Several brain-things
I think the more I learn about writing, the less I know.
It's deep magic, this story stuff.
--
I've been working on piecing back together the first chapter of The Lioness Embarked. By "piecing back together" I mean that I'm interspersing new writing with chunks of old writing, trying to create a beginning that's richer and more fleshed out than it was originally. I'm setting up that this is a novel where thread magic and gender foo happen. I'm establishing the relationship between Yfre and Charisse better. I'm making it clear that Yfre has an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide, and that yes, mouthing off to the dude wot saved her life is the churlish way she copes with the fact that at the beginning of the novel, she's indentured to him due to that debt.
In the process I feel like I have a lot of balls to keep in the air. (And I can't say that any more without thinking of a certain episode from season 3 of Arrested Development...) This novel, on the whole, has a lot more moving pieces than G&F--perhaps because Yfre has a lot more agency than Mirasa ever had.
It's happening. I just do a lot of second-guessing and anxiety-feeling in the process.
--
G&F synopsis has been submitted to my writing group. Will possibly post it on Codex, too, although the review process seems to be a lot more informal than for actual pieces.
--
Reading. I've been doing it.
- Finished listening to Blandings Castle with Matt. It is several Blandings stories + several Mr. Mulliner stories. Of the latter, I've seen several adapted for Wodehouse Playhouse, including "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom" and "The Nodder."
- Am still working my way through Red Seas Under Red Skies. It is delightful. I want to know, though, when Scott decided there was going to be a "hanging precariously at great heights and arguing with someone" scene in all of his books. (Can you tell I just finished reading the part of the story I've dubbed "Locke and Jean Try to Talk the Worst Bandit Ever Out of Killing Them?")
Also, Requin is totally another shark reference (it's the French word for same). Because Scott has a thing for sharks, as I learned at VP.
Alsoalso, time is more wibbly-wobbly than most in this book. I'm surprised he pulls it off--although, Matt points out to me that heist stories often start with the twist, and then give you the "here's how we got here" story." So we get that--the book opens with a crossbow standoff--but then during the main "here's how we got here" story we also flashback to how they got there.
Alsoalsoalso, I realized recently, thanks to something Sandro said, that Jean occupies the same spot in my head as Eliot Spencer from Leverage.
- Started listening to The Count of Monte Cristo with Matt. It'll be 47 hours of not having to listen to Matt sing! I feel a little bad for him, having to cope with all the French place names in audio form. While in general I think the French pronunciations are good, my god, I can't get over how the narrator pronounces "Caderousse." Actually, the way he pronounces French "r"s in particular is really weird. Waaaay more of a stop there than there should be.
It has to be better than the dub of Gankutsuou, tho, where "Albert" became "Owlbear."
- I also finished reading Restoration London, which was pretty good, but not as critical as I would have liked. The author takes some pretty astonishing claims from first-person sources at face value, as I think I've mentioned before. (Like the illegitimacy rate, or the average wages for different professions). I have another book on the 17th century, The Weaker Vessel, by Antonia Fraser, about the roles of women in that century--another gift from acousticshadow2, who clearly wants me to write more about this era :) I've heard good things about Fraser's scholarship, so I'm very excited to dive in.
--
I have had Mel and Will visiting and squeeing about G&F. Tremendously gratifying :) One day I should really share the fanart Mel made me.
--
I'm awake at this ungodly hour because Pharyngeal Reflux. Must remember to get OTC omeprazole.
In the meantime you may have this brilliant piece sovay linked to, which is all the lovesick tentacle pr0n poetry written by Aleister Crowley you could ever want.
It's deep magic, this story stuff.
--
I've been working on piecing back together the first chapter of The Lioness Embarked. By "piecing back together" I mean that I'm interspersing new writing with chunks of old writing, trying to create a beginning that's richer and more fleshed out than it was originally. I'm setting up that this is a novel where thread magic and gender foo happen. I'm establishing the relationship between Yfre and Charisse better. I'm making it clear that Yfre has an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide, and that yes, mouthing off to the dude wot saved her life is the churlish way she copes with the fact that at the beginning of the novel, she's indentured to him due to that debt.
In the process I feel like I have a lot of balls to keep in the air. (And I can't say that any more without thinking of a certain episode from season 3 of Arrested Development...) This novel, on the whole, has a lot more moving pieces than G&F--perhaps because Yfre has a lot more agency than Mirasa ever had.
It's happening. I just do a lot of second-guessing and anxiety-feeling in the process.
--
G&F synopsis has been submitted to my writing group. Will possibly post it on Codex, too, although the review process seems to be a lot more informal than for actual pieces.
--
Reading. I've been doing it.
- Finished listening to Blandings Castle with Matt. It is several Blandings stories + several Mr. Mulliner stories. Of the latter, I've seen several adapted for Wodehouse Playhouse, including "The Rise of Minna Nordstrom" and "The Nodder."
- Am still working my way through Red Seas Under Red Skies. It is delightful. I want to know, though, when Scott decided there was going to be a "hanging precariously at great heights and arguing with someone" scene in all of his books. (Can you tell I just finished reading the part of the story I've dubbed "Locke and Jean Try to Talk the Worst Bandit Ever Out of Killing Them?")
Also, Requin is totally another shark reference (it's the French word for same). Because Scott has a thing for sharks, as I learned at VP.
Alsoalso, time is more wibbly-wobbly than most in this book. I'm surprised he pulls it off--although, Matt points out to me that heist stories often start with the twist, and then give you the "here's how we got here" story." So we get that--the book opens with a crossbow standoff--but then during the main "here's how we got here" story we also flashback to how they got there.
Alsoalsoalso, I realized recently, thanks to something Sandro said, that Jean occupies the same spot in my head as Eliot Spencer from Leverage.
- Started listening to The Count of Monte Cristo with Matt. It'll be 47 hours of not having to listen to Matt sing! I feel a little bad for him, having to cope with all the French place names in audio form. While in general I think the French pronunciations are good, my god, I can't get over how the narrator pronounces "Caderousse." Actually, the way he pronounces French "r"s in particular is really weird. Waaaay more of a stop there than there should be.
It has to be better than the dub of Gankutsuou, tho, where "Albert" became "Owlbear."
- I also finished reading Restoration London, which was pretty good, but not as critical as I would have liked. The author takes some pretty astonishing claims from first-person sources at face value, as I think I've mentioned before. (Like the illegitimacy rate, or the average wages for different professions). I have another book on the 17th century, The Weaker Vessel, by Antonia Fraser, about the roles of women in that century--another gift from acousticshadow2, who clearly wants me to write more about this era :) I've heard good things about Fraser's scholarship, so I'm very excited to dive in.
--
I have had Mel and Will visiting and squeeing about G&F. Tremendously gratifying :) One day I should really share the fanart Mel made me.
--
I'm awake at this ungodly hour because Pharyngeal Reflux. Must remember to get OTC omeprazole.
In the meantime you may have this brilliant piece sovay linked to, which is all the lovesick tentacle pr0n poetry written by Aleister Crowley you could ever want.