Half the days are mine remembering friends from the earth

[sovay]

From the front lines of the lurgi: I woke up coughing in the middle of the night, have a spiking headache, have appointments I can't miss this afternoon [edit: THE MBTA DECREED OTHERWISE]. I had to check when I got up that there was not really a Cambridge-area writer named Sandrine Aday who had written an unfinished sequence of intense, dreamlike, anthropomorphic animal fantasies from the early '80's through the early '90's before dying under still-mysterious circumstances having to do with a holdup and her daughter being in jail. In the dream I had grown up reading her, as had several but not all of my friends; she had the kind of not quite cult fandom of Meredith Ann Pierce, pre-Baen P.C. Hodgell, pre-Firebird Clare Bell. "Like Redwall, but earlier, and only the weird bits," I remember describing her work to someone who had never heard of her. She had never been reprinted. That was changing, I really want to say because Small Beer Press had waded through the rights hell that was the remains of her estate; a previously unpublished story of hers was the centerpiece of one of their upcoming anthologies. I had work in it; so did Greer Gilman; so did Ruthanna Emyrs. The Aday story had herons and a sacrifice headland, which ties it to one of the oldest dreams I can remember. I was reading the galleys in a boathouse. I really resent this anthology not existing.

P.S. I rated an end-of-year recommendation in the same company as Sylvia Townsend Warner, Audre Lorde, and Dorothy B. Hughes. I'll take it!

P.P.S. And TCM is running Van Heflin movies for his birthday. I have already reviewed Act of Violence (1948) and The Prowler (1951); I have never seen Patterns (1956); I made it halfway through Tennessee Johnson (1942) once. I guess I have a plan? I've been so sick, I haven't even been watching movies.

Comments

[choco_frosh]

Ugh. Is there a way to give the Lurgi a lech l'cha?

Yay end-of-tear recommendations!

I feel like you've dreamt about nonexistent writers/books/artists before. Some day, I hope you write a AU story (novel?) that features them all.

[sovay]

Ugh. Is there a way to give the Lurgi a lech l'cha?

I'm trying. When the MBTA fell over badly enough that I wouldn't be able to get to my appointments on time, instead of making myself sicker running around the city, I called to see if I could reschedule and went home and basically fell over myself. I need to hang on to some kind of functionality. I have a performance coming up.

Yay end-of-year recommendations!

Thank you!

I feel like you've dreamt about nonexistent writers/books/artists before.

I have! It's usually nonexistent books and movies, although every now and then it's a painting or a play or something. There is clearly much better funding for the arts in my dreams.

Some day, I hope you write a AU story (novel?) that features them all.

Thank you. I will think about how something like that might be done.

[choco_frosh]

...I called to see if I could reschedule and went home and basically fell over myself. I need to hang on to some kind of functionality.

Yes.
...Uh, scheduling's always problematic (what with job and a weekend where I'm going to be spending most of it in a belltower again), but lemme know if there's anything I can do. Inc. if you need a ride somewhere: I can potentially bend my schedule around...