Robin McKinley's Blog, page 157

Ah the Writing Life

 

This was like every other tweet on my list for about half a day: 

http://agrammar.tumblr.com/post/1127991128/offended-by-rank-objectification-of-writers 

Well, yes.  Pretty much.* 

I wavered about copying and pasting the whole thing here so I could annotate the annotations**, which is what A Grammar has done with the original after all, but I'm still kind of confused about what is and is not okay fair use on the internet, so I will plonk down firmly on the fence (ow) and  merely re- or...

I need a night off.

 

 . . . It's already after midnight and I'm still eating dinner.*  I made a little error about the evening's entertainment . . . which is to say I went tower bell ringing after handbells.  I am insane.

            Niall has been out stabbing the shrubbery again for more handbell ringers but in frustration I believe he also recently hired a Dark Enchanter to cast a spell to catch the vulnerable. And it worked . . . he brought a new sacrifice—I mean sucker—I mean . . . uh . . . student along...

Backlist

 

I am better today.  Of course I then went into hey!  I'm better! overdrive and am now . . . shattered.

            But Fiona was here today* and I took her up to Third House.  I'd been planning to take her up to Third House this time and then Fluey Thing manifested and yesterday I was scowling out of my heavy swollen eyes and thinking with my heavy swollen brain, dranglefab it it's always SOMETHING.  So we went up anyway.**  Besides, I was better.  Or I was better at least till I spent two...

Stuffed

 

It has not been a good day.*  The Fluey Thing is gaining again—today I can still hope it's anaesthesia hangover:  tomorrow I will have to face facts, if there are facts that need facing**—the weather has been 'start raining when she gets outdoors with hellhounds;  stop the minute she goes indoors again, but if she decides to tough it out, rain harder'—my two main computers, the mews laptop and the cottage desktop, are increasingly possessed by demons*** and there has been no official...

Draggy Monday

 

Had to go to the dentist (again).*  My face was numb for hours.   Smiling at people during hellhounds' afternoon hurtle I was wondering what kind of awful grimace I was actually producing.**  For variety however we were attacked by a pair of on lead dogs.  So charming.  Beagles, and the woman holding them . . . couldn't.  They dragged her across the pavement, barking and snarling . . . and hellhounds and I were out in the middle of the busy main road before I had time to come up with a...

Critters, revisited 1,000,000,000

 

While we're on the subject of critters* as we so often are in this blog, @kejia32 posted this on Twitter a few days ago:  

FYI @robinmckinley fans: article by Helen Pilinovsky about «Deerskin» – caution, contains spoilers http://bit.ly/cfLAN4 ** 

I thought this was a very good and interesting article and . . . sorry, all you literate academics out there . . . surprisingly direct and straightforward for a scholarly piece.  She makes a couple of clearly valid interpretive points I hadn't...

Hellkitten*

 

I am very short of sleep.  I didn't go round to check on the hellkitten again after ringing last night because I was already running late (I am always running late after ringing*) and I wanted to get hellhounds and me fed, and hellkitten already had been.  And then I didn't get back to the cottage till later than planned (I always get back to the cottage later than planned**) and since I was only going to look in on him and make sure he had plenty of water and hadn't got himself trapped...

My husband the comedian and other funny men

 

So when I got down to the mews today for lunch this is what I found standing beside my chair in the kitchen: 

HA HA FRELLING HA HA HA.  VERY FUNNY, PETER, I'M SO GLAD YOU KEEP UP WITH MY BLOG.* 

            Oisin is finally home from his fabulous holiday** but since he's been gone an entire fortnight there was serious catching up that needed to be done.  This proved to include various ugly threats about what penalties he might extract if I don't remember my guise as a music student.***  But w...

Tractor

 

I am getting a lot of reading done* waiting for this frelling machine to (a) boot up (b) do anything with its booted-upness.  Load Outlook?  That'll be five minutes and five quid in the swearing jar.**  Load the link that Jodi Meadows sent me?  That'll be ten minutes.*** 

            But worth it.  Even if you too are catching up on back issues a lot while you're waiting for more computer memory to arrive in the post or the hands of Computer Men . . . worth it.†

A Feeble Hellgoddess Is Given Support from a Willing to Be Imposed Upon Mod

 

I'm still feeling fairly grotty* so I'm casting around for some nice hooks to hang rags, feathers and a few sequins on, and call them a blog post. 

B_twin tweeted a link to this entry on her blog (  http://b-twin-1.livejournal.com/ ) yesterday, but I was busy having trouble focussing my eyes, and I didn't notice it till today.  I promptly wrote to ask if I could exploit her and she having graciously granted permission, I publish it in full here.  Plus a few supernumerary pink footnotes. 

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