A.E. Shaw's Blog, page 6

A Catalogue of My Excuses

I am very much the kind of human that makes excuses, qualifications and clarifications before everything. I serve a meal and warn that it might not be okay because the peppers are a fortnight old or because I got all wrapped up in Wittertainment and forgot to stir for a while or because it’s Tuesday and salt has new kinds of chemical reaction to courgette on Tuesdays, or whatever, not because I want to be blameless, but rather the opposite – I want you to know that if my food happens to suck,...

So I’ve Decided to Self-Publish…

I have been rattling on about having a whole book and all, but it doesn’t do anyone any good having a book all to themselves and just saying that if you can’t let people read it. And even if it was the kind of book that someone who sells books for a living could actually sell (by, I don’t know, saying, HEY THIS IS REALLY GREAT IT’S ABOUT SPARKLY WIZARDS WITH INFLATABLE TROUSERS WHO FIGHT THE DINOSAURS OF ZARG WITH WIT ALONE), it still wouldn’t be coming out until like, next year.

And it isn’t...

Camp NaNoWriMo!

I was so annoyed with my fail NaNo in November, I’ve signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo to have another crack at getting a decent first draft out Who else is in?

The Great British (and not-British) Public

I have spent today hanging out volunteering at an historical building today, because sometimes that’s a thing I do. I really, really love doing it. People complain, sometimes, that these historical, English/Welsh Heritage, National Trust things don’t ‘include’ and ‘involve’ and ‘represent’ people in our country. I saw a thousand people today, literally, indeed, 1,100 people today, walking around a beautiful building that belongs to the nation, is being kept fascinating and accessible to all,...

Five Things People Don’t Tell You About…Being Busy.

Maybe you’re usually a busy person. Maybe you work a proper job and commute a fair way to and from it. Maybe you have small children, or care for someone, or run your own business and don’t recognise the ‘off’ switch, or one of any other possible human combinations.

Until last week, I didn’t really have anything to do in my day. That is to say, no-one told me to do anything, and I didn’t have anything demanding I do simple things like get dressed, or open my front door. Obviously this state of...

The Greatest Kind of Gift

I *adore* sci-fi novels. Anything from the Victorian age to about 1965, and then in its own way, 1965-1985, and then you end up in the ’90s and it gets a bit cyberscifi and that’s great too, I love it all. BUT. There’s a kind of paperback that’s particularly close to my heart. And, for Christmas, I got a massive stack of them. See how beautiful?

Geek Girls Unite to Write: 7 Questions for Stewie & Emily of the IGGPPC

I spend time aplenty hanging out on Twitter for various reasons, and, whilst I’m there, I like to keep Amanda Palmer’s @ feed running in a column alongside things, simply because there’s usually a ton of good stuff going on in there. As I was checking something this evening, an @ to Amanda from @frogmellaink and @darlingstewie about the International Geek Girls PenPal Club caught my eye, and nothing makes me click a link faster than geekdom coupled with letter-writing. I had to examine.

Obvio...

A Things I Love Post: Three Films Edition

I love a lot of films, who doesn’t? (Apart from my mother, whose film loves are limited to Mamma Mia!, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mrs. Brown, but she’s odd.) I do have favourites, permanent ones, but I’ve talked about them a lot and it’s nice to have some other conversations sometimes, so here’s a couple that I love today.

Somewhere

I didn’t get around to seeing this until last night, but I wanted to the moment it came out. The reason it took me so long to stick it on is that I’m always a bit...

Happy Toast!