I never used subject lines at Blogger, so why do I need them here?

[greygirlbeast]

Eight hours sleep last night, but, as has been usual of late, an assortment of nightmares that will require most of the day to clear from my mind. And we're on our fourth consecutive day of grey, rainy, March-like weather, with more coming tomorrow. I need summer. Real summer. Too hot to walk barefoot on the sidewalk without blistering your feet summer. Sweltering after dark summer. There's no sign of it in the extended weather forecast. Right now, it's 58F Outside, here in Providence.

You should all know this: Charles Harvey, in The Red Tree, is not a parapsychologist. He's an anthropologist and folklorist. Recently, it was pointed out to me that synopses of the book appearing online speak of him as a parapsychologist, which, as I've said, he is not. I wrote my editor at Penguin, who very apologetically told me that somehow the copy was rewritten after I approved the supposedly final version, and, so, on the cover (the covers are already being printed) Harvey will be described as a parapsychologist, even though he's nothing of the sort. But, what the hell. Maybe it'll sell more books, if people think they're getting a parapsychologist (even though they're not). It should have upset me, hearing about this, but it didn't. I am vaguely concerned that it hasn't upset me. I fear I am losing the ability to care about what happens to the books once I have finished writing them.

Also, I never meant to give the impression that my publisher is paying for the book trailer. I'm paying all the production costs myself. I'm pretty sure I never said otherwise, but there were comments yesterday that indicated some readers had drawn that conclusion.

Yesterday, I wrote 1,281 words on "The Alchemist's Daughter." I hope I can find THE END of the story by Saturday evening.

Please have a look at the current eBay auctions, as we're hoping to defray the cost of my attending ReaderCon in July with this round of auctions. Thanks. I honestly do not know how writers afford to attend more than a single convention a year, and even that's a stretch. Well, there are those very few authors who make a lot of money, and have their expenses covered by cons, because it's all a vicious circle.

I have got to escape this house soon. I've got to see the sun. And the moon. Just now, I'd trade any number of valuable possessions for one muggy night.

Comments

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Further, I, personally, will never use the word again, in your honor.

Well, that's probably for the best. It is a rather silly word. Or maybe it's just that parapsychologists tend to be rather silly people.

[readingthedark.livejournal.com]

It is the tyranny of consensus reality. Words like supernatural and paranormal, they're all problematic because they incur an attempt to marginalize -- yet, if Fortean events do occur they are not as divorced from everyday existence as the words and their meanings tend to suggest. People are afraid of what the words mean, so the words are unclearly defined in regular usage.

What is a folklorist when the stories are true? To us, they would still be a folklorist -- but to many it would then require a new word because non-dominant myths get shoved aside. (Hint: This is because the dominant myths are only allowed to be preached in fancy churches.)

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

What is a folklorist when the stories are true?

I think they are still folklorists. I don't think that the word, "folklore," entails falsehood, anymore than "legend" or "myth," though, of course, people do tend to think that way.