My friend, Aimee, is about to go in for a hysterectomy to remove a giant football-sized fibroid and associated girly bits. She's understandably worried about her bills for the months of April and May, as she recovers from the major operation. She's not asking for handouts or donations--she's not that type of gal--but if you happen to like anything in her Etsy shop, she'd love if you'd purchase it.

My personal favorite is this pink beaded necklace; I own a very similar one in blue, and I get nothing but compliments on it when I wear it. So if you're in the mood for jewelry, bath and body products (also divine), or runes, hop on over to Aimee's Etsy shop. She'll be updating it soon, too!

Aimee's Etsy shop

Lest you think it's all fun and games at La Casa Rappaport, I thought I'd happily review my semi-to-do list for the next few days. This is partially for my reference, but feel free to peruse. To make it understandable, you should know that I'm hosting the second Seder of Passover on Tuesday, March 30th, for eleven people.

Thursday:

• Answer e-mail that has been ignored in favor of tax preparation
• Call kosher butchers in Lakewood and Highland Park--must find kosher for Passover pupicks and chicken necks
• Possibly drive to said kosher butchers or prepare to do so early Friday morning
• Continue to prepare for Japan trip
• Clean my house like mad

Friday:

• Start the defrosting process for ten chicken thighs and nine pounds of brisket worth its weight in gold
• Clean kitchen
  
• Find pupicks still--hopefully, obtain pupicks
• Continue to prepare for Japan trip

Saturday:

• Clean the house some more, until it's presentable and sparkling
• Change over kitchen for Passover, so that cooking can start on Sunday
• Hard boil two dozen eggs
• Make at least a half gallon of salt water
• Find a third black tablecloth to match my existing two tablecloths--Hello, Target, my old friend!
• Defrost frozen gefilte fish
  

Sunday:

• Make chicken soup
• Cook gefilte fish with stuffs

Monday:

• Make brisket
• Make to-be-determined dessert for Passover
• Make Jello thing for Passover (lime with bananas and pineapple)
• Buy salad
• Figure out what vegetable will be the token vegetable among the starch and meat of the Seder; obtain vegetable to cook on Tuesday

Tuesday:

• Cook like mad. Die somewhere along the way. Continue to cook as a zombie.
  

I'm taking a break from putting together tax information to download extraneous information from my brain. Mostly, books I've read this year that I haven't written down yet.

14. THE RELUCTANT WIDOW by Georgette Heyer

I was so excited to see this book in the library--a Georgette Heyer novel I hadn't read! Unfortunately, it's a Georgette Heyer novel that I didn't really need to read. It's definitely a lesser Heyer work, and doesn't compare to such gems that I love like FREDERICA or COTILLION. I spent most of the book absolutely hating the heroine for being a complete and total idiot.

15. THE QUIET GENTLEMAN by Georgette Heyer

Similarly, I snagged this from the library, too. Also, disappointing, although it was better than THE RELUCTANT WIDOW, at least.

16. TOKYO BOYS AND GIRLS, Volume 1 by Miki Aihara

And look, more manga! Cute and fun, but not as good as HOT GIMMICK or even HONEY HUNT.

17. TOKYO BOYS AND GIRLS, Volume 2 by Miki Aihara

See above review.

18. THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

I loved the first two books in this series, and this one was a good addition to it. But I felt like she ended the book where the second act of the plot ended, and I DESPERATELY want to see what happens to them in the safe town. I'm not sure it's a cop-out on the part of the author, or if she deliberately wanted to leave the series with an ambiguous ending. I really do think it needs a fourth book, but I don't know if she'll ever write one though. Overall though, I really loved what she did with this trilogy.

19. THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins (reread)
20. CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins (reread)

It's been less than a year since I originally read both these books, but THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN whet my appetite for more dystopian fiction, and I went back and devoured them again. I love them, just as much, if not more. I'm eagerly waiting for MOCKINGJAY.

21. THE MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF LEON (I MEAN NOEL) by Ellen Raskin

Oh, this was cute and lovely! Not as good as THE WESTING GAME, but I'm glad I read it. =)

22. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS by N. K. Jemisin

This was a great book. I'll say up front that I never would have offered it representation as an agent because it's simply not to my taste in writing. But once I bought it, I was forced to read through it, and I'm *really* glad that I persevered. It's not an easy book to read; it's difficult and doesn't explain as much as I wanted it to about the rest of the world. But it's beautifully written, and well done. My one major quibble is that it's marketed as the first in a trilogy, but I think it ended so perfectly that it could have served just as well as a stand-alone. I'm sure the author has more plans for the world, but I liked the glimpse and the picture we saw of it now. Almost like how Brandon Sanderson did with ELANTRIS; I don't need more. In fact, I'm really eager to see what Ms. Jemisin writes outside of this world, since I think she probably has a million more ideas for good books that I'd like to read.

I'm set to leave for Tokyo on April 6th, for a three month stay, and I thought you guys would like to see where I'm staying. I'm staying with my friend Deanna, who is renting a house in the Akabane neighborhood of Tokyo.

And hence, I give you, the construction of Jenny's room.

For those wondering, the house has a full kitchen (a rarity in Tokyo), a big dining room, and a miscellaneous other room (that has no windows nor air conditioning, which is why I'm living upstairs) for its downstairs portion. There's laundry outside, a balcony to hang clothes on to dry, and some form of small garden outside in the back too. Plenty of space for both of us to hang out.

I admit fully that I am a dork about my birthday, even at the advanced age of 29. =)

Here's to the last year of my third decade of life!

I figure that I have a fairly decent number of science fiction and fantasy fans reading this blog, so I'm asking for any of you to boost this signal.

I'm trying to find out whether Paula Volsky is still writing or not. She's the author of several really good historical fantasies that I devoured in my teens. Her last book came out in 2001. Wikipedia says she's still alive, so I'm assuming that's true.

But she simply hasn't published in years and as an ardent fan, I'm really curious to figure out why. Now granted, it could be bad novel sales, etc, but authors usually try to stay active, even in short fiction.

Does anyone know what happened to Paula Volsky?

(Any and all signal boost is appreciated, only in the respect that I'm genuinely curious about this and I would love to read more from her.)

ETA: Wikipedia also tells me she has a story out in 2009 in a Gardner Dozois anthology from Subterranean.

Just a note that I'm eligible for the Campbell Award this year and that a lot of other fine folk are too. You have until Friday to nominate for the Hugos and Campbell Award, so get to it. =)

Mr. Jay Lake, although we only see each other at conventions, I would shave my head too, if I could. I wish you lived closer.

You are brave and wonderful--rock on, my friend. =)

Why I say this

They're not very good words, but they're the first words that I've written that have managed to break through my terrible writer's block, since my aunt's death. I remain hopeful. And infinitely joyous, which is why I wanted to share this with ALL OF YOU! =)

*hugs the world*

If it's possible to have a girl crush, I officially have one on Siobhan Magnus. Wow. I mean, don't get me wrong, I totally love Crystal Bowersox, but Siobhan was incredible tonight. Plus, seriously, how can you not love the mohawk story?

Dearest blog readers, I need your help!

I have firmly sworn myself to bringing only two physical books with me to Japan, since my suitcase space will be at a premium, and things like special contact cleaning solution take precedence (it's impossibly hard to find even in the USA). I have decided, along with the space premium issues, that these books must be mass market releases.

I have one book picked out already, which is SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD by Aliette de Bodard, who I'm proud to be friends with through my writing group.

But now I need a second book to bring with me, and I have no clue what to go out and buy that will make my 14 hour plane ride go by quickly. I need your help! Here's my requirements--please post suggestions in the comments! =)

1. The book needs to be a mass-market. It can be a chunky mass-market, such as from Angry Robot (like Aliette's book), but it needs to be mass-market size.
2. It needs to take me awhile to read--this rules out romance novels, unfortunately, as I devour them. Similarly, YA is probably not the greatest choice, unless it's a really dense YA.
3. I want it to be something that's been released in the last two years or so. Nothing further back than that.

Thanks in advance for all your help!