At last

Thanks to Vue and Poser, I have finally managed to construct a version of an album cover idea that's been bugging me for the past thirty years. Seriously.

It's not right, of course--the hair's wrong, the pose isn't quite what I wanted, and so on--but at least it's out there now and I can let go of the damn thing.

*brain falls apart*

Freebie

If you feel that some sort of writing software might help you as a writer and don't want to pay £££, you might like to know that this has just popped up. Yes, I know NaNoWriMo is almost over, the timing could have been better, but there it is, and I offer the link for what it's worth (no hurry; FDAD doesn't have a time limit).

Personally, I view writing software rather like occult jewellery and such--it's stupid to think that it will do the job for you, but it's just as stupid to dismiss it as rubbish purely because you are so intellectually disciplined and brilliant that you can write a bestseller first draft on the backs of old envelopes in the dark. If it helps, if it makes you feel you can do it more easily, then by all means use it, and the Weatherwaxes of the world can go stuff themselves.

RIP Robert Holdstock

And now the stag of seven tines
Is vanished from the rocky hill
The flood recedes across the plain
The wind upon the lake is still
The sun lets fall another tear
The hawk seeks prey in other skies
The thorn no longer chafes the nail
The wonder of the flowers dies

And now the spear hangs on the wall
The salmon hides within the deep
The lure of paradise is lost
Beneath the hill the poets sleep
The boar no longer prowls the woods
The breaker falls upon the shore
The tide retreats across the sand
To drag the soul to death no more

The barren womb, the dying flame,
The empty hive, the broken shield,
Around the tomb we speak his name
Who once a wizard's power did wield
The silent wood, the dwindled stream,
Bespeak the loss that we must bear
The master's word, the potent dream
That shone, but is no longer there.

He quoted Yes at the beginning of one of his books, and used Vaughan Williams as a character in another. He invented the mythago, and its Wood. He will be missed.