| Sex and YA |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|02:08 pm] |
Reading ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) onyxehawke's post Sunset without shadows: http://onyxhawke.livejournal.com/106963.html got me thinking about how sex should be used in a novel meant for the teenage market.
Believably. Would Go Ask Alice have rung as true, and hit the reader as hard, if all mention of sexual encounters or menstrual cycles had been deleted? It would still have chronicled her years on drugs, it would still have given that warning message her family hoped for, but to me, it would have felt false, doctored, or prettied up, and the entire message would have been lost.
On the other side of the coin, I don't think any teen seriously wants to see books where Winnie the Pooh gets it on. They are a decade or more past being able to relate to Pooh's adventures, and he has no part in their stage of development, beyond a fond memory. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 9th, 2009|07:51 am] |
It's been rather an eventful week. My story in the Guardian Weekly has drawn some jealous responses from people wanting a poster; sorry, but I gave all the big ones to BearCage Productions, the film company making the "A Positive". Yes, I've seen the movie, and yes, it's bloody brilliant. Links and announcements soon!
I took Donna and Matthew in to see the hardware store for themselves, and they stocked up on some smaller posters. The fella behind the counter told us they had a whole room of posters. "Full floor to ceiling," he said. But the only man with the key was in Auckland. He won't be back till I've left the country! Oh, the tragedy of it. I can imagine the treasures slowly mouldering in that room.
One thing I wanted to do before we left Suva was to use the magic words at a certain supermarket. This supermarket, called Uno, sometimes carries French Cheese. Word goes out and it's all gone in a couple of days, so you have to make sure you know the right people. I'd also heard that they had great vegetables, but every time I've gone in there, it was floppy celery and old fennel.
Then I heard about the magic word. It's not enough to say, "Do you have any cheese? How about great vegetables?". You have to say, "Can I see the freezer room please?"
J and I went in last week and used the magic words. The freezer room was opened up to us. Inside; asparagus, corn, mushrooms, bright green broccoli, bean sprouts. Wonderful stuff! Here's a really bodgy photo of the fellas who work there, taken with J's phone:
They are really lovely guys, and all wanted to jump into the picture!
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| Crazy Cats |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|07:08 pm] |
Last night my family came over for dinner to help celebrate Tom's birthday. Fun was had.
The kitties were outside in their run when Lily started yelling her head off and running for Tom, who was sitting next to the run on the bench chair. Her eye looked weepy.
Tom got up, opened the run, she dove for him and he gave her a cuddle. She lay there quietly while he wiped her eye with a tissue. She had a hair in it. After, happy her eye was fine, she went back to her run and had fun tormenting Saxon.
Today, when Tom's sister-in-law was over visiting him for his birthday, Saxon sat on the window ledge. The new lace curtain was between him and the window, but we caught him lifting the lace away and trying to turn the window opener (please excuse me, I am having a complete mental blank as to what it is called), so he could open the window. We told him to stop. So he tried to move it with his mouth.
Looks like we're going to have to lock the windows shut soon. |
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| California Academy of Sciences; Through Glass |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|05:53 pm] |
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http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/11/california-academy-of-sciences-through.html 
I've spent the day pacing around my dim little den, in part because it's too hot to do anything, and in part because I really was thinking. Me and the novel, we're going to sort this little issue of ours out, even if knives are required.
The dayjob welcomes me back tomorrow, and to say I am afeared for my hands would be a gross understatement. Typing has been largely avoided today, but I can't escape it, nor do I want to. Aside from writing-writing, there's book-reaction-writing, and trip-report-writing, and correspondence-writing, and who knows what else.
You get owl skulls instead. Photos are easier than typing right now. |
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| Point Break and Imitation of Life (early version) |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|11:25 pm] |
I was too sick to watch movies last night but did so tonight. Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break with Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, and Gary Busey. About 15 minutes too long, some gorgeous shots of surfing, interesting (but someone predictable) plot. It was not a bad way to spend almost two hours.
And saw the earlier version or Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert. Here's my post and the thread on the later version Imitation of Life .
Some thoughts: although the guy doesn't overtly pressure Colbert to leave her job he does beg to take her away on his boat doing fish research, hence giving up her career to hang around with him while he continues his. However....she's already rich rich rich, so she could retire.
I don't like that Colbert feels forced to give the guy up (for an indefinite period of time) because of her daughter--not saying it's not realistic or even reasonable; I just don't like it.
Same heartbreaking scenes with regard to Peola coming back to the mom's funeral.
Overly sentimental death scene with the spirituals sung in the background are dreadful.
I've seen Claudette Colbert act better in other movies.
The young woman who plays Colbert's daughter is terrible. The one who plays Delilah's daughter is much better. |
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| Nap Attack |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|01:51 pm] |
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http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/11/nap-attack.html I lay on the bed a moment "to think" and I've lost an hour and a half.
This is why I don't do naps. It just isn't possible to wake up twice in one day. I feel decidedly disgusting, inside and out, and am certainly no longer in any condition "to think". |
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| Writing Voice |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|03:14 pm] |
Being voiceless meant a bit of time for reading that I had otherwise been neglected. Time to make a quick note before I try to pry some space on the shelves for them.
The one I have just finished is The City & The City by China Mieville. Damn it was good. Easily his best work yet. A detective story in a pair of superimposed cities. Convincing and believable and yet alien and mysterious. This deserves to win awards.
Thinking of awards as a result of reading a bunch of short story collections. It would be hard to count how many awards all the stories in these four collections have won but it would be a very large number. In one case the collection as a whole won a World Fantasy award too. The collections were The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians by Bradley Denton, Things will Never be the Same by Howard Waldrop, A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti and The Fantasy Writer's Assistant by Jeffrey Ford. You might think one of those collections doesn't quite fit with the others. Don't think that, they belong together. But here is the thing. All these collections come from small scale publishers. All those awards and all the quality and all that enjoyable reading and the big guys aren't interested. I don't blame the big publishers - they are driven by what sells and short story collections don't sell in great numbers. I blame all those people who proudly say "oh I don't read short stories". People are entitled to taste preference, but I don't get the attitude that seems to go with it so often that short stories are somehow lesser things. Where did that come from.
Kaaron Warren has moved from disturbing short stories to disturbing novels. How disturbing. Well I had to take a break in the middle of reading Slights to read something else just to re-establish my equilibrium. It is subtle and powerful stuff for giving your mental cages a good shake.
On a completely different level is The Unscratchables by Anthony O'Neill which is a relentless series of dog and cat puns. A world of cats and dogs who mostly keep to their own worlds but a dog detective and a cat detective have to team up to solve a mystery. Yes it does have a plot and even a message, but what it mostly has is puns. You have to admire the way the author keeps up a steady stream beginning to end, but really...
Greg Bear has also done the two connected worlds thing with City at the End of Time. This novel of two groups connected across trillions(!!) of years is a great concept. It has certainly garnered a lot of critical acclaim which I suspect is because of that concept. Personally it didn't work for me. The idea is fine but the execution seemed scattergun and a bit sloppy. Too much vague hand waving to justify the setup.
And finally a mention of Fleet of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M Lerner. I'm betting that Larry didn't write any of it at all. But apropos of my suspicions about major authors farming out work without credit a couple of months back, it is at least good to see Lerner getting credit. It is about the only thing good about the book. |
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| idea snaffled from jongibbs |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|09:27 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cheerful | ] |
I've snaffled this post idea from jongibbs , the first song in the soundtrack of your life. My original reply to his post grew to long, so I'm inflicting some musical memories on my own flist instead. *g*
music was always a major part of my life. weekend get togethers (yes, every weekend) involved my dad playing the old hillbilly songs on his Gibson songbird, my uncle playing along on the spoons, another family friend on harmonica, and everyone who knew the words joining in on the chorus at least *g* I learnt to play guitar in this setting, and I credit never being surprised or losing my place on stage to those years of early training, not laughing while my uncle or cousins made silly faces, or dropped icecubes down my back. Not that I appreciated it at the time. My older sister had the misfortune to have to share her room with me, not only was I a slobby spoilt brat, but I was ten years younger than her. She got a portable record player for her 16th (lol, the difference between us, I'd already gotten a record player with my own savings by the time I was 12, because she'd rather inconsiderately I thought, gotten married, and moved out, leaving me without a record player *g*) So my musical influences are fairly eclectic, but Slim Dusty singing No Mans Land (also known as green fields of France, sung here by the song's creator) or Eric Bogle's And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, mean Anzac Day, to me, as my grandfather survived postings to both Galipolli & France. (I have the hand embroidered postcard he sent his parents when he arrived in France.) Cold Chisel's Khe Sanh explained much of my sister's age group... as did Country Radio's Gypsy Queen. The first song I learnt to play on the guitar was House of the Rising Sun. I associate David Cassidy's I Think I Love You, with my sister's first romance (we had a very close relationship, I knew everything she did ...yeah, I read her diary *g*) When I was 9 I loved Abba - although my favourite song is not one most people think of immediately when picking Abba songs. I convinced the senior class room kids that we needed to perform this song at our Christmas concert in 1977, I got to wear a fake beard and be Benny *g*; when I was 12 I thought Leif Garrett had a good voice - even if he did wear pouncy white satin flares. When I was 13 my brothers let me loose on their record collections (I think it was that or use my Leif Garrett album as target practice)
So I discovered Status Quo, who remain my favourite band, Alice Cooper (I was listening to Welcome to my Nightmare when I went through the windscreen)Slade, Hush, Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, Meatloaf (still the best house-cleaning album out there) Skyhooks and T-rex. The first time I read Lord of the Rings I was listening to Uriah Heep (somewhat appropriate, really) I was buying my own Suzi Quatro and Pink Floyd albums, as well as Iron Maiden, The Angels (known as Angel City in the US) Poco, and the Ferrets. I remain a devotee of guitar driven rock. But ballads hold a strong place in my affections too. The Glitter Band's Tears I Cry is tied strongly to helping one of my extra brother's write love letters, and Axiom's Little Ray of Sunshine was playing on the radio when my eldest daughter was born.
Could I name the first tune in the soundtrack of my life? Not a snowball's chance in hades. Have I come close to listing even a quarter of the bands who I love to listen to? That would be a negatory. But my daughter has asked me to create a song for her to walk down the aisle to next year, so I'm still playing, and I am still listening, and I expect to keep adding more to the soundtrack of my life.
I do, however, have a song I've requested my kids play when they have to say a final goodbye to me. *g* |
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| Feeling human and PHOTOS |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|05:34 pm] |
Today, after sleeping on and off for 1 1/2 days, I woke up feeling almost human. I don't believe it was any kind of flu just a really awful, fast-moving cold. I'm still coughing (trying to get up the stuff that's too far down for comfort)and it hurts every time I cough--ribs, etc caused BY the coughing the first two days. I felt good enough to go out and shop for zinc (couldn't find the Odwalla Vit C drink) and groceries. And for the first time in years, I had them delivered.
I ate my first food early afternoon--yesterday I just had toast--I just didn't want anything else that I had in the house.
Making chicken soup now. Taking expectorant cough syrup, gargling with salt water, drinking lots of water.
Enroute home I picked up a four foot tall book shelf/column that I think I'll -put in my bedroom to keep the "books to be read for Best of the year"--rather than where they have been--on my floor. We'll see how that works.
And here are the photos from WFC: http://tinyurl.com/yb7j6eq |
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| American Candy |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|11:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  impressed | ] |
My local DVD rental shop has started selling American Candy and drinks like Cherry Coke. I'm working my way through the ones that I hear mentioned on telly or in the movies. May I say, that whatever else we may think about Americans and their slightly offskew values systems regarding sex, violence, politics and guns...dayum they make some good candy!!!
Reeses Peanut Butter Cups get a big tick from me. As do Nestle Butterfinger bars. I had one tonight and it was yummy! |
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| Sad Hands, Sad Face |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|09:25 pm] |
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http://silence-without.blogspot.com/2009/11/sad-hands-sad-face.html My hands greatly enjoyed my trip. All that time not spent at the computer! They were very happy hands.
I spent three hours this morning taking care of my inboxes, and haven't touched a computer in ten hours. But now they are not happy hands at all.
All the things I want to do involve typing. All of them. I don't know what to do. |
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| Bad Author Photos... and a new blog |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|04:10 pm] |
I don't often get the urge to start a new blog. More often, I'm likely to be seen shutting them down these days - my daily allowance of goof-off time has depreciated greatly over the last year or so. But, the other day I was asked to supply an author photo to help better promote my stories and illustrations through the Australian Horror Writers Association. I've never been the most photogenic of people. I don't think many author types are - except for the Self-Help crowd who seem to revel in caked on makeup and op-shop clothes under blinding studio lights. So, in preparation for my own photo, I thought I'd hunt the web and see what other authors have been doing over the years. Looking through the results of a google image search, it didn't take me long to realise just how bad the 'art' of Author Photography is! Generally there is a huge lack of originality. Most poses and looks are the same fake-smile-head-titlted-chin-resting-on-hand look. But, sometimes, you come across a real corker. The sort of photo where you really wonder what they were thinking - they being: the author, the publisher and the photographer! But hey! We buy books for the words, not the author photos...right? Yeah, that's right. But still, just as a bad cover design can be a detriment a book's marketability, so I think can a bad author photo. With that in mind, over the next few days, weeks, months, I'll be posting some of those author photos that I've found most curious, bizarre, surreal, embarrassing and just plain amusing over at:
Bad Author Photos (http://badauthorphotos.blogspot.com) Keep your eye out for the first couple of posts while I sort through the pile of doozies I've already discovered. No author is safe! And, I expect, my own author photo will be no better.
If you have any contributions of your own to make - be it author photos you've seen on the web or a dust-jacket, or maybe a copy of your own author photo - you can email a link of the image to badauthorphoto@gmail.com |
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| Woe is me |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|10:45 am] |
Well, yesterday I left work early because of a migraine. Today, I don't feel a lot better. Have the shakes, feel weak, light headed and my head sends sharp pains whenever it feels like it. I think this is the result from falling down the stairs the other day - my neck is so far out it's caused the migraine.
When I woke up from a nap yesterday, I decided I had to keep working on Phantom Queen as its deadline is looming. I only managed to do a tiny bit and got one thing back to front in my efforts. Yay! So now I have to go fix it. Clever Amanda.
Right now, I'm at work, trying to get the stuff that has to be done, well, done. Don't know how much longer I will last. I feel, well, extremely shitty.
On some bright news... Phantom Queen just needs one more bio and afterword so I can typeset it.
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| And.... |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|01:04 pm] |
within hours of returning home I was hit smack bang with a hacking(cough), sneezing, nose running cold. At least that's what I'm assuming as I've got no temperature or aches and pains or nausea, etc. I hope I didn't give it to the Locus crowd, with whom I visited Tuesday (no symptoms then)...
I will be hibernated as much as possible for the next couple of days-drinking hot water, lemon, ginger, and honey; tea. Taking cough meds, cold meds, and stuffing vicks up my nose and on my chest. And keeping a BIG box of tissues next to me. |
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| I liked today |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|10:08 pm] |
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It wasn't too hot, I didn't have to drive to Albury, and I got a great email from one of my authors in IBD2 (ok, actually I got the email yesterday, but I wasn't able to read it til today *g* so it counts as another thing I liked about today *g*) |
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| Home and some stray reviews |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|01:07 am] |
Horror world reviews TWISTS OF THE TALE
(you'll have to scroll down for it).
Some choice quotes:
"If there’s one thing Ellen Datlow knows how to do well, it’s put an amazing anthology together. From The Year’s Best Horror to Poe to The Dark, she has never failed to capture the essence of the concept she set out to accomplish. The best stories are always chosen, not the most well-known authors, which results in nearly flawless products for both seasoned horror fans and those who just might be browsing....
Highly recommended – even for those who prefer dogs."
And a great review in Green Man review of The Best Horror of the Year volume One
Again, some choice quotes:
"The quality and variety of stories, along with the depth and breadth of Datlow's summary of the year in review, makes The Best Horror of the Year informative as well as entertaining, and any horror fan who wishes to keep current with the state of the genre will want to have a copy."
...."Diversity, complexity, and uniqueness are shared characteristics of all of these stories, making the entire volume a balm for any horror fan who has at times felt a sense of ennui at the sight of books featuring the same old names on the covers along with the same old illustrations of tough stoic men and naked screaming women." |
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| Shhhh |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|01:32 pm] |
There are probably no body organs that you want to lose the use of. Obviously losing some of them is rather life limiting, but others just a bit inconvenient. I mention this only because I have lost the use of my larynx for the last week or so. Which is to say I have had laryngitis from a virus and lost my voice. It’s funny, it isn’t one of those things that you would think of as being that big a deal – the fodder of old fashioned sitcoms really. But it is bloody inconvenient – I couldn’t even ring the doctor to arrange an appointment to get it looked at when it didn’t clear up quickly.
What is interesting though is how it seems to cut into my desire to communicate in other ways. No desire to write on this blog for example. There is a lot of evidence around how our verbal functions are tied into our general social interaction bits of the brain. Perhaps this is an example. On the other hand, I lost my appetite too – perhaps there is something else at work.
But here is the handy hint of the day. If you do have laryngitis, it is no bad thing to force yourself to go to work. Once your boss & colleagues hear you, they will be so busy telling you to go home that there will be no further chance to make a martyr of yourself and you have no trouble ensuring you can take a full recovery time to get over it properly. The sound of a rasping or whispering voice really kicks in the "unclean" response. For added emphasis, I asked my boss to make a doctor’s appointment for me (see above) as we go to the same GP. |
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