Robynettely

“Clariel” by Garth Nix . I bought this at Scott Westerfeld’s signing. We all argued about who should get to read it first, and whether one should start over with Sabriel. Fortunately the boy had school stuff, and Ed was reading the Brust I read in October (as he put it, “how did I not know about this author before?”) so I got to go first. Which is only fair, since I paid. I enjoyed this book more than I’ve enjoyed anything in a while. Having just read the other three, there was a spot where I realized this was not going to end well. The most annoying thing was that I read it first, and none of my family were reading fast enough to keep up, and when I finished I wanted to talk to someone about it. “From the Earth to the Moon” by Jules Verne. The boy is taking a SF survey course this term, and this was the second book on it (the first was Frankenstein, which I’ve already read). He told me this one was cute, so of course I asked to read it. He also told me that his prof sa...

First Draft “ Limering ”. Around 111,000 words, and draft. I had made a note for something completely different and was struggling along and realized that note was exactly what I needed to wrap all this up. Stupid subconscious and its erratic filing system! “The Tale of the Tail”. Something light and short for a nice change. Done! “Lucky Kate”. This one appears as a page-a-day every year or so, doesn’t it? I think this time I have the right plot so the middle of the story will match the beginning and the end.  Editing “Wind/Water/Salt”. I had finished November struggling to make sense of Chapter 4, NaNoEditMo having been pretty much a bust. In December I started moving all sorts of sections around in chapters 5-10, and made it so I couldn’t figure out where I was, so I spent a couple of weeks just staring at the binder and opening the word file. Then I hit on the idea of fixing one character’s POV, and that was the wedge. I’m now rewriting chapter 6. There’s a lot...

First Draft “ Limering ”. Around 104,000 words. I am so sick of this. Editing “Selkie Girls are Easy”. As promised, final proofread and sent out. “Wind/Water/Salt”. I have all these notes for myself, like “there was an old woman who swallowed a fly -> Susannah’s motivation.” And “Use the pirates!” These notes aren’t that useful, really. I have revised chapters 1 and 2 so much by now that when this gets published as a book, it might actually be interesting for people to look at the two original pieces of flash that I wrote that wound up leading to the rest of the novel. Some evenings I sit down with this thing and just despair. Can I ever chisel the good bits from all the crap? Connecting Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestiere were at a local Chapters. Circulating 2 I seem to have moved to that level where I get the nice rejections. A reader said there was a lot to like, which is pretty gratifying. Knitting “Ceremonial Arm...

“Afterworlds” by Scott Westerfeld. Gift from the boy for my birthday. After going to his event at Queensway Chapters, I finished up so the boy could read it. Both stories worked, and I liked how you could see the effects of  "real life" on the way the "novel" came out. The struggle with the ending was great, especially. “American Slavery, American Freedom: the Ordeal of Colonial Virginia” by Edmund Morgan. Someone (I thought it was TNH but can’t find it now) linked to an article about how giving out parcels of land in Virginia colony had led eventually to slavery, and in the comments section people were arguing about whether this book (published in 1975) was a reliable source. I love listening to historians argue. Even their bickering is smart. If I was going to do a post-grad degree just for kicks I’d do a history one, so I can learn to think like them. Anyway, the book was available at the library, so I requested it. I was somewhat daunted by the 400+ pa...