The tulips have broken through the ground

[pameladean]

The first tulips to come up every spring, though not the first to bloom, just appeared, between yesterday afternoon when I looked for them and found only the bare ground, and this morning when I took Ari for a walk and saw just the barest yellowish tips emerging. These are some glorious deep purple ones in the bed under Lydy's office windows. The first ones to bloom will probably be up in a day or so. Those are classic red tulips with yellow centers and strange dark-blue stamens -- Apfeldoorns.

The birds have started seriously tuning up for the grand concerts of April and May. I haven't seen any robins or any juncoes in my yard recently, which gives me a very odd sensation of being suspended between proper seasons. I guess this is what one of my garden books calls "pre-spring." The trees are thick with buds and some maples are blooming. I suspect the elms of being blooming or ready to do so as well.

Inside the house, everything is in dire need of cleaning and sorting, but mostly I'm just floundering around in my novel. I had originally intended to call this entry "Stupid Book," but the book isn't stupid; it's doing the best it can when it's only got my brain to work with. Every single time I poke around in The Whim of the Dragon to confirm some detail or remind myself of how something was previously described, I run across some staggering fact that I had utterly forgotten. Eric has sensibly reminded me that what I need to be doing with the earlier chapters, in light of these discoveries, isn't even at the level of retconning, because there is as yet no con to ret. It's disconcerting, however. I will favor you with the latest realization. Unlike the others, where I knew perfectly well while writing Whim that this or that event had occurred, this is something implied by the trilogy but never addressed. Ruth is a farm kid. It didn't matter much for the trilogy, since only a few chapters are from her viewpoint, and she has a great deal of more immediate importance on her mind. But it matters now.

Nobody in this book has learned to shut up yet, either.

So I guess I'm the one who will have to learn it. You guys don't need to, though. I read your journals regularly and am always interested and concerned.

Pamela

Comments

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Eh, dialogue is fun. And unless one of your characters is Basil Exposition, it's a way of showing how the characters are feeling, even if that feeling is "verbose."

One thing I, as a reader, would appreciate, is some online reference library for your books. I know somebody did something along those lines for the Secret Country trilogy— wish I knew what I did with the link— but since some of us don't have the depth of English education that you and your characters do, it's a nice way to find new stuff to read. (The Revenger's Tragedy is sitting in my toolbar, waiting for an idle hour.)

Speaking of that, I lent my spare copy of Tam Lin to a friend who does a one-woman show called Shakespeare on Request. She says that as soon as the boys were introduced she was waiting for Janet to run across a facsimile of the First Folio.

This friend has her degree from MIT. Apparently, her means of homework avoidance was memorizing Shakespeare. I keep wondering where I went wrong.

[thedragonweaver.livejournal.com]

Oops— forgot to mention that the request for citations is not for YOU, because obviously you have enough to do. But I know there's got to be fansites out there with that info.

[pameladean]

http://www.alittlebitofnotmuch.com/TAD/index.html

That's the Annotated Dean page. There are probably others, but that's the one I know about.

P.

[pameladean]

Dialogue is fine, but it needs to be relieved with a few movements from time to time.

I loved the story about your friend. Although there are a fair number of people who would recognize the names in TAM LIN, most of them apparently haven't read it.

I haven't memorized Shakespeare myself; I just make up people who have, and it's such a relief to find they actually exist, I can't tell you.

As for The Revenger's Tragedy, it's utterly bizarre. But really there's a pretty good synopsis in the book. Any confusions will probably not be relieved by reading the actual text.

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

No flowers here yet, but I've had a pair of mourning doves on the porch off and on today and the male is trying to get the female to mate with him.

[pameladean]

I'm expecting our mourning doves, but no sign of them yet. I really love them and their purry sounds.

P.

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

Hey, I just found out, from Chica, that you had a story in that YA collection with the name I can't remember. I must have missed it if you announced it on your LJ, or spaced it if you told me, or something. Anyway, I read it. Wonderful! You so completely pull me into the universe of that character (well, into Liavek too, but you know what I mean). Outstanding. I loved it!

[pameladean]

Well, I thought I mentioned it in LJ, but maybe I accidentally invoked a completely private filter or something, because you are the second person to have missed the alleged announcement.

I'm really glad you liked the story. I got to reread some of yours in preparation, and that was a very fine experience indeed.

There's a whole Liavek novel simmering away, but Tor didn't want it, so I need to finish GOING NORTH first and then we'll see.

P.

(And say thanks to Chica, propping up the egos of wobbly writers since, what, 2004?)

P.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

did you read the rest of firebirds rising? i ask.

signed, its and pamela's editor

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I think our birds are confused about the weather this year. We've had robins back in the yard for about three weeks which is early, I think. Last night we got two feet of snow and I haven't seen them. I cleared a patch for bird seed and the chickadees, and cardinal pairs and something tiny I don't know the name off. They are med grey with white breasts. When it is a little warmer, it sounds like a serious party in the yard.

I like the snow as long as I don't have to move it or drive in it. Right now, I'd rather be gardening so am hoping this is about it for the snow/cold. There's iris and other things up about four inches under the snow, leaf buds on many shrubs and the large maple in the house behind has branches lumpy with buds. The tree peonies too except for the ones Cole has broken off. This is the time of year I should keep notes because I always mean to do more things like fence these off, and buy grow lights for inside, mulch the roses better so that when it goes from sixty to twenty like it did this week I don't fret about them. ;)

[pameladean]

Sixty to twenty! Wow.

I love your garden reports. I wonder what your little gray guys are. Possibly juncoes, but those are really a dark slaty gray, so probably not.

P.

and my starlings are probably grackles too

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

(smile)

Yup. I think you're right. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Dark-eyed_Junco.html and thanks!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's worse than us on Friday. We dropped from 76F to 41F in three hours.

[inlaterdays.livejournal.com]

Hooray for tulips! I can't wait for spring.

I hope the book becomes more cooperative.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

i will learn it before everyone else except you, i say cheerfully.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Would it help if someone with a good memory and an obsessive interest in re-reading the trilogy reads this once you have a through draft and points out any points of potential conflict?

If so, I'm volunteering. I'm likely to notice anything anyone else would notice, and perhaps even things normal people wouldn't.

I could do it before you have a through draft if that would really help. This is not a dubious ploy to get my hands on it early, this is an offer in service of literature and the world.

(I mean heck, how often do I get to make offers in service of literature and the world on Sunday mornings before breakfast? More often than most people, to be sure.)

[clindau.livejournal.com]

Tulips! Red tulips! I'm jealous.

The daylilies on the west side of the garage have started to poke their noses out. That's the most protected part of the yard, front or back. Everything else seems to be biding its time.

The only plant I'm worried about is the white bleeding heart that I got from a cow-orker last spring. It didn't get mulched very well in the fall, and even though it's also in a semi-protected spot, I'm just afraid that it won't make it. Can't wait to do some proper messing around.

[pameladean]

Well, they aren't red tulips just yet. I don't think they've broken through the leaf mulch.

Ordinarily I'd say that bleeding-heart is tough as nails, but the white kind is a little less hardy than the pink, in my experience. It's still hardy north of here, though, so maybe it will be okay.

P.

[clindau.livejournal.com]

It's on the east face of the house at the foot of the front steps--I've been ever so careful to keep the sidewalk salt away from the area. *looks around, blushing* I've even talked to it, asking it nicely to please come back and bloom this year. We'll see. Oh the waiting!

Tulips

[cowfan.livejournal.com]

I just checked, and a couple of inches of red-tipped tulip leaves have appeared in the side yard garden that gets full sun and some protection from the house. The tulips in front of the playhouse have not come up yet. All my tulips are yellow at this house. At the old house, I had lots of different colors along the side fence, including some deep purples. I loved walking around the old neighborhood and watching the progress of all the flower gardens. I've been walking around here, but there aren't as many nice gardens. Let me know if you'd like to go walking with me in your neighborhood sometime. I know there won't be much in the way of gardens yet, but I need the exercise and fresh air.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Happy spring and comfortable writing to you, Pamela.

My tulips are up, too, and the hosta is poking through.