Oh my god, my husband gave me an inflatable shark blimp! Complete with remote control. It’s lurking around downstairs and flying around the house.

Raar. This completely rules!

The Sighted Watchmaker is live at Lightspeed. I’m delighted to be back in the magazine–it’s one of my favorites. Lightspeed published my Nebula-nominated story last year.

Two fun facts about The Sighted Watchmaker:

1) The editor, John Joseph Adams, actually rejected this story the first time I sent it. I sent it elsewhere. A year later, he emailed me and said, “I was thinking about that Sighted Watchmaker story. Is it still available?” I guess it left an impression. 😉

2) I wrote this in one sitting. It took 3 hours. What you read at Lightspeed is basically what I put on the page. This is very rare, but awesome when it happens. The unofficial term for this event is “a gift from the Muse.” Thanks, Muse!

These pics made my day. Work-safe. Yay eyeballs!

Your daily dose of cute adorable fangy toothy creatures. Aren’t they sweet?

This is why I’m willing to believe quite a bit of weirdness when I read sf stories about aliens. We have creatures on this planet that look even weirder than what we imagine.

Hyperbole And A Half presents: Adventures in Depression.

I have a theory that people who’ve never struggled with depression will find this cartoon sad, while people who do struggle with depression will laugh and laugh and cry a little and then keep laughing. BECAUSE IT IS TRUE.

What do you think? Sad, hilarious, or a little of both?

According to Mari Ness, the Town & Country hotel in San Diego is NOT wheelchair accessible and they violate ADA laws. Check out her report. It’s awful.

(Personally, I had fun at the con itself and nothing went badly for me. But there were bad things happening to my friends. And that dampens my enjoyment of the whole con.)

As many people have heard, there was a guy at World Fantasy who sexually harassed multiple women. Other people have covered the details far better than I can, so I’ll just link to them below. (I never saw this guy at all.)

The reason I’m posting is that Jaym Gates is working on an anti-harassment policy for future WFCs. If you have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment at a con, including WFC, she asks: “please email me at jaym.gates at gmail (for reporting an incident that you don’t want made public) or pax (dot) valkyrie at gmail if you want it posted.”

Personal accounts of the specific incidents at WFC:
1) Jaym Gates
2) Stina Leicht
3) secritcrush’s LJ
4) Champagne and Socks

I’m scheduled for a panel called “The Lands of Islam” at WFC. I’m sorry to say that I won’t be on this panel. I simply cannot prepare for such a panel with only one week’s notice–not if I want to do the topic justice.

I already notified WFC, and they will see if a reading slot opens up. I’ll tweet and post if I get one.

Sorry folks! See you there. I’ll be at the bar a lot of the time.

Grinnell College now allows students to live with a roommate of any gender. There are still plenty of same-sex roommate options, of course.

Go Grinnell! I’m proud of my alma mater. Back when I went there, we had to do illegal room swaps to get a roommate of a different gender. This change is great–especially for transgendered students, who may have difficulty declaring a gender.

The comments on the article are full of hate and ignorance, as you’d expect, but there’s a few students defending themselves nicely in there. That’s the part that makes me happiest.

I wish the alum office would tell us cool stuff like this instead of all the crap I get about the college administration changes.

As a side note, if James Hall is now the substance-free dorm by student choice… how did they get all the weed smell out of the walls? 🙂 Things change in ten years…

I just spent six days in Seattle with a dear friend who has 8-month-old twins. I went up there primarily to do the cooking and cleaning and laundry for a while, so she and her husband could be well-fed and get more sleep.

I made 21 quarts of soup and a double-batch of muffins for the freezer. I compiled some of my favorite recipes into a mini-cookbook, focusing on things that would freeze well, and asked my friend which ones she wanted. She chose a number of my favorite recipes: mushroom barley soup, spicy mulligatawny, Moroccan lentil soup, champagne orzo risotto, wheat berry medley, and Russian cabbage borscht. I also made my friend’s favorite honey bran muffin recipe. Luckily she and her husband loved my cooking. I was pretty much on my feet nonstop from morning to night.

I spent some time with the babies, but I’m awkward around kids until they’re about 5 or so. The babies were cute and drooly. (“Moist,” as my friend puts it.) They liked my singing. It was fun for a while, but I definitely don’t want any of my own. I’d rather be Crazy Auntie Vylar. If you have a child in need of a roller coaster ride, just let me know. 🙂 Side note: yes, it is absolutely possible to love kids and choose not to have any yourself. People make assumptions about this and it drives me crazy.

At one point, we were clothes-shopping. One twin stayed home with dad, while the other was with us. While mom tried on clothes, I held baby and sang to him. It was amazing to see how differently people treated me when I had a baby. I got the most incredible smiles from strangers. One woman insisted he had my eyes, which would be extremely surprising as he’s not related to me.

Anyway! Now I have a few days to cook and clean my own house, and then it’s off to World Fantasy. Still have no idea about the programming schedule, but I’ll post when I find out.