Saying No.

Neil Gaiman had a wonderful commencement speech that he has, awesomely, turned into posters and an illustrated book, so that he can get multiple streams of income from one set of words. That masterful exploration of IP licensing isn't what I wanted to address, though. I find it bitterly amusing that when I see "Make... Continue Reading →

Building blocks and jigsaw pieces

My morning started with a simple plan: start Roomba-Actual (successor to Not-A-Roomba. Is an e6 model, but often fails to live up to that and gets called Roomba-Butterbar when it gets lost inside the chair legs), then start laundry, and follow by mopping at least two rooms. Except Roomba-Actual was acting even stupider than its... Continue Reading →

Truth in Fiction

"So, to tell a few truths I can't manage in any other way, I tell a larger lie. I make fiction. But sometimes, when I'm lucky, I find out that in the process of telling that big lie, I tell more truth than I set out to. When I'm luckiest, I tell myself things even... Continue Reading →

Why are the curtains blue?

Recently, I was trying to figure out who the original author was that was referenced in "the curtains are blue" story. I couldn't find it, but what I did find, to my surprise, were a number of angry ranting posts pushing back about how the readers don't understand that this is complete tripe and every... Continue Reading →

A lived-in world

I have recently had an alpha reader asking me details about something, and I ended up noting that yes, there's a whole larger reason and history that would build into why that detail was, "but that's another story for another time." Fortunately, the alpha reader didn't take this as reproof, but cheerfully noted that while... Continue Reading →

Where did that come from?

Last night, when I should have been writing this post instead, I was finishing a chapter on what was supposed to be a short story but isn't anymore. At least I declared it a short after I'd given up on it being a scrap of a vignette that was unrelated to anything while I tried... Continue Reading →

What Is This I Can’t Even…

The avoidance of the pantry inventory continues! Last night, I made pumpkin pie, but instead of using the usual spices, I used garam masala instead. Today, we had pie for breakfast, and my husband (who professes not to like pumpkin pie) made half the pan disappear, as well as helping use up all the whipped... Continue Reading →

Odds and Ends

Last year was a little too full of things going on for everything I like to get accomplished at year-end. One of those things was spending December making dishes from all the odds and ends, the one-offs, the "Hey, this looks interesting" that we never got around to doing anything with. I traditionally spend a... Continue Reading →

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