I'M OLD

AND THAT'S OKAY. ISN'T THAT RIGHT, THE DOUBLECLICKS? RIGHT.


http://youtu.be/zCF_js2y0Ec

I don't have any big plans for my birthday this year—mostly because, honestly, it'll be hard to top last year's incredible awesomeness—but it's been a really good year so far...

• I self-published a collection of my 512 Words or Fewer stories
• We went on our fourth JoCo Cruise Crazy, and ran our best puzzle-hunt-at-sea yet
• I went to Clarion West!
• I got an agent!!
• Puzzled Pint grew to ten cities
• I sold more short fiction, including my first SFWA qualifying pro sale!!!
• I've been invited to present at StoryCon this month and the SFWA Readings next month

What's next? Well...

• More short fiction sales, hopefully (I currently have nine stories out on submission, of which three have been shortlisted)
• We'll see what happens with Waypoint Kangaroo, the novel my agent is trying to sell
• I'm going to the Surrey International Writers' Conference for the first time
• I'll be doing NaNoWriMo again, of course
• It looks like Puzzled Pint will expand to eleven cities this month

Life is good. :)

I Am Going to Clarion West

When the phone rang on the afternoon of Saturday, March 15th, I didn't answer it because I didn't recognize the number. The call rolled over to voicemail, and a few minutes later I got this transcript by e-mail:



(Though that first sentence contains some egregious errors, I can't help but imagine what a "craigslist writers workshop" might look like.)

I listened to the message at least twice before I called back, leaving my own voicemail and initiating the twentieth-century practice known as "phone tag." I then returned to whatever I was doing, a bit distracted because why would Clarion West call me if they were just going to reject me again? I'd applied several times before, starting in 2008, and they'd always sent responses by e-mail. Could it be? I did my best not to get my hopes up. Maybe there was a question about my application info, or some kind of file problem with my uploaded writing sample PDF.

Anyway, long story short, they called back about an hour later, and this time I picked up the phone. I don't quite recall the details of the conversation because I was alternately nervous, excited, and flustered throughout. But the gist of it is: they offered me a spot in this year's workshop, I said yes, and now I'm going to spend part of this summer at "an intensive six-week workshop in Seattle’s University District, geared to help [me] prepare for a professional career as a writer of speculative fiction."

Wow.

I almost didn't apply to either Clarion workshop this year, because the one-two punch of annual rejections from both of them had become a pretty discouraging ritual. But DeeAnn convinced me to do it, because if nothing else, the process would force me to (1) write two new short stories and (2) reflect on why I had wanted to go to a Clarion workshop in the first place. And she was right, as usual. I was rejected again by Clarion UCSD, but now I have two great new stories to submit to paying markets; and writing my "backgrounder" essay for Clarion West reminded me of why I do what I do. Even if I hadn't gotten in, that would have helped me keep on keepin' on.

So that's the big news from the last couple of weeks. This will be the longest workshop I've ever attended. Some people describe the Clarion experience as "boot camp for spec-fic writers," and I'm hoping it will be at least as motivating and focusing as Viable Paradise was for me, nearly six years ago. I've been working at this writing thing for a while now—over twenty years, if you count my high school scribblings and ignore my long hiatus in the late 1990s and early 2000s—and I'm ready to take the next step into a larger world.

My 40th Birthday Survey Results

TL;DR: Despite an unfair advantage, my sister still wins. :)

Back in September, I asked people (by e-mail and social media) to fill out a quick survey describing how long we've known each other, where we met, and their first impressions of me in five words or fewer. It turned out to be the second best birthday present ever! (The best was, of course, The Double Secret Game.) Below are the results of this completely unscientific study.

I received 110 total responses, the first on September 4th (DeeAnn, testing the form) and the last on October 2nd, the day after my actual birthday. The majority of the responses--71 people, or just over 65%--came in during "opening weekend" (Thursday, September 5th, through Sunday, September 9th).

Mmm... pie chart...

Not surprisingly, the biggest segment of responders was in the 2-5 year range (2008-2010). We moved to our current home area--Portland, Oregon--in late 2008, and about a year later started making a real effort to get out of the house and meet people. There's another big cluster of responses in the 1-2 year range (2011-2012), which includes several Sea Monkeys and more awesome Portlanders.

The second biggest segment was the 10-20 year range (1992-2002), which includes some college friends, my wife, and other people we know from living in the San Francisco Bay Area for over a decade. Many of those are Gamers, and all of them are fantastically creative and generous, because that's how we met them: through doing cool stuff for fun!

My favorite part, though, is the five-word first impressions. Here's the word cloud (minus seven people who opted out of this public analysis):

"IN NO MORE THAN FIVE(5) WORDS: what was your FIRST IMPRESSION of me?"

Of course, some of those individual words don't make much sense out of context. In no particular order, here are a few of my favorite five-word first impressions:

• "Tall guy likes Star Trek"
• "quiet, tall, and hungry"
• "Quiet, but lots in there."
• "Kind of mopey, I think."
• "inclusive trekkie asian ambitious nice"
• "Guy interviewing me" (from a former co-worker)
• "He looks like Mr. Spock."
• "He likes everything I like!"
• "Intriguing -not normal"
• "still waters run deep"
• "someone I'd like to meet"
• "Clever non-aardvark Bastard"

But honestly, it's the entire collection of responses that is most striking. You can see some of that in the word cloud--I am clearly known far and wide for my love of Star Trek, and also for being tall and quiet. I guess I knew a lot of this already, but it's nice to have actual data. You know, science and all that.

I also provided a form field labeled "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" in case five words wasn't enough. Some of those responses were pretty great, too:

• "Yes, but I had a stroke so I can't write it."
• "Don't make a fucking W with your fingers.
  
  It's been great getting to know you over the years through games, social events, and those crimes we agreed never to discuss. Here's looking forward to another 9 years! Cheers!
  
  Corby"
• "Dude, if I could remember things that happened years ago, I wouldn't have got into the habit of writing stuff down. So, uhm, don't trust that memory of your first impression too far. Oh, wait, I write stuff down, so I don't have to remember: Here's the earliest mention of you on my site: http://lahosken.san-francisco.ca.us/anecdotal/hunt/5/05.html#happybirthday"
• "Funny, the 'how long have we known each other' question was surprisingly difficult to answer. I played in your Hogwarts Game in 2006, but don't really think that counts - I was looking for some kind of definitive 'social' connection. I decided to go with what I could mine from Gmail:
  
  Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:23:59 -0700
  To: Jeff Phillips
  From: Facebook
  Reply-to: noreply
  Subject: Curtis C. Chen confirmed you as a friend on Facebook...
  
  ~Jeff"
• "I like you. I don't want to punch you in the face."
• "Your creativity inspires me!"
• "I think it's a very good reflection on my taste in friends that many of them are able to reinvent themselves, take chances, create new amazing things, and involve others in their projects. You can do all that (and more), and it is for that reason you're my friend."
• "Thanks for introducing me to Larry Niven!" (his books, not personally)
• "The first time we met, I totally profiled you.
  
  Our section of the airport was nearly empty. We were both waiting for our connecting flight to Martha's Vineyard to attend Viable Paradise. I saw you working on a laptop that had a bunch of stickers on it. Laptop and stickers somehow screamed 'science fiction nerd' even though I couldn't see what the stickers were exactly. I consulted my own machine, saw that there were two distinctly Asian names on the VP student list. You looked more like a Chen than a Ha (though of course you could've easily been a Terhune, Johnson, or Kloos). I approached cautiously, half-expecting you to explode: 'What? So you see an Asian guy in an airport and just assume we all write science fiction??!' To my perhaps visible relief, you just smiled and shook my hand.
  
  Happy 40th, Curtis!" (from a VPXII classmate)
• "You introduced me to the Hollywood Bowl. I've been following classical music ever since." (from a high school friend)
• "It was my third date with Wei-Hwa and I remember him inviting us along to dinner with you guys. It was a great time."
• "You know the line from the theme from the movie Shaft that goes 'who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft!'
  
  Well, if you were black, and a detective, and hugely promiscuous, and your name were Shaft instead of Curtis, I would think that song would apply perfectly to you.
  
  And even though you are none of those things, I think the song applies to you anyway.
  
  Happy birthday, Mr. Not an Aardvark!"
• "I heard 'I'm an Aardvark' on my kid's Sesame Street playlist just last week!"
• "Welcome to the old-timers club, sonny."
• "You have only two years to plan your next birthday project. 42. It is the number after all."

But all that said, I think this is my single favorite overall response (from my younger sister):

Thank you to everyone who participated, and thanks for reading all of this rambling analysis! Those interested can view all the public raw data and do the math yourself. Feel free to share your own conclusions in a comment below. :)

SnoutCast #191: "Double Secret" Contributors Corby and Josh

This week, we talk to Josh Ward and Corby Anderson, two of the puzzle creators for my "Double Secret" surprise birthday puzzle hunt!

[ Download mp3 - 23 MB ]

00:59 - "conspiratorial"
03:57 - Josh's puzzle creation story
08:09 - Corby's puzzle creation story
09:37 - everything you need to know about Q is in "Spock Impersonator"
12:22 - fun with Photoshop (or perhaps GIMP)
16:19 - "It's a fake!"
21:40 - yet another link to the slideshow
23:19 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "First of May" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

   

SnoutCast #190: This Was 40

Okay, it's forty-eight--minutes long, that is, if you want to be pedantic. But come on, my wife and some of my best friends made a birthday puzzle hunt just for me. I think I'm allowed to gush for a while.

THANK YOU again to everyone who helped with "The Double Secret Project!" I love you all forever. (Scroll down for the inevitable slideshow.)

[ Download mp3 - 45 MB ]

00:59 - "deceptive"
03:20 - the lying began way back in June
08:16 - a close call in July!
10:29 - The Game began at Genies
15:19 - the first Clue: at which point Curtis knows for sure Matt is involved
19:09 - the second Clue, more revelations, and solving alone is hard
20:59 - the third Clue: Brian, Jeff, and Donna's "chubby tricorder"
25:33 - changing cars, getting kidnapped, and learning about child safety locks
29:19 - the fourth Clue: Q presents some paper dolls
31:50 - the fifth Clue: music to transport by
33:38 - the final Clue: Starship Artemis on stage!
44:27 - (don't worry, we'll talk about The Famine Game soon)
45:10 - upcoming: Ghost Patrol Reconstructed (Halloween night)
48:15 - The End

And here's the slideshow (photos by Britta and Chris, certain terrible music choices by Richard):


http://youtu.be/m3Mv0riLu6o

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton; "The Nerdy Birthday Song" by The Doubleclicks

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

 

This is 40

The last ten days have been full of so much awesome, I can hardly believe it. I'm forty years old now, and I am incredibly happy and grateful to know such wonderful people in the world.

I'll write more later, but meanwhile, check out this slideshow from my surprise puzzle hunt and early birthday party (photos by Britta):


http://youtu.be/m3Mv0riLu6o

And a few of my random photos from The Famine Game:


https://picasaweb.google.com/116737692309729475506/TheFamineGameHighlights?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfA-_PJwdWUew&feat=directlink

Like the song says: life begins at forty. My adventures are just beginning.

SnoutCast #189: Chasing the Raven (Part 2 of 2)

Here's the second half of our conversation with Rich Bragg, Dan Egnor, Wei-Hwa Huang, and Jonathan McCue about their experience playing in the Ravenchase 2013 Great America Race. (You can read their daily blog posts, including photos and puzzle details, at "Bloody, Smoking, and Burning.")

ALSO: Would you like to solve Curtis' 40th birthday puzzle? Or rate this podcast? C'mon, it'll be fun! Thanks in advance. :)

[ Download mp3 - 21 MB ]

04:18 - ...and now, the conclusion!
22:18 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Tom Cruise Crazy" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

     

SnoutCast #188: Chasing the Raven (Part 1 of 2)

What was it like playing in the Ravenchase 2013 Great America Race? Rich Bragg, Dan Egnor, Wei-Hwa Huang, and Jonathan McCue tell us all about it! (You can read their daily blog posts, including photos and puzzle details, at "Bloody, Smoking, and Burning.")

You'll hear the second half of this conversation next week. Meanwhile, tell Curtis how you first met him!

[ Download mp3 - 22 MB ]

00:59 - "American"
23:39 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Tom Cruise Crazy" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

     

Puzzle Reciprocity

TL;DR: solve this video clue and get a tiny prize!*

(Famine Game peeps: find Curtis at the Friday night event, tell him the answer, and collect a physical tchotchke. Everyone else: e-mail your answer to "ZBIVRF NG FABHG QBG BET" [rot13] and receive a more intangible reward.)

ALSO: Please tell Curtis how you first met him!


http://youtu.be/bmtOMCYd59w

This past Saturday was crazy. In a good way. My friends and my wife apparently conspired for months to plan a surprise birthday party for me--the biggest surprises were that the party (which I was expecting) happened two weeks before I thought it was scheduled, and that it was preceded by an all-day, Star Trek-themed puzzle hunt my friends had created (which I was most definitely NOT expecting). It. Was. AMAZING.

I'm still overwhelmed by all of it: the magnitude of the event they organized in secret (even as we met multiple times per week to work on other projects and for social gatherings), and the fact that people even came from out of town to join us for the big EndGame party. I'll write more about the whole experience later, and "Game Control" has also promised some wrap-up documentation. For a start, here's some of what I tweeted during the weekend.

Meanwhile, feel free to solve the modest little puzzle I put together for my party! (See the video and instructions above.) I knew there would be some puzzlers there, and I wanted to provide a structured activity people could enjoy while eating, drinking, or just being introverted. :) Twenty people picked up prizes during the party--probably over thirty percent of the guests--and that makes me very happy.

Thank you to everyone who was there on Saturday, everyone who contributed to the event from afar, and everyone who sent me well-wishes through other media. I don't actually turn forty until October first, but you've already made this the best birthday celebration I could never have imagined.

I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS EVER. THAT IS ALL.

— Curtis Chen (@sparCKL) September 21, 2013

* Offer only valid if you didn't already get a prize from me on Saturday! Duh.

SnoutCast #187: Shameless Self-Promotion

Well, hello there, friend! Have you filled out Curtis' 40th Birthday Survey yet? Why not do it while you listen to this week's show? He'd really appreciate it!

[ Download mp3 - 25 MB ]

00:59 - "miscellaneous"
05:08 - a record-breaking Puzzled Pint September event in Portland, Oregon!
09:51 - Tell Curtis how you met him: snout.org/40survey
12:02 - The Octothorpean Order reveals itself on November 16th, 2013
13:55 - FREE to read (and vote for) online: Curtis' short story "Born to the Legion"
16:33 - Jasper's Famine Game team profiles
21:03 - Now on sale: Song Stories: Blaze of Glory (Kindle or paperback), featuring Curtis' short story "Don't Fence Me In"
25:45 - The End

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Ikea" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

  

Haven't We Met?

I've ordered some rain for tomorrow
PDX will be sunny but wet
And out of nowhere you're suddenly there
And I say, "Yeah, pardon me, have you filled out my 40th birthday survey yet?"

(with apologies to the late Kenny Rankin)

Don't worry, I'm only going to be nagging you to complete this survey for a couple more weeks. And if you're not convinced you want to participate, for whatever reason, please scroll past the form and read on.

(scroll down to see all questions)

Embed not working? Go to http://snout.org/40survey

Back in 2010, I ran a birthday art project called "37 Postcards", in which I asked people to send me postcards from their home area and tell me why they lived there. DeeAnn and I had cross-referenced a lot of city data before deciding to move to Portland; we weren't constrained by jobs or family, so we could choose to live anywhere we wanted.* I was curious why others lived where they did, and what they liked about their home areas.

I scanned in each postcard as it arrived, and you can see all of those images under the 37postcards label on this blog. I've received 59 so far--and counting! So, to coin a phrase, HUGE SUCCESS.

I've been wanting to do another "birthday ask" for a while, maybe even make it an annual tradition, but I didn't hit upon something that seemed interesting and worthwhile until now.

I have never really been sure how I appear to other people, and though I know I've changed over the years, personality-wise, I don't know if my outward appearance has altered significantly. And it's not really something people will tell you directly; very rarely do people look me in the eye and say, "I think you are _____." It's something I have to suss out indirectly, by noticing their reactions to my behavior. And I'm not very good at reading people.

So, I figured, why not just ask people about where they met me, and what their first impression of me was? Which would also capture how long we've known each other, which is interesting information, and totally quantifiable. (Even though this is a completely unscientific survey, I still like to have some hard facts.) It would be a weird question to ask out of the blue, but hey, it's my party, I'll poll if I want to.

Just to be clear: I am not fishing for compliments here. I'm very glad to see that at least a couple of people have given not-necessarily-complimentary answers, because they were honest, and that's what I want. I want to know if I seemed less than friendly when we first met. I want to know if I did something especially good or especially bad. It's all signal, and I want the feedback.

So. If you haven't completed the survey yet, it should only take a few minutes. At least take a look?

http://snout.org/40survey

If you can, please respond by the end of this month (Monday, September 30th, 2013). Thanks in advance!



* We did limit ourselves to the continental United States, because we didn't want to risk any international quarantine issues which might prevent our cats from coming with us.

Be a Part of My 40th Birthday Project

TL;DR: Tell me how we met! :)

Back in 2010, I ran a birthday art project called "37 Postcards" which went very well. It's taken me a while to come up with a sequel, as it were, but here it is now, in the form of a short survey which should only take you a few minutes to complete!

(scroll down to see all questions)

Embed not working? Go to http://snout.org/40survey

Please respond by the end of this month (Monday, September 30th, 2013). I'll share some of the collected data on this blog the following week.