Back of the Envelope

I'll be hosting the next Storyblogging Carnival, the eighty-third, here at Back of the Envelope. This will be the second of the monthly Storyblogging Carnivals. If you use your blog to share your fiction, then the Storyblogging Carnival is your opportunity. Here we host any and all forms of storytelling in blog format. If you're curious about what this looks like, have a look at some examples of previous storyblogging carnivals. This next carnival will be going up January 7th.

If you'd like to participate, please e-mail your story submissions to me at dscrank-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu (or post in my comments), including the following information:

• Name of your blog
• URL of your blog
• Title of the story
• URL for the blog entry where the story is posted
• (OPTIONAL) Author's name
• (OPTIONAL) A suggested rating for adult content (G, PG, PG-13, R)
• A word count
• A short blurb describing the story

The post may be of any age, from a week old to years old. The submission deadline is 11:59 PM Eastern time on Saturday, January 5th. More detailed information follows (same as always):

1. The story or excerpt submitted must be posted on-line as a blog entry, and while fiction is preferred, non-fiction storytelling is acceptable.
2. The story can be any length, but the Carnival will list them in order of length, from shortest to longest, and include a word count for each one.
3. You may either send a complete story, a story in progress, or a lengthy excerpt. You should indicate the word count for both the excerpt and the complete story in the submission, and you should say how the reader can find more of the story in the post itself.
4. If the story spans multiple posts, each post should contain a link to the beginning of the story, and a link to the next post. You may submit the whole story, the first post, or, if you've previously submitted earlier posts to the Carnival, the next post which you have not submitted. Please indicate the length of the entire story, as well as the portion which you are submitting.
5. The host has sole discretion to decide whether the story will be included or not, or whether to indicate that the story has pornographic or graphically violent content. The ratings for the story will be decided by the host. I expect I'll be pretty lenient on that sort of thing, but I have some limits, and others may draw the line elsewhere. Aside from noting potentially offensive content, while I may say nice things about stories I like, I won't be panning anyone's work. I expect other hosts to be similarly polite.
6. The story may be the blogger's own or posted with permission, but if it is not his own work he should gain permission from the author before submitting to the Carnival.

If you'd like to be added to the e-mail list, please let me know. Finally, I appreciate folks promoting the carnival on their own blogs, and I'm always looking for bloggers willing to host future carnivals.

I've been sitting on this story for a year and a half now. But... New Year's Eve of 2006, I said that my goal was to publish a short story. I even had a seven step plan. What I didn't say, when it happened in May of 2006, is that I succeeded. (In the meantime, I've had an e-zine anthology publication first.) It turns out that publishing a story takes a really long time, and the story that was accepted back in mid 2006 has finally come out, this month, in Aoife's Kiss. I even got my name on the cover. Heck, they actually paid me--though not enough to pay any bills.

I am now, ladies and gentlemen, a Published Author.

Sluggy Freelance — Jane tells the rest of her story, about how she and the other zombies defended themselves against the scientists who wanted to study their braaainnss, who succeeded in capturing them until Jane was able to use her above average zombie intelligence wiles to escape, only to find that her own brother had become one of them. So she locked him in a cold storage unit. Ugh--that story was wrong for all sorts of reasons.

Day by Day — The burdens of being parents are continuing to sink in for Sam and Zed. The twin girls have them thinking about protecting them from boys, recycling, and Clinton's attacks on kindergarten essays. We've also got some good old politics in the form of the media's usual tricks.

Scary Go Round — Abandoned by her friends, Shelley meets up with Shelby Winner and an unlikely friendship forms, with the usual friendship rituals: the karaoke, the limbo contest, and the foiling of the mistaken-identity attacker with a fire extinguisher.

Dominic Deegan — Milov's letter to Jayden offers forgiveness, but he needs some time apart to deal with his own issues. It's not enough to completely stop Siegfried, as he's just going after easier targets now. His boss, Karnak, is more concerned about the infernomancer who's stealing his power. Meanwhile, the Knights of Callan have been disbanded and replaced by battlecasters, which everyone thinks is a pretty bad idea. This causes Reinholdt to show up looking for redemption.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Just two comics, Mike giving his last advice to Marsha, and asking for forgiveness. When she shows up to strangle April, it seems that Mike's request for forgiveness is more on her mind ("Forgive him for WHAT, April??") than the whole April stabbing Mike thing. Marsha never took unfaithfulness well.

Schlock Mercenary — We get a glimpse of the forces after the Touch-and-Go and find out that Ennesby has fallen into their trap. And he's the smart one when compared to Tagon and Schlock, who seem likely to fall into more obvious traps. All in all, it encourages Tagon to dump his cargo on Petey and get his payment, so he doesn't have to worry about it anymore.

The Sci Fi channel is known for having some really great original series (Battlestar Galactica, Farscape), really bad original movies, and miniseries which are somewhere in the middle. The miniseries which are based on their original series, such as the Farscape finale, can be really good. Ones which are based on a pre-existing property, such as Earthsea, are usually pretty bad. Their original miniseries, which aren't based on any existing property that I know of, fall somewhere in the middle. The Lost Room had a meandering plot and sometimes made little sense, but at least it had decent acting and some genuinely exciting scenes.

Tin Man is based on a pre-existing property, namely Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, which should tell you something right there. It tries to be both a re-imagining of the original story and a sequel to it (and maybe even something of a parody of it), and both the acting and the dialogue leave a lot to be desired. That said, I thought the core story, which wasn't made obvious until the end of the second part, had some good ideas. Not completely original, but an interesting twist which convinced me that I should watch the rest, which was satisfying enough in how the story worked out, if the way it got there wasn't perfect. In that sense, it's somewhat similar to the Star Wars prequels... an interesting enough story at the core, but we had to put up with a lot of bad acting and writing to get there.

Anyway, the reason I mention it is not to say that you should or shouldn't watch the miniseries, but to note that it inspired me to take a look at Frank Baum's original stories, instead of basing my knowledge of Oz solely on the Judy Garland movie. Which led me to this site, where the full text of all of Frank Baum's Oz stories is provided, thanks to the wonders of public domain. I read/skimmed the immediate sequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, namely The Marvelous Land of Oz, and I think I understand why there's no big name movie associated with it. It's not that it's a bad story, but the fate of the main character is kind of disturbing for a children's story--many parents would not approve. It has the added effect of presenting the wizard of the movie as a power-grabbing usurper. He was always a con-man, but in the original you got the impression that he didn't mean any particular harm. Of course, I didn't go back to read the first story, so maybe the movie version doesn't exactly line up with the original.

Jonah Goldberg's recent column cites this eschatological interpretation:

For example, many Christian conservatives support Israel and look kindly on Jews because they believe they have a holy duty to do so. The Messiah will not return, according to the book of Revelation, until the Jews restore the Kingdom of Israel.

Evangelical Christians believe that when the Messiah returns, things won’t go too well for the Jews — two thirds die, one third convert. Gershom Gorenberg, author of The End of Days, once complained to 60 Minutes, “As a Jew, I can’t feel very comfortable with the affections of somebody who looks forward to that scenario.”

Well, boohoo. In the horrible annals of Jewish problems, the fact that a whole bunch of Christians love Jews for the “wrong” reasons has got to rank pretty low. Besides, since presumably Jews don’t believe in Christian prophecy, what’s the problem? If it’s not true, then no harm, no foul. If it is true, well, who are we to argue with God? My guess is God’s response to the morally decent Jew who gets really worked up about this would be something akin to “Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.”

To be honest, I've never heard this particular interpretation of Revelation before. That's not too surprising, as there are so many interpretations of Revelation that I doubt anyone's heard all of them. Although the actual numbers are new to me, the hope for the salvation of the Jews is not, and is quite apparent, although less in Revelation than, say, Paul's letter to the Romans. In any case, that's hardly the central point of Jonah's column, which is instead about the role of theology in American politics, leading to the bottom line:

Irving Kristol has cited the fight over Utah’s statehood as a quintessential expression of how America practices theological pluralism while insisting on moral conformity. It is the American way to care about what people do, not about what they think. Every religion’s theology has some wacky stuff in it, not only from the atheist’s perspective but from the perspective of pretty much every other religion. It’s impossible to know how much this or that theological tenet guides a person’s actions. All we can judge is the person’s actions.

This came about on account of Romney's Mormonism, of course, and it's a legitimate question how someone's religion may or may not influence their governing. But it's also true that it's better to judge people by their actions than their politics.

So what do I think? Well, I consider Mormonism a heresy, in the literal sense: a belief at odds with orthodox Christianity. That doesn't mean that I consider Mormons evil. People can believe wrong things without being evil. I'm reluctant even to say that Mormons aren't Christians--they believe themselves to be followers of Christ. It's not for me to say that their incorrect doctrine excludes them entirely from his call. That said, I still see heresies as dangerous, and it is important to correct those who have fallen into them. In this context, that correction doesn't look that much different from evangelizing.

All that doesn't answer the question of what to do with Romney. Here, I'm reluctant to give advice to other Christians, but I'm willing to vote for him. As Jonah said, it's what he does that matters, and if given a choice between Romney and Clinton, I'd rather choose him.

Wow, it's been three weeks since the last update. That's pretty bad--I'll have to try to do better in the future.

Sluggy Freelance — Torg's having a tough time dealing with Zoe being bald, but a little hoverbike racing helps to overcome that. In fact, hoverbikes and pizza heals all wounds, and the gang's all, or at least mostly, friends again. Which is good, because Gwynn has a plan to recover her monkeys. It just didn't involve her being infected by a zombie. Or being held in their underground lair, where Jane explains her whole smart zombie deal. It apparently has something to do with some very naive circus performers and a madame Bu-bu.

Day by Day — The Hillarinator runs into some software bugs while the whole lot of them drive Sam to the hospital so she can have her twins. Baby girls. Now Zed and Sam have to deal with the joys of parenthood... too bad they can't stay on the really good drugs. The babies start to give Jan ideas, which is making Damon just a wee bit nervous.

Scary Go Round — Shelley Winters is off to Christmas Island with some good friends and an expense account that just won't quit. Things are looking good. But what'll she do when the expense account gets canceled?

Dominic Deegan — The attempts to counter Siegfried keep coming up short. He has all sorts of power now, and he's using it to torment his old friends. He nearly turns Jayden to his side, before Nimmel shows her what happened to send Siggy to Hell in the first place. Fortunately, Dominic's mother comes along to help her son and his friends out.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — April's remembering how the situation got this way. It's bad. It's really, really bad. She's a murderer now, and various and sundry scary people are coming to get her. Marsha among them. So's Blue and the Dragon. The problem is that when they do come to kill her, they'll be condemning their own soul. Especially if someone accidentally kills June instead of April. Of course, the fun part is that it looks like April's pregnant. With possessed Mike's baby. Okay, this looks bad.

Schlock Mercenary — Tagon's gotten together the smartest folk on the ship to try to figure out what to do with Xinchub. They think it's about immortality. Meanwhile, TAG and Ennesby are having their own powwow, and they think they have a better line on it than the rest of the crew. Actually talking to Xinchub reveals a lot, especially about the undead warmongering supersoldiers. And then we get a peek at the folks who are looking for the information to make them.

Welcome to the eighty-second Storyblogging Carnival. There are four stories this time. This is the first of the monthly carnivals, and I have to admit, my rhythm is off--I neglected to send out my usual last minute reminder until it was pretty late, so we don't have as many stories as I was hoping. Still, we've got some stories, so let's get this carnival rolling...

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First (and Last) Visit
by Madeleine Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A 100 word brief story rated G.

Limerick and anecdote about being allergic to cats.

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Three Lions
by Tom Harrison of Monday Evening
A 500 word brief story rated PG.

A simple children's story in which three lions have an adventure.

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Emily Chesley: The Humble Beginnings
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
The first 1,250 word of a continuing story rated PG-13.

Writer, poet, social activist, explorer, aviatrix, and 92-year-old pole vaulter: Emily Chesley played many roles in her long and remarkable life. This week I am posting abridged excerpts from her biography, *Get Bent: Emily Chesley’s Life of Speculation*, which recounts the humble beginnings and formative experiences of the Speculative Songstress Of The Southwest. (First chapter)

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Domestic Bliss
by Charmaine Frost at Reason and Rhyme
A 12,576 word brief story rated PG.

Those with admitted dysfunctional lives in unkempt homes may be enthralled to learn about an alternative. Charmain Frost explores such an alternative as only she is able

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This concludes the eighty-second Storyblogging Carnival.

If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.