en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/1832805 Comments by scrivener212 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826768800 "Mimic" came to me as a series of images during a shakuhachi (Japanese wind instrument) concert, and I struggled for years to get the story right. Re: tornadoes--I too spent parts of my youth in tornado country (no one realizes how many tornadoes hit Pennsylvania), and had one touch down a little over the length of a football field from our house (I was asleep and couldn't figure out where the train was, because we didn't have any tracks near us). As far as Ri's concerned, there's nowhere she can really get to that's safe in time, so she may as well watch. Tue, 6 May 2014 14:19:43 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826768800 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826766690 ::pats Conan the Librarian on the back:: Thank you. Tue, 6 May 2014 14:12:10 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826766690 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826765916 Chinese dragons have antennae. Tue, 6 May 2014 14:09:37 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-predicts-bloodhound-mark-reads-mimic/#IDComment826765916 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-reads-terrier-part-24/#IDComment825600087 And so, my darling dears, we come to the end of another tale. Wasn't it full of buttercups and birds and rainbows in May? Yes. I have class issues. This is the first book where I was finally able to express my realization that I'd been writing about the upper classes when I have such issues about them in our world. Mark, I'm delighted to have caught you flat-footed, even though I was just following my reading in crime and criminals. You continue to make me swoon, you excellent, excellent man. Sat, 3 May 2014 15:39:38 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/05/mark-reads-terrier-part-24/#IDComment825600087 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-23/#IDComment825202690 I like the hot summer storms in this book. They rub our nerves raw as the heat builds up to them; they make us jump and impatient. We always feel something bad is just over the hill. And in cities, in the close-packed poor neighborhoods, the heat wears on everyone. It's the time for fights over small things and big things and hopelessness. I remember the Watts riots, though we were nowhere near them--we were waiting for riots in San Francisco. And I remember the Harlem riots. Summertime, a hot baking summertime with air conditioners a lot scarcer than they are now, and a lot of angry, poor people who had lost something important to them or who were just fed up. Fri, 2 May 2014 14:52:50 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-23/#IDComment825202690 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-22/#IDComment823896633 Mark, I'm so honored by your compliments and those of people here. I do like to show what people can accomplish when they choose to work together, when they choose to set aside their old rivalries for an important cause. And I do like to show them at their most human, like Goodwin and her husband. To my mind, if we know our heroes are human, we know we can aspire to be heroic, too. Tue, 29 Apr 2014 15:05:37 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-22/#IDComment823896633 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-20/#IDComment821082516 La la la la la . . . . ::sashays off:: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:08:08 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-20/#IDComment821082516 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-20/#IDComment821082390 Hell, it never occurred to *me*! Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:07:40 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-20/#IDComment821082390 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-19/#IDComment819097631 I think, whatever the sex of the person it''s aimed at, it's the underlying message that that person is an object, and a throwaway at that, an object to be used for the most violent, loveless, toy-in-the-hands-of-a-violent-child, treatment, then dumped into a garbage bin. Thus such attacks on gay men by straight ones, on trans folk, on women, and even by women on other women. Rape turns a human being with rights, dignity, and a mind of their own into a throwaway piece. Fri, 18 Apr 2014 15:27:44 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-19/#IDComment819097631 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-19/#IDComment819096172 Thank you so much!!!!!!!! Fri, 18 Apr 2014 15:23:02 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-19/#IDComment819096172 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-18/#IDComment818448406 I LIKE IT!!!!!!! Wed, 16 Apr 2014 22:53:43 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-18/#IDComment818448406 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-14/#IDComment814013486 Happy birthday, SorrowSolace! Here's to a magical birthday, and many more to come! Tammy Fri, 4 Apr 2014 20:15:22 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/04/mark-reads-terrier-part-14/#IDComment814013486 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809899764 I do try to include useful stuff, stuff I've learned, in each book. Just in case! Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:43:01 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809899764 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809898949 It's worth it to me, if I can talk with my fans. I wish I could deal with the other stuff better--I often end up in corners at industry parties--but in a trade-off, I'd rather have fun with fans. Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:39:54 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809898949 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809894114 Believe it or not, I'm shy. I was perfectly outgoing when I was small, but a lot of moves to different places and different schools, and a lot of disapproval for my unladylike behavior (it was the 60s) pretty much beat it out of me. By the time I got to middle school I was lucky if I managed one or two close friends. Most of the time I read, or wrote, except when I got the chance to act on stage. I might not have been able to interact with the rest of the actors backstage, but for a friend or two, but put me in front of an audience and I was someone else. My shyness got worse as I got older, went to high school, went to college, went out into the world. Once I got comfortable with a stable group of people I was alright, like those in my office, but talking to strangers became harder and harder, until outside my work life I became pretty much a recluse. Then the radio company came along and I had friends and a social life there, and met my husband, but again, outside it? With newcomers? People have said for years that they thought I was stuck-up because I wouldn't talk to them. I couldn't. And after I left the radio company, except for my husband and our best friend, I was a semi-recluse. Then my books started to sell and people started asking me to do appearances. My first couple were utter disasters, and the next few were some better, but not by much. Then I remembered how much fun I had doing stage shows. I compiled a persona for myself, Tamora Pierce the Writer. Tim (Spouse-Creature) and Raquel (Thayet) say it's who I really am, only more so. All I know is that when I go before an audience, I can be entertaining. I can answer questions. No one believes I'm shy. I can even answer questions, and I actually like talking to fans. It's like talking with really good friends. Parties? I hate them. Dinners? What do I say to people I don't know who aren't necessarily fans? The social obligations of being a public person scare the hell out of me. I get the shakes. And even when I've just doing appearances, by the time I reach my hotel room, my clothes are soaked with sweat. One thing though, about people in service jobs--they always appreciate a thank you, or a good-bye; some indication that they aren't viewed as furniture. I spend a lot of time with people in service jobs, and I always do my damndest to be pleasant, even though it involves talking to a stranger. If you can manage it, they may not always reply, but it's still a nice thing to do. I was wondering when I was going to mention that Beka gets her shyness from me. This seemed like a good place. Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:22:13 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809894114 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809888960 Yes, Day Watch's court is held at night. If anything, the audience is worse. Since the trainees went to watch a court session, I'm sure everyone expected Beka to remember! She blocked on it. Beka's family's situation is a typical medieval one. Yes, young nobles were sent to other nobles' houses to be trained, as ladies or as pages and squires (except in my books), but promising young people were also taken into service, or paid for people to take them as apprentices. Even in this case the household was responsible for feeding and clothing them and teaching them things they needed to know as adults. I had almost the same experience when, in 9th grade, I returned to the tiny town where I'd spent my first 8 years. It was so very small and poor, yet I'd never seen it that way. And then we went to what was for me the city, which turned out to be a bigger town, but still very poor and small, particularly when I was coming from the San Francisco Bay Area. The last point? La la la la laaaa . . . . Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:02:20 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-10/#IDComment809888960 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-8/#IDComment807489974 I know this won't help right now, but time is the best healer. Just keep telling yourself, "Tomorrow it will hurt less." It won't be true for a while, but then it will start to be true. And I'm sending you a bunch of hugs and e-comfort. We've all been there and know how it hurts. Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:51:50 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-8/#IDComment807489974 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-8/#IDComment807489417 "I have read a few cases and they tend to operate for several years, escalating until there are enough bodies for a pattern to emerge or they get careless and start leaving an evidence trail" Think of the dead that were discovered on Long Island a couple of years ago, and then again, I think last year (two recent consecutive years, anyway): escorts or prostitutes, just off a road by the ocean, some of the remains several years old, coming up to more recent ones when enough had been found that the public was aware and the pressure was on. Or the Green River Killer, whose presence was well known among the community of working girls where he hunted, but who no one investigated until the places where he left his dead in the Green River area were found. If they aren't caught in the beginning, they learn, and they become very hard to catch. Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:50:01 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-8/#IDComment807489417 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-7/#IDComment807167366 Xabja va bhe jbeyq nf AUV--"Ab Uhznaf Vaibyirq." Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:44:22 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-7/#IDComment807167366 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-7/#IDComment807166609 I don't know if we can fix them, either, but I'd certainly like for our governments to try harder. There are people out there who are fighting like hell to do it, but they don't have the funding or the facilities, and the stigma against the work discourages a lot of people from doing it or doing it well. Culturally we need a change, too. Thus me, trying to do my bit. Poverty is the biggest ill, of course. If we can create jobs that pay a decent wage, and help families keep from incurring heavy costs that shove them back into poverty (like child care), we may make inroads. And trying to do something is better than lying down (laying down? I never get that one right) and giving up. Besides, lizzieonawhim, if you wanted a feel-good author, surely you already knew I was the wrong one! ;) Tue, 18 Mar 2014 18:41:35 +0000 http://markreads.net/reviews/2014/03/mark-reads-terrier-part-7/#IDComment807166609