Just my babbling, website related stuff — or whatever doesn’t fit in the other categories ;)
…I think I may have figured out my crossposting problem — I was making things far more difficult than they needed to be.
That is, if I HAVE figured out the issue.
Wish me luck.
ETA: It worked! Yay! This means if you have been following my Rhonda Parrish blog on LJ via the rss feed you don’t need to do that anymore. Wh00t!
I have a new favorite zombie short story. I love zombie fiction so I read a fair bit of it and thus my current favorite changes regularly. However, it’s going to take something pretty special to replace “The Third Dead Body” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman in my heart. I <3 it. Truly.
I encountered it in the book I’m currently reading, The Living Dead which is a superb zombie anthology but the credits tell me it was originally published in The Ultimate Zombie.
“The Third Dead Body” is emotionally honest, brutal and touching at the same time. The author puts so much into so few words…I will definitely be looking up more work by her. No question.
Another awesome story from this anthology is “This Year’s Class Picture” by Dan Simmons (originally published in Still Dead). It was also great.
Since I’m only six stories in and two of them have completely blown me away (the others are good too), I think I’ll be writing a rave review of this anthology in the not-too-distant future. But that one story, “The Third Dead Body” was so fantastic I just had to gush a little bit now.
Remember that interview with Conrad Williams that I said was upcoming at the Niteblade blog? It’s there now –> Check it Out <–
🙂
Recently while at brunch with some good friends, one of them looked at me and said “Rhonda, why don’t you just write a bestseller and buy a villa in Tuscany already?”
Write a bestseller.
Just like that, easy peasy.
Now why didn’t I think of that?
🙂
In other news, it’s not a bestselling novel but I’m the six word memoirist of the day at Smith Mag today. That means my picture and one of my six word stories is featured on their front page at http://www.smithmag.net
One of my favorite questions in the world to answer is ‘What does your husband do?’. The most accurate answer is that he teaches biochemistry at the University of Alberta, but the more fun answer is ‘He’s a scientist’.
It’s cool to be married to a biochemist for lots of different reasons, not least of all are departmental dinners at awesome restaurants. I used to feel somewhat intimidated going to them, being in a room full of scientists is not something my upbringing in rural Alberta prepared me for. I muddled my way through. It helped when one day Jo looked at me in shock and said ‘Seriously? You feel socially awkward in a room full of scientists?!’
As I’ve gotten to know some of his co-workers and become more comfortable in my own skin, these issues have disappeared, but still, as with any conversation, there are sometimes awkward moments of silence and weirdness.
Not at this last dinner we went to on Friday. When Jo told one person that I wrote he responded with “That’s so cool!” and then we got to talk about Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, geekiness and zombies. Later on when I returned to the table after a trip to the washroom Jo looked up at me from a conversation with different couple of people, with a big smile and said ‘Rhonda, where do you get your ideas from?’ which gave me an opportunity to quote Neil Gaiman and say “I make them up. Out of my head.”
Seems Jo had been talking about me while I was gone — but saying nice things which made me all ooey-gooey inside.
Our end of the table was definitely pegged as the rowdy end, but it’s all good, because after all, how can you discuss zombies without getting a little animated?
It was wonderful fun and I’ve got to say, having someone (over 9) say ‘That is SO cool’ when told what I do was probably the highlight for me, and it reminded me that what I, what all writers do, really is freaking cool.
I thought I’d write this to capture that, so next time I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall and trudging through tar toward a goal that seems very far away, I can read this and remember that writing is hard work but it’s also SO cool, and totally worth the effort.
I recently won a copy of Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, a horror anthology edited by Ellen Datlow. I’ve been interested in reading this anthology since the World Fantasy convention in Calgary where I was lucky enough to be sitting with someone with an anthology on the ballot for best anthology (which is not the official title for the category, but you get the idea). He was a wonderful guy who was hopeful for a win, but not optimistic. He figured Inferno would win and had nothing but good things to say about it. If Ellen’s competition only had good things to say about the book (which did win), how could I not want to read it?
The only catch to winning the book was that I had to blog about it — whether I liked it or not. This caused me a bit of stress because I’m not very good at writing book reviews and so I don’t like doing them. I was also concerned that I wouldn’t like it and then would be in the somewhat awkward position of writing bad things about a book I didn’t pay for.
I needn’t have worried.
While every story in Inferno wasn’t to my liking, the majority were and they spanned a vast spectrum of subjects. It was an unthemed anthology, in order to be included a story had to “provide the reader with a frisson of shock, or a moment of dead so powerful it might cause the reader outright physical discomfort; or a sensation of fear so palpable that the reader feels impelled to turn up the lights very bright and play music or seek the company of others to dispel the fear; or to linger in the reader’s consciousness for a long, long time after the final word is read.”
I have yet to ever find a book that affected me in the first two ways and the stories in this collection were no exception, however, there were a great many which lingered in my consciousness for a very long time. Many times after reading a story I would need to close the book and walk away, to savor the piece I’d just read before going on to the next. Sometimes pieces of the text itself would be stuck in my mind, a line here or there, or a snippet of description so evocative it wouldn’t leave me alone.
I think my favorite story from the collection is The Keeper by P.D. Cacek. It’s a beautifully-written piece about the child survivor of a real-life horror. It is well worth reading and has tear-stained pages in my copy of the book. Hushabye by Simon Bestwick teased my imagination. What I originally thought was simply going to be a simple story taking an abstract idea and making it literal, turned out to be that and so much more. Very much a page-turner and a story I enjoyed immensely. An Apiary of White Bees by Lee Thomas is, in my opinion, one of the most unique stories in the collection and certainly lingered (and lingers still) in the corner of my mind long after I finished it. Pat Cadigan’s Stilled Life is another story I won’t soon forget and which was told with a finesse I greatly admire and envy.
In short, if you love scary short stories Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural is a book you should consider picking up. You may not be blown away by every story within its covers, but it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll find more than enough to make it worth your investment of both time and money. I know my copy is going to get read over and over again.
I’ve given the blog a facelift — it was time.
I love it. I hope you do too 🙂
I keep wanting to put spaces between the words RedRosesForAuthors but that’s not how Linda writes it, so I’ll do it her way. Especially since she was nice enough to make me the featured author today at RedRosesForAuthors 🙂 She asked me several questions about my writing and life in general. Pop on over >> here << if you’d like to take a peek 🙂
In other news, Ellen Datlow’s newest anthology, Troll’s Eye View, went on sale yesterday. It’s aimed at an MG audience and re-tells fairy tales from the point of view of the villain. I was lucky enough to listen to Garth Nix read his contribution, An Unwelcome Guest, at World Fantasy. It was an awesome story and I will be picking up this book to read for myself…then maybe I’ll let Danica borrow it 🙂
The TOC is below, as you can see it contains stories from my two favorite writers EVAR (Peter S. Beagle and Neil Gaiman). I’m sure it’s going to be amazing 🙂
Wizard’s Apprentice Delia Sherman
An Unwelcome Guest Garth Nix
Faery Tales Wendy Froud
Rags and Riches Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Up the Down Beanstalk Peter S. Beagle
The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces Ellen Kushner
Puss in Boots, the Sequel Joseph Stanton
The Boy Who Cried Wolf Holly Black
Troll Jane Yolen
Castle Othello Nancy Farmer
Skin Michael Cadnum
A Delicate Architecture Catherynne M. Valente
Molly Midori Snyder
Observing the Formalities Neil Gaiman
The Cinderella Game Kelly Link
I’m obsessed with Pontypool.
Go ahead, say it out loud.
Pontypool.
It’s fun 🙂
It’s also a brilliant movie and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since Jo, Danica and I saw it a couple weeks ago. It’s not perfect but the ‘plot holes’ and parts I don’t understand are actually endearing to me, not off-putting.
I got an email that my copy of Pontypool Changes Everything has shipped today and I’m ridiculously excited. I haven’t been this excited about a book in ages.
How about you? What was the last book that made you *squee* at its purchase or impending arrival?
So I gave away a couple free copies of Sister Margaret yesterday. The first, was given to a random subscriber to my newsletter — Helene won that one. Congrats! The second went to Wired for commenting on my blog post at Fang-tastic Books.
I hope you both enjoy it.
🙂
In other news, I have been getting friend requests at my defunct Bebo account (I only made it to keep up with my sister who doesn’t use it anymore). I don’t even know my login information for that one anymore. A better way to connect if you’re interested, is Facebook. I spend far more time than is healthy on Facebook LoL I think those links will take you directly to my profile, if not I shouldn’t be too hard to find 🙂
I got tagged to do a meme similar to this not that long ago, but here I am again. There is a meme to share 25 random facts about yourself floating around Facebook and I posted this there as well, but really, I want to add some more content to this blog so I’m sharing it here too. Maybe someone will find some of it interesting 🙂
If you’ve done something similar to this on your blog please leave me a line in the comments (or via email). I’d love to pop over and see. I really do enjoy reading these ‘random facts’ blog entries.
25 Things About Me 🙂
1. I am flattered anytime someone tags me for a meme. This one or any other.
2. I used to love riding horses but I haven’t been on one in twenty years.
3. I am ridiculously competitive. Often about the silliest things. I -know- it’s crazy but somehow that doesn’t seem to make it stop. Once in a while I can harness this power for good, though not often enough.
4. The first time I got drunk I was 13 and in a graveyard.
5. I am an atheist.
6. I almost qualified #5 with ‘This does not make me a bad person or mean I don’t believe in anything.’ I am irritated at that impulse.
7. I am in my second year of my degree. I hope to finish the damn thing before I’m 40. I’m 32 now.
8. If I won any significant amount of money I would blow most of it traveling. I want to see as much of the world as I can before I die.
9. I’m unlikely to ever win any money because I don’t play the lotteries. I suppose that means I’ll just have to earn it.
10. Jo and I got married on October 31st. It was a very small ceremony and most of the people there (including ourselves and Danica) were wearing costumes. Jo and Danica were pirates, I was a wench.
11. I chew my nails.
12. Before World of Warcraft absconded with all my free time, I used to sew quilts and do cross stitch. I miss that sometimes and occasionally think I need to create a ‘Warcraft-free’ evening to get back to it. So far that hasn’t happened.
13. The only television shows I watch anymore are Doctor Who, Being Erica and Law and Order (repeats that are on while I use my stationary bike). I don’t have time for more…see #12 for details LOL
14. I like being in my thirties more than I ever liked being in my twenties.
15. I have more book and stories ideas than I will ever have time to write. This truly makes me sad, but I suspect it may be universal among writers.
16. I have a pretty big inferiority complex about my poetry.
17. Probably 80% of the time I am on my computer my cat, Absinthe, is sitting on me, purring. Sometimes she is on my lap, more often than not, however, she is on my shoulders. I love this beyond words, even if it does sometimes make typing (or playing World of Warcraft) difficult. It’s even better when she nudges me with her head 🙂
18. Once upon a time we ‘inherited’ five kittens which were tiny and had to be fed with syringes every four hours. It was worse than when Danica was a baby because there was only one of her, and she didn’t need to be stimulated to pee. I thought I was going to have a breakdown and then Jo made me lay on the floor and let the kittens out of the dog carrier we had them sleep in. They tumbled out and ran all over me. There is nothing like a ‘kitten massage’ to restore you.
19. Absinthe was one of those kittens and one of the reasons I chose to keep her is because she liked me as much as (or maybe even more than) she liked Jo. All our other cats had worshiped Jo, so this was a pretty big thing. It may also relate back to #3.
20. I don’t have a favorite color.
21. I love sushi.
22. I wish I could think of more interesting or clever things to put here. Alas, I cannot.
23. If I didn’t have a daughter in school and a husband with a day job I would totally be nocturnal — or at least a lot more than I am now. In bed at three or four and up at noon sounds blissful to me.
24. Insomnia and I are well-acquainted. I suspect this may in part be related to #23.
25. I love Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I listen to the soundtrack when work is being particularly monotonous and threatening my sanity. It helps 🙂
I’m supposed to tag people now…but I’m not going to LOL
