19 January 2010

Forward Motion won the Number 2 spot in the Athenaeum's Top 100 for 2009! Pretty cool, especially considering that the story is not hosted on the Athenaeum and so doesn't get click-through counts. Without A Front also placed, way down the list at position 96, which is almost certainly because the story was posted two years ago. Still, it's good to have two stories on the list, and quite a bit of traffic has come through this site as a result.

I'm writing again, though not what you'd think...I've finally started up a blog. It's called Oregon Expat, and is an outlet I've needed for my other love: science writing. No, it's not the dry stuff! Science writing is the art of "translating" scientific concepts into easy, readable and (if I'm doing my job right) fun bits of text that make you say, "Cool! I didn't know that!" For instance, do you know why birds never need bifocals? Most expert birders don't even know that, but you can.

I'm also using the blog for travelogues, occasional neat things gleaned from the web (you should check out the woman who won the 2009 Ukraine's Got Talent with her amazing sand paintings), and comparisons of life in Portugal with life in the US (such as the difference in requested cup sizes for breast augmentation surgery).

And, speaking of Portugal -- did you hear that the Portuguese Parliament approved equal marriage rights for gays? Simply amazing. A more opposite situation to the US can hardly be imagined, and you can read why here. We're all biting our fingernails now, waiting to see if the President will sign or veto, or worst of all, send the bill to court. If he vetoes, it's likely to be overridden. So two out of the three possibiities could see Maria and me getting married, again, as early as April. Not that we'd have to, since I'm sure Portugal would recognize our Canada marriage if it legalizes its own version. But it would be lovely for Maria's family, and especially our son, to have the same option that my family had in Canada.

Anyway, check out the blog. My goal is to post daily (though Maria says I'm insane to try), so that there's always something new. If I find the daily grind to be impossible, I might drop to 3x per week, but that would be the minimum. I want to keep it fresh, and keep you all coming. Drop by; you'll recognize my writing voice. If you like it, you can subscribe by RSS feed or email, and never miss a thing.

Oh, and don't worry -- I'm not giving up fiction.

13 November 2009

Cycle Oregon was a success, and Maria did me proud! Her new distance record for cycling is 59 miles, and she's a convert to the sport. I now have a wife who is also a cycling buddy, which is frankly a brilliant surprise in my life. It was a lot of fun for me to watch her gaining confidence and enjoying herself on this ride.

I've written up our adventure in a travelogue (you can also access it at the bottom of the Fiction page), which for the first time includes quite a few photos. Even if you're not remotely interested in cycling, you might enjoy the travelogue if only for the photos that give a glimpse into a 7-day event with 2,000 cyclists. (Note: the photos bloat up this file to 2.8 MB, so give it a little time to load if you have a slow connection.)

The travelogue really begins on Day 1, but the Prologue might be interesting for anyone who has ever wished she could be in better shape. Maria was not remotely fit when she started her training; in fact, I'd classify her fitness level as "extremely unhealthy." In seven months she went from that, to riding almost 60 miles in a day. If she can do it, anyone can, and it didn't take a major shift in lifestyle. Just a commitment to training three or four times per week. The human body has amazing capacities to gain strength and endurance, and her story is a testament to that.

I've also done a little housekeeping on the site. All portable (eReader) files are now collected together on their own E-Fiction page, rather than being sprinkled among the individual home pages of each book. This will make it much easier for readers with portable devices to download multiple files. In addition, I've added a corrected link for iPhone and iPod Touch files, since Apple has chosen to be a pain in the butt by requiring a different URL. (I love my Mac, but sometimes Apple really does make bonehead moves.) The E-Fiction page can also be accessed directly from the main Fiction page.

Enjoy the travelogue, cringe over the insanity of it all, and by the way: Happy Friday the 13th!

1 August 2009

Long time no update, but I do have an excuse -- I've been training my buns off for Cycle Oregon, coaching Maria in the sport of cycling, and oh yes, producing a new novella. It was supposed to be a short story, but you know how I am with those. Actually I think I did pretty well keeping this one to 75 pages. Not that I had any incentive to keep it short, with Maria asking every day, "How many pages is it now?" The story was my birthday gift to her, in keeping with our tradition, and the longer it got the happier she became. It's called Mac vs. PC, and Maria has graciously agreed to share with my other readers. This one is a contemporary romance, taking place on a university campus.

Our other big news is that Maria's cycling training has been abruptly curtailed, courtesy of an asshole truck driver who drove his giant flatbed truck onto the road directly in front of us as we were descending a steep hill. He blocked both lanes, leaving no escape route other than a narrow strip of rocks and brush between the road edge and the side of the hill. I made it; Maria did not. Fortunately, she took the less damaging option and crashed her bike on the road, versus crashing it into the side of the truck. So instead of breaking her whole body, she just fractured one finger and the radius of her right arm...and acquired a truly impressive amount of road rash. The truck driver fled the scene, leaving us miles from nowhere in blazing heat with a bleeding crash victim. Fortunately, a good friend dropped everything to drive out and pick up Maria and her bike, while I rode home alone. I'll be training on my own for the rest of the summer; Maria is in a cast for three weeks and forbidden to ride for five. That means she'll be getting back on her bike just days before Cycle Oregon. It certainly rearranges our careful training plan, but we're still going to ride the event. We just have to adjust our goals a bit. Life is all about adapting to reality...though I confess I'm wishing an alternate reality upon that truck driver. It takes a special kind of bastard to drive away from that.

There's always something positive to be found in any situation, though. Ours is that I get to accompany Maria in the shower for the next 21 days...

17 May 2009

Mission accomplished: Maria has produced the eReader version of No Return. All six of my novels are now in portable format, hoorah!

I also thought perhaps it was time for an update to my biography (scroll to the bottom to get to the new stuff), since the original version ends with my riding off into the sunset after dissolving my marriage and making a leap of faith. Two and a half years after the leap, a lot of things have happened...but I've never once questioned that choice.

And finally, I have some genuine European bonafides now: I just watched my first Eurovision contest! Wow, what a production. I didn't realize this was essentially a huge stadium rock concert, complete with pyrotechnics and video tricks and costumes that would not be shown on American TV until after the kiddies have gone to bed. My image of eastern European nations as conservative just got blown right out the window. Actually I think the most conservative entry was that of the UK -- their singer's dress went all the way to her knees, and there weren't any bare-chested men gyrating in front of her. No wonder she didn't win. But I still can't figure out why Norway did.

16 April 2009

eReader update: I have successfully prodded, encouraged and possibly nagged Maria into converting Future Perfect into an eReader format! That means that only No Return remains unformatted (and I'm already plotting the next round of encouragement). Many of you have requested that the entire series be made available for portable reading, and with this latest post we're alllllmost there.

You can download the portable version of Future Perfect from that novel's cover page.

To those of you who went to the Athenaeum to rate my stories -- you rock! You've pushed four out of my six novels into the top 50 titles hosted or linked by that site. Future Perfect is barely off the front page at 51, and Present Tension is at 60. Given the fact that the Athenaeum currently lists 6097 stories, having all six novels in the top 60 is quite an accomplishment and I have you to thank for it...so thank you! Of course the current rankings won't last; fans have their favorites and some of them will defend those favorites by posting repeated high rankings, and also by giving competing stories very low rankings in order to send them down. I know that some of my novels have been bombed in this manner, but there's no way to defend against that and I don't want to get into those muddy trenches anyway. Mostly I just wanted to have the titles where new readers will quickly find them, and you've accomplished that. I'm grateful to you.

And for those who took the time to leave comments -- wow. I read through those with an enormous smile on my face (and a sizable blush). That made my day, seriously.

Now I have another request for you. I'm putting together a soundtrack for Forward Motion, which really means a playlist of songs that, if the novel were a movie, would be playing in the background during certain scenes. Maria and I collaborated on two prior soundtracks, and we also benefitted from some great suggestions from readers. I'm always interested in new music, and love checking out other people's ideas. So if you have any particular songs that come to mind when you think of certain scenes, will you take a moment to drop me an email and let me know? Any genre works; the past soundtracks have featured everything from instrumental to jazz to Motown to goth metal to country.

When I've put the playlist together, I'll post it for your entertainment. I can't guarantee you'll like it or agree with all the choices, but I can guarantee that it will be eclectic!

20 February 2009

Some of you have written to say you're dying to read this post, but dreading it at the same time. I know how you feel. Writing the last words of Forward Motion was a very tough moment for me, but I've been able to hang on to my connection with the story via these posts. Now I can't put it off any longer. The series really is finished. But since I couldn't quite let go, you'll be treated to what may be the longest epilogue in fanfic history!

Sit down, get comfortable, and enjoy Book 12. And when you're done, if you have a moment and the inclination, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. Those emails will help me keep this connection to a beloved set of characters just a little longer...

Happy reading and happy weekend, all.

13 February 2009

Well, I've done it again. Thanks to a good and very persuasive friend, I'm headed back to Oregon this fall to ride Cycle Oregon for the third time. And this year, I'm not only meeting my bike buddies from 2008, but am also taking my wife! Yes, Maria has signed on to the insanity. (Must be contagious.) I am thrilled to have a bike buddy right here, and am hugely looking forward to training Maria and watching her get stronger and more confident. First, though, there's the little matter of getting her a bicycle to ride...

This year's Cycle Oregon will, for the first time, be going into That State South of Us -- you know, the one with the Terminator as governor. The landscape of northwestern California is just spectacular, and we are riding through some glorious sections of it. The folks who signed up for the ride don't seem to mind that Cycle Oregon just became Cycle Oregon/California -- registration has only been open for one week, and is already almost sold out. It's like a rock concert! Imagine, two thousand people crazy enough to pay a big chunk of change for the privilege of riding 450 miles in six days. A bunch of those miles are uphill, too. (Upmountain is more like it.)

On to book stuff...a couple of you wrote in to say you were fanning your faces after the last posting. Book 11 isn't quite as incendiary, but I still wouldn't recommend reading it at work. This is a fairly peaceful section, because our heroines deserve some happy times -- which isn't to say it's entirely without stress. But sometimes stress can lead to better places.

6 February 2009

Just read a story about Penelope Cruz that made me laugh...remember my lingustic mistake that resulted in me asking for chocolate sex when I meant to say chocolate cake? Well, in her early days of learning English, Ms. Cruz went into a hair salon meaning to ask for a blow dry, and instead asked for a blow job. I can totally sympathize with her! Poor thing. At least when I screw up, it doesn't get repeated all over the world in various newspapers and blogs. Still, she clearly has a great sense of humor or she'd never have told that story on herself.

I'm now on break before the next semester starts, and will be practicing my reading in the meantime. I've discovered that the best books for foreigners learning a new language are graphic novels -- lots of visual context to help with word meanings, and not much dialogue. It's still hard, but not nearly so hard as a normal novel. There's a pretty heavy irony in the fact that both my 8-year-old stepson and I are reading comic books...but at least I managed to find some X-rated ones. Helps me feel a little more like an adult.

Speaking of which, Book 10 is definitely X-rated. Don't open it at work! And don't expect to read it on your coffee break, either. I'm just sayin'.

30 January 2009

Dang, that final exam was hard! The professor made it more essay than anything else, which is of course the best way to test understanding of a language, but the most difficult way for a student to demonsrate knowledge. And in the grammar section, she played a dirty trick -- after I spent eons studying all the exceptions to the rules for the formation of complementary personal pronouns, she didn't ask about any of them! Rrrrr. She could have asked at least one so that I could feel proud of knowing my exceptions.

It sure would be easier to learn this language with a Borg cortical implant...assuming, of course, that the Borg had ever assimilated a Portuguese speaker.

In Book 9, the arrest has claimed one unforeseen victim, and Alison finds herself offering more than just sanctuary. Kathryn takes advantage of family leverage, gathering the pieces she needs to set up a trap for the assassin. Hang on to your seats...the end of this book will be a bit of a ride.

23 January 2009

We had a practice final exam in my language class this week, and I aced it. The real exam is Monday. I still have reason to be nervous, though, because the practice test was only written work, while the final will also include oral work. It probably won't surprise any of you that I excel in the written portions of my language studies -- but geez, I flail when it comes to the oral parts! I have such a hard time hearing Portuguese. If only everyone would talk...very...slowly.

One fun part of the class came when we paired off and discussed holidays and feasts in our home countries. My partner was from the Ukraine, and to our surprise we discovered that our two nations have several traditional "feast day" competitions in common: the three-legged race, the egg-in-spoon race, and the sack race (putting both legs into a burlap sack and hopping to the finish line). Suddenly I realized that races I've never considered anything but North American are, in fact, much older than that and must have been brought to the New World by immigrants. Funny the ways in which we are all connected, even when we don't know it.

Things are going to move rapidly in Book 8, as one mystery is finally wrapped up thanks to Tuvok's trip to Ipsen Prime. But the most pressing issue is still unresolved, and for that, Kathryn and Lynne will need a little outside help. Meanwhile, Kathryn finds that the offer she made during her interview has already come back to bite her, and Revi learns a few things about her own motivations that she hadn't suspected.

16 January 2009

Today is a joyous day! Battlestar Galactica is finally back, and it's functionally the last day of the Bush Administration. Obviously one of these has slightly more import, but...I've really missed BSG. It may be depressing as hell, but it's good. (As opposed to the last eight years, which were depressing as hell and not good.)

It's also a significant anniversary: two years ago today, I arrived in Portugal to literally begin a new life. I can't believe it's been two years already! So many changes -- a family of my own, the unexpected love of a small boy, learning to love a landscape that is almost the polar opposite of what I grew up with...and I can honestly say that I have never looked back. I still miss Oregon, but when I visited the US this summer, I found myself missing Portugal. Guess my heart will always be in two places at once. But my home is with Maria.

Book 7 may involve a bit of hard reading for some, as Revi's interlink with her mother gives a harrowing glimpse into the worst parts of her childhood. But there will be excitement and fun as well, as Lynne watches another message from her parents, and Tuvok and Alison find what may well be the key to Voyager's sabotage.

Housekeeping note for those using the eReader file: we had a little mixup last week, and for some reason the file was updated not just for Book 6, but for Book 7 as well. Which means that the eReader folks had a BIG post last week -- and none this week. I do apologize. Tune in next week for Book 8. And in the meantime...well, there's always Battlestar Galactica.

9 January 2009

In my ongoing effort to learn Portuguese, I recently rendered a waitress in a café literally unable to function when I asked for a "quequa chocolate" instead of a "queque chocolate." That little 'a' at the end of the first word is absolutely critical. I thought I was asking for a chocolate cake. Turns out I was asking for chocolate sex.

The waitress bent over, put her hands on her knees, and howled with laughter. Then she kept breaking up into more snorts and giggles as she was trying to take care of my order, which seriously impeded her efficiency. I think I made her whole day. Well, at least I won't be forgetting the word for "cake" any time soon.

In this week's posting of Forward Motion, the theme is not cake, or even sex (sorry), but surprise. Alison gets one at her office, Lynne and Kathryn get one in Gretchen's barn, and President Gutierrez gets one during a strategic meeting. Pull up a chair and a piece of chocolate cake and have a good read...

2 January 2009

Feliz Ano Novo! I hope you had a joyous celebration, in whatever form it took. For Maria and me, it took the form of a quiet evening in as we enjoyed a bottle of Portuguese sparkling wine, a bunch of extremely unhealthy snacks, and one of our favorite classic old movies, Laura. Gene Tierney in 1944 was gorgeous by any standards...

Part 5 of Forward Motion is up, and Lynne is no longer letting life roll over the top of her. Kathryn, meanwhile, is being reminded that she's not top dog anymore, and Admiral Necheyev is only too happy to do the reminding. Everyone is adapting to the very different circumstances on Earth, though some may be adapting better than others.

I've also posted the e-book version of Present Tension, for those who are collecting the series. Two more novels to convert and we'll have the full sweep of all six novels available for portable reading. Cool! I may have to get myself an iPod Touch just so I can enjoy that, too.

26 December 2008

Happy Winter Solstice, Merry Christmas, Feliz Natal, Happy Hannukah...whatever you celebrate, may these days bring you good friends, good food and good conversation, perhaps not in that order! (The food is the most important, yes?) Our own family celebration is for Winter Solstice, because to us, the return of the sun is a truly meaningful and non-commercialized event that ties into the patterns of bird migrations and what I can grow in my veranda garden, and -- of course -- when it will be warm enough to ride my bike in shorts again. We also celebrated Natal (Christmas) with Maria's family, where I took part for the first time in a traditional Portuguese Natal dinner, right down to the salt cod as a main course. And since it is considered polite here to take second helpings of everything, I had to be rolled out the door at the end of the night.

On 24th century Earth, meanwhile, the hunt is on to prove Alison's innocence, and Revi and Seven make their long-dreaded family visits. The results will both validate their concerns -- and surprise them with the unexpected.

19 December 2008

Wow, great news on the political front -- Obama just named Jane Lubchenco as head of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). This is VERY cool -- Dr. Lubchenco is a very well-known marine biology professor at my former university. My god, a SCIENTIST being named to head up one of the biggest science agencies in the federal government! Will wonders never cease?

Then, alas, Obama ruined my happy glow by naming Rick Warren to do the invocation at his inauguration. This is the fundamentalist Christian minister who has stated, with a great deal of media coverage, that homosexuality is in the same category as pedophilia, incest, and bestiality. (He was also very involved in the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign.) Obama calls this invitation "being inclusive." I'd like to know why "being inclusive" always involves people like us tolerating seriously nasty and very damaging bigots, while it never seems to involve the nasty bigots tolerating us.

All the more reason for an hour or two of reading about a world where this kind of shit is long, long behind us. Book 3 of Forward Motion will take you to the Hamilton Foundation, where Lynne proves her identity, and then to the slopes of a Colorado ski resort for some well-earned R&R...where Seven tries to figure out what possible motivation there could be for such a bizarre sport.

12 December 2008

In keeping with the happy theme of the previous post, this week's post sees Kathryn, Lynne, Seven and Revi enjoying some very well-earned relaxation time. It's a bit of an adjustment for Kathryn, though, who finds that old family habits are hard to break. And, of course, I can never let things stay calm for too long...

Good news for those who have been asking me about making the other books in the Past Imperfect series available in palm format: my sweet wife, who now has slightly more free time on her hands thanks to the successful defense of her Ph.D., has taken that on as her new project. She has already completed the "palmization" of Past Imperfect, which is now available on that book's main page. I'll be posting the other three as they're completed. If this makes you happy, let me know so that I can pass it on to Maria! She deserves it.

5 December 2008

Finally, I am able to keep a promise I made a long time ago. I said there was one more book in this series, and here it is.

Voyager has returned home, and as always, nothing is ever as easy as it should be. For the next eleven weeks, tune in every Friday to read the next installment of Forward Motion. My guarantee is still in force -- I never start posting a story before it's finished. You're in for another wild ride.

But we'll start out gently, because these people have worked damned hard to get home...so let's just bask in their joy for the first installment. Head for the fiction page to read about the spectacle of Voyager's homecoming, an event that nobody in the Federation will ever forget.

Also, please check out the cool new book cover designed by Maria, my lovely wife. She worked hard on it, and put up with a lot of my Fletcherism, as she calls it. ("Shouldn't the text be just a little more over that way?") You can see the full size version of every book cover by going to that book's main page and clicking on the thumbnail.

Enjoy the ride!

26 November 2008

Now that FM is done, I'm finally getting around to other stuff. Got the finances taken care of (NEVER again will I let it get that far out of hand!), a few emails written (abject apologies to those whom I have owed a response for a really long time—I'll write, I promise), and writing up my journal from Cycle Oregon 2008. If you want to know what it's like to ride a bicycle all over the northeast corner of Oregon for a week, check it out in the Short Stories section. Or you can just go here.

23 November 2008

Forward Motion is done.

I did indeed get into the groove after my last update. The Muse grabbed me and forced me to forsake everything else, which is why my email inbox is scaring me and I have two months worth of receipts to enter into my finance program. I have a lot of catching up to do in my regular life.

In the meantime, however, you can start looking forward to Friday Posts again! I still have to print this monster out (it's as long as Without A Front) and do the final edit, but I plan to put the first post up on December 5, when everyone is back from their Thanksgiving travels. Consider it my early Winter Solstice (or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or whatever you choose to celebrate) gift to you.

I also fiddled around with some photo software and put together a tiny album of our wedding. While choosing the photos, I remembered all of the friends and relatives who asked me, "Why don't you just get married in California? It's closer." We didn't because I was expecting the worst on Proposition 8, and was sadly not disappointed. It was really a mental whiplash, watching the elections from over here and being so, SO happy and relieved and tearful at Obama's win, and then feeling my heart being crushed over the simultaneous message from California (and Florida, and Arizona) that Maria and I are not real people, and have no right to love.

But what I did not expect was the backlash, and the sudden, huge uprising of gay people nationwide to protest their treatment. Finally, we found our voice! I wonder now if Prop 8 had to happen that way...if we had to be absolutely crushed to the pavement before we finally realized that our rights are not going to be given to us unless we become visible. We are all too thoroughly trained to stay invisible, keep a low profile, keep our secrets...but it's that very silence which enables even decent people to vilify, fear, hate and judge us. And to vote to take our rights away.

I wasn't in the US to take part in the national day of protest. I wish I had been. But these wedding photos are Maria's and my contribution. I've never before published a real photo of myself on this site -- not one where my face was visible. Maria has no pictorial web presence either. We have both chosen to show ourselves now, as two women who claimed the right to commit to each other. This is what love looks like.

10 October 2008

I'M MARRIED!!!

Okay, it's been a long time between updates, but I have a pretty good excuse. In early August my sweetie and I took off for the US for an extended trip to visit friends and family, but before we did anything else, we ran up to Canada and got married.

Legally. As in, signed, sealed and stamped by a national government. Witnessed by my mother and a few very good friends. And it felt terrific. For the week that we were in Canada (specifically, on Vancouver Island), we felt a level of core-deep safety that we simply do not feel in our daily lives. Maria commented that part of her hated to return to the US, because as soon as we stepped off that ferry, we were no longer considered married. It really does affect one's psyche, more than I ever imagined.

So, we have matching rings now, and in the photos from our wedding we have matching smiles, too. Big ones. And Maria is my wife, and I haven't yet gotten past the stage of grinning like an idiot every now and again, just from thinking about it. I'll try to post a photo or two, if I can figure out how to get a Flash slideshow working.

After the honeymoon we came back to Oregon and hit all of our favorite restaurants, saw almost all of the friends that we wanted to see, and generally had a great time until Maria had to return home. While she was flying over the Atlantic, I was driving across the state with a good friend to the starting point of Cycle Oregon. We met two other friends there, and had a grand time cycling through some of the most gorgeous scenery that eastern Oregon has to offer. (The tough day was 83 miles and 7,412 feet of elevation gain -- oof. But it was beautiful.) Afterward I visited a few more friends and then finally returned home, six weeks after leaving. Just in time, too, as I was pining for Maria to a rather embarrassing extent. Despite knowing her for 3.5 years, and sharing a home for two of them, I'm still a total mushball over her. Which, I think, is the way it's supposed to be.

Forward Motion got put on hold during the trip, but I'd been churning out the pages just prior to leaving (405 of 'em now!) and am hoping that I can get back into that groove. As usual, my characters are running away with themselves, and Alison in particular is turning out to be quite a handful. Just the way I like them, actually.

Okay, off to see about posting pictures...

10 July 2008

Forward Motion is now up to 270 pages and the mystery is deepening! My writing has been slower than normal due to regular life interfering -- vacations, unexpected car death (our car died with a whimper on the side of the A-22 freeway about 10 km from the Spanish border -- total loss), and planning for our upcoming trip to the States. Oh yes, and planning for our wedding, too! (Did I mention that Maria and I are getting married in Canada?)

Also, I've been spending quite a bit of time training for Cycle Oregon 2008, a 7-day cycling event that covers about 325 miles (523 km) in the NE corner of Oregon. Right now I'm putting in about 90 miles (145 km) per week, climbing up into the serra, or mountains, that rumple up the landscape just north of where we live.

Something very important has come to my attention during these rides, and I want to bring it to yours, too. The land I ride through is simply gorgeous; a perfect example of mixed-use land that is partly wild and partly not. Much of it is montado, or cork oak forest. As an American accustomed to intensive land use, where land is farmed for a single crop and everything else is torn out to make room for that crop, the sight of these cork oak forests is astonishing. I can't believe it's a crop, because it looks like a healthy, dynamic ecosystem to me. So I did some research. It is a healthy, dynamic ecosystem, and in fact the cork oak forests of Portugal are some of the last havens in Europe for a number of otherwise declining species of birds and mammals. Many of those species are not declining here -- they're actually abundant! And the forests in which they live are carefully nurtured and protected, because the cork crop is so valuable. The vast majority of it is processed and exported as wine corks.

But the value of cork is dropping rapidly. Why? Because many winemakers are switching to the cheaper plastic corks, which cost 6 cents versus 30 cents for a real cork. Some grocery store chains, such as Tesco, are now requiring any wines they carry in their stores to have plastic corks. The advent of plastic corks has caused an almost overnight decline in real cork values, and that loss has been enormous -- for instance, between 2001 and 2004, the value of Portuguese cork exports to Australia and the United States dropped by 24 percent. And you can bet that when the cork oak forests no longer have value, they will be cut down to make room for a crop that does.

The solution is very simple. Please don't buy wines with plastic corks. Tell your friends. Tell your local wine shop. Tell the people at your grocery store. Cork is renewable, biodegradable, and its source is one of the last places in southern Europe with a healthy biodiversity. It's an agricultural crop that looks like an intact forest -- because it is an intact forest. And it would break my heart to ride my bike up into the montados and see stumps where the cork oaks used to be.

Friends don't let friends buy plastic corks. Pass it on.

PS. For an excellent article on the montados, the life they support, and how the cork industry has tried to fight this decline, check out an article called Cork Screwed in Audobon Magazine.

18 June 2008

The second issue of Read These Lips is out! I've been waiting for it to be posted, so that I could put up my submission to it. This is an anthology of short stories (under 2,000 words) by a whole list of excellent authors, including Nicola Griffith, Lois Cloarec Hart, Lee Lynch, Marianne K. Martin...definitely worth a download and a good evening's read. All of the authors for this anthology submitted their work free of charge, in support of making good lesbian fiction available to women all over the world. I'm proud to be a part of that cause.

My own contribution, titled The Birthday Gift, is a definite departure from the spec fic that many readers expect from me...but then again, my short stories usually are.

I don't usually dedicate my work, but in light of recent historic events in California, this story simply cried out for a particular dedication. You'll find it at the end.

15 April 2008

Tax day, and I'm feeling a little odd about having no salary income to report. Haven't been in that situation since the eleventh grade! But I'm still writing away, and am now taking two simultaneous Portuguese classes in an effort to learn this difficult language. It's starting to make a lot more sense, but I still can't hear it. I'm still translating everything in my head, and my brain just can't translate fast enough to keep up with a conversation. It feels tantalizingly close, though...

Hey! The Wry Writer interviewed me about what goes on in my little pea brain when I write, so if you'd like a peek into said pea, check it out at Fletcher DeLancey—Writer: 20 Questions in the Hot Seat. It was fun to sit down and really think about how I do what I do, and how to articulate that.

On the writing front, Forward Motion is now at 225 pages. Just as a teaser, everyone's home and the family dynamics are kicking in...Revi just took Seven to meet her parents, Kathryn is seeing her mother in a new way, and Lynne found an unexpected connection to the parents she left behind. Meanwhile, the saboteur from No Return is making his or her presence felt in rather unpleasant ways, and no one is beyond suspicion.

Okay. Back to writing.

27 February 2008

Update time! Forward Motion is progressing right along -- my last stat count showed that I'm up to 140 pages if I were to print it in paperback form. This is actually kind of scary because in my mind I'm still at the beginning of the story. It's odd; I can write short stories of just a few pages, or I can write epic-length novels, and anything in between seems out of my grasp.

<thinking>

Well, I suppose it's not really out of my grasp; it's just that I always have too much story to tell to keep it at the "novella" length. I like character development and dialogue, and those two things tend to swell page counts. At any rate, it's shaping up to be a good story, and my beta readers are loving it. And it feels good to hang out with Lynne and Kathryn and Seven and Revi again...not to mention Alison, who is getting a lot more stage time in this novel.

I've also been traveling a bit more, since Maria has finally (THANK THE GODDESS) turned in the last part of her Ph.D. dissertation. We now have lives again, and celebrated by visiting London for a few days, followed by a trip to a few spectacular parts of the Portugal interior. In addition, I'm heading back to the States this summer for a long visit with friends and family, which will be wonderful. And in a fit of insanity, I signed up for my second Cycle Oregon -- close to 400 miles of bike riding in seven days. Such is the strength of my insanity that I even induced one of my readers, who has become a friend, to sign up as well -- and she got her partner to come along. Since I had earlier induced another friend to go, that will make four of us sharing the torture glory of the ride! (Hopefully those women will still be my friends when it's over...) If you'd like to get an idea of what we've gotten ourselves into, my journal from the 2004 ride is here. Now I'm thinking we need a team name. My first suggestion was Team Tanqueray, but my friend R. (who is the only heterosexual among us) said that was too commercial and besides, she doesn't drink gin. My next suggestion is going to be Three Lesbians And A Straight Chick. She probably won't wear that shirt, either.

27 December 2007

Has it already been four weeks? Geez. I've now celebrated my first Winter Solstice in Portugal, which turned out to be a lovely event for our little family. I introduced Maria, her son and her brother to mashed potatoes and gravy, which was pretty fun — my stepson thought the whole "make a volcano and put the gravy in the crater" concept was way cool. And my brother-in-law is now addicted to my brownies. Funny, I never considered brownies to be particularly American, but they certainly aren't Iberian! I think that besides language, food is the most obvious difference between nations — and the one you don't think about until suddenly you can't get your favorite things at the store or in a restaurant. But then there are new things to discover...

Now that Solstice is over and I'm between language classes, I took some time to redo the formatting of the Past Imperfect Series on the site. Like Without A Front, they now sport chapter numbers and increased spacing between scenes. While going through all those files I couldn't resist doing a little editing, so there are a few rewritten scenes as well. (Writers should never be allowed to look at their own work once it has been published or posted!) Also, the Palm version of Without A Front now includes the glossary. Look for e-reader versions of the Past Imperfect Series soon; that's next on my list.

As the year draws to a close I wish you all a Bom Ano Novo, and the hope that 2008 will bring some good changes to our world.

Now I'm going to whip up a batch of brownies.

23 November 2007

Well, this is it. For those of you who have been on this ride from the beginning, thank you for sharing it with me. It's a little difficult for me to put up this last post, because it means letting go of characters and a world that I came to love. I know from your letters that some of you are simultaneously looking forward to and dreading this post for the same reason. I also know that you're out there making wild guesses as to what will happen! If I've managed to surprise you, I hope you'll drop me a line and tell me so. (Feel free to make a quick recommendation on my Athenaeum story page, too!)

For those of you just coming in to this story because it is now fully posted—enjoy the ride! It's long and full of twists and turns, so I'd suggest fixing yourself a snack and a drink before you start. <wink>

Happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American readers—I must admit, it's a bit strange to be an expatriate right now, since Thanksgiving has no meaning outside of the US. But wow, the Portuguese take Christmas seriously! Loulé is ablaze with a Natal light display that puts my hometown to shame, and I understand that Lisboa is even more amazing. Time for a sightseeing trip, I think.

Best wishes to you all for a happy holiday season and a promising new year. Oh, and one more thing: I'm 35,000 words into Forward Motion, the fifth novel of my Past Imperfect series. It was the only way I could cure the blues caused by ending Without A Front.

16 November 2007

Guess what? I'm now working with a Portuguese language tutor, and it's making a real difference. I think I might actually figure this language out...in another five years or so. Whose idea was it to make the same vowel have four different sounds??

In other news, we are now at the penultimate post. There's a lot going on in this one, and things are going to come together. Which is not to say I'm letting y'all off the ride just yet. Hang tight, and enjoy. E bom fim de semana!

9 November 2007

Thanks again to the folks, and you know who you are, who added more recommendations to my story page on the Athenaeum. It's been fun to watch the results of a little more visibility: over 7,300 visitors last week, not to mention three placings on the Top 25 List! Future Perfect came in at number 18; Past Imperfect at number 7; and Without A Front catapulted right up to number two. WOO!

If any of you can suggest other well-known fanfic or sci-fi sites that might want to link to this site (versus hosting my stories, which I am not interested in), please let me know. This is fun.

So, back to the story...we're nearing the end now; only two posts left after this one. And I confess that I'm going to wind you up pretty tight. If you were hoping for the stress to ease after last week's post, give it up. However, I was a lot kinder about where I chose to end the post. <wink> Enjoy, and happy weekend!

2 November 2007

Well, ask and I shall receive! Y'all did me proud; in just a few days my stories acquired more recommendations on the Athenaeum than almost any author on the site. As a result, you inspired over 4,000 new visitors to check out my stories last week, and two of my stories instantly catapulted to the Top 25 list: No Return was rated number 19, and Past Imperfect came in at number 5. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave comments; it was an incredible feeling to read them. I really appreciate that.

The tension ramps up in this post; Tal is about to find out that catching the traitor doesn't mean it's all over. Far from it, in fact. So buckle in—this one's a ride.

26 October 2007

Hey, cool news! I'm on the Athenaeum now! For eons I'd declined to ask about it because I didn't want my stories hosted elsewhere, but after a reader told me that they link to other sites, I wrote them and voila, I'm in. (Thanks, Netta!) They've indexed the Past Imperfect Series and I'm already getting traffic from the site. So now I'm asking y'all a favor -- would you mind popping over to my page on the Athenaeum and hitting the Recommend button for any of my stories? Leaving even a one-sentence review for one or more of them will give me a lot more recognition on the site, and if I can get enough reviews I can pop into the Top 25, which would really get me some visibility. It wouldn't take you long and I'd be grateful...in fact, just to show how much, I'm putting up the next part of Without A Front, in which the threads of the plot start to draw tighter.

Thanks in advance, and enjoy this week's ride.

19 October 2007

My office is still a disaster, with boxes and books all over the floor as I continue to unpack stuff into my new bookcases. Why is it that one must make a bigger mess to clean up a mess?

At least I've swept all the crap off my desk long enough to get the new post up. After the howls of protest from last week's post -- usually along the lines of "What a cruel place to leave us!!" -- I think you'll find today's ending a little more to your liking. Also, in response to a reader's question, I've updated the glossary to more clearly spell out the difference between joining and Sharing (and to add a few more things while I was at it).

Oh -- Maria and I saw "The Brave One" today. Brrrr. Really good film. The acting was top notch, but what we both loved most about it was the dialogue. It seemed as if every sentence really meant something; there was no fluff. I'm glad we saw it, but some parts of it were very, very hard to watch. Sure made us want to hug each other and cherish what we have.

12 October 2007

We've returned from a mostly-successful trip to Seville, Spain (which is the nearest IKEA store for us) with bookcases for the living room and office, storage shelves for the dispensary and kitchen veranda, and assorted other stuff that filled a rented van and took us a considerable amount of time to get up to our apartment. Now comes the fun part -- assembly. I never knew it was possible to get sore forearms from screwing. Um, I mean from using a screwdriver.

Then I remembered that I have a story to post. So, while you're reading, I'm going to be slaving over furniture assembly. Send me some good thoughts. And don't blame me for the way this post ends...

5 October 2007

Back at home after a day of being a tourist in Lisboa...nothing like touring with a native guide! We walked around the old part of town, meaning the part that was left more or less intact after the 1755 earthquake and following tsunami wiped out much of the city. I loved the narrow streets and the profusion of restaurants, cafés, bookstores and rooftop gardens. Sitting in a rooftop café, drinking fresh pineapple-and-mint fruit juice, and gazing out over the skyline to the Rio Tejo is my idea of a great time. Yup, I'm an adrenaline junkie.

Book 4 is up, and Palm users should go to Chapter 20. Tal and Salomen are off on their first date, doing their best to slow down the bonding process. In the meantime, the demands of governance are creeping in, and there are rumblings of trouble ahead...

28 September 2007

OMG, it's almost October! How did that happen? And the really weird thing (to a former Oregon girl) is that I'm still wearing shorts and sandals, and it's still warm. Back in my hometown I'd be breaking out the sweatshirt collection now, and thinking about wearing gloves during beach walks. Here we're still wearing bikinis during beach walks. Amazing.

For the last post of September, things heat up a bit, and Tal and Salomen learn that control is an illusory thing. A hard lesson for most women, but especially hard for these two. (Palm file users, click on Chapter 14 to pick up where you left off.)

21 September 2007

Book 2 of Without A Front is up! And for those who might have missed it, this novel is also available in Palm format (.pdb) for readers with a more mobile lifestyle. The Palm file will be updated with every weekly post, and is marked with chapter headings to make it easier to navigate. If you want to go straight to where you left off in the last post, click on Chapter 8.

Eventually all of the novels will be available in Palm format, but that's a longer term project...and dependent upon my partner, who is currently wrapping up her Ph.D. She would actually prefer playing with .pdb formatting, which apparently is much more fun than creating tables and writing thesis conclusions, but alas, we are not the ones who set those particular priorities.

14 September 2007

Welcome to the new site! And, of course, the first post of Without A Front. What started as a short story grew into my longest novel yet, with a multitude of characters and an entirely new world to explore. It was a joy to write, and hard for me to let go when I finished it. Throwing myself into my site redesign was the only thing that kept the blues away. (My psychologist friend would call this "transference.")

The first question many of you may have is, "why Red Moon?" It will be clear eventually...but not until you read the Epilogue of Without A Front. Until then, you'll just have to be patient. And since you've all waited so long for this novel, I know you've got patience in spades!

If you're new to the site, I highly recommend that you read Book 1 of No Return (up to Chapter 3) before diving into Without A Front. The story will make sense even if you don't, but you'll get more out of it if you do.

Enjoy the first part of the story, and the beginning of Friday Posting Days. The good news for US readers is, since I'm now living in the GMT time zone, my Friday evening is your Friday morning. Don't be reading this stuff at work, now! Save it for when the boss can't catch you.

31 August 2007

It's done. All but the epilogue.

I'm a little bit in shock, after working on this for so long and through such dramatic changes in my life. And I already miss the characters, even though I'm still writing the last few pages. Just knowing that they're the last makes me miss my friends in advance.

Without A Front turned out to be 264,000 words long—minus the epilogue—which makes it 35,000 words longer than No Return. According to my writing software, if I were to print this book in paperback format it would be 700 pages long. Holy shit. But there was a lot of story to tell, with what became a long list of characters and a twisting plot.

Next comes the final edit, and then the posting. I'm preparing to move this site elsewhere (it's still hosted on my old server in the States) and will probably play with some site redesign now that I actually have the time. So keep your eyes on this space; I'm hoping to have the first post up in two weeks; three tops. As before, I will post every Friday, so get ready for a long ride.

29 July 2007

The writing Muse is cruel sometimes. I had a particular plot point set out from the very beginning of my Lancer Tal novel, but when the time came to incorporate it, the story as written no longer allowed it. I spent more than two weeks in total stasis trying to think of a way to make it happen. No dice. So I've left it behind, dealt with a few subsequent logical isses (damn this story for not doing what I want it to!), and am now charging ahead toward the ending.

At 198K words, this novel is now quite a bit longer than "Future Perfect" and may very well match "No Return." Amazing. I'm going to be so bummed when it's done; the characters have become great friends. I could actually start posting now, as I'm certain to finish before the time comes to post the ending, but for my own peace of mind will hold off. Soon!

In the meantime, I'm learning all the tricks of staying cool during a southern Portugal summer. Trick No. 1: Don't even think about being productive until around 9:30 p.m. That's when it starts to cool off enough for your brain to resume higher functions. Trick No. 2: Ice is your friend. And it goes really well in a gin and tonic.

This novel keeps getting longer...I've added nearly 40,000 words since the last update on May 23rd. At this point I'm certain that Lancer Tal's story will end up as long as "Future Perfect."

My beta readers have returned their marked-up copies with relatively few red marks, though one of them (hi, Caren!) had some psychology questions and suggestions that sent me into a serious editing blitz. She and I argued back and forth by email and still managed to stay friends, and the resulting text is much improved.

In the meantime, I've just finished my Basic Portuguese class, and have been picking up valuable vocabulary here at home as well. Most importantly, I've learned how to say "I have to pee" as well as the word for Number Two, which means that I am now fully qualified to have a conversation with my 6-year-old stepson. And I start my intensive Beginner Portuguese class in August, though that one is causing me a good bit of trepidation. It's four hours of classes, five days a week, for one month. I will either learn to speak reasonably well or die trying. I promise that if it's the latter, I'll try really hard to get the novel posted first.

23 May 2007

Writing update: Lancer Tal's story has passed the 120,000 word mark and is now officially longer than "Past Imperfect." The bulk of the story has gone out to my beta readers and I'm waiting for their response, while moving ahead with the final part. I'm hoping that I can start posting in another month...we'll see!

In other, non-related news -- I recently had a realization about why I love being a lesbian. (Okay, another realization.) You've heard about the upcoming Fox series, "The Sarah Conner Chronicles," right? Starring the simply gorgeous Lena Headey? (Be still my heart.) Well, after drooling over the trailer, I then came across references to the show in two other blogs I read. Both are written by men. One referred to Lena Headey as "the not as buff as Linda Hamilton mom" (and did not even name her), then added that hey, Summer Glau is in the series so that makes it worth watching! (Who?) The other blogger also waxed enthusiastically over Glau and barely mentioned Headey, though he at least had the courtesy to name her. These are grown, intelligent men tossing off a beautiful, accomplished, mature woman without a second glance while getting a little too excited over an actress who only recently left her teens behind her.

Cut to the Afterellen.com website, and you find a blogger enthusiastically touting Headey as the show's lead, followed by a bunch of comments from lesbians who are all panting heavily in anticipation of seeing Headey, not Glau. And that's why I love being lesbian. We drool over real women, of all ages and stripes, and do not limit our admiration solely to women who have not yet acquired their first character line. Sorry, Ms. Glau, I'm sure you're talented and your photos are lovely but frankly, I'll be tuning in to watch the glorious Lena Headey.

1 May 2007

What a difference a little time makes. After an initial period of somewhat shocked adaptation to leaving my entire life behind, I got my feet back under me, caught up on my email backlog (200+ messages, yikes), and started writing. It's been such a rush to get back into that...god, I've missed it. And what an amazing feeling to have a partner who not only doesn't resent me vanishing into my dream world, but even tells me this is a priority. I still can't get over that part.

At any rate, I bear good news: my Lancer Tal novel is roaring. I'm just a day or two away from the 100,000 word mark, and am currently sitting at 270 pages. That makes this "short story" (yeah, right) longer than Present Tension and approaching the length of Past Imperfect. I just finished a section that leads directly into the last part of the story, which was fully mapped out some time ago and is now bouncing in place, waiting to come out my fingertips. I figure I'm about 3/4 of the way to the end, but only my Muse knows for sure. The novel is now going to my beta readers, who can point out any issues I need to take care of while I'm still flexible enough to easily fix them before locking in the ending. How long before I post depends on both me and my beta readers now, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Keep checking in—I'll post updates as I move through this last push. Oh, and speaking of updates, I've done a major rewrite of my biography page. It was, well, a bit out of date.

20 March 2007

Greetings from sunny southern Portugal! I've been here for two months already, which is a bit mind-boggling. My furniture finally arrived (much the worse for wear, unfortunately -- now I get to deal with the insurance claim), and I am delighted to once more have my 20-inch Apple Cinema Display, my comfy office chair, and a desk at which to park myself. Ahhhh! Okay, I'm ready.

My apologies to the many people who have written me over the last several months and gotten nothing in return -- I've been a bit overwhelmed with wrapping up an old life and settling into a new one, and haven't been able to keep up with everything. But I've broken the surface at last, and am catching up on my email. If you haven't heard from me, you will in the next few days!

Also, please note that my email address has changed: I can now be reached at fletcher.delancey@gmail.com.

Southern Portugal is a whole lot different from my homeland (the temperate rainforests of the US west coast), but I'm adapting. Yep, it's tough adjusting to all this sunshine and warmth and madly blooming flowers...but I'm managing somehow. Most of all, I'm basking in the peace that comes from finding a home in someone else's heart. It took me almost four decades to get it right, but you know what? It was worth the wait.

Now it's time to get back to my writing. I hope, once I can finally post, that you'll think it was worth the wait as well.