Re: The Tomb Wife

In “The Tomb Wife,” by Gwyneth Jones, Elen is the Navigator of a small crew of humans and a guest alien on a starship transporting ancient artifacts. The alien, Sigurt, is the most distinctive character. The story opens with him messing with them about the nature of one of the artifacts, claiming that it’s haunted […]

The sock flaps

Since one of the purposes of knitting a sock means I have something to do on the subway, I was knitting on the subway the other day, and someone asked about “that little red thing.” I explained my row counter, only to find another knitter nearby, watching me! We geeked out about knitting and socks. […]

First day of spring

Whereas I saw a honeybee today, as it cruised along checking out the crocuses;

Re: 26 Monkeys

Like the story says: Aimee’s big trick is that she makes twenty-six monkeys vanish onstage. Except it’s not really Aimee’s trick, it’s the monkeys’. Then Kij Jonhson’s “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” goes on to reveal that the monkeys (and one chimpanzee, who is not a monkey) have plenty of other tricks up their, um, […]

Re: The Dreaming Wind

There’s lots of charming, weird, and frightful inventiveness in “The Dreaming Wind,” by Jeffrey Ford. A small town is haunted by a wind that makes dreams real, in all their uncontrolled power. You get to watch how the people deal (or fail to deal) with it, but I didn’t find it as immediate or affecting […]

Garden buddies

Just enjoying the springlike activity in the garden, not just the snowdrops multiplying and spreading, but the trees and bushes budding out.

Autofocus

I’m not sure I should write about this so soon. Two weeks into it, I was all full of enthusiasm for Do It Tomorrow. Bit by bit, it slowly became harder to keep current, and once I fell behind, it all became just as big a swamp as ever. Now I’m two weeks in and […]

Last and first harvest

I suppose these leeks are both the last harvest of last year and the first harvest of this year. They weren’t looking too hot out there, but they made it. When the ground finally reappeared, I went out and pulled and yanked from side to side and pulled and–

Re: Don’t Stop

So far the only short story (and therefore my favorite) I’ve read from the Nebula nominees is “Don’t Stop”, by James Patrick Kelly. Well, actually I’ve listened to the excellent reading and discussion of the story available at Free Reads. (The text is now available at Asimov’s.)

Holding Patterns

Snow goes on. Snow goes off. Cat goes in. Cat goes out. Breath goes in. Breath goes out. Does anything really change?