Rules for Anchorites

Motion Towards

2009-07-09T17:17:08Z

I have this awesome talent of making myself tired before I even go to a con.

In the last 12 hours I have accomplished:

Lemon basil shortbread (ingredients culled from the garden in my Rhysling-nominated poem The Girl With Two Skins)

Blueberry Goat Cheese Muffins (I am somewhat disappointed in this recipe. They're good, and I'll bring them to my kaffeeklatsch for everyone to nom, but I think I wanted more cheesiness to them.)

3,077 words on Fairyland, Chapter 7 (Still iffy on the title. What Is a Fairy? Maybe.) done. Chapter 8 (Fairy Reels) all mapped out in my head.

Some sleep.

I also made some intense mango-balsamic chutney for the Goblin Fruit party tonight. But that was not in the last 12 hours.

justbeast is staying home at the last minute, to save money and give him a chance to get some freelance work done. Thus I am driving down to Boston by my lonesome in a few hours, after a long-dreaded trip to the Post Office and an uploading of Pratchett audiobook for the drive. I will be without Loyal Knight for the con, so if'n anyone wants to help with things, I'll be the one with long black hair looking frazzled. My main reading is on Sunday at 11:30 in NH/MA, and I'll be reading from the now-untitled Russian book, unless y'all holler for something else.

In other news, Steampunk Tales has finally opened up to all platforms, not just the iPhone, so you can read my story of angry teenage anarcho-Marxist Luddism, The Anachronist's Cookbook.

I'm pretty damn proud of that title.

Anyway. I, rough beast, slouch toward Boston. Will return with a regyt , a novalis , and a loinfruit , and will have an alankria mid-week.

I hope to see you all at Readercon! Don't be shy! I only bite if asked nicely.

It's July, For Serious

2009-07-08T20:54:54Z

All, right, Maine. Enough with the rain.

It's pouring, again. I can't go outside, again. It's grey and wet and so cold I'm hiding under an electric blanket. Again. I have had it with this motherfucking weather this motherfucking summer.

I know I said I liked it cold, and I do. But I don't like it lightless and dismal, and I don't like crops all over the state rotting or being devoured by insects invigorated by constant rain.

Just a little sun. Just let me go swimming once this year. Just let me walk around outside without squinting in the sideways-blowing rain.

None of this does wonders for my mood. I feel like Cave-Buffy. And Overnightprints.com screwed up our order (again--don't ever use them, this is the fourth time they have failed to deliver anything to us) so there are no promo materials for Readercon.

Ugh. Today sucks. And I have to go bake things for various Readercon parties what asked me to bring food.

Terminator: SPOILERS

2009-07-07T20:25:23Z

I've finished watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as was suggested to me after my "workshopping" of Terminator: Salvation.

It's a flawed show. They didn't seem to know what to do with a huge slate of 22 episodes the way they did with 13. The middle episodes of Season 2 were drifty filler. They don't often ask the questions I want answered and miss some great opportunities. Sarah isn't nearly buff enough for the role (and has like three facial expressions) and John is Ye Olde Whiny Teenage Messiah. I just want a normal life! STFU, child. Normal life is not that awesome. I cannot get over Brian Austin Green being all Manful. You may have tats and big boy pants now, my friend, but your zip code never changes. AIs are not children with Asperger's. Why is anyone still fucking around with the T-800 series when the T-1000s are more or less unstoppable and better in every way?

But damn, that was a really good show, it really found its feet there at the end, and the fact that Dollhouse, which sucks roundly, was renewed and this was canned is a fucking travesty. Joss Whedon, believe it or not, can and has made crap, and you guys aren't making Firefly up to anyone by sticking with that hot mess and stomping on some seriously quality gritty SF crack.

The finale is fascinating: it can be read one of two ways, as I see it. John is in an alternate ~~grim meathook~~ future where he never existed to lead the resistance and will return at some point to live through the timeline normally, or John has closed the time loop, and begins working his way through the resistance ranks in the grim meathook now. To be honest, the former is not terribly interesting to me except in a It's a Wonderful Life sort of way--nothing he could do there would essentially matter, since it's an offshoot timeline that would vanish as soon as he went back to 2009, which he would more or less have to do as this is a TV show and it ain't called the John Connor Chronicles. It will certainly not cut down on the crybaby emo Olympics. However, I'm reasonably convinced that this is what would have happened given a season three. Fascinatingly, though, since the show is over, we pretty much have to read it the other way, as a grace note and a final closing of the loop, or else riot and burn the Fox offices down. That's some nice writin' there, guys.

(PS I'm still not sure I get the "will you join us?" stuff. Assuming the T-1000 on the sub was Weaver, which I think we are supposed to do given the eel and the shape of her liquid self, why did she say no, to whom is she saying no, who is us, and why does she change her mind and go back in time to create Cuddly!AI? "Screw it, humans are disappointing" does not usually equal elaborate timeline fuckage, it equals "I will now go back and hang with my robot friends who don't cry about shit and kill you for fun." How is the phrase supposed to work as code for Cameron? Wouldn't Cameron know the answer is no and therefore not do whatever she did to John Henry to merge and make some kind of weird Camhenry baby (I assume this is what happened.) If anyone can explain this stuff or even theorize, that would be awesome. Either way I kind of grokked Weaver was making something not-Skynet because of the name John Henry and because she kept the kid around, when it would be so much easier to off Savannah and not try to be Terminator Mommy. Also eels eat other eels. And oh, hey--why does Cromartie let Ellison go in Season 1? That's pretty sinister in light of the finale. Cromartie has to be part of Team Bad AI, but Ellison is only relevant to Team D&D Playing AI, which means at some point, either John Henry joins up with the machines or does something vital for them, because otherwise Cromartie wouldn't know who he was or would be instructed to kill him in order to end the John Henry program before it starts to be a thorn in anyone's side.)

In general, it was a much better treatment of the material than the movie. It still doesn't answer what Skynet wants as a whole, but it does at least partially answer why John is able to save mankind--because he has Terminators working for him from day one and his peculiar experience means he knows how everything has to shake out. It's not a great answer, because it's got this loyalty paradox--John expects loyalty because he's always been told he is worthy of it, but from childhood he has already had it because of the actions of his future self, actions which he performed because he's been told he's worthy of authority and loyalty all his life. His whole personality is a time loop. (I also wonder, and man, they ALMOST deal with this but then chicken out with some bizarre governor plot which I can't make sense out of except as a reference to Schwarzenegger being the current governor--why not use the time machine to go into the either the future and bring back tech to win the war and/or just, you know, see if the humans won, or go back further in time than 1984 when people really and truly have no defense against this kind of thing and mess with events back then? I'd love to see Terminators all through human history, silently shaping. Because the whole Skynet creates itself was interesting in that it explained why they didn't just not invent time travel and cause John Connor to never be born, but as a trope it's kind of played and I'm glad they're going a slightly different direction--Danny Dyson almost certainly is behind Not!Cuddly!AI, which is still looped, as his father's death would be a big part of the reason why, but not nearly so ourobourosed as all that. Also I completely believe people would go AWOL in the past to have a fucking Big Mac and a Coke and hide from the end of the world. They also chickened out on that plotline, since Jesse had a mission after all, even if it was her own fucked up agenda--and did I detect Evil Lesbian action there, I believe I did! Anyway, in the future apparently everyone is Completely Devoted to the Cause and never wavers in the presence of a seriously awesome escape pod. No Cyphers in this machine apocalypse.)

Ultimately, though, I'm weirdly fascinated by the Terminator universe. I kind of wish I could write a tie-in novel. Seriously obsessing, you guys. But I'm trying to figure out why, because it's not like there's so much there compared to other SF universes. I think it might have something to do with the consensus on fate and free will that seems to be emerging from all the various incarnations. The future is not set--true, in microcosm. You can change things. You can kill people and invoke paradox. But certain events are like huge mountains at the heads of a trillion paths--it's almost impossible to avoid them. You can pick and choose among individual timelines, but you can't change that 9 out of 10 Schrodinger's agree that Doomsday is happening, whether in 1997 or 2011 or 2115. That 1 out of 10 (bazillion) is what the heroes are always looking for, but it's a lot harder to change a massive crisis event than to snuff out a butterfly and prevent a hurricane. Ultimately, the big future, the macrocosmic future, is set, at least functionally so. Nothing of substance has been changed in all of the Terminator incarnations, and people have been mucking about with timelines like Donnie Darko on a sugar high. (Shudderingly weird to think of the DD theory of time travel conjoining with the Terminator 'verse.) This seems to indicate that really, you can't move the mountain, you can only have a nice picnic and watch the sunset and delay, for a little while, walking straight into it.

On top of that, I keep thinking about it, and I just don't see humans winning. At one point in the show the machines release a plague, and you know, once that shit starts happening it's really over. Our bodies are too breakable--and at no point have the writers dealt with how breakable and fragile and environment-sensitive machines are in our time, so I think we're to assume they're not, in the future. It's all well and good to pretend that the resistance can somehow retro-engineer a vaccine from some chick's blood (which is one of my big complaints--the abilities, structure, and tech of the resistance are wildly inconsistent. Everyone is starving and living like rats in tunnels but there's a fully extant military with Shellback rituals and submarines and uniforms (!) and hazmat suits and advanced medicine? Whatevs. Either they're rag tag or they're the government. Either the world was nuked or there are still TONS of people in LA--seriously, nuclear armageddon didn't seem to dent the population at all. Make up your mind and stick with it, guys.) but in point of fact there's always more virus in the robot vats to punk the biologicals. We never see humans attempting to create computer viruses, they're always trying brute force, which is just dumber than casting a 90210 castmember. Blow shit up, shoot shit down. Not going to work, never was going to work. So ultimately, maybe it's the grimmness of the future that gets me here--can't change it, can't survive it. Not really, not in the long run. But there's that hint that someone, somewhere, can see the whole picture, and seeing the whole picture can shape it. And maybe that person's name is John Connor and maybe it isn't. Maybe it's John Henry, whose namesake beat the future and died anyway. Maybe it's Weaver--that name isn't a coincience.

We'll never know because Fox is cruel and stupid. The show is itself an offshoot timeline and it's only the punishing badness of the two later movies thatallows us to even begin to think of SCC as canon. I'd rather this be the canon, if the other option is Terminator: Salvation.

Maybe I just love time travel stories, and grim dystopias, and post-apocalyptica, and this brings it all together. I wish the story were still being told somewhere other than fanfiction.net. Damn.

Readercon Schedule

2009-07-06T19:28:07Z

Oy. The first thing you'll notice is that I'm in a lot of damn anthologies. So I'm in like every group reading in the place. Woo! All this is tremendously fun, and I'll also be at the Goblin Fruit part on Thursday, bringing homemade champagne mango chutney.

Second thing: what would y'all like to talk about or possibly even do at my kaffeeklatsch? We could all bring Art Things to trade around or discuss how The Smiths suck, even though everyone insists on imitating them, and the connection between prog rock and zombies and how if one never heard another word about either of them it would be awesome.

Other suggestions? (And if there is anything specific you want me to address in my How I Wrote The Orphan's Tales talk, let me know)

Anyway, please come to these things what I am doing. I promise fun for all!

Friday 11:00 AM, Salon E: Panel

Egocentrism and Creativity. Scott Edelman, Eileen Gunn, James Patrick
Kelly (L), John Shirley, Catherynne M. Valente, Gene Wolfe

[Greatest Hit from Readercon 13.] "I'm Michael Swanwick, and with the
possible exception of Gene Wolfe, I'm the best writer present today." This
introduction at Readercon 1 (at the Wolfe appreciation panel!) drew big
laughs for its nerve (and apparent self-delusion), but in retrospect it
seems to be merely precognitive (Nabokov observes that "there is no more
pure love in the world than the love a young writer has for the old writer
he will someday become"). Swanwick now maintains that "modesty and a
reasonable awareness of [one's] limitations have no place in a writing
career."

Friday 12:00 Noon, Salon E: Panel

The Catharsis of Myth, the Shock of Invention. Ellen Asher, Theodora Goss
(L), Elaine Isaak, Laura Miller, Catherynne M. Valente

[Greatest Hit from Readercon 8.] In writing or reading fiction, we place
a high value on the degree to which the plot unfolds in unexpected ways.
But much of the power of myth and fairy tale derives from the way it
fulfills our expectations. How do the best works of fantasy reconcile
these seeming opposites?

Friday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading

_Mythic Delirium / Goblin Fruit_ Group Reading (60 min,.) Mike Allen,
Amal-El Mohtar, and Jessica Paige Wick (co-hosts) with Leah Bobet, M. M.
Buckner, Greer Gilman, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, Joselle
Vanderhooft et al

Joint reading from _Mythic Delirium_, the biannual magazine of speculative
poetry edited by Allen (which just published its tenth anniversary issue),
and _Goblin Fruit_, the quarterly online zine of fantastical poetry edited
by El-Mohtar and Wick (whose Summer 2009 issue is due out now).

Friday 3:00 PM, VT: Group Reading

Interfictions 2 Group Reading (60 min.) Delia Sherman (host) with
Amelia Beamer, K. Tempest Bradford, Matthew Cheney, F. Brett Cox, Michael
DeLuca, Jeffrey Ford, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Shira Lipkin,
Rachel Pollack, Catherynne M. Valente, Genevieve Valentine

Readings from Interfictions 2: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing_,
edited by host Sherman and Christopher Barzak and forthcoming in the fall
from Small Beer Press under the auspices of the Interstitial Arts
Foundation.

Friday 5:30 PM, RI: Talk (30 min.)

How I Wrote The Orphan's Tales. Catherynne M. Valente

Friday 8:00 PM, ME/ CT: Talk / Discussion (60 min.)

Annual Interstitial Arts (IAF) Town Meeting. Ellen Kushner with
discussion by Liz Gorinsky, Theodora Goss, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Shira
Lipkin, Delia Sherman, John Shirley, Sarah Smith, Catherynne M. Valente

Interstitial Art falls in the interstices of recognized genres. The
Interstitial Arts Foundation is a group of "Artists Without Borders"
fighting the Balkanization of art. They celebrate work that crosses or
straddles the borders between media, the borders between genres, the
borders between "high art" and popular culture. They are not opposed to
mainstream fiction or genre fiction, nor are they seeking to create a new
category. They are just particularly excited by border-crossing fiction
(and music and art), and want to support the creation of such works and to
establish better ways of engaging with them. The IAF has had a presence at
Readercon from its beginning. In 2007, in cooperation with Small Beer
Press, the IAF published Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial
Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, and in fall 2009 they
will present Interfictions 2, edited by Delia Sherman and Christopher
Barzak. They are also doing a lot with visual arts. Interstitial Arts is
an idea, a conversation, not a hard-and-fast definition-and it's a
conversation you are invited to join.

Saturday 12:00 Noon, VT: Group Reading

Federations Group Reading (60 min.) John Joseph Adams (host) with K.
Tempest Bradford, Robert J. Sawyer, Allen Steele, Catherynne M. Valente,
Genevieve Valentine

Readings from the original and reprint anthology (cover blurb: "Vast.
Epic. Interstellar.") edited by Adams and published by Prime Books in
January.

Saturday 2:00 PM, VT: Group Reading

Clockwork Phoenix 2 Group Reading (60 min.) Mike Allen (host) with
Saladin Ahmed, Leah Bobet, Mary Robinette Kowal, Barbara Krasnoff,
Catherynne M. Valente.

Readings from the second volume of the annual non-theme anthology
(subtitled _More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness_) edited by Allen and
just published by Norilana Books.

Saturday 3:00 PM, Salon A: Event

The Rhysling Award Poetry Slan. Mike Allen (MC) with Michael Bishop, Leah
Bobet, Lila Garrott, Greer Gilman, Ernest Lilley, Darrell Schweitzer,
Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente

(A "poetry slan," to be confused with "poetry slam," is a poetry reading
by sf folks, of course.) Climaxed by the presentation of this year's
Rhysling Awards.

Sunday 11:30 AM, NH / MA: Reading (30 min.)

Catherynne reads from her novel forthcoming in 2011 (not yet titled--much to my chagrin. But I promise Communist goblins!), based on Russian
folk tales and Stalinist history.

Sunday 1:00 PM, Salon F: Autographing

Sunday 2:00 PM, Vineyard: Kaffeeklatsch

Moar Fairyland

2009-07-06T17:09:38Z

The Fairyland fan community, onaleopard , is trying to get featured on LJ Spotlight. This would be fantastic, obviously, in terms of getting more eyeballs on the story.

If you love Fairyland and the community around it, consider suggesting onaleopard to LJ? Thank you-- this continues to be one of the most extraordinary experience of my life, and I can't wait til next Monday.

Chapter 4!

2009-07-06T14:56:41Z

The new Fairyland chapter is up!

Chapter 4: The Wyverary

In Which September Is Discovered by a Wyvern, Learns of a Most Distressing Law, and Thinks of Home (But Only Briefly)

This features one of my favorite characters so far, who started out as a giant cat but decided somewhere along the way that he would rather be a wyvern. Hope you all enjoy it--especially my librarians in the house!

No site updates this week, if there's anything you want us to add, let us know. Still working on getting other e-versions linked up. And if you have the inclination and are liking the story, please consider donating. (Sadly the Beast did not get the job we were so hopeful for.)

Discussion post in onaleopard!

Home and A Broad

2009-07-04T18:05:45Z

So one of the cooler things to happen to me over the past week is that I was asked to serve on the advisory board of Broad Universe--which is an awesome organization that helps women writers (I think it's especially helpful if you're just getting a toe-hold in the industry) and which I have admired for a long time. I'm really excited, as I feel they made a difference for me in my early career. Plus I've never been on a board before. I need a tie!

So as my first board-member act, let me say: Join Broad Universe!

Seriously, they make your books available at cons and provide opportunities to read even at the big ones. They are a great advocacy group and if you are trying to put your career together, you need this tool in your arsenal. It's also about 1/3 the cost of joining SFWA (which I need to make a decision on soon, I really don't know whether I want to renew yet.)

***

We're heading into town today for 4th of July at chang3002 's house. I suspect there might be beer. In general feeling pretty good as yesterday was a great work day--an essay done in the morning, a chapter of Fairyland in the afternoon.

Also, guys, just to let you know, it's taken an absurd amount of time to get everyone into the database as there have been a slew of new memberships. Omikuji goes out Monday morning. We've emailed everyone we don't have an address for--please respond! (This month's lottery prize made by my awesome friend Danielle! Oh how I envy you, lottery winner!)

Finally--check the awesome icon by talkstowolves! She's so good at this! I wonder if a Fairyland mood icon set is possible...

First Lines

2009-07-02T12:57:48Z

First Lines Meme from truepenny and matociquala!

Long Projects (Now you see the awful truth, of how very many plates I twirl at once:

1. Once upon a time, a girl named September grew very tired indeed of her father’s house, where she washed the same pink and yellow teacups and matching gravy boats every day, slept on the same embroidered pillow, and played with the same small and amiable dog. (Pretty sure you know where this comes from)

2. In a city by the sea which was once called St. Petersburg, then Leningrad, then, much later, St. Petersburg again, there stood a long, thin house on a long thin street. (The novel formerly known as Deathless)

3. So there’s this Japanese fairy tale about a samurai who was born from a peach. An old woman is washing her clothes in the river and singing about how she never could get pregnant when a huge peach comes floating her way, and, being pretty sensible, she snaps it up and takes it inside to cut up for lunch. (Monogatari)

4. Three people killed themselves the night the red snow fell. (The Year of Red Snow)

5. O my Brothers, I have gathered for you such a basket of ash! (The Habitation of the Blessed--the perpetual Prester John novel)

6. Neva is dreaming. (Like Diamonds, early stage AI novel)

7. EXT. The cannon pad at the Vancouver World’s Fair in 1986, late afternoon, festooned with crepe and banners wishing luck and safe travel. (The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew, alternate history of space travel novel. The short story from which it sprang will come out from Clarkesworld next month)

Short Projects (Less of these, I tend to finish short ones quickly)

1. I ran away from home when I was sixteen. (The Sweet and the Quick, working title)

2. Let me tell you about circumcision. (Grandmother Euphrosyne)

3. Buenos Aires, (which others call a novel), is seven hundred and forty pages long, with six pages of endnotes. (This month's Omikuji)

Works And Days

2009-07-01T08:08:14Z

Today's Collected Effusions (Because you wanted to know):

Fairyland Chapter 5: 4,733 words (finished)

Omikuji Story (Reading Borges in Buenos Aires--easily the weirdest thing I've ever done for Omikuji): 2,173 words

Non-Literary Activity:

Made posole from scratch

Tried and failed to work out how to knit a sock on two circular needles

Read some of Orlando Figes's The Whisperers as part of ongoing research, which has an uncomfortable moralizing angle. Not bad enough that Stalin was psychotic. We have to cluck over the essential lameness of Bolshevism and Communism in general, and portray the Soviet masses as simultaneous tragic victims and slavering villains because that's what the West does.

Watched some Dexter, which I can't actually watch without doing something else, like writing, because it's just uncomfortable and disturbing. But I can use to bleed off excess attention just fine.

Drank a lot of Newton's Own Lemonade, which I love obsessively and should not have because it is sugary.

Chop Wood, Carry Water, Redux. Day 1

2009-07-01T00:59:41Z

The rich red color of posole simmering on my stove, smelling like New Mexico.

The cling of the silvery, shrouding fog that invisibles the mainland.

The low, gentle hooting of far-off foghorns, like gibbons calling to each other.

Quotidian Blather

2009-06-30T16:37:07Z

Today I am going down to the library to work as they have long hours today and options for out-of-house working on the island are slim in the summer--so many people, and their insistence on buying things!

I have my Readercon panel schedule (it's so pleasant to be able to go to Readercon with almost no trouble or expense, as it's right near us, and we can hang with birthday girl adelynne and non-Czech-Prime-Minister mtolan . Readercon used to be the most expensive con for us and now it's practically free.) though not my other things schedule--I can has my own reading, a "How I Wrote the Orphan's Tales" talk, many other group readings, Interfictions stuff, a kaffeeklatsch...pool is now running on when I lose my voice. Plus I get to see tithenai , and read our Rhysling-nominated poem together. It's also super nice to not stress and hope about the Rhyslings. I'm all zen, since I won it last year and have my pretty plaque. I'm no time_shark . I don't ever expect to win again, so I can just go have fun.

I think I am going to make posole for dinner tonight--or a pale imitation as I do not have the proper peppers. She is a pepper-poor zone, Maine. Am also making mango-currant jam this week, when I am a bit more on top of deadlines and Omikuji is out. We have a 4th invite this weekend but I'm torn--the island has to be pretty cool on the 4th, right? Trying to be a good local girl. First farmer's market tomorrow.

We've been watching Mad Men in the evenings, which is a damn good show, though I could do without this 13 episode format that my favorite shows have taken up, and Mrs. Reynolds is just too hot for words, and is that CONNOR, OMG IT IS! And he's playing an insufferable little shit again, so business as usual. At least it's deeper than the usual: hey guess what? The 50s ethos sucked! I know, right? You've NEVER HEARD THAT BEFORE.

It's also odd for me to watch as my father and grandfather we both in advertising for decades, and so to some extent that was their world, when I was a child. Moreso for my grandfather, obviously. I remember, coming from what was once a reasonably conservative family, a much more formal childhood. My brother and I once watched some old home video and he finally said: do you notice? Everyone's wearing suits and ties. For a kid's birthday party. One thing Mad Men shows: that ethos went on a lot longer than the 50s.

True Blood, our other indulgence, goes in the opposite way, obviously. Though the appearance of a damn minotaur is putting me off. What, we're in Greek Disneyland all of the suddent? Maenads and Minotaurs: the Ride? What exactly is the metaphysical make up of this world? I know, don't ask, just enjoy the blood and sex. At least there's Jacob recapping it on TWOP.

So. The day moves. I with it. Sort of. I caught my robe on 8 o'clock. Also Gmail is being a brat.

But first order of business is taking a shower. Because it turns out that if your facial cleanser has clay in it, and you get some on your hair, like around the browline which is damn hard to avoid, you turn into clay-tablet Enkidu, and everything is all stiff and grey and a little too homoerotic to ignore.

I'm not sure that sentence stuck the landing.

This is Made of Awesome

2009-06-29T22:07:09Z

by trembyle

Moar Fairyland

2009-06-29T18:20:05Z

One humbly mews that authors thrive on feedback, which is doubly true when writing this fast and this much, even if it is negative feedback, so one can correct one's course. In print this takes the form of article reviews and Amazon reviews and such, online it means comments and discussion. It is hard to speak into a vacuum.

Which is all to say: there's a Fairyland Chapter 3 discussion thread here, and it is lonely. There's also this post, obviously. (And did you all like the Commentary? If no one liked it, I shan't record more...)

And don't forget to check out tim_pratt 's The Bone Shop, which went live today! Both projects could use donations--remember that these are entirely crowdfunded shows.)

yuki_onna @ 2009-06-29T08:00:00

2009-06-29T12:00:27Z

10:32 @ifearzombies I live on a wee island in the Atlantic. The ferry? Is a GIANT catamaran. Named Cat. #
21:30 Preparing to walk home in rain with no umbrella. About as pleased as you'd imagine a wet cat to be. #
21:55 @ifearzombies Always! The idea of a snarky black haired LA house elf appeals. #
22:05 @kythryne taught me linked beady necklace things & gave me gorgeous City of Marrow earrings, & also pasta. & let me play w/ her puppy. Win. #
22:45 My cat always reminds me of that old comic about how living with a cat is like living with a tweeker... #
01:47 And Garage Band just ate my entire audio file. #
03:28 @grahamsleight I haven't heard either. #
05:21 New #Fairyland chapter up! Now with Author's Commentary--like Director's Commentary for books! catherynnemvalente.com/fairyland #

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Chapter 3!

2009-06-29T09:20:10Z

After much hilarious techfail here at Casa Gata con Botas, and by hilarious I mean I pouted at my computer for like a full hour, Chapter Three of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland is up.

It's a biiiig, meaty chapter, with witches in.

And the Fairyland Museum is also live! (If you have additions, in any sort of media, send them to me anytime.)

And if you click the Wyvern (no, seriously) at the end of the chapter, you can access a new feature, the super-awesome Author's Commentary. Which is like a Director's Commentary, only for books and by me, wherein I chatter about the writing of this week's chapter, talk about various craft-type things, crack jokes, and say "um" a lot. Just like Ridley Scott! But, you know, a girl.

I've been wanting to do this for ages and ages, so I'm really excited to have finally managed it. I hope it's as fun for you all as listening to director's commentaries is for me. I fully realize I am a dork about commentaries, though.

And damn am I tired of hearing my own voice after all that recording. I could not talk for a week, and that would be sweet.

If there's anything you guys want me to talk about on future commentaries, ask away!

Now, I collapse into a heap of sleeping, still slightly wet from rainstorm Cat.

yuki_onna @ 2009-06-28T08:00:00

2009-06-28T12:00:20Z

00:09 @ifearzombies There is a direct ferry from my city to Nova Scotia...just saying. #

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This Shit Is Real

2009-06-27T23:02:44Z

This is awesome, and why Italian politics are better than any other politics.

But the question is, really: how can I get a naked Czech Ex-Prime Minister at my party?

I'm pretty sure I could get a bunch of hot naked women, and a few men, even, to come over to mine for some shots and career ruination. It's the ex-Prime Minister that gets me. How do you do that, short of being a Prime Minister yourself?

So I ask: how many steps are there between me and a naked ex-Prime Minister? (Any Prime Minister is fine, Czech is only a bonus. I'm not asking for Tony Blair, it can be the ex-Prime Minister of Lichtenstein or wherever.) Is there a Craigslist section? How does one go about organizing what is clearly the party of the century?

I'm afraid that from here on out, I will be mildly saddened by any party not featuring an ex-Prime Minister. Or at least an ex-Student Body President or something. I'll be all: wow, this sure is a great party, but it's no Berlusconi. Oh, to be in Italy, and seventy-two!

yuki_onna @ 2009-06-27T08:00:00

2009-06-27T12:00:29Z

13:10 *roars like Grendel* Morning safeword! Bleh. So glad I don't have TV, so I don't have to hear about MJ all day. Unless I look at LJ. #
13:11 RT @marianallen #Fairyland has a starting cast! Anyone disagree! Good September...tinyurl.com/l4u6ds #
13:13 I find myself using Twitter for little through-the-day things & contact far more than I expected. It's comforting, on my distant island. #
13:31 @withneedle Sure! #
17:18 Am lonely. Who's out there? #
17:22 @ockhamdesign Why is it that the internet devices most people decry as isolating always end up being these beautiful things in my life? #
17:27 So...many of us are here. What shall we play? #
17:34 PS. Anna Ternheim's Shoreline = September's theme song. #Fairyland #
17:35 @cherylmorgan ZOMG!! #
17:49 @derekmolata Right Hand Red, naturally. #
18:15 Fannish folk cycle is complete: September has a verse in the Wicked Girls apocrypha...you know, that song I listen to while writing Fland. #
18:15 bit.ly/3cfC1 #

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OMGFANGIRL

2009-06-26T22:43:11Z

While in Seattle, vixyish and s00j and stealthcello and tfabris started playing this one song, and it drew me into the room like a cartoon dog afloat on a stream of delicious pie-scent.

The song was Wicked Girls, by seanan_mcguire , and I've been listening to it pretty much on a loop ever since. And becoming a fan of both singer and human, both of which she is a stellar example. I can't wait to read her new book. The song is on my growing Fairyland playlist.(Feel free to send mp3s to pad out said playlist.) It's gorgeous, the melody catchy as hell, and perfect for my fairy tale heart.

So my squee is huge today, as Seanan has been writing new verses by request, and now Casimira, Sorrow, and September (!) have verses in this most beloved of songs.

*dances and sings the new words*

Curator Talk

2009-06-26T21:04:51Z

Just a reminder: if you have anything--fanart, icons, jewelry, other artefacts--that you want to see in the first exhibit of the Fairyland Museum on Monday, get them to me this weekend, along with whatever text and links you prefer me to post!

If you don't have anything right now, I'll be updating the Museum every week that there is more material to post. Hopefully, the site will be ever-evolving. At any event, Monday is a BIIIIG update, with a sprawling chapter, the Museum, site features, and new Thing I am very excited about, as I've always wanted to do it. So stay tuned.

Back to giving September a bath.

yuki_onna @ 2009-06-26T08:00:00

2009-06-26T12:00:38Z

12:15 Anyone going from Boston to Brunswick for the IAF Salon on July 15th? #
12:19 Gah. Can I safeword waking up in the morning? #
12:29 RT @timpratt Launching a reader-sponsored novella starting Monday! bit.ly/LKhyY #
13:35 Whoa, Farrah Fawcett died? #
13:54 Just put in roasting fowl stuffed with pears and smeared with garlic and cumin and such. Total cost for a week's worth of meat: about $10. #
14:09 @rylmandus Get dead bird. Put pears in its butt. Smear garlic, olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, and basil on. Roast. Eat? #
14:37 It's so strange...Fox News wasn't happy when their guy was in power, & they're not happy now. They're so invested in their righteous misery. #
15:04 @sihaya09 Ack! I don't have Pumpkin Queen after all! Still want to trade? #
15:33 I need a #Fairyland playlist for writing time (Chapter 5 today). What would you put on it? #
15:49 I will go work outside, it's a nice day. Oh, um, I guess I need my jacket. & scarf. & socks. & sunglasses. Welcome to summer in Maine. #
15:51 @sinboy that's amazing!! Is there an mp3? #
15:54 #Fairyland playlist: other than @seananmcguire's Wicked Girls, which already has the place of honor, obviously ;) #
16:10 @micrathene Vocals. #
16:57 GAH. I can't concentrate! Is it lack of coffee or lack of awesome? #
17:09 *listens to @vixy, bops along* #
17:19 @babymonkeys 67 with wind here. Thunderstorms tonight...to break the heat, I guess. #
17:23 @vixy No, I mean, I was listening to your songs. Thirteen, specifically. #
17:24 I will do coffee to it. #
18:07 HOLY FUCK. Michael JACKSON died?? What is going on today? #
23:29 @drwicked I want a hedgehog latte! #
23:51 Check out #Fairyland on Storycasting and cast the characters: bit.ly/3y83OT #
23:51 @yamabuki9 Both. #
02:04 Utter writing FAIL today. But I thought through the next chapter, cooked for the week, and made a cunning hat. #

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So Many Signals I Gotta Wear Shades

2009-06-25T18:03:24Z

Vote for kylecassidy in the LJ elections! Finally someone I trust to make decisions for the site that is such a big part of my life. I know Kyle in the real world as well as online and he more or less completely rules--and will not make asshat choices, which is possibly more important.

Using an icon of a photo Kyle took of me in solidarity, yo.

Vote here.

Things You Might Not Know About Me

2009-06-25T17:14:19Z

I'm an obsessive counter.

Oh yes, I can keep it quiet, I don't count matchsticks or anything, and I aitn't a vampire. But rest assured, when I'm with you, I'm counting my steps, the stairs, the tiles on the floor. Hell, I used to count sexual encounters--not partners, of which I've had relatively few, which I say not to be all NOT A SLUT but to point out how stupid counting is in this situation, but individual activities--and kept it straight into the high four digits.

Can't help it, it's just part of my psyche. I've counted anything countable--and not told anyone about it--since I was a little kid.

So you know, I thought I'd tell the internet.

Knitting is an excellent past-time for me, since it involves a lot of counting and basic arithmetic. Arithmetic (I won't call it math) is a visceral pleasure for me, especially since I'm also a bit of a synaesthesiac, and numbers have colors and even notes, so when I add them together or count, their colors and sounds fire off in my brain. So knitting is by-god spectacular in there. (My brain is a weird, murky place, if you couldn't tell.)

I realized the other day whilst working on a camisole that is just a whole lot of boring stockinette stitch, that I can't concentrate on something that's not broken down into units. This is not an ADHD thing--not my particular brand of issue, though about half my family has it. I need the small rush of pleasure that comes with finishing a unit--a row, a block, an object--to keep going. So I put in stitch markers every twenty stitches or so, and am a happy bee. (Stitch markers are tech anyway, especially when making lace.) So my brain can do its counting-to-ten acid trip and also get the endorphin dump of feeling like progress is being made. God, you should see my head on road trips, endlessly recalculating arrival time with every new road sign. LJ friends-of are kind of hilarious in there, since their movement is unpredictable and largely unaffectable, but still has colors and feelings of progress attached. I was WAY into numerology as a youngling, for all these various reasons. It's still the New Age activity I'm most embarrassed about, mostly because it feels so private, not because it's popularly maligned. You don't count in front of other people!

Whenever I take up a new craft I compare it to writing, so this made me realize: I do the exact same thing with books.

I do a lot of arithmetic. If I write this many words every day I'll be finished by X time. Lather, rinse, repeat for each day's performance. (Which, by the way, do you guys have any interest in seeing what I do every day posted here? Wordcounts, projects, etc? Would it be horribly boring or interesting?)

Anyway, even if that schedule never works, the number thing is so pleasurable to me that I have to do it. And I have to split things up into chunks--chapters are convenient, and I can't say for sure that this isn't the source of my short chapter habit (considering the length of next week's Fairyland chapter, I doubt it) but it's not only chapters. It's words. 5k is a. red and b. a milestone. I need to pay attention like that. The 10ks (silver) are big ones, and it matters to me all out of proportion when I complete a 10k portion. It's like a stitch marker.

Funny, I don't really notice bigger units, though. Like, even though there might be 3 or 4 units of 25k in my book, I don't note them. It's the 10k markers that I latch onto. They feel managable.

This process is pointless. It doesn't accomplish anything. But my vampire sense say it must be done or there will be no book. A book is made up of ever-increasing units. So is a hat. My brain thinks if it doesn't count things, they might be...sort of hurt. Same reason that when I was a kid I ate a little bit from everything on my plate in a specific order, so none of my food would feel like it was being left out. Good grief.

I wonder about this, though. Little rituals, and how they shape the world we choose to walk through. At some point I hadn't been counting things, and then I did. Maybe it was a conscious choice. Maybe not. But now it affects my work process and my daily living and hangs pretty, sparkly colored numbers all over it. I guess that's the definition of a habit. But I don't think I could break it if I wanted to.

This has been your confessions of a numerological freak. (ONE freak! AH HA HA.)

The Bone Shop Signal Boost

2009-06-25T16:25:49Z

Fairyland is going to have some company on Mondays: tim_pratt , awesome author extraordinaire, is in the same awful situation with his wife's lay-off that many of us are these days. So he's posting chapters of The Bone Shop, a novella about Marla Mason, the heroine of his urban fantasy series, and asking for donations.

Marla Mason is the chief sorcerer of Felport, a woman who's tangled with gods and monsters and come out on top (if a bit damaged in the process). But she wasn't always a formidable engine of brute force and pragmatism; she started out alone, in a strange city, without allies or any more power than the average teenage runaway on the street. Marla was always willing to do anything necessary to survive, and it didn't take long for her to stumble into a world of magic, danger... and even the occasional moment of grace.

Bone Shop tells the story of Marla's evolution from runaway to sorcerer's apprentice to mercenary magician and beyond. Fans of the urban fantasy series that began with Blood Engines will find surprising secrets revealed about Marla's past, and new readers can meet the character from the very beginning.

Go here for more info and to donate!

yuki_onna @ 2009-06-25T08:00:00

2009-06-25T12:00:56Z

12:17 Awake. Don't wanna be. What is up with books keeping me up all night? Thanks a lot, LITERATURE. #
14:32 Waiting outside job interview place. Reading The Secret History of Giants. #
21:35 Home at last. Heavy fog tonight. Have sackful of mackerel in the fridge as was .99 a pound. Amazing yarn package in mail from @jasminchua! #
21:38 @alexandraerin He thinks the interview went well. Now we wait. #
22:03 @jasminchua Thank you so much! It's so gorgeous! Will get your book in the mail asap. #
22:59 Mad Men = MANLYEMO #
22:59 Also Vincent Kartheiser is cursed to forever play insufferable little shits. #
23:10 @tessa_racht I quite like it--I adore Joan. She needs moar scenes. #
23:52 Holy crap am successfully knitting with DPNs! It's like wrestling a petrified octopus! #

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