Yup, it's true; with a couple of folding panniers, a pair of locking bungee cords, and a knapsack for overflow, you can fit the contents of a grocery cart onto the back of a bicycle.

103 degrees Fahrenheit in Riverside this afternoon. That's 39.4 degrees Celsius. But there's a stiff breeze blowing, and for all we make fun of this, the fact that the humidity is low does make a difference. The heat feels quite agreeable for brief jaunts. It's kind of like stepping into a hot tub, except dry. I'm not even sweating, even though I just rode half a mile on my bike. At this kind of temperature in Toronto, I'd be unable to move more than six inches away from the air conditioner without feeling like my whole skin was strangling. I'll have to keep an eye on my plants, though. The combination of high temperature and a brisk breeze will pull moisture out of their leaves and the soil really quickly.

The package label for these bulbs wasn't kidding when it said "eager to put down roots". I put the ones on the left into the water four days ago, and the ones on the right two days ago. When I did so, they were just little beigy-brown balls; no hint of sprouting leaves or roots.

Hallo, blog. It's been a while. I'm finding Twitter much more convenient. Will have to look into turning my blog into my Twitter feed.

Looks like I've sold my new short story "Left Foot, Right" to a YA anthology! Can't say which one yet, but I'll update you when I can.

In other publishing news, Neil Gaiman and Maria Dahvana Headley's recently edited anthology Unnatural Creatures just came out. In it is a reprint of my short story "The Smile on the Face." The anthology is a fundraiser for a literacy organization, and includes stories by, among others, Nnedi Okorafor, Peter S. Beagle, Samuel Delany, Diana Wynne Jones, and Gaiman himself.

On Friday, I wrote a book proposal. Fastest that's ever happened! We'll see what my agent thinks of it.

I'm recently back from Conflux/Natcon in Canberra, Australia, where I had more good times than I can list here.

However, at the moment, I'm standing at a stall in a Riverside, California antiques mall, staring in dismay at all the Rastuses, Mammies, and watermelon-eating coon babies. I'm trying to bite back tears of humiliation. Those racist images exist. They are part of our historical legacy, and I would not have their existence erased or denied. I own some of that imagery myself, for complicated reasons. But what's killing me is that about half the ones in this store appear to be recent reproductions. WTF? White people really need to get over calling that shit "cute." (Do an Ebay search in the "Collectibles" section under "cute black boy," and you'll see what I mean.

I just finished a short story! I think I began working on it a couple of weeks ago. It's been through a bunch of changes since then. For now, I'm calling it "Left Foot, Right," which is appropriate, since I got it done by doggedly putting one foot in front of the other. I've submitted it for consideration to the relevant anthology. Now I wait.

I'm having the usual story birth adrenaline high. Seeing as it's now 2 a.m., it may mean a sleepless night. Not complaining, though. I spent too many years too anaemic to summon this kind of creative drive. I'm thrilled beyond belief that it may be returning.

My newest thrift store find. These babies will do nothing to address my current lack of comfortable cool weather walking shoes, but man, oh, man are they ever making me happy right now. Yes, those are slingbacks with lucite heels WITH BRASS LIONS attached to the lucite! I can get comfy shoes tomorrow. Tonight, it's all about the brass lion slingbacks.

I used to have a full head of dreadlocks down to the middle of my back. I believe this pic is of the first time I chopped them off. It was probably on my 40th birthday, because that was the day my sweetie gave me a long-held wish; he dyed my hair Superman blue. If you look closely at the hair on my head, you can see that it's a kind of deep teal blue. When I was a kid in the Caribbean and reading Superman comics, I didn't grok hair highlights. African hair is matte. It doesn't shine. So I thought the highlights in Superman's hair was a patch of blue hair. I coveted Superman-coloured hair for a long time. Kind of brutal to dye black hair, though. First, you have to bleach all the colour and life out of it. That was deeply weird to experience. But I was pleased with the final result.

I'm a Guest of Honour at Darkovercon 2012 this weekend, in Timonium, Maryland. Off to pack. See you on the next rock.

Yes, that's me. The tree is in a park in Toronto. The book is Kelly Link's first (and brilliant) short story collection, Stranger Things Happen. The photographer was David Findlay. The year? Who remembers any more?