Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 17

FF: The Owl’s Cry

Much Recovered Mei-Ling Delights in The Book of Three

My short story, “The Owl’s Cry” has its debut this Saturday in Brigid’s Sisters, a collection of the art of Elizabeth Leggett, with short stories by a wide variety of authors.  Signed copies of the book will be available at Beastly Books in Santa Fe.  I’ll be there from noon to 1:30 for the book event.

Beastly Books also has some of my other titles.  Actually, f you’re looking for signed books as different and interesting gifts, they’re a really good source.

Most of you know this already, but the Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions.  I always read the comments section and enjoy learning what other people are reading.  Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works unless in a collection or articles, I also don’t usually list scattered research reading.

Completed:

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.  Re-read. 

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.  Audiobook.  Re-read.

In Progress:

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny.  I’m reading this day-by-day to the end of the month.  Re-read.  Moreso than most, as I read this book in manuscript!

The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander.  Audiobook.  I always forget what a dark story this is.

The Icarus Plot by Timothy Zahn.  I’m really enjoying this.

Also:

What will probably be my final issue of Vogue for a while.  I always find a couple of good articles, but oddly, for a fashion magazine, the photography is getting boring, and I started the subscription for visual inspiration.

Non-Writing Writer’s Life

Late Season Blanket Flower

On October 14th, I’ll be in Santa Fe for a signing at Beastly Books, noon to 1:30 pm, celebrating the release of Brigid’s Sisters, a coffee table book featuring the art of Hugo Award winning artist Elizabeth Leggett.  In addition to color reproductions of Elizabeth Leggett’s art, the volume features short fiction inspired by her work.

My story is “The Owl’s Cry,” and I’m very excited about it being available.  It was inspired by Leggett’s piece Wisdom’s Wing, which has long been one of my favorites of her paintings.  When we first met, I asked her what the story was behind the painting.  I was astonished when she told me that she didn’t have one.  It was a great delight to be able to write a story to go with this lovely art.

Beastly Books should have copies of other of my works.  They do sell by mail order, so if you want a signed book but can’t make the trip, they’re good people to contact.

I’ve been writing a fair amount lately, but also catching up on loose ends.  I’m now on BlueSky social media.  I don’t post often, but I will do my best to remember to provide links to my blogs.  I’m also on Twitter (or X, if you prefer the new secret agent name) and Facebook. 

One thing that always astonishes me is how many people think writers have personal assistants to do all the non-writing stuff, up to and including preparing tax documents (another job I did last week, since the third quarter will be due) and all the rest.  Honestly, the majority of writers I know are busy taking care of business every day (to evoke a song) and hope to get enough of that done to find time to write.

Last week, I was part of a discussion on what a would-be professional writer should major in in college.  I’ll share my response here.

First, major in something that will let you make a living, because writing professionally does not earn you much.  (Check with the Author’s Guild if you think I’m just whining.)  It’s usually wise to not major in something that involves writing.  Most writers find they have a certain amount of writing in them.  If you spend it on your job, it won’t be there for your fiction.

Second, take a few courses, even a minor, in business.  From the time you sell your first piece, your tax forms will change, because you’re required to report your income.  It’s also good to learn about what does and doesn’t qualify as a deduction.  If I’d realized that I was going to end up being a professional writer, I definitely would have taken a course in accounting and probably one in contracts, just to learn the language.

That said, I don’t regret my English major one bit.  It taught me to write to deadline, to research, to edit, and exposed me to a wealth of different sorts of prose (as well as poetry).

With those words, I shall now go wander off, put the groceries away, feed and check on Mei-Ling the cat (who is getting better, we think), and eventually make my way to writing! 

FF: Special Pleasures of Re-Reading

Persephone Reads

I noticed that this week I am doing a lot of re-reading.  Last weekend, I was talking with my friend Melissa Jackson about the special pleasures of re-reading.  There are so many: the chance to concentrate on how the story is told, not just “what happened”; the joy of spending time with characters you like; the relief from tension, because you know (both for good and ill) what’s going to happen to the characters, even if you’ve forgotten the details.  This week, between a sick cat (Mei-Ling) and focusing on a new writing project, re-reading was perfect for me.

Sure, as a writer, I hope you’ll also read new works.  (House of Rough Diamonds anyone?)  But I don’t see any crime in re-reading.

Most of you know this already, but the Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions.  I always read the comments section and enjoy learning what other people are reading.  Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works unless in a collection or articles, I also don’t usually list scattered research reading.

Completed:

Gunpowder Geishas by Carolyn Kemp.  ARC. Vibrant characters in a high action adventure.  Should appeal to both fans of military SF and anime.

Audiobook of assorted Sherlock Holmes short stories.  I could probably recite some of these stories right along with the narrator, but knowing the plot and characters well lets me appreciate how the stories are told, which is a different sort of delight.

In Progress:

A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher.  Re-read. 

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.  Audiobook.  Re-read.

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny.  I’m reading this day-by-day to the end of the month.  Re-read.  Moreso than most, as I read this book in manuscript!

Also:

Finished the new Smithsonian and I think it was one of the best issues in quite a while.  Nicely varied, like the museums themselves.

New AAA magazine.  Looking forward to the article on the origin of spaghetti carbonara, or, as I grew up calling it, “bacon and egg spaghetti.”

Off Season Season

Maximillian Sunflowers

After a very hot summer, we’re now finally getting some of the flowers we usually get around early September.  It’s almost as if the season patterns are about a month off.

Pictured above are Maximillian sunflowers.

We’re also getting datura, Jerusalem artichoke (which are also a type of sunflower), blanket flowers, and asters (pictured at the end).  Interestingly, our penstemon, which usually flower in the early part of summer have decided to give us a few late blossoms.  Our zinnias are recovering from being toasted.

As I type this, we’re having a blustery day.  A short while ago, I rescued a couple of lizards who were floating on a one of the chunks of wood that we keep in our rain capture barrels against just this possibility.  One was a fence lizard, one a blue racer.  They didn’t seem to mind sharing.

I’m continuing to write, although I decided that last week I took a minor wrong turn, so I’ll be tearing out a few pages and starting over. I spent much of the weekend working out just how to make that work.

I hope this finds you all well, enjoying whatever your autumn brings you, weather late-season blossoms or the first turning of the leaves.

Wild Asters

FF: Nothing Blue

Dandy Considers High Adventure

This week’s reading includes some old favorites, some new adventures, and some really interesting information. 

Most of you know this already, but the Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions.  I always read the comments section and enjoy learning what other people are reading.  Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works unless in a collection or articles, I also don’t usually list scattered research reading.

Completed:

Penric’s Labors by Lois McMaster Bujold.  A collection of three more novellas with Learned Penric and his internally resident demon, Desdemona.  I liked all of them, and Bujold’s notes at the end are a joy in themselves.

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones.  Audiobook.  Set eight years after The Dark Lord of Derkholm it focuses on the university experiences of his youngest daughter, the griffon, Elda.  Yes.  A human with a griffin daughter.  Diana Wynne Jones makes it make sense.

DreamForge Anvil issue 13.  Interesting essay on hopepunk.  Some good short stories.

In Progress:

Gunpowder Geishas by Carolyn Kemp.  ARC.  Just started.

Audiobook of assorted Sherlock Holmes short stories.  I could probably recite some of these right along with the narrator, but knowing the plot and characters well lets me appreciate how the stories are told, which is a different sort of delight.

Also:

Jim swiped the new American Archeology so I am reading the new Smithsonian.  This one has been a treasure trove of information about things I knew only part of the picture about. 

Aching to Write

Getting the Story Down, No Matter What!

Last week, I seriously settled down to writing again, although this has meant making some changes in how I work.  Sometime earlier this year, I did something to my right shoulder and increasingly that’s getting in the way of how much time I want to spend on a keyboard.

However, I found that writing longhand doesn’t create nearly as much of an ache, so I’ve switched to writing longhand.  After a while, that also causes an ache (yes, I’m righthanded), but it seems to take longer to happen and I can shift my position more easily.

So, until we get this figured out, I’ll be writing longhand.  That will mean taking the time to transcribe my work somewhere down the line, but since that’s how I started writing, I actually like that.  I find the process of transcription makes me really look at what I’ve written, and becomes a first round of polishing my prose.

The achy shoulder has slowed down my work on the new e-book of The Buried Pyramid, but I’m getting closer to having a new version.  Last week, I put the front matter together.  This week I hope to write the “extra content” afterpiece.  Then there’s one other job to do, one that doesn’t need to be done on a computer!

(If you’ve read the book, you may even guess to what I am referring.)

Meanwhile, here New Mexico, we’re shifting to autumn temperatures.  After this summer’s long period of temperatures over 100 F and often over 105 F, this is a real relief.  Our garden is doing a little recovering, probably too late, but we’re enjoying every bit.

Now, off to gather up my pens and notebook and start writing!  Catch you in a bit…

FF: Intensity

Persephone: Down But Not Out

Since last week was seriously intense and involved a lot of preparation for travel and a lot of convention, I didn’t get quite as much reading in as some weeks, but the collection of Tim Powers’ shorter works made for a different sort of intensity.

Most of you know this already, but the Friday Fragments is not a book review column; it’s a list of what I’m reading and maybe a bit about my opinions.  I always read the comments and enjoy learning what other people are reading.  Oh, and I don’t usually list shorter works unless in a collection or articles or scattered research reading.

Completed:

The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones.  Audiobook.  A book where the title might cause readers to assume they “know” what it is going to be about.  Most would definitely be surprised.  A delightful twist on traditional fantasy.

Down and Out In Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers.  I’m a huge Tim Powers fan, but I’d missed a lot of his shorter work.  I was very excited when I learned of this collection.  It’s intense and despite the return to certain themes I never felt bored as I sometimes do with single author short story collections.  Recommended.

In Progress:

Penric’s Labors by Lois McMaster Bujold.  A collection of three more novellas with Learned Penric and his internally resident demon, Desdemona.  Just finished “Masquerade in Lodi.”

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones.  Audiobook.  Set eight years after The Dark Lord of Derkholm it focuses on the university experiences of his youngest daughter, the griffon, Elda.  Yes.  A human with a griffin daughter.  Diana Wynne Jones makes it make sense.

Also:

The new Locus in which my tribute to my former editor, John Douglas, appears.  I decided to dip into the interviews at leased.

The most recent American Archeology.  In which, once again, expectations are definitely turned awry. 

Cosmic Cosmos Time!

Shadowed Cosmos

Hard to believe it’s only been a week since I last wrote one of these.  So much has been packed into the hours that I find myself astonished.

Right before we left for P-con, temperatures here dropped from the mid-to-high 90s F by about ten degrees.  This not only meant that we didn’t need to worry about the garden as much as we would have done, we didn’t need to worry whether the cats and guinea pigs were comfortable without us available to open and shut windows, and turn the swamp cooler on and off.

We had rain, but we also had hail, some of it marble-sized, so the lily pads in our teeny pond are terribly battered.  Overall, our more mature plants were better able to handle the impact of plummeting balls of ice than they had been in the spring.  We picked a whole lot of small tomatoes, some tepary beans, and even a few small eggplant.   Most exciting, we came home to our first cosmos blossoms in years.  Applause to Jim for the incredibly elegant photo that graces this Wandering.

How was P-con?  Honestly, it was great.  I was on a lot of panels so I can most sincerely say that I had an opportunity to do a pretty comprehensive survey of the panelists.  I was quite happy with the mixture of energy, enthusiasm, and intelligence that I encountered.

The fans were also really fun.  I very much enjoyed having a chance to talk with folks during the evening social sections or between panels and during my signing.  I’m really glad Jim and I were able to stay for the Dead Dog party to visit with all the hard-working people who made the con possible.  I’m not even going to try to list names because I’ll forget someone and they were all fantastic.

And there was the bonus of time to visit with my friend going back to college undergraduate days, Chuck Gannon.  (That’s Charles E. Gannon to you readers.)   We shared a short live gaming section.  I’m happy to report that the bugbears did not eat the baby stegosaurus, and that Firekeeper is definitely going to recover from her wounds.

It says something about how stimulating the event was that I even managed to write a couple of times, usually in the morning before the con got going while sipping coffee in my room.  I’m still in the early stages, so I’m drafting longhand.

So, now we’re home and done with author events for a few weeks.  Once I get this posted, I think I’ll go stretch, then maybe even have time to pull out that notebook and a pen, and do a little more writing.

FF: Expectations

Roary Has Great Expectations

This week, in part because of things that came up in interviews, I found myself thinking about how a reader’s expectations shape reactions to a story.  See below if you’re interested in more.  Meantime, hope to see some of you this weekend at P-con!

For those of you unfamiliar with this column, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazines.  The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.

Completed:

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold.  This novel is not at all typical of the sort of work Bujold was writing at the time, not only in genre but in her approach to the conflicts, characters, and setting.  For this reason, I don’t think it was ever as popular as it might have been if readers had not come to it with expectations of what a Bujold novel “was.”  I suspect that fans of novels such as The Curse of Chalion and Paladin of Souls would be much more receptive if the novel had been first published today.

In Progress:

The Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones.  Audiobook.  Another book where the title might cause readers to assume they “know” what it is going to be about.  Most would definitely be surprised.  A delightful twist on traditional fantasy.

Down and Out In Purgatory: The Collected Stories of Tim Powers.  I’m a huge Tim Powers fan, but I’d missed a lot of his shorter work.  I was very excited when I learned of this collection.

Also:

The new American Archeology.  In which, once again, expectations are definitely turned awry. 

So Very Busy!

Ruffled Feathers!

It’s been a busy time with the release of House of Rough Diamonds (third book in the Over Where series, which started with Library of the Sapphire Wind and Aurora Borealis Bridge) on September 5th, and it’s going to be busier!

I feel rather like the hawk in the photo, feathers going all directions.  The photo was taken from our office window last week before temperatures dropped and a cool bath was apparently very appreciated.

Recently, I’ve done several interviews, including one in print format with Paul Semel.  You can find that one here.  I also did a wild and fun live one with H.P. Holo last Saturday. 

Want to ask questions fact to face?  Next up is P-con where I’m one of the Guests of Honor, along with Charles E. (Chuck) Gannon.  The programming includes a Q&A where questions will be pulled out of a hat, and augmented by questions from the audience.  There will also be a Coffee with the Guests of Honor event on Saturday morning.  Tickets are needed for this event.

Panels include some nice complicated ones on a wide variety writing-related topics, as well as fun ones about things like cats in SF/F and cussing (not together, although I think there might be some justification for that!).  I’m also doing a reading, and probably having a signing session.  The dealer’s room may not have a book vendor, but you’re welcome to bring books you purchased elsewhere.  Even if you don’t have books with you, I can sign a post card for you!

On Sunday, there will be a live tabletop roleplaying game (not a LARP or live action roleplaying).  When I heard that the adventure would be an outdoors one, I decided that I would play Firekeeper, the protagonist from my “Firekeeper Saga,” better known as “the wolf books.”  I am looking forward to channeling her, as well as to sharing a gaming table once again with Chuck.  Jim will also be participating, playing a druid—who is also a cactus nature spirt, with traits of both a barrel cactus and an ocotillo.

There are more local to New Mexico events coming up, but I’ll save them for later Wanderings.

Right now, it’s time for me to for me to marvel at our suddenly cooler temperatures, and turn some of my awakening energy to getting ready and even to writing!