Pixel Scroll 9/24/18 I’ve Reversed The Scrollarity Of The Neutron Flow

(1) CHABON AT WORK ON NEW PICARD SERIES. Newsweek fills in the background behind Sir Patrick Stewart’s tweet: “Michael Chabon, Patrick Stewart Look Captivated in New Star Trek Photo”.

Assembled is the creative team for the new Picard series, and many are also involved with Star Trek: Discovery. Kirsten Beyer is the Star Trek novelist and Discovery staff writer; the Picard series is described as her “brain child.” Michael Chabon is a Pulitzer, Hugo and Nebula-award winning author (he also wrote John Carter). Akiva Goldsman is executive producer of most things in this world, including Stephen King projects like The Dark Tower and Doctor Sleep, DC’s Titans and Star Trek: Discovery . Diandra Pendleton-Thompson is a veteran writers assistant, on Stranger Things Season 3 and now on projects with Goldsman (according to her alumni magazine, she’s also written a pilot “about supernatural mafias in 1970s Las Vegas”). James Duff created The Closer and joined the Star Trek: Discovery team after the exit of former showrunners Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts.

(2) PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS. Voting is open in the final round of the 2018 Peoples Choice Awards, now through October 19. The voting rules specify a “Turbo Voting” periods for this final round (October 4-9) wherein votes count double. You can vote in several ways and  multiple times, up to limits noted in the rules. Winners will be announced in a televised ceremony the evening of November 11.

The full list of nominees is online at E! News, many of them genre. For example, up for the year’s best movie are –

Movie of 2018

Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Incredibles 2
Fifty Shades Freed
A Quiet Place

(3) SMOFCON SCHOLARSHIPS. CanSMOF Inc. has announced the three winners of its scholarships to SMOFcon 36, a con for convention runners.

  • The first scholarship, open to a Canadian citizen or resident, was awarded to Rebecca Downey of Montréal, QC.
  • The second, open to a non-North American resident, was awarded to Marguerite Smith of Dublin, Ireland.
  • The third, open to anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence or citizenship, was awarded to Kate Hatcher of Layton, UT.

SMOFcon 36 runs November 30-December 2 in Santa Rosa, CA.

(4) FISH IN A RAPIDLY GROWING POND. Adam-Troy Castro wrote a confessional post that deals honestly with the tug-of-war between a writer’s aspirations for the field, and for his own career:

You think it doesn’t bother me, on some level, when younger writers make a splash on some epic level I haven’t, when they win multiple awards I haven’t, when they make movie deals I haven’t, you don’t know how the human animal works.

One can be happy for any individual one of them, even several of them, and still seethe with that reptile-animal cry, “You’re forgetting about me!”

Any claim that I had never experienced that thought process would be a lie….

(5) ELEVATOR YOUR GAME. Joshua Palmatier is updating his “Elevator Pitch Project”. Click to see his list of links to the authors’ posts.

A few year ago, I ran a couple of projects designed to help writers with some of the basic essentials of trying to get a novel published, things like query letters and plot synopses. Since then, my blog had changed and those links to those bits of writerly advice from various published authors have been lost. So I thought I’d run another set of projects to refresh those links AND to bring in new thoughts from today’s authors. So for the next three days, I’ll be running three projects, one on elevator pitches, one on query letters, and one on plot synopses. This is the central hub for all of the posts on:

Elevator Pitches:

Here are some thoughts on how to write elevator pitches from various authors. Not everyone does this the same way, so I’d suggest reading through the posts, think about the advice, and then decide which approach works best for you. Maybe try a few of them to find out. This is the first time I’ve done a elevator pitch project, so all of these posts are new. Also, I’ll add to this list if more authors want to participate in the future, so check back every now and then and see if there’s a new post on the list. I hope some of you find these projects helpful!

(6) TOLKIEN. The Hobbit did not appear in German translation while the Nazis were in power. Newsweek revisits the 1936 correspondence that may explain why: “The Hobbit: How Tolkien Sunk a German Anti-Semitic Inquiry Into His Race”.

…New owner Albert Hachfeld fired all Jewish staff and dropped all Jewish writers. In the letter to Tolkien, his firm explained that before it could start work on a German version of The Hobbit, they had to ensure Tolkien’s “Aryan descent,” i.e., make sure he had no Jewish ancestry.

In a letter to his friend and publisher Stanley Unwin, Tolkien said the letter from Berlin was “a bit stiff.” He questioned whether “I suffer this impertinence because of the possession of a German name, or do their lunatic laws require a certificate of arisch [Aryan] origin from all persons of all countries?”

“I should be inclined to refuse to give any Bestätigung [confirmation] (although it happens that I can), and let a German translation go hang,” Tolkien added. “In any case I should object strongly to any such declaration appearing in print.”

Tolkien submitted two draft replies to the German. The first simply ignored the request. But the second demonstrates the author’s opinion on the Nazi state—and its misunderstanding of the word “Aryan”—in no uncertain terms. It reads as follows….

(7) SHEFFIELD HOSTS A WHO. “Doctor Who: Jodie Whittaker lands in Sheffield for red carpet premiere” covers a sneak preview at the site of the opening episode. A companion (get it?) post has a collection of as-it-happened coverage, with pictures: “Doctor Who premiere: How Sheffield red carpet happened”.

(8) BUMBLEBEE TRAILER. The new Transformers movie will be in theaters at Christmas.

On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug.

 

(9) KURTZ OBIT. Here are some more acknowledgements of Gary Kurtz’ passing —

(10) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge and JJ.]

  • Born September 24, 1825 – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Teacher, Writer, Poet, Journalist, and Activist. The only child of free African-American parents, she was a strong supporter of abolitionism, prohibition and woman’s suffrage, and was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to Canada. Her 1860 speculative fiction story “The Triumph of Freedom – A Dream” was anthologized in The Vintage Book of American Women Writers in 2011.
  • Born September 24, 1918 – Bernard J. ‘Jack’ Daley, Writer. I’m quoting his well written obit: “But a large part of his life revolved around writing and an enduring passion for science fiction, fantasy, horror stories and comics. His stories appeared in Infinity and Fantastic Universe, as well as a 1957 anthology of science fiction and fantasy tales. Fun-loving, witty and compassionate, Mr. Daley was among the earliest customers at Greg Eide’s comic store when it opened in Etna in 1972. In the pre-Internet era, “We were all finding each other. Jack would come in with his son, Chris,” said Mr. Eide, who hosted after-hours, monthly gatherings at his store on Saturday night where collectors traded and sold comics while appreciating the imagination of author Stan Lee and the artistry of illustrators like Frank Frazetta.”
  • Born September 24, 1930 – John “Jack” Gaughan, Artist and Illustrator, winner of several Hugo Awards for both Professional and Fan Artist. Working mostly with Donald A. Wollheim at Ace Books, and DAW Books from 1971 onwards, his style could be seen on Andre Norton’s Witch World novels and E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith’s Lensmen and Skylark novels. He was the house illustrator for Galaxy Magazine from ‘69 to ‘74 as well. In addition, you can find his work on the unauthorized first paperback edition of Lord of the Rings which Ace released in 1965.
  • Born September 24, 1934 – John Brunner, Writer, whose best novels I think were The Shockwave Rider, Stand on Zanzibar, and The Sheep Look Up. Stand on Zanzibar won the Hugo and BSFA Awards and was a Nebula finalist. The Jagged Orbit won a BSFA too. He wrote the screenplay for The Terrornauts. And it should be noted he was a Guest of Honor at the first European Science Fiction Convention, Eurocon-1, in 1972.
  • Born September 24, 1936 – Jim Henson, Actor and Puppeteer. After some early puppeteering work on variety shows, Henson became famous for developing puppet characters for Sesame Street. Frustrated at being typecast as a children’s entertainer, he created The Muppet Show, which was wildly popular and led to several spin-off movies. He created a foundation to promote the art of puppetry, and a company which went on to produce movies featuring his creatures, including the cult hits The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. Sadly, he died suddenly at the far-too-early age of 53, but his company continues to mentor puppeteers and produce creatures for movies and TV shows.
  • Born September 24, 1939 – Janet Berliner, Writer and Editor. A South African author who emigrated to the U.S., she co-edited, with Martin H. Greenberg and Peter S. Beagle, the Locus Award-shortlisted Immortal Unicorn Anthology in 1995, an homage to Beagle’s Last Unicorn which includes stories by many well-known SFF authors. She was a past President of the Horror Writers Association, and her novel Children of the Dusk, co-written with GRRM-protégé George Guthridge, won the 1997 Stoker Award for Best Novel.

(11) COMICS SECTION.

  • At Candorville find out “Why Lemont Says We Must Build Oneill Cylinders Now.”

(12) SCIENCE WARRIORS. Amanda Marcotte on Salon interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson, whose new book, Accessory to War, discusses the relationship between science and the military throughout history — “Neil deGrasse Tyson’s ‘Accessory to War’: Where “space scientists and space warriors” collide”.

…In his new book, “Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military,” Tyson and his co-author Avis Lang look the darker side of astrophysics and astronomy — advances in the field have always gone hand in hand with the development of military technology meant to more efficiently kill people.

“The universe is both the ultimate frontier and the highest of high grounds,” Tyson and Lang write. “Shared by both space scientists and space warriors, it’s a laboratory for one and a battleground for the other.”

(13) A PATREON CALL. The “Worlds Without End Patreon Campaign” will help cover the site’s expenses.

What is Worlds Without End?
Worlds Without End is a website and online community built to help fans find, read, and share the best speculative fiction. WWEnd offers a forever free membership and is built around the biggest genre fiction awards and best books lists. It features an array of members-only tools that you can use to narrow your search for your next great read. As part of our community of like-minded fans, you’ll find plenty of reviews, commentary, and recommendations to keep you busy reading great books for years to come. We don’t want you to ever read a bad book again.

From the Patreon appeal:

Worlds Without End is now, and should always be, a free resource to the genre fiction community but real life circumstances have changed, and we are looking for a little help from our members and fans.  We recently lost our free web hosting arrangement with our former employer so we are now having to pay out of pocket for hosting, domain names, and all those other bits of software etc. that go along with running a website.  In addition, we have spent many hundreds of hours developing the site, and with the new WWEnd 3.0 in the pipeline, we are spending more and more of our free time on upgrades and new features.  All that time comes at a personal cost that is getting harder and harder to justify to ourselves and our families….

(14) MAKING LEMONADE. In a manner of speaking. BBC tells “How to use seawater to grow food — in the desert” – with solar energy for power, there are swamp coolers so the crops don’t fry.

“My basil’s a bit straggly,” head grower Blaise Jowett says, apologetically. “But I’m keeping them for pesto.”

He shouldn’t be too apologetic. Outside of the greenhouse, a camel grazes. Pale pink sand extends to the rocky mountains in the distance. Only the hardiest tufts of green thrust up through the ground. There is no water. There are no trees.

(15) UNWINDING THE ENIGMA. From the BBC: “Code-cracking WW2 Bombe operation recreated at Bletchley”.

Computer historians have staged a re-enactment of World War Two code-cracking at Bletchley Park.

A replica code-breaking computer called a Bombe was used to decipher a message scrambled by an Enigma machine.

Held at the National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), the event honoured Polish help with wartime code-cracking.

Ruth Bourne, a former wartime code-cracker who worked at Bletchley and used the original Bombes, oversaw the modern effort….

Chip Hitchcock adds the comment, “Unfortunately this was only one-time; I wonder if they could turn it into an attraction and sell tickets? cf the spy museum in DC, which was jammed when I visited a few years ago.”

(16) THE METRE IS RUNNING. Tech history, with landmarks: “How France created the metric system”. Most Filers probably know the fundamentals, but the present-day traces are interesting.

On the facade of the Ministry of Justice in Paris, just below a ground-floor window, is a marble shelf engraved with a horizontal line and the word ‘MÈTRE’. It is hardly noticeable in the grand Place Vendôme: in fact, out of all the tourists in the square, I was the only person to stop and consider it. But this shelf is one of the last remaining ‘mètre étalons’ (standard metre bars) that were placed all over the city more than 200 years ago in an attempt to introduce a new, universal system of measurement. And it is just one of many sites in Paris that point to the long and fascinating history of the metric system.

(17) POTENTIAL TWOFER. [Item by Mike Kennedy.] The American Astronautical Society’s 11th annual Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium will be 23–25 October 2018  at the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s Charger Union Theater in Huntsville AL. The event is cosponsored by UAH and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The landing page for the event describes it as:

“Galvanizing U.S. Leadership In Space”

The Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium is an annual event that features panel discussions and guest speakers reflecting government, industry, academia, business and international perspectives on space exploration.

Session and speaker topics at this year’s event will include:

  • Commercial Space Initiatives
  • Exploration Technologies
  • Exploration Partners Update
  • Future SLS Missions
  • Gateway Planning
  • ISS Commercialization
  • Lunar Surface Operations
  • National Security in Space
  • Space Policy Direction
  • State of the Workforce

By happenstance, you could come to Huntsville a few days early and meet local fans at Not-A-Con 2018, which is being held 19–20 October. Huntsville was the site for over 3 decades of Con*Stellation, the last one of which (XXXV) was held in 2017. But, the local club (NASFA) is still going strong and wants an excuse to socialize for more than just a few hours… thus Not-A-Con.

(18) ABOUT DOWNSIZING. NitPix says Alexander Payne’s first venture into sci-fi, Downsizing, can’t make up its mind what kind of movie it wants to be. The author of this review, however, has targeted his audience well –

….Everyone has a bit of curiosity about this film – not enough to actually go watch, it obviously….

 

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Dann, Mike Kennedy, JJ, Chip Hitchcock, Jeffrey Smith, Martin Morse Wooster, Cat Eldridge, Carl Slaughter, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Brian Z.]

74 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 9/24/18 I’ve Reversed The Scrollarity Of The Neutron Flow

  1. Cassy B. on September 26, 2018 at 10:55 am said:

    If memory serves from research done years ago when someone in my office found infant kittens… very young kittens sometimes need help to poop.

    That is true but the kitten in that photo is way past that age. That one is months old, not weeks.

  2. @Iphinome: I’d guess from the head-to-body ratio that this is not a young kitten, but it’s not even vaguely my expertise; maybe Laura will comment. Whoever de-pests your new credential can also comment on whether she’s ready to be spayed, or you may want to wait to see whether somebody claims (since you think she’s not originally feral).

  3. Chip Hitchcock: ISTM that’s not a hard-and-fast rule; we’ve had two solos in succession who got along quite well.

    That’s not the point. Cats are social animals, and unless one or more of the humans is going to be at home most of the time, it’s kind of cruel to have a solo cat. They will be happier with a companion.

  4. Iphinome, congratulations on your new credential! They did a very good job in their choice of staff! 🐱

  5. JJ, our cat Dante is now a solo cat; we tried bringing home a friend for him when his (adopted) big brother died, and poor Dante spent two week terrified and shivering under the bed. (It took him another week for him to come out after we reluctantly brought the other cat back to the (no-kill) shelter, and probably a month before he wasn’t acting scared of his own shadow.)

    So we gave up; we just couldn’t put him through that kind of trauma again.

  6. 8)
    This looks actually decent for a Transformers movie, but then I’ve always had a soft spot for Bumblebee, from the cartoon days on, because my parents had a green Volkswagen Beetle when I was a kid. Unfortunately, it never transformed into anything cool and was eventually replaced by a Volkswagen Golf in a bright post office (or Bumblebee) yellow. The official name of the colour was sun yellow BTW.

    BTW, it’s kind of weird to pause a trailer for a Transformers movie to get a glimpse of the untransformed car to determine which generation Beetle it is.

  7. Cassy B.: our cat Dante is now a solo cat… we gave up; we just couldn’t put him through that kind of trauma again.

    Oh, I agree, that’s a different issue. I’ve always had 2 cats; when one died, I waited a month or so, then brought in a kitten to keep the older one company. That’s worked out well for me; though there’s been a bit of bickering and jealousy between some of the pairs, they mostly still got along and were clearly companions to each other.

    When my friend had to move far away and could not take her Bengal cat who was an absolute sweetheart, I tried to integrate him into my 2-cat family. After two weeks of continually having to take bedding to the laundry with large washers which could handle the duvet, spending more than $200 doing laundry because one of my cats was using the bed as a toilet in protest, I ended up sobbing, near a total breakdown from the stress, and having to arrange for a different friend to adopt the Bengal (which ended up working out well, fortunately). Yet that same cat of mine, when his companion died, did just fine with the new kitten. It’s just not something you can predict.

  8. I think adult cats are known to be more likely to adapt well to kittens than to other adult cats. It’s not a sure thing either way, but the younger the new cat, the better the chances that the old cat will accept them.

  9. Iphinome
    I’m so happy you managed to catch her!
    I’m having totally unfair visions of Elmer Fudd with a backpack going after Bugs, but mostly that is because you probably just saved her life and that is a very good thing
    (And it sounds as if it worked brilliantly.)
    From what people are saying it sounds as if she is young, but not an infant.
    She’s been through a lot, being on the street, being scared, so it wouldn’t be surprising if her digestive system was out of wack.
    If she’s happy and eating, she’ll poop eventually.
    If not, mention it to the vet when you take her in.

  10. @lauowolf 🙂

    It was more of a Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner situation. She’d dart from car to car, I’d slip and fall on the wet grass and wrench my knee something horrible. I’d have been content to let her go in peace if she hadn’t been crying so much. Was worried that she was sick. Now I think she was crying for mama. Since she was out there for at minimum two days, mama wasn’t coming.

    And all that singing makes me inclined to call her Breq.

    I’m calling the vet tomorrow. I waited till too late in the day today hoping she’d produce a poops first. She still refuses water, I gave her a little more milk but not a lot, because cow milk not cat milk. She slurps down cat food and cleans a plate fast. I’m worried about the poop backup and her butthole does look rather large but it’s been so long since I’ve had a kitten I don’t remember the ratio.

    She’s not crying at the moment. She’s sleeping on an old towel in the tub. I’ve sat in there with her and give her the run of the room when I do but while her fur’s crawling with bugs I’d like to keep her penned up.

    Don’t know what, if anything she might have eaten while out there other than cat food from me. The skunks and rabbits are way bigger than she is and those tiny claws could hardly scratch my skin. There’s rats sometimes near the dumpsters..

  11. I was having concerns, if she were a young kitten too young to be separated from momma, about her becoming essentially a bottle fed singleton. You really, really don’t want that. If she’s eating solid food, that’s less of a worry, but generally, there’s a reason many rescues won’t send home one kitten to an otherwise catless house. Two kittens are more likely to develop the social skills they need even for humans.

    But yes, that’s a generalization, and if you can be around enough to provide your young cat with lots of interaction, a second cat isn’t essential. And yes, there are nontrivial numbers of adult cats that simply don’t want any cats around that aren’t their own family. They’d rather have just their humans.

    Yet the common notion that cats aren’t social with other cats is just wrong. Free range cats raise their kittens in groups of related females. Males make circuits among the female families in their area. Cat breeders rely on the willingness of related or friendly females to nurse each other’s kittens, and past the tiny and really vulnerable stage, in the readiness of neutered males to also help out with kitten care.

    A kitten that grows up with at least one other kitten or adult cat around is just much more likely to grow up stable, social, and happy.

    And take all that with large doses of “they’re all individuals, and you need to pay attention to what your individual cat’s needs and preferences are.” But with a kitten, I’ll always default to recommending you at least seriously consider a second kitten.

  12. @ anthony
    There certainly used to be a “not doing a decrypt, but at least running” Bombe in the basement of, uh, B-block, I think (basically just inside from the stairs, with hte Bomber reconstruction project exhibit right next to it, and slightly furtjher away, the display of original Turing papers, and the Turing bust).

    TNMOC certainly is where I would expect to see Colossus (and the Heath Robinson).

    And, yes, I am sadly aware that they (BP & TNMOC) no longer get on (but I have not dugf enough to figure out why, and I am not actually sure I want to know).

  13. It’s a boy. The vet said it’s hard to tell at this age, then did something and bloop…. I didn’t need to see that. So gonna need a different name than Breq. Can’t be Seivarden because I didn’t find him in the snow. Unsure of age because adult teeth haven’t come in yet, might be as old as 12 weeks. Slightly hurt paw pad is healing fine, vet said it looked like a burn, possibly from crawling up into the engines of cars. Took me a day to notice the slight limp because I was being mostly climbed on at first.

    No heart murmur, I didn’t ask but apparently, that’s a thing. Virus tests good. Poop test not back yet.

    Kitten is litter box trained, very cuddlesome, crawled all over me to share the fleas, not crying so much anymore but asks for uppie. Happy to play with a shoelace, likes to hop on my lap and fall asleep, or sit on my lap and watch Yuri!!! on Ice on my phone. Also likes to sleep in the little Amazon box I gave him.

    I’ve been making a good-faith attempt to find mama. Rechecked the lost pet websites, walked around the area looking for missing pet flyers. Nothing on the telephone poles, no flyers at Starbucks or McDonalds, nothing in the shop windows. Haven’t seen any people around looking for a lost cat. People who helped me try and catch her didn’t know of anyone missing a kitten. One neighbor had the same idea I did and said she spent a day trying to rescue the kitten, also doesn’t know of anyone missing one.

    Who loses a kitten and doesn’t go looking? Who throws away a litter-trained kitten after a couple months?

  14. Iphinome: Can’t be Seivarden because I didn’t find him in the snow.

    On the contrary, I think that Seivarden is the perfect name for a boy rescued from the cold. 😀

    Congratulation on your new credential! I look forward to photos!

  15. On the contrary, I think that Seivarden is the [purrfect] name for a boy rescued from the cold. ?

    I see what you did there.

  16. Who loses a kitten and doesn’t go looking? Who throws away a litter-trained kitten after a couple months?
    Someone who doesn’t want it. Someone who treats unwanted animals as disposable. (Farmers in west Texas get really tired of people who dump their dogs out in the country. Dogs will form packs that can take down large animals as well as small ones and if the farmers catch them, they’ll shoot them – it’s legal.) Possibly someone who moved and took Momma Cat with them, not realizing that there was a kitten missing; that’s the best version I can come up with.
    Breq/Seivarden has found a good person, though.

  17. Okay, I’m going to be tiresome, here.

    We don’t know how this kitten came to be outside on his own. And when you don’t know what happened, it’s really important to remember that you don’t know what happened.

    There are bad people in the world, who intentionally dump pets.

    There are careless or less than competent people, who didn’t do it intentionally, but whose choices we would consider obviously foolish.

    And there are good people, for whom crap happens. Often major family disruption is involved. Sometimes it’s a car accident that results in a scared animal running off, and the humans not being in any position to go looking immediately because they’re in the hospital, injured.

    Do all that is reasonably possible to find an owner who is looking. But also understand that animals can travel further than either owner or finder thinks plausible, and not finding the owner is not proof that they intentionally abandoned their pet. They may be grieving–and would be relieved to think that, if they can’t find their missing kitten, that kitten is nevertheless safe, warm, fed, and loved by someone else.

    Also, get the kitten microchipped. Maybe you’ve mentioned you’ve already done that, and I’m not remembering right now. But if it isn’t done, I recommend doing it. And then register the chip and keep your contact information up to date.

    I’m feeling a bit sad tonight, because I just learned that one of my favorite fosters, a shih tzu named Gizmo, died yesterday, due to a brain tumor. He was fourteen, and much loved in his forever home. I loved him and his brother Snoopy, when I fostered them, and the family that adopted them together loved them.

    They were also much loved by the owner who had them for nearly ten years, and gave them up most unhappily, because the alternative was that they would all three be homeless and on the streets. His health and mobility was too limited to make that a possible choice. But once you say “given up by the owner after ten years,” people who are sure it could never happen to them, get all judgmental.

    When you don’t know what happened, you need to remember that you don’t know what happened.

  18. For the kitten, how about Uran, Queter’s brother, whom Breq takes in during Ancillary Sword?

    Though actually, Uran is actually not a great cat name by my standards. I think cat names should have hard consonants in them, so they attract the cat’s attention when used. Piat would be better. We don’t know a gender for Piat, I don’t think, which is fine.

    ETA: Lis, I’m so sorry about Gizmo.

  19. Current leading name contenders are Fisher, because we very much like playing with a little toy fish tied to the shoelace and Darcy because shut up I like that book okay?

    Loki, Kylo Ren, Ser Pounce, Sandor, Yuri, and AEthelwulf have been eliminated from contention.

    And he has poop worms.

  20. @Soon Lee: “”Tsundoku” by, uh, Kobo?” was great! 😀

    @Iphinome: Congratulations—you can haz kitteh!

    – Treading water on Pixel Scrolls; I’ll just stay 10 days behind everyone. . . .

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