And, oops, too busy with the website tweaking to think of posting that…
A Basic Introduction to Chinese Mythology and Folklore, at the Nebula Awards Website (with thanks to Charles Tan and Nancy Fulda).
“Dancing for the Monsoon” now up on Abyss & Apex (thanks to Wendy Delmater and the inimitable Kelly Green). This was my Bootcamp story–infinitely improved with the great feedback I received there. Thanks as well to the BF, and to Marshall Payne, who both convinced me not to throw it away.
Sharing a TOC with Villa Diodati Beloved Dictator Ruth Nestvold. Awesome!
Nanpeng watched her student Khean practise for the Great Dance in the courtyard, her lithe body swaying to the rhythm of the xylophones. Each of Khean’s hand gestures naturally flowed into the next; her body bent smoothly, without visible stress. Khean’s face under the golden headdress was, as proper for a dancer, expressionless, but no tiredness appeared either in her eyes or in her gestures.
Khean was good. Extraordinarily good, and fearless as well. That mattered very much for a dancer, especially one about to enter the Great Dance, the dance that would bring the monsoon rain but leave the dancer utterly paralysed. Nanpeng was proud of her student.
Serey, the High Priest of the Destroyer, stood to Nanpeng’s side, his eyes watching every gesture Khean made.
“Only two days left before the Great Dance,” he said. His almond eyes turned, briefly, to Nanpeng.
“Yes,” Nanpeng said. “You sound worried.”
Serey kept watching the courtyard, where the musicians played under the eyes of the numerous statues of the gods. No, Nanpeng realised with a pang of fear. Serey was watching Khean.
I think it says something about me that I come home late and tired (having had 3 minutes of lunch pause, since lunch was spent in a meeting room with some sandwiches), and that to relax, I tweak the CSS of my website and do some edits…
(not sure I want to know what)
It hasn’t been a very good week: J. G. Ballard died, as well as Ken Rand, two people who will be much missed in their own way. I’ve had other bad news from other people I know.
The good news is that we spent a very nice BF’s birthday, with homemade pear cake (look, Mum, I can cook 
), that we’re looking at the Insight Guide for Canada and planning our travel around Worldcon.
Other good news is that my short story “Horus Ascending” has made the list of notable 2008 stories over at the Million Writers Award. There’s a lot of familiar names on the list: Beth Bernobich, Mary Robinette Kowal, Cat Rambo, Eric James Stone, John Brown, Jim Hines, Lavie Tidhar, Eugie Foster, Charles Coleman Finlay and Rae Carson Finlay, Ken Scholes.. Wow. And special heads-up to Beneath Ceaseless Skies, which was mentioned as the runner-up for best new magazine and racked up two nominations despite its late 2008 start.
