So the sidebar is still dropping down in Firefox. So sorry about that, I’m still trying to fix it, I swear. If you refresh a few times it usually hops back up… and it does work in IE. But yeah. Blech.
Anyhow, that isn’t my reason for posting here! Moving on!
As I repeatedly mention, I have my friends to thank if anything I write is polished enough to send off to an agent or publisher. I rely shamelessly on the kindness of, if not strangers, others. This is simply because I’ve never really been taught properly how to write (at least, not fiction) and so a lot of what I DO know comes from other people who’ve been kind enough to comment on something of mine, and sometimes become regular editors and critique partners. I’m singularly blessed with partners and friends of massive talent and knowledge. Thank god.
But I’m also blessed with friends who know a good fucking book when they see one, and a lot of my fiction reading list lately has been thanks to them. I’ve been on a long vacation recently, which was kind of an adventure, and I read so much awesome my head almost exploded. Thanks to them!
The forays into regency romance from Neuroscientist Reenie, for example. On a short visit to her up in NYC last week (we saw The Verve. Yes, weep in jealousy, for they were brilliant), she let me borrow some more Georgette Heyer, which I promptly swallowed whole on the travel adventure that followed. I read Sylvester on the train back to DC then the plane to Atlanta (long story, let’s just say I haven’t been in my own house for awhile), and then I read Venetia on the way back from Puerto Rico (which… is where I went after Atlanta. Like I say, long story.) Man, if you ever want some horribly clever vacation reading, go for Heyer. The woman is amazing. I love a romance where not only do they constantly mock romance novel convention (Mmm Austen fans of the world, unite and take over), but the female protagonist actually never utters the words “I love you.” I liked the former more than the latter, but that’s not saying anything bad about Venetia. She was awesome too. Sylvester is just kind of about two awful people, and it’s my kind of awful. And hilarious.
Then I re-read a bunch of Neil Gaiman, American Gods and Anansi Boys specifically. I’m sure anyone who knows me knows that he’s My Hero, so you can imagine how much fun it was for me. I forgot how funny Anansi Boys really is (Also: never noticed that he thanked PG Wodehouse in the credits before. I read it before I’d read any PG Wodehouse. My god, it’s all so clear.) And American Gods is one part Adventure, one part Black Humor, and two parts Weirdo Genius.
I also read a book my dad has been barking at me about for months now, Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s The Last Legion. Now, as a lover of both historical fiction and fantasy, you’d imagine this would be right up my tree. Reading the first page and seeing the name Ambrosius was a dead tipoff that not only is it two of my favorite genres, but it’s also Arthurian! However… it’s not that great, sadly. I wonder if a lot of it isn’t suffering in translation, since it’s Italian originally, really. But he’s one of those authors that kind of says, “Oh hey and she feels this way about him, by the way” and doesn’t really bother to show you how or why. He likes you to just take him at his word. But the Roman stuff was truly neat, and it’s a really cool example of how every country that touches the Arthurian Mythos wants to make itself an integral part. (Witness France and the disastrous fucking up of Guinevere. Thanks a lot, Lancelot, you jerk.) Not that Rome didn’t have anything to do with it, if we’re talking historically, just that it’s difficult to consider Arthur remotely Italian without a nudge in the right direction. Dude pulls it off. So it’s a good read, but not terribly well executed, is what I mean to say.
And now I have the awesome pleasure of re-reading the first two in Meghan Brunner’s Pendragon Trilogy (It’s hard not to love a story about Magick set in a Renn Faire. I mean, you get all the cool historical nerdery of the fest, plus the badass modern wit of an urban fantasy. And Ryna+Phoe=love.) So weeee, off to see the wizard, man.
Won’t be getting much writing done myself for the rest of the month, but that’s because I’m moving house in a week or two. After that, I suppose it’s time to buckle down, get Oubliette beaten into shape, finish the first draft of the other project I’m messing with right now (so close, but not close enough!), and hammer out some more short fiction ideas that have been rattling around in my skull for awhile now. Normally the delay would drive me nuts, but as long as I have good stuff to read, I can hold off my demons for a month, at least. Or so they’re letting me believe right now.
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Now playing: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Took Out a Loan
via FoxyTunes
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