…has struck again. I walked out of my house this morning to find a thick layer of snow on the ground; and immediately went back upstairs, to get my moon boots, a thicker pair of socks, and a backpack in which I stuffed my normal shoes (moon boots are well and good, but they don’t exactly make for a fashion statement).
You might wonder why. Well, see, the trains were running fine. The buses were not. I could get to my train station fine; however, that still left about 4km to walk. Uphill, in a snowstorm.

I made it, but it was a good 50 minutes, and I had definite similitudes to a snow(wo)man by the time I arrived–my backpack and I were covered in a thick layer of snow, and my gloves were starting to be on the wet side.

Fortunately, in the evening some of the buses were running, which allowed me to walk only 15 minutes before I caught one that was going to the train station.

Here’s to hoping tomorrow isn’t the same…

In the meantime, some links:
–Joe Sherry reviews Servant of the Underworld; Becky LeJeune does the same.
-Various people on the interwebs have also reported they’ve received ARCs of Harbinger of the Storm.
-The official TOC for the Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Eighth Annual Collection. Among the awesome choices, there’s a few stories that have definitely stuck with me this year: Yoon Ha Lee’s “Flower, Mercy, Needle, Chain” (Clarkesworld), Nina Allan’s “Flying in the Face of God” (Interzone), and Peter Watts’ “The Things” (Clarkesworld).
-And, in case you happen to speak Romanian, the translation of my essay “On Good Stories” has been posted on the Romanian SF & F society’s website (thanks to Cristian Tamas, as usual, and to translator Adina Barvinschi).

There’s an interesting discussion over at Torque Control on the future of the Clarke Award–most notably on whether the award should remain focused on the UK publishing scene. Head on over there if you feel like commenting.

Some Servant of the Underworld mentions (sorry for the long list, I kind of haven’t updated in a long while on this):
–Windrose Meanderings (loved it)
–You Fight Like Anne Rice (didn’t care so much for the style or the main character)
–Solar Bridge (thought the milieu tended to overwhelm the novel)
–Jonathan McCalmont at the Zone (to say that he didn’t like it is an understatement. It’s the review with claws I was referring to earlier. I’ve skimmed through it but not really read it–I can deal with this kind of deconstruction, but only after book 3 is completed).
–Violin in the Void (thought the setting was great, but was worried some people might think the pace was laggy, and that Neutemoc was a pain)
–Miranda Suri (in a more general post about other mindsets, why we should write them and what are the pitfalls. In which I get mentioned next to Lord of Light, one of my all-time fave SF books. Wow).
–starlady38 (really liked it, thought Mihmatini was awesome)
–trollsmyth (thinks it would make an awesome tabletop RPG. I’d tend to agree–it would be extra fun to dump PC into Tenochtitlan. I’d GM that kind of thing myself, if GMing didn’t interfere with my creative processes).

Feeling down and gloomy in this month of December? Fear not. Steph Burgis and Patrick Samphire have put up the December Lights Project, a collection of light-hearted and feelgood stories for the holiday season. I’ve only read one so far, Steph’s “Undead Philosophy 101”, which was a hilarious tale about vampires teaching at East Lansing University. There’s other offerings from Sherwood Smith, Sarah Prineas and Patrick Samphire, with more familiar names coming up.

(they did ask me to contribute, but unfortunately I tend to go dark, or to put my characters through the wringer before they’re allowed to feel good…)

Meanwhile, I’ll go see if I can get to work, or if the black ice wins.

-Locus goes digital (pdf editions for sure, perhaps epub and kindle). Awesome. Probably the excuse I needed to resubscribe without having paper copies cluttering my house.
-Via Cheryl Morgan and the World SF blog, the fund raiser for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Award. Prizes include things donated by Neil Gaiman, and Jeff and Ann VanDerMeer. I’ve ranted quite often enough about the prevalence of Western Anglophone SF in the SF field–this award, which focuses on works translated into English (and reward both author and translator) is most definitely welcome.

And 1000 words on the novel, slowly getting back into the swing of things. Also working on an article (either for this blog or for SFnovelists) on some TV tropes that bug the heck out of me.

Couple interesting discussions/rants/funny stuff about steampunk courtesy of Charles Stross, Cat Valente and Cherie Priest–echoing some of the stuff I was saying earlier about what the 19th century really looked like.

Guess I picked a fine time to write Aztec steampunk… (seriously, though, I’m sticking with it for the moment, because it might not be rigorous science or rigorous history, but it makes me broach lots of interesting subjects. Don’t really read enough Victorian steampunk to comment on the above links, but it certainly makes one think. Giving me lots of story fodder, if nothing else).

-Maria Zannini interviews me for the Online Writing Workshop. In which I talk about critique partners, and writing rules (and how to break them)
-The full version of Jenny Barber‘s interview of me can be found in the latest issue of Dark Horizons, the British Fantasy Society magazine.
-And, from now until the 14th of September, I’ll be guest-blogging over at Futurismic, along with fellow IZ authors Gareth L. Powell and Lavie Tidhar. Check out today’s post, which is full of geekiness about rice and rice cookers.

On a more personal note, I am utterly swamped, and finding it difficult to get into much of a writing groove at all. Feeling decidedly cranky about this.

-The very first Angry Robot podcast: set to be a monthly affair featuring AR and genre-related stuff. The inaugural episode features Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris (who are apparently having loads of fun with this), speaking among others about their new releases and the future of publishing. You can subscribe here (itunes subscriptions forthcoming).
-Many congratulations to Gareth L. Powell, SF writer, occasional co-author and great all-around guy, for signing up with Solaris for his novel The Recollection. Congratulate him here.
-Interesting post over at I09 on “Is avoiding tropes the same thing as telling fresh stories?”
-Janice Hardy has a contest to win an ARC of Blue Fire, second book in her (MG) Healing Wars trilogy. Also, if you’re interested in different approaches, you can see the covers of the US, UK and German editions of books 1 and 2 here.
-Jeff Spock writes about stories for casual games. Fascinating stuff about why cliché and archetypes are good for you.

My friend T.L. Morganfield has written a series of awesome posts on Using Critiques:

Using Critique: Part 1: First Things First
Using Critiques: Part 2: I’ve got a pile of critiques, but what do I do with them?
Using Critiques: Part 3: Where to get critiques, and how to develop lasting professional relationships through them.
The final part is forthcoming.

Well worth a read. Go check them out!

Yesterday, my Mom and I went to eat Vietnamese–and Mom wrangled some freshly-ground chillies from the restaurant, which she gave me to take home. So, yesterday evening, all proud of my new toy, I mix some fresh nước mắm sauce, and my hand hovers over the chillies, wondering how much to put in. After a while, I settled on the smallest unit I knew, one coffee spoon–dumped it in, and mixed everything.

After trying out the sauce with some fried rolls, I might need to rethink my smallest unit…

Also, it’s been said many times, but don’t let me loose in an Asian foodstore. I managed to get out with only a handful of bottles (sesame oil, undiluted nước mắm, and rice vinegar) , some fresh noodles, some fruit and some ginger, but still, it was a heavy trek back home. (also, I’m now the proud owner of a garlic press, various wooden spatulas of different shapes, and a large vegetable peeler…)

And as a parting short, via SF Signal: Samurai Wars, aka the Star Wars Universe redone in ukiyo-e (traditional apanese) style. Made of awesome (for some reason, can’t link to any of the images, but check out the following: Admiral Ackbar, Jabba the Hutt, Obi-Wan Kenobi).