I’m too astounded to frame witty commentary to go with this. Apparently, there’s a group that makes rockets of Bert from Sesame Street.

In the world of small things that excite me, we just received a bunch of mail forwarded from our home in Portland. In the box of mail was my check from Strange Horizons for Portrait of Ari. There’s something about getting paid that makes me feel like I really did something. I’ll get all excited again, no doubt, when the story actually appears on the website, but for the moment I have this tangible proof that someone liked the story.

For those of you who received ginger syrup from us this year and were wondering what to do with it. We’ve recently discovered that it’s a lovely addition to gin and tonics. Since I don’t want anyone to feel left out, here’s a recipe for your own gingered gin and tonics.

Once you have the ginger simple syrup, may I also recommend it in lemonade.

On January 21, I will be on a panel at Chattacon 31, a science-fiction convention in Chattanooga, called Writing - when can I quit my day job.

I told them that my day job was in puppetry. This should be interesting.