Aiee, I have so much to post here I keep putting it off until I can "do it justice" and now have far too much to write about. Crap.

The main thing keeping me from posting is my desire to write a well-thought-out, fair response to Harlangate, which is, by now, almost old news. (I will not be hurt if you skip this paragraph; the rest of the entry isn't about this, I promise.) I have written long, long journal entries, trying not to get too angry or inflamatory, but I don't think I've succeeded yet. So, I'll just try to state this briefly. I think it's awful that Harlan Ellison tm grabbed Connie Willis' breast at the Hugo ceremonies at World Con. I was not there, but I saw the video, and of course I cannot say for certain why he did it, though some of his later responses to it seem to support the idea that it was an attempt to keep her in her place and demean her in public. But one good thing that has come out of all this is the discussions that have happened about sexual harrassment at cons, something that I've heard about, and experienced, but have never seen mentioned publically before now. The fear of having your writing career ruined over speaking out over a grope, being pulled into a lap, being cornered and enduring sexual come-ons has been too great for most women to say anything. I only hope that this public event -- something we can point to (and have video of) and prove this kind of shit really does happen -- will help that become a thing of the past.

Ok. Enough about that. I really do have lots of other stuff to write about.

Today I finally, finally, finished typing in my YA novel, Sienna's Summer (possibly a working title). I finished writing it over a year ago, but half of it was hand-written, and I was very, very reluctant to sit down and type the fucker in. Well, it's done. I've decided to ask my writing group if they'll read it, which would give me a deadline of two weeks to read and revise it so I can hand it out at the next meeting. This is my clever way of it not taking me over a year to revise it. Anyway, I feel better having done this, even though I know the hard parts are really still in front of me. Yay!

I finished reading China Mieville's Un Lun Dun, since Tim got his hands on an advance copy. Loved it. It starts fairly slow, and the main character is indistinguishable from her friends (and never really becomes much of a distinct character in her own right, really), but it's full of all the richly textured, cool shit you'd expect from China, and it really does a nice twist on a traditional fantasy quest narrative. And I just love the puns! It gets so good it's hard to put down, and there are some secondary characters that are so freakin' adorable I could squeak. I'm always impressed with the creative cornucopia that comes out of China's books, and this one is no exception. I recommend it.

I've also been listening to a new podcast: Bill Shunn's The Accidental Terrorist. Really, it's only a part of his usual ShunnCast, but it's what got me listening to it (that and meeting him and his lovely wife Laura at WorldCon and enjoying the hell out of their company; yet another two people I wish we lived near enough to have over for cookouts and invite to parties) was the fact that he's reading his (as yet unpublished) memoir about being a 19-year-old Mormon missionary in Canada. It's absolutely *fascinating* and I've been chain-smoking episodes all week (I'm on episode 20 now or so, I think, which is Chapter 11 of the memoir); I'm going to be sorry when I catch up and have to wait two weeks like everyone else to find out what happens next!

It reminds me of a time in college when my friend, Todd, invited some Mormon missionaries to come teach about their religion when they knocked on his dorm room door. For awhile, some of us would come by and sit in on these discussions, though pretty much all of us were skeptical, if not outright atheists. I must have only gone once or twice, as I don't remember squat about Mormonism; I surely would have remembered how deeply strange it is to my experience. I am learning a lot from Bill Shunn's memoir, to be sure (I had to google "Mormon underwear" because I had *no* idea any religions had specific underwear -- pardon me, garments -- that one had to wear to be a full member. Fascinating!). Bill is a great storyteller, and I highly recommend his podcast.

What else? If you read Tim's journal, you'll know that I've been playing Sid Meier's Pirates on the Xbox. Yarr! I love games like Civ, and Pirates is very open-ended (though you do age, dammit) and can be played all sorts of different ways. Currently, I'm liked by everyone. Tim can't sail past a Spanish port without being shot at. It's good to know we don't have *everything* in common.

Going to go see the live show of So You Think You Can Dance on Friday. Bummed that it sold out so fast I couldn't get Holly and I seats together, but looking forward to it nonetheless. I loved loved loved that show. I took dance from age 6 to 16 or so, then choreographed high school and even some college musical numbers. It's something I wish I had more time for in my life, dance is, so I'm glad to get to participate if only from the audience. Yay!

We were social the past two weekends: Greg and Lisa came over last weekend for a cookout, which was lovely. We had a great time sitting around and chatting and they were formidable (and kind!) opponents in Book Lover's Trivial Pursuit. Before that it was WorldCon, which was so damn fun! We saw old friends, made new ones (so cool!), drank a lot, skipped panels and went to fancy parties. I met Tim Powers and his gorgeous wife Serena! I'm a huge fan of his work, but she has this presence that makes me as big a fan of her as I am of him, now, I think. Wow. I also got to meet Garth Nix, who is the nicest big name in the business. Very cool. I spent far too much money in the dealer's room and had a hoot walking around the art show with Greg and Tim; we came up with a drinking game: one shot for every time you see a cat with wings, one shot for a cat with a dragon, two shots for a winged cat with a dragon. If we had had flasks, we would have been hammered by the end of the art show, I tell you.

Speaking of cats (like my transition?): The kitten is wonderful, soft and grey and frisky. She gets the big cats playing with her as if they were kittens too, and everyone seems very happy. I didn't think about it being half again as many cats and the days of putting off scooping the litter box are long over, but she's worth it.

Ok, this has gone on long enough. I'll try to be better about updating, etc. Hope you are all well!