Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

Because life is not all about the crazy

July 29, 2010, 4.13 pm

Today I am not going to post about the crazy. (Or at least I'm going to try not to. Sometimes it leaks through.) Today I am going to post about something that made me really happy:

Sherlock: A Study in Pink

This week I watched the first episode of Sherlock, Steven Moffat's modern-day updating of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Steven Moffat is my favorite writer for TV, so I really hoped that it would be good, even though I am a total Sherlock Holmes geek and was seriously disappointed to hear that it would be set in the 21st century. Still, Steven Moffat is awesome, so I was willing to give it a try...

...and, WOW. I was completely blown away. I haven't been this excited about a TV show in...well, let's just say a really, REALLY long time. It honestly was the best Sherlock Holmes adaptation I've ever seen. Despite the changes made for the contemporary setting, this was the first adaptation I've seen that perfectly got across the brilliant and intense weirdness of Sherlock Holmes as a person, managed the fast, fun pace of the original stories (this show was just SO MUCH FUN to watch!), and most of all conveyed the really great dynamic between Holmes and Watson (who is really not supposed to be stupid, as in so many of the film and TV adaptations - he's only stupid compared to Holmes because everybody is, when compared to Holmes). In their friendship, each of them is supplying something that the other really, really needs.

People in the show comment nervously on how much darkness must be in Holmes, to make him so obsessed with murder and crime - but there's something in nice, friendly Watson that draws him to be a part of that, too. Lots of yummy ambiguity done really well, along with sparky, funny dialogue and a great story...just perfect.

Oh, and I LOVED the scene at the end between Holmes and his arch-nemesis. No spoilers, but it made me very happy. :)

The single thing I didn't like about the episode was something that pops up in so many shows nowadays (including Buffy, another show I absolutely loved) and which always upsets me: the use of torture as an easy and reliable way to get instant truth from a bad guy. I really, really hate this plot device on so many levels, I hate that it's used SO MUCH in TV, which helps to normalize it in the broader culture, and I wish Steven Moffat hadn't cheapened an important revelation at the end of the show by getting it out that way. (Just once, how about someone lies under torture? Or genuinely doesn't know the information that's being pursued, but makes something up just to get the hero to stop hurting them - y'know, the way it often happens in real life? Sigh.)

Still, that was a very small moment in the episode, and if I wasn't willing to cope with shows that use that plot device, I'd have to watch almost no action-adventure television at all. And overall, I just loved, loved, loved Sherlock and can't wait for the second episode to come out.

***

Today MrD and I spent the morning in town, and it was good. We dropped off invitations to the book launch (two weeks from today!), we hung out at our favorite café, and we both got new books. (Mine was Jandy Nelson's The Sky is Everywhere, which is really lovely so far.) When we got home, I found a package from my publisher waiting for me: beautiful Kat bookmarks and postcards! I can't wait to start giving them away.

And best of all, all day today I've been hearing from people who'd pre-ordered A Most Improper Magick from The Book Depository, letting me know that copies are being dispatched! It's now officially in stock there (although not yet at any of the other UK booksellers). Eeee! Luckily, today the crazy is at a low enough level that I managed to restrain myself from ordering myself a copy just because I could. But it was bizarrely tempting... ;)

What have you guys done lately just for fun? (And OK, I admit that dropping off invites was not just for fun - but hanging out with MrD in the café, drinking hot chocolate and playing with him while we people-watched together? That was awesome. It made me really happy.)

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Books, Owls, and Shopping Glee

June 30, 2010, 5.12 pm

Today has been a happy day. Why? Because it's the last day of the month...which means it's the day I let myself order a bundle of books online. Wooooot! Soon, Holly Black's White Cat and Alyxandra Harvey's Blood Feud will be mine, along with a couple of adult romances and the latest (Billie Piper) version of Mansfield Park.

(And yes, I have seen it, so I do know it really isn't all that good...but I just can't help myself. It's a Jane Austen adaptation that isn't absolutely terrible - so I have to have it and watch it, over and over and over again! It's like a sickness...but a fun one, at least.)

Yesterday was a happy day, too, because MrD and I went into town for adventures and made an unexpected and wonderful discovery: there were real, live owls in town! It was an outreach program being run by The Welsh Owl and Wildlife Sanctuary. MrD loves owls but had never seen any in person before, and I hadn't seen any since I was a young kid. We spent a long time just hanging out watching the owls, donated some coins to their collection jar, and will probably be either buying a WOWLS membership or adopting an owl very soon.

We also went through a bunch of charity shops, which is always fun. Charity shops might be my favorite aspect of living in a British town - so many cheap, cheap books and clothes (charity shops are the UK equivalent of thrift shops), and all for such good causes! Yesterday I got to feel virtuous about donating a bit of money to Oxfam and the Marie Curie society, while at the same time picking up incredibly cheap clothes, books and toys for MrD and for me. Shopping glee + virtue = score! ;)

Today has been a quiet day apart from my online book-buying binge. I finally watched the second part of the Doctor Who season finale, and ohhhhhh, I loved it. But I can't believe I have to wait until Christmas for more! I really loved David Tennant as Doctor Who, but the switch to Steven Moffat (my very favorite writer in television) as the show's head writer has been such a good move, and Matt Smith is so good as his own version of the Doctor, that I've coped with the change in cast much better than I'd expected.

What about you guys? What have been the highlights of your weeks so far?

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Mad, Bad, and...well, possibly just bad after all

June 25, 2010, 6.06 pm

Today at the library I did something rash. I was looking at the DVD rack, and I saw it: a really, really trashy-looking TV miniseries. But it is SO my kind of trashy miniseries. The cover trumpeted:

Johnny Lee Miller IS Byron!!!!

And it showed a photo of Johnny Lee Miller (aka, Mr Knightley in the most recent TV version of Emma) with really, really poofy hair and a mad grin on his face.

I looked at it. I turned it over to look on the back cover for any good reviews that could possibly imply that it really was a good miniseries. There were none. No quotes at all...about the movie, at least.

The one quote on the back cover, made to look as if it were about the movie, yelled in big letters: "Mad, Bad, AND Dangerous to Know!"

...which, y'know, is actually an old quote about Byron, not about this particular two-parter. But I read the back cover anyway.

WILL Society's darling find that he has gone too far if he has an affair with his half-sister? Will he?

I couldn't help myself. I checked it out.

Here's the thing: if Byron were set in modern-day London, I wouldn't have felt an ounce of temptation. But set a piece in Regency England, and I just can't help myself. I think, Wellllll, how bad can it be?

Of course, all too often, the answer is: VERY bad. We'll see how this one goes...knock on wood!

What about you guys? What are your favorite trashy movies/TV shows? The ones you might not respect in the morning, but you couldn't help watching anyway?

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Excuses, favorites, and an ARC giveaway

June 10, 2010, 5.05 pm

Sorry for the radio silence, guys! Things are a bit tough here at the moment in terms of health and energy. Because of my CFS, our usual state of play is for Patrick to do all the housework, dog-care, and at least half the childcare, which leaves me with enough energy to do half the childcare, write fiction, write lots of emails and a couple of journal entries every week, and even do wild and crazy things like going downtown once or twice a week.

Well. Unfortunately, that's not what's happening right now, because Patrick's still not feeling well himself, so all of my energy is being funneled into childcare and housecare, leaving very little energy for writing...and as much as I love blogging and writing emails, they can't take priority over my contracted novels. So I'm guessing that blog entries will continue to be scattered for a while, and I really apologize to everyone I owe emails to.

Have I mentioned how much I really hate CFS? :(

I'm still popping up a bit more often on twitter, because 1-line updates are more do-able than full blog entries - if you're there, you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/stephanieburgis - and otherwise...please know that I miss you guys and can't wait to come back to regular blogging and emailing! In the meantime, though, here's a quick roundup of some of my favorite things from the past couple of weeks:

Nigella Lawson
I have finally become a Nigella convert. I'd seen a couple episodes of her various cooking shows on TV and never been won over, but then I checked out her cookbook Nigella Express last Friday and fell in love. Luscious photos of food that's fast and easy to prepare (and so far, that promise has been upheld in all the recipes I've tried from the cookbook, all of which have been delicious as well as easy to make) - and I love, love LOVE the way she writes about the food. Her long, chatty intros to each recipe are lushly written and make the cookbook fun to read on its own, even if you don't do any cooking. I was completely blissed-out by the end of an afternoon spent reading it on the couch, even before I tried a single recipe. My only sorrow was that there aren't nearly enough vegan-convertible recipes included for my liking...but if that isn't an issue for you, there's really no downside to this cookbook.

Lisa Mantchev's Perchance to Dream book trailer
So dreamy and beautiful! I loved it. And as you guys know, I'm a huge fan of Lisa's books. Check it out:

Marie Brennan's A Star Shall Fall
I was lucky enough to get an ARC for this, and loved it. Eighteenth-century fantasy based around the impending arrival of Halley's Comet, with scenes of faeries debating real eighteenth-century scientific theory...it made my geeky, eighteenth-century-loving heart extremely happy. :) And have I mentioned yet that Halley's Comet is connected to a very, very cool and frightening dragon???? Here's what I wrote about it on Goodreads:

A beautifully written fantasy novel. The magic is perfectly interwoven with 18th-century British history and scientific theory, and the characters and their emotions are wonderfully complex.

I loved Book One in Brennan's Onyx Court series (Midnight Never Come, which was really fun), and I admired Book Two (In Ashes Lie) for how ambitious it was, but A Star Shall Fall is my favorite of Marie Brennan's novels so far, and it stands alone perfectly - you definitely don't need to have read either of the earlier Onyx Court books to enjoy this one.

If you like smart adult historical fantasy (and note, this is adult rather than MG or YA, so while there aren't any explicit sex scenes, there are complex romantic relationships and it is written in a different tone than fantasy for kids), I'm guessing that you might like this a LOT...and although it isn't due to be published until the end of August, you can read a copy sooner than that just by commenting on this entry.

Tell me either (a) your personal favorite historical period, (b) your favorite historical fantasy novel, OR (c) why you want to read it even though you don't have favorite periods OR historical fantasy novels....and you'll be entered to win my ARC from me! (Shameful note: the cover of this ARC is a little beaten-up, because MrD got hold of it. HOWEVER, nothing has been damaged apart from the wrinkled cover.)

I'll pick a winner next Thursday. The giveaway is open internationally!

And now I'm going to rest for a little while before it's my turn to take over childcare again.

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Good shows, good books, a rant and belated birthday wishes

June 2, 2010, 1.04 pm

If only birthdays could last forever! Sadly, the last of the birthday cake ran out two days ago, and life went back to normal...or rather, an awful lot busier than normal, since Patrick hasn't been feeling well, so I've been doing a lot more housework and childcare than usual. I'm seizing this opportunity to blog, though, while Patrick and Maya and MrD are out on a trip to the local park. (I love living just a block away from the park!)

I finished Season 2 of The Gilmore Girls this weekend, and ohhhh, the ending of that season! Sad and wrenching but real, and with all sorts of intriguing new complications implied for the future. I can't wait to find out what happens next. Luckily, one of the best birthday presents I got was a gift certificate to Amazon.co.uk, so along with all the books I ordered, I also ordered the Season 3 boxset. Now I'm just waiting for Patrick to catch up on the last few episodes of Season 2 so we can watch Season 3 together!

One of the other birthday presents I really, really loved was Leah Cypess's Mistwood. It's YA high fantasy in the same vein as Kristin Cashore and Robin McKinley, and mmmm, it was so good - romantic, emotionally intense, and genuinely magical, with complex issues of independence and power interwoven through it. Definitely worth checking out if you love good high fantasy! You can read the first three chapters here.

I also particularly loved the way Mistwood threw into question the whole idea of "rightful", "true" kings. One thing that I don't personally like about a lot of American fantasy novels is how implicitly monarchy-loving so many of them are. I understand why it happens - we all grow up reading fairy tales with princes and princesses as heroes, and before I moved to the UK, I enjoyed that as a fantasy trope without ever thinking twice about it - but now that I'm living in a country with a continuing monarchy, it doesn't feel like such a harmless fantasy to play with anymore.

I don't mind authors using royal characters or setting their books in kingdoms - I hope I never become that cranky and unreasonable! - and a lot of great writers use the idea of rightful kings/queens to write wonderful books which I'd hate to miss out on just because of my own personal hang-ups. But, on a personal, subjective level, I just particularly enjoy reading books that do show some of the complexity and gray areas of real-life monarchies and class systems...because personally, I have a big problem with the idea that one person is better or more important than anyone else just because of the family they happened to be born into.

Rant over now! I promise. ;p But I really can't wait to read more Leah Cypess novels.

And I also wanted to wish a happy belated book birthday to two fabulous books that came out in America this past week: Lisa Mantchev's Perchance to Dream, the second book in her Theatre Illuminata YA fantasy trilogy (you can read the first chapter here); and Sarah Prineas's Magic Thief: Found, the third book in her Magic Thief trilogy. I was lucky enough to read multiple drafts of Perchance to Dream as Lisa was writing it, and it got better and better every time (and I'd loved even the very first draft!) - I can't wait to read the final version when my copy arrives. And I read Magic Thief: Found last week and enjoyed it so much - it gives an incredibly exciting conclusion to the trilogy, and the ending was just perfect, beautiful and right.

What about you guys? Which books or TV shows have you really enjoyed lately?

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Time Out, and Comforting Distractions

May 19, 2010, 2.56 pm

Oof. I feel like I'm just now starting to re-emerge, blinking, into the normal world after dropping into a black hole for the last week. (MrD got sick last Thursday - he's finally showing signs of real improvement now.) When MrD is sick - especially really, truly, scarily sick - it feels like the world compresses around me and becomes a completely different place, with muted colors and drastically different priorities than my normal life. Now I'm back, and trying to remember what I was doing and caring about a week ago.

Of course, that means that I just took an unscheduled full week off of my Kat3 rewrite, which is due to my editor in just 12 days...eek. Let's hope that deadline panic inspires extreme efficiency...and that MrD is well enough to get at least a little bit of childcare from someone else very soon. *knocking on wood*

Oof. I feel like I'm just now starting to re-emerge, blinking, into the normal world after dropping into a black hole for the last week. (MrD got sick last Thursday - he's finally showing signs of real improvement now.) When MrD is sick - especially really, truly, scarily sick - it feels like the world compresses around me and becomes a completely different place, with muted colors and drastically different priorities than my normal life. Now I'm back, and trying to remember what I was doing and caring about a week ago.

Of course, that means that I just took an unscheduled full week off of my Kat3 rewrite, which is due to my editor in just 12 days...eek. Let's hope that deadline panic inspires extreme efficiency...and that MrD is well enough to get at least a little bit of childcare from someone else very soon. *knocking on wood*

(Normally Patrick and I share the parenting as equally as possible, and we also get 6 hours a week of childminding from someone we like very much. When MrD was most sick, though, Mama suddenly became the only one he wanted, and to be honest, I didn't even want anyone else looking after him - I wanted him right here in my arms, where I knew exactly how he was doing at every moment. But that's not exactly the perfect recipe for getting a big rewrite accomplished...and even since that full-on intensity has eased, when he's been napping or hanging out with Patrick - usually my prime writing time - I've been so exhausted and limp that I've had to rest, mentally as well as physically, to keep the CFS from rearing up and whopping me.)

Here are the three things that have carried me through the past week, though, during my time-out periods: <em>Glee</em> (I'm not exactly a fan, but I have gotten to the point where I watch whole episodes instead of fast-forwarding between the musical numbers - and I did love the whole Madonna episode); <em>Gilmore Girls</em>; and my newest and craziest addiction, for which I TOTALLY blame Karen Healey: <em>Hana Yori Dango</em>. It's a Japanese show, based on a manga (I think?) and featuring the most horrific romantic anti-hero ever...and yet it is insanely addictive.

If you want to know why - and why I hunted it down in the first place - just read Karen's entries about it, which start <a href="http://karenhealey.livejournal.com/874153.html">here</a>. She is not exaggerating AT ALL!

What about you guys? How are your weeks going? And what shows do you turn to when you need comfort/escape?

Here are the three things that have carried me through the past week, though, during my time-out periods: Glee (I'm not exactly a fan, but I have gotten to the point where I watch whole episodes instead of fast-forwarding between the musical numbers - and I did love the whole Madonna episode); Gilmore Girls; and my newest and craziest addiction, for which I TOTALLY blame Karen Healey: Hana Yori Dango. It's a Japanese show, based on a manga (I think?) and featuring the most horrific romantic anti-hero ever...and yet it is insanely addictive.

If you want to know why - and why I hunted it down in the first place - just read Karen's entries about it, which start here. She is not exaggerating AT ALL!

What about you guys? How are your weeks going? And what shows do you turn to when you need comfort/escape?

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Night Gardens, Copyedits, and Eastercon

March 27, 2010, 10.31 pm

Whew. I've been working on my UK copyedits this weekend (part-Anglicization, part-last-minute line edits), and MrD is sick, so all in all, my head is in a state of total mush right now. And of course it didn't help that I ended up watching In the Night Garden with MrD tonight for comfort when he was feeling feverish and sad...I actually like In the Night Garden (MrD's favorite TV show), but there is definitely a surreal quality to it.

Also, every time I watch an episode, I end up with all the theme tunes echoing in my head, and not much else left in there...

(I know ALL the major characters' theme songs by heart, AND I can do the dances. Yes. This is how parenthood REALLY changes a person. And the weirdest thing about it is, MrD sees maybe one episode a week, if that! But there's just something so hypnotic about that show...)

Luckily, our timing with the house move worked out after all - we don't have to leave our current house until the second week of April, giving us plenty of time to move into the new one. Whew. Only 5 days ago, we'd worried that we would have to move out on Friday, and I can't imagine how we would have coped, what with MrD feeling as sick as he does.

And best of all, we don't have to move before Eastercon! I'm so relieved about this - it means we can arrive with full energy intact. And I can't wait. I've had so much fun at the last two Eastercons, and this year, I don't even have the stress of a panel to take away from the fun factor - I can just focus on hanging out with people and (of course) spending way too much money on books in the Dealer's Room.

How many of you guys will be there this year? Please come up and say hi if you see me - I will be the one following around an active blonde toddler while carrying far, far too many books...

Oh, and for all the Americans who won't be at Eastercon, check out the The Book Scout's YA Author/Pet contest (US-only, alas): you can win a bunch of YA fiction & swag by matching up YA authors with their pets! Maya and I participated in this one, so you may recognize at least one of the photos from my flickr account/old journal entries... ;)

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Muppet love

March 9, 2010, 8.14 pm

Today my brain feels very fluffy indeed, which is why I'm not replying to emails or even writing fiction. But as always, the Muppets have the perfect solution:

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I R Serious Writer (TM), and a gruesome TV side-effect

March 7, 2010, 4.47 pm

OK, there are some days, ever since I signed my first book contracts, when I can actually pretend to myself that I am a Serious Professional Writer...and then there are days when I just can't.

Here is the most recent evidence, from my Friday night of prewriting play for the Austen-y dragon novel:

Erm, yes. Well. Um... ;)

Of course, as hopelessly silly as it is, playing with the novel also really, truly works. The more playful I am, the more productive I am and the easier the novel flows. My evening of pre-writing play resulted in me finishing Chapter One today and feeling total happiness about it...

...but, well. It's not exactly the kind of thing that looks like an impressive, grown-up job, does it? Oops.

In other breaking news, dark chocolate also helps writing, in a pinch. And vegan hazelnut brownies are full of super-delicious WRITING MAGIC.

Also, I may have been watching just a few too many episodes of "Castle" lately. I keep finding myself imagining all my surroundings, wherever I am, as the setting for one of the gruesome victim-discovery scenes that open every "Castle" episode.

Eep.

Then, of course, I need more chocolate...

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5 Things on a Thursday

February 18, 2010, 2.29 pm

1. I finished a new short story today. Yay! This is the first short story I've written in over a year. (Actually, I had the original idea and wrote the first page almost exactly a year ago, but I wasn't ready - either practically, in terms of time management, or emotionally, in terms of the story's issues - to sit down and write the rest of the story until now.)

It's one of the few short stories I've written in direct emotional response to a loss, so I can't say that it was exactly fun to write, but it was really emotionally satisfying - and what was genuinely fun was getting to start a project and finish it within less than a week. Short stories: the yummy snack-foods of a writer's life!

2. The current Olympics are drawing out the REAL cultural differences between a woman brought up in snowy Michigan and a man brought up partly in sunny Zambia and partly in cool, rainy Bristol.

Patrick: "The Winter Olympics are boring. What's the point of the winter sports?"

Me: staring at him blankly "But...they're the only sports that are actually interesting!"

So in other words, we're not watching the Olympic events together. ;)

3. We're attending the London Literary Party next week, and I can't wait! We've decided to splurge and make it a really great (albeit short) overnight trip, so we went ahead and booked a really plush-looking hotel near Covent Garden. (By London standards, it's not even that expensive. But by ours? Yes, this is a HUGE splurge for us.) I can't wait to wear my new Little Black Dress, sip champagne, meet my agent's British co-agent, AND have a great dinner beforehand with my London sister-in-law, who's going to be spending the evening with MrD. But...

4. I have a LOT of stuff to get done first. I.e., my desperately overgrown hair (my bangs hang in my eyes in a very un-stylish way), my lack of any black shoes to wear with the Little Black Dress...eek.

I love living in our beautiful, small Welsh town. I do. But Tuesday, when I spent the morning shoe-shopping with increasing desperation, I found myself equally desperately missing Leeds - or rather, missing the Leeds high street shops. After nearly two hours, I gave up - I genuinely could not find a single pair of black mid-heel dress shoes in my size and in my price range.

Wah! This just shouldn't be so hard...should it?

On the other hand, in Leeds I couldn't walk to a coffeeshop and buy a vegan hazelnut brownie. I don't go to that many London Literary Parties (in fact, this is my first one ever)...so I guess I'll go for good brownies over good shoe-shopping almost any day. ;)

5. And without having to leave the house at all, I got the coolest package the other day. It was a beautiful 13" x 19" print of the front cover of my book! Barnaby Ward, my wonderful cover artist, sent it to me as a gift. When I opened the package and saw Kat grinning out at me, I actually cried. It was just so amazing to see her drawn so beautifully, by such a fabulous artist - the vision in my head all these years turned so perfectly into art. And it was such amazing timing to get it just after finishing Kat3! Right now I'm looking for a perfect frame to hang it on the wall. This was such an amazing gift to get. Thank you so much, Barnaby!

What about you guys? What have been the highlights of your weeks?

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Writing caves, glamor, and Regency-era TV fun

January 29, 2010, 4.05 pm

Wahhh, our friends are gone...which means it's time to go back into the writing cave! And as we all know, the most vital supplies for trekking through unlit and dangerous writing caves are dark chocolate and Earl Grey tea. (Unless, like Patrick, you prefer Sencha green tea, or, like the pre-baby me, you get to enjoy the intense and decadent luxury of drinking coffee...oops. I may have started drooling on the keyboard there. Sorry about that!) (One more year till I can go back to drinking coffee. Only one more year to go...)

Anyway, it was great being social. And yesterday I had one of the coolest things ever happen to me. I got a beautiful invitation on thick, cream-colored paper, inviting me to a London Literary Event (TM) at a super-glamorous hotel. Eeee! Obviously, I said yes...and equally obviously, my first thought was: I need a new dress! Honestly, I really do. That's the thing about having a baby - I don't have any dresses that actually fit anymore, because my size first went WAY up and then WAY down. And all the comfy jeans and toddler-food-stained T-shirts that I normally wear just don't quite gel with my idea of appropriate attire for an evening party serving champagne and canapés, to say the least...

So thank you to everybody on Twitter who leaped in last night to help me pick out a Little Black Dress! It was incredibly fun to shop with help from friends all across the world. Now all I still need are some shoes...hmm... ;)

(And of course part of me right now is asking, "Who do you think you are????" Because once you become a mom - or no, I should be honest and say, once I became a mom, the concept of wearing a little black dress and going off to an evening party suddenly started to sound like a total pipe dream. But I am going to be strong and have faith that I can still carry it off after all, even after 16 months of living in stained T-shirts and jeans and a total lack of glamor!)

Now back to the writing cave...but with really excellent music to cheer me on. Patrick recently bought the full boxset of Sharpe TV episodes and got me totally addicted to them. Sean Bean plays a rough Northerner promoted to the rank of an officer (to the horror of all his upperclass-twit colleagues) who swashbuckles his way through the Napoleonic wars with awesome female guerilla commanders fighting by his side in Spain, obnoxious aristocrats blocking him at every turn, and - of course - evil French captains twirling their mustaches menacingly. It's just enormously fun...and now that we also have the Sharpe soundtrack on CD, that's become the perfect writing music.

So off I go. Wish me luck in the cave!

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Austen films and other weaknesses

January 16, 2010, 3.12 pm

So, I watched the 2007 version of "Mansfield Park" (the one with Billie Piper) last night. I didn't have high expectations (the reviews had been pretty bad), which meant that actually, I was nicely surprised. It was fun, and it was surprisingly romantic. I really enjoyed the ending. Of course, I pretty much enjoy ALL Austen adaptations no matter how bad they are (except for the recent BBC "Sense & Sensibility", which I hated SO MUCH I would have thrown things at the screen and turned it off if I hadn't been a guest in the house where it was being watched).

So it was a safe bet that I was going to enjoy it...but the one thing that really puzzled me about this version was: why on earth would someone adapt an Austen novel and leave out all the humor? Mansfield Park is a really funny book. It has my least favorite Austen heroine of all time (and I'm not the only one who feels that way - pretty much every movie adaptation RADICALLY changes Fanny Price's character to give her a spine, because it's hard for modern audiences to sympathize with her otherwise)...but I've still re-read it many times because it's so nastily funny in all the character interactions. Jane Austen was hilarious when she was writing about really horrible, self-centered and shallow people, and Mansfield Park is absolutely filled with them, in the movie as well as the book...but in this adaptation, all the humor was left out. Yes, we hated the horrible people who were oppressing the heroine, but we couldn't laugh at them...and that felt very un-Austen to me.

Having said all that? It's on my Amazon wishlist now, because I have this uncontrollable weakness for Austen films. And if I end up getting it, I bet I'll watch it many more times, even if I'm sighing over the missed comic opportunities every time. I really love humor...but I'll take Austen even without it.

And these have been a very decadent few days, because this morning, as I thought about "Mansfield Park" (and, yes, as I seriously considered re-watching the 1999 version for comparison - see, this is serious study, not fun, people! - er, yeah, right...), I sent Patrick and MrD out to pillage the local village for me. It was a pirate raid full of swordplay, drama, witty banter, and high adventure, and when they came back? They came bearing hazelnut-praline vegan brownies, handed over by a terrorized café-worker.

It's a good brownie, too. Mmm. Maybe I'll see how Austen films work for me with added chocolate goodness on the side!

This could be a good Saturday...

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TV redemption, writing inspiration, and a touch of madness

January 4, 2010, 3.01 pm

OK, I admit it. As much as I truly disliked the Dr Who Christmas special, which was Part I of the season finale, and as much as I wondered if I should even bother to watch Part II after such a disappointing Part I...well, by the end of Part II, I was in tears. It totally blew me away.

I am so, so sad that David Tennant (my favorite Doctor ever) has left the show...which makes it all the more impressive that, after watching the very end of the finale, and after seeing the preview for next season (which we raced to watch directly afterward), I am actually incredibly excited about next season. I'd already been pleased that Steven Moffat (my favorite TV writer) was going to be head writer in this next season, but now I'm even tentatively excited, after all, about Matt Smith. Of course, he isn't David Tennant...but then, nobody (except Tennant) is, and I'm starting to hope that he'll also be wonderful in a different way.

So, yes. My TV disappointment was completely turned around.

I also watched a really lovely, inspirational writing video made by Jackson Pearce and a bunch of other YA writers. Most of you have probably seen it already, but just in case you haven't, here's the link to watch it on YouTube: Everybody's Free (to Buy a Laser Printer). It's a great video not just for aspiring writers but for published writers, too. I plan to watch it several more times, whenever I need it.

In other news, I've reached the beginning of the climax for Kat3, and I'm in a mad writing daze. This is the point where a lot of full-time writers stop showering, answering phone calls, or cooking meals until the novel is DONE. I feel some wistfulness about that - that approach sounds really tempting right now - but as a mom, and as someone with CFS, I just don't have the time or mental energy to go that route.

Even without 24/7 writing, though, I've doubled my daily target wordcount, which feels like speeding to me, and I'm at that crazy stage where the novel is constantly running through my head, even as I read Where the Wild Things Are to MrD for the thousandth time (and even when I'm howling along with him during Max and the Wild Things' wild rumpus). It's a dizzying, almost schizophrenic feeling - here I am with my family, and there I am with my characters, both at the same time - but it's also the most magical feeling I know.

I've been hoping for a long time to finish this draft by the end of January. Knock on wood, I really think I will. But I hadn't been anticipating just how sad I'd feel as it drew close to an end...

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TV disappointment, present gloating, and free Christmas gifts

December 27, 2009, 6.24 pm

Aaaand life slowly goes back to normal. It was a really lovely Christmas, with lots of great presents, even better company, and yummy food. The one disappointment was - without giving any spoilers - how disappointed I was by the Dr. Who Christmas special. The Christmas specials have never been as good as the regular show, but I thought this one was actually depressingly bad. On the other hand, Patrick didn't dislike it as much as I did, so who knows? It's a subjective thing.

I'm tempted to babble at length about my own presents, because I love them all (I'm just in the middle of reading one of them, M.T. Anderson's Whales on Stilts, which is hilarious, and as I type, I'm listening to another of them, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone, which is gorgeous)...but after that brief hiccup (oops), I'm going to stop myself, because it just feels like gloating. (Of course, I spent all of Christmas and Boxing Day gloating shamelessly over my stack of presents, stroking them like a dragon would stroke new additions to her hoard of gold, but Boxing Day is over now and it's time to get mature about things.) So instead, I'm going to move on to Christmas presents that other people can share.

So first off: Maureen Johnson is giving away e-books of her awesomely stylish and funny YA novel Suite Scarlett. I own a paper copy of this book and enjoyed it an awful lot, and now I'm planning to download an e-copy so I can carry it around with me on my iTouch. Enjoy (and make sure you download it before January 15th, when the offer ends)!

And secondly, Karen Healey wrote a wonderful, funny, magical Christmas story this year, which you can read on her website: Queen of the Kitchen. I loved it, and I hope you guys do, too! (And if you like it, make sure to look out for her YA fantasy novel, also set in New Zealand, which is coming out this spring: Guardian of the Dead. It's darker than the short story, but equally wonderful, and Karen and I are going to share a launch party at WisCon.)

What about you guys? What were your favorite gifts this Christmas? Or, if you didn't celebrate Christmas, what books or CDs have you been enjoying recently?

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Christmas Eve

December 24, 2009, 3.56 pm

Right now Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is playing in the background (on YouTube!), and poor Cookie Monster keeps accidentally losing the plot of all his letters to Santa. Meanwhile, Patrick is taking down the baby gate that we've used to protect our Christmas tree from eager toddler fingers this past week. All of MrD's presents are wrapped, along with most of the presents for other relatives, but Patrick and I are waiting until tonight to wrap each other's presents, because that's part of the fun.

We've still got snow on the ground, and I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that it'll stay at least another 30 hours. We went out this morning and bought ingredients for pancakes for Christmas breakfast. It's almost time.

Merry Christmas to everybody who celebrates it, and I hope everybody has a warm, relaxing day tomorrow whether you celebrate it as a holiday or just a winter day off work. :)

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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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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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Excellent Distractions and ARC Panic

September 9, 2009, 9.01 pm

First of all: I blame Karen Healey COMPLETELY for the fact that I can't get this chorus out of my head: "Omigod You Guys!", from the musical of Legally Blonde. I've never even seen the movie because the previews turned me off so much, but Karen raved about this song & video on her blog, and I thought, oh, well, why not give it a try...

Sigh. Those must be some of the most dangerous words in human history, repeated in SO MANY dubious situations! ;p

For the past several hours, voices in the back of my head have been singing the refrain of "Omigod, omigod you guys!" over and over AND OVER again....! BE WARNED.

Of course, after watching that first video I had to watch a couple other videos from the musical...then I started wishing there was a full performance online of the entire show...and now I'm wondering whether or not to put the movie on my rental list, after all these years of resisting it. Darn you, Karen!!!!

In other news, on Sunday I finally summoned up the nerve to actually start reading through an ARC of A Most Improper Magick, which I'd spent two days feeling way too scared to attempt. How come some of the most exciting parts of publishing are also so terrifying? I think part of the issue with ARCs is that these advance copies are the ones that are going to be sent to reviewers...so I am PETRIFIED by the fear of finding something TERRIBLY WRONG and knowing that it's too late to keep any reviewers from seeing it. Eek. Luckily, I'm about halfway through the book now, and while I've come across a couple small inconsistencies and several line edits, there's been nothing that makes me swoon with horror. At least, NOT YET...

Here's the thing that makes it all so scary. The embarrassing truth is: I really, really love this book. It feels terrifying just to admit that, even to myself. The thing is, if it were a book I didn't care so much about - if I'd just tossed it off, or if I'd written it like an assignment without any passion, I could pretty much shrug off any bad reviews. But that isn't how it happened. I wrote this book with so much joy and care, and I am so in love with Kat and all her siblings, and all of that makes me feel more and more horribly vulnerable as publication day approaches. Because as much as I've longed for it to be published, I also know that not everybody will like this book. Even the books I love most in the world are hated by many people. That's the way the world works.

But I'm petting my ARCs a lot right now, even as I hunt through them for typos and still-fixable flaws. And the occasional bout of distraction therapy - like the one I got sucked into this afternoon, thanks to Karen's blog entry - is priceless.

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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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