Dot dot dot ...

[larryhammer]

By the dots.

• A poll -- please fill in the blank: "If a guy named Larry went to Switzerland, he absolutely must see ________."
  
  
• WFC was fun as usual. Got to catch up with friends (waves to aerion, 1crowdedhour), defictionalize a metric boatload of others (waves to chibicharibdys, kaygo, matociquala, truepenny, mrissa, pbray, blackholly, stillnotbored, buymeaclue, and others lost in a conventional haze), and go fanboy on Garth Nix (as I feared, I blurted out admitted we named a cat Mogget). My freebie bag had Kitty and the Midnight Hour, which I'd bought and read last week. The slashfic plotbunny that came back in my luggage with will be passed over without mention.*
  
  
• While hanging around in lounges at WFC, I revised a mid-length narrative poem and started tackling my revision notes for the third myrmidon yarn.** For the latter, I need to clarify/deepen one character's motivation and replace another's, turning her from an ingenue seduced to a spy betrayed and turned. For the former, I need to figure out who on earth would want yet another Psyche and Eros telling. On the novel front, feedback on Kiss the Girls concurs with my misgivings: while the beginning and end are solid, the middle half needs to be replaced with another story that's not as complicated, confused, unclear, and long. The Sekrit Project is bubbling along. Meanwhile, the romantic fantasy has been picking slowly of late; I need to BIC and stop distracting myself with all of the above.
  
  
• In the Department of Egoboo, someone at Emerald City gave a nod to "Paul Bunyan and the Photocopier" in a list of suggestions for Hugo nominations; and The Mumpsimus cited it as the particularly fun story of the issue. That's issue #5 of Say ... , currently on sale in fine dealer's rooms and online everywhere.
  
  
• The temperate default for autumn is cold-deciduous trees. Here in the subtropical desert, we have drought-deciduous plants. There are other things plants need, that might be cut off. You could spin out a skiffy concept of dark-deciduous plants: the light goes out for long enough a time the leaves drop, but it's otherwise still warm and wet enough. Create a world with those conditions, including a society that responds to them, and you're a quarter of the way to having a story idea.
  
  
• Is it just me or is it warm in here?
  
  
• Pimping: The Trial of Tompa Lee is Edward Hoornaert's first novel under his own name. If the idea of an unholy love-child of C.J. Cherryh and Jack Vance intrigues you, this is for you. ObDisclaimer: Ed's a friend and works in the office next to mine. Neither of which changes the fact that it's a good one.

* Because Emma Bull assures me I'm going to hell for thinking of it. And coffeeem ought to know.
** Yes, I'm so lame as to write at cons. Your point?

---L.

Comments

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

If a guy named Larry went to Switzerland, he absolutely must see ________."

Italy.

Oh, ok, I'll play. Well, nothing can beat the Alpenglow on the Matterhorn, or the Alpenglow on any of the Alps, really, but the Matterhorn is especially gorgeous, and the twee little town on its shoulder, Zermatt, has no cars and everyone schusses about on skis or tinkles about in horse-drawn sleighs, with bells. Yep, bells.

Best of all: flying over the Alps in a small plane, as in a short-hop. If you can find an excuse to fly from, say, Geneva to Zurich on a clear day, it's indescribable.

Skip the cities and head for the high passes.

[larryhammer]

So one vote for planes over trains? Hmm.

Though at one point, our host did suggest a hop down to Rome (apparently cheap this time of year). But now, touristing around locally seems the preferred idea.

---L.