*Note: All this happened over a year ago. The novel being subbed was a YA Fantasy.
Day 1:
Senior Agent calls me to talk me through the subbing process. She has sent out the pitch to a few editors. She tells me the best thing to do now is to forget about being on sub and keep myself busy. “Okay,” I say with confidence. I know submissions usually take at least two to three months. I’m totes chill. Read More
*shakes udders in yo fayce*
WARNING: This contains SPOILERS for Season One of The 100.
What it’s like watching Season One.
This is one of the main reasons why I can’t get into The 100. The frikkin’ false tension means that whenever a major character supposedly dies, I assume they’re still alive somehow. So far, I’ve been proven right, although that does mean the show delivers zero tension for me. Maybe Season Two gets better?
Ooh, I would certainly love to order a couple of these bookplates! If you decide to take InMyBook's suggestion, I'm…
Note: Unfortunately I can no longer offer these at the moment because of traveling. Stay tuned.
So, I started getting emails asking if I offer signed books. Or . . . *drumroll* signed bookplates!
To which I thought: well, no, I don’t offer them, BUT I COULD. Why not?
Above is what the ones I’m currently making look like. (If it turns out these labels don’t hold up well or I can’t find more, the design might vary.)
If you would like a signed bookplate, email sl AT slhuang DOT com with the subject line BOOKPLATE REQUEST, and tell me:
I’ll reply to your email when I send the bookplate(s). If you don’t receive a response within two weeks, chances are your email got missed; feel free to ask again. I’m happy to mail to anywhere in the U.S., no charge. For people outside the U.S., it will depend on how much it costs to mail something to your country (sorry).
I’m slightly skeptical the labels I’m using have archival-quality adhesive — I researched the subject but people seemed to think there were no sticky-backed products with archival-quality adhesive and you have to paste things yourself for that, at which point I gave up. So if the bookplates end up coming off years down the road, I’m sorry! But I did get archival-quality pens and ink pigment for this purpose, so at least that shouldn’t fade on you. (Special thanks to Mary Robinette Kowal’s excellent blog post on what to consider in terms of materials.)
Feel free to request more than one bookplate, though if you ask for an unreasonable number (“ONE THOUSAND BOOKPLATES!”) I shall blithely chop it down a few orders of magnitude and only send you a reasonable number (like five). Although, on second thought, if you were requesting a thousand bookplates because you were buying a thousand books, I could probably be persuaded to do a few more. 😉
The fine print: If I am suddenly inundated with bookplate orders, I reserve the right to discontinue offering them without warning, including to people who have already requested. But I do not expect this to happen any time in the near future.
Love Black Mirror! I've also seen Dead Set. Unfortunately, I can't find A Touch of Cloth anywhere. Booooo.
Source: IMDB
Black Mirror is a thinky British TV series set in a near-future UK. The vibe is like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits. The main theme is dystopian, but the culprit is really the masses, not so much the government. Basically, the future sucks because people suck. The masses are fickle and prone to mob mentality. When we get better technology, we can’t handle it since it enables us to do bad things in badder ways. Technology progresses so fast that our moral maturity can’t keep up. It’s like giving a toddler a tank to drive when the kid hasn’t even mastered the tricycle. So yeah, we is doomed.
The subtext seems to be that democracy, based on the whims of the masses, is bad. A valid criticism, but the depressing part is that we probably have no better alternative. (Aside from having me as dictator for life, obviously. And having my clones as successors. Because I am all that and a bag of Cheetos, as anyone who knows me will testify.)
My favorite episodes are the first and the third ones in the first season. In National Anthem (the first episode), someone has kidnapped a royalty. The ransom demand asks the Prime Minister to perform an act … um … that will make you cringe, to say the least. It’s also darkly comedic, as cringe-worthy things can be sometimes.
In The Entire History of You (the third episode), people have implants that record their life experiences. Kinda like a DVR of what you see and hear. You can re-watch your past as if it were a TV show, essentially. The good is that you can relive your happy past. But what about the unhappy parts? And the temptation to watch another’s past? This episodes falls under the “be careful what you wish for” category because what you want is not always what’s good for you.
Another thing I like about this show is that it’s pretty edgy—it touches upon or jokes about taboo topics. British media, compared to American media, seem generally more willing to offend.
Black Mirror is available on Netflix, which has seasons one and two (total of six episodes). Season three is in progress.
Oh, that's the one where they white-washed Khan's character? Yeaaaa, not watching that. :D Pore pencil! *strokes your eraser*
This is not a movie review. I thought of doing a review of Vice, but in the end, I realized I didn’t care about it enough to do a proper review. And here’s why.
1. Every other guy ever is a murderous, raping scumbag. Those who aren’t rapists or murderers seem to need a reason to not rape or murder anyone (one is still in love with his dead wife and the other’s a cop).
I mean, seriously, given a place where you can do anything you want, why does the go-to have to be violence towards women? What happened to healthy fun stuff like parasailing naked or doing gymnastics atop elephants or trying to eat fifty cronuts? Portraying men as scum and women as victims is SO 2014, you guys.
2. Armed, trained guards can’t shoot to save their lives. Not even a graze to the heroes throughout the entire movie.
Where are they finding these guards?? They are useless. FIRE THEM.
3. THIS happened.
This was where I proceeded to turn my brain off. From that point on, there were no more shits given to any of the mains. Because anyone who is stupid enough to turn down a full mind-and-body upgrade while there is an army after them does not deserve to live. In fact, I wanted to kill them myself.
Aaand that’s why I couldn’t take anything about Vice seriously. What was the last movie you couldn’t take seriously?
Any writer knows. Some days you feel it, some days you don’t. Today was a no-feels day. Here’s how I knew:
I spent the first two hours of daylight with my laptop open in front of me while I stared out the window. See, a bird couple was investigating the birdhouse. They’ve come to check the place three days in a row now, but have yet to take up residence. I started making up stories about them. I decided they’re picky house hunters trying to incite a seller’s war. “You won’t get a year’s supply of premium seed from me, chickadees!”
I told myself to buckle down. I opened my current chapter and typed one sentence. I got stuck on a word. I opened Thesaurus.com. I opened Twitter. I opened Seahawks.com. I opened Dogshaming.com. I critiqued a query at a writer’s website I frequent. I got hungry. I went to the kitchen and ate a handful of Swedish Fish. I craved salt. I went back to the kitchen for potato chips. I wanted chocolate. I went back to the kitchen for a piece of Ghirardelli sea salt milk chocolate. I got a sugar rush.
I sat my butt back down. I looked at my sentence. The stuck word was still stuck. I looked at the clock. It was 9 AM.
I thought about needing to write. I wondered how warm it was outside. I watched funny videos people linked on Twitter. I did dishes.
I thought about cleaning the spare bathroom.
…
…..
…….!!
That’s when I knew I was done for.
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