short-short

March 30, 2009 3 Comments

After reading this post, I tried my hand at a short-short-short story of less than 70 words.

Here’s what I got (69 words, excluding title):

2 am

2:09.
“Mommy, can I sleep with you?” Her hand is cold.
“Of course, sweetheart.”
The green numbers turn: 2:10.
Silence. She is gone.

Dawn. You descend the staircase your daughter tumbled down in the dark, past the marble urn she cracked her head against, and into her room. Her unmade bed’s been empty since the night you told her, “No. You need to go sleep in your own bed.”

Flash fiction is a form I’ve just started exploring. Anyone else interested in giving a 70-words-or-less story a shot?

Filed Under: inspiration, short stories

linkatopia

March 29, 2009 4 Comments

The Random Edition:

Myths about the Middle Ages: Interesting discussions in the comments. Also via the same blog, Spiderman rescues an eight-year-old boy.

JA Konrath guestblogging on the cumulative effect of self-promotion efforts. Here he is on yet another blog (*grin*) talking about what not to do when promoting your books. (And here you can find an excerpt of his latest book, Afraid, which I am far too chicken to read.)

Found this nifty size conversion chart while Jo and I were discussing clothes shopping woes.

And (because there has not been enough space devoted to chocolate on this blog recently): The chocolate chip scones I made for breakfast on Saturday. Just make sure to add more OJ than the recipe calls for to get the dough wet enough. Scrumptious.

Filed Under: linktopia

first sale of the year

March 25, 2009 3 Comments

I got the acceptance right before leaving for vacation, so the announcement is a little belated.

My humorous fantasy short, A Plague of Chicken, was accepted by MindFlights. I wrote it a few years, recently read it and still liked it, spruced it up and sent it on its merry way. I’m very pleased for it to have found a home.

Filed Under: news, short stories

wheels and walls

March 24, 2009 2 Comments

Oh, the things that keep me awake at night. Is it a wall, or a fort? Are there six forts to an isle, or twelve? How many wheels would you pay for a bag of rice or a month’s rent? How many isles does your average Jane (or Jhayni, in this case, heh) earn in a year? And how many stars is a million bucks?

In case you’re completely lost, I’m trying to figure out my world’s money. :D

Next up in the All-Consuming Pursuit of Worldbuilding Things Trivial: time! Bells or notes? How many days in a week? How many weeks in a month? How many months in a year? And what are they called?!

You never knew revising could be this fun, did you?

Filed Under: season of rains

more spring break pictures

March 23, 2009 Leave a Comment

Check them out at my sister-in-law’s photography site. That handsome baby getting a kiss from his lovely cousin? That’s my little charmer. Eight months old and one happy baby.

Thanks, Robin, for taking such great pictures of our wonderful vacation!

Filed Under: personal, pretty pictures

sun, sand and sea

March 22, 2009 4 Comments

Bye bye, Florida. We had a lot of fun.

We’re back in the (partially) frozen (and rapidly thawing) North. Time to get back into revisions.

How’s everyone?

Filed Under: personal, pretty pictures

march is the cruelest month

March 13, 2009 Leave a Comment

This is exactly how I feel about March.

March is a flirt, a coquette. She gives us 50-degree days in which we shed our coats and fill our lungs with spring and sunshine. The next day she throws a snowstorm at us, followed by a string of crackling-ice frosted-windshield days. March is ugly; the receding glaciers leaving brown stubble-grass and gouges of mud in their wake. The deciduous trees are naked, the evergreens are shabby.

Therefore we are fleeing March, heading to warmer climes to soak in the sun and sit in the sand. By the time we return, maybe March will have her act together. And if not, well, we’re better off out of the reach of the fickle old dame for a bit!

Filed Under: personal

linkatopia

March 11, 2009 Leave a Comment

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Sir I. is into planets these days, so he and I have been watching related videos, reading relevant books and checking out the planetary landscapes exhibit at the children’s museum together.

Agent Jessica Papin at DGLM: Confessions of a thrifty bibliophile. I have no compunctions about the books I buy at used stores or check out from the library (instead of buying new). I do support writers by buying their books new from brick-and-mortar stores, but we also have to buy food, pay our mortgage and clothe and educate our children on one income. Unless they’re pirating books, I don’t think anyone needs feel guilty about how they acquire their literary entertainment.

Southern Fried Chicas has a roundup of agent comments on the State of Publishing in Today’s Economy. Surprisingly (or not), agent Kristin Nelson has noticed a dramatic increase–not decrease–in queries. Unemployed peopple have turned to novel-writing? She also gives hope to unpubbed writers: editors are still buying books!

I just heard about FlyCon, an online specfic convention happening this weekend. Won’t be able to attend, but it looks really cool. They have a bunch of neat panels I’d have been happy to check out. Mannesrist Fantasy and Georgette Heyer. Fairy Tale workshop. Families in Fantasy. I’d better stop looking at the schedule of events or I’m going to be seriously bummed about missing this. Here’s their blog.

Filed Under: linktopia

it’s never too early to teach your child a trade

March 10, 2009 Leave a Comment

The trade of wordsmithing, that is. Sir I. likes to narrate stories to me, usually beginning with “Once upon a time, we all got up” and involving the eating of pancakes and playing out in the snow. This one was inspired by our country study of China (we had a Chinese New Year’s Parade which consisted of me, Sir I. and Miss M. marching around the house blowing through toilet-paper tubes, banging on drums and carrying a stuffed dragon):

The Chinese New Year

Once upon a time, the Chinese people lived in China. One day they woke up. It was Saturday and they thought they would eat blueberry muffins. They made red envelopes and put money in them and scotch-taped it for the Chinese kids. Then the Chinese kids opened up the envelopes and found a nickel. After dinner, they had the parade. They had a dragon and drums and horns and lanterns and a lion. It was the Chinese kids’ bedtime after the parade. They went to the bathroom and washed their hands and brushed their teeth and their daddy read them their bedtime story. After when the Chinese daddy read the Chinese kids the bedtime story, he said their prayer, then the kids fell asleep and the Chinese daddy turned off the light and turned on the music and shut the door.

I like how the Chinese kids get American money. *grin*

Filed Under: challenges, kids at play

reading roundup

March 7, 2009 5 Comments

February’s reads were:

Whew. I sure managed to cram a lot of books into a short month. I really should stop reading so much. It makes the monthly reading roundup so much more work to write up than I’d like it to be. Hee.

On the fantasy front, I finally finished the Farseer trilogy. No spoilers, but I was driven almost mad by the random meandering journeying in the first third (?!) of the book. It took Fitz far too long to get around to doing what he should’ve done by page 50. Harrumph. I also would like to express my disappointment in the ending. Of course, now I’m going to read the Tawny Man trilogy so that I can be further disapproving and critical. Really. *grin*

Finally got ahold of a copy of The Magic Thief. Quick, fun and entertaining, though the plot felt slight. One major plot point could’ve easily been resolved a couple chapters in, but instead Evil Almost Triumphed because Good Was Not Listening. Overall, though, a thoroughly enjoyable MG-level read with one or two absolutely hysterical moments (if you read it, you’ll know what I mean :D ).

The Keys of the Kingdom continue to enthrall me, but I’m trying to pace myself here. The stakes have been upped, the Nithlings are more organized, powerful figures are making a bid for sole control and Arthur is in danger of losing his humanity the more he wields the Keys. Great fun.

My classic read was The Good Earth, a novel that I liked and loathed in turns. The loathing, alas, increased as I got towards the end because, really, the characters did fairly loathsome things. Which, perhaps, was the point of the story: more wealth leads to more disconnect from the earth which leads to overall loathsome-ness. Or something like that.

Coloring Outside the Lines and Boys Adrift were my two education-related reads. I liked the latter better. I agreed with Coloring Outside the Lines for the most part (yes, yes, formal schooling turns children into unmotivated uncreative automata), but I found the attitude of the writer to be… overly smug, maybe? He made a lot of statements that were backed up by personal anecdotes, not research. Boys Adrift was better researched, and quite a bit more worrisome and thought-provoking.

What did you read in February that you loved or loathed?

Filed Under: Uncategorized
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