Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

So on Facebook, Laura Bradley Rede posited a meme, challenging writers to post scenes that pass the Bechdel Test. I ignore a lot of memes, but writing memes -- especially something as important as the Bechdel Test -- I am all for.

What's the Bechdel Test? I'll let Laura explain this whole meme:


My current Work-In-Progress certainly involves female protags, but I'm on the Kindle so don't have the files handy -- you'll just have to read the YA trilogy when it sells. (evil-grin) So I'll go with a work you can read in its entirety: "End Run" published at Giganotosaurus in April 2012. It's set on a military starship and there are a number of women on the ship. Scenes with either the commanding officer, first officer or the senior NCO would be too much low hanging fruit even though they are all women -- I hope you don't regularly have Bechdel Fail conversations with these people! So this is where our protag Ensign Darlene Charles meets her roommate Lt. Kirsten Van Zoeren:

She only got lost twice on the way to her compartment and had to query the corridor screens for directions. When she got there, the doorplate read THIRD OFFICER / JUNIOR ENGINEER. Darlene didn’t mind a roommate – it was expected – and perhaps it’d make adjusting to life on the Evensong a little easier. With satisfaction, she noted the keypad responded to her standard access code, but when she reached for the hatch lever it clicked before her hand was set and locked her out. Slightly chagrined, she worked faster so the second time she pushed open the hatch with her other hand while the green light still glowed on the keypad. Apparently it wasn’t the same lock module timing she was used to.

Fifteen thousand ships in Fleet, she thought, and practically all of them are different. New design, indeed.

Inside, the compartment was just as ruthlessly efficient and compact as she’d expected, so this was not really a problem. She was off in space to serve, not spend all day hanging out in a cozy compartment. But the best thing that’d happened so far this New Year’s Day 2601 was a freshly charged datapad centered on her tiny fold-down desk. It accepted her ID sliver automatically and had been configured for third officer duty.

“Yes!” she said under her breath and smiled.

“Would you watch that light?” a new voice demanded when Darlene clicked the room lights on.

“Oh sorry,” Darlene said, killing the main lights and figuring out which switch turned on the task light centered on her desk.

“You must be the new vegetable of the month,” the other person said in a voice resigned to not getting instantly back to sleep.

“New vegetable… oh, you mean I’m the new green ensign. Yessir – guilty as charged.”

A hand snaked out of the wad of bedclothes on the lower bunk. There was a distinct lumpiness to the bed, but so far Darlene hadn’t actually seen her roommate. “Lt. Kirsten Van Zoeren.” The voice spoke perfectly acceptable Interstellar English, but with a clipped, European accent Darlene didn’t know enough to place. “I’m the junior engineer on this barge. And since we’re not going anywhere at the moment, the Evil Triumvirate decided I wasn’t needed in Engineering and so was assigned a double-watch overnight on the bridge while everyone else partied.”

“Evil Triumvirate. You must be talking about our esteemed captain, first officer and chief of the boat,” Darlene said.

“Those would be the ones.”

“Ensign Darlene Charles at your service. And you do know the Evil Triumvirate, as you called them, have made me third officer?”

“Sure. That’s why you’re standing in the third officer’s stateroom. And if you were in command, on the bridge, I’d probably salute you and say yessir and aye-aye, sir. But right now I outrank you and I’m trying to get some sleep.”

“Right. Sorry. I’ve located my bunk. My space duffels have somehow magically arrived here and the seals are still valid. I can come back later and unpack.”

“That would be nice. It’s nothing personal.”

“Quite understandable under the circumstances.” Darlene removed her standard cover and found her safety hat at the top of her duffel. She should probably change, but her gray khaki skirt and jacket uniform would have to do for the moment. “I’ll just be going…”

But there was no response from the lower bunk.

I play memes for myself. I don't usually tag others. But certainly any members of the Clarion Class of 2004 or WOTF XXIV are certainly easily challenged.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

Another Meme:

Fifteen authors who've influenced me, without taking too long to think about it, and in no particular order:

Okay (takes deep breath), in no particular order...

1. Ray Bradbury
2. Arthur C. Clarke
3. James Michener
4. Martin Caidin
5. Charles Dickens
6. Jules Verne
7. Jack McDevitt
8. Orson Scott Card
9. Robert Heinlein
10.Isaac Asimov
11.Marjorie M. Liu
12.Frank Herbert
13.Frederick Pohl
14.Jerry Pournelle
15.Larry Niven
(and because 14 & 15 wrote so many things together, we get another...)
16./17.Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall

The list repeated and annotated:
1. Ray Bradbury
Because, Ray Bradbury. Martian Chronicles, innumerable short stories. Smooth writing.
2. Arthur C. Clarke
2001 and 2010. And I have a copy of The Lost Worlds of 2001, which shows through multiple drafts, how a short story became a novel. And then there's Against the Fall of Night versus The City and the Stars -- two versions of the same novel.
3. James Michener
I have a tendency to write long. How does this happen? Influence! Also, James Michener drove me from writing real history. Too much work researching!
4. Martin Caidin
I read Marooned and some other Caidin books every year for a long time. Complicated, involved plots. Well researched. Currently reading the Mercury era version of Marooned -- the popular version is the Apollo/Soyuz era. Perfect for the writer who loves the interleaved historical flashback. (grin)
5. Charles Dickens
Another long writer, not afraid of harming his characters.
6. Jules Verne
Another Victorian, another long writer. The Mysterious Island is a lovely puzzle piece set amidst a tale where survivor is a daily task and not a reality show. Detail. Hard work. Good solid engineering skills.
7. Jack McDevitt
A Talent for War had a profound affect on me. Especially about writing future history -- and the omissions from self same future history.
8. Orson Scott Card
Enders Game, Songmaster... books I really enjoyed, set in complicated worlds that were not all homogeneous set pieces.
9. Robert Heinlein
The Green Hills of Earth collection, huge influence on short pieces. The Lazarus Long books -- big complicated and messy tales. (You can PUT that in a book???)
10.Isaac Asimov
The master genius, surely self-proclaimed, has his hand in everything. Foundation. Fantastic Voyage. The History of Physics.
11.Marjorie M. Liu
Hmmm, a reflective moment -- I know, I know, I'm not supposed to do this -- but there's not a lot of contemporary writers or women or people of color. So I realized that having gone to Clarion in 2004 with Marjorie, that her prose flows so perfectly, that it HAS been an influence. She goads me into making writing fun again. And to pine after writing fast -- she had her first book contract AT Clarion and just came out with her 19th novel. So we'll let Marjorie stand both on her own work and for the many current authors who are influencing me today, rather than in my "formative" years, i.e. before the beard. (grin)
12.Frank Herbert
Not just Dune or the Dune series. If I was just going to go for the megaseries, I might have put down J.R.R. Tolkien. But after Dune, which I stayed up at night during a New York City 100°F+ heatwave, I read a lot of other Herbert, including The Santaroga Barrier and Under Pressure and Helstrom's Hive. Very different books, but all three about the outsider who comes in to spy and is profoundly changed by what he saw.
13.Frederick Pohl
Gateway. And others. But Gateway made a mishmash of the traditional straight storyline and showed how to add ancillary material even better than Herbert's chapter openings.
14.Jerry Pournelle
The Mote in God's Eye, Janissaries -- read a lot of Pournelle and Pournelle & _____ .
15.Larry Niven
see also Pournelle. And also Known Space -- the Kzin, the Ringworld, the Ringworld REVISITED to correct the Physics! Yay!
(and because 14 & 15 wrote so many things together, we get another...)
16./17.Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
Mutiny on the Bounty, for sure. And I had another book, Aces Over France which I was sure was a Nordhoff & Hall book as well, about an American who joins the French air corps in WW I -- I am pretty sure this was a retitled paperback of Falcons of France. I just might have to buy the Kindle version, because even the paperbacks have absurd prices!

Also rans, include R.F. Delderfield (more LONG writing -- you think this is a theme?) and Michael Crichton (ah, fast paced technothrillers!)

And an embarrassment. You are not supposed to think about the list as you're writing, but I was two-thirds through the fifteen and realizing how much of a White Man's List this was. Fair enough, the list is supposed to be influences and I did grow up in the 70s, amongst other decades, when we thought we were enlightened but we pretty much weren't.

Dr. Phil

I'm A Bad Player

I like some of the LJ memes that come around. But my intense dislike of chain letters makes me annoyed at memes that make you tag others and challenge them to do the meme? No. I don't play games.

But a number of writers, like Mary Robinette Kowal have posted, so I thought I'd take a look. And no, I'm not tagging any of you. Play if you want.

The ‘rules’ are: "Go to page 7 or 77 of your latest work. Read down to the seventh line and then post online the next seven lines or sentences. Then head off and tag seven more writers."

So I took the last thing I edited, and shipped, which turned out to be an edit on my 2008 WOTF Workshop 24 hour challenge story. Since I write in one format and ship in Standard Manuscript Format, this is from the latter -- and as it's only 24 pages formatted, this starts on page 7, line 7:

"There is only a minor damage on the gimbal mount."
"Enough damage to keep the radar from aiming?"
"Even so."
Petey replaced Jomo at the opening and looked inside. "You know, just a few hours ago we were out welding that damn Slag Man. We could’ve been hit by these particles."
Jomo laughed. "You cannot worry about such things, my friend. If God has determined that it is your time, then you shall go. Otherwise, you are doomed to stay in these heavens."

Maybe it'll sell this time and then you can all read the rest of the story. BTW -- this was not one of the randomly selected stories we read in the group, by tossing down the stairs or so we were told, so very few of you have seen any versions of this story. (And three known readers, my father, my sister and WOTF Coordinating Judge/Editor/Workshop co-host K.D. Wentworth, have passed on.) (bittersweet-grin)

Enough fun for a Saturday. (grin)

Dr. Phil

The current 10-year meme on LJ...

Unlike the "years meme" in February 2009, doing the years with "the ones" seems to hit all the low spots between the big years. (grin) Have to do much backfilling and foreshadowing. (double-grin)

March 2011
Age 52. Still living in West Michigan in a house which is almost 18 years old. Mrs. Dr. Phil and I have been married for 27 years. We are down to two 18 years old cats -- Sam is a ridiculously healthy diabetic cat and Blue is very skinny but still full of it. I'm in my 57th semester of teaching Physics, still at Western Michigan University. I have been submitting my SF writing to markets for nine years now and have fourteen SF short stories published, including two SFWA-eligible stories in WOTF-XXIV and Analog, plus another story to be published Real Soon Now. I have two completed novels I need to edit and send out again. I've had one short story on a movie option. And I've had a professional website at dr-phil-physics.com for three years. My LiveJournal and Facebook friends have been greatly expanded by going to Clarion in 2004 and WOTF in 2008, as well as several Midwest SF cons, plus my membership in an "outlaw" group (or maybe it's just an "outlier" group) called the UCF. (grin) And after years of neglect, I have upgraded my Nikon cameras to a Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n digital. NASA Space Shuttle Discovery has just landed from its last flight.

March 2001
Age 42. We are six months from 9/11 and not worrying about terrorists, airplanes or falling skyscrapers. Still in West Michigan. I am comfortably settled into our eight year old house, with Mrs. Dr. Phil and our three cats (Bagel, Blue and Sam). Mrs. Dr. Phil is a librarian at GVSU, and I teach Physics part-time at WMU. It will be more than a year before I get around to sending any of my writing out into the wild -- but I have around two million words written already. In two years we will leap at a chance to travel abroad to Helsinki. It's still a year before I put up my first webpage at WMU and worry about how few students have home Internet access. On 21 March 2001 the Soviet/Russian space station Mir is deorbited and disposed of. In two years NASA Space Shuttle Columbia will break up on re-entry during STS-107.

March 1991
Age 32. Still in the U.P., but not for much longer. It's almost two years since I got my Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Michigan Tech -- and the Physics job market is extremely sparse. I'm traveling to various APS, AAPT and ACS meetings, including the big APS March Meeting, but there are no nibbles for anyone. After seven and a half years, Mrs. Dr. Phil will take a job this summer at Grand Valley State University, we will rent a brand new duplex in Allendale from the man who will eventually build the house we will buy, and a year from now I'll start teaching part-time at Western Michigan University. But for now I am (mostly) unemployed, doing some odd teaching here and there for the Physics Dept., MTU's summer programs and some outreach for Engineering in the local Keweenaw Bay Indian tribe schools. We had inherited three cats from Mrs. Dr. Phil's mom, but Bag, Herbie and Duck all got old and are gone. I've been writing SF stories seriously for six months now using Microsoft Word 4.0/5.0 on one of the last original IBM Personal Computers, but it will be more than a decade before I let anyone read any of it. I've borrowed laptops from work before, but we were able to buy a Zenith MinisPort ZL-2 compact laptop on closeout for $299 -- now I could write "anywhere". It used a unique 2" 720K floppy disk. Next year NASA Space Shuttle OV-105, Endeavour, the replacement for Challenger, will make its first flight.

March 1981
Age 22. Living above a Chinese take-out and an insurance agency across the street from the Linden Avenue EL stop at the end of the Evanston CTA line in Wilmette IL. Graduated from Northwestern University a year ago with a degree in Integrated Sciences (everything). Currently working on some more Physics classes at NU, working as a relief driver for home delivery of the Chicago Tribunes in Evanston IL, and doing some odd writing and photography. In ten years I have gone from Instamatic camera to a Pentax Spotmatic, a Pentax ES, a Nikon F2/F2SB, a Nikkormat EL-W, a Nikon FE with a motor drive, to finally a pair of Nikon F3 cameras. In two months I will take a job at the Northwestern University Library, and after my first day of work, I shall never shave again. The future Mrs. Dr. Phil is a casual acquaintance at this point, but she also works in NUL. Our first "date" will be to see Conan The Barbarian. There is no Facebook, no LiveJournal, no Internet, no PCs. An Apple ][ will likely cost you some $3000 and I don't know anyone who has one. Next month NASA Space Shuttle OV-102, Columbia, will fly into space on mission STS-1.

March 1971
Age 12. Living in White Plains NY, going to Highlands Junior High School in the seventh grade. My sister is a sophomore at White Plains High School. We have a wonderful red dachshund named Nikki. Besides being a total geek, I am into model railroading (AT&SF) and railfanning. My photography uses my sister's old Kodak Instamatic 104. Next summer, a year after Amtrak takes over the national passenger trains, my parents and I will ride the high speed Metroliner to Washington DC and wander around the Smithsonian. Reading The Lord of the Rings when I had the flu and Dune during a sweltering heat wave changes everything. We knew the moment the World Trade Center twin towers became higher than the Empire State Building, because we got a ghost echo in our TV signal until they moved the TV transmission antennas to the taller buildings. In a little over two years we will move to Greensboro NC, where I will be the Head Yearbook Photographer at Grimsely Senior High. I am writing, mainly newsletter materials for a model railroad club, using a manual Royal portable typewriter with a chemical keyboard. American men are still regularly traveling to and landing on the Moon.

March 1961
I am 2½ and we live in a big rambling house in Medina NY near Buffalo. It is the start of the Kennedy administration and NASA's manned space program. Vietnam wasn't news yet, and while I wasn't really aware of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, somewhere I did know about the construction of the Berlin Wall in five months. My sister is three years older. Once I am three, we will both have our tonsils out -- they "explained" that it was cheaper for us to get it done at the same time -- I don't realize how sick my tonsils have been making me while they waited for me to get to age three. We have a wonderful red dachshund, Max. We live next to the village's school bus garage, and I know all the busses by sight and sound. In the next year or two I will not only figure out how maps work but will become the family navigator. When I get to going to school, we will still do duck-and-cover drills against nuclear attack. Later I will become a big fan of plastic airplane models -- most of the kits cost from 29¢ to 49¢ -- and I will know "everything" about military aircraft and the space program.

This decade look is too broad, methinks. I'll think about doing the interstitials in the five-year increments -- 2006, 1996, 1986, 1976, 1966 -- which are much more interesting. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Name Dropping R Us

Tuesday everybody seemed to be playing with I Write Like... and then publishing the results. The idea is that this website analyses your writing and compares it to a number of Big Name Authors. I suppose this is supposed to be an ego boost, like those short Facebook IQ tests -- as if you could measure IQ with a handful of questions. I think the Which LOTR Character Are You quizzes are probably more interesting than I Write Like...

I ran a couple of pieces of various lengths, some published, some not, through the website. One story, comparing versions, went from Dan Brown to Douglas Adams. It was not a comedy piece, so I'm not sure what the point was. One scored a William Shakespeare. Really? Ol' Bill certainly had a way with those 29th century hard military SF war stories, complete with marines in armored fighting suits, didn't he? Nice to know I'm in such good company.

I don't think very much of their word analysis algorithm, based on other people's results and my own. Dan Brown, for example, shows up a lot because he's a best selling author whose books have a lot of technical issues and dialogue. Which sounds like a lot of SF/F, when you think about it. Duh.

Frankly, My Dear, I Don't Give A Damn

Whatever the algorithm being used, my LJ Friends linking to this are all SF/F/H authors -- and I doubt the people who cobbled this up are very well in tune with genre writing. And then there are people who've dumped in things like computer technical manuals and legal briefs -- and gotten similar results in terms of authors.

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And painting with a hammer as a broad brush not only is a bad mixed metaphor, but also likely to give really meaningless results.

Me? I prefer the jimhines method:



Now that I am happy to post for all the world to see.

Dr. Phil

UPDATE: I ran the text from the Declaration of Independence and it came back H. P. Lovecraft. Not useful, unless you are into the Mother Of All Conspiracy Theories.

Books Are Good

"List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- The first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes."

Well, I'm not sure about 15 minutes. I started making the list while flipping between reruns of Stargate SG-1 and Top Chef Masters, but perhaps I spent less that 15 minutes actually composing the list. Then I looked up a couple of authors. Also I write long, so I've "extended" the list a little bit. (grin) Couldn't possibly not add the last one when I thought of it. (double-grin) These are all titles I read and re-read growing up.

1. Dune / Frank Herbert.
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey / Arthur C. Clarke
2a. The Lost Worlds of 2001 / Arthur C. Clarke
3. Marooned / Martin Caidin
3a. FYI: Marooned (1964) / Martin Caidin just acquired
4. Almost Midnight / Martin Caidin
5. Andromeda Strain / Michael Crichton
6. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkein
7. The Mysterious Island / Jules Verne
8. Have Space Suit, Will Travel / Robert Heinlein
9. Gateway / Frederick Pohl
10. Janissaries / Jerry Pournelle
11. Time Enough for Love / Robert Heinlein
12. A Wrinkle in Time / Madeline L'Engle
13. Congo / Michael Crichton
14. Ringworld / Larry Niven
15. Star Surgeon / James White
16. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet / Eleanor Cameron

Dr. Phil

Author Jim C. Hines jimhines wrote about this meme. I've actually added some years, for reasons which will become clear.

1 year ago... In early 2008 I found out that my story "A Man in the Moon" had been selected as the sole Published Finalist in the Writers of the Future Volume XXIV anthology. Attending the WOTF writers' workshop and award event were definitely high points of my SF writing career -- so far. And of course I turned 50 and had my 50th semester of teaching, mostly at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo MI.

5 years ago... In 2004 I attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop in East Lansing MI. This and the WOTF workshop introduced me to more other pro writers and has given me more excellent long-term friends than any other events in my life. My first publication, "The Gravediggers", appears as an unpaid Honorable Mention in CrossTIME Volume III.

10 years ago... In 1999 I'd already written some 1.5 million words on one SF epic, but was still three years away from submitting my SF writing anywhere or letting anyone actually look at my work. Spent the summer updating and patching programs in preparation for Y2K.

15 years ago... In 1994 I was finishing up a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University and we were in the first year of a new house. Our three kitties were one year old. The funding for a second year at Grand Valley evaporated and I ended up starting work on a second Ph.D. in Science Education at Western Michigan University.

20 years ago... In 1989 I finished up my Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Michigan Technological University, and was subsequently anointed Dr. Phil by one of my mentors, Dr. Bob.

25 years ago... In 1984 I quit my job at the Northwestern University Library on Friday the 13th of January and we moved to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. In January. In the winter. We got married twice -- once in January by a judge who didn't see us and again in October in Bond Chapel at The University of Chicago. In the fall I started graduate school in Physics at Michigan Tech.

30 years ago... In 1979 I took a job with the Dark Side, delivering Chicago Tribunes at night. Spent the summer in a hot 3rd floor Chicago apartment and worked a job at Northwestern's Science and Engineering Library. Met this wonderful young woman entering graduate school in anthropology and starting a job at SEL as I was finishing -- eventually married her. Bought a brand new Chevy Suburban. Started my senior year at Northwestern. Having finished my Integrated Science Program courses, I ended up starting work on a second major in Physics. And we discovered Chicago style stuffed pizza at the original Edwardo's on Howard Street on the Chicago-Evanston border. Yum.

35 years ago... In 1974 I was at Grimsley Senior High in Greensboro NC -- we'd been in North Carolina a year -- and I was a staff photographer for the yearbook.

40 years ago... In 1969 I was in my first year in White Plains NY. I'd received an HO train set for Christmas '68, so started hanging out at Westchester Hobbies and spending all my money on trains. Our dachshund Nikki was one year old.

45 years ago... In 1965 I flew for the first time -- United Airlines from Buffalo to Jacksonville with stops in Pittsburgh and Atlanta. This was over Thanksgiving and we visited my grandparents in their Florida home. Took a driving tour of Cape Kennedy, the first weekend NASA offered it. The roads were not yet marked and we wandered into a USAF missile range because we missed a turn on the map. Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 were, I believe, both on their launch pads. When we got home, it turned out that our ten-year-old dachshund Max had not been boarded at the vets, but given his long-term blood disease, he'd been put to sleep. A blessing in disguise as a few weeks later we had two major blizzards in western New York and he'd have had a hard time in the cold and deep snow.

50 years ago... In the beginning of 1959 I was just a few months old. Sorry, don't remember much.

Dr. Phil