Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 35

Sakura are here again

Hello darlings! I hope you had a lovely week since I saw you last. I got lots of good work done before the long weekend, and aim to dive back in tomorrow. Revising is so much more enjoyable than composing, I can't even tell you. It was hard to have to stop what I was doing and take the long weekend off.

Here in the most secular corner of a pretty secular country, we still take a four-day Easter Weekend. My in-laws came up from the States and we had a nice time, wandering around Gastown in the ...

Now entering the cruellest month

So I'm revising the sequel. I have this plan whereby I will revise it really, really hard all month and then hand it over to The Amazing Editorman at the end of April.

Ahahahahaha!

No, really, I can do this. It does mean I'm going to be neglecting you a bit, but that seems a small price to pay for good sequel. I do regret that my fabulous YES sandwich post is still just half a sandwich, but this is the price we pay for having a mere 24 hours in a day. Something has to give, always.

The sequel...

Today’s musical marvel

King Crimson’s “Discipline” performed by a marimba trio:

I love this song so much, and hearing it on marimba is interesting because it really underscores the mechanical nature of the whole thing. This version is missing the jaw-dropping awesomeness of Bill Bruford drumming in 17/16 time, though, so go listen to the original when you have a chance. Bill Bruford is a machine. I may mean that literally.

I have long thought this would be a piece of particular interest to dragons because it is so di...

Today's musical marvel

King Crimson's "Discipline" performed by a marimba trio:

I love this song so much, and hearing it on marimba is interesting because it really underscores the mechanical nature of the whole thing. This version is missing the jaw-dropping awesomeness of Bill Bruford drumming in 17/16 time, though, so go listen to the original when you have a chance. Bill Bruford is a machine. I may mean that literally.

I have long thought this would be a piece of particular interest to dragons because it is so...

Petit linkage

Fellow writer and internet pal Elizabeth May gives us Five Things to Consider When Creating Realistic Characters.Irish YA author Peadar Ó Guilín is this week's featured author over at Random Buzzers. His Bone World Trilogy features a cannibal as the main character, which sounds most excellently bizarre to me. The second book is called The Deserter, and I am so desperate to make a pun with the word "dessert" that you see, I'm not even bothering to set up the joke properly, I'm just flinging...

Back to work

My boy returns to school today after a long and eventful spring break. This means I'm back to work on the sequel, spurred on by the enthusiasm I picked up in New York. It's contagious, apparently. Blogging will be light this week as a result.

The other reason blogging will be light is that I'm working on a massive post wherein I compare YES to a sandwich. I know that sounds like I should be able to do it in just a few lines – "YES is like a sandwich where Jon Anderson is the turkey and Chris S...

What do you mean it's not Monday?

I know, I know, I wasn't going to post again until then, but something happened yesterday that I just want to jot down quickly before I forget.

I travelled in the morning, arrived in KY in the early afternoon, and took a nap. After my nap, I was the only one home for some reason, and the phone rang. Figuring it was for Dad or Marvis, I didn't answer it, but I was close enough to the answering machine that I heard someone start to leave a message: "This is Mrs. Chamberlain. Rachel, your dad...

Travelling day

I'm on a plane today, darlings – and really, the rest of the week will be kind of a wash – but here's something to tide you over until I'm back next week (maybe with more YES! How can I say no?).

A review of Seraphina at Operation Awesome. Thank you, Amparo!

This reminds me of something my sister used to say: "I don't just use my powers for good. I use them for awesome." Let us all strive to do the same.

Until Monday, friends!

Done for now

My second day was more relaxed than my first. I'm about to toddle off in search of dinner, but I just wanted to say two things:

1) I had a preconceived notion that a "marketing meeting" was going to be something dry and boring, but in fact it was great.  I was surrounded on all sides by people who love books and are full of ideas and enthusiasm. It was surprisingly like a locker room pep-talk before the big game, and I came out all fired up and ready to tackle people.

Of course, there seems to ...

The day was just packed

I was too exhausted to type yesterday evening. No, really. My fingers were all Stop bothering us, woman! We're off for the night! And it's never a good thing for one's fingers to decide that the only way to get that message across is to make it literal. So rather than attempt to write with fingerless hand-stumps, or my nose, I went to bed early and here I am.

I still could have slept more, to be honest, but my typing fingers, at least, are sprightly once again.

So. Yesterday. The good folks at ...