Robin McKinley's Blog, page 161

Friday the 13th or, YA* is not a dirty word

 

Or, it's actually been a pretty good day** and not only is time hurtling by like a hellhound*** but stuff I really want to point and shout at is stacking up and in another day or two I'll forget which is my best trick of all, unfortunately, and I figure there's all this Friday the 13th energy washing around, waiting to turn you into a tadpole or make you win the lottery even if you didn't buy a ticket, so I might as well ride a little of it. 

            Emoon [@emoontx:] saw it first, and...

Sticky Calorific Prize-Winning Recipes!

 

And don't let my obsession with my new toy* distract you from the fact that you have only two more days to get your recipes in for one final chance to win a shiny gold autographed copy of SUNSHINE!

http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2010/08/07/sunshine-contest-%e2%80%93-round-2-guest-post-by-ajlr/

* Hmm.  I haven't checked for baking apps for iPhones yet.

New and Old Toys

 

Well, it's all about the iPhone.  Oh, and handbells. 

            Let me see.  Where was I?  I've tweeted and/or forummed* some of this.  About twelve hours after Gabriel retired from the field in defeat on Tuesday, I happened to glance down** and saw . . . that my latest small enigmatic black box was registering a phone signal.  And, since then, it has—mostly—continued to fly a few tiny bars in the upper left-hand corner.  It's worst indoors, but that's what landlines were created for...

Two Recent Adventures: guest post by Tamsin

The first story involves my car, a slick country road, and a (presumed) coyote. And soon, a replacement license plate because Illinois is a two-plate state and Rita's front plate will never be anything near flat again.

Last Sunday morning I left the farm and headed north, as I am wont to do when going to Metropolita and wishing to avoid the everpresent road repair and construction crews. About two miles from home, and just as I was remarking to myself that everything looked amazingly WET –...

)](**&^%$£" ={:@?#}[!!!!!!!!!!

 

And I was in such a good mood when I got up this morning.*  I was going to get my iPhone set up today!  Tra la!  Traloo tralay!  Happy happy happy!

            GAAAAAH.

            The first thing that went wrong was that I was sitting at the cottage reading back issues of The Ringing World surrounded by one cool pristine virgin iPhone4 and various pieces of sulky middle-aged malfunctioning technology while Gabriel was down at the mews wondering where I was.**  Once he was installed at the...

Ask Robin on a Monday

 

So I rang a very nice touch of Stedman Doubles tonight at Old Eden where the calls were all in weird places (which is something that happens with frelling Stedman*) and I had to perform both cats' ears and coathangers** and I did it all*** and I feel all flushed with success.†  And this morning wasn't half bad either.††  So while I'm feeling as if I have the answers to everything††† I thought I'd tackle an Ask Robin. 

My question is about characters' names. I've tried writing some fantasy...

A Sunday Adventure

 

I've told you that after service ring* I go down to the florist's, who is mad enough to open on Sundays, and scarf the . . . uh, and buy a few cut flowers**.   Peter usually meets me outside the church door with his bicycle, and we trundle down to the florist's together***.

            The florist has a few potted plants with all the cut flowers.  I've been known to indulge in these too.†  Today Peter took a fancy to a salvia.  Oh, it'll go in my knapsack, he said.  Er—don't you want me to...

*Sigh.*

This arrived in my inbox today: 

I'm concerned about the copyright information published on your blog in your second contest for a glittery copy of the new YA Sunshine.  I'm an attorney.  I work in copyright fairly often, and I published a scholarly article on United States copyright law in the Journal of the Copyright Society a few years ago.  I cannot offer and am not offering you legal advice (and I know nothing about UK copyright, except useless trivia: it started with the Statute of Anne...

Sunshine Contest – Round 2 (Guest post by AJLR)

Well, it was too much to ask of anyone, to see all those wonderful recipe ideas coming in as responses to the previous contest and to then just let them drift out of sight into the ether. Robin was drooling fit to match a ravenous hellhound* and I suspect many readers were too (I certainly was!). So for one more, one final** gorgeous, glittery, golden (and signed) copy of the new edition of SUNSHINE, this competition is asking participants to submit a chosen recipe.

To enter this contest you w...

Consolations, when there have been too many of Those Days

 

* Consolation #1:  Daylily going for it.  

This is probably her best year yet, and last year I swore I was going to 'lift' (as the ridiculous euphemism for 'dig yourself an amazing crop of blisters and a back that will no longer straighten' is) and divide her because she's jammed into that pot by now and is due to stop flowering in despair.  Ahem.  All she's had is a couple of biggish handfuls of flower food.  And I really really am going to hack her out of the pot THIS winter, and split her ...