What I read -- July 2021

You can't see what I'm reading in this pic, alas. It's over on the floor.

LHC #127: "The Bonjour Effect" by Julie Barlow & Jean-Benoit Nadeau. This probably wound up on the list because one of my main characters in Persephone speaks French and not English, and I spend a lot of time on Duolingo. I didn't really enjoy this book. It made me feel icky. I think it was the whole "we" thing and then the authors referring to one or the other of them in third-person, which sort of reminded me of "The New Basics Cookbook" from the 80s.

There's also the problem of the inclusive vs. exclusive We (which I read about on Lingthusiasm a little while ago).

LHC #128: "The Screaming Staircase" by Jonathan Stroud. Hard copy. I loved the Bartimaeus books. It took me about a day to read, very fun.

LHC #129: "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge. Hard copy. Maybe because of Terri Windling? It was sort of ridiculous, in a 1940's way.

LHC #130: "A Conspiracy of Truths" by Alexandra Rowland. eBook. She had a controversy last year, and when I heard about it I was amused to see that this was already on my list. The voice didn't totally work for me and it seemed to go on and on. I wanted to know more about the interauthor.

"The Karate Way" by Dave Lowry. It's karate grading season! When I was trying to figure out if I'd read this one before, I discovered I'd read a different one twice, several months apart, without realizing, and thought it was a little bit "the same." Oh dear. I could find no evidence that I've read this one before, but it sure felt like I had.

Moraine

So a couple of days I thought I was done with this short story, and I wrote the last line of the story. I even dated it (that's how I can tell it's over). It was a little long, at 6600 words (I was aiming for 5000). But then I was walking to work, and I thought, "My, that was a lame ending. My endings are all crap." So yesterday morning, I scribbled out the date and wrote a bit more. And this morning I wrote a bit more again, and I dated it and called it done. And still, that ending seemed lame. So a few minutes later, in the last paragraph, I scratched out "the Oak Ridges Moraine" and wrote in "that stupid moraine". Much better. Now I can move on. But in the meantime, I was doing a little research about the Moraine, and I discovered that EGTourGuide lives on it. Only by one or two hundred feet, but I thought it was funny. Good for you, EGTourGuide, with all those excellent plants growing on that substandard soil, where in the olden days (you kno...

In progress: August 2024

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Still n eed to take up comments and revise. Persephone (probably not its real name): Continued to think thoughts. Short Stories: After posting that short story from last month onto the workshop, I picked one of those short stories I'd started and forced a plot onto it. Critted 5 Got back 4 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Cathar (self). Started month with two inches done above the armholes. Listening to audiobooks, I finished the fair isle portion, cut the steeks, and set up and knit the neckline. Just the endless finishing now. Blushing Cloud (Knitty S/S24). Started the month with (still) three inches of back done. Socks take priority. Elbrus socks (Knitty first fall 2024). Finished. Elbrus socks II . Started the first. Pole shorts (Joan McGowan-Michael). I knitted these several years ago, but the...

Word of the day: Wendigo

I first encountered this word a few weeks ago on Leah Bobet's blog , but I skipped over and paid it no nevermind. Anyway, it caught my eye again today when I was reading a short story . So I googled it. In November, I did like an hour of research of first-nations (specifically ojicree ) mythology when I was writing the zombie karate novel. How did I not find this? How did I not learn about wendigos (wendigoes?) when I was learning mythology in high school English? And manitous? One of my friends goes to Camp Manitou every summer. How did I not know? Was I asleep? Is this proof of my ADD which no one else agrees I have? What? I'm not needing to culturally appropriate or anything, but it would have been cool to know. Also, this is awesome: http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.fan.heinlein/msg/0920b2f01ac0a248?hl=en . Not sure I ever finished a Heinlein novel. I know I didn't finish "The number of the beast" on account of I found it totally sexist. When I was 15.

Robynettely

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