Currently reading: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee šŸ“š

Slightly melancholic morning thinking about the tail of summerā€¦hopefully we have many more days ahead like this oneā€™s promising!

View out the kitchen window (with turtle stained glass) over the Wellington Harbour. Itā€™s sunny, but for how much longer?

Utopia Science Fiction Magazine is running its annual kickstarter. Please consider supporting us! We focus on publishing optimistic sci-fi, and recently upped our fiction rates to SFWA standards. (8 cents/word.)

Volume VII: Utopia Science Fiction Magazine by Utopia Science Fiction Magazine ā€” Kickstarter

Cute graffiti spotted todayā€¦

Graffiti of two smiling figures

Year in books for 2024

Here are the books I finished reading in 2024. ā€¦

Read more āŸ¶

First catch up of the year with my writing group!

Weā€™ve had nothing but rain since the new year, briefly punctuated with one nice day (yesterday). But this is me at new yearā€™s, with dinosaurs:

Just came across This Page is Designed to Last: A Manifesto for Preserving Content on the Web and itā€™s definitely somethingng I want to work on for my website.

I’m doing new year’s resolutions in advance… starting now!

  • finish Tim Clare’s #100DayWritingChallenge
  • lots of “do-nothing time” this summer
  • alcohol makes me feel bad these days, so only partake if I really wanna
  • read, read, read!!

Last night my daughter and I had our karate grading for the year. We both passed! Blue belts now! Our belt ceremony is tonight and weā€™re so excited.

Currently reading: The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar šŸ“š

Just finished his book, Neom, which I really enjoyed! Unfortunately itā€™s not showing in Epilogue.

Trying to add Neom by Lavie Tidhar in Epilogue but the book canā€™t be found. In any case: itā€™s great! Mysterious, with dying earth vibes, robots, futuristic cities, on the banks of a far-future Red Sea.

Weā€™re in to week three of our hols through Thailand, South Korea and Japanā€¦Iā€™ve done zero blogging but loads of journaling, so I guess thatā€™s ok!! I only brought my phone and long form writing on a tiny device is not something I enjoyā€¦ but here we are catching our breath at universal studios! šŸ˜‚

Weā€™re a week in on our trip to Thailand, South Korea and Japanā€¦ Iā€™ve had enough energy to keep up with my paper journal and posting photos on instagram for family and friends but thatā€™s been about all my bandwidth! Everyone is feeling pretty tired this morning, so we are all having a longer rest in bed before we head back out. Seoul is so awesome, and we loved Chiang Mai too! Already mentally planning the next trip back!

This isā€¦a lot: www.microsoft.com/en-us/edg…

Hello! Iā€™m giving away some copies of our group anthologyā€”just for karma and laffsā€¦no sign ups required, just leave a comment on the (instagram) post here

Writing retreat in a friendā€™s gorgeous family bach along a remote stretch of Lake Taupo. Wonderful!!

I want the job at Duolingo where they come up with the worldā€™s strangest phrases for people to learn!

Currently reading: Bluets by Maggie Nelson šŸ“š

Good news and bad newsā€¦bad news first:

Can anyone recommend a blog platform that would be good for an eleven year old? We’re going on a month long trip and I’m thinking a travel blog so her teacher and classmates can read it while she’s away… but it’s got to be as frictionless as possible or she’ll never use it. iPad friendly?

Think I am late to the party on this YouTube channel but this was awesome: Your dishwasher is better than you think (tips, tricks, and how they work) - YouTube

Finished reading: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher šŸ“š