Forecasting - Writer Style

Pick up the nearest book to you.
Turn to page 45.
The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.

(via Matociquala.  Since she used one published book and her current WIP, so did I.)


"Aren't you going to talk to the men?"  --  Jingo, by Terry Pratchett

"That's surprising knowledge coming from a non-scientist."  --  On a Rising Tide, by me! 

I like the second one better.

Have fun, and please share!

Here, have a Trio of Tiger Cubs!

Four-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs at Syndey's Taronga Zoo:

There are very few Sumatran tigers in the wild, so the addition of these three healthy youngsters to the world's total is very welcome.

Climate change is looming large for me at the moment.  I live in the US Midwest.  It's January and the grass still has a greenish tinge.  We've only had a dusting of snow so far.  Several days ago I heard thunder during a rainstorm.  It's January!!!  Year-end summaries are popping up detailing the extreme weather events of 2011.  I look at them, with my hand figuratively covering my eyes and peeking through spread fingers.  If you want the details, check out Jeff Masters' recent blogs - there's a link to the right. 

{Insert rant here about protecting the environment because this Earth is the only home we have.  I don't need to really say all that, do I?  Everyone's familiar with the drill.  Consider it, with the backdrop of cavorting tiger cubs.}

2011 Bookkeeping - The Final Entry

I set out at the beginning of the year to read more in 2011 than I had in 2010.  I made the list public as a way to encourage myself to do the reading.  It worked.  I don’t think I read more than a dozen books in 2010, and completed thirty-one in 2011.  Here’s the entire list.  It’s heavy on science fiction and fantasy, but that’s what I enjoy reading and writing.

JANUARY
(1) Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay.  Satirical fantasy/mystery set in Discworld’s largest city, Ankh-Morpork.
(2) John Scalzi, Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded.  A collection of selected blog entries covering a decade by an award-winning science fiction writer.

FEBRUARY
(3) Neil Gaiman, fragile things, short fictions and wonders.
(4) Elizabeth Bear, The White City.  Book 3 in the New Amsterdam series, about a woman forensic sorcerer and man amateur detective who happens to be a vampire, set in a turn of the century contrafactual history.
(5) Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor. Science fiction (SF) adventure romance.
(6) Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar. SF adventure romance, continuation of Shards of Honor.  This one won a Hugo Award.  Note:  (5) + (6) have been published as Cordelia’s Honor

MARCH
(7) Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times.  Satirical fantasy set in the Discworld’s Aurient.

APRIL
(8) Neil Gaiman, Smoke and Mirrors.  Short pieces by a master.  Finished on April First.  So many potential overtones and undertones to that!
(9) Louise Erdrich, shadow tag.  Well done literary story of the breakup of a marriage.
(10) Damon Knight, Creating Short Fiction.  An old stand-by of writing advice;  my copy was published in 1981.  It was good to be reminded of some of the basic mechanics. 
(11) Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois, Eds, Wizards.  A collection of short stories about this fantasy archetype by some of the best fantasists (Peter S. Beagle, Kage Baker, Elizabeth Hand, and others).
(12) Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth.  Truly short; a two and a half hour read including note taking!
(13) Vonda N. McIntyre, Dreamsnake.  SF classic.  It’s been years since I read this, and it feels good to know I still love it.  Came away with good structural examples to help with my novels, too.  Lagniappe.
(14) Lois McMaster Bujold, Young Miles.  SF space opera; won Hugo and Nebula awards.  Miles is Cordelia’s son (Aral’s son, too, but he didn’t get his name in any of the titles) (see books 5 & 6 above).

MAY:  None

JUNE
(15) Terry Pratchett, I Shall Wear Midnight.   Latest book in the YA Tiffany series.
(16) Ursula K. Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest.  SF classic, one of her earlier published works.
(17) Emma Bull, War for the Oaks.  Urban fantasy classic.  Wonderful.  I’ve been running across references to this book for several years, and finally read it.
(18) Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife, Volume One: Beguilement.  Fantasy adventure romance.
(19) Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife, Volume Two: Legacy. 
(20) Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife, Volume Three: Passage.  
(21) Lois McMaster Bujold, The Sharing Knife, Volume Four: Horizon. 

JULY
(22) Elizabeth Bear, Bone and Jewel Creatures.  Short fantasy of wonderfulness.
(23) Phil and Kaja Foglio, Girl Genius.  On-line steam punk graphic novels.  I started re-reading in May from the very first entry of November 4, 2002, and read it all, right up to the current entry.  This year they won their third Hugo Award.  It updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Here’s where to find the beginning of the story:  http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104
(24) Emma Bull, Territory.  Fantasy set in the American West.  Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and magic for the win.

AUGUST
(25) Lois McMaster Bujold, The Curse of Chalion.  Fantasy.  Another good one.

SEPTEMBER
(26) Irene Radford, Thistle Down.  Fantasy.  Fun, fluffy; good summer read.
(27) N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Fantasy.  Very good.
(28) N.K. Jemisin, The Broken Kingdoms.  Fantasy. Another really good one.
(29) Tiffany Trent & Phyllis Irene Radford, eds.  Breaking Waves.  A collection of short pieces of many genres to benefit The Gulf Oil Spill Relief Fund.

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER:  None

DECEMBER
(30) Terry Pratchett, Snuff.  Newest Guards book in Discworld.
(31) Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight.  Ms McCaffrey passed away in November and I decided it was time to re-read some of her work.  This was the first book of hers I ever read, I think back in the ‘70s.


I enjoyed reading all the books on this list - I don’t complete books I’m not enjoying!  Choosing a favorite is impossible.  The one’s I liked the best, that stuck with me long after I finished:

Bone and Jewel Creatures - #22
Cordelia’s Honor - #5 & 6
Dreamsnake - #13
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - #27
War for the Oaks - #17

I'll keep a list again in 2012, but I don't know if I'll post it every month.

Thanks for reading; comment if you've got one!

2012 Is Your Blank Book to Write

The beginning of a new year feels fresh, full of opportunity, presenting a wide expanse for exploration and accomplishments. 

May the coming year treat you gently.  Throughout 2012 may you accomplish what you set out to do and enjoy the time spent in the effort.

A Random Quote about Writing

"I can let a sentence go as a good and serviceable sentence without requiring it to wear a little saddle and win the Kentucky Derby. Books, in my world, are made primarily of good and serviceable sentences, surrounding a few polished jewels of prose–if you insist on polishing every single one, I suspect you get a book that appears to have been Bedazzled, or possibly Vajazzled if you’re writing that kind of book, and the glare becomes blinding, to say nothing of the smell of hot glue. Excuse me, my metaphor got out of hand, terribly sorry, will pay for all the damages…"  ---  Ursula Vernon (author of Dragonbreath, Digger, and more) on her blog

There's a lot to be said for "good and serviceable sentences."  Those Derby winners show to better effect in a field of good and serviceable, at least in my opinion.  They can nail the thought to the page, to the reader's imagination.  But I don't think any one sentence should stand out so much from those around it (for either good or bad reasons) that it throws the reader out of the story and gets them thinking about that one sentence.  

It's a balancing act, this writing gig. 


thanks for reading; comments welcome

A Saddle for Layla

Daughter is off to the tack store to officially buy the saddle she tried out yesterday.

Buying saddles is complicated and can be incredibly frustrating.  You need to fit both horse and rider.  The rider can sit in the saddle at the shop (they have a wooden ‘fake horse’ to set the saddles on).  Then you give them your credit card info and take the saddle off to the barn to try it on the horse.  Our tack shop gives you three days to return the saddle.  If you don’t, they put through the purchase.  The last time we bought a saddle, well, I bought a saddle, I made at least four trips to the barn with anywhere from one to three saddles on the back seat of my car.  Then hauled them back the next day or so to repeat the process.  The saddle I finally bought, a used Stubben all-purpose, was in the first trip!  Daughter was hoping for a new saddle, however, and so the many trips.  They’d fit her, not horse Rudy, or we thought they fit her but once on the horse trainer said, no, seat’s too long.  And then the size she needed was not in stock and by then there was a show in less than a week.  I made the executive decision to buy the Stubben.  It was $800; bought new at that time it would have been around $1500.  It looks something like this, in a deep burgundy color:

All-purpose means it can be used for many riding disciplines.  Daughter used it for hunter/jumper.  It fit both of them well and was in perfect condition - looked like it had never been used because there were no marks from stirrup leathers.  She loves that saddle; has been riding in it for around seven years now.  It fit Rudy the quarter horse perfectly.  Unfortunately it doesn’t fit Layla the thoroughbred.  She’ll keep it, though.  Riders always have extensive collections of tack they aren’t currently using but they might need later or can be loaned to a friend in need. 

The saddle Daughter is buying today is a smooth black leather Amerigo dressage saddle, similar to this:

It was a demo, so she’s getting it at the bargain price of $2000.  It was $3625, but even that was a mark-down because that store won’t be carrying this brand any more.  The place I found this picture is selling them for around $5000.  She’s been drooling over this brand of saddle for years and is so happy she can actually have one.  She had been looking at a $1600 saddle (full price, different brand); it fit Layla but wasn’t a good fit for daughter.  So for just a bit more she’s getting a much nicer one.

Layla used to jump, but due to an injury shouldn't do it any more.  Previous owner(s) rode her in eventing.  That's arena jumping, dressage and cross-country jumping.  Daughter will be learning dressage to catch up to what her horse already knows. 

I am glad I don’t have to buy the tack any more!  And when I finally get to take some pictures of Layla and Daughter strutting their stuff, they’ll be using the new saddle.