Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

Friends, Moondust, and Short Stories

April 12, 2010, 4.02 pm

Oof. MrD has been sick again this past week - a throat infection that started about three days after the chest infection went away, and which requires a whole new round of disgusting antibiotics to be forced down him four times a day - so we’ve all been pretty exhausted. Then, yesterday, I woke up with an ominous, thick-headed feeling, and today I officially have a Cold From Hell.

So in other words, I am very tempted to spend this whole entry whining, because colds always make me feel very, very sorry for myself! But I will take pity on you guys and restrain myself. Instead, I’m going to focus on the good stuff that’s happened in the last few days.

First, our friend Tricia drove four hours roundtrip to help us clean out our old house after we moved out, AND she brought homemade soup for us to eat after she’d gone. That was way beyond the call of friendship, and it made such a huge difference to us. (The soup was delicious, too.) Thank you sooooo much, Trish!

Second, I’m reading a really fascinating book right now: Moon Dust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth, by Andrew Smith. It’s about the twelve men who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972 - still the only twelve men in history to have done it - and how they spent the rest of their lives afterwards.

It’s got elements of a history book to it - I love the intensity and vividness of his descriptions of the actual moon-walking experiences - and elements of biography, too. It’s mostly written like a memoir, though, with the focus on Smith’s own personal experience of meeting with the moonwalkers and finding out their stories. I’ve never been particularly interested in the history of the space program, but I’m finding this book incredibly compelling, and it’s really inspiring me to find out more about the whole subject.

Lastly, I just got an invitation to a very cool-sounding anthology, so this morning I started a brand-new short story. It’s a bit different from any of the stories I’ve written in the last year or so, so it feels like it’s stretching me in really good, creative directions. Working on it reminds me of Ursula LeGuin’s theory that what everyone in life is really looking for, deep down, is work-play - the kind of satisfying, challenging work that feels like playing.

It’s the kind of work I love to do…even when I do have to sniffle and gulp down gallons of tea as I do it.

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UK Mother's Day and parenting surprises

March 14, 2010, 1.13 pm

Happy British Mother's Day! As a dual citizen, I just looove the fact that UK Mother's Day and US Mother's Day are on different days. As I am BOTH a British and an American mother...well, poor MrD, is all I can say. ;) Luckily for him, at least I only expect a present on one of those days, because I'm not completely unreasonable...but both days are great excuses for celebratory meals out or vegan brownies!

Right now I'm listening to this year's Mother's Day gift, which is Pink Martini's newest CD, "Splendor in the Grass". It's wonderful - Pink Martini is probably my favorite band at the moment, and this is by far my favorite of their CDs so far. And two bouquets of beautiful tulips are sitting on the table, picked out jointly by Patrick and MrD.

It's funny what a transformation it really is to become a parent. I always wanted kids - I grew up with younger brothers, one of them 10 years younger than me, as well as a pair of much younger cousins, so I did a lot of babysitting both within the family and around my neighborhood as a teenager. Then, when I went to college at 17, I was horrified to find myself feeling baby-hungry. Eek!

Believe me, I did NOT want to have a child at age 17...but I was so used to having cuddly small people around that it was a genuine emotional shock not to have that kind of affection and fun at closehand. So in a way, I guess it's almost surprising that I ended up waiting so long to have a baby - I was 31 when MrD was born.

But my expectations of parenthood, by the time I was 31, were pretty clear. I had friends who were stay-at-home moms (SAHMs, according to online mom-jargon) and friends who voluntarily went back to full-time work as soon as possible. Both sets loved their kids equally, but I identified with the second set SO much more. I had worked at a very good daycare in my hometown for several months before I moved to England, so I felt quite positive about the daycare option, and I had a hard time understanding why so many moms resisted it.

When I looked at my SAHM friends, I couldn't imagine how - or why! - they did it. Their kids were sweet, but still...I was certain that when I had my own children, I would want to have lots and lots of childcare set up by the time they were six months old. I would certainly keep work as my top interest, because that was just who I was, and that was never going to change.

Well. Hahahahahahaha. Yes. Funny how wrong we can be about ourselves, huh? Or maybe that's just me.

Of course I'm still a writer. Of course I'm still passionate about my writing, I still try for 500-1000 words of fiction every day (thank goodness for toddler naps!), and I meet all of my publishing deadlines.

But. I have SO become one of those moms who used to baffle me. Because of the CFS, I physically cannot be a full SAHM - Patrick's doing at least half the parenting now, supplemented by a childminder two mornings a week - but that is, shockingly to my old self, the only reason why I'm not doing it. (And I'm definitely not saying that anyone else should - just that I've been shocked to find out that that's what I would personally prefer, despite having always expected the opposite.) The joy that MrD has brought to my life is just astonishing. It has certainly astonished me. It turns out that, despite all my expectations, becoming a mom actually did transform who I am and what I care about most in the world.

I would never deny the stress and exhaustion that come with motherhood. I haven't had 4 solid hours of sleep in nearly 15 months, so I am constantly exhausted. There are plenty of days when I get frustrated or cranky. Being a mom, no matter what your parenting style, is an incredibly hard, demanding job, and I would never, ever recommend that anyone do it unless they really, really wanted to.

But it also turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. And that has been such a wonderful surprise.

So happy Mother's Day, British moms! And I hope everyone else is having a really good Pi Day. :)

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Wistful Friday and Library Love

March 5, 2010, 2.51 pm

Today I'm feeling a little wistful but also very lucky. Patrick's gone up to London for a quick business day-trip, and I'm missing him a lot (as is MrD, who insisted on a long phone call - luckily, Patrick is a good dad and doesn't mind supplying ALL the conversation while his phone partner just breathes heavily in a stalker-like manner ;p ).

At the same time, this is making me realize just how lucky we've been to afford all these months of paternity leave. Patrick and I have been genuinely doing equal parenting since last August (apart from the times when my CFS has been bad, when he's done the HUGE majority of the parenting work. That is an amazing rarity and a real gift (for MrD, definitely, but also for Patrick and for me). And even apart from the co-parenting, it's been such a gift for me to be able to hang out with my husband-and-best friend every single day, to share all aspects of life with him. That's so different from the years when we were both working day jobs, and I've really, really loved it.

So...today feels odd, without him here. We're all looking forward to him coming back late tonight. But it's also making me realize just how lucky we've all been, in a way that is too easy to take for granted.

***

So...with me left to do sole parenting on my own, what did I decide to do this morning? Oh, take a wild guess, I bet it won't be hard. MrD and I went to the library!

I've always loved libraries (as long-time readers of this blog already know from all my burbling about them over the years), but I've never felt so grateful to them as I have since MrD was born. Even apart from the great events that libraries arrange for babies and toddlers and their parents, I just love that our tiny local library is a safe, happy place for me to take MrD and spend an hour or more. There are plenty of books and blocks for him to play with, and the libarians are warm and welcoming and take it for granted that toddlers WILL make some noise and do some running around, no matter how hard their parents work to control them - that's just what toddlers do.

Not only do the librarians smile indulgently at MrD even in his most rambunctious moods, they go out of their way to search out fabulous CDs of nursery rhymes and baby music for him and recommend books he'll like. When we arrive at the library, he lights up with happiness and excitement, and so do I.

Today I only had enough room on my card for 9 new items, and there were way too many good books and CDs and DVDs to choose from. (I was cursing myself for not returning more!) Luckily, MrD has his own library card, so he still managed to get plenty of new books, and we came home with a big pile. I've got a CD of Welsh Celtic music to listen to, I've got the DVD of Driving Aphrodite to watch, and I've got Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why to read, along with six other exciting books.

MrD's asleep upstairs right now, and Maya's asleep in her dog bed. I'm listening to my new music and about to dive into one of my new books.

What about you guys? What do you have checked out from the library right now?

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Home again

February 26, 2010, 3.17 pm

Whew! We got back home from London yesterday...and the whole trip was amazing. I’ve only been to London a few times (usually for only a few hours at a time), and I always forget, in-between visits, how amazing that city really is. (And yes, I do know I'm late to the party on this one - people have been raving about how much fun London is for centuries!)

This time, we decided to splurge and have an amazing overnight stay there, so we stayed at the Club Quarters hotel just off Trafalgar Square, which was absolutely wonderful. As we walked on Wednesday night from Trafalgar Square to Covent Garden (where the publishing party was being held), we passed fountains and world-famous museums, cafés and theaters and cinemas and opera houses, lights and crowds...oh, it felt fabulous.

Since MrD was waiting at the hotel with his aunt, we didn’t stay out too late, but on our way back from the party, we kept poking each other in amazement like the country yokels we are: "Look! The coffeeshops are STILL OPEN, even though it’s after eight o'clock!"

So in other words, it’s obviously been too long since we’ve lived in a big city... ;)

I loved, loved, loved the party - it was really and truly one of the best nights of my life - but I’m going to wait to talk about that until I can finally share a piece of publishing news that’s been bursting inside me for about a month now. Very soon, I hope! But even apart from the party, it was just so great to be able to get dressed up and go out with Patrick in an exciting city, and then to spend the next morning being happy tourists with MrD, ogling the lions in Trafalgar Square (his favorite attraction) and spending an hour in the National Gallery before we had to leave to catch our train.

Of course, since the National Gallery is Britain’s national art museum, an hour was only enough to see the tiniest fraction of the paintings there - but it was still absolutely wonderful. It had been way too long since I’d been to an art museum, and although I felt embarrassingly uncultured pointing out stuff to MrD to grab his interest ("Look, sweetheart, there’s a big cow!") at the same time that art students Seriously Studied the paintings beside us...well, uncultured or not, it was still incredibly fun.

Besides that constant click of recognition as we passed Very Famous Paintings, there was the awesome writing inspiration of seeing history come to life in street scenes of eighteenth-century Rome and Venice, portraits of Regency families...and then my absolute favorite painting that I saw yesterday, Joseph Wright’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), which was extremely disturbing but also incredibly powerful and dramatic in person.

What’s really cool is that the National Gallery has images of ALL of its paintings online, so you can browse the collection on their site - something I will definitely be doing a lot from now on.

Now we’re back in Wales, in our quiet little town surrounded by our beautiful mountains on every side, and I’m happy to be back...but I’m still glowing with the excitement of the last couple of days. And we definitely have to go back to London again soon!

(You can see the rest of our London photos - and a couple from our day out in Hay-on-Wye - on my flickr account.)

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Bad ideas for mothers

November 28, 2009, 12.11 pm

I am SO not allowed to watch nature documentaries anymore.

Yesterday morning, Patrick took out MrD to give me a chance to rest after an awful night of interrupted sleep. I looked on the BBC iPlayer and saw that there was an episode of Natural World available called "Bringing Up Baby". It was all about mothers and babies in the wild.

Oh good, I thought. I should find that interesting.

When Patrick got home an hour later, I was sobbing uncontrollably. "...and the mother lion was roaring and fighting to protect them, but then he killed her babies in front of her and she was in so much agony as she had to watch...and then the penguin mother couldn't get back with food fast enough, and her baby was dead!...and then...and then..."

Patrick finally managed to interrupt. "Why in God's name would you watch that documentary?"

I blew my nose. "Well, David Attenborough was narrating, so I knew it would be good...and I thought that episode would be the most topical one for me, since I'm bringing up a baby right now..."

It was a bit too topical for either me or my hormones to cope with, it turns out. On the plus side, I feel very grateful to have been born human, after watching that film. But I'm going to feel emotionally shattered for a long time whenever anyone mentions lions...or penguins...or fur seals...or lemurs...or far too many other kinds of animals!

Those wildlife documentaries are NOT a good idea for mothers of babies to watch. They really ought to come with warning labels.

***

In completely more uplifting news, though, there are still two days left to enter my Thanksgiving giveaway! And Joan Bauer's Squashed has only ever made me laugh, even after watching traumatizing documentaries. ;)

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Traumatic shots and comfort reads

November 25, 2009, 2.49 pm

Oh dear.

29 years ago, when I was 3-1/2 years old, my little brother got his MMR vaccination shots...and I went into flailing hysterics on the floor of the doctor's office, so horrified and upset on my little brother's behalf (because I KNEW how much those needles hurt!) that I just couldn't cope.

So you can imagine how I felt this morning when MrD had his shots. At least I managed to control myself, this time. I didn't cry, and I didn't kick the floor or pound my fists on it as I sobbed. But I really, really wanted to.

***

It's been a glum few days, here in Wales. The endless rain is starting to feel nigh-on apocalyptic, and when you combine that with pure exhaustion (the return of the dreading Teething monster, eating all our nights)...well, glum and grim are both good words to use.

Luckily, last night I found exactly the right book to brighten my mood: Sherwood Smith's Once a Princess (Book I in her Sasharia en Garde! duology). Swordfights! Pirates! Witty banter! Romance! And a truly awesome mother-daughter team. Now I'm midway through the novel and feeling so much better about everything.

I bought this one as an e-book to read on my iTouch for the sake of speed (I needed a comfort read STAT! no time to waste ordering a copy from Amazon!), but I think I might have to buy myself a print copy, too, for easier re-reading in the future. And Book 2 will definitely be a print purchase for me. For some reason, e-books feel like disposable reads to me, maybe because they're so easy to delete, or maybe because they're dependent on computers, and I've lost sooooooo many files to dead computers in the past.

What about you guys? When you love a book, would you rather have it in print for comfort or on an e-reader for the sake of easy portability and having it with you ALL the time?

__

And a quick PS: don't forget, 5 more days to enter my Thanksgiving giveaway! Joan Bauer's Squashed is one of my favorite comfort books ever. Good luck!

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A shockingly unusual circumstance

November 6, 2009, 9.53 pm

Tonight I did something bizarre and shockingly unprecedented: I sat down with Patrick, and we watched a TV show. WHOA. It's been...

...hmm. It's actually been a really long time since we last watched a TV show together. The last time I can remember even trying to do that was way back in the middle of January, and at that point, we finally decided it just wasn't practical to watch TV together with a baby in the house (especially a baby we're trying NOT to allow to watch television*).

Well. We finally, finally have (I'm almost scared to say this out loud, in case I jinx it!) a routine where MrD goes to sleep at least 2-3 hours before the rest of us do. That means that Patrick and I have actual TIME, which - especially since my brother's here to help - we can often spend together. Better yet, in our new house, we can play music or watch a TV show in the living room without headphones, because it's far enough away from the bedroom not to wake up MrD.

So tonight we sat down and finally went back to Season 2, Episode 6 of Gilmore Girls, which is where we'd left off this past January, almost 11 months ago. We sat cuddled up together, with Patrick's arm around my shoulder, we laughed at the jokes...and it felt amazingly good.

(Although I am worried about the coming arc for this season, because the new love interest they've introduced for Rory? Ewww. NO appeal whatsoever, at least for me, so I'm going to be really depressed if Rory falls for him. It's not that I don't think a sixteen-year-old girl is capable for falling for him - I just really, really hope it doesn't happen. Sigh. I'm pretty sure that's a lost cause...but hey. It's nice to be able to think about TV shows again and argue about show decisions!)

____

*...except in cases of emergency, when In the Night Garden leaps to the rescue!

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This weekend's blog entry

September 27, 2009, 12.33 pm

...is actually at SFNovelists: One year later. In which I talk about how radically, astonishingly different life is now than it was one year ago... ;)

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Black Holes, Re-starts, and the Writing Life

September 24, 2009, 4.23 pm

Aiyee. What is it about Mothercare? At 11a.m., we decided to drive out there to buy a new car seat for MrD. I figured we'd be back by noon. Instead, we staggered back into the house after 2:00, weighed down by boxes and boxes and bags and bags of stuff, all of which somehow turned out to be vitally important.

Of course one plausible interpretation is: we're just total suckers when it comes to baby supplies. But even so, how could it all possibly take so LONG? Mothercare really is a black hole - time works differently there...

In better news, I've started Chapter Eight of Kat3 again, and it's going much, much better this time. Usually, Patrick and I have a deal that we're only allowed to give each other positive feedback on our works-in-progress - we have to save all critiques until there's a finished draft. After I wrote the last opening of Chapter Eight, though, I read it out loud to him, as usual...and then said, "It isn't really working, is it?"

He said, "Well...no."

And I'm so glad he did.

We had a great conversation about why it wasn't working - I was focusing too much on the magic plot and losing focus from the family plot, and when it comes to Kat books, her family really has to be the absolute core of every story. Today, I re-started the chapter from a totally different angle, and suddenly it feels sharp and fun and really in focus for the first time.

Whew.

(And Patrick swears he was telling the truth today when he said he loved the new version; he wasn't just being nice.)

(Being a writer's partner - even if you're a writer yourself - can be a tough job!)

Today's Blogfest question was "How has writing affected your daily life?" You can read my answer here, and as always, if a response occurs to you, I'd love to read your comments.

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Autumn, Embarrassment, and Chapter One

September 23, 2009, 1.18 pm

Autumn has definitely arrived in northern England. The leaves are starting to change, the sky is pale gray, the air is full of chilly mist, and we had to turn on the heating in the house a few days ago.

But hey! We just got good news yesterday: our rent application has been approved. We're definitely moving south to Wales! Unfortunately, I have to say that the weather is not noticeably better down south (I always love the mock-tourist ad in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels that promises Wales: not ALWAYS raining!), but still, I've been indulging in fantasies of balmy southern weather...maybe a warm sea breeze...

Oops. I think my fallback fantasies are actually about my brother Ben's neighborhood in Miami, not Wales. Time for a quick mental shift...chilly autumns, but also castles! Two coffee shops AND a library in walking distance of our house! Yup, that does it for me. :)

Yesterday, errands ate most of the day in the way they often do - as usual, we figured, well, we'll just get these few things done...and then the day was over. Oops. But the weirdest errand by far (which was also the most fun) was buying birthday gifts for MrD. I still can't believe it's been almost a year since he was born.

Actually, my huge mental block on that - it can't have been a whole year, surely! - led me to make the most embarrassing mistake ever. I found out last week that a good friend is coming to the UK in early October, I said oh yay, come visit us in Wales! (thinking, oh, October is a long way off, I'm sure we'll have moved by then)...and then this morning as I was lying in bed, it hit me: October is NEXT WEEK!

Oops.

Luckily, she is a very good friend, and only laughed at me a little bit rather than throwing things across the internet at my head. And she's even changed her travel plans so that she can see us in Leeds instead of Wales, so I am feeling very relieved (while also still horribly embarrassed). (I would love to blame that kind of mistake on baby-brain and lack of sleep, but really...as my family can attest, I've ALWAYS been awful with stuff like that!)

But to alleviate some of my embarrassment, I got a piece of really good news: my editor said it would be fine to put up the first Chapter of A Most Improper Magick on my website! So I did.

Here's Chapter One, free to read online. I hope you enjoy meeting Kat and her sisters!

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New website!

September 20, 2009, 4.12 pm

Whew! After months of preparation and planning, today my brand-new author website is finally online! Patrick designed and built the website for me (it is sooooo convenient to be married to a web developer!), I wrote the text, we came up with photos together...and I can't believe it's finally up!

I liked my old website, but I LOVE this one, which is much bigger and also more Kat-centered, with tons of behind-the-scenes info, Regency trivia, and more. There's going to be even more stuff on it soon - my plan is to update it regularly and gradually add videos, excerpts from the book (once my publisher OKs them! :) ), quizzes, competitions, etc.

Will you guys please do me a favor? Could you take a look around and let me know (a) what you think, and (b) if you spot any typos or broken links?

In other news, it's been a quiet, mostly website-obsessed weekend for me and Patrick (and therefore pretty boring for Maya and MrD). When I wasn't been working on the website (which took up 99% of my mental energy for the past several days!), I was generally reading baby books to MrD or hunting online for birthday gifts for his first birthday. (I still can't believe that that's coming up SO SOON! It doesn't feel real at all...how could it have been a full year since he was born???)

What about you guys? How has your weekend been?

Oh, and a quick note: for those of you who aren't regular livejournal users, you can now read my livejournal entries mirrored here on this new blog - I've copied the last several entries over here already. You can leave comments either here or on my livejournal.

You can read all of my older blog entries on my livejournal, which goes back to 2006. Hope you enjoy!

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The Paradox of Baby Time, and a Book Problem

September 3, 2009, 5.10 pm

It's amazing how time changes when you have a baby. Before I was a mom, I used to listen to my mom-friends talk about how suddenly there was no time to get anything done in a day, even though when they looked back on it afterwards, they couldn't see anything productive they had done with all that time. I listened to them talk about how it was just impossible to get out of the house on time for anything anymore. I used to listen with a sympathetic expression, because I was their friend - and then I used to secretly think, Well, I'm sure that it must be manageable, though, really - I would never be that disorganized, would I?

Hahahahahahaha.

Ohhhh, was I wrong. The other day, as Patrick and I were FINALLY setting out on our errand-run, 45 minutes after we'd originally planned to leave, we looked at each other and just laughed. Because you can either laugh or weep, and only one of them is a good idea in front of the baby...

So, looking back on the last few days, I can't see a lot of things I've done, apart from looking after the baby. (Which is a pleasure as well as a job, of course.) Probably the biggest thing we did was - gasp! - we finally stiffened our upper lips and actually donated 6 bursting bags of books to the Oxfam charity shop. Book purge! The little old lady taking donations looked mildly pleased and impressed when Patrick carried in the first two overflowing bags. Then I brought in the third and fourth bags, and she began to look afraid. By the fifth and sixth bags, she was backing away from me and looking downright horrified. "We're moving house," I explained, with an apologetic smile.

Truth? These are the books we'd already set aside to purge a month ago, well before we found a new house. And now, as we start to think about packing up our house, it's time to think about yet another purge. (We still have piles and piles of books sitting on the floor as well as in our 7 bookcases.) But maybe we'll find a different charity shop for that second round - I think if the Oxfam ladies saw us coming, they might lock the door against us!

Sigh. I hate giving up my books, but sometimes, it truly Has To Be Done. And it's not like we won't still have thousands left...especially once this month's Amazon order arrives. ;) I admit that, from some perspectives, I might be seen as having A Book Problem. On the other hand, I am a writer, so it's a professional requirement...right????

Someday we're going to live in a house with walls that are actually lined with bookshelves, floor to ceiling. Then people who don't have This Book Problem will think I am a maniac...but I will feel wonderfully, deliciously At Home. :)

What about you guys? Do you keep your books after you've read them, for comfort and future re-reads, or do you read once and then dispose for the sake of a lovely, uncluttered house?

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Whew!

August 31, 2009, 5.53 pm

We're home at last, after a trip that stretched longer than planned as we desperately, desperately tried to find some house, ANY house to rent before we left...and, knock on wood, we may have finally found one. Of course, it's not in the same neighborhood we were planning...or the same city...or even the same country...but still! ;)

We were planning to rent in southwest England; now we're probably going to rent in Wales, just over the border, for at least 6 months, while we keep on househunting in England. (Houses in the city that we want come up for rent only VERY rarely, and they tend to be snapped up within 24-48 hours. That makes househunting difficult in general but absolutely *impossible* while living up north.) We'll be living in a little Welsh town loomed over by huge hills, and our house will be in walking distance of two coffeeshops for me and Patrick, a playground for MrD, a park for Maya, and best of all, a castle for me. Woooooot!!!! I love castles so much. Ever since I moved to England, I've been hoping to live in a town with a castle one day, and this one, while tiny, is very cute. Plus, it's in easy driving distance of one of my favorite castles anywhere, Raglan Castle, which is GORGEOUS. So all in all, although this wasn't the housing solution we were expecting, it's one that looks really promising. :)

Now MrD and I have just gotten back from a day out, having had lunch with Shana and her partner at a nice Italian restaurant in Leeds and then a wonderful hour-and-a-half-long play session in the baby section of Borders. One of those things I would never have known if I hadn't become a parent - the baby section at Borders is a major social hub! MrD had a great time playing with other babies his age there, and I had a great time with their parents, none of whom I'd ever met before, but all of whom were commiserating/trading tips on all the same issues we've been going through. Then, when we left, the Borders employee at the till generously gave me a 20% discount on all the books I bought even though I'd accidentally left my discount voucher at home. International chain or no, I'm feeling an awful lot of customer loyalty to Borders right at this minute!

But the one book I'm most excited about right now is only being stocked in American shops: Freda Warrington's Elfland. Seriously, if you're a fan of adult fantasy novels, you should run out to buy this book! It's a contemporary fantasy set in England, full of love and magic and betrayal and redemption. It's lushly written, deeply intelligent and full of complex, difficult and true human relationships, as well as beautifully atmospheric magic. I was lucky enough to read an early version of this novel, and I loved it SO much even in that early draft. I can't wait for my copy to arrive from Amazon.co.uk! Freda wrote one of my very favorite historical fantasy novels, The Court of the Midnight King (about Richard III), and I'm so glad her books are finally being published in the US. Yay, Freda!

And now, since for the first time all day, I'm alone with no babycare or dogwalking to do, I'm going to actually do some (gasp!) fiction writing. Wish me luck...

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Zombie Daze

August 15, 2009, 12.19 pm

I've been moving through a zombie-like haze of exhaustion for the last few days, since MrD is teething and therefore none of us are sleeping. Days like these, I don't do much writing or anything else productive beyond survival. I am in AWE of moms who manage to work fulltime jobs when their babies are this age. How do they not fall asleep or space out in the middle of important meetings? Here are five things that have been making me happy, though, even in the midst of my zombie haze:

• Blowing bubbles with MrD: I hadn't blown bubbles for at least twenty years. But one of the other moms I know recommended getting a bottle to entertain the baby...and guess what? MrD likes the bubbles just fine, but the person who really loves them is me! They're beautiful and magical, with all the rainbow of colors swirling around them as they float away from me through the air. There's something incredibly relaxing about sitting outside on the grass in the cool English summer air, blowing iridescent bubbles through the air. We do it every afternoon now...and I have to admit, it's not really for Mr Darcy's sake.
• Y.S. Lee's The Agency: A Spy in the House: I finished reading this book yesterday and absolutely loved it. Girl spies in Victorian England! Disguises, mystery and intrigue! A perfectly-toned romance! A genuinely unexpected family secret, a whole host of strong, interesting women, and a completely non-stereotypical view of the Chinese community in Victorian England! It was just so cool, and I can't wait to read the second book in her trilogy. This is the first time in ages I've actually written a fan letter to an author. You can check out an excerpt here.
• Upcoming ARCs: the ARCs for A Most Improper Magick are due to arrive on my editor's desk next Wednesday, and I'll be getting copies soon after that (making adjustments for the speed of international mail, of course...why yes, I am obsessing! ;) ). I have been literally counting down the days until I might be able to hold one in my hands! I don't know yet how many I'll get, but I'm hoping to use them in a series of giveaways over the next eight months.
• Lara St John's Bach Works for Violin Solo: the awesome sent me this CD, and oh, wow. Listening to it feels kind of like getting my heart ripped out...but in the best possible way! I can't even count how many times I've listened to it over the last week.
• Primeval: this show is so silly. So, so silly. And yet...dinosaurs rampaging through London tube stations! How could I possibly resist? I absolutely love it. I'm nearly finished with Season 1 and planning to start watching Season 2 very soon. On zombie exhaustion days, it's just exactly what the doctor ordered. :)

What about you guys? What's been making you happy lately?

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Thai Food & TV Rationalizations

August 12, 2009, 4.05 pm

Wow. It's a rare weekend when I'm actually bitter-conning over two different places at once - but last weekend definitely qualified. Tons of friends at WorldCon in Montreal, mmmm; tons of other friends at the SCBWI conference in LA, sighhh...yup, there was lots & lots of bittercon around this neighborhood.

But not as much as there usually would have been, because WOW, was our anniversary night out wonderful. We ate really delicious Thai food at a restaurant loaded with beautiful, romantic atmosphere; we made a deal that we weren't even allowed to discuss any baby issues while we were out; we actually (gasp!) held hands for the first time in ages, since for once, neither of us was pushing a stroller or holding a wriggling baby...wow. What a weird, weird way to have a date! ;) Best of all, Mr Darcy had a fabulous time playing with his best friend "Captain Wentworth", so it was a completely guilt-free night out: parenting gold. :)

And it was a nice, low-key weekend, too. The downside was that I've been really tired because of an unnamed baby's nighttime wakefulness (ahem); the upside was that because of that, in the last three days I've actually allowed myself some total downtime for the first time in a long time. Instead of grabbing all my free time to write (please look away now, Barry! :) ), I actually watched DVDs. Whoa. I hadn't seen a movie or a TV show for...umm...well, I can't even remember the last time before that. It had definitely been at least a month. I managed to convince myself, though, that using my baby-free time on Sunday to watch the 1990s BBC version of "Emma" (starring Kate Beckinsale) wasn't being lazy - it was doing research! Yeah! This is where it really helps to be writing Regency novels. I LOVE having justification to watch Austen films! And this was a fun adaptation - worlds better than the Gwyneth Paltrow movie! - and in fact was so good that, amazingly, I only barely cringed at the "romantic" line, as the hero is finally drawing the heroine into his arms: "I held you in my arms when you were three weeks old..."

EWWW. But really? In context, it was only a little bit gross. Honestly.

Of course, it was a little less convincing when I told myself later that watching the first episode of "Primeval" also counted as research (it's, um...spec fic! And I write spec fic! So...???), and when it came to mainlining the first four episodes of the BBC documentary "Underage and Pregnant" yesterday (great for learning about human character! really! er....)...well, I was pretty much grasping at straws by that point.

But today, for the first time in four days, I actually sat down for a solid writing session, and I wrote 750 words that made me pretty happy. So who knows? Maybe the TV did help after all.

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