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Thursday, August 16, 2012, 7 p.m. Young at Heart Bookclub Bookman’s Mesa 1056 S. Country Club Dr. Mesa, AZ 85210 Thursday-Sunday, October 11-14 Sirens Conference Skamania Lodge Stevenson, WA (near Portland, OR) Sunday, October 14, 2 p.m. Powells YA Fantasy Signing with Cindy Pon, Malinda Lo, Mette Ivie Harrison, Janni Lee Simner, Sarah Rees Brennan Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. Beaverton, OR 97005 Friday, November 16, 2:30 p.m. Fae-Tal Attraction: The Timeless, International Appeal of Faerie Folk in YA Literature panel with R.J. Anderson, Aprilynne Pike, Janette Rallison, and Janni Lee Simner National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Convention Las Vegas, NV

“[We] don’t lift weights in order to look hot, especially for the likes of men like that. What makes them think that we even WANT them to find us attractive? If you do, thanks very much, we’re flattered. But if you don’t, why do you really need to voice this opinion in the first place, and what makes you think we actually give a toss that you, personally, do not find us attractive? What do you want us to do? Shall we stop weightlifting, amend our diet in order to completely get rid of our ‘manly’ muscles, and become housewives in the sheer hope that one day you will look more favourably upon us and we might actually have a shot with you?! Cause you are clearly the kindest, most attractive type of man to grace the earth with your presence. “Oh but wait, you aren’t. This may be shocking to you, but we actually would rather be attractive to people who aren’t closed-minded and ignorant. Crazy, eh?! We, as any women with an ounce of self-confidence would, prefer our men to be confident enough in themselves to not feel emasculated by the fact that we aren’t weak and feeble.” –Olympic Weightlifter Zoe Smith Two other strong women at the Olympics this year: – Holley Mangold – Sarah Robles (who, since this article was written, has indeed gotten a sponsorship) Makes one want to take up weightlifting, it does.

Patty Griffin’s No Bad News is on the playlist for one of the mixes that’s been getting high play for this book–though not on the specifically book-themed mix–and it’s become my latest go-to feel-good songs. (lnhammer has, of course, rightly been telling me I need to pay more attention to this song for some years now.)

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Mirrored from Desert Dispatches: WordPress Edition.

“Women who start out as ugly ducklings don’t become beautiful swans. What they mainly become is confident ducks. They take charge of their lives.”

–Maeve Binchy (via Annette Curtis Klause)

I love this, because the ugly duckling narrative feels more flawed to me the older I get. Longing for transformation doesn’t seem half so powerful as owning and loving and rocking what one already is.

I wonder if it’s common, a natural sort of progression, to start off dreaming of secretly being something else (a changeling, an alien foundling, the secret heir to the king and queen of a far off land), and then to come around to wanting to be more fully oneself.

A version of oneself, of course, who visits faerie realms, and alien planets, and other far-off lands. But nonetheless.

Mirrored from Desert Dispatches: WordPress Edition.

Now that you mention it, the idea of moisture farming is pretty suspect. Why did I never realize this? XKCD’s new “what if?” feature looks at just how much force power Yoda can output. With numbers. Awesome. Also from XKCD, what would happen if you gathered a mole of moles? Come on, you know you’ve always wondered. Video of flood waters in the vicinity of this summer’s New Mexico wildfires. Perfume that smells like a fresh-printed book. My amateur bookbinder reaction is, “But I already own a bottle of book glue.” (Via lnhammer.) Olympic athletes versus wild animals. Though the races seem a bit rigged, if you ask me. I mean, if you put Michael Phelps up against the migratory birds, the results would be very different. Also, I count a gymnastics loss for the hummingbird there. Another olympic-qualifying female athlete is given a hard time for not being rail-thin. Apparently we just can’t get our brains around the idea that “skinny” and “fit / healthy” are not absolute synonyms. Writer Beware guest post in praise of ripening. Or, why publishing faster is not always better. When Tolkien meets … well, just click. Again, why did I never realize? Sometimes a story requires detailed explanations. Other times it requires the author at least know the detailed explanations. But still other times, you just need to play the story game well enough to say with conviction, “He’s the goddamned Batman, that’s how.” This is, of course, harder than it sounds. (From Swan Tower).