…er’s Voice” by Hannu Rajaniemi, “Little Lost Robot” by Paul McAuley) have also made the Top Ten. (though I preferred “Rat Island” to “Greenland” in the Chris Beckett special issue). Many thanks to those who voted for me–either positively or negatively, come to think of it. I’d rather you hated my guts than not remember me. It’s a story that has a lot of extra meaning for me in many ways (more on that later). PS: there will be a VD4 report, as soon…

…tter how well you ape the local customs, you’ll never have the unconscious understanding of the Chinese culture that comes from having been born and raised within it? That was the heart of “Butterfly, Falling at Dawn”, with the two sisters, Coaxoch and Papalotl, both representing two differing attitudes of Mexica migrants: Coaxoch, who opened a Mexica restaurant and stayed mostly in the company of Mexica, chose to cling to her culture in the face…

…Not Wednesday but by then we’ll be on holiday in Brittany and with uncertain internet, so here’s my raisin bread recipe! Click here for the recipe….

Just a quick note that if you’ve wanted to buy The House of Shattered Wings but thought the hardback was too expensivve, or if you just want to see what all the fuss is about… today is the release date of the US trade paperback edition (and the ebook prices have been lowered to match, too). In a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magicians’ war, political and magical intrigues, Fallen angels, Vietnamese immortals, and rather too many dead…

…or Worldcon. Which leaves the plane tickets, and other hotels for the non-con part of the trip. After registering, I took a peek at the seemingly interminable list of current members–and suddenly remembered how bewilderingly huge Interaction had been in 2005. (no, I will not panic, but I did waffle about volunteering to be on the programme…)…

So I kind of needed to give someone something and I thought I’d try my hand at these–and Gillian Polack is entirely right, they are dead easy to make and so so good! You can replace oranges with any citrus fruit (I kind of want to try lemon now). Recipe here. I’m not posting a picture of the orangettes (the chocolate-candied peels) because mine ended up looking a bit weird due to coating issues with the chocolate (they still taste great though, b…

…years later… But it’s still fun, in a very Japanese way (brother-sister uncomfortably close relationship? check. Creepy magic that takes more out of you than it gives you? check). I do love the fact that religion is so omnipresent, though, and that D’Eon’s faith is so important (major pet peeve of mine: having religion thought of as weird, nonsensical, or as a science, in an era where Cartesian thought was either not developed or in its infancy,…

…here that’ll be it. Experience has shown that I spend my cons running from one place to another, and con + baby is a killer combo in that regard…)…

The Thousand Hand Guanyin (Qian Shou Guan Yin): it would be impressive for any kind of dancers, but consider that all 21 performers of this are all deaf-mute deaf… Just imagining the sheer amount of rehearshals involved boggles the mind. (on other videos, you can see that they have white-dressed coordinators standing to the side, and they can of course refer to each other for the moves, but still… that remains one of the most impressive feats of…

…use is currently in the throes of plague (aka norovirus plus laryngitis, a combo I heartily don’t endorse). For more info about the book, go here. And if you’d like to pre-order: Where to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House US indie stores Amazon US Barnes and Noble The Book Depository Trade Ppb (UK) UK indie stores Waterstone’s Amazon UK Blackwell’s WH Smith The Book Depository Ebook/audio Amazon US (Kindle) Amazon UK (Kindle) Mass Market Ppb…