potpourri

[ewein2412]

1) Gramma

I didn't post about Gramma's progress for a while she wasn't making any and it was very discouraging. After what seemed like a phenomenal recovery, 6 weeks after her injury and with her pelvis mostly healed, she suddenly found herself stricken with debilitating and inexplicable pain on the other side of her body. We thought it might be sciatica. After an MRI scan, turns out she actually had two other breaks that the initial x-rays hadn't picked up, one in her hip and one in her tailbone (?) or thereabouts--so they confined her to the walker/zimmer frame and wheelchair for another 6 weeks. She improved very rapidly (again) after that, and 3 weeks later was back to saying, "I'm fine, but they're still making me use this stupid walker." (Apparently, at her last check-up with her GP, she asked permission to start driving again, and the GP accused her of coercion--that's the specialist's department!)

As far as I know she spent last weekend in Richmond with my aunt (her youngest daughter, Kate) and Kate's daughters. Her first big trip since her accident, and it is a big trip, a 5 hour drive. I will have to have a long transatlantic gossip with her soon.

2) Moonwalk Reminder

Me and my team the "Fair City Fillies" are supposed to be in training for the Moonwalk, a sponsored walk to raise money to support breast cancer projects within Scotland. The freaks that I hang out with consider that appropriate "training" for a 13 mile power walk is to go on a 14 mile hillwalk over rough terrain AT THE SAME PACE as the power walk; i.e., if you don't pass out or end up in the hospital with tendonitis you'll be fine for the half-marathon, which will be considerably less difficult than your training. So anyway, I have been training. I will just about recover in time to do the actual half-marathon; donations always gratefully appreciated here , and many thanks to those of you who have made donations in the past. I will keep you posted when the big day arrives!

Everyone's feet hurt last week. Tim has a mysterious infection in his right foot which was so swollen I finally managed to make him go to the doctor, and antibiotics seem to be improving it. Unbelievably, the day before he went, the CAT turned up limping pathetically on 3 legs with a big fat swollen paw, and SHE had to go get antibiotics as well (or whatever it is they give cats). Tim took her; apparently he asked the vet if he could get a shot in his foot, too.

Tim's ridiculous attempt to explain the strange foot maladies going around:

"Your feet are the bellwether of your soul."

3) Perth, the cultural haven at the end of the motorway system

We went to see the Waterboys at the Perth Concert Hall last night. They were fantastic--I didn't actually expect to enjoy the concert as much as I did. I am not real familiar with their recent stuff and had never heard the "Peace of Iona" song or their marvellous setting of Yeats's "The Stolen Child" (painfully topical, too). And--

ONE MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY IS COMING TO EDINBURGH!!!! WE HAVE TICKETS!!!

I love Scotland.

4) Navel Gazing

As far as I am aware The Lion Hunter is on schedule for its 14 June 2007 debut. I know that there are at least two people on my friendslist who claim to be more excited about this book than about HP7 (marguerlucy said I could quote her on that, so I am). Your reward is…

Somewhere, someone in the dim and distant Internet past (and they probably don't even read this blog) expressed a whimsical desire for a Medraut/Turunesh fanfic. I don't know if it counts as fanfic if the author of the fandom writes it herself, but I have produced a drabble. A DRABBLE! Moi! I wrote it a while ago and was too embarrassed to post it. But what the heck. It is here and here at rarelitslash. madwoman.

Comments

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

AAAH!!! and i was talking about discovering "Sunbird" at the time!!! i'm so beyond stoked, that i'm actually using the word "stoked"!

;)

and thank you for the drabble!

[ewein2412]

hee. you're welcome.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Good for your gramma!

and what's the problem with a drabble or two, writing is writing! *g*

[ewein2412]

I found it very instructive, too. Novel-writing has made me sloppy, I think; you forget to make Every Word Count. This was more like sonnet writing.

[cc-lemon.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to "The Lion Hunter" FAR more than I am the final HP book, and I consider myself a great fan of that series. Your books are infinitely more satisfying on every level and I'm completely in love with the entire set of characters and the universe you've created for them to dwell in. I'm going nuts waiting for the new book!

The drabble was wonderful, but it doesn't excuse you from providing us with a full novel of Medraut and Turunesh. They're both so fascinating and their story should be shared.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I second every last word of that!

[ewein2412]

when I finish with Telemakos I will think about it... so much to write, so little time!

you both know about the Medraut/Morgause Winter Prince prequel in this, right?

[marguerlucy.livejournal.com]

OOOH I didn't know about it.

i'm so thrilled i stumbled on your blog!

let me know if I get annoying. I think i regress a little to my 12 year old self when I talk about your novels, considering I read winter prince so many times in that year of my life alone ha!

[ewein2412]

let me know if I get annoying

far from it!

[ewein2412]

I meant to also say thank you for the very kind words.

Hmmm, it did not occur to me I could go *backwards* and write about Medraut in Africa. hmmm.

[cc-lemon.livejournal.com]

You definitely can! And no, I didn't know about it! Time to go hunting!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

write about Medraut in Africa

Yes, please!

[ewein2412]

I dumped him when I met his son. I have got to see Telemakos to adulthood before I can consider going back and tackling a post-adolescent Medraut. Surely YOU, you of ALL people, appreciate the allure of the next generation!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I do, of course; isn't it funny? It can be hard on the readers, for whom the books & characters exist in time very differently from us. I'm agonizing a bit right now, because the next book looks like it's going to be another Theron one - he'll figure strongly in it, but the main character is the girl he marries, actually. And I know that this will not appeal as much as the Mad Duke (though I have already scribbled the scene in which he makes a tragicomic spectral appearance) - but it's what interests me at the moment. It is good to have someone else who does understand this rather peculiar situation.

And that said - I realized recently that, while readers speculate madly, I am the only one who can Fill in the Blanks for alll the bits in this saga that I skipped; I was afraid I was writing myself into a corner, but really, a writer has a responsibility to tell tales, doesn't she?

[ewein2412]

while readers speculate madly, I am the only one who can Fill in the Blanks for alll the bits in this saga that I skipped

yes, the ultimate Authority. Why does it work that way, I wonder? tim and I were just talking about this--how for a while people were speculating that electronic communication was going to change the way narrative worked--that stories would no longer be linear, but you could choose different plotlines and structures--not just stories, but the way people could collect information, too. And it turns out it doesn't work that way at all, that people *want* their stories to be linear--not only that, but if there's an alternative ending, for example, they want to know which ending is definitive. Curiously, I speculate just as madly as my readers re. what could/might happen, and there are all kinds of weird alternative plotlines in my head (you don't want to KNOW what happens to Lleu in the version where he DOES get delivered to Morgause at the end of The Winter Prince), but despite this I know clearly which is the "real" plotline; what Actually Happens.

The book I am working on at the moment has forced me to slightly compromise the historic integrity of my own invented world. It requires that I expand rather fantastically on a short story I wrote about 15 years ago--it wouldn't matter except that the story was published. Someone out there will read both, eventually, and be disturbed by the non-alignment of certain events. In my own defense, well, you could say the short story had to be written the way it is to maintain its own internal integrity. It's like an oikotype of a folktale, a local version that doesn't turn up anywhere else and doesn't travel. And anyway, the book will be much better than the short story, so a little obscure and minor inconsistency won't kill me.

But because the story was *published*, I think, it took much more mental agony to push myself in the right direction for the book and say: Suppose it happened THIS way? MAKE it happen this way.

(Of course, the other thing I have to say in my own defense is: WHO'S QUEEN?)

-----------------

The promise of tragicomic spectral appearance by Alex gives me palpitations!

[ewein2412]

I meant Alec, of course.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you going back to "Fire"? (I might wind up all disappointed if it's not.) Star Trek fans deal with glaring discontinuities all the time; my roommate gets really obssessive and crazy about explaining things like the change in Klingon make-up between the first and later series. I'm just saying. People who get upset about stuff like that need to calm down.

I'm looking forward to the Harry Potter event as much if not more than I am looking forward to reading the book. The June 14th release date of The Sunbird has me dancing with glee. If I order it at Barnes and Noble for pick-up, will that make them more likely to get it in as a regular order?

--Tori (I don't have livejournal)

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

(a) I forgive you!

(b) I am much more excited about The Lion Hunter, which I have just read, than I am about HP7, which I am not planning to read. I may have to buy another copy of The Sunbird to reread since my current one is in storage.

[ewein2412]

thank you, thank you!

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

One Man Star Wars is coming back?!?! YAY! I missed it at the Fringe last year and was very sad as it sounded fabulous!

Hurrah for The Lion Hunter!

[ewein2412]

as far as I can work at it's at the Festival Theatre for ONE NIGHT. It's sun. 10 june. It may be around somewhere else after that but I don't know where.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

are you kidding? I'd take Telemakos over Harry any day. >_>

And oh, oh, oh squee. I love them so much. Poor Turunesh, what she puts up with from these crazy Britons. *g*

Also, your grandmother sounds awesome.

[ewein2412]

I'd take Telemakos over Harry any day

O_o

bwahahahahaha I just won't comment.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Whaaaaat? *g*

Seriously, they're good books and all, but they don't sink their claws in my heart the way yours do.

[ewein2412]

their claws are in my heart, too. but that, I suppose, is obvious.

Fanfic?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I think it's technically pixel-stained technopeasantry.

Re: Fanfic?

[ewein2412]

actually, this post was just my cunning plan to get someone to use those words in my blog.

Re: Fanfic?

[ewein2412]

e wein, late to the party as usual!

[sovay]

As far as I am aware The Lion Hunter is on schedule for its 14 June 2007 debut.

*preorders*

but I have produced a drabble. A DRABBLE! Moi! I wrote it a while ago and was too embarrassed to post it. But what the heck.

It is a wonderful drabble!

[ewein2412]

thank you!

[sparrow-wings.livejournal.com]

As far as I am aware The Lion Hunter is on schedule for its 14 June 2007

Eeeeeeeee! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! There are a lot of books I'm eagerly awaiting this summer, but this just jumped to the top of the list. *bounces*

[ewein2412]

I swear to you, NO ONE is eagerly awaiting this book more than ME!

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

Your grandmother continues to astound me. I hope she continues to thrive.

Loved the drabble, especially:

He held up his white hand. She folded her dark fingers close around it; their hands entwined, light and shadow in perfect balance.

Ah, hand!porn. Can't go wrong with it. *g*

[ewein2412]

ahaha. I wrote this a couple of weeks ago and when I posted it I noticed a curious similarity to what I was just telling you about the other day... the difference being that the characters in that are, well, shall we say, not a married couple.

[meener.livejournal.com]

i am another person who is infinitely more excited about the lion hunter than anything HP-related. please excuse me while i use caps and exclamation marks (wow, i just wrote "books" there without thinking) for a moment: NEW BOOK BY YOU!!!!! EEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! *dances*

though now i am faced with a dilemma: do i ship the book to japan (instant gratification vs. yet ANOTHER book to lug back with me when i leave in july), or do i ship it to the states (extra months of waiting vs. something to add to the list of good things about going back)? D:

i love your drabble, btw! i remember a professor remarking once that a novel gives you more "elbow-room" than a short story; drabbles seem to be on the very far end of the spectrum, a novel stripped of everything but a sharp, brief clarity - like the last few lines in a sonnet, as you mentioned in a comment. i think the best drabbles can produce the same kind of delight and satisfaction a well-placed volta can - and yours did that for me.

[ewein2412]

yes, as I was writing it I realized that not only do you have to invest every word with import, but you also have to include a certain amount of backstory to make it appropriately accessible--so, you have to include certain markers that tell you these people are married/parents/different races/not of our time, etc. It really was an eye-opener: not just a matter of counting words.

I wish I was more prolific.

[hirnverbrannt.livejournal.com]

Yay! Go Gram! Stupid doctors.

Don't die training. But if you do, leave me something pretty like a pair of bookends or... I don't know. A dinner plate.

Every time I put down a Harry Potter book I am not left thinking "I learned much of history!" Thank you for writing with your brain.

[ewein2412]

You have to take my "history" with a great big amole block of salt, you know.

If I ever get hold of one of these consider it your inheritance!

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I have only ever seen the flowers. I don't remember what that means. I never see the owls.

[ewein2412]

flowers is what she wants to be. It means you are good.

THE OWLS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM

ahahahahahaha

[resoundingjoy.livejournal.com]

I'm reading all this excitement about "The Lion Hunter," and was getting all caught up in the excitement of the upcoming release when I realized that I already have it (yay ebay for selling proofs) and that I have to wait still longer for the sequel! Gah!!!

[ewein2412]

hahaha--serve you right for buying ARCs on ebay!

(actually I don't care where people get the books as long as they read them--although there is an argument that says the ARC doesn't count as a finished book, as it's UNCORRECTED. I am particularly ashamed of the author's note in the ARC, which was printed before I had a chance to edit it at all; I think it's coy and defensive)