Lepus domesticus

In the past 14 months, I've lost my faith in God, my own power of self-determination, and at last in humanity as a whole.

( Truth, Love, Emerson, and more! Totally NOT depressing! )
There is nothing that matters but Cruelty and Compassion, and you know which one you should choose.

And here's a portrait of one of my neighbors yesterday evening, because it is easy to love beauty when you see it, and nothing is more beautiful than love.



Love! Susie

*Who did not like Jane Austen...but nobody's perfect.  ; )

Finally, something happy! This morning I watched handsome Mr. Tod catch and eat a vole. I say mister, but I don't know, it's hard to tell with foxes. Then Mrs. Mule Deer came by with her two fawns, which was fun because a couple days before the other Mrs. Mule Deer came by with her one fawn. These five deer have been on the hill all summer, and it's been wonderful to see the babies grow throughout the year. Interestingly, all three fawns are male.


Wednesday, I awoke to a very low grey cloud that quickly dropped the first snowflakes of the year. The red leaves on the left are chokecherries, the yellow are aspens, with douglas-fir in the background on the hill. Behind the big clump of grass next to the patio is a cinquefoil (did I spell that right?), which was one of the longest-blooming plants of the year. The last blossom died only a few weeks ago. What this picture doesn't show is that the cottonwoods by the river are almost completely bare.


The next morning, this much snow was on the mountains, and a tiny dusting stayed around until 9:30 or 10 the next morning in the shade. You can see the road cut on the left middle and bottom of the picture. That's the pass going over to Idaho. On the right middle, you can see a patch of yellow-orange aspens amid the snow-covered conifers.


Here's the young buck. You can almost see where the spots were before he started growing in his fall coat.

Hope that made you feel as much better as it made me!  Love, Susie

Last one, and then I'm done. I'm sorry I've spent so much brain power on this already, but here you go (all links go to LiveJournals and LJ comment threads):

This person says it all perfectly. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised because he's a librarian and uses sources. Fancy that! I should try it...

And this person has some good links and a number of very intelligent comments here.

Gems from my reading on the comments today:
"Please boycott me as an unapologetic supporter of degeneracy!"
"who ARE these people and WHAT WAS IN THEIR LUCKY CHARMS THIS MORNING?"
This whole comment, exactly.
"And Whoopi Goldberg with her "It wasn't 'rape-rape'" has now far and away surpassed the previous record holder for most idiotic thing said on television, which just so happened to be her cohost admitting shewasn't sure if the earth was round." Ouch! ; D

And here's a SF/F author's take with an excellent comment thread here, and a discussion of the staggering rape statistics in the U.S. One in six women have been raped? See, when a woman says she rejects the patriarchy and mentions misogyny and a man gets offended, it's because he doesn't know what it's like to go around with numbers like that in his head.

Highlight: this comment about how society is the injured party in a crime, and that's why we have courts and prisons and laws. If it was only about the victim, then vigilantism would be perfectly acceptable and right. Wow, do you think 4 1/2 years in Wyoming is starting to rub off on me? Don't take the law into your own hands, kids! It's WRONG!  ; )
And one from the author of the post which is extremely frightening, and totally reminds me of all the great books I have to write...

Right. I just added a new friend; I don't care if all his other posts are utterly boring. But God, I love to hear from men who actually like women (Two, count 'em, two, just today!). It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and makes me want to procreate.

Stunning thought: The "Celebutards"^ are overwhelmingly people who have already worked with, or might work with you-know-who. Am I missing something? These people are defending their employer? If my boss (if I had a boss) committed a crime, I'd be the first in line to lock him away! And I expect many people feel the same way. ; )

Also, have come to the conclusion that Neil Gaiman is universally loved. Fans of his, which of his books should I read first? Thanks!

Love, Susie

P.S. Just in case I wasn't clear yet: Taste is subjective. You-know-who is NOT a genius. Period. And even if we were talking about people who have true genius in their art like John Keats or A.C. Swinburne or Jane Austen or Oscar Wilde or George Eliot or Buster Keaton or Peter Jackson or La Blanchett or Orson Welles, it would never excuse or negate or even be relevant to how they conduct the rest of their lives. And that's the last word. Thank you, and good night.  ; )

^Thank you liz_marks for giving me today's Word of the Day! I love it!

( Subject line, satire, humanism, etc. )

( morality, cynicism, law enforcement )
Compassion is the only Virtue,
Cruelty is the only Sin.

It's simple, and it feels right to me. Of course, it bears some explaning, so that the terms are understood, but I think that is an easy guide. Cruelty is quite specific here, meaning (to me) the intentional causing of suffering in another being. Therefore, if it takes a deer five minutes to suffocate when killed by a mountain lion, that is not cruelty, because the mountain lion kills as quickly as it can with the tools it has. Likewise, dogs, with only jaws as weapons, must necessarily be a little gruesome in dispatching their prey, but again, they do the best they can, and I'm certain intend no cruelty. And deer themselves mean no cruelty when they take a few leaves here and there from the plants they eat. A human, with greater tools and resources, cannot avoid killing to survive, so killing itself is not cruel. Prolonging the pain of another for your own perverse gratification is. Thus we act accordingly to do the best we can. Kind words do more good than anything else in the world. I know I rant and rave sometimes when human depravity pushes me over the edge. That is the fault of the cyclical nature of the world around me. But every day, I try to do better.

Love, Susie

( Footnotes )

Defense Attorney: This party you had…tell us about it.

 

 

( Part Three )

Yes, the humor is rather bleak. And yes, this is unedited. I'll edit it tomorrow. :)

 

Prosecutor: Prosecution calls Detective Rodriguez. Detective, could you tell us about this case, please?

 

 

( Part Two )

 

A person pleads guilty to drugging and raping a child, then complains when the “mean” judge sentences him to time in prison. This person, being wealthy and having wealthy and (for unknown reasons) powerful friends, goes to another country to evade his sentence. If you knew and loved someone before he did such a heinous thing, would you forgive him? What if you met him afterwards? Would you aid and abet him in running from the law, even knowing that he was guilty? It’s not an easy scenario to imagine, and is one of those where you’d have to actually be in that situation before you made a decision. And any decision you made might haunt you forever.

 

HOWEVER! Would you sign a petition asking for the freedom (i.e. non-incarceration) of your friend once justice had at last been done? That seems beyond tasteless to me.

 

News Flash! Movie People Have An Overinflated Sense of Self-Importance!

 

Speaking as someone who makes a (not very good) living sitting in her room playing with her imaginary friends, and who talks to herself for fun, I know about overinflated senses of importance. But, a number of these unreasonably-admired persons have signed just such a petition, apparently because the “nasty” Swiss (their effing cheese has holes in it for God’s sake!) dared to disturb a…film festival? WTF? Seriously. As this commenter on ONTD (Oh No They Didn't) said: “It sounds like they're more upset that the ~sanctity~ of film festivals has been torn asunder. I didn't realize that they are the ancient Olympics of our times when old grievances and wars are to be put aside so we can focus on the competition.”

 

And apparently, this person “deserves” to be “free” because he is a “genius.” The [expletive] he is! Excuse me, but the law does not (Or should not) judge the life of a person, it judges the circumstances of a crime. And believe me, no one is going to be debating his work outside of film school in another generation. And his “tragic” life story in no way justifies his crimes (Dear God!!), because, as this person  said so beautifully: “How can something be part of "having suffered enough" if it happened *before* you committed your crime? That's like saying if I suffer a tragedy I now have karma in the bank that gives me license to go out and inflict pain on others -- a horrible "pay it forward" doctrine about tragedy if I've ever heard one, and one that, if everyone followed it, would ensure that human suffering remained truly endless.” Also, what she said. Exactly.

 

I am especially saddened to see some of my very favorite film-makers on this List of Asshats , as well as actors whose work I have enjoyed in the past. The only thing I can think is that they don’t know the message they are sending, which is that they are the most Privileged Bunch of Self-Centered Narcissists ever to sully the Earth and that they Don’t Care About Anyone But Themselves.

 

Who cares if the judge "just wanted to make an example of him"? Make a bleeding example of him! Hang the [expletive] from the nearest tree. His movies are [expletive].

 

Not that that matters.

 

And because I’m thinking about miscarriages of justice (damn! I was hoping not to use loaded, sex-linked terms like that), here’s a satire which, if I do say so myself, I think is rather good…though long, obviously. I’d hate to see the media coverage of this case. ; P

 

 

( Part One )

Sorry about this, folks. I also have pictures of the SNOW today and more. Next time.

 

Act Two:

Scene One: In which Susie meets the Former President of a South American Country and gives The Impovrished School Teacher a book and a drawing of a bison. Followed by being trapped in the dungeon with Mr. and Mrs. Wildlife Biologist and Count Dad. They are forced, by the ravenous alligators, to watch Major League Baseball. Hilarity ensues.

Ravenous alligators?

Look, you know, I get caught up in writing a story and I forget to feed and water the alligators. Reptiles can go weeks without eating!

If you could meet any former president of a South American country, which one would it be?

I don't know, I haven't thought about it. As it happens, I met this one.

Which book?

Which book do you think? Yeah. I told The Impovrished School Teacher that if he didn't like it I wouldn't be offended. I don't think he believed me. Damn it! I've got to publish The Comedy! I want to show people how good my writing can be! And give them something to laugh about, because frankly, that other one is a little...morbid.

As opposed to L&W?

OK, L&W is a bit morbid. You see, I think writing is like catch-and-release fishing. Torturing your characters a bit and then letting them go makes for good entertainment.  ; )  Also, I'm really excited about the magic in this one! Really! In fact, I'm excited about all of it and think it's the best thing I've ever done, which is why I'm panicking. Makes perfect sense.  ; )

Love! Susie

This morning (I desperately wanted to say tomorrow, but American Samoa is just east of the International Date Line), between Samoa (or Western Samoa if you are an American Samoan) and American Samoa there was an earthquake of magnitude between 7.9 and 8.3 (depending on whom you ask)*, creating a** tsunami traveling outward in three basic directions. This caused considerable damage in Samoa and neighboring islands, and has resulted in a tsunami watch in many places including Hawai'i. To put it in perspective, that earthquake in the Indian Ocean in 2004 that caused that huge tsunami in Indonesia was a magnitude 9.0-9.3 (again, depending on the source) and the scale they use is exponential, so a 9.0 is ten times more powerful than an 8.0. But an 8.0 earthquake is still massive and capable of causing significant damage to buildings that are not specially designed for earthquakes.*** However, I doubt (due to the distance) that we'll be thankful for our flood insurance on the Beach House today. The tsunami will reach (if it will reach) Hawai'i within the next hour, so we'll see.

This has me thinking about irony a little. The Pacific, despite its name, has to be one of the most volatile places in the world, with many volcanoes and many earthquakes as well as all those other wonderful oceanic phenomena like hurricaines and tsunami and giant squid...I mean, um...^  : )  And yet...we know so much more about it than we did even a few decades ago. Thanks to computer modeling and new monitoring technologies, people can track the expected course and speed of a tsunami, and of course warn people of the danger...in places that have good warning systems, that is, something which really is another topic of discussion. Anyway, I'm getting philosophical, so I'd better stop now.  : )

In other watery news, a beaver (or more than one, hard to say at this point) has built a dam under a bridge in our neighborhood! I find this extremely exciting! Of course my damn neighbors are going to complain. I say, if it floods the road, think about removing the dam and preventing the beavers from rebuilding. Until then, let autumn beavers build their lodges! Of course the bloody neighbors also kill porcupines^^ and BADGERS (!!!!!). (Why, God? WHY??!!!!) But these beavers are on community property this time, and I'm not going to stand for any harassment! So there.  : P

Anyway, we seem to be hosting another event at our house tonight... (Yeah, I know I haven't talked about the last one, but really, there's not much to tell. Red and I played "Harvest Time" in the basement^^^)  I have so much I still want to post about! But I have to make my bed before people see it.  ; )  For those of you who are interested, I have reached the stage I call Intermittent Panic on L&W. I should be over that soon. Meanwhile, the aspens are golden, the cottonwoods are bare, the chokecherries are red, and I suddenly discovered a huge growth of currants/gooseberries on the hillside! Who knew they were there? The elk have not been visiting us much this year.

Oh yeah! I've also been watching the new Ken Burns documentary on PBS about the history of the National Parks. It's really good, though I wish the darn narrator would stop using the word "buffalo." Seriously, what is the purpose of using that word to refer to Bison bison? I don't get it, and it really, really bugs me. "Pronghorn antelope" bugs me too, but I'm more willing to forgive that since it's a revelation to meet someone who's heard of pronghorns at all, but it ought to bug me more. Seriously, using the wrong word for those two species diminishes the greatest and most unique part of our natural heritage! You don't know how amazing pronghorns are! And now I've rambled far long enough.

Love (Save The Beavers!!!), Susie

*And they never say what scale they're using! I think it's because they don't know. There seems to be some confusion here. ANYWAY...
**three??
***Our house in Wyoming, for example, is designed to weather without structural damage an 8.0 earthquake, the expectation being that the Teton fault will not produce anything bigger than about a 7. That's wishful thinking, of course.  ; )
^Technically that's about the evil relative of the giant squid, the octopus. No, really. Look at the facts presented in that informative website! They wouldn't put anything on the internet that wasn't true!!
^^Which they of course bait first by planting little spruce trees in their yards.  >(
^^^Seriously, socialist agricultural propaganda games...This one's really cute, though. You plant carrots and tomatoes and peas and corn (?) in your little plot, even as autumn settles in, and then you harvest them before it snows! And you help other players plant and harvest their fields too!! OK, I need a life...

I have a couple of long, thoughtful posts in mind about writing, publishing, George Orwell, and health care (not necessarily in order), but I'm not going to post those yet because today is Coach To Cure MD Day.

I don't understand American Football, I don't like professional sports in academia, I don't use a cell-phone and have never texted, BUT!

Here's the Coach to Cure MD website for more information. And here's a widget you can share:



And those of you who can, text "CURE" to 90999 to donate $5 to Parent Project MD (I hope you texters know what that means). Click on "Get In The Game" on the Coach to Cure website for more information about that.

And everyone who watches College Football, look for the coaches wearing Coach To Cure armbands and for the commercial telling you more. And let me know if you do!

The Parent Project is the best organization going for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This is an easy way to give them some support, and a way to encourage both phone companies and TV stations that this kind of charitable event is a good idea.

And for a little more motivation, here's PrairieDawn's blog with pictures of Rain trying out tiny walkers and wheelchairs. (Very cute pictures!!)

( The Great Bear And The Little Bear Went Over The Mountain )
Well, that was a tangent! And in fact, I expect Callisto and Arcas were not, in fact, turned into black bears. But it's a good song. So, I was looking over some old book reviews I've done on this Journal, and I noticed that I said once I'd write a review for Possession by A.S. Byatt. Well, I never did, in part, I think because I didn't remember it well enough by the time I had the time to write the review. In fact it's a book that has stuck with me pretty well, over all, and I liked it, over all. Well, that's not quite true.

For the first third I was completely stunned, amazed, in awe, jealous even. In the second third, I became more critical of it, noticing how the American scholar didn't sound American, one of the Dead Poets was too much like Emily Dickinson, the other too much like Robert Browning, some plot points altogether too convenient. But that was because I liked it so much. By the end, I thought, "that was a really good book. I could totally do that."

And that's my point today. Not that I think I will write a book that good (and that well-received), but that I could write good poetry and a good story and do interesting things with language and point of view. This is relevant because one of the main characters in L&W is a Dead Poet, and his work features prominantly in the life of the protagonist and in the book. This fact, as well as the slow reveal of the past, is bringing Possession into my mind lately, though, of course, the actual story of L&W* is very different.

The other thing that it made me want to do was write Victorian-style poetry on Greek mythology, which is the real purpose of today's post. Naturally, I chose the Delosian Maid and Actaeon as my subjects. Unfortunately, I only finished the first part (being a multi-part epic poem).

Actaeon

( Prologue )
L&W quote of the day: "The body does not know the heart." Spoken by Cinnamon. Yes, that's her real name. Just you wait. It's awesome. ; )

Love, Susie

*We're still playing that game, by the way. "Real" Title of the Day is: Nixies of the Tetons! Unless it's Nights on the Tigris, or... Nuptial Odes That Traumatize!

Brilliant (and short) article from Salon. Consider carrying a whistle! Seriously, though, I have often found that the most important points are best conveyed by means of humor. This is absolutely true, and I ask you all to pass this on to your friends. Sometimes you just need to hear something a little differently for it all to click into place in your mind.

I've been working on L&W*, and thinking about my writing in general, partly because I can't write the next scene until I make up a sport for my characters to play. I was thinking about this since I made that List Of Everything I've Ever Written Over 5,000 Words or whatever it was, and also, recently on the Urban Fantasy writers community Fangs, Fur, Fey, Jeri Smith-Ready asked members to look at their work and come up with a list of "5 signs you know a book was written by me."

I came up with five and Zibby added a couple. I'd like to know if anyone either a) has anything to add (which is unlikely, since most of you have not read most of my work) and (more importantly) b) if those of you who write notice trends like these and c) if those of you who read find some of these idiosyncrasies either draw you toward a writer's work or make you write off all works by a certain author.

( Not at all random or ridiculous! )
Love, Susie

*"Real" title acronym NOTT, which could stand for all kinds of stuff, actually, though it sadly does not feature Norse Mythology. : ( Um, North of the Tundra! Nancy on the Tram! Never Overfeed the Thylacine! OK, this is really fun. Leave a comment saying what you think NOTT stands for, or what it ought to stand for because it would be hilarious. Best possible title in the comments wins a prize!

1. My littlest nepot Rain has taken at least one step unassisted by furniture, and apparently, just today crawled! OMG! No tiny wheelchairs for you, Rainboy!

2. Just found another YA Fantasy of 2010 to anticipate... Here's the author's official website. Here's the most hilarious video ever (after a brief ad). Here's an extremely imformative page that will lead to other extremely informative pages; I know because I just spent hours reading them.

And because I've been spending WAY too much time in the early 19th Century lately:

3. There is a thing going around on Facebook of "15 books that will always stick with you" (OK, who put the rubber cement on all the book covers??) that sonya_haydid and tagged me on. But that was too hard (and too vague), so instead, I give you:

TEN Children's Picture Books That Warped Me For Life:

( Wombats in Rocket Ships!!!! Also elephant birthday parties, hippos, sea monsters, and more!! )

Love and three kisses! Susie

*Watermelon, small porcupines in the bathtub.

Apologies in advance for incoherence, due to exhaustion, gluttony, and possibly alcohol.

Is the warning really necessary?

I have been known to take sudden extravagant tangents. I don't want to be liable for mental whiplash.

Very sensible. Now then, what kind of wildlife day did you have yesterday?

Pretty darn good, I'd say. Especially if you like moose.

I love moose! Tell me more!

I'm sorry, all discourse on your end must be in the form of a question. That's sort of the nature of the game. Like Jeopardy!

I'm not going there, sorry.

Oh come on! I'll take large ungulates of the northern hemisphere for 200, Susie! It's fun!

You always have really obscure questions.

You mean answers.

Right. And you talk to yourself.

I do not!

You write to yourself anyway.

SHH!!!!! No one's supposed to know!!!

Right. Moving on. You were listing mammals.

And birds!

And birds. Does this count as surrealism?

Hey! No asking a question before I've answered the previous one!

Well, we started off the day with a cow moose and calf in the driveway. Then we drove into Grand Teton National Park for the afternoon and evening and saw lots of pronghorns (including crossing the road in front of us) and bison, and also a moose. We drove up to Slide Lake and heard pikas and were told there was a colony of about 90 nearby, but didn't see them because there was a large school group there. Not too many birds, although the yellow-rumped warblers are about in high numbers, fattening up along their migration route. Then we took a walk at Schwabaker's Landing (don't even begin to ask if I spelled that right!) where I saw a moose, and much more excitingly (despite the hoard of amateur photographers about), a garter snake, ducks (one gadwall, one (I think!) blue-winged teal, and tons of mallards, all in eclipse plumage, but freshly flighted), and a juvenile (born this year) sharp-shinned hawk, which I'm guessing was a female, by the size. Then we drove to the Oxbow Bend where we saw, um, a moose, and cormorants and one osprey (they should be going south soon), then to the Dam where a third-year bald eagle was eating a big trout in a tree branch directly over the road, accompanied by a raven and a magpie (oh yes, I had been awakened by magpies on the roof that morning also), and mergansers (common, females and young, flighted). We stopped by the new enormous (!!) beaver lodge on Cottonwood Creek where we saw mama mule deer with her two fawns and one really big beaver! Then we had a picnic dinner with a very nice family of grey jays and some red squirrels (we saw lots of chipmunks too), and then enjoyed evening entertainment in the form of bugling elk and howling coyotes. And then we drove home where we saw...

A moose?

No. A porcupine.  : )  An excellent day.

On Wednesday, we went on a float down the Snake for the sake of our guests, and the guide (who was younger than I am) had the gall to disagree with me about ducks! Honestly. Rather dampened my morning, to tell the truth. But it did inspire me to thumb through my favorite reference books again and I learned (or rather, relearned) that screamers eat water plants and have vestigial lamellae. Neat. Also, magpie-geese have hooked beaks and only semi-webbed toes. Weird birds, those.

But this morning was much more pleasant because we went to the Raptor Center (you can "Friend" them via "Owlie" on Facebook) and met the New Guy and all his spectacular falcons (and one red-tailed hawk). I learned that all species of falcon can hybridize (in captivity, via artificial insemination apparently), but produce sterile offspring. Also, Eastern red-tailed hawks are substantially larger (like 1/5-1/4 larger) than the Western subspecies which we have around here. Which is impressive because Ruby the resident red-tail is huge. Also, never thought about this either, but tiny owls eat insects. Saw-whets apparently mostly go for moths and beetles. And owls are far-sighted like cats. And apparently often miss while hunting. ALSO! You can buy a tag to capture a less-than-one-year-old-but-already-independent wild raptor, train it, keep it, and hunt with it until its third year and then release back into the wild. New Guy has a wild gyrfalcon and a wild golden eagle! He also has a gorgeous female goshawk and a Eurasian eagle owl. And breeds captive hybrid falcons, which I have very mixed feelings about.

Then we went out to dinner (which was delicious) and saw a mouse cross the road, then a few feet beyond that saw a fox about to cross the road. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.  ; )

Also looked at fossil fish, which is fascinating. And I'm exhausted, as the picture shows. Oh yeah, spoon...well, we had spoons with dessert. We were all a little giddy by then. It may or may not be as interesting in your imagination as the fox-and-mouse scenario.

Much love and MOOSE!!  Susie

Lepusdomesticus, 100% whine-free for 3.7 days!!  ; )

Apart from that wonderful news, I also have a little information for you Facebook users.

There is a thing happening on Facebook right now called Vote For A Cause. The winner of the voting (which goes through Sep. 20) will get $50,000 worth of free advertising from Intel, meaning, I suppose, Intel will have a little note about the organization and its support thereof in all its advertising for a month or something. It doesn't sound like much, but it could raise awareness.

They're already in Round 4 with only 4 charities remaining in the running. Out of loyalty, I am voting for PPMD which is the Parent Project Muscular Dystropy association who are the biggest and best charity for Duchenne research and advocacy. However, I'm sure all the others are worthy causes, too. It's a very easy way to feel like you're doing something good. And, while you're there, you can "Friend" me! It's a win-win situation!  ; )

Right, I'm off to look at art in my fabulous new clothes.

Love, Susie

...that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Northanger Abbey doesn't have so memorable an opening line, but it starts off in a very funny way, setting the tone instantly, as well as perfectly introducing the heroine Catherine Morland. Of her, we learn that she's a girl who plays cricket, is absolutely ordinary in talent and appearance, and, most especially, loves to read very bad novels.
 
( Perfect Happiness and Filial Disobedience )
I'm sure I'll think of more later.   : )

Love, Susie

*Though at the moment I can't think of any faults in the two youngest Tilneys...  ; )

POLL!!!!!

Poll #1457378 Language and Writing Poll with silly questions thrown in
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Oooh! What kind of pie?

Which of the following is a series (check all that apply)

Each book in the series should, ideally

Cliffhanger endings to books are

My ideal situation, a la a Jane Austen heroine is

The best thing about Henry Tilney is (check all that apply)

Fandom terms like gen, slash, and AU

The last question was a debate I was having with Zibby, and we felt we needed more opinions. I'll be back soon with a post about Northanger Abbey! I loved it just as much in the end as I did in the beginning, and also, Best Last Line Ever, yes?

Love, Susie

Right, remember when I said something about how "reviews" and "writing theory" were different tags and the entries I used them on were written by different parts of my brain? Well, that's true, but...See, these may look like book reviews, but in fact, I'm using my feelings about these books to jump into writerly thoughts. Really. Sort of. ANYWAY. Book Thoughts:

1. Recently read YA Fantasy: Eon by Alison Goodman. This is the first half of a two-part saga whose second part is scheduled to come out in 2010. The author, trivially, is also Australian. Both of these points are good segues into #2. This was the book I read immediately after that book that disgusted me so much, and was a really good antidote in many ways. Eon is by no means a perfect book; the writing rambles and the book could have been half as long and lost nothing of the detail or the story, and the plot was not the most intricate or complex, but there are so many things I love so very much about this book that I really don't care about the problems.

( No real spoilers and thoughts on series, also Howl's Moving Castle )
2. "Grown-up" Fantasy. I've now read all five published novels of Temeraire. This relates because Book 6 is not due out until 2010 also, and is set to take place in Australia. Here's the thing: Naomi Novik has never once taken these books in the direction I expected, and I have never once been sorry to follow her wherever she wanted to go UNTIL...

( Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, I'm Moving To Australia )

3. The book I'm currently half-way through is Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. I am attempting to remedy the very dire problem that I have only read two of Austen's books (Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I read half of Emma years ago (don't ask) and plan to start that one afresh next...or close to next. And I have seen many of the many, many, many movie versions. I've never heard of a movie version of NA, though. There must be at least one and so far I think it would make a very good one.).
 
( Men who are entirely too concerned with ladies' fashion )

Love, Susie

( Despicable Grammar, Dan Brown, Marsupial Dragons...OK, not really the last one, but close. )

1. A nasty essay, tempered by Sherwood Smith's reaction, which I agree with wholeheartedly. The comments are pretty good, too. But this got me rereading the opening of The Comedy and obsessing about it. See, on...Wednesday (?), I got a request from an agent* for the first 50 pages.

I had an agent request 50 pages of The Splitting of the World, too**, so I fear I'm not very optimistic. In fact, I'm not very optimistic about anything, ever. Just call me Eeyore.

However, my mom keeps saying things like:

Mom: Wow, this address is on a really famous street in New York City.
Susie: Really?
Mom: Oh yeah. Oh, Susie, and he asked to see 50 pages?
Susie: Um...yeah.
Mom: That's so exciting!
Susie: Is it?
Mom: Of course it is!
Susie: Well, I'm not very optimistic about it. I mean, everyone else has rejected it so far.
Mom: It only takes one, kid.***
Susie: Thanks, Mom!
Mom: When**** this publisher...
Susie: ...Agent.
Mom: Right. When this book gets published, even your father will be proud of you.*****
Susie: Thanks, Mom?

2. But my good mood was dashed by rampant paranoia when I saw this, again courtesy of sartorias. Agents who Google prospective authors...OH MY GODS!!! It's times like these when I almost wish I had a common name so I could pretend I'm not actually the crazy person in the results... But, a few things: One, For a while, one of the top results of Googling "Susie Haberfeld" was a rather awful thing somebody I know wrote about me that a) I couldn't believe someone would say in public and b) was not true. I hoped this Journal and other things would push that back a few pages. Two, more recently, a top hit was The Splitting of the World, hallelujah. I only wish I had more writing credits that would turn up also, which means I really ought to try to publish some short stories, eh? Three, I am not ashamed of anything I've said online. HOWEVER, that being said, my past 40 Journal entries have been incredibly infrequent, whiney, personal, and boring. I'm sorry about that, no matter how good the reason, and I resolve now to post as many interesting posts as possible before someone finds this Journal and decides they hate me on principle. ALTHOUGH, that being said, I am always honest, therefore I cannot change myself and I'm unlikely to want to work with people who hate me anyway. But I will try to be a little more careful.

Related to this: I have recently been throwing around words like "my brilliant short story" and "best book ever" and "Genius." OK, the last one never applied to me, and the other two...Well, we all have to love our own work, and for me, saying things like that is a way to combat the self-doubt. When I read over the 50 pages, I was so pleased! I hadn't looked at them in about a month and I LOL'd bunches and was quite pleased with myself for writing such good stuff. The next day when I looked at it again, after reading the above links, I was horrified. I'd never seen such awful drivel and any minute now I would be revealed as the fraud I am and might as well just quit writing (and probably living) now. Reason suggests that the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes. My new ambition is to be comfortably midlist somewhere, so I can touch a few fans and not draw the ire of people whose taste does not run toward my work.

3. In terms of more positive blogging to come, I am currently working on the next installment of Celluloid Reduction! It looks to be quite long, and hopefully very funny, although, frankly, the most hilarious part of the whole self-parodying movie was purely visual and that won't (by its nature) be conveyed in the Reduction. You had to be there.^^

4. Whilst walking one day last week, I had the most brilliant idea ever! Frustrated as I was by my continuing state of under-published-ness, I envisioned a better way for authors and agents to find one another that would produce less humiliation, rage, animosity, and counter-productiveness. Because, of course, the querying process pits authors and agents as enemies, while in reality they are allies. So, I said to Zibby (who was visiting), what if there were a website where unpublished authors could post their novels? There could be a segment where they could get support and critiques to help them grow, and maybe forums (fora?) where they could discuss the craft of writing. Then, there would also be a public space where anyone could read the work and vote on it, since voting is so popular these days. Then agents looking for new talent would simply browse by genre and popularity whenever they wanted to take on a new client. No more queries, no more wasted time! It would be an Authors Market, when writers would simply put their work out there and agents would shop for what they wanted. Everyone would be happy! But who would pay for it? Zibby asked. Advertising, I said, for it must be free for writers. But all the advertising would be book-related, so it wouldn't be offensive. This is the best idea ever! I have to figure out how to do it! Post about it to your blog, said Zibby.

Readers, I swear to Thoth I had no idea this existed. Here are the FAQ for more. p_a_morningstar sent me the links the very day after I'd had my epiphany. Although I was slightly disappointed to discover that I am not, in fact, as brilliant as I thought I was, I'm now thinking I really ought to register. Let's wait until I've gotten back all possible rejections, but then, I'm definitely doing it. I think it's the wave of the future.

Love, Susie

P.S. My next resolution will be to always use an LJ cut, but I didn't want any casual readers to miss any of this.  ; )

*Yes, this was the Agent Who Did Not Understand Fairies. I'll get back to that with point 2 above, but I want to say that I don't mean that name to be insulting in any way. I mean, I queried him, didn't I? And not just because I'm desperate, but because he is looking for YA and certainly considers YA Fantasy. Still, I need to think more about how my tone comes across to people who don't know me. More of that in point 2.

**I blog because I like to. I'm not here to sell that book. But I will talk about it occasionally, because I do think about it every now and then. Naturally.

***Sometimes mothers are full of wise aphorisms like this.  : )

****And they say "when" just when you need them to.  ; )

*****And sometimes they say things like this.  :  P  Also, nobody get the wrong impression about this statement. I'm no Bella Swan.^

^Those books are so easy to make fun of! Seriously, see point 3.

^^Yes, we watched Twilight, LIVE! Yes, the scene in question is when Carlisle turns Edward into a sparklepire. Zibby and I laughed so hard we couldn't breathe, tears flowed from our eyes, we howled like spotted hyenas, we laughed so hard we almost died and rose from the grave still laughing. The movie was absolutely, one hundred percent, worth renting for that scene ALONE. It was not quite hysterical enough for me to consider buying the bloody thing, but I felt my $4.17 rental fee was very well spent.  ; )