Scattershot

[truepenny]

Today's Accomplishment

My December post for Storytellers Unplugged is up.

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That-Of-Which-We-Do-Not-Speak

My S.U. post will also tell you how revisions on Corambis are going.

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1001 Uses for an Origami Crane, #679

They make the world's best cat toys. Even if Catzilla does insist on drowning them in his water bowl.

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Review Roundup

imani is deeply unimpressed by the beginning of Mélusine. Jenny doesn't like it either.

gauroth likes A Companion to Wolves. drelmo doesn't.

We've also been nominated for the Romantic Times 2007 Reviewers' Choice Awards, in the Best Fantasy Novel category.

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And One More Thing ...

I am so far behind on answering email that if it all fell on me, I would be dead.

Comments

[libskrat]

The frequency with which Mouser dumps toys in the communal feline water bowl (the catnip mice are an especial problem) indicates to us that there is some feline instinct to consider water some kind of goalpost in their inscrutable eternal game.

(Dream once... with a real mouse... I am not drawing a picture here.)

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

The tendency of cats to get their catnip toys into their water dishes is so true. Our cats do it all the time. Perhaps their goal is to produce psychoactive water to drink by infusing it with catnip?

Also, as other posters have said, there's not much that can be done about bloggers who completely miss the point about what's going on in Mélusine, especially at the beginning, except to ignore them.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you deal with the people who seem to dislike your work so much? I think it would crush me. Granted, I have only one book epublished at this point, but after putting so much time and love into it, I don't think I would be so calm about it if I'd read a review like that about my work.

Personally, I found your books to be well worth the read and have encouraged several of my friends to purchase and read all three of the Mildmay and Felix stories so far.

RD

thinking with your genre conventions...

[teadog1425.livejournal.com]

I am delurking to say how much I enjoyed your Storytellers Unplugged column, and how, synchronicitously, it was exactly the thing I needed to read today... Thank you.

FWIW, I have bought and read both Melusine and Mirador and enjoyed both immensely, though I have not yet been able to reread either, because of the way they were so powerful and painfully true emotionally.

I am coming to realise that my own creative process (certainly in writing) involves doing it wrong first and then seeing how to write it right. What I have not yet come to terms with is the feeling that this wastes time.

Tam

Re: thinking with your genre conventions...

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

What I have not yet come to terms with is the feeling that this wastes time.

Oh me neither!

The irony here is that when I started writing Corambis, I was determined NOT to do this. And I did it anyway.

[scribblemoose]

It must be so hard to deal with reviews like that, where they totally missed the point. I hope you don't take any notice of them. With a couple of the reviews for Melusine you've linked to I just want to scream at the screen, because it's as if they read a totally different book to the one I read. Heavens knows what it must feel like for you.

Also, thanks for the article. It makes me feel less of a moron for all the times I've stared glumly at a pile of cliche and wondered where the story I was hoping for got lost in it all!

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

We who also cannot write a book in a year salute you.

[billionhighways]

Eeesh, those were harsh reviews. I adored Felix and found him much more deeply interesting than the stock characters one usually comes across.

e

Seeing only the reflection and not the water

[selkith.livejournal.com]

I rather disagree with the reviews. I liked the opening of Melusine because you get Mildmay's voice so clearly. You get the idea that even if he is a street rat, he is a well educated one after his fashion. He knows his city. He knows it's history, and the people to some extent.

Felix is many of the things they accuse his of in the review, but as I said above, they only see the image on the surface, and did not bother to look any deeper. What's underneath is something else again, and one begins to understand why he does some of the things he does. I think perhaps those reviewers need to stick to their usual genres. Clearly they did not look any further than the mannerisms, and the old fashioned language. Which by the way, I think is part of the charm.

[renatus.livejournal.com]

I laughed out loud at the first review when I realized that the very first thing that sent the reviewer into fits was what made me decide, after reading those pages in the bookstore, that I absolutely had to get your book. It's amazing how much tastes vary.

I am, however, disturbed that anyone can read insane!Felix and decide he's merely whiny. Shudder.

[karenthology.livejournal.com]

That song is one of the most amazing things ever written!

I'm so glad other people know of Kris Delmhorst.

[1trackmind.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this will make you feel better or not, but I got Melusine from the library, devoured it, got The Virtu and devoured that, then got The Mirador.

I bought my own copy of Melusine and The Virtu, upon which the cat promptly dumped a full glass of water. So I ordered replacement copies along with The Bone Key.

I was quite distressed to learn the next book won't be out until 2009 (but in a good way).