No, I didn't buy anything for the photo. Yes, we actually have all that stuff lying around the place. Yes, I'm frightened too.

--okay, I admit it. I spent the week playing Plants vs. Zombies. And in that week, I also accumulated a couple more PodCastle rejections, and one from TTA Press.

Reading: The Spriggan Mirror, by Lawrence Watt-Evans.

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Reading back issues of my 40 Years of Avengers on DVD (no longer available! Marvel wants you to subscribe to their digital collection instead!). In addition to the heavily muscled look popular in the early to mid-90's, it also seems pretty likely that they spent all the money on making fancypants holographic covers, and not on, say, art. Because a lot of it is really badly drawn.

Let's not get into the plots, either.

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I'm touched by how polite my recent spammers are. So nice, so supportive. Charming, even. Still banning their asses, of course.

Reading: The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. Also, lots of Avengers.

Reading: Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine, by Valerie D'Orazio. Currently a free read/download from Scribd.com, for the interested.

I urge you all who are reading this humble blog to follow my link and order a copy of this book right now. Even if you already own a copy of the book, go get another one and give the new one to somebody else. Alternatively, you may leave your places of work or home to purchase a copy, as long as you drive straight to the bookstore, pay immediately, and begin reading as you walk through the parking lot. That is all.

I am happy to report, however, that I am officially going to WisCon this year. Make a note of it.

Reading: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by the one and only N.K. Jemisin. Just picked it up over the weekend and am opening it...NOW.

Cold out there today.

I'm also pleased to announce to you all that I will be going to WisCon this year. Yes, I'll be making a rare public appearance outside my natural habitat of home, library, bookstore. Like J. D. Salinger, only much less talented and/or successful. Yay, etc. In a related note, is the "Dessert Function" worth registering for?

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14 day rejection from PodCastle. Liked this one better than the last one, but still no. Hm.

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Got snow in a decent amount, for the first I can remember here since we returned from the Midwest lo those many years ago. The house is beginning to be surrounded by snow goons. Pictures of two of them can be seen here and here. They look tricksy. I'm pretty sure Ian and I can take them. Ian dashes across the yard, and when they turn to follow, I lop off their heads with my broadsword. A foolproof plan.

(Yes, you out there, the rest of the country are all so bored with the Snowpocalypse, and who can blame you? But this is the first time we've been able to play too, so hush already.)

Reading: Essential Doctor Strange, Vol. 1. By the Twelve Moons of Munnopor, 'tis most amusing.

On the bright side, I'll be entitled to a vacation by myself sometime this year. Just need to figure out what and where. WisCon? ComicCon? Get in the car and drive in random directions for a week? So many choices.

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I have the theme song to Umizoomi stuck in my head. Kill me. Kill me right now.

Here, now you too can hear part of it. But once it has been heard, it can't be unheard. Or something like that.

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I have managed to send back out languishing manuscripts. Go me. I look forward to future rejections. Now, to go fold clothes.

Hmm. That makes me feel old.

The only downside to this is how little I have on hand. Must write more.

He does a reasonable job in keeping the downstairs clean. Ian thinks he's a bit noisy, unsurprisingly (he is basically a vacuum cleaner, after all) and the cats find him curious. They're probably wondering why he keeps running into walls, which is how he maps out where the walls are (Ian's not wondering, because he asked and we told him. The cats just weren't listening). Once he knows that, he doesn't bump into them anymore, he slows down as he approaches them. It's interesting to watch. Best of all, once he finishes the area he's set to clean, he goes back to his dock to recharge.

He does not pose well, unfortunately.

Reading: Sword and Sorceress VII, edited by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. Found this on my shelf, and realized I'd never read it. So I am. Interesting to see the names in there I recognize (Hi Vera!).

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Didn't have anything to say on the Amazon.com-Macmillan showdown when it happened, and now it appears to be wrapping up very rapidly (in short: Amazon lost, but the future holds more). The future is always a painful adjustment. I'm with Macmillan on this, for what it's worth. What Amazon did basically hurt many writers I know and respect, and that's a stupid thing to do. I'm almost certainly not going to go back and change links (because, man, that's a lot of links). But I'll link to other stores in the future. I like Amazon in principle, and I'll probably still shop there from time to time, because sometimes they'll have what I want. But they won't be my first choice anymore.

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Tomorrow I go and speak to professors about copyright, and the advantages to them of following it. Wish me luck.

Ah, yes. This part feels very familiar.