Zeal

New stuff online by people I know. Toby Buckell and Tim Cooper both have stories in Would That It Were. I love me some steampunk.

Mike Japser backed out on me tonight. He thought about the traffic, and the bad weather, and the four-hour round trip, and decided the joy of meeting me did not exceed the unpleasantness of those things. I don't blame him-- what with all the hail this evening, I would've worried about him out on the roads.

I went to the optometrist again today. Requisite lame attempts at flirting ensued. I am Lord Boring. I talked to the beautiful assistant about blackouts and, like, roof leaks. Lame. This is my last visit for a while, too... I'm supposed to see the doctor again in three months so he can make sure the blood vessels are withdrawing from my corneas. I could always poke myself in the eye with something...

I wrote 2,000 words tonight to finish my Mr. Zealand story, titled "Birch Stakes." It takes place in the same future world as my story "Lachrymose and the Golden Egg," but while that's a fairly light and romantic story, "Birch Stakes" is about murder and deception and worse-living-through-chemistry. The only point of connection for the two stories is a drug, Vision, which creates in the user a vivid, continuous dream, sort of like opium-meets-V.R. Vision users spend hours in a totally realistic world that draws heavily on the user's own experiences, symbology, and subconscious. The drug is used as an aid to psychiatric therapy, as a narcotic-substitute for people with painful terminal illnesses... and, for those who can afford the cost and the lost time, as a recreational drug. But Vision can do funny stuff, sometimes, and all its properties are not fully understood...

I like "Birch Stakes." The scenes are very short and sharp, and I left out a lot of the connective tissue, sort of an unusual and minimalist approach for me. I hope it makes sense to readers. I'll polish it and send it to my First Line of Defense Against Incoherence, my beloved first readers...

I think I figured out the ending to "Uncrowned Kings," too, which is good, though I'm not totally happy with what I have in mind... it seems a little too pat and easy, somehow, and like "Meranhu's Gifts" the resolution hangs on a technicality... in "Meranhu's" everything depends on the specifics of an old covenant among gods, while in "Uncrowned" weird rules-of-succession are involved... I'm going to think about it some more, and see if I can come up with a more completely satisfying conclusion.

Maybe I'm just thinking about it too much. Lots of people have complimented my endings in "The Fallen" and "Dog Boys" and "Werewolves," so now I'm really aware of the way my stories end, maybe too aware. My brain might be getting in the way of the process.

I sleep now.