Howard Hughes, Lady Novelist
I just saw the news that former first lady Rosalyn Carter has died at 96.
A sunny autumn day. Our high was 69.
I got five hours sleep last night. For now, this restricting myself to 4-5 hrs. sleep seems to be working for me. I wrote 1,321 words on The Night Watchers before Spooky got up. And later, after I had an epiphany about the book - the upshot, it;s not at all the book I thought it was; it's something much, much stranger - Kathryn and I spent almost 3 hours sitting here just talking it through, trying to figure out how the novel is about the shatter itself and what it will look like afterwards.
People will love it, or they will hate it. Worrying what people will think is not my job, and, anyway, I'm usually wrong. I was sure The Drowning Girl would be a flop, and it's my most successful novel. I thought Black Helicopters would be greeted with utter hostility, and it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. I thought "The Prayer of Ninety Cats" was such a difficult and perverse story ir would simply go unnoticed, and, instead, it won a World Fantasy Award. My opinion of my own work is just next to worthless. That said, it's really the only opinion of my work that matters to me.
And as I have always said, expectation is the enemy of the writer and the reader.
This afternoon, I watched the final two episodes of PBS' superb new series, Ancient Earth. See it.
On this day in 1985, when I was a pup of twenty-one, the world was introduced to Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, and suddenly there was a comic strip I loved as much as Bloom County.
And I will repost ths: Kathryn and I have stayed away from eBay for about a year and half, switching to the Dreaming Squid Sundries shop, eBay fees have gotten so high. But we're gonna experiment and wade back in with a copy of The Variegated Alphabet (SubPress, 2021). Illustrated by John Ken Mortensen, it's a gorgeous volume. Have a look.
Three days ago you got Squid in a Jar™. Today, I give you Crab in a Jar™. Don't spend it all in one place.
Later Tater Beans,
Aunt Beast
12:24 p.m. (Wednesday)
A sunny autumn day. Our high was 69.
I got five hours sleep last night. For now, this restricting myself to 4-5 hrs. sleep seems to be working for me. I wrote 1,321 words on The Night Watchers before Spooky got up. And later, after I had an epiphany about the book - the upshot, it;s not at all the book I thought it was; it's something much, much stranger - Kathryn and I spent almost 3 hours sitting here just talking it through, trying to figure out how the novel is about the shatter itself and what it will look like afterwards.
People will love it, or they will hate it. Worrying what people will think is not my job, and, anyway, I'm usually wrong. I was sure The Drowning Girl would be a flop, and it's my most successful novel. I thought Black Helicopters would be greeted with utter hostility, and it was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. I thought "The Prayer of Ninety Cats" was such a difficult and perverse story ir would simply go unnoticed, and, instead, it won a World Fantasy Award. My opinion of my own work is just next to worthless. That said, it's really the only opinion of my work that matters to me.
And as I have always said, expectation is the enemy of the writer and the reader.
This afternoon, I watched the final two episodes of PBS' superb new series, Ancient Earth. See it.
On this day in 1985, when I was a pup of twenty-one, the world was introduced to Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, and suddenly there was a comic strip I loved as much as Bloom County.
And I will repost ths: Kathryn and I have stayed away from eBay for about a year and half, switching to the Dreaming Squid Sundries shop, eBay fees have gotten so high. But we're gonna experiment and wade back in with a copy of The Variegated Alphabet (SubPress, 2021). Illustrated by John Ken Mortensen, it's a gorgeous volume. Have a look.
Three days ago you got Squid in a Jar™. Today, I give you Crab in a Jar™. Don't spend it all in one place.
Later Tater Beans,
Aunt Beast
12:24 p.m. (Wednesday)