Tobias S. Buckell Online » Blog Archive » Listen to a story of I read: Waiting for the Zephyr can be heard online for free at the Spoken Alexandria Project.

The story is narrated by the talented Mary Robinette Kowal of the Willamette Radio Workshop.

I had just finished assisting Þor with a shot and wandered back to the craft services table when Máni, our composer, came out and said, “Mary, are you good with words?”

“Um…Pretty good. I guess.” I looked at the orange I was peeling, to hide my confusion. What do you need?”

“I am stuck on a lyric, and the singer is on his way in.”

“Sure, I can take a look.” I said, figuring that he needed reassurance with English.

I followed him off the set into his studio and he played the new song for me, then pointed at a line. “This is the old line. I need to change it to rhyme with ‘go.’”

Much to my surprise, I came up with something he liked and then he asked me for help with a second line. Neat! I wrote a lyric. I wonder if it will make it into the show or get changed again.

Jodi and I got to work one of the villain’s strange devices today. The thing had four legs which needed to work in a coordinated movement, so even though it could be considered a prop they threw puppeteers into it. It makes sense, but man, it made for a long day.

As most of the big props are, this was made of fiberglass. It had cured more than most of the props do, so the fumes weren’t too bad. All the same, I wore a respirator and they kept a fan on us anytime we weren’t shooting. Jonathan wore a microphone and was calling our count out to us so we could keep the legs synced with the rope towing us. This got to be a little funny because Jodi and I are in this contraption, completely visually isolated from the rest of the studio, but we hear Jonathan through our headsets. It was like wandering around in his head, like “Being John Malkovich.”

Sometimes I think he forgot we were listening, but other times he was clearly saying things for our amusement.

After work, a group of us went to see X-Men 3. You may skip the movie and wait for cable.

This is my friend Emily. She’s an amazing puppeteer and a good friend. Today is her birthday, hopefully we’ll go out to celebrate tonight

Well, today was ridiculous. I spent all day being Bessie’s hands, which is always fun, but for one shot I got to do something totally silly. There was a tight shot of Bessie’s hands manipulating a prop on a table. The way the shot was framed, you could see her torso behind the table, but not her head and the shot was on the floor, because they needed to see the ground behind her. It was going to be challenging to use the live arms, to say the least, but it absolutely had to be live hands. So. So, I put on Bessie’s shirt, and a pair of Bessie-falsies, and just was Bessie for that one shot. I have never had such an enormous bosom.

What can I say? We slept in. I made muffins. We took a walk, came home and napped in the sun. This evening we watched Sid Caesar and ate dinner. Rob is already in bed and I’m heading there myself.

Today a group of “us girls” went out for brunch at a cafe in health food store. I had no idea the place existed, but besides a wonderful menu, they had great produce. I was tempted to go grocery shopping, but resisted because we all had treatments scheduled at the Nordica spa. I had a facial, I think it was the surface treatment.

The spa is rather like sitting in a beautifully designed thermal cave. The walls are natural rock, or blue-green tile. One of the bathing pools has basalt columns in it. Among other things, they give you a neck massage while sitting in the hot tub. How lovely is that?

So we soaked and steamed–eucalyptus and lavender steamroom–and then went in for our various treatments. My skin is so soft and hydrated now. I could also sleep for days.

Yesterday we all went to Grillhusið to celebrate one cast member’s birthday a week late. Tonight we went bowling for someone else’s birthday. It was fun and frustrating. Fun, because I like all of these people. Frustrating because it’s been well over a year since the last time I bowled and I really stank tonight. There was a time in my life when I used to be a decent bowler, not great, but not embarrassing. Tonight you would have thought it was the first time I ever bowled. sigh.

Tomorrow, a group of us are going out for a girl’s day of beauty. Emily’s birthday is on Monday so we are going to the Nordica spa for facials tomorrow.

Today is my brother’s birthday. Hurrah! He’s old!

Wow! This is someone I don’t know, who is saying nice things about Shimmer.

The Feathered Serpent’s Nest - Pleasant Surprises in the mailbox
Its cover is nice and slick (laminated!) with some of the coolest artwork I’ve seen on a mag (I’d seen the cover art online, but the quality and clarity of it on print is inspiring and worth the $5 cover price on its own). The interior illustrations are just as good as any I’ve seen in Asimov’s or Analog.

The Spring 2006 issue of Shimmer: Available now!

Our cover story is A Warrior’s Death, Aliette de Bodard’s tale of sacrifice and honor in an Aztec-inspired world. John Joseph Adams returns with a review of Larry Niven’s “The Draco Tavern.” Then there’s the charming Dog Thinks Ahead, by Cliff Royal Johns, the sorrowful Litany by John Mantooth, and Bruce Derksen’s Rubber Boots, Mr. President. Angela Slatter brings new life to Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Match Girl and Darby Harn tells us about a blind woman’s unusual skills. We also have the honor of being the first fiction credit for Paul Abbamondi (The Dealer’s Hands) and Marina T. Stern (Drevka’s Rain).

Celebrate Spring with Shimmer! Available in both print and electronic editions, according to your reading preferences.

Subscribe now, and catch the next wave in fiction.

We do grassroots advertising, so you’ll have to expect me to ask you to buy things occasionally. But only good things, and this issue is full of fiction goodness. Speaking of grassroots advertising…if you happen to have a blog and wouldn’t mind giving us a plug, it’d be lovely if you would put this banner up. I’ll treat you to chocolate next time I see you.

Wayne headed back to Portland today. He rivals Rob in his ability to defer to others, so when I told him I could take him to the Blue Lagoon today, he said, “Oh, that’s okay. I don’t really want to go.”

I couldn’t shake him from this. So, Rob ran him out to the airport and I sat around set waiting.

Today was one of the slow days. I was used in one shot. That was a fun one actually. Bessie had to go through set carrying a number of props. Normally we’d raise the set but because of the other scenes they had to shoot at that location it would have taken too much time. So Julie and I rolled through set on the family-sized puppet dolly. It’s a big flat cart that’s pulled with ropes. We just lie on it and get pulled around. Remember when you were a kid and someone pulled you in a wagon? It’s about as close to that as you can get and earn a paycheck.

This was before Wayne left. After he left, I studied my Icelandic lesson. The thing I couldn’t get him to believe was that we only get to go to the Blue Lagoon when we have company. And we like going. I was sad that I didn’t get to go today.

Let this be a lesson to the rest of my visitors.

Wayne came to work with us today. He got to see a couple of stunts, which are always fun and he got to see some puppetry, so that was a pretty good mix. The puppetry today was fun, but unfortunately the details are really plot specific so I’m not going to go into them this time. I know, I’m a tease.

The puppeteers got wrapped early, except for Þor and me. Everyone else left around four-thirty. I sent Wayne with Emily to the pool. I went into the puppet shop to practise my Icelandic with Sigga and Tóti. At the end of the day, when we were getting ready to leave, I decided to try to use my Icelandic to ask, “Do you want me to close the window?” What I actually said was, “Will you me fasten this?” We got a good laugh out of that. I’m glad Sigga can explain why it’s funny. If this were really immersion, then she’d be laughing and it would be months before I understood what I had said wrong.

I’ll start this by telling you that it has a happy ending and there’s nothing to worry about. Suspense is great in novels, but not in real life.

Last week, I found a lump in my breast. (remember, happy ending) Daddi at work, made an appointment for me at Leitarstöð Krabbameinsfélagsins (center for cancer search). So, this post is about the amazing difference between a doctor’s visit in Iceland compared to the U.S.

I came to work for an hour and then headed off for my appointment. Because I hadn’t been there before, and I was nervous, I gave myself too much time to get there. I arrived about fifteen minutes early for my appointment. There were no televisions in the waiting room, but there were magazines, books of short stories and a play area for children. I was expecting to fill out paperwork.

No. They took my kennitala (id number) and asked me to have a seat. I picked up a magazine, and a nurse called my name. Really, that fast. So I followed her back to a changing area. They provide lockers with keys, for personal items, and hospital gowns in spring colors cut like kimonos. I sat down in the little waiting area outside the changing area and immediately the nurse reappeared and asked me to follow her.

I figured that, like the U.S., she was going to park me in an examination room, but instead she took me straight back and did a mammogram. We won’t go into those details because it would frighten the menfolk.

After that, I returned to the smaller waiting room, and after perhaps five minutes, the radiologist came for me and did an ultrasound. It turned out that I was right and there was a small lump, but that it was merely a cyst. She said it was nothing to worry about and that women get these all the time. Whew.

We finished up. I got dressed, and headed back for the reception area. There I encountered the rare Icelander who doesn’t speak English. We managed to handle everything in Icelandic. Fortunately the questions were straightforward ones like “What is your address.” Yay! These Icelandic lessons are paying off.

I took my leave and was back in my car by 11:30. In the U.S. I would have still been in the reception area, trying to ignore a television. What a delightful civilized country.

Today Rob and Wayne headed out to do the Golden Circle while I remained at home to do more prosaic things like laundry and writing. When they came back, we joined the gang and went to the Reykjavík Arts Festival’s presentation of the Bulgarian Women’s Choir. They are totally amazing in ways that are difficult to describe. I could talk about tight harmonies, and micro-tonal shadings but really the music was simply transportive. If you get a chance, definitely go see them.