Issue Five of IGMS is OUT

Yay!
It's here. Issue Five! This one is gonna be cool, because there are two little segments by Herr Scard. First there's the Enderverse story--The Gold Bug (which is different from the story by Poe, just so you know) and a piece entitled Who is Snape? (probably that from The Great Snape Debate.) I am so happy this is the first issue that has come out since I started reading the magazine.
Yay!

Down By The Bay

I currently live in Illinois--which is landlocked, but I will be moving (in less than a month) to Utah, which is...also landlocked...hmm. Coincidence-I think not. Let's talk about oceans-Scard lives by an ocean. The Atlantic one. How does he like that? Have you ever wondered? I personally don't like salt water, or sand for that matter. But Orson Scott Card a man who grew up in Utah, Arizona, and California (though I don't know which part), how does he enjoy living in North Carolina. The obvious answer is he likes it. He's stayed there for years. Reading Lost Boys gives one a feel for what life is like there, apart from the crazy psycho killers.
So here is the purpose of this post...if someone that reads this is on the coast..preferably the Atlantic Coast (but I am not gonna nit pick) then please post a comment (or email me at scard07@gmail.com) about how the "ocean" impacts your life/livelihood. I really am curious! The closest thing we have to an ocean is the Mississippi River (which we ignore, for the most part). Thanks!

What I Did This Morning...

So I am preordering Harry Potter Seven...finally...and they said something about free shipping with 7 dollars more or something like that. So anyway I am looking for a book by OSC so I can get this free shipping, and well I looked up Space Boy and it was like $20 and so was Invasive Procedures...so I looked up A War of Gifts...let's just say I preordered it and right now it is only like $10!!! It's Enderrific!! So...now all my preordering is finished until I get more money. I CAN"T WAIT!!!

Some Thoughts and Contemplations

This post has pretty much absolutely nothing to do with Scard, except for the Science fictioniness.

I have been packing up for college the last few days, and my books that aren't on shelves have taken up a contest of which stack is the tallest. The winners are the Star Wars books, by the way. I was lying in my bed last night watching these huge stacks, the Star Wars stack, the Frank Herbert stack, the Heinlein stack (you get the point). So I have read the Dune series up to God Emperors of Dune, and I have read Star Wars kinda randomly but thoroughly, and I am staring at these piles of books thinking about Paul and Anakin. In the beginning I was only comparing what Paul would have done in Anakin's place, since they are both prescient(they can see the future) it made sense to ask said questoin. At first I was thinking Paul would not have made the same mistakes. I thought Paul was different from Anakin, then I started comparing the two...well...they are sooo alike it's weird. Tatooine and Dune could be the exact same place. Both live in the desert with only their mothers, and are married to someone that is not really accepted as their wife. Chani has to defer to Irulan and Anakin can't marry Padme...even though he does. Both are prescient and take what they know of the future to be absolutely certain, and make impacting decisions based on what they know. Both are seen as "chosen ones" Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach and Anakin is the Chosen One. Both have twins-a boy and a girl, and both of the wives die after their twins are born. And both of them leave after (or slightly before) they are born. It's amazing. Stilgar is basically Obi Wan and everything is so equal. And that means Luke is Leto!!!

Hope you enjoyed my random similarities between Star Wars and Dune!

With My Head Cut Off

Okay, so for the past few days I have been the crazy person running around with her alleged head cut off. There is just so much that I have been doing and preparing for. But I spoke earlier of good news, and so I bring you that good news just like a Water Brother should.

I was reading IGMS, and I read the Enderverse story for the fourth issue, which was fantastic. Then I am reading the little commentary that is in the same little space, and basically it is Scard talking about Gold Bug and the new short story, A Young Man with Prospects. But (and here's the good part) he also talks about the new novella A War of Gifts. It is about Peter...the first Peter as I grok it. Isn't that exciting. Peter is so much more complex than everyone gives him credit for. I can't wait 'til Oct 30. Yay!

Pronunciations

So were adding this today because it's late and I'll be at Youth Conference all weekend.

Today I found out some pronunciations. Yes, and they are right, Ender's Game Audio said so.

Hegemon (heh-JAH-mon)
Hegemony (heh-JEH-mo-NEE)
Chamrajnagar (sham-RAHJ-ni-GAR)

I am so excited--I've good news. But I'll tell you später!!!! yay

My First Book Review: Listen, Mom and Dad

Yes, I am an amateur, but here goes(as promised). There are two ways to critic this book, as a Mormon, and as a reader of OSC. So here goes nothing.
Basic overview- Six composite characters tell of their experiences with their parents, the good, the bad, and the spiritual. All the stories are TRUE, but are not from one set person.

#1-(LDS) A very sentimental and touching book. The stories are wonderful and you learn alot. This book provides a lot of insight for the children's point of view. Some very good testimony/spiritual moments, that I enjoyed the most. You really try to relate to one of the people, which is difficult because they are completely raw characters, but at times such things are possible.

#2-(OSC) Now these are normal book characters-but because the events are not of Scard's control, the character development that is typical of OSC's novels is different. I mean the first to chapters are short and kind of fillerish. They don't even sound like Scard-they remind me of a biography or an encyclopedia. But later everything comes to rights and we see how a character became what he or she is. The topic of the novel is kinda like outdated by now (I mean I learned most of this stuff in psychology class) but let's face it-- it was worth the read.

Ta-da! That's all you get, but never fear there will be more...there's always more. Hope you liked it, and please leave many comments (I am gettin' tired of askin') Ahhscard!

What I Learned From Ender's Game

If your keeping up you'll remember I promised you this. My Ender's Game story. Here's what Scard has taught me.

When I learned what love is…

I’ve grown up my whole life in a sheltered and loving family. I have been raised to believe that when you love someone you are nice, you show affection. I have been raised wrong.

“Holy cow Marissa, you mean you’ve never read it!”

“I’m no connoisseur of books, Logan. I only read what people tell me to read.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious, my father says, read Lord of the Rings, so I do, and my friends say read Brian Jacques, so I do, get it!?”

“Fine. Read Ender’s Game.”

“’Kay.”

“Marissa, go to sleep, now.”

“But Mom, it’s the summer and the weekend.”

“It’s past two in the morning!”

“I know, Mom. I only have fifty pages left, just let me finish. I’ll be in bed before you know it.”

“Only fifty pages left,” she said as she turned, then mumbling to herself down the stairs. “Girl, bought that book today. She’ll be done with it tonight and then probably never even look at the thing again. Man, she’s crazy, two o’clock. What a nut!”

That was two years before my obsession really took off. The moment I realized that I owned and had read over thirty novels by the author of Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, I began down a path of compulsion and insanity. Within three months I went from thirty books to over fifty novels. My obsession skyrocketed. I lost my mind in research, paper writing, and collecting Orson Scott Card information.

Before I reached fifty novels, I bought number forty-nine, Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card. I read this collection of short stories with hunger and honest, devout love. I swallowed each and every one of these stories, one by one, in order. I read the section introductions like personal letters from Card to me. I learned to love the way Card told a simple or complicated or stupid or random story. Mostly though, I loved them all. I read the information about all the short stories and tried to get into the mind of the man I was completely absorbed by.

In the very last section and the very last explanation, I saw Card before me speaking to my heart. “Marissa, there is only one short story that is published that is not in this compellation. It’s called Happy Head, Marissa; it is the worst thing that I have ever had published.”

I was shocked that he could think such things of his writing and his stories. Card became a man to me then. I knew in a few days that the only way I would be able to prove my obsession, whether it was the man or the writing, would be to find this story and to determine my opinion of it. I searched for Happy Head on Google and I found where and when it was published; it seemed completely impossible to reach.

“Mrs. McBroom, if I were looking to find a magazine from, oh, about twenty-nine years or so ago, where do you suggest I would look?” I asked the librarian. She took time from what she was doing to help me order a book containing a lot of the stories that were published in that magazine. We didn’t think that the story would be in there. I was downhearted and a little depressed. I wanted so bad to find the story so I could prove my fondness.

A little on the fussy side, I stayed home the following Thursday. I showed my father the story that I was having trouble obtaining. He looked it up on the Internet and quickly he found a website where we could buy it. The magazine was only going to cost ten dollars including shipping. We bought it that very day.

The weeks waiting for it were long and hard. Agony blossomed in my heart, and I desired the magazine more than anything. On a Monday, three weeks after I had ordered it, my own personal copy of Analog: Science Fiction, Science Fact from April 1978, arrived.

I scooped it up into my arms as I rushed out the door to head to work. When my boss left, the assistant manager told me there was nothing to do.

“Do you have a book with you, Marissa?”

“Always.”

“Fine. You can go and get it, but be discreet.” I nodded and headed to the back room. My Analog was waiting. I hungered in the depths of my person for it.

I spoke to myself with vivid and wild movements as I drove home from work that night.

“Well, it wasn’t perfect.”

“Yeah, but I enjoyed it.”

“You can see, though, why Scard, doesn’t think it sis so great.”

“You’re right; the style of writing did not compare to Ender’s Game.”

“Most things don’t.”

“I know that!”

“Wow, I just realized that we now own exactly 50 Orson Scott Card novels!”

“Fifty, no way.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it either.”

I sighed as I drove my little white Prism across the exit ramp onto Highway 255.

“No really, did you like it?”

“I liked the characters.” I merged into traffic and watched the cars zoom by. “I loved the characters.” Why? “I guess I love how Scard made them. How he developed them.” No! What then? “I liked…loved even the bad guys. Even the worst of the criminals, villains, and antagonists.” Even Graff? Yes, definitely Graff, without him there is no Ender. “I love them because they are Scard’s. I see the light in them and I treat them like physically and emotionally real beings. They exist to me. They are Scard’s characters, but they are more. They are his children.”

The lights of the Jefferson Barracks Bridge roared in my mind. They seemed to speak to me in blinking sequence; Pain, Terror, Sorrow, Fear, Horror, Death, Hurt. Then a new sequence; Help, Hope, Smile, Life, Joy…Love, Love, Love, Love.

We always talk in church about treating each other like brothers and sisters. I always thought I knew what charity was. I learned that night that charity was more than the pure love of Christ. Charity is in the most basic way an understanding inside a person that all men on this earth are children of our Father in Heaven. He loves them. He cares about them. He wants us to love and care about them the same way. He desires that we ignore their wrongs, they idiosyncrasies, and love them for who they are. Love them as children of our Creator.

Orson Scott Card, I love all your characters, your children with the deepest feelings in my heart. I hope to love all men the same way.

Speaker for the Dead

Today, I was at a funeral. First, let me say that everything ran smoothly and rightly. Second, and more importantly, I would like to comment on what was said. All the talks were given by family and were very wonderful. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I can testify about the difference between an LDS funeral and just about anything else. For us everything is about celebrating the life of the deceased person rather than weep over their death. There is reason behind this, but my point is that for members of the LDS church death is not a very sad thing. The focus is how the person lived. Sound familiar? Orson Scott Card is a Mormon and the whole Speaking thing is probably a direct result of this upbringing. Of course I believe he says that in the introduction of Speaker (I think).

I am proud to say "good job" to a one Mr. Card. Thanks!

Umph!

Okay, so I did it. I stooped to the lowest of low...*sighs*...I have bought on this day...with total disregard for life and happiness...against my mother's unspoken wishes...another Scard book. But not just any Scard book. The FIRST one. Oh, I know I already have Hot Sleep. I meant a different one...I meant the very first OSC book. Listen, Mom and Dad.....yep. I don't rightly know what to do with myself...yuh see...I don't care. I don't care what book I am buying. If that man's name is plastered on the front then I want it...and iffen I have the money...well lets just say most the time I don't have the money. I didn't really have the money to spend today...but it's SCARD! What else could I do...right? So expect a review on my new book when it gets here and I finish it...which I doubt will take very long at all. I am not really into doing reviews, cause no matter what you say somebody will disagree with you. Normally I only give my opinion, but this book is not a very common book and I doubt most people have even heard of it(ellipse)so your gettin' a review...later!

T-shirt Ideas

The ultimate way to express oneself is through a pretty t-shirt, or a sarcastic one...
I have just had some fun designing a MuggleCast t-shirt (cause they don't sell them anymore. They turned out really nice by the way.) So I had some rampaging idea about what I would want on a t-shirt to celebrate my Enderfulness. Here are a few of my ideas.

The usual

• The Enemy's Gate is Down!
• Veni Vidi Vici
• Dragon Army

The New and Funny

• I'm Wiggin'
• I'm Scar'd
• The Game of Card
• I love my Jeesh!
• A Healthy Obsession--Enderverse!!

and so on, and so forth! *grins*

Exciting, neh?

I have been spending much to much time on the blasted internet. One can only look Scard up in so many places. I...think I've probably looked just about...everywhere. I did get what I was looking for, but I did find something I would like to share with you all.

Orson Scott Card--New Releases (this fall)

SPACE BOY -- Aug 20th

INVASIVE PROCEDURES -- Sept 18th (based off the short story Malpractice [which I reread this morning])

A WAR OF GIFTS -- Oct 30th (an Enderverse novella!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Okay be excited with me...you know you want to...so leave a crazy comment, preferably with all the AHHH's and OMG's intact. AHHHHHHH!

InterGalactic Medicine Show

Wow, so I just spent ten dollars and over ten hours on the IGMS website. It is so amazing. The short stories are wonderful, and the Orson Scott Card--Enderverse stories are beautiful. Mazer in Prison, Cheater, and Pretty Boy. Ahhh, I can't wait for the next one. I am so excited about the whole thing. I am recommending this webmagazine to anyone with even a mild fascination with Science-fiction or Fantasy books, novels, short stories, or authors. Check it out please, for your own good.

Great Job, Scard. Keep up the good work, and never quit writing!!! Thanks!!

The Cranning: My Revelation This Morning

The Cranning, the call to an unknown place. A place of wonder and fantasy. Like the Bookstore. I have this Cranning call to driving me onward into the place I desire so deeply on my heart. Into one of Card's books. I have found that to look up one of Card's books is to want it, to need it. The Cranning is that feel deep inside of oneself that won't allow you to go on without satisfying it.
I am certain that this feeling is definitely the driving force in my Orson Scott Card collection. The shelf grows larger by itself, my only conscious knowledge is the hole in my checkbook. I am so glad of the stack of books that I call a collection. Here take a look (this is not bragging, it is sharing an obsession)

My Orson Scott Card Collection

1. Ender’s Game (YA Version)
2. Ender’s Game (Adult Version)
3. Das Grosse Spiel
4. Ender’s Game (Audio Version)
5. Speaker for the Dead
6. Xenocide
7. Children of the Mind
8. First Meetings
9. Seventh Son
10. Red Prophet
11. ‘Prentice Alvin
12. Alvin Journeyman
13. Heartfire
14. The Crystal City
15. The Memory of Earth x 2
16. The Call of Earth x 2
17. The Ships of Earth x 2
18. Earthfall x 2
19. Earthborn x 2
20. Ender’s Shadow
21. Shadow of the Hegemon
22. Shadow Puppets
23. Shadow Puppets (1^st Edition)
24. Shadow of the Giant
25. Shadow of the Giant (1^st Edition)
26. Hart’s Hope
27. Enchantment
28. Magic Street
29. Treason
30. Wyrms
31. Songmaster
32. Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the 21^st Century
33. Empire (1^st Edition)
34. Hot Sleep (1979)
35. The Worthing Saga
36. Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus
37. Homebody
38. Treasure Box
39. Lost Boys
40. Rebekah
41. Rachel and Leah
42. Maps in a Mirror (Paperback)
43. Saints
44. The Folk of the Fringe
45. Eye for Eye (CD)
46. Analog April 1978 (Happy Head)
47. Analog August 1977 (Ender’s Game)
48. Ultimate Iron Man (Volume 1)

The Game of Card

Okay, here is something I have been meaning to give to you. This is only one aspect of Card, and not the one I enjoy the most. Let me assure you of my sincere emotions however. This piece was written when I had finished rereading Ender's Game and Speaker. Those times are the most emotionally insane times in my existence. The times when I could just kill Scard for what he did, not only to Ender, but to everyone...

The Game of Card

Nothing on this Earth bothers someone, anyone, so much as this—purposeful and necessary destruction of our natural mental inhibitions. We are merely human, subject to deathly jealousies and cruel manipulations. We hate, as human creatures of intelligent capacities, the absolute domination down to the smallest pressure of control. We abhor all who exert their power over us. Who in their right minds would knowingly and willingly place him or herself in such a position so as to receive the full brunt of the fear and hatred rooting deep in such a cause? The President of the United States takes some of this responsibility, and look, just look, at what we think of him, what we do to him. Only a brave and stupid man would swallow whole the attacks of us, the controlled, and grasp even tighter. Only a fool such as this—

A writer of truth is one who absolutely accepts this sour fate. As one who proceeds to shape minds and persuade men, writers are definitely as responsible for binding men’s minds as any given political leader. Yet even these, authors of men, do not enjoy the lofty weight of the duty handed to them by Fate himself. I have found among men only one bold and so foolish. A writer of terrible ability who has tried his hand at plays, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, religious fiction, and even short fiction. He has remained an extremely prolific and decisive author even into his later years.

He, the controller of many, has manipulated each of his readers individually and in separate and distinct ways. Some cry and others give scorn, and yet despite their attitudes towards this man, he persists eternally to destroy free will and emotion by being one of the most prolific authors in this day and age. He had succumbed to the feel of power and authority.

With simple words on a single page of an individual tale he begs us to feel, to think the way he wants us to. Willing him by sheer enjoyment to take upon his own soul the burden of our decisions and our free thought, this man becomes the recipient of our minds and our children’s minds. He bears both the belief and the skepticism and continues to produce something that will turn the world upside down, no matter what your orientation is. Fear him, I beseech you, fear him, respect him, and love him. He does what no man wants to do, but he does so because he must. He has made us his children. His Children of the Mind.

My final thought that I give you to go with this essay is quoted from Hot Sleep, "Being God," he said, "is the worst damn job in the universe." Give it a thought, it works, neh?