Songs That Go With Books

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In the wake of the release of Cold Fire, two different readers have (independently) written to me with songs they felt captured the emotion of the often tumultuous relationship between Cat and Andevai. One, in California, suggested I listen to “White Blank Page” by Mumford & Sons. An Aussie recommended “Draw Your Swords” by Angus & Julia Stone. Not only do I think both songs work in terms of emotional resonance, but I also like both (and now have them on my computer so I can listen to them over and over again).

I do have an extensive playlist of music to create mood as I write. And I realize that not all writers can or wish to write with music on, nor should they need to; that’s not what I’m discussing here.

I’m interested in songs whose lyrics or tonal qualities evoke a moment or emotion or relationship from a book.

Is there a song or are there songs that specifically create that feeling for you? For one of your own books? Or for books (and characters) you’ve read? And if so, in what way or for what aspect?

NaNoWriMo:

Cold Steel: 445 — Short of goal, but I also now know how to fix the sequence I’m writing, which I’ll start rewriting tomorrow.

Secondary Project #2: 793 — I’m poking at several secondary projects; I’ve had a really hard year and I’m experimenting with writing a selection of opening sequences in different styles and approaches to get my flow back.

Project List: 564 — Not fiction but synopses for three projects.

That’s just shy of my overall goal of 2000 words, but I’ll take it.

Cold Fire Word Cloud & NaNoWriMo Day 1 (2011)

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For the first day of NaNoWriMo I offer up the Cold Fire Word Cloud. Click through to see the Cold Fire Wordle

Today included some discussion of the problem of too much research and/or worldbuilding bogging down stories. It’s received wisdom, and I think reasonably true, that YA calls for less world building on the page. My one concern about that is that by stripping out too much world building in an sffh YA setting, one unintended result is that the setting smooths more and more into a default generic American or Euro/Am.

Wordage:

1250 on Cold Steel (for the first day after a week off as I get back into the flow, that’s decent; I’m aiming for 2K/day).

850 on my new secondary project, which I’m doing in part to write something I have no expectations of, so I can get more relaxed into writing for the pure pleasure of working on a story for the delight of the process. This does NOT mean I don’t enjoy writing Cold Steel. It’s just that writing the first draft of Cold Steel has a lot more built in pressure because of expectations raised by the first two books.

NaNoWriMo. Plus signed copies of Spiritwalker books

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I’m going to participate on a parallel track in NaNoWriMo (more on that later) and also try to post something about writing every day in this blog, answering questions I haven’t gotten to yet, discussing world building, or just a short snippet of something I’ve been thinking about regarding the art and craft of writing.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them here, now, or later, or on Twitter or Facebook or via email.

 

FYI: While at World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, I signed copies of both Cold Magic and Cold Fire as well as rare copies of a printed pamphlet version of Bonus Chapter 31.5 (there aren’t many of these). So if you want, contact Mysterious Galaxy Books, Borderlands Books, or Larry Smith Bookseller.

What are you reading?

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Travel day!

I’m reading Sherwood Smith’s Banner of the Damned, still in manuscript. I’m reading to make comments. Smith’s writing in this novel shows a writer at the height of her powers: beautiful prose plus a bone deep understanding of the cultures through which her characters travel. A novel like this one could be required reading in world building. I believe it’s due for publication in 2012.

Because reading to comment (beta-reading) is a different kettle of fish from reading for pleasure, I’m also reading J. Damask’s  Wolf At The Door (urban fantasy set in Singapore by a Singaporean writer) and Noble Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee’s memoir (with Carol Mithers) Mighty Be Our Powers.

 

What are you reading? And why?

WFC, a signing & meetup in San Diego, Cold Steel

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I’m going to be in San Diego next week for World Fantasy Convention (Oct 27 – 30).

#1  If you’re in the area, I will be at the Open House at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego on Wed 26 Oct from 630 – 830 pm.

This open house is not a WFC convention event. Anyone can attend, & bring books to be signed (do check the policy for how many books you can bring into the store since there will be a number of authors attending and they need to expedite the process). As always, it helps independent bookstores to survive in a difficult economy if you buy a book there as well, but it is not required.

I will have copies of the paper pamphlet version of the Bonus Chapter from COLD FIRE to sign and give away. (Also at the WFC autographing session, mentioned below, and the meetup.)

#2  I am also scheduling a meetup at 3:30 pm on Friday 28 October. Meet outside the Sunshine Deli on the grounds of the WFC hotel, the Town and Country. This is an informal meetup for whomever shows up, and I don’t expect there to be more than a couple people, so it’s really a chance to visit (as compared to the open house at Mysterious Galaxy, which will be crowded). I’ll answer questions, maybe read a snippet from Cold Steel, and we’ll talk writing and books (I’ll sign books if you bring them). This is not a convention event; if you’re in the area and want to come by, just do so (no badge necessary).

#3 My WFC Schedule:

I have one panel: 1 pm Friday 28 October: The Crystal Ceiling: Women in Fantasy, with Charlaine Harris, Malinda Lo, Nancy Kilpatrick, & Jane Kindred. I’m not scheduled for a reading.

Like all authors, I’ll be attending the autographing on Friday night from 8 – 10 pm.

 

#4  As many if not all of you already know, Cold Fire was released last month in trade paperback and ebook (together with the bonus chapter), and Cold Magic is now available in mass market paperback and somewhat less expensive ebook.

A generous reader (from Spain!) has sent me a downloadable mobi version of the Bonus Chapter (done by her spouse) which I will make available soon, but it won’t be until next month just because of my schedule.

I haven’t forgotten about the Rory short story. It’s about 3/4rds done and will be announced here and on Twitter and Facebook when it’s complete.

I’m still at work on Cold Steel, and I will update about progress here when I have more to tell.

Also, a general thank you to my readers for your kind comments here, in email, and on Twitter & Facebook. I genuinely love hearing from you all. Writing is an oddly isolated and isolating activity, and I think it can seem at times that one is writing into a huge silence. Social media has begun to change that: There are good and bad sides to this: Online provides a terrible distraction when one is procrastinating or discouraged, but against that it is possible to interact more widely and all the way around the world. I think that is the coolest thing of all.

A Real Unreal Place: Sherwood Smith’s CORONETS AND STEEL and BLOOD SPIRITS

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I love to read, and I particularly love to read novels that transport me to a place I normally could not go. This is one reason I read very little mainstream contemporary fiction or, indeed, much fiction at all set in the present day where I live. If I do read present-day-era fiction, it often contains what I’ll call a “genre” element, that is, something that sets it one or two or ten steps apart from “ordinary life” or, at least, the life I live in the USA.

Because another element I really love in novels is landscape: I enjoy visiting places I have never been or may never be able to go.

Sherwood Smith is one of my favorite world builders. Her Inda quadology is set in a secondary fantasy world (one not connected to this world) so fully imagined that I almost feel I have walked there. And that’s besides the well drawn characters and the complex, gripping plots.

In her Ruritanian fantasies CORONETS AND STEEL and BLOOD SPIRITS, Smith brings this same ability to fully create a thoroughly real unreal place in our world.

I’m not going to write up a plot synopsis; you can get that elsewhere, I don’t want to introduce spoilers, but mostly I’m no good at and dislike writing up plot synopses whether of my own work or someone else’s. It’s a skill I don’t really have. Suffice to say that the main character and narrator, Kim, is a California girl who travels to a small, isolated Eastern/Central European principality. This principality does not actually exist (thus the Ruritanian aspect of the story) but after traveling to Dobrenica in Smith’s capable hands, one is sure it could.

Dobrenica feels so real that I believe I could buy a train ticket to go there or perhaps that I already had. In both summer and winter–although especially in winter–the city, landscape, cultural traditions, and history are so strikingly well defined that the country seems to be of a piece with European history while being entirely its own unique place. I breathed the winter air; the fountains and curious old local customs are both equally visible in my mind’s eye. The salon where Kim fences with people who may be her adversaries or may be her allies has as much heft and texture as if I had walked there myself.

And that is all besides the lovely story of lost princesses, secret history, vampires, political machinations, a thematic disquisition on the power and weight of duty and honor, and of course swordplay. Highly recommended.

Pregnancy & Childbirth in SFF

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Over at Tor.com, Kate Nepveu has written an interesting post about depictions of pregnancy and childbirth in sff.

 

I’m not great at coming up with examples on the fly (it takes me a while to sort through the bookshelves of my mind), but if you have examples either from work you’ve read or work you’ve yourself written, please go over there (or mention here and I’ll post it there) about sff that has non cliched or unusual depictions of pregnancy and/or childbirth and which don’t rely on the same few common tropes.

Ask Questions Here

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Periodically I like to open up a post specifically to invite people to ask me questions. They can be about anything, really, although I don’t guarantee to answer a question if I absolutely don’t want to . . .

I tend to answer the questions each in a separate post (as I tend to be long-winded).

Questions about the books, about characters, about writing, about outrigger canoe paddling, and so on are all welcome.

If you ask a question which could be construed to have spoilers, go ahead and ask, just FLAG it please for those readers who might prefer to avoid spoilers, forex (doesn’t need to follow this exact pattern):

My question (with SPOILERS) is about something that happens in Cold Fire (etc).

 

Finally, I hope to post a short review of Sherwood Smith’s duology Coronets & Steel, and Blood Spirits, this week, as well as an (overdue) installment of my Avatar: The Last Airbender watch. Next up is episode 7, I think. And I am thinking of running a contest as well because I got a box of books in.