ashnistrike: (Default)
ashnistrike ([personal profile] ashnistrike) wrote2017-07-23 12:12 am

Five Things

 I've been somewhat neglectful here. So, a low-stress post in which I don't try to go into anything in depth, because cramps, and because the summer's round of one-thing-after-another doesn't actually finish up for another month.

1) Readercon was awesome and a thing I want to go back to. I wasn't on program this year, which is something I want to change next year but on the other hand it was really nice to have one of the summer's Things be basically relaxing. I hung out with [personal profile] gaudior and [personal profile] rushthatspeaks and [personal profile] mrissa and Greer, and had a useful lunch with my agent and editor, and picked up a large stack of books, and generally had a great time. And then read at Pandemonium after the con with Fran Wilde and Chris Sharp, and that was also great, and the large stack of books that I had to deconstruct in order to see the audience reduced quite satisfactorily by the end of the event.

2) I have my mostly-final schedules for Necronomicon and the Baltimore Book Festival, which I will post once they're final. I also know what I'm doing at the Outwrite queer literature festival, except that I can't find the time for my panel now, so that will be here later too. But it's in DC on August 5th and promises to be a fun time.

3) It's that time of year when we've finally set a date to pick up our new cow--longhorn this year, shared with the same two people I've been splitting cows with for a while now. They each take a quarter of the cow, my large family of mostly carnivores takes a half, and we all enjoy the discount that comes from buying a whole cow. But this means the freezer damn well has to be empty by mid-August, which means in turn that all the weird bits of the last cow, and other odds and ends that have filled the empty space as 500 pounds of meat gets down to the last couple of packages, need to get used up. Thus there's currently heart marinating in the fridge, rump roast in the slow cooker, and a large bag of miscellaneous poultry organs out to thaw. (We also have a lot of vegetables in the house, but they rarely get to the point of freezing. The Mysterious Manor House goes through a weekly CSA box pretty handily. Except for the rutabaga.)

4) Things I have loved lately: 
  • Theodora Goss's The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, which is about the daughters of Doctor Jekyl and Mister Hyde teaming up with Justine Frankenstein and Catherine Moreau and Beatrice Rappacini - together they fight crime and build a found family. And the whole thing is written up as a novel by Catherine, but everyone else is playing peanut gallery over her shoulder so she transcribes their objections and questions in little asides, and impatiently explains to them the literary conceits that she's using. 
  • Arrival, which I watched on a long plane flight and promptly moved to the top of my Hugo list for Dramatic Presentation Long Form, and I can't believe they actually managed to film that but they did.
  • Jupiter Ascending, which I watched on the same long plane flight and adored in completely different ways: it's as delightful and cracktastic as everyone told you on Tumblr.



5) And now I need to put down Dreamwidth and go fix a small continuity error and an anachronism for the Winter Tide paperback.
heron61: (Default)

[personal profile] heron61 2017-07-23 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
I also loved all three of those. I heard about Goss' novel a number of months ago, and it sounded interesting, then I read her short story of the same name, that was clearly a shorter and slightly different version, and I knew I'd love the novel, I did and am exceedingly pleased that there's a sequel coming.

Arrival was wonderful and also fascinating in how it differed from the short story, especially since it seems to explicitly deny the short story's predestination at one point. Jupiter Ascending was for me a whole lot of light and wonderful fun - it's not often that someone can make a story where the protagonist ends up with a winged werewolf boyfriend actually work :)
mrissa: (Default)

[personal profile] mrissa 2017-07-23 10:47 am (UTC)(link)
It was so good to see you again! And if you are looking at going to Readercon again next year, we will not let it be so long before I see you next time, and that will be all for the best etc. I had a long list of "did not spend enough time with" people that you were on, but on the other hand I suppose it is a far better con to have a long list of "did not spend enough time with" people than a long list of "OH GAWD why did I spend time with" people, so there's that.
fineplan: (Default)

[personal profile] fineplan 2017-07-23 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I never realized that the paperback versions of books could be different than the hardcover ones. Interesting! I did not catch either error when I read your novel, though. It's definitely one of my favorite fantasy novels of the year so far!
fineplan: (Default)

[personal profile] fineplan 2017-07-24 05:22 am (UTC)(link)
I transferred my goodreads over to Amazon, so that was easy enough. :) I'll have to keep in mind that Amazon reviews can be helpful for authors I like! Thank you for the explanation about the paperback edits.
child_of_the_air: Photo of a walkway with a concrete railing, with a small river bordered by leafless trees in the background. (Default)

[personal profile] child_of_the_air 2017-08-03 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Everything I've heard about Readercon has been awesome: I'm a bit disappointed I never made it out there while I was living in Boston. Without a car, it wasn't really that practical, though.
child_of_the_air: Photo of a walkway with a concrete railing, with a small river bordered by leafless trees in the background. (Default)

[personal profile] child_of_the_air 2017-08-04 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Huh. That's definitely more convenient than where they used to be. I'll have to try to remember to point this out to some of my Boston friends next year: I imagine a number of them would enjoy it! (Or maybe I'll even be in Boston then, I guess, depending on what my travel and employment situation is next summer.)