Apparently, I never got around to posting last year’s Duck Day compilation of photos and recipes…? So I’m quickly trying to put it together now before I post the 2022 ones…!
Since there was no Duck Day in 2020 because of the pandemic, we decided our theme for 2021 would be “Togetherness” expressed as menu items that included an Ampersand (&). But it being us, some things were not as simple as their names might imply:
So, corwin and I went to Paris (yes, France) in December 2021, to celebrate our 30th anniversary and also to celebrate our latest booster shots and go somewhere that still had COVID regulations in place that made sense to us. (Of course we know so much more now about re-infection and all, but this post is not about that.) At the time I posted a long twitter thread with lots of photos but who knows if Twitter is even going to be around or functional soon, so I’m reposting here, with some tweaks for blog format:
So, the big thing that got us out of our semi-quarantine and all the way to Paris was some friends invited us to join them for what promised to be a stellar meal, a tasting menu worthy of corwin and my 30th anniversary. So, yes, here is a food porn thread!
It’s my first time in Paris, and we had been here a few days already before the night of the big dinner, but hadn’t made it over toward the Eiffel Tower yet. We took the Metro from our hotel in the 11th arrondissement and came up to a stunning view.
corwin and ctan with the Eiffel Tower on a moonlit night
The Eiffel Tower at night, across a moonlit river Seine, is pretty hard to beat. Our destination was just across the water, where a couple of the world’s most decorated chefs have set up for 100 nights. You can’t really call that a “pop up,” can you?
Alain Ducasse, the current leader in most Michelin stars, Albert Adria, of el Bulli fame, and some of their associates, collaborated on this unique gastronomical effort and they dubbed it ADMO and situated it in the Musee du Jacques Chirac.
I’d love to talk about nothing but the food, but really it’s not possible to discuss the meal or ADMO without the context, and that context is COVID and the tremendous impact on the restaurant industry, on travel, on the food supply, and on how people gather.
Okay, I have a lot of thoughts about TwoSet Violin, and they’re not all going to fit in one blog post. But this is my personal blog where I write about whatever I want, so here goes. You want to know why I went all the way to Singapore to see two guys who play violin? Keep reading.
If you don’t already know TwoSet, my recommendation is to watch a couple of their videos before you read this as it’ll all make more sense if you do. (Here’s a typical one, here’s a “reactions” one , and a “games” one.) If you’re already a TwoSetter and you’re here to bask in the afterglow of the #TwoSet4Mil experience, welcome.
Explain TwoSet in under twenty words:
Two talented violinists inspiring a new generation of classical music fans by being totally genuine goofballs on the Internet.
Explain TwoSet in under 100 words:
Two Asian kids growing up in Australia fell in love with playing violin, decided to go to music school (instead of med school), got actual orchestra jobs, then quit those jobs to devote themselves to their YouTube channel. Described as “classical comedy,” the channel is much more than that. Yes, there are funny skits about orchestra life, hilarious violin-based games, and “reaction”/roasting videos. But the channel is also about Brett and Eddy’s personal journeys and their relationship to classical music itself. And that’s the core that ties together all that with events like #TwoSet4Mil.
I’m writing this post from Orlando, Florida, where I attended ICFA 43 (Int’l Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts). ICFA is always great: a mix of sf/f writers with academics and students presenting their papers on various sf/fantasy and sff-adjacent topics like games and gaming, or the immersive fantasies of theme-park design, or connections between gothic literature and gothic subcultures.
One of the program items is sf/f writers reading their work. I opted to do a reading rather than speak on a panel this year, but I was undecided what story I should read. When I was packing for the con I was waffling about this one, entitled “Sacred Heart.” The story appeared in the Unfettered Hexes anthology (edited by Dave Ring, Neon Hemlock Press, buy it from Bookshop.org, Amazon, or your local indie bookstore) which was published for Halloween in October 2021.
This was, without a doubt, one of the short stories I wrote while procrastinating from working on my novel. But it was one of those ones where I sat down at the keyboard with a blank word processor document and it just poured out. Dave, the editor, only had a few small suggestions to make. It’s so rare when something just crystallizes like that, where it’s like you kind of see the entire thing right from the start. When I write stories like that, it’s like I see the first sentence or the first paragraph but that little piece is a fractal which contains the whole, and as I write through the story, more and more of it reveals itself, but it was all there right from the start.
But, still, two days before the con my internal censor was yapping at me: this story is kinda weird, isn’t it too weird? Maybe it isn’t that good. Maybe you should find something else, or write something newer, or… or… or…
What’s a work-a-holic to do when the To Do list is neverending and winter is looming? Make a new To Do list of “not work” things to do, that’s what.
The truth of the matter is that it’s unlikely that my state or city will be going back into any form of lockdown this winter. But if we have a surge in COVID infections like last winter, especially of a variant that breaks through vaccinations, that could mean my household will decide to self-quarantine. Or there’s the possibility that extreme weather will visit us this winter in the form of heaps of snow and we’ll be snowed in. I’m almost hoping that happens a couple of times. Remember snow days as kids? A day off from school to stay in, play games, and read books while sipping cocoa? I could use the break, to be honest…
And if we end up back in some kind of quarantine, that’s the energy I want to take into it this time. Cozy time. So I’m daydreaming on what I’ll do. (Yeah, yeah, I know I’ll still probably work-work-work. But let’s dream a little, okay?) Continue reading →
This one brings together some of the hottest names in spicy romance, including LaQuette, Satin Russell, JR Gray, Kat Savage, and also a bunch of writers I haven’t had the pleasure to read before… but I will now!
Here’s a teaser sentence from my story, which is entitled “Art in Oils”:
Oil paints are so much better than watercolors for showing a sheen of sweat, for capturing that gravid droplet of arousal fattening at the engorged slit. My own thirsty tongue searches my lip.
FLESH FICTION is available for pre-order now on the following sites. It releases October 5! Continue reading →
Content warning: this book contains situations of sexual jeopardy, stalking, and coercive behavior on the part of the villains. It also contains consensual sexual situations, including public sex and bondage.
I have a new short story, free to read online at SABR.org! It’s a piece of near future science fiction told from the point of view of a female baseball pitcher making her debut on the mound at Fenway Park. It’s one of the few times I’ve gotten a chance to mix my baseball writing with my sf/f writing!
I also wrote a detailed breakdown of all the many threads of research, facts, commentary, etc that went into crafting the story in my Patreon, which is free to read here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54679583
The Patreon essay was prompted by a Twitter thread I did about why I wrote it and The National Pastime, the publication that it’s in:
So, I wrote a story! It combines baseball, science fiction, and a glimpse of breaking the sex/gender barrier in MLB. It's a short-short, so of course every sentence has to do a lot of heavy lifting. That's one of the things I love about writing short-shorts. Thread: pic.twitter.com/6tpLXaM7sL
Going live on Scribd today! An audio edition of (as well as ebook of…) my erotic paranormal romance/romantic suspense novel Mind Games. It was the first romance I wrote for Ravenous Romance back in the days of the digital romance gold rush around 2009. I got the rights back a while ago, and put out a self-published edition, but I hadn’t put it into audiobook format. Scribd bought the exclusive audio rights and you can listen to it right now!
If you’re on Scribd, you can access it for free as part of your subscription.
If you’re not on Scribd, they have a 30 day free trial going on right now. Basically it’s a subscription service ($10/month) similar to Kindle Unlimited that not only gives you access to a large library of free books including many from major publishers and bestsellers, they also have audiobooks as part of the deal, as well as major newspapers and magazines. It’s a great alternative to KU if you’re trying to fight the Amazon near-monopoly or boycotting Amazon (like I am).
To wrap up Pride month and the celebration of the Pride StoryBundle of queer fantasy and science fiction, we have an interview with author and editor Catherine Lundoff. There’s only a week left to grab the Bundle!
Pick up your copy of the Pride StoryBundle through July 1st at https://storybundle.com/pride to read Catherine’s novel about menopausual werewolves, Silver Moon! If you buy the bundle at the $20 level, you get 16 books and you can earmark part of your purchase price for Rainbow Railroad’s life-saving work with LGBTQ refugees. Happy Pride Month!
How do you celebrate Pride?
Catherine: I’m often at a table selling books at a lot of our regional Prides. If I’m not doing that, I’m hanging out with my friends and talking to the vendors and anyone else who looks interesting. I also like to do author readings, see queer theater and films and engage in whatever interesting cultural and political events are happening. I like celebrating as many aspects of Pride as I can!
We have so many wonderful queer books being published these days, but new queer writers can still face unique challenges. What advice would you offer them?
Catherine: Don’t give up. Finding and building an audience can be hard and slow but have faith in your work and keep going. Support other LGBTQ+ writers and work with them when you can to make everyone as successful as possible.
Can you tell us about the book you have in this StoryBundle? Continue reading →
