt

Does anyone here have any memories or recommended reading on the subject on or off-line?

...and yes, Arune Singh (whom I spoke of last posting) is an ex-pat from Toronto down in the US Southwest at present.

Anyway, today's shout-out goes to another example of Good Comics People, Mark Shainblum, out of Montréal. His regular website's here, if you want a look-see.

Mark, in concert with assorted others, particularly Gabriel Morissette, gave us Northguard and Angloman, two polar opposites in approach to Canadian super-heroes if I've ever seen such in my life, ranging from hard realism to political satire. He's currently scripting the webcomic Canadiana, the New Spirit of Canada among other jobs he's doing, which is leaning more to the "Northguard" school than not. For the right audience, that's definitely a good thing in my POV.

I just got off the IM software with one of my partners in future comics artistry "crime" earlier tonight: Arune Singh. Turns out he's got a proper blog of his own here. Go take a look.

I'll be back with more to say on a bunch of stuff a little later...

Gahu

I learned it from tonight's episode of This is Wonderland. A most sensible concept, in my opinion.

Over to you, friends and neighbours...

Some rambling notes:

1. Election Stuff: I went to the Ottawa-Orleans all-candidates meeting last night. I am pleased to report that the venue was packed, standing room only. If there's one thing voters in my riding will never be found guilty of, it's apathy. The five candidates were not subjected to "nothing but softballs" either, for good and for ill. I can't say that I agree with my neighbours on every single issue -- otherwise the Big Four(New-Conservative, NDP, Liberal, and Green) wouldn't have been able to field candidates at all -- but they didn't exactly hold back on issues that mattered to them. From jobs to languages to same-sex marriage to civil liberties: a lot of ground got covered. I wish I'd been able to raise my question on the whole "digital rights/SonyBMG Rootkit Mess/DRM law" situation, but I have to admit that by the time they cut off questions from the public, I was still trying to figure out how to phrase it! I ended up talking with someone with one of the local news services, afterwards, though. We'll see if anything comes of that in time to do anyone any good.
2. Mortality: I lost a dear, distant friend this week: my kindergarten teacher. She taught me the value of pursuing art and acting on curiosity. Whatever I'm doing right in this life, she was one of the ones who helped make it possible. I hope to secure permission to post a link to her obituary here. If it happens, I'll let you know.
3. Creative Stuff I: I spotted a post on Diversity in and of your Characters that I plan on using for refresher self-training, written by John Rogers here at his weblog. Whether writer or artist, I'm keeping it bookmarked. If I ever forget the principles it deals with, remind me. Forcefully.
4. Creative Stuff II: I rediscovered a bit of artistic history, specifically fonts designed to emulate the look of the ID labelling on WW 2-era combat aircraft of the UK and Canada. Despite the original author's site vanishing into the ether, some kind collection of souls preserved web pages and font files here. I'd like to contact the designer if he's still reachable about some long-term ideas and personal projects I have in mind. If anyone's got a clue on that, you know how to reach me.

Update - January 16, 2005: I've since found the gentleman in question.

5. Comics Trivia Debate Fun Stufff: If you ever decide you want a DC Universe timeline debate, a friend of mine has been building a site the contents of which I've often debated with him over a decade and more. It's what he calls an Unauthorized Chronology of the DC Universe. Not the first such effort, nor the last to be expected while DC's still working out their fictional worlds, but I find it cool to visit every so often to indulge my inner Comics Trivia Hound. Have what fun you may with it.

And that about covers today's ramblings...

...I can sit down and focus on a few other things.

For instance: If pizza were sold like some music discs are sold today... It struck me as funny when I read it...partly due to the truth of it. It bites you right in the chair-dock.

I managed to make some additional progress on Draft Five of My Great Canadian Space Opera Novel today. I want to make sure that Draft Five is the last one I do before I start shipping the manuscript off to publishers and editors. More on this as I figure out the details.

No news on the comics illustration front since the Shooting Star fan art thing. Sorry, but I am working on fixing that.

Cool stuff on the dedicated space exploration-watchers' front here(admittedly belatedly)...and here, from a galactic cartographer's POV...and here.

Yes, I really like spaceref.com. It's going on my list of recommended sites for writers and artists working in space opera.

A request for advice: I'm looking for blogs by Canadians that focus on the sciences. What's cool, what's not, what's being learned in what fields where, that sort of thing. I promised the guy running publicbroadcasting.ca that I'd look into this.

More to follow...

1. Computer Skills




1. Improve my range of graphic design software with which I'm familiar.


2. Learn at least one new (to me) program's basic functions in this field.


3. Get familiar with at least one of the current crop of Major DTP Programs.


4. Finish my two amateur, comics-inspired font design projects.


5. Start and complete at least one font designed wholly by me from scratch.




2. Illustration




1. Get at least one of my comics projects into print this year.


2. Start at least one new comics project.


3. Do at least three illustration projects that have nothing to do with comic books. These can be paid or volunteer projects.




3. Writing




1. Finish the space opera novel.


2. Finish converting my serial detective fiction from the workshops into something coherent and possibly saleable.


3. Write at least two stories that have nothing to do with either genre. These need not be saleable, but should at least stretch the writing "muscles" in new directions.




4. Personal Goals




1. Visit three towns/cities I've never visited before.


2. Revisit three communities I haven't visited in at least five years.


3. Get more exercise.

And that's it for the moment. I will likely amend this list as the year wears on.

...a friend of mine's helping me keep the artwork resolution.

Scott McCullar is that friend, and our ties go back a few years. Our common DCU interests first led us into each others' acquaintance on comicboards.com, and from there to the Dixonverse board and into working together on the West End Games incarnation of the DC Universe Role-Playing Game. Scott was the guy who talked me into trying out for that, and that led to my co-writing the Daily Planet Guide to Gotham City with Matt Brady.

(Sadly, that incarnation of the game's now defunct, due to the license agreement lapsing. Copies of the Gotham Guide can still be found at amazon.com or amazon.ca, I believe. But I digress...)

Anyway, Scott's running his own company now in partnership with some fellow past DCURPG freelancers, with his own characters showcased in it. I sent him a sketch of one of those characters -- Yellow Jacket, Man of Mystery by name¹ -- a few months ago, and apparently he was keeping it in reserve for a Special Occasion.

Here it is. The occasion, and the sketch.

I hope you like it, and the other features that Scott's got either on display or in the works at that site.

If you stop in, tell him I sent you.

¹ - Not to be confused with various Marvel Comics characters of similar names.

Will Pfeifer's been making for a good read in his work on Catwoman the last year or so since taking over the writing chores there. That alone should make his work in progress on Legends of the Dark Knight worth some time and cash.

In case it doesn't, may I recommend the handiwork of artist Chris Weston? Not to mention colorist Alex Sinclair and letterer Phil Balsman, as well. The fusion of their ways and means with Will's words makes for a Gotham and a story I don't want to ignore.

As Will mentions in his own blog, the second issue of the "Blaze of Glory" arc in LotDK # 198 is now in comics shops across the Anglophone world.

More on other stuff later...but as Will asks, buy their stuff and make them, well, richer than they are now. Please.

About five or six years back, DC Comics did something Really Big centred on the Batman-related titles called "No Man's Land"(or "NML" in abbreviation). If you haven't seen the comic books themselves, or the collected editions at either bookstores or public libraries, you might have seen Greg Rucka's novelisation of that story arc.

( More musings after the cut )