[Republishing because I had the wrong link originally - there are two almost identical forms. The one listed now is correct, and I also improved the detail on the instructions for filling it out.) I've had to inform several bloggers lately that they have reprinted entire articles of mine (or the majority of an article I wrote, which is too big an excerpt for fair [...]

Size 12 Is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery only makes sense if you realize that it’s not set in REAL New York. It, like the Dresden Files, is set in White City, where POC are fairly absent or caricatured and where other people are WAY too into your business. In this major metropolis of White World, people are constantly insulting your weight or career aspirations, [...]

Finally, here’s a study to document what we all kind of suspected: the Oscar Academy is a bunch of old white dudes. According to a study conducted by The Los Angeles Times, the Academy, which boasts 5,765 members, is 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male. Only 14 percent of the Academy is younger than 50, and as for its minority voters: Only 2 percent [...]

OK, so you’re going to a quiz night and you have to choose four women to form a kick-ass team to win with. This is a bit different from the past Choose Your Companions challenges, because you don’t have to particularly like these women. They can be absolutely loathesome – have Bellatrix LeStrange, if you can justify her – if they can bring to the [...]

I have this routine on Saturday. Chores and errands first, then Fringe. Sometimes, chores get very sloppily done. Not much to say about the case of the week. To be honest, I lost the thread of it somewhere along the way to focus on the character bits. I adored the revelation and exploration of Olivia’s … what do you even call what has been happening [...]

Supernatural Friday. You ready, kids? Well, I wasn’t. At least not for the first scene. It’s been some time since we’ve seen the whole good-guys-torturing-the-bad-guys thing, and I think what made it worse for me was that they had the conversation with the poor guy the demon was in before the highly disturbing torture sequence. “Yes, please, kill me, just stop the monster.” This was [...]

Signal Boost: Friends of Pine Ridge needs supplies for a school nurse.  Signal Boost: Strange Horizons is looking for editors.  Here’s a Spotify playlist of Whitney’s best. A love letter to atheists. Occupy Valentine’s Day! From Jenn: An article by US Rep Jackie Speier (CA), discussing her bill that deals with what the Secretary of Defense’s call the “epidemic” of rape and sexual assault in [...]

Trigger warning for the above for talk of domestic violence and emotional abuse. Janet is an amazing performer. Because what you’ve been missing is Avatar 2. Obama: Translated. I’m still laughing my butt off about this. Another great voice gone. My heart is breaking – Whitney was a victim AND SURVIVOR of domestic violence and substance abuse… so I’m gonna need people to STFU. Related posts: A [...]

Having been praised as a truly modern piece of horror metaliterature, “The Loving Dead,” Amelia Beamer’s first novel, could also be (and also has been) summarized as “the one about sexy zombies.” And it is certainly some very self-aware genre fiction– none of the characters shy away from using the word “zombie,” as people tend to do in Max Brooks’s mockumentarian novels, though naturally they [...]

We all know that all women are bitches who will screw each other over for their own gain – especially when men are involved. They steal each other’s boyfriends and husbands, undermine careers, sabotage weddings. Yeah, right. So this week’s challenge: choose three girlfriends, the kind you know will always have your back (rather than stab it with a knife), will bail you out of [...]