Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 36

Going to New York

One of my writer friends uses the phrase "going to New York" as a kind of shorthand to herself, to remind her that writing has to go all the way. It's not enough to hypothesize about New York or view it from a polite distance. You've got to go there, to the place in yourself that intimidates you, that's big and unruly and dirty and magical. The scariest, realest place you've got.

It's a good metaphor, although I modify it for my own use. In my personal mythology, that city-to-end-all-cities...

Why yes, I did fall off the face of the earth

But now I'm back, briefly. It's been a complicated week: Vancouver teachers were on strike for three days, so my boy has been home with me. I've been working hard on a super secret project (which may not be super secret in fact, but I'm trying to err on the side of caution these days), and it's been rough going due to aforementioned boy and the nature of the project. And my own nature, let's be frank. If you ever need a visual image for "slow and steady", my picture is probably as good as...

A letter from John Steinbeck

He said he loves my book! Oh, no, wait, that was in my dream. Yes, I always dream about dead authors. Did I never tell you the one where Alan Ginsberg and I were running away from groupies? No? That was one of my favourite dreams ever, although Howl fangirls are scary.

Two different friends directed me toward the "Letters of Note" blog last week, because they thought I'd appreciate this real letter from John Steinbeck. And I do, I really do. It gave me a chuckle, although I hasten to add that ...

Today's must-read

Kat Kennedy's Musing Muser's post on Cuddlebuggery Book Blog: Women and Romance Novels

Is it any won­der women take refuge in a world that actu­ally acknowl­edges their exis­tence in a some­what pos­i­tive man­ner?  And one that pro­vides a fan­tasy in which they will be loved and treated as impor­tant?

I am not a romance reader, by any stretch, but her argument makes a lot of sense to me.

Edited to add: Here's more on the same subject, from Maria Bustillos at The Awl. I have now officially...

Extreme review action!

Today we've got it at both ends of the spectrum!

A blazingly enthusiastic review at Stella Matutina, and a genuine, thoughtful one-star review at Booktastic Reviews.

Thanks so much to both of you for your time and consideration.

To my mom

I spent the weekend giving moral support to my mother, who just got her second knee replaced. It's a painful operation, and the rehabilitative physical therapy afterwards is no picnic, but it's ultimately less painful than the bone-on-bone grind her knee was undergoing in the first place. She's going to come away stronger.

She's going to be half-cyborg, too, which is AWESOME.

One thing I admire about my mother is that she never sits still. It can be a weakness, of course. It makes lying in...

My breakfast with Wallace

It seems to be performance week here at the blog!

Here's an article by Wallace Shawn that just blew my mind. I know. Inconceivable, right? The article is also about Socialism – take that or leave it, as you wish. What really interested me, what punched me right in the stomach, was this:

We are not what we seem. We are more than what we seem. The actor knows that. And because the actor knows that hidden inside himself there's a wizard and a king, he also knows that when he's playing himself in...

Dance on a Volcano

Better start doing it right…

Here's something you may not know about me: I have belly-danced in restaurants. I've danced on stages, too, but I prefer restaurants to the stage.

I won't pretend it's not nerve-wracking. You can see your audience clearly when they scowl or laugh or look terrified. There is some danger of stepping on a fork or someone's foot, to say nothing of trailing your veil right through their soup.

Yes, that's really me.

But it's also less difficult than it sounds.

For one...

World Order: Mind Shift

I saw this video quite some time ago, forgot all about it, and then was just reminded of it recently. It's Japanese martial artist (and all-around Renaissance man, apparently) Genki Sudo dancing to his own music. It is just ridiculously happy-making.

Ah, I love dance! This is dance doing the very best thing dance can do: giving us new insight into a piece of music, into the human body's context within the world, and into the capabilities and meanings of the human body itself.

This has so many c...

Springy updates

I proclaim it spring! We've had snowdrops here for the last three weeks, but I usually hold off declaring springtime until there are crocuses at least. There have been a few showing their noses in the warm sheltered cracks and crannies, but it's only this weekend that they finally became so numerous that it was hard to keep the dog from stepping on them. So: spring! It is sprung, at least here on the balmy west coast.

You may spring vicariously through me, if your own climate isn't...