A Writing Update

[pameladean]

First, I would like to report that, unlike some people, I am not inspired to write by the fact that the wolf has been seen in my state (no, not THAT wolf, I'm quite glad that the real wolf is back; this is the OTHER wolf), in my city, on my lawn, let alone when it is actually at the door. I am not inspired at all to do anything whatsoever.

However, Eric cleverly asked me to have some writing dates with him so that he could get some work done. A writing date with him is especially enticing at the moment because it means two telephone calls in an evening.

So: the day before yesterday, about 1600 words on Going North, a scene I am insanely smug about. And yesterday, about 1100 words, finishing up that scene and beginning on another. A prime player -- hmmm, for the sensitive, here's a cut tag, behind which lurk minor spoilers:



A prime player in this book is Meredith, who is mentioned in the trilogy as someone whou causes Ruth quite a bit of anxiety, but, I discovered partly by memory and partly because Eric kindly reread the books for me, never appears on stage. She's about to appear on stage. I wonder what she looks like.



This evening I get to meet at a coffeehouse with a bunch of other (female) local sf and fantasy writers and a reporter from City Pages and have a roundtable discussion about, well, something. Probably fantasy and sf. I'm looking forward to it, but also a little jittery. In defense against the jitteriness, I am for some reason rereading Cetaganda.

It's time to mow the lawn, but I don't want to think about it. I can put it off a little bit longer, I think -- it's going to be hot today but then cold again. Also my mother is making me a gift of about a hundred simple concrete paving stones, with which I intend to border the garden beds, thus definitively settling the issue of what is lawn and what not, so I'm not always mowing around plants that have sneaked out of the ill-defined plots, and so that I'm also no longer having to pull so much grass out of said plots.

Pamela

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Cetaganda is a perfectly logical thing to read against jitters.

Except the bit where Ivan picks the kitten. I'm still upset about that bit.

Oooooh. Meredith.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I hope a little quiet rejoicing at more wordcount will not glance wrongly off your mood ?

I also find myself considering all the significances attached to building that lawn/not-lawn border other than the merely literal, probably because I have a character in my head who is very weird about borders of all sorts.

Meredith.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

She says things that go round and round in your head for days, you know. Well, yes, I expect you do know.

How are you pronouncing it? When I first read it, I heard it as the traditional Welsh name Meredith (Meredydd) with the stress on the second syllable, Me-RRE-dith (with the th as in these), but since then I've met stakebait who pronounces it "MER-uh-dith (with the th as in thin) so now I don't know.

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

Knowing that a new book is coming, whenever it might come, is like the feeling I had when my parents brought home a wardrobe from an estate sale. I just knew that as soon as they left me alone with it, I was going to find my way into Narnia.

Sadly, they put it in their bedroom, which was off limits to me. So I went back to trying the cupboards.

Re: Meredith.

[pameladean]

I've been pronouncing it the non-Welsh way, but I'm perfectly certain that that fact is not indicated in the text, and now I have an impish desire to reveal that it's pronounced the Welsh way. It'll drive people nuts, though.

Pamela

Re: Meredith.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*practices saying Me-RRE-dith several times* That's lovely. Much prettier than MER-uh-dith, which is what I say (being American), but I'll never remember the accents without looking at your breakdown, I fear.

*practices some more*

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

I still can't read that scene without all-but-crying.

[pameladean]

I know exactly where that bit is and I DON'T READ IT.

Meredith scares the shit out of me, frankly.

Pamela

[pameladean]

You may even rejoice loudly if you prefer.

Do you want to expound upon the non-literal significances of making a firm lawn/not-lawn border?

Pamela

[pameladean]

Aww. I appreciate the compliment.

I didn't fall over the Narnia books until I was twenty, so I never had quite that experience.

Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This simply shows your good sense.

The Meredith thing. Although not reading the bad bit you've already read is sensible, too.