Road by Anti-Pati-ya
This image was one I found in the last few weeks while looking for images to inspire my next book, but if I were to choose any one of the pictures I collected on DeviantArt to symbolize Letters to My Nemesis, this would be it.
If you want to be a first reader for this book, I'm looking for a handful of volunteers to start the process.
Summary: Abi's chosen for a friendly tournament with the next neighborhood over, an event that draws a lot of attention online.
She's also a drop-out just returning to school at 18 and old gang-enemies are trying to start wars with her in class. She also has to figure out her destiny as someone who is bright enough to do anything, but has a major talent for something she hates with a passion.
***
This is not the first time this is happened, but it's more dismaying to have it happen again than to have had it happen once.
I just read a poem much like one I wrote (and, in fact, just submitted somewhere) that's almost exactly what I was trying to say, but one step further. And it's just so much better.
Raven by Theodora Goss in the current issue of Goblin Fruit
If you know where I saw the Cupid and Psyche one that blew my mind and shattered my pride, I can't believe I don't remember where it was...
***
In happier news, here are some stories that are just gorgeous, and made me love webzines that can publish stories of the kind I like. Fantasy Magazine, for example...
Stone Flowers by Aiden Doyle
which is sad and luminescent and...well, smells right. The description put me square in a place I know, but told me a story I didn't.
Bloodlines by Silvia Moreno-Garcia actually made me think of you,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7){kind=small}
rhinemouse is harsh and dark but also sweet. The heroine's way of talking is the only thing that tells you the kind of person she is, and I can picture her so clearly.
And
rhinemouse herself in Under Ceaseless Skies, as Rosamund Hodge, because that is her name
More Full Of Weeping Than You Can Understand
which is also sad and luminescent but then harsh and bitter, too, but most importantly vivid with feeling though the main character has none.
***
Month of Books will resume tomorrow!
2010-10-24 11:49 am (UTC)
I found your page via Google Alerts.
Thanks for the comments about my story. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.
I'm guessing you've spent some time in Japan as well.
Have fun,
Aidan.
2010-10-24 04:21 pm (UTC)
Heh, I'm *very* pleased to have been a positive Google-Alert result for you.
Were you a JET? My family lived up in Yamagata-ken. I turned 14 soon after we moved there and 18 soon after we left, so I spent practically all my teen years there. I went to public middle school for almost two years and was a pestilence to the visiting JETs, because I wanted to hang out. ^_^
Thanks for stopping by!
~ Bethany
2010-10-24 08:37 pm (UTC)
Thanks for adding me as a friend.
It would have been interesting to spend your teens in Japan.
What was your family doing over there?
I worked for one of the private English schools (ECC) in Osaka. I was there for 4 years and had a great time.
Where are you now?
I'm back in Melbourne, Australia.
Have fun,
Aidan.
2010-10-24 09:45 pm (UTC)
My dad had been an engineer for NEC for many years, and arranged a job at a plant in Japan.
I've ended up in Oklahoma now, unfortunately as far from Asia as you can get, counting in terms of hours taking airplanes to various places to get there, I think.
Thanks for adding me, too! I'm doing an intensive book-themed series of posts right now, so I apologize in advance for clogging your inbox. Usually I limit myself to a couple of posts a week, and it's been every day lately...
2010-10-25 09:15 am (UTC)
One of the other teachers I worked with had teenaged kids that spent a year in a Japanese junior high school. They didn't any Japanese before they went and had a hard time of it coping with the language.
2010-10-25 01:06 pm (UTC)
Going from life-long homeschool to Japanese public school was kind of hard, but it was once I could understand that language pretty well that it got to be too negative.
So I left school "to study for American college" and joined some volunteer groups in our town where I could actually use the Japanese I learned.
2010-10-26 08:30 pm (UTC)
2010-10-27 02:23 pm (UTC)
Another (lighter) issue was that by the time I could speak Japanese fairly well everyone had mostly chosen their circle of friends, and I was very much in the margins.
2010-10-31 09:52 pm (UTC)
I used to teach kids in Japan and I saw the amount of pressure they were under. Regular school classes, club activities, music lessons, cram school and English classes all day every day.
A parent complained to one of my friends that he wasn't giving her 3-year-old son enough homework for the English class.