The American religious right spawned something called the ‘ex-gay’ movement, claiming that homosexuals were simply mentally ill and could be put straight with a little careful therapy. Except the movement was based upon a false premise and has has been disproved by former champions.
The two men who founded the ex-gay movement in the early 1970s subsequently quit the movement, and married each other.
Is now up. Details of the changes over the first draft are detailed at the bottom of the page and there is a link to the first draft.
ARAGORN finds himself in RIVENDELL with ARWEN lying on top of him.
ARAGORN: Hmm. This must be a dream.
ARWEN: Why do you say that?
ARAGORN: Because you’re not even supposed to be IN this book.
ARWEN: Don’t be mean. I’ll tell Daddy.
Thanks to Emily for finding this one for me, as well as ASL’s LEGO Page
The tale of the online author who is getting a book published after an editor read segments that had been put online is heartening. He also has an earlier novel up as shareware, which is currently the plan for Heavensent.
Shara had been offered a fine selection of the best carbonised ferrous for whatever alchemy it was that armed the weapon in her arm. She paced the parapet, massaging her shoulder and flexing her hand. Fynn crouched near the edge, as still as the stone carved devilward beside him, staring into the dark. Occasionally he would say something into the handset cradled on his shoulder, the message fed through the wires down to Aurile, who stood by a city map several floors below.
Aylo was fascinated by the way Shara moved. She had a bearing, confidence and poise that made the most experienced of the resistance fighters look like a swaggering child. She was also absolutely deadly, which made him think his next action was the stupidest thing he ever did. �You are a weapon?� he asked, �The gun is built into you.�
Shara looked at Aylo and he wanted to jump over the edge. �Several weapons systems have been built into my body. The electromagnetic accelerator in my arm is the main one, however.� She stretched the arm and spread her fingers, examining them. Aylo imagined her clasping the fist and pointing it at him.
�Why are you the weapon? Why not one of the men?�
Shara made a fist, Aylo thought he saw it arcing toward him. She smiled, letting the arm drop to her side. �Because we knew we were coming to an undeveloped� she gave the word extra emphasis, �society. You would hardly expect a pretty little thing to be the fighter, would you?� Aylo was certain his heart had stopped. He wished he had asked his other question. The previous morning, so he had been told, none of these three could speak the language. First Aurile had learned it, then he had taken the other two aside, put them into some form of trance and made a strange concentrated warbling. After this strange ritual, Shara and Fynn had been able to speak like well taught tourists.
Fynn stood, stretched and walked over. �They wish you downstairs.� he told Aylo, who nodded dumbly and headed quickly for the door. Fynn moved to another corner of the roof and stared out again. Shara returned to her calisthenics.
An important part of Sounds of Soldiers is going to be the increasing desire of politicians to dictate what, and how, the military attacks. Suck, takes a look at the strange Gulf War 1 plans of Dick Cheney–
What if we parachute the 82nd Airborne into the far western part of Iraq, hundreds of miles from Kuwait and totally cut off from any kind of support, and seize a couple of missile sites, then line up along the highway and drive for Baghdad?
Via tedbarlow
The Free State Project, is a plan to usurp federal power by overloading an American state (location to be decided) with likemided people and voting down unwanted laws. I’m thinking bigger for the novel and having a bunch of rich geeks move to a country (India, or somewhere in Africa) and becoming a state within a state through employment and, dare I say it, liberal profit sharing. The US government, suffering a revenue crash and various other problems, tries to engineer a reason to send troops to the region to ‘protect’ its wayward citizens (in return for a slice of the cash, natch).
The Homeland Security Act allows corporations to hide bad management.
The US are going to ‘liberate’ Iraq, whether the Iraqis want them to or not.
America’s war with North Korea never really ended.
Little wars are big business.
Is censorship and oppression good for creativity?
Top Gun on speed.
Norwich Union won’t cover for damage from WMDs
Drug company? Flagging sales? Just make up a problem such as ‘female impotence’ for your drugs to work on and get a few cosy scientists to back you up.
John Scalzi, consultant, indie music reviewer and online novelist, has had one of his works picked up for ‘proper’ publication after an editor read segments that had been put online He also has an earlier novel up as shareware, which is pretty much how I see my stuff being published- I’m too lazy to hawk the finished products around agents/ publishers and I don’t take rejection well.
The Free State Project, proposes that 20,000 libertarians move to an American state and use their voting power to roll back the laws they don’t agree with. I haven’t yet figured what it is the libertarians stand for, though they seem to be anarchists who want to make lots of money, live in big houses and shoot poor people (or exploit them to death, because under their system there would be no minimum wage.)
Of course, they could just get involved at the local level, making the community they live in better, but 20,000 small successes wouldn’t get as much publicity as one big failure.