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Yesterday sucked. But today was better, and I'm glad.

Nice little things:

☆ My copy of Ursula Vernon/T Kingfisher's Halcyon Fairy Book arrived today. <3 I've read some of the stories in it, but not all, so this will be some nice chill-out reading. I'm really, really looking forward to it.

☆ Speaking of Ursula Vernon, her novelette The Tomato Thief won this year's Hugo in its category, yay! (Go read it, it's great.) It's just, I've been a fan of her work for years, and always nice to see her getting such recognition. Her stuff's great.

☆ I received notice that my frame order is complete~ Which means I'll get to pick up Karo's lovely art tomorrow. <3 I still am not 100% sure where I will put it in my room... I think I might need to move some things. Well, it'll be easier to figure it out once I have the actual picture on hand.

☆ Farmer's market tomorrow. <3 It's usually on a weekday, which of course means that I can't go, so the few occasions when it's on a weekend are always nice. I like going down and looking around, even if I don't end up buying anything. Sometimes it's nice to be around people - as long as I don't have to interact with them to any large degree.

T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon has released a new short story compilation, Jackalope Wives. Yay!

Most of it is previously-published stuff, but since I have a hard time keeping track of her short stories, I haven't read most of them (I have read "Pocosin", which is included here, and I enjoyed it very much). It's nice to have them together in one volume. And there are two new ones that haven't been published before.

Looks like I have something exciting to read this weekend.

While it's on my mind - I've been thinking of doing a giveaway draw for one of T. Kingfisher's ebooks at some point. Would anybody be interested in that? And I can't decide if I'd rather do it for a specific book or not. She's written so many good ones.

There was going to be more to this entry, but I am ex-haust-ed. Today will be an early bed, I think.

*Before I get started with this, I'd just like to mention that I've been feeling a little weird and unsocial lately, so if I end up acting weird and unsocial, well... there you go. ;V Anyway! Onward.

Finished reading: On the Head of a Pin by Janet Kellough. I think that I said everything I wanted to say about this in my previous entry. Tl;dr: Historical crime novel series set in mid-1800s Canada. I received this and another for Christmas; I liked it well enough that reading the second won't be a hardship. Though I don't know if I would seek these out, exactly. The prose is a little on the bland side. But I liked the point-of-view character, the setting, and the mystery well enough, so...! Not too bad. I can forgive less-than-sparkling prose for a solid story and good research.

Currently reading: Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett. I forgot how utterly weird this book is. Those shopping carts... what. Though I must admit, I always love a good Death book, and this one sure is good. I can see why I've seen people list it as a favourite. It's also interesting to explore the life of the undead in Ankh-Morpork - I came to this book long after I'd been reading the Discworld series, so I was always familiar with Reg Shoe as a member of the Watch, rather than in the kind of role he has in this novel. Anyway - this isn't one of my favourite Discworld books, but I have been having a good time with it. :D
(Edit) Oh my gods, some of that stuff with Miss Flitworth, toward the end... I almost cried. Help. ;;;;

Also reading: Still reading Love Poems by Pablo Neruda. Still enjoying the hell out of it. <3 His work is lovely.

Reading next: I have no idea. Ursula Vernon T. Kingfisher is going to be releasing a new novel soon, The Raven and the Reindeer. But I haven't read their preview novel, Bryony and Roses yet, even though I've had it for months. So I should get around to that. I haven't read Castle Hangnail yet, either... though I'm not sure if I've bought that one. (But I should. Because Ursula Vernon <3 ) ...Apparently she's also putting together a colouring book. Which is not reading-related, obviously, but still pretty cool (and of course I will need one for my Ursula collection.)

☆ I've been feeling a little out of sorts, which has the usual result of ignoring my flist and backdating a lot. And I feel the need to apologize for that, even though I know I don't need to. So, I guess I will just state it instead. That's better.

☆ Watching the Hugo Awards discussions this weekend was interesting. I've been keeping my eye on this thing for a good deal of the year, and the end result was, I feel, probably the best one could hope for considering everything. And seeing what might have been on the ballots if the slates had not been there was definitely interesting too - and added a few things to the possible to-read list, maybe.

☆ Since I'm not actually that deeply into SF/F and related fandom/etc, there isn't much that I have an opinion on as far as who should have been on it, with one exception - I am pretty annoyed that Ursula Vernon's "Jackalope Wives" was bumped off the short story list by the slate. But then again, I'm a pretty big fan of her work, so. She wrote some commentary about that here... Apparently her story "Toad Words" was also on the nominations list - nowhere near the ballot, but still on the list, and that makes me happy. (You guys should all read Toad Words and Other Stories, released under her alias T Kingfisher. It's wonderful.)

☆ Speaking of Hugos/Worldcon, there is a small part of me that wants to go to either the Kansas City 2016 or Helsinki 2017 con. But, glancing at current projected travel plans... no way that's happening. Which is probably for the best.

☆ This morning I woke up to a positive comment on my characterization in that Redtail's Dream fic I wrote. This was really encouraging, because Hannu is a very specific kind of jerk, the kind I normally don't write, and I was feeling a little unsure about it. I have something with plot that I want to write with him soon, and knowing that I'm at least going in the right direction with him is good. ... And even better, the person who said it was someone whose writing I like. Feels good! Especially because I've been feeling a little down about my writing lately, as the stuff I've been trying to work on this past week just wasn't clicking.

Ahhh so, I just found out today that the Nebula Awards were this weekend, and Ursula Vernon won for Short Story. Wonderful! I think I recommended "Jackalope Wives" when it first came out, but might as well again - you can read Ursula's story for free on Apex Magazine's website: Jackalope Wives. There is also a podcast version if you're into that (linked on the same page). Should give it a re-read myself... I really enjoyed it a lot the first time I read it. There is a list of the other winners and nominees over here... A few of the novels were on my to-read list already, so perhaps I should bump them up a little.

It makes me so happy whenever she has a new success. I've been following Ursula's work for about twelve years now in its various forms (art/comics/writing - she's so multitalented, wow) and there's a certain quality to it that just never fails to hit the right buttons for me. Her work and her worlds make me feel good. Even the sad stories make me feel good.

On the one hand, it feels a little odd to be so excited that someone I don't know won something. On the other hand... one of my favourite authors won something. <3 <3

It's kind of weird, but over the last few days I've been feeling a little bit bored. I usually don't get bored, and certainly not when I'm off work, but there it is. I think it might be because it is way too cold to go outside - I mean, I'd love to go out to the cafe or something just as a change of scenery, do some writing there, but it's been hovering between -30 and -40C and I just can't be bothered with that. Too fucking cold, even for me. -20 is doable, but I have limits.

I don't really have any creative juices flowing right now, so I've been trying to eat up the time in other ways. Started a new file for A Link Between Worlds and have been playing on Hero Mode. It's hard, good gods, but I'm enjoying it. I hear that there are a few little extras in this version of the game if you manage to get around to it, so I'm looking forward to that. And while it's challenging, I do like the challenge. Though I have limits. I've heard of people doing zero-upgrade 3-heart runs and I'm like, dude, are you a masochist?! But then again some people are just better with games than I am. And have better reflexes, probably.

Also been doing a lot of reading. I have a lot of books sitting around my room that I haven't read. Some of these are due to size - either they're hardbacks or just plain big, which makes it impractical to take them on the bus to work with me. Might as well get through them while I can. One of those books was the collected Essex County by Jeff Lemire. It's the kind of graphic novel that I would have read in university (I know that sounds odd, but I did take a course on graphic novels as literature). It's very... literary, and very Canadian Literature. It hits all the usual points of family + freezing winters + rural life + hockey. This isn't a bad thing, but man, sometimes I feel like all the Canadian writing that I read is steeped in those four things. ... Clearly this means that I need to read things that are more genre-based. Though genre-based Canadian writing is more difficult to find than the ~literary~ stuff, I think. At least, when it comes to what bookstores in the middle of nowhere carry.

My omnibus copy of Ursula Vernon's Digger came in yesterday. Holy crap, it's gorgeous. It's so beautiful, I'm almost afraid to touch it. That's probably odd, but... oh well. It's special. I'm going to have to read it before work starts up again, else I won't get around to it, but I kind of just want to... set it down somewhere, unopened, and stare at it for a while.

Soooo-ooo Canada Post's customer service phone line was spectacularly unhelpful. And mum went to the nearest post outlet for me to inquire, but didn't get any good answer either.

So, guess who gets to go running around town tomorrow inquiring about his package. THIS GUY. ... I think I might get a decent answer at the main postal outlet, though. Unfortunately, it's really far. But whatever. It's an excuse to get out of the house. (And to think, I expected to have a nice, relaxing Friday off work. Nnnnope.)

English releases of Hetalia volume 4 and 5 are up for pre-order now. You better believe I was on that like white on rice. Got my order in and now I'm sitting tight. 8) Too bad I won't receive it until sometime in December, heh.

Man. With all the blog updates, and the release of volume 6 coming up soon, and all that stuff, lately things have been very... Hetalia. This turn of events, I like it. ANOTHER.

Watched the Evil Dead remake with some people from the APH meme tonight. Haven't seen the original, but this one waaasn't exactly my cup of tea as far as horror movies go. Too many stupid people doing stupid things and in a lot of ways I found it more ridiculous than creepy. I think it was the whole demon possession schtick - that stuff rarely does it for me.

Ursula Vernon has a novel out now through self-publish. She usually writes novels for children, published the usual way, but this is her first time putting out a novella (well, I'd say it's a short novel) for adults and thought this particular one wouldn't be very marketable as far as regular publishing goes. Regardless, I am super excited about it, and I can hardly wait to get around to reading it. Except, I want to finish Les Miserables first - I don't do well with reading more than one novel at a time - so I need to jump on that. Let's see what I can do. :D Because I am REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS. The reviews I've seen so far are good, and I always have loved her sense of humour.

(Speaking of Ursula Vernon, I am still bouncing like whoa over the Digger omnibus edition... even though it'll be a while before I actually receive it. Some time in December, probably. I just, man, I remember when she first started putting out that comic. Good times, good times. Good memories. And alskdfjkdf a signed copy, ahhhh. This is so special.)

Trying to figure out the logistics of how to do "fic finishing month". There's no way I'll be able to turn out over 2k per day like them NaNo-ers do it, but I'm going to try to throw down a few hundred words every day at least. I guess I'll just pick one fic per day and go at it. Right now I have 6 things in various stages of completion; two of them are drafted on paper, but need to be typed and revised. The others, well, they're not close to being done, though one is nearly halfway. And then, I also need to write at least 1 fic for that fest I signed up for - so if nothing else, I'm definitely finishing that this month, yes. But it'll be short.

If I add all of what I have currently typed up together, it comes to 24k. Which is nice. It means I'd only need 26k to make wordcount. Yes, that's cheating. No,I don't care. Heh. Most of it is from that big long Nor/Ger fic anyway, which is something I definitely won't be able to finish this month, and will probably clock out to 50k in itself, so.

Okay, I know I updated recently, BUT BUT BUT--

I've been waiting ages for this package to arrive, and I'm so excited!

It was a package of two limited edition prints by one of my favourite artists, Ursula Vernon. She's, er, probably best known for being the person who painted the Biting Pear of Salamanca. A few years ago she put out a limited print illustrating a plague doctor as the Taxman. This year's release was also of that character, and I just had to have them.

I received the package last night, but I was too tired to be excited about it.

( Some quick photos of the prints )

I'm just so happy about these, ahhhh. I can hardly wait to get them framed. I still need a proper frame for the original Taxman, actually - right now he's just in a cheap plastic postercover, guh.

I hope that some day I'll be able to own one of her originals, ahhh. But right now most of them are wayyyy out of my price range.