…because it’s not my story to tell, but right now she and her family could really use some financial help. We’ve set up a fundraiser here: And, hum, I know people have been asking about hard-to-obtain Xuya stories? If you donate to this, you’ll have access to an exclusive ebook which features three Xuya stories which aren’t online: namely, “Fleeing Tezcatlipoca”, “Two Sisters in Exile”, and “Memorials”. (Apologies for the generic cover, I put that…

…drawback is that the more carbon you put in a blade, the more fragile it becomes. Also, it’s more susceptible to corroding, which means that you usually add some other metal like chromium or tungsten so that your blade doesn’t rust at the mere sight of water. Some bright souls came up with the idea of laminated steel, which is sandwiching a hard steel blade (for the edge) between two layers of softer steel: a combination of a good edge, an easy to…

…ion post with stuff by me and a lot of other great people (insofar as I could and it made sense, I’ve included a lot of stuff available online for those last minute reading binges!)….

…to bind all to its will. It’s on the following best-of-2017 lists: Locus Recommended Reading List Amazon Tor.com Reviewers’ Choice Barnes and Noble Sci Fi & Fantasy blog The Guardian (Adam Roberts) The Verge (Andrew Liptak, Recommended Book) Fantasy-Faction SciFiNow: 35 Books you should have read in 2017 (Jonathan Hatfull) Fantasy Cafe Where to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House US indie stores Amazon US Barnes and Noble The Book Depository Tr…

My Xuya short story “A Hundred and Seventy Storms” has been published online as part of Uncanny Magazine‘s July/August 2016 issue. Aka “wow I hadn’t actually used Kepler’s Laws in a long, long time” (I needed to do some quick and dirty planetary design. Was very proud I remembered most of them °_°). Snippet: This is the room where The Snow Like a Dancer dies, year by year and piece by piece. When they wheel in the cradle where she rests, she alwa…

…striding the broken streets of Paris. These aren’t saints or monsters, but complicated people, making decisions for their own reasons, worming their terrible way off the page and into your heart. … a story which rewards close reading, and one which compelled me to keep turning pages; the climax was rewarding and impressive – and left me breathlessly hoping for more. Stitch’s Media Fix: …such an experience for me. (…) I almost felt like I was in th…

…ear. Giang, Thanh’s humble handmaiden, who appeared to her the night of a terrible fire and who has deep secrets of her own, might be the one who holds the key to love, freedom, and true power. More info at Tor.com! And if you feel minded to preorder: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Kobo…

…This is awesome: the Pacific Asia Museum has online exhibitions (with downloadable pdfs): Rank and Style: Power Dressing in Ancient China Visions of Enlightenment: Art of Buddhism Nature of the Beast: Animals in Japanese Paintings and Prints (hum, yes, I’m straightening out the ranks in Foreign Ghosts, why do you ask?)…

…panese). It’s been a runner-up for the Million Writers Awards for Best New Online Magazine, and deservedly so. If you want to support, go here. (I am somewhat biased as they’re publishing some of my fiction, but I do enjoy the mag consistently, which is rare) Fellow VDer Rochita Loenen-Ruiz has just arrived in Clarion West: she’ll post regular updates of her experience on her LJ: her first post can be found here. She’s also got a post over at Fant…

…that four successive touches of pain were applied to the ceiling. Sigh. I really hope we get to the bottom of this before the last of the paint peels off, and something else (and presumably worse) starts happening… 4 episodes into season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. Gotta love the fact that the number of survivors seems to be steadily diminishing, episode after episode. Somewhat to my surprise, Gaius Baltar has grown slightly more bearable, if not…