Nodding in, yet again

[pameladean]

Raphael and I took the upstairs cats to the vet last week, and they all ended up having blood work done, because they are venerable. All three of them turned up with elevated white counts and slight to less slight elevations in some kidney indications. So this morning we got up way too early and lugged two of them in to provide urine samples. This proved considerably easier than expected, so we took them home again, and were offered a chance to bring the third cat, my Aristophanes, in at 10:30, with the hope that he too would be easily sampled. So we haven't gone back to sleep as planned and I am pretty fuddled.

Therefore, I am going to complain about my book. It's mostly good news, really, but complaint is traditional. I'd been a little worried because the plot, as wrung out of my unwilling brain during the surrealistic and unwelcome process of writing an outline so the book could be sold, seemed a trifle thin. It always does, and I always worry. Well, I can stop worrying about that now and worry about something real. The metaphysical aspect of things just fell on my head, quite hard. I have no idea what I'm going to actually do about it, but the linkages between the shape of this book and a lot of largely-unaddressed matters in The Whim of the Dragon are now (appallingly) clearer.

I think I was smarter when I wrote those books. I can only hope that advanced cunning will make up for the loss of brain cells.

Some of you are not keeping as well as I'd like, and others are doing pretty well at it. I do pay attention.

Pamela

Comments

[slithytove.livejournal.com]

Love that icon.

[pameladean]

Thanks. I adore it myself. Raphael made it after we saw the original.

P.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I love it so very much. I've been tempted to ask if I can steal it (With attribution), but the fact that i've made over 30 icons and have a free account rather inhibits me.

I do hope the cats are well: I know what our elderly cats meant to me.

[pameladean]

Thank you. They are certainly acting pretty bouncy. The vet said he was optimistic about them. When we took them in for the urine sampling, there was a woman in the waiting room with a 19-year-old Siamese cat. I've never had a cat live that long, but I'm working on it.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Very glad on book news.

We had to take a venerable chihuahua in; she's so fragile, so small, and suddenly getting old, but she seems to be bouncing back, I am relieved to say.

[pameladean]

Aw. I'm glad she bounced back. I love old animals; they have so much personality, and one has made a place for them, and vice versa.

I know what you mean about the suddenness, too.

P.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Being in the position of outlining a new novel and worrying that the plot is a little thin, I found this entry very consoling. And I hope the cats are all right.

[pameladean]

Oh, good, I hoped it would console somebody. I'm glad it was you.

And thanks. With luck, they all have infections and their kidney numbers will go back to normal after treatment. Without luck, it's the beginning of kidney disease, which can be managed, but is a cold breath on one's neck just the same.

P.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Pamela, I think you are you - I cannot believe in a lack of brain cells. I think of towel sprites; I think of the care you took in _Tam Lin_ with "The Revenger's Tragedy" threaded with Medeous; I think of Nerissa and her family.

And in case you fret these are all long-past things, I think too of your recent Liavek story. I have faith in you.

I'm very lucky, what with the Scribblies getting new books published *and* written right now.

Best wishes to you and the cats and everyone. My sympathies; Harkos, Steve's poor old kuvasz, isn't keeping very well either. :/

- Chica

[pameladean]

Oh, poor honey; I hope he bounces back.

As for the rest, aw. You make me blush.

I'm grateful to see you mention the Liavek story. I felt like it sank without a trace. I mean, the anthology is doing beautifully and deserves to, but the story has produced mostly silence.

P.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

Eh? Which anthology was this?

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

_Firebirds Rising_. Edited by Sharyn November.

- Chica

[pameladean]

Hmm, I must be failing in self-promotion. Either that, or you're not hanging on my every word. 8-)

P.

[davidgoldfarb.livejournal.com]

I apologize if I offend, but I'm pretty sure it's the former....

[pameladean]

Not in the least. I know I'm terrible at it. My editor rolls her eyes a lot.

P.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

The first stories I made sure to read were yours and Emma's. It's always good to know the people who won't let you down in a story. :>

Your heroine reminded me of Arry. The setting felt like the Midwest. (I miss the Midwest). Liavek itself always reminded me more of Arabian Nights. I can't get nostaglic about desert because I don't love the desert.

Kirkus mentions "Pamela Dean's fully realized and fascinating heroine" at the end of their paragraph.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780142405499

I'd studied "The Revenger's Tragedy" myself. It was a pleasure to be an adult reading _Tam Lin_ and having it used in such a clever way. Perfect! And "Volpone" wouldn't have worked anywhere near as well. "The Changeling" wasn't the right sort of tragedy...

So you see, it was easy for me to admire your skill - you made it easy.

We plan to take Harkos to the vet. We have to figure out how to get him into the car; he weighs about 140#. Thank you - I hope Harkos will be better too.

- Chica

[pameladean]

I loved Emma's story. The narrator was so beautifully clueless, and every word was so perfectly placed. Yum.

I have to confess, I had forgotten that Kirkus said something good about the story. When I was a baby-duckling writer, they never said anything good about anything in sf or fantasy, so I tend to think such things must be hallucinations.

I'm glad you got the evocation of the Midwest. That area is in the description that writers got of the surrounding country, but it wasn't used much in the original anthologies; I think the city was just too seductive.

I do love the desert, or at least the Sonora Desert; I think Liavek's is a little more barren.

If you've studied the Revenger's Tragedy, you're one up on me, so I'm really glad that those bits worked for you. Mary Stewart uses quotations from it as chapter titles in one of her books -- probably Nine Coaches Waiting -- and I was fascinated with the play from the age of fourteen. It's just so weird, even for a Jacobean revenge tragedy it's weird.

It's a pity that vets don't make house calls as a rule. Though you might check if there is one who does. It sounds as if, should Harkos not wish to get into the car, that's the end of that.

P.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Her story was lovely.

Maybe Liavek's like Vegas! :0 Although the mountains here remind me of northern California - that sense of being cupped by mountains. I love Liavek. Seductive as Arabian Nights...

-cheerful- My prof had what I called the Renaissance drama (no Shakespeare) course. It was much fun. Revenger's Tragedy was in a great book about revenge tragedies too, which went into the basic elements and the atypical plays like Revenger's and Hamlet. I remember they also discussed the Spanish Tragedy, but I forget what the fourth play was.

An EMT friend says he's got a dog stretcher. Hopefully that will work. Dog-forklifts are surpassingly rare.

- Chica

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

Whatever takes the place of associative processes in my brain went straight to a joke I enjoy, at your talk of aging. At best it's tangential, but wotthehell, I like it:

One beautiful, sunny, Saturday morning, a very established member of the country club was trying to find a parking space at the golf course. Just as he found the very last opening, a hot little red sports car zipped into it. A young man got out and smirked, "That's what you can do when you're young and fast!" The older gentleman slightly backed up his much larger, even more expensive car, and gunned it straight into the sports car. "That's what you can do when you're old and rich."

[pameladean]

I think that must date from a time when people expected to be richer when they were older. It's a nice turnabout story, though.

P.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

A female version of that happens in the book "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe", ala

"Let's face it, lady, I'm younger and faster than you are."

"Let's face it, honey, I'm older than you are and have more insurance than you do."

[willshetterly.livejournal.com]

Of course you were smarter then than now: Those were final drafts, and this is a first. When you write the last draft, you'll be as smart or smarter. Write on!

[pameladean]

You made my jaw drop. Really. Gosh, have you guys, like, considered teaching writing or something?

Seriously, thank you.

P.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Remember, writing is very much the process of getting yourself into trouble and figuring out how to get out of it again...

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

I fully expect to enjoy the new book, and I have to admit there was something old-Bilboish about the line, Some of you are not keeping as well as I'd like, and others are doing pretty well at it. I do pay attention. One could shift it easily into something such as Half of you are keeping half as well as I'd like, and others are keeping twice as well as less than half of you.

Incidentally, completely without my involvement at all, Kathryn has decided to write her 9th-grade research paper on the Scribblies. When faced with one of the standard arbitrary notecard requirements (20 notecards due a certain day, taken from four sources with five 'facts' from each source), I helped her with a bit of searching and pointed her to the Terri Windling series, at which point I got a 14-year-old's version of, "Oh."

[pameladean]

That is rather old-Bilboish, isn't it. Let's just leave deserving out of it, though.

The tale of Kathryn's project made me laugh with delight.

Really, though, I feel honored to be part of such a project.

P.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

At least one other student may write about Pop Tarts, though another is writing about the star actor of 24.

There. You're on par with 24. Wait. Please ignore the insult inherent in that comment, unless you want to connect it to Bilbo somehow. But in any case, she slipped in a reference to the references to "The Lady's Not for Burning." So since she spotted that and I didn't, at some point I suppose I need to read it (though without any of the actors losing a glass eye).