Journal Entry #61March 16, 2010
I enjoyed myself Saturday March 6 at A Space Oddity, which was conducted at the University of Alabama on its Tuscaloosa campus. It was a one-day event, aimed at science fiction fans, people interested in writing fiction, and anyone else who enjoys a good book.
It provided an opportunity to spend time, both on- and off-stage with Lou Anders. Lou is the editorial director of Pyr Books. He has produced some solid anthologies, including Outside the Box, Fast Forward I and II, Sideways in Crime, and Future Shocks. (Truth in lending: I have stories in two of them.) Lou has also done screen plays, a substantial amount of nonfiction, including The Making of Star Trek: First Contact, and he's written a few short stories.
I’ve spent a lifetime telling people that my all-time favorite movie is Casablanca. Lou informed me that the film is frequently used in screenwriting classes to demonstrate various aspects of the creation process. One point I’d never really thought about: Audiences spend the film rooting for Rick, the Bogart character, even though he’s trying to wreck the marriage of a World War II hero. I’d known that, of course. But, if this makes any sense, it hadn’t impinged on my giving Bogie all my sympathy.
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Tuscaloosa is about a ten-hour drive from my home. I was alone this time, so I took an audio book with me: David McCollough’s John Adams. It’s big, and I only got halfway through it. But it left me wondering how different the United States might have been had it not been for Abigail.
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We went to see the opening performance of Come Blow Your Horn Friday night. It’s Neil Simon’s first play, and by no means his best. But the Island Players did a good job with it, even though opening performances tend to be the night on which a cast gets its act together.
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Our local book club will meet Friday morning at Sweet Momma’s, on the island. We are reading Louis Menand’s The Metaphysical Club, which is a history of American thought, perception, and philosophy during the years between the Civil War and into the early twentieth century. The book provides exquisite portraits of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, John Dewey, and Charles Sanders Peirce, among a legion of others. We see Jane Addams arguing that war is dumb, Eugene Debs challenging the decision to intervene against Germany, and college presidents arbitrarily discharging teachers with whose politics they disagree. The development of statistics leads to doubts whether free will is an illusion.
I’ve come away from it with the sense that I never had a clue what was going on in the U.S. during the 19th century, other than expansion and the Civil War.
The Metaphysical Club won the Pulitzer in 2002.
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I’ll be at the Atlanta Writers’ Club this Saturday, March 20, for a 3:00 p.m. conversation on writing science fiction. The Writers’ Club meets at Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody, GA. I’ll be doing a signing afterward. There’s no charge. If you’re able to get there, please stop by and say hello.
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I’m happy to report that I’ve finally started writing again. I’ve mentioned that my next novel, to be released in November, is an Alex Benedict mystery, Echo. That one, of course, is finished and in the pipeline. After several false starts, I’ve begun another Benedict adventure, in which he learns about a guy who seemed to know in advance when strange lights would appear in the sky. Until he disappeared. Title will be Phoenix.
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Latest word on Joe Haldeman is that he’s doing well. That is very good news.