Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 December Reading List

Divergent by Veronica Roth – What was I saying about dystopias? I don’t mind present tense in short stories, but a whole novel? Ugh! 3/5 stars

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare – Some giggles, but it starts to turn into a soap opera and still no Jace. :P 3/5 stars

The Fiction Writer by Nina Munteanu – I found some good advices in it. Still, I wasn’t so keen on the format of the book, it reads more like a doctorate dissertation. 3/5 stars

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino – I love Calvino’s works, so glad I got my hands on this one. 4/5 stars

An Expensive Education by Nick McDonell – I didn’t bother to finish it. *shrug* 2/5 stars

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Dima Bilan - Blind Love



or Ian Somerhalder in a tux, with a mask, and being a total bad ass = perfect holiday fantasy. :)

Sunday, December 25, 2011

2011 Bolero - Alexei Yagudin - All the Single Ladies

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!


Merry Christmas!

P.S. Yes, there are no presents under the tree. We'll bring them out tonight just before opening them, otherwise they wouldn't stand a chance. :))

And a bonus pic:

Friday, December 23, 2011

2011 Recap

I don’t make New Year's resolutions. Ever. They’re just bound to make you feel like a failure at the end of the next year. Life is unpredictable, you can’t control it. So why bother?

I will, however, list some of the highlights of this past year:

16 short stories written + one longer text

11 stories published (9 on-line, 2 in print)

On-line stories:
• "Camouflage” – one of my favorite stories and very easy to write
• "Navigating Through Fog” – another easy and fun write
• "Colors and Shades” – inspired by the recent trip to Prague
• "Unhinged Reality” - my first sell for the English market. *beams proudly*
• "Hearts of Stone” – an oldie, started two years before being finished and then put on hold.
• "Chasing a Ray of Sunshine” – developed from a two lines story idea.
• "Meet You at the End of the Road” – another oldie from the same time period.
• "Giants” – written while I was working on “Miss Vu’s Morning Ride”.
• "Rustle of Angels” – this story was exactly one year old by the time it was published.

Participation to two printed anthologies:
"Miss Vu’s Morning Ride” in “Steampunk: The Second Revolution”,
editor Adrian Craciun, Millennium Books, March, 2011
"The Truth in Their Sights” in “Venus – Erotic Science Fiction Stories”,
compiler Antuza Genescu, Eagle House Publishing, December, 2011
Fancy cover arts as bonus.

Participation to upcoming anthologies edited by owners of Scifientland and Moshulsf blogs that will appear next year.

For those who keep asking me, yes, I did submit a text for the zombie anthology, but I never heard back from them and it’s been half a year so… *shrug*

Finished the first draft of a fantasy novel, the first book of a trilogy actually. No specific plans for it, but I do know that I will finish it. My fingers are itching to start on the sequel. *grins*

70 books read. I don’t know if that’s little or much, but it’s a nice round number and more than half were worth reading so no regrets there.

Finally had bookshelves built for the above mentioned books. They’re full already, but at least there are no more piles of books laying on the floor anymore. Wondering how long things will stay like this.

Bought Kindle to save on books and bookshelves. If I had waited three more months, I would have gotten it considerably cheaper, but let’s not dwell on that, shall we? After 25 books read on it, I declare myself happy with my purchase, even if the search function could be better.

Three new web sites designed and put online, moving away a little from the skating area, but still sticking with the arts and sport, like painting, sculpture and golf. Working on a personal web site, nearly done, only one important part still missing so it should be ready soon. :)

One wonderful week spent in Prague this summer. The weather was on our side, mostly. Always important!

Huge Mucha poster bought while being there and after two months I managed to have it framed and hung. Hopefully, it will last longer than the cacti bought in Amsterdam two years ago.

Update on the cacti: out of six only four survived, two of which as regular cacti while the other two are still of the mutant type. We tried grafting and it didn’t work. I think I started writing a story about it once, it might be time to finish it.

New flower pots rack. Number of flower pots surrounding my desk still too big.

Five new small trees on the terrace, including two birch trees so far still alive.

The cat surviving a stroke after getting into a fight with a stray male cat. Who needs a dog? :P

Living room furniture changed, currently shuffled around to make room for the Christmas tree.

Big beautiful Christmas tree decorated three full days before Christmas. Victory! :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Venus Official Launch

The official launch of "Venus - povestiri erotice science fiction" will take place on Friday, December 16, during the Prospect Art meeting at Centrul Calderon in Bucharest.

More details here.

Due to conflicting schedules, I won't be able to attend and I'll miss the video conference too.

Update: Photos from the event can be found on Moshul SF's blog.

A rundown of the event is available on BookMag.

Monday, December 12, 2011

2011 Grand Prix Final

7-11.12.2011
Quebec City, Canada

Full Results

Men

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Patrick CHAN

CAN
260.3011
2Daisuke TAKAHASHI

JPN
249.1252
3Javier FERNANDEZ

ESP
247.5534
4Yuzuru HANYU

JPN
245.8243
5Jeremy ABBOTT

USA
238.8225
6Michal BREZINA

CZE
218.9866


Ladies

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Carolina KOSTNER

ITA
187.4811
2Akiko SUZUKI

JPN
179.7623
3Alena LEONOVA

RUS
176.4234
4Elizaveta TUKTAMISHEVA

RUS
174.5152
5Alissa CZISNY

USA
156.9745
WDMao ASADA

JPN




Pairs

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY

GER
212.2621
2Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV

RUS
212.0812
3Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV

RUS
187.7743
4Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG

CHN
182.5434
5Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD

CAN
170.4355
6Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN

JPN
164.4266


Ice Dance

FPl.NameNationPointsSDFD
1Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE

USA
188.5511
2Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR

CAN
183.3422
3Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT

FRA
169.6933
4Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE

CAN
166.0744
5Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI

USA
160.5555
6Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV

RUS
157.3066

Monday, December 5, 2011

Scifientland 2010/2011 Virtual Anthology

On his blog, Scifientland, Mircea Coman proposes us a virtual anthology made of 15 texts published in between March 2010 and February 2011. My little story "In Lack of Time" is included. The other writers in whose company I'm honored to be are Ciprian Mitoceanu, Ladislau Daradici, Cristian Mihail Teodorescu, Aron Biro, Balin Feri, Laura Sorin, Leni Jalabier, Diana Alzner, Ben Ami, Antuza Genescu, Adrian Buzdugan, Lucian Vasile Szabo, Marian Dumitraşcu, Leonard Ancuţa. Now if we could only make this project happen...

10.12.2011 update: Compiler Mircea Coman announced on his blog that Millennium Books has offered to publish Scifientland virtual anthology. :D I couldn't be any happier right now, my baby is in good company and it will be presented to the world by a great cover. *proud smile*

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Look, Mom, I'm on Facebook!

I've been doing some research on social networking for writers lately, and it appears that the general opinion is that you just have to be well represented on Facebook for people to even know that you exist.

Now I've had a Facebook account for a few years, but my friends can testify that I'm hardly ever there and I mainly use it to post links to my blog posts. With regret I must announce that today I gave in to the social pressure and created a Facebook page dedicated to my writing activities:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan

25 people better Like it fast so I can change the URL to something more manageable, because there's no chance in hell anyone will ever remember that link the way it is now!

My usual ramblings will still go here, on the blog, though. The page is strictly reserved for writing related topics. Of course, right now the page looks more organized than the blog, which irks me a little, but well, one can't have it all.

Apparently you also must have a Twitter in your own name so this is where I draw the line. Maybe when my first novel gets published on paper I'll change it, but until then I'm keeping my @weirdvision account. There.

2011 Bolero - Alexei Yagudin - Hallelujah



Nice, fluent moves, but a little too much agitation for such a slow song. And I would have preferred Leonard Cohen's version.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Story: Camouflage

Advanced Christmas feel-good pressie:

Camouflage

Enjoy! :)

Update: There's a nice review of the story in Gazeta SF.

And another one on Scifientland.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

2011 November Reading List

Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn – Good conclusion for the trilogy, decent as a whole. 3/5 stars

The Dark Tower: Waste Lands by Stephen King – I liked the second book better. 3/5 stars

Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead – I was down with a bad cold for an entire week and this is what I read. In my defense, it reads better than Twilight. :P 3/5 stars

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Story: Navigating Through Fog

It's time for another story. The action is taking place in Shanghai and... well, you'll see.

Navigating Through Fog

This one is part of the SRSFF monthly contest, so please read, comment and vote. Thanks.

Update: Reviews in Nautilus and SRSFF.

Monday, November 28, 2011

2011 Rostelecom Cup

24-27.11.2011
Moscow, Russia

Full Results

Men

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Yuzuru HANYU

JPN
241.6622
2Javier FERNANDEZ

ESP
241.6341
3Jeremy ABBOTT

USA
229.0815
4Michal BREZINA

CZE
226.3533
5Artur GACHINSKI

RUS
221.4354
6Andrei ROGOZINE

CAN
197.8577
7Sergei VORONOV

RUS
197.1986
8Konstantin MENSHOV

RUS
192.6898
9Brandon MROZ

USA
185.4969


Ladies

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Mao ASADA

JPN
183.2511
2Alena LEONOVA

RUS
180.4522
3Adelina SOTNIKOVA

RUS
169.7533
4Sofia BIRYUKOVA

RUS
166.0744
5Kiira KORPI

FIN
160.9255
6Haruka IMAI

JPN
154.7666
7Agnes ZAWADZKI

USA
149.3878
8Amelie LACOSTE

CAN
148.4897
9Rachael FLATT

USA
147.6389
10Christina GAO

USA
117.771010


Pairs

FPl.NameNationPointsSPFS
1Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY

GER
208.6911
2Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV

RUS
197.8422
3Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK

ITA
168.0233
4Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV

RUS
149.6645
5Katarina GERBOLDT / Alexander ENBERT

RUS
148.9474
6Ashley CAIN / Joshua REAGAN

USA
138.0256
7Brittany JONES / Kurtis GASKELL

CAN
136.5467


Ice Dance

FPl.NameNationPointsSDFD
1Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE

USA
179.0611
2Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE

CAN
161.1822
3Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV

RUS
156.8333
4Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO

RUS
132.7345
5Isabella TOBIAS / Deividas STAGNIUNAS

LTU
130.4754
6Pernelle CARRON / Lloyd JONES

FRA
126.0476
7Ekaterina PUSHKASH / Jonathan GUERREIRO

RUS
124.5367

It was nice to see Hanyu, Fernandez, Brezina, Asada, Leonova, Savchenko/Szolkowi, Davis/White again. And now we get a two weeks break until the Grand Prix Final.