Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
The Gorjun is Free
I imagine that one of the coolest things about being an editor is the power to rename another author’s work. Not that I liked the story’s original title, “All Change,” but I kept hoping we would find a title that would make me do a little dance.
Oh, well. I can live with “The Gorjun is Free”, and I really have nothing better to suggest to Continuum’s editor, Bill Rupp. I’m just tickled that things are finally moving forward.
TBC update: first pass 25% complete. Here, too, things are moving forward. (Karen’s recommendations: The Marx brothers skit gets dropped. Butch and Sundance stay. Sul’s near-rape by beak-builder Biff Bols gets dropped. And that’s a shame, since I dearly loved it when she kneed him in the crotch. Still, it does nothing to further the story, and that whole sequence takes a LONG time to play out.)
Sorry today’s post is so incoherent. I worked hard on my Analog review for Tangent and had no time left for creative blogging. Or, for that matter, cooking dinner.
Hey Debi: remember Bare Rump’s last will and testament? Oh, how I love that bit. That, of course, stays.
More tomorrow.
D.
Doug… you’ll have to let me know what issue the story’s in so I can pick up a copy.
I’ve just been rejected by continuum – twice – Mr Rupp sent me two emails three weeks apart rejecting the same story. Now that’s emphatic rejection 🙂
keith
Wasn’t the last will and testament bit, way back…? Oh, you’re just teasing me again!
Good news with All Change (sorry, The Gorjun is Free), it’s one of my favourites :o)
Keith: based on the two stories of mine that Bill Rupp has accepted, I’d say he likes family drama in his SF. Both of my stories were serious; I haven’t tried out any of my humorous pieces with him. Anyway, this story “The Gorjun whatever” should be in Continuum’s next issue. I thought you’d read it already? It’s the one about the reality-warping toy the smart kid buys from a roadside trailer lady.
Debi: Yup, Bare Rump’s will goes way back. As I mentioned, I’m only up to the 25% mark on my first read-through. Right now I’m thinking more about what I can take out than what I need to add back in. C ya
You dropped the Marx Brothers skit? Say it ain’t so!
One fear I have about the Navy novel I’m marketing now is that the agent/editor will want me to drop the Abbot and Costello routine.
Jeff
Hey Jeff, are we writing the same book? I didn’t put Bud and Lou in there, but I thought about it.
The humor in the Marx Bros sketch showed signs of terminal strain. If you think about it, much of their schtick was physical (for Harpo, it was 100% physical). Some writers might be able to capture that on the page, but I think I fell short. Since it was ONLY in there for the humor (i.e., it accomplished nothing else in the greater context of the novel), it lived or died based on how funny it was.
Hi doug… yeh, I did read that one I think, but it’s still nicer to read it in situ as it were…
keith