Lunacon

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 13, 2006

This weekend, the family will be at Lunacon. We get there Saturday morning since Kate insists on spending Friday night with her “twin” Nicole as they celebrate their 20th birthday (which is really Saturday). My goodness, I will only have one teenager left to contend with.

Anyway, Kate will miss out on Friday night’s Boogie Knights performance but that doesn’t mean you should miss it.

Here’s my schedule of panels for those attending. I like that I’ll be sharing the table with some old friends, some new ones, and meeting others for the first time.

Saturday: 10:00-11:00 a.m., Pennsylvania

The Comics We Love
What makes a compelling storyline? What makes a compelling hero? Does continuity matter?
Glenn Hauman, Misty Pendragon, Bob Greenberger, James Chambers

Saturday: 2:00-3:00 p.m., Salon Entrance

Autographing
Bob Greenberger, Richard White, David Barr Kirtley

Saturday: 3:00-4:00 p.m., Yale

Star Trek: What Next?
How long should Paramount wait before putting out another series? Should Paramount put out another series? What would you like to see a new series take its cue from: Classic, Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise? What about the Mirror Universe?
John Ordover, Toni Lay , Dan Kimmel, Bob Greenberger

Saturday: 6:00-7:00 p.m., Yale
Women in Comics
Where are all the strong female characters?
Bob Greenberger , Misty Pendragon, Georgia Horesh, Naomi Novik, Helen Keier

Saturday: 8 p.m.

Masquerade Halftime Show
I’ll be showing as many movie previews as time permits.

Sunday: 11:00-12:00 p.m., Pennsylvania
The Year in Comics
What are the trends in comics over the past year? How are changes in the industry affecting cartoonists, editors, and readers?
Bob Greenberger, Glenn Hauman , Alex Wittenberg, Richard White, Robert Rosenberg

And for those keeping score, here’s where you can find the Boogie Knights:

Friday 11:00-1:00 a.m. Crown Ballroom

Friday Night Concert
Featuring Celtic blues and folk from SJ Tucker, parody and filk from the popular Boogie Knights. Emceed by musician and radio personality Myke Silvestri.

Saturday 5:00-6:00 p.m. Salon Entrance
autographing

Sunday noon-1:00 p.m., Ten
Boogie Knights in Concert

My Son the Scholar

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 10, 2006

Several of the people who organize Shore Leave are teachers and have therefore spoken well of Towson University. When Robbie started talking about becoming a teacher, they advised him to check it out.

Last August, we did. It was a week or two before classes began and the Admissions people were unavailable. In fact, no one was willing to help us nor did the people in the Education department get back to Robbie prior to our arrival.

So, we drove around. He liked the look of the campus. It as fine, although Deb and I were concerned it was too large. We read up on the school and decided that he’d be lost there and needed something a bit smaller. But he insisted on applying, making it his “reach” school.

We allowed him this opportunity since, well, you never know.

Now we know. Robbie was accepted to Towson University today.

He’s thrilled and we’re very proud of this accomplishment. He’ll still be attending Central Connecticut State University in the fall (they took him in December so those wheels were set in motion a while ago).

Still, I salute my son!

The New Book Discussion

Posted by Bob Greenberger on

Last night I attended another book discussion at the Library. Unlike the previous two, which focused on baseball, this will be regarding mysteries. Our speaker, a dean at Yale, decided our four books and discussion would involve the eternal triangle of the reader, the book and the author.

There are times, he argues, where we challenge ourselves against the author or the characters to solve the mystery and other times we just want to be entertained. He selected books that would span time and distance, focus on male and female leads as well as police and p.i. protagonists.

He’s done this before and has a following so he had a large signup. There were something like 67 people signed up for a maximum of 75 spots.

We began the series with Ngaio Marsh’s Death in a White Tie. Written in 1938, it features her main hero, Inspector Roderick Alleyn, and is early in her 32 books. Our speaker was clearly enamored of Marsh and her writing with his copy filled with notes and annotations. The discussion wasn’t as passionate and spirited as the baseball ones and he led us more than I expected, especially given the crowd.

I read the book and wasn’t impressed. As a mystery, it was fine and well-crafted. I didn’t figure out who did it which is a plus. Still, she violated the rules I was taught in that she told more showed us things about the characters. We were told things about them that could have been revealed through dialogue or slightly differently constructed scenes. Also, her characters, except the victim, were straight from central casting. All played a type, all were two-dimensional and even Alleyn was fairly wooden. This book was a pivotal point for Alleyn’s character, in that he managed to finally declare his love for the artist Agatha Troy before discovering the killer’s identity. Apparently, in subsequent books they marry and have a child.

Anyway, our leader showed us little hints in the dialogue and scene construction showing us where she was being playful with the detective fiction form or her view of upper crust British society. Had I cared enough to re-read it, I would have noticed some of this.

But his affection for Marsh clouded his leadership when several of us pointed out she failed to properly document why the character who committed murder actually was blackmailing people. We’re left to infer reasons but I argued it violated the conventions of the form.

Next up is Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep which interestingly, was written only a year later, and is a different kind of mystery altogether. Having an excuse to finally read this was one of the reasons I signed up for the discussion.

Quiet Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 9, 2006

Where does the time go?

It’s been an extremely quiet week, so there hasn’t been much to write about.

Much of the week has been nose to the grindstone work as I put the finishing touches to the Suicide Bomber book, began researching the Artificial Intelligence book, polished and sent off the Corps of Engineers story and even did some interviews for an article I’m doing for Fairfield Magazine.

Along the way, I did some research on another new project, applied for a few jobs and continued to send out e-mails to the network, much of which was following up with people.

A headhunter who attends the same church as Deb and the kids, has made himself available to people in the parish who might need a hand. We learned this when Father Bob mentioned it to Deb on Sunday, asking if it was okay to pass my number along. Sure enough, I got a call from this friendly guy yesterday and we’ll be getting together for coffee in the near future. The nice thing about him will be the objective look at me, my skills, my resume and what might occur to him. This, I’m looking forward to.

There were numerous Mr. Mom things that got done, too, which makes having me home an asset. For various reasons, I find myself at the post office a lot while out. It’s interesting that I’ve slipped into the domestic role so easily. I’m the only one making the meals during the week so I get to work out the menu, which has me trying at least one new recipe each week just so I don’t fall into ruts or bad habits.

The best news is still the imminent arrival of Kate, very late Friday night, as she begins her Spring Break. She’ll be home for a week, and no doubt we’ll spend some fine time together (although I already have two nights committed). Then we have to share her with the Boogie Nights at Lunacon and I’ll post my schedule for the con next week.

How’s the week treating the rest of you?

Week Eight

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 5, 2006

Eight weeks feels like a long time and in the world of job hunting it’s not long at all. Not these days. I figured it’s time to take stock for a moment and see where I am.

Every day I continue to check the internet job sites and follow the guidelines from one agency that if you spend more than half an hour a day on this aspect of the hunt then you’re doing something wrong. Sure enough, I see the same ads on multiple sites and not that many get listed in any given day. I apply to the ones I think worth attempting, occasionally taking a wild shot to see if something’s a reach or not.

Every morning does begin, though, with e-mail and tapping the network. Again, we’re told time and again, and I truly have come to believe it, that the network will get a job more often than the agencies or job sites. I’ve had three interviews, all through the network. After hosting the Comedy Central/Spike TV panel last week for example, I got in touch with each panelist, and explored new network connections, which I hope will bear fruit.

Every job applied to and every person contacted gets carefully logged on a tracking document so I can make sure I do follow ups as necessary. This has also proven helpful.

The rest of the daylight hours are spent on the various freelance writing projects. While none will make me fabulously wealthy, I am in a position now where I am writing for a wider variety of markets than I ever have before. Peers remain impressed by how much I managed to land in a short amount of time, something I need to be reminded of now and then.

In review:

Weekly World News: One week from Monday, the March 20 issue, should have my first column chronicling the adventures of Matt Daemon, SOS (Seeker of Obscure Supernaturals). Each week Matt deals with some grade B (or below) threat and defeats it with three common household items. So the challenge each week is to mix and match. So far, this has been a lot of fun. My other weekly writing is done under circumstances I can’t discuss publicly but my first effort in that realm saw print in the March 6 issue. Each Monday, the week starts with these two columns.

Scifi.com will launch something, any minute now that I have contributed to.

Pocket Books recently received two batches of writing for something that should be going live on their web site in the next few months.

Additionally, I have turned in my story for the Star Trek: Constellations anthology.

I’m awaiting feedback on “Troubleshooting,” my Corps of Engineers eBook. Once I tweak that, it’ll be off to the patient editor.

That very same editor has also invited me to be a part of another project that’s too early to talk about.

For Rosen Books, I am nearly complete with In the News: Suicide Bombers to be followed by Careers in Artificial Intelligence.

For Actionopolis, I’m finishing a proposal that once is fully accepted and signed, we’ll talk about.

Fairfield Magazine has asked me to write an article on what teenagers can do on the weekend, addressing the age old complaint, “there’s nothing to do in this town.”

I’m awaiting licensor approval of a media tie-in novel that I’ve been asked to co-write with Michael Jan Friedman.

There’s my urban fantasy original novel that needs addressing as well as an original shared universe project that pokes along here and there.

All in all, plenty to do, a nice mix of fiction and non-fiction.

Budget Season Opens

Posted by Bob Greenberger on March 2, 2006

At our last Finance Committee meeting we were handed a 300+ page document, containing the town-side budget. A week later, at the RTM meeting, we got its companion volume, the similarly-sized Board of Ed budget, which came with its very own multi-page supplement. The supplement answers questions raised by the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance. Armed with something like 700 pages of arcane information, we were then handed the budget hearing agenda.

And so the season begins.

In Fairfield, the Boards of Selectman and Finance hold joint hearings throughout March, examining each departmental budget plus Capital and Supplemental requests. Department heads, like tag team wrestlers, take turns in the spotlight, poised to answer whatever was on the inquisitors’ minds.

When the budget finally gets to the RTM for approval, all we can do is make cuts, add nothing and cross our fingers the process has worked. To prep for this last step, the RTM attends the sessions. Wisely, each committee asks its members to cover various nights of the hearings rather than ask all 50 of us to attend all the meetings.

Yesterday was opening night. I was warned at Monday’s RTM meeting to bring caffeine, an iPod, and a magazine since these tend to drag on and get tedious. I arrived with budget books, a magazine and a cup of coffee, deciding the iPod was really a gag. About a dozen RTM members from the various committees were in attendance and maybe one member of the public and one member of the press.

Ya gotta love town involvement in the process.

Sure enough, the department heads sat before the combined Board and took questions. However, some speak in monotones and the AV system was turned too low so most of what got said was lost. We got the gist of it, I think.

You could tell immediately what the various interests were. One Finance member continued to nail people on grant requests and their subsequent tracking or the perceived problems with infrastructure maintenance. Actually, the most interest part of the night was when the head of Public Works indicated we’re seriously behind on road paving and repair. We should be paving about 13 miles of town each year but average only about half that and he has a high priority list of roads in need of serious work that totals nearly $2 million. Well, they jumped all over that with our First Selectman somewhat on the defensive. It certainly got our attention.

The rest of the night whipped right along, starting about 7:15 and ending close to 10:30. I wound up asking one question, sounding intelligent enough, and got a good answer so I was satisfied.

I don’t envy those who spend the month with the Fairfield version of March Madness and am scheduled for at least 1-2 meetings myself. It’s a tight, tough budget with little wriggle room but it’s also a necessary process to make sure we have what we need to operate without costing the taxpayer too much extra.