my honey bear is half full

Strangely, I have a cough. I don't feel ill in any other way. The cough has been present for three days or so, now, and I am already tired of it. Yes, before you ask, I am drinking loads of tea with honey in it, and taking my vitamin C.
Anyway. Slowly making progress on editing my novel and sending it out to readers for some outside input. I took on some freelance again recently, after doing the mother of all copyediting projects in September, so there's that. More money is good. And one of the projects is something I've been excitedly waiting for.
Samhain is right around the corner, all of a sudden! I need to sit down and have a good think about how I'd like to celebrate it this year. (I don't know if you all remember, but last year, my partner-in-crime and I fell asleep on the couch for several hours just after dinner, which sort of knocked out any ritual we were going to manage that evening!)
One book, quickly: 56) Kraken by China Mieville. Quirky, British, sort-of-surreal urban fantasy. But distinctly not what you think when you hear the phrase "urban fantasy." I don't want to say any more, for fear of spoilers when I may be giving this to someone as a holiday gift, so I'll just say that it's wildly different and interesting, and definitely worth reading.
There are other books percolating in the back of my brain. I managed to ignore them while writing the first draft of my YA superhero novel, but now they're creeping up into my forebrain again, whispering to me their stories. Can't I just take a few months off to go live in a remote location and write them all? Sigh. Soon enough, I suppose.
And now, back to the work, as there is far too much of it for me to shirk any more this afternoon.

more, more, more

That's the way life feels right now. There's just more, more, more of everything than I'd like there to be. I really just want to hide at home and at coffee shops fro a few days and zing through editing my novel. Oh, well.
Anyway. Lots to cover, not a lot of time.
On Sunday October 3rd I did in fact go to see Neil Gaiman in conversation with Dana Goodyear. He was brilliant, all humble and droll and creative, in a lovely British accent. He spoke about how some of his books originated, and some of what he saw when road-tripping around America to research American Gods, and writing a Doctor Who episode, and screened his eight-and-a-half-minute silent film for the audience, which has never been seen in America (outside a few illegal posts on Youtube, that is). I felt absolutely inspired by the end of it, both to seriously get down to business with my writing and to go on a road trip!
Two days later I went to a New York Review of Science Fiction reading to see Catherynne Valente and Seanan Mcguire. This was also amazing. Cat and Seanan felt like two sides of a coin, to me, two opposite approaches to life that somehow mesh and meld into a beautiful camaraderie between them. They're both good readers, with good sense of humor, and I really need to read more of their books.
This last weekend, October 9 and 10, I went to New York Comic Con. NYCC is surreal and overwhelming and just loads of fun. Two whole days of comic books and video games and too many Poison Ivys and lots of storm troopers and books and steampunk jewelry and inside jokes and costumes. Pretty great. I bought some comics, got some free comics, and bought some art, but mostly I spent my money on perfume. That's right. Perfume. Because, for the first time ever, I was at an event that Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab was also at. I was in heaven! I've adored their perfume for a while now, but it's so hit-or-miss to order from the website based on description. Here, I could smell anything I wanted to! I overloaded. I sniffed perfume for a good hour. It was fabulous. If you're curious, I bought Door for me, and Sunbird for my sister. And got loads of free samples for spending my hard-earned pennies on their wares. Seriously, I think that made my month!
Nearly time to head home, so I'd best get to the books . . .
53) Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente. Beautiful, lush, imaginative. Her writing just blows me away. I wish I could be half the writer she is. I need the rest of her novels. All of you, if you have ANY appreciation at all for a good fantasy novel, run to the nearest bookstore and pick this up. It's brilliant. Great characters, intricate world-building, and the language is some of the most interesting I've seen for some time.
54) Duff by Kody Keplinger. I'll be honest: I didn't have high expectations for this book. Young debut author, high-school material. It's not my usual thing, really. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find myself voraciously sucking this one down. It's a lot of fun! The characters are believable. The author, young though she may be, has a good sense of who she's writing about and who she's writing for. If you like YA stuff, this is definitely recommended.
55) The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Having not read any of his books for adults (I know, I know!) I didn't have an opinion at all going into Zafon's first YA book. I enjoyed this. Good structure, good characters, good level of creepiness. I would recommend it to YA readers. But for me, I don't think it's a keeper. Mostly because I don't think I'll reread it. But it's a fun read!
And with that, it's time for my weekend to officially begin. Happy autumn, everybody!

Friday restlessness

I don't know about you all, but autumn makes me restless. It's just starting to set in; the warm weather staved it off for a while, but it's starting to undeniably get cooler out. Leaves are changing, storms are blowing through the city, there's a different feel to the air. It just makes me feel . . . well, I'm not even sure how to explain it. Like I don't belong anywhere, but I belong everywhere at once. Like there's a brilliant adventure waiting somewhere if I hop on a train and just go. Like there's too much and too little time all at once.
Anyway. One book to share, really quickly. 52) Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire. I loved this gritty urban fantasy. If that's your scene, check it out! Apparently there are two more books out about the main character, October Daye. I need to get them. She's easy to empathize with, and believable. And I will admit, I totally didn't guess who the bad guy was until shortly before the big reveal. But you know, sometimes I don't want to guess. I'd rather be surprised. Anyway, great book. Definitely a keeper!
A couple strange dreams lately. One was several nights ago: I was staying in a huge swanky hotel, and I was some sort of investigator. I was prowling around through other people's rooms, looking through their stuff. In one room I found the dead body of a man in a business suit, only to realize that it was made of wax. Then I decided I needed to figure out why the death of this guy was faked, and by who, and who he was, etc. So I kept poking around. (I feel like there was something in here about a cat following me around. At some point there was also something about a huge staircase leading up tot he floors of rooms from the lobby.) Then I was outside, leaving I think, and this horse-drawn open cart pulled up, with two gypsy/circus folk in it, a man and a woman. She could tell the future, but didn't want to. I think she used a bowl of clear water or a mirror to do it. Maybe cards, as well? Hmm. Last night, I dreamed I was living in a big house that had a bunch of ghosts living in it. They were my family, who were all dead. Sibling spats, etc., like you expect when an extended family lives together. Anyway, these other ghosts showed up to try to press my family into servitude. I was hiding from them but trying not to leave or starve or anything. They saw me at the last, but I managed to lock them outside of the house so they couldn't get me. (I think there was a bit with a pb&j sandwich, and a particular sibling fight, under the spruce tree outside the front door. . . .)
This weekend is looking a little busy, but in a good way. After work today, going shopping with my friend K, then heading home to tidy up my radio play episodes and send them to the grand poobah of that project. Tomorrow morning is at-home stuff, then yoga at 10 am, then writing. Then grocery shopping, and then a new friend is coming over for the evening, hurray! Sunday I'm going to see Neil Gaiman speak at the New Yorker Festival, and I am so excited for that. It's going to be great. I may stand in line for him to sign something for me, for the first time ever. After that there's a Stone Brewery event.
And with that, it's time to get ready to jet. Have a good weekend, everyone!

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!