Uff da.

[mrissa]

I need to like fewer of you. Can some of you please be big jerks to me? Thanks.

Oh, wait. Some of you actually could, if you thought it was what I realio trulio wanted. So, um, please don't. Request rescinded.

(I just finished making my preliminary Christmas card list. It's actually not as long as I thought it might be. If you fear I will not know where to find you and this is a problem for you, please send your address to marissalingen at gmail.)

(But still: lots of friends and loved ones.)

(I was thinking of trying to finish "Carter Hall Lights the Lamp" for sending to people as a Christmas story. I'm not sure that'll happen -- if it does, it may be "Christmas" as in "by Twelfth Night" rather than "by 12/25," but if you would like to be part of "people," please e-mail me or leave a comment here.)

Comments

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Me! Me!

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Having recently read every short story still linked to in your bibliography, I feel safe in saying that anything you want to make available, I want to read.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Christmas Cards

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

How many is "lots"? 100? 500? 1000?

B

Re: Christmas Cards

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The tally currently stands at around 150.

I'm sure I know people who send more, but the thing is, the number seems to be monotonically increasing, which is a lot more daunting than having a high but steady number.

On the other hand, refusing to like any additional people no matter how cool they are is clearly not the answer.

Re: Christmas Cards

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"...the number seems to be monotonically increasing, which is a lot more daunting than having a high but steady number."

Why? Near as I can tell, the work doesn't increase linearly with the number of addresses.

To me, what's daunting is unpredictability. If the number is increasing at a predictable rate -- even if it is 0 -- then you know what you're getting into every year.

B

Re: Christmas Cards

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It doesn't increase linearly with the number of addresses? I do not have pre-printed cards. I don't write a lot in every card, but I write in all of them. So while there's an activation energy of doing them at all, the effort for me does, in fact, increase with each card.

I could switch to pre-printed to handle this, and I could -- probably should -- do the one-time piece of effort involved in entering addresses into a database that would print them out on labels. But for people I don't see in person much, I like having at least a little note from them, and I've heard that they like having at least a little note from me. So.

Re: Christmas Cards

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I need to get a new label file set up, too. I only send out about 30 each year. I feel suddenly ungenerous. One thing I do every year is the day after Christmas I go out and buy cards for next year, marked down 75%. Also, wrapping paper. I used to buy ornaments, but I now have way too many ornaments and other decorations, so I only need consumables: cards and paper. I don't use ribbons or bows anymore. Who has time for ribbons and bows in this busy, modern life?

I love getting cards, though. And I adore Christmas letters. I understand that not everyone can write a detailed note in every card. I much prefer getting a mass letter and getting some details than getting a cursory, personally signed card. On the other hand, I tried sending out letters one year, and got weird comments, so I am undecided about doing it again. I thought it would be a good way to let folks know about my publications, but it turns out some people thought I was joking, and other people accosted me, saying, "I didn't know you were a writer! Why didn't you tell me?" Um, well, I thought I did. In the letter.

And then nobody bothers to buy the books and magazines. So.

Re: Christmas Cards

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't think that makes you ungenerous. I come from a very large extended family, and I...well, I accrete people. Like you!

I'm very excited about my cards this year, in addition to being daunted by their number. You'll see. Handmade cards Good.

We got out of the habit of using ribbon and bow much not because of time constraints but because I have traveled for at least part of Christmas all my life, and fancy bows get squished when you've stacked the boxes in the trunk.

I have no idea why people think that someone being a writer is something they should know without ever having to pay attention. When I won the Asimov Award, one of my friends' mom cried, "I didn't know you wrote!" And I thought, lady, I can't help you there, because I wrote at least a third of my second novel (unpublishable and since destroyed) while lying on your living room floor. There's not much more I can do to demonstrate that I'm a writer than to write extensively in your home. But at least the Asimov Award was a distinct marker, where everybody in my life at the time found out all at once.

And still it doesn't always sink in what it means. I'm still smiling at the way mnfiddledragon turned to me once, sitting in my library, and said, "Marissa, why is your name on the spine of this book?"

Re: Christmas Cards

[brooksmoses]

And, having somewhat accidentally left this window open for the past couple of months, I can now (belatedly, even) say that I can see why you were excited about them -- it is very much a nifty card, indeed!

Thank you. :)

Re: Christmas Cards

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a long open window! But I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Re: Christmas Cards

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I always write inside my cards, at least a little. And we've been sending out a detailed holiday letter for years, at Ted's insistance. But I have in the past done printed labels and theyspeed things up considerably.

Unfortunately, this year our printers are still in the throes of shipping plus I don't have any preprinted return labels for this new address, so the workload is definitely up this year. It's a pleasant occupation, in the way it combines tradition and the reminders of people I like. (Still, I'm debating whether to go with e-cards for the people I speak to least on my list.)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I want to be part of people! :-)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Oops - typing too fast there. That should be:

I want to be part of "people"! :-)

The other way just has kind of a creepy "organ donor" vibe about it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Organ donor." Oh, yah, that's what I was thinking, too. Organ donor. Definitely.

"Does this taste funny to you?"

[timprov.livejournal.com]

You might say there's a little bit of Jason in all of us.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

*snerk* My keyboard is very glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that!

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

But you're too nice to act like a jerk towards. Of course, I'm not very good at acting like a jerk. I can be a bitch, when the situation calls for it. Would that do?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No, no, I'll just have to go without.

Occasionally in college I was the Designated Bitch. Sometimes a DB is sorely needed. When the pizza shows up two hours late, for example, someone has to go out and speak firmly to the fella and make sure he knows that this is Not Okay and Something Must Be Done.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's a sign that I'm starting to become acclimated to Minnesota (though I still wouldn't call myself a Minnesotan) that I know understand and properly use "not okay," whereas it seemed rather humorous to me when I first moved up here.

[sraun]

Me, me, me! ;-)

If you don't have my street address, it's on the web at http://www.fireopal.org/~sraun/

[pameladean]

We'd like to get the story, I feel sure.

P.

[fmsv.livejournal.com]

I'd like to be part of "people", if it's OK with you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If it wasn't okay with me, I'd have put this on a filter instead of an open post.

If I had, you'd have still been on the filter, though.

[gaaldine.livejournal.com]

I'll/We'll gladly volunteer to be a part of "people."

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Carter Hall? oh please oh please oh please!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

=v= Here's an alternate solution to your Christmas Card woes:

http://www.xmasresistance.org/

Re: Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Eh.

I do take time and care with my Christmas cards, or they wouldn't take so much...well, time. And care. My cards were designed by a friend specifically for me; they're being handmade and will each have a personal note in them for me to try to keep in touch with someone I care about. They often prompt e-mail and further contact; they are hardly ever treated as empty rituals by the recipients.

And I think our society underrates actual observance of the seasons. I don't demand that everyone else try to bring light to the darkness and warmth to the cold in the same ways as I do -- that'd be boring -- but the dark of the year is not a pointless time to celebrate. Sometimes questioning how we do things ends up with an answer that yes, I think this is a good and worthwhile thing.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I would like to be in "people" too, please. Though given the inconvenience of mailing abroad I will understand if it's easier to include me by email.

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

I would love to read a new Carter Hall story. Christmas, 12th Night, Groundhog's Day, I'm not picky.