It's Friday. Huzzahs.

I’ve been somewhat sick half the week, but I’ve discovered that taking Nyquil before bed = awesomeness. What? Sleep through the night? Without my head congested and generally unbreatheable? Wake up feeling better not worse the next morning? Yeah! Why haven’t I done this before?

Because I’ve been a head full of mucus this week, I’ve use this as an excuse to be lazy. Thus no progress has been made on my anti-nano goals — I can’t, at the moment, even bring myself to open the untitled werewolf novel to even see where I’m at with it. However, I have been making some progress on a piece that will probably end up being just a little too long for flash fiction.

So that’s it in news about me.

Now I point you to this awesome post, “Black Women in Speculative Fiction: A Brief Investigation,” which increases my TBR list exponentially.

Also, here’s a meme I snatched from brigits_flame:

Book you are currently reading: The Hobbit by Tolkien, Nebula Awards Showcase 2012, and Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
Last book you read: Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen One, by Valerie Estelle Frankel
Book you could read again and again and again: The Hobbit and Beloved by Toni Morrison and a handful of others.
Book you are glad you read once but will never ever read again: Most recently? Probably The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. (But I never really know what books I’ll read again.)
Favorite book (if it differs from a book you could read again and again…): Too many, but a novel that is my current favorite is Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman
Writer whose stories you enjoy immensely: Neil Gaiman, for one, Holly Black, Nova Ren Suma, Libba Bray, for others.
Writer whose style blows you away: Mostly poets, such as Ai, or Walt Whitman, or David Perez, or Karen Finneyfrock. Also, Toni Morrison.

[Cross posted to my livejournal.]

So grateful it's over now…

and that I no longer need to hear the political ads on TV (and hopefully vitriol being spouted on Facebook will trickle off as well).

I’m grateful that Obama has been reelected. He hasn’t been a perfect president, but he’s done well in an incredibly tough situation, not to mention that he supports gay marriage and women’s rights, both things I care about.

Other things I’m happy about:

A lot of good things there, and I’m sure there are others that I’m not listing. Edited to add: You can read about a lot more of the awesomeness here.

It doesn’t mean we’re “fixed” as a country, and none of these things eliminate the continued presence of racism, sexism, ableism, or other problems in our country, but I like to see that steps are being taken and seeing signs that we might be starting to head in the right direction.

Go Vote!

Whatever your affiliation, whatever your point of view — go vote!

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That is all.

Mindful Writing Day!

Sky blooms patches grey as stone—
a mixture of warm light and cool rain
spattering the contours of my face.

* * *

This is my response for Mindful Writing Day! To join in, simply slow down, pay attention to one thing and write it down (making a small stone). Participants also have the opportunity to get publish and win a paperback copy of the book.

Also, the small stones anthology, ‘A Blackbird Sings: a book of short poems‘ is completely free on Kindle today. Download your copy from Amazon UK, Amazon US or your own Amazon.

[Cross-posted to my livejournal.]

Books Read in September and October

1. The Robber Bride (audio book), by Margaret Atwood
2. Bellweather, by Connie Willis
3. The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, by Farahad Zama
4. Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami
5. Blackout, by Mira Grant
6. All About Emily, by Connie Willis
7. Rues (poetry), by Philip Kobylarz
8. Carnage Road, Gregory Lamberson
9. The Clan of the Cave Bear, but Jean M. Auel
10. Mr. X, by Peter Straub
11. Seraphina (audio book), by Rachel Hartman
Also, “The Call of Cthulhu” (short story), H.P. Lovecraft

Read reviews on my livejournal.