Hour By Hour

Blink and *I* missed it ...

"Hour By Hour" is now up at Abyss and Apex.

In my defense, I've been insanely swamped the past few weeks. Heeeelp!

S&S

Though held for the final cut, my story didn't make it into Sword & Sorceress XXII.

I will probably be scarce here until I recover from the existential crisis of Doubt. I reeeeally wanted this one, ladies and gents.

Fashion Advice

"TV cameras seem to add ten pounds to me. So I make it a policy never to eat TV cameras." -- Kitty Carlisle

Last Lines

The last lines that match with the first ones I posted a few days ago - including the current last full sentence of Flow, which is still a work in progress. I've kind of cheated where the last sentence is dialogue and put the one before it for context.

From Butterfly's Poison (the "he" is addressing Miayde here):

He spread his hands; the game was on, would always be on. “Consider it a promise.”

The Swan Maiden:

We still had things to say, one madwoman to another.

Flow:

Chailyn nodded once. “The rest is up to Kit.”

Polestar:

Then it swallowed him, and she was the only, untouchable light in the darkness.

... welp, that's pretty cryptic.

Around The World

Ripped myself another driving CD. I should note my musical requirements for driving are fairly exacting: song must be medium-to-fast tempoed with a strong beat and singable. I've broken this with a few specific songs ("Storms In Africa" is not in English; "Murder in Mairyland Park" is very slow - and as far as I can tell, yes, the i is supposed to be in there), but in general. This one is "Around The World" as all the songs are either titled with or refer to places. My Kirsty MacColl obsession continues to be a dangerous beast. In particular, "Soho Square" is one of my favorite songs. It's mournful in a hopeful way; a sense of maybe-someday that is profoundly sad without directly admitting it. A gorgeous instrumental swell in the middle that reminds me of the prettier parts of the Ladyhawke score.

Anyhow, to make a long story short ("Too late!") here's the list.

1. "Walking Down Madison" -- Kirsty MacColl
2. "Harem" -- Sarah Brightman
3. "Sunset Boulevard" -- Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer - not sure of the singer here)
4. "Orinoco Flow" -- Enya (I think I'm the only one in the world who actually knows most of the lyrics to this song.)
5. "Soho Square" -- Kirsty MacColl
6. "City of Love" -- Martina McBride (okay, this one is stretching it, but it's a place!)
7. "When It Rains In America" -- Sarah Brightman
8. "A New England" -- Kirsty MacColl
9. "Carribean Blue" -- Enya
10. "Wonderland" -- Rachel Fuller
11. "England 2 Columbia 0" -- Kirsty MacColl
12. "Murder In Mairyland Park" -- Sarah Brightman
13. "Drops of Jupiter" -- Train (okay, so this is more "Around the Solar System")
14. "Storms In Africa" -- Enya
15. "Marrakesh Night Market" -- Loreena McKennit
16. "He's On The Beach" -- Kirsty MacColl ("When he called me up one day and said that he was going away, I thought he meant a week in France and not twelve thousand miles to Sydney Bay ...")
17. "Mysterious Days" -- Sarah Brightman ("Springtime in Tangier ...")
18. "Anywhere Is" -- Enya

This one seems particularly bad about having the same artists. Oh well!

First Lines

In the name of randomness, the first sentences of a few of my recent projects.

The opening of Butterfly's Poison, a fantasy intrigue novel set in a world with advancing technology:

Being shipwrecked, the thought rose to the surface of Miayde’s mind, had a dismaying impact on her dignity.

From The Swan Maiden:

The advantage to madness is that it gives the afflicted the potential to be invisible.

From Flow, my contemporary fantasy novel-in-progress:

On bad days, the world around Kit vibrated in sympathy, a stray shudder from the windows or knick-knacks taking a swan-dive off the cabinet.

And from Polestar:

When the star-heiress returned to the city of Gwynora, she was no longer a figure of purity, protected from the touch of any mortal substance.

Quote ...

I'm not terribly religious, but I was struck by this quote. Mentally edit to match the divine spirit of your choice. From the movie "Copying Beethoven" (which, by the way, is both moving and funny in all the right places - I highly recommend it):

"The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are."

Progress

... no, this isn't a profound essay, sorry. ;-) My very short flash fiction story, Progress, is now available in the current issue of From The Asylum, with a print anthology due to hit in August. (Not April. Had to go back in and edit this.)

Menagerie!

This short story, set in a fantasy pseudo-post-Revolutionary America, was just sold to The Sword Review, who recently released Winged Words. I'm hoping to write more stories about this character in the future - time will tell!

Website Update

Added John Moore's addictively funny The Unhandsome Prince and Heroics For Beginners to my reading reccs. For more details, pop over to the website.

Miss April

Pointless brag time ago - I am April's Member of the Month at F-W.org. Interview at:

http://www.fantasy-writers.org/news.asp#news_242

Which is where anyone who has an overpowering need to ... hear me ramble should go.

Story Up!

"Retirement" can now be read in The Lorelei Signal, along with absolutely gorgeous artwork --

http://www.loreleisignal.com/

Hmm, well ...

Progress, of an ambivalent sort. In my search for a home for Scylla and Charybdis, one of my favorite stories (and one of my few SF stories), I sent it to the Writers of the Future contest. Made the quarter-finals, which is better than prior showings, but still means my baby is looking for a home. I ought to be happier about this. I suppose it proves that I'm a glass is half empty gal at heart. Don't get me wrong, I grok that quarter-finals is an accomplishment of itself, but it still means that one of my best remains under wraps.

The hunt continues.

Sage Advice

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" -- Ann Landers

"Nothing risque, nothing gained." -- Jayne Mansfield

(Again courtesy of my calendar.)

Seen on a bumpersticker:

"If I wanted your opinion, I'd read your entrails."

Gradually Become Agitated ...

Look at this. Then look at it again.

Trust me, you'll see something you missed.

This is primarily for musicians, but it's generally just Very Funny and you don't need to be musical to get a lot of it:

http://www.well.com/user/bryan/waltz.html

Little Brag ...

Prefacing with the fact that Aiara is my online handle for those who don't know:

http://www.fantasy-writers.org/

Random

I've become tempted of late to write a story by coming up with maybe a dozen characters and half a dozen setting threats, plot threads and some kind of miscellany ... then trot out ye olde dice and run with whatever I have without necessarily planning ahead of time. It's a strange mix of artificial structure and artificial spontaneity that interests me, perhaps when my juices are running low. For some reason, ye olde novel is running slow right in the middle of climactic scenes - perhaps because I'm not terribly good at describing physical action. May simply be that I'm in the midst of a sea of rejection letters and working on other projects, though.

And The Rivers Ran Green ...

Yesterday was one of the busiest days of my life - unsurprising, given that Celtic musician + St. Patrick's Day = high demand, but still.

Up at 6:30 am to ferry myself to the Association of Bridal Consultants OH/KY conference, where I believe at least a dozen consultants picked up my card. (One in particular seemed very interested - unfortunately, she's quite a distance away, which would mean a gas surcharge on my normal rates.) I played for forty-five minutes at the opening as people gathered, another hour and a halfish at lunch. This meant I attended the conference in between, two sessions and a nice goody bag including a miniature chocolate pizza which will cease to exist sometime today.

The keynote session was on wedding coordination and matching the client's style, which wasn't helpful for me, though there was pretty eye-candy. It also made me slightly less likely to elope, which is what I've been saying since I started playing a lot of weddings. "Agh, I'm just going to elope." The first session, however, was on networking and gave me a lot to chew on. I've already instinctively known this - if you want something, you have to give something first - but it was well-framed.

Arriving home slightly after 2pm, I had to switch outfits, retune - yes, again - and leave again at 5pm for a three hour gig at a local country club. (Do the math: that's over five hours of harp playing.) Unlike last year, no one stood up and started singing along when I played, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," which is a phenomenal relief. There is nothing weirder than playing a song and having your audience sing along on the spur of the moment, especially when you're playing background music and subconsciously expecting to be ignored.

Four or five times, I looked up and saw a small child (three or so) staring fixedly at the harp with father in tow. Later found out they weren't even there for the same event, but attending a wedding reception elsewhere in the building. Was absolutely adorable.

Got home around 9:30pm. Finiti. ;-)

Fingers Crossed, Foolish Hopes Up ...

Submissions for Sword & Sorceress XXII, formerly under Marion Zimmer Bradley and currently bearing her name in homage, open on the 23rd of March - that's next Friday - and stays open until late April. Being somewhere between desperate and cheesy, and aware that they have offered an approximate response time of one week, I have three or four stories (the best I've written in that particular vein) lined up ... as a wise man once said on another forum, the experience of a story is subjective, so my absolute best may not be an editor's cup of tea, but #2 ... we shall see.

I'm wary, because I still feel kind of shaken over my laughable showing for Fast Ships, Black Sails (the pirate anthology), but ... I can't help but want to make my chances as high as possible.

The First Roses of Fall

My second poetry sale! The First Roses of Fall will be appearing in OG's Speculative Fiction at a time to be determined. Seth Crossman, the editor, spent a few passes making suggestions for tweaks - he was reasonable, very good at explaining his recommendations, and was able to help me hammer out some nuances. I'm very happy with the final version.

Now if I can just stay coherent long enough to fill out the contract properly - I have a massive allergen-induced headache. To the point where I actually had to reprint it because I flubbed the name of the piece.