Robin McKinley's Blog, page 165

Further Trials of a Deputy Ringing Master

 

My life is a festering morass of bell ringing.*  I kept thinking yesterday must be Sunday because I had two service rings, so when the alarm went off at an unreasonable hour this morning it was like, no!  No!  Not more bell ringing!  I'm taking up water skiing!  Now!  Well, as soon as I find a large body of water and a motor boat!  And some skiis!  And someone to tell me what to do with them! 

Yesterday morning wasn't too bad, except for the fact that we were ringing in the middle of when I a...

How We Re-sanded the Sitting-room Floor and Still Managed to Save Our Marriage I (guest post by Ajlr)

A two-part story of effort, stoicism, and ultimate reward!

We started with good intentions. Our L-shaped sitting-room has a parquet floor which, for the last couple of years, we'd been promising ourselves we would get sanded and re-sealed.  In fact our sitting-room was due a complete overhaul this year so we'd ordered new sofas and chair back in March for delivery in June, re-painted the ceiling and the walls (all bar the skirting-board, which would be done after the floor in case of impact...

Daniel

 

Niall came up to me almost as soon as I got up the ladder into the tower for practise tonight.  Very bad news, he said.  Daniel died Wednesday evening.

            There are several people I consider responsible for making me a bell ringer:  Daniel is one of them.  I met Daniel the very first time I climbed up into the magic space that is a bell tower ringing chamber.  This was nearly twelve years ago, at the beginning of my learning to ring the first time.  I don't think I've ever told you t...

Life in a Small Town Is More Exciting than You Think

 

Tuesday was not a great day in my life:  I had to go to the dentist rather than have my voice lesson.  How gross is that?  And I'm fretting about Peter, and it's HOT, and it won't frelling rain:*  and my favourite English tree is the beech, and they have shallow roots.**

            So I got back to the cottage from the dentist with my head beginning to go bang bang bang bang*** and . . . there was a rosebush sitting on my front stair.†  Yes, it's true, I have several rosebushes out front in ...

EON DRAGONEYE REBORN by Alison Goodman

 

The world-building in this one is mind-bogglingly fabulous.*  If ever there was a book you have to read twice, the first time just to find out what the frell happens—and EON is over five hundred pages of court intrigue, power struggles, dangerous madmen, dying emperors, lies, betrayals, and fatal masquerades—and the second time to pick up all the details that make the world a true, real world and don't give me any guff about fantasy, this is the book.**

            It begins with an...

Great Big Hairy Exciting News! Guest post by Jodi Meadows

Hello Days In The Life readers!

A few days ago, I emailed Robin with some NEWS. Her response? I bet you can guess. It went something like "YAAAAAAAYguestpost!YAAAAAAAY!!!!"*

That sounds just like her, doesn't it? Wedding? Guest post. Cake decorating? Guest post. Squirrel? Guest post! So I wasn't actually surprised when her response to, "Yo! I sold some books!" was "Guest post!" **

Wait, I did what?

A few of you might remember some months ago when Robin announced that I'd found a literary agent...

The Day After the Day Before

 

For some utterly mysterious reason I didn't sleep well last night.  And then the phone started ringing.  AAAAAUGH.  It wasn't till the third time I had plunged out of bed to answer it that it was Peter, saying that he had an appointment to see the doc at 10:40, which is quite civilised even by my terms, at least nights/mornings when I've had some sleep.

            This doctor doesn't think it was a TIA, with all its fresh new implications of prospective direness, which suits me and, of...

An uncelebratory fourth of July

 

 We were nearly two hours at the hospital earlier this evening and I'm somewhat immeasurably* past shattered. 

            The doctor thinks Peter may have had a TIA**, which had already occurred to me.  Peter is more or less okay now, but it scared the bejeezus out of me, and thinking 'TIA' in the middle of one is not comforting.  And the cold truth is that he's never recovered properly from whatever it was that landed him in hospital this spring—they never did decide what it was—and Peter f...

Epic Wedding, guest post by jeanne marie

As I write this, I've been married exactly ten days!  It feels like a few decades must have passed since the wedding, but I think that's only because we slept so much after it was all over!!

To anyone who has put together a shin-dig of this sort – well, you already know what it must have been like.  I am a fan of simplicity, but I also like for people to feel welcome, and those two things together multiplied exponentially until the wedding FELT like a juggernaut.  I cannot imagine what it...

Chocolate is the answer. What was the question?

 

 Even back in my pre-ME days I didn't do heat well.  And now it's like after the stampeding buffalo have knocked me down the M4A3E8 76 mm armed Sherman tank ploughs me under.*  It's not even all that hot—but it's that kind of heavy fuggy muggy that feels like you're in the middle of an unpleasant supernatural event—being swallowed by a goblin, say—all the time.  I'm sure there's no air in this air.

            It has not been a wonderful day.  I struggled out of bed possibly even later than u...