Who Loves Ya, Baby? II - I do!

[ellenkushner]

Hey, krismcd59 - thanks for letting me know about the really nice shout out from George R. R. Martin (grrm in his A Dance With Dragons update on Jan. 1, 2008! ("[I]f it's more epic fantasy that you're yearning for, there's never been more good fantasies being published than there are right now. Try Daniel Abraham, try Scott Lynch, try S.L. Farrell and David Anthony Durham and Peter S. Beagle, try Lisa Tuttle and Robin Hobb and Ellen Kushner, or any of myriad other authors whose work is making fantasy such an exciting genre to be a part of... ")

Three days in , and so far it's being a lovely new year. Now that my head's stopped spinning from all the traveling (and the Titanic move to NYC before that), I'm feeling like I once again have choices about how I spend my life and time. If last year was the year of "Never say No to a Public Appearance," I want this to be the year of Writing. I'm really fortunate to be in a position to make that choice, and I mean to know it, as Jo March might say, every day. This week last year, I was gasping out desperate posts about not knowing what to write. It was the end of a terrible time that way - witness the fact that I admitted it in public. Now I've got a ton of projects lined up, from the Roxane YA (big thanks to y'all for the hot tips on the night I thought of it!) to some Riverside short stories to a total rewrite of The Bone Chandelier (the musical w/Ben Moore) and some gentle tweaks on The Witches of Lublin (live radio music/drama w/Yale Strom & Eliz. Schwartz), to stories for new Datlow/Windling anthologies . . . all circling for landings, in various stages of readiness, but definitely up there.

It feels much better. It feels right.

Happy New Year. May 2008 bring you the time, the energy and the will to follow your best and truest desires.

Comments

[aurenfaie.livejournal.com]

It's so funny to see that an author I love and admire also loves and admires an author I love and admire! Hah. Say that five times fast!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I love and admire GRRM for more than just his writing. He was one of the first people to make me welcome in the F&SF community, and I've never forgotten his kindness: My first job out of college, as an editorial assistant at Ace Books, and my first Nebula weekend on the job - at some hotel in NYC; I knock on the door of the room that The Party is in, and it opens to a blast of noise and strangers - fortunately, opened by GRRM (still wearing his trademark black and white striped RailRoad cap at the time), who proceeded to introduce me to people and chat with me and generally make me feel like I belonged, or could do. He claims not to remember any of this, but I do and always will.

[aurenfaie.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is amazing! It's wonderful the way people can touch us, and change our lives. You're such a lucky woman, Ellen. (:

Bizarro Me

[grrm.livejournal.com]

Well, I certainly remember meeting you, though I think it was at a Philcon, not a Nebula banquet.

However, I have NEVER worn a black and white striped railroad cap.

A Greek fisherman's cap, sure. I've got a closet full of them. A fedora, hey, some of those as well. I have also been known to wear a cowboy hat (with or without feather), a derby, a top hat, a fool's cap (with bells), various sorts of Mardi Gras headgear, various sorts of berets, many different baseball hats and "gimme" hats, even Mickey Mouse ears. But never a railroad engineer's hat.

I think you met the Bizarro Me.

But hell, you wrote SWORDSPOINT, so it's all cool.

Re: Bizarro Me

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

No, it's OK; I think I know what happened: we're in one of those weird Peter Dickinson novels that's all about how the passage of time changes people's memories, or the passage of events alters their perceptions of them - until finally the truth is revealed! So if you say it was never a railroad hat, I believe you. Which is strange, 'cause I can see it very clearly. But then, I'm not all that visual in real life (Delia makes fun of me because I can never remember the exact layout of a room we've just left - oh, ha ha, like anyone - except, apparently, her, can really do that!), and I do remember words; so it must have been a fisherman's cap on which my memory imposed the imprint of your middle name.

Because it definitely had a brim. And no bells.

[ninstorage.livejournal.com]

Riverside short stories? *perk* - awesome.

Have an absolutely brilliant 2008! I'm looking forward to it myself. New years always bring new beginnings.

[yaoi-in-exile.livejournal.com]

*shriek* RIVERSIDE SHORT STORIES?!?!

*passes out on floor*