A Writer's Paradise

Laid Waste

All Retreaters have reported in as arrived home safely, I think, either explictly or implicitly. I have been laid low (or laid waste, I'm not sure) by the evil cold that was incubating at the retreat; hopefully most everyone else avoided the plague. (I think I've taken Julie W. down with me.)

Between catching up with schoolwork and work-work and home, I haven't written anything. Of course.

If I can't figure out not only on how to stay on this horse but also how to pasture him in my household, something is going to have to give.

Retreat Works!

In spite of being sort of dehydrated and post-drinks angsty ("Am I really supposed to be drinking Heart Attacks, at my age?"), I will confirm that there's nothing better than a little time away to refocus your writing. Or at least, my writing.

I got a good start on two new shorter things I wanted to try, and even though I didn't work on any novels, that's okay, because I've really been overthinking school and underthinking writing. I'm hoping that with school becoming less about communicating with seven different people at once and more about just focusing in on my own work, I'll have a lot more mental energy. (The group work for my class is done. I just have presentations and papers from now on, all by my blessed self. Thank god.)

And I started reworking "The Girl-Prince," as I mentioned, though it's slow going because I'm at the stage where I don't even know what I wrote or meant in some places, and that's always a weird point to be in. In some ways, it's good because I can be objective enough to say "That doesn't make sense!" But I'm still too close, and assume, "Well, I must have had a good reason, am I SURE it doesn't make sense?"

Anyway. I think we're heading off to brunch soon.

Day Three of Retreat

Steve has arrived!

I am hoping that this will signal the beginning of Actual Writing for me, instead of Not Really Writing.

I did start working on the rewrite of "The Girl-Prince" based on the critiques that my writing group gave me. I'm mostly just working through the minor details ("How tall is the stickyfoam?") but I'm also contemplating something radical like cutting out one or two thousand words. Just. Cutting them out.

But I'll try that after the minor details are ironed out, just in case I wreck everything.

Goals.

Well, here I am at the retreat. No one is here yet, except Julie who arrived with me, and she's still asleep.

I suppose I'd better get some goals scrounged up for this event, instead of just staring at the lake and drinking tea.

Also, I should shower.

Advancing to the Rear, Quickly

Writer's Retreat, Autumnal Version, is coming up soon. As in, tomorrow. I'm so not ready... I told myself I had time, but I so don't. Tomorrow might be a small nightmare of logistics. Or a large one. Because tomorrow, I have to drive to Detroit for class, meet quickly with my group, give a presentation, drive back, go to work, make sure I eat somewhere in there... Then a full day of work crammed into five hours... then drive off into the sunset with my girl Julie. Directly into the sunset. Fortunately, it should be late enough not to blind me.

And sometime between now and then, I need to finish my handout for the presentation, pack clothes, pack writing gear, make sure I have any school stuff I need for the weekend packed (still have to do homework on the weekends, even if it's just in short stints), and for once in my life, not forget my toothbrush or socks. (I always forget one of those.)

Plus, go to the store.

Plus, do laundry.

Which is quite a list that I'm sure none of you cared about.

But anyway, we will shortly be partying like writers alone in the woods. Okay, so that's not so much a metaphor as literal truth. (And as usual, sounds like a horror story.) And by we, I mean, Elizabeth Shack, Dave Klecha, Steve Buchheit, Julie Winningham, Dave's sister Lou, our other friend Julie, and Dave's friend Jay. And me.

Conward Ho

Tomorrow, I travel to Scenic Columbus, Ohio, to embrace my fellow science fictioneers in sisterly love. Or something like that. Yes, it's time to go to a convention, and it's my first one in far too long. Since, like, January.

At ConText, I hope to finally meet my not-infrequent TOC buddy, Lucy A. Snyder; to catch up with Jaime Lee Moyer of poetry fame; and to avoid the too-overt stalking Mike Resnick, who has been holding "The Lonesome Dark" prisoner on his desk for a while now. (Well, it's either him or Eric Flint.) (And, presumably on his desk. Perhaps it's propping up a wobbly table.) And of course, to catch up with my buddy Elizabeth Shack.

Is there anyone else going that I should be stalking, either overtly or non-overtly?

In the meantime, I must pack.

And stop reading about Mike Resnick. Because I need to stop reading things he's written essays on slush, which is not packing, in spite of intriguing statements like "[The] odds against selling a slush story to Asimov’s? 4,000-to-1 against."

Dang. Now I'm feeling all miraculous and shit.

Well, fortunately I'll be traveling tomorrow with my biggest co-conspirator, Julie Winningham. She knows how to keep me humble. And how.

Rejections and Revelations

Got a nice rejection on "Souls on a String." I think I'm going to have to retire the story, unless I can think of another market I respect who might be interested. The story isn't a great fit for a lot of mags. I believe this was the one that Asimov's called "too elliptical" which has become a running joke around our house. I am very often too ellpitical.

In other news, I have revisited my big plan to write a whack of short stories this summer. Mostly because there is one currently stuck crosswise in my head, and won't come out. I sort of remembered today, while floating in the lake with Julie that at some point in the not-so-distant past I said I was giving up on short stories because it wasn't my natural writing length. And somehow... I forgot this?

The other thing that became clear to me about short stories this weekend, too, was that I

1) don't like having such a short period of time to connect with the characters. I believe that's pretty self-explanatory.

2) have learned pretty much all I can learn right now from writing short stories--someday, I'll need to learn something else from the process, but for now, it's stalled. Or plateaued. Granted, I don't write to learn something, but when I've already got a whack-load of other reasons to be tired of short stories, I can't think why, when I don't even have that reason in play, to keep lumbering on.

Of course, if I get mugged by a short story, I get mugged by one. But really, I want to be writing my novels, and I was supposed to be, but I got very, very distracted somewhere along the way....

Finally, I did get the galleys done for "An Almanac for the Alien Invaders," which looks very fetching in page-proof form, I must say. The Asimov's font with the title and my name... guh. Sex-ay. Of course, I say this now, after the galley-nausea has abated. I buckled down and read through the story and even found a few typos and dropped words, and corrected some things that needed correcting (capital e in Earth, frex), and then, Elizabeth proofread it, too, and found two dropped words, and now I think I owe her dinner, because I feel about three hundred times better now.

So.

Here I are.

Oh, and here's where I kayaked today:



I thought at the time that it wasn't as far as normal, and I see now that it wasn't. I was thrown off my game by starting late (too much wind-wave action, and boater-wave action), and my new gloves kept my hands from hurting so I had a rather difficult time knowing how long I'd been out. Apparently, aching hands was a metric I understood rather well!

The Lake!

Here we are, Elizabeth Shack, David Klecha, Julie Winningham, and I, hanging out at the lake for a impromptu (is it impromptu if there's six months notice?) writing weekend. I say impromptu because anything that's not our fall retreat doesn't count as planned, I guess. Plus, in the summer, there's more to do than shiver and write.

Julie and I had a peaceful drive out, and jumped in the lake about as soon as we got here. We swam in a pink sunset. I watered plants and put out food for the ducks and rabbits and squirrels. The others showed up.

And, other than the neighbors inviting us over for a cook-out breakfast in the morning, not much else has occurred. I'm not sure any writing has happened yet. I did look at two pages of the Asimov's story, and I corrected my name before putting it away.

I'm not really sure what else I can do to procrastinate here. Other than actually do some writing.

Hm.

I could play Peggle.

ETA: We may not have written much anything yet, but we are not drunk.

A Highly Personalized Checklist

Recent To-Do List Items:

1. Finish Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Check

2. Kayak. Here's the route I took on Monday:


I paddled extremely hard to make it across the wide expanse of the lake quickly, before someone came and waterskied over my head. Also, the map lies a bit, and interprets a small island as a peninsula; I didn't portage at all, I just glided over some very shallow water.

Today, this was my route:



It was an easier paddle, being shorter, and less... ominous by not crossing a well-used thorough-fare, so I paddled slower. I haven't mapped my Sunday route yet, or come up with what I want to do tomorrow (or Saturday--my husband says I should take a day off in between jaunts and do something else to maximize the exercise pay-off.... but I am doing this for pleasure as much as anything, so maybe I will go tomorrow and Saturday both).

Er. Check.

3. Write 1000 words.

I laid down about 2k of novel today, actually. So. Check.

4. Play with nieceling and nephling. Check.

5. Apologize profusely to Todd Wheeler for even mentioning Peggle. (The apology is implicit in this item, yes, Todd? Okay, then... Check.)

6. Update Duotrope with my latest rejection and (oops) my latest submission, which is now a week old. Check.

I think I'm done for the day. (Phew.)

Travel and Upgrades (Unrelated Subjects)

Just got back from New York (state), where I was visiting my niece and nephew and their parents. I sooooo dig being Aunt Mer. Other than that, I could rant about the state of airline travel today, the coolness of the landscape of New York state, or the vastly inappropriate amount of eavesdropping I did on the plane, because everyone seated around me was some variety of crazy or intense. But I won't. Because it's bedtime.

Meanwhile, the inevitable upgrade (or rather, sideways grade?) to WordPress for this blog is imminent. She cannae take the comment spam any longer, Cap'n!

Also, Farthing aka FARting Magazine, says: "We are delighted to announce that issue five of Farting will be the last issue produced using medieval technology. We are, after all, a science fiction magazine and it is absurd in the twenty-first century to be using technology more suited to the fifteenth."

Right-oh, and happy April Fool's Day.

Back from ConFusion

I have returned from ConFusion, where most of my time was spent hanging in the bar with my friends and chatting with whoever came by. For the most part, "who came by" was limited to people who knew Dave Klecha--Toby Buckell (and Toby's wife, Emily) and John Scalzi, for starters, and also, I met Stephen Buchheit. (At some point, I'm going to have to take the bull by the horns and start introducing myself to people.)

But mostly, I'm back home, refreshed and invigorated, and eager from my two no, three four days off writing to restart the whole process.

Dave and I are actually getting this whole writing workshop/retreat thing worked out. He came up with a vision on his drive home, which is good, since I was sans vision. As I noted during the Con, I have a cottage, not a vision. Or rather, my vision is so broad as to be unhelpful (writers writing around a table). Dave has come up with some good ideas, however, and it fits with my vision. I am holding myself to us being able to send out invites by early next week.

I have also made the big decision on what my extracurricular activity shall be. While I'm writing the Tarot Book, I have made it sort of a goal to not exceed my goal wordcounts by more than a few hundred, so as to not write ahead of my, uh, head. So, I think that I will make an extracurricular goal of writing my never-to-be-sent-to-Baen book, as I have long felt strongly about it, and it is the polar opposite to the Tarot Book. I am, for now, excited about this. We'll see how I feel when it explodes in my face (or whatever it is that might realistically happen.)

In Which We Return

As Dave Klecha noted, a weekend of writing refreshment was spent at the family cottage. I wrote--really wrote--for the first time since I got sick, and that was good, as I needed to get back on track, but what was really pleasing about the whole thing for me was that I didn't actually get any more writing done than I usually do in a weekend. Because that means I'm writing at or near max capacity on normal weekends, see? That's my theory, anyway.

Anyway, Dave and I are hatching a plan to create a Great Lakes area writing cabal. It's going to involve intensive bribery of Elizabeth and others like her--burgeoning neopros and dedicated-but-unpublished novelists--with long weekends of writing camaraderie and boating, but I think we'll pull it off.

Okay, so. Things I learned this weekend?

• "Platypus" is my drunken downfall--this word cannot be said (by me) while intoxicated.
• I am not the only one to get stumped by "further/farther" and its ilk.
• Schadenfreude Pie needs double the chocolate and half the molasses to satisfy the finicky tastes of the Hastings Point Writers.
• I am still not scared of spiders (unless their legs are bigger than my pinkie finger).
• You can't explain Mary Gentle books to other people. "You" here means me.

I also learned that Dave loves Duotrope and its submission tracker as much as I do. But that's 'cause he's smart.

Returned, Rejections, Reading

Back from Montana and the parts in between. I got my mountains, which Brook's book needed. I got other things as well... I'd like to do the trip again in a leisurely fashion--I could spend a full day in Badlands, hiking; I'd like to see Deadwood in spite of how hokey it looks; and I could stay a week apiece in Glacier and Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. But, all told, we saw plenty.

Came home to rejections from F&SF and Escape Pod. Onward. Just, not today. Probably not tomorrow, either.

I had something of a break from writing while I was on vacation. It was good I didn't take the laptop, really, because the amount of time it could have gotten conveniently used was negligible. Part of that was due to my traveling companions--my stepdaughter required all the attention I would have devoted to any writing. As it was, I did take notes on a story, sketch the beginning of another, and jot down some good thoughts--stolen moments, here and there. I think the break will last through tomorrow, as I'd very much like to get the house clean[er], and find a way to keep it clean[er].

I did manage to read a bit on the trip, though I haven't finished everything I started reading yet.

The Field Guide by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (41) [children's]

Cute and fast--maybe a little too fast, as I'd sort of hoped this would keep our attention as an audiobook longer than it did. I didn't listen to the rest of the books in the series yet, and I feel that altogether they amount to a whole book... possibly a little young for my stepdaughter based on their length? I don't know. It's so hard to listen to an audiobook and judge what reading it would be like, especially for this age range.

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (42) [science fiction]

Really good. The book ate my brain, in all the best ways. My favorite in the Hugo field so far. I may have more detailed thoughts later.

Until We Meet Again

I'm off to the mountains. And the plains. And the lakes.

I'm about to embark on a lengthy car trip to Montana, by way of the Midwest. It should be educational in the extreme. One of the things I will learn is how to get by without a computer for two weeks. I can't think of the last time I did that. I suspect it has been more than five years.

While the internet withdrawals may be extreme, what I'll miss more is simple joy of word processing. I'm having this mental conversation with myself: is one notebook enough? Are two pens enough? If they aren't, you can buy more. But that's a pain. Take two notebooks and three pens. Four notebooks and a dozen pens. No, scrap it, just take the laptop.

And then I have to remind myself that we'll be cramped for space on the return trip, that the laptop will doubtless be more hassle than it's worth in terms of the amount of time I'll actually be able to use it in a given day, and so forth.

But still. It's been the vehicle for my mode of writing for a long while now, and I'm actually wondering how much I can stand writing something by longhand knowing I have to type it all in again later.

Hm.

The travails of the modern age, I guess. At least I'll have my iPod.

I have returned. Again.

ConFusion was the perfect counterpoint to last year's WorldCon in Glasgow-- intimate, laden with familiar faces, and light on distracting, non-stop programming. A relaxing convention, all told.

Scalzi's reading was hilarious. There were fart jokes. And fart noises. And I'll be buying The Android's Dream, oh, yes, I will.

Tobias Buckell's reading was fantastic. I've started reading Crystal Rain, the first third of which is/will be posted up under "Excerpts." In addition, there are DVDesque outtakes and commentaries (or coming soon in some cases; the official launch date is not yet here, in fact).

Beyond that, my roommates were, as always, great good fun; the amaretto sours were delicious; and the dessert reception was fantastic. I spent more time prowling the parties than before, and in some cases the parties prowled us--the roving pirate party was making people walk the plank randomly.

All things considered, a must-do convention for me for some years to come.

Top Ten Time Travel Vacation Spots

If time travel ever really came to be, I'm quite certain that I wouldn't want it to exist in a way where you could just do any old interfering thing you liked. There'd have to be restrictions--not on par with the Prime Directive, because that's just dumb--but something to keep people's agendas (agendae?) from including things like "Go back in time and assassinate Hitler," or "Go back in time and be my own grandpa." Maybe I just want the strictures to be against Science Fiction time travel clichés. I don't even know.

But, assuming that all my strictures are in place, here are my Top Ten Time Travel Vacation Spots:

Number One:
Travel forward in time and dig up my own skull. Keep on desk while writing.

As per the Alchemists of Yore, but with a twist. I did try to incorporate this notion into a short story which I'm still struggling to rewrite so it makes sense. (sigh)

Number Two:
Travel backward in time and witness the Battle of Badon. Interview the victors. Try not to ask anyone: "Are you the real King Arthur?"

Unfortunately, I know more Anglo-Saxon (from about 4 centuries later, admittedly) than proto-Celtic. That interviewing thing is going to be pretty hard on me, since I'll probably be taken for a Saxon invader's doxy.

Number Three:
Travel backward in time and witness myself as a four-year-old girl cleaning the couch pillows with Windex.

My mom says she's never laughed so hard. I bet it's pretty funny.

Watch out... here come some nerdly nerdulence.

Number Four:
Travel backward in time and be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries.

A secret Demeter cult in Ancient Greece whose initiates were sworn to secrecy-- and that secrecy worked? Hell yes I want some cheesy poofs! And then, I won't tell anyone about it, just like all the other initiates!

Number Five:
Travel backward in time and watch the first performance of Romeo and Juliet.

Does this even need an explanation? Well, perhaps other than "why R&J and not Hamlet/MacBeth/etc." The actual, true answer to that is, "to watch the crowd reaction." So much frickin' love and blood, so little rhetoric. If R&J is sold out, I'll see Richard III, thanks. The rhetoric and blood will do (with no love). I don't think I could handle all three (rhetoric, love and blood) *and* fear of plague and Elizabethan dress all in one day.

Number Six:
Travel forward in time and check out a few of the good books that will be written after I'm dead. Check on The Song of Ice and Fire series for kicks. Also, download all future Dar Williams albums to my iPod.

This one is logistically difficult, but *probably* not impossible. And I figure there will be Luddites holding onto .mp3s *somewhere*.

Number Seven:
Travel backward in time and spend a day with each of my grandparents in their youth. Great-grandparents, too, if I have time. And my own parents, while I'm being greedy.

Part intellectual curiosity, part morbid curiosity. I think catching Grandma in her tent revival days is just the thing, and maybe catching Gramps when he rode a Harley.

Number Eight:
Travel backward in time and spend a day with my mother's father, just because I can.

He was a wonderful man, and I miss him every day.

Number Nine:
To lighten the mood: travel backward in time and witness myself falling out of my husband's apartment, back before we were even dating--or thinking about dating. (Or thinking about thinking about dating.)

Brandon once said he wants that moment to be on the gagreel he gets to see after he dies. So do I. Dann and I laughed for forty minutes afterwards. I tripped over the threshold, bounced off three or four walls and landed face first into a pillow I happened to be carrying, and I would pay money to do it again.

Number Ten:
Travel back in time and see some megafauna.

Sure, you got your mastodons and you got your sabertooth tigers, but I think I really just want to get a giant gerbil. For kicks.

Of course, now that I've made my list, I realize that there've been gross oversights like tea with Miss Austen and tromping the moors with the Brontë sisters, or giving my grandchildren a terrible fright. But... oh, well. Perhaps another time. Haha, temporal pun. Quick, everyone, take this up as a meme and we'll avoid thinking about that.

A Light Con-Schedule and a Heavy Writing Schedule

I'm only concretely planning to hit up ConFusion this year; WorldCon is a distinct possibility, in part because my husband has close friends in L.A. (my close friends have fled, or will have fled, for more northerly climates). And that is it. That's all I'm planning or half-planning.

Last year, I went a little Con-Crazy, and that's when I began to see that con programming is usually just a variation on the theme; and while there are people to meet and friendships to solidify, I tend to get overwhelmed by the whole thing and get a little shy, thereby vastly reducing the social opportunites which seem to be the raison d'etre of a convention. ConFusion is just the right size to really settle in at the bar and start waving at people you only internet-know--eventually you're talking to those people; the con is small enough that everyone looks like a friend by the end.

In other scheduling news...

I visited my mother at my aunt's house this weekend; I wisely took along a stack of notecards and one research book, knowing I'd probably not even crack open my laptop. (I had a memory key along just in case I cracked open someone else's laptop, but I didn't even do that.) In the few short hours I spent taking notes on women and ancient myth, I realized I totally want to write a pirate Regency romance, I figured out my assassin story, and I set myself a detailed writing schedule for the next two months, which, if adhered to, will set me well upon my way to reaching some of my bigger writing goals.

And on the drive home, I decided that Occam's Wet/Dry Electric Shaver is something with which--if I don't write a story about and no one invents it in the meantime--I will doubtless regale two Julies and one Elizabeth over amaretto sours at the hotel bar during ConFusion.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Diary Paper

You know the header on the main index page of this journal--the view of the dales plus a part of a graveyard? Yeah, I found that spot again on this trip, though it's changed a little bit. The field in direct view is more of a car park now, and there are some big stones next to the cemetary wall, which I perched on to write an Emily-esque diary paper of how I felt that particular day. (Yeah, I took my laptop on my tromp through the moors and the dales along the public footpaths. It seemed like a very good idea at the time, and I did use it. It was just... very heavy on the way back.)

In other news, I slushed twice this week, almost compulsively... managed to review one under-reviewed crit at the Online Writing Workshop, though I should do another. But not before I back up all the writing I did while I was in Britain.

I managed to write the middle part of "The Wedding Dress Tea Parties of 2443" while I was gone, as well as a bit here and there of other stories. I would like to finish "Tea Parties," I would. The problem is, I'm 9,600 words in, and I think the ending is still a couple thousand words away. That makes this my first novellette. I'm in no way pleased about that. Novellettes have limited markets, especially for neopros who are barely neo (such as myself). Even worse, this thing might not really be science fiction. I mean, it is--but I'm not sure that the story would fall apart and collapse without the SF element, if you get my point. It might really be space opera. Space opera comedy of manners, in fact. I foretell of another long string of rejections here...

Wales

I have returned

Back from Wales. Back from England. Back from Scotland. Not as jetlagged as I was afraid I would be, and I think I'll make it past nine tonight. All the same, I am jetlagged, and I'm sure I won't make it past ten, no matter how much I want to get my pictures cropped, sorted and uploaded. (There are only 173. This is a record low for me, and frankly, there are only that many because I was doing digital and felt dupes were in order in some places. Also, I've not mastered the macro setting, so subtract one or two there as well.)

Milford was fantastic. I don't think I previously had a good sense of really where I was and where I was going before, and while that's not at all the main point of Milford, it was still quite helpful. I'll talk much more about the process and my time at WorldCon in the upcoming days (I mean, what else have I really to talk about, anyway? No rejections nor any acceptances awaited me here at home, btw...).

Er. I am the yawning. Will be back tomorrow.

The Blogman Cometh

I'm sitting by a pillar on the party floor of the Hilton, pondering the true value of 10 pounds for 24 hours of unlimited internet access. (It beats 6 pounds for an hour, that's for sure.)

So far, I
a) have gotten lost three times
b) have not managed to connect with anyone (except the internet!), including my roommate, who probably thinks I'm dead
c) gotten a manicure
d) been either early or late for everything, but nothing on time, unless you add all the earlies and the lates
e) did not brush my hair for 24 hours, almost

Literary experiences thus far? None. Fandom experiences thus far? I'm the one who acts like she has Asperger's Syndrome today. I chalk it up to lack of sleep.

More anon.

I'm hungry...

WorldCon, Milford and Places in Between

I'm off to the UK, and the geekly pilgrimage that is WorldCon.

I will try to blog from there; rumors of wireless in the hotel abound. I suspect after that, however, it will be wireless in a whole 'nother way... the wilds of Yorkshire and Wales are a little sparser for internet access. I think.

Cheers!

Interaction is a-coming

My WorldCon roomie and I are trading hesitantly geeky emails (I, at least, wonder if I'm about to cross the line with my w00ting and the like) and getting generally pumped for the trip.

I'm having a hard time staring down the suitcase, though.

*

In other news, I passed the 100th submission mark today in my glorious two-year writing career. I subbed 4 items today: two reprints ("Huntswoman" and "Heretic's Day Out"; the former I have great hopes for and the latter I was just waiting for the right market), and two originals ("The Lonesome Dark," now with industrial-strength continuity action! and "The Library Seed" which I finally finished rewriting after my wonderful critiques on the OWW, including the Editor's Choice crit from Kelly Link. In honor of that, in fact, I sent it to the magazine Ms. Link slushes for...)

With 12 hours of driving, you'd think I'd get somewhere

Much voluntary up-and-downing and not a little acrossing of the state this weekend. (Some people might just say "criss-crossing," but those people don't know the value of complicating things unnecessarily.)

Saw my mom. Saw my aunt. Saw my in-laws. Saw good fireworks. Saw some cousins.

Saw a state trooper in my rearview mirror, and I have a souvenir of *that*.

I'd say it was the *one* and only time I was truly speeding this weekend. "Truly" in the sense of "In Michigan, everyone gets 10 over." Ah, well. He reduced the ticket from 15 over to 10 over. It helps, a very little.

All the same--crap.

Interaction Programming

My schedule for Interaction is pretty cool. Panel with the GOH!

Radical Retellings: of Fairytale, of Well Known Fantasies, of Other Genres
Friday 5:00pm
Andy Duncan (M), Gregory Frost, Merrie Haskell, Christine Mains, Jane Yolen

Is the only way to make fantasy interesting these days to retell and rework it?

The "Evil Stepmother" Archetype (0.5 hrs) Monday 12:30pm

Merrie Haskell (M)

Do second marriages ever work in Fantasy? Where does the archetype of the evil stepmother come from and who perpetuates it -- first wives/mothers, unhappy children, or a patriarchal society?

Oh, heavens

I'm back from Mackinac. I just realized I didn't really put up the "going away" sign around here. Likewise, I didn't put a vacation message on my email, which was also an oops.

Anyway. I do so very much love Mackinac. It was wonderful sharing some of my favorite bits with K. It was also very different to be shepherding a kid around a place you love, because there are some favorite bits you just don't get to do when you're taking care of someone else. (Or vacationing with a group.) (Also, some children are very demanding about their beauty sleep, and just don't get why sharing a room with a writer means that they should have to hear clackety-clacks or see a computer light past 9:30 PM. This meant that very little writing got done this trip.)

This is, ultimately, why I will always want to vacation alone from time to time. Sometimes, you need to go steep in a culture or a place (or both), and having someone from home really makes the steeping less effective. It's a trade off, though, isn't it? I didn't get lonely on this trip, not once. I do tend to get quite lonely when I'm vacationing by myself.

Anyway, time to write and time to steep aside, there was still plenty of time for things to compost while I was gone. The mind is feeling particularly rich, and ready to go. I hope I can get enough of the pieces down in the next day or two that I don't lose track.

Panels

Interaction says they'll have me on a couple panels. One with Jane Yolen, no less, the GOH herself. Color me squee.

One is on rewriting fairy tales and one is on... get ready for the shock... the archetype of the evil stepmother. There we go. (Nods virtuously.) Pigeonholed for life on evil stepmother panels. At least, until I publish something else.

I suppose, to do that, I'd need to write. And to write, I'd need to stop coughing. Bleah, this is a mean bug that's snuck into my lungs...

Brief Thoughts

WisCon

I went, I saw, I made as little of a fool of myself as I possibly could.

No one gave me a triumph when I came home, but it's ok. Maybe next time.

Progress

Have not written anything since the last time I posted here that I had written something. That's a long time.

Process

But I'm revising my process and that's good. It might be brain time, after all. I hear some writers have it.

Slush

Lenox Avenue is reading for a themed issue: Mechanical Oddities. Send those stories along, a'ight?

OWW

So far, my new resolve to do one crit a week has been adhered to. It's been a week. I've done one crit.

TV

So addicted to reruns of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I didn't watch the first time they were on, largely in favor of Babylon 5. I'm in the 5th season. Most individual episodes feel deeply flawed. The overall arch is not as detailed or as compelling as other shows I've loved. But the gestalt is working for me all the same.

My Favorite Authors

Robin McKinley was GOH at WisCon. She was very beautiful and self-deprecating. Some people seem annoyed by the self-deprecating thing, but frankly, after sitting next to Ellen Klages at a panel, it makes perfect, perfect sense. There's always someone out there who makes you feel blown away, a merest twit, just by being their normal self. It's a fact. (And I do hope Ellen took my bumptiousness as the hero-worship it was, and not actual bumptiousness.)

Bully for Me

I sold "Star and Galaxy" to Between Kisses.

Back Home. Caught a Bug.

At WisCon, I ran into some r'glar folk in the elevator.

Matriarch of the R'glar Folk: (eyeing my con badge) So, what is this 'WisCon'?
Me: It's a feminist science fiction convention.
MotRF: I didn't even know there were female science fiction writers.
Me: (jaw dropping; doors of elevator open onto Elizabeth Bear; blurts) There's one right now.
MotRF: Hm. (walks away)
Elizabeth Bear: What was that all about?
Me: (sighs)

As Elizabeth Not-Bear pointed out later, the woman probably couldn't name any male science fiction authors, either. It didn't make me feel better, though!

I'm back, and I've managed to acquire a mean little head-cold style bug. My throat hurts. My head hurts. There is colored snot. The bad/good news is, I'm hungry... and my Tylenol for sore throats works well enough that I can swallow comfortably... but it also nauseates me. So, I'm intermittently questing for food and turning away from it.

Sorry...

Been running around like queen of the proverbial chickens, prepping for WisCon.

My schedule, as far as I know is:

Friday, 11:45-1AM Feminism so Far
Saturday, 8:30-9:45AM Problematizing Colonizing
Saturday, 4-5:15PM Zombies: Revolution or Just the End of the World?
Monday, 10-11:15AM Archetypes in Fantasy: The Evil Stepmother

I am, as expected, a smidge nervous, and wondering why I thought I wanted to be a panelist.

ConFusion

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...

WorldCon the Last

Last Panels: Fantasy Noire and Roundup

Fantasy Noire

Panelists: Delia Sherman, Faye Ringel, Glen Cook and Jim Butcher

There was some early debate over whether or not the topic should be treated as "fantasie noire" or "fantasy noir"--and the moderator (Ms. Ringel) decided to cut it right down the center and discuss both.

I had some flashbacks to my 8th grade English class's unit on film noir and sort of felt vaguely out of phase, but fortunately, the conversation turned around to dark fantasy, which is where I was waiting for it to go--nothing against The Maltese Falcon and such, but I thought that Madeleine E. Robins in discussing Point of Honor during Fantasy of Manners said more interesting things about noir-as-genre in just a few brief comments than was said in a good half-hour here.

This panel did spawn some of the better quotes, though.

"Who doesn't love a big old apocalyptic trilogy?" --Jim Butcher

and

"Dark fantasy has at risk the soul; light fantasy, the heart." -- Glen Cook

---

Anglo-Saxons and Other Panels I've Forgotten

I seem to not have taken notes on a few panels, so I'll try to relate what I recall of them as best I can.

I got up early to attend "Anglo-Saxon influences on fantasy" lecture/panel thing, which had some charmingly funny moments. (Not to mention, I think lovers of Old English resonate at some weird frequency that's incredibly... sexy?) At one point, people were bandying about A-S roots and stories about Tolkein (and actually, this was my first glimpse of Jo Walton)... And someone brought up Boethius. There aren't an incredible lot of OE texts for the young scholar to peruse. You pretty much end up reading some of the gospels, maybe a little "Apollonius of Tyre" and the obligatory Beowulf when you're starting out, but you know. Boethius is one of the few things we've got. And I think that if you got up for a lecture on Anglo-Saxon influences on fantasy at 9:30, you probably were pretty familiar with the OE corpus, in general. But the moderator stopped and squinted apologetically at us and asked how many of us were familiar with the Consolation of Philosophy. And I'd say that 98% of the attendees raised their hands.

I just grinned and decided I had found my tribe.

The other panel I forgot to mention was "Do women write differently?" -- and the essence was, no, men do. Ha!

No, it was a good panel, with lots of room for discussion, and good, intelligent discussion at that. Plus, more time to admire Justine Larbalestier's pretty hair and accent. (I mentioned my thing with accents, right?)

WorldCon Panels (nearing done!)

Panels: Aging Characters and The Age of Fighting Sail...

Aging your Characters

Sort of the opposite of the young female protagonists panel. Lois McMaster Bujold, Jean Lorrah, Nancy Kress, John Scalzi, Steve Miller and Susan Schwartz presiding.

I found what people were saying to be interesting, but the whole panel threw me off into thinking about the "abuela" theory of human evolution, and naturally, my note-taking suffered. There was almost some youth-bashing going on at some points--someone implied that young people are "unformed." (The actual statement was more like, "Writing older characters is about transformation. You can't have a transformation unless something has actually been formed.") Hm.

Hm, hm, hm.

I think anyone who has spent any time around a child knows that they get formed awfully young. Personality traits seep through at startlingly early ages--traits you can't account for through simple nature versus nurture argumentation. There's something there from very early on, and pretending that age is this magical thing that makes people more interesting was more baby boom elitist bs that I frankly don't enjoy. On the other hand, Lois and John certainly didn't jump into the midst of that, and gained even more respect in my eyes thereby.

---

The Age of Fighting Sail isn't Over (it just moved to SF)

panel: Walter Jon Williams, Jim Mann, John G. Hemry and Susan Schwartz

Various parallels between sailing ships and spaceships were drawn: 1) movement through a hostile environment; 2) specialized technology (rigging, etc vs. the accoutrement of space travel); 3) first contact situations

Something that struck me: we are between both of these ages of sail--perhaps even at a midpoint between tallships and spaceships, with only straggling remnants of the one and the early prototypes of the other. I don't know why that thought would actually excite me, but I'm always sort of thrilled by littoral places and moments. Or even liminal ones, if you'll forgive me the word abuse.

My notes get sort of random at points, but I did thoroughly enjoy the dialogue WJW, JGH and JM struck up about David Weber stretching the boundaries of good sense in order to make his Napoleonic warfare allegories hold fast in space. If anyone's really thrilled by this topic, or how Kirk is no Jack Aubrey, I have some more notes about it. Just speak up.

WorldCon: More Panels

Panels: The Young Female Protagonist; Tough Love for New Writers

The Young Female Protagonist

Panel: Tamora Pierce, Louise Marley, Mary H. Rosenblum, E. Rose Sabin, Anne Harris, Mindy Klasky and Mike Shepherd/Mosco(w?)

I'm not sure I learned much in this panel--my youthful girlhood does not feel very far away in many respects--but it's just lovely to hear Tamora Pierce get all fired up about what she writes and why she writes it.

I was 11 when I read In the Hand of the Goddess and I stayed up what seemed like all night to do so (it was probably 2AM, at a guess). That was it--the first book that kept me up past my bedtime, and certainly not the last, and it was exactly the sort of book I wanted to read. And write.

There was a lot of discussion in this panel about why it's liberating to write young characters: they aren't afraid to take risks; they won't be penalized (by the reader) for not knowing the rules of their society; they can be used to deconstruct their society... but I found that all of that really wasn't why I still read YA books after all these years, or why I write them.

It's not so complicated for me, really. I'm 29, right? But in my head, I'm still 11 a lot of the time. It's just the world I know. I'm still a girl, and I still don't get everything, and I still want to read about girls kicking butt. Yeah.

---

Tough Love for New Writers

panelists: Gavin Grant, Priscilla Olson, TNH, Steve Miller, David G. Hartwell

I've never spent a more empowering 50 minutes listening to people talk about despair and desperation.

It's not that any of them painted a rosy future. But it's that it was so honest, maybe, that I found it inspiring. Statements like "publishable does not mean good," and so forth.

Basically, I think the message was positive: if you're a writer, you write because you have to write. Whether or not you get published is a completely different issue. It doesn't make you good or bad... or a writer.

After some back-brain cogitation on the matter, I decided that if that panel depressed or discouraged anyone, then they were the ones who needed to be depressed or discouraged. If it empowered anyone--then they were crazy. But my kind of crazy.

Would I be happy with my publishing career if I never managed to break into the pro's? Noooo.... but would I still be happy with my writing? Yes.

I dunno. I liked it.

WorldCon: Another Panel Report

Panels: Fantasy of Manners and Next Steps for New Writers

Fantasy of Manners

panelists: Ellen Kushner, Madeleine E. Robins, Jo Walton, Lois McMaster Bujold

Finally a panel where I had not only read every author, but where I was actually quite knowledgeable about most of the works of most of the authors.

MER (I highly approve of her initials): "a lady never offends inadvertently" (very Jane Austen in sentiment)

JW: a fantasy of manners should have 1) a fantasy; 2) be defined as "Jane Austen with..."; 3) have manners used as a weapon and 4) be small-scale, not epic 5) wit

(Note to self: pursue Barbara Hambly's Stranger at the Wedding)

Class is a vital piece to anything that could be defined as "of manners"--since class leads to social climbing, and social climbing leads to adopting certain behaviors and affectations that allow the native members of a class to recognize one another...

MER: dislikes the 1810's settings with the 1990's characters. (I thought immediately of Sherwood Smith's essay, which was probably the first and only thing I've read on the internet that caused me to write an author out of the blue.)

I took rather personally relevant notes on this, and the whole fantasy of manners panel has gotten oodles of discussion around and about, so I don't feel that I'm actually contributing much fleshing out my notes here.

---

Next Steps for New Writers

Panelists: James Steven-Arce, Eleanor Wood, Kevin Anderson, Vera Nazarian, Sally Weiner-Grotta and Jane Jewel

This was a panel for folks who'd recently made their first big sales--either a novel or maybe had finally qualified for SFWA membership. I figured that I was going to be an optimist and assume that I would qualify for SFWA membership by the time WorldCon got around to the US again, and thus went.

I took four pages of notes. It's even less meta-writing on the scale than the plot and pace panel, but I think I heard some good things; mostly, exhortations on acting like a professional, and how to act like such, and hey, that's always good advice.

WorldCon, Part the Next Next

Panel Reports: Plot and Pace; the Future of the Future

Plot and Pace

panelists: Sean M. Mead, Stephen Dedman, Alison Baird, Jay Lake, Jim Gardner, Uncle River

This was not a "meta" panel on writing, like the archetype/princess alone panel, but more of a "how to" or rather "how I..." panel. Overall, I found more to disagree with than to agree with amongst what the panelists said, but it was good discussion to overhear nonetheless. I found that Jay Lake, surprisingly, had some of the best things to say. (You see, I was all prepared to resent Jay Lake, for some reason, but then it turned out he was this really funny and interesting fellow, and dammit, who's left to resent? Who??)

Sadly the whole thing about pace seemed to get mired in the "how to avoid infodumps" discussion, and really far, far too much was said about how to do exposition in a showing/not telling way. Ok, riiiight.

The best things said were: plot structure is a *tool* to make certain you've actually told a story (Jay Lake) and structure is subjective (Stephen Dedman). Uncle River actually pointed out something rather brilliant, I thought: aggression and rapid pace are often confused. And George R.R. Martin was cited as having some of the best pacing around-- "Something is always happening to someone."

---

The Future of the Future

I was wandering around trying to get into a number of panels that ended up standing-room only, until I gave up and went to this one about ten minutes late. But as it turned out to have not only Elizabeth Bear on the panel, but also Walter Jon Williams, I was actually quite pleased. Plus, Stephen Dedman from the previous panel was sitting about two seats away, and I got to sneak little adoring glances at him. What can I say? I'm a sucker for any accent that's not my own.

Other panelists: Dennis Livingston, Judith Berman and Daniel Hatch

It was a good panel, but I didn't take too many notes. Walter Jon Williams hit the nail on the head with pointing out that politics and technology don't evolve at the same rate--just because technology exists doesn't mean it's going to get distributed to the masses. He cited the fact that everyone on planet earth right now could eat and eat well, but for politics. (I started thinking all these thoughts about redistribution of wealth that quite distracted me from the conversation for a bit, and I was taking notes on a story--and Stephen Dedman snuck away then, too.)

I did like the general agreement amongst the panelists that the singularity is not something anyone actually needs to worry about. Phew. I never did want to worry about it. (droll smile)

WorldCon Report, Part the Next

More reports on panels: SF without Smiles and Archetypes of Fantasy: The Princess Alone

I didn't write much down for the Seriousness or Humor in SF panel. The only panelist I wrote down was Gordon Van Gelder for some reason, but I could look up the other folks if anyone is interested. I mostly attended this because I don't quite know how to write without humor, so I was curious if that was going to seriously affect how people thought of my work.

Ultimately, though, the discussion came down to tone and length-- "The Lottery" was cited as an example of unrelentingly humorless, for obvious reasons--but it is brief. I did not stand up and point out that We Have Always Lived in the Castle (another work by Shirley Jackson) has it's fair share of humor, though it's kind of a sick humor, but other panelists certainly touched on how you've got to have a little bit of levity in a 120k word work.

"Comic relief" was never mentioned by name, which I found interesting; but most SF isn't exactly high tragedy, so maybe that's why.

The subjectivity of funny was discussed as well--GVG (and this is the only thing I actually wrote down) said that he thinks Jim Morrow(?) is a hysterically funny author. And that some people like the "hey, look at me, I'm funny" stories, and some don't. But in any case, it was agreed that funny has to be tonally proper, and has to come at the right moment. Wit can be used to undercut dramatic tension to good effect--and to bad. Specifically mentioned were the Lethal Weapon movies, with Danny Glover making one-liners during gun-fights. Most thought this was bad undercutting, though the one-liner during the gun-fight cliche was not thought to be universally bad...

I don't know. I essentially got out of that one: "I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, then. Oh, and maybe I'll go read some Jim Morrow."

---

Archetypes in Fantasy: The Princess, Alone

panelists: Justine Larbalestier, Paul Witcover, Michelle West, Jo Walton and Diane Duane (see? This is where I got better about note-taking)

The first thing brought up was the Rapunzel-in-the-tower type of princess--versus the princess archetypes of say "the two or three princess sisters"--who have specific fail, fail, succeed or "one speaks diamonds, one speaks snails" arcs. I wasn't sure why the fail-fail-succeed princesses were brought up, actually--counterpoint? The Not-Princess-Alone?

Someone mentioned that an example of lone princesses that don't get mentioned much are Catholic saints.

There was much good stuff said, of course, but things really got rolling when the discussion turned to why it is that so frequently princess stories all end up the same way (the princess and the prince together in the end), and Jo Walton talked about "the weight of story"-- tradition, culture even, all work towards turning stories in a certain direction, and trying to turn that story in the other direction is a serious battle! We have cultural expectations that keep the weight of story rolling in one direction, and an author really, really has to work in order to be able to subvert all of that.

Jo Walton also pointed out that it's easier to go against the weight of story if you use humor. She also discussed how it is that women who go against the cultural expectations (ie, the princess who does not wait in the tower to be rescued) is usually an exceptional woman in some way--a woman who is unlike all the other women in society. She had to work very hard in her King's Peace books to create a world where her female characters didn't have to be exceptions to society in order to do great things--that doing great things and being a woman was something that happened in a backdrop of other women doing great things. We haven't really gotten anywhere until we have "extraordinary" women as a standard, not an exception.

Shoot, everything I wrote down is stuff she said, I think.

JW: "Women in fairy tales don't really have friends except dead mothers and animals."

This led to a flurry of discussion about E. Nesbit setting the standard for not having a princess alone, but rather as having a group of children (friends) off on an adventure together. Jo's son had also once asked why there were no books with a mum and a son off on an adventure together, and people could think of one, maybe two books where that happened, but the point was, there were almost none.

---

By the time I'd attended these panels, I had six pages of notes on the whole Bitter Road/Brook story arc and half a dozen short stories.

Where I Was

I was in Boston!

My con reports are turning out quite lengthy, so they will all be behind cut-tags. I'm thinking 2 panels a day for reportage.

Today's are: "Torturing Your Characters" and "The Quest Structure"

These won't be super-detailed panel descriptions; I only made notes on things that particularly struck me, and fairly often, I ended up taking more notes on how it related to stories I'm writing than the general information itself. Apologies if you were expecting something objective or reliable.

Torturing Your Characters was really called something like "Shadow of the Torturer: Playing God with your Characters." I believe the panelists were Elizabeth Moon, Lois McMaster Bujold, Tamara Jones and Jim Gardener. I could go look it up, but well. I woke up at 3:30 this morning, and I'm Not Moving.

Elizabeth Moon said she tends to think she tests her characters, rather than tortures them, and is a firm believer in letting the consequences of their actions happen to her characters.

Lois said that she believes the theme of adult life is redemption; recovering from a blow and getting back up to face the test again is what it's all about. There's not much meat there if they don't have an adequate test.

Tamara Jones said that she thinks it's best to put your characters in impossible situations, where there's a wrong choice and a wrong choice; making it easy on the character makes it boring for the reader, and is also untrue.

Jim Gardiner emphasized that problems have to be serious--real problems with real consequences.

Elizabeth Moon briefly diverged into commentary about how it's not easy to write these seeming moments of torture; sometimes it forces you to look into parts of yourself that you don't quite like to admit or believe are there. She didn't really delve into that (like, what she doesn't like to believe), but I believe also that she was reacting at that point to a fan that stood up and objected quite vociferously to Paks' rape in one of the Deed books. Elizabeth was quick to point out that it's realistic for a woman in an untenable torture situation (especially in a medieval world, but really, many or most worlds) to be raped.

Lois also pointed out that since the writer is in control, that the writer can vary the tone to dampen down moments of violence (or sex, or pain) to keep them from overshadowing the rest of the work. Tonal control is important.

---

Later, I went to a panel about "The Quest"--Madeleine E. Robins, James MacDonald, Mindy Klasky and Jeff VanderMeer presiding.

They discussed how quests are good structures for driving narrative (fast-paced). Classic quests include: "Who am I?" "How do I get home?" "Find the object!" --and, of course, there are allegorical quests (the search for Rhyme and Reason in The Phantom Tollbooth).

The drawbacks of the quest structure are that they're predictable, and frequently used; it's hard to "sell" the quest structure because the main character has to have something really at risk, and characterization is therefore paramount.

Discussion about anti-quests led to the suggestion that Lord of the Rings is actually a big anti-quest, since you're trying to get rid of your token, and you lose the wacky band of sidekicks along the way.

Scotland

Thanks to my guestbloggers. I'm impressed. You know... Y'all didn't have to write about me. Still, very entertaining, and I'm glad the place wasn't empty while I was gone.

Let's see... While I was gone...

Well, this is my writing journal, so I'll tell you how I didn't write anything. Not completely true, of course: I outlined another novel, and I wrote a short story by hand, and I took a LOT of notes on what I saw/thought/did.

I also collected a stock of experiences appropriate for a fantasy writer, including learning how to shoot a bow. (Actually, that was so much fun, I'm sorta considering taking up archery, as long as I could keep it primitive and not have to go to competitions.) I also spent some time working out my writing goals for the rest of this year and broadly for next year. I know, I know! That's exactly what you were hoping I'd say!

More later. My body is trying to convince me that it's three hours past bed-time.

Contrived

Brook is blind for the next eight chapters.

(sigh)

I hope no one finds the plot too disingenous or contrived, but hell, that's always been my stumbling block while plotting. "Someone is going to think this is contrived, roll their eyes, and not enjoy it." I think this may be why gaming is detrimental to the writing process. My writing process, anyway.

Only 1500 words last night. Not good. I'd argue that they were a hard 1500 words, and that's true, but I only stopped because I was falling asleep at my computer. I could have gone to get tea or something, but I gave in and slept instead.

We also had a nice thunderstorm, and Merlin let me hold him for almost ten minutes--contentedly.

I'm trying to figure out my next step. I'm not writing nearly as quickly as I need to be to meet this ridiculous deadline. I have high hopes for this weekend--I only need two 8k days right now, and that's not counting what I might do tonight or Friday night. And I've had 8k days at the cottage* before, with my peeps around.

I also need to get this read, so I think on Friday I'll print out whatever I have done and see who's willing to read for me whilst at said cottage. Julie has already volunteered--maybe Lisa or Eric will fall prey to my fluttering lashes and entreating tone. And whatever bribery I can come up with. Perhaps chocolate-covered almonds.

* "The Cottage": Many folks in Michigan have a place they go to Up North that they call The Cottage. Sometimes it's a slowing disintegrating cabin in the middle of frickin' B.F.E., where you go to get drunk and THEN shoot at deer. Other times, it's a Lake Michigan beach house that sleeps 22 and has its own marina. Ya jes never know.

from Weaver's Michigan Accent Pronunciation Guide

Cottage in the familial lexicon while I was growing up meant my aunt's house on the Cedar River, a cold, fast-running trout-stream. At first it was a trailer-type thing, but later became a house, which in turn became a really cool house, all surrounded by cedar forest. Activities at the cottage usually involve endless days at the local swimming hole and/or tubing down the river over and over and over, and maybe going to visit the Aunt's Amish neighbors to buy eggs, or picking berries on another neighbor's 40-acre deer preserve--bucolic, rural things of a nearly Luddite nature.

Cottage in Dann's family lexicon is, always was, and always will be a hundred-year-old house built on the very edge of Gun Lake where much boating and swimming ensues. It has a much more urbanized/country-club feel to it, aided by the fact that there are something like 4 different boating experiences to choose from and the constant drone of jet-skis all weekend. Also, the TV, which is never off, whereas the TV at the other cottage is just so much furniture.

Cottage in my personal lexicon has come to mean Dann's cottage, and since my aunt now lives all year in her cottage, it has become an un-cottage, and now I call it the River. I'd prefer, in fact, to just call them the River and the Lake respectively, but I'm not that consistent.

Packing List Update

So, I've settled on my reading choices for while in Britain. Now I need airplane books (at least one for coming and one for going) and books for New York. While I plan to be enthralled by my nephew for most of the New York legs, I'm not stupid. I'll need at least one book for either leg.

You thought I was done agonizing, didn't you?

I'm wavering. There's the Garth Nix trilogy, which is now all in paperback--but do I want to re-read 2 books, just to get to the 3rd?

And yet, Nix would be a pretty safe bet, especially since it's easier going, and that's really what you need when there are distractions: easier going.

Kay's Fionavar Tapestry comes to mind, too, though I'd have to buy book 3. I've never read the trilogy, but have heard good things.

And Archangel Protocol.

And Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?, because it's long, and there's nothing quite like a Victorian novel once it gets going.

It's like betting on horses. They all look good, but you just don't know which ones are going to be ready for the track.

I am about halfway through the first Ash book, and so far I like it more than Lisa did, but less than Marissa did. But that's ok; it's the first half. I'm liking it enough that picking up the omnibus volume in England sounds like a good plan, even if I don't run out of books while there.

I am planning lots of nights reading, curled against my husband and smothered in eiderdowns. Some might be dubious about this form of honeymooning. Some might wonder why we don't just go to pubs instead, to while away the evenings. Fortunately, I don't much listen to those some.

:putter:

Update on the weekend? It's a noble idea, but my weekends are frequently so different than my weekday life that it just doesn't occur to me.

My writing update will come later, but this weekend was about cleaning and low-level socializing, the kind that comes without a price (no "stayed up too late" type hangovers, no performance anxiety).

So, here I am, just sort of waiting until it's time to go to Britain. Yep. Just waiting.

Dreaming.

Our planned route.

Did spend a fair amount of time this weekend trying to get my husband to buy new pants. You've never seen such a raggedy assortment of pants in your life. There may be one pair without dangling threads off the cuffs or holes elsewhere, but they would be inappropriate to vacation anyway.

Now, how to convince him that I'm not trying to change him, just his pants?

Packing List

In between agonizing over the correct number of pants to take on a 13-day journey through Britain (with 2 days added on to either end to visit the nephewling in New York, which does complicate the matter slightly), I'm agonizing about books.

The current book packing list is:
Jane and the Wool House Stephanie Barron
Shirley Charlotte Bronte
The Peshawar Lancers SM Stirling *
Good Omens Gaiman and Pratchet *
Fires of the Faithful and Turning the Storm by Naomi Kritzer *
Cross-stitch and Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon **

* I think Dann will read these, too
** rereads

Now, for the methodology:

I read the first Jane Austen mystery by Barron on the bus from Bath to Glastonbury. It was perfect, in that atmosphere; actual Austen would have been at odds with jouncing around on a bus, but faux Austen was perfect. Only a few of this series that I've read in America have been as good, and either Barron is an author who's only good every other book, or it's about atmosphere. I did like Jane and the Stillroom Maid quite well, but I read that in France, where the atmosphere also worked. You know. The Devonshires were friends with Marie Antoinette. Yeah, I'm grasping.

As for the Bronte, I never could read Wuthering Heights (from cover to cover, I mean; yes, I did write a term paper on it, Mrs. Gobel-I-hope-you're-not-reading-this)... until I got to Haworth. I've told this story to a few people, but here goes again: the day I went to Haworth, it was kind of dark and gloomy, and I spent a lot of time on the train and then on a bus, and then I slogged all around Haworth, quite lost, getting more and more depressed because the town was so dark and narrow--

And then, quite suddenly, I came to an open space overlooking the dales, and the sun broke from cover and everything was flooded with light. I teared up.

"Charlotte, I understand." Murmured, like a prayer. It's kinda cheesy, invoking a dead writer, but it was a true moment, nonetheless.

In fact, the banner pic on Writer's Paradise is from about ten minutes after that moment, when I popped out my camera and just started snapping, trying to capture the moment. Didn't work so well, but I'm glad I have the pictures just the same.

Anyway, even though I invoked Charlotte's name, it was Wuthering Heights that sucked me in. I'm hoping the same magic will spur me through Shirley.

The Stirling and Good Omens are just books I've been meaning to read; the Kiplingesque nature of the Stirling and the Britishness of Good Omens are meant to be atmospheric. The Kritzer has been sitting on the to-read shelf for a month or so, and I'm kind of salivating over those, but I've put them off because I knew I'd be traveling soon. And the Gabaldon--again, atmospheric. I'd intended to read them before I left, but while I'm there will be fine as well.

I'm not sure it's enough. I have plenty of material on the unread shelf, but there's pressure to take stuff that appeals to my traveling companion, too. Marissa seems so geeked about the Mary Gentle series that I want to try it, too; the description is compelling, the atmosphere would be appropriate enough (and it would be appropriate: I read faux Scottish histories in France, I can read faux French histories in Scotland). But the last two books don't appear to be available new, so it would be a small ordeal.

The intense academic study over which books is due to my second England trip, where I did not bring enough to read by half. In fact, I only brought 2 books, I think, one of them Wuthering Heights, the other by Amanda Quick. You can guess how the Quick went. I devoured WH, and look, day 3, nothing to read. Smooth.

In Winchester, I found only one bookstore, with almost no fiction section--certainly no YA or SF. The added burden on selection was that I neither wanted to haul a lot of books nor spend crazily. I ended up with Orlando by Woolf, and couldn't get into it.

After that, though, Dwinn and Julie showed up. We found second-hand bookstores as well as better-stocked regular shops. I read a lengthy historical about the conquest, uninspiringly entitled The Conquest. Right place, right time: in the middle of it, we stopped in at Battle. Mostly, D&J entertained me and kept me busier than I'd kept myself, so I spent less time gobbling books.

For my trip to France, I swore to be prepared. I brought something like ten or fifteen books, knowing that half-way through the trip, we would be staying with an American family desperate for English language material. I stocked up at the ten-cent shelf in the library. I spent my graduation gift-cards. The plan was to leave half the books with the Carefoots, but it ended up being most of them; the only thing I hadn't read by the time we reached their house was the aforementioned Jane and the Stillroom Maid and a Peter Whimsy mystery. I had finished Sharon Shinn's Summers at Castle Auburn before we left Paris, and AS Byatt's Possession before we reached Provence. The rest flowed past like water.

Afterwards, we scoured the second-hand shops in Tours, looking for English paperbacks, because new ones were well over ten bucks. From this adventure I read some stuff I never would have read, like a book by David Baldacci, and Sleeping with the Enemy, and some Sir Walter Scott (and not his best work, by a long shot; the very academic intro to the book was dubious: "why are you reading this, and not Ivanhoe or Waverly, anyway?") We wanted to trade books at the obvious trade-friendly hotel, but the lady running the breakfast room didn't approve our balance of trade. ("Look, I know we're only leaving Red Gauntlet and Sleeping with the Enemy, but we need more than two books. We're going crazy.") I ended up sneaking Nora Roberts out of the breakfast room in my pants.

Of course, the balance is that I know I read about 3 books a week on each of these vacations; but for the burdens of not being able to get one's hands on things more compelling than Redgauntlet, it would have been 5 or 6. I probably do have enough, given that I've held off purchasing the latest Harry Potter in order to get a British copy; I could easily re-read that whole series while there. (I did buy my first HP in England, but foolishly shipped it home unread. I'd smite myself if I knew how.)

Does my paranoic preparation make sense, now? Vacation is when I eat books, and seem to stumble over the worst book karma.

Plans, From Start to Middle

My husband is off to Lansing today to take his interpreter certification test, or part of it, anyway. So, good thoughts for him.

(Random aside: "Off to Lansing" just doesn't have the ring "Off to Raleigh" does, but I think that's because of television. On "The Andy Griffith Show," "off to Raleigh" meant "beyond Mt. Pilot" (or was it Pilot Mountain in the show? I can never remember which is the real one anymore), off to a place where there were fun things to do. "Off to Lansing" usually means... going someplace less fun than where I am now.)

As for us, and not just him, we're planning our honeymoon (about ten months late). Scotland beckons. The plane tickets are in our pockets (metaphorically; they're e-tix), Dann is fighting out the logistics of renting a car, and I've outlined an itinerary.

The itinerary, in fact, looks like this:

April 05 (Mon): arrive 6:30 AM - drive-by tourism: Stonehenge, Longleat perhaps. Finish in Glastonbury.
April 06 (Tue): Bath and environs; drive north
April 07 (Wed): leisurely northern drive. Chatsworth, Arthuret, Carlisle, Gretna Green, end in, uhm... somewhere in Dumfries. Don't have my notes.
April 08 (Thu): Whitthorn and such; up to Glasgow
April 09 (Fri): Glasgow--up to Oban
April 10 (Sat): Isle of Mull
April 11 (Sun): Ft. Wm., Loch Ness
April 12 (Mon): Inverness (Culloden, etc.)
April 13 (Tue): Perth, St. Andrews
April 14 (Wed): Edinburgh
April 15 (Thu): Borders, Abbey
April 16 (Fri): padding day--drive to London
April 17 (Sat): fly to NY; attend nephew's christening (or at least the after-party)

I'm convinced that it's too packed, and I'll need to cut. Just not sure where. I'd cut the big cities if I could; I don't like cities in general. London? Bleah. Paris? Double-bleah. I realize I'm a freak, but give me a medium-sized town like York or Avignon any day.

However, I do feel Edinburgh should be Seen, and Glasgow's kind of right in the way, so...

Though there's interesting stuff in the Whitthorn jaunt, I think it would probably include the things least interesting to Dann. And another day on Mull, if that got us to Iona, might be worth it instead. Loch Ness is a must, on principle. You don't want to tell anyone you went to Scotland and skipped Loch Ness. On the other hand, this trip doesn't get us to Skye, and there's no time, just, *none* to get up to outer reaches.

I should probably scrap the Bath/Glastonbury leg, but I dreamed, a long time ago, that Dann and I went to Bath on our honeymoon. And the other night, I had this intense dream about Glastonbury; kept trying to get to the Tor and couldn't. Realized it was frustration over the thought of being so close and not going there. (sigh)

And yes, I pay attention to my dreams. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which, good story ideas come from them.