Five days of being cut off from the online word has come to an end.  I didn't think I was gonna make it, but this is my crazy week at work, so I was at the office late and managed to get a quick fix.   The Internet and I are tight.  I'm an Online Editor, so Web sites are like my second home; being locked out for so long was frustrating.

 It turns out there was an outage in my part of Brooklyn that Time Warner claimed to know nothing about.  How reassuring...I did get them to credit my account for $8--I'll try not to spend it in one place.

I called my landlady from work a few hours ago to see if she would be home tomorrow night because I had a Technician scheduled for a visit.  I'm a relic, when it comes to TV--I still use rabbit ears--I won't get cable until I absolutely have to in 2009--that's also when I'll treat myself to a sleek state-of-the-art flat-screen TV--mine is a gigantic relic with, **gasp** a picture tube!

I must go now.  I have lots of Web sites to update and stories to send to Editors.  I just wanted to let you know I'm not dead...

One of the perennial concerns of the Wiscon regulars, pacing the rest of the white left, is "Where are all the people of color? Why don't they want to hang out with us!" Well, of course few people want to hang out with SF nerds regardless of politics, but Wiscon does itself no favors when it launches panels asking whether or not the Mexicans are coming over here and stealing our jobs magical realism is real genre of fiction.

And then there's these two panels, extra hilarious in their juxtaposition:

"Elves are slim, tall, light-skinned forest-lovers. Dwarves are stout, working-class, good craftsmen. Asians are good with math. Jews have a natural gift with money. Issues of racial stereotyping in fantasy are generally passed over pretty lightly. If a race of lizards are portrayed as slow-moving and lazy, well, that's to be expected, they're cold-blooded, right? They're biologically different from the rest of us. Is it OK to casually make generalizations and judgments about cultures and races in SF/F, whether real or imaginary, or this dangerous racism? Do responsible authors owe it to their readers to avoid using simple biological imperatives instead of carefully developing alternate cultures? And what of the characters that rebel against the norm? Are they brave iconoclasts, or merely the exception that proves the rule?"

and

"Indigenous peoples everywhere have experienced the natural world as imbued with spirit. Their beliefs, long dismissed as superstition, are now being echoed in the findings of quantum physics. Which SF/F works address this fusion of environmental science and spiritual truth, and how persuasively do they make the point?"



Show your work in the comments!

Dropped off completely yesterday as a result of some new adventures in pain management.  Let's just say the IPO failed on that venture.  I am better now but it made for quite an overnight.

Meanwhile, my extracted bit of colon tissue has made an appearance.  I am pleased to see my insides so directly

May be home Thursday, but still on very low energy/highly reduced schedule mode for a week after that point.

Doctor soon.  Later days!

I have discovered the awareness to know what's wrong and the knowledge that for right now and the foreseeable future, there's nothing I can do about it. Is that really true?

It is what I think. What I think and what's true are not the same thing. How's that? I think based on what I believe and what I believe comes from way back and what I was taught about my self by my parental units. For those playing along at home, that was defined as "not enough."

What's true is beyond me, it's much bigger. It's the unlimited potential of the human mind, spirit, and imagination, coupled with God's energy (we call it the power of faith). The mantra of the limited human is "I can't". I've done that when I didn't believe in myself and/or when I didn't believe in something greater than myself (God). Perhaps the correct phrase is: when I don't believe in myself and/or when I don't believe in God. Hey, this is an ongoing process.

I don't like surrendering my will to God. Things take too long. I'd rather fail quickly by my own control than wait around for God to work things out in God's time. It's like human ADD as opposed to accepting life on God's terms. Is it better to succeed in little ways right now or in positive life-altering ways over time? I leave that to you.

After several specific enlightening moments, I see how I've become this person and what my masks are that keep me hidden. I see what I can do if I choose to. But I look around and know this isn't where I want to be. I am more than this.

Let me clarify: This isn't about my marriage. This is about employment, self-worth, and my creativity. Though lately (since the Being Fearless conference), I've been unable to write. I've tried. I've sat down and stared at a story and given up. I don't know why. I've stated that I feel like I'm in mid-leap over a chasm between who I was and who I can be. In the meantime, I'm not sure who I am, but I've still got these threads tied to who I was and they keep pulling me back. Now, today, I'm in mid-leap, but starting to fall.

I can't go back; I'm too awake and too aware. But I'm not awake enough to move forward with a new sense of who I am, without giving into the fear and the rest of my baggage. I suppose letting go of all these Samsonites would allow me to keep leaping without the burden of the past dragging me down. Hm...something to consider.

Thanks for listening.


Peace,
Gary . . .

Now this is fun -- I just sold a gag to the artist of one of my favorite daily comic strips. Sorry, I can't reveal which strip, but just know that I'm pretty darn happy right now.

The CW network has given a 13-episode midseason renewal to its comedic hourlong series Reaper.

I did not see that coming. I thought Reaper was pretty much dead, having lost a great deal of its initial audience. It's not a bad show, but it's not a great one either. Maybe they can use this reprieve from cancellation to retool the show to better reach its potential.

Some suggestions? More Ray Wise as the Devil. Put a muzzle on Sock once in a while. Get rid of that third-wheel friend whose name I can't even remember right now. Lose the chick from Stick It -- she sucks and has no chemistry with the lead. Bring Sam's parents into the picture more often. After all, they're the ones who sold Sam's soul to the Devil in the first place. They should be far more involved in the storylines than they currently are. In fact, I don't think we've seen either of Sam's parents for weeks now.

Basically, though I hate to put it this way, they need to Buffy it up.

The TV Nerd has spoken, now do as he says!

ABC is...picking up the NBC comedy "Scrubs" for midseason. ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson, who has feuded with his NBC counterpart Ben Silverman, noted Tuesday that the comedy had 17 different time slots at NBC and received little promotion.

Yay! I like Scrubs and I'm glad it's coming back, because as series finales go, last week's stupid fairy-tale episode would have ranked among the worst ever.

The same article linked to above mentions that ABC is only airing two new shows in the fall: David E. Kelly's remake of the British series Life on Mars and some Ashton Kutcher-produced game show where people knock on strangers' doors and presumably try not to get shot.

Not coming back? Notes from the Underbelly, October Road and (sorry, mauricebroaddus!) Women's Murder Club.

But According to Jim remains in production. Go figure.

Yeah, it's that lyric again, but it's so relevant.

I just read this bit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7397400.stm about our president ready to "strengthen" the Lebanese army against the "Iranian-backed" Hezbollah army. Exactly how does he plan to strengthen the army? Pulling troops out of Afghanistan? Out of Iraq? How about stop-lossing all of our troops. Done your tour in Iraq? Great, we'll fly you over to Lebanon so you can do a tour there supporting the Lebanese army.

And guess who the most destabilizing force is? Iran! How soon do we attack? Between now and October, right?

It's late. I'm off to sleep. I promise I'll stop the political discourse and return to mundane discussions like writing and life.


Gary . . .

4th place! 4th place! Argh!

My team did so-so the visual round -- always my least favorite -- where we had to identify the states (plus DC) of all 51 license plates, but where we really blew it was during an incredibly hard round right afterward. Called "Musician's Names," the host announced a name, place of birth and date of birth, and we had to come up with that person's stage name. No easy ones like Gordon Sumner either, though we did land Joey Ramone, Freddy Mercury, Elton John, LL Cool Jay and a small handful of others. It was a tough break.

We fumbled a bit during the final audio round as well, where we were asked to identify the artist doing the cover song that was playing as well as name who originally performed it. I forgot it was After the Fire who covered Falco's "Der Komissar" in English. And who knew Bowie's "China Girl" was a cover? Not me. (It was originally an Iggy Pop song, I learned.)

In our defense, though, we were down one team member tonight. Who knows how it would have turned out otherwise?

Anyway, we return June 9 to try to regain our title. Or at least land in the top 3 again.

Brazilian Jiu-jitsu expert Mike Terry is in trouble and only Randy Couture's cauliflower ears can save him in Redbelt, which is sort of an inferior Spanish Prisoner gene-spilced with Cockfighter.

Being a Mamet film, it is also very very stagey. Here's a typical Mamet dialogue between two characters — just swap out the sandwich for jiu-jitsu, wristwatches, loan shark debts, access to Brazilian sweatshop labor, or broken windows.

"I've got a sandwich here."
"You want a sandwich?"
"A sandwich, I already have it. Roast beef."
"You have a roast beef sandiwch. You are standing here, talking to me, with a roast beef sandwich..."
*holds up sandwich* "Now it's going in my mouth. The roast beef."
"Then you will not have a sandwich anymore."
"The sandwich? This roast beef sandwich? I'll just have the roast beef sandwich in a different way after I eat the roast beef sandwich."


Anyway, Mike Terry is a peculiar jiu-jitsu guy in that he doesn't fight and he hands out black belts for no reason. Then, this being Mamet, accidents happen. Mike meets a speed-freak lawyer who accidentally tries to shoot a cop and a famous movie star. The movie star steals Mike's awesome training idea of using marbles to introduce handicaps, such as a bound limb, in sparring and uses it to spice up a mixed martial-arts pay-per-view and fix the matches. Mike's wife, who is tied in heavily with minor figures in the Brazilian martial arts/organized crime scene, is also played by the movie people into spending thirty grand on textiles (really!), so she betrays her husband with the horrible secret of the druggy lawyer so that he cannot sue for dumb gimmick infringement. Al Bundy shows up in a cameo for no other reason than he is a real-life brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Mike's only choice is to fight in the ring and become Cockfighter of the Year. Or...is it!

Well, no. Mike is way too spiritual for that, so instead he gets into a brawl with twenty different people under the watchful eye of The Professor, the titular redbelt who apparently doesn't know that he's up to his ears in mobsters and scum. Then Mamet stops writing any sides and the last ten minutes of the flick is all stage direction (another obvious homage to Cockfighter). It's not bad; Mamet spent two acts pointing to the rifle on the mantlepiece and then the entire wall spins around to reveal a secret chamber. Unfortunately, the contents of that chamber aren't all that interesting. For example, if you want some extra dialogue during the climax of the film you can shout "USE THE FORCE, LUKE!" when The Professor rises to his feet to watch Mike choke someone out in order to stand up for the sacred and pure principles of dirty fighting.

There's a lot of poorly motivated stuff going on. The cop shoots himself for litle reason except to make Mike almost cry. The druggy lawyer seemingly gets over her many problems after one jiujitsu lesson. There are easier ways to fix fights than to get one guy to tie his hand behind his back (which just drains all the suspense from any fight anyway, and means that you need more fights and thus more paychecks to fill airtime). In the end though the pseudo-spiritual shit works just well enough to be entertaining, except that Mike gets the redbelt from Obi Wan which is just totally ridiculous. Then Redbelt doesn't so much end as it just stops.

PS: Ricky Jay can't act.

Are You Mad?
You know how time goes fast and slow at the same time sometimes? Well, this is one of those moments for me (and no this is not an episode of LOST, thankfully). It's a long process from the conception of a book to its final printing, but then suddenly it's there. Yes, suddenly it's ready to be unleashed on the unsuspecting!

So I'm very pleased to tell you (finally!), if you're mad enough to jump in this Gemini's twisted pool of dark fiction, then jump, baby, JUMP! The pre-ordering has begun for MAMA'S BOY AND OTHER DARK TALES!

I understand that of the 100 limited edition hardcover copies available, 30 were gone by noon. Woohoo! But the trade paperback is also available, so no worries unless for some crazy reason you want my chicken scratch of a signature in your collection (the fabulous cover artist, Billy Tackett, will also be signing...not sure if he does chicken scratch...I doubt it).

Click Here for the PRE-ORDER link for the MB collection at Apex.

Just In Case
By some small chance you haven't heard my yammering about Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales, then here's the basics. The title story, Mama's Boy, was a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Finalist in 2006 for long fiction and it's the title story (surprise!) of this fiction collection. There are 14 pieces of fiction in all, including 3 additional novellas written expressly for the collection. The magnificent Gary Braunbeck is slated for the intro and the book will be released June 28th. It will having its debut at Hypericon in Nashville TN! Shall we call it a literary cotillion of sorts?

Here's what a couple of wonderful writers had to say about the collection:

“Fran Friel has a genuine gift for storytelling. Her highly adaptable prose boils over with emotion: love, guilt, fear, and the myriad shades between. Mama’s Boy and Other Dark Tales marks the arrival of a stunning new talent.”
– Michael McBride, author of the God's End trilogy and Bloodletting

"Fran Friel is a rosy-cheeked, cheerful woman with a world-class seductive smile. Her obviously warm nature makes her icy fiction appear all that more unsettling. Her stories are well written, compelling, all with a muscular hard edge, with often surprising but very appropriate endings...and always absolutely brutally chilling. From the short-short shockers like "The Widow" and "Close Shave" that surprise like an unexpected poke in the eye, to the longer moving ones like "The Sea Orphan" and "Beach of Dreams," that jar you and linger like a solid, well-placed left hook to your kidney. Many have the quality of the renown title piece, MAMA'S BOY: At some point they make your sphincter muscle clench and spasm with shock. Scary stories that are not soon forgotten. And from such a nice person. Highly recommended."
--Gene O'Neill, Author of COLLECTED TALES OF THE BAJA EXPRESS and THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. ZACH

Not too shabby?

The Horror Mall is also carrying the collection, and if you have a favorite bookstore you prefer to patronize just drop me a note and I'll give you the ISBN numbers for ordering.

I can't thank you all enough for your support. You're why I do this crazy writin' thing--you make it all worth while.

Wickedly Yours,
Fran Friel

I just wanted to let you know Kelli's doing fine after Friday's car accident. She was even feeling good enough to go to work this morning. As she put it, she's a Weeble.

Thank you, everyone, for your concern and good wishes!

I just got a royalty check for two dollars and ten cents.

The great comic artist Gene Colan is in the hospital suffering from liver failure -- and despite his positive attitude, there are fears that he may not make it. Meanwhile, his medical bills are climbing sky-high. How sad and wrong that a man who contributed so much to his field -- for more than 60 years -- can barely afford his medications.

There are a few ways to help at the link if you're so inclined.

Hello all of you wonderful people. On behalf of Jay and myself, thank you for all of the words of encouragement and support. He may not be posting much, but he is reading comments as he feels up to it. Keep ‘em coming!

Here we are at the end of day 3. Jay is sound asleep and I’m sitting here watching the twinkling lights of Portland from the Presidential Suite on the hill. No, really. On Saturday Jay couldn’t sleep because of the volume from the roommate’s television and I went to the Charge Nurse to see when the TV curfew was. He (who we now refer to as Awesome Shawn) moved us to the single room he had available which is the room they reserve for VIPs. So the Rockstar is in the Rockstar room as it should be ;) We have a spectacular view of the river and the mountains, the room is twice as big as any other private room I’ve seen on the floor with a separate kitchenette area and huge bathroom, we have a large television with a DVD player and plenty of room for the extra bed they provided me :)

As large as the room is, we’ve managed to fill it up a few times with family. We have the two moms, the dad, aunt #1, aunt #2, the sister, the child, the niece, the mother of the child and me as well as a few honorary family members. Jay says thanks to those of you who have offered to stop by, but he would prefer not to have additional visitors.

Since Jay had open surgery rather than laparoscopic, he has one heck of an incision. 20 centimeters vertically running from his belly button southward with between 25 and 30 staples. The incision site looks fabulous – no discoloration, no separation. All of the doctors and nurses who look at it say that it just doesn’t get any better. There are pictures and Jay will post them when he's back at it. We opted for an epidural during surgery, which continues to be the method of pain management. His pain level is usually at zero or one, however after walking it has gotten up to 3. We are very pleased. Much less loopiness with this route, too, which has been wonderful. I believe they will be transitioning him to oral medication by Tuesday.

As you can imagine, with an incision like he has, getting up and down without damaging it can be a challenge. The physical therapist was in yesterday to teach Jay how to get out of bed without ripping staples out. He went for one walk yesterday and today he took 5 – count ‘em – 5 walks. A few of them were double laps around the floor. Y'all don't worry – he isn’t overdoing it. He is doing what he is able to, no less and no more. He is committed to doing whatever he needs to do in order to get better.

Nothing too exciting happening and that is a very good thing. I should try to get some sleep before the next nurse visit, so that’s all for now. Remember to keep those comments coming and we’ll return you to your regular Jay programming very soon!

-Adrienne

Human rights. I'm sure there must be a country on the face of this planet with an "outstanding" human rights record. I read an article about Mia Farrow protesting in Hong Kong the other day and there were some interesting comments from readers.

Someone wanted to know why Mia wasn't turning her attention to the human rights violations going on in this country. Some pointed to the Sean Bell murder as an example of a human rights violation. Others suggested Gauntanamo Bay, while others offered up the invasion of Iraq as a human rights violation. Some questioned how we can have our business dealings with Saudi Arabia and yet point our finger at China for their business dealings.

If only the finger pointing, the bureaucracy, name calling, pandering, gesturing, insinuating, political blaming, and the rhetoric would stop.

Imagine a world focused on solving human rights violations, solving humanitarian crises, and not letting political agendas get in the way. The point is, nothing is being accomplished so long as politics are being played out on the world stage like a 1st grade play.

It's always at times of humanitarian crises that the musicians and artists lead the charge for change, rarely the politicians. Example: if you haven't heard "Make Some Noise: The Campaign to Save Darfur", check it out. It's a double CD of John Lennon songs done by other artists to raise money for Amnesty International's work in Darfur.

As much as I considered just doing a entry here and there on Darfur, I've realized I'm too passionate about this. I don't expect everyone to jump on the bandwagon and get as passionate to help as I'm getting to be, but I need to talk about this, to bring awareness to those that don't what's going on. Heck, before I heard Mia Farrow, I didn't know where Darfur was. (It's the western part of Sudan that borders on Chad). Besides, talking about this keeps me from posting entries about my so-called writers life (and who wants to hear about that?)

There are books (I'm currently reading Not On Our Watch by Cheadle & Prendergast), movies (Darfur Now is coming out on May 27), and I'm sure many other sources of information on what's happening there. I've also started a "Give a dollar for Darfur" campaign in hopes of donating money to www.savedarfur.org.

You know the drill. Thanks for reading (if you've been keeping up). And don't despair; I'll be returning to how much I "love" writing soon enough!


Peace alla y'all

Gary . . .

In part 1 I talked about bringing awareness to the situation in Darfur, why I'm doing this and what I hope to accomplish. Part 2 is on intervention. Read on.

Intervention. This is a very timely issue as we wonder what to do in Myanmar when the junta refuses to let international and U.S. aid workers in to help people. If you go in to a sovereign nation without the government's permission, even if you're going in to save the very people the government purports to care about, it's called an invasion. It's true in Myanmar and it's true in Darfur. However, this site: http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org is the result of the U.N. World Summit in 2005. The basic gist is that if a government cannot or is unwilling to take care of the people it represents, the international community must step in. Doesn't seem like it's helping.

The question of U.S. intervention in Africa, Darfur specifically, is a tricky issue that must be dealt with carefully. We've seen the result of our "liberation" in other parts of the world (and in other parts of Africa) and it never turns out quite as we planned. I would never suggest marching any size U.S. force into Darfur as we don't belong there, we're not invited, and we don't have enough troops ready to go. Even sending troops to help the millions displaced is, in reality, an invasion, and until we're asked to step in, we shouldn't.

That sounds wrong; should we continue to let people die because we're afraid of offending the government? Wasn't a problem in Iraq. But I digress. The U.N. has been reluctant to take a firm stand against the Sudanese government and that's what needs to be done. Unfortunately, it's caught up in a bureaucratic disagreement on how to proceed in Darfur without overstepping its boundaries (invading a sovereign nation).

Does there come a point where "invasion" is acceptable to offer aid to people? What number of dead civilians has to be reached before a government says okay, come in and help?

What do you think?


Gary . . .

I was going to just respond to a friend's comments with a comment, but I thought it would be more interesting to respond with a three part post. So here's part 1 regarding Darfur.

Part 1.
When I set out to bring awareness of the crimes against humanity happening in Darfur (and the rest of the chaotic turmoil that is Africa), I figured somewhere along the line someone would question my reasons for doing so or even go so far as to say we have more important things to worry about. Why Darfur? Why now? My answer is simple: Because we're all human beings and no one on the face of this planet, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, or Liberal should accept a government's militia killing over 200,000 innocent people because of religious reasons.

The biggest problem with what happens in Africa is that here in the western world it's almost a non-event. When was the last time you heard anything on the news about the Janjaweed murdering civilians and burning villages? If you have heard recently, let me know where and when. But I can't imagine why it is a non-event when it is a major humanitarian crisis.

Did you know that during the Rwanda genocide 800,000 people were exterminated in 100 days*? Was that all over the news? Was there a national imperative to do something to save these people?

My goal is not to save every indigenous person in Darfur. It's to bring awareness to those unaware, to question those who support the Sudanese government, to speak to those who have the power to do something to help, and whatever else I can do in my small way. If this troubles someone, I would have to ask where there compassion is for their fellow human beings.

The notion of bringing spiritual leaders to Sudan to speak to the government was born out of the idea that our anger, rage, and hate come out of our fears. Perhaps, getting beyond the greed and religious persecution, there is a fear there that can be confronted and resolved before several hundred thousand more people die. Maybe there isn't, but isn't it better to try than not to?

Thank you.


Gary . . .

*Information taken from "Not On Our Watch" by Don Cheadle & John Prendergast

Trailer Boy back for a second helping. Once more, Dad's letting me take the ole Lakeshore Blog out for a spin. I'll try not to bang up the bumpers or back over anything.

Just saw Jay at the hospital looking resplendent in his gown and thermal massage socks. He was in good spirits. He ate orange jello (not his favorite), had some chicken broth, sipped flat soda and grape juice. He'd already had a full day -- two walking trips of about 200' (see the IV cam below). He has to do two more walking trips today. At one point, he warned us that once he pressed the Happy Button he might drift off. Then, he had us plug back in his amazing robotic bed before he nodded off.

Again, we heard that the docs are very pleased with how it all went.

He's surrounded by family and in very good hands. He's eagerly awaiting the Advent of Fartiness that will signify things are working as they should in his nether regions.

The child was due soon when we slipped out. But I counted one girlfriend, two Moms, two Aunts and a Dad all in attendance.

That's all the news that's fit to print. Continued well-wishes are appreciated!

And as always, Jay is grateful for your support and positive thoughts!