Robin McKinley's Blog, page 159

Gardens

 

It stopped raining for a few hours yesterday, nicely timed for gardening, during which I went out and strove mightily with dahlias, which is to say earwigs, among other useful and semi-useful things,** and came indoors again as the Scary Mud Monster.  Remember I told you that I'd actually staked all of my dahlias this year, and how this doesn't happen in my garden(s)?  It doesn't work.  Well, I suppose if you were out there with your bamboos and your twine every minute, or even every...

Ringing Bats*, guest post by Chris Laning

 

What attracted me to the college I attended — a small liberal arts college in Indiana — was its excellent biology department. This was well before the days when there were actually jobs in environmental science, and it was one of the few schools I looked at whose biology department did not assume that everyone wanted to go to medical school. Since I wanted to study "natural history," that was a big factor for me. And when I got there, I soon volunteered to join the student staff of the...

News

 

So I flung myself weeping on the (virtual) neck of my Marketing Person about the awfulness of the PEGASUS issuu excerpt (citing, among other things, some of the comments on the blog thread here and thank you all very much for taking the time to respond) and look what she has done for all of us!!!!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36512923/Robin-McKinley-Esampler

I think this one is hugely, hugely, HUGELY better, and I hope you will agree, which is to say I hope it looks better on all your computers t...

Interview

 

It's not even 4 pm yet.  What am I doing posting?  Makes me feel like the world is on backwards.

            However.  Lucy, as she told me she would, hung her interview early so I will briefly drag my concentration away from PEG II and post the link.  Here:  http://scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com/2010/08/mythic-friday-interview-number-21-robin.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

            I didn't get it to her till slightly past the last minute thanks to the awkward timing of s...

Advance notice

 

Tomorrow's blog post is going to go up frighteningly early, because it will be a link to Lucy Coats' Friday interview, which, tomorrow, is with Robin McKinley.  Lucy is apparently an early riser*, and has already warned me that the interview will go live at . . . urrrgle . . . no, I can't bring myself to write those words.   But I'll hang the link here what passes in my life for very early indeed.

          There will also be an Interesting Announcement.  Mwa ha ha ha ha.

* * *

* She seems...

More contest winners!

 

It's been a murky sort of day, both exteriorly and interiorly.  Interiorly neither my brain nor my digestion is returning my phonecalls.*  Exteriorly it's been another dashing-among-the-raindrops day with slitty-eyed and grumbling hellhounds.  This morning I eventually said All right!  Fine!  But if you think we're going to play throw the tennis ball up/downstairs just because of a little rain** you are sadly mistaken!  —And stomped back outdoors myself to stand with the rain running down...

Three, count 'em, three chapters of PEGASUS

 

Here:

http://issuu.com/penguinyoungreaders/docs/robin_mckinley_esampler

Knock yourselves out.  Please.*

          And, while you're at it, feedback would be welcome about how easy (or otherwise) you find it to navigate and read.  Hint:  I find it neither.  I'm asking Putnams to please sort it anyway, but reader reaction is always good for the bolstering of a viewpoint that is not going to be popular.

          I've already asked the mods for their reaction, and Maren has come up with these...

Gloom

 

I have (mild) stomach flu.  (I think it's stomach flu.)

            I definitely have ME.  In the 'hello darkness my old friend/ I've come to talk with you again' sense.*  Glurb.  Unggh.**  It comes back with knobs and brass knuckles on whenever there's anything else wrong with me.

            And Blondel has left forever.  Well, Thursday.  He's leaving forever.  On Thursday.  His house is full of large bulging cardboard boxes covered in heavy plastic tape.  And his mum.  I was thinking about ...

Vote vote vote vote VOTE revisited

 

Last twenty-three hours!  Voting ENDS tonight at midnight!  Vote for your favourite recipe!  http://robinmckinleysblog.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=1 453&start=0&  The poster of the recipe which gets the most votes will win a shiny gold copy of SUNSHINE, autographed to the baker of her choice!*

And never mind the disinterested philanthropy solicitation I've used heretofore–this is the OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT that there WILL ALSO BE A RANDOM WINNER chosen from everyone who voted.  CONSULTATION h...

Three Short Books

 

. . . which have NOTHING to do with each other except that I read them all recently and liked them all.*  I liked three books in a row.  This doesn't happen.  

Say Yes, by Audrey Couloumbis. 

            I had read her Getting Near to Baby when it first came out, and liked it a lot.   Say Yes is entirely different, barring the kid-getting-on-with-her-life-in-difficult-circumstances aspect, although this is an entirely different kid in entirely different difficult circumstances.

           ...