What I read: February 2026

LHC #312: "The Children of God" by Mary Doria Russell. eBook. This one is a sequel and is also a book with only 2 copies in the TPL system, kills two birds with one stone! This was a satisfying conclusion.

LHC #313: "History of the Present" by Timothy Garton Ash. Hard copy; 3 copies at the TPL. It's about central Europe from 1990 to 2000, so pretty dark. I had no idea that being a woodcutter was a viable profession in actual Europe like 26 years ago! I thought they were a fairytale thing. Though they don't tend to have good ends there, or here either. It was interesting, but hard to read because I don't have an intimate familiarity with all the names and acronyms, and because portions were rather horrifying.

"Monstrous nights" by Ginoveva Dimova. Sequel, hard copy. I own it, so it's good for carrying around since if I lose it I don't owe anyone anything. Fun read. Liked the main character.

LHC #314: "The Burning God" by R.F. Kuang. eBook. Book 3 of a series! Started off so grim. I can't say I enjoyed it, but it did come to a satisfying conclusion.

Moraine

So a couple of days I thought I was done with this short story, and I wrote the last line of the story. I even dated it (that's how I can tell it's over). It was a little long, at 6600 words (I was aiming for 5000). But then I was walking to work, and I thought, "My, that was a lame ending. My endings are all crap." So yesterday morning, I scribbled out the date and wrote a bit more. And this morning I wrote a bit more again, and I dated it and called it done. And still, that ending seemed lame. So a few minutes later, in the last paragraph, I scratched out "the Oak Ridges Moraine" and wrote in "that stupid moraine". Much better. Now I can move on. But in the meantime, I was doing a little research about the Moraine, and I discovered that EGTourGuide lives on it. Only by one or two hundred feet, but I thought it was funny. Good for you, EGTourGuide, with all those excellent plants growing on that substandard soil, where in the olden days (you kno...

In progress: August 2024

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Still n eed to take up comments and revise. Persephone (probably not its real name): Continued to think thoughts. Short Stories: After posting that short story from last month onto the workshop, I picked one of those short stories I'd started and forced a plot onto it. Critted 5 Got back 4 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Cathar (self). Started month with two inches done above the armholes. Listening to audiobooks, I finished the fair isle portion, cut the steeks, and set up and knit the neckline. Just the endless finishing now. Blushing Cloud (Knitty S/S24). Started the month with (still) three inches of back done. Socks take priority. Elbrus socks (Knitty first fall 2024). Finished. Elbrus socks II . Started the first. Pole shorts (Joan McGowan-Michael). I knitted these several years ago, but the...

Word of the day: Wendigo

I first encountered this word a few weeks ago on Leah Bobet's blog , but I skipped over and paid it no nevermind. Anyway, it caught my eye again today when I was reading a short story . So I googled it. In November, I did like an hour of research of first-nations (specifically ojicree ) mythology when I was writing the zombie karate novel. How did I not find this? How did I not learn about wendigos (wendigoes?) when I was learning mythology in high school English? And manitous? One of my friends goes to Camp Manitou every summer. How did I not know? Was I asleep? Is this proof of my ADD which no one else agrees I have? What? I'm not needing to culturally appropriate or anything, but it would have been cool to know. Also, this is awesome: http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.fan.heinlein/msg/0920b2f01ac0a248?hl=en . Not sure I ever finished a Heinlein novel. I know I didn't finish "The number of the beast" on account of I found it totally sexist. When I was 15.

Robynettely

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