The Perils of English Country Walks

Copyright Siri Paulson, 2007

Five years ago, I went to England for Christmas.

I used to hike in the Rockies every summer with my family. So when I discovered there was such a thing as “self-guided walks”, I was thrilled. Three days of strolling through the picturesque English countryside like a couple of Romantic poets? Three nights of sleeping in bed & breakfasts in tiny villages? With our luggage driven ahead to the next night’s stay so we didn’t even have to carry it? And no giant tour bus whisking us from place to place at breakneck speed?

Sign me up! What could possibly go wrong?

Anthology Announcement: Seasons Eternal

I’m excited to announce that Turtleduck Press is releasing a new anthology on December 1. Seasons Eternal is based on a shared premise: what if there were a world where the seasons stopped turning?

We opted to set very loose rules about the world to encourage variety among the stories, and variety we got in abundance. Each of the four authors has chosen a season and taken a different approach — science fiction, fantasy, or a little of both.

And the stories are…

Friday Link: Hobbit Trailers

Happy Friday…and a belated Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans in the crowd!

Here’s your awesome thing (okay, it’s not actually a link) for the week: a Hobbit fan has taken all the trailers and cut the footage together in chronological order. I can’t wait to see the rest of this movie. Can you?

And…that song the dwarves sing? It was my favourite poem in the book. I can’t believe that Peter Jackson and company somehow made it even more amazing. Did I mention I can’t wait?

That’s it for the weekend. See you back here on Monday!

An Ode to Fog

Big Ben in London, of course | Copyright Siri Paulson, 2007

I’ve always loved fog.

I’m not even sure why or when it started. (I remember a beloved book from my childhood, Fog Magic by Julia L. Sauer, but I’m not sure which came to me first, the fog-love or the book. But I digress.)

It’s funny, because I’m not keen on grey skies or rain — give me sunshine any day. (Though I quite like snow, if it’s not accompanied by too much wind or cold. (Famous last words. It hasn’t snowed here yet this season.)) I was not impressed to discover, in Ireland, a sort of arrested rain, where the cold air was so heavy with water that you’d get wet walking through it. But fog…ah, fog is another matter.

WIP Blog Hop: The Derelict

The lovely and hardworking authoress KD Sarge tagged me for a blog hop, so here it is. You answer ten questions about your work in progress (WIP) and tag five other writers. So here’s a sneak peek at one of my novels….

1. What is the working title of your book?

The Derelict.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

This is one of those rare novels for which I can point to the exact origin. In an article on Tor.com a few years ago, Chris Greenland discussed concepts for a future Star Trek series. He threw out the idea of a dystopian universe where the Trek era constituted a lost Golden Age, thought to be no more than a legend and a possible inspiration for our intrepid heroes. I ran with the idea, transplanted it into an original (i.e., non-Trek) universe, and off I went.

Friday Link: Habitable Planet Discovered At Last?

Happy Friday!

As a huge Star Trek fan, I got really excited when astronomers first started discovering planets outside our solar system. Then more and more planets were identified, and none of them were hospitable to (Earth) life, and we didn’t find any aliens, and the whole thing got kind of boring even for a space geek like me.

Here’s a reminder that finding new planets is still something worth celebrating.

From the Surprising Science blog:

The latest in a long string of recent exoplanet discoveries could be the most exciting one yet: A planet called HD 40307g, roughly 44 light years away, appears to be the most likely candidate to harbor life of any exoplanet we’ve discovered to date. Larger than Earth, but smaller than a gas giant, the planet seems to be in the “goldilocks” zone of its star system, the region with the right balance of heat and cold to potentially allow for liquid water.

Read the rest.

That’s all for this week. See you back here on Monday!

7 Tips for Dealing with Life’s Curveballs

This week, life threw me a curveball. Due to a freak folk dancing accident, I’m going to be hobbling around for a while. Sucks, right? Yes. But not as much as one might think.

At another time in my life, I would have been a complete emotional mess if something like this happened. Waterworks (tears), worries running rampant in my head, growling at my loved ones. But that’s just not the case right now. Sure, I’m a little worried, and yes, I shed a few tears, but overall I’m pretty mellow.

What’s changed?

First of all, it helps that I’m pretty happy with my life right now, and I don’t have any urgent plans that have been thrown into disarray (like, say, moving into a new house or going to a writers’ convention). Second, as disasters go, this one is pretty minor. But those are factors you can’t control, so I’m less interested in them for the purposes of this post.

So what have I learned about dealing with injury and other curveballs?

1. Acknowledge your emotions. First, it’s important to let yourself feel fear, or grief or whatever you need to feel. Share them with someone who’ll listen, too.

World Fantasy Convention 2012, Part 2

Last week, I blogged about this year’s World Fantasy Convention. I promised to share more about the panels, so here are some tidbits from one panel on urban fantasy and another on maps in fantasy literature.

Urban Fantasy panel

This panel was interesting because it included Tim Powers, Charles De Lint, and Tanya Huff, three people who have been writing more-or-less urban fantasy since before its recent reincarnation as “the subgenre formerly known as paranormal romance”. Also on the panel were David Hartwell, Ann VanderMeer, and Farah Mendlesohn (moderator), all editors who have their own familiarity with urban fantasy.

A few highlights:

Friday Link: Fantasy Archers

Happy Friday! Here’s what I have for you this week:

This piece by N.C. Wyeth is part of a Tor.com round-up of fantasy art featuring archers. Lots of beautiful and thought-provoking artwork there — go see the rest!

And that’s all for now. See you back here on Monday.

Link: Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions

I’m under deadline at the moment, finishing up edits on the new anthology we’re putting out at Turtleduck Press (release date December 1!). So today’s post is just a quick one to point you to my blog post over there. Here’s a teaser:

Back in high school, I was a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, so I would dress up in uniform (gold, like Data) and go to get autographs from Star Trek actors and buy memorabilia. I have Wil Wheaton’s autograph from back when he was (in)famous for being Wesley Crusher and not for being an internet personality. (Side note: It’s very strange to see these actors becoming famous again for something completely different. Case in point: George Takei.)

Read the rest!

(Yes, I’m talking about books and media and fandom on a Wednesday. So sue me. 😉 )