Well, that's quite enough of that ( Read more... )

I am one of those (perhaps rare) people who likes long nights. This time of year, when the sun sets late and cool is nowhere to be found, is really truly not my favorite. (I also like grey overcast days, which is odd for one who's lived in the Sun Belt most of her life.) But at least I live far enough south in the Northern Hemisphere that my summer ( Read more... )

It's Halloween in the subtropics. It's the turn of the year for many of my friends, it's a night out for others, it's an excuse for candy for still more ( Read more... )

To honor this day, a short, odd fairy tale, offered in lieu of chocolates.

A taste: This crisp, edge-of-snow night happened to be the annual Night of the Heart-Sacrifice, whereupon since the beginning of sung history, each king of the Seven Lands had sacrificed a heart -- usually of some snotty peasant, dragged from a hidey-hole in the straw to his ( Read more... )