Archive for March, 2010
The Battle of Brunanburh is Done
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on March 31st, 2010
With all the illness hereabouts — I was struck down with the norovirus after all — and quite a bit of backlogged grading to slog through, I’m rather tardy in relaying the fact that the Brunanburh Casebook is out of my hands. The book clocked in at over 440 pages without the endmatter, so it’s a big one. I’m enormously pleased that its yet another step closer to bookshelves, and I’m sure my wonderful team of fellow contributors feels the same. I really do think the book will do much to encourage fresh study of a battle that shaped much of the subsequent history of the British Isles. I’m crossing my fingers for an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
I’ve not seen any of it yet due to the aforementioned illnesses and what-not, but in another day or two I’m suddenly going to be wondering what the heck I should do with all the time I’m no longer spending on a tenth-century battle!
Writers of the Future Reminiscing
Posted by Michael Livingston in Fiction on March 25th, 2010
A few years ago, on a lark, I sent a short story of mine to the Writers of the Future contest. I wasn’t new to writing stories — I’d been screwing around with fiction on my own since I was a lad — but I was certainly new at trying to publish them. I knew nothing about how to do it. One night at a pub (The Old Toad in Rochester, NY), a more informed friend of mine told me about Ralan.com, a website that aggregates market information for speculative fiction stories, and poring over it the next day I found an entry for this Writers of the Future contest that had no entry fee but thousands of dollars in awards.
I was a little uncertain at first due to the contest’s association with L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology), but the tiniest bit of looking at the contest website revealed that it was judged by some of the greatest living writers of fantasy and science fiction. Hubbard’s interest in supporting young writers struck me as an issue entirely independent from any religious issues. And with that kind of prize money …
Well, for the cost of postage, I didn’t see much of a downside. So I sent in my story, a 14,000-word beastie that was eventually reviewed thus on Amazon (this still gives me goosebumps):
Michael Livingston provides what I thought was the best story of all in “The Keeper Alone.” In a story reminiscent of Robert Heinlein’s “Orphans of the Sky,” what happens when the sole keeper of a space ark saves someone whose pod has malfunctioned? It is stories such as these that keep me reading science fiction. . . . This book is worth purchasing. There are a few stories that I was less enthused about, but the winners in this book, particularly the last story, ["The Keeper Alone,"] will make you feel good about the purchase. — amazon.com
To say I was shocked to win would be an understatement. And I was even more shocked to find out I also got an all-expenses paid trip to a week-long workshop with those famous judges, culminating in a black-tie awards ceremony and book signing. (Most folks know these things, but I was writing in a total vacuum.) Our year the Big Event was held in Seattle, and it was an incredible experience.
It was also meticulously filmed. The contest folks had hired a video crew to follow us around, documenting the whole thing Survivor-style. Crazy.
That documentary — at last we get to the point of this post — is now on YouTube, along with a video of the “highlights” of the black-tie extravaganza itself. It’s an awesome walk down memory lane for me. The video is in three parts, with yours truly appearing first in the second one at around the 1:08 mark (though I show up a quite a bit for the rest of it).
Documentary Part 1:
Documentary Part 2:
Documentary Part 3:
Awards ceremony highlight reel:
Quite a walk down memory lane. And awesome to see so many old friends again via YouTube!
Norovirus Infiltration
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on March 25th, 2010
We aren’t positive that norovirus has entered our household, but all signs, as they say, point to “yes.” Certainly the symptoms match up, and we know that there’s norovirus in the air hereabouts: A local-stationed cruise ship just underwent an extra-super-duper cleaning after its third successive outbreak of the virus. Bringing it back to port and cleaning it meant bringing 100s of virus-exposed passengers into the community, in addition to the exposure of the cleaning crews going back and forth off the ship.
Happily, it’s a 24-hour to 48-hour horror. Unhappily, it hit Sherry at 3am on her birthday. And now the young master has it. The baby ‘belle has also probably been hit. Indeed, I seem to be the only one holding out at this point … which can only mean that I have mere hours to go before I, too, am moaning in pain.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on March 20th, 2010
Don’t know why I was thinking about Douglas Adams the other day, but I was. And so, on a lark, I looked up one of the best movie trailers of all time on YouTube.
For your Saturday happiness, here it is:
Brilliant!
The 2010 Shako Released!
Posted by Michael Livingston in Student Successes, Teaching on March 19th, 2010
My first year here at The Citadel I was made faculty advisor to The Shako, the Literary Magazine of The Citadel. It was a surprising thing for me, but I’ve tried to take advantage of it for the past four years. I like to think that the publication is better than ever as the result of my labors, though one can never really know such things. This year’s edition, my fourth, will be my last. I’ve worried that the publication will grow stale under my watch, so I’m passing the torch to another faculty member. She’ll know doubt take it to great places I didn’t imagine, and I’m really excited to see that happen.
At any rate, all this is prelude to the announcement that the 2010 Shako is now in the wild. It’s a terrific year, with some great fiction, poetry, photography, and even some artwork. Indeed, our cover art is the work of a talented freshman here on campus. I touched it up and added a bit of antiquity and mystery to the piece, but it was awesome raw material to work with — I’m greatly pleased with the results.
If you’re on campus, you’ll find copies piled around the lobbies of Mark Clark Hall, in the English office, in the sally ports, in my office, and being handed out around parade time tomorrow morning. Enjoy!
Front Cover of the 2010 Shako!
Student Publication: Gold Star Success
Posted by Michael Livingston in Student Successes on March 18th, 2010
The Gold Star Journal — the scholarly counterpart to The Shako, publishing the very best academic work of The Citadel’s cadets — once again features an essay from one of my classes. This time, it’s an essay from my Honors Tolkien class, “The Precious and the Pearl,” by Noah Koubenec. It’s a terrific essay, quite fitting for the high honor, and of course I’m selfishly happy that a Tolkien essay (gasp!) managed such placement.
Noah also gave a version of the paper alongside professorial types at the recent PAC conference, and he’s preparing a larger version of it for submission to peer-reviewed academic journals. Plus, he’s a finalist for a Truman.
Congratulations, Noah!
Avatar: Better than Cats!
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics, Homelife on March 14th, 2010
I celebrated getting through the past 5 weeks — one of the busiest times I’ve seen in many years — by seeing Avatar with my buddy Keith, who was here to give his own paper at the PAC conference. Herewith, my feelings about the film:
Read the rest of this entry »
The Truth Behind the Hobbit
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on March 11th, 2010
Well, the truth behind the word hobbit, anyway.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be giving a brief talk at the College of Charleston about the medieval origins of Tolkien’s most famous (supposed) coinage. Mine is the last paper in a set of three about Tolkien, the first session in the annual meeting of the Philological Association of the Carolinas. The other papers are from Keith Kelly of Georgia Gwinnett College and Noah Koubenec of The Citadel. Should be quite entertaining and educational.
9 am tomorrow. Tate Center.
The truth is out there.
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