Just when I'd found a blog to swoon over, Ayelet Waldman, the titular Bad Mother, had to go and give up blogging because she got a columnist gig at Salon. While I'm sure I'll enjoy reading her columns, I'll miss both the unfiltered blog content and an ad-free experience. Grrrr. And arrg.
Quote of the Day, from Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind:
"Others imply that they know what it is like to be depressed because they have gone through a divorce, lost a job, or broken up with someone. But these experiences carry with them feelings. Depression, instead, is flat, hollow and unendurable. It is also tiresome. People cannot abide being with you because you are depressed. They might think that they ought to, and they might even try, but you know and they know that you are tedious beyond belief: you’re irrational and paranoid and humorless and lifeless and critical and demanding and no reassurance is ever enough. You’re frightened, and you’re frightening, and you’re ‘not at all like yourself but will be soon,’ but you know you won’t."
(addendum: I'm fine. Just came across this quote while doing some research for The Book.)
While I am thrilled, nay, ecstatic that the first three episodes of Fraggle Rock are now on DVD, I need for my child to stop watching them. It's like almost-3-year-old crack. If she's home, she wants it. I now have the blooming things memorized and will lose my shit if I have to hear the theme song again. Send help. Or, better yet, more episodes, so that it wouldn't have to always be the same three. Perhaps as an early birthday gift to myself...
Also, on a more writerly front, Tobias Buckell is putting together a survey of science fiction/fantasy book advance figures. The average runs between $5,000 and $8,000. It's interesting to know, especially since in my copious free time I've been noodling with a space opera. It's also proof that I'm not going to give up writing non-fiction anytime soon. My advance for *Gothic* was in Scalzi's Shut up! range, which seems to be standard for more mainstream-ish non-fiction.
(Late change: the link for Scalzi's author advance scale wasn't quite right. It is now. Carry on.)
New SpecFic Floozy column up at Bookslut. This one is about John Scalzi's Old Man's War, which I think you should all read.
Two small notes about said column--
1) In the first graf, the first Heinlein book mentioned should be Have Spacesuit -- Will Travel, rather than what I typed. D'oh.
2) Scalzi himself, who seems like he'd be fun to have a beer with, has commented on said review and there are the beginings of a discussion about it. [God of your choice] bless the Internets. It's nice to get so much feedback so quickly.
So I ran my name through google. I chalk it up to general brain-deadness and a negative desire top assemble the class notes I'll need this afternoon. I also chalk it up to the fact that I'm vain, egotistical and human. Come on -- who hasn't done this at least once?
I will also admit that I do this every couple of weeks. Oh, the shame.
Anyway, in addition to rediscovering stories that I'd forgotten that I'd written, stumbling upon questionable applications of fair use law and discovering that I've been cited in a PhD dissertation by someone I don't actually know, I realized that I was a much better writer before and now I suck. (This happens everytime I do this. Don't be alarmed.)
But the one that got me is this , which is the home page of an online 'zine called "MatriFocus," a Cross-Quarterly for the Goddess Woman is a seasonal ezine for Goddess Women and others interested in Goddess Lore and Scholarship, Goddess Religion (ancient and contemporary), Feminist Spirituality, Women's Mysteries, Neopaganism, Paganism, Earth-based Religions, Witchcraft, Dianic Wicca and other Wiccan Traditions, the Priestess Path, Goddess Art, Women's Culture, Women's Health, Natural Healing, Mythology, Female Shamanism, Consciousness, Community, Cosmology, Cultural Creatives, and Women's Creativity. Scroll down a bit to find the bit they pulled.
My first response is that the quote they pulled from a book review that ran in the paper of my former employ actually makes me sound, like, smart and stuff. My second response is wondering how the heck whomever runs the site actually found that quote. My third response is that I'm flattered, but am not sure I truly understand their cause. The phrase "Cultural Creatives" is one that I've never stumbled across before. I mean, isn't every creative act culture bound?
For the record -- the "Adrienne Martini" who went to Rampopo college is not me. I'm not even sure where it is. And am slightly stunned that there is another "Adrienne Martini" out there.
Here endeth my exercise in narcissism. Carry on.
South Knox Bubba has put together a little game that you may use during your State of the Union watching activities. I, of course, plan to watch Project Runway. Everyone makes choices.
I don't know what to say about this NYT Style article other than that it is demeaning and belittling to mommies everywhere, especially the ones with brains in their heads. Which is, unbeknownst to writer David Hochman, most of them. I don't quite see how a blog about the experiences of you and your kid are different from a blog devoted to The Buffalo Bills, the Confederacy or Pepsi Blue. It may just have something to do with most folks still thinking moms should be in the kitchen rattling them pots and pans, rather than thinking or writing or examining. Just *sigh*
And this bit will make Hochman's head implode:
Last night we introduced the Diva to the Tater Tot. She touched one, then asked what it was. "It's a Tater Tot," we explained. "Oh," she said, "a potato tot." "No," we said, "just Tater." And she, in her Diva way, looked at us like we were complete morons. "It's potato tot," she insisted, and reminded us each time she would pick one up. "I'm eating a potato tot."
Sometimes, my child frightens me.