Lyda Phillips's Blog, page 2

Farewell Faithful Companion

                                                     RIP Lucky Molino Phillips                                                              (2000-2015)

A dog of great dignity. He was calm, well-mannered, occasionally bitey, in a gentle and playful way. His greatest accomplishments were the excavation of a Great Hole in Silver Spring, Maryland, and his joyous destruction of six pots of geraniums in one afternoon, a disputed state record. He came to us from the mean streets of Northeast DC, where he and his sister Porsche were picked up as vagrant juveniles. He brought up his human boy-boy Gus Woods with great care and tremendous success. He loved but also often barely tolerated his pack mate Cid. He would have been 16 in October. He went out as he lived, gently and without a fuss. He will be so missed. (lyda)

As a youth Lucky tried to commit suicide. He ate a whole bottle of pills. In a big surprise he didn't die. He became a leader in the Black Dogs Matter movement and changed his name from Lucky, which he renounced as a slave name, to Lucky X. He was a revolutionary and wore a beret and smoked little black cigarettes. He helped raise our kid. He was a good dog. (jeff)






2016 Reading List:
43. Into White, Randi Pink
40-42 Cat's Claw, Widow's Tears, Death Come Quickly, Susan Witting Albert
39. Flicka's Friend, Mary O'Hara
33-38 Bleeding Hearts, Spanish Dagger, Nightshade, Wormwood, Holly Blues, Mourning Gloria, Susan Witting Albert32 This Savage Song, Victoria Schwab25-31 Lavender Lies, Mistletoe Man, Bloodroot, Indigo Dying, An Untimely Death, A Dilly of a Death, Dead Man's Bones, Susan Witting Albert
22-24 The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss
21. Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
14-20 Thyme of Death, Witches' Bane, Hangman's Root, Rosemary Remembered, Rueful Death, Love Lies Bleeding, Chile Death, Susan Witting Albert
13. A Cup of Water under My Bed, Daisy Hernandez
12. In the Labyrinth of Drakes, Marie Brennan
11. The New Neighbor, Leah Stewart
10. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
9. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Ed Tarkington
8. Chasing the North Star, Robert Morgan
7. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
6. H Is for Hawk, Helen McDonald
5. Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
4. The Road to Middle Earth, T.A. Shippey
2-3. A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Darkness, V.E. Schwab
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena FerranteRe-Read:1. My Friend Flicka, Mary O'Hara

The Road Ahead if Trump is Elected

If Trump is elected, here is how I think it would go down.

He wins by a small margin, maybe 46-44, less than a majority because of the Libertarian and Green vote swelled by BernieForever-ites.

He and his family redecorate the White House.



With his slim mandate and the support of his Supreme Court nominees, the process of disenfranchisement of minorities accelerates. Gerrymandering accelerates. Anti-immigrant laws are stiffened. Deportations accelerate.

The social safety nets are dismantled or turned over to Wall Street, where the oligarchs derive the ultimate benefits. The process of privatizing public education accelerates, so that the wealthy skim even more revenue away from public institutions in favor of elite "public" schools in wealthy enclaves. The poor languish in starving schools.



The disenfranchisement of anyone not of European stock continues.

The concentration of wealth accelerates.


This is met by protests, which are ruthlessly suppressed by increasingly militarized local police forces. This prompts ever more desperate protests until "reluctantly" the administration imposes martial law.

Meanwhile, the United States withdraws from NATO and other multilateral treaties. The joint chiefs of staff object and are replaced. The administration purges the military of dissenters.

Bingo! We are Russia. We are Turkey. Or any other bogus "democracy" that is in reality an oligarchy headed by an autocrat.





And we, the people, like the dismayed horse in the picture, wait for our masters to get on our backs and dig their spurs into our ribs.


2016 Reading List:

32 This Savage Song, Victoria Schwab
25-31 Lavender Lies, Mistletoe Man, Bloodroot, Indigo Dying, An Untimely Death, A Dilly of a Death, Dead Man's Bones, Susan Witting Albert
22-24 The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, Patrick Rothfuss
21. Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
14-20 Thyme of Death, Witches' Bane, Hangman's Root, Rosemary Remembered, Rueful Death, Love Lies Bleeding, Chile Death, Susan Witting Albert
13. A Cup of Water under My Bed, Daisy Hernandez
12. In the Labyrinth of Drakes, Marie Brennan
11. The New Neighbor, Leah Stewart
10. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
9. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Ed Tarkington
8. Chasing the North Star, Robert Morgan
7. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
6. H Is for Hawk, Helen McDonald
5. Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
4. The Road to Middle Earth, T.A. Shippey
2-3. A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Darkness, V.E. Schwab
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

Common Yellowthroat, a Chapter16 essay about my parents w...

Common Yellowthroat, a Chapter16 essay about my parents when they started to bird and I started to drive.


2016 Reading List:
13. A Cup of Water under My Bed, Daisy Hernandez
12. In the Labyrinth of Drakes, Marie Brennan
11. The New Neighbor, Leah Stewart
10. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
9. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Ed Tarkington
8. Chasing the North Star, Robert Morgan
7. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
6. H Is for Hawk, Helen McDonald
5. Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
4. The Road to Middle Earth, T.A. Shippey
2-3. A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Darkness, V.E. Schwab
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

Common Yellowthroat, an essay about my parents when they ...

Common Yellowthroat, an essay about my parents when they started to bird and I started to drive.

Chasing the North Star: Review

My latest review for Chapter 16 is of Robert Morgan's latest novel, Chasing the North Star. 

















2016 Reading List:
10. The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson
9. Only Love Can Break Your Heart, Ed Tarkington
8. Chasing the North Star, Robert Morgan
7. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
6. H Is for Hawk, Helen McDonald
5. Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
4. The Road to Middle Earth, T.A. Shippey
2-3. A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Darkness, V.E. Schwab
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

Writing: A Progress Report

I have been writing again, more seriously, more regularly. I retired although I'm still freelancing, and the time I used to spend getting up and going to work, I spend getting up and going to work. I keep almost the same schedule yet the time is spent on my own stuff and I work for clients in the afternoons. Mornings I try to write. Mostly I succeed. As I told a dear friend, quoting Bird by Bird, the key task is to sit down. Then open the file. Type the next word. And sooner or later you will write a few sentences and then it starts to work and flow, a trickle and then sometimes a torrent.

I also told her that if she has the data gene, keeping an Excel file is a huge help. Something in my psyche is deeply comforted by entering the new word count after every flurry on the keyboard. And that's another reason that NaNo is such a huge help in this lonely world--just you and the page. And the keys. And the words. Having those fabulous charts, the steady upward slant, even the days with no words, no gains, they aren't so disheartening.

One of my new self-sabotage devices is to keep multiple projects going at the same time. That way I can skip around, and dither, and avoid those rough passage, the choppy middle when the plot is simply ridiculous and devious and elusive and I can't outline it, and the index cards are no help. No problem. Work on something else.

So since I am a counter and a grapher and an Excel addict, I will report here on my recent progress. Since November and Nano I have three been working on three projects:
Rosalita, a YA urban paranormal that I've been working on off and on for several years. I have almost finished it except for a gnarly patch in the middle of the second half. I began November with 30,317 words and now have 45,000, again of 15,000.Earlidoucet, a literary novel, a brand-new project, began November at zero and as of today have 6,041 wordsLife List, a memoir, began November at zero and as of today have 25,379 words and it is completely outlined with each chapter summarized and most of them with a few paragraphs to give me something to jump off of. I did this one at the behest of an agent, who has been very helpful to me over the years but has never been the right agent for anything I write.So that's not bad. 46+K words in four and a half months. Of course, real NaNo people do more than that in one month. But that's okay. 
I have several finished MSS in the drawers, all of which have gotten full reads from agents and multiple "almosts." I am tempted every time I hit a rock in the river of these three projects to pull one of them out, revise it and self-publish it. I may do that eventually. And I did some revisions long ago, when they came back with helpful feedback. In every case I am now seeing those novels differently, through the lens of time. And I know some things that I can what to do to make them better. 
And I now have the time and the freedom to do it. What is squishy is my will. But it's really nice, the time and freedom thing.


2016 Reading List:
8. Chasing the North Star, Robert Morgan
7. The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
6. H Is for Hawk, Helen McDonald
5. Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
4. The Road to Middle Earth, T.A. Shippey
2-3. A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Darkness, V.E. Schwab
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

Dibby Hill Awards: 2016 (and 2015)

Dibby Hill Book Awards 2016
*As always these awards are based upon the books I read last year, regardless of their publication dates
Literary Novel: Did You Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg
Fantasy/Science Fiction: Grace of Kings, Ken Lui
Young Adult Novel: The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth
Middle-Grade Novel: Mark of the Dragonfly, Jaleigh Johnson
Non-Fiction: Night of the Gun, David Carr

Belated List for 2015
Literary Novel: The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Fantasy/Science Fiction: A Natural History of Dragons, Marie Brennan
Young Adult Novel: Delirium, Lauren Oliver
Middle-Grade Novel: The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson

Non-Fiction: Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Albert Lansing

2016 List:
1. The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante

Ho, Ho, Ho

Okay. Got to address the solstice season somehow.



Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to all my friends. It's been an amazing year and I got an espresso maker from Santa.

 

Stay tuned for the Dibby Hill Awards after New Year's. I swear I'm doing them this year.



Reading List 2015:

33-34: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante
32. After Alice, Gregory Maguire (thanks Jeff)
31. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante
30. A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar, Suzanne Joinson
29. The Library at Mount Char, Scott Hawkins
28. Rising Fury, Jen Rasmussen
27. JRR Tolkien: A Biography, Humphrey Carpenter
26. The Novel Habits of Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
25. Crook of the Dead, Jen Rasmussen
24. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Valente, Catherynne M.,
23. Night of the Gun, David Carr
22. Memphis Noir, story collection
21. (currently reading) Journney to the West, translated, edited by Anthony C. Yu
20. Did You Ever Have a Family, Bill Clegg
19. Grace of Kings, Ken Lui
18. Mark of the Dragonfly, Jaleigh Johnson
17. Honey from the Lion, Matthew Neill Null
16. French Concession, Xaio Bai (in translation)
15. Halting State, Charles Stross
14. The Wool Omnibus, Hugh Howey
13. The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester
12. The Tyrant's Daughter, J.C. Carlson
11. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth
10. The Arctic Code, Matthew J. Kirby
9. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
7-8. Tropic of Serpents, The Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan
6. The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope
5. Out of Oz, Gregory Maguire
4. The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
1-3. A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness

Re-read:

4-6 The Lord of the Rings: all three volumes, JRR Tolkien

3. Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
1-2. Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope

Freedom, oh Freedom

"All those people going to work



Not me.




I'm not going to work."


Credit  poem  Michael Cook


2015:

16. (currently reading) French Concession, Xaio Bai (in translation)

15. (currently reading) Journney to the West, translated, edited by Anthony C. Yu
14. The Wool Omnibus, Hugh Howey

13. The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester (fascinating non-fiction about an American convicted of murder in Victorian London and imprisoned in Broadmoor who contributed more than 10,000 entries to the Oxford English Dictionary as it was first being developed)

12. The Tyrant's Daughter, J.C. Carlson

11. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth
10. The Arctic Code, Matthew J. Kirby
9. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
7-8. Tropic of Serpents, The Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan
6. The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope
5. Out of Oz, Gregory Maguire
4. The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
1-3. A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness

Re-read:

3. Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
1-2. Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope

RIP Cid

Nov. 11, 2002-July 10, 2015

Dibby Hill's El Cid of MDSSK, Canine Good Companion, Herding Trial Dog, Junior Herding Dog, Herding Trial Arena Dog I, Herding Ranch Dog (1st leg)

A great dog is gone. He was my K-9 partner. I was his person.
In 2005 he received an award from the International Shiloh Shepherd Dog Club as one of the "Fab Five," the first five Shiloh Shepherds to earn the Junior Herding Dog title, thereby earning the breed recognition as an official American Herding Breed Association herding breed.




2015:


12. (currently reading) Journney to the West, translated, edited by Anthony C. Yu
11. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Emily M. Danforth
10. The Arctic Code, Matthew J. Kirby
9. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan
7-8. Tropic of Serpents, The Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan
6. The Three Clerks, Anthony Trollope
5. Out of Oz, Gregory Maguire
4. The Paying Guests, Sarah Waters
1-3. A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness

Re-read:

3. Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
1-2. Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Anthony Trollope