Solstice '11

[greygirlbeast]

Outside, it's 80F and feels like 81F. Inside, 80F. Balance, kiddos.

The last thing I recall saying before I fell asleep this morning is, "Only a dyke would have a crush on Charlie Brown." This is, in fact, a reference to Peppermint Patty. Let's just say I was very tired. Though, that's often when I speak the truth.

This morning, I dreamed I was in some weird sequel to Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." Pretty much all detail is lost to me, but I can assure you it was not the least bit pleasant. The sense of uncleanliness, that it was unsafe to touch, drink, or eat anything, or even to breathe. It reminds me how "The Colour Out of Space" is a perfect parable for environmental degradation.

Yesterday was spent editing Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart and the first four chapters Blood Oranges, finding as many errors in the latter as possible and correcting them. This afternoon, it goes to my agent. Booya. I now know that I'll write an introduction for Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart called "Sexing the Weird." I'm going to ask another author to write an afterword, and I hope to include a lot of illustrations by Vince Locke

Couldn't sleep last night. When I can't sleep, neither can Spooky. So our insomnias align. She read me the first three sections of William Burroughs' Junky (which I've not read since the summer of 1994). Then she turned off the light, about 4:30 ayem. The sky had grown very bright, there on that shortest darkness of the year. I sat at the kitchen table eating leftover pasta salad and watching the dawn. Finally, the pills kicked in, and I crawled away to bed and sleep.

Happy birthday, faustfatale!

Our thanks to Stephen Lubold for the latest care package: Brown Bird's EP "The Sound of Ghosts," and three books: Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and the first two volumes of Mike Raicht and Brian Smith's amazing The Stuff of Legend. As it happens, he also won yesterday's ARC auction.

Good Rifting and rping last night. Thanks to everyone! The guild grows.

And yes, it's Soltice, Midsummer, Lithia, Litha. It is a day that Kathryn and I observe. If you do likewise, I wish you a happy Litha. I won't say blessed. Not sure I believe much in blessings, and even if I did, I would be unable to bestow them. The wheel turns. The shortest night, tonight.

We'll go to this evening to observe the day. We've talked about staying at the shore all night, maybe watching the sunrise over Narragansett Bay. But first I have a lot of work to do.

Comments, kittens!

Traveling the Circumference,
Aunt Beast

Comments

[acwise.livejournal.com]

I imagine it wouldn't be very pleasant to dream about, but 'The Colour Out of Space' is probably my favorite Lovecraft story. It seems to be one of his more over-looked and under-rated stories as well.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

'Miss Peregrine' sounds like it could be great - somebody described it as Machenesque, so I'm sold.

Hoping you'll put John Five into Confessions; the way you talked about that last year really interested me. There was another you mentioned from that time (something connecting one of the gas giants with an encounter on a backroad, I think, but can't remember anything else) that also sounded great.

Hope you and Spooky have a great Solstice.

[papersteven.livejournal.com]

and I hope to include a lot of illustrations by Vince Locke

Wonderful! Do you mind if I ask why his illustrations were not included in The Ammonite Violin & Others?

[lois2037.livejournal.com]

The Colour Out of Space is one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, too. I'm continually surprised that today's environmentalists haven't claimed it for their own. That must have been one hell of a disturbing dream, though.

I love the idea of spending the night at the seaside and watching the sunrise over the ocean. It sounds so romantic and lovely.

[awdrey-gore.livejournal.com]

I used to hate William S. Burroughs. Tom Waits, too. When I was younger I didn't understand that I loathed them because they both had my number. I want to try to read Burroughs again but I am, sadly and honestly, a bit afraid. I am not quite yet to the point where I can tolerate so much truth.

On a completely different note, I am looking forward to reading Miss Peregrine...

[catconley.livejournal.com]

Hope you two do get down the the shore tonight. It's a beautiful evening for it!

[insanitybook.livejournal.com]

Wait...if she's a dyke, why would she have a crush on Charlie Brown, who is a boy? I'm so confused.

I always thought that, if any character in Peanuts was gay, it would be Schroeder.

[royal-spice.livejournal.com]

Happy Solstice! Enjoy the sunrise over the water--that sounds like a perfect way to appreciate this amazing world and recognize the day without getting a bunch of woowoo on it. ;)

[sovay]

I'm going to ask another author to write an afterword, and I hope to include a lot of illustrations by Vince Locke.

Nice.

Happy solstice!

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

Yay Vince Locke!

I bought the Kindle version of Low Red Moon yesterday because I couldn't wait to get home and I had an urge to read it.

[gargirl.livejournal.com]

I just got "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" for my birthday. I saw it in the bookstore the day after it came out and I just knew I needed to have it.

The book has mysterious powers: my neighbor was in the bookstore at the same time I was. I hadn't picked the book up as it was so close to my birthday I knew I ought not to buy something so obviously "mine" because someone else would get it for me but my neighbor bought it for herself... so the book's mysterious power revealed to me that my neighbor, who I had taken as a bit too normal, was in fact one of us. Such unexpected good news might even lure me out of my safe little den into the open out where the people are.

Oh, and I listened to the songs from Brown Bird. I very much liked the one called; "Bilge water."

[mizliz13.livejournal.com]

Happy Solstice! (Er, um, a day late...)