Baba Yaga's Daughter

Recent Reads: The Old Races Collections

I’m starting a new Old Races short story project, so during our Great Internet Hiatus, I re-read the two story collections I’ve done. I almost never re-read an entire book I’ve written. I read URBAN SHAMAN when it was published, and I’ve read THE CARDINAL RULE twice just for fun, but generally I just flip through a book looking for a detail if I need to look something up, so it was kind of fascinating to actually sit down and read two books in a row written by me. I…

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work that isn’t writing

I cannot believe it’s the end of August. This summer has been a loss to a much greater degree than expected, and I’m just sort of…I’m getting my feet back under me, at this point. And I *am* getting my feet back under me: I’ve actually accomplished a great deal of detail work over the past week, all of which was very necessary and is something of a weight off my shoulders. Today is the first day of school: which means I have about 8 weeks of 15-20 hours of…

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Picoreview: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Picoreview: The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: Harry Cavill spent a fair bit of the movie wet and dirty. There’s nothing more really needs be said. Seriously, the whole film could have been unmitigated drek and I may well not have noticed, because Harry Cavill was so incredibly beautiful that I stared at him dumbfounded every moment he was on the screen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie where my jaw just dropped every time somebody came on screen. Usually I get inured to it, y’know, like, “Yes, wow, yessir…

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a feast of strawberries

I was in town yesterday and saw a fruit vendor with 1-kilo flats of strawberries for €5 each, which I thought was an excellent deal. I bought two, came home with them, and went back out not much later to get (other things also, but) four more. The young lady at the booth looked at me a bit askance when I came up and asked for four flats. I explained I was making jam, and she said, “Oh! Okay. I was wondering if you maybe had a bit of an…

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so the visualization thing is called aphantasia

I’ve been talking about this topic for years (whether you see pictures in your head when you, say, read), ever since a conversation with a friend and Ted and the friend said something about the radio drama in her head, and Ted said “You only get a radio drama?” and she said “Oh no! I get the whole movie!” and I said “wait what?” After some incredulous back-and-forthing, we found that they saw pictures in their heads when they read (or called up memories, or DAYDREAMED, WHAT THE HELL!!!), and…

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