| Silence is Michelle Sagara's first book in the new Queen of the Dead urban fantasy series. As most of you know, I'm not a huge fan of urban fantasy, but I love Michelle's other fantasy books, so I decided to give this one a try.
The main story revolves around Emma, who lost her father a while ago, and has recently lost her boyfriend in an accident. Grief-stricken, she's taken to visiting the graveyard at night to relax. However, on this night, she's not alone. Erik, a new student at her school, is there, and he's hunting Necromancers--people who can use the power of the dead to essentially perform magic. the only problem is that Emma is beginning to show signs that she could be a Necromancer herself. The book continues with Emma coming into her power, Erik constantly on edge waiting for her to become what he fears the most, all while they try to help a four-year-old boy escape an eternity trapped in the house fire that killed him. And, oh yeah, the real Necromancers show up to try to bring Emma to their side. The book has the standard urban fantasy feel--a darker atmosphere, some harsh realities about life and death, etc. The only paranormal touch is the existence of the dead and how they are used and how they interact with the world. There is no hint of other creatures, such as vampires, werewolves, etc. Because of the ages of the characters, this also has a significant YA feel to it. I thought Emma, Erik, and there rest of their friends were especially well drawn out and their interactions with each other were realistic and believable. I especially liked Michael's character--an autistic friend who ends up being more significant than most of Emma's other friends. I did have some issues: There was a strong case of "we aren't going to tell you" here, meaning that Emma is trying to figure out her new world as it changes, Erik (and others) have answers, but they refuse to tell her for no real or apparent reason whatsoever. I find this annoying--just TELL ME ALREADY!--especially when one of the characters literally says that what Emma doesn't know can kill her . . . so why not tell her and forewarn her! I so no reason they couldn't, except it meant that there would be no "mystery" about her power any more and that might cut the dramatic tension. Another issue was that I'm still not quite certain exactly how Emma's power works in the end. I read the scenes where she's figuring things out a couple of times and I still don't understand what it is that she's doing. The Necromancers power is kind of obvious, and Emma is not doing what they're doing, but I don't see the "rules" that Emma is operating under and how it all ties together. Granted, she's new at this and those rules probably aren't clear to anyone, but I should still get a "feel" for those rules, moreso than I got here. I assume that what she has become will be made clearer in future books. So, overall, I thought it was a good entry into the urban fantasy field, but I have to say the "just tell me already" aspects of the story were a significant drawback, more frustrating than mysterious for me. I'll be reading the sequels when they arrive, but I much prefer (not surprisingly) Michelle's epic fantasy. | |
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| Well, I got off on Friday at three just like I intended. That's where my plans stopped working.
On my way out the door headed to the gym, my Dad calls me and he is upset. Seems Chad made it to the Hampton Inn where he was supposed to meet my mother. Dad went over there to see what condition Chad was in. He was in a bad condition. Chad threw a beer at Dad and then went to take a swing. Dad put him on the ground and left. Soemhow Chad got a ride and turned up on my Dad's front lawn. All this while I am on the phone with Dad. I load up the boys and we headed out to Dad's.
Long story short:
1) Chad went after me.
2) Chad found out that you don't go after a guy who has 600lbs of weightlifting kids at his back.
3) Chad threatened and attempted to humiliate everyone.
4) the cops were called.
5) Chad would not "Put the beer bottle down!"
6) Chad got tazed.
7) Chad got arrested.
Everything went pretty smoothly after that. Graduation and after-party were not bad at all.
Saturday went on forever. Went to the gym (fail!), Went to the party, went to dinner with Mom, went to bed late. Woke up Sunday feeling horrible. Laid on the couch all day. Watched movies, napped, did nothing.
Slept in Monday 'cause I still felt horrible. Felt pretty good that evening and so went to the gym.
Got up Tuesday and hit 2250 words. Felt pretty damn fine and so beat the shit out of myself at the gym. Had trouble sleeping because of my aching hips.
Still got up at the butt-crack of dawn and hit 2150. If I hit 2000+ Thuirsday and Friday, I will go ahead and get up Saturday to finish off the 10K week. That would be three out of five weeks with 10K+. I am nearing the end of this particular project-in-rough-draft. I figure a week or two and it will be ready to simmer while I move on to the other two story ideas I have been working on in my head. One is an existential mystery. The other is a slant on the superhero genre. Either that or work on the edit of the work-formerly-known-as-Tonic-Immobility.Don't want to get too far out from not putting down new words.
Getting damn hot, people.
- Music:VOL: "Points of My Departure"
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| Very pleased to announce my essay on Doctor Who, “Invisible Women, Bikinis and Yellowface: Minorities in the Fourteenth Season of Doctor Who”, will appear in the anthology Chicks Unravel Time, alongside luminaries like Diana Galbadon, Martha Wells and Seanan McGuire. Many thanks to Deborah Stanish and L.M. Myles for the invite, and for the fact-checking. The anthology is now up for preorder on Amazon, if you’re so inclined.
The sister book to the 2011 Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords…
In Chicks Unravel Time, editors Deborah Stanish (Whedonistas) and L.M. Myles bring together a host of award-winning female writers, media professionals and scientists to examine each season of new and classicDoctor Who from their unique perspectives.
Diana Gabaldon discusses how Jamie McCrimmon inspired her best-selling Outlander series, and Barbara Hambly (Benjamin January Mysteries) examines the delicate balance of rebooting a TV show. Seanan McGuire (Toby Daye series) reveals the power and pain of waiting in Series 5, and Una McCormack (The King’s Dragon) argues that Sylvester McCoy’s final year of Doctor Who is the show’s best season ever.
Other contributors include Juliet E. McKenna (Einarrin series), Tansy Rayner Roberts (Power and Majesty), Sarah Lotz (The Mall), Martha Wells (The Cloud Roads), Joan Frances Turner (Dust), Rachel Swirsky (“Fields of Gold”) and Aliette de Bodard (Obsidian and Blood series).
In case you have doubts: yes, this isn’t an entirely nice essay. Some of the eps were a good load of fun (particularly the one on Gallifrey, which had a nice plot in addition to awesome costumes), but Season 14 unfortunately included the infamous “Talons of Weng Chiang”, aka OMG. I’d been warned was full of fail, but hadn’t expected to be quite *that* bad. Watching it was pretty much like watching a train wreck in progress. Guess we can say it’s a product of its time (considering TV shows of the time on British TV, you can actually argue it’s more advanced, which is kind of scary), but I’m really glad we don’t live in those times anymore…
Cross-posted from Aliette de Bodard
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| So, in case anyone is out of the loop -- I am recovering from knee surgery. The particular culprit that caused all the problems is called "Patellar Tendinosis". Go ahead. Google it. You'll find hardly anything because it's pretty rare. Here's the best summary of the injury that I've found (in case you want to use it in a book or something): http://www.tendinosis.org/injury.htmlNo one really knows what causes it, is what you'll get. The current guess is that there is a maximum "healing threshold" in which the body can repair damage normally. If you are bloody minded, stubborn, and a fool (like me), you can push your body past the healing threshold, and instead of healing things normally it just throws whatever tissue it can at the injury -- bits of bone instead of patellar tendon, whatever -- and you end up with Tendinosis. The problem is once the tendon heals incorrectly it never remembers how to heal correctly again. It's almost like the Prion problem (prions are a lower state of energy than like substances in the brain, so once you have a prion in your brain, your brain chemistry starts sliding down that low-energy slope). Actually, tendinosis is completely different than that, but I keep getting that simile stuck in my head. Anyway, they fixed it by cutting out the "dead" or "mishealed" part of my tendon, and letting it regrow. Things are doing well so far -- off crutches, in PT, healing ahead of schedule -- but I have a long way to go to full recovery. | |
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| Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there. Today I seem to have been able to do little except sleep. This suggests to me that I had a great time in Finland. Hopefully I’ll be able to remember some of it and write about it. But not now. Zzzzzzz. | |
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| Dr. Bronners is a little brisk 'round the nethers. - Mood:ALL-ONE
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| Slight change in plans regarding the publication of my horror story in COVER OF DARKNESS....it appears that the editor has to move my story from the March 2013 issue to the June 2013 issue. Whatever works best for the editor is fine by me, but that means I now have to wait a whole year (plus) to see my story in print. I've waited a year or more between acceptance and publication before, but it always seems like a long, long wait. | |
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| Hooee, have I been swamped! Coming up for air to ask for suggestions: I have been ignoring all movie reviews for a while, though I know what's out. Going to a movie this weekend and so asking for suggestions. I love action adventure with funny, romance is fine. Hates: serial killers, refrigerator women, violently graphic bodily intrusion, depressing endings.
Latest movie seen, the Pixar Pirates as a Mother's Day arranged by daughter. Loved it!
It's probably going to be Avengers, unless there is something else recommended that I have missed knowing about.
I have seen some good Netflix stuff late at night when resting my hands. Anyone else ever seen Bing Crosby's Little Boy Lost? The performances by the French actors made the film. Crosby was a nice foil. | |
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| A Time Never Lived is up and available on Nook and Kindle. Look! Kindle/AmazonNook/B&NIt's here! It's really here! This never gets old. | |
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| (aka cơm chiên)
This is my leftover dish, where I throw pretty much everything I have in the fridge together with some leftover rice. It recently benefitted from a great post by kitchen tigress on how to improve fried rice: namely, put in lots of unami flavour (nước mắm, shallots, dried shrimps, maggi sauce…). The post also covered lots of other interesting things to do to get the perfect fried rice, but I’m afraid my courage failed me there. I’m going to post the recipe that corresponds to the picture, but I honestly never make the same fried rice twice, as it so heavily depends on actual leftovers in my fridge. This is definitely a recipe that calls for experimentation and is pretty forgiving altogether.
I apologise for the fuzziness in the rice measurements–this is something I do by eye and with the rice cooker cup, and I’m well aware not everyone will have one of those around!
(if you need tips on how to cook the rice, see here)
| Com chien: fried rice |
#ratingval# from #reviews# reviews
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Print
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Recipe Type: Main
Author: Aliette de Bodard
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 20 mins
Serves: 4
A quick and simple way to recycle leftover rice.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup uncooked rice (careful, it’s the cup that comes with rice cookers, so that’s 270mL of rice) + 1 7/8 cup water (aka 340mL water), or the equivalent in cooked rice (basically, cooked rice for 3 people)
- 2 tablespoons dried shrimps
- 3 eggs
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 140g corn kernels
- 5-6 shallots
- A few drops maggi sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Some time before starting the recipe, cook the rice (this is *really* best done a day ahead, which is why this is a great dish for leftover rice. Otherwise it gets a bit hard to actually fry the rice…)
- Beat the eggs and the fish sauce together. Mince the shallots as fine as you can.
- In a frying pan, put a little oil, and cook a proto-omelette (basically, you want the eggs firm, but in bits and pieces–sort of like scrambled eggs, but firmer). Put the cooked eggs aside.
- Put the shallots in the frying pan, and cook them until soft and fragrant. Then add the dried shrimps and the corn, and swirl a bit until they’re hot.
- Add more oil in the pan, and then the rice bit by bit, breaking it up as you go and making sure it’s well mixed with the garnish. Then add a few drops maggi sauce if using, give it a few more swirls, et voilà!
- Serve hot.
Notes
This is also great with little flecks of crab, or pretty much any combination you can think of (for once, I’d actually advise against garlic, because it doesn’t mesh so well with the eggs and fish sauce). If adding ingredients like chicken or pork, which have next to no umami, don’t forget to increase the amount of dried shrimps/shallots/maggi sauce!
(while in Vietnam, we ate this with the local Tet sausages, which made a great addition)
2.2.6
Cross-posted from Aliette de Bodard
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