Archive for May, 2009

Down Below

May 29th, 09 / 2 Comments

I’ve been reading underground books again lately – or more accurately, books about underground spaces – and might have found a few you don’t know about.

Those of you who have hung around Alive & Knitting for a while know about my fascination with underground spaces. It might come from the fact that I grew up in Toronto, which has a huge underground network called the PATH. You don’t even have to go outside to move from building to building in Toronto, which is pretty great when it’s snowing like the bejabbers. Montreal has a similar network of shopping malls, subway stations and underground accesses to hotels and office buildings. I always thought that Canadians just liked to avoid winter.

But during our vacation in Paris, we went on a tour of the underground, which included the catacombs. This dovetailed neatly with my other fascination with old cemeteries, which was how I found the tour. (Mr. C. rolls his eyes when I pull out my list of Must See tourist attractions. They’re seldom the usual picks, except in New Orleans!)

Sometime after that, I found a book about the underground tunnels in Paris. It’s in French but has lots of fab pictures and I think I told you about it a long time ago: ATLAS DU PARIS SOUTERRAIN is by Alain Clement and Gilles Thomas. The photographs in this book are gorgeous and require no translation.

There’s also a good survey book called BENEATH THE METROPOLIS: THE SECRET LIVES OF CITIES by Alex Marshall. He discusses both history and technology for twelve cities – New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Mexico City, Paris, Rome, London, Moscow, Cairo, Tokyo, Beijing and Sydney. The geek in me just loves the cross sections for each city.

And finally, I’ve found a truly yummy book. I knew of this one when it was only available in hard cover, but recently realized that the soft cover edition had been released. Much more economical, with lots of fabulous pix. NEW YORK UNDERGROUND: THE ANATOMY OF A CITY by Julia Solis is filled with history, anecdote and adventure.

I still want a similar volume for Montreal and one for Toronto. There are unused subway stations in Toronto, for a line that was never put into service – they use them for movie shoots. I wonder what else is down there. And one for London, of course – as much as I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s NEVERWHERE, I want a non-fiction resource.

Do you know of more such “underground” books? (Or am I just going to have to write them myself?! LOL!)

I wouldn’t mind finding a comprehensive guide to old cemeteries either – it could start with Highgate in London, include Pére Lachaise in Paris, then move on from there.

Tell me about the weird subjects you find irresistible in big fat books.

Reading/Watching

Calculations

May 26th, 09 / 0 Comments

One of the things that I like to do when I’m working out the intricacies of a plot is knit something that requires some calculation. For some reason, the math seems to help with the plotting.

I don’t ask questions anymore – I just go with it!

So, last week when I was wrestling with the backstory between Niall and his twin brother Phelan – how did Phelan die anyway? – I did some rummaging in my stash for something to cast on. I recently finished a big project – pix to come – and have outsourced the hardware bits to Mr. C., who is kind of busy right now. There is a good bit of space in my knitting basket.

In my stash, I found the kit that Rowan sent to me with my subscription to their magazine last year. It’s a kit for a denim bag called Charlie, which includes the pattern and six balls of Rowan Denim. The Charlie bag in the kit pattern is a plain stockinette shoulder bag with a flap. Very nice, but the pattern didn’t excite me, so the package had been chucked aside. I like the yarn, though, so I cruised the ‘net and my pattern stash for ideas.

I found Tasha on Knitty, a bag pattern that uses (hey!) Rowan Denim. The cable on the bag is very neat, but I didn’t like that it had an open top. Big zipper fan, that’s me. I’m good enough at losing things that I need all the help I can get. Also I found a pattern in Rowan #35 by Martin Storey, for a bag very similar to Charlie but with cables on the flap. I liked that MS lined his bag and saw zipper potential under that flap, esp with the lining. Hmm.

The thing that all of these patterns have in common is that you knit all the pieces, wash/block them, then sew it all together. Blech. Plain stockinette is boring enough without knitting plain stockinette rectangles that have to be sewn together later. One thing I really liked about Tasha was that cable, but not that it only ran along the strap. So, I began to ponder…

What if the strap was one continuous loop, knit with that cable pattern, and made the bottom and sides of the bag as well?

What if I picked up the stitches from the base, then knit the bag in the round to the top opening? That would eliminate the seaming. Hmm.

Let the calculations begin!

I started with the bottom and made a strip of the cable pattern. The cable pattern is 14 stitches wide (5 x 2 st stockinette cables plus 4 purl stitches in between), so I cast on 24 stitches. For each right side row, I slipped the first stitch, P4, work the cable pattern, P5. For each wrong side row, I slipped the first stitch, K4, work the WS of the cable pattern, K5. (If you’re looking at the Tasha pattern, the designer has 3 stitches on either side of the cable. The first stitch is slipped on each row, but that’s not listed in the pattern directions, just the P2 or K2 at either end.) I worked for about 10 inches in length, ending with a WS row.

Then I switched to two circular needles. One side of the bag and one end would be on each needle. This is much easier (I learned) than working on 4 dpns – the long sides want to jump off the needle – or one circular – the curve is too tight.

Here’s what it looks like now, so you can visualize what’s going on:

dbag1.JPG

You could technically join the bag into a complete circle and work it in the round, but I left one seam open and am working it back and forth – it’s easier for me to keep track of the cable pattern that way and I don’t mind sewing one seam.

So, I worked the next row of the cable pattern across the end of the bag base, then picked up all those slipped stitch loops on the left end of the cable needle. I worked down that long side, knitting one stitch into the first loop and two into the next one – for every two loops, I picked up three stitches. This might be a bit full, and I’m thinking now that four stitches for every three loops might have worked better. We’ll see.

To make one stitch in the loop, you simply knit the loop. To make two stitches in a loop, you knit into the front of the loop, then without removing the loop from the left needle, knit into the back of the loop. Then you remove it from the left needle.

I switched to the second circular and picked up 22 stitches from my cast-on, purling above the purl and knitting above the knit stitches. (I initially cast on 24, but the other two stitches – one at each end – became the slipped stitches which were picked up for the long sides. Each end is now 22 stitches, with four reverse stockinette stitches on either side of the cable.) Then I picked up the other long side, the same way I’d picked up the first one.

When I’d gotten all the way around the bag, I turned the work and worked back on the WS. The front and back of the bag are in stockinette, so I purled all those stitches I’d made, then kept the ends in the cable pattern bordered with reverse stockinette.

At the beginning of the next row, I made one stitch at the beginning of the cable panel. This is the seam stitch – I’m knitting it on the RS and purling it on the WS. When I sew that seam, it will disappear into the back of the bag. There are some holes along the bottom where I picked up all those stitches, but I’m going to border the bag with I-cord so the holes will be covered up.

The picture is the bottom of the bag. The opening, which will be the seam, is at the top left corner. The stitches on the left side and across the bottom are on one circular needle. The stitches on the right side and across the top are on the second circular needle.

I have a feeling that the cable pattern stitch on the side of the strap that came from the picking up the cast-on is upside down or backwards or something. I’m just knitting to make it look right and not following the directions anymore, so if you try this, keep an eye out on that side.

Back and forth I’ll go, until the bag looks deep enough – probably about ten or twelve inches, guesstimating from the other pattern instructions. Then I’ll cast off one long side and divide the straps from the other long side. The remaining long side will become the flap and the straps will continue to make that big loop. I think I’ll knit the strap on one side and graft the strap at the top of the bag on the opposite side. And I suspect that the flap will need a cable, maybe one that starts on the back side. I’ll have to have a peek at some cable designs.

For the moment, I’m happily keeping track of that braided cable – you can see at the top right that I crossed one the wrong way. I picked that back and fixed it. Then, after I’d worked about two inches from the base, I was able to put it all on one circular needle and just work back and forth.

As a bonus, I know how Phelan died, too! Woo HOO!

Knitting, Writing

FINALIST!

May 25th, 09 / 4 Comments

I just heard the news – FALLEN is a finalist in the RWA FF&P chapter’s PRISM award, in the Futuristic category!

fallensmall.JPG

This is very exciting news, and I’m quite excited to have finalled. the winners of the PRISMs will be announced at The Gathering – the FF&P chapter’s mini conference – at RWA National, in Washington DC, on July 16.

Go, Montgomery, go!

prismfinalist2009.jpg
Angels, Promoting

Agency

May 21st, 09 / 0 Comments

Social historians often talk about “agency”, by which they mean the power of a certain type of person in a certain society to influence his or her circumstances. Does a peasant woman in 12th century southern France have agency? Can she get rid of an abusive husband? Can she improve her material conditions? Can she earn a trade? Can she move to a more prosperous area? etc. etc. These are the kinds of historical inquiry that fascinate me – in order to draw up a reasonable answer, you have to look at laws and social conditions and seek patterns in the historical records. Even then, there’s often a wiggle of uncertainty.

What does agency have to do with writing fiction today? Well, the interesting thing to me is that people outside of the publishing business generally believe that authors have a great deal of agency, far more than is actually the case. (This suggestion that authors are in charge of the show can give me a giggle fit, if you catch me at the right moment.) And so, what often happens is that everything Ms. Average Reader dislikes about publishing, she blames on the author, attributing all sorts of nasty qualities to the author.

For example, I once had a book cover which had the hero’s name spelled wrong. This was agonizing to me, as this particular house at that particular time showed the cover art to the author only when it was final and thus impossible to change. (I often wondered whether they did that on purpose, as authors are notorious for wanting to tweak their covers.) So, I couldn’t do anything about it – other than begging shamelessly to have it fixed. My editor said she tried but it was too late. I subsequently received a letter from a reader, telling me I was “stupid” for forgetting how to spell my own hero’s name.

A writer I know had some of her backlist reprinted by her former house. She had reached the NYT with her current house, and as if often the case, the former house chose to capitalize on success. She really didn’t want these early books reprinted as they stood, as they were in a different subgenre. She also believed she had learned a lot as a storyteller and as a writer. She had thought about revising them before they were printed (if they were printed) but the house had the rights – she learned about the releases when she saw the books for sale. They had nice new covers, which looked almost exactly like the covers on her NYT bestselling series, even though the books were quite different. This upset her, but there was nothing she could do about it. (See my previous post called Silver Linings to learn a bit more about backlist rights.) She got mail from readers berating her for being “greedy”.

And finally, yesterday, I was talking to someone who was complaining about authors working in partnerships. He perceived this to be “lazy” on the part of the famous writers, that they were getting someone else to do their work for them and taking the money. But an author with an established bestselling brand will be very protective of that brand and the kind of work that is published under his or her name. It’s the bread and butter, and it would be foolish to jeopardize it. So, often these kinds of partnerships are opportunities for the author with less of a selling reputation to reach a wider audience. They can be mentoring relationships in terms of craft as well, in which the more experienced author works directly with a less experienced author on a joint project. There are many writers who teach creative writing classes, and I’ve heard of these associations occurring with a promising student – the bestselling author doesn’t have to make this gesture of generosity. A partnership can also be about creative stimulus, about two writers with talents in different areas working together to take one writer’s work in a new direction. I think actually that it’s pretty neat when authors do this, as it’s a mark of support for their fellow artists.

And come to think of it, it’s the one example here in which the author does have agency, or the power to create change.

Publishing, Writing

Summer Hours

May 18th, 09 / 1 Comment

Every year, the same thing happens – summer comes.

Today is Victoria Day in Canada, a statutory holiday and the unofficial beginning of summer. People open their cottages on this first long weekend, or plant their gardens, or generally celebrate the return of summer one more time. Even when it’s a bit chilly – as it has been here this weekend – the barbeques are still fired up and the road trips planned.

Summer brings house guests to the Château – and very welcome they are, too – as well as lazy days. The garden needs tending and there is prosecco in the fridge that must be drunk on the porch. Summer is filled with obligations and pleasures – every summer, I cut back on my blogging in order to protect my writing time enjoy all of those seasonal pleasures, too

So, we’re on summer hours at Alive & Knitting and I won’t be posting every weekday. I’ll post to the blog when I think of something interesting or have some news to share, but otherwise I’ll be writing away – or, quite possibly, drinking prosecco on the porch after I’ve finished my word count for the day.

I hope you take the time to enjoy summer as well – we’ll get back into a routine after Labour Day, which is the unofficial end of summer.

Writing