Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 16
October 5, 2013
Titan Books has just re-published one of the coolest-conc...
Titan Books has just re-published one of the coolest-concept anthologies I've ever heard of, which contains a story of mine and one of my late husband, George Alec Effinger.
The anthology is WAR OF THE WORLDS: THE GLOBAL DISPATCHES. The Martian Invasion of 1898 which H.G. Wells wrote about in his novel was, of course, world-wide, so Kevin Anderson had the idea of collecting an anthology of what was happening ELSEWHERE in the world besides England... stories written by authors who would have been around at the time.
Mike Resnik wrote as Theodore Roosevelt, about when the Martians landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
I got to do what happened when the Martians landed in India (whose muggy climate caused their poison smoke weapon to precipitate into harmless dust almost immediately)... written by Rudyard Kipling. ("Soldier of the Queen" - it's essentially Soldiers Three Meet the Martians).
George, bless his heart, decided to do "Mars, the Homefront," as written by Edgar Rice Burroughs - a story whose concept was, unfortunately, much better than its execution, as his medications prevented him from focussing. It's a fairly good story and a VERY good imitation of Burroughs, but it isn't what it could have - and should have - been.
The anthology also includes Howard Waldrop's take on the Martians landing in Texas, the novella "Night of the Cooters," which preceded Kevin's anthology but which Kevin felt he HAD to include.
Some of the other tales I haven't read, but the prize for the book, in my opinion, goes to Connie Willis, for a doctoral dissertation (complete with footnotes and bibliography) about how Emily Dickinson defeated the Martian invasion even though she'd been dead for two years. (As an academic myself, I consider this one of the funniest things I've ever read in my life.)
For the sake of that alone, check it out.
(Of course, years before, Manly Wade Wellman had written SHERLOCK HOLMES' WAR OF THE WORLDS, about what HOLMES did during the Martian invasion...)
Hot and windy on campus today - the last Saturday class for this "condensed" session; the next time we assemble on a Saturday (in 2 weeks) will be for the final. There's a fire in the hills near by and everything was covered with a thin, gritty film of ash. I'll be teaching intermittently on Saturdays for the rest of the semester: tiring.
The anthology is WAR OF THE WORLDS: THE GLOBAL DISPATCHES. The Martian Invasion of 1898 which H.G. Wells wrote about in his novel was, of course, world-wide, so Kevin Anderson had the idea of collecting an anthology of what was happening ELSEWHERE in the world besides England... stories written by authors who would have been around at the time.
Mike Resnik wrote as Theodore Roosevelt, about when the Martians landed in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
I got to do what happened when the Martians landed in India (whose muggy climate caused their poison smoke weapon to precipitate into harmless dust almost immediately)... written by Rudyard Kipling. ("Soldier of the Queen" - it's essentially Soldiers Three Meet the Martians).
George, bless his heart, decided to do "Mars, the Homefront," as written by Edgar Rice Burroughs - a story whose concept was, unfortunately, much better than its execution, as his medications prevented him from focussing. It's a fairly good story and a VERY good imitation of Burroughs, but it isn't what it could have - and should have - been.
The anthology also includes Howard Waldrop's take on the Martians landing in Texas, the novella "Night of the Cooters," which preceded Kevin's anthology but which Kevin felt he HAD to include.
Some of the other tales I haven't read, but the prize for the book, in my opinion, goes to Connie Willis, for a doctoral dissertation (complete with footnotes and bibliography) about how Emily Dickinson defeated the Martian invasion even though she'd been dead for two years. (As an academic myself, I consider this one of the funniest things I've ever read in my life.)
For the sake of that alone, check it out.
(Of course, years before, Manly Wade Wellman had written SHERLOCK HOLMES' WAR OF THE WORLDS, about what HOLMES did during the Martian invasion...)
Hot and windy on campus today - the last Saturday class for this "condensed" session; the next time we assemble on a Saturday (in 2 weeks) will be for the final. There's a fire in the hills near by and everything was covered with a thin, gritty film of ash. I'll be teaching intermittently on Saturdays for the rest of the semester: tiring.
September 16, 2013
I have very much the sensation of having renewed connecti...
I have very much the sensation of having renewed connection with a lover from whom time and life separated me for decades: I've returned to taking art classes. I did art most of my life, drawing and painting, and I was/am a pretty good amateur artist. As I think I've said here a few weeks ago, I now have the opportunity to study it properly, under the guidance of a teacher who does (and does phenomenally well!) the kind of art that I've always most wanted to pursue: the extremely technical skills of a commercial illustrator. And given the opportunity to take his classes - in addition to writing full-time and teaching part-time and trying to do enough exercise per day so that I can stay healthy and sleep well at night - I thought, "If not now, when?"
And I'm happy with it, even though a) I don't have time to do the homework b) the professionals in the class are WAY better than me and I'm envious and c) I have to go back to the very basics and I'm TERRIBLE at them. I know I'll improve, and I've improved even in the two months so far that I've been doing this. My natural skill (and I do have natural skill) has worked against me: most of my life, I've been able to slide by with my art, without the frustration of practice and study. That just means there's a lot of habits - particularly mind-set - that I have to un-learn, in order to progress. At the moment, I'm pretty much not very good. (And, I'm working on the rough draft of Benjamin January #13 and that takes most of my time and energy). (Oh, and there's two short-stories that I'm working on, for the Further Adventures website...) (And school prep...)
So today - AFTER I've written all that I usefully can - I get to do the thing I've avoided all these years: practice perspective drawing. It's always intimidated the hell out of me. I got a good book, so we'll see how it goes.
And I'm happy with it, even though a) I don't have time to do the homework b) the professionals in the class are WAY better than me and I'm envious and c) I have to go back to the very basics and I'm TERRIBLE at them. I know I'll improve, and I've improved even in the two months so far that I've been doing this. My natural skill (and I do have natural skill) has worked against me: most of my life, I've been able to slide by with my art, without the frustration of practice and study. That just means there's a lot of habits - particularly mind-set - that I have to un-learn, in order to progress. At the moment, I'm pretty much not very good. (And, I'm working on the rough draft of Benjamin January #13 and that takes most of my time and energy). (Oh, and there's two short-stories that I'm working on, for the Further Adventures website...) (And school prep...)
So today - AFTER I've written all that I usefully can - I get to do the thing I've avoided all these years: practice perspective drawing. It's always intimidated the hell out of me. I got a good book, so we'll see how it goes.
September 5, 2013
A quiet day of working at school stuff, from which I was ...
A quiet day of working at school stuff, from which I was able to carve a couple of hours of painting: that curious sort of satisfying frustration of trying to get something I know I will eventually get, but that's very, very difficult right now. New medium (gouache) and WAY too long since I've done this; also, I'm very much back to basics, un-learning old habits which were limiting me. Time to pack it in, wash up, and get my day's exercise... and most of tomorrow will be taken up with a Faculty Committee meeting at school, where it's going to be 105 degrees.
September 3, 2013
Summer's end. A rather demanding teaching schedule th...
Summer's end. A rather demanding teaching schedule this Fall - a regular evening class and two consecutive "condensed" classes - Wednesday nights and every other Saturday. I've spent the summer prepping, so I can have everything ready to go, but it's still going to be like a batting-cage with the pitching machine turned up to "fast".
My house is in the fog-belt south of Venice, CA; generally it's pleasant and cool. But there's about three weeks of the year during which it needs air conditioning, and these is them. I keep box-fans running pretty constantly in the afternoons when I'm working, and across the bed at night. (The cats sleep in a line in front of them). I'm reminded of blazing-hot summers in the late '60s, when my friend Laurie and I would go to the 50-cent matinees at the local theaters - one of the first multiplexes (four theaters, whoo-hoo!) - just for a couple of hours in the air conditioning. Of course, in the late '60s was pre-Star Wars, pre-"summer movie", when they were making all these "serious social issues" films; I remember we saw "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Midnight Cowboy" - cheerful stuff. But it WAS cool.
My house is in the fog-belt south of Venice, CA; generally it's pleasant and cool. But there's about three weeks of the year during which it needs air conditioning, and these is them. I keep box-fans running pretty constantly in the afternoons when I'm working, and across the bed at night. (The cats sleep in a line in front of them). I'm reminded of blazing-hot summers in the late '60s, when my friend Laurie and I would go to the 50-cent matinees at the local theaters - one of the first multiplexes (four theaters, whoo-hoo!) - just for a couple of hours in the air conditioning. Of course, in the late '60s was pre-Star Wars, pre-"summer movie", when they were making all these "serious social issues" films; I remember we saw "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Midnight Cowboy" - cheerful stuff. But it WAS cool.
August 18, 2013
The ending weeks of a lovely summer. I took a road-trip; ...
The ending weeks of a lovely summer. I took a road-trip; I started art classes again; I got a satisfying running start on the next Ben January book. I went to lots of twilight picnics with my friends, either to the Hollywood Bowl and to Griffith Park to watch the Independent Shakespeare Company. I either had food poisoning three times or a protracted on-and-off dose of stomach flu. I got a lot of sleep. I got to the Renaissance Faire twice, performed with the tribal belly-dance troop I'm in (not at the Faire, but at other places), bought a new printer, which I'm putting off installing in cringing dread because it's always such a hassle; and I got a new, faster fiber-optic Internet system to replace the old DSL. The weather has been balmy and mellow.
Classes begin the week after next. Faculty Orientation this week up coming.
At the moment I'm doing the final copy-edit on Kindred of Darkness, the most recent Asher & Ysidro book; two scenes need to be tweaked, the rest of it's just fiddly-iddlies so far. I'm pleased with it. The next book of the series starts World War One - something I never thought the series would last long enough for me to get to - but I wanted to do a story that took place pretty much entirely in London, against the background of The Season and the background of Lydia's dysfunctional family and insulated world. I did an awful lot of looking up what would appear on buffet-tables and tea-trays, and trying to figure out what perfumes were fashionable then. And a good deal of research about early printed books, since the story revolves around what might or might not be a volume of vampire secrets. It'll be a rather intense semester in the Fall, so I'm trying to finish what I can.
Classes begin the week after next. Faculty Orientation this week up coming.
At the moment I'm doing the final copy-edit on Kindred of Darkness, the most recent Asher & Ysidro book; two scenes need to be tweaked, the rest of it's just fiddly-iddlies so far. I'm pleased with it. The next book of the series starts World War One - something I never thought the series would last long enough for me to get to - but I wanted to do a story that took place pretty much entirely in London, against the background of The Season and the background of Lydia's dysfunctional family and insulated world. I did an awful lot of looking up what would appear on buffet-tables and tea-trays, and trying to figure out what perfumes were fashionable then. And a good deal of research about early printed books, since the story revolves around what might or might not be a volume of vampire secrets. It'll be a rather intense semester in the Fall, so I'm trying to finish what I can.
July 29, 2013
Painted today, for the first time in decades. I'd for...
Painted today, for the first time in decades. I'd forgotten how much it wires me up, as writing wires me up. I've also pretty much forgotten which brushes make which kind of marks, and which I find most useful - which is actually fortunate, since I'm learning gouache painting, which is VERY different from the oils I used to do. I was self-taught, so never really learned the correct methods of applying paint - which, I realize now, was limiting, the way poor stance would limit even the best golfer's swing. One can only go so far... or at least, I think *I* could only go so far. I'm glad I'm re-learning properly, and from excellent instructors.
But, it'll take me months of doing simple studies, just to learn to handle the brushes and the paint.
But, it'll take me months of doing simple studies, just to learn to handle the brushes and the paint.
July 23, 2013
Soft monsoon weather; gray mornings, quiet days. This is ...
Soft monsoon weather; gray mornings, quiet days. This is one of the easiest rough drafts I've worked on in years (though it will of course take the usual massive amount of clean-up) - fortunate, since the upcoming Fall Semester looks to be intense. I am deeply glad I've gone back to drawing - I've posted a couple of my in-class drawings on my Facebook page, if anyone is interested. Shocking, how pleased I was with them in class and once I photographed them and posted them, all the flaws leap out and I cringe. I realize I am as perfectionistic about my art as I am about my writing: I want it to be professional-level artwork, which I know requires professional-level committment of time, something I don't have.
Still, even as it is, it brings me joy.
Still, even as it is, it brings me joy.
July 18, 2013
Washing machine fixed. Hollywood Bowl tonight - picnic in...
Washing machine fixed. Hollywood Bowl tonight - picnic in the twilight with my friends, after an hour of thrashing through Hollywood traffic to get to the shuttle-stop. It's a summer of busy-ness, seeing friends, trying new things. I'm still trying to figure out how to put up Reviews on Goodreads, since 308 people are "following" mine even though I haven't yet posted any and would like to do so: I'm completely enjoying things like the study of the historic structures of Jefferson Parish that I'm reading, and "The Nightless City," an 1899 or 1900 study of the Tokyo red-light districts. I've also been urged to set up a Photobucket account and post some of the drawings I've been doing in art class, so I'll have to figure out that as well.
July 14, 2013
Another good day of work. I was delighted to locate the t...
Another good day of work. I was delighted to locate the three hefty folders of stills that I bought at conventions dating back to the '80s, since I'm getting ready to start working on the techniques of painting from photographic scrap. I was appalled, however, to think I'd shelled out THAT MUCH money on stills... and of people and films that I now look at and go, "Really? What the hell was I thinking?" (I mean, Robocop? Hanky Panky? Jaws?) (And they aren't even good scrap for painting projects, since they're lit wrong). (On the other hand, film noir guys like Bogie can always be counted on for good, strong, one-source lighting...)
I have also discovered that Rocky (the old, mean, nasty Downstairs Cat) has not only learned that when the TV episode is over, it's time to jump down from my lap (i.e. when I hit the button and the screen goes white)... she's started to hop down DURING CLOSING CREDITS.
The other three are still trying to figure out the hydraulics of the water dish.
I have also discovered that Rocky (the old, mean, nasty Downstairs Cat) has not only learned that when the TV episode is over, it's time to jump down from my lap (i.e. when I hit the button and the screen goes white)... she's started to hop down DURING CLOSING CREDITS.
The other three are still trying to figure out the hydraulics of the water dish.
A busy and creative summer so far.I've returned to dr...
A busy and creative summer so far.
I've returned to drawing as to an old, old flame: taking Head drawing, and Figure drawing, and gratified to find that I'm still fairly good at it (though it'll take me about 6 months to learn how to hold the charcoal properly). Before summer's end I hope to start painting again. (Like I'll have time to do THAT once school starts!).
Hollywood Bowl concerts season starts Thursday, with picnics in the twilight (and a frakking nightmare drive up to the Shuttle-Stop in Hollywood - though I will say that the parking at Hwd/Highland is designed to get you in and get you out FAST).
Enough sleep - Yay!
Many people over the years have recommended that I watch Firefly, and I'm enjoying it very much so far. (Well, it's pretty much Blake's Seven, and I enjoyed THAT...) (With far better special effects, of course. But Plan 9 From Outer Space had better special effects than Blake's Seven).
And, excellent progress on the next Ben January (#13 - yowsa!). Still waiting to hear on whether they'll want re-writes on Kindred of Darkness (Asher/Ysidro #5) - for some reason that was a difficult story to write. By contrast, January #13 feels very solid, perhaps because what appears to be the goal appears to be obvious: Benjamin (this time) isn't searching for shadows in the dark as Lydia was doing all through Kindred.
Yeah, the washing machine just tanked (and the computer blew up a couple of weeks ago - is Mercury in retrograde or something?), but I'd far rather have problems that can be solved with money (always depending on the amount we're talking about) than problems that can't.
I've returned to drawing as to an old, old flame: taking Head drawing, and Figure drawing, and gratified to find that I'm still fairly good at it (though it'll take me about 6 months to learn how to hold the charcoal properly). Before summer's end I hope to start painting again. (Like I'll have time to do THAT once school starts!).
Hollywood Bowl concerts season starts Thursday, with picnics in the twilight (and a frakking nightmare drive up to the Shuttle-Stop in Hollywood - though I will say that the parking at Hwd/Highland is designed to get you in and get you out FAST).
Enough sleep - Yay!
Many people over the years have recommended that I watch Firefly, and I'm enjoying it very much so far. (Well, it's pretty much Blake's Seven, and I enjoyed THAT...) (With far better special effects, of course. But Plan 9 From Outer Space had better special effects than Blake's Seven).
And, excellent progress on the next Ben January (#13 - yowsa!). Still waiting to hear on whether they'll want re-writes on Kindred of Darkness (Asher/Ysidro #5) - for some reason that was a difficult story to write. By contrast, January #13 feels very solid, perhaps because what appears to be the goal appears to be obvious: Benjamin (this time) isn't searching for shadows in the dark as Lydia was doing all through Kindred.
Yeah, the washing machine just tanked (and the computer blew up a couple of weeks ago - is Mercury in retrograde or something?), but I'd far rather have problems that can be solved with money (always depending on the amount we're talking about) than problems that can't.
