Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 68
April 5, 2019
FF: Completed!
Under The Kindle Tree, Ziggy Eats
This past week I finished off a bunch of books…
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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.
Recently Completed:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Style reminded me of Patricia McKillip. I’m still thinking about this one, but I’d probably read something else by this author.
Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Sword and Skate by Henry Lien. The title makes this book sound a lot lighter weight than it is. SF with some serious politics.
Aru Shah and the End of Time by Rohani Chokshi. Part of the new Rick Riordan Presents line, and seems to take “let’s imitate Rick Riordan” a little too seriously. Structure and even major plotpoints are highly derivative. Uses Hindu myth eclectically.
In Progress:
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller. Creative dystopian setting. Interesting characters. Not recommended for those who don’t like multiple points of view or a plot that takes a while to come together, but if you can, it’s worth the journey.
Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Audiobook. Into Japan, currently on non-fiction.
Also:
Looking for something either familiar or lighter to read before bed. I’m considering re-reading one of my favorite manga: Fruits Basket. Tohru’s encounters with a very strange group based around the characters of the Chinese zodiac isn’t exactly “light” (she starts out orphaned and homeless) but it’s very warm.
April 3, 2019
Germination
Eggplant Seedlings
Hi! I don’t suppose you’d like to hear about the relative germination percentages between tomatoes and eggplant, would you?
The seed starter was getting crowded, so last weekend we finally got around to taking out the plants and moving them into their next generation containers. These are repurposed yogurt containers: not fancy, but they do the job.
The seed starter has seven rows with room for seven plants per row. We gave one row to cherry tomatoes (Sweet Million), three rows to Roma tomatoes, and three to ichiban eggplant (Millionaire Hybrid variety). Well… That was the plan, at least. It’s possible that we planted two rows of cherry tomatoes and two of Roma, and if so we’re going to have too many cherry tomato plants. We’ll know later on…
Why so many eggplant? Because we expected what happened: while 100% of the tomato seed germinated, only about two out of seven eggplant seeds germinated. We’ve resealed the seed starter and are giving the slowpokes a chance to germination. Meanwhile, Jim is eating more yogurt because we’ve run out of containers.
So, we do have at least fifteen eggplant seedlings, but we can’t count on all the plants surviving. This is the thing about gardening. Not every plant survives. It’s completely possible that by the time we move the seedlings into the ground in May, we might have half of what we started with. The same could be true of the tomato plants.
Why did we start our own seeds? For the eggplant in particular, we were looking for a particular variety. For the tomatoes, variety is one issue, but another is that we’ve had some problems with finding what we want from greenhouses, especially now that a few franchises seem to have taken over supplying just about everywhere. These franchises aren’t sensitive to what will do well in our particular climate. Then there’s the problem that we’re seeing more evidence of disease in these plants than when we were able to shop for locally grown plants.
Aside: We grow a lot of other plants from seed, but those seeds (radishes, carrots, beans, squash, various herbs, numerous flowers) will go directly into the ground, rather than being started in advance.
Also, growing plants from seed is fun. It’s fascinating. It’s rather – if you’ve stayed with me this long – like writing. Not every idea germinates. Some seem promising, but wilt after the first few lines. Others are crippled by complications along the way. But those that work out are very satisfying, indeed.
Last week’s writing was definitely a difficult one for idea germination, but once I gave up on a couple of approaches and found my way, I was very satisfied. Now, I’m off to see if I can pick up where I left off.
Remind me and, in May, I’ll tell you how many plants survived to being moved outside – and then, later still, I’ll let you know how many took and bore fruit when faced with the myriad challenges of a New Mexico summer.
March 29, 2019
FF: Fragmented Fragments
But How Would A Neon Fish Taste?
I’m wrapping up my Nebula Award reading and will probably be doing so right up to Sunday when I’ll vote at the last minute!
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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.
Recently Completed:
Nothing longer than short fiction!
In Progress:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Before bed.
Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Audiobook. Finished China with a look at was then (1935) the contemporary nation in transition. Fascinating.
Also:
Not too much…
March 27, 2019
What You And I Want
This Will Make Sense
Monday I woke up with no idea what to wander on about for this week. I did know what I wanted to be doing. Last Friday I left Firekeeper and her associates in the middle of a very complicated situation. As much as I wanted to keep writing into Friday evening, I’d wrenched my shoulder (either throwing atlatl darts or carrying buckets of water), and I had to get away from the keyboard.
So Monday (which is when I often draft the Wednesday Wanderings) came around, and I didn’t have any idea what to natter on about. I really didn’t think you’d want to know that Jim and I drew plans for where to plant what in our garden, which is very complicated because this year we’re not only trying some new things, we’re rotating crops.
Or that I had a lot of fun coloring with special gel pencils a picture that had been printed on black paper.
Or that my RPG went well this past week, despite the fact that my players seem to be rolling a record number of fumbles. (Jim is in the lead. He’s being a very good sport about this.)
And I didn’t really want to spend a lot of energy trying to justify why these things should interest you, just because they really interest me.
Then it occurred to me that what most of you and I have in common is my writing, and that you’d probably like it if I didn’t put off getting back to that very complicated scene because I was trying to write a clever (or at least not hugely boring) essay.
So, I will leave you here and go and do what I want to do… And I hope that it’s what you want me to do as well.
As always, I welcome suggestions as to topics for the Wednesday Wanderings. Please feel free to make a suggestion in the Comments wherever you’re reading this or, if you’re shy, you can e-mail me at jane2@janelindskold.com.
Now, off to continue dealing with complications and consequences! Woo-hoo!
March 22, 2019
FF: Deceptive
Ogapoge Wonders What the Moon Would Taste Like
This week’s Friday Fragments are quite deceptive because they’re not going to reflect all the reading I’m doing to prepare myself to responsibly vote for this year’s Nebula Awards. So, while it looks as if I’m reading very little, I’m actually reading quite a lot!
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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.
Recently Completed:
Thud by Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I had forgotten just how brilliant this one is.
In Progress:
Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Audiobook. Continuing in China.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Recommended by a Friday Fragments reader! Just started.
Also:
Before bed, I’ve been re-reading one of my favorite manga because Jim is finally reading it, and this refreshes my memory so I can discuss it with him.
March 20, 2019
Why I Wrote a Firekeeper Short Story
Rosemary Thriving And In Bloom
I really wanted to call this Wandering” When A Weed Can Be A Flower,” but I figured most of you wouldn’t read beyond the title, because you’d think I was talking about gardening esoterica. Oddly enough, I am, but I’m also talking about writing.
As many of you know, I’m currently immersed in writing a new Firekeeper novel. If you don’t, you can get more details here. Without spoilers, I can’t really go into details, so suffice to say that I reached a place where I realized that a certain plot point actually contained its own story. However, inserting that story in the novel would make the novel drag.
This didn’t mean that this was a bad story. It just didn’t belong in the novel. Since I needed to work out the details anyhow, I decided to do so by writing a short story.
So, what the heck does this have to do with weeds and flowers? Well, as the gardeners among us already know, sometimes the only difference between a weed and a flower is where it is growing. In Jim’s and my yard, we let certain wild plants, such as globe mallow, grow to fill in the less rigorously cultivated parts of our yard. There are lots of benefits to this. The mallow thrives without needing any watering. Even better, the pretty little salmon-colored flowers attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.
Nonetheless, there are parts of the yard where the mallow is unwelcome. Just the other day, I rooted out some mallow that was choking a couple of the rosemary plants we have growing along our east wall. In this case, the mallow was definitely classified as a weed.
Even domestic plants can become weeds if they grow in the wrong place. We’re very fond of a perennial called chocolate flower. It uses little water, has lots of yellow flowers, and smells of bittersweet chocolate. The finches and sparrows like to eat the seeds, which means they spread them around our yard. This year, we’ll be uprooting some volunteer chocolate flower plants to transplant them elsewhere in the yard.
That’s what I did with the material that became the Firekeeper short story. Rather than slowing a fast-moving novel with an eight thousand word flashback, I transplanted it into its own story. “A Question of Truth” has its own plot, conflict, and characters, all of which are shown off to much better effect by not being buried within the novel.
I’ll let you know when the story is available. It will provide you with a chance to see some of what Firekeeper and Blind Seer have been up to since they ran off into the sunset at the end of Wolf’s Blood.
March 15, 2019
FF: A Little Less
Kel Fell Over and Went Thud
Life was a little less fraught this week, so I did a lot of writing. But I did read, too, and it was good for the soul.
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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.
Recently Completed:
Snuff by Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I think I read this when it came out, and haven’t since, so it’s almost like a “new” book. Sam Vimes may be my favorite Discworld character.
In Progress:
Thud by Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I had forgotten just how brilliant this one is.
Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Audiobook. Now into China.
Also:
I’m plowing through the Nebula nominated works. Yeah. Some people do vote for friends or for a cause, but some of us actually read the works and try to vote with the works only in mind.
I won’t necessarily list all of this reading because if something doesn’t grab me, I won’t finish it.
March 13, 2019
Here Be (Another) Dragon
Lurking On My Floor
I found another dragon. This one is on the same floor tile as the one featured back in August.
(Wondering why I started drawing on my floor? Here you are…)
Last week was intensely stressful, so I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I would have liked. Even a story I thought I knew where it was going refused to take shape beyond the first few pages This means that, rather than taking the weekend “off,” which I do so I can recharge my creative juices, I spent much of the weekend puzzling and puzzling.
By Sunday afternoon, the writing front, at least, was looking better. (So was the plumbing. And maybe the bit with the screwed up prescription.) I haven’t finished writing the piece, so I can’t say for sure. To celebrate the joys of the amorphous becoming solid, I sat down on the floor and traced out the dragon pictured above.
He’s a bit more fierce than I thought he would be, but I Iike how different he turned out from the sibling with whom he shares not only a tile, but even some of the same grooves.
Now… Off to see if the story will be as cooperative!
[image error]
Shadow Dragon
March 8, 2019
FF: Fraught
Kel In A Basket With Pratchett
This week has been fraught with sick pets, breaking plumbing, and enough minor mishaps to make me wonder just which imp of the perverse we have caught the attention of… When I get a moment, I do read, but moments have been few and far between.
For those of you just discovering this part of my blog, 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.
Recently Completed:
The Truth by Terry Pratchett. Re-read. Enjoyed.
In Progress:
Snuff by Terry Pratchett. Re-read. I think I read this when it came out, and haven’t since, so it’s almost like a “new” book. Sam Vimes may be my favorite Discworld character.
Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization by Will Durant. Audiobook. Now into China.
Also:
The new Smithsonian, which seems to be getting slimmer and slimmer.<
/p>
March 6, 2019
Cedar Waxwings! Flickers!
Cedar Waxwings Outside My Office Window
Sometime this last week, my little corner of New Mexico decided that Spring just might be a good idea. For those of you who don’t know New Mexico weather, let me clarify… This doesn’t mean we won’t have more snow. Since I’ve lived here in Albuquerque, we’ve had snow as late as May.
It doesn’t mean we won’t have frost. One year, after I planted my seedlings, in early May, we had a cold enough night that all the leaves were nipped off my peppers. Oddly enough, the stems were fine. I babied the shorn plants along, and we ended up with a good harvest.
Spring in New Mexico is not a gentle season with drip-drip-drop little April showers. It’s a season of violent winds, dust storms, hot days, and freezing nights.
The signs of spring are subtle, but no less exciting for that. One of my favorites is when the migrating birds start passing through and our summer residents return. Just this week we saw our first quail, possibly the couple who routinely use our yard as one of their foraging areas. We also saw the flickers (a sort of woodpecker) who have been co-residents of our yard for years.
Our winter resident juncos haven’t moved on, but we’re seeing some of the early migrants coming through. In addition to the tough gang of juvenile robins who usually move in for a few weeks to take advantage of free water and great bathing facilities, we had new visitors.
When I first saw the cedar waxwings drinking from the pond, what clued me in that these slim brown birds were not our usual house sparrows and finches wasn’t the brilliant spots of red on their wings or the fact that the tips of their tails looked as if they’d been dipped in a bucket of bright yellow paint. It was the way they drank: dipping in their beaks, then tossing back their heads with the enthusiasm of college students doing shots.
Then I took a closer look and saw the bright splashes of color, grabbed our favorite quick-ID bird book (Birds of New Mexico by Stan Tekiela) and made an identification.
Although most of the native trees and shrubs have the good sense to wait until later to start putting out leaves, the weeds and ground covers are starting to leaf out. Wild mustard is a pain, but I do like spectacle pod and some of the other weeds which will give us our first flowers.
The calendar indicates that several more weeks must pass before Spring officially arrives, but the promise is flying through and splashing down in my birdbath.
