Feb 2006 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fict

[cranefly]

The Feb 06 issue of F&SF should now be on the magazine racks.
If you peruse it hard enough, you'll find mention of me.
In other words, this falls under shameless self-promotion.

By the way, if you squint hard enough at the cover -- and I mean really really hard -- you might think you're looking at Drunken Monk. Bald head, saffron robe... Nope? Booze or toke up and squint harder. It's the season.

--cranefly

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I found this on their website:

"Next month’s cover story is an unusual tale that juxtaposes celestial bodies with matters of the flesh. Gary W. Shockley’s "The Cathedral of Universal Biodiversity" introduces us to an unlikely evangelist whose specialty is envisioning what waits in unexplored regions of the universe. But not even he is completely able to ignore more worldly concerns, as you’ll see."

I wonder if there is any relation our Gary? That would be just too wierd.

[Drunk Monk]

who still carries F&SF? i can't remember where i got my last copy now...was that your letterman story?

[cranefly]

Yes, the Feb. issue has been on the racks for just over a week now. It should stay on the racks for another 2, maybe 3 weeks. We've found copies at Tower Books and also Borderlands up in SF. It should also be at Borders. Actually, any good-sized rack should carry it.

Here's the F&SF link, for a pic of the issue:

http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/

But here's my question. When do I get my 10 minutes of fame? I mean, I keep waiting to get calls from radio stations to do interviews. After all, I used "testicles" in the story. Did I need to use crotch instead? Oh, and I used "fuck" 3 times, but the editor had me remove 2 of them -- something about needing to keep the cussword count down so libraries will carry it (that's another option; the local library might carry it). I get this image of libarians sitting at their computers doing cussword searches on all incoming magazines.

--cranefly

[Drunk Monk]

As I've mentioned already, I've been in this distrubing entropy zone. My car is still in the shop. My computers at work and at home have been on the fritz. My kid has a slight cold. And there was probably a skunk in our garage this morning. And this was just today. There's been more weirdness lately. Anyway, I found some consulation in The Cathedral of Universal Biodiversity where 'life' is mentioned as the profound response to entropy. So true. I think that's my light at the end of the entropy tunnel. If I can jsut focus on life. Unfortunately, I fear the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off due to budget cuts.

The Cathedral of Universal Biodiversity is my 2nd favorite cranefly piece so far. The first remains Skullcracker, which I've always interpreted to his ode to living in Ukiah. It's got some real nice heady stuff going on, quite trippy to ponder, a fine example of the non-pharmeceutical psychedelic style of cranefly's - very evocative if you let the implications sink in. I felt the constant sexual theme echoed his unpublished novel; I must confess that the only outstanding memory I have of that work was a shocking oral sex scene between the main protagonist and a rather despicable character described in such shocking detail that it really made me question some of cranefly's dark nefarious past. That overwhelmed any other impression I had of crematids, or whatever it was. But back OT, TCoUB sinks it home with a great ending, exactly what the medium of short stories require. A very good read.

Great work, cranefly, and I'll be working on refocusing on 'life'. I'll be back once the entropy passes.

[El Dingo]

Because I'm a pirate, I searched the net for a free copy of this story.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.garywshockley.com/story/cathed.html">http://www.garywshockley.com/story/cathed.html</a><!-- m -->

I must say the style is unique but the plot seemed derivative and repetitious.

Oh well. Guess that 'heady' S.F. stuff is beyond my ken.

And who the hell are these people?



Gary is all over the freakin' web:




But at least I know why he uses the middle initial. It's so he doesn't get mistaken for this champion dog-trainer (who had just as many search results):




Argh Mateys! War' be the wenches and rum?

[cranefly]

Leave it to El Dingo to discover my secret Reading Room.
It's a project I started a couple years back, but abandoned due to work.
Also, I didn't know how to fully code it. Now I know PHP, etc., and could really bring it to life.

Just need a bit of time.

The concept: A "reading room" that can be tailored to resemble a private study, a cafe, a park, whatever. You can read stories (just mine, at present) in this room. There would be a light switch and dimmer, and lots of other nifty and silly stuff, for adjusting the ambience. There's a somewhat functional menu at present:

Ambience
Solitude (default)
Cafe
Advanced Settings

Immersion
Normal
Vicarious

"Immersion" is an interesting concept -- not yet implemented. I was going to code it so if you click Vicarious, it let's you choose names for the characters. You can make yourself the good guy, someone you hate the bad guy, and so on. Then you read the story with a high degree of vicariosity (don't look that up). Wouldn't be hard to implement, now that I understand PHP. Just need a bit of time.

Ambience is partially coded. By default, you read in solitude. But if you are dumb enough to click Cafe, you will find your reading experience enhanced by periodic interruptions from the author, who just rattles on about various topics.

Try it. Click Ambience and select Cafe. Then wait maybe half a minute. The chatter should start.

If you want to adjust the speed of the chatter, and the intervals between episodes of chatter, you can click Ambience, then Advanced Settings. Choose a setting under Speech, another setting under Chattus Interruptus. Then click Gotcha (my version of an OK button). The chatter will adjust accordingly. Or you can click the button "I just want to be alone. --Garbo" to have solitude again.

I managed to keep this masterpiece under wraps for 2 years -- until El Dingo started sniffing around.

--cranefly

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I supported Crane fly. I shelled out the money and bought the magazine. Did the story posted on the internet have the clever F&SF intro. I didn't think so. Spend the bucks. Support your brothers

And having the intro gave one of the clues to understanding the story. Cranefly, go ahead. Talk to your wife more. It's okay.

I must admit the beginning was a little hard going trying to understand what Theo did. But eventually I did catch on.

Why eight penises? Surely, two or three would be enough? That's why I stopped at three and how do the mechanics of that sex play work? Never mind don't answer.

All in all , I liked the story. Very dense thematically. Good characters. I just think Theo gave in to easy. You would think after three hundred years of celibacy his walls of denial would be pretty thick.