1. Change of job-location is going well so far. I really like everyone I work with and the job I'm doing (inasmuch as I know what job I'm doing; a few things are still not perfectly clear), so the main downside is the car-to-bus commute, which is a bit aggravating, but on the bright side, temporary ( Read more... )

And then some days you sit there staring at 750words, totally flummoxed, and then give up and start a new novel. So... that's happening, apparently ( Read more... )

I'd been meaning to recommend A Militant Peace, the new short story out now in Clarkesworld--not only because the authors are daveamongus and tobiasbuckell (which, I admit, is the reason I read it in the first place)--but because it's topical, and because it's optimistic without ignoring how hard it is to be optimistic ( Read more... )

1. 3 days in, I am ahead of schedule for my faux-NaNo goals (and have written a novel chapter in three days, which sort of bodes well for being able to write one a week). This is approximately three days further than I have ever made it into NaNo-or-something-like-it, so I'm excited ( Read more... )

1. seanan_mcguire has a few words to say about how unevenly distributed the future is, in Across the Digital Divide. I'm sure it's been linked far and wide, but I spend a lot of time helping people apply for jobs during the two hours of internet time they get all day, because that's how we ration it at my library, and... yes. That ( Read more... )

I have a mental logjam of Big Thinky Posts I want to write, so instead of any of those, a couple of stories I have really liked recently at Tor.com--they were both part of Dystopia Week, and were both about 100% more hopeful than I expected from that designation.

Ragnarok, by Paul Park. Because what the apocalypse really needs is an epic poem, ( Read more... )

( Archery neepery. )

( Farming )

1. I read The Trouble with Bright Girls this morning, and it made me go "Oh." The central phenomenon--different kinds of praise affecting kids in wildly different ways--was covered in Nurtureshock. When I read it last year I kind of vaguely identified myself as a kid who got praised for being smart, and not for working hard, and went, "hmm, I ( Read more... )

+ I successfully strung and test-drew my bow today! Now I just need to ... get arrows. A project for Monday ( Read more... )