studiolo

cats

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:33:32 GMT

I'd hoped that the two cats that have been hanging around lately belonged to our neighbor, but she told me today they're strays. Her old mom is a magnet for strays, and they spill over into our yard. I love 'em, but can't take them in due to allergies. And now her mom is heading for hospice so the cats might have to go to SPCA. That makes me sad (even though our SPCA has a no-kill policy).

All my characters wear Chanel

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:17:03 GMT

via style.com

Not to mention the spring 2010 ~~barnyard~~ RTW collection

Kaleidotrope story out

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:14:02 GMT

Just got my copy of Kaleidotrope with my VP story "Please share my umbrella" in it!

true romance

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:40:49 GMT

I love RWA as a super supportive writer's trade association, but with one main gripe: their definition of romance:

"Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally-satisfying and optimistic ending."

Without getting all English majory about ye olde courtly romances, I can get with the central love story. But the ending part? RWA elaborates: "In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love."

No, in a romance, the lovers are not necessarily "rewarded with justice and unconditional love." Romantic comedy is great, but not all romance is comedy. Just look at that romance of all romances, Romeo and Juliet. And what about The Time Traveler's Wife? Its ending is way more complex than RWA would like, but it's about the most romantic novel I've ever read.

I love me a happy ending, but tragedy or plain old sad is "emotionally satisfying" in its way. Otherwise, the star-crossed lovers would have stayed dead after the first performance. To exclude sadness, bitterness, grief from romance is to stunt romance (and oneself) emotionally.

Defining romance as having happy endings trivializes and limits a genre that already is trivialized and limited in the minds of many people. We're looking for respect, and this doesn't help.

reading

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:36:41 GMT

bogwitch64 's post on reading reminds me that I haven't posted my reads for a while. (PS You're welcome re Mythago Wood!)

Me, too for The Magician's Assistant, by Anne Patchett. Satisfying, yes.

More Michael Chabon. That guy just kills me. He's so talented, he's a freak of nature.

A couple of Regency romances, which I'm sort of getting addicted to. I enjoyed Liz Carlysle's Wicked all Day alot. Didn't like Georgette Heyer (These Old Shades.) In fact, yuck. This is my second round with Heyer, so I guess I'll give up on her.

Dreaming Anastasia, a lovely YA by Joy Preble.

Fast Ships, Black Sails, ed Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Arrrrrh! Favorites: Skillet and Saber, by Justin Howe. Not your usual foodie story, but still satisfying to a foodie. 68 07/ 15"N, 31 36' 44"W, by Conrad Williams.

Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini. It's taken me way too long to read Sabatini!

David Sedaris' When You Are Engulfed in Flames. I was at the airport on the way to Las Vegas for our family bash to welcome my sis back from Iraq. I bought this book to while away the flight. I knew it would probably embarrass me by making me chortle away to myself, but what the heck.

The cashier asked, "It's about smoking?"

"Well, not really," I said. "It's funny."

He gave a polite smile.

"Funny. Supposed to be funny. Looks like it's about smoking but not really. Funny."

I found myself speaking pidgin English because the guy, who spoke ESL, obviously did not get what was funny about an image of a skull smoking a cig and the title "When you are engulfed in flames."

"Supposed to be funny," I said again. He smiled politely and told me to have a nice day.

It really is funny, though, despite appearances.

Libraries

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:16:37 GMT

I love public libraries. My life has been colored by girl crushes on various librarians. I've also been terrified of various librarians. About half the books I read are from the library. A good chunk of the other half are books the library makes me buy by introducing me to new authors or getting me hooked on a series then not having all the books in it.

Here's Deborah Schneider, RWA librarian of 2009, on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, interviewed on promoting authors. "The “Reading” is probably the most boring thing an author can offer me," she says. So true! The Signing, too, I think. They work only with well-known authors, or maybe authors who have a lot of friends living near the bookstore. Janet Evanovich mentioned at RWA how pitiful it is to see a lonely author waiting for people to come up to their table. (An author recently made the best of it by interviewing the two people who showed up at his reading, but I can't remember who and can't find the link.)

I did an author event at a few bookstores when my book Cosmic Tarot came out. I signed but the main thing was I did tarot readings (which I rarely ever did for other people and now do only for myself). The line was almost out the door, even though I didn't know anyone there. Okay, the poor bookstore only sold two or three books out of the big stack they had there. However, I think if the book had been about a more popular deck or better if it had been an interesting looking novel the store would have done well by them.

I hope some day I'll have another chance to put into practice this lesson on how to promote books, and to use Deborah Schneider's and SB Sarah's great creative ideas.

WIP

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:21:17 GMT

Yippee! Over halfway through the WIP.

This one a romance with paranormal elements. Not sure I could call it a full-blown paranormal, even though evil witches are involved.

I think second draft of this will demand more rewrite for language and style than for chunky elements like plot and character development. It started as a screenplay, then I realized I really like writing novels better. But I want to try to keep the sort of rawness of a screenplay, while adding in a lot of emotion (no internal emotion or thought in screenplays; camera can't see it).

The Skewed Throne

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:03:42 GMT

Joshua Palmatier is posting six chapters from his book here.

Dark Ages bright and shiny

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:32:50 GMT

thorngrove posted this gorgeous find : "a harvest of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver so beautiful it brought tears to the eyes of one expert."

A good olde medieval read

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:47:14 GMT

It's been a while since I've snugged in with a good olde medieval book. What better than Elizabeth Chadwick's The Greatest Knight to throw the spell over me again. Kings, castles, noble nights, swords, destriers and palfreys (ye olde horses), wine by the barrel, mud by the bushel. Tourneys, too!

Some irritating stuff. The women are either whimpy pretty ineffectual or smart assertive beautiful AND bear sons first (daughters can come later). The hero is perfect, but I guess I should have known by the title of the book. The scattered POVs are a mixed bag. I'm not big on characters or narrators whose main role is to bolster the hero's glory. Chadwick's characters aren't quite that limited, though, and they do carry the story forward while their own backstories are skillfully woven into the narrative.

I felt like I was in the hero's head most of the time (not so much on her other POVs). She knows how to skip over the stuff that's boring (to me, anyway). Several times I braced myself for a long battle scene, and before I knew it, it was over. She pretty much jumps over his sojourn in the Middle East, which I was glad of, since by then I was more into what was happening in England and France. (I was also dreading that staple of crusader stories: the love affair with the dark-skinned dancing girl. Thankfully, it didn't happen.)

Her historical detail has tons of credibility and showed (among other things) that knights in tourneys were like today's rodeo circuit cowboys. Prizes, parties, a roving life. The details didn't feel contrived at all. For example, she doesn't obsess about body odor and shit on the streets (which medieval folk would presumably take for granted).

Anyway, if you're craving English medieval, this is a full potency dose.

Story up at IGMS

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:02:56 GMT

Joanie Savage's (VP XI) story is up at Intergalactic Medicine Show. Not to brag or anything but I read this story in draft and it is really really a good read. And the artwork by Nick Greenwood is awesome. (Hope it's okay for me to repro it here...)
www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi

description

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:50:14 GMT

Random, from The Yiddish Policemen's Union

A crook: "The Jew to the left is haggard, sleepless, sclerotic, straggly, with cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream, and two bright, mean little eyes."

A social club in the morning. "The place is as empty as an off-duty downtown bus and smells twice as bad. Someone came through recently with a bucket of bleach to paint in some high notes over the Vorsht's steady bass line of sweat and urinals."

A guy getting his kid ready for bed: ..."the uproar of bath and ass-powdering and a bedtime story that requires Berko Shemets to honk like a goose..."

Michael Chabon, I love you. You make me know why I love to read. Cheeks like two spoonfuls of sour cream. You're killing me, man.

We hates our writing, preciousssss

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:30:06 GMT

It's one of those days when I cringe at my writing. This might be a good thing, since I'm in revisions. No sentimental attachment. Chop, slice, dice. House-wise, this is the kind of mood you want to be in when you clean a closet or an attic. I just hope I don't go crazy and mutilate it. Then again, I can always go back and pick up pieces from an older version. Though I doubt I would. I never do.

Getting women right

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:04:28 GMT

Sheerly Avni gets it right with her 10 films that get women right. Her take on To Kill a Mockingbird zeroed in on one of the reasons I love that movie--besides daddy-crush Gregory Peck, of course--though I never thought about that reason. Article's from 2005, so no new movies. I'd love to see her do an update.

I found the article googling inspiration for a character I'm trying to liven up. The protag is a male, but the female character is also a POV. She was so dull that I was thinking of eliminating her POV, then realized, doh, she'll still be dull. I think I've got a line on her now, and it plays in nicely with a plot twist.

an offshoot of paranormal

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:47:50 GMT

Dorchester Publishing guidelines say that Dorchester wants... "FANTASY ROMANCE - Dragons, elves, and any kind of fantastical creature you can dream up are all welcome in this fast-growing offshoot of paranormal."

Offshoot of paranormal, huh? Not to kvetch, though. Especially since this confirms my impression at RWA that fantasy might be getting stoked for a big comeback, at least in the romance genre. Yay!

beautiful clutter

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:29:10 GMT

I'm not a Zen-y neat freak, and I've accumulated knickknacks given by family and friends over the years. Overall, though, I have a low tolerance for clutter. I don't leave mail lying on tables or counters. I like to start the day with my desk clear. I'm the one in our household that cleans out the shed and attic and utility room, and the drawers and closets.

Maybe that need to keep things "picked up" makes me all the more vulnerable to falling for other people's clutter. I can't help thinking, maybe these clutter bugs have spirits more free than mine, not to mention the eye and imagination for making harmony out of odds and ends. This place, a little corner of a studio in Italy, is beautiful. The person visiting it was enchanted by it, too. It tells a story. Go see it at this blog.

Reading

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:44:27 GMT

The Giver, by Lois Lowry. A YA that transcends YA. Thank you, bogwitch64 !
The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott; Storm Glass, by Maria V. Snyder. Two more YAs. I enjoyed them, but probably would have appreciated them more when I was YA myself.
Snake Agent, by Liz Williams. (mevennen ) Really fun; I'll be reading more by her.
Lightbreaker, by Mark Teppo. (markteppo ) Not to drop names or anything, but... a fellow VPXIer.

New author: Jade Lee. The author whose books I grab when I just, well, want to read. The Dragon Earl and Tempted Tigress. Historical romances. Lee's characters and story totally tweak stereotypes and the formulaic while falling in romantic genre expectations. I'm now reading Dragonborn, a fantasy romance. My only complaint is that she kills off a character (no spoiler; it happens right at the start) with a name very similar to mine. Lee brings her settings to sensuous (and sensual) life.

And soon! Very soon! I'll be reading The Song and the Sorceress, by Kim Vandervort. (writerknv ) Another VPXIer...

PS Links are to Powells, Nightshade Books and Hadley Rille Books

you never know with women...

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:28:51 GMT

Love the book bag RWA gave out at the con. And the fact that I left with it full of free books.

RWA

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:12:24 GMT

VP bud Marta and I attended the Romance Writers of America convention in DC. I'd never been to a convention focused solely on writing. Nor a convention where the ratio of male to female was about 2000 to 4 (I'm not exaggerating!). The noise level in the bar was several pitches higher than normal. It was fun. Really a good time and a very supportive culture.

Thanks to Marta's greater wisdom, I ditched my usual earnest lifelong student attitude and picked workshops mainly for who was giving them rather than by subject. The student mouse got plenty of crumbs, though. Overall, the con gave me a good grounding in the romance genre, which overlaps with just about all other genres. SFF is up and coming in romance, and not just paranormal.

Loved the "focus on" sessions for publishing houses Tor, St. Martin, and Dorchester. A highlight was Donald Maas's presentation The Fire in Fiction. If you have a chance to attend this somewhere, don't miss it!

Stillness or action

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:34:07 GMT

James Gurney's blog Gurney Journey is about visual illustration, but this quote also captures what a written scene needs to have:

"Whether you choose to paint a scene with stillness or action, try to give your image the greatest emotional resonance and narrative reach."

(Cartier-Bresson photo)

empty nest

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:21:45 GMT

*sniffle* The birdies are out of the nest...

empty nest

PS. The big blob in the foreground is not a failed fledgling; it's a spider's web.

Star Trek, again

Fri, 22 May 2009 17:41:47 GMT

A lot of the way I felt about the movie was said in an interview by Leonard Nimoy:

Trekkers may know that early drafts of Star Trek: Generations included Spock but Nimoy declined to appear. “These people, the makers of this film, I think, re-awakened in me the passion I had when we made the original film and series. It went off in a direction that I didn’t relate to very well, that’s the simplest way to put it. I was put back in touch with what I cared about, what I like about Star Trek and why I enjoyed being involved in Star Trek. So, it was an easy way to come on home. They said things and showed me things, and demonstrated the sensibility that I thought was very comfortable with and I think that shows in the movie. I like it.”

The new Star Trek

Thu, 21 May 2009 19:51:20 GMT

Loved it! It brought back fond memories of watching the original with my sister when we were kids. They even caught the classic closer shots: Spock stooped over his console, three-quarters closeup, looking over his shoulder at Kirk, Sulu and Chekov smirking at each other at their stations, Kirk at "the con" apparently staring at the screen, but really grinning smugly at the little interactions going on around him. Not to mention some cute surprises...

Random thoughts:

I'm curious to know what Nimoy, who's Jewish, felt about the Vulcan holocaust. Also, I'll have to go back and check the placement of the holocaust in the movie. It was real "raising the stakes" event: when you knew for sure that the bad guy was actually able and willing to destroy a planet and everyone on it. It's a climactic event, but it's not the climax of the movie.
The elder-Spock-character's emphasis on the friendship with Kirk must have resonated with Nimoy, in that he and Shatner have been dear friends for years.
Uhura was in sort of a weird limbo between being a pivotal character and being side-lined. But I LOVED the Spock-Uhura kisses. (Did I mention that he was my favorite character in the original, too?) Even though it was a classic Woman role of "comfort the man with sex," and I wish that her flinging herself at him hadn't been so out of the blue. Still, their breaking through each other's reserve was oh so romantic.

strawberries

Tue, 19 May 2009 20:45:27 GMT

I've just eaten for the first time in years, strawberries that are good just as themselves. No sugar or cream necessary. They have flavor! They're sweet! They're picked ripe!

No mortal strawberry can ever meet the deliciousness of the strawberries my sister and I picked one early summer day from our Uncle Delma's patch in NC. We ate a bunch of them as we picked, even though the aim was to fill a pie that Aunt Leota would make.

But these are the best since.

PS to jtglover in case you're reading this: I got them at Good Foods; they're picked from a local farm, name's something like Olympian.

SF reviewers wanted

Tue, 12 May 2009 18:34:49 GMT

I don't have the chops for this, but maybe you do.

"Bookslut needs to restock some columnists: if you're interested in covering cookbooks, poetry, science fiction, or comic books (or have another idea you're interested in) please e-mail Caroline with a letter of interest and writing samples."

link to Bookslut entry (look for it at the very top of your screen)