Oh hai. I live.

I read The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner over the last week, and have to say I think it's the first coming-of-age fantasy novel I've read in a long time that delighted me and made me wish I had teenagers to pass it along to. It has also once and for all beaten out my urge to spell privilege with three "e"s. I would perish as a writer if not for spellcheckers.

Anyway, back to the book: it's good enough that I'm going to buy the one she wrote before that in the same universe (Swordspoint), though I'm leery of the other (The Fall of the Kings) because, well...co-writer. I will probably pick it up, regardless of my bias toward collabs.

(I am aware that Delia is herself a well-known wordsmith, but I fear that the 90s turned me cold to anything co-written. It is a character flaw, I know.)

Anyway, delightful book. Wonderfully witty. Made me want to write and play with words all over again. Marvelous.

I'm also picking up a Jack Vance collection, because It's About Damn Time. The Dying Earth concept intrigues me, though Lyonesse intrigues me more, but GFL finding that one in print. I should also say: I'm a D&D geek who wants to read the books where Prismatic Spray came from. Durr hurr.

I have not read the Twilight series, but there's a part of me that wants to down a bottle of wine and hit the first evening showing just to laugh at the teenyboppers.

I can't decide if 15-year-old Steph would have liked these books. She says she might have, but then she also argues that she was a young feminist and it sounds like Bella Swan is a spineless Mary Sue who does nothing but make like a tree and pine. To be sure, Steph@15 read a lot of fiction where love-at-first-sight and our-souls-are-one and our-meeting-was-destined occurred, and she fell for it hard, but those heroines were also strong characters. They fought back. They were rewarded with happy endings for doing so.

All the "destined love" nonsense is hard for me to stomach nowadays. But it sure does sell, doesn't it?

Course, I'm judging a book before I've read it. And make no mistake: I will read it. It's trash. Teenbop trash. And I am trashy.

Now if only the author would learn to spell her own name properly.

Stephanie.

I'm just saying.

On Saturday night I passed my copy of Old Man's War to Mike. Mike protests anytime I want him to read anything. He has no time to read! No time, Steph!

I gave him this one anyway, because he likes Heinlein, and so I am told he would like Scalzi. (Note: I have never read Heinlein. Yes, I'm deprived.)

So Mike ("I have no time to read!") cracked the cover around midnight, and I settled down next to him to do some writing and websurfing.

Three hours later....

He was still reading it, guffawing at certain points and smirking at others. I finally turned to him and asked, "So what you're saying is -- you like it?"

On Sunday he showed up to return the book. He'd stayed up till 11 AM reading. Then he gave me a look I know all too well.

"Yes, there's a sequel," I said.

"Is it out?"

"Yes."

"Do you have it?"

"Not yet, but we can fix that."

When two people who protest that they have no time to read finish a book within 24 hours of picking it up...well, I'd say that's a success, eh?

Two things I have enjoyed recently:

• Old Man's War by John Scalzi. After reading his blog for years, I finally picked up one of his books. Consensus is: if the science fiction I had been introduced to as a kid had been like this -- about people, instead of planetoids -- I would probably be more of an SF buff today. I throw Scalzi in the same pile as Bujold. Not as masterful as Bujold at creating convincing characters -- the hero is just a little too off-the-cuff witty to be believable, and everyone else is either amazingly clever/noble or a blowhard who promptly gets proven wrong and then proven dead -- but they're minor nits. Scalzi is a diehard optimist, and his storytelling reflects this, which is what makes it entertaining and not, say, a dreary treatise on the inevitability of death and loneliness. I will someday seek out the sequels, and probably enjoy them lots.


• Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. Much like Old Man's War, it's entertaining, and there are nits, but that won't stop me from playing it. I am a massive RvR fanatic, and DAoC is the acknowledged master of such, so I am looking forward to playing their updated take on such. Is it a WoW-killer? No. But it should be fun for a while.

I nearly indulged in a whiny post yesterday about having a job, but then I realized how lame that sounded in today's economy and killed it. You're welcome.

Oh guys. I am digging Cell by Monsieur S. King and it's all because it's about zombies. I'm hoping against hope that he won't come up with some sort of lame technological/extraterrestrial explanation for what's going on in his book because, really, I don't care. What I care about is the characters. I am itching to finish it even though I bought it for the flight to Colorado on Thursday. I just want them to be okay even though, having read 'Salem's Lot, I am pretty sure they won't be.

I'm also reading Dzur by Monsieur Brust at the same time, and I'm...um. I'm lost. I'm still reading it because I love Vlad and his wacky sidekick, but at this point I have no fucking clue what is going on in the novel except that Vlad is doing things and thinks he's clever and probably is. But he's also given up on explaining why he's doing what he's doing, which is just Vlad being Vlad (aka Brust being Brust), and I'm cool with that, but I have to wonder if a new reader would be.

So this is my evening: read a couple chapters of Cell, read one chapter of Dzur, and then go to sleep and dream about zombies. Wake up, yell at zombies coming out of the central heating/cooling vent, go back to sleep. Repeat.

None of the zombies thus far have been Dragaeran as far as I can tell, but I'm hopeful.

Thanks for everyone who threw in their two cents on the laptop issue. It's purchased, and should arrive around the 2nd. I'd rattle off the specs, but that would be boring. Words like duo-core and 4 Gig blaze like falling stars on its webpage, and that's what matters. It was a deal, it was a steal, and we are all happy now.

Ugh. My lunch salad is 90% provel cheese. Evil St. Louis. Five zillion cheeses on the planet, and you pick the one that isn't actually cheese. Blah!

I remember when I was fourteen and read "Severed Heads" by Glen Cook in Sword and Sorceress (probably #1) and I thought, "I have got to read more of this guy's stuff." And that's how I wound up getting involved with the Black Company.

So I'm staring at my copy of A Cruel Wind and I don't really know what I think about it.

( Hai! Self, being as generous in genius as is in hot air, talks at length about wine-paddling ducks. )

Anyway, I'm a completist, and I still love Glen Cook (platonically), but I think what I'm saying is: I prefer the Black Company. I think. I won't really know till I finish. This is proto-Black Company. Maybe it's the Gray Company. I don't know. Woof. So confused.

...and I still need to read the Garrett, P.I., books.

I came here to kick ass and read vampire smut. And I'm all out of vampire smut.

So instead I bought three books to hold me down until the next dose in January. They are:

• The Sharing Knife: Legacy, by Lois McMaster "I Elevate Even a Simple Love Story to Greatness You Can't Even Dream Of, Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha" Bujold


• Bloodsucking Fiends, by Christopher "Not Skippy" Moore


• A Cruel Wind: Dread Empire Omnibus, by Glen "Why Yes, My Heroes Do Come in Extra Crispy" Cook

I don't know which I'll read first, though I suspect it may be Bujold. I also feel that I can finally consider scheduling Robin Hobb and China Miéville back into my reading time after a long break from both. Hobb's style is good, but sometimes too relentless for me, while Miéville? That ending to Perdido Street Station made me want to stab him in the eye with a fork.

In music, I bought both Rise Against's "The Sufferer and the Witness" and Against Me!'s "New Wave". I'm feeling very againsty, I guess.

I'm a little surprised at how much I like "The Sufferer and the Witness". It reminds me of Bad Religion with longer songs, more melody, more range of song types, and extra added bonus scream-o. In other words, it's pop-punk, and I think I'm okay with that. Also, I try to ignore that the band are advocates for PETA. I mean, it could be worse. They could be Scientologists.

Last night I finished reading a book that I got for free, from the author, and I didn't like it. Does that make me a bad person?

It's not that it's irredeemably bad. I liked the main characters. I liked the world. I liked the concept of the magic. See? There are things I liked.

( But then there are the things I didn't like. )

Blah! I'm also finding myself wondering what the hell I want to write next. I don't feel strongly called to anything, which is not usually a good sign. I'm seeking out something original and beautiful, but none of the things I've started in the last few years are that. They all feel juvenile.

Anyway. Gym time. And I think I'm heading back into mindcandy fun stuff again for the time being. Mmm. Sexy, hardcore fuckin' vampires.

Over the weekend, I read a work of fiction about foreign schoolkids with uncertain futures who band together to fight unspeakable evil.

I refer, of course, to Battle Royale.

Yeah, while you all were off reading about Harry Potter and the Deathly LOLlows, I was reading about horrible mutilations, messy endings, and terrible betrayals.

Cometothinkofit, that isn't too unlike a Rowling novel. Hm.

Anyway, very few books make me sit up at night, afraid to read on, but compelled anyway. Tense, messy, and exciting, and paced in that stuttering style that I automatically associate with manga and anime. My friend the pointycat compared it to Lord of the Flies on steroids, which is appropriate -- I personally saw more 1984 in it, but I also just read that book a year ago.

I'd like to see the subbed movie now. I hear it's...controversial.

I also listened to no less than five Doctor Who radio dramas, featuring the first Doctor I ever grudgingly accepted: Paul McGann. The stories lean heavily on technobabble, but they make the miles fly by, so they must be entertaining some part of my brain, somewhere.

Let's see. Answer forum posts, or work on game. WHICH WILL I DO.

Forum posters who compare my company's game to the games of big companies with major funding -- and who then complain when we aren't like those big companies -- always give me a moment of amused pause. It tempts me to write long, rambling posts about the difference between indy game development and large, well-funded projects.

But...but...I'm willing to wager that this is the same sort of dissatisfied individual who would also lament loudly and at great length about how the big games are so very very commercial, and have lost touch with their market.

<sebben>Ha ha! Ironic!</sebben>

These people are the Indie Rock Petes of the gaming world, and that's why it's not worth responding to. Because I have work -- real work -- to do on the game, and that takes precedence over talking about the work we're doing on the game.

Meanwhile, I'm watching Jericho, courtesy of CBS. It's...uhhhhh...I don't think I would have watched it on TV, but it's great in my browser! Excellent worknoise. Nuclear destruction in Kansas! Whoo hoo!

Also! I'm reading 'Salem's Lot. Cuz killer alien Stephen King vampires are awesome!

It occurs to me that if GRRM had written the Wheel of Time books that Rand would have probably been messily disemboweled by the end of book one, Egwene would have had her arms chopped off for crossing them too much, and Lanfear would be having hot, nasty sex with Mat, Perrin, and possibly Moiraine.

Man, I want the next book. T_T Of Song of Ice and Fire, that is. I haven't bothered with WoT since book five.

(finishes reading A Storm of Swords)

(scrapes jaw up off floor)

(heads to bookstore for the next one)

I finally finished listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, aka Harry Potter Becomes a Whangsty Teenager, and was mostly annoyed with it until the last ten chapters, when it got good.

I don't know what's wrong with me that I don't share the rabid fangirl love for HP that the rest of my livejournal friendosphere exhibits. When I read a Harry Potter book, I usually find half of it tedious or deux ex mechanical, and for the rest I sit and think, "Wow, J.K. Rowling really knows how to write kids." Or: "Wow, J.K. Rowling's worldbuilding and consistency is very nice." Or: "Goddamn, how many stone steps can Tonks fall down without crushing her skull?"

And I realize they're written for readers with juvenile attention spans, but Harry REALLY needs to stop being SHOCKED and AMAZED when people walk through seemingly solid walls into seemingly abandoned buildings, only to find on the other side that it's a wizard's trick!!!! OMG LOL HE'S ONLY SEEN CRAP LIKE THIS LIKE FIFTY MILLION TIMES ALREADY.

Hi, yes, I have no wonder left in my heart.

That said, Storm of Swords? Fucking awesome. (So far.)

In this last week I've canceled my Vampire game, dropped out of Mike's D&D campaign, and resolved to resume my aikido training and write another novel (see: novel_in_90). 

I've also started that novel.  Its name is extremely temporary, so I shall not drop it.  It's at 920 words, where I am stopping, though I could probably write another 3000 more.  The point, though, is not to kill myself.  So I shan't.

The protagonist's name is Jake.  He has two associates named Hughes and Munin.  That should be familiar to some of you.

I am back to reading Banewreaker.  The main character reminisces a lot about the girl he murdered in a fit of rage five zillion years ago, and the only characters I'm actually interested in so far have only had one scene, and I don't think they'll be the primary perspectives.  I don't know.  It's at least more interesting than The Scar, but I may have to find other reading to entertain me.

Anyone know of any really good fantasy novels (urban, high, mythical, gothic) they've liked recently?  I'm thinking wistfully of Sunshine and The Sharing Knife, and wanting something like those.

I have joined novel_in_90 and written my own pretentious introduction!

Half-time for the cook-a-thon.  Two soups, one quick bread, a casserole, and one beer-braised brisket down.  To go: scones, two vegetable stews, tomato sauce, and a lo mein.  I had truly hoped to have it all done, but I underestimated all the things I needed to buy.

I have to come up with a storyline for my Vampire game.  Any ideas?  I suspect ghosts (or a ghost) will be involved, I just don't know how. 

Mike is threatening to leave the game -- something about a social life -- which is a bummer, as he is one of my favorite roleplayers.  C'est la vie.

The Sharing Knife #1 was...unusual.  It is obviously one of a set.  I sat reading it and thinking, "What the hell?  There're no explosions.  No wars.  No massive looming threat dragging the heroes by the ear.  Why am I still reading this?"

And that last was not said (or, rather, thought) with a sneer, but instead with a sort of bewildered wonderment, for even though the last half of the book is more or less "a month in the life of two people who aren't involved in any world-shattering dilemmas", it still tugged me along like the compulsive little monkey I am, driven to know just what happens next.

It is not a typical fantasy at all.  And even so, it propelled me to read and to care about the characters with far more urgency than either of the two other books* I tried to pick up in the last six months.  Both of which I will read, eventually, much as I will eat my vegetables, eventually, but Lois is like the vegetables and the new york strip.  I have a mad girl-crush on her writing, and I am not afraid to say that if she were a man and I were a man I would want her man-babies.

I'll just, um, let you all think about that one.



* To wit: The Scar by China Mieville and Banewreaker  by Jacqueline Carey.  Both are probably lovely novels, but their openings don't tug me at all.

I'm halfway through The Sharing Knife.  I am late to bed and late to work because of The Sharing Knife.  There are concepts in this book that I've written about before -- that I wrote about in that second unsold book collecting dust on my shelf -- but of course Lois writes them better. 

I'm doing a marathon cooking weekend, followed by a marathon housekeeping weekend, followed hopefully by a steadier writing schedule again. 

This is one reason I dislike the holidays.  January is always spent catching up to the excesses of December.

On one hand, I'm enjoying the stories in Magic for Beginners because they're original, well-written, and plumped up with fascinating ideas.

On the other hand, every time I finish reading a story in Magic for Beginners I'm like, "Wait, what?  Did I miss something?  Do I have to read this again to get it?  Is there a wikipedia page about this story?  Oh god I'm lazy."

No, really, ignore me.  They're good stories, but they're also lacking in tidy endings, but that's the way of such fiction (what the kids these days call "slipstream").  And if, by some bizarre circumstance, Kelly Link should read this page, she should know it's me, not her.

My nose is still plugged, but I bought my chest freezer.  I'm all a-titter!

Because I am a total hypocrite, I finished reading said dark erotica novel about twenty minutes ago.

There were several things that made me wonder what the book looked like before the editor asked for revisions, and the naming schemes continued to make me twitch, but all in all it did the job for brain candy.

So who do we have to blame for the vampires-as-superheroes genre? I suspect I know the answer, but I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts or insights on this most recent iteration of the myth.

Being under stress lately for personal reasons that are best left not divulged, I went into a Borders tonight and hunted down one of those dark erotica novels that are all the craze with the kids nowadays. I picked up one that was recommended by someone whose own dark erotica novels I have enjoyed. Then, after eating some yummy Trader Joe's artichoke-stuffed ravioli, I sat down on my couch and started reading Dark Lover by J.R. Ward.

And....

Twenty pages in, she's hit at least six of my pet peeves. Here are three of them:

1. Naming her characters after slightly-muddled meaningful words ("Zsadist", "Phury", "Tohrment").


2. Telling me what a badass her character(s) is/are rather than showing me.


3. Unfortunate uses of martial arts and self defense techniques. This includes use of shuriken. Which, in my opinion, should stay with mutated teenaged turtles and parachute pants in the 80s.

And now those of you who enjoy that sort of thing are glaring at me and saying, "Steph, why are you reading this book if it bugs you so much?" Well, the answer is: I paid for it, and I'm cheap, and I want my seven dollars worth, and right now, I really, really need to read something that will take my mind off of other things.

Here are some other pet peeves that writers who I otherwise enjoy have done unto me:

• Jacqueline Carey's excessive use of "'tis" in the second Kushiel book almost drove me to sanity. If there is ever a Kushiel's drinking game, that one could get an Irish rugby team drunk.


• Steven Brust -- WHOSE WORK I ADORE ABOVE ALL OTHERS -- and his use of "shut up" in the Vlad novels makes my teeth grind, but in general that's a phrase that I hate to hear come from anyone's mouth (and especially my own).


• China Miéville's entire vocabulary.

I am sensitive to these things. I'm terribly sorry, writers. :( It's not you, it's me.

In an act of literary desperation, I cracked open The Scar last night. I swear to god the first three pages were nothing but BLAH BLAH BLAH Here's a word you've never seen before. BLAH BLAH BLAH Oh, hey, here's another one! BLAH BLAH

Reading China Miéville is giving me an inferiority complex.