I am working on my latest novel, Monsters at Arawa Station. (The one that is actually most likely going to be a novella, unfortunately.)
The kid, who like all of us lately, is overly-stressed and agitated, due to Everything, is ripping one piece of Kleenex after another to bits. I am attempting to restrain my desire to tell her to cut this the fuck out.
The kid: But what happened at the end of Oakley Day?
(Oakley Day being a story I wrote two or three years ago that almost sold to several places but never quite did.)
Me: The hero got recruited for a job with the one percent. And takes it, so that she can infiltrate and start the revolution from the top down.
The kid: Everything you write is about the Revolution.
Me: I don't know why this always surprises you.
The kid: Velocity's not. Velocity isn't about the Revolution.
Me: Of course it is. Velocity quit the Core because she couldn't stand living on the blood of slaves. And also --
The kid: But now she's just a pirate. And --
Me: And also the end of her arc is how she joins the Revolution. I just haven't written that bit yet.
The kid: (Sighs. Rolls her eyes. Rips up another Kleenex.) Well, Monsters isn't about the Revolution. It's about cute monsters.
Me: BWA-ha-ha-ha.
The kid: Oh you're not serious.
Me: Cute monster revolutionaries!
The kid: Jeez, Mom!
Less droll notes: Monday my brother was found dead. Wednesday as I was driving to the kid's high school orientation, I got hit by a tailgater ($4500 + damage to the car my father had loaned us, which at least the other guy's insurance is making no trouble over covering). Monday at dawn my kid starts high school; Monday evening I fly out for the funeral. Tuesday Dr. Skull has training for a job he has -- finally! -- gotten. Wednesday I fly home. Thursday I start the fall semester, three days late. Intermixed with all of this: visits to insurance agents and body shops, doctors and pharmacies and the high school (twice), a notary and a fast trip to the mall, hunting funeral attire.
Why, this is life, nor are we out of it.
1 hour ago
9 comments:
This past week has been insane for the entire country, it seems. (We've had some unpleasant Jerry Springer-style unbloggableness in DH's extended family, though thankfully the baby hasn't been hurt. Hopefully he'll end up permanently with his grandma who wants him.)
Thank goodness the other guy's insurance is covering the accident and nobody was hurt.
Congratulations to Dr. Skull on the job! Hopefully that will make things easier.
And here's to a much less exciting next week for everyone.
Here's wishing for the week to go as well as it possibly can!
And congrats to Dr. Skull!
Thanks, y'all -- Dr. Skull is *so* happy to have a job again, I can't even tell you.
And yes. After this week, all we want for the rest of the winter is one dull day after the next.
P.S. to the accident: No one was hurt at all, though the car was badly damaged. BUT: since the very next day after the wreck, we have been inundated with personal injury lawyers. They have knocked on our door, they have called my cell, they have sent us letters (three and four a day). All encouraging us to sue.
It is sort of funny, in a bemusing way.
I'm very sorry about the life tribulations... which, as you eloquently point out, are life. But Velocity's Ghost was very much about revolution -- not the showy part with bangs, but the quiet subterranean river that is the real conduit of change.
Yes, indeed.
And did you see that Velocity (along with several other stories from The Other Half of the Sky) received an Honorable Mention in Gardner Dozois's Year's Best SF?
Along with the three stories Dozois *printed* from the anthology (it was three, right?) in the Year's Best!
You and Kay knocked it out of the park with The Other Half of the Sky!
I didn't see the Honorable Mentions -- I only knew about the three reprints. That's wonderful! Big purrs.
Athena: Yes! I bought the Year's Best to read on the plane, and only found out we were so well represented in the Honorable Mentions by chance. It was a nice surprise!
Now that I'm aware of this, I see six Honorable Mentions by spot-checking (I don't have full access to the content): Boren, Jennings, Johnson, McDevitt, Shawl, Singh. Roar!
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