Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 31st, 2007
I’ve been meaning to post something about the SFWA for a while. Growing up, I had – mainly through the Silverberg Hall of Fame anthology, and the Nebula awards – this idea that the SFWA was something pretty awesome, even if it only belonged to Americans. And getting past the SFWA qualifications of membership (3 “professional” sales as defined by the SFWA) was, for me, like most beginning writers, a kind of benchmark – a, hey, mum, look at me, I can join the SFWA now!
I got my sales, but I never joined the SFWA. The organisation changed its name at some point – from the Science Fiction Writers of America to the SF Writers Association – but it is still an American organization with a few overseas members (predominantly, I would imagine, from England). I mainly followed the recent piracy thing with the SFWA through a couple of people on my f-list, and that’s when I realised something pretty strange. I know, well, quite a few names of sf/f writers – established, beginning, and some totally obscure. And yet, the man who was taking all the heat on the piracy thing was no less than Vice-President of SFWA – and I never heard of him. I went to check their Board of Directors just now, and I have also never heard of the President, the Secretary or the Treasurer. I was also utterly befuddled as to what the Anthologies Committee, you know, does. I am also amazed that there is an SFWA Emergency Medical Fund. This is, of course, because SFWA is an American organization, and America has the dubious distinction of being the richest country in the world without free medical care. I wonder if, if I join, I can get a discount for not needing the emergency medical fund?
Anyway. I’m sure SFWA is useful. I liked it when they raised the minimum pro pay to 5c from 3c, but let’s be honest – 5c per word is no more professional than 3c, and these are 1950s magazine rates. If SFWA was serious, they might raise the minimum pro pay to 10c per word – which is just about adequate. Also, they might take their own definition (as a professional organization) a little more seriously and restrict membership to people who, say, had sold a minimum of 2 novels to a big publisher (not unreasonable, as most writers today would be signed up to a 2- or 3- book deal), or, say, 15 pro short-stories. Or something.
I don’t really have much more to say about the SFWA, except that, looking at their contact list, they have more committess than you’d get on a kibbutz…
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Monday, December 31st, 2007
There’s a long string of honking vehicles flowing by right now, each filled with hooting, happy people. There is a modest fireworks display down at the Sea Front, and the phone lines are jammed with people wishing each other a happy New Year.
Most amusing of all, the use of scarlet distress flares. At any moment, there are two or three in the air above the harbour, floating lazily down. The colour on the water is dazzling.
In two hours time I will be sick of the noise and wanting sleep, but in the mean time, allow me to be the very first to wish you all a happy New Year.
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Thursday, December 27th, 2007
I was delighted to discover today, by ways of doing research for a new story, that the first Hebrew translation of Romeo & Juliet was called “Ram & Yael”. Othello was translated, by the same person, as “Itiel”. (“Itiel Ha’kushi” to be exact – kushi means, literally, a man from Kush, and was used in the bible – and still used today – to denote a black person. Kush was the land that lay after Egypt – more or less modern-day Sudan). In the same translation, Desdemona is called Osnat. The translator, Yitzhak Salkinsohn, was a Jew who converted to Christianity. Truth is always stranger than fiction – and I can’t help noticing I spent all this research time for just a single line in the story…
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Thursday, December 27th, 2007
Membership year is now from January to December – following the calendar year…
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Thursday, December 27th, 2007
A wrap-up of our Friends Talks in 2007…
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Thursday, December 27th, 2007
We’ve arrived in Suva after a few days in a modest little resort on the Gold Coast. Staying at my friend Danny’s place while he stays at mine in Vila – proof positive that a change is as good as a rest.
B and I are sitting in Danny’s apartment, each happily ensconced with a laptop, she checking up on the Kenyan elections, I catching up on email, xkcd, mefi, bash and… well, this. Broadband at home FTW! Forward with great bandwidth!
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Monday, December 24th, 2007
Can’t help it. I love Hot Shots. And Hot Shots Part Deux – it was just on. I love Loaded Weapon 1, Airplane II (why is it that spoof movies are always better in the sequel?) and of course Top Secret.
Looking up spoof movies on Wikipedia, btw, I was delighted to discover a movie called Ninja Bachelor Party, and alarmed to discover Flesh Gordon had a sequel called Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmis Cheerleaders. I wish I’d written that.
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Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
I totally forgot to upload the last issue of the Torba Times, which came out the week we left the Banks. It’s quite a shame, as I was planning a Torres Islands issue and at least one more, but there you go. Thank you, European Union, for managing to devise a project that a three year old could have put together better with lego. I guess this is what my British taxes went on… the results of their NSA programme, if anyone’s interested, after 9 months, was: one sewing machine. Well, that makes one woman on Gaua a happy woman, I guess! Mind you, it does make it kind of an expensive sewing machine…
Anyway, download issue 8.
Copies are available for reference in the Vanuatu National Library at the Cultural Centre in Port Vila. I arranged a domain – torbatimes.cns.com.vu – and I will try and update it with the 8 existing issues at some point.
On a totally different subject, bible translations are big over here – the missionaries really pushed it, as you can imagine – but I never got to see the Bislama bible. However, having access to the bible in its original tongue, here is my own attempt at the opening sentence…
Hebrew: Bereshit bara elohim et hashamaim ve’et haaretz ve’haaretz haiya tohu vavohu vechosech al pnei tehom, veruach elohim merachefet al pnei hamaim.
English (King James Version): In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Bislama (translated from the Hebrew, not the English): Bifo bifo, God i mekem skae wetem land, mo land hemi bagarap bigwan mo i tudak long hem, mo spirit blong god i stap move olbaot long hem.
Bagarap bigwan is my translation of “tohu vavohu”, btw… Only one of the benefits of a classical education!
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
Tomorrow, B and I head off to Fiji for a week. We’ll be staying in a little seaside resort for the first few days, then we’ll go to Suva for a taste of the Big Smoke, such as it is.
Have a happy time, everyone, and just remember, as you dig yourselves out from under the snow drifts and the egg nog hangover, I’ll be lazing at the beach with my sweetie, doing as much of nothing as possible.
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Friday, December 21st, 2007
Why didn’t anybody tell me that Tim Burton has made a film version of Sweeney Todd?
I’d fly to Sydney just to see that….
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