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Your TBR Stack is Breeding…

Mornin’, kids.

It’s Wednesday. I’m sitting here, dressed vaguely like Jackie Kennedy, with the intention of going into work at one. It’s the pearls and the three quarter sleeves.

***

Today’s first world problem? The thickening of my to be read stack.

There are four sources of my reading these days.

1. Books and stories by authors I know–both the books that are completed and published, and the books I am reading for critique.

2. Books I would read because I am interested in the topics and stories.

3. Books I read for book group, which expand my overall view of the field.

4. Books I read for research for my own work.

This TBR stack is beginning to look…suspiciously like a working writers stack. I’m not sure how many writers belong to book groups, but I’m pretty sure that most of us hit 3 out of those 4 criteria on a regular basis.

I used to have a pretty rigid rule for the TBR stack–no more than the width of my writing desk. If it got over that size, it was time for me to lay off buying books for a while. That worked for about a year.

Now? Well, people have begun giving me books. I’ve been winning a lot of great books. I received my first ARC out of the blue because of Writer Tamago: Factotum (book 3 of D. M. Cornish’s Monster Tattoo series. YES, I do want that book, but it does make me think.

There will always be books I want to buy. There will always be books I buy on a whim. I will always want to see what my writing peers are doing, and offer feedback. Is this going to continue, the free book rain of the universe? How will it affect my book buying habits?

It seems to be another marker of the writer. Reading breeds reading. Getting books breeds more books. The karma of the universe senses your book needs instantly and sends them your way. And you just keep getting more and more books.

How do you guys keep up? Do you even try? Do you abandon writing, and set up a book review site? Or do your books become articles of furniture?

Eh. I’ve got to finish up interneting, and move on, so I can become a problem in someone else’s to read stack.

Catherine

Labored

I have returned from the Temple of Sacred Cake Dissection. Much happiness and felicitations to Aric and Kim upon the advent of their nuptials!

Um. An interview and a book review/interview out currently. As soon as they come home to roost, you will see them here!

And. I am working my way through rewrite 4 at a pretty rapid clip. My fantasy is to have chapters 6 and 7 modified by the end of the week. I’ve received some valuable input from a fellow VP’er about some rearranging, clipping, and chapter shortening that I thinks is spot on.

I’ve read Magic Bleeds. You know what I like about the Kate Daniels series? It’s sexy, but there’s much more than sex. That’s not the motor of the book. Nice work again, Ilona!

Right. I have 17 minutes to produce SOMETHING before I head back for a meeting with a couple of teachers. Perhaps in night class tonight I’ll be doing some writing.

How are you? These days I don’t seem to have time to read through a bunch of journals, which saddens me.

Catherine

Random Bits of Randomness

I’m getting a lot of spam in my filter these days. The good news is that it’s going in my filter. But I’m going to have to get a big bushy tail, so, like a wildebeest, I can wave the spam away.

THAT was a weak analogy. Then again, it’s not every day you can sneak in a wildebeest reference. I’m going with it.

***

I am trashed today. Just totally trashed. I will grant you that we’ve been running non-stop day and night for about 3 days, and we’re not used to that after summer. It sure doesn’t make for being an awesome machine of efficient awesomeness.

There’s going to be another quiet weekend, although if I’m lucky tomorrow, I’ll get a post up (see above. The wildebeest isn’t getting much done in the office right now, so maybe not.) There’s a discussion about women and beauty in public, and I have…an angle. Or two.

I also want to talk about my stack of books, and how this is a growing, rather than diminishing problem, sometime.

This weekend, however, is the joy of nuptials for our good friends Aric and Kim in Minneapolis, so we’ll be running up there to sign a license. While we’re not doing that, I’ll be running around with old friends from my costume queen days.

Now, if only these rating scales for courses would do themselves, I’d be satisfied with what I’d done today. Oh look…a meeting. Guess they’ll be here tomorrow.

Project Runway tonight. Maybe a bomb will fall on Gretchen.

Disjointedly yours,

Catherine

Plugs-In

A couple of plugs have come to my attention from a couple of writers I know.

Writer Michael Jasper and artist Niki Smith launch the first issue of In Maps and Legends, their cool comic. You can buy it in a variety of digital venues.

***

J. Kathleen Cheney‘s novella “Snow Comes to Hawk’s Folley” is out in Panverse 2. I had the good fortune to read the this novella back in the pre-publication stages, and it’s a worthy successor to “Iron Shoes.”

Go out. Read. Enjoy.

Catherine

Caroline Stevermer Answers College of Magics Questions

The Second of the Series! Caroline Stevermer was kind enough to answer some questions about College of Magics. I’m excited to learn that the sequel, A Scholar of Magics is about the likeable Jane, and that there is a third book in the works RIGHT NOW.

Thanks, Caroline!

Tamago: When we first meet Faris, she is rough and untrained. It isn’t until we see Faris in the Glass Slipper rescuing Gunhild that we come to realize Faris is a strong character. In many YA books, girls like Faris transform to become more conventional. In College of Magics, Faris transforms to become more the strong character we are introduced to here.

Caroline: Long answers are good, right? Then I’ll mention that I got the idea for the book in the first semester of my sophomore year of college. I thought of the final plot element nine years later. Unfortunately, I was so excited, I told the story to a close friend before I’d written it down. I am, it turns out, one of those people who shouldn’t talk about what they write until they’ve actually written it down. The whole story turned to ashes. It took me another five years to pull myself together and actually finish the rough draft so revising could begin. It went through many, many drafts.

All this was a very long time ago indeed, so forgive me if my answers aren’t as specific or accurate as they would have been right after the book was originally published. I wrote A College of Magics because I wanted to read a ripping yarn in which the protagonist was a woman. The books that inspired me (for example, The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau) invariably relegated girls to subsidiary roles where they had nothing to do but look pretty and act nobly. I wanted Faris to be imperfect and independent. Perfectly reasonable people dislike her intensely, and I don’t blame them.

Tamago: What do you hope readers will take away from your portrayal of Faris?

Caroline: The key word for Faris was always truculent. I hope that the disadvantages of having a short temper are made clear in the course of the book.

Continue reading “Caroline Stevermer Answers College of Magics Questions”

The Grim Reaper

Ferrett publishes in Asimov’s. Asimov’s? That’s kind of impressive. I think congratulations are in order.

***

And now, some sobriety.

It’s been a strange morning here at Kirkwood. A student from Africa stopped in to drop her classes because her mother is dying in the Congo, and she must go away for a month. Her mother is 68.

Another student just called to tell me she wouldn’t be in class tomorrow night because her mother has succumbed to a virulent cancer, and the family is now on death watch.

This comes on the day that Bryon and I are running to Southern Iowa for a funeral visitation for his aunt Hilda, the fourth aunt or uncle Bryon has lost in the past year and a half.

Makes that other post I was going to write otherwise this morning seem frivolous, so I think I”ll talk about this.

Continue reading “The Grim Reaper”

A College of Magics

Caroline Stevermer wrote A College of Magics in 1994, so I’m a little behind the curve on reading it. My only defense is that in 1994, I started working on my doctorate in Second Language Writing, so I missed a chunk of material coming out from then until around 2001. I enjoyed Stevermer and Wrede’s Enchanted Chocolate Pot books immensely.

However, I’ll confess that I was reluctant to read College because of the inevitable marketing tack toward Harry Potter comparisons. It wasn’t that the Potter books were the best in the cosmos. It was that unlike the people who search for similar books, the marketing ploy convinced me I would be reading another variation on a theme.

I know Caroline is a gifted writer, and I should have trusted my instincts, but I’ll admit to be doing duped by corporate public America trying to make a buck. Damn them. As I’ve gotten to know Caroline better, however, I thought I should read more widely in her works. I’m glad I did.

Don’t let anyone compare A College of Magics to the previously mentioned magical school series. Both stories take place, to some extent, in a boarding school. There is magic in both stories, and that’s it. No more similarities.

What you will find is the story of Faris, a young woman that YA-reading girls aren’t encountering as much in the current universe of Bella. Faris is a heroine that I’d like my (imaginary) daughter to appreciate.

Continue reading “A College of Magics”

Runway Gripes

Today…I was stampeded by a herd of dangerous students.

So all I can say is this:

Project Runway Season 8:

Gretchen: Does anyone else hate Gretchen as much as I do? I have never seen such a self-serving, arrogant contestant on the show. She even outdoes Wendy Pepper from Season One.

Team Luxe: Those arrogant bastards. They couldn’t even see how awful their collection was! They were so sure they were going to win. I was so happy when they lost.

I am amazed that their arrogance blinded them to the worth of the lace/military collection, and I am furious that they threw Michael under the bus. Yes, he’s not a great designer. But he did deserve to be treated like a human being, and not a disease.

It was so interesting that the team let Gretchen and Ivy set the tone. Most of the guys were just passive, but passive in this case is plenty criminal.

And they couldn’t see that their collection was absolute crap. Don’t designers need to be able to see that sort of thing?

Tim Gunn: Tim still rocks my world. Tim called it like it was at the end of the episode, asking Team Luxe how it could allow itself to be “threatened, bullied, and manipulated” by Gretchen. He’s no one’s fool. He could see the writing on the wall.

I can’t believe Ivy was shocked by Tim’s statements, like she didn’t realize that was what was going on. The toadie!

I gotta say, while I’m not thrilled with the designers on team military/lace (their Michael is good, and Mondo and Valerie aren’t too bad), I will in no way, shape, or form support ANY of the evil people on Team Luxe. Because I know what jerks they are, I can no longer appreciate their talent. I hate them with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

Not that any of them come close to Seth Aaron, Emilio, or Christian, the designers on the show who I think have been the best. Gretchen isn’t fit to stitch their hemlines. What a reprehensible person!

So, yes, I was a little riled up. I was so hoping Gretchen would have been sent home. Just…argh.

Catherine

Wiilusion

I’ve successfully revised almost the first two chapters of the troll story, which is a task I’ll complete tomorrow morning. These 50 some-odd pages are the ones I’ll be shooting off to the interested agent, and I’ll be looking for some readers to let me know if I’ve combined the write amounts of action and introspection. If you might be interested in looking, let me know.

For those of you holding out for the whole draft, hold out a little longer. I’m going to go through this version pretty quickly, so it won’t be too much longer before I’ve given it my best shot.

***

And…nothing is more boring than just hearing a work status report, so I thought I would talk about a couple of new words that Bryon and I have worked into our vocabulary.

Wiilusion: n. The idea that, because you are good at something on the Wii, you would be good in real life. This is not necessarily the case. Example: Because Catherine lost the hula hoop contest, even though she is a calorie incinerator on Super Hula Hoops (TM), she realized that she was having a wiilusion.

Wiiluded: v The state of having a wiilusion. Example: You think you can sky dive? You’re wiiluded!!!!

***

My recent willusion, however, is that I would like to try frisbee golf. I am very good at it on Wii Sports Resort. I think it would be a great sport. Walking and throwng frisbees. I could dig that.

Maybe I’m not wiiluded, because I don’t expect to be good at it. But I might like to try it. Do any of you have experience with frisbee golf? Do you like it?

Expanding my physicality, one virtual scenario at a time.

***

No, really, the next write up will be about Carolyn Stevermer’s excellent book A College of Magics. I’m a little late in coming to it, but it deserves some conversation.

Catherine

Growing into It

Especially during back to school time, parents plan ahead for what to buy their kids. Children develop and get larger, so it’s not uncommon for people to buy clothes that are a little larger than a child needs, because then the kid can grow into it.

I smell a writing analogy.

There’s a lot of self-help literature out there to help writers. Like many get rich quick books, or life change books, these books are success-oriented, and often suggest that their suggestions will help you circumnavigate a lot of hard work and succeed. With particular methods, you will separate yourself from the herd, and publication will be yours.

Um…

Some people do get lucky, and indeed their story is published, regardless of time up front, or even the quality of the piece.

Some people also win the lottery. Some people are also struck by lightening.

For the majority of us, we have to grow to fit the shape of what will become our writing career.

The truth?

There is no substitute for hard work.
There is no substitute for hard work.
There is no substitute for hard work, ESPECIALLY if you are God’s gift to writing.
There is no substitute for hard work, REGARDLESS of who you know.

And here’s why.

Continue reading “Growing into It”