With Lem's support I am proposing that we write a book.
The premise is simple. As many of us who want to participate in The Book Project will volunteer to write one chapter every few weeks. For example, if there are ten writers, then each one will write and post a chapter every ten weeks. There will be a basic cast of characters at the start, and each author has latitude to add, kill off, or otherwise change the characters and their various settings. You don't need to be a regular poster to participate. Your chapters can be emailed to Lem or to me for posting when it's your turn.
The chapters need not be lengthy, just interesting. Keep the plot moving, add twists and turns and surprises. A new chapter will be posted, once each week, on the same day each week, until we have reached the end of the book. How will we know when we've reached the end? No idea, but we will.
Some of us are artists. That's a big plus. Photoshopped pictures, gifs and other art that explains or enhances your chapters is wonderful. Or add background music. Really, you have a lot of liberty in what you write and how it is presented. Be original, and don't personalize your writing with any remarks about other commenters.
Are you in? Send Lem an email with your email address. Lem will sent that information to me, and I'll be in contact with more details.
93 comments:
"Son of Naked Came the Stranger"
"Beneath the Planet of Naked Came the Stranger"
"Naked Came the Stranger, Again!"
Need I go on?
In any case, send the proof to me and I will czech hit for typose.
Jenny say "Pa," Miss Ewer, could you hum a few bars? These things of which you speak, book, tell me more of your home world, Usel, do they pop-up?
That reminds me. I must think of a Valentine's Day card for you to make while you still have a month to do it.
I might be interested.
On a related matter, LEM, I wonder if it would be wise to delink Crack.
He's busy calling all of your commenters vile names in just about every post. What's the purpose of this?
The "racist" allegation is intended to destroy people. I don't really give a damn because I'm retired, financially secured and beyond reach.
But, some of your commenters may not be.
Crack's intent (with an assist from Meade) is to threaten people's economic well-being with repeated slanders. Allowing somebody to slander your readers, and assisting them in that slander, on a daily basis seems a curious thing to do. Freedom of speech is one thing. Helping somebody slander your readers is another.
The decision is yours.
Took a quick scan at TMR. Counted 9 comments in the last 15 posts; one post has 7 comments, the another one has two. Most have none. Meh.
I'd be concerned if I linked TMR from my own blog. I wouldn't want anyone who followed that link to presume that by linking to it I endorsed the content.
Lost ghost ship with rats is adrift in the middle of the ocean. Eventually it pushes into warmer waters and drifts into the azure shores of an small uninhabited & undiscovered island. Not completely uninhabited. A small group of escape convicts (who were wrongfully charged) found the island by chance while on a runaway fishing expedition. They are lost, stuck and stranded, but free.
One day they discover the alien ship, gently tipped on its side, resting on the shore line...
It all started one night when the biguest plane in the UPS fleet landed on the wrong airport. Nobody bouched for the new pilot from Minot ND, or so he claimed.
Oxygen aggressively passivates certain reactive metals like aluminum, giving them a thin skin of metallic oxide. From the metal's point of view, its uncannily savvy, giving one's self a thin impermeable skin comprising your enemy's element. Other fail miserably at that strategy, notably iron.
You mentioned art, Haz - I wonder how science -- more specifically chemistry -- could fit into such an ambitious project. Synova is probably better at science fiction but maybe I could learn something.
Maybe we should put it to a vote. A poll on whether Crack stays on our blog list or whether he goes. I vote he stays, but Im only one vote.
Keep Crack. We're the only friends he has left.
I've never seen a better example of How Not To Win Friends Nor Influence People than Crack, so for me he serves a purpose.
If you delink him he'll just show up in the comments to spam links there instead. It isn't worth the effort.
Crack is the Iron of blogging, and rust never sleeps.
Consumed by one's own defense.
BTW, who is Crack, and what's a Meade?
I am definitely in for the book.
As far as Crack goes I don't think you should delink him. Nothing he says on his blog that has two readers will mean very much to anyone that matters. He just has Meade and somebody called PU and neither of them are anything to worry about.
Benign neglect is the only way to go.
We really need to leave Crack alone.
He is obviously mentally ill and no good can come of tormenting him. Just ignore him when he shows up and spews his malarkey and he will go away eventually.
Benign neglect is the only way to go.
We do have some wonderful writers here, I bet. Not that I even know what good writing is, but some of you are just nuts enough to be interesting.
Lem, are you asking a real question? I do not know.
For you see, *gazes to horizon* my whole life is such a path of destruction in its wake. Entire towns scrambled up into new things, and it's not altogether bad either.
Faster and faster. Now it is destruction as you go as if that is part of it, maybe because that is part of it. Nowadays I lose friends as fast as I make them, and man, do I make friends fast.
If you want a scary quick read get "The Rats" by James Herbert on your kindle e-reader. It is a great fun read.
One day they discover the alien ship, gently tipped on its side, resting on the shore line.
Jenny say: "Pa, Oxygen aggressively passivates certain reactive metals.
Pa say: "What's the purpose of this?
Jenny: "Benign neglect is the only way to go. Consumed by one's own defense."
Pa: "Rats is adrift in the middle of the ocean."
Jenny: "Do they pop-up?"
Pa: "I got your pop up Valentine right here. The decision is yours."
Jenny: "We really need to leave Crack alone."
Baro and his gal drove through the evening, intent on reaching Vegas by ten. The were about to do something disgusting or really neat, depending on your value system. They were going to marry at the Silver Bells wedding chapel, with the much sought-after Elvis Choir, The Elvisions, in attendance, crooning their trademark a Capella harmonizations
ST, unless he was reinstated in the interim, Crack asked to be removed from Althouse's blog roll some time ago.
I'd rather keep him on the blog roll, but discontinue the 'updated' kind that show the current post that is up. It just pisses people off to see them.
I care for Crack, and wish him well.
Bags pulls a Rand Paul causing Rachel Meow to accuse him of plagiarism.
Never.
Not Crack, specifically, but a tune on what can happen to us, as we get older and, supposedly, wiser. Begin to think our thoughts more relevant than others, cause we're older of course, and have seen more.
This call for ostracism, I don't get. To what point.
Though, notice the racism in ostracism.
It's fucking turtles, all the way down.
Sorry to put you on the spot, Deborah, but "never" what? I think I know, but that is the trouble with shorthand, it is subject to misinterpretation.
Though, notice the racism in ostracism.
No. And BTW, First!
It all started one night when the biguest plane in the UPS fleet landed on the wrong airport. Nobody bouched for the new pilot from Minot ND, or so he claimed.
Almost right, Lem, but it has to start with,
It was a dark and stormy night....
XRay, I was answering Lem's 9:05.
Another fun rat story, this time in a house, is "The Visitor" by Chauncey G. Parker III (Trooper might recognize the name), which got turned into the movie "Of Unknown Origin" starring Peter Weller and Shannon Tweed (and her boobs, presumably).
Well, right, though different context, even as I'd venture we're on the same page, somewhat.
This will be a complicated book for you folks.
All the better.
And you know how many times Gene Simmons has run his monster slab of tongue up and down those boobs.
Just sayn'
That is an image that beats cannibal rats feasting on human flesh by a long way.
And there was some story about sentient rats in the underground of London, but I can't remember that title. Some sort of fantasy/SciFi thing.
And then there was "The Swords of Lankhmar", one of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. A whole novel about a pair of thieves/heroes hired by a city to protect their grain fleets from hordes of rats, which are actually trying to take of the city. This ain't high fantasy, this is swords and sorcery, and buckles get thoroughly swashed, if you know what I mean.
Baro and his gal drove through the evening, intent on reaching Vegas by ten. The were about to do something disgusting or really neat, depending on your value system. They were going to marry at the Silver Bells wedding chapel, with the much sought-after Elvis Choir, The Elvisions, in attendance, crooning their trademark a Capella harmonizations
deborah, that sounds like it will turn into either another Hangover movie, or perhaps The Hills Have Eyes.
Okay.
take OVER the city, take OVER the city.
I'm pretty sure that's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story is the one with the Gods of Lankhmar getting pissy.
"Well, right, though different context, even as I'd venture we're on the same page, somewhat."
You can write like that and you don't want to work on the book :)
The Hill Have Eyes??
Just as long as it doesn't turn into Casino.
The island isn't actually undiscovered. The island is known by many nations and these nations know the convicts are there. Pawns, hidden away. They know too much.
The ghost ship is an unknown.
The ghost ship contains a secret that will change the lives of these stranded men. Forever!
(no no - not the rats)
Starring: Glenn Close and Kevin Costner in: "There's a fast sporty blow up Car Tucked under the Stern Son of Naked Came the Stranger"
"There's a fast sporty blow up Car Tucked under the Stern"
Is that the secret?
Actually, the secret is in what the ghost ship can not contain. Something that can't be contained by anything for long.
No.
The movie is separate from the book. I should -re-write. I rreally stink at writing.
Is a blow up car the same thing as a blow up doll for people who get off on cars?
Gene Simmons' monster tongue.
The unemployment rate in Minot is 2.9%.
That's no minor feat.
Well, yes. As I don't have the chops for such. Bottom of the ocean here, giving foundation to whale shit.
So, the ghost ship is a Vegas floor show and it can't contain that one famous floor show singer. Not Buble. Wayne Newton.
Pish-posh, XRay.
Where did I see Minot mentioned before this thread?
Trooper York said...
Is a blow up car the same thing as a blow up doll for people who get off on cars?
I suppose it depends where the mouthpiece plug is located. For a blow up car, it's the tailpipe.
Minot rhymes with why not.
The problem is Linking looks like endorsing. Which is weird, since Crack is calling everyone here a racist.
Why not divide your blog roll "friends" and "Others" and put Crack in the "Others" category.
That should make it clear.
I also agree that Crack is "Cracked". The man needs professional help.
...But yes, there is something tucked under the stern. and an altogether other thing under the bow, next to the hull.
Collaborative guesses and ghosts? blow up dolls? Top secret UFOs?
Check out the Minot Snow Drift
I heard that North Dakota has a serious housing shortage problem. Lem - wow. that's some serious snow.
Minot is in a flood zone and it has an air force base.
It's gold Gerry, gold!
Minot is a literary gold mine.
Crack doesn't need anything. He just need feel someone is listening. As do we all, in my opinion. We can't hope for statues in the Roman Square, not anymore, for the majority of us. But we can hope that someone heard us, no matter our particular delusion. Which in this bifurcated present is perhaps the best we can hope for. It was dust to dust, now it is one's to zero's.
lol lem, gold, Gerry!
Could we call the story 'Why Not Minot?'
Baro and his gal are hoping not to be arrested for kid-napping Not Buble. They take him to Minot. Conversely, it could be called, 'Not Far From Fargo.'
Minot is a 4hrs and 6 min drive from Fargo North Dakota.
Totally different town. Totally different story.
All of you awesome authors sent your email addresses to Lem, right?
Or do the flying ninjas have to find you?
XRay at 10:28, sand-bagging me, eh...I call that some good writing.
I think we should leave the door open for him. He's hurting. I will no longer discuss race with him, but I will consider seriously what he said. He's not all wrong about the plight of the some blacks, and many more whites, in absolute numbers. But his solution is Quixote tilting at windmills. A noble quest with distorted vision.
I'm at a Deirks Bentley concert. There is spinning.
Mines are but suggestions, you guys can use some other setting for your story. Whatever you want. I just going thru a Minot fixation right now that's all.
"A noble quest with distorted vision"
Yes.
I was once at a Spinners concert and there was a lot of Deirksing.
I'm drinking beers, by the way.
Drink up, Michael, sounds fun. But I'd suggest to not start spinning, as you might not be able to stop.
The NY Times has been pretty pissed off at North Dakota... all those cowboys making big bucks, wildcatting for oil and drenching the countryside in testosterone.
The Times is doing its best to dissuade the young women from taking the trip out to ND to party with the cowpokes. Article after article about the inherent sexism of partying up a storm with all that oil money.
It was not this lady that inspired Minot but it did stay with me, apparently.
Nobody wants a girlfriend!
It's black Gold, under the ground.
ST. noticed the same thing.
Meh ... I'd delink Crack who long ago ceased to be funny, or even interesting. But your blog, so whatever.
Let me know when the book's done so I can add it to my queue behind Spinelli's wife's next crime novel.
I understand Calypso, sometimes I feel delinking would be best, but I made the other suggestion.
But its not my blog, so whatever
The book thing has a chance to be very good or very bad.
I can't participate, because I'm not a writer.
I'm not a writer either that's why I'm suggesting material for exploitation.
Writing is like fraking. isn't it?
Sand-bagger!
Lem, I guess you use mental pressure to open the cracks and release ideas.
Something like that, I guess.
Poor Crack has spent his entire life on a gerbil wheel running at and never reaching all the things he opposes. And that's just about every idea every person every issue he's ever had contact with. He sees every side and despises all of them. He's constructed so narrow an ideal worldview that everyone save him of course, is bound at some point to set off the tripwire. Then he blows. Tough way to live.
@VS, sure, it is tough for him, but from my perspective it is very entertaining.
Lem -
The housing situation up there is dire. A friend of mine, who is from South Dakota, (but lives here in CO) travels up to try and build houses for a living. He faces all sorts of problems. The biggest is that ND has a wretched barren winter.
My understanding is that the housing shortage in ND is so dire, there are not enough homes for anyone.(not just he oil workers)
The home builders have trouble alluring and keeping quality sub-contractors. There's nowhere for them to live! The subs often demand more money and then walk off the job. There isn't a drop of profit left for the builder. So, even with demand, the homes do not get built.
My architect/builder friend is really talented and willing to bend over backwards to get communities started. He design-builds in Northern CO. Here in CO a hole in the ground costs at least 40K. Most of that money goes to state coffers. The state makes it really difficult to provide affordable housing - with all the taxes and fees.
Lem, the girlfriend movie by the NYTimes is interesting, paints an accurate picture, but leaves out any mention of why the housing is a mess.
Seems like standard oil industry vilification, rather than actually digging deeper into the reasons for the situation. Lazy journalism from the NY times.
I can't believe some enterprising building company couldn't go up there with trailers and crews, set up a fast moving operation and build a ton of houses in two years, and walk away with a treasure chest of oil money. There are a lot of people that would sacrifice a year or two for some nice cash, and also walk away with some great experience to use elsewhere. Plus, just like the gold rush, you build towns, most of them did not become ghost towns afterward. Admittedly, ND weather does suck, but with global warming being inevitable, it will soon be the Riviera of the north plains, with colorful parrots in every palm tree.
Bago - All of that did happen. Lots of photos online.
Lem:
"Something like that, I guess."
;)
What else did Jim tell me after a visit to ND? I think I recall him saying that even Fast Food joints and Walmart have difficulty keeping employees, and so they offer 20+ bucks an hour.
This was about a year or two ago. Perhaps someone finally cracked the code. Much are simple logistical problems. Families don't want to move there, so you end up with single young people who are looking for fast opportunities and people who are willing to live a vagabond life-style.
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