I was digging around my file drawers in order to locate some juvenilia for a mad project one of the Julies and Lou and I conceived.... and found a partial reading list for 1989! 1989, for the record, was the year I turned fourteen, and I started this list while I was in the eighth grade.
This is a vindication for me; it means I didn't imagine how much I read as a teen. (123 books written down from mid-March 1989 to mid-March 1990, and there are indications that I just forgot to write things down for a few months at a time.)
I'm also entertained by a) how many books I've read that I've forgotten; b) guessing how many of these were first reads or rereads, because I reread some of them still; c) my willingness to try anything. Ngaio Marsh! I remember hating that book, and it's part of why I don't read many mysteries; and d) how sometimes chronological reporting just didn't happen.
Here's the list--and I don't know, but assume (sic) written after anything that seems suspicious; I'm not going to correct anything. Notes in bold are editorial from 2005. I was going to just put out the list, but half-way through typing it, I realized I have some very clear memories of reading these--up to and including how my bedroom was arranged that week (I was big on furniture arranging).
"Books Read (finished on or before recorded date.)"
March 20 - Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
read this for Mrs. Gossett's English class. Hated it.
March 21 - The Perilous Gard - Marie Pope
probably the first read!
March 27 - The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
March 31 - Nerilka's Story - Anne McCaffrey
March 31 - Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
April 1 - The Bearkeeper's Daughter - Gillian Bradshaw
April 2 - Imperial Purple - Gillian Bradshaw
April 3 - Thornyhold - Mary Stewart
April 5 - The Undertaker's Gone Bananas - Paul Zindel
This must have been for class, because there was no way I'd have picked up mainstream YA on my own.
April 7 - My Enemy the Queen - Victoria Holt
April 9 - Castle Barebane - Joan Aiken
April 11 - The Ivy Tree - Mary Stewart
April 12 - The Five-Minute Marriage - Joan Aiken
April 15 - Titan - John Varley
April 16 - Wizard - John Varley
The Varley severely warped my mind.
April 22 - The Eye in the Stone - Allen L. Wold
April 29 - Message to Hadrian - Geoffrey Trease
April 30 - The Intruder - Helen Fowlder
May 3 - Restoree - Anne McCaffrey
May 5 - The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
May 5 - When in Rome - Ngaio Marsh
May 6 - The Hero and the Crown - Robin McKinley
May 7 - The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery
May 9 - Tarzan of the Apes - Edgar Rice Burroughs
For class, but actually liked it. Picked up the sequel from the library later.
May 11 - The Summer Queen -
May 16 - Winter World - C.J. Mills
May 19 - Child of the Grove - Tanya Huff
No memory of this one, but I keep seeing it around now and believing I've not read it!
May 25 - The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Very distinct memories of reading this, at night, in my bedroom. The blue bedspread with white flowers, and my bed against the interior wall.
May 20 - A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakesepeare
May 13 - The Return of Tarzan - Edgar Rice Burroughs
May 29 - Exit Earth - Martin Caidin
I remember checking this out of the library
June 12 - The Weeping Ash - Jone Aiken laugh
And this one, I remember, was on the bottom of the stack of library books by my bed for about two weeks. I read a lot of it in bed.
June 17 - Through a Glass Darkly - Karleen Koel
Read in a day that my mom was working. I don't think I ate lunch
June 14 - Fire Get - Cheryl J. Franklin
June 16 - Miss Philadelphia Smith - Paula Allardyce
June 15 - A Cluster of Separate Sparks - Joan Aiken
June 21 - Night Fall - Joan Aiken
June 22 - Last Movement - Joan Aiken
June 25 - Prentice Alvin - Orson Scott Card
June 28 - Silence of Herondale - Joan Aiken
June 30 - The Embroidered Sunset - Joan Aiken
I really don't remember most of these Aikens, but I sure must have liked them ok.
July ? - Dinosaurs! - Ray Bradbury
July ? - The Cuckoo Tree - Joan Aiken
July ? - Adriana - Catherine Moorehouse
OMG! THIS IS THE BOOK I'VE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS! *ahem* Sorry. (runs to check amazon) Man, did I ever have the title wrong (in my head) and the author wrong (on paper--no e in Moorhouse)
July ? - The Lord of the Far Island - Victoria Holt
July ? - The Eldorado Adventure - Lloyd Alexander
July ? - My Uncle Oswald - Roald Dahl
July ? - Callahan's Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson
July ? - New Stories from the Twilight Zone - Rod Serling
I think the question marks indicate that I was on vacation
July 30 - Melancholy Elephants - Spider Robinson
August 1 - 1984 - George Orwell
August 3 - Stone 588 - Gerald A. Browne
August 8 - Once Upon a Summer - Janet Oke
August 8 - The Winds of Autumn - Janet Oke
August 11 - Harrowhouse - Gerald A. Browne
I'm pretty sure the last four were all I could scrounge between my grandparents' and aunt's houses.
August 7 - Stardance - Spider Robinson
borrowed from the Midland library
August 13 - The Abyss - Orson Scott Card
Aunt Carol bought me this, out of the blue!
August 15 - The Crystal Crow - Joan Aiken
August 16 - The Fortune Hunters - Joan Aiken
August 18 - Midnight is a Place - Joan Aiken
August 20 - Blackground - Joan Aiken
August 26 - Troy - Richard Matturro
August 28 - Time Pressure - Spider Robinson
September 1 - The Steerswoman -
September 23 - Alternities - Michael P. Kube-McDowell
I don't know what the gap was from. I think I might have just stopped keeping track for a while, given the weird date order that comes next, or maybe the start of school was very busy
Oct. 11 - Gentlehands - M.E. Kerr
Sept. 26 - Harry and Hortense at Hormone High - Paul Zindel
Oct. 2 - The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart
Oct. 7 - The Hollow Hills - Mary Stewart
Oct. 10 - The Last Enchantment - Mary Stewart
Oct. 14 - The Isle of Glass - Judith Tarr
I remember reading this when the weather turned colder... a weird sense of chilliness pervades these memories...
Oct. 1 - Cress Delehanty - Jessamyn West
Oct. 17 - The Golden Horn - Judith Tarr
Oct. 20 - The Hounds of God - Judith Tarr
Oct. 10 - Katharine Hepburn: Actress -
Oct. 23 - Green Ice - Gerald A. Browne
Oct. 24 - Orphans of the Sky - Robert A. Heinlein
Nov. - Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey
The rest all fall under simple month headings. Rather than type "Nov." or "Dec." every time..."
November:
Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey
Arrow's Fall - Mercedes Lackey
The Oathbound - Mercedes Lackey
Magic's Pawn - Mercedes Lackey
The Wicked Day - Mary Stewart
Firebrand - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Hawkmistress - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Spellsword - Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Isis Pedlar - Pedlar!
Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare
I Am the Cheese - Robert Cormier
December:
The Shrouded Walls - Susan Howatch
Nemesis - Isaac Asimov
Starbridge - A.C. Crispin
Stormqueen Marion Zimmer Bradley
Nov. - Brisingamen - Diana L. Paxson
Dec. - Through the Ice - Piers Anthony and Robert Kornwise
Oct. - Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey
Nov. - Exit Earth - Martin Caidin (reread)
Interesting that I note reread here, when I'm sure at least a dozen other things must be as well
December:
The Dragonbone Chair - Tad Williams
Magic's Promise - Mercedes Lackey
Reap the Wrhilwind - C.J. Cherryh/Mercedes Lackey
The Sheepfarmer's Daughter - Elizabeth Moon
Divided Allegience - Elizabeth Moon
Oh, god, and the next book in the Paksenarrion trilogy either wasn't out or hadn't been purchased by my library... quelle debacle... I was a wreck!
Allow me to introduce a split in the writing category:
writing progress, and
writing process
Progress will be how much I've written. Process will be how I got there. If I ever find myself bored again, I will go back and try to index previous entries accordingly.
That information, btw, would be categorized under blogging, for lack of a better term, though technically, it should be something like "blogging administration."
But there is such a thing as picking too many nits.
Anyway, in honor of Monday, I bring you a return of the Weekly Update, below.
Last week (the last two weeks, really), I worked feverishly on outlining By Right of Conquest. I also finished "Sticks and Bones" and sent it out... aaaand, just today, got the rejection from JJA.
This week, I plan to begin writing BRC--my schedule is 5,000 words a week--and assemble all my notes for The Bitter Road. I have much variety in my received notes on that book: some people liked it, some people didn't. Some people think it just needs a polish, some people think it needs major overhaulage. At the moment, I side with the major overhaulage camp.
Sad to say, I may have to consider The Bitter Road a lost cause, as is. It may very well need to be rewritten from scratch, without reference to the original manuscript, and with a singular eye towards following a logical chain of events with regards to the plot, and also controlling tone and character throughout. You know, like a book should be written. Like I'm trying to do with the new one. But we'll see. My work on the fourth draft will be dogged, persistent and low-key. I'm hoping it will be one of those happy moments when I realize "hey, I'm done!" instead of a big roller-coaster ride of fraught and overwroughtness.
I mean, that's what the current book is for.
This week, I also plan to make serious headway on at least one short story. It would be lovely to finish one--but not until after my 5k.
Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton (4) [fantasy]
I'm not sure if there's any precedent for this type of blended genre: dragons meet Victorian England. But whether or not there is a precedent, this is the on that everyone has noticed; there will be many imitations from here on in. Griffins meet Soviet Russia! Unicorns meet the existentialist movement in France! Oh, I can think of a hundred unclever combinations...
Tooth and Claw works. It's a love-letter to the Victorian novel, complete with far-fetched coincidences of Dickensian proportion... The textual nods are sly and wonderful, and lie thickly on the ground... beyond the homage to Trollope, however, the overlay of dragon society is perfectly evoked fantasy. I can imagine a less fantasy-savvy writer thinking they could do something like this and failing miserably; but Jo knows fantasy. Pitch-perfect from beginning to end; my delight far exceeds my jealousy, and that's saying something. I wish I'd thought of this...
One of the many Julies in my life is now a college professor of not-music. Why is she a college professor of not-music? 'Cause someone was honest and told her this:
The performing is only 1% of your life as a musician - the other 99% is the practice, the prep, and the scut work of it all, and you don't like that part. If you want to be a musician, you are setting yourself up to be miserable 99% of the time. Instead, you need to find something to do where you actually *enjoy* the scut work.
I think it's brilliant of her to have listened and understood it when she was so young.
And for me, I think it's wonderful to read that and comprehend it and breathe a huge sigh of relief because I really do love the scut work in writing. In fact, I can't think of a 1% I don't like, on some level, and that even includes getting the rejections. Sometimes writing is hard. And hair-tearing. But if I'm ever disappointed in anything, it's in myself for not being able to work to the full potential of the vision--and not because I don't love the process.
Seems like a good realization to have had here, on the 400th entry of my writing journal.
Patrick Samphire reviewed "Huntswoman."
I'm amused by the notion that I've written something so subtle that people have to read it more than once...
...considering that as a child, I thought subtle had something to do with torpedoes, and when I told some friends that, it was decided that it would be a very appropriate autobiography title: Subtle as Torpedoes.
Today has been too strange for words. I wish I could tell you, but there's that whole "no words" thing.
In other news, I have been compiling random bits of alchemical trivia for years. I think I finally know how to use them. In a story that begins:
Once upon a time, my dears, there was a weaver whose innards had been eaten by an ogre.
I'm not so sure about the first six words; of the rest, I'm quite, quite certain. But the first six words speak to Voice and Narrator, and the rest of the sentence is plot. So, I'm actually working with a plot, and unsure about the thing I'm usually quite certain on. Clearly, I'm learning something. Except, problematically, I'm forgetting old things as I learn the new things.
I spent the evening at Write Club outlining By Right of Conquest, and feeling pretty confident about it, as well. I have decided to give all the tertiary characters names of conquerors. I decided this after I had unconsciously already named two tertiary characters after conquerors; at least it didn't start out being on purpose.
It's boring, but I keep better track of things when it goes on the web, believe it or not... and I don't have to worry about being at the right computer to access the information.
(Yes. I'm polycomputerous. There are three main computers in my life, and many more that I indulge in casual computing with.)
I'm tracking three four five kinds of progress right now:
draft four of The Bitter Road
draft one of BRC
short stories: writing
short stories: marketing
chores
See below the cut-tag for the progress I made last night. Well, actually. Don't, it's boring as hell.
Bitter Road
none; but tonight, I plan to pull together everyone's comments
BRC
none; I don't start writing this until Feb 1; right now I'm outlining and doing research. I should have done some of that last night, but sleep overcame me...
short stories: writing
I implemented the edits to "Sticks and Bones" that I came up with at ConFusion; I didn't quite get the sense of desperate, urgent digging that I'd been considering when I talked it over with Julie, but I think that there's more weight to the story now, anyway. I only added about 700 words, which surprised me. (I probably added more, but I took out some, as well.) We'll see what happens next--
I also polished up "Subletter," but no major structural changes. Punched up one or two of the jokes.
short stories: marketing
Found new markets (amazingly) for "Subletter" and "Star and Galaxy." This took actual work. Unlike finding a market for "Sticks and Bones" ("S&B" is on its first journey, and they always toddle off to F&SF first. It's my only real rule in this game.) Figured out the next few markets for a few other stories. Considered re-querying some things, but decided against it for now.
Chores
Painting
Did some easy sanding in the little bathroom downstairs. Couldn't quite convince myself to do the heavy duty stuff. (The day before I taped; today, I have to do heavy sanding, probably respackle a few areas and sand again on Wednesday, which leaves Thursday and Friday to paint.)
Other chores
Cleaned the cat litter boxes, Febrezed the basement. Tonight, I'll clear all food-related area surfaces (tables, counters, butcher block) of anything that might be construed as my problem.
"Huntswoman" is up at Strange Horizons.
Tell me you love it; tell me you hate it; but by gum, please don't tell me you think it's too elliptical.
ConFusion report in a couple days. Am v. busy right now.
Had that magical moment when you realize what you've been doing wrong in a story. Oh, sure. You know you've got to do that mysterious thing, that "up the stakes" thing, but how is always harder than you think. Than I think.
Like a bolt from the blue, I solved "Sticks and Bones" last night. It was quite wonderful. I spent about half an hour hashing out the details with Julie last night in our hotel room (while the other Julie--Iulia, as it were--virtuously did her law school stuff).
I think I can rewrite this sucker tonight, maybe tomorrow too, and be ready to send it out on Tuesday.
I believe my story goes up at Strange Horizons on Monday. Unless the date on the galley was all a sham. But I doubt that.
So. Monday. You, me, "Huntswoman" and Strange Horizons. We can go for coffee together--a double date.
I'm off to ConFusion.
Work is a madhouse. I'm at that point where I come home and say bizarre and incendiary things to my husband and we either end up in a friendly wrestling match or play-arguing. Work stress does that to me... And I never said I was easy to live with.
On the other hand, tomorrow is ConFusion, and I'm looking forward to thinking about not-work for a few days.
Really, really looking forward.
Yep. I not only did multiple submissions intentionally for the first time, I also simultaneously submitted something. To markets that said each thing was ok, I promise!
Sim-subbing wouldn't have happened if the markets didn't basically offer it on their websites; if I had any serious confidence in the markets wanting the story, I might feel differently. But, I'm running out of markets, as is wont to happen, and I was having a hard time deciding between the two. So. Ergo. Thus.
The multiple subs are to Realms of Fantasy, and I think I may have done that before, but I can't remember--but certainly not within a week. But with Arabella folding, I decided to send Realms the fantasy-romance I got back in my lap. Even though it's beyond a long-shot, I feel better, somehow, knowing the story is out there, attempting to earn for the family. Weird, yes. But I'm a simple woman with complicated notions.
Sin and Sensibility by Suzanne Enoch (3) [romance]
I really wasn't going to read any romance this early in the year, but Suzanne Enoch is hands-down my new favorite romance writer, and there was her book on the shelf, and I was in Borders and feeling kinda blue...
Normally, I can't read a romance novel if I'm feeling content with life. They bore me. I totally use romance novels for all the wrong reasons--little nuggets of escapism, when my romantic relationships aren't functioning above 50%. Which is why I'm extremely hard on romance novels, as a rule; if the main reason for reading them isn't present, the other factors of the novel don't, in any way, make up for not feeling that base-line excitement that comes from the tension...
But, Enoch is so good, I think it doesn't matter. She makes enough with the funny that I laugh. She keeps the plot-lines interesting. The heroine is never that annoying, insipid heroine I can't identify with, and the hero is always just sardonic enough that he catches my interest--even when my own sardonic husband is keeping my sardonic-indicators maxed out at home.
Alas, but Enoch did go with the "spurned suitor puts the heroine/hero in actual physical danger" angle, which I am officially tired of in Regency romances--but she managed to do it in a mostly non-annoying way. For a minute, I didn't think she was going to, and it would have been officially awesome if she hadn't--but at least the heroine didn't get kidnapped by said spurned suitor. Props for that.
Anyway. I'm altogether pleased with Enoch. Now, for something densely packed and totally academic, to make up for having broken my pledge so early.
Under one week until ConFusion, for which two Julies will accompany me to the wilds of Great Metropolitan Detroit (well, ok: Troy).
We three geeks of Arbor-Ann are;
Bearing books we traverse afar,
Badges and signings, drunken dinings,
Piled into one single car...
Ahem.
Another con that I will be attending with at least one Julie in tow: WisCon!
And there's a distinct possibility that I can talk at least one person named Julie into going to ConText. But I'm probably on my own for further adventures, especially if I figure out how to do a joint Interaction/Milford adventure to Britain this summer.
*whistles and wanders off*
Oh, con of wonder, con of light...
Personal rejection from Asimov's today: too elliptical, but nice writing, and would like to see more. Color me mystified. As far as I'm concerned, this is a moment for celebration... that's officially as close as I ever expected to come to getting published in Asimov's.
Ok, when I'm done blinking, I'll figure out the next market.
Last night, dreamed about short stories and plagues. Apparently, biological terror is the theme of the month.
Managed to get "Sun's East" out the door today... more on writing behind the tag.
As for reading, I'm in the middle of Jo Walton's Tooth and Claw and a book on the Black Death. I thought it would be a small combat zone in my mind as they fought for ascendancy over the subconscious last night. But the Black Death won, hands down. I didn't have nightmares, but I was plagued by dreams... No, I don't expect you to pardon that pun.
Managed to get "Sun's East" out the door today, and hell, I don't even know if it's better or not. I tend to think so. I restructured an iffy plot segment, took out a couple hundred words of meaningless tripe, and made certain actions clearer. (It's fascinating how the picture in my head does not always match up with what is written on the page.)
What I have begun to do in "The Library Seed" is probably the most epic overhaul I've done on a completed short story in my entire career so far--without having a constructive rejection in hand first. Notably, it's gone through the OWW, though also notably, none of the reviews have (explicitly or obliquely) mentioned trying the rewriting things that I'm trying. It's just that, combined with "X confused me" and "Y's motivations were unclear" I more or less understood how to make another landing pass without destroying the one thing that everyone who's read it agrees is good (the voice) and the one thing that no one seems to get but that I believe is central to the story (the organic quality of the library).
Then, there is "Sticks and Bones," which I haven't opened up again yet, but I know what to do. Sometimes, the obvious solutions to the plot--ones I reject early on because they seem too mundane--actually may be the best solutions in the end... after all, situation (I'm speaking of the sci-fi-ness of a piece) and style (in my case, style gets treated as voice--is that wrong? I know there is more to style, but voice is the only way I feel comfortable in manipulating style right now) should be enough for me if no plot twist offers itself.
Well, I'm going to stick with that thought for tonight, anyway.
Alas and alack, LJ is frotzed!
I was overdue for making an update here, anyway.
One thing regarding email I wanted to alert everyone to... I have applied the generalized spam filters to my merrie at umich account, and that means all published email addresses for me (all of them funnel there) with the one exception of mythos (dot) logos {at} gmail... so if you send me mail and think "Gee, that was inflammatory enough to earn a response" and you don't get one, it's probably not you, nor me, but that my service provider thinks you're trying to hawk me the Vixagra. So, try the mythos.logos address if I seem unresponsive.
The other option is that I de-forward all the other pub'd email addresses and learn how to check more than two inboxes a day... but while I'm a geek, I'm not sure I possess that level of dedication.
...and then my head hits my laptop.
Fell asleep writing tonight. This makes me the low of the low, does it not? Anyway. My grandiose plans of giving a polish to "Sun's East" and then settling down to the earnest rewriting of "Sticks" and "The Library Seed" are unlikely.
Household Gods by Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove (2)
I picked this book up on a whim, and just as capriciously pulled it off the wrong end of my to-read pile (FIFO, dammit! FIFO!).
This is the book about a present-day woman who goes back in time to live life in the Roman era--particularly, in what is now Austria, under Marcus Aurelius.
I have mixed feelings about it. I do not like Nicole very much. The first two chapters (set in the present) were jaw-clenchingly painful, as Nicole made idiotic decision after idiotic decision and managed to be nasty, judgmental and bitchy simultaneously with being weak, door-mattish and socially inept. Possibly this was the point. Very possibly, we were supposed to feel that Nicole was made better by her experiences in the past--because she is more bearable in the end--but along the way she is in turn neglectful of her children and then downright mawkish over them, full of high-flung ideals that are a little too high-flung and neglectful of others' viewpoints, right up until she overturns common sense... Ugh, I don't even know really where to begin.
Sure, maybe she's supposed to be complex and human because of her contradictions, but mostly, she's just irritating. In almost every scene, I found myself rooting for every other character, with the possible exception of Umma's mother.
And in the end....
**SPOILERS**
And in the end, she's raped for her troubles.
WTF, authors? Is it that she was such a bitchy woman you couldn't think of any way to make her understand reality? Because that is weak. Weak. Or, were you punishing her, and now she's contrite? That's even weaker.
Possibly, it had to be done for narrative logic: she might never have really wanted to leave the past without facing that brutality head-on. But I don't buy that either.
Anyway.
In response to the rape, Nicole does the first and only thing in the entire book that made me cheer for her: she heads off to lodge a plea for restitution against the Imperial Government. When it fails, it's because she realizes that the laws of the Roman Empire are utterly different than the laws she knew, and merely accepts it.
And yet, in spite of my occasionally seething anger at the main (and viewpoint) character, I enjoyed the book a lot. I liked the details of Roman life. I liked the secondary characters, Titus and Gaius and Julia and the kids. I liked Dawn and Cyndi and Gary, too, but we didn't spend half as much time with them as the Romans. I liked Brigo, even.
And, most importantly, I read this quickly and with voracious passion. And I very much liked that.
Mom was here on her way back down to North Carolina, so much of my yesterday was spent chatting with her or making the house look slightly more inhabited by people instead of monkeys.
The rest of my yesterday, and already some of this morning, has been spent responding to editors about my story, which has been tweaked and retweaked and better be darn near perfect soon.
I've already spent many, many times more effort conversing with the editor on this one story (the first one of mine in a pro market) than I have with all my other stories combined (semi-pro and not-close-to-pro markets). It's fascinating. It's revealing. It makes me happy, because always before when I'd sell a story and it would be published, I would wonder: "Is this *it*?"
It's also revealing because it makes me realize how much fine-tuning I really should be doing before sending the story out. Not that I didn't believe I had been doing all the fine-tuning I could before--but now I know I need to add more time into my editorial process, and really get in there.... read the stories aloud, in the absence of actually acquiring an uncommon word counter. And other stuff I haven't quite figured out yet. I'm still writing from instinct, and that's ok. I think I should continue to do so, actually. I don't know that I should be editing from instinct, however.
In other news, I got a few really excellent critiques on "The Library Seed" over at the OWW, and I'm impressed with the clarity with which some reviewers are able to explain what they perceive to be going on in my story, both on a macro and micro level. I was dubious at first, but now I'm pretty convinced that it was a good move. I don't think I'd ever be able to workshop a novel in that system, but short stories are in their element there.
It's been a highly educational week.
Well, I didn't have a deadline so much as a, uhm. Urgency-line. I guess? Anyway, got mail from my editor(s) at SH, which redirected what was turning into a lackadaisical editing session into a very driven editing session.
And that was hella cool, from what I was doing to why I was doing it. Maybe after another few sales (knock on wood), I won't be all starry-eyed and eager to please? But I doubt it. Hell, if I haven't lost my enthusiasm for all the other things people have told me I wouldn't keep it for, I'm not going to lose it for this sort of thing, either.
I mean, I still like to drag a booktruck around the library because it's feels so official. If I don't lose the happy in steering a six-wheeled, three-shelved, squeaky wooden contraption around, how am I gonna lose it for this, which is infinitely cooler?
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey (1) (re-read) [fantasy]
I read this poor thing to death in my early teens. Later (and by that I mean "in later books in her series" as well as just later in general), I grew to find Lackey's writing unsatisfying. (I think it was in the middle of Winds-of-something that I got fed up with nasty sorcerers calling Selenay a bitch to prove their evil nastiness.) This led to getting rid of all Lackey-books, period, which, in retrospect, was a mistake.
This book has flaws, but they're all minor and in-spite-of. This book rolls along wonderfully--almost perfectly paced (ok, a leetle draggy at the beginning--it takes far too long for Talia to get tot the Collegium) and enough stuff happens that, even if it didn't excite me this time, I remember being crazy-excited about it in my teens. (Incidentally, enough stuff still excited me, and, amazingly, I still cried at the places I remember crying before.)
I'm glad I picked up a new copy of this. It's solid first book in many ways, and I had definitely missed it. I'll probably reacquire the next two books in this trilogy (which, interestingly, may be the only trilogy where I wonder what the hell the end-book is doing there, and not the middle-book), and I might reacquire the Vanyel series, but right there is where it ends. As much as I want to know what happens to Elspeth in the future, there's no way I can slog through the Winds-of books again, and I don't even want to consider the books after that (unless I've fantasized those completely. Do they even exist?)
Lo, for though it has long been in the "forthcoming" section, it looks like "Huntswoman" is finally going to see the light of day. Karen et al. at Strange Horizons sent me the edits, and I assume galleys will come soon after. In related news, I learned I had a severe outbreak of the commapox in that story.
In less thrilling news, I was sitting here typing this with laptop on my left leg and my right knee bent and up. Merlin-the-cat decided that would be his perchin' knee and jumped onto it, where he kept his very unstable perch with his claws until I shrieked in pain and threw him off. He immedietely curled up in a ball and began to purr.
Cats. Commas. Man.
I got some unexpected fanmail on "Reparations," and it was like mainlining happy juice.
I know I don't do it nearly often enough to other authors... but speaking from experience, there's nothing like getting a "that was really great" from the audience. I think that's why so many are drawn to fanfiction. Write even a mediocre piece of fic, and you get kudos for days.
But it was especially nice to hear on "Reparations." I may always feel that one is underrated...