Hot take
So my facile hot take on the first episode of Foundation is that they took the Good Parts version of Foundation and grafted in a whole lot of cool bits from...
I'm out of surgery and resting at home
Also I am promised tacos.
Just a little list of books about Vikings... or about people descended from Vikings...
Click on through to the other side.
Just wanted to make a special shout-out to the new folks--
You're appreciated. And you long-term denizens are appreciated, too. I've spent the evening catching up on my extremely neglected accounting, but now...
CW: cancer stuff
Surgery on Monday the 27th. Can't wait to have it over with.
Horse stories takes a fall
A week ago Tuesday, I fell off my horse. People will ask you the difference between falling off and getting thrown. It's this: when you get thrown, the horse...
The good news is that I'm a writer and already own 75 pairs of pajamas
Hey, folks. This is one of those bad news but not the worst news posts, which is to say that I've been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and am in the...
War stories
Remember when we used to go places and hang out in crowded bars? The subject of cave diving came up in a slack I'm in and I would up telling this Barcon...
Horse stories honestly I lost count
My elbow is still fussy, but not AS fussy, so I've managed a little light riding over the past week. Two trail rides, one with Alex and Magni, and one with...
August Book CLub
Hey folks. Sorry I'm late! I fucked off to the beach yesterday--and finished reading the most recent Meg Lanslow mystery, Murder Most Fowl, which is not one...
Horse stuff!
Hey, folks! I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that Ormr is doing fine. I haven’t been able to ride for the past few weeks because my...
Ahem. I seem to be nominated for a Dragon Award.
So this happened! What an amazing class of nominees to be a part of. Thank you so much to everybody who has supported Machine, read it, recommended it to...
She sings to the cat / the cat ignores her
This morning, while tidying the kitchen, I found myself singing to the cats, as sometimes happens. As best I can remember it went something like this: Why...
Postmodern Pentathalon
Hey folks, So I got curious about the Modern Pentathlon, for my sins, entirely because of those photos that are going around. You know the ones. In the...
July Book Club Post
Hey folks! There’s a bunch of reading this month that I won’t be discussing too much, because it was for an award jury, but I also just took a bunch of time...
The responsibility to be kind
Good for Simone Biles. Good for Naomi Osaka. Good for every single person who has recently stood up and said, “This situation is not good for me and I will...
The horrid glory of personal responsibility
So this screencap is going around the internets and I have no idea who the person is who posted it but it made me laugh like a drain. Just because this is so...
Cat politics
Of our four cats, Duncan is the boss cat, but he is a (mostly) benevolent dictator. Fafhrd is a horrible bully, but he's smaller than the other two boys and...
Horse stories 10
This guy saved both of us from a scary situation today, and I'm super proud of him. The morning started amusingly as I showed up at the barn first thing to...
Paperback Bookday!
Oh look, it's the US Paperback of MACHINE!
Social Media is a nightmare hellscape from which we are trying to awaken. Also, take a day off; you deserve it.
Hey, folks, So I took a long weekend off ("off" in this case just means I am not looking at The Folded Sky right now or until tomorrow, dammit, although I...
How To Survive A Literary Life
Hey folks, Here's a link to a zoom talk I gave on dealing with the pressures of being an artist in public in the current era. I hope you enjoy and please...
June Book Club
Well, I actually seem to have read a lot of things this month, even if several of them are my own work that I'm reviewing! In addition to that, however, I...
Horse Stories 9
Ormr had a busy last weekend! And hasn’t done much this week, because it’s much too hot to make him work right now. The stall toys appear to be keeping him...
NEW STORY DAY
Hey folks! Catch up on the latest adventure of Auga Hacksilver, long-suffering bisexual Viking sorcerer, and his history of poor relationship choices, here....
Horse Stories 8
Well, it's been an interesting week, whereby interesting I mean challenging, but we're all still here and our heads are above water. I am not sure I'll be...
Horse Stories 7
Summer is here with a vengeance, quite suddenly. It was 40 degrees last weekend. Today, it is over 90. The horse is in his barn, and my exercise for today...
What we've been doing around here...
Dinner is cooking. It's chicken and rice with root vegetables and a Greekish dill yogurt sauce. I have spent most of the day working on White Space #3, The...
Horse Stories 6
Last Thursday, when we had our riding lesson, we did a very ridiculous thing, which involved trotting around poles, moving traffic cones from one pole to...
May Book Club
I finished The Stand. Honestly, I kind of feel like that’s enough for one month. But! I also reread (re-listened?) Stephen Brusatte’s podcast-ish The Rise...
Horse Stories 5
I'm writing this on Thursday, May 20th and will send it out next week. Ormr is on a diet, and he's not too pleased about it. You will notice that there are...
THE RED MOTHER cover
Art by Greg Manchess. Edited by Jonathan Strahan. Coming next month from Tor.com.
The Red Mother cover reveal tomorrow
If you like: -Sarcastic queer disaster Vikings -dubious ponies -riddles -kinship duty -poor life choices This one's for you. Cover reveal tomorrow! Story...
Protagonist syndrome: what it means to you.
Hey, folks, So we’re still working our way through Breaking Bad and also Life. (Scott has watched Breaking Bad before and liked it; I watched Life before and...
Lilac Syrup (and) short fiction print publication news.
Hey, folks, I made a duck for my Mom’s birthday, so the cats got braised duck innards for lunch, and they think this is a very fine thing and should possibly...
Machine Paperbacks (and) Horse Stories 4
Hey folks, Just wanted to let you know that the UK paperback of Machine will be out on Thursday, May 27th. I just got my author copies this week and it looks...
Horse Stories 3
Hey folks, So yesterday, I rode Ormr, which was actually the first time I've ridden him since LAST Thursday, though I was over at the barn Saturday, Sunday,...
Adventures with cats
Molly: I am on the armoire! Pet me, pet me, pet me! Me: **Pets, dutifully.** Molly: **Purrs and wiggles and purrs until she accidentally steps off into thin...
un/conscious in/competence
What if you don't even know what you need to learn in order to improve?
Horse Stories 2
I'm writing this on April 29; I'm going to send it out Monday May 3, but when I say "today" and "yesterday," I mean Thursday and Wednesday, respectively....
What to expect when you're coping with the unexpected
Congratulations, everybody. We’ve gotten to a point where we can maybe see the first tickle of the end of the crisis. Or maybe, to be more precise, the...
Horse Stories 1
So my friend Sarah Monette, who is also Katherine Addison, posts dressage stuff and horse stories over on her Patreon, and I figured, you know what, Ormr and...
Gatekeepers.
Hey folks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of “gatekeepers” and traditional publishing in the sense of agents and editors and publishers, and the...
Does what it says on the tin!
Hey, on Tuesday I'm giving a free talk at ARU's Creative Showcase on how to survive the creative life with your emotional health mostly intact!...
April Book Club Post
Hey folks, Spring is busting out all over the place, and I spent about twenty-five woman-hours mulching the yard in the past two weeks. I'm drowning in...
I'll be at Virtual Eastercon this weekend!
Click through for my program schedule! Subscribe now
Cheap books!
Hey folks! ANCESTRAL NIGHT is an April Kindle Deal in the US, and the US ebook edition is available from fine retailers for $1.99 UK ebook edition still 99p...
March Book Club Post
I’m getting an inordinate amount of joy this week from watching it snow on a volcano in Iceland. You can see tiny people sometimes, and a number of...
A post office box in Schenectady.
As some of you know, paying subscribers get the privilege of asking me questions. Recently, I got one that was not the dreaded, “Where do you get your...
On the kerfuffles of capitalism
So, a bunch of my colleagues are pondering whether to remain on Substack, given the fact that they have started paying what amount to advances against...