Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Reading, riting, but no ‘rithmatic.
Don’t know about you, but I’ve had a productive day.
After a satisfying bit of Technorati whoring (see post below), I spent the morning shuffling scenes and chapters in order to create a Book Two. Working title: Flight. The trilogy will be Nest, Flight, and Shrike. Book Two will pack even more of a cliffhanger than Book One, I’m afraid, but I suspect if folks stick with me that far, they’re in it for the long haul.
Flight will be a tougher edit than Nest, with more scenes to add and subtract (maybe I will work in some ‘rithmatic yet!) and quite a bit of gruntwork with regard to one of my major storylines. I’ve fixed some problems in my head, but I still need to fix them on paper. Or, as we used to say in med school, “in computero.” What fun.
Next, I reviewed a cool story for Tangent, “Different Flesh” by Claude Lalumière. If you don’t want to wait for my review to show up at Tangent, I give high marks to “Different Flesh”. Go. Read it. Enjoy.
Good, you’re back. I finished up some laundry, then burned a box of Nature magazines from ’97. Slowly but surely, I’m cleaning out our garage. Charged up by my pyromania, I finished my other assignment for Tangent, Amityville House of Pancakes. Now I just have to write the reviews. Verdict: of the four stories, one is meh, one is godawful, one is good, and one is so great I went online and bought the author’s first novel.
Her name is Adrienne Jones, and her novella for AHP, Gypsies Stole My Tequila, rawked. I read lines out loud to Karen, that’s how good it was. For more details, you’ll have to wait for my review. But Tequila was so good I bought Jones’s Oral Vices, and paid hardcover prices for a paperback (what’s up with that?), so you can bet I’m going to review it here, good or bad.
And since I can’t order only one book from Barnes and Noble, I also bought Mel Helitzer’s Comedy Writing Secrets. Because, you know, making y’all spray your monitors with coffee isn’t good enough for me. I want you to piss your pants, too.
D.
Okay, I read it. My thoughts: if you wrapped that story around a hunk of coal and walked away for ten minutes, there’d be a nice diamond waiting for you when you get back.
Oh, and the next writer I see who uses the word chiaroscuro instead of contrast to show how uber cool they are is going to get hate mail from me.
Ouch! I stumbled over chiaroscuro, too, and even looked it up to make sure I remembered the meaning. Also, in the opening, the line, “If I could inhabit the spaces of my past, I might believe in it again” made me wonder what the hell I was getting myself into. After that, however, I thought the story was plainspoken (chiaroscuro notwithstanding) and strong.
Did you really hate it that much, or am I misinterpreting you?
I only hate James Joyce’s Ulysses, and it’s a personal thing between him and me. Would that I could dig his dead ass up out the ground and kick it for what that book has done to my psyche.
I pity Lalumiere’s story. Like most of the stories I’ve read on Sci Fiction, it came across as untouchable, unlikeable, snotty, meaningless, kissing the oft-smooched ass of a certain wholly worshipped female SF short story writer, and otherwise completely suitable for a Neb nom.
Okay, Sheila. Stop pulling your punches and tell me what you really think 😉
BTW, back in high school, I liked Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist. It almost convinced me to choose the arts over the sciences. Almost.
I’ve never so much as opened Ulysses. The excerpts I’ve seen were impenetrable. If I want impenetrable, I’ll stick to William S. Burroughs.
And another thing….
See why I don’t read SF? Lol.
Maybe you’re writing it for the same reason I am — a lack of the kind of stuff you would enjoy reading.
I grew up with golden age SF. When my life finally slowed down enough to permit some pleasure reading, I discovered that SF had become either uber-scientific or froo froo literary. Not enough emphasis on adventure, character, drama. And no humor, either. Varley, Vance, Harry Harrison, and Spider Robinson can be very funny, but they’re all golden age.
Doug wrote: grew up with golden age SF. When my life finally slowed down enough to permit some pleasure reading, I discovered that SF had become either uber-scientific or froo froo literary. Not enough emphasis on adventure, character, drama. And no humor, either. Varley, Vance, Harry Harrison, and Spider Robinson can be very funny, but they’re all golden age.
I watched a couple episodes of the original Star Trek, waited for SkyLab to fall on my head, read A.M. Lightner YA SF and stole some John Norman paperbacks and Robert Silverberg and Edmund Cooper book club editions out of my older brother’s room.
I don’t think SF ever had a golden age, but then I’m a girl, and everyone knows that girls can’t write science fiction. 😉
Um . . . okay . . .
Just curious what you call your StarDoc books.
Then again, I think I feel someone pulling my leg 🙂
Absolutely serious.
Just curious what you call your StarDoc books.
Lucrative parody. 🙂
Hey Doug: Love the titles for your trilogy. I really, really have to knuckle down and get some writing done…
Thanks, Pat. Hat tip to PBW for giving me the one-word-title idea.
[…] “Different Flesh” by Claude Lalumière (but you might also want to check out PBW’s comments, below). […]