My Love for You Is A Ruby, An Emerald, A Diamond In a Box

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:53:58 GMT

Right dab in the middle of August's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a most stunning science fiction novella. "Arkfall," by Carolyn Ives Gillman, (who is my new sf writing hero, interview found here) is a story with a young,female protagonist facing personal challenges that reflect social difficulties within a brave new world. There's depth to this story and science and characters you wouldn't expect, but it is all made of shiny and deserves a Nebula recommendation. Or ten of them. Someone do that for me, would you?

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:04:35 GMT

Downtown
Originally uploaded by pnew8.

This semester, because Josie is graduating in December, my daughter has two English classes that duplicate one another, a Senior level English and one on British Authors, so her teacher asked her if she would like to treat one of them as an independent study.

"How would that work," she asked.

"Well, do you like to read?"

"Yes..."

"How about you read some books by British authors and then, we get together and discuss them. Do you know any British authors you'd like to read?"

"How about Jane Austin?"

"I love Jane Austin, that would be great."

And, thereafter, a trip was made to the library for the gathering of such book.

When Josie came home, this is what she cried: "I'm getting a grade for READING BOOKS!" (We might have discussed a few possibilities, but I'm afraid she just isn't all that interested in British science fiction.)

That conversation with her teacher happened the first week of school, Thursday. There had been a time schedule made for the reading of books. Three weeks per book. On Tuesday, she reported to her teacher that the first book had been read and what did she want her to do at this point. The teacher looked at her with stun. "Ah, make a list of twenty-five major events of the novel." At the end, of the period, Josie handed this request in. "There were more than twenty-five events, but I thought you wouldn't mind."

There was another trip to the library and another Jane Austin novel checked out. While she was looking over the library's content on the computer terminal, her teacher stopped beside her, paused, and asked, "Are you thinking of reading that book too?"

"Yes," Josie replied. She was looking at Wuthering Heights.

Most of her classmates in the British Authors class are reading, why, I don't even have to say it. You already know whose work it is.

Mark the Final Hour

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:48:54 GMT

August 16, 2008
Originally uploaded by pnew8.

Will's band, his garage band, Mark the Final Hour, look they have a myspace page, had their first public appearance on Saturday. It was for a benefit that gives guitars to kids. This was the way they were described by the MC, "They been called different, unique, and something calling screaming." Unfortunately, the establishment made a ruling that the kids there to see the band COULD NOT MOSH, but there was some headbanging.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:21:32 GMT

On the morning of Gary's fifth birthday, I began to feel uncomfortable. "Would you mind," I asked the five year old, if I had the baby on your birthday? Would you mind sharing?" After a moment of consideration, he said no, he didn't mind sharing. Almost twelve hours later, I gave birth to William. Yesterday, he celebrated his sixteenth birthday. Because last year, with Dale in the nursing home, there was no birthday cake for the boys, I made up for it this year with cake for each and balloons. I was often asked the question as to whether I'd really had two on the same day. I always replied yes. One woman at my answer said that she had two on the same day as well. Three years apart. "My daughter wanted a dalmation puppy and what she got her brother."

"Aren't You Glad I'm a Good Kid"

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:25:07 GMT

Yesterday was Gary's birthday and he turned twenty-one. Twenty-one! The legal drinking age. He spent the evening, (he works night shift on the weekends) as he often does, playing guitar at a friend's house. This friend lives out of town (Liberty) and a few minutes ago as he was on his way home, he was pulled over by a State Trooper who took one look at his driver's license and said, "I'm going to give you a sobriety test." And, he did, all of them, including a breathalyzer test. "Aren't you glad I'm a good kid," he asked me and then showed me the little plastic tube the trooper told him he could keep. Yeah, I'm glad.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:19:06 GMT

Thank you for the birthday wishes! Contrary to my doctor's words of warning, everything did not fall apart. Yay!

Born in the Fifties

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:00:38 GMT

Oooh, wow, half of a century!

Have a piece of cake.

Four shouldn't

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:38:00 GMT

I should not buy chocolate drink thinking it is chocolate milk. And, the grocery should not put gallons of chocolate drink right beside the gallons of white milk.

I should not stand on the porch during the worse thunderstorm of the season. Friday night. Tornadoes sighted north and east. (So does said the husband, who also has said, not to worry about the lightning because the trees in the property behind us is tall and will get the lightning before anything around the house will.)

I maybe should not be reading more than three fictions at the same time: Paper Cities, The True Meaning of Smekday and F&SF. Not to mention the new issues of Lone Star Stories and Clarkesworld.

I shouldn't shrimp on the groceries (or the handy, nourishing snack food) when school is out for summer. School is out for summer. Wow.

Sat, 31 May 2008 16:24:45 GMT

In yesterday's mail, the July issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. What a wonderful cover, and the mailing label was attached to the back of the issue, instead of the front, so I could see the entire artwork. Color! Detail! Extraordinary detail. The kudos goes to Mondolithic Studios. And, it is a story-related artwork, artwork for Michael Blumlein's story, "The Roberts," which I immediately began to read and immediately fell in love with the sentence structure. Look at this opening sentence:

Long before Grace, before Claire and Felicity, before the two men who wrecked his life, there was him and him alone, Robert Fairchild, first and only child of June and Lawrence, warm and cozy in his mother's womb.

Isn't that the one of the most successful opening sentences ever?

But, besides that, more such sentences followed. Sentences that had me twisted in knots of envy and awe.

I'm afraid to finish the story, but, then, again, I can hardly wait to read more.

The "Self-Indulgent Woe Is Me" Post

Mon, 19 May 2008 11:08:57 GMT

Only three things because three things are enough.

No writing this week.

The little plastic nose pieces on my glasses have disappeared. It's not so much 'oh, my nose,' but the 'darn, the head tilt.'

I realized yesterday, as I was calling the Dairy Inn to place a order, that I have more numbers for restaurants on my cell phone than I have the telephone numbers of friends.

Seven Days Away

Mon, 19 May 2008 10:59:52 GMT

Seven Days Away
Originally uploaded by pnew8.

On Saturday, it was The John Conner Festival downtown and all-mighty Battle of the Bands. Seven Days Away (with the TM) played last. Awesome. Loved the music, the energy, the head banging, the mosh pit (no, I wasn't in it.) Unfortunately, Gary had to work, but there is his friends up on stage.

Reading

Sat, 17 May 2008 03:27:45 GMT

I still haven't gotten caught up with all my sf/f/h magazine subscriptions, but I did want to note -- Kathleen Ann Goonan's story, "Memory Dogs" in Asimov's April/May issue was, yes, beautiful.

Five Random Things

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:01:45 GMT

plantery
Originally uploaded by pnew8.

1) My green thumb is purple. I probably got wrong-sized plants together. I shall moan about it later.

2) I have the hives.

3) Thunderstorms and rain again today. We live in a rain forest, which is totally cool as I like rain forests. Except when the eldest son's car's windshield wipers do not work. They aren't today. He's trying to drive between rain drops.

4) I played the soccer with Buck, the Corgi, this morning. This is his favorite game. No matter how tricky my foot work is or how far I kick that ball, he always wins.

5) A few weeks ago, I read Barth Anderson's awesome book, The Magician and the Fool. Myth! Magic! Tarot! Academics! Adventure! Brotherhood and duality! Now, you can enjoy that same world by visiting the fiction selection at Strange Horizons this week.

Snippets

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:36:22 GMT

From Dale, the younger, as he shows me a new black tee shirt with skulls of neon colors, "I hate these colors. In fact, this will be my least favorite tee shirt, but Ashley will love it. I got it for her." Ashley is his girl friend.

From a friend of my son Gary while talking to me, "Gary doesn't have any ugly friends." At my puzzled expression, he continued, "Really, Gary doesn't have any ugly friends."

From Will, as we were out looking at plants on Saturday, when I suggested one plant might make a nice gift for me, so that, you know, his siblings wouldn't give him a hard time about not giving me a gift, "My gift is spending time with you. You don't see them spending their Saturday running from place to place as you look at flowers."

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:51:05 GMT

Eric Marin recommended that we mention good fiction we have read online. I thought tonight I might mention "Five and a Half Feet of Julie" by Stefan White at Serendipity. Surrealistic yet magical. A story about alienation, alienation not only within a societal context but within the intimacy of marriage. It is also an individual's search for identity, from childhood, within adulthood. It is about a world as brilliant as sunlight upon water, but also as unknown, unknowable, as the night time visa of dreams. A wondrous combination in my mind. Found here: http://www.magicalrealism.co.uk/view.php?story=61

Day Off Daily Sampler

Sun, 04 May 2008 14:33:52 GMT

Yesterday:

Woke after a little nap (prior to nap, I'd read some short fiction prior to the nap, a story or two out of Jonathan Strahan's Best Fantasy 1) and worked on the opening of a fantasy story, mine, about community and fairy tales and legend tripping, but I'm not for sure yet, because it is only part of an opening.

Rushed Josie to the high school so that she could take her SATs. She plans upon graduating next January, attending a small school in Indiana, majoring in education, grade school ed.

Back home to load the truck with big pots and big buckets and a little bucket, plastic bags and Will.

To Wal-Mart, for a spade, but actually two of them, and batteries. To Burger King for Cini-Minis and water.

At the community recycling plot, with Will, filled pots and buckets and bags with fresh black soil-- only a little twiggy and rocky but it depended upon where one dug. Heard and watched the geese at the closeby, tiny pond carry on. One breeding couple with six babies. Also killdeer flying and crying.  Took a break to eat breakfast.

To the car wash, to wash the mud from the community plot, off the truck.

Home, again. Plant tomatos and peppers in the pots. (Dale every-single-year wants to plant tomatoes and peppers and although we have tried vegetable gardens a couple of times, that does not work for us. The past five-six-seven-eight years we have done nothing except hang a planter or two. This year I determined Dale would have his goodies) Also, there was pick-up the yard.

Checked email and read LJ friend list.

Picked up Josie.

Took a nap.

After nap, to the drive-in, in business since the late fifties, for dinner. Mine vegetable soup, grilled cheese, onion rings and Pepsi. I couldn't eat it all. I'd sent Will to KMart to look around while we waited, so after the pick-up, browsed the garden shop for potted plant ideas.  I love leaves and plants made of vine. The front porch is north facing and doesn't get much sun, any suggestions?

After dinner, housecleaning.

Picked up Josie from work.

Checked LJ friend list. Answered a question on a post.

Josie, Will and I saw "Iron Man." Oooh, lovely fight scenes, flight scenes, and I get all geeky over genius. We were among maybe a dozen people who stayed past the credits for the treat.

Dale Sr was sleeping when we came home, so I quietly did some housework for a couple of hours.

Then, finished reading Sybil's Garage no. 5, which I will discussion as soon as I get a chance to write something up. Fell asleep after three am.

ouch

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:34:59 GMT

I filled up my little car's gasoline tank this week, I do this about every five days because I drive, round work trip 50 miles a day. Filled the tank using not my usual special (read expensive) gasoline, but something called regular. Cost was just over 40 US dollars. It takes over $70 to fill the truck's tank. Well, that was a week and a half ago. I've seen some people now paying over $90 for a fill-up.

Overheard

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:20:25 GMT

This between the two oldest children.

Child 2: You should get rid of that on your chin.

Child 1 just smiles and tugs upon the hair on said chin.

Child 2: It looks horrible, all overgrown and nasty.

Child 1 continues to smile.

Later, Child 1 tells me, I'm going to continue to grow the hair on my chin. And, when it grows long enough, I'm going to braid it. Like one or two braids. All the way down to my chest.

Yesterday's Earthquake

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:19:30 GMT

I didn't even notice. I was at work at the time they said it occurred. I was cleaning my coater then and, yeah, I didn't notice a thing.

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:49:58 GMT

The two youngest children are on spring break and I miss my daughter who is away for the week, so a bit of dialog from one of her earlier conversations.

Josie to the the drive-through checkout boy: You're ugly.

Checkout boy: You're disgusting.

Josie: I'm filing a complaint with your manager.

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:40:57 GMT

I'm not sure who is responsible, my daughter or me, I only noticed that I was doing it, then, I noticed that she was doing it as well; when we say goodbye to anyone over the phone, instead of simply saying 'bye', we do this 'mmmm, bye,' thing. I would say that I've tried stopping this, but before I even think, it's 'mmm, bye.'

My eldest son turned all of twenty-two this week. I baked him a cake. This is special, although not as special as his attendence at a rally where President Clinton did some campaigning. In Indiana.

I did damage to my fast little car by hitting a pothole in the middle of the lane on a major interstate. Ooooh, listen to me wail. I have been having to drive the heavy, slow truck, which is actually a gasoline devouring MONSTER. (Btw, to be fair, the monster does his duty during the winter, during the horrible-awful, awful=horrible weather.)

New, ugly workboots, because the old pair is falling apart. Also, new tools. Ugh. But in the new, red toolbag, I place a cardboard sprayed with perfume so when it is opened, mmm, sweet.

The Rhysling Nominations for 2007 has been posted. Wow. Congratulations, all!

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:39:54 GMT

Yesterday, I received this text message from my son, Gary: Dad is going to kill me. I got snake bites.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:55:31 GMT

Darn nasty winter weather; won't it ever be over?

Because of the old injury to my left fingertips, that area is prone to cause a certain amount of pain (it feels as though I have the superpower of lasering flames across a good size city) when it gets chilled. Therefore, I own two pairs of Thinsulate tm gloves. One pair happens to be red and the other pair beige. This week I have managed to lose glove one of each pair. (And, of course, this time of the year, the merchants have cleared out their stock of extry-warm gloves.)   Luckily, in losing the gloves (btw, I think brownies may have been involved), I still have a glove for each hand. No additional comment required.

Today, is my little sister's birthday.   That makes her...still younger than me. Also, her Baby Girl turned four.   Happy Birthday, loved ones.

Flu -- The Sickness

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:14:36 GMT

If I had one wish for the day, it would be 'I wish Josie hadn't thrown up in my makeup bag.'

Juno

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:10:07 GMT

Will, my fifteen year old son, and I saw Juno this weekend. I'd heard the criticism that Juno's dialogue did not seem to be that of a sixteen year old. So, I was more than aware of that while watching the movie. And, ah, well... I have a twenty-one year old son, a twenty year old son, a seventeen year old daughter and, of course, my youngest son, Will. And, I've had some (smile) interaction with their friends during the teen years/now. No, the dialogue did not strike me as too witty or altogether cool for a child that age. (The maturity level of deciding and sticking with the decision to give the baby to adoptive parents, yes, that felt a shade too straight forward for a teenage girl, but I forgive them that.) So, I asked Will what he thought on the issue. He said , it felt right to him, then, he added, "It depends upon who you hang out with." (He also wanted to note that while watching the movie, he didn't find the issue of teenage pregnancy all that humorous, because he said, "It all around us." When I asked Josie how many girls are pregnant at the high school this year she said maybe two dozen.)