greygirlbeast: (white)
Caitlín R. Kiernan ([personal profile] greygirlbeast) wrote2011-10-24 01:21 pm

"I takes an ocean not to break company."

So, yeah. Yesterday evening, after the blog entry, I was alerted to the fact that Two Worlds and In Between and I were being spoken of reverently in the pages of The New York Times. To whit:

There’s also no shortfall of ghosts, revenants and otherness in Ms. Kiernan’s Two Worlds and In Between. What’s most satisfying, though, in this retrospective — more than 200,000 words covering 1993 to 2004 — is watching Ms. Kiernan progress from competence and promise to become one of our essential writers of dark fiction...Ms. Kiernan is a cartographer of lost worlds..."

(byline, Dana Jennings)

Follow this link to read the full review.

Yeah, it brightened my mood a tiny bit. I think this is the first time I've ever been mentioned in The New York Times. Sure, the whole world can see my name and my prose every day just by going online. But today, from Manhattan to Tokyo, from Munich to Bombay, people will read my name and prose in print. And, especially in this day and age, that makes me smile. Sure, tomorrow, those same papers will be used to wrap fish and line bird cages. But today...damn. I want to buy copies, cut out the review, and make sure it's read by every one of those assholes who swore I'd "never amount to anything." Alas, many of them are mercifully dead now. As my life unfurls and winds down, I understand it's not enough to outlive your detractors. You also have to do something worthwhile during that whole outliving them thing. Anyway, yes, I am allowed to slip out from beneath the black cowl, feel some vague sense of accomplishment, and gloat for a few hours. I'll duck back into the shadows afterwards, don't worry. Truthfully, it didn't feel real until this morning. Spooky's gone out to find copies of the paper (page C4). Seeing it printed with ink on actual paper will make it feel much more real, I'm sure.

The morale of our story? Simple: If you manage not to die long enough, someone will notice. Maybe.

And if you're looking to bring me down today, over this or anything else, take a number. The line starts over there. Don't call me, I'll call you.

Oh, and having reviewed Apple's return policies, I'm fairly certain the iPad will be returned. I just don't need the thing as badly as I need many other things. And I do need what it could take away. I might change my mind. The jelly-bean shiny may carry the day. Nobody's perfect. We'll see. I'm encountering this phenomenon referred to as "buyer's remorse."

Great new episode of Fringe last night ("Subject 9").

Ah, Spooky's back. Must go see. But first this comment [livejournal.com profile] opalblack made to last night's entry:

Do you know there are actually people out there who envy us that tearing, bottomless darkness? Mostly nooage middle-class-white types who run around campfires waving dead things on sticks and calling it shamanism. I would like to slap them. For a lot of things, really.

Oh, I know those people...and antidotes.

Look upon me! I'll show you the life of the mind! I'll show you the life of the mind! — Charlie Meadows, Barton Fink

Surprised,
Aunt beast

[identity profile] greygirlbeast.livejournal.com 2011-10-24 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)

Only problem is, I can't make up my mind whether to punch the men or the women. Or just start a punch-storm, and punch everything in the room til it blows up.

Works for me.

even moreso than transphobic homos, is hetero men who "joke" that they are "a lesbian trapped in a man's body." That is NOT FUNNY. Not funny at all.

Yerp.

[identity profile] everville340.livejournal.com 2011-10-24 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
...watching Ms. Kiernan progress from competence and promise to become one of our essential writers of dark fiction.

An amazingly poetic and well-deserved compliment. May this be the first of many instances of seeing you in The New York Times and beyond when Drowning Girl and Stills From a Movie That Never Existed are released. Congratulations and well done!

[identity profile] homewardangel.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
I'm so excited for you!

Great news!

p.s. I ordered Two Worlds and in Between and it's being sent to just outside PVD. Not far by any means but I'll be so excited when it gets here!

I have a copy!!

[identity profile] waristerrorism.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
I just read a paper copy of your review. That is really cool.

[identity profile] wolven.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
Or just start a punch-storm, and punch everything in the room til it blows up.

That one. That one, right there.

[identity profile] mizliz13.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
Gloat, O Great One. Until your little black heart bursts.

[identity profile] greygirlbeast.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:39 am (UTC)(link)

Until your little black heart bursts.

Maybe not so much as that.

Re: I have a copy!!

[identity profile] greygirlbeast.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:40 am (UTC)(link)

That is really cool.

Very.

[identity profile] greygirlbeast.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:40 am (UTC)(link)

p.s. I ordered Two Worlds and in Between and it's being sent to just outside PVD. Not far by any means but I'll be so excited when it gets here!

Thank you!

[identity profile] greygirlbeast.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:41 am (UTC)(link)

Congratulations and well done!

Thank you.

[identity profile] corucia.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:54 am (UTC)(link)

Wonderful news - not the kind of review that comes around often enough, but should. I might have to go scrounge up a copy of the paper...

[identity profile] mizliz13.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 07:06 am (UTC)(link)
Well, no. Maybe just a tiny tear.

[identity profile] pisceanblue.livejournal.com 2011-10-25 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I understand your point about this review granting a certain sort of legitimacy which you have possessed - in the minds of your fans and supporters - always. So say we all (even the New York Fucking Times, finally). Huzzah, Aunt Beast.

[identity profile] gtmoore.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
So very cool. Congratulations!

helpless

[identity profile] pigshitpoet.livejournal.com 2011-10-26 11:06 pm (UTC)(link)
hi gg,
i think i answered my own question:
http://www.amazon.com/Threshold-Caitlin-R-Kiernan

glad that you are enjoying the new tom waits!
psp

words from joni..

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