You must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest… WITH… A HERRING!

– Knights of NI!

Okay, so maybe we didn’t need a Herring today but we certainly cut down some tree-like shrubbery.  Behold, the front of my house.  The landscaping isn’t bad, in fact, you might call is Passable.

The big tree is a nice Blue Spruce Pine that stands about 50 feet or so tall.  Personally, I love evergreen type of trees and it’s nice.  This one, unfortunately, is infected with a fungus that is slowly killing it.  Any treatments just delay the inevitable so in the next 3 – 5 years, the Blue Spruce is going to come down.

Sad as it is, it does pose a problem for us.  See that tall telephone post?  At the top of it is a street light.  Only one on our block.  And it shines right into our bedroom window.  Losing the Blue Spruce means we’re going to have very bright nights.

Knowing that this is coming, we decided to make some landscaping adjustment.  And I give to you … Hughes on Spring Street, 2.0.

We dug up the big Yew bush in front of the house and tossed it out.  It wasn’t doing much and occupied prime real estate.

In its place, we dropped a couple of Emerald Arborvitaes and a smattering of flowers and wood chips (grass there was mostly dead anyway).

By the time the Emeralds are fully grown, they should be about 12′ – 14′ tall and maybe 3′ – 4′ wide.  That will be just enough to block any light trying to get into the bedroom window.

And, as luck would have it, the Emeralds will be fully grown right around the time the Blue Spruce has to come down.  (And I’m pretty certain they aren’t going to use a Herring to take it down, but I could be wrong.)

We do plan on putting up another large evergreen-like tree in that spot because it is the perfect place for a large tree.  It’ll take time to grow though, so the Emeralds will give us some privacy in the mean time.

King Arthur: O Knights of Ni, you are just and fair, and we will return with a shrubbery.
Leader of The Knights who say NI!: One that looks nice.
King Arthur: Of course.
Leader of The Knights who say NI!: And not too expensive.
King Arthur: Yes.

Been a bit busy lately so in lieu of anything, you know, actually entertaining, I present to thee …

My Summer Reading List!

{BEGIN MUSICAL FANFARE}

Feed by Mira Grant  

Like the undead themselves, novels about zombies just won’t die.*

As you can guess, Feed is a novel about zombies but it’s more than that.  It’s also about a Presidential election and the life that exists after zombies are a fact of life.  I’ve already finished the book – went through it in less than a week – and I enjoyed it quite a lot.  Feed will be the subject of my first book review for Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing so I’ll make sure to link that once it goes live.

* I wasn’t allowed to use this line in the review so I’m gonna use it here.  Meh, take that!

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Template by Matthew Hughes

Sadly, this is not my book.

This is written by the ‘other’ Matthew Hughes, also famous for writing Fools Errand, Fool Me Twice, and a whole bunch more.  Years ago, I originally grabbed a copy of Fools Errand just to have a book on my shelf with my name on it.  Fortunately for me, the story was entertaining so I’ve kept an eye on him.

Template will be out in August.  Me?  I’m getting an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) from the publisher so I can do a review on it.  Very happy about that.

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Broken Angels by Richard Morgan

Shortly after Viable Paradise, I picked up Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan on the recommendation of one of the instructors (Patrick Nielsen Hayden I think).  The book blew me away and I’ve read it twice since then.

Broken Angels is the second in the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy and this time we’re taken off Earth and into the other worlds to which humanity has expanded.

Morgan’s style is hard-boiled in a way that reminds me of Dashiell Hammet (Red Harvest, Maltese Falcon) and combined with the fascinating character of Kovacs, it makes for a great read.  I’m looking forward to devouring this one.

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Neuromancer by William Gibson

As a Geek, I am ashamed to say that I have not read this book.

This great travesty shall be fixed before the summer is out.

Neuromancer practically defined the cyberpunk world. Some of the language we use today in regards to the Internet? This guy invented and he did it back in the ’70s before any of this existed.  So that makes this a must read for me.

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Hulk Hercules : Professional Wrestler by Catherine Schaff-Stump

Cath is not only a fellow Viable Paradise 13 attendee, but she’s also an Iowan.  So, well duh, of course I’m going to read it.

Plus the whole concept sounds great – a modern recreation of Hercules Twelve Tasks combined with wrestling. What’s not to love?

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Magic and Showmanship by Henning Nelms

Another VP recommended book.  While it’s about how to put on a good show for an audience, between the lines you can find out how to put on a good story for your readers.

This will probably be one of the later ones I read since I’ll want to apply some of the lessons learned to my revision of Genie Memories.

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Shades of Grey by Jackie Kessler, Caitlin Kittredge

The second in the Icarus Project trilogy.  I picked up the first book (Black and White) while wandering through a book store a couple of years ago on vacation. It was a fun story and I enjoyed the shifting perspectives between characters as well as past and present.

Shades of Grey continues the tale of Jet and Iridium (written by Kessler and Kittredge respectively)  and addresses the fine line between a hero and a villain.

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The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diane Wynne Jones

This one just looks fun – a compilation of all the fantasy tropes and cliches that are out there.  Basically a humorous “What to Avoid When Writing Fantasy”.

This will be the one I read when my brain is ready to explode after a hard day of work.

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One year and one day ago, I woke up and checked my e-mail.  The first thing I saw was this :

Dear Mr. Hughes,

On behalf of the staff and instructors, I’d like to welcome you as  a student to Viable Paradise, and say congratulations!

The rest was pretty much lost in my shouting of ‘Holy Shit!’, as well documented in my entry for that day.  The lessons I learned at Viable Paradise have paid off.  Of my fellow VP 13ers, at least four have been published (one with a book) and I’ve gotten handwritten rejection letters vs the previous form letters.  That’s progress for you.

June 30th was the deadline for VP.  The acceptance e-mails should be going out soon (next week or so I’d suppose).  As an alumni, I have to admit I’m waiting with some anticipation to see who the next class is going to be.  It’ll be fun to see the introductions, how they react, all while remembering how I felt at that point in time (i.e. – giddy, walking on cloud nine, ohmygodtheywillseeimahack, etc).   Being an old hat, maybe I can throw some bits of wisdom their way.

Plus I’ll get to say, “Back in my day …”

Whoops.

I meant to post when I got back and just plum forgot.  Well, let’s blame it on jet lag, shall we?

Getting back to Iowa wasn’t all that much different than leaving it.  I encountered a rare beast – a flight that departs early.  Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem.  In my case, I discovered the change when I got off the previous flight and ended up having to sprint from one side of SeaTac Airport to the other in less than ten minutes to catch my flight.  Luckily, my luggage managed to make the trip as well.

ResNet overall was fun and I learned a lot.  If you’re super interested, you can read my trip report on the LIS blog.  I managed to win a hefty Amazon gift card from one of the vendors and have spent some time filling up a wish list with oodles of long wanted books.  Suggestions are appreciated.  🙂

All said, it feels good to be home.  The Writing Moose hit me up and  I was able to write just under a thousand words tonight and wrap up a short chapter.  I also managed to land a new writing gig.  More details on that come late-July, early August so stay tuned.

More photos here, courtesy of Scott Stamm