#clarion — Public Fediverse posts

#Oxford #Clarion checks up on local #climatePolicy https://oxfordclarion.uk/its-an-emergency-dam/

#science #climateCatastrophe

#Oxford #Clarion checks up on local #climatePolicy https://oxfordclarion.uk/its-an-emergency-dam/

#science #climateCatastrophe

Hype for the Future 242/284: Clarion, Pennsylvania

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/hype-for-the-future-242-284-clarion-pennsylvania/

Hype for the Future 242/284: Clarion, Pennsylvania

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/hype-for-the-future-242-284-clarion-pennsylvania/

Hype for the Future 242/284: Clarion, Pennsylvania

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/hype-for-the-future-242-284-clarion-pennsylvania/

Hype for the Future 242/284: Clarion, Pennsylvania

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/hype-for-the-future-242-284-clarion-pennsylvania/

Hype for the Future 242/284: Clarion, Pennsylvania

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/hype-for-the-future-242-284-clarion-pennsylvania/

@classicalmusic

#GyörgyLigeti 1923 - 2006

Six Bagatelles for Woodwind Quintet (1953)

I. Allegro con spirito
II. Rubato. Lamentoso
III. Allegro grazioso
IV. Presto ruvido
V. Adagio. Mesto -- Belá Bartók in memoriam
VI. Molto vivace. Capriccioso

#Clarion

#musik #music #musique #musica #Classicalmusic
#modernistmusic #Ligeti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txMWXvD8

@classicalmusic

#GyörgyLigeti 1923 - 2006

Six Bagatelles for Woodwind Quintet (1953)

I. Allegro con spirito
II. Rubato. Lamentoso
III. Allegro grazioso
IV. Presto ruvido
V. Adagio. Mesto -- Belá Bartók in memoriam
VI. Molto vivace. Capriccioso

#Clarion

#musik #music #musique #musica #Classicalmusic
#modernistmusic #Ligeti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txMWXvD8

A Miracle Built on a Moment: a 38-year love story in photos

Been There, Done That

I met Kelley June 26, 1988, East Lansing, MI and fell instantly in love. I love her still—in some ways more than ever, because I know her better. If we have a motto, a mantra, it’s No Matter What—it’s engraved on the inside of our wedding rings—because we both knew, right from the start, that being together would not be easy. We would have to fight every inch of the way. And in fact we’ve been through a lot together—good times, bad times, terrible times, unbelievably amazing times—and have no doubt there’s a lot more of all of that to come. This time last year I wrote “A Miracle Built on a Moment: A 37-year love story in photos” and it pretty much says it all. That, plus the fact that we’re currently going through one of those really sad, hard times (more on that in a few days—don’t worry, *we’re* alright; we’re just feeling much loss and grief), means I’m going to present it here again—though updated with more stories and photos of the last year. Please enjoy. We do. Every day.

The Moment

38 years ago today I met Kelley. 38 years ago today I fell instantly and irrevocably in love. Most people find that difficult to believe. I understand. I’ll say only that if you ever have every cell in your body stop, shiver, and align in one direction like iron filings around a magnet, you will know. It remains the oddest, most powerful and inarguable thing that’s ever happened to me. A done deal, the work of a moment. And absolutely non-negotiable.

38 years later, here we are, living the life that bloomed from that moment. Every day is a miracle.

Does this mean our life together was inevitable and easy? It was not. Against that simple, visceral knowing was ranged every rational, practical and institutional argument in the world.1 So although the connection, commitment, and (so far) life-long bond happened in an instant, it took 18 months to make it possible for me to move from the UK to Kelley in the US, and another 5 years of browbeating the world to make the US State Department declare it to be in the National Interest to grant me, an out lesbian with no money, connections, degree, or job offer, but with a chronic degenerative illness and no visible means of support, a waiver to live permanently in this country.2

38 Years: A Photostory

I met Kelley in the corridor of a dorm at MSU in East Lansing, Michigan. It was 104º with no air-conditioning. We were there for Clarion—I was their very first foreign student. I’ve told the story elsewhere. But the bottom line was: we had six weeks together and then I had to go back to my life—family, partner, job, mortgage—in the UK with no practical hope of coming back…

That autumn we were apart, in 1988, was very, very hard. Kelley was working at GE Computer Services, going to parties, and making friends in the Atlanta queer community. In Hull, I was grief-stricken (my little sister died), stressed out of my mind (in love with two women on opposite sides of the Atlantic), and frantically earning money to get back to the US. As well as my actual job as a caseworker at a street-drugs agency (basically doing social work and counselling for people using heroin and meth), I was teaching women’s self defence as many evenings and weekends as I could. I hadn’t really started to get sick yet…

Then I did get sick. And I lost weight. But then, finally, I managed to get back to Kelley. I’m not sure we let go of each other for more than 5 minutes at a time the whole seven weeks I was in the US. This Polaroid was taken in Tampa, where Kelley introduced me to her mother and stepfather.

This time when I left her it was to return to the UK one last time, sell my house, leave my partner of 10 years, and say goodbye to my family. It took three months. It was hard.

We lived in a brand new apartment way outside Atlanta: Duluth, Georgia. Then moved closer into the city with a rented house in Decatur. Finally, with the advance I got from Ammonite, we had just enough to put down a scarily skimpy deposit and risk an adjustable rate mortgage on a little house in Atlanta itself. At some point I would either sort immigration and we’d move somewhere not so damned hot, or the immigration thing would completely implode and we’d have to leave the country. Either way, we’d be selling before the interest rate jumped too much. It was worth the risk. But money was tight, immigration was daunting, and my mysterious fatigue was not getting better.

In this photo, taken in 1992, the strain is showing. We were seeing lawyer after lawyer and not getting the immigration answers we needed. I was having medical test after medical test, ditto. We knew it was serious when I began to limp. Six months later, I had my diagnosis: MS.

Six months after that, we got married. I wore long sleeves because of all the IV bruises on my arms. But I was so happy that day. I don’t think we let go of each other at all except to hug other people. It was a home-made wedding; the whole thing, excluding the rings, cost $500.

Although the marriage had zero legal force it had a profound effect on me. Weirdly, that manifested in me beginning to grow my hair. (Something about being settled? Being a wife? It’s a mystery.)

Anyway, by the next spring it was long enough to spray and pin into an up-do for a big ol’ Southern party at my editor’s father’s house: everyone who was anyone in Atlanta society was there. It was like playing dress-up. It was playing dress up.

Then I sold another book (Slow River). I got my Green Card. And we moved to Seattle.

1997. Seattle. We are much more at home. Kelley has a fab job at Wizards of the Coast and I’ve published two novels and sold a third (The Blue Place). We have a lovely little house in Wallingford (that’s a friend’s house in the background). We’re bursting with happiness. One fly in the ointment: my hair. It’s long enough to plait, very heavy and very annoying. Here it’s scragged out of the way; I am sick of it.

1999. Vermont. I’ve started to shorten my hair; this was also the year I started using a cane. One year later, in 2000, I’ve chopped it all off and bleached it white. This is us in the Queen’s Grill onboard QE2: a transatlantic crossing that was our 40th birthday present to ourselves. We’re both wearing long dresses because they take First Class seriously on that boat. (Next time: a tux! At the time I didn’t know anywhere I could get one—ah, but read on, Faithful Reader, read on…)

2000 was a big year. My MS was increasing upon me and Kelley cashed in her stock options. Life was uncertain. We had no idea how many years of good life I, and so we, had left. Live life now, is what we decided. Kelley quit her job and we threw an enormous party—rented out a whole nightclub in Pioneer Square—called it the Freedom Fandango, and invited everyone we knew.

I underwent an experimental course of chemo. Felt brilliant. Felt terrible. Then stabilised—though worse than before. The second photo was taken after I’d stabilised again: me and Kelley at the PK Dick Awards with our friends Mark and Donna. I was there to support Mark, who was nominated, and to accept the award for Steve Baxter if he won—which he did. I was about to publish the second Aud novel, Stay. Kelley was about to publish her brilliant novel Solitaire .

‘Stabilised’ is always a relative term when it comes to MS. It’s actually a path of endless decline. By 2004 it was clear we would have to leave our beloved house-with-all-the-steps in Wallingford and find something more accessible. So here in 2005 is one last shot of Kelley making hummus in the kitchen of our old house. One of me in the kitchen of our new single-level house a month later in Broadview. Kelley has published Solitaire and just started the longest-ever negotiation for the movie rights. I’m working on Always.

May 2008 in Los Angeles: winning my sixth Lambda Literary Award (for And Now We Are Going to Have a Party). Then the day after in the bar feeling a leetle rough. Then June in Seattle: a dinner party at home to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I am about to start writing Hild. Kelley is writing the screenplay for OtherLife.

These are all taken between 2009 and 2012. The black and white one by Jennifer Durham is me being delirious with delight at getting an offer from FSG for Hild.

2013. General happiness, and then, a few months later, a fully legal wedding on the 20th anniversary of our first nothing-legal wedding. All these photos by Jennifer Durham, too.

In 2013 Kelley and I were co-Guests of Honour at Westercon. It was fabulous. We turned it into a mini Clarion reunion and had a splendid time. All that year, and the next, we travelled: a US hardcover tour for Hild, then a UK tour, then a US paperback tour, culminating in Washington DC for Kelley’s father’s 80th birthday.

In 2015 and 2016 I found myself in the news, a lot. In 2015 it was the unexpected whirlwind around the Literary Bias data I put together. In 2016 it was the even more unexpected resurrection of Anita Corbin’s Visible Girls series and then Visible Girls Revisited. It’s pretty weird being recognised for a random moment 43 years ago.

By this time I’d transitioned to using a wheelchair. I was ill and tired. Kelley was working staggering hours as a freelancer. We were dealing with a lot of Family Stuff. This photo was taken by Anita for the new series; I don’t like the photo, perhaps because I feel as though I look heavy. (I’m not talking about physical weight but emotional weight.) And I was unhappy about the wheelchair. It’s hard to explain: I’m not unhappy about using a wheelchair—the wheelchair has given me a kind of freedom I had lost. I was unhappy about being posed with the wheelchair. It felt…weird. Sort of fetishistic. In fact I’ve cropped this photo because in the original the chair became the focal point.

Then it was the pandemic, and we went nowhere and took only endless photos of experiments with home hair cuts. Oddly (not so oddly)3, 2020 was the best writing year of my life. I had the idea for, wrote, and sold Spear and wrote 130,000 words to finish Menewood, then rewrote the whole 280,000-word thing. And I knew both were good—better than good. I felt on top of the world.

Then, woo-hoo, we started going to conventions again—specifically ICFA. Here we are in 2022 and 2023, loving the sun and the company.

Spear won awards and nominated for a bazillon more, and Menewood came out. And here we are at the World Fantasy Convention that year.

And here we are a year later at a most marvellous Town Hall event for Pride in which I pontificated about the Queer Medieval to a packed house—Kelley at the pre-game wine-and-nibbles (I was doing the meet-and-greet with board members and donors at the other end of the room) and me on the stage an hour later.4

We were (still are) both tired. We’ve been through a lot of external stresses the last three years.5 But as you can see between the photos of the year before and then last summer we were beginning to get a lot of that sorted and the strain is easing. And, as always, we find our refuge each in the other—and the strength inside ourselves to be strong for the other when she can’t.

The next 12 months were more difficult in health terms—but, again, apart from, y’know, the occasional, Hey, we nearly died moment and then the week where every single one of our appliances (washer, dryer, stove, fridge, even the fucking microwave) died at once—we mostly muddled through.

In the same 12 months some amazing things happened: I was inducted into the SFF Hall of Fame, the Aud books were reissued in the US (and, thrillingly, published for the first time in the UK), and then—and I’m still amazed by this, well over a year later—SFWA honoured me with the 41st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. Kelley and I were in Kansas City together and did a lovely joint presentation as well as enjoying another mini Clarion reunion. Here we are a) doing what I called the Grandapalooza, and b) at the banquet, before they let in the awards audience and before I go up on stage and make my speech.. The food, sadly, was awful but the company, as always, marvellous.

From the Nebulas we went back to Seattle, just had time to admit Kelley’s mother to hospice6, and then were at Worldcon. Where I picked up something. And became very ill indeed. For quite a while. And all the meds they tried just made me worse. Frankly, the next six months were a litany of horrors that I can’t bear to repeat here. If I’d thought at the time—and, I admit, smugly I had thought that—that Kelley and I had been tested enough for two lifetimes already, well, the world disabused me of that notion.7

But, eh, let’s move on! Because good things happened, too. In no particular order, we welcomed Ammonite to the solar system, I was approached to be PM Press’s 34th entry into their Outspoken Author series, and the result was She Is Here—for which I did just four events. One was purely informal—signing pre-orders pre-publication at Phinney books and then going to the pub afterwards for many pints of Guinness.

Ah, you may ask, why oh why were we doing a book event before publication? Well, because, in the words of a friend, “My dear, you’ve been noticed by Government!” Specifically, I’d been made an offer I couldn’t refuse—oh, well, okay, yes, I could have refused it, but why on earth would I want to??—by a representative of HM Government, to whit:

So, yeah, we went.8 And let me tell you, being at the centre of power, even if only for a few hours, is heady stuff. We had a fabulous time. Security considerations forbade photography at the event, but here are a couple of pics afterwards—a leetle beet worse for wear (they were not stingy with the Champagne or wine—though the canapés were tiny), and then we had a few cocktails, and then we had dinner, and then we went back to the hotel bar before I remembered to take pics…) but, as you can see, we had clothes for the occasion.9

I don’t have any other photos of me in London—I just spent all my time staring, mazed, at the vision that is my sweetie. Here are some more pics of her: just image me grinning like a fool within touching distance…

Here, we’re crossing Westminster Bridge just as Big Ben strikes

Here we’re in the bar (again), with the Thames and Westminster directly behind Kelley, who is about to partake of her Bestest Most Favourite Cocktail, the Street Crier.

And here she is, lost in delight at the glory that is Westminster Abbey.

We had a lovely time spending 10 days with Powerful People, family, and friends old and new. Just…amazing. Then, blam, back on a plane and doing book events again.

The first thing was at Third Place Ravenna where Kelley was my interlocutor regarding all things She Is Here. It was a truly special event.

As with almost anything else I could name, in this regard—book event interlocutorship—Kelley is my favourite person. Basically, she is the finest person in the world. I fell in love with her in a moment but have spent my life since then trying to be the person she deserves. I might never get there but it continues to be an amazing journey.

1. Little things like reason—everyone, even Kelley to begin with, thought I was, well, perhaps ‘not sensible’ is the kindest way to phrase it—family, my partner, friends, jobs, money, health, immigration law… ↩︎
2. And thereby create new immigration law. ↩︎
3. No travelling, no social obligations, no tedious trips to doctors, dentists, hair stylists. No travel for book events. No one coming to the house in one of those irritating Visitor From Porlock moments. Not even having to take the cats to the vet for shots and checkups. It felt miraculous, a gift. ↩︎
4. So many photos these days seem to be taken at events where for one reason or another we can’t sit, as we prefer, right next to each other. We really, really have to fix that! ↩︎
5. I wrote about that here and here. ↩︎
6. She is still in hospice—it’s now been a year. ↩︎
7. For more on what is, basically, a litany of horrors that I can’t bear to repeat here, see this (free) Patreon post. ↩︎
8. Yes, that’s behind a paywall—the point of Patreon, after all, is to make money. ↩︎
9. One day I’ll tell the story of what it takes to get a custom suit made and tailored for a woman in a wheelchair. ↩︎

A Miracle Built on a Moment: a 38-year love story in photos

Been There, Done That

I met Kelley June 26, 1988, East Lansing, MI and fell instantly in love. I love her still—in some ways more than ever, because I know her better. If we have a motto, a mantra, it’s No Matter What—it’s engraved on the inside of our wedding rings—because we both knew, right from the start, that being together would not be easy. We would have to fight every inch of the way. And in fact we’ve been through a lot together—good times, bad times, terrible times, unbelievably amazing times—and have no doubt there’s a lot more of all of that to come. This time last year I wrote “A Miracle Built on a Moment: A 37-year love story in photos” and it pretty much says it all. That, plus the fact that we’re currently going through one of those really sad, hard times (more on that in a few days—don’t worry, *we’re* alright; we’re just feeling much loss and grief), means I’m going to present it here again—though updated with more stories and photos of the last year. Please enjoy. We do. Every day.

The Moment

38 years ago today I met Kelley. 38 years ago today I fell instantly and irrevocably in love. Most people find that difficult to believe. I understand. I’ll say only that if you ever have every cell in your body stop, shiver, and align in one direction like iron filings around a magnet, you will know. It remains the oddest, most powerful and inarguable thing that’s ever happened to me. A done deal, the work of a moment. And absolutely non-negotiable.

38 years later, here we are, living the life that bloomed from that moment. Every day is a miracle.

Does this mean our life together was inevitable and easy? It was not. Against that simple, visceral knowing was ranged every rational, practical and institutional argument in the world.1 So although the connection, commitment, and (so far) life-long bond happened in an instant, it took 18 months to make it possible for me to move from the UK to Kelley in the US, and another 5 years of browbeating the world to make the US State Department declare it to be in the National Interest to grant me, an out lesbian with no money, connections, degree, or job offer, but with a chronic degenerative illness and no visible means of support, a waiver to live permanently in this country.2

38 Years: A Photostory

I met Kelley in the corridor of a dorm at MSU in East Lansing, Michigan. It was 104º with no air-conditioning. We were there for Clarion—I was their very first foreign student. I’ve told the story elsewhere. But the bottom line was: we had six weeks together and then I had to go back to my life—family, partner, job, mortgage—in the UK with no practical hope of coming back…

That autumn we were apart, in 1988, was very, very hard. Kelley was working at GE Computer Services, going to parties, and making friends in the Atlanta queer community. In Hull, I was grief-stricken (my little sister died), stressed out of my mind (in love with two women on opposite sides of the Atlantic), and frantically earning money to get back to the US. As well as my actual job as a caseworker at a street-drugs agency (basically doing social work and counselling for people using heroin and meth), I was teaching women’s self defence as many evenings and weekends as I could. I hadn’t really started to get sick yet…

Then I did get sick. And I lost weight. But then, finally, I managed to get back to Kelley. I’m not sure we let go of each other for more than 5 minutes at a time the whole seven weeks I was in the US. This Polaroid was taken in Tampa, where Kelley introduced me to her mother and stepfather.

This time when I left her it was to return to the UK one last time, sell my house, leave my partner of 10 years, and say goodbye to my family. It took three months. It was hard.

We lived in a brand new apartment way outside Atlanta: Duluth, Georgia. Then moved closer into the city with a rented house in Decatur. Finally, with the advance I got from Ammonite, we had just enough to put down a scarily skimpy deposit and risk an adjustable rate mortgage on a little house in Atlanta itself. At some point I would either sort immigration and we’d move somewhere not so damned hot, or the immigration thing would completely implode and we’d have to leave the country. Either way, we’d be selling before the interest rate jumped too much. It was worth the risk. But money was tight, immigration was daunting, and my mysterious fatigue was not getting better.

In this photo, taken in 1992, the strain is showing. We were seeing lawyer after lawyer and not getting the immigration answers we needed. I was having medical test after medical test, ditto. We knew it was serious when I began to limp. Six months later, I had my diagnosis: MS.

Six months after that, we got married. I wore long sleeves because of all the IV bruises on my arms. But I was so happy that day. I don’t think we let go of each other at all except to hug other people. It was a home-made wedding; the whole thing, excluding the rings, cost $500.

Although the marriage had zero legal force it had a profound effect on me. Weirdly, that manifested in me beginning to grow my hair. (Something about being settled? Being a wife? It’s a mystery.)

Anyway, by the next spring it was long enough to spray and pin into an up-do for a big ol’ Southern party at my editor’s father’s house: everyone who was anyone in Atlanta society was there. It was like playing dress-up. It was playing dress up.

Then I sold another book (Slow River). I got my Green Card. And we moved to Seattle.

1997. Seattle. We are much more at home. Kelley has a fab job at Wizards of the Coast and I’ve published two novels and sold a third (The Blue Place). We have a lovely little house in Wallingford (that’s a friend’s house in the background). We’re bursting with happiness. One fly in the ointment: my hair. It’s long enough to plait, very heavy and very annoying. Here it’s scragged out of the way; I am sick of it.

1999. Vermont. I’ve started to shorten my hair; this was also the year I started using a cane. One year later, in 2000, I’ve chopped it all off and bleached it white. This is us in the Queen’s Grill onboard QE2: a transatlantic crossing that was our 40th birthday present to ourselves. We’re both wearing long dresses because they take First Class seriously on that boat. (Next time: a tux! At the time I didn’t know anywhere I could get one—ah, but read on, Faithful Reader, read on…)

2000 was a big year. My MS was increasing upon me and Kelley cashed in her stock options. Life was uncertain. We had no idea how many years of good life I, and so we, had left. Live life now, is what we decided. Kelley quit her job and we threw an enormous party—rented out a whole nightclub in Pioneer Square—called it the Freedom Fandango, and invited everyone we knew.

I underwent an experimental course of chemo. Felt brilliant. Felt terrible. Then stabilised—though worse than before. The second photo was taken after I’d stabilised again: me and Kelley at the PK Dick Awards with our friends Mark and Donna. I was there to support Mark, who was nominated, and to accept the award for Steve Baxter if he won—which he did. I was about to publish the second Aud novel, Stay. Kelley was about to publish her brilliant novel Solitaire .

‘Stabilised’ is always a relative term when it comes to MS. It’s actually a path of endless decline. By 2004 it was clear we would have to leave our beloved house-with-all-the-steps in Wallingford and find something more accessible. So here in 2005 is one last shot of Kelley making hummus in the kitchen of our old house. One of me in the kitchen of our new single-level house a month later in Broadview. Kelley has published Solitaire and just started the longest-ever negotiation for the movie rights. I’m working on Always.

May 2008 in Los Angeles: winning my sixth Lambda Literary Award (for And Now We Are Going to Have a Party). Then the day after in the bar feeling a leetle rough. Then June in Seattle: a dinner party at home to celebrate our 20th anniversary. I am about to start writing Hild. Kelley is writing the screenplay for OtherLife.

These are all taken between 2009 and 2012. The black and white one by Jennifer Durham is me being delirious with delight at getting an offer from FSG for Hild.

2013. General happiness, and then, a few months later, a fully legal wedding on the 20th anniversary of our first nothing-legal wedding. All these photos by Jennifer Durham, too.

In 2013 Kelley and I were co-Guests of Honour at Westercon. It was fabulous. We turned it into a mini Clarion reunion and had a splendid time. All that year, and the next, we travelled: a US hardcover tour for Hild, then a UK tour, then a US paperback tour, culminating in Washington DC for Kelley’s father’s 80th birthday.

In 2015 and 2016 I found myself in the news, a lot. In 2015 it was the unexpected whirlwind around the Literary Bias data I put together. In 2016 it was the even more unexpected resurrection of Anita Corbin’s Visible Girls series and then Visible Girls Revisited. It’s pretty weird being recognised for a random moment 43 years ago.

By this time I’d transitioned to using a wheelchair. I was ill and tired. Kelley was working staggering hours as a freelancer. We were dealing with a lot of Family Stuff. This photo was taken by Anita for the new series; I don’t like the photo, perhaps because I feel as though I look heavy. (I’m not talking about physical weight but emotional weight.) And I was unhappy about the wheelchair. It’s hard to explain: I’m not unhappy about using a wheelchair—the wheelchair has given me a kind of freedom I had lost. I was unhappy about being posed with the wheelchair. It felt…weird. Sort of fetishistic. In fact I’ve cropped this photo because in the original the chair became the focal point.

Then it was the pandemic, and we went nowhere and took only endless photos of experiments with home hair cuts. Oddly (not so oddly)3, 2020 was the best writing year of my life. I had the idea for, wrote, and sold Spear and wrote 130,000 words to finish Menewood, then rewrote the whole 280,000-word thing. And I knew both were good—better than good. I felt on top of the world.

Then, woo-hoo, we started going to conventions again—specifically ICFA. Here we are in 2022 and 2023, loving the sun and the company.

Spear won awards and nominated for a bazillon more, and Menewood came out. And here we are at the World Fantasy Convention that year.

And here we are a year later at a most marvellous Town Hall event for Pride in which I pontificated about the Queer Medieval to a packed house—Kelley at the pre-game wine-and-nibbles (I was doing the meet-and-greet with board members and donors at the other end of the room) and me on the stage an hour later.4

We were (still are) both tired. We’ve been through a lot of external stresses the last three years.5 But as you can see between the photos of the year before and then last summer we were beginning to get a lot of that sorted and the strain is easing. And, as always, we find our refuge each in the other—and the strength inside ourselves to be strong for the other when she can’t.

The next 12 months were more difficult in health terms—but, again, apart from, y’know, the occasional, Hey, we nearly died moment and then the week where every single one of our appliances (washer, dryer, stove, fridge, even the fucking microwave) died at once—we mostly muddled through.

In the same 12 months some amazing things happened: I was inducted into the SFF Hall of Fame, the Aud books were reissued in the US (and, thrillingly, published for the first time in the UK), and then—and I’m still amazed by this, well over a year later—SFWA honoured me with the 41st Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. Kelley and I were in Kansas City together and did a lovely joint presentation as well as enjoying another mini Clarion reunion. Here we are a) doing what I called the Grandapalooza, and b) at the banquet, before they let in the awards audience and before I go up on stage and make my speech.. The food, sadly, was awful but the company, as always, marvellous.

From the Nebulas we went back to Seattle, just had time to admit Kelley’s mother to hospice6, and then were at Worldcon. Where I picked up something. And became very ill indeed. For quite a while. And all the meds they tried just made me worse. Frankly, the next six months were a litany of horrors that I can’t bear to repeat here. If I’d thought at the time—and, I admit, smugly I had thought that—that Kelley and I had been tested enough for two lifetimes already, well, the world disabused me of that notion.7

But, eh, let’s move on! Because good things happened, too. In no particular order, we welcomed Ammonite to the solar system, I was approached to be PM Press’s 34th entry into their Outspoken Author series, and the result was She Is Here—for which I did just four events. One was purely informal—signing pre-orders pre-publication at Phinney books and then going to the pub afterwards for many pints of Guinness.

Ah, you may ask, why oh why were we doing a book event before publication? Well, because, in the words of a friend, “My dear, you’ve been noticed by Government!” Specifically, I’d been made an offer I couldn’t refuse—oh, well, okay, yes, I could have refused it, but why on earth would I want to??—by a representative of HM Government, to whit:

So, yeah, we went.8 And let me tell you, being at the centre of power, even if only for a few hours, is heady stuff. We had a fabulous time. Security considerations forbade photography at the event, but here are a couple of pics afterwards—a leetle beet worse for wear (they were not stingy with the Champagne or wine—though the canapés were tiny), and then we had a few cocktails, and then we had dinner, and then we went back to the hotel bar before I remembered to take pics…) but, as you can see, we had clothes for the occasion.9

I don’t have any other photos of me in London—I just spent all my time staring, mazed, at the vision that is my sweetie. Here are some more pics of her: just image me grinning like a fool within touching distance…

Here, we’re crossing Westminster Bridge just as Big Ben strikes

Here we’re in the bar (again), with the Thames and Westminster directly behind Kelley, who is about to partake of her Bestest Most Favourite Cocktail, the Sidecar.

And here she is, lost in delight at the glory that is Westminster Abbey.

We had a lovely time spending 10 days with Powerful People, family, and friends old and new. Just…amazing. Then, blam, back on a plane and doing book events again.

The first thing was at Third Place Ravenna where Kelley was my interlocutor regarding all things She Is Here. It was a truly special event.

As with almost anything else I could name, in this regard—book event interlocutorship—Kelley is my favourite person. Basically, she is the finest person in the world. I fell in love with her in a moment but have spent my life since then trying to be the person she deserves. I might never get there but it continues to be an amazing journey.

1. Little things like reason—everyone, even Kelley to begin with, thought I was, well, perhaps ‘not sensible’ is the kindest way to phrase it—family, my partner, friends, jobs, money, health, immigration law… ↩︎
2. And thereby create new immigration law. ↩︎
3. No travelling, no social obligations, no tedious trips to doctors, dentists, hair stylists. No travel for book events. No one coming to the house in one of those irritating Visitor From Porlock moments. Not even having to take the cats to the vet for shots and checkups. It felt miraculous, a gift. ↩︎
4. So many photos these days seem to be taken at events where for one reason or another we can’t sit, as we prefer, right next to each other. We really, really have to fix that! ↩︎
5. I wrote about that here and here. ↩︎
6. She is still in hospice—it’s now been a year. ↩︎
7. For more on what is, basically, a litany of horrors that I can’t bear to repeat here, see this (free) Patreon post. ↩︎
8. Yes, that’s behind a paywall—the point of Patreon, after all, is to make money. ↩︎
9. One day I’ll tell the story of what it takes to get a custom suit made and tailored for a woman in a wheelchair. ↩︎

lovely pics from yesterday's #Oxford #Pride parade in the #Clarion: https://oxfordclarion.uk/oxford-pride-2026/

lovely pics from yesterday's #Oxford #Pride parade in the #Clarion: https://oxfordclarion.uk/oxford-pride-2026/

The #Clarion lists every #bookshop in #Oxford, including a new one in the Golden Cross passage which I hadn't spotted yet:

https://oxfordclarion.uk/every-bookshop-in-oxford/

oh and a couple of #littleLibraries too.

The #Clarion lists every #bookshop in #Oxford, including a new one in the Golden Cross passage which I hadn't spotted yet:

https://oxfordclarion.uk/every-bookshop-in-oxford/

oh and a couple of #littleLibraries too.

Toronto Argonauts add Clarion QB Anthony Guercio to negotiation list

https://3downnation.com/2026/01/21/toronto-argonauts-add-clarion-qb-anthony-guercio-to-negotiation-list/

#Argos #Argonauts #Toronto #CFL #Clarion

loving the #badger at the top of today's #Oxford #Clarion: https://oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-13-january-2026/

loving the #badger at the top of today's #Oxford #Clarion: https://oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-13-january-2026/

Part of I-80 in Clarion, Jefferson counties reopens after crash

Pennsylvania State Police said an investigation is underway following a multi-vehicle crash along a portion of I-80 in…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #BreakingNews #clarion #closure #crash #eastboundlane #exit #extent #Headlines #i-80 #injury #jeffersoncounty #mondayafternoon #p.m.monday #penndotofficial #portion #route #Topstories #TopStories #westernpennsylvania
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/377018/

Part of I-80 in Clarion, Jefferson counties reopens after crash

Pennsylvania State Police said an investigation is underway following a multi-vehicle crash along a portion of I-80 in…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #BreakingNews #clarion #closure #crash #eastboundlane #exit #extent #Headlines #i-80 #injury #jeffersoncounty #mondayafternoon #p.m.monday #penndotofficial #portion #route #Topstories #TopStories #westernpennsylvania
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/377018/

Just made a gift to Clarion West. There will be a scholarship next year.

#Clarion #ClarionWest #ClarionWorkshop

#writer #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon

Just made a gift to Clarion West. There will be a scholarship next year.

#Clarion #ClarionWest #ClarionWorkshop

#writer #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon

just noticed that the #FlorencePark #bandstand has popped up again at the top of the #Oxford #Clarion newsletter (like on October 24) https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekend-7-november-2025/

just noticed that the #FlorencePark #bandstand has popped up again at the top of the #Oxford #Clarion newsletter (like on October 24) https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekend-7-november-2025/

#oxford: lovely photo of #FlorencePark #bandstand between the arches of a double rainbow appears at the top of this week's #Clarion newsletter: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-24-october-2025/

#oxford: lovely photo of #FlorencePark #bandstand between the arches of a double rainbow appears at the top of this week's #Clarion newsletter: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-24-october-2025/

#Oxford's replacement for the #Tinbergen building now open:

In a statement that suggests the University’s new partnership with ChatGPT is already bearing fruit, Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey said “The Life & Mind building isn’t just a world-class facility – it’s a place designed to bring people together.”

from today's edition of the #Clarion.

#Oxford's replacement for the #Tinbergen building now open:

In a statement that suggests the University’s new partnership with ChatGPT is already bearing fruit, Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey said “The Life & Mind building isn’t just a world-class facility – it’s a place designed to bring people together.”

from today's edition of the #Clarion.

#Oxford #Clarion weekly #news out now: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-25-july-2025/

#Oxford #Clarion weekly #news out now: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-25-july-2025/

#Oxford #Clarion weekly #news roundup: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-18-july-2025/

#Oxford #Clarion weekly #news roundup: https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-18-july-2025/

#oxford #clarion weekly news is out! easily the best #localnews outlet we have. https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-11-july-2025/

#oxford #clarion weekly news is out! easily the best #localnews outlet we have. https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-11-july-2025/

#Oxford has been ranked only the ninth best city for #cycling in the UK by American advocacy group #PeopleForBikes. Cambridge was in first place, followed by the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington, Newham, Waltham Forest, Southwark and Westminster, then Edinburgh. Oxford’s score of 79/100 was calculated from an automated Bicycle Network Analysis assessing routes to common destinations. reports the #Clarion.

methodology is here: https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/about/methodology

#Oxford has been ranked only the ninth best city for #cycling in the UK by American advocacy group #PeopleForBikes. Cambridge was in first place, followed by the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington, Newham, Waltham Forest, Southwark and Westminster, then Edinburgh. Oxford’s score of 79/100 was calculated from an automated Bicycle Network Analysis assessing routes to common destinations. reports the #Clarion.

methodology is here: https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/about/methodology

#ScribesAndMakers 2504.14 — Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation? Or do you already?

The question did not ask if I had enjoyed living in a creative space (past tense).

I did.

I attended the Clarion Writers Workshop (Clarion West). It's for Speculative, SF, Fantasy, and (I think) Horror Genre writing. It's for professionals or professional wannabes. You have to submit work to qualify.

It was literally (pun intended) the best six weeks of my life as an author.

Don't get me wrong, selling is fabulous, but the feeling lasts only a moment (like sex). The sense of community and actually living the life of an author while attending the workshop cannot be beat.

We lived together (except for a few locals) in the dorms of a college in downtown Seattle, cooked together, used the showers together, had our own floor to ourselves. We spent many hours in the common areas gabbing and blue-skying. Mostly, however, we wrote.

Then read what others wrote.

Then critiqued. Learned how to do that well, learned how to anticipate certain critiques from specific authors and to fix our stuff (assuming we thought we need to), learned how to have a hard shell by accepting criticism that helped us, and rejecting what didn't. Largely, we also helped each other through our fears.

Week days we had a guest lecturer who was a professional writer or editor. One day a week, we attended readings, usually at Powell's, by a local writer, though once at an author's place (I think that was for Octavia Butler).

The feeling of community and support was amazing. One time I wrote a 15,000 word novella in 15 hours for critique the next day. That was my max output per hour or per day ever.

I never felt burnt out. Those six weeks seemed to compact six months of life into a short span. When I returned home, I barely recognized my surroundings or old life. Ask my spouse!

Highly Recommended

PS: After reading other responses I want to qualify that I am cripplingly shy, introverted, and write fiction that doesn't go much with my persona. Nobody knew my gender despite an enormous email thread until I arrived, and I got the nickname Ambiguous Spice (and Oblivious Spice) for a reason. I warmed quickly because these were people like me. Kinda weird, some introverted, some extroverted. All in love with words and stories. I warmed up quickly.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #Clarion #ClarionWest #critique #critiquegroupsforwriters #actuallyAutistic

#ScribesAndMakers 2504.14 — Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation? Or do you already?

The question did not ask if I had enjoyed living in a creative space (past tense).

I did.

I attended the Clarion Writers Workshop (Clarion West). It's for Speculative, SF, Fantasy, and (I think) Horror Genre writing. It's for professionals or professional wannabes. You have to submit work to qualify.

It was literally (pun intended) the best six weeks of my life as an author.

Don't get me wrong, selling is fabulous, but the feeling lasts only a moment (like sex). The sense of community and actually living the life of an author while attending the workshop cannot be beat.

We lived together (except for a few locals) in the dorms of a college in downtown Seattle, cooked together, used the showers together, had our own floor to ourselves. We spent many hours in the common areas gabbing and blue-skying. Mostly, however, we wrote.

Then read what others wrote.

Then critiqued. Learned how to do that well, learned how to anticipate certain critiques from specific authors and to fix our stuff (assuming we thought we need to), learned how to have a hard shell by accepting criticism that helped us, and rejecting what didn't. Largely, we also helped each other through our fears.

Week days we had a guest lecturer who was a professional writer or editor. One day a week, we attended readings, usually at Powell's, by a local writer, though once at an author's place (I think that was for Octavia Butler).

The feeling of community and support was amazing. One time I wrote a 15,000 word novella in 15 hours for critique the next day. That was my max output per hour or per day ever.

I never felt burnt out. Those six weeks seemed to compact six months of life into a short span. When I returned home, I barely recognized my surroundings or old life. Ask my spouse!

Highly Recommended

PS: After reading other responses I want to qualify that I am cripplingly shy, introverted, and write fiction that doesn't go much with my persona. Nobody knew my gender despite an enormous email thread until I arrived, and I got the nickname Ambiguous Spice (and Oblivious Spice) for a reason. I warmed quickly because these were people like me. Kinda weird, some introverted, some extroverted. All in love with words and stories. I warmed up quickly.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing and #CommentingIsCool

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion #Clarion #ClarionWest #critique #critiquegroupsforwriters #actuallyAutistic

plenty of other excitement in the latest newsletter from the #Oxford #clarion https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-14-february-2025/

plenty of other excitement in the latest newsletter from the #Oxford #clarion https://oxfordclarion.uk/clarion-weekly-14-february-2025/

REPOST (JAN 2024): My first thoughts on #Psion's dialect of Object Oriented C for the Series 3 and related portable computers.

Includes the JPI/Clarion #TopSpeed #compiler, a proprietary preprocessor, the Eiffel programming language, and a handful of calling conventions.

Also, did somebody say Objective-C?

This is an old blog post from the beginning of the year. If you've been following my journey in recreating #CTRAN, this was written a week before I decided to take the plunge.

https://hackaday.io/project/161291-the-last-psion/log/226441-beginning-olib-an-entirely-uneducated-look-at-psions-proprietary-object-oriented-c

(Yes, I did say in the article that I definitely wouldn't be writing a compiler. I did say that.)

#RetroComputing #EPOC16 #CDECL #Clarion #TopSpeed #TopSpeedC #RetroProgramming #RetroDev #Smalltalk #ObjectPascal #preprocessor #Eiffel #OOP #ObjectiveC #compilers #ObjectOriented

REPOST (JAN 2024): My first thoughts on #Psion's dialect of Object Oriented C for the Series 3 and related portable computers.

Includes the JPI/Clarion #TopSpeed #compiler, a proprietary preprocessor, the Eiffel programming language, and a handful of calling conventions.

Also, did somebody say Objective-C?

This is an old blog post from the beginning of the year. If you've been following my journey in recreating #CTRAN, this was written a week before I decided to take the plunge.

https://hackaday.io/project/161291-the-last-psion/log/226441-beginning-olib-an-entirely-uneducated-look-at-psions-proprietary-object-oriented-c

(Yes, I did say in the article that I definitely wouldn't be writing a compiler. I did say that.)

#RetroComputing #EPOC16 #CDECL #Clarion #TopSpeed #TopSpeedC #RetroProgramming #RetroDev #Smalltalk #ObjectPascal #preprocessor #Eiffel #OOP #ObjectiveC #compilers #ObjectOriented

Clarion is the first to trial 5G-enabled manufacturing via Yes 5G Private Network #5gmalaysia #5gprivatenetwork #5gsa #clarion #digitalnasionalberhad #featured #news #telco #yes #yes5g #yes5gprivatenetwork #ytlcommunications

https://soyacincau.com/2024/05/20/yes-5g-private-network-clarion-advanced-manufacturing/

When I was told that I will receive a student at work, I already got a bit suspicious of that surname he had. Now I asked him, where he's from. Turns out he was from a place in Baden from which some people of that particular name emigrated to #Clarion, Pennsylvania in the 19th century. People for which I created #WikiTree profiles some years ago. He was interested at least ... wish me luck.
#genealogy

When I was told that I will receive a student at work, I already got a bit suspicious of that surname he had. Now I asked him, where he's from. Turns out he was from a place in Baden from which some people of that particular name emigrated to #Clarion, Pennsylvania in the 19th century. People for which I created #WikiTree profiles some years ago. He was interested at least ... wish me luck.
#genealogy

The Clarion Workshop is still accepting applications until March 1! This is an amazing opportunity to level up your writing. The instructors this year are Sam J Miller, Jeffrey Ford, Matt Bell, Nalo Hopkinson, Alyssa Wong, and Isabel Yap.

Application Fee Waivers and scholarships available!

#ScienceFiction #FantasyWriters #SciFiWriters #HorrorWriters #Clarion #ClarionUCSD

http://clarion.ucsd.edu/how-to-apply/

The Clarion Workshop is still accepting applications until March 1! This is an amazing opportunity to level up your writing. The instructors this year are Sam J Miller, Jeffrey Ford, Matt Bell, Nalo Hopkinson, Alyssa Wong, and Isabel Yap.

Application Fee Waivers and scholarships available!

#ScienceFiction #FantasyWriters #SciFiWriters #HorrorWriters #Clarion #ClarionUCSD

http://clarion.ucsd.edu/how-to-apply/

ICYMI: My first thoughts on #Psion's dialect of Object Oriented C for the Series 3 and related portable computers.

Includes the JPI/Clarion TopSpeed compiler, a proprietary preprocessor, the Eiffel programming language, and a handful of calling conventions.

Also, did somebody say Objective-C?

https://hackaday.io/project/161291-the-last-psion/log/226441-beginning-olib-an-entirely-uneducated-look-at-psions-proprietary-object-oriented-c

#RetroComputing #EPOC16 #CDECL #Clarion #TopSpeed #TopSpeedC #RetroProgramming #RetroDev #Smalltalk #ObjectPascal #preprocessor #Eiffel #OOP #ObjectiveC

SecurityAffairs: Alphv group claims the hack of Clarion, a global manufacturer of audio and video equipment for cars https://securityaffairs.com/151299/data-breach/alphv-ransomware-hacked-clarion.html #BlackCat/ALPHVransomware #informationsecuritynews #ITInformationSecurity #PierluigiPaganini #SecurityAffairs #BreakingNews #SecurityNews #hackingnews #CyberCrime #DataBreach #Hacking #Clarion