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Starting with the round-up! Words written YTD: 59,195 on two and a half projects (Paranormal Investigations novels, a prequel short story that didn't really go where I wanted it to, and Novel Wars (my Nano)) - that's right, I managed a full month without writing. It was awful. Writer-ly things accomplished: Not a blessed thing, unless you count realizing that not writing is not OK. New books read: Pounce (aka a book of kitty pictures that needs to be available at all times); January/February 2016 Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; When Books Went to War (I know I've  already reviewed it , but short summary, I loved it); Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife (not my favorite Mary Roach, but interesting for all that); The Prophecy Con (Book two of Rogues of the Republic aka Fantasy A-Team); Lumberjanes #22-23; Pirate King (Russell and Holmes take on the Pirates of Penzance, which left me humming the Major General's song); and Beekeeping for Beginners (Russel...

(A quick note - I'm still here! The holidays took me away from the blogosphere for a bit, but I'm back now.) Lately I've been thinking about food. It's not surprising, given the holidays and how much our traditions revolve around food (Thanksgiving dinner, making candy for Christmas, that sort of thing), but just cooking with my husband made me think of the ways my parents worked to include me in the making of the family meals. There were two big things that my parents made that were considered "their things" - Dad's pizza, and Mom's "full-blown Mexican". The pizza was one of the first things I learned how to make, mostly because I kept bothering my father, asking if it was ready yet. That was how I got involved in a lot of cooking, actually, was by being annoying. Mom's food was essentially her version of the food she learned from her mother - taco meat, Spanish rice, flour tortillas, and various other foods depending on how big th...

So, you could say that I'm a big fan of most things literary. Books are one of those things that have always been important to me, and asking me if I like reading is like asking if like breathing - I need it to live. But I've never felt able to put into words the importance of books as a whole, not just to me but to society at large. When Books Went to War  does a marvelous job of putting words around the idea that wars of ideas are just as powerful as the physical fighting. It describes how the US, in the form of a council of publishers and the War Department, took control of the war of ideas on the Allied front during World War II. The council published books specifically to be sent overseas to be given to the soldiers fighting, thus providing entertainment and new ideas to people who may not remember why they're fighting. It also helped publishers popularize the paperback book, a format that had been seen as the purview of pulps and dimestore novels. One of the fasci...

November is finished. I didn't make it on Nanowrimo, which isn't all that surprising. I do like the characters I created, so I think I'm going to continue the story and see what happens. Words written YTD: 59,195 on two and a half projects (Paranormal Investigations novels, a prequel short story that didn't really go where I wanted it to, and Novel Wars (my Nano)) - a small bump in preparation for, well, tomorrow. Writer-ly things accomplished: Most of what I created for Nano ended up being character development, which is always fun. It gives me ideas...*cackle* New books read: Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners (this was so glorious, and similarly terrifying); Origins of the Specious (a book on word origins - fun, though a little dry); The Palace Job (billed as Leverage meets high fantasy, comes across more like the A-Team meets high fantasy; I enjoyed it a great deal) Old books re-read: Storm Front and Fool Moon (Dresde...