the burning lake

 away come away, journal  3 Responses »
Apr 302008
 

If you peer into the burning lake, you may be able to see the pinnacle of the drowned temple, which is what you see the tour guide and driver doing here:

The Burning Lake

I can't put my finger on precisely why, but I absolutely love this picture.

Spent today attempting to knock out something approaching an outline for the next novel, since the draft and revision process of Pledged was grisly enough to make me swear I would never write a novel without an outline again.

Sadly, my outlining skills are rusty to non-existent, and so far all I have are random questions and mysterious notes to myself. Including the notation Pterodactyl!, which I scrawled to myself while away. Perhaps it was the thin mountain air, perhaps it was J, whose suggestions for my plots rank up there with Tess's or Spawn's for shock and amusement value, perhaps it was a combination of both with a touch of sleep-deprivation thrown in for good measure.

Either way, don't blame me if pterodactyls turn up in this book.

send me photographs and souvenirs

 journal  Comments Off
Apr 292008
 

Ah, the post-travel funk. I knew it would hit sooner or later. A vague but nagging ache from the freckle biopsy today suddenly has me feeling vicious and uncharitable.

Where are my mountains? Where are my Himalayan children and my stray dogs cheerfully escorting me on my way?

This is a snap of the main street of Paro (which is not the capital of Bhutan, but does sport the country's only airport). The dogs of Bhutan are an interesting breed — they all have stiff, brushy tails which curl over at the top. They are, one and all, strays. Given the rabies problem in the country, they are probably all infected. But they're cheeful little sods, with very little aggression, and they take their escort duties very seriously, picking up passersby and walking them wherever they should wish to wander. We picked up one dog on the first morning of our trek, a second dog that night, and no less than five dogs on the second evening. By the end of the trek I think we had more dogs than people.

The other thing they take seriously is their night-time barking competitions. The dogs organise themselves in packs, and send up a rousing chorus looooong into the night. After that kind of exertion, sleeping during the day is an absolute necessity. But in a median strip…?

here and now not forever

 journal  Comments Off
Apr 282008
 

I appear to have returned home ravenous.

It's true that I ate three square meals a day while away, and I did not shirk on the oily or fatty substances (hey, it gets cold over that way, and we had a lot of walking to do! Although I did draw the line at eating potato-sized chunks of pure pork fat with no actual meat attached), but it only took a day or so for my travelmates to start referring to small portions as "Deb-sized", and I managed to lose weight in the process. Yet here I am, and I cannot seem to stuff enough down my throat.

I met these three boys beside a soccer field in Jakar, Bumthang. They were part of the gang of boys who taught me how to play marbles using a technique which is quite possibly a fast-track to carpal tunnel syndrome, and who explained to me that any slope without ice on it was "not very high, after all."

home again, home again

 journal  2 Responses »
Apr 272008
 

Home again, and after the Himalayan foothills everything seems so very … flat. Quite literally.

While I was away, I wrote a scant few paragraphs on a short story, and nothing more. Instead, I concentrated on stopping my head from spinning and sliding around inside my skull in the thin mountain air. I received a proposal from an eleven year old boy (he's going to be a doctor when he grows up); trekked through the Black Mountains accompanied by an ever-growing pack of friendly stray dogs, ponies with bells, and a horseman in a red cap mad to have his photo taken at every opportunity; played marbles with Bhutanese schoolboys1; taught a pack of children how to say "Hello'ello'ello!" and how to play Giant's Treasure; saw more penises painted on the walls of buildings than I could count; saw yak in the wild, and takin in a reserve; helped string some prayer flags across a mountain pass; wore a kira (and subsequently figured out why the Bhutanese women don't gain weight — the belts on those things are close to corsetry); climbed up and down a multitude of stairways which shiphands might look at as being too bloody steep, thank you very much; rode a pony up to the mind-boggling Tiger's Nest monastery; choked on various incarnations of ema-datse — and did I mention hiked in the Himalayan foothills?

The only reason I didn't hold the entire group up was because a more experienced hiker very kindly came down with altitude sickness to slow our pace for me.

  1. badly — their technique is tricky! [↩]

log di jay gey

 journal, shadow queen  1 Response »
Apr 092008
 

Success! I am packed for the trip, with no bloodshed, and the backpack only (only!) weighs 12kg. I would take a photo — but I have packed the camera.

In fact, I have packed almost everything I would normally be using, and so I have little to nothing to do. I am wandering around the house, disconsolate and lost, plaintively asking the cats what's on the TV and unable to settle at anything. My pickup call in the morning is at stupid 4 o'clock, after which I shall shortly be out of mobile phone and internet range.

To keep you all amused while I'm away, Tess has produced her own interpretation of my cover art:

everybody panic celebrate!

 journal, shadow queen, writing life  1 Response »
Apr 082008
 

It's been a whirlwind couple of days.

There was the visit to a dermatologist about a suspicious freckle: I'm scheduled for a biopsy on my return1, and probably surgery to remove said freckle when the biopsy results come back. If the concept weren't so terrifying, the freckle in question would be quite cute: it's a perfect love-heart shape.

There has been yet more shopping, but today should see the last of it: spending money for the trip. I am now the proud owner of monopoly US money!

Today also brought some good news in the form of cover art. Not that I actually have cover art, but my editor is gathering information to brief the artist, and I can't tell you how utterly thrilled I am at who's been commissioned. I'm not sure I'm allowed to spill the beans on that front, and maybe it's better to keep it a surprise until there's actual art, which I will doubtless adore and pet and call George.

Also, I can't remember if I blogged this already or not, but word on the publication date is now January 2009, which means my book should be on the shelves in time for Christmas shopping.

It's such a bizarre concept I think I'll run away to the Himalayas for a fortnight to contemplate it!

  1. the fact that the dermatologist is happy to wait 3 weeks to biopsy the freckle is a huge relief — I was beginning to imagine trekking through Bhutan with black eyes and a bandaged face from an immediate excision [↩]

you paralysed my mind and for that you suck

 away come away, journal  2 Responses »
Apr 062008
 

I've been neglecting the blog badly of late, and it's not because I found the meaning of life while stuffing envelopes.

It's been partly the frenzy of getting ready to go overseas, partly the frenzy of working what seems like every day at the dayjob, and partly the fact that I haven't been writing. It's harder to write here when I'm not writing fiction — after a while life starts to seem too drab to bother talking about. Which, yes, is a touch ironic, because when I'm not writing I have more time to actually leave the house. I never claimed to be rational, you know.

Because of the lack of writing, I'm actually itching to start writing again. Just in time for my relaxing holiday tramping around the Himalayas, when I plan to have no time for writing what with all the brain-breaking sightseeing and cultural appreciation.

I'm hoping this means I come back from Bhutan fired up and re-energised and full of fiction. I am planning on writing a novel set in a pseudo or real Bhutan, but I think I'll start that one much later, after the trip has had time to settle. The novel on the cards when I come home is the faerie novel. (Oh yes. It's obligatory. Every fantasy writer must at some stage in her career write a novel what has faerie in it.)

In the meantime, I need to fit all of this:

into this:

It looks easier in the photos than it does from here.

i'm going to bhutan!

 journal  3 Responses »
Apr 012008
 

The last of my travel documents arrived today, making it all official: I'm going to Bhutan.

The intricacies of visiting Bhutan mean I will be on a group tour, but I've found out this morning there will only be five of us on the group, which is perfect. Also perfect is that I won't be the only single traveller in the group — there's nothing quite like being the only single person in a flock of couples, after all.

For those of you playing along at home, I'll be wending my way through Bhutan according to this itinerary, although I'll be waiting until I hit the thin altitude air before deciding whether I'll be able to cope with the trekking option.

I've memorised how to say kuzuzangpo la, but the next phrase I need to conquer will be along the lines of "Do you have anything less spicy?" and "Too hot!" because those Bhutanese eat chilli with everything, and sometimes as a meal in itself.

I have 6GB of memory card for the camera, and I'm still nervous it won't be enough.