Myth, the Universe, and Everything

We're a week into the New Year, and I haven't really put together a list of resolutions. I'm not sure that I will. I do have a goal of forming an actual spiritual practice (rather than a haphazard spiritual observance). The same is true of my writing. I think I lost track of my apprenticeship somewhere along the way and need to get back on the right path.

But 2009 is looking pretty exciting for a number of reasons. Here's some of what's coming up:

1) Substrate. This is my new, semi-local writing group! Since we're based out of New Haven, it's very local to me, but some of the writers will be coming from Boston and D.C., so it'll be a trek. Luckily, New Haven is an old stomping ground for everyone but me (as the person who has spent the least amount of time living here on Connecticut's shoreline, or so I believe), so the writing group meetings can be combined with other events as well. Like, say, D&D games.

2) Baeg Tobar. I've gotten involved with BT again, and am very excited to be working with Scott and Jeremy and Daniel and the BT crew. There are some amazing things in store for the site this year, including serial fiction, short stories, and a regularly updating web comic.

3) England. I've been invited to be the TA/driver/chaperon for the Simon's Rock England Trip in May of this year. The last time I was in England was 2003, when my sister and I went on our (now infamous, I'm sure) Isle of Man trip, where we were attacked by gulls and almost fell into the Chasms. (I exaggerate only slightly.) We'd begun the trip in England, and we stayed in Glastonbury for a good chunk of it. I am very excited to return, and hope to become reacquainted with Geoffrey and Pat Ashe. I've fallen out of touch with the Arthurian scholar and his wife in recent years, and am looking forward to seeing them again.

4) Getting past 1st level. My Mythic Greece players, with the exception of the one who is currently nannying in England (and so hasn't made the past few sessions) are all second level. Also, I got a GM medal at Worlds Apart for running sessions there. (They were shocked with how excited I was with a little virtual medal, but I am constantly in awe of how well we're treated there. They are good people, and if you're near Pioneer Valley and in need of a game store, they should be your go-to point.)

5) Since it's up on the site, I think it's fair to announce that my LFR module, "Head above Water," is premiering at DDXP this year. I won't be going to Fort Wayne to usher it into the world, but I'm really excited to have it given such an excellent spot to begin play!

6) Dogs in the Vineyard. The old Dogs game is coming to a close, and the new Dogs game is ramping up. There are fun times waiting to happen.

7) Another Shoreline summer. There will be sailing, there will be beach cook outs, there will probably be grill outs in our new back yard. (We moved in December.) I may be dreaming in advance about sunshine, but man am I looking forward to beach weather!

8) A million things to read. Moving made me consolidate my TBR pile--the ones I've actually *purchased* and not just added to the list in my head. I'd take a picture, but it's a bit embarrassing. Add to that the number of awesome authors with books coming out this year (or just released): frost_light, melissa_writing, ilona_andrews, sartorias, jimhines, Carrie Vaughn, rkvincent, blue_succubus, antonstrout, amanda_marrone, jenlyn_b, m_stiefvater, mdhenry, nalini_singh... all of them on my Must Be Read list. (And that's just with what I know from livejournals or can back up with Amazon research. Heck, that's mostly for the first six months of this year.)

So, yes, 2009 is looking up. I know, I'm probably one of the few people in the world who is sad to see 2008 go, but it was a good year for me, as far as my short stories getting published, and I'm pretty pleased with it on retrospect. But, as they say, onward and upward!

I've been busy working on the Tam Lin short story (tentatively titled "Don't Let Go") over here, and so don't have much to blog about (although I did recently visit a bookstore and followed blue_succubus's example of photographing a display for a fellow blogger, whom I will post about when I have a cord that connects my camera phone to my computer). As you may have noticed, there was no guest blog yesterday; next week, if I still don't have a new one (there are several writers out there who have promised me entries, but I'm not sure when they'll come--writers are busy people, after all), I'll post a bit of Campbell or Tolkien, excerpting something about myth from one of their works, so that I don't entirely lose momentum.

In the mean time, there have been some great articles showing up about what makes a Young Adult novel in the YA category, one from Publishers Weekly featuring Sherman Alexie, and the other from Mirrorstone editor Stacy Whitman. Also courtesy slwhitman comes a new John Scalzi Whatever entry on the YA vs. the adult market. These were all interesting to me, so I thought I'd share them.

And now, back to the Isle of Man.

Back in 2003, my sister and I took a trip to the Isle of Man. We bought an ordnance survey map in order to find stone circles, fairy hills, and what not. It was a brilliant map, large and exhaustively detailed, with walking paths measured out all over the island. So, we set about hiking.

Funnily enough, the walking paths, though they're public, are neither well kept nor well marked, which serves as part of their charm, I suppose. Sometimes one will disappear, or only go in the opposite direction it seemed to lead on the map (which could cause a navigator to put the ocean on the wrong side, as my sister is delighted to remind me; I still claim that this is not my fault). In other instances, the walking path may cut through someone's field, making it so that not only must you pass over a stile to continue on your way, but you must make friends with a herd of curious cows.

Walking on the Isle of Man is an adventure, and it's small enough that, even if you get lost, you'll eventually find your way back. Unfortunately, those moments of being lost are not the fun moments (thought they often make the best stories).

Right now, in my writing process, I have a map. It's a lovely ordnance survey with all of the sites I want to visit labeled in large, bold letters. I know where I've got to go. But the walking paths are all wrong, and I feel as though I'm about to trespass on the breeding grounds of herring gulls (oh, yes, that's one of the stories from that fateful trip) or am facing a herd of unfamiliar cows, and one of which could be a bull in disguise. The worst bit of it is that I can see Millner's Tower (a landmark of Port Erin, Isle of Man) from here. I just can't see how to get there.

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The reason I'm writing this now is two-fold. One is that my husband laughed at me when I told him I was looking at cows across a stile. And two is shameless procrastination.

Look what a good blogger I am when I'm avoiding writing a novel!