C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 79

Recent Reads: Edwardian Murder Mysteries

Last fall sometime I read MC Beaton’s SNOBBERY WITH VIOLENCE, which I enjoyed very much (as I do nearly all of Beaton’s historical romancs) and asked for the rest of the quartet for Christmas so I could finish them all before doing a Recent Reads on them.

A couple weeks ago I picked up the 2nd book and found it…incredibly disjointed. There was no flow from book 1 to book 2, and while it had been a few months since I’d read the first, I didn’t think it had been *that* long. I couldn’t remember...

I need a TARDIS.

I don’t know what happened to January. I mean, yes, I know what happened to January: we had the flu, or something like it, and totally lost a full week or more to being sick. And then Ted had a week off and somehow I got a lot less work done in that time than I imagined I was going to, and now it’s the end of the month and I’m sick again. For God’s sake.

I’ve gotten…15K or so done on MAGIC & MANNERS, which is pretty good, but it’s not *done*, which is what I was hoping for. I crossed the 70K m...

bloody monday

This morning as I was getting dressed, Young Indiana appeared in the doorway and said in his Confessional Voice (which is slightly tragic and solemn), “Mommy…I have something to tell you. I washed the blood off in the sink all by myself.”

Then he proudly displayed his hands, which were red with dried blood, and said, “I was putting my fingers in my nose last night because it was drippy.”

Yes. Yes, it apparently was. And then it was very bloody, to the degree that he brought me to show me the b...

Picoreview: Into the Woods

Picoreview: Into the Woods: Not bad. Not *nearly* as bad as it could have been, which sounds damning with faint praise and isn’t intended to. It may even verge on satisfying, although it’s not entirely satisfying, because I’m too familiar with the stage play.

Many of the performances are very, very good. Most, even. Chris Pine is terrific as Cinderella’s Prince, Shatnering it up way more than he does in Star Trek, and, as everybody has said, the Princes’ Agony is very funny indeed. Meryl Stree...

re-learning photography

I’ve said before that there’s an alternate universe pretty close to this one where I’m a professional photographer instead of writer. Back in the day I was good enough to get a scholarship for photography, but I only pursued it half-heartedly, and after a while digital cameras started doing all the work for me and I forgot what I’d learned. I do manual photography as a kind of crap shoot (ahahah) anymore, without any real sense of how the light or depth of field is going to work.

I can afford...

Picoreview: Birdman

Picoreview: Birdman: So, wow. That was, so that was a movie.

I’m. Wow. Virtuoso performances from the whole cast. Emma Stone eats the screen alive when she’s on screen, and Edward Norton–it’s always fun to watch actors playing actors, but he’s especially good (I shall detail why behind the spoiler cut). Coming from the theatre background that I do, it was a…it was…it rang true in the same way Noises Off does, except without the farce. Mostly. It was…wow.

And technically, also, wow. The scene ch...

Recent Reads: The Paradox Trilogy

As mentioned in last week’s post, I got Rachel Bach (Aaron)’s military sf/space opera last year on the strength of her Eli Monpress books, and, in my quest to get through my TBR shelf in order, read them this month.

They’re not as easy to fall into as the Monpress books; Devi Morris, the main character, isn’t as charming or delightful as Eli Monpress. Then again, she’s not supposed to be, so frankly that speaks to Aaron’s strengths as a writer. Book one found its footing after a few chapters,...

so many conventions

Argh, there are so many conventions I’d like to go to this year. I’d like to go to EasterCon, because Jim’s going to be one of the guests of honor and it’s the perfect place for seeing UK-based friends.

I’d like to go to WorldCon because it’s West Coast this year and so loads of people I know will be there and so will Daniel Keys Moran, who doesn’t go to cons and who I would really, really like to meet.

And I just found out WFC is in Saratoga Springs again this year. WFC is by far the best pro...

reality collides with perception

I asked for Rachel Bach‘s Paradox Trilogy for my birthday last year, and, in my Read The TBR List In Alphabetical Order quest for 2015, I started reading them this week. I also discovered that my interest in them was a source of great confusion to Ted, who knows I hated Honor Harrington and had extrapolated that I disliked space opera/military SF, which is bonkers. I stared at him in utter astonishment and he said, “Well, they look like they’re up the Honor Harrington alley and you don’t like...

Irish literary bursary awards clinic

Ireland offers bursaries to artists of varying walks of life. Last night I went to a clinic on Writing Your Bursary, which had some interesting information, like, they had €867K worth of applicants last year and were able to fund about €80K’s worth of them. o.O I’m not clear on whether that was for the full year or for each half of the year, but I think it was for the full year.

They have somewhere around 150 applicants per funding period and fund about 15 of them. There were 30 of us in the c...