aamcnamara (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aamcnamara) wrote2009-07-27 07:43 pm
aamcnamara) wrote2009-07-27 07:43 pm
middles are evil, hooray for books
Today I fiddled with the beginning of my novel for about fifteen minutes and it was a glorious time. Then the scenes I needed to fix were fixed, and I closed the file sadly.
The novel is now going out, tentatively, to a few people to read. I will need more readers later, when my intent is less "tell me it's okay!" or "tell me what it's like!" and more "tell me what is wrong".
On a happy note, a few first scenes worked their way out of my head yesterday. Doubtless they will all need editing, but for now I am happy they are here. Next task: middles. (I don't like writing middles.)
I have also compiled a beginning list of Books Which I Plan To Bring To College. It has thirteen books on it.
I will start by noting that all of these books are awesome. If they were not awesome, they would not be on my list. This is an attempt to figure out why these particular awesome books have made it onto my list. There are doubtless other reasons which I can't figure out myself.
Dust, Elizabeth Bear
Comfort reading, of a sort. Also, Journeys. And the virtue of familiarity, since my copy is read and re-read and has a forest of post-it notes and scribblings in the margins from when I wrote half a 4,000 word essay on it.
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Twin Cities. All right, I'd probably love it just as much if it were set anywhere else. (Well, maybe a little less.) Good urban fantasy, the kind where the city is like a character too.
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
Oh look, college. It probably bears noting that I would take this book many places with me, even if I were not in fact going to college. I like the easy intellectualism and fun. Also, fencing. And Minnesota, if not Twin Cities.
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
Also Journeys. And one of the beginnings that's stuck in my head for good, I think.
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
Again, Journeys! I'm sensing a theme here. There is an image in here that, like the beginning of The Blue Sword, is stuck in my head forever. People usually do not think of Le Guin for beautiful and heartbreaking imagery, I don't think, but there's a passage in this book that does that for me.
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Journeys, okay, okay. Plus gender-bending! And swords! Also, friends whose correspondence depends on their having read the same book.
Year of the Griffin, Diana Wynne Jones
This is... college too. Again, I swear this book would be on a list of books I'd take almost anywhere. It was the first DWJ book I read, as far as I can remember, and as such it has a special place in my heart.
Firebirds, Sharyn November (ed.)
Pretty stories? I have particular reasons for several different stories in here. Also, for some reason I liked this original Firebirds anthology more than either of the two others.
Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson
I read Ibbotson's children's fantasy novels as a kid--The Secret of Platform 13, Island of the Aunts, Which Witch?. I remember a few memorable details from them, and remember that they were entertaining, fun, and cute. Journey to the River Sea stuck in my head, though it isn't fantasy at all, except in the escapist-story way. Okay, Journeys again; so sue me.
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link
I think that I like almost every story in this book. My favorite, though, is probably "Magic for Beginners". On my facebook profile, my list of 'favorite TV shows' is two long: Shadow Unit and The Library. If The Library were a real TV show, I would definitely be writing fanfic. (Also, as the long-time or astute reader of my LJ will note, I dressed up as Fox, a character from The Library, last Halloween.)
The Essential Bordertown, Terri Windling and Delia Sherman (eds.)
There are many cool and awesome stories in this anthology. "Changeling" by Elisabeth Kushner, however, has a special place in my heart. It was one of the--okay, say it, the first time I'd seen gay girls in a fantasy story. So yes, it changed my life. It said, This is okay and This is how other people feel too. I rarely ventured out of SFF books and sections then, and certainly never would've thought to go looking for books about lesbians. When I asked for a Bordertown anthology for my birthday that year (having read Finder and Elsewhere and Nevernever), I had no idea what I was getting into.
A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
More college! Also, literary references and madrigal-singing. Swords, to a certain extent. Witty dialogue. Topiary. Excellence.
The novel is now going out, tentatively, to a few people to read. I will need more readers later, when my intent is less "tell me it's okay!" or "tell me what it's like!" and more "tell me what is wrong".
On a happy note, a few first scenes worked their way out of my head yesterday. Doubtless they will all need editing, but for now I am happy they are here. Next task: middles. (I don't like writing middles.)
I have also compiled a beginning list of Books Which I Plan To Bring To College. It has thirteen books on it.
I will start by noting that all of these books are awesome. If they were not awesome, they would not be on my list. This is an attempt to figure out why these particular awesome books have made it onto my list. There are doubtless other reasons which I can't figure out myself.
Dust, Elizabeth Bear
Comfort reading, of a sort. Also, Journeys. And the virtue of familiarity, since my copy is read and re-read and has a forest of post-it notes and scribblings in the margins from when I wrote half a 4,000 word essay on it.
War for the Oaks, Emma Bull
Twin Cities. All right, I'd probably love it just as much if it were set anywhere else. (Well, maybe a little less.) Good urban fantasy, the kind where the city is like a character too.
Tam Lin, Pamela Dean
Oh look, college. It probably bears noting that I would take this book many places with me, even if I were not in fact going to college. I like the easy intellectualism and fun. Also, fencing. And Minnesota, if not Twin Cities.
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
Also Journeys. And one of the beginnings that's stuck in my head for good, I think.
The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin
Again, Journeys! I'm sensing a theme here. There is an image in here that, like the beginning of The Blue Sword, is stuck in my head forever. People usually do not think of Le Guin for beautiful and heartbreaking imagery, I don't think, but there's a passage in this book that does that for me.
The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Journeys, okay, okay. Plus gender-bending! And swords! Also, friends whose correspondence depends on their having read the same book.
Year of the Griffin, Diana Wynne Jones
This is... college too. Again, I swear this book would be on a list of books I'd take almost anywhere. It was the first DWJ book I read, as far as I can remember, and as such it has a special place in my heart.
Firebirds, Sharyn November (ed.)
Pretty stories? I have particular reasons for several different stories in here. Also, for some reason I liked this original Firebirds anthology more than either of the two others.
Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson
I read Ibbotson's children's fantasy novels as a kid--The Secret of Platform 13, Island of the Aunts, Which Witch?. I remember a few memorable details from them, and remember that they were entertaining, fun, and cute. Journey to the River Sea stuck in my head, though it isn't fantasy at all, except in the escapist-story way. Okay, Journeys again; so sue me.
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link
I think that I like almost every story in this book. My favorite, though, is probably "Magic for Beginners". On my facebook profile, my list of 'favorite TV shows' is two long: Shadow Unit and The Library. If The Library were a real TV show, I would definitely be writing fanfic. (Also, as the long-time or astute reader of my LJ will note, I dressed up as Fox, a character from The Library, last Halloween.)
The Essential Bordertown, Terri Windling and Delia Sherman (eds.)
There are many cool and awesome stories in this anthology. "Changeling" by Elisabeth Kushner, however, has a special place in my heart. It was one of the--okay, say it, the first time I'd seen gay girls in a fantasy story. So yes, it changed my life. It said, This is okay and This is how other people feel too. I rarely ventured out of SFF books and sections then, and certainly never would've thought to go looking for books about lesbians. When I asked for a Bordertown anthology for my birthday that year (having read Finder and Elsewhere and Nevernever), I had no idea what I was getting into.
A College of Magics and A Scholar of Magics, Caroline Stevermer
More college! Also, literary references and madrigal-singing. Swords, to a certain extent. Witty dialogue. Topiary. Excellence.
no subject
...ahem.
Mm. I like your list of books you bring to college. Bizarrely, I bring neither The Blue Sword nor The Hero and the Crown as the BSFFA library already has them. I'm bringing Theodora Goss's In the Forest of Forgetting, Ellen Klages's Portable Childhoods, and Angélica Gorodischer's Kalpa Imperial for sure. I will also be bringing Tam Lin, War for the Oaks, all the Bordertown books. Um. Er. I should look at my bookshelf and make a list however I am currently out of town.
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The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown are also safety-blanket books for me. Perhaps I should start bringing them anyways. *sigh* I have to decide what to bring all over again, don't I?
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Bringing an extra bookshelf, hmm... I don't think my parents would be into that, sadly. Though after I learn which dorm I'll be in, I'm going to have to try to figure out how large the bookcases provided in that dorm are. (As I got the impression that styles and sizes vary across the campus.)
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There is a certain amount of uniformity, especially among the "newer" dorms, but pretty much any room in a dorm built before the 1960's is just so unique that the furniture almost has to be too.
Maybe there should be an online database (password protected) where current students take pictures of their old dorm rooms and post them with the room numbers, so new students can figure out what their rooms will be like before they get there? :)
speaking of which if you want to let me know when you find out, I will try to find some pics for you.
and...they haven't told you what dorm you are in yet? wow, I remember getting that letter back at the beginning of summer. :(
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That would be a very useful online database. Hmm. And I will definitely do that--they tell us August 7th, or so they say, which seems like a long way away.
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*crosses fingers for you*
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I read The Blue Sword first, which is probably why I like it more. My sixth-grade English teacher certainly knows how much I loved McKinley's writing style--she patiently marked with red ink every semicolon I used to connect unrelated sentences.
I, too, am sort of in denial, which might be why my list is so short.
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Semicolons: when my sixth grade teacher taught us about them, it came with a threat not to overuse them.
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Tam Lin made me want to go to college when I first read it, which was a couple of years before I was even visiting colleges or anything. I think it has that effect on people.
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Does Firebirds have the retelling of Tam Lin in 1960s New York with Janet as a debutant? If not, I think it's in The Faery Reel – it's an amazing short story, and a wonderful anthology.
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I love the strawberries scene in Finder. I read War for the Oaks first, which is likely why I love it more, but I really like the strawberries part. (And lots of other parts, but that scene particularly sticks out in my memory as This Is Not Our World.) Left Hand is fascinating to me intellectually but I don't think I ever quite got into it.
(I'm sure you've heard they're doing another Bordertown anthology by now. Doesn't that rock?)
Yep, that short story's in Firebirds--it's by Delia Sherman, "Cotillion" I think it's called. You're right, it is amazing. The Faery Reel is good too.