Age and the aargh factor

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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One of my dearest friends I have ever had is an in-law. When I was one month old, born into a world at war, she was born in another country occupied by enemy armies.

Who would ever have foretold that future friendship…

She rang me this morning, telling a tale of woe about how she had gone to get her passport and bankbooks from the place she always hides them, only to find none of them was there – and she has no memory whatsoever of moving them. Nor can she find them now. And her house has not been broken into.

I sympathise. Age does that sort of thing to you.

So after this morning’s phone call, I go into the kitchen to put on some soup. I made the stock yesterday out of some beef scrag ends (yes, there are still housewives who don’t buy their stock in cans or cubes) , but shoved it in the frig afterwards without straining it or anything because I was on my way out to a birthday party of an even older friend.

I go to the frig , get out the stock and strain it over the sink, throwing away the stock and preserving the useless bits and pieces.

Definitely an aargh moment.

And this from someone who thinks she can write a 3-book trilogy containing over half a million words spanning 10 years in the life of four complex interlocked lands with different cultures, a story of war, love, magic, hope, courage and battle in the lives of four main protagonists struggling against the machinations of a group of amoral villains with a totally greed-oriented agenda.

Talk about hubris. I can’t even strain the soup stock properly.

Great Afternoon

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I always approach readings with more than a modicum of trepidation, and this one with probably more than most.

Literary oriented groups can — in the west — be horribly anti-sf&fantasy, you see, with the attitude that if it’s good, then it can’t possibly be fantasy. It must be magical realism or a satire or a neosurrealism or something equally literary.
I need not have worried. The people who turned up at Seksan’s were just great.


In fact, they started out by buying almost all the books I brought with me before I had even given the reading, which showed a remarkable faith! Thanks all…love you guys.

I wasn’t actually the star of the show. That had to go to Kam Raslan, Kee Thuan Chye and Animah Kosai the contributors of Kee’s book, March 8th, The Day Malaysia Woke Up. (That’s him in the blue T-shirt above).

The story/music group called the Happy Unicorn Collective (see photo above) were great fun, and a reading about Malaysian ghosts was fascinating, from Danny Lim.

I also had a lovely surreal moment when two old friends (and boss) turned up from my working environmental life of the late 90s and early 2000s. I was so thrown that I must have spent a full minute looking at Ligea and thinking to myself, well I know that looks like Ligea but it can’t be because she wouldn’t be here. Sorry, guys for being so idiotically gobsmacked. It was absolutely great to see you.

{Lesson, Glenda — hey, people do read your blog. }

Noramlyed* again

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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My husband is off travelling. He is now trying to return. Given the state of the world at the moment, you can guess what happened.

Well, at least he wasn’t headed for Mumbai, but he was routed from Europe through Bangkok…

Sigh.

________________________________________________

*The myriad disasters that happen to members of the Noramly family (or those that travel with them) when they undertake major travel. Coined by two victims (sons-in-law).

We progress!

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Some sense on the yoga matter. The P.M. and some religious leaders and some of the royalty (who are the religious heads of the state – as in Britain) have said that they can’t see what harm there is in Muslims doing yoga as long as the classes don’t include religious chanting and such. Nice to see that indignant protest from Muslims can result in good sense prevailing.

I doubt whether the fatwa is going to get far, as it has to be passed at state level before becoming law for Muslims within the state.

And here is Book Two of Random Rain:

Now all we have to do is introduce some good sense into the ridiculous book-banning that is still going on in Malaysia – but only at certain bookshops, mind you. (Quick, buy your copy elsewhere now!)

And before my overseas readers start muttering about silly Malaysia, what about the American writer who got kicked out of his church for writing a vampire novel, because writing about something is committing the sins contained in it? Wow, now there’s some good folks who really don’t understand the concept of fiction…

A reading on Saturday

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I shall be giving a reading on Saturday in Bangsar from the new book, STORM QUEST (out in September). The reading is free (of course); in fact they usually have drinks and nibbles as well, also free. You can read more about who else is reading here.

The address and time is as follows:

Date: 29th November, 2008
Time: 3.30pm
Place: Seksan’s, 67, Jalan Tempinis Satu, Lucky Garden, Bangsar

More about Seksan’s here.
Map of how to get there here. (Note that Sekan’s is on the inner loop road, not the road leading to the roundabout – the map is not all that clear on that point).
These gatherings are great fun: do come along if you live in the right part of the world.

Publishing news

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Well, there’s bad news and there’s good news….
Bad news first.

There is a delay in the publishing of Guérisseur, the French translation of “Gilfeather”, and therefore also of the third book in Les Iles Glorieuses trilogy as well. My apologies to my French readers. The books will come, just not yet a while.
They will now be published under the Pygmalion imprint of J’ai Lu, I believe; look for Guérisseur late next year.

Je suis si désolé. Mes excuses.

And now the good news.

I have been sitting on this for some time now, waiting for contracts and such – you know, never quite sure of anything until things are signed, sealed and delivered. That has not yet happened, so I was quite (delightfully) startled to see this on the UK Amazon site…

________________________________________

Storm Quest (Paperback)
by Glenda Larke (author)
________________________________________

Product details

  • Paperback: 704 pages
  • Publisher: Orbit (3 Sep 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1841498114
  • ISBN-13: 978-1841498119

______________________________________

It has an ISBN already!!
So I guess it really is a done deal.

You are looking at one very, very happy author.
I love Orbit.

Christmas presents, holiday reading…

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Around about this time of the year, I write a blog on this subject which goes something like this:

Many of you found my blog because you are readers, or both writers and readers. In other words, you have a vested interest in a healthy publishing industry producing lots of wonderful books, whether they be e-books, paper books, audio books, or whatever.

This will only happen if you pay them money. Libraries are great, and so are secondhand book stores. BUT, they don’t bring money in to those people who actually write or produce or print or record the books.
For them to benefit, you have to actually give them money.

And the Christmas/holiday season is a great time to do this. If you support the industry, then you will get more great books to read in the future. If you are a writer, then publishers will have more money to pay you an advance…

This time of year is also a great time to introduce others to reading for pleasure. It is a great time to give kids something that has been a source of great enjoyment to you: a book. It is a great time to share your discoveries with someone else.

Perhaps you remember the first time you discovered – as an adult – the wonder of reading a fantasy or science fiction book and realised that those great challenging stories are not just for kids.

Right now, times are dark, and this is where fantasy comes into its own: escape this world for another. Get away from your troubles into a world where ordinary people can be heroes. Give others books and a way to leave the real world behind over the holidays.

If you don’t know what to buy, well, try a book token or gift certificate, available from any bookstore, which can be ordered and delivered to your recipient online.

Pix: Books I have read this year, or will be reading soon.

We read to know we are not alone.
— C.S. Lewis

The greatest gift is a passion for reading.
— Elizabeth Hardwick

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend.
Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.
— Groucho Marx

I find television very educating.
Every time somebody turns on the set,
I go into the other room and read a book.
— Groucho Marx

10th Annual Day of Remembrance

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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I didn’t realise that not only was the 20th November Children’s Day, but it was also the 10th Annual Day of Remembrance for transgendered folk who have died … simply because they are transgendered. It is staggering that this still happens, even in this day and age.

Reminds me of Middle Ages up to 17th century witch hunts actually.

There is a memorial list here, of names, just some of those people who died so tragically for no good reason, because of hate crimes.

As Cheryl Morgan says over on her Mewsings:
“It isn’t obvious from that list as few of the entries give more than the basic cause of death, but many of those killings were executions. And I don’t mean state executions like the one in Iraq, I mean vigilante executions carried out in cold blood by people who believe that transgender people do not deserve to live.”

So even though I am a couple of days late, this is my way of saying: Remember them. And speak out against the bigots who would condemn those who are different from themselves, and preach the hatred that brings others to commit crimes of hatred and intolerance.

If your faith preaches such intolerance and ignorance, then question ask yourself if that sounds right to you.

Romance versus Fantasy

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Harping back to the Bujold GoH speech at Denvention , she made some really interesting comments about romance readers versus fantasy readers, and how she could tell from their remarks re stories they had read (the same stories), which side of the fence they were coming from.

Below: some of her insightful comments, in no particular order – do read the whole speech! Remember, she uses SF to mean both fantasy and science fiction:

The SF crowd seemed tone-deaf to the emotional developments so important to the Romance crowd, and the Romance readers in turn seemed to be blind to the world-building concerns of the SF readers. …

For any plot to stay central, nothing else in the book can be allowed to be more important. So romance books carefully control the scope of any attending plot, so as not to overshadow its central concern, that of building a relationship between the key couple…

In fact, if romances are fantasies of love…I would now describe much SF as fantasies of political agency...

Romance and SF — would seem to be arm-wrestling about the relative importance of the personal and the political.

She then goes on to say that literature is an escape from the chores of life, and “book heroes don’t usually spend a lot of time doing chores. Not on the page, at least.”

And she noted with some bemusement that her books “with upper-class casts of characters sell better than my books with middle-class protagonists.”

So that set me thinking about two separate issues:
Firstly, do I think that the central backbone of fantasy (let’s not include science fiction for a moment) is usually political agency? (I don’t think anyone would argue that the relationship of the two key characters is the backbone of any romance).

And secondly, does the need for escapism for a fantasy reader also lead them into loving stories of the upper-class better than others – perhaps because there is less of an element of mundane things – like chores – in such tales?

So my question to you is this:

  • do you think the politics and political system of most fantasies is the all important backbone of the story which must take precedence?
  • do you prefer stories about rulers and/or the rich and influential, to stories of the more mundane folk? Do we only like the goatherder because he ends up being the long lost prince?

Mixed bag

Posted on by March 13, 2021
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Younger Daughter arrives for a week’s visit. Yay!
Civets are having another family in the roof. Argumentive kids, squeaking nonstop. Darn.
House needs cleaning. Yuk.
Mosque imans over in Terengganu state are to give sermons on protecting endangered species, especially turtles. Overdue, but great news!

Oh, and do you think we could have a fatwa against eating turtle eggs, instead of one against doing yoga? After all, if your activities are sending something into extinction, aren’t you saying something derogatory about God and his ideas of creation and biodiversity?

Yeah, well, I think I am ahead of my time on that one.

Pix: Black Swans on a bird reserve near Esperance, West Australia. Taken April 2008.