Playing With History For Fun And Profit
Sep. 23rd, 2012 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madwriterMy latest batch of writing for Arizona put me on the cusp of the Americans and Apache warring with each other, and the bounties that Sonora put on Apache scalps. That's still a little way off yet, though. In the meantime, I wrote a scene with questionable historical accuracy but which was nevertheless a lot of fun to write: I have three of the greatest soon-to-be chiefs of the Chiricahua Apache among a group meeting with a band of American trappers to negotiate some peaceful trading: Mangas, Nana, and Cochise. I can't predict what readers might think, but it was certainly a highlight of the book for me.
The International Book Week Meme: Post the fifth sentence on page 52 of the book closest to you. I have two equidistant books, one stacked atop another, but one of them doesn't actually have a page 52--it's a series volume with page numbers running from 10207 to 10798. Page 52 in the other, happily, turns out to be Romeo and Juliet:
I thought thy disposition better tempered.
I get that same response sometimes when I post snarky political entries.
For the first time in ages I'm reading a science fiction novel that isn't one of the two F/SF books a month I review for Publishers Weekly. It's quite odd--the pleasure reading, I mean, not the book itself. I keep having to remind myself that I don't need to take notes. In other writing related news, I mailed out the contract for my next poem in Asimov's, "Sunday at the Quantum Revival". I don't know when it's scheduled to appear, but I'll say something about it here when it does.
Most of last week was writing-less; our problematic drain pipe, stingy with accepting water for years anyway, finally got downright cranky and decided to back up into our basement after every shower and laundry wash. Which meant writing time was instead spent swabbing and sweeping. We finally had it replaced, so I was able to make up for at least a little bit of the lost time on Friday.
PROGRESS REPORT FOR 9/21/12
New Words: 2900 on chapter 7 ("The Scalphunters") of Arizona. Trapper Thompson betrayed ulterior personal motives for trying to make peace with the Apache, and Finn finally solves a personal mystery haunting him since his childhood bandit days back in Ireland.
Total Words: 177950.
Reason For Stopping: Deciding what would come next, but also various other things to take care of.
Book Year: 1832.
Mammalian Assistance: Vegas guarded his box pile, Nate the table.
Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood.
Stimulants: Dr. Pepper.
Today's Opening Passage: Thompson reappeared a year later, carrying an American flag. Finn and Rodrigo didn’t see the flag at first. Not only was it tucked away in one of Thompson’s saddle bags, but Thompson, El Rosa, and the Shively brothers returned to the Alvarez villa that spring of 1832 riding side by side with a group of Apache warriors.
Darling Du Jour: Less a darling than ironic...
At nightfall, camped by a wash less than a half-hour’s ride from the villa, the Apache built a large fire and danced with as much joy as Finn had seen in anyone. The boy could not dance, but he stood on the edge of the circle singing for all he was worth. Finally Thompson unfurled his American flag theatrically and presented it to Cochise. “This cloth means America,” Thompson told the warrior, “and America will always be your friend.”
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: The Wolf and the Buffalo by Elmer Kelton; Lizzie by Frank Spiering; Kethani by Eric Brown.
The International Book Week Meme: Post the fifth sentence on page 52 of the book closest to you. I have two equidistant books, one stacked atop another, but one of them doesn't actually have a page 52--it's a series volume with page numbers running from 10207 to 10798. Page 52 in the other, happily, turns out to be Romeo and Juliet:
I thought thy disposition better tempered.
I get that same response sometimes when I post snarky political entries.
For the first time in ages I'm reading a science fiction novel that isn't one of the two F/SF books a month I review for Publishers Weekly. It's quite odd--the pleasure reading, I mean, not the book itself. I keep having to remind myself that I don't need to take notes. In other writing related news, I mailed out the contract for my next poem in Asimov's, "Sunday at the Quantum Revival". I don't know when it's scheduled to appear, but I'll say something about it here when it does.
Most of last week was writing-less; our problematic drain pipe, stingy with accepting water for years anyway, finally got downright cranky and decided to back up into our basement after every shower and laundry wash. Which meant writing time was instead spent swabbing and sweeping. We finally had it replaced, so I was able to make up for at least a little bit of the lost time on Friday.
New Words: 2900 on chapter 7 ("The Scalphunters") of Arizona. Trapper Thompson betrayed ulterior personal motives for trying to make peace with the Apache, and Finn finally solves a personal mystery haunting him since his childhood bandit days back in Ireland.
Total Words: 177950.
Reason For Stopping: Deciding what would come next, but also various other things to take care of.
Book Year: 1832.
Mammalian Assistance: Vegas guarded his box pile, Nate the table.
Exercise: Walked Tucker around the neighborhood.
Stimulants: Dr. Pepper.
Today's Opening Passage: Thompson reappeared a year later, carrying an American flag. Finn and Rodrigo didn’t see the flag at first. Not only was it tucked away in one of Thompson’s saddle bags, but Thompson, El Rosa, and the Shively brothers returned to the Alvarez villa that spring of 1832 riding side by side with a group of Apache warriors.
Darling Du Jour: Less a darling than ironic...
At nightfall, camped by a wash less than a half-hour’s ride from the villa, the Apache built a large fire and danced with as much joy as Finn had seen in anyone. The boy could not dance, but he stood on the edge of the circle singing for all he was worth. Finally Thompson unfurled his American flag theatrically and presented it to Cochise. “This cloth means America,” Thompson told the warrior, “and America will always be your friend.”
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: The Wolf and the Buffalo by Elmer Kelton; Lizzie by Frank Spiering; Kethani by Eric Brown.
