the centre cannot hold;

The Bitch is Back

Goddamn, the experience of being 19 years old and reading Ayn Rand! The crystal-shivering-at-the-breaking-pitch intensity of it! Not just for that 19-year-old, but for everybody unfortunate enough to be caught in his psychic blast radius. Is "experience" even the right word for The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged? Ayn Rand's idolization of Mickey Spillane and cigarettes and capitalism—an experience? Her tentacular contempt for Shakespeare and Beethoven and Karl Marx and facial hair and government and "subnormal" children and the poor and the Baby Jesus and the U.N. and homosexuals and "simpering" social workers and French Impressionism and a thousand other things the flesh is heir to: experience?


As I said elsewhere: Human beings don't work the way she says they do. Societies don't work the way she says they do. Economies don't work the way she says they do. Her books are painfully awful and warp the term "literary art" even as one hesitates to apply it. Yet her ideas and novels persist because they feed the most indestructible and gullibility-producing force in the universe, human egotism.

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From virginia_fell, because I think it's hilarious and so will thinkmonkey

From our Orlando concert last Friday night. This is what we've REALLY wanted to put on YouTube all this time. Thanks, omnisti !

( It's got a really catchy tune. )

Just out of idle curiosity and general nosiness, just wondering if anyone else here enjoys hearing, and telling stories? (ideally by an open fire with mulled wine or a cup of hot tea, and a pipe of good cherry-vanilla tobbacco.)

It's that time of year, when red velvet and white fluff are in season, when pine and mistletoe scent the air, when sleighbells jangle in the distance...and Nebula nominations open.

Now, I've never been nominated for a Nebula. I've rarely even been suggested for one. But I thought I'd list the things I've written this year that are eligible, just in case any of you are SFWA members and want to vote for them. (Plus some little announcements toward the end!

Palimpsest
Obviously, this would mean the most to me--Palimpsest was in many ways an orphaned novel, surrounded by lay-offs and championed not by its publisher but by its readers. I still can't believe Amazon ranked it #1 on its SFF of 2009 list.

Under In the Mere
Sadly, I think this is a hair too long to qualify in the novella category, and is a long shot given how weird it is--but hey.

The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew
I love this story with a great love, and I think some of you did too. If you haven't read it yet, please do! I think I am probably turning this into a novel.

Golubash, or Wine-War-Blood-Elegy
Yay, first SF story ever!

The Anachronist's Cookbook
This got zero attention, mostly because it was only available on an app for the iPhone for a long time. But finally, I have gotten permission to post the story for free on my website! All my issues with steampunk in fiction form!

Proverbs of Hell
This story about love between a monk and a demon just came out in The Stories Between, an anthology to benefit and celebrate the awesome indie bookstore Between Books. It's basically filled with storied by authors who have read at the store over the years, and is GORGEOUS besides. Check it out!

A Delicate Architecture
This was the first YA piece I ever wrote--a Hansel and Gretel story, following the witch's childhood and the root of her obsession with candy.

Thank you to everyone who votes! If you are a voting member of SFWA, I will provide free e-copies of any of these that are not available online on request. Just email me.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2009/11/foiled-foliage.html

"Hello, Miss? I wish to make a complaint about this cake I purchased not half an hour ago from this very bakery."

[looking cake over] "Oh, yes, that's our Norwegian Leaves design. What's wrong with it?"

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it: these are real leaves, that's what's wrong with it."



"No, of course not! Those are just icing. Look!" [shuffling leaves]

"Look, Miss, I know real dead leaves when I see them, and I'm looking at some right now."

"No, they're icing. Remarkable leaves, the Norwegian ones, aren't they? Beautiful foliage."

"The foliage don't enter into it! You put real leaves on my cake!"

"No, they're not real, they're just shining in accords."

"Shining in accords? What does that even mean?"

"I dunno; I'm just trying to stick to this Monty Python sketch as closely as possible."


Emily E., it's like a pun. Or a, what you call it, palindrome. Yeah.

NOTE: Yes, folks, they really are real leaves. Kinda gives a new meaning to "all natural ingredients," doesn't it?

- Related Wreckage: The Word "Holy" DID Come to Mind...

Administration
Happy birthday to the most excellent maxymyllyn!

Hello to new reader yud!

Medical
I am cautiously optimistic about skin stuff.

Nebulas
Um. Because I got nudged about this.

The Nebula nomination period is open. My eligible stories:

* "The Angel of Fremont Street"
* "Fortune"
* "Valentines"

Everything else that got published this year was poetry or flash.

Another Auction!


This is [redacted] by Kristin Ross - the third artist so far who doesn't know me, just connected with the story. I get so bouncy at that. :) Her statement, which I find totally awesome:

"I’ve been working with a lot of collage art lately, but Shira Lipkin’s story “Valentines” inspired these four pieces with all original components. The series of four bookmarks is called [redacted]. Lipkin’s story features a narrator desperately trying to catalogue information and my art centers around that idea, as well. I really connected with this theme; in our modern existence, we’re overwhelmed with information every waking moment and we’re constantly logging and processing it. In the bookmarks, the writing comes straight from my journal the day I put myself into the character’s shoes. The finished product represents the problems with memory Lipkin’s narrator struggles with and how both data and recollection can have a shattering effect on one’s identity."

Click here to bid!

Link Soup
* Get a free copy of Interfictions 2 by talking up the auctions!
* Meep!
* Robot paintings.

Daily Science
* Six months after the Mars rover Spirit became trapped in a patch of soft soil, its controllers are preparing to send a set of commands that they hope will free the robotic explorer, NASA announced Thursday.
* "Significant amount" of water found on the moon.
* Mandelbrot in 3-D!

Plans
Must schedule appointment for bloodwork for Elayna - celiac runs in families. The rest of my day is given over to assigning panelists to Arisia lit panels! If I have time after, hopefully writing. And I was up in the middle of the night again, so a nap needs to happen, too.

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http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/11/2009-wild-hunt-winter-pledge-drive-nov-16-22.html

http://wildhunt.org/blog/?p=3709

What:

Since it started in 2004, the Wild Hunt has become a vital news source for modern Pagans, and a crucial resource for those outside the Pagan movement who want to explore the issues that are important to us.

The Wild Hunt doesn’t simply alert you to the interesting (or infuriating) stories of the day, but adds analysis, context, and unique features. The Wild Hunt has interviewed movers-and-shakers within modern Paganism like Margot Adler, Starhawk, Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone, as well as relevant religion writers and journalists like Jeff Sharlet and J.C. Hallman, while providing special “Pagan’s-eye” coverage of events like the Democratic National Convention and the American Academy of Religion’s yearly meeting. Upcoming coverage will include the Parliament of the World’s Religions and an interview with Owen Davies, author of Grimoires.

The future is bright for The Wild Hunt, and for Pagan journalism as a whole! We’d like to invite you along, as we initiate the first annual Wild Hunt Winter Pledge Drive. Our goals are three:

• To keep The Wild Hunt full-access (no subscription fees or “pay-walls”).
• To keep The Wild Hunt non-commercial (no ads or spam).
• To keep The Wild Hunt daily.

In a single month, this past October alone, The Wild Hunt counted over 44,000 unique visitors, giving this daily news source a very respectable “circulation” in the world of niche journalism. Around 5,000 readers receive The Wild Hunt directly every day, via their Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, LiveJournal, or email.

How:

If you are one of these avid followers of Pagan and religious-minority news, please consider contributing to the site during this year’s Winter Pledge Drive, in one of these categories:

• Basic – $5
• Reader – $20
• Supporter – $50
• Benefactor – $150

• Affiliate – Consider becoming a Wild Hunt underwriter, with a listing and link on The Wild Hunt’s new “Affiliates” page. Contact me for further details.

Click this button to contribute now:

If you are unfamiliar with PayPal or have other questions, please contact me.

When:

This year’s Pledge Drive will continue from November 16th through the 22nd. Feel free to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and your other favorite social sites! Thanks for being a part of The Wild Hunt.

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http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/zara.asp

Is the Zara fashion chain selling handbags adorned with swastikas?

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http://xkcd.com/663/

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( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

So, recently there has been an individual on the intarwebz that has been appropriating disability and trans communities for her own pro-choice agenda.

Now, I am pro-choice. I love choice, and believe abortion should be legalized. However, I do not find it appropriate to constantly post about the politics of it when it is not in a relevant forum. I don't go to feminist boards and talk about my penis, nor do I go to the KKK and talk about how I am multiracial and disabled.

I consider this a snark because, honestly, I want my designated spaces to be safe. I am not saying pro-choice laws are somehow unsafe, but if I really just want to talk about how IDEA sucks for deafness and why doctors are such pisspoor professionals, I want to see THAT in the thread. If I want to discuss pro-choice activism, I'd go to...say, HERE! http://community.livejournal.com/pro_choice/

So yes, so-called-allies, stop appropriating disability and transgender forums for your agenda, and when we tell you it's not appropriate, you get butthurt.

http://community.livejournal.com/glbtq_disabled/
Where it's happening.

http://community.livejournal.com/transfeminism/98303.html
Where people are commenting.

http://community.livejournal.com/transgender/2077700.html?thread=21710596#t21710596
Where it's going to shit.

Firstly, the Women's Studies crowd are way more fun than the Lit/Creative Writing academic conference attendees I have seen. I think it's because WS people tend to be social scientists, and they are interested in their fellow humans which is why they become social scientists. AWP on the other hand was five thousand introverts in a hotel.

Secondly, an occult publisher in the UK (Scarlet Imprint) has accepted three of my poems for an anthology they are doing. More news about that as I have it.

Thirdly...I can't even discuss the third thing, because I'm afraid I'll jinx it. But I know what I'm going to be doing next week during my break, and it involves writing things.

And we will be doing a family roundtable review tomorrow night. I wanted to do it now! But Adam and Elayna are still processing. They're getting all academic up on this in the other room. Analysis is happening.

Spoiler-free version: whoa that was dark. And the ending had us going "oh craaaaap....", and we can't wait for Christmas Day and "The End of Time".