Hello! Still alive. Working hard (they are going to review my job description and salary banding, hoorah) and playing with the kitten (she'll be one year old in July, dawww), mostly. And running. Still plenty of running. Doing a 5k race this month, thinking of graduating to a 10k next. Oh, and reading. And buying a Kindle (whee! SO EXCITED CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO ARRIVE). I'm going to have to sort out being on AO3, I guess.

Sadly, I can't seem to find Kindle editions of Tamora Pierce's books, the kick I'm currently on. Kel is my favourite, because - as discussed w/ Trout and Caladria - she's not magical, she doesn't have gods turning up all the time, she doesn't have that inescapable Touch Of Destiny thing, like Alanna and Daine - she's simply determined, intelligent, and caring. She could just have been another lady at court, but no, she chooses to become a knight. I'm only sad that it hadn't yet been published when I was a kid.

I'm loving Aly too (just read Trickster's Choice, trying to find a matching edition of Trickster's Queen - dammit, why all the different covers?). And the postcards from home with news of past characters (Daine's shapeshifting baby, OMG OUCH).

I was thinking how wonderfully female-centric the Tamora Pierce books are. There are all sorts of women, good and bad and all shades in between, with all sorts of strengths and weaknesses... It's not as if the male characters are neglected, far from it - but it just feels so nice to have such a, a feast of women. Women who are heroic because they're good at swordfighting, or because they're intelligent and devious, or because they're really good at weaving or dealing with animals, or because they have magical talents or lots of experience, or because they're leaders or politicians or stepmothers or chefs or...

It's the antithesis of the Token Woman who represents all of womankind. It's really refreshing.

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Oh, Russian spambots, pls to be leaving me alone. Don't think I can't see your hidden html. What is the point of the white dot with the link to a sex site (I presume; I've not clicked on it)? I honestly don't geddit.