For the last several weeks, I have been without school and without work. Also, without a social life, but that's a given. So what have I been doing with myself? Writing.

Writing a lot.

I've been waking up any time between 8 and 9:30, grabbing coffee, and sitting down to write. There's a lot of goofing off in between, but I keep my project open and noodle at least a few hundred words an hour until it's time for bed. For about a week I was rewriting about 7k a day, then I had five 5k days of brand-new words. I've settled into about 3k for the last couple days, which has gotten me halfway through a short story and a respectable way into what I think may be my next novel project. I've also read about a book every two days and scads of short fiction.

Basically, if I could do this for the rest of my life I probably would. Perhaps with a little more time thrown in for friends.

Unfortunately, it seems likely that writing is going to fall by the wayside for the next six months or so. I'm trying to find a job (hopeful news on that front) and I'll be in school full-time. It'll be the least free time I've had since my freshman year, and looking back--yeah, didn't get much writing done.

On the other hand, that's what's going to allow me to move out of my parents' basement (not that I don't love them and all). And having a degree, I've heard, is kinda helpful in the big wide world. Not that my degree is particularly useful, but it is a degree from a decent university. Maybe someone will give me a job photocopying things. Or maybe filing.

No real point to this, except to say, dang. I wish it could last.

In 1962 my great-grandmother wrote to John D MacDonald, thriller/mystery writer (his novel THE EXECUTIONERS was made into the movie CAPE FEAR). We don't have her letter, but it appears she objected to the salacious nature of one of his novels, THE END OF THE NIGHT.

John D MacDonald wrote back. At length. Since the original letter is getting rather on in years, I typed it up to preserve it. It's really quite hilarious. Keep going at least until he starts talking about brussels sprouts.

John D MacDonald
18 January 1962

Mrs. F. J. Wilson
25 Lapham Way
San Francisco 24, California

My dear Mrs. Wilson:

The editors of Fawcett Publications sent your letter of January 8th along to me. As they have told me in the past, and as my agent has told me, and as I have learned from experience, there is no waste of effort more complete than responding to one of these letters.

However, once again, I make the barren effort, probably because yours is slightly more literate than the average. I get about six of these a year, I would say.
( Read more... )

 

Title: To Say Nothing of the Dog
Author: Connie Willis
Publisher: Turtleback
Year published: 1999

Recommended: I lot of people adore this book with good reason. I'd suggest starting elsewhere with Willis; the books I've read by her are Bellwether (comedic, but tighter) and Passage (not so tight, more serious). Once you know whether you like Willis, and know whether you like her humor, pick this one up. And be prepared for a slow start.

Spoilers: Nope.

First off, long silence due to finals, work, travel, other boring excuses. Onward. Short review, not much to say, been a few weeks since I read it.

I've tried to read this book a total of four times. The first three I got about thirty to fifty pages in before becoming frustrated and setting it aside (each time, intending to pick it back up). It finally ended up under my bathroom sink, languishing in solitude, until it came up as calico_reaction's book club selection. I decided to give it 100 pages this time.

And those 100 pages were a slog, I must admit. The character was confused, I was more confused, and the book seemed like a string of unconnected anecdotes and bizarre happenings. Luckily, on about page 96, Verity shows up. And she brings the plot with her.

I've read two of Connie Willis' books previously, and if I hadn't adored both of them I think I never would have finished this book. I'm glad I did. With the appearance of Verity and a sense of purpose and direction (still muddled, but now in an amusing, serves-the-story sort of way) I sank right into the voice and the madcap Victorian adventuring. I admit I still have only the vaguest idea of what happened to the bird stump and why, but by the end of the book I cared very little about the damn thing and its place in the story, and was far more concerned with the various romantic pairings history (and narrative) demanded, but I'm just a GIRL that way. In any case, I'm so woefully sloppy as a reader that if I figure things out ahead of time it's a fair bet the mystery was incredibly obvious, so I'm generally used to being befuddled right up until the end. Willis explained things well enough at the conclusion to at least give me the illusion of understanding what the hell had been going on for four hundred or so pages, so I was satisfied.

It's also worth noting that, unlike calico_reaction, I love the Victorian era, which perhaps explains MY ambivalence about steampunk (I'm picky; also, I see way too much of it). I love the strict social code and all the ways it was exploited, contorted, and ignored to suit the situation. Part of this is my fascination with "social vocabulary," which is a topic I won't get into now. Anyhow, I'm not normally one for comedic books, but with the addition of a destination and trajectory this was right up my alley, and I do adore dogs and cats, so there's that.

But really, and I don't mean to harp on the same thing over and over, there's no excuse for those first hundred pages. Unless you absolutely adore the wandering, purposeless humor from the start, and are willing to put up with utter confusion, they're very difficult to get through. If I hadn't known and trusted the author I would have abandoned it a fourth time, and that would have been a shame.

Title: FIRE
Author: Kristin Cashore
Publisher: Dial Books
Year Published: 2009

Recommended: Yes, both for fantasy fans and YA fans (the protags don't read all that young, but if you hate romance you might want to skip, though I'd be sad). Reading the previous book, Graceling, is not necessary at all.

Spoilers: Some, though I'll try to leave major developments alone.

This review is coming late in the day because I had to finish the damn book before writing it. The other review I have lined up is taking longer than expected, so I thought I'd write about a book I liked, without any complicated caveats and reflections. FIRE was a fun read, an imaginative fantasy, and quite refreshing after multiple second-book disappointments on the YA front.

The premise: Fire is a monster. In her kingdom, the Dells, monsters are beautiful, magnificently colored creatures who have the ability to entrance minds and control thoughts. Every species has monsters, but Fire is the last human monster. Her father was the power behind the throne, a tyrant and sadist who used his power to truly horrific ends. The new king, Nash, and his brother Prince Brigan call Fire to court to help them uncover and stop a rebellion, but her father's reputation means that most people think her truly monstrous—and if she does as Nash and Brigan ask, she fears she may prove them right.

( In which a 'sequel' finally doesn't disappoint me... )

Title: KINDRED

Author: Octavia Butler

Publisher: Doubleday

Year Published: 1979

Recommended: Yes, absolutely.

Spoilers: Nope.

Here's the other reason I delayed my review this week: I had a long review of KINDRED written, then scrapped the whole thing. This has been a hard book for me to review, in part because I was silly and read calico_reaction's review first and started getting paranoid about repeating her. I probably will, because we agreed about a number of things, most noteworthy perhaps being that this book makes a great introduction to Butler for the reasons calico_reaction explains (and I won't get into).

The premise (from B&N.com as posted by calico_reaction because I'm that damn lazy): Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father the daughter who will become Dana's ancestor. Yet each time Dana's sojourns become longer and more dangerous, until it is uncertain whether or not her life will end, long before it has even begun.
( My scattered thoughts )

No review today because, among other things, I'm hip-deep in my own writing. I'll put something together later this week to make up for it. Instead, I'm subjecting you to What I Read In February! I've linked to the reviews I've written. Links go to my Wordpress blog, because I'm too lazy to change them. (the reading/writing-only version of my journal, so's I have somewhere to send people uninterested in my other blatherings).

You can find my January list here

22. Ice by Sarah Beth Durst
23. Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell
24. Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
25. Bury Me Standing by Isabel Fonseca
26. The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan
27. If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
28. Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier
29. Monster by Walter Dean Myers
30. Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon
31. Crashed by Robin Wasserman
31. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
32. Kindred by Octavia Butler
33. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
34. Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe
35. Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs

Genre breakdown:

YA contemporary fantasy/supernatural (5), YA realistic/lit fic (2), YA science fiction (1), YA Fantasy (1), Nonfiction (1), Contemporary/urban fantasy (1), Science fiction (1), Realistic/lit fic (2), Misc (1)

Now, the science fiction title is Kindred, and that classification is borderline. I put it in there mostly because it does have a speculative element and it's Butler, who I think of as a science fiction writer regardless of what's actually on the page. The Lovely Bones has a supernatural element but I listed it as lit/realistic because I think that's how it's been marketed and viewed. And Fingersmith is historical fiction, which may deserve its own category.

I have to admit I am burned out on YA. I've been reading tons of it because a) it's fun, and b) it's what I'm writing at the moment, but I'm probably going to take a break from it for a while. I have a few YA books on my TBR pile, but once those are through I'm going to focus on other things. I'm also obviously behind on some of my "reading variety" goals, so I'd like to wrangle my list a bit more in line with that.

Stand-out favorites for this month were The Lovely Bones, in part because I expected to hate it; Fingersmith, which is the book Wilkie Collins would write if he was alive today writing about the Victorian era and also a lesbian; Kindred, because yaknow, Octavia Butler, how can you go wrong; and The Demon's Lexicon, because it was just so much damn fun.

And now, to work.

For months now, I've been getting periodic calls from "Cardholder services" telling me that my credit card interest rates can be lowered, but only if I talk to them RIGHT NOW, because the offer expires soon.

A) What credit card company wouldn't identify themselves in a phone call?
B) Oh hell no I'm not giving you my credit card number and social security over a cell phone when YOU called ME
C) I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING CREDIT CARD.

Irritating, and so obviously a scam it's insulting.

Title: Give Up the Ghost
Author: Megan Crewe
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Year Published: 2009

Recommended: Yes, with the usual caveats about YA. This is a very high-school-centric book, so if you're not keen to return to those dingy halls, you probably want to skip it, but otherwise it's a short, interesting read with a sense of humor but a serious handling of some difficult issues.

Spoilers: Yes, in fairly general terms, but specific enough that if you avoid spoilers religiously, you shouldn't go beyond the first two paragraphs (after the jump).

This conversation (mostly) occurred yesterday:

Me: So I read this book today--
Caroline: FREAK
Me: --that's about this girl who can talk to ghosts, so she uses them as spies to get blackmail material, because admit it, that's what you do with powers like that.
Caroline: I'd use them to get peoples' pin numbers.
Me: I'm glad that I'm your friend, and also that you can't actual talk to ghosts.
Caroline: *looks mysterious*

Ahem. So, I think the premise of this novel is kind of brilliant, because I may be a bad person but I would totally use ghosts as spies. Granted, Cass has the excuse of revenge—her best friend turned on her in middle school, and Cass has been a social outcast ever since. Her blackmail is as much a defense mechanism as anything else, since it's the one thing that gives her power over her tormentors.
( I, on the other hand, am just a bad person... )

As of this past week, I'm serving as the Editorial Assistant/Slush Slave for Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Very exciting! My picture is up on the website and everything!

For those that don't know, BCS is an online magazine for secondary-world fantasy (exact guidelines here). It's an SFWA-qualified market, which means that sales to BCS will count towards membership qualifications. So if you have something that suits, submit away!

First off, I'd like to point you all to Unleaded: Fuel for Writers, a blog run by my friends Renee and Day. With podcasts! The theme is 60 seconds of writerly inspiration. I'll be lending my pen keyboard to the cause by writing 60-word mini-reviews either twice a month or once a week. My first one is up now, so check it out. Pretty please!

Secondly, writing! I'm doing it. The last few months have been pretty dry on the writing front; I've spent a lot of time noodling with various projects, trying to figure out which one I want to work on next. And then I glanced back at my finished manuscript (following a very nice rejection), gasped, and frantically scribbled three pages of handwritten notes about things that NEEDED TO CHANGE RIGHT NOW. So, it's not exactly forward progress, but it's progress. The overhaul should be done within about a month (hopefully) and THEN I'll have to decide what to work on next.

Except, of course, that I'm going to be doing a brainstorming workshop thingamajig (ok, how awesome is it that spellcheck recognizes that as a word?), for which I need a synopsis of a project. I thought I'd decided which one, and then I started to actually work on it, and then I started to hate it. So now I'm back to poking at my infinity+1 novel ideas and hoping that one transforms into a bootiful butterfly sometime in the next few days. So, I'm looking at: an Urban Fantasy (with demons! and badass grandmothers! and a girl with blue hair [who dies]!), a YA small-town fantasy/murder mystery (with a boy mc! and high school drama! and bigotry!), a fantasy (with not-Spartans! and an evil empire who might actually be the good guys! and sex with gods!), or a YA werewolf novel (with liberal arts colleges! and feminism! and brooding!). There are others, but they're not at the point where I could do anything but "this is the concept, and then things happen but I'm not sure what" as a synopsis.

Thoughts?