For those of you who can stand being held in suspense for years at a time, I'd highly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It is, as far as I know, his first and only novel. All I can say is he better hurry up and write more. Only don't hurry too much--I wouldn't want him to slide one hair below the bar he's set himself with this marvelous debut.
NPR has recently put out a list of the top 100 sci fi and fantasy books, with a fantastically funny flowchart to go with it. The Name of the Wind made the list, as did several others that have me held in suspense: George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and, somewhat paradoxically, the stand alone novel Sunshine by Robin McKinley. McKinley doesn't write sequels. The closest she ever came was to write two books in the same world...about 1000 years apart. So our chances of a sequel to Sunshine seem low. But I want one. It leaves so much unsaid. It is brilliant and beautiful and mesmerizing. I read it by flashlight, an annoying flashlight that would stutter out every few minutes and I would have to wind it up again and give it a shake. I was exhausted, camping, at Pensic for the first time, and still I read by flashlight deep into the night every night. And then it left me hanging with a thousand questions unanswered.
I think about my own muses, the muses for my novels, the muses for my SCA composing of poetry and songs, even the muses for my clamorous rpg characters. I have cried out for inspiration many a time and will many more times, especially this year. But for once, I would like to petition the muses on someone else's behalf: go give Robin McKinley the inspiration she needs for a brilliant beautiful sequel to Sunshine.
All told, I've read 32 of those top 100 sff books, and am familiar with another 26 or so through movies and articles about them. A few of those 32 are cheats: I've read Dune and heard through oral tradition much of the rest of the series and watched the miniseries covering the next 2 or 3 books, but by no means have I read the whole series. But I think even most fans of the series would agree that the original Dune is the core of it, the best.
I've been thinking about how I would go about judging the "best" books in a given catagory. I think my criteria would have to include: intelligence of the writing, emotional pull of the tale/characters, style points, and that entirely subjective element of whether I ultimately "liked" it. For example, I read China Mieville's The Scar which is intelligent, tightly written, and has some emotional pull, but mixed thickly with the emotional pull is emotional repulsion which is ultimately the stronger force. After I finished, I felt that I had read a "good" book, but that I didn't "like" it. Much as I feel repulsed by the intelligent beautifully written Othello or the Changeling from Renaissance literature.
It's not that they have to end well. I loved Jacqueline Carey's Sundering duology, which did for Tolkien's tropes what Paradise Lost did for Genesis. It is epic tragedy by genre; you know it can't end well. She twists the dagger again and again. But it is intelligent, the emotion draw is superb, the style is exquisite...and I can't help but love it despite the inevitable tears. I'm more likely to reread the Kushiel books, where the tears are in the middle more than the ends of the books, but I can't not love the Sundering books for all that.
And there are books that score highly enough in other categories that I can forgive a dip in one. Snow Crash never had me terribly emotionally engaged. I didn't dislike Hero Protagonist or YT, but nor was I terribly attached to them. Nevertheless, it was a tightly written witty well-crafted romp and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't help but agree with its placement in the top 100 despite my usual preference for character-driven books.
But the books that didn't make their list that would make mine would be Martha Wells (Fall of Ile-Rien series as well as pretty much anything she's written), Elizabeth Hayden's Symphony of Ages (that first trilogy was great; the later books still good though not quite as much so.). And I'd have to put in Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country. Doesn't the title just say it all?
ss
Monday 10 October 2011
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Mistress Music
Music is a proud, temperamental mistress. Give her the time and attention she deserves, and she is yours. Slight her and there will come a day when you call and she will not answer. So I began sleeping less to give her the time she needed.
As the incipient Bard of the Mists and one who is already not getting enough sleep, I admit this quote filled me with a sort of resonant horror.
Thursday 5 May 2011
How Many Words
So, as I begin to chug along towards some real goals with my novel, (approaching the 1/3 mark next), I took a moment to question the round 100,000 words mark I'd used as my "goal" for numerical purposes. It is certainly useful since however many thousand words I have written translates directly into what "percent" I am towards "done" -- with a first draft anyway. I always knew this was rather artificial, and that the story might demand more or less than that. But I began to be curious what the industry norms really were.
Here is what Urban Fantasy Writers has to say about it (very very abridged, taking only their word count quotes).
After all, I've taken for my write-a-complete-novel project my most classic quest adventure coming of age story of all my story ideas. Not that that's all there is to it. But still, it certainly seems like it could be one of those ones that straddles the line like Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study books or Trudi Canavan's books (but not so much like the Harry Potter books, before you ask, or perhaps more accurately, a bit like the later books but not the early ones).
It's hard to actually find the word count for published fiction, but there was an article from an industry insider of sorts that mentioned Poison Study as "normal" length and who mentioned 90k words as the "norm" people shoot for.
With all of that to mull over, I wonder if I should be aiming for the 80-90k range for a novel that will straddle the mainstream fantasy/YA fantasy line.
I know, I know. I shouldn't worry about it. I should just write the darn book. But this is my novel to put the craft of novel writing first...not so much "over" the demands of the story, but to think about how to build a satisfying novel-length story. So, I'm allowed. On the next book, I promise I'll throw rules and norms to the wind and write it however it wants to be. ;)
Here is what Urban Fantasy Writers has to say about it (very very abridged, taking only their word count quotes).
So, it occurs to me that while I often think of this book (still title-less. I'm playing with something relating to "Water Fall" ... and a dozen other things. Meh. That's neither here nor there. Some books start with a title. I suspect this one will end with one.) as Fantasy, I've also referred to it as potentially YA.Fantasy novels can contain between 80,000 and 150,000 words (approximately). Fantasy novels can be a little longer than other novels, and they are sometimes serialized.
A stand-alone romance novel is normally between 80,000 and 100,000 words. A category romance novel (like those published by Harlequin) is generally shorter
A stand-alone historical book may be 85,000 to 100,000 words. Publishing a book longer than 100,000 words is difficult (especially for first-timers), but historical novels are sometimes longer.
Mysteries vary in length. Stand-alone mysteries (which may have some overlap with thrillers) may be between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Cozy mysteries, like those in a series, are often on the shorter side.
Thriller novels generally run between 90,000 to 100,000 words (loosely), but they can be a little longer as well.
Horror novels vary in length and are generally between 80,000 and 100,000 words.
Generally, YA books run between 40,000 and 75,000 words, depending on the target age group.
Westerns tend to be on the shorter side, anywhere from 45,000 to 75,000 words (loosely).
After all, I've taken for my write-a-complete-novel project my most classic quest adventure coming of age story of all my story ideas. Not that that's all there is to it. But still, it certainly seems like it could be one of those ones that straddles the line like Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study books or Trudi Canavan's books (but not so much like the Harry Potter books, before you ask, or perhaps more accurately, a bit like the later books but not the early ones).
It's hard to actually find the word count for published fiction, but there was an article from an industry insider of sorts that mentioned Poison Study as "normal" length and who mentioned 90k words as the "norm" people shoot for.
With all of that to mull over, I wonder if I should be aiming for the 80-90k range for a novel that will straddle the mainstream fantasy/YA fantasy line.
I know, I know. I shouldn't worry about it. I should just write the darn book. But this is my novel to put the craft of novel writing first...not so much "over" the demands of the story, but to think about how to build a satisfying novel-length story. So, I'm allowed. On the next book, I promise I'll throw rules and norms to the wind and write it however it wants to be. ;)
Monday 18 April 2011
Not Dead Yet
I think I'm actually fighting off a cold, rather than succumbing to it. Day 3 and I'm feeling better rather than worse. Amazing. That's what lots of rest and vitamins will do...and having been well for the 2 weeks previous actually allowing my poor overworked immune system a vacation. I feel like I've been press-ganged into a part time job as a virus host--I certainly spend enough time at it! But I'm getting better this time, so all good.
Academics
My academic publication has appeared in print at long last. It'll put you back about $120 if you actually wanted to buy the darn thing (and keep in mind I only wrote 1 chapter, though I'm looking forward to reading everyone elses chapters!). But with luck it will be coming soon to a library near you. Since I've in fact managed to keep my full name off this blog in general, to keep it for friends and family rather than people trying to track me through web searches, I'll refrain from giving you the full info here. But anyone interested in Shakespeare or Platonic influences or just what I've spent a fair chunk of the last, er, 6 years doing (though very little in the last couple years; that's just been waiting), feel free to drop me a line and I'll send details.
Fiction
So, my book has now reached 10 chapters, only one of which is out of order (it will probably be chapter 12) and 26,600 words which is more than a quarter of the way through a normal fantasy novel. But I realized something today. It's a bit of a spoiler for my readers, but I won't tell you what timelines are involved....If you combine the story lines from the the different drafts (but not overlapping scenes) of the two books involved (yup, two), Geirrøth's character has the most story written involving a single character I've ever written thus far with right about 60,000 words. The next biggest would be Nirym with 34,000 words...although Nirym's stories are about 95% her viewpoint whereas Geirrøth is largely in the background.
It's kind of odd to me. I've got so many books-in-progress with female main characters. It's funny that I settled on Johan and Geirrøth's book (though Gynna is gaining importance steadily) to be my finish a book project, and that thus Geirrøth would take the lead as longest running character.
Well, only if you don't count the immortal demi-gods that feature even earlier in the same time line. But since the later books aren't about them in any way, I have to feel that they don't count.
Media
Game of Thrones premiered last night. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. I think the pilot would be a bit confusing for those who hadn't read the books, or at least studied the cheat sheet to the families they helpfully put on the show's website (there's a map too). I was a little confused just trying to match faces to the characters I knew had to be there! After all we had, at least 5 or so teenage boys who are plot important and a couple on screen that aren't really important. To say nothing of the grownups and younger children. The two teenage girls were at least crystal clear. That said, I think the casting was fantastic. I loved how with Joffrey and Arya in particular they got their characters across vividly and perfectly...without either saying a single line! Dead on.
Jon isn't quite as I imagined him. In fact, the whole set of teenagers seemed cast a little old...though I can see why. They have to cast the girls a little older, because a TV audience doesn't want to see 13 year old girls put in sexual situations. They're still said to be 13, but they look more like 15 or 16. And having done that, you can't use actual 15 boys to play the 15 year old boys...they have to look several years older than the 13 year old girls...so inevitably, the boys end up looking about 18. But while it means few in that set of characters match my mental image of them, I think it was a wise decision overall.
I'd have to get my hands on a copy of the book to know just how many chapters they clipped through in their 65 minute pilot--all the library copies are out with about 12 holds on each copy; no surprise there--but they're moving at a pretty fast pace. It seems they're going to stick to unfolding the whole arc of book 1 in season 1, not slowing down to do more episodic sub-stories. I think in the end that will be to the best, and far more intense, though I think that may make it harder for non-readers of the books to grab hold in the first couple episodes. Information comes hard and fast, and the political situation is already beginning to shift and change. Although you have to pay attention to catch it, I'm pretty sure they cover at least a month's time, if not a bit more all in that first hour!
Anyway, I think it was a mouthwatering intro to things to come. Red house is going to have a weekly ritual of watching together, about the only thing we watch on TV live. We had, oh, 11 people over watching!
But if they're going to go through one book a season, Martin had better hurry up and write the last books! He'd better hurry up anyway. I was fit to be tied when I got to the end of book 4 and realized I would have to wait till book 6 to find out what was going to happen to half the characters!! Ok, yes, I'm looking forward to finding out what's happened to the other half the character list in book 5, but good gracious! And then, will the story lines sync up again in book 6 or will we be leap frogging for the rest of the series? (I place no faith in the projection of finishing in 7 books...though however long it ends up being, I'm sure it will be worth it, unlike a few other massive series I could mention.)
I think I'm actually fighting off a cold, rather than succumbing to it. Day 3 and I'm feeling better rather than worse. Amazing. That's what lots of rest and vitamins will do...and having been well for the 2 weeks previous actually allowing my poor overworked immune system a vacation. I feel like I've been press-ganged into a part time job as a virus host--I certainly spend enough time at it! But I'm getting better this time, so all good.
Academics
My academic publication has appeared in print at long last. It'll put you back about $120 if you actually wanted to buy the darn thing (and keep in mind I only wrote 1 chapter, though I'm looking forward to reading everyone elses chapters!). But with luck it will be coming soon to a library near you. Since I've in fact managed to keep my full name off this blog in general, to keep it for friends and family rather than people trying to track me through web searches, I'll refrain from giving you the full info here. But anyone interested in Shakespeare or Platonic influences or just what I've spent a fair chunk of the last, er, 6 years doing (though very little in the last couple years; that's just been waiting), feel free to drop me a line and I'll send details.
Fiction
So, my book has now reached 10 chapters, only one of which is out of order (it will probably be chapter 12) and 26,600 words which is more than a quarter of the way through a normal fantasy novel. But I realized something today. It's a bit of a spoiler for my readers, but I won't tell you what timelines are involved....If you combine the story lines from the the different drafts (but not overlapping scenes) of the two books involved (yup, two), Geirrøth's character has the most story written involving a single character I've ever written thus far with right about 60,000 words. The next biggest would be Nirym with 34,000 words...although Nirym's stories are about 95% her viewpoint whereas Geirrøth is largely in the background.
It's kind of odd to me. I've got so many books-in-progress with female main characters. It's funny that I settled on Johan and Geirrøth's book (though Gynna is gaining importance steadily) to be my finish a book project, and that thus Geirrøth would take the lead as longest running character.
Well, only if you don't count the immortal demi-gods that feature even earlier in the same time line. But since the later books aren't about them in any way, I have to feel that they don't count.
Media
Game of Thrones premiered last night. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. I think the pilot would be a bit confusing for those who hadn't read the books, or at least studied the cheat sheet to the families they helpfully put on the show's website (there's a map too). I was a little confused just trying to match faces to the characters I knew had to be there! After all we had, at least 5 or so teenage boys who are plot important and a couple on screen that aren't really important. To say nothing of the grownups and younger children. The two teenage girls were at least crystal clear. That said, I think the casting was fantastic. I loved how with Joffrey and Arya in particular they got their characters across vividly and perfectly...without either saying a single line! Dead on.
Jon isn't quite as I imagined him. In fact, the whole set of teenagers seemed cast a little old...though I can see why. They have to cast the girls a little older, because a TV audience doesn't want to see 13 year old girls put in sexual situations. They're still said to be 13, but they look more like 15 or 16. And having done that, you can't use actual 15 boys to play the 15 year old boys...they have to look several years older than the 13 year old girls...so inevitably, the boys end up looking about 18. But while it means few in that set of characters match my mental image of them, I think it was a wise decision overall.
I'd have to get my hands on a copy of the book to know just how many chapters they clipped through in their 65 minute pilot--all the library copies are out with about 12 holds on each copy; no surprise there--but they're moving at a pretty fast pace. It seems they're going to stick to unfolding the whole arc of book 1 in season 1, not slowing down to do more episodic sub-stories. I think in the end that will be to the best, and far more intense, though I think that may make it harder for non-readers of the books to grab hold in the first couple episodes. Information comes hard and fast, and the political situation is already beginning to shift and change. Although you have to pay attention to catch it, I'm pretty sure they cover at least a month's time, if not a bit more all in that first hour!
Anyway, I think it was a mouthwatering intro to things to come. Red house is going to have a weekly ritual of watching together, about the only thing we watch on TV live. We had, oh, 11 people over watching!
But if they're going to go through one book a season, Martin had better hurry up and write the last books! He'd better hurry up anyway. I was fit to be tied when I got to the end of book 4 and realized I would have to wait till book 6 to find out what was going to happen to half the characters!! Ok, yes, I'm looking forward to finding out what's happened to the other half the character list in book 5, but good gracious! And then, will the story lines sync up again in book 6 or will we be leap frogging for the rest of the series? (I place no faith in the projection of finishing in 7 books...though however long it ends up being, I'm sure it will be worth it, unlike a few other massive series I could mention.)
Saturday 9 April 2011
Wee!!
[Disclaimer: this post was written on an adrenaline high and may contain undignified celebratory remarks]
Today was a great SCA event. The weather was perfect--clear but just a bit crisp rather than hot. Ron was fighting. He fought well and made third round and later won me a rose.
Aasa had talked me into bringing an entry for the original poetry category. I decided to finally bring out the poem I wrote in Middle Scots a number of years ago. I'd kept threatening to use it in Bardic competitions, joking that I really didn't want the job anyway and a poem in a foreign language was sure to make eyes glaze over. But this was different--exactly the audience for a piece in a period style and a period language: A&S judges and Vitoria as Princess (let's just say she was quoting and/or speaking Greek and Latin and Italian just today just while I was listening and is doing graduate level work in medieval music). So I decided to enter. I forgot to write up my documentation earlier so I was up till 1:30am writing it up--just a couple paragraphs. Only two references. I must have looked at a half dozen things all those years ago, plus being steeped in all my readings for class. But I gave them the two main sources at least.
I'm probably a better performer now than I would have back then. In fact, I'm not sure that 20-year-old me would have entered a competition where I would have had to read my poem aloud to the princess and judges. Today I was able to read it with bombast. Luckily I do in fact remember enough Scots to know what I was saying and which bits to be loud and harsh with and which to give a lighter touch. ;) Anyway, I don't feel guilty for entering such an old piece since I've never entered it in anything before.
I had to badger Aasa in return. After all that, she'd shown up without a poem of her own. She ended up writing a rondeau with the refrain "Derile twisted my arm"!
I also decided impulsively to enter the metal working competition. I hadn't had time to write up any documentation at all for my trichinopoly (a looped wire technique) but I had a number of my pieces with me. I took a look at what I had and I had five of my early attempts in the original technique I learned where you tuck behind the preceding row, and one of my best attempts so far at replicating the specific piece of Pictish provenience (might be of Pictish or Viking origin but it was found in a Pictish silver hoard). It doesn't have the crazy level of detail--exact number of loops as the original etc--that I intend to aim for at some point, but it was a good solid example of the technique of going behind two rows instead of just one which makes a much tighter "weave" to the piece, making it look a lot more tight and complex.
I hand wrote documentation for two entries: one for the Pictish find technique one, and one for the single row technique set.
Well, I guess maybe you can tell where this is headed. The announced that the same person had won both competitions. My first thought was a hopeful: there can't be that many people who entered both. My second was: there's no way I could have won both. My third was again: there really can't have been that many people who entered both. And then they called my name (a bit mangled, but never mind that. I knew I was asking for it when I chose a Pictish name!). I was totally floored and excited.
Not content to let the princess give me both awards, the prince insisted he give me the metal working award since he'd judged that one. :)
I still can't get over all those people liking my stuff. And with handwritten documentation no less! (Ok, so I was able to recall a fair bit of the scholarly issues involved, and the divide between the two detailed accounts of the piece, and so and so forth. But without exact references I thought I was doomed.)
The arts award token is cast metal and pretty, with a harp. But I adore the sciences token which is a mini but working pair of calipers! I keep measuring things with my calipers and giggling like a little kid.
I figured after my Twelfth Night entry where I didn't even make the half the possible points mark necessary to go on in the competition that I had a long way to go with A&S before I'd win anything. But I suppose that was in illumination which I'd never tried and isn't even related to anything I do (painting miniatures in the war gaming sense and a long ago interest in drawing Celtic knotwork would be the closest pursuits) whereas trichinopoly and poetry are both sometime obsessions of mine.
Wee!
*giggle*
Anyway, while I've let go of the idea of going for the Golden Poppy contest this year, I may well go for the Silver Muse (which I'd never heard of before but is similar to the Poppy but on the Principality level and needs only 5 qualifying entries instead of 8. 2 down, 3 to go. I'd better look up what the other ones are!)
I had colorwork knitting in my hands when they called me up.
Isn't that just the way of it? When I got my AoA, they had to pluck me, soaking wet, from the kitchens where I was washing feast dishes. When I get called up for an A&S award I have more A&S projects in hand.
Today was a great SCA event. The weather was perfect--clear but just a bit crisp rather than hot. Ron was fighting. He fought well and made third round and later won me a rose.
Aasa had talked me into bringing an entry for the original poetry category. I decided to finally bring out the poem I wrote in Middle Scots a number of years ago. I'd kept threatening to use it in Bardic competitions, joking that I really didn't want the job anyway and a poem in a foreign language was sure to make eyes glaze over. But this was different--exactly the audience for a piece in a period style and a period language: A&S judges and Vitoria as Princess (let's just say she was quoting and/or speaking Greek and Latin and Italian just today just while I was listening and is doing graduate level work in medieval music). So I decided to enter. I forgot to write up my documentation earlier so I was up till 1:30am writing it up--just a couple paragraphs. Only two references. I must have looked at a half dozen things all those years ago, plus being steeped in all my readings for class. But I gave them the two main sources at least.
I'm probably a better performer now than I would have back then. In fact, I'm not sure that 20-year-old me would have entered a competition where I would have had to read my poem aloud to the princess and judges. Today I was able to read it with bombast. Luckily I do in fact remember enough Scots to know what I was saying and which bits to be loud and harsh with and which to give a lighter touch. ;) Anyway, I don't feel guilty for entering such an old piece since I've never entered it in anything before.
I had to badger Aasa in return. After all that, she'd shown up without a poem of her own. She ended up writing a rondeau with the refrain "Derile twisted my arm"!
I also decided impulsively to enter the metal working competition. I hadn't had time to write up any documentation at all for my trichinopoly (a looped wire technique) but I had a number of my pieces with me. I took a look at what I had and I had five of my early attempts in the original technique I learned where you tuck behind the preceding row, and one of my best attempts so far at replicating the specific piece of Pictish provenience (might be of Pictish or Viking origin but it was found in a Pictish silver hoard). It doesn't have the crazy level of detail--exact number of loops as the original etc--that I intend to aim for at some point, but it was a good solid example of the technique of going behind two rows instead of just one which makes a much tighter "weave" to the piece, making it look a lot more tight and complex.
I hand wrote documentation for two entries: one for the Pictish find technique one, and one for the single row technique set.
Well, I guess maybe you can tell where this is headed. The announced that the same person had won both competitions. My first thought was a hopeful: there can't be that many people who entered both. My second was: there's no way I could have won both. My third was again: there really can't have been that many people who entered both. And then they called my name (a bit mangled, but never mind that. I knew I was asking for it when I chose a Pictish name!). I was totally floored and excited.
Not content to let the princess give me both awards, the prince insisted he give me the metal working award since he'd judged that one. :)
I still can't get over all those people liking my stuff. And with handwritten documentation no less! (Ok, so I was able to recall a fair bit of the scholarly issues involved, and the divide between the two detailed accounts of the piece, and so and so forth. But without exact references I thought I was doomed.)
The arts award token is cast metal and pretty, with a harp. But I adore the sciences token which is a mini but working pair of calipers! I keep measuring things with my calipers and giggling like a little kid.
I figured after my Twelfth Night entry where I didn't even make the half the possible points mark necessary to go on in the competition that I had a long way to go with A&S before I'd win anything. But I suppose that was in illumination which I'd never tried and isn't even related to anything I do (painting miniatures in the war gaming sense and a long ago interest in drawing Celtic knotwork would be the closest pursuits) whereas trichinopoly and poetry are both sometime obsessions of mine.
Wee!
*giggle*
Anyway, while I've let go of the idea of going for the Golden Poppy contest this year, I may well go for the Silver Muse (which I'd never heard of before but is similar to the Poppy but on the Principality level and needs only 5 qualifying entries instead of 8. 2 down, 3 to go. I'd better look up what the other ones are!)
I had colorwork knitting in my hands when they called me up.
Isn't that just the way of it? When I got my AoA, they had to pluck me, soaking wet, from the kitchens where I was washing feast dishes. When I get called up for an A&S award I have more A&S projects in hand.
Sunday 3 April 2011
Falling...Flying...
I jumped out a perfectly good (virtual) airplane this evening and went hurtling towards the "ground." Wee!!
iFly is an indoor skydiving experience thingy that uses a big strong wind tunnel to simulate falling through the sky. It was intense. And loads of fun. I managed a fair bit of stability and maintained a slow spiral the instructor set me on going up and down a bit in the process. All the defying gravity experience with a nice safety net to bounce off of at the bottom!
The stunts the instructors pulled were crazy. It looked like special effects that you would have thought were overblown...except that they were just doing this stuff right before our eyes. Flips, spirals, break dancing on air. Going up and down crazy fast. I have no idea how they have that much control when you'd think every little false move would have sent us spinning around the tunnel if it were really that sensitive...but wow.
iFly is an indoor skydiving experience thingy that uses a big strong wind tunnel to simulate falling through the sky. It was intense. And loads of fun. I managed a fair bit of stability and maintained a slow spiral the instructor set me on going up and down a bit in the process. All the defying gravity experience with a nice safety net to bounce off of at the bottom!
The stunts the instructors pulled were crazy. It looked like special effects that you would have thought were overblown...except that they were just doing this stuff right before our eyes. Flips, spirals, break dancing on air. Going up and down crazy fast. I have no idea how they have that much control when you'd think every little false move would have sent us spinning around the tunnel if it were really that sensitive...but wow.
Updates
Well, I had to use my driver's license from day one. The very next day Manda had trouble while we were out and I had to drive us to class (including teenager and toddler) and then drive her home and then drive myself back to work and then drive myself home in the rain up the 17. Fun times. But clearly God knew I'd need to have my license by that day, and so gave me an opportunity to get it the day before. Funny how life turns out that way sometimes.
I've been driving a fair bit since getting my license. It's still not fun, but I'm gaining a little confidence. Driving myself to class in heavy rain storm was the worst: the traffic was thick enough to have lots of chaos, and thin enough that it was still moving at a fair clip, add in torrential rain and a new driver....But I managed just fine in the end.
I continue to be plagued by a long stream of minor but obnoxious ailments. Most recently a stomach flu that dovetailed into the end of a headcold. I've only got a few lingering side effects from each left and am mercifully feeling almost healthy again, but there was a miserable couple weeks in there.
My computer is also ailing. It's getting old and slow, the poor thing. I wish I knew more about troubleshooting this generation of computer. It is being buggy: neither sleep nor hibernate works properly any more--the one just logs me out without actually turning off, the other tends to crash the computer entirely. So I have to do a full shut down every time. And start up takes about 15 minutes to complete now. I hope it can hold on a while longer though. Ron's laptop's hard drive just died entirely and we certainly don't need both computers down.
The results came back on the Stegner Fellowship--I didn't get in. Nevertheless, I'm glad I entered. I think it was a good step forward in becoming serious about my writing. I'm working on the 9th chapter now--by the way, if you're one of my readers and don't have 8 chapters by now, let me know and I'll send you the latest. Things are getting a little out of order as Gynna's most recently put out chapter is being delayed and we're filling in a bit more between Johan's illness and Gynna's departure.
Not that this is any real indication of what the novel length will end up being, but I estimate I'm a little more than 1/5 of the way toward a normal length fantasy novel with the new chapters included. Which feels about right in terms of where I'm at in introducing things and getting things rolling. Things always move faster at the end. I need to pick up the writing pace, though. I don't want to be writing this particular novel for years yet!
Let's see, what else is new. With Marc and Patricia as the upcoming King and Queen of the West, we'll be going to Pensic this year: my first. I've always felt that Pensic is a sort of Mecca for SCAers--you've got to go at least once in your life, so this is my chance. I've been weaving again--some simple inkle weaving to get me going and now I'm warping up a painfully period tablet weaving project in thin wool. I used the wool on the last inkle project and one of the warp threads snapped. In anything but wool that would have been pretty close to unredeemable, but I managed to patch the wool and weave past it. There's two inches that are a little funky, but it worked out fine in the end. Doing crazy tablet weaving things with it is a little intimidating, but I think I'm ready.
I've been driving a fair bit since getting my license. It's still not fun, but I'm gaining a little confidence. Driving myself to class in heavy rain storm was the worst: the traffic was thick enough to have lots of chaos, and thin enough that it was still moving at a fair clip, add in torrential rain and a new driver....But I managed just fine in the end.
I continue to be plagued by a long stream of minor but obnoxious ailments. Most recently a stomach flu that dovetailed into the end of a headcold. I've only got a few lingering side effects from each left and am mercifully feeling almost healthy again, but there was a miserable couple weeks in there.
My computer is also ailing. It's getting old and slow, the poor thing. I wish I knew more about troubleshooting this generation of computer. It is being buggy: neither sleep nor hibernate works properly any more--the one just logs me out without actually turning off, the other tends to crash the computer entirely. So I have to do a full shut down every time. And start up takes about 15 minutes to complete now. I hope it can hold on a while longer though. Ron's laptop's hard drive just died entirely and we certainly don't need both computers down.
The results came back on the Stegner Fellowship--I didn't get in. Nevertheless, I'm glad I entered. I think it was a good step forward in becoming serious about my writing. I'm working on the 9th chapter now--by the way, if you're one of my readers and don't have 8 chapters by now, let me know and I'll send you the latest. Things are getting a little out of order as Gynna's most recently put out chapter is being delayed and we're filling in a bit more between Johan's illness and Gynna's departure.
Not that this is any real indication of what the novel length will end up being, but I estimate I'm a little more than 1/5 of the way toward a normal length fantasy novel with the new chapters included. Which feels about right in terms of where I'm at in introducing things and getting things rolling. Things always move faster at the end. I need to pick up the writing pace, though. I don't want to be writing this particular novel for years yet!
Let's see, what else is new. With Marc and Patricia as the upcoming King and Queen of the West, we'll be going to Pensic this year: my first. I've always felt that Pensic is a sort of Mecca for SCAers--you've got to go at least once in your life, so this is my chance. I've been weaving again--some simple inkle weaving to get me going and now I'm warping up a painfully period tablet weaving project in thin wool. I used the wool on the last inkle project and one of the warp threads snapped. In anything but wool that would have been pretty close to unredeemable, but I managed to patch the wool and weave past it. There's two inches that are a little funky, but it worked out fine in the end. Doing crazy tablet weaving things with it is a little intimidating, but I think I'm ready.
Tuesday 15 March 2011
Licensed to Drive
I got my driver's license!
There were definitely some touch and go moments there--and comedic ones too. The car I was going to take my test in had to be swapped at the last minute. The registration was mysteriously missing from the car I did most of my practicing in, so I ended up borrowing a friend's car instead, and dragging her down to the DMV with me from work.
But of course since it was a car I was less familiar with, there were some quirks. The first thing the tester asked me to do was flash the blinker. And on came the...windshield wipers. I blame it on the unfamiliar car, but in truth I'd used the blinkers on Meg's car before and they are in the same place as on Manda's. It was really just nerves. And then I couldn't get the bloody wipers to turn off. The tester scolded as Meg came back and showed me before scurrying off again. I thought the test might be over right then and there, but no, I got another chance.
Meg's breaks also halt at a feather's touch, so the tester marked off points for all my abrupt jerky stops. Bah. It's a good thing it wasn't my very first time in that car--now those had been abrupt stops!
All in all it went ok though. And now I have it, a license. Better late than never, eh? Since I still don't like driving, I think those around me might be more excited than me. But still, there is a sense of accomplishment there, and a sense that certain things that were not possible might now be. I can go return my library books or go buy us some milk by borrowing a car rather than a person and a car.
All this new freedom was immediately put to use. I felt like I had to drive all over creation today when Manda took sick while we were out. Really it was just across San Jose and Los Gatos, and back and forth up and down the hill about three times. I drove Sky and Rhys and Manda and managed not to crash and kill us all, even with the toddler shouting in the back. I drove myself back up the 17 in the rain alone and even braved the fast lane to go around a truck (with traffic to merge with, no less).
I crossed two lanes in rapid succession to get an off ramp on the 280 and then three more lanes on Moreland once I was off, again in rapid succession. For those of you who don't know me, that was scarier than the 17 in the rain. For those of you who don't know the 17 it's a twisty narrow mountain freeway, though it's becoming home turf for me (and no, I have no plan of getting cocky; I have a healthy respect for those drops and rocks; it's just that other drivers scare me even more and the 280 is busy).
Anyway, it may be crazy scary, but it seems I have joined the driving masses at long last. I don't regret waiting so long. I really didn't need it as a teen or even as a college student. Public transit is more ecologically sound, it was perfectly feasible in many of the places I've lived. But not here. The last bus that ran this was was canceled half a year ago; there is no safe way down the mountain except driving. (Crazy people can bike or walk along the edge of road even crazier with narrow lanes and long drops and blind curves than the 17 with the locals zipping past at half again the speed limit...but not for me, thank you.)
So there you have it. On my...fifth? sixth?...driver's permit, more than a decade after my first one...and yet on my very first ever driver's test: I passed.
There were definitely some touch and go moments there--and comedic ones too. The car I was going to take my test in had to be swapped at the last minute. The registration was mysteriously missing from the car I did most of my practicing in, so I ended up borrowing a friend's car instead, and dragging her down to the DMV with me from work.
But of course since it was a car I was less familiar with, there were some quirks. The first thing the tester asked me to do was flash the blinker. And on came the...windshield wipers. I blame it on the unfamiliar car, but in truth I'd used the blinkers on Meg's car before and they are in the same place as on Manda's. It was really just nerves. And then I couldn't get the bloody wipers to turn off. The tester scolded as Meg came back and showed me before scurrying off again. I thought the test might be over right then and there, but no, I got another chance.
Meg's breaks also halt at a feather's touch, so the tester marked off points for all my abrupt jerky stops. Bah. It's a good thing it wasn't my very first time in that car--now those had been abrupt stops!
All in all it went ok though. And now I have it, a license. Better late than never, eh? Since I still don't like driving, I think those around me might be more excited than me. But still, there is a sense of accomplishment there, and a sense that certain things that were not possible might now be. I can go return my library books or go buy us some milk by borrowing a car rather than a person and a car.
All this new freedom was immediately put to use. I felt like I had to drive all over creation today when Manda took sick while we were out. Really it was just across San Jose and Los Gatos, and back and forth up and down the hill about three times. I drove Sky and Rhys and Manda and managed not to crash and kill us all, even with the toddler shouting in the back. I drove myself back up the 17 in the rain alone and even braved the fast lane to go around a truck (with traffic to merge with, no less).
I crossed two lanes in rapid succession to get an off ramp on the 280 and then three more lanes on Moreland once I was off, again in rapid succession. For those of you who don't know me, that was scarier than the 17 in the rain. For those of you who don't know the 17 it's a twisty narrow mountain freeway, though it's becoming home turf for me (and no, I have no plan of getting cocky; I have a healthy respect for those drops and rocks; it's just that other drivers scare me even more and the 280 is busy).
Anyway, it may be crazy scary, but it seems I have joined the driving masses at long last. I don't regret waiting so long. I really didn't need it as a teen or even as a college student. Public transit is more ecologically sound, it was perfectly feasible in many of the places I've lived. But not here. The last bus that ran this was was canceled half a year ago; there is no safe way down the mountain except driving. (Crazy people can bike or walk along the edge of road even crazier with narrow lanes and long drops and blind curves than the 17 with the locals zipping past at half again the speed limit...but not for me, thank you.)
So there you have it. On my...fifth? sixth?...driver's permit, more than a decade after my first one...and yet on my very first ever driver's test: I passed.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
DunDraCon
For some time now I have been playing, off an on, on Witch Storm, an online role playing site and it has occurred to me that text rpgs of this sort have an odd relationship with fiction writing. I describe the site to non-role players as a "cooperative fiction writing forum" where we write stories by taking turns narrating from the viewpoints of different characters in the story. Often those who come in emphasizing the "game" aspect of role playing game face difficulties, as this is not the sort of game where you are trying to "win." Gaining power and wielding it, fulfilling your characters agendas, all these should be very much secondary to ensuring there is good drama overall. And usually drama is better when your viewpoint characters are having a very hard time rather than when everything is going their way.
This weekend I attended DunDraCon and, for various reasons, my normal ratio of RPGs to LARPs was inverted and I played in LARPs most of the weekend. I thus had time to reflect that LARPs had a somewhat parallel relationship with acting that online text rpgs did with creative writing. Later, to my amusement, the GM of the best LARP I played in commented on much the same thing and challenged us to act our characters rather than play them.
Whether I am playing a table top game, an online text game or a LARP, story and character growth interest me most. That is probably why I am less interested in computer games or even board games and card games where winning and strategy are paramount.
This DunDraCon was an epic one for LARPs. There was a three part game that spanned the whole history of a tiny world from creation to destruction. I got to play in the first and second game and my second game character appeared in the last one as well, having been one of four characters to gain god-like powers in game two. Not that that had been her intention...in fact it was somewhat inconvenient at the time! I also played in a WoD LARP at long last, and that was fun and dramatic, playing a Changeling (someone stolen by faeries and then escaped back to the real world forever altered) consumed by anger and a determination to see justice done and to protect humans from suffering a like fate. I got to plot and scheme but also pace angrily and pull at my hair and claw at the furniture in frustration.
But the most epic game by far in terms of drama, was an Elizabethan Steampunk fantasy game called "Ship of Fools." It was phenomenal. So detailed. At last I played a faction leader...well, co-leader. But everything seemed to go unrelentingly wrong for her from the word go. It was gut wrenching. She wanted so badly to do the right thing, an idealist to the core, and with loved ones along to protect and a whole way of life back home to guard...and yet she had the rug pulled out from under her feet and her world, had to trust people she'd been taught were inherently untrustworthy, learn compromise, and relearn the value of trusting her own instincts. In the end, she saved her party and helped prevent a war by, in fact, trusting the right person and not backing down from that decision. Wow, heavy stuff. I'm really quite shocked she survived it all. It was very touch and go for a while there. She even told someone to kill her if necessary.
I can't wait for the sequel next year.
This weekend I attended DunDraCon and, for various reasons, my normal ratio of RPGs to LARPs was inverted and I played in LARPs most of the weekend. I thus had time to reflect that LARPs had a somewhat parallel relationship with acting that online text rpgs did with creative writing. Later, to my amusement, the GM of the best LARP I played in commented on much the same thing and challenged us to act our characters rather than play them.
Whether I am playing a table top game, an online text game or a LARP, story and character growth interest me most. That is probably why I am less interested in computer games or even board games and card games where winning and strategy are paramount.
This DunDraCon was an epic one for LARPs. There was a three part game that spanned the whole history of a tiny world from creation to destruction. I got to play in the first and second game and my second game character appeared in the last one as well, having been one of four characters to gain god-like powers in game two. Not that that had been her intention...in fact it was somewhat inconvenient at the time! I also played in a WoD LARP at long last, and that was fun and dramatic, playing a Changeling (someone stolen by faeries and then escaped back to the real world forever altered) consumed by anger and a determination to see justice done and to protect humans from suffering a like fate. I got to plot and scheme but also pace angrily and pull at my hair and claw at the furniture in frustration.
But the most epic game by far in terms of drama, was an Elizabethan Steampunk fantasy game called "Ship of Fools." It was phenomenal. So detailed. At last I played a faction leader...well, co-leader. But everything seemed to go unrelentingly wrong for her from the word go. It was gut wrenching. She wanted so badly to do the right thing, an idealist to the core, and with loved ones along to protect and a whole way of life back home to guard...and yet she had the rug pulled out from under her feet and her world, had to trust people she'd been taught were inherently untrustworthy, learn compromise, and relearn the value of trusting her own instincts. In the end, she saved her party and helped prevent a war by, in fact, trusting the right person and not backing down from that decision. Wow, heavy stuff. I'm really quite shocked she survived it all. It was very touch and go for a while there. She even told someone to kill her if necessary.
I can't wait for the sequel next year.
Friday 11 February 2011
The New IT Department
So I was talking with tech support yesterday on chat. After she had fixed my latest problem—I’d been on about five times already that day, setting up this new network at work, I asked her one last thing (so I wouldn't have to contact someone again 5 minute later):
I guess I asked for that one! I was just about on the floor laughing. Gotta love snarky tech support!
In further news, I've been "promoted". In addition to my regular duties, I am now the IT department. Yes, that's right, I'm a department. And the IT department at that. Given the quote above, that should frighten you.
I want to sit down with someone who actually speaks computerese for about an hour and get some comp-speak to English translations, and perhaps some helpful diagrams on a white board. I'm puzzling through it all bit by bit (get it?) but I feeling I should be zipping right through a lot of this. (Ok, I'll stop now, I promise.)
In fact, I feel a little like being a college student again, with more than a full load, except almost all my classes are independent study or private tutorials with busy profs or TAs. There's my civil law class, my crash course in medicine & physiology, and of course my independent study in computer technologies, and then there is driver's ed (private lessons) and my actual taught course in ASL (wow, one at an honest to goodness college). And then there is trying to finish my thesis project in Creative Writing, in which I write a novel. Oh, yes, and there is some sort of weird applied art survey course I signed up for--I'm in the wire work unit right now.
It's a lot of different directions for my brain to stretch in at once, but in many ways I can't be sorry for it. I have missed all the energy that comes from regular intensive learning. So even though it's quite the "course load," I'm glad. I just hope I "pass" everything!!
Me: Ok. Any other pitfalls for those of us who aren't computer geeks?
Tech Support: The future :P
I guess I asked for that one! I was just about on the floor laughing. Gotta love snarky tech support!
---
In further news, I've been "promoted". In addition to my regular duties, I am now the IT department. Yes, that's right, I'm a department. And the IT department at that. Given the quote above, that should frighten you.
I want to sit down with someone who actually speaks computerese for about an hour and get some comp-speak to English translations, and perhaps some helpful diagrams on a white board. I'm puzzling through it all bit by bit (get it?) but I feeling I should be zipping right through a lot of this. (Ok, I'll stop now, I promise.)
In fact, I feel a little like being a college student again, with more than a full load, except almost all my classes are independent study or private tutorials with busy profs or TAs. There's my civil law class, my crash course in medicine & physiology, and of course my independent study in computer technologies, and then there is driver's ed (private lessons) and my actual taught course in ASL (wow, one at an honest to goodness college). And then there is trying to finish my thesis project in Creative Writing, in which I write a novel. Oh, yes, and there is some sort of weird applied art survey course I signed up for--I'm in the wire work unit right now.
It's a lot of different directions for my brain to stretch in at once, but in many ways I can't be sorry for it. I have missed all the energy that comes from regular intensive learning. So even though it's quite the "course load," I'm glad. I just hope I "pass" everything!!
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