In which I hit things with sticks.
Oct. 2nd, 2003 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rushthatspeaksWell, a stick. And not actually hitting anything, really. Naginata is being very good to me. I've spent the last few years martial-arts shopping, since I find that when a physical activity is well suited to the person doing it, there is this mental and physical click that helps the activity imprint itself in the brain. You don't have to work any less hard, or need any less time practicing, but there's a definite sense of what is right when it happens, and an instinctive feel for what needs to be done to improve. I had this click with a dance form, as should be obvious, since gee, I want to become a Scottish teacher, and yeah, it took a couple years to become part of my bones and sink into my hindbrain but I always knew it was going to. All the grinding work I put into it is only an attempt to get closer to the ideal of the steps and figures that I can feel like a shadow around my actual movements, and that's always been the case; when I get it right, it's almost an audible snapping into place. The various martial arts I've tried have not fallen into place for me this way. It's ranged from tae kwon do, where I can do it, and did for over a year, but it never became instinctive and I always had to think about every single movement before I could do it, which is not where you want to be when someone attacks you, through tai ji and salate where it was just, oh dear gods no, not ever gonna happen and that is final. Fencing was close, was so close I could taste it, but it was all on one side which didn't do it. Naginata... has a major shot at it. I enjoy it to pieces, for one thing, and so far it just *feels* right. I'm getting an idea of what it should do, how it should go, and by the end of this semester I think it will be obvious whether it's a true fit or not. If it is, I will be very happy and add it to the list of things I always make time for-- and continue my search for a non-weapons form, as well. What I aim for eventually with athletics is the following: one artistic proficiency (Scottish country dancing), one hand weapon (hopefully naginata), one non-weapon martial art, one projectile weapon (archery? pistol?), ability to swim (reasonable but needs work). If I manage all that, I will feel graceful, sociable, and defensible, and I'll also be able to keep myself in shape.
(Naginata, for any of you who haven't watched enough anime to be familiar with it, is Japanese glaive. Think a six-foot pole with a foot-long scimitar strapped to the end. We use bamboo practice versions. They're wonderful weapons except when you're trying to get them through doorways.)
In other news, I have finally finished my short story The Crying Queen. I wrote it back in 2000, but it just never felt quite finished, like the rhythm was off somehow, or there was a word or concept in the wrong place, something just slightly wrong with it. I fixed it, it's finished, it snapped into place and I am very happy with it. The problem now is finding a place to try to sell it. Both F&SF and Strange Horizons have bounced earlier versions, and I need to find somewhere for it that won't care that it contains elements of science fiction and fantasy, that it falls neatly and uncategorizably between the genres; it has both hard SF and genuine magic. I don't have a very recent copy of Writer's Market. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd go for either print or web zines as long as they are actual, professional, paying fiction markets. Heck, I'd go for anthology if anyone knows of any. I would much appreciate whatever anyone can mention-- I'll be websearching myself, of course, but other perspectives are a Good Thing.
Scheduling note: unless Ted has changed his mind since the last time it was discussed, at which point I believe Wayman to have been in Wisconsin, the RenChoir concert is the sixteenth of November, which is why I suggested the Bostonians come down the eighth. Mind you, DoubleStar has not yet scheduled the Masquerade Ball, so there is a possibility of its being put on the weekend of the eighth, in fact a pretty good possibility given the number of weekends in November that are not tied up with Thanksgiving, but it has not been as of this point. At this point, O Boston contingent, you'll probably run into something or other whenever you turn up. Your choice. Y'all should be aware that my first draft of thesis is due on the eleventh, but I'm arranging my life so that I should still have a life at that point, and I'm working on it gradually and slowly and by the weekend of the eighth it should only need brushup. So it shouldn't affect my basic availability or the openness of my room to houseguests.
(Naginata, for any of you who haven't watched enough anime to be familiar with it, is Japanese glaive. Think a six-foot pole with a foot-long scimitar strapped to the end. We use bamboo practice versions. They're wonderful weapons except when you're trying to get them through doorways.)
In other news, I have finally finished my short story The Crying Queen. I wrote it back in 2000, but it just never felt quite finished, like the rhythm was off somehow, or there was a word or concept in the wrong place, something just slightly wrong with it. I fixed it, it's finished, it snapped into place and I am very happy with it. The problem now is finding a place to try to sell it. Both F&SF and Strange Horizons have bounced earlier versions, and I need to find somewhere for it that won't care that it contains elements of science fiction and fantasy, that it falls neatly and uncategorizably between the genres; it has both hard SF and genuine magic. I don't have a very recent copy of Writer's Market. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd go for either print or web zines as long as they are actual, professional, paying fiction markets. Heck, I'd go for anthology if anyone knows of any. I would much appreciate whatever anyone can mention-- I'll be websearching myself, of course, but other perspectives are a Good Thing.
Scheduling note: unless Ted has changed his mind since the last time it was discussed, at which point I believe Wayman to have been in Wisconsin, the RenChoir concert is the sixteenth of November, which is why I suggested the Bostonians come down the eighth. Mind you, DoubleStar has not yet scheduled the Masquerade Ball, so there is a possibility of its being put on the weekend of the eighth, in fact a pretty good possibility given the number of weekends in November that are not tied up with Thanksgiving, but it has not been as of this point. At this point, O Boston contingent, you'll probably run into something or other whenever you turn up. Your choice. Y'all should be aware that my first draft of thesis is due on the eleventh, but I'm arranging my life so that I should still have a life at that point, and I'm working on it gradually and slowly and by the weekend of the eighth it should only need brushup. So it shouldn't affect my basic availability or the openness of my room to houseguests.
