( I'll salt circle your brain if I have to. )
It was a delight to run into Elana Lev Friedland on North Street. We talked cosmic horror and capitalism until my hands stiffened up. I dove for the bag of bagels as soon as I got home and made myself one with cream cheese and lox, the latter eagerly shared by Hestia. She has taken to leaping onto the top of the washing machine at the slightest rustle that might suggest deli meats. I fell asleep in the evening, but

The Astra Awards are an award given out by the Hollywood Creative Alliance, and in previous years have been primarily for film and television, but this year they have branched out into books as well, across seventeen categories including Best Science Fiction Novel. And what do you know, in this inaugural year for the book awards, When the Moon Hits Your Eye was the winner. I am, of course absolutely delighted.
The awards were livestreamed, which I have posted above, and you can see my acceptance speech starting at 28:56 (if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, the full list of finalists and winners is available here). In my speech I specifically thank my editors Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Mal Frazier, as well as my agent Ethan Ellenberg and my manager Joel Gotler, but also generally everyone who worked on the book up and down the production chain. There would be no book without their work.
In any event, how cool is this? It’s made my day. Winning awards is fun.
— JS
CHARACTERS: Alicent Hightower, Aemond Targaryen, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Jacaerys Velaryon, Baela Targaryen, Daemon Targaryen
ADDITIONAL INFO: Season 2, Episode 5
CREDIT TO:

( List of entries )
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CHARACTERS: Haseo
ADDITIONAL INFO: Sourced from both Volume 1 Rebirth of the games, and the .hack//g.u.+ manga!
CREDIT TO:

here @
So Belovedest draped it over the lounge chair on the porch, to dry out.
And there it sat.
I admit that I am short-tempered sometimes.
It's lounging season, I think a little early this year. So the dragon and I have been sharing the chair. And much to my annoyance, we have been sharing it with tiny black ants. Which have been using the deflated dragon as a pathway to climb up onto the chair's side tables (it's a retired infusion chair, so it reclines, has tables, and a place to attach an IV pole) and even on to my very person. I discovered this yesterday.
What losing my temper looked like this time was an enticing Craigslist ad for the salvage-condition dragon (free to the first to arrive), along with reviving my ad to get rid of the aftermarket KitchenAid beater that just barely didn't fit my mixer bowl. Which had been hanging around for months and was starting to develop lichen.
They were both gone by the time I got outside this afternoon.
The editor also says that they solicited several stories for the collection from writers who had never written SF before. Perhaps it is unfair that my reaction was to brace myself; I'll strive to be open minded. (It was also pointed out in the discussion that the Indigenous population of Australia is pretty small, so the pool of potential authors may not have been as deep as the editor might have wished.)
Some group members were not thrilled to learn that the book includes some excerpts from novels. We've run into this before and it tends to frustrate our purpose as a discussion group because we end up having the same conversation over and over, which is just "this didn't feel complete... because it isn't complete." The first three pieces we read are actual short stories, though!
"Muyum, a Transgression" by Evelyn Araluen (2017)
( A ghost travels the ruins of the world, finding that what seemed dead can come back. )
"Clatter Tongue" by K.A. Ren Wyld (2020)
[Note: The book lists this story under the author's former name Karen Wyld.]
( A grieving girl literally vomits the detritus of colonization when she is threatened. )
"Closing Time" by Samuel Wagan Watson (2020)
( In the early days of covid, a man wanders aimlessly. )
- book club,
- books,
- books: author: evelyn araluen,
- books: author: k.a. ren wyld,
- books: author: samuel wagan watson,
- books: editor: mykaela saunders,
- books: genre: speculative fiction,
- books: theme: death,
- books: theme: ghosts,
- books: theme: pandemic,
- books: type: short stories,
- books: year: 2017,
- books: year: 2020,
- books: year: 2022
- A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon (2023): Did not finish, through no active fault of the book's own. The author does her absolute best to present a whole lot of misogyny with humor and clarity, but it does not hide the fact that this is all a lot of misogyny being presented. I skipped around, read a few chapters, and just couldn't stomach it. But what I read of it was good!
- The Lady With the Gun Asks the Questions: The Ultimate Miss Phryne Fisher Story Collection by Kerry Greenwood (2022): Did not finish. These are short stories, some very short. It poses an interesting question to the reader of what, precisely, makes a mystery/detective book. Should we see the process of the mystery being solved? Should we be able to solve the mystery? Do we need interiority in the solving process? This book has none of that! The stories are stories, very short, as we watch Phryne Fisher encounter a crime/confusing event (I hesitate to even call them mysteries) and then relay the solution, with a minimal amount of detectiving. Some stories have more than others. Some are just essentially lists of events. The short stories are not bad, in of themselves. And not all of them are murder mysteries! They are, however, not at all what I want in my quest for "can I please have a mystery book that isn't a murder mystery".
- The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong (2025): I have gotten this out from the library twice and had to return it before getting more than a chapter or two into it. I may have to accept the fact that I don't find it very interesting or gripping. But maybe... maybe the third time out from the library... I'll actually read it.
- The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson (2023): DNF. Speaking of acceptance of my literary tastes, I likely must also accept the fact that I don't find Brandon Sanderson books entertaining to read. I read some of it. I flipped to the end, and the ending part did not clearly follow at all from the beginning, so I am certain many many things happened in the meanwhile to get from point A to point B. However, I don't really care. I guess I was hoping for something more like the Tough Guide To Fantasyland or Discworld or something, you know... funny, based on the title. It's a shame because this is, iirc, the third Sanderson I was "meh, this is boring" on, and if I could like his stuff, there would be so many books for me to read.
- Strange Houses by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion (2025): I finished a book! I liked it! This is a "murder mystery" book told via The Author getting interested in a floor plan, talking to someone who is convinced it means the house was being used to murder people, then a bunch of interviews/discussions with people about floor plans of multiple houses and if the floor plans mean that the house must have been used to murder people. This started off as a really convoluted, very "why would they go to all that effort of hiding a child's existence" and then swerved into fantastic "wait so what actually happened" territory, including how much do you trust various sources and various documentary evidence, and ends with a great highlight on "yeah we don't actually know how much of what was presented here is true and what was fabricated and if so by whom and when". There's this hanging plot hole that the epilogue sort of jumps on top of as well, to wit: ( Read more... )
This book is pretty short, which is contributed to by when it refers back to a floor plan, it shows that part of the floor plan, which makes it really easy to follow along but also, frankly, pads the page count. Quick, zippy read, more of a puzzle-that-never-gets-solved book than a murder mystery.
I have, multiple times over the years, found absolute notebooks upon notebooks filled with my old fantasy novel. The last plan was to stuff it all into the back of my file cabinet, which I apparently then never did because I just found it all again. This time, it'll get filed for reals. (hopefully)
But I have also found some blank or blank-enough notebooks for projects, which is good. Also found the beginnings of a Serpent Tail timeline, probably from the big timeline that came with the serialized version of Frame Astrays, pre-smartphone... I remember working painstakingly with my kanji dictionary on my lap and now I can just point, poke, and probably have the whole thing translated and corrected in an hour. ;_; (this is mildly untrue because the amount of cross-referencing I'd start doing would turn it into a weekend project and then I'd start adding in information and whoops)
((I wonder if a newer whole-series timeline exists in any form.))
Fandom: BBC Sherlock
Rating: Gen
Length: 100
Prompt: arrow
Summary: Sherlock & John discuss murder by poison arrow frog.
( Read more... )
The explanations include a bunch of links for people who want to learn more, and often a random funny link to make people like me click all of them in order to find it. (A little practice can make you very good at guessing which one is the funny link.)
For example, yesterday's picture was Eye on the Milky Way by Miguel Claro. The explanation acknowledged the "unusual vertical horizon," and unusual vertical was a clickable link. I clicked it and laughed out loud.
Another great one from last year was Little Red Dots in the Early Universe, which concluded: "...searches are underway in our nearby universe to try to find whatever previous LRDs might have become today." The phrase searches are underway linked to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, but the phrase become today was the one I was looking for.
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Monday, April 20, to midnight on Tuesday, April 21. (8pm Eastern Time).
How are you doing?
I am OK.
10 (58.8%)
I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
7 (41.2%)
I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)
How many other humans live with you?
I am living single.
7 (41.2%)
One other person.
5 (29.4%)
More than one other person.
5 (29.4%)
Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
