Leminglike We Meekly Go

[dancinghorse]

First of all thank you to all of you who said kind words about the goat. She was a good animal (in the evil way of goats) and I miss her. I appreciate your lovely words. And while I try to never say never, I think she'll be the One And Only. I'll stick to horses and cats and dogs after this.

(Watch these become famous last words. But.)

Meanwhile life goes on. And we have Announcements.

Part the First: The March Madness Mentoring Sale, or, Publishers Never Ever Pay in a Timely Manner and the Mortgage Bank Wants Its Money. From now until April 15th, through this lj only, we're offering three hours of critique/mentoring/writing help for $100. If you PayPal this is a nice saving as I'll waive the surcharge for the fees. Three hours is just about enough for a structural review of a YA-length novel or a couple of short stories, or a round of brainstorming over a plot, a synopsis, or a sample for submission (though with samples I usually like to at least skim the entire ms. so I have a clear idea of the structure and overall direction of the story). And of course, if you want more, you can always keep going. I don't set limits on how long I'll work with you. :)

Feel free to pass this on. If people email and tell me they got this from you through the lj, they get the sale.

Part the Second: Horse Camp the Second, or, What Ever Shall We Do After the Nebulas? Horse Camp the First was a great success and we are offering one more before the hot weather clamps down. Camps will be offered again starting in late September or early October. At any rate, the Nebs are in Tempe this year--about two hours up I-10 from DHF--and we've decided to offer some additional writer-fun afterwards. Option A is a weekday deal: Monday through Wednesday, May 8th-10th. Option B is the standard three-day weekend: May 12th-14th. Camps run from around 2 p.m. on Friday (or day 1) through around 3 p.m. on Sunday (or day 3). Sample schedules and other details including pricing here. Let me know when you contact me whether you want Option A or Option B, and whether you can do the other option if one is either over- or grossly undersubscribed.

Part the Third: Oh, yes, about those lemmings. Caitlin Brennan now has a blog at Amazon Connect. We will talk about writing and books there and see how it goes. I tried to get one for the Tarr books as well but there was a malfunction with the verification software and it never reached the verifier. I'm debating just letting the CB plog do its job and include the Tarr oeuvre in the Favorites, but we'll see. I've been wanting to start a writer blog anyway (in addition to this personal and professional one), so this is a good chance to try it and see how much stamina I have for it. Come and play!

Comments

[wojsvenwoj.livejournal.com]

>I'll stick to horses and cats and dogs after this.

llamas! alpalcas!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Ostriches! Emus! Kiwi boids!

[raithen.livejournal.com]

yes! llamas are God's way of reminding us that we are merely lowly humans.

Viz Monsieur Bruno, who is the long-time guardian of our sheep flock (he has run off bears and coyotes and cougars!):



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[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Oh, that second pic! I wouldn't mess with him.

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

I think I'm in love.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

Bruno says you may feed him grain, but do NOT under any circumstances try to trim his feet!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Now that is one badass llama.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

indeed. he was SO funny with the vet one time: the thermometer went in one end, spit came out the other. Aimed at ME de preference, as I was holding his halter! ;).

[raithen.livejournal.com]

RSS feed for the CB blog?? Need feed! ;)

also, while we are on the subject (or not - *CLUNK* Segue. Do you mentor on Journal writing, too? ;) there were complaints from the Motherly department that book 2 - Revenge of teh Fat White Ponies had Too. Much. War. and Not. Enough. Ponies. ;).

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Tell your mom she might like book 3 better. Or not. We do keep trying.

But ya gotta admit, the Ponies did get some big innings.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

I thought so! I LIKED, though it DID have a different feel from book 1: Fat White Ponies Make Like Teachers. And I get why Mom was not AS enthralled. Tis ok. ;).

[raithen.livejournal.com]

I should clarify the why: Mom read number 2 in the lead up to the surgery. Very little would have pleased her ;).

[raithen.livejournal.com]

right then. Read this morning's entry on Amazon. have directed Mom to it.

interesting. I have thoughts. They remain to amorphous to set down on paper. But while I didn't have the same passion for Unmaking that I did for Call, I never expected to. As you say, the middle. There is familiarity, and necessary discomfort (the middle is always the wonderfully irritating part where Things. Go. Wrong. and I read novels and watch movies with a certain trepidation for middles ;) They can take me Longer to get through. As I need breaks to process, sometimes. and to worry for the characters I love and stupid decisions (Reading Ars Magica right now; want to smack G - I am in The Middle) they make and/or for challenging external circumstances. A whole book of middle is, as you say, Challenging.

and your execution kept me reading, and left me wanting to read on (is it October yet? ;). Though it is Book 1, for now, that will be the comfort re-read from this trilogy. Because things are simpler. And sometimes, I like to escape to simple. But the story would not have the effectiveness without the middle, and it's challenges.

I also tend to re-read the first book in Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry, to capture the innocence of the 5 before everything. But I love book 2, for what it does,for how it develops the characters, and I sob in the appropriate places. And Book 3 has the ending, which always has it's memorable highpoints.... But teh middle book tends to ALWAYS take on resonances in the Re-reading. Especially AFTER the third book comes out. Which places Unmaking at a distinct critical disadvantage.

Huh. Guess I could write about it anyway....

As for LOTR, I don't remember it being as much a publication decision to split the epic into 3, because they were written over a period of time, and published as completed, more or less. There was the delay with ROTK because of the war etc, I do remember that. And of course I remember Tolkien *ALWAYS* considered them one book, one epic, however they were published. I just didn't realize (and somehow missed in a full year of research on the book(s) for my honours thesis - oopsie!) that it was a publisher driven choice. Thanks for the heads up!

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

You should put that comment up. It's great. But you may want to revise the following:

Re. LOTR, better check those thesis notes. ;> The book was completed before it was sent out to Unwin, and the decision to break it up was made by the publisher because of the length of the ms. (it came to over 1400 pages when set in type). The first two parts were published in 1954 (nine years after the end of WWII) and ROTK came out in 1955. There was no war in Europe at that time. The pub dates for II and III were moved up (not delayed) because readers were screaming--I'm sure the cliffhangers were making them insane. Details are in Carpenter's biography of JRRT.

I'm not a Tolkien geek, but sometimes I play one on tv. 8)

gah

[raithen.livejournal.com]

and I WAS a Tolkein geek, of sorts. And KNOW KNOW KNOW this. And yet. I forgot.

*shame* you have KNOW idea how much shame....

[raithen.livejournal.com]

also, re: dates. *SHAME* sound like stupid highschool girl. which I never ever was. *SHAME*

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

There there. We all have brain farts. I've done this, too--and I have a rep for Always Having The Facts Down Cold.

Pat pat. Go around the circle again. Pick up the trot where you left off. It's alllllll riiiiiight.

[raithen.livejournal.com]

*ahem* but still.....

*Joy breaks gait, trotting instead of running walk, because rider's brain over-engaged and body tight* *Rider breathes*

I like facts. I HATE getting facts that I know wrong. Especially in Writing. Will, however, edit comment and post, since you asked nicely....

[raithen.livejournal.com]

we hates Amazon, we do. Buying from .ca is not street cred enough to be allowed to post a new comment/discussion thread. And I revised it up all nice and EVERYTHING.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Well PHOOEY. That's not fair! Email it to me and I'll post it. I've had a couple of comments already. It will fit right in.

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

I think those Plogs are a great idea. Caitlin R Kiernan has one too.

When will book 3 of the Mountain Ponies be out?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

October. :)

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

hiya -- catwithclaws sent me here. i'm interested in yr mentoring sale, but my novel is 230k words, which i guess to be closer to a ya series than a ya book! neither is it young-adult material (it's, umm, academic fantasy, but in graduate school in engineering, with werewolves). but please let me know if this might be remotely suitable in any case :)

[catwithclaws.livejournal.com]

Ps. Blame raithen, since she’s the one who kept telling me to read your books :) I heard about the first ‘sale’ from her.

ta ta! (letting you know we're not just completely random LJ freaks.... :) )

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Much appreciated. :) Is that a Friesian in your icon? Purty!

[catwithclaws.livejournal.com]

quite welcome! Lyonesse was looking into help and your post sprung straight to mind :)

horse geeking: the icon is my 'baby boy', who is 1/2 Friesian and 1/2 Thoroughbred. But still VERY large :) he'll be 4 in June and is just about 16.3. I bred him out of a very large big boned TB mare (17.2 hands) and 16.2 very old style draft type Friesian stud (out of Jildert).

Basically, I wanted a cob that wasn't 15 hands. I think it worked out :D

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Hey, welcome! And thanks to catwithclaws, too. I'll do any genre at any length, though 230K words will be nearer 6-7 hours than 3 for a good close read and structural analysis. Depends on what you want to do. Email me at capriole at smoe dot org and let's see what we can work out, how's that?

I love academic fantasy with werewolves. :)

[raithen.livejournal.com]

Yay! the LJ network does it's job again! *whee*

[catwithclaws.livejournal.com]

it is things like this that make me love and adore LJ and the great things it can do :)

Horse camp?

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

Meaning an opportunity to come meet the OTHER kind of Austrian Mountain Ponies?

(am all busy squeeing because have just discovered you have a blog and stuff, because well, am a pathetic fangirl and whatnot. Would take you up on the writing coaching (yay for tax-time disposable income...) but nothing current is even to the 'let other people see it, let alone comment at it' yet stage....)

Re: Horse camp?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Meaning an opportunity to come meet the OTHER kind of Austrian Mountain Ponies?

Yep! Wanna come?

Re: Horse camp?

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

PS Your icon is Adorable. My neighbor has a Mexican ranch horse who is probably part Haflinger--he sure does look it.

Re: Horse camp?

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

Iconhorse is my 'baby' girl Lissa (5 years old and EVIL- my first horse that I've ever started myself). She's a blast. :) Right now we're just figuring out 'no really, you CAN canter' (she's a former driving hrose :P) but hope to start taking dressage lessons this summer- I think it'd REALLY be good for me as a rider- I grew up riding ranch horses and have all sorts of bad habits. :P

Re: Horse camp?

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

Yes, definately! :)

(Even if Haflingers are cuter. I'm not arguing more elegant or more beautiful, but I think they have the market cornered on cute.)