Author: Robin McKinley

I was rushing around because the Mongol Horde & I had to get going early because I was having my SECOND SEWING LESSON in the afternoon.*  The having-to-get-going-early would be why iPhone from Hell decided to blare at me.  I would like to say I shouldn’t have looked, but it’s a good thing I did,…

When I started this post a very long time ago* the title was Another Day, Another Technological Disaster, & the problem was this was so overwhelmingly true that I couldn’t force myself to stay that extra hour or two facing & interacting with a technological device & write you a blog post.  I was** maniacally…

AAAAAAAAUGH.  Several people I recognise from the old blog are kindly posting FB links via the contact-me form.**  THERE’S JUST ONE SMALL PROBLEM.  I CAN’T GET ON FACEBOOK.  I suppose I could start a new whatsit with a new name and I can say I live in Outer Mongolia in a yurt and raise ponies,…

The problem with having back trouble when you’re this old is that it turns you into a little old lady.  Arrrgh.  When you’re 30 or 40 and you have back trouble and you’re hobbling around*, you’re a person with back trouble.  When you’re past 70 and hobbling around** suddenly you’re a little old lady.  I’M…

I’ve done my back in.  Somehow.  I think it’s done me in, I don’t think I had anything to do with it.  I can just about wiggle my fingers on a keyboard without screaming.  I expect to hear a giant exhalation of grim sympathy echoing across the networld at this admission.  How many people haven’t…

[OKAY SO IT’S THE FIFTH OF JULY BY THE TIME I GOT THIS POSTED. IT’S STILL THE FOURTH OF JULY TO ME. I STAY UP LATE.] Which means it’s the anniversary of the death of William Byrd.  This year is the 400th anniversary, definitely worth celebrating with a fancy meal, outdoors if you prefer, and…

The SFWA doohickey arrived yesterday.  Trumpets and shouting.  This is the actual award itself, this massive great Perspex, or similar, thing with embedded planets and galaxies and my name on a plaque at the bottom.  It freaking WEIGHS.  I peeled it out of the box and, you know, it’s kind of a wow.  Modesty forbids…

The big problem about living with ME—all right, one of the big problems, but for me they’re all kind of organised around this one—is that you have no slack.  None.  Zero.  Or sub zero.  −459.67 °F , say, it’s cold down here.   & that short chain you’re on burns in the cold.  Another definition for ‘slack’…

& you thought it was just a ridiculous, off the wall name, didn’t you?  The kind that a slightly off-the-wall herself fantasy writer who has maybe had an unwise second glass of champagne & is sitting in a pleasant haze of bubbles might come up with?  As suitable for her new blog?  No.  My piano…

Communications with SFWA have unfortunately & for some unknown reason broken down; my default suspicion is technology but it could also be that, as SFWA is a volunteer organisation, all the admin who had been busting themselves senseless to make the actual (& virtual) convention come off are now exhaustedly catching up on life, paid work &…