barberries and bookmarks
Most delightful of readers,
I have a schedule of readings and signings to offer you--as well as an essay about "Fisher of Stars," strategies for buying Nakhorian candy, and a highly satisfied cat. Schedule first, through the end of the year:
- Reading with Michael J. DeLuca at BookSweet in Ann Arbor on Friday, September 13 (tomorrow!) (Follow the link to Michael's blog for some kind words about mosaics and some pre-event jitters that I absolutely share.)
- Conversation with A.D. Sui and Suzan Palumbo at Bakka-Phoenix in Toronto on Saturday, October 5. I discovered Bakka-Phoenix as a postdoc sneaking away from a math conference for some restorative time with books, and it's tremendously exciting to be heading there as a professional.
- Reading at Mac's Backs in Cleveland Heights on Saturday, November 23, with the endlessly talented Marie Vibbert.
- Back to Cleveland the following weekend to sign at Loganberry Books as part of their post-Thanksgiving Holiday Stroll.
Earlier this week, I was over at Mary Robinette Kowal's blog talking about "My Favorite Bit":
My Favorite Bit: Ursula Whitcher talks about NORTH CONTINENT RIBBON – Mary Robinette Kowal
Ursula Whitcher is joining us today to talk about their novel, North Continent Ribbon. Here’s the publisher’s description: On Nakharat, every contract is a ribbon and every ribbon is a secret, brai…
Head over there for my reminiscences about that time I read all the eighteenth-century sexuality cases in London's Old Bailey Online, and how that shaped my thinking about Nakharat.
This is a lot of things! Have some candy (and a tiny model many-legged salamander):
The candy that shows up on the page in North Continent Ribbon is apricot: the heroine of Twelve Thousand Flowers makes a key decision with "the sour-sweet of the coming summer" on her tongue. That was based on real food, a so-chewy-it's-almost-hard candy in plain clear wrappers that I found in a local Middle Eastern grocery store in 2019 or so. Maybe it was imported from Turkey? I went to a different Middle Eastern grocery store (the one with the best bread) looking for similar fruit candy for tomorrow's reading. The best candidate was made in Croatia. That's not impossible, though it's a bit too far west--much of Nakharat's food culture is inspired by the cuisine of central Asia, with some interventions from the European side of the Caucasus--so I diverted to the local Ukrainian grocery, where I found candy in flavors of barberry and Duchess pear. The barberry isn't nearly as sour as the actual fruit!
Finally, here is Gennoveus demonstrating that the best part of any package is the box:
Yours, as ever,
Ursula.