Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I bet y'all didn't know that my father has a vlog. He invited me onto his show ostensibly to talk about my book release, though we, in many ways, ended up chatting more about Sherry Turkle's Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in the Digital Age and other ways that the Internet has changed conversation and thinking. 

I would normally embed the video here, but that option has been restricted. Regardless, if you're curious what my dad looks like and/or want to otherwise check out  our rambling conversation (and the thumbnail that makes me look like a wanted criminal) you can follow the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSix3rLWF0

Otherwise, it is reading Wednesday and I have very little to report, although I did just finish a manga called Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand by Komori Yoko, which I enjoyed tremendously. It's the kind of story that I'd call fantasy-adjacent, as there are a lot of fantastical elements, though most of them end up being metaphorical or allegorical. I described it on my manga blog as a sophisticated slow burn slice-of-life about the kind of grief that nearly all young kids experience--that moment when you realize that your parents are human beings, riddled with faults of their own. The story begins as the middle school-aged heroine is relocating to a small seaside town because her parents are divorcing (due to her mother's infidelity) and ends in a place of acceptance, at least the acceptance for now. It's a very grown-up book, honestly.  Surprisingly PROFOUND. (Which is why the review, if you go off to read it, starts with a rant about frustrated I am that the gross pedophiles of the world have ruined anime and manga for so many mundanes.) People should read this book!

Anyway.

I am up at the a$$-crack of dawn because I just took our family friend, John, to the airport, so that he could catch a flight for home. He was staying with us for a few days on his annual Midwestern tour to see his mother (in Iowa.) He's always a very easy houseguest, basically family, so it was lovely to have him while he was here. 

I mostly wanted to log-in to tell you that an interview I did with Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith went up on GayYA.org sometime ago and I missed its debut. It's a fun little conversation about all the hassles they had during the process of trying to find a publisher for their novel Strangers (which I read and enjoyed.) The interview is called: "The Question of Queering the Mainstream Novel..."

Otherwise, I've mostly been lazing about enjoying the heck out of my Christmas/New Year vacation. I had to work yesterday evening for five hours at the Maplewood Library, but otherwise I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. I'm an extreme pro at nothingness. Turns out, I can do it pretty much all day when I put my mind to it. To be fair to myself, I've actually worked quite a bit on the novel that Rachel and I co-wrote as the School for Wayward Demons. I even had a few brilliant insights into how to work tie some scenes together, so that's a win.

I should probably download some of the pictures I took over Christmas/Solstice and post them here so you can see all the fun stuff we got. Naomi asked me what our favorite gifts were this year, and I think for Mason it was the book by the XKCD author What If...? and the giant LEGO set of "Metalbeard's Sea Cow."  Shawn favorite things were a pair of garnet earrings that Mason picked out for her and a pair of fuzzy hand warmers I found for her.  Me, it's hard to say.  I got a lot of nice things, but probably the best for me was the money got from my folks which I instantly ran out and put on a coffee card at Claddaugh and, of course, the two pound bag of foreign coins that Shawn got for me.  Okay, this is a weird thing you probably didn't know about me, but I LOVE weird, old foreign coins.  In fact, I'm always carrying five coins on me at any given time. Why?  Well, it started as a silly Feng Shui thing that I read about long ago, but it just kept on as a... thing, I don't know.  Just a thing I do. But, I periodically lose the coins, so I like having a bunch around to replace them.  Plus, just digging through the lot of them is fascinating.  This year the prize was finding a Soviet coin, complete with the CCCP and the sickle and hammer.  (I also carry around a coin that was clearly made to be a pendant for someone, as a hole was drilled in it, and it's old enough to have been carried during the Civil War, though I think it's Canadian.)  At any rate, this is just a fun weird thing I like.  

So there.

Okay, I just asked Alexa to spell Feng Shui (except I'm never sure how to pronounce it anyway) and I must have really f*cked it up because she said to me, "Technology is complicated.  I don't always understand it myself."

Preach it, sister.

 

Since I mentioned it in an earlier post, here's the link to the interview with me on Kelly Kirch's blog: Featured Author Lyda Morehouse/Tate Hallaway. 

Oh, and a late addition:  I just stumbled across tiernsshadow's review of Apocalpyse Array here:  "Lo, Satan Fetcheth the Coffee for the Anti-Christ and Her Minions."  (Oh, and Nichole, feel free to write some Mouse/Dee het slash!)