Admittedly, it might not seem like a new month yet. But both of our paychecks arrived today, which makes it The New Month in the most important way possible: a new bank balance, and time to buy some books! I sat down this morning and ordered Cynthia Leitich Smith's Tantalize, Gordon Korman's No More Dead Dogs (said by both my brothers to be not only hilarious but also Just My Thing), and Nalo Hopkinson's The New Moon's Arms. It should take about 4-5 days to get them, and I can hardly wait.

Luckily, an older book order arrived today: Judith Merkle Riley's The Master of All Desires, which looks wonderful. I loved all the books of hers I read, many years ago (especially The Serpent Garden, which hugely influenced the way I write historical fantasy); this one comes with a slew of great reviews and this summary:

It is 1556 in Paris - capital of a country on the brink of civil war. Queen Catherine de Medici's astrologer, the prophet Nostradamus, has divined a dreadful secret: To get rid of her husband's mistress, the queen is trying to obtain the Undying Head of Menander, the Master of All Desires. Her plans are threatened by a spirited young poet, Sibille Artaud de la Roque, who has come into possession of Menander and is tempted to fulfill her own desires first. But only Nostradamus knows that a spreading web of evil entangles all who wish upon this accursed object. Can he stop these determined women before they unwittingly destroy the entire kingdom of France?

Well, really...how could I resist?

Also this morning, in an unabashed bout of ego-googling, I came across a random link I really loved: links to Locked Doors and to my (old) website at NOSF, which is apparently the biggest science fiction port in Croatia. After much online translation, I figured out that the header for that particular blog post means (roughly): Online reads on Thursday: Three Imaginative Women (or, Three Women Fantasists????). (And I'm also very happy to be listed next to Elizabeth Bear and Ursula Pflug, who are fantastic women writers indeed.)

This makes me enormously happy. Being part-Croatian has always been a big part of my identity at a level too deep for rational logic, and one of my fantasies has always been to get my stories translated into Croatian and sold there, too, one day. Who knows if that will ever happen...

But this was a nice thing to find online.