(no subject)

[mrockwell]

Writing

First off, thanks to everyone for their condolences, both public and private, RE: the book cancellation. I was one of many to get that particular brand of bad news this week, and luckier than some, in that my novel was only 30% complete.

Still, in some ways, I think the folks who turned in completed novels were better off. At least they got their stories out of their heads. I keep finding myself coming up with lines of dialogue, cool details and plot points, and then remembering "Oh, yeah...no more book." And, no, I can't really recycle any of it, as it was all very setting-specific and, in any case, I don't own the IP. I'm just hoping it will get out of my system soon so I can move on to something else.

In other news, I did not win a Rhysling Award for the third year in a row, but these fine people did:

2008 Rhysling Short Poem Award: "Eating Light" by F.J. Bergmann (from Mythic Delirium)
2nd Place: "Ice Palace" by Margaret Atwood (from The Door)
3rd Place: "The Oracle on River Street" by Rachel Swirsky (from Goblin Fruit)

2008 Rhysling Long Poem Award: "The Seven Devils of Central California" by Catherynne M. Valente (from Farrago's Wainscot)
2nd Place: "In Deepspace Shadows" by Kendall Evans (Mythic Delirium Books)
3rd Place: "The Engineer" by Bryan Dietrich (from Isotope)

Grand Master Award: Ray Bradbury

Congrats to all!

Everything Else

Still trying to process the week that was. Watched some movies (Vantage Point was good, The Ruins sucked, Jumper was meh, and The Spiderwick Chronicles was fun for the kids) and started in on my To Be Read pile (The Name of the Wind, which started off by annoying me with the author's usage of "efficient" and "efficiency" twenty times in as many pages -- hello? It's called a thesaurus). Since, you know, I have time for that stuff now.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't even think about the "turning off" part... You need a new project. If my revisions were done and ready to be beta read (or is that gamma read?), I'd send it over so you could vent and poke holes in it. :)

Do you have any thing on the backburner? Some story or character that has been tickling your imagination, waiting for attention?

[saetter.livejournal.com]

Step 1: First log in
Step 2: Then respond to blog post...
Step 3: Doing steps 1 and 2 will negate the need to perform step 3, which is to log in and confess his inability to follow directions.

RE: Name of the Wind
I haven't read it, but I did flip through it in the bookstore. Not very impressed, especially with all the acolades it's been getting. The same thing with Winterbirth. I read the prologue and didn't feel anything drawing my to read on. Neither "voice" jump out at me. Let me know if your feeligs on NofW change as you continue reading.

[mrockwell.livejournal.com]

In addition to repetitive words (a pet peeve of mine -- the language is so rich, there's no need to resort to the same words over and over again), the other thing that REALLY bugs me about this book so far is the "poetry." Okay, I get that it's supposed to be sung, but come on. If you're going to use rhyme, you have GOT to have at least a rudimentary grasp of meter, and that is something Rothfuss is SORELY lacking. Gah!

[dkolodji.livejournal.com]

Hi Marcy,

I'm so sorry about the book cancellation.

As for the Rhysling awards, maybe 2009 is your year to win one?

[mrockwell.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Deb.

RE: the Rhyslings -- I was just being facetious. I never expect to get nominated, let alone to win, heh.