Better Than Dead

The books I’m reading (I pick these up and put them down, but all of these are currently inching forward):

1. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
2. A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (the book du jour)
3. Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C. G. Jung
4. Trickster: An Anthropological Memoir by Eileen Kane
5. Legends of the Fire Spirits by Robert W. Lebling
6. Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch by Henry Miller
7. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture by Walter L. Williams
8. When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits by Mary Ann Winkowski
9. and my own book Shivery Bones, doing one last bloody read-through.

Books I’m writing: If you count worldbuilding and creative noodling, then I’m writing Carmina and The Numberless Stars.  If you’re talking about actual words getting written, then I ain’t currently writting nothin’.

The book I love the most: Couldn’t possibly choose.  I usually love the one I’m with.

The last book I received as a gift: I made a killing on book gift certificates.  I’ve included all the books I bought this way—not really to brag, but because I wouldn’t want any of these books to have their feelings hurt because I left them off the list.  (I anthropomorphize everything.) (Hi, Lisa!):

1. Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie
2. Holy Ghosts: Or, How a (Not So) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things That Go Bump in the Night by Gary Jansen
3. Spooky California: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore by S. E. Schlosser, Paul G. Hoffman (Illustrator)
4. Lover Unleashed by J. R. Ward
5. Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James
6. Red-Robed Priestess: A Novel (The Maeve Chronicles) by Elizabeth Cunningham
7. Untie the Strong Woman: Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Love for the Wild Soul by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
8. Meditations with Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox
9. Tarot for Writers by Corrine Kenner
10. Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
11. Everyday Tarot by Gail Fairfield

The last book I gave as a gift: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

You are the Hanged Man

Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of
loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Pick up the nearest book to you. Turn to page 45. The first sentence describes your sex life in 2012.

The nearest book to me is a blank journal. Page 45 is like every other page in the book. That would be blank.

Reaching slightly further afield I pick up Rapture in Death by J. D. Robb:

Eve awoke with the cat stretched over her chest and the bedside ‘link beeping.

That sums it up nicely also.

How’s your sex life?

Since I don’t do resolutions in real life…

In 2012, pjthompson resolves to…

Apply for a new byzantium.
Volunteer to spend time with gods.
Go scrying three times a week.
Eat more spirits.
Go to the vampires every month.
Spend more time with my mazes.

Get your own New Year’s Resolutions:

Well, that’s true enough, I suppose.

You are The Tower

Ambition, fighting, war, courage. Destruction, danger, fall, ruin.

The Tower represents war, destruction, but also spiritual renewal. Plans are disrupted. Your views and ideas will change as a result.

The Tower is a card about war, a war between the structures of lies and the lightning flash of truth. The Tower stands for "false concepts and institutions that we take for real." You have been shaken up; blinded by a shocking revelation. It sometimes takes that to see a truth that one refuses to see. Or to bring down beliefs that are so well constructed. What’s most important to remember is that the tearing down of this structure, however painful, makes room for something new to be built.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Inspired by matociquala and stillsostrange, here’s the first line meme.

The idea here is that we post the first lines of unfinished stories, on the theory that we might then be inspired to finish a few…

This is something of a Hall of Shame for me as I’ve been working on some of these a good long while, but there isn’t world enough and time these days. These are just the stories that I still consider “active,” in that the interest is still strong to finish them or return to them, and that my imagination, at least, is still working on them. Please note: these are all first draft stage.

ETA: Oops! I forgot this one, maybe because it’s so active in my mind these days that I just assumed it’s next in the queue. (But we’ll see when I get there.)

Carmina (in the same world as Blood Geek):
Carmina woke to the sound of a sword pulled from a scabbard. No, not that. Not this time. Only the wind blowing the loose tent flap up and along the long metal spike which should be staking it to the ground.

“The Bone Handler”:
Sea Eyes liked to take one last, long look at the shining bright ocean before turning away and descending into the earth.

“A Farewell to Dreams” (a brand new one):
Everyone knew, including Shennah, that a dream dreamed too long became a brittle thing, broken by even a passing breeze.

“Green Horse Bone” (unfinished a long time but still alive):
The long bone peeked out from a clump of ferns at the base of a pine as I hiked up Waterman Mountain in Angeles Crest.

“The Heart of the Western Tide” (this one calls strongly) (may be a stealth novel):
It was whispered in the bazaars of places more fortunate than Cromartine that long ago some importunate Cromartinian had angered the tide running along the shore of that sometimes cursed land.

“In the Black” (a spooky sequel to my novel Venus in Transit):
The absence of all light stepped through the door wearing the shape of a man.

“Jim Doesn’t Bring Me Flowers”:
My shadow moved along the wall although I stood still.

Beneath a Hollow Moon (book 3 in the Dos Lunas novel trilogy of which I have completed book two, Venus in Transit):
The body was heavier than they thought it would be.

Blood Boogie (sequel to Blood Geek):
It was their last night on the Mazatlan before heading north again, their very last night of lying on the beach under the stars and making love.

Sympathetic Magic (the novel version of my novella Sealed With a Curse:
As long as Molly kept to the open countryside modern day intrusions wouldn’t interrupt her walk through the past.

The Numberless Stars (book one of the Dos Lunas novel trilogy):
A blue-nosed garden gnome sits on the shoulder of JK, my grandson—one of those real ugly gnomes with a face like a baked apple left in the oven too long.

The Confessions of Thomasina (did for fun, posted a few chapters on the blog, always thought about getting back to it):
I believe that one should not set out to do a great deal of writing unless one has something to say.

What books are currently on your desk?

I don’t have any books on my desk. There is a cat on my desk. However, on the table next to my reading chair there are these books:

Fairy Paths and Spirit Roads: Exploring Otherworldly Routes in the Old and New Worlds by Paul Devereux. This is a semi-anthropological exploration of landscape features which may be the remnants of “spirit roads” used in ancient religious rituals. Devereux gives directions on how to get to these places and any folk traditions that still cling to them.

The Creole by Ray La Scola. A historical romance from the 1960s.

Lover Revealed by J. R. Ward. A paranormal romance. Great escapism.

By Oak, Ash, & Thorn: Modern Celtic Shamanism by D. J. Conway. A how-to-do-it guide—which generally makes me very skeptical when dealing with something which disappeared two thousand years ago. BUT, I’m fascinated by the hints and fragments of Western shamanism that still exist and how Ms. Conway brings those together to make a coherent, modern tool for self-exploration. Not that I expect to become a shaman. I’m a writer. That’s as close to shamanhood as I expect or want to get. But I have been working on an idea about a prehistoric Western European shaman. There’s only so far Mircea Eliade is going to take a girl.

Inside the Live Reptile Tent: The Twilight World of Carnival Midway by Bruce Caron and Jeff Brouws. Beautiful picture-book exploration of this world.

The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists by Irene Taylor and Alan Taylor. A compendium of diary entries for every day of the year on a wide range of subjects and perspectives. I like looking at the entries on the same day that they were written. It’s fascinating to see what someone else was experiencing on that day.

This one is making the rounds, so I thought I’d chirp up.

Lincoln’s Dreams by Connie Willis. All I have to do is remember its final line and my heart fills with emotion.

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. A comic masterpiece.

Kage Baker. Everything. Her combination of humor and sorrow, darkness and light fit my worldview perfectly, and her characters are like old friends (and enemies). If I had to choose just one…I couldn’t. But I did love her first Company novel, In the Garden of Iden and The Anvil of the World beyond distraction.

Andre Norton. A seminal influence on me. I loved her Witch World series from early days.

The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook. I love her Guardian series, too, but this one is so much fun, the characters so engaging, the world so deeply realized and brought to life, that it was an utter pleasure from first to last.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. The Sookie Stackhouse books are so very much better than that tatty TV series.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. The first Mercy Thompson book. Gotta love a character with the last name of Thompson, but in the case of this series, I think Ms. Briggs creates wonderful characters and moves them through a logical and consistent alternate contemporary world.

Black Ships by Jo Graham. Wonderfully rich and well drawn historical fantasy that lives inside you. First of the Numinous World series.

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane. Dark, lovely, well-written, well-imagined futuristic urban fantasy.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A massive recent-past historical fantasy, but riveting from the first page. A scholarly thriller.

Damiano by R. A. MacAvoy. This historical fantasy trilogy (Damiano, Damiano’s Lute and Raphael) is one of the most amazing and moving I’ve ever read. She’s an incredible writer. I’ve loved everything I ever read by her. I just wish she was still writing.

The Outback Stars by Sandra McDonald. The first book in a great sf trilogy: the Australian space Navy, a touching love story, Dreamtime mythology made real.

Ilona Gordon – Ilona and her husband write together. Their Kate Daniels series is consistently interesting and fun. Slightly in the future, semi-dystopian, urban fantasy.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley – Another slightly in the future, semi-dystopian book, with a breathless narrator you will either hate or love. I adored her.

Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow – First book in a five part series. High octane, futuristic urban fantasy.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. Another seminal work.

The J. D. Robb Eve Dallas series. These are more police procedurals, but I’m including them because they’re set in the mid-21st century. They’re my ultimate comfort read!

I know I’m going to kick myself, be chagrined, and otherwise embarrassed for forgetting someone essential. I’ll add ETAs as needed.

marshallpayne1 wrote (about writing):

What do you consider your greatest strength as a writer. Your biggest weakness that you try to overcome? (Listing more than one strength or weakness is cool.)

Feel free to post this question on your blog and link to it in your answer here in the comments. I’ll go first in the comments.

Ahem. My greatest strength, I think, is characterization. I immerse myself totally in my characters, know them backwards, forwards, sideways, upside down, right side up, and crammed into small trunks. Um, so to speak.

Therein also lies one of my greatest weaknesses. Because I know them so well and have developed gobs and tons of gobs and more gobs about their backstory I seem compelled to put in all on the page in my zero drafts. I do weed through this nonsense in the first drafts and get rid of much of it (though my betas can scarce believe that), but I’m often left with a panicked sense of “What if I leave out something important??” Often my poor suffering betas have to kick me hard and tell me to cut some more. I can and do cut quite a lot by the final draft, but it’s often painful.

Therein lies another fault: a tendency not to trust the reader enough to get the characters and subtext and stuff without putting gobs of tons on the page.

I think my sense of humor translates onto the page pretty well, but it isn’t to everyone’s taste. I trust the reader enough to determine that for him or herself. I also trust them to be intelligent and perception people. I don’t write down to them.

I think I have fairly original ideas, except for the ones that have been done to death. I always try to find an oblique angle for the familiar, but that doesn’t often pay off in synopses where you have to reduce ideas ad absurdum.

Did I mention I was not good at reducing things, ad absurdum or just in general?

I do a decent job with the image making, I think.

Except for those times when the scenery takes over the story.

I could go on making lists, as I am an obsessive list maker and an obsessive self-critic, but then I’d be getting into trouble about reducing things again. I’d rather not go there yet again. This post is already, I’m afraid, proof of a sorry theme in my life. as I am an obsessive list maker and an obsessive self-critic, but then I’d be getting into trouble about reducing things again. I’d rather not go there yet again.