who celebrate it, or, well, notice it.

And happy birthday to my cousin Srin.  And to Will Stanton. 

May all your holidays be much nicer than Will's was.

A 15-year-old relative of karnythia is missing. If you have any information, please contact the Chicago police on (312)747-8274. If you're not in the area, but have friends who are, signal-boosting would be welcome.

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Yesterday: 1,188 words.
Today: 2,345 words.
Total: 89,625 words.

Time for dream sequences!

This bit was weird to write, because I knew, absolutely knew it was an important scene, because it shows the heroine learning to use her ditziness as a weapon (sorta). It is awesome and inspiring and cool! And NONE of it is on the page. I could tell even before I wrote the words.

But my motto for this entire project has been "Whatever. At least I raised the word-count." This has been making me feel a bit like I'm not writing a novel so much as a really, really detailed outline for a novel. But hey! At least SOMETHING is getting written.

xjenavivex is looking for people interested in a regular reviewing slot.  It doesn't pay, but if you're just getting started as a reviewer, this is a good opening.  I did several nonpaying columns before I started getting review gigs that paid -- and it's enough that some publishers will start sending you books if you ask.  This particular slot will be for a short fiction review site that's planned to start this coming year, and it will be open to cyberfunded projects.

A very good family friend died last week. Half of one of my favourite couples for talking books, in fact. They knew enormous amounts about books and could always be relied on for sound recommendations. The three of us could turn any dinner conversation to literature, without any effort whatsoever.

His wife received a sympathy phonecall today.

"I'm sorry you lost your husband," the caller said, her voice very gentle.

"I didn't lose my husband," Y said, indignantly. "I know exactly where I buried him!"

Two out of two hot chicks agree: Sam Worthington has a strong heart.

I think Avatar is gorgeous*. I don't actually know for sure because 3D is the most ridiculous fucked up thing I've ever seen, and I had to watch the whole movie out of focus.

What I do know is that it's insultingly hamfisted. I won't call the Na'vi noble savages, because they're better than that--they're a harmonious indigenous people with a rich culture. Which is just as bad a cliche these days. And for fuck's sake, stop basing alien cultures on non-European earth cultures. WE SEE WHAT YOU DO THERE! Everyone was straight out of central casting, humans and Na'vi, and the bad guys were so flat I could hardly muster any contempt for them. When you find yourself playing a caricature of Paul Reiser, you should stop and reevaluate your life. And the music, jeeze. Just play "Colors of the Wind" over the end credits and have done.

Mind you, in spite of all of this--no, let's face it, because of this--it was effective. I probably would have cried if my eyes hadn't been busy trying to put things in focus. I like Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver in just about anything, and I'm sure thousands of people will feel deeply for the plight of the harmonious aliens.

I, however, do not need my hand held to root for the non-humans. That is my default state. Candycoating it just pisses me off. Screw skin color--I'm sick of human saviors.

Despite that, I will be over here watching Aliens, because I need a xenomorph chaser something fierce.



(...okay, maybe Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein make me warm to humanity just a little. At least for a couple of hours at a time.)

*Did anyone else get a Michael Whelan vibe from the set design?

I thought I might go over to spnkink_meme and see if I could find any prompts to use - Dean/Castiel, of course.

And then I went over there and some of the prompts made me go, "O~kay, maybe not."

Others made me think, "Maybe under my other pen name (which I don't use very often...^^') because I think I'd die if I wrote that as yellowhorde. I have a reputation to maintain, after all."

But then I got to thinking, "What reputation? Who's going to care if I go a little dark-side on a prompt? No one, that's who."

I think I may challenge myself to do at least one prompt. The further out of my comfort zone, the better.

Should I? *bites bottom lip nervously*

Kaaron Warren interviews a bunch of us about baggage. Yaritji's answers in particular make me think.

So many writers say "Any idea or story is fair game for fiction." The same writers are dead-keen on not being plagiarised. But what happens when fair game in one culture is plagiarism in another? Most people say "That's something to do with strange and distant different cultures." Except it isn't. Read the interview on the World SF News blog.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012023.html

It’s nearly two-year-old news, but new to me: I’ve just learned, while doing some background reading on Michael Chabon’s The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, that Joel and Ethan Coen are working on a film adaptation of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union!

And speaking of the Coen brothers, has anyone else seen A Serious Man?

#51.) Kelly Gay, The Better Part of Darkness

[redacted pending review elsewhere]

#52.) Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

Brilliant. Go read it now.

---

Lovely evening today stacking wood and eating food with friends and family. Mmm, food.

Have outlined absolutely everything that has to happen for the whole rest of the story, and solved all outstanding plot problems!

Solution will require rewriting large-ish swathes of existing draft, but by god it'll work.

Also, outline of remainder is only 1200 words long, and a rather thickly written 1200 words at that! May actually only have 3000 words left to write!

(2 minutes later:)

Also, number of pocketmouse's Crock-pots I have just destroyed: 1
Number of burners on that side of the stove: 2
The one under my saucepan of tea water: not the one I turned on
People hurt: Just one, and that's only if you include one small cut to the sole of my foot. (Potsherds are sharp!)

Right. Back to the Yuletide mines.

Next year, nothing but PWP I swear.

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Everywhere I look - from Goodreads to LJ - people are discussing women in novels. Mostly they think there aren't many really good female characters or there's only one strong woman and she's defined by context more that self, or that the Bechdel test would fail miserably in spec fic and that female characters only talk about relationships.

One thing I've noticed in these discussions is that the same writers are often given as examples of one thing or another. If you use a limited pool for sampling, then you're going to get daft results.

My daft results are going to be different from everyone else's daft results, because I'm going to use a different limited pool for sampling. My limited pool is going to be Australian and it's going to be recent and I'm going to include strong women singular and plural in good books (those books and stories have to be well and truly worth reading!). Romance books have been left out only because I don't know the genre, not because they don't meet my requirements - in fact, if you want good books with good strong women etc, chicklit and romance novels are a very good places to start.

This is one of those instant lists - they're writers I'm thinking of at this moment. There are lots more out there! (The only reason I'm not in that list myself is because I really can't evaluate how good a read I am, so if you want to take the list and expand it, please make a decision about Illumiunations and Life Through Cellophane - don't just neglect me, leave me out by conscious choice).

Maxine McArthur - especially Time Future
Kim Wilkins - quite a bit of her work
Kaaron Warren - I didn't say that the women had to be nice
Marianne de Pierres - Parish Plessis as not-strong? I laugh at you. In fact, her women generally rock.
Sonya Hartnett
Lucy Sussex - My Lady Tongue stands out, but it's hardly the only good thing she's written
Kate Forsyth
Felicity Pulman
Keri Arthur
Sophie Masson
Dave Luckett - his most recent book in particular
Pamela Freeman
Glenda Larke
Garth Nix - the Sabriel series
Kim Westwood
Tansy Rayner Roberts - has a strong female leading the Mocklore adventures. I haven't had a chance to read her new work, though.
Deborah Kalin

I'm sorry to all the writers I missed - it wasn't intentional. Not all the works by all the authors fit, but I've read at least one book or story that does, from each of these. Also, I only gave myself five minutes to compose the list, since I'm doing this while I'm doing other things (multitasking! I can multitask! not, alas, very well, however, which is why there are writers missing - please feel free to add names in the comments - just don't add yourself, for the same reason I didn't add me).

It would be nice if the books we always list magically transformed and had great female characters, preferably in multiples. Since they're not going to, why can't we read those that do and encourage publishers (by buying and reading books - what an odd thought) to take on more of them?

I'd love to see lists that are more inclusive, especially ones that include writers from elsewhere than Australia. I'd also like to add to the one I have (since it's incomplete) and then analyse it. I haven't got time for that today, alas, but can I suggest very strongly that we stop using the same list of authors, time after time, to prove a point? All it does is prove we have a list of authors we use to prove points. It doesn't actually make any solid case for or against women in fiction.

Epic days these days usually have a substantial barn component; today was barnier than most. Erin was giving us a dressage lesson and Toni rode past to report that whoever was supposed to ride Bella hadn’t turned up, and that Bella would need to be ridden.

“I’ll ride her,” I said cheerfully. Toni and Erin looked at each other, and Toni said: “Okay. This can be your Christmas present.”

So I had an hour on Scottie, keeping my hands still and soft, trying to get him to work off my leg; achieving with satisfaction two good canter transitions where I squeezed him with my calves and felt his hind legs stepping forward – outside/inside – into the gait. Then I got off and saddled Bella and got back on and had an hour on her; a brief school in the indoor arena, and then a long walk around the Stanford Linear Accelerator with Erin, who was riding The Flying Dutchman. We walked above 280 for a bit and revelled in the knowledge that at least some of the people driving past us wished they could be us.

So I wanted Bella for Christmas, and I got her.

On the drive home I had a good idea for a YA novel.

As 280 swung down to San Jose I saw this fire starting – first the old cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, which could have been no more than shadowy slip of fog, but by the time I got to Randall Street a thick black mushroom of ill omen. I am glad all the people got out, and I am very sorry about the cat.

Then we picked up Rowan and drove to Heather’s house, where we decorated and ate approximately one million cookies, and the children were reasonably charming, and we met a man who had grown up in Ryde in Sydney and who is flying out on the same flight as us on Wednesday, and we started listing people we might know in common and his first one was Rachel Moerman. So I laughed and said: “Have you met her boyfriend?” “Who, Big?” “Yep. Notice the family resemblance?” “Oh!”

Now there are eggs baking for dinner.

Mirrored from Yatima.

How many things can you spot that are risible, ridiculous, or just plain wrong with this costume and its description?

To start off with, my favorite is "Material: Genuine". Uh, yeah.

. present to cousin

. other gifties for people

. sanding

. tiling

. ride?

Happy birthday, voidmonster! May your birthday be well-supplied with, as Poe would have it, the arabesque and the grotesque, the fanciful and the frightful, the wondrous and the weird!

Chances of the Metro opening enough to let me get to work tomorrow-- minuscule.

Number of my co-workers who'd be there if I somehow teleported in-- probably zero.

Barriers to my staying up as late as I damn well please tonight-- none.

Odds of my being given any work to do from home tomorrow-- not good.

Words of Yuletide story-- something over 14,000, though I fervently hope I'll be able to tighten that up a bit on the final editing pass.

Words yet to be written-- Um. I've had 5000 words to go for about the last 3000 words. STORY! STOP MOVING THE GOALPOSTS ON ME!

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