Month of Joy: Kindred Spirits by Jason Sanford
Like all science fiction and fantasy fans, the spirits speak to me. They whisper with visions of impossible worlds and distant galaxies. They spin dreams of the future and past and even of times that never were. The spirits speak through stories and books, films and TV shows, comic books and video games. The spirits whisper in the words and creations of authors and artists and dreamers from around the world. And the spirits bring me joy.
Month of Joy: Scotland! by Betsy Dornbusch
Hi! I’m Betsy Dornbusch, author of Archive of Fire, Books of the Seven Eyes, and The Silver Scar (forthcoming June 2018 from Skyhorse) and lots of novellas and short stories. I’m so excited to participate in the Month of Joy at Skiffy and Fanty! My first happy place is writing, but my desk is dull and messy, riddled with whisky bottles, teacups, pens, maps, bullet casings, and the random sword. (Don’t judge, I’m on deadline.) So I thought I’d go with my second happy place: which is basically everywhere I travel. I spent three weeks last June in Italy with my family and hanging out with a friend in Scotland. Yes, packing for Scorching to Rather Chilly in a carryon was a challenge.
Month of Joy: Translation by Rachel Cordasco
Many things bring me joy: books, chocolate, my kids (when they’re behaving), languages, books, opera, embroidery, and did I mention books? One thing that has recently been bringing me joy is translation. I’ve always loved languages, going back to when I was 6 or 7 and watching “Pepe le Pew” whisper sweet faux-French nothings into the ears of very uninterested cats. I started buying dual-language dictionaries around that time and never looked back. I’ve studied Hebrew, French, Russian, and Italian, and would have learned Chinese next but life got crazy and I’ve had to postpone it until…probably retirement.
Month of Joy: My Favorite Books of December 2017 by Martha Wells
This was an incredible year for SF and fantasy, both in long and shorter fiction. There were outstanding debut novels and incredible new work by established authors. So much new work was original and innovative and outside the box, it was hard to pick a favorites list. Back in November, I did a book rec list for the year on the Book Smugglers blog: http://thebooksmugglers.com/2017/12/books-year-smugglivus-post-martha-wells.html and I wanted to take this chance to add a few books to it that I read in December.
Month of Joy: Finding Joy in a Fountain Pen by Keith A. Manuel
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2018 is to take up writing by hand again. I bought my first ever fountain pen, a Pilot Metropolitan, and the most un-holiday-ish Christmas cards I could find on after-holiday discount at my local big retailer store. I also picked up a nice journal and some color pencils. My tools are ready for a year of putting pen to paper. I’ll see how it goes, one page and one day at a time. It seems a retro, nostalgic thing to write this way, but I’m not alone. The Internet of all places is a good place to find pen pals. The prospect of having to wait a week or more for a response to a message when we have multiple, popular direct messaging platforms, Twitter and Facebooks public posts, email, and blogs for instant communication, whether to whoever is interested to read it or to a more restricted audience.
Month of Joy: Pens and Ink by Anne Lyle
When I was eleven years old I started at the local girls’ grammar school, where it was mandatory to use a fountain pen for “neat work”: homework, tests and so on. My parents bought me a Parker 45 Flighter, a pretty swanky pen for a kid, and I felt very grown up using it. That pen served me well through school and university, and for years it was the only fountain pen I owned, apart from a battered vintage Conway Stewart that I sadly lost somewhere along the way.
