Gracious.

[truepenny]

There are over 500 of you.

::waves to everybody::

Since I have to write a synopsis of The Mirador today, and since synopsis-writing is an activity which I both hate and am incredibly bad at, I'm going to issue an open invitation:

Tell me something about yourself.

It's an invitation, obviously--nothing even as strong as a request--so if you don't want to, no harm, no foul. But if you'd like to (and this applies as much to the people I know as the people I don't) ... tell me something. Make it as long or as short, as serious or as goofy as you want. If you are a reader who doesn't have a LiveJournal account, that's totally cool, too--just please remember to sign your comment.

Comments

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of tangent I go on during midterms week.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Since I have to write a synopsis of The Mirador today

Oh, I am so sorry. AsyouknowBob, I feel your pain.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

When I was young - probably somewhere around 9 or 10, at least, the times I remember involved my brother being in a pushchair - during the summer holidays, when it was fine, and the tide was out, my mother used to take us to have breakfast on the sands. These were about 5-10 minutes away if we took the route down the 101 steps in the cliff.

I can't honestly remember how often this really happened, but I'm pretty sure it was more than once. Perhaps I should ask my sister if she has any memories of this.

Hi

[(Anonymous)]

Not much to tell.

Like most people here, I write SF/F. Mostly SF.

Thisi s a great Blog.

I'm at:

http://envaneo.blogspot.com/

My Blog is about my Ramblings and snippits of Daily life. You;l see pictures of my cats that sort of thing. I dnon't always know what I'm talking abiut half the time anyway.

e.Jim Shannon

About that Mildmay character by karielf

[(Anonymous)]

This is an interesting group. Like many who visit this blog, I'm writing SF/F, hopefully soon I'll either get one of my short stories published or finish one of the two novels I'm working on.

I absolutely love your writing style. Like many of your readers I find the character of Mildmay endearing. Mostly because he reminds me of my lifemate, aside from the accent, scar, and I'm pretty sure he never killed anyone. I found myself often pausing as I read, wondering how his impossible to read face, muttering speech, and graceful acrobatic physique, not to mention his wavering self-worth, and standoffish attitude made its way onto your pages. He does have a half brother, and if the brother desires him, I'd hate to be around when he found out. If he reads this, he'd kill me (not literally).

I enjoy reading your blog when I'm seeking escape from the hardships of writing. I'm glad to find I'm not alone, when it comes to looking for distractions from the overwhelming urge to create (and perfect) worlds with words.

[ginger-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm a grad student and an SFF reader who tinkers now and then with writing. I wound up here after someone pointed me to one of your essays on genre, and I stuck around partly for the crunchy discussion of writing and books and partly because you were saying sensible and encouraging things about dissertations. I hope you post more about baking bread, because anyone who can get sourdough to rise must have mutant superpowers.

I'm prone to overenthusing about things I like.
This afternoon, I bought the single girliest piece of clothing I am ever likely to own.
I've just discovered how good webcomics are for avoiding doing work.
Late at night, I like to go to the park and play on the swings.
I look forward to the day I can have cats.
I am newly fascinated by Japanese prints.

And, because the curiosity consumes me: was Malkar named after the ASCSA library? Given what you've said about your stay there, it seems somehow appropriate.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is exactly where I got the word Gennadion.

It's an unfair slur on the library (the summer I was there, they had an absolutely fascinating exhibit on Greek representations of Lord Byron), but, well, magpie mind. What can you do? It had the right sounds.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

I'm an academic who refuses to specialise, and I finally found a PhD program that won't make me do it (or at least was willing to accept my very strange dissertation proposal). My writing is the same way, more or less. If something feels right (be it humour, ghosts, what have you), I put it in. If I ever manage to get published, I shudder to think where the hypothetical book might get shelved.

I remember being absolutely confused by Mélusine when I first ran across it a few months ago on Amazon (I was looking for Jean d'Arras' poem of the same name) and realised it had nothing to do with serpent-women. ;)

Oh, and I have a birthmark in my right eye.

[kate_nepveu]

When I'm angry, people who had been formerly addressed as "Mr." become "sir." I don't know if the sarcasm is audible.

Gender designation based on experiences to date.

Freedom begins

[aenodia.livejournal.com]

when the children leave home and the dog dies.
So we sold our home moved into our motorhome we we could travel and see the country. It is now ten years later and we are still living in our motorhome.
I picked up on your LJ after WisCon 30.

[retrobabble.livejournal.com]

I met you at the last WFC. We share a friend. :)

I'm a bookworm who grew up to be a residential remodeling designer. I write on weekends when my brain is not melty. I've discovered construction crews and SF/F do not mix, except on full moons and when someone's been dabbling with the contact cement.

I like the double life.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

When I hear speech, I "see" it written as well as hearing it.

It's never in the same typeface twice in a row.

I suspect I've created some typefaces without knowing it.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I used to load railroad cars. Tonight Mr. Ford is showing me a documentary on freight operations in northern Minnesota, and when they got to scenes of the train crew walking alongside coupling cars, I got all nostalgic. Could almost smell the oil and the dust and the sun-warmed metal and the thousand-and-one smells along the tracks.

I wonder what happened to my old hardhat.

[mokie]

I work at a pet store. Between the urge to demand that managers let my hamsters go and the itch to run through the aisles yelling, "SCIENCE DIET IS PUPPIES! SCIENCE DIET IS PUPPIES!" I have never felt so close to Charlton Heston.

My love for truth, justice and the brotherhood of man is surpassed only by my love for Tostitos' salsa con queso.

I have a fiendish love of photography. Favorite subjects: flowers, animals, and gravestones, but not in a "pale girl draped over a headstone" sort of way. More in a "Damn goth, get out of my shot!" sort of way.

[joecrow.livejournal.com]

I just started wearing earrings again, after several years of leaving them out. Now that my daughter's mostly past the "yank on the shiny thing sticking out of daddy's head" stage, it's safe again. Of course, the only holes still open are the first ones I got, about 19 years ago. I'm thinking about getting a couple more; I've been Joe Normal for too, too long now.

[chanphenglew.livejournal.com]

I'm old enough to be someone's grandmother, but chose to spend nearly half my adult (since age 21) doing humanitarian work in Southeast Asia instead. Most of my writing energy goes into writing reports and what's left over goes into fiction (though sometimes the two get mixed up). I'm fluent in two Asian languages and can get by in two others, but the most important things in learning a language are: desire to communicate, willingness to make a fool of oneself and joy in playing with words.

Shortly put...

[peippeliini.livejournal.com]

I'm quite the normal person, from a not so normal country...That country resides in the north and is filled with lakes and woodland. They say Santa Claus comes from that country, but don't go believing it. We shall admit nothing.
I'm more of a reader than I am a writer, but that's mainly because I sink into everlasting slumps and am unable to continue my stories 'til they're finished.
Mostly my writing involves around narrative roleplaying.
I'm more comfortable reading and analyzing.

On a sidenote...English isn't my native language, so forgive me the abundance of grammar mistakes and what not.

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

Ah, a reason to delurk. :) I picked up Mélusine a few weeks ago, and ended up devouring it during a long car trip. It was such an engrossing read that the dreaded motion sickness didn't rear its ugly head even once.

Other than being a big fantasy fan occasionally suffering from motion sickness, I am a classical archaeology & ancient history major with a weakness for studying interesting but perhaps not always 'useful' subjects. Other weaknesses include spending an awful lot of time on-line -- browsing, posting, roleplaying and tinkering with websites -- and, most importantly, horses.

Oh, and I am terrible at writing anything and everything meant to summarize and overview something (the requirement for an abstract caused some delay in the delivery of my Masters thesis). I am much better at making something twice as long as it ought to have been.

[lomedet.livejournal.com]

I'm a sort-of academic. I read fanfiction. I've been a voracious consumer of speculative fiction ever since my dad handed me a copy of Dragonsong when I was 8. Thinking about religion, queer theory, and feminism (yes, all of them at once) makes me happy.

I waited for a year (or so?) to read Melusine because I have a firm policy against buying books in hardcover (lack of shelf space). However, I finished it with two hours left on the plane ride to Tel Aviv, and was cursing for hours at the fact that The Virtu wasn't out yet here, and I wasn't going to be back home for over a month.

[heresluck]

I have a refrigerator full of vegetables right now. No, seriously: FULL of vegetables. I should send you a photo.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

Um, I write fanfiction. And I think I probably should be following your writing journal with my art-student journal.

I'm Melbournian, born and raised. And I play backgammon. My parents decided to send me to school instead of setting me up as a backgammon champion.

I'm more interested in the process of writing and the uses and limitations of language, than I am in actually writing, I think. I've read too much Lacan and Zizek, which is why it's taken me ten years to write eight thousand words on my fantasy-political novel. I started when I was nine and it was very Mary-Sue-ish.

My favourite novels are Les Miserables, Invisible Cities and the Riddle Master of Hed.
I have two subjects left in my Arts degree, they start this week. I will have a major in German.

[peneli.livejournal.com]

Riddle Master of Hed!

*fangirlsquee!*

More people I know need to read those books.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

My wife and I met you at papersky's tea party at Duckcon. I hadn't read your books at the time, but have now and love them.

I study/teach cognitive psychology at a school with no cognitive area, which is great because if I break discipline boundaries there's no one to yell at me. I write science fiction and fantasy, and am in pre-pro limbo. Story accepted and paid for, not yet published, no set date for it. Also, I bake brownies as a stress reaction.

[owlfish]

I have a bad tabs habit, and keep them open for days at a time until I get around to reading them or decide what to do with them. In this case, I've had the tab with your post open for three days, a clear sign I should restart my web browser sometime soon.

When not dilemma'ing over tabs, I'm a recent doctoral graduate working on the whole What Happens Next project.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

I'm 52, and I play video games!

I've finally got hold of a copy of 'Melusine' and I love it. Thank you!