up from the depths

frdavidclimb
Originally uploaded by LostLuthien

This is Fr. David, climbing up out of Casey's Big Cavern (I think).

cirith ungol

cirithungol
Originally uploaded by LostLuthien

Seriously, don't these look like the steps of Cirith Ungol?

That's Fr. DAvid and Brian up top there. None of us girls wanted to rick our necks climbing up there.

in the depths

down
Originally uploaded by LostLuthien

This is us going back down into Casey's Big Cavern.

Moon light

jet
Originally uploaded by LostLuthien

This was a moonrise, viewed from a small vale in the hills above the mud caves. The pink streak is the trail of a jet going by.

This is depressing. I went to the bookstore the other day, scoping out the current state of Young Adult novels.

 

It's disgusting. The vast majority of it (with the important exception of sci-fi/fantasy) is over-sexualized, immature, selfish, and preachy. Blech. No wonder young people don't want to read, if this crap is all they have to choose from.

 

Note the new addition

Yes, I have added a NaNoWriMo countdown clock onto my blog. I am addicted to NaNo: I started participating in 2004, when I first heard about it. I started 4 days late and finished 2 days early: 52,000 words in 25 days! My 2005 story was a bust, but I learned a lot by not winning. In 2006, I wrote 54,000 words in 30 days, and realized that I was totally hooked. I participated in the forums for the first time, got to know other NaNoers in my region, and went to the Thank God It's Over party.

 

And now I'm re-writing last year's NaNo (excerpts available upon request--manuscript now at 64,000 words and counting), lurking in the forums, and generally just waiting for November to roll around again. This year's story will be about a monk with super-powers (no, I'm not kidding. I'm working on the outline already).

 

Go to www.nanowrimo.org. Check it out. Sign up for a reminder. Discover that you really can write a novel. Go for the gusto!

 

We who are about to write salute you!

 

(note: Yes, I am aware that NaNo has eaten my soul. I'm perfectly okay with this.)

 

My map!

I love Google. I really do.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101719516587025947641.000001136e4dc1d57eaaf&z=11&om=1

 

Here's a map of my world! I'm currently adding locations mentioned in Sanctus: those are all marked with little red flames. Adding photos slowly. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Update on story

Well, I have been reworking my NaNoWriMo novel. Well, reworking may not be the right term, more like re-writing entirely. For instance, I'm on page 25 of draft two. That part of the story used to be on page 4 of the original. So, yeah....expanding the story, a LOT.

 

Anyhow, I'm trying to stay inspired with this thing, which is hard, because rewriting STINKS. I'm hoping to have draft two finished some time this year, and I want to self-publish a few copies, and give them to friends and family to read over, and see what they think.

 

So, if you are reading this, and are interested in reading the story, and giving me feedback, that would be GREAT! Just let me know, and I will send you a book when this draft is done. I can't say how soon draft two will be finished (again, I'm on page 25 out of 170, and expanding a lot), but knowing that people are waiting for it might help encourage me to get it done.

A good laugh

I have recently discovered (thank you, Miriam, for the heads-up!) one of the most delightful, most clever writers I have ever read. Jasper Fforde's books are not only well-written, but have more jokes per page than almost any other book I've read. And not just any jokes: puns, similies, characters contacting one another through the footnotes, and many jokes that depend on having read classics of English literature. For instance: in his alternative world of 1985 London, you don't get Mormons coming to your door--you get Baconians, who try to persuade you that Sir Francis Bacon, not Shakepeare, wrote the plays.

 

Aside from his Thursday Next stories, he has a series of Nursey Crimes, with investigators Jack Spratt and Mary Mary. In the first book in the series, The Big Over Easy, the team puzzles out who killed beloved social presence, womanizer, and philanthropist Humpty Dumpty? This is a seminal case for Inspector Spratt, since his last case, in which he tried to convict the Three Little Pigs of murder, fell through because of the all-pig jury.

 

These books read a little like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by the much-missed Douglas Adams; however, there are two key differences.

 

1. Adams' jokes cna be understood by virtually anyone reading the book, no external sources are necessary. If you are reading Fforde's The Eyre Affair, you'd better have read Jane Eyre, Shakespeare, and Poe's The Raven. A good grasp of grammar and punctuation is also helpful.

 

2. The Hitchhiker's Guide books are extremely funny, but also highly cynical. Fforde's work is full of a delight in words, great books, and life in general. His lead characters are highly moral people, though never preachy or dull. While he pokes some fun at the great literature of the Western world, he obviously loves the books, and the jokes are the sort that bibliophiles tell. 

You know it's going to be a long day...

....when you wake up in a sweat, from a dream in which you were caught in a Hitchcock movie that you remember as the scariest movie you've ever seen.

 

It really doesn't help much when you realize that there is no such movie.

Augh!

    Hip-hop should be banned from office settings. Headache headache headache

 

Old sci-fi

I freely confess, I love sci-fi. The good, the bad, the just plain "out-there," I enjoy reading it. Bring on the space princesses, space pirates, space weapons, stupid space slang, and space dinosaurs (usually living on Venus, for some reason)!

 

But I also freely confess, many of these books are not particularly good. Many of them take no time to think about basic physics in weightless enviroments, or human dialogue (a race that can travel between the stars would not have phrases like "space dementia" or use "space torpedoes." They would have much better terms for such things).

 

This is why I am immensely enjoying Assignment In Space with Rip Foster, originally published in 1952 (I think) as Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet (a much better title, btw). Towards the end of the book, the heroes are on an asteroid made of a very valuable metal: they've set up controlled explosions to knock it out of the asteroid belt and toward Earth's orbit. But then the bad guys came around again and are trying to kill them and take the asteroid, so they've taken apart one of their nuclear explosives, and made mulitple bombs out of it, and guided the asteroid much closer to the sun, so the enemy cruiser can't launch its small fighters (they'll get sucked in by the sun's gravity). Now we're waiting to see if our heroes can survive the attack, survive the radiation, and blast the asteroid back into an earth-ward orbit once the attackers are gone!

 

I won't tell you how they get out of it (go read the dang book yourself!) but it was great, interesting, and actually pretty funny (well, the way they got rid of the bad guys was funny, anyway).

 

I gotta get some more in this series.

You know you are a geek when....

1. You are reading space adventure book from the 1950's and loving it.

 

2. While reading said book, you come across a description of an enemy spaceship, and think "Well, they may do ok in space, but if you lured them into atmo they'd be as manuverable as a cow."

 

3. While thinking about this, you start trying to figure out if any of the known techniques for fighitng TIE fighters (eyeballs) would work in this situation.

 

Yeah................

Also to read...

..the Cthulhu stories by H.P. Lovecraft. I've read Shadow Out of Time, The Call of Cthulhu, and the first part of Whisperer in the Darkness, and loved them.

 

I'm not much of one for the horror genre. There's a ton of junk in it. However, Lovecraft is a master of the genre; he can evoke a shiver with a single phrase, and the end of his stories make me want to run and hide under the nearest couch. He manages to bring forth the horror of the utterly Other, the terror of chaos, of the "old gods" coming back to the earth. Some of the most disturbing parts of his classic, The Call of Cthulhu, are the sections in which the architecture of the ancient city is described as "all wrong," planes that are neither vertical nor horizontal, nor quite diagonal. Even the words, "Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," translated as "In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming", seem full of menace, even before the translation.

 

So...yeah. Creepy as all get-out, and great stuff. Hmmm...my birthday is coming up in July....a book of Lovecraft stories would not go amiss.......  :)

 

Book list!

list of books I need to read--if you are reading my blog, and own any of these, and are willing to loan them to me, let me know:

 

Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolf

The Bourne Ultimatum, Robert Ludlum (I was surprised at how good the Bourne books were--highly recommend!)

Ringworld, Larry Niven

Foundation, Isaac Asimov

the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde

the Dresden files books by Jim Butcher (already read first two, loved them. Like Buffy meets film noir.)

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold

Watchmen by Alan Moore

Coraline by Neil Gaiman, because Neil Gaiman is cool

Sandman Vol.6 through Vol. 10 by Neil Gaiman because Sandman is amazing

all the Happy Hollister book

the original Hardy Boys series (not the 1960's re-writes)

the Cthulhu stories by H.P. Lovecraft

 

At this point, I'll read just about anything recommended by John C. Wright, from http://johncwright.livejournal.com, because he has such darned good taste.

 

 

Books read recently:

 

Lying Awake by Mark Salzman--good book, recommended

Mariette in Ecstasy--very good book, read along with Lying Awake

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore--while I disagree with the philosophy in this graphic novel (pro-anarhy, and I tend to be a monarchist), it did bring up interesting issues, and thoughts. Anyone who sees the movie should definately read the novel, though the movie is good on its own.

The Lady in the Forest, by David Guterman. Not sure what I think of this one. Really not too crazy about it, but it's making me think a little.

The Happy Hollisters and the Old Clipper Ship--innocent, good, sometimes funny--better than I remembered!

 

Currently reading:

 

The Worm Ourobouros by E.R. Eddison. Weird, high epic fantasy. Almost as tough as reading the Illiad, but very good stuff.

The Ring of the Niebelung, by Wagner. Just cause it's cool

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Inspired to read this by my roommate's video of Le Notre Dame De Paris, a really awesome stage production. In French!

 

Cthulhu ftagn!

My visit to the library confirmed a suspicion of mine. H.P Lovecraft writes the creepiest stuff I have ever read. EVER. Seriously disturbing stuff. Excellently done, highly recommended. Just don't read it at night. Or alone. Or without a blanket to hide under.

....than can just make your whole day/week/month:

Fr. David recently did a blog post about children's serial books, which he collects. I made a comment on the blog that while I read many of the classic series (Bobbsey Twins, Boxcar Children, Hardy Boys, Danny Dunn, etc) my favorite was the Happy Hollisters series. One book in particular had stuck in my memory--The Happy Hollisters and the Old Clipper Ship.

I went to a talk Fr. David gave on the subject at the Placentia Library last night. At one point, he mentioned that he had some books on a table that were free for the taking, but he had one in particular that he wanted to give away. He pulled out a pristine copy of the Old Clipper Ship, complete with dust jacket, and gave it to me!!!

I could hardly sit still through the rest of the presentation, I just wanted to go to a quiet spot and re-read the story! After the presentation was over, I drove to the nearest Sonic and ordered a burger and malt to set the mood, and settled in to read. I finished the book just before I went to sleep last night.

It was even better than I remembered.

You know what can totally make your whole day/week/month? Your year-old god-daughter (aka most beautiful intelligent baby in the whole world) snuggling with you before a nap and reaching up to you to say goodbye.

You can see pictures of the most beautiful, intelligent, good-natured baby in the world at her lovely mother's blog: http://comewhatmay.wordpress.com

Fixating

I've recently begun the practice of fixed-hour prayer, after reading the book The Shaping of a Life by Phyllis Tickle. I actually disagree with Mrs. Tickle on many points, but she's an engaging writer.

 

The practice of fixed-hour prayer is very old: elements of it can be found in ancient Judaism, as well as in early church practices. The basic idea is of praying at specific ("fixed") hours. The standard ones are traditionally:

 

Matins--traditionally midnight, but often anytime before dawn. Lauds is often added into Matins

Lauds-sunrise

Prime-6am

Terce-9am

Sext-noon

Nones-3pm

Vespers-sunset

Compline--before retiring, usually around 9pm

 

Obviously, most working adults will be unable to say all of these, so the strict observance is usually only for monastic orders; however, many lay people have found ways to say many of the fixed hour prayers (also called the Divine Offices) Phyllis Tickle's books, The Divine Hours, are a set of books of fixed hour prayers/offices that are arranged to be useable by the ordinary Christian. The day consists of 4 offices:

 

Morning Office--on the hour or half hour between 6 and 9 am

Midday Office--on the hour or half hour between 11am and 2pm

Vespers--on the hour or half hour between 5pm and 8pm

Compline--just before retiring for the night

 

I've only been praying these for a couple of days, and I don't always get every office in (I haven't done Vespers for a few days now, just due to schedule issues) but it seems to be a good thing. I've never been good at just sitting down to pray--I talk to God quite a bit during the day, but very little of it is structured for worshipful prayer in any way. This method or praying seems to be working well.

 

We shall see!

Hmmm.....

I need to re-read Dune. That's just a darned good book, even if it turns out to be evil. Wonder where my copy is.......

 

Jim Harrington, gosh darn it, you need to finish writing the Tara story.