Flailing with glee

I just saw that there will be a new Vorkosi-verse book out next year from Bujold!  I had to do a flail-y happy dance!  (It’s a good thing today was a telework day, because my dancing would probably scare my colleagues.)

From Bujold’s GoodReads blog:

I am pleased to report that a new Cordelia Vorkosigan novel has been sold to Baen Books for publication, tentatively, in February of 2016.
The title is Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen.
It is not a war story. It is about grownups.
And that is probably all I ought to say right now in a venue read by the spoiler-sensitive. It is, after all, a long haul till next February.
2016 will also mark the 30th anniversary of my first publication by Baen, which ought to be good for a little PR fun.
Ta, L.

On the reading front, a friend recommended Robert Dugoni’s My Sister’s Grave.  I enjoyed it, but as the end approached I felt pretty manipulated in a cheap way by the author.  I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to read other Dugoni books (he has another series and may be planning more for this one).

C

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*dusts off cobwebs*

My reading has been a little thin for the last week.

I finished Blood of Tyrants, which I have mixed feelings about:  it’s better than some of the other installments, but includes a lot of telling rather than showing and its pace is kind of wonky.  The ending left me feeling as if the book is really half of the installment.  Look, I get cliffhangers, but when you drag me through Japanese politics, then Chinese politics, before getting to Napoleon in Russia?  And then leave in the middle of the Russian conflict?  Meh.

Laurence’s amnesia felt somewhat pointless in terms of plot, although it was a little entertaining if only to demonstrate how his own moral compass has shifted since he left the Navy and joined the Aerial Corps.

 

Other things of interest:

• Jordan Castillo Price’s next PsyCop book will be out on Aug 30th
• Lois McMaster Bujold has donated manuscripts to Northern Illinois University’s library (h/t Teach Me Tonight)
• Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, which I enjoyed very much, has been adapted for the stage and will be playing at New York’s Public Theater this fall

In the works

I have two reviews partially written:  one of the BDSM holiday anthology, O Come All Ye Kinky, and one of Tigerland by Sean Kennedy.   Maybe they’ll be finished this weekend?  My first winter cold is waning at last, so after taking care of some work stuff and holiday prep, there should be time to finish at least one of them…

Sunday evening

Sunday evening always seems like a wistful sort of stretch of time to me.  The weekend is ending, so no more relaxation, and it’s time to gear up for the week ahead.  Dinner made and cleaned up, lunches for the week planned and/or packed, wardrobe planned so I’m not staring vacantly at a godsawful hour in the morning and wondering what I ought to wear and do I have any meetings that make a suit more appropriate than business casual.

What I read this weekend:  not much fiction.  Did finish Gravitational Attraction by Angel Martinez, a m/m science fiction novel; the sci-fi worked well but the romance aspect was too tell-tell-tell and fated mate for me.

Saw on Twitter that New Approaches to Popular Romance Fiction is available for Kindle at $9.99, which is a much more attractive price than the $40 paperback.

Oddly, Ahmed Rashid’s Descent Into Chaos is not available for Kindle…but the update to it *is* available for $2.99.  WTH, Amazon?  Rashid’s new book on Afghanistan and Pakistan is available, but I’d like to read the other one first, please.

The next K.A. Mitchell book, But My Boyfriend Is, has a page with a blurb and pre-order button already even though it is not due out until August.  Want!  *sigh*  So impatient.

Coming soon:  a review of Hello Kitty Must Die by Angela S.Gina Choi.  In short: it was awesome.  Longer version later.

Check out Steve Tignor’s love letter to Madrid.  Between that and FortyDeuce‘s tweets, I’ve been wishing I was in Madrid this week, enjoying the tennis and Retiro Park and stopping for a tart or sweet from La Mallorquina in the Puerta del Sol.

The Dairy Queen commercial for ice cream cakes for Mother’s Day seriously squicks me — it’s the bubbles filled with kittens.  They remind me of a scene in Bujold’s Cetaganda, in which that idiot Ivan plucks fruit from a kitten tree, only to realize that since it wasn’t ripe, he’d essentially killed a fetal kitten.  Ick ick ick.  There’s a lot of subtext and ethical undercurrents to the Cetagandan genetic manipulation and scientific experiments, but that image of a dead kitten made me ill when I first read it.  I have to skip that scene when I re-read the book.

Have I mentioned how much I like Panic’s The Ballad of Mona Lisa?  Also, I have a ticket (via The Biochemist) for their show as part of the DC101 cook-off/festival at RFK in a couple of weeks…but it turns out I have a graduation party at the same time 😦

SBD?

It’s Monday, and thus time for SBD.  But I’ve got nothing.  Spent all day talking — doing training for new employees.  My voice is gone and my feet hurt.  So instead of the SBD, my dear readers (all 2 of you) get a whine.

And a plug — K.A. Mitchell’s Not Knowing Jack is out tomorrow!  So I’ll have something for SBD next week.

And now I’m off to drink wine and eat chocolate.  Or maybe just to lapse into an exhausted sleep. 

My crush, let me show you it

My crush on Nathan Fillion grows ever larger.  Between the hammy reading of Richard Castle’s book at Comic Con; the whole Mal Reynolds Firefly/Serenity thing and now this?  I’m all *hearteyes*.  Read this bit of information over at ALA’s website and then tell me that he isn’t a thousand times sexier for being a supporter of reading.

The first few chapters of Bujold’s new Vorkosigan novel, CryoBurn, are available at Baen.  If the direct link doesn’t work, click on the Webscription link at the top of the main Baen page, which will take you to CryoBurn‘s ARC page, where there is a link to the chapters.  I haven’t read them yet, but am somewhat intrigued by the book summary.  Of course, it’ll be an autobuy for me just because it’s a new Miles book.

I ordered a case/cover for my refurbished Kindle (known as The Hairball, because for some reason my cat loves to lay on it, which leaves it covered in cat hair).  Anyway, it’s been more than two weeks since I ordered it, so I poked the vendor.  Oh, sorry, busy.  Okay, but if it was going to be delayed, just say so; yes, you risk losing a sale, but with adjusted expectations, I would be much more inclined to leave positive feedback for you as a seller.

The Legg Mason Tennis Classic is on.  Have tickets to the Round of 16 on Thursday.  Don’t need to go to the semifinals and finals on Saturday and Sunday, right?  Right?

Picnic at Mom’s yesterday.  Her deviled eggs are the best ever.  Something about the ratio of bacon bits to relish to seasoning just rocks.  Nana’s Chocolate Cake, too, yum.  And steamed crabs.  Brought some home and picked them this evening.  Crab cakes for dinner tomorrow 🙂