| Pensive |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|11:42 am] |
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I had a completely different thing in mind when this came out. The concept’s probably been done to death, but it wouldn’t be what I originally intended. I’m not sure it’s finished, but nothing I did after this point was right, and I don’t have the time to play with it right now. |
Mirrored from dlmfisher.com. |
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| Stalked |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|04:56 pm] |
Not as good as I wanted. This is a learning project, after all.
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| 7 Deadly Sins - Envy |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|04:55 pm] |
The monthly challenge this time: The 7 Deadly Sins.
My first entry (of 4, actually) is this, Envy. I'll let the picture tell the story.
But I'll also add that, in fact, I neither live in a house like this nor covet one. My tastes run along different lines.
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| Day 200 |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|04:53 pm] |
Me.
On a sewer.
Before the rain.
In a field.
Under clouds.
At dusk.
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| Website Troubles |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|04:52 pm] |
The website and/or my e-mail have been down this past week, seemingly at random, so while I can access the site I better catch up on some of my self portraits. Here's Day 199:
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| Victory |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|03:02 pm] |
Well, I did it. I flew 927 miles from home, only really freaked out once, had a truly lovely dinner with Neil (more details later, or see his journal), and am now at O'Hare waiting to please God fly home. Before coming to the airport today, I had time to conduct an important taste test: half an Italian beef sandwich each at Mr. Beef and Portillo's. I'm sorry, Chicagoans; I know you think it's fast food, but Portillo's is about a million times better. |
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| Research, writing, and reality. |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|02:05 pm] |
This past week, I wrote a scene (snippet here) wherein my hero attempts to craft (or 'incant') a new spell by blending two already existing spellwines and reworking it. I wrote the scene to suit what I needed, using what I had already established about the world, the magic, and the character, and then went on to the next scene. Normal day in the writing-mines, yes?
And then, this morning, I was reading about the follow-up and fall-out from recent EU attempts to reclassify how a rose wine may be made, and I realized that I might -- or might not -- have written the scene with Jerzy under the influence of what I had read previously about the proposed changes. It's not a direct correlation, and the idea is a basic enough one that an apprentice winemaker/magician might easily come up with it on his own... but there are elements in both that make me wonder.
I'll never know for certain if I came up with it on my own, or was repurposing real life events to suit my plot-needs. And that's how it should be, IMO. Research is not meant to be plunked down on the page, for all to marvel at. It should be integrated in service to the story -- not on the page, but in the writer's mind [consciously or not] well before the words are actually written.
The most basic form of this has been called the "iceberg" rule -- that the reader should only see the bit of research that pokes through the surface of the plot, and not be aware of the remaining 9/10th hidden by the ocean. My name is Laura Anne Gilman, and I endorse this rule.
(And how do I feel about the proposed change in the real world winemaking? Well, the way Jerzy's experiment ends should give you some clue....)
Meanwhile, in Life in the City news, I met a friend for dinner last night, and afterward ended up in the bar @ Blue Fin, where we drank, and mocked the tourists walking by on 42nd street (BF has a full-glass wall, the better to people-watch), and entertained our waitress enough that she brought us free desserts.
Summer in NYC. It's a beautiful, if occasionally scary thing. Tourists, we mock because we love. Also, because some of your sartorial choices are... dumbfounding. Really. And Stacy and Clinton are right: No miniskirts after 40, please. Or after 170 pounds. Also: mother-daughter matching anything is never a good idea. Srsly. |
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| Buckle that Swash! |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|01:36 pm] |
I've been hearing Arturo Pérez-Reverte's name for a number of years, especially regarding his The Club Dumas and The Fencing Master. When Charlie Oberndorf (my main advisor on all things literary) suggested I read Captain Alatriste, I went right out and bought a copy. Unfortunately, it can take me five or six years to get around to reading something, once he recommends it. (I still have Cloud Atlas sitting unread on my shelf -- suggested in that same conversation, some four years ago) Charlie has never steered me wrong (which reminds me to repeat his best recommendation of all: The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón), nor is this an exception. Captain Alatriste, first in a series that now has at least six titles, is really The Three Musketeers for a modern literary audience. This volume is set in 1623, the same decade (I believe) that d'Artagnan went to Paris to join up. Here the setting is Imperial Madrid, with political intrigue, swashbuckling, assassination and assignation. Olivares stands in the role of Richelieu, and the book even has what amounts to a Richelieu's warrant scene. To say more would be to give away the tale. This was a swift read, amusing, and not without charm. While I will not be rushing out to by the next of the series right away, I'm glad I read this one. Perhaps if the teetering piles of unread books in my office ever diminish in size and public danger... CBsIP: student manuscripts The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China, Ralph D. Sawyer The Age of the Galley, Karl F. Morrison, ed. Chimeric Machines, Lucy A. Snyder Ghosts of Cape Sabine, Leonard F. Guttridge River of Gods, Ian McDonald [You may notice that I'm reverting to Amazon links, despite their bad behavior. Neither Borders nor Barnes & Noble will commit to stable links, so I see no alternative.] |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|09:38 am] |
i'm drinking a delicious apple soda and i'm still almost giddy about getting the keys to our new apartment last night.
(and we aren't paying for july since we offered to clean it ourselves.)
excitement, it abounds!
also! i've actually managed to get some reading done lately.
i finished up s.g. browne's 'breathers' the other day and found to be quite charming and nothing even resembling a horror novel which, of course, won't stop people from assuming it is and then complaining because it isn't.
i'm about halfway through with john langan's first collection, 'mister gaunt and other uneasy encounters,' and so far it's pretty much fantastic and one of the absolute best collections i've read in ages, right up there with barron's 'the imago sequence' and bacigalupi's 'pump six.'
i highly recommend both. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 11th, 2009|06:49 am] |
Whew. It's been a while since I've posted anything here.
The new job is going well. I've finished my five weeks of training and my first week of a three week transition to the floor.
I'll be at Little Mysteries today, for my second last Saturday working there.
At noon today, on my lunch hour, I'll be signing at Woozles for a half hour or so.
Tomorrow, (Sunday), I'll be signing at the Halifax Shopping Centre Coles outlet from noon to two, and I'll be out at the Chain Lake Chapters from three to five. Hope to see you there.
Steve |
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| Book #45: Looking for Group |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|11:32 pm] |
Looking for Group is a webcomic (lfgcomic.com), but I discovered it as a collection at my comic book store (Read More Comics, in Brandon, BTW - I will always give this place free plugs because the owner has been so generous with comics for my school) and was attracted to the cover and title. I read the first page and was enamored - this is a great book! Yes, it is in comic book graphic novel format, and yes, it is just the webcomic collected, but I find this to be a somewhat more literary foray into the genre than, say, Order of the Stick (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html), which I also enjoy but which I feel is more cartoony that LFG.
If you are an RPG player, you will appreciate and enjoy this book. Make sure that you always keep track of what Richard is doing in the background! I know this is really Cale'Anon's story, but Richard is incredeible! |
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| Day One |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|11:33 pm] |
Everyone was on time. Shutting doiwn a city street to shoot in front of a building was definitely a different experience. Unfoirtunately, the noise was so loud that we recorded dialogue "wild" (audio only) to cover our asses.
The entire cast - Robert Sabin, Brooke Lewis, Sephera Giron, Michael O'Hear, and Sondra Roland were excellent - excellent! And the crew kicked ass. And the food, prepared by our production manager, was awesome.
It's been great working with Robert again, and he's never been better. All of the "Coven of Flesh" members have made their characters so three dimensional and LIKEABLE. I'm bummed that we'll be finishing with all of them tomorrow (Kealan, Debbie and Lee are arriving in the afternoon). Sun brings a new cast, a new location and the film proper.
We made our day (got everything we wanted to get) - and finished 90 mins. early! |
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| Book #44: My Horizontal Life |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|11:19 pm] |
I like Chelsea Handler: I DVR her show on E! every night and watch it the next day. This book - her first, which has since been followed by Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - sounded interesting from the cover, and as I said, I like Chelsea. I don't know what I was expecting from the book, but what it amounts to is several stories from her life, especially related to men she sleeps with or almost sleeps with. The book has a definite comedic bent - the same humor that is evident on her show - but lacks a little substance for my taste. Then again, I don't usually read memoirs, especially memoirs that are presented for their humor. There's just no organization to the book, I guess - this is not the memoirs of someone who has learned something important about the human condition or anything, just some humorous stories collected together. Which is exactly what it claims to be.
I laughed several times through the book, and I found it a quick and casual read (good for summer), but I just have no reason to recommend the book to anyone unless they are Chelsea Handler fans. I doubt I'll pick up the second book, and I reckon I'll offer this one up on bookmooch.com since I doubt I'll re-read it, but I did enjoy the stories for the most part. |
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