Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 387

Being Prepared – Cathe Smith

Being Prepared – Cathe Smith

There was a farmer and his wife, and they had a beautiful farm on the rolling prairie. There was the 80-ft hand dug well faced with local limestone, and the numerous outbuildings required for small self-sufficient farms in the early 1900s. There was the sheep pasture in the front of the house for the sheep, and the spreading Burr Oaks lining the ravine. There was the barn with foundation walls a foot thick and made from fieldstones, with its walls held up by eight-...

Behold, the Promo Is!

Awake and rejoice! At long last and out of a not-so-distant land, the Promo Post has arrived! There’s been a drought of entries lately, as everyone grapples with that messy, so-called “real world” I’ve heard so much about. I’ll never quite grok you vertebrates and all your hustling around. So as we enter the glorious weekend, anchor yourselves to some comfortable couches or chairs and read a good book or three. Don’t forget to leave helpful reviews! As always, future entries can (and should!)...

There is a war between the men and the women — a blast from the past post Dec. 7 2006

*Yes, I know, that political closet had see through doors, shelves… As a friend pointed out, it wasn’t so much a coming out of the closet, until about a year before I did, but a slow conversion. Though it wasn’t exactly a conversion either. I was always an anti-communist. It just took me time for the softer stuff to start bothering me. I got through school by parroting it, and I didn’t see its intrinsic evil until it started dawning on me much later. This is one of those “dawning on me.” Inte...

Everybody Wants To Change The World

I’m a little worried about a development at Mad Genius Club yesterday.

It brought to mind when I was a little writer, knee high to a grasshopper — all of 14 or so — and started a fantasy short story. I was about a bunch of kids who find a magical key that takes them to a parallel world where they can start a colony and do things their way.

One of my more… ah… indoctrinated friends (look, it was a socialist regime. We were all indoctrinated, but she drank the koolaid.) told me that the story sho...

The Problem of Labor — David Pascoe

The Problem of Labor — David Pascoe

My vantage point these days is an oddly (Oddly?) curious one. A sleep-deprived and writing-deprived one. Perhaps this accounts for the difficulty I have in comprehending how some … people think. Or don’t think. So there I was, minding my own business, which mostly involves me minding Wee Dave’s … business, and monumental foolishness flashed across my feed.

Short aside:

I’m pretty certain (don’t laugh; I might cry) time spent socially networking is proving the...

She Said I’m Tired of The War

So, Sad Puppies slate was announced. To see it, go to Brad’s Blog here.

I would particularly like to endorse Kevin J. Anderson’s nomination. That the man has never received a Hugo is a sort of blot on the field. I haven’t read the suggested novel yet, but I have yet to read one of his novels that isn’t head and shoulders above most of the competition. Because he’s a professional.

While the slate is not rigid — i.e. if you really don’t like one of the stories suggested or have a burning desire t...

False Goalposts – Cedar Sanderson

*Dave Pascoe — aka number 3 son by adoption — seems to be trying to write the world (it’s a family thing) so Cedar is pitching in, and he’ll run later this week. He’s not dead. He’s looking after a baby. Which ties in with this essay too.*

False Goalposts – Cedar Sanderson

I recently wrote a post about motherhood. In it, I detailed the ways mothers are expected to leave their children from birth, go out into the world, and have a career. What I didn’t get into was the ways that is a false goal...

The Devil of Multi-culti — a blast from the past post from Jan 24 2008

I will continue my series on writing later, but today I came down with some nasty bug which I think I’ve actually been “hatching” for about a week, thereby accounting for my total lack of concentration while working and how long this book is taking to get ready.

Anyway — being dehydrated and not wanting to spend more time outside the house than needed, when I went to pick up Number One Son, I swung by the grocery store. Bananas, three things of diet coke and a can of shoe polish…

I go to the ex...

If You Were A Grown Up, My Love

When I was very young I used to think that stories where everyone died, or stories where pointless but sad things happened were about the best thing ever. They were profound and so different from every other story I’d read till that time which were all boys-aventures or fairytales that ended well and with a moral.

If You Were A Dinosaur my Love’s win bothered me at a level I can’t begin to explain, and it still bothers me, like an aching tooth to which the tongue keeps returning. It’s not just...

Shout Louder

So, I have a confession to make. I haven’t registered my supporting membership yet, mostly because of being busy with the house staging, but also because my muse is a perverse b*tch who demands I feed her when I’m busy with other stuff.

I will have to do it today, to feed the sad puppies. (Even if the cats disapprove.)

Now, I am not running for a Hugo/don’t expect to get it, not this year when the only novel I put out was Witchfinder. Maybe next year, as the writing seems to be taking off. But...