Interiors

[pameladean]

I'm cut-tagging this entry for the wary. Behind the cut-tag are vague but possibly tantalizing reflections about Going North, my novel in progress. I probably can't answer any questions, or can answer questions only randomly and unpredictably, and the context of the reflections is going to make people speculate in particular ways, which I can't issue either denial or confirmation about if I'm asked whether those ways are the ways I mean. So, you know, if you don't like even very vague spoilers, or you don't like being made to wonder about things you can't find out more about on any predictable schedule, or you find even this paragraph intolerably irritating, you might just want to stop here.



In the month of October I got two requests for interviews, now both completed. When the interviewers have finished their projects they've promised me links, and I'll put those up here when they're available. I spent a couple of weeks pondering each set of questions, though this is not evident in the finished answers; those sound very much off the top of my head, because it takes things so very long to get to the top of my head. Sometimes they aren't the things I'd prefer, but a fairly random sample. Sometimes the real answer to a question will come up months or years after it's asked. Who'd be an interviewer? In the meantime, answering approximately twenty-two questions about my writing processes, my history, and my opinions has made me violently introspective and antisocial. This is not a bad thing; it;'s a good state of mind in which to make progress on my writing.

This state, however, met the multi-tentacled discussion of fan fiction, slash, the Id Vortex, and shame or the lack thereof in writing (begun by ellen_fremedon, pointed out to me at least by tnh's Making Light, and worried to excellent effect by people including but not limited to sartorias, coffee_and_ink, matociquala, and rachelmanija) and produced a violent chemical reaction. I had just ruled out certain events in Going North on the grounds that they would be a pain to write, that I'd be on unaccustomed, probably swampy, ground, that the book was multifarious and difficult enough already, that there was plenty of other fun to be had with it, and, most germanely, that the events I was ruling out weren't thematically congruent with what else I was doing.

Well, actually, they are thematically congruent with what else I'm doing. And that was the only valid objection to including them.

My, the air up over this precipice is fresh and cold.

Pamela

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I picture you up over the precipice with warm clothes and downhill skis on, ready to go. This may not be what you intended, but I thought it might be cheering if not.

[pameladean]

*giggle*

I'll probably end up with a cafeteria tray, but I'm glad about the warm clothes.

Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Traying! YAY!

I was so thrilled when I went to Gustavus and they actually did go traying. Because it was like in Tam Lin.

[pameladean]

You remind me of how I felt when I first dug up a peony, and by George, the root looked exactly like the diagram in my gardening book. I am not being sarcastic. It was a kind of, wow, the world is not entirely insane feeling.

Pamela

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have gotten very strange looks for suggesting that my world felt more sane and logical when college turned out to be very much like Tam Lin. But there's an order to things; the Classics Department is supposed to be like that. And on the first day of class, I met a Classics major with slightly pointed ears and rumpled curly hair and a manic gleam, and I thought, oh yes, I know your kind, and I could settle right in.

[misia.livejournal.com]

Brisk and refreshing, that air. Also cold.

Plunge on, Pamela, plunge on. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only person in whom being interviewed induces a state of anti-social omphaloskepsis.

Here, have a mug of spicy hot chocolate. Unsweetened cocoa, sweet vanilla almond milk, cinnamon, a pinch of ground chipotle and a pinch of ground ancho, a driblet of vanilla extract, piping hot. Very fortifying.

[pameladean]

Omphaloskepsis! Whee! That's even better than the chocolate! But less sensual, marginally. Thank you very much for both.

Pamela

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

Being an interviewer is exciting ;)

You're one of the better ones I've done. The only author, so far, but by far one of the best. The interviewer's fear is the response, "What a stupid question!"

I only got that once. From a favorite rock star. And I only cried for about an hour. Still not over it and still cringe every time I think of it, but I did finally quit crying.

I'm looking more forward to the new work than ever.

[pameladean]

Oh, OUCH.

Well, I had a lot of fun with your questions, and they were not stupid.

P.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Questionssss! I hate questionsssss.

So, um, may I ask what the offending question was? Or does that rake up too much?

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

I asked him a question about a lyric. In retrospect, it's never really smart to ask a junkie where inspiration comes from and not expect an answer like, "The junk, Man!" or "What a stupid question."

[kate_nepveu]

We will be here with pom-poms, hot chocolate, and general good wishes for navigating the bracing and difficult terrority in which you find yourself.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

The great thing about the top of a precipice is the view. Good luck!

Ellen Fremedon?

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I am bemused by that LiveJournal user name. I have a dear friend, an Anglo-Saxonist, who used to remove her name tag at the Midnight Dance at the medieval studies conference at Kalamazoo every year, write "Ellen Fremedon" on the back of it, and proceed to party like it was the ninth century under that alias. Or earlier, depending on whose Beowulf theory you buy.

Re: Ellen Fremedon?

[pameladean]

This one's journal title is "cenelice to ganganne hwaer gegan hafde naenig man aer," and indeed anybody with that name is probably an Anglo-Saxonist. I think it must be an irresistible joke to those in the know.

P.

Re: Ellen Fremedon?

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

She is in fact a linguist, writing about Old Norse, I believe. But Anglo-Saxon is close enough for mead.

One of my fave Live Journal posts of all time is this one (http://www.livejournal.com/users/ellen_fremedon/204107.html) of hers.

Re: Ellen Fremedon?

[pameladean]

Oh, yes, that one was linked to all over the place, but I had spaced the name of the perpetrator. It's a small masterpiece.

P.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

Maybe, instead of the top of a precipice, it's the top of the highest possible "hill" on a really terrific (and surprisingly, unexpectedly secure) rollercoaster.

The nice thing about that image - at least for me, when I feel that way - is that I know that somewhere under me there's a track, instead of open space.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Ha! Does that mean new layers, or threads, or pick-metaphor-of-choice?

I was just last night glancing through my Dean books as I shelved them (very gently with the Hidden Land ones, as they are fragile indeed, the several-times-read pages softened by both time and use) and there was Tam Lin trying to reach into my retinas and pull me toward the reading chair, and I remember standing there thinking, What is she working on right now?

[pameladean]

I guess it would most accurately be called an emotional subplot. Or a layer on an existing one. My writing metaphors tend to be a bit blurry.

Last night I was cussing out my short story, but obviously all this other stuff was bubbling away underneath.

Pamela

[pameladean]

Thanks to all for the metaphorical assistance and embellishment. It doesn't feel nearly so cold up here now.

P.

[qe2.livejournal.com]

::hands you lovely closewoven cashmere pashmina [now solidly out of style and therefore entirely safe to wear] in your favorite color::

::goes back to procrastinating the studying of Criminal Constitutional Law::

[papersky.livejournal.com]

ritaxis has a lovely post this morning about things one can do right and wrong when writing about food, as part of everything else.

[pameladean]

Oh, oh, I didn't know she had an LJ! Oh, my aching Friendslist.
Thanks!

P.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, they are thematically congruent with what else I'm doing. And that was the only valid objection to including them.

My, the air up over this precipice is fresh and cold.

Wishing you fortunate inspiration in the shape of wings, or however else best fits your metaphor, on a vaguely harder-things-are-more-admirable-to-do sort of note.

Also, *hugs*.

[pameladean]

Thank you. Hugs back.

P.