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13th June 2003: On Re-reading Trollope

Posted on by Jo Walton

There are still sixteen Trollope novels I haven’t read yet, which is a very cheering thought. They aren’t in the library and they aren’t in print, but they exist and are out there and will turn up one day, along…

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Posted in Books, Tooth and Claw

3rd June 2003: Structure

Posted on by Jo Walton

Structure, for me, is something very delicate that emerges either before or as I am writing. It’s not something I add later, and the very thought of adding it later fills me with horror. I’ve frequently found that it’s easier…

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Posted in Sulien World, Writing

10th March 2003: Up on the white verandah

Posted on by Jo Walton

Darkhawk asked me why the religions in my novel would be always not quite coping. There’s a Bob Dylan song on the album Desire called “Black Diamond Bay” which begins: Up on the white verandah, she wears a necktie and a…

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Posted in Lifelode

25th March 2003: Wittering about writing

Posted on by Jo Walton

Oh, and incidentally, because this is going to sound demented. You know how there are some characters you keep writing? Who keep coming back in different forms, and want to be written about, like Bottom auditioning for all the parts…

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Posted in Lifelode, Writing

22nd February 2003: As you wish

Posted on by Jo Walton

When I was a child, I could run. I haven’t been able to run since I was fourteen or fifteen, because of a trapped nerve in my pelvis after it had been broken, which affected me when I grew. The…

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Posted in Among Others, Life as it blossoms out in a jar or a face, My Books

11th February 2003: Thoughts on Fantasy

Posted on by Jo Walton

Probably the worst piece of writing advice I have ever heard in my entire life, including time spent on rec.arts.sf.composition, was a professional writer advising people wishing to write fantasy to watch people roleplaying to get an idea of how…

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Posted in Lifelode, My Books, Writing

7th January 2002: Genre conventions

Posted on by Jo Walton

Sarah Monette was writing in her journal about Bujold and Sayers, and what A Civil Campaign doesn’t do that Gaudy Night does, and a conversation following on from that. There are genre conventions, there are subversions of genre conventions, and…

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Posted in Books, Lifelode, Writing

26th November 2002: Amazon…

Posted on by Jo Walton

Amazon, while they now admit they ship PRIZE IN THE GAME in 24 hours, still have no picture, and still say it’s released in December. But much worse is that they claim people who bought it wear cheetah print slippers!…

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Posted in Sulien World, Whimsy

22nd November 2002 Publication of Prize in the Game

Posted on by Jo Walton

A delivery guy just delivered a big box of books — twenty hardbacks of THE PRIZE IN THE GAME. Amazon still don’t have the cover up, and still claim it isn’t released until December, even if they do have the…

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Posted in My Books, Sulien World