Taking a Hiatus

I've decided to do NaNoWriMo unofficially this November. (Unofficially because I already six chapters of the project completed.)

Between attempting 10 pages a day and getting back into German (Alps trip this summer!!) my blogging will be spotty at best.

You can still get me at e-mail and LJ Talk and on my cell.

Before I sign off for a while, here are a few things of note:

#1: Michael A. Arnzen's Film Screening
EXQUISITE CORPSE -- a short horror "anthology" film based on Michael Arnzen's poetry and flash fiction -- will be screened on the Seton Hill University campus in an event open to the public. Mike will be on hand to host a discussion following the screening and also sign books after the event. Here are the details:

What: EXQUISITE CORPSE. 17 minutes. Producer: Poeticollage/Jim Minton Design Group, 2006.
Preview the trailer online here: http://www.exquisitecorpsemovie.com
When: Thursday, November 9th, 8:30pm
Where: ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, ROOM 206
SETON HILL UNIVERSITY, Greensburg, PA
Who: Free and open to the public. (Parental Guidence suggested: PG-13)

#2: Fantasy Writer David J. Corwell is presenting "Hooking the Reader at First Galance-- The Importance of Titles" Nov. 21st in Albuquerque, NM, in conjunction with the South West Writers. David has written short fiction, has won five national writing awards, including the 2003 SWW Storyteller Award, and has recently just completed his first novel and received his M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.

#3: Russ Howe is teaching a module at residency this January! Details to follow when the schedule comes out.

ambasadora

Exquisite Corpse, Michael A. Arnzen, David J. Corwell

Six Word Stories

Thanks to steelvictory for the heads up on WIRED's Very Short Stories. They give new meaning to Flash Fiction!

"We'll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work. So we asked sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writers from the realms of books, TV, movies, and games to take a shot themselves."

Among the partcicpants were Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Rockne S. O'Bannon, Stan Lee, Charles Stross, Vernor Vinge, and a slew of others, including those that didn't make it into the print mag.

X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


WIRED, short stories, flash fiction

Book News

#1: Publishers Weekly has a wonderful review of Seton Hill alumni Nalo Hopkinson's latest novel The New Moon's Arms.

#2: Seton Hill student Christopher Paul Carey who is an editor with Farmerphile informs us that Subterranean Press has ordered a second printing of Pearls of Peoria..

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Nalo Hopkinson, The New Moon's Arms, Christopher+Paul+Carey, Pearls From Peoria, Seton Hill University, Writing Popular Fiction

Creative Nonfiction Festival in Pittsburgh

412: Can YOU Handle the Truth?, Pittsburgh's annual Creative Nonfiction Festival, is sponsored by the Creative Nonfiction Foundation and will be held at sites throughout the city from November 6-11, 2006.

Special guests are H.G. Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August and Kathryn Harrison, author of The Kiss.

Panelists include editors and writers from The Wall Street Journal, Library Journal, Brevity, The Washington Post, Popular Science, and representatives from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts.



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Pittsburgh, Creative Nonfiction, 412, Kathryn Harrison, H.G. Bissinger

Author News

#1: Lucy Snyder's story Graveyard Shift is up at The Town Drunk.

#2: Michael A. Arnzen's story The Boblin is up at Horror-Web.

#3: Kimberley Howe blogged about research on Drunk Writers.

X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers

Lucy Snyder, Michael A. Arnzen, Kimberley Howe, Seton Hill University, The Boblin, Graveyard Shift

Greening It Up Again

It's another day of dueling environmental posts with Christopher Paul Carey. You can check out his thoughts on global warming. He has graphics and everything!

I have this awesome pic...
Pennsylvania Trail (Photo by Jason Jack Miller)

and 15 little ways you can help save the planet - taken from the September 2006 issue of Glamour. How many do you do already? and I do 12 out of 15! They're marked with an X.

X#1 Unplug all appliances not in use. They're energy vampires that still pull electricity even though they're not in use.

#2 Click to plant a tree. At americanforeststore.org you can donate a dollar and have someone else plkant a tree for you.

X#3 Minimize frozen food consumption. It takes 10 times more energy to package and ship frozen food as opposed to fresh food.

X#4 Do your errands at one time. Less trips in the car means less CO2 in the air.

X#5 Put more air in your tires. It can boost gas mileage by 3%.

X#6 Donate instead of dumping. Give away unwanted clothing, furniture, etc. to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or just to friends.

X#7 Turn down the thermostat 2 degrees. And raise it 3 degrees in the summer to prevent nearly 700 pounds of CO2 going into the air every year.

X#8 Switch to fluorescent bulbs. A 20-watt compact fluorescent bulb gives off the same amount of light as a 75-watt regular bulb, but uses 1/3 of the energy. Plus they last for years.

X#9 Shut off the lights. When you leave a room, just flick the switch.

X#10 Use a canvas shopping bag. No more worries about paper or plastic.

X#11 Do a cold-water laundry. It cleans clothes as well as warm water, plus saves energy. (And stops shrinkage!)

X#12 Hang clothes to dry. Especially in the summer and for smaller loads.

#13 Get a thermal coffee mug. Use it at the local coffee house instead of their paper cups and burn shields.

#14 Go for "green power." Ask if your local utility offers solar or wind-produced energy.

X#15 Recycle!

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environment, Heidi Ruby Miller, Christopher Paul Carey

Arnzen News

Yes, I have two bits of news about Seton Hill author Michael A. Arnzen:

#1: You can hear him read his poem WHY ZOMBIES LUMBER to creepy music on the Science Fiction Poetry Association site.

#2: His LICKER LAUNCH PARTY kicks off with a live chat tonight at 10 PM EST in The Lost and the Damned Chat Room.

X-posted to MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


Michael A. Arnzen, Licker, Science Fiction Poetry Association, Seton Hill University, Writing Popular Fiction, Why Zombies Lumber

Greening It Up

Christopher Paul Carey and I are greening things up this week with daily posts about the environment. If nothing else, enjoy the awesome photos!

Pennsylvania Stream (Photo by Jason Jack Miller)

Yesterday I asked for signatures on the SAVE BLACKWATER CANYON PETITION.

Chris discussed James Lovelock's REVENGE OF GAIA,Frank Herbert's essay LISTENING TO THE LEFT HAND, and an article STIRRINGS OF SEA CREATURES AFFECT GLOBAL CLIMATE.

Today I'm sharing with you a list of GREEN jobs compiled by Candace Corner, a writer for CareerBuilder.com, featured on the MSN site:

1. Hydrologist: The median annual income is $51,080.*

2. Environmental Engineer: The median annual income is $50,000.

3. Pest Control Technician: The median annual income is $30,500.

4. Conservation Biologist: The median annual income is $52,480.

5. Science Teacher: The median annual income of kindergarten, elementary, middle and secondary school teachers ranges from $41,400 to $45,920.

6. Toxicologist: The median annual income is $79,500.

7. Pollution Control Technician: The median annual income is $32,000.

8. Fund-raising Director: The median annual income is $45,000.

9. Ecologist: The median annual income is $68,950.

10. Camp Counselor: The median annual income is $19,320.

11. Business Manager: The median annual income is $50,000.

12. Economist: The median annual income is $72,780.

13. Forester: The median annual income is $48,230.

14. Environmental Attorney: The median annual income for attorneys specializing in construction, real estate and land use is $70,000.

15. Community Affairs Manager: The median annual income is $56,000.

16. Environmental Health and Safety Technician: The median annual income is $35,500.

17. Landscape Architect: The median annual income is $53,120. For landscape architects in nonsupervisory, supervisory and managerial positions for the federal government, the average annual income was $74,508.

18. Waste Disposal Manager: The median annual income is $35,000.

19. Environmental Chemist: The median annual income is $51,080.

20. Corporate Waste Compliance Coordinator: The median annual income is $39,000.

21. Urban and Regional Planner: The median annual income is $45,250.

22. Agricultural Inspector: The median annual income is $35,000.

23. Wastewater Water Operator: The median annual income is $35,000.

24. Wildlife Biologist: The median annual income is $42,000.

25. Air Quality Engineer: The median annual income is $66,000.


* Salary information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Payscale.com.

Interesting that Hydrology was first because that's what my brother does for the USGS. And, of course, Jason is an ace Earth Science teacher. (Voted BEST TEACHER last year at UHS!)

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green jobs, Heidi Ruby Miller, Christopher Paul Carey

Adrea Peters Interviews Tess Gerritsen

Seton Hill author Adrea Peters has an awesome site called Artists Looking Ahead. The feature this month is an interview with Tess Gerritsen in honor of the Writing Popular Fiction Program choosing Gravity as the book for January's residency.

X-posted to ambasadora, setonhillwpf, authors, discuss_writing, writerly, MySpace, Heidi Ruby Miller, WPF Writers


Adrea Peters, Tess Gerritsen, Gravity, Artists Looking Ahead, Seton Hill University, Writing Popular Fiction

Save Blackwater Canyon Trail

The United States Forest Service is threatening to let Allegheny Wood Products destroy irreplaceable cut-stone archways, bridges, coke ovens, culverts, and retaining walls along the Blackwater Canyon Trail.

Blackwater Canyon (Photo by Jason Jack Miller)


Taken from the FRIENDS OF BLACKWATER CANYON Website:

Friends of Blackwater and the Wilderness Society are ..consulting parties.. to the Historic Preservation Act review process for the Forest Service..s Blackwater Canyon Trail Proposal. This review is called the ..106 Process... We have been meeting with the U. S. Forest Service, trying to persuade the agency to protect the historic Canyon Rail Trial.

So far the Forest Services is ignoring our concerns -- as well as concerns raised by the EPA, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the State Historic Preservation Office (who are also consulting parties) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has asked to be a party. The Forest Service has not shared with us the proposed Deed of Easement language giving the use of the Trail to Allegheny Wood Products (AWP), or the survey of the Trail. No information has been shared about AWP..s planned uses for the Trail such as the size of logging trucks or construction equipment, weight loads, or the boundaries of the proposed easement. No engineering analysis of the strength of the bridges along the Trail has been made public. The vehicles using the easement area must travel over another 5 miles of Trail to get there but no analysis of cumulative effects on this part of the Trail has been forthcoming.

GO HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

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Blackwater Canyon, Blackwater Canyon Trail, Friends of Blackwater Canyon

Voting Time for ATIII

To vote for author Kimberely Howe in the American Title III Contest, send an e-mail to webmaster@romantictimes.com with the words, ONE SHOT, TWO KILLS in the subject line. This is the title of Kim's novel.

X-posted to setonhillwpf and ambasadora


American Title III Contest, Kimberley Howe, One Shot, Two Kills

Title Wave: AT2 Sisters Wave...to AT3 Finalist Kim Howe

Check out Kim Howe's interview for The American Title III Contest

The Write Way November Workshop

The NOVEMBER workshop at The Write Way will be:
AG's Art of Action

Instructor Bio:
AG Devitt has had numerous short stories published in such places as Pulp Stories Quarterly. Devitt was also the writer/creator of the independent comics Monk, Mortal Coyle, Doug & Punk's Pulp Adventures, and The Custodian. His latest, Assassin's Playground, will be published in the fantasy anthology Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy, coming in 2006. In addition to his writing, Devitt has sang in a punk rock band, managed an independent music store, studied martial arts since the age of 8, and consistently denies rumors that have linked him to the Justice League of America. He holds three degrees and teaches creative writing at the college level.

Course Description:
AG Devitt has been involved in martial arts since he was eight years old, and in this four week course he will cover everything from the history of martial arts to how to generate conflict through realistic fighting scenes.

$20.00 Course Fee
To register, send payment via paypal to info@thewriteway.org (info@ thewriteway. org – without the spaces). When your payment is received, or one week before class begins (whichever is later), you’ll receive an invitation to join our yahoo group.

Course Schedule:
November 3, 2006 - November 24, 2006
Week 1: History of Martial Arts
Week 2: Action and Conflict
Week 3: Action in Action (writing exercise)
Week 4: AG Reviews Writing Sample


X-posted to ambasadora and setonhillwpf



The Write Way, A.G. Devitt, writing+workshop, martial+arts