Poetry

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats

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I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats, written in a time of economic and political turmoil.

Writing

Decisions, decisions

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Our friend Loren Eaton meditates on the question of whether writers are happy or unhappy people (and if unhappy, whether that’s a necessary condition). And he links to a good article by Nathan Bransford, literary agent, on how to be happy though creative.

Happy or sad? Happy or sad?



I’m thinking. I’m thinking.

Bookselling

New Bestseller Lists

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Hardcover, softcover, and manga are now categories in new NYT bestseller lists for graphic novels. Number one on the hardcover list: Starman Omnibus, Vol 2. At the top of the softcover list: Watchmen, out in theaters today. On the Manga list: Naruto, Vol. 38.

Uncategorized

Bad buttons and shabby sheaths

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According to this report, Hillary Clinton “dropped a brick” (as the English say) when she met with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. She’d had her crack staff put together a joke red button that was supposed to have the word “Reset” printed on it in Russian.

Instead, the word inscribed on the item by the Best and Brightest was one that means “overloaded.”

OK, I’ll cop to it. It’s all my fault.

In their zeal for equal opportunity, the State Department chose not to hire an actual Russian interpreter for this translating exercise, because Russian speakers have an unfair and undemocratic lock on such jobs.

Instead, in a bold affirmative action move, they broke the glass ceiling by hiring a Norwegian translator instead. And that translator was me.

My bad.

The little video Phil posted below advertises a fantasy game set in a sort of imaginary Viking world.

One thing that caught my attention was that the hero wears one of those over-the-shoulder back scabbards.

Allow me to rant about those for a moment. Continue reading Bad buttons and shabby sheaths →

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The Friday Fight: Fantasy

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I doubt history plays much into this storyline, and since no character will really die if he gets stabs, the animated violence is pretty thick. Skarin is the hero’s name. That’s Swedish, I believe, but is it Norse?

Publishing

Watching an idea become incarnate

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It occurs to me that you might be interested to know the inside story on the glamorous, high-energy process of getting a book published. So I’ll tell you where I am as of today with West Oversea (available soon wherever fine books are sold. Ask for it by name).

A couple days back I got e-mails from my publisher and my editor, asking for input on the actual production of the physical book.

I got a .pdf of the manuscript as it’s been laid out, and the editor wanted my opinions on some issues. Would I mind if they moved the List of Characters from the back to the front? (Not at all.) What did I think of the “Kells” font? (I love it with a love that is more than love, but I think the body of the back cover copy should be in something more immediately readable.) Can I get some kind of blurb for this book, to supplement the reviews of older books? (Yes, I can. In fact I was amazed at the enthusiasm with which a couple fairly prominent personages, whom I know only by e-mail, agreed to read the galleys and write something for us. One guy I’d really hoped for isn’t answering my e-mails, but you can’t have everything.)

I mailed her a sheaf of copies of my old reviews yesterday, along with a copy of The Year of the Warrior, because she’d like this volume to resemble that earlier volume a little. (Which is nice.)

She notes that I’ll have to make some changes in the Afterword, where I thank people. That’s more true than she knows. I wrote the Afterword back in 2002, and at least one (very likely two; I’m not sure yet) of the people I thanked have passed away in the intervening Seven Lean Years. And I suspect I’ll want to thank her too, before I’m done.

This is one of the best parts of the process. I can’t wait to see the cover art. And looking forward to holding the actual, bound book in my hands is—well, I won’t say it’s like waiting for your child to be born. The two things aren’t even in the same ballpark (from all I hear). Let’s say it’s like waiting for the puppies to be born.

Authors

They always say, “Write what you know”

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Master thriller writer Frederick Forsyth stumbled into a genuine political coup on a recent research trip to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.

From the Associated Press:

Hours before he touched down in the West African nation, a bomb hidden under a staircase blew apart the armed forces chief. Hours later the president was gunned down, and according to Forsyth, hacked to pieces.

He said he has stopped inventing fictional places “because the world is so weird and so scary, you might as well use the real ones.”

Read the rest here.