It seems a William Park(e)s was an archer in the contingent of Edward, Duke of York during two of Henry V’s French Adventures. That’s right. Two. Meaning he must have survived the first one, then went back. I mean, sure, that was interesting to know, but then I went to the San Antonio Worldcon back in 1997 and discovered that there was also a William Parks at the Alamo.
Before now I only had my own example to go by, but now it occurs to me that common sense just may not run in this family.
Three days ago, Amazon listed two copies of The Heavenly Fox for $19 each direct from them. As of yesterday there are still two listed, only one’s listed new at $197 and the other is listed used and priced at $99. Yeah, good luck getting those prices, but it does demonstrate something I was rather anticipating—The Heavenly Fox has sold out it in both published states. There was a 100 copy signed, numbered and DJ’d run, which sold out several months ago. I checked with the publisher and, sure enough, the second, unsigned state has also sold out. Since both were limited runs I’m not too surprised. I’m just glad it didn’t take longer.
I’ll know in a few days who it lost the Mythopoeic Award to, but in the meantime I’m getting used to the fact that, for the first time in about five years, I don’t have a single book in print at PS Publishing. Good thing the Yamada novel is coming out from them next year.
Having been subjected to all the fuss about Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT series, I managed to pick up a copy and read a few paragraphs. Stephen King was right–she can’t write for beans: Her prose doesn’t sing, it mumbles. Clumsy phrasing, line after line of words that weren’t incorrect, but worse—they were wrong. Terrible stuff.
That’s it; I’m done. My slagging on Meyer’s prose is now officially over. This is not a plucking of sour grapes because Meyer’s gotten rich on stuff I wouldn’t read if you paid me. It’s not about her or even the crass commercial (I.E. Trying to Survive) publishers. This is about you. Not everyone who reads this blog is a writer, but some are. Most if not all of you would be horrified to think that someone will read something you’ve written and have the same reaction to your work that I did to Stephenie Meyer’s.
So why do you care? Probably for the same reason Stephenie Meyer likely does, and I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt here, because—outside of a few pranks pulled on PA and the Bulwer Lytton contest–I’ve never heard of anyone who deliberately set out to write badly. Continue reading
Well, okay, not really. But it has just reached its 100th issue, which is remarkable enough for any sf/f magazine these days, online or otherwise. Times are hard, and now it’s about as accurate to say of anything short-lived as having “The life expectancy of a Redshirt, a Spinal Tap drummer, or a new sf/f magazine.” Scott Andrews and Beneath Ceaseless Skies have beaten very long odds just to be where they are. I don’t think it’s because they publish my stuff now and then, but I’m relieved to know that at least this egregious oversight doesn’t appear to have hurt them.
The 100th issue is a double issue and should be live even as we speak (yeah, I know, but bear with me), and the ToC is listed below: Continue reading
In the proper usage of the word, not its current defilement. I simply mean that, upon receiving advice from First Reader that a certain character wasn’t important to the story I’d just written and should be cut out, I not only didn’t cut him out, I went the other way and added an entire extra scene starring you know who.
It’s not that I wasn’t listening to First Reader’s reaction. On the contrary, her reaction was the reason I did exactly the opposite of what she suggested. Continue reading
Richard Parks 