Aethereal World

5:36PM - It's alive!

My first published story went live yesterday, and I haven't been able to tell you about it because first Shabbat and then our access to the internet at home has been sporadic. Anyway, it's at Electric Spec. Most of you who are interested have probably read it already, but check it out anyway!

Also, I drew the last installment of Something Something Whatever and the Mystery of the Missing Scrub Brush this morning, and I'll upload the rest when I get access to a scanner. Now I have to figure out what to do for Bento Comix tomorrow.

11:20PM - I am a writer. I write. For MONEY!

. . . as demiurgent says.

Electric Spec wants "A Girl and her Tentacle Monster"!

8:59PM - Bento Comix

So Uriel's been going to preschool (but that's a whole nother can of worms) and I've been drawing him comics and putting them in his 10:00 snack bento.

Now we're at my parents' for Succot, and my father has a scanner, so I've decided to scan them in and share them with the world. Although the colors aren't always reproduced that well.

( It's a comic, on the web, so I guess it must be a webcomic? )

4:57PM - Uriel's summary of Masters of the Maze by Avram Davidson, based on the cover illustration

"Here we have a giant monster. The monster curls down in a snuggly snuggly maze, and the masters go to the maze to visit the monster."

6:43AM - Naomi goes flyant

I'm not going to be around much in the coming month and change. Not that I'm usually around much anyway, but this time it'll be because I'm on an epic trip across the US and Canada.

See you all later.

5:06PM - Happy birthday, Uriel! (belated)

Uriel's been three for more than a week now, but I haven't managed to post about it yet. Here's some pictures behind the cut, and also some text.

( unsafe for people who hate adorable children and delicious baked goods )

2:50PM - @

As those of you who speak Hebrew may be able to tell from the subject line, I've been teaching myself how to make strudel from scratch. I will be the first to admit that this is a somewhat quixotic endeavor, as a) strudel can be purchased at many bakeries, and moreover b) phyllo dough and puff pastry are readily available at most supermarkets, and c) if I really want baked goods made entirely from scratch I can make any of a wide variety of delicious cookies in about half an hour, including baking time.

The only excuses I can offer are a) I love strudel b) it's part of my cultural heritage c) it's a challenge, and d) it's fun and actually kind of thrilling. There are certain accomplishments that seem magical; that once you do them, you stand back and look at it and say, "I can't believe a human being did that. I can't believe I did that." For me, at least, stretching paper-thin dough is one of them.

( recipe + pictures = strudeltorial )

7:15AM - Werewolves

Somewhere or other on the internet, I was reading about common tropes in werewolf romance, and I thought, wouldn't it be more interesting if these had anything at all to do with the sexual dynamics of actual wolves?

So, here, have a first sentence:

I knew that Auntie Nora was pregnant again, because I spent the afternoon with her, and by the next morning I was kneeling in front of the toilet, renewing my acquaintance with last night's dinner.

I don't anticipate adding more sentences but you never know.

7:53AM - A silly thing, and some other things

Uriel has the instincts of a filker. If you sing him a song with the word "two" in it, he will say, "three." If you sing him a song with "Daisy", he will say "Different engine name!" (Because of Daisy on Thomas the Tank Engine, you see.) If you sing "bicycle," he will say, "Different vehicle!"

Hence, this:

( A Tractor Built for N )

Also, in the interest of keeping score, I finished chapter nineteen two days ago.

Also, for the people reading this who don't read dhole's journal (both of you!), he's the official blogger for the Ashkelon dig this year. Behold his official blog!

7:21AM - Victory! Of a sort.

If it were November 30th, 2003, I would have won NaNoWriMo.

. . . hooray?

8:22PM - A thing

Over the last couple of days, I read, in quick succession, papersky's Vorkosigan Saga posts on tor.com, and a whole pile of fandom secrets. This made me wonder what Miles Vorkosigan would think about his fandom, or, specifically, fanfic about himself.

I immediately realized that, being the attention whore that he is, Miles would love it. Fics that were completely out of character, crack pairings, all of it. His wife Ekaterin, on the other hand, being the intensely private person she is, would hate it.

Thus the following scene was born:

Vorkosigan House, afternoon. The kids have finally gone down for their nap. MILES and EKATERIN sit at their respective comconsoles, reading Vorkosiverse fanfic.

EKATERIN: Kill them . . . kill their families. Burn their houses.

MILES: Oh, look! Here's one where I'm an ocelot!

3:14PM - Tip your waitresses

Recently, Uriel's been interested in dhole's hiker's encyclopedia of Israel. Specifically, he's interested in the list of hikes, with brief information about each one.

"If we go from Har Mizpeh Hayamim to Safed, we'd see water and flowers. It's a medium walk, and we could go in the spring, fall, or winter. It's ten kilometers, takes about seven hours, and we can find the map on page 327 of volume three," I'll say.

"Let's see what hikes there are in volume four!" he'll reply happily.

There was one entry I felt compelled to bring to dhole's attention. "We should do this one," I said. "Ma'aleh Sha'ar Hagay to Mordo. It says we can simply walk there."

In other news, last night I met for the first time my second cousin Sam, who is knocking around the country doing odd jobs and seeing sights while he waits for his aliyah paperwork to go through, after which he'll be drafted. He seems like a keen hiker. I wonder if he wants to go to Mordo with us?

7:45AM - Aethereal Girl says check it out.

So over at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, SB Sarah reviewed Julia Spencer-Fleming's In the Bleak Midwinter, the first in a series of books about an Episcopalian minister (female) and a cop (male) who solve crimes in a small town in Upstate New York whilst experiencing unresolved sexual tension. She gave it an A-, which in the SB Sarah rating system means "I love this book and want to have its children."

In the comments, LizC mentioned that Ms. Spencer-Fleming had a short story featuring the characters from the book up on her website, so I decided to take a look, and you all should too, because it's a fantastic story: Collect for a Noonday Service

There are two things in particular that I like about it. First of all, man is that some tight plotting. Tight like hot pants on a 70s starlet. Click, click, click like a rubix cube, seriously. The essence (or at least, an essence) of a mystery plot is the gradual, ordered, and elegant revealing of information, and this is one of the best examples of that I've seen.

The second thing "Collect for a Noonday Service" does well is something that I've rarely seen attempted, let alone succesfully. The plot driven not by the actions of a single protagonist (or a single protagonist and his one or two sidekicks, or the opposed actions of a single protagonist and a single antagonist) but by the cooperative actions of a group of eight people. Each one has a piece of information without which the crime couldn't be solved, which is not in itself unique -- there are plenty of stories where the protagoinist has to collect clues from a diverse group of secondary characters. But this isn't that. While there is (for most of the story; the POV is a little slippery at first) a single point of view character who is clearly the protagoinist, the other characters are there not simply to provide her with plot tokens but are actively and continuously engaged in figuring out the mystery; the final result is something they all make together.

There are many reasons why this isn't usually attempted, and I could go on about the fundamental aloneness of man or the individualism of Western culture, but I think one of the main reasons it isn't usually done is because it's hard to write. Julia Spencer-Fleming pulls it off here.

I did have a few problems with the story -- the romance/angst which seems to be a hallmark of the larger series can seem shoehorned in when it appears here, and occasionally overwrought. Furthermore, the prose was not quite as tight as the plotting; in a story which is essentially about a large group of people sitting around and talking to each other, it has to be absolutely clear at all times who is speaking, and that wasn't always the case. But on the whole it's an excellent story, and if you like this sort of thing you will like it. I'm looking at you specifically, rereader.

6:58AM - Adorable

Now, I know there must be someone on my friends list who likes cute readheaded butch girls with French accents singing country songs.

12:04AM - Chapter 18

Done and done.

10:15PM - Second verse, same as the first.

If you are in Jerusalem and want cookies on Thursday, let me know.

9:56PM - C is for cookie

Who doesn't love delicious homemade cookies? Racist inciters, that's who.

But those of you who love delicious homemade cookies, live in Jerusalem, and are theoretically eligible to serve in the Knesset assuming that you're citizens of Israel, are in luck. Because delicious cookies, homemade by me, will be available for purchase this week!

Mandelbrot – 20 shekel/dozen

Brownies, spice cookies, or oatmeal raisin cookies – 25 shekel/dozen

Big chewy chocolate chip cookies – 30 shekel/dozen

Tu B'shvat fruitcake (vegan) – 40 shekel

All the cookies are pareve and made with canola oil (and not margarine.) Get your orders in by Tuesday night and I will have your cookies to you on Thursday.

I don't know whether I'll be doing this again or what cookies will be available at what prices if I do. We'll have to see how this one goes.

8:20PM - Seventeen

That's chapter seventeen done. The first 1257 words were a scene I've been wanting to write since I first concieved of the book, about fifteen years ago. I think I did actually write a version of it in one of my high school notebooks, although what that version had in common with the current version consists of the words "the", "and", and some character names.

So that went fast. Then I had very little idea what happened in the rest of the chapter. And just when I was getting toward the end, I was ambushed by poetry.

But now it's done.

4:04PM - Additional lyrics to "I have a little dreidel"

I have a little dreidel
I made it out of plastic
But when I went and dropped it
They said I was a spastic

Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel!
I made it out of plastic
I bent to pick it up
And I busted my elastic

I have a little dreidel
I made it out of lead
But then one day I ate it
I almost fell down dead

Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel!
I made it out of lead
And ever since I ate it
No brains left in my head

I have a little dreidel
I made it out of pewter
But I don't like to play it
I'd rather play computer

Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel!
I made it out of pewter
It's such a stupid game
Not like a first-person shooter

. . . sorry, I'm twelve.

8:32PM - Boardgames, birthdays, etc.

Hey, joshbrown, have you seen this?

Also, this Thursday we're having a birthday filksing at our house and I'd like to collect as many birthday filks and filk-like songs as I can. I've got the Birthday Dirge, Weird Al'sHappy Birthday, and The Arrogant Worms' Happy Happy Birthday Song. Any others?