Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2007-10-07 11:53 am
greygirlbeast) wrote2007-10-07 11:53 am
Entry tags:
restless wind inside a letter box
Yesterday was exactly three years ago to the day that I began work on the prologue of Daughter of Hounds. So, it's fitting then that yesterday was the day I finally began to find my way into Joey Lafaye.
Spooky and I spent a good portion of the day just talking about the book — characters, theme, setting, plot, etc. This is usually what I do instead of outlining, writing character profiles, etc. Just talk and think and wait. I have a suspicion that I am now very near the prologue. I might even be able to begin it today. But there are several difficult points I have yet to resolve. For one, the novel is, I believe, set in the late 1970s (which should put to rest any suspicion that it will be in any way a sequel to Daughter of Hounds). For another, I have yet to decide whether it takes place in Georgia or in South County, Rhode Island (somewhere in the vicinity of Peacedale/Wakefield). And going into a novel uncertain of its locale is utterly alien, as place has always been so integral to the books I'm writing. But, in part, this is a novel about a carnival/fair that moves around a lot (though it's not moving around during the story), and in that respect — since most the central characters are carnies — locale really doesn't matter. I am leaning strongly towards Rhode Island, as I think I am done writing about the South. Truly, I have nothing further to say about the South, and I don't want this book to have a default Southern setting just because I am, at the moment, living here, or because I grew up here, or whatever. Silk and Threshold and Low Red Moon are set in the South because they are, to varying degrees, Southern novels. Joey Lafaye won't be. At any rate, the writing will begin very, very soon.
I also have to get started on something for Sirenia Digest #23. In fact, a really good goal for this week would be writing a vignette and the prologue for Joey Lafaye. That's awfully ambitious, so we shall see. Also, I'd still love to hear some feedback on the last couple issues of the Digest.
We still have ongoing eBay auctions, until October 8th. Check those out. Also, if you haven't yet seen Spooky's latest doll, Tilda...I mean, Amelia, you might want to have a look. And I should probably remind you that Beowulf is now available (I will not be auctioning copies of this book anytime soon).
Across the Universe is the first film since Danny Boyle's Sunshine to hit me so hard it just won't leave me alone. Which means we'll probably be seeing it in theatres again. All day yesterday, in between Joey Lafaye, we talked about Across the Universe. Oh, and I read Roger Ebert's review (these days, I try never to read reviews before I see a film), which is fairly spot on.
Oh, and there's a great piece in Spin by Anthony Bourdain about New York City in 1977, so you may want to have a look at that, as well. I admit I was tickled at his comparing the Sex Pistols to the Monkees.
And last night, Spooky made a stir fry with purple Jasmine rice — Khao Gram — which I'd never had before. And then there was Torchwood, and then mostly Second Life and the Dune sim and some of the most sublime roleplaying I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Really, some of the very best dialogue I've written, I think.
Okay. Enough for now. Somewhere, there is coffee.
Spooky and I spent a good portion of the day just talking about the book — characters, theme, setting, plot, etc. This is usually what I do instead of outlining, writing character profiles, etc. Just talk and think and wait. I have a suspicion that I am now very near the prologue. I might even be able to begin it today. But there are several difficult points I have yet to resolve. For one, the novel is, I believe, set in the late 1970s (which should put to rest any suspicion that it will be in any way a sequel to Daughter of Hounds). For another, I have yet to decide whether it takes place in Georgia or in South County, Rhode Island (somewhere in the vicinity of Peacedale/Wakefield). And going into a novel uncertain of its locale is utterly alien, as place has always been so integral to the books I'm writing. But, in part, this is a novel about a carnival/fair that moves around a lot (though it's not moving around during the story), and in that respect — since most the central characters are carnies — locale really doesn't matter. I am leaning strongly towards Rhode Island, as I think I am done writing about the South. Truly, I have nothing further to say about the South, and I don't want this book to have a default Southern setting just because I am, at the moment, living here, or because I grew up here, or whatever. Silk and Threshold and Low Red Moon are set in the South because they are, to varying degrees, Southern novels. Joey Lafaye won't be. At any rate, the writing will begin very, very soon.
I also have to get started on something for Sirenia Digest #23. In fact, a really good goal for this week would be writing a vignette and the prologue for Joey Lafaye. That's awfully ambitious, so we shall see. Also, I'd still love to hear some feedback on the last couple issues of the Digest.
We still have ongoing eBay auctions, until October 8th. Check those out. Also, if you haven't yet seen Spooky's latest doll, Tilda...I mean, Amelia, you might want to have a look. And I should probably remind you that Beowulf is now available (I will not be auctioning copies of this book anytime soon).
Across the Universe is the first film since Danny Boyle's Sunshine to hit me so hard it just won't leave me alone. Which means we'll probably be seeing it in theatres again. All day yesterday, in between Joey Lafaye, we talked about Across the Universe. Oh, and I read Roger Ebert's review (these days, I try never to read reviews before I see a film), which is fairly spot on.
Oh, and there's a great piece in Spin by Anthony Bourdain about New York City in 1977, so you may want to have a look at that, as well. I admit I was tickled at his comparing the Sex Pistols to the Monkees.
And last night, Spooky made a stir fry with purple Jasmine rice — Khao Gram — which I'd never had before. And then there was Torchwood, and then mostly Second Life and the Dune sim and some of the most sublime roleplaying I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of. Really, some of the very best dialogue I've written, I think.
Okay. Enough for now. Somewhere, there is coffee.
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I keep thinking Tilda/Amelia needs quicksilver eyes
If there ever were to be a film version of Daughter of Hounds, I'd hope Tilda Swinton could make a cameo appearance as Miss Josephine. Actually, considering all the prosthetic make-up that would be involved with the ghouls, she could double as Miss Josephine and Madame Terpsichore.
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That would be near-perfect.
Southern novels
Re: Southern novels
Please, please, share just a bit more on what embodies the Southern novel? Please?
Well, I've never considered myself an authority, though Southern fiction has been a strong influence on my work. I'm better at pointing to Southern literature from the early and mid-20th Century (the so-called "Southern Renaissance") than I am with contemporary Southern novels. William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurtson, Harper Lee, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, on up to authors like Walker Percy and John Kennedy Toole.
Actually, there's a decent entry covering Southern fiction on Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_literature)
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That's similar to what I do, except I just talk to myself. I'm actually having a difficult time building the things lately--I've been thinking how with Boschen and Nesuko I was drawing on characters and places that I'd talked about and developed all through high school without actually much writing anything about them. I'm kind of having to start from an unfamiliar square one.
I had a creative writing teacher who made the class write up character profiles, which I kind of enjoyed, but I always felt like the profiles were pieces unto themselves and writing a story about the characters felt superfluous.
most the central characters are carnies
That's what I like to hear.
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And, supposedly, Boyle had a "real scientific crew" to help figure out the background of that turd? Who'd he hire--some stupid anime-obsessed blue-haired kid who'd seen Event Horizon one too many times and wanted to remake it?
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http://www.greengoblin.com/internal/corner/shark.html
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I still think you need to return to New England for research purposes.
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I still think you need to return to New England for research purposes.
So do I. :-)
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Now that the novel is out, I wonder if you could tell us how you feel about it. I haven't yet had a chance to start it (I did buy it, though), but I know those writing, unwriting, and editing marches were quite hard for you (to say the least). Any thoughts now that the book is out in the world?