…For those of you who speak French, this interview of me just went live on Elbakin.net, one of the biggest French fantasy websites. Many thanks to Emmanuel Chastellière for the time and trouble (and extra helpings to fellow Campbell Nominee David Anthony Durham, whose original post on me on his blog brought me to Emmanuel’s attention)….

…iry. Where do they get their calcium from?” Me, after a quick spot of google and some thought given to the matter. “Well, uh, from seafood and algae and nuts, I guess? And, ha, I think I understand why they eat the shells on the shrimps now!” (I *always* eat my shrimp shells, which puzzles the H as he can’t envision why I’d want to)…

…“Chín người, mười ý”: “nine men, ten opinions”. All I’m going to say is LOL….

…ions and/or steps in the project’s life. At those points, the project will come under scrutiny more intensely (by the peers, the hierarchy etc.), and will have to provide quite a few elements of justification for said decisions (and the project manager might well be part of a collegial decision process in those stages). So, there you go, a short Engineering Projects 101–I’ve had quite a few years working on those by now (though admittedly mainly i…

Off to a short but well-deserved holiday in Brittany until Sunday late evening. Probably no internet, or at any rate much ice cream, swimming and cycling which will keep me off the Internet. There’ll be no hemi-semi-weekly cooking post on Wednesday, and the posts I had in the queue (on cultural appropriation and engineering in SF) are set back by about a week. Will be back next Monday. If you feel like you need a fix of Aliette de Bodard, may I p…

…Is? Nanomachines?” Me: “Ooh. I like nanomachines. Sold, now I have to think of a plot to go with those. Mmm…” Yup, this is how my SF gets plotted, which kind of explains a lot of things… (I usually get the setting from combining one societal thing with one science/SF thing; however, at this stage I’ll throw in a random element to provide the actual plot that goes with the setting. Lately, it’s been a fairytale motif, go figure)…

…Words mean something; they weigh, like contracts between families in the olden times. Cam uses them cheaply, for they’re the weapon by which she makes her way in life. Yup, not terrifically original, but I rather like it….

…ow they came by it. She does what she’s told to, an obedient daughter beholden to her elders, never raising a fuss or complaining–the shining example of filial piety extolled in the tales Thuy so painstakingly reconstitutes in her spare hours. Thanh Ha is a big woman, who must tower over her extended family–though right now, her cheeks are hollowed with grief, and the black band of mourning on her sleeve seems to have sucked all joy from her. “You…

…and the passage of time. I love the language. -J. Damask/Joyce Chng has a series of microfictions on her blog on Lady White Snake, accompanied by really cute illustrations….

…who knows someone who can give her a hand with the formalities of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Behind her, you hear the dull thud of bombs falling like rain in the streets–the same sound that swells and roars within your dreams until you wake up in a room that feels deathly silent. Which just leaves me with another story to write before the end of October (a month that includes Bristolcon and World Fantasy Con). Also, planning a novel with…