Thursday, March 4th, 2010
Yesterday, after the reading at the Library of Congress, Colleen treated us to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. (I got “Happy Family,” btw, one of my favorites.) And, of course, at the end, we were treated to fortune cookies.
I’ve talked before on my blog about fortune cookies. I’m certain it won’t be the last time. [Because Chinese, like cheese and chocolate, is one of the four major food groups. (The fourth is salt.)]
Here’s a photo of my cookie…and for the record, there were seven fortunes inside, although some were duplicated.
(Yes, dear Broads, I smuggled that cookie into my purse and managed not to crush it during the LC tour, the crushing metro ride, or eventual drive home. And I was hungry on the drive home…very hungry.)
And, poor thing, after surviving the humiliating and cramped confines of my purse, I made it pose on a red background like some harlot, for your viewing pleasure.
Then I ate it.
(And it wasn’t stale it all…which is kind of scary, really, if you think about it, considering it had been nearly nine hours from lunch until photo shoot. Fortune cookies must have the same half-life as Twinkies™.)
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
“…never explain. Let the work speak for itself.”
These words are etched in my brain. Spoken by Ellen Kushner today when I asked her if I should warn the audience at today’s reading at the Library of Congress that what I’d planned to read was a bit graphic.
What fantastic wisdom.
The funny thing is, I’ve read the exact same thing (the bloody birth scene from my book, Blood Soup) at other venues and never thought twice about it. So…what is it about the Library of Congress (or LC, as it is fondly known in library circles) that made me want to tone it down?
Hallowed Halls? Who knows…? I’m too tired to think about it tonight…but it’s something I’m going to ponder for a while….and probably revisit here later.
Here’s a photo of the Broads involved.
In a nutshell: we met at LC and proceeded to a very nice venue within the Jefferson Building where we each read for 10-15 minutes, did some autographing, chatted with very interesting people, went to lunch and then returned to the library for a private tour.
- I read from Blood Soup, of course.
- Ellen read from Swordspoint (one of my favorites!) and the “not quite a sequel,” The Privilege of the Sword –Fabulous!
- Catherine read from The Ruby Dice (scroll down after the jump) – I was riveted.
- And Sue read a piece that she wrote specifically for reading aloud, collected in the book, Uncategorized. She had folks rolling in the aisles.
Fellow Broad Jean Marie Ward showed up to support us. It was great fun.
I snapped a lot of photos during the tour. I’m certain I’ll be sharing them here over the next couple of weeks. (Unfortunately, some of the best parts of the library I wasn’t allowed to take photos of.) I’ve linked below to the LC exhibits on line, but to get the full affect, you’ve really got to see them in person.
We got to see:
- a Gutenberg Bible
- Some fascinating Mesoamerican Art from 600-900 AD with paintings depicting Cortes’ meeting with Moctezuma, a large clay statue of a jaguar, a vase depicting the Teoihuacan-Maya War with nifty human sacrifice themes and more. (Missing from the online exhibition is my favorite: a choker necklace of 19 skulls carved from conch shells. I’d wear that.)
- The only surviving copy of the 1507 world map by Martin Waldseemüller. This map is widely referred to as America’s birth certificate, since it’s the first map bearing the name America.
I should point out that all of this is open to the public…we were just treated to Colleen Cahill’s expertise for an extended afternoon tour. Having a personal tour guide who can answer just about any question you pose is an awesome way to explore a library.
I think my favorite part of the tour was seeing Thomas Jefferson’s Library. I could have sat on the mosaic floor of the room and absorbed the enormity of his collection: (IIRC) over 60,000 volumes, which he sold to the Library of Congress for $23,000 when he was without means to support himself. Apparently, he bought too many books. But when he got his settlement from the LC, he started a second library. My kind of man.
Engraved on the wall of the exhibit are the words of Thomas Jefferson:
I cannot live without books.
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| Not my Photo. |
I swear, I know exactly how he feels.
Monday, March 1st, 2010
 …according to You Gotta Read Reviews.
My favorite part: “I will happily pick up other works by this gifted author. She is definitely someone to keep an eye out for.”
How exciting! I’ve also been offered an opportunity to guest blog. Yay!
You can read the entire review at You Gotta Read Reviews.
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Catherine Asaro created this awesome flyer for the Library of Congress reading on March 3. Isn’t it beautiful?
(The pic of me is about three haircuts ago…but it’s still a “fairly good” representation. I hate to have my photo taken!)
Hope to see you there!
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
I’ll be reading at the Library of Congress in March with a bunch of writing giants! (Or, should I say Amazons, since they’re all women?) I’m very excited!
There’s going to be a book signing afterward. My first “official” signing. It couldn’t happen at a cooler place.
Of course I’ll be reading from Blood Soup. If there’s time, I may read some from The Dragon’s Clause.
Here’s the published notice:
What IF… Science Fiction & Fantasy Forum
presents
Science Fiction and Fantasy from Broad Universe
Featuring Authors:
• Catherine Asaro • Ellen Kushner • Sue Lange • Kelly A. Harmon
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 12:10 – 1:00 pm
LM139, 1st Floor, Madison Building
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
A book signing will follow.
Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 TTY or ADA@locdotgov.
Contact Nate Evans at natev@loc.gov for more information.
Broad Universe is an international organization of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
Monday, February 15th, 2010
 …enough already!
We get the picture. There’s no such thing as global warming.
Now, please stop.
Signed,
The Northeastern United States and Beyond
Just when I thought it was safe to go outside again…the snow makes another appearance. It’s hard to believe it’s snowing again (and that another storm is predicted for next weekend).
We’ve had a bit of thaw since the last, but not much.
Most of the road are finally clear. The animals have just started venturing out again.
I’m really not up to shoveling anymore.
[The pic was taken by a friend of the family down in southern Maryland on Thursday 2/11/2010.]
Sunday, February 14th, 2010
I’m sad.
Dick Francis has died.
I whiled away a lot of summertime hours in the tree house reading Dick Francis books.
Here’s a link to the BBC obit.
Sunday, February 14th, 2010
 How would you like a little romance with your science fiction, fantasy and horror?
The Broads over at Broad Universe are launching their “Rapid Fire Readings” into the PodVerse for your listening pleasure. A “rapid fire reading” or “RFR” is a session of five-to-seven authors each reading a five-minute section of a story they’ve written…just a little “taste” of what they’re up to.
The Broads have a full line-up of podcasts they’ll be doing this year, starting off with this one. Of course, the theme is romance.
Here’s the link to BroadProd.
[BTW: I stole this cupid graphic from CollegeCandy.com. I don't read the site: I found the graphic via Google Images. Just wanted to give credit where credit is due...]
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
 My official “Write Your @ss Off” day was Friday…but my glee at having eight hours of uninterrupted writerly stuff was crushed under the weight of nearly 30 inches of snow.
Not that I didn’t get anything done. I simply spread the eight hours of “to do” over the weekend, in between shoveling snow, enjoying hot cups of coffee and viewing a bit of the Superbowl. (Weren’t the commercials terrible this year? I swear I’m going to stop watching them…)
Here’s how my to-do list looks:
- Write an initial blog post, outlining my plans – Done!
- Write my daily minimum on my current WIP – I did work on this, I just didn’t meet my self-prescribed quota
- Write a duplicate amount on “something new” – Done!
- Update my Facebook Page – Done!
- Clean off the top of my desk…Oh, well…one can hope!
These were the extra activities I’d planned if there were time:
- Reply to my writer friends whose emails I still haven’t gotten to – Done! (Hi, Friends!)
- Update my Web page (minor changes) – Done!
- Organize my 2009 (Writing) Tax items
- Set up my 2010 (Writing) Tax Spreadsheets – Done!
- Read from one of the writing books I bought this year – Done!
- Write a summarizing blog post – (This is it!)
It turned out to be quite a productive weekend. I managed to do some other writerly stuff, too:
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
We were hit with just shy of 30 inches of snow on Friday and Saturday. It was undeniably pretty…for about the first 10 inches…and then things got hairy.
Luckily, we didn’t lose power (as we have so many times)–there’s a reason we keep a generator handy in the garage. But keeping up with the shoveling proved exhausting.
We have a huge snowblower – you’ll see why we do in the driveway picture below….our drive is more than 400 feet long and has an incline of about 30 degrees. It’s no easy feat to clear off after a big snow.
When a big snow comes along, we blow it off every few hours…but this storm came through in the wee hours of the morning. We focused on keeping the heat pumps clear. We still couldn’t keep the ice from forming on them.
To get to the snow early Saturday morning, we had to shovel a path for the blower to go up the drive. Then we could let it do its work…but the wet, slushy snow underneath couldn’t be thrown.
Here’s a shot of my husband’s hands nearly an hour after we’d come in. Four-plus hours of shoveling and snow-blower wrangling will do this to you. I shoveled just as much, but my hands weren’t so bad.
We managed to clear a path wide enough for a vehicle, but the pad below and the sides of the drive we let go. Finally, we called a snow plow to do the rest of the work.
Here are some shots of the snow around the area, nothing pretty…just a few photos to show you the depth.
| These are our electrical and cable boxes, nearly covered in snow. |
| The view up my driveway…after we finally hired someone with a snow plow to clear what we were too exhausted to manage. |
| The Great Wall of Snow created by the snow plow. I’m convinced that if the plow had done the job from the beginning, this wall would have been over six feet, not just chest high. |
It’s currently snowing…and the weather guys are predicting 10-to-18 more inches. Should be interesting!
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What I’m Reading PROJECT FILL IN THE BLANKS:
IMPERIUM, Robert Harris
OTHER:
Project Fill in the Blanks Red means "read" (past tense)
1. Native Son, Richard Wright
2. Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
3. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
4. Watership Down, Richard Adams
5. Ragtime, E.L. Doctorow
6. Middlemarch, George Eliot
7. 1984, George Orwell (4/2009)
8. Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
9. The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles
10. Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott
11. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon (Hugo)
12. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
13. Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe
14. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
15. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (4/2009)
16. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
17. Persuasion, Jane Austen
18. Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
19. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
20. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote
21. Underworld, Don DeLillo
22. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
23. Swann’s Way, Marcel Proust
24. Of Human Bondage, Somerset Maugham
25. Bless the Beasts and Children, Glendon Swarthout
26. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd (4/2009)
27. While I Was Gone, Sue Miller
28. The Best Short Stories, O. Henry
29. The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
30. The Radetsky March, Joseph Roth
31. Digging to America, Anne Tyler
32. Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
33. The Stupidest Angel, Christopher Moore
34. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
35. The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner (Nebula Nominee)
36. The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer
37. The Good Terrorist, Doris Lessing
38. Memoirs of a Good Daughter, Simone DeBeauvoir
39. Carry On, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse
40. The Three Musketeers, Alexander Dumas
41. Rainbow's End, Vernor Vinge (Hugo)
42. A Fable, William Faulkner (Pulitzer)
43. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (Pulitzer)
44. American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
45. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke (Hugo) (6/3/2009)
46. Sophie’s Choice, William Styron
47. Tuesday with Morie, Mitch Albom
48. The Snow Queen, Joan D. Vinge (Hugo)
49. The Plague, Albert Camus
50. Miss Lonelyhearts, Nathaniel West
51. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
52. Charming Billy, Alice McDermott
53. Cauldron, Jack McDevitt (Nebula Nominee)
54. Farming the Bones, Edwidge Danticat
55. The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin (Nebula)
56. Ulysses, James Joyce
57. Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima
58. Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold (Nebula)
59. The Known World, Edward P. Jones
60. Kokoro, Natsume Soseki
61. The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot
62. Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen
63. My Antonia, Willa Cather
64. Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
65. The House of Spirits, Isabel Allende
66. Herzog, Saul Bellow
67. The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever (Pulitzer)
68. The Boat, Nam Le
69. The Optimist's Daughter, Eudora Welty (Pulitzer)
70. Three Lives, Gertrude Stein
71. Hounds of Baskerville, Arthur Conan Doyle (6/25/2009)
72. Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
73. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
74. Possession, A.S. Byatt
75. Under the Net, Iris Murdoch
76. Housekeeping, Marilyn Robinson
77. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
78. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami
79. Runaway, Alice Munro
80. In America, Susan Sontag
81. The Stories of John Cheever
82. God’s War, Christopher Tyerman
83. Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
84. A Model World, Michael Chabon
85. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
86. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, Oscar Hijuelos
87. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
88. American Pastoral, Philip Roth
89. The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
90. The Book Borrower, Alice Mattison
91. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
92. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
93. Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller
94. Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
95. Empire Falls, Richard Russo
96. Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
97. March, Geraldine Brooks
98. The Second Sex, Simone DeBeauvoir
99. Gilead, Marilyn Robinson
100. Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Total: 05/100
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