General update

I've been home for a week or so now, and it feels pretty good. At first I was a bit downcast at the state of the kitchen (we're nine people living here right now, so it can pile up), but now we've had a house meeting and straightened things out. Tonight we put on loud party music and cleaned for two hours, and I am much encouraged. It does always feel more like a home to me when people do things together.

I was sad to learn that one of my housemates, who is an illegal immigrant from Afghanistan, got caught shoplifting and is in jail awaiting deportation. : ( He's a really sweet boy and only 18.

I'm back at work, preparing classes for the fall. Soon I will have graaaading, from the students who failed the ordinary exam and have to take it again.

It's time to admit that I won't finish my due South Big Bang in time (the fic, that is--pretty sure I can make it with the podfic). I do have 11 500 words, but I've had a writing slump in the past month. I do mean to finish it, though! I had some (probably excellent) beta advice of the "kill your darlings" type that I am not sure I will be able to follow. I mean, if I'm to find the motivation to write this, it's because there is id appeal for me, and the worldbuilding really is the appeal for me in this fic. Hmm. Do kick me in the butt and tell me to write?

Recent reading

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
I enjoyed this! I've given up on the Vorkosigan books--I loved the ones centered on Cordelia, but I just never warmed to Miles. But then I picked this one up at a bookswap, and it grabbed me at once. I like how this book avoids several of the usual fantasy tropes--for example, the main character is definitely not a teenager coming of age. Still with the feudalism, though, and I could've done without the romance. Anyway, this is solid entertaining fantasy, and I'll be reading the sequel.

A Betrayal In Winter by Daniel Abraham (book #2 in the Long Price Quartet)
It's been a year since I read the first book, and clearly I shouldn't have waited that long--the plot in this one stands reasonably on its own, and it's set at least ten years in the future from the first one, but it's better for knowing the characters and the fallout from the first book. It was interesting to compare this one with the Chalion book, which is similar on the surface: they are both fantasy books with court intrigue. But the Chalion book has much more id-appeal, in that you can cheer for the protagonists when they defeat the villains. This book doesn't really have any villains: we get POV sections from all sides and can empathize with them all, even the ones doing the murdering. As in the first one, the language is elegant and the feel of the book a bit elegiac.

Transformations by Anne Sexton
Fractured fairy tales, in poetry. I thought this would be up my alley, but sadly it didn't really speak to me.