RP: SubStack Oct 23/23 -Races, Novels, and Bears
November 04, 2023
Comments - I’d really like to see your comments on my posts, and I’m sure other readers would too. But to comment, you will first need to create a free SubStack account. It’s quick to do, and then with an account, you can also subscribe to other writers, many of whom offer a free option to subscribe. In addition, you can manage which sections in my blog you prefer to get newsletters from. I hope we hear from you.
Podcasts for fun - I subscribe to a number of podcasts, of varying listening length and a number of styles. They cover politics, science, philosophy, history, and short stories. The stories are just to entertain, although I suppose good ones can teach you how to write effectively. There are lots of good ones from Podcastle, a site that has been going for 15 years. I listened to a very good one today, about a plush little toy that can slay the monsters under your bed for you. It’s Podcastle 254:Sundae Rated R: Contains violent Teddy Bears.
Here’s the intro from their site -
Perhaps the greatest warrior the world had ever known was entombed in a brown cardboard box in the attic. The box was scrawled “Kenny’s Room” in bright red Sharpie pen and stuffed into a dust-covered corner one Spring-cleaning with several others. Some contained toys the children had outgrown, others contained electronics that were working but hopelessly out-of-date. All of them were quickly forgotten about.
BTW - the photo above is my own little bear, just called Teddy. He’s over 70 by now.
Another leadership race - From The Hill Times - With plunging polling numbers, the chatter of a potential Liberal leadership election to succeed Trudeau starts again.
The polls show that the Libs are in trouble, and have been for a while, with no signs of a quick recovery. Conservatives have 39 percent support, Liberals at 28, and NDP at 18. The only thing that would help the Libs is if Poilievre and his Conservatives really messed something up. Or if there were a new Liberal leader. No big rush, as the next official election date is not until October 25, 2025. But the Libs have a majority only with the support of Singh’s NDP, and he might pull the plug on them, depending on how it would help him. But who could be the next leader?
Last week’s Angus Reid poll said that Finance Minister Freeland’s name was known by 72 percent of Canadians, Foreign Minister Joly’s by 51 percent, and Bank of Canada Governor Carney’s by 34 percent. But name recognition is only a first step. Will Trudeau step aside this winter to give a newcomer time to get elected and build his or her support? Will Justin repeat his father’s symbolic walk in the snow and then announce his retirement on February 29th? After all, 2024 is a Leap Year.
NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It’s international really, would that be InNoWriMo?
From their site - National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 as a daunting but straightforward challenge: to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Now, each year on November 1, hundreds of thousands of people around the world begin to write, determined to end the month with a first draft. They enter the month as elementary school teachers, mechanics, or stay-at-home parents. They leave novelists.
Will I be writing? I’ve done eight novels in it, starting in 2010. Two became published novels, Kirk’s Landing and Return to Kirk’s Landing, helped along with the encouragement/nagging of a small independent publisher. He’s retired now, so the other six have stayed in various stages of disarray.
I did start another one back in 2020, based on a few short stories with a similar topic and character. Provisionally titled Autumn Endings, it’s sci-fi. A colony ship, off course, that crashes on the wrong planet. Luckily, it seems Earth-normal, with a hot climate stuck in mid-summer and 24 hours of daylight. Turns out the seasons are not quite stuck - the next mid-summer is 80 years away. With a deadly winter in between most don’t survive. After a few 80-year cycles, their choice is to let all die off each fall, then restart in the spring using the in-vitro lab, while still somehow keeping their cultural continuity and generational memory.
Steph is an ‘oops’, born years after all the spring’s lab babies. She does not want to die before winter, she wants to escape to a region with shorter winters. After some colony background and Steph’s lonely childhood, the story will focus on her escape and what she finds. Told from her POV - a challenge.
I have it roughed out, and maybe I will have enough to start November 1st. We’ll see. Feel free to ask for more details.
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