Mabon

Happy Mabon, everyone! Yes, it's Harvest Festival time again, the second of the year. Now the days and nights are roughly equal in length; we give thanks for the sunlight and pay respect to the impending winter. This is a time of balance, and a time for recharging your personal battery. It's also a time to have a feast with close friends and good wine!
Last night I dreamed that I was on a big boat of some sort; my partner-in-crime was there too, along with an old coworker, S, who was pregnant in the dream, and man other people. Our boat had been taken over by pirates, and we were being treated as slaves, being forced to do their bidding and fighting with each other for scraps of food. It was terrible. But gradually they began to treat us better, and eventually they let us go somewhere (not home, of course) where we established a town. The kids were happy playing in the dirt streets in packs, S's pregnancy was just fine (I took pregnant pictures of her with a digital camera she hid from the pirates, and she was so happy she cried).
A separate dream last night; I was made to enter a dark room where a body had been laid to rest. I had been washed and dressed carefully for this. I entered the room and laid down with the body, pillowing my head upon his chest and placing my feet across his ankles. There was a hanging sculpture made of many small bones hanging over us in the shape of some sort of bird or reptile. I wasn't sad or distraught. I stayed there, in the dark, alone with this body, willing myself to die so I could accompany him on his journey, but couldn't make myself follow him. After what seemed a long time, I got up and snuck out of the room. I knew that if anyone found me my life was forfeit. I snuck into a small room in the back of the house (a bathroom, I think) to hide and get some water. My friend A found me and, while she was very happy I was alive, decided she needed to get em out of the house as quickly as possible. Somehow, she got my parents to arrive very quickly in a car that I then crept into the backseat of when no one was looking, and we drove away. I mostly remember feeling both guilty and relieved that I didn't make myself die.
More books:
49) New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear. I just love Bear's work, and this one is no exception. A sort of noir detective/steampunk/vampire novel, I enjoyed the cross-pollination of genres and ideas quite a bit. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes any of those genres!
50) Runaways #1 created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. This is the first graphic novel in a series, originally comics then collected into book form. I really enjoyed this. I thought the premise was different---a group of teens discover their parents are supervillains and run away, discovering their own powers in the process---and entertaining. The art is great, too! I can't wait to find more of these books to read. A keeper, for sure.
51) On Writing by Stephen King. This was an interesting read, more so for the craft of writing stuff than the memoir sections, although some of the memoir stuff was fun. I particularly enjoyed reading about how he approaches his writing; that was definitely the most memorable part of this, for me. Of course he talks about his childhood, and about the accident in 1999. He also spends a lot of time on the mechanics of writing--- the "toolbox," as he says. All of which is somewhat interesting. The section relating his opinion of writing workshops is amusing, too. I'm glad I read this, but if it were my copy I'd read, it wouldn't be a keeper. This is not the sort of thing I would revisit. Worth reading, though!
Anyway. I should probably get to work. Things to do, as always. Happy Mabon, again!

sex and books

Two good topics for today's brief foray into blogland, don't you think? I'll start with the usual; I've got four books to mention.
45) Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. This is a funny, funny memoir! Poor Rhoda. Her husband leaves her for Bob from Gay.com, and the same week she's in a serious car accident. So what does she do? She goes home to stay with her family while she convalesces. Her family are Mennonites. This book made me laugh out loud, a lot. It made me read whole sections aloud to whoever I was around. Of particular humor: her mother; the eating-boogers-named-after-state-capitols-while-on-a-family-drive; her list of requirements for men; her twelve-step recovery process. I'd recommend this book to anybody who likes memoir, or who likes to laugh, or who's had a rough relationship. Okay, I would just recommend it to anybody. Any book that makes me laugh that much should be widely read! (And this one is, I think it's a NYT bestseller.)
46) The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett. I enjoyed this book about one man's obsession with possessing rare books he could never afford, but . . . I don't know. Not a keeper for me. It was good, well done, well written and researched. This is just the sort of thing that I don't go back to. If anybody out there is interested in book thieves, the rare book world, journalism about books, etc. then pick this title up!
47) Ash by Malinda Lo. This YA retelling of Cinderella is beautiful. I love the characters. I love the choices they have to make. I love how there is hope, throughout everything. (Also, this book really made me miss women.)
48) Dreamdark: Silksinger by Laini Taylor. Someday, when I'm a grown-up writer, I hope to write books half as lovely as Laini Taylor. Her descriptive ability is just incredible! And I defy any of you out there to not love the Dreamdark books, not to love the fairies with their big hearts and crazy courage. This is the second book, and I've adored them both. These are books I will recommend, and read, over and over, and over. This book introduces some new characters, Whisper and Hirik, while bringing back several from the first book, Magpie, Talon, and the crows. Just thinking about it makes me want to go reread it already! These are that good!
On to topic number two . . . I really just wanted to say that there is some interesting stuff online about sex right now. One of my favorite authors is hosting a great conversation on the male orgasm in the comments of one of her blog entries right now, and there's also this.
Interesting stuff, yeah?

hazy Friday

Fall is finally in the air, and I'm loving it. The humidity has dissipated; the last couple mornings have been cool and crisp and just a little blustery between a perfect robin's-egg blue sky. This sort of weather makes me feel better, even though I am totally overwhelmed with commitments right now, between personal goals, freelance work, and shared projects.

• submit Nor -- DONE (although I could do it more, with different agents)
  
• write superhero novel -- done. It took me a month longer than I wanted it to, but that's just fine. I still finished draft zero in four months. I'll start editing it shortly. Still hoping to wrap this one up entirely by the end of the year.
  
• write first novel in urban fantasy series -- this will happen in the fall. At this point, I doubt I'll manage an entire draft, but I think I can make a good start.
  
• outline entire urban fantasy series -- working on it. I've got partial ideas for each book, but need to come up with the underlying big story. I'm going to really spend some time on this in October.
  
• write three short stories -- one done, one partially written, one outlined
  
• edit the two shorts I wrote last year -- one done, one two-thirds done
  

Getting there. I think I can manage it all, if I don't hold myself to finishing the first book in the UF series. I'm fine with making a good start on it.
And now, on to the weekend. Happy Friday, everyone!