Forward to February, 2006...

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Saturday 1-28-06

NEWSFLASH!

This is the week of Jury Duty.

I spent all of Friday (yesterday) at the auto mechanic's getting my old '92 Jeep Cherokee worked on, for the possible driving I'd have to do next week to make it to court. The Jeep's gonna be hitting 200,000 miles this week, and it's been making some noises, so off we went.

While I waited for the repairs in the waiting room, I finished reading The Courtesan by Julia Justiss, a charming and emotionally-true regency historical romance which I really enjoyed despite its absolutely anachronistic modern mindset and too-neat resolutions of every single little issue. The mindset of a strong woman and the perfectly honorable and sensitive man of the 19th century can be written in a time-appropriate way, so why can't most modern writers seem to do it? Are they are unwilling or unable to see the differences in mentality between the "good and honorable" of then and of now? These notions are universal and timeless, and it is only the specific details used in invoking them that need to be different and time-appropriate. Or is this pandering to a modern reader mindset promoted by the publisher? I am unsure, but do find it annoying. However, all reservations aside, I really liked the non-aggressive non-pushy romantic hero in this book, the honesty between the characters, the lack of convenient misunderstandings, and the portrayal of genuine honor, friendship, and affection as opposed to lust masquerading as "luuurv", and as a result it resonated for me on the emotional level, which to me is enough to forgive most other shortcomings. A very good and satisfying book.

Afterwards I just barely made it to Tai Chi, and missed seeing Jenn and Ondine in class.

When I called the court to see if I need to go in on Monday, the machine told me, no, I just need to call in again on Monday night to check about Tuesday. Yaay! One day down, four to go.

On the good news front -- my PS Publishing novella The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass made the 2005 Locus Recommended Reading List.

Congratulations to everyone else whose work also made it, including Jenn Reese, Anna Tambour, David Marusek, Paul Melko, Lois Tilton, Holly Phillips, William Sanders, Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, Sonya Taaffe, and Ekaterina Sedia, among many others. On the other hand, there is a glaring lack of certain other highly deserving individuals and works, that makes me go "Hmmmmmm."

Monday 1-23-06

NEWSFLASH!

Heartfelt sympathies and thoughts of gentle peace to Anna Tambour wo lost her beloved Rosie. The sorrow resonates here....

Welcome to Catherynne M. Valente's new literary blog Goblin Market.

The new year has stated out with chronic winds howling outside. My house is in a sort of wind corridor, but this is ridiculous. There are nowadays only winds and always winds whenever one steps outside. Cold winds, warm scalding winds. Little bitty breezy winds. What the frak? Is there any other kind of weather out there? Damn the global warming. And damn wind chimes -- my neighbor has wind chimes (not the fine quality melodic kind but the tinny tin-can kind) that are clackety-clacking on their patio, day and effing night, and I hate 'em and they are giving me a clackety headache, but there is nothing I can do about it. If I tell the neighbors, well, they are nice people but I just can't.... I can but invoke the wind gods to, like, go elsewhere for a while.

I have plans for the year ahead, but they are based on miracles and luck and some good, kind, world-class magic. First, I need to finish editing a story, "Niola's Last Stand," then will work on editing and bringing into shape an ancient novella The Duke In His Castle, and then, a novel, most likely Cobweb Bride. Giving myself 6 months maximum to finish these three projects, and yes I know, for some people this is laughable, but for me who writes at the rate of snail, this is progress. Wish me luck and miracles!

A couple of new reviews for The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass have popped up last week, one review over at Strange Horizons and the other in Rich Horton's SFF Net newsgroup. Rich Horton is also kind enough to place my novella on his Hugo long list and include it in his Virtual Best of the Year 2005.

And here, reposted from elsewhere, a meme:

Ten ways to tell you’re reading one of my stories:

1. Stodgy language and a whiff of the ancient, yet a timeless otherworld, era, or place.
2. Grandmothers. You have been warned.
3. Philosophy disguised as theme.
4. Justice meted out in the form of mercy and compassion.
5. Sacrifice.
6. The persistence of hope.
7. Threads of consequence that move like snakes across such distances that when you see the tail you also see the mouth.
8. Unconditional, unrequited, uni-directional love.
9. Evil that wears the skin of illusion, and is seen from the other side.
10. Meaning.

Monday 1-16-06

NEWSFLASH!

Notice anything unusual? :-)

Yup, a complete website and journal redesign.

Go ahead, click around. And please let me know if there's any funky glitch weirdness in your browser.

Happy New Year!

Vera Nazarian is a speculative fiction author, artist, and creator of wonder.