Drowning Nor Waving

Headache, exhaustion, and Dayjob insanity continue. Send pain meds and rescue dogs.

I do have reviews for you, though:

cassiphone at lastshortstory does a year-end of Shadow Unit, and has kind words for Sugar.

Rich Horton's also done a Shadow Unit roundup.

ase is decidedly unfond of "Bliss". Actually, it shocks me that that anthology is still kicking around, getting reviews.

Now I must clear some stuff out of this inbox even though my head hurts, because the Fountain Pen Hospital catalogue came tonight, and I promised myself that if I was good I could take it to bed with me (bow chicka wow wow).

I am still chopping away at my To Do List, with breaks to freak out about how unprepared I am to go to Montreal on Thursday morning. It's all good here in the Casa. :p

This means scraping the inbox again, and that means logging more reviews.

In the Clockwork Phoenix 2 corner we have dueling reviews at SF Site, one (mostly positive) from Amal El-Mohtar (tithenai and one (mostly negative) from Mario Guslandi. The second doesn't specifically mention "Six", but tithenai's says:

Following smoothly from representations of friendship to representations of family, Leah Bobet's "Six" is the deeply affecting story of a sixth son in a household where the seventh is most valued:

"Six's name is really Charlie, but he's the devil's boy right through, and they've been calling him by the devil's number since he was old enough to walk. Sixth son of a seventh son: 'you're bad news,' the brothers' wives tell him..."

It's an excellent piece, beautifully voiced and crafted to lodge uncomfortably in your ribs.

"Parable of the Shower" is still inexplicably making its way around the internet, and has a rec from kunenk, who I know not.

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I do not know what I'm going to 1) wear or 2) read at Worldcon.

Back to work and freaking out!

I am just recovering from the utter exhaustion that is my Readercon sleep debt (tm), so for now I cannily throw you this bone! Ha-HA!

Clockwork Phoenix 2 is getting a bunch of awesome reviews, including:

From Library Journal (via experimeditor),

In this anthology of 15 original tales by some of fantasy's most imaginative voices, Tanith Lee returns to her remarkable Flat Earth setting for a poignant and cutting tale of love, fate, and misfortune in "The Pain of Glass." Other contributors include veteran and newer writers Foster Aguirre, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joanna Galbraith, Saladin Ahmed, and others, each chosen for their unique perspective and stylistic grace.
VERDICT This second volume in a new annual anthology series will appeal to fantasy readers who enjoy short stories.

From Locus there's a double-shot (via several sources). From Rich Horton:

Clockwork Phoenix is the most experimental and often the most interesting of the impressive stable of four anthologies published by Norilana. The second outing has a lot of strong work, including a nice ultra-romantic tale of a woman of glass by Tanith Lee ("The Pain of Glass"), a moving fairly traditional ghost story from Kelly Barnhill ("Open the Door and the Light Pours Through"), and a story I frankly didn't think I'd like, but which seduced me, Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer's "each thing i show you is a piece of my death", about experimental film makers creating a sort of collage film, including what seems a very old clip of a man committing suicide. It's queasy-making, odd, yet compelling. My favorite story is Ann Leckie's "The Endangered Camp", which she says resulted from a sort of
challenge to combine dinosaurs, post-apocalyptic fiction, and Mars -- and does so beautifully as the crew of the first spaceship to Mars witnesses the asteroid striking Earth and wonders what to do.

--and from Gardner Dozois:

Another good but not exceptional collection is Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen. Last year's Clockwork Phoenix was divided between science fiction and fantasy/slipstream, but there's little science fiction in Clockwork Phoenix 2, which has more fantasy, and a lot more slipstream, which makes it less substantial for me than its predecessor. Science fiction is limited to two nicely done but not really major stories: Leah Bobet's "Six," a post-apocalyptic story set in a ruined urban future but with a nicely hopeful ending to cut the gloom, and "The Endangered Camp" by Ann Leckie, in which velociraptors set off on a heroic quest and are faced with a difficult choice that may decide whether their race survives or not. Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer's technohorror piece "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" is a sort of computer age version of Fritz Leiber's "Midnight in the Mirror World," and could be considered to be SF, I guess, but since there's no non-supernatural explanation ultimately offered for the phenomenon described in the story, I think it falls more into the horror camp instead, in spite of all the computer-graphics expertise. The best of the fantasy stories is Tanith Lee's bitterly melancholy "The Pain of Glass," which ends happily for no one, but Marie Brennan's "Once a Goddess" (sort of a fantasy version of Ian McDonald's "The Little Goddess") is also good, as is Mary Robinette Kowal's tale of dueling wizards, "At the Edge of Dying," and two Bradburyesque stories of subtle translations between life and death, Kelly Barnhill's "Open the Door and the Light Pours Through" and Barbara Krasnoff's "Rosemary, That's For Remembrance."

An installments-review with the first two stories (mine and Claude Lalumiere's) from findabair:

"Six" is about Six, a kid who is the sixth son of a seventh son and 'bad news'. He lives with his huge family on their farm. What I particularly like about this story is how I'm never sure of what kind of character Six is: is he bad news, or is he in fact a good boy? This question is never unambiguously answered - thankfully.

I think that's it so far for that one, although time_shark has made an offer of free anthologies in some fashion to those willing to review, so there's likely to be more.

"Parable of the Shower" has gone a little viral, getting linked by people I don't know (and there's more where that came from). Also there's a mention by someone I do know over on Geekachicas in a Friday roundup earlier last month. I can express little but surprise over this, but there's a lesson in that: you never know how something's going to hit.

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And now that I have wodged all that in the doorway to hold you off just a little longer, I must get back to work. ;)

"Parable of the Shower" is starting to get some reviews, and I have saved up enough in a tidy little stack to share with you, since you are all clearly on the edges of your seats over this matter.

Free SF Reader, in its usual cryptic fashion, gives the story 3 out of 5 stars.

Joe Sherry at Adventures in Reading says nice things, including that it is a delightful story, which warms my little shriveled heart.

And, Kathryn Cramer is a fan of the opening line, using it to demonstrate a point about narrative hooks and setting reader expectations at the outset, which is very flattering. There is also a picture from Ad Astra here, wherein I am drinking something with Watts and Dave Nickle, whose collection is coming out from ChiZine Publications and is well worth your inspection.

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As for the rest of it, my garden looks lovely right now, there will be pasta for dinner, I'm going swing dancing with ksumnersmith and cszego tonight, and there are two things that are deeply upsetting me and one thing that is really, really making me happy at the moment. The one awesome thing masses bigger than the two upsetting ones, although I'll admit the latter have been having their moments, lately. On the whole it's all balancing out, though, and I hope to tell you about at least two of those three things in a week or two (but not now, because they are not Done Yet).

Back on your heads, then.

I have not been logging the revise-a-thon that I've been engaged in this week (and all this weekend), but "Sugar" is, I think, as good as turned in. Or I guess, being a novella-almost-novel, maybe it's Sugar? Whatever, little back-monkey. Get yourself gone. :p

Which leaves us at:

Writing Project Honeydew, 2009

Write "Parable of the Shower"
Write "Sugar"
Revise "Parable of the Shower"
Revise "Sugar"
Write two SU DVD extras
Revise Above (I'm at about Ch. 4 and had to stop to do this other revising.)
Write "The Marriage of the Harpy"
Start The Enchanted Generation
Start "The Small Dark Movie of Your Life"

Write "Know Your Apocalypses"
Write "The Right People"
Write "Bachelorette"

One or two of those things need to happen inside the next few weeks, actually, if they plan to happen at all. There are deadlines involved.

(Oh, and with that, the argument for one of those DVD extras just showed up in my brain. Thank you, brain. Thank you, lists.)

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In other news, there are, as usual, reviews:

Soyka at Black Gate is not overall keen on "Miles to Isengard":

I couldn’t connect with the characters and lost patience with the length and pacing. Nor did I quite get the purpose of the bomb’s seeming communication with the narrator. That said, after all is said and done, the story redeems itself with a great concluding line that, unfortunately, aptly summarizes the human condition.

Mark Watson at BestSf.net likes it better:

Another first appearance from a small-press-to-date author, and it's a tight, taut near-future thriller. There's a small group of people driving a lorry with a very dangerous load, through a US that has suffered of late. The load is a bomb, and it's getting into the minds of those who are wanting to take it to a safer place. The dynamics of the party, the effects on them, particularly the protagonist, lead to a well-handled building of the tension, with the background sketched in through the narrative without any laborious info-dumping.

(I admit I didn't think of myself as a small-press-to-date author. But the universe gives you these things so your personal humility oil change light doesn't have to blink on as often, right?)

February 17, 2009 Progress Notes:

Above

Pages today: 24.
Pages total: 24/363. Yep, it's bigger. It's in SMF now.

24 / 363 (6.6%)

Reason for stopping: That's chapter 1 down, and too much more than a chapter a night at this level of pickywork (tm) seems like pushing it.

Munchies: Lamb/basil/feta sausages and spinach salad with blueberries. And some mandarin oranges for dessert.
Books in progress: Robert Graves, The Long Week-end; Patricia C. Wrede, Calling on Dragons.
The glamour: Lease-renewing for the Casa, dayjobbery, and prodigious groceries. Also, the Hunt for Red October Misti International Alpaca Sport #1026. It's a very loffly yarn, and I need at least one more skein if I'm going to not have the nice vest thing I'm knitting just sort of trail off in a haze of alpaca. I don't even care if the dye lot matches at this point, seriously.

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Yup, it's this again. Every time you think it's done, there's one more revision in the old girl. *kicks tires*

(Okay, actually after this I am sending its ass out. I have deputized some Draft Police* to rip it from my cold dead hands if I don't actually get queries out of here by March or so. Because I have a notion that I could probably tinker with this for a verrrry long time if left to my own devices, and that is not the way we get the nice book in print. One more draft. Out.)

Also, yet another review come down the pipe (I seem to get an awful lot of reviewage for what feels like not that much fiction published last year): "Bell, Book, and Candle" gets a shoutout in Rich Horton's year-end summary for Norilana anthologies.

And now, since I have a great many blueberries, I believe I shall make some muffins before bed.

*Writer, drop your draft, it's Draft Police!

Tonight appears to be a night for goofing off and budget-grade sybaritic luxury (eating clementines in a hot bath and tossing the peels carelessly into the water? Recommended), so I leave you with these few reviews to put you off my scent. Clever, no?

londonkds finds "Miles to Isengard" "grim but very readable."

Paul Raven at Velcro City Tourist Board generally says nice things about it:

This is a very interesting character piece wrapped around a dystopic near-future in the Southern States. The narrative has an almost hyper-real quality, possibly to enhance the sleep-deprived POV of the characters who are driving a stolen nuclear weapon to its (and their own) doom.

Its a story about rebellion and following the voice in your heart, the latter given emphasis by the actualising of the opposing voice in the form of the bomb itself, who the main character half-believes is talking to him, telling them that their efforts are futile. The bitter-sweet ending does little to suggest the bomb is lying, but their defiance in the face of inevitable capture and punishment is all the more poignant for that. A cautionary tale, albeit one that feels thematically a few decades late - which is not to say nuclear weapons are a solved problem, but their time in the fictional spotlight feels to have receded with the mid-eighties. Nonetheless, written with subtlety beneath the grit and country grammar, and much more moving than I expected thanks to a strong eye for detail.

And to complete the proof that so much depends on the reader, Lois Tilton at The Internet Review of Science Fiction seems lukewarm, though I admit I can't parse the tone of that last bit here:

The characters, however, are an ill-assorted group who never much differentiate themselves as individuals, outside of Sam, the narrator. The author never says which volcano is their destination, but if it is the most active, St Helens, I am not convinced that they could get a semi up the trail to the active vent. And the child soldier remains an enigma, seeming out of place. A world where there are checkpoints on the highways and bands of insurgents hiding in the national parks is not the same thing as a world where children are turned into orcs and sent into battle wired up to explode when they die. In a world like that, a factory making nukes doesn't seem like the worst evil.

Three-three-THREE reviews! Three different readings!

And now I shall return to goofing off.

ETA: And of course, the second I posted that, the notification for another one came in: Bugpowderdust finds it:

a close second to the Foster as story of the issue. It’s a story of a band of adventurers trying to destroy some seductive but nasty world-destroying technology by chucking it in a volcano, which I guess is where the LOTR reference in the title comes in, but this is a near future setting with our band of heroes barrelling along in a truck. It’s a well told story, with a nasty creeping paranoia that scratches at the inside of your skull.

February 1, 2009 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 1000.
Words total: 23,850.
Reason for stopping: Round number, and I'm still not getting far enough fast enough on this stupid scene that will not budge. I am going to bash it with a brick like I'm Nick Cave and it's a badly street-proofed blonde in a minute.

Books in progress: Robert Graves, The Long Week-end; Claudia Dey, Stunt.
The glamour: I did yeoman's work on the glamour front today. Despite being out most of the day, vasty depths of slush were read, information was sorted and spreadsheeted (spreadshot?) for a new OWW feature, the March Ideo lineup was finalized and sent to the Deities of Layout, and generally I swabbed the decks of my inboxes almost clean of actionable e-mail. Also, I did dishes. :p

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Today I had an Unexpected Change of Plans and, instead of going climbing, went birdwatching on the Leslie Street Spit.

It was a really nice day for this: sunny, bright, about 5 degrees Celcius which is super warm compared to oh, the last month or so. There was also about fifty feet of snow, which I tromped through for about three and a half hours, which means my legs are not talking to me at the moment. But despite never doing the birdwatching thing before I was with someone who knew what they were about, and got to see two Great Horned Owls, one Saw-whet Owl (tiny! like a little fluffy grapefruit!), and some sort of kestrel. Also discovered was the remains of one of the big owls' lunch all over one of the little trails: a perfectly petrified little dead white mousie, some fur bits, some brown balled-up nasty bits, and a whole rabbit spine.

0.0

Owls? Fucking scary.

So this will probably not be a regular thing -- I don't really have the pleasure in taxonomy that I think you need to make this a hobby -- but it was a fun thing to try once. Except for that bit with the spine.

Yes, I am a city girl. And thank you. :p

January 22, 2009 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 2000.
Words total: 21,850.
Reason for stopping: I feel like I have been pouring a lot of words down a very dark unfillable hole since 4:30 this afternoon (of course, none on the right scene), and I have not yet had my dinner. Someone get this thing out of my head and my life. You put this in me!

Books in progress: Robert Graves, The Long Week-end; John M. Ford, The Last Hot Time.
The glamour: Today is glamourless. Just words. Oh, no, actually I did get my contributor's copies of Interzone in the mail. That is like glamour.

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I may actually pick this back up after I have some dinner tonight. The katamari is rolling down the hill, and nothing will stop it, and despite my immense hatred for how this thing never ends already I am restless if not writing it.

Another review of the aforementioned story in Interzone: Garbled Signals finds it to have "interesting character interactions, all well written into a smoothly plotted story." For those playing along at home, we are now two lukewarm/negative reviews to one positive. Stay tuned!

Okay, food. I might be back tonight, folks.

There may even be content. :p

January 17, 2009 Progress Notes:

"Sugar"

Words today: 2400.
Words total: 18,050.
Reason for stopping: That took five hours, and my fingers ache a little and my brain is all bleeeah.

Books in progress: K.J. Parker, Shadow; Robert Graves, The Long Week-end.
The glamour: Ideo work, OWW work, a bit of knitting, a bit of house chores.

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Looking at that list of today and seeing how familiar it is from every other day I have off work? I suspect I need a bit more of a social life. :p

In any case, a bit of reviewage in: Lawrence Conquest reviews Interzone #220. Alas, he didn't really connect with "Miles to Isengard", but has some hardy reviewage of it and the other stories in the issue.

And that is all from the Casa at the moment, wherein we shall now close our evening with responding to light e-mail, finishing this pot of tea, and retreating to bed with our book.