L. Jagi Lamplighter's Blog, page 29
September 29, 2014
Caption This Winner!
Today's winner was:
Mr. Jeremy Fisher had forgotten his galoshes and mackintosh,
and had to make do with a simple leaf umbrella. :)
Runner-up:
#FirstWorld Problems
September 26, 2014
Baltimore Book Festival!
I will be at the Baltimore Book Festival today and tomorrow. If you are in town, stop by the SFWA tent.
September 22, 2014
Capture This Winner!
Last week's winner. (Still have to post the winner for the previous week. )
Young Percival patiently waited for Mum to bring him his steed.
September 19, 2014
Book of Gold–Part Two
John recently wrote a post on the Book of Gold, that one book that touches you and becomes your favorite book of all time.
Here’s one of the best paragraphs:
If you only write one book in your whole life, and only sell 600 copies or less, nonetheless, I assure you, I solemnly assure you, that this book will be someone’s absolutely favorite book of all time, and it will come to him on some dark day and give him sunlight, and open his eyes and fill his heart and make him see things in life even you never suspected, and will be his most precious tale, and it will live in his heart like the Book of Gold.
This has such a beautiful ring to it, but some days, we writers don’t believe it is true. Some days, we look at the hours, weeks, months, and years that we have slaved away on some project and the very low pile of dollars such a pile has produced, and we despair.
Because some books just fall through the cracks, right?
Some get forgotten witout ever touching anyone’s heart, don’t they?
Then, there comes that occasional rare glimpse of blue sky amidst a cloudy gray overcast, those rare moments when we actually see that we have touched someone’s heart.
And we remember, bills and finances will come and go. But touching someone’s heart, making a difference in their life, will last forever.
I had such a moment this morning. I got out of bed groggily, at some unearthly early hour, in order to get the kids off to school. The older three are in high school and rousing the Cherubim takes an entire Act of God every morning. (Thank you, God, for your support here.) I stumbled into the bathroom holding my tablet and blearily checked my email in the process.
Sometimes, there are nice personal notes from friends, but this morning it was only Facebook stuff. Facebook stuff is not nearly as cheery, as so often it’s not meant for me at all. A comment by a stranger on a friend’s post upon which I left a comment.
Then I saw the delightful words “tagged you”, which meant that at least one message was actually meant for me. I opened it up and saw:
Should I include a fun and fiction list? OK–here ya go:
1. LOTR trilogy (for the uninitiated, LOTR stands for Lord of the Rings) by JRR Tolkien
2. The 13th Tale by Diane Satterfield -beautiful prose, suspenseful story
3. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
4. The Eight by Katherine Neville
5. Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
6. Prospero Lost (trilogy) by L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright
7. Adventure true story books – like Wild by Cheryl Strayed;
8. Seven Summits by Frank Wells and Dick Bass;
9. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and his "in a sunburned country" was good too (which makes 10!) whew!!
This morning, the Cherubim resisted the rising and shining process just long enough that, by the time I got the kids to school, the princess had missed the bus to the second location where her Childhood Development class is held. So, I offered to drive her. It was a good day for it, because she was lugging around my first grandchild, Apple Wright.
First grandchild, Apple Wright
The princess doesn’t take Apple very seriously. She’s mainly interested in what she is going to bake with the flour once the week-long be a parent project is over. I, on the other hand, take Apple very seriously. I had to babysit her yesterday, as Ping-Ping had an SOL. I took her to ballet class with me.
Apple watching Grandma (me)
and Great Grandma at ballet class.
Anyway, I drove her what should have been a fifteen or twenty minute round trip…but we ended up spending twenty minutes just sitting on one spot waiting to get around some very badly planned construction. As I sat there, not moving more than five feet in fifteen minutes, missing my chance to take a walk in the morning with John, I did not feel dismayed. In fact, I couldn’t help kind of smiling.
Something I had written had actually mattered to someone.
Who cares about things like immovable traffic!
So don’t give up. You never know when this will happen to you!
September 18, 2014
Mab’s Handy Guide to Surviving the Supernatural
Hey, Folks,
Mab here. Boy, am I glad to be back. My assistant and I have been out in the field. We got shanghaied by some pretty nasty characters. One of them was…well, you’d call it a cousin…of an old enemy of mine. I won’t describe what happen, but let’s just say that if I never have to spend a week in an old sock drawer again, it will be too soon.
Lucky, my assistant escaped. He was able to summon help and rescue me. Humiliating.
But, good for you readers, as we now have a boatload of new material for ya.
Today we’ll finish off the Tsukumogami, and next week we’ll move onto something entirely new.
Name: Morinji-no-okama or Zenfush?, Shamichoro, Shirouneri, Sh?gor?, Ungaikyo, Yamaoroshi, Zorigami
Description:
Morinji-no-okama or Zenfush? - A possessed tea kettle, usually ceramic or cast iron.
Shamichoro – A vengeful shamisen (three-stringed musical instrument), usually comes to life out of anger when its master discards it in favor of a younger instrument.
Shirouneri – Old mosquito nettings and dust rags joined together into a dragon. They fly around, chasing servants, wrapping around them, and knocking them out with their overpowering stench. (And, believe me, folks, if you never get to smell a Shirouneri, you will have lived a fortunate life.)
Sh?gor? – A metallic turtle consisting of a gong and its striker. It creeps around at night and sounds its off key blast of gonging right next to your sleeping ear.
The first known Sh?gor? was a wealthy merchant from Osaka, who had his household and goods robbed from him by envious police. They even took his beloved golden chicken. The poor sap was so inconsolable that he kack off and left his ghost hanging around. The ghost got confused because the kanji for gong is similar to that of chicken, and ended up possessing an old gong.
Ungaikyo – Looks like a perfectly ordinary Japanese mirror. Only when you look into it, instead of seeing your face, you see this horrible, ugly mug with a tongue sticking out.
Yamaoroshi – A radish grater. You know, the kind that you use to make slaw or something. When radish graters go bad, man, you don’t wanna be anywhere near them!
Zorigami – Big, honking, old Japanese clock that comes to life and lumber around reminding you of your missed appointments. Really ticks you off.
Where To Find ‘Em: All over Japan. Luckily for the rest of us, most of ‘em stick to the Japanese Islands, but don’t get cocky, there could be one in your sock drawer right now.
Frequency: Not that much. These guys are rarer than the rest. But that doesn’t mean you should put your guard down.
Danger Level: Don’t go near ‘em. And if one of those rag dragons comes anywhere nearby, abandon ship and beat feet out of there!
Mab’s Eye View:
Folks, these Tsukumogami are creepy critters. And anything could become one. Your watch. Your grandmother’s wall hanging. Your old socks. (Brrr! Don’t remind me about old socks!) Anything you leave around could up and come to life.
So be careful. Avoid old places. And throw stuff out. Or better burn ‘em, so they don’t come to life in the trash truck and come back to get you.
No better excuse for cleaning has ever existed.
Okay, folks. That’s the end of Tsukumogami. Next week, we’ll start with something completely different.
Chao.
September 15, 2014
September 12, 2014
Storming the Moral High Ground! — New Blog Feature. Guest Blog Opportunities!
Hey folks.
I plan to start a new Wednesday Blog Feature:
Lighting the Lamp
A blog of the Superversive Literary Movement
because fiction should not be less glorious than life
This feature will include, but not be limited to:
Inspirational stories — to help us remember what we are writing for.
Stories of perceverance in sorrow – to remind us of the undauntableness of the human spirit
Reviews of books, movies, etc that are inspiring, heroic, or merely good fun
Musings on literature, life, and other related topics — ranging widely
Anyone who would like to guest blog on some even vaguely related topic, let me know!
September 8, 2014
Caption This!
You know the drill:
