Caitlín R. Kiernan

Thanks to a fellow denizen of New Babbage, young master Loki Elliot, the Beowulf segment of this past Saturday's The Culture Show (BBC2) is now up on YouTube. Not bad, all in all. But this is twice now I've been called a "cult author," and I have to admit there's something peculiarly damning in that appellation. But I'm happy with how my bit of this came out, and watching it, my thought was, gods, I've become the stuff of science fiction. And I do love that the RL photo shown of "me" before the Second Life portion begins is a photo of me as Nar'eth. Also, I rather like what Tom Paulin has to say.

I will admit that Ray Winstone comes off rather poorly, what with all the rambling on about "the first superhero" (I always fancied that would be Gilgamesh) and admitting he's never actually read Beowulf, which he refers to as "the books" (making me wonder if he thinks J.R.R. Tolkien is somehow in back of this whole thing).

Anyway, without further ado, the clip:

First off, I want to repost this, since it's still the top story at SL, and it was late when I made the entry last night (this morning):

Also, I made the front page at Second Life today (yesterday), under "Second Life in the News." "Caitlin Kiernan to be interviewed on Second Life for BBC2 Culture Show". Gotta admit, that's cool. First author ever interviewed in SL for British television. My UK publicist at Transworld is very happy, as are the folks at BBC2. Glad I went through with it. The episode will air Saturday night, but you can find all that out in the article. Near as I can tell, I may the the first author anywhere to be interviewed on SL specifically for television, but I won't make that claim just yet. Still, my nerd pride is in full bloom this ayem.

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So, let's see. Tuesday. On Tuesday I tried to start Chapter One of Joey Lafaye, and nothing came. Wednesday, I tried again, wrote maybe 200 words, gave up, and spent the day sulking in a Giant Blue Funk. Then yesterday, I sat down at the keyboard again and began writing in Addison Lynch's blank book (she has yet to decide whether or not it's a diary). By 3:30 p.m. or so, I'd written 1,329 words. I stopped, afraid it was all junk, and read it back to Spooky. She liked it a lot. Me, I'm still undecided. But at least I do feel as though the first chapter (and thus the novel) has finally begun in earnest. When Chapter One is done, I will be sending it to a number of first readers to get opinions. Sure, I wrote a pregnant paleontologist, and I've never been pregnant. I wrote an eight year old, and when I was eight we were still worried about the trilobite problem. And sure I've written from the povs of ghouls and vampires and androids, but trying to get inside the head of a twenty-one-year-old woman, well, that's another thing entirely.

Got an email this ayem from Steve Jones, about a Russian website that's offering free Russian translations (audio files) of stories by just about every fantasist and sf writer alive (and some dead), and including a certain "Skachka na belom byke" ("Скачка на белом бике") by a certain "Keytlin R Kirnan." That would be "Riding the White Bull," if your Russian is as bad as mine. And I listened to a little of it, but the weird seventies music in the background ruins the whole effect, I think. The site claims the stories have been posted for "educational purposes only," which is really neither here nor there, as it's still a copyright violation, except the site is running obviously paid adverts from such big-box stores as Circuit City. Oh, and the ads are in Spanish! Anyway, Harlan is one of the authors whose work has been pilfered, so I figure this won't go on for very long.

Yesterday morning, FedEx tossed a Xerox copy of the tpb of Daughter of Hounds onto the front porch. I need to look it over, make any changes I need to make, and get it back to Anne, my editor at Penguin, by January 10th. I need to get the ms. for Tails of Tales of Pain and Wonder to subpress by the end of November, and any corrections to the Tales of Pain and Wonder galleys in by the end of December. And I have two issues of Sirenia Digest to write and produce during this same period, so it's safe to say work will save me from the horrors of the "holiday" season.

Some cool stuff from Spooky. First, her latest doll, Prudence, just finished Wednesday, which I think is one of her best. Also, we've both been playing with Windlight in Second Life, and she's taken some truly amazing photos of New Babbage. That first one, of Penny Patton's Iguana State pirate compound in the Canal District, looks like a goddamn painting. Truly, Windlight will change the face of SL. There are also a couple of the Palaeozoic Museum. There are few things I like about living in "the Future," and this is one of them. Note that I mean this particular and relative future, defined by the moment of my birth -03 years ago, as no one will ever live in The Future, sensu stricto.

Okay. This is getting long, so I'm gonna go now and drink my coffee before it gets cold. The sooner I finish today's pages, the sooner I can begin reading Alan Moore's The Black Dossier, which we picked up at Criminal Records yesterday.