One of the coolest things about my job is that sometimes, one's own art inspires others to works of art as well. And sometimes, one gets to see those works of art--and even better, hear about the creative process that inspired them.

Dana Watson of From My Wandering Mind made me a beautiful, jeweled set of temari, a Japanese form of embroidery ball that I had never previously heard of, and she's blogged about the experience of creating them here:

Temari: Jeweled Labyrinth Set

You can see them in their final resting place (nearly) there on the left. They really normally live on the corner of that dark brown rolltop desk, out of danger from the dog's vast, sweeping tail... but the light was better on the end table. And the cobalt suncatcher in the window picked up the color of the bowl nicely. So I staged the shot.

I confess! Like Marines on Iwo Jima. We're going to do this until we get this right.

I may have a thing for vividly colored glass. Ahem.

Anyway. if you somehow missed it, yesterday was publication day for Range of Ghosts, the first book in my big, splashy Central Asian epic fantasy called, collectively, "The Eternal Sky." As those of you who read seanan_mcguire's fabulous livejournal doubtless know, that means that we're in the midst of the all-important First Week, where the book's fate is largely decided.

Now, since you are reading my blog, I have to guess that you like my work (or maybe you're hate-reading, or maybe you got here because you Googled "bear temari." I believe we refer to this kind of internet misdirecton as "Google Goggles." Ahem.) So, you know. If the spirit moves you, I have this book out, and you could buy it. So far, people seem to like it.

In addition to the previous links, I bring you a few new ones:

Range of Ghosts at The Big Idea on John Scalzi's Whatever.

My dear agent arcaedia rounds up some reviews here.

And That Boy I Like has some nice things to say about Range of Ghosts here.

I have a very talented boyfriend, especially when it comes to his role as speaker-for-marmots. And speaking of him, he's interviewed on Sword & Laser today.