Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 8

I moved and Chris Squire died

Those two things are not related, I promise.

However, I wanted to let you know where I’ve been (moving across town), and Chris Squire dying was what gave me the impetus to pause in my unpacking and dash off a blog post.

If you read this blog at all regularly, you know I love YES. Well, Squire was the foundation and heart of YES, to me. Here he is being Fish-tastic.

Anyway, back to the unpacking. I’ll come up for air again soon, I promise.

Hello my readers, hello my fandom

This interview with Cassie Clare and Maggie Steifvateris circulating on the Twitters today, and I found it thought-provoking. Writers do indeed have kind of a peculiar relationship with readers in this day and age, and when readership crosses over into fandom it can become even more fraught.

(I know Cassie Clare is a particularly polarizing figure – I remember this from my Goodreads days – but she’s also a human being trying to juggle the conflicting demands of fame and creativity, and as suc...

You need some kannel

Or maybe I do. Here’s Lauri Õunapuu rocking the hell out of the Estonian zither:

Did you know a zither could do that?? Well, now you do.

My foot and my mouth, together as ever

So I did an interview with Lauren Zurchin at Lytherus. It’s long, but go listen if you like, and by all means enter the Shadow Scale giveaway. Thanks to Lauren for the good talk and the opportunity!

Before you watch it, I experienced a moment of intense brain-farting during this interview as I was talking about my trans friends, and I am worried that my clumsiness will make folks (real people, who matter to me) feel hurt or unloved. It was one of those times when you say something and it just...

And done!

And exhale…

First draft of the infamous Tess in Boots sent to Captain Editorpants. Now I shall sleep for a thousand years.

Gone fishin’

And by “fishing” I mean “writing.”

I am almost done with the first draft of Tess in Boots (title subject to apocalyptic change without notice). I just need to make one last, frantic push. As a result, I’m going to be off the internets, probably until the end of next week.

I know you’ll miss me. You may imagine me riding my bike up Headache Hill during my off-hours, whistling “A Pretty Little Bonny Lass” and cackling to myself.

I’ll be back.

Review: Uprooted, by Naomi Novik

The best thing you can read about Uprooted is Naomi Novik’s own Big Idea Post over at Scalzi’s. I’m going to try to say something pertinent and illuminating anyway. I blurbed this book, after all. I feel rather strongly about it.

There aren’t many books that I wish I’d written, but Uprooted is one. (Terry Pratchett’s Nation is the only other I can think of off the top of my head.) And when I say “wish I’d written,” I mean it’s a book that seems to have sunk a tap root directly into my brain,...

I’m overthinking it all today

First this article about MRAs being furious about the feminist agenda of the new Mad Max movie.TW for proposed abuse of girls and wives at the end (the post gives warning too, and there’s plenty to read before that part). The tl;dr version: the presence of bad-assed women turns the whole movie into feminist propaganda.

If only.

This particular brouhaha, however, reminds me of another article I read some time ago about the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Cold War.It’s a bit meandering (and has...

Coming soon: Capilano Library, take 2

Just a reminder that I’m giving a reading at the Capilano Library in North Van this coming Friday, May 15th, from 7-8pm. Full details here. They do like folks to register in advance, and Kidsbooks will be selling both Shadow Scale and Seraphina.

This is my last scheduled event for a while, so if you’re in the Greater Vancouver area and haven’t seen me yet this spring, I hope you’ll come on out!

My brain is smarter than I am

I said that in my last post. It’s something I say quite often, in fact, and I mean it most sincerely. It comes from years of self-observation: I work and work (consciously) but still sometimes come up short. Then I stop working (or so it appears) and suddenly the answer comes welling up as if out of nowhere.

But it’s not really out of nowhere, and it’s not that mysterious. There is a part of my brain that doesn’t have easy access to words, but is still able to reason, think, and make connecti...