Larry’s Pretty Good Journal

Of the three anthologies I’ve published, largely for my own pleasure, the one I return to most is Story Lines. For many years, I reread and occasionally refined Important Beyond All This, but to my surprise I’ve only occasionally touched it since putting Story Lines together. Even the deep tides of First League Out haven’t pulled me as much.

Correlate to that, I’ve spent more than a few idle cycles pondering narrative poems I’ve come across since, wondering whether it’s worth the bother of including them in a revision. Most of the time, the answer has been no, but I kept returning to two—and found myself wanting them in a convenient location. So—hwæt!

There’s now* a third edition of Story Lines, adding “Sir Orfeo,” an anonymous 14th century Breton lay (in Jesse Weston’s translation), and at the other end of the anthology, “The Horse Thief” by William Rose Benét (older brother of the more famous Stephen Vincent). If you already purchased this before, it should have been updated automatically, or so I’m told—but if you haven’t, here’s more to entice you.

Available from all the usual purveyors of fine ebook products: Kobo | Kindle | Smashwords | and so on

(As usual, reviews are appreciated—review copies can be arranged. So are oops/gotcha reports.)


* As of, ahem, several months ago. It’s been a long year. I was hoping to announce a print edition at the same time, but the process of getting a thick slab squared away has been oft interrupted.

---L.

There’s an AO3 story stats meme going around (I saw it from genarti) “Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, most kudos, most comments, most bookmarks, most words, and least words.” I admit, I was kinda curious — I rarely check stats after the first few days. So I poked at the sorting function:

Most hits: A Roll of the Dice - Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pu Songling — A wuxia-inflected tale of the uncanny. I’d make a comment about how all my most popular fics are either Chinese source or Greek mythology, but given I’ve posted a bare handful that aren’t those two, it’d be surprising if that wasn’t true. (Not part of the meme, but for my own amusement, least hits is Paul Bunyan and the Photocopier. Sorry, Babe.)

Most kudos: Mother of Wood Deludes the Monk into Binding the Mind-Ape / Guanyin Puts Her Face in Her Hand - Journey to the West - Wu Cheng'en — Wukong gets himself in trouble with Sanzang, again, with Pigsy’s help, again. This has two-and-a-half times as many as second place, A Change of Season (Tang Dynasty RPF), and was second place in previous stat. I think, given this and the next two, I can mark this as my most popular overall.

Most comments: Same as previous, with same second place.

Most bookmarks: Same as previous, with same second place.

Most words: The Myrmidon Cycle - Ancient Greek Religion & Lore & Metamorphoses - Ovid — Reader, I am *cackling* with glee. My longest is an epic poem! And a sex farce! That’s unfinished! Admittedly, you could argue that this shouldn’t count, as it was written as separate stories intended as a series, pasted together as chapters. The runner-up is Young Agamemnon Sees It Through, which is prose of a whole piece.

Least words: Kassandra, at the Skiain Gate - Ancient Greek Religion & Lore — Again, you could argue a poem doesn’t count for these purposes. The next several smallest are also poems as well: the shortest prose is Weaving Rumors (The Odyssey - Homer), which since it was written for Yuletide is (just) over 1000 words. Plus I’m not much for flash fiction.

---L.

Subject quote from What’s Up Danger, Blackway & Black Caviar.

Yuletide reveals—I wrote something Keatsean for mme_hardy:

Her Hair a Glory, Like a Saint (3846 words)
Fandom: The Eve of St. Agnes - John Keats
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Porphyro (The Eve of St. Agnes)/Madeline (The Eve of St. Agnes), Porphyro (The Eve of St. Agnes) & Angela (The Eve of St. Agnes)
Characters: Porphyro (The Eve of St. Agnes), Madeline (The Eve of St. Agnes), Angela (The Eve of St. Agnes), Hildebrand (The Eve of St. Agnes), Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Poetry, Sestina, Villanelle, Sonnet, Ballades, aubade, Plague, Courtship in cathedrals, Courtship through poems, Troubadour wannabe, Medieval University Student, with all that implies, Canon-Typical Poetry
Summary: Five poems Porphyro wrote to Madeline—including one that he failed to complete and, alas, then lost.

Backstory, including how Porphyro and Madeline met. The idea came from the recipient’s prompt giving free reign to be experimental, including the suggestion of a sonnet sequence. Well, no, not that, I thought on reading that, Porphyro’s too much a medieval university student for one of those. My first conception was a 5+1 story, but I’m not poet enough to write a full corona of 7 sonnets of Porphyro spiritualizing his desire for Madeline, and another plague poem would have given that thread too much weight. As it is, I am proud of the lockdown sestina.

I’m still compiling a post of recs, of which more anon. Speaking of which, are there any must-read standouts I should check out? I haven’t been reading the usual recommendation comms.

—L.

Subject quote from She’s the One, Bruce Springteen.

One last mythic narrative poem for this round, this one not only not a sex farce but also not actually from the trunk (it did get published). Possibly, despite the ending, the most straight up romantic story I’ve ever written.

Psyche, at Midnight, in the Dark (537 words) by lnhammer
Fandom: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Metamorphoses - Apuleius
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Eros/Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Characters: Eros (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Additional Tags: Secret Identity Fail, Divine Marriage, MacGyvering a Lamp, Romantic Angst, Poetry, Couplets
Summary:

She waited one full year and one day more
but still he didn’t tell her. And when for
one more last time she asked to see the face
that in the darkness she could only trace,
he stopped her with a finger on her lips—
“You cannot.”

Or, how the stories we tell blind us.

---L.

Subject quote from What Is Love, Howard Jones.

More cleaning out my trunk of works that never found a publication home (ETA: though, actually, I’d forgotten this was actually was published), this one neither Greek myth nor farcical. Also, not rhyme royal, but rather a sestina written in part as a demonstration that it’s a good form for narrative poems with an obsessive theme and the exact right size story. (I’ve written others, but this was the most successful.)

At Death’s Door (333 words) by lnhammer
Fandom: Original Work, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came - Robert Browning
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Original Male Character(s)
Additional Tags: Afterlife, Quests, Alternate Universe - Desert Setting, Poetry, narrative poetry, Sestina, Desert
Summary:

Within the waste, dawn was diluted light
not yet tinged with colors other than shades
of black. Soon molten sun would stream high
above him, washing the bare world sere and pale
with the heat of desiccation, but for now,
small mercies, it was cool enough to walk

Or, what happens when “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” is retold as a desert southwest AU.

---L.

Subject quote from I’m Not Your Hero, Tegan & Sara.

Another Greek myth sex farce to distract you from current events.

Pygmalion’s Marriage (1052 words) by lnhammer
Fandom: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Metamorphoses - Ovid
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Galatea the Statue/Pygmalion (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Characters: Galatea the Statue (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Pygmalion (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Additional Tags: Sex Farce, Literal Statuesque Beauty, Born Sexy Yesterday, Artists Are Jerks, Sculpture, Modern Retelling, Poetry, Couplets
Summary:

Pygmalion of Cyprus was a sculptor
who found the local women lacked a full
appreciation of his work and him ...
                                                 and so
he carved himself a woman of his own.

Or, how to deconstruct the Born Sexy Yesterday trope in three easy steps.

---L.

Subject quote from What Is Love, Howard Jones.

I still sometimes collect links to share:

Canto I of Dante’s Inferno translated in terza rima and no letter e. (via)

An especially nice positive review of Ice Melts in the Wind. (via asakiyume)

Larry the Stormtrooper tries to run a Zoom meeting with Palpatine, Vader, and Boba Fett. (via Eaglet)

(Yes, my kid is old enough to feed me linkage.)

---L.

Subject quote from Synchronicity II, The Police. (I’d forgotten how stupid the video is.) (Line is pointing at the last link.)

I can tell I’m near the end of a book. My characters have started talking to me about what happens a few years later instead of the next scene, let alone working us out of this mess we’re in. I know how it’ll all resolve, but nobody wants to pass through the painful week it’ll take to move all the pieces into place for reconciliation.

(Yes, it’s nice to learn the majors you’ll eventually declare, but can we maybe get your girlfriend talking to you two again hmmm?)

---L.

Subject quote from I’m Not Your Hero, Tegan & Sarah.

The seasons, they roll on.

Eaglet starts second grade next week, remote learning only for the foreseeable future, beginning two weeks late. We’re podding with some friends: a boy we bubbled with for play-dates for a few weeks, earlier this summer, and twin girls (one of whom has been engaged to the boy since kindergarten). We’re hoping learning together will provide enough social to make the format easier for Eaglet to deal with, compared to this spring, and that the teachers have gotten enough experience and coaching that they’re better. Certainly, the thrice weekly park play-dates (with a different friend) and weekly pool play-dates (with Eaglet's oldest friend) over the last month has helped Eaglet a LOT, even with social distancing (which for the kids amounts to, no actual rough-housing).

Academics, I’m not worried about, much — a summer of dealing with video game messages has made Eaglet a more confident reader, though they are still a reluctant reader of books. Math skills seem to have remained steady and deductive skills improved, though it may seem that way because they’re also getting better at expressing themselves. A fair amount of Chinese has been forgotten, though, despite twice-weekly tutoring, and the school is not offering immersion remotely, only lessons.

As for myself, my quarantine hair has gotten to that awkward stage where it's too long to stay neat — parted in the middle, it frizzes out above my temples — but too short to usefully tie back. Also, the fiction writing part of my brain has woken from its years-long coma -- I've polished a couple old stories and now reworking three old trunk novels in parallel. This has put translating (and Chinese lessons in general) on the sideline, alas.

Roll on, seasons, roll thundering on.

---L.

Subject quote from Ballad of Mulan, Anonymous tr. mine.

Another meme, a fanfic one gacked from moon_custafer:

Look at the most recent 20 fanwork titles on your AO3 account.

Hmm. I only have 10, but it looks like a large enough sample size to try this.

1. How many are you happy with? 8

2. How many are... not great? Two Brothers, Two Weddings, Two Partings is just yuck. Green is thematically accurate in multiple ways but thoroughly bland as advertising.

3. How many did you scramble for at the last minute? *points to first title in previous* I was not on my titling game that Yuletide.

4. How many did you know before you started writing/creating, or near the beginning? All the good ones. Cut-and-Dried Sleeve, the title was the plotbunny.

5. How many are quotes from songs or poems? Only one, and that a riffing misquote -- despite how many of them are poem fics. (The title that is a verse is original.)

6. How many are other quotes? None.

7. Which best reflects the plot of the story/content of the fanwork? Young Agamemnon Sees It Through, which gives you exactly what it says on the tin.

8. Which best reflects the theme of the story/fanwork? A Change of Season. Honorable mention to A Roll of the Dice.

9. Which best reflects the character voice of the story/POV of the fanwork? Mother of Wood Deludes the Monk into Binding the Mind-Ape / Guanyin Puts Her Face in Her Hand. Honorable mention to Cut-and-Dried Sleeve.

10. Which is your favourite? Mother of Wood Deludes the Monk into Binding the Mind-Ape / Guanyin Puts Her Face in Her Hand.

Subject quote from Forty Singing Seamen, Alfred Noyes.