Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 34

Worldcon Report 15: Lakes and Hills

by Brenda W. Clough

Today was a day devoted to landscape. The Lake District is big on it — glorious mountains, rocky cliffs, stony screes, waterfall-fed lakes. We took a bus tour around the countryside. The great advantage of this is that one does not have to drive along one-lane roads teeming with bicyclists, hikers, and speedy local cars heading the other way.

Then, in a spirit of topping up the cup, we took a boat tour around Derwent Water, the lake here at Keswick. It turns out that a water...

A Train Journey: The Chilean Vintage Sleeper Train

I was lucky enough to ride the 1930s-era German-built sleeper train from Santiago south to Puerto Montt in the early 1990s, before the train was taken offline. My former husband and I were celebrating a sort of luna de miel (honeymoon) on a 6-month trek through various South American countries. Our end goal was to scout out land for our vision of starting a farm very “far from the madding crowd.” And that is a story for another day (and a novel in progress).

Chile is the string-bean country, a...

Worldcon Report 14: Lake District

by Brenda W. Clough

This was to a great extent a travel day. We drove from Cheltenham to Keswick in the Lake District, in Cumbria. We arrived early enough to walk through the town and squander yet more money on on-sale mountaineering jackets, and sink a pint of the most excellent local beer.

What was really interesting, though, was the time it took us to drive this distance — four hours. This is less time than it takes to drive from Washington DC to New York. It is negligible, miniscule, to an...

The Tajji Diaries: Alarm Clock

Dogs, like many other animals, are Creatures of Schedule. They seem to feel most secure when recurring events are predictable – the sun comes up, monkeys get up, we go walkies, then breakfast, then nap, then playtime…and so forth. They love rituals, like the one Dave has created for putting on the harness. It’s a version of Keepaway, with great romps through the living room, corridors, and open dining area. Her body language says it’s great fun, and she stands willingly when it’s all over. In...

A Karate Scrapbook: Pursuing Beauty

Ever since karate gained a foothold in the United States, the dojos that specialize in the tournament scene have attracted greater numbers of students than those that concentrate upon the long, slow study of the traditional artform. This is even more true now in the era of so-called “mixed” martial arts. The prevailing sentiment seems to be: Why bother with all the fancy forms? Why make punches and kicks pretty? Combat isn’t supposed to be pretty. What works is what matters.

This is just the l...

Worldcon Report 13: Chedworth Roman Villa

by Brenda W. Clough

The one thing I really did want to accomplish on this trip was to visit a Roman villa. There are two major sites in the UK, one near Bath and the other in Gloucestershire. Since I have to drive north to the Lake District, it seemed only sensible to make a stop at Chedworth, between Cirincester and Cheltenham in the middle of England. It was an easy two hour drive from London — nothing, to an American.

And oh, it is so cool! The most eye-popping mosaics outside of Pompeii are...

Let’s Talk About Feminist Science Fiction

I’m one of the people reading for The Year’s Illustrious Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy, an anthology of stories published in 2014 which will be edited by Nisi Shawl and published by Aqueduct Press.

According to the announcement, this anthology is the first of a series aimed at presenting remarkable feminist SF/F. The announcement goes on to say:

We intend to assemble anthologies representing the qualities that make feminist SF so amazing, thought-provoking, challenging, and deeply satisf...

Worldcon Report 12: The Globe

by Brenda W. Clough

You know what God could do, if He had money? He could fund a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and stage plays in it. Luckily a batch of jillionaires did this, and on the south bank of the Thames is this astonishing working theater. When it rains the groundlings get wet; in winter there are no shows, and the productions are disturbed by pigeons, passing jet airplanes, the occasional police siren, and other outside noises. And it is SO WONDERFUL! It is like a time machi...

BVC Eats: Thai-style seafood chowder

fresh gingerroot: one of the classic Thai cooking ingredients

This hearty, creamy, light green stew is rich, very low carb, and quick to throw together. The following makes two small servings or one large serving. You may omit the peanut butter, but it’s just wrong to omit the coconut milk!

THAI-STYLE SEAFOOD CHOWDER

4 oz shrimp

4 oz scallops

3 T butter

2 cloves smashed garlic

3 T ginger rooot, grated

1 or 2 T mild yellow curry powder

3/4 cup water or less—this soup is more of a stew, not brothy!

Put a...

Worldcon Report 11: Ruins

by Brenda W. Clough

Research is a favorite activity of writers — in fact the danger is doing too much, to the detriment of writing. Here we are in the ancient City of London, admiring the old Roman city walls. The modern city completely surrounds these relics, as you can see — a triumph of urban renewal. You can probably sit in that Roman basement and get wifi.

And we went to surely one of the dream destinations for the historical fictioneer, Stanfords on Long Acre Street. It is the world’s lar...