Eagles Over the Kennebec

Addressed to the Floating Critiques folk, and now to you:

Since we have all been either too busy to write, or too busy writing to think about a writing group, I thought I'd ask a question -- do you like to have a picture -- literally -- of what a character you're creating looks like? Is it helpful, is it a hindrance? I have buried about here a file with all kinds of interesting faces in it -- being kept for just that purpose. They will probably end up as characters in my stories. Nowadays, I paste photos in a file -- sometimes a general file, sometimes for a specific book.

I don't tell people who was a physical model for a character. I found out that fans are too influenced by what the individual may be in real life. Professional entertainers are risky, because some people associate them with a role that can't be shaken free of -- or fans don't like their politics, their private life, whatever.

Watching that silly, wonderful Ninja Warrior marathon, I found a face for a future book. It will help me begin to put together the story she's part of, knowing what she looks like.

It also is writing progress, which is always appreciated. Health has been bizarre here, so I'll take the good things as they come along!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080517.html

Uncomfortably close

Thursday, Jodi and I shot a pilot episode. We were the only two puppeteers on the shoot, and as often happens, the only people in the room with prior puppetry experience. The puppets were charming but, to my eye, built by a stage puppeteer rather than a film and television puppeteer. How could I tell? Small details, like visible specks of glue. Now, for stage, this doesn’t matter¹ but for film work you have to be prepared for extreme closeups.

These were rod puppets and the necks were extremely thin, long and sproingy. ² Our slightest tremor translated into a giant head wiggle. On top of that, the mouth trigger would actually pull the whole head down with it. None of this violated the forty feet and a galloping horse rule, but boy howdy did it look funny in a closeup. We weren’t doing lipsync so much as headsync.

AND one of the puppets broke moments after we got there. I had a total MacGyver moment and repaired the puppet with a paperclip, gaffers tape and superglue. ³

The guys we were working for were supernice and thankfully understood the challenges pretty darn quickly. On the whole, they seemed pleased. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you some of it down the line.

1. We have a saying, “forty feet on a galloping horse” which means that if you won’t notice it while galloping on horseback forty feet away you won’t notice it on the stage either [↩]
2. Yes, that’s a technical term. [↩]
3. No, I can’t describe the repair in more detail because to do so would require explaining what the characters were which would blow the secrecy around the pilot. [↩]

Comments? -- Link

Weds. picked up rental car, drove to Northampton & met with Writing Group to go over Delia's new draft of the sequel to CHANGELING (due out next year, due at the publisher's in - well, let's not get too specific....); up the next morning to the Brimfield Antiques Fair, where we discovered that it is not as easy as you'd wish to find an Antique Sideboard that holds a lot of stuff and is not more than 72" and is long enough to hold LOTS of stuff. Did acquire nice little table for front hall. Returned West to Amherst and met with WG to go over Sarah's new novel and eat wonderful food and attempt to be critical yet inspiring. And so to bed. Next morning to Storage Unit in N'hampton that is 5 times the size of NYC one and costs 75% less, moved boxes around. (Note to self: Copyedited ms. of TPOTS temporarily in Box 015, as box of TPOTS draft is full. Remember this next time someone asks for something for charity auction. Or wait until really famous? possibly dead? might increase in value) Then on to M--'s to pick up new "28 Rue St Sulpice" (website to come) silk dyed outfit to take to elisem at Wiscon. Lingered to try all new pieces on again. Begged & borrowed 2 fabulous jackets to make selves glorious & advertise friend's wares. Remembered RStS bizcards to hand to people in case they want one, too. Then back to Brimfield in the rain, found great coatrack with eagle claw feet. Figured out how to get it in car. Getting late. Drove East to tony Boston suburb, ate Chinese Food for White People (much meat, little flavor), got friends' key from under doormat, tried to stay awake while waiting for them to come home. Read Grace Paley & realized finally old enough to understand The LIttle Disturbances of Man. (Took long enough!) "The Loudest Voice" still favorite story. Even better now older. All worth it when small girl child came home & threw arms around legs, demanding kisses and why did we move to New York? we'll miss her dance recital! Got improv version of dance recital next morning. Ran out to stock car up on Trader Joe's, then showered & changed for old friend Brad's wedding. Thought would know no one there, but publishing acquaintaince (YA editor) from NYC met 6 months ago on panel for librarians in CT turns out to be sister of the bride! Small world? Not really; we get around, is all. Sun came out for wedding, everyone danced, bride-made cake best ever. Headed for home, with stop at beloved, much-missed Radcliffe Pottery Sale, swearing not to buy anything 'cause where would we put it? just looking for wedding present for (nevermind who!) - but waylaid by amazing leaf mugs & bowls. Useful. Practical. Really. (In Boston? Sale continues Sunday til 7 pm, and the Seconds are out - maybe you could get the bowl with the little dragon for just $10!)

And so, I hope, to bed -- after checking the Interfictions Auction, of course, since 4 amazing pieces are ending tomorrow.....

It happens all the time. You have something, then (suddenly) you don't. As soon as you notice it's missing, you look in all the obvious, then the non-obvious places. You search really thoroughly, but you don't find it. You need it, so you replace it.

And as soon as you've replaced it, the original reappears, in a place you've already searched (probably more than once).

So... where was it? Where do the missing things really go, then return from? Does science have any explanation, other than it's all in your head?

(For the record, my cell phone went walkies today. Tonight, I possess 2 of them...)

1704 words on Seven for a Secret tonight. We have found the plot, and it is progressing. I'm still not sure exactly how it plays out, but Sebastien is the Scarlet Pimpernel.

17,000 / 30,000 (56.7%)

If there weren't this damned convention mucking up my week, I could have this done by next Monday.

*falls over in front of the television*

Saving Horses, one Thoroughbred at a time

The line that killed me: "On occasion, Condurso-Lane said, a pair of horses standing in the field together will appear to nudge one another, then dart off together in a straight line, as if reliving their past."

*sniffle*
-----------------------

In other news, I fled the computer to have a Day Out, which included the Superheroes costume exhibit at the Met (interesting but not, IMO, amazingly well-done unless, like me, you adore certain designers and can have fun mocking academic copy-writers), kamikazi shoe-shopping, post-theater dissection of the current staging of Macbeth over a carafe of wine and damn good Italian food, and one of the top ten phrases you never want to hear a tourist in Times Square say: "is that a real gun, Maureen?"

(it wasn't)

[also? I should not be allowed anywhere near Times Square/the Theater District on Wedesday afternoons or Saturdays. The urge to kill is nigh overwhelming. Farking tourists, learn how to walk!]

EtA: best street theater sight: a guy waving a variety of bumper stickers on a theme of "Cheney/Satan in 2008: The worst possible President"

Tomorrow, back to work. For now -- falling over and making like a sleeping thing.

There are times when knowing too much about a subject is a detriment.

I tried watching the Young Indiana Jones movie "Attack of the Hawkmen" on History International. Naturally, Young Indy gets shot down by the Red Baron ... who isn't the Red Baron at this point because he's not flying a red plane. I'll give 'em points for putting Manfred in an Albatross, but at that stage of the war, that plane should have been bright, bulls-eye red. To make matters worse, they had Indy be the one who suggests (albeit snarkily) that Manfred should paint his plane.

I gave up watching shortly after that. I just, I couldn't turn off historian!brain long enough to sit back and enjoy the eyecandy. There was simply too much wrong. And that's not even touching on how bad the actor playing Manfred was, or the fact that Herman Goering was not a member of the Baron's squadron at that point, or ....

Well. You get the point. :P

Edited to correct a historical gaffe on my part; i.e. the date MvR was awarded the Blue Max. And yes, I was anal enough to go back and check. Wish I could say the same for the person who wrote the film. :P

1. Fry up some onions and garlic in a teaspoon or two of oil and, if you like, some white wine
2. Meanwhile, slowly heat 2 cups of 1% milk, 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper, 1/2 salt and 3 tablespoons of flour, stirring until it begins to thicken
3. Add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and the onion garlic mixture and stir a little more. There's your sauce!

Meanwhile,

4. Cook some pasta! (ooh, ahhh)
5. If you like, throw some broccoli, peas or beans in said pasta when it's almost done

And voila! Pasta and sauce.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1665/05/17/

Up, and by appointment to a meeting of Sir John Lawson and Mr. Cholmly's atturney and Mr. Povy at the Swan taverne at Westminster to settle their business about my being secured in the payment of money to Sir J. Lawson in the other's absence. Thence at Langford's, where I never was since my brother died there. I find my wife and Mercer, having with him agreed upon two rich silk suits for me, which is fit for me to have, but yet the money is too much, I doubt, to lay out altogether; but it is done, and so let it be, it being the expense of the world that I can the best bear with and the worst spare. Thence home, and after dinner to the office, where late, and so home to supper and to bed. Sir J. Minnes and I had an angry bout this afternoon with Commissioner Pett about his neglecting his duty and absenting himself, unknown to us, from his place at Chatham, but a most false man I every day find him more and more, and in this very full of equivocation. The fleete we doubt not come to Harwich by this time. Sir W. Batten is gone down this day thither, and the Duchesse of Yorke went down yesterday to meet the Duke.

Okay, so I just started reading Galileo's Commandment: An Anthology of Great Science Writing. The selection of authors and works is interesting, but so far I am most impressed by the editor himself, Edmund Blair Bolles. He discusses topics like the marriage of style, voice, and content; the great conversation that is science (which almost exactly parallels in its nature the conversation that is science fiction); and the imaginations of science and art, in harness or conflict.

The introduction begins, "I love great science writing for the same reason I enjoy splendid autobiography or classic letters and journals. It puts me in direct contact with an active probing mind." In these sentences he has clarified exactly why nonfiction -- and in particular these genres -- are generally more powerful for me than fiction, something I've never been able to understand. And every page of his introductions brings something equally revelatory for me.

Another really interesting book I have read in the last few months is The Best American Sports Writing 2007, edited by David Maraniss. Maraniss's introductions are terse and most of the articles and essays are journalism, not literature, though a couple of them are both. It's an unfamiliar world, interesting or moving or even enlightening.

This morning:

a colorful sight at the bird feeder: three finches and and indigo bunting.

Alas, gone before I could get to the camera, the bunting.

We've just come back from the trip down to the border to actually do the "landing" bit of being landed immigrants. Some of us were a bit worried that they'd change their minds at the last minute, but they didn't. We left Z's girlfriend in our apartment with instructions to post all the books if they wouldn't let us in again... but they did. We are home! We are as Canadian as possible under the circumstances!

We've been working towards this for a long time.

hello

this is me.

belle.

this is a big place. i'm not so certain of it. but i think myconnery needs a friend here sometimes. right now he spends all his time with mymommy. they practice his not-being-afraid and then he goes off to think about it and feel important. not that he honestly needs help with that part if you know what i mean and i think you do.

mymommy is still trying to be better. she says, "it takes time to be sick!" and "how will i ever catch up?" and "look at this list of things I haven't done!" and then she says, "what should i do today to catch up?" and she answers herself, "everything!"

i don't think that's working out very well so far.

but she is writing and that is good, because that makes her happy and it means she can keep us. also she made a new newsletter thing, mostly because hermommy always says, "what book are you working on now? and when does it come out?" and anyway i think she wanted to show off the covers.

here is what it looks like.

there is a place on her website to sign up if you like it.


oh! i feel so bold! i made this post!

It's funny. Gacked from here.

The CW has "redefined its target audience as exclusively 18- to 34-year-old women."

Sounds like a Moonlight audience to moi.

(Instead, they're adding only three new shows on the fall schedule, all akin to Gossip Girl. Okay, maybe it's just me, but rather than watch skinny rich bitches knife each other in the back, I would much prefer watching pretty boys with their shirts off getting bloody.

(Maybe I'm just not in the right demographic any more. *sigh*)

Just as last year, I am teaching the Novel Writers Workshop this summer, which involves a lot of reading and preparation. However, I am insane, so (also as last year), I am planning on also taking Jim Gunn's short fiction Writers Workshop.

I find myself once more in the position of writing three stories in a limited time. Last year, I only had an idea for one of them, so I asked athenais to pick two topics from my LJ interests list. She selected macaques and gazing into the abyss, and I wrote "26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss," which is in this year's July Asimov's.

For the third story, I posted a poll, intending to use the top two ideas to get going. In the end, I used the top four: extinct birds, sex, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and a chatty fool to write "Wife reincarnated as a solitaire—Exposition on the flaws in my spouse's character—The nature of the bird—The possible causes—Her final disposition." I sent this precisely one place before I decided that the world probably wasn't interested in my Tristram Shandy pastiche, however successful I think it.

Both the poll and the LJ interests thing worked rather well, so I am going to see what happens this time. A few of these are leftover from last year, but that doesn't mean they're any more intriguing to me than the rest on the list. You don't have to pick four, though you're certainly welcome to.

Poll #1189521 What do you think? 2008 edition
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What should the stories include?

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010240.html

Senator Kennedy (D-Mass) has apparently been flown to Boston due to stroke-like symptoms. I've been meaning to write a post...

...also did a fantastic interview with me, which is now up for your perusal. I thoroughly enjoyed doing this one. Go have a look.

Pulling out the DVDs again last night, I watched Jim Henson's Dark Crystal.

I haven't seen this since it was new in the theaters almost 30 years ago and remembered little about it except the Land Striders.

Henson Studios has made amazing improvements in their puppetry since then, especially facial mobility. And what the puppets can't do, CGI can. Still, the work holds up. I was impressed with the story. It's a real story with characters, conflict and a THEME--so often missing in special effects movies these days.

And the music fit the movie.

I really liked the parallels between the evil skeksis and the benign Mystics.

The DVD is on the cheap shelves now, around $9.99 often on sale for $7.99. A worthwhile investment as I will be revisiting this film and its many layers of symbolism often.