…l creatures. Oh, and star-demons, of course. More info here, including the real blurb; the first spotted review here at Val’s random comments, courtesy of Rob Weber. Book seems to be shipping through some of the usual places in the: amazon.co.uk, the Book Depository, Waterstones and WHsmith. Meanwhile, I have a %%% cold and was up for much of the night–so right now I’m feeling a bit zombified. But consider this my celebration post, while I go on c…

…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)…

…erately, to highlight the hegemonic rather than territorial structure (the real-life Aztec Empire was hegemonic, exerting influence rather than seeking to incorporate territories into a global administration). I generally don’t pick names that carefully, but here I made a couple deliberate choices: Dắc Kiến is a traditional name for Vietnamese boys (it means “acquired view”, “knowledge”), and the fact it was given to a woman reflects the changes i…

…ek to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com. Wow. I’m over the moon. I love what Tor.com is doing (and I love their art too, which is always striking), and I’m really glad I shall be appearing with all the cool kids. This is a bit of a change from my usual stuff: it’s, er, dark post-apocalyptic fantasy [1]. With a twist. Many thanks to Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, D Franklin, Gareth M Skarka and Mur Lafferty for the seed of this; and to Rochita Loenen-Ruiz,…

…red Along the River of Heaven”: Lois Tilton on Locus Online marked it as Recommended, and noted it as a “good story” in her semi-monthly summary (my first time ever Lois Tilton likes something of mine…). Ken Liu posted a few thoughts on it here; John M. Kerr liked it ; starlady38 referred to it as “painfully good” (and reviewed Harbinger of the Storm, too!); the World SF blog showcased it; VarietySF wondered if it was part of a new trend of “helpf…

…s awesome “Godshift” to round off the sequence). Meanwhile, I’ll be off to brainstorm more Jade in Chains, which has morphed into Thick Waters considering the way the story is developping (yeah, the whole “blood is thicker than water” thing, and a few other clever allusions in there. I’m going to need to research the history of the Seine a bit). It’s occurred to me, reading stuff over the week (two of Kameron Hurley’s awesome posts on Gender Equal…

…ting deadline for the Hugos is July 31st, 11:59 p.m. CDT. You can find the online voting ballot here, and the packet here if you’re still trying to find nominees. This year I had to skip the novel category due to lack of time, and a bunch of others; but if you still need a candidate for your Campbell Award for Best New Writer, give Zen Cho a try? Stories here, here and here. Also, she’ll be at Nine Worlds in London August 9-11 if you’re in the vic…

…Just a quick reminder that tonight (11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time) is the deadline for the Hugo Awards. You can nominate here. If you’re still looking for something to put on your ballot, my awards consideration post is here, with a list of stuff I’ve liked in the past year. I’ve tried to focus it on online and diverse works–would be quite honoured and grateful if you had a look at some of it….

The RT review of The House of Shattered Wings is online here. I’m just going to excerpt the relevant bits: the book is a Top Pick for August, and the review contains, among many awesome things, this, “It’s a whirlwind, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s one of the best fantasy novels of 2015.” *squee* Also, it’s subscriber-only, but I’m reliably told that Publisher’s Weekly lists The House of Shattered Wings as one of the top ten books for Fall (alongs…

…on one technique and have inserts on how to do things, rather than being a compilation of recipes (I like compilations of recipes, but sometimes you need to pause and learn a bit about technique). The Breath of a Wok has a slightly better and slightly more expanded wok selection and wok care section (at least I found it more useful), and Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge is better on preparing ingredients for a stir-fry (cutting them, blanching them,…