Merry Christmas!

Day Three here, so I thought I’d describe what it’s like. We’re renting a condo that overlooks the beach, towards the northwest end. The place is great, and there’s a balcony that is literally bigger than our living room back home. We share it with a tiny lizard that is living in the drapes in the living room.

It’s rainy season, so it’s Humid and warm, but there’s usually a nice breeze coming in from the ocean. Rainy season doesn’t mean the same thing that it does in Seattle. Here sometimes it’s nice and sunny and then suddenly OMG THERE ARE BUCKETS OF WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY. I kinda like it, myself. And I’m sure it doesn’t hurt me to be forced inside in order to write. 😉

We’re a little outside the main drag, so we’re within walking distance of grocery store, restaurants, etc, but it’s a bit of a slog in this heat. People are friendly if you address them, but it doesn’t feel as though most of them are interested in interacting. (Not that they should, just that it feels a lot less chatty than back in Seattle.) My Spanish is improving in leaps and bounds, though, so I’m feeling pretty comfortable in terms of being able to communicate. We’ve also found they show Big Bang Theory with Spanish subtitles every evening, which is a nice way to supplement the geekier part of my vocababulary.

The vegetation, the birds, etc, are wonderfully new. Lots and lots of flowers, plenty of lizards (in a wide range of sizes), and birds I don’t know, aside from the pair of macaws we saw on our first evening, which seemed a lovely omen. We believe they were getting very friendly with each other — not sure what that does to the omen’s significance.

We can see the hills and mountains, which usually have clouds slumbering on them, lovely vistas that remind me a little of the Blue Mountain greeting cards we used to sell at Waldenbooks, a ragged line trailing into softer fog, but without all the platitudes written underneath.

Speaking of platitudes, I’ve been following the news back home as well, and watching the sad and horrible events in Ferguson in particular. If, like me, you want to know what you can do besides flail helplessly, here’s a piece, Ten Things White People Can Do About Ferguson Beside Tweet, that I found via N.K. Jemisin that is helpful.

As for the Hugo Awards – many congratulations to all the winners, but in particular Ann Leckie, whose Ancillary Justice kicks butt. It was a weird ballot but hopefully one that raised awareness of the Hugos and will pull in new readers.

If you’re a Redmond resident, there’s an open mike at the Teen Center this Saturday. I’m hoping some of the students from the workshop I did there will show up to read pieces, so I’m going, and it should be a lively time.

Things to Look At

• Children’s drawings rendered realistically. Some of these are awesome, some just a little disturbing.
• I love night sky photos. Here’s some beautiful ones, plus a video talking about taking your own.
• This four minute video shows the creation of an absolutely lovely piece of art.

Writing Links

• Chuck Wendig provides 25 reasons your reader will keep reading. My favorite is “Characters About Whom We Give Not One Shit, But Many” because it’s very true for me. One of my favorite (literary, not spec-fic) books is E.H. Young’s sadly out of print Miss Mole because by the end we love the main character so much and want a happy life for her so very, very much.
• I’m very excited by the news of the Thurber House reopening its writer in residency program, because I’ve always wanted to apply for that. I adore Thurber. ADORE.
• Need a motivational tool? Here’s one that gives you kittens.

Just Because

• How cute is this? Baby dinosaurs!

Pimpage

• I had a byline in the November 14th Publishers Weekly, with a Q&A with YA author J.H. Trumble. Unfortunately, you must be a subscriber to see the piece. Still – that’s a credit on my publication list that makes me squee a bit.
• Got a new Kindle but don’t know what to read on it? Can five stars on Amazon be all that wrong? Try my collection, Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight.
• If you’re interested in taking my online workshop, details can be found here.

I’m currently working on: a travel piece for Northwest Travel, an essay for Clarkesworld, an article on SEO for the SFWA Bulletin, the last rewrite of the current novel, being better about blogging, and preparation for the online workshop.