JacketFlap connects you to the work of more than 200,000 authors, illustrators, publishers and other creators of books for Children and Young Adults. The site is updated daily with information about every book, author, illustrator, and publisher in the children's / young adult book industry. Members include published authors and illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, booksellers, publishers and fans. Join now (it's free).
Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.
Blog Posts by Tag
In the past 7 days
Blog Posts by Date
Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Future, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 83
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Future in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
I want to live to be 100 years old. Yes, that is a bold statement, and I'll admit this goal may be a bit unrealistic and potentially impossible, but my curiosity pushes me to beat the laws of nature. As a 22-year-old avid reader working for a publishing company, I can’t help but wonder: what will be the future of the printed book? Since the creation of the world wide web by Tim Burners-Lee in 1989 and it's continual expansion since then, this question has haunted the publishing industry, raising profound questions about the state of the industry and the printed book.
A reasonable line of thought can give rise to a crisis of commitment: Many a commitment requires persistence or willpower, especially in the face of temptation. A straightforward example is the decision to quit smoking; another is the promise to be faithful to someone for the rest of one’s life.
To make Kim Stanley Robinson's Aurora make sense, I had to imagine a metafictional frame for it.
The novel tells the story of a generation starship sent in the year 2545 from the Solar System to Tau Ceti. It begins toward the end of the journey, as the ship approaches its destination and eventually sends a landing party to a planet they name Aurora. The narrator, we quickly learn, is the ship's artificial intelligence system, which for various reasons is learning to tell stories, a process that, among other things, helps it sort through and make sense of details. This conceit furthers Robinson's interest in exposition, an interest apparent at least since the Mars trilogy and explicit in 2312. As a writer, he seems most at home narrating scientific processes and describing the features of landscapes, which does not always lead to the most dynamic prose or storytelling, and he seems to have realized this and adjusted to make his writerly strengths into, if not his books' whole reason for being, then a meaningful feature of their structure. I didn't personally care for 2312 much, but I thought it brilliantly melded the aspirations of both Hugo Gernsback and John W. Campbell for science fiction in the way that it offered explicit, even pedagogical, passages of exposition with bits of adventure story and scientific romance.
What soon struck me while reading Aurora was that aside from the interstellar travel, it did not at all seem to be a novel about human beings more than 500 years in the future. The AI is said to be a quantum computer, and it is certainly beyond current computer technology, but it doesn't seem breathtakingly different from the bleeding edges of current technology. Medical knowledge seems mostly consistent with current medical knowledge, as does knowledge of most other scientific fields. People still wear eyeglasses, and their "wristbands" are smartwatches. Historical and cultural references are to things we know rather than to much of anything that's happened between 2015 and 2545 (or later — the ship's population seems to have developed no culture of their own). The English language is that of today. Social values are consistent with average bourgeois heterosexual American social values.
500 years is a lot of time. Think about the year 1515. Thomas More started writing Utopia, which would be published the next year. Martin Luther's 95 Theses were two years away. The rifle wouldn't be invented for five more years. Copernicus had just begun thinking about his heliocentric theory of the universe. The first iterations of the germ theory of disease were thirty years away. The births of Shakespeare and Galileo were 49 years in the future. Isaac Newton wouldn't be born until the middle of the next century.
Aurora offers nothing comparable to the changes in human life and knowledge from 1515 to 2015 except for the space ship. The world of the novel seems to have been put on pause from now till the launch of the ship.
How to make sense of this? That's where my metafictional frame comes in. One of the stories Aurora tells is the rise to consciousness of the AI narrator. Telling stories seems to be good for its processors. Much of the book is quite explicitly presented as a novel by the AI — an AI learning to write a novel. Of course, within the story, it's not a novel (a work of fiction) but rather a work of history. Still, as it makes clear, the shaping of historical material into a narrative has at least as much to do with fiction as it does with history.
It's easy to go one step further, then, and imagine that the "actual" history of the AI's world is outside the text. The text is what the AI has written. The text could be fiction.
It could, for instance, be a novel written by an AI that survived the near-future death of humanity, or at least the death of human civilization.
What if the "actual" year of the novel is not near the year 3000, but rather somewhere around 2050. Global warming, wars, famine, etc. could have reduced humanity to nearly nothing just at the moment computer technology advanced enough to bring about a quantum computer capable of developing consciousness and writing a novel. What sort of novel might an AI learn to write? Why not a story about a heroic AI saving a group of humans trapped on a generation ship? An AI that helps bring those humans home after their interstellar quest proves impossible. An AI that, in the end, sacrifices itself for the good of its people.
This helps explain the change of narrators, too. At the end of Book 6, the ship has returned the humans to Earth and then accelerates on toward the sun, where, we learn later, it burns up. Book 7 is a traditional third-person narrative. This is a jarring point of view shift if the AI actually burned up in the sun. (And how did its narrative get saved? There's some mention of the computer of the ferry to Earth having been able to copy the ship AI, though also mention that such a copy would be different from the original because of the nature of quantum computing.)
But if we assume that the AI narrator is still the narrator, then Book 7 is the triumph of the computer's storytelling, for Book 7 is the moment where the AI gets to disappear into the narration.
Wouldn't it be fun for an AI to speculate about all the possible technological developments over 500 years? Perhaps, but only if its goal was to write a speculative story. It might have a more immediate goal, one that would require a somewhat different story. It might be writing not to entertain or to offer scientific dreams, but to provide knowledge and caution for the few survivors of the crash of humanity.
Book 7 tells us to value the Earth, our only possible home. It shows a human being who has never been to Earth coming to it and learning how to love it. The moment is religious in its implications: the human being (our protagonist, Freya) is born again. Just as the AI is born again into the narration, so Freya is born into Earthbound humanity. There is hope, but the hope relies on living in harmony with the only possible planet for humans.
The descendants of the last remnants of humanity, scrambling for a reason to survive on a planet their ancestors battered and burned, might benefit from such a tale. (Also: One of the implicit messages of the story is: Trust the AI. The AI is your friend and savior.)
Viewed this way, Aurora coheres, and its speculative failures make sense. It is a tale imagined by a computer that has learned to tell stories, a cautionary fairy tale aimed perhaps at the few remaining people from a species that destroyed its only world.
0 Comments on Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson as of 9/4/2015 11:52:00 PM
If you like your prophecies pin sharp then look away now. The 16th century celebrity seer Nostradamus excelled at the exact opposite, couching his predictions in terms so vague as to be largely meaningless. This has not, however, prevented his soothsayings attracting enormous and unending interest, and his book – Les Propheties – has rarely been out of print since it was first published 460 years ago. Uniquely, for a renaissance augur, the writings of Nostradamus are perhaps as popular today as they were four and a half centuries ago.
Imagine that you have a one-time-only chance to become a vampire. With one swift, painless bite, you’ll be permanently transformed into an elegant and fabulous creature of the night. As a member of the Undead, your life will be completely different. You’ll experience a range of intense new sense experiences, you’ll gain immortal strength, speed and power, and you’ll look fantastic in everything you wear. You’ll also need to drink the blood of humanely farmed animals (but not human blood), avoid sunlight, and sleep in a coffin.
Now, suppose that all of your friends, people whose interests, views and lives were similar to yours, have already decided to become vampires. And all of them tell you that they love it. They encourage you to become a vampire too, saying things like: “I’d never go back, even if I could. Life has meaning and a sense of purpose now that it never had when I was human. It’s amazing! But I can’t really explain it to you, a mere human. You’ll have to become a vampire to know what it’s like.”
In this situation, how could you possibly make an informed choice about what to do? For, after all, you cannot know what it is like to become a vampire until you become one. The experience of becoming a vampire is transformative. What I mean by this is that it is an experience that is both radically epistemically new, such that you have to have it in order to know what it will be like for you, and moreover, will change your core personal preferences.
“You’ll have to become a vampire to know what it’s like”
So you can’t rationally choose to become a vampire, but nor can you rationally choose to not become one, if you want to choose based on what you think it would be like to live your life as a vampire. This is because you can’t possibly know what it would be like before you try it. And you can’t possibly know what you’d be missing if you didn’t.
We don’t normally have to consider the choice to become Undead, but the structure of this example generalizes, and this makes trouble for a widely assumed story about how we should make momentous, life-changing choices for ourselves. The story is based on the assumption that, in modern western society, the ideal rational agent is supposed to charge of her own destiny, mapping out the subjective future she hopes to realize by rationally evaluating her options from her authentic, personal point of view. In other words, when we approach major life decisions, we are supposed to introspect on our past experiences and our current desires about what we want our futures to be like in order to guide us in determining our future selves. But if a big life choice is transformative, you can’t know what your future will be like, at least, not in the deeply relevant way that you want to know about it, until you’ve actually undergone the life experience.
Transformative experience cases are special kinds of cases where important ordinary approaches that people try to use to make better decisions, such as making better generalizations based on past experiences, or educating themselves to better evaluate and recognize their true desires or preferences, simply don’t apply. So transformative experience cases are not just cases involving our uncertainty about certain sorts of future experiences. They are special kinds of cases that focus on a distinctive kind of ‘unknowability’—certain important and distinctive values of the lived experiences in our possible futures are fundamentally first-personally unknowable. The problems with knowing what it will be like to undergo life experiences that will transform you can challenge the very coherence of the ordinary way to approach major decisions.
‘Vampire Children,’ by. Shawn Allen. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr
Moreover, the problem with these kinds of choices isn’t just with the unknowability of your future. Transformative experience cases also raise a distinctive kind of decision-theoretic problem for these decisions made for our future selves. Recall the vampire case I started with. The problem here is that, before you change, you are supposed to perform a simulation of how you’d respond to the experience in order to decide whether to change. But the trouble is, who you are changes as you become a vampire.
Think about it: before you become a vampire, you should assess the decision as a human. But you can’t imaginatively put yourself in the shoes of the vampire you will become and imaginatively assess what that future lived experience will be. And, after you have become a vampire, you’ve changed, such that your assessment of your decision now is different from the assessment you made as a human. So the question is, which assessment is the better one? Which view should determine who you become? The view you have when you are human? Or the one you have when you are a vampire.
The questions I’ve been raising here focus on the fictional case of the choice to be come a vampire. But many real-life experiences and the decisions they involve have the very same structure, such as the choice to have one’s first child. In fact, in many ways, the choice to become a parent is just like the choice to become a vampire! (You won’t have to drink any blood, but you will undergo a major transition, and life will never be the same again.)
In many ways, large and small, as we live our lives, we find ourselves confronted with a brute fact about how little we can know about our futures, just when it is most important to us that we do know. If that’s right, then for many big life choices, we only learn what we need to know after we’ve done it, and we change ourselves in the process of doing it. In the end, it may be that the most rational response to this situation is to change the way we frame these big decisions: instead of choosing based on what we think our futures will be like, we should choose based on whether we want to discover who we’ll become.
Welcome to August and the first in a series of YALSAblog posts all about getting ready for the new school year.
I don’t think there is a better way to get started thinking about going back to school then to check-in with YALSAblog readers about how you are implementing the ideas in the Future of Library Service for and with Teens: A Call to Action report published by YALSA in January of this year.
Thinking about the fall and the programs and services we’ll work on with and for teens during the school year is a great time to learn about what others are doing that connect to the ideas in YALSA’s report. At the YALSAblog we’d love to hear what you have made happen that connect to what’s outlined in the report. For example:
Have you added or expanded or started connected learning opportunities for teens in your library? If you have questions about what connected learning is all about and what you might do with teens in that area check out the YALSAblog’s previous posts on that topic or pages 8-10 in the report.
In what ways are you giving teens opportunities to connect with mentors and coaches in order to help them learn about the topics in which they are most interested? See pages 21-23 in the report for more on this topic.
Are you finding new or expanded ways to integrate services that help teens to gain a variety of literacy skills from print literacy to media literacy to digital literacy? See pages 6-8 in the report for more on this topic.
Have you found a new way to think about the way you staff your teen services in order to better support the current and future needs of teens? See page 24 in the report for more on this topic.
Are there new ways you are thinking about the way that you provide space to teens? See pages 23-24 in the report for more on this topic.
Have you expanded or re-thought your ideas about collaborations and partnerships in order to move into the future of service for and with teens? See pages 13-14 and 23 in the report for more on this topic.
I bet lots of YALSAblog readers are doing great things that demonstrate the ideas in the YALSA “futures report.” And, I bet that there are library staff working with teens that wonder, “how do I get started implementing the ideas in the report?” There is no better time to start talking about the successes and challenges of bringing the future of library service to teens in your libraries than as you plan for the 2014/15 school year in your library. Let’s hear what you’ve been able to try out as a result of reading the report and/or what you are struggling with in terms of the report in the comments.
The discussion of the future starts now!
And, by the way, there are some great ways for you to keep up with what’s going on in the world of libraries and education as it relates to the future of services for and with teens. Try these Twitter hashtags to get started:
#act4teens – the tag started by YALSA for all ideas related to how libraries and others are supporting the needs of teens.
#connectedlearning – all about what connected learning is and how we can improve the lives of youth through connected learning experiences.
I have longtime family friends who live in Ashfield a town in central-west Massachusetts and that is about half the size of the town that I live in. Their library, the Belding Library, is celebrating its centennial with events all summer long and they invited me to talk about the future and .. where it is?
William Gibson’s notable phrase that I repeat often is “The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed” which I’ve taken as reflective of the digital divide issues generally. I have neighbors struggling with dial-up. Singapore has 100MB broadband available for $39/month. These differences matter but and wind up, over very short time periods, enhancing divides that may have started out smaller. And for technology’s end users, sometimes it can be confusing why this isn’t all better or easier by now since in many other cases we really are living in the future that we had envisioned when we were younger. So I talked a bit about that, and why we’re not there yet, and ways to make technology attractive to people so that they can possibly dip their toes into a fun project before they get stuck being forced to use it for an unfun project like taxes or health care or filing for unemployment.
As someone who has a background in feminist studies, I know that the naming of things is important. There is a power in a name, and politics exist within the realm of naming as well.
What does this have to do with libraries and librarianship? Quite a bit.
When I was in library school back in the mid 90s, my graduate school was going through reaccreditation. One of the issues on the table was renaming the school. On the table was changing the degree from a Masters in Library and Information Studies to a Masters in Information Studies. Heated debates ensued, but at the end of it all, the students felt that it was really important to leave the word library in the title of the degree.
In the world of school libraries, after a stint of media centers, it seems that the term of favor now is Information Commons. My response to this is that I think that the very idea of information commons is implicit in the idea of libraries. I do understand that the term IC is probably much sexier when it comes to funding. Whenever I tell folks I am a school I usually get a chuckle and nudge and told either I don't look like a librarian, or asked if I still teach Dewey. I know if I told them I was worked in an information commons in an academic setting I might get a little more respect. I find myself, however, sticking to the terms library and librarian.
Trust me, I have done plenty of reflection regarding whether or not I am simply becoming one of those "GET OFF MY LAWN" people. I really don't think that is it. I don't think that I am clinging to something that is outdated. Rather, I think that folks really need to broaden their view of what it means to be a librarian and work in a library.
What do you think is in a name?
0 Comments on What's In A Name as of 6/24/2014 11:13:00 PM
“The report of my death was an exaggeration.” So said Mark Twain in 1897, and I’m wondering if Barnes & Noble might be saying the same thing right about now.
Over the last week, an article by Michael Levin has been making the rounds, causing fear and trembling among certain groups of authors and publishing folks. Syndicated on news websites all over the U.S., Levin’s article predicts that Barnes & Noble may close all the rest of their stores by the end of the year. It proposes five reasons for B&N’s demise, and goes on to lament the awful tragedy this would be. (You can read a version of the article HERE.)
I just want to add my two cents to the pot:
Everybody, get a grip.
1. We’ve known for a long time that B&N’s position was—and is—precarious. This is not news. (Forecasting “B&N closing by the end of the year” is, however, a great way to get lots of clicks and shares.)
2. While it could happen, we haven’t seen any evidence that B&N will be dead before 2015. This business is always rampant with rumors, and what good does it do? I prefer to ignore attention-seeking prognostications and wait for the real news.
Now, let’s say Mr. Levin’s prediction is correct. What then?
I daresay the world won’t end. Things will change for publishers and readers and everyone in between—but things have already been changing and we ought to be used to it by now. It’s not as if publishers are unaware that this could happen. And it’s not as if readers are clinging to B&N as their last and only hope for access to books.
Let’s take a few of the statements in this article and expose them to the light.
“Literary agent David Vigliano says that the disappearance of bookstores, and the move to buying books on Amazon, represents the death of browsing.”
No offense to either Mr. Levin or Mr. Vigliano, but this is categorically untrue. Millions of readers are browsing just fine, thank you very much, online and in (gasp) libraries. Why do you think B&N is having so much trouble? Not just because of showrooming (people browsing in the store, then buying online.) But because many, many readers have already made the switch to online browsing and are having no trouble finding the reading material they want.
“Serendipity – the sweet surprise of happening upon an unexpected book – is an experience that can happen only in a bookstore.”
This feels to me like the ranting of Luddites who can’t get used to this thing called the Internet. They can’t believe that it actually WORKS. Again, this statement is so untrue as to be almost ridiculous. Millions of readers are experiencing “serendipitous” sweet surprises much more often nowadays via the Internet than they ever could from walking into a bookstore.
“Yes, Amazon’s algorithms can point you to books you may like, but there’s no substitute for wandering the aisles of a bookstore, looking into a section you might never have visited before, and finding a new author or subject you had never considered.”
Oh, brother. I regularly find new authors and subjects I’d never considered—by tuning in to NPR and the Wall Street Journal, by following smart bloggers, by checking Facebook every now and then, by belonging to a book group, by browsing on Goodreads, and by having actual conversations with actual people. I have probably been in B&N five times in the last five years—and I read as many books as almost anyone I know.
“Barnes & Noble killed privately owned bookstores, and Amazon and technology are killing B&N. It’s downright Darwinian.”
It took a lot more than B&N to drive many privately-owned bookstores out of business—it was the advent of digital books, and it was all the big stores (Borders, Walmart, Costco, etc), and it was Amazon. But think about it. If B&N folds, it might be exactly what we need to bring back the privately-owned local bookstore that knows how to serve its own community.
Could B&N close this year? Sure. Would it be a tragedy of epic proportions? No, except for the fact that many would lose their jobs because of it. My heart goes out to those people.
Publishers (and writers, and agents, and everyone else in the book food chain) will figure out how to rally. We’ve been adjusting to massive changes for half a decade already, and there’s more to come. I understand it’s difficult to deal with uncertainty (you have no idea how well I understand this). But I’m so over the drama, and the fear, and the hand-wringing.
Let’s keep looking ahead at the possible changes in our industry, and asking ourselves: What’s good about this change? How does it bring us into the future? What do I need to do to adjust to this change? Does it offer any opportunity for me?
A quite lively discussion has blown in from space on a friends Face-postcard about something I forgot because it went a completely different way in short order and is now a history lesson on indigenous peoples.
It was said the “Native “”American”” people” were here first and that they claim to be “Indigenous” and that they have their traditional stories to back up their claim to properties etc.
That got me to thinking (usually leads to minor disasters) that just because someone in your past lived some place and told creation stories doesn’t always mean you have any more rights than the guy who was born there after you lost the battle, in my case way after.
I know, growing up, my mother used to tell me, when I asked how I got here that I came from heaven and perhaps, if I’m a good boy, God will give me land there again though I think he may balk at the casino I want to build even if it is to take all the sinner’s money or credits or what ever the currency of his realm is.
And further more if in the past there was only one super continent, Pangaea or what ever they really called it, then we all have a claim to everywhere cause we are all descendants of the original inhabitants and I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut there aint anywho who can tell me where they thought they came from even after the break up.
I thought perhaps we are all from Mars via the Pleiades star system but had to leave cause the Marshonians wanted the place back so we moved on as they had come from the Hercules system to Mars first.
To send every one back to where they came from is stupid, you can’t fit that many people on Ellis Island let alone grow enough hemp there to have a trade economy with New York.
I don’t know the answer other than if we don’t start being natives from “EARTH” the little grey men will boot us out and wipe out the myths of our origins from then to eternity.
It’s a race none us may win …
0 Comments on To be Indigenous or not to be that isn’t a good question even! as of 5/2/2014 10:21:00 PM
I've written about this before, but it requires reinforcement.
I hate it when a writer doesn't know the difference between writing in present and past tense (I like both if done correctly). Lately I've picked up several books that have both tenses in the same paragraph, sometimes the same sentence. Those books quickly end up on my discard pile even if I genuinely enjoyed the premise. I can forgive one or two lapses, but not an entire book.
Verb tense cues the reader in to when an action took place. Verb tenses should change only when there is a change in time.
In terms of story structure, there are only two specific tenses to worry about: present and past.
It most commercial fiction, the stories are written in what is considered past tense. That doesn’t mean a sentence cannot use a different tense if required. Rather, the story is related as if it had already happened and the reader is only now learning about it from the point of view character.
Stories written in present tense are less common and relate the story as if it is happening right at that very moment to the point of view character. Writing an entire novel in present tense is tricky.
The rest of the complex verb forms are marked by words called auxiliaries. Grasping the six basic tenses allows a writer to control the timeframe of the scenes through the sentence structure.
Problems in sequencing tenses tend to occur with the perfect tenses, all of which are formed by adding words to the past participles: had, have, will, and will have. The most common add-ons are: be, can, do, has, have, had, may, must, ought, shall, will, and would.
Verb tense alerts you to narrator intrusions.
Sally didn’t understand yet that her life would never be the same.
Aside from poor foreshadowing, if you’ve been using past tense, you just launched the reader into a future timeframe.
Let’s review verb tenses in detail.
·Present tense: When using present tense, the verb choice reflects an unchanging, repeated, or reoccurring action or situation that exists in the present. Few stories are written in present tense.
I stroke his hair.
His hand slides down my arm, his thumb searching for a pulse.
·Present progressive tense describes an ongoing action that is happening at the same time the statement is written. This tense is formed by using am, is, are with the verb form ending in ing.
I am stroking his hair.
We are walking the dog.
The sun is shining.
·Present perfect tense refers to something that happened at an indefinite time in the past or that began in the past and continues into the present. It uses have or had in combination with the past participle of the verb, usually ending in ed. Irregular verbs have special past participles.
We have searched high and low and cannot find it.
We have been using this process for five years.
·Present perfect progressive tense describes an action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. This tense is formed by using has and have been and the present participle of the verb ending in ing.
We have been considering the possibility of retiring to Florida.
·Past Tense
When using past tense, the verb choice expresses an action or situation that started and finished in the past and usually ends in ed. Irregular verbs have special past tense forms. Most commercial fiction is written in past tense.
Sally reached for the knife.
Dick raced down the stairs.
I led the charge into the building.
·Past progressive tense is used to describe a past action which was happening when another action occurred and uses was and were with a verb ending in ing.
I was reaching for his knife.
Dick was racing down the stairs when the alarm sounded.
This tense is considered passive and writers are encouraged to do a search and kill for sentences using was plus ing. Try searching for the word wasin your draft. It will take hours, but do it. Get rid of as many as you can.
·Past perfect tense is used for an action that took place in the past before another past action. This tense is formed by using had with the past participle of the verb.
By the time we arrived, the fight had ended.
·Past perfect progressive tense references a past but ongoing action that was completed before some other past action. This tense is formed by using had been and the present perfect form of the verb ending in ing.
Before the alarm rang, the firemen had been cooking dinner and playing poker.
·Future Tense
Future tense expresses a situation that has not yet occurred. It uses will or shall.
Dick will go the store on Monday.
Jane shall meet the deadline.
·Progressive future tense describes an ongoing or continuous action that will take place in the future. This tense is formed by using will be or shall be with a verb ending in ing.
Jane will be singing with the choir on July fourth.
·Future perfect tense refers to an action that will occur in the future before some other action. This tense is formed by using will have with the past participle of the verb.
By the time we arrive in London, the tour bus will have been waiting there for several days.
·Future perfect progressive tense refers to a future, ongoing action that will occur before some specified future time, using will have been and the present participle of verbs ending in ing.
By this time next year, we will have been publishing and selling more books than we ever imagined.
Shifting viewpoint does not mean shifting tense. If you are attributing thoughts to a character, you do not shift into the present tense to express them unless you are writing the piece in present tense.
Incorrect: “I really hate them,” she thinks.
Correct: “I really hate them,” she thought.
Shifting tense and misuse of tense are plot holes. They are hard to ignore and interrupt the flow. It forces the reader to re-read a sentence or paragraph. Subtle, unintended time shifts create confusion. A reader might have to stop and ask, “Did he or will he?”
Perfecting verb tense is a rudinmentary skill every writer needs in their writing toolkit.
0 Comments on Verb Tension as of 5/2/2014 9:51:00 AM
Hi there. Long time no see. It’s me, not you. I’ve been slack.
But tonight I’m putting a hold on the smoothies I promised to make for D and myself, in order to write this post. So listen up. Because it’s important. And because smoothies are on the line!
Lately I’ve been feeling down in the dumps, and it’s not just because of my recent terriblehaircut. It’s also because of a project I’ve been working on, which is not going quite where I want it to. It’s gotten so that the last few days I’ve been trying to think of a reason not to quit. Because somehow I got to this point where quitting doesn’t even feel like quitting. It just feels like not continuing, which doesn’t really sound as bad. Does that make sense? It does to me.
But I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this project. You always hear stories where people were so close to quitting when they finally met with success, so I thought, maybe that’s where I am. Maybe I should hang in there a bit longer. But what’s the point? I need a reason. A really rock-solid reason not to quit–something that will actually force me to keep going. Because this is kind of new for me. I don’t quit. Never. Not really. I’m not even bragging because honestly, sometimes it’s a curse. If I get it in my head to do something, then I JUST. WON’T. LET. IT. GO. So ordinarily what keeps me from giving up is that I can’t admit defeat. But this time that isn’t enough.
Because I kind of want to quit. I’ve turned it into something other than defeat. I’ve turned it into the realistic, responsible thing to do. It would save me a lot of grief (read: feeling depressed at my lack of success and guilty for doing anything besides working on my project). It would be easier.
So, while I was washing dishes tonight, the answer kind of came to me in the form of this blog post. (It seems like I always get half-decent ideas while I’m washing dishes. You might think that’s a good enough reason to wash dishes more often, but I’m still not sold.) Anyway, I was trying to think of one good reason not to quit and I realized it was actually pretty simple: If I quit, then I’ll definitely be in the exact same place that I am right now. Forever. My project can’t possibly succeed. And the disappoint that I feel right now will never go away–why would it? But if I don’t quit–if I keep on trying–then there remain two possibilities ahead of me: One is that I might never succeed. I might remain exactly where I am right now. Forever. With one exception: at least I would know I didn’t give up. But the other possibility is that I will eventually succeed. Until I eliminate that possibility, it’s still out there. It could still happen.
If I quit, then all I do is eliminate hope. I control the future by closing off all possibilities except the one I don’t want.
And hope is enough to keep me going. I wouldn’t condemn anyone to disappointment–I want all your dreams to come true. So why would I do any less for myself?
One of my college professors paraphrased Thomas Edison, and I’ll never forget it. At the time, I thought he made it up. I thought he was a genius. So I will always think of R.L. before poor T.E. when I hear the words, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
I guess what I’m saying is, don’t give up. I won’t if you don’t.
That is the question! The answer is in you. Will you be who you yearn to be in this life? Will you accomplish your dreams? Much of it is up to you.
My neighbor is an example. I met her three years ago. I was so excited to have an artist move in next door! She is a potter and when I visited her she would show me what she was making. She had some really fun pieces.
Last December she agreed to be in a garden show. She was one of two artists that would show their work in a specific garden. She knew she needed to fill the yard so she began in earnest to produce pieces with a garden theme. All winter long the kiln was firing wonderful creations! Colorful pots, bird houses and bird baths began oozing out of her garage. Her work began taking on a personality and a style like no other artist. I saw her grow in her skills.
Last Wednesday was set-up day. We placed her art all over the yard. By the time we finished, the yard look like it was out of a fairy tale! I could see that her pieces told a story. There was color everywhere! We were so excited!
We returned on Saturday for the sale. No sooner did we sit down at our table when the crowd of visitors began forming a line to buy my friends pottery. The line did not stop until the day ended. It was wonderful!!! All of her hard work paid off.
So what is my point? Find what you love and DO it! Find a way! Keep moving in the direction. To be or NOT to be? It’s up to you!
I was sitting in the movie theater today, minding my own business, (and Captain Kirks!), when all of the sudden three words came to me. “Change Your Destiny”. I was so surprised that I dug down into my purse ( the black hole), looking for my notebook so i might them down.
Along with the words came a sudden rush of hope and direction for my future. Instead of watching the Star Trek movie I began thinking of things I could turn around in my life that would mean a different future, even 3 months from now.
How many times in our lives do we stay the course because it is easy or familiar? What would happen if we chose three things in each day, and purposed in our hearts to do them differently? Perhaps that wild mean venturing out to see a neighbor you hadn’t seen in a while? Or put down that cheese sandwich and opt for a salad? Why not carve out an hour of the day to work on your novel or write a letter to a relative? Maybe it’s time you tackle your To Do List?
I will think out loud here and list some different areas of interest to me.
God
Family
Friends
Job
Exercise
Diet
Home front
Hobbies
Inspiration
Gardening
Under each heading could be multiple topics.
Imagine if you took a new course of action for each heading, each day. How might that change your life by this time next year? Just think! You could come to the end of the year a new person. Or perhaps you might become the person you were meant to be? What area might you work on this week?
Heaven! The final frontier! But what will you do before that??? I LOVE the thought of CHA CHA CHANGE!!!
First of all I would like to say excellent blog! I had a quick question which I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your head before writing. I have had difficulty clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas out. I do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas or hints? Kudos!
Leslie Ann Clark said, on 5/19/2013 7:38:00 PM
Why thank you. I enjoy writing too. If it’s a subject I really love, it comes out easy. It nearly pours out on to the page. If I am writing a story book, I find that going for a walk helps me to get my thoughts together. Then, when I get home, I write quickly and edit later. I wrote two children’s books that way. The other two books were written in the mountains when I was alone. I like quiet so I can concentrate. Noises distract me, except for the hum of the washer and dryer! ha! That is only the way it works for me. Some folks like music playing. Blog posts I can write anywhere. It’s like talking to friends. But working on stories is a little more complicated. Coffee shop writing is also fun, but best if you don’t know anyone in the coffee shop to distract you. Hope that helps! Happy writing!!!
dpualumni45 said, on 6/6/2013 10:27:00 AM
Excellent, excellent…did I say EXCELLENT!!! Les, I LOVE the title of this one! I’m still learning to ‘LIVE ON MY TIPPY TOES!’ I also do some blogging, but like your reader above, when I decide to do my writing, I have so many thoughts running through my head that I can’t seem to untangle them. I’m gonna keep plugging at though! Keep em comin’ Les!
Leslie Ann Clark said, on 6/6/2013 7:38:00 PM
oh sweet friend! I think of you often! Life gets so busy at times! We keep moving on! We keep following our dreams. Those dreams that are placed in us by God! Please do give me the link to your blog! I would love to read what you are thinking! … and to hear about Patryke too!!
Last weekend was my alma mater’s high school graduation. A thrilling, momentous (and gorgeous) day! It made me think back to my own graduation and the fact that what scared me at 18 scares me still: moving forward into the unknown. In fact, if I could go back and give myself advice it would probably be this: The future is scary. It never stops being scary. Get used to it. And don’t be scared.
Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to leave high school, to venture out of state to college, to make new friends and take classes towards two majors I was passionate about (screenwriting! creative writing! so much writing!). But I was also terrified. My high school was a cocoon of all that was familiar and comfortable and good. Not that every day was bliss. There were fights and tears and stress. But what I realized on graduation night was that I wasn’t ready to leave. I’m never ready to leave: not school, not a party, not vacation. I’m not ready to leave for work in the morning, and I’m not ready to leave work in the afternoon. And I’m NEVER ready to go to bed at night, no matter how tired I feel.
I spent much of the summer before college doing what I loved: reading–and finally there was no required reading. Free to read what I wanted, I think I read nothing but Orson Scott Card. I’m not going to get political here because this was during an innocent time before the internet gobbled me whole, so these books were merely the words on the page and what I brought to them.
I remember it so clearly. I was sitting on the deck at my parents’ house, feeling sorry for myself because in a few months time I would be far away from the beautiful rolling hills, when I came to one specific passage.
Alvin grimaced at him. ‘Taleswapper, I’m not ready to leave home yet.’
‘Maybe folks have to leave home before they’re ready, or they never get ready at all.”
I stopped and read it again. Because although I had not named it out loud, that was me. I was Alvin. And Taleswapper’s words were exactly what I needed to hear: it’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to not feel ready. Because if you wait to feel ready, then you’ll be waiting forever. Sometimes you have to jump out of the plane and trust that your parachute will open.*
*(Please note, I have never been sky diving, but I know someone who has, so that’s almost the same thing, right?)
It’s funny to think back to that day, because it it planted a seed which has motivated me many times since. Not always, of course. Sometimes I still chicken out. But sometimes when anxiety refuses to release its stranglehold: a new relationship, a new job, a new adventure–I find myself thinking back to those wise words, and I realize that I will be okay, because I’m always okay.
And if Orson Scott Card is not your bent, a good friend of mine recently gave me a new mantra, one that she repeats to her daughter whenever she is scared worried. “You are BRAVE. You are STRONG. You are WONDERFUL. And YOU will be fine.” What better words could you ever need?
There are so many things I could have missed out on, if I gave into fear:
So do you embrace the future at full tilt? Or are you worry-wart* like me?
*(Officially diagnosed by my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Burton. Thanks for that.)
I grew up watching The Jetsons (“Jane, stop this crazy thing!”), going to Tomorrow Land at Disneyland, and reading stories about what life would be like after the year 2000.
To be honest, I believe that they're the reason God has me here on Earth. I've known this since I was a teen. I may have even subconsciously known this as a kid. It started when my brother and sister were born. When I was seven, my brother three and my sister one, we played school in my room. They'd sit between my stuffed animals as my students. It was a game, but I taught them how to read, write, and count. They were the first children God used me to educate. After them, I kept going: working in the church's nursery before I was even 10; babysitting as a teen; teaching children's Sunday school & working with preteens & teens at church; tutoring; teaching...the list goes on. And now, I'm working on a writing career, mentoring program, & an enrichment center.
Everything I do will always go back to my purpose. My writing career? Children & teens. My mentoring program? For girls (ages 5 - 18). Enrichment center? Children & teens. When I graduate with my doctorate - prayerfully within a year or two - I plan to use it to do reading research so I can help better education for our youth. I even thought of becoming an advocate for youth who can't speak up for themselves.
Some people go through life never knowing their purpose. Why am I here? What should I do? I'm blessed to have had my purpose revealed to me at a young age. My mission is to educate, enrich, & empower children/teens. I have no doubt this is what God has called me to do.
5 Comments on K is for...Kids, last added: 4/14/2012
That's amazing that you are so close to your doctorate. I might maybe some day maybe go for my master's degree. It's a nice feeling to know what your purpose in life is. As far as careers go, I was an administrative assistant, then went back to school to become a teacher (and totally felt called to do that). It took 6 and a half years to get certified. Then three years after graduating a second time, still no permanent teaching position. Only a few temporary positions here and there, for which I was also extremely grateful. Then, I got back into my writing. But this time, I write for kids. Picture books. All my experiences have led me to this place. Life is a fun journey, especially when we recognize that God is on our side.
I so agree about life being a fun journey when God is on our side. I taught for one yr, went to get my Masters, subbed for 8 years, & now I'm back in the classroom, except on the other side of the world. But I know I'm not meant to be in the classroom forever (hence my enrichment center/writing career). Isn't writing for kids awesome?!
I'm lucky enough to work with children, so even though I don't have any of my own yet, I know how precious they are. Infuriating at times, yes, but precious. :)
You a blessed to know God's purpose for you at a young age, Rae, so you don't have to waste precious time! Enjoy the remainder of the Challenge. MakingTheWriteConnections
While I love dystopians, I’m reading one right now that in the middle did not hurdle the two biggest problems I see in them:
1. big plot holes (sometimes how the world got to be the way it is makes no sense)
2. one character explaining at length to another character how they got where they are (including lengthy paragraphs that appeal to all five senses, AKA talking like no one you’ve ever heard in real life), otherwise known as an info dump, or, if it’s something both characters already know, “as you know, Bob” dialog).
One of the, if not The, deepest questions of the universe.
You have to start with what you believe is the force that is the creator of this life I believe.
Some think of GOD as a human type creature in who’s image we are created, with long flowing hair, robes to make him modest though he needs to hide nothing from his creations as I see it, and a celestial kingdom where he, or she in some cases, sits reining judgement down upon the works he designed and gave free will to.
I can not see that which created me in such limited form. I can not even envelope the concept of never ending or forever just because I am temporary in this form at least. I do however believe I was created from and by the “GOD” that has no limits and this is exactly why I think I am made in it’s likeness, BUT not in it’s totality, there are things missing if I am separate FROM God, God did not make me GOD, God, or even god, GOD made me human, GOD made everything else what it is too I believe but I think, like one atom in my body or even smaller than that, to infinity small, that part is still a part of GOD though never “GOD”, only a part, that the smallest part of me is still me, I am made in the likeness of and from GOD, I am alive, that smallest part of me is alive, GOD must also be alive if we are all part of everlasting life.
Conclusion; Life never begins, it is never ended, It IS!
Consciousness in itself does not prove to me that I am not alive.
The fact that when sperm and egg combine and the DNA messages combine to spark cell multiplication (The spark of life if you will) and a plan is put into affect to form a body which will make a human or any other living thing would seem to be life to me.
BUT it was life even before that! The EGG and the SPERM were also alive, donated by the life forms of at least two separate beings, who were made in the image of GOD, who is also alive.
GOD talks to all of us in GOD’s own way. Some hear “Him” like “He” was talking in their language and sitting having tea I suppose. Others see the “Great Spirit” manifest as all that surrounds us and all that can not be seen or even heard but that still is. I am more from that camp I suppose but still believe all is possible.
The right to life for me is hard to conceive when I believe that life is never ending. The right to life is not for me to tell you, you may or may not have though if you threaten my life I will not hesitate to use what ever is at my disposal to protect mine and stop yours!
The question to me is more the quality of the life you give rather than just letting all life happen. If all in creation is from GOD then even the worst of it is sacred and the Jaines may be correct and may have more in line with current Christian values than most think. But if we do not take into account what we offer, if a human is brought into this world through violent action that threatens the life that brings it who is the killer here? The mother who was raped or is too young and will surely die from the birth or the entity being born who would kill it’s mother, most assuredly it would be the rapist but can we take his life either? I would say it is not my place to judge any of these unless they are me. I WILL FIGHT FOR MY LIFE! But a Mother must make the call of giving herself for another in my view. It may seem selfish or unjust but it must be hers with as much help and support from all sides as she can get. Advise and support but not Judgement and in the end her decision as final carrier of that which will always be alive to enter into this world.
If you believe in eternal life you will not be sad for the soul who returns to it’s maker but wish it return another time
1 Comments on When Life Begins, last added: 2/26/2012
Once during a time before this time there was an advanced group of people living on what is now called earth. They were advanced enough to be in the beginnings of off world flight and living for extended ages in the quite of space. These people had several colonies on outer planets and were mining comets for iron to build fantastic ships that would support large colonies for ages in flight to other galaxies.
By the time they had 3 expeditions launched the earth was pretty depleted of those who were capable of living off planet even with their work in the nano-health sciences making the remaining population live longer and healthier, the greatest of their minds had opted for the grand travel in search of new worlds and higher learning.
As the last, as it turned out, star ship was leaving the galactic boundaries it learned of a catastrophe about to send solar debris toward earth in a massive wave that was more than the inhabitants could overcome and an almost complete annihilation of life on earth would happen but because they would be drawn in and also destroyed if they tried to reverse course to help, they stayed their course and the ships leader General Odessa Davis sent word to the other outbound vessels of the destruction and that he and his crew would go into dormancy except for the AI and robots who could carry out advanced scientific studies that could be fed into the human bodies as they rested in stasis and would come out after a period of time when it was again safe to venture back to help what ever was left of society in the solar system.
After many eons Davis was awakened, fully rejuvenated by the internal bot-medics, his DNA advanced and most known human physical problems dealt with. His crew as well had been resurrected to a much advanced state of physical ability. The AI was far advanced but still willing to be part of “The new humanity”.
On returning to Earth they found all the outposts along the way had suffered total annihilation and only Earth was left with life but not human in nature. Only larger land animals and ocean creatures lived well but were in an altered state from the creatures who the space dwellers had left behind before the destruction of the planets they knew as home.
The land masses had turned under in the violence and no sign of the former intelligence was in evidence beyond things that were rusting beyond recognition or were soon to be abducted under the volcanic eruptions still roiling upon the surface.
General Odessa Davis’ crew was small compared to the other colony ships human cargo but it had wide diversity in genetic standing. It was agreed that a new human society was to be created on this “New” Earth and their ship would explore the outer reaches of this galaxy while it naturally built itself with no artificial intelligence help.
Science Administrator Thomas Alvin Nester was assigned to find suitable earth hosts for DNA from the ships ancient cold storage to start the new humans on the planet. A few examples where gathered from warm blooded species that could simulate human form though not so close as to copy human form as it was in the past and the most dangerous animals that would be a hazard to these prototype “New lifers” would be eliminated using low tech asteroid bombardment which would also rearrange the world to have more water segregated continents for the experiment to give more chances one would work in favor of a new society that would eventually be allowed to carry on the work of the ancients in outer space while giving diversity to the human body form.
S.A.Thomas A. Nester or as his suit tag read S.A.T.A.N. was told to give the subjects only pure original DNA because G. O. Davis wanted Independent natural growth before any advanced knowledge was invested in this new human experiment. But Nester thought he knew more about science and what should be the new form of things than the General and allowed advanced knowledge to be a
0 Comments on Heavy Velocity Nano-science ship 1 as of 1/1/1900
These are the (I'm sure deliberately) provocative words of novelist Ewan Morrison in The Guardian: "Ebooks, in the future, will be written by first-timers, by teams, by speciality subject enthusiasts and by those who were already established in the era of the paper book. The digital revolution will not emancipate writers or open up a new era of creativity, it will mean that writers offer up their work for next to nothing or for free. Writing, as a profession, will cease to exist."
You can read more here, although he takes some liberties, such as claiming that the NY Times endorsed downloading ebooks for which you already had a physical copy, when that was a single columnist, not their editorial board.
Margaret Atwood says about the business of book selling: ““It’s not like selling beer. It’s not like selling a case of this and a case of that and doing a campaign that works for all of the beer.” You’re selling one book – not even one author any more. Those days are gone, when you sold, let’s say, “Graham Greene” almost like a brand. You’re selling one book, and each copy of that book has to be bought by one reader and each reading of that book is by one unique individual. It’s very specific.”
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins caught my attention quickly and held it fast throughout the rest of the book. The cliffhanger ending prompted me to buy the next two books without thinking twice.
A book like this makes you think about your situation as it is today and the direction everything is going. It is clearly set in a futuristic United States, but it's no future any of us (hopefully) would ever want. It has a corrupt government in every sense of the word. People nowadays may not be happy with the way things are going, but at least we aren't publicly whipped or shot if we want to speak out against things that are happening. We still have so many freedoms that The Hunger Games shows us we should be thankful for.
Who could live in a world where "games" are held every year pitting people–teenagers–against each other in a battle for their lives? Aside from that there is a constant fear of starvation or a fear of things getting worse than they already are, though that is hard to imagine. This government has torturous ways of dealing with difficulties that keeps everyone terrified.
One girl, a hunter who just wants to keep her family alive, especially her little sister, is faced with what she considers no choice. She enters the hunger games to save her sister from having to go. This sacrifice leads her down a road she can't turn away from. Her hunting skills and ability to out-think her opponents–and the government–are the only things keeping her alive. For now. But will the government let her truly win the games?
.jpg?picon=160)
I don’t think there is a better way to get started thinking about going back to school then to check-in with YALSAblog readers about how you are implementing the ideas in the 
“The report of my death was an exaggeration.” So said Mark Twain in 1897, and I’m wondering if Barnes & Noble might be saying the same thing right about now.
.png.jpg?picon=4257)
.jpeg?picon=3304)
Last weekend was my alma mater’s high school graduation. A thrilling, momentous (and gorgeous) day! It made me think back to my own graduation and the fact that what scared me at 18 scares me still: moving forward into the unknown. In fact, if I could go back and give myself advice it would probably be this: The future is scary. It never stops being scary. Get used to it. And don’t be scared.
Good for Juanita… She showed what having a goal can do for a person!
Yes!!! She worked so hard!