Barbara Hambly's Blog, page 28
March 6, 2012
The time has come - with 19 chapters of rough draft on Mr...
The time has come - with 19 chapters of rough draft on Mr. J Goes to Washington (working title) - to sit down and read though. For several chapters now I've been re-writing backwards in my head ("Oh, actually the British Minister should be running a spy-ring, and if so then this would happen that affects the plot..."). Also, I have to remember that the municipal government of Washington was PHENOMENALLY corrupt in 1838, and things we take for granted in 2012 (like, you can't shoot somebody down in the public street) were very different. I'm juggling a LOT of school stuff right now, so it's difficult to a) get the time clear and b) have the emotional energy.
I'm also working on setting up a fan-page on Facebook. I want to keep my regular page, for close friends and family members, so whatever app it is that magically transforms your personal page into a fan page, I can't use. Any advice people have about this transfer would be deeply appreciated. Do I just keep making announcements, "Everybody please go into the next room..."?
I'm also working on setting up a fan-page on Facebook. I want to keep my regular page, for close friends and family members, so whatever app it is that magically transforms your personal page into a fan page, I can't use. Any advice people have about this transfer would be deeply appreciated. Do I just keep making announcements, "Everybody please go into the next room..."?
March 4, 2012
Gorgeous morning after a very pleasant dinner with fellow...
Gorgeous morning after a very pleasant dinner with fellow-writer John Dechancie last night; later on, my lovely niece will come over and help me make sure my Facebook page actually says something. I realize that all these postings which are SUPPOSED to be going to FB may not actually be reaching the place they're supposed to be.
I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and even in the process of enjoying it, the writer in me is analyzing how Larsson has put the stories together... and asking myself, "Has everybody quit mentioning that thing that looks to me like a VERY GLARING CLUE on purpose...?" Back in the 1880s, Mark Twain wrote about his experiences as a river-pilot before the Civil War, and said that one thing he regretted was that he never could admire the beauty of the river without thinking "Dang, there's a sand-bar building up.... Rats! Those pretty riffles mean snags..." Being a writer oneself changes one's perceptions of even a VERY good piece of fiction. ("Hmmmn... How's he doing that?")
I'm currently reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and even in the process of enjoying it, the writer in me is analyzing how Larsson has put the stories together... and asking myself, "Has everybody quit mentioning that thing that looks to me like a VERY GLARING CLUE on purpose...?" Back in the 1880s, Mark Twain wrote about his experiences as a river-pilot before the Civil War, and said that one thing he regretted was that he never could admire the beauty of the river without thinking "Dang, there's a sand-bar building up.... Rats! Those pretty riffles mean snags..." Being a writer oneself changes one's perceptions of even a VERY good piece of fiction. ("Hmmmn... How's he doing that?")
March 1, 2012
Wow. Just heard of Davy Jones's death.I can't say I was a...
Wow. Just heard of Davy Jones's death.
I can't say I was a major Monkees fan - even at 14, I was damn well aware that they were the TV knock-off of the Beatles - but I enjoyed the show, and they were good. Certainly as good as a lot of organically-grown bands in the '60s and better than many. Besides, I was such a Beatles fan, I'd take the imitations if the real thing wasn't available. (And before the days of DVDs or even videotape, it WASN'T).
I do remember the episode where Davy's Evil Grandfather tried to take him back to England - cue to the song, "I Wanna Be Free," and thinking: There's more to this show than just a TV knock-off.
And much later, I was delighted and tickled when I realized that "Last Train to Clarkesville" was an anti-Vietnam song - Clarkesville being the staging-point for guys going to Nam, so "I don't know if I'm ever coming home" really MEANT, "I don't know if I'm ever coming home" - something that got slipped straight in under the radar disguised as bubblegum pop.
Davy Jones was a cutie - and a very talented man.
It is indeed a long and winding road.
I can't say I was a major Monkees fan - even at 14, I was damn well aware that they were the TV knock-off of the Beatles - but I enjoyed the show, and they were good. Certainly as good as a lot of organically-grown bands in the '60s and better than many. Besides, I was such a Beatles fan, I'd take the imitations if the real thing wasn't available. (And before the days of DVDs or even videotape, it WASN'T).
I do remember the episode where Davy's Evil Grandfather tried to take him back to England - cue to the song, "I Wanna Be Free," and thinking: There's more to this show than just a TV knock-off.
And much later, I was delighted and tickled when I realized that "Last Train to Clarkesville" was an anti-Vietnam song - Clarkesville being the staging-point for guys going to Nam, so "I don't know if I'm ever coming home" really MEANT, "I don't know if I'm ever coming home" - something that got slipped straight in under the radar disguised as bubblegum pop.
Davy Jones was a cutie - and a very talented man.
It is indeed a long and winding road.
February 29, 2012
A student asked me this morning as I was walking the floo...
A student asked me this morning as I was walking the floor while they took the first exam of the semester, Was I able to read cursive? I was so startled at the question I almost responded that I can read anything from Carolingian minuscule to Old High Gallifreyan, but it was a serious question and actually very considerate (given the horrifying scribbles I sometimes get on exams), and I thanked her and said yes, I could read cursive quite well.
And yes, looking over the essays, with a couple of exceptions even the well-composed, well-thought-out ones are hand-printed rather than hand-written. No wonder they hate writing essays, and many don't take notes very well.
I recall I hated cursive as a kid - I found it difficult to read (I think the Babar the Elephant books were printed in cursive, which meant I didn't read them). I adopted it when I got into High School and needed to take notes, and became very fluent in it, the same way my arithmetic improved the summer I was a waitress. I suppose there'll come a time when everyone will be taking notes on a laptop (many do already) - (I would, if I owned a laptop). But this transitional phase must be awkward, and I'm always a bit wary of solutions that require high-tech equipment (what if you get kidnapped by Cro-Magnon and forced to go to college in the Neolithic Era?).
There are times when I suspect there is something very wrong with the way I think.
And yes, looking over the essays, with a couple of exceptions even the well-composed, well-thought-out ones are hand-printed rather than hand-written. No wonder they hate writing essays, and many don't take notes very well.
I recall I hated cursive as a kid - I found it difficult to read (I think the Babar the Elephant books were printed in cursive, which meant I didn't read them). I adopted it when I got into High School and needed to take notes, and became very fluent in it, the same way my arithmetic improved the summer I was a waitress. I suppose there'll come a time when everyone will be taking notes on a laptop (many do already) - (I would, if I owned a laptop). But this transitional phase must be awkward, and I'm always a bit wary of solutions that require high-tech equipment (what if you get kidnapped by Cro-Magnon and forced to go to college in the Neolithic Era?).
There are times when I suspect there is something very wrong with the way I think.
February 25, 2012
A dear friend's visit for three days (one of which I was ...
A dear friend's visit for three days (one of which I was at school from 9 am til 10 pm) - including a troll of the LA Garment District, always a sort of third-world souk experience - now I get a day and a half of actual work. You have to grab these when you can, juggling writing with a part-time gig. It's a little difficult to pull the mind back to the place where the story is, but reading CM Long's Mme Lalaurie book helps - it has an amazing sense of time and place, though the particular book I'm working on takes place in Washington rather than New Orleans. A very different world, then.
My friend was assembling components for costuming a "thru the decades" pop music review, so the shopping trip featured terrifying quantities of spandex and rhinestones, but the Garment District is always a hoot. A sign above a shop announced that they had TRIM, FABRIC, RHINESTONES and SEQUENCE. Have you indeed?
My friend was assembling components for costuming a "thru the decades" pop music review, so the shopping trip featured terrifying quantities of spandex and rhinestones, but the Garment District is always a hoot. A sign above a shop announced that they had TRIM, FABRIC, RHINESTONES and SEQUENCE. Have you indeed?
February 24, 2012
An EXCELLENT book! I'm reading Carolyn Morrow Long's Mada...
An EXCELLENT book! I'm reading Carolyn Morrow Long's Madame Lalaurie: Mistress of the Haunted House, the book I WOULD have used for research for Fever Season if it had been written back then. Excellent research - into notorial records, Cathedral registers, personal letters - and very well written, a fascinating read. (And thank you, Carolyn, for the nice mention of Fever Season in the intro!). Covers WAY more than Mme L. I remember when I was researching Fever Season, a lot of the research was still involved with, "Did she or didn't she?" I went with, "Yes, she did," because the oldest accounts didn't seem to have any doubt about it, and Long thoroughly shakes out every account and Yeah, she certainly did. An excellent book!
It's definitely spring. At the Venice Farmer's Market this morning the Strawberry Guys were back - Harry's Berry's, they raise Gaviota variety strawberries, which are a bit too fragile to be commercially shipped in bulk and half-raw to supermarkets. They are jaw-droppingly divine.
And, outside a 7-11 I saw a male pigeon, all fluffed up and with his tail spread, doing his little mating-dance in front of a totally not-interested female. She kept wandering away in search of fragments of popcorn on the sidewalk, and Mr. Hopeful had to run around in front of her and start his dance again, cooing all the while "Hey, Baby, what's your sign? You know, I can tell things about you that you probably don't know yourself..."
A LONG day of work today.
It's definitely spring. At the Venice Farmer's Market this morning the Strawberry Guys were back - Harry's Berry's, they raise Gaviota variety strawberries, which are a bit too fragile to be commercially shipped in bulk and half-raw to supermarkets. They are jaw-droppingly divine.
And, outside a 7-11 I saw a male pigeon, all fluffed up and with his tail spread, doing his little mating-dance in front of a totally not-interested female. She kept wandering away in search of fragments of popcorn on the sidewalk, and Mr. Hopeful had to run around in front of her and start his dance again, cooing all the while "Hey, Baby, what's your sign? You know, I can tell things about you that you probably don't know yourself..."
A LONG day of work today.
February 22, 2012
A Mardi Gras memory...I lived in New Orleans, part-time, ...
A Mardi Gras memory...
I lived in New Orleans, part-time, for about three years with husband George Alec Effinger.
One Mardi Gras, we went down to the French Quarter (reminder: let's not do that again - jammed mobs of drunk college kids throwing up in the gutters), and George said, "It's almost midnight. You've got to come see this." We went to the corner of Bourbon and Iberville, a block from the edge of the Quarter, and as the clock struck midnight on Mardi Gras, I got to see the Last Mardi Gras parade: a wall-to-wall line of New Orleans cops (like a walking krewe), followed by a wall-to-wall line of MOUNTED New Orleans cops (like Riding Dukes, except without the purple satin robes and hoods), blaring grimly into megaphones: "Mardi Gras is over. Get off the streets. Mardi Gras is over."
All the drunk college kids just looked baffled and confused. The lines of cops advanced inexorably, sweeping all before them, and behind them came - like floats - a wall-to-wall line of street-sweeper trucks.
After every Mardi Gras, they weigh the trash, to tell how successful it's been.
I'm going for the Tennessee Williams Festival in about 4 weeks. It'll be nice to see the place again.
I lived in New Orleans, part-time, for about three years with husband George Alec Effinger.
One Mardi Gras, we went down to the French Quarter (reminder: let's not do that again - jammed mobs of drunk college kids throwing up in the gutters), and George said, "It's almost midnight. You've got to come see this." We went to the corner of Bourbon and Iberville, a block from the edge of the Quarter, and as the clock struck midnight on Mardi Gras, I got to see the Last Mardi Gras parade: a wall-to-wall line of New Orleans cops (like a walking krewe), followed by a wall-to-wall line of MOUNTED New Orleans cops (like Riding Dukes, except without the purple satin robes and hoods), blaring grimly into megaphones: "Mardi Gras is over. Get off the streets. Mardi Gras is over."
All the drunk college kids just looked baffled and confused. The lines of cops advanced inexorably, sweeping all before them, and behind them came - like floats - a wall-to-wall line of street-sweeper trucks.
After every Mardi Gras, they weigh the trash, to tell how successful it's been.
I'm going for the Tennessee Williams Festival in about 4 weeks. It'll be nice to see the place again.
February 20, 2012
A California morning - gray, gloomy, deeply chilly, but I...
A California morning - gray, gloomy, deeply chilly, but I GET THE WHOLE DAY TO WORK!!!!
Laundry and tea. Amazing how much better everything looks when one has had enough sleep.
Adventures in Research, Continued: Trolling around online I found reference to an 1883 publication entitled "Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities" (I was looking for whorehouses in Washington DC); this covers DC, NYC, NOLA, Salt Lake (!!!), and a couple of others, "With Numerous Engravings." ABEbooks.com => lo and behold, somebody does PoD versions of it for a reasonable amount of money. It's a little later than the period I'm writing about, but so far as I've read, contains interesting facts (and, I suspect, more than a little fiction) and an astonishing amount of moralizing. Obligatory, I suppose, if one is writing about drugs and floozies in 1883.
Laundry and tea. Amazing how much better everything looks when one has had enough sleep.
Adventures in Research, Continued: Trolling around online I found reference to an 1883 publication entitled "Mysteries and Miseries of America's Great Cities" (I was looking for whorehouses in Washington DC); this covers DC, NYC, NOLA, Salt Lake (!!!), and a couple of others, "With Numerous Engravings." ABEbooks.com => lo and behold, somebody does PoD versions of it for a reasonable amount of money. It's a little later than the period I'm writing about, but so far as I've read, contains interesting facts (and, I suspect, more than a little fiction) and an astonishing amount of moralizing. Obligatory, I suppose, if one is writing about drugs and floozies in 1883.
February 19, 2012
Spent the day yesterdat at Gallifrey One, the local Dr. W...
Spent the day yesterdat at Gallifrey One, the local Dr. Who con. As usual, tons of fun.
It's a big con, as local cons go - well over 2,000 people - and VERY well-run. They treat their media guests extremely well, and the little coterie of local writers generally sits in a corner of the Green Room and has a pleasant chat. I was on panels about gaming, and one about "Making a Living as a Creative Person" with David Gerrold, Marv Wolfman, David Wise et al... I think I was the only person on the panel who was a) female and b) primarily a novelist. Len Wein was in the audience. We kept telling him we needed him up there, too, but he wouldn't come. I did an autographing - or rather, sat in a pleasant little room with the other writers, looking through the doors at the MASSIVE line of people waiting to get autographs from Paul McGann and Louise Jameson. Also managed to compare notes with fellow Poe-fan Nancy Holder, to make sure my characterization of him in Mr. J. Goes To Washington (working title) is on-track.
I did a troll through the dealer's room - marveling at the huge quantities of Dr. Who merchandise - the place was amazingly crowded. I could have walked past Barak Obama and not noticed him. (Unless he was wearing a Dalek costume) (Which is sort of an enchanting thought...) There were a couple of marvelous Daleks rolling around the lobby, a working K-9, and an excellent Madame de Pompadour.
And then a friend's lovely birthday party up in the Valley.
Now I get TWO WHOLE DAYS to work quietly! Yay!
It's a big con, as local cons go - well over 2,000 people - and VERY well-run. They treat their media guests extremely well, and the little coterie of local writers generally sits in a corner of the Green Room and has a pleasant chat. I was on panels about gaming, and one about "Making a Living as a Creative Person" with David Gerrold, Marv Wolfman, David Wise et al... I think I was the only person on the panel who was a) female and b) primarily a novelist. Len Wein was in the audience. We kept telling him we needed him up there, too, but he wouldn't come. I did an autographing - or rather, sat in a pleasant little room with the other writers, looking through the doors at the MASSIVE line of people waiting to get autographs from Paul McGann and Louise Jameson. Also managed to compare notes with fellow Poe-fan Nancy Holder, to make sure my characterization of him in Mr. J. Goes To Washington (working title) is on-track.
I did a troll through the dealer's room - marveling at the huge quantities of Dr. Who merchandise - the place was amazingly crowded. I could have walked past Barak Obama and not noticed him. (Unless he was wearing a Dalek costume) (Which is sort of an enchanting thought...) There were a couple of marvelous Daleks rolling around the lobby, a working K-9, and an excellent Madame de Pompadour.
And then a friend's lovely birthday party up in the Valley.
Now I get TWO WHOLE DAYS to work quietly! Yay!
February 16, 2012
Dr. Who convention this weekend, Gallifrey One at the Los...
Dr. Who convention this weekend, Gallifrey One at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott. I am very small potatoes and very much second-track at this excellent media con, but I'll be on a couple of panels Saturday and will probably be around for a few hours Friday.
Second week of classes at the college. Students still wandering like orphans around the campus, trying to crash over-full classes because they need those units to transfer, and the classes simply aren't there. And they're going to cut some more classes out in the Fall.
A quiet day today of Taking Care of Business. Tea and laundry.
Second week of classes at the college. Students still wandering like orphans around the campus, trying to crash over-full classes because they need those units to transfer, and the classes simply aren't there. And they're going to cut some more classes out in the Fall.
A quiet day today of Taking Care of Business. Tea and laundry.
