~ ONE JOURNEY ~

~ There is only one journey: going inside yourself. ~
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Daedalus Quartet and Bela Bartok ~ Monday, April 16, 2007

This concert was way cool (as before, scroll down to see the story). These four were amazingly together and the music was intense, passionate, compelling. I was exhausted when I entered the room (a full day seminar on editing will do that to you) and energized when I emerged.

Gotta love it when that happens!
::Posted by Anduril Elessar @ 6:53 PM::::
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Abbey Road! ~ Thursday, April 12, 2007



Here's the latest (you have to scroll about halfway down the page to get to the review). It was a fun concert. It was also another one of those "watch the concert while I write about it." It engenders an interesting kind of performance anxiety on my part (and extra sympathy for the performers up on stage!!)... at least with the other reviews, I've got a few hours afterwards to think about it, come up with an angle, and then jump into the review. This... well, it's nutty! The concert goes by extraordinarily quickly, and the intermission is one of the few times when I can go back, review what I've written with few distractions and try to pull together my thoughts for what's to come after!

And of course, there's the worry that nothing will come this time and after two hours' of frantic writing, I'll read back to discover that all I have written is "all work and no play makes Susan a dull girl" over and over again... :-)

But, thank goodness, that hasn't happened yet. And the upside is that I hit "send" at 10 pm and it's done. I walk out and don't have to worry anymore. Even if I'm not totally happy with the review, it's too late to change at that point!

In general, though, it was a nutso day yesterday--partly in a fun way. I got a copy of one of my pieces that had been reprinted in the newspaper "India abroad." I had the impression that it was only a couple of excerpts that they printed, but it was actually the whole thing (or close enough to the whole thing that I didn't notice what they would have left out). Way cool! It didn't pay, but it's another thing to add to my cv at least! It's nice to have a diversity of publications to list, IMO.

I also had to do minutes to a meeting we had a while ago, plus the agenda for the next one, which is today. I also had to work on some other documentation for that. Whew! Then off to the review (didn't even have a chance to make notes on it ahead of time!). And after that, we went to a local restaurant where they have jazz jammin' every Wednesday. Tom and a co-worker had the plan of jammin together with the guys (Sy, his work friend, plays the baritone sax). It was fun. It's always interesting to see who shows up.

The next few days also promise to be busy, with the culmination coming this weekend--an editing seminar on Saturday (should be really interesting), followed by another concert that I'll review that night. I'll have the next day to work on the review, BUT, I've got committments at UU the next morning. Crazy!! Then, Sunday night, I'm hoping to get out to TO to pick up the other car, as next week is also gonna be busy, and may well be "we need two cars again if possible" busy.

Off to work!
::Posted by Anduril Elessar @ 11:13 AM::::
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Tesseracts 11 ~ Friday, April 06, 2007



I just had word today that my story "Persephone's Library" has been chosen for inclusion in Tesseracts 11, an anthology of Canadian SF. Wooohooo! Contract to follow, etc.

I'm totally excited! I love that it'll have a longer shelf life cause it'll be in a book rather than a periodical. I love that it's an anthology, so the pressure's off in a way, since it's just one of many stories included--so I don't have to stress as much about questions like "what are the sell-throughs" (as I would be stressing with a print book that was just mine and mine alone). And I kind of find it amazing to imagine that the editors are Cory Doctorow and Holly Phillips--and that they actually read my story and liked it enough to want to include it. It's a tres cool thought.

Here's an excerpt from "Persephone's Library" (the opening passage):

This morning, I walked up past the new subdivision to the end of the
world. Or at least, to the beginning of the end, just at the edge of
the mud flats.

It's deceptive, when you stand there, where the asphalt breaks off in
that jaggedy line and the flats begin. They look like they spread out
forever, but actually, it's just a couple of hundred yards. And then
the world ends.

They've set up patrols along the edge at night, so people don't wander
out there accidentally and fall off. They also try to catch the
jumpers when they can, but they don't always succeed. People still
slip through.

Take this morning, for instance. I mean maybe I just got lucky, but
there was no-one in sight when I walked up. Even the watchers in the
houses along the edge weren't around. I could've just kept right on
going and maybe even jumped if I wanted to.

But I didn't. I just wanted to see the flats.

They look a little like I imagine a beach must have looked, back in
the day, except of course there would have been ocean, instead of
nothing.

::Posted by Anduril Elessar @ 11:28 PM::::
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