Tastings

[pameladean]

I have only two works-in-progress, and am lucky to be so rich, so I'll do the mutated version of the meme where one posts a little excerpt.

Updated to add: to everybody who is salivating or dancing or both, I am very much gratified but also feel quite guilty for being so mean to you. Will Shetterly is putting his work-in-progress up on his weblog as he writes it, but I don't feel that I can do that. I can only say, I'll write as fast as I can, and indeed all of this lovely commotion should make that easier. Thank you.




This is from Going North.

Meredith turned on Ruth an intense but not very decipherable look. "See to it," she said, "that he speaks so still when you are married." She made the word "married" sound rather like "dead" or "maimed" or perhaps just "stupid."

Ruth stared at her, fascinated. The remark itself was far from crazy, in this country or any other. "Lady, I will," she answered, and almost crossed her eyes trying to see both Meredith's and Randolph's reactions at once. As far as she could tell, Randolph looked calm and Meredith unyielding, which did not tell her much. Just the same, she thought, that's an oath and I shall keep it.


And this, from This Green Plot.

Kisandrion went on with her current task, which involved replacing the leather bindings of eleven collected volumes of the Sayings of the Red Faith. An equal number of volumes had been set carefully aside to go on moldering. Kisandrion amused herself with the thought that she might take them home and stealthily repair them. Unfortunately, she could not be sure that Mundri did not linger after the library shut and caress the worn and rotting leather instead of going home and saying her prayers like an ordinary person.


Pamela

Comments

[sdn.livejournal.com]

wow, i am excited!!!!

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, she could not be sure that Mundri did not linger after the library shut and caress the worn and rotting leather instead of going home and saying her prayers like an ordinary person.

Eww, vivid!:)

[kate_nepveu]

You make me want to dip into fangirl speak.

("Ruth/Randolph = OTP!!")

And if only the leather weren't _rotting_, I'd have some sympathy for Mundri . . .

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Thank you; you make both of these sound extremely desirable.

[ladyjoust.livejournal.com]

Oh, heavens. I didn't realize just how much I'd missed Ruth and Randolph. whoooof.

[diony.livejournal.com]

I am very eager for both of these! Although I think more so for Ruth & Randolph, which I've been waiting for since I was, uh, 13.

[yhlee.livejournal.com]

RUTH! RANDOLPH!

It would be indecorous to lust after the rest of these, wouldn't it...*strong unresolved wanting*

[pameladean]

Good thing, huh?

P.

[pameladean]

Dopey LJ threading.

The previous comment was for Sharyn.

This one's for Karen.

Oh dear, you guys rhyme.

Anyway -- thank you. Kisandrion's opinion of her boss is not too far off the mark, I'm sorry to say.

P.

[pameladean]

I'm giggling madly now. It's very odd, but that makes me feel as if I'm doing real writing. My head must be upsidedown.

Mundri is not a bibliophile, nor even a bibliotaphos. She's taken the tenets of her religion to slightly too-literal extremes, that's all.

Pamela

[pameladean]

I'm sure I'll return the feeling when I look at yours. I'm a bit behind.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Yeah, me too. The problem will be not just letting them run away with the book. I do have other plans for it.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Oh dear. I'm sorry I was so dilatory.

I don't think, actually, that I was up to doing the matter justice until quite recently.

Pamela

[pameladean]

I don't think it would be indecorous. Then again, I'm the writer, so perhaps my perceptions are skewed a bit. 8-)

P.

[kate_nepveu]

OMGTHEIRLOVEISSOCANON!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Mad love for both bits, but especially the Ruth/Randolph with Meredith snarkage. Can't wait. (Though will have to, obviously.)

[kate_nepveu]

(Didn't mean to post just that--stupid fingers. Anyway, if fangirling is what makes you happy, we can do that!)

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Waaah. I wanted to say something about that line, but Karen got there first. After I leave this library where I'm working, perhaps I'll go home and caress the worn and rotting leather of the oldest book in my collection. The end of the sentence ("instead of going home and saying her prayers like an ordinary person") sounds not at all like but exactly like our friend jackiejj, if you get my drift.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I am entirely jealous of your ability to evoke vivid images.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, YUMMY!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I want to read the rest of both of those! Right now!

wantnowwantnowwantnow

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

((salivates))

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

"This is intriguing, and.. frustrating," she says, as she presses her nose against the glass.

No matter how the smell entices, no matter how she teases the spell, no matter how hard she wishes the time away, that hint on the back of her tongue remains just that, a memory and a hope, anticipation.

And after a bit, (what time? what time?) she glances up away, the hour night, the night calling, and she backs away, at first reluctantly, still hungry..

and yet and yet, and yet, and she laughs against the cold night. And spins joyfully spins, arms soft arcs and thistle head thrown back, brown legs flashing new patterns, and dances away across the frozen grass, green glancing off her feet, flowers, humming the oldest charm, "Patience, patience, patience..."

[qe2.livejournal.com]

It's odd, I think, how maturity works in fits and starts.

[shadownephilim.livejournal.com]

These sound *really* intriguing although I feel a bit behind the times since everyone else knows what they're about :(

I want more!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the tastes, Pamela.

Even the titles are evocative.

Jackie

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant!!!!!!!!

Why didn't I have the self control not to click on that?

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant!!!!!!

[clindau.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I'm almost done with The Whim of the Dragon, and now I have to stop reading this thread so as to avoid any (I think) spoliers...)

C

[pameladean]

There, there, I don't believe there is (yet) a law about only the first person's comment counting.

I don't have much in the way of leather-bound books. I think I have one; it's an English-to-Classical Greek dictionary. It's not rotting. The leather is not worn, but the cover has come off; I guess that means the stitching is worn.

I think I do get your drift. It made me giggle.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Different writers do it differently, but with me it is entirely a matter of viewpoint -- that is, the viewpoint of the character. I came to this unexpectedly through Aristotle. He says that the one necessary talent for the poet (by which he means, the writer of fiction) is skill with metaphors. This remark, which I took very, very seriously as a teenager, caused me to wonder what metaphors any given character would use to describe a situation, a feeling, a view, a book. The rest followed. This is what truly enabled me to see through the eyes of my characters, and why I resist and resent the camera-eye form of narrative.

Goodness, how I do go on.

Pamela

[pameladean]

*collapsing in hysterical, yet gratified, laughter*

P.

[pameladean]

This is very silly of me, but it makes me feel so contemporary!

Pamela

[pameladean]

That's a very astute observation. Especially since Ruth was more mature at sixteen than I was at thirty.

Pamela

[pameladean]

There is a great deal of Meredith snarkage in this book. It's not what I was expecting, but I do expect to enjoy it.

Ruth and Randolph are important but intermittent.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Going North is a joint sequel (heaven help me) to The Dubious Hills and The Whim of the Dragon. This Green Plot is a Liavek novel, rejected by one publisher and decreed by my agent to be not entirely gelled in its concept, so we are not trying to sell it anywhere else right now.

There, now you are all caught up.

Pamela

[pameladean]

It depends on your definition of spoilers, but certainly it is better to be safe than sorry.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

While I try do feel jealous, I never considered that you could articulate what you do! Thank you. Such a simple thing, so hard to do...

I aspire to creative writing only sporadically, but I feel that you given me A Clue, a veritable clue.

[kate_nepveu]

Glad to be of service.

[shadownephilim.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm sorry to say that I've only read Tam Lin and Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary although I've started reading The Secret Country trilogy :(

[pameladean]

You've got plenty of time. I'm not even done with the book yet, let alone all the publishing shenanigans that ensue thereafter.

P.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Obble! Yummy.

Want. As papersky said.

[lcohen]

no pressure. just, yum! anticipation!