Sing it wth me! Second verse!
Sep. 1st, 2010 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swan_towerHappy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me . . . .
Yep, that's right: the release date for my fifth book and the anniversary of my birth ended up back-to-back this year.
I'm going to steal a page from (I think) Cat Valente, and sink not into the WOE IS ME I'M THIRTY MY LIFE IS OOOOOOOOOVER idiocy modern pop culture insists is the proper response, but rather say, woot! I've reached level 30! In other words, treat this as a thing to be celebrated. I have increased in experience; I have more skills on my character sheet, and in a few days I'll be taking a new feat that I think will be very fun indeed.
Longtime readers of this journal know I have a tradition of staving off any possible bad mood by making an "egotism post" on my birthday, listing everything cool I've achieved in the last year, without hedging or qualification or mention of things I didn't quite pull off. (Sparked by a year in which my birthday was kind of a shitty day overall.) I thought about doing that again this year -- maybe a "lifetime retrospective" version, rather than just the past twelve months -- but you know, I think I'd rather re-purpose a meme from a while back, and solicit flattery from the internets instead. So in the comments, tell me what cool things I've done --
-- with one condition.
I want them to be hilariously, outrageously false.
Make stuff up. The more over-the-top, the better. Remind me that I once stole the Seven Stones of Power from the Seven Dragon Guardians to re-assemble the Necklace of Immortality and save the Star-Eyed Empress from the creeping poison of the Lord of Doom. Or whatever. And because of the pairing with Book Day -- not to mention the outpouring of book love on yesterday's post; I'll be getting back to you guys in comments there soon, but it's been fabulous reading, keep it up -- and inspired by Laura Anne Gilman's own birthday book giveaway, I will send one random commenter, not one of my books, but one of the books I love beyond all reason. Possibly this will be Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, which is the book that turned me into a writer. Possibly it will be Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, which had a formative influence on the first novel I ever finished writing. Possibly it will be The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, the only author to turn me so green with envy I basically can't write for a few hours after reading her stuff. Or something else, maybe. I haven't decided yet; I'll see what the winner is interested in. But I think sharing a book I adore is a dandy way to celebrate my thirtieth birthday.
Along with a tasty Japanese lunch, some light reading, a wander in the sunshine, and absolutely no work today. So I'm off to enjoy that. Ta!
Yep, that's right: the release date for my fifth book and the anniversary of my birth ended up back-to-back this year.
I'm going to steal a page from (I think) Cat Valente, and sink not into the WOE IS ME I'M THIRTY MY LIFE IS OOOOOOOOOVER idiocy modern pop culture insists is the proper response, but rather say, woot! I've reached level 30! In other words, treat this as a thing to be celebrated. I have increased in experience; I have more skills on my character sheet, and in a few days I'll be taking a new feat that I think will be very fun indeed.
Longtime readers of this journal know I have a tradition of staving off any possible bad mood by making an "egotism post" on my birthday, listing everything cool I've achieved in the last year, without hedging or qualification or mention of things I didn't quite pull off. (Sparked by a year in which my birthday was kind of a shitty day overall.) I thought about doing that again this year -- maybe a "lifetime retrospective" version, rather than just the past twelve months -- but you know, I think I'd rather re-purpose a meme from a while back, and solicit flattery from the internets instead. So in the comments, tell me what cool things I've done --
-- with one condition.
I want them to be hilariously, outrageously false.
Make stuff up. The more over-the-top, the better. Remind me that I once stole the Seven Stones of Power from the Seven Dragon Guardians to re-assemble the Necklace of Immortality and save the Star-Eyed Empress from the creeping poison of the Lord of Doom. Or whatever. And because of the pairing with Book Day -- not to mention the outpouring of book love on yesterday's post; I'll be getting back to you guys in comments there soon, but it's been fabulous reading, keep it up -- and inspired by Laura Anne Gilman's own birthday book giveaway, I will send one random commenter, not one of my books, but one of the books I love beyond all reason. Possibly this will be Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, which is the book that turned me into a writer. Possibly it will be Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, which had a formative influence on the first novel I ever finished writing. Possibly it will be The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, the only author to turn me so green with envy I basically can't write for a few hours after reading her stuff. Or something else, maybe. I haven't decided yet; I'll see what the winner is interested in. But I think sharing a book I adore is a dandy way to celebrate my thirtieth birthday.
Along with a tasty Japanese lunch, some light reading, a wander in the sunshine, and absolutely no work today. So I'm off to enjoy that. Ta!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 06:59 pm (UTC)Happy Birthday, and I look forward to seeing your squirrel chorus tackle Mozart.
Tam Lin is one of my all time favorites, too.
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:07 pm (UTC)Thanks!
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:07 pm (UTC)(One of my co-workers is a marathon runner. i told her that if I ever ran a marathon, I'd do it in chainmail because I'm a LARPer and nothing counts unless you're in armor.) (My chain shirt is only three pounds.)
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:24 pm (UTC)I felt like you when I turned 30, it was more an achievement. But I'm 48 now and not so sure if I really want to celebrate the 50 in October 2011. I so don't feel like 48. Fortunately don't look it, either. ;)
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:46 pm (UTC)And thanks for going back in time and finding my glasses in the Nautilus(they are my spiffy pair),I'm kinda blind without them.
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:54 pm (UTC)Mercedes Lackey's Knight of Ghosts and Shadows series, along with Darrell Schweitzer's Tom O'Bedlam's Night Out, likewise fueled my love for the Mad Tom O' Bedlam series of verses.
And of course, Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer introduced me to True Thomas. Thus completing the trifecta of Thomas Ballads That Are Awesome. Someday I'll even finish the idea I have in the back of my mind that wraps all three into one sparkly container.
Harpy Bath Day. And never forget that it was you who time-punched the Last Dangerous Visions out of existence, after Harlan Ellison dared doubt your genius.
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:58 pm (UTC)I have a Tom O'Bedlam story I wrote earlier this year -- "Mad Maudlin" -- which is a Bad Draft, but maybe I'll be able to go back and make it work later on. (Short version: written from the pov of a doctor on a psych ward, dealing with a crazy woman who (he thinks) identifies with the speaker in "Tom O'Bedlam." Fantasy ensues.)
And never forget that it was you who time-punched the Last Dangerous Visions out of existence, after Harlan Ellison dared doubt your genius.
*\o/*
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Date: 2010-09-01 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 07:50 pm (UTC)And I'm so glad you wrote the six-book sequel to the Lymond saga, featuring his and Philippa's offspring. To think they said it couldn't (or was that shouldn't?) be done!!!
(Yes, another inveterate Dunnett fan here)
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Date: 2010-09-01 07:56 pm (UTC)Oh man. While I was in London, my brain tried to suggest I should write a crossover fic about a twentieth-century descendant of Lymond's going to work for Neil Burnside as a Sandbagger. I pointed out to my brain that any such story should have dialogue so sharp you bleed just by looking at the page, and that I am NOT CAPABLE OF THIS . . . but the platonic ideal of that story, while unproducable by anyone short of a genetically-engineered Dunnet/Mackintosh hybrid, would be THE MOST AMAZING THING EVAR.
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Date: 2010-09-01 08:02 pm (UTC)I loved the way you handled the guided tours to 19th-Century London (to say nothing of your brilliant use of the time machine).
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Date: 2010-09-01 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 09:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-01 08:12 pm (UTC)It's a day I'll never forget. :)
Oh and AMEN about enjoying being thirty!!! My life certainly improved.
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Date: 2010-09-01 09:30 pm (UTC)My life is going pretty well at the moment, but I wouldn't say no to it getting even better in the next decade.
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Date: 2010-09-01 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-02 06:08 pm (UTC)It was worth it in the end, though.
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Date: 2010-09-02 04:11 am (UTC)I don't. So thanks for screwin' up the universe, yo.
Happy Birthday.
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Date: 2010-09-02 06:10 pm (UTC)Mmmm, brownies. :-)