Not the Last, Just the Latest

The lovely Sara Larson recently pointed me in the direction of this video from Discovery of the birth of a fabled unicorn. I wonder how Unicorno’s doing now. He was born a few years ago. Anyone heard of a follow-up? And more importantly…did the horn he shed have healing properties? *** Discovery News: Legend met reality recently as Italian…

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A Princess for All Seasons

I worked as a book buyer for nine years. We typically bought books at least 6 months ahead of publication date. Titles that were specific to a holiday or theme (SAT prep, summer reading) we called “seasonal titles.” So for nine years, I effectively celebrated Christmas in June. In September or October I’d bulk up our inventory for the…

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A is for Princess

You might remember Steven Saus from the “Year of Steves” blog earlier this year, or from my interview with him back in March about the story he had in the Timeshares anthology.I did all these things ’cause I just think Steve’s a cool guy. I certainly didn’t expect anything in return. However, true to form in this beloved SF…

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Happy Release Day to Me!

In honor of today’s release of AlphaOops: H is for Halloween, John Scalzi invited me to be his Big Idea for the day. In a very short & cute essay I cover the Big Idea behind AlphaOops in general and about H is for Halloween specifically. I explain exactly why my dedication reads the way it does.  I confess…

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TV Fail, Cookie Win

I’ve heard some good things about this Warehouse 13 show on Syfy (I still hate typing that spelling), so I downloaded the first episode to watch it. I don’t think I made it twenty minutes. Saul Rubinek is not John Noble, the secret agent guy is not David Boreanaz, and I have no idea who the secret agent chick…

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Rotten Apples

Once upon a time, in the land of computers, there was a thing called “planned obsolescence.” Remember that? Your shiny new desktop would come with a one-year warranty, and on Day 367 you’d be staring at the blue screen of death and paging through Best Buy ads. Almost like they planned it. Nowadays, things work a little better than…

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Move Over, Fairy

My little sister gets her conversational ideas from the Sedaris family. This might concern anyone who has heard, read, or seen anything by David or Amy Sedaris. (Not counting the personal thank you note Soteria has framed by her door; the family photos are relegated to refrigerator magnets.) This would concern me, if a.) we weren’t half Greek and…

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Stars AND Garters!

Those of you who plod away, day after day, typing out words and then churning them over and over into the submission/rejection machine will understand exactly what I’m talking about when I tell you about the awesome moment I had today: I was in the middle of printing and signing the contract for an anthology I had just been…

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On the Plus Side

Prime time Monday night, I’m hanging out with one of my fairy goddaughters. We’re watching reruns of Bones, and she’s messing around on the laptop. Out of the blue, she says, “Can you change it to ABC Family?” This news was surprising, as we’re normally one of those close-knit “What do you want to watch?” “I dunno.” “There’s nothing…

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