Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 85

Recent Reading: The Four Kings

Okay, as you may recall, I loved Andrea K Höst’s contemporary sorta-romance The Book of Firsts, published under the name, let me see, Karan K Anders. It’s a delightful low-tension story in which problems are mostly minor and solutions are generally quick and satisfying. I’ve read it several times.

The Four Kings is the sequel.

I see that one of the first couple of reviews says it’s a lot like the Gratuitous Epilogue of the Touchstone Trilogy, which is true. There’s a huge (HUGE) amount of homebuilding and architecture and a lot of settling into a family. All that stuff is indeed a lot like the Gratuitous Epilogue. This is not a complaint. I liked the Gratuitous Epilogue, and I liked this book too.

I read this book very fast, helped along by feeling a bit cruddy this past Saturday. I wrote a couple thousand words so I wouldn’t feel like I’d wasted the whole day, but then closed my laptop, settled down with chicken soup, and read this book, which is, by the way, exactly perfect for a day like that. I mean, it’s relaxed and comfortable. Nothing bad happens. Or not very bad anyway, and the somewhat bad things are generally, as in the first book, rapidly resolved.

Let me see. All right, first, I greatly appreciated the brief note that Helios is set in a Greenland that’s about 100 km south of its current location. That really puzzled me in the first book! I just could not figure out where this city was supposed to be! Höst had to clarify that for this one, since we get outside the city and look at the scenery. I’m glad to have this question settled.

More importantly, I really liked how the fundamental relationship(s) were handled between the three male leads and Mika. This worked for me, although I was somewhat expecting the story to perhaps go in a different direction than it did.

I liked seeing more of Mika’s parents. I liked how they adjusted to finding out about their daughter’s unusual romantic relationships. This was all handled believably. I laughed at the final reveal about Mika’s father. In retrospect, I definitely should have seen it coming, but I didn’t, and it was hilarious. I also liked finding out what really happened with Mika’s mother’s family. That’s sad, but it makes a lot of sense of an element of the backstory that, while minor, was a little unbelievable.

As a side note, while discussing things that worked for me, it is absolutely, preposterously stupid for most first-time pet owners to get a border collie puppy – especially if they are predictably not going to have time for a puppy – and much worse to get two puppies, which creates a serious risk of both puppies developing the personality distortion and behavior problems collectively referred to as “sibling syndrome.” People like me don’t have problems with sibling syndrome when we keep two puppies, apparently because we have a complete pack structure for puppies to fit themselves into so they don’t develop that kind of overdependence on each other. But ordinarily, it’s not wise to get littermate puppies because this is a significant risk.

Astoundingly, Höst actually made every part of this plot element work by making Mika’s mother into the sort of person who is going to do just fine with a pair of border collie puppies. I just can’t believe she pulled that off. Nobody can pull that off. But she did. Puppy training videos! Agility! Flyball! Sheep! And two people to handle two puppies properly. They’re off to a great start. I can hardly imagine that Höst did everything right without having border collies herself, or possibly knowing people who do, and who handle them well. Otherwise I can’t see how she could line up every potential problem in a row and tick them off like that. And so fast too, so I didn’t have to fret about those puppies for page after page. I greatly appreciated that, and Höst now joins Ilona Andrews as one of the very few writers who understands dogs and puts believable dogs into her stories. Obviously I really appreciated that!

But moving on. Let me see. All right:

I did not dislike the huge (HUGE) amount of homemaking and architecture, but I would have liked a lot (A LOT) more about certain relationships, particularly Lania, but also various other relationships. I would have been pleased to keep all the architecture but double the length of the book by adding a lot (A LOT) more about those various relationships.

I was particularly disappointed … this is a minor spoiler, but very minor … I was disappointed that Lania turned out not to have figured out that Mika was in a relationship with all three young men. I was absolutely certain she had. There is a specific moment in The Book of Firsts where Mika gives herself away while Lania is present and watching her, and I’m absolutely stunned that Lania didn’t catch on at that moment. I would so much have enjoyed for that to have happened, and for Lania to have hidden her awareness.

Mika, “So, it’s actually like this …”

Lania, “I was wondering if you’d ever tell me! I’m so happy that you trusted me enough to tell me!”

Mika, boggled.

So that was a very fun scene that did not take place. We saw only a little of Lania. I would have liked to see a lot more of her and a lot (A LOT) more of the young man Lania gets involved with. I would also have liked to see more of Professor Tremaine. I realize that Mika became less focused on that course of study and the specific path toward a career that she had in mind. Good for the Three Kings figuring out how to make sure Mika would be fine no matter what gossip started being passed around. But that was a big thing in the first book and I’d have liked to see more of that element in this book. I’d have liked to see more of Professor Tremaine’s kid, the boy with the Afghan hound. Why is he even there? He is so utterly unimportant that I just don’t understand what he’s doing in the story at all.

Also, for the first and probably only time in my life, I’d like to have seen more, or heard more, about the toxic family relationships. Blowing up the control those various sets of parents thought they had over their sons was a splendid thing. I was so looking forward to all that, and I’d have liked to see more of it. I was all ready to pop some corn, settle back, and enjoy those particular fireworks. I would most particularly have liked to see more of the young men breaking free via interaction with Rin’s four sisters. I had also hoped to hear about those girls blowing up the Rose Court at the high school. I’m very sorry we didn’t hear anything about that. I liked Bran’s brother Rowen, though again I’d have liked to see more of him.

You see what I mean about wanting the story to be twice as long.

However, I liked the story as it is, I liked the resolution, I liked the actual epilogue, and I enjoy how settled and comfortable everyone is. Also, treating the duology as a single story, I hereby concede that it is indeed a romance, not a sorta-romance.

If Höst ever gets bored or stuck writing other stuff and comes back to this world, I would still very much like to see Rin’s four sisters blow up the Rose Court. Or I’d like a story featuring Lania and the young man she winds up with. Or a story featuring Bran’s brother. I’m not very interested in Kyou’s brother Gabriel at the moment, but I could change my mind. In other words, though I’m very (VERY) interested in the various other sequels she’s working on, anything that Höst felt like writing in this world would definitely be fine with me.

Not only that, but the backstory of Echoes of Sarmakel sounds really neat. If AKH ever happens to have nothing else she’s working on, I would absolutely be interested in reading that story.

If you’ve read this one, I’m curious about your reactions. What did you think?

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Playfulness in Writing

So, this is a tidbit from a book called The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc, first published in 1902, which I’m guessing probably predates the advice to Kill All Adverbs because, I mean, this book probably predates almost all of the common writing advice we see everywhere these days.

The book concerns the author’s journey, on foot, from Lorraine at the border between Germany and France, to Rome. It is therefore sort of a travel book. It’s also sort of book of essays and reflections by a great prose stylist, which leads to this passage, tossed casually into the book roughly in the middle, where Belloc writes –

You understand that under (or in) these circumstances –

When I was at Oxford there was a great and terrible debate that shook the Empire, and that intensely exercised the men whom we had sent to govern the Empire, and which, therefore, must have had its effect upon the Empire, as to whether one should say “under these circumstances” or “in these circumstances”; nor did I settle matters by calling a conclave and suggesting Quae quum ita sint as a common formula, because a new debate arose on when you should say sint and when you should say sunt, and they all wrangled like kittens in a basket.

Until there rose a deep-voiced man from an outlying college, who said, “For my part, I will say that under these circumstances, or in these circumstances, or in spite of these circumstances, or hovering playfully above these circumstances, or –

burrowing under these circumstances

plodding up to these circumstances

recognizing these circumstances

refusing these circumstances

attacking these circumstances

warily approaching these circumstances

wholly pooh-poohing these circumstances

somewhat confusing these circumstances

honestly accepting these circumstances

very stoutly criticizing these circumstances

vigorously regarding these circumstances

ironically receiving these circumstances

[and a lot more snipped out here, ending with “occasionally eliminating these circumstances”]

I take you all for Fools and Pedants, in the Chief, in the Chevron, and in the quarter Fess. Fools absolute and Pedants lordless. Free Fools, unlanded Fools, and Fools incommensurable, and Pedants displayed and rampant of the Tierce Major. Fools incalculable and Pedants irreparable; indeed the arch Fool-pedants in a universe of pedantic folly and foolish pedantry, O you pedant-fools of the world!”

But by this time he was alone and thus was this great question never properly decided.

Under these circumstances, then (or in these circumstances), it would profit you but little if I were to attempt the description of the Valley of the Emmen, of the first foothills of the Alps, and of the very uninteresting valley which runs on from Langnau.

And that sort of thing is why this is not exactly a straightforward description of travel OR a straightforward book of reflective essays or a straightforward example of anything else. It is instead an example of an author enjoying playing with words. I’m sure Belloc was having fun when he wrote the above, and the reader can certainly have fun reading it.

Also, the book is now well over a hundred years old, so that’s something right there.

I was particularly taken by the phrase hovering playfully above these circumstances, which honestly, I now feel I must someday manage to work into casual conversation or my life will be incomplete.

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Favorites of 2022

Okay, so, in the past I have sometimes done Top Ten lists at the end of a year. Best male lead … best cool plot twist … best overall … whatever.

I can’t really do that for 2022! I hardly read anything! I swear, every year has set a new low in number of new-to-me books read, and 2022 was almost certainly the lowest ever.

However, I will pull out a few.

1) Mask of Mirrors by MA Carrick. This is a penname for Marie Brennan (author of the Memoirs of Lady Trent) and Alyc Helms (author of the Adventures of Mr. Mystic). I read The Mask of Mirrors about this time last year, eg, in January sometime. It’s very good! With astoundingly great worldbuilding! But with some highly tense elements! Here are my comments about the first book.

I started the second book, but could not bring myself to go on with it because it was so high tension and some of the characters were in … not horrible places. But there were some kinds of inter-character tension that were difficult for me to tolerate at the time.

Nevertheless, a fine series and one I should definitely go on with eventually. I’m hoping that by the end, certain characters — fine, all the important characters — become allies and have forgiven each other for various unfortunate decisions they may have made and don’t hate each other. I may actually wait for the third book to be released and read reviews of that before going on with the second book myself. Unless, I mean, if my tolerance for high-tension stories improves a lot in 2023, maybe I won’t wait.

2) Crown of Shadows by KM Shea. This is the first book of an UF series. I liked many things about it, and also it was not very demanding. Here are my comments about this series.

3) Emissary by Melissa McShane. I liked this book quite a bit and fully intend to go on with other books by this author. Here are my comments about this book.

4) The Tally-Master by JM Ney-Grimm. I have somehow managed to let the second book slide down my Kindle again. Not sure why, since I am enjoying the book! I had something interrupt me. Moving it back to the top again now. Meanwhile, my comments about the first book.

5) Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. The worldbuilding, so shallow. The plot, so predictable. And yet, I really enjoyed this story. My comments here.

6) Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Many tidbits stretched credulity, but I enjoyed this story very much.

7) The runner-up for the year: The Phoenix Feather series by Sherwood Smith. I loved this series, honestly. It was much lower-stress than the first book on this list, and long enough to really sink my teeth into, and I enjoyed so many things about it, particularly how casually the villains were handled and how the phoenix feather itself was handled at the end. More extensive comments here.

8) And the ultimate standout for 2022: The Scholomance trilogy. It’s going to be a long time, probably, before I read anything I love as much as this.

And I’m stopping there. I don’t think I can mention more than eight. I may not have read all that many more books than these! I mean, sure, a handful of others. But if I counted carefully and discovered I read just twenty or thirty novels in all of 2022, I wouldn’t be surprised.

I’ll never know, however, as I didn’t actually keep track.

However, one more, in a separate list of its own:

Nonfiction:

Someday I should do a list of my all-time favorite nonfiction books. An Immense World by Ed Yong will be at the top of the list. No other nonfiction book I’ve ever read in my life is cooler than this one. Here is my post about this book, where I pulled nearly random excerpts because you can throw a dart anywhere at this book and whatever paragraph you hit will be super neat.

Okay! Obviously there is PLENTY of room for YOU to suggest titles. What novels did YOU love most in 2022? I’m really curious! Please drop your favorites in the comments.

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Update: or It may be a little longer

To absolutely no one’s surprise, probably, Tano is going a little longer longer in draft than I expected or wanted. It’s a hair over 80,000 words as of this morning. I have about two? or three? maybe four? scenes to write. I think about a chapter and a half. So, nearly there! Almost certainly not going to break 90,000, though I wouldn’t actually bet money on that.

Ah, for those innocent days of yore when I worried it might be too short for a novella.

Well, I wasn’t *very* worried.

The revision I was handling in the middle section took a little longer than I would have liked, but that’s all been smoothed out now.

I expect I’ll finish this draft shortly. It’s a bit talky, but I think enough things happen. Not really sure. I will be extremely interested in first-reader opinions. I mean, I always am, but for this one, more so.

Meanwhile!

I finally finished At the Feet of the Sun. Also The Four Kings. I’ll be posting comments about those later this week, but I liked them both, though not as much as their respective first books.

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The Year Behind and the Year Ahead

From James Scott Bell at Kill Zone Blog: The Year Behind and the Year Ahead

I’m going to pull out the part of this post that looks ahead rather than behind. Bell is taking a look at how to focus on making a viable go of it within and without the “Forbidden City.” I don’t recall ever before seeing that term used for traditional publishers, but I do kind of like it!

1. Within The Forbidden City 

In traditional publishing, it used to be said you needed four to five books getting an increasing foothold among readers to move toward significant writing income. See The Career Novelist by agent Donald Maass.

In these latter days, however, an author has one or maybe two chances. As the DOJ case revealed, the big pubs want home runs, and want them out of the gate. They generally won’t put any significant marketing money into most books unless and until those books show some momentum on their own.

So write a home run and you’re golden.

2. Indie

Want to know what it takes to bring in some good lettuce as an indie writer? I found the information in this survey instructive (h/t Joanna Penn for the link). It confirms my own experience. It’s worth your time to have a look.

Pausing for an editorial comment. This survey is the Written Word Media end-of-year author survey. Written Word Media is the company that runs the Freebooksy and Bargain Booksy promotion services, which are probably the best paid promo services that exist at the moment. They are MUCH more user friendly than Book Bub and generally produce good results for me (not always, I will add, but usually).

If you click through, you’ll see that authors who are anywhere in the ballpark of making a living from self-publishing have, as a rule, quite a few books out, and do quite a bit of marketing. I am smack dab in the middle of the “stages” listed in this survey. I note that this survey indicates that a significant proportion of authors in their stage 5 pay someone to help with marketing. I would be MORE than willing to pay someone to help with marketing, so I guess in 2023, I should look around for that. Also, I obviously need to focus on building my newsletter and doing newsletter swaps. Which I don’t really want to deal with, but if not in 2023, still, pretty soon.

Back to Bell’s post:

Still and all, one truth remains: the best marketing, in either world, is word of mouth, which comes from the books themselves. Meaning—

Stick to The Fundamentals

From time immemorial, writers of fiction have known that the fundamentals for success are basic: be good and be productive.

To be good means always growing in your craft. Assess your work vis-à-vis the seven critical success factors of fiction—plot, structure, characters, scenes, dialogue, voice, and meaning. Figure out what needs improving (and remove any chips on your shoulder) and then set about to study those areas and practice what you learn.

As for production, you don’t have to write a novel every month. Just be consistent. A page a day is a book a year. Determine how many words you can comfortably write in a week. Up that by 10% and make it your weekly goal. If you miss a day, make it up on other days. If you miss a week, fuggetaboutit. Start fresh on Monday.

Develop ideas even as you’re working on your WIP. Be like a movie studio, with one “green lit” project, a few “in development” and a few that are one-line pitches.

Most of all, nurture the joy factor and love what you do.

That all sounds like good advice for 2023 and beyond!

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Everybody dies (tM)

If you had a penny that doubled every day, how long would it be until a black hole formed from the mass of copper? What if it’s a modern penny, zinc clad in copper?

What would happen if the Earth suddenly slowed by 1,000 mph? Would we feel it?

If a neutron star has a single proton on it for some reason, could it be considered an isotope of hydrogen?

These are Dave Consiglio’s answers on Quora. He’s definitely worth following. He particularly focuses, as you can see, on scenarios where Everybody Dies, though, as you can also see, that’s not his exclusive focus.

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At Last: Menewood

Okay, a week or so ago, Elaine T alerted me to the upcoming (for generous definitions of “upcoming”) release of Menewood by Nicola Griffith.

I thought I’d pull that out and focus on this a little.

Q) Why are we sure it’s really coming out after all this time? I mean, HILD came out in … let me see … wow, 2013. That is A TEN YEAR GAP. Are we actually sure?

A) We are pretty sure.

That’s because MENEWOOD is out on Amazon with a preorder button you can hit. Neither Amazon nor a publisher would be at all keen on putting a book up for preorder if it weren’t REALLY and TRULY going to come out on that date. The date is not exactly soon, but it’s in 2023 rather than anything later than that. In fact, it’s October 2023. Early October, if that helps.

The price is high for an ebook. But this is, I expect, going to be a really long ebook. HILD is over 700 pages, and it looks like MENEWOOD is going to be a bit longer than that. Oh, yes, I see that according to Griffith, MENEWOOD is a third longer than HILD.

Also, HILD was really … what is a good term … dense. I’m sure the sequel will be no less so.

Q) What do you mean exactly by “dense”?

A) I mean, HILD exerts a kind of gravity that distorts literary space in its vicinity.

HILD may be the best historical novel I’ve ever read, period. Griffith is an astoundingly good stylist, so that’s part of why. She is also deep into the history. On a normal curve of historical novels, where on the left you have cutesy historicals like The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, which I found just unreadably silly, and to the right you have the best-researched, best written historicals that do the best job of evoking the period in question, then way over on the long tail of the right, that’s where you’ll find HILD.

Q) What period is that exactly? I mean, Hild who?

A) Here is the description from Amazon.

In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. Hild is the king’s youngest niece, and she has a glimmering mind and a natural, noble authority. She will become a fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby.

But now she has only the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world–of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next–that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her.

Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. Hild establishes a place for herself at his side as the king’s seer. And she is indispensable–unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones, and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.

Q) Okay … so … this is St. Hild of Whitby, then.

A) Yes, but we barely see the potential for Hild’s life going in that direction in the first book.

In the first book, Hild begins as a child. At the end, she is still a quite young woman, though a lot has happened. I mean, a lot.

Q) What happens in the second book?

A) Griffith has posted a tentative description on her blog, thus:

Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable Lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.

But Edwin recalls his most trusted advisor. Old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at his heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing who to trust he becomes volatile and unpredictable. Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead, and now she must navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.

She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must find a new strength, the implacable determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, her community slowly takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, and she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future…

Q) What else does Griffith say about MENEWOOD?

A) You can check out her blog post here, but here is a snippet:

Menewood is epic. It begins four months after the end of Hild, and covers only four years of Hild’s life, but those years are intense: war and defeat, alliance and betrayal, birth and death, joy and forgiveness, violence and rage, love and lust, war and victory, grief and loss, learning and building, bravery and cowardice, growth and change, war and devastation, power and responsibility, and the making, breaking, and shaping of kings.

Menewood is also full of quieter moments: peace, pleasure, contentment, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, sorrow, laughter, warmth, friendship, and farewells. It is a book about life: how it feels, what it means, how it changes.

Q) Wait, it only covers four years of Hild’s life?

A) Apparently so! I did think it was pretty obvious this was going to be a trilogy.

We can only hope that the THIRD book does not take ten years. I see from her blog that Nicola has been having a hard time lately. I hope everything smooths out in her life in the near future, mostly for her sake but also for the rest of us, because the world will literally be a poorer place if this series is not finished.

Meanwhile, MENEWOOD going to be well worth reading right now, without waiting for any subsequent volumes.

HILD was my favorite book of the year the year I read it, which wasn’t quite the year it came out, but was long enough ago that I’m definitely going to re-read it before reading MENEWOOD.

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The baby names authors choose for their actual babies

This is a post at Book Riot:

I’m actually curious! I do not have children, but I always thought that if I DID, I would name a girl Elizabeth. That’s because a girl can do practically anything with that name.

Regal – Elizabeth

Gentle – Beth

Hoydenish – Lizzie

Crisp – Liz or Bet

And on and on. Bee, Bess, Ela, Eliza, Liza, Zibby, there’s practically no end to the possibilities, and that’s why I like this name.

I never picked one out for a boy. I’m not sure there is such an ultimately flexible boy’s name. Is there? Anybody got a candidate?

I used to prefer unusual names for my dogs. Lotka and Volterra were my Papillons. Feel free to laugh if you recognize those names. I was in grad school at the time. I had an instructor who taught Population and Community Ecology and named his dog Poco. I mean, it’s pretty typical to name your pets things like that in that environment.

My spaniels have been Kerah, Pippa, Adora = Dora, Effie (this was way before The Hunger Games), Bree, a lot of others, of course, but I seem to have accidentally shifted to more normal names, such as Kimmie (Kimberlyn Rose) and Conner (Konstantine). My youngest are Naamah and Morgan (Le Fey). “Naamah” is possibly a little less like a typical person name. Goggling it now, the first hit is Naamah — mother of demons. That sort of funny and nt at all appropriate. Alas. I do wish Naamah were going to be the mother of puppies, but pyometra = not the mother of anything, unfortunately.

It actually means “beautiful” and “agreeable” and “pleasant” in Hebrew. That’s where that name came from. At least all that still fits her.

Anyway, sure, what DO authors name their own children?

Most authors create more books than offspring (Tolstoy is the only exception I know of, with 13 children). And each book has dozens of characters to name. So I’m assuming many writers save their favorite names for their children. Or in some cases their children share names with some of their most iconic characters. I suppose their spouses probably had some say in the matter too!

This curiosity led me down a deep research rabbit hole. One that many probably find boring, but I got more and more interested in with each Wikipedia article I clicked on. Without further babbling from me, here are the names over 60 authors chose for their own children. …

William Shakespeare’s three children were named Hamnet, Judith, and Susan.

I knew that because of an Ngaio Marsh mystery featuring a play about Hamnet. I mean, that’s the one I knew about. I didn’t even know Shakespeare had daughters; they didn’t come up in the book, as far as I can remember.

“Ngaio” is certainly an unusual name. I always wondered about it. Seems like a good time to look it up. Okay, : The name Ngaio is girl’s name of Maori origin meaning “reflections on the water”. New Zealand writer Ngaio (born Edith Ngaio) Marsh is the best-known bearer of this Maori nature name, properly pronounced ng (like the end of sing) -EYE-oh.

Well, I’m glad to know that.

Meanwhile: Just scanning down the very extensive list of authors … looks like essentially all of them resisted the urge to be overly creative. Well, most, anyway. There are a few about whom one might wonder. Perhaps A A Milne’s son didn’t mind being named Christopher Robin, though it seems a potentially hazardous choice.

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updat : Tano, plus Advntur with th lttr e

Okay, so, I do feel (a lot) more secure with having ordered a cover for TANO, as I now have 60,000 words and I’m closing in on a draft. This was a fairly intense week for me, five or six thousand words per day except once when I got mildly stuck and Christmas Day itself, when I barely touched my computer.

Writing this story so fast means a lot of revision is coming up. I think I will be working on that today and tomorrow, then finishing the draft over the next several days. I kind of changed my mind several times about certain things, plus figured out several things, plus there are elements of the penultimate chapter(s) that aren’t entirely clear just yet.

But I do think I may well call this draft finished about Jan 1, and I do suspect that it’ll come in at about 70,000 words, probably a bit more, but just about what I wanted. Revision first, then the last chapters, which I am going to enjoy!

Meanwhile!

The universe’s Christmas gift to me was a Really Outstanding Reason to finally ditch this laptop, which I have hated for years: the letter “e” came off the keyboard. Yay! Sort of. I mean, this is a nuisance, but (a) I actually can type pretty well despite the key being missing — there’s a little button that still functions — and (b) I really have despised this laptop for a long time, so even though I’m irritated, I’m also semi-pleased.

I hope you all had a great Christmas filled with (hopefully unambiguous) gifts from the universe and good times with family and friends!

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Merry Christmas!

May you have a festive and happy holiday, whether you have a white Christmas or otherwise.

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