…In which I cook a lovely creamy soup, because it’s winter and because I need to test drive my new Braun hand mixer (I’ve had the mixer for a while, just never had a chance to do stuff with it before). And yeah, I know it’s hard to make pictures of a soup look good, especially with no herbs. You’ll just have to take my word for it, but it was truly scrumptious (and got H’s seal of approval!). Recipe here….

…e info on the various factions of The House of Shattered Wings. This isn’t complete obviously, but it’s what I have in my writing files! (minus spoilers) You can also take a test here, if you want to know which faction you belong to! Ludwig Rösch (Austrian, 1865-1936), Die Pilgramkanzel in St. Stephan. Pastel on paper, 65 x 52 cm. House Silverspires Founder: Lucifer Morningstar Location: Ile de la Cité Colours: red and silver Coat of arms: the bro…

…other types of bread if you want to go beyond the basic loaf, all of which come highly recommended. You can of course use other dried fruit (I’m planning on figs for Christmas bread, personally), or nuts, or anything that takes your fancy! Baker’s formula is as follows: Flour 100, Water 60, Yeast 1, Salt 2 (I’m not counting the raisins as that highly depends on taste). For the stretch and fold, see here. Raisin bread Recipe Type: Bread Cuisine: Fr…

…by Edward James & Farah Mendlesohn (Cambridge University Press) Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them, Edited by Lynne M. Thomas & Sigrid Ellis (Mad Norwegian Press) Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who, Edited by Deborah Stanish & L.M. Myles (Mad Norwegian Press) I Have an Idea for a Book … The Bibliography of Martin H. Greenberg, Compiled by Martin H. Greenberg, edited by John…

…Death. It starts out like a fairytale (three birds transform into men and come for three brides), and then very quickly becomes something else, a mixture between myth and history: the creatures of myth are also affected by the rise of communism, and one of the book’s best sections is set in Leningrad during the war, chronicling the slow decline of a city under siege. Valente uses the narration to question several of the fairytale tropes, from the…

…tely worth taking into account. Also, one of those linked posts has a very valid point, which is that “illegal” is not a synonym for “immoral”. A lot of those blog posts about piracy don’t make a clear distinction between those two words. “illegal” is what the state thinks is bad. “immoral” is what you think is bad according to personal ethics–and if it’s exactly the same as “illegal” for you, no more, no less, you’re demonstrating a scary amount…

…catl, High Priest of the Dead, must find the culprit before everything is torn apart. Want a copy? Go here (offer should also be valid at other Kobo websites!)….

…where fiction satisfies our cravings for simplicity, and prevents us from realising how complex and difficult the real world can be. So, anyway, that’s what I see. I’d never realised before how much it worried me, or how many of those things came together in a solid (and utterly wrong, at least from my POV) vision of the world according to fiction [2]. What do you think? Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments (specifically, if you want to…

…magazine of social-political speculative fiction that has been publishing free online issues for about seven years now. We’ve focused in the past on feminist and queer issues, as well as environmental and colonial concerns. I have a soft spot for cyberpunk and dystopian settings, which are ripe for deep political storylines, but also like to experiment with surreal, magical realist and slipstream work. *Fábio Fernandes:* I’m a science fiction aut…

…, of course–and you’re obviously free to say if you didn’t like it). First come, first served. I’ll sign and personalise them if you so require. Memo: you don’t have to have read the previous books in the trilogy to make sense of this one; it’s a standalone like an episode of a crime series, though obviously character arcs get wrapped (last book of the trilogy, yadda yadda). Post here or in the LJ mirror if you want to give a copy a good home. Goo…