Natter

I’ve mentioned this before, but I have two full-time jobs. This is partly by choice, because I actually enjoy my non-writing career, and partly out of necessity, since I don’t make quite enough money at either my non-writing career or via writing to let one or the other go. (It’s not just money. Being a full-time writer means paying $400/month for health insurance, versus $40/month via my day job. But you get the idea.) People ask me all the time how I do it, and I’m always a little perplexed by the question. I don’t have children, for one thing; […]

…except I don’t really feel like it. This year has been both heaven and hell in various ways. I got a day job which has made me financially stable — and it’s been eating into my ability to write. I published one book and am looking forward to two more next year… but I recently realized I’ve sold only one short story, and had none published this year — a record low since I started writing seriously. I threw a bigass party on the other side of the country, and attended a bigass party on the other side of the

Apologies for being quiet here. I’m busy a) studying for the GRE, because I’m thinking about getting an MFA, and b) talking elsewhere, which has absorbed most of the free chat time I had available. Per the latter, I’m on a mailing list with some other authors, constituting the Locus Roundtable. Basically, our moderator (usually Karen Burnham) throws out an interesting question. Then she lets us do what writers do best (aside from writing), which is blather on about whatever tickles our fancy, while she collects the answers. The latest question actually spawned several subthreads of discussion, which will all

Belated — I got a request for this while at WFC, since we had the menu and ingredients available at the party but no one had pen/paper handy to jot them down. These were the drinks created and served by the incomparable Michael S (the guy behind the makeshift “bar”): Peanut Butter & Jelly: Cachaca, Castries Peanut Creme, Welch’s Grape Juice Rummy Bear: White rum, blue Curacao, lemon juice, simple syrup, with gummy bear garnish Lollypop: Gin, Framboise, orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, simple syrup S’More: Pinnacle whipped-cream flavoured vodka, creme de cacao Some notes: Frangelico can substitute for

You brought me some cool stuff, and I’d like to thank you! First interesting mailbag item this week was from the folks at French fan site Elbakin, who gave me an award a few months back for best fantasy translation (for The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, or, Les Cent Mille Royaumes). I just received the actual prize, and it’s a gorgeous hand-tooled leather book cover — …Niiiiiice. It’s absolutely beautiful. Now that’s a prize. Next up is something I ordered from Etsy: a cover for my new 11-inch MacBook Air. I wanted something more interesting than the usual stuff, and most

FYI for NYC locals: TONIGHT: Weds., Oct. 19th 7:00 p.m. @ The Center for Fiction The Wave in the Mind: A Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin Authors John Wray, N.K. Jemisin, Ellen Kushner, Michael Swanwick, and moderator David G. Hartwell discuss Ursula K. Le Guin’s legacy from the Earthsea books to her influence on today’s new writers. Wine & booksigning after If you’re in the area, come join us!

I’ve noticed that a lot of writers usually indulge their creativity in more than one way. Alas, I can’t sing or draw, and my violin skills are a good 20 years out of date (and were mediocre anyway, no matter what my father says). I really wanted to take kung fu as a kid, but my mom made me take ballet instead. You can probably guess how that turned out. But my family also taught me many ways to love food, and indulging that love has been another art for me. I love growing food, in part thanks to many