Darmok, His Arms Open

Given that I just saw kelpqueen posting on the subject, I suppose I can now speak freely about the sad fact that my friend Jason Taniguchi's mother has died, after a brief but intense trip from diagnosis to what some people now call "transition". Throughout, she and her family did everything they could to make sure that things went as smoothly as they could--tried to minimize pain of every sort, impossible a task though that certainly was/is.

Though I never knew her as well as I wanted to (and should have tried harder to rectify that situation, while I still could), I saw and continue to see her intelligence, dignity and warmth refracted through the prism of her son, who remains one of the best friends I've ever had: Humane, lovable, entertaining. The kind of guy who consistently does for others, no matter how difficult they sometimes make it for him, and genuinely gives the impression it's because he'd rather think well of people than waste time thinking (or doing) ill. And yes, I do believe we have Mrs Taniguchi to thank for that, in part--not just genetically, but through lifelong example.

One thing I do know about her is that she was fannish, and passed her love of genre on to Jason. I remember him telling me about her trying to explain her spiritual beliefs to a nice but slightly baffled counsellor who just didn't know about concepts like "the Force"; they struggled for a bit, both going through their stores of metaphors, before they could finally agree on enough terminology in order to have the necessary conversation.

"Ah," I said. "'Darmok, his arms open.'"

Jason smiled. "Yeah. Darmok."

And we both knew exactly what we meant.

These points of intersection, so few as they are, so far between. They're all that matter. They're everything.

Quite the Day!

Via readingthedark, I was just directed to the unexpected (um) spectacle of yuki-onna raving about "each thing i show you is a piece of my death", here (http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/504081.html?view=12293393#t12293393). Catherynne M. Valente likes our spooky little interfictional mash-up! Cool beans, man.;)

Other reviews of Clockwork Phoenix 2 are already pouring in, most equally positive/welcome. cristalia's far better at this than me, being young/spry and not a Luddite, so I'll direct you here (http://cristalia.livejournal.com/335275.html) for the link round-up.

So Now It Can Be Told, Part 2

Like I said earlier, quite a day/week. And...it ain't over yet!

The upshot of the length conversation is that A Book of Tongues will indeed be far too long for ChiZine Publications if I bring it in at 200,000 words. Which is why--it's going to be two books, instead, each about 100,000 words: A Book of Tongues, now due by mid- to late-October for release in early 2010, and A Rope of Thorns, due sometime in 2010 for release (at some point. Probably 2011, I would think, but I don't want to assume).

"But don't make it a trilogy," Sandra warned me. To which I replied: "No fear! This is horror, after all, and horror don't play no trilogies."

So: Exciting! Scary! Times two! The great part is that I'll now have so much more time/space to deal with various things/characters/issues than I ever though I would. The bad part is--well, now I have to deal with them, as well as I can, instead of skipping or ignoring them (like I'd sort of hoped I might be able to).

As Gaiman's Merlin puts it: Hot demon blood. Still, it'll be interesting.

And now, I really have to work.;)