Author: rachelhartman

The ecstatic intellect

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So I’m at the stage of writing where my mind is being blown all the time. I don’t know if this is part of most people’s process or if it’s just me. I don’t recall reading about it anywhere, and I don’t think I’ve written about it before, but it always happens. Even with Shadow Scale, though the going was slow, I arrived eventually at this state, where ideas come gushing out of the ground and everything feels connected and meaningful and pertinent.

It’s not my writing that’s amazing me, just so we’re clear. The writing is going fine, but I can tell I’m going to have to re-order a bunch of stuff in ways that aren’t clear to me yet. I actively set that worry aside and try to have faith that it will come. It always does; it always has. My brain is smarter than I am.

No, the mind-blowing comes at me from everywhere else. I walk down the street with my mind open and trawling like a fishnet, snatching remarkable and unexpected fish out of the air. Or else I’m a snowball rolling downhill, picking up glittering and relevant detritus along the way. Or I’m a barometer for ideas, water rising in the storm glass, jittering like a beating heart.

None of those analogies quite capture it. Everything I read, everything I hear and see, everything enters and forms part of the answer, whispers of what my next book is really about. I feel like it’s raining answers, jewel-bright and glorious.

Random book on aging your husband recommends? Relevant. Song you encounter by chance? Vitally important. Conversation with a friend over lunch? Crucial (ye gods, what if it had never happened?)

It an exhilaration very like dancing. The wildest part is that it’s thinking that gets me there. Thinking should not feel like this — how can it feel like anything at all? Maybe I mean intuition. Maybe I’m just a hammer suddenly noticing all the nails.

Either way, this is my favourite place to be, consumed with ideas. Aflame with them.

The wheel will turn, and I’ll be back to banging my head against the table soon enough. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy dancing to the peculiar music of my thoughts.

You missed me talking about music

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And I don’t know that this will satisfy you, but I have two small things to say.

First: My friend Karen New has done it again. Go listen to her rendition of “My Faith Should Not Come Easily.” This is another song from Seraphina, the one her mother’s writing during one of the maternal memory scenes. Love (I command thee) the draconic, orderly harpsichord obbligato! Marvel at the soaring flute, and notice the fluttering and the possible snatches of birdsong! Just lovely, although harder (I suspect) to sing.

Second: Today’s earworm, courtesy of author Max Gladstone’s blog (where I ventured to read Avengers criticism and stayed for the music videos).

It’s poppier than I usually like, but the lyrics and the video are talking right at me today. Go out, they’re saying. Go out and get your errands run.

Oh, wait, that’s my conscience. My bad.

This and that

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* Over at the Lytherus Book Club they’re reading Seraphina and Shadow Scale. Part 1 of the Seraphina discussion is up today, and tune in tomorrow for more. If you leave questions in the comments, I will be answering them in person soon.

* In other news, I remind you of my Burnaby event AGAIN. Because it’s going to be awesome. We’re practising our songs tonight. If you’re planning to go, please do click that link and RSVP, because the room only holds 60 (including me and the madrigal choir).

* My North Vancouver Capilano Library event, which was cancelled due to circumstances most dismal, has been rescheduled for Friday, May 15th! I hope all the readers who were sad to miss me in March will be able to make it in May.

Coming soon: Chicago and Burnaby

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Those two great metropolises! Whaddaya mean you never heard of Burnaby?

Here are my events upcoming, in greater detail than previously:

April 24th (tomorrow!) – 7pm – panel discussion with authors Arwen Elys Dayton and Melissa Grey at Anderson’s Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson, Naperville, IL. Discussion, Q&A, and signing.

April 25th (Saturday!) – at C2E2, McCormick Place, Chicago, IL

  • 1:45-2:45 — panel: WTF Is Going On? Room S402
  • 3:00 — signing at Table 18

April 28th (Tuesday!) – 7pm at McGill Library, Burnaby, BC – a very special reading, featuring not just me but my beloved Madrigalians, recorder consort, and Renaissance flute, plus the world premiere of “Blessed is He Who Passes, Love” by Karen Jessica New. Signing afterwards. Books will be available for purchase.

Shadow Scale on InnerSpace

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Why look, I was on the teevee! Specifically, on the SPACE Channel’s InnerSpace show, talking to host Teddy Wilson at Bakka Phoenix Bookstore in Toronto. I talked to him for ten or fifteen minutes, in fact, and they trimmed it down to just two — understandable, but slightly sad because we’d had a nice convo about prog rock. That Floyd reference at the end wasn’t quite as out of left field as it seems, see.

In other news: I’m at C2E2 in Chicago next weekend! I will post more closer to the time of. Life has been forcing me to step lively these last few weeks, but I’ll be back with you more regularly as soon as I may.

My fabulous editor

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I have sung his praises before. Indeed, I’ve never been coy about acknowledging that Seraphina and Shadow Scale wouldn’t be the books they are without him.

Well, aspiring writers, you’re in luck: now he’s freelancing. If you’re looking for a professional editor for your work, Jim Thomas is the best you could ask for.

Even if you’re not looking for an editor, you should go look at the picture on his About Me page because the caption just about made me fall out of my chair laughing.

Coming soon: Emerald City Comicon, Seattle

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Hello friends! I seem to have pulled something in my neck whilst travelling, so this will be brief. I’m going to be at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this weekend, speaking on two panels:

Saturday, March 28th, 2:30-3:30pm, Hall B (WSCC 602-603) Level 6

Beyond the Children’s Section: Young adult novels require more than a teenage protagonist. Learn the specific characteristics of the YA market and how to weave them into your narrative, with authors Lisa Mantchev, Holly Black, Arwen Elys Dayton, Rachel Hartman, and Aaron Michael Ritchey.

Sunday, March 29th, 2:30-3:30pm, same room

Reinventing Iconic Monsters: How do you take an ancient monster and make it new? Panelists Naomi Novik, Rachel Hartman, and Isaac Marion will discuss how they’ve turned time-worn tropes upside-down to create fresh and engaging stories.

There will be a signing after each event at JJ 10/11, books provided by University Bookstore.

I hope to see some of you there! And now I have to go lie down some more. Stupid neckbones.

A song from Seraphina

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My friend Karen New, a fabulously talented composer, has written music to “Blessed is he who passes, love,” the last set of lyrics in Seraphina. And not just a melody, no, but a madrigal in four voices which we will sing in Inchoiring Minds next quarter. It’s beautifully done, very Renaissance-y (pretty sure that’s a word, since I’m a writer and all).

My babbling intro is inadequate, so you’re just going to have to go have a listen and then join me in marvelling awe-struck at it.

The Soundcloud version sounds like a woodwind quartet; obviously, the choral version will have words. Here are the lyrics from Seraphina so you can sing along in your own head (Karen’s version requires these words to be sung all the way through twice).

Blessed is he who passes, love,
Beneath your window’s eye
And does not sigh.

Gone my heart and gone my soul,
Look on me love, look down
Before I die.

One glimpse, my royal pearl, one smile
Sufficient to sustain me,
Grant me this

Or take my life and make it yours.
I’d fight a hundred thousand wars
For just one kiss.

The lyrics, in fact, were directly inspired by two other songs. One is “Chi passa per ‘sta strada,” by the 16th century Italian composer Filippo Azzaiolo (here’s a spiffy instrumental version with Yo Yo Ma). The first line of the song expresses a sentiment similar to my own – what a blessing it would be to be able to walk down the street without sighing – and was my jumping-off point for creating the rest of the lyrics (I also did this with “A thousand regrets,” earlier in Seraphina, riffing off the title of another famous Renaissance song).

My other inspiration was “Deh veni alla finestra,” from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Here’s Samuel Ramey singing it, the version my sisters and I used to sing along with. Singing under someone’s window with your lute was apparently the romantic thing to do, once upon a time, and hyperbolically insisting you were about to die was just par for the course.

So this morning…

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…I was on The Morning Show Toronto to talk about Shadow Scale. Before I went on there was one other guest waiting his turn, a gregarious black man who introduced himself as Chad, asked me about myself and the book, and then took a picture and had one of his assistants post it to Instagram. The whole time I’m thinking, “His voice sounds really familiar! I feel like I should know who he is. He’s not Isaac Hayes, because Isaac Hayes is dead — but who is he?”

I quietly asked one of his assistants, embarrassed for the man himself to know I couldn’t place him, and she was like, “Ever watch The Wire?” No, I’ve never watched The Wire. “How about The Walking Dead?”

I love The Walking Dead. He’d played Tyreese. I felt pretty silly, but in a way it was nice because we’d had an actual conversation without me fangirling all over him.

Anyway, that’s my little brush with fame for today. At least I managed not to be too embarrassing. I’ve had fans of my book worry that they said something silly in front of me — please don’t feel self-conscious about that! We all do it, and I think I was only prevented by not knowing who he was for most of the time. Sometimes it really is better to have a slow reveal.

O Torontonians!

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OK, I’ve been kind of bad about announcing my own events, but there’s a big one tomorrow in Toronto, and I just wanted to remind you it was happening.

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They’ll be selling books, and I’ll be signing them. Please do come, if you’re in town! I’d love to see you all!