What have I been up to?

[selenay]

It's be a rather quiet weekend, which is just how I like them. Overslept on Saturday, but managed to get to town for coffee with terrylbirch eventually, so that was alright. It had to be an abrieviated coffee session, though, because there was washing that needed doing and in my rush to get out of the house I hadn't had time to put a load on before I went out.

So the rest of Saturday was spent sorting out a couple of loads of washing and reading while using a timer to ensure that I remembered to do important things like take the washing out of the machine. All of this was to ensure that when Mom returns from Italy tonight, she isn't faced with a mound of washing and a dirty house because that makes her Very Miffed with Dad and I.

Sunday was spent mostly writing my French assignment and today has been a partially lazy day, involving a run to the supermarket (where I found that they were selling camomile and spiced apple tea, which I usually need to drive miles and miles to find so bought several boxes), lunch and then a nice ramble with Dad.

I have also managed to practise the violin all three days and do a satisfying amount of reading. Katherine Kerr's Daggerspell is now finished (very good read so I need to find the rest of the series) and I started Naomi Novik's Temeraire: The Jade Throne today. This is a hardback book, so I'll need something lighter for reading during lunch breaks at work - I'm thinking that it's time for the year's re-read of Lynn Flewellings Nightrunners series.

In exciting news for Alex and Seregil fans, Lynn Flewelling has apparently signed a deal with her publisher for two new Nightrunners books. Yay! No word yet on publication date yet, but at least we'll be getting some :-) And for anyone that I recommended Lynn Flewelling to who hasn't wanted to read a WIP, The Oracle's Queen came out in July (over here, anyway) so she's finished The Tamir Trilogy. It's slightly different from the other series, but still a very good read with some really interesting gender-choice stuff.

And that is all from my weekend. It seems that the secret to me feeling happy and relaxed is me not constantly pushing myself to achieve tons of stuff all the time. Why did it take me a year of feeling exhausted and frequently miserable to work that out? Taking the time to read and relax rather than constantly running around and beavering away is actually making me more productive and improving my general outlook on life. Huh. It feels weird to have the odd bit of lazy time, rather than working on something every minute that I'm awake, but it seems to be better for me. Maybe sometimes I need these little ideas applied to my head with a large mallet before they'll sink in :-)

To which end, I am now signing off to cook sausages and watch the final part of the Time Team Big Royal Dig with my father.

Comments

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Aren't the Temeraire novels great? This is the third author that I've discovered in fanfic and have been able to follow to reading her pro-fic. Rachel Caine and Lori Grey were the other two. And one I just heard about last week, Rob (short for Robyn) Thurman. Haven't had the time to pick up her first book yet, but a sequel is being published soon.

And I discovered every one of them by reading Stargate or SGA fanfiction!

[selenay]

I've been thoroughly enjoying the Temeraire novels :-) I wasn't entirely sure what I'd make of them before I read them - Patrick O'Brian with dragons sounded like it would be a love it or hate it concept - but I was pretty confident that the writing would be good because she's written such good fanfic. It's been great to find that I love what she's writing about as well :-)

I've heard of Lori Grey (read her fanfic, was kind of aware that she was writing profic) but not Rachel Caine. What kind of stuff does she write?

It's great to see good fanfic writers turn pro, and even better when they continue with the fanfic as well! At least you can pick up their pro novels knowing that you've enjoyed their writing before so you only have to worry about whether the subject will suit, rather than picking up a totally unknown writer with no idea of how they write. I've had more than a couple of bad experiences with authors where I can't understand how they ever got published :-(

[margec01.livejournal.com]

Rachel Caine is the author of a wonderful series called Weather Warden. Wardens control various forces of nature, such as Fire, Water, or Wind--our heroine, Joanne, controls the weather.

Djinn (as in Genies) add to the powers of the various Wardens, but are mostly kept captive and subject to their masters' wishes. Some masters are fine, others are awful--and some Djinn are free, like David who saves Joanne's life and with whom she develops a relationship.

The books are about romance, good vs. evil, freedom vs. slavery, with a tough ass-kicking heroine who will probably save the world--but we're not there yet! Each book fairly well stands alone and the main dilemma in the book is solved. Only for the last pages to give us a cliffhanger ending which sets up for the next book.

In order, the books are:
Ill Wind
Heat Stroke
Chill Factor
Windfall
and Firestorm is coming out here in September

They are available on the US Amazon.com. Don't know about in the UK. I have hooked THREE friends on the series--they are great!

She also wrote the Stargate SG-1 novel Sacrifice Moon under her fan name Julie Fortune. (To be honest, the book was only okay. I can see where the publisher wants to appeal to a broad range of fans, so nothing very meaningful in the book. Not bad, just not as good as her other writing.)

I see she has removed all of her fanfic from various websites. I remember her telling me her agent recommended she do that in order to stay "pure." She never wrote slash, though some of her het was excellent!

Anyway, if you get the time, I certainly recommend her books!

[selenay]

Hmm, I'll have to have a look for those on UK Amazon. If they're not available, then I'll be in Canada in October and I should be able to get hold of copies there even if I have to order then from Amazon and get them delivered to my aunt's house. They definitely sound interesting.

Your comments on her SG book are interesting. While I think it's been good that they've got fans writing the books - at least they'll get the character names right! - the limits of writing that kind of tie-in must limit what a writer would do, particularly a fan writer who is used to doing whatever they want in stories even if it affects the canon.

It's a shame that her fan writing has been removed. I can understand her agents' motives, but it seems a shame. Especially because there are probably more than a few people who might have discovered her fan writing and gone on to buy her published novels who wouldn't have otherwise read her. It makes me even happier that writers like shallot still play in our playgrounds!

[nic]

some really interesting gender-choice stuff.

This sentence intrigued me- can you elaborate?

[selenay]

Well, the key idea in the book is that the main character is born a girl, but has to be disguised at birth as a boy. Rather than using a simple illusion, she is bound to be phyisically a boy (at least externally) and she doesn't know that she isn't a boy until she's a teenager. The way that Flewelling has written it is very interesting and actually considers a lot of the impact of that much better than I'd expected. There's plenty of other plotty stuff in the books to explain why this has to be done - murder, tretchery and political intrigue, those wonderful staples of fantasy - but it's the emotional path of the character that holds the books together.

Definitely worth reading :-)