Received rejection slip from publisher #2. Am now wondering whether they even bothered to take the manuscript out of the box. Ah, well. Time to brood on query letter for sending to other publishers.
31 July 2004
30 July 2004
Lightly Illustrated Craft Update
I’ve hit bottom on the needlepoint crane.
That is, I have made stitches along the bottom edge. Hurray! It’s still got a ways to go, but other than the surface embellishments, the entire unstitched portion is visible. I might be able to get it done by the end of the year; we’ll see how much home time my Greek class takes.
Other counted-work projects are just languishing, except for this one, a quickie project that I did for a friend’s wedding present.
In the yarn world, I’ve done a few more rows on the sweater’s sleeve. I’m more and more convinced that I’ll have to rip and redo the yoke, but I’m becoming resigned to that; by the time I get the sleeves done, I’ll probably have the oomph to rip. On the sampler afghan, I’ve finished one square and gotten large chunks done of others; at some point, I have to figure out how I’m going to organize the partial squares, or I’m going to forget which is which before I get it all assembled. And I finally took a photo of the purple doily.
I’ve finished one more of my ex’s shirts. I feel very motivated to finish the last one before Monday; that way, I can say that it took me less than a year to finish it. I also declared the shell “done” — translation: the pattern doesn’t work yet. (But given how well the bodice of the loud dress fits me, I’m going to try just adjusting that into a sleeveless blouse and see what happens.) No work on the quilt.
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28 July 2004
Word Overuse Par Excellence
The excerpt I’m currently coding uses the phrase “par excellence” five times, including two instances on one page. Bleah. Twice I could tolerate, but this is getting ridiculous.
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Wow.
I haven’t been listening to the Democratic convention much, but after hearing so many positive comments on Illinois State Senator Barack Obama’s speech, I had to read it.
Wow.
If he does get into the U.S. Senate this election, I want to watch his voting record.
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27 July 2004
Pediatric Intestinal Bugs Still Remain Evil.
$80 for another doctor’s visit and another medication. We’ll see if it helps at all.
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23 July 2004
Various Books
Sarah Susanka, Home by Design. In theory, it’s architectural design principles for the non-architect. About all I got out of it, though is 1. there is no way to get my house to look a little more interesting without spending so much money that I might as well just move to another house, 2. Susanka’s way more into wood tones and earth tones than I am, and 3. nobody who can afford a custom-designed house has small children.
Okay, it’s not that bad. A lot of the illustrations are quite pretty, and if I thought there was any hope that I could ever afford them, I’d save the name of the architectural firm that’s actually near me because I really like some aspects of their house design. But I’m still holding out for “Making the 1957 Boring Three-Bedroom 1200 Square Foot House Just A Tad More Interesting Inside For Under $1000, Assuming You Possess Only Basic Carpentry Skills”.
George Bernard Shaw, Arms and the Man. Was funny when I read it in 9th grade, was funny when I got to see a live performance, and still is funny.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park. Nth rereading. Still love it. The day after I finished it, I read a post by A. J. Hall and discovered why Mary Crawford is describing Maria’s Agatha as “maternal”. Cool.
Patricia C. Wrede, Caught in Crystal and The Harp of Imlach Thyssel. Two fantasies that take place in the same universe but aren’t especially closely connected. I enjoyed both; the characters were interesting and faced some real choices about their lives and futures.
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16 July 2004
Beet Manifesto
Official announcement: I don’t like beets.
I’ve tried baking them. I’ve tried them in a salad with an orange juice and red wine vinegar dressing. I’ve tried borscht. I’ve tried pulverizing them and using them in place of bananas in a banana bread recipe.
The only one of these that I was able to get through without triggering the gag reflex was the bread, and that only because I picked out the large beet chunks that had survived the blender.
Okra? Fine. Winter squash? Fine. Cabbage? Sure, especially when cooked with some Polish sausage. Rutabegas, kohlrabi? Go for it. Sweet potatoes? I don’t really like them, but in sweet potato pie they’re tolerable.
But beets? I’ve tried them in enough forms that I can confidently say I don’t like them. No more beets!
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14 July 2004
Unillustrated Craft Update: Shirtage and Dressage
Unillustrated craft update:
- Finished two of the shirts. Two to go. (And I may not have to do as much of those two — my ex asked me if there was anything easy that he could do to help me with the projects I’m sewing for him, and I remembered that yes, he does know how to sew on a button. So eleven buttons will give him good practice. Bwah-hah-hah!)
- I cut out and sewed a dress from some loud fabric I bought a year ago. I’ve discovered some new things about sewing:
- Simplicity 9829 is a pattern that actually has a version with a reasonable neckline! No more visible bra straps!
- My top is two sizes smaller than my bottom; when I cut out a dress’s pattern pieces accordingly, lo and behold, it fits!
- Except for the sleeves. My arms are plump or extra-muscled or some combination thereof, and it shows on this dress — it’s comfortable when I’m standing, or when I sit very straight, but if I lean back at all, the sleeves constrict. This may be especially problematic when I’m driving. I’ll have to see whether I get used to it as I wear the dress, or whether I need to cut the armholes and sleeves to the next size up but leave the bodice at the smaller size.
- The Homespun scarf is done.
- No progress on the sweater. (It’s July. Trying to work on a sweater, even a cotton sweater, in July, is more than I feel like trying.)
- I’ve started the granny square sampler afghan that I’ve been wanting to do since 1987. (And once I’ve finished it, I’m unloading all my scrap yarn to the local children’s musem. This is the only project I’ve got for the forseeable that I’d need scraps for.)
- No project on any counted work, or on the wall quilt. No progress on the sleeveless shirt, but at this point it just requires rethreading the machine and an hour’s sewing, and it’ll be done. I’ll get the urge soon.
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8 July 2004
A Bumper Sticker I’d Like to See
Your driving outwitnesses your fish
(Yep, I’ve seen too many exceptionally rude drivers with Christian symbols on their vehicles lately.)
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7 July 2004
Writing, Religion, Revolution, Dragons
Edward Gorey, The Unstrung Harp, or, Mr. Earbass Writes a Novel. A tiny book about an author writing a novel. Quite entertaining, and from my limited writing experience, a lot rings true. And the illustrations are great fun.
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Whimsical Christian. A collection of essays on various topics. I was especially struck by “Oedipus Simplex”, which gives an interesting way of looking at prophecy vs. free will, and “The Other Six Deadly Sins”, an essay which is highly applicable today as well.
Lloyd Biggle, Jr., The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets. A science fiction novel about a specialist in cultural arts who has to start a revolution on a planet, or rather, to convince the people to decide to revolt — “Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny”. I enjoyed reading it, in spite of the fact that it uses a couple of my major squicks as plot elements. The characters aren’t anything special, but the worldbuilding and the story were extremely engaging, and the various twists in what appeared to be going on added interest.
Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon. It’s been a long time since I reread these, and I can see their flaws more clearly. Besides the ubiquitous continuity errors, they have minor characters who abruptly change personality (T’ton/T’ron and Mardra, for example, go from reasonably pleasant folks in DF to noxious gits in DQ, and I’ve never felt that culture shock adequately explained the change), some subtle but disturbing attitudes about sex (F’nor and Brekke’s first sexual encounter and Jaxom and Corana’s last one come to mind), and some repetitive elements (note that F’lar gets in a knife fight with someone in all three books).
And yet, I still find them worth reading and rereading. The world, the society, the dragons, the main characters, the action and adventure…they’re good stories. I adore Lessa. I admire F’lar, though he could use a genuine flaw or two. Jaxom, F’nor, Brekke, Menolly, Robinton — all people I’d love to attend a dinner party with.
McCaffrey’s later Pern books, alas, don’t resonate with me as much. I reread All the Weyrs of Pern as well, and it’s now on the giveaway stack; I haven’t read any later Pern books, and I don’t think I’m going to bother unless I see one in the library and have some spare time.
It’s not just the nostalgia factor. AtWoP has some wonderful moments, but overall…. There’s too much boring infodumping. There’s too many characters who seem to show up just so that characters from previous books can be squeezed in rather than because they have any role in the plot. The whole “Bitrans can’t be trusted” thing annoyed the hell out of me. Sides were too black-and-white — I think McCaffrey was trying to show that people might have good reasons to object to AIVAS and the new innovations, but except for Lord Corman, it ultimately read like Good Guys supported (or at least were willing to tolerate) the new and Bad Guys supported the old. While it was nice to know more about what happened to characters I’ve come to care about, I’d have gotten as much out of reading a detailed synopsis of the book as I got from the book itself.
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