Hello!  This is Rob Kimbro, adapter and director for Odd and the Frost Giants, guest blogging from Houston.  The peeks that Mary’s given us on the blog into the puppet design process have been very useful to us at Stages.  And now I get to return the favor a bit.  The show is now cast and we’ll be starting rehearsal on Monday.  Today I met with Mike Mullins, set designer, and Jodi Bobrovski, props master (who has appeared on this blog before) for an update on those aspects of the show.  And I came away with some digital pics of the “white model” of the set.  Which is just what it sounds like – a scale model, but without any color treatment.

One of the challenges in presenting the story on stage is how to present Odd’s journey.  He goes from the village to the woods to a frozen waterfall across the rainbow bridge to the forests of Asgard to the walls of the city itself to Odin’s hall and back to the village again.  Representing all that in a concrete way would involve a lot of shifting around of trees and walls and furniture (and magical rainbows).  Instead, we’re picking up on something Thor says at the very end of the show:  “When I tell this story, there will be at least a dozen [Frost Giants]”

Our concept is that the audience is in a Viking hall, hearing the story of Odd and how he drove the Frost Giants out of Asgard.  And we’re always in that hall, even when the story is in the woods or on the rainbow bridge.  So the space is going to be decorated with Viking shields and the prows of old dragon ships.  There’s one stone wall on the upstage side of this 3/4 round space.  In my mind, it’s the wall the hall shares with the outer wall of the Viking stronghold.  Of course, in the story, it becomes the Wall of Asgard.

Here’s a photo of the model.  The outline on the wall will not be nearly so visible in the real thing – it’s a seam that will be concealed in the lines of a rough stone wall.  The camera’s perspective is that of an audience member in the center section.  You can see the stage right seating area on the left side of the photo.  That round thing in the middle will be both Mimir’s Well and all the various fire pits in the story.

So what’s going on with that outline on the wall, you’re wondering?  Well, in a way, it’s the largest puppet in the show.  When the giant picks Odd up during their confrontation, the Wall transforms into the face of the Giant:

This is a different angle – looking down on the set from above.  In this configuration, a section of the wall has folded down to reveal a “hand” wagon that Odd will stand on.  At the same time, the outline above has pushed out to create a craggy set of brows and a nose.  And we have our giant.

There’s more information about the show on the @Stages blog – I’ve done a couple of posts on the story.  The most recent explains the great advantage the Norse myths have over the Greek, from a storytelling point of view. There should be a new one soon about Thor as a character, including my retelling of Thor’s fishing trip.  I’m hoping to do a post like that for each of the three transformed Gods.  Maybe Freya, too.  And there’s information on the production at the main Stages site, too.  For those of you in the Houston area, tickets to the 3 Saturday performances are now on sale.  You can call the box office or order directly online here.

Wouldn’t you like to hear my short story, “Jaiden’s Weaver” read by award-winning author Kij Johnson? I thought you might.  Here! It’s on Escape Pod!

EP285 Jaiden’s Weaver : Escape Pod.

I have arrived safely in Memphis within relative parameters of the word safe. On the way here:

• my flight was oversold because another flight was five hours late
• A passenger on the first leg went into diabetic shock. Thanks to the efforts of the three doctors on board, we did not have to divert.  The flight actually landed early and was expedited to the gate so the paramedics could meet her. She walked out under her own power.
• My second leg left on time. Then had to return to the gate because of brake failure. We left the second time forty-five minutes late.

Once I actually arrived in Memphis, Barbara from MidSouthCon picked me up at the airport and delivered me and the puppets safely to the hotel. I brought two dozen Voodoo donuts for the concom and volunteers.

Reportedly, the travel channel or the food network did a recent episode about Voodoo donuts because people kept getting excited when they saw the pink box.

Everyone is very nice. Tomorrow, I get up to have breakfast at 6:25 a.m. so I can be interviewed on Live@9.  It’s tv and live, so that means I need to be reasonably alert and presentable.

Otherwise, look for me at:

• 19:00   Opening Ceremony – Grand Ballroom C
• 20:00   Meet the Guests — Grand Ballroom D and E
• 21:00    Doing Your Research:  History In Fiction — Director’s Row 2
  Victorian, Edwardian, Industrial, & more:  Avoid errors in the eras.

This is why she is so sleepy all of the time, because she has to concentrate so hard to control the world.

BSC is having their annual book tournament and Shades of Milk and Honey is in Round 1.  My novel is up against Dog Blood by David Moody.

I’m sure he’s a perfectly nice fellow, but which would  you rather have Dog Blood or Milk and Honey?  Milk and honey is tastier, can be used on more things,  and is even good for the complexion.  Dog blood? Very hard to get the stains out, that’s all I’m saying.

Go on! Vote and help my Regency novel drive his into the grou– pardon me. What I meant to say was, would you be so kind as to show your approbation for my humble novel by casting your ballot in its favour.

You may vote at the 5th Annual Book Tournament – Round 1 – Westeros Bracket.

The Hugo nomination period is winding to a close. Voters have until Saturday, March 26 to make their nominations. I’ve already posted my list of eligible fiction elsewhere. Right now I want to draw your attention to the Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

More specifically, I want to draw your attention to some writers.   This is not my ballot, you’ll note, because there are more than five names on this list.  These are writers that I think you should be reading, even if you can’t vote for the Hugos.  If you can, however, and have a space in your Campbell ballot, any of these folks would look nice in a tiara.

Saladin Ahmed was a nominee last year and is still eligible this year.  He is best known for writing smart epic fantasy often with an Arabic twist.  Look for his forthcoming novel Throne of the Crescent. (2nd year)

Dan Wells wrote three of my favorite books in the past year.  He kicked off a series with I Am Not A Serial Killer which is one of the best examples of first person prose I’ve seen in a long, long time.  The series continued with him managing to raise the stakes and not repeat a move through Mr. Monster and I Don’t Want to Kill You.  Incidentally, I Am Not A Serial Killer is also Hugo eligible. (2nd year)

Liz Argall writes dreamy, imaginative short fiction that plays with language. They usually evoke a solid sense of place.  She’s spent years in comics and her short fiction career is just starting to take off. (2nd year)

Lauren Beukes is a South African writer, who has been getting a  lot of attention for her novels.  Sometimes she writes fantasy, sometimes SF, but her works have a clean, interesting narrative line that’s shaped by her years as a journalist. Zoo City is currently a nominee for the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award and the 2010 BSFA Award. (2nd year)

Keffy R. M. Kehrli is a short fiction writer. “Ghost of a Girl Who Never Lived” typifies his work in that it takes a science-fictional concept and looks at the deeply personal way it can affect lives.  (2nd year)

Shweta Narayan is a current finalist for the Nebula Awards with her short story “Pishaach.” She’s lived on three continents and six countries which definitely shapes her fiction. There is a fairy tale or epic myth feeling to her stories.(2nd year)

Amal El-Mohtar is another Nebula nominee for her story “Green Book.” Her fiction always makes me think of poems written in narrative format. Her use of language is exacting and at the same time flows with inevitable grace. (2nd year)

I’ve also been noticing very good work coming from 2nd year eligible writers Kater Cheek, D. T. Friedman, Lev Grossman, and 1st year eligible writers Tom Crosshill, Helena Bell, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gray Rinehart, Brad R. Torgenson, Wendy N. Wagner, and Christie Yant.

In fact, you should visit Writertopia, which has a list of writers who are eligible.  Even if you aren’t voting for the Hugos this year, I highly encourage you to check out the work of these up and coming writers.

You might have noticed that I’ve been posting less the past week. My reasons are twofold.

1. I had to rejigger the outline.
2. I’ve been doing layout, which I enjoy but is dull to blog about.

So, for those of you reading along, Chapter 16 is up. Here is the teaser:

Cora sat curled up on the cot by her hotel room’s window, stitching a new line of trim onto the silk tunic she wore in their act. She needed to muss the little bed so the hotel staff would think that two people were sleeping the room and had discovered that the morning sun made it a cozy spot to do her mending.

Meanwhile, I’m sending the page proofs over to Ann and Paula at Weird Tales today and they should be making their way to the writers from there. Interesting factoid: This issue contains an article by Robert Kowal… Why does that name sound vaguely familiar?

It is so very, very gratifying when someone gets what I was trying to do with the Austeninan aspect of Shades of Milk and Honey.

Jane Austen famously described her novels — in a description subsequently often quoted to denigrate her work and that of other female writers, either overtly or through a backhanded head-pat — as “The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.” Mary Robinette Kowal’s first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, is deeply in that Austenian tradition, and will certainly garner a few head-pats of its own, from the clueless and the sensation-addicted. But writing a novel this quiet, this domestic and constrained and pure, in the early 21st century — not to mention doing it in a genre as entirely built on external action and what teenage boys call “adventure” as fantasy — is surely one of the most radical things that any writer could hope to do, a perfectly shaped and wielded knitting needle thrust, with all the best taste and tact possible, right into the Achilles heel of the genre.

Read the full and very kind review at The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal.

I keep having to look words up and it’s turning out that theater is a giant blindspot for me in this novel because I think I know it. I mean, 20+ years working in the business ought to give me some insight.

Sure, the technical side has changed but so much of the language was in use in Shakespeare’s day.  Upstage, for example, came about because stages used to be raked so that the back of the stage was elevated. One literally went upstage when one went toward the back.

Other terms, it seems, are more recent. Pratfall, for instance, is from 1939.  From Prat “buttock” + fall.  Now it means any comic fall. Prior to that, folks were apparently more specific. You could do a tailer, a crowner, or a noser.

I love these terms, but it makes me wonder how much other theater jargon I’m taking for granted.

If you want to read Chapter Fifteen, which does not use the word pratfall, it’s been posted. Here’s a teaser.

Cora poked at the soft-boiled egg with her spoon. The Hotel Marion had a fine dining room for an establishment of this size, though the tables were sparsely populated at this hour of the morning. In the far corner, a portly white businessman, whose waistcoat strained over his middle, had a platter of bacon in front of him. The middle of the room had a young couple cooing at each other like the newly-weds they probably were. Other then those two tables, the dining room was deserted save for her and Mr. Jernigan. It was nearly half-past ten and Cora had not been up for long, though Mr. Jernigan seemed distressingly chipper.

Cora’s first night back in vaudeville had been… awkward.

If you aren’t currently reading along and would like to, check out the introduction and ground rules.

Writing continues apace. I just posted Chapter 14 of The Transfigured Lady draft.  Here’s today’s teaser.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the front of the Lyric Theatre. Walker hopped out of the cab in front of Miss Parker and held the umbrella up to try to shield her passing powder from the worst of the cold October rain. A gust of wind pushed needles of water down past the collar of his overcoat. He put a hand on the flap of his pulverstry bag, to make sure it was sealed. His umbrella turned inside out with a snap just as Miss Fairchild set foot on the ground.

If you aren’t currently reading along and would like to, check out the introduction and ground rules. I just posted some revisions and having fresh eyes on the early chapters would be welcome.

Here’s a list of wordcounts and dates over the past couple of weeks for The Transfigured Lady. Hm… I wonder on which days I was building puppets?

One of the things that I know about myself is that puppet design and construction use pretty much exactly the same part of my brain as writing does.  This is the part of the brain that engages in problem solving and character development.  It’s my storyteller.

Performing, on the other hand, has no impact on writing.  Those two parts of my brain are unrelated.  I suspect that would be different if I were doing a lot of improvisational theater because that gets back to the problem-solving/storytelling brain. Normally, though, as a performer the emphasis is on execution. There’s communication with an audience but that involves honing my craft, not inventing new things.  In terms of the parts of my brain that get engaged, performance is executing a problem that’s already been solved, if that makes sense.

The thing is that the urge to design and create a show is also affected by writing.  When I write, the creative itch to work on a new show isn’t there. So, a project has to be really compelling to get me excited.  I’m also not driven to seek out new opportunities in the way I was before I started writing.

Oddly, at the same time the drive isn’t there, I miss the puppetry.  When I was building the Odd and the Frost Giant rehearsal puppets, it was deeply satisfying.  I love the tangibility of the creative process in puppetry.

I’m still trying to find a balance in my life between writing and puppetry.  You see why there’s a conflict though.