call it what you will

[greygirlbeast]

Yesterday, I did a very decent 1,359 words on Daughter of Hounds. Today, I should find the end of Chapter Eight. It will have taken me eleven days, whereas Chapter Seven took only seven days. I think there's enough action in Chapter Eight for two books, but still I know there will be people who insist that the book is "slow" and "nothing happens" and that it "has no plot." Actually, since this book is pretty much devoid of gay characters (there's one minor character towards the start who's a lesbian), I don't know what people are going to have to complain about. They'll find something. That's what they do. Seriously, I hope this book is well received. It's going to be the best one I've written, I'm starting to think.

Also, we proofed the galleys for The Damned Little Book of Days chapbook. It was a busy day. After dinner, we had a long walk in the dark. There was a hint of autumn in the air, and this morning there's a little more than a hint. It makes Spooky happy. I read Robert Reed's short story, "The Dragons of Summer Gulch," a neat sort of alternate history involving vertebrate paleontologists and fossil poachers. And I managed to get another decent night's sleep.

And, for the record, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is a goddamned liar. I continue to be amazed at the willingness of the Bush Administration to lie to the American people and to do so in the most transparant, careless fashion. I also continue to be amazed that it's tolerated...

Once again, if you are able and wish to help with the relief efforts, please contact the American Red Cross.

Comments

Chertoff

[hewet-ka-ptah.livejournal.com]

Lifted from suspect_d's LJ here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/suspect_d/31224.html?nc=2) written on August 27th:

Last year, I was worked a hurricane planning workshop in Baton Rouge, put on by the state's Department of Homeland Security. It dealt with planning and response to a major SE Louisiana hurricane, complete with simulations and expert-designed projections, surveys, etc. A Cat3 making a direct hit on NOLA was projected to cause massive damage, far beyond what the average person might think. Consider the possibility of 18 feet of water in the CBD, a toxic soup of household and industrial chemicals floating around the flooded bowl that NOLA sits in and substantial, if not complete, destruction of homes and businesses along the river. Think floating corpses and balls of fire ants and gasoline and god knows what. If you stay and survive, search and rescue will not come after your ass for some time, and if they do they will be coming to take you out and nothing else. After they blow the levee and the water goes down, it'll still be months before the city is livable. Casualties possibly in five figures. [emphasis mine]

[wishlish.livejournal.com]

Hell, National Geographic knew 2 years ago what would happen...

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/?fs=www7.nationalgeographic.com

"It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great."

Geez...

[algernon33.livejournal.com]

Well, i'm praying to every God and Goddess out there that this will the rekoning for all those Politicos out there...I wonder if some of them hear the faint, but growing Bell Toll..

Catching up...Glad your Mom is safe and so glad to hear Poppy,Chris (and the cats) are safe...

-A33

[dyfferent.livejournal.com]

http://www.newschannel5.tv/2005/9/1/4255/Taking-refuge-in-the-Astrodome

This is a good story. What a hero this kid is...and I can't believe the fools in Texas call his saving 100 strangers "an extreme act of looting." I guess he's too brown to be courageous.

[emrecom.livejournal.com]

It would be nice to think there's a Christian hell if only so Chertoff and the other murderers could burn there for a few eternities.

[madam-silvertip.livejournal.com]

This is unrelated, but is there any way to get a book or two to Poppy?

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

You've been good today, so you get:

Octopus 1, Shark 0

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

Rather off-topic, but I'm just wondering...

Someone lent me Silk before, and I enjoyed it, but it was ages ago, so I don't recall much from it. Reviews of Murder of Angels say that it's a book that can stand on its own even if one hasn't read Silk (or in my case, can't remember the details). Does this also apply to Low Red Moon, or is reading Threshold before it necessary?

Also, I'm waiting for a copy of The Mammoth Book of New Terror. I've read the previous two stories revolving around the Dandridge House (out of order, too, but that didn't prevent me from enjoying it). Any plans to write another story about this?

Finally, and this is where I really go off on fanboy gushing, I picked up a Year's Best Fantasy and Horror anthology with "Onion" in it. I've always wanted to read that ever since I heard what it was about, but I have to say it's an excellent excellent work.

My only "problem" with it is that it struck me too personally that I now find myself at a standstill with a story I've been trying to write. *grins* That's obviously not your fault though! I've always liked your work, and you're probably the best writer out there who can write in present tense (I'm sorry if that's been said to you too many times now), but "Onion" just shot to the top of my list of all-time favorite short fiction.

And oh, when I say personally, it's not that I have travelled to other worlds, but that I have a recurring dream, which I've had almost a hundred times now, that evokes a mood similar to what I got from "Onion."

Anyway, this is it for now. I'm sorry if it's off-topic, but I figure it's high time I got into your longer work!

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Does this also apply to Low Red Moon, or is reading Threshold before it necessary?

[SPOLIER] You'll recall at the end of Threshold, the events of the book are essentially "unhappened" by Chance. Low Red Moon is what happens instead. So, yes, it stands completely alone. It doesn't matter which you read first.

Any plans to write another story about this?

Nope. I think that three is all I'll do about the Dandridge House. I feel like I've pretty much covered all the bases. A few years from now, I may change my mind, of course.

I've always wanted to read that ever since I heard what it was about, but I have to say it's an excellent excellent work.

Thanks!

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the response about the novels. I look forward to getting into them soon.

Also, I just read a previous entry of yours from last year, and I just noticed that the name Dandridge has a rather powerful personal significance to you, to say the least. I didn't know this when I first went all fanboy on those stories, so if I came across as insensitive, I apologize.

Finally, if this is all right for me to say, you have my deepest sympathies and/or empathies about this (I'm not quite sure what the distinction is). I lost a very close friend in a similar way a few months ago, and it hasn't been the same ever since. I posted about my loss but I didn't mention how she died, because I knew I wouldn't take it if people started judging her as weak, etc. I don't think I quite dealt with my feelings in the way I should have, too. You're far braver in what you wrote, so know that, at least from my end, you have no reason to regret posting that.

[eldritch00.livejournal.com]

Okay, I've going to stop embarrassing myself in this thread now. But I seem to have confused the name of the fictional house with her real name, though I guess the connection is there. So sorry!

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

You're far braver in what you wrote, so know that, at least from my end, you have no reason to regret posting that.

Thank you for saying that.