Unintentional retro day

I am in the process of transferring my domain to another registrar and it’s not going as smoothly as I’d like. So my site is essentially down and instead you get to read this snapshot of it from a couple years back. With luck everything will be back to normal shortly.

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Drive-by: Amal El-Mohtar

Amal El-Mohtar is joint Queen of Goblin Fruit. She’s a poet, writer, and PhD student in Cornwall (a small envious voice in my head screams “Tintagel” every time I think of that, accurately or not). Her short fiction and poetry have been published in places are varied as Shimmer, Cabinet des Fées, Strange Horizons, Sybil’s Garage and Ideomancer. She won the 2009 Rhysling Award with “Song for an Ancient City“, and she’s in her first year of eligibility for the John W Campbell Award. He collection, The Honey Month, is available from Papavaria Press. And she is also the woman responsible for this line:

“See how swift and clever are their feet, how their lips are sewn with tiny golden bells, how their very breath chimes and shines, the better to spell out the hours of the day in brilliance worthy of the Sun!” (“And Their Lips Rang with the Sun”)

1. You’re being held at gunpoint and forced to choose: poetry or prose?
I’d furiously declaim such a combination of Shakespeare’s plays, Keats’ letters, and Catherynne Valente’s everything that the gun-holder would be forced to stagger back beneath the weight of my refusal to acknowledge hard differences. Then I’d knee him in the nads.

2. Do you ever hate being a writer?
No – but I frequently hate being a lazy writer, or a procrastinating writer, or an inadequate writer.

3. You get to be any fictional character you want for a day, with no consequences – who do you choose and where do you go?
The Doctor – and I’d go everywhen and where, leaving silly messages in the past that show up as doorstops or graffiti in my friends’ haunts, en lieu of postcards.

4. You first decided to be a writer when …
… I was seven. I wrote a poem to the moon that rhymed “light” with “plight” and haven’t looked back since.

5. Donuts or danishes?
Donuts if they have a jelly filling; otherwise, danishes, unless the only filling available is lemon. Basically, give unto me the red and purple jams.

She blogeth here.

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Amuses me

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Worlds Next Door

Newly arrived on my doorstep:

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James Hopkins is a Genius

More here.

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Your Bookshelf Requires …

… The Third Bear by Jeff VanderMeer. It contains one of my favourite stories involving talking rabbits and Ariel Berg at the Sacramento Book Review says (among other things):

Lushly imaginative and thick with atmosphere, the meanings prove elusive while the stories brim with emotions, ranging from horror, alienation, and sorrow to humor, curiosity, and love.  VanderMeer’s stories are provocative marvels which collectively build into something colossally unforgettable. 

The rest lives here http://sacramentobookreview.com/poetry_short_stories/the-third-bear/

Oh, and what the hell, here’s a bonus VanderDrive-by, complete with the invention of a new kind of baked goods:

1. All stories can be improved by the addition of … stealth and the reduction of speed.
2. If I wasn’t writing I would be … hiking.
3. My wife is smarter than me because … I am stupid.
4. If I could be any fictional character for a day, with no consequences attached, I would be the protagonist of Alice in Wonderland, because I’ve never taken magic mushrooms.
5. Donuts (or doughnuts) or danishes? Dannuts.

 

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Highly Useful Post on Time Management …

… by Maggie Stiefvater (via Tansy Rayner Roberts). I like this post because it’s sensible and it puts responsibility for the writing, or lack thereof, squarely where it belongs – with the writer. Even if you don’t have kids, you can still find ways to waste time and make excuses for not writing (“Mmmmm, what’s that? Oh, yes, I will get to that chapter in a mo, but the bathroom desperately needs to be decorated with a mosaic referencing those of the baths of Herculaneun. Oh, yes, it must be done.”)

So back when I asked people what they’d like to hear me post about, I got a ton of a requests for a post about time management. The thing is, I feel a little weird about posting about it, because I don’t feel like an expert. An expert is someone who knows how to do something well, who makes it look effortless, and me. . . well, I could’ve had this post finished twenty minutes ago, but I got distracted watching Sponge Bob Square Pants while drinking my breakfast tea.
The rest lives here http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/159357.html

So basically, this: I don’t feel qualified as an expert. Time management is still something that I constantly have to work at — it’s not like washing dishes, which I’m perfectly certain I can accomplish. It’s more like writing, where each day is a new project I’m not sure I can pull off.

I think I get a lot done. But I don’t think it’s easy for me. I think that’s the best way to put it. I can joke about it being about caffeine and cookie dough or an inability to sit still, but what it comes down to is: it’s hard. I have to work at it. Anyone who thinks otherwise will be let down.

With that said, here are my basic principles of time management.

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Covets

http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/11/25/bear-sleeping-bag/

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Would someone please …

… feed that kid who plays Merlin a burger?

Am I the only one who notices this?

It’s bothering me more than the dialogue and the crappy, repetitive plots …

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Word from the Indie Press

Charles Tan, the Bibliophile Stalker (the only good stalker is a bibliophile stalker – no, really) interviews Alisa Krasnostein, Guiding Goddess of Aussie indie Twelfth Planet Press, over here http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-alisa-krasnostein.html

Writers who want to be informed will read this … take responsibility for your career and expand your knowledge of the industry!

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