Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
What does one have to do to get a different result?
Which Lymond Character Are You?
Congratulations, you’re Francis Crawford of Lymond, for a time the Master of Culter. You’re the hero and the focal point of everything. You’re the quintessential romantic hero: brooding, mysterious, witty, informed, gentle, sensitive and all the rest. You should, perhaps, consider doing the dishes once in a while and speak in your native tongue when possible. In other words, show off a bit less. It won’t kill you.
Take this quiz!
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If I remember what it displayed correctly, 42% of us end up as Lymond. And I really, really wasn’t trying to skew that way. (I’m not sure I would want to skew that way. Lymond is not someone you necessarily want to emulate.) Maybe he’s so multi-talented, he covers most of the spectrum?
I disagree with their casting choice for the picture, though.
In other news, wow, I’ve spent most of today sleeping. No exaggeration. I guess I needed the rest?
ugh.
Spent most of the day feeling like microwaved death. About the best thing I’ve managed to accomplish today is finishing one book and reading the entirety of two more — and two of those three are worthy of recommendations, so I’m set for a couple of months. (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was also good, but not the kind of thing I include in the recommendations.)
I think the plan for tomorrow will consist of more sacking out on the couch and reading. It’s about all I’m good for at the moment. You know you’re not doing well when you don’t feel lively enough to attempt Kingdom Hearts.
odds and ends
First of all, Cat Rambo has done an interview with me over at Suite 101. She asks several nifty questions, both about my novels and my writing in general.
Also, Talebones #34 is available, containing “But Who Shall Lead the Dance? I haven’t had a chance yet to read the rest of the issue, but Talebones is good folks.
Regarding my default icon: the people have spoken. A custom icon leads the pack, but the Summer Queen is in second place with as many votes as all the other options got together. I will look into possibilities for something custom, and keep the Summer Queen until I find something I like better.
Finally, do please contribute to my recent post looking for suggested readings. I wish I had the time to assemble the list on my own by reading all the YBFH and YBSF anthologies out there, or the entire ouevre of the Hugo Award, but alas, I don’t. I need specific titles to choose from.
stories needed
I could use some assistance from the internets in putting the finishing touches on a certain project. I’m planning to pitch a course proposal on writing speculative fiction (encompassing sf, fantasy, and supernatural horror), but I need readings! Most particularly I need suggestions of short fiction, but I’d also be interested in how-to texts that might be relevant to these topics.
UNIT ONE: INTRODUCTIONS
Week 1- Introduction to genre
Week 2- Language
Week 3- Outlining, critique, revision
[For these three weeks, I’d like one basic, accessible story from each of the genres I’m covering, just to get them warmed up.]
UNIT TWO: CRAFT
Week 4- Dialogue
Week 5- Point of view
Week 6- Description
Week 7- Exposition
Week 8- Style/Voice
Week 9- Character
Week 10- Setting
Week 11- Plot
[Here, of course, I want stories that particularly shine in the aspect du semaine.]
UNIT THREE: CONCEPTS
Week 12 – Gender
Week 13 – Race
Week 14- Morality
[I’m pretty sure Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” will be the story for week 14, but the others are up in the air. The general idea of this unit is, hey, spec fic can play interesting games with these topics.]
UNIT FOUR: WHERE NOW?
Week 15- How to submit stories
[Might or might not have a reading for this week. It’ll depend on whether I find a story I just really really love and want to end on.]
I would prefer short stories, though in a terrible pinch I might use a novel excerpt. Suggestions?
Schroedinger’s Story
Today in class I wrote something that may or may not be “Schroedinger’s Crone.” (Appropriate, no?) The reason for my uncertainty is that it’s 152 words long, and therefore consists entirely of “hey, look: idea.” I’m not sure if I want to try and come up with an actual plot to demonstrate the idea, or leave it as-is. My mistake may have been last night’s decision to observe the story, thus collapsing the wave form before I had come up with a plot.
Whether or not I count this as February’s story will depend on whether I can smack the second half of “Kingspeaker” into behaving itself.
the other half of Swan Tower
Oh, hell. It just occured to me that maybe this is what I should use as my icon for teaching my fairy-tale class next fall.
That doesn’t bode so well for my students. <g>
Anyway, I mustered enough energy to do some updates on the Bryn Neuenschwander half of Swan Tower, which have been sorely overdue for a long time. There’s nothing dramatic, but I finally got my C.V. posted in legible form and put a tiny bit more content into the areas about my research. The next big project for over there is a doozy: I want to gather up sources I’ve found useful on RPGs or fairy tales and make an online annotated bibliography. God only knows when that will happen, but I would like to do it someday. In the meantime, these minor updates will have to do.
And with that, I am done with my website for today.
oof.
A large amount of tinkering later, I think I have finally achieved something I’ve been aiming at for a while. You see, I didn’t just switch to a paid account so I could have more icons (though I admit that was icing on the decision); I did it so I could embed the journal on my website. Thanks to the inestimable sapphohestia, this is done. You can now read this journal at its LJ address, or at Swan Tower. I believe everything is working now, with a couple other minor fixes made to the site at the same time.
There’s other stuff I want to do over there, but I think I need a break from webpage coding.
However, I’ll try one more shiny new thing before I quit: a poll! It’s my first ever. The question at hand, dear readers, is what I should do about my default icon. At present, it is Michael Whelan’s Summer Queen, that woman in the gorgeous mask you can see on this post. This has been my default since I first got on LJ, in large part because at the time the default for my meaner half, kurayami_hime, is Whelan’s Snow Queen. But I am contemplating — though not decided on — a change. The options for switching are as follows:
My swan icon — the major selling point for this one is the whole Swan Tower/New Swan thing, it being a reasonably appropriate representation of me. Currently I don’t have a particular use for this one.
My Neuschwanstein icon — Schloss Neuschwanstein literally translates to “New Swan Stone Castle,” and I have a childhood love for the place (though I’ve never been). Currently this is my icon for the rare post about domestic events involving our domicile, Castle N.
My writing icon — the only real selling point for this one is that I use it all the bloody time, since more of my posts are about writing than any other topic. Otherwise, it has nothing to recommend it in particular.
Some Swan Tower icon created for me by tooth_and_claw — I’ve been toying with the idea of getting her to design a logo for the website as a whole, which would then be an appropriate default for my journal.
It’s your turn to vote!
WARNING: construction ahead
I’m going to be messing around with LJ settings for a while this afternoon, so if anything starts going wonky over here, don’t mind me, I’m just screwing everything up. (Hopefully not permanently.)
February’s recommendation
If I may be excused borrowing a phrase from matociquala, the recommendation for this month is full of awesome.
The book in question is Richard Garfinkle’s Celestial Matters, and if you want to find out what makes it so very awesome, go here.
Protected: Oscar party!
today’s random question
Imagine there is a novel set in Elizabethan England. What famous figures would you expect and/or want to see show up in it?
Aside from Elizabeth herself, I can think of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Sir Walter Ralegh, Sir Francis Drake, Doctor John Dee, and John Stow.
Who else?
Oy.
Well, I made it through about three weeks of working out before doing something overly enthusiastic. That has to count for something, right?
In case you were wondering, interval training (alternating between sprinting and walking) may be great for fat loss, but it also kicks your ass six ways from Sunday. And should you decide to give it a shot, I recommend starting out with, oh, twenty minutes of it. Not half an hour.
If you need me, I’ll be on the floor, moaning and feeling sorry for myself.
In which the Swan admits she has no upper body strength
See that icon? Yeah, I’m nowhere near that.
These numbers will be a little embarrassing, but I want to record for posterity what I’m lifting here at the start of my exercise regimen, on the principle that I can then feel proud when I look back and see how far I’ve come. (In theory.) So here is what I’m doing for strength training right now.
- Bench press: 2 x 12-15, 12 lbs. (It was disappointing to discover that the bar alone on the normal bench is heavier than I feel capable of. Not sure how much that thing weighs. Fortuantely, they have these nice, padded weight bars in a variety of numbers. I’ll start with those and work my way up.)
- Shoulder press: 2 x 15, 12 lbs. (See above about the weight bar. I quite like those things.)
- Row: 2 x 15, 5 lbs. (Nothing like a single-digit number to make you feel pathetically weak, but since I do the exercises in this order, by the time I get this far, those muscles are already tired.)
- Lat pulldown: 2 x 15, 30 lbs. (A higher weight, at last! And I’m going to add to this one the next time I do it; it isn’t tiring me much at all, at the current weight.)
- Back hyperextensions: 2 x 12, no weight. (Today’s addition to the regimen. I really need to strengthen my lower back more.)
- Crunches: 2 x 15. (God, I hate crunches.)
So there you have it. I’m not doing lower-body stuff as yet; leg muscle has never been a problem for me, and my cardio work alone will give me some of that. I think I may add “pullups” on the lat machine, though, as a step toward doing proper pullups, since those always look cool.
I don’t have any particular goals regarding what I want these numbers to be in six months; I don’t have enough experience with weights to know what’s reasonable to aim for. But I’ll be keeping an eye on the stats, and reporting back in when I feel like I’ve made progress.
two stories
Glorifying Terrorism, the anthology of political SF/F assembled in protest of a dumb British law, is officially out and about in the world as of today. It’s already netted a mention on Boing Boing, which constitutes some pretty awesome publicity. You can order it from the webpage above, though I’ll admit it’s on the expensive side if you’re an American like me (which would be most of the readers of this journal, I imagine). But my story “Execution Morning” is in it, and you want to read that, right?
It remains to be seen whether any of the UK authors involved in the anthology end up being prosecuted for it. They could be, in theory; that’s the point of the antho.
In much less politically provocative news, “A Thousand Souls” is live at Aberrant Dreams. You can read that one for free.
Man, this selling and publishing of stories is an addictive thing, ne? It’s only been a few days since my last sale, and already I’m jonesing for another. ^_^
good ways to wake up #17
I just sold a story to Orson Scott Card’s online magazine Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Squeak!
feeling accomplished
Spent the weekend up in Indy. Four stores and obscene quantities of silk, satin, taffeta, tulle, crystal, and lace later, ladies and gentlemen, I think I’ve found my wedding dress.
If I weren’t so proud of myself for having put together this icon, I might be tempted to use the detail photo my mother took of the embroidery as my wedding icon.
We’ve also scoped out hotels to put the guests up in, looked askance at the horrible selection of bridesmaids’ dresses, and started thinking about florists. We are, it seems, in business.
Sword & Sorceress 22
I’m sure others of you remember this anthology series. I won’t go so far as to say it had a huge effect on me, but it certainly had one; among other things, I was vexed when I saw teenagers getting published in it, thereby highlighting my failure to become a Child Prodigy. (Alas, I didn’t write any non-crappy short stories until I was twenty.) Anyway, it’s good to see that it’s back.
But what to send, what to send? (The reading period doesn’t open until March, but I’m looking ahead.) “Stories should be of the type generally referred to as ‘sword and sorcery’ and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about.” Clear enough, but where do I go with that?
Well, for starters, it turns out I’ve got a dearth of female protagonists on hand at the moment. Of the fifteen stories I’ve got in circulation, four and a half meet that criterion. (The half is “Driftwood,” which splits pretty equally between two characters, the other of which is male.) So the initial list is:
- “The City’s Bones”
- “The Drowning Ships”
- “La Molejera”
- “A Mask of Flesh”
TCB is urban fantasy, therefore probably out. La M is one of my strongest candidates for the label “interstitial,” which puts it pretty far away from sword & sorcery. That leaves me with TDS, which is not one of my stronger stories, and AMoF, which might count as having “explicit sex,” depending on how explicit they mean.
Which leaves me with stories not yet in circulation. (I’m very glad, now, for that recent short story census.) “Sciatha Reborn” isn’t ready to see the light of day, though I could try to get it there. “On the Feast of the Firewife” isn’t s&s enough. “The Last Wendy” isn’t what they’re after. “Kingspeaker” could go, but it isn’t my best bet. The faerie trouble story, even if I knew what to do with it, also probably fails the s&s test. I could try to go with “Once a Goddess,” if I can figure it out . . . or with the one story I forgot to include in that list, “The Waking of Angantyr.”
Which is based on an Old Norse poem and has a strong female protagonist dragging up the ghost of her father and brothers so she can get revenge for their murders.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a winner — if I can get the story working, which it isn’t at present. akashiver gave me some good advice on it, but I foolishly didn’t make use of that advice while it was still fresh in my mind, so I’m not sure where I stand. But I’ll give it a shot, I think.
What about you all? Anybody else thinking of submitting?
rambling thoughts on colonialism and feminism
I didn’t freeze, and we appear to have a functioning furnace again, though it’s striving mightily to drag this old heap up from its freezing temperatures to something livable while it’s barely above zero outside. Learned many interesting lessons about survival in the cold without central heating, and also used up a lot of my candles and lamp oil.
But that’s neither here nor there. I want to ramble on about parallels and differences between two different projects of mine. One, Sunlight and Storm, is a fantasy western that was the fourth novel I wrote, back when I was in college. Its first draft sucked rancid goat cheese; its second draft is better, but I still want to rewrite it substantially before it ever goes public, and that will probably not be any time soon. The other is a series I’m contemplating for the future, which would essentially be about scientific expeditions going to study dragons. They share the common characteristics of being in settings that look a lot like our nineteenth century, and they both have female main characters, hence the desire to ramble on about colonialism and feminism.
Ladies and gentlemen of the internets,
I am writing you this missive from the kitchen of my residence. It is a southward-facing room, and the doors to the rest of the house are shut. The oven is turned on, and twenty-four candles burn on my counters. Thanks to these measures, I am tolerably warm; though my toes are a bit cold, I am not wearing gloves, and the blanket I had wrapped around me is currently on the floor. I am, however, still wearing thick socks and slippers, sweatpants, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, and my nice warm bathrobe.
From this fortress I shall await the arrival of the man who is to fix our furnace.
If you do not hear from me again, please retrieve my frozen body from this kitchen and give it proper burial.
