Between a really late night on Thursday and a 24-hour stomach bug (or food poisoning? not sure...) that hit both me and Patrick late Friday morning, I am feeling completely knocked out. The worst part, of course, of being hit by bugs and late nights during this ninth month of pregnancy is that I can't just sleep them off anymore - there are way too many pregnancy pains keeping me up through every night.

So in other words, I haven't been up to much in the last day or so! But I have been reading online to escape a bit, and here are the links I liked best:

• Laini Taylor's lovingly-described remote writing cabin fantasy.
  

  Many of you might know of it. It is a place that exists in our minds -- we daydream about it, this magical cabin in the woods where there are no distractions, where writing is easy and joyful, where stories are written in fountain pen on creamy paper, while foxes look on from the edge of the trees. Phones don't ring. There's no wireless. Comfort food is on the menu. You hold hands with your husband while snowshoeing (never having snowshoed, I don't know if this is really practical, but let's go with it). There's a fireplace. You know it, don't you?

  Ohhhh, how I drooled as I read the full description (and looked at the pictures she'd posted for her fantasy cabin, too). There's only one thing I would change - unlike Laini, I just don't have the willpower to have a cabin entirely free of books, no matter how helpful it might be for my own writing. Instead, I'd have to come up with some magical compromise - maybe the crows would fly in books for me every evening after dinner, and then take them away again after I fell asleep? Read her full entry here.


• Another Laini Taylor item: she's been interviewed at Everread. She makes some really good points about what it really takes to make dreams come true, including the willingness to step outside our comfort zones. And of course, because it's Laini, it's also really charming. I have to get hold of her novel - I love her blog and writing style so much!


• FabulousFrock's latest entry has accomplished the impossible: it made me actually crave a salad! Check out her Brief Guide to Quick Salad. Next time we place a grocery order, I'm definitely getting an avocado and some good cherry tomatoes and trying out her recipe for salad dressing, too. Yum!


• Finally, here's a link that feels slightly like cheating - at Wired.com, you can now download a free copy of Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette's SF pirate story "Boojum". The only reason I feel like I'm cheating by linking to this is that I haven't actually read the story yet - but I am a HUGE fan of Sarah Monette, I just read and enjoyed Elizabeth Bear's short story collection New Amsterdam, and so I'm really interested in any story they might write together. I have downloaded the story and I'm looking forward to reading it soon.

What about you guys? What are the most interesting things you've seen on the web lately?