Degree of technology
of magic
of mystery
of injustice
of symbolism
of character realism (as opposed to being two dimensional)
of "preachiness" (as opposed to just being entertaining (is this a correct way to think?))
of hope
of withholding (same as mystery?)
common social norms versus uncommon? (uncommon is difficult to present...)
1st vs 3rd person and past vs present
humor?
one main character vs multiples

Plot is overcoming injustice, ultimately finding food/shelter/love. Not saving the world, that may seem to be a plot but it can't really be an ending.... But what of short stories? Overcoming injustice in a short story???

Need to write short stories first to gain confidence. As such i suppose I ought to read more of them. Rarely available on Kindle. Actually in general they just aren't as easy to find. Looking at Locus, etc now. I like short stories, just harder to find, thus haven't read as many............ Generally something is revealed. That's it.

For the long series: Low tech, medium magic, medium to high mystery, high injustice, low to nonexistent symbolism, main character highly realistic but others may have some simplification, relatively typical social norms, 1st person somewhat preferable, high degree of hope (to balance injustice), virtually no humor (since has high hope).

for the short story: Not sure.... that low tech matters here, all about the high mystery the revealing of which is the end of the story, not sure injustice level matters..., symbolism?? I don't know, highly realistic main character with possibly simplified others, social norms????, etc not sure. The short story is just something all together different.

And finally threw together a song for first time in a long time. With ESQ1 which I finally fixed the battery in, I think. Now it's working but still gives a battery warning message at first...???

Cello is getting fun as playing more minor key stuff.

In a decent mood lately. Why? Why oh why, if only I could bottle the recipe.

Eating blueberries with waffles every morning. The waffles have crushed walnuts and flax meal in them. And broke down and been adding an egg.

I over did the running. Was doing 12 miles three times a week at no slower than 10 minutes / mile with the last couple miles really hard every other time. This is the first time such relatively slow running ever caused knee problems, although clearly I've something up with my right knee that I ought to get checked out. And it's taking longer to get better. Now 4 days out. Sure I could run if I had to. I can push off just fine. It's any kind of twisting that's the problem...

I bought a elliptical for cross training. Going to try to run less often and hopefully the elliptical will have good crossover....

Still avoiding alcohol lately. Occasional (not daily) beer. No wine. No headaches.

In the middle of a 9 day home vacation.

Just finished The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle, which I guess I enjoyed and maybe is mainly why I'm in a good mood???? It's a guilty enjoyment. Quite silly. I think much sillier than fantasy/dragons/elves/etc. Yet the one guy has at least 4 masters degrees, etc.

With (good) fantasy you simplify technology and people to escape to a simpler world, yet hopefully get down to some basic truths about existence. You make sense of an otherwise pointless existence. It's an almost religious thing.

With ("good") sci fi you simplify people while adding in nerdy sci fi ideas and I guess say, "oh cool, neato!" I think back in the 50's, 60's, 70's, maybe 80's... but then increasingly less so, there was this hope. The possibilities seemed limitless. Now we've basically shut down the space program. And our big inventions have been internet phones. The sci fi predictions have fallen so so short. The "cool neato!" thing is gone to a large extent. And it's kind of a silly idea compared to what fantasy fiction at least can potentially be anyway.

But I eventually got into The Mote because of the alien viewpoint. Which of course is another part of "sci fi". The part Vance claimed to be interested in. He called it... sociological fiction?? I think. You can go through a magic door or a space ship to get to the alien/other culture. I got into it. Still silly though.

Also The Telling by LeGuin. I don't even remember what the ending was now.... Somewhat abrupt ending. Oh yes, these people on this world got it all wrong. Trying to squash the "backward" ways of a mostly neighboring culture as they enter into the Ekumen with all it's interstellar technology. It's really a pretty straightforward and obvious thing. Hardly any plot and her point is pretty obvious. Perhaps a reply to militant atheists? But in a strawman way. Not that I'm a atheist anyway.

Alcohol is now triggering headaches, also long hard runs make me more susceptible. Just one to two drinks is so good for my mental outlook. Stops me from thinking too hard. Stops me from seeing the big picture too clearly. Keeps me myopic. Keeps me focusing on meaningless diversions.

Without it I'm feeling very lonely.

The only person I really have interesting conversations with is my cello teacher. Bizarrely I don't even know anyone who likes reading sci fi / fantasy. What few people I occasionally do something with, I don't really have enough in common with to warrant being close enough to, to mean very much to me.

Without friends, life is meaningless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjINMLy3l1E&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DWjirdPv-6MOoa-TiJVdHp

Intelligent life across infinite worlds. (Tschai Spaceport). Was thinking about this idea near the end of Lincoln. Missed some of the speeches where he kind of droned on a bit while thinking about it. Only Jack Vance that I've read captures this idea. Finishing a James Tiptree book (Beauty Falls...?) about torturing aliens for the drugs they secrete, etc. It doesn't even remotely catch this idea. In fact, it's just not good writing IMO. Reviews said it wasn't her best. Too plot dependent. Too contrived. I don't know. Somewhat tedious. Then a feeling of the hammer going to drop which just holds and holds and holds for so long. Must missing something.

Among Others by Jo Walton?
Mostly lists a bunch of sci-fi books. I've read about half. I liked it. Makes me really wish I was a part of a book club. I'm pretty sure no such thing exists here. Which goes back to blog title. Weirdly abrupt ending.

Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
Started good but fell apart exactly as one would expect for something that long which had no outline. I quit halfway through book 7 actually.

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
My boss likes this. It's great that she reads sci-fi. But as of 35% this book is tedious. Mostly just the future, very little of the 14th century. That part is better. The characters and there interaction is somewhat like Tiptree. Too focused on uninteresting details.

Bad Ronald by Jack Vance
Not the genre he was so good at. Neat idea. Nothing more.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
Very well written. Good stuff. Somehow a dated concept, though it could still happen tomorrow. After the Dark Tower this was such a welcome breath of fresh air.

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin
Kind of short, the bad guy(s) ultimately easily defeated. But I liked it better than The Left Hand of Darkness. The combo of that book being so highy touted caused me to assume it was her best, and thus didn't check her other stuff out much. The Dispossessed is her best I think. This was good. Tackles the important concepts. If I were to write this is how I guess. Must tackle the concept of the rightwing mind. Although still that mind comes across as too stupid to be believable. Would be a thing to manage to do it in a more believable way. Which isn't to say that Le Guin isn't exactly correct already...

Another migraine today. Worrisome as they're coming more often. Today for the first time I tied a bandana tightly around my head, such as my mom says my lookalike grandfather did. (The only thing I know about him.) Seemed to help slightly. The lortabs did nothing. Lately got one from wine, so now I can't drink wine. Which pisses me off, but there's a bright side to that I guess.... This time I just don't know what caused it. But I'm worried that lately hard runs have coincided with migraines..... Please don't let that be a trigger....

Wife is babying me, which is wonderful. (Although griping about it, as usual.)