Tricia Sullivan's Blog, page 16

I owe

A lot of people e-mails and comment replies, and I'm really sorry I haven't managed this yet.  It's been supremely nonstop the last couple of days and I'm low on sleep, very flat.  Will be back on track SOON once I've sorted a bunch of stuff & got some sleep.  Hope you understand :-)

Les Inrockuptibles?

Anybody heard of it?  Article about Maul in there, and Mic forwarded it to me from Marie-Pacifique but my French is so bad I can read about one word out of every twenty...I googled Les Inrockuptibles and the Wikipedia entry said, 'The magazine tends to take a left-wing and intellectual approach to art and society, lending itself to accusations of elitism and snobbishness' 

That is just weird, guys.  And Patrick Ness blew my mind when he included Maul in his Guardian piece 'Top Ten Unsuitable Books for Teenagers'  just a little while back.  Got e-mails from film people after that one.  

Strangest sensation.  Can't describe.  Can barely remember writing it (except for the first passage, which was my idea of a joke at the time).  My life as I knew it was falling to bits when it was published, and now all these years later it's a dislocating feeling when I see people taking it seriously.  Like, is somebody pulling my leg?

more Robson

Chaz & anyone else who is interested, I added Justina Robson's blog as a syndicated feed.  All the usual names were taken so she may have already syndicated it, but I'm just that pushy that I made my own http://syndicated.livejournal.com/justinaisgenius/

Justina Robson has a new blog!

http://justinarobson.blogspot.com/

She is one of my very favourite authors & I'm ecstatic at the idea of her presence online!

Please spread the word!

Facebook

This has nothing to do with LJ and the DDOS attacks, but lately I've been using Facebook because it's quicker than LJ and it keeps me up to date with my family in the US.  My posts on there are very informal & super-mundane, so I keep them friends-only, which is a really small group.  Most of my facebook friends are people I know personally, but not all.  If you use Facebook and want to come find me, please do.

I'm really super-busy with OU work and stuff so not doing much reading and only a little writing.  Still reading LJ, though, and I hope it survives...

Fed up with LJ being slow

I usually read my friends page even if I've got nothing to post, but lately it's just getting silly.  We are on a really slow connection up here in the hills.  Life is too short to wait for LJ!

So, if I'm failing to comment on the sort of thing I normally would comment on, that's why.  And if I don't respond to a comment left here, that's why.  I could write a book in the time it takes LJ to load....well, maybe a toddler's board book.  Or bored book.

*waves*

*disappears*

 

my baby & my book!

I was so convinced that Lightborn wouldn't be on the Clarke shortlist that I deliberately decided to stay off the computer today.  It's Tyrone's ninth birthday.  His birth and the circumstances around it were a very big deal for me in all sorts of complicated (and, in hindsight, comical) ways, and so the Fourth of March is always a milestone.  I didn't want any ego-booing or inner moaning to ruin the day, especially after I busted my ass finding obscure Dragons toys on E-bay, including the elusive Gryndel the Shadow Dragon.  And I knew that no matter how much I tried to tell myself it was OK and totally understandable and I'd had my Clarke recognition in the past, still I'd be disappointed when the shortlist didn't have my work on it.  Didn't expect Lightborn would get within spitting distance in an SF year like 2010.

Steve's off to London to teach the fine art of bashing others, and I'm here sorting out the house and stuffing party bags for Ty's friends.  I'm pretty tired.  I have a dreadful cold and a voice that alternates between baritone and registers normally reserved for porpoises.  I got to a point where I was thinking about it, and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna get this over with and then I can go out back and have a little cry, blow out lots of very colourful snot, resolve to keep trying, and let it go.  Because this is stupid, right?  Staying off the internet so I won't be upset is silly.  I'm not a bad mother by being disappointed over something egotistical on my kid's birthday--but if I make it into a huge deal by refusing to look, then I'm not seeing things in their proper perspective.  In the context of having the kids that I have, the life that I have, not being on the Clarke shortlist is really really really inconsequential, and I need to see that.

So I went and looked at Torque Control and had a moment of gobsmacked.  And you guys know me.  I am not faking the part where my gob gets smacked.  NOT faking.

To be fair, though, I was gobsmacked by a few of the other choices so it's not like all the gobsmacked is about me.  I don't know how the Clarke judges do it.  Is it something in the tea when they get together to make decisions?  They pick terrific novels, but at the same time they hand out the gobsmack every single year, no matter who is on the jury, no matter what's been published.  I salute the weirdness of this. 

Congratulations to all the nominees, commiserations to those who hoped/deserved but didn't make it (I keep thinking this is me) and a special shout to ianmcdonald   from the f-list. 

Dylan Moran on rejection

Thank yoooooooooooo, stephanieburgis   for making me laugh so hard my face is wet

hahahahahahahahaha

I feel I ought to offer some accounting of myself but I have been completely overloaded with schoolwork and DVD burning woes on top of all the usual stuff I do, and now it is half-term; i.e. wall-to-wall kids 24/7.  My mental tone is so crabby that I have been sparing LJ the burden of it.  So I went to look up images of juggling, so I could put up a funny picture of myself trying to do far too much and dropping everything.  What did a quick search provide me?  Dozens of images of businessmen juggling things.  A businessman juggling hats while standing on an hourglass.

Really, ppl?

Let all the businessmen come to my house and try to deal. 

Please, all of you come and let's see how long you last.

Warpaint

Me and music haven't had much of a relationship in recent years.  I haven't had the time to search out new influences, much less listen deeply to anything.  But Rhiannon is fond of Radio One and in the car a few months ago in between crap, danceable crap, fun crap and more crap we heard this single from Warpaint.  I haven't actually watched the video--I just listen to the music.  I downloaded the album and it's been my constant companion while writing since about October.  Every song's a gem.  It takes me back to Bard and being 19.  I'm not much for nostalgia in music but this record really does something for me.

I just sent in a draft of H aka 'Shadowboxer' to my agent after a long, long process of reworking and getting stalled in various ways.  This music got me through.  It slunk between words and coloured the air between my ears (of which, believe me, there is plenty).  I'll forever associate the novel with this record.