Best Websites for News Junkies

I’ve been interviewed a couple of times about my writing, and when asked where I get some of the weird ideas for my fiction, I often cite the news. Universally, folks seem to think that’s a weird answer, but I really do read a good bit of news, and I don’t always read it at the usual spots. Here are some of my favorites, with links for anyone interested.

Wired.com is quite an interesting site. Instead of dangling a few free stories and trying to sell a subscription for the real content, Wired has up-to-date information regarding our more and more interconnected world, and articles from the current issue are available online. This is one of the best free sites available for those who are interested in keeping up with technology as it affects our lives.

Boortz.com is the site of talk radio host Neal Boortz. This guy is amazing, and since I don’t listen every day, I like the way he has comprehensive notes on his website for each day he is on the air (and that’s most weekdays) and his staff posts some really interesting “reading assignments” which are links to current information on a variety of subjects. Neal is a somewhat conservative libertarian, so if you have strong liberal leanings, you might not like this site, but even when I disagree, this dude makes me think, and that’s something I like quite a lot.

The Buzz at AZCentral is a section devoted to offbeat news from around the country. Other sites have such stories, of course, but this one is the most comprehensive. Some of these stories are a real hoot, and others just leave you shaking your head. “Truth is stranger that fiction” is a cliché for a reason!

CNet Future Tech Blog is one part of the giant CNet site, which is one of my favorite spots. However, for anyone interested in writing science fiction, there is a real necessity to keep up with what pieces of technology are likely to become part of our lives. This site will keep you informed regarding tech, with a more practical slant than that of Wired.

I always read Peggy Noonan’s column in the Wall Street Journal online. The WSJ has a subscription they want to sell, but you can get a certain amount of content for free, and right now, Noonan’s column is part of that. She is one of the most thoughtful, best writers in journalism, so her Friday columns are a treat.

Apart from those, I often read local news, just to stay informed about local politics and so forth.

What I Can’t Write About

I generally have no trouble thinking of topics, but I do struggle with what I can blog about and get away with it. I’ve had several ideas occur to me, but I’ve nixed them due to politics. Being politically correct at our house is ridiculously important, due to hubby being in public office, so I can’t write about anything beyond writing and publishing.

Here’s what I didn’t write about this week:

• Only in Georgia (a tale hubby told me about buying a church raffle ticket— for a shotgun!)

• National Board Certified Teachers (my daughter’s high school hired a counselor with this august designation last year, and this year the middle school counselor and assistant principal spent the first week of school rebuilding all the schedules, while my daughter spent time in her history class coloring. About 90% of the schedules were hopeless, so the teachers are saying that classes start over again next week.)

• Why motorists don’t need a cell phone! (a recollection of the day six police cars lined the road on either side in front of our house— prompted by my twelve year old playing “army” in the yard and a motorist who called it in as “a dark haired male with a firearm.” I guess he was going too fast to see the big orange gizmo on the muzzle of his toy gun.)

• ROI (explaining why I have decided that I can’t do any more promotions when my royalty check from WCP was $4.96 for three months’ worth of sales. While I’ve enjoyed visiting cons and bookstores, those figures do not cover gas, much less hotel bills.)

Have you seen V for Vendetta?

I won't write a review per se of V for Vendetta, because there are many of those available, but I would like to comment on it. I can't believe that it will be anything more than a cult classic in a year or so, but for right now, it brings the role of science fiction as literature to the forefront.

Joseph Campbell described science fiction as mythology for modern man. Back in graduate school, I wrote a paper or two on themes found in science fiction, and there are a number of classic themes on which virtually all sci-fi must rely, including man vs. machine and utopia/dystopia. V for Vendetta is a modernized Nazi movie, and often looks more like the alternate history theme rather than the dystopia it intends to portray. Yet, the literate script and an unusually complex plot which never loses the viewer seem unusual. I have grown accustomed to most sci-fi on the screen being neither literate nor clear-sighted, and V for Vendetta is both.

Probably, some viewers will be intrigued by the “terrorism” controversy. Others will be enticed to view the film by the voyeuristic glimpses of Natalie Portman being shaved bald which are in the trailer, but this flick is more complex than most screen versions of graphic novels. However, after all the quotes from Shakespeare and emotional epiphanies are done, it is still a story about a dude in a mask who blows stuff up. All during the movie, I simply could not forget that it all began as a comic.

At its best, science fiction offers another way to examine what it means to be human, and in that V for Vendetta doesn’t fail.

Being PC

I did a bit of surgery on this blog just now, so if you seem to remember entries that used to be here and do not find them, that is the beauty of the internet. Things in print are read over and over because they are a bit more permanent. Words written with electrons on a screen are ephemeral.

Basically, I cut out items which mentioned my family. My real one, that is. My blog will be politically correct from now on. Lean, trim, and (alas) much more devoid of character.

You can't have everything.