And in the midst of various upheavals, I’ve been really remiss in not posting those, but there are a couple of anthologies which include my fiction in them: –Transtories, edited by Colin Harvey, contains my short pseudo-Chinese story “The Axle of Heaven”. It was the last project Colin worked on before his death, and it’s got a stellar lineup, including Lawrence M. Schoen and Joanna Hall. Well worth a look, whether you knew Colin or not. -Deb Hoag…

…uld not hold up to another reading. But actually, they’re pretty good. I’m really glad that although they feature strong stereotyping (Chiatze=China, Gothir=Persia, Drenai=Greece or somewhere thereabouts, Nadir=Mongols), the author never takes swipes at the various nations: people come in all colours and alignments, and we have as many Nadir madmen as Drenai ones. Also, they’re fairly gender-typed (though there are a few women fighters), but Gemme…

…the street urchins–sorry, I have a nasty mind), and the other one ends up coming out of left field, and feeling a bit forced as a result (a side effect, I suspect, of too many reveals piled up). And I really wish people would stop thinking a Sherlock Holmes novel needs to have Moriarty, Mycroft, and Lestrade in it to be successful. I’m personally holding out for more Mrs. Hudson, because what the world needs is more women around Sherlock Holmes……

…I might not have written half a novel in November, but I did total 50k words of original first drafts and non-fiction (blog posts for guest blogs). Can I collapse now?…

“Trời sinh voi, trời sinh cỏ.” Literally (I think, the translation is mine, and I’m not at “can understand effortlessly” stage): “Heaven made the elephant, [and] Heaven made grass”. I think it’s “God will provide”, but I could be wrong (translating a proverb word for word not giving me much about its actual meaning). And a less-lovely one: “Trọng nam khinh nữ”, which means “hold men in high esteem, despise women”. No prizes for the interpretation…

“con rồng, cháu tiên”: “child of dragons, grandchild of immortals”. This one refers to an old tale: according to legend, the Vietnamese people are descended from the union of the dragon Lạc Long Quân and the immortal Âu Cơ: they had a hundred children together, but because they were so different (he was a dragon from the deep seas, she was an immortal and only felt at home in the mountains), they ended up separating. Lạc Long Quân, summoned home…

…s voice is as delightful as always, and this is a very nice, punchy mix of comedy of errors and adventure book. Very much looking forward to book 3! -David Gemmell: hum, a lot of books? Finished the Drenai books, and found one I hadn’t read (the very last one, Swords of Night and Day). The earlier ones are still those that carry the most punch for me; I suspect partly because of nostalgia. Also read Lion of Macedon/Dark Prince, which is basically…

-Jim C. Hines blogs on sexual harrassment here, here and here -Broad Universe publishes stats on diversity in genre -The World SF blog Tuesday fiction is “City of Silence” by Ma Boyong (translated by Ken Liu): part 1, part 2. Incidentally, the blog is also looking for fiction they could showcase–preferably set outside the US/UK, or by authors from outside the US/UK (note that this overlaps with, but is not *quite* the same thing as fiction by US/…

…y, they’re going round the “underworld” rock before getting there. A detail of the crib characters (the santons). One of the reasons we picked those over other choices was that the Virgin Mary isn’t standing up, but is resting, and we both felt this was a more realistic position for someone who’s just finished labour. I wish we had more space for putting in more characters, but, as said before, small flats are really not conducive to bigger set-up…

“Có công mài sắt, có ngày nên kim”: “If you work hard enough at sharpening iron, one day you’ll have a needle” (literally “Put effort [into] sharpen[ing] iron, have one day in the end [a] needle”). Basically, insofar as I can tell, the closest equivalent would be that nothing is obtained without hard work. Again, I’m pretty sure of my translation, a lot less sure about my reading of the proverb. Progress continues apace; I’m turning to vocabulary…