Time she flies

I’ve been not writing lately. Or rather, I’ve been unwriting and replotting. I’m working on the fourth Diamond City Magic book and it’s got a LOT of stuff going on. We meet Tyrell. And we meet some other bad guys. And we see an explosion of events that the first three books have been building up to. Don’t be thinking that things are resolved, though. This is a longer story than that. I am excited about the way the plot is redeveloping. I had planned things that no longer are viable, or no longer are as interesting or worthy of the story.

I just wish I could make the process go faster. That part is driving me nucking futs.

In other news, strawberries are getting ripe, I’ve got the tomatoes and all the peppers in, the peas and broccoli and cabbage *might* produce before the heat ends it (we’ve been having little tiny heat waves). I also need to plant cucumbers. I’m waiting on the melons til I can turn over the pea/broccoli bed. The thornless logan berry is going nuts and so are the blueberries. Hopefully we get more than the birds do.

Finished our first round of rock polishing (took about 8 weeks). Pretty happy with the results. I’ll have to take some pictures. Heading off to read and work. Oh, and my father-in-law is coming for a longer than expected visit (about 10 days).

2 Comments

  • Mitchell Stewart

    Read ‘Whispers’. Best of the Diamond books so far. Finally she’s stops being a victim to her emotions! Emotions are important, no doubt — geez, just read the incomparable Martha Nussbaum or the less comparable but more accessible Jonathan Haidt — but, in the first two books as entertaining as they were, our heroine acted too much like an adolescent male — driven by hormones, and then not being as open either emotionally or morally as one might expect (an unfair standard, I admit) of a smart, independent, and very resourceful woman. When I say morally, I am thinking of her holding back important secrets, knowledge, and views from her beloved. As a consequence, she keeps stepping on her … well, if she were a male, it would be her male organ so in this case you’ll just have to make something up. But, in book three she starts almost behaving like a mature person, especially a mature woman. She still loves, she is still passionate, and certainly her valuing of family becomes paramount. But, she doesn’t come off as a child, a petulant male child, as she did in the first two books. I like your writing, and I like your effort to create interesting female heroines. I still prefer what you did in the Crosspointe series (sorry, but I don’t think you have surpassed that and I really wish you had returned to it and spent more time on Margaret who I think is, so far, your best female protagonist), but Diamond is improving and you do a really good job with realistic sexual tension and interaction without going from erotic to porn (and that is really, really difficult). Gold standard for female protagonists in my view continue to be Honor Harrington (and her female friends and colleagues — Weber is just really good with female heroines) and Cordelia Naismith (I am not sure about Bujold’s latest, but the early pre-Miles books show a very realistic, very tough, and very admirable heroine). Bujold’s Chalion series is almost equally good but different but the Sharing Knife sucks. Oh well, writing is ultimately a spectator sport. Crosspointe continues to be your best (in my humble opinion) but Diamond is coming along very nicely so I look forward to the next. Oh yeah, and I really liked your dissertation and am trying to figure out ways to introduce some of your propositions into my Osher courses. Anyway, keep it up. You are yourself something of a heroine.

    • Di Francis

      Wow. I love seeing your response. I was going for maturing her through these books, so I’m so glad that made it through. Now she has to become a leader and be proactive rather than reactive. Or has to learn how, anyhow. I’m sure she’ll have some setbacks. 😀

      Thanks on the dissertation. I didn’t think anybody but my committee read it 😀 If you ever look at His Vegetable Wife by Pat Murphy, it’s a really good story and does a lot with feminism and colonization. It engages students well, too.

      Thanks for writing! I haven’t read Bujold and Weber in a really long time. You reminded me I need to reread. If only my unread piles weren’t so high!

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