Blog

Also known as the 2016 New Year’s Resolution Post.

So, I’ve been thinking about some of these hard. And I’m cutting this because it sounds remarkably like a self-help book.

Continue reading “Things I’m Going to Do Differently This Year”

My good friend Miranda Suri has landed a great agent, Sarah LaPolla of the Bradford Literary Agency. Lucky both of them! Miranda is an awesome writer and an awesome person. As someone who betas her work, I’ve read at least three of her novels, and yeah, she’s got the goods. AND it’s always wonderful to see something nice happen to someone you really like. It validates karma, that kind of thing.

Congratulations, Miranda, and happiest of holidays.

And here we are, another year gone, and another one hundred and some odd books read. True confession time: I read the entirety of His/Her Circumstances this year, which was about seventeen of these. There’s a few hours I won’t get back.

However, I don’t regret reading the following books. Remember, these books did not have to be written in 2015. They’re just books that I read and I thought you might enjoy too. I’m cross-posting this over at Unreliable Narrators.net, which you should go to to listen to our podcast where my fellow unreliables and I talk about the books we liked this year.

Here we go!

1. Lamb by Christopher Moore. Scratched two itches with this book. I’ve always wanted to read a Christopher Moore book, and I am a sucker for different literary discussions regarding Jesus. And this book did not disappoint. It is both reverent and irreverent at the same time. The book covers the adolescent years of Jesus and his best friend Biff, who travel off in search of the three wise men to understand Jesus’s role as the son of god. Jesus is referred to by his more historically accurate name Joshua, which was perhaps a wise and strategic move on Moore’s part. At any rate, a good read and an earnest one, and I am interested now in reading more Moore.

2. Midnight Riot. One of the books that totally immersed me this year. Like many urban fantasy books, I could see the underlying premise of the plot, but since most folks from the US might not get it (because I’m half British everyone!), this made me feel smart and validated when the key to the mystery came out. I love our hero, I love how learning magic is not easy, and I love the sheer British-ness of this book. Immediately, I went out, snapped up the other four, and will be following through on reading them as I reach each one in the giant book stack. You should read these too.

3. The Black Count by Tom Reiss. Hey, spend ten years writing an amazing book, accessing incredibly rare historical documents, and you too just might win a Pulitzer prize like Tom Reiss did. This is a book about The Count of Monte Cristo‘s author’s father Alexandre Dumas, a multi-racial soldier who served the French republic during the revolution at a unique time in France’s history when there was a seemingly blank spot in France’s racist history. Alas, for only the space of the revolution did this occur, but it gave Dumas senior unparalleled exceptional opportunity. He became a national hero, but he also became an enemy of Napoleon. Read this book. It’s important, and it’s a crime that General Dumas is not better known.

4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Thanks to Danielle Burkhart for sending this one my way. In Las Vegas at one of our retreats, she said I had to read this book about a girl named Cath who wrote Harry Potter-like fan fiction. Well, yes, of course. And it was wonderful, not only for its sheer geekiness and nods to the fan fiction community, but also because of Cath’s triumphs as she grows into her life as a young woman during her freshman year at college. Another must read from my list this year.

5. Immortal Muse by Stephen Leigh. Follow the Flamels as they live immortally through history. Perenelle feeds off artists’ souls. Nicolas feeds off Perenelle’s pain. See Stephen Leigh engage in some very interesting re-envisionment of historical events. It’s long, but it’s brilliantly executed. It’s hard to know who to root for. It’s complicated. I like that.

6. A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon. What got me with this one was a beautiful cover, but the book is a rich, spiritual journey, questioning the nature of enlightenment, bringing the east and west into direct cultural conflict. This book is nuanced and complex, and I am disappointed that more people haven’t read it. It’s worthy of a Nebula and dares to address colonialism in ways that most books are afraid to.

7. The Comorant by Chuck Wendig. Well, this was the hardest Miriam Black book to read yet. Miriam changes substantially in this book, but the book is told in this detached style, like she’s watching herself change. We learn more about her background, an old enemy comes back to finish her, and in the end, Miriam discovers her limits, but more importantly, where she wants to go next. Gods, this was good.

8. Hark! A Vagrant! by Kate Beaton. If you could make really witty jokes about Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby, and history in general, and send them to the humanities majors in the world that would peal laughter over them, well, you’d get this. Hark! A Vagrant! is still available on the web, but lucky me has good friends who get her hardback collections for her birthday.

9. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. Historical setting and folklore meet in this tale of early 20th century New York, where a jinni and a golem become unlikely friends across ethnic boundaries. Engaging prose and beautiful imagery make this book an important crossover. There are many reasons why it was one of the most talked about books of its publication year.

10. Copperhead by Tina Connolly. I know, I know. Why isn’t the best one the first book in the series? Well, I’m contrary like that. No, honestly, Iron Skin was Jane Eyre and I think I might be the one person on the planet who doesn’t care for Jane Eyre. But I did love Helen, one of the supporting characters from the first book, and could not resist her getting a story of her own and proving to be a much stronger person than she initially appears. It’s a terrific coming out story of an individual woman’s strength.

Chris Cornell, Chia Evers, George Galuschak and myself decided to do a podcast. You can find our origin story on our new blog Unreliable Narrators.net. We’ll be updating with both audio and written features on a consistent, regular basis. Check us out. We’re having a lot of fun, and we’d like to share it with you.

Check out our wonderful theme song. I honestly thought it was a They Might Be Giants piece I didn’t know, but Chris wrote it! And it’s perfect.

A post about being dysfunctional, cut so those of you who don’t really care don’t have to read it.

Continue reading “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Child”

And…not exactly movies. ANYTHING I watched in 2015 is a go. And…not exactly things that were made in 2015. They could have been made at any time. I just watched them this year. TV shows get listed, sometimes by season, sometimes by entire run. Okay? If you’ve been reading for a while, you know the rules.

Yes, I know The Force Awakens is not out yet. I’m 97 percent certain that while I enjoy the experience, it’s not going to make the list. OR it will make the list through the judicious power of editing!

In no particular order, here they are.

1. Agent Carter Season One. Vintage clothes! Women in the spy place! Tough as nails and bittersweet, and so much better executed than some other Marvel shows. Season Two, soon, could make next year’s list. If you like your adventure stories with a soupcon of wit, and Hayley Atwell’s British accent does it for you, this is the place to be. Also, many scenes take place in an automat.

2. Daredevil. I promise you, these aren’t going to be all about teh Marvel. Netflix did a fine job producing The Foggy Nelson Show this tale about a superhero that isn’t necessarily likeable, but for the most part, tries to do the right thing. Kingpin and his bad guys were extremely interesting, as were Foggy and Karen. It’s a dark show, figuratively and literally. Recently, I’ve been joking that the difference between Daredevil and Jessica Jones is that they left the lights on in Hell’s Kitchen.

3. House of Cards Season One. Having said that, I may not watch season 4. The first two seasons are fantastic, and borrow heavily from their British source material. The third season wends soap operatically. BUT the ruthlessness of the Underwoods in Season One parallels that of Lord and Lady Macbeth, and I would suggest that if you stop watching after Season Two, you’re in for a ride.

4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Well done, BBC. A faithful adaption of the book for this fan, and I thought a moody, terrific tone and a fine cast. If you haven’t seen it, you should.

5. Krampus. It looks like it’s going to take you to cliche land, but it avoids that fork in the road. Not too scary, but scary enough and it deals with the folklore of this little known shadow of Santa very well.

6. Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. I got nothin’. I’m a sentimental old lady. Sue me. It’s the sweetest movie, especially when Stitch knows something is wrong, and he’s trying to be good. The ending is terrible, but you have to keep in mind that it’s for five-year-olds and roll with it.

7. Mad Men. Not as awful as House of Cards, but still watching a train wreck. Draper alternately fascinates and repels, as do all the characters. And again, a sucker for the vintage.

8. The Man from UNCLE. Yes, the Guy Ritchie version. It re-invented and paid homage, all at the same time. I was very impressed with the acting, the period portrayal, the plot. But not enough people were, so chances are I won’t get more of this, which makes me sad. Still, might be one of the most underrated films of the year, so I hope if you didn’t see it, you catch it on DVD.

9. Master Keaton. A smart person’s anime, with an insurance investigator/archaeologist who gets into all sorts of adventures. A very memorable support cast as well. Worth your time, if you can find it now.

10. What We Do in Shadows. Obviously, I’m not too proud. This reality film/documentary of the life of vampire housemates is hilarious and offbeat. The originality of the formula works.

Have I been self-absorbed!

Last week we managed to pack 3 weeks into one week. It was/is prep for finals week, and I went to Florida, and we had company over the weekend. No, I don’t know about the job yet. I do know that there are 2 other people being interviewed. I also know what the magical number the new college would have to meet salary-wise so I could move to Florida. And I’ve talked to the current boss who gave me all sorts of ideas regarding her own transition to Kirkwood that would help me out, should I accept a new job in Florida and have to be there, oh, say, immediately after Christmas.

A cute exchange as UCF was working on my expenses. It’s cold here today, about 50. I replied, it’s warm here today, about 40. The vagaries of relativity.

We finished making our decision on our new teacher at Kirkwood as well, so that’s an excellent thing. We had a fantastic pool of applicants this time, so it was a very difficult call.

***

I sincerely hope you are all getting into the holiday spirit. We look pretty festive around here. I’ve got one package to put in the mail, another small secret Santa gift to buy, candy for the husband’s stocking on the docket for next weekend, and getting some of our one time a year social arrangements set up for Christmas. Still need to plan out the menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Also, I did finish the extraordinarily rough draft of Pawn for NaNoWriMo, as promised.

***

In other news, some friends and I are exploring the wonderful world of podcasting. Yes, for fun.

My first writing time for about a week is tomorrow afternoon. I will begin to dig through the old Troll novel, and see what I can make of it, before returning to Pawn. Right now, that’s cooling off like a meteor that just hit.

How are you? What’s new in your life?

Well, I was wrong. They do want to see me for an interview in Orlando. I got the message this Tuesday.

It’s back on the table. Let’s just focus on the interview. One little baby step at a time.

Still gonna try to finish NaNoWriMo too, but now I got that whole adrenaline/spaz thing.

Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.

Although I am not 100 percent sure yet, I am fairly sure that I out at UCF for the English Language Institute position. I would have heard yesterday if I was still in. I didn’t hear today, and while I’m not certain really until Friday, I expect that’s it. And honestly, I’m disappointed, but I gave a really good interview that repped my personality, philosophies and skills well. I can’t do better than that.

So, while I might not get a new job, there most likely won’t be the thrill of living at least one year apart and scrambling to move to Florida and find a place to stay, no doubt by mid-January. That sounded like a world of pain.

I’ve been getting a lot of rejections lately for the novels and the shorts. Good rejections and Formy McFormerston’s. Man, I gotta do something for morale, between the job and the rejections. No gets kind of old.

But hey, Bryon’s new doctor is helping him reframe his stomach issues in a more positive, less anxiety laden way. We’re both changing up our diet to be less acid-y to help out, and we’re working on relaxation as hard as we can. 🙂 What? I don’t understand.

***

I’m about two days behind on word count for NaNoWriMo. It happens. I have some writing time Friday morning. While I have been going through an interview process, I’m also involved in one, and this week was about 4 candidates. I’m also trying to get some logistics set up for some student interviews in Brazil the week after we get back from Thanksgiving.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, all the writing, the feasting (not too much, just enough) and hitting my house with a Christmas stick. Tomorrow, we have the electricians getting down and dirty with our remast as we continue bathroom quest. Stay tuned.

John Scalzi writes most intelligently about the passing of his beloved Lopsided Cat. I know you all like him as an author of fiction, but the man is a hell of an essayist as well. I suppose there isn’t a lot of money in being Russell Baker or Annie Dillard, but I do appreciate heartfelt nonfiction.

And it made me cry and want my cats, so you know, good writing all around. Good essay succeeds because it touches all the things in us that are human and that are common about being human. Scalzi nailed my feelings about pets here, and I suspect neither of us are unique.

***

For your enjoyment, thanks to Brent over in Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing, here’s the first set of our Icon readings featuring Ransom Noble, Chris Corenell, Stephanie Vance and Jim Miller-Meeks.

***

This morning’s question as I get ready to begin my NaNoWriMo session is this: Am I a professor who writes, am I a writer who professes, or am I a writer and a professor? I suspect I don’t have an answer to that, but I will mull it over and get back to you.