the essential kit

Recent Reads: CITY OF BONES

June 11, 2013

I read CITY OF BONES in a deliberately deconstructive manner. I wanted to see what worked and why. So this is perhaps an unusually, er, structural, review thingy. First off, Clare nearly lost me on page three, where the POV character did something to the effect of “my flashing green eyes scanned the room,” which, well, how damned often do you say, “My clear blue eyes lifted to the heavens,” even if you’re deliberately describing what actions you took? The color of your eyes is not likely to come into…

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Dear Brain,

June 11, 2013

Dear Brain: Please stop suggesting Kickstarters I could do. The list is already longer than my arm, I do still have a book under contract and two more verbally contracted, plus a bunch of short stories to write for people. I also have to, at some point, actually write new proposals for my editors. I’m just sayin’. Love, Me.

Kitsnaps: Egret, Possibly Snowy

June 11, 2013

Another one where I went back and forth and back and forth trying to decide whether it should be a color or b&w photograph. Obviously I finally decided on B&W. :) Egret at Dublin Zoo! (Someone had to correct me on this, I had put it down as an ibis due to them living with the ibis…es…and I wasn’t thinking enough. Egret! Probably snowy! :))

RIP, Iain Banks

June 10, 2013

Fairly early yesterday afternoon, my friend Pádraig posted on FB to say that after a sudden turn for the worse, Iain Banks had died early yesterday morning. I didn’t repost until I saw it confirmed elsewhere, because although there was really no chance Pádraig was wrong, I was still holding out a tiny thread of hope. Honestly, I have no business being so saddened by his death. I met him at a small convention in Belfast over the course of a weekend, and was completely charmed by him. I still,…

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Kitsnaps: Convention Centre Dublin View

June 10, 2013

Convention Centre Dublin View[/caption] I’m not absolutely sure this should qualify as a Kitsnap, but what the heck. I was in Dublin’s new convention centre a while back, and this panorama is one I took from an upper floor, overlooking the docklands.