Various and Sundry

Tomorrow begins two days of teacher development workshops at Kirkwood. At a normal university, one wouldn't have to do something that smacks of high school in-service, but we are a community college, which some suggest is high school with ash trays, so it goes. It's actually a step backward for us, but our new administrative cabinet, coming from secondary education as they do, have lots of odd ideas about how things go. My real vacation starts Wednesday. And I'll try to keep an open mind about the next two days.

Bryon's vacation starts tomorrow. He will be heading down to his parents. Bryon's dad had an episode on Friday night, and the last we heard, he's not quite in this reality. He may be exhibiting early signs of dementia, and he may be heading into a care facility, as he would be a bit of a handful for Bryon's mom at the moment. We are waiting and seeing.

On the other hand, our office staffer Lorna has finally gone home. After a month of a feeding tube and ice chips, she's eating again. And loving it. She should return to us after Christmas break.

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Reluctantly, I'm thinking about putting The Were-humans on hold for a bit. I usually stubborn out stories and bend them to my will. I would rather have some fun for a bit, and get back to the melodrama that is the Klarion series. I can hop back into The Were-humans when I feel like it, and maybe even do the Seanan McGuire trick of writing a couple of things at a time.

Right now, I don't need a quasi-depressing story about the state of things in backwards Iowa to bring me down. Except in small doses, maybe. The creative process is hard to predict. Now that I've said this, I'll be hit by a lightening bolt of inspiration and finish the thing.

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I've given two books high rankings lately: Swati Avasthi's Split and Kij Johnson's The Fox Woman. Both are worth talking about. I've been reluctant to discuss Split, as well as TSA, because after the Amazon thing, I didn't want this journal to become all abuse, all the time.

However, I can speak about Split in positive, glowing terms, so that will help. The TSA thing I'm going to have to wrap my mind around when I get ready to travel to Vegas twice in January/February. Groped or Irradiated? That is the question. What a question. I'll think about that and write something soon (ish).

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My Christmas present was the color Nook. I have downloaded two books onto it. It seems pretty easy to use, and I'm going to enjoy it while I travel. I am heartbroken that Kij's second Japanese book is not available in eformat yet. Get on that, would you, publishers? There will be a review of that coming up as well. There's also a VP interview or two in the wings.

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I'm not running out of shoes yet, which is scary. Recommending the gray and blue Inez Sextons, although you yourself might prefer the black.

Catherine

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.