Shocking. I know.

For the month of September, I’m going to take myself offline and try to remember what being not-busy is like. Granted, this includes Dragon*Con at the first of the month, but besides that, I’m going to just spend some time hanging out with Rob. A vacation. I’ve heard other people talk about them.

Which means–

While I’m away, I’ve got a series of “Retro Mary” posts, which are journal entries from 1994, when I was developing a new show, The Pied Piper, with Jodi Eichelberger. I wrote in my journal daily back then, so you’ll get to see what I was like when I was twenty-five.

If you want to contact me during the month of September, you’ll have to use postal mail. Again, I know it’s shocking but… if you write me a paper letter, I will write a paper letter back to you.

Mary Robinette Kowal
P.O. Box 13346
Portland, OR 97213-0346

I turned in the line-edits for Glamour in Glass and thought I would share the crazy, crazy thing I did as part of this editing pass.

Glamour in Glass is set in 1815 and I wanted to have the language fairly clean of anachronisms. The challenge came in trying to figure out what words didn’t exist yet. So I decided to create a Jane Austen word list, from the complete works of Jane Austen, and use that as my spellcheck dictionary.  It flagged any word that she didn’t use, which allowed me to look it up to see if it existed.

Sometimes the word did exist, but meant something different. “Blink” for instance, at the time meant to look through half-lidded eyes, or to open the eyes as if upon waking. The action we mean by it… “nictate.” Yeah… Not so much with the “She nictated at him.”

Once the word was flagged, I looked it up in the OED to double-check the meaning and the earliest citation.  If the word didn’t work, then I used the OED’s historical thesaurus to find a period appropriate synonym.

If that wasn’t yielding good results, I would also, sometimes, search in  the complete works of Jane Austen to see how she referred to similar subjects. For instance, if the word was an adjective modifying “temperment” then I’d look up “temperment” to see how she modified it, hoping that I’d find something that would fit.

So, I thought that you might be interested to see the words I am pulling out of Glamour in Glass, because they either didn’t exist in 1815 or that didn’t mean what they mean now.

A star next to a word means that it exists, but the meaning had changed enough that I didn’t feel comfortable using it. Continue reading Words I couldn’t use in Glamour in Glass

Title: Reading: Mary Robinette Kowal
Time: Fri 1:00 pm Location: Edgewood – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Dragon*Autographs
Time: Fri 04:00 pm Location: M301 – M304 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

Not that I mind, but I’m in Grand Haven instead of home, because I’m recording two new Seanan McGuire novels this week. I love recording her October Daye novels and am delighted that I get to do two more.

I thought about bringing the Hugo with me, because I love it and it is a shiny, shiny rocket, but decided to send it back to Portland instead. Truly, having a rocket in the recording booth with me would not improve anything. As much as I luvs it.

The trip here was comic.

I got up at 3:30 Sunday morning to leave the hotel at 4:00 am. This is after going to bed at 2:30. I’d planned, initially, to be a good girl and go to bed early, but that was before, um, I won a Hugo. To quote Eliza Doolittle:

Bed! Bed! I couldn’t go to bed!
My head’s too light to try to set it down! Sleep! Sleep!
I couldn’t sleep tonight.
Not for all the jewels in the crown!

So! Up after an hour of sleep-ish and down to catch a cab. At the airport, it turned out that I was on the same flight with a number of con-goers, including Yanni Kuznia and her husband Brian, and N. K. Jemisin. This was lovely and gave us a little chance to chat since I’d barely seen either of them at the con.

Yanni and Ryan were going on to Michigan through Detroit so it looked like we’d be travelling most of the day together. In Salt Lake City, we said goodbye to Nora, who had a tighter connection, and stopped for breakfast.  Ryan asked me, with all the travelling I’ve done, if I’ve ever missed a flight. I have, but only once because of my own stupidity.

It’s now twice.

It’s like this. We were sitting waiting for the plane to depart when they announced that the TSA needed to do additional id screening.  So we all hauled out IDs and boarding passes. I finally look at mine. My transfer wasn’t through Detroit, it was through Minneapolis. Ryan, Yanni, and I all started giggling because he had just asked me about this.

I totally missed my connection. Honestly, I usually look at my tickets.  I will claim sleep deprivation combined with frequent transfers through Detroit on the way to or from Grand Rapids, but really– it was just plain stupid.

Delta was lovely when I explained what I’d done and got me on the Detroit flight on standby.  In Detroit, the first flight they’d booked me on was oversold, so they got me onto a second flight that put me into Grand Rapids only an hour later than my original flight.

My luggage, which should have beaten me here, wasn’t.  It arrived this morning. Sigh.

So… I’m fatigued, but here with two manuscripts and will spend the rest of the week locked in a small closet with a microphone.  That I’m here is Seanan’s fault. That I had trouble getting here is all mine.

I– that’s a… I have a– Last night, my short story–

Rocket!!!

It is really hard to wrap my head around having a Hugo. I mean… It’s a HUGO!

!!!!!

We are on the road to Reno! The puppeteers, (Lance and Jodi) and I left yesterday afternoon after rehearsal.  We’ll be performing on Friday at the convention.

Normally, I only post the public things on my schedule, but this time I’ve included things like rehearsals and SFWA board meetings so you can see why the chances of spotting me on the floor of the con are very slim.

Wednesday

• Teaching SF: Give the Kid a Book (Workshop), Wed 14:00 – 15:00, A18 (RSCC)
• Giving an Effective Reading (Workshop), Wed 15:00 – 16:00, A17 (RSCC)
• Puppet Show Rehearsal (Rehearsal), Wed 19:00 – 21:00, A17 (RSCC)

Thursday

• Sketching Your Costume Idea (Workshop), Thu 11:00 – 12:00, A12 (RSCC)
• Autographing: Thu 13:00 (Autographing), Thu 13:00 – 14:00, Hall 2 Autographs (RSCC)
• Reading: Mary Robinette Kowal (Reading), Thu 15:00 – 15:30, A14 (RSCC)
• Writing Excuses Podcast (Panel), Thu 17:00 – 19:00, D05 (RSCC)
• Shadow Puppetry (Demonstration) (M), Thu 20:00 – 21:00, Hall 2 Demo2 (RSCC)

Friday

• SFWA Board Meeting (Special Interest Group), Fri 08:00 – 12:00, OFFSITE (OFFSITE)
• Puppet Show – Set-up/Rehearsal (Rehearsal), Fri 12:00 – 15:30, C01 (RSCC)
• Puppet Show (first showing): Whatnot (Performance), Fri 16:00 – 17:30, C01 (RSCC)
• Puppet Show – Break (RESET), Fri 17:30 – 18:30, C01 (RSCC)
• Puppet Show (second showing): Whatnot (Performance), Fri 19:00 – 20:30, C01 (RSCC)

Saturday

• The Image of Art in SF: How Art and Artists are Depicted in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Panel), Sat 10:00 – 11:00, A01+6 (RSCC)
• Historical Figures in Action! (Panel), Sat 11:00 – 12:00, A10 (RSCC)
• SFWA Meeting (Special Interest Group), Sat 13:00 – 15:00, A02 (RSCC)
• Art Direction: What’s Involved? (Panel) (M), Sat 15:00 – 16:00, A04 (RSCC)
• Pre-Hugo Reception (Reception) (I), Sat 18:00 – 20:00, Capri (Peppermill)

Today I’m heading down to Multnomah County’s Central Library — which is a thing of beauty — for an interview and chat via twitter.  Why am I going in person? Because they are offered me a backstage tour of the library. Heck yeah!

Meanwhile, if you want to participate in the chat, it’s at today from 12-1 PDT and the hastag #MRKchat.

They also reviewed Shades of Milk and Honey this week and said lovely, lovely things.

Kowal’s debut is a light, absorbing read—a perfect choice to enjoy in the Portland sunshine, while it lasts. Be on the lookout for our upcoming Twitter chat with the author on Aug. 11th, from 12-1. Please join the conversation!

You can read the full review at An Embarrassment of Riches | Read, Watch, Listen – Books, movies and audio picks from Multnomah County Library staff.

Hope to see you at the Twitter chat!

I have to read Glamour in Glass out loud. You can listen. Or rather, nine of you can. How so? It’s like this…

Last week, I got the line edits for Glamour in Glass, the sequel to Shades of Milk and Honey the day after I finished writing The Transfigured Lady. Handy timing, that and I’ve been head down in revisions since then. But…  two things have occurred since I turned Glass in back in January of 2010.

Thing A: I’ve forgotten most of the book.
Thing B: I’m a better writer than I was a year an a half ago. (I hope.)

Part of my normal process is to read my fiction, even at novel length, aloud when I’m finished to smooth out the prose. It’s amazing the number of repetitions, weird phrasing, or incomplete sentences one can find when reading aloud. Some of the changes between the hardback of Shades and the trade paperback were a direct result of recording the audio book. So, given Things A and B, it behooves me to read Glass aloud

With Google+ hangouts I can read to people instead of to myself.

What will this entail?

1.  No recording. None. Seriously.
2. You’ll have to put up with me pausing to correct things.
3. This will take about nine to eleven hours broken into chunks.
4. You have to be on Google+
5. And no recording. At all.

Starting on Tuesday, I will be reading in the mornings from 8am to 10am PDT. The chunks might be longer, but only if everyone in the hangout agrees to keep going.

How do you get to listen?

1. Be available between 8am and 10am for the next five days.
2. Have the ability to do a Google+ hangout with camera and mic.*
3. In the comments below (on my website) tell me why you should be one of the nine people listening to this live-audio-book-revision thingie of Glamour in Glass. The book itself won’t be out until April 10, 2012. So tell me why should you get to know what happens before everyone else?
4. Respond by 8pm PDT on Monday 8/8.

I’ll pick the nine most compelling cases to be the listeners as I read.

*Edited to add: If you aren’t on Google+ say so and I’ll send you an invitation.

This is what I made today.

Teeth!

They are made of medical grade thermal plastic and individually placed in Papa Fuzzy’s mouth.

Basically, I cut a tiny piece of thermal plastic and lower it into boiling water with a slotted spoon. I pull it out to shape it using a flat surface and a scoring tool (my fingernail).

For the molars, I shaped two pieces of the plastic and stacked them to get the width I wanted.

You can juuuuust barely see his tongue in this shot.

I’m particularly happy with the molar, but I may wind up not making any more than that.  I just want the hint of white when he opens his mouth and having a full set of teeth might break the “cute” aspect of him. Although I’m using ecru thermal plastic, it’s still a little stark for his mouth.

You might have to be a puppeteer to find this hilarious. Rest assured, that it is.

That’s mostly true. I have some scenes that I know I need to go back and insert. And editing. Oh, lord, the editing. BUT the large plot arc is finished and I typed “The End.”

For those of you who have been patiently reading along, I’ve posted the rest of the draft so you can finish it. The chapters are, um, even rawer than usual because OMG I’M FINISHED! So, brace yourself for more brackets of holding than usual.

I can’t thank my Alpha Readers enough for following along as I wrote this. Their feedback has absolutely helped shape this. Knowing how the novel is playing is deeply helpful to me.

And now, Rob and I are going out for dinner.

THE END!

Oh my heavens, you guys. Thank you. Thank you so very, very much for reading along. Your feedback was incredibly helpful in knowing how the novel played. You are all amazing.

What happens next is that I sit down and revise the chapters based in part on how you reacted as you read.  One thing that I will be doing is going back to insert “Interludes.”

These are stand-alone short stories with some of the secondary characters, like Mr. Hussey, Miss Jessie Lee Bowen, and Mr. Rollins.  The purpose of these interludes is threefold.

1. It allows us to know the characters better.
2. It shows how the powder is affecting the broader world.
3. They can replace some of the “buffer” scenes that I would otherwise need.  There are places where a chapter ends on a high emotional point followed by a chapter three weeks later. Normally, I’d need a transition to help smooth the emotional flow. Some of those buffer scenes are in here already before I came up with the Interlude idea.