Archive | February 2015

Come To Ithaca… Some Other Time (blog Post)

Feb22

“Why does Ithaca hate Christmas?” my friend asked, as our already-delayed Christmas visit was delayed YET Again due to impending bad weather and a lack of salt (Surprising; I didn’t know they actually salted the roads around here. (that’s slightly tongue-in-cheek, but we’re not all THAT good at clearing roads in this area.))

“Visit Ithaca Go see the Keys!” Ithaca’s tourism site said last week.

And I can’t say I blame them. We’re up to our chests in snow, we’re out of salt, and – until today, where it’s going to be ~31-33F – we’re freezing.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful here. A Google Image Search will tell you how pretty a frozen waterfall can be. And I actually like winter here – it’s a nice time to sit inside and get some crafting, writing, or cleaning done. It’s a good excuse for layers. It’s a very good excuse for tea and soup and warm bread.

Oh, yeah. Bread! I was going to make some of that.

You can have some, if you come visit…

…maybe in March? Better make it April or May…

I find it funny that the icon I had made for my “blizzard” setting is getting far more use for… near-blizzards.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/900890.html. You can comment here or there.

Another Book Review Of Sorts: Red Iron Nights, by Glen Cook

Feb21

The second book in my series of Lyn-learns-to-Review-Books is Red Iron Nights, by Glen Cook.

This book is part of the “From the Files of Garrett P.I.” series, which I tend to think of as the “Adjective-Metal-Noun” (Sweet Silver Blues, Bitter Gold Hearts…) series. I started reading these back in high school, another product of my used-book-store and library habit.

The series are set in a noir fantasy city (TunFaire) in the heart of a nation that has been gripped by war for, the impression is given, generations. There’s a distinctly ‘Nam feeling to the veterans, when they come up – which they do in Red Iron Nights more than I recall them doing in earlier books. Garret is a veteran of the war; every adult human male (and there are elves and gnolls and rat-men and pixies and, and, and…) is a veteran of the war.

And in Red Iron Nights, he is hunting down a serial killer who has a specific type.

Despite the gritty tone of the description, the stories manage to be a nice, relatively light-hearted read. Garrett, who narrates in what I believe is classic noir fashion, has a sense of humor and a way of brushing off both his own failings and his misfortunes. He is never going to be The Guy; this isn’t, say, Anita Blake, where he gets exponentially more powerful as the novels go on, but he’s also not Good Old Gil, always down on his luck.

If you can’t tell, I really enjoy this book, and this series. I keep going back to them over and over again – they’re not deep, they’re not thought-provoking, but they’re well written and immersive. And, like a crime show, at the end, there’s a happy ending (if not for everyone).

As a matter of fact, I’m already in the middle of Angry Lead Skies.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/900839.html. You can comment here or there.

On Mobbing Midnight and Exciting Stretch Goals / Donation Levels

Feb19

Guys I’m a stretch goal!

Here on Mobbing Midnight, if we reach $12,000, I get to write another story! (all the crows, crows everywhere, so many crows).

Annnnnd

If you donate at the $100 level, you get to be in my story (or someone else’s. I mean, that’s cool, too).

But, seriously. Come to school on a nethergate, where the crows might be demons and people really do exorcisms in their dorm rooms. Where magic might not be part of the curriculum, but it’s definitely in the Library. Where your every-day walk across campus might just be ruined by a malignant spell and nobody really knows if the Dean exists.

…sounds just like your kind of University, right?

And you could be there… fictionally, at least. Or, you know, send someone you don’t like there, or name the Uni itself after a close friend/family member/enemy.

It’ll be fun! Magical, even. 😉

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/900447.html. You can comment here or there.

Three-Word Wednesday and Foedus Planatarum: Evolving

Feb18

This piece is a prelude to my Foedus Planetarum setting, set many decades before the other stories. It is written for the Three-Word Wednesday prompt: content, evolve, sober.

“Humankind did not evolve.”

It was not the sort of thing you wanted to tackle sober, but Imri was the Space Department’s Chief of Science, and she could not be seen to be drunk on the job.

“That is,” she looked over her notes again. “Humanity did evolve, quite a bit. But humanity, on earth… well, it’s complex.”

There were three other people in the room with her. Two of them had white-iridescent hair and slit-pupiled iris like a cat. The other one was the Space Department’s Chief of Security, and he was waiting impatiently for her to work through this.

She looked at the man? who was her counterpart for the Jocet. “All right. So humanity originally evolved… somewhere. And then was seeded, colonized out to various planets in… slightly modified forms?”

The Jocet’s language was alien, but, at the same time, it was not alien. Their translators had been able to comprehend it, and, conversely, the Jocet’s translators could handle English. Her counterpart nodded. “It is simplified, of course. But you are content with your understanding?”

“Content? Content?” Imri shook her head. “No, no, I could spent a lifetime studying this and not be content. But do I have enough to brief my peers? Yes.” She slumped back into her chair. “And then, then I have enough understanding to request a sabbatical to further research this.”

The Chief of Security – the Terran-human, North-Atlantic-Nations Chief of Security – shook his head. He’d followed just enough to know he was lost. “I think if you can explain this to the rest of the Chiefs, I’ll put in my rec that you get that research as a fully-funded work project.”

Imri couldn’t argue. Looking across the table at the Jocet, she had a feeling Earth was going to be playing knowledge-catch-up for quite a while.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/899857.html. You can comment here or there.

Opinion and Build-a-Character wanted (again!)

Feb18

You guys did such a good job with Jahnan & Yira that I’m hoping you’ll help me with Rige and Olivia.

They are in the same world, Foedus Planatarium (Federation of Planets), meant for a for-publication romance story. He’s a prisoner, she’s an archaeologist. (What? I have types. 😉

That being said, I have nothing else determined about them, except that they are both “human”.

“Human” in this case, as this is a space story, covers a wide array of Roddenberry-alien-type modifications and alterations on a bilaterally symmetrical biped with the head on top, as well as a wide range of cultures.

So: what do they look like, what can you tell me about their history?

Feel free to give me a single trait, like “he wears his hair in braids” or “she has green hair.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/899397.html. You can comment here or there.

X# Things Makes a Post

Feb18

It occured to me this morning – at 3 a.m., whilst feeding the cats – that the difference between “oh, god, it’s only Wednesday” and “oh, good, it’s only Wednesday” is just one letter and a world of attitude.

I’ve been trying not to lose my time pushing for the weekend, so I’m thinking hard about that difference. “oh, good…” I have three more days to work on deadlines, I have more time to wrap gifts before Last Christmas, I have more time to get stuff done at work. I have more time to go to the gym.

I can work with that.

~

Speaking of gym, I’ve worked out using my tablet + the treadmill as a walking desk. Problem is, it has to be one specific treadmill (or two, if they ever fix the second one like that); the others don’t have enough of a “shelf” to support the tablet’s keyboard.

On the positive side, it’s really really fun!

~

It’s so cold out… (how cold is it, Lyn?)

So cold my hair freezes when I go to my car (that’s pretty normal, Lyn).

So cold the schools keep closing (that’s not that unusual, either).

So cold that when I took Oli outside, he lasted a minute before politely asking to go inside – and that, that is strange.

~

And… Mobbing Midnight! It’s getting there, it’s getting there.

I’m really excited about this, guys. Not just because it’ll pay me SFWA professional rates. Not just because I get to be in an anthology with some awesome authors. But because it’s outside of my normal story, and I like being challenged. I never would have written this particular story without this anthology, and I think that’s awesome.

For $12, you can not only help me get closer to two of my new years’ resolutions, you can also have a lovely anthology full of great stories. I’d call that a win-win situation.

On tumblr? Reblog this post for a chance at a free copy of all three anthologies – not just Mobbing Midnight, but Fight Like a Girl and What Follows (featuring my story “Monster Godmother!”)

Want to buy all three anthologies? ($25) Do it before Friday 2/20, and Fireun will record something – anything – for you.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/899232.html. You can comment here or there.

Slowed-Commute Kit, by JJHunter

Feb17

Over here, [personal profile] jjhunter has written out suggestions for a kit to survive delays in Boston’s public transport.

But this is similar to my 6-hour-bus-ride-to-NYC kit, or the waiting-in-line-forever kit (I pack small, portable knitting as well) – generally, any time when situations beyond your control might mean you’re waiting for just shy of forever. It’s well worth a read.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/898945.html. You can comment here or there.

Domain Name Fundraiser – Ask the Questions!

Feb16

The Domain Name Fundraiser reached $50 – more than covering my costs for domain names.

That’s also FIVE stories.

So tell me, what do you want to know about the worlds of Edally Academy and/or Inner Circle?

Suggestions:
(Rix)
For Edally, could we have something from the older students’ point of view about the first years?
For Inner Circle, something about their Change?
(dialecticdreamer)
Prelude

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/898735.html. You can comment here or there.