Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 71
December 21, 2018
FF: Christmas Letters
Kel Claims the Limelight Again
Yes. I like receiving Christmas letters. I’ve “met” many of my friends’ kids that way, and have enjoyed “watching” them grow up. Sure, there are Christmas letters I don’t enjoy. The thinly veiled advertisements that some of my writer friends send aren’t appreciated. The occasional clueless brag still happens. But usually these annual updates are well-balanced and amusing.
Jim and I send out our own Christmas letter. I used to write handwritten notes. Then in one year my dad, grandfather, and several beloved pets all died. I realized I’d slit my wrists if I had to keep writing that over and over again. So I started a Christmas letter, and now enjoy the challenge of squeezing a year down to a single page. And I still write personal notes.
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 Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Audiobook
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper.
In Progress:
The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Audiobook.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
Also:
Christmas letters. See above. I like having them in print, so I can cuddle up on the sofa with a cuppa and savor.
December 19, 2018
A Writer’s Predicament
Cuddle Up With a Good Story
Last week my author’s copy of Sword and Sorceress 33 arrived, brightening my day and tempting me to curl up and read. My story in the collection is titled “A Familiar’s Predicament.” If one of the characters in the story looks just a little like the dragon in the picture, you can just say I was writing about what I know.
I’ve owned that particular soft-sculpture piece since 1989. I acquired it at the very first SF con I attended: Lunacon in Tarrytown, New York. I went there to meet a writer with whom I’d exchanged several letters: Roger Zelazny. Memorable times. I certainly didn’t know when I was wandering the Dealer’s Room, trying to decide what to get as a souvenir, that I was at a major turning point in my life. If I’d been told that I was, I would have been completely wrong about what that turning point was. You see, I had my first big job interview the following week…
Not knowing when a turning point is coming is at the heart of “A Familiar’s Predicament,” along with a cast of odd and surprising people. I look forward to writing more about all of them in the future. I hope you’ll take the time to meet them, as well as enjoying other stories in the collection.
To this point, I haven’t given into the temptation to curl up and read other stories in Sword and Sorceress 33, mostly because when I have spare time from domestic duties, helping Jim with his PT, and getting ready for the holidays, I’ve been writing.
Yes. Once again, I’m deeply immersed in the new Firekeeper project. I’ve had a few queries as to why I’m not done yet. The simplest answer is that, unsurprisingly, the story turned out to be more complex than I thought it would, so it’s longer. I’ll have more to say about the book once I have a complete draft done, but I don’t like talking about works in progress in too much detail. Something superstitious in me is afraid I’ll jinx them!
Now I’m off to do a few holiday prep things, so I can free up my thoughts enough that I can go run with Firekeeper and Blind Seer.
December 14, 2018
FF: Is It a Contradiction?
Yes. Kel’s Eyes Really Are That Green!
As I try to do too much with too little time, I found that I wanted to return to much-loved familiar places. Re-reading can be stimulating, as well as soothing. This sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t – at least for me.
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.
Do you find re-reading stimulating and soothing all at once?
Recently Completed:
Always Look On the Bright Side by Eric Idle. Audiobook. Read by the author. Alternately funny and thoughtful, brilliantly presented. This one was recommended by my friend, Alan Robson, in his book review column. Now I’m recommending to you…
Treecat Wars by David Weber and Jane Lindskold.
In Progress:
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Audiobook. I’ve read this many times, but I don’t think I’ve ever as an audio.
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper. Reread. I chose this one because the second book in the series, The Dark Is Rising is set at Christmas, and I decided to read the lead-in. The two storylines come together in Greenwitch.
Also:
Still some magazine articles. I will reserve my comments on social anthropologists who build complex theories to try to explain something anyone with common sense could figure out in about two breaths…
December 12, 2018
Floodtide of Ideas
The Soda Dam: Jemez River, New Mexico
Just a couple of weeks ago, limbering up my imagination so I could write even a few sentences was a time-consuming and not very rewarding task. Last week was the first since Jim’s knee replacement surgery (which was on Halloween, for those of you who haven’t been around) that I managed to write every day. As I’ve mentioned, the problem wasn’t so much lack of time as that my imagination was busy with other things.
One of the exercises I assist Jim with involves stretching out his quads. A side benefit is that it helps keep scar tissue from constricting the knee. We do this exercise at least five times a day, and the benefits – while not dramatic – have been visible.
Apparently, pushing myself to write at least some Monday through Friday of last week stretched out my healing imagination. Where early in the week I had to push to write even a few pages – Tuesday was particularly tough – by Friday even a late start didn’t keep me from completing four pages. Even better, while I didn’t write over the weekend, all sorts of little connections began to fall into place.
As I turned on my computer on Sunday to take just a few notes, I felt very cheerful. I’ve always been a character-driven writer. Now my character were expressing their opinions as to what they wanted to do next – as well as revealing certain things they had been hiding from the other characters. (And from me!)
There’s just one problem about this new flood of creativity. It’s not restricting itself to the novel. Instead, it’s popping out in some very unusual areas. The last session of the RPG I’ve been running triggered some interesting thoughts that I really should write down. Then there’s a niggling feeling that I’d really enjoy writing a short story or two.
Professional writers often have people come up to them with the following suggestion: “Hey! I have a great idea for a story. Here’s what I think we should do. I’ll tell you my idea. You write it. Then we’ll split the money.” Writers tend to think this suggestion is very funny since lack of ideas is very rarely the problem: the problem is lack of time.
So, what does one do when this embarrassment of creative riches occurs?
In my case, I try to prioritize. Working on the Firekeeper novel is my current “homework assignment,” so I try to write on that every day. This helps keep me from losing touch not only with the flow of the story, but with my enthusiasm for it. Then I consider the other ideas that are clamoring for attention.
Game notes? Those don’t need to be in my best prose, so I can knock those off pretty quickly. An added benefit is that when I have enough game notes, I can pretty much ignore game prep as a writing project for a while, at least until my players do something I didn’t anticipate and I need to consider the ramifications.
Short stories? This depends on how much the idea is obsessing me. Sometimes I’ll start a short story so I don’t lose touch with it. If it “catches fire,” then I try and write it side by side with my novel. Sometimes, I even put the novel on side for a day or so to finish the short story. This is not as detrimental to the novel as it might seem. If part of my subconscious is occupied with a competing story, the novel will inevitably begin to slow down. Getting the other story out of the way re-opens the floodgates.
However, if the short story doesn’t catch fire, then I keep the part I’ve written, but I put it on side until I have more time to think about it. Maybe what I have is the seed of a story idea, not a full-blown story. The time I spend “planting” the seed isn’t usually wasted. At the very least, there isn’t a little voice in my head saying “Don’t forget that cool idea! Don’t forget that cool idea!”
Sometimes I just scribble a note to myself on a scrap of paper and toss it into a box on my desk. It’s full of similar scraps, and when time permits I pull them out and review them.
It feels good to have the ideas flooding through my head. I have about twenty minutes before I’m needed anywhere. I think I’ll use them writing out some of those game notes, so I can write more of my novel this afternoon.
December 7, 2018
FF: Emotional Commitment
Variety Rules!
My reading this week has been intruded upon by my spending more time writing, but audiobooks are coming to the rescue.
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:
Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie. Audiobook. Set in ancient Egypt with lots of period material. Very enjoyable, although the POV character might strike some as too vague and dreamy.
In Progress:
Always Look On the Bright Side by Eric Idle. Audiobook. Read by the author. Alternately funny and thoughtful, brilliantly presented. I’m enjoying. This one was recommended by my friend, Alan Robson, in his book review column.
Treecat Wars by David Weber and Jane Lindskold. Not really a re-read. I haven’t read this since it was in proofs, which is a very different experience indeed.
Also:
Although I’ve found short fiction tough to read unless in one sitting, I find magazine articles easy to read when exhausted before bed, so I’m plowing through the accumulated issues.
I wonder if it’s the fact that short non-fiction of this sort lacks the need for an emotional commitment on the part of the reader?
December 5, 2018
Reclaiming Writer Jane
Mayhem and Chaos: Emblems of the Past Month
This week I made an effort to reclaim some of my identity as a writer. It wasn’t easy and I deliberately did not keep track of my word count because I knew it would be a struggle to get anything written. But I did write. Even better, I finished the scene in the new Firekeeper novel that I’d been working on when everything was interrupted by Jim’s knee replacement surgery. This week I hope to move beyond that scene and get into the next plot arc.
A lot of elements contributed to my writer brain starting talking to me again. One was Jim becoming increasingly mobile. Right after Thanksgiving, he was told he could start using a cane. Almost immediately after that, he started forgetting to use his cane. This awareness on both our parts as to how much more confident he felt about his ability to walk really freed me from keeping a metaphorical ear cocked in case he needed me to get something, remind him of something else, or any of those myriad jobs that go into being a caregiver.
Don’t get me wrong. Jim’s not “healed.” Yesterday marked the end of Week Five since the surgery. We’ve been told to expect at least three months before he is anything close to “recovered.” Even then he’ll have further work to build his strength and endurance. So we’ve not even reached the half-way point. Jim’s not driving nor doing any chores that involve crouching, lifting, walking on uneven surfaces, carrying heavy objects, or… Well, you get the picture. But life is no longer a series of problems to be solved. We’re accustomed to our new routine.
I guess I must love to tell stories because as soon as my imagination was freed up even a little, I found myself musing about aspects of the Firekeeper novel I’d been working on before Jim’s surgery.
Here’s a trick that might be useful for those of you who write longer works like novels. If you know you’re going to be interrupted for whatever reason – and remember to include “good” interruptions like trips, holidays, and the like – then stop in the middle of a scene where you have a good idea what comes next. Doing this makes it a lot easier to start again.
If you write yourself to a stopping point, you may find it a lot harder to get your mind back into the story. Even though I don’t outline or plan out in advance, still I usually have a sense of the overall arc a book is going to take.
(My subconscious is calling me a liar, reminding me of a plot twist that just hit me this weekend.)
This sense of certainty increases the closer I get to a specific scene, so not finishing that scene gives me a place slide back into the story again. It also can help to go back and polish about a page prior to that scene, just to get back into the flow. Even with this preparation, starting up again was not perfectly smooth. There were fits and starts, but eventually I came to the end of the scene in question.
Various events led me to not writing over the weekend. However, because I’d primed the pump, I found myself thinking about where I’d take the story next. By Monday, I was eager to get writing again.
Last week I also had a phone meeting with David Weber regarding the next Stephanie Harrington project. This was followed by a bunch of e-mails as we refined points. Rather than this new project dampening my enthusiasm for Firekeeper, I found that brainstorming with Weber encouraged me to brainstorm with myself. I’m sure part of the reason I didn’t feel added pressure is that we won’t be starting the new Stephanie book until well into 2019, since we both have other things to finish.
Then, just because I’m insane, I’ve started a complicated new plotline for the RPG I’ve been running for almost seven years now. Yep! It seems as if my writer brain is trying to make up for having been on “hold” for the last month.
So, I’m feeling pretty cheerful, looking forward to writing more, and spending time with Firekeeper, Blind Seer, and the rest. Of course, there’s Christmas looming, and my mom’s coming to visit, but as with Jim’s surgery, I’ll plan for the interruption.
Now, off to write fiction!
November 30, 2018
FF: Keep On Reading!
I’m managing a little more reading time… You might say it’s my carrot, my reward for a day’s work well done.
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Carrot, Not Stick
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 Snow Queen by Joan Vinge. I read this years after it was winning awards. Came away feeling the awards were well deserved.
Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip. Audiobook. Excellent and evocative.
In Progress:
Death Comes As the End by Agatha Christie. Audiobook. Set in ancient Egypt with lots of period material. Very enjoyable, although the POV character might strike some as too vague and dreamy.
Also:
The magazines are piling up!
November 28, 2018
WW: PF Discovers the Bird Block
PF, a Junco, and the Bird Block
I’ve known for a long time that squirrels will poach from bird feeders, but I never realized that cottontail bunnies would. Then PF came into our lives.
We first met PF early this summer when he’d sneak between loose boards on our fence to graze on the native plants that make up a good portion of our landscaping. This was fine with us. Native bunny. Native plants.
Then PF discovered string beans. This was not so good. We grow the string beans for us. The guinea pigs get an occasional treat, but if PF kept eating the better part of a plant at a sitting, then no one was going to get any string beans: not us, not the guinea pigs, and not PF.
By this point in our relationship, PF was nearly tame, so finding out how he was getting into the yard was very easy. I would walk out into the yard, then PF would hippetty-hop slowly toward the closest exit: usually a part of the fence with a loose or missing board. I would then block the opening and, if a new board was needed, Jim would put it in that weekend.
It turned out that PF had numerous ingresses to our yard but, through process of elimination, he showed them to us one by one. The hardest one to fix was the gate, where he proved able to squeeze through a space that seemed far too narrow for such a robust cottontail.
Finally, we closed all the gaps. PF was not pleased with us. When I discovered he had been trying to dig through the gravel and under the gate (a task that proved impossible because the gravel bed is too dense), he earned his nickname: Persistent Forager or PF.
PF did not abandon us, returning repeatedly to eat the grass that grew up through the landscaping gravel in the front yard. I appreciated this. It saved me weeding. I even worried a little about what PF would do when the grass was killed back by the cold.
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PF Takes a Closer Look, Supervised By a Ring-necked Dove
I need not have worried. A few weeks ago, after we put out a bird block for the winter birds, we noticed an odd sculpted panel along lower sections. We figured it was caused by smaller birds that could perch on the edges of the concrete birdbath we used as a pedestal for the bird block. Then we noticed PF was coming by, and soon after we caught him in the act of, once again, persistently foraging.
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PF Takes a Bite
The birds don’t seem to mind, and we find PF’s company amusing, so we don’t plan to create any barrier to his enjoyment. That’s probably a good thing. PF, the persistent forager, would probably find a way around it.
November 23, 2018
FF: Do Subtitles Count?
Kwahe’e and The Snow Queen
Still far too busy and by the end of the day rather than curling up with a good book, all I’m good for is an episode or two of the anime Lupin the Third. I do watch in Japanese with subtitles, so I hope subtitles count…
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:
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King. Audiobook. This book would have been great even without the brilliant performances by the ensemble cast, but with them… Wow!
In Progress:
The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge. I read this years after it was winning awards. Came away feeling the awards were well deserved. Re-reading. However, the complex world building does demand me to be alert.
Od Magic by Patricia A. McKillip. Audiobook. Jim knows I love McKillip’s work, and found this for me on our library’s site. Almost done. I’ve read it before but still am enjoying.
Also:
Some beading magazines. Not that I have time to bead, but I love the colors and seeing how creative some people can be with nothing more than seed beads and thread.
November 21, 2018
Thinking About Thanking
Thanksgiving Bounty
Rattle, rattle, rattle, rumble, scrape, scratch…
Jim just trundled across the room. He’s still using his walker, but he’s pretty much moving at his usual pace. We’re hoping to see him graduate to a cane pretty soon, and to be able to dispense with pain meds even sooner.
That’s a lot to be thankful for. My dad died from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). When Dad stopped being able to walk, he knew he’d never walk again. For a man whose idea of fun was to go hiking through his forested property, locate a downed tree, then carry it back to where he could cut it up for firewood, this was hell. Painkillers couldn’t touch what was hurting him. He was dying by inches, and all too aware what was happening. That broke his heart long before the disease had finished breaking his body.
Somehow Thanksgiving has come to be about wanting more, not being thankful for what you have. The Black Friday promotions for pre-Christmas shopping have a lot to do with this, because, in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, the emphasis is on the sales to Get More, not on reflecting on everything you have.
Did you walk to your computer? Can you pick up your tablet or phone? Instead of feeling sorry that you can’t get the latest model, think about the wonder that are those fingers that you can move, the legs you can walk on.
If you’re reading this post, you have something to be thankful for. You can see. You can read. You can process information.
These last couple of weeks I’ve been immersed in caregiver mode and, I’ll admit, sometimes I’ve been too tired to think straight. Nonetheless, I’ve also known how lucky I am to be taking care of someone I can expect to get well. That hasn’t always been the case. The bulk of caregiving for my dad fell on my sister and brother, though I did what I could. But, when I was in my early thirties, I cared for my then-partner, Roger Zelazny, through the cancer that killed him. I was with him when he breathed his last.
But, you know, I’m thankful for that, too, because I was there and Roger was wonderful. We lost against the cancer. But we won, too, because we held on to each other til death did us part. There are worse things.
Things to be thankful for are all around you if you bother to look for them. The picture with this Wandering features ghost pumpkins that were a gift from our friend, Patricia Rogers. The turkey pot was made by another friend, Mary Weahkee. Jim made the wreaths…
Thanksgiving is not about Black Friday, folks. It’s not about Turkey Day and football games. Thanksgiving is about taking one day out of the 365 we’re gifted with each year to stop wanting more and take a look at what we have.
I hope you can find things to be thankful about – and if you’re caught in the dark, I hope you can find a way to reach for the light.
