My job

Upon a visit to certain room in my house, I discovered once again that a certain task was left undone. I cannot fathom why it is impossible to take an empty cardboard roll off and put the new one on, but there it is.

As took care of that difficult chore, a scene from GalaxyQuest flitted through my mind and I found myself muttering a paraphrase of one of it's best lines: "Look, I have one job in this lousy house--it's stupid, but I'm going to do it. Okay?"

Ray Gun Revival - call for submissions

The modern world has lost its sense of adventure, but not its capacity for adventure, nor its need for it. In a world of bleak headlines and jaded heroes, we need a break. We need some good, old-fashioned escapism, stories that take us away for a little while and maybe remind us that a little bravado and pluck can change your life.

Enter an e-zine devoted to space opera and golden-age sci-fi in all its pulpy goodness. Here is a new publication with a throwback sensibility and online production quality.

Welcome to Ray Gun Revival.

Ray Gun Revival is all about dusting off the pulp adventure stories of old and giving them a fresh spin. We are bringing out the deepest elements of what has traditionally been rather superficial fiction and updating them for a new generation of fiction enthusiasts.

Our stories focus more on character development than hard science, and sail all the wide-open waters between fantasy and harder sci-fi. Think of the original Star Wars stories, Doc Smith's Lensman series, the Warlord of Mars tales from Edgar Rice Burroughs. Think of everything from John Carter and Gully Foyle to Kimball Kinnison and Han Solo.

Ray Gun Revival is helmed by three co-conspirators, Loriendil (author Lee. S. King), fireflyfellow (screenwriter, director, and film critic Paul Christian Glenn), and Phy (general-purpose wordsmith Johne Cook). This group of Editors is known as the Overlords because it pleases us, and uses a Round Table approach to create the e-zine, which will sport a format that is fast, fun, and full of adventure.

At present, we're looking at weekly releases featuring the best space opera / golden age sci-fi tales we can find, along with a special treat, recurring episodic serial stories by each of the Overlords, as well as an original space opera serial by critically-acclaimed up-and-coming author Sean T. M. Stiennon (aka Suuran Songforge)!

While development continues at warp speed (or as fast as our mercurial equipment permits, having taken a clue from the Millennium Falcon), we are pleased to announce that the Submissions Guidelines are up and we are accepting initial submissions for publication. If you've got a story that you've been kicking around looking for a home along these lines, check us out.

Ray Gun Revival is mostly about the simple things; well-crafted stories, great characterization, ideas that will carry us away and refresh our reality-wearied minds, a sense of adventure that will take us to another place for a little while. Come get lost in adventure for a little while with Ray Gun Revival. Feel free to pop over to the Ray Gun Revival forums and put in a vote for great throwback fiction.

Ray Gun Revival is currently in production with a proposed release day of July 1st (or whenever we can corral all the space monkeys long enough to get something done, whichever comes first).

Ray Gun Revival--coming soon to a URL near you!

Uru Live!

Not many people read my blog, so I don't know how much this can help, but hopefully some Myst/Uru fans will read this.

Uru Live, as most Uru fans know, was cancelled before it even got started. We only have Until Uru now. We now have a chance to get Uru Live going! Rand Miller has posted about it on the D'ni Guild forums (D'ni Guild Forums >Cyan Products > Until Uru Forums > Another Note From Rand).

An excerpt of what he wrote:

We're still moving forward with (all together now) "cautious optimism". The third party that is providing the limited funding for Until Uru is still evaluating the possibility of renewing full blown Uru Live, and the process involves seeing how many people respond to the D'mala shard invitation.

With that in mind I'd like to ask for your help. Until Uru is an unpublicized, grass-roots effort, and as such, the only way that many of the thousands of people who purchased Uru will even know about Until Uru is through word-of-mouth. Now is the time to spread the word. If you know people who have Uru but haven't tried the online aspect of it, please send them an invitation and encourage them to get a taste of it through Until Uru. And if you know Myst fans who haven't tried Uru at all, encourage them to pick up a copy of Complete Chronicles (at Amazon for as little as $4USD) and join the gathering. We do want new people to realize that they're not playing Uru Live, but this would be a great time for them to get a glimpse of what Uru Live will look like.

With that in mind, if anyone wishes an invitation to join us in the Cavern and get a feel for what we could have if Uru Live is revived, just post a comment here, or email me (my email addy is on my main website listed in the column to the right).

"The ending has not yet been written."

whew!

The wedding is over! My son and beautiful new daughter-in-law are on their honeymoon, and all went fairly smoothly (the limo company messed up big time *grumble*). I did grind my teeth a bit and turn red with embarrassment over the inappropriate antics of There-Has-To-Be-One-Of-Those-Types-In-Every-Family, but we all survived that too.

Stuck

Did you know that if you don't have a title for a story you can't submit it?
*sigh*

Trying to Survive

I survived our annual show at gymnastics.

Next weekend is my son's wedding, then we have another gymnastics meet coming up plus state championships in April.
Ack!
*thud*

Getting closer....

Wow -- March already! I have crocuses blooming and narciscissi budding. Soon I'll be able to work outside more. I can't wait!