Friends

There's something I'm going to get over and out of the way up front, and then we can move along to other things. But, firstly, those who read this journal need to know, truly need to know and believe, that I am not to be told – ever – what I may and may not write about here. For example, should you be so clueless a git as to tell me that I must "stop saying things about parenting" – just for example – I will tell you to fuck off. I don't care who you are. I don't care if you're a friend of a friend or if you're Stephen fucking King. Now, yes, of course, I'd like this blog to have as many readers as possible. That would be keen. That would be bow tie. But not at the expense of suffering fools. Especially fools who've apparently not a) read the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or who b) are unaware that this is, in fact, my blog, in which I am free to say any goddamn thing I wish, no matter how profane, unpopular, and no matter how much it might rub your little pet delusions the wrong way. So, yes, let's not mince words. If you have, or intend ever to, behave in such a fashion, fuck off. I have no need of you.

---

Yesterday, Spooky and I took the morning off and caught a painfully early matinée of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows. I honestly wasn't sure I'd like it. For many reasons, it could have been a train wreck. But I loved it. It's a delightful film. It's fun! Dark Shadows manages to balance camp and a cockeyed sort of earnestness in a way that far too few films do. Think Burton's own Edward Scissorhands (1990). Like that. The script and casting are both superb. The soundtrack and Danny Elfman's score are both wonderful, spot on (even if I can't get the Carpenter's out of my head today). The casting...okay, screw it. There's nothing I can think of offhand about this film that I didn't like, right down to the intentional continuity flaws. It won't break any box-office records. It might not even break even. But it's gonna be a great cult classic. I suspect the studio had no idea what to do with this film. It doesn't "fit" into any of the marketing folks' tidy little caskets. It's too busy being what it is, disregarding expectation. It's an homage, but it's also a parody possessed of an unexpected core of sincerity. I think lots of people take the original series far too serious, and miss its absurd, unavoidable campiness (which the cast never did). I'd say see it, but you might hate it, and then you'd blame me. But it's bow tie. Top to bottom, stem to stern. I will add that you ought recall the surviving cast members of the TV show were very pleased with the film, and that Kathryn and I are both fans of the original. Very nice that it was dedicated to the late Dan Curtis.

---

A paltry ten days stand between me and -08, which pretty much blows my goddamn mind. Who'd have ever thought I'd live this long. Should have seen me in 1991, or 1996, or even as recently as 2010, and you never would have believed it. Anyway, it seems I shall. I've been trying, very hard, not to think about it, so have neglected to post the usual link to my Amazon wish list.

However, should it come down to gifting me with this or that distraction, or, instead, picking up a copy of The Drowning Girl: A Memoir or preordering a copy of Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart, I'd prefer you buy one (or both) of those two books. It's a lazy and neglectful author who does not put her work ahead of birthday fripperies. And these two books have been woefully neglected, as I struggle with all the ins and outs of Alabaster: Wolves. However, if you're remarkably flush and desire to do both....

---

I assume subscribers have received Sirenia Digest #77. I'd love to hear reactions to it (or 76, or 75...). It's a lot easier to keep this up every month if I hear thoughts on the stories. And it's best if they're posted here, not emailed. Let's stimulate discussion!

---

Yesterday, after the movie, I came home and worked on this major revision of Alabaster: Wolves #5, and also went over cover copy (and rewrote a bit of said copy) for Blood Oranges, as Danielle, my bow-tie editor at Penguin has marketing nipping at her heels for copy on a book we've not even begun editing. Today, I have to sign signature sheets for Joshi's Black Wings II, which reprints my story "John Four," and proof the text for The Yellow Alphabet (the hardback chapbook that comes FREE with the limited of the aforementioned Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. Tomorrow, it's back to Alabaster: Wolves #5 (which I need to finish by Friday evening).

Last night, Spooky and I finished reading The Two Towers. I hope we can begin The Return of The King tonight. I'd forgotten what a fine chapter is "The Choices of Master Samwise."

And now...word mines!

Beastly,
Aunt Beast

And, thanks again to random.org, the winners are...

kindkit and ladysalieri!

Drop me a message and let me know where I should send your copies. 

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you all for playing!

A reader asks, "When will The Avengers be out?"

With its new title change to The Furies, the book will be out on June 28. The ebook may be released a little early, since it doesn't require time to print and there's no sense in holding the ebook and keeping people waiting longer when it's ready.

MGM has approved final changes, and currently The Furies is in layout and design, being transformed from a Word document into the format you see when you open the book. I should be getting the galleys next week for a final trip through proofreading and making one last run at typos and punctuation.

Once I get the galleys, we'll play the page number game again, where you give me a page number and I give you a bit from that page. Not long to wait now!

In the first installment of 100 Awesome Fics I've Read and Loved, I'll be sharing with you...

They'd Start To Think Of You As A Biter (5921 words) by norgbelulah, EngageProtocol
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Justified
Rating: Mature
Warning: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Boyd Crowder/Raylan Givens, Ava Crowder/Raylan Givens, Raylan Givens/Tim Gutterson, RaylanGivens/Winona Hawkins
Characters: Art Mullen, David Vasquez, Raylan Givens, Boyd Crowder, Ava Crowder, Winona Hawkins
Summary: Raylan Givens is a US Marshal, but he hasn't always been.

Okay, so I know that my name is on this fic, HOWEVER, I really only wrote under 200 words of this fic (points for anyone who can guess which part it was!), ONLY because EngageProtocol was kind enough to let me. So, I feel that it is well within my rights to rec this fic, and rec it I will! I will rec it like hell, because this fic is THE SHIT.

I was also lucky enough to get in on the ground floor of this absolutely lovely and soul-crushing AU. EngageProtocol asked me to beta in a message off tumblr and I jumped at the chance as soon as she said," dystopian reworking of the first season." I kid you not, that's what this is. It's AMAZING.

I was hooked on this fic from the very first scenes, especially from the astoundingly subtle introduction to just how much darker of a world our beloved characters are living in. To prove to you that this is the case, here is the chat transcript from a conversation I had with my friend about it:

me: this fic is like a vaguely dystopian reworking of the first season of justified
my friend: oooo
me: it sort of rewrites raylans history and then let's his thoughts about what happens in the first season play out a little differently
and there's a lot of really evocative imagery
it's ridiculous
my friend: :D
me: like, here is where it tells you:
“I had a crush on you from the time I was twelve years old.” Ava says, kissing him softly. He opens his lips to her, automatic. He keeps his eyes open.
“Heard you got sold off.” She whispers.
“You heard right.”
“That’s a damn shame.” She invites him in, gives him a glass and a smile. “You been to visit your Daddy yet?”
ugh
it's SO SUBLTE AND AWESOME
my friend: it is subtle
me: i wish i had thought to write this fic
my friend: hehe
I envy people who say what they want to say in so few words
me: the rest of it plays out similarly
my friend: 'cause I am wordy as shit even with creative writing
me: like dropping hints etc
yeah, if i get carried away i let myself get really wordy
dude, when this girl asked me to beta, she was like THIS DRAFT IS SO ROUGH
I DON"T KNOW WHAT SHE"S TALKING ABOUT
it's really good

I threw that last part in there, because I still don't know what the fuck she was talking about.  

The story arc of the first season is given to us in short,  heart-breaking vignettes, through the eyes of a much more damaged, still hard as nails Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens.  Engage's Raylan is beautiful and broken and everyone around him knows who he is and where he's been.  His thoughts are cold and his love for Harlan is even less than what we find in canon, yet his loneliness is almost palpable.

Basically, he gets all my tears and all my feels.  I love this fic so much.

It's a beautifully written piece from a newbie to the fandom and I'm super glad that I could rec it here for you as the first of my 100 things!

This entry was originally posted at http://norgbelulah.dreamwidth.org. Comment at Dreamwidth.

You guys? So my poor smushed big toe? My entire toenail now looks like I painted it Jötun blue. I kid you not. I am turning this color:



To say it is painful is an understatement. Noe and I are taking bets on how long it takes my toenail to fall off. D:

In Ascendio news--I know some of you are planning to buy a one-day pass. If you haven't done so, yet, there's a Google offer up for half-price on one-day passes for the con. You can find it here, but don't delay--they're only available for another day or so. So if you were thinking about going but can't pay the full registration price, this might be an option for you.

Also, for people looking for cheap accommodation, the Slash Suite has a few couches we're offering up for people to sleep on for a very nominal amount. If you're interested, PM me and we can talk details.

Oh, and we've concentrated the bulk of the slash programming on Saturday. Just so everyone's on the same page. :D

------------------

This entry was originally posted at http://femmequixotic.dreamwidth.org/499418.html where there are currently comments. You can comment here or there using OpenID.

I've made a bunch of new stuff, but none of it is quite finished yet, so I've listed some regular books on eBay. This isn't just any old PZB auction week, though. No, this is Bidding Starts At $5 Week! The chapbooks Stay Awake and Crown of Thorns, as well as hardcover copies of Plastic Jesus, Wrong Things, Antediluvian Tales, and even the deluxe tenth anniversary edition of Lost Souls, are all available for opening bids of just $5.

Besides blank journals, treasure boxes, and new covers for old books, I've also been making captions. Grey takes a photograph and writes a piece of prose to go with it, and I turn the prose piece into a sort of artwork to accompany the photograph. You can see one of our pieces and read more about the process in his blog entry here.

I just had one of those labor-saving strokes of genius that I need to share with the world. Which is to say, the easiest method ever in the history of popovers.

Here is my basic popover recipe:

2 tablespoons solid fat (butter or animal fat (duck fat, mmm) or solid shortening)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup (140 g) all purpose or white whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten

This tactic assumes you own a wand blender and a wide-mouthed quart Mason jar and a microwave. If not, just make the popovers the way you normally would--or if you are missing the wand blender but have a normal blender, you can melt the butter in a different container and use the normal blender.

About an hour or two before dinner, take your Mason jar. Put the butter/whatever in it. Put it in the microwave and melt it. (If you are making Yorkshire pud and are waiting for the roast to be finished before you add the fat, skip this step for now, and stir the fat in before you bake the popovers.)

Add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar to the butter in the Mason jar (or blender)(or just put them in the blender if you are adding the fat later). Do not put the eggs directly into the hot butter before diluting it with the milk. Otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, which are nice, but not popovers.

Whiz them all up with the wand blender.

Add the flour and the wheat gluten.

Whiz that too, until you have a nice smooth batter.

Let the batter sit on the counter until dinner is nearly ready. If you are roasting something at 400 degrees, you're good; otherwise preheat your oven to 400 (F). (200 C) 

Liberally grease 9 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin, or if you are making Yorkshire pud, drizzle a little of the fat from the roast into the bottom of the cups. If you have one of the giant-sized six muffin muffin tins, then you will have bigger popovers and they need to bake a little longer.

Using silicon cups for this results in popovers without stumps or a lot of loft, as they just levitate themselves out of the super-slick cups entirely. They still taste good!

If you are using fat from the roast you're making, add it now and stir it in.

Divide the popover batter between the nine greased cups. You can just pour it from the blender or the Mason Jar.

Stick in oven. Do not peek! If you open the door before they are set, they won't rise properly.

Bake for 35 minutes or until deep mahogany brown.

Pull pan from oven. Tilt popovers in cups, or remove them to a rack or basket. Pierce each one with a bamboo skewer. (careful of the steam!) The purpose of these two procedures is to (a) prevent them from getting soggy and (b) prevent them from collapsing.

Eat.

However you meant to eat them. Do not plan on leftovers.

Wash your one. dirty. dish. Oh, and the wand blender, sure. And the muffin tin. But that was inevitable.

---

ETA: Nota Bene

For even more loft in your popovers, preheat the muffin tin with the grease in it in the 400-degree oven for a few minutes before pouring the batter in. This is a bit tricky, though, and can be skipped.

To celebrate the upcoming release of Once Burned, from now though June 25th, my publisher is offering a special ebook edition of Eternal Kiss of Darkness for only $1.99! As some of you know, Eternal Kiss of Darkness won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Vampire Romance and it was a New York Times, USA Today, and international bestseller. Plus, in this limited-time discount edition, you can get a sneak peak at the entire first three chapters of Once Burned, available wherever books are sold June 26.

Mirrored from Frost Light.

Cyanide http://www.cyanide-studio.com/games/got/ has released their new Game of Thrones Role Playing Game today, on Xbox, PlayStation 3, and PC. I'm excited because this has been a long journey, from concept art and story outlines, to the demo I was shown a year ago, to what is now a complete game getting some positive notice http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/04/24/five-reasons-cyanides-game-of-thrones-rpg-actually-looks-pretty-awesome/

I admit, I haven't played a lot of the newer games, but I liked the look of the demo a lot. The armor is battered, the weapons are scarred, and the towns looked muddy and lived in.

Here's a short behind the scenes video detailing some of the process.



I got to approve a lot of concept art and story choices ahead of time, and I hope the players will feel like the final result fits in well with the story I've told in the books.

How not to start your day: dropping a full, unopened 2-liter of Coke Zero on your big toe. I've had my foot propped up under a bag of frozen peas for the past forty minutes and it STILL hurts. :(

And my toenail's going a lovely shade of purple. Woe.

ANYWAY.

I have been reading Loki fic, and I have some OTP Thoughts along with recs. So, in no particular order:

( Thor/Loki )

---

( Darcy/Loki )

---

( Loki/Steve )

---

( Loki/Tony )

------------------

This entry was originally posted at http://femmequixotic.dreamwidth.org/499176.html where there are currently comments. You can comment here or there using OpenID.

Since my "special edition" of Drawing Blood was well received, I'm working on a unique hardcover copy of Exquisite Corpse incorporating Grey's photos as well as other patterns and textures. It's bloody and decay-y, but (I think) kind of gorgeous.

Remember my jeweler e-friend Adelheide? Well, she's having a sale at prices you won't believe, so check her out!

I'm sorry I haven't made a real entry in a while. There are things I want to talk about, but I've been feeling mostly non-verbal. I am making a lot of stuff, though. Images seem to rule my world right now.

When people send me things from my wish list, I like to send them actual, physical thank-you notes. Unfortunately, Amazon no longer includes the gift-giver's mailing address, so I can't do that anymore. Instead, I offer a big public thank-you to Carl Kesner, Lisa Warner, Ed Stites, Jeremy Karass, and Kelly Wright for the lovely birthday gifts. Hope y'all see this. And not to drop hints, but HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE LONGEST I'VE EVER GONE WITHOUT READING A STEPHEN KING BOOK AFTER ITS RELEASE.

eBay auctions ending this evening: two of my handmade blank books and the copy of Drawing Blood for which I made a new cover. Check 'em out!

I do adore waking up and immediately discovering that the world is even more angrifying than when I went to sleep. Wait, no. That's not right. I don't find things worse upon waking. I'm not that goddamn naïve. I wake up, look at CNN.com, and get a face full of humanity. Which really puts the fault on me for looking, as humanity cannot be expected not to be angrifying. Like the woman on that Time cover (by her own leave). Attachment fucking "parenting"? Yes, Virginia, humans are the only mammals too stupid to know when to wean.

Or, worse still, the crazy shit black pastors are saying to defend the role they played in getting North Carolina's Amendment 1 passed and to justify their outrage at the President. For example, have a look at this article on the aforementioned CNN: "Is the Black Church Guilty of Spiritual Hypocrisy in Same-Sex Marriage Debate?" (I fixed the capitalization in the headline). The answer is "Fuck, yeah. Are you an idiot?" But the gem in this piece is, I think, Rev. Fred Robinson's (of Charlotte, NC) assertion that "It says in the Bible that homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God. How do you explain that one away?"

Don't explain it away. Fuck 'em. If I have to be someone other than who and what they would have me believe their god made of me (or made me weak enough I might become), if it's all that sick and twisted and sadistic, why would I want to dwell in the house of that lord? Maybe the truest mark of human intellectual evolution is giving our "gods" the middle finger. More and more, I think so. Circle back to XTC and "Dear God." Tell them to fuck off, then stop believing in them.

---

I've been getting a decent amount of reading done, though a lot of its been on the technical side. Spooky and I have been finishing up The Two Towers (we'd have been long since done, but it's been a crazy spring). I've read, in Chiappe and Witmer's Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs (University of California Press, 2002), Witmer's "The Debate on Avian Ancestry: Phylogeny, Function, and Fossils," Chiappe et al.'s "The Cretaceous, Short-Armed Alvarezsauridae: Mononykus and Its Kin," Novas and Pol's "Alvarezsaurid Relationships Reconsidered," and Elzanowski's "Archaeopterygidae (Upper Jurassic of Germany)." It's a very good volume, if a little dated. The study of the evolution of birds is progressing so rapidly these days that pretty much any book's bound (hahah) to be out of date by the time it's published. This is how science works.

Anyway, I've also been enjoying a couple of graphic novel adaptation of Lovecraft. I. N. J. Culbard's take on "At the Mountains of Madness" (Sterling, 2010) is wonderful, and I'm equally enamored with Volume 1 of Self Made Hero's Lovecraft Anthology (2011, 2012). Neat stuff.

---

have you pre-oredered your copy of Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart? If not, please do. I think I'm going to be sending a copy to Rev. Fred Robinson in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Also, there's the ongoing Alabaster auction. Letter "F" (is for Flammarion!), so don't forget to have a look. Remember, this is a one of a kind auction.

---

Friday: Spooky had a migraine, and I suffered from a lack of focus. Sirenia Digest #77 went out in the ayem, and I answered a lot of email. But not much else, writing-wise. I washed some clothes and had another go at organizing my office. Spooky was feeling better by the evening, so we had a good Kindernacht. We watched Troy Nixey's "remake" of Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2010). Nixey's film isn't so much a remake, I'd say, as a masterful reimagining, and vast improvement upon, the original 1973 version (which, ahem, I saw when it was new). A very nice fairy tale inversion, and I highly recommend it (as does Guillermo del Toro, by the way). Right now, you can stream it from Netflix.

Saturday: I took a day off, because the weather had finally begun to warm up (now that we're halfway through May). We wanted to drive to the coast, but wound up at the Old North Burial Ground, instead. Which was nice. Spooky found the grave of an ancestor (on her mother's side). I found names for stories. A mockingbird sang to us, and then we sang to it, and then it sang back to us. Swapping songs with birds. There will be photos from the cemetery in tomorrow's entry. Also, Saturday night we saw the very fine Fringe season finalé (just one season to go!).

Sunday: Yesterday, the entire day was spent reading back over – picking back over – Alabaster: Wolves #5. I read the entire script aloud to Spooky. I'm actually about to do that thing I almost never do. A genuine rewrite. I'm gutting the script. I wasn't well when I wrote it, and it shows, and this series needs the best ending I can write. This script is not the best ending I can give it. So, now that I have it all in my head, and now that I've talked through various alternative takes, today I begin remaking it.

And, fuck, it's 12:52 p.m. Comment! Well, comment if you've read this far. And I doubt many have. I can spend an hour writing a blog entry, or thirty seconds on a tweet. I can spend five minutes reading a blog entry, or fifteen seconds reading a quip on Facebook. It's clear what most people choose. Their loss.

Grateful for Green,
Aunt Beast

I'll just leave this here for you, mmmkay? :D :D :D :D :D


Loki/Tom Hiddleston Friending Meme


Also, I stayed up until 3 a.m. last night reading fanfic. GOD, I LOVE SUMMER VACATION.

ETA: And for the HP side...you guys, I am totally writing for this fest this summer and I KNOW there are some of you on my flist who want to claim a prompt or two. You've got THREE DAYS left and there are some AWESOME ones over there. Go! Look! Claim! Write me some Snaco, please, please, PLEASE?


Draco art by savvysleeves, banner by calrissian18

------------------

This entry was originally posted at http://femmequixotic.dreamwidth.org/498919.html where there are currently comments. You can comment here or there using OpenID.

invaderxan offers a beautiful artist's impression of sunset on Venus. With bonus rising evening star--Earth and its Moon, in this case.

So this is one of those things where I’ve been quiet because there’s a lot going on. I’ve put off announcing this part of it, but for obvious reasons I can’t do that much longer. So here goes.

Night Shade Books and I have parted ways. They will not be publishing the third book in the Dirge for Prester John series, and rights for The Habitation of the Blessed and The Folded World have reverted to me.

I continue to think that Night Shade puts out wonderful books and I hope for their success. I did not take this step lightly. But their recent troubles have made our business relationship difficult, and I could not in good conscience proceed with a third book given the circumstances. Obviously I’m being a bit vague–there’s no point in airing laundry in public. This was a very hard decision, believe me. It is not about ill will or some juicy internal drama I’m keeping on the DL. Nothing juicy about it. It was a business issue that we could not, finally, resolve. It was ultimately an act of self-preservation, and I’ll leave it at that.

What this means is that at the moment, The Habitation of the Blessed and The Folded World are for the most part unavailable. Some copies will float around for awhile yet, but most of the eversions are gone. I hope to fix this in the next week–I have relicensed the covers from the excellent Rebecca Guay and Night Shade has been very kind and accommodating with regards to physical copies and digital files. Very shortly you will be able to buy ebooks again from Amazon, BN, Apple, etc, and order physical copies directly from me.

As for the third and final book in the series, The Spindle of Necessity, I am committed to finding a way to make sure you get to see it. I owe you a finish. Oddly enough, Prester John is my longest series to date, and I want to bring it all to a close the way I planned to from the beginning. For those of you who have stuck with the story, don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging. Given the market realities, the most likely avenue for this is a Kickstarter campaign to fund a self-published version. Because the real costs of producing an ebook/limited print edition of a quality that matches the rest of the series are actually quite high, I will be using this opportunity to illustrate those costs, hiring the content editor, copy editor, and cover artist who worked on the previous books and paying them their market rates. This is a hefty undertaking, but one I believe will be valuable as part of the ongoing discussion surrounding epublishing.

I’ve been gathering details on that and doing research–as I leave for Finland tomorrow, it will not begin until I get back. If anyone has any Kickstarter advice or help they’d like to offer, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I ran Fairyland off of my own site quite apart from what is now becoming the “traditional” approach to self-publishing. I’m a bit at sea with the standard tools. The novel was not set to come out until February 2013, and I think we can stick to that timetable.

So that’s the situation. I’ll let you know as soon as the novels are available again. I’ll be heading once more into unknown waters and hoping it all comes out well in the end. I’m very sorry to have had to take this step, but I believe it was the right thing to do.

Mirrored from cmv.com. Also appearing on @LJ and @DW. Read anywhere, comment anywhere.

The very first review of Lost Things! This will be in next month's Geek Speak magazine!

"The novel itself is a deft blend of supernatural intrigue and the noir adventure of serials from the 1930s, something that is rare to find and even rarer to find done well. Lost Things is a throwback in the best sense of the word.... The end result is a vibrant and utterly believable world peopled by characters you can't wait to see in action again."

Point of Knives received a very nice review in Publishers Weekly over the weekend!

To celebrate that, and the upcoming July release, I've got another giveaway: I have two copies of the galleys of Point of Knives, which I'll send to two people who comment here - chosen at random, of course. 

There's a little something special about these galleys, too.  At the excellent suggestion of Lethe's editor, Steve Berman, I added one last little bit to the story after the galleys were printed, and I'll include that as well.  So you'll get the galleys plus the sheet with the additional paragraphs - signed, if you'd like.

Comment here if you'd like to participate in the drawing.  I'll choose two names at random Wednesday morning, and post the winners! Good luck!

So, apparently I got mono.  And that's been amazing.

And by amazing, I mean terrible.

The bad news is I spent a week at home by myself with a terrible sore throat,  not making any money because I don't have sick leave.  The good news is, I rested up and got a shit ton of writing done.

Chapter 4 of Take Care of You is finished, and it's the shit, if I do say so myself.  Chapter 5 is all up in my head and ridiculously epic.

I made a breakthrough on my exchange fic today also.  It's full of angst and porn.  I hope that's exciting for people.

Otherwise I just watched a bunch of movies and TV and pretended like I was missing work.  When in reality all I was missing was the paychecks I won't be getting two weeks and a month from now.  :(

I feel like I had some other stuff to say, but it escapes me just now.  


This entry was originally posted at http://norgbelulah.dreamwidth.org. Comment at Dreamwidth.

One day soon, maybe tomorrow, I'll sit down and write a real "this-is-what-I've-been-doing" entry. But for now, just a reminder that we have the very special Alabaster auction up, and the clock's ticking. Please have a look. This is letter F of the limited edition ("F" is for Flammarion!), and we rarely offer the limiteds of this book. Much less do we offer them with a one-of-a-kind prop from Les Fleurs Empoisonnees.

One day, someone will actually solve the mystery of Miss Aramat Drawdes. Maybe. There are secrets and scars and personal demons I show all the world, but keep entirely to myself.

More tomorrow, kittens.

Briefly,
Aunt Beast

So I'm finally catching up on the last three episodes of Criminal Minds. And damn, I really like "The Company."

Title: The Beifong Conversation
Fandom: The Legend of Korra
Characters/Pairings: Tenzin, Korra/Lin Beifong
Rating: General
Word Count: 100
Summary: A conversation that Tenzin and Korra are not having.
Content Info: Contains a seventeen-year-old with a crush on an older woman.
Notes: Spoilers for episode 1x06.

( The Beifong Conversation )

This entry is also posted at http://delphi.dreamwidth.org/306225.html where it has comments. You can comment there using OpenID.

(Picture totally stolen fron Jon Skovron's Tumblr)

Lately I've heard from several people who are fans of Napoleonic General Jean-Baptiste Corbineau. I had no idea that Corbineau had fans! I certainly adore him, and I've enjoyed writing him in The General's Mistress, The Emperor's Companion, and The Marshal's Lover, my third book in the Wars of Revolution series. And so, for the people who wanted more Corbineau, this is the very first scene in the third book. It also introduces one of my favorite people in the whole saga, Maria Walewska!

So step right in to a fateful Imperial ball in January, 1807. (No, you don't have to have read anything first.) In which various currents in the Numinous World come full circle.

Trivia for those who are interested: this was the first scene written in the Elza books, in 1990.

( The Marshal's Lover )


I would love, love, love to hear what you guys think!

GAH. I JUST CAN'T EVEN--WHAT IS THIS BREAKING IN MY HEART?

Goddammit, Loki, you bastard.

*hits replay again*

*chokes back a sob*

*gives in to new OTP*

Also, you guys....I bought a comic book for the first time in my life today because of this fandom. I DON'T EVEN KNOW. I just. LOKI, you know? D: D: D:

------------------

This entry was originally posted at http://femmequixotic.dreamwidth.org/498638.html where there are currently comments. You can comment here or there using OpenID.

( Clip from Legend of Korra 1x06 )

Chief Lin Beifong, everybody. Hottest thing that has ever hotted.

This entry is also posted at http://delphi.dreamwidth.org/306137.html where it has comments. You can comment there using OpenID.

(Which we were, a couple posts down)

... Subterranean Press will soon be published a new signed, limited, slipcased limited edition of my first novel, DYING OF THE LIGHT, lavishly illustrated by the amazing Tom Kidd.



You can order your own copy from the SubPress website, here:

http://www.subterraneanpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=martin10&Category_Code=PRE&Product_Count=24

Also, Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is giving away a copy for FREE in one of their contests. To enter, go here:

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.ca/2012/05/win-copy-of-limited-edition-of-george-r.html

Good luck to all, and enjoy the read.

A reader asks, "Now that the fourth book (in the Legacy series) is finally coming out, do you have any idea when the others will come out too?"

I have a schedule approved by MGM. Of course, everything is always subject to change, but to the best of my knowledge at the moment this is the plan for the next few Stargate books through the end of the year.

June 14 SG-1 19 -- Oceans of Dust by Peter Evans
June 28 SGA 19 -- The Furies: book four of Legacy by Jo Graham
July 21 SG-1 20 -- Heart's Desire by Amy Griswold
August 7 SGA 20 -- Secrets: book five of Legacy by Jo Graham and Melissa Scott
Sept. 21 SG-1 21 -- The Drift by Diana Dru Botsford (sequel to Four Dragons)
Nov. 1 SGA 21 -- The Inheritors: book six of Legacy by Jo Graham, Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold

Moebius Squared, the SG-1 novel I did with Melissa Scott, will be early in the new year.

I will absolutely post as I know changes to the schedule, and as of now you know what I know!

I have been buried in work since getting back from England and Portugal. So much stuff piles up when I am away for any length of time, and there are only so many hours in the day. There were a number of subjects I wanted to make long Not A Blog posts about... but the time just wasn't there, and I needed my energy for other things.

Anyway, it's too late to do the posts now, but let me at least touch on a number of the things I would have talked about at length, if I had found the time.

The Hugos. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS made the Hugo shortlist for Best Novel. I am very pleased by that. DANCE has received a number of awards and honors since it was published, not to mention the best reviews of my career (and I have always been pretty well reviewed), but I'm an old fanboy, and the Hugo is special to me. It's the Big One: the oldest award in the field, and the most meaningful, since it's voted by the fans. So I am thrilled to be on the ballot. And I'm just as thrilled... well, no, not really, ALMOST just as thrilled... that one of the books DANCE will be contending against is LEVIATHAN WAKES, by James S.A. Corey, who is really my friends Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. LEVIATHAN's a terrific read as well. So congrats to Corey, and to the other books on the ballot. And to Anne Groell and Michael Komarck, nominated for the first time for Best Editor (Long Form) and Best Professional Artist, respectively. Long deserved. Finally, there's Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, where HBO's GAME OF THRONES is a finalist. I'm pleased by that as well. Congrats to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and their terrific team at HBO. Now all we have to do is beat four major motion pictures with budgets that dwarf ours... though that's probably an easier go than winning in Short Form, where I think the double juggernaut of the Neil Gaiman episode of DR. WHO will steamroller all opposition. Anyway... win, lose, or draw, it IS fun to have a horse in the race. Thanks to everyone who nominated.

The NFL. Yes, I did watch the rest of the draft. Every bloody round. Of course, since I do not follow college football, the deeper we get into the draft, the more the names are just names to me. Overall, I came away with the feeling that the Giants had a better draft than the Jets, but only time will tell. I was interested to see how many second generation players came out this year... the sons of players I once cheered on. Dave Meggett's son. Al Toon's son. And I see the younger son of Phil Simms has just been signed by the Jets as a free agent. Talk about making me feel old. I remember when their fathers were rookies. sigh

The TV show. I finished and delivered my script for season three of GAME OF THRONES. It's episode 307, with the working title "Autumn Storms." David and Dan seem to like it. Casting is in full swing for the new season, so I'm watching auditions every night. Froggy may be turning up soon, but don't hold your breath. I'm too busy to devote much time to whipping up obscure clues.

New deals. Gardner Dozois and I have sold three new original anthologies: a big crossgenre anthology called ROGUES, in the tradition of our old WARRIORS anthology, and a set of paired Retro-SF anthologies called OLD MARS and OLD VENUS. Or did I mention that already? Sorry, all you aspiring writers out there, they are by invitation only. I wish I had time to read unsolicited submissions, but I don't.

Old deals. Our DANGEROUS WOMEN anthology is edging toward completion. Waiting on some rewrites and one last major story. We'll likely be late delivering that one.

WILD CARDS. Close to a deal for a new original and four more reprints. Meanwhile, Melinda Snodgrass and I are working on volume twenty-two, LOWBALL, a sequel to FORT FREAK. And speaking of FORT FREAK, that one is out in paperback. Melinda is also scripting the Wild Cards movie for SyFy films. And a new Wild Cards comic miniseries is in the works.

Next trip. Seems like I just got home, and I don't believe all my suitcases are unpacked yet, but Miscon in Missoula, Montana is coming up soon, so I'll be hopping on a plane again in a couple of weeks. I hope to see some old friends there, and make some new ones.

Reading. I just finished THE KING'S BLOOD, the second volume of Daniel Abraham's "Dagger and Coin" series. Books like this remind me why I love epic fantasy. Yes, I'm prejudiced, Daniel is a friend and sometime collaborator... but damn, that was a good book. Great world, great characters, thoroughly engrossing story. The only problem was, it ended too soon. I want more. I want to know what happens to Cithrin, and Marcus, and Geder, and Clara. And I want to know NOW. God damn you, Daniel Abraham. I know for a fact that you are writing more Expanse books with Ty, and more urban fantasies as M.L.N. Hanover, and doing short stories for some hack anthologist, and scripting some goddamn COMIC BOOK, and even sleeping with your wife and playing with your daughter. STOP ALL THAT AT ONCE, and get to writing on the next Dagger and Coin. I refuse to wait.

(Yes, for the irony impaired, the paragraph above is me being snarky. I WAS disappointed when Daniel's book was over, though... and the moment the next volume is available, I intend to snatch it up at once. Meanwhile, there are other good books to read).

Calendar. Just got advance copies of the 2013 Ice & Fire calendar, illustrated by Marc Simonetti. My, but it's gorgeous. The rest of you will be able to buy calendars in July. As in previous years, the calendar will debut at the San Diego Comicon. And yes, I will be at the San Diego Comicon again. Not for the whole thing, no. San Diego was not on my schedule this year, but HBO wants me there for the GAME OF THRONES panel, so I'm going to squeeze in a quick visit on my way to Spain.

More calendar. I've been seeing some preliminary sketches from Gary Gianni for the 2014 calendar, and that one is going to be a knockout as well.

THE LANDS OF ICE & FIRE. Map book. In the pipeline. My part is done, now the mapmakers and artists are doing theirs.

THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE. Concordance. Working on it. Just sent a big chunk to Bantam.

WINDS OF WINTER. Yes, I'm working on that too. At the moment, I am writing about the Dothraki. More than that, I sayeth not, you know I don't like to talk about this stuff.

Other stuff? Yes, lots of other stuff... but it's late and I'm tired, so this will have to hold you for now. More odds and more ends another day. Talk amongst yourselves.