Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 137

Books Read in July 2009

Blood Price by Tanya Huff
Greywalker by Kat Richardson
The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll
Enchanted, Inc. by Shanna Swendson
Tall, Dark, and Dead by Tate Hallaway
Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco
Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker
Evil for Evil by K.J. Parker
The Escapement by K.J. Parker
Princess Academy (again) by Shannon Hale
Realms of Fantasy August 2009

triathlon and race

At the last triathlon race I was at, I noticed that one of the racers was black. It was only after I had seen him that I realized how few black racers I had seen at triathlons. Essentially, none. Another thing I noticed: the strategy of using a black Sharpie to write race numbers on arms and legs works great on white skin. Not so great on black skin. It just doesn't show up all that well. It never occurred to me until then to think about how racist the standard procedure of body marking is

new bike update

OK, so I had a couple of hours this Saturday and my husband was already headed to the bike shop. So I put my trusty yellow 47 cm Quintano Roo Kilo into the car and took it to the shop with me. I explained that I was interested in a new bike, but that I had really loved my old one. At first the bike shop guy tried to talk up a Trek 51 cm bike with 700cc wheels. I was thinking that he was an idiot. I am fairly short, and my legs are even shorter than you'd think. 12 and I have the same insea

friends

I have noticed that some of my children have close friends at early ages, but most of them do not. They start collecting a group of friends about 13-14. I had one good friend in elementary school, and in high school had a group of friends I hung out with, but 2 really good friends who I roomed with (although not all 3 of us) in college. Then in grad school, I found 3 more really good friends who I have stayed friends with since then (though we don't have really frequent contact).

I don't kno

when the problem isn't the problem

For a long time, I've thought that running was my weakest sport in triathlon. So during the last year, I have spent a lot of time working on running. Running twice a day sometimes, running long and hard, running after biking. But what happened on the last couple of races wasn't what I expected.

Yes, I did run better. My run times dropped by a good 30-40 seconds per mile. The weird part is that my heart rate dropped on the bike before those hard runs. I was about the same time on my bike, bu

dealing with anger

Yesterday I went to my local Credit Union to deposit a large check from signing for my trilogy. They told me they would put a ten-day hold on the check. I have argued with them for three years straight, trying to explain that I am a writer, writers get paid infrequently. But if they looked at my history, they could see that I always get a check from the same person (my agent). They claimed that because the check was larger than last year, it triggered whatever "spidey senses" that their comp

fatal flaw

13 reads a lot of fantasy for teens and adults. She gives me some very blunt evaluations of books. One of the most interesting things to me is that what she thinks of a book does not necessarily impact the speed with which she finishes it or whether or not she is interested in reading the next book in the series. I wonder how much this is true of other teens.

She was talking to me yesterday about what she considers "the fatal flaw" of any fantasy. The trick with fantasy is making it feel real

Two Princesses

I think I can announce now that I have sold a new trilogy to Harper, the first one to come out January 2011 and tentatively titled TWO PRINCESSES. The other two are tentatively titled TWO MAGICS and TWO QUEENS. This is a trilogy in the traditional sense, with the same characters throughout all three books, and one big arc plus three smaller arcs. I hope I can get it right so that readers don't want to throw the first book across the room because I've given no resolution.

There are two princess

new bike

My husband has been teasing me that I should have my corporation "sponsor" me as an athlete by buying me a new bike. I could do a special paint job and get special tri clothes with my book covers painted all over them. Just like in the Tour, right? But I don't think my tax guy is going to go for it. So I will have to decide if I want the new bike paying it all out of my own (taxed) pocket.

It has only been the last year or so that I have begun to be frustrated with my sweet, little 47 cm Quin

friendship and sport

OK, is the Tour not getting better and better? Saturday was so moving to me. I found it so painful to watch George Hincapie in the interview after the race. He'd been sitting at the finish line for 5 minutes 30 seconds waiting to see if the time he'd done that day was going to be enough to land him in the yellow jersey. No one thought he would keep it more than a day, but this is his fourteenth tour and he helped Lance Armstrong to all 7 of his wins. He's a team player and a generally good