The US elections have come and gone, sadly exactly as I suspected: too many of my fellow Americans are lazy and stupid. So the next pandemics are brewing. Climate change is happening. Techbro oligarchs and Christian Theocrats are trying to rebrand the US into their own fiefdoms. Now is the time to rebuild on our…
Read More Autumn MusingsTl:dr… This book no longer exists in its previous form. It may never exist again. How that happened is a lesson in online manners and performative fragility (and one that my readers can look up, because a lot more people have dissected it since December 2023.) It may be that the original publisher Del Rey…
Read More I read Cait Corrain’s ‘Crown of Starlight’Disclosure: I’ve been accepted into one of the Spring 2025 art residency cohorts at the Chateau d’Orquevaux. I’m deep into planning what I want to make and write there. That entails my usual obsessive research. I came across this enchanting little self-published book by well-known illustration artist Christina Wald. Château d’Orquevaux, A Travelogue distills Wald’s…
Read More Review: Chateau d’Orquevaux, A TravelogueWiser heads and a month of planning have prevailed: I’m saving the ‘big’ projects for later grants applications here in the States. The Chateau in a typical March is just not set up for projects the size & complexity of ‘Crystal Curtain’ or ‘Sky Tent’. Then add to that the rigors of shipping from Arizona…
Read More Art Residency 2025: Chateau d’Orquevaux, part 2Go into a thrift store, any thrift store. Keep your eyes open: not necessarily for treasures, but for *stories*. Chances are, if you are alert, you’ll stumble across items that seem to resonate with questions, half-guessed histories, and unfinished quests. In February of 2024, I wandered by a shelf of carpentry tools in a local…
Read More ‘Winter Tree Egg’, by M. J. Moye(Me, trying on the larger-scale art installation hat. I like this hat.) (Also, because last fall was eventful enough that I forgot to post my Halloween yard installation when it happened.) For the last few years I’ve been gathering Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (they are not the same) decor from thrift stores. A…
Read More Halloween 2023 Yard InstallationLong post! TL:dr… I’m going to France for an art residency next year. At this place, Chateau d’ Orquevaux. Yep. I’m doing this. I applied on a semi-whim in December 2023, knowing that odds of being accepted were somewhere between 20% and never. I make a habit of applying every couple of years to *big*…
Read More Art Residency 2025: Chateau d’Orquevaux, part 1Come back to the Birdverse with this unforgettable tale about despair, hope, self-care, and friendship! Words shape thoughts and cultures. Fantasy is uniquely suited to reveal this in subtle, entertaining ways that sneak in high-level concepts on the sly. R. B. Lemberg’s YOKE OF STARS is a remarkable novella. It could only come from a…
Read More Review: YOKE OF STARS, by R.B. LembergThe ribbons got finished, delivered, and (by the accounts I’ve heard) the winning artists were happy! For Spring 2024, the TFA and I did our usual riffing off the Featured Artist’s work. This time, the Festival showcased the work of a family of extraordinary weavers: Mel Mendez, whose family has been weaving for a century…
Read More Spring Award Ribbons, Tempe Festival of the Arts