So, day after tomorrow is the deadline for nominating for the Hugos–for which, like the Nebulas, I’m sadly behind, especially on the novels. But, as for the Nebulas, I read some awesome short fiction this year, so here are my suggestions again:

-“Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life”, by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Short Story): a great story of immigration, alienation and man vs. machine. Available on the SFWA forums, or in the e-edition of Interzone 229 (available at Fictionwise).
-“Flying in the Face of God” by Nina Allan (Novelette): about space explorations, its cost and its impact on those who are left behind. Available here as a PDF from the TTA press website.
-“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers from Beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Novella): a tale of a woman summoned again and again from beyond death to practise magic–dealing with loss, prejudice and the evolution of cultures and countries, and a great reversal on the “summoning demons” trope. Available here from Subterranean.
ETA: may I also recommend Rochita Loenen-Ruiz for the Campbell Award? In addition to the Interzone story, check out this awesome one at Fantasy Magazine.

(my own stuff is here if you feel like trying it out: “The Jaguar House in Shadow”, an Aztec alt-hist novelette on friendship, betrayal and honour, is on the Nebula Awards shortlist; and of course I’d be pretty darn honoured if you deemed it worthy)

So…
I have two weeks, one (English) manuscript to rewrite, and one (French) manuscript to read through. And er, large amount of stupid administrative stuff to do.
So I’m going into submarine mode: this blog may be updated occasionally, but it certainly won’t be my priority. Same for twitter, LJ, FB, and also for emails. Do poke me again if it’s urgent and I don’t answer you.

Current mood:

determined

-Reviews of Harbinger of the Storm by Antony at SFbook.com and by Josh Vogt at Examiner.com. And one of Servant of the Underworld by Hannah Mariska at Fantasy Faction
-Also, if you feel like voting for Servant of the Underworld in the BSC Book Tournament, by all means go ahead 🙂 (it’s set against Ian McDonald’s superlative The Dervish House, though…)

Look at what I have!

Yes, it’s the French version of Servant of the Underworld, which I have two weeks to reread and annotate. So far, it reads wonderfully if a little weirdly (in the “did I write this?” vein). Had a lovely chat with the editorly folks yesterday; and the artist is apparently starting work on a series of three new covers for the French version–which will be Aztec portraits. Shiny!

There’s been another earthquake in Japan (magnitude 6.4 in eastern Shizuoka prefecture), apparently unrelated to the big one which broke last Friday. That’s in addition to all the aftershocks of the big one, naturally…
And the nuclear situation in Fukushima doesn’t really look to be getting better, since they’re running out of coolant.
Great.
As starlady38 says, it never rains but it pours. If you want to donate specifically to Japan [1], see the Japanese Red Cross, or Medecins Sans Frontières, among others. Any other suggestions for donations welcome in the comments.

In other news (which tend to get obscured by Japan), Bahrain has apparently called in Saudi troops to maintain order as things get out of control there.

[1]Of course, don’t let that dissuade you from donating to other charities, all year long. It’s money which often comes in handy; charities tend to be deluged by donations at times like this, which of course is a good thing–but they can have a bit more trouble getting through the less high-profile disasters, or the daily grind of small things, for which few donations come in.

BSC is holding their annual tournament, in which books face off against each other. It sounds like a fun premise–and lookie lookie, Servant of the Underworld is there, under the Forgotten Realms bracket.

Wow. I’m honoured to be in such great company.

From Patrick’s blog:

So, I have decided to make it official and start my own freelance web design business. I’ve been designing websites professionally since 2004, mostly for my then employer, but more recently branching out from that to do the odd design job privately.

I’ve put up a portfolio of a selected few of the sites I’ve done at 50 Seconds North.

Some of my other sites aren’t up there, either because they’ve since been supplanted by newer versions or because they were designed confidentially.

Anyway, the point of this post is to highlight that I’m now offering web design services. You can find out more about it at the above website!

I’d particularly like to get into designing writers’ websites, because I think that writers are often poorly served by their websites, and I think I have a fairly good idea of what makes a good author website.

I’d be really grateful if anyone on my friends list felt able to spread the word.

Thanks!

(I have not worked with Patrick; however, he’s a truly awesome guy, and his website for Stephanie Burgis is truly a thing of beauty)

Via Jeff Spock, and because I’m a grouchy contrarian:

Some perspective on the Japan Earthquake, and an article on the nuclear situation by someone who has a much better idea than reporters about how nuclear plants actually work.

To be clear, I’m not denying this is a major disaster for Japan. Things are undoubtedly bad in large areas of the country; and sifting through the rubble and rebuiliding is going to be a massive effort. My heart definitely goes out to the Japanese caught in this, and I wish them the very best in those trying times.
It’s just that I’m starting to be slightly put off by the number of people (esp. media outlets) who give the impression that the entire country is on the verge of utter ruin and nuclear holocaust(s). It has overtones of condescension to the Japanese and their resourcefulness; and with regards to the nuclear thing, over-reaction to what’s going on (some articles I’ve read more than implied that Japan was going to become a wasteland after all its nuclear plants had blown up, which seemed kind of an overstatement…).

Check out the new Salon Futura, in which Cheryl Morgan, Mike Carey, Jon Courtenay Grimwood and I talk about crossovers between crime and speculative fiction. On my end, I found the discussion and breadth of knowledge fascinating–thanks to Cheryl for thinking of me, and to Mike and Jon for being such awesome people.
(there were some technical glitches which resulted in much swearing at BT, but nothing that should spoil your enjoyment of the show).

The rest of the issue is equally intriguing, with looks at new crime/spec fic merges, interviews with Ian McDonald and C.E Murphy, and lots of other appetising features.

Meanwhile, I shall go back to my stir-fried beef with onions (lots of onions leftover after a rather disastrous buy, had to do something with them…)

(yes, lest you wonder why I’m online so early: I’ve taken my Friday afternoon off, and am currently in a train, headed for a weekend break. Ah, holidays…)

So, what’s up. Not been doing much: writing Master of the House of Darts pretty much wiped me out; so I took a 2-3-week post-novel break, wherein I did nothing much but read Agatha Christie novels. Which, incidentally, are wonderful things. Very relaxing–purely intellectual puzzles with very little violence. I hadn’t appreciated till now the need for a quiet space, and if you’d told me a few years ago that I was going to read Christie for fun and relaxation I’d have laughed at you. But there’s something infinitely soothing about her books–partly, I guess, because they’re about an idealised bygone time that cannot possibly concern me except in the remotest of senses; and partly because they’re puzzles more than thrillers, which means there is little stress and little incentive to GET THE ENDING NOW. Now I know where my tendency for dialogue-and-interviews-as-plot comes from…

I also read Elizabeth Bear’s Dust, the first volume of her Jacob’s Ladder trilogy, and fell in love all over again. It’s a blend of Arthurian mythos, Zelazny’s Amber, and Bear’s awesomely lyrical and mythic language. Think backstabbing family politics, on a generation ship. With swords and knights and angels, except everything is slightly askew, and there’s a peculiar weight to having all that mythology–a generation ship is pretty much a self-contained universe, and it’s interesting to see how the inhabitants are shaped by their ancestors’ belief systems and foibles (in many ways, it also reminded me of Zelazny’s Lord of Light, which also has SF with mythic tropes, the tropes having been set by the original colonists/passengers in order to establish a system by which they could profit). Very good, with cool characters. I thought two of them were under-used; but then I got my copy of Chill aka book 2, and I saw they were going to be the protagonists in that book. What more could a girl ask for? 🙂

Next up is revising MHD, and starting up work on the next project, on which I have very vague ideas–thinking of a Chinese/Vietnamese generation tale on a space station, but it’s all very nebulous. Before I commit to any plot, I need to reread Dream of Red Mansions, which I intend to use as my model for this. Should be interesting.

Cooking-wise, not much–it was a decidedly Vietnamese week, with phở, green mango salad (gotta work on the salad dressing though), and xá xíu (what can I say, I had 1.1 kg of pork, a big oven dish, and rather too much time on my hands. Good thing the thing freezes easily. Also, the H likes xá xíu). I really need to get down with the caramel recipe and work out how not to fail dismally at it, but the week was rather too busy for that…