Uncle Orson Reviews 1998
Uncle Orson's 1998
Publications
Future on Ice. Collection of stories by leading writers of the 1980s, with
intros by OSC. (TOR)
Heartfire. Installment five in The Tales of Alvin Maker. Only two left:
the Crystal City and Master Alvin. (TOR)
Homebody. A standalone romantic fantasy about a man who tries to
remodel a haunted house. (HarperCollins)
Works Completed and/or Placed
Enchantment. Written mostly during the spring of 1998, this romantic
fantasy will appear in April 1999. (Del Rey)
"The Elephants of Posnan." Written in September 1998, translations of
this speculative short story will appear in Polish, Spanish, and Catalan science
fiction magazines sometime in 1999.
Urchin. Written during November 1998, this science fiction novel will
appear in the fall of 1999. (TOR)
"The Vessel." Written more than five years ago, this contemporary
fantasy short story has been in publishing limbo, waiting for an anthology that
never quite came out. Originally meant to be the starting point of a novel of the
same name, it now stands alone. It will appear in The Magazine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction.
Events
Novel-writing class at Pepperdine. To my great delight, my first novel-writing workshop was a resounding success, owing mostly to the high quality
of the students who came to the class. Not only did they bring talent and
experience, they also brought a professional attitude and a commitment to
work and improve. With writers like these, any workshop format would work.
Still, I learned some things about how to teach novel-writing in the course of
one semester, and I'm eager to try it again. (If only travel expenses and loss of
writing income hadn't cost me so much during the semester!)
Weight loss. At the beginning of summer, when I began to St. John's
wort to help me get control of my erratic sleep schedule, I found myself rising
early in the morning with energy to spare. So I started walking in the cool of
the day. Along with the exercise I made an effort to eat well, as I had in France
when Kristine and I, with no effort at all, lost dozens of pounds: fresh salads,
pasta, yogurt (the new TCBY yogurts are terrific), goat cheese and fresh
mozzarella; less meat, less bread, but still the occasional ice cream. OK, daily
ice cream. That combination of diet and exercise led to a steady weight loss of
about ten pounds a month. I'm now running every other day (well, for me it's
running, though I'm sure it looks snaillike to passersby) and I'm fitting into
clothes purchased in regular stores. Have I seen my last of Casual Male Big &
Tall? We'll see if I can maintain this new way of life. It's all part of my effort
not to die young.
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/reviews98/personal.shtml
