Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

Life and Links and Some Scary Hot Chocolate

May 17, 2012, 3.47 pm

I was feeling really proud of myself this afternoon for everything I'd managed to do today. Not only had I written 631 words of my WIP this morning (hooray!) while MrD (who is all better, triple hooray!) was at preschool, but when I'd found out that something had gone wrong with our monthly credit card payment, I'd also hopped on a bus into town with MrD to fix things at the bank. Now we were finally back home with a lovely stack of library books as a nice bonus, and yet, with superheroine-style impressiveness, here I was getting even more done by cooking refried beans and hot chocolate...

...and at exactly that point, I looked down and realized that I had just finished adding the necessary tablespoons of olive oil NOT into the pot of boiling pinto beans, as I'd intended, but into the saucepan full of milk for hot chocolate.

Oops.

And, er...maybe a sign that I need to STOP trying to get any more things done this afternoon! Or at least, I should have a little rest first.

But here are the links I've been holding open on my tabs for a while now so that I could share them here:

• Tansy Rayner Roberts's guest post on Kate Elliott's blog, Looking for the Women (in Ancient Rome), is an absolutely fascinating look at the different roles women played in ancient Rome, and it's really entertainingly written, which makes it even more fun to read. I cheered as I read - and I immediately started hankering to read some really good historical fiction set in Rome!
• Sarvenaz Tash's Hey Jealousy is a great blog entry about coping with the kind of jealousy that's just unavoidable in life (and certainly as an author). I love her honesty and her approach to dealing with it.
• And I really love the latest two ebook covers designed by Patrick, one for an SF story collection by Aliette de Bodard, and one for a YA novel reprint by Stephanie Hale.

  

  
  Patrick wrote a really interesting entry about the process behind both cover designs on his blog, and it's definitely worth reading if you're interested in ebooks or cover design!

Now I'm closing my tabs - whew! - and I'm going to take an hour just to curl up with my new library finds. Mmm, reading bliss!

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Parenting and Writing, Imperfectly

May 16, 2012, 2.15 pm

Over at the Smack Dab in the Middle author blog, I just posted a really personal blog entry on this month's theme, Parents. Mine is called "Parenting and Writing" and it begins:

Parenting is one of those issues in life that suddenly takes on completely different angles when you start doing it yourself. It was a shock, when I had my baby, to find myself suddenly a "mom", expected to be ever-nurturing, ever-compassionate, ever-strong. When you have a child, you stop being just a person - in a lot of ways, socially, you also become a construct: The Mom (or: The Dad, which has its own intimidating set of cultural ideals).

When I studied American Women's History in college, I remember my professor, with a wry quirk to her mouth, writing the phrase: "It's all Mom's fault" on the chalkboard, as she discussed the rise of that psychological approach. There can be a real sense of betrayal for a child (even a grown-up child) whenever we see a mother who has done something that isn't objectively right (or in other words, the way moms are supposed to behave).

I think the years of MG fiction are the years when many kids first start really noticing the ways their moms are failing to live up to that cultural standard. I know that my friends and I were vocal in those years whenever we noticed our moms' failures.

Well. Now I'm a mom, and guess what? I fail to live up to that cultural standard every. single. DAY...

You can read the full blog entry, and I'd love to read any comments, either there or here.

(I'm also really hoping that this is not TOO personal a blog entry...MrD is still sick, and I'm so tired, it's a little hard to judge stuff like that today!)

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More Enchanted Chocolate

May 14, 2012, 11.41 am

Last Monday I talked about how much I adore Sorcery and Cecilia; or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot, and I posted a link to the first letter in the book, from Cecy in the country to Kate in Regency-era London (written by Patricia Wrede as the start to a letter game). As the second part of the Enchanted Chocolate Pot blog tour, here's the letter that Kate (a.k.a., Caroline Stevermer!) sent in reply.

Oh, do I love this book! Just re-reading this letter made me happy.

And all three books in the trilogy - Sorcery and Cecilia, The Grand Tour, and The Mislaid Magician - will be available as ebooks on May 22nd. Hooray!

Now here's Kate's letter:

10 April 1817

11 Berkeley Square

Dear Cecy,

If you've been forced to listen to Reverend Fitzwilliam on the subject of the emptiness of worldly pleasures for hours together, I feel I ought to write something bracing to cheer you up. (As for the Vanities of Society, it would take a confirmed cricketer to fully understand them -- and I trust once the weather turns fair our good reverend will spend his afternoons out on the pitch where he longs to be instead of indoors boring the earrings off harmless young ladies.) But after three days of a London Season I find it hard to come to the defense of frivolity with any spirit. Perhaps it will make Rushton seem more amusing to you if I complain vigorously. (Don't worry, I haven't said a word to anyone else, not even Georgina.)

First, there was our arrival in Berkeley Square, a very welcome event after a day spent in the coach with Aunt Charlotte complaining of her migraine and Georgina exclaiming, "Only look, a sedan chair!" at every opportunity. It was very late and we were very tired and soiled with our travels, too weary to feel the proper emotions on entering such a grand house for the first time. (Horace Walpole is by no means Aunt Charlotte's favorite author, but the opportunity to hire his London town house for the Season has given her a new appreciation for him and his works.)

Make no mistake, it is very grand. On the outside it is a high, narrow, polite looking house built of brick. On the inside there is a high-ceilinged entrance hall with a marble staircase winding up two flights. On either side of the hall are reception rooms. The one on the right is called the blue saloon. It is very comfortable with a bow window overlooking the Square. On the left side of the hall is the drawing room, much grander than the blue saloon, furnished with lyre-back chairs, delicate sofas and a spinet. There are velvet drapes in the windows and a highly polished marble floor, upon which I slipped and sat down hard as we were being shown about the house. This was my first piece of clumsiness in London, but I suspect it will not be my last. The general effect of the marble floor and ivory drapes is almost arctic. Only touches of primrose and black relieve the whiteness. At the top of the two flights of stairs are the bedrooms. Georgina's looks out over the Square and mine faces back into the lane behind the house. If I crane my neck I can see down into the kitchen garden -- but there is nothing much to look at. Nothing to compare with the gardens at Rushton.

It seemed like a dream to me, following Georgina up and up the stairs -- she like a kind of angel climbing to her proper place, her golden hair bright in the light from the lamps -- me like a ramshackle shadow lurking after her, shedding hairpins and stumbling over the hem of my skirts.

The bedrooms are lovely, but that night they seemed grand and cold and I was a little dismayed to find myself in my own room all alone -- can you credit it, after I schemed for years to get a room to myself? So I slipped in to Georgina to say good night and get my top buttons undone. Georgina was sitting at her window, trying to guess from the darkened glass what direction she was facing so she could say her prayers toward home. I turned her around and didn't tease her, even when I saw the lock of hair she had clenched in her moist little palm -- Oliver's, tied up in a bit of pink ribbon. Can you believe it?

Well, as I say, I got her pointed in the right direction and she got me unbuttoned and told me that I had a smut rubbed clear across my forehead and a spot coming on my chin. (As if I hadn't been driven half mad feeling it coming out all day long in the coach . . .) So we parted, she to her prayers and I to my bed, the highest, hardest, narrowest, dampest bed on four lion's paws (London would be grander still if they knew how to air their sheets.)

Our first day in London was spent shopping, which means I kicked my heels while Aunt Charlotte and the modiste went into raptures over Georgina. The second day we were taken to see the Elgin Marbles, which was interesting, and to listen to other people see the Elgin Marbles, which would make the eyes roll right back in your head with boredom. The third day we went back to shopping and I was able to get gloves. Please find enclosed a pair which I think will suit your pomona-green crape to perfection. I bought a pair for myself and have spilt coffee on them already. So you see London hasn't changed me yet.

I feel quite envious about Lady Tarleton's dance. Aunt Charlotte has spoken of Almack's but never yet without looking at me and giving a little shudder of apprehension. She intends to call on Lady Jersey tomorrow. If their acquaintance has been exaggerated (and you know that sometimes people do not care quite as much for Aunt Charlotte as she thinks they do) I don't know how we will obtain vouchers. It is plain, however, that without vouchers for Almack's Assembly, Georgy will never truly shine in society, no matter how lovely she is. For my own sake, I hope I get to go too. It would be a shame to have trodden Robert Penwood's feet black and blue learning to dance and then never to get a chance to put it to the test.

Do you think a wizard's installation would be a lady-like thing to attend? We passed the Royal College on the way to the Museum and I'm sure I could find my way.

Do tell me all about the dance and mention Oliver a little so Georgina doesn't sigh herself away entirely.

Love,

Kate

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Dancing in the Dark

May 11, 2012, 11.30 am

My short story "Dancing in the Dark" was published today at Daily Science Fiction, where it's free to read online.

I should say, as a note for Kat readers and parents, that this is a story written for adults, so although the narrator is a child, it's not MG fiction, and it does include strong language.

Although every detail and character in this story is fictional, it is one of the most personal stories I've ever written. (I talked about that a bit last week, when the story was first sent out to Daily SF subscribers.) It means a lot to me to see it published now.

Here's a quick snippet from the beginning:

I have three uncles, but one of them is dead.

He's the funny one....

You can read the full story here. If you have the chance to read it, I hope you'll like it.

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A Happiness List

May 10, 2012, 4.24 pm

I'll be turning thirty-five at the end of this month, and in a nice piece of serendipity, I've seen various online friends posting about their own 35th birthdays lately. 35 is one of those numbers that feels irrationally like a milestone, though, and it doesn't help that - since this is M.E. Awareness week - I've read far too many articles this week about how M.E./CFS "ruins" lives. Ouch.

(Note: I actually think it's great that those articles are being written! It's really important that people are talking publicly about the severity of the illness and the problems it causes, because it needs a ton more social awareness and medical research funding. As someone with exactly the degree of M.E. that's often used as an example in these articles, though, I'm not personally enjoying the whole pity angle at all, and the term "ruined" sets my teeth on edge, with all the value judgments it involves. In fact, I actually typed up a whole rant about that this morning - but then deleted it without posting, because: no. Politically, we need those articles, leaning hard on the pity angle, to raise awareness and research funding. I just have to be smart and stop reading them myself.)

The truth is, this has been a bad week in some ways, mostly due to the ME/CFS...but overall, I'm looking forward to being 35, and I'm enjoying my life, regardless of the (yes, serious and life-altering) limitations that the M.E. has brought about. It may have taken away the lifestyle that I'd expected to have, but I'm making a life now that includes a lot of happiness and has its own value, no matter what the physical/financial limitations I have to deal with. And any week that also includes fun new words on my WIP, delicious lattes in the beautiful mug MrD gave me for (UK) Mother's Day, and a trip out to see The Avengers (which was great!)...well, that can't really be a bad week, can it?

So here is a list of things that make me happy right now:

• Getting a cool new research book (the diary of a Youngstown lawyer in the Great Depression) for my WIP;
• Reading emails from friends;
• Re-reading a favorite book (I just finished re-reading Susanna Kearsley's The Shadowy Horses, a lovely Gothic-y novel for adults set in a Scottish archeological dig, with romance and ghosts and tons of Roman history);
• Looking forward to my birthday;
• Eating pear tart;
• Playing Octonauts games with my son;
• Wearing a gorgeous shawl bought for me in Beijing by a relative as a surprise gift;
• Watching very silly episodes of Horrible Histories.

Here is the shawl, as pictorial evidence:

And here is my favorite Horrible Histories sketch of the fourth season so far, The Apprentice...done with pirates!

What about you guys? What would be on your happiness lists today?

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