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With the fire behind us and a torch in my hand
1. I think this afternoon at Café Pamplona may be the first time I've ever eaten at a restaurant with its own Wikipedia page. It was extremely tasty, though; I had their signature sandwich with the pickles and very nice conversation with the philosopher who does not have a livejournal. Then I got rained on a lot.
2. Fortunately, when I got home, the mail had brought my contributor's copies of Not One of Us #45, containing my story "A Wolf in Iceland Is the Child of a Lie" and my poem "Incubation." The latter was written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
teenybuffalo; it's the zombie oracle poem that is not as awesome as Lucan's Pharsalia, though really nothing is. The former is the first non-flash fiction I've completed since the summer of 2008 and I'm actually proud of it, when I'm not still terrified I got it wrong. I grew up on D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967); their Loki was the first god I fell in love with, that long-eyed slantwise smile, the shapes he takes in the fire and his hair made of embers and flame. (It was inevitable, when I read Howl's Moving Castle, that I associate him with Calcifer.) I knew who everyone was in Eight Days of Luke as soon as they appeared, ditto American Gods, and it took me until this past December to write directly about any of these figures, even though the central one has been in my head on and off since college. I think it came out all right. I couldn't quite work in the Móðuharðindin, but I want to know now if anyone has ever written Sigyn/Angrboða, and if not, why not. The story was written mostly to Sigur Rós and some entirely unrelated things, like Bellowhead and Mission of Burma.
You should also check out the rest of the issue, of course, because I think it's an especially strong one: featuring such un/seen things as Patricia Russo's "The Sweepers," Erik Amundsen's "Mote," Kelly Rose Pflug-Back's "Birch," Francesca Forrest's "Down the Drain," Jason Maurer's "I Bet Pliny the Elder Didn't Cite His Sources," and that's just the half of it.asakiyume's story is illustrated with one of her own photographs. I found a book on how to be invisible . . .
3. Kathe Koja's Under the Poppy (2010) cannot qualify as the best book I've read in weeks, because I've actually had quite good book luck so far this year—Wittgenstein, Iain Banks, Got fun nekome, The Hare with Amber Eyes—but there is sex with puppets on page two and it goes from there, like the novel hiding in the strings of Angela Carter's "The Loves of Lady Purple"; it seems to be even less safe to read on public transportation than Roman Homosexuality, but I am enjoying it immensely so far. It is also set during a time period about which I know nothing—Brussels in the 1870's—and therefore I cannot, for once, tell which way the history is going to jump.
4. I could still do with not having this cold.
2. Fortunately, when I got home, the mail had brought my contributor's copies of Not One of Us #45, containing my story "A Wolf in Iceland Is the Child of a Lie" and my poem "Incubation." The latter was written for
teenybuffalo; it's the zombie oracle poem that is not as awesome as Lucan's Pharsalia, though really nothing is. The former is the first non-flash fiction I've completed since the summer of 2008 and I'm actually proud of it, when I'm not still terrified I got it wrong. I grew up on D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967); their Loki was the first god I fell in love with, that long-eyed slantwise smile, the shapes he takes in the fire and his hair made of embers and flame. (It was inevitable, when I read Howl's Moving Castle, that I associate him with Calcifer.) I knew who everyone was in Eight Days of Luke as soon as they appeared, ditto American Gods, and it took me until this past December to write directly about any of these figures, even though the central one has been in my head on and off since college. I think it came out all right. I couldn't quite work in the Móðuharðindin, but I want to know now if anyone has ever written Sigyn/Angrboða, and if not, why not. The story was written mostly to Sigur Rós and some entirely unrelated things, like Bellowhead and Mission of Burma. You should also check out the rest of the issue, of course, because I think it's an especially strong one: featuring such un/seen things as Patricia Russo's "The Sweepers," Erik Amundsen's "Mote," Kelly Rose Pflug-Back's "Birch," Francesca Forrest's "Down the Drain," Jason Maurer's "I Bet Pliny the Elder Didn't Cite His Sources," and that's just the half of it.
asakiyume's story is illustrated with one of her own photographs. I found a book on how to be invisible . . .3. Kathe Koja's Under the Poppy (2010) cannot qualify as the best book I've read in weeks, because I've actually had quite good book luck so far this year—Wittgenstein, Iain Banks, Got fun nekome, The Hare with Amber Eyes—but there is sex with puppets on page two and it goes from there, like the novel hiding in the strings of Angela Carter's "The Loves of Lady Purple"; it seems to be even less safe to read on public transportation than Roman Homosexuality, but I am enjoying it immensely so far. It is also set during a time period about which I know nothing—Brussels in the 1870's—and therefore I cannot, for once, tell which way the history is going to jump.
4. I could still do with not having this cold.
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Dude, free copies of awesome are never to be taken lightly.
Did I mention I really, really like "Mote"?
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Colds are rotten things. Feel better!
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Is this the first non-Y.A. Koja novel in a long while? I've only read her first, The Cipher (her original title, The Funhole is way better), which was terrific. And she remains a really nice person -- I got to see her and her husband Rick Lieder at World Fantasy for the first time since Readercon 5.
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Loki: You know why. I am the god of mischief. Would you think Tyr would lie down and make chains of daisy-heads with the maids? Would Heimdall snooze the day away when danger lurked on the horizon? I am loki, the fire that burns. And why does the fire burn? ...I know not. but I am he. (Pauses) I saw a chance to create a little entertainment. I did not think it would end like this.
And I liked Under the Poppy too, overall, but it's no Skin. Then again...nothing is.
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Good to hear it. I was just thinking earlier today that it was high time I read that poem again.
The title "I Bet Pliny the Elder Didn't Cite His Sources" makes me smile. I can see I'm going to have to get this issue.
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Yes; her last novel for adults was Kink in 1996. She's been writing YA's since 2002 at a rate of nearly a novel a year, although I think there's been something of a hiatus lately; I haven't read any more recently than The Blue Mirror in 2004, although I liked that one very much. There are passages in Under the Poppy that make me wonder whether it began life as a YA historical, before the necessary amounts of sex and violence knocked it into the adult bracket.
I've only read her first, The Cipher (her original title, The Funhole is way better), which was terrific.
I haven't read Kink or Bad Brains (1992), but my favorite of her novels has traditionally—and far and away—been Skin (1993), which is about art. I am understating. I read it in England, in 2004; I can still recall not only its images, but its language. Tanzplagen. I am also very fond of her short story collection, Extremities (1997).
And she remains a really nice person -- I got to see her and her husband Rick Lieder at World Fantasy for the first time since Readercon 5.
Nice.
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Thank you. Trying!
(Who's your icon?)
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It's one of my favorite titles in some time, and the story itself is more than up to it.
I can see I'm going to have to get this issue.
Only $4.50!
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---L.
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Thank you!
I am Loki, the fire that burns. And why does the fire burn? ...I know not. But I am he.
Prrr.
So when are we going to see a Norse-myth story from you?
And I liked Under the Poppy too, overall, but it's no Skin. Then again...nothing is.
It's got sex with puppets, though.
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You should find out whether it deserves it.
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Rrrrgh, good question, Let me get through the holler-witch grind, and get back to you on that one...although I must admit, I've always thought of "Drone" as being fairly Norse, even though no gods involve themselves directly.
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And I thank my lucky stars that at last LJ is back.
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Fabulous story.
Damned cold. Avaunt!
Nine
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You should review this issue!
And I thank my lucky stars that at last LJ is back.
The little things help.
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I think it's one of the Cambridge institutions I missed by virtue of not actually being affiliated with Harvard in any way at all. At least it didn't close before I discovered it.
Fabulous story.
Thank you.
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Cousins Hatsuharu and Kisa from Fruits Basket - I assume the anime version, from the relatively heavy line art. (That's another cousin, Momiji, in the current icon.)
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I wondered if they were Fruits Basket, but I've never seen any of them in color!
(I can see Haru's hair now that you mention it.)
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Combing the Intarwebs for art for icons is one of my favorite brain-dead-time activities. There are a number of people who have scanned in the color "extras" from the original manga issues (or from art books) and posted them online, and likewise with screen caps from anime episodes.
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Hope the cold leaves you soon.
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Thank you!
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I take what I can get.