books

In book news, I finished Mesuline by Sarah Monette, A Companion to Wolves by Monette and Elizabeth Bear, and The Sorceress and the Cygnet and The Cygnet and the Firebird by Patricia McKillip. McKillip's amazing as per usual; I think I've just about read all of her books. Sometimes her prose gets confusing, too vague, but I just sit back and let her lyricism flow over me. These two weren't my favorites, but I still loved them both. The way she portrayed dragons in Firebird was particularly interesting: they were magical and mystical without resorting to typical fantasy cliches. Mesuline was good - Not great, but worth getting the rest of the series. And Wolves... Well, it was interesting, but I can't say I actually liked it.

In Wolves, boys bond to wolves and form posses to fight trolls. Because of the close bond they share with the wolves, the boys and men participate in the pack mentality: mainly fighting for dominance and going into heat. And since it's strictly no girls allowed, when a female wolf (which are called bitches - I know that's the correct term, but it was off-putting to see bitch bitch bitch bitch flung all over each page) goes into heat, her partner gets mounted by the partners of the wolves who mount her. And so that was weird. The main character goes through this a few times and every time, part of his recovery is announcing how totally not gay he is. At least there's no human/wolf sex.

So yeah.

Now I'm reading The Continental Op collection of short stories by Dashiell Hammett to get myself grounded after so much fantasy. I love Hammet - love his noir - though as far as private dicks go, I'm more of a Philip Marlowe fan. There's a scene in Farewell My Lovely where Marlowe is being questioned by the police. He barely pays attention during the interrogation; instead he watches a beetle wandering around the room. Then, with everyone waiting expectantly for him, Marlowe gently picks up the beetle and leaves to put it into a bush outside.

I really liked that scene. Marlowe's a weary cynic, but there's still a spark of empathy in him.

WiP meme

Stole this meme from nagia. Post one sentence from your current Works-in-Progress.

Fanfic
He'd only seen her natural hair color once: after two weeks at sleep-away camp, she came back with stripes her brown hair peaking through the faded blue, kind of like she was molting or something. When he said she looked like a mixed-up skunk, she chased him around the Pink Palace. (Coraline - "Birds & Bees")

It had been hot work, pulling weeds, and boring, too, even when she pretended she was Godzilla and the plants were unfortunate bystanders meeting their untimely demise. (Coraline - "Wrapped up in Clover")

"We don't have to watch any movies," I said hurriedly. "We can go to bed, like, right now so we can wake up at the buttcrack of dawn and get you to your interview. Or maybe I'll stay up all night reading your notes out loud to you so you can learn them by osmosis or something. I don't know. But I'm staying and I need a toothbrush." (Digimon - "Fine Art")

Original
As soon as she figured out who she was, she'd chase the little harlot right out of town. (TTBtM)

When Lest tugged at buttons that ran along her back like a second spine, she had to close her eyes and lock her jaw so that confessions and vomit didn't spill out. ("Masca")

Another writing post

Found another helpful list of tips for writers! This one's Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) by Pat Holt. Holt gives detailed explanations for each of these sins; I'm just going to list them. The article's really interesting - Definitely Check it out.

1. Repeats
2. Flat writing
3. Empty adverbs (Oh man, I am definitely guilty of this one)
4. Phony dialogue
5. No-good suffixes
6. The "to be" words
7. Lists
8. Show, don't tell
9. Awkward phrasing
10. Commas

When I started writing in Yuffie's voice, I threw in a crapload of adverbs, since (in my interpretation of her) one of her habits is to exaggerate. Around that time I started to re-re-write "Fine Art," deliberately creating a new voice for Daisuke, and since they share some personality traits, I started using adverbs in his speech, too. Aaaand I was also writing in Rikku's POV, and she's a lot like Yuffie, so...

And now I can't stop! I use "actually" and "definitely" too often. Must attempt to curtail the habit.