anachred

I was going to write a really tedious NaNo post, and then realized it and the next two attempts were...

Tedious NaNo posts.


Instead, I'll let you know I have watched a shameful amount of Korean drama now (like Coffee Prince 100% better than Boys Before Flowers) as well as a few Taiwanese shows--yes, in entirety--but have finally made myself honest.
I am studying Korean. Out of a book. And writing it down.



This is a good book.
Also, the first thing I've read by Neil Gaiman that is not a poem. (Just...don't say anything about that. Yeah.)

I read this at the jewelry store between handing off watches and taking in rings that had cracked along their sizings, today and yesterday.
It confirmed that Loki is a great Trickster and the extreme I can't love whole heartedly. He's the kind of guy I had painful crushes on as a youth*--very hot, very clever, and not so nice.

Great to read about. though ... and Odd is my man.


*I'm not wiser now. It's just that niceness has gotten much hotter, and meanness more revolting.

Two books with a sequel I grabbed as soon as I could:



I don't remember if I already reviewed The Magic Thief. Everyone who mentioned it had good things to say. I was a little hesitant, (mostly from a perverse wariness of too many people saying good things) but once I read enough of the opening, knew I'd read it to the end.

The world has intriguing dark corners, the magic is familiar, but not stale, and the hero sounds like a little boy, but not a boring one.



This book has crinkly edges of the otherworldy--in a Dr. Suess's menagerie sort of a way. It is charming not saccharine, with a sense of humor more latent than obvious. It just makes me smile. I want to have these books on the shelf for kids of my own.

I'm still reading Ottoline and the Yellow Cat and The Magic Thief: Lost. But I know they're going to be good.

This is the sequel to Thirteen Orphans, Jane Lindskold's fantasy where magic of ancient China has been coded into mahjong for the heirs of the Thirteen Orphans: powerful incarnations of the zodiac plus the emperor they served.

The fresh clothing of magic and the interesting background of the characters is really well served by Lindskold's ability to evoke images without bogging down into imagery. The Asian culture gives real color, and depth, too. The weak point in these books has been (to my eye) the rather wooden information-through-dialogue points. When one person shares knowledge, backstory there is no problem. When more than one person is talking about what they're doing, though, it is not fluid.

This bugs me, but not enough to pull me out of the story much.

I recommend this series, and may have to go looking for her other series' to last me until the next comes out...



Random Unfinished Short Opening:

SeBria was sitting on her duffel, looking about like every other cheap commuter in the station when o,Dickon came to pick her up. She swung up and grabbed her bag in a motion fluid enough for a wandswoman, but she was lanky and sat immodestly—he really didn't think he was going to like her kata. Didn't matter though; this was a favor to his sensei.

 

( Read (a smidge) more... )


...this story is one of the ones where I've used odd bits of Japanese culture/language to create something completely different. In this case, the overall concept of martial art and some bits of honor-language. I keep messing with this in short stories: hopefully someday I'll have a powerful enough idea to bring into a novel.

Since all my short stories still sound like Exercises in Fiction.

I am reading Audition by Michael Shurtleff.
It's one of the books where if you are willing to think in metaphor a little, is a perfect writing book, though not about writing. Because it is about art, and about story.

"One great missing ingredient in current acting is romance. Everyone secretly wants romance, but in these harsh, "realistic" days, no one will openly admit it. ... We must be hard, to live in the post-Vietnam, post-Watergate era of disillusionment.
    But what has made EQUUS such a phenomenal success? Romance. And ANNIE HALL and ...  A CHORUS LINE and  STAR WARS and PIPPIN. Shakespeare's plays retain their undiminished popularity because they are ever-lasting romances. Yet most of the creators of these shows would deny that they are romances. ...Romance has gone out the window. It is time to bring it back."


I think this is a key to the more recent culture of stories.
Twilight, Harry Potter and the Various Face of Evil, The Da Vinci Code...hey, even the goth and then emo youth cultures embraced the drama of the Romance, in a fairly reactionist way.
(Since this book is from '78, as placed fairly clearly in that snippet, I am extrapolating beyond a point the author could.)

Romance being a story that is made up, that focuses on narrative be it an adventure, a journey of maturing, or an affair of the heart.


So. I'm rewriting the ending of one of the volumes of Aolon, The Epic That I Can't Name For The Life of Me. But the bones of the story keep drawing me back, because it is fairly high-scoring in the drama and romance department.

I just need to tear down the melodramatics of its adverbs and give the characters a few better lines.

A Plug

I'm starting a new project: writing my Robin Hood retelling as an online-serial. For a brief description:

Ozark Hoodlums: a tale of truck-banditry and communes

Set on the American continent after the fall of our unsustainable industrial infrastracture. (Yeah...)



Riley is kidnapped by a boy her own age at gunpoint. She's shoved into a car, when she's never been in a running one before, and her captor threatens her life to make men blockading his escape-route let him by.

Piper is going to be lynched for stealing and selling the town's last treasured Advil. In a society hording the last remnants of medicine, it's an offense that puts people beyond reason--and justice. He has to run.

The first chapter is here: Pain in Post-Industrial America

I may post about updates here, but if you like the start of it, go ahead and friend it: I don't know how often I'll update. I will be, however, employing Cut Technology to spare friends pages.

And A Reveiw

This is the book I got in the mail, from Rosemary Clement-Moore! ~ It's really pretty...and it just came out in stores!

The Splendor Falls is as much of a classic Southern Gothic (I believe there is such a thing?) as you can get with a wise-mouth modern New York narrator at the helm. It was awesome. ^_^



I wanted to hate one of the characters who acts as only a scene-antagonist (not a baddie) because she reminded me strongly of a person I don't want to have to deal with ever again. But that was not keeping me from being absorbed in the story--the opposite, really.

Taut dynamic with the main romantic interest, truly mysterious mystery (at least to Gothic know-nothing like me), and snappy humor: WIN.

So I won a new book from the author of YA-Rita-Winning Hell Week.

It's awesome to win books!
...I went to order the first in her other series that I'd been hearing about from the library right away.
[/self humiliation]



I just read Prom Dates from Hell, which kicks off the Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil series.

Devoured more like.

Definitely the kind of book that holds your head in its hands so you can't really think about anything else until you finish. I don't get that from many books anymore, it's a good thing.
(Not for getting home-work/house-work/anything productive done, though.)

Speaking of which, I loved how the heroine was shown trying to get her homework done, and her school life being a plot-point. Win!

To put my overall impression briefly:
This has the fun kind of voice that makes YA, with Buffy-paced paranormal adventures--only the heroine is more into being a Nancy Drew than her Seer abilities. Which gives a new feel to the classic story-line. I've got the next one lined up...
( More Review This Way... )

HELL WEEK: Maggie Quinn goes to college...and tries to survive evil sorority recruitment? I'm in...

1.  

You'd probably be appalled if you knew what a high getting mail gives me. Sending it gives me a pretty good buzz, too. Anyway, today I got a good, long letter from a friend *and* a BookMooch arrival, after sending off a yarn.

Also, I can't imagine anything more gratifying than having people like the stuff you make enough to give money for it.


Genie's Wish, off to make it big now. ^_^

In the vein of random thoughts,
at Tokyo in Tulsa, I saw a guy in a very striking costume--he looked great. I can't tell you if he was particularly good looking because his make-up was INTENSE. But he carried off the intensity very well.

But it started me thinking...though I'm not photogenic, I think I would make a pretty good costuming doll.
My coloring, particularly, would be fun to use as part of a character design.
(Sometime I'll have to show you the two shots I took of myself in which one is a self-portrait and one is a portrait of me as Tilda Swinton. Just by a slight angle change...)


Things I read Worth Reading lately:


( Why? )

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.

...so here's the comics post!

Okay. I'll put it under a cut.




I have so many trope-challenging story ideas right now, it's not even funny. I'm writing a rejected-makeover that takes on a lot of the crush tropes, but I would like to create one that takes on the sit-com tropes, particularly the *masquerading as a boy/girl* one. In which the roommate is never the interest. (Heresy? Don't burn me yet...)

I seem to have read about 50 proper books this year. That sounds about right--not very many for me, because I was a bit slow this year, but enough to count toward a fairly long list. Last year I claimed 128, 98 being full novels. But I may have been confused?

I think I had more of a job this year, too.

Without further ado, eschewing preliminaries, and moving right along:

2008 in Review, Book Edition

Book that made my year:

Skulduggery Pleasant

 

Best Book To make the Writer DESPAIR:

The Bee-Keeper's Apprentice

 

Most Under-Pressed Good Fluff Read:

Beastly (Alex Flinn)

 

Best Kept Secret of YA fantasy:

Runemarks by Joanne Harris

 

Most Famous Book I cleverly avoided Reading:

Twilight by Stephanie Mayer

(I read Glass Houses and skimmed Marked just to fob it off—I'll probably see the movie, too, as a clincher)

Best Book I have Read All Year—no, like, I'm still reading it:

Women who Run With Wolves

 

Graphic Novel of Note:

this one is hard, because I'm still acquainting myself—I flipped through Holly Black's Good Neighbors, by the way, and it looks fabulous.

But I'm going to say I was most impressed/astounded/pick a feature:

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

(I think I read more comics this year, and that is part of the sad size of my book tally.)

I have to say there seems to still be room for my own fantasy Regency. I read quite a few of those without being much impressed....

If you want to see last year's awards, the post is easily accessible via This Internetish Wormhole

Heigh-ho, to work I go tomorrow.
I'm whispering sweet nothings to myself about the temporariness, though.

This week turned out to be my rest from NaNo--immediately after I was too exciting to write something ELSE to not write. This week I've been scanning over The Carnie's Conspiracy (Poisson) again, and that's about it.

Oh, and reading Charles DeLint's "Dingo". It's the first YA of his I've read that really impressed me as being natural. Also? It was very good. Really nice cover too:



My Big Bad Book Awards Post is coming
eventually. It's half-written, too.

Brace yourselves.

Miss AddictedNowToFacebookFlair is present and accounted for, having caught up from yesterday, and commenced today's wordcount.

I read a bunch of books recently, and realized I have been dilatory, so we are going to now have the Grand Return of:


Middle-Grade & YA reviews, ETC...

Today we feature:

All of which have splendid covers. *triumph!*

Peeled in one-line:
An aspiring journalist who loves her orchard-country town tries to get to the bottom of a "haunting" causing trouble
Ever:
To save her aunt, a young carpet-weaver will be sacrificed--and a young god who loves her is determined she should not die.
Savvy:
An odd family manifest superpowers on the 13th birthday--and just before the heroine's, tragedy strikes she's determined to fix with her new "savvy"

( In which I expound, a thing at which I excell )

What I have started and am going to hazard to recommend, because I'm impressed so far:


Stoneheart is grim, but the writing is drawing me in despite the fact I don't really do grim boy fiction ^_^ (or grim girl fiction, either, come to think of it...)
Airman is likewise a bit darker than Colfer's usual fare, but very steampunk as far as I can see. To give you an idea, explosion is in the first chapter, and by the third (?) there's already a body count. There's been some foreshadowing, but it could go anywhere from here. I'm gonna see...


If you saw this before there was an LJ cut, I got it accidentally posted before I wrote my actual reviews. Yipes...so, this is the real McCoy.
On a totally not YA/MG note, I also just finished Shadowbridge. Not totally my thing, but writing that good trumps all, as Miss Snark and her many cohorts say. Wish I got a better visual of the world. I feel like the descriptions kind of skirt around the grand central image, which is kind of frustrating. I need a little more for my imagination to go on.
Otherwise, it's been Georgette Heyer and Wooster and Jeeves for me, ducks.
Playing with Fire has been moving slowly, but I am in love with Skulduggery as always.

*oooh. There must be Skulduggery flair. Shiny!*

State of the Mind Address (aren't you psyched to know...)

Writing Tics: when working in third-person lately I sometimes get so close inside my own head to the POV, I think I'm writing in first. This has happened more than once, though I hope it goes away soon, as it occasionally leads me to write paragraphs and paragraphs in the wrone one and wonder whether it should go the other way.
What's with that? Also, I think I may need to stop listening to music so much when writing...it is very useful for shorting out too much introspection, but it may be a culprit in my inability to keep a sense of voice in continuity.

Writing Growth: currently, I'm terrified of moving to the next level. (Okay. So 'terrified' is me exaggerating again.)

It's really hard to consider trying to be more intentional, muddle through working harder at your writing competency, when you have all these stories you want to work, that you have expectations of.
Learning to do better can be a mess.

In a way, I can choose to start a throw-away project (one than I'm not sure has marketability, for example) to try and start with. I can jolly along with the Poisson sequels without worrying about it.

At the same time, of course, I hate to hold anything I'm writing back a grade just so it isn't a dueced mess when I'm done with it.

PSA:

The Beekeeper's Apprentice is an excellent book. If you do choose to read it, however, be sure to have the sequel ready to hand.
It's title is "A Monstrous Regiment of Women".
/self-gratifying announcements

I was thinking about the resurgence of the Gothic themes (in urban fantasy particularly) is interesting, and how children's literature has gone back even closer to it's forebears in terms of Gothic plotting and setting (Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Lemony Snickett, Flora Segunda).

The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, both could fit right into that reading list...what's more, right into the cover art:
  
(Okay, thinking about Flora Segunda makes me thrilled with the Dandies in Kilts idea all over again. Some people are so imaginative...)

Which made me realize the only big difference is the sense of madcap humor, the self-deprecation in it. In popular literature now that's kind of the unique thing to our era, don't you think? The Gothic novels were very self-serious (except for Northanger Abbey--that book deserves so much more admiration). The sarcasm of Urban Fantasy is overplayed, but really one of it's great draws.

I might cross-post this to urbanfantasyfan as a book-thinky post. To try and encourage them to be interesting...
But as hardly anyone ever answers there, tell me:

Is Self-Deprecation Humor a unique asset to our "post-modern" literature?

You may blame this speculation on reading Coyote Dreams and Heart of Stone (mizkit) successively in less than 42 hours, and much less open-brain-space.

Bach is my favorite. It's amazing how after I started paying attention when his name came up, most of my favorite classical work ended up in his camp. Boroque and Bach, you have my heart completely....

Update on BookShoubu!2

or rather, philosophy on my predicament:

It is not really a matter of being disciplined and getting down to reading.
It is a fine wire-walk of keeping up with my intended reading beyond the library books that come with their own imperative--late fees.
There is a seduction to the newest on the pile. Unless they aren't really that interesting.
You find me reading Nevernever by Will Shetterly. It is fun, it is distracting me from writing Mortal Queen, though inspiring me to take up my inspired-by-Bordertown short and polish it a bit.
It is also not getting me any further with Midnight Never Come. But feeling guilty, I at least put it on my bed.

For Reviews and Additions you can glance at the following, mostly pretty pictures of book:

( My Sorrow Revealed... )

Before finishing this post, I finished NeverNever.

I recommend Otto and the Flying Twins, which I also finished this week: it's standalone of a prospective series, and has a fun magical world that doesn't feel done. It's pretty good stuff.

Draft of Seditious Intent done! Though it's a really crappy one, I've decided that's okay. I've got Story, we're good for the moment.

Two books I think everyone who ever drops through here should read:

The Face in the Frost (John Bellairs)
one line press? I just finished reading this and am now insanely eager to OWN a copy. Munnies must come first, munnies must come first...

Women Who Run With the Wolves (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)
a book about love, life, and stories from all over that teach us (especially women) about it.

I'll add reasons here once I'm done reading the chillens more Skulduggery Pleasant.
ETA~ I's back! So, without any further ado,

So today's rather-than-writing programme included LotR behind the scenes snippets, The Cat Returns (Ghibli anime--not as wonderful as Miyazaki but I love that Baron), and a few stories out of the Wizards anthology.

I also am behind by about a week getting my thoughts on The White Darkness together here. So.

Geraldine MacCaughrean's YA The White Darkness again tackles a whole different sort of story than she's written before with close attention to how this particular story needs to be told. This one is about a girl who loves Antartica, and especially "Titus" Oates, of Scott's doomed party of explorers. And the story here MacCaughrean decided to match to that historic background. I'd describe it as--



I've enjoyed all the stories in Wizards a lot, so now I know how to look for short stories I want to read. ^_^ Magazines are harder for me to get into.

I am really having trouble being productive on my days off. I think it's because I don't have a novel centering them, which is the usual arrangement. I finished the last novel project I'd been concentrating on months ago. I've been focusing on editing since then, and short stories, but it's just not the same.

And still, I'm not to the place I should be on research. Yet because my days aren't centered I find it hard to get around to the reading that I should be doing--it's what I pad the crevices of my days with.

I find vicious circles rather fascinating. They fall in the same category as paradoxes--the conundrum, I guess. Tautology.

I may have something fascinating to say about Alaska, or the Wild Woman, or quilting in a bit, but for now I pulled this quote from "Women Who Run With the Wolves" and think it's rather a gem:

She cannot develop by standing around being everyone's bootjack.

This is in a discussion of the psyche insights of the story about Vasalisa & Baba Yaga & the Doll her mother gave her. It's so far the most fascinating chapter, but I love the way this book lionizes the feminine intuition at large.