Erotica, fantasy, and horror writer.
Oct 08
Apples of Uncommon Character: 123 Heirlooms, Modern Classics, & Little-Known Wonders by Rowan Jacobsen Photographs by Clare Barboza Bloomsbury, USA, 2014 [Challenge # 18: A book where food, cooking, restaurants, chefs, etc. play a major role. ] I was all set to read American Pie as my foodie selection for the 2019 challenge, but then …
Oct 08
The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee DAW, 1981 The Silver Metal Lover is perhaps Tanith Lee’s best known novel after her three Flat Earth books. It may be the most beloved. Though an abiding Lee fan I was immune to its charms for many years until finally deciding to read it last summer. The …
Oct 02
The first roller coasters were not called roller coasters at all. They were known as Russian Mountains and were created in Portugal, not Russia, from mounds of ice piled up by Russian refugees from wars of Ivan the Terrible in the 1600s. To this day, in Spanish-speaking countries, roller coasters are still known as montaña …
Sep 30
Calligraphy follows shapes and spirals. A shell (caracola) and a pear. A lively looking butterfly with personality. What does it mean?
Sep 25
British author Michael Moorcock created a series of stories, novels, and metanovels about albino warrior Elric of Melniboné, referenced by me here. In that series, the made-up language was surprisingly consistent. Sometimes ridiculous, sometimes grandiose, the words Yyrkoon, Imryyr, and Xiombarg conjure up a sort of Solomon’s Demons / Chinese never-never land beyond time and …
Sep 23
…out of Hell and into your nightmares. They are not human. They are made of living stone.
Sep 20
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott Artwork by Harmony Becker Top Shelf Productions, 2019 George Takei is a man of many talents: activist, actor, meme creator, and now, at age 82, graphic novel writer. Who would have known in 1968 that Mr. Sulu would have had such legs? Mr. …
Sep 18
Fish, and sealife in general, tend to get names that relate to their appearance — such as the seahorse — or behavior, like the fancifully named by-the-wind sailor jellyfish. Sprinkled in are names from foreign sources, like humuhumunukunukuapua’a. Looking for a name for a fish that never was and never will be? Here’s a list. …
Sep 16
What happens to the people who Medusa turned to stone? Do they remain conscious over millennia, as continents sink and ocean levels rise?
