Whatever

And here we are, with the first Big Idea piece of 2009. And who better to start us off than Jim C. Hines, who having already rehabbed cowardly green fantasy creatures in his Goblin trilogy, now turns his attention to rebooting the stories of three of the most popular fairly tale princesses in The Stepsister Scheme. But what motivated the reboot — and what does it have to do with a very popular Hollywood ogre? Jim lays it all out, once upon a time, that time being right now.

JIM C. HINES:

I’m putting out a hit on Shrek. No questions asked, and money is no object.

It was bad enough back in 2000 when I started writing my goblin books. “What a clever idea,” I thought. “Humorous fantasy from the monster’s point of view!” I had just finished the first book when previews for Shrek started airing.

Fast forward to November of 2004. I’m sitting with friends in a Chinese restaurant in Chicago, discussing my next series. “It’s an awesome idea,” I say. “I’m taking three princesses from the old fairy tales and putting them together in a Charlie’s Angels-type of team. Lots of fun, action-packed butt-kicking.”

Right as I finished The Stepsister Scheme, I saw the first previews for Shrek the Third. Previews which included Fiona and the fairy tale princesses in a Charlie’s Angels pose.

Remember the scene from Star Trek II when Kirk shouts “Khan!!!” with such hatred and fury that the sound carries into space? Let’s just say the astronauts probably heard my scream of “Shrek!!!”

Fortunately, Shrek the Third didn’t do much with the idea. My nemeses at Dreamworks were playing the princesses for laughs and a quick fight scene, whereas I wanted to go deeper.

The first step was to figure out the characters. Three princesses, each one bringing something special. I started with Snow White. The daughter of a powerful witch, Snow would have also inherited her mother’s mirror, making her quite the magical threat.

Talia, aka Sleeping Beauty, was princess number two. Cursed by a fairy at birth, Talia also received several potent fairy blessings, including superhuman grace and the ability to dance like an angel . . . two traits which lend themselves to hand-to-hand combat.

Finally we have Danielle, aka Cinderella. The tales tell how rats and doves would come to her aid, which was a useful trick. But she needed something more. If her mother’s spirit could grant gowns and glass slippers, why not an enchanted sword of glass? (Which is a minor spoiler, but since they painted Danielle with her sword on the cover, I’m not going to sweat it.)

It wasn’t enough. I knew what my princesses could do, but I still didn’t know who they were.

These women had been through a lot. Talia slept for a hundred years, and if you read the old tales, it was no “kiss of true love” that awakened her. (On that note, if I never read the phrase “He gathered the first fruits of her love” again, it will be too soon.) Snow’s mother hired a man to cut out Snow’s heart. Danielle spent most of her life a slave, though thanks to her mother’s spirit residing in the hazel tree in her garden, Danielle was never truly alone.

This was a start, but I didn’t want my characters to be defined by their traumas. Many people have survived horrible things. It may help shape the people we become, but it doesn’t define us. I needed to look beyond, to the choices my characters made. What would Talia do to the prince who “rescued” her? Would Snow fight her mother or try to flee? Once Danielle married her prince, would she use her newfound power to take revenge on her stepmother or would she try to forgive her? Who would they choose to become after the tales ended? This was where I finally started to know and love my characters.

Danielle, Snow, and Talia all feel real to me, each one not a symbol or a message, but her own person, with her own gifts and flaws. And I’ll match my princesses against that swamp-dwelling ogre and his friends any day of the week.

—-

The Stepsister Scheme: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Powell’s

Visit Jim C. Hines’ LiveJournal here. Read an excerpt from The Stepsister Scheme here (pdf link).

Today’s the day to register for Whateveresque, the Whatever reader forum for the month of January: Registration is open until 10pm or so. Remember that you’ll be approved faster if I don’t think you’re a spambot; here’s how to avoid looking like one of those. And be sure to introduce yourself to others in the “All About You” topic thread.

I’ll likely be off the Internets until at least noon, so if you’re not approved immediately, be patient. I’m not, like, scanning your FBI file or anything.

If you ever want to be reminded that sometimes in life it’s better to take things slow and easy, and maybe not be in such an all-fired rush, I suggest driving on icy black rural backroads with a minivan full of kids, while pelting fragments of ice congeal on your front windshield.

You’re welcome.

While I was on my two week semi-hiatus, I got what I figure is a metric butt-load of requests for links to various things. Seriously, tons. Rather than try to pluck them out of the my 2008 mail archive, the thought of which fills me wth crushing ennui, how about I do this: If you sent me a link request in the last couple of weeks, please use the comment thread in this post to promote whatever thing you wished to promote. If you didn’t send me anything in the last couple weeks about something you hoped I’d promote but now kinda wished you had, well, you can go ahead and use this thread too. And obviously, if you’re the sort of person who likes clicking links — I mean, really likes clicking links — this thread is going to be for you.

Now, the standard technical notice: If you post three or more links in your comment, it will most likely be sent into the moderation queue. Don’t panic when this happens, I’ll look through the queue regularly and liberate posts written by real live people such as yourselves.

So: Go nuts with your links, kids. Tell us what you want us to know about.

Because there will be riots otherwise. I will note, however, that these picture were not taken by me, but by my friend Anne KG Murphy, who over the Christmas holidays became one of the few people I know who has actually visited my house. Yes, the Scalzi Compound does exist; it’s not just CGI and Photoshop. In any event:

Ghlaghghee, waiting patiently by the bird feeder. Waiting for what, you might ask? I’m certain she’s waiting for her bus. Yes, that’s it exactly.

And here’s Zeus, lying beneath the duck-shaped bath mat in Athena’s bathroom because, well, who the hell knows why. Because he’s a freakadoodle of a cat, really, basically. But as long as he’s happy and not trying to bite my head at 3am, I’m groovy with it.

Anne didn’t manage to document Lopsided Cat, but she did catch Kodi in one of her classic “legs akimbo” poses, so for you Kodi fans out there, here you go:

There, I think we’re pretty much caught up with pets, i.e., the real reason any of you show up here at all.

It’s time for my annual unseemly reminder to people thinking about voting for science fiction writing awards that, indeed, I have stuff available for them to nominate. What’s available for consideration this year? I’m glad you asked. The following are listed in the categories for the Hugo Awards:

Best Novel

• Zoe’s Tale

Best Short Story

• “After the Coup”
• “Denise Jones, Super Booker”
• “The State of Super Villainy”

Best Related Book

• Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998 - 2008

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• METAtropolis (audio book (iTunes link), written by Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake, John Scalzi and Karl Schroeder; read by Scott Brick, Michael Hogan, Alessandro Juliani, Kandyse McClure and Stefan Rudnicki)

Some thoughts on the above:

1. Some of you might ask why I include Zoe’s Tale for Best Novel and not Agent to the Stars, which was released in trade paperback by Tor in October of 2008. The answer is that Agent was originally published, depending on how you want to look at it, either in 1999 (online) or in 2005 (in hardcover). It’s not eligible for consideration for Hugos, Nebulas, etc. And even if it were, I think Zoe’s the better of the two books in any event. I know, I’m not supposed to have favorites among my books. But there you have it.

2. How is Hate Mail a “related book”? For two reasons. First, several of the essays in the book are about writing and/or science fiction and/or me being an author, so there’s a concrete connection on that level. Second, well, I did win a Hugo last year for writing stuff here, so a collection of stuff from here seems likely to me to pass muster. Incidentally, the link to Hate Mail above is to Amazon for the hard copy, but an electronic version is also available through WebScriptions.

3. While 2008 was a damn fine year for science fictional films (Wall-E, Dark Knight, Iron Man, etc), I really do want to remind Hugo nominators that a) Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form doesn’t have to be a movie, b) it would be a refreshing change to nominators to consider something other than a movie for the category, and c) that leaving aside my own obvious self-interest and participation, METAtropolis is jam-packed with worthy science fictional goodness in the form of the Bear, Buckell, Lake and Schroeder, not to mention a fair portion of the Battlestar Galactica cast performing their words — dramatically!

So: before desultorily slotting a sub-worthy film into that last Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form slot, won’t you consider broadening your scope and checking out another medium? If not METAtropolis, there are a number of other fine long-form audio presentations for you to consider. Just to wedge that idea into your heads.

4. What about Best Fan Writer? I hear you ask. I’ll make it simple: don’t nominate me this year. There are lots of excellent writers out there deserving of this award who have not won it, and I think right now the best thing for this particular award is to have the love spread around for a while, and to have the science fiction community recognize both eligible newer writers and some writers for whom recognition in this category is long overdue. I’ve won it; I’m good, thanks. Give it to someone new.

And that’s my award pimpage for 2009.

About mail:

I’ve pretty much answered all the December mail I plan to, so if you sent me something hoping for a reply and didn’t get one, it may have slipped between the cracks (indeed, since I got an unspeakable amount of mail in December, it’s more likely than in most months). Sorry. Feel free to send it again.

About Whateveresque:

I’ll open registration for the month tomorrow morning, sometime around 10am eastern, running until around 10pm eastern. Set your alarms now!

2008 was a horrible year for most humans, as I understand it, but it was pretty good for me. My family and I were happy and healthy, I won a Hugo and got on the New York Times bestseller list, the guy I voted for got elected president, and for the 39th consecutive year, I was not consumed by a bear. So overall it’s hard to complain.

As for 2009, here’s what’s up.

* First things first: The High Castle, the follow-up to The Android’s Dream, has been pushed back from its planned October release date. And you ask, well, who pushed it back, Mr. Let’s-Use-the-Ambiguous-Passive-Construction? The answer is: I did. I pushed it back because it’s not ready to be seen by people who are not me, and it wouldn’t have been ready by the deadline. So it’s off the schedule until it’s ready to be seen by people who aren’t me. And since it takes a while for something to get back on the schedule once it’s been taken off, it’ll probably be a while until you see it. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all Chinese Democracy on you. I just think you deserve good, don’t you? Sure you do.

* So what’s on the schedule for 2009? That’s an interesting question. I have lots of stuff percolating at the moment but very little I can tell you about, some of it because I need to wait for other people to make announcements, some of it because deals have yet to be made, and some of it because I’m still thinking about it. I’m not trying to be ooooooh mysterious here. I’m merely a big believer in not talking about things until they are ready to be talked about. But suffice to say I’ll make mention of at least a couple of these upcoming things relatively soon.

* That said, here are two things I can talk to you about:

• The paperback release of Zoe’s Tale, currently scheduled for 4/28/09;
• A short story, “The Tale of the Wicked,” in the New Space Opera II anthology, scheduled for 6/30/09.

For those of you wondering why I have a story in an anthology when I’ve announced that I’m withdrawing from anthologies generally, the answer that this story was already commissioned and finished before the announcement.

* Speaking of which, there’s been some confusion as to whether I plan to write any short fiction at all, since I’ve done that anthology announcement. The answer is that yes, I plan to write more short fiction, just on my own schedule, not someone else’s. This is partly due to my schedule already being pretty well filled-out, as noted before, but also, I just don’t want to contribute to some poor bastard editor’s stress level by making him or her wonder if I’m going to get my story in on time. That’s no fun, either for the editor and for me, and at this point in time I’m not sure why I need to be doing things with my short fiction that aren’t fun.

* What’s the plan for Whatever? Oh, you know: whatever. I find that this place works best if I don’t think about it too hard, I just do it. So that’s the plan. The only thing I am planning to do is to write some stuff up early and have it pop in during morning hours, because I want to get better at keeping the 8am - 2:30pm time bloc (i.e., the “hey the kid’s at school and not bugging me” bloc) free for fiction and/or pay copy. One of the reasons I took a two-week mostly-break here was give my brain a little bit of time for retraining on that front. It’s working, since this was written in advance. We’ll see if it sticks.

* As for any larger, existential goal for 2009: Well, as hinted in the stuff about short fiction, the one goal I have for 2009 is to make sure I’m having fun. 2008 was an excellent year for me, but in a number of ways it was also a stressful year. More than a little of that was due to me stressing myself out for various reasons, none of which are anywhere near interesting enough to note here now. So for 2009, when presented with something, I’m going to ask myself: Am I going to have fun with this? If the answer is “yes,” groovy. If the answer is “no,” I’ll ask, Is there a reason why I need to do this anyway? If the answer is “no,” then I’m likely not to bother. It’s a nutty idea, but it just might work. It beats being consumed by bears.

So: Onward into 2009. Let’s hope it’s good, and ursine-free, for all of us.

I don’t think it counts against the two-week hiatus here to let you know my new AMC column is up, and it’s on some of the science fiction (and science fiction-esque) films I’m looking forward to in 2009, and a couple I’m not so much. Watchmen is in the first of these categories — that is, if it gets released at all, thanks to the squabbling between Fox and Warner. Stupid movie studios.

Also: Hey, look, 2009. It’s here.

See you on Monday.

Yes, I’m still on break through January 5. But this is worth making a public notation about, so there’s no confusion later.

Whatever has been listed as a finalist in the 2008 Weblog Awards in the category of “Best Large Blog,” which is defined as a blog with a Technorati “Authority” rating between 301 and 500.

While I am honored to have Whatever listed as a finalist and thank those responsible, Whatever in fact has an Authority rating of 1,210 (as of 2pm 12/31/08), and should therefore be more accurately defined as being in the “Major Blog” category (for blogs with an authority rating of 1,001 or above).

The source of the error, as I see it, comes from the fact that the URL of Whatever changed in October, from “scalzi.com/whatever” to “whatever.scalzi.com.” Whatever has two Technorati listings, one for each URL, and the latter is the one which shows Whatever with the smaller Authority number. However, both listings are actively being polled by Technorati in terms of rank/authority, and the first URL automatically forwards to the second, so the higher Authority listing should be considered as the more accurate one.

Therefore, as a matter of prudence and of fairness to the other excellent blogs that are finalists in the “Best Large Blog” category, I must decline the finalist listing of Whatever in the “Best Large Blog” category of the 2008 Weblog Awards. I will ask the folks running the award to remove Whatever from the category before voting begins on January 5th, and if that is not possible for some reason, I would ask people not to vote for Whatever in this category. If for some reason people were to vote for the blog and it won the category, I would be obliged to decline the award.

Please be aware that my declining finalist status is not a negative commentary on the Weblog Awards, nor am I suggesting that Whatever has been placed in the category for any reason other than wholly innocent and explainable error. And to be very clear, I am not suggesting that Whatever be placed in the “Major Blog” category as a finalist this year (and indeed, would decline such an offer, if made).

Again, my thanks to the Weblog Awards folks for making Whatever a category finalist, even if in error. And best of luck to the legitimate finalists in the “Best Large Blog” category.

Update, 3:54pm: I’ve been withdrawn from the category and replaced by another blog. Thanks to the Weblog Awards folks for their prompt attention.

PC Magazine would have to link to Whatever in their piece on their favorite blogs of 2008 while I was taking a two week break, wouldn’t they.

So: If you’re here from PC Magazine, howdy. I’m on a break at the moment, and will be back on January 5th. But, if you want to look around, go right ahead. Here’s my end-of-year “Best of 2008″ entry to get you caught up on what I wrote this year, and if you’re interested in my fiction output, here’s a sampler of free fiction for you to try out. The book of collected entries mentioned in the PC Magazine entry, Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, is available on Amazon (as is my novel Old Man’s War, also mentioned).

I’d also note that I’m on that PC Magazine list a second time, as a contributor to the AMC blogs, specifically SciFi Scanner, where I’m a film columnist; a list of my columns for the site is here.

Enjoy!

Everyone else: I’m still on break, see you the 5th. I can already tell you I’ll have interesting stuff for you then.

Hey, you know what? I’m taking a break to enjoy my family, recharge the batteries, and to think about what the heck I’m going to do with myself in 2009. I’ll be back on January 5th. If you absolutely can’t live without me until then, subscribe to my Twitter feed. Otherwise, have a happy new year, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Just now:

Another number like this won’t happen again for 111,111 comments. So get cracking, people.

For those of you who are wondering how it’s going.

Athena reads up on her new Wii games, for her new Wii. Yes, we got a Wii.

But Athena also got a primer on Latin! How many other children can say that? I suspect rather fewer than can say got a Wii. And their loss, I must say.

Ghlaghghee and Lopsided Cat, enjoying their capnip toys. Zeus, who is rather less able to handle his ‘nip, is in the other room, watching the wallpaper move.

Kodi, enjoying her Christmas gift of a juicy bone. Lopsided Cat, you’ll note, knows well enough to stay back during the gnawing portion of the proceedings.

Krissy, showing off the t-shirt I got her. Here’s a clearer picture of what’s on the shirt, and yes, it has more significance to the two of us than just being a clever way of picturing a Cure song; it’s the first song we ever danced to, the first night that we ever met. I bought it about ten seconds after I saw it.

In short, Christmas going fabulously. Hope yours is, too.

It’s Thursday, which means even on Christmas I have an AMC column up. This week: My Christmas wish involving science fiction movies. No, it does not include a futuristic space massage from the lady in the artwork above. She kinda scares me. Enjoy, and be sure to leave comments, should you be spending your Christmas cruising this here interweb thingy.

Also, since the above AMC column is my last one of 2008, I thought it would be useful to give you an index of all my AMC science fiction movie columns for the year, just in case you missed one or two along the way and feel the urge to catch up.

Is Guillermo del Toro the Right Man for The Hobbit?

$20 Million Now, $20 Million Then - How Star Wars Changed Movie Math

How to Make a (Good!) Science Fiction Movie (for Cheap!)

Why the Movie Version of Your Favorite SciFi Book Stinks, Part I

Selling Your SciFi Novel to Hollywood: Is It Just About the Money?

With SciFi Movies, Classic Does Not Equal Good

Nerdgassing About Science Fiction Movies

What Are the New SciFi Classics?

Science Fiction Is Easy, Comedy Is Hard

The Ridiculousness of Riddick, or, How Not to Make a SciFi Sequel

Ridley Scott Deserves an Oscar, Even If It’s an Honorary One

Science and History: Everything the Movies Tell You Is Wrong

Is The Dark Knight Oscar Ready?

Do Hugo Winning Novels Make Great Films?

Sports of the Future Will Be Much More Violent Than Those at the Olympics

Ellen Ripley Paved the Way for Strong Female Leads

Why Tim Burton’s Recurring Nightmare Remains So Popular

Things We Learned From the Summer SciFi Box Office

Why We Love Our Post-Apocalyptic Flicks

The Look, Not the Idea, Makes a SciFi Movie

Sound + Vision: Scores That Make Their Science Fiction Films

For SciFi Sequels, Taking a Chance Makes All the Difference

Do “American” Science Fiction Movies Actually Exist?

Are Mad Scientists Unfairly Maligned?

What Can Our Next President Learn From His SciFi Counterparts?

Do Science Fiction Movies Still Need Theaters?

Are You Living in a Science Fiction Movie?

A SciFi Thanksgiving

The Battle Between Science and Religion - And SciFi Is the Battleground

The Worst Science Fiction Movie of the Last Twelve Months

The Best (and Worst) Scifi Movies of the Year

That should keep you busy after all the presents. Merry Christmas.

This year marked the 10 year anniversary of Whatever, and it was also a pretty good year in terms of individual entries. Having an election helped, I think. Here are some of the entries I think qualify for the best of the year, just in case you missed them the first go-around.

• The Final Judgment on “The Final Countdown”
• Things One Should Not Forget
• Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money
• A Gut-Check Moment for SFWA
• Shaming the Poor
• Ten Years Ago Today
• The Problem With 1,000 True Fans
• Reader Request Week 2008 #10: Meeting Authors (and Me)
• The Stupidly Obvious Phrase of the Day
• Fox News Would Like To Take a Moment To Remind You That the Obamas Are As Black As Satan’s Festering, Baby-Eating Soul
• Another Entry in the Annals of “People Who Haven’t the Slightest Idea What They’re Saying”
• Needed: John Scalzi “Facts” (read this one for the comment thread)
• It Has Been Revealed
• Why Yes, I Should Write About Politics
• The Election Lists (read from the bottom up)
• The Cubbies Win the Existential Pennant! The Cubbies Win the Existential Pennant!
• Reality Check
• What’s Really Going On With Joe Lieberman
• Emo: Older Than You Think
• How You Know It’s Not Santa

Happy reading.

Sports Illustrated’s cover story on what’s happened to the dogs that were part of Michael Vick’s dog fighting kennel. It turns out the large majority of them are living and some are even thriving, which is a miracle when you remember that even PETA thought they needed to be put down. But it should also go without saying that bringing these dogs back from the hell Vick put them in hasn’t been an easy task, which is why, as we say here in the Internet biz, you want to read the whole thing. Speaking as a dog owner, I’m glad these dogs are free and Vick’s in a cage. It’s justice.

As has been our tradition here in the Scalzi household, we woke Athena up on her birthday today by singing “Happy Birthday” and presenting her a cake. It’s a holdover from when she was much younger and didn’t actually have an idea when her birthday was, so the way she would find out would be to wake to her parents singing off-key and shoving a flaming baked good in her face. She’s ten now, which means she’s pretty well figured out the whole birthday date thing, but we figure it’s still a fun way to wake up on your birthday, so here we are.

Anyone who has a child understands what I mean when I say that it doesn’t feel like it’s been ten years, but it has been, and in each of those years I’ve felt additionally blessed to spend time with the person my daughter is becoming, because she’s smart and funny and headstrong, and even when she’s being a butthead there’s a lot there I admire (not so much that I don’t want to strangle her sometimes, but still). I believe the universe has provided me with exactly the child I should have been provided, which is an example of the universe being both impossibly generous, and possessed of a wicked sense of humor.

Athena is at an age where I were to get unduly mushy about how lucky I am to have her as my child, she would become horribly and unduly embarrassed, so I will go ahead and leave off it for now. However, I do happen to have a letter I wrote to her the day after she was born, which encapsulated what I was thinking about her then, and still do. I’m including it here behind the cut.

Happy Birthday, Athena. I love you.

Continue Reading »

This is a kind of cool thing for me: I met Lesley Livingston back in 2003, at my very first science fiction convention (that would be Torcon 3, for those of you keeping score at home). I was neopro writer whose first book wouldn’t come out for a couple of years; Lesley, on the other hand, was a TV personality for Space, the Canadian science fiction cable network. Which is to say, she had fans (crazy ones!), whereas no one knew who I was, and she could have easily dropped me into the “crazy fan” territory, lurking about as I did. But she was nice to me instead, which I appreciated, and we had a nice time chatting about writing and science fiction and all those sorts of things. She was very cool, and since then I’ve been looking forward to reading what she had to write.

The wait is over: Today marks the release of her debut novel, the YA fantasy Wondrous Strange, which is about fairies and Shakespeare and acting and Central Park, all of which are things I approve. I’m delighted to be able to give her a little bit of space here in The Big Idea to tell you how they all fit together, and why they inspired her to get wondrous strange in her writing.

LESLEY LIVINGSTON:

The Celts, the Elizabethans, the Victorians… they all believed in the existence of the Faerie. More than believed - they shared their world with them. These beings inhabited the artistic endeavors of these societies: they filled in the spaces of Celtic mythology where gods didn’t necessarily fit; Shakespeare’s audience was so fond of the Fair Folk that he gave “to airy nothing a local habitation and a name”, dedicating an entire comedy to their antics (and the effects of faerie shenanigans on the surrounding human populace); and in the middle of the 19th century, at the height of the faerie craze in Victorian England, you couldn’t swing a dead boggart without smacking it off a faerie painting. And then, at the turn of the century, all that changed. Seemingly overnight - it wasn’t, of course, but it feels a bit like it - faeries all but vanished from popular culture.

I’ve been fascinated by faerie lore since I was a kid. The stories that intrigued me the most, though, were never the ones that portrayed the Fae as tiny, sweet, sparkly things. Rather I was drawn to the idea that these were the creatures that existed just beyond the circle of firelight, or just on the other side of the threshold, or just over that far hill; things only ever glimpsed out of the corner of your eye - if you were lucky! I always knew I wanted to write a faerie story. I just didn’t know what.

Wondrous Strange is that story (or, at least, the first part of it!) but the germ of it didn’t come from staring at Arthur Rackham sketches. Rather, my Big Idea for came straight from the heart of the Big Apple.

When I signed with my agent (for another project entirely), I went to New York to meet her face to face. I went with another YA author friend of mine, Adrienne Kress, who was meeting her publisher for the first time. Both of us were wowed by the city as a whole, but I was absolutely captivated by Central Park. Even in February. It was my first visit to the city and I really didn’t know what to expect but it was utter infatuation at first sight. We did the touristy stuff on that trip - carriage ride, Tavern on the Green (both of which are now plot points in Wondrous Strange). I became fascinated by certain landmarks in the park - by the fantastic, otherworldly landscapes of the Shakespeare Garden and the Ramble and the Lake, by the statue of the Indian Hunter (a source of inspiration for Sonny Flannery and the Janus Guard in the book) and by the Carousel - which is the fourth one to stand on that spot - two previous incarnations having burnt to the ground.

Back home, I couldn’t get the park out of my head The whole place just struck me as somehow mythic. And a really good location to stick a story (obviously - I mean, writers have been doing that forever!). I just needed to find the story that I wanted to put there. I started to do a bit of research into the origins of Central Park and its creators - in particular, a virtually forgotten man named Andrew Haswell Green. Almost the only tangible tribute you will find to Andrew Green is a marble bench tucked away in an obscure corner of the park. Odd, considering the fact that this guy was, in his day, a vastly influential in figure in municipal politics and, as a city planner, was largely responsible for much of how New York exists in its present form. What’s even odder about Green is that his death in 1903, at the venerable age of 83, was untimely - he was shot to death on the steps of his Park Avenue brownstone. It was supposedly a case of “mistaken identity” wherein a crazed boiler-worker claimed that the octogenarian civic leader was having an affair with a mysterious “dark lady” who was known to ride only in curtained carriages and was rumored to be an exiled princess from some exotic land. So the boiler-worker shot the old man to death. On Friday the 13th.

Now, lest you pick up Wondrous Strange thinking this is his story - let me assure you that it is not. But damned if it wasn’t a mighty source of inspiration, one that became a sort of underpinning for the entire trilogy. You see, aside from the fact that I was fascinated by this gentleman’s story, I also love coincidences and word-play and the fact that Mr. Green’s first name, Andrew, means “man” twigged something in my brain. Anyone who has a passing acquaintance with Celtic mythology and faerie lore will be familiar with the figure of the Green Man. It also didn’t hurt that ‘Haswell’ means ‘the misty place’ or ‘the Wild’. How could I resist a Wild Green Man from the Misty Place? Seriously.

At any rate, all of my random research started to form connections in my mind: between the disappearance of faeries from popular culture around the turn of the century and mass immigration to the new world; between this improbable park in the middle of this thriving new metropolis and the strange circumstances of one of its chief architects’ demise. It laid the groundwork upon which I laid the story of a young actress named Kelley Winslow who comes to the big city to follow her dream and finds her destiny. (During that time, I continued to perform with Tempest Theatre Group, a Shakespearean company of which I am a founding member, and I had already written a short story about an actress in a production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream.)

Since that first February day - it seems like a very short while ago - I have been back to the Park several times and have spent many a night busily populating it with beings from the Otherworld. If you visit, do be careful where you walk! - not all of them are friendly…

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Wondrous Strange: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Powell’s

Read an excerpt of the novel here. Visit Lesley Livingston’s blog here. See Lesley discuss her book here.

And no, I’m not detailing my online porn addictions to you. What I mean is, what premium services I pay for online. Since so much is available online for free, if one is paying for something online, it’s generally because it offers some genuine value and is worth the price. These are some of the things that are worth money to me.

1. Rhapsody: I’ve been paying for Rhapsody for I think five years now, first because it was the simplest legal way to listen to music online (which also compensated the artists, something that was and is important for me), and these days because I’m familiar with it and find it really easy to use and to find music on. Since the time I subscribed and now, lots of legitimate free music services have popped up (you’ll note I frequently embed imeem streaming), but most of those services are still hit-and-miss in terms of availability of music, and most of them are still kind of a pain in the ass to navigate. For making it dead easy for me to find the music I want when I want it, Rhapsody keeps earning my $15 a month.

2. Encyclopedia Britannica: Because none of the editors I work with consider Wikipedia reliable in the slightest. I personally use Wikipedia tons for casual research, but I cross check it with EB (and original sources) when I do actual writing. Wikipedia partisans, this is your cue to link to that study that suggests Britannica is no more accurate than Wikipedia on several fields, but you know what? Unlike Wikipedia, if I cite Britannica and it turns out to be wrong, I don’t get blamed for sloppy research. Britannica’s reputation is worth the subscription cost. This is actually my oldest current online subscription; I think I’ve had it for almost ten years now.

3. Flickr Pro: Because it’s easier to upload and store pictures there than it is to my own ftp space. Don’t worry, I have all the originals stashed on an archive drive here at home.

4. LiveJournal: Because I like the ability to comment on LJ, basically. This is probably the account for which I get the least exchange value for, but it’s $25 a year, and, eh, I can spend that. Although now I understand they’re putting ads on LJs, and since I’m a paid member I don’t see those. Go me.

5. GameTap: Because $10/month (or whatever it is I’m paying) is a really really cheap way to keep Athena entertained with hundreds of video games that I don’t have to buy. Also, to be honest, GameTap serializing the recent Sam& Max games alone made it worth the money I sink into it on a monthly basis. You know what one of her favorite games on GameTap is? Pong. Cracks me up, it does.

6. Wall Street Journal: Because I read it enough to justify the cost. I think it’ll amuse some folks that I’m fairly left and still subscribe to WSJ, but you know, I just skip the editorials and it’s fine.

7. AOL: I know, I know. Call it an affectation. Just in case the broadband apocalypse comes, I want to be able to have a dial-in backup. Also, although I haven’t worked for AOL in almost a year, there’s always a chance they’ll still want to use me as a contractor in the future, and it’s easier to hang on to the account just in case they do. Also, you know. They’ve paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to me over the years. I can spot them $72 a year, or whatever.

8. Skype: Because when I go overseas, it’s cheaper than roaming charges. Also, it’s a pay-as-you-go sort of thing; I deposited 10 euros worth of money into my Skype account in 2005 and I still haven’t worked all the way through it (I don’t go overseas all that much).

9. Club Penguin: Because it amuses the child, so why not.

10. Scalzi.com: Of course. Devotees will know that I recently switched hosting of Whatever to WordPress.com, which I’ve been very happy with, but everything else about the site still resides on 1and1.com, who’s been my host provider for four years now. This is a good arrangement, since WordPress.com is able to handle the load of my blog visitors, while 1and1.com is good with handling my e-mail and storing my files and various domains, and for all I do with those, $20 a month isn’t a bad rate.

And I think that’s it at the moment. The great news for me is that almost all of the above is tax deductible one way or another. Ah, the life of a freelance writer.