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| Thursday, July 9th, 2009 |
delux_vivens
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11:43p |
Panna Cotta à la mangue
 Ingrédients : 400 g de chair de mangue 100 ml de lait demi-écremé 400 ml de crème liquide 50 g de sucre semoule 6 feuilles de gélatine du beurre pour graisser les ramequins. ( Etapes : ) |
unusualmusic
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11:53p |
towards a pro-choice license plate for florida...
United for Choice:nspiring informed decisions through educationUnited for Choice, Inc. is the organization representing a committed group of individuals focusing our efforts on the design and application for a Pro-Choice specialty license plate for Florida vehicles. Currently, Floridians have about 100 different automobile license plate designs from which to choose, and each one purchased contributes to it’s specific cause. Nine years ago, the state of Florida approved the anti-choice plate, which as of February 2006, has more than 60,000 plates on the road has raised nearly $4,000,000 towards the anti-choice cause. Sales and renewals add about $70,000.00 every month. This money goes to so called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” clinics that distort reality and hide the truth from women. They take advantage of an uncomfortable and emotional situation to impart their scientifically unfounded beliefs. The omission and skewing of information is a LIE and telling women that abortion causes cancer or that it can prevent a woman from getting pregnant in the future are just some of the strategies used by anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers that receive money from the anti-choice plate. Pro-Choice motorists are currently denied the opportunity to express their views on a government issued, specialty license plate. The intent of our Pro-Choice License plate will be to fund agencies and organizations that provide information on all reproductive choices. Our plate will endow funds to empower women and men to take control of their reproductive lives. We will fund grants for comprehensive sex education, and give women better access to contraception. Florida has the 6th highest teen pregnancy rate and the 45th worst access to contraception, it is clear that we need more preventative measures in place in order to fully educate women and men about what “choice” can mean; Whether it is choosing to wear a condom, choosing to postpone sex, choosing not to become a parent until ready, or choosing to terminate a pregnancy.
Donate here if you are so inclined. Any Floridians on my list want to spread it around? |
unusualmusic
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11:26p |
recced fic!
Dear Daddy Kirk/McCoy Joanna/Savas (child Vulcan) Told entirely in subspace transmissions, total hilarity, slow evolution of relationship, and the latest chapter involves a completely LOL-inducing scene of intraship bartering! |
bossymarmalade
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6:37p |
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cmpriest
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8:59p |
July 9, 2009
Here’s today’s progress on the alternate-history battlefield adventure about a widowed nurse from a Confederate hospital aboard a west-bound train pulled by a Union war engine — now with military intrigue, steampunk Texas rangers, undead political separatists, murderous plots, bushwhackers, bandits, sabotage, and epic scenes of mayhem:
Project: Dreadnought
New Words: 3413 (not bad)
Present Total Word Count: 122,181 words
Goal: 140,000 words
Things Accomplished in Real Life: Did day-job work; cleaned house (even the floors); had drinks with Ellen; visited Caitlin’s cats; began work on secret internet project.
Darling du Jour: “The tunnel gaped and yawned, and devoured the great train slowly — incrementally — like one snake swallowing another.”
Reason for Stopping: Time to take a few minutes to work on secret internet project. Shhhh!
[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.] |
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nalohopkinson
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6:06p |
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cryptoxin
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8:49p |
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unusualmusic
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8:38p |
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obama_daily
[ ladypolitik ]
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8:23p |
( + ) |
| Friday, July 10th, 2009 |
catsparx
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10:35a |
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| Thursday, July 9th, 2009 |
malsperanza
|
8:09p |
Well, I thought this was funny. I'm putting it behind a cut in case it does that irritating thing of launching automatically. ( Flame War ) |
obama_daily
[ ladypolitik ]
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5:03p |
( + ) |
jenlyn_b
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6:49p |
Treasure!
I'm back in Oklahoma for a few weeks this summer, visiting my parents and hanging out with Ally. Last week, my mother asked me if I could go through my old "book closet"- which is lined with shelves and is home to a few thousand of my favorite books (no exaggeration on the numbers). I obliged, and nine hours later, I had everything organized, had collected five bags of books to donate, had boxed up six boxes of books that I didn't need constant access to while in this house, and then managed to get the rest of the books (still 1000+) on shelves. I felt accomplished and was rewarded with the following treasures, all of which were found buried in the closet: Old MagazinesI have 3-4 years worth of back issues of SEVENTEEN, circa the late nineties, and they are a thing of beauty. My favorite is the one with the entirety of N'Sync on the cover, though Katie Holmes in her Joey Potter guise is also a total mind warp. Needless to say, I kept them all. I am convinced they will just get funnier as more time passes. Old ARC'sGranted, none of the ARCs are *that* old, because I only started getting them after I sold Golden, and that was a mere five years ago, but still! A lot can happen in five years, so it was totally trippy to look back at ARCs of books like Twilight and The Clique. Tween FavoritesMost of my books from elementary school and earlier were packed up years ago, but I did find some quality favorites from when I was about twelve- like the SWEET VALLEY HIGH super special where the Wakefield twins find out there's some third chick who's identical to both of them, and she's a murdering psychopath. Or the sequel, wherein it turns out that psycho murder chick ALSO has an identical twin, who is also psychotic, so there's four of them running around. Good stuff right there. I also found a bunch of Christopher Pike books, including THE LAST VAMPIRE series (being reissued in a couple of months... whoohoooo!) and REMEMBER ME, and such quality R.L. Stine classics as "Cheerleaders: The First Evil" (and like seven of its sequels). I may or may not have already started re-reading. JuveniliaI found a good dozen journals in which I wrote stories when I was but a tiny Jen. I never got more than about ten pages into them and can't for the life of me remember what most of them were about. ** All in all, I'd say it was nine hours very well spent. Especially because afterwards, I discovered I had room for more books and went out and bought FAIRY TALE by Cyn Balog, EYES LIKE STARS by Lisa Matchev, THE STOLEN ONE by Suzanne Crowley, BLUE MOON by Alyson Noel, and...ummm... L.A. CANDY by Lauren Conrad. |
zvi_likes_tv
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6:45p |
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nojojojo
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6:23p |
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eluper
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6:27p |
Caption Contest Results, Part 3
Okay, enough lead-in stuff. Now, it's time for the excitement... and the winner! And here's how they came in: 3 Golden Weekend owned by Bill Atherton!!! 1A Marq of Love owned by suzDC 6 Snowstalker owned by susanwrites But unfortunately this race only called for one winner. Congratulations, Bill! And now, for a few final words! |
professornana
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4:49p |
up up and away
Ah, Chicago, where it is a balmy 79 degrees (versus the triple digits back home). But things are heating up very quickly here as word about a possible change to the BBYA Committee broke yesterday on Twitter and spread to LJ and YALSA-BK. Alex Flinn and David Gill and the Bookends bloggers (Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan) and some others have already cited chapter and verse about why this is an awful idea. I hope loads of folks show up at the meetings (almost impossible for those of us on selection committees, BTW) and shout it down. On a brighter note, I got upgraded to first class on the trip in and managed to read THE TREASURE MAP OF BOYS from cover to cover on the flight. Brilliant deliciousness. I loved the first Ruby Oliver book, THE BOYFRIEND LIST and perhaps this is when I fell in love with E Lockhart and her inimitable style. Of course the NBA and the Printz Committee had the great good sense to concur and THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU BANKS has been honored, too. THE TREASURE MAP OF BOYS (Delacorte, July 2009) is book three in the Ruby Oliver saga. It seems Ruby is almost back to square one, living in Noboyfriend land and having trouble with some of her gal pals as well. Her parents seems to remain clueless despite their good intentions (and I love that they name their new dog Polka Dot and get into all the t-shirts and totes and stuff on which one can display a love for a particular breed), and Ruby learns more about her therapist than she really needed to know (TMI, OK?). The tone is breezy and funny but that belies some of the hard truths Ruby faces. The English teacher in me adores the footnotes which only serve to underscore the wonderfully redemptive sense of humor Ruby possesses. Smart, funny, irreverent as needed: this was the perfect book to begin my ALA experience. Current Mood:  amused |
ethereal_lad
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5:36p |
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eluper
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5:33p |
Caption Contest Results, Part 2
Again, video quality is poor and sound is tinny, but I know you are all dying to join in the excitement! Someone please help me fix audio quality and that video zippiness! |
eluper
|
5:25p |
Caption Contest Results, Part 1
Since I have never used my webcam for video purposes, I am experiencing major technical difficulties. The footage is blurry like Speedy Gonzales and the audio is tinny, but I wanted to get some content up this afternoon. So, here is the first installment of the Caption contest results. I assure you it was an exciting race! |
docbrite
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4:15p |
Have A Drink, Babe!
As of today, The Green Goddess officially has its liquor license! Swing by 307 Exchange Alley and have a Green Fuse, a Sultan's Dream, or one of their many other delicious specialty cocktails to celebrate. If you do not imbibe of the grain and the grape, they have lots of virgin cocktails too. Me, I'm off to eat "transparency of raspberry and yogurt" and "black truffle explosion," along with twenty-one other tiny fabulous things. |
delux_vivens
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1:05p |
and one more thing about that thing in philly.
This thing in Philly, I mean. I really do not have any sympathy for anyone who is *surprised* that this happened. It's always happened. This shit has been happening. If you really thought that something like this would never happen with an Obama presidency? Quite frankly, I think you are making shit up and living in fantasy land. eta: this soothed my nerves and made me laugh. Current Mood: hard and lacking in patience |
tammy212
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3:39p |
They're still fighting!
The Iranians are still fighting, despite the arrests and trials, as per this article in today's Guardian</a> online.
Would Americans have spines like these? (rhetorical question)
Khatami, a former liberal president, has joined Mousavi, who has once more joined the voices of dissent.
I have not stopped praying. I hope you are still praying, too. |
yhlee
|
12:12p |
Talebones #14, my failure to (halfway point).
[Cross-posted to LJ and Dreamwidth.] It's a pity: Talebones #`14 has a spooky-evocative bit of cover art, a gray woman android thing with her skin eroded to reveal cogs (or coggish things; I am not a mechanic). Unfortunately, with the exception of one question mark, the entire first half of the issue failed to work for me. Okay, maybe two question marks. Mark Rigney's "His Master's Voice" involves a musicologist? music anthropologist? meeting up with the Devil. I am inherently suspicious of musician/scholar/etc.-meets-the-Devil stories because, sweet Shinjo on rye, there have been so many of them. It is remotely possible that this is a fine story and an exception, but because it's about the blues and keeps making references to musicians I have never heard of (I am almost completely ignorant of the genre), I can't figure out what the heck is going on. I put this one down to reader/story mismatch, like the endless number of sf stories about baseball that I cannot comprehend at all, and moved on. I'm going to quote the first few paragraphs of Carrie Vaughn's "Crows" at you to make a point: Tull awakened under someone else's shield, his legs tangled around his own poleax. He'd fallen--tripped, not struck down. Clumsy. The ground still rumbled with the hoof-falls of a thousand charging horses. The clash of armies still echoed, though distantly. The battle had moved on, sunlight still shone, and he was still alive.
He started to rise, but the shield wouldn't move. Pulling himself with his arms, he slithered out from under it.
The shield was still strapped to his lord's arm. Lord Berold Whiteford, cousin to the King himself, lay on his side, his shield arm flung out, twisted and broken, his sword arm resting over a bleeding gash in his side where the fastening on his breastplate had ripped. His horse, a smoke-gray stallion, lay nearby, a spear imbedded [sic] in its chest. (22) This has got to be one of the most incredibly boring and generic Eurofantasy story openings ever. The rest of the first section is no better. I could not think of a single reason to continue reading. Amazingly enough, the story header made things even worse: Readers often tell her that on the surface her stories look like traditional fantasy stories, with all the usual trappings. "Somewhere along the line something gets a bit twisted, or the perspective gets a bit skewed, and I end up slaughtering unicorns and that sort of thing." Shinjo in a cinnamon roll, that's the best you can come up with? You start off your stories in a completely boring manner and then the best you can do is kill unicorns? That doesn't even rate. You bet that I (a) bailed and (b) will assiduously avoid this author in the future. I haven't read the previous two stories in Alan DeNiro's sequence of which the third is "Gepetto's Kiln," but that wasn't what ejected me from the story. I could swear that I've seen DeNiro's poetry in speculative poetry zines, although I can't recall whether I liked it. Some striking imagery in the opening, but dear sweet Shinjo somersaulting, the sentence structures-- The Yellowwood was an Intuitionist vessel [thunk], on a routine assessment of the Montenegro system [thunk], discovered only twenty years before by a caravan of Thoth and human traders [thunk], wandering the galaxy for centuries since the dissolution of the Parameter [thunk], searching for a home for their remains [THUNK]. An old single-star syssem, the red giant would blow in ten thousand years. Matching the dusty mood of its discoverers, resources were found to be scarce throughout Montenegro. (30) The first quoted sentence makes me cringe. It is practically designed to go thunk-thunk-thunk when you read it aloud (which I didn't, but I hear the words in my head so it's the same effect). The two sentences following it do that [subclause], [main clause] structure thing, which is okay by itself but having them right next to each other just looks awkward. Resulting in three structures that I do not like right on top of each other. I bailed. Ken Scholes' "The Cowardly Lion's Slipper Wish" might be a perfectly fine poem but I have never read The Wizard of Oz or seen the movie, so I skipped it. Marie Brennan's ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swan_tower) "But Who Shall Lead the Dance?" was the one I bought the issue for and still haven't read because it has a line drawing of a nude woman and I was in the airport. That's halfway through the content. I was sufficiently discouraged at this point that I said the heck with it and went back to reading Mistborn, which is snarkriffic, but at least is enjoyably snarkriffic. Current Mood:  aggravated |
nephele
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12:21p |
What Keeps Readers--and Agents--Reading
A couple of days ago, a reader here on the blog asked me what makes a book (or more importantly in this case, a manuscript) "unputdownable." The question was in reaction to this month's issue of Bookslut, which includes an article by Elizabeth Bachner titled Unputdownable: More Thoughts on Reader's Block. That particular article, it seems to me, is a bit off target, in that Bachner seems to be attempting to make two arguments at once: one about the nature of addictive reading material, and one about the difference between "literature" and more mainstream reading choices. I think the actual issue here is not what keeps you from putting a book down, because not all books are written in a style that encourages reading in a single gulp. The true question is what makes you keep reading the book until you finish it? If it's a short novel or an easier reading style--perhaps due to genre, perhaps for another reason--what keeps you glued to your seat, ignoring everything else until you've hit the final page? If it's a slower, longer, or more thought-provoking type of book, what keeps you coming back to it chapter after chapter? Picking it up again even after you set it down for the night to sleep or because there was an idea or plot point you felt the need to mull over? Because I think that is what is truly important, and what makes a successful book--and success is an entirely relative term here. If a book has entertained you, made you forget your problems, taught you something new, opened your mind... it has, at least on some level, done its job, and to me that makes it a success. So the truth is that what keeps a person reading depends on the person, and it depends on the type of book. A mystery that keeps you in suspense and challenges your ability to solve the whodunnit aspect without making you feel overly frustrated or as if the writer has tricked you in some way--made it impossible for you, as the reader, to figure out the answer--will keep a mystery fan engrossed. An action adventure novel with twists and turns and danger can keep a reader glued to their seats until the bitter end. In a romance, readers want to see how the couple-to-be will overcome the obstacles standing between them and their happily-ever-after. Fantasy or science fiction draw the reader with fresh world building and/or intriguing scientific suppositions. And so on. For more literary reads, the story itself remains important, but there are other aspects that become a draw as well. The literary puzzles--embedded messages that avid readers learn to decipher by looking at style and allusions and the types of classic works that appear to have inspired the writer. These types of details add more layers to the reading experience, and can require deeper thought. Through all of these types of books, characters are vitally important. Most readers enter the world of the novel through their own personal attachment to the characters, and so if these are shallow or unlikeable or difficult to comprehend, it is harder for the reader to get truly engrossed in the story. The characters need to feel real, to come across to the reader in a believable fashion, and to provide an emotional anchor that keeps you firmly ensconced in their world. Setting is also important--more so in some types of books than others--but wielded effectively it can serve as almost another character on its own. Every reader has their personal tastes. The subjects and situations that fascinate one might bore another. And this goes for agents as well. First and foremost, an agent is going to read a manuscript as a person who loves to read, who loves books. An agent wants to forget they are reading a manuscript. This is the ideal--a work so polished and tightly written than nothing breaks your attention or jars you out of the story. The longer I can read a manuscript without pulling back and going, "Ugh, that needs to be fixed," the better chance that manuscript has of capturing my heart. That's the reality. The stronger the plot, the better the characterizations and dialogue and descriptions, the steadier the pacing, the cleaner the grammar and spelling and punctuation, the more likely I am to read until the end. Because I read until it loses me. And no, a comma out of place certainly won't throw me out of your world, but 150 of them might. The small things add up, while the big ones knock me right out all at once. What keeps me reading? Because in the end I can only absolutely answer this question for myself, though I'm sure many of the things that I look for are on other agents' wish lists too. Here are the basics: 1. A strong opening that not only captures my attention but introduces me to the world and to the characters. Who are the people, where are they, what are they doing, and why should I care? All too often I get manuscripts with openings that jump directly into the action and I have no idea whose side I'm on, or why the confrontation/argument/battle etc. is happening. In medias res is all very well and good, and appears to be all the rage these days, but I still want to know who the protagonist is pretty quickly, and what about him/her makes them the center of this story. 2. A good idea. I know this is vague, but the truth is you need some sort of driving concept behind your story. What makes this book different, and why are you the one to write it? This is just as true of fiction as of nonfiction. The idea needs to be intriguing, whatever the genre you're writing, and it needs to be developed so that it progresses with every chapter, starting at the very beginning. 3. Pacing needs to build, with some quiet moments thrown in, but in general working toward the climax in an upward movement, like climbing stairs. 4. Strong conflict. Is this real? If I get a hint that everything hangs on a misunderstanding that could be solved with a phone call or a simple conversation, I'm done. So make sure there's some real meat here. 5. Real characters. I mentioned this above. Watch out for protagonists who are too perfect, as well as villains who are all evil. These are stereotypes, and they're BORING. Flawed characters are much more real and interesting, and they also get themselves into much more entertaining situations, often without you trying very hard. 6. Voice. Agents talk about this all the time, and it covers a lot of territory for me. Mostly it's about what your narrator sounds like in my head. Vocabulary, chattiness, thoughtfulness, etc. Are they intellectual, sarcastic, uneducated but smart, somewhat slow, ethnic--and this is more about word choice than anything, so please don't try to get elaborate about writing accents phonetically--young, old, etc.? Whatever it is, it should be distinctive to the story and the character. It should fit, there should be a reason for it, and it should be consistent. 7. Balance. I want the story to move forward, but at the same time there should be description, dialogue, and character building. This can and should all happen simultaneously. Every scene should move the story forward and add to the plot development. Even sex scenes need to serve a purpose. Nothing should be extraneous. Purposeless scenes slow down pacing and lose readers. 8. Supporting characters should all serve a purpose too, otherwise what's the point in having them? Don't try to introduce every character at a party if 90% of them never show up again. They should also be individuals, with their own characteristics and voices that set them apart. 9. I look for good vocabulary and sentence structure. This isn't really conscious so much as something that throws me if it isn't there. Most manuscripts get submitted without a good line edit. You really need to read line by line by line. Aloud is good. Check for overuse of your favorite words or expressions. Avoid saying things the same way in back-to-back sentences. Eliminate extraneous 'he said, she said' dialogue tags. Make sure that your descriptive words are precise and say exactly what you want them to say. Vary sentence length and include punctuation where you "hear" it reading out loud. 10. I want progress. Not just for the plot, but for the characters. They should change by the end of the book, or at least your protagonist should, but it also shouldn't happen all at once, like an information dump or a huge revelation 'oh, I see the light!' Change can come like that in certain instances, but more often it's gradual, like the tide working at the shoreline. And if there is an epiphany of sorts, there should be some reason why it is happening that way--beyond a sudden need to find an ending. Endings tend to be the worst-written parts of most manuscripts, I suspect because they simply get the least attention. Just because you've typed "the end," doesn't mean you're finished. Revise!! These are all important qualities to have in your manuscript. Polish, revise, think it all through. When I sit down to read it, I want to love it, but I also have to think about what an editor will say. Where are the holes, what is wrong with this? It's a far less accepting attitude than I would have if I were reading a book off the shelf, because the stakes are completely different. Agents read manuscripts to see if they can sell them. And in order to sell them, they have to adore them--and be convinced that an editor will adore them as well. Editors only have so many slots in their publishing schedule, so they cannot just look at a book and say "is this saleable, or do I enjoy this story?" They have to ask if they love it enough to fill in one of their precious publication slots, because once they've filled that hole, that's one less manuscript they can buy. So they have to believe in the manuscript enough to make that leap. They have to trust that they won't like the next thing to come across their desk better. This is what I have to keep in mind when I'm reading submissions. Even if I read first and foremost as a person who loves books, I have to make my decisions based on whether I think I can sell something. Will an editor somewhere love this enough to risk a publication spot? Because those are the only types of manuscripts that I can sign. And the truth is, even if all ten of the items above hold true for your work, I still just have to love the story. Love it enough to fight for it. And that part of the process is still a very personal thing, based on personal taste and mood and what I read last week. So I'm afraid that part of the submissions process is always going to be luck and timing. Current Mood:  working |
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