So, apparently the high-speed trains run slower when there’s snow (makes sense, but it does break my heart to have to pay high-speed fares and then have the train go extra slowly). Took me 8 hours to come back from Mulheim in Germany, where the latest VD workshop was being held. OK, part of the journey is nonsensical, since I have to take a first train to go south from Mulheim into Switzerland, and another north from Switzerland back to France (and then a further train from Strasbourg to Paris). And part of it was the delayed train on the last segment of the journey. But still–got plenty of time to write
Apart from that, I had a great weekend in Villa Diodati, away from Internet and the phone network. Wrote a ton, critted awesome stories, and ate extra good food as usual (full report forthcoming, but I need to grab some pictures first).

Novel wordcount: +6000 words, and an odd Aztec ritual.
Movie count: watched last episode of Sherlock, The Great Game. Much better than episode 2. And Moriarty was awesome.
Misc: copies of Galaxies arrived, with the French translation of “Butterfly, Falling at Dawn”. Definitely odd to see myself translated in print, but kind of cool too.
Misc 2: apparently, the internet says I should expect a really negative review of SoU sometime soon, aka the kind that has claws and uses them freely. It will be… interesting (the wise thing, knowing myself, is also probably to ignore it until after I’ve finished book 3. I’m not sure I can count on myself to be that wise, but I’ll try).

I’ve read somewhere that all good epic fantasy should have maps of the known world–well, I’m not exactly writing epic fantasy, but I’ve just added a special map page for Obsidian and Blood onto the website.
Of course, we all know I suck at drawing, so they’re just rough schematics, but if you’ve always wondered where exactly Acatl’s temple was in relation to the Great Temple or the Serpent Wall–this is the place to go.
(there might be minor inconsistencies with those in SoU and HoS, because I wasn’t smart enough to draw the maps beforehand)

Found this via means I shall not reveal: the ahuizotl page from Wikipedia now includes the following

Ahuizotl feature prominently in French author Aliette de Bodard’s debut novel Servant of the Underworld, in which they are real creatures living in the water of Lake Texcoco, feeding on the eyes and fingernails of the drowned.

Look, Mum, I’m (almost) famous :=)

(a hearty thank-you to whoever edited the page)

Nope, not a shameless promotion post, not yet… Just sorting out through my 2010 publications, which came to 9 short stories, 6 novelettes and 1 novel if I didn’t screw up in my additions.
Wow. That was a good year.

Wordcount: 24,000/100,000

Awesome title ideas: no further ones.

Body count: 1, 3 in progress. Oh, and 1 owl and 1 jaguar.

Best moment of the day: Everything appeared normal: a dead body was being carried back through the gates, followed by a procession of priests in grey cloaks.

Unexpected moment of the day: the jaguar’s death. Seriously. Some characters are just made of awesome.

Research: used the fact I owed my French publisher maps of the city to replace everything into a coherent system. Also found out about Tlatelolco via the Spanish version of Wikipedia.

Re-discovery of the day: speaking Spanish definitely helps when researching the Aztecs.
(was looking for information about an important city in the narration, and couldn’t find it on the English version of Wikipedia. The Spanish Wikipedia, however, has a detailed map of the centre of the city. With numbered temples and religious structures)

Because of moments like those: I was looking for something else entirely (specifically, information about religion in Tlatelolco for a minor character in book 3), and happened upon an awesome tidbit of information related to the time period, which will fit great into the novel.
Research is made of awesome.

PS: apparently, book 3 is now listed on amazon, with a Sept. 1 2011 release date (and no title). Good to know while you’re writing it…
EDIT: OK, according to AR this is an erroneous listing, and the book will *not* be released on Sept 2011. Phew.

On a happier note…

My friends’ Bday gifts to me: season 1 of The Big Bang Theory, season 1 of Torchwood, and mangas.

*happy geek*

Well, more like a rant… Loved episode 1 to bits, but in general I have the feeling this episode was a little under par. Also, it had a number of massive issues around its depictions of Chinese–the sheer number of movies featuring a powerful Chinese sect (somewhat Triad-like) is really annoying, and it’s a shame this episode doesn’t buck the trend. Let’s not even mention the clichés of the Chinese girl obsessed with the tea ceremony or the eeevil Triad (sorry, sect) pillaging the riches of its own country. Yeah, right.

I have the same problem with the Triads intruding in the UK as I have with the Russian mafia or the Colombian drug-lords in thrillers: behind a premise like that, there’s a strong subtext of “oh, we were doing fine until those *people* started bringing their own criminality over. Really, all British citizens are fine. It’s just foreigners who bring their dirty laundry”. And I thought it was particularly noticeable in that episode, especially given the poor characterisation of the Chinese.

And for once, Sherlock is painfully slow on the uptake–I don’t know any Chinese, but my first reflex on seeing those symbols would have been “some Asian language, probably derived from Chinese” (yes, they’re numbers from an obsolete system, but some of the signs, like the “one” sign, definitely have a familiar component…).

Oh, and yeah–the big bad General Shan looked about as Chinese as me or you. I could be wrong, but I’d have pegged her as some kind of South-East Asian (Thai or Vietnamese, I think, but I can’t find the actress’ name to check). Kind of undercut her seriousness as the top person of the eeevil Chinese sect.

Ok, so this is my fast recipe for phở (without pre-canned MSG or paste). Making no claims that it’s been handed dow for generations, or anything like that–it’s just what happens to satisfy my phở craving when I’m in the mood.

An idea of how much garnish goes into my phở bowl (didn’t have soy this time around)

Et voilà!

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Afterword
You’ll have gathered that the broth is what makes or breaks this. Everyone has their own mix of spices and fish sauce to get to this point (though the anise stars are generally a mainstay)–feel free to add or substract if you’re not convinced by it.
The traditional phở is made with beef bones and roasted spices and has thin slices of beef round instead of the sirloin slices I used, but it requires a lot more supervision than this. See Mai Pham’s Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, Andrea Nguyen’s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, or Wandering Chopsticksif you’re interested.

If you’re in a hurry and don’t have the 2+ hours, you can boil the broth for 30 minutes, and add in a spoonful of phở paste in every bowl. It’ll compensate for the weaker broth taste.

On the broth: if you’re really not in a hurry, you can put it in the fridge and let the fat bubble up to the surface before skimming it. If you didn’t use over-fatty pieces, it shouldn’t be too greasy, but there’s still going to be fat in it. Then boil the broth again after taking it out of the fridge. Also, the broth freezes pretty well (the broth, not the noodles, the meat or the spices. Just the liquid).