Setback
If any part of my current raft of projects ends up being completed exactly a day later than its intended deadline…
… you can blame itgirl.
NOT me. Her.
The only part you can blame me for is falling for the Ancient Lie: “Oh, I’ll just read a couple of pages while I’m waiting for the insert name of process here to finish, and then I’ll put it down and get back to work.”
Yes, yes, I realize that the uncharitable among you might be tempted to point out that it was also I who told the Ancient Lie.
But aside from that it is TOTALLY not my fault - ‘K?
P.S. Yes, of course I have read To Say Nothing of the Dog - I couldn’t even tell you how many times. That’s what I meant with the reference the other day to the complete works of Jerome K. Jerome. Go, read, enjoy, but don’t have fluids in your mouth, especially while reading the criticism. And again, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I adore Connie Willis. Her output has slowed down the last couple of years. I wish she’d write more.
If you haven’t read her short stories, I highly, HIGHLY recommend them.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
You’ve got a problem, dear, because if you haven’t read Connie Willis from start to finish, well, you’ve got at least a few weeks ahead of you. I sort of can’t really believe you haven’t already read To Say Nothing of the Dog, but if that’s true (did we not already have this conversation? wasn’t that book actually written FOR you?), anyway, if you haven’t yet, well, I’m jealous. And clear your schedule. Bellwether is a sitcom to TSNotD’s classic comic farce to Doomsday Book’s epic brilliance. Really, next to Dorothy Sayers, just about my favorite.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Oh, yes, surely, SURELY you’ve read To Say Nothing of the Dog!?! I… I mean… if not, YOU MUST.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
AHEM….
(…insert picture of dyer with arms folded, tapping foot impatiently and giving ‘the look’…)
October 27th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
When you read Doomsday Book and Passage, have plenty of hankies on hand. That Connie, she’ll rip your heart out.
October 28th, 2008 at 9:16 am
‘Herr Lehrer, d’Sau hat mei Hausaufgabn g’fressn.’
(Say that with a bavarian accent.)
October 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am
If there is some sort of sock idea in there, you may be able to get away with calling it research, but we has deadlines! Do we need to send the Tsocky Lynch Mob after you?
October 28th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Can you believe my library system doesn’t have Bellwether? And fortunately for my reading schedule, To Say Nothing of the Dog is in system, but currently checked out (I’ve already read Three Men in a Boat, so *of course* I had to request that one on the spot).
:::Sighs::: You are so bad for me, Tsarina. It’s not like I *need* help finding things to read. Or knit. ::grin::
October 28th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
And down the rabbit hole she goes.
Janice is right–the short stories are also pure gold. I got to hear her read the working draft of her novella “Inside Job” at a WorldCon a few years back–much fun. Subterranean Press has published a couple of her novellas as books, and she also has a few anthologies out.
“Passage” definitely requires a box of tissues be at hand while you read it, but it’s also laugh-out-loud funny in places. I need to reread “Doomsday Book,” because it’s been a decade or so since I read it. I haven’t seen my copy in ages.
At the WorldCon where we met Connie, my friend and knitting protege Jen bought a copy of “Bellwether.” On the long drive home from Toronto to Virginia, we read the book to each other (I’d read it before, of course). Jen then had to go buy the rest of the ouevre.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:15 am
Recorded Books has recorded “To Say Nothing of the Dog” and “Doomsday Book” - you can listen AND knit. Heaven.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the book that ItGirl gave you. Connie Willis is wonderful — short stories, novellas, full length novels, all of them. Surely there’s some sock inspiration in at least one of them.
Are you all going to be at Stitches East?
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 am
It’s about SHEEP! The bellwether is a SHEEP! (sort of.)
That’s knitting related!