Robin McKinley's Blog, page 198

A Walk in the Dark

 

It's official.*  Summer's over:  last hurtle of the day today was in the dark.  Granted I was a little late getting our trampling feet out there, but a month ago it was still daylight at 8 pm.  I don't like hurtling hellhounds after dark:  their night vision is so much better than mine.  In daylight my general vision is better—if the cat or the pheasant doesn't move, I will probably see it first, and Gently Guide hellhounds' attention in a different direction.  If it does move, I'm diddled, ...

Guest Blog from Southdowner

Okie

Growing up, I never lived with a cat. The only feline I really knew was Kama, my grandmother's elderly cat, for a few years in my early childhood. My mother often talked fondly of cats she had known in her childhood but as I was growing up surrounded by dogs and ponies I never felt the need to share my existence with additional species. So the story of my first cat comes later; I had completed a degree and married, moving to Lesser Deeping, a small town in Lincolnshire. I arrived with...

Carpe Diem

 

A few days ago I was having an email conversation with a much younger friend who is also a writer and a blogger, and who reads Days in the Life.  Among other things we were talking about keeping a blog fed.  I was saying that I knew I did too much and that my life was Seriously Out of Control* . . . but that I still sat down some evenings to write a blog entry and thought, WHAT?  WHAT?  She wrote back, You get a lot done. It's actually kind of scary from this side. 

              I've been...

My Brains Are Melting

 

. . . . And there follows a Very Long Pause because, well, my brains are melting.  I dreamed about PEGASUS last night—not in a good way*–and lately as hellhounds and I pelt over the landscape, and I, of course, am busy worrying about some arcane plot lacuna**, I am occasionally surprised when I realise my companions are small, canine, and wingless.***  

            So maybe it's just as well I had to stop for a while this evening and go ring some bells for the Combined Bishops of Mauncester a...

Patterns

 

There's been an ugly, horrible death in our little local bell ringing world.  I didn't know him—Niall did—but I regularly ring with two other members of his family.  The accident happened several days ago—and I heard about that from someone who'd seen it—and he's been in intensive care, and in and out of surgery, and the word I've heard is that they've kept him under heavy sedation while they decided what to do—what they could do—so he never regained consciousness.   They were prepping him t...

Anniversary

 

This is a couple of days late.  I didn't think of it in time, and by then Robin didn't want to run two guest blogs in a row.

            Seventy years plus two days ago I was staying with my grandparents on the outskirts of a small town in the hills above Gloucester.  They lived in three old cottages knocked into a single house, with a wonderfully peaceful view south east across a wooded Cotswold valley.  It was a perfect September day almost at the end of the school holidays, a mild sun...

A Life Uncancelled

 

I may have to cancel my life till I get PEGASUS done.  No, till I get the proofs read.  No, till I get the proofs read and PEGASUS done.  You know it would simplify my life a lot if SUNSHINE would just become a somewhat late-blooming best-seller.   Not worrying about where the next bag of dog food is coming from* would not make me lazy and smug and never out of bed before 10 am**.  I would write faster because I wasn't wasting time worrying.***

            Meanwhile. . . .

            First...

Mamee mamee oo oo oo

 

No, I haven't lost my mind.*  It's a vocal exercise.  Today was my first voice lesson in—eep—three weeks.  Life has kept getting in the way.**  And for a variety of reasons, including that it's been three weeks since my last lesson*** and I've only just started voice lessons and I have no clue, I was expecting it to be kind of a disaster.  Blondel would be very nice about it, because he's a nice young man, but it was going to be bad.

            Starting with the fact that I got to bed at 4:30 a

The Thirty-First of August

 

Ratbags.

            I was going to have PEGASUS finished by the 31st of August.  Last spring when I was floundering in several million words* and had this fabulous life-saving lightning flash of creative problem-solving and decided to whack it in two and have PEGASUS I and PEGASUS IT'S NOT REALLY A SEQUEL, IT'S THE REST OF THE SAME STORY, for about six hours I knew all was well.  I could get PEGASUS MOCK I** done by the end of the summer, no problem.***

            And then the doubts started. 

Oven cloths and things to take out of hot ovens with them

 

 You guys want a photo of an oven cloth?*  

So.  Fine.  Your wish is my command.**

 Happy now?*** 

            Meanwhile, there is adventure afoot.  Also acomputer.  Or aforum. 

jmeadows writes:

Black Bear wrote on Fri, 28 August 2009 23:02 

http://converse.com.   They didn't use to ship direct to the UK;  but it now appears they do?  This could be the end of Robin As We Know Her. . . .

 

But she'll be so happy all the time. I vote yes! to All-Stars. 

Happy all the time I'm wearing shoes, anyway.†  We