Meta tags:
description=Margaret Ronald s infrequently updated blog;

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, of, on, you, sorts, and, margaret, ronald, been, while, murder, holiday, after, flood, girls, forest, up, today, rain, cloud, crane, wing, little, gray, cells, someone, like, new, work, readercon, an, announcement, she, thinks, there, are, rats, in, attic, watch, city, holy, crap, dreaming, firedrakes, news, fogcon, boskone, 2013, hunt, is, about, me, my, fiction, online, recent, posts, archives, search, meta,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (221), and (144), that (60), this (54), story (38), for (34), with (33), you (26), was (24), about (24), 2013 (23), one (22), out (22), but (22), what (21), stories (19), have (17), now (17), there (17), just (17), more (16), are (16), not (16), when (15), permalink (15), time (15), how (15), fantasy (15), some (14), much (14), really (13), can (13), #margaret (12), ronald (12), 2009 (12), 2010 (12), they (12), from (12), little (12), after (11), been (11), like (11), fiction (11), online (11), few (11), had (11), write (10), 2011 (10), then (10), well (10), part (10), all (10), even (10), world (10), which (10), comment (9), comments (9), 2008 (9), while (9), has (9), get (9), your (9), very (9), urban (9), reading (9), something (9), because (9), see (9), november (8), january (8), may (8), september (8), october (8), march (8), 2012 (8), boskone (8), don (8), think (8), than (8), science (8), draft (8), strange (8), horror (8), december (7), february (7), june (7), july (7), podcast (7), set (7), these (7), where (7), read (7), back (7), idea (7), her (7), sure (7), two (7), still (7), today (6), murder (6), family (6), leave (6), most (6), fantastic (6), many (6), also (6), does (6), know (6), detective (6), poirot (6), coming (6), new (6), make (6), over (6), before (6), first (6), week (6), come (6), will (6), though (6), its (6), them (6), who (6), movie (6), human (6), short (6), electric (6), velocipede (6), site (5), april (5), august (5), girls (5), let (5), drakes (5), book (5), steampunk (5), stuff (5), our (5), writing (5), too (5), saturday (5), panel (5), why (5), fictional (5), any (5), together (5), going (5), could (5), scene (5), beneath (5), ceaseless (5), skies (5), came (5), down (5), those (5), nothing (5), were (5), tiny (5), did (5), 2014 (4), 2016 (4), forest (4), death (4), sunlight (4), society (4), someone (4), hunt (4), probably (4), sunday (4), character (4), work (4), plot (4), way (4), cons (4), since (4), mystery (4), other (4), hercule (4), off (4), anything (4), thoughts (4), end (4), lot (4), into (4), post (4), haven (4), started (4), would (4), remember (4), being (4), city (4), using (4), narrative (4), maybe (4), last (4), around (4), take (4), got (4), apex (4), ageless (4), issue (4), log (3), wordpress (3), com (3), account (3), crane (3), goes (3), tell (3), children (3), eyes (3), day (3), browse (3), inside (3), next (3), revisions (3), likely (3), itself (3), best (3), mean (3), absolutely (3), beyond (3), turn (3), miss (3), here (3), detectives (3), certainly (3), half (3), eldritch (3), getting (3), myth (3), elements (3), done (3), whether (3), find (3), weekend (3), far (3), fogcon (3), same (3), bit (3), made (3), often (3), through (3), both (3), anthology (3), superheroes (3), she (3), drake (3), turned (3), dream (3), hope (3), dragons (3), such (3), away (3), irrelevant (3), clear (3), good (3), fun (3), gorgeous (3), watch (3), primer (3), pretty (3), mind (3), whole (3), sleep (3), things (3), written (3), sources (3), ideas (3), sorts (3), posting (3), wanted (3), magazine (3), look (3), water (3), wrote (3), sad (3), horizons (3), website (2), required (2), reader (2), report (2), sign (2), subscribed (2), subscribe (2), create (2), blog (2), feed (2), 2007 (2), rain (2), cloud (2), wing (2), flood (2), holiday (2), recent (2), gentlemen (2), witch (2), knives (2), sweet (2), hungry (2), letters (2), deaths (2), goosegirl (2), dragon (2), air (2), full (2), voices (2), serpent (2), gears (2), con (2), took (2), suspect (2), need (2), spirit (2), scenery (2), talk (2), modern (2), fashion (2), says (2), light (2), worst (2), setting (2), life (2), everything (2), readers (2), julia (2), rios (2), magic (2), genre (2), marples (2), hard (2), dead (2), else (2), chance (2), grand (2), promise (2), relatively (2), looking (2), mythology (2), their (2), old (2), different (2), draw (2), debra (2), doyle (2), doing (2), luck (2), distinction (2), myself (2), pastiche (2), inspiration (2), yes (2), long (2), say (2), feel (2), lost (2), later (2), move (2), dreamed (2), years (2), ago (2), only (2), real (2), reprinted (2), audio (2), available (2), yet (2), morning (2), hands (2), red (2), bone (2), black (2), head (2), responsibility (2), remembered (2), narrator (2), didn (2), abandoned (2), wasn (2), towers (2), dreaming (2), understand (2), big (2), might (2), comes (2), run (2), having (2), point (2), wild (2), holy (2), crap (2), type (2), box (2), consider (2), wrong (2), never (2), viewer (2), course (2), job (2), less (2), deprivation (2), currently (2), novel (2), makes (2), appearance (2), kind (2), shortest (2), although (2), sold (2), lately (2), facts (2), lives (2), characters (2), data (2), used (2), readercon (2), personal (2), blogging (2), odd (2), change (2), great (2), list (2), usual (2), under (2), keep (2), structure (2), calling (2), beep (2), multiple (2), completely (2), his (2), tranquil (2), shame (2), between (2), war (2), case (2), lodged (2), capture (2), form (2), should (2), program (2), daughter (2), motherhood (2), born (2), birth (2), nephew (2), notes (2), honored (2), kindle (2), nook (2), year (2), school (2), creepy (2), illustration (2), attempt (2), davala (2), bears (2), 2015 (2), name, email, loading, collapse, bar, manage, subscriptions, view, content, privacy, already, free, entries, meta, search, archives, posts, welsh, squadron, guilt, child, sparking, anger, salvage, recapitulation, steam, ragnarok, postponed, fire, knight, coins, goat, eschatologies, machina, bonefields, biography, bibliography, page, headed, shortly, downtime, arisia, small, doses, curtail, 11am, place, b48, certain, tales, fabric, practically, becomes, unique, locales, contradict, dialog, decoration, distraction, effect, justified, accomplished, novels, necessarily, focus, integral, missed, trend, somewhere, sharon, lee, steven, popkes, darlene, marshall, 10am, siawol, fans, rock, goggles, cosplay, victoriana, motifs, tablets, tattoos, lifestyle, circle, influence, changed, start, current, state, field, further, enthralling, developments, gear, literary, side, advice, gentle, jim, frenkel, james, cambias, 3pm, street, discussed, cross, microscope, sleuth, boiled, sidhe, plus, dicks, dames, investigators, compare, mundane, gumshoes, each, spoil, solving, fair, square, moderating, tradition, moderators, everywhere, sidetracked, description, aren, among, horrors, worry, bugging, right, bob, kuhn, ellen, asher, dana, cameron, toni, kelner, 30pm, bodies, mad, myths, fables, past, affected, writers, development, fictitious, future, systems, dressed, names, anybody, truly, mere, hint, favorite, underpinnings, sucker, mixed, yep, cooties, greer, gilman, friday, 8pm, bunch, strung, stage, eluding, wise, round, hand, brawl, biggest, problem, ending, understandable, semi, fantasyland, man, nuts, means, west, coast, san, francisco, explicitly, industrial, hallmarks, centuries, grim, places, ultimately, hopeful, ten, dreams, chancy, thing, tale, missing, flight, naked, behind, deadline, delayed, compilation, audiobook, includes, masters, specs, believe, mentioned, rich, horton, peter, beagle, kelly, link, leah, bobet, carol, emshwiller, amazing, thrilled, updates, monday, print, news, pushed, knees, third, smaller, others, landed, front, gleamed, glass, mask, wood, furnace, stink, swept, regard, eye, lipless, jaws, parting, grin, remains, proud, enjoy, surfaced, middle, finally, context, thinking, ownership, circumstances, contribute, turning, nowhere, tried, crumbled, bron, believable, motivation, themselves, seemed, hell, bogged, convinced, trailer, mildly, boggling, woke, lord, rings, genesis, six, traben, crossing, ice, vigil, spoke, firedrakes, following, paintings, condition, frames, empty, deal, suppose, risk, working, situations, mysteries, solved, regret, hey, revise, early, sox, won, series, till, major, spiral, fbi, identified, gardner, museum, thieves, noon, ham, governess, lobster, aloud, greater, boston, area, interest, steampunky, sidewalk, parade, music, including, emperor, norton, stationary, marching, band, dancing, belly, dance, show, discussions, debates, costumes, festival, appearances, rest, entry, spoilers, below, telling, infused, okay, conversation, claimed, gothic, term, inaccurately, aspect, jump, scares, terrors, against, either, mood, ominous, hum, repeated, isolation, leads, emphasized, dialogue, tunes, puzzle, timelines, failsafes, abe, aaron, question, happened, considered, solely, least, detailed, consideration, travel, love, technobabble, mainly, slows, talking, sat, friends, night, blends, genres, speculative, heart, hidden, motivations, chipping, assumptions, until, help, unsteady, ground, stand, regards, outside, totally, thinks, rats, attic, plotting, burning, polish, heaven, hits, yeah, forgot, mention, present, siren, song, giant, robots, fighting, kaiju, calls, afternoon, easy, eight, months, pregnant, reads, summer, goofy, give, taste, permitting, convincing, primary, purposes, seeking, political, office, underpin, imaginary, books, beginning, appear, matter, enough, resilient, use, creating, flop, gets, interested, secondary, tertiary, alex, dally, macfarlane, ken, schneyer, harold, vedeler, henry, wessells, leader, intellectually, rigorous, making, true, announcement, baby, undoubtedly, creep, want, honestly, encompassing, experience, feels, meantime, noodling, seems, during, 3am, feeding, tends, coherent, guess, lower, priorities, fed, clean, friggin, macguffin, however, couple, soon, strangely, appropriate, timing, reason, yup, scratch, subscribing, regular, basis, lynne, thomas, epub, via, originally, challenge, fictiony, 2000, words, revision, latter, restriction, dumped, pieces, comfortable, rather, wearing, deely, boppers, try, masked, handled, worlds, theory, practical, computation, appeal, dysfunctional, relationship, track, arrived, surprise, crept, along, anaea, lay, mary, robinette, kowal, hal, duncan, maurice, broaddus, elariel, once, high, courts, poma, mèl, taller, men, harsh, elegant, common, expression, distant, stab, wounds, ruin, chest, blast, leaves, craving, salad, plan, ended, opening, whodunnit, friendship, mieni, swift, drove, center, awful, backstory, usurper, battles, fought, important, play, usually, caught, ran, marple, figures, based, american, hardboiled, fewer, eccentric, quiet, cerebral, pointed, tone, draws, atmosphere, charm, fish, status, difficulty, begin, hastings, isn, days, brilliant, send, bottle, wine, committee, directly, inspired, items, darned, actual, topic, unnerving, nature, vigilantism, gray, cells, snoozing, crib, uncertain, ambivalent, dreamt, began, nursing, sleepless, final, parts, scare, fits, coincidences, difficult, swallow, bought, finished, sent, aside, banging, brain, result, listening, decembrists, again, specifically, brother, law, describing, complete, sound, effects, followed, path, led, became, putting, wife, freedom, information, flying, snakes, clockwork, raf, king, arthur, happy, announce, occasion, reasons, closing, money, culprits, minute, season, gathering, tow, boy, amazed, starting, seven, ways, bringing, regime, daniel, ausema, sometime, midday, downloaded, photograph, fifteen, navy, blue, smocks, white, pinafores, staring, camera, facing, judge, shreds, material, evidence, survived, events, incomplete, stained, daybook, broken, rowboat, tree, damage, wilbraham, house, inexplicable, worse, raining, listen, yourself, actually, floods, schools, sometimes, home, viewing, suddenly, looks, realize, paperbacks, covers, lovecraftian, minus, ickier, bits, lovecraft, tentacles, hindsight, wonder, influenced, newer, subgenre, legend, creepypasta, flourishes, net, paula, arwen, friedlander, misconception, people, meeting, ursa, assume, somewhat, bearish, carry, traits, assign, slow, taciturn, graceless, movement, manner, false, large, strong, quickly, pinpointing, opponent, weak, spot, fight, begun, humans, correct, impression, fortunate, heh, composed, rewrote, johanna, astute, able, title, baritone, tuba, ensemble, alma, mater, turkey, cooks, envisioned, lud, mist, wwi, uncategorized, top, aud, koch, saw, clearly, captured, beauty, beast, clarkesworld, doesn, pull, afraid, grad, energetic, girl, wants, negotiate, terms, bedtime, concept, swamped, infrequently, updated,

Text of the page (random words):
hat many people make when meeting an ursa davala is to assume that because they are somewhat bearish in appearance they carry some of the same traits that we assign to bears slow taciturn graceless in movement and manner these are all false the davala are large and strong but they move quickly often pinpointing an opponent s weak spot before the fight has begun few humans have the chance to correct that impression i am very fortunate to be one permalink leave a comment after you the flood january 13 2014 at 10 17 pm stories online it took me a while to realize that yes i do write horror it s just not what i used to think of as horror back when i was reading paperbacks with black and red covers the story that s up at strange horizons today with an absolutely gorgeous illustration by paula arwen friedlander is my attempt to write something lovecraftian minus the ickier bits of lovecraft and no i don t mean tentacles in hindsight though i wonder how much it was influenced by a newer subgenre of horror the urban legend creepypasta type of story that flourishes on the net i actually set out to write this story with nothing beyond something creepy in mind so what did i find creepy this time around well floods and old abandoned schools like the kind i d sometimes see back home and viewing or reading something that suddenly looks back at you i think what i wanted to capture most was inexplicable horror and just how much worse that can make it i think i did a good job take a look for yourself or a listen as it s up in podcast form as well and then maybe see if it s raining only a few shreds of material evidence survived the events a few incomplete and water stained notes in the school s daybook a broken rowboat lodged in a tree water damage to the first story of wilbraham s house the photograph of fifteen little girls in navy blue smocks and white pinafores staring out at the camera as if facing a judge permalink 5 comments the girls of the forest up today december 30 2013 at 11 09 am stories online electric velocipede will be posting issue 27 online today starting with seven ways of bringing down the regime by daniel ausema the girls of the forest should be up sometime around midday if you haven t downloaded it for your nook or kindle this would be the time to look i m off to a grand new year s gathering with tiny human in tow oh boy and this is a great way to end the year it s sad to see electric velocipede go but i m still amazed and honored to be a part of this last issue best of the season to all permalink leave a comment a rain cloud a crane on wing december 11 2013 at 12 16 pm stories online issue 27 of electric velocipede comes out today for nook and kindle and my story the girls of the forest is part of it i m happy to announce this but it s still a sad occasion because this is the last issue of electric velocipede it s a shame because it s a fantastic magazine and while i can understand the reasons for closing it time and money the usual culprits it s still sad to see it go i m honored to have been a part of electric velocipede s run even if i came in at the very last minute a few notes about the story a lot of my story ideas come from two things banging together in my brain the raf and king arthur flying snakes and clockwork superheroes and freedom of information this one started out no different being the result of 1 listening to the decembrists the crane wife part 3 over and over again and 2 the birth of my nephew or more specifically my brother in law describing the birth of my nephew complete with sound effects as is often the case the story followed a path that led away from these and as i wrote it it became clear that i was putting together some of my thoughts about motherhood but the story was finished and i sent it out into the world and for a time it was set aside in my mind and then in one of those coincidences that would be difficult to swallow if it were fiction electric velocipede bought the story about a week after my daughter was born so there i was nursing and sleepless and going through the story to see what i wanted to change before calling it final reading what i d written about motherhood when it was far off for me and though there are parts of the story that scare me even more than they did when i wrote them i think it still fits as i write this my daughter is snoozing in her crib strange and uncertain and ambivalent as it is this story is for her who was not even dreamt of when it began permalink leave a comment the little gray cells november 15 2013 at 6 26 am stories online i really should send a bottle of wine or something to the boskone program committee this makes two stories that were directly inspired by program items sunlight society came out of a panel on superheroes darned if i can remember the actual topic but it did go into the unnerving nature of vigilantism and now a death for the ageless out in beneath ceaseless skies this week which started when i was on a panel about the detective in urban fantasy as is usually the case i got caught by an irrelevant point and ran with it where are the hercule poirot or miss marple figures in urban fantasy so many urban fantasy detectives are based on the american hardboiled detective but we get fewer of the eccentric quiet cerebral detectives in the panel itself a few were pointed out to me but the idea still lodged in my head how would you capture some of the spirit of an hercule poirot in a fantasy setting well much of the tone of those stories draws from the post world war i atmosphere and much of poirot s charm is his fish out of water status and then there s the difficulty of writing a murder mystery in a short story form to begin with and then there s the hastings character the narrator who isn t the detective but these days can t just report on how brilliant the detective is by the time boskone had ended i had the opening of a death for the ageless i even had a pretty good idea whodunnit and i had more the odd friendship between mieni and swift which drove the center of the story and made it an awful lot of fun to write the backstory of the city started to come together after the first draft i now know who the usurper is and where the worst battles of the war were fought and a few other important things and i had a world to play in so take a look i had a blast writing this story and i hope you like reading it and if it leaves you with a craving for salad well that s all part of the plan elariel of the ageless once high in the courts of poma mèl had been taller than most human men with the harsh and elegant bone structure common to all ageless his expression now distant and tranquil shame about the multiple stab wounds there was nothing tranquil about that ruin of a chest permalink 2 comments someone like you september 4 2013 at 4 17 pm stories online i ve completely lost track of time since tiny human arrived i m not even sure what day of the week it is most of the time so it s no surprise that this crept up on me someone like you is now up at apex magazine along with fiction from anaea lay mary robinette kowal hal duncan and maurice broaddus this is a strange little story and i m not really sure where it came from originally it was a challenge i set myself write something science fictiony and keep it under 2000 words well in revision the latter restriction got dumped but it s still one of the shortest pieces i ve written it s also one of the few stories that i m comfortable calling science fiction rather than fantasy wearing deely boppers and going beep beep not that there s anything wrong with that i just wanted to try something that wasn t masked fantasy two elements came together in the story and i m still not sure whether i ve handled them both well the idea of using multiple worlds theory for practical computation and the appeal of a really really dysfunctional relationship the story s available online as an epub via apex s site and as a podcast read by lynne m thomas if you like it consider subscribing to apex they have fantastic stuff on a regular basis permalink 1 comment a new work of sorts august 26 2013 at 3 33 pm personal so i haven t been posting lately here s the reason yup that s a tiny human we made her from scratch as you can guess blogging is a little lower down on the priorities list than usual under keep tiny human fed and clean and get some friggin sleep and write up that idea that s currently just a character and a macguffin and see if you can find a structure for it however i will be posting a little more as i have a couple of short stories coming out relatively soon one of which has strangely appropriate timing in the meantime i ve turned in a draft of the most recent novel and now i m noodling around with some new ideas although what seems like a great plot during the 3am feeding tends to be a little less coherent the next morning and while some baby blogging will undoubtedly creep in she s very much a part of our lives now after all i promise not to let it take over i m not yet sure whether i want to write about it honestly it was such a strange and all encompassing experience that using it in a story feels odd maybe that ll change as time goes on permalink 1 comment readercon and an announcement of sorts july 12 2013 at 6 13 am cons personal i ll be at readercon this coming weekend saturday 10 00 am intellectually rigorous fictional data making up facts that are true debra doyle alex dally macfarlane margaret ronald ken schneyer harold vedeler henry wessells leader how do you make up convincing fictional primary sources no not for purposes of seeking political office but because you need to know the facts and how they underpin the world of your fiction and the lives of your characters imaginary books and letters are just the beginning even if they never appear in the narrative which fictional data sources matter how much is enough to make a narrative feel resilient and whole i ve used a few of these in narrative and i certainly use them in creating the plot world characters and i ve got some pretty clear ideas on how they can work or flop of course what really gets me interested is coming up with secondary and tertiary fictional sources sunday 1 30 pm reading margaret ronald margaret ronald reads a new short story i ve got a short story coming out in apex later this summer and it s one of the shortest things i ve written i ll probably go with that although i have sold a very goofy short lately so i might give a taste of that as well time permitting i don t know how present i ll be for much of the con beyond this since 1 the siren song of giant robots fighting kaiju calls me for saturday afternoon and 2 i m having to take it a bit easy just now on account of being eight months pregnant um yeah i kind of forgot to mention that i m currently burning through this novel draft so i can turn it in before tiny human makes an appearance with any luck i can have the draft done in about a week last polish half done oh heaven and then maybe i ll get this short story turned around too before the sleep deprivation hits or maybe i ll just have to see what sleep deprivation does to my plotting permalink 3 comments she thinks there are rats in the attic june 6 2013 at 8 26 pm totally irrelevant to anything else so i sat down with some friends the other night to re watch a movie that blends the genres of science fiction and horror it does a fantastic job using the speculative idea at its heart to draw out hidden motivations chipping away the viewer s assumptions until the end can t help but leave you unsteady less sure of the ground you stand on both with regards to the narrative and the outside world i m talking of course about primer no really primer is a horror movie don t get me wrong it s also a science fiction movie and i can see why it could be considered solely that not least because of how detailed it is in its consideration of time travel and i really do love its technobabble mainly because it never slows down for the viewer but even as it s telling a science fiction story it s doing so in a way infused by the horror genre in our post movie okay so what was up with x conversation i claimed that it had elements of the gothic to it but i m pretty sure i m using that term inaccurately the horror aspect of the movie is much more than jump scares or eldritch terrors nothing against either of those mind you it s the whole mood from the ominous hum of the box to the repeated isolation of the two leads emphasized by how everything but their dialogue tunes out now and then and as much fun as it is to puzzle out timelines and failsafes and which abe and aaron were in which box when i think there s a lot to consider about this movie that has nothing to do with the big question of what just happened spoilers for primer below read the rest of this entry permalink 1 comment watch city may 9 2013 at 6 46 am appearances if you re in the greater boston area and have any interest in steampunky type stuff come to the watch city festival this weekend there ll be a sidewalk parade music including emperor norton s stationary marching band dancing a belly dance show on sunday discussions debates and very likely many gorgeous costumes oh and i ll be reading on saturday at noon come see me ham it up i ll probably be reading the governess and the lobster just because that one s so much fun to read aloud permalink 2 comments holy crap march 19 2013 at 6 09 am wild hunt holy crap the fbi says they ve identified the gardner museum thieves those of you who ve read wild hunt will know why this is such a big deal for me i suppose it s a risk when working with real life situations and mysteries that one of them might be solved after the book comes out hard to regret it though and hey it s not like i haven t run into this before i remember having to revise an early draft of spiral hunt after the sox won the world series which till then had been a major plot point i am so going to be following this story and i really hope they get the paintings back and that they re in good condition those frames have been empty far too long permalink 2 comments dreaming of firedrakes march 7 2013 at 11 18 am stories online a family for drakes is now up at beneath ceaseless skies this story has a strange genesis about six years ago i dreamed the scene at traben s crossing ice drakes vigil and all i remember dreaming i was one of two children and that when the drake spoke i could understand it i also remember being convinced in the dream that this was a trailer for the lord of the rings the two towers which was mildly boggling when i woke up and remembered that no there wasn t anything like this in the two towers i tried to write a story with what i remembered from the dream but it crumbled in my hands my narrator bron at the time didn t have any believable motivation the drakes themselves seemed irrelevant and i really had no idea where it would go after that on...