Million Writers Award and small Here, We Cross update

Two bits of small news this morning:

1) The storySouth Millions Writers Award Notable Stories List has been released, and I'm very pleased to note that my short story, Love in the Absence of Mosquitoes, earned a mention on the list.

Equally importantly, several other friends, publications and excellent work ended up getting honored. It wasn't a huge surprise to see E. Lily Yu's The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees on this list (small note: I'm really hoping this short story pops up on the World Fantasy World nominee list (hint, hint, hint, nominators currently filling out ballots!) so that she sweeps the award nomination lists. But also joining her were Aliette de Bodard (aliettedb), A.C. Wise acwise), and Kristine Ong Muslim, which is all very cool. And the Journal of Unlikely Entomology earned a nod as well.

2) Here, We Cross, a chapbook of queer and gender-bending poetry, is now available from Amazon.com. I have a poem in it, but the more important part is that sales of this chapbook are going to support Stone Telling, the little speculative poetry zine that has been producing some really marvelous work, and Stone Bird Press, the micropress currently behind Stone Telling and inkscrawl that I'm hoping will be producing various chapbooks and more in the future.

Eating from the back yard

I just ate half a passion fruit from the yard this morning.

The first taste was -- sharp, unexpected, overly sour. (It does not go well with coffee with coconut syrup. I have learned.) But I took another bite, and another, and found that the taste really grows on you.

Along with the passion fruit, we've successfully harvested blueberries (we have one happy bush and one less happy bush, enough in theory to pollinate each other, though we may need to pick up a third blueberry bush) and three raspberries (not bushes; actual raspberries. The squirrels didn't go for the blueberries but they apparently think that raspberries are crack, and the canes did not exactly produce many to begin with). We've also planted a grapefruit tree that's alive, if not exactly grapefruiting, added a lemon tree and two orange trees, a banana tree, and muscatine grape vines (these are the grapes native to Florida). In the front, next to the huge rosemary bush that was here when we arrived, we now have a couple of types of mint (I used some last night), basil, sage, oregano and lavender.

Aside from some of the fruit trees and the rose bushes (roses were already here when we arrived; we've just been trying to add some more bushes to that area so they don't look so bedraggled), and a couple of bougainvilleas near the windows for security (they have long, sharp, thorns), we've mostly been going with native Florida plants out of sheer laziness. I have to say, you put those firebushes in, they go, yay, Florida, and that's about it for the firebushes, one solid reason to go native.

The yard still looks scraggly in places, but you can see where it's going now. And eat things from it.

And yes, let a few squirrels bounce around in it.

And the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season arrives a bit earlier than expected....

I actually hadn't planned on blogging anything about the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season until the official start of the season, June 1st. But the Atlantic, as it generally does, decided to pay no attention to me whatsoever and get started a bit early.

Tropical Storm Alberto formed today in the Atlantic, a couple weeks ahead of schedule, mostly predicted to stay offshore, with a chance of affecting South Carolina in the next few days.

Interesting notes:

1) This is the earliest-forming tropical storm to appear in the Atlantic basin before the start of hurricane season since 2003.

2) This is also the first time tropical storms have developed in the historical record in both the Atlantic and East Pacific basins before the official starts of both hurricane seasons.

3) This is a good reminder to me to buy batteries. We're in a fairly safe part of the state, but if sea turtles are anything to go by, they apparently appeared early in Fort Myers this year...presumably because of the warm sea surface temps in the Gulf of Mexico. So, batteries it is!