Month: November 2011

November 2011

Stuff I’ve Been Reading: November 2011

  1. King Rat by China Miéville (40%)
  2. The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
  3. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley
  4. The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
  5. Fantasy and Science Fiction, May/June 2011
  6. The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
  7. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
  8. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
  9. The Knight with the Swan by C. A. Cole

It was NaNoWriMo this month, of course (I feel I’ve been blogging about little else), so the books I’ve read have been primarily in gulps between writing sessions. For instance, most of King Rat was actually read in October; The Book of Atrix Wolfe and The Changeling Sea are both under 300 pages; the magazine was a lightning read one evening in bed; The Icarus Girl got me through Thanksgiving football; Going Postal was a book my husband and I have been reading aloud in the car for months; and the second half of The Knight with the Swan was something I just finished reading this moment.

It was excellent fun. It’s part of a four-book series about the kingdom of Marschon and about Faerie, where lives the Pooka, who is one of my all-time favorite characters. It’s a magical creature that’s fifty percent mischief and fifty percent sarcasm. Despite itself, it rather likes the royal family of Marschon, whose quests it always finds itself somehow aiding. This book was about Prince Lukas, but to learn about him and his family, you should start reading at book one, The Faerie King. Apply to Chera in January for a beta version of the novel.

In December, I plan to resume my TBR plan. Twelve more books to go. Can I do it? I hope so.

Four mini reviews

I have been Away from the computer. While I have been Away, I have been Reading. Here are some mini reviews to catch you up.

  1. The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip. Two sons of a king, one from a mortal woman, the other from the sea. One wild girl who hexes the sea for taking her father and causes a sea monster wearing a golden chain to surface.
  2. The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi. A psychological first novel about a Nigerian British eight-year-old girl whose friend TillyTilly knows more than she possibly could about the girl’s family past.
  3. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. In which Moist Von Lipwig, charlatan, encounters Lord Vetinari, tyrant, and the Post Office of Ankh-Morpork is resurrected.
  4. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett. Tiffany Aching must face the Cunning Man, a spirit that turns hatred toward witches. The Nac Mac Feegle help.

I hope you like To-Do lists

I hope you like To-Do lists, because I seem to write a lot of them. But it’s a safe bet that if I’m not thinking about the book I’m writing or the book I’m reading, I’m thinking about things I have to get done.

Today: I just finished my word count for the day, so I’m at 45,45o; that’s only Chapter Ten remaining. And now I have to grade papers in an uber-serious way. Like about four hours of grading. And then I reward myself with Terry Pratchett.

Tomorrow:

  • 8:00-8:50. Teach.
  • 9:30-10:45. Grade papers.
  • 11:00-11:50. Teach.
  • 12:00-12:30. Lunch.
  • 1:00-2:20. Teach.
  • 3:00-5:00. Write 2,000 words.
  • Dinner.
  • Evening. Read and relax.

Tuesday: Write 3,000 words. Win NaNoWriMo with one day to spare. Celebrate and decompress for the rest of the day.

That was a lot of food

1. Many Food. I just got back from a trip to see friends and family during which time I was either eating out or eating in. Turkey and ham. Mexican and Italian. Two kinds of apple pie.

2. Plus Some Shopping. I also did Black Friday shopping, although no doorbusting. I bought I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, though it is not yet clear how the protagonist Tiffany Aching, witch, intends to do so. No matter. There are Nac Mac Feegle, so the book is spectacular. If you don’t know who the Nac Mac Feegle are, you need to read The Wee Free Men right away.

3. But Mostly Words. Oh yeah, and I also wrote nearly ten thousand words during the duration of the trip. Despite having been in the car for almost six hours today, I’m exactly on schedule with my word count, at just shy of six thousand words to the end of the novel. That’s the end of Chapter Nine and all of Chapter Ten. Four days left. I plan to finish on the twenty-ninth, but if not, it’ll be the thirtieth. Either way, I will have written a novel that I quite like and for which I have serious and exciting revision plans in December and January.

Seven quirks

Seven Quirks about This Writer, Rarely Discussed

With apologies to Ann Beattie and The Book Bench.

  1. The best writing happens while wearing pajamas, sitting up in bed, smothered in blankets, with a cup of tea at hand. Two hours under these circumstances can produce in excess of two thousand words, which will probably get tossed away later, as this writer is a gleeful and unabashed draft writer.
  2. In the event that writing in bed is impossible, writing at the desk in pajamas and a bathrobe can sometimes produce the same psychological effects of comfort, security, and ease. Tea is still required.
  3. Most writing of any length is performed on the computer, with Microsoft Word as the processor of choice. Pages are numbered in the top right corner, and Times New Roman (size twelve, double spaced) demonstrates the influence that this writer’s academic career has had on her formatting preferences.
  4. In the absence of a computer, creative work is recorded in the writer’s Moleskine, of which she is filling her eighth. Her pen of choice is a black Sharpie pen, since it has a fine point and does not smear or soak through the page. She writes about two hundred words to the page, in ugly handwriting that is a blend of print and cursive. The words may be unattractive, but she likes the look of pages that are full.
  5. The writer rarely eats while writing, preserving food as a reward when writing goals are completed. Favorite snacks are Dove dark chocolates, of which she consumes only two per day. Panera Bread is also an acceptable prize for significant achievements. Sometimes she will even allow herself a cookie.
  6. The writer cannot abide wide-ruled paper, or reporter-style notebooks that open from the top.
  7. Early drafts of stories are readily discarded. The writer feels that it is no business of posterity’s that she chose to rename the protagonist four times and that she excised the entire first paragraph and replaced the word “verily” with “in truth.” She enjoys frustrating graduate students of the future who lack dissertation subjects. They will simply have to read the published versions and be satisfied.
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