Sarah Monette's Blog, page 98

Q&A 8

Q: What is Mildmay going to do now? You left them with jobs for Felix and Kay, but Mildmay is just tagging along. The job of taking care of Felix shouldn't be full-time any more. That was the only hugely dangling thread left. Did I miss some obvious hints? Maybe I'll go re-read them again.

A: Mildmay doesn't define himself by what he does in the same way that Felix and Kay do, and thus doesn't have the same need for a definitive job. He's learned the hard way that defining yourself by what you do

Amazon weighs in.

Amazon claims the de-ranking is a glitch, not policy.

I'm skeptical, but if this means they're going to undo their "glitch," then I'm all in favor.

ETA: This is a very interesting commentary.

I should add, I suppose, that while the de-ranking (and the basic principle of censorship behind it) infuriates me, it has not affected my opinion of Amazon. I didn't like them when I got up this morning, and I don't like them now.

I see a bad moon rising

This is appalling. And infuriating. And Not Okay.

(My books have not been stripped of their sales rankings--I just went and looked. But clearly they should be.)

Q&A 7

To all the people who want to read the false start to The Mirador: I am trying to think of a really really polite way to say, Oh HELL no.


Also, a reminder: many auctions at con_or_bust end today, including mine.


Q: Did you consciously intend for Mavortian and Bernard to be a kind of warped reflection of Felix and Mildmay?

A: Yes. Or at least, once I figured out that they were half-brothers, I did.

Q: Corambis...as in the jumping spider?

A: Corambis as in the name of Polonius's character in Hamlet Q1.

Q&A 6

I'm not sure if this first question is spoilery or not, so I'm putting it behind a cut-tag just in case it is:

Q: Both Mildmay, Felix, Kay and Mehitabel (and probably a bunch of other characters I've forgotten) all have at least one character who has had a major impact on their life and emotional development, but is dead (or soon to die, or offscreen, you get the picture) by the beginning of the story. Mildmay has Zephyr and Nika, Felix has Isophenus Pompey (whose name I have probably spelled hor

Project Valkyrie: Waterlog

TIME: 50 min.
DISTANCE: 5.6 mi.
TOTAL DISTANCE: 201.5 mi.
DISTRACTION: "The Secret Scepter Affair"
NOTES: I've watched enough MfU episodes enough times that I'm starting to recognize their sets. Given how unobservant I am, this is saying something.
SHIRE RECKONING: We've left the Marshes behind (yay!) and are heading for Weathertop.


It's much harder than it needs to be to find the Wii Fit's Activity Log. I'm just saying.

Three things I need to share

1. (found via coffeeem)
"Stand By Me" by (RED)WIRE

This? Is amazing.


Stand By Me from David Johnson on Vimeo.

2. It's John M. Ford's birthday. Mike, wherever you are, I hope your birthday celebration is epic.

3. My gratitude. To everyone who reads my books. Everyone who buys a copy. Everyone who checks a copy out of the library. To everyone who blogs about my books or reviews them. Even if your review isn't positive, you're still taking the time to talk about my books, and I appreciate that. To every

Q&A 5

First, although no one has actually asked this in the form of a question yet: if you think you spot an allusion, you're probably right. Poe, Lovecraft, Eliot, Samuel Daniel, Shakespeare, The Cat Came Back , Coppélia, Sayers, Milton, Dickens, Tolkien, various Brontës--basically, anything I've read or seen or heard has been treated as fair game if I could warp it into the appropriate shape.


Here's another question that's been asked more than once:

Q: Is there any way possible we could hope (possibly

follow-up to Q&A 4

My scanner has had its Helen-Keller-at-the-pump moment, and can communicate with Annie Sullivan (a.k.a. Genghis the Laptop). Ergo, as promised, the card I drew of the first trump of the Sibylline: The Guide.




(N.b., this is not and never was intended to be more than a rough sketch, which I inked in hastily for scanning purposes.

(Also, for those who are interested in drawing their own cards--or who want to make sense of the whole deck of the Sibylline--I will mention that I prefer Thoth to Rider.*

Corambis review

Enthusiastic (somewhat spoilery) review of Corambis at Fantasy Book Critic. Interestingly, this reviewer feels that Corambis does work as a standalone novel, so clearly YMMV on that issue.