I've spent the last few days running all over the place. This upcoming Friday my baby sister is having shoulder surgery (she tore her labrum a few months ago; I am shocked that it has taken this long for her doctors to get it together to schedule the surgery) so we're in full on prep mode for that. We've bought a recliner so she can be comfortable while she's recuperating, and we spent Friday in New Jersey getting supplies from WalMart and haircuts. Well, I didn't get a haircut, but my baby sister did.

While all her hair was being snipped off, I read the new Linda Howard novel: Burn. ( cut for slightly spoilery talk about the content of the book. fyi: i don't like it, so if you're sensitive about your linda howard experience, please scroll past. )

The house I'm living in right now has been in my family since 1981. While we were living in New Hampshire, my uncle owned the house and lived here; when we returned from New Hampshire, my uncle sold the house back to my mom. The house is set off the street, in a group with a bunch of other houses. There's a beach and a lot of horseshoe crabs and sea gulls.

When I was a little kid, there were a lot of other little kids living here. When I was a teenager, there were my sisters, plus our one neighbor. But now... oh, now. Now there are a crapload of kids living here. They are always outside, running around, screaming, making noise. They love to come over to our house and play with our cats. (Everyone's favorite is, of course, "the fat one" -- Shiksa! Who glares at them all disdainfully, but allows herself to be lugged around and petted and have her ears pulled.) They are all extremely cute, except for when they ring our doorbell at 7:30 AM and ask if they can come in and play with my mom.

(My mom is very popular.)

Three of the kids have started a lemonade stand out on Emmons Avenue. Each glass costs a dollar, and all proceeds go to feeding children in Haiti.

If you're in Brooklyn, you should come to Sheepshead Bay some weekend and support them. (And while you're here, right across the street from where they are selling lemonade is Roll-N-Roaster! A very famous Brooklyn institution.)

If you're not in Brooklyn, but you have a dollar, you can check out their website, and donate via PayPal.

I am really glad to see that the District of Columbia Public Schools have restored the GLBT titles to their summer reading lists.

There are a lot of queer-themed YA novels around nowadays, although I find that most of them aren't to my taste. One of the only book review websites I read is the newish Queer YA: Fiction for LGBTQ Teens.

I think my favorite queer-themed YA novel is My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr. I also really enjoyed Gravity by Leanne Lieberman, although I thought it was deeply flawed.

What's your favorite GLBTQ-themed YA novel? Adult novel?

Happy birthday to meeee!!! As I told Facebook earlier today, 29 is the atomic number for copper (the only atomic number I know!) and there are definitely worse things to be. I am growing ever closer to what I believe the perfect age: 32. If 32 is going to be a disappointing age, please don't tell me -- I firmly believe it should be fabulous. Sometimes I feel like the only person alive who doesn't dread birthdays, but... I don't dread birthdays. I love them. I love getting older, living life, learning, moving forward.

Usually on my birthday I catalog the first song I hear. One year, the first song I heard was "Ace of Spades" -- I was sitting in the car listening to the radio with boommonkeypants; last year it was "Rooms on Fire" by Stevie Nicks. This year, I haven't heard any music yet today (which is so rare for me), except for the Psych theme song!

Today has been a good day. My mom made blueberry pancakes and learned how to use the french press to make me coffee; then my sister and brother-in-law came over. We played Trivial Pursuit (and we all cheated a lot, since half the time none of us knew the answer to the question), and then a game of Clue (which I lost miserably), and then my favorite game ever: Rhymation.

Rhymation is a game that I guess is best compared to Pyramid: there are teams. You roll a die and move your marker across the game board. Whichever color you land on corresponds to the color on the card you pick. If you, for example, land on a blue square, you are given four rhyming words. One person has to guess the words based on clues given by their partner, in under a minute. So, for example, a round might sound like this:

If you are hired to kill someone, you are an...
ASSASSIN

If someone acts nice but isn't really, that person is...
SACCHARINE

They made two movies about this, starring Hollywood and jelly doughnuts --
MANNEQUIN!

Some people who have diabetes need injections of...
INSULIN

Then there are yellow squares (three groups of rhymes, each group containing two rhyming words that are each two syllables) and red squares (two groups of rhymes, each group containing two rhyming words of varying syllables), and grey (face off! You get one word and go back and forth between one member of an opposing team, each of you saying a rhyming word until you run out -- bike, pike, mike, tyke, hike, psych, etc.).

Back in the day, my two sisters, my mom, and I used to play this game a lot, and Lisa (the middle sister) and I always won. Always. We also used to bring the game with us when we went to visit relatives -- Lisa and I are no match for my mom and her older sister. To be fair, they have way more years of secret codes and shared experiences under their belts!

It is, I guess, worthwhile to note that aside from being a word game (which I love), this is also the only game my family has ever played that I've ever been able to win. I lose at Clue to one of my two sisters. Always. I lose at Mille Bornes. Scrabble often involves too much strategy -- I just like to make ridiculous or obscure words. I get bored with Monopoly very quickly. I don't have enough general knowledge to succeed at Trivial Pursuit (although out of all the games I've ever played, it's still one of my favorites).

Anyway, we ate from Roll'N'Roaster, one of my favorite restaurants, and then when Lisa and Matt had to leave, I took a nap, watched some more Psych, took another nap, reread an old Linda Howard book, and eventually I am going to eat my "birthday cake" -- a slice of apple pie.

It's been a really nice, low key, super fun day. How could I want more than that?

I hope you're all having such a good day.

Guess what! Salt and Silver is now available in Kindle format!

I haven't seen it offered as an e-book anywhere else, so if you see elsewhere, do let me know so I can link to it from here.

The grocery store I like the best in this neighborhood (it has more vegan/vegetarian food than any other grocery store in the area, plus they carry the strawberry juice blend I like) has started carrying pistachio muffins in their bakery section. At first I thought it was a fluke, but there have been pistachio muffins every Saturday morning when I go to do the week's shopping. How delightful!

(Obviously they are not as delicious or amazing or as full of pistachios as the pistachio muffins from the little shop near the L station in Bushwick, but beggars can't be choosers, and at least I have pistachio muffins again!)

After shopping this morning (at 8 AM there is zero traffic in my neighborhood; after 9, it's ridiculous!), I came home and shared a pumpernickel bagel with my mom and drank a lot of coffee and have spent the last few hours eavesdropping on my mom's phone calls with our relatives and watching Good Eats. I have to tell you guys... I can't really think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.

Oh! And let me tell you! Do you remember about six months ago when I talked about my obsession with WWII YA literature? I've been searching for my favorite WWII YA novel, the semi-autobiographical tale of one of the hidden children, a girl named Ruth who was renamed Renee by the nuns who hid her and her sister. It is called Touch Wood, but internet searches don't come up with it, so I hadn't been able to find it.

However, I did find this: Your Name Is Renee: Ruth Kapp Hartz's Story as a Hidden Child in Nazi-Occupied France by Stacy Cretzmeyer

It is a biography about one of the hidden children whose story exactly mirrors the story in Touch Wood... and it led me to finding...

Touch Wood: A Girlhood in Occupied France by Renee Roth-Hano

This is the book!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am to have my grubby mitts on it again!

None of my internet sleuthing has been able to tell me whether or not Ruth Kapp Hartz and Renee Roth-Hano are actually the same person, or if they are just two of the many many children who had the same experience (although I specifically recall that the child in Touch Wood has to change her name to Renee, which is what happens to Ruth Kapp Hartz... how many Jewish children taken in by Catholic nuns change their name to Renee? Was that just that time period's Jane or Mary? I don't know!). As soon as I have an amazon.com gift card, I am going to buy the biography of Ruth Kapp Hartz and will keep you updated.

And, hey, if you are going to buy one or two of these books, and you need to hit $25 for amazon's free shipping, I recommend you check out Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine. I hear the authors of that book are very nice and super talented. :)

The number one best thing about insomnia is being awake for the 3 AM reruns of Psych! Today's rerun is "Lights, Camera...Homicidio." -- in which Shawn joins the cast of a telenovela to hunt down a crazed fan turned murderer. I think James Roday is super funny (for all that Shawn is a big d-bag), and I think this episode particularly shows off his skills. (I also really enjoy watching people who are good at something pretend to do that thing badly -- in this case, Roday, who is Mexican and fluent in Spanish, is faking a terrible accent when he speaks really bad Spanish.) Unfortunately this episode does not show off Dule Hill to perfection, but I guess I can't have everything. Dule Hill is why I started watching Psych, though, and why I kept watching it even though I really disliked Shawn for most of season one.

(While I do love almost everything about this show, I am really really really disappointed in the way Psych handles sexuality, transgender issues, and Gus's homophobia, but I will save that rant for another time.)

Last month (ish), my cat Shiksa (the fat one!) had a terrible eye infection that came on very suddenly -- when I woke up in the morning, she was fine, and by early afternoon her eye was swollen and leaking fluid and looking pretty gross. Particularly since moving back to New York, Shiksa's eyes leaked a lot and had to be cleaned a few times a week, but when I looked it up on the internet, all the stuff I read said not to be concerned about a little fluid leaking from her eyes, that it was probably allergies.

Well, for the actual gross infection, she was put onto oral antibiotics as well as eye drops. A week later, the infection cleared up, and Shiksa was fine.

Here is something I am noticing now: Shiksa's eyes do not leak fluid anymore. She's shedding a lot less. Her coat is much shinier and healthier. She is a lot more energetic -- she runs around more, jumps onto the couch and chairs (which she had not done since leaving St. Louis), and is way more interested in catnip.

I feel like a terrible cat mommy; this whole time I'd been thinking that Shiksa was just sulking because she was allergic to something in the house, and because we'd left St. Louis, and because she hates my mother's cat Queenie. In all fairness, Shiksa does indeed hold a mean grudge. But I can't help but feel like I should have known something was actually wrong. Frustrating.

In other news! A new organic food store opened up down the block from my house, and they sell local organic produce really cheaply! (This is particularly exciting because I have serious plans for cherry pie.) At some point this summer we're going to clean and I will be able to get some of my stuff out of storage! (I don't care about most of my stuff, but I really want my due South DVDs, and a couple of my favorite books.) My sister and her husband come home from their honeymoon this afternoon!

Today is going to be a great day. I have serious plans for a chocolate milkshake from Roll-N-Roaster, my copy of the amazing and intense After the Moment by Garret Freymann-Weyr (for which I'd've happily paid way more than the $12 amazon charged me -- more on this book later this week after I've read it for the third or fourth time), and the episode of Good Eats about crawfish. Also there is a huge thunderstorm happening. That is pretty auspicious.

Hello! I did not realize it had been quite so long since my last post. I often compose posts in my head that never get written down for one reason or another. I have the best reason for not writing lately, though: I have been busy with my sister's wedding! One of my younger sisters married her long-time boyfriend this past weekend, and I was the maid of honor. It was a blast. :)


the lovebirds!

Ah, insomnia, how I loathe thee! I am up early because I've yet to go to bed -- I've only slept two or three ours out of the past 48. It is incredibly frustrating. I've been a terrible insomniac all my life, ever since babyhood. (My mother has lots of stories about how I never slept as a child, some of which are terribly embarrassing, all of which make me feel a little bad for being such a problem child.)

But I'm, of course, using this time productively -- I can't quite focus enough to do actual work, but I can certainly focus enough to read! My sister loaded me up with a few Jayne Ann Krentz books that I haven't read yet (right now I am about halfway through White Lies, which is very distinctively a Jayne Ann Krentz book, and enjoyable because of it, although not my particular favorite -- I much more enjoy her older lighthearted non-paranormal contemporaries), and I'm switching off between those, and wonderful fanfic (my particular favorites are all bookmarked here on del.icio.us if you are interested), and reading ebooks at Project Gutenberg (currently: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett). If you have suggestions for either bits of fanfic (my current particular favorite fandoms are Stargate Atlantis, due South, and, of course, bandom), or books that I can get on Project Gutenberg, I'd love to hear them.

Surely it is no surprise that I've been a voracious reader all my life, and therefore have read many many "classics" but I'm always looking for more books to read. Recently recommended to me was Maurice by Forester, which I've never heard of, much less read; I'm about halfway through and enjoying it tremendously -- although, of course, it is clear to me that it's going to have an unhappy ending of some kind. I really really really loathe queer fiction with unhappy endings, realistic or not. It is so depressing, and not completely reflective of the modern queer experience at this point.

One of the major reasons I take such delight in fanfiction is because the majority of what I read is queer-themed in one way or another, and 99% of it has a happy, or at least upbeat, ending. This is very different from most of the widely available queer fiction in mainstream publishing. I think -- and I am very very far from an expert in this particular area -- that this is for several reasons. One is that historically it seems that queer fiction must end in tragedy of some kind because it is being used as a cautionary tale: don't do this, look what happens when you do this, society frowns upon this! Another is that perhaps quite a lot of stories and authors are intent on reflecting the more dire end of the spectrum of queer relationships, the kind that end in betrayal and AIDS and death and gaybashing and the destruction of everyone's lives -- which is, unfortunately, absolutely realistic for some people's lives. (I find it more than slightly depressing that it seems as though nothing can be called "literature" unless it is extremely tragic and downbeat.)

Obviously I could go on and on with examples and explanations, but really what I'm trying to say here is that if anyone has recommendations for queer fiction -- modern or historical -- that does not end in death, destruction, and disaster, I'd love to hear them.

(Do I have to bring up Candas Jane Dorsey, who is, as we all know, one of my very favorite writers of all time? Positive depiction of queer relationships in A Paradigm of Earth, check! Upbeat but not unrealistically happy ending, check!)

Any genre, from adult sf to mystery to YA to romance completely acceptable.

To change subjects now with absolutely no segue:

One of my top ten favorite songs of all time is "I Can't Make You Love Me" by Bonnie Raitt. I first heard it in 1991 (I actually think that might be when it was released), and I imprinted on it immediately, and have loved it ever since. One of my top ten favorite artists of all time is a guy you've probably never heard of, whose name is Tony Lucca. He's a singer, guitarist, and pianist, and songwriter. Even the songs he's done that I don't particularly enjoy I still appreciate because I love his voice and style.

The other day he posted to Facebook that he finally figured out how to transpose "I Can't Make You Love Me" into a key that works for him. Here is the YouTube video he made of himself performing the song. (It's live, but it's not in front of an audience, so there's no obnoxious audience noises or talking or singing along, all of which I loaaaaaathe.) I think it's incredible -- it is a combination of two of my favorite things in the world! It may not work for you, but maybe you'll give it a shot.

First I want to thank everyone for your kind thoughts on my last post. I appreciate every single comment.

Next: Terminator Salvation was terrible. Absolutely terrible. I say this as someone who is not ashamed to claim Terminator 2 as my favorite movie of all time. ( Spoilers! )

Okay, deep breaths. I totally understand why Christian Bale lost his shit while filming this movie; if I'd had to make such a terrible movie, I'd've lost my shit too.

The cousin I wrote about in my previous entry died earlier this week. It's a terrible, terrible thing. He was a wonderful man in the midst of an amazing, fantastic life. The funeral was today; I went with my mother and one of my sisters.

The funeral service was, as much as any funeral service can be, lovely. People really love(d) Mitch -- he was an amazing guy who affected a lot of people's lives in very positive ways. I have to say, though, that the highlight was when the cops blocked traffic on the Long Island Expressway to allow the funeral procession on. Mitch would have loved that.

He's buried in the same cemetery as a lot of other relatives, buried right next to my great-grandmother Mildred. It was nice to see such a lot of stones on the gravestones of my loved ones.

So despite the sunshine, it was a very dreary day. Tomorrow, to cheer myself up, I'm going with some friends to see Terminator Salvation. There is nothing like a robot apocalypse to make everything better.

Happy Friday! "Anna Katherine" has a new guest blog post up at Dionne Galace. An autographed copy of the book is going to be given to a randomly selected commentor, so head over there and leave your thoughts. The subject of the blog post is inspiration (and the bullshit of the "muse").

It's been crazy around here today. My mother's school has been closed down because of the swine flu, and is closed through next Thursday. My cousin is in the hospital with the swine flu and pneumonia and is in critical condition. (It would be awesome if those of you who do that sort of thing think positive thoughts for him.) My mother is the go-to person for everyone in our family, and everyone at school, for information about this stuff.

(You can see some not-very-comprehensive news coverage of this here and here and here.)

In between talking on the phone to, like, everyone we've ever met in the world, my mom sat on the couch with me and watched the first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It's my third time through the first season, and I like it just as much now as I did the first time. Watching all nine episodes all in a row like that really emphasized something I noticed the first time around, too: the first season is like a very long movie, not at all like a television show.

I really hope that it's renewed for next season, because it is by far the television show that I am the most excited about.

Life has been dreary and grim for a while. The highlight is, without question, SALT AND SILVER. It's getting terrific reviews across the board, from trades to blogs to readers. trifles and I have been keeping up with the trade and blog reviews, linking them all here.

Our newest blog entry is "rules? in a knife fight?", and it's about how all magic in sf/fantasy/paranormal fiction is supposed to have rules... but sometimes just doesn't.

In other news, a couple of days ago my sisters and my sister's fiance and I took my mother to see Wolverine (and then to lunch at Roll-n-Roaster, yum!). I found it to be incredibly disappointing on many levels -- from the boring story to casting for Gambit to the lack of women.

"What did you expect?" asked one of my sisters. "It's about Wolverine."

It's true: I expected too much. It's 2009! Where do I get off wanting women to be more than mothers and love interests?

Meanwhile, no one on my friends list (I keep a separate journal to follow fandom) is talking about this; they are too busy being eaten by Star Trek: 90210. I still haven't seen it, and I'm not sure I'm going to. I'm a second generation Trek fan, but the only Trek movie I've ever stayed awake through is, of course, the one with the whales. Additionally, while I know time travel, alternate realities, and completely ridiculous "science" all come standard with this model, I'm just not sure that this movie is telling a story I'm interested in paying to see. They've used this "reboot" to completely eradicate Number One, and that leaves Uhura... who is relegated to the position of "Spock's love interest".

Has anyone seen or read anything with a successful female narrative lately? I've been enjoying the new season of In Plain Sight on USA (and its string of guest stars who were also on The West Wing), and I'm about to start rewatching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles from the beginning.

Good morning! Yesterday I volunteered in the library at my mom's school. It is a hotspot for all the gossip in the school, and yesterday the gossip was all about... the outbreak of really serious flu. A bunch of kids were sent home with high fevers, and, of course, swine flu worries were rampant, so the board of health and cdc were called in. It was pretty exciting. Also there was pizza for lunch! And I got to see two of my cousins who work with my mom at the school, which was really nice.

(I'll be honest: I spent most of the day reading and drinking coffee. School libraries might be a hotspot for gossip, but they are tragically underused by the student population.)


In other news: the other day "Anna Katherine" wrote a guest blog post at Darque Reviews about incorporating paranormal elements into fiction. If you comment on the post, you are automatically entered in a contest to win an autographed copy of the book! The guest post is here.

There's also an interview with Athena's Bookshelf, and, best of all a blog post with a brief how-to on making "thunder powder".


I was going to write something else, but now I can't remember what it was, because I am distracted by the possibility of eating leftover vegetable mei fun for breakfast. Yum. Catch y'all later.

Hi, folks! I've snagged a Dreamwidth account at alg.dreamwidth.org. I'm not leaving LiveJournal (remember the last time I did that? It was a disaster!), but I am going to be crossposting, and all my entries are available over there as well as at LJ. I am not turning off comments here, though; you can comment anywhere you like. I am supporting Dreamwidth during their open beta because I like the company, and think it's exciting.

In other news, over at the Anna Katherine blog, I've written an entry about career day at I.S. 238 in Queens.

And in awesome news, something I neglected to mention the other day, two lovely ladies (you know who you are!) bought me a NetBook! It's an Acer Aspire One, which means it's tiny and yet somehow has a huge hard drive and pretty fast processor. I'm still getting used to the tiny keyboard, but eventually I'll get back up to typing 110 wpm! I have yet to be able to express to my satisfaction how amazed and grateful I am, regarding both the computer and the fact that there are such generous people in my life.

Salt and Silver is out in stores!




Buy it now!

trifles and I worked very very hard on this book, and we hope you enjoy it at least half as much as we enjoyed writing it. If you need additional encouragement to pick up a copy, check out these reviews!

As a writing team, we've started a blog, which can be found here, and it is syndicated on LiveJournal for your pleasure at annak_blog. We're going to be blogging about our writing process and publishing, as well as magic, religion, sex, and anything else we can think of that people might find interesting. (Feel free to speak up if there's a particular topic you'd like to see us take on!)

In other news, it is practically summertime here in New York City already, and I disapprove. Where did spring go? It's only April!

Happy Holidays! I am going to be spending today making green bean casserole, matzo ball soup, farfel stuffing, and matzo kugel for a seder tonight. I've made it all before, but never at the same time, and never for more than a couple of people. Luckily, the majority of the people who are going to be at the seder are meat eaters who are going to be focused on my mother's amazing pot roast and potatoes.

Very quickly, about a book: I've been thinking about this book since I read it a few weeks ago. It's Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. If you are one of those people (like me) who always automatically buys YA "issues" novels in which the main characters have some kind of eating disorder, or are cutters, or do meth, then go ahead and click that link and buy it! The main character is deathly anorexic, her best friend is bulemic, and there's a tragic death. That's enough for me!

( One of the things I particularly enjoyed... SPOILERS! )

At the same time, ( there were things about the book I did not like. SPOILERS! )

Oh, and: if you sent me an email and I haven't emailed you back, I am really sorry! A couple of weeks ago, Vincent managed to spill a Sigg bottle full of water and, despite that my laptop was four feet away, the water got all over it!!! What the heck!! Of course, now it's completely dead and won't turn on, and I can't afford a new one, so I'm scrounging internet time on my mom's computer. Life is hard. :(

Hi, folks. Sorry I haven't been around -- it's been one thing after another lately.

Good news, though! Salt and Silver was reviewed by the Romantic Times: 4-1/2 stars, top pick! It comes out at the end of April, so now is the time to preorder your copy from amazon.com!


Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine

When trust fund baby-turned-waitress Allie and her friends accidentally open a Door to Hell in the basement of Sally’s Diner, they don’t realize the havoc it will wreak on their Brooklyn neighborhood. Of course, the up side to murder-happy demons coming through the Door all the time is that Allie gets her own sexy and mysterious demon hunter: the dark-eyed, leather-clad, Stetson-wearing Ryan.

Ryan teaches Allie everything he knows about fighting the creatures of the underworld—but he refuses to give in to the sexual tension that simmers between them. Allie has almost given up on taking her relationship with Ryan to the next level when there’s a surge in demonic activity… and the Door disappears.

Now Allie and Ryan have to travel through Hell, literally, to try to stop Hell from taking over the Earth. They may not survive the trip, but Allie is about to discover something very important: Mortal peril is a total turn-on.

Back in New York, oh yeah! Bagels and pizza galore! (Okay, I've had two bagels and three slices of pizza, but it's the quality, not the quantity.)

If you guys want to send me books to read and review, or postcards, or anything, here's my new address:

Anna Genoese
14 Webers Court
Brooklyn, NY 11235

I was going to go get a Brooklyn pedicure today (like a Manhattan pedicure, only cheaper!), but I got sidetracked reading Maria Diaz's archives. I've known Maria since we were online journal-obsessed teenagers together, and I'm sitting on her panel at South by Southwest this year (which is about, you guessed it, online journals!). Two thumbs up for her writing, guys, she is (still!) very engaging.

Car update! It needs a thing, a thing, a couple of belts, something to do with the transmission, something to do with flushing out fluids... and a new radiator. Sigh. On the up side, we might be on the road before noon.