Guest Blog by Ithilien*

Learning Mandarin 

I've been writing this guest blog for months,** but it suddenly began to come together this month. (Finally!) The story starts with one of those virtuous New Year's resolutions.

We were sitting in a cabin on an isolated island off the coast. And we'd brought The Blue Sword with us, since it's one of my reliable travel books. (That is, I can read it over and over again and I've read it so many times that I can dip in and out of it and instantly know what's happening, rather...