After the storm will come a sleep like oceans deep

[sovay]

So I don't actually think I want to talk about the ways in which yesterday worsened after my last post, but I am going to point out that once the storm proper started and the internet went down for twelve hours, when it came back up I found:

My poem "Anthemoessa on the Main Line" has been accepted by Moral Relativism Magazine. It's another one sparked by a line from ashlyme's bio, in this case "He haunts second-hand bookshops and canals, and has yet to meet a rusalka." The magazine is still reading for its fifth issue; the theme is "Loyalty and Lies." I was unable to read their guidelines without thinking immediately of Tacroy: "He lied for me for a whole day . . . And he was believed."

The accompanist from Sunday's concert came through with the offer of a paying gig. It will be in December and I will post further details as I know them. In the meantime, I am totally taking suggestions on Yiddish repertoire.

I was asked whether I've ever consulted as a fiction editor for a fee. To which the answer is pretty much: no, I just beta-read things my friends send me; but I am now wondering if that is something I could do.

B. sent me half a dozen pictures from Antalya and Termessos, including the half-statue of Herakles—now whole—that was just returned from the MFA last year.

So maybe I need more storms.

Comments

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Oh, well done on the sale (should I keep writing new bios?) and the gig offer. I've not heard of MRM before.

Tacroy from Chrestomanci, yes?

[sovay]

Oh, well done on the sale (should I keep writing new bios?) and the gig offer. I've not heard of MRM before.

Thank you! (Yes. Yes, you should.) I've had poems in two previous issues of Moral Relativism Magazine and they are a terrific market for all sorts of writing—they should be open until December and you should send them something!

Tacroy from Chrestomanci, yes?

Yes. He was my favorite character from The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988).

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

They do look like an interesting zine.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

but I am now wondering if that is something I could do

I vote yes.

Congratulations on acceptances and gigs. I hope today is better.

[sovay]

I vote yes.

It doesn't feel to me like I have the professional knowledge to charge rather than do it as a favor, but I can't tell if that's the impostor syndrome talking.

Congratulations on acceptances and gigs. I hope today is better.

Thank you. There are ways in which I know it is probably not going to be, but at this point it is fine. I had vivid dreams. I slept late. The streets are not full of floods and fallen trees.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry sale and the paying gig. I think your consulting as a paid fiction editor is a great idea.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poetry sale and the paying gig.

Thank you!

I think your consulting as a paid fiction editor is a great idea.

See above—I don't even know what it would be fair for me to charge!

[gwynnega]

I'm not sure what the going rate is. I think upstart_crow does this kind of work--maybe she'd be a good person to ask? Also rachelmanija.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the worse, but whoo-hah for the good! And yes, I think you should consult. I've always found the things you have to say really useful; to get paid for that would be amazing.

Re Yiddish songs, "Di Sapozkelekh" comes to mind, and "Shnirele, Perele".

[sovay]

Sorry for the worse, but whoo-hah for the good!

Thank you! I just kept reading them out to derspatchel. It was four in the morning. He was really patient.

And yes, I think you should consult. I've always found the things you have to say really useful; to get paid for that would be amazing.

And that is useful for me to know: I don't always feel that I'm being helpful. I'll let you know what happens.

(Because, yes, it would be amazing. I just don't want to be cheating anyone.)

Re Yiddish songs, "Di Sapozkelekh" comes to mind, and "Shnirele, Perele".

I had been wondering about those two: I will definitely bounce them off my voice teacher. I was also thinking "Oy Dortn, Dortn" and maybe something by Hirsh Glik that isn't "Zog nit keyn mol" (which everyone knows), like "Dos Zangl."

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

"Oy Dortn, Dortn" would be perfect.

[sovay]

"Oy Dortn, Dortn" would be perfect.

Now all I have to do is find sheet music.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

P.S.: Perhaps because I was re-reading The Secret Books of Paradys the other day, apropos of nothing much, I spent a foolish amount of time roughing out Captain Rusk's version of the "Trap-Weed" back-story. And then I thought: Oh yeah, and after that, I'll go back even further and do Captain Parry's version of his own origin story. Like back when he was a marsh-witch's kid, studied divinity and then ended up having to join the Navy... 'Cause why not, right?

[sovay]

Like back when he was a marsh-witch's kid, studied divinity and then ended up having to join the Navy...

YES PLEASE.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Well, first things first.;)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Did I tell you I volunteered to write a Peter Cushing appreciation column for ChiZine.com? I thought it would make good post-Hallowe'en material. I'd be covering Van Helsing vs. the bad Herr Baron-Doktor, with a sidebar into Captain Clegg/Reverend Blyss.

[sovay]

I'd be covering Van Helsing vs. the bad Herr Baron-Doktor, with a sidebar into Captain Clegg/Reverend Blyss.

I approve the fuck out of that.

(I never wrote about Brides of Dracula! It's been like two years. I should just find a copy, rewatch it, and say something. I promised teenybuffalo I would.)

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

I'd read the fuck out of that. It really is a polymorphously perverse cornucopia of a movie.

[sovay]

I'd read the fuck out of that. It really is a polymorphously perverse cornucopia of a movie.

Aaargh. I'll see what I can do!

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the good! And sorry for the less-than-good.

[sovay]

Congrats on the good! And sorry for the less-than-good.

Thank you! I can't quite use one to balance the other, but it does help deal.

[selidor]

Poems selling like hotcakes is excellent news. You're on a roll.
May the fortune go on for house-hunting in the storm-washed city. (I am also housemate-hunting. I'd invite you to the place, but there is the inconvenient matter of an ocean...)

[sovay]

Poems selling like hotcakes is excellent news. You're on a roll.

Just so long as I can keep writing poems!

May the fortune go on for house-hunting in the storm-washed city. (I am also housemate-hunting. I'd invite you to the place, but there is the inconvenient matter of an ocean...)

Thank you! (derspatchel and I do keep joking about the Outer Antipodes . . .)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the acceptance and the gig! I'm glad the return of internet access brought you good things.

I've heard you sing "Shnirele, Perele" and it was wonderful. No useful advice as to further repertory, unfortunately.

I was unable to read their guidelines without thinking immediately of Tacroy: "He lied for me for a whole day . . . And he was believed."

Yes. That scene is a great favourite of mine.

I hope today has been a better day, or at least not such a bad one.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the acceptance and the gig! I'm glad the return of internet access brought you good things.

Thank you.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Tacroy <3 <3 <3 DWJ did that so beautifully, slipped in little tiny things that hit me like hammers when I read them.

When I was at Brandeis, my choir sang a gloriously creepy lullaby called Dremlen Feygl. Apparently there is a a version for soprano, keyboard and alto flute, as well as lyrics and translation. That second website also has a number of helpful links under the Songs link.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, do you happen to know of an English translation for Al Kol Eileh that doesn't suck? I love the melody, but the only English translation I can find is absolutely unbearable poetry (which was apparently recorded by Theodore Bikel, so, respect, but still). At this point I'm reduced either to singing it in Italian (!) or finding other poems that scan to it and splicing accordingly.

[sovay]

Oh, hey, do you happen to know of an English translation for Al Kol Eileh that doesn't suck?

That scans to the original? Not off the top of my head, unfortunately.

(There's a singable Italian translation?)

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

There is! I found it earlier this year on one of my spelunk-in-the-folk-music-regions-of-the-Internet-and-fall-into-the-crevasse expeditions.

The melody sits really well in my voice, but I don't feel all that good about singing in Hebrew in public. (Unintended consequence of my Brandeis education. Long story.) So it's English or Italian for me. (The Spanish translation on that page isn't singable.)

Bright side: if Revels does another Italian show, I know what to sing for my audition. :)

[sovay]

DWJ did that so beautifully, slipped in little tiny things that hit me like hammers when I read them.

That line about Tacroy made such a strong impression on me, it colored my reading of a scene in Harry Potter years later. I think that says everything that needs to about the difference between J.K. Rowling and Diana Wynne Jones.

When I was at Brandeis, my choir sang a gloriously creepy lullaby called Dremlen Feygl.

Dude! I've seen the lyrics to this; I don't think I've ever had a recording. I am all for creepy lullabies: I was also thinking of a version of "Di zun vet aruntergeyn" or one of the other goldene pave songs. Thank you!

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

What an amazingly beautiful and disturbing song! I second that emotion: You should sing it.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Creepy lullabies are best. One of my if-I-won-the-lottery dreams is to record a CD of creepy lullabies and children's songs from as many cultures as I can find--some a cappella, some with creepy harp or creepy violin or creepy choral backup singers.

My voice is a chirpy hollow little soprano thing, kind of the auditory equivalent of an Edward Gorey illustration. Totally useless for actual lullabies, but really good for deliberate creepiness in the right context.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

So maybe I need more storms.

They are beautiful, equivocal, and cruel.

I rejoice in your good fortune, in things unfolding for you.

Nine

[sovay]

They are beautiful, equivocal, and cruel.

My father is devastated about New York. My mother greeted me by telling me Coney Island had been washed away. At least I could text derspatchel and tell him that at least according to the internet, the Cyclone was still standing. (I don't think we could have borne the irony otherwise.)

I rejoice in your good fortune, in things unfolding for you.

Thank you.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the ineffable worsening.

And pleased but intimidated that you are a person to whom the storm brings gifts - though I should have known.

[sovay]

And pleased but intimidated that you are a person to whom the storm brings gifts - though I should have known.

Hah. Thank you. I have always liked them, but I had no reason until now to think it was mutual.

[clarionj.livejournal.com]

You have weathered it well, I'm happy to hear.

Congratulations on all the accomplishments. Oh, the singing sounds wonderful. And yes, if you've done all that beta reading I'm sure you could get paid for it. Hmm, a paying concert gig and an offer to pay for editing--it seems like a little extra money wants to come to you. :)

[sovay]

Hmm, a paying concert gig and an offer to pay for editing--it seems like a little extra money wants to come to you.

I am not going to turn it away!