This weekend's links accompanied by a photo from Kauai, Hawaii, the "garden island".

I'm off work Monday & Tuesday, so I'm hoping to get some more writing in between birthdays and whatever other obligations arise.

Have a good long weekend.

Secrets of the Metamaterials that Will Make You Invisible
Invisibility used to be the stuff of comic books and Harry Potter novels. But this week, scientists from UC Berkeley have emerged with two new invisibility-producing "metamaterials," engineered substances that bend electromagnetic waves in ways they've never bent before. They call it "negative refraction." But you and I can just call it the first step towards invisible armor.

Heroic Fantasy and Ethnic Identity
In Robert E. Howard's Conan stories, the protagonist is often referred to by his ethnic background-Cimmerian. No matter the vice or virtue of his deeds Conan carries the negative connotations of his people. Brute savagery is all that is expected of him, and one cannot deny Conan often behaves in an uncouth manner given his excessive lusts for wine and loose women that lead to his frequently impoverished state.

Ain't It Cool News retracts "Clone Wars" review
Harry Knowles, the founder of fan-driven movie site Ain't It Cool News, published an unabashedly negative review ("hated the score, the animation, the shots, the characters and most of all the retarded ******** idiot story") of the upcoming animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars a few days ago. Over the weekend, Knowles's post was unpublished, as we now say.

Want Faster-than-Light Travel? Easy! Just Change the Fabric of Space-Time
Albert Einstein predicted long ago that faster-than-light travel was impossible. More specifically, he said the laws of physics forbade the observation of any speed faster than that constant 299,792,458 meters per second — no matter how great the energy involved.

Birthing Stars Tear Into A Nebula With A Fierce Beauty
Here's a detail of a new image the Hubble Space Telescope released to celebrate its 100,000th orbit of Earth. It shows the "firestorm" of star creation in the nebula near star cluster NGC 2074.

Further Proof That Life May Have Originated In Space
We usually think of asteroid impacts as harbingers of mass extinction, but they might be the reason life exists on our planet at all. It's possible for bacteria to hitch rides on rocks ejected by space impacts and move from planet to planet. We know that certain Earth bacteria are capable of surviving the hostile conditions of space, but could they survive the impacts themselves? A group of scientists put them to the test, and we've got the results for you.

Those of you who've been following along know that I am mired in a first-pass edit of my current novel. One of the main goals of this edit is to reduce the overall word count. Currently at 123,319 words, I still have some work to do. However, considering it peaked at 135,785 words before editing had begun, I think I'm doing OK.

Why care about word count at all? Because staying within the acceptable range is one less reason to be rejected, that's why.

Still, how long is too long? At what point do you know you're in the right, saleable range?

First, it depends on stature. Established authors have more leeway; they've got a proven track record, and a publisher is more likely to lay out the cash (longer books cost more to produce) because they are considered less of a risk than a first-time author.

Second, you have your first-time authors. Publishers want minimum risk and maximum profit, so they'll likely stick to their guns on word count unless you've produced a truly stellar, standout novel.

Third, it depends on genre.

Let's take that third one and break it down based on word count information gotten from Colleen Lindsay of the swivet blog, with an understanding that there are always exceptions to these numbers. Here's the data:

I write fantasy, so the last two categories are of the most interest to me. I find those numbers a bit alarming because my book is not epic fantasy. It's more non-epic. Therefore, I need to cut out another 23,000 words??? I'm all for killing my darlings, but cutting to 100,000 words is a tough one.

Rachelle Gardner, an agent with WordServe Literary, has this definition:

Full-length fiction: 80,000 to 100,000 words is by far the best range to stay within. Some pubs will look at manuscripts from 70,000 to 110,000 words, rarely outside of that.

OK, so now we're at a maximum of 110,000 words. But she doesn't mention specific genre, which we know from above is important.

JA Konrath has this to say:

First novels have a better chance of selling if they are under 90k. The reason is wholly monetary. Your publisher will probably lose money on your first book. But a 150k book will cost more to print, more to ship, and less will fit in a carton. Cost of production figures heavily into a publisher's decision whether to buy or not to buy. 

He goes on to say this (highlighting mine):

Some genres, such as fantasy and historical romance, tend to be lengthier.

But he doesn't really go on to explain in more detail. That's OK. Joe's thing is mystery thrillers, anyway, not fantasy. (Consequently, Joe has some great advice in that post; go read it.)

So where does that leave me?

I could no doubt troll the submission guideline pages of my favorite agents and publishers and acquire more information, but I think the above more or less supports what I had originally thought on this subject. One thing is clear: I need to keep cutting. There comes a point, however, where the story itself becomes compromised. I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. For now, I have a new goal: 110,000 words.

I almost had to write this report with not much progress to go over. Fortunately, my measly progress during the week last week was aided by some more serious progress over the weekend.

Here's my updated progress:

You can see some definite trending upward on the dark blue (lower) portion of the bar. That's my editing progress. Of course, the lighter blue (upper) portion of the bar is gradually diminishing in size, which of course means there are fewer pages remaining to edit. It's all so scientific.

Week-to-week, total page count decreased by 1 page from 417 to 416. Current page edited went from 297 to 313, an increase of 16 pages. Not great, but not bad. That leaves 103 pages left to edit on this first pass.

Let me pop up another graph, this one of my progress in percentage terms:

I'm currently 75.24% complete with this first pass edit.

I was really hoping to have at least 20 pages edited by this report; now I have a goal for next week.

Until next time.

NOTE: I'm re-posting this from my old blog, just so I have the more relevant or useful posts all in one place.

The short of Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword: I liked it. Though I have to say I'm split.

But, first, a brief summary:

Lady Katherine Talbert goes to live with her Uncle, the Mad Duke, who has it in for Katherine's mother (the Duke's sister) and vows to leave her alone should she commit her daughter to living with him for six months. In that time, the Mad Duke completely changes her perspective on life and her place in it, having her trained as a swords(wo)man. Once she has mastered the sword, she can no longer go back to the life she would have otherwise led. It's as much a coming-of-age story as it is about the sordid politics the Mad Duke has immersed himself in. In the end, it's up to Katherine, with her Uncle's help, to save the day.

Now, on to my analysis...

On one hand, it's written exceptionally well. The writing flows naturally, the prose are very concise, never once does she launch into pages and pages of backstory or what I term 'excessive exposition', which is when a writer goes overboard dealing with a character's internal emotions or conflict. She keeps the story moving along from page-to-page, never really slowing with the exception of a page here and there where she gets a little too much into the intricacies of the lives of the young female aristocrats and their oh-so-harried social lives. The book was a delight to read, especially from the perspective of trying to learn, learn, learn everything I can so I can hopefully someday find success of my own with my own writing. Chalk this one up as a great learning experience.

On the other hand, there's not enough story there for my tastes. Kushner throws in a few smaller plotlines, one of which ties into Katherine's expertise with the sword, but the main plot didn't give me enough to sink my teeth into. I understand there are two other books which came out before The Privilege of the Sword (Swordspoint, The Fall of The Kings), but neither is necessary to understand this one (I haven't read either). So, what we have is Katherine learning the sword, her using her expertise to avenge a friend's honor, and the Duke playing a sort of chess game against one of his main rivals in the city. I'm afraid even that might be pushing it as the third point only comes into play towards the end.

In summary, The Privilege of the Sword is very well written but just didn't give me enough to truly enjoy it.

It's been a long week. Here's a few links I ran across to ease your Friday as well as this weekend's photo taken at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas.

Have a good weekend.

Just In Case You Didn't Realize How Big Jupiter Was...
This is a picture of Jupiter's moon Io floating over the planet's clouds, to remind you how freaking huge Jupiter is. Io is the same size as our own moon.

Maya
Explore a 2,000-year-old mural, one of the greatest discoveries of ancient Maya art ever found.

Does The Internet Mean The Death Of Print, Again?
Is the future of science fiction writing totally dependent on the internet? After looking at the (falling) sales figures for magazines like Analog and Asimov, comic book writer and novelist Warren Ellis argues that it's time for people to realize SF magazines are dead — except online.

Saturn's lovely lakes
NASA's white coats have decided that at least one of the massive lakes observed on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have also identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface ... the lakes of Saturn!

Dark themes for young adults
For young adults seeking intricate fantasy reading to fill these final summer weekends, a couple of titles rise to the top of the list. Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter Duet, two intriguing crossover novels (also billed as adult reading), combine the buoyancy of teenage characters with the wide border of omniscient narration to produce a navigable and yet intelligent journey for readers.

It's Monday, so time for a writing progress update. As I indicated in my first writing progress update, I'm putting these out each week to hold myself accountable for editing progress on my current novel-in-progress.

Here's the chart of where I've been since I started these updates as well as where I'm at currently:

Current total page count dropped 2 pages from last week to 417 pages. I've edited 297 pages, up from 279 the previous week. That gets me to a completion percentage of 71.22% compared with last week's 66.59%. Can you tell I'm an engineer yet?

Bottom line is I think I'm making good progress. Not as well as I would like, but it's a constant battle against distraction, how much time to spend on blog posts, and actually having a little down-time every once in a while.

I think I see light at the end of the tunnel, at least on this first pass edit. More progress next week.

I've been enjoying a few days off work, so my weekend already started. But for you fellow working stiffs who need something to help make your Friday go faster, here's this weekend's links.

The pic I selected to accompany this weekend's links is a lake (might be a reservoir) outside Leadville, CO. Colorado's just an all-around beautiful place, isn't it?

The Problem of Dialect
One of the trickiest and most tempting acts of writing is to render a person's styles of speech.

What are the Essential SF Books of the Last 20 Years?
An upcoming WorldCon Panel called 20 Essential SF books of the Past 20 Years caught my eye because it sounded like an attention-grabbing post title. And it got me wondering...What are the essential sf books since 1988?

World-Building II
The single most awe-inspiring activity involved with writing is world-building. The writer who world builds becomes Master of the Universe.

Book Piracy Won't Destroy Writers
Why is it that people think so negatively about the Internet? Apparently the Society of Authors, whoever the heck they are, have spouted the doomsday report that the ever popular book group of book pirates will ruin us all.

Top 10 Greatest Robots In Movies
Everyone loved robots, and they have been the source of umpteen movies, books, and comics. In homage to the robots of film, we have picked the 10 greatest.

NOVA: Science Now: Space Elevator
Can we build a 22,000-mile-high cable to transport cargo and people into space?