Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 5

More music

The other song we’re learning at madrigals is “I Love, Alas, I Love Thee” by Thomas Morley. You may remember him from such other great Renaissance hits as “Now Is the Month of Maying” and “Those Dainty Daffadillies” (just kidding about the second one, which I’ve never heard of myself, but now I want to go looking for it).

Here’s the King’s Singers — my sisters’ teen idols, back in the day — giving it a whirl:

They’re taking it a fourth lower than we are, I understand, but they’ve got some in...

You probably thought I was dead

I wasn’t, very. To be fair,I do tend to get buried in my own head quite easily. I know you’re supposed to perish first and then be buried, but I’ve never held much truck with doing things in the correct order, apparently.

How am I? Why, y’know what? Pretty good, considering that it’s the first of November. November, you may remember, has historically been The Month That Kicks My Butt, and it got a head start this year with an unusually rainy October. Stupid November, you think you’re so devio...

I wake up for a moment

All right, friends, TESS IN BOOTS is finished.

It really ate my brain. I’m sorry I get so completely immersed in fantasy-world problem solving that I don’t have enough extra brains for this space, but alas that’s how it goes.

I did find a small amount of spare imagination in a very dark corner of my head, and was able to write this short story, out today at the Hanging Garden Summer Fling: The New One. Content warning: this is horror, I’d say, and not my usual genre at all. You can’t tell fro...

O Lusty May

Hey, check me out, squeaking in on the last day of May. Yes, darlings, it’s me. Your long-lost friend Rachel.

I’m on the last pass (barring unforeseen disaster) of TESS IN BOOTS, and will be turning it in (assuming the earth isn’t hit by a comet) in early July, so that’s good news. Someday, when I can look back on it and laugh, I will tell you all the myriad ways this book has almost done me in. The good news (I think it’s good news, anyway) is that I didn’t get depressed this time around. Th...

Two events and a small apology

My friends, I return to you! With bells and elephants and glory! Or, y’know, news. That’s worth something, I hope.

I have two upcoming events that I need to tell you about. First, on April 30th I will be participating in Authors for Indies, making an appearance at Black Bond Books, Central City, Surrey, from noon to 2pm. I’ll be selling books and making witty small talk, but will probably not be dressed as a pirate.

Second, I’m doing a reading at the BC Renaissance Festival, May 8th (Mothers...

Comfort music

So, not to put too fine a point on it, I’m having a hard day. It happens. I’m so much better at finding my way out of this thicket than I used to be.

One thing that helps is comfort music, the aural equivalent of comfort food. The stuff that makes me feel better, no matter what.

I’ve mentioned some of these here before, but it’s nice to have them all in one place, maybe. First, Les Barricades Mystérieuses by François Couperin. Here it is on guitar, although I like it best on harpsichord (pian...

Weirdness 101

Ooh baby, baby it’s a weird world,
I’ll always remember you with tentacles, girl
– not remotely Cat Stevens

So I wanted to talk about the Weirdness Budget, which my friend Sarah Todd introduced me to in about 2002, and which I’ve found to be a useful worldbuilding tool. The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that the Weirdness Budget seems simple at first but quickly becomes complicated as we delve into what weirdness really is and what budgeting (in art) can possibly mean.

It...

Sing a song of worldbuilding

Let me sing you songs from the worlds,
To make you feel much better than you could know…
–not quite Jethro Tull

When I was in Singapore last fall, I gave a 3-hour workshop on worldbuilding. I was super nervous beforehand; I had hardly any teaching experience, and as far as worlds go, I’ve really only built the one, which I started at twelve years old.

It’s not viable writing advice to say, Go back in time, and when you’re twelve years old, dream up a world…I would blame my physicist husband...

My weekend read

My son is on an exchange to Quebec, so we had a rare child-free weekend. We played D&D with friends, went out to the new Storm Crow Alehouse for Valentine’s Day, and I got an entire book read.

I tell people I’m a slow reader – and I am – but a child in the house makes me an even slower reader, clearly.

The book was also a quick read: we were liars, by e. lockhart.

I quite enjoyed it, although I was worried I would’t. Rich teens spending summers on their family’s private island is not somethin...

February

My sister Laura first introduced me to this song about a million years ago on what may have been the last mix-tape ever made. She included it because of the cello, which she thought I would appreciate as a former cellist. I tried to find a live version to post here, but apparently Dar Williams doesn’t drag a cellist around with her everywhere she goes, so that was kind of a bust. It’s just not the same without it.

I am always most moved by the part where she can’t remember what a crocus is....