Robin McKinley's Blog, page 156

A contest winner, frelling Twitter and . . .

 

And the winner of a signed hardback of A KNOT IN THE GRAIN is:  Esther S. Bernstein.  Whose very first post to the forum this was.  See, it's good to join the forum.  And then post stuff.  In this case:  The Goddess Poena's Sojourns In Strange Lands.

. . . other things that have gone wrong.  And at least one thing that has gone right.  I dare say our contest winner will also feel that at least one thing has gone right.  Which makes two things because that's not the one I was thinking of. ...

Yep.

 

I'm on hellkitten duty again.  And I need a night off the blog.  Although, as previously observed, wrangling photos takes astonishing amounts of time**, it doesn't take up nearly as much brain time as wrangling words.  And as long as I'm still coping with the blog I'm not on line buying winter pansies and spring bulbs and bare root roses.

And so, without further ado, I give you . . .

* * *

 

* You realise that Phineas and Eidolon don't actually go away every weekend.  I just sneak up behind...

Stars and Bells

Starred—starred—review from Kirkus:

PEGASUS. Robin McKinley. (Putnam: 978-0-399-24677-7)
Classic McKinley, from the original concept (pegasi!) to the lush, dense prose and the careful unfolding of a nuanced tale. In Balsinland, royal humans are bound to royal pegasi, intelligent winged horses. But despite this, communication is nearly impossible, requiring a magician interpreter and still fraught with failures, and so it has been for 800 years—until Princess Sylvi (small, spunky, overlooked...

Fame. Sort of.

 

So I spent yesterday visiting Diana Wynne Jones.  I wasn't going to mention it till Neil Gaiman went and made us all famous on Twitter last night.  Yes, Neil was there too.  Or rather he arrived as I was leaving.  And I wouldn't have still been there at all if I hadn't spent an hour sitting in a dead train outside the station two stops from Diana's.  Alternately I would have been there if my hellhound minder hadn't dumped me last week.  Except a week ago I didn't know Neil was coming.  Are y...

Another interview

 

Several people have tweeted this already, but this is still tonight's blog post.  You can read it again and pick out more faults in my logic.*  Or go do the laundry or something.   And note that they're giving away three copies of the PEGASUS ARC.   You don't even have to make up a silly title to enter.** 

http://community.livejournal.com/enchantedinkpot/68526.html 

* * *

* Logic? 

** Note that the silly title threads for a signed A KNOT IN THE GRAIN are still open here on the forum, Facebook...

Ask Robin. Sort of. Not. Yes. No. Maybe.

 

There's a very positive and flattering review of PEGASUS here*: 

irishrosedkm.wordpress.com 

About two thirds of the way through she writes: 

Although the humans love the Pegasi, these creatures are so completely alien that, even after centuries of coexistence, the humans still experience a fair amount of xenophobia. . . . The amount of awkward formality directed towards the Pegasi highlights the humans' continued discomfort. . . . As I read I couldn't help but be reminded of modern day race...

WISHING FOR TOMORROW by Hilary McKay

 

This is a darling book.  I hesitate to slather it with the warm and furry adjectives it deserves for fear you'll think it's soppy or sloppy, which it is not:  McKay has a sharp eye, a classy style, and a good sense of humour.* 

            I don't read much 'middle age' fiction** because to my evil-cow eye it's a diabolically difficult authorial voice to get right.  The one regular exception is Jacqueline Wilson who is brilliant and I adore her, but I have read McKay's EXILES series which...

Itty Bitty Contest

 

Regular blog readers will remember that last Wednesday I posted photos of a couple of my foreign book jackets and dared you to guess the original hiding under the Italian title of STREGHE.  And I may have been so ill-advised as to say something like 'Maybe I should offer as a prize a copy of it (in English) if you can guess which book it is.' 

            Whereupon there was a lively thread on the forum and a lively feedback section on Facebook, and one or two people on Twitter all rising to ...

Return of the Hellkitten

. . . And my night OFF.  Sort of.  Actually photo posts eat up almost as much time as WRITING them because of the looking through the eight-six trillion shots you've taken and deciding which ones are worth looking at again, putting on the list, taking off the list, putting back on the list and cropping, cropping being the only edit trick I know.*   And kitten photos are the worst.  You aren't trying to get action photos of your roses, and your hellhounds are usually being cute at a decent...

Return of the Hellkitten, continued

I HATE WORDPRESS. LA LA LA LA LA LA LA.  Okay, here's the other five photos.  I hope.