Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 35

And Now A Word From The Cats…

I’ve been blogging on Fridays about Tajji, our newly-adopted retired seeing eye dog, all the training we’re doing with her, how she’s recovering from the stress of many years of service. The cats have played no small role in helping her to adjust, and she in turn has provided them with interest and amusement.

“What’s that? Oh, you’ve brought us a dog to play with. She’s awfully big. And furry.”

“Um, this dog is exceptionally rude. She moves too quickly and looks directly at us.”

“Um, this dog is...

BVC Announces Poisoned Pearls by Leah Cutter

Poisoned Pearls

by Leah Cutter

Sometimes you need more than eyes to see.

Working at a sex & toy shop like Chinaman Joe’s Good Luck Parlor keeps Cassie in smokes and off the streets. It isn’t glamorous. But it’s a life.

Then again, Cassie is just normal, not one of the blessed. No paranormal abilities, no telepathy, no pre-cognition. Normal.

But when someone kills Cassie’s best friend in the alley behind the store, the police start looking at her. Hard. Particularly when the Post-Cog on the case sw...

Sea Changes

As I write this, the World Science Fiction convention in London is winding down. I “attended” the Hugo Awards ceremony from Arizona in the USA via video stream and running twitter and text updates. Life in the future.

That was fun, and I was most pleased with the results, but it struck me as I was participating in this tribal rite with people across the world, that I was participating. And enjoying it.

That’s a big deal. I’ve been coming out of a slump on the scale of the Grand Canyon, in all p...

About Anger part ii

About Anger

Part ii: Private Anger

by Ursula K. Le Guin

I’ve been talking about what might be called public anger, political anger. But I went on thinking about the subject as a personal experience: Getting mad. Being angry. And I find the subject very troubling because, though I want to see myself as a woman of strong feeling but peaceable instincts, I have to realise how often anger fuels my acts and thoughts, how very often I indulge in anger.

I know that anger can’t be suppressed indefinitel...

Worldcon Report 10: Chocolate Tasting!

by Brenda W. Clough

Although I was too inefficient to sign up for the chocolate tasting, I did get into it anyway! But while I am waiting for the chocolate to arrive, let me update!

Here is Derwin Mak, in his role as Dear Leader. I am his adoring and doe-eyed wife. We spent the entire period before and after the masquerade yesterday accepting the accolade of the masses. Dear Leader’ has a plan, which I will summarize for you in one phrase: Pyongyang 2033 — Worldcon Domination! There is going to...

Story Excerpt Sunday: From Writing Fight Scenes by Marie Brennan

Writing Fight Scenes

by Marie Brennan

So you’re working on a story, and there comes a point where it ought to have a fight scene. But you’re sitting there thinking, “I’m not a martial artist! I’m not a member of the SCA! I have no idea how to fight!” Or maybe you’re thinking, “Fight scenes are so boring. I’d rather just skip over this and get back to the actual story.” Or something else that makes you dread writing that scene, rather than looking forward to it with anticipation.

Don’t worry, dea...

Worldcon 9: Darwin’s Pigeons

by Brenda W. Clough

Now here’s something you would only see at a British Worldcon. At the junction of pigeon fancy, historical research and Darwin fanboy is the exhibit about Darwin’s pigeons. These are real birds, hauled in and displayed in their little travel cages for us. These people have acquired all the breeds that Darwin raised in his pigeon cote and studied, for his book. Luckily Darwin had a manager who kept records about the eggs, breeding, etc. while Darwin himself thought big thoug...

Truth in Fiction: Interesting Victorian Women

I am bound to come out like a murderess or an idiot in my photograph — hard featured, forbidding, and coarse. . . . Mr. Falk had given me a low chair, and I told him my legs were so long I preferred a higher one. “Oh, dear!” He said, “how refreshing it is to hear a lady brave enough to mention her legs! I can’t persuade my customers to call them anything but limbs, and I never know which of their limbs they are alluding to.”

I was surprised at this. I had heard of such things in years gone by,...

Worldcon Report 8: A First Edition

by Brenda W. Clough

I have no paper editions of my work in the UK, and so it is not surprising that I am pretty obscure in this country. However, a close canvassing of the huckster room reveals one dealer with dozens of the old DAW Books, the ones with the yellow spines. My first novel was one of the last ones in that format — shortly after 1984 Don Wollheim changed the look of the line and the yellow spines were gone. And lo and behold, here it is, a first edition of THE CRYSTAL CROWN. I imme...

Worldcon Report 7: It Begins

by Brenda W. Clough

The word is that this Worldcon will be possibly the biggest ever. We arrived today, checking into one of the con hotels and immediately having a Book View Cafe dinner with everyone available plus friends — you may see here among others Chris Dolley, Madeleine Robins and Jen Stevenson!

The con committee prudently organized perhaps 30 tracks of programming, and we’re all going to be busy as bees, if not on programs then attending each other’s panels and making trenchant commen...