Randomosity
Sep. 2nd, 2009 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseIn between stories (briefly) and waiting for guy to finish fixing oven (which I kept forgetting to call and get done, badJudy), so it's time for Random Blogging(tm).
I love writing flash fiction and very short stories. Fast, fun, instant gratification.
The writing mojo is back at last.
"Marketing feels this story is too 'girl-friendly' for science fiction." When my ambient brain temperature drops below Solar Core, I will rage, er, rant, er, blog about this.
Horse novel is in final edits. I hatesssss it, yesssss, preciousssss.
I always hatessss final editssss.
Steampunk is an absolute gas to write.
Things I could not have done a year ago, Horse Neep edition:
Take Pook out for road ride, meet dogs behind fence, ride out wild spookbolt back toward mares in heat. Defuse bolt. Ride back in walk, with elevated but not uncontrollable energy. Take residual energy and work on canter in arena. Get left lead--not much for the pretty, but it was a canter and it was leading left. (Let's hear it for work on the longe a couple of mornings a week.)
Look forward to riding Camilla. Feelings warmly reciprocated. Use whole arena. Spooky bits, when they occur, meet my aids, sigh, snuggle, and settle down. This includes sidling, shying, and actual Going Up. Also, but this I don't discourage, trotting in spooky area. Trot, we use. She's had her first rising trot (she likes it) and her first trot circle (well, 3/4 of one, but it's a start). Her trot is ZOMG AWESOME ZOMG. Both sitting and rising. ZOMG. Strong back, natural balance and collection, and did I mention that strong, elastic back? And her new! fantastically improved! attitude?
No inclination at this point to add her to the lesson roster. Pook is doing so well, and tomorrow Ephiny gets bodywork so we can finally start her. Camilla needs it to be just the two of us. Her trust in me is so strong, but she's not ready to expand that yet to trainer-in-the-middle. And that's perfectly fine. We're picking up skills with Pook that translate very well indeed.
He's more resilient by nature than she is. He's got that cocky guy thing going. Life's all about him, all the time. Just worship him, that's all he wants. She's a thinky girl, and a worrier, and she has a shorter fuse than he does. When he's a crankypants, he can be jollied out of it. She may just bash your head in and go kill something. War Mare.
Guess which one is just like me?
But really, she's wonderfully sweet and she wants to be good. She loves to work. Goes and Parks Significantly by the mounting block at riding time. Gets so thinky when we work that her ears go horizontal.
With greenies, the initial process has a lot of adrenaline involved. You don't know what the horse will do, and extrapolation doesn't always give the right answer. Even if you love the horse and love the challenge, it's a bit on the scary side. Then you start to realize it's getting less stressful--and then one day, hot damn, you're comfortable and you realize, you trust this horse. Camilla has been surprisingly solid for a long time now, that feeling of a leg at each corner and she cares if I live or die, but lately, it's gone past "I can ride this horse and not die" to "I love riding this horse."
I love it when that happens.
Ephiny is oh so ready to get to work. And so, by goddess, is Tia. Ephiny is physically ready to be ridden. Tia, not so much. But she's ready to longe and ground-drive and do groundwork. Her mind is evolving; the uncivilized bits give way to willing cooperation when I explain that no, that's not safe/sane/legal. I like her mind. She's tough, my kind of mare always is, but win her heart and it's all yours.
I can do all this thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tcastleb, who is a jewel among barn kids(tm). If she's here, I'm motivated to work horses instead of whingeing and dallying and making excuses. Also, she has the gift of knowing when to step in quietly and help. A most rare gift, and highly prized.
Also, of course, the valued Cell Phone Can Call 911 If I Go Splat. My friends and family are especially glad of that.
She learns fast. Carrma is blossoming. The Mother of Nations has waited a long time for this. It makes me happy to see her happy.
Oh, and kittens? Cats now, mostly. But still Drastically Cute. (This msg brot 2 u bi Genghis Kitteh Miss Minnow Kitteh and Miss TROUBLEkitteh kthxbai)
I love writing flash fiction and very short stories. Fast, fun, instant gratification.
The writing mojo is back at last.
"Marketing feels this story is too 'girl-friendly' for science fiction." When my ambient brain temperature drops below Solar Core, I will rage, er, rant, er, blog about this.
Horse novel is in final edits. I hatesssss it, yesssss, preciousssss.
I always hatessss final editssss.
Steampunk is an absolute gas to write.
Things I could not have done a year ago, Horse Neep edition:
Take Pook out for road ride, meet dogs behind fence, ride out wild spookbolt back toward mares in heat. Defuse bolt. Ride back in walk, with elevated but not uncontrollable energy. Take residual energy and work on canter in arena. Get left lead--not much for the pretty, but it was a canter and it was leading left. (Let's hear it for work on the longe a couple of mornings a week.)
Look forward to riding Camilla. Feelings warmly reciprocated. Use whole arena. Spooky bits, when they occur, meet my aids, sigh, snuggle, and settle down. This includes sidling, shying, and actual Going Up. Also, but this I don't discourage, trotting in spooky area. Trot, we use. She's had her first rising trot (she likes it) and her first trot circle (well, 3/4 of one, but it's a start). Her trot is ZOMG AWESOME ZOMG. Both sitting and rising. ZOMG. Strong back, natural balance and collection, and did I mention that strong, elastic back? And her new! fantastically improved! attitude?
No inclination at this point to add her to the lesson roster. Pook is doing so well, and tomorrow Ephiny gets bodywork so we can finally start her. Camilla needs it to be just the two of us. Her trust in me is so strong, but she's not ready to expand that yet to trainer-in-the-middle. And that's perfectly fine. We're picking up skills with Pook that translate very well indeed.
He's more resilient by nature than she is. He's got that cocky guy thing going. Life's all about him, all the time. Just worship him, that's all he wants. She's a thinky girl, and a worrier, and she has a shorter fuse than he does. When he's a crankypants, he can be jollied out of it. She may just bash your head in and go kill something. War Mare.
Guess which one is just like me?
But really, she's wonderfully sweet and she wants to be good. She loves to work. Goes and Parks Significantly by the mounting block at riding time. Gets so thinky when we work that her ears go horizontal.
With greenies, the initial process has a lot of adrenaline involved. You don't know what the horse will do, and extrapolation doesn't always give the right answer. Even if you love the horse and love the challenge, it's a bit on the scary side. Then you start to realize it's getting less stressful--and then one day, hot damn, you're comfortable and you realize, you trust this horse. Camilla has been surprisingly solid for a long time now, that feeling of a leg at each corner and she cares if I live or die, but lately, it's gone past "I can ride this horse and not die" to "I love riding this horse."
I love it when that happens.
Ephiny is oh so ready to get to work. And so, by goddess, is Tia. Ephiny is physically ready to be ridden. Tia, not so much. But she's ready to longe and ground-drive and do groundwork. Her mind is evolving; the uncivilized bits give way to willing cooperation when I explain that no, that's not safe/sane/legal. I like her mind. She's tough, my kind of mare always is, but win her heart and it's all yours.
I can do all this thanks to
tcastleb, who is a jewel among barn kids(tm). If she's here, I'm motivated to work horses instead of whingeing and dallying and making excuses. Also, she has the gift of knowing when to step in quietly and help. A most rare gift, and highly prized. Also, of course, the valued Cell Phone Can Call 911 If I Go Splat. My friends and family are especially glad of that.
She learns fast. Carrma is blossoming. The Mother of Nations has waited a long time for this. It makes me happy to see her happy.
Oh, and kittens? Cats now, mostly. But still Drastically Cute. (This msg brot 2 u bi Genghis Kitteh Miss Minnow Kitteh and Miss TROUBLEkitteh kthxbai)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 10:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-02 10:51 pm (UTC)bogglement
Date: 2009-09-03 12:12 am (UTC)There are no words. There are only emoticons, but the Niceness Police won't let me use them.
Re: bogglement
Date: 2009-09-03 02:21 am (UTC)Re: bogglement
Date: 2009-09-03 02:52 am (UTC)Soon.
Re: bogglement
Date: 2009-09-03 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 12:32 am (UTC)My pony channeled the other Austrian breed today. I was hand walking him, and he felt good, and he went *BOING* and sprang up with all four feet in the air like a Lipizzaner.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 02:54 am (UTC)Is horse novel for kids, with magically-realistic horses and Big Scary Issues. And Arizona.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 04:26 am (UTC)Ahem.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 04:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 02:33 am (UTC)also, you know my kind of mare, and you know the girl who is ready to start but Really Not Sure about it all and um. Ya.
*MEEP*
also: no, not there yet. She's fully five and Very Solid (must take photos. Maybe will take camera out tonight....)
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 02:51 am (UTC)She'll let you know when she's sure about things.
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 03:23 am (UTC)And then we wonder why SF readers look outside of the SF genre section of the bookstore to find their SF ...
no subject
Date: 2009-09-03 09:45 pm (UTC)Er, what? So female readers are to be discouraged, according to marketing? Bah, humbug. Also, what century are they in?
no subject
Date: 2009-09-08 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-04 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-07 01:49 am (UTC)I haven't laughed aloud while reading for a while. Thanks for that.