Media Roundup: Food and Friendship

May. 14th, 2026 11:18 am
forestofglory: Zhao Yunlan offering Shen Wei  meat on a stick (吃吧 (chi ba) and is an offer of food, something like "eat this, please.") (feeding people)
[personal profile] forestofglory
I’ve been saving up these notes until I finish some of the longer things and that means they’ve been getting fewer and further between. But I do have more to say about each thing!

Five Worlds by Mark Siegel, Alexis Siegel, Xanthe Bouma, Matt Rockefeller, and Boya Sun— This series of five MG science fantasy graphic novels. There are multiple moons that the characters travel between and also magic which makes for a fun mix. Three children must go on a quest together to save the world. Occasionally the problems they face are a little too parallel to those of our world. For example their worlds are heating up, and it's going to be a disaster if no one does anything. And I found the similarities a little stressful. But mostly the story was lot of fun, with cool worldbuilding. The art is really good, very colorful and fun, but also surprisingly easy to follow what is going on from panel to panel even when the action gets complicated. The environments and backgrounds are also really good.

Superman vs. Meshi by Satoshi Miyagawa, Kai Kitago (Illustrator), Wes Abbott (Letterer), trans Sheldon Drzka— So you know those slice of life manga where everyone goes on in detail about how good the food is? This is one of those with Superman as the main character. He’s become obsessed with Japanese chain restaurants and so goes to Japan on his lunch breaks – it’s very cute.

Superman is so excited to eat food! One time he got confused about which kanji was for beef and which was for pork which I found very relatable. He also brings his fellow superheroes and family to come eat with him resulting in some cute moments. (thought I can not suspend my disbelief to believe that a bunch of old people from Kannas would be happy to sit on the floor and eat sushi)

I think this is much more successful as a foodie slice of life manga than it is as a superhero comic, but I don’t really think it's trying to be a superhero comic. (But if someone came to this expecting more typical superhero stuff they would probably be confused)

Content notes: Fat phobia - mostly off hand comments about gaining weight, but there was one issue where it was more of focus. Also non consensual memory wiping

Let's Eat Together, Aki and Haru, vol 1 by Makoto Taji, trans Unknow— Reading Superman vs Meshi made me want to read more slice of life manga, so I picked up this one about two college roommates eating together. It’s tagged a yaoi so I think they’ll get together at some point but right now it's just gentle pinning and blushing. Since this is about college students is about simple and easy foods, and there are recipes. It's cute and charming.

Batgirl vol 3 (2009) by Bryan Q. Miller et al.— I have a lot of feelings about Stephine Brown – some of which have to do with her political/fandom history. The first time I learned that there had been more than one Robin was years ago reading discourse about her death, and I just feel fiercely protective of her. All this is to say that I was excited to read this series where she is the star!

It’s fun! I don’t love the way it sets up a “Steph has always been a fuck up" narrative (That doesn’t track with my reading of earlier comics, though I did skip War Games) But otherwise I really like this version of Steph. And I love seeing her working together with and being supported by other women!

What could be better? When will we know?

May. 14th, 2026 12:18 pm
sovay: (Sovay: David Owen)
[personal profile] sovay
Because I had to give blood at a frankly stupid hour of the morning, afterward I took [personal profile] spatch to Mike & Patty's. He likes breakfast sandwiches and my mother had heard a rave of theirs on the radio. I do not like breakfast sandwiches. It's mostly because I don't like fried eggs, or even scrambled eggs unless I make them myself. Mei Mei got around my aversion by wrapping their oozily fried eggs in scallion pancakes and pesto, but for years the Double Awesome was alone of its kind and I tended to order its ham-based cousin, the Porco Rosso, when I could. I am still not designed for the majority of American breakfast foods, but it turns out that if the egg is fried hard enough and layered into a Reuben-adjacent mound of pastrami, cheddar, and a slightly mustardier relative of fry sauce on a griddled English muffin, it does count as real food by me. Rob reports favorably on the slyly named McLustin', which did not obliterate its traditional stack of fried egg, bacon, American cheese, and hash brown with its tongue-nipping sriracha ketchup. We ate while watching a swan chase a Canada goose across a reservoir like a majestically petty pocket battleship. The latest episode of Widow's Bay (2026–) scored its local points with a background issue of Agni such as fetch up secondhand anywhere within reading distance of Boston University. I picked up several issues that way myself.
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Posted by Moderator R

This is your reminder that tomorrow, Friday, May 15th, at 6:30 pm, Veronica Roth will be at Half Price Books in Dallas for the release of her new series debut, Seek the Traitor’s Son – and Ilona and Gordon will be the ones moderating the event!

Seek the Traitor’s Son is book 1 of the Burning Empire series, and is out now from Tor Books in a deluxe hardcover edition with sprayed edges. This new dystopian fantasy brings us destiny, prophecy, enemy generals, romance, warfare, mysterious gifts, and the fate of nations hanging in the balance.

There are a few tickets left for the event, available for purchase here.

If you would like to attend a signing and you can’t make it to Dallas, Veronica’s tour will have multiple stops in both the US and the UK – for full details of all appearances, moderating authors and dates, check out her website here.

To be extra clear, as there was a bit of confusion last time: this is Veronica Roth’s event. House Andrews are not doing a separate IA signing or presentation at this time. They will however appear as Featured Authors at the 2026 Columbus Book Festival in Ohio on July 11 and 12, 2026.

Keep an eye on the blog and newsletter for other House Andrews announced appearances!

The post Reminder: Ilona Andrews chats with Veronica Roth tomorrow first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

F/F Romance, Urban Fantasy, & More

May. 14th, 2026 03:30 pm
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Posted by Amanda

The Sun Down Motel

RECOMMENDED: The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is $1.99! Elyse loved this one and gave it an A:

I love a good scary mystery, and The Sun Down Motel had all the elements to make it perfect. I loved the Gothic atmosphere, the theme of women coming together to get justice for other women, and the excellent momentum of the pacing. Other than possibly being too spooky for some, I can’t come up with a single reason why anyone should avoid this book.

Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.

Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

First Love, Take Two

First Love, Take Two by Sajni Patel is $1.99! This is a contemporary romance where two exes become roommates. We featured this one on a previous edition of Cover Awe. Shana gave this a B-:

Readers who like to root for a couple who are up against a closed-minded community, and who sympathize with an anxious, and occasionally strident heroine, would enjoy First Love, Take Two. If you’re looking for a standalone romance, low angst, and a couple with stellar communications skills, this might not be for you. Either way, my fellow foodies will want platters of buttermilk biscuits and tacos at hand while you read.

On the verge of realizing her dream of being a doctor, Preeti Patel should be ecstatic. But between the stress of her residency, trying to find a job, and managing her traditional, no-boundaries family, Preeti’s anxiety is through the roof. Relationships and love aren’t even an option. Fortunately, Preeti’s finally found a new place to stay . . . only to discover that her new roommate is her ex.

Preeti never quite got over Daniel Thompson. Super-hot, plenty of swagger, amazing cook—the guy is practically perfect. And if it weren’t for their families, there might have been a happily ever after. But it’s hard to keep her sanity and libido in check when the man of her dreams is sleeping mere feet away. Can Preeti and Daniel find a way to stand up and fight for each other one last time . . . before they lose their second chance?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Unholy Ghosts

Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane is $1.99! This is an urban fantasy that has been recommended by readers quite a few times! It was mentioned in the comments in a GS vs STA post about heroines who don’t want kids (which I know many people like to read).

THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

I Kissed a Girl

I Kissed a Girl by Jennet Alexander is $2.99! This is a contemporary F/F romance with both heroines working in different aspects of the entertainment industry. I thought we reviewed this one, but I think it just had a mention on Book Beat instead.

Can an up-and-coming horror actress and the makeup artist for her newest “creature feature” turn on-set chemistry into the romance of a lifetime?

Lilah Silver’s a young actress who dreams of climbing out of B-list stardom. She’s been cast as the lead in what could be her breakout performance…but if she wants to prove herself to everyone who ever doubted her, she’s going to need major help along the way.

Noa Birnbaum may be a brilliant makeup artist and special effects whiz-kid, but cracking into the union is more difficult than she imagined. Keeping everyone happy is a full-time job, and she’s already run ragged. And yet when the beautiful star she’s been secretly crushing on admits to fears of her own, Noa vows to do everything in her power to help Lilah shine like never before.

Long hours? Exhausting work? No problem. Together they can take the world by storm…but can the connection forged over long hours in the makeup chair ever hope to survive the glare of the spotlight?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

[personal profile] rolanni

Thursday. Cloudy, cool, and damp. Weatherbeans are calling for the damp to start falling out of the sky in a few hours. And the sun has come out during the hour I've been away to tend other matters.

So, I watched Good Omens 3 last night. I'm sorry the story had to be punished for Neil's alleged bad behavior. The lack of his vision and what he imagined for Sir Terry's vision was obvious in its absence, and what was offered was a flimsy sort of closure with a "feel good" denouement.

I thought, but have since better informed myself, that the last season had been cut from 6 episodes down to 90 minutes, which I was willing to admire the editor's skill, while mourning the lack of depth.  In fact, I learn that neither Neil nor his production company was involved in Season 3. It was created by a Whole 'Nother Group, which ... kinda shows.

I actually wanted more of Jesus; he was shaping up really well, and I adored the practicality of -- whatever it takes to bring people to you so you can teach -- stories? pizza? Three-card monte? It's all good.

This morning, I have been doing bookkeeping and poking at financial matters, which isn't upsetting in the least. I will shortly get with sorting through closet and dresser drawers, moving winter out and into the spaces where spring and summer now reside.

For those following along at home, the preorder numbers thus far reported for the ebook edition of The Fey Duology are! Amazon 149; Apple 25; BN 7; Kobo 16.

The proof of the paper edition should be with me tomorrow.

Amazon wants me to go to "groundwood paper" for my paper editions, but doesn't seem to be offering a sample, so -- no, Amazon. Thanks for thinking of me.

And that's the news.

How's your day starting out?

#

Sweet baby kitties. Who could guess that they were trying to murder each other five minutes ago?


Review of The Autumn Ghost

May. 14th, 2026 09:21 am
chris_gerrib: (Default)
[personal profile] chris_gerrib
The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical CareThe Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care by Hannah Wunsch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm a Rotarian, and this book was mentioned in an issue of our international association. I bought it and read it last night. The author, Hannah Wunsch, is a doctor who specializes in critical care - what laymen would call the ICU. She was working at an ICU in New York City during COVID. This specialization greatly informs the book and the reader.

The core of the book is about a polio epidemic which hit Copenhagen, Denmark in the fall of 1952. At the height of the epidemic, the main hospital in the city was getting around 200 new patients a day. Polio in 1952 was not well understood, but in the US, it was known that a primary cause of death was the patient becoming unable to breathe. This was "fixed" (somewhat) by putting them in an iron lung. There was one (1) iron lung in Denmark in 1952.

A group of Danish doctors, led by an anesthesiologist (which was not a specialty at the time) developed on the fly a way to breathe for patients with inflatable bags. This required hundreds of people to manually squeeze these bags so medical, dental and nursing students were pressed into service. It was crude but it worked, and directly led to the development of the modern ICU.

I found the story very moving and gripping. The doctors involved did not think of themselves as heroes but they were. The author also makes a great case for vaccines - a very timely thing.



View all my reviews

The Potting Shed Murder by Paula Sutton

May. 14th, 2026 08:00 am
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Posted by Lara

B+

The Potting Shed Murder

by Paula Sutton
May 27, 2025 · ‎ A John Scognamiglio Book
Mystery/Thriller

While looking ahead at upcoming releases, I came across The Body in the Kitchen Garden, the sequel to The Potting Shed Murder. The sequel sounded intriguing and from time to time I’m quite partial to a cosy mystery and it has been a while since I read one. Why not see if I still enjoy them? So off to the library I went.

Daphne, her husband, and her three children move to the English countryside after a close call with their safety in south London. They settle in Cranberry Farmhouse and after about ten months in the village of Pudding Corner, there is a murder in the adjacent village.

The murder only happens at 18% in, but the exposition building up to that point is rather lovely. It didn’t set my world on fire, but I found it so soothing. In fact, that is my overwhelming feeling for most of The Potting Shed Murder: I was soothed. More on that later.

Initially, the dialogue is a bit stilted and awkward, but that isn’t something that affects the rest of the writing. The narrative is smooth, tight and really invited me in. After the murder, the dialogue becomes a lot more convincing and enjoyable to read.

As an unapologetic curious/nosy person, I appreciated the gradual reveal of village secrets. While the narrative is told from multiple points of view, it’s always a third person narrator that often reveals salacious details. I loved it.

I also really enjoyed how well-rounded the secondary characters were and how often they avoided being stereotypical residents of an English village as often appear in cosy mysteries. Yes, there are familiar characters: the local doctor, the principal of the village school, the local shopowners, etc., but they have rich internal lives that are explored thoroughly.

Daphne is a Black woman, and a second generation immigrant. There are frank discussions of race and her experience, and of her feelings about raising biracial children in a predominantly White area. There is also mention of Black History Month and Black Lives Matter, which provide a specific context that I appreciated.

I realise this is a bizarre thing to say about a book centred on death but if you’ve read a cosy mystery I think you’ll get what I’m saying: this is a mostly restful story. It would often send me to sleep at night before my usual bedtime, not because it was boring but because it was just so calming and I could feel my whole body relax when I read it. Because of this it took me ages to finish.

It was so calming that I wondered if I shouldn’t rely on an old trick and read multiple books at once. But each time I opened my e-reader, I would see The Potting Shed Murder there and the curiosity would get me. What would happen next? And so I was a one-book woman for the duration.

Overall, I enjoyed how the story unfolded. The plot was clear, logical and – towards the end – quite thrilling. I say that because at around 70% things speed up A LOT and become more intense from that point on. I had to take little breaks from reading because the suspense was stressing me out. As calming as the first 70% was, the last 30% was suspense-filled. This plot structure really worked for the story. I was delighted by the arrival of each clue and how it unfolded for our amateur sleuth.

When secrets start to unravel in full, I really felt the emotional impact of the victim’s death. I would say this differs from the other cosy mysteries that I have read in which the deaths didn’t have much of an emotional impact on me. This one did. I felt despair and loss as I read about lives half lived and lost too soon. So keep that in mind if you’re feeling particularly fragile.

I recommend this book to anyone in the Bitchery looking for a cosy mystery that finds its own lane while still being a very good example of the genre. I will absolutely be reading the sequel, The Body in the Kitchen Garden, when it is released on May 29th. I want more time in the village of Pudding Corner.

Bundle of Holding: The Other Side

May. 13th, 2026 02:22 pm
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


11 character-class supplements for any old-school FRPG.

Bundle of Holding: The Other Side

Some of Today’s KDDs

May. 13th, 2026 03:30 pm
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Posted by Amanda

The Monsters We Defy

RECOMMENDED: The Monsters We Defy by Leslye Penelope is 99c! Sarah read this one and gave it a B:

I liked the painstaking and careful character development of the first half more than the zoomy-zoom plot of the second half, but the foundation of historical fiction and incredible detail coupled with folk magic, ghosts, and negotiating with spirits made this an exceptionally fun, absorbing, and thoughtful story.

A woman able to communicate with spirits must assemble a ragtag crew to pull off a daring heist to save her community in this timely and dazzling historical fantasy that weaves together African American folk magic, history, and romance.

Washington D. C., 1925

Clara Johnson talks to spirits, a gift that saved her during her darkest moments in a Washington D. C. jail. Now a curse that’s left her indebted to the cunning spirit world. So, when the Empress, the powerful spirit who holds her debt, offers her an opportunity to gain her freedom, a desperate Clara seizes the chance. The task: steal a magical ring from the wealthiest woman in the District.

Clara can’t pull off this daring heist alone. She’ll need help from an unlikely team, from a jazz musician capable of hypnotizing with a melody to an aging vaudeville actor who can change his face, to pull off the impossible. But as they encounter increasingly difficult obstacles, a dangerous spirit interferes at every turn. Conflict in the spirit world is leaking into the human one and along D.C’.s legendary Black Broadway, a mystery unfolds—one that not only has repercussions for Clara but all of the city’s residents.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Seventh Bride

The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher is 99c at Amazon! This is a Bluebeard retelling and is just shy of 250 pages. Last time this was on sale, comments mentioned that this isn’t a YA book and while it isn’t their favorite work by Kingfisher, it’s still pretty damn good.

Young Rhea is a miller’s daughter of low birth, so she is understandably surprised when a mysterious nobleman, Lord Crevan, shows up on her doorstep and proposes marriage. Since commoners don’t turn down lords—no matter how sinister they may seem—Rhea is forced to agree to the engagement.

Lord Crevan demands that Rhea visit his remote manor before their wedding. Upon arrival, she discovers that not only was her betrothed married six times before, but his previous wives are all imprisoned in his enchanted castle. Determined not to share their same fate, Rhea asserts her desire for freedom. In answer, Lord Crevan gives Rhea a series of magical tasks to complete, with the threat “Come back before dawn, or else I’ll marry you.”

With time running out and each task more dangerous and bizarre than the last, Rhea must use her resourcefulness, compassion, and bravery to rally the other wives and defeat the sorcerer before he binds her to him forever.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Proposal They Can’t Refuse

A Proposal They Can’t Refuse by Natalie Caña is $1.99! This was Caña’s debut and features rivals to lovers and fake dating. Lots of good food and drink descriptions!

Natalie Caña turns up the heat, humor and heart in this debut rom-com about a Puerto Rican chef and an Irish American whiskey distiller forced into a fake engagement by their scheming octogenarian grandfathers.

Kamilah Vega is desperate to convince her family to update their Puerto Rican restaurant and enter it into the Fall Foodie Tour. With the gentrification of their Chicago neighborhood, it’s the only way to save the place. The fly in her mofongo–her blackmailing abuelo says if she wants to change anything in his restaurant, she’ll have to marry the one man she can’t stand: his best friend’s grandson.

Liam Kane spent a decade working to turn his family’s distillery into a contender. Now he and his grandfather are on the verge of winning a national competition. Then Granda hits him with a one-two punch: he has cancer and he has his heart set on seeing Liam married before it’s too late. And Granda knows just the girl…Kamilah Vega.

If they refuse, their grandfathers will sell the building that houses both their businesses. With their futures on the line, Kamilah and Liam plan to outfox the devious duo, faking an engagement until they both get what they want. But soon, they find themselves tangled up in more than either of them bargained for.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Dish Best Served Hot

A Dish Best Served Hot by Natalie Caña is $2.99! This is book two in the Vega Family Love Stories series. It was also featured on Hide Your Wallet. Have you read this one or its predecessor?

“From a comedic cast of supporting characters to an emphasis on the importance of community… A vibrant second-chance love story about repairing community and romantic connection.” — Kirkus Reviews (STARRED)

Santiago “Saint” Vega gets a second shot at love with Lola León, but when duty to his family forces him to do something she’ll never forgive, will everything he’s built come crumbling down?

Years ago, Saint walked away from the girl he loved to fulfill his duty. Now he’s struggling to build bridges between his drifting family, take on more responsibilities at his uncle’s construction company, figure out why his daughter refuses to talk at school and curtail his mischievous abuelo’s escalating pranks. Then she walks back into his life.

Social justice advocate Lola León has returned to Humboldt Park for two to help care for her dear abuelo and to serve the community center she loved, particularly the shelter for unhoused LGBTQIA+ youths. When she finds out that the Vegas are responsible for endangering both, she is more than ready to go to war—even if the boy she never forgot is standing at the front of the battlefield.

Neither of them expects to become allies in saving the shelter, helping Saint’s daughter or ending the decades-long feud between their grandfathers. They definitely don’t expect all of their old feelings to come rushing back. As Saint and Lola enter combat, they can’t help but wonder where the other’s true allegiance lies, and whether they’ll win these battles only to lose each other.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

BDH BINGO

May. 13th, 2026 01:58 pm
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Posted by Moderator R

Happy Wednesday, Horde!

I’m hosting a little Book Bingo morning to get us through the week hump.

The rules are simple. Tick off every square that applies to you. The central Curran square is free, because the Consort is ever merciful.

  • Five in a row – across, down, or diagonal – and you have BINGO
  • Fill the whole sheet and you have DEVOUR-ALL

You get to brag with your total in the comments and the prize of knowing that you are part of the greatest Horde ever!

A few notes for anyone who needs them:

BDH stands for Book Devouring Horde, the affectionate collective name for Ilona Andrews readers.

HA means House Andrews, aka Ilona and Gordon.

Ship/shipping is a fandom term for a character romance you root for, whether confirmed on the page or not.

There is an accessibility button in the upper-left corner of the site. It can adjust contrast, switch to greyscale, and offer other display options that may help.

How did you do?

The post BDH BINGO first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Blue Wednesday

May. 13th, 2026 09:19 am
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

Wednesday. Sunny and cool. Rain called for this afternoon.

So! Yesterday was not the Best Day Ever, and today is sadly looking to be more of the same. I did not go to needlework last night, which may have been the wrong decision, but seemed like a good idea at the time.

In a few minutes, I'll be going out to get my hairs cut. When I get back, I need to decide if I am indeed going to be offering an adult ed course on writing believable characters this fall. Later on this afternoon, the third contractor will manifest.

The cats have been taking turns on my lap, which is very kind of them. Firefly got right down to the nitty-gritty during this morning's session in sunlight, and put herself to chew off one of my shirt buttons.

Amazon tells me that the paper edition of The Fey Duology is in queue to be visible for order on June 1, which gives me plenty of time to review the proof copy, which will, it says here, be with me on Friday. In the meanwhile, I'm told that the ebook is listed as "coming" on some venues, the most notable being Smashwords, but it cannot be pre-ordered.

Preorder numbers for the ebook edition of The Fey Duology as of ten minutes ago was! Amazon 141; Apple 23; BN 7; Kobo 16.

And that's the news from the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.

What's the news from your place?


[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


A selfless act of heroism costs a homeless NEET his life. Waking in an unfamiliar world, he resolves to do better in his next incarnation.

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, volume 1 by Rifujin Na Magonote

Links: Brooklyn 99, Audiobooks, & More

May. 13th, 2026 09:00 am
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Posted by Amanda

An illustrated image of a desk space with a computer, stack of books, reading glasses, and a mug.Happy Wednesday!

The allergies have started! I was honestly surprised. Normally, I can tell when they’re coming on, but I think it’s all taken us by the surprise (at least in my office).

As a reminder, I’m doing this event at Lovestruck next Wednesday. If you attend, please come up and say hi after the chat.

Ever wanted to LARP as AI? Now you can on Your AI Slop Bores Me. Essentially, YOU are the Chatgpt. Or, if you’re seeking answers to a question, real humans are responding. No promises on the answers being helpful. You can see how it works here.

NPR interviewed the voice behind many popular romantasy heroes.

My husband loves finding quirky new browser games. Enjoy Cursor Camp!

Lastly, what if Jake Peralta from Brooklyn 99 was in the game Detroit: Become Human?

Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!

Tarot After Dark: Beltane Fire

May. 13th, 2026 08:00 am
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Posted by Carrie S

This piece of literary mayhem is exclusive to Smart Bitches After Dark, but fret not. If you'd like to join, we'd love to have you!

Have a look at our membership options, and come join the fun!

If you want to have a little extra fun, be a little more yourself, and be part of keeping the site open for everyone in the future, we can’t wait to see you in our new subscription-based section with exclusive content and events.

Everything you’re used to seeing at the Hot Pink Palace that is Smart Bitches Trashy Books will remain free as always, because we remain committed to fostering community among brilliant readers who love romance.

Ne 'z in ket da gorolliñ

May. 12th, 2026 11:38 pm
sovay: (Otachi: Pacific Rim)
[personal profile] sovay
After more than seven months out of work, the degree to which I can afford anything above the bottom rung of Maslow has become truly minimal, but as soon as I discovered Quinquis' eor (2025), a shape-shiftingly electronic, primarily Breton-language album of mermaids and the sea, I leapt for it like it was mackerel. I heard first the all-night love-churn of "Morwreg" (2024), but the irresistible drag sirens of "Dec'h" (2025) sealed the deal.

The copy of Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld's Duck! Rabbit! (2009) which I sent my godchild for his first solstice was familially referred to for years as Baby's First Wittgenstein. I have no idea what Wittgenstein would have made of this cartoon, but I'm impressed.

I am not sure that I am much more than physically extant at the minute. I am clearing the refrigerator and the countertops. I am absorbing as much sunlight as I sleeplessly can. Yesterday kicked off with a doctor's appointment that was too early in the morning to be as unhelpful as it was and only dropped the bar from there, so this afternoon I made sure to secure a half-dozen donuts from the reliable Lyndell's and eat a jam-filled one as soon as I had finished walking home. The neighborhood smelled like alternating drifts of lilac and mulch. I have had the same headache since the weekend and am hoping it is related to the sexing of the trees. The nine o'clock advent of leafblowers to our block was inhumane.
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Posted by Cora

Over the Easter weekend, I was at Iridescence, the 2026 Eastercon in Birmingham, UK.

I’ve already chronicled my adventures in getting to Birmingham and wandering around the city in part 1 and my adventures on Good Friday in part 2. So here is Easter Saturday:

Saturday, April 4, 2026

On Easter Saturday, I woke up, got dressed and went to have breakfast.

The Eastercon Business Meeting took place on Saturday morning and since Farah needed to be there, we decided that I would man or rather woman the table until approx. one PM and then Farah would take over.

So I headed to the dealers room after breakfast, only to find that it was still closed, though they did let in the people who had tables. It turned out that we had miscalculated, since Farah and I assumed that the dealers room would open at nine, when it actually opened at ten.

So I straightened up the table, refilled the chocolate and candy bowls as well as the koalas. I also set the pineapple upright and placed the hats on top. I also finally found the garbage bin next to the door to the dealers room, which was good, because we’d just been collecing the accumulated garbage in a bag under the table.

This is what it looked like on Saturday morning before the dealers room officially opened.

Brisbane in 2028 World bid fan table at Eastercon

The Brisbane in 2028 (as well as the Montreal in 2027 and Edmonton in 2030) Worldcon bid fan table.

The Brisbane/Meanjin (indigenous name of Brisbane) logo was designed by indigenous Australian artist Tori-Jay Mordey BTW.

In the background, you can also see the fan table for LACon, the 2026 Worldcon in Anaheim, California, as well as the BSFA table and a table of the Honor Harrington fan group Royal Manticorean Navy. I was a bit surprised to see them, since the Honor Harrington books aren’t as well known in Europe due to Baen‘s well-known lack of regular distribution in Europe, though they also had a table at the 2019 Worldcon in Dublin.

As for our competitors from Nuremberg, this is what their table looked like on Saturday morning:

Nuremberg in 2028 Worldcon bid table at Eastercon

The Nuremberg in 2028 Worldcon bid fan table (and the Edmonton in 2030 table as well) at Eastercon.

The poster was designed by German comic artist and illustrator Michael Vogt and shows one of the towers of Nuremberg’s Imperial Castle reimagined as a rocket. There also are flyers, postcards, stickers, tourist broshures, a flyer of the Nuremberg exhibition center and a Playmobil figure of artist and Nuremberg native Albrecht Duerer. The headquarters of Playmobil is in Dietenhofen near Nuremberg.

A little bit later, Edward James, who also thought that the dealers room opened at nine AM arrived with more supplies, including more tiny koalas to give away. Edward also took this somewhat goofy, but also very nice photo of me behind the table, cuddling a plush lobster:

Cora at the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid fan table at Eastercon

Me behind the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid table at Eastercon, cuddling a plush lobster, while lots of tiny koalas are waiting to be adopted.

I’m wearing a 2025 Toyplosion t-shirt with some great Simon Eckert artwork of She-Ra fighting Hordak, which is covered up by my arms and the lobster.

Since the dealers room wasn’t yet open, I walked over to the Science Fiction Club Deutschland and MetropolCon tables to chat for a bit. The Science Fiction Club Deutschland folks also had Niederegger marzipan bites, so I took one.

By now, Carolina and Amanda had come in as well to staff the Montreal and Edmonton tables and Florian Bailey also showed up, his wife and kids in tow. The Baileys have two school-aged kids. There are currently school holidays in most German states, including Bavaria, and so the Baileys combined Eastercon with a holiday trip. Of course, sitting at a fan table in the dealers room at Eastercon isn’t all that exiciting for kids and toys only go so far, so they got antsy after a while. Which is totally understandable – they are kids, after all. The fact that their English was pretty limited also meant that they couldn’t communicate very well with the other kids running around the con.

At ten, the delaers room officially opened and more people started coming in. I spent the morning handing out koalas, ribbons, postcards and bookmarks, explaining how site selection voting works and just chatting with people about all sorts of things ranging from Doctor Who fan theories via Galactic Journey, Hugo history and Sad Puppies to Birmingham as a foodie city.

Among others, I chatted with Adrian Tchaikovsky, Anna Smith Spark, Charles Stross, his wife Feorag and their plush Cthulhu, Matt/Womble, Andrew Knighton, Ana Sun, Scott Edelman (who had just enjoyed his first Birmingham balti the day before), Alison Scott, John Coxon, España Sheriff, Sara Felix, James Bacon, S.J. Groenewegen and many, many others whose names I don’t recall. If I talked to you at Eastercon or gave you a koala and failed to mention you, I’m very sorry.

I also took this photo (with permission) of Cthulhu making friends with a tiny koala and posted it on social media, where it went kind of viral and even ended up in the convention newsletter The Fiery Chicken.

Plush Cthulhu with koala

Cthulhu has made friends with a tiny koala

Another very memorable encounter was with a marine scientist who’s just returned from a tour to Antarctica aboard ther German research vessel RV Polarstern. I told him that my Dad had been working on developing equipment for the much delayed replacement vessel Polarstern 2 (the OG Polarstern was built in 1982, i.e. she’s 44-years-old) before he died and that he had also developed equipment for other German research vessels such as the RV Maria S. Merian. Well, it turned out that this gentleman not only knew the Maria S. Merian, but had actually been chief scientist during one of her voyages. I told him which equipment my Dad had developed – which was complicated by the fact that while I had known at one time, what those equipment parts were called, I didn’t remember the official names while sitting in the busy dealers room of a con some twenty years later. The gentleman said that he probably met my Dad, but wasn’t quite sure. He also noted that Germany has an amazing fleet of research vessels, which a lot of Germans don’t know.

This encounter makes me wish that I could have persuaded Dad to come to Worldcon or some other con with me. I tried a few times and even told him that I could get his membership comped, if he would give a talk about his work or interests, whether it’s equipment for research vessels or system for oil spill clean-up or renewable energy. But he never wanted to come along and always said that he didn’t know anybody there. Well, here was at least one person at Eastercon he probably knew or could have connected with over shared interests.

As for what we actually did at the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid table, the most important thing is to make sure that people vote in site selection, which means that they need a WSFS membership, the former supporting membership, from LACon V. We always told people that a WSFS membership is sufficient and that they can vote online – they don’t need to travel to California and actually attend the con. It’s a very telling and sad statement about the state of the world right now that lots of people told me, “Oh no, I’d never travel to the US as things are.”

Now I actually have a full attending membership for LACon, optimistically purchased during the 2024 Eurocon three months before the 2024 US presidential election. And I was looking forward to visiting Los Angeles and Anaheim, because I’ve never been further west than San Antonio. I wanted to strike my childhood bucket list item of “I want to see the Hollywood sign and the Walk of Fame” off my personal list (someone told me that the Walk of Fame wasn’t really worth it, but that the La Brea tar pits are well worth visiting, which led to a discussion about the movie Miracle Mile), visit Clifton’s Cafeteria, maybe go to Disneyland (though apparently that’s super expensive these days – not that it was cheap when my parents took my to Disney World at the age of five). But nope, like so many others, I’m not going, because I don’t fancy being denied entry or ending up in some ICE jail, because someone doesn’t like my nose or some of my social media posts or can’t figure out if attending a Worldcon is considered tourism or business travel.

We also pointed out that a WSFS membership gives you Hugo voting and nominating rights and access to the Hugo voter packet, which provides so much value that it basically pays for itself. Honestly, I’m always surprised that Worldcons don’t stress this aspect more. At any rate, LACon should thank us for hopefully getting lots of people to sign up for WSFS memberships.

Next, we explained that in order to vote in site selection, you have to pay another voting fee, because running a Worldcon costs a lot of money, since convention centers, hotels, etc… want to get paid. However, the voting fee automatically gets you the WSFS membership for the respective year, including Hugo voting and nominating rights, the Hugo voter packet and site selection voting rights.

The people I talked to had wildly differing knowledge. There were former Worldcon chairs, Hugo finalists, well known writers, SMOFs, who of course know how site selection voting works. But there also were people who had attended Worldcon before – quite often Glasgow in 2024, Dublin in 2019 or London in 2014, but I also talked to people who’d last attended in 1995 or earlier – who had never voted in site selection before and didn’t know how it works. There were also quite a few people who – in spite of previous Worldcon memberships – had never voted or nominated for the Hugos before.

There also were people – often young folks from the Haruhi Con anime con which took place in the same hotel on the same weekend – who didn’t know anything about Worldcon, so cue some Worldcon history. I usually introduced Worldcon as a root from which all the ther cons – the comic cons, anime cons, Star Trek cons, filk cons, etc… sprang. If they were cosplayers, I told them that cosplay was invented at the very first Worldcon in 1939. Interestingly, some people did have knowledge of the Hugos, but not Worldcon. At one point, I was discussing the Chengdu Hugo scandal and Sad Pupppies with two young women who’d heard of the former, but not the latter, most likely because it happened before they were active in fandom.

As for what we told people to persuade them to vote for Brisbane over Nuremberg, the total solar eclipse that will pass through Australia, including Sydney, on July 22, 2028, i.e. about a week before Worldcon, was a popular draw. Another popular attraction was Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I mentioned that Brisbane has an attraction called Bluey’s World a few times and I did mention that Brisbane has a swimming and bathing lagoon with lifeguards in the city. The swimming lagoon and the lifeguards – I promised hunky lifeguards and asked people to imagine their favourite attractive Australian person of their preferred gender – were usually brought up in response to people being worried about Australia’s famously deadly and poisonous wildlife. In fact, I was surprised how many people brought up the poisonous wildlife as a reason why they didn’t want to vote for Brisbane. Yes, the poisonous wildlife exists and I think Australia likes bragging that their wildlife is deadlier than anybody else’s a little too much, but you’re extremely unlikely to meet that poisonous wildlife in a city of 287000 inhabitants outside maybe a zoo. Worrying about poisonous wildlife when attending a Worldcon in Brisbane is like worrying about being mauled by a grizzly or coyote while attending a Worldcon in Seattle or Anaheim.

Of course, I also got people who told me they were voting for Nuremberg and I told them that’s fine as well, as long as they vote. As for the reasons people gave for their vote, they were quite varied. A lot of people were excited about Brisbane, because they really wanted to visit Australia or because they had family or friends in Australia. The biggest counter argument against Brisbane was that it’s very far away, that the flight is expensive and likely to get even more expensive by 2028. There’s really nothing you can say against that argument.

I also got people who really wanted to go to Nuremberg. One gentleman had been a competitive fencer and had visited Germany in general and Nuremberg in particular several times in that capacity and really liked the city and wanted to visit it again. Competetive fencing is big in Germany and Tauberbischofsheim, the center of German competetive fencing, is close to Nuremberg.

There was also a young lady (whom I suspect might not even have a driver’s licence) who told me that she wanted to go Nuremberg, because she wanted to drive very fast on the Autobahn. Upon which I told her that I like driving very fast on occasion, too, and how to do it most safely. I also told her that I’d be fine with Nuremberg, because it means I can hop into my car and drive there on the Autobahn. And then I realised which Autobahn I would have to take and that I would have to cross the bloody Kasseler Mountain and pass through the region where WWIII was expected to start again.

In general, if people have a strong personal preference for one Worldcon site, you usually can’t sway them and that’s fine. The ones you can sway are the ones who are undecided and also the ones whose reason for one site over the other is something like “X is very far away” or “I’m worried about [insert unlikely event here].” Though I always emphasized that while I would prefer people to vote for Brisbane, I’d be fine with Nuremberg as well as long as they do vote.

As for why I’m backing Brisbane rather than Nuremberg, for starters the Brisbane team asked me to help staff their table at Eastercon. Nuremberg didn’t. And while I would love to see a Worldcon in Germany as much as the next German fan, I want a good German Worldcon, one that won’t ruin our chances to have another Worldcon for the next 55 years. And as things are, I’m not sure if the Nuremberg team can pull it off, especially given the extremely tight timeframe of a little over two years. There’s a reason Worldcon bids are normally announced five or more years in advance – because the time is needed to get your team in place and make all the behind the scenes preparations that regular members rarely see. I first saw the team behind what would become the 2024 Worldcon in Glasgow at the Fannish Inquisition in Helsinki all the way back in 2017.  Meanwhile, Nuremberg didn’t even have any social media accounts in place until mid March. Indeed, it seemed – and I am not the only one who noticed this – as if Nuremberg co-chair Florian Bailey’s answer to every single question was, “We’re working on it.” Which I’m certain they are, but this shows how tight the time frame is.

Another potential issue is that while Nuremberg co-chairs Florian Bailey and Ruben Wickenhäuser are clearly fans and enthusiastic and at least Florian Bailey also has event organising experience from the Nuremberg Digital Festival which he runs, neither of them have any Worldcon or SFF fan con running experience and it’s not clear how familiar they are with Worldcon and its unique culture. And if you look at the team on their website, you’ll see a lot of US and UK SMOFs and comparatively few Germans. Of course, a large part of the reason why we haven’t had another German Worldcon bid since 1970 (and no, it’s not because some trolls decided to behave like trolls back in 1970) is the balkanized nature of German fandom. Every group has their own cons – the Star Trek fans, the Perry Rhodan fans, the Star Wars fans, the Masters of the Universe fans, the anime/manga fans, the gamers, the cosplayers, the filkers, the Steampunks, the toy collectors, etc… – and they don’t necessarily interact with cons and fandoms outside their own bubble. We do have experienced con-runners, but they haven’t been willing to bid for a Worldcon so far. And in fact, the reaction among German fans and con-runners to the Nuremberg bid so far seems to be “wait and see”.

As for the US/UK SMOFs on Nuremberg’s team, it’s great that they’re getting experienced help, cause they’re going to need it. However, as things look now, a potential Nuremberg Worldcon would be more like Glasgow/Dublin 2.0 than an actual German Worldcon. And while Dublin and Glasgow 1.0 were both great Worldcons, I would prefer a German Worldcon to be actually German, if you know what I mean. As for why so many US/UK SMOFs jumped onto a last minute Worldcon bid run by two inexperienced co-chairs, there is apparently some kind of beef that some of the international SMOFs have with the Brisbane team. And to be fair, the Brisbane bid was rather inactive for a long time, even though they’ve been bidding for several years.

Which brings me to another issue with the Nuremberg bid. Cause sliding into 2028 at the last minute wasn’t fair to the Brisbane team and the Australian/Oceanian fandom in general. Because Australia/Oceania usually only gets one Worldcon per decade. The last one would have been CoNZealand in 2020, but we all know what happened. So Australia and Oceania haven’t had a Worldcon since Aussiecon 4 in Melbourne in 2010 and frankly, they deserve one, especially considering how isolated Australian and Oceanian fans and pros are from the rest of the SFF sphere due to their location. And yes, Germany hasn’t had a Worldcon since 1970 and continental Europe hasn’t had one since 1990, but – as I explained to Florian Bailey and his wife – Australian fandom doesn’t see it that way, because Australia is huge. And what they see is that there have been four European Worldcons (London, Helsinki, Dublin and Glasgow) since the last Australian Worldcon.

The Nuremberg bid was also marred by some clumsy messaging early on – e.g. the strong focus on Nuremberg’s Nazi history as opposed to everything the city has to offer put some people off. Now particularly Americans tend to associate Nuremberg mainly with Nazis – to the point that there is a movie about the Nuremberg trials in theatres currently just called Nuremberg (and some Americans were peeved that Germans don’t want to see yet another Hollywood film about Nazis) – while Germans have other associations. For me, “Nazis” isn’t even in the top ten of things I associate with Nuremberg. Nuremberg Toy Fair, gingerbread, Albrecht Dürer, the famous Christmas market, Christmas ornaments, Nuremberg sausages, the Imperial Castle, the world’s first pocket watch the Nuremberg egg all rank way ahead of Nazis for me. And of course there are those ghoulish tourists (often, but not always Americans) who want to visit all the Nazi sites to feel better about themselves. Berlin is plagued with those and Nuremberg likely is as well. My favourite BTW was the guy (not American, but British) who deliberately sought out the graves of former high to medium ranking Nazis on German cemeteries and then complained that those graves – usually normal family graves used for decades, which just happened to have a notable Nazi buried there among various non-Nazis – were still there.  Dude, you’re the one who sought out Nazi graves and felt the need to point them out to the world. Of course, the Nazis are part of Nuremberg’s history as well and pointing out the respective museums is perfectly fine. Plus, the Nuremberg exhibiton centre, which would be the venue for a potential Nuremberg Worldcon, is actually on the former Reichsparteitag grounds. However – and people unfamiliar with Nuremberg don’t know this  – the Reichsparteitag grounds are huge and house not only the exhibition centre, but also a park, a lake, a football stadium, a concert hall and yes, crumbling Nazi ruins and a museum, too. But the Nazi ruins are not that close to the exhibition centre and you don’t have to visit them, unless you want to. That said, the Zeppelintribüne would be a great place for some toy photograph. The Nuremberg website has been updated by now and points out the many other sights and museums the city has to offer aside from crumbling Nazi ruins, but the initial messaging wasn’t great.

What is more, while Nuremberg is a beautiful city and has a world-class exhibition centre (it’s the home of Nuremberg Toy Fair), I’m also not sure if it is the best location for a possible German Worldcon (but then neither was Heidelberg). Now if you were bidding for a potential Worldcon in Germany, the venue is the least of your problems, because pretty much every bigger city has an exhibition or convention centre. I could theoretically run a Worldcon in Oldenburg’s Weser-Ems Halle, except that the city doesn’t have the required hotel capacity and we would be filling up every country inn in a radius of 50 kilometres around the city with Worldcon members. I could definitely run a Worldcon in Bremen – though don’t worry, I won’t.

The main obstacle in Germany is not convention space, but hotels and particularly airport access. Because most German cities are old, convention centres tend to be on the edge of town, whereas hotels usually are concentrated in the town centre (coincidentally, this is also the case in Nuremberg). Which isn’t normally a problem for Germans or Europeans, because there always is a public transport option shuttling you between your hotel and the convention centre. However, it is a huge issue for Americans, who are less used to using public transport and basically prefer to have several hotels around the convention centre, preferably with direct access that you don’t even have to go outside. Helsinki even offered free public transport tickets for Worldcon members, while Glasgow had a very cheap option of a multi-day pass and people still complained.

Airports are an even bigger issue in Germany. For while Germany has plenty of airports, for a Worldcon you need one with overseas connections and there aren’t that many of those. Basically, you have Frankfurt on Main, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Berlin with overseas connections plus Hannover and Halle-Leipzig, which could theoretically handle overseas connections and have in the past, but no longer do. Fun fact: Bremen airport could easily have overseas connections as well and the runway is long enough for a Boeing 747 (and a 747 has landed here at least once), but some locals who bought cheap real estate near the airport keep complaining about an airport that’s older than their houses. To be fair, Bremen also only has one runway and due to the location you can’t easily built another. Meanwhile, Hannover’s airport has a runway that’s long enough for a Concorde and yes, a Concorde has landed there at least once as well. However, in practice, the smaller German airports – including Bremen and Nuremberg – mainly offer flights to holiday destinations in the Mediterranean as well as feeder flights to various hubs. Nuremberg Airport also has the issue that it’s too close to both Frankfurt and Munich – two likely arrival hubs for international visitors – to offer flights there. So international visitors would have to take the train and navigating train travel in a foreign country and foreign language is not easy. In fact, navigating train travel in Germany isn’t all that easy for me as well (plus, Deutsche Bahn is just fucking terrible) and indeed, I try to avoid train travel in Germany as much as possible.

So in short, while I would welcome a German Worldcon and wish the Nuremberg team all the best, I don’t think 2028 is the right year for it. 2031 (which right now only has one bid for Texas, which isn’t particularly viable for political reasons beyond bid team’s control) or 2033 (no bids at all currently) would both be better choices.

But back to Eastercon: At around one PM, Farah arrived to relieve me at the table and so I went to have lunch at the bar of the Hilton. I had the vegetable balti again, because I had enjoyed it the day before and most of the other options didn’t really appeal to me. I did briefly consider having fish and chips, cause I really like fish and chips. But I had seen someone else eat it the day before and it was served with mushy peas (which is fine) and tartare sauce, which I don’t really care for. Plus, the person who ordered it had to hunt down vinegar. So I just ordered the balti again. No photo, cause you’ve already seen it in the previous post.

After lunch, I took a stroll through the art show. Once again, no photos, because none were allowed. However, I have to say that I was very impressed with the scope and quality of the Iridescence art show, which rivaled some of the Worldcon art shows I have seen.

After the art show, I returned to the dealers room to actually browse the tables and wares on offer – something I really couldn’t do while I was at the Brisbane table. I chatted with fellow Galactic Journey correspondent Fiona Moore, who was putting in a shift at her publisher’s table and we took this photo of both of us together.

Cora Buhlert and Fiona Moore at Eastercon

Me and fellow Galactic Journey correspondent Fiona Moore at Iridescence.

I also bought a couple of books as well as a bracelet to go with the steampunky Octopus necklace I had bought the day before. In general, Iridescence had a very good dealers room with a good variety of offerings. I particularly liked that many small presses and indie authors had tables, where you could buy books you wouldn’t normally find at a regular bookstore.

After I had done my round of the dealers room, I went up to my hotel room to find that it hadn’t been cleaned or serviced – for the second day in a row. On the first day, I had chalked the lack of servicing up to getting up late and not having put out the “Please make up room” sign, but on Saturday I got up earlier and did put out the sign. Apparently, the Hilton Metropole is only cleaning/servicing rooms every three days now – supposedly to protect the environment, but in truth because they were understaffed. They also don’t inform you about this beforehand. And frankly, considering the room cost approx. 150 GBP per night, I do expect daily cleaning/servicing. This is the Hilton, after all, not a a dodgy motel or country inn.

I took a nap for two hours or so and then got up again to have dinner. I checked my phone and saw a message on WhatsApp as well as the convention Discord that someone named John (or rather his wife) urgently needed tweezers. Now I happened to have tweezers, so I messaged John or rather his wife that they could borrow them. John was at a panel, so I waited outside for the panel to finish and then handed over the tweezers and told him to return them at the Brisbane fan table.

The BSFA Awards ceremony was on Saturday evening and many folks at the con, including most of the people I knew, attended the ceremony, so I was on my own. Initially, I was going to head over to Resorts World again. However, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, cause a storm was blowing in. And so, when I was about to leave the hotel to head over to Resorts World, I met some Eastercon members returning from there, who warned me that it was cold and windy. A few steps out of the hotel confirmed that it was indeed unpleasantly cold and windy, especially since I was still wearing the skirt and t-shirt I had worn in the warm dealers room.

I now had two options. I could go back up to my room, put on pants and grab my coat and brave the oncoming storm (no, not that one). Or I could just stay at the Hilton and have dinner there. Since I would have to walk through a park and along the lake with little protection, option 2 won out. It proved to be the right choice, especially since that same storm would cause a terrible accident in the village of Satrup in the far north of Germany on Sunday morning, when a tree fell onto a group of people at an Easter egg hunt, killing a young mother and her baby as well as a teenager and seriously injuring another teenager.

In addition to the bar, where I’d had lunch two days in a row now, the Hilton Metropole also has a restaurant called Brightsmith on the Water, because it has a terrace overlooking Pendigo Lake. In spite of the storm, some brave folks were even sitting out there. Because I didn’t really fancy having vegetable balti again (or fish and chips), I opted for Brightsmith on the Water. Considering it was a Saturday evening and there were two conventions going on at the hotel, the restaurant was pretty empty, though there were a few Eastercon people there, including two I knew well enough to say hello.

Brightsmith on the Water turned out to be a nice restaurant, though on the pricy side. I did have a full three course menu and wine, though I did forego the seafood, cause it was very pricy indeed, for somewhat less pricy, but also tasty options.

As a starter, I had whipped goat cheese with hot honey, which was nice. Coincidentally, this was the first time I’ve had hot honey. Cause even though it’s currently very trendy, it has eluded me so far.

Whipped goat cheese with hot honey, pickled potatoes, crispy sourdough slices and arugula

Whipped goat cheese with hot honey, pickled potatoes, crispy sourdough slices and arugula

As a main cause, I picked butter chicken masala. Again, it was nice, though maybe a bit close to the balti I’d had for lunch. However, the seafood dishes on offer were very pricy and I didn’t fancy having steak or a burger. I’m not a fan of gourmet burgers anyway. And I do like Indian or – as in this case – Anglo-Indian food.

Butter chicken masala with basmati rice, naan, poppadom chips, mango chutney and pickles

Butter chicken masala with basmati rice, naan, poppadom chips, mango chutney and pickles

For dessert, finally, I had something called Dark Chocolate Delice, which consisted of mousse au chocolate, coconut ice cream and mango compote. This was the one dish where my (uncommon) food allergy might have caused a problem and the server specifically checked with the kitchen whether it would be okay. Which it was. Not that I would have suffered an anaphylactic shock otherwise – but I would have gotten an upset stomach, which isn’t what you want after a gourmet meal.

Dark Chocolate Delice

Dark Chocolate Delice, i.e. mousse au chocolate, coconut ice cream, mango compote sprinkled with coconut chips and strawberries.

After this very nice dinner, I made another round through the bar to see if there was anybody there that I knew and then went up to my room, cause I had to get up on time the following day, because the Future Worldcon Bid Q&A was happening a nine in the morning.

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Posted by Planetside Crew

by Corrine Kumar

Series banner for Writing by Other Means with Planetside logo
Read by Liz J. Bradley

Until this summer, I thought I had my writing process down to a science—my perfect desk setup, music playlist, iced coffee, phone away and on Do Not Disturb. However, when I sat down to work on a novel I’d taken a break from, I found myself stuck, hit by writer’s block. When none of my usual tools and strategies worked, I decided to ditch my perfectly curated setup and try something new. I hopped on my treadmill and started dictating my novel into my phone instead. And, remarkably, this was just what I needed. At the time, I thought of this as a last-ditch strategy to overcome writer’s block. Now, however, writing while walking has become a core part of my writing practice and has had a tremendous impact on my writing craft and process.

Increased Creativity

When I’m in the brainstorming phase of a project, I get my best ideas while walking. If I get stuck on a scene, chapter, or section of my manuscript, everything always seems clearer when I get back to my desk after a run. While I’ve observed this anecdotally, a 2014 Stanford University study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition has shown similar findings in the lab. In their study, “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking,” researchers Opezzo and Schwartz found that participants who walked on treadmills, walked outdoors, or were pushed in wheelchairs scored higher on Guilford’s Alternate Uses Test (which assesses creative and divergent thinking) afterwards. These results—though not found in relation to writing specifically—suggest that writing while walking might help us come up with creative solutions to narrative problems and figure out what comes next.

Increased Immersion

While I initially thought adding the extra component of walking to my process would break my immersion in the story, I have found the opposite. Walking actually helps me visualize my settings, improve my dialogue, and get into my characters’ heads. Since I’m not staring at the words on my screen, I can better picture the settings my characters are in and see them in my mind with greater detail. Because I’m saying my characters’ thoughts and dialogue out loud, I get a better feel for their personalities, word choice, sentence structure, and emotions.

Turning Off Your Internal Editor

The “internal editor” is something that plagues many of us throughout our writing careers. It keeps us staring at the blank page, deleting sentences as we write them, and tweaking the same paragraph for an hour. However, when I’m dictating and walking on my treadmill, I find this voice is strangely quiet. This is, in part, because I don’t look at the words while I’m dictating, and thus, my internal editor can’t analyze and pick my sentences apart. The combination of walking, generating ideas, and dictating keeps my brain occupied enough that it can’t find a way to edit as I go.

Increasing Physical Activity

Physical activity has so many benefits for our physical and mental health. Numerous studies have shown that exercise leads to enhanced cardiovascular health, sleep, bone strength, creativity, self-esteem, balance, memory, cognitive flexibility, attention, problem-solving, and overall sense of well-being. Improvement in all these areas not only results in better overall health, but it can have a positive impact on our writing as well. However, in our busy schedules, trying to fit in both writing and physical activity amongst everything else can be challenging. By dictating while walking, we can combine these two activities and better integrate them into our daily lives.

Feeling the Flow

Reaching a creative flow state is something I crave as a writer. Those writing sessions where hours pass without me realizing it, words flood the page, and it feels as though the story is writing itself. I’ve tried many tricks over the years to reach this flow state—the right writing setup, great music, a unique writing ritual—but none of these methods have worked as well for me as writing in motion. While I don’t get to the flow state every time I use the treadmill, I find I reach it more frequently.

Decreased Distractions

Though having your phone in your hand to dictate might sound like the perfect recipe for distraction, I’ve found the opposite in practice. Because I’m so focused on generating ideas, walking, and dictating, my mind is too busy to wander. Too busy to watch another cute koala reel on Instagram, see what friends are up to on Facebook, or refresh my e-mail. Because my mind is occupied and I can only have one program open on my screen at a time, I’m less likely to fall down a research rabbit hole mid-writing session. When I get to a point in the scene where I need more information, I’m forced to dictate a placeholder rather than spend an hour researching how a character might repair an internal combustion engine.

Increased Inspiration

While most of my writing is done on a treadmill, I do also take my craft outdoors. When I write outside, whether I’m in an exciting, new location or in my neighborhood, I find infinite ideas for my settings. For example, seeing the variety of colors in the fall leaves on my usual route sparked an idea for a world where the magic system changes with the seasons. Outdoors, I’m also naturally forced to experience the world with more of my senses—to pay attention to more than just what I see. Hearing hawks calling to each other, feeling the oppressive heat of the humid 90-plus-degree summer, and smelling the blooming wildflowers remind me to use a variety of sensory details in my scenes.

Getting Started

As with all new strategies, writing while walking does have a learning curve. Speaking the words aloud can feel strange and awkward, getting used to your software’s quirks can be frustrating, and editing mis-dictated words afterwards takes time. However, with practice and patience (and a little time devoted to setting up), this method increases my enjoyment of writing, improves my productivity, and feels just as natural as typing at my desk. As you’re getting started, walking at slow speeds, using all safety features of your treadmill such as handrails and safety keys, setting your phone on the treadmill’s console, and walking in outdoor areas you are familiar with can all be ways to ease into this new method. 

Whether you use this strategy as a core part of your process, as a weekend treat, or as a way to just mix things up to get over writer’s block, writing while walking can be an incredible addition to your creative practice.

Explore more articles from Writing by Other Means

Author photo of Corrine Kumar.Corrine Kumar is a science fiction and fantasy writer with a love of martial arts, cooking, and learning languages. Her greatest writing influences are Brandon Sanderson, Fonda Lee, Pierce Brown, and Christopher Ruocchio. She is an alumnus of the Futurescapes Writers’ Workshop, and her articles “Active Reading to Step Up Your Writing,” “It’s All About Momentum: Writing Effectively and Productively Amidst a Busy Life,” and “Characterization and Worldbuilding Through Fight Scenes” were previously published by The SFWA Blog. Corrine can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky.

The post Walking and Dictating: A New Strategy to Mix Up Your Writing Routine appeared first on SFWA - The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association.

[personal profile] rachelmanija
I have been offline more than usual lately because the internet is off at my house and I've been unable to reach anyone who is not an AI, which went about as well and efficiently as you can imagine. The AI has decided that I need a new router and is mailing it to me with instructions for how to install it myself, because God forbid a human be involved. If that doesn't work, who knows what the next step is. I am beginning to suspect the only humans at the company are the CEOs and shareholders.

Meanwhile, I decided that I am spending way too much time doomscrolling, both intentionally and non-consensually. Not only is everything horrible right now, but the minute you get online you're personally informed of every horrible thing that happened anywhere, big or small or in between. Did some random dude murder his entire family anywhere in the world? You'll be informed of it, complete with heartbreaking photos of the dead kids. Did a child commit suicide anywhere in the world? You'll hear about that too, also complete with the awful story and heartbreaking photos! And that's not even getting into politics and the upcoming end of the world. I don't think humans are mentally equipped to live like that.

So I installed ScreenZen on my phone. It's one of many apps that will block both apps and entire websites. (Sadly it does not have the ability to block words.) I blocked everything I doomscroll on. I highly recommend this! I still get the news, as 1) I get a news digest emailed to me daily, 2) people will tell me the news in person whether I consent or not, but at least I'm not constantly marinating in global misery that I can't do anything about. Also, I now have more time to be useful in ways that are actually possible.

The result is that I have read so many more books than usual. I am completely behind on reviewing, also as usual, but with more books involved now. Perhaps I will post a poll.
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Random natterings

May. 12th, 2026 12:58 pm
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[personal profile] hrj
It's my birthday today -- the first time in quite a while when I'm not going to Kalamazoo for my birthday. (The Medieval Congress) As a result, I don't really have standard practices for what to do to commemorate the day. There will be a family dinner on the weekend, but today it's just me.

So I started with a fancy-breakfast-in-the-garden, which I don't do as often as I could. (I prefer to start the day with my bike ride, which practice is incompatible with a leisurely breakfast.) Other plans involved a movie and going out for sushi. I half-heartedly dropped my movie plans (Sheep Detective) on facebook with a solicitation for company, but facebook is facebook, the day is a weekday, and unsurprisingly no one took me up on it.

In the past week I've moved into the next stage of learning skills for self-publishing by working on formatting The Theory of Related-ivity in Vellum. So far Vellum is user-friendly, in that every time I've had a question about how to do something, it's either easy to figure out, easy to find in the help files, or easy to determine that you just can't do the thing I'm trying to do. As one review of the program noted, it isn't really designed for complicated non-fiction books, but there are only a few places that's been frustrating.

I solved one issue not related to Vellum when I figured out how to get better resolution jpegs of my Excel graphs. (Something that was a bit of a "Doh!" moment once I'd solved it.) But it wasn't until I did a test-export of the project into ebook and pdf versions that I was reminded that the lovely multi-colored graphs that are so easy to publish online and in ebooks also need to work in black-and-white for the hard copy. (It isn't that I expect to sell all that many hardcopy versions, but I want to have the option.) So now I need to go back through a couple dozen graphs and select color sets that will provide good B&W contrast. (Tricky for the percentage bar graphs with 13 variables! But there are only two of those.)

I've also decided to put out my translation and commentary of the 18th century French appeal record of Anne Grandjean (gender and sexuality issues) as a published book. That one has me thinking about the complexities of designing layout for both ebook and print. For print, it might be nice to do facing-page text with the commentary at the bottom of the pages, but that's impossible for the ebook. (Also, I'm not sure it would be possible in Vellum, though I know exactly how I'd do it in InDesign.) I'm also thinking ahead to the LHMP book and some fun layout ideas that wouldn't work for both. I should probably take a look at some examples of print/ebook pairs that have complex layouts in print.

By "complex" I mean things like separate text boxes for sidebars. (One idea I'm toying with would be rather than having all my mini-biographies in a single section, inserting them as sidebars in the topical chapters that they're most closely relevant to.)

One of the secondary functions for publishing low-impact smaller projects is to explore these sorts of questions. But compared to the non-fiction projects, novels will be easy!

When I think about my writing catalog, it always brings me back to that ill-fitting advice that a writer should stick to focused "branding" even if it means having multiple pen names. But my writing projects don't separate out neatly that way. the Grandjean translation is directly related to the LHMP book. But the LHMP book is directly related to my lesbian historical fiction. And the historical fiction is closely connected to my lesbian historical fantasy. And there would be no point to distinguishing that from any of the other types of fantasy I write. I still have a twinge of regret for using a pen name for Baby Names for Dummies, because it, too, connects up with my historical research. And what would be the point in using anything other than my real name for the Related-ivity book, since my identity is solidly connected to the reason I was interested in the topic.

I am me. I contain multitudes. I refuse to be fragmented.
Tags:

Books read in 2026

May. 12th, 2026 04:22 pm
rolanni: (Reading is sexy)
[personal profile] rolanni

23  Ribbon Dance (Liaden Universe #26), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, narrated by Alex Picard
22  Trade Secret (Liaden Universe #17), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (e)
21  Sea Wrack and Changewind, Sharon Lee, narrated by Alex Picard
20  When the Wolves are Silent (Sebastian St. Cyr #21), C.S. Harris (e)
19  An Heir of Distinction (Bad Heir Days #5), Grace Burrowes (e)
18   Longeye (Fey Duology #2), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller***
17   Duainfey (Fey Duology #1), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller***
16  *Crystal Dragon (Liaden Universe® #10), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
15  *Crystal Soldier (Liaden Universe® #9), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
14  Seeking Persephone (Lancaster Family #1), Sarah M. Eden (e)
13   Theo of Golden, Allen Levi (e) book club
12  *Balance of Trade (Liaden Universe® #8), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
11  *Scout's Progress (Liaden Universe® #6), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller**
10  *Local Custom, (Liaden Universe® #5), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller**
9   *I Dare (Liaden Universe® #7), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller**
8   Cuckoo's Egg, C J Cherryh, (audio first time)
7   *Plan B, (Liaden Universe® #4), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
6   Getting Rid of Bradley, Jennifer Crusie (audio first time)
5   *Carpe Diem (Liaden Universe® #3), Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
4   *Conflict of Honors (Liaden Universe® #2), Sharon Lee & Steve    Miller
3   *Agent of Change (Liaden Universe® #1), Sharon Lee & Steve                 Miller
2   A Gentleman in Possession of Secrets (Lord Julian #10), Grace             Burrowes (e)
1   Spilling the Tea in Gretna Green, Linzi Day (e)

________
*I'm doing a straight-through series read in publication order

**I screwed up and moved right on to I Dare from Plan B, therefore deviating from publication order.  I will now amend myself and go back to pick up Local Custom.

***I'll be re-issuing Duainfey and Longeye as an e-omnibus later this year, and so I need to read them!


But Won't I Miss Me, by Tiffany Tsao

May. 12th, 2026 11:08 am
rachelmanija: (Books: old)
[personal profile] rachelmanija


This novel has one of the most off-the-wall premises I've come across. In a near-future world much like our own, women who get pregnant also conceive a "fetal mother." When they give birth to their baby, they also deliver the fetal mother, then fall into a coma-like sleep. The fetal mother rapidly grows into an identical clone of the original mother, then EATS HER. This process is called rebirth. The new mother has the original mother's memories and personality, but is also endowed with superpowers for the first five years of her child's life: she needs almost no sleep, has super strength and fast reflexes, is filled with energy, and finds all child care and domestic tasks endlessly fascinating and enjoyable. In short, the new mother is the woman that mothers are supposed to be.

The main character, Vivi, is terrified of rebirth, and sees it as death. This view is very stigmatized, but might be more widespread than society lets on. She's reluctant to get pregnant because of it. When she finally does, something goes wrong with her rebirth. She didn't get new mother powers. Instead she slogs along, depressed and alienated, trying to care for her infant while she's still physically impaired from the pregnancy and actually needs sleep. She and her husband end up breaking up over this, and Vivi moves to Australia to live with her uncle, who runs a hobbling business.

Remember I mentioned this is near-future? The world has actually decided to do something about climate change, and so drastically regulated energy consumption. Hobbling is altering old machines to make them low emitters. The low-emissions world is less lavish: planes are rarely used, long-distance calls are brief, and only the very rich have unlimited internet. It's an interesting take on a world whose future seems much brighter than ours, but whose present is more similar to our recent past.

Vivi and her family are Indonesian-Chinese, and their cultures (including Australian) play into the book much as the near-future setting does: it's pervasive and interesting and very specific, which makes a nice grounded base for the incredibly weird rebirth stuff.

But Won't I Miss Me is a weird, fascinating, ambitious book with a weird, fascinating, ambitious premise. Great social commentary and issues of identity. I didn't quite love the ending - it felt like it needed either more setup or more payoff - but the book is still excellent and very original.

Hugo novellas, part 1 (of presumably 2)

May. 12th, 2026 09:01 am
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[personal profile] cahn
Hi happy somewhat delayed Hugo season!

I have been flirting with the novels but I guess my attention span these days is novella-sized, so that's all I've managed to get through so far.

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite (Tordotcom) - On a starship where the inhabitants manage the long travel by recording their minds and swapping out bodies, a detective wakes up in another body and must investigate a murder, not just of a body but also of minds... I liked it! It wasn't super deep, and I was a bit side-eying the nod towards a potential ship at the end given what we know, but there was a lot of fun worldbuilding and yarn (knitting is both a character point and a minor plot point). I loved Ruthie and John, my faves.

The Summer War by Naomi Novik (Del Rey US; Del Rey UK) - A fairy tale where Celia, the youngest of the Grand Duke Veris' three children, deals with the aftermath of the summer war with the magical faerie-like summerlings and the fallout in her own family while navigating her own heritage.

I really really liked this one, actually. I just think Novik matches up very well with what I want, thematically, and of course her writing is great. There was one character I was like, well, this is obviously the most interesting character, and was pleased that the author was not uninterested.
Spoilers!I am of course talking about Veris here. From Argent's POV he seems like a run-of-the-mill homophobe, but even though Celia kind of thinks so too, she also sees that he actually doesn't particularly care about the gay thing, he just cares very very much about having to be very very careful as he has had to be his whole life (in other ways). So I really liked that characterization which I thought was quite interesting (much more interesting than if he had just been a regular homophobe), and I loved that he came back at the end and was able to redeem himself a bit. And then of course the recurring theme of "let's save everyone, not just the people we love," which I always adore, and also I absolutely positively adored how the whole family figured themselves out and came together. I am SUCH a sucker for that. I really loved how Novik had such empathy for each one of them, and understood that sometimes people can be jerks (and in fact each of them behaves badly at one point or another) but it doesn't mean that's the entirety of their character.


What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher (Nightfire; Titan UK) - I always like Kingfisher's writing but I think I can get a tiny bit tired of it? So I read the first of these, What Moves the Dead, a couple of years ago and enjoyed it a lot but then didn't feel like I needed to read any more in this series. Then I read this one and I enjoyed it but felt like I'd already kind of read it? Alex Easton, the narrator of these books, is a sworn soldier (with ka/kan pronouns) in the fictional country of Gallacia. Ka helps investigate odd horror-ish events... so, yeah, that was the plot of both of them. This one is set in the US. I guess the difference is that
Spoilers for both booksin the first book they destroyed the fungus, and in this book, they saved the organism, yay! In both books it was very clear that Kingfisher's sympathy was with the non-human character, so it was nice for it to end well for it here.

Fantasy Romance, Mysteries, & More

May. 12th, 2026 03:30 pm
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

The Marriage Narrative

The Marriage Narrative by Claire Kann is $1.99! This is a modern marriage of convenience. I was pretty middle of the road with this one, as I couldn’t necessarily get behind the heroine’s decision for getting married. The reasoning felt weak to me, but YMMV.

A love just for show grows into something more in this swoonworthy romance from the author of The Romantic Agenda.

Zinnia is an ambitious, successful businesswoman who is not about to wait around for her One True Love. She turns her dating profile into a marriage-merger a few strategic meetings, move in together, get married—all within thirty days. Her friends think it will never work… until she meets Jordan, a near-perfect applicant with a big secret.

Jordan’s family has spent the last decade starring in a massively popular reality show about their lives. He has finally agreed to join the cast, but production wants him to marry an actress (his ex) in a romantic storyline to boost viewership.

Convinced Zinnia is perfect for the role instead, Jordan proposes a mutually beneficial marriage she gets her business partner husband, and he gets to help his family on his terms. Together they face strict schedules, wild plot twists, and behind-the-scenes hostilities, all while acting like besotted newlyweds—an intense performance that evolves into a relationship they never expected.

As the line between reality and show blurs, Zinnia and Jordan must choose between a clean contract or a beautifully messy love story.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

A Vow in Vengeance

A Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez is $1.99 This one released in January of this year, so it’s relatively new. I mentioned it in Hide Your Wallet because I heard it marketed as a “coming of rage” story.

Deadly tarot, wicked schemes, dangerous alliances . . . can you survive the Forge?

Sexy, action-packed, and brimming with magic, A Vow in Vengeance is an unputdownable romantasy debut.

Rune Ryker has nothing left to lose. Everything’s been stolen by the Immortals—her family, her home, her freedom. But she’s done playing by their rules.

Each year, humans are forced to journey into the Immortal Realms, but twenty-year-old Rune orchestrates her own selection, determined to find her family and destroy anyone who stands in her way. Rune is used to doing whatever it takes to survive, and now she must endure the Forge, a cutthroat college for the Immortal druids’ elusive tarot magic. When Rune’s magic reveals itself to be the rarest and most powerful, she must live with its only other wielder—Prince Draven. As arrogant as he is ruthlessly ambitious, he’s the last person she can trust.

Rune’s abilities also draw the eyes of the most dangerous druids in the realms. Some want to use her. More want her dead. Draven offers to train her . . . for a price. As Rune becomes ensnared in Draven’s dangerous games, she learns there are secrets at the heart of the kingdom that some will kill to protect.

And Rune and Draven’s growing attraction may be the spark to ignite a brewing war.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Five Year Lie

The Five Year Lie by Sarina Bowen! This mystery released in May 2024 and I believe it’s the first time we’ve found it on sale.

She thought it was love. Then he vanished.

On an ordinary Monday morning, Ariel Cafferty’s phone buzzes with a disturbing text message. Something’s happened. I need to see you. Meet me under the candelabra tree ASAP. The words would be jarring from anyone, but the sender is the only man she ever loved. And it’s been several years since she learned he died.

Seeing Drew’s name pop up is heart-stopping. Ariel’s gut says it can’t be real. But she goes to the tree anyway. She has to.

Nobody shows. But the text upends everything she thought she knew about the day he left her. The more questions she asks, the more sinister the answers get. Only two things are clear: everything she was told five years ago is wrong, and someone is still lying to her.

The truth has to be out there somewhere. To safeguard herself—and her son—she’ll have to find it before it finds her. And with it, the answer to what became of Drew.

With a heart-stopping romance that only Sarina Bowen can execute, The Five Year Lie is a page-turning, spine-tingling thriller that will have you guessing until the very end.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Murder of Mr. Wickham

The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray is $2.99! Sarah mentioned this one in a previous Hide Your Wallet and it definitely fits within the Bitchery’s interests.

From New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray—a summer house party turns into a thrilling whodunit when Mr. Wickham, one of literature’s most notorious villains, meets a sudden and suspicious end in this brilliantly imagined mystery featuring Jane Austen’s leading literary characters.

The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In a tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

 

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Firsts

May. 12th, 2026 07:45 am
firecat: (quadruple facepalm)
[personal profile] firecat
I wrote what I thought was a fun and helpful comment somewhere on R3ddut. The mods decided it was written by AI so they removed it. Do I get a statue with three arms and six fingers per hand as a reward? Should I missspel more words in my next comment?
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

This HaBO comes from Andrea. Trigger warnings for the description below:

Okay, this has been driving me crazy for a decade! Pretty sure it came out in the 90s.

Main character is an American woman living in England with her husband, Griffon. He had an affair with Claire. She thought it was over, but no, she runs into a very pregnant Claire at (Barnaby’s?) Claire loses the baby. Griffon comes home super drunk and rapes his wife. She leaves, taking her jewelry and some clothes, and flies to NY. She buys a cottage through the classifieds, sight unseen, in a little New Jersey town she stopped in once with her parents as a teen.

She has a scrappy little car (I think a bug), the house needs a roof, so she sells the jewelry. Gets a job at the local diner. Other waitress has a teen son, Mark, whose dad, Brian is a huge jerk, and also the main love interest’s brother. (I also don’t remember his name, but he smokes). His beagle pup is Bailey, his dad is Eddie. Eddie is suffering from dementia. The town is dying and being bought up by a developer (we find out later it’s Brian’s company). Someone is trashing the fishing boats.

Heroine ends up pregnant, scared it’s Griffons. It’s not. Ending: happy wedding with baby girl in tow.

Also, the cottage was fully furnished as the old woman who owned it died or moved to a home.

Let’s HaBO!

Star Trek Thoughts - Part 8.5

May. 12th, 2026 08:53 am
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[personal profile] chris_gerrib
I am continuing my ongoing (semi-) rewatch of Star Trek: The Original Series. As evidenced by the title, this is a minor update, covering only Season 2, Episode 22 "By Any Other Name." I see from my blog that the last batch of episodes I watched, episodes 18 to 21, kind of put me off my feed for Star Trek, as I haven't watched an episode since March 27.

"By Any Other Name" is better than the previous batch, but not by a lot. It's what's become a typical plot - Kirk and company beam down to a soundstage alien planet where the locals promptly attempt to take over the ship. In this case, the Kelvan Empire of beings from the Andromeda Galaxy are doing the taking-over. We learn that said aliens are too alien for 1960s TV budgets to film, so they've conveniently taken human form. This taking human form is their downfall - Kirk and company are able to play on their emotions to win the day.

Other thoughts:

1) Basically all the crew except Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy are done for the day by the end of Act 1. Sucks to be them.

2) Kirk as womanizer is well-established - his method of "playing on emotions" is to seduce the blond female alien. There's another hot alien chick played by Lezlie Dalton who is basically ignored. I was not able to find much about the actress - seems like she was another woman who "aged out" of Hollywood.

3) In the remastered version, it is painfully obvious when they swap in the stunt doubles for the fight scenes.

4) Reactormag.com had an article about what Gene Roddenberry did between the end of the Original Series and the start of the movies. They mentioned William Ware Theiss as his long-time collaborator for costumes. The guy was up to his usual tricks on this episode - the female aliens wore backless shirts.

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

May. 12th, 2026 09:38 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Human paleontologists have the professional opportunity of a lifetime... but there's a catch.

Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick

Delisting and Strikes to the Heart

May. 11th, 2026 11:32 pm
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

I seem to have slipped up on the posting schedule.  Not much of any importance has happened, really.  I'm trying to catch up with real life tasks, so I can get back to writing, which is going about as well as you might think.

Today's events of note where, in order of occurrence:

1  The proof for the paper edition of The Fey Duology arrived in the mail.  Gosh, what a pretty book. Seven hundred and thirty pages, $35US.  I inspect it, find it Good, and go over to D2D to push the button to publish.

2  Pushed the button to publish, and immediately got an email from D2D stating that because The Fey Duology contains "Dubious Consent (dubcon): Dubcon explores the gray area between consent and non-consent. Not clear if the receiver of the sexual act was fully on board or not at the time of the act," and will not enter the network for print distribution.  Went back to D2D, and the book is already being delisted.

2a  Preorders for the ebook edition are still being accepted at all vendors.

3  The landline rang, and I foolishly answered it.  A woman said, brightly, "Hi!  I just received a phone call from a Steve Miller and --" I told her that Steve Miller was dead and that she was a liar.  She laughed at me and hung up.

So, that was, as they say, a strike to the heart. Tomorrow, I will be calling Fidium and if they can't make the landline forward to the cell, I'm pulling the plug on the damned thing. We've had this number since we moved to Maine, so that'll be interesting when people get "this number has been disconnected." Like I need more Interesting in my life.

My chest hurts.

I actually had another point to make. Ah.

Update on ebook preorders for the Fey Duology: Amazon, 120; Apply, 21; BN, 7; Kobo 16.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe. Hug the people you love.

I'll check in tomorrow.


The Rule of Three

May. 12th, 2026 09:30 am
rolanni: (Default)
[personal profile] rolanni

Tuesday. Sunny, with a cool breeze. Trash and recycling at the curb.

Breakfast was hummus on rice crackers with a side of cherries.

Woke up this morning reminding myself of the Rule of Three*, which is only a little unsettling. After breakfast, I spent about an hour on the phone with a young person at Fidium whose name I heard as Alistair, but my ears probably dropped syllables. He was very helpful and patient and has, he said, gotten the landline to forward to the cell. Fingers crossed.

Though Alistair was very helpful and kind, I found the whole experience rather stressful, since we had to deal with Fidium's lack of previous record-keeping, such as not removing Steve as the account manager, but merely adding me to the account, when I called them in 2024, so there was a lot of scraping off of old paint and serial numbers so that new could be applied.

I do need to unload the dishwasher (which is working nicely, and is slightly quieter than the previous dishwasher), and change out the cat fountains, but after that, I may just find a sunny chair and read. I'm thinking a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Maybe a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

The cats have been on the case. Tali, in particular, took up a position under the ledge of the stand-up desk while Alistair and I were doing business, and pressed herself, warm and cat-solid, against my thighs, which was very good of her. Rookie brought me his pink ball, which was of course a comfort. Firefly sat in the window, and occasionally looked over her shoulder and smiled.

For those keeping score at home, preorders for the ebook edition of The Fey Duology as of this morning: Amazon 131; Apple 23; BN 7; Kobo 16.

So! What's happening in your life this morning?

___________
*The Rule of Three is the principle that what you do returns to you three times. It's most usually invoked as an argument against doing harm.


Hide Your Wallet: May 12th Release Week

May. 12th, 2026 08:00 am
[syndicated profile] smartbitches_feed

Posted by Amanda

Happy Tuesday!

There are a handful of books on our TBR piles this week, include a much anticipated sequel.

Which releases are on your radar this week? Tell us in the comments!

Dangerously Ours

Dangerously Ours by Krista Ritchie

Author: Krista Ritchie
Released: May 12, 2026 by Berkley
Genre: ,
Series: Webs We Weave #3

In the thrilling conclusion to the Webs We Weave series, ex-con artist Phoebe Graves must pull off the biggest grift she’s ever devised to keep her friends and family safe.

Conning the rich and fleeing to new cities is all ex-grifter Phoebe Graves has ever known—until she started building real relationships in a small but wealthy Connecticut town. But she’s worried these new bonds won’t hold fast as more than one big bad wolf threatens to blow down those she loves most.

And now more than ever, she has a reason to stay in one place. Among them is Brayden “Rocky” Tinrock, her best friend’s older brother, who’s been a partner to Phoebe during every daring and exhilarating con. And then of course there’s Hailey Tinrock, her best friend, whose precious secret they’ll do anything to protect. . . .

As Phoebe and her family team up with the Tinrocks to fight for a chance at a home, they confront the demons of their pasts and must do the impossible . . . deceive the most cunning con artist they’ve ever known.

Elyse: A best friend’s older brother romance with the twist that the heroine is a con artist.

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First and Forever

First and Forever by Lynn Painter

Author: Lynn Painter
Released: May 12, 2026 by Berkley
Genre: ,

A football star and a diehard fan entangled in a PR stunt—that only one side knows is fake—might be the right play in this new romantic comedy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lynn Painter.

Duffy Distefano loves three things: her dad, the family cat, and Minneapolis Coyotes football. So when she gets booed out of a game and becomes the internet’s villain, she is distraught—and disgruntled. All she did was shove Coyote Carl away when he made a move on her, but everyone else just saw a woman attacking their team’s beloved mascot. Eager to clear the air, Duffy agrees to an interview on a hit morning show. She doesn’t expect a co-guest to join her—especially not the Coyotes’ star tight end.

When MVP Connor Cunningham gets tasked with damage control to help his team out of their PR nightmare, he thought that meant saying a few words on the team’s behalf. Instead, he finds himself in a highly amusing verbal sparring match with a recently wronged fan on live TV. Duffy pelts him with fiery jabs but is also clearly diehard about the Coyotes—color him intrigued…and attracted.

The interview instantly goes viral, and the public is obsessed with them. A strong push from the Coyotes’ PR team to ride the wave results in Connor asking Duffy out. Despite his distaste for PR stunts, he’s surprised to discover being with Duffy is much easier than he thought, and somehow it doesn’t feel fake to him. Harboring this secret can only blow up, but all he knows is that if he messes things up with Duffy, it’ll be the greatest fumble of his life.

The latest Lynn Painter and it’s a sports romance!

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The Last Lady B

The Last Lady B by Eloisa James

Author: Eloisa James
Released: May 12, 2026 by Gallery Books
Genre: ,

Lady B may have married Bluebeard; she may have fallen in love with a gorgeous, grumpy solicitor; she may have met a ghost and survived to tell the tale! New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Eloisa James delights with witty historical romance with a gothic twist.

In the depths of winter, Lady Genevieve Hughes, her pet piglet, and her septuagenarian husband travel to a haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands. Evie is excited to meet a ghost (perhaps one of her husband’s three previous wives), but didn’t expect the funny, quirky guests to become the friends she’s never had. And she certainly didn’t imagine meeting Sir Godric Everly, a sardonic, witty solicitor who loathes her husband.

Yet as secrets and lies turn Evie’s world upside down, Sir Godric becomes the one person whom she can trust.

When ghosts, multiple wills, and a shocking marriage certificate bring Lord Burnsby’s past crashing into his present, Burnsby promptly dies, leaving Evie free to remarry…though as a virgin wife, now a virgin widow, she is more unnerved by the marriage bed than a spectral visit.

More importantly, she has to figure out whose identity is false, whose vows are dishonorable, whose truths could destroy her reputation—and where her heart belongs.

A new Eloisa James, and this one is part of Julia Quinn’s special historical romance edition subscription box.

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Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt

Love Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Swati Hegde

Author: Swati Hegde
Released: May 12, 2026 by Dell
Genre: ,

In this second-chance workplace romance, two lawyers find themselves working in the same office after a steamy vacation fling a year and a half ago, from the author of Can’t Help Faking in Love

Naina Shetty is a proud workaholic, and she is gunning for a promotion at her law firm. No distractions will get in her way this time, not even the bad breakup that happened over a year ago. She brushed off her pain with a long vacation and a no-strings-attached fling with a handsome stranger, but now Naina is back to business.

Unlucky-in-love Tejas Rajput hasn’t stopped thinking about the brown-eyed beauty he met on the beaches of Goa two summers ago. He’d been looking for a rebound to get over his ex—which is why he’d agreed to keep things strictly casual, use fake last names, and respond to all personal questions with “wrong answers only.” But he didn’t think he’d fall for her, hard, only for her to get on a plane and leave.

When they cross paths again—this time working at the same office—Naina is adamant that her no-relationships policy won’t change, especially not for Tejas, whose disarming smile and easygoing charm could spell trouble. Her career will always come first.

But as they team up for a case that could make or break their firm’s reputation, they discover that there’s something more than just sparks between them—and it might turn out to be true love.

Amanda: I enjoyed Match Me If You Can and I’m getting the sense that Hegde enjoys writing green flag heroes.

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Seek the Traitor’s Son

Seek the Traitor’s Son by Veronica Roth

Author: Veronica Roth
Released: May 12, 2026 by Tor Books
Genre: ,
Series: The Burning Empire #1

A new epic romantic, dystopian fantasy begins in Seek the Traitor’s Son, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth

Elegy Ahn did not ask for destiny to find her.

She is happy with her life as a soldier, defending her small country from the Talusar, a powerful nation who worships a deadly Fever. A fever that blesses half of its victims with mysterious gifts.

But then she’s summoned to hear a prophecy–her, and the most ruthless of Talusar generals, Rava Vidar. Brought face to face, they learn that one of them will lead their people to victory over the other…but they don’t know which. And at the center of both of their fates: a man. A man that, Elegy is told, she will fall in love with.

In just one day, Elegy’s old life–her job, her purpose, and her future–is over. She and Rava are destined to collide, with the fate of their nations hanging in the balance. And when they do, only one will be left standing.

Elegy intends to make sure it’s her.

A dystopian fantasy by Veronica Roth. I’ve heard the romance in this one is more a subplot (I think?). 

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The Tapestry of Fate

The Tapestry of Fate by Shannon Chakraborty

Author: Shannon Chakraborty
Released: May 12, 2026 by Harper Voyager
Genre:

New York Times bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty sets sail into the second adventure of pirate Amina al-Sirafi as her quest to track down magical artifacts brings her to the island lair of a sorceress whose woven enchantments are impossible to flee.

Amina al-Sirafi thinks she’s struck gold. Tasked with hunting down arcane artifacts for the council of immortal peris, she can savor the occasional rollicking adventure on the high seas with her cherished criminal companions while still returning home to raise her beloved daughter, Marjana. But when Raksh, the spirit of discord with whom she is reluctantly wed, provokes the council’s wrath, Amina is charged with a seemingly impossible quest: steal a spindle capable of rewriting fate from a mysterious sorceress on an island no one can escape.

Forced to leave Marjana—who is increasingly frustrated at being peddled what are clearly lies about her mother’s life and her own past—Amina finds her mission almost immediately thrown into peril. But deadly storms, an erratic poison mistress, and old enemies are the least of her worries. For the peris’ story is unraveling, hinting at a far deadlier game whose rules Amina must swiftly puzzle out. A game that sets her against an adversary more cunning and powerful than she has ever faced.

A game that not everyone on her crew wants her to win.

Elyse: The first book in this series is my favorite fantasy book of all time.

Lara: I’ve been following the author on Instagram during the writing of this book. Because I adored the first one so much, I’m desperate for Amina to have some good luck in this book. I’m going to wait for Elyse to read it and then give me the spoilers so I’m emotionally prepared!

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

[personal profile] rydra_wong
In my defence, most of 2026 so far has been spent dealing with incapacitating levels of fatigue, which might finally be getting better (and that needs to be a separate post).

But the major problem is that I wanted to re-read Cascade, the first book in the trilogy, before starting Blight.

And while I loved Cascade -- here is my rave from way back when -- it produces an overwhelming sense of dread in me, even more than it did so on first read, because it captures, with remarkable precision and effectiveness, the sense of living in a liberal democracy that is teetering on the edge of ceasing to be one, and the stomach-dropping sensation when things begin moving unspeakably fast.

It's a very good book, but -- you see the problem.

Anyway, in recent weeks I finally got myself to re-read Cascade, and then I tore through Blight in a few days. Weirdly, I found it a much less difficult read because it's (both politically and environmentally) a post-apocalyptic novel, in which some kind of fightback is beginning.

Anyway it's fucking fantastic, without any of the common middle-book-of-a-trilogy doldrums. A really spectacular and unique mixture of wild magic, cosmic horror, and organizing for revolution, the last written with gritty specificity. The author is dead and all that, I don't know what's firsthand knowledge and what's research, but this is a book that (for example) writes with deep credibility about what it feels like to be in a crowd being tear-gassed.

As well as being a very good book, it also feels it's maybe a psychologically useful book to read right now.

I would like to do a proper write-up but I still have no idea what my energy's going to be doing day to day, so in the meantime here's a hype post, and if you want a review here's [personal profile] james_davis_nicoll's:

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/land-of-hope

ETA: Also it's on the Aurora Award shortlist for Best Novel:

https://www.csffa.ca/awards-information/current-ballot/

Ob!disclaimer that the author is an internet acquaintance, but I do in fact love the book.
Tags:

Hadestown (2nd US tour)

May. 11th, 2026 09:06 pm
cahn: (Default)
[personal profile] cahn
I have been really bad this year at getting out to see things, but I saw a couple of things! I'll talk about the first one here: [personal profile] hamsterwoman inspired me and I got to see Hadestown on tour! (The same cast she saw, even, although I didn't realize this until afterwards.) It was only here for two weeknights, clearly as a pit stop in between the two major metropolitan areas we live between. The theater was packed. The only empty spots I saw in the entire house were, hilariously, right in front of us (and must have been people who didn't show up for some reason, as the seats were definitely sold). I didn't buy tickets early enough and they were sold out when I first looked, but fortunately some opened up day of -- I wouldn't normally buy orchestra section for a show I didn't already know I'd love, but that's what I get for not planning ahead. But it turns out I did love it enough that I enjoyed the orchestra section tickets immensely, so it all turned out well.

The singers were all just extremely, extremely good, both as singers and as dancers (well, I guess Hades and Persephone didn't really dance a ton, but Eurydice in particular had a lot of parts where she had to combine with the ensemble), and really imprinted on me. To the extent where I went back and listened to the Broadway recording and was like "okay, sure, yeah, these are the same songs, but that's not MY cast." They were just really really almost scarily professional -- I really can't believe the Broadway cast is any better -- it was hard to believe that we were getting this kind of quality of cast. SO good.

Nickolaus Colón as Hades was THE standout performance of the night in a cast full of excellence. Seriously it was worth seeing it for him alone. The Persephone, Namisa Mdlalose Bizana, was also an excellent singer whose strength matched Colón's (a weak dancer, but as I said before she didn't have to do that much of it). I thought it was a great choice to have the really strong singers be the "gods" -- it really added something to it.

Eurydice (...I think we must have seen an understudy? The site says Hawa Kamara but I'm pretty sure that's not who we saw) and Orpheus (Jose Contreras) were also good but their voices were more sort of good in the way I expected them to be good, kind of. Orpheus, unfortunately, had the flaw (at least that night) that sometimes his top notes (he has a lot of falsetto notes, which is a bit weird?) were flat, and those were inevitably the notes where the song was supposed to be borderline-magic, and it unfortunately always threw me out of those bits because I'd be like "...but he's flat, augh!" The Fates (Gia Keddy, Miriam Navarrete, Jayna Wescoatt) were quite excellent -- both as singers and as an ensemble of three (as they basically did all their parts together, as one would expect). The Hermes (Rudy Foster) was also excellent. So were the ensemble. They were just all super super good.

The orchestra accompaniment was seated on-stage (it was a rather crowded stage at times) and I need to mention the pianist and the trombonist who both sometimes seemed to be participating in the action -- especially the trombonist, who occasionally got up from his seat and played his trombone mingling with the other actors, which was amazing. (I told D at intermission, "No one told me that the trombonist was the hero of this show!") I was especially watching him because now I have a kiddo who plays trombone, and he was using at least a couple of different mutes to make his trombone make a variety of sounds (A.'s trombone teacher showed us some of these at one point, for fun), and also sometimes he doubled as the xylophone player, which I thought was interesting!

I tend to operate one of two different ways with musicals. Either I go in knowing nothing or I go in having basically memorized the soundtrack. This was the former: I went in not knowing anything except that it was an AU retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I'd picked up from osmosis there were trains, and I'd listened to a few of the songs beforehand to make sure I liked them well enough. The pros are that I get to be continuously surprised by the real thing, and the cons are that there are lots of spots where I just don't catch the words, because I have fairly poor speech processing. This was one where I think it was a good choice to go in knowing nothing, because there are so many parts where the music and the visuals work together so well that I think the effect would have been blunted if I'd known the music really well going in. (Hamilton is one where I think it was better to know the soundtrack ahead of time, as I don't think I'd have been able to make out the vast majority of the words otherwise.)

Vague spoilers if you're like me and have never watched it before )

I think this is a show that I admire more than that I'm fannish about. It's kind of interesting -- it's almost like it's so polished that there aren't any weird cracks or rough edges to hang a fannish hat on, so to speak. So I didn't feel the desire to see it again the next day (not that I would have, but I've absolutely been to theater events where I was like "okay, I would be very strongly tempted go to see this again tomorrow if I could spare the time") but if the tour comes back next year I'd almost definitely go if Colón were still in it, and even if not I'd strongly consider going.
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Posted by Cora

Over the Easter weekend, I was at Iridescence, the 2026 Eastercon in Birmingham, UK.

I’ve already chronicled my adventures in getting to Birmingham and wandering around the city in part 1. Now – after some delays caused by the Hugo finalist announcement, various Masters of the Universe trailers and life just happening – let’s get to the actual con, starting with day 1 or Good Friday.

Friday, April 3, 2026

Since I’d had a very long day on Thursday, I also slept fairly long and when my alarm went off at half past seven, I set it to snooze for another hour. As a result, it was already after nine AM, when I went down for breakfast.

Breakfast was included with my booking and the Hilton Metropole offered an extensive breakfast buffet. There was the full English breakfast, a selection of cereals, a pancake bar, crumpets, waffles, bread and rolls, cheese and cold cuts, a selection of jams, various vegetables and fruits, yoghurt as well as a selection and juices and coffee, hot chocolate and tea. The only thing that was missing was that the hotel only had skimmed milk (which I never drink), while I had been hoping for Channel Island milk. Apparently, this was part of some anti-obesity initiative (as if people are getting overweight from drinking milk) as is labelling everything with calorie counts, which has been a thing in the UK for more than ten years now and which I personally consider more of an encouragement for eating disorders than a useful strategy against obesity. Besides, it’s not as if people don’t know that e.g. sticky toffee pudding has a lot of calories.

Even though I’m theoretically continental, I did not once eat a typical continental breakfast of bread or rolls with cheese/jam/honey/cold cuts/Nutella. As explained here, I have never liked the typical German/continental breakfast of bread/rolls with something, nor do I like the typical German Abendbrot (literally evening bread i.e. dinner, which is the same bread with something, but usually more savoury), so I just don’t eat it, unless unavoidable.

And so I enjoyed the vegetarian parts of the traditional English breakfast (I don’t care for sausages or bacon), since I vastly prefer warm food anyway. I also had fruit and juice to get some vitamins and Greek yogurt with either fruit or olives to get some dairy and calcium, since they had no decent milk. I also had pancakes from the pancake bar on one day and a crumpet and waffle on another. The waffle was quite disappointing, but everything else was good, especially for a hotel breakfast.

The breakfast room was full of Eastercon people and so I always found someone I knew to sit with. In general, the entire Hilton Metropole had been taken over by two cons – Eastercon and Haruhi Con, a manga/anime con. The Eastercon and Haruhi Con members mingled a lot and fit together perfectly. There also were a handful of normies – often people who spent the night at a hotel before an early morning flight or after a late night flight. Those poor normies were utterly bewildered and clearly seemed to think they had wandered into some kind of madhouse. The children of the normies, however, were delighted at colourful people in costumes everywhere.

Eastercon people in the lobby of the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham

The lobby of the Hilton Metropole is full of Eastercon people.

After breakfast, I finally went to registration, which was open again, and got my badge. You can see it below – with lanyard, ribbons and tiny koala – dangling from a lamp at home:

Iridescence badge with ribbons and lanyard and tiny koala

My Iridescence badge with lanyard and ribbons and a tiny koala, dangling from a lamp at home. And no, that’s not the real Man with the Golden Helmet. Yes, someone actually did ask me that once. Because I obviously have a genuine Rembrandt – even one actually painted by one of his apprentices – hanging on my wall.

Once I had my badge, I went up to my room again to pick up the bag with all the chocolate I’d brought to give away at the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid fan table, since I didn’t want to lug the bag to breakfast. Then I went in search of the dealers room and the Brisbane in 2028 fan table.

Chocolate for Eastercon

Chocolate for the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid fan table at Eastercon. There’s an outlet mall with three different chcolate outlets about five kilometers from where I live, so I got plenty of chocolate.

The layout of the Hilton Metropole was somewhat confusing, though I eventually got the hang of it. Though I still wandered into the wrong corridor before I finally found the dealers room.

Officially, the con and the dealers room wouldn’t open until three PM. But of course people were already setting up their tables, so I got in without hassle. Someone also gave me a “dealer” sticker for my badge, so I’d get into the dealers room, even if there was someone at the door checking badges.

I did have a room plan, so I found the Brisbane in 2028 fan table without any problems, nestled between the fan tables for the 2027 Worldcon in Montreal, Canada, the 2030 Worldcon bid for Edmonton, also Canada, and the 2028 Worldcon bid for Nuremberg, Germany. So in short, we had four Worldcons/potential Worldcons in a row. LACon V, the 2026 Worldcon in Anaheim, California, and the 2029 Worldcon bid for Dublin, Ireland, also had fan tables, but in another part of the room. For non-Worldcons, there were also fan tables for MetropolCon in Berlin, the 2026 Eurocon, as well as for Octocon in Dublin, the Irish national convention, a British convention called FunCon and other cons.

I assumed that I’d need to do some set-up, but it turns out that Farah Mendlesohn had already done most of the set-up the day before. All that was left for me to do was put some chocolate in a bowl and set up the Australian wildlife figurines from Schleich that I’d brought along as table decorations.

Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid table at Eastercon in Birmingham

The Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid fan table, as it looked on Friday morning.

To the left is the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon fan table, which is also already mostly set up. To the right are parts of the Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bid fan table, though they were still missing a lot of their swag. In the background, you can see the fan table of the Science Fiction Club Deutschland being set up.

Bowl of chocolate and Australian fauna at the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid table at Eastercon

A bowl of chocolates surrounded by some Australian fauna at the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid table at Eastercon.

The three PVC figurines (crocodile, kangaroo and koala) were supplied by me. The cute little clip-on koalas were swag we gave away (more on them later). The pineapple, the lobster and the hats were a sort of premium we gave to presupporters and then took a goofy photo. I also let kids cuddle the lobster and pineapple for free, because they’re kids. The ball belongs to Farah Mendlesohn who bought it at the con.

As you can see, the dealers room was still partly empty at this point. Some tables and stalls were already set up, while others were in the process of setting up. There were people wandering in on occasion, but there wasn’t a lot of traffic yet. And so I took the opportunity to walk around and take in what was already set up. I chatted with the lovely folks from the MetropolCon fan table (MetropolCon is also the 2026 Eurocon in Berlin) and the Science Fiction Club Deutschland fan table, admired some steampunk jewellery and bought an octopus necklace. Before the end of the con, I also bought the matching bracelet.

But what about Brisbane’s direct competitor, the Nuremberg in 2028 bid? Well, at this point there was nothing at all in evidence of the Nuremberg bid beyond an empty fan table and this box on the floor:

Box with Nuremberg posters

A box with posters for the Nuremberg in 2028 Worldcon bid on the floor of the dealers room.

I snapped that photo and sent it to the Brisbane folks, because I found the “Nuremberg Posters – Not Trash” labelling funny. Though it also shows the very oddly patterned carpet in the dealers room and the adjacent art show room, which made quite a few people seasick.  As for what those posters look like – wait and see.

I did get a few people stopping by the table, including Dutch fan and conrunner Paul Van Ark, who actually went on unofficially helping us out at the various Worldcon bid tables, handing out flyers, postcards, ribbons, etc… Paul told me that he actually attended Heicon ’70, the 1970 Worldcon in Heidelberg, Germany, and still has lots of photos, which would have been useful when I compiled my Heicon ’70 report for Galactic Journey. Later that weekend, I also met a Scottish fan who’d attended Heicon ’70 as well, bringing my tally of Heicon ’70 members I’ve met up to four (the two I met at Eastercon plus Rober Silverberg and Betsy Wollheim). Supposedly, there was a third Heicon ’70 member at Iridescence, but I didn’t meet them.

Around noon, my stomach started grumbling. I do need to eat regularly and lunch is traditionally the main meal in German and also my main meal, when I’m at home. And since the dealers room wasn’t officially open yet and not very busy, I decided to go for lunch.

So I headed to the Hilton bar, found a seat (and promptly neglected to remember the table number, when ordering) and ordered a pint of cider and a vegetable balti from the bar menu. I ended up sitting and chatting with several Eastercon folks, including speculative poet and artist Kim Whysall-Hammond.

Vegetable balti

Vegetable balti with basmati rice, naan, mango chutney and poppadom chips.

The vegetable balti tasted good, though not quite like what you could get at Birmingham’s own Balti Triangle. I’m also not sure if it’s really worth 19 pounds, but then I’ve no idea what you’d pay at the Balti Triangle these days either.

I did mop the rest of the curry up with the naan, though in Germany I usually feel a tad self-conscious about doing this, because Germany has pretty strong taboos about eating with your hands. If someone gives me a weird look, I usually reply “This is how they do it in the Pakistani neighbourhoods of Birmingham and what’s perfectly normal there can’t be wrong here.”

So when I dunked my naan into the curry, I was about to say that and then realised, “I literally am in Birmingham right now and eating my balti as intended.” Which led to a discussion of Indian food in Germany or the lack thereof, including someone (I forgot who) sharing a story about some German people in an Indian restaurant being befuddled by poppadoms and unsure what to do with them.

After lunch, I returned to the dealers room and found that the row of Worldcon bid tables was no longer quite as empty as before, because Carolina Gomez-Lagerlöf, representing both Montreal and Nuremberg, and Amanda Wakaruk, co-chair of the Edmonton bid, had arrived by now. There was a lot of hugging and helloing as well as reshuffling of flyers, bookmarks and ribbons. At this point, the Brisbane fan table had some postcards and bookmarks as well as tiny koalas, chocolate and various Australian goodies, but no ribbons. Edmonton was also missing a lot of their swag. Amanda told me that someone named Colin had the Brisbane ribbons and Edmonton swag and was supposed to drop it off after three PM. However, it turned that Colin was delayed, so we had to make do for now.

Farah Mendlesohn, who’s also on the Brisbane team, arrived as well. She’d been at the museum and art gallery in the city centre for the morning. Farah also had more swag and candy. Meanwhile, Colin was delayed.

So we settled in, chatted and handed out whatever swag/merch we had. Montreal had a lot of different kinds of ribbons as well as maple syrup candies, Edmonton had postcards and vegan dinosaur gummies, which are actually from Germany and were remarkably popular. There was one kid who kept coming back and taking some. Which is perfectly fine, since that’s what they’re for. As for why dinosaur gummies, Edmonton is famous for the many amazing dinosaur fossils found in the region and also has a great dinosaur museum, which I for one did not know.

Meanwhile, Brisbane had chocolate, Tim-Tams (Australian sweets) and tiny koalas that you can clip to your lanyard. The Tim-Tams were really popular, but those tiny koalas were the biggest hit and quickly colonised the con.

Tiny koala at the Wizard Tower Press stall

A tiny koala is hanging out at the Wizard Tower Press stall.

When the opening ceremony was over and the con and dealers room officially opened, things quickly got busy. We handed out candy, swag and koalas, explained how site selection voting works and why Brisbane (or Edmonton) would be a great location for a Worldcon. Meanwhile, there was still no sign of the mysterious Colin, though he texted Farah that he was delayed.

Eastercon dealers room

Two cosplayers check out the offerings at the Eastercon dealers room

Elsewhen Press, David Cartwright and FunCon tables at Eastercon

The Elsewhen Press table, the table of author David Cartwright and the fan table of FunCon, a British con in Buxton, at Eastercon. I’m not entirely sure why the FunCon people are dressed up like bees and never got around to asking them.

There was also no sign of the Nuremberg Worldcon bid team. Eventually, Tammy Coxen arrived to man the table and finally, Florian Bailey, co-chair of the Nuremberg bid, also showed up. Turned out he had miscalculated how long the train ride from London Euston to Birmingham New Street would take. Or rather, he’d gotten a slow train that stops at every milk can like I did back in 1995. I really wish there were some way to tell apart slow and fast trains in the UK, so you can calculate travel times. But if there’s a way, I’ve never found it.

We asked someone to take a photo of all the assembled representatives of the different Worldcons and bids, which you can see below:

Cora Buhlert, Farah Mendlesohn, Carolina Gomez-Lagerlöf, Amanda Wakaruk, Florian Bailey and Tammy Coxen at Eastercon

Here we have yours truly in a She-Ra shirt, representing the Brisbane in 2028 Worldcon bid, Farah Mendlesohn, representing Brisbane and the Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bid, Carolina Gomez-Lagerlöf, representing the Montreal Worldcon in 2017 and the Nuremberg in 2028 Worldcon bid, Amanda Wakaruk, co-chair of the Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bid, Florian Bailey, co-chair of the Nuremberg in 2028 Worldcon bid and Tammy Coxen, representing the Nuremberg in 2028 and Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bids.

It’s a great photo, but it caused a minor uproar, when Montreal’s social media person posted the photo on BlueSky with the caption “Worldcon Volunteers from Montreal and Brisbane, together at Eastercon”, omitting Nuremberg and Edmonton. I’m pretty sure this was a mistake, since Montreal’s social media person most likely doesn’t know most or even any of us, let alone who is affiliated with what Worldcon bid, and went by the banners in the background. However, it upset a few people, so I reposted Montreal’s post with all the correct names and affiliations. I would have posted the photo myself, but Farah had sent it to my e-mail account rather than WhatsApp. And my travel laptop as well as the hotel internet were slow as molasses, so I couldn’t download and post the photo.

Colin also finally arrived and apologised for the delay, so Brisbane now also had ribbons to hand out and Edmonton had more swag in general, including beer mats and honey candy.

We’d assumed that the dealers room would close as six PM, but it stayed open until eight PM. However, Farah, Amanda and I departed after six to go to dinner and asked Carolina, who was still around, to watch the table. Florian and Tammy had also left by this point.

We met up with Edward James, British con-runner Mike Scott and a bookseller named Erzebeth whose surname I have unfortunately forgotten and headed to Resorts World for dinner, this time taking the long way around the lake. We met some Canada geese who did not seem to be quite sure what to make of these weird Eastercon people. But then, those geese have probably lived there since long before there was an NEC or a Hilton Metropole or a Resorts World.

Canada geese on Pendigo Lake

Canada geese on Pendigo Lake.

After some debating about where to have dinner, we ended up at Karaage again. This time, I had stir-fried rice with tofu and teriyaki sauce, which was served with miso soup and Japanese pickles on the side. I think I enjoyed this dish more than the yakisoba the day before.

Yasai Chahan, miso soup and pickles

Stir-fried rice with tofa and teriyaki sauce, miso soup and Japanese pickles.

After dinner, we walked back to the Hilton, this time taking the short way around the lake. We parted ways, since some folks wanted to go to a karaoke party, while I headed to the bar with some others and had a pint of cider.

When I heard that there was a karaoke party going on, I thought, “Wait a minute, it’s Good Friday. And there’s a karaoke party going on? Amazing.”

Because in Germany, Good Friday is a so-called silent holiday, where dancing in public is forbidden and all the clubs must close. Football matches and other sports events are also forbidden, fun fairs (including Bremen’s Easter fair, which loses an entire business day of the two week runtime) and amusement parks must close, cinemas may only show select movies that have been approved as suitable for a such a solemn holiday. Many movies don’t have this approval, so cinemas often close altogether. Pubs and bars close and many restaurants do as well. The reason behind these rules is to appease the Christian churches who have decided that because Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, everybody must mourn him by staying at home and doing nothing at all, including people who are not Christian or not religious at all.

Those rules are outdated and completely ridiculous, but the Catholic and Lutheran churches defend them tooth and claw like all their privileges. We have the “Can we maybe get rid of those outdated rules that are foisted even on people who don’t believe in that particular religion?” discussion every single year and every single year you get responses like “A day of quiet and contemplation and without partying or consumption won’t hurt you. On the contrary, it will probably do you good.” – Maybe, but people should choose for themselves whether and when they want quiet and contemplation and not have it forced upon them by someone else’s religion. “If you won’t play by the rules of our religion for our holiday, then just go to work.” – Actually, lots of people would rather work on Good Friday than be stuck with a dead holiday where you can’t do anything or go anywhere.

As a result, it was incredibly refreshing to be in a place where you can have a karaoke party on Good Friday and no one bats an eyelash, let alone calls the police to shut you down. Cause in Germany, Eastercon most likely wouldn’t even have been possible on Good Friday at all and a karaoke party definitely wouldn’t have been allowed. The bowling alley, casino and arcade at Resorts World would have been closed, the cinema and many of the restaurants possibly as well and it’s quite likely that the whole complex would have been closed down altogether.

In general, this Easter weekend in the UK felt a lot less like Easter than usual. Yes, there were chocolate Easter eggs in the shops, but otherwise it might just have been a regular weekend. Of course, I spent the weekend in the somewhat isolated bubble of Eastercon, but I suspect it wouldn’t have been much different elsewhere. There were karaoke parties and everything open on Good Friday. On Easter Saturday, I only remembered that there would have been an Easter bonfire (see this post for an explanation) at home, when I saw photos of Easter bonfires on social media. Luckily, I had closed the ventilation slits to avoid my house smelling of Easter fire, when I got home. And on Easter Sunday, I went down to breakfast and wished everybody at the table a “Happy Easter” – which again is totally normal and polite in Germany – and everybody just looked at me as if I literally just sprouted Easter bunny ears. In short, I highly recommend going to Eastercon, if you want to avoid the holiday trappings of Easter in Germany.

In fact, I briefly considered going to the karaoke party just to be a very, very naughty girl and make Baby Jesus or rather some joyless priests and church officials (since I believe Jesus would have been cooler than that and probably would have gone to the karaoke party) cry. But Eastercon members don’t deserve being exposed to my terrible voice just so I can stick it joyless German church officials and politicians. And so I just went to the hotel bar, which would have been no-no in Germany as well, though not quite as taboo as – gasp – having a party.

I finished my cider and went to bed.

In Memoriam: Rosemary Edghill

May. 11th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Rosemary Edghill (June 1956–07 April 2026), also writing as, eluki bes shahar and James Mallory, was a prolific novelist, short story writer, comic writer, and essayist. She is known for her genre-spanning work, writing both alone and collaboratively. Mad Maudlin, her third Bedlam’s Bard collaboration, was a 2002 Voices of Youth Advocates (VOYA) selection as one of the best Horror and Fantasy novels of the year.

Starting as a comic book and then a regency romance writer, Edghill debuted in science fiction and fantasy writer with the space opera Hellflower series, and continued to write across genres and media, collaborating with several of the bestselling women authors of the day. Dozens of her short stories were published, and dozens of collaborations of varying length, along with her own novels, including the Bast series, and the Twelve Treasures. Edghill continued writing and collaborating through the mid 2010s.

Edghill loved collaborative writing as a way to explore both another writer’s mind and the multitude of interpretations different people find in the same phrasing of language. She enjoyed her experiences at conventions, meeting and talking with other writers, and especially loved her English Toy Spaniels.

Rosemary Edghill lived 69 years.

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In Memoriam: Ian Watson

May. 11th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Ian Watson (20 April 1943–13 April 2026) was an innovative and highly prolific novelist, poet, and short story writer. Watson’s 1973 novel The Embedding won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was also a Nebula Award Finalist, along with the 1985 novelette “Slow Birds.” Watson was also a Hugo Award Finalist for “Slow Birds” and “The Very Slow Time Machine.” Watson’s 1975 novel The Jonah Kit won the BSFA Award, and in 2024, Watson was named European Science Fiction Grandmaster by the European Science Fiction Society.

Watson served as the SFWA Overseas Regional Director in the early 2000s, and he was the long-time European Editor for the SFWA Bulletin, where he also handled the regional shipping of copies. Born in England and settling in Spain, Watson was often a featured guest at European book and science-fiction conventions and events.

Focused on thought, perception, and transcendence, with a detailed eye to control of information in pursuit of power, Watson wrote, explored, and taught over the course of six decades. Watson wrote over 200 short stories, including 11 short story collections, alongside dozens of novels. While best known for his science fiction, Watson enjoyed innovation across genres, including satire, erotica, thriller, and horror. His works were translated into a large variety of European languages, and the translation of The Embedding, L’Enchâssement, won the Prix Apollo in 1975.

Watson, along with Michael Bishop, achieved the first noted transatlantic science-fiction novel collaboration, Under Heaven’s Bridge, via mailed, typewritten manuscripts. In 1990, Watson was the first novelist for the Warhammer 40,000 wargame setting, and he is a credited writer, in a collaboration with Stanley Kubrick, for the Steven Spielberg’s 2001 A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

Ian Watson lived 82 years.

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In Memoriam: Joseph L. Green

May. 11th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Joseph Lee Green (14 January 1931–20 February 2026) was a prolific science-fiction writer. A charter member of SFWA in 1965, he was the Nebula Conference Toastmaster in 1970, and served as co-Director of the South/Central Region from 1976 to 1978.

A missile base construction worker and later communications writer for the US Space Program, Green also wrote prolific fiction on topics of extraterrestrial life and technology, including genetic modification. Green also wrote for non-fiction articles for Analog Science Fiction and Fact between 1967 and 1972. Around 80 of his short stories were published over the course of nearly 60 years, along with eight novels. His earlier novels include 1971’s Gold the Man (published in the US as The Mind Behind the Eye), and he returned to novels in the late 2010s, including with a supernatural murder series. Green’s novelette “The Decision Makers” was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1965.

Author Robert Silverberg remembers:

“I met Joe Green at the 1961 Worldcon in Seattle. My career was well established by then, but Joe was just starting to think about doing some writing, and asked me a lot of questions about the commercial aspects of writing for a living.  I helped him as much as I could, and was pleased to see his name turning up on the contents pages of the s-f magazines not long afterward. A good many stories and some novels followed over the years, an impressive body of skillfully done work. Wisely, though, he looked upon writing as a sideline – very few of us have been able to make a go of it as a full-time proposition — and as his primary activity he put in 37 years as an engineer with NASA, serving to turn science-fiction into reality. When such writers as Robert A, Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gordon Dickson came to the Kennedy Space Center to see the launch of moon rockets, Joe, who lived nearby, was their genial host.  I enjoyed a friendship with him of more than sixty years and his passing leaves yet another big absence for me.”

Joseph Green lived 95 years. 

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In Memoriam: Lee Martindale

May. 9th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Posted by M. L. Clark

Lee Martindale (1949–10 March 2026) was a multi-genre fantasy writer, editor, anthologist, essayist, advocate, Named Bard, ordained minister, and friend to many.

Martindale served for two three-year terms on the SFWA Board of Directors, where she authored and was a fierce advocate for SFWA’s Accessibility Guidelines. She served on the Grievance Committee as a liaison to membership, and also as the SFWA Ombudsman. She received the Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award in 2019.

Martindale was a passionate writer her whole life, yet it wasn’t until her forties when she first sold a published short story, “YearBride,” the first of around three dozen short stories published over the next quarter of a century. Martindale’s writing danced through speculative realms, centered in fantastical sword and sorcery—and never stayed its hand from exploring love, marriage, and sex. Determined to defy harmful standards for women in sword and sorcery, she was proud of stories such as 1998’s “Neighborhood Watch,” which introduced a “fat, feisty, and toothsome heroine into SF&F.” Martindale also wrote essays on her experiences and advocacy work, in her own Rump Parliament Magazine, her The Bard’s Fire blog, and in the 2012 article “The Good Guest Primer” for the SFWA Bulletin, edited by Jean Rabe.

Martindale’s anthologies and collections were of particular and groundbreaking importance to women in genre. Her 2000 anthology, Such A Pretty Face: Tales of Power and Abundance, centered fat protagonists, enabling a new welcome to many women to see themselves in the stories they loved. And her 2011 anthology, The Ladies of Trade Town, featured sex workers as protagonists in speculative stories. The continued notability of these collections speaks to Martindale’s insight and impact. She published a collection of her essays in 2008, and one of her short stories in 2014, under her own imprint, HarpHaven Publishing.

Lee was a member of the “SFWA Musketeers,” a self-proclaimed troupe of SFF women authors, all members of SFWA, almost all of whom were skilled fencers. Rumor speaks of some men as auxiliaries. Lee fenced from her “battle chariot” (motorized wheelchair), delighting doubters and the familiar alike with her victories (and losses) during convention demos.

Former SFWA President Cat Rambo says, “Lee was sharp and funny and unafraid. She spoke her mind and I am so sad never to be able to talk with her again in this life.”

Writer and Musketeer Elizabeth Moon recalls, “I knew Lee Martindale for years both in SFWA, and outside it; as a personal friend who, with her husband George, enlivened many a Thanksgiving feast and birthday party at our place. Lee enjoyed visiting with my horses and they enjoyed her, until Rags was a Bad Bad Pony and bit her once. She was a lively, interesting, fun guest to have around the big table. And as most of you know, a fierce advocate for many causes. I’m sure whatever post-life location her soul ended up is enjoying her now. I certainly did.”

Writer and Musketeer Melanie Fletcher notes, “If you looked up ‘force of nature’ in the dictionary, you’d see Lee’s picture. She was a brilliant writer and editor, a fierce champion and activist, and the most loyal friend anyone could ask for. She was also my treasured sword sister as one of the SFWA Musketeers. One of the most ‘Lee’ moments I can remember was when she received an angry letter from someone she’d turned down for an anthology threatening physical violence. Her reply: ‘I have two things to say to you: ‘Smith & Wesson’ and ‘Come ahead, sucker.’’ The next letter she received from the individual (yes, he wrote back) was exquisitely polite.”

Writer and Queen of the Musketeers (not a fencer, as it was not considered wise to hand her sharp, pointy things) Esther Friesner remembers, “I don’t know when we first met but I’m so glad that we did. She was talented, no-nonsense, gifted and able to speak frankly without using ‘honesty’ as a shield for speaking cruelly. She knew how to choose her battles and was never one to retreat from what needed to be done or what needed to be said. She was always fun to hang out with. As the Musketeer’s Queen I took to calling her ‘ma barde,’ and bard she was. It’s very hard accepting that ma barde has gone ahead. It is a comfort to know that even so, her music and her voice remain.”

Lee Martindale lived 76 years.

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In Memoriam: Jeffrey A. Carver

May. 9th, 2026 04:30 pm
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Jeffrey A. Carver (25 August 1949–06 February 2026) was a prolific and beloved novelist, short story writer, essayist, teacher, and creator of science fiction worlds, such as The Chaos Chronicles and the Star Rigger Universe. Carver wrote over a dozen novels and two short fiction collections. His novel Eternity’s End was a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2001. Carver received the Helicon Frank Herbert Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

In service to SFWA, Carver first took on the role of Nebula Awards Committee Chair and then as SFWA Awards Rules Committee Chair for more than 25 years, starting in July 1998.

Carver directly and unabashedly loved science fiction. His childhood wonder at the expanse of space led him to find that same inspiration in writing, in literature as exploration. Carver wrote of possibilities, hoping readers would take that insight and question the world around them, of what possibilities it could hold. Carver took his passion also to teaching, with the educational series Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.

Author Robert J. Sawyer reflects:

“Jeff Carver was an absolute gentleman. Although at that point, we’d only ever met online, when he heard I was coming to his home state to do a signing, he invited my wife and me to stay overnight at his home. He was also one of the few authors willing to share hard numbers with others; he believed the more we all collectively knew, the better off everyone would be. We were friends for thirty years, and I will miss him for the rest of my life.”

Jeffrey A. Carver lived 76 years.

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Accidentally Engaged

RECOMMENDED: Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron is $2.99! Kiki reviewed this one and gave it an A-:

I cannot emphasize enough how hungry this book will make you.

Accidentally Engaged might be my top pick for “don’t read while hungry.” Between our heroine Reena’s bread baking (there’s rye, there’s challah, there’s an ongoing battle with a sourdough starter) and her Indian and East African cooking, I was craving a feast pretty much the whole time I was reading this book.

Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her family inserting themselves into every detail of her life. But when caring for her precious sourdough starters, Reena can drown it all out. At least until her father moves his newest employee across the hall–with hopes that Reena will marry him.

But Nadim’s not like the other Muslim bachelors-du-jour that her parents have dug up. If the Captain America body and the British accent weren’t enough, the man appears to love eating her bread creations as much as she loves making them. She sure as hell would never marry a man who works for her father, but friendship with a neighbor is okay, right? And when Reena’s career takes a nosedive, Nadim happily agrees to fake an engagement so they can enter a couples video cooking contest to win the artisan bread course of her dreams.

As cooking at home together brings them closer, things turn physical, but Reena isn’t worried. She knows Nadim is keeping secrets, but it’s fine— secrets are always on the menu where her family is concerned. And her heart is protected… she’s not marrying the man. But even secrets kept for self preservation have a way of getting out, especially when meddling parents and gossiping families are involved.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Twice in a Blue Moon

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren is $2.99! Elyse read this one and I think her review could be parsed down to “needs way more grovel.” If you read it, would you agree?

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners and the “delectable, moving” (Entertainment WeeklyMy Favorite Half-Night Stand comes a modern love story about what happens when your first love reenters your life when you least expect it…

Sam Brandis was Tate Jones’s first: Her first love. Her first everything. Including her first heartbreak.

During a whirlwind two-week vacation abroad, Sam and Tate fell for each other in only the way that first loves do: sharing all of their hopes, dreams, and deepest secrets along the way. Sam was the first, and only, person that Tate—the long-lost daughter of one of the world’s biggest film stars—ever revealed her identity to. So when it became clear her trust was misplaced, her world shattered for good.

Fourteen years later, Tate, now an up-and-coming actress, only thinks about her first love every once in a blue moon. When she steps onto the set of her first big break, he’s the last person she expects to see. Yet here Sam is, the same charming, confident man she knew, but even more alluring than she remembered. Forced to confront the man who betrayed her, Tate must ask herself if it’s possible to do the wrong thing for the right reason… and whether “once in a lifetime” can come around twice.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Deep Dark

RECOMMENDEDDeep Dark by Laura Griffin is $1.99! Elyse read this one and gave it an A-:

Fans of cyber-thrillers or readers looking for a hacker heroine should definitely check Deep Dark out. Those who prefer their romantic suspense without explicit violence may want to steer clear.

The moment detective Reed Novak steps onto the crime scene, he knows the case is going to rock his world. A beautiful young woman murdered at home. No sign of forced entry. No motive. She’s obviously not the killer’s first victim, and Reed’s instincts tell him she won’t be his last. Reed’s first clue comes via a mysterious text that links to a dating profile, but even more intriguing than the clue is the person who sent it.

As a white-hat hacker in the Delphi Center’s cyber investigation unit, Laney Knox sneaks into some of the deepest, darkest corners of the Internet looking for predators. Laney would prefer to stay away from Austin PD’s most recent murder case, but she can’t ignore the chilling similarities between that crime and her own brutal attack years ago. Laney offers to help the sexy lead detective, but he wants more from her than just a promising tip—Reed wants her trust. Laney resists, but as their relationship deepens she’s tempted to reveal the closely guarded secrets that could make her a key witness…or the killer’s next victim.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Big Chicas Don’t Cry

Big Chicas Don’t Cry by Anette Chavez Macias is $2.49 at Amazon! This seems like it leans more toward women’s fiction with some romantic threads. It has a 4.2-star rating on Goodreads.

Four cousins navigate love, loss, and the meaning of family over the course of one memorable year in this heartfelt family drama.

Cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They aren’t just family but best friends—sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. But their idyllic childhood ends when Mari’s parents divorce, forcing her to move away. With Mari gone, the girls’ tight-knit bond unravels.

Fifteen years later, Mari’s got the big house and handsome husband, but her life is in shambles. Erica’s boyfriend just dumped her, and her new boss hates her. Selena can’t seem to find her place in the world—not Mexican enough for her family, not white enough for her colleagues. And Gracie is a Catholic school teacher with an all-consuming crush, but she can’t trust herself when it comes to romance.

As rocky as the cousins’ lives have become, nothing can prepare them for the heartbreaking loss of a loved one. When tragedy reunites them, will they remember their abuelita’s lessons about family and forgiveness—or are fifteen years of separation too much to overcome?

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

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Words To Live By

There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away. ~Emily Dickinson

Being a writer is a very peculiar sort of a job: it’s always you versus a blank sheet of paper (or a blank screen) and quite often the blank piece of paper wins. ~Neil Gaiman

Of course I am not worried about intimidating men. The type of man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the type of man I have no interest in. ~Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. ~Stephen King

The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read. ~Mark Twain

I feel free and strong. If I were not a reader of books I could not feel this way. ~Walter Tevis

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one. ~George R.R. Martin

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