pegkerr | Entries tagged with kij johnson

kijjohnson, my dear hench wench, has received a Publishers Weekly fiction pick of the month review on her newest about-to-be-released novel, Fudoki. I've read it in manuscript, and it's fabulous. All readers of this LiveJournal are strongly urged to pick up a copy. You won't regret it. Love and kisses to Kij. Darling, you still show me the way.

Cheers,
Peg

truepenny's short story "Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland" won the 2003 Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Short Fiction. The story was based upon a necklace of that name that

elisem created. (Click here to see

truepenny wearing the necklace.

matociquala gave the acceptance speech for her).

In other happy news,

kijjohnson just sold a novelette "At the Mouth of the River of Bees" to Ellen Datlow for scifiction.com.

Congratulations to both! I have such talented friends.

kijjohnson came up to the Cities today, and so instead of our usual Sunday noon call, we had a nice two or three hour visit. She brought her dog Hope along, and the girls enjoyed meeting her. We walked up to the corner coffeeshop and bought iced coffee for Kij and me and ice cream for the girls, and then walked back home. Kij and I sat on the porch and just talked, about our lives and changes we're trying to make (and changes we want to make that we can't quite figure out). We also talked about our respective books.

I talked about how I've sort of set the ice palace book aside and was finding it difficult to get back to it. I'd stopped because I went back to work full time and so lost my designated writing time. And then I started feeling uneasy about this and that about the plot, and started feeling remote from the characters, and days without writing has stretched into several weeks. "I've come to think that being a professional writer is like being a professional ballet dancer," Kij told me. "Even if you're a pro and have a lot of experience, you have to do your classes every day, because you have to keep your body in tiptop form, just so that when you do it, you can make it look effortless. It isn't like going out dancing at the club once a week, where you dance because you feel like it once in a while."

*sigh* You know what you have to do, Peg. Just like what you have to do with the exercise program that you stopped and you're finding excuses not to start up again.

You just have to buckle down to do it.

Anyway, we talked about ideas about what I can pick up to write again. Will mull over the next few days, and then . . . well, no promises. We'll see.

It's comforting to know I'm not the only person going through this.

Here are some pictures of my best friend

kijjohnson wearing one of

radcliffe's costume creations.

The pictures are lovely but (*boggles*) I've never seen her in a bustle before.

Cheers,
Peg

What I'm leaving behind:

Vols. 1 and 2 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, which I'd borrowed from

kijjohnson previously.
A bottle of Woolite I'd bought to wash out my workout clothes but don't want to take with me on the airplane.
The copy of People magazine I'd read on the plane coming out.
The BBC Lord of the Rings radio production I gave her as a Christmas present.
The mobile I gave her as a birthday present. (Kij says, "It was our birthday present, precious, and we wants it!")

What I'm taking with me that I didn't have with me when I arrived:

A few new ribbons sewn on my ribbon coat.
New books (Christmas presents from Kij): The Annotated Hobbit, Annotated Classic Fairy Tales and Charting Your Goals (for thinking about future moving-into-the-writer's-life planning).
Vols. 3 and 4 of The Road to Science Fiction, personally inscribed and autographed by Jim Gunn.
Borrowed books which will be eventually returned: One of the Jeeves (P.G. Wodehouse) books I'd picked up to read this weekend, The Private World of Georgette Heyer and the next two volumes of Sandman.
The first two episodes of Sharpe (with Sean Bean).

kijjohnson is giving them to me since they've decided to get the whole set.
The outlines of

kijjohnson's next two novels.
A new swing coat, in black, that I got at a store downtown.
A couple wee gifties for my little girls, bought in a toy store, also downtown.
The doggie bag with my leftover dinner from the Middle eastern restaurant last night.
NOT the Paradise Cafe, unfortunately. It won't fit in my luggage.

And a thousand wonderful memories.

Back to my wonderful family today. I hope they haven't self-destructed without me.

Cheers,
Peg

kijjohnson (the 20th). I won't tell you how old she is, because I'll be that old in four months. She's older than me. Ha!

We talked about the ice palace book, and in the course of the conversation discovered amazing parallels between the villain in my book (unnamed Mr. X), the evil magician in the story of Aladdin, and Miss Havesham in Great Expectations. All this will prove useful, trust me. One important discovery/decision is that Mr. X's purpose in siccing Jack on Solveig is not that he knew that Solveig was the woman he'd slept with six years ago. He merely was putting Jack in position to set up the design of the ice palace, to his magical specification, and it will be an ugly surprise for him, when he discovers that the young woman on the design team with Jack is actually his old lover.

Still haven't figured out exactly what he's up to, but that's progress.

kijjohnson and

mckitterick and I went out for dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant, where

mckitterick and I ordered Turkish coffee, thick enough to chew, just to be sure that we'd stay up all night. Over dinner, I brought up what I'd been thinking about since breakfast with

kijjohnson, about how she likes fewer books that she reads than I do. Kij admitted that when someone recommends a book to her, it tends to put her hackles up. I talked with her about a conversation I had long ago with my younger sister, when I was frustrated with her because her knee-jerk reaction was to dislike movies that I liked. She actually said to me, "I don't like the kind of movies you like; I like good movies." In the course of the conversation that followed, I explained to my sister--and in explaining it to her, understood it for the first time myself--that I like to share my enthusiasms with the people I love. And my sister had to learn that she didn't have to carve out her own territory by liking something different than me every time. I think it gave Kij something to think about.

True to our agreement, Kij and I listened to the first episode of the BBC Lord of the Rings. And, true to our agreement, all of us watched the first episode of "Sharpe" with Sean Bean. And then we immediately started a second episode. We would have started a third, but they didn't own any more, episodes. This probably means that Kij owes me another hour of the BBC LOTR. This was the first time I'd seen any Sharpe, and I loved it. "I'm so delighted that you love it, too," Kij said.

"See?" I laughed. "Isn't it nice to share something you enjoy with someone you love?"

As it was after midnight, I gave her her birthday present, a hanging double mobile called "Best Friends Forever":

She was delighted with it.

We agreed that this visit was such a success that we should probably make an annual habit of it. Home tomorrow. But we'll still be up late talking tonight.

Cheers,
Peg

Most Sundays, Kij and I call each other at noon. Today we're with each other, which, we agree, is vastly superior.

Breakfast again at Paradise Cafe. I had the dark cherry pancakes, and Kij had the granola with yogurt and a cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll arrived at our table impaled by a serrated knife, stuck in at a perfect perpendicular angle. We remarked that it looked rather like a stake impaling the heart of a vampire, except that it was oozing cinnamon glaze rather than blood. Probably tasted superior, too.

We spent breakfast talking about books. I asked her what had gotten her on her Fanny Burney binge. I will have to read Evelina. Perhaps I'll try the diaries, too. We discussed the Pullman trilogy, and why she liked them and I didn't--well, actually, I liked them, too, up until the third one. Jane Austen, J.K. Rowling, [Kij here BWAHAHAHA: Peg secretly likes Leonardo deCaprio!}(Peg: gad, a girl can't even take a potty break around here without being slandered. Anyway. . .) We talked about a number of different authors. We agreed that she is much more like to abandon reading a book than I am because there is something in it that irritates her.

I felt a little disquiet, listening to her. Am I too easily satisfied? Am I not a critical enough reader?

We wandered around Borders for awhile, where we chortled over Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics, got some coffee, and came home. I'll be sewing more ribbons on my ribbon coat. We cut a deal that she'll listen to the first hour of the BBC LOTR production, and I'll watch one of the Sharpe (Sean Bean) episodes. Tonight, we'll be brainstorming our novels, and probably split a bottle of champange to toast Tor's acceptance of the Fudoki rewrite.

It's going to be difficult for me to go home again. I've enjoyed my visit so much.

Cheers,
Peg

We started with another gorgeous brunch at the Paradise Cafe. Since I couldn't decide between the swiss and artichoke omelette and the apple cinnamon pancake, I ordered the omelette and got one pancake on the side. By the time I had finished eating, it was decided that I was going to take the restaurant back home to Minneapolis with me.

We browsed around shops for a while. Kij took me to meet

radcliffe, so that I could see her costume making shop. (Click here to see some of the gorgeous fantasy gowns in her catalogue).

verminiusrex stopped by as well while we were there. I admired a gorgeous brocade with dragons.

radcliffe had a scrap to spare, so she gave me a bit of it to put on my ribbon coat.

Then

kijjohnson took me to meet Jim Gunn. Very nice gentlemen, whom I haven't met before. Very gracious. It was fun to hear him reminiscing about John Campbell. He chatted with Kij about the novelette he's working on. (Still working at 80!) I went back to the university bookstore to get one of his volumes of The Road to Science Fiction for him to sign for me. When I brought it back to him to autograph, he impulsively took another volume off his shelf and autographed that one for me, too.

More shopping, and then we met

worldforger at Chipotle, where we gorged on Mexican tacos and burritos and talked about writing, motorcyles, boy points versus girl points, martial arts (what do I know about martial arts? Practically nothing). Mostly I sat and listened to

kijjohnson and

worldforger with both deep interest and amusement. I'm not shy at all, but there was a distinct sensation that it was difficult to get a word in edgewise, and I was content to simply listen this time.

Stayed up late, sewing my new brocade dragon on my ribbon coat and listening with yet more amusement to Kij as she talked out loud as she surfed the Internet. She got an e-mail from Claire Eddy at Tor, telling her that the rewrite on Fudoki was accepted and the book will be put into production on Tuesday, which was a big relief to Kij. Went to bed at a horrendously late hour--I picked up one of the P.G. Wodehouse books at 2:30 a.m. and finally put it down after 3:00 a.m. thinking this is ridiculous. Must get sleep.

A lovely day. Today will be another one. Will call my family to make sure that they've managed to survive for three days without me, and the off to play some more.

Cheers,
Peg

I flew into the airport and

kijjohnson picked me up and drove me to her new home in Lawrence, Kansas, which I've never seen before. Kij and her husband

mckitterick moved here from Seattle this year to teach at Kansas State University (Kij is working with Jim Gunn of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction, and Chris teaches technical writing). Kij's first book, set in medieval Japan, was about foxes. The second, Fudoki which she just turned into Tor and will be out next October, is about cats. The next one which we'll be talking about this weekend will be about monkeys, and so she and Chris have been collecting monkeys for a while. They have a net strung up in the corner of their bedroom, crammed full of sock monkeys.

"Where did you find them all?"

"On E-bay, of course!"

Of course. It's wonderful to be here, to see how she lives rather than just hearing about it over the phone. She taught the first session of the fiction writing class she'll be doing this semester, so I came along as a guest auditor. Tonight, because it is cold and snowy here in Lawrence, I wanted something warm and filling, so we went out to a Vietnamese restaurant so I could get pho.

Kij is tired tonight--she was up till 5:00 a.m. last night burning through the ending of Lord of the Rings, the first time she's read it since sometime in her twenties. I feel incredibly smug that I just got her the BBC radio production CDs for Christmas. So we'll be going to bed early. Tomorrow we'll prowl the thrift stores together. Kij will be introducing me to Jim Gunn sometime this weekend, and we'll be seeing

worldforger tomorrow night and maybe

radcliffe sometime this weekend.

We're going to have fun! Once we catch up on our sleep, that is. . .

Cheers,
Peg

Rob forgot to take the computer with him to work today. Negative: I have to wait yet longer to have my DVD drive fixed. Positive: I can post my end-of-the-month list of books on time.

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer. Re-read. I heard Caroline talking about the system of magic in this book at World Fantasy, which is what made me pull it out again. I was surprised to find how little memory of the book I had, which is quite unusual for me. I'm glad that a sequel will be released soon.

North to Freedom by Anne Holm. Re-read. Actually, the original title which was used for this book's release in Europe is much better: I am David. World Fantasy prompted this read, too: I was on a panel at WFC on influential books read as a child, and this one sprang right to mind. This book holds up well, no matter how many times you re-read it. I read it to the girls this month, too.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Kate Bernheimer, ed. A collection of essays. Was particularly impressed by the ones by Terri Windling, A.S. Byatt, and Linda Gray Sexton and . . . oh, there were a whole host of good ones. (Alas, also one or two that were just unreadable, but out of 28 essays, they were few. The book was well worth the money).

The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy by Brian Sibley. Because yeah, I'm a fan.

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer. Re-read. Because it's getting cold again, which means I'm starting to make butterscotch pudding in the microwave at night, and for some reason, every time I eat warm butterscotch pudding, I want to read Georgette Heyer. A very odd but extremely strong correlation. This is the only Georgette Heyer I picked up and read cover-to-cover, but I dipped and skimmed through a number of others this month (all over bowls of butterscotch pudding), including The Toll Gate, A Civil Contract, The Foundling and Cotillion.

Jane and the Prisoner of the Wool House by Stephanie Barron. I really like these books and think they are well written. The author purports to have "discovered" some hitherto unknown Jane Austen manuscripts, and Jane is a detective uncovering murder mysteries. If you love Jane Austen's novels and are very familiar with them as I am, you will be delighted to see the lines that "pop" out of the text which you recognize as coming from Jane's published work. The books are following Jane's biography (and seem to be carefully researched) and you see what inspires Jane's fiction. This one is in the newest in the series; number six or seven I think. Great fun.

Four Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright. Re-read. Another favorite from my childhood that I pulled out to read to the girls.

The Sandman: Prelude and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman. First time I've read this, I'm ashamed to say, thanks to

kijjohnson who lent me her copy. I am happily reading on in the series.

Here's one book that I only had an opportunity to read about half of before I had to return it to the lender, but I'm including it because I thought quite a bit about it this month:

Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter by Jack Zipes.

Hmm. I note with disapproval that I'm not doing enough research reading for the new book. Must address this next month.

Peg

I am starting to read (for the very first time) Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, thanks to

kijjohnson, who lent me the first two books so that I could see whether I liked enough to buy it myself.

Why can't I write like this? *sulks*

Peg

I talked with many, many people, stayed up much too late, ate and drank stuff that was bad for me, and had a wonderful time.

( Here's what happened: )

I called Inga the architect tonight. I said I would try to work up a list of questions for her and then e-mail them to her, and then we could try to find a time to meet. Working up the questions is tomorrow night's project.

Cheers,
Peg

Last minute notice:

kijjohnson and I will be participating in the Sunday booksigning from 5-7 p.m. at Dreamhaven Books in conjunction with the World Fantasy Convention. Hope to see you there.

It's really, really a pain to go to a convention when your partner wants to go, too, and you have young children who are bored to tears by conventions.

I am crabby and (let's admit it) I have PMS. The book has not gone anywhere in the last few days, because I'm still missing crucial chunks of information that I need to go forward. Part of it is that I need to read more research. Part of it is that I'm nervous about this upcoming meeting with Inga the architect. Part of it is that I simply haven't figured critical elements out yet. I'm waiting for them to surface up from my back brain, like an ice fisherman waiting by the hole in the ice, and I'm feeling impatient. The house is a mess. They just buried my favorite senator. I yelled at my kids tonight, for no good reason, which makes me feel cruddy.

And now: this convention. I want to go and have a good time. I want to avoid looking like a fool on panels (although I'm on only one. With Jane Yolen. And Neil Gaiman. Oy.) I hope I can find interesting people for conversations and dinner expeditions. I want to not feel burdened and annoyed by the responsibility of looking after my own children.

If you're coming to World Fantasy, look me up. Come to my reading (Saturday at noon! With

kijjohnson!) Go with me to dinner. Stop in at my panel and ask provocative, thoughtful questions. Charm my children for a half an hour so that I can look through the dealer's room without whines of "Mommy, can we go now?"
I'll be ever so touchingly grateful.

Peg

Current Mood: bitchy
Current Music: Lucy Kaplansky: The Tide

I'm on my second read-through of Fudoki. I must admit I'm feeling a little fried on critiquing, since I've been pushing hard on it the last several days, but I want to get my comments finished up so I can hand the MS back to

kijjohnson at World Fantasy.

It's been very interesting. I think that the book is splendid, but it is a first draft, and I do have suggestions for her, some of which I gave to her over the phone this weekend. I've been very aware, this second time through, of the nature of the book being as it because of the way Kij writes, the method I've been experimenting with on my third novel: little patchwork bits that are sewn together. There are structural comments that I have as a result, because she hasn't had time yet to reconcile what she says about the characters all across the book (e.g., mentioning that the main character had a daughter . . . and then never mentioning it again). Kij is still trying to figure out what she is doing with some symbolic stuff, too . . . the "golden eyes" of several characters, mice, etc. I asked her if she was doing something with the color blue-green, too, a question which puzzled her greatly, as she wasn't aware that she was doing anything with it! I'm trying to mark all instances of blue-green through the MS as I go, so she can see what I mean.

A lot of what I do when critiquing is marking what works, of course, and there is a lot that works. Kij is a wonderful writer, and there are many, many passages that are just delightful. But what I am also doing is trying to bring to consciousness little things that might niggle you about a book, that ordinarily you might just read right over, but not realize until the end that they bother you. Why does Ake want to adopt Kayaga-hime, when Kayaga-hime doesn't show much warmth toward her? The princess mentions a man's sash left behind in her bed that she has treasured throughout the years on p. ___. Where do we see Domei leaving the sash later in the book, as the princess writes down her memories? What happened to the priestess? She just sort of disappeared at the end of the book.

And, of course, I'm coping with my own feelings as I read it. Kij has written a wonderful third book. Will I be able to do so? Fortunately, Kij and I have always been scrupulously up-front about the issue of professional jealousy, all throughout our relationship, and we talked about it again on the phone this weekend. She laughed when I mentioned my feelings of envy. "All I can say is, if I can write a third book, honey, so can you."

So that is why I am doing the very best job I can, critiquing the book for her, reassuring her that basically it's wonderful (which it is) because I know this is a nerve-wracking stage for her, but giving her my very best insights so that she can tune it up and make it even more fantastic for publication.

I know that she will be delighted to do the very same for me.

I'm not sure when Fudoki will hit the stores.

kijjohnson and I will let you know when it does. Buy it when it comes out. It's going to be great.

Cheers,
Peg

Current Mood: busy

Another 400 words of snippets tonight.

Have been mulling over the concept of "writing from the gut." Agnes, in particular is going to be a truth speaker. Have been reading

kijjohnson's Fudoki which reads like an arrow straight through the heart. It's always exhilarating to read something that inspires you to want to do your best (but it can be a little intimidating, too).

Anyway, more in general: I want this book to speak from somewhere deep inside that's true. From the gut, to the heart, as it were. That was, perhaps, what I was struggling to put into words a few nights ago when I said that I didn't want this to deteriorate into a standard romance novel. Now I'm not foolish enough to dismiss all romance novels as being unable to speak from the gut. Lois McMaster Bujold says that she writes about identity in all of her books ("Stand up straight and speak the truth" she wrote in "The Mountains of Mourning" and Memory). Standing up straight and speaking the truth: that's want I want to explore with Solveig, too. One of my favorite novels dealing with identity is Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, because the events of the novel force Elizabeth Bennett to examine her own heart, until she discovers "Till this moment, I never knew myself."

That should be a new sign above my desk, I think, or a text for the screen saver on my screen:

Write from the gut. Speak the truth from the heart.

One caution for myself: I must be careful not to spend so much time writing about the novel in this LiveJournal that I actually fail to write it.

Peg

Current Mood: contemplative

Finished The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat by Harry Harrison, which includes The Stainless Steel Rat, The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge, and The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World. Had a conversation with

kijjohnson last night about some of the thoughts I've had lately re: writing smart-asses, which have spun out from reading the adventures of the irrepressible Mr. DeGriz. ( What smart-asses really need )

( More about Solveig )

What I'm doing at this point in planning is chewing over the developing characters in the context of a vague idea of what I think some of the themes might turn out to be. I am getting to know Solveig, a mother, an architect, an ISTJ, who sketches pictures of her daughter, who listens to eclectic music. And there's something there about choosing the heart-of-flesh over the heart-of-stone (ice). And there's this guy, Jack. What's his story, anyway? And why does he want to hijack the plans for the Ice Palace?

And what, for goodness sakes, are the fish up to?

Peg, going off to think some more

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: October Project: Falling Farther In

Went to Naomi Kritzer's book release party tonight, and then to O'Donovan's to hear Tramps and Hawkers (and I don't even have to write up a report on it, since

daedala and

jbru have beaten me to it). Great fun, although my ears are still ringing.

Well, I've successfully finished the first scene of the book (and already killed off one character, no less!) I fired it off to

kijjohnson, cravenly begging for reassurance, and she e-mailed me back with "It's good. Keep writing." Now I must jump ahead a couple of decades or so . . .

If I was writing the book in order, as I did my last two books, I think I'd next do the scene where the architecture firm has their open house to announce that the firm has landed the bid to build the ice palace. This is where Solveig meets Jack. I was thinking today that I wanted to hold off until I'd talked to Doug, my architecture contact, to get some sort of scene-setting tidbits. I needed to know more from Doug, I told myself, in order to figure out about what education Solveig might have had, a description of what an architecture firm's open house might be like, etc.--and then I realized I was simply stalling. Why? Because this where I introduce Jack and introduce adult Solveig. How to set up their meeting without making it sound like the start of yet another low-grade paint-by-numbers cheap romance novel or something? How much of a smart ass is Jack going to be? What does she say to him? How would she react? I realized that I don't know, because I don't really know her yet. I can imagine how I would react, confronted with a smart ass, in a work-related situation--but then, I would react emotionally; I'm an ENFJ. Solveig's an ISTJ.

I think, rather than letting myself become paralyzed by doubt, I should try just flinging off more of those little scenes later in the book between the two of them, even if it's just a few lines of dialogue. As I've said, this is a very different working method for me . . . but by violating all my preconceived notions of how I should write a book, I've made more progress in the past month and a half than I had the previous two years. So I'm going to try to get to know Jack and Solveig, not by starting out with a formal meeting, ("How do you do, I'm Jack." "I'm Solveig") but by sneaking up and eavesdropping on them after they've known each other for several months. And then maybe they'll introduce each other to me. Anyway, I'm going to try it. I'll still attempt to get together with Doug this week, but since I've fulfilled my first commitment (ahead of my deadline, too!) to complete the first scene in time for World Fantasy, I'll continue with this stretching-scattershot-just-disconnected scenes method and see where it leads. Someplace fruitful, I hope!

Cheers,
Peg

P.S.

kijjohnson's new novel manuscript just arrived in the mail for me. Know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: the ringing in my ears after going to see Tramps and Hawkers

Tales of the Unanticipated, the first magazine to accept any story of mine (back in 1986) may be going under, or at least cut loose from its primary source of funding, because Minn-stf may not be able to keep it afloat much longer.

I still have the first dollar from my first sale framed on my desk. TOTU bought my first story,

kijjohnson's first story, Carolyn Ives Gilman's first story, and started the writing career of several others. It has often had stories included in the honorable mention section of both Dozois's Year's Best SF and Datlow and Windling's Year's Best Fantasy and Horror.

This is really, really depressing.

Current Mood: gloomy

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Peg Kerr's Journal

The Holy Tree Grows Within the Heart

Go order Fudoki, by kijjohnson

Congrats to truepenny & kijjohnson

Visit with Kij

How do you write a book again?

Here's Kij wearing something totally uncharacteristic

Leaving Lawrence this morning

Happy birthday

Sunday with Kij

Around Lawrence with Kij

Here in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the Fighting Sock Monkeys

Books for November

New book in my bag to read

World Fantasy Con Report

Booksigning this Sunday

World Fantasy Convention

Critiquing Kij's book

Writing from the gut

Musings on Wit/Smart-asses and Solveig's history

Tonight

Possible demise of Tales of the Unanticipated

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May 2025

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