Monday Noodles

I've barely even thought about writing for the last week; time to get back to it before the momentum dissipates entirely.

Last night I happened to glance at the first chapter of the novel-length-thing I started at 19. It baffled me for a while, because I couldn't work out what was wrong with it. The prose is bland but correct; the POV stays firmly with one character, probably by accident; the action traverses three universes and introduces two major characters in addition to the POV. So why does it feel so weak? After a day of thinking about other things, a possible answer came to me just now as I was putting away yesterday's laundry. The big problem is simply that the POV character is a cipher. He has no past, no passion, and no personality. And that, I suspect, is why The Firebird Gate is doomed to stay in the virtual trunk.

The Behemoth plot is starting to struggle back out from under the load of work-related stuff that got dumped on it last week. At this stage, it's rather like playing with pentominoes* or some such puzzle, pushing the pieces around, flipping them over, trying to get them to fit. These puzzle pieces, however, are made of soapsuds; grasp them too firmly and they disappear. I've known for a while that the Captain of the eponymous ship is carrying a load of guilt over a starship disaster in the war; more recently, I realized that there was no need to have two such disasters, which means that he and the heroine's parents must have been on opposite sides. I'm still playing with the implications of the choice of who was on which side. Try this here, then that fits there, and that one ... but no, that only leaves a hole the shape of a piece that I need somewhere else.

( * )

At lunchtime I took the camera for a walk

Cactus Garden A much-loved campus feature; students and faculty campaigned to save it from being swept away by the new Alumni Plaza.	Barrel Cactus Fruit An experiment in close-up. (Warning: if you click through to the gallery, you'll see a reasonable-sized version, but the underlying image is 1.7Mb; the others I shrank down to something more sensible.)
Saguaro The characteristic colour and texture of the Sonoran Desert.	Aloes Yes, strictly speaking they're succulents. Also, I'm not 100% sure they aren't agaves. The two are very similar in appearance.

It was very bright, and I rapidly discovered that the LCD display is hard to see under those conditions; also, the screen is too small to make it obvious when the picture is out of focus. Obviously I need to practise more, but I'm modestly pleased with these.

January Books

I haven't been reading quite as much this month. Maybe I've been spending too much time on LJ? Also, the plot-noodling on the bus cuts into reading time a bit. Anyway, here's the list, with my thoughts. There may be spoilers behind the links and cuts.


Pratchett Going Postal

Wolfe The Knight

Powers Expiration Date ( Read more... )

Wolfe The Wizard( Read more... )

Brust Issola( Read more... )

Hetley The Winter Oak ( Read more... )

Kirstein The Language of Power.

I'm still working on Spin State, by Chris Moriarty.