I see the mountain and that is all I see

[sovay]

1. My poem "Spirit Photography" is now online at Through the Gate. It is their inaugural issue; the table of contents is full of poets whose work I love and a few I look forward to learning more about. The inspiration is exactly what it says down at the bottom of the page.

2. My poems "Graffiti" and "Taking the Auspices" have been nominated for the 2012 Dwarf Stars Award. It's rose_lemberg and mitchell_hart's fault for publishing them in the first place.

3. I spent most of last night with a weird half-migraine, but earlier in the afternoon derspatchel met me after my dentist's appointment and we went to the Ether Dome and the Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation, although we did not go up to the roof garden; we stopped with the portraits of people we'd never heard of, as the guard at the door glossed them to us. We walked to Pho Pasteur afterward for dinner. There was, later, a glass of rum for the pirate cat.

4. J.K. Rowling has said something terrible on the internet: "The thing about fantasy—there are certain things you just don't do in fantasy. You don't have sex near unicorns. It's an ironclad rule. It's tacky."

I have no doubt the internet is already filling with unicorn-proximate porn, but if anyone on this friendlist wishes to add to the literature, I can only approve.

(She says also, "The person who is leading the quest—it seems that they have to have this weird purity about them," with which I passionately disagree. I've spent most of my reading life being bored with Galahads. More questing fuck-ups, please.)

5. I still have too much of this weird half-migraine, but I slept until two o'clock and I am seeing rushthatspeaks and Apocalypse Now (1979) before candlelighting.

Come back out of the dark and be written well.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

J. K. Rowling: There speaks a woman who needs to get out more and talk with her peers in the fantasy writing community.

[sovay]

There speaks a woman who needs to get out more and talk with her peers in the fantasy writing community.

Does she come to conventions? I've never cared; so I have no idea.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

1 & 2: Congratulations!

3: Everything but the migraine and the dentist sounds good.

4. Questing fuck-ups! Middle aged or older questing fuck-ups! Having THE SEX near unicorns! I've never felt the need to try writing with unicorns before in my life, but now...

5. See 3, minus the dentist.

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

Everything but the migraine and the dentist sounds good.

There was even a carrel of books for sale at the West End branch of the Boston Public Library on Cambridge Street. I got a sort of centenary yearbook for the Hunter Machine Company of North Adams, 1947. I read it while sitting outside the museum, waiting for Rob. It was like an industrial musical, without the music.

Questing fuck-ups! Middle aged or older questing fuck-ups! Having THE SEX near unicorns! I've never felt the need to try writing with unicorns before in my life, but now...

I. APPROVE. THIS PLAN.

See 3, minus the dentist.

The film is exactly as legendary as its reputation: it is one of the best representations I've seen of a myth eating someone alive. The only thing it really reminded me of was Lawrence of Arabia, but not in any sense of being a descendant. The cinematography was astonishingly beautiful.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Stephen Boyett had a sex scene near a unicorn a generation ago in Ariel.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

...oh my God, I thought I was the only person who remembered that book. I read it as a teenager and found it notable for the concept of a 20-year-old male virgin who attracts the attention of a slightly older woman, something I hadn't seen in any other fantasy up to that point.

[sovay]

Stephen Boyett had a sex scene near a unicorn a generation ago in Ariel.

I remember that! It's one of the books I need to read again: I was in middle school. It was on my parent's shelf . . .

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I rarely quote HIMYM but that sex near a unicorn line sounds like a challenge accepted moment.

[sovay]

I rarely quote HIMYM but that sex near a unicorn line sounds like a challenge accepted moment.

Huzzah!

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the publication and nominations!

Sorry about the dentist and half-migraine.

More questing fuck-ups: definitely.

Apocalypse Now: Oh, how I love young Martin Sheen.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the publication and nominations!

Thank you!

Sorry about the dentist and half-migraine.

I survived the one. The other was just unnecessary. I'll be better.

More questing fuck-ups: definitely.

I am only sad I can't make that the title of an anthology.

Oh, how I love young Martin Sheen.

I'd never seen him that young. He's amazing. Everyone in that film.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on numbers 1 and 2!

"Spirit Photography" deserves such a lovely home--I'm looking forward to reading the company.

I'm sorry for the half-migrane, but glad it wasn't all a bad day.

That Rowling thing is bizarre. I find it hard to credit that she truly knows so very little of contemporary fantasy that she hasn't at least heard of the explicit urban fantasy and fantasy erotic romance that the shelves are groaning with for the past few years, even if she's not read any herself. I'm starting to wonder if she doesn't deliberately say untrue things to interviewers that she knows they'll eat up. There was another interview, years ago, where she was quoted as saying something to the effect that she knew nothing of fantasy, even Tolkien or Lewis, which contradicted other interviews of hers.

I can't help but think of that one short story from a few years back, the faux-mediaeval-setting story about the unicorn hunter and his virginal companion who went from a passive bit of pre-teenaged bait the hunter bought from her father for a few shillings to an equal partner in the hunt, the one that ended with the two of them rutting next to the carcass of their final kill. Maybe Rowling's read it, and was deliberately making a reference that would fly over the interviewer's head? Sort of a red herring for the media, and a shout-out to all of us geeks and weirds? I'd like to think so, but maybe it's only wishful thinking. Or the collective unconsciousness having a laugh.

I have no doubt the internet is already filling with unicorn-proximate porn, but if anyone on this friendlist wishes to add to the literature, I can only approve.

Hmm... I'll try what I can do. It might have to be fanfic--I think unicorns are only mythological in that one 'verse with the people with the Irish names and the hemi-semi-quasi-Frankish national history, and I certainly don't think there are any unicorns in the modern day one with the academics who've been dancing round each other for years who get snowed in with the cuddly bi werewolf girl.

5.

I hope the half-migrane will soon change to a zero-migrane. I hope ye enjoy the film.

Come back out of the dark and be written well.

May it be so.

[coraline]

a hunter's ode to his bait.

sadly, i don't think she's that clever. but the rest of us will read the unicorn-adjascent-sex and the fucked-up-quester books and leave her in peace.

[sovay]

"Spirit Photography" deserves such a lovely home--I'm looking forward to reading the company.

Thank you! It's really a terrific lineup.

I'm starting to wonder if she doesn't deliberately say untrue things to interviewers that she knows they'll eat up.

Well, I would, but I'm not sure she's that kind of imaginative!

and I certainly don't think there are any unicorns in the modern day one with the academics who've been dancing round each other for years who get snowed in with the cuddly bi werewolf girl.

Dude: if you've got werewolves, I don't see why not unicorns.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

"I find it hard to credit that she truly knows so very little of contemporary fantasy that she hasn't at least heard of the explicit urban fantasy and fantasy erotic romance that the shelves are groaning with for the past few years [....]"

But do these urban/erotic fantasies have unicorns?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on being published, and the inevitable consequences thereof.

The Rowling interview is very odd: compare it to the Guardian's version, which at times sees exactly the same things very differently. I'm amused at the way Ian Rankin keeps popping up to interpret.

[sovay]

Congratulations on being published, and the inevitable consequences thereof.

Hah. Thank you!

compare it to the Guardian's version, which at times sees exactly the same things very differently.

Fascinating. Thanks for the link!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on 1&2!

Rowling is strange.

[sovay]

Congratulations on 1&2!

Thank you!

Rowling is strange.

Yep.

Fortunately, I have weird-writing friends.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I think a good part of Rowling's adult readership--not the kids who grew up with her, but the Zeitgeist-surfers--see fantasy that way. A few years back, she gave the commencement address at Harvard. The woman standing next to me (a nice upper-middle-class New Yorker type) was clearly thrilled. "Oh, I love reading fantasy," she said. "You don't have to think."

Nine

[sovay]

The woman standing next to me (a nice upper-middle-class New Yorker type) was clearly thrilled. "Oh, I love reading fantasy," she said. "You don't have to think."

The New Yorker publishes poems about robots. There is no excuse.

porn no, unicorn yes

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Fanfic based on the TV detective series Lewis.
http://hedda62.livejournal.com/281126.html?thread=1190694#t1190694

[sovay]

Fanfic based on the TV detective series Lewis.

Hee!

That's adorable. Thank you.

[domparisien.livejournal.com]

1. Great poem. Still hoping for a collection of ghost poems ;) Also, glad to be sharing another ToC with you!

2. Congratulations! Wonderful poems, both. (Particularly happy about the Graffiti nom).

[sovay]

Still hoping for a collection of ghost poems

Heh. You will certainly hear if one occurs!

Also, glad to be sharing another ToC with you!

Likewise! We should do it more often.

(Particularly happy about the Graffiti nom).

Thank you. I wrote that poem in a lot of pain; it was nice that something came out of it.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Jack White, "Wayfaring Stranger"

waitaminnit...that "Wayfaring Stranger"? That Jack White? oh wow. *zips off to visit iTunes*

[sovay]

*zips off to visit iTunes*

Here! I got it from derspatchel! I believe it came off the Cold Mountain soundtrack orginally.

[mitchell-hart.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the nominations! I like being at fault for Sonya-related things.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the nominations! I like being at fault for Sonya-related things.

Heh. Thank you! I shall endeavor to give you more things to be blamed for!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Must go read Through the Gate! I'm loving the contributors it has attracted.

unicorn-proximate porn was my go-to phrase all yesterday. First I entertained the ninja girl with it, then wakanomori

The ninja girl is willing to bet you that someone has now supplied sex *on* a unicorn, in response to this challenge.

With you on no more Galahads. Someone says "purity" and I run screaming in the opposite direction.

[sovay]

I'm loving the contributors it has attracted.

Send them work of your own!

The ninja girl is willing to bet you that someone has now supplied sex *on* a unicorn, in response to this challenge.

I am totally not willing to bet against her. I kept thinking of the title "The Unicorn Threesome" as a riff on Zelazny's Unicorn Variations: I'm just not convinced I want to write it myself.

With you on no more Galahads.

Poem, thank you.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

It's good to share another TOC with you. Hell, with most of my f-list.

I am going to write about sex near ironclad unicorns. So stitch this, Rowling.

(Typing that last sentence is also strangely pleasing.)

[sovay]

It's good to share another TOC with you. Hell, with most of my f-list.

I know! And the people I don't recognize, I'd like to know more about.

(Typing that last sentence is also strangely pleasing.)

Huzzah. (It's a good motto.)

[three-magpies.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on 1 and 2. Glad to be sharing a ToC with you!

I'm blaming the half-migraine on J.K. and the near-unicorn sex. This is certainly the culprit.

Though, seriously, feel better fast! My doctor recommended butterbur when I went to have my migraine checked out.

[sovay]

Congratulations on 1 and 2. Glad to be sharing a ToC with you!

Thank you! Likewise!

I'm blaming the half-migraine on J.K. and the near-unicorn sex. This is certainly the culprit.

It is a well-known fact that headaches are often caused by people being stupid on the internet . . .

My doctor recommended butterbur when I went to have my migraine checked out.

I have a known trigger for migraines, which is caffeine; this was not a factor on Monday night, which is one of the things that disturbs me. I'm still feeling weird enough that I'm going to the doctor's this afternoon. I really don't want to have developed an exciting new variation.