Playing my own violin -- no, wait --

[pameladean]

I find the phrase "tooting my own horn" irresistibly funny in a nine-year-old kind of way, but I have to say that the subject line of this post does not quite seem to have the same meaning. You cannot just go inventing new cliches. Well, you can, absolutely of course; but they are wayward creatures and will wriggle free of your intention. Like most aspects of writing, really.

Which is why I'm posting these two links. I got up this morning drearily contemplating trying to keep working on the last scattered pieces of Going North, and to my great delight found this:

https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/12442719.html

And not quite a year ago, in a very similar state of mind, I found this on my reading page:

http://www.marissalingen.com/blog/?p=2413

I was and am grateful to be reminded that I have finished books that people liked and remember; and that I didn't feel any happier about most of them when I got to the last part of each. There is a scene in some book I read as a child, or maybe it's a stereotyped scene that occurs in several books, in which somebody tries to repair a watch or other complex machine, and triumphantly puts it back together only to realize that there are some little pieces that certainly came out when the item was disassembled but that will not go back in anywhere. With a book, this situation may be normal, or at least, the book will still work even if you have left out some of what you fondly believed to be vital parts.

I think that is enough analogies for now. They are eyeing one another jealously and will soon be plotting to do one another a mischief.

May your days be more manageable than mine.

Pamela

Comments

[graydon]

I think that is enough analogies for now. They are eyeing one another jealously and will soon be plotting to do one another a mischief.

Certainly the prospect of analogies forming a pecking order would give anyone pause!

(It was all right when they were quail, I suppose, but now they have become swans as those are remembered by moonlight and it's all rather a bit much...)

[pameladean]

That is exactly what they do! Cute little bundles of meaning bustling about in a flock, and then bam! Scary giant birds with attitude.

P.

[anne]

At least they're not velociraptors.

You will prevail, and the book will be good, and it will find its people. ❤️

[pameladean]

Well, they weren't velociraptors before. I hope you haven't given them any ideas. 8-)

And aww. Thank you.

P.

[tbutler]

Oh, dear. Such a beguiling mental image! Thank you; I needed that today.

[pameladean]

My pleasure! I'd love to observe such birds, if they existed, from a safe distance.

P.

[kore]

Ah those links are delightful!

I was just eating a brownie the other day and remembered Gentian's observation it is difficult to make a dramatic tragic exit with a large gooey brownie in your hand. Your books are alive in peoples' memories like experiences.

[pameladean]

Thank you so much. That is just the right thing for me to be told right now.

When you have time and brain space, you would probably enjoy most of Marissa's Present Authors series.

P.

[mrissa]

I'm writing another one right now.

[pameladean]

I look forward to it immensely. P.

[sovay]

With a book, this situation may be normal, or at least, the book will still work even if you have left out some of what you fondly believed to be vital parts.

The mainspring's there.

May your days be more manageable than mine.

May you have a manageable day!

[pameladean]

One can only hope about the mainspring, but I'll hold that thought.

My day is not flinging itself about so far, and I thank you for the good wish.

P.

[madgastronomer]

Loving Tam Lin was an early thing my now-wife and I bonded over. She even found me an elderly copy of Liddell and Scott once, though I have never thrown it out the window.

[pameladean]

Good! Never throw Liddell and Scott out the window! Chase and Philips, now, that is a different matter.

P.

[pameladean]

Also that is a charmingly romantic and geeky present. P.

[anne]

Awwww!

[davidgoldfarb]

The full size Liddell and Scott or Middle Liddell?

I have a copy of Middle Liddell, but honestly I never use it because I find online tools much more useful.

You know that Alice Liddell was Henry George Liddell's daughter, right?

[pameladean]

I have the Little Liddell. I think tossing either the Middle Liddell or the Great Scott out of a window would probably constitute reckless endangerment.

P.

[madgastronomer]

I do!

[halfmoon_mollie1]

I'm always glad to see a post from you, Dear Pamela.

[pameladean]

<3 <3

P.

[sara]

During my later high school years, Tam Lin was one of the few things my mother and I agreed about. So it would be nice if you finished the novel because then I'll have something to give her.

[pameladean]

It's SO CLOSE, and yet so far. But thank you for the incentive. P.

[birke]

I enjoyed the comments on James Davis Nicoll's post. I haven't explored in detail WHY I like The Dubious Hills so much, but Ritaxis calling it "dream logic" makes sense to me. It is absolutely dreamlike.

[pameladean]

Yes, that comment was quite illuminating. I've often gotten the complaint that the knowledge is not parcelled out logically. The story started as a fairy tale -- akin to dream logic, at least -- and I always felt quite strongly that things simply had to be the way that they were. I also felt that since the entire spell was a made thing, a creation, it was bound to be a bit squirrelly. But I will accept dream logic. I think that's a valid point.

P.

[mrissa]

Churchill famously said, "When you're going through hell, keep going."

Same when you're going north really.

[pameladean]

North, especially, I think, though I'm sure it would apply to other cardinal directions too. P.