We’re Having a Baby! (And a Book!)

Sorry for the lack of updates, all. Don’t know if you noticed, but it’s been a hell of a year.

First – my wife and I are indeed pregnant. She’s eleven weeks along now, and we found out yesterday morning that we’ll be giving birth to a baby girl. My wife’s (and daughter’s) Jewish tradition prevents us from revealing the name yet, but rest assured, we have one in mind. I addressed her in French by her name, and felt power there. I don’t want to loose that upon the world until she’s ready.

Until then, we’ve been calling her la Pousse: the Sprout.

If you’re interested in helping us out, my wife has a registry together here: Our BabyList Registry. If you’re American, I’ve got quite a list of French books over at Amazon.com.

We call her the Sprout because the day before the strip turned blue, my seeds sprouted. I started an autumn garden, un jardin potager, of Japanese and Chinese greens I ordered out of Kitazawa. And that day, the komatsuna greens and the hidabeni radishes pushed their first tiny leaves out of their Dixie cups.

They’ve grown a bit since, the komatsuna and hidabeni in particular bursting out into huge shaggy growths I had to harvest back just to give everyone else room.

That harvest ended up in here:

My wife’s first Japanese meal since the morning sickness started, and she used my own greens for it.

And she’s getting a story published! Her first in SF/F/H. She’s been beaming around, “just like my hubby!” The story is called “Yerushalmi,” about a family in genderqueer future Jerusalem, and it’ll be published in Solarpunk Sunscapes in 2022.

And …oh yes.

I’m writing again myself.

I was able to wring a first draft of a short story out in August, but it needs time to heal before I go after it again. In October, my friend in London recommended The Screwtape Letters to me. “Interesting,” I said as I closed the book, “but I wonder what it would be like with Buddhist mara instead of Anglo-Catholic devils?”

So, for NaNoWriMo, I worked on what I’ve worktitled The Gandharva Letters. Tahna, who is Thirst, sits on high in the divine realms, instructing her two sisters Raga, who is Desire, and Arati, who is Aversion, in the proper tempting of the Soul. The Soul might escape, you see, from the cycle of death and birth, and their father Mara would be most displeased to lose even one small soul.

I did not follow the 1667 words/day NaNoWriMo plan, though. Still healing. So I promised myself “just one sentence.” Because that one sentence always becomes more. Just one sentence per day. A different stint …but a good one. I keep writing sentences, you see.

And last, I am practicing again. Not Roscoe Learns to Think, not yet, but…getting there. As with everything, more on our story as it develops.