Today I got tons of things done. None of which were the thing I was supposed to be doing.

I never know whether to be proud of days like this or not.

–My brain is much lighter now!

–I spent most of Friday morning bouncing around, looking in the mirror, saying OMG MY HAIR! I got over it by mid-day. 🙂

–People keep asking whether I have “ghost sensations” where I try to use too much shampoo, or sweep non-existent hair out of my way. Not really. The first night, I was about to braid my hair before going to bed, then realized I was done with that. Other than that, nothing.

–I love it even more as time passes. I walked out of the salon thinking I was sure I liked short hair, but not sure about this style. Now I love this style too. And dang, it’s so convenient!

–Everything is easier. Swimming, exercising, showering, getting dressed, wearing a necklace… it’s so different.

–Shannon shaved his head. He looks great! Probably about 10 inches of hair gone. It was quite a weekend of hair-loss in this household.

–I can really freak myself out by putting on my hat. I look just like I did before, if I had my hair in a ponytail. Then I can take off the hat, and WHOA where did it go? 🙂

–If any longhaired folk are considering chopping: My advice is to wait one month and be sure you want to do it. If you still want to do it, then absolutely–go for it, and don’t be afraid! It’ll grow back anyway.

–If this seems like an overreaction to a haircut… remember I haven’t had more than a trim since 2000 or so. I cut off hair that had lived with me in three states. Cutting it off felt a little like giving away a beloved pet, though to a lesser degree of course. I feel great knowing that somewhere a wig-needing kid will be very happy.

–Yay short hair!

So my long hair had become unmanageable for several reasons. It was time to cut it. Since my hair was already Extreme Long, I decided to try Extreme Short.

The first pic has me pigtailed so that I can donate the cut-off hair to Locks of Love. The whole salon stopped to watch the stylist cut off all that hair. 30 inches gone, baby! And the stylist took the time to reshape the cut after I put my glasses and earrings back on, which was awesome of her.

So far, I love my new cut. I have to wear it for a while to be sure. I’ll try to get better pics this weekend of the sides and back.

Before & After!

Hi! Today I cut off 30 inches of hair. What did you do?

My flash fiction piece “Starshow” will be published in Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy.

Kimber is awesome. He lives in Portland and works for Planned Parenthood, and he’s going to become a nurse. He’s also fluent in Chinese and full of fascinating stories about his travels there.

I sent him a copy of the Oct 2008 Realms of Fantasy with “The Luckiest Street in Georgia.” He wrote back and said this, and I liked it so much I asked if I could share it:

Thanks so much for sending me ‘The Luckiest Street in Georgia.’ It is quite a good story, and there were some other fun bits in the magazine as well. I think you hit on one of the things I like best about fantasy literature – making ordinary or normal things seem more real, more potent through adding an element that is fantastical. We become so accustomed to our surroundings that we often fail to recognize the power and interest and connections that really are there. There is more to our world than we let ourselves see. Fantasy seems a great tool to renew our awareness of what is around us. In some stories, the natural world’s life force is made more apparent through animals talking, or plants having awareness. Other times the power of history to shape our lives is made more obvious through the device of characters who live thousands of years (say, elves). In your story the very ordinary stereotype of the old person watching over their neighborhood is raised from what could be a pathetic habit of snooping for lack of a ‘real’ life, to a powerful intervention, an extra-temporal angel guiding the lives of those in her care. Lest one forget that in real life having someone watch out for you, especially an older, wiser person, can be quite helpful. Lest one forget that wishes and intentions can be transformative. Anyway, those are a few of the thoughts it brought up for me.

Amal El-Mohtar reviewed the Warrior Wisewoman anthology and said this about my story:

Vylar Kaftan’s “Christmas Wedding” is definitely my favourite piece; the narration and dialogue are genuine, there’s horror and humour and bittersweetness mixed in good proportion, and the whole of it comes together as an effective, lovely story that makes you want to hug your loved ones and prepare for the apocalypse all at once.

[Hug your loved ones and prepare for the apocalypse? That’s what I do every morning! Hi Shannon!]

Full review here.

Is there any kind of pasta sauce that has no tomatoes, dairy, vinegar, or oil?

(Pesto usually has cheese in it, and too much oil.)

The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction is now available. 13 stories with pagan themes and characters. If this sells well, I think they’ll put out more anthologies like this one. My story “Black Doe” is in this book; it took second place in the fiction contest.

How many of you have had THIS conversation with your mother?