May. 1st, 2013

layla: grass at sunset (Default)
This is my garden this morning.



Do you see a garden? ME NEITHER.

... Yes, I know I'm being very whiny about this spring. At least it's not all in my head. April's average high temperatures in Fairbanks were 15 degrees (!!!) below the normal averages. Looking at pictures I took on April 1st, I really don't think there is much less snow now than there was then.

I have been joking with Orion that we had "second March" this year. But, honestly, aren't we about due for some spring weather by now?

In other news, we hung the show at the Alaska Center for Natural Medicine last night, and it is going to be GREAT! The venue is a really neat place, with lots of twisty winding corridors and lounge areas and nifty little alcoves, and they are super supportive of us. On Friday evening, we will have a regular little comics convention there, with a half-dozen Fairbanks and Alaskan artists including me, [personal profile] ellenmillion, and Jamie Smith. There will be cheese and crackers and wine!
layla: grass at sunset (Default)
It's Wednesday again (how???) and that means time for a reading recommendation! (The way the entire rest of the blogosphere is doing this meme, people blog about what they were reading the past week. I tried it, but I ended up talking about a lot of books I hadn't much liked, and that wasn't fun. So I decided to recommend something instead, preferably something a little less-known rather than something the entire Internet is already talking about. Discussion and spoilers in comments are entirely welcome!)

This Wednesday I bring you All the Flavors by Ken Liu (subtitled "A Tale of Guan Yu, the Chinese God of War, in America"). This is a Nebula-nominated novella that's online for free. It's set in Idaho in the latter half of the 19th century, and ... well, the really dull way to describe it, I guess, is that it deals with the tensions between Chinese immigrant workers and the white migrants who make up the bulk of the Idaho City population circa 1865. Which makes it sound very heavy and serious. But, while there is obviously a dark undercurrent (the brutal racism of the times is not downplayed), it's much more than that; it's a lovely, lively novella full of vivid characters, with a subtle magical element woven throughout.

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layla: grass at sunset (Default)
Layla

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