julia at 301: I think we're saying the same thing just with different approaches. At the end of the book, Harry doesn't hate Snape anymore and doesn't see him in terms of black and white because he's digested everything you laid out in your comment. Or, at least, that's what I think can be implied in his naming his kid Albus Severus.
Michael @ 284 & Spiegel @ 285:
I think that's what makes the name Albus Severus even more rough. I mean, if Lee Jordan or Cho Chang or one of the Patil twins or [insert name of minor character not all that caught up in events here] named a kid Albus Severus, that's not nearly the same kind of pressure as being Harry Potter's kid and bearing the names of the two men who helped Dad defeat Voldemort. If there was a way to give any of Harry's kids added pressure, that was it.
Lila at #275 - I didn't mean the names were unfortunate in the schoolyard teasing sense. I meant that being named after Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape is a lot to hang on a kid.
julia at #268: A fair point, though I think naming a child after someone speaks more to a stronger connection than that. Also, I don't see Harry being that cruel because naming a child "Albus Severus" in that sense means that he's invoking the things that made Dumbledore grey in one name rather than honoring the good qualities of two men that played enormous roles in his life.
But either way you slice it, it's still a helluva name to give a kid, as has been said above. I can just imagine the conversation a seventh-year Albus might have with his father about it.
Jon at #259: I'm not so sure it's hope. Seems more like a realization that they can at least be polite, perhaps even cordially interact, in public, should life bring them back into the same sphere again.
I've been trying to remember whether Harry ever mentions the Dursleys again in Book 7. I have some niggling memory of him comparing their treatment of him to Sirius's treatment of Kreacher, but I can't seem to find it. Anyone else remember something like this?
Greg at #217 & 247: Actually, one of the principal arcs of Book 7 was Harry's shedding of his last grip on the black/white view of things as he finally saw Dumbledore in grey and, after a great deal of resistance and anger over it, accepted it and forgave Dumbledore. Given that arc and Harry's feelings about Snape's death as it happens (and let's not forget that it's Snape's memories that tell Harry about the full extent of Dumbledore's plan and its greyness, and he doesn't once thing about it like that), I think naming his son Albus Severus shows exactly how much Harry has changed from a black/white view of things to seeing the gray.
At least with regard to anyone but the Dursleys. Even with Petunia's backstory provided to him in Snape's memories, and even with Dudley's shaking his hand in the beginning of the book, Harry never once examines the Dursley's in any light other than the terrible way they treated him. They are pretty much beyond redemption for it, and I don't begrudge Harry that.
The black/white morality of the HP world started to shake up toward the end of Book 4, which is probably why Harry was such a whinging git through all of Book 5: his worldview had taken a tumble and he had to bother himself with looking at things differently, seeing more than it was easy to see.
I find it interesting that Book 6 was all about understanding how Voldemort became what he did--understanding evil, in essence, and even empathising as Harry saw parallels in his own life. But the hardest journey for Harry, Book 7, was having to understand that good comes with its own complexity as well and isn't pure and doesn't exist as its own grand thing the way he had thought.
Julia @57: Thanks for the update. I was sure the EC situation had to be discussed somewhere, especially in relation to the S&S grab. Just hadn't flexed my search engine skills appropriately...
This eternal rights grab is also standard at Ellora's Cave, but they are a specific genre and primarily electronic publisher. I know of a couple of authors who have left EC over this issue and gone to the other electronic publishers that are direct competitors of EC. An eternal rights grab may make more sense for a dedicated epublisher that may do more than, say, S&S, to keep interest in the book beyond a specific amount of time, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense for an author. I don't know that EC's acquisitions have been lacking in any way as a result of their rights grab, though. They're too large (for their niche of the market) and deal primarily in unrepresented authors who may not understand what they're giving up. Also, I don't think their rights grab got a whole lot of attention, and I'm not sure what the actual contract language looks like (but I'm pretty sure it's non-negotiable).
RE: The Todd James Pierce Connection
There I was, merrily following the links, when I got to the Algonkian Workshop's interview with TJP and found this gem:
Versatile enough to publish short stories while simultaneously setting his sights on novels
I can't wait to apply this new concept of versatility to my own life. I strive for the day when I can be versatile enough to pat my head while simultaneously endeavoring to rub my tummy.
Charlie @ #60: This happened to the novel that became "Singularity Sky" at, oh, 135,000 words into the first draft. The finished book ran to 118,000 words, and the big change happened in the first chapter, which is how come I ended up writing about 260,000 words of material for a 118,000 word book.
I just encountered a big snarl at 80,000 words and felt awful about going back to Word 1 to fix things (though I knew I had to; I was writing in an outward spiral trying to get from A to B and I couldn't afford to waste the time and words to take me to the end of the novel that way when I knew how to fix the 80,000). Thanks for sharing your story.
I actually knew back at around 50,000 words that the structure of the novel needed some major adjustments, but I had used epicyclic rewrites as a procrastination tool before and didn't want to get caught in that again. This brings me to the next best piece of writing advice after "Find what works for you." It is "Every novel is different."
I never knew until now that it was impossible to read silently the creed. Well, I read it without speaking, but I had twenty-five years worth of hearing it recited and reciting it myself running as a soundtrack. It's enough to make you shiver and remember a few things.
Thanks, Teresa. That was lovely.
Teresa, just in case it wasn't you and you're not aware, someone claiming to be you commented in the "Er" thread on her LJ and mentioned something about publishing her blog and gave the Tor address. If it's you, then a happy dance for ginmar. If it's not, then this is just getting icky.
Anyway, I've read some of her other posts and think she's genuine, but I still don't fully buy into the infamous post about the governor.
Ilona, some of the jargon inconsistencies you mentioned might be due to her not being in for a while. Or her exact job. Or, as Jill mentioned, if she's a reservist. But I noticed them as well and got my "bullshit radar" going because of it. Since she's in the Army, I know that the jargon isn't pounded into her head with quite the same frightening persistence as it is in the Marines. I wonder how long it took my brother to say "pen" instead of "ink stick" after boot camp. Her jargon might also be different if she's an officer, which I don't think she is, but I haven't read her rank posted anywhere yet so I can't be sure.
Still, it doesn't ring completely true for me - a military brat since I was five months old, and the sister of a Marine who fought in Iraq. I'm reminded of a Clancy novel in some of her posts. Now that's either a compliment to Clancy's research or a disservice to the poster's writing, if she's genuine. I'm actually surpised that she gets as much internet time as she does. Granted, my surprise is due to the fact that my brother was over there only during the actual war (or major combat, or whatever the hell Bush called it when he said it was done) and he was also doing recon to help prepare the way for the front lines during the war. And he was a Marine. He never got a shower or mail or even a real port-a-potty until everything was winding down and he was at some makeshit base. I'm going to send this to him and see what he thinks.
Hang around any blog for long enough, and you're doing well if only half of the comments you make make you look like an idiot.
Damn, I wish someone would've told me that before I dove into the blogging world. I would've thought more about the concept of lurking. As it was, I had to learn the hard way.
As for sucking up, I better add my own barrage of ass-kissing to this thread before it becomes unfashionable. Or before other, more creative folks like Xopher decide to add their own.
Ahem.
Please, Teresa, come back to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold conference! Your presence was a Luxor-like beacon of light, outshining all the neon signs and flashing displays of the other experts! The click-click of your knitting needles was the perfect accompaniment to every talk! The red lead of your comments astounding! The, uh, the, hmmm, the humor of your Publishing World Lightbulb jokes too much to handle?
Man, I'm really not good at this.
It's not you. The Higher Power is just feeling snarky.
Last week, my mother was in town. It was the best visit we've had since college. All the weird tension that's been bogging us down was finally gone. I even cried when she left. And then I went back to work to find out I've been laid off.
2004 pissed me off in January, depressed me in February, tried my patience mightily for most of March, and now it makes me laugh. Then again, no one I'm aware of has put me up on such a pedestal that I would have to be concerned about hurting them if I decide to call someone who deliberately provoked anger while he preached to the choir an idiot. 2004 might not be so blackly humorous were that the case.
Damn, where was "J-Nap" when I was sick and tired of being home by 10 in high school? Because ratting on my parents for being strict as all hell was very high on my list of reasons to run away from home. Right after "didn't let me eat the entire bag of M&M's in one sitting".
Best responses to this guy are "Oh, barf" and "Asshole". Anything beyond that might encourage the chauvinist to spew more bile.
Jane, the Tor guidelines state to only send the first 3 chapters of a mss. I have no idea how many people follow that guideline, though.
Teresa wrote: I'd have to out one of my online pseudonyms to use some of them...
I can just hear the advertisements now: "In Making Book 2, Teresa Nielsen Hayden will unveil one of several alternate identities she uses in the Crusade Against Bad Slush. Will she reveal a Jekyll/Hyde nature and claim ownership of the Dgns moniker? Or will the revelation unmask an editorial conspiracythat all the other Tor editors have falling prey to the Slushblob and she is now posting under their names to prevent the awful truth from being known? *dun, dun DUUUUNNNNNN* Reserve your copy for $X.95 today and be the first to find out the Terrible Secret."
Randolph - I'm no professional, but I would say that the entire writing process is a learning process. Even language use - though we should already be on good terms with the Muse of Langauge. It's interesting to be happily writing along and then suddenly realize that you've used the word "just" in every other sentence. (I've fixed that problem; now I'm on to using "of course" in every other sentence.) Or that your past experiences with a foreign language are creeping into your use of English. (I'm so confused after studying German for twelve years that I can't remember if it's English or German to describe something in the order of time, manner, place.)
But that's just the problem with folks in categories 1-7 (and maybe even 8-10): writing is not a learning process to them. It's something that they believe has come so naturally to them that they can't possibly need to do anything other than run spell-checker on their manuscript. Or perhaps change the formatting so it looks pretty. But a deeper self-analysis seems to have flown the coop, thus negating any potential for learning in the writing process.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2007 | 10 |
| 2006 | 1 |
| 2004 | 16 |
Total: 27 comments. View all these comments on a single page.
The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Kellie:
Show all comments by Kellie.