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I have another photo of irises that is arguably better (one taken earlier that day in the San Francisco Botanical Garden — this is from the Japanese Tea Garden just across the road), but I happen to particularly like the way the sun comes down through the petals of the top flower in this one.
The full schedule for my joint tour with Mary Robinette Kowal has been posted at Tor.com:
Thursday, May 1, 6:00 p.m.
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
Friday, May 2, 7:00 p.m.
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
Saturday, May 3, 2:00 p.m.
Powell’s Books at Cedar Hill Crossing
Portland, OR
Sunday, May 4, 3:00 p.m.
Book Bin
Salem, OR
Tuesday, May 6, 6:30 p.m.
Murder by the Book
Houston, TX
Thursday, May 8, 6:00 p.m.
Weller Book Works
Salt Lake City, UT
Saturday, May 10, 2:00 p.m.
Mysterious Galaxy (Part of the Mysterious Galaxy 21st Birthday Bash!)
San Diego, CA
Sunday, May 11, 3:00 p.m.
Borderlands Books
San Francisco, CA
And I would like to state for the record that Mary is a genius. She made a suggestion for something I could do during the events which — well, you’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you? (Yes, this is my transparent bid to build suspense and get you all to come.) I promise I’ll talk about it after the tour, for those of you who don’t live anywhere near our stops or can’t make it to the events, but for now you’ll just have to wonder. (Hint: it involves my husband marveling, once again, at what kinds of things can be written off as business expenses for a writer.)
Also, there’s a new interview with me up at Just a World Away, in which I talk a little bit about Voyage of the Basilisk (among other things).
The entries for the Design Your Own Dragon contest have started to come in, so here’s a quick recap for those who may have missed the first announcement:
* * *
From the newly released The Tropic of Serpents and the first book in the series, A Natural History of Dragons, readers know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science.
The world of Lady Trent is home to a myriad of different dragon species, from the fire-breathing desert drakes of Akhia to the tiny draconic cousins known as sparklings. Now you have a chance to expand the borders of dragon naturalism, by adding your own species to the mix!
All you have to do is invent a breed of dragon or draconic cousin that might fit into Lady Trent’s world. Write up a description of no more than two hundred words covering its appearance and habitat, any noteworthy behaviors, and so on. An example of a write up, Marie Brennan’s wyvern, is below. Then submit your invention to dragons.of.trent@gmail.com, with the header “DRAGON: {name}”. Marie Brennan will select one to three entries and reference them in a future installment of the Memoirs of Lady Trent. Winners will also receive a signed Advance Reader Copy of Voyage of the Basilisk, the third book in the series, when those become available (late 2014).
This contest is open to entrants worldwide. No more than three submissions per entrant; any subsequent e-mails will be deleted unread. The contest will close to entries at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 30th, and winners will be announced on May 12th.
WYVERN — A reptilian creature native to northern and eastern Anthiope, possessing hind limbs and wings, but lacking forelimbs, which disqualifies it for consideration as a “true dragon” under the criteria of Sir Richard Edgeworth. Wyverns are typically 3-4 meters in length from nose to tail, with a comparable wingspan, and light of build through the chest. Their coloration is mottled brown and green, for protective colouration in the treeless hills that are their usual habitat. They typically hunt by waiting in an elevated position and then launching into the air when prey is sighted. Their venom is paralytic, and kills the prey through asphyxiation. Wyverns are solitary except when they mate, but the male will follow the female until she lays her eggs, after which they incubate in the care of the male, who feeds them and teaches them to hunt after hatching. Juveniles rarely stay with their father for more than three months, by which point they are capable of independent sustenance.
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Amusingly enough, both my husband and I took this photo — identical in almost every detail. 🙂 What can I say? As with so many things in Highgate, the moss and the fallen leaves really made it.
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Malbork Castle has taken quite a beating over the centuries, particularly during WWII. The restoration has not yet made it through the church, and while I would be delighted to see what it looks like when it’s back in one piece, the ruined version has a great deal of charm. This bird (which might or might not be an eagle) is hanging out in the sanctuary with various other fragments, awaiting the restorers.
I remembered two more of the ones I’d forgotten to record from January. (Courtesy of ebooks, which make it easy to look and see what I’ve been reading recently.)
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The ceilings in the Vatican are phenomenal. My pictures of the ceilings in the Vatican, sadly, are mostly not so phenomenal, because I didn’t have a tripod — but this one came out pretty well. And while on the one hand the inequality of wealth that produces things like this is not desirable, I am glad to have the results of it.
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The thing that I’m proudest of with this shot is, it was taken at rather high zoom with my camera braced on the railing of a walkway that vibrated every time somebody took a step. This butterfly was in the “rainforest” chamber of the California Academy of Sciences, and I’m delighted that not only did I catch it sitting still (which can be damned hard with butterflies), but it came out this crisp, too.
From the newly released The Tropic of Serpents and the first book in the series, A Natural History of Dragons, readers know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science.
The world of Lady Trent is home to a myriad of different dragon species, from the fire-breathing desert drakes of Akhia to the tiny draconic cousins known as sparklings. Now you have a chance to expand the borders of dragon naturalism, by adding your own species to the mix!
All you have to do is invent a breed of dragon or draconic cousin that might fit into Lady Trent’s world. Write up a description of no more than two hundred words covering its appearance and habitat, any noteworthy behaviors, and so on. An example of a write up, Marie Brennan’s wyvern, is below. Then submit your invention to dragons.of.trent@gmail.com, with the header “DRAGON: {name}”. Marie Brennan will select one to three entries and reference them in a future installment of the Memoirs of Lady Trent. Winners will also receive a signed Advance Reader Copy of Voyage of the Basilisk, the third book in the series, when those become available (late 2014).
This contest is open to entrants worldwide. No more than three submissions per entrant; any subsequent e-mails will be deleted unread. The contest will close to entries at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on April 30th 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on May 15th (note the extension!), and winners will be announced on May 26th.
Sample entry:
WYVERN — A reptilian creature native to northern and eastern Anthiope, possessing hind limbs and wings, but lacking forelimbs, which disqualifies it for consideration as a “true dragon” under the criteria of Sir Richard Edgeworth. Wyverns are typically 3-4 meters in length from nose to tail, with a comparable wingspan, and light of build through the chest. Their coloration is mottled brown and green, for protective colouration in the treeless hills that are their usual habitat. They typically hunt by waiting in an elevated position and then launching into the air when prey is sighted. Their venom is paralytic, and kills the prey through asphyxiation. Wyverns are solitary except when they mate, but the male will follow the female until she lays her eggs, after which they incubate in the care of the male, who feeds them and teaches them to hunt after hatching. Juveniles rarely stay with their father for more than three months, by which point they are capable of independent sustenance.
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I have another shot of these same gargoyles from a slightly different angle that has some really interesting sunlight going on, but I decided to post this one because it’s one of the few times so far that I’ve made use of the “vignette” option in Lightroom. That’s what created the darkening around the edges, which is another way of making a photo look old. I particularly like the way it echoes the shape of the corner here.
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Every proper castle is haunted. I was fortunate enough to catch the Ghost of Malbork Castle on film! (Or pixels, rather.)
More seriously: I have no idea what happened with my camera. I was trying to take a photo down the gallery, but my camera malfunctioned weirdly. While I was trying to figure it out, my husband decided to jump into the frame, and then the camera took a picture after all, and somehow I managed a double exposure with a single shot in digital. Like I said: no idea what happened. But it’s one of my favorite photos of Kyle. 🙂
Depending on how you approach reading my journal, you may or may not have noticed that I ran into some technical difficulties last week — the WordPress version went down at some point Tuesday or early Wednesday morning, but I didn’t notice until Friday, which means that three installments from the Year in Pictures didn’t post on schedule. They all popped up in a quick row on Friday when the site got restored, so if you missed them, here they are:
I’ll be looking for ways to prevent such lengthy outages in the future.
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I imagine this was originally part of a larger statue — maybe even a whole grouping — involving an upraised arm exhorting the brave men and women of France to victory or something in that vein.
Without the context, though, it really looks like the statue should have a speech bubble saying “Oh no you DIDN’T!”
(It’s inside the Arc de Triomphe, up where you can pause to take a breather on your way to the roof.)
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While in Poland, we spent a day touring Zakopane, which is a mountain town known for its skiing and its traditional culture. Our guide took us to a small museum that replicates a rural cottage; this old military helmet was sitting atop a chest along one of the walls, along with a couple of other caps.
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This was in the lobby of the resort we stayed at for one night in Kerala. It was absolutely gorgeous: a huge bowl of flowers and leaves arranged in perfect geometry, floating on the surface of the water. I have no idea how often they had to refresh it, but it’s an impressive work of art.
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You aren’t allowed to take photos inside Sacre-Coeur (the church at the top of Montmartre), which is probably a good thing; otherwise I might still be there. But I made up for it by continuing my gargoyle-shooting binge all over the exterior. This one is a particular favorite because of the contrasting angles made by the curve of the dome, the columns of the windows, the gargoyle, the roof edge, and the other roof below — it’s almost Escheresque.
“Keep Calm and Carry On” — my SF Novelists post for the month; a brief reflection on some of the recent trouble regarding gender and such.
Interview at SF Signal — in which they ask me about a variety of things, including photography.
“What Happens When Fantasy Novels Get Scientific?” — Me at io9, talking about the impulse to treat dragons scientifically.
Finally, not something you can read just yet, but: I’ve sold another story to Tor.com! “Daughter of Necessity,” which I read at FogCon after revising it half an hour before the reading. 😛 It will be out some time in the fall, most likely.
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I think I’ve mentioned before that my father has been a total pusher for this photography habit of mine. When I was home the other Christmas, he took me to a Chinese lantern festival to learn the ins and outs of night photography. This was one of the first shots I took; it’s of the arch over the main part of the sight, and it was a beast to get, because the central lantern kept swaying in the wind. But I am nothing if not persistent, and in time I got the shot I wanted.
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This is one of my photos from the research trip for A Star Shall Fall, when I visited the library of the Royal Society. Nullius in verba is their motto, and can loosely be translated as “on the words of no one” — indicating the group’s founding principle of testing knowledge through experimentation.
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I’m not usually a fan of Zen rock gardens, but this one, at Komyozenji in Dazaifu on the island of Kyushu, is the exception. It’s meant to mimic water, and so the gravel forms curving forms within the most amazing moss I saw anywhere in Japan. It may, in fact, be my favorite Japanese garden of all time.
