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General silliness |
[08 Mar 2010|05:40pm] |
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Finally, the insomnia broke! Yay! I was beginning to think there were flying squirrels in my house. But I crashed last night and slept for 14 hours straight through. Slept through the cats tearing down the bedroom curtains, slept through them overturning the kibble bin and feeding themselves, and through the neighbors hammering off their windows. The dog deciding to howl in my ear, however, did the trick. Lots of sleep tends to make me a little silly though, takes me back to high school and earlier where I had "pretend" days. At the youngest, it was, today I am a mermaid and will not get out of the pool unless it's absolutely necessary and will only eat fish and drink water and sit on the edge of the pool and sing songs to drown people. |
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| [05 Mar 2010|11:41pm] | |
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Ghosts and Echoes release date is creeping up. (April 27--I'm excited!) Which is so me. I get excited about things WAY in advance and the on the actual day. . . I tend to forget. This is why my mother declared a moratorium on planning Halloween costumes any further ahead than two days--longer than that and I'd make a costume, try it on a gazillion times, and then. . . get sick of it and want a new one on the day. Anyway, for those of you who like teasers, Chapter One, Ghosts & Echoes |
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Random post on TV |
[04 Mar 2010|11:57pm] |
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I long ago got rid of cable, but there are still shows I'm addicted to. With that in mind, I downloaded the latest Criminal Minds. I watched it right away, and now I wish I hadn't. It was a great episode, but it left me cold and horrified. Which, I suppose, is the way a show built primarily around the exploration of serial killer psyches should leave you. The thing is this particular episode dragged me right back to 1991 when for god only knows what reason, I decided to go to the movies by myself, late at night. When I decided that hey, cheesy horror sounded just about right. So I settled in to watch People Under the Stairs. I don't remember a whole lot about that movie except the cauld grue it left behind. The thing about horror movies for me is that most of the time I watch them with slight contempt--that scornful, "Oh you're not really going to all split up in the haunted house, now, are you? oh you are?" take on it. Plus the characters are usually so rampantly hysterical about events that it becomes caricature instead of character--Blair Witch, I'm looking at you. It's one of the reasons I love Criminal Minds so much. A group of people face off against real-world (TV style) horrors with intelligence, common sense, compassion, and usually calm behaviour. And hey, they win. But People Under the Stairs mixed it up for me. It made the children the only rational ones on the screen, put them in peril, made them use their heads, and still. . . . they were out-powered by the utterly crazy-pants adults, trapped in their utterly irrational world. So it hit two of my true horror moments--people in radically unfair power differentials, and sane people at the mercy of dangerously insane people. And then it gave me people eeling through the walls. People squirming around in the walls are just No. I've never watched the movie since. Don't really have a desire to. Don't really need to. The horrific parts stuck. And tonight, after watching Criminal Minds, they all popped right back up. Sigh. It's sad when two of the three tv shows I watch leave me with free-floating anxiety and a shudder. Can't wait for Castle to come back. |
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certain things will always be funny |
[11 Feb 2010|09:20pm] |
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Little dog plus bathtime = doggy parkour. She goes over the cat, under the bed, onto the bed, down the stairs, over the chair, through the cat (whoops! HISS), back up the stairs, off the wall, under the bed, over the cat, under the desk, onto the chair. And all of it in an attempt to escape the towel. Whew. Surprisingly, she's utterly docile about the bath itself. Just hunches and looks morose. I'd try to record her rampaging, but I laugh too hard, and she moves too fast. I'm going to start calling her Daisy-Belle. She is now damp, but smells much better. The first warm day with sunlight, and we went for a really long walk whereupon she found many disgusting things to roll in, including, but not limited to: a dead bird and a very old bag full of squish. The ground was so muddy that I, in my sneakers, skidded on level ground. Like grass layered over grease. And if I stopped moving, I could hear the most unsettling sound as microscopic air bubbles worked their way free of the sodden ground. It sounded oddly like chewing. Very unpleasant sound. If I'd been walking through a cemetery, I think I would have been imagining corpses working their way upward. Eerie. But hey, it's the closest thing we've had to spring yet. I'll take it. Currently reading: In the House of Secret Enemies by George C Chesbro. A collection of Mongo stories. |
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technology fail and & morning miscellany |
[09 Feb 2010|10:21am] |
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So, I finally caved to the voices (outside my head voices, mind you!) that told me if I liked coffee, I should buy a grinder and grind my own beans. I'm not really opposed to this, except for the extra step it puts between me and my caffeine, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Bought an inexpensive Mr Coffee grinder. It's got a fancy box. Unfortunately, that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. Starting off--the cord (retractable for tidy storage!!!!) is approximately 11 inches long. This doesn't seem too bad until you factor in the usual height of outlets above counter splashguards and the depth of the usual counter, and cabinet overhang. It ended up about one inch from the wall, which made using it an exercise in ducking my head while still trying to read the lights. Also, their timed grind? Yeah, no such animal. Press the button they say. Hold it down until the timer stops. About 15 seconds. It didn't stop. As for choosing your grind? No. It made my beans superfine, sticky on the bottom, huge chunks on top. No, I didn't overfill. It just doesn't seem to mix layers as it grinds. So fail all around. The ultimate example of stupidity? On the outside of the box it suggests cheerily, great for coffee and spices! The instruction manual on the inside of the box? For best results, do not grind spices. I'm back to my cheap cuban pre-ground, which hey, is the smell of my childhood. The grinder will get donated elsewhere. Other than that, it's an act of will to go outside. Cold, randomly snowing (without accumulating, thankfully). There are not enough layers in the world and I have permanent static hair from the otherwise wonderful hat. (Thanks madmockery!) But I'm not in the Northeast! It's day three of insomnia-land. Oh the fun. Tired tired tired until. . . the magic moment when I turn out the lights. Tonight I will skip the shutting off of the lights part--at least if the light over my bed is on, I'll have to squint, and that often leads to sleepiness. On the other hand, I rolled over last night at 2 after giving up and wrote 1500 words of novel, so there are compensations. Reading/read: Finished Purple & Black by KJ Parker. Great read. Now I want to pick up her Engineers trilogy, but I'll wait until I get the TBR pile down a little more. Finished Doppelgangster by Laura Resnick. Funny urban fantasy whodunit. Still slogging through Darkest Instinct. It's a frustrating book. Interesting plot, strange execution. Way too slow a pace and a weird twitch where all the different POVs use the same metaphor repeatedly. |
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January |
[30 Jan 2010|12:23am] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. So, it's the end of the first month of the new year and what have I accomplished? Cue me ranting about my own writing. Feel free to skip below where I tell you what I've been READING. That's the fun stuff. New writing. Two new books to work on. That's exciting! About 35K written between the two, and I'm enjoying playing with new characters. Love laconic Max, love sociopathic Black Ned, love determined Cachita. And of course, I love letting Sylvie loose to wreak more havoc. ( Read more... ) |
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when advertising fails |
[15 Jan 2010|07:15pm] |
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So, being in the midwest, I get tons of advertisements for churches. This is fine. I sort of like them. However, the other day I got a flyer that made me sit up and yell what the hell were they thinking? It's like they don't even begin to understand the basics of advertising and yet they paid to have a double-sided, glossy, full color flyer made up and distributed. The first image you see is a man grimacing and holding his head in what looks like extreme pain. Beside it, their selling points for their church: New church. Loud music. Apparently, given the man's expression, the music is far too loud. Mix that image/word combo up with the rest of the front of the flyer which promises a casual atmosphere, no perfect people allowed, short services and fun for kids, with, beneath that, "Ten things I hate about church" and you have an entire horrifying failure to entice. There is an arrow dangling off of the h in church--so I turn it over and oh, THERE'S the list of things that you're supposed to hate about church--the front stuff is what you're supposed to like! But again, we have failure. There's a list that doesn't follow any bullet point system known to man, and it reads Church is Out of Touch, Intolerant, and a Waste of Time beneath a date. After that, another date, and the sentence that reads Church people are Political, Impersonal, Hypocrites and uneducated. Apparently that sentence covers hated things #4-7 as well as mangles sentence structure. Then it's another date and the glib sentence that says Church is all about Guilt, Rules and Money. Okay, then. Where's this church's rebuttal? Oh wait, it's on the front: loud music and a wincing man. Um. Just no. Currently trying to work my way through the urban fantasies on my shelf. I have gotten through Magic Burns, Deadtown, and Three Days to Dead. Still to go? Key to Conflict, The Naming of Beasts, Thicker than Water, The Demon & the City, Skin Deep, Magic to the Bone, and Halfway to the Grave. |
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Favorite books read in 2009 |
[28 Dec 2009|01:13am] |
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So, for whatever reason, this wasn't a huge reading year for me. The TBR pile stayed at about 80 books, and I got through about the same number which tells you something about my buying habits. I mostly read in SF/F this year, didn't get nearly as much read in nonfiction as I had meant to (though I kept BUYING nonfiction). So out of that fairly limited pool of read books, these were my favorites. They were all read this year, but publishing dates may be earlier. As always, these are just books that spoke to me in some fashion, made me reluctant to put them down, and once I did, stuck with me long after. ( Favorite books of 2009 ) |
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Heart of Justice pt 2 of 2 |
[27 Dec 2009|03:01am] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. “Nine people die of sudden heart attacks downtown and you didn’t think anything of it?” Kevin asked Michaels, the officer investigating James’s case. “You know how it is, Dunne. If all of them had crossed my desk, yeah, maybe. But I got one. Sikowski got one, Delaney got one, and cops I don’t even know got the others. Besides, nine people is not a statistically large number for everyone who works downtown.” “I know,” Kevin said, “but still--one a day--doesn’t it feel wrong to you?” It twanged in his head, resonating throughout his bones. Whispering. ( Read more... ) |
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Heart of Justice |
[27 Dec 2009|02:33am] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. This is a story in two parts that's set in the Sylvie landscape, though it's about Kevin Dunne. It's spoilerific for certain plot info in Sins & Shadows. ( Read more... ) |
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Music & other temporary obsessions |
[15 Nov 2009|01:52pm] |
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It's that time of year again. I'm sick of all of the music I own and want to hear something new, something wonderful, something AWESOME. But since I no longer listen to the radio, I'm out of the loop. It's cold and grey and quiet outside. I want something that makes some noise. I want something with just enough of an edge to cut through the gloom. I want something with a beat that breaks through the urge to hibernate. Any recommendations? Music I have loved in the past year or so: Corvus Corax, Abney Park, Johnny Hollow, Kidneythieves, Shivaree, Eisbrecher, Bitter:Sweet. Music I always love: Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Tom Waits, Leslie Fish. The only music I don't like: jazz with brass. Piano by itself. (yes, this from a woman who once played the piano seriously.) I will listen to anything at least once. :) Other than that, I've been pushing back the cold (though to be fair, we haven't had much of it yet) by obsessing over Supernatural. This is such a weird show for me. I watched the first season all those years ago, and walked away all "meh". I liked the actors who played the brothers. I liked the style and the freaky hotels. I liked the world. Hated the end of the first season: thought it was unearned melodrama. But, I was living with a tivo and it faithfully kept recording it. So I kept watching it. And the second season made me sit up and go "oooh", with far more good episodes than awkward ones. Season 3 had an interesting arc--would they really kill off one of the main characters?--but also an enormous amount of misogyny. Then, when the end of the season neared, I had a really odd realization that I didn't want to watch it. I was terrified that the one character would die, and I didn't want to see that. That was also the moment that I realized that hey, the writers were doing something right: I was utterly invested in a fictional person, and I couldn't bear to see him killed. Season 4 brought in a new character, and somehow cemented the obsession. From what I hear, season 5 is continuing on pretty well. I am endeavoring to be patient. The thing that keeps me fascinated is this is a series where the characters routinely win the battles--and yet, they're losing the war. Badly. That's amazing; I can't wait to see where this road trip ends. |
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cat with opinions |
[30 Oct 2009|03:24pm] |
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The elderly kitty has taken up editing, randomly rolling his paws around on the edge of my keyboard. Today, his biggest complaint is with a description. His contribution? Asking me if I REALLY REALLY want to use this descriptor. all false O""""""""""""""""""""??????????????????? You know, at least other critiquers wait for me to give them the pages first! |
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Chipping away |
[29 Oct 2009|05:27pm] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. Oh, the pet project. . . . I've decided I want to do something with it. So it's time for revision. The problem is: the pet project was fun to write but it's a monster to revise. A lot of the things I let slide in a pet project are just no good at all in a real novel. Chapter two, I'm looking at you and your nested flashback. Long flashbacks are tricky at the best of times. A nested flashback? Is an abomination. I'm pretty sure they take away your writing license for committing it, unless you're doing it with exquisite artistry. This nested flashback? No artistry. ( Read more... ) |
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A miscellany |
[24 Oct 2009|08:30pm] |
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Nearly the end of October and I'm just realizing I never posted a recap of September. That could be simply because September was kind of a null for writing-related progress. I finished revising Ghosts & Echoes, did a lot of maintenance writing--outlining, plotting, organizing, all the boring stuff that somehow I have to do to get my headspace clear to concentrate. I didn't even get a chance to read anything! One and a half books in September. That's pretty dreadful. October's been all about new starts, playing with book beginnings, testing the waters, seeing if this is the right place to start, or how about this, or what if I skip all of that backstory entirely? What if I shift the story left of center and go for a more romantic feel? All the fun stuff. Fall's kicking in with a vengeance--and that's a source of some worry. When I was a kid, I was always envious of those lucky people who had real seasons. After nearly twenty years with seasons? I hate winter. I hate the dark and the cold and I have to do constant mental maintenance to keep myself from going into hibernation mode--if it's good enough for bears, it seems like it should be good enough for me. This year I may try to squeeze in a trip south and soak up sunlight. If I weren't terrified of skin cancer, I would hit sunbeds. And yes, I understand the idiocy of fearing tanning beds, and yet planning a trip south. Though in actual sunlight, I would slather on the sunscreen. It's mostly about visual light, anyway. And oh yeah, the warmth. Fall also brings gorgeous leaves, crazy squirrels digging all over the yard, and, as of two nights ago, the first mouse slaughter. It's just not fall until some mouse decides to poke its whiskers in out of the cold and doesn't live to regret it. This is, after all, the house of four cats, three of which are sharp-clawed. The puppy still continues well: she and the siamese mix have bonded over their desire to eat the squirrels, and the conviction that they can actually catch one. Considering that today the puppy managed to chase a squirrel with such energy that she actually managed to leap into the first crook of the tree which is about four feet off the ground--they may actually manage it. Reading: I just finished Child of Fire, which I adored. I'm about to start a re-read of Frankenstein for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} calico_reaction 's online group read. |
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Starting the new book |
[15 Oct 2009|10:41pm] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. Starting a new book always intimidates and thrills me in equal portions. There's so much work to be done before the prose ever starts. I'm a bit of a clockwork writer--things have to go in a certain order before the book begins, and at this point, I don't know if that process is necessary or just my way of winding my brain up. ( Read more... ) |
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Lyn Benedict: Ghosts & Echoes Cover Art |
[13 Oct 2009|12:42pm] |
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So the cover art for Ghosts & Echoes, book 2 of the Sylvie series is here! How much do I love it? Tons and tons and tons. I've been insanely fortunate with the cover art for my books--from the gorgeous and lush Maledicte/Kings & Assassins, to the much grittier toned Sylvie books. Who knew pastels could be so moody or threatening?  Reading: Season of the Witch by Natasha Mostert. |
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Puppy! & Pets in general. |
[25 Sep 2009|02:20pm] |
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The puppy, after some delays--spay issues, etc--has finally made it to my house. I was worried the cats were going to be annoyed. I figured Siggy (the large black siamese mix) would be happy--she has an unaccountable fondness for dogs. Rikki (little old man cat) would be resigned. But Chibi and Merlin? I figured at best, Merlin would be under the bed for a week, and Chibi would turn into the hiss-monster. Oddly, this has not occurred. Siggy is pleased, Rikki is resigned, and Chibi is utterly unbothered. In fact, she is chasing the puppy's leash around and around. (I tend to keep new dogs leashed for easier training.) And Merlin, Mr OH GOD THE WORLD IS ENDING at every change in his routine, is wandering around the puppy growling softly, but not freaking out. The puppy has been very good so far--not chasing the cats, testing out her blanket, investigating. And oh yes, when I took her into the yard, she pounced and killed a leaf. It's really something to see a dog who, in the shelter, was calm and friendly but reserved and tense, just take a breath and relax. She's doing the happy panting face thing and her tail is wagging non-stop. So far the biggest frustration in her life is that I won't let her go upstairs--it's carpeted, and I don't know how housetrained she is/isn't. |
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Psyke's Very Bad Day pt 3 |
[22 Sep 2009|11:49pm] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. 3. Psyke woke, thick-headed and cold, from dreams of breathlessness and terror. The tisane Olympia had fed her, a poisonously sweet concoction of Petal, bitter chocolate, boiled milk, and sugar syrup had done its work most thoroughly. Time seemed clouded, her head mazed, and her body as lethargic as river silt. Her world was darkness streaked with grainy light, and the faint sour smell of her breath was directed back at her, captured by cloth. ( Read more... ) |
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Psyke's Very Bad Day pt 2 |
[22 Sep 2009|11:35pm] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. 2. When Psyke returned to the ballroom, arms prickling, bare with cold and vulnerability, a man's shadow crossed her path, too close to be a servant. Maledicte, she thought, and her fairly trapped. But a glance up and further up still reassured her of that even as her breath caught. This wasn't Maledicte at all, but Maledicte's lover: Janus Ixion, Lord Last, the bastard nephew of the king. Her smile never faltered, even as Ixion bowed silently, and without a word, or even truly a glance at her, offered a hand. ( Read more... ) |
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Psyke's Very Bad Day pt 1 |
[22 Sep 2009|11:26pm] |
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Originally published at LaneRobins.com. You can comment here or there. Psyke's Very Bad Day, pt 1/3 These are a few (longish) scenes that never made it into Kings & Assassins. Why this didn't make the book?: It was a prologue that references a whole lot of people who would be irrelevant to the plot of Kings. Plus, the nervous debutante was just the wrong feel for the rest of the book. Those of you who've read Kings will find certain phrases or parts familiar--they were cannibalized for use later. Still, I have a fondness for these scenes; they gave me my first look at the kind of woman Psyke Bellane might be. ( Read more... ) |
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