One More Detour on the Writing Road

Finished Pterry's The Truth very early this morning. As usual, many aspects of the story seem to apply. The first and final conversation between William de Worde and his father Lord de Worde struck me particularly.

Lord de Worde: "Don't you agree, then, that it's time for a ruler who listens to the people?"

William: "Maybe. Which people did you have in mind?"

I'll be taking a break from Pterry for a bit. Next up, a short story collection. "Wodehouse on Crime."

Started my reread with vague memories of the plot. Golems. The Watch. Some seriousness.

Then during my read last night I came to this part:

"In a way, it didn't matter who they were. In fact, their anonymity was part of the whole business. They thought themselves part of the march of history, the tide of progress and the wave of the future. They were men who felt that The Time Had Come. Regimes can survive barbarian hordes, crazed terrorists, and secret societies, but they're in real trouble when prosperous and anonymous men sit around a big table and think thoughts like that."

Pterry always managed to slip something in.

I finished Going Postal and decided to try something...lighter is the wrong word. Narrower focus? Just different? So I went with Soul Music.

Such sharp dialogue in some places, especially between Susan and Albert.

If I were planning those first Jani Kilian books now, I would definitely reconsider the use of diacritical marks in names and titles to denote changes in class/rank of my aliens. Either that, or I would make sure I WROTE DOWN ALL THE DETAILS AND KEPT THAT DOC IN A SAFE PLACE.

I did construct a language overview page on my website. I thank myself for doing at least once a week.

Finished Pterry's Jingo early this morning. On one level, I thought I was reading the news.

Something less timely next, I think. Men at Arms? The Fifth Elephant?

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to pull away from nighttime screens by reading actual paper books. Imagine!

I've started with an out-of-sequence Pterry reread. First, Hogfather, because it seemed appropriate for December. Followed up with Guards! Guards!, then Lords and Ladies.

Now I'm reading Jingo, which seems appropriate to the times in so many ways. It also contains one of my favorite, idk, processes? Namely, Lord Vetinari* manipulating Sam Vimes into acting like, well, Sam Vimes.

*Lord Vetinari is one of my "Spock crushes**." In my mind, he's played by Alan Rickman.

**crushes on literary/film/TV characters. Mr. Spock was my first. Lord Peter Wimsey. Loki from the Marvel TV series. And Vetinari.

I set out to my favorite grocery store this morning expecting a crowd, and I wasn't disappointed. But all the checkout stations were open, so things moved surprisingly quickly.

My Christmas dinner with friends will take place on Boxing Day, so tomorrow will be pretty laid back. Cooking may be involved. I'll be watching my favorite version of A Christmas Carol later, the 1951 version with Alastair Sim as Scrooge. The lead-up will be "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

My current bedtime reading, Pterry's Guards! Guards!, is proving a little too damned topical in parts. Funny how that man always nailed it.

Happy holidays to all. Belated Solstice wishes. Looking forward to longer days.

I'm mostly trying to get into the habit of confining longer posts to my website blog. Nothing earth-shattering gets posted—mostly cooking/recipes, plant stuff, info about wips and life in general. My never-ending quest to declutter my house and my life.

But I'm glad this place is here.

I keep meaning to come back here and post more often, but then I don't. Given how much I miss the old LJ, I really should make more of an effort. The-place-formerly-designated-by-a-blue-bird is trash and while its clones have their strong points, I'm finding the same issues that made TPFDBABB a pit are bubbling up more frequently. Better to spend more time in a quiet tidal pool instead of storm seas.

I'm also trying to center my website more, for all it needs a revamp. WIP snippets (wippets?) will be posted there instead of FB etc because ownership, AI training, etc. I found out that a couple of my books were used to train at least one AI engine and while it may be way too late to close that barn door, oh well. Gonna try to do it anyway.

Anyway, it's a grey, cold day here in NE Illinois. After having gone walkabout for most of the year, Winter has decided it wants to hang around a bit. Of course, the daffs have formed big buds, the crocuses and hellebore are blooming, and the pussy willow catkins are opening, so nights in the 20s (F) are just what we need right now. I'm especially concerned about the pussy willows because they usually bloom a few weeks later and are the first thing the bees and butterflies have to feed on. But now it's too cold.

Oh well, time to wrap up tax prep. Other things to do. Off I go...

I'm coasting on social media for the time being. Longer posts usually on Facebook still, though I wish I could break that habit. We'll see what I can manage this year.

One reason I'm coasting is I have some house renovations going on. No real demo, but new flooring in living room/kitchen/dining room/bathroom and general kitchen/bathroom refresh. It's winding down, and I'm very happy. But I have loads of Stuff--cleaning supplies, mugs and glassware, the sorts of products that accumulate in bathroom drawers--that need to be sorted and ::finger crossed:: mostly disposed of. I did buy a set of nice matching glassware as a sort of housewarming gift to self. At 64 yo, I thought it was time to ditch the college-era emblemware.

In other news, no snow in NE Illinois currently and very little to date. I'm concerned that it means February will slam us hard, which has happened in the past. I know that snow cover is a good thing, but I kinda like not having to wrestle the behemoth snow thrower up and down the driveway.