September 5th, 2012 by Darin

Over at his blog, Ian Walsh summarizes the state of the world depression quite succinctly. Worth the 60 seconds it takes you to read it.

“Some basics on the economy”

August 24th, 2012 by Darin

For the audio fans out there, Noise is now available as an Audible audio book.

July 20th, 2012 by Darin

Martin Cizmar, Eagle Scout, has returned his medal to the B.S.A. in protest over discriminatory practices toward homosexuality.

Update: So has Kelsey Timmerman.

July 18th, 2012 by Darin

Fig. 1: self at 15--full regalia!

For anyone who’s read Noise, it’s probably pretty clear that I was a Boy Scout—my main character categorizes his new, apocalyptic world with his own mythified memories of Scouting and adolescence to a degree that would have been difficult to fake.

In fact, I’m an Eagle Scout—the highest rank in Scouting one can achieve, and few do. Not everyone knows the distinction, but the Eagle Scout award represents the collected achievements in leadership, community service, self realization, and practical survival skills that represent the total throughput of a young man’s Scouting career. It’s a difficult award for an adolescent to achieve, especially since most earn it around the time they’re trying to fit in at high school, when it’s not particularly cool to weave lanyards and wear knee socks. In earlier days, most people knew what the Eagle Award represented: a particular young man with sticking power, gumption, and discipline. These days, there’s less awareness as the gleam of the modern age has come to outshine that medal, which, each year, looks a little smaller.

A fair degree of the ethos I live by today is informed by my time in the Scouts. I owe what success I’ve achieved and what respect I’ve earned to those years, to that award. Trustworthiness and helpfulness are among the attributes that I hold most dear. I judge others by whether or not they become liabilities in social situations, and despite my curmudgeonly exterior, I help others when I can. I know that good leaders are good followers, and I perform moral deeds for the sake of performing them—I took a sense of personal moral responsibility from the Scouts, not any religiously defined obligation.

I’d imagine I’m not a typical cross-section of your average grown Eagle Scout. As I moved into adulthood, I embraced liberal politics. I spent a lot of time in postgraduate school, earning degrees in literature and literary theory rather than applying my Eagle skills as a civic servant or outdoorsman (which is a common track for the grown Eagle). I’m an atheist, a science fiction fan, and a great lover of spirits. But, that said, my Eagle Scout award is to this day every bit as legitimate and representative as anyone else’s. Because I’ve cherished what I learned during those days, because I think discipline and respect and determination can change a young man’s life, because I think the Scouts can be better, so much better—because of all this, I’m embarrassed and ashamed by the BSA’s recent reaffirmation of their programmatic bigotry. It cheapens the integrity of those of us who still espouse the core tenets of Scouting, and it dirties the memory of the men—those giants, those scoutmasters and fathers and neighbors—who taught us how to be decent and responsible people. Who taught us how to be good men.

Let me share with you the Scout Law (U.S. version), which are the rules a scout lives by, the rules that teach him how to be a man. Most of these, I still try to practice on a daily basis. Once you memorize them, you never forget.

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

But endorsing an ideology of intolerance is not helpful. It’s not friendly or courteous or kind. It’s not cheerful, or thrifty, or loyal. It might be trustworthy in its steadfast bigotry, and I don’t think it’s particularly reverent since we disregard most Levitical and Old Testament law anyway.

But, worst of all, it’s not brave. That’s the hardest one for a young man to learn, to practice. And the BSA has shown its boys that inequality is okay—that they’ll be brave when it’s easier.

Maybe there aren’t enough Eagle Scouts on that Board.

July 13th, 2012 by Darin

For your consideration: “Amarnath: Journey to the shrine of a Hindu god.”

I’d say they’re onto something.

July 13th, 2012 by Darin

Over at her blog, writer Marguerite Reed reviews Noise quite positively. Thanks, Marguerite!

July 2nd, 2012 by Darin

When I was going through graduate school, I relied on student loans in order to get by. One’s obligations to both coursework and teaching make working a traditional 9-5 job impossible. Even part time employment is tough because the typical grad student’s obligations occur at odd, intermittent intervals. I have a job now, and I’m paying those loans back (even though I break out in hives when I think about the government making a profit off of me, one of its citizens, instead of lending me the cash at 0% interest rate like it should), but the new “breakthrough” reforms that came as part of the much-celebrated bicameral, bipartisan agreement to keep student loan interest rates from doubling now make the grad school experience simply unmanageable. And any government who thinks a student is going to pop out of college and gain immediate employment in this environment is myopic at best and predatory at worst—this being a problem because this same government is eliminating grace periods for repayment that typically follow graduation.

My time in grad school has defined my outlook, both personally and professionally, and I’m sorry that the next generation behind me won’t be able to experience that. Unless they’re rich.

Oh, and all of this to keep the interest rates from rising to what they already are for most of us who graduated before the collapse and consolidated our loans. I think students would have been better off with the interest rate hike.

“Student loan changes you don’t know about”

June 11th, 2012 by Darin

The Book of Apex: Volume 3 debuts next week. My short story “The Dust and the Red,” which appeared in issue 22, appears therein.

If you use checkout code BOA3BRADLEY, Apex will give you a 10% discount.

June 11th, 2012 by Darin

At the Book Week festival in Debrecen.

June 5th, 2012 by Darin

Cover art for the Hungarian translation of Noise.

Image © Főnix Könyvműhely