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Books read, March 2013

I almost posted this yesterday, because really, as such posts go, this one is a joke. I did many things in March, but reading books? Not really one of them.

Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett. Returning to my leisurely saunter through [personal profile] swan_tower Finally Reads Discworld. I have now been properly introduced to Sam Vimes, previously encountered as a minor character in Monstrous Regiment (before I started reading things in order). I like him, though not as passionately as some people seem to — possibly I will grow more attached in time? I liked Sybil quite a lot, and the reflections on how her brand of confidence is both personal and class-based. I was mostly meh about the bad guy’s scheme, but on the whole, much fun.

the memoir that is still untitled Re-reading the second book of the series preparatory to revising it (which is what I’m in the middle of doing now). It still needs a title. I will have to fix this soon.

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, David Gaider. Read for research, as [profile] kniedzw and I have begun running a Dragon Age game. Not really worth your time, unless you are a rabid completist for that franchise. It offered little in the way of worldbuilding information I didn’t already know, and, well. This is David Gaider’s first novel, and boy howdy does it show. Hopefully he improves with the later ones, since I need to read those, too.

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Books read, April 2013

Happy May Day!

I really, really want to list as one of the books I read this month, “the first third of Quicksilver.” Because really. I read and read and read, and and it was an entire book’s worth of reading. It just wasn’t the entirety of that book. Not by a long chalk. Stephenson, you are engaging, but also a very wordy bastard.

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The DWJ Project: Reflections

A belated entry to this series, on account of it not being out yet when I finished my re-read of all of Diana Wynne Jones’ books.

Reflections: On the Magic of Writing is a collection of various essays and lectures she gave, on various subjects related to writing (her own and that of others). A couple of these I had read before; “The Origins of Changeover” was the foreword to the edition I read, and I tracked down scans of “The Heroic Ideal: A Personal Odyssey” after seeing it referenced by [personal profile] rushthatspeaks. (Very glad to now have a proper reprint, as the essay does wonders for my ability to understand certain parts of Fire and Hemlock.) Most of this, though, was new.

It makes for interesting reading, though certainly a few details get repetitive — these pieces span decades, and there are certain things, particularly biographical incidents, that she brought up more than once. The two things that fascinated me most were her knowledge of pre-modern English literature (much of which I haven’t personally read), and her comments on her own books. The former made me feel in places like I was reading [personal profile] pameladean‘s Tam Lin, because it threatened to leave me with a reading list of rather obscure works. The latter . . . I don’t know. Sometimes it strips the magic away to know how the magic got made, but I think that here it just turns into a different sort of magic for me, because I can think about her books as a writer as well as a fan. When she talks about similarities between her characters, I nod at some and blink at others, and wonder if she didn’t see the similarities elsewhere, or simply didn’t bring them up. (Upon reflection, I see what she means about the commonality of Torquil and Tacroy, and also, after much more reflection, Thomas Lynn and the Goon. But what about Tacroy and Thomas, and also Howl? Or for that matter, Mark and Herrel, who are a straight-up deployment of her habit of “splitting” a character type and using different facets?)

I wish we had more of that stuff. I would love to know what sparked the ideas for all of her books, because Diana Wynne Jones wrote books that are nothing like mine, and knowing where they came from helps me understand the result. I also, quite selfishly, want to read all the unrevised first drafts and unfinished beginnings she had stuffed into drawers, because I crave more, and I’m (probably) never going to get it. I know it wouldn’t be the same, and it very well might not be good, but I crave it anyway. This book made me sad all over again that Diana Wynne Jones is dead, and that I never had the chance to meet her. I would have liked to thank her in person, and having read this book, I feel certain she would have understood.

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story!

It took me substantially longer than expected (the last scene was an absolute bear to write), but I just finished “To Rise No More.”

Needs revision, of course, but right now, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve managed to write a short story! And not even one that was spoken for before I wrote it. The last seven things I wrote sold on their first trip out the door, because they were either solicited by editors or very nearly so, i.e. I knew that if I wrote them, then so-and-so was extremely likely to buy the result. Which isn’t a bad position to be in, of course — but it’s less good when you have to use that as a motivation to actually get the thing done. This one, I wrote because I wanted to.

Hopefully somebody will buy the result. 🙂

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It’s a novel! Also a pasta sauce!

Okay, this is really nifty. The blog Paper/Plates bills itself as “exploring the world through food and literature” . . . and someone there just posted a review of A Natural History of Dragons, followed by a recipe for a vegan alfredo sauce inspired by the book. (On the grounds that Isabella’s lifestyle does not fit her culture’s expectations.)

I think fanworks in general are cool, but I never thought anybody would make a pasta sauce for one of my books!

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Weather forecast: rain. LOTS of it.

Back in 2010, I decided that (as with the Wheel of Time before it), I was done reading A Song of Ice and Fire until the series was finished. I hadn’t read any of the books since A Feast for Crows came out in 2005, and knew I would need to re-read to refresh my memory whenever A Dance with Dragons finally emerged — and then would have to re-read again some years after that, when we got book six, etc. Better to just stop and wait, however long that took. I sold my copies of the first four (to free up shelf space) and washed my hands of it.

About a month later, Martin announced the Really No We Mean It publication date for Dance, but that was okay: I was at peace with my decision. It came out in 2011, and I didn’t read it, and I went on not reading it.

But in discussing the show with friends, I’ve grown tired of dodging spoilers (sometimes unsuccessfully). So I kind of wanted to read the book, just to fix that problem. On the other hand, it had now been more than seven years since I read the books, and I knew that without a refresher, I wouldn’t find Dance as satisfying as I otherwise might. And yet, I didn’t want to take the time to re-read that much stuff. On the other other hand, [personal profile] teleidoplex told me I wouldn’t find it satisfying whether I re-read or not.

Reader, she was right.

I am putting this behind a cut because a) it’s long and b) if your personal parade is a happy one, I don’t want to rain all over it. Because I was not impressed with this book. No, that falls short: there are things in here that decrease my enjoyment of previous books. If reading about that is going to make you sad, then click away now.

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two (three) good causes

The Indiegogo campaign for Neverland’s Library has started up. You may recall me mentioning this before; it’s the anthology to which I sold “Centuries of Kings.”

If you contribute, you’re actually helping two things happen: first, the anthology itself, which includes such authors as Mark Lawrence, William Meikle, R.S. Belcher, Jeffrey J. Mariotte and Marcy Rockwell, Peter Rawlik, Jeff Salyards, Kenny Soward, and Tad Williams. (Plus others — the TOC isn’t entirely filled yet. Submissions remain open until June 20th, and I especially encourage women to submit, as I’d like to see a more balanced final TOC.)

Second, your donation is helping to support the literacy charity First Book, since 50% of the profits from the anthology will be going directly to them. First Book is a good organization, so I’m in favor of a project that both helps them out and produces a cool book.

Also, the Public Domain Review is running a small fundraising campaign, which is almost over; there are six days to go, and they’re 96.39% of the way to their goal as of me posting this entry. It isn’t a Kickstarter/Indiegogo-type thing, with all the reward levels, but if you donate $40 or more you do get a tote bag.

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two links

Time for a post up at BVC, on spells and folklore.

Also, I’m participating in “Women in SF&F” month at Fantasy Book Cafe, along with a great many other people: Courtney Shafer, Jan DeLima, Mur Lafferty, Patricia McKillip, Angie (of Angieville), Deborah Coates, Rachel Neumeier, Julie Czerneda, Janice (of SpecFic Romantic), Lois McMaster Bujold, Sue (of Coffee, Cookies, and Chili Peppers), Lane Robins, Ana and Thea (of Book Smugglers), Sherwood Smith, Karin Lowachee, Jacqueline Carey, and Renay (of Lady Business) — and that’s just the roster so far. My contribution is a discussion of why I chose to include sexism in the world of Lady Trent’s memoirs.

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celebrity gossip, nineteenth-century edition

I don’t suppose anybody can tell me the location of the party on the fifth of June, 1833, at which Ada Byron first met Charles Babbage? Passages doesn’t say, nor does The Enchantress of Numbers, but I’d like to know so I can properly set this scene. I know Babbage invited her to see the Difference Engine a few weeks later, and that was at his house, but I doubt that’s where they met.

Edit: Looks like it was at Mary Somerville’s house in Chelsea — but if anybody can tell me where in Chelsea, that would be fantastic.

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hahaha, you only *thought* my brain was helpful

I’m only one scene away from the end of “To Rise No More” (because I wrote the other remaining one last night, after I posted), so what do I do tonight? Do I settle in and finish that one?

No, of course not. I write two thousand words of the punk Tam Lin story instead.

Seriously, I don’t even know. I just work here, man. Now I have two half-finished short stories instead of one finished one and one barely-started one. Well, one is three-quarters done. Maybe if I go re-read the relevant period in Ada Lovelace’s letters, I can crank out that final bit tonight? It would be nice to be able to put paid to one of these things.

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I don’t have to work on anything right now, so I’m procrastinating with a meme

Several of my fanfic-writing friends have been doing a meme wherein they post the first lines of their last twenty-one fics. Because I don’t feel like doing anything more mentally taxing right now than faffing around on the computer listening to music, and also because that’s a lie and Anthropologist Brain is having thinky thoughts but doesn’t mind listening to music while faffing around collating stuff, I’m going to do this twice: once with fanfic, and then once with my original short stories. I want to see how they compare.

Fanfic first!

poll results

I’m sort of fascinated by seeing how people have voted in the short story poll. (Which is still open, so if you want to go register your opinion, feel free!) I mean, ultimately I’m going to write whichever one(s) say “oooh oooh write me write me,” but it’s enlightening to see where other people’s interest goes.

Dead last is “A River Flowing Nowhere,” which surprises me because it’s a Driftwood story, and historically those have been something people really want me to write more of. Of course, all I said about it at the time was that it is a Driftwood story, so maybe it would have done better had I said something about the premise?

Next lowest is “An Enquiry into the Causes.” I’m tempted to make a new poll saying “Do you know what the Bow Street Runners were? Y/N” — because if you don’t know, then, well, there’s not much reason to vote for that one, apart from “it’s an Onyx Court story.”

Then we have a bunch in the middle, and then after that, two runaway favorites: “To Rise No More” and the punk Tam Lin. The former, I imagine, gets votes because a) I have a sizable part of it written already, b) I’ve been talking about it recently, and c) who doesn’t love Ada Lovelace? The latter . . . you all just want to watch the spectacle of me trying to write anything punk, don’t you. 😛

We’ll see what happens. Odds are that “To Rise No More” will be first, because it’s the closest to being done and also the freshest. After that, who knows. My brain keeps trying to say “The Unquiet Grave,” but until I figure out what the hell I’m doing with it (a straight-up narrative treatment of the song lyrics would be boring), it’s kind of hard to make it go anywhere.

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Writing Fight Scenes: Focus

NOTE: You can now buy the revised and expanded version of this blog series as an ebook, in both epub and mobi formats.

[This is a post in my series on how to write fight scenes. Other installments may be found under the tag.]

I may have a big soft spot in my heart for the fight scenes in R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf series, which describe the mechanics of each combat in loving, blow-by-blow detail, but as I said at the start of this blogging, you don’t actually need to do that in order to write a good fight. Even if you do, you’re unlikely to detail every single move of anything but the shortest clash: you’ll pick key moments to focus on. The same is true of the less mechanical approach. But then the question becomes, which parts deserve focus?

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Revision done! . . . now what?

The revised draft of The Tropic of Serpents is off to my editor. Now, I just want to fall over . . . but no, I should try to ride that wave of inspiration that was attempting to distract me from the work I needed to be doing. In other words, I should work on a short story.

The candidates which have recently been trying to distract me are, in no particular order:

  • “To Rise No More” — the Ada Lovelace Onyx Court story, explaining why she was involved in the creation of the Ephemeral Engine. (Status: started.)
  • the sequel to “Love, Cayce,” provisionally titled “Advice to a Young Lady on Her Way to Hell.” (Status: a paragraph or so.)
  • “The Unquiet Grave,” based on the folksong of the same name. Do I have any idea what I’m doing with this story? No. But I keep getting the song stuck in my head, and it makes me want to write something. (Status: nothing.)
  • Edward Thorne’s Onyx Court story, about how he came to be a valet to faeries . . . aka “the Peregrin/Segraine Buddy Cop Tale.” (Status: not even a title.)
  • “This Living Hand,” which is the Onyx Court Romantic poets story, except I’d have to do a lot of research for that one. (Status: a title, but nto much more.)
  • “An Enquiry Into the Causes,” ditto, except I’d have to research the Bow Street Runners. (Status: I know who I want to have show up in it?)
  • Another Xochitlicacan story, a la “A Mask of Flesh,” with a jaguar-woman and a temple that hasn’t been decommissioned properly. (Status: uh, nothing.)
  • “A River Flowing Nowhere,” which is a new Driftwood story. (Status: vague plot outline.)
  • A modern sort of punk-ish Tam Lin retelling. (Status: a paragraph or so.)
  • alecaustin, I haven’t forgotten that I owe you a story about the sacking of Enryaku-ji. (Status: I need to get that biography of Nobunaga out of the library again.)

. . . yeah, my brain wanted to do anything other than revise. So, time for a poll!

1560 words

I’ve apparently figured out how to get myself to write short stories again: they just have to be the guilty pleasure I sneak in when I’m almost done with something that’s on a deadline, when I really shouldn’t spare the time and mental energy but dammit I feel like writing something new.

In related news, the Ada Lovelace Onyx Court story now has a title (“To Rise No More”) and 1641 words, all but 81 of which were written tonight.

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Ladies and gentlemen, my karate instructor

I may have mentioned before that the man who runs our dojo (though he doesn’t teach all the classes anymore) is ninth dan in Shorin-ryu karate and eighth dan in Yamanni-ryu kobudo, which is our weapons style. I don’t know what rank Shihan was when this video was filmed, but, well, just watch:

Shihan performs a bo kata

He didn’t hit anything there. He just moved the bo that fast.

Yah. This is the guy I study under.

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