When The Morning Comes

Internets, I am sorry, all I seem to be doing in this space right now is talk about the things I am doing in other spaces. Sadly, since I tend to regularly sign myself up for about two and a half fulltime jobs worth of stuff, something’s gotta give.

Glimpse of my fascinating life: a couple of days ago I made homemade Baileys Irish Cream. Except I made it with Scottish whisky, so it’s probably Scottish Cream. It was verra verra successful.

Also, my spies tell me that Guardian is out in the US right now. You still have a chance to win a prize if you send me a picture of the book with a bookstore receipt!

STUFF:

1) New Strange Horizons column is up! “Writing From A Strange Land: The Imaginative Displacement of Margaret Mahy” is about how weird it is to have doubled vision writing about your homeland. I promise that after this I will stop writing about Margaret Mahy*!

Writing Aoteoroa/New Zealand, presenting it to New Zealanders and to others became something of an obsession for me as I moved from writing (unpublished) quasi-Scandinavian and Mediterranean high fantasy settings to urban fantasy set firmly at home. I worried about whether I was failing to provide enough context for outside readers, or too much for New Zealanders. And I pondered the strange double vision the process engendered; I was writing urban fantasy set in the place most solidly real to me. But I knew very well that to readers familiar with New Zealand only as the location of imagined worlds, the setting that was my touchstone of reality could come across as an exotic fantasyland, as mysterious as the truly fantastic events that made up the plot. I saw the book through strangers’ eyes, and it troubled me.

2) “Location, location, location” is about all the weird places I have written, and a tiny hint of my unsanitary road trip habits.

But on reflection, although I do most of my writing at the desk in my bedroom, with my Macbook propped up on my Alias and New X-Men omnibuses, I have strayed further afield. I think it is good, if you can, not to be too particular about where you have to be and what you need to have to write. Of course, you may genuinely be stifled by writing anywhere other than your kitchen table at 4 a.m. every morning. But you may find that this is just habit restricting your ability to get the words out. When I pushed it, I have been able to cope with discomfort and unfamiliar surroundings in order to write.

3) “YA Fantasy: Full of Miscreants” is about love interests (including my own) who do terrible things in YA urban fantasy. Sometimes you just gotta go there!

EXCELLENT SARAH: Oh, huzzah, people have nominated Alan (from The Demon’s Lexicon) for a fanciable boys competition!
ME, LIKE THE GOOD FRIEND I AM: Oh dear.

Discussion ensued.

Internets, I have so many things to tell you! Especially as regards books. Gosh do I have a lot to tell you about books.

But for now, in case you are the last person to see it, here is the OK Go video for the song I have been playing nonstop for five days, “This Too Shall Pass”. And if you’ve seen it before, watch it again. Hypnotic, isn’t it?

* Lies.