We came down from the north, blue hands and a torch

[dolorosa_12]

Today started with a muddy walk to Grantchester and back — we discovered a new farm in the village with a field full of alpacas! — followed by crepes for breakfast. It's been pouring with rain all day, and so it was certainly no hardship to stay indoors, keeping warm and dry. I've spent most of the time alternating between watching biathlon on TV, and finishing up a third Yuletide treat. I had thought that I'd only be able to make three contributions to this year's collection (I felt I'd run out of time to write anything more), and then suddenly I had another browse through the app, and two more ideas for fic fell into my lap. I have not attempted to write the second of these two, but I'm wondering if I'll be able to manage it by the end of next week (the collection closes on Friday). I have a goal each year in terms of numbers of individual treats I write, and in terms of a minimum total wordcount written across all my Yuletide fics, and this helps keep me focused. We'll see.

Matthias has finished up work for the year, but I've got five more days: next week, and keeping the motivation going is getting very hard. Thankfully it's a fairly light teaching load, although I do also need to write the abstracts of three journal articles that my colleague and I need to submit by the end of December.

As for reading, I've finished one book and one novella. The novella, 'Brambles', is a prequel to Intisar Khanani's Goose Girl retelling, Thorn. I really loved the latter, but felt the novella didn't add much to the story — it simply provided further details for a specific element of the heroine's and villain's backstories.

The book, The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart, is the first in a fantasy series set in a world whose culture and setting resemble those of historical China. I enjoyed the worldbuilding, thought that the multiple points of view worked really well, but couldn't figure out if it was aimed at an adult or YA readership. The characters were certainly all adults (I think the youngest was in her early twenties), but they reacted and behaved in ways that felt more like teenagers. I find this happens fairly regularly in a lot of genre fiction, and I'm not entirely sure whether it's intentional on the part of the authors, editors, and publishers.

I know there are a lot of people in my Dreamwidth circle who enjoy the fiction of Amal El-Mohtar, Arkady Martine, or both, and so I hope some of you will appreciate this recording of a discussion between the two of them for the Brooklyn Book Festival. I had initially signed up for the live event, but then realised it was going to happen at 1am in my timezone, which was pushing things a bit. I was therefore really happy to see that they'd made the recording available. I love the fiction of both authors, but I also find them to be really excellent public speakers (the kaffeeklatch with Amal, where I sat around a table with her and about nine other people, and she answered all our individual questions, was one of the highlights of last year's Worldcon in Dublin for me). Their discussion ranged from empire, exile, and borderlands to cities, academia, and f/f fiction about antagonists falling in love with each other. It was wonderful! (The only thing that rendered Martine less than perfect in my eyes is the fact that she doesn't like London!)

Watch on YouTube

Now I'm sitting here with tea, and panettone. The Christmas lights are on, and everything is cozy and warm.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

I looooooved The Bone Shard Daughter. One of my favorite books of the year, though there aren't a ton of books for it to compete with.

[dolorosa_12]

I liked it a lot!

[corvidology]

Just in case you need an extra nudge, the Yuletide collection doesn't close for treats until minutes before it opens on Christmas day!

[dolorosa_12]

Oh, thank you for letting me know! I think I was dimly aware of this, but was worried that the mods might lock the collection without much warning. I didn’t want to work on something unless I could definitely get it into the collection in time, but I’m really keen to write this extra treat, so I think I’ll push on with it.

[corvidology]

They close the collection for a bit on the 18th to make sure everyone has a gift/to find the last minute Pinch Hits they need to send out.

Then reopen the collection so you can edit your story if it's a bus pass or write/edit treats.

[dolorosa_12]

Excellent! Thank you!

[ermingarden]

Alpacas?! That's incredible!

[dolorosa_12]

It was great! They were so inquisitive!

[ermingarden]

That sounds unbelievably adorable, wow <3

[chestnut_pod]

My goodness, thank you for that talk with El-Mohtar and Martine! I can't wait to set aside some time to watch it.

I really enjoyed El-Mohtar's column for NPR and respect her a great deal as a critic as well as a fiction author, so I pounce on any opportunity to hear her speak.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, she’s a great critic, and I tend to agree with her opinions on most books, so seeing her review something favourably is usually a high recommendation in my eyes.

I hope you enjoy the panel!

[rekishi]

I have The Bone Shard Daughter on my to read list, but after what you say I'll wait for a verdict for the sequel...

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah, it was ... fine, I guess? I just found the way the (adult) characters reacted to events felt more like they were teenagers.

[rekishi]

From the summary I read (which was half review, half pitch on some blog?) it read like they were teenagers or at best young adults (say, early 20ish) and that would have been...okay, I guess. But I very easily get frustrated with adult characters who really should know better and just...don't. So I'll wait for the sequel. I mean, it's not like I don't have heaps of stuff to read (more than I'll ever be able to, really).

[likeadeuce]

Your location and the walks you have available always sound idyllic to me! I hope they are as enjoyable as they sound.

I was oddly obsessed w/ 'The Goose Girl' as a child -- anything with a faithful horse! - and I've been meaning to checkout 'Thorn' - can't remember if it was your rec orsomeone else's.

And thank you for posting that panel video. I'm looking forward to watching a conversation between these brilliant women.

[dolorosa_12]

We're very lucky to live in such a nice part of the world, with easy access to a range of different walks. This year would have felt a lot different if that hadn't been the case: neither of us can drive, and it felt frivolous to use public transport for social/leisure activities, so the places within walking distance were a definite lifeline.

Thorn is great — it was one of my favourite books of the year. It doesn't do anything particularly original with the fairytale, but it does flesh out the characters' motivations and psychology in a way which worked for me.

I hope you enjoy the video!

[superborb]

Thanks for linking that video, I enjoyed it a lot!

[dolorosa_12]

You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it.

[lirazel]

I'm glad you've had a cozy weekend! And I'm looking forward to checking out that video now--thanks!

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you enjoy the video!

[aimedatthestars]

Oooh, marking the vid for later.

[dolorosa_12]

I hope you like it!