That whole pesky "freedom of speech" thing goes both ways. Yay.

This happened last week, and I freaked out a bit and didn't tell anyone for a day or so, then sent out a mass email announcing the news. Just today I realized that there are people who are LJ friends but not email friends, and they still don't know. So... here you are, LJ-friends: news.

The situation with my tax debt has been resolved. After much paperwork and negotiation, the state and federal government have agreed to accept about a third of the debt as payment-in-full, and release all liens on my home. There's still some final paperwork to be done, but all the approvals are in. I'm free.

( If you want the much, much longer version, it's after the cut. (If you got the email, you've seen all this.) )

Just posted the following book review to GoodReads, and thought I'd copy it over here.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine


Difficult to describe, but easy to recommend -- Mechanique is like nothing I've read before.

On the surface, it's about a circus that travels through a world torn by constant warfare. The circus becomes a tiny, mobile haven for art and beauty in amongst the fighting and killing and hardships of life outside.

It's so much more than that, however. It's a book about love, and pain, death and rebirth, humanity, cages, wings, hard choices and most importantly: the social contract. What do we give up for security and belonging?

The prose is as unique as the story itself. The timeline jumps back and forth, the pov moves from character to character, from first to third person. It's disjointed, but it perfectly suits a novel about clockwork acrobats built out of whatever parts were lying around. Others have said they find the style difficult to follow at first, but I was hooked from the first chapter.

The characters are deeply compelling -- flawed, ugly, desperate, doomed and heart-breakingly beautiful. Unique, each of them, and haunting.

Mechanique will stay with me for a long time to come. I'm going to go look up more of Genevieve Valentine's work -- if this is an example of her style, I've found a new favorite author.

Last night when I got in my car after work the rear-view mirror had fallen off. The heat in the car over the course of the day melted the glue.

I like summer. I like the heat. But even I am beginning to think that perhaps enough is enough.

Tiptool text: The best thing about Strunk/White fanfiction is that it's virtually guaranteed to be well-written.

This weekend I was outside working on my house (Got so much accomplished. Well done, me.) and a couple of neighborhood girls about age 10-11 stopped by and yelled at me to get my attention. So I stopped working, put down the tools and turned off my iPod. The reason they had stopped the Obviously Busy Person from working was to ask, "Is it true that your husband got shot by lightning?"

I've been divorced since '06, but I was married for almost 20 years, most of that time spent in the house I still own. Apparently the lack of Man at my place has become something of an urban legend around the neighborhood. The older man across the street once wandered over when I was on the roof to ask, "Why don't you have a man to do that?" A middle-aged guy walking his dog once said, "I could never get my wife to do all the work you do - what did your husband say to get you to work like that?" (This last one was particularly annoying b/c his tone and expression were so sexist. Look! A woman, working! Someone post this on the interwebs!)

But no one's ever asked if the Man of the House was dead, and they were kids. So I explained that I'm divorced, not widowed. And then, because I'm me, I explained that the verb you use with lightning is either "hit" or "struck", not "shot".

I did not bother to explain that my pedantic nature was, if not a reason for the divorce, at least a contributing element. From the way their wee little faces glazed over I figured that part was obvious.

That'll teach 'em to ask me personal questions. *g*

1. Check out Google's home page today if you haven't seen it. It's fun.

2. slb44 already posted this, but I love it so much I'm sharing. An Austin, TX theater kicked out a young woman for texting on her phone despite repeated requests to stop. She called the theater later and left a profanity-laden voice mail... which they are now using as a public PSA. It's just a beautiful thing. I want to send them flowers or something. Here's a link to the story, which includes a vid of the PSA they're now running before all R movies.


"If you take advantage of that girl you'll go to the special hell -- the one reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater." -- Shepard Book

Rant is after the cut, if you wish to avoid spoilers.

( House finale )

You've probably heard by now: George R.R. Martin wrote some books; HBO is running a series based on them; the NYT wrote a review that's far more about condemning genre fiction than an actual review of the show. Everyone seems to have an opinion of the "bite me" variety; here is mine.

As a young woman I visited a very rich uncle who made his living as a corporate raider. He was one of those sharks who made millions by buying companies and laying people off. At one point, in an attempt to find some measure of common ground, I asked what his favorite Stephen King novel was — who doesn’t have a favorite King, right?

He replied, “I don’t read children’s books.”

It changed my life, really. I was twenty-something, trying to figure out who I was, and he was a rich, “successful”, powerful man. He had meant to intimidate me; the effect was the opposite. I saw his entire life in a flash — there was money, yes, but no joy. I understood, immediately, viscerally, that I was different from him on a fundamental level.

Fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction are sometimes formulaic, but that’s the failing of the author, not the genre. Genre fiction allows us to tell stories with bigger, deeper metaphors. For the majority of history, myth was not a side dish… and it still isn’t. Not really. Stories about magic are stories about our inner power. Stories about werewolves are stories about mastering our baser nature, and learning to shape-shift, which is something we all do many times over our lives. These lessons and a myriad of others — these are not trivial issues. Certainly I read genre fiction because it’s fun. But I also read it because I think myth is not only important, but also vital to my experience as a human being.

I’m sorry the NYT reviewers don’t read “children’s books”. But my ability to enjoy fantasy doesn’t mean I’m possessed of a weaker or more immature viewpoint. That I can see archetypes dancing in genre and beauty in fantasy isn’t a character flaw — it’s a gift.

under-mouse tag: "I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at." (That's some serious life wisdom, there.)