Katharine Beutner's Blog, page 12

My Wiscon schedule

Let me show you it!

(Wiscon is the annual women's SF convention held in Madison, Wisconsin. This is the first year I'm attending, and I'm really excited about it; my writing tends more toward the mainstream end of the fantasy spectrum, but my love for SFF is deep and true.)

What's the Future of the Past?

Sat, 1:00–2:15 pm Conference 4

Katharine Beutner [moderator:], Alma Alexander, Christopher M. Cevasco, Joyce Frohn, Linda McAllister

What alternative histories, if any, do a good job of...

Link salad

Linky post! Because I'm a bit headachey again.

Women studying anatomy, circa 1905, via Twitter, as usual; I'm definitely going to be using this as a reference for Killingly.This dog has been appearing at Greek demonstrations for the last two years. He has to belong to a protester — he is wearing a collar. But it's awfully easy to think of him as some little god of protest — Eris as a mutt?And speaking of little gods, do read Sarah Johnson's long interview with Guy Gavriel Kay, in which they...

'Alcestis' in Sri Lanka

Via Twitter, yet again, I've found a few links to a production of Euripides' Alcestis being performed at St Thomas's College in Sri Lanka. This review includes quotations from the actors, who are all male. There's just something delightful about this passage, though I obviously went with a very different interpretation of Alcestis's motives:

"She's a loving wife," explains Adam Kenny (18) speaking about his role as Alcestis, "She's the type of wife, willing to do anything for her husband...

Therapy books (like therapy animals)

Noted via Twitter today, this post at Salon: the therapeutic value of the mystery novel. The author of the post doesn't actually talk much about why she finds mystery novels therapeutic; most of the post is spent recommending some recently released books. I also find mystery novels therapeutic at times — often, when I visited my parents during my dad's illness, I'd pick up one of the mysteries they always had around the house rather than doing my academic reading. That's how I discovered...

Blargh. (That's a migraine blargh, not a zombie blargh.)

Today — before the migraine of the week hit, thankfully! — I did an interview with Alex C. Telander of BookBanter, a site with a wonderful and varied collection of book reviews and interviews with authors. My interview will likely run in the May 15 podcast, and I'll post a link here when it's live, but you should definitely go check out Alex's reviews and podcasts now, as well.

I'm now pretty brain-drained from migraine medication, but I do have links to share:

This video of a 99-year-old...

Apples or pomegranates?

The wonderful Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press posted an interview we did recently about Alcestis, and I think it's pretty neat! Gavin asked great and funny questions and I got to ramble about Evelina and Samuel Johnson and underworld research, which always makes me happy. Gavin and Kelly were the first people to publish my fiction and I'm delighted that they wanted to do this interview. While you're at their site, be sure to check out the Small Beer catalog, which includes brilliant books...

Reviews & Mary Sues

Another lovely review came in yesterday, this one from Margaret Donsbach of historicalnovels.info, writing for Heritage Key. (Margaret was also kind enough to interview me for her own site a little while ago.) A tantalizing snippet that shows just how well she gets the book:

Freud famously mined the Greek myths, a treasure trove of psychological insight, when developing his theory of the Oedipus complex. He might just as easily have named his theory of the death instinct after Alcestis.

Spea...

The value of creative writing degrees

Several months ago — sorry, Nadia — a reader emailed to ask me my thoughts about creative writing degrees. Specifically, she wondered whether I thought my master's in creative writing had been useful. Today, John Scalzi posted a response to Lionel Shriver's interview about MFA programs (shorter Shriver: I'm glad I got an MFA but I feel conflicted about the fact that many MFA students will not become professional writers) that's collecting a lot of comments. Clip from Scalzi's post:

I find an...

Saturday miscellany

From McSweeney's, Death Metal Lyric or William Blake Quote? Examples:

1. "Drive your cart and your plow over the bones of the dead."

2. "We are Satan's generation."

3. "As I was walking among the fires of hell, delighted."

Indeed.

Also, George Washington has some major late fees.

How to write feelings

Today is the last day that you can enter to win a book or gift certificate from my fabulous agent Diana Fox just for buying Alcestis. Details here!

I saw this post by Donald Maass about awe linked recently. Interesting stuff, and I think some of the tips — especially the question "Now, how will you provoke that emotion through action alone?" — are excellent. But I actually worked in precisely the opposite direction when writing Alcestis. I tend to be a quiet writer in terms of emotions, and...