I have Jethro Tull cranked up today, trying to keep this whole winter thing at bay.
Also, I ditched Firefox this a.m. It was just entirely too buggy to endure. Spooky's using an earlier version, which seems to work better. That makes sense. Isn't their some law of software about the inverse relationship between "improvements" and function? If not, there ought to be. Anyway, now I'm back on Safari, which seems like an old friend after wrestling with Firefox for a couple of weeks.
The writing went well enough yesterday. I did 1,005 words on the twelfth section, but didn't reach it's conclusion. I'll do that today and hopefully get the thirteenth section written, as well. "Bainbridge" will probably have fourteen sections, total. To date, the story's 12,949 words long, which comes to 58 double-spaced typed pages. I suppose that it's edging into "novella" territory. I know that I need it to be finished. At this point, I've spent something like 18 days with this story. Even if there wasn't other work that needed doing, I'd be looking for the door marked "exit." I desperately need to be done with it. So much of me has gone into this one. In some ways, it's been like going back and revisiting an earlier me, since it was an earlier me who birthed Dancy Flammarion, but, in other ways which will no doubt be very obvious to the informed reader, this story is going to draw attention to the schism between the earlier me and the new me as no other book or story has previously done. I think one reason this story has been so difficult is that this is me trying to leave a period of work behind. I am finishing with Dancy. Oddly, I'm finishing by telling the first story. Well, not counting whatever went down in the cabin on Eleanore Road before she started her journey that ends with Threshold ("You know, like Caine in Kung Fu. Just walk from town to town, meet people, get in adventures."). It's also the story of her mother. It's also another story entirely. You'll see. Me, I just want it finished.
And yet, you can buy some of them on eBay, particularly the specialty press editions that have sold out. Please give our new auctions a look. The Dry Salvages is really quite good. That is, it entertained me. I wrote it because not enough people are writing the sort of sf that I want to read. I think
Crap, I think I have a hangover...
- Current Mood:
blah
- Current Music:Jethro Tull, "The Whistler"
Comments
me too!
personally, i loved it and thought it was one of the best sf pieces i've read in the past year or so.
have you subscribed to 'sirenia?
if not i HIGHLY recommend it.
the first two pieces were stunning, and one of them is another charming bit of sf.
(sorry for the highjacking!)
Hey, as long as the flattery keeps coming, highjack away.
As for The Dry Salvages, it was even better than I expected, and I was expecting a lot, since there's virtually no bad review of it anywhere, at least from what I saw. It made me want to read more SF, but I don't think there are many SF stories out there that will affect me as much as this one did. The Dry Salvages definitely raises the bar, at least for me.
:-P
If it's any help, I know several people who think you at the cat's pajamas. (Thought what cats need with pajamas has never been clearly established.)
Thank you. I would blush, if Nebari could.
For months I've been working through ideas to submit to a Playwriting II class. My Playwriting I started off well, but then it disintegrated as I became more and more confused about the form. Exposition through sleight-of-hand. Characters accidentally exposing who they are by only showing who they aren't. It's the opposite of descriptive narration. I'm so damn straightforward in my approach that this is really difficult for me. I can't stop imagining the professor looking over my submission for the class and tossing it aside like trash. Though I know I shouldn't, I keep trying to remember the things other people wrote that he said were successful in Playwriting I, and wondering if I have that in me.
I need to be reminded (as many times as possible!) that, just as in visual art, I need to be making this for myself at all times.
Thank you for reminding me to make art.. not products.
This sort of makes sense to me, but it also strikes me as being the sort of thing you have to figure out for yourself rather than being taught in a class. I feel certain I've used these techniques, but if asked to compose an example off the cuff, I doubt I could do it.
One word: ebay
If they "improve" it any more, it'll...well, hmm... can't really say "it'll drive me crazy" because I'm obviously already there. But you get the idea.
Yep.
The Dry Salvages is really quite good. That is, it entertained me. I wrote it because not enough people are writing the sort of sf that I want to read.
The Dry Salvages was the book I had my nose stuck in and unable to remove throughout most of a con in Michigan in 2004. It caused me to not notice people speaking to me, absorbed "down" time when I'd normally be meeting new people, and most of all, caused me to get 3 hours of sleep (because I had to find out what happened!?! before a drive back home that was accomplished only with constant infusions of high-octane caffeine, a full-blast one-channel stereo, and cold wind rushing through the open windows. But it was worth it.
Nahhhh. I take that as a compliment. It's like when I go to see a long movie and I'm surprised and disappointed when it's over so soon. Anytime someone wants more after however much I've given them, that's a good thing — so long as they don't inisist there's something wrong with a story because they didn't get more.
I read the last half of MoA and The Dry Salvages on a train to Milwaukee once.
The ticket said 20 hours but it ended up being more like 36.