...that it's hot as dammit out there on the porch, but then I realized that to do so would make me sound a little thick. It's the Dog Days of August in the Tennessee valley. Of-friggin'-course it's hot and sticky out there. Besides, nobody put a gun to my head and made me dress like Blackwater Barbie this morning. Do you Yankees know why Southerners seem to talk and walk so slow? It's so that we don't die of heat stroke in the summers, that's why.
I'm about a quarter of the way through Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga for the third time. Man, oh man, can she write great characters. I've often quipped that a good story can rescue bad writing, but as time goes by I've decided that what's really important are the characters. If you can write great, three-dimensional characters that readers can believe in and care about, you could put them in an empty room and have them talk to each other for 600 pages and it would still be enjoyable.
So all-in-all it's a pleasant day to be on the porch, if you don't mind a little melting around the edges, and to top it all off I'll get to watch Smoltz v. El Duque tonight. Life could be a lot worse. Laundry can wait 'til mañana.
Blackwater Barbie?! Do you have photos of this? Should we be aroused or scared?
ReplyDeleteYou've seen pictures of it. I'm just not wearing the vest today.
ReplyDeleteEl Duque's still in the big leagues? Jesus, didn't he pitch to Moses? Further proof there's too many teams...
ReplyDeleteThe guy hasn't even had a ten year career yet. His first Major League season was '98. Smoltz has been pitching since '88.
ReplyDeleteHow old are you? Twelve?
Hence I named one of my sons "Miles"
ReplyDeletehttp://dendarii.com/
ReplyDeleteTam,
ReplyDeleteIf you want to have a good read with good character development, try Freehold and The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson (Baen publishing). I was at a gun show in Indy and my wife found a dirk she wanted at his booth. He makes knives as well as writes. They are long, but worth the read.
Dingo
It has been too long since LMB wrote an adventure for Miles.
ReplyDeleteI 2nd Freehold series. VERY strong female characters (Yikes!) and very knowledgeable about guns.
I love this quote from The Weapon (paraphrased)..."If you pull out a big gun on Freehold, one of two things will happen depending on the circumstances and your attitude. People will flock over to admire your new toy and beg you to let them shoot it. Or someone will pull out a bigger gun and blow your head off. Someone always has a bigger gun."
Keep screwing up the commenting.... sorry.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, how far along is 3/4? Brothers in Arms? Mirror Dance?
Cetaganda I came to enjoy over time, but I still don't like Diplomatic Immunity.
"If you want to have a good read with good character development, try Freehold and The Weapon by Michael Z. Williamson"
ReplyDeleteActually, I got my copy of The Weapon signed by Mike last time I ran into him via Oleg. :)
Baen has a Free Library on the web.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baen.com/library/
You can read the first one, "Freehold", here. Or, get a taste for it, then buy the book.
Bunch of other books available, usually early books in series.
It sucks here in Pennsylvania too. 97 and high humidity. My house doesn't have central AC either. My room AC units are working hard, but not quite cutting it when the temperature outside is this high.
ReplyDeleteTam said...
ReplyDeleteThe guy hasn't even had a ten year career yet. His first Major League season was '98. Smoltz has been pitching since '88.
How old are you? Twelve?
Almost 30. And the man lied about his age when he got here. He's not Julio Franco, but he's close. That, my dear shotgun snarker, was that angle I was working. Hence the whole "pitch to Moses" thing.
Try the Liaden Universe novels by Steve Miller and Sharon Lee.
ReplyDeleteI love their use of language!
John Ringo also rocks, and David Weber, natch!
Yeah, Bujold is definitely on my keeper shelf.
Like I was telling Larry Correia the other day-- making believable characters who actually maintain that character throughout a non-predictable plot (i.e., you have to guess how someone would react, and when you see these people react to what the plot throws at them, it rings true to the character) is just a step shy of Gawd.
ReplyDeleteYou're creating souls, and committing them to pixel/paper. I can't really do that.
I can tell a story okay, but creating the plot and plugging in interesting characters of my own creation is witchcraft to me.
"You can read the first one, "Freehold", here. Or, get a taste for it, then buy the book."
ReplyDeleteI have the first one, too. I've read it, like, four times. :)
"Anyway, how far along is 3/4? Brothers in Arms? Mirror Dance?
Cetaganda I came to enjoy over time, but I still don't like Diplomatic Immunity."
I'm only about 1/4 the way through the whole saga, or about done with Ethan Of Athos, in other words.
"Hence the whole "pitch to Moses" thing."
And yet the game-winning homer last night was hit by a man who had his rookie Major League season while Christ was still playing double-A ball... ;)