Over at The Internet Review of Science Fiction, Jen West has posted an interview about Shadow Unit S1 with Emma and Sarah and me (illustrated with Amanda's shiny shiny artwork, too).

First, good news: Subterranan will be publishing the Snow Dragons story. Excelsior!

Today's work, unending thrills! or, more specifically, I have to review those last two Criminal Minds episodes for Tor.com and livejournal, and I have a short story to crit for cristalia, and signature pages to mail back to Subterranean for 7faS, and I have some reading to do.

And is the harpy story writing itself? Is it?

Why no, it is not.

---

And now, the continuing saga of Cat vs. Monkey

Scene: The Bedroom
Time: 2 am

Cat: *walks on Monkey's hair*
Monkey: Hey. Quit it.

...
Scene: The Bedroom
Time: 3 am

Cat: *walks on Monkey's hair*
Monkey: Hey. Quit it.

...
Scene: The Bedroom
Time: 4 am

Cat: *walks on Monkey's hair*
Monkey: Hey. Quit it.

...
Scene: The Bedroom
Time: 5 am

Cat: *walks on Monkey's hair*
Monkey: *pushes at Cat*
Monkey: *accidentally punches cat in the face*
Cat: *yells and runs under bed*
Cat: *continues yelling*
Monkey: *blearily realized what's happened*
Monkey: Hey, kitty. I'm sorry. Are you okay? Kitty?
Cat: You're so abusive.

---

Yeah, that's my life.

Criminal Minds 4x11, "Normal," written by Andrew Wilder, directed by Steve Boyum

There! Caught up!

( Did I do this? )

Yeah, we were about due for one of those.

And because Tor.com is the speediest of speedy things today, they've already processed and posted my review of Criminal Minds 4x10, "Brothers in Arms," which is a much more professional style of review job than what I do here on my own internets.

Seen on the internets...

Best Amazon review ever.

I obviously had an alcohol problem and a deep and intense disrespect for the postal system, but even more importantly I was ignoring the very fabric of our metaphysical reality and inviting destructive influences into my life.

I haven't been warblogging the climbing as obsessively, I know. But tonight was a pretty good night, and I feel like I'm making progress again.

I was having a bad upper body strength night (I blame my menstrual cycle. Seriously. It makes a difference. Stupid iron levels.) and so did not send my project wall. I tried it first, before anything else, and I think I should have done a warm-up, because part of the problem was that I got on the overhang and got nervous. My meat hates falling, and it hates feeling like it's falling. But once I've done a couple of routes, the adrenaline kicks in, and takes the edge off the cowardice.

Monday. Monday, I will get that route.

I did, however, pretty much sail through the tricky traversy part I struggled so hard with on Monday, and there was even one moment of really good foot placement without actually looking that I was really proud of. I remembered where the foothold was and put my foot right on it.

I might be starting to feel a little more secure on the wall again. Confidence is like 40% of climbing. (It's also 40% technique and 40% being strong enough to pull that off, whatever that is. And yes, that's 120%.)

There's a new yellow 5.7 route out back, and I did get that one (yay!) though it took me several tries to get past a tricky high-step, and then I redid some routes I've done before--a reachy yellow 5.7, an unrated and tricky red route that I think is probably a 5.7+ or a 5.8., and a green 5.6 on the slab that needs a hand/foot match. I thrashed on the red one, but it was the last route of the night, and I was Le Tired.

Monday, I want to do some work in the corner and on the crack (there are three routes there that I haven't done honestly, though I've rainbowed them), and work on three unrated routes that I think are probably 5.8s. I've done one of them, but badly, and I want to do it elegantly. I have not done another--it's all side pulls and slopers, and I'm still trying to give my hand some love--and there's a brand shiny new purple one that straddles a very sharp corner that I want to give a shot.

In addition, there are now three 5.7s on the high wall, all of them more or less overhung, and The Jeff and Katie both think I should be working on them. I fear them, however, because they are overhung and I am fat and also a girl, which makes overhangs really kind of challenging.

I suspect boys in general, even not-particularly-brawny boys, do not understand really how much more functional upper body strength they have, and how it affects things like hauling your sorry ass up the underside of an overhang. I also suspect that tiny skinny girls may not comprehend how much of an athletic difference it makes when you weigh 230 pounds, as opposed to 98. Ahem.

I'll probably keep trying them anyway, though, even though they make me sad. 

The only thing about men I envy is the upper body strength.

So, in short, I feel kind of like I did good today. Even if overhangs still suck.