Friends

You find it on www.fantasy-news.com

direct link to the english version would be this one:

http://www.fantasy-news.com/2008/07/19/dawn-cook-interview-english/

Enjoy!

Darkstar

crossposted at "fantasynovel"

I'm in::	Germany
I'm Feeling::	cheerful
I'm Listening To::	Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling

(As far as I can tell, this has not been mentioned on the community yet.  Apologies if I'm duplicating an earlier post.) 

I'm Feeling::

nostalgic

In honor of it being the last show, BJ had more guests:

Paul McCartney
Roger Daltrey
Garth Brooks
Tony Bennett
Steven Tyler

I got John Mayer at my show. John Mayer. Of the riveting, timeless hit "Your Body Is Your Wonderland" fame. Yeah, that John Mayer.

I should have had Paul!!!!

I'll be honest: this isn't the kind of book that would EVER catch my eye, let alone one I would read. So why'd I read it? The answer's rather simple, as David Schwartz is a graduate of the Odyssey Fantasy Writer's workshop. I can't catch EVERY publication my Odyssey alums, but when it comes to novels, I do try and give them a shot.

That said, Odyssey or not, this is one novel I should've left alone. The premise: five college students wake up the day after a party with superpowers, and they decide to do use their powers to fight crime in the town of Madison, Wisconsin.

That's it. But I should point out that this story? It starts in the summer of 2001. Think about that. Do the math. And I'll go ahead and say the conclusion isn't as interesting as you might think.

Here's the thing: I'm not a comic-book girl. My fiance, however, is THE FAN when it comes to comics, and over the past ten years, has made me read various titles and seen various movies that I probably would've ignored if left to my own devices. Thanks to those ten years that also include nearly weekly trips to the comic book shop, I like to think I know SOMETHING about comic books, superheroes, superpowers, and what's DIFFERENT in the superhero genre, so to speak. I'm no expert, not by a LONG SHOT, but I know what I like, and I like what I love.

This book didn't work for me. Sadly. Spoilers ahead.

( Superpowers )

My Rating

Wish I'd Borrowed It: Like I said, this book just isn't for the reader like me, and had I not had a rather tenuous tie to the author, I would've never given this book a second glance. That said, if you like superhero fiction/comics, it's worth giving this one a shot. You're bound to get more out of it than I did. And I'll give Schwartz kudos for making three of the five heroes women, and one of them's even a minority (too bad HER power is invisibility, but that actually figures into the story in an interesting way).

Next up: MultiReal by David Louis Edelman

Then I woke to the sound of Gavin muttering about something going on, immediately followed by our power cutting out.

Then the noises started. Jackhammering, trucks, guys yelling, you name it. I had been asleep for barely over an hour.

Replacing power poles behind the house. Workers told me to expect power to be out for two hours. Two hours in stagnate air and lots of noise. I called BGE to bitch that they never notified people ahead of time when things like this were happening (not that it would ever do any good, but dammit, I was just woken up and I was in a bitchy mood and I was going to give them a piece of my mind.)

Unfortunately, it's hard to effectively bitch out the electric company when the representative that answers the phone appears to have an intellect rivaling that of a lump of silly putty.

Wait, I think I just insulted silly putty.

I asked her why we never got notices to this thing, it's not like they just pull street names for repairs out of a hat in the morning and send the trucks off based on that, right? (Right?) They have to know in advance. And all she could do was tell me that her computer said that no one was working in my neighborhood. Umkay, well four trucks and a bunch of guys with jackhammers who just cut my power beg to differ. She repeated this a few times.

It got even better when she started offering to send someone out to examine our power lines and determine the cause of the outage. Why is this so difficult? Look, I get it, you don't know, you're a peon who answers the phone, story of my own life. It's not a strike against you, maybe you could ask a manger or something? But I just told you precisely why my power has been cut, why would you send someone to check it out? If you want proof that they're working out there, lemme hang up and take a picture with my camera and send it to you. Piece of pie. Er, cake.

I told her that I know why my power is out, cause of the dudes out back with the noisy stuff doing stuff. She got a little more insistent in her offer to send someone out and look for the cause of the problem, and I gave up and said "Thank you that's okay I can see we're getting nowhere here, have a nice day."

Dammit, all the stoopid took the wind out of a good bitching.

He came on stage at 8:40 (40 minutes late) to no announcement. He just appeared, sang the national anthem and then jumped right into his set. There was no opener. He played non stop for THREE hours, taking only a minute break before the encore. He could have ended the show at 10 pm and I would have left happy. Instead he went all the way to 11:40 and then left reluctantly, you can see him on the video screen at the very end, when a roadie came out to talk to him (presumably applying the hook), that he kept looking at his piano and signifying "one more" with a finger to someone off stage. He was loving this as much as we were. With each song I kept thinking "ANOTHER one?" and wondering what I did to get so lucky.

He had a fantastic backing band with an impressive collection of horns and strings. There was one backer, a black woman with local roots (and an impressive Afro deserving it's own planetary system) who was stunning. It seemed like she could play just every instrument needed: guitars, brass, harmonica, tambourine - everything. The music was nicely complemented by an impressive stage setup. The entire back of the stage was one huge video screen and each side of the stage was flanked by three additional screens which were all put to good use during the show (my only complaint: there was a big delay with the sound and the video so it looked like he was lip syncing). The effects were particularly impressive when he sang Goodnight Saigon. The song started and ended with search lights circling the stadium and the sound of hundreds of choppers flying overheard. The backup singers for this song were a collection of men and women in uniform. NYers might not agree on a lot but they all lover their folk in uniform. Not surprisingly this song garnered lots of cheers.

I realized that while I know just about every song, meaning I can recognize it as a BJ song, I am not really good with the lyrics. Towards the end, when I was really belting out the words, it got to be a lot of "CHORUS (YEA!!!)... and then a very quiet, mumbled "verse" before arriving back at the CHORUS!" This was apparent to everyone when he sang We Didn't Start The Fire. All 55,000 people in the stadium started off singing the first verse, because everyone knows the first verse, but it quickly dissolved to mumbles (overpowered by rampant clapping) as names and places rattled off faster than our memories (a nice touch was putting a picture of everyone on the video screens).

The rumor before the show was that BJ was going to be bringing along some friends to help him out throughout the night. Speculation in the papers and the stands ran rampant, "I heard it might be Elton John" to "Perhaps it might be Bon Jovi". In the end, he brought along 4 friends, proving none of the rumors true. Each one was casually introduced and played one song (some BJ songs, some of their own songs) before leaving. The nice thing was that each one was a surprise. Tony Bennett came out to sing "NY state of mind" which was nice but his voice isn't really designed for a stadium and so it was hard to hear him. Later in the night John Mayer came out, followed by Don Henley and then a rocking appearance by John Mellencamp. BJ played a bunch of Beatles songs throughout the evening and I kept hoping he was going to bring out McCartney for a song but alas he did not. If Paul shows up at the Friday show I am going to be pissed!

He finally ended the show with Piano Man which basically turned into a 50-60,000 person sing along, complete with clapping, yelling, hollerin and the upper deck level trying to sustain all that excitment, swaying with the crowd. Afterward it took my family and I about 40 minutes to walk from our seats to the train home. A relatively short distance that was made very long by the massive crowd of people all heading for the same direction (I have seen attendance estimates between 55-65,000 people). Had the show been terrible this would have been quite a burden but the time passed quickly, even if the crowds didn't, if you replayed the night in your heard, hearing the songs you grew up with and knowing that you had just participated in something very, very special.

(my favorite songs of the night: "River of Dreams", "We Didn't Start the Fire", "Captain Jack" and "...Italian Restaurant")

I just took this shot, yes, it's my own back...lol...and some of my braids. I liked how it came out, including the angle, the way the composition (or lack thereof) turned out and even how it looks kinda washed out.

I'm at your back door
with the earth of a hundred nations in my skin
you won't recognize me
for the light in my eyes is strange
it was years ago, god knows
when you strained to tell me your whole truth
that you were not mine to save
that you could not change

would it be enough to go by
if we could sail on the wind in the dark
cut those chains in the middle of the night
that had you pulled apart
would it be enough to go by
if there's moonlight pulling the tide
would it be enough to live on
if my love could keep you alive

I've built a lot of castles
built a lot of blazing speed-of-light machines
but it doesn't matter, you know
they all crumble in the winds of change
so I turned back to breathing
I learned a few good reasons to cry
and I finally called home
praying you weren't out of range

carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you, I swear
carry the weight
I'll carry the weight of you

so will you let me come in
the mosquitoes have found me
and they're crowding 'round my blood
at least offer me a drink
or a breaking of the ice
I'm wanting your anger
I only want to see if I can shake you out of sleep
and bring you out under this flooded sky
at any price

so carry the weight
carry the weight of me in your heart
carry the weight
carry the weight of me

Carefree highway by Gordon Lightfoot

Pickin' up the pieces of my sweet shattered dream
I wonder how the old folks are tonight
Her name was Ann and Ill be damned if I recall her face
She left me not knowin' what to do
Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you

Turnin' back the pages to the times I love best
I wonder if shell ever do the same
Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied
With knowin' I got no one left to blame

Carefree highway, got ta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you

Searchin' through the fragments of my dream-shattered sleep
I wonder if the years have closed her mind
I guess it must be wanderlust or tryin' to get free
From the good old faithful feelin' we once knew

Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you
Let me slip away on you
Carefree highway, gotta see you my old flame
Carefree highway, you seen better days
The mornin' after blues from my head down to my shoes
Carefree highway, let me slip away
Slip away on you

We just realized there is a minor snafu with our plans for getting the electric service turned off in the current place and getting the cats moved over to the apartment.

So here's the deal: we had planned to move all our stuff over except a change of clothes, the cats and blankets/pillows, sleep at the old house on Saturday night and then the wonderful Becca was going to pick us up with the cats and stuff and smurf on over to the new apartment for keeps.

Well, we can't get the service shut off on Sunday, and REALLY don't want to come back Monday to waste time waiting for BGE. The only real option is to have it done on Saturday...which means we can't sleep in the old house Saturday night without dying.

So...here's the big question:

Is there anyone who would be available on Saturday evening with a car, just long enough to make two trips from the old place to the new place (2.4 miles each way, according to mapquest) with cats in carriers (it would be one trip but we have three cats and two carriers. If you have a spare cat carrier for the duration of the trip, it would only require one trip.)

Unfortunately, I don't know the exact time and won't really know until we're done moving the inanimate stuff in sometime Saturday afternoon, but I'm going to be guessing that "Saturday evening" is going to be meaning around 9pmish.

Oh yeah...if anyone wants to help with the moving thing that hasn't already talked to me, let me know. Help will not be turned away. Leave a cmment, send an email, call me, use carrier pigeon, signal flags, tin can and string, whatever.

Anyway...

1. We got the keys to the new apartment. Got an email on Sunday from the landlord and we rushed right out to grab 'em, spent a bit of time wandering around the apartment, starting to plan where to put stuff. We were absolutely delighted to find out that it was not ridiculously hot waaaay up there on the 4th floor, and even standing in the hallway right beside the door, where there is no window anywhere nearby, we could feel air moving through the apartment...yes, air, moving!!! (The buildings on the block are taller than the ones on the immediately flanking blocks, so I'm figuring that it allows a lot more of the moving air outside to get through).

The landlord was painting in the kitchen when we got there, painting over the bright salmon kitchen in an equally bright but considerably lighter lemon yellow. Much of the trim remains salmon. The place still looks like Crayola hurled. But we don't care.

Oh, and I want to hang up my big old vinyl five-flavor iMac banner, nabbed from the office when the Apple contract died. I've been lugging it around ever since because I keep wanting to put it up. Just need to figure out how to rig it up cause it's a bit heavier than your average rock band poster.

And here is a picture of our new block, snapped on my cell phone camera:

2. Yesterday I got to the light rail stop by the office and realized that something was a little different. It took me a minute to realize that Holy Cow Oh My Fucking Traffic Gods WTFBBQ!!!!!!onetwoeleven there, standing in the late evening sun at the corner of Gilroy and Beaver Dam was a brand-spankin' new traffic light.

I could have died. Instead, I snapped a picture.

What's so special about a traffic light? You might ask. Well...if you've ever been by the Gilroy road light rail stop, especially anytime during normal business hours, you know that it's unfuckingbelievably ridiculous because well, busy four-way intersection + train stop and no traffic light= endless clusterfuck.

I can't tell you how many times I've had to wait ten minutes or more (no this is not an exaggeration) to cross a blasted street, and even then it's often still taking my life in my hands to some extent or other.(crossing Beaver Dam is especially bad, crossing Gilroy, not usually much of a problem unless there's a line of fifty cars waiting to turn onto Gilroy from Beaver Dam, which is not at all uncommon). I can't tell you how many trains I've missed because of this. I've had more very-near hits from cars than I'd like to recall, including one around 9pm on a winter night from a black car that came out of nowhere, no lights on, easily doing 90, which came no more than six inches from hitting me as I stepped back just in time.

I've been periodically sending bitchy emails to the county, and making occasional calls about this (I wrote about it here a few times back when I first started my crusade, but gave up pretty quickly when my emails and phone calls were going unanswered.) It's onl been about three years since I first started. I'd like to think I played some small part in this (just go with it, humor me, don't rain on my massive tickertape parade here, 'kay?)

But anyway, I give you this picture of the traffic light, complete with street lights on top, to admire and fawn over.

Ze traffick light, she ees a theeng of beeeyooty and vonder, yah?

You just don't understand how giddy I was when I saw this yesterday, I almost started dancing right there at the intersection. Instead, I called Gavin and babbled excitedly about it for a minute or two.

I'd never given too much thought to this book. Sure, it was urban fantasy. Sure, it had a pretty cover. Sure, a good friend of mine recommended it to me. But it never really caught my eye long enough to make me buy it. Not until lanerobins commented on this book in another review post, and made the, erm, mistake of mentioning she loved Thurman's twist on elves.

Right then, I was hooked. Damn it.

I bought the book Saturday. Started it Sunday night. Finished it tonight, Monday. No, I didn't enjoy the book at all.

The premise: Cal isn't human. Not wholly, anyway. Turns out, his mom let a monster knock her up for some fast cash, and Cal was the result. What Cal didn't know, what his half-brother, Niko, didn't know, was that Cal was the intention. Now the monsters are after Cal, and it takes everything Cal's got to get away from them, maybe even more.

Yes, there be spoilers.

( Nightlife )

My Rating

Must Have: I've nitpicked the book to death behind the cut, but it's great. That's all there is to it. I was never bored, never really wanted to put the book down, and I enjoyed the hell out of myself. It's great to read an urban fantasy that's actually DARK fantasy and actually HORROR to be quite honest. I already plan on nabbing the next two books in the series the next time I'm in the store, so that's got to say something, right? The voice is great, and the emotional tension is worth every penny of the book. Trust me.

Next up: Entanglement by Amir Aczel***

*** = For those of you wondering, and if you're one of those people, you KNOW you're one of those people, the answer is YES.

Changed my mind. Not in the mood for research, not yet. So... next up, Superpowers by David J. Schwartz

I signed up for my PADI Diving certification course tonight and got my packet -- it comes with a pretty large text book! And a fancy diving chart computer but I have no idea what it is used for yet. My first session in the pool is on Saturday and my second session next Wed. The place is very flexible with scheduling (and let's face it, so am I) and they offer open water dives a few times each week. Thankfully they aren't in the Atlantic ocean, which made me a bit nervous for my first time!

Speaking of the Atlantic Ocean, this afternoon I made my first trek out to the ocean for a little frolicking. I always forget how much I miss the ocean until I actually get there. It really is a lot of fun. My last time in a proper ocean for any significant amount of time was over New Years at Montanitas in Ecuador and needless to say the water near me is a bit.. different. The waves here, though a little smaller, are much more powerful and will really knock you around if you don't take proper preventative measures. Today the undertow was really strong and the waves were consistently large which made it hard to get to a good place to ride them.

Found out a few days ago that my dad got tickets for the family to go see Billy Joel on Wed night! It's one of the last concerts at Shea Stadium and BJ is a homegrown hero, so it should be pretty good. Fun! I hope he plays river of dreams. If he was in a pissy mood he could just play his entire classical album -- that would go over real well in a stadium!!

The neighborhood I live in has a pretty large spanish speaking population (and portugese) and so whenever I drive around town I always feel like a poser because I blast my Juanes (famous Colombian pop singer) CD and sing along even though I have no idea what most of the lyrics mean. I am sure some people on the street are doing a double take.

After two weeks of going to my local pool I am quite pleased with my progress so far. I have gone from being able to only swim 6 laps without taking a break to being able to easily swim a mile. I have been going around 6 days a week and I tend to alternate between 1/2 mi and 1 mi swims. Last night I was able to swim one full lap using the butterfly stroke. It didn't look pretty but I made it all the way to the end. It's the only major stroke I don't know and have been wanting to teach myself it for years. Visually it is the most impressive stroke and when done well it looks very graceful. It also looks like a powerful stroke which is appealing to me as well.

I never really intended to read this book.

Last year, when the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth was showing brilliant images from the Poles, my fiance made a remark about how much he loved that setting, how it captured his interest. For some reason, him saying this reminded me of Dan Simmons's The Terror, so I told him what little I knew about the book. Arctic setting, horror story. Greg was interested enough that he sought out the hardcover in the store and bought it. When he read it, he loved it. Gave it five stars.

But I wasn't interested, not even when I'd made a decision to place my own novel in an arctic setting myself, and then I wasn't interested until I read The Ends of Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. Once I read that, I was hooked. I decided that when I had the time and patience for the beast of the novel that is The Terror, I'd read it. It's not like I didn't know what to expect. I've read Simmons before.

But it's almost impossible to review this book. At 766 pages long, it's a beast of a novel, and you're forced to take your time and actually read the thing rather than skim it. The Terror is a historical fiction, recounting the lost Franklin expedition for the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. Not a single soul was recovered from that passage, while remains were found and guesses were made, the story of the voyages of the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror are largely a mystery. Simmons has recreated that story, using as much fact as possible (lead poisoning, scurvy, and cannibalism), while also creating a different kind of monster that preyed upon the souls of these men, and thus using the monster to bring this tale to some kind of conclusion.

The monster is as literal as it is metaphorical, because there is so much about the mens' conditions that defeat them. The lack of game, the poorly canned and cooked food, the scurvy, the unrelenting ice, the threat of mutiny. The monster is often the straw that breaks the camel's back, forcing these men to act when they might otherwise not, and increasing the tension and fear.

But the book isn't about the monster. Indeed, there's long parts of the book where the monster never makes an appearance, let alone is talked about. Ultimately, this is a tale of survival, about what it takes to live in such harsh conditions and how these conditions transform a man's body, mind, and soul. While we get several points of view, we're most centered on Captain Francis Cozier and Dr. Goodsir, both who try to keep men alive, but who have completely different angles on what's happening. But the single-most unifying character in this book is the setting itself. No surprise, given Simmons is our writer. Just by reading the first page, I was thrust into the world of the novel, and never once was I torn away by some careless detail or incomplete scene. Simmons is a deliberate writer who takes his time, and while I will admit I thought some sections of the novel could've been trimmed down some, I'll give Simmons the benefit of the doubt: these men lived in these harsh Arctic conditions for three-plus years, and the length of the novel lets the reader fully experience every moment, every joy, and every defeat. It's worth it. By the end it's definitely worth it. Characters flesh into individuals, and some you'll love, some you'll hate, and some will simply fascinate you. And the touch of fantastic at the of the book is just really, really cool.

My Rating

Must Have: it's horror, but it's historical fiction, and a survival story at that. As mentioned above, the pace is deliberately set at the speed of a glacier, but never once does Simmons let you leave his world. There's definitely an awe factor to this novel, as well as a quiet, driving tension that makes you wonder who, if anyone, will survive. It's a fascinating novel that makes me want to research Simmons's source material, just to learn everything I can about where the truth differs from fiction, but as a whole, I'm very happy with the book. If you're a fan of Simmons's work, you definitely have to check it out.

Next up: Nightlife by Rob Thurman