This is one of my favorite memes. It’s a look at the last year, through the first line of my first blog post of each month.

1. Oh, the things one runs across while researching. 
2. I have, of late, been pondering the rituals of mourning. 
3. I’m absolutely delighted to announce that I’ll be attending Baycon this year as their author Guest of Honor. 
4. It occurs to me that, this being April Fool’s day, when I talk about taking a yeti on my trip, people will think that I’m making a joke. 
5. For those of you reading along, I’ve just posted Chapter 19 of The Transfigured Lady draft.
6. One of the interesting things about dialogue is that you can convey a great deal of information with it. 
7. I’m heading to Readercon this month, which is one of my favorite conventions. 
8. Sometimes, when I’m writing I use brackets to keep myself from wandering off to research something Right Then. 
9. While I’m on vacation, I’ve set up “Retro Mary”  posts.
10. Hello! I’m back from my internet vacation.
11. I’ve spent the first two days of November in the company of thousands of other writers pounding down words. 
12. I’m heading off for the weekend to the Oregon Regency Society’s retreat. 

Looking at this, it’s pretty clear that writing two novels — both historical fantasy — meant that my life was consumed by research and writing. I traveled a lot, too.

How about you? How did your last year shape up?

I love this meme.  Here’s the first lines from my first blog post of each month of 2010.  It turns out to be a fascinating look at how my life has changed over the past couple of years.  Even just looking at the first lines in 2010 shows that I did a lot of travel and a lot more writing that in previous years.

• I hope your day was relaxing and pleasant.
• Last Friday, my mom took a tumble down the stairs.
• I have a soft spot for Apex Magazine because Jason Sizemore has been incredibly supportive of me and my writing since the moment we met.
• I really hate to do this, but I’ve been talking with a lot of people.
• I’m sitting in the Detroit Airport waiting for my flight back from Penguicon.
• And lo! Still I am in Madison.
• The second story in my typewriter triptych is up at Shareable.
• One of the useful side effects of having a caffeine intolerance is that it doesn’t take very much to help me with pulling an all-nighter.
• The new online magazine Redstone Science Fiction has my short story “Salt of the Earth” up on their website today.
• Tonight I headed out to the Powell’s in Beaverton to hear Dan Wells read from his new novel, Mr. Monster.
• Right after I left WFC yesterday, my wonderful publicist emailed me with some awesome news and, of course, I had no one to squee with.
• If I have to explain why this is made of awesome, you probably won’t appreciate the video.

There’s an interesting meme going around based on Sandra McDonald’s periodic table of women in science fiction.  At Wiscon this weekend, an audience member asked if women weren’t writing hard SF. I said that they were, but since I hadn’t done my homework couldn’t come up with a good list.  My feeling is that fairly few new writers are doing hard SF in novel form in general.

But, behold! Sandra McDonald has put together a partial list of women in SF over the last 75 years.

On to the meme…

Bold the women by whom you own books
Italicize those by whom you’ve read something of (short stories count)
*Star those you don’t recognize

Continue reading Meme: Women in Science Fiction

Here’s a simple Meme…answer the following questions:

1. What Book Are You Reading Now?
2. Why did you choose it?
3. What’s the best thing about it?
4. What’s the worst thing about it?

Here are my answers…

1. Storm Front: Dresden Files #1 by Jim Butcher
2. I’d heard good things and he’s also represented by my agent.
3. The character, Harry Dresden, tells the book in first person. He’s a cynical, damaged man with a sense of humor and gallantry that makes him charming.
4. The magic system feels like it totally makes sense, except for the pseudo-Latin. I don’t understand why it’s that, although Harry Dresden does make a crack about the fact that it’s pseudo-Latin so he’s self-aware of it.

(via SF Signal)

One of my favorite memes. Here’s the first lines from my first blog post of each month of 2009.

January – 4 cups chopped pears

February – Hey! Evil Robot Monkey made Locus’s 2008 Recommended Reading List.

March – New York was scheduled to get fourteen inches of snow today.

April – In the world of “my life is completely bizarre” yesterday’s antics have led me to pick up a new gig.

May – Yay! Maggie swatted at Marlowe.

June – Well worth reading for the view of theater in the early 1900s.

July — I had the strangest experience while reading Jay Lake’s Green.

August — What did I do this weekend?

September — Black Swan Inn provided us with a lovely breakfast this morning and then we hit the road.

October — The article I wrote for the October/November issue of Asimov’s is online.

November — Cory Doctorow, at Boing Boing, has given my short story collection a seriously amazing review.

December — Rob has headed off to Hawaii to visit his folks so I’m playing bachelor girl tonight.

me:Did you see the ridiculous traffic that post is getting?

Scalzi: Not surprised. Everyone loves foam.

me: The only thing that would be more popular is if I taped bacon to it.

Scalzi: I dare you to do the bacon thing.

me: Oh you are playing with fire there, mister.

Scalzi: It has to happen now.

me: It will be fakin bacon, since we’re vegetarian.

Scalzi: Doesn’t count.

me: Oh come on!

Scalzi: Nope. Has to be the real thing. It is an integrity thing.

me: Seriously? It has to be real bacon? That’s just prejudicial, man.

Scalzi: I think it does. I mean, among other things, using faux bacon would be to admit you HAVE faux bacon.

me: Yes? And there’s a problem with that? I could tape tofu to him. Or eggplant.

Scalzi: It must be thought upon.

me: Hm. I could carve it into bacon.

Scalzi: Ha! Possibly.

me: Although, I think that might be grounds for divorce in some states.

Scalzi: It may be.

Which is what led me to wander into the living room and say, “Honey, I have a favor to ask, without context.  May I tape bacon to your Giant Block of Foam?”

“Sure.”

Later….
me: That was only moderately successful.

Scalzi: He was resistant, I assume.

Me: No. The fakin’ was.

Scalzi: That’s why you need the real thing, baby!

me: Hmph.

So, the lesson learned here is that one should not question the judgement of Scalzi, the Baconical Wonder.

In 2008 here are the first lines of my first blog post for each month:

• January – Is there a better way to start off the New Year than listening to Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham, Chaucered?
• February – Turned in a project, which I’ll blog about with photos tomorrow.
• March – Last night, the generous Ellen Datlow, invited me down to try some of her extensive collection of single malts.
• April – The spate of good news seems unending. ¹
• May – Well, a mere five hours later and I have my primary website back online.
• June – This month, Clarkesworld magazine is offering my story, “Clockwork Chickadee,” as one of their two fiction offerings.
• July – I read all my manuscripts out loud.
• August – The Steampunk Panel that I was on with Holly Black, Liz Gorinsky and Sarah Micklem is now available for your listening pleasure at the Steampunk Workshop.
• September – Michele Lee’s Book Love has nice things say about “Scenting the Dark.”
• October – Well, this is handy, if a bit outdated.
• November -15:25 My reading has been moved to the Doll Room. Irony.
• December – My wunder-agent, Jennifer Jackson just posted the following.

While not labled as such, the sale to Gardner Dozois was clearly day 7 of the happy things meme.

Today? I have set my phone’s ringtone to be the hailing whistle on Star Trek the original series. Also, my phone has a tricorder on it now. This is true geeky happiness.

The rules on this one are simple. For 8 days, post 1 thing every day that made you happy. Then tag 8 other people.

Here’s mine. Last night I sat in front of the fire in my parents’ house with Rob and talked to my folks. Look! The stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

I tag Alethea Kontis, Ken Scholes, David Anthony Durham, Nora Jemison, Rick Novy, Amal El-Mohtar, Sean Markey, and Cat Rambo.

According to the Typealyzer the writing on my website indicates that I am a ESTP or one of “The Doers.”

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

You know, in the world of completely useless site analyzers, this one didn’t do a bad job of picking a category for me. How does it do with you?

In the comments on the 100 things meme, David Loftus wrote, “Was particularly charmed by ‘saved a favorite child toy’ would love to know what that was for other folks.”

You know what? I would too.

So let me introduce you to Lassie. That’s the extremely tattered stuffed animal in the corner there. She’s a lamb, and yes, everywhere that I went, the lamb was sure to go. One of my parents’ friends made her out of a hand towel as a gift at a baby shower before I was born. The crazy quilt that she is now, is not her original fabric. Out of all the toys, presented to me, this was the one I latched on to. I carried her by a death grip around the throat everywhere.

Oddly, one of my clear early memories is naming her. Herschel ¹ asked me what her name was. We were standing on the sidewalk outside some store and it was sunny, so I think it must have been while we were down at Easter. Until he asked, it hadn’t occurred to me that she didn’t have a name, or even for that matter that she should. But as soon as the question was posed, I realized that she should, of course, have one so I gave the only name that I knew for a pet. “Lassie.” I think I’d recently seen it on television, because I did know that I was naming her after a collie.

She sits on my desk now, in a little cubbie-hole. This bit here is the only original fabric left. Grandma taught me to embroider by stitching a new eye for her when the fabric on the side of Lassie’s head wore out. She’s stuffed with panty-hose.

When I was in kindergarten, we accidentally left her on top of the car when leaving school. I was deeply traumatized and Mom drove all over the place looking for her. She even took out an ad in the paper. Miraculously, someone found Lassie and answered the ad. I still have the ad, although it’s in a storage locker. I wouldn’t leave Lassie there though. Not after all this time.

So, how about you? Did you save a favorite childhood toy?

According to the genderanalyzer, there’s a 99% chance that my blog is written by a man.

Matthew Jarpe, whose blog I quite enjoy, posted this meme today. He says:

In RADIO FREEFALL I used the word meme to describe a mind virus that forces a person to obsess over a single thought until he commits suicide. In retrospect I should have picked another word. Since I wrote the book that word has lost its mysterious obscurity and has been applied to gramatically incorrect cats, zombies, pirates, and lists like this one. Here, you take a list of 100 things that people do and highlight the ones you’ve done.

I was sort of surprised by how many I’d done.  I crossed out the ones I’ll never do, just as an exercise.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumping
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb ¹
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise ²
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkelling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book ³
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake ⁴
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

That’s 67 or 70, depending on how broad the answers can be on some of these.

Deanna Hoak posted a music video today that, as promised, made me smile. Introducing the video, she said,

Music has a lot of power to affect mood, from soothing to energizing to frightening. Every once in a while, a song comes along that will make me smile every time I hear it. … Will you post a song or video that makes you smile?

And you know, with everything that is going on lately, posting something that makes me smile seems like a darn fine idea.