I'm back.

[zotz]

This morning I was in a 30-foot motor launch watching white-beaked dolphins bowriding, five miles off Reykjavik.

And now I'm sitting here wishing there was some milk in the house. International air travel is a good thing, I think . . . within reason. Longer report (and, if you're very unlucky, pictures) will follow.

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Pictures seem okay to me. 8)

I finally had time to read some Charlie Stross stuff-- very good indeed. Thanks for the recommendation...

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

Sounds ok to me too. Iceland is generally rather photogenic from what I've seen!

Welcome back :)

[zotz]

Hmm. Pictures are dependent on me getting them developed and scanned. I have a fond attachment to a couple of 20-year-old cameras, one of which I took with me.

Mr Stross, of course, got nominated for a Big Gong
recently. He's probably going to be better known in due course. I think he suffers slightly from Iain Banks syndrome - he's too obviously writing stories for the small proportion of the population who agree with his opinions and prejudices, and while that certainly includes me, I can't help feeling that he must be gradually painting himself into a corner. Still, Herr Banks has been at it for nearly 20 years and still seems to be getting away with it, so maybe I'm worrying too much.

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

grr hiss spit *jealous* everyone I know ends up goign to iceland..well my sister does at least

[zotz]

Some of it's beyond pictures, though. "This is a bloody great crack in the ground" makes a good picture (which you'll all see if it comes out OK), but the fact that I couldn't, no matter how hard I peered down it, see whether it had any bottom or went on endlessly into the dark, wouldn't really come across as well.

It's funny. Usually I'd be right with you on that, but a couple of things I saw wouldn't come across without quite a hefty caption.

Welcome back :)

Cheers. It feels a bit odd. I can't think of any weekend I've had that seems to have lasted longer.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

No, I think I know what you mean.

When I was in Indonesia I wanted a camera for smell! The sulphur from the volcanic pools I could probably have lived without but the scent of cloves and the vegetation after the rain was amazing.

Actually what I really wanted to do was to be able to say to people, "here, step inside my head, see/hear/feel what I saw/heard/felt".

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

I think that writing for a niche is really the only way to have a career-- most authors end up doing that eventually. If you write for a mass market, you can get a couple of books out before your audience whittles itself down to the hardcore fans. Why not start off by writing whatever you want, and then keep that core happy? I think the core will slowly grow, as the uberfans force your books on all their friends (like Doug, who got me hooked on Iain Banks long before he was published in the US at all).

I think that Ken Macleod is also writing for that sort of niche-- how much of a market can there really be for Commies in Space, anyway? And he too has managed to make inroads into the US.

I'm half-dreading the new Banks book, which is on its way to me right now and should be here sometime this week, along with an Ultravox CD that's way out of print in the US. (Gee, WHY do I now want to move to London? Could it be that all kinds of good records are actually available over there, and stay available for longer than the five minutes it takes for the one copy that the local half-decent record stores stock to be sold?)

[zotz]

Join them. You won't regret it.

[zotz]

I think that Ken Macleod is also writing for that sort of niche-

Absolutely. Logically speaking, these writers are on a hiding to nothing, surely? But they seem to get away with it. I guess that not everyone is as blinkered as I am.

And he too has managed to make inroads into the US.

Well, yes. He apparently got an award for Libertarian Fiction, which everyone - especially he himself - thinks is amazing, given what an unrepentant lefty he is. I saw him give a little talk a few months back, and he said he took it as priase for letting the ideas speak for themselves rather than necessarily always telling people what they should think about them.

I'm half-dreading the new Banks book,

I'm not finished it yet, but it's good so far. I haven't worked out what it's really about yet, though. There are lots of incidents, and what's going on is really gripping, but what it all means isn't obvious yet. Obviously there could still be a terrible ending lurking in there . . . I'll let poeple know when I find out.

[zotz]

I'm sure that someone in California has already got rich selling shares in the company developing it.

I think the people in the office are already avoiding the subject.

The thing I regret is not having been able to take advantage of Sensible Opening Hours.

SOH

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

And why not?

Even more sensible than Edinburgh?

Glad you're back btw. I've been buying vinyl (the spinny kind, not the kind one wears) and getting very excited about it but nobody understood. Although at least Zero got it about obscure record shops.

Re: SOH

[zotz]

And why not?

I was with my mother and sister. Kate does do the late-drinking thing sometimes, but our mum doesn't, really.

Even more sensible than Edinburgh?

Allegedly. The general opinion in the guidebooks is that people don't really go for it on schoolnights, but on Fridays and Saturdays "nobody stops until five". To be honest, that sounds a bit expensive - and Iceland is a little pricey in that respect - but I wouldn't have objected.

I've been buying vinyl

So I see. I like that Young Gods record - although I didn't have it the first time I saw them, so their version of "Did you miss me" took me slightly by surprise. I don't have much Leather Nun, though. I got their version of Gimme Gimme Gimme after seeing them do it on The Tube. Fantastic.

Sister Ray's always worth a look. The secondhand place next door's well worth a few minutes also. And of course Selectadisk's up the road, so I usually drop by that way when I'm in town. Often with disastrous consequences.

Hmm. I've half-agreed to help an old friend move his stuff to Seven Sisters at the weekend. I wonder if I'll have any time over . . .

Re: SOH

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I used to have a copy of "Gimme, gimme, gimme" but I don't know what happened to it. Another one to add to my list: 'Must replace'.

I'd have liked to spend more time browsing in Sister Ray but I was already late for meeting someone in the pub, maybe this Saturday if I do go look at turntables. (Which is still my plan.)

Re:

[felishumanus.livejournal.com]

scandinavia is first on the list..and that will take a year or too to organise/ fund..all those viking places to visit *eyes glace over*

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

aka autopope, though he has his own blog that's more active.

[ex-lark-asc.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, Iceland :) Did you see any Icelandic ponies? *daydreams about cute shaggy little brown horses*

[zotz]

Certainly did. They're hard to avoid, it seems, if you go anywhere near, but not in, Reykjavik. I think the only livestock I saw was horses and sheep.