akashiver | Quick update

New Year's is not one of my favourite holidays. I like the goal-setting aspect of it (I would), but I don't like the "you must have fun!" pressure I associate with New Year's Eve. Nevertheless, I had a very nice New Year's Eve this year. I went down to Seattle & partied with friends I hadn't seen in a very long while. Good food, good drinks, good people. The friends in question have a house near the U district, so I also got to see something of my old Clarion haunts, and learned that braving the liquor store in the U Village on New Year's was not for the fainthearted.

Yesterday I had lunch with some lovely Clarionites: the ever hospitable Leslie (who showed us photos of the World Fantasy Convention that happened to include a lurking

ninja_turbo), the adorable Luke, and some of my talented classmates. One of them, Julia Sidorova, as just heard that Asimov's is going to publish her final workshop story. Her story wasn't traditional SF by any means: it's a fairy tale about a young girl's introduction to science behind the Iron Curtain. I thought it was one of the most powerful stories I read at Clarion, so I'm glad to hear that Asimov's picked it up. I'll make sure to post a link when it gets published.

So that's me. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. Here's to a great 2010!