Eseme's Den

So very, very sad. I've been reading his books for 20 years... I can't type well on my ereader, and will post more later. What a huge loss in the book world.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

March and thus far in April's reading:
Issues of Smithsonian : 1
Issues of Scientific American : 1

That issues of Scientific American, February 2011, has a great article on language and how it affects the way we think. "How Language Shapes Thought" on pages 62-65 is well worth reading for any author, but particularly those in the speculative fiction genres.

Another Book!
Side Jobs by Jim Butcher
A short story and novella collection.

I have read most of the stories in here, though not all of them. I was most interested in "Aftermath," of course. Particularly after reading the first chapter of Ghost Story. I'm rather concerned that Jim just finished writing Ghost Story only a couple of weeks ago. The publication date is in July, which means there is going to be no time for editing the book, as it need to get to the printer's pronto. I'm really not thrilled about buying an unedited book, especially after the two "what the heck, that contradicts the map and storyline" moments I had in First Lord's Fury.


January and February:
Issues of Smithsonian : 3 (I read all of this magazine, and love it - I am hoping to subscribe this year)
Issues of Scientific American : 4 (not cover to cover, I do skip some articles outside my areas of interest)
Issues of Mother Earth News : 1 (I read most of this one, though there are some articles or letters to the editor which are not of interest)

Books:
Pale Demon by Kim Harrison


Walking
Last time, I was at 62.4 miles to Rivendell.

Since then I walked 1 mile on April 2 (I had hoped that the 12 inches of snow would have been plowed, instead I trudged through 4 inches of very wet slush and was forced to turn back early when my boots began to get soaked through). Last weekend I walked 2.15 miles each on April 8, 9, and 10. Then yesterday I walked with my Mom into Hallowell and stopped at a local bakery for dessert. The bakery is on the far side of town, so that was about three miles round trip.

That is 10.45 more miles, for a new total of 72.85 miles! I am planning to add even more this weekend, but I wanted to add in my efforts thus far. So... I wonder what has happened? Did we make it to the Ferry?

When last we saw or brave adventurers, they were skirting Farmer Maggot's fields. After a turnip field we find a stout gate to a rutted lane, edged by hedges. This leads us to the farmer's house and buildings: brick with thatched roofs, surrounded by a high wall cut by a wooden gate from the lane. He is kind enough to give us food, and w leave at full dark. The farmer's lane meets the Causeway to Buckleberry Ferry, and we ride in a wagon. There is boggy land all around and it is foggy. Merry meets us at the Ferry landing.

DUDE, I made it to the Ferry!!!

As we reach the other side of the river, we can see a Black Rider on the west shore. Gosh darn it, they are everywhere. Taking the main road north from the Ferry, Buck Hill is on the left and Buckleberry on the right. We take a lane to the right, and climb up and down into the country.

So, I said I would take the yammering about dragons to a post in my own journal (as opposed to the comments of someone else's journal).

Terry Pratchett has a theory about human mythology, that it is turtles all the way down. There are a lot of how-the-world-was-created myths which involve turtles, and a number of cultures have at one point or another believed that the world is carried on the back of a turtle or tortoise.

For me, it's dragons all the way down. I started reading stories about dragons at some point in grade school. I'm pretty sure one of the earliest things I read was Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, consisting of Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, and Talking to Dragons. I still have my battered paperback copies, although I like the covers on the library's hardcover copies better.

Then I read everything my small library had with dragons in the children's section. During middle school, I got access to a new library, and discovered Ann McCaffrey. I'd already read Jane Yolen's Pit Dragon series (it was in the children's/j section for some reason, while McCaffrey was in the YA section).

In sixth grade (middle school started at 7th, so this was before Pern), I wrote what I considered a novel (about 80 typewritten pages, single spaced) about a girl who went through a portal in our world and ended up in a fantasy kingdom which she happened to be the long-lost princess of. Yes, I was twelve. There were dragons, and in order to drive off the evil guy trying to take over the kingdom she had to hike into the mountains and find the dragons and ask for their help. There was a boy living with one of the dragons, in a cave. Again, I was twelve.

I read this out loud to my entire sixth grade class, and to one of the second grade classes, when the teacher heard about it. I thought I was so cool. And of course, I was going to be an author when I grew up.

In eighth grade we had to make a magazine as an English project. We could pick any topic we wanted, but we had to design a cover, write a letter from the editor, a short story, a book review, and an ad. I picked dragons, of course. Then I had the problem that all the dragon books I knew of I had already read. The teacher insisted that we had to read a new book for this. So I went to the library and ran a subject search. I came up with two books I had not read with the subject of dragons. One was Terry Pratchett's Strata, which turned out to barely have dragons in it (which won it a less-than-enthusiastic review from FLAME magazine), and Douglass Adams' Last Chance to See, which is the funniest book I have ever read about endangered species (the dragons were komodo dragons). I wrote a story about a girl finding dragon eggs, which is in an entirely different setting than the first one, an ad for a dragon BBQ service (dragon shows up to BBQ your food, not the other way around), and included both book reviews.

The dragons were dormant for a while, though I continued to read fantasy and the occasional book with more dragons. Then I had this assignment in grad school - write up the mission, goals, and vision statements for a library (real or imaginary). Clearly, this needed to be more fun, so as in eighth grade, I added dragons.

THAT idea stuck around. A couple of years after the assignment, it was still kicking around in my head, and I decided to try to write a novel. I've tried this before - I have the beginnings of two other novels on my hard drive. But this one actually made it past ten chapters. It's not done, even over a year later. But its dragons, which is not a surprise to anyone who knows me.

Dragons. All the way down.

I'm a bit behind the ball, but work has been somewhat chaotic lately. I've just learned that Brian Jacques, the author of the many books in the Redwall epic, died over the weekend.

I read several of the books in fifth or sixth grade, and stopped reading them because I could not work out the timeline. But I loved the animals, the squirrel archers up in the trees, the brave mice, and the amazing food! I later learned that the feasts were so impressive because the stories were written for children at a school for the blind, and that Brian Jacques worked hard to provide non-visual imagery as well as visual.

News stories here:
New York Times Obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/arts/09jacques.html?_r=2

http://www.examiner.com/speculative-fiction-in-national/brian-jacques-author-of-the-redwall-series-passes-away

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-12380763

The Official Site:
http://www.redwall.org/

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Jacques

Edited to add the New York Times obit

So, after wandering the beach, I headed back to my hotel.

( The party itself, plus a Halloween costume! )

I have finally gotten some reading time! This is sometimes a distressingly rare thing for me. While Panther was here, I finished Sharon Lee's Carousel Tides.

I've enjoyed it. It is an urban fantasy, I suppose, although the setting is decidedly non-urban (a small town on the coast of Maine that is a tourist mecca in the summer and full of boarded up storefronts in the winter). It is a fun tale, though I must admit it resonated more for me because I have been to Old Orchard Beach (for the book release party). The town in the book is based off OOB, and having seen the town I could envision it full of strange inhabitants and unusual events (I am working on a supremely long travel post about OOB, which will probably be of interest to no one other than me).

As for Carousel Tides:

Kate Archer was the Guardian of the Land in Archer's Beach, until she did something she felt was unforgivable, cut her ties with the Land, and fled to the southwest deserts to slowly die. She reluctantly returns when the management of the Fun Country amusement park inform her that rent on the carousel is past due. And Kate can't reach her grandmother, who should be running the carousel. The carousel needs to be tended to - it is no ordinary carousel, and Kate is not certain she can keep the other-worldly criminals who are bound to it in line. The past returns to haunt her and there are threats, both of this world and of others, taking advantage of the Guardian's absence.

The book launch party for Carousel Tides was a lot of fun, with some great conversation and lovely art. Sharon Lee throws a good party.

I've never been to OOB before, and had a lovely time. Most of the town was shuttered, but the few stores that were open had the nicest stuff, like Board Silly and the candy factory.

That was my birthday mini-vacation. And it was good weekend in a lovely place, with books and book-people.

Edits - the link for Board Silly now actually works!

Here's some fun publishing related stuff. Orbit Books apparently pays an intern to look at book covers and write down everything he or she sees.

First, a chart of trends in cover art. This is a chart of objects on the covers of books. Note that next year they will remove "Damsels in Distress" and "Stilettos" as categories. Read more here.

Second, more good news, this time in the form of Urban Fantasy covers. Clothing has gotten more reasonable! See the analysis here.

And they devoted an entire chart to dragons! To find out what colors got some coverage this past year, go here.

Finally, what are popular titles? That intern wrote down every word appearing in a title, and made a cool info graphic. If you think Fantasy is all sweetness and light, well, click here.

The comments are good on all of the blog entries, which is cool.

Also, I have decided to Walk to Rivendell. I've been on the Rail Trail five times this summer that I distinctly remember, and I know I've been there at least three other times. It is a little over two miles, I'd call it 2.15 miles.

So I am 17.2 miles to Rivendell. I am a bit over midway through Day 1, and have left Hobbiton, had a frugal supper, have continued on my way, and have begun to sing while walking through a deeply cloven track between tall trees.

Three days at once again!

Today, I am thankful for the BBC. I do enjoy BBC world on the three nights a week that I am home to see it. Tonight they had a wonderful human interest story, about a woman who just turned 110. She first began to get a birthday card from the queen when she turned 100. Then she got 9 more. One problem - they were all the same card. She has nine lovely identical photos of the queen in a yellow dress. She then wrote Buckingham Palace to complain - she wanted a different card. One of the princes visited her in her nursing home to apologize. And this year she got a card with a new photo. I love this story.

Saturday, I was thankful for books - I watched a neat movie, but it made me cry. So I grabbed a book, and felt better. Yay!

Sunday I was grateful for my friends - I have a lot of far-flung friends and many of them have kept in touch with me in spite of the distance.

So, I don't always hit LJ every day.

Friday, I was thankful for my local bookstore, and the fact that they will order in anything I need, and are locally owned and operated. Yes, it is handy to wander into a giant chain store and find just what you want on the shelf, but I like local businesses more.

Saturday, I was extremely thankful for Skype. Skype lets me call my Panther over the internet, and talk with him for six hours. And once he gets a web-cam, I will be able to see him. Playing D&D and just chatting is just wonderful.

Today is not over yet, but I think I shall be thankful for back roads. I'll be driving to another town for a con meeting, and taking the back roads the whole way. There is something every nice about driving along the back roads for an hour, past lakes and hills and little towns.