Whining

So this weekend I broke a tooth -- a molar that was like 70% fillings.  (Why, yes, I did grow up in Louisiana, a state with no fluoride in the water, because communism, thanks for asking!)

I called my wonderful dentist, who said she could fit me in today at 2:00, but sadly today is the Teaching Day From Hell, when I teach from 8:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m., so no go on that unless I wanted to cancel classes, and since I've had to cancel classes once already this semester I was reluctant to do that.

Me: "Well, the tooth is hurting.  But not that badly.  Do you have any time tomorrow? Or Thursday?"

(These are my non-teaching days, the days I use for writing. Or, you know, going to the dentist.)

The dentist's assistant: "We can fit you in Thursday afternoon. Are you sure it's not hurting?"

What I've Been Reading Lately: Tana French

I can't recall which blog I was reading which recommended Tana French, but I do recall the logline of the recommendation.  She was on a list of books that named the blogger's Top Ten Most Devastating Reads.  I probably have the adjective wrong; but not far wrong.

Devastating but brilliant, I think was what the list said.  Again, I've got the adjectives wrong, but not far wrong.

I've read four of Tana French's books now, and my verdict is: Yup.

Look What I Made

The short story I sold to Sockdolagar is live today, y'all.

Go here to read it: "What Happened to Lord Elomar during The Revolution."

This is set in the same universe as my Martin stories, though it shares none of the same characters.

Also, a kitten!

You can buy the issue on Amazon here.

(ILLUSTRATION BY ALISON WILGUS)

Rosh Hashanah 2015

Every year at Rosh hashanah, we go down to the river and throw bread in the water.

Here at the right, you can see (barely, that's me and the kid, very tiny) us at the river this year.

This is a Jewish custom.  When you throw the bread in the river, with each piece, you say the thing you're sorry that you're did that year -- for instance, "I'm sorry I yelled at the dog!"  "I'm sorry I was mean to people on Facebook!" "I'm sorry I used gender-specific insults!"

That sort of thing.

Then we walk along the river, as the sun goes down, which some years is nicer than others -- this year it was very nice, because today was a lovely day -- and then we come home for a holiday dinner, which always includes Challah and honey, so that we can start off the New Year sweetly.

L'shanah tovah, y'all.

Dialogue from the delagar Household: Travails of the Job Search

(Dr. Skull has a job here in the Fort now, finally, after being unemployed for two years -- but it's a job outside his field.  He's still looking for a university position.)

Me (to Dr. Skull): Here's a job for a poet. But it's in Houston.

Dr. Skull: Send me the link.

Me: It's in Houston. You don't want to live in HOUSTON.

Dr. Skull: It's a job teaching poetry. Send me the link.

This Is So Great

...that I must share.

Y'all might know that Dr. Skull is working as a substitute teacher now.

Yesterday he had a second grade classroom.  Which, as he puts it, is like teaching puppies.

Golden retriever puppies.

Anyway, they all wanted to give him their drawings to take home.

My favorite is this one, which I wish I had a scanner, because my descriptive powers do not do it justice.  It is so wonderful.

On pink construction paper.

Outside: a giant bright red heart, with two layers, the outside scalloped, the inside very darkly drawn.

On the inside a carefully printed message:

Hi Mr. B

You Are

OSM

(The "Mr. B" is for his actual name, which starts with a B.)

New Issue of Crossed Genres:Issue 33: 2065

Our new issue of Crossed Genres is up.  This is Issue #33, which has the theme the year 2065. So all near-future stories.

For me, these are the hardest sorts of stories to write.  Not other writers, apparently -- we got tons of submissions for this issue, though not nearly as many as for the novella issue.

Our stories!

Verity Lane, our Spotlight Author, brings us The Springwood Shelter for Genetically Modified Animals.  (For those at home just joining us on the blog, each month Crossed Genres publishes one Spotlight Author, which is an author who has never made a professional sale before.) Verity deals here with the twin problems we have already in our country -- disposable people, disposable pets.

Here is Verity's interview.

Elliotte Rusty Harold gives us Ants on a Trestle, a story about problem many of us don't consider when we think about the future -- we think monsters or terrorists will be what we have to worry about.  But realistically, you know, probably not.

And finally, from Brian Trent, a wonderful story, Chasing Comets.  No spoilers on this one. Go read. You won't be sorry.

Teaching Utopian / Dystopian Lit

Right now in my Popular Lit: Utopian / Dystopian Lit class, I have the class considering a trio of texts.

We are just finishing up reading Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, while at the same time we are watching John Carpenter's Escape From New York.  Then, after Labor Day, we will read Joanna Russ's The Female Man.


Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

If you are not familiar with Heinlein's classic SF work, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a Utopian novel set in a prison colony.  (There's a McGuffin plot about a Revolution, which is almost incidental.) Heinlein posits that if we transport a heap of prisoners, many of them political, but some of them actually criminal, to a prison world from which they have no escape, and dump them with no laws and no social controls except those they make themselves, what will evolve will be an anarchist Utopia.