Thank you so much for writing a story for me! This is a placeholder for my real letter, which I promise to put up as soon as I return from my weekend away on Monday, the 16th of November. This will stay at the top of my journal until the 24th of December for easy reference.

(For confused readers, this entry is for my anonymous fanfiction writer in the Yuletide Obscure Fandom Fiction Exchange Project.)

( My fandom requests below the cut )

This week's Spotlight is with another YA author. Lauren McLaughlin's books, Cycler and (Re)Cycler, are cracktasticly fast reads that really poke at gender stereotypes. If you haven't read them, I recommend them! Also, she was very fun to interview.

It was downright warm, bordering on hot today, which was weird, but not unpleasant. The light was gorgeous, too (Moss and I theorize that we get awesome afternoon light up here in exchange for early sunsets). Anyway, we went on a rambling walk, arriving home just as the sun had set. If you have some misguided notion that I wouldn't a) take pictures, and b) post them, then you clearly haven't been paying attention.


The bikepath all awash in golden afternoon light.

( follow the path to birds, leaves, water, and trees )

Tomorrow, maybe I will feel up to providing some non-picture content. Today, though, I think we should all just look at pretty things.

Went out and about tonight, and met some new people. Discovered several others who adore the Samuel Whittemore historical marker as much as I do, because, really now. How can one not?

Then ckd pointed out his favorite traffic sign in Cambridge. It may be my favorite now, too:



Also, Christina's has Mexican chocolate ice cream! This is very exciting, especially since Whole Foods stopped carrying the delicious Palapa Azul kind. Boston has so much wonderful ice cream. It's ridiculous (in the best possible way).

Outer Alliance Spotlight #8 is up. This week we're celebrating the LBTQ themed anniversary issue of Crossed Genres with the editors, Bart Leib and K.T. Holt. Check it out!

In sort of on topic news, it looks like Washington state passed Referendum 71, so same sex couples can have more rights (just, you know, not the right to call themselves legally married ... *sigh*). This is something, even if we lost ground in Maine. I really want to believe that Lauren McLaughlin (who is, incidentally next week's Spotlight subject) is right to be hopeful about the future of LGBTQI rights.

And finally, not exactly related, but while we're on the activism train: please go read Elizabeth Bear's post about the House Health Care for America Act, and if possible, contact your congressional representative to express your support. I know way too many uninsured people. This is not right. Everyone should be able to get health care whenever they need it. Why are we living in such technologically advanced times without that being a given?

The latest book in the altered book round robin exchange is titled Altered Verses, and is on the theme of poetry. It was started by my friend Stephen Rowe, who is an excellent poet (and even has a book of unaltered verses out). I very briefly considered composing something of my own to include in this book, but once I stopped to think a bit more, the correct course of action became very clear.


A teaser shot for the other altered book group members who don't want to be spoiled.

( O Mercury, patron of thieves... )

And, speaking of terrible writing, I really have most thoroughly waxed the cat at this point, and I must be off to get some work done now. I'll leave you with this image of Dinah Bell, performing her writing aid duties most admirably:



(To see other altered book spreads I've done, follow the love is not love which alters tag.)

Today is a day for sharing good things. Here are some of mine:

A lady bug landed on my sweater as I left the house today. I coaxed her onto my finger and then she flew up to sit on the rim of my glasses for a few seconds before flying off into a tree.

On the bikepath, I met a sleek, black cat. Her fur was velvet soft, and her eyes were the color of fallen oak leaves. She let me scratch her under the chin, and then left me in favor of chasing leaves.

I sat for an hour and watched the pond, leaves in the water, and ducks and geese. The sound of small splashes as water lapped stone.

Please tell me some of yours now, if you don't mind.

I went out walking to work out my NaNoWriMo plot ideas, and the light was golden and the air smelled like winter. It was absolutely gorgeous. I have 1,787 words, so I feel fine about showing you pictures now. All pictures are links to larger versions on Flickr, and there are other pictures there that didn't get posted here if you've a mind to see them. Happy winter!


The afternoon was so perfect that everyone I passed along the way seemed caught up in the wonder of it. The path by Spy Pond was particularly fetching.

( Click for glowing leaves, gravestones, and other pretty things )


And as I turned to head home, the clouds were pink, and the moon had risen, ghostly and soft in the evening sky.

We attended a time travel theme party, and I went with the clockwork automaton costume idea. Originally, I had conceived it as Mattie from squirrel_monkey's The Alchemy of Stone, but I didn't really have all the details right (no face mask, no springy fingers...), and alas my friends have not read the book (which is an excellent book! I recommend it!), so they wouldn't have gotten the reference anyway. Still, it was a fun costume, and clockwork automatons are something most people can relate to.

So here I am:


Click on any picture to see larger sizes on Flickr.

( more pictures and costume geekery under the cut )


And finally, here I am with CapLynn all ready to go meet some other time travelers. Cap won a prize for best free form costume with her Flying Purple People Eater concept, because really now, what a great costume! In the final version she even sprayed her hair purple, which is always a good idea, I think.

The costumes at the party were off the hook! My favorite I think was Geoffrey's Gothic Sack of Rome costume. He did black lipstick and eyeliner (Gothic!), covered himself with canvas sacking, covered that in rude Latin scrawlings, and carried a broken slab of marble. So awesome!

Other excellent costumes included The Prisoner, complete with menacing white balloon; Where's Waldo (incredibly true to life... er, picture book...); Amelia Earhart (with feather eyelashes! Apparently the time away from our world made her more volitant than before!); And a Regency lady and Civil War Union Officer couple. The last two were both handmade by the Regency lady, and were truly awesome. They won best costume prizes for time travel and craftmanship categories, while the Gothic Sack of Rome won best concept (because, dude, Gothic Sack of Rome!!!).

And now, winter begins.

Last night we met up with a friend and went out to my favorite sushi restaurant before coming home to do craft stuff (including putting the finishing touches on Caprina Lynn's One-eyed, One-horned, Flying Purple People Eater costume). Tonight we're going to a party where the theme is time travel. Neat! I still haven't decided what I am going to be, but I may do the Mattie from The Alchemy of Stone thing even though I a) don't have a mask, b)don't have springs for fingers, and c) am pretty sure no one else will get it (though steampunk automaton girl should be recognizable enough). Anyway, we'll see.

All of that is beside the point, because what I really came here to talk about is my favorite sushi restaurant. Kayuga II is on Mass Ave in Arlington Center, and we've been going there since they opened. They have sushi and Korean food, which is all very tasty, but what I love so much about this place is the staff. The owner is so nice! She always recognizes us and asks who our friends are, and a lot of the time she tries to foist freebies on us. When we get delivery orders there's always something like free miso soup in the bag, and when we go into the restaurant? Well, let's take last night for instance.

We took our friend in, and we told her that the people are really nice and we love this restaurant, and I don't know what she expected, but what happened definitely proved us true. At the end of the meal, when the owner had already brought us the check, she came up and said, "You want ice cream?" I declined because delicious sushi is also filling, but she pressed on. "It's from me! You sure you don't want any? I can make you my special sundae...." Moss started to waver then, and that was all it took. The owner was off like a shot, only to return a minute later brandishing a giant bowl of green tea ice cream with whipped cream, cocoa, and cookies on top. And 4 spoons. We all gasped at the mountain of dessert, but reader? It was really good, and we totally ate it all anyway!

I think I have only even been a recognized regular at one other place, and that was an internet cafe in France, where I went almost every day to get my e-mail and blog fix. The people who worked there were really nice, too. They gave me a little Easter basket one year because they knew I was foreign and had no family around. Awww.

So that made me happy. Hopefully it will make you happy, too. If not, maybe this picture of CapLynn in Purple People Eater mode will help:

This week's Outer Alliance Spotlight with YA author, K L Richardsson is up on the OA blog. This is the second week in a row that we've featured a YA author writing for the YA LGBTQ Prizm Books imprint. They're a small press, so you won't see these books in chain stores, but they're well worth checking out.

Today my mood is much improved (and CapLynn's, too), but I have a migraine. Oh, Brain, why do you have to be a bitca to the rest of the body? Currently trying to kill it will ibuprofen and lots of water. We shall see how that goes.

Did I ever show you the video I took of Deathwish moving my friend's piano? No? Well, I should! Piano! Crane! What's not to love (aside from my v. shaky camera work, I mean)? Here:



And, finally, as a placeholder: Mac's post about xkcd and rape and stuff. Mac makes me think. She did that at Viable Paradise, too, with a passing comment I am still mulling over. I need to sit down and unpack my responses to this post later when I have a little time.

Now off to Harvard Square to work on stuff while CapLynn has an interview, thence to lunch.

Today is full of rain and drear. CapLynn and I were fed up with being inside, though, so we said screw it, and went out for a walk anyway. I don't know how much better either of us feels now, but the world is still pretty.


View from the front porch

( Moar rainy day photos behind the cut )

We're descending into Boston now after a weekend in Georgia, and I'm really looking forward to getting home. Still, Georgia was not without its charms. Some, albeit more dubious than others... Moss and I couldn't stop thinking about Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea, for instance. We kept coming up with ideas for sequels.

Atlanta Nights Two: A Savannah 2 Far and Atlanta Nights 3: The Woads of Atlanta are the ones that inexplicably stuck with me. Would it be very wrong of me to write one of them for NaNoWriMo?

I think I have to put the laptop away now. I can see familiar land!

We attended a wedding yesterday, which was so fabulous it kept us up and partying until 3:30am. Now I am awake again, and feeling well and truly like The All-American Kid From New York City. To distract myself from this glut of *cough* patriotism, I have updated the lyrics guessing game.

Please try your luck with the newly expanded snippets that no one has managed to guess yet. My taste can't be that obscure, can it?

Okay, so I have tried reading, writing, and critiquing, but my brain, she is not cooperating. Still, I am on a plane with internet and headphones, so I declare it Lyrics Guessing Time!

Guess title and artist, no googling. (hmm, I guess I am going to have to actually listen to something other than Erasure now, huh?)

1. "Walking through the rooms in my head, I came across your image" "I Don't Care" by Shakespear's Sister. 2 points to kageneko
2. "The doctor told me the chemist, he had nothing for my plight" and "This ocean puts in motion all our wildest Crusoe thoughts"
3. "I never knew there might be days like this, dream on he says, dream on he says"
4. "Don't leave me here, time is running out, take me down the highway like a rocket to the ocean, we can run, today can last another million years"
5. "You like colors, I like purple, I'm talking slow like a turtle" and "Follow me outside, I need a cash point, you got a light?"
6. "I have stayed awake for the longest hours wondering whether to cry or scream" -- "Give Me Back My Dreams" by The 6ths, two points to ealasaid365
7. "Dark party bars, shiny Cadillac cars, and the people on subways and trains, looking grey in the rain as they stand disarrayed, oh but people look well in the dark"
8. "There are bones hiding under the viaduct" "Avalanche" by Thea Gilmore. 2 points each to lj user="akamarykate"> and faithhopetricks
9. "I don't care who thinks we're silly, you be daffy and I'll be dilly, we'll order up two bowls of chili"
10. "You're like a vine that keeps climbing higher, but all the money in the world is not enough" "6'1"" by Liz Phair. 2 points to llilornyn
11. "Spiced minced pork wrapped in a small pancake, steamed or fried, tastes so nice" "Gyoza" by Shonen Knife. 2 points to phairbear
12. "It eliminates all diversions, it eliminates all emotions (all you've got to do to stay alive is drive), there are things we need to talk about, there are things I cannot do without"
13. "I wish they could see us now in leather bras and rubber shorts, like some ridiculous new team uniform for some ridiculous new sport" "Little Plastic Castle" by Ani DiFranco. 2 points to sykii
14. "I'm sorry if he hit you with a full can of coke, it's no joke." "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" by Belle and Sebastian. 2 Points to avocadovpx
15. "I come from London Town I'm just an ordinary guy, Fridays I go painting in Louvre" "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" by Queen. 2 Points to kageneko

I am posting this from an airplane!

I am 30,000 feet above land, listening to Erasure and reading the internet. That is so cool. Though, I have to say, I am hyperaware of the fact that I am essentially in a public space right now, and so of course, naturally, everything I click on contains, uh, colorful language. And I don't mean like Red and Green and Blue. You know. There's nothing illegal about it or anything but I felt a bit sheepish when the flight attendant came up to offer me a drink and what was on my screen in all caps, but an isolated line that read: SNAILS F-ING.

Also, for some reason I get e-mail from the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), and today, they e-mailed me with the subject: Julia, Tips for Spicing Up Your Sex Life. Uh... whuh? Thanks, AARP? I guess?

I'm going to upload a picture now! Because I can! While I am on a plane!


This is Dinah Bell, my sister's cat, who is currently staying at our house. She decided to burrow under one of my backpack straps. Guess it felt cozy and secure? We also call her Dinner Bell and Linzer Torte.

Okay, so also also, I forgot that because of a DVD extra based on an in-joke (long story), the first thing that shows up in my photo library is a fan photoshopped picture of Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy in bed together. I utterly fail at public appropriateness in my computery dealings.

This week and next, the Outer Alliance Spotlight is featuring YA authors who have new novels out right now from Prizm Books. Today's interview subject is Hayden Thorne. She writes ghost stories and superhero stories featuring gay teen protagonists. Awesome! Here's the interview.

(You have to sing it to the tune of "Werewolves of London")

Caprina Lynn had the day off today, so we went on an Autumn adventure. I remembered from last year that the town of Jaffrey, New Hampshire has a scarecrow contest round this time, so that's where we headed. Indeed, it was an excellent choice!



CapLynn had an excellent time with the party scarecrows.

( You know you want to see the rest of this photo shoot )


On the way home we stopped at a roadside picnic area and admired leaves and a lake with geese in.

Full set of scarecrow and leaf pictures over on Flickr.

Moss and I went out on a leisurely drive today, exploring back roads to see the foliage. We saw several gorgeous cemeteries all ablaze in autumnal glory, but I hadn't my camera with me, so I just gasped in delight at each of them as we passed. There's been talk of a nor'easter, but though we've gotten sleet, snow, and rain in turns, nothing's sticking. It made for beautiful driving, though; the leaves shone through a shimmering curtain of silver and white.

But enough about my obsession with transitional seasons. Let's talk about books! In particular, free books! A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Maria Lima on the Outer Alliance Spotlight, and I neglected to mention it here. Oops. She's very nice and fun, and writes paranormal/urban fantasies about vampires, etc. And... She's giving books away! Here are the details in case you want to try your luck.

Off to work on altered books now.