Rachel Manija Brown's Blog, page 95
March 16, 2020
Gardening question
What can I plant from seed right now in extremely shallow soil over concrete?
The soil itself is very nice, soft and crumbly with plenty of mulch. However, there's only about 2-3 inches of it before you hit concrete.
I'm in Los Angeles now, which is gardening zone 10b.
I'd ideally like to plant some edible things and some flowers or attractive ground cover. It's not the right time of year to plant CA wildflowers from seed - that's done in the fall. Herbs and vegetables would be my first choice, with inedible pretty things my second.
I am limited to what I can order by mail as I can't interact with human beings for the obvious reason. So seeds or dried roots only, not seedlings.
I strongly prefer fast-growing, quick-reward plants. This is basically a pandemic project, so I'm looking to keep myself occupied for the next couple months, not the next couple years. I also won't have the space indefinitely.
comments
The soil itself is very nice, soft and crumbly with plenty of mulch. However, there's only about 2-3 inches of it before you hit concrete.
I'm in Los Angeles now, which is gardening zone 10b.
I'd ideally like to plant some edible things and some flowers or attractive ground cover. It's not the right time of year to plant CA wildflowers from seed - that's done in the fall. Herbs and vegetables would be my first choice, with inedible pretty things my second.
I am limited to what I can order by mail as I can't interact with human beings for the obvious reason. So seeds or dried roots only, not seedlings.
I strongly prefer fast-growing, quick-reward plants. This is basically a pandemic project, so I'm looking to keep myself occupied for the next couple months, not the next couple years. I also won't have the space indefinitely.
comments
March 15, 2020
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins (Post # 1 - Walter Hartright & Vincent Gilmore, Solicitor)
I have just started reading the classic epistolatory mystery novel/Gothic from 1860. I've read Walter Hartright's first chapter and Vincent Gilmore, Solicitor's chapter. So far I have somehow remained completely unspoiled for this book so please do not spoil me!
While Collins sometimes goes on and on and on, he also has extremely propulsive storytelling that makes it obvious why this is a classic. Also, there's a lot of funny bits, which I was not expecting. It's tremendously fun and while it has many now-familiar tropes, it doesn't feel at all stale; I have only the vaguest guesses about where it's all going.
Walter Hartwell is a young drawing teacher who's offered a position teaching painting to two young women at Limmeridge House. On his way there, walking down a dark road at night, a hand suddenly touches his shoulder! A woman in white has appeared out of nowhere!
She requests his help getting a carriage, mentions that she has fond memories of the mistress of Limmeridge House, and says she's afraid of a Baronet. He helps her out, but after she's gone two men appear, searching for a woman in white: "She has escaped from my Asylum. Don't forget: a woman in white."
Hartwell says nothing.
( And then many, many more exciting events occur! )
Once again, no plot spoilers for the rest of the book! But I would love to discuss what's happened up to now.
comments
While Collins sometimes goes on and on and on, he also has extremely propulsive storytelling that makes it obvious why this is a classic. Also, there's a lot of funny bits, which I was not expecting. It's tremendously fun and while it has many now-familiar tropes, it doesn't feel at all stale; I have only the vaguest guesses about where it's all going.
Walter Hartwell is a young drawing teacher who's offered a position teaching painting to two young women at Limmeridge House. On his way there, walking down a dark road at night, a hand suddenly touches his shoulder! A woman in white has appeared out of nowhere!
She requests his help getting a carriage, mentions that she has fond memories of the mistress of Limmeridge House, and says she's afraid of a Baronet. He helps her out, but after she's gone two men appear, searching for a woman in white: "She has escaped from my Asylum. Don't forget: a woman in white."
Hartwell says nothing.
( And then many, many more exciting events occur! )
Once again, no plot spoilers for the rest of the book! But I would love to discuss what's happened up to now.
comments
March 14, 2020
Want a free book?
If any of you are bored, stressed, and/or stuck at home, I'd be happy to send you any books I've written. No charge, no obligation to review. Just comment or email or message me with your email, which ones you'd like, and whether you'd like them in mobi (for Kindle) or ePub (non-Kindle) format.
I got this idea from![[personal profile]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1491408111i/22407843.png)
ellenmillion
, who is doing the same thing. So if you want any of Ellen's books, head on over.
comments
I got this idea from
ellenmillion
, who is doing the same thing. So if you want any of Ellen's books, head on over. comments
A Woman of the Iron People, by Eleanor Arnason
A classic novel of anthropological science fiction originally published broken into two books even though it's not that long, an inexplicable decision compounded by giving the first book a cover depicting a fortune-teller falling out of her corset:
[image error] [image error]
A first contact novel featuring a human spaceship split between various factions, several human anthropologists, and the aliens, who are furry humanoids whose women live in villages and whose men live alone. The main alien character, Nia, is an outcast because rather than doing the normal thing of mating with a man during the season for that and then leaving him, she lived with him in a monogamous relationship. This is an exploration of the underpinnings of sexual norms, not an argument for "monogamy is good."
The worldbuilding and culture clashes are well-done, but the book overall felt dry due to a lack of felt emotion. The main characters do get to be friends, but in a very low-key, non-intense manner. The humor, a mix of social satire and human comedy, was also extremely low-key and the satirical aspects fell flat for me. Overall I preferred Arnason's other book about furry aliens, Ring of Swords.
Leaning into premise score: It definitely delivers what it promises, it just didn't do so in a way that really worked for me.
A Woman of the Iron People[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
[image error] [image error]
A first contact novel featuring a human spaceship split between various factions, several human anthropologists, and the aliens, who are furry humanoids whose women live in villages and whose men live alone. The main alien character, Nia, is an outcast because rather than doing the normal thing of mating with a man during the season for that and then leaving him, she lived with him in a monogamous relationship. This is an exploration of the underpinnings of sexual norms, not an argument for "monogamy is good."
The worldbuilding and culture clashes are well-done, but the book overall felt dry due to a lack of felt emotion. The main characters do get to be friends, but in a very low-key, non-intense manner. The humor, a mix of social satire and human comedy, was also extremely low-key and the satirical aspects fell flat for me. Overall I preferred Arnason's other book about furry aliens, Ring of Swords.
Leaning into premise score: It definitely delivers what it promises, it just didn't do so in a way that really worked for me.
A Woman of the Iron People[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
March 12, 2020
Hurt-Comfort Exchange Letter
Dear Hurt-Comfort Writer,
I cannot WAIT to read what you will write for me! H/C is my favorite thing.
I noticed while choosing tags that I mostly gravitated toward situations or character moments rather than specific hurts. All specific hurts are great as long as they're not a DNW. I like both emotional and physical h/c, but prefer there to be a mix of both and for the hurt to be non-trivial. If I chose "both hurt," one being physically hurt and the other being emotionally hurt is fine.
( General Loves )
( General DNWs )
( Dark Tower - Stephen King )
( The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt )
( The Punisher (TV 2017) )
( True Detective )
comments
I cannot WAIT to read what you will write for me! H/C is my favorite thing.
I noticed while choosing tags that I mostly gravitated toward situations or character moments rather than specific hurts. All specific hurts are great as long as they're not a DNW. I like both emotional and physical h/c, but prefer there to be a mix of both and for the hurt to be non-trivial. If I chose "both hurt," one being physically hurt and the other being emotionally hurt is fine.
( General Loves )
( General DNWs )
( Dark Tower - Stephen King )
( The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt )
( The Punisher (TV 2017) )
( True Detective )
comments
On Horror
When I was a child, the writer who spoke most to me was Anne McCaffrey, especially with her Menolly books. Those books told me what I most needed to hear, which was “The place you’re in really is terrible, but there is a better place for you, and you can escape to it.”
When it looked like I was going to die because I couldn’t convince anyone with the power to help me that I was really sick, the writer who spoke most to me was Stephen King. And what his books said was, “You’re not crazy. Things are exactly as bad as you think. I believe you.”
Someone asked a while back what people get out of reading horror. There’s a lot of answers, much like the answers to what people get out of reading comedy or fantasy or any genre. But one of the key themes of horror is that Cassandra was right. And that if you feel like Cassandra, then you are probably right, too.
In horror, the person who everyone initially ignores and dismisses, the person trying to get everyone to admit to the existence of the bad thing that everyone else is ignoring, the person who sees the missing stair, the monster in the closet, the pandemic in waiting… That person is always right.
Sometimes we want to hear that everything will be fine. But sometimes the only way anything can ever be fine is if we admit that everything isn’t fine right now. Horror tells us that everything isn’t fine, and we should start listening to the people who’ve been saying so all along. And if we are those people, it tells us what we most need to hear: “I believe you.”
comments
When it looked like I was going to die because I couldn’t convince anyone with the power to help me that I was really sick, the writer who spoke most to me was Stephen King. And what his books said was, “You’re not crazy. Things are exactly as bad as you think. I believe you.”
Someone asked a while back what people get out of reading horror. There’s a lot of answers, much like the answers to what people get out of reading comedy or fantasy or any genre. But one of the key themes of horror is that Cassandra was right. And that if you feel like Cassandra, then you are probably right, too.
In horror, the person who everyone initially ignores and dismisses, the person trying to get everyone to admit to the existence of the bad thing that everyone else is ignoring, the person who sees the missing stair, the monster in the closet, the pandemic in waiting… That person is always right.
Sometimes we want to hear that everything will be fine. But sometimes the only way anything can ever be fine is if we admit that everything isn’t fine right now. Horror tells us that everything isn’t fine, and we should start listening to the people who’ve been saying so all along. And if we are those people, it tells us what we most need to hear: “I believe you.”
comments
March 11, 2020
What is the most adorable puppy?
The book I'm writing right now has brother and sister puppies. They need to be different colors, but clearly from the same litter. They don't need to be purebred, but I'd like to describe them by referencing a dog breed people are familiar with or can look up, i.e., "They resembled Labrador retrievers..."
With that in mind, what breed of dog has the most adorable puppies? Please support your case with photo evidence.
comments
With that in mind, what breed of dog has the most adorable puppies? Please support your case with photo evidence.
comments
March 10, 2020
Bucket List suggestions
This is for a book I'm writing. The heroine has one year to live, and has decided to spend it fulfilling her bucket list (a list of things she wants to do before she dies.) She is a daredevil trapeze artist. For the purposes of the story, assume that she does not yet have any physical limitations.
Please suggest interesting things she could have on her list. They must be things that she can actually do (i.e., no stuff like "attain enlightenment") and MUST BE POSSIBLE TO DO IN AMERICA (i.e., no "visit the Taj Mahal.")
Please suggest anything you think would be interesting to write about, whether absurd or serious, major or trivial, practical or not at all.
The structure of the book is the road trip she takes to accomplish her bucket list, while accompanied by the man who's had a psychic vision that he can save her life (but not how; he's hoping he'll figure it out if he hangs out with her long enough) and a litter of teleporting puppies (which is why it has to be a road trip).
comments
Please suggest interesting things she could have on her list. They must be things that she can actually do (i.e., no stuff like "attain enlightenment") and MUST BE POSSIBLE TO DO IN AMERICA (i.e., no "visit the Taj Mahal.")
Please suggest anything you think would be interesting to write about, whether absurd or serious, major or trivial, practical or not at all.
The structure of the book is the road trip she takes to accomplish her bucket list, while accompanied by the man who's had a psychic vision that he can save her life (but not how; he's hoping he'll figure it out if he hangs out with her long enough) and a litter of teleporting puppies (which is why it has to be a road trip).
comments
March 4, 2020
Falling Angel, by William Hjortsberg
It was Friday the thirteenth and yesterday’s snowstorm lingered in the streets like a leftover curse.
This was one of the books mentioned in Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks From Hell. I'd previously heard of it because it was adapted into a movie called Angel Heart which I've never seen but which generated a lot of media attention due to getting slapped with an X rating due, as far as anyone could tell, to a moderately explicit sex scene in which the actress was (gasp!) black.
Consequently, I had been long since spoiled for the general outlines of the plot. The book still held up very nicely, as 1) the overall plot is extremely heavily telegraphed anyway, 2) the actual pleasure of the book is less in surprises and more in prose and atmosphere. The prose, especially in the early parts, is absolutely delicious: horror by way of Raymond Chandler. Though every now and then it oversteps the thin line between the dark humor of noir metaphors and hilariously terrible metaphors, even then, the results are memorable:
Revelation hit me like an ice-water enema.
In 1959, private eye Harry Angel gets hired by the sinister and mysterious Louis Cyphre to track down the singer Johnny Favorite. Favorite had a meteoric pre-war rise to fame, then was severely wounded in WWII and supposedly was catatonic in a nursing home ever since. Only he's not in the home, and apparently hadn't been for some time. Angel, who was also severely wounded in WWII, tracks down Favorite's associates, only to find that they have a tendency to get murdered right before they can tell him more than cryptic hints...
All along the avenue, cotton candy stands, fun houses, and games of chance were tightly shuttered, like clowns without makeup.
Either this is the sort of thing you will like, or it is not. I bet by now you know which it is. I liked it a lot, though warning for racism of the "white teeth shining against black skin" variety. Also there is voodoo. I found that tolerable as the actual black characters all had their own agendas and motivations, and were as fleshed-out as the white characters; your tolerance may vary.
I breathed its fruity aroma and took a sip. The cognac slid like velvet fire across my tongue. I downed it in three quick swallows. It was old and expensive and deserved much better treatment, but I was in a hurry.
Falling Angel[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
This was one of the books mentioned in Grady Hendrix's Paperbacks From Hell. I'd previously heard of it because it was adapted into a movie called Angel Heart which I've never seen but which generated a lot of media attention due to getting slapped with an X rating due, as far as anyone could tell, to a moderately explicit sex scene in which the actress was (gasp!) black.
Consequently, I had been long since spoiled for the general outlines of the plot. The book still held up very nicely, as 1) the overall plot is extremely heavily telegraphed anyway, 2) the actual pleasure of the book is less in surprises and more in prose and atmosphere. The prose, especially in the early parts, is absolutely delicious: horror by way of Raymond Chandler. Though every now and then it oversteps the thin line between the dark humor of noir metaphors and hilariously terrible metaphors, even then, the results are memorable:
Revelation hit me like an ice-water enema.
In 1959, private eye Harry Angel gets hired by the sinister and mysterious Louis Cyphre to track down the singer Johnny Favorite. Favorite had a meteoric pre-war rise to fame, then was severely wounded in WWII and supposedly was catatonic in a nursing home ever since. Only he's not in the home, and apparently hadn't been for some time. Angel, who was also severely wounded in WWII, tracks down Favorite's associates, only to find that they have a tendency to get murdered right before they can tell him more than cryptic hints...
All along the avenue, cotton candy stands, fun houses, and games of chance were tightly shuttered, like clowns without makeup.
Either this is the sort of thing you will like, or it is not. I bet by now you know which it is. I liked it a lot, though warning for racism of the "white teeth shining against black skin" variety. Also there is voodoo. I found that tolerable as the actual black characters all had their own agendas and motivations, and were as fleshed-out as the white characters; your tolerance may vary.
I breathed its fruity aroma and took a sip. The cognac slid like velvet fire across my tongue. I downed it in three quick swallows. It was old and expensive and deserved much better treatment, but I was in a hurry.
Falling Angel[image error]
[image error] [image error]
comments
March 3, 2020
The Working Writer's Life
I've been working nonstop on the release of Defender Raptor and other writing-related business since waking up. It's 1:30, I haven't showered or dressed, and I'm nowhere near done. Taking a break to shower and vote in the primary, then back to work.
I thought some of you might be interested to know exactly what sort of work that might entail. If you don't, don't click. This is just what I've done today - it doesn't count everything I've done yesterday, etc - so it's a snapshot rather than a complete picture.
( Read more... )
comments
I thought some of you might be interested to know exactly what sort of work that might entail. If you don't, don't click. This is just what I've done today - it doesn't count everything I've done yesterday, etc - so it's a snapshot rather than a complete picture.
( Read more... )
comments
