We’re Back and it’s the End of the Month

Oh, hey, we’re back in our house, and we’ve put most of the furniture back, so, you know, progress.

Also, all the houseplants got stuck in the office while the ceiling/walls were being redone, and I kind of like it. My own personal jungle. I am considering leaving them all here and potentially getting even more.

But we’ll see. I am a notorious houseplant killer and I’ve found that moving plants after they get used to something is generally a bad idea. I had two plants in college, an African violet and a tea rose, that I somehow kept alive and happy with my florescent desk lamp, and when I upgraded to a room off campus and natural sunlight, they both died.

I feel like July has been mostly catch-up, trying to recover from the fact that June was useless, and I feel like I’m getting closer. Actually, I’m going to take a look at my yearly goals and see what’s what.

Apparently I’m supposed to be finishing up my draft of World’s Edge because according to this I was supposed to have finished the changeling story in June. Actually, this has me working on both through May and June, which seems like bad planning on my part. Or maybe I just thought I’d pick one and run with it.

Actually, my timing on this is quite suspect. I’ve got five different projects on here for April, for example. Maybe I was thinking that if I was going to get to that project, that would be the month to do it.

January!Kit was full of hope and promise. LITTLE DID SHE KNOW.

I’m going to tweak this real quick. Hold on. (She says, like you’re not going to read this all at once.)

ANYWAY. July’s gone pretty well. Despite the anxiety of not living at home for two weeks, I actually had my second highest word count month. It’s not an impressive word count, but it’s not awful. I’m over halfway on the changeling story and have hit the point where I hate everything, but all that’s fixable in revision. And I am caught up on my prompt response stories, and almost caught up on my monthly reading goals.

For August, as we wait for school to never start, my goal is to work on finish the changeling story draft. If that gets done (unlikely, but hey, anything is possible) I’m going to revise my scifi horror novella that I finished earlier in the year. I put it through a critique marathon and got a ton of great feedback, but then, like an idiot, I had to move out of the house and got distracted and didn’t download the feedback for the last two weeks, and they only keep a few weeks of feedback because the server gets overloaded.

So that’s very distressing. I posted on the boards, though, and I’ve gotten a couple of emails with missing critiques, but alas, I will never regain some of it. And the end had the most comments, of course.

But, hey, no use crying over spilled milk.

And that will probably take us to Nano. Last year went pretty well, so, depending on the school situation and whatnot, we may give it a go again. Or not.

Also, I spent yesterday drawing a castle. It looks pretty nice in real life, but I both took a picture and scanned it, and couldn’t get it to quite look right. Ah well.

Anyway, how are you, squiders? I’m pretty done with the whole pandemic thing, but I suspect everyone is. MileHiCon is going virtual and I need to decide what I’m doing with it. How are you guys doing, mentally?

Library Book Sale Finds: The Door into Fire by Diane Duane

Finally! I’ve been reading this book for two months. There’s not even any reason why it’s taken so long except I can’t focus at all right now and so am in the middle of four books (and have six more out from the library like an idiot). Is that one of the stages for dealing with trauma? Inability to focus? It’s driving me mad.

I have high respect for Diane Duane. I found her, I suspect, like a lot of people do: from her Star Trek novels. Two in particular were very influential on me: My Enemy, My Ally; and The Romulan Way. Because of those books, the Romulans are my favorite Trek species to this day, and, when I did Star Trek roleplaying as a teenager, I often played Romulans, either as my main characters, or when side characters were needed.

(You can see me geek out about Star Trek: Picard having them speak Rihannsu–the Romulan language Ms. Duane created–onscreen here.)

That being said, I’d never read any of her original work, just her Star Trek work, so when I came across her very first book at a library book sale, well, it was mine.

Title: The Door into Fire
Author: Diane Duane
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Year: 1979

Pros: Extensive mythology, Sunspark
Cons: Sometimes gets a bit infodumpy

I’m kind of in awe of this book, to be honest. I mean, it reads very much of its time, using conventions that you (unfortunately) can’t get away with in modern fantasy, but the amount of care that went into the worldbuilding, character arcs, and the setting is impressive no matter what.

This is the first book in her Middle Kingdoms series. There are three books and more shorter works; she has a whole website for it. The story takes place in a somewhat standard alternative Europe fantasy setting, and follows Hereweiss, the first man in a thousand years to possess a magic called the Flame, though he cannot access or use said magic.

(I will note that there is a complicated relationship system set up, and that this book features characters of various orientations without calling out any of them as strange or different. I know some people like to look for books that specifically feature non-cishet relationships, so here you are.)

Hereweiss’s quest to access his Flame has consumed him, but no matter what he tries, he seems to be getting no closer to an answer. However, he’s distracted from that because his loved, who is the exiled king of a neighboring country, has gotten into trouble and needs rescuing. (Apparently again.)

The story’s strength is very much in the depths of the world creation. This feels like a fully formed world, with mythology and history and the works. It doesn’t read all too differently in places than some of the other late 70s/early 80s fantasy we’ve discussed here on the blog that tends to be more real-mythology based.

Also, there is Sunspark, who is my favorite in every way. You’ll have to read the book to learn more about it.

So! I enjoyed this and would recommend it. I find first novels to be very interesting, especially from authors who had published a lot of books and have been publishing for a while. And Ms. Duane obviously has a talent for worldbuilding–probably why the Romulans spoke to me so much in those later books.

How are you, squiders? I am still behind on everything, but at least I am catching up.

Berries and Elephants

Information comes from the weirdest places sometimes, doesn’t it?

Holly Lisle, who is one of my favorite writing teachers (and if you’re looking for writing classes, feel free to check hers out in my affiliate link above), has a saying about berries and elephants. I’m going to massacre it here, but the gist is that how much a writer should know about their world is the size of an elephant, but you don’t stick that elephant in the story, oh no. You only put in a berry here, and a berry here, and only what’s applicable to the story at hand.

(I think it was Holly Lisle. My memory is shoddy.)

I’m working on my changeling story again this month, though admittedly not going anywhere fast due to the same issues as last month, as well as, you know, having construction done on my house and not actually being there most of the time. (It is running twice as long as predicted. But soon, hopefully.) And while the story itself is moving okay, I can already tell that the worldbuilding is going to need some streamlining and fleshing out in revision.

Faerie lore is vast and contradictory, so I’m making do the best I can. Also, you know, trying not to have it feel like a generic faerie story. As such, I’m spending more time actively researching during writing, which is not my favorite thing to do. And I’m not sure it’s helping, since the Internet sources I tend to turn up are about the tiny little winged fairies you can attract to your gardens and whatnot and not the Faerie of mythology.

Now, because I’m doing a lot more driving (due to not being as close to my normal haunts as usual) I’ve been catching up on my podcasts, or attempting to, anyway. First I caught up on Limetown, which only has twelve episodes or something like that. One of my creepy mystery ones. I guess they wrote a novel, but I read the excerpt and Lord, it was awful. I couldn’t even get through it. I suspect it’s because the sort of telling you do in a fake investigative podcast doesn’t cross over so well.

(Which is the reason I always listen to the Welcome to Night Vale novels rather than read them. Maybe they’re fine to be read. But they sound like Night Vale episodes, so it makes the most sense to me to just listen to them.)

Then I caught up with Tanis, which I like but which also frustrates me. It’s designed to draw you in, but there are so many plot points that seem important that then just disappear. I’m not sure there’s an actual planned story arc so much as just throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the plot and seeing what sticks. I guess a new season is coming out soon, but it hasn’t yet, so huzzah, I’ll take it while I can.

Night Vale I’m not listening to because I’m most of the way through It Devours! which is their second novel. (Audiobook version, as discussed above.) That seems like it would be confusing.

So the podcast I am listening to while I’m driving about is Myths and Legends. (Sometimes I listen to It Devours! but there’s also a lot of cussing and the small, mobile ones are often with me, so sometimes it’s best to…not.) I like it because it draws on numerous mythologies and also because I like the guy telling the stories. Anyway, the last episode I listened to was the original version of Beauty and the Beast, which, as opposed to being an oral folktale, was a story written in 1740.

Apparently the original is much longer and stranger than the condensed version (which came out in 1756). I’ve been scanning through it because Myths and Legends guy said that there were 20 pages (out of a 100-page story) about Faerie politics.

Said narrator was obviously not into said 20 pages of Faerie politics, but it sounds like it might be a good resource for me. I have found the Faerie politics, but thus far haven’t learned much. But hey! Still have ten pages to go.

I just thought it was funny that potentially-helpful Faerie politics showed up, in all things, in a podcast about the original version of Beauty and the Beast.

I also saw a neat thing on Writer Unboxed about using a setting mindmap to drive potential plot points. Might give that a try too.

How are you, squider? I hope to back in my house by the end of the week at the latest (but then, you know, I have to put the house back together, so it’ll probably be Monday before things are functional again).

Promo and Review: Taking Time by Mike Murphey

Book 1, Physics, Lust and Greed Series

Humorous Science Fiction

Date Published: June 15, 2020

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

The year is 2044. Housed in a secret complex beneath the eastern Arizona desert, a consortium of governments and corporations have undertaken a program on the scale of the Manhattan Project to bludgeon the laws of physics into submission and make time travel a reality.

            Fraught with insecurities, Marshall Grissom has spent his whole life trying not to call attention to himself, so he can’t imagine he would be remotely suited for the role of time travel pioneer. He’s even less enthusiastic about this corporate time-travel adventure when he learns that nudity is a job requirement. The task would better match the talents of candidates like the smart and beautiful Sheila Schuler, or the bristle-tough and rattlesnake-mean Marta Hamilton.

            As the project evolves into a clash between science and corporate greed, conflicts escalate. Those contributing the funding are mostly interested in manipulating time travel for profit, and will stop at nothing, including murder, to achieve their goals.

About the Author

Mike Murphey is a native of eastern New Mexico and spent almost thirty years as an award-winning newspaper journalist in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. Following his retirement from the newspaper business, he and his wife Nancy entered in a seventeen-year partnership with the late Dave Henderson, all-star centerfielder for the Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners. Their company produced the A’s and Mariners adult baseball Fantasy Camps. They also have a partnership with the Roy Hobbs adult baseball organization in Fort Myers, Florida. Mike loves fiction, cats, baseball and sailing. He splits his time between Spokane, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona, where he enjoys life as a writer and old-man baseball player.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js

Review:

I enjoyed this book! It’s not the most standard of story formats (in terms of plot and pacing) but that doesn’t really bother me. I don’t think I would call it humorous science fiction. Maybe if you find dick jokes funny, but I don’t. (And if you really don’t, this is not the book for you. To be honest, if they’d gone on much longer at the beginning, I would have put it down.)

The story follows three candidates selected to be some of the first humans to travel through time: Marshall, Sheila, and Marta. The formatting in the review copy I received was a little wonky, missing things like page and chapter breaks (and italics) and sticking page numbers and the book title in between paragraphs, which was a little distracting (and sometimes hard to tell when points of view changed) but I figured it out eventually. Marshall, Shiela, and Marta are very different in personality, but all of them are likable and easy to follow along with. There are also sections from other characters.

The story follows the time travel program from when the potential time travelers arrive on campus as the program evolves as they discover more about how time travel actually works.

The story is very readable. The time travel is interesting though not terribly revolutionary if you read a lot of time travel-related stories. The characters are believable and sympathetic. It’s also a fairly quick read, all things considered, and it’s easy to keep reading.

So, if you like time travel stories, don’t mind stories that are a little more meandering in their plotlines, and can withstand dick jokes, you might consider picking this one up.

Feeling Untethered

So, we’re temporarily not living in our house. Most people, when they’re very sick, will sleep and read and watch TV, but my husband decided this was a perfect time to have work done on the house.

Specifically, to remove the early 80s popcorn ceiling throughout. Which precipitated not only having to get almost everything we own out of the house, but also ourselves, since there is not usable furniture or anything of that ilk.

(It sucks to take everything you own out of your house. It’s like moving, but without the end result of hopefully having a nice, new place to live.)

So we’re living with my mother-in-law this week, which isn’t bad, but it does make me feel…listless. I don’t have anything to do–no real dishes, or chores, or cleaning. She’s around to help with the small, mobile ones so I don’t need to focus on them as much as usual. I should be able to do all the writing and drawing and whatnot that I could possibly want to.

But I’m not. Mostly I’ve been listening to the TANIS podcast and using a coloring app on my phone (one of those color by number apps).

I kind of hoped it was just yesterday–a recovery, if you will, from spending several days moving everything I owned. Today isn’t much better.

(And now it’s Wednesday, so apparently Tuesday was not better at all.

I have managed to read a book I owe a review on, so there’s something! But man, it is rough going here. Tomorrow, perhaps?

How are you doing, squiders? Tips for re-setting yourself when everything feels adrift?

Promo: The Dark that Dwells by Matt Digman and Ryan Roddy

Good morning, squiders! Today I’ve got a science fiction book for you! Feel free to check it out if it sounds interesting (it comes out today!).

Science Fiction

Release Date: July 10, 2020

 

THE DARK THAT DWELLS is a debut space opera novel featuring an unforgettable ensemble cast, planet-hopping across an expansive galaxy on the brink of war.

The story unfolds through the viewpoints of four characters: SIDNA ORIN, a mercurial young arcanist, striving to gain the lost knowledge that could save her people. FALL ARDEN, honorable sword-for-hire, working as a guide on a dangerous expedition into an unexplored frontier. BAN MORGAN, disgraced marine wielding high-tech weaponry, chained by remorse and the ghosts of his past. TIEGER of WESTMARCH, fanatical zealot, empowered with the seemingly divine technology of his overlord and a starship feared across generations.

THE DARK THAT DWELLS holds virtual worlds lost in crystal relics, visceral close-quarters combat, mysteries of the divine and the arcane, companionship and bittersweet romance, insidious deception, and the looming threat of a horror who hungers for the souls of mankind.

This story is essential for readers craving robust, character-driven adventures on fantastic alien worlds, bullet-ridden spaceships barely held together, and the expansive infinity of space-time itself.

 

About the Authors

Matt Digman is exactly one half the creative force behind the epic fantasy space opera novel, The Dark That Dwells. Born and raised in Arkansas, he spent his free time studying Star Wars technical manuals, searching for his next favorite RPG, and watching his Star Trek: TNG VHS tapes until they fell apart. Basically, he was nerdy when nerdy wasn’t cool. He currently works as a pediatric emergency medicine physician in Alabama and writes when he ought to be sleeping.

Ryan Roddy grew up across the southeast, chasing her dream of becoming a professional actress. Though she eventually traded the stage for a stethoscope, she never gave up her love for great storytelling—or for playing dress up as an adult. Now she works as a pediatric emergency medicine physician to afford her cosplay and Disney obsessions. She loves the characters she’s written for The Dark That Dwells with her husband almost as much as she loves him and their four dogs.

 

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Trying to Pass On Favorite Books to the Next Generation

When I was, oh, 15 or so, I very intentionally packed away all the children’s books I’d kept, with the thought that I would pass them on to my children when I had them. The box of books got moved around for a while, and as of right now, the books are sitting on the bookcase in the basement, which is sort of a catchall for books from my spouse’s and my childhoods.

(His are mostly old joke books and scouting-related things, some space and science books, things like that. All our yearbooks are down there. Mine are a lot of Star Trek novels, manga, and old scifi that, for the most part, I never got around to reading.)

(Some day.)

Anyway, I’ve been reading The Artist’s Way for Parents, which is about instilling creative principles in your children, and there was a section about reading to your kids, which for us has fallen apart in the last few months, partially because of my spouse’s medical issues, and partially because the bigger, mobile one has started reading on his own in his bed, and so is less interested in me reading to him.

(Tragic, I tell you what.)

Anyway, I was reminded that it is good to read books to your children, and I also remembered that I’d tucked these books away for said children, and so I went downstairs to see what I’d kept.

(The other thing is that we’ve been reading library books, and the library finally re-opened and wanted all their books back, and so I had to give them back and now we have nothing. And it sounded like a good idea to read books we owned, so when it took us three months to get through a book, the library wasn’t grumpy about it.)

I kept a lot. More than I thought I had. Pretty much every Bruce Coville book ever. Ones I had to read for school like Maniac Magee or Caddie Woodlawn. A bunch of fantasy books, including ones more often thought of as adult books (like Gulliver’s Travels).

Anyway. It was a lot. And so I picked out…six or so and took them upstairs to see which ones the small, mobile ones wanted to read.

(I took a variety–Gulliver’s Travels; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; Mr. Popper’s Penguins; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; Sideways Stories from Wayside School; and The Castle in the Attic.)

And the bigger, mobile one was basically like, I don’t want to read any of those, leave me alone.

Which was sad! But I rallied and asked the smaller, mobile one, who picked The Castle in the Attic even though I was sure she’d go for the penguins.

(She says she doesn’t like penguins.)

And then I made the big one come listen anyway even though he whined the whole time.

While I understand that my small, mobile ones are not me and have different interests than me, and hence may not like the same things as me in the long run, I will say that the bigger, mobile one is very similar to me in personality and interests, and has to this point liked the books we have read together (which includes things like From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The Phantom Tollbooth, as well as classics like The Wizard of Oz). And when I talked to him later, he said he made a fuss because he was worried he wouldn’t be able to read the new Dog Man before his dad made him turn off the lights and go to sleep.

So we’ll see how it goes in the long run.

Will I be disappointed if the small, mobile ones don’t want to read the books I saved for them? I mean, yeah, to some extent. But to be fair, I haven’t read most of these books in at least twenty years either, and I don’t really remember most of them. And there’s been tons of great children’s books that have come out since then, and there’s only so many books you can get through.

And there’s something to be said about the pleasure of wandering through the library and picking out whatever books appeal to you, and I don’t want to rob them of that.

I don’t think I read much of what my parents wanted me to when I was little either; after my dad gave me The Old Man and the Sea when I was eight I pretty much wrote off all his suggestions, and I can’t remember my mom ever giving me any. Mostly I just explored on my own and my parents let me read whatever.

(I remember sneaking in and stealing my mom’s copy of Interview with the Vampire because she wouldn’t let me read it. And also one of Dick Francis’s mysteries because both my parents loved him.)

What do you think, squiders? Is it worth it to pass on your favorites to the next generation?

(To be fair, I saved like, 25 books. Maybe if I’d saved only ten or something, or five…)

Stupid June (and Butterfly Update)

Well, squiders, yesterday morning, the other butterfly hatched. And it did exactly what you would expect it to–it climbed all the way out of its cocoon, hung there with its wings nice and straight until they dried out, and has since been climbing and flying around the butterfly habitat.

So there’s something definitely wrong with that first one. Poor guy. I think he didn’t come out right, or maybe he didn’t form right in the first place.

With the second butterfly out, I needed to refill the sugar water and put out a new banana slice for them, and both of those seemed like a bad idea with the first butterfly still hanging out in the water bowl, so I very carefully lifted him up with the flat side of a butter knife and put him out on the ground part. He’s definitely still alive, but he can really only move the top part of one wing.

Tomorrow is release day (technically today should have been for the first one; the instructions say to release them three days after they hatch) and he is going to be eaten by a bird. I am sorely tempted to at least try to smooth his wings into the right position but that it probably not going to help anything.

The smaller, mobile one is overjoyed by her one functional butterfly, so there is that. But, man, if I’d known how emotional this was going to be, I would have bought her…I don’t know, sea monkeys or something. Do they still sell sea monkeys? What even is a sea monkey?

Maybe I should have gotten the ants.

June was basically a wash in terms of story writing. We talked about what I did get done earlier, but in terms of writing writing, I wrote a grand total of 2.4K, 1000 of which was a prompt response, and 1.4K of which were on my changeling story at the very beginning of the month. I mean, it’s not the worst, but it is pretty bad for me, especially since the changeling story (did I tell you guys the working title? It’s Through the Forest Dark and Deep. I made icons and a banner and everything.) was going so well at the end of May.

I didn’t even get my two prompt responses for the month. I’ve been sitting on my Pinterest prompts for weeks, and I finally consolidated a plot to go with them a few days ago, but still haven’t written it. I gotta say, the Pinterest prompts are both an excellent and a terrible idea. Since I’m picking prompts purely on age (how long they’ve been on the board) and not how well they go together, some–all right, most–of the stories have been a challenge, and now I need to do two this month to catch up. But combining prompts that don’t go together has been interesting and challenging.

But, anyway, screw June. And it’s over. July may not be much better–a lot of the challenges that messed up June are still here, after all–but at least, for now, there’s potential, you know?

How are you faring, squider? Is it hot where you are? It is so hot here, augggh.

I am Unnecessarily Invested in These Butterflies

So, for the smaller, mobile one’s birthday about a month ago, we got her a butterfly kit. You know, one of the ones where you put caterpillars in and eventually you have butterflies.

(She asked specifically for either an ant farm or tadpoles, but I didn’t want ants in the house when she invariably somehow let them out, and what do you do with tadpoles once they’re frogs? We do not live in a frog climate.)

Butterflies, though, we could do butterflies. They don’t live that long in the great scheme of pets, so they seemed a safe bet.

Now, the butterfly kits do not come with caterpillars. What they come with is a coupon to get caterpillars from Uncle Milton, who, as far as I can tell, is the purveyor for all caterpillars for all butterfly kits ever.

(And also ants for ant farms.)

So we give her the kit, we order the caterpillars, and they come in about 2 weeks. We’re supposed to get 4-5 caterpillars, but we have 3, with possibly one more dead on arrival that is soon either consumed by the other caterpillars or buried in caterpillar poop/food.

Smaller, mobile one is ecstatic. I try to decide if it’s worth contacting customer service over not getting our 4-5 caterpillars. (No, was the conclusion.)

We put the caterpillars in the kit, or, rather, a small, removable section at the top of the kit, where they have lots of “caterpillar food” (which looks like sand and smells like death) and a place to make their chrysalises. Smaller, mobile one takes them everywhere, even though I tell her it’s probably not a good idea to shake them around so much.

This proves unfortunately true when she takes them outside and the neighbor kids knock them over.

And then there were two caterpillars.

(Again, not sure if the now-dead one got eaten or buried.)

Smaller, mobile one is very upset about the dead caterpillar (she’d named them all) but got over it pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, am also very upset about the dead caterpillar. They’re not my caterpillars. I’m not terribly fond of caterpillars in general. But they’ve like, imprinted, or something.

I am much more upset for much longer than the smaller, mobile one, which is ridiculous.

(Actually, we originally thought they’d all died in the knocked over incident, because none of them moved for several hours, so I guess it’s good that we ended up with two.)

The remaining two, Lacey and Turner, got humongous (seriously, much larger than I expected based on their size when we got them) and made cocoons, hoorah. Success. But also kind of gross, because they left parts of themselves outside, which eventually separated and just kind of…hung off the top of their little ceiling. I am learning all sorts of things, and most of them are things I didn’t need to know.

So, yesterday, we awoke to one of the butterflies (smaller, mobile one says it’s Turner) hatching out of its cocoon. Hooray! Except…it got about halfway out and then stopped moving. Seriously did not move for over twelve hours. I was convinced it had somehow died halfway out. Its wings stopped unrolling, it stopped moving its legs. Nothing.

And I was really upset. Again. It’s ridiculous.

This morning, said butterfly was all the way out, down in the pool of sugar water at the bottom of the habitat, and I assumed it had just fallen down, since its wings were still messed up and now it was hanging out in the water. Its head was out of the water, though, and when I moved the net (with the thought that I would pull it out if it were dead) it moved. So, still alive, I guess?

I don’t know what’s going on anymore. Maybe this is normal.

But I’m exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of what this poor butterfly is doing.

Maybe tomorrow its wings will have untwisted and it will be out of the water and everything will be great. Maybe tomorrow the other one (Lacey, according to the smaller, mobile one) will hatch and come out in a much more dignified manner, or maybe it too will get halfway out and then pretend to be dead for half a day.

I can’t quite fathom why I’m so invested. Maybe it’s because I am one with the animal kingdom and invested in the welfare of its inhabitants. Maybe it’s just more suffering on top of everything else going on ’round these parts.

Who knows?

Maybe I should have gotten her the ants.

Do you know anything about butterflies? Have you done one of these yourself, squider? Is this normal butterfly behavior? Should I put this poor butterfly out of his misery?

Augh!