In other news

[ksmith]

...I noticed a few new names in my Friends list over the last week or two. Introduce yourselves, if you have a mind to. In any case, thanks for stopping by--I try to keep thing as as interesting as possible considering I'm wrapped up in job/house/dogs/book.

In otherworldly news, they've discovered a 10th planet, which I think is really cool:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/29jul_planetx.htm?list27412

Comments

[excessor.livejournal.com]

Hello!

My partner, dr_scott, introduced me to your books; I just finished the last one, Contact Imminent. I saw in a blurb that you have an idomeni pronunciation guide, so I went to the website and from there discovered that you have an LJ presence as well. After reading a few posts, I decided to add you to my friends list.

I'm a technical documentation manager at a high tech company in San Jose, California. I grew up in Texas and Pennsylvania, but I've lived in San Jose area of northern California for twenty years.

I'm attracted to your writing for a few reasons. One is that you write dialog very well. It's believable, conversational, and has a sense of reality that is difficult to execute well. I also love the themes of transformation and transcendence, and the way you work them—as something happening to Jani as well as something observed in others by Jani—makes me want to read more. In a more general sense, as a fan of science fiction, I like to see a vision of the future in all its glory and squalor.

I hope you don't mind that I've put you on my friends list.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I'm a technical documentation manager at a high tech company in San Jose, California. I grew up in Texas and Pennsylvania, but I've lived in San Jose area of northern California for twenty years.

Heh--I always think it's cool when docfolk read my books. Also librarians, lawyers--anyone who has to deal with paper or records or--heavens forbid--operating procedures on a regular basis.

I'm attracted to your writing for a few reasons. One is that you write dialog very well. It's believable, conversational, and has a sense of reality that is difficult to execute well. I also love the themes of transformation and transcendence, and the way you work them—as something happening to Jani as well as something observed in others by Jani—makes me want to read more. In a more general sense, as a fan of science fiction, I like to see a vision of the future in all its glory and squalor.

Thanks for the kind words--always appreciated. I enjoy writing dialogue--if I'm stuck, I'll jumpstart matters by writing line after line, page after page of dialogue only, then add the business later. Dialogue at times can be easy. Business is Hard, says she who already has Niall smoking way too much as it is.

Change is a theme of the series. If you don't change, if you don't adapt, you're in trouble. It can be difficult tracking those changes over a 5-book story arc--if I could start over, I think I would have planned this series very differently--and making sure that the ways in which people/idomeni change are consistent with their personalities.

Then again, there's the understanding that in some very basic ways, people don't/won't/can't change. Realizing this during the struggle with this book flipped a switch. Everyone thinks they have Jani figured out, that they know how to play her. They need to learn that someone can do exactly what you think they will and still surprise you.

And I'll stop rambling about this blasted book now and get back to writing it.

I hope you don't mind that I've put you on my friends list.

Not at all--thanks for visiting!

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Does this mean that Charon has been demoted, and is no longer the 10th planet? It was small, but it has an orbit around the sun.

Sometimes I feel like it takes me so long to get news I care about, that it might as well be the middle ages. Welcome to the Info Glut Age...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

They didn't even mention Charon.

heh--funny word association. Ring of Charon is a book by Roger McBride Allen in which, iirc, the collapse of Earth's civilization/power structure/whatever is the result of Too Much Information. People lost track, gave up, and it all collapsed.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I dread the day we all give up...but there's too much we SHOULD keep up with.

[nachtswerg.livejournal.com]

Glad to know that I'm not the only one who remembers Charon. I was wondering about it, myself.

This is cool. Nice to have a nice kid in the neighborhood.

Of course, there's a part of me, the SF geek, that wonders if we'll find out that it's slowly drawing closer...

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Of course, there's a part of me, the SF geek, that wonders if we'll find out that it's slowly drawing closer...

It's okay. Some of the extended family has to be a little paranoid--it keeps the tribe alive.

I know that feeling... 8^)

Charon and Sedna

[leemc85615.livejournal.com]

I believe Charon is the moon of Pluto. Sedna is the newly discovered "planet". There is quite a controversy over what constitutes a "planet" with one camp wanting to romove planetary status from Pluto.

Re: Charon and Sedna

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

No, Sedna is either a Kuiper Belt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt) object or an Oort Cloud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud) object, depending on who you ask. (It's generally considered a Kuiper Belt Object, but it meant redefining the outer limit of the KB.) The thought to downgrade Pluto rears up again every time something very large is found out there, but Pluto has an atmosphere, which other KBOs do not.

This new thing is supposedly larger than Pluto, which is why they're saying "planet" even though it's in the Kuiper Belt. If it's bigger than Pluto and orbits the Sun, we can hardly classify it as not-a-planet. And if it turns out to have an atmosphere, well, what else could you call it?

I just hope they give it a Greco-Roman name like the rest of the planets (except Earth, of course. But we're special). Though all the gods' names may have been used already, which is annoying.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Howdy! I came stumbling in by way of... gee, I can't remember who, now.

Anyway, I'm actually the text design manager on your books over here at Eos. :-)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Cool--so, are you the one who chooses the fonts and the little blade-like things that bracket the chapter headings and such? Do you choose the cover fonts as well?

If I write Too Many Words (TM), are you the one who has to figure out how to cram them in the allotted number of pages?