polar bear sticker on the hamster's domicile

[greygirlbeast]

This is likely to be a somewhat rambley and unfocused entry, as I am neither particularly awake nor in particularly good spirits. Likely, there will be short paragraphs. Likely, maybe, perhaps, something unpleasant will be said. Or not. But I advise that you get off now if you're prone to sea sickness, hives, or sudden bouts of impatience. My hair hurts.

Yesterday, among other things, we made it though Chapter Eight of Daughter of Hounds, which, along with Chapter Four, has had me worried, as it's somewhat, shall we say, "action heavy." I don't credit myself with being especially good with action scenes, partly because I'm always thinking how much better they would work on film. But, low and behold and what to you know, I think it's actually very good. There's fire and any number of alternate realities. Chapter Eight is where the novel's two parallel narrative threads finally collide. It's the climax before the climax (before the final climax). This one comes with false bottoms, so you'll be having to mind your steps. I believe that I would also contend that it's a novel without a "villain," that it only contains characters which are at crossed purposes. Of course, I suppose the same could be said for any supposed protagonist/antagonist relationship. Well, okay, I can think of one good villain, but he doesn't get much "screen time." Today, we do Chapter Nine.

More pencils from Vince last night, a sketch for "Untitled 17." Very nice. I may have all the finished artwork for Sirenia Digest #3 by sometime this evening. And by the way, this is a very good day to become a subscriber if you're not one already. Just click here, read the FAQ, then subscribe. For the price of just two or three big cups of that bitter swill Starbuck's insists upon calling coffee, you can have two or three new pieces a fiction each month, plus illustrations and etc. For less than the price of a pizza. Come on. It's the right thing to do. Search your feelings. You know it to be true. If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy, and...er...um...well, just frelling subscribe, okay? Do it today and you'll even get a free copy of the trade paperback of Silk.

A big thank you to David Kirkpatrick, who e-mailed me a PDF of the paper in Nature describing the holotype of the tyrannosauroid, Guanlong wucaii, thus saving me a trip to Emory. Also, these are much better resolution illos. than I'd have ever gotten from a photocopy. Freed from the need to go to the library, Spooky and I wandered about L5P for a while. It was really too cold, though, and we hadn't dressed for it, so we didn't wander for very long. We grabbed what we needed for dinner from the co-op (garlic, fresh basil, tomatoes, field greens, a bag of Newman's Own cinnamon-graham cookies) and headed home again. Warmish once more, I read a paper on a new Lower Cretaceous elasmosaurid taxon, Eromangasaurus caringnathus, from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia and began another on heterodonty in Tyrannosaurus rex. We spent most of the evening reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I fear both the PlayStation and the X-Box are feeling rather neglected this winter.

I think Spooky means to begin the letter S auction later today. I'll make a post when she does. Also, if you haven't yet pre-ordered Alabaster, you should, especially if you're wanting the limited edition.

Oh, and Sunday is Darwin Day. I musn't forget to make an appropriately Darwinist post on the twelfth. Tonight, of course, we get the opening ceremony for the 2006 winter olympics. I'm not one for any sort of team sports, but I do enjoy much of the winter olympics. Okay. I should think that's more than enough of me for one morning...

Comments

Consider me subscribed

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

Went and did the whole Paypal thing. Now after work tonight, I can sit down and peruse. Thanks for writing!

Mack

Re: Consider me subscribed

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Thanks for writing!

Thanks for subscribing.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

It's the climax before the climax (before the final climax).

So you're saying that reading DOH will lead to multiple climaxes?

...it's a novel without a "villain," that it only contains characters which are at crossed purposes. Of course, I suppose the same could be said for any supposed protagonist/antagonist relationship.

Well, "villain" suggests a kind of malevolent intent, a knowing decision to commit evil in counter-action to an established "good". If the characters are only committing actions based on their unconventional views on morality or conduct, it becomes fuzzy. Do we truly condemn the ghul for eating human flesh?

You know, I don't think I even want to ponder that rhetorical question.

For the price of just two or three big cups of that bitter swill Starbuck's insists upon calling coffee, you can have two or three new pieces a fiction each month, plus illustrations and etc. For less than the price of a pizza. Come on. It's the right thing to do. Search your feelings. You know it to be true. If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy, and...er...um

I swear, my internal reading voice actually morphed from "Caitlin-voice" to "Xtian Children's Charities-Voice" to "Wilford Brimley-Voice" to "James Earl Jones-voice" while reading this. Very strange.

Ghuls?

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

"Do we truly condemn the ghul for eating human flesh?"

Damn right we do. They may be perfectly within their rights as a species to live on a diet of long pig, but as long as you're part of the human race, sympathy only goes so far. Understand the ghuls? Sure. Feeding is a part of nature. So is death. Fortunately, the scavenger ghuls do not present enough of a predatory threat to come to general humanity's attention.

And the wonderful circle of life, predator and prey, continues...
Though I have been known to say that humans need a predator other than themselves to thin the herd, but other than microbes and viri, we're short on that. We need a better vampire.

Mack

Re: Ghuls?

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, the scavenger ghuls do not present enough of a predatory threat to come to general humanity's attention...Though I have been known to say that humans need a predator other than themselves to thin the herd, but other than microbes and viri, we're short on that. We need a better vampire.

Nope. Zombies. Takes out the Ghul and the Pinks at the same time. Actually, that might make for some amusing crossover fic: Kiernan Ghul vs. Romero Zombies. The Night Your Snack Snapped Back.

Brains!

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

So you're saying that reading DOH will lead to multiple climaxes?

Indeed. Guaranteed.

Do we truly condemn the ghul for eating human flesh?

You know, I don't think I even want to ponder that rhetorical question.

Well, I don't. The ghouls aren't human, and condemning them for eating humans would be like condemning a lion for eating humans. Also, they tend to favour the flesh of already dead humans, and where's the harm in that? I addressed this issue in the afterword to the subpress edition of Low Red Moon, specifically as it pertains to Narcissa, concluding that I had trouble holding Narcissa to human codes of conduct as she wasn't precisely human.

I swear, my internal reading voice actually morphed from "Caitlin-voice" to "Xtian Children's Charities-Voice" to "Wilford Brimley-Voice" to "James Earl Jones-voice" while reading this. Very strange.

*snork*

Condemning a lion for eating humans

[mackatlaw.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Perhaps I misstated an earlier post of mine. I don't mean that I would _morally_ condemn a lion for eating humans, and would not morally condemn a ghul for eating humans, live or dead. I meant it more in the Robert Heinlein sense -- I would bear the ghul no particular animosity other than the glandular agitation and excitement of the fight, but I'd protest mightily should I be the one being eaten.

Thus the predator/prey relationship -- it's not a moral thing, it's a "them or me" thing. But since ghuls/ghouls are (generally? active scavengers, my analogy doesn't work so well anyway. (Any harm would be to cultural concerns of desecration, common to most people, but that's a different topic attempt.)

Oh well, It's been one of those days... As far as the afterword to LRM goes, I don't have that edition, but I'd opine that Narcissa being stuck between human and non-human existence was the source of all her problems, along with her decision to be unwilling to accept the in-between status. That's what I got out of her driving motivation, anyway!

[timireznor.livejournal.com]

Have you thought of offering the velvet covers to those of us who have the lettered edition of FT&T?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Have you thought of offering the velvet covers to those of us who have the lettered edition of FT&T?

Don't you mean the numbered?

Anyway, Spooky sez she may offer black velveteen bags lined with black silk or satine for people who bought the numbered, or even for the trade edition, but she still has to work out the details, including cost.

[mlle-rouge.livejournal.com]

I'm too poor to bid on the auction, but for what it's worth I promoted Sirenia Digest on my little webzine.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

but for what it's worth I promoted Sirenia Digest on my little webzine.


Thanks!