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!

books, perhaps

I wish I could devote more time to this, but in the effort to catch up, I'll just do brief mentions of the other books I've recently read. Ready?
36) Soulless by Gail Carriger. I absolutely adored this book. Fun, snarky work, in a great historical urban fantasy setting. Can't wait to read more by her! Keeper, for sure.
37) Blacksad by Juan Diaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido. This graphic novel is fabulous brooding noir. Thank you, what-if boy, for immediately seeing how much I would love it, and for getting me a copy! I recommend this one to everybody who likes noir and/or graphic novels. Keeper.
38) Linger by Maggie Stiefvater. Oh, what do I even say about the sequel to Shiver? I love them equally. They are both amazing. Linger blew me away. I wept over this book in the Dallas airport as I finished it with Snow Patrol in my ears. SO GOOD. I can't believe that I have to wait for the third book in the trilogy. Maggie, you're killing me with these beautiful, aching books!
39) Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. Another amazing book. This is the first in a new trilogy, set a couple hundred years before the events of the Mortal Instruments books. And holy cow it was good! I'm just bummed I have to wait another year before the next one. If you dig urban fantasy stuff and aren't familiar with Cassie's work, please check her out. Her books are great!
40) The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron. This was fun. I got a galley at BEA; the guy who gave it to me told me that it has a Princess Bride vibe to it. I Was skeptical. But he was right. It's in the sense of humor, and the classic (but not cliche) characters. The thief, the sorceress, the swordsman, the king, the evil brother. I fully enjoyed this and would recommend it to people who prefer their fantasy to be a little less urban and a little more . . . not epic, but more clearly fantasy.
41) Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. I thought that Suzanne would have a hard time living up to the expectations set by The Hunger Games, the first book in the trilogy, but this book was very well done. It's definitely a middle book, dealing with the aftermath of the first book while setting up the events of the third. But it absolutely holds up as a stellar piece of writing. I am glad, since it ends on a cliffhanger, that I waited to read it until just before the final book in the trilogy came out.
42) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. The conclusion of the Hunger Games trilogy. This book just blew me away from the get-go. It was hard to watch Katniss figure everything out and try to deal with it. That poor, poor girl. Every time I thought I had things figured out, Suzanne would hit me with another twist. This whole trilogy is so well executed it makes me jealous! And the whole ending . . . I finished this book in the Denver Airport a few days ago, and got a lot of funny looks from people as I wept my way through the end. I'm not going to lie: this is a hard book to read. There is a lot of tragedy and death and terror. But it's a damn satisfying ending, when you get there.
43) A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz. This history of pre-Pilgrim America was a lot of fun. Did you know that the Vikings, the Spanish, and the French all discovered North America before the English got here? Yeah. Tony Horwitz went on a bunch of crazy road trips, following the routes of the intrepid explorers of America. He spent time with historical reenactment actors. He did a lot fo research in old, musty libraries. And I really dig his conclusion, that the mythology of how our country was founded is more important to the character and history of America than the truth is. Truth is facts, but mythology is belief, and that's a hard thing to sway. So, this was fun, but not a keeper, since I doubt I'll reread it.
44) Wolves & Honey by Susan Brind Morrow. I love Susan Brind Morrow's writing. This is the second book I've read by her, and in it she meanders through the natural history of upstate New York, weaving in stories of a couple men who were very important to her as she grew up in upstate, as well as some linguistic and etymological background. She deals specifically, no surprise here, with wolves and honeybees in upstate New York. Morrow's work will always be on my shelves for the spell she weaves with her words. It's like a painting; I can almost step into it, almost hear the owls and coyotes, almost smell the blossoms of the apple trees.
And that's that for now. Lots of freelancing to do this weekend, but never fear, I'll squeeze in a little time for some writing, and tomorrow I think we're going to Governor's Island for a while, which will be fun. Happy weekend, everyone!

away from myself

I'm in Seattle for a long weekend right now, and am having a very nice time just relaxing and not doing a whole lot. Went to a great used bookstore with my friend K and her husband B, and bought too many books, darn! I have to say, overall, this has been a good reading year. I mean, I always like the books I finish, but this year I have read a lot of books that I love. The kind of love that means I shove copies into other people's hands and say "You've GOT to read this, it's so amazing!" So that's great. I know that I'm super behind on my book blogging these days, but today I just can't be bothered. Eventually you, dear readers, will find out what books have occupied my (small amounts of) spare time, but today is not that day.
Last night I went to the wedding party for a couple of good friends of mine, and it was lovely. A few other friends were up from Oregon for it, so I got to catch up with them, and there was good food, good wine, great company, all in a lovely backyard with music and candlelight and a gentle rain. It was perfectly lovely.
There's a lot in my head right now. Story ideas, dream fragments, books I'm reading . . . K and I have stayed up late drinking wine and talking both nights I've been here so far, so there's a lot of those conversations tangled up in my head too. Serious illness and history and people and relationships and books and just big life concepts. It's great, but my head feels a little overly full. (The wine hangover probably isn't helping that, either!)
The end of summer is approaching. Only a couple more weeks of summer hours before work goes back to normal. Only several more weeks until the weather really starts to cool off, and after a couple days in Seattle I'm REALLY ready for the humidity to go away in New York.
This fall promises to be fairly quiet. Not a lot of travel, not many houseguests. Just me, my partner-in-crime, and my writing. Of course, things never turn out that simply, do they? Still, I'm looking forward to it.
Anyway. I should probably go wake up K from her nap and start talking about dinner plans. Getting hungry already! Have a good Sunday evening out there, everybody.

but i like the way you play

This weekend I read a bunch of freelancing, managed to not catch a single fish while deep-sea fishing, got a little drunk at a birthday party, and laid on a beach. What did you all do?
I'm behind on my book blogging, as per usual. So while I try to prod my brain into disgorging the dream I had this morning, here are a couple of nutshell book reviews:
33) Some Girls by Jillian Lauren. You know, usually I'm not a big fan of memoirs, but this one really got me. It's about a young struggling actress who gradually falls down the slippery slope into sex work, and ends up accepting a job that turns out to be a position in a harem in Brunei. She goes on from there to talk about the politics of the harem, and the royal family of Brunei, including the prince who the girls are vying for the attention of. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was well-written, thought-provoking, and certainly an entertaining story. Highly recommended!
34) Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. This was my first exposure to Westerfeld's work (I own Uglies and Pretties but haven't gotten around to them yet), and you know what? This book is wicked. Great alternative history/steampunk storyline set around the beginning of WWII, with a total cliffhanger at the end that leaves you clamoring for more. I will definitely pick up the sequel as soon as it's released (October!), and will also definitely read more of his work. I highly recommend this, not just for you but for every kid you know over the age of twelve or so.
35) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Everyone loves this book. Everyone, that is, except for me. No spoilers here, in case someone out there hasn't read it yet, don't worry. The story is interesting, overall. But to be perfectly frank I found the writing to be a little excessive and the pace uneven. What's more, there were two major instances where Lisbeth's actions didn't gel with her personality AT ALL to my mind, and the horrific acts of violence scattered throughout the quiet narrative were a big turnoff as well. (And no, Lisbeth's revenge after that one scene didn't make me feel better about it; instead it made me feel that Lisbeth was no better a person than the individual who harmed her.) (Slight spoiler ahead!) My last complaint is that all three of the major female characters slept with the Blomkvist, the main guy, and I just found that unbelievable. I have to say that this book is distinctly not a keeper for me, nor will I be reading the sequels.
Okay, what little I can recall of my dream last night . . . I was at a party at a bar, for my younger sister's wedding (which is weird because in real life she got married in 2003). She was also heavily pregnant in my dream. Anyway, a ton of us were there including some of my NYC friends, like K and LG. At some point we realized that we'd missed the cars we arranged for, and were going to be late for Rose's wedding. So we had to run for it. I was with my sister the bride-to-be, in our long fancy gowns, running down dark city streets to get to the church. At one point we even scaled a wall, which was difficult for her but she managed just fine. And managed to get a little ahead of me. I got my shoes all muddy and nasty, and then lost one of them and spent precious minutes looking for it. When I got to the church everyone else was already there in the back rooms. I spent a few minutes trying to fix my appearance, then spent more time looking for my shoe in that room (which doesn't make sense, really, since I lost it while running) and managed to miss the whole damn ceremony. I felt terrible about it. Everyone left me there, looking for my shoe, while they did a brief ceremony and left. There was also something earlier on about some kittens, but I'm not sure if that was at the bar or at the church, just that for some reason we had to have these kittens present at the ceremony so we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to catch them.
Writing goals for this month:

• Finish episode six of the radio play.
• Edit Emmelina.
• Write my New Orleans voodoo story.
• Agent research.

Totally doable. And now it's time to get ready to head out. Happy Monday!

august already

Summer always goes too quickly. Although, with the heat and humidity in NYC this year, I'm looking forward to autumn. Summer Fridays are really what goes to quickly! Ah, those lazy Fridays at home with nothing to do and no one to answer to. . . . Of course, it doesn't actually turn out that way most of the time, but I can dream, right?
This is supposed to be an effort in speed-blogging, since it's time to go home, but I've got loads of books to talk about. So, in a nutshell:
31) Orpheus Lost by Janette Turner Hospital. This was good and interesting. The writing was good. It follows two people in love in post-September 11 America. She's American, he's not. The love story is beautiful but then it descends into the underworld with politics, fear, paranoia, and a really messed-up character from the woman's past. The man is a musician and I adored the parts of the narrative that spoke about the music. But that wasn't enough for me to keep it; I struggled with the fear and pain and sheer angst on these pages. Which was maybe the point of the book. It's very plausible, normal everyday people becoming accidentally caught up in political events that have larger meanings. I do recommend this book, but as I said, not a keeper for me.
32) The Buried Book by David Damrosch. I really enjoyed this book! It's about the discovery of the epic of Gilgamesh, the loss of it in ancient times, and the rediscovery in recent. Totally fun, interesting, and accessible. This encompasses archaeology, cultural studies, ancient literature, and the actual story of Gilgamesh. Great stuff! I totally recommend this to anyone who read Gilgamesh in college or for fun, or is into ancient literature or archaeology.
That's all; it's time to go. More books tomorrow!
Happy Monday!