Scheherazade in Blue Jeans

Administration
Happy birthday to idonotlikepeas and time_shark!

Hello to new reader fionn1799!

Medical
Wiped. This is one of those days when I wish I was still unemployed so I could go back to bed. But I will soldier on!

A Question
What are your rules? I'll give mine later today, when I'm more awake.

Blogathon
Yes, this is really early warning. But. People who make stuff! Want to contribute to my blogathon for BARCC (again)? Trying to think of a fresh theme/idea. Stuff inspired by My Empire for Ashes? Or something else? Dunno. Open to ideas.

This year, all items must be sent to me first, and I'll send the to the winners. Deadline is early July, but you can start sending stuff as early as now.

Link Soup
* Million Writers Award, reader nominations. "The Angel of Fremont Street" is eligible.
* Awesome deconstruction of Dracula.
* Victorian butt plugs.
* Some secrets about art cars.
* Smiling dog!

Daily Science
WHEN, in 2001, the human genome was sequenced for the first time, we were confronted by several surprises. One was the sheer lack of genes: where we had anticipated perhaps 100,000 there were actually as few as 20,000. A bigger surprise came from analysis of the genetic sequences, which revealed that these genes made up a mere 1.5 per cent of the genome. This is dwarfed by DNA deriving from viruses, which amounts to roughly 9 per cent.

Plans
Work, where I have quite specific goals to accomplish today. And home, where I have cleaning and editing and lots of other stuff to do, probably after a nap. Can stop by to help fiddle_dragon if she needs help, too, but home has to happen at some point today, because I am behind on everything.

My Week, Projected
Tuesday: work + BARCC tabling at Bunker Hill, writing time at Diesel, goofing-off time at Diesel, date with Mark.
Wednesday: Work + probably helping fiddle_dragon + night at home.
Thursday: Work + writing time + Scotch tasting with Adam.
Friday: Work + writing time + possible tabling.
Weekend: Girl Scout cookie sales, tabling, friend's party.

Read: Utterly booked, even for lunches, because I don't have as much writing time as I want to this week, and lunch out takes it all away for any given day. I have a bunch of writing projects to get off my desk, and that needs to be high-priority right now so I can jump into Cicatrix.

"When Her Eyes Open" has been nominated for the Rhysling Award.

<3 <3 <3

Voting has begun for the Rose and Bay Awards. I was nominated for Fiction, but have ended up in Other Project...? Also it has my LJ name other than the name I actually write by. But. Is there!

So click here to vote for Wind Tunnel Dreams, if you like it!

And vote in the other categories, too!

...my laptop will no longer load the internet. Not Firefox, not Safari. I was hoping to pay for Explo before getting a new laptop (which I needed to do anyway, because it still turns itself off randomly and the trackpad and clickpad don't work and it makes that awful grinding noise, and the netbook is great for what it is but is not the solution writingwise, because it's a Windows machine and I do my writing in Scrivener), and also hoping to gather up all the necessary funds in Amazon.com giftcards, because I have $350 in Amazon giftcards already. But right now I'm on the ancient and incredibly slow backup laptop with the broken keys and intermittently-working spacebar, and this is not a solution for more than a few days. So I'll hope the Apple Store feels like extending us credit. If not, hey, Wind Tunnel Dreams to fundraise for new laptop!

EDIT: And the Apple store laughs at our credit. They mock us.

So starting tomorrow you get "My Empire for Ashes" serialized to raise the ~$600 that I now need by the end of the week.

It was so clear to me
that it was almost invisible.
I lie across the path waiting
just for a chance to be a spiderweb
trapped in your lashes;
for that, I would trade you
my empire for ashes.
But I choke it back, how much I need love...
--Neko Case, "Middle Cyclone"



Today, the Telenias is the keeper of lost knowledge - one of two people alive who bears the burden of the memory of the Fall. Of something so terrible that the Dasaroi's immortality was revoked, their powers reduced to a fraction of what they'd once been.

It is a hell of a burden.

Starting tomorrow, see what brought him there. Because forty years ago, the Telenias was a young man named Alexander Tallart who thought his future held nothing more weighty than a position as archivist at the Library, a few concerts a month, and a life being of use to his cousin and Kithara.

And then there was this girl.

And this Council.

And nothing, from that point on, went quite as planned.

Welcome home. You're early.

(Portrait by ultra_lilac. Ribbon by charitypomaybo.)

All proceeds go to replacing my laptop. If we go over, excess proceeds go into Elayna's Explo fund. Sponsors get the soundtrack as a thank-you gift!

( Collapse )