- Pitt was the first to board. He was always the first. Whether that made him brave or foolhardy was hard to say.
— The Rorqual, p. 5
Still Work-in-Progress
August 11, 2019 at 9:09 pm (Explorers, Filipino Writers, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: fantasy, horror, short story, work-in-progress
Why Always Ice?
August 11, 2019 at 6:15 pm (Artists and Writers, Filipino Writers, Sundays, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: fantasy, fiction, horror, short story, work-in-progress
Excerpt, work-in-progress
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Status: 52 pp.
Working Title: The Rorqual
It began with the discovery of a ship, sailing languidly along the ice-clotted harbor. It seemed meandering, yet sure of purpose. It drifted toward shore, riding high in the water.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
The Night King: Another Missed Opportunity
May 10, 2019 at 9:22 am (Links, Surprises, television)
Tags: adaptations, complaints, disappointment, fantasy, Game of Thrones, horror
So Arya killed the Night King, stabbing him in the exact same place he was stabbed by the Children of the Forest.
The Children of the Forest haven’t appeared much in the series (hopefully they’ll be in the prequel) but the image of a blade plunging into the chest of a captive man is, you have to admit, super-arresting and chilling.
And here is an image from an article in Den of Geek, which asks: Could the Night King actually have been a Stark?
Which again makes self super-despondent because it reminds her that in the last two episodes EVER of Game of Thrones, the bad guys will be played by the tag team of Cersei/Euron, even though, to self’s mind, the Lannisters are pretty much done (except for Tyrion, who’s turned into such a sad sack)
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Oh Hey There, Arya’s Left Eyebrow
April 26, 2019 at 7:34 am (Recommended, television)
Tags: adaptations, Arya, fantasy, favorites, Fridays, Game of Thrones, Gendry, Gendrya, humor, indulgences, reviews
Season 8, Episode 2: A Sort-of Review
Those nasty nasty showrunners knew from Season 2 that we would end up here. The minute Season 8 Gendry stuck his sword into that vat of whatever-sends-up-steam-like-a-veritable-fog-machine, it was Gendrya, all the way. This scene has happened before, only back then Arya was 11 or 12 and Gendry had never been with a woman. Now, Arya is 17 or 18, and post-Melisandre Gendry has apparently not been traumatized for life because he admitted to Lady Arya that he’s been with three women. THREE! (Self loves the moment when Arya oh-so-casually drops the “Was that the first time you’ve been with a woman” and Gendry’s astonished “What???!!!!” Gendry, and all the viewers who’d seen 12-year-old Arya making heart eyes at Gendry’s abs, were STUNNED! STUNNED! But surely we wouldn’t have wanted another unrequited love — like self’s other favorite ship, Brienne and Jaime! — for our Dear Little Murder Child!)
Looking forward to this Sunday. For these specific reasons:
- More of Arya’s raised eyebrows. When Arya’s eyebrow goes up, it means she’s ready for business.
- More of Gendry, in any shape or form, though preferably hot and sweaty in the forge, with exposed clavicles.
- Crypt turning into a foodfest for White Walkers — what can self say, she really likes The Walking Dead! Since no less than six different characters (Gendry, Jon, Dany, Sam, Gilly and Ser Jorah) were made to state out loud (in Episode 2) that the crypts were “the safest place,” the feeding frenzy will probably be worse than an American high school cafeteria at lunch!
Season 8, Episode 2 joins self’s favorite Game of Thrones episodes of all time:
the one where Brienne is about to get eaten by a bear, otherwise known as The Bear and the Maiden Fair
the one where the Kingslayer goes au naturel in a pool with Brienne and then very conveniently faints in Brienne’s arms (Unfortunately this episode marked the high point in their relationship, for Jaime subsequently returned to his sister’s loving arms, and self lost all respect for the character and wished he’d crawl off somewhere and die)
Self knows not why Season 7’s Gendry was so wimpy. In Season 8, he is decidedly NOT wimpy. He’s back at the forge, where he can be observed (by Arya. And the viewers) in the best possible light (steamy, with sparks of metal upon metal: self could go on).
Stay tuned.
Orange and Pink: Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge
February 12, 2019 at 1:47 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Links, Recommended)
Tags: Cambridge, Cee Neuner, England, English writers, fantasy, favorites, His Dark Materials, Lyra Belacqua, Mondays, Oxford, Philip Pullman, reading lists, Will Parry
You have to look hard in a few of these, but they definitely all DO have Orange and Pink.
Thanks again to Cee Neuner for the Fun Foto Challenge!
Redwood City, California: January 2019
London: 3 December 2018
Heffers, Trinity Street, Cambridge: 23 November 2018
Can you tell how much self loves Philip Pullman? She read all the books on this table in the first few months of 2018. She knew that when she got to Oxford, she would look for as many Philip Pullman-related sites as she could.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Hardly Seems Possible: #amwriting
January 5, 2019 at 4:48 am (Artists and Writers, Explorers, Filipino Writers, Women Writers, Writing)
Tags: fantasy, Fridays, horror, novellas, work-in-progress
- They tested the salinity in the top layers of ocean water left behind by the ice melt. The data was extracted from brine droplets trapped in pockets of glacier ice. The average was 35 kilograms ppt: 35 kilogram parts per thousand. Suddenly, after a month, salinity in parts per thousand had dropped drastically, to just above 20 kilograms ppt.
Would you believe self wrote this?
Reading it over, now, it all sounds like gobbledygook.
She started this particular story in Annaghmakerrig, Ireland (All her best science fiction were written at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig). That was really bold, since she’s never been to either of the Poles, North or South.
In addition, she’s the furthest thing from a scientist you can imagine. Put numbers and other hard data in front of her, and her mind will cease to function. She’ll go into shock.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Which Way Photo Challenge, Part 2
December 31, 2018 at 6:11 pm (Books, destinations, Links, Personal Bookshelf, Places, Traveling, Weather)
Tags: England, fantasy, inspiration, London, Mondays, Oxford, Philip Pullman, pilgrimage
Much thanks to sonofabeach96 for the prompt, which sent self back to her archive of photographs, taken during her most recent trip:
London Alley, 20 November 2018
Rainy Night, London, 20 November 2018
Wolvercote, the Ruins of Godstow Abbey in the distance, 16 November 2018: Philip Pullman’s LA BELLE SAUVAGE led self here. (When’s Book 2, The Secret Commonwealth, coming out? Been waiting a long, long time!)
Self’s Top Three Reads of 2018
December 22, 2018 at 1:56 am (Books, Lists, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: book lists, England, English writers, fantasy, favorites, Fridays, His Dark Materials, mysteries, novel, Oxford, Philip Pullman, reading lists, science fiction, Will Parry
How did self end up selecting these three?
The books may have been far from perfect — self thinks, in particular, of the first two — but they were the books she found herself re-reading, despite their flaws:
- Dead Letters, by Caite Dolan-Leach: Bravo, Dolan-Leach. Self has not been able to dislodge the dysfunctional Antipova twins and their yummy boy toy, Wyatt Darling, from her thoughts since she read this, Dolan-Leach’s first novel, mid-November.
- Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz: Beat out a host of other science fiction self read this year, including All Systems Red, Book 1 of The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells; and Jade City, by Fonda Lee. The book lived because of a character named Threezed.
- The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman: Vol. 2 of His Dark Materials killed self in every way. If not exactly perfect, it was close. Will Parry forever. The book did such a number on her that she went to Oxford to see Will and Lyra’s bench, in the Oxford Botanical Garden.
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Sentence of the Day: Missing, Presumed
November 23, 2018 at 2:48 pm (Books, Personal Bookshelf, Recommended, Surprises, Traveling, Women Writers)
Tags: Cambridge, England, fantasy, Fridays, His Dark Materials, Mendocino, mysteries, Philip Pullman, reading lists, The Odyssey, translation
- The more you don’t make contact, the more impossible contact becomes, as if silence can enlarge like a seep of blood.
The writing in Missing, Presumed got stronger, the voice more confident, after about the halfway mark.
Today, self was in Heffers and found yet more books she wishes she could have purchased. But — no, it’s too much. She’s hauling luggage to Durham next.
She had to content herself with taking pictures.
Heffers, Trinity Street, Cambridge: Friday, 23 November 2018
When, oh when, is The Secret Commonwealth, Book 2 of the Book of Dust, coming out? Philip Pullman keeping very mum.
Waterstones, Sidney Street, Cambridge: Friday, 23 November 2018
Can you imagine, Emily Wilson, whose translation of The Odyssey self bought in hardcover from Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino, earlier this year, is reading tonight in Cambridge?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Suggested Places in Oxford for His Dark Materials fans (Courtesy of Twittagazze)
November 13, 2018 at 9:19 pm (Books, destinations, Lists, Places, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: fantasy, Garden, His Dark Materials, inspiration, novel, Oxford, Philip Pullman
All locations in Oxford (or adjoining):
His Dark Materials locations:
- Exeter College (Jordan College in the books)
- The Bodleian Library
- Oxford Botanical Garden (Lyra and Will’s Bench is here)
- The Pitt-Rivers Museum
- The Covered Market
- Christ Church
- Story Museum (to see Philip Pullman’s head-of-chapter drawings from His Dark Materials)
The Book of Dust locations:
- Walk Paths Along the Isis
- Port Meadow
- Wolvercote (a 1-hour walk from Port Meadow): The Trout and the nearby priory
- Jericho area: Juxon Street and The Butterfly Tattoo
- The Ashmolean
- The White Horse Pub next to Blackwell’s
It was a spectacularly beautiful day. Self started out from Oxford City Centre and made it all the way to the Oxford Botanic Garden:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
