HSU IT Department

I've had this one since it came out but was forcing myself to save it as a reward for finishing a bunch of freelance projects I had in-house. Finally got to it last week, yay!! I'm happy to say that it was MUCH better than Pirate King -- more plot and less silliness. Our old friends Mahmoud and Ali, the English-lords-turned-Arab-spies, are back, we have a lively, intelligent young mute boy as a great secondary character, and the story is (as usual) thoroughly grounded in actual history. Her sense of place is tremendous -- she evokes the sights, smells, sounds, and texture of life in French Morocco so vividly! Several real people are featured, including Hubert Lyautey and Abd el Krim and you get a lot of background about the politics, governance and military history of the region.

On the down side, sometimes you get a little too much history and politics, the book is a little heavy on tell as opposed to show (unusual for King), and the Big Reveal at the end was awfully convoluted. I'm still not sure I get it, what with the plots within plots within plots and people faking this loyalty and that (then again, the politics of that part of the world are awfully convoluted, so maybe that's part and parcel of the setting!). I wasn't crazy about the amnesia trope, either; it felt kind of like it was in there as a device, so that the people and relationships could be recapped for people new to the series. My own opinion is that if you come into the middle of a series, well, you should expect to be confused -- if you want to know what's going on, go back and read from the beginning, right?

Anyway, I give it a three out of five: I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite by a long shot. I still like The Beekeeper's Apprentice (the first book in the series) and A Letter of Mary (the third one) the best.

On another note, I discovered last night that Mr Psmith had never seen The Aristocats (can you believe it?! the mind boggles...) so we watched it while we played Scrabble. I'd forgotten how funny the Gabble sisters are :)

First of my 100 Things (100 Poems) blog posts!

"A sonnet might look dinky, but it's somehow big enough to accommodate
love, war, death, and O.J. Simpson. You could fit the whole world in there if
you shoved hard enough."

Or so says Anne Fadiman. And I agree.

I think sonnets are amazing creations: a very strict, very small form, but within it you can say literally anything you like. Anything at all. It's like the difference between bouncing about gleefully on the dance floor and executing a perfect fiery tango without a single misstep, a combination of freedom and structure that can be so much more than the sum of its parts. Or like those medieval miniatures, where you have a very small space in which to work, but within that space you can draw monsters or birds or leaves or tessellated patterns or tiny people, or whatever you like.

At any rate, it's a sadly under-used form these days, perhaps because it takes so much work to craft a good one (it's a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where you have to keep shifting the little pieces around until they fit just right), so I was thrilled when someone wrote a beautiful one for deeply_horrible's "Bring Back the Bastard" fest this year. It's hard to believe that so much angst and so much history can be packed into so few lines. This is not a happy sonnet, or a love sonnet. This is a bitter and angry sonnet, in which Severus has some choice words for Dumbledore. Hope you like it as much as I did.

Title: From the Beehive
Author: primeideal

I've lived too long for faith that life is fair...

So at some point last year, I took up the gauntlet of the 100 Things Blogging Challenge. I picked "Things that have surprised me." Perhaps the most surprising -- or depressing, depending on your perspective -- thing was that it was damn hard coming up with things that had surprised me. I'm not sure if that's a comment on me, my life, or the world in general.

Anyway, I dropped said gauntlet spectacularly, only making it to nine, which I think was due to picking such an abstract Thing. Several other people picked much more tangible things and had better success (stellamoon for example went with 100 pieces of art and music that have touched her soul and I really enjoyed her posts -- Van Gogh's Willows at Sunset was particularly lovely). So I'm trying again and this time I'm going to do 100 poems. This isn't as stimulating in terms of descriptive writing -- it's pretty challenging to describe a surprise, after all -- but I hope it will be good in terms of making me think about why I like what I like, and what I think works about a piece of poetry.

If nothing else, it will give me something to talk about when I can't think of anything else to talk about, like a writing exercise. Not a bad thing.

So that's New Year's Resolution #1.

New Year's Resolution #2 is to follow through on my promise (threat?) from years past and apply to Clarion West. (Check out this year's instructors -- doesn't Samuel R. Delany look like a cross between Albus Dumbledore and Gimli? Or is it just me?) This year, instead of keeping it a sooper sekrit, I've told a whole bunch of people that I'm going to do it, which means I have to do it or I'll look like an idiot.

I hate looking like an idiot.

A team of Brazilian biologists has discovered a new species of orchid bee and they have named it Euglossa bazinga. According to Dr. André Nemésio, a biology professor at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, "The idea was to honor actor Jim Parsons and his brilliant interpretation of Sheldon Cooper. The show exaggerates a little bit, but in a sarcastic way, it shows how things do happen in the academic world," he added. "It is fantastic!"
I am tickled pink :)

Anybody out there not on AO3 that has a desperate yen to be? I have three invitations to give away :)

I've been madly trying to get caught up on fest reading (sshg_exchange, hoggywartyxmas, hp_holidaygen, mini_fest, whew!!). I'm doing fairly well, though I still have a long way to go on mini_fest, but I have also on occasion been seduced into other channels.

The most surprising and fascinating was Seven for a Secret (AO3). I have no recollection of how I found it, because I was following links upon links upon links (you know, like you do) and the trail is long gone cold, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that these are marvelous, dark reimaginings of seven fairy/Disney princess tales. Jasmine finds out the punishment for stealing in a Middle Eastern country; Belle witnesses the French Revolution; Sleeping Beauty awakes only to find everyone around her falling into a new kind of sleep, and more. They are disturbing, yes, but so creative and so beautifully, vividly told -- as good as Angela Carter's The Bloody Tower, or Tanith Lee's Red as Blood: Tales from the Sisters Grimmer. Luckily they're short-shorts (the total word count is only 6390) so you can get through them all during, oh, tea-and-a-cookie-or-two.

Speaking of cookies, I got a couple of Barnes and Noble gift cards for Xmas and promptly ran out and bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. IT IS FABULOUS. Tons of new recipes that aren't on the website, gorgeous photos, and it really does lie flat on the counter when it's open, just like advertised. Much cooking will ensue in the New Year!!

...don't forget hp_holidaygen! There have been some great stories posted so far, with more to come, so toddle over and take a look. Aside from my lovely gift, we also have a peek at Minerva's school years, a description of a Malfoy Christmas, a story of Severus' desolate Yule as headmaster, snarky!Draco, and much much more. Most of them are fairly short, so you can dip in for just a few minutes here and there without investing an entire evening (because of course we all have lots of claims on our time over the next few days!). So what are you waiting for? Go!!

An early work by Hans Christian Andersen has been found at the bottom of a box near the Danish fairy tale writer's home city, experts say. How amazing is that? A brand new fairy tale by THE author of fairy tales! Apparently it's called Tallow Candle and is about candle that's all neglected until someone notices its worth. Sounds a bit like a wax Velveteen Rabbit (which that one always makes me cry -- I can't even explain the Velveteen Rabbit to somebody without crying).

So yay, new fairy tales :)

My gifts (yes, plural!) have posted on sshg_exchange, and I tell you now: RUN DO NOT WALK to read All Shadows Pass Away. I am blown away by the gorgeousness of the prose, the vivid lushness of the descriptions, the liveliness and depth of the dialog...There are cats and libraries and walled gardens, Tuscany and Wales and Hogsmeade, there are theological/philosophical debates and picnics, there are echoes of myth and legend, and most of all there is so much love in all its forms: friendship, healing, loyalty, desire, passion, faith.

As if that weren't gift enough, the same Mystery Author also created a lushly beautiful piece of art based on my story A Price Beyond Rubies which looks like a page from an illuminated manuscript and which forms a perfect linking device between that story and hers.

Even if Santa leaves me nothing but coal this year, I will consider myself supremely well-gifted indeed :)