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Book reviews. Smoking Poppy, Graham Joyce. White Apples, Jonathan Carroll. Smoking Poppy. When a baby is born the fontanel at the top of the head yawns open. You fill the hole with shimmering, molten, free-running love, where it sets and hardens over the hole with something like bone. But for the first few weeks of […]

Word of the day: ugsome (UG-suhm) adjective Dreadful, loathsome. [From Middle English, from uggen, from Old Norse ugga (to fear). As in many typical stories where one child in a family becomes well-known while the other remains obscure, “ugly” and “ugsome” are two words derived from the same root — one is an everyday word

Duh. After several mix-ups, my review of James Howe’s children’s books, Tales from the House of Bunnicula, is up at Banshee Studios.

Review. The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson I’m still not sure what to say about this book. I finished it about a week ago. It was good. I normally hate this sort of book, in which the plot moves through a long period of history. Why? Nothing ties the sections of the

Grey Hill, Chapter one. The first draft of chapter one is done. Woooooo!

Description of my day, for posterity. Morning Wakened after midnight by husband and daughter coming to bed. Daughter has been a spaz all week, doesn’t want to sleep and/or sleep alone. Everyone crowded into bed. Wakened approximately 3 a.m. to move to floor with pillow and blanket. Wakened approximately 3:30 a.m. to nurse daughter. Dreamt

Mmm. I brought Lee to Zorbadillo’s today. As it turns out, if you don’t go from the brunch menu, you can order saganaki. Mmmmmm.

Today’s Word. From A.Word.A.Day Solecism. solecism (SOL-i-siz-ehm, SOA-li-) noun 1. A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction. 2. A violation of etiquette. 3. An impropriety, a mistake, or an incongruity. [Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikismos, from soloikizein, to speak incorrectly, from soloikos, speaking incorrectly after Soloi (Soli), an Athenian colony in Cilicia where a dialect regarded

Volcanoes. This is a guy’s recipe from a restaurant in the Quad Cities (Iowa/Illinois) area. It sounds disgusting, and it’s bad for you. I like them. One loaf Texas Toast. 1 – 1 1/2 lbs. hamburger 1 large can of Hormel chili (or about 2 c. leftover chili) 1 bag of frozen hash browns (loose

Rrr. I’m much too annoyed to get anything useful done today. Welcome to the land of “Don’t say what you mean…and don’t mean what you say.” Above all, don’t imply that that which hasn’t been noted to be especially trustworthy isn’t necessarily to be believed. Update. Ok. Things are better. Feathers all around have been