At · the · Intersection · of · Fiction · & · Reality

CNN first ten headlines in RSS newsfeed:
1. Opinion: Facebook threatens us
2. 747 clips commuter jet in Chicago
3. Youngest speller good on “ingluvies”
4. Kid feels dizzy, hilarity ensues
5. Seattle manhunt launched after deadly shootings
6. Opinion: In defense of Justin Bieber
7. “Catastrophe Award’ angers students
8. Suspect ID’d in Canada body parts case
9. Prove Mitt’s not a unicorn, group says
10. Why Senate runoff in Texas is important

BBC first ten headlines in RSS newsfeed
1. Supervolcanoes ‘quicker to blow’
2. Canada severed limbs suspect named
3. Andy Coulson (former Director of Communications for PM David Cameron) charged with perjury
4. Eddy Shaw faces child sex charges
5. Canada manhunt after limbs posted
6. French reporter freed in Columbia
7. Parents charged over fire deaths
8. Is Obama’s drone doctrine counter-productive
9. Music Presenter Freed in Zimbabwe
10. Lagos Anger Over University Name

I wonder why it is that when I want ‘news’ (especially anything international) I check the BBC first...

Denise drew a name at random from those people who sent me an email saying they'd like a chance to win a copy of the Brazilian edition of A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT.

The lucky (well, we'll leave the use of that adjective up to them) winner is Lee Taylor!!! Woo-hoo!! Hope you can read Portuguese! Sorry to the rest of you who entered the contest -- if they'd sent a box of books, I might have been able to give away lots of copies, but they didn't. But thanks for playing!

If you'd like to get in on future contests and such, sign up for the Farrellworlds e-mail list. You can do so at the entry page for the farrellworlds site: http://www.farrellworlds.com. I don't bother the list very often, I promise!

Yeah, yeah, 'progress reports' suck and are mostly boring. But hey, sometimes ya just gotta heave a sigh of relief at a landmark. The current work-in-progress--tentatively titled "Crow of Connemara" is now officially a novel, as it is 40,000 words in draft today.

Mind you, I'm still finishing up "Part One" of three parts, so we're nowhere near done. Part Two will likely be shorter, but Part Three will probably be about the same length as Part One, so I'm figuring on the novel coming in at somewhere around 120,000 words. Maybe. Though I think I said that with "Daemon Heart (currently on Sheila's desk to be read) and that one is currently 172,000 words…

But anyway, CROW is moving along. It's nearly time to put Part One on Denise's Nook for her comments...

I think I cry much easier than I used to…

I don't recall getting teary-eyed much as a teenager or young adult. Maybe it was because, as a male, I had the conception that I wasn't socially permitted to do that. Don't know -- I just remember that I could watch emotional moments, either fictionalized or genuine, and stay stoic.

Not any more. I was the funeral service for a friend's father just yesterday (a man I'd never met), and found that the sorrow was infectious; I had to sniff back tears more than once. It happens with books and movies, too -- I'll be caught up in the emotion of the fiction and find myself reacting.

Is it age, I wonder, or am I more empathetic now that I once was, or more sentimental? I don't have a good answer.

What about you? Do you cry easily? Has that changed over time? Why do you think that is?

They're beautiful, but I can't read them...  :-(  LeYa, my Brazilian publisher, put out a gorgeous trade paperback volume, with a lovely crystalline (and properly glowing) Sun Throne gracing the cover, end flaps on the cover, snazzy decorations here and there, pages that are bordered like faux-parchment, and versions of my maps that are the better than those in the US edition.  Oh, the pretty!

Here.  Take a look so you can say all the proper nice things.





I'll be offering a raffle copy to one lucky winner from the Farrellworlds mailing list.  It's not too late to sign up -- which you can do from the home page of the Farrellworlds site:  http://www.farrellworlds.com.

My good friend David B. Coe, in the midst of launching a new career as "D.B. Jackson" with an fantastic new book called "Thieftaker", has a post up on the sfnovelists site about the art of self-promotion.

But it's not what you might think. David's asking you for feedback: what works (and doesn't work) for you as a reader in the arena of promotion? What would you tell a writer who's looking to do what's best to promote his/her new work? What would you warn him/her away from doing?

That's a good question, and one every writer (including me) would love to know. I know I'll be looking closely at the responses David gets to this post...

For those who believe that student performance on standardized testing is an excellent way to evaluate teachers, here is a cautionary tale…

Me? I've long felt that standardized testing is a waste of time and a poor predictor of anything at all…

I -- or rather, I and eleven other people who were on jury duty with me -- sent a man to prison for three years yesterday. That's a really strange feeling...

Flywheel now comes to you in two flavors:

Regular Website: http://www.farrellworlds.com/flywheel
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/flywheelcincy

If only it were Greater's Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip...