Once again, we ate all of these before it occurred to me that I might like to take a picture. I guess I'll just have to make more soon.

Recipe, parmesan cheese balls (gluten-free)

Ingredients

Directions

These are good served hot with fresh greens.

Yesterday, the movers brought my boxes of books to my UCR office. This morning I'm going through them quickly, searching for short stories I'll want to teach in my intro to creative writing course starting in January. It's dangerous, this business of looking through boxes of books one hasn't seen in over three months. One risks getting lost in one's own Delany collection, leafing happily through stories and essays, catching up with old friends. I keep having to tear myself away from the pages in order to continue working. And then I remind myself, reading is my work.

The editor's right; this short story is missing some connective tissue. The editor in this case is the brilliant Terry Bisson, so it behooves me to listen to his suggestions. I won't use all of them, but I'll try to find my own way to address the overall problem he's detected. I've found a line in the story that I think sums up one of the core issues with which I want to play. Now I'm trying to work that riff throughout the story. As part of the research that goes into doing so, I'm reading up on Rosebud Sioux inheritance practices. It'll probably only end up being a single line in the story, but it needs to be accurate. Making a note to myself to do a research module with my students next term.

I'm rewriting a story, i.e. removing about half the adjectives. Next I'll work some more on the syllabus for my intro to creative writing course next year. Wondering how I might find my students a draft piece of fiction to practise rewriting. Then I need to complete some online training required by the university, write a recommendation letter, submit release forms to my publisher for my new publicity photos, and begin working on a grant application. Plus tidy my room and finish that dress I've been sewing. I know I'm forgetting about a zillion important things.

My thanks to the lovely person who just bought copies of all six of my short stories up on Smashwords. As they say, "Every mickle mek a muckle."

As a writer, editor and artist, Terri Windling has been inspiring me for decades. I recently had a story published in Welcome to Bordertown, latest in a series of anthologies originated by Terri. I've been reading the Bordertown books since they first came out. To be published in the series was a dream come true.

And now Terri needs help. Magick 4 Terri provides a way for the sf & f community and others to give a little back to a woman who's given so much beauty to us.

The online auction page is here. It runs until December 15th. I've donated signed copies of the Chinese translations of my novels Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber, published by Muses. The books look beautiful. I'm very happy with the Muses cover art, and thrilled to be able to offer up two of the books to help Terri.

EDITED TO ADD:

I've donated one more item to the auction; an apron dress I made from fabric I designed and a vintage 1960s sewing pattern. Look for it to show up soon on the Magick 4 Terri auction website. Only a few days left to bid on items! The auction closes December 15. Bid whatever you can afford. Even if you don't win the bid, you'll be helping to give Terri an awesome Solstice present.

Brit Mandelo will be repubbing my short story "Fisherman" in the anthology Beyond Binary: Genderqueer and Sexually Fluid Speculative Fiction, coming out from Lethe Press in May 2012. Here's the table of contents for the anthology.

The first course I'll be teaching at UC Riverside is an intro to fiction writing. I'm wrapping up my syllabus today. I've figured out the aspects of fiction writing that I want to talk about, and now I'm selecting and sourcing some short stories that I hope will be useful for discussion. So far, I've got short stories by Ernest Hemingway, Kelley Eskridge, Kelly Link, Oliver La Farge, Molly Gloss, and Samuel R. Delany.

Today, I'm salting kumquats. Yes, it sounds rude, but it's really quite innocent. Here's a recipe I found. I've added ground cinnamon and cloves to mine. I've never had these before, so I have no idea what to expect. I have the jar on a sunny windowsill right now. Hardest part is the patience.