Just in case you wondered what you had to do to get your book become book of the month at one of the German book store chains: Pay 25,000 EUR to said chain. That's the price set to be "book of the month". Oh - you thought it had something to do with the actual quality and content of the book? Sorry to disappoint you. No. You pay the price and the Kleinposemukel phone book can be book of the month.
Yes. And I know the price for a fact.
And no, my publisher does not have that kind of money.

And less politely in German: Ich frage mich, wie lange Leser sich diese Verarsche noch gefallen lassen. Ach, Ihr wusstet das nicht? Dann gebt es weiter. Ich finde, es sollte jeder wissen.

nancylebov linked to this. Fair warning: I haven't experienced it directly, for a couple of reasons*, so if you're interested please do.

She summarises the central idea as follows:

you need to leave out a lot (mostly the messiness of the real world) in order to make a compelling story, and that while you can't give up stories (they're built into human nature), it's worth developing dubiousness about getting engaged in them.

It's certainly true that stories, like statues, are to some extent subtractive: once you know what your story's going to be, it's a case of chipping away everything that isn't the story. It's also true that you can't give up stories. If Mr Cowan is actually saying that you should treat stories with respect, then I agree with that too. If he's saying that stories can't be trusted, then I absolutely and totally disagree.

I would like anyone reading this who was not brought up on stories to put up their metaphorical hand. Given the generally wonderful nature of my readers, I could rest my case right there, but perhaps the argument deserves a tad more development.

Stories do not tell us what the world is like. That's a given. We have other things for that. Stories can contain facts, which are always useful, but that isn't what they're for. Stories are supposed to tell us (or, perhaps, lead us to discover what we believe about) what the world should (or should not) be like. That's if they tell us anything and don't simply beguile an hour or more in an entertaining fashion, which is also a perfectly valid justification for stories.

We live in a world where the news is lies, the food is poisoned, the air and water are polluted and anyone we meet on the street could be a mugger or a drunk driver or something. We have plenty and plenty to be cautious about. I would say that, within the bounds of reason, stories are one of the few things we can rely on not to betray us. As long as we play fair with them, they will always play fair with us. Destroying that bond of trust doesn't strike me as a good thing to do, in a time when it's a vanishingly rare resource and one we depend on more and more. In fact, the idea makes me quite angry. Plus, of course, stories are what I do, and readers getting engaged with them (enjoying them, finding them worthwhile) is about the only good that can come of what I do, and someone telling people not to do that is directly threatening the only purpose I've found for my life. Hence the heightened hackles.

If I have misunderstood based on the summary, I am sure someone will be swift to correct me.


*Oh, all right. One is that I know from the summary that I'm not going to be persuaded, and the other is that I'd rather keep my ears uncanned in case I get called or the phone rings or something. I've been doing music most of the morning and have used up my headphone time.

Arrragggchhhhhhhhhh!
This must have been the drive home from hell.

Not that I was in hell. I was in Düsseldorf at “Fantasydays”, a commercial fantasy convention where my merchandiser Werk-Zeugs had organised readings for the authors they represent and do stuff for. So far so good. The event itself was a little over-advertised and under-organised. Not by Werk-Zeugs, they were good but suffered from the general lack of attendance. Several hundred people had been expected. But I saw only a handful.

Well, if you start a con at Friday noon, what do you expect? Worse, if you have the first panels at noon but won’t let people in till 2:00 p.m. you really mess up the schedule. The cable fire in the tech system in the big main hall did not help either. After that they had the fire brigade in who checked all the dealers’ tables for inflammable substances (such as table cloths, oh and books… They gave up after a while.)

So, my reading was a bit like the con. It was on at the wrong time (Friday late afternoon, right before the opening ceremony) and I had the added issue that I had this - admittedly nice – bestseller author reading before me who got up after his reading saying ‘if you want your books signed follow me’ and led the audience away like The Pied Piper of Hamelin. I started reading to an almost empty hall, and since after my reading the opening was on we could not postpone it either.

In the end the opening started almost an hour late – but who could have known that? The MC had the charm of a red brick and only a cursory idea about who was present and who was not. For ages he kept announcing people who would not be there. “Oh. Maybe they’ll come in tomorrow? Does anyone know?” And he announced me as a man. Mr. Ju Honisch. I was in my 19th century crinoline dress and while I was mounting the stage, someone shouted “But that looks like a girl!” So my introduction changed from “Hallo, I am Ju Honisch and I am a fantasy writer” to “Hallo, I am Ju Honisch and I am not a man”. Well. It got a laugh. And the MC was a little mortified.

The worst bit, however, was the drive home. I did not stay all day Saturday because I wanted to be home before it got dark. No such luck. My navigation system guided me to the autobahn – right into a traffic jam. I was stuck there, and the worst thing was, they had closed the autobahn I was supposed to take. So I had to detour without any idea where I was going while my nav system kept guiding me toward the same closed motorway. So - while standing stuck in the traffic jam again – I recoded it to take small byroads. The first 20 miles of travel took me 2 hours. I had no clue where I was going and – to make matters worse – there were no restrooms anywhere and guess what – I needed one. Urgently.
Hell. Sheer hell.
I finally found another motorway, cried hurray - and was stuck in another traffic jam for almost another hour.
It took me all afternoon to get home (190 km, 118m).
I am miffed. I am seriously miffed.
The things I do for more publicity…
Sigh.
I wonder if it's worth the effort. I really do.

We had quite the lovely visit from the Prince of Wales and wife. Camilla is descended from Sir Allan MacNab (of Dundurn Castle -- not really a castle, but the best you'll get in North American), so she visited the homestead. It was all good publicity for Hamilton.

AND, far more momentously, Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe won the 2015 Pan Am Games. This means three new facilities for our town, and something the city really needs: hope for the future. Although I believe that the McMaster Innovation Park will, in the long run, be much more important, the Games are something it's easy to rally 'round.

And if that's as clear as mud, you're not from Southern Ontario.

Ugh.

Thank you all for the well wishes. I wish we were well (ha-ha).

Dave remains sicker than I. He's at a particularly revolting "can't quite cough it up" stage. Think of cats and hairballs, but lasting a LOT longer. Yesterday was a good day for me, today not so much. Congested nose, runny nose, and just feeling dead tired are not happy. Nonetheless we are improved from early in the week.

nicked by various

1. Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands that you've had an (obsessive) fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.

2. Have your f-list guess your favorite character/member from each item.

3. When someone guesses correctly, strike through the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.

yes, there is a band in it! *lols*


01. Sailor Moon
02. Care Bears - Grumpy Bear (guessed right by shaevairc )
03. CSI (Las Vegas)
04. X-Files - Mulder (guessed right by aryana_filker  and bardling )
05. N Sync (the band)
06. Pride and Prejudice (movie from 1995)
07. Saber Rider
08. X-Men
09. Galaxy Rangers
10. Cats (the musical)
11. Elfquest - Strongbow (guessed - of course - right by shaevairc )
12. The Simpsons - Lisa (guessed right by bardling )
13. Babylon 5 - Dr. Franklin (guessed right by shaevairc )
14. Asterix (comic)
15. Belgariad (David Eddings)
16. Star Trek: TNG
17. Sister Act
18. Lord of the Rings (Movies)
19. Enchanted
20. The A-Team

You know in the pilot of Glee when Kurt auditions and it's sort of funny that he's got this really high-pitched, girly voice? I always wondered if they'd ever let him sing a solo and at some point I figured that maybe they wouldn't because let's face it, his voice did sound a bit odd but then...I just listened to "Defying Gravity" performed by Chris and Lea, and wow--all I can say is wow. It sounds amazing. I'm blown away. This is DEFINITELY my favourite duet on the show so far. They voices harmonise SO well.

*flails*

Radley Balko, who often blogs about police abuses, discovers "Still Alive."

This got me facetiously thinking about a parody sung by a rogue police officer -- and then I realized large parts of it could work almost unchanged! Be afraid...

This week, our school is getting the outer walls torn off (made of wood), replacement plywood , and added insulation and new siding put back on.

The noise is not to be believed.  (Reminds me of the commercials "I have a headache this big, and it has EXCEDRIN written all over it.")

So, unwarned of this event, I am attempting to read a short story, drowned out by howling buzz saws, pounding hammers, cracking wood from the crowbars prying them off, and construction workers hollering at one another.

The students, youth leaders and I are all giving one another disbelieving looks as the noise just does not stop.  And then, there are a number of really loud thumps and whacks, getting louder and louder, faster and faster.  A voice on the other side of the wall suddenly snarls "What the f*ck is this sh*t?" as he uncovers something outside he doesn't like.  Every student eye in the room flashes to me.

I slam my book down on my teacher desk.  "Villains!" I shrieked at the wall, "Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- Tear up the planks! -- Here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous, tell-tale heart!"

Every student just about fell out of his chair, laughing.  There is a looooooong silence on the other side of the wall, followed by a sudden flurry of activity and thumping, without any more shouting.

At school, one of the students in one of my afternoon classes said something funny, and I giggled.

Another student just stared at me, drop-jawed.  "No way, man, that's just wrong," he said when I looked at him quizzically.

"What's just wrong?"  I asked.

"Bitches don't giggle, and you're an English teacher, and you just, like, giggled and that's wrong."  he said.  "Oops.  Shit.  Um, sorry?"

It made me giggle more, and I didn't send the bewildered student to time out, as my moral authority to do so was out the window, giggling away.

"Dude," another kid helpfully put in, "She was not only smiling, but dressed as a pirate and singing earlier this year.  If teachers aren't supposed to smile before Christmas, and she's giggling before Thanksgiving, what do you think the New Year will bring?"

"Dude.  I don't even know.  I don't even know.  She's just not right.  Giggling.  Happy.  It's just too weird."

I'm trying to take this in. According to this New York Times blog article -- confusingly organized in reverse chronological order, but with a lot of information -- the assailant (or one of two? it seems unclear) was a major and a mental health professional.

My sympathies to the victims and their families. As Obama said, "It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil."

Next year the iPres conference will be held in Vienna, September 19-23. This conference is very much up my professional alley (I went to the one in London last year), and if I combine it with a trip to FilkContinental and ask to be reimbursed only for the part over and above the vacation trip, odds are good I can be sent there!

According to the UK filk site, FilkContinental 2010 is October 8-10, which gives me two weeks in between, but I'm sure I can find something to do in that time! And that would mean TWO German filk cons in one year! The trick will just be budgeting for them, and it would probably kill the chances for OVFF. Ah, wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual!

LATEST EDIT: 6/11, 12pm

With thanks to all, and to Aunty Marion for the extra detail, going to go with Green Hills of Earth for the assignment and many of your other ideas for the ongoing logbook/reflective diary (as thanks to you I've done a lot of relevant reading and listening this morning!). Hugs to all!

M x


OLDER EDIT: 6/11, 11am

Thank you so much for the responses!

I like the idea of doing Green Hills of Earth (because of the meta-aspect of it being by a songwriter in a story), but am a bit confused because the stuff I read about it online (sadly, I don't own the book) suggests that he only wrote one full stanza, and the filk community filled in the rest. ie. the only text that Heinlein himself wrote:

* — harsh bright soil of Luna —
* — Out ride the sons of Terra, / Far drives the thundering jet —
* — Saturn's rainbow rings —
* — the frozen night of Titan —
* We pray for one last landing/ On the globe that gave us birth/ Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies/ And the cool, green hills of Earth.

If so, this isn't a full poem that I can really use.

I'm fascinated by Iron Maiden's Rime of the Ancient Mariner - but the words are so different that I don't think we can say that they've set this poem to music, more that they have a written a song based on the story in this poem. Like many of us write songs based on books or films.

So I'm working my way through the suggestions - things I don't use I'll probably mention in my logbook for the course as things I investigated - so nothing wasted!

Some of the other trickinesses are that I'm cautious of using a poem where I know very little about the context of that poetry, so whatever I pick I'm gonna have to do some reading around it because I haven't 'done' poetry since school!


--------------------
ORIGINAL POST:

*grins*

For one of my assignments, I need to choose a poem that has been set to music by a songwriter, and discuss the original context of the poem and what has been changed in order to set them to music (and the effect of making those changes).

My mind has gone completely blank, but I'm sure I must know lots of poems-that-were-set-to-music... all suggestions welcome!

Me x
(braindead)

Inkygirl post: Tweetup with the Toronto MG/YA Writer’s Group at The Spotted Dick (yes, I said The Spotted Dick).

Mirrored from Debbie's Blatherings.

Hygienist visit today. Rather more painful than the filling, but worth it.

It's remarkable how many people who support gay marriage seem to want to change what marriage is rather than let the people who want it have it as it stands. It's a tired old truism that no human institution can be perfect, but there is, I think, a preference among people in general for the things that have grown up along with us, as opposed to the new plasticky alternatives that individuals come up with. This is why we're not all speaking Esperanto or having our food in pill form.

It would certainly be possible to remove marriage from state control, or strip it of what religious connections remain...but there would still be people who would want the state to register their marriage as valid, or would want to go the whole dearly-beloved-we-are-gathered-here route, and it seems to me they would feel a little as though they'd asked for a pony for their birthday and got a Sinclair C5 Because It's Better. Also, of course, this would be a huge concession to the people who are trying by any revolting means necessary to prevent gay couples getting their hands on "their" concept of marriage, and I don't think any concessions are due to those people. Not one.

Give the car some pet-er-i-ol (edited: can't remember when I last had enough to fill it),
Pay a bill or two-oo,
Buy a bag of grocer-eyes,
Pop goes the weasel.

It's a good thing I don't have any particular urge to drink, isn't it?

Our servers here are mostly named for authors, sometimes resulting in odd email subject lines. I just got one that said: "Pratchett going down for patching of SAM." My immediate thought was that Vimes had wound up in the hospital after some particularly rough action in Morpork.