Altariel's journal

I'm very pleased that my short story "The Sea is Not Full" has been accepted for an anthology of Irish crime stories with a mythological bent. The anthology's working title is The Red Hand of Crime, the editors are Gerard Brennan and Michael Stone, and the publisher is Morrigan Books. Scheduled for release in Summer 2010. More details as soon as they're available.

The prompting season for the Bujold Fest 2009 is open until Saturday (11th). If there's a Vorkosigan story you've always wanted to see written (or Chalion, or Sharing Knife, or Spirit Ring), now is the time to go and suggest it. Posting a prompt doesn't commit you to writing or creating anything, so feel free to prompt away.

I was delighted to hear that Chris Beckett won the Edge Hill short story prize over the weekend for his SF anthology The Turing Test. This is the only prize in the UK for a short story collection. The other shortlisted authors included a Booker winner (Anne Enright) and two Booker shortlisters (Shena MacKay and Ali Smith)! Congratulations to Chris!

A friend recently suggested that I join Facebook. I was on Facebook at one point, in fact, but it bewildered and slightly irritated me, so I deleted my account. I didn't want to play Scrabble, and I kept on getting things thrown at me, and while I'm working I try not to be online, so I don't have windows open with Twitter, IM, LJ, etc. etc. (Because I find them addictive and I'd play with them rather than work.) So I'm not clear how I'd integrate it into my working day or indeed my life.

But then I know that's just me being crusty and bad-tempered and reclusive, all my least attractive qualities. Not to mention indecisive, so I'm putting it to you, friends list:

Poll #1421396 Should I return to Facebook?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Should I return to Facebook?

Please feel free to tell me why or why not.

Twitter is out, though.

Unless someone can give me a really good reason.

Wow, ages since I've posted. I've been busy tippy-typing away, currently putting final touches to a short story which I've been thoroughly enjoying and may write more about at some point, if it all turns out as planned. We have taken to going into Starbucks each day to work, and the exceptionally lovely folks there have adopted us (and another regular too): we are having coffee tastings there almost every day. It's been really busy in there since Easter, all these people revising for exams... and now the tumbleweed wafts gently between the tables, and only we old-timers remain hunched over our bitter draughts to reminisce about the way things used to be. I imagine it'll start filling up again in September.

Yesterday's coffee tasting didn't happen until after 3pm. I should have known better (a dose of espresso takes about 12 hours to work its wicked way with me), but I couldn't resist. As a result, I was wide awake until 4am this morning (just in time to hear the birds get up). The upside of this was that I had time to polish off Sarah Waters' astonishing, marvellous, breathtaking, unputdownable The Night Watch. Oh, it was all "Little Gidding"! Tongues of fire and doves descending and ends that are beginnings! I was disappointed to see its 3.5 rating on LibraryThing, so I blethered about it briefly there and gave it a socking great 5 stars, which has made no difference to its average. Bah.

Um, what else have I been up to? We have been having a Powell and Pressburger retrospective, seeing some that I haven't seen in the past, including the terrific propaganda film 49th Parallel (for which Pressburger got an Oscar). I have had a biography of Pressburger on the shelf for YEARS, so I started on that late last night as the night watch ended and the sun came up. It's written by his grandson, Kevin Macdonald who directed The Last King of Scotland... and is also an Oscar winner. (I wonder how many other families have multiple Oscar winners?) All life is linked (a line said in B7 by Kathleen Byron, who also played the Mad Nun in P&P's Black Narcissus). There, I'll stop being nerdy now.

Have also started watching mid-80s BBC Civil War drama By the Sword Divided. Even though Gareth Thomas, Janet Lees Price, David Collings and JULIAN GLOVER are regulars [1], I've never seen it before. For some reason, the whole Civil War period is a blank to me. I think hearing about the plague village of Eyam at an impressionable age scared me off the seventeenth-century. Because it is DAMN SCARY. Middle ages scary, but with bigger fucking guns. Anyway, the people who brought us By the Sword Divided also helped bring us Upstairs, Downstairs and the Granada Sherlock Holmeseses, so I feel I am in safe hands as I dip my toe into worlds beyond the ken of the sociologist. All part of general thinking I am doing right now about historicals, my current favourite wisdom on this being from Peter Dickinson, in the introduction to his children's novel, The Dancing Bear (set in Byzantium!, no less): "I have had to invent quite a lot, partly because I am not especially good at finding things out..." Words to live by.

[1] Did anyone else see Julian Glover doing his one-man Beowulf on the Michael Wood thingy on BBC Four? I wonder how much to hire him and a hall and have a feast?

Right, so our Doctor Who rewatch project was derailed slightly by: 1. mraltariel being in the US before Christmas, 2. me having to write a book, and, 3. not wanting the Hartnell era to end. But now we have restarted.

( Season 4 - our thorts )

( Ranking )

Hurrah! An OBE for novelist and poet Peter Dickinson!

Over the past year or so, I've been working my way through his terrific crime novels (courtesy of gerald) and his extraordinary children's books (with more than a little help from the_wild_iris). BookMooch recently supplied me with his trilogy for teenagers The Changes, which I remember distinctly seeing when it was adapted for television in the mid-Seventies. (According to this site, there may have been repeats 18 months later, but that still puts my age somewhere between 3 and 4-and-a-half, so you can assume it was distinctive and memorable.) I hope this prompts a DVD release.

Lomendánar (Little Love for the Things of My Love)" by vulgarweed (a reading by luzula can be downloaded from here): "The Shepherds of the Trees have drawn a bitter lot, and no one knows this better than one who was different." Beautiful, gorgeous, stunning!

I suspect I'm the last to hear about these, but BBC Audio have released two CD boxsets of Trevor Hoyle's novelization of the first four scripts of Blake's 7.

The first set, The Way Back, is read by Gareth Thomas; the second set, Cygnus Alpha, is read by Paul Darrow.

I loved this book to bits when I was eleven. I'm listening to the first CD now. There's sound effects and background music. Awesome.

ETA: Here they are on Audible.

ETA2: Damn, he's doing Bran Foster's American accent.

My NOLJ friend who is currently selling off books has a few more to add to the list. If you want something, either from this or the previous list, email or PM me/leave me a comment with your email address (I'm screening) listing what you'd like, and I'll pass on your contact details and information about what you'd like.

( More books )

Dwimordene's birthday request reminded me of another AU I've been meaning to write for years now... Happy extra birthday, Dwim.

( Not all the birds are to be trusted )

So I went to see Star Trek again. I was worried that second time around it would turn out to be nothing more than a series of things exploding noisily. Having read a few reviews around LJ, I also wondered whether I’d be irritated at how Kirk’s recklessness gets enabled and rewarded by those around him. But I enjoyed it just as much again, probably even more so, given that I wasn’t fending off unwanted attention, and I was able to reflect on the stories being told between the set-pieces.

( In the Fifth at Starfleet Towers )

Very good post by elissadcruz on The Different Types of Critiquers, the strengths and the weaknesses of both. It's helpful to know not only what kind of critiquer you are, but to recognize what kind of critique you're getting, and where that person is coming from. I'd like to think I was the fourth type, although after years of proof-reading it's impossible not to notice typoes. I don't really think of it as critiquing, more like house-keeping. The difference between washing-up and deciding what colour to paint the kitchen.

The third type of critique used to drive me nuts. Do I care whether I've got a minor detail wrong? Not one bit. It's fiction. It's made up. At the same time I know that this is simply a cover for the fact that I'm a lazy researcher and would rather just invent things instead.

As the country of my birth quietly enjoys a constitutional crisis, a (slightly early) birthday drabble for Dwimordene, who asked for "the turning point that never (quite) was".

( The Age of Men )

Dreamwidth! For the love of god, stop marketing at me!

By which I mean two invite codes have landed in my inbox, available to anyone who wants them.

( Which Star Trek character am I? )

WOT NO GARAK?

A friend of mine WINOLJ is having an SF/F book sale and I've offered to post the list. If you want anything, email or PM me/leave a comment with your email address (I'm screening) listing what you'd like, and I'll pass on details.

Prices include postage within UK. All books are new. First come, first served.

( Book list under cut )

Happy Glitter Day, glitterboy1! Have a good one.

We're in Paris for a few days (back tomorrow). Last night we went to see the new Star Trek film: thoroughly enjoyed it, and this despite the creepy guy in the next seat who spent the first hour pawing my leg. Nice. Anyway, the film was a hoot, lots of fun, exciting, full of space ships and things exploding, charming performances, and you spend the last half being really pleased for Simon Pegg, who gets to hang out with Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise, a bit like a Mary Sue.

Earlier today, the Rodin Museum. And now, cake.

Happy birthday, ms_manna! Have a lovely day!