Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2011-02-19 12:57 pm
greygirlbeast) wrote2011-02-19 12:57 pm
Entry tags:
"And the Panamanian child stands at the dowager empress' side."
1) Please have a look at the current eBay auctions. We're in one of those dry spells between checks.
2) Now, before I forget again, the latest StarShipSofa includes a reading of "Galápagos." It's a pretty good reading. Merrick comes off a little too perky for a woman whose been through the hell she's been through, but the reader gets many words in many languages right, and that wins very big points with me.
3) The wind is a wild thing today. The wind is always a wild thing, but today it's throwing a wild rumpus out there. Speeds at 25mph, but gusting to 55mph. The house keeps moving, swaying. These old walls are reinforced with steel bands for protection against hurricanes, and days like this I'm grateful. Much of the snow has melted, though it's cold again, currently 35˚F (but feels like 21˚F). I shall be staying in today, thank you very much.
4) Yesterday, we actually did manage to make it all the way through the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir. Go, Spooky! She read all 24,765 words of that aloud, and had to contend with my constantly asking her to stop for this or that line edit. It all holds together much better than I thought, and now I have the confidence, I hope, to proceed with the eighth chapter and then the ninth.
5) I'm reasonably certain that I'll be writing my YA books as Kathleen Tierney. That has mostly been my decision. I'll continue to write short fiction, novellas, etc. as Caitlín R. Kiernan.
6) People do not mean to set me off. Well, at least sometimes it's clear they don't. Case in point: Last night,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chris_walsh posted a link to a review of the Decemberists' The King is Dead (in the comments to my blog), a review written by someone named Ezra Ace Caraeff and published in The Portland Mercury (February 17, 2011). It was not, I know, chris_walsh's wish to set me off, but the very first paragraph got me so angry I spent much of the night bitching about it (much to Spooky's chagrin). The review begins by slamming The Hazards of Love as a "turgid rock opera." But then it gets really stupid. I quote:
Their determined song cycle put the story before the music, and its confusing plotline (with its forest creatures, fauns, and fairies, Hazards might as well have come pre-packaged with 12-sided dice and a wizard's cloak) distracted from both the band's melodic craft and frontman Colin Meloy's penchant for creating lyrics that have left many a weak-kneed listener and dog-eared thesaurus in their wake.
As kids these days are wont to say, o.0. Or something like that. The Hazards of Love is one of the most amazing musical accomplishments of the last decade, and it pains me to see how little vision there is in the world. Also, when will we learn to stop letting doofus hipsters write indie music reviews? Of course, then no one would write them. Of course...that would be a good thing, right? Yes, The King is Dead is excellent, but it's nowhere near the marvel the band achieved with The Hazards of Love (though, I admit, I love my dodecahedral dice). Regardless, I do not blame you,chris_walsh.
7) My editor at Penguin wrote me yesterday about the recycled cover fiasco. In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic, as I'd expected it would be. I was told "It’s actually not that uncommon, as we only buy the rights to use the art on our books in the territories we have. The artist owns the work itself. So sometimes artists will sell the same painting or a similar painting to a foreign publisher for a different book, or sell the image for a greeting card or a calendar or something. I know it’s disconcerting to come across, though. I’m double-checking with our art director that the artist sold this legitimately, but I haven’t heard back yet." Of course, Penguin buys just about every territory on earth. But not Romania. By the way, the artist in question is Gene Mollica, and I'm told he has a website out there somewhere, though I have no wish to see it. It's all business as usual, and business as usual is pretty much always a slipshod, disheartening affair. Regardless, I don't blame my editor for this. She didn't make those rules.
8) Last night, after I plowed through all 55 quests in Azshara and started in on Desolace (still determined to get the title Loremaster before leaving WoW), I signed up for the Rift beta, and Spooky gave me a few minutes on her laptop. I rolled a Kelari mage named Selwyn and a Bahmi cleric named Shaharrazad (the name lives on! Arrakis, Azeroth, and now Telara). And I played a couple of levels. And...damn. The game is astounding. Everything I saw about this game is astounding. And beautiful. The best character generator I have ever seen, bar none. It was hard to go back to the candy-colored, cartoon silliness of WoW, with all its poo jokes and puns. But...I'll just soldier on and keep my sights on the spring. Of course, Rift isn't idiot proof. No MMORPG ever will be. For example, there was some Kelari woman named Mayonnaise in the starting area with me last night. I'm sure her typist though she or he was being terribly clever.
9) Yesterday, while we were reading, the door to the front stairwell mysteriously opened. We're pretty sure Hubero used his brain to make it open. And, of course, he was out in a flash, and Spooky had to chase him up and down the stairs. I came out and pulled the door shut behind me. And it locked. Fortunately, the guy downstairs is good at picking locks, so we were back inside in only about five minutes. Screw you, Houdini cat!
And now....doughnuts. Comments!
2) Now, before I forget again, the latest StarShipSofa includes a reading of "Galápagos." It's a pretty good reading. Merrick comes off a little too perky for a woman whose been through the hell she's been through, but the reader gets many words in many languages right, and that wins very big points with me.
3) The wind is a wild thing today. The wind is always a wild thing, but today it's throwing a wild rumpus out there. Speeds at 25mph, but gusting to 55mph. The house keeps moving, swaying. These old walls are reinforced with steel bands for protection against hurricanes, and days like this I'm grateful. Much of the snow has melted, though it's cold again, currently 35˚F (but feels like 21˚F). I shall be staying in today, thank you very much.
4) Yesterday, we actually did manage to make it all the way through the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir. Go, Spooky! She read all 24,765 words of that aloud, and had to contend with my constantly asking her to stop for this or that line edit. It all holds together much better than I thought, and now I have the confidence, I hope, to proceed with the eighth chapter and then the ninth.
5) I'm reasonably certain that I'll be writing my YA books as Kathleen Tierney. That has mostly been my decision. I'll continue to write short fiction, novellas, etc. as Caitlín R. Kiernan.
6) People do not mean to set me off. Well, at least sometimes it's clear they don't. Case in point: Last night,
chris_walsh posted a link to a review of the Decemberists' The King is Dead (in the comments to my blog), a review written by someone named Ezra Ace Caraeff and published in The Portland Mercury (February 17, 2011). It was not, I know, chris_walsh's wish to set me off, but the very first paragraph got me so angry I spent much of the night bitching about it (much to Spooky's chagrin). The review begins by slamming The Hazards of Love as a "turgid rock opera." But then it gets really stupid. I quote:Their determined song cycle put the story before the music, and its confusing plotline (with its forest creatures, fauns, and fairies, Hazards might as well have come pre-packaged with 12-sided dice and a wizard's cloak) distracted from both the band's melodic craft and frontman Colin Meloy's penchant for creating lyrics that have left many a weak-kneed listener and dog-eared thesaurus in their wake.
As kids these days are wont to say, o.0. Or something like that. The Hazards of Love is one of the most amazing musical accomplishments of the last decade, and it pains me to see how little vision there is in the world. Also, when will we learn to stop letting doofus hipsters write indie music reviews? Of course, then no one would write them. Of course...that would be a good thing, right? Yes, The King is Dead is excellent, but it's nowhere near the marvel the band achieved with The Hazards of Love (though, I admit, I love my dodecahedral dice). Regardless, I do not blame you,
chris_walsh.7) My editor at Penguin wrote me yesterday about the recycled cover fiasco. In the end, it was pretty anticlimactic, as I'd expected it would be. I was told "It’s actually not that uncommon, as we only buy the rights to use the art on our books in the territories we have. The artist owns the work itself. So sometimes artists will sell the same painting or a similar painting to a foreign publisher for a different book, or sell the image for a greeting card or a calendar or something. I know it’s disconcerting to come across, though. I’m double-checking with our art director that the artist sold this legitimately, but I haven’t heard back yet." Of course, Penguin buys just about every territory on earth. But not Romania. By the way, the artist in question is Gene Mollica, and I'm told he has a website out there somewhere, though I have no wish to see it. It's all business as usual, and business as usual is pretty much always a slipshod, disheartening affair. Regardless, I don't blame my editor for this. She didn't make those rules.
8) Last night, after I plowed through all 55 quests in Azshara and started in on Desolace (still determined to get the title Loremaster before leaving WoW), I signed up for the Rift beta, and Spooky gave me a few minutes on her laptop. I rolled a Kelari mage named Selwyn and a Bahmi cleric named Shaharrazad (the name lives on! Arrakis, Azeroth, and now Telara). And I played a couple of levels. And...damn. The game is astounding. Everything I saw about this game is astounding. And beautiful. The best character generator I have ever seen, bar none. It was hard to go back to the candy-colored, cartoon silliness of WoW, with all its poo jokes and puns. But...I'll just soldier on and keep my sights on the spring. Of course, Rift isn't idiot proof. No MMORPG ever will be. For example, there was some Kelari woman named Mayonnaise in the starting area with me last night. I'm sure her typist though she or he was being terribly clever.
9) Yesterday, while we were reading, the door to the front stairwell mysteriously opened. We're pretty sure Hubero used his brain to make it open. And, of course, he was out in a flash, and Spooky had to chase him up and down the stairs. I came out and pulled the door shut behind me. And it locked. Fortunately, the guy downstairs is good at picking locks, so we were back inside in only about five minutes. Screw you, Houdini cat!
And now....doughnuts. Comments!
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The big reason I linked to that was how it talked about the writing of The King Is Dead. The process stuff. Definitely didn't know what your feelings were on The Hazards of Love, and definitely didn't mean to piss you off (but thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt).
Now I'll hope
In happier news, I am curious as to what Kathleen Tierney will give us. Best of the good luck. I hope that works for you.
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and definitely didn't mean to piss you off
You didn't piss me off. Ezra Ace Caraeff did.
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Yeah. That's just stupid. Several different flavors of.
We're pretty sure Hubero used his brain to make it open.
That doesn't even slightly surprise me.
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Indeed, there is a grand diversity of stupid in so few words.
That doesn't even slightly surprise me.
His brain scares me. I shudder to imagine what the reviewer would have thought of The Tain.
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This will do nothing to amend the reviewer's stupidity, but it improved my night: Placebo covered "Hardly Wait."
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Seems like a Robotech line.
Alas, I wouldn't know. Robotech is alien to me.
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It also strikes me as kind of funny, the doughnuts getting marching orders. (Gee, this thing I have about doughnuts...)
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so I'm not totally uncultured about anime.
I had a very short-lived interest in anime in the mid-nineties, then I lost the interest entirely. I've also never been interested in manga.
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I know it probably wasn't funny as it was happening
Not in the least. For a moment, I feared Spooky would kill me.
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(If it weren't for Radiohead's The King of Limbs, I might not believe in anything...)
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Call me as socialist as you want, but publishing's business as usual always reminds me of the difference between McDonald's and fine dining...except that every major publisher is competing to be as McDonald's as possible and nobody wants to dare serve fine wine.
You're a socialist, but so am I. And yes, I think this is true, what you've said.
(If it weren't for Radiohead's The King of Limbs, I might not believe in anything...)
Sadly, I've not heard it yet. Tight money and all.
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To be honest, that's just convinced me to buy this album! I've not heard any Decemberists as yet, but this sounds fucking amazing. This idiot sounds like he was reviewing a Yes record, anyway.
Spooky's reading endurance is impressive. Perhaps she should do your podcasts.
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To be honest, that's just convinced me to buy this album! I've not heard any Decemberists as yet, but this sounds fucking amazing.
There are hints of "Tamlin," but it goes off in other weird and wonderful directions.
Perhaps she should do your podcasts.
We've spoken about that.
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Any way, I was wondering if you have ever heard of an Oogle.
I never, ever have.
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Kathleen Tierney. I like the sound of that.
I'm glad. I toyed with Kate Tierney, and Rebekah Tierney. But my name, Caitlín, is actually pronounced close to "Kathleen," so I'll probably go with that.
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So, at the risk of sounding like someone with no knowledge of punctuation or pronunciation, one would pronounce Caitlín as Kate-leen?
Yes. And it's not a stupid question. Not many people know anything about Irish Gælic.
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Kathleen Tierney. Very nice. I'll have to remember that, as I tend to spout your name off in every interview I do.
Sorry to hear about the business of the cover fiasco. Oddly enough, I just saw another case of it in YA world, where the cover for Saundra Mitchell's historical The Vespertine was basically just re-colored and used for another not-yet-released YA in english. Shittiness, all around.
And oh, Spooky is a warrior. All writers should have their own Spooky.
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Kathleen Tierney. Very nice. I'll have to remember that, as I tend to spout your name off in every interview I do.
Well, unless I decide Rebekah Tierney is better.
And oh, Spooky is a warrior. All writers should have their own Spooky.
Yes, they should.