Paging the Queen of Air and Darkness

[rolanni]

Majesty, if you must send your minions, the brown bats, to wander the halls of history in your name, please remind them to be gone before daylight finds them out.  It really isn’t safe for even a very small and discreet brown bat to nap in the corner of the ceiling over the seminar room.  People do look up, and not everyone is as fond of bats as you — or I.

Progress on The Book Presently Known as George:
26,888 words/100,000 OR 26.89% complete

“By the starry garters of the night. . .Riva.” Silain looked into the depths of her mug, like the tea was a window and beyond it she watched the story unfold.

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[elektra.livejournal.com]

Supreme Grand Master, Regional Winner Queen O AirAndDarkness of BlueBlaze, aka Karma, has directed me [her chief chronicler and opener of cans] to give you the following response:

"I'll get right on it, ma'am."

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Many years ago I spent a summer living in a castle on the French Riviera, studying art (this is before narrative supplanted image as my primary creative drive.) My room had a tall window overlooking the Mediterranean that I spent a lot of time sitting on the sill of, painting. It had no screens, only a pair of very large shutters that were pushed back against the sides of the window frame itself.

During the many weeks I lived there, I began to have recurring dreams about birds flying around in the room. On my second to last day, the student one room over came into where I was working and said, "hey, are you having dreams about birds flying around in your room?" Obviously I was somewhat floored by this. Then he very carefully pulled my window shutters away from the wall, and nestled behind them were nearly a half-dozen tiny little bats.

Very odd, definitely cool, but I admit I'm glad to have been on my way shortly thereafter.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear. Bats should not be out and about in January in Maine. No food . . .

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I once had a bat in my dorm room. I suspect it came in through an unscreened window in the bathroom down the hall. It flew in from the hall while a friend and I were watching ST:TNG and kept circling and trying to land upside down in the corners of the room, then sliding down the wall because it couldn't get a good grip. We herded/followed it downstairs and my friend went around the outside of the building to open the door at the bottom of the stairwell while I chased it out.

I'm not sure if it fully appreciated the fact that it actually invaded the room of someone who would help it instead of screaming in terror and throwing things--it seemed to think we were pretty scary.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I was thinking it was a belfry bat that had gotten downstairs in error. (Day-job office two floors below a clocktower/belfry situation.) I do worry what the PPD guy who netted him *did* with him.

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

The plague that is decimating them does make them wake up - starving - in midwinter. Poor thing.
Maybe someone in the Bio department would rise to the challenge of trying to cure it.

Bats

[claire774.livejournal.com]

There was a mention of white nose disease in bats which is decimating populations back east. I hope they find a cure for it soon. I think it's a fungus infection. I happen to be very fond of bats. Every summer we have a bat collecting night which is done by the Park Service. One takes a folding chair. The bats are caught in a net over a pond where they've come to feed. The rangers, with lights on their heads, take the bats around to be seen by the visitors. They are so cute. They count the numbers of species they find. We don't have the huge populations of bats who nest in large caves in our area. They nest in the little holes and ledges of the surrounding mesas and bluffs. So hopefully they won't catch that awful disease.
C.

Novels

[claire774.livejournal.com]

I finished Duainfey and am now reading Longeye. I liked Duainfey very much but I see the public, according to the number of stars on Amazon, had a bit of a problem with it. It was so fascinating and well so written. BUT one really has to continue with Longeye. One review on Amazon complained that there was no proper ending to Duainfey. Duh. Also it's not really appropriate for the young adult audience ....which reads, I think, a lot of Fantasy. Fantasy, traditionally, if I might give an opinion, is a genre which is read by a lot of the young adult type readers, maybe even a majority of young adult readers. Duainfey, being rather x rated, in my opinion, which is fine with me, might have been a bit shocking to the reader expecting the usual PG 13 book which most of your novels are. I noticed that Carousel Tides is strictly PG which is a wiser choice in my opinion for the fantasy novel. This genre is so popular with the kids that I don't need to say that many of those novels have been made into movies. I think one doesn't have to follow that format quite as much perhaps in Sci Fi. Although in my experince sci fi is a lot PG or PG 13. The target audience seems to have accepted Mouse and Dragon for example. Maybe sci fi/romance type audience. I've read more sci fi than fantasy in my time. Starting with Tolkien, through CS Lewis and so on. All PG rated. I haven't read much in the stictly harlequin/romance genre at all. That's a totally different audience I would imagine.

I've started Longeye. I am actually suffering from lack of sleep because one picked up Duainfey and Longeye are extremely difficult to put down. Yawn.

Thanks for all the snippets from George. Also good luck with the Hugo award.
C.

Re: Novels

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

YAs nowadays have some surprising stuff in them. I wouldn't call Duainfey x-rated myself, though certainly not YA. I think of the Fey books as going back to the dark-and-scary idea of faerie, before Walt Disney made the Unknown safe and cuddly, and vampires acquired sparkles.

I've run into the opinion that, because I write science fiction, I must be writing children's books. Obviously not true -- and the same for fantasy. Not all sf/f books are suitable for younger readers; not all sf/f books are written for younger readers. The Lord of the Rings sequence was not written for children; it was written for adults. And while it's sex-free, sex isn't the only thing that makes some books not YA. Nazgul, anyone?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

According to the Professional Naturalist, the bat was already dead. It just may not have known it yet. She doesn't know of any bat-rehab specialists in Maine.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

the bat was already dead

Because...he was awake and flying around in dead of winter? Or at least, had been awake and had flown. When I saw him, he was asleep.

[(Anonymous)]

White Nose disease. If you have a good rehab nearby, any given bat can often be hand-nursed past (this winter's) crisis. Otherwise... no go.

megd

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

As 6_penny said, "whitenose disease" is a serious possibility. But even without disease, a bat awake around here in January is a starving bat. If you got it to a qualified rehab specialist right away, and that specialist had a supply of mealworms ready off-season, the critter might have a chance.

Oh, dear...poor bat

[(Anonymous)]

I know about the White Nose fungus from some caving/sailing buddies here in Maryland. Poor baby, waking up in winter with no food.

My only other experience with bats inside has been during the summer - and they're pretty easily chased outside where they can find food and humans who won't scream at them.

I'm loving your SoG (Snippets of George),
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
PS Good luck with the tooth