Natter

Saw this done by a friend on LJ, and thought it might make a good memelike thing*: if you could live in a fantasy setting of your choosing, which one — based on fantasy novels you’ve read — would it be? Because not just anybody’s wonderland would be wonderful for me, after all. I’m going to just skip the ones where there are no black people, because I can’t see how it would be particularly wonderful to be treated as “exotic” — and abnormal. This does not, note, rule out all wonderlands that resemble medieval Europe; a lot depends on

I’m tired of talking about writing, race, gender, politics, and all that other heavy crap. Let’s talk cartoons! It’s no secret that I’m an anime/manga fan, especially since I mentioned in the afterward to The Broken Kingdoms that the World Tree was at least partly inspired by the giant sakura in the shoujo series Mahou Tsukai Tai!*. But I have to confess that I haven’t been a power user of anime or manga in about ten years, so I’m not up on the latest/hottest/coolest stuff. In fact, to my shame, I now get most of my anime as dubbed stuff

Got asked to participate in an SF Signal Mind Meld again: what are the books that I reread again and again? Admitted some I’m a little ashamed of, since they date from my teen years, but hey — every writer’s got a few literary skeletons in her closet. And there are a few that I still admire and love. Go see!

For those of you who’ve seen the January 2011 print issue of Locus, this will not be news. But for the rest of you — The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms made the bestseller list! Specifically in ninth place, and specifically on the “paperbacks” (mass market) subset of the list, based on data from October 2010. Details, details. MY BOOK IS A BESTSELLER, YA’LL. Dance with me!

And by “we,” I mean me and any of you who are reading this post, not aliens. (Of course, it’s possible aliens might be reading this. Interstellar voyages probably get really boring. Gotta pass the time somehow.) It’s been… a weird year. The goods — my first and second novel published! a Hugo and Nebula nomination! the sale of two more novels! — have been very good. The bads — un(der)employment! a batshit roommate I had to sue! and one very scary family health situation — were pretty damn bad. I didn’t talk much about the bads in public because