Kavi left this morning to spend a week with a friend at a Michigan beach house (which friend’s family is renting for their vacation).
We’d originally planned to have her come back after a few days, and go do a quick college tour trip to the East coast, but given how tiring the Southern California tour was for both of us, and given that school starts up for her next week, we decided we’d just let her take the week to relax with her friend and have some solid vacation.
Kavi sent us these pics a little while ago, which I feel validate that decision nicely. 🙂
As for me, I finished watching The Decameron season 1 (eight episodes) today while crafting — better than I expected from the farcical beginning, actually had some heart by the end, and really quite good acting all around.
Recommended, but with a content note that it centers on a plague, with much brutal death, including that of major characters, so if you’re not ready for pandemic TV, maybe skip it for now. It’s on Netflix.
I’ve also been intermittently reading the Pern books, which started as a comfort re-read after getting my fire lizard tattoo in Santa Fe, but I actually ended up reading the whole dang series, and am now on book 22 of 25, where Todd McCaffrey has solidly taken over from his mom.
Mostly, I don’t like his writing quite so well, but books 21-22 feature a LOT of poly content that I was not expecting. Which I mostly appreciate, although with a grain of icky salt, because the series continues to feature young teens (like, starting at 13) courting, having sex, marrying, and having kids. Sometimes with adults much older than them. Which is arguably period-appropriate, but still…gah.
I keep thinking I want to write an essay really taking apart the sexuality in the Pern books (the later books are also very explicitly queer-supporting, taking what Anne had implied and putting it right there on the table), and then I think no, Mary Anne, you don’t actually need the tsuris. (Did I use that right?) Go write your own fantasy novel with dragons instead, and then readers can take apart YOUR books…
I actually think I might be writing a fantasy novel with dragons. Set in a fictionalized version of ancient South Asia. Maybe. We’ll see. I did starting putting down some notes on the Coast Starlight…
