"No hydra or transformers in this."
Nov. 5th, 2010 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastHard rain last night, rainy today.
Yesterday is the day I've feared. After three fantastic writing days, yesterday The Drowning Girl sputtered and hit a speed bump. I did only 595 words. Even emptying the Word Bank, I was still 234 words short for yesterday. Today, I have to do much better and get back on track. I'm giving myself until the 7th (instead of until the 6th) to finish Chapter One (which, in the book, is just 1).
Spooky had to go out to get her new glasses (which look great), and when she got back home I was pretty panicked and flustered. But there was much good mail, which rather helped my spirits. Best of the lot was a Lovecraft pin, sent to me by my editor, Anne Sowards. The administrators of the World Fantasy Awards present each nominee with one of these pins, which are miniatures of the actual award (designed by Gahan Wilson). It made me very happy, and helps me feel better about The Red Tree, and now I shall always wear it on my lapel, whenever I have a lapel on which to wear it. There's is a photo behind the cut (yeah, my nail polish is looking rough):
Photograph Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn A. Pollnac
My thanks to everyone who bid on Study #2 for Yelllow, and to the winner of the auction. Likely, as mentioned already, it'll be at least a couple of months before I offer another painting. There's a large canvas I want to do next, and I don't intend to sell it.
Other good mail yesterday included my Shaharrazad mousepad. I've used the same mousepad since...forever. It's an Emily Strange mousepad I got when I was still living in Athens, round about 1996 or '97. And finally it had worn smooth and needed replacing. But getting thirteen or fourteen years out of a mousepad is surely to be counted as a good deal. Also, thanks to Steven Lubold, who sent us a copy of Current 93's Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, which I'm listening to at this very minute. The mail also included my contributor's copy of Steampunk Reloaded (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer), which reprints "The Steam Dancer (1896)."
Last night, after dinner, we began the annual November reading of House of Leaves. This will be reading #5 or #6, I suppose. We also read Kelly Link's hilarious and charming "The Fairy Handbag" and her absolutely brilliant "Pretty Monsters." I cannot stress how much I adore "Pretty Monsters." The structure of the narrative is a trick I wish I'd thought of first, and the characters are so perfectly executed (make of that verb, executed, what you will). And these lines, from near the end, are wonderful:
Except you can't judge a book by its cover. Whether or not this story has a happy ending depends, of course, on who is reading it. Whether you are a wolf or a girl. A girl or a monster or both. Not everyone in a story gets a happy ending. Not everyone who reads a story feels the same way about how it ends. And if you go back to the beginning and read it again, you may discover it isn't the same story you thought you'd read. Stories shift their shape.
I also got some very, very good rp in CoX (thank you Sekhmet and Enth'lye). I've just about decided to cut all the Lovecraftian out of Erzébetta's backstory, and just avoid bastardized HPL whenever it crops up in the game. This is not the sort of thing about which I can compromise. I'm not even willing to try. Do it right, or do not bother, because doing it wrong is an insult to the source material. Oh, also,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
darkarmadillo managed, in yesterday's comments, in only three words, to perfectly summarize the essence of Lovecraft's cosmicism:
Nobody saves nothing.
Damn straight.
Yesterday is the day I've feared. After three fantastic writing days, yesterday The Drowning Girl sputtered and hit a speed bump. I did only 595 words. Even emptying the Word Bank, I was still 234 words short for yesterday. Today, I have to do much better and get back on track. I'm giving myself until the 7th (instead of until the 6th) to finish Chapter One (which, in the book, is just 1).
Spooky had to go out to get her new glasses (which look great), and when she got back home I was pretty panicked and flustered. But there was much good mail, which rather helped my spirits. Best of the lot was a Lovecraft pin, sent to me by my editor, Anne Sowards. The administrators of the World Fantasy Awards present each nominee with one of these pins, which are miniatures of the actual award (designed by Gahan Wilson). It made me very happy, and helps me feel better about The Red Tree, and now I shall always wear it on my lapel, whenever I have a lapel on which to wear it. There's is a photo behind the cut (yeah, my nail polish is looking rough):
Photograph Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn A. Pollnac
My thanks to everyone who bid on Study #2 for Yelllow, and to the winner of the auction. Likely, as mentioned already, it'll be at least a couple of months before I offer another painting. There's a large canvas I want to do next, and I don't intend to sell it.
Other good mail yesterday included my Shaharrazad mousepad. I've used the same mousepad since...forever. It's an Emily Strange mousepad I got when I was still living in Athens, round about 1996 or '97. And finally it had worn smooth and needed replacing. But getting thirteen or fourteen years out of a mousepad is surely to be counted as a good deal. Also, thanks to Steven Lubold, who sent us a copy of Current 93's Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain, which I'm listening to at this very minute. The mail also included my contributor's copy of Steampunk Reloaded (edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer), which reprints "The Steam Dancer (1896)."
Last night, after dinner, we began the annual November reading of House of Leaves. This will be reading #5 or #6, I suppose. We also read Kelly Link's hilarious and charming "The Fairy Handbag" and her absolutely brilliant "Pretty Monsters." I cannot stress how much I adore "Pretty Monsters." The structure of the narrative is a trick I wish I'd thought of first, and the characters are so perfectly executed (make of that verb, executed, what you will). And these lines, from near the end, are wonderful:
Except you can't judge a book by its cover. Whether or not this story has a happy ending depends, of course, on who is reading it. Whether you are a wolf or a girl. A girl or a monster or both. Not everyone in a story gets a happy ending. Not everyone who reads a story feels the same way about how it ends. And if you go back to the beginning and read it again, you may discover it isn't the same story you thought you'd read. Stories shift their shape.
I also got some very, very good rp in CoX (thank you Sekhmet and Enth'lye). I've just about decided to cut all the Lovecraftian out of Erzébetta's backstory, and just avoid bastardized HPL whenever it crops up in the game. This is not the sort of thing about which I can compromise. I'm not even willing to try. Do it right, or do not bother, because doing it wrong is an insult to the source material. Oh, also,
darkarmadillo managed, in yesterday's comments, in only three words, to perfectly summarize the essence of Lovecraft's cosmicism:Nobody saves nothing.
Damn straight.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 04:42 pm (UTC)I need to buy a new copy, soon, so that I can get back to doing that... My copy is too marked and annotated, which, for the reasons Ms. Link mentions, matters.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 06:46 pm (UTC)I need to buy a new copy, soon, so that I can get back to doing that... My copy is too marked and annotated, which, for the reasons Ms. Link mentions, matters.
I can't bring myself to write in it...
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 07:44 pm (UTC)Yes. "You and Me, and these Shadows Keep On Changing."
The relational, shifting nature of the components which make up this mythical, mythological, perfect world, the things which rest between these people and make up the pieces of their lives together. The splinters they have to see through to make their world work.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 06:45 pm (UTC)Please pet it once or twice and call it precious...
And keep it safe from filthy hobbitses!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 09:04 pm (UTC)I'm afraid to let Smeagol see it, lest he run off with it...
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 09:10 pm (UTC)I'm afraid to let Smeagol see it, lest he run off with it...
And bury it in the sofa.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 06:13 pm (UTC)I wonder how many variations of that night we can reenact.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 06:44 pm (UTC)I wonder how many variations of that night we can reenact.
Like I said, infinite permutations on a nightmare.
HPL Pin
Date: 2010-11-05 06:41 pm (UTC)I am still thinking about your discussion about the Lovecraft Mythos vs. the Derleth Mythos. I really would love to see you do an entire post on the subject. In recent years I've re-visited HPL short stories, but it's been decades since I read his works in chronological order. Back in 1975 I don't think I realized Derleth altered the secret seasonings. Now I am curious to re-examine the issue.
Re: HPL Pin
Date: 2010-11-05 06:48 pm (UTC)I am still thinking about your discussion about the Lovecraft Mythos vs. the Derleth Mythos.
Maybe when I've survived the demands of November.
Back in 1975 I don't think I realized Derleth altered the secret seasonings.
Read the Tierney essay I linked to yesterday. I was the wake=up call that changed everything, and began banishing the damage Derleth had done.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 07:20 pm (UTC)I wish I'd had a grandmother like Zofia. She would have *decimated* me at Scrabble. Have you read Magic for Beginners yet? That's delightful.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 07:27 pm (UTC)you must be very chuffed.
That I am.
I wish I'd had a grandmother like Zofia. She would have *decimated* me at Scrabble.
That was one of the things about the story that clicked with me. My grandmother was a fanatic about Scrabble, and we probably played a thousand games when I was a teenager.
Have you read Magic for Beginners yet?
Not yet, but soon.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 09:25 pm (UTC)Right. I'm going to have to pick up House of Leaves now.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 09:32 pm (UTC)I'm going to have to pick up House of Leaves now.
You might also try to get Poe's Haunted. Poe and Mark Danielewski are siblings, and the album's a companion to the book, and vice versa.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 10:09 pm (UTC)Unrelated, but I read The Dry Salvages yesterday. And was impressed. It's a quieter story than, say, White Bull, but it crept up on me. That scene where Audrey and Joakim hear (or don't) the recording of the shuttle crew is chilling; that line from Blake - "a self-contemplating shadow, in enormous labours occupied" - hints at so much. I'd never thought a Blake poem could seem sinister (and I've considered the possibility that the entity on Piros *knew* those lines without picking anyone's mind). And the way you kept the violence offpage, or confined to a sentence or two, really worked for me. The dedication to Farscape made me smile; loved that show. Peacekeeper Wars was pants, though.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 10:42 pm (UTC)Unrelated, but I read The Dry Salvages yesterday. And was impressed. It's a quieter story than, say, White Bull, but it crept up on me. That scene where Audrey and Joakim hear (or don't) the recording of the shuttle crew is chilling; that line from Blake - "a self-contemplating shadow, in enormous labours occupied" - hints at so much. I'd never thought a Blake poem could seem sinister (and I've considered the possibility that the entity on Piros *knew* those lines without picking anyone's mind). And the way you kept the violence offpage, or confined to a sentence or two, really worked for me. The dedication to Farscape made me smile; loved that show.
I am very, very pleased that you liked it!
Peacekeeper Wars was pants, though.
Agreed, utterly.
Btw, your copy of Silk will be mailed, belatedly, on Monday.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 02:35 am (UTC)Maybe that's just me, though.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-05 11:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 01:53 am (UTC)Also, what's your p.o. box again?
no subject
Date: 2010-11-06 05:33 am (UTC)PO Box 603096
Providence, RI
02906
no subject
Date: 2010-11-10 02:10 am (UTC)Have you heard of Kickstarter? (http://www.kickstarter.com). It's important you check it out. I've supported a couple friends' writing projects by kicking a couple bucks their way, and it seems a damn fine method to inordinately finance whatever sideline creative projects you want to pursue. I mention this because I saw an interactive fiction writer who raised $25k for his writing project and was able to quit his job for a year.
~Jacob