November 2018 – Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Thoughts on A Rising Moon

As I mentioned in my post about A Fading Sun, I was fortunate enough to receive its sequel, A Rising Moon, to review right around when I was wondering when it would be published. According to Goodreads, A Rising Moon has been out for a couple weeks now, so it’s seems like an appropriate time to share the review I wrote for Booklist.

Remember, in some parts of the world, it’s traditional to give books at the holidays. But don’t be that guy who gives the first book in a series when it has a cliffhanger ending. Or that guy who recommends a book where the sequel isn’t even published yet, and then the trilogy expands to … how many books is A Song of Fire and Ice aiming for now? Oh, seven. (Yes, it was the same guy. Yes, we’re still friends.)

NOTE: There are spoilers here for the first book. Read beyond this line at your own risk.

At the conclusion of A Fading Sun, the Cateni were a conquered but rebelling people, with their mystical leader Voada Moonshadow killed in a battle against the Mundoans, and the Moonshadow spirit searching for Voada’s daughter, Orla. A Rising Moon is the eagerly anticipated sequel, picking up as Orla flees from the aftermath of that battle to the far reaches of Albann Bràghad. In Onglse, she meets Ceanndraoi Greum Red-Hand, the head wizard who both trained Voada and clashed with her. As expected, the Moonshadow spirit joins with Orla, who then follows the Ceanndraoi back to Albann Deas to fight the Mundoans. She quickly proves that she views the war and the Mundoans differently from her mother and the Moonshadow spirits, refusing the wholesale slaughter that they are encouraging. Her stubbornness and idealism put her at risk, with Moonshadow threatening to consume her spirit, just as she has absorbed all of the wizards who have wielded her power in the past. Will she fall to Altan Savas, the Mundoan war leader, as her mother did, or to her own anamacha?

The end of an era.

My father passed away this week, at a mere 91 years old.

Now I realize that to a lot of people, 91 is downright ancient. But Dad didn’t really start showing his age until the last few years, after being hit by a couple strokes. He climbed his last mountain, Pacaya, at 80, with my cousin’s family. He stopped playing racquetball at 72, not because he couldn’t play anymore, but because there weren’t racquetball courts nearby. And at 91, he was still happily traveling at every opportunity – he visited his little sister in England, went to his mother-in-law’s birthday party in Oregon, and was on a cruise in September when he fell ill. As I said, a mere 91.

I can’t tell most of Dad’s story; I’ve only been around for about half of it. But it started in Darlington, England before World War II, included military service just after the war, and was followed by a move to the United States after he completed his Library Science degree. He spend a couple of years in Ohio, followed by some time at the University of Illinois, Penn State University, and Portland State University (yes, he went from one PSU to another), before finishing his career at the University of Miami in Florida. A work trip brought him to Guatemala when I was in elementary school; the next summer, we came to Guatemala to learn Spanish.

Our family has never quite left since then, as we moved here for junior high with visits between here and Miami. By the time Dad retired, they had a house here, which they used as a base to help raise some of the grandchildren while traveling around the world. We are left with a great number of books, including an extensive Jerome K. Jerome collection, whose bibliography Dad worked on for years. Dad was rather excited the day I cracked open one of his English copies of Three Men in a Boat and found a printing mistake he didn’t have cataloged.

He also collected stamps, primarily ones featuring Catholic saints, and was a 50-year member of the American Philatelic Society. In his younger years, he also enjoyed rock climbing; he took us once when I was young. (I enjoyed that adventure far more than my sister did.) When I visited Devil’s Tower a few years ago and saw people climbing the sides of it, I asked him if he had done that. He had visited, but never climbed it.

As a child, I was spoiled not only by living in a house with thousands of books – and free access to all of them – but with access to an incredible research library as well. My sister and I were frequent visitors at the university’s library throughout our childhood, so I was quite familiar with it by the time I started college. I’m sure Dad hadn’t read all of those books, but if you ever played a trivia game with him, you might have thought he had. Even a year ago, I was still losing to him at trivia.

He was fiercely independent, rarely requesting assistance and frequently refusing it outright when offered for something he thought he could still do. He appreciated a fine drink – wine, whiskey, or good beer – but would politely accepted cheaper alternatives, like whatever beer Mom drinks. He took advantage of Miami’s climate to light up the Big Green Egg year round, and grilled a fabulous steak.

He will be missed.

Dorkstock 2018: Mission Accomplished

Dorkstock has always been a labor of love, a mini-convention run by John Kovalic’s fans within a larger convention. This was our third year being hosted by Gamehole Con, and I think the first time that Dorkstock has been a four-day convention. We had an incredible game schedule this year, filled with assorted Munchkin and Chez games, among other favorites from Steve Jackson Games, and both Steve Jackson and Phil Reed were in attendance. We pulled out some classic Out of the Box games and other, more esoteric games like Cthulhu in the House and Knuckle Sammich.

Igor bars, 3-D Dork Frag, 3-D Dork Tower board game, life-sized Warhamster Rally

But one of our gamemasters goes above and beyond, creating 3-D and life-size versions of some of her favorite games. This leads to interesting e-mail conversations like “is an 18-inch hex large enough for a person to stand in”? (Yes, yes it is.) Among other masterpieces were the 3-D Dork Frag (originally published in an issue of Dork Tower), the 3-D Dork Tower board game (a parody of the classic Dark Tower game), the life-sized Escape from Dork Tower (not pictured), and the life-sized (with 18-inch hexes) Warhamster Rally. Those are certainly a labor of love. I’ll content myself with making the occasional Igor bars and running a few games.

Oh, and planning for next year… Gamehole Con announced their dates for 2019: October 31st through November 3rd. Can you say “Dorkstock Costume Party”?

Shaken, not stirred.

As much as I enjoy a fine whiskey, it’s not my go to drink. Good whiskey should be sipped, in small quantities, and sometimes with dessert. Bad whiskey should be ignored. Life’s just too short for lousy drinks.

Despite the title, I’m not particular about whether my martinis are shaken or stirred. I own a martini shaker, but for expediency (which happens when you make your drink after you’re done cooking and have to worry about defending your food from the kitten), I rarely use it, so stirred is my default. I always make martinis on the rocks. In fact, I rarely use ice cubes for anything else; I don’t like diluting juices.

And I always make martinis with gin. I don’t particularly like vodka (though Whiskey Acres does have delightful sipping vodka), and have never seen the appeal of vodka martinis. What has changed in recent years is the variety of gins I’m trying in my martinis. It started a few years ago when my ex-husband discovered a North Shore Distillery gin. That has an amazingly distinctive flavor, and is probably sippable on its own if you’re so inclined.

Vikre Distillery Boreal Cedar Gin Now I make an effort to try different gins, rather than making the same martini every time. Two Brothers, a local brewing company, recently expanded their selection to include spirits, so I’ve tried theirs. I have some regrets about not picking up a Journeyman Distillery gin while I was in Michigan, but I should be able to pick it up at Binny’s. Some days, I pick my gin based on the bottle design; on others, I take the time to put on my glasses and read the descriptions. The current bottle is from Vikre Distillery in Minnesota; the Boreal Cedar Gin is described as “… infused with the smoky aroma of cedar wood, citrusy wild sumac, and a trace of black currant.” It was actually a tough choice between their cedar, juniper, and spruce gins, and I may have to try the others at some point.

Life’s also too short for boring drinks.