grimly determinedPlease have a look at the current eBay auctions. Thanks!
Just came across this from a review (at Strange Horizons), by William Mingin, of Realms: The First Year of Clarkesworld Magazine. Mingin writes:
Among the stories tending more to identifiable fantasy is Caitlin Kiernan's "The Ape's Wife," the longest story in the book, a post-modern examination, in effortlessly strong and graceful prose, of Ann Darrow "after Kong" that tries out many possible fates for the fictional heroine. I don't consider myself particularly qualified to give feminist readings, but it seems pretty obvious that this story is about, among other things, shifting from a male-dominated myth (the godlike Kong) to a female- and goddess-dominated myth. But the final privileging of one story over the others is somewhat confusing, nor is it easy to see, knowing what came before, how this particular fate came about. Nor do we know how Ann fell into the hell of unrealized possibilities we find her in. But the whole is quite readable.
I won't quibble about the importance of uncertainty to this story, that one shouldn't know how Ann got into this fix, or precisely how it's resolved. It's a fine review, and I continue to be pleased with the attention this story is receiving.
Not much else to yesterday. Night three of the chicken stew. I lay on the living-room floor late in the day, not writing and moaning about not writing. Spooky's parents dropped by, because they were in town. I've been making my way through the September 2008 Journal of Paleontology, and so there was "A new desmatosuchine aetosaur (Archosauria; Suchia) from the Upper Triassic Tecovas Formation (Dockum Group) of Texas," "A juvenile skull of the primitive African ornithischian dinosaur Heterodontosaurus tucki from the 'Stormberg' of South Africa," and "The anatomy, affinity, and phylogenetic significance of Illemoraspis kirkinskayae (Osteostraci) from the Devonian of Siberia." Spooky finished reading me Poe's "Descent into the Maelstrom," and we began Poe's short (and only) novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838).
Also, I think that, somehow, I have neglected to mention the forthcoming trade paperback edition of Alabaster from Subterranean Press. But yes, the collection will be back in print in April 2009 (!!!), and subpress is now taking preorders.
Okay. All that's left for this entry are the photos from Tuesday at Beavertail:
View to the west, staring into the sun. The base of the ruined lighthouse on Whale Rock, about a mile out from Beaverail.
Nom, nom, nom. An overexposed photo of a gull gorging on stranded fish.
View to the northwest. The tide coming in.
Periwinkles, barnacles, and seaweed. The odd "meaty" appearance of the rock is caused by the leaching of ferruginous compounds from the stone.
The deceased, and somewhat contorted, starfish (Asterias forbesii).
View to the north. Looking up from the rocks at the Beavertail Lighthouse.
The cove (at 41°26'57.16"N, 71°23'59.58"W) where we hunted beach glass. View to the southeast.
Female Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in the dog roses at the lighthouse.
Some examples of the beach glass we found. The most interesting is the fragment of rare "black glass" (upper left-hand corner; about 2.5 cm wide). "Black glass" is actually green, a dark olive, when held up to a light source. This piece was likely manufactured in the 1700s.
All photographs Copyright © 2008 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn Pollnac