Rachel Swirsky's Blog, page 40

Pretty, Ugly, Plain

i.

Once when my friend was seventeen, a woman stopped her in the shopping mall and said, "Do you want to be Miss Teen Santa Clara?" And she said yes, because why not, and she came in runner up that year for Miss Teen California. She took the modeling contract they offered her, too, and stood thin and blonde and flushed in front of the fan, wheat-blonde hair blowing out behind her.

She auditioned for a role in a musical adaptation of The Ugly Duckling, and they cast her as the beautiful swan, an...

In response to something on my f-list

In the future, everything shone with a beautiful shiny-ness that was beautiful. People wandered through the glow, pleased with their good fortune. They'd developed the whatzit and huzzat and zippalee, which solved what and who and zip respectively, so no one no longer needed any thing or any one they couldn't get. (Or any zip either.) Things had been good after that but not as good as after they installed the infinite disco lights. It was an era of whoa, man? and did you ever think about what...

Review of (and plug for) Mary Hobson's NATIVE STAR

Let me tell you about my friend Mary Hobson.

You might know her as M. K. Hobson, and maybe you've read her blog, or maybe you've read or heard her many fine stories, such as "Hotel Astarte" (and if you haven't, go listen).

But the special thing about today is, today you can read her debut novel, NATIVE STAR.



NATIVE STAR tells the tale of a backwoods witch named Emily who gets into trouble when she goes off to fight some zombies and accidentally gets a chunk of the living spirit of Mother Earth ...

Trash, Bootstraps, and the Undeserving Poor

Over on Scalzi's blog, people are discussing the phrase white trash. Says commenter Lysana at 61:

It's often easy to spot white trash. One Confederate battle standard or American flag item on the wardrobe and my antennae go up. Sorry you seem to think it matters that some of us know the signs while you don't.

"Well, sure," says Other Bill, at 63, "I know the signs. Just like we all know the signs for poor black trash and poor puerto rican trash, right?"

Over here on our own blog, we've got a ti...

YAAAY!

News! That is not mine! And is private! But in fact belongs to two different friends! About their writing careers! SO AMAZING I MUST SQUEE CRYPTICALLY!

At least I can squee non-cryptically about my amaaaaaaaaaaaazing former student AN OWOMOYELA, who has secured 2-3 more professional sales. One of the editors called hir story "stellar."

Which hir stories are, so congratulations to the editors for recognizing it. :-D

And now an appropriate video:



The salient moment is at nine seconds.

Cat help?

I'm asking for advice on cat dynamics. I'm gong to explain the cats and the situation involved in detail, and the specific question is below the cut.

Here's the situation. Mike and I have two cats. One is a female, Athena, who is about four years old. We got her from the animal shelter last year. She seems to have been traumatized at some point in her past, probably via whatever landed her in the shelter as a three-year-old spayed cat who had obviously been someone's pet. The shelter found her...

Time Enough for Heinlein (Or Not)

I admit I don't spend much time thinking about Robert Heinlein, but when I do, I always have the same reaction, which is that shivery "Bleach! Get it off me!" response that the bug-phobic have to spiders and cockroaches.

There's a reason for this, though.

I read Stranger in a Strange Land in high school, and liked it well enough. I no longer remember it that well, honestly. Then in college...

Well, see in college, there was this guy. He wanted me and my boyfriend to have a polyamorous relations...

Book recommendations?

I'm looking for books about rural life in the American deep south, memoirs vaguely preferred to fiction, but good realistic (in terms of setting, not necessarily plot elements) fiction will work, too. I'm also preferably looking for books that are contemporary, or within the last 20-30 years.

I'm looking for research material.

To My Parents' Cat Who Has Been Dropped Off to Live With Us From Now On

caaaaaaaaaaat! Why must you wander the house meowing piteously!!!!!!!
i'm not letting you into the back bedrooms where it's not even clear why you want to go in them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and now you're howling
are you looking for my parents? for my parents' house? i don't know
caaaaaaaaaaaaat

Fairy Tale Noir

I suppose it's possible that a story about a detective investigating crimes in a fairy tale land where cutesy versions of the fairy tales are all happening simultaneously could work.... I mean, I remember enjoying &Trial By Jury as a kid... but really, I've never seen a modern fictional form of this that was even close to working. What puzzles me though is why the idea seems to crop up in slush so often. I've read dozens of these stories.

It was four a.m. when we got the call. Wolf. Pigs. Bloo...