Dec 12 2014

Next Suggestion: Young Woman in a Garden, by Delia Sherman

Rosemary

ywiag delia

 

You know what they say about writers: Once you turn pro, it really cuts into your reading time.  Nowadays I’m not always free to settle down and give my full attention to the entire sweep of a novel.

So, I like it that Young Woman in a Garden   is a collection of short stories.  They are bite-sized, manageable in a sitting, and a wonderful way to leave the mundane world behind in favor of a world less mundane, but — admit it — no less true.

Some of these stories are familiar to me — I read them in various iterations when I was part of Delia’s writer’s group.   Others, I’ve heard in part during readings she’s done at conventions.

But others are completely new to me, and those are the ones about which I’m rubbing my hands together in greedy anticipation.

Make no mistake about it, Delia is a true adept, a genuine master of the form.  She writes with grace, and depth, with nimbleness and charm (when called for).   She has a sure hand with style and language, and the breadth of her cultural and historical knowledge allows her to pull in exactly the right details to add richness and realism to her fantastic tales.

If you don’t want this book for yourself, you know someone else who would love it.  Yes you do; you know it.

Perfect gift for that person.

Young Woman in a Garden by Delia Sherman on Amazon

Young Woman in a Garden from the publisher, Small Beer Press

You can read a story from the collection , “Miss Carstairs and the Merman,” for free online.

Or another, “Walpurgis Afternoon,” also free online

And here’s Delia Sherman’s website and blog


Oct 12 2014

Them Ol’ Day Job Blues

Rosemary

Last week, on Monday and Tuesday I did lots of writing!  It was wonderful.   Best days in a long time!  Great to be back.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:  Day Job.

Yeah, I know it’s necessary.  But wow – instant flip from euphoria to deep blue blues.

It’s a clerical/accounting job, and it involves exactly the opposite type of thinking from what is needed for the creative act.   So… kind of hard to take… But I got through it.  Sometimes you just have to hunker down, hang on, do what’s needed,  and get through.   A lesson I learned and applied under different circumstances this year.   Works for this, too.

Still… I do sort of feel like a deep-sea diver brought to the surface too fast.   Trying hard not to go boom.

Anyway, I have Monday and Tuesday again this week, so: more writing!

And on the up side, that post-radiation therapy fatigue is fading away.   Now, when I get tired, it’s usually clearly attributable to being way out of shape from ten months of almost zero activity.  Solution: Activity!  Still walking, and now adding some weights to my weekly routine.   I am cleared to go back to the gym.

More news about Writers Who Are Not Me:  Delia Sherman (fellow Genrette) has a new book coming out on November 1.  It’s a collection of her short stories: Young Woman in a Garden, for which I have already plunked down my hard-earned cash as a pre-order.  You could do that too!   You can get it directly from the publisher, Small Beer Press , or, as ever, through Amazon.   And you can actually read one of the stories, “Miss Carstairs and the Merman” for free,  right now,  online at  Fantasy Magazine, as part of their “Women Destroy Fantasy” special issue.

 

Okay, have to turn in early enough to get up early enough to use what I can of the non-day-job day, so…

More later.