Lilith Saintcrow's Blog, page 142

That Lovely Sound

Good morning, chickadees. I hope your Thanksgiving was low-stress and full of good food. For those who were on the barricades and protesting on that day (all through the weekend in some places, I’m told), I hope all went well and someone at least organized coffee.

News! I have news. Issue 18 of Fireside, with chapter three of my ongoing cyborg-Western-vampire serial She Wolf and Cub, is now live! If the serial ends up being a success, there might even be a book of the collected chapters, so if you’re wanting to read a monthly chapter of something from me while you’re waiting for, say, Trailer Park Fae or Kin, that’s an option.

There are upcoming details about Rose & Thunder, one of my retellings of Beauty & the Beast–still my favorite fairytale–and there is movement on the Steelflower 2 front, though I can’t announce anything just yet. (Publishing: moves at the speed of glaciers during the Ice Age!)

And in still more news, NaNoWriMo is done. I finished both Rattlesnake Wind and the second Gallow & Robin book, which was my collective goal for November. In honor of finishing NaNo, some editing services are back in stock! First come, first serve, and all regular disclaimers apply. Please read the FAQs and Guidelines before you decide to purchase editing services, though. Some packages require a down payment.

It’s hovering at freezing here. Yesterday’s run took me past several crystallised puddles, and I could tell the ones kids had seen by the shattered ice. It made me wonder at what age my first instinct became to admire and leave well enough alone instead of breaking a solid sheet of ice just to see it fracture and hear that lovely sound. I never was a fan of breaking things the way some kids seem to be, but I did do my share of splashing in puddles when I reasonably sure I wouldn’t get caught and beaten for getting dirty. Sometimes the thrill of transgression is worth it.

I think it’s simply that now I could step through the ice if I wanted to, it’s up to me. When given a choice, I lose the desire to break. It makes me wonder how much breaking and burning is done by those who have no alternative. That’s as close to a comment on current events as I’ll get today.

And now, back to work on sample chapters, and revising Agent Zero…

Sock Monkeh!

SOCK MONKEH, avec embarrassing bulge, in honor of the orgy of capitalism and greed that is about to ensue. I actually snapped this some time ago, and sent it to the Selkie with the threat that I was going to buy one for her, so he could help her write.

Her reply was sufficiently unrepeatable as to scorch my phone. Heh.

Yesterday was full of ham, stuffing (once a year I get to eat all the Stove Top I want; sadly, I usually only end up wanting about a cup of it. BUT I COULD HAVE MORE, IF I WANTED!) and mashed russets, greens (Bandit, our remaining cavy, got a generous handful of fresh kale) and challah bread. True to form, half the challah disappeared before dinner could be had.The kids had fizzy apple juice, and I broke into the wine early. (Honestly, nobody expected any less.)

The older I get, the more I value a quiet holiday.

Anyway, today is for listening to Sir Mix A Lot and getting back into the swing of sample chapters and more of the second Gallow book. Kids and dogs are still sleeping, the coffee is beginning to sink in, and I plan on being nowhere near a mall, ever.

All together now: Ahhhh.

A Few Days

My heart hurts. I’m shutting down for a couple days–a luxury others don’t share, I know. I wish everyone could.

Be kind to each other out there.

photo by:


Frozen Hell.

Already Am

So the (mostly white) grand jury did not indict Darren Wilson for the murder of an unarmed child half a football field away. Transcript is here. Predictably, the prosecutor (who comes from a family of police officers and people who work for them) released the news of no indictment at 9pm instead of 9am, probably to avoid questions from the press, and the people who are being killed for the color of their skin are furious. The President’s speech was a marvel of mealymouth, while on at least one split screen showing said speech and the situation in Ferguson, police “proactively” tear-gassed protestors. The racists and police apologists are out in force, I had to close my social media feeds this morning. I just can’t even.

I’m sickened, saddened, and I feel like crying, but I’m not surprised.

The Ferguson Public Library is open this morning, for teachers and kids who can’t get to school for one reason or the other. I donated to them through their website (the PayPal link is in the top right corner); it feels like the only goddamn thing I can do.

My son’s father isn’t Caucasian. How long before I’m afraid to let my own child go outside, too?

Too late. I already am.

ETA: Comments heavily moderated. Behave.

Mycelium

I was finding mushrooms everywhere during the recent damp spell, and sending the photos to the Selkie, for various reasons. These colorful ones cropped up along the south side of the house, and were chewed and scattered almost as soon as they appeared–no, not by the dogs, they weren’t in the back yard. I think various rodents or birds sampled them.

Two Awesome Things

Yesterday two utterly awesome things happened.

The smaller awesome thing: I finished the zero draft of Rattlesnake Wind. That was my NaNoWriMo goal this year, and it happened. The book has been tormenting me for YEARS and it’s finally, finally done. It’s no longer unfinished. It is an ex-partial. It will be put in a drawer for a while, so I can finish the zero draft of Gallow 2. (No rest for the wicked.) If I can manage to get Gallow 2 to zero draft form by the end of November I’ll consider myself a badass for at least a week.

The bigger awesome thing, though…my girl C had another PET scan yesterday. The cancer-masses of Hodgkin’s (she calls them “cancer nuggets” because she is just that hilarious) that were visible last time?

Gone. Gone, gone gone. GONE.

She still has to finish the remaining months of chemo, but we have official proof that it’s working. She’s officially in remission. This is the best possible news at this stage. You could knock me over with a feather, I’m so weak-kneed with relief and happy enough to explode. Her fighting chance just got a whole lot better.

I know a lot of you sent help and support in various ways. Thank you so much. Thanks are also due to the fabulous cadre of medical professionals fighting for my girl.

And now, the sun is coming up and it’s time for me to head back to work. I’m hoping today is only moderately awesome. Yesterday about did me in.

Over and out.

photo by:

Motion

One of the things about regular running is the glory of taking a rest day. Just one at a time, though, because if I don’t run for a couple days, I start feeling itchy and dissatisfied, everything under my skin crawling. It makes me wonder what might have been if I’d known cross-country running was done mostly alone in high school. Of course, I loathe team sports and even at that tender age I had very little patience for the verbal abuse often masquerading as “coaching” in schools–I was getting enough of that at home, thanks–but if I could have run, alone, for significant periods of time…I just wonder. Of course I couldn’t have let anyone at home know I liked it, or it would have been taken away, but still.

I’ve also regained my balance after the past week. I’m seeing the funny side of everything now, which is good. Once I start seeing the absurdity, it means I’m okay.

Anyway, today is a rest day. I’m within striking distance of finishing Rattlesnake Wind and near the big crisis of the second Gallow book; I plan on trying to finish them both at the same time. Hopefully it won’t make liquified brain matter slide out my ear-holes. We’ll see.

There’s motion happening on Steelflower 2, though it might not seem like it. Someone suggested I look into funding it through Patreon instead of Kickstarter. It would mean changing that to a monthly patron thing, and doing the book as a serial with a chapter every month. What do you guys think of that option? (Note that I might not be swayed by any opinion but my own on the whole thing, but I’m still asking.) My agent and I are discussing how long we should wait for publishers to decide go/no go. So things are happening, they’re just behind the scenes.

And with that, it’s time to turn up the music (a lot of Ennio Morricone today) and get started on the day. Damn the torpedoes and the liquified brains, and full speed ahead…

photo by:


Jonathan Kos-Read

Dry East

The dry, east-wind part of winter–the Gorge is a giant wind tunnel–is the least fun for me. Everything gets desiccated: houseplants, dogs, the tender skin around the mouth. The new windows are holding up, despite a little condensation. I much prefer when the rains move in, even though everything starts to smell of moss and other less-savory things. The weekend was full of yard work, things like planting fava beans (they overwinter well here and fix nitrogen in the soil) and getting stormwrack into piles for the landscapers. I had to rake, which is normally not my favorite thing, but it’s really not so bad when someone isn’t going to take a belt to you if you don’t get every leaf.

Dawn is coming up as I write this, the children mostly ready for school, Odd Trundles snoring on the dogbed. Miss B, who would normally nose him off the bed or take the lion’s share of it for herself, is instead supervising the making of school lunches, hoping to be paid with a dab of peanut butter for her efforts. There is very little she won’t do for peanut butter or Cheetos.

The cedars outside my office window have stopped tossing. I pause and stare at them for a while, usually while getting the next string-sentence together in my head. Today I start on the sample chapters for the second Agent Zero book, and there’s word count on Rattlesnake Wind and the second Gallow book to catch up with. Plus, bread to make–the Little Prince requested “Mombread,” which is what he calls my 50% poolish loaves. He likes it toasted, with butter and a fried egg, in the mornings. I should also get up on the roof and deal with the storm debris there, always one of my favorite things.

All in all, it’s a Monday. I’d better stop staring out the window and get started on the rest of the day.

Over and out.

photo by:


katmary

Goodies

Goodies from the party a few weeks ago. You know it’s true friendship when someone encourages you to stick little paper parasols into EVERYTHING, because hey, you’ve got a packet of hundreds of them and you might as well.

Fantastic Hat

The weather report’s been screaming about possible snow for a little while, but there’s nothing but cold and wind outside. It is nice and dry after the last few days, so if any of the white stuff comes down, it’ll probably stick. Which means people will go mad on the roads. Also, I should put the tire chains in the trunk, if I haven’t already. Better safe than sorry, as the Selkie and the Boy Scout always say.

Speaking of the Selkie, she got me the most fantastic hat ever.

Warm and fuzzy.

I’ve been wearing it pretty much everywhere during the cold snap, and people keep complimenting it. Apparently the Selkie has FABULOUS taste, but then, we knew that. I will probably be able to wear it when my hair grows out, too–it’s stretchy enough to cover the mane. I may never walk around bareheaded ever again.

At least, not until it warms up.

I’m still hard at work on copyedits for Trailer Park Fae (I feel compelled to note once again that the title was not my idea.) Fortunately, Kin is put to bed, and I think there’s nothing left for me to do until it comes out in March. I want to get the zero drafts of Rattlesnake Wind and Gallow 2 (this is the follow-up book to Trailer Park Fae) done before the end of November, and now I can announce that Agent Zero and its follow-up book (as yet untitled) have both sold to Harlequin! I’ll have more details on that as soon as I get them. My agent, the fabulous Miss M, is chasing down the possibility of getting a publisher interested in Steelflower 2–once she has an idea of if that’s likely to happen I’ll start making decisions.

I have thought (long and hard) about and crunched the numbers for the Kickstarter for Steelflower 2, but the ridonkulous amount of money necessary for that to be viable–we’re talking $15K minimum, to cover time off from other projects as well as editing, cover art, and various other incidental expenses like perks–rather unnerves me. I would much prefer to have a publisher in my corner on that one, since even a small press will ease the burden of editing, cover art, and the numerous quality control arrangements necessary. I’m not willing to have Kaia’s story get any less than quality care.

On the bright side, Rose & Thunder (one of my retellings of Beauty and the Beast) is close to the start line, and the Anna Beguine books may have another incarnation soon.

So, while it might look like I’m just lounging around popping writerly bonbons into the Muse’s gaping maw, really I’m madly juggling chainsaws behind the scenes. Got to get a lot done before publishing shuts down (again) for months around the holidays.

Speaking of which, I’d better get back to those damn CEs. The wind is still up, no sign of snow yet, but copyediting waits for no woman. Or something.

Stay warm out there, chickadees.

photo by:


starshaped