My daily squee
Got to go to a book signing by Connie Willis at the local adorable used book store (complete with a staff of two leggy kitty brothers who are always on patrol). I had my copy of Lincoln's Dreams signed because it's a book that is tiny and potent and makes me sob uncontrollably and may have the most perfect/heartbreaking/punch in the gut ending I've ever come across. I MAY be a little verklempt sitting here just thinking about it.
Anyway, Connie was lovely and spoke a bit about her current project (she'll be doing a reading at the local con, but I probably won't be able to go on account of poorness) which is going to be a more lighthearted work in the vein of Bellwether, set probably in Denver, about telepathy and relationships and communication. She also talked a bit about her process (handwriting drafts, eavesdropping shamelessly on strangers and their conversations, having a great idea and launching happily into a book only to discover how much you'll have to wrestle with the great idea) and was overall quite a charming lady.
I have a strange relationship with her works (I've probably talked about this before? Oh, well). There are some authorial quirks that she has that drive me up a tree. I can talk for days about how the whole "missed message" trope that she loves so much makes me want to rip my hair out. Sometimes her characters just aren't strongly individuated and they can all sound the same, and while she can write a great horrible child, sometimes I just want to put the book down to get away from them for a little while. Her books can be exhausting. And yet her stories worm their way under my skin, they can inhabit me, I've dreamed about her books after reading them - not her characters, but the moods she sets. She has a knack of packing an emotional wallop that is like a sledgehammer between the eyes. She can make me laugh hysterically, she can make me cry like it's the end of Old Yeller. I can't reread her heavier books often because they wring me out like wet cheesecloth. I will probably never be able to reread Passage. She has a something that is really freaking special, and I'm really thrilled I got to interact with her, even a tiny bit.
This entry was originally posted at http://sienamystic.dreamwidth.org/445196.html. Please comment here or there using OpenID.
Anyway, Connie was lovely and spoke a bit about her current project (she'll be doing a reading at the local con, but I probably won't be able to go on account of poorness) which is going to be a more lighthearted work in the vein of Bellwether, set probably in Denver, about telepathy and relationships and communication. She also talked a bit about her process (handwriting drafts, eavesdropping shamelessly on strangers and their conversations, having a great idea and launching happily into a book only to discover how much you'll have to wrestle with the great idea) and was overall quite a charming lady.
I have a strange relationship with her works (I've probably talked about this before? Oh, well). There are some authorial quirks that she has that drive me up a tree. I can talk for days about how the whole "missed message" trope that she loves so much makes me want to rip my hair out. Sometimes her characters just aren't strongly individuated and they can all sound the same, and while she can write a great horrible child, sometimes I just want to put the book down to get away from them for a little while. Her books can be exhausting. And yet her stories worm their way under my skin, they can inhabit me, I've dreamed about her books after reading them - not her characters, but the moods she sets. She has a knack of packing an emotional wallop that is like a sledgehammer between the eyes. She can make me laugh hysterically, she can make me cry like it's the end of Old Yeller. I can't reread her heavier books often because they wring me out like wet cheesecloth. I will probably never be able to reread Passage. She has a something that is really freaking special, and I'm really thrilled I got to interact with her, even a tiny bit.
This entry was originally posted at http://sienamystic.dreamwidth.org/445196.html. Please comment here or there using OpenID.