Clean as Bone, Clear as Light

Etsy Finds, Part I

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:53:17 GMT

I've been working on my yarn business again lately. This means time on Etsy, (oh perilous place, and sly) and trying to network my way into sales.

I've discovered quite a few things to love along the way. Backfiring? I don't know... having things I want to buy, to motivate me to do better at selling isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Right?
Right?!

This is my latest listing: Under River Aracthus, titled after a scene in The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner.

I'd like to sell this so I can buy:
That Old Black Magic by ButterflyGirlDesigns
...even though I'm planning to create some very similar batts to make a Raven King yarn. (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell are neither of them the main interest in that book, you know.)

In tag surfing, to kind of see how my items are comparing, and who is doing similar things, I come across the greatest random geek stuff. (That tag is "geekery".)

Fawkes, fiery handspun by msfledermaus

Mallorn, which you can see here, by Authentic Fiction

This one's no longer available, but it's name/color combo was PERFECT.
Bert and Ernie by Ethical Threads

GuttersnipeYarn for sure does not need *my* press, but how awesome is she? Let me count the ways:

~ She does "Costume Flick" yarns. This means... Austen characters. She has a Wickham yarn. She has a Harriet Smith yarn.
Yes, this is fabulous, and my envy is part awe.
~ She also has a whole Sweeney Todd category, which is awesome because the color scheme of the movie was, from what I can tell without watching it. ^_^
~ She does Steampunk yarn with Stuff to put in.

Lydia Bennett, Violets Between the Cobblestones, and Glitzy Sweeney, respectively.

I think I'm going to have to postpone my non-yarn favorites sharing until another time, but look forward to it. There's photography, jewelry, and...Lego Wizard keychains.

Jane Lindskold: Thirteen Orphans--Breaking the Wall

Sat, 23 May 2009 16:41:52 GMT

Curses. The sequel isn't even available for preorder yet... ____Ah! Good news. Her site announces it's to come out in August. ::dance::
Oh, right. Review?

The only other book I've read by Jane Lindskold was Child of the Rainless Year, in which I discovered that excellent writing could indeed compel one to read a story otherwise not Your Thing.
Listen to this:

Albert Yu scattered the mah-jong tiles with restless hands, not liking what they were showing him. They clattered softly against each other, sparrow-voiced protest against this rough handling.

A stunningly pretty first paragraph in a beautifully written book.

Honestly, the only issue I had with the book at all was that sometimes the backstory delivery was wooden Dialogue, instead of people talking. But this is an area I'm particularly sensitive. It was never bad writing, just not as fluid as the rest of the writing, which obviously sets the bar unnaturally high. ^_^

I mean, the only problem besides that I resent coming across a new series and falling in love when most of the books aren't written yet.

Mon, 18 May 2009 23:18:24 GMT

Thousands of Hot Asian Chicks are Looking for a Guy Just like Me!

Sorry. Just thought I'd share that.

Okay, my Reprobate friends of sounis were recommending this, as well as The Book Thief, and I think since they titles muddled in my head, I never gave it a second look. (The Book Thief has always sounded too serious for the reading mood I was in.)

This is awesome. I wish my reading attention span wasn't shot to pieces by reading all the shoujo. Whoops...
(Actually. It was never that good for much anyway.)

But speaking of that...
This comic competes with few others for sheer beauty and strength.

The Voice Blooms Red (Akaku Saku Koe)

With the manhwa (Korean comics) that are really fetching to me, it shares a sort of stillness.
Technically, it's the dialogue:panel ratio--so many more silent panels rely on the art to tell a story rather than just talk. But it's artful.

(Here there was a really cool page that was disabled. Have a cover thumbnail instead.)

It's like the Hayao Miyazaki films of the comics world, in a way.

The Voice Blooms Red (my title translation) is a mystery/special police forces/and terribly understated romance manga.
It is two volumes, I don't think they've been translated except by fans. The translation job is not bad. The story itself has psychic depth. And the creator's comments at the end made it even more interesting to reflect on.

I've read the whole thing--brilliant to the end.
Unreservedly recommended.

Sequels that do not Disappoint

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:49:12 GMT

After Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing With Fire, I have been approaching sequels with a certain trepidition. One of the perils of open-ended series' is that the Dreaded Middle of any novel can so easily translate to a Series Sag. Artemis Fowl is a series I really respect for not falling into sameness and this most recent one was *really* *good* (though I've mentioned it before:

Two others I've really been pleasantly surprised by recently:

Garth Nix is a writer whose ideas are fabulous, though his writing strikes me as so-so. The Keys to the Kingdom series illustrates this in extreme: it's got a kid-series-without-deep-characters feel, and yet, the settings are really interesting, and the plotting is really good, so I keep on reading.

Superior Saturday
the penultimate story, has a feeling of acceleration that is welcome. Not only does one of the feared developments develop (to my glee, I was surprised to note, probably because it's going to make things so much more interesting) but the villain is not a characature, and the odds against the MC are quite stiff. (The characature nature is in line with the world-building, oddly enough, but still...)

Good luck, Mr. Nix! I'm depending upon you! (...and the gold-glowing Arthur Penhaligon.)

Flora Segunda...I can't remember some of the specific reservations I had with this first book. Basically there were some not-so-tight parts, or beginner-sounding writing.

Flora's Dare is solid, though.
And really, really enjoyable.
I was kind of afraid at the beginning, when a lot of the wacky stuff sounded a bit too straight-out-of-Now, that the oddball juxtaposition of the first was going to falter. It comes back from that wobble (to me: I'm sure it didn't bother most people) to be so much more than as good as the first. It is more clearly plotted, deftly characterized, and full of realistic fluctuations of situation. Flora definitely gains from her experiences, is both burdened and empowered by it, too.
Actually I closed the book with a pang of pleasure. I don't know when that's happened before, but the excitement than there was going to be another book, as well as satisfaction at the ending of this one was just about balanced.

Maybe for the King of Attolia. But there's no comparison to reading that book...we've got a different history.

So: Flora's Dare, definitely a "Go Out and Buy, with Previous Volume".

Keep it up, Ms. Wilce, and may you be strong to the race!