A Single Layer

The new year is coming in about an hour and a half, and I am as prepared as I can be. I have just spent the last four hours going through shipping and inventory folders, the last couple days driving and visiting and getting my hair cut, and the last week drafting lists and outlines of projects (generally work-related) for the new year. Usually, years come and go a little too quickly for me to prepare. I find my resolutions are usually made closer to March than January. This year is different. I've been mentally preparing for the changing tides for almost a month. I have looked forward to this otherwise superficial shift in the calendar with a patient eagerness. The song in my head for Christmas 2009 was Sufjan Stevens' "Sister Winter," but for 2010 I have been humming his "Chicago," with the joyfully resounding lyric "All things go, all things go!" I am packing up the sack I will take with me from one season to the next. I am keeping little, but al...

The following is not a reading wishlist. It's a small compilation of cover art that inspires me.

Did you catch Google's tribute to Jane Austen yesterday? Probably not, if you were checking your computer in the US. The Washington Post takes a look at the controversy. Oh Google. Oh Jane.

Not to over-do it or anything, but this video is a darling downer after my recent post on rejections. If you recognize the form of it from So You Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities, please look at Millinerd's take on the same.

It's that time of year when book bloggers, reviewers, and readers of any public forum gather their top ten books of 2010. An odd time to do it, you might think, as there are still a few weeks of reading left to the year. But people are buying books now, you see, for the season of giving is at hand. And if you don't know what to give the literati in your midst, these lists should provide some sort of guide. I am not making a list because I have hardly read anything but the fast-growing ZOVA catalog this year. Preceding my panel at Steamcon with Lisa Mantchev, I read her debut novel Eyes Like Stars , and along with everyone else on the planet finished up the Hunger Games trilogy with Mockingjay - for which, unlike with the first two, I did not provide a blog review. In the absence of my own rigor, here are some lists from the more attentive world: The New York Times Best 10 of 2010. Amazon's list of the best from January to June. and Amazon's list of best Comics & G...

Yesterday I joined my mother and sister on our semi-annual foray into the world of DIY crafters. Strangely enough, two of the largest craft fairs in L.A. were selling on the same weekend, so we got two fairs for the price of one trip. Unique LA spreads its wares on the top floor of the California Market Center. Amidst the booths of various sellable delights, they handed out free drinks and offered free photo ops with a yeti. Renegade , held in the Los Angeles Historic State Park, was smaller than last time we'd been there, but there was also more room to browse. Many vendors had roped family and friends into helping them so they could display at both sites. I took as many pictures as I could - which is rare for me. Here are a few: We went to Renegade later in the day, but that meant the sparkly lights showed all the prettier. The Weekend Store , Unique LA. We always spend some time here. If you don't own a piece of her jewelry, you haven't been to a c...

It may or may not be common knowledge that I work with books in a sort of publishing fashion. (No, I do not personally take submissions. No, I cannot refer you to an agent.) While I talk about books on this blog a lot, I don't generally say much about my work. That's mainly because this is a personal blog written mainly for people I personally know, and because of this I have felt free to express potentially alienating opinions (in the past, not so much recently) as well as observations and reflections on the life of faith or the current state of the Church (always and forever, no public eye shall silence me). When you do that sort of thing, it can be inappropriate to mix in your professional business. But there are some things I do think ought to be said aloud somewhere. As an amateur writer, I sat in creative writing courses for several years being told - as all writing students are told - that you have to receive a lot of rejection letters before you get accepted by a publis...