Con Season Ramping Up
Ponies! The ponies are to cheer me up. I decided I didn’t want to fly to Kansas City under current circumstances relying on whatever pre-MMR measles shot I...
What if...
Very light week because I’ve been busy with other stuff. I’ve started watching 2025 stuff, though. Marvel’s What If 3.1 …the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?...
A Brief History of Lighthouses
Eagle Bluff Lighthouse The Patara lighthouse in Turkiye is being restored. The goal is to put a light in it when it’s done. This lighthouse was built during...
All Kinds of Love
Three books about…love, in some way, shape or form. Review: Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell This is a monsterf*ing story. Except it’s an ace...
Achoo!
I hate living in DC during the spring. I’m allergic to cherry pollen, and don’t respond, shall we say, well to antihistamines. In other words, sniffle...
Robots and Pirates
Cinema Disaster: Robot Riot Things this movie has: Robots Things this movie does not have: A riot. A group of soldiers sign up to train with the “mechs.”...
Thinking about Bodies, Horror, and Puberty
Middle grade horror is a strange beast. In some ways, kids can tolerate certain kinds of horror better than adults. Kids also still live in a world where...
Hopes and Cures
Review: Sherwood Nation by Benjamin Parzybok CW: Domestic violence, weird politics The title of this book intrigued me, because anything to do with Robin...
Nebulas Are Out
The Nebula finalists are out and I have mixed feelings. My favorite novel of 2024, The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Mills did not make a cut. Only one of...
Cinema Fails
Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) This installment of the franchise attempts to instill the one thing it absolutely did not, under any...
Men Bad, Women Good - Gender Essentialism in Feminist Science Fiction (copy)
Last year somebody gave me copies of Native Tongue and The Judas Rose, the first two parts of a feminist trilogy by Suzette Haden Elgin. These are reprints...
Apocalypses?
Review: Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace Growing up, I was very much “Not like other girls.” Buffy spoke to me, although that speaking is colored by...
AwesomeCon Prep
After being waitlisted twice, I got my table for AwesomeCon DC (picture is from a prior year). I’ll be selling books in the Author’s Lane segment of Artists’...
Aping Around
Review: Planet of the Apes (2001) So, here’s where I confess my dim memory of the originals. In fact, the only thing I actually remember is the nuke at the...
What Tech Level is Your Fantasy Part 6
And this is the last part, but I’d like to talk about misconceptions about what technology people had. What things were invented well before we think they...
Gender...forget it
Review: The Judas Rose by Suzette Haden Elgin This is book two. I wasn’t given book three and won’t be looking for it. Bluntly, Elgin doubles and triples...
Convention News!
Woot! I’m going to be busy. First of all, I got my invite to be on programming for Balticon and signed up for 24 panels. We’ll see how many I’m eventually...
In Pursuit
Reviews will be light for a while because somebody put off watching panels from last year’s Nebulas and now doesn’t have time to watch much else ;). Review:...
What Tech Level Is Your Fantasy Part 5
So, let’s talk about computers. Which we think of as a very modern thing. Secondary world, Medieval style fantasy doesn’t typically have computers. With one...
Justice for...
Review: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie Yes, I’m going back a few years, but I finally got around to reading this. I can see why it won all the awards it...