You dream of seeing fire in them hills

1. My story "A Wolf in Iceland Is the Child of a Lie" has been accepted by Not One of Us. Not counting some flash, this is the first story I've completed since the summer of 2008. It is also, I think, the first time I have written directly about Norse myth, despite the fact that the D'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants (1967) consumed my brain in second grade and one of the best gifts I've received in the last several years was a T-shirt from gaudior and rushthatspeaks' household which reproduced two of their illustrations of Loki. (I was wearing it yesterday, in fact.) It is a very short story. It took me far longer to finish than I wanted. I still find myself oddly tone-deaf about my own work. Nonetheless. Maybe now I can get some of these other things out of my head.

2. I was not in Maxwell's in New Jersey on the fifth night of Hanukkah. (At least, the photographs from the Hanukkah party don't seem to think so.) As a result, I did not hear Mission of Burma surprise-open for Yo La Tengo and I missed the five new songs they introduced. The entire set is now available online. Works for me.

3. There are some ridiculously awesome robots in the world.