Review

Ooh, look - someone I don't know says nice things about "River of the World", and here I am bruiting the news abroad. Even quoting the money shot:

"Like all great writers, Brenchley's biggest asset is his gorgeous language, his ability to write prose that captures the reader and creates a new world. Yep, it's worldbuilding, but the world that Brenchley creates is so full of life and detail that it transcends reality and colors the perception of our world. Brenchley eschews the usual sentimentality for hard-edged fear and hard choices that offer equally unpleasant alternatives."

Tut. Some people; where's my native English modesty?

(My thanks to durham_rambler, who passed the news along.)

Also, I am so too going to finish this damn novella. I shall. I don't care that it has no observable plot; I don't care that a birdman just fell from the sky-thing for no observable reason; I don't care that every time I count words, I have to revise the total upwards. I'm going to finish it anyway. Then it'll be sorry...

19,235 / 30,000 (64.1%)

Shhh...

I do like it, when my inbox is full of editors & agents saying stuff. Used to be that we hardly ever talked, that I'd go months without a word from either; e-mail is a great facilitator of talking, but there does also seem to be more to talk about these days.

Specifically, today we have been talking about My Pseudonym, which is the name we sold the new fantasy series under, and the name it will be published under; and the consensus is that we'd rather people (meaning the book trade, largely; but that of course means the internets in general, these days) didn't know that Chaz Brenchley was Mr X, at least until after the first book's out.

Which means, as I have carelessly already divulged provisional titles etc, that you lot need to be good and kind and sweet, and keep your seekrit knowledges under your hats, okay? Tell no one; pride yourselves on your discretion, even when drink-taken. Hell, I'll buy you the drinks...

How it works, in this house

I was shopping in town this morning, after doing an hour's work at the Lit & Phil. I bought some smoked haddock, thinking I'd make fish pie for supper. Halfway home, I decided that I didn't want to cook that seriously (two pans, fish pie needs, and then an oven dish), but it was okay: I'd just make risotto instead. Smoked-haddock and leek risotto, with fennel too. Which woulda been grand, except that now, going downstairs to start chopping stuff, I find I have no risotto rice. But that's okay: I shall make kedgeree instead. One or other of my kedgerees. Either way demands four pans, but never mind. Flexibility is all...