Some Links for a Nearly-Solstice Monday

I just wanted to let you all know that my blog break is going excellently.  (How would you know unless I blogged it?)

My publisher in Taiwan (Gaea) is releasing Graceling again with a new jacket that a lot of you will find familiar. Click to enbiggen -------->

I've been reading some good blog posts lately and wanted to share a few:
Tamora Pierce posting about a female blogger "who writes about and wears clothes that don't make her look like Snooki, Beyoncé, or Miley Cyrus. Leandra Medine wears clothes that aren't meant to draw the male eye." Read more here.Tamora Pierce (again!) posting about self defense from pervos in crowded spaces. "You know something? You have every right to stand or walk along, thinking your thinks, listening your music, without some s**tpoke waving his willie at you. If he's gonna ruin your day, don't you think you should do your best to ruin his?"  Read more here.Tamora Pierce (again again! She is unstoppable!  In addition to being one of my favorite writers!) with a follow up about how, on the other hand, there is nothing wrong with you if you're unable to defend yourself from/respond to an attacker. "Nobody knows how she'll react in an emergency, and our reactions to different kinds of emergencies are different. And if you do nothing? Sometimes nothing is all you can do. Sometimes nothing is the right thing to do. You do what you have to. And we'll be here, happy to see you. We won't condemn. None of us knows how we'd react, until we're in that position. And no one has ANY right to point a finger at someone else." Read more here.On a lighter note, Tui Sutherland's last post, "Shopping Is Hard! Let's Do Math Instead!" cracked me up. Want to read a funny store about Barbie and G.I. Joe, get some writing tips, and see pictures of one of the world's cutest babies? Then go here.Also? Don't Ask Don't Tell, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Happy solstice, everyone.  :o)