Robin McKinley's Blog, page 163

Howling, various

 

 Today has NOT been one of my better days.  Let's start over.  It's 3 am and I'm already asleep. 

Blondel had a wedding in London to sing today and it had occurred to me after we'd already made our plan of a second voice lesson Thursday afternoon that, in my experience of weddings, he might be being a little optimistic about timing.    So I had a plan for an alternate afternoon in Mauncester.  What a pity I didn't use it.  It would have had to have been more successful than the one I lived t...

Another Partisan Prod for SUNSHINE

 

REMEMBER YOU'VE ONLY GOT TILL MIDNIGHT EDT 31ST JULY* TO ENTER YOUR GUSTATORY EXTRAVAGANZA SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DRAWING FOR A SHINY NEW COPY OF THE SHINY NEW EDITION OF SUNSHINE!**  YOU CAN CHECK YOUR DETAILS HERE:  http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2010/07/24/sunshine-ya-edition-contest-posted-by-black-bear/ BUT THE GENERAL DRIFT IS THERE ARE THREE DRAWINGS, ONE EACH ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, AND THE BLOG FORUM HERE SO THAT'S THREE COUNT 'EM THREE CHANCES TO WIN.

* * *

*  THIS 31ST JULY, SO PUT YOUR...

Guest Blog from abigailmm – Twenty thousand head of very small livestock – part one

I have been interested in the idea of keeping bees for a while. Fifteen years ago I took a course, but for several reasons didn't get bees. I had another chance this spring, and this time I was really ready to take them on.

The class was taught by two professional beekeepers. John was a beekeeping hobbyist before he retired from his engineering job, and since then he has increased his operation until he has several hundred colonies and a pretty full-time job again. His partner Blake was one...

Happy 26th and tra la la

 

I know what the calendar says, but officially it's the 26th.  I tweeted about this earlier:  we celebrate two anniversaries, our wedding anniversary the third of January*, and the 26th of July, which is the day, now nineteen years ago, that I drove to the Bangor, Maine airport to pick up this skinny, nervy, twitchy**, odd *** English writer wallah whom I knew very slightly, for a harmless tourist weekend and . . . unscheduled things happened.  Peter asked me last week if I'd like to go out t...

SUNSHINE contest reminder

AND DON'T FORGET TO GET YOUR FANTABULOUS BAKING DECLARATIONS IN FOR THE DRAWING FOR A GLITTERY AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF THE NEW EDITION OF SUNSHINE.   See Saturday's blog post for details, if you missed it.

But this one is only running till the end of the week, so don't hang about.

Deadness and weather

 

I'm a beyond-dead knackered person.  A beyond knackered dead person?  Whatever.  The weather is not conducive to coherent thought, or even retention of much vocabulary:  it's that kind of swampy fug that makes you feel like one of those several-thousand-year-old bodies buried in a peat bog.  You may be well preserved for your age but . . .  Could I convince you that my birth language is Gveltch*, and I tend to revert when I'm really tired?  Gehgrug.  Ardangle brak.  Slomag.  Dah.  Fribkizam ...

Chocolate and reality

 

EMoon wrote to the forum in response to my 'how do you write good fight scenes' the other night in Stoked:

YES. And YES again. Coming from the gut and the connection to reality. YES. Doing stuff in real life, other than sitting alone with typewriter/computer*. Imagination works best on plain food like blisters and bumps and scrapes and (though drama becomes increasingly undesired, if ever it was) enough human drama to know what it feels like to be yelled at, insulted, ridiculed, and to have...

Sunshine YA edition contest (posted by Black Bear)

It's even bigger than cinnamon rolls!  It's a

CONTEST FOR AN AUTOGRAPHED GLITTERY GOLD EDITION OF SUNSHINE!

You may recall that there's a new edition of Robin's Sunshine out this summer.  It's exactly the same text as the original so-called adult edition, but this Young Adult version has a new (gorgeous) cover. *  It would look fabulous on your bookshelf, either next to your much-read copy of the prior edition, or—if you've not got it already—in a position of honor all by itself!  Three lucky w...

Stoked

 

I am stoked.  I rang Cambridge tonight.*  I mean rang it like I almost knew what I was doing. 

So let me hold forth as a Professional Writer with Decades of Experience as if I had a clue what I'm talking about.  The essential truth about writing stories is that it all comes from your gut.**   Or your higher self, if you prefer a prettier metaphor.***   This is not an explicable and quantifiable process.  Remember Kat in SPINDLE'S END miserably telling Aunt that she shouldn't be her...

Another day, another drama

 

I've only barely reunited Bronwen with her vehicle* and set her back on the motorway to weave and o'erleap 1,000,000 roadworks on her way home**, and it seems to be nearly one in the morning and I have a blog entry to write.  Oops.

            It's not all Bronwen's fault.  The day probably went irrecoverably off the rails early on, when I overslept by an hour***.   Hellhounds and I then had to blast out on our hurtle† to get me home in time for my make-up appointment with the osteopath.††   ...