Echoes in a Hollow Space

This journey is actually split into two parts: the first, a short discussion of this book:



and maybe a little bit about this one, as well:



Kathleen Bartholomew, the sister of sff writer Kage Baker, has been carrying on Kage's legacy since Ms. Baker's untimely death. She has put together collections of Kage's stories, done the finishing touches on manuscripts left behind, and has been completing books begun by Kage. Subterranean Press has been publishing them. Kathleen's wonderful blog chronicles in touching and lively detail the life she and her sister lived together, but also talks about the writers' life, life in general, the Faire circuit, and spooky travels on California's I-5. It's a great loving stew of many flavors and exotic ingredients. Kathleen is a talented writer, often lyrical and moving, and her blog really is a delicious treat. I cannot recommend it highly enough. (I've also syndicated it here on LJ as kage_baker.)

Now, as to the second part of this journey. Not quite as lyrical and moving, but I never promised these posts about journeying around my room would be. In fact, one might even call the next part of our story a sordid journey into family politics. If one was a Drama Queen. I'll leave it to you as to how to label it.

( The Sordid Truth. )

The other day Peter Serafinowicz (serafinowicz) tweeted, "All this time I thought I'd been lying to myself, but I was just kidding myself."

I've been pondering it ever since, one way or another. It's become something of a mantra in recent days—or at least, the litmus paper that I slap onto each gooey life illusion of mine to see what colors come up. Results still pending, so I won't be going into all that, but I've been thinking about that remark in another context, my other obsession du jour: family history. Family history is sometimes fraught with illusion and projected realities. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems, even historic puzzles. You must take many things on faith alone, and often the things you find out change everything you thought you knew.

( Read More )

Writing: I dreamed Friday night that I was having a conversation with another writer and talking about how in my first drafts I have the bad habit of beginning sentences with "And." I way overuse it, and it's one of those things I'm constantly hacking out of second drafts. I woke up Saturday morning and logged on to the Online Writing Workshop to find I had a review of Charged with Folly which told me I began too many sentences with "And," and I should really work on that. I had to laugh. It must have bugged her so much she tunneled into my dreams. And I agree with her. ☺

Families: Technically speaking, I misspoke yesterday in my gratitude post when I said my mom was about the only family I have left. I should have said significant family, because I've got gallons and gallons of cousins out there. Almost all are strangers to me who live in other states (my mom and Aunt Maxine were the rebels who moved from the encrusted enclave in Utah to California). Of the two cousins I was ever close to, I'm only still in touch with one, and even she lives quite a ways away. With her mom, Maxine, gone, we hardly ever see each other.

I also have some nieces and a nephew out there somewhere. All but one of them were older than me (my half-brother was only two years younger than my mother) and their mother didn't approve of my family—we were the poor relations she didn't wish to expose her children to. I saw them semi-frequently when I was a kid, at my brother Jack's insistence, but once he and his wife divorced in my early teens, the kids and wife disappeared from my life (and, I suspect, largely from Jack's). He's passed on now. I have no idea where any of them are. I didn't even know Jack had died until years after the fact.

Families. Messy.

Fortunately, I have good "family of choice," some of whom have been my friends three-quarters of my life.

Vacation: I finally feel like I've gotten my energy back. The first couple of days, even before I'd eaten turkey, I sat down in the chair to read and promptly fell asleep—in the middle of the day, something that's extremely atypical of me. It reaffirmed my decision to take some serious downtime this weekend. I've gotten some things done, but mostly I've perfected the art of sloth.

And I hope you all had the weekends you wished for!

ETA: For those of you who love the Geico Cavemen as much as I do, something more on vacations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j9U0qP7H3g

And this one, my favorite in the series. The expression on the actor's face at the end is just priceless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZrjr4A-ASQ