Very Inspiring Blogs (and sites)
Hurray, I found the person who had awarded this to me. It was http://www.cranehanabooks.com
Thank you Cranehana 🙂
It comes with rules:
I’m supposed to share seven facts about myself. Then list the blogs and sites I find inspiring. So here we go.
1. I was going to be Christened Robyn, and have always regretted that my mum had a last minute change of heart. I’ve made up for it by giving myself unisex names ever since.
2. I never actually intended to become known for historicals. I’ve always been a Fantasy fan. Other than Mary Renault’s historicals (which I read because so many of her characters were gay) I don’t believe I’ve ever read any plain historicals. This doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy writing them, but I think I appreciate them as a fantasy fan would – what I enjoy is the exoticism of a world very far from our own.
3. My favourite Star Wars film is The Phantom Menace. It never ceases to annoy me that everyone else in the universe puts it down. No other Star Wars film has Qui-Gon Jinn, therefore Phantom Menace is the best. I rest my case.
4. Part of the reason why I get so het up about being classed as an erotica writer is that I am asexual, and being lumped in with erotica means that everybody talks to me about sex all the time, which is intensely boring. Surely there are more interesting things to be thinking about?
5. My favourite film of all time is probably Blade Runner. Still as stylish now as it ever was, but when it first came out it was mindblowing.
(I thought Loki in The Avengers was about to launch into Roy Batty’s speech: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” But it didn’t quite get there. “I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about. I have grown, Odin’s son, in my exile.” Nah. Close, but no orgone accumulator.)
6. If I was an elf in Tolkien’s universe, I’d be a Sindar. I’d dance and make music and dwell in the twilight, half way between one thing and the other.
7. I think more people should study social anthropology and philosophy. The more open our minds were to the fact that the way human society does almost anything is almost infinitely malleable, the less hidebound we’d be.
Sites I visit often:
The Mary Sue Lighthearted and interesting site about F/SF from a more female perspective than the mainstream magazines.
TV Tropes Don’t click on this link unless you have half a day to spare. I mean it!
The Retronaut History in photos. (So it rarely goes back before the invention of the photograph.)
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog Servaunt of the Kynge. Blogger. Wryter of verse. Wearer of litel woolen hatte.
Dean Wesley Smith Hard nosed writing advice from someone who regards his writing career as a business.
Ferretbrain Some fascinating and often hilarious reviews of SF/F
Georgian London and some equally fascinating forays into a different astonishing world.
The Hathor Legacy Feminist blog of great interest – it’s hard to sum up.
History in the Margins Whacky history stuff!
Inkbutter I’ve got to say, I prefer E45 to their actual product, but their blog is fascinating if you’re at all interested in tattoos.
Of course Jessewave and Elisa Rolle
Shrinking Violets a writer’s blog for introverts.
Faith Seeking Understanding A thoughtful Christian blog which I don’t necessarily always agree with, but which always has interesting things to think about.
Haikujaguar MCA Hogarth’s blog – also always interesting and gracious.
“I never actually intended to become known for historicals. I’ve always been a Fantasy fan.”
Funny, I’ve always thought of you as a writer of historicals who strays into fantasy now and again! And I realise that this is because I love historicals and don’t like fantasy, so I bring my own prejudices into interpreting your career. It also means that one day, when you feel secure enough, I’ll lose you to fantasies because you won’t feel you have to write historicals any more. I’ll miss you!!!
The terrible truth is that it was a fantasy film which got me into the Age of Sail. There’s a moment in Pirates of the Caribbean where the HMS Dauntless looms out of the mist? That was where I sat up and thought ‘oooh, tall ships! Why have I never realised before that tall ships are awesome?’ And that sent me off to Patrick O’Brian and an obsession with the Royal Navy. So the whole thing was something of a fluke. But having said that, I was there watching it in the first place because I do like the combination of history with fantasy. History is interesting – I just generally prefer it in combination with something, whether that’s fantasy or mystery or both.
But, given I’ve been overwhelmed with a desire to write historicals once, it pretty much does mean it’s something I must be susceptible to. So it’s not likely never to happen again!