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weaselmom:
If you comment on this post, I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.
Here are the interests from my list thatweaselmom picked to ask me about:
endicott studio A consortium of writers and artists, grouped around Terri Windling, a noted fantasy writer and editor. Website here. She was the one who created the Fairy Tale series published by Tor--I had originally written The Wild Swans hoping to sell it to her for that series, although eventually I sold it to Warner instead. I enjoy her blog and journal.
letter games I first learned about letter games when I read Sorcery and Cecelia, which was co-written by one of my writing mentors, Patricia C. Wrede, and Caroline Stevermer (1crowdedhour). Basically, the idea is that one writer writes a letter, in character, and the other writer has to answer, and between the two of you, you start creating a story. But you can't tell the other writer what you intend the story to be. You just have to react to the latest letter. So it's a challenge to you as a writer as well as a game. I tried it, once, with kijjohnson, and we started a pretty interesting story, set during the Civil War, but we never finished it.
mythopoeic fiction Fantasy fiction in the tradition of the Inklings (i.e. the writing group at Oxford, of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. The Mythopoeic Society is a literary and educational organization for the study, discussion and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature, both the work of the Inklings and other works that continue in the same tradition. They present the Mythopoeic Award every year; The WIld Swans was a finalist for the year it was published, but it didn't win. Sigh.
paradigm of uncertainty I put this on the list because it was the first Harry Potter fanfiction I ever read, written bymadlori. I think I discovered it shortly after I started posting on the Harry Potter for Grownups Yahoo group. It's archived here. I believe it's generally considered THE classic Harry/Hermione story. It was this story that started me on a hunt for other fanfiction, a habit which I have not yet broken.
pre-joycean fellowship There's a definition of it here, at Wikipedia. It is rather a joke which started among a circle of writers, many of them local here in Minneapolis. I was aware of it because these were many of the same writers I was pumping for information on my question, "How do you write a novel, anyway?" (And after writing two of 'em, I'm still no clearer on this question.) Anyway, their works were the ones I enjoyed reading, and which influenced me the most while I was trying to master novel writing myself.
ritual I like rituals, and I work a lot of them into my daily life. Writing in my paper journal every day. Getting pictures of the girls on their birthdays and a picture of Rob and me on our anniversary. Always eating strawberries and cream for breakfast on the morning of July 6--that's the day after my anniversary, and I had strawberries and cream for breakfast the day we started our honeymoon. (Yum. In more ways than one.) Setting the table for Twelfth Night. Lighting candles on the night of the winter solstice. I firmly believe that I need rituals to ground and center me, and I love weaving them into my family life. I express my love for my kids and husband partly by the things I do without fail, every day, every week, every year.
winter I have very mixed feelings about winter. I can hardly avoid it in Minnesota, of course. I dreaded it for years when I came to realize that I suffered from seasonal affective disorder, and so my experience of winter was all tied up with my depression. I thought about it a lot when I was planning a book about winter magic (that book, alas, seems to be permanently put on hold).
Gradually, however, I came to identify the diamond in the heart of winter that Peter Gabriel talks about in his song "Winter Solstice." Learning to love winter is all about finding light in dark places (another interest on my list).
weaselmom:If you comment on this post, I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.
Here are the interests from my list that
weaselmom picked to ask me about:endicott studio A consortium of writers and artists, grouped around Terri Windling, a noted fantasy writer and editor. Website here. She was the one who created the Fairy Tale series published by Tor--I had originally written The Wild Swans hoping to sell it to her for that series, although eventually I sold it to Warner instead. I enjoy her blog and journal.
letter games I first learned about letter games when I read Sorcery and Cecelia, which was co-written by one of my writing mentors, Patricia C. Wrede, and Caroline Stevermer (
1crowdedhour). Basically, the idea is that one writer writes a letter, in character, and the other writer has to answer, and between the two of you, you start creating a story. But you can't tell the other writer what you intend the story to be. You just have to react to the latest letter. So it's a challenge to you as a writer as well as a game. I tried it, once, with kijjohnson, and we started a pretty interesting story, set during the Civil War, but we never finished it. mythopoeic fiction Fantasy fiction in the tradition of the Inklings (i.e. the writing group at Oxford, of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. The Mythopoeic Society is a literary and educational organization for the study, discussion and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature, both the work of the Inklings and other works that continue in the same tradition. They present the Mythopoeic Award every year; The WIld Swans was a finalist for the year it was published, but it didn't win. Sigh.
paradigm of uncertainty I put this on the list because it was the first Harry Potter fanfiction I ever read, written by
madlori. I think I discovered it shortly after I started posting on the Harry Potter for Grownups Yahoo group. It's archived here. I believe it's generally considered THE classic Harry/Hermione story. It was this story that started me on a hunt for other fanfiction, a habit which I have not yet broken.pre-joycean fellowship There's a definition of it here, at Wikipedia. It is rather a joke which started among a circle of writers, many of them local here in Minneapolis. I was aware of it because these were many of the same writers I was pumping for information on my question, "How do you write a novel, anyway?" (And after writing two of 'em, I'm still no clearer on this question.) Anyway, their works were the ones I enjoyed reading, and which influenced me the most while I was trying to master novel writing myself.
ritual I like rituals, and I work a lot of them into my daily life. Writing in my paper journal every day. Getting pictures of the girls on their birthdays and a picture of Rob and me on our anniversary. Always eating strawberries and cream for breakfast on the morning of July 6--that's the day after my anniversary, and I had strawberries and cream for breakfast the day we started our honeymoon. (Yum. In more ways than one.) Setting the table for Twelfth Night. Lighting candles on the night of the winter solstice. I firmly believe that I need rituals to ground and center me, and I love weaving them into my family life. I express my love for my kids and husband partly by the things I do without fail, every day, every week, every year.
winter I have very mixed feelings about winter. I can hardly avoid it in Minnesota, of course. I dreaded it for years when I came to realize that I suffered from seasonal affective disorder, and so my experience of winter was all tied up with my depression. I thought about it a lot when I was planning a book about winter magic (that book, alas, seems to be permanently put on hold).
Gradually, however, I came to identify the diamond in the heart of winter that Peter Gabriel talks about in his song "Winter Solstice." Learning to love winter is all about finding light in dark places (another interest on my list).
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And I love reading about your rituals. I think it's marvelous you have so many - that's the sort of thing that will really be meaningful to your girls when they look back on their childhoods.
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Um, tell me about ballroom dancing, bisexuality, contra dancing, hula, maori, slash (not that I don't know what that is, snicker), and valdemar.
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bisexuality and maori
Valdemar (also you ;) )
ballroom dancing.
I'm happy to go into more detail, if you wish, or you can pick four different ones to take their place, if you prefer. And I'll answer the others in a future post, promise. :)
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Play if you feel like it, ignore me if you don't.
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A longer reply than I thought I'd write
Kind of a scattered list; I'll go through it in order of interest to outsiders, probably.
Annwn was a SF Bay area band, centered around
Phillips Exeter Academy: is my alma mater; I graduated in 1981. It's the better of the two prep schools - that other Phillips Academy lets in losers like the Bush family. (Though I understand they had the sense to throw the last model back.) Anyway, PEA is a very good school, and I'm glad I went.
Computer Game Design and PSP: This is what brings in the money for me. I lead technical teams in a game development studio, which is almost as much fun as people think it is. We spent a while working on the Sony PSP, which is a very powerful handheld console. The unit has a lot of unrealized potential, but I think it will be the next generation of high-end handhelds that really takes off.
Computer game design is still in it's early years as an entertainment medium. I think there's a lot that can be formally said about what makes a game engaging or not, and I think it's worth the effort to be formal about it when you're in the business. I find it unusual that amateur authors talk more about plot, pacing, and structure than professional game designers talk about the formalities of our field.
Board Games: I'm not sure what to expand on here. My wife and I both like playing tabletop board games, usually games that have a "race to the goal" structure rather than a direct competition structure. A good board game can be the locus of a conversation as well as an activity in itself. We've tended toward games that allow minor chores like laundry and dishes to go on around them; the crayon rail games are good for that. Our son also likes playing games, though the selection of games for seven year old is somewhat more limited.
SCA and SCA combat The Society for Creative Anachronism. Mostly people with more interest in history than knowledge of it, but you find the occasional expert hanging out with us. The SCA in general is a fun diversion, I've done dance and choral singing as well as just hanging out at events talking to people. SCA combat is a martial art that is used as a sport - it has some aspects of both. The fundamental description is that we use rattan weapons and reasonably real armor, and throw full contact blows to a restricted target set. Once you get past the near certainty of the occasional bruise, it's enormous fun. It's a direct match of skill to skill, where good sportsmanship is not only expected but required. I'm in the middle of a long sabbatical from fighting, and I miss it a lot.
Like many competitive sports, SCA combat is lots of near victories and losses, enlivened by the rare incident when you see an opening and know that your blow is going to land. The icon I’m using here is one of those moments – my opponent bought into a fake and lifted his shield too high. I just happened to catch this one on film. It’s in the middle of a long series of bouts where I got clubbed like a harp seal, but still – those few moments of triumph make the whole day worthwhile. It’s why I try to fight people better than I am – victory is much sweeter. Besides, they’re easier to find.
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Andrea
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Some of my favoite things : - )
http://zencuppa.livejournal.com/#entry_214618
Thanks!!
Rituals
I have an incredibly difficult time changing habits. Maybe thinking about habits I chose to change or bring into my life, as rituals would help me. (Mind you, "to do lists" don't seem much like a ritual, but you never know).
But now that I really think about it . . to me, rituals in my life are:
*Monday night contra dance: Yes, I *am* a dancer and that community means a lot to me.
*Writing in my journal (when I remember to do it): me as a writer
*My daily walk/run (when I've got the time): my love of the outdoors
*Picking my kids up from school, it symbolizes my transition from business writer to mother.
And doing those things on consistently gives me a deep sense of satisfaction and bolsters my sense of who I am and where I belong.
Hmmm . . .
Thank you Peg, for writing about your love of rituals. To use a cliche statement, it's given me food for thought.
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I like the idea of ritual, but I never seem to have gotten the hang of it. When the kids were younger, the family had a fair number of "traditions," such as going up to Duluth every year, to stay in a hotel and watch the ships and drive up the North Shore. But as they got older--and with an eight-year difference between the oldest and youngest--this one or that one lost interest in a tradition or had other things going on. I can't think now of one single thing that any of them expects me to do--except that we still have the tradition of the whole family going out to eat for birthdays and anniversaries of their arrivals in the family, and it takes something big (like living in Korea!) to keep one of them away from that.
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belated interests
Clex is a pairing smoosh for the Clark/Lex pairing in Smallville slash. I've never seen an episode of Smallville, but I followed several of my favorite writers into the slash fandom. Are you interested in recommendations?
Digger, Girl Genius, and xkcd are web comics I like and recommend.
Digger is a serial story by Ursula Vernon. It starts here:
http://www.graphicsmash.com/comics/digger.php?view=archive&chapter=5028&mpe=1
Girl Genius is a serial by Phil & Kaja Foglio, here:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104
xkcd is a comic strip by the xkcd guy. (Randall Munroe, but he doesn't put his name on the comic page. I had to click the about to find it.) For this one I recommend starting with current and working backwards, or just hitting random.
http://xkcd.com/
I don't really remember for sure how I got farcical aquatic ceremonies as an interest. I must have copied from someone; probably either
Literalized metaphor is hard for me to explain. It's a thing writers can do in fantasy and SF, the thing Joss Whedon did a lot of in Buffy, where things that would usually be metaphor become literal; like the ignored girl turning invisible. Is there a better term for that?
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I should update them; I probably don't have Hugh Laurie or House on there.
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