{"id":20347,"date":"2014-01-15T06:35:44","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T11:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=20347"},"modified":"2014-01-15T02:35:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T07:35:32","slug":"todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Only three new posts have appeared so far on Making Light<\/a> this January \u2014 which is a bit disappointing given that the site is home to five<\/em> terrific writers. But one of the fun things about Making Light<\/a> is that there\u2019s always plenty going on even when there\u2019s a long, seemingly quiet stretch in between posts.<\/p>\n

For one thing, there\u2019s the steady stream of links down the left-hand column \u2014 the particles<\/a>, sidelights<\/a>, parhelia<\/a>, diffraction<\/a>, and phosphenes<\/a> where those five fine folks share an eclectic collection of links.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the comment section. Making Light<\/a> has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. I go there and lurk, mostly, like I\u2019m a busboy at the Algonquin. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I\u2019ve seen people ad-libbing full sonnets<\/em>. It would be intimidating if everybody weren\u2019t also so generally supportive and hospitable and nice. Very smart and very friendly don\u2019t always go together, but they do in the Making Light<\/a> community.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.<\/p>\n

Teresa Nielsen Hayden<\/a>\u00a0started the blog, eventually also incorporating Electrolite, the former blog of\u00a0her husband,\u00a0Patrick Nielsen Hayden<\/a>. The community and the ongoing conversation around Making Light<\/a> goes back further than that, though \u2014 back to the pre-blog, pre-Web world of Usenet, when the Internet was without form, and void, and darkness moved upon the face of the deep.<\/p>\n

Or back to the early \u201990s, at least.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some background on them, in their own words<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We\u00a0edit books, mostly but not exclusively science fiction and fantasy, for\u00a0Tor Books<\/a>. Over the years, we\u2019ve had the privilege of discovering and acquiring the first novels, or in some cases the first adult novels, of some remarkable writers, including but not limited to Maureen F. McHugh, Susan Palwick, Debra Doyle & James D. Macdonald, Jonathan Lethem, Cory Doctorow, Jo Walton, and John Scalzi. Among the many books we\u2019re proud to have helped publish are several notable award-winners. Robert Charles Wilson\u2019s\u00a0Spin<\/em>, edited by Teresa, won the Hugo Award in 2006, and Jo Walton\u2019s\u00a0Among Others<\/em>, edited by Patrick (and copyedited by Teresa!) won the Nebula and Hugo Awards in 2012. In 2013, John Scalzi\u2019s\u00a0Redshirts<\/em>, edited by Patrick, won the\u00a0Locus<\/em>\u00a0Award and the Hugo Award. We think all of our authors are awesome.<\/p>\n

In 2007, 2010, and 2013, Patrick\u00a0won\u00a0science fiction\u2019s Hugo Award for Best Editor, Long Form.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They\u2019re joined at Making Light<\/a> by Avram Grumer, Jim Macdonald<\/a>, and Abi Sutherland. (It seems unfair that Avram and Abi don\u2019t have their own Wikipedia pages, too. And the entry on Patrick was updated to include his 2013 Hugo, but it also still describes his writing on Making Light<\/a> by saying he is \u201ccritical of\u00a0George W. Bush\u2019s administration and the\u00a0Iraq War.\u201d I\u2019m pretty sure he still is,<\/em> but \u2026)<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t really said much here about what all these fine people write about<\/em>. That\u2019s part of what I love about Making Light<\/a> \u2014 they write about whatever it is they feel like writing about. There are some recurring themes from the realms of publishing, politics and various fandoms \u2014 it\u2019s a terrific place to discuss things like Sherlock<\/em><\/a> or the latest Hobbit movie<\/a>; Abi Sutherland\u2019s series on dysfunctional families<\/a> is insightful and moving; Jim Macdonald provides a steady diet of incredibly informative<\/a> posts on<\/a> emergency<\/a> preparedness<\/a>; Teresa\u2019s occasional takedowns of publishing atrocities<\/a> are epic; and at any point, any one of them might provide an encyclopedic discussion of something esoteric but fascinating \u2014 like nuclear launch codes<\/a> or World War I<\/a> or a tragedy at sea<\/a> or even about the messy business of determining the canon of Christian scripture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All of which is to say that I have no idea<\/em> what they might write about next. But I\u2019m looking forward to finding out, and you should join me.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I’ve seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don’t always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that’s a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nToday's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Today's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-15T11:35:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-01-15T07:35:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-01-14-at-11.41.33-PM.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/\",\"name\":\"Today's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-15T11:35:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-15T07:35:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Today’s Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Today's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light","description":"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Today's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light","og_description":"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2014-01-15T11:35:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-01-15T07:35:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-01-14-at-11.41.33-PM.png"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/","name":"Today's Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-01-15T11:35:44+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-15T07:35:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Making Light has got one of the best comment sections on the Internet. This is a comment section that makes me cheer every time someone posts an open thread. This is a place where I've seen people ad-libbing full sonnets. Very smart and very friendly don't always go together, but they do in the Making Light community. And that's a function, I think, of the character of the folks who host that community and that long-running conversation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/01\/15\/todays-daily-blog-of-the-day-making-light\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Today’s Daily Blog of the Day: Making Light"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}