Caitlín R. Kiernan

New version of Firefox, you suck. Just so you know.

And yesterday was a very weird day. But here I am, on the other side of it.

Yesterday, I wrote the journal entry and answered email. I edited the FAQ for the soon-to-go-live new Sirenia Digest website. And I did a little more work on "Fake Plastic Trees," adding about 200 words to clarify something the editors had requested I clarify. It was a point I admitted was a little vague, and now the editors are happier with the story, and so am I. Afterwards, I wrote 1,540 words on the first chapter of Blood Oranges, which is the thing that was conceived as a spoof of ParaRom, but seems to have grown into an actual novel. Its still a "werepire" novel, and it looks askance at and skewers everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Twilight, from True Blood to Anne Rice. It's a strange beast, about strange beasts. And I'm not going to say anything more about it until I write another 1,500 words, because it's just too strange.

I have set a goal for myself: I will write two more novels (Blood Oranges and Blue Canary), two new short stories, and produce nine more issues of Sirenia Digest by the end of January 2012. And not die in the process. Then, in 2012 I'd write Dark Adapted, the sequel to Blood Oranges, along with the sequel to Blue Canary.

So, yes. A lot of work yesterday. And the same today. And tomorrow. And that's what my summer looks like. Mostly. I get a few days off for good behavior.

There are days I could just sit and listen to R.E.M. all day long.

Yesterday, a very young humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was found beached at Little Compton.

I made a really terribly good salsa fresca (half the juice of one lime, two tomatoes, about a fifth of a red onion, half a large jalapeño, one serrano, a handful of fresh cilantro, a clove of garlic, and a dash of salt) for Cinco de Mayo, which we had with the pork quesadillas Spooky made. I wanted tequila and Sol beer, but the meds say no.

Then I took a short nap.

Then a house down the street erupted into flame. This makes the third serious fire on our street since November 2009. The second was in May 2010. And now this. When I first made it down to the street, and within maybe a hundred feet of the house, I thought they were going to lose the thing, and the wind was so bad I began to fear for surrounding houses. But at least five fire trucks responded (it was listed as a two alarm). Everyone got out. But now another beautiful old Victorian house on the street is scarred. All this would be very suspicious, and it's obviously statistically improbable. But the first fire was started by a faulty lamp cord, and the second by a cat knocking over a candle. Nothing suspicious there. Last night's fire was fucking terrifying. The cause remains undetermined. Spooky took three photos, which are behind the cut:

( Fire Three, May 5 2011 )

Note to potential stalkers: I've said enough over the years that anyone who really means to can find my house, but you show up on my doorstep or lurking about, annoying me and mine, getting in my shit, and I will fucking kill you. End of story. So think twice, and then think again.

Later, when things had finally calmed down, we played a small bit of Rift. We watched the last four episodes of Season Six of Weeds. I must admit, the season recovers towards the end, and the last episode is very good. Later, we read more of Under the Poppy. That was yesterday, kittens.

Please have a look at the current eBay auctions. Checks are coming in very slowly, and every little bit helps. Thanks. Also, Spooky's added a new necklace to her Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries shop. She made a beautiful one for me (finally), which I'll post photos of soon, then made one more. It's awesome. Buy it.

And now I go to write about a werewolf attack.

Beastly Yours,
Aunt Beast

A blustery, chilly day here in Providence. It's only 50˚F out there, though at least we have the sun.

A question yesterday, via email. A reader writes:

Quick silly question for you in regards to "Tears Seven Times Salt"....Is it just "Tears Seven Times Salt" or is it supposed to have a comma like this: "Tears Seven, Times Salt."

No comma. The title comes from Hamlet (Act 4, Scene 5):

Laertes: O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt,
Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye!

---

Yesterday was spent in a mad flurry of research, getting myself ready to write "The Maltese Unicorn," which I have some hope of beginning today. Though, it's still not clear to me whether the story takes place in the early thirties or the mid forties, and, obviously, which makes a big difference to how this thing will feel. Is America nearing the end of WWII or the end of Prohibition? And other story elements are very much in flux. Nathaniel Adler became Natalie Beaumont yesterday. And I have to settle the question of whether or not the "demon brothels" are brothels run by demons or brothels featuring demons that have been summoned and forced to act as whores for humankind. Offhand, the latter has more dramatic tension. As yet, I have no clear supporting cast. Sets are ill-defined. It is very odd, publicly revealing these acts of story-building. It seems indecent.

Late yesterday, we got the news that a young humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was found floating in Harbor of Refuge. Some awful irony there. No word yet what killed it. The corpse has been taken to Mystic Aquarium for dissection/autopsy:



The news cast a bit of a pall over the evening. We had Chinese takeaway for dinner, and watched the Coen Bros. Miller's Crossing (1990), Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), and then, for some reason, H. Bruce Humberstone's exceedingly silly I Wake Up Screaming (1941; pretty sure the title was pulled from a hat).

And that was yesterday.

Not a bad writing day yesterday, not bad at all. I did 1,153 words and got Chapter Four of The Red Tree started. So, back in the saddle. I also got an email from Peter, informing me that not only does the Arthur Machen introduction not stink —— as I'd feared —— it's quite good. And that was a great relief, as I genuinely don't have time to start over.

I sent the first 135 pages (or so) of The Red Tree away to my editor in NYC, mainly because they need to go ahead and get the cover in production and need to get a feel for the story. It freaks me out through, knowing I'll likely see the novel's cover long before I'm done writing it.

If you have not yet ordered a copy of the mass-market paperback of Daughter of Hounds or a copy of my forthcoming sf collection, A is for Alien, fret not. Today is a fine day to do both. There's also Sirenia Digest, of course.

I'm a little bummed because the sky was overcast last night, and will be so again this evening, so we're missing out on the peak of this year's Perseid meteor shower. Also, I didn't get to see the carcass of the fifteen-foot, one-ton juvenile Northern Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) that washed ashore last week at Matunuck, and now it's been towed away and buried in the dunes. Le sigh. I can has no big science fun. Speaking of which, has Beakman's World been released on DVD?

After the writing yesterday...well, not much. Spooky made spaghetti for dinner, to make me happy (she hates spaghetti, which is just weird). She also made a batch of blueberry muffins with the blueberries we picked last week. I began "A Catastrophic Finale?", the twelfth and final chapter of Fraser's Triassic book. I feel I should have talked more about Chapter Eleven, what with the Deerfield and Hartford basins (Newark Supergroup) so nearby in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and having myself prospected in the Pekin Formation (Deep River Basin) of North Carolina back in 1996. These deposits document a fascinating period, when deep rift valleys were opening in what is now North America and Africa, as the supercontinent of Pangea at last began to break apart. I am hoping this autumn to have a day or two to devote to a grand tour of exposures of the Newark Supergroup in western New England. Oh, and yesterday, the mail brought my "Platypus of Death" shirt.

We also watched Robert Luketic's 21, which we both enjoyed quite a lot. Good film, but it doesn't hurt that Kate Bosworth is such a babe. Later, I was on Second Life, back in Corvinus with my Ravnos atritribu character...strange meetings in the cathedral and then the graveyard. Oh, and I actually finished my V:tM character sheet (yeah, we use those in Corvinus), and was pleased to see my "humanity" score a lowly 3/10. Truly, this Nareth is a monster, unburdened by conscience or delusions of morality (I think I'm paraphrasing Ash without meaning to do so).

Things are coming together fast with our plans for the Howard's End sim. Spooky spent much of last night talking to some of the very talented folks who will be on our build team. We've told them the point is to get it right, make it pretty as we can, make it look and feel like the Providence of Daughter of Hounds, and we can open when we open. I'm thinking it will likely be two or three months from now. There's terraforming to be done, tunnels and a necropolis to be dug, trees to be planted, zillions of textures to create, many buildings/landmarks to recreate, including the Athenaeum, Ladd Observatory, Swan Point Cemetery, and the old train tunnel beneath College Hill.

More thoughts on how this thing's gonna work (and my thanks to everyone who has expressed interest so far). For one thing, NO FACE LIGHTS WILL BE PERMITTED, under normal circumstances. Jesus fuck, but I'm sick of being in the middle of some dark, tense scene when suddenly some bozo with a facelight comes walking past, shattering the suspense and spoiling everything. Because, you know, heads need to glow like halogen high-beams. Because, you know, you really are special and everyone needs to be looking at you. Anyway, yeah, no facelights. And no goddamn bling. None. Zilch. Nada. Nein. Note that it will be a "mature" sim, in that we are adults acting out these stories, but that doesn't mean there will be a strong BDSM/sexual element to the sim. Oh, there may be occasional scenes, as the story warrants. But I am also going to be allowing child avatars, so that we can have the changeling kiddos in the tunnels, so these things will have to be kept strictly apart (there will be no violation of the Linden Labs ToS permitted, and doing so will be grounds for immediate and permanent ejection from Howard's End). No lolspeak or emoticons in roleplay. That's another zero-tolerance matter. People will speak in English, or French, or Italian, or Portuguese, or whatever —— with punctuation and everything. And something important to explain upfront is that not everyone can always be involved in the main storyline (which is why we will have little stories off to the side, and why I will strongly encourage players to autogenerate their own rp). Fiction is not a democracy and is not egalitarian. I've watched so many great stories go down the tubes because they could not accommodate "all factions" in a given sim. Fuck that shit, as the great Frank Booth would say. If a given "chapter" is primarily about the as-yet-unnamed occult research team, then the Hounds and the Changelings will have to amuse themselves, and vice versa. The story is our goddess. The players serve the story. This is another of those non-negotiable issues. Anyway, yes, very excited, and we expect to place our order for the sim later this week. Oh, and Spooky also began work on the Bailiff avatar last night, which will be based on Sid Haig (and the Soldier av will be based on Katee Sackoff — casting rocks).