John Moore’s A Fate Worse Than Dragons, which was pretty hilarious. John had mentioned it during the YA panel at Armadillocon and I was intrigued. I had already read Bad Prince Charlie and knew what to expect from John’s demented brand of fantasy satire. Well worth it.

Deborah Chester’s The Pearls, the beginning of a new series. Quite good, but I wished that the main character, the woman, wasn’t so…good. I mean, she was good and wise, and young and beautiful, and of course she has a soulful relationship with the really bad anti-hero. While I liked the book, it made me think about my own female heroes. I realize that I have a hard time writing women who are not so soulful, or men who are not stalwart. So the book made me look at my own writing style and approach to characterization. But it looks to be a good series. By the way, check out Deborah’s website, especially the trailer for The Pearls. Neat!

J.M. McDermott’s Last Dragon. I’m currently halfway through, and I am blown away. The world is fully realized and the plot unfolds against a backdrop of intrigue and war. I love novels in which you realize that world goes inside even when you close the book. This is one of them. And it is hands down one of the handsomest books I’ve seen in a long time. The nonlineal technique isn’t easy, however, and it does require a great deal of attention because of the intricacies of both the story and the structure. Still, worth a visit.

So I took the most recent Atlantic on the flight, and man, what is up with Caitlin Flanagan? I know, probably I should just skip her articles because she irks me so much, but the problem is, I don’t look at bylines. I read and I read and then I start getting pissed off, and then I go, wait a second…and I flip back to the first page and there she is.

So this time it was an article spawned by a book about Patty Hearst and CF does her thing about how the mothers in the 60s and 70s all had daughters missing, daughters who wore dresses and headbands and heels and pearls to school one year and the next year they wore blue jeans and tie-dye and their boyfriends had long hair and they wanted to go to Woodstock. I mean, we saw this — wasn’t this that television show?

And basically, what this is all about is CF’s own issues with women being independent and free thinkers. Remember, this is Caitlin Flanagan who:

castigates women for working outside the home (in a vicious, ugly and demeaning article that you should go read just for the righteous indignation factor — it’s probably on the Atlantic website)

doesn’t work outside the home but has a nanny to raise her twin sons (I don’t even know what the fu — what that’s about, but she wants mothers to raise their children but doesn’t raise her own children?)

stalked a teenage girl on MySpace to make a point about stalkers of teen girls on MySpace (and may I just say, creeeeepy)

wrote an article about how girls are stressed out when they go away from home and to college (what the fu — sorry, what is it about this woman that she thinks girls are such delicate fragile creatures that they must be protected and kept from insulated from the rest of the world)

And may have egregiously plagiarized someone else’s research on the author of Mary Poppins in an article for the New Yorker — for which she no longer writes.

So anyway, here’s the deal: women should work. Daughters should separate from their mothers (and yes, you don’t have to point out to me that this may have struck home at this particular point in my life and my daughter’s life — I see it). Girls aren’t fragile, and if they are, maybe a little toughening up is good for them. See, we can say. You are strong, you can cope, you can excel. And you know, if you plagiarize, that really stinks. Maybe, if Caitlin Flanagan weren’t being such an immature girl for whom excellence is neither expected nor warranted, she would have taken more pride in her work and her byline.

Please go have a look. You can find Space Squid at various bookstores in Austin. It’s free, so pick up a copy. And psst: Space Squid editors — you need to update your site.

By the way, I completely forgot to write about the Space Squid release party at Armadillocon, held at a disreputable sports bar up the street from the con. They held another writing improv contest, which I could see become a semi-annual tradition, and the current squid cover girl was there to sign copies. I am not a great off the cuff writer (to say the least), but Paige Roberts totally rocks at it.

And the current issue has Matthew Bey’s squid-homage to the Michelle and Barack Obama New Yorker cover, and that is worth the issue price alone. Yes, I know it’s free. Just pick one up.

But first read the Edge of Propinquity site, because it’s really neat.

I moderated two panels: one on Young Adult fiction. My goal for this panel was to allow the panelists to show off their knowledge of the YA field and let them discourse upon trends and such. I don’t think it went as smoothly as I would have wished, but not because it was the panelists’ fault — they were all very informative, but sometimes the panel just gets away from you.

Much better was the Writer’s Boot Camp, or No More Excuses Panel. We talked about the roadblocks people put in their own way when they wanted to write and it was a fun, lively, discussion. A lot of people including panelists said how much they enjoyed that one. So I felt like I had done my job.

I got to sign books in the presence of John Scalzi, for whom the line stretched out of the dealer room. It was phenomenal. The others of us at the signing table, including Julie Kenner, Steve Wedel, and Josh Rountree, were in awe. I did sign plenty of copies of Gordath Wood, and then at the end of the hour, got in the end of the Scalzi line to get my copy of Zoe’s Tale to be signed. I cannot wait to read it. It looks fabulous.

The highlight of the con, though, were the camp fire stories told by Joe Haldeman, Joe Lansdale, Bill Crider, and Scott Cupp. Joe Lansdale told some remarkable stories, including the one about the blind groundskeeper and the woman who comes to the door and has a fit (”I mean it was a F I T T fit”), and stories about his dad. The elder Lansdale never started a fight, but boy, he sure knew how to finish one. And Joe Haldeman told a truly awesome story about Vietnam, among other tales.

That was the best.

Excellent parties, good friends, Jayme Blaschke’s mead, and great readings by Stina Leicht, Martha Wells, Matthew Bey, Jessica Reisman, and others. Can’t wait for next year.

Okay, okay, day one. Went to the panel on the influence of westerns on SF, and of course Firefly was mentioned. Joe Lansdale ran away with the panel, which discoursed over a wide range of topics, from Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour to Silverberg, Bloch, and Howard of course. The Conan stories = westerns and the consensus was they were more western than his actual westerns. Joe Lansdale pointed out that he had been to Howard’s house and stood in his backyard and recognized bits from his stories.

Went to the panel on “Why I write,” which was ably moderated by Matthew Bey. Panelists ended up talking about why they don’t write, and how they snap out of writer’s block. Talebones editor Patrick Swenson said that he misses writing and that editing takes away writing time. He spoke of the incredible value that Clarion and other workshops have because they put writers in company with other writers and mentors, fueling creativity.

Went to dinner with cryptopolis, and after that there was the pros party, and after that went to Matthew Bey’s reading, which was hilarious as he read from two stories, The Natural History of the Pancake Badger, and I forgot the name of the second one but it was a remake of “I am Sam” only with Sean Penn playing Cthuhlu.

Natural History is going up on the Town Drunk at some point, and the Cthulhu one is appearing in a something about tentacles anthology (sorry, I’ll edit when I find out the real name) from Sam’s Dot. So you need to make sure you buy the anthology and visit Town Drunk because you don’t want to miss them.

I’ll remind you.

It’s not late but I had one drink (Joe Haldeman!) so I’m useless. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

I can’t believe it. A whole novel, in less than a year.

Okay, when I say finished, I mean the first draft is finished. There’s still a lot more work to do, and I already know a bunch of edits I need to make. But it’s finished and there’s a The End at the end, and I’ve lost all perspective on whether it’s any good or not, but right now, it’s finished.

Now I can really enjoy Armadillocon.

Here’s my schedule:

 Saturday, noon: Reading, in Robertson

Saturday, 3 pm: Sex, Drugs, and Urban Fantasy: Teen Fiction is Not For Kids
in deZavala.

Sunday, 11 am: No More Excuses: Making Writing a Part of Your Life
in deZavala

Sunday 1  pm: Autographing, in the dealer’s room

I am looking forward to the con and hope to see you there!

One is that I write better in the morning than at night. I have more energy and more engagement. I think that might be because after a night’s sleep I have resolved plot issues and replenished the creative well. It might also be the coffee, since I don’t drink caffeine at night any more (or not as much, I should say).

I found I can also refocus better and get myself back on track. At night when my energy and interest start to flag, I tend to say, “that’s okay, time to pack it in anyway for the night.” During the day I was able to restart.

I’m a day person. That’s all there is to it.

And the upshot was, I got a lot accomplished. Yeah, the incentives helped (Hellboy, getting my hair done, no ice cream though) but success begat success, and even though there were some tough days, I worked out the plot points and made it work.

So what have I learned? Well, that I might have to rethink my schedule. The day job isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but I might be able to get up early and write before work. This is tough because that’s usually when I exercise (and if you’re anywhere near Texas this summer you will know that it’s impossible to exercise in the afternoon). I might also have to break down and bring the laptop in with me to work and write at lunch. I try really hard to keep work and my non-work writing separate, but a change might be in order.

So it’s been a good week. And it’s still not over. I still have more words to line up, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to grab some coffee and get back to work. Daylight’s wasting!

I could definitely get used to writing during the day. ; - )

I’ll leave my thoughts on the day job for another post. For now, back to work.

And okay, maybe today’s bribe will have to be ice cream after all.