The State of the States: Airlines/Airports (No. 1 in a series)

jstueart7 Comments

Well, I’m traveling now from Whitehorse to Reno, Nevada, and then on to my folks place for Thanksgiving. That’s right, we’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving (the Early Edition of Thanksgiving, available everywhere north of 49).

I intend to tell you a bit about how the States are doing right now.

First up, Airlines.

I don’t have good things to say about airlines, but I do have some warnings. First up, most US airlines are charging for checking ANY baggage. $15. No one lets you know, unless it’s in the fine print of your ticket. I’ll check and get back with you. I find this a bit rude to travelers. Basically, after giving you high fees and prices anyway, they penalize you for packing. Better if you take everything on the plane with you. Remember the time that they actually tried to convince you to check stuff that could go on board? Yep, that’s over. They want you to take everything you can on with you. Maybe they can’t pay their luggage handlers….I’m not sure. But $15 for every piece of checked baggage is a lot–and you have to pay it there at the check-in counter. They told me that Southwest was an exception. If you don’t know about Southwest, go to www.southwest.com and drool over those prices. They are exceptional. And they go to a lot of places in the US. If you take a shuttle across the border to Seattle from Vancouver ($40) you can fly roundtrip for less than $200 to most places. And, apparently, they don’t charge you for checked luggage.

US Airways is probably typical of US airlines.

Another disturbing development: they now charge for ALL beverage service on board the aircraft. They even charge for spring water. (And most travel books tell people to avoid the tap water on planes….for obvious reasons). So, for flights that are three hours, not only do they take your water from you at the door (except for 100 ml), but they now charge you $2 for drinks, $1 for coffee/tea and $7 for alcohol. They also charge for food, but I was watching that happen last year….those snack boxes. Now, even on a three hour flight–no water, no pretzels. And they will only take cash. So, get American dollars, exact change, for flights into the US, or you will have no food or drink on board. (I don’t know if you are allowed food….seems like I see these signs that allow dinner on board now if you are buying it in the terminal.) *  

The inflight movie? A) you have to pay for headphones. no surprise there. But B) you are scolded over and over again to close your window-shades for those watching the movie, even if you are passing over some stunning landscapes. I mean, the window is the cheap entertainment. It’s why you buy a window seat! Geesh. I think they didn’t want us to see Area 51. I couldn’t afford the headphones, but I can afford the window–it was $232 dollars. I didn’t have change on the plane, so I enjoyed the dry landscape as a dry person. *The good news: airport food has gotten better. yes, you can find Burger King everywhere, but I’m talking about a Mexican burrito place called the Blue Burrito Grille (all fresh ingredient burritos) in Phoenix, and Opa’s Greek restaurant in Vancouver’s restaurant (before you go through security). Opa’s is great food. I was impressed. All fresh ingredients, tasty, affordable. $10.49 for a gyro/pita with greek salad and medium drink. If these are any indication of airport food, it’s getting healthier, and somewhat cheaper.

So, traveling right now can be surprising, yes. And it isn’t getting all that better on the planes. Except for AIR NORTH which I love with all my heart. If I could date AIR NORTH, I would be the proudest guy on the planet, showing Air North off to everyone, ready to introduce Air North at every party. (Yes, I sometimes have an article for Yukon: North of Ordinary, Air North’s in-flight magazine…but this is not why I’m in love with Air North) FREE Midnight Sun coffee!! Free Cheesecake! Free Food!! Free Beverages! Free magazines and newspapers! Friendly Staff! Yes, I want the prices to come down, but you know what?? I think service on Air North compensates for the prices…. They are, BAR NONE, the best airline in Canada, and except for my former affair with Southwest Airlines (love ya, babe–we’re just too far apart) they are the best in North America for price. My beef with them has more to do with having to come home so late only on certain days from Calgary, but this is not a series on Air North….but traveling Outside makes me compare airlines…and Air North comes out favorably against US Airways/American Airlines, etc, anyday!

So, go to Vancouver and Calgary, Fairbanks and Inuvik and Edmonton….Until Air North flies farther, I’m recommending a tight traveling circle.

*okay, the flight attendant on the second US Airways flight was very kind to me and gave me a coffee for 50 cents, when I didn’t have enough cash.  I can’t trash US Airways–as I said, they are typical of the fee hikes that are invading the airline industry.

**American Airlines does not charge for drinks on board. The flight attendant said, “Please keep flying American.”   He is aware that “other airlines” have begun doing that but it turned his stomach.

Twenty Three Novels By Yukoners Being Written in November (at least!)

jstueartLeave a comment

Yep, twenty three novels. Hard to imagine twenty three people all writing novels at the same moment, but that’s the glory of NaNoWriMo. You jump in and you have thousands of words when you get out. I have two classes right now who are participating in this month-long event: 14 in a novel-writing class, 8 in a science fiction/fantasy novel writing class and myself. I’m only requiring 10,000 words which is a novella, but they still count as non-short stories.

Wanna join us in November? Go to www.nanowrimo.org and register for National Novel Writing Month. We can encourage each other. I also encourage you to buy Chris Baty’s book No Plot? No Problem! or to download from the youth section of the nanowrimo website, the youth novel writing workbook which is actually good stuff. I’m using some of it for my high school group, Rocketfuel.

Can you write a novel in one month? Yes. Yeah, you might say, but will it be any good? Most first drafts are good to get out of you, but need some work later. But you can’t make a pot without putting some clay on the table first. Yukoner Ivan E. Coyote pushed out a novel during NaNoWriMo, called Bow Grip. It’s damn good. So, it’s both possible to push out a decent first draft of a novel and possible that this draft can be useful for later publication. Remember the first draft is the hardest.

But everything’s a bit easier if you have a whole crew doing it with you. So, join our CREW!!

WRITE A NOVEL IN NOVEMBER.

Chosen City Columns from What’s Up Yukon?

jstueartLeave a comment

If you’ve been reading my columns in What’s Up Yukon? and liked them, I’ve started archiving them here on my webpage/blog.  You’ll find the articles on the page marked Chosen City, just up at the top, and they will direct you to the What’s Up Yukon? site.  (except for one, which is here on my site)  I hope you enjoy hearing the stories of Yukoners, as I have enjoyed hearing them too.  We’re a unique bunch and it takes a unique person to live up here, enduring all this beauty.

(It snowed yesterday.  It’s still September!  Geesh.)

I’ll keep placing the article links on Chosen City’s page so you can keep reading them from here.

Enjoy.  And thank you for sharing your stories with me.

Rocketmen of a Different Time

jstueartLeave a comment

Well, now that Yves Rossy has flown across the English Channel, I’m feeling nostalgic for a great film called The Rocketeer.  Yeah, it was Disney, but it was fun.  And it had that same joy–a man finds a jetpack and flies through 1938, doing good.  Started as a comic book, The Rocketeer was an homage to the early adventure serials (much in the same way Indiana Jones was a nod to them).  It didn’t do so well at the box office, but I bet it gets a revival.  Superhero movies are popular.  Superhero Literature is taking over the publishing industry.  Now a man flies with his jetpack without crashing.

I remember the movie because the art deco of the poster extended to the sets, Timothy Dalton (the current, at that time, James Bond) was the villain, and the hero was so gosh-darn good.  I really enjoyed the whole triumphant feel of the movie–the lack of cynicism.  This wasn’t The Dark Knight.  It was just far enough removed from Superman movies with their movie-brand idealism and perky people but not deep in the reverse-cycle we’re on now with the Watchman coming soon.

Lastly, we come to Iron Man, the jetpack story with political commentary.  I mean, we’re in a political age.  So that’s cool.  But there’s less innocent joy and more revenge, more concentration on this as a weapon of mass destruction as hero.  The villain is not a Dalton-esque individual, but a war, a people, even greed.  Iron Man is fighting conceptions.  The Rocketeer had his Nazis, an ideological flashpoint for heroes forged in the thirties and forties.  They were also a people, in a war, bent on world domination.  Funny thing now is– the people, the war, the greed — it’s US we’re fighting — both U.S. and us…

So, remember as you take up your Jet pack:

With great technology comes responsible ideology….

Jet Man Flies over English Channel

jstueart6 Comments

Well, all those people whining about not having their jetpack yet, start writing those letters to Santa. Looks like a nifty pack–and I can see some nice competitions coming out of this if these are ever mass produced. Imagine a big city like Vancouver with folks flying across the city. Okay, that’s in the future, but at least it’s imaginable now…

Yves Rossy Crosses the English Channel

World Building, Renewed Interest, 9 Novelists to write 9 Novels

jstueart2 Comments
If you were thinking about signing up for a class in
Science Fiction /Fantasy writing this fall, do it next
week.

The class was officially canceled on Tuesday, as it had only five members, but will be re-instated next week on Wednesday because of renewed interest. We now have nine people–and room for many, many more. If you are a fantasy writer or a science fiction writer in town and want to be a part of a novel-writing push, this is your chance.

Sign up with Krista Mroz at Parks and Recreation (phone  633-8505) and join us for pushing out that novel. We’re now online too at Cold Fantasy, a google Group of the writers in the class. With nine other people churning out a novel–and they have day jobs–you can do it too!

Rocketfuel Blasts Off, 10 and Rising

jstueart1 Comment

The fantasy writers of tomorrow are sitting in a high school French Library looking at photographs on a table. Their task is to first pick a photo that appeals to them out of the twenty or thirty scattered there. Then, they have to tell who this person is, what’s happening in the picture, and what that person wants. After writing for fifteen minutes, I tell them to switch gears. I tell them to keep the same person they’ve written about but change the setting to a science fiction or fantasy one, give them a new situation. Keep the real person, though…

Rocketfuel started with six students and now has nine students and next week will have ten, and we meet at FH Collins High School to work on Fantasy and Science Fiction writing. So far, it’s green lights all the way! Snacks seem to be the fuel for this writing –and there’s a lot of good writing going on. And enough enthusiasm to make an hour and a half zoom by. They are a great group.

Thanks to all those who spread the word–and if you are still thinking of signing up, or telling your son or daughter about Rocketfuel, have them meet us on Wednesdays at FH Collins Library at 3:30. We’ll get them on board.

Every Clear Day From Now On is a Gift

jstueart1 Comment

If you are like me, you cursed the lousy summer we had this year in the Yukon.  Okay, maybe you didn’t curse it.  But I wasn’t the only one who felt a bit shortchanged.  It’s because of my expectations for Summer– dazzling summers here.  We know.  We expect that.  We live through the winter to get that summer.  We had two weeks of summer—14 days, I think.  Only 3 in a row.

But now, my tune is changing.  The last few days, I haven’t been expecting good weather—I’ve been anticipating that slide into Winter.  And I’ve been pleased at every day that thwarts that.  Like today.  All it takes is the sun to be shining, and I’m thrilled that it made it out.

Funny how it isn’t that the sunny days are more frequent, or that there is less rain than in the summer.  Really it’s just a continuation of the Yukon Summer as a long British movie …BUT my expectations for summer and for fall are completely different.  I expected more out of summer, and was disappointed.  Now that I’ve accepted my fate, that Winter will be here soon, I’m delighted when my expectations are NOT met.  That Fall has some nice warm days for us.

So I’ve been out picking berries, cutting wood, eating lunch in the forest, enjoying the surprise gifts I don’t deserve and shouldn’t expect.  It’s a kind of Weather Grace.  Next year, maybe I’ll expect the summer to be lousy and then I can be as pleasantly surprised by the weather’s good behavior when it happens.

Change yourself, change the weather.  Hmmm.  That’s an idea.  At least, the yellow is brighter that way.

Rocket Fuel May Not Make it Off the Ground

jstueartLeave a comment

Our new afterschool program for High school students interested in Science Fiction and Fantasy writing may not make it off the ground if The City of Whitehorse doesn’t have enough registered people.

So far, we have five.  They need eight to make it.  But I know there are many many more young authors out there who love to write science fiction and fantasy.  The group is scheduled from Sept 17th through the first part of December.  The cost is $65 for 12 weeks of instruction–exercises, workshopping, brainstorming, building characters and plots–plus snacks.

I’m gonna do this:  I’ll meet on Wednesday, after school with whoever shows up.  If we don’t make the required numbers via the City of Whitehorse, we will figure out our options.  If you know of youth interested in writing science fiction and fantasy, have them sign up via Parks and Recreation, 668-8325, or 668-8360 at the Canada Games Centre.

World Building: Novel writing for SciFi/Fantasy Writers begins soon

jstueartLeave a comment

The novel writing course for Fantasy and Science Fiction writers will begin on Tuesday, Sept 23. Come join us this year to learn to write novels. If you are part way working on one, join us anyway. (If you have a draft completed of your novel, you might want to wait till January to start with us in the Workshop phase. )

World Building will cover plot structure and character arc for the novel and then join up with NaNoWriMo in November to push out a first draft. It will be fun and exciting to do this with 15 people. Come join us on Tuesday nights! Registration is now open through the City of Whitehorse, so you can sign up today!

Come build a world, spin a plot, go on a journey.

[In conjunction with this class, the City of Whitehorse will be offering a lunchtime lecture series, free and open to the public, called We All Began With Fantasy, talking about the first great epics of many cultures and their fantasy elements. More details soon…]