I decided to replace the “I am reading” section of my sidebar with “Recommended Reading.” Why? Well, these days, I’m reading really slowly because I almost never have time to sit down with a book. Plus, since it’s gift-giving season, I figured that I’d point out books that I’ve enjoyed. So, it’ll randomly show books that I think are worth reading.

Meanwhile, if you are looking for books for a reader in your life, may I recommend these as my top picks?

For the early reader in your life

• AlphaOops: The Day Z Went First, by New-York Times Best-Selling author, Alethea Kontis. In my brother’s paraphrased words, “That was my favorite book to read to my daughter. Wow!”

For the YA reader

• Strongbow by Judson Roberts. I passed this to my nephew after I finished reading it. His first question upon finishing it? “When does the next book come out?”

For the YA reader suffering through a horse fixation

• Born To Trot one was one of my favorites growing up.
  Good heavens. If you know a kid who likes horses, this is the right book.

Want an anthology of short fantastic fiction?

• Try Prime Codex Yeah, I’m in it, but I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t think that the rest of the stories are really, really good.

How about a novel?

• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch would be my pick. (I might change my mind when I finish The Secret Life of Moscow.)

Now… I’ve recommended some books for you. I want some books to add to my Christmas wishlist. Your suggestions, please?

I’m not sure how I feel about these sculptures by Jeremy Mayer from old typewriters. On the one hand, cool! On the other hand, I wish that these machines were in use.

This is huge, but oh, so worth it if you want a really good view of Portland. In the center of the photo, between the two bridges, there are two boats moored to a dock. Those belong to the Portland Spirit, where I spent a while as a singing waitress. Yes, really. Nice folks and good to work for.

According to Jason Sizemore, tomorrow is the last day to order the Gratia Placenti anthology. There’s a pre-order discount of $12.95 or get the hard cover for $30.00.

Table of Contents – Final Order
“Translatio” – Geoffrey Girard
“Follow the Canary” – Athena Workman
“Crasher” – Debbie Kuhn
“Some Glue Never Dries” – David Niall Wilson
“The Cutting Room” – Shane Jiraiya Cummings
“Bright Red Razors” – Teri Jacobs
“Party Makers” – Adrienne Jones
“Them’s Good Eats” – JA Konrath
“Something Wet” – James Reilly
“Popup Killer” – Bev Vincent
“Only Spirits Cry” – R. Thomas Riley
“The Listening” – Neil Ayres
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow” – Mary Robinette Kowal

Introduction by Jason Sizemore
Cover art by Paul Bielaczyc

The anthology has horror based around the theme of “For the sake of pleasing.” Isn’t there someone on your shopping list who you want to please?

http://www.apexbookcompany.com

Today was one of those random days. I did a little graphic design, a little shopping, a meeting for a set design project and then some writing. I managed to crank out about 1000 words on a new story on the subway and train.

Here’s a teaser.

Lifting the stopper from the vial to his nose, Penn inhaled slowly. Against the neutral backdrop of his ship’s clean room, he picked out aromas of quince, elderberry, bright Martian soil that hinted of blood, with undercurrents of cinnamon and Zeta Epsilon’s fragrantly sweet longgrass. He sighed, blowing the scents out again. The perfume was still just a little out of balance.

The door chime rang, letting him know that Dell had returned. The round tones resonated off the glass labware and sent vibrations across his scalp as it slowly, slowly faded. God, it was gorgeous — picking up the temple bell when they were on Izlacs had been one of his better choices. He’d eventually get the whole ship converted to real things instead of all the virtual hoo-ha it had come with.

Edited to add: I made the changes that Brian suggested in his comment below, though I normally wait until I’m finished writing to edit a story, but once he pointed them out they itched and I had to fix.

Now, one of the things was the character’s names, which I agree with. Does anyone want to be tuckerized into this?

Well, my three lovely ladies are leaving home tomorrow. I’m shipping the Coraline puppets to Bill Shaffer at Subterranean Press. He in turn will send one to Neil Gaiman, one to Dave McKean and one to someone who pre-ordered the special edition of Coraline.

I wanted to make certain that I had good photos of the dolls, so I went over to Ellen Datlow’s this evening and let her do her camera magic. Behold.

What? I mean. Really. Why does the USPS have a news release for dealing with holiday mail that says:

Always use shipping tape. Duct tape will not be accepted.

I can’t conceive of what possible harm duct tape will cause. Baffled. Baffled I am.

I just finished reading The Surgeon’s Tale and Other Stories by Cat Rambo and Jeff Vandermeer. I gotta tell you, this slim volume of tales had me on every page. The title story, a collaboration between the two authors, owes its roots to Poe and Shelley; it’s like a literary fairy tale take on Frankenstein. Everytime you think you know which dark path the story is going to turn down, it spins down another one that’s even darker. It alone would be worth the price of admission.

“The Farmer’s Cat,” by Mr. Vandermeer, though set in Norway, reminds me fondly of Iceland. The way the farmer-protagonist handles his troll infestation is that I can imagine some of my co-workers doing.

Also of note is “A Key Decides its Destiny” by Ms. Rambo. My heavens. This is the sort of story that turned me on to adult fairy tales in the first place. It feels like a much older tale and something that would have found its way into the Datlow & Windling fairy tale anthologies if they were still compiling them.

I’ve just mentioned half the stories in the anthology, any one of which would be worth picking it up for. There are three more stories every bit as good.

Not only that, but it’s pretty too, with interior illustrations by Kris Dikeman and a cover by James A. Owen. Definitely think about picking up a copy. The Surgeon’s Tale is so slender, it would make a lovely stocking stuffer for the reader on your list.

I spotted this on Maggie’s journal, but clearly the test doesn’t notice that I’ve moved.

Your Score: PORTLAND!

You scored 28% Style, 24% Climate, and 64% Culture!

You are Portland, Oregon! Portland, the largest city in Oregon and seat of Multnomah County, is located in the northwest part of the state on the Willamette River. Portland has a diverse economy with a broad base of manufacturing, distribution, wholesale and retail trade, regional government, and business services. Major manufacturing industries include machinery, electronics, metals, transportation equipment, and lumber and wood products. Technology is a thriving part of Portland’s economy, with over 1,700 high-tech companies located in the metropolitan area. Tourism is also important to Portland’s economy, drawing more than 7 million visitors annually.

You are a nicely cultured individual, appreciating a good play, book, movie, or fine dining. You also appreciate some diversity, lest things get too boring. Not one for sitting and relaxing for long periods at a time nor dressing up the nines, you take interest in getting outside and being out in nature, enjoying the cool, crisp air…maybe even playing a sport or taking a hike. Portland is a good place to be, my friend.

The computer is up and running and I got two of the projects turned in. The other two are in process and ought to be finished in a relatively timely fashion.

Meanwhile, I’m itching to write something new. It took me a surprising amount of time to realize that the urge didn’t generate from anything more than the fact that I’ve gotten enough sleep for an entire week. I’d forgotten what it felt like to be rested. It’s fascinating and I highly recommend it.

I have four projects due all of which use the same program. So. You can imagine the utter joy I felt yesterday when one of the projects decided to freeze. When I tried to restart the program, it was corrupted. Curses.

And yet, no problem, because I have the disks so I just reinstalled it and voila! It was still corrupted. It was as if I had done nothing. Next, I searched the registry and cleaned out the remaining bits. Reinstall.

Corruption!

After arguing with it for awhile and getting exactly nowhere, I decided that, fine, I would just do a full system restore. I’d been meaning to do that anyway and this was as good a time as any. I backed up my documents. Uploaded my fiction, just in case, and did the restore. I love how zippy my computer is right after a system restore.

I was less excited this time about how my computer would no longer connect to wireless, but a mere two hours later, I’d managed to download all the MS patches that were required for it to function normally.

Another two hours went to restoring documents. Then came the program files. I was resolved to only install the things I actively use, which accounts for a surprising number of programs. Finally, only eight hours after I’d started, I had the system restored.

I opened the offending program. And it collapsed in exactly the same way as before. GAH! I had a clean install! Nothing would fix it, so I finally downloaded the newest version of the software. My bet is that some lovely little MS update patch conflicts now with my old version.

With that in mind, may I offer you a tragic news story, that Stephen Segal just shared.

A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship.

The stricken MS Explorer finally disappeared from view Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica’s South Shetland Islands, the Chilean navy said.

I wonder if they tried turning the boat off and back on again to see if restarting it helped.

The Rag (show) has an editorial opinion by a turkey who objects to Turducken as “culinary S&M.” Go watch.

Rob and I, despite invitations to spend the day with friends, are staying at home today. What am I thankful for? That the nation comes to a halt today, which gives me time and license to spend the day with my husband.

I also sent off an email to a man I’ve been meaning to thank for a while now. My college writing teacher, William Hallberg, had just had his first novel come out the semester I took a class with him. Much like my experience with puppetry, until meeting him it hadn’t occurred to me that publishing a novel was something that was attainable. Now, I haven’t spent the ensuing twenty years in desperate pursuit of getting a novel published — in fact I only really started writing seriously about five years ago — but the early lessons from Mr. Hallberg stuck with me. Among other things, that it is possible to write a novel and hold down another job.

So, besides spending time with Rob, I’m going to treat myself to a writing day today. Meanwhile, may I recommend that you pick up a copy of Rub of the Green, by William Hallberg?

Edited to add: Mr. Hallberg wrote back to say that he remembers me. Wonders never cease. He asked me to send him something I’d written, so I’ve sent him a link to For Solo Cello, op. 12.

This is too painfully close to home.

I’ve been doing scenic design work for a couple of years for McCarter Theater’s education department. It’s work that I enjoy because it combines the dual challenge of making a design that fits a shows aesthetic as well as one that will tour. The current project is for their First Stages Company. It’s not a touring production, which feels like a total luxury. I mean, I don’t have to figure out how to fit the set into a van and put it up in an hour. On the other hand, the set that I design will be used by all the classes in this project, which means that eight different productions will appear on it over the course of a weekend — ranging from Hamlet to the Wiz. It has to make sense for all of them.

Today’s meeting was to introduce the design concept. I don’t have to have scale renderings or anything like that, I just had to have some drawings and an idea. Since the First Stages is made of fourth-twelfth graders, I decided to focus on the idea of raw materials. These kids are tomorrow’s adult actors, you know?

So I want to keep the wood bare and use simple shapes. I don’t want to pretend that things are finished, but I do want to surprise and delight the audience. So in the rendering that I’ve got here, what you see are three platforms, and several 2 x 2s. The 2×2s slot into the platforms, the way a square peg goes into a square hole. Spandex strips weave between them to introduce color. This one shows my idea for the yellow brick road on the way to the Emerald City. Simple, eh?

The fun thing is that all of those poles can reposition at angles to become the jungle in the Tempest, or get different, gray ribbons to become skyscrapers in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The platforms can move around becoming anything from a boat in the Odyssey to the ramparts in Hamlet. They made some suggestions, which were intelligent (part of why I like working here), but for the most part seemed enthusiastic about the design. Always a relief, I’ll tell you.

The next step, before I do anymore work, will be for them to talk to the production department to check schedule. While all of this is fairly simple, there are a couple of trick pieces (the 2×2 that breaks to form a door frame, for instance) which we need to make sure can fit into the schedule. I’ll show you other scenes and the model as the design progresses.