Hum, so, that story about the phoenix? I’ve sold it to Subterranean Online for a future issue. Many thanks to Yanni Kuznia for the invitation, and to Gareth L Powell and Rochita Loenen-Ruiz for the feedback (extra thanks to Rochita for putting up with my total absence of a brain). It’s set in the Xuya continuity, some time after On a Red Station, Drifting (and even has a returning minor character from that novel). Features mindships (of course),…

…s, the phoenix, the vermillion bird, was a sign of peace and prosperity to come; a sign of a just ruler under whom the land would thrive. But those are the days of the war; of a weak child-Empress, successor to a weak Emperor; the days of burning planets and last-ditch defences; of moons as red as blood and stars as dark as bile. # When Thien Bao was thirteen years old, Second Aunt came to live with them. She was a small, spry woman with little to…

…I’ve just discovered that there’s emails I haven’t answered to, so if you sent anything to me from 1st Sept to 10th Sept and are still waiting on an answer, would you mind poking me? I didn’t have email access while in hospital and obviously misplaced a couple things when we got home with the snakelet……

-The awesome Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and her sister interview Benjanun Sriduankaew: I think of short stories as presenting a question, even if it’s something as simple as ‘how will the characters get what they want?’ It’s my hope that readers will be engaged by that question even if the story isn’t presenting a direct answer – so that’s what I hope they take away: a question. But I also hope to excite a sense of wonder and a sympathetic interest, whe…

…In case you had any doubt, not much writing is happening–snakelet is a bit of a full time job… Desultorily planning my novel (I know how to fix my plot problem, I just don’t have the time to tackle the chapter–each time I sit down too write there’s a scream from the bedroom…)….

…they raised into ephemeral figures–the boy Cuoi and his banyan, the strategist Khong Minh and his crane-feather fan–they whirled and reared, tracing words in the flowing writing of calligraphy masters, poems like the ones hung on doorways for New Year’s Eve, bringing up memories of bygone feasts in a vanished land, in the days before the evacuation… Sent it off to a couple readers, and meanwhile will go see what the %%% is wrong with our hot water…

…eryone who supported me, whether by reading my stuff, promoting my stuff, listening to my (numerous) twitter rants and/or giving me pregnancy/parenthood/writing/misc. advice. Much much appreciated; I’m humbled to have such generous people around me. And, of course, the major production of the year was the successful (and mostly eventless, though those things are always more eventful than you’d like!) delivery of the snakelet. The side-effects incl…

…H (a little bit of context first: we’ve been making biscuit Joconde , a moist sponge cake dough that is used as the basis for many fruit desserts. The recipe we have calls for 3 eggs and 3 egg whites, leaving us with extra egg yolks): The H: “What can I do with three extra egg yolks?” Me, googling and perusing a webpage of recipes “Er. Mayonnaise? Aioli? Pasta carbonara? Chocolate mousse?” The H, paging through our big book of desserts; “Chocolat…

…in a brilliant retelling of the myth of Quetzalcoatl that focuses on his sister. This reads like Mists of Avalon in Ancient Mexico: I love the focus on women and on what they have to do to survive, and the characters are very strongly drawn (TW for incest though–hardly avoidable as it’s in the original myth…). Best Fan Artist: -Ninni Aalto, who did the art for much of the Helsinki bid. See an example of her work here. And her blog is here. Best E…

…rse of Xuya: On a Red Station, Drifting. On the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2012; and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards for Best Novella. This was out in a limited hardback edition from Immersion Press in the UK, which is sadly out of print. I’ve put out an ebook edition, which you can get from most major ebook retailers. There is also a print on demand edition, available through Createspace. Buy Now For generations Prosper S…