Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 81

I Need to Make a List (and Check it Twice)

Having just emerged from deadline mania, I'm in that post-book stage where I look around the house and wonder what I've forgotten to do in the meantime.

Shawn is a great list-maker. I swear she has lists that keep track of her lists. I, meanwhile, wing it. Only on very rare ocassion have I actually ever forgotten something entirely, but I also have days like to day where I have to take active stock of everything I need to do.

For instance, a lot of people have sent me books to read for review or a blurb. As cold as today is, this would be an excellent day to sit down with one of them. But, I also need to get a stronger start on ideas/synopses for Ana books #4, #5 and #6 in case my publisher/editor is interested in seeing them. This weekend's wind also knocked a chunk of plastic out of our screen door, and I need to grab a screwdriver from the basement and remove that pane and get it replaced at the hardware store (probably with glass, who even knew that was plastic before it broke? Not me.) Tomorrow, it's supposed to snow (possibly as much as several inches), and I'm, once again, chaperoning Mason's class on a field trip to the Minnesota Zoo. Brrrrr.

At least I don't have to get ready for Passover or Easter, since Ostara bunny came and went months ago. I'll probably have that experience I often do around Easter where I wonder why the heck all the stores are closed, and then suddenly remember that it's some kind of holiday. :-)

Speaking of Easter, I won't be at Minicon this year. (I've been getting things for Convergence, but I won't be there THIS year, though I will next.) I will, however, be one of the GoHs at Diversicon (July 29 - 31), don't forget. Please come.

In other news, it was a fairly eventful weekend, although with some false starts. I was, of course, sick as a dog on Thursday (which, btw, does NOT impress the cats.) I felt well enough on Friday that, when we dropped Mason off for his sleepover, Shawn and I bravely attempted a dinner out at Fasika, the local Ethiopian restaurant. It was brave not only for my stomach, but also due to its proximity to University Avenue, which is completely under "destruction" (as Midway Books puts it) for the light rail.

brief rant/
Despite being a general fan of progress, I'm not terribly pleased about the light rail. It's going to significantly change my neighborhood, and I'm not entirely sure for the better. It is NOT intended to serve the local community. It's designed to shuffle business people from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul, with very limited stops in between. Currently, we're hemorrhaging businesses. Porky's is gone for good. My martial arts studio is leaving (luckily, they're not moving too far away for us). As we walk to the remaining classes there, I've been watching businesses packing up and buildings empty. University Avenue is going to be a ghost town. So, okay, maybe they'll tear it all down and build condos with Starbucks and Subways in their lower levels. Better than Porky's and Ax Man? I'm not sure.
/brief rant

Anyway, Shawn and I had a nice night out, even though I couldn't eat very much. We came home and snuggled up for a movie, which was nice, but I wish I'd felt better generally. On Saturday, Mason had a playdate with naomikritzer 's daughter for Pokemon trade/talk. Shawn and I had planned to make it a fun tea for grown-ups (and kids), so I baked scones and Shawn made her famous cranberry upside-down cake. We had Devonshire clotted cream and marmalade and jam and all that sort of lovely "tea" sort of stuff. I even pulled out the fancy tea cups and our cheery yellow tea pot, in which I brewed jasmine tea in my tea ball, no less.

I'd been planning on taking Eleanor to Kelly McCullough's annual Red Current party, but the weather had turned nasty and Eleanor no longer felt up to it. So, once again, my family snuggled under blankets and watched a movie. On Saturday night it was HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS. I know this is probaby sacrilege, but I'm a bit disappointed in part 1. It's a LONG movie and yet, for someone like Shawn who has NOT read the books, it fails to explain some critical bits of information. For instance it's never explained how the Death Eaters keep finding Harry and crew. Yet, by the time they're camping out, he's calling Voldemort "He Who Must Not Be Named," which is utterly out of character unless you know that they'd had a magical trace on anyone who boldly used Voldemort's name. Also, although they show Voldemort hunting for the Elder Wand and all the various wands exchanging hands, the critical information about wand possession is completely unexplained (ie, that it's not truly yours to command unless you take it by force.)

There were other things, too, but I was surprised by how often either Mason and I had to lean over and explain things to Shawn. I understand that people like Shawn are rare these days, but there are really long stretches of silence in the movie. It would have been nice to fill some of that with information, you know? Especially since the movie ends on such a downer note. (If I were the director, I would have ended on a bit more triumphant moment, ie the Gringotts heist. Also, if I'd directed, I would have had Harry rescue more people at the Ministry, as he does in the book. However, I approve of letting Hedwig go the way she does in the movie, rather than the book, which is so AWFUL. Mason is having us re-read this book, and I have to say I also like the way we get to see Dudley say good-bye too, though I can see why they skimmed over that.)

However, I'm looking forward to Part 2, though as a huge fan of Neville Longbottom, I'm a little worried that they haven't give him the build up he needs for that last awesome moment of his. Also Fred and George's "Freedom Radio" would have been nice to hear from, too, if only to give the audience like Shawn a better sense of what's going on out in the larger world. They could have used that for all sorts of information filler -- like what the Snatchers are doing, who they are, etc. The Snatchers completely BAFFLED Shawn.

Anyway, back to my weekend... on Sunday, Mason and I dropped Shawn off at Goodwill and he and I went in search of some new fishes. Tragedy struck in the small tank. I lost two of the white cloud mountain minnows over the weekend, I think to old age. One of them, Sunshine, had made a bit of a recovery, but... uh, he'd slowed down enough that the giant goldfish, Bob, who shares his tank, took a bite out of him. He went to the summerland headless, alas. Gucci, gucci Sunshine and Chicory, you were good fish!

We went to the Fish and Reptile store on University (which seems to he hanging on, at least,) and picked up three new fish (which now makes a total of four white clouds). The new ones are: Savannah, Stanley, and Finbird. Named, repectively, by Shawn, me, and Mason. Savannah and Stanley might actually be a slightly different fish, as they're quite a bit more golden in color. The woman who helped me did not actually know what fish I was looking for, which surprised me, because usually the staff is so incredibly knowledgable, you know? (I just looked up white cloud mountain minnow + golden and apparently there is a version called "golden white cloud," which may be a mutation brought on by inbreeding... but they are rather pretty.) But the good news is that everyone schooled up and are zippy enough that Bob could not take a bite of any of them (though he did try at first.)

Whoa, so that was my weekend, with a couple of breaks for rants about lightrail construction and Harry Potter.

Slow Recovery

Early in the pre-dawn hours yesterday morning, I awoke with a BAD case of stomach flu. There was much "quality time" spent in the bathroom, and I was forced to miss out on Wyrdsmiths, as well as much of life. I've never had flu with such classic symptoms, either. I was chilled, had muscle aches, and I couldn't keep anything down. Any time I was able to lay down, I passed out, sound asleep for hours at a time. I had actual stomach cramps, too -- a horrible thing that I have never truly experienced before. Man, they suck!

Today, I've recovered from the chills and aches, but I'm still being very cautious about what I eat. I've bravely ingested coffee and some yogert. My stomach is rumbling unhappily, but that seems to be just noise -- a complaining song, if you will. Fingers crossed.

On a perhaps similar note, one of my white cloud mountain minnows is sick. I feel responsible, because, just the other day I was thinking, quite happily, about the fact that I have had no problems with my fish in a super long time. I've been doing daily water changes, but since all the other fish seem happy and healthy, I'm thinking it might be just that time for "Sunshine." I should look back through the archives to figure out how long ago I got these three. I feel like it's been at least three years. I recently read on Wikipedia that white cloud mountain minnows are carp, so they might actually be long-lived, but who knows?

It's dark and dismal outside. I'm planning on doing a few errands today that I was physically incapable of yesterday, but otherwise I'm going to hide under the blankets and recover.

Mason is going over to a friend's house tonight for a sleepover. This means Shawn and I get to have a "date" night. Hopefully, I'll feel well enough for whatever we decide to do, even if it's just having popcorn in front of the TV.

One last thing -- if you're local to Minnesota, the MN State Arts Board is doing an "Arts Count" to try to get a sense of how many artists are working in our state. The survey is super short, and if you have a few seconds, you should fill it out: MN Arts Count

I'd really like writers to represent this year. You don't have to be making any part of your living as an artist to be counted. And they let you fill in whatever it is you feel your art is (and there's space for up to six specialities.) So, if you bead or scrap book or dance or play music or write or draw, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, I need to get some work done on the proposals for the next Ana books.

Gah!

By now, everyone on the planet interested in writing-related stuff has probably read that one author's meltdown over a bad review.

Today, I get it.

I totally get what went through her head. I've been kind of lamenting the fact that not a single soul has reviewed Resurrection Code. But, then I thought, "Well, maybe someone has and I just never saw it." Turns out, I missed one after all.

Okay. Some press. Um, yay?

But, frankly, I'm not sure what to make of it. The author, a science fiction writer like myself and a colleague, read the book in a way I didn't think was possible. He mistook two very different characters as the same person. He writes: "It isn’t until mid-way through the book that we learn that El-Aref is also known as Mouse and Mohammed is a fallen angel called Morningstar."

?????

I don't even know how you could even get that when Morningstar and Mohammad talk to each other in several scenes. I mean, usually, when people are standing side by side, it's a pretty good indication they are NOT, in point of fact, one and the same person.

Also, he tells the reader that Mouse is neither Christian nor Muslim, he's Sunni. Last time I checked Sunni is a branch of Islam, just as Catholic is a type of Christianity.

This is a big head scratcher.

A big part of me wants to write a rebuttal, but I can't see any way that would work in my favor and not make me look like a sour grapes author.

I'm probably going to have to let it go, and say the published author's mantra: "People are entitiled to their opinions of my work, even when they don't love me. (Even when they're WRONG about basic facts.)" And just breathe, but this made particularly difficult because there's not a single review, good or bad or medium, out there BESIDES this one.

Yes, this is my not so subtle beg, okay? Please, if you've read the book, say something about it somewhere. You don't have to love it. You can hate it. Just say something -- extra points if you can keep the characters straight!

WTF, Wisconsin?

Is it true? Some county clerk just happened to "find" +7,500 votes for Prosser in her f*cking laptop???

And no one just looked at her and said, "Seriously? You're going to try that? In America?" Also, I thought that like Minnesota, Wisconsin had paper ballots and a LOT of very serious checks and balances.

It's days like this I wish we were as unscrupulous as the other side. Some election judge on our side should stand up and say, "Oh, yeah, well, I just found a MILLION votes for Kloppenburg in my pants, a**hole!" Of course, if we did that, some yahoo on Fox news would not only smear our BLATANT electon fraud but also have us hung for using swear words.

Ai-ai-ai.

My head splodes.

Revisions, Yay!

I am such a weirdo.

I think that pretty sums up everything you might need to know about me, but I was thinking specifically of the fact that, unlike almost every other writer I know, I ADORE the revision process. I think it's the sense of accomplishment I get while I'm going through each page. In front of me today is a big pile of paper. It's a completed (if somewhat flawed) story. I don't have to figure out how it's going to end any more. It's written. I may, in point of fact, need to utterly CHANGE the ending for the novel to actually be any good, but I have a spare, you know?

I like that feeling. A lot.

Even though I know that when I get through this round of revisions another one is on its heels (or waiting in the wings and other such metaphors) -- around and around until publication.

But, you know, I've taken my first stab at it. I hit something. Now I just have to make sure my aim is true and I hit home.

Which is kind of a disturbing image since last night I had a really awful nightmare about discovering a serial killer had been to my house while I was away. And then I became a strange sort of magical-yet-evil house spirit myself who continued the killing spree. It was particularly disturbing because it's one of the first dreams that I remember taking place in THIS house, exactly as it's laid out. Usually, I have a stock stand-in metaphor for my house. It's partly my parent's house combined with this one with bits of other houses or apartments I've lived in or known, and a hotel (or a museum). But it's always generally the same place that my subconscious has dubbed "my house" even though it looks nothing like the place in which I currently reside. So besides being creepily violent, it was also very specific.

Banish, banish, banish!

Luckily, it's incredibly beautiful outside today and I have something I'm looking forward to doing in front of me. I'm sitting on the porch with the windows cracked open. There's coffee in the pot and a cat perched on the head of my chair behind me. The thing that's going to be hard is to stay indoors, when what I really want to do is start mucking about in the garden (even though there's still patches of stubborn snow in our back yard.) We're going to expand Mason's veggie garden this year. I really want to try growing lettuce. The seed catalogues all have these cute little individual serving size minature lettuce varieties and I just adore them. I want to see them growing in neat little rows in Mason's garden.

Ah, hurry up summer!!

"Write On Radio" gig

If you missed me last night, the archive is up at KFAI's "Write On Radio": http://www.kfai.org/node/35216.

It's really funny to hear the hosts complaining about their shabby digs, IMHO, since the only other radio station I've ever experienced was when I was a guest on the now defunct "Radio Cafe" on AM950 a couple of years ago. The reception area of AM950 was very nice, but the actual broadcasting booth was in the basement and had a very cave-like feel. Maybe they had/have better equipment, but I really like the expansive lay-out of KFAI's studio. Of course, KFAI as been a staunch supporter of my writing for the last decade so I probably imprinted on it on some level, like a baby duckling.

Meanwhile, I'm biting nails waiting to hear the results from Wisconsin. Thanks to a link posted by my friend and fellow writer, Barth Anderson, on Facebook to the AP site, I've been tracking the county returns. LaCrosse County seems to have done me proud, but I can't believe how tight the race has been overall. I realize this is completely partisan of me to say so, but WTF, people? Is evil really that hard to spot?

When I was a member of the National Writers' Union, I did an article for their national newsletter about young people's changing attitudes towards unions. This was in the early 90s, and there were a lot of people my age who equated unions with thugs (even though the terms, historically, are opposites.) They resented the union dues taken out of minimum wage jobs where they never saw a union steward or noticed any benefits. (I had a job like this when I worked at Rainbow Foods as what used to be termed a "stock boy.") Jimmy Hoffa loomed largely in their minds, and, of course, the late 80s/early 90s was when "square" was cool in some circles -- remember the Doonsbury cartoon where the campus cops broke up a rally by shouting "An arrest will look bad on your resume!"? All of us who were twenty-somethings in 90s are now in our thirties and forties... and maybe some of that thinking still prevails.

I just don't get it.

Luckily, I have to go now and pick up Eleanor for our Women of Wyrdsmiths Wednesday (WWW), and I need to harness my laser like focus on writing synopsis/proposals for the next three Ana/Vampire Princess of St. Paul books.

OMG, We Can Haz LJ!

Looks like LJ is back on-line for the moment. I will try to quickly recap everything going on in my life before it crashes again.

First, this commerical interruption:

Tonight I'm going to be one of the guests on KFAI's "Write On Radio" show from 7:00 - 8:00 pm Central. KFAI broadcasts on 90.3 FM Minneapolis/106.7 FM St. Paul, but you can also listen via live streaming at: kfai.org. But, since 7 PM might be a very busy time for you depending on who you are and where you live, you can also check out the archives at http://www.kfai.org/archive tomorrow morning or shortly after the broadcast. I don't know how quickly they have it available.

Also, if you do tune in, be patient. Usually they schedule at least two guests and more often than not, they put me on during the second half hour. (Maybe they like to close with a bang, I don't know.)

/ad

Okay, so last weekend (and yesterday).... hmmm, okay, on Saturday I had my Mensa meeting. No, I'm not a member. I know for a fact that I can't pass their entrance exam. (I had an IQ test as an adult as part of testing for dyslexia and I am resoundingly average.) I was invited to speak about publishing and writing science fiction. And, you know what, before you make any cracks about how you wouldn't want to be in any group that would have you as a member or other such remarks, the Mensa folks were AWESOME and I had a GREAT time. They were super nice to me, and totally respected my experise as a published author. They laughed at all my jokes and generally treated me like a rock star. I would totally join their group if I could. So there.

I was a *little* worried it would be a room full of Sheldons from "Big Bang Theory," but it turns out, not so much. Everyone at Mensa was fairly well socialized, certainly as much as your average SF/F fan. :-)

On Sunday, one of Mason's friends had a Hogwarts themed party. I've posted some of the more adorable picutres on tatehallaway.blogspot.com, but here are a few others:






Going to this made me totally want to have a grown-up version. All I'll say is that plans are in the works!

Slytherins: Race and Ambition

I don't have a lot of time to put my thoughts down in a terribly coherent way, but I'd love to continue the discussion about Slytherins. marlowe1 noted that Slytherins get outed for their racism in the later Harry books, but it is interesting to remember that Voldemort himself is a half-blood, who hated his Muggle father. Snape, the head of Slytherin House, is also a half-blood; he is, in point of fact, the Half-Blood Prince of the title of that book. (Harry, of course, is PURE blood. His mom was Muggle born, but she was a witch.)

While mostly pure bloods get sorted to Slytherin it's NOT a requirement. Harry, as we all remember, was nearly sorted into Slytherin (and speaks parseltongue for crying out loud), and comes around to the idea at the end that it would be okay if his own son were sorted there.

So what about Harry would have made him a good Slytherin, besides the ability to speak to snakes, do you think?

He's not terribly ambitious. I mean, I love Harry, but neither he nor Ron show a lot of apptitude for school work (until, perhaps, inspired by the non-Moody.) Even Neville, by the fourth year, has shown promise in herbology. And, of course, Draco is good at potions. What's Harry got? Quidditch. Dude is a JOCK. I would have hated him in high school.

Is it his tendency toward self-pity? His quickness to anger? His inability to follow even the simplest school rules? (As a Slytherin, frankly, I resent the implication of the first and second, but the third shows some promise. He can be pretty sneaky. Give that boy a Maurader's Map and he's good to go -- although that was an entirely Gryffindor product from the beginning.)

Harry is also a cheater. He cheats in potions class. I mean, straight-up. And he has no qualms whatsoever about using the morally ambiguous curses he finds in Snape's potion book on his enemies. He might favor the "Expelliarmus" spell, but is shown willing to use the Unforgivable Curses against Bellatrix afer she's killed Sirius.

What do y'all think?

(I need to take off. I'm supposed to pick up Shawn for her birthday celebration NOW.)

The Weekend Looms

Check out my friend Doug Hulick's Big Idea on Scalzi's Whatever! It's becoming a Wyrdsmiths tradition.

I'm sorry I've been away. I hear the ol' LJ has been acting up in my absence. Well, I'm back now, so y'all need to behave!

Today was my busy day. I didn't entirely finish Tate's #3 as I'd hoped. I ended up doing a lot of running around. I still haven't made it to the grocery store, but I did get Shawn's birthday present so she'll have something to open tomorrow morning. I thought today was the last day that the Milton Avenue location of Amore Coffee would be open, so I planned to stopped by there for a final cafe Vienna. Alas, I seem to have arrived a day (or more) late. They were moving furnature and other equipment out as I pulled in. Since I'd hauled myself there, I stopped in for lunch at Bread & Chocolate. I wrote a bit, and continue to be amazed by the relaxed way in which this book seems to be coming to a close. Usually, there is much rushing and writing and such in the final days, but I wrote a very lesuirely and detailed scene today. Weird. I hope this isn't some kind of bad omen. At any rate, I have a couple more scenes to write and then I will have reached another "the end" milestone.

Mason and I are re-reading HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. We just got to the part where the fourth year Gryffindors have had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Moody. I'm going to assume that I don't need to put the next bit under an lj-cut for spoilers, because the book has been out forever, as has the movie, but if you haven't read GOBLET OF FIRE and don't like spoilers, for God's sake stop reading. Okay, onward -- so we all know that Professor Moody isn't, shall we say, _himself_ at this particular moment. Upon second reading, this struck me as VERY interesting. "Moody" shows a surprising amount of what appears to be sympathy toward both Harry and Neville. He comes off like a good guy, a brilliant instructor, even if he is a bit VIGILANT (and a bit odd, of course. But who at Hogwarts isn't a BIT odd.) If I'm reading this right, it means that Barty Crouch, Jr., is actually, on some profound level actually a decent human being.

Or a _really_ good actor. Because, as we learn in Old Trek's "Mirror, Mirror," it is much easier for the civilized man to pass as a barbarian than it is for a barbarian to pass as civilized.

Regardless, I would posit that Barty Crouch, Jr. is one of the best Defense Against Dark Arts teacher that Hogwarts ever had. Considering how otherwise completely unredeeming a character Barty Jr. is, this is a rather noteworthy observation, IMHO.

I suppose that, once again, I'm arriving rather late to this party with this thought, but as it just ocurred to me, I wanted to share it.

And, since I have to rush off to go pick up Mason from school, I'll leave you with it.

Weekend Updatery

Saturday was super busy. Mason and I had missed kuk sool wan all week because he was sick (and I was lazy), so we felt compelled to go to the Saturday class. It was actually kind of amazing. We'd had a rough start to the day -- some yelling and tears and serious discussions about behavior and attitude -- and, magically, afterwards both our moods had improved dramatically.

Which was good, because after a fast lunch and an aborted attempt to make chocolate chip cookies (actually Shawn finished them for me), I had to rush off to my signing at Uncles. I never know how I'm doing sales-wise at these things because my brain isn't wired that way. I never think to actually count the number of books people are taking off the pile, but I did notice that some of my friends (and ex-lovers) SHOWED UP. That was amazing. I saw my friend Holly --- actually, two of my friends named Holly showed up, though one in question I had not seen in probably thirty years. She used to live in my neighborhood and was probably one of my first EVER friends. We used to go play Star Trek in the "marsh" (really, a dump) and Barbie dolls in the back yard (well, I had superheroes. Aquaman was probably the luckiest he's ever been in his life, because he must have married Barbie a dozen times.) At any rate, it was awesome Holly showed up and bought a book. She said the nicest thing too. She said she thought I was the only person she knew who actually went into the profession that suited their personality the most. I grew up to be what I was supposed to be.

Of couse, when I was 12, I probably wanted to be a lawyer or a poltician or a college professor/teacher. Well, I *most* wanted to be a Jedi or a knight in shiny armor, but, I would *settle* for lawyer, etc.

I guess in the end I refused to settle.

That's worked out so far (knocking on wood.) :-)

Okay, back to the signing -- I did notice that the books I'd brought (Archangel Protocol, Fallen Host and Messiah Node) were gone at the end. So I told Don at Uncles that I'd come back on Sunday with a few more copies for him to have on the shelves. Oh and since Andrew and Joe came, I can now OFFICIALLY announce that I will be a guest of honor at Gaylaxicon 2012!

Yay!

I hung out as usual for an extra half hour or more, and I would have tarried even longer except that I'd forgotten that I'd signed up for a jool bong (nunchucks/u) seminar back at kuk sool wan. Hopping in the car, I raced back to St. Paul and made it in time to change at the dojo and spent the next two hours whacking myself in the head with a stick.

Weridly, I don't seem to have any visible bruises despite the extremely hard knock I gave myself upside the jaw. (And, yes, these are the FOAM padded jool bong. Believe me, they're still plenty hard.)

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We did make it back to Uncles with more books, and Mason and I managed to find a few books of our own. I'm currently reading one I picked up last time. It's a YA fantasy called THE THIEF by Megan Whalen Turner. I'm probably going to end up blogging about this one, as it's kind of a strange read. It starts out very slowly, but becomes more and more compelling the longer you hang on. Of course, today when I need to focus on writing the last three big scenes in Ana #3, all I really want to do is finish reading this story.

I also started painting an old bookcase that has been languishing in the basement. It's going into Mason's room because he's in desperate need of more book shelves. He gave me instructions on the color he wanted -- bright orange -- and I stopped by Sherman Williams on the way home from a quick Kowalski's run to pick up a quart of it. I got one coat on, and then concentrated the rest of my efforts on making a roast whole chicken and some trimmings for dinner.

A good weekend, really. I didn't get a ton of writing done, except on Friday night. Oh, that's right, we went to a wedding reception Friday night for Shawn's brother's stepdaughter. The food was pretty bad, except for the cake, but they had an awesome dejay who played a ton of gay anthems, such as "We are Family" and "YMCA." My Facebook friends tell me this is typical fare for a straight wedding, but I found it strange (yet refreshing!) Mason and I cut a serious rug. And, as I posted on Facebook, I would happily marry Shawn in some sort of traditional way if we could have a dance. I LOVE dancing. L-O-V-E it.

Pumped from shaking my groove thang, I pumped out a thousand words in less than an hour. The rest has been slow going, though I really think I only have two or three more scense left until this book is drafted in the first. Of course, it will need at least one, though likely two goings through before I turn it on April 15. I seem to be right on target for that, fingers crossed VERY tightly.

All right no more stalling! I'm off to write!