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Friends Below are the 10 most recent friends journal entries:

May 16th, 2012
06:14 pm matociquala [Link]	half angel. half eagle. one eye on the world. The first volume of Shadow Unit is now available as a proper paper book with a gorgeous Kyle Cassidy cover. It will be available through Amazon within a week, and will slowly filter its way through the rest of the online distribution system. This volume contains the first half of Season 1. Volume 2 should be available in about a month, with other volumes to follow. And of course, Shadow Unit in its entirety is available for free online, and as a modestly priced ebook through the usual sources. The story began in 2007, and will end in 2013. It's not too late to discover one of the coolest collaborative serials in the genre internets! Current Mood: chipper Current Music: All Things Considered Tags: shadow unit, wtf (5 comments \| Leave a comment)
05:07 pm coffeeem [Link]	O! M! G! Eleventy-one!!!!!! ahem Has anyone out there been waiting for Shadow Unit in physical paper-type form? You have? Oh. Okay, then. That's good. Because the first volume is here. exits, grinning (This volume is the first half of Season One. It'll be available on Amazon.com within a week, and elsewhere within two months. Season One, volume two will be available within the month; I'll let you know.) Current Mood: squee! Tags: publications, shadow unit, writing (6 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:14 pm coffeeem [Link]	There's no cure for the common cold. There are, however, things that make life easier to endure while one's immune system is fighting the battle of Helm's Deep against the snot-orcs and the congestion cave trolls and the giant sore-throat spiders. (No, Bear, these are not good spiders. They are icky metaphorical spiders, and I am allowed to kill them if I want to.) For two days I've flung zinc tablets and decongestants at the problem. They've helped, but they haven't really made me feel better. At last, today, I have something that makes me feel as if I wouldn't rather die than have this cold. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon honey 8 - 10 ounces of hot, but not boiling, water 1 shot whisky (Jameson's would probably be perfect. I have Highland Park single malt 12yo, which is probably pearls before cold-swine, but I don't care) Combine the above in a mug. Drink. Repeat as necessary. No, you won't be cured. But you won't care. Current Mood: bleagh. (12 comments \| Leave a comment)
02:29 am skzbrust [Link]	Scalzi’s Latest: But I didn’t get MY say! John “Breathtakingly Brilliant” Scalzi has made another breathtakingly brilliant post. At 800 comments and late at night, he finally said “Enough,” especially because everyone was repeating himself (and anyone who didn’t notice the non-sex-specific “he” in that sentence might have problems with this conversation). Point is, I had something to say about it, and, after reading all 800 comments, no one said it. So I will say it here. First, please read his post. Okay, when I say it is ‘breathtakingly brilliant,” I mean it, because it has beautifully redefined things for me. It was a classic case of, “You’re bothered by this metaphor, so let me give you a new metaphor without the emotional baggage, so that, just maybe, we can discuss the actual issue.” It worked. And, in so doing, it highlighted my problem with the whole, massive bundle. My problem can be stated thus: All of this effort put into either a) How do we make the game more fair, or b) At least making us aware of how unfair the rules are, makes it that much harder to focus on what is, to me, most important: THE FUCKING GAME SUCKS. I don’t want to play it, I don’t want to be forced to play it, I don’t want strangers to have no choice but to play it; I don’t like smug assholes “dropping out” to live in the woods and then claiming they aren’t playing it. The game needs to go. It needs to be replaced by a game that doesn’t have a wealth stat, or an education stat, because those things are just always maxed for everyone. It needs to be replaced by a game in which the stats are different talents, and the only thing to put points in are interests and passions. John calls his game real life, and he’s right, it is. But I passionately, deeply believe it isn’t the only choice for what real life can be. Most people will believe my desire here is unrealistic, and dismiss it; but we must not forget that many of these people believe (or believed) that voting for Obama made a difference, so exactly who is unrealistic is open for debate. In terms of material wealth and capacity for wealth production, there is, at present, enough to create the game I want, or at least get pretty close. In order to concentrate on changing the rules for stat setting, you must believe the game is always going to be there, more or less the same. I will never accept that. Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.
May 15th, 2012
08:48 pm madrobins [Link]	Book View Café Reborn If you have a minute, go check out Book View Café! Today we rolled out the New! Improved! bookstore. Easier to navigate, cleaner and better organized, plus, new bells and whistles (you can buy more than one book at a time! We can issue "coupons" for discounts! Joy!). And while you're there, check out ramblin_phyl's Guardian of the Freedom, released today. 1763: all of Europe is at war with each other and the Turks are storming toward Vienna. The magical protection of Britain requires that Georgina Kirkwood, a potential Merlin, leave the secret Pendragon Society and disguise herself as man to fight for England. Wounded and no longer able to carry a sword, Georgina is recruited by the King as a spy in the American Colonies. Transplanted to a land and people vibrant with life and ideas, she begins to question her loyalties. Only her love for Major Roderick Wythe gives her the grounding and stability to work with Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams and many other notable leaders to discover what being the Merlin truly means and to determine who she is protecting from whom. Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. A member of an endangered species, a native Oregonian who lives in Oregon, she and her husband make their home in Welches, Oregon where deer, bears, coyotes, hawks, owls, and woodpeckers feed regularly on their back deck. A museum trained historian, Irene has spent many hours prowling pioneer cemeteries deepening her connections to the past. Raised in a military family she grew up all over the US and learned early on that books are friends that don't get left behind with a move. Her interests and reading range from ancient history, to spiritual meditations, to space stations, and a whole lot in between. Guardian of the Freedom (historical fantasy) Merlin's Descendants #5 Irene Radford May 15, 2012 $4.99 ISBN: 978-1-61138-171-9 (Leave a comment)
06:21 pm ellen_kushner [Link]	Overhead on Riverside Drive Delia (to extremely sulky, broody EK): You are my darling one. EK (sulkily): No, I'm not. I'm not anyone's darling anything. Delia: So what am I, chopped liver? EK: Oh..........OK. Delia: Good; because I don't think there's any statute anywhere about marriage being between chopped liver and a woman. Tags: daily life (19 comments \| Leave a comment)
04:54 pm matociquala [Link]	our prayers are always answered. that miracles can happen. I just had one of those labor-saving strokes of genius that I need to share with the world. Which is to say, the easiest method ever in the history of popovers. Here is my basic popover recipe: 2 tablespoons solid fat (butter or animal fat (duck fat, mmm) or solid shortening) 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk, at room temperature 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 1 cup (140 g) all purpose or white whole wheat flour 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten This tactic assumes you own a wand blender and a wide-mouthed quart Mason jar and a microwave. If not, just make the popovers the way you normally would--or if you are missing the wand blender but have a normal blender, you can melt the butter in a different container and use the normal blender. About an hour or two before dinner, take your Mason jar. Put the butter/whatever in it. Put it in the microwave and melt it. (If you are making Yorkshire pud and are waiting for the roast to be finished before you add the fat, skip this step for now, and stir the fat in before you bake the popovers.) Add the milk, eggs, salt, and sugar to the butter in the Mason jar (or blender)(or just put them in the blender if you are adding the fat later). Do not put the eggs directly into the hot butter before diluting it with the milk. Otherwise you will have scrambled eggs, which are nice, but not popovers. Whiz them all up with the wand blender. Add the flour and the wheat gluten. Whiz that too, until you have a nice smooth batter. Let the batter sit on the counter until dinner is nearly ready. If you are roasting something at 400 degrees, you're good; otherwise preheat your oven to 400 (F). (200 C) Liberally grease 9 cups of a 12-cup muffin tin, or if you are making Yorkshire pud, drizzle a little of the fat from the roast into the bottom of the cups. If you have one of the giant-sized six muffin muffin tins, then you will have bigger popovers and they need to bake a little longer. Using silicon cups for this results in popovers without stumps or a lot of loft, as they just levitate themselves out of the super-slick cups entirely. They still taste good! If you are using fat from the roast you're making, add it now and stir it in. Divide the popover batter between the nine greased cups. You can just pour it from the blender or the Mason Jar. Stick in oven. Do not peek! If you open the door before they are set, they won't rise properly. Bake for 35 minutes or until deep mahogany brown. Pull pan from oven. Tilt popovers in cups, or remove them to a rack or basket. Pierce each one with a bamboo skewer. (careful of the steam!) The purpose of these two procedures is to (a) prevent them from getting soggy and (b) prevent them from collapsing. Eat. However you meant to eat them. Do not plan on leftovers. Wash your one. dirty. dish. Oh, and the wand blender, sure. And the muffin tin. But that was inevitable. ETA: Nota Bene For even more loft in your popovers, preheat the muffin tin with the grease in it in the 400-degree oven for a few minutes before pouring the batter in. This is a bit tricky, though, and can be skipped. Current Mood: i'm a fucking genius Current Music: All Things Considered Tags: food porn, forensic cookery (34 comments \| Leave a comment)
11:52 am deliasherman [Link]	Gentlemen Prefer Blondes + Rantlet Which brings us to Sunday. We already had plans for the evening, but when Ellen's Uncle Ron said he had an extra ticket to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at Encores! (1) I'm slightly more enthusiastic about musicals than Ellen and the Times had given it (and Megan Hilty, who played Amy on Smash, and plays Lorelei Lee here) a glowing review, so I went. And I'm glad I did. I saw the movie with Marilyn Monroe, approximately a million years ago, and remember being mesmerized by the glowing innocence she brought to everything she did. But I didn't remember what actually happens. Or (with the exception of the iconic "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend") any of the music. So I was happily ignorant of what to expect. Except a truly professional production (which I got), and some great performances (ditto). Jules Styne and Leo Robin aren't exactly Cole Porter or Stephen Sondheim, but they deliver catchy tunes (I liked "I'm Just A Little Girl From Little Rock") and some clever lyrics (the funny better than the romantic, for my money). By the time we saw it, all the principals had put down the scripts Encore! actors customarily carry through the whole show (since they've only had a week to learn it, and have a lot of blocking and dance moves to remember), and were doing the whole thing from memory. The dances are spectacular, the costumes remarkably posh for what is supposed to be a semi-staged reading, and the performances polished, energetic, and engaged--especially Megan Hilty, whose Lorelei Lee falls somewhere between her Amy on Smash (2) and what I imagine her Glinda must have been like in Wicked: ruthless but with a core of genuine sweetness, hard because she needs to be. In short, I had a good time. But I came out of the theater feeling, well, uncomfortable. Uncle Ron loved it. When I said I found it a bit dated in bad ways, he looked so alarmed, I segued right into how much I'd loved Hilty's performance and the dancing (truth). But I can tell you, right? Writing about it on the train (3), I realized I had some of the same issues about it I had with How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Yes, it's a light-hearted satire. Yes, every single character in it is a more or less featureless stereotype of a stock comic character (dumb blonde, alcoholic rich lady, chorine with a heart of gold, hen-pecked husband with roving eye, battle-axe wife, up-tight mama's boy, self-absorbed inventor, workoholic rich boy, stern parent. Yes, the tunes are hummable and most of the lyrics are cute and funny. Yes, what little common sense is demonstrated by any of the characters resides entirely with the women, who are also shown as working very hard for what they want. Which is, of course, the silly, blind, head-in-the-clouds, unpractical, vain, self-centered (but very rich) men we've all just been laughing at. Because that was the world Anita Loos was writing about in her 1932 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the world America was eager to get back to after the social upheavals of WWII. Lorelei Lee is practical and self-sufficient out of economic necessity. What she wants is to be taken care of. Love is a means, not an end. The way Megan Hilty plays her, she expects men to come and go, and doesn't much mind when they do, as long as they leave diamonds behind them. I find it hard to believe she loves or trusts her Gus any more than the other men she flutters and pouts at. There's a hardness in her smile, a calculation in her innocence. The way Monroe played her, I was afraid for Lorelei. The way Hilty plays her, I'm more afraid for Gus. Which is all true, but nothing I can't deal with. I am no stranger to historical cultural relativism. It takes more than a little cynical mysogyny to give me emotional indigestion. And yet that's what I had. I felt it when I saw How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, too. I suspect some of my discomfort comes from my fear that contemporary culture is being pushed towards the social attitudes that color those mid-century musicals (4). They present themselves as innocent, light-hearted, charming, silly, but when it comes right down to it, their basic assumptions are none of these things. They tell us that woman is nothing without a man, that marriage is primarily a financial transaction, that marriage turns women into controlling battle-axes or alcoholics and men into fashion accessories, spineless yes-men, or cheating sneaks. They glorify a world in which beauty, riches, and position are everything, kindness and learning opportunities for comedy, and racial and cultural stereotypes abound. During the Brazil number, I didn't know where to look, and that's a fact. So yeah. Mixed feelings about the play. Not a single reservation about any of the performances or the staging. I bet it ends up on Broadway, with better costumes for the chorus and more scenery. And I might even go see it again, even if I don't really like diamonds. (5) (1) They do obscure and/or impossible to mount In This Economic Climate musicals, mostly from more than 50 years ago. We saw Juno there, and Fanny. It's always a real education. (2) Currently the only TV program we watch, and boy, are we addicted. Having started half-way through, we now have to go and see the beginning. Luckily, we're used to watching stuff inside-out. (3) Where I was meeting Ellen for dinner before we went to see yet another play, which I'll write about when I've had a chance to think about it a little more. (4) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was written in 1932, made into a musical in 1949. (5) I wish I knew how to do superscripts, because I love writing footnotes. Tags: musical, review (3 comments \| Leave a comment)
03:03 am skzbrust [Link]	Fourth Street Fantasy Convention This is a reminder to everyone who might be interested that Fourth Street Fantasy Convention is approaching. For those who don’t know, this is a small convention (100+ people) heavily oriented toward writing and writers–I sort of made it up back in, I think, the late 80′s so I could hear smart people argue about problems I was having. The theory is that anything that is about writing is also about reading; “How to Read Better” has always been an unstated discussion topic. What distinguishes Fourth Street from most conventions are two things: 1. A very high percentage of professionals (writers, editors); and B. Strict single-track programming with lunch breaks, so everyone can be at every panel (and, of course, continue the arguments from one to the other). It used to be that did the programming; lately it’s mostly Alec Austin with help from Tom Whitmore and me, and I’ve been delighted by how things have gone. I have learned stuff. I think it has helped me write better; I know it has helped me get more out of my reading. Check out who will be there (John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, &c &c) It’ll be in Minneapolis, June 22-24, and for actual, useful details, go here. I’d love to see all of you there. Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.
May 14th, 2012
06:52 pm madrobins [Link]	Down to the Books I have got everything on my non-writing ToDo list done except for the BVC book keeping, which is about half done (maybe 2/3 done). I'm going to have a glass of wine and watch the dog snore for a while. How about you? (Leave a comment)

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