Colin Harvey – author

The second of two posts about how some see those in the SF community, including a deeply, deeply disturbing comment from one policeman.

On the day Hugo-nominated Canadian SF writer Peter Watts goes on trial, and soon after another friend has had, erm, issues with the US Border Agency, I’ve written the first of two blog posts taking David Langford‘s section header from Interzone as my starting point.

One of the features of the Media Communications Studies is to challenge what is accepted, especially what is ‘common sense,’ since the things that are so classified are often the result of media messages repeated almost ad infinitum. So I now only have to hear ‘but it’s common sense’ or ‘everyone knows that…’ and my Inner Scientist rises up and says Yeah? Prove it!

So when I got into a bit of a discussion last week about the curse of mobile phones, I risked being hoisted on my own petard. Until I took up the challenge.

As the title will indicate, I’ve posted a new review at Suite101. I should have posted it last week; I’m not sure what happened there. But anyway, here it is, belatedly.

The second of two pieces on characterization posted over at the blog at Suite101.

I’ve posted the first of an occasional series at Suite101, examining why stories fail. SF is a literature driven by ideas, but an idea without a plot is not a story. Plot grows from character, just as in the best stories, plot drives character.

I’ve held back from this sort of article for some time, because I still think of myself as a journeyman, but I’m slowly accepting that I’m further along the road that journey takes, than many others.

So I was all set to poke fun at Mary Robinette Kowal for mixing up her 1s and her 3s, ’cause everyone knows that the deadline for the Hugo nominations is the 31st. Then I looked at the reminder mail from Worldcon again. Oh, crap. It really is the 13th. The 31st is the Nebula Awards and TTA Press.  There are some pointers toward quick reading sites  here.

In which Our Blogger realizes that that blasted netbook which he’s in danger of obsessing about, is not the first bit of kit to give him grief. More about that here. Perhaps the manufacturers have a cunning plan, methinks…

The clock is headed toward midday as I write this, and I’ve only been in for about half an hour! I was up at 5.30 this morning, which is no earlier than any other day, but it already seems to have gone on forever. It’s all about the travelling. And in about three hours I’ll be heading for my Scriptwriting Seminar at Uni, so I’d better turn my thoughts toward that.

But before I do, I’ve posted more about P-Con over at Suite.

I fly out to Dublin later on today for the annual Phoenix Con, now in its seventh year. I have a pretty busy Saturday, with panels pretty much every other hour, so that if I’m lucky I’m on stage for an hour with an hour until the next one.

I’m unsure where my slot is in the ‘Meet the Author’ strand; if it’s Saturday, it could blow that nice steady routine out of the water — Sunday before or after lunch would be ideal, but I’ll take whatever crops up.

Sunday looks a little quieter, but here’s my timetable in full.

I was going to say ‘See you all tomorrow’ in Gaelic, but I can’t actually read Grace’s hand-writing…translation fail, Grace!

So I’ll see you all tomorrow…in English.