I guess with a name like Dandelion, it has to be fluff....

I'm entirely aware of the political issues, and yet the sound of the horns of Rohan sends a chill up my spine every damned time I read it.

I know, love. EVERYONE loves Tolkein. I'm a total freak and I can't help it, that all that happens when I read his stuff is that I want to go back in time and tell him to get laid and enjpy himself and stop farting around with all those annoying hairy archtypes.

I've got a different level of heresy--I'm utterly in love with the movies, but only mildly liked the books, and have no desire to re-read them ever. His writing style bugs me.

My problem with the movies is that I walked in during a scene where Gandalf is getting flicked off a bit of rock by a special effect, and I looked at him and thought "Huh. Ian McKellan."

I didn't see a wizard; I saw the actor. A sure sign the movie isn't going to do it for me.

Ah. I've had that experience with other movies.

Of course, I spent half of FotR wondering who the lickable man playing Boromir was, but that's a different distracted by the actor experience entirely. Somewhere on whatever board Buffistas lived on then, there's a post of me saying "Who. Is. That?" and being introduced to Sean Bean and hours of fun with the Sharpe's Rifles series.

EVERYONE loves Tolkein. ... I want to go back in time and tell him to get laid and enjpy himself and stop farting around with all those annoying hairy archtypes.

I'm sure the same words passed Mrs. Tolkien's lips many a night. Fat lot of good it did her...

I'm sure the same words passed Mrs. Tolkien's lips many a night. Fat lot of good it did her...

If there's any justice, she saw a lot of productions of Wagner.

Maybe Der Meistersinger.

Just finished my editing pass. Tomorrow I'll make a Target run for a fresh toner cartridge and a ream of paper, and print the monster out and have the complete in the mail to Marlene and the partials out to the conference contacts by the end of the week.

It's not everything I want it to be yet. In a month or so, I might make another pass just in case the Harper editor wants to see the complete. But meanwhile I'm going to set it aside and start my homework for the next one, and get down the scenes that are already teasing my brain.

Suela, SUBMIT the sucker before you give up. Send it to Dandelion. All it costs you is a stamp.

Signed, Miss Do-What-I-Say-Not-What-I-Do

In unrelated news, a friend of mine got a scathing Kirkus review of her first novel, a YA fantasy. I am consoling her by saying that Kirkus doesn't matter nearly as much as Library Journal for kids' books -- am I right? Good Kirkus reviews are lovely, bad ones don't matter?

Kirkus is notoriously edgy, Betsy - the word I want is "capricious". And yes, LJ and Booklist are the ones she wants.

Also PW. I hope they do Weaver; they did Eyes and Plainsong.

(fretting)