Yippee! My editor at S&S just told me that the March 1, 2012 issue of Kirkus Reviews contains the following;

This morning's breakfast was green mango green curry (not a typo) with coconut milk, paneer, thyme, rosemary, and lime and moringa pickles. No, I don't have a recipe. I just threw the ingredients in;

Then I tried out an idea I had last night; chocolate tastes good with a sprinkling of fleur de sel (salt), so why not make chocolate fudge with snippets of slat-pickled kumquat skin in it? I sliced up the kumquat skins and stirred them around in my non-stick pan until they'd dried out a bit. I also grated some fresh ginger to add to the fudge;

Here's the fudge syrup, boiled to soft ball stage and waiting to be stirred until it sets. The liquid floating on top is butter. You can also see the snippets of kumquat;

Here's the final result. It tastes fine, but a bit too subtle. Next time I'll use strips of salted kumquat skin, instead of chopping them so small. And I'll use more of them;

Now we're back from a trip to the grocery. The cassava's been peeled, then grated in the blender. I'm squeezing the water out of it, preliminary to making bammy (a Jamaican gluten-free flatbread made from cassava);

Here's the grated cassava with the water squeezed out;

I think it turned out pretty well. I put some tucks in the neckline because it was gaping. I'm happy with it. It was an easy pattern to make up, too.

I'm attempting to make myself a slip dress from this 1930s sewing pattern, using one of my Spoonflower designs that I had printed up on a cotton-silk blend.

Aside from circle skirts, which are pretty easy and consist of two simple circles cut into the fabric, this is my first time making up a garment that's cut on the bias. The centre line of each pattern piece has to sit at exactly 45 degrees off the fabric's warp line, or else it'll twist and hang unevenly on the body. That's why I picked a fabric print with distinct vertical lines; so that it'd be easier to visually check the 45 degree alignment. Yesterday I cut all the pattern pieces out. This evening I sewed most of them together. Turns out I made it a bit too big in the bodice, so I've had to pull out the stitches there in order to make some adjustments. Before I did that I tried it on. Other than the bodice, it seems to fit. And I think it's hanging properly. Fingers crossed, my first real venture into bias-cut sewing may turn out well.

But now I need to finish editing an essay, re-read and make notes on the stories we'll be discussing tomorrow in class (Sheree Thomas's "The Grassdreaming Tree" and Theodore Sturgeon's "Crate"), and do some marking of student assignments. I'll get back to the dress tomorrow.

I've put fourteen new fabric designs up for sale in my online store. Here are some of them:

Yesterday morning I completed and submitted a rewrite of a short story that's going into the Outspoken Authors chapbook that Terry Bisson and PM Press are doing. Today I'm reworking the essay that's going into the chapbook. There will also be an interview of me done by Terry, and I'm still hoping to write a new short story. Time's running out, though, and the story that I began isn't coming together yet. In the meantime, I woke up this morning with the germ of a story idea that I could submit to an anthology that someone else is compiling right now. I've written a few lines of dialogue that could go somewhere in the beginning of the story, or perhaps at the end. And I think I have the title.

Got paid yesterday for a recent appearance. Used the money towards repaying a loan from a friend. Also bought some much-needed groceries and a piece of research material for a future project. And this morning's working breakfast. Pho for breakfast, yum.

Yesterday morning I also woke to the news that the Chancellor of UC Riverside had set riot cops on a group of students involved in a protest on campus; a protest that he himself describes as non-violent. Some of the students were injured. The students are fighting for quality education and for their professors not to be laid off. It is incredible to me that the administration would respond with intimidation and brutality.

Closing off comments on this one. Got stories to write, and a ton of student work to mark.

...or, perhaps, "things about which writers think". But never mind that. Here's what's been on my mind the last three days; the oft-uttered Voldemort words, "Harry Potter; the boy who lived, come to die."

What part of speech d'you suppose the writer (of the screenplay? I don't know whether those words show up in the novels) intends the word "come" to be in that sentence? I don't care which it is, but I can see three possibilities: verb ("Harry Potter has come to die"); imperative (i.e. an order, as in, "Harry Potter, come to die!"); or an...adjectival verb, I think the term is? A verb being used as an adjective? "Harry Potter is come to die." It'd be neat if it was a deliberate word-play on all three.

When someone buys one of my designs printed on fabric from Spoonflower, I receive 10% of the sale. A few days ago, my earnings finally were enough with my designer discount for me to buy 3 yards of this design, printed on cotton silk;

The fabric arrived yesterday, and wow is it ever pretty on cotton silk! It gleams, my Precious. Oh, how it gleams. The cotton silk makes the design look subtle and softly burnished. The colour has more in common with burnt orange than with red. I didn't expect that. I could have sworn it was closer to red on the test swatch I had printed. But that was on 100% cotton. Or I may have simply forgotten what the test swatch looked like. No matter. The actual colour suits me, so I'm content. I pre-washed it today in warm water. That should have shrunk it by the 2% Spoonflower predicts it will shrink. It came out of the dryer silky-soft and flowing, with nary a wrinkle. Now to decide what I might make with it. I have a 1930s bias-cut slip pattern that would make a cute summery evening dress...

I've also uploaded a redder version of the design. I'll have to print a test swatch of the new colour before I make it available for sale.

I love having a hobby that pays for itself.

Just uploaded the "first final" version of the syllabus for my course starting on Tuesday. (Beginning Fiction). ::excited::

Fingers twitching to return to my writing project. The chapbook will consist of an essay, an interview conducted by Terry Bisson, and two short stories. Well, at least one short story. I'm scared because one of the short stories is stuck. That's usually my subconscious trying to tell me that something's wrong with the story. I think I know what that is, but I don't know whether I can fix it in time. I may have to come up with an entirely new story. Hope I have one in me, and the focus to finish it. And soon. On the positive side, I've come up with a tiny twist that will fix a world-building problem in the story for which I've almost completed the rewrite.