Surely someone out there was wondering how the TSA handles helper monkeys.

I’m in Indianapolis visiting Darja Malcolm-Clarke, also known as ombriel on lj.  She’s in the hospital with a high-risk pregnancy.  You can read the details here, but the short version is that she’s carrying fraternal twins who are likely to be premature.  Twin B is in particular danger.  Her situation is complicated–even the doctors have no idea what will happen with this pregnancy.  Darja’s goal is to Stay Pregnant for at least another month, and more if possible.  With her permission, I’m offering an outside perspective on her condition.

It’s been an amazing visit.  Her husband Ryan went home for a few days, though I did get to meet him briefly.  I came here for four days, planning to write and maybe watch some movies.  But for the most part, we’ve just been talking and talking and talking.  About everything, and then some.  Her eyes look strained, but she’s otherwise remarkably healthy–good color, weight, and so on.

She’s doing a remarkable job of keeping herself steady and stable.  She takes things day by day, hour by hour when necessary.  We’ve had other visitors too.  I feel like I’m attending to a faery queen in court–Darja reclines in state while guests gather around her.

I watched the babies’ heartbeats on the monitor,which was neat.  I’m still hoping for a litter of kittens, but twins are pretty cute too. 🙂  I got to feel Baby A kick.  She’s been kicking a lot lately: “Hey Mom.  Mom.  MOM.”  Pretty soon she’ll be tapdancing on Darja’s bladder, or asking for the car keys. I haven’t seen much from Baby B, but I did see his heartbeat, and I’m sending him wishes for good health and strength in the coming weeks.  I figure he’s letting his sister do the kicking.

Darja’s overall health is very good.  Although an infection could risk her health and life, the nurses are watching her closely.  I’m impressed with the hospital staff here (they’re absolutely great), and I am personally not worried about losing Darja.  We’re playing Apples to Apples tonight, along with local friends Danielle and Ali.  We’ve threatened to host a rave in the hospital room, but I think we don’t have enough glowsticks.

Darja loves all the letters, comments, emails, packages, and everything.  She doesn’t always have time to answer, but she’s grateful to know people are thinking of her.

So that’s the story.  I’m really, really glad I came out here.  And I’m glad Darja has so many friends who love her.

You can hear the podcast of Fulgurite at Podcastle, read by the ever-talented cunningminx.

Three of my stories will be podcast on Escape Pod this year:  Disarm, Kill Me, and Christmas Wedding.  They’re all reprints:  Abyss & Apex, Helix/Transcriptase, and Warrior Wisewoman respectively.

I’m thrilled.  And reminded that I should figure out how to mark reprints in my full bibliography.

Hey all! I know I’ve got some well-read readers on this blog. I’d like some help with book suggestions.

My grandma listens to lots of audiobooks. She really likes romances, but doesn’t want any sex in them. My mom and I are trying to think of books, but neither of us reads this genre much.

Do you have any suggestions that we could look at?

I know the term “sweet romance” is sometimes applied to this kind of book (thanks rosalux!) but I am hoping for recommendations that people have read.

Here’s the guidelines:
1) No sex. At most, an implication like “They kissed. He turned out the light. [scene break]” is okay.
2) Happy endings.
3) Moderate Christian content is fine, but not too heavy. Grandma is Christian, but she doesn’t want the books preaching at her and so on.
4) Bonus points for pioneer stories, patriotic/American settings, and the presence of children/families somewhere in the story.

So far, Janette Oke was perfect. We haven’t tried Georgette Heyer yet, but she looks like a good match. Any other ideas for authors or books? Thank you!

ETA: Some speculative content would be fine, if it meets the other criteria.  I think she’d be okay with something like magic as long as it’s G rated.

Oh my goodness, I haven’t posted since January.

It’s earnings season. That’s all I’m doing right now–editing financial transcripts. It’s my part-time job. It’s a feast or famine sort of thing–either there’s no work, or an enormous pile.

I went to DunDraCon over the weekend and played board games the whole time. I’m totally hooked on Tales of the Arabian Nights, which is basically like a Choose Your Own Adventure board game.

I’ll be traveling all over the place in March. Three trips, and I’m gone 21 of 31 days in the month. Yikes.

I’m gearing up for a major writing project.

That’s about it for the news.

Just ran across Derailing for Dummies, a site dedicating to helping us all squash the opinions of those pesky women, people of color, queerfolk, and other people who ought to know their true place in the social heap.  (Hint: bottom.)

Totally funny.  It contains suggested tactics like:

If You Won’t Educate Me How Can I Learn

You Just Enjoy Being Offended

Well I Know Another Person From Your Group Who Disagrees!

Mandatory reading if you want to oppress marginalized people and perpetuate social injustice.  Check it out!

Cool, some folks are saying nice things about Break the Vessel at Pseudopod.

Not much other news lately.  It’s earnings season, which means I’m swamped with work and squeezing writing into the spare time.

Cat.  With cat-shaped spots on its back.

Clearly this should be a LOLcat.  But what’s the caption?