More Mish-Mash …
Of Lulls …
On Monday I posted about the mish-mash of things I’ve been up to since completing work on the ms of The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night, Book Two)—the first round that is. I know the second round is already rolling my way, not unlike the wave front of a tsunami—have I mentioned that it is quite a big book? Well it is, around 200,000 words, which clocks in at just over 700 pages on my file setup, so Round 2 will also be a major writing campaign. (Note the use of military language, also continued on from Monday when I talked about my garden in terms of “stealth” weeds, “camouflage” foliage, spring “surges” and “rampages”—not to mention the recent writing experience being a “big push.” 😉 )
Catch-ups and Eating Out …
So we take the lulls when we can and make the most of ’em! One big aspect of a post-writing lull is taking the opportunity to catch up with friends who may—ok, always will!– have been neglected during the writing furore. And although gardens may be patient (as my friend Rae says), people tend to be a little less so … They want their share in your life, you see, given that they are your friends. So the last couple of weeks have involved a fair few coffee, lunch, and evening engagements where—I am not at all sorry to say—both caffeinated and vinous beverages have been consumed, as well as food of varying standards. I say “varying” because although prices remain consistently high, the accompanying food is by no means always of comparable quality. 🙁
You’ve probably gathered by now that I am a foodie, so it’s likely that my standards are on the high side. Being a writer I also tend towards parsimony—or as I prefer to put it: I like to get value for money when I consume food that I’ve paid someone else to prepare. So it pains me, gentle readers, when something is put in front of me that I know I could have made much better at home—for flavour if not for presentation. Especially when the pricing thereof is so not at the cheap and cheerful end of the eat-out spectrum (in which case, imho anyway, you take your cheapskate chances and remain cheerful no matter what the outcome!)
Secret confessions—sometimes it just pains me when the food is pricey, however good it may be, but that’s just the parsimony kicking in and I try to keep that within bounds!
Some years ago now, a friend of my brother’s who is a great home cook (I still remember his celery and walnut consomme with longing!) said that he had come to accept going out as being almost exclusively part of the social contract, i.e. something he did to be sociable, rather than for the food experience. And while I wouldn’t go that far, because I still have some very enjoyable eat-out experiences, they are by no means as frequent as I would like.
On the other hand, there’s the whole thing about not having to do the washing up. Sometimes that alone is worth the wails of outrage from the direction of my pocket! 😉
As for the catching up itself, that part is always good. And although sometimes the news is not so good, as in jobs lost and family members or cherished pets unwell, there has also been catching up on jobs and promotions gained, children married, novels nearly completed, first houses being bought and anniversaries being celebrated—all the everyday stuff of life that keeps the world spinning around. (OK, OK, “I know”, it’s really the juxtaposition of centripetal acceleration and gravity that makes the world go round, but hey, I wanted to talk in cliches—all right?! Sheesh!)
And What I’m Reading …
Other things in the mish-mash—well, I have finally finished reading William Gibson’s Zero History, which I did enjoy, although maybe not as much as Spook Country. I felt Zero History was covering a lot of the same ground / material again and it wasn’t as much fun the second time around … I also really query those fellow readers on Tor.com who posted William Gibson’s loose trilogy—Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History—as speculative fiction picks for the decade. As a William Gibson fan from wa-a-y back, I would say these books are classic Gibson, but the speculative elements are slight to non-existant. To me, all three read far more as off-beat thrillers with Spook Country my pick of the three.
In terms of what I have on my TBR pile right now, Mary Victoria’s Samiha’s Song is still top of the list, ahead of our blog interview mid-February. And Dark Unicorn, the second in Meredith Ann Pierce’s “Firebringer” trilogy, Justin Cronin’s The Crossing, and the 3-book set of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, are still waiting from my last What I’m Reading post on January 7. My guilty secret though, is that Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan and Ian McDonald’s River of Gods have just been added to the pile. Because you see, while walking home from one of those coffee/brunch/lunch catch-ups, I just happened (how did that happen?) to pass Scorpio Bookshop. And you know what, my wallet never howls in outrage when I open it up to buy books!