Comet ISON

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I’m looking forward to the premier of the PBS special on Comet ISON. The show premieres Wednesday, November 20th. Check your local listings for Comet Encounter.

Comet ISON

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

And then, don’t forget to go outside at night now until the day before Thanksgiving. If you have a good pair of binoculars and are at a dark site, look to the East during early morning. November 28th may be the end for Comet ISON. No one knows if it will survive it’s close encounter (perihelion) with the sun at that point. It will either break up after the 28th or keep on glowing and become visible to the naked eye. I really hope the latter happens. If it does, prepare for a show in early December.

Only One More

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Today is 11/12/13 if you live in the US and/or subscribe to the writing-the-month-first scheme of things. There’s only 12/13/14 next year and then we’re out of sequential dates like that until the 2100s begin. Go do something fun to celebrate today. The Taste Tester is making his famous lasagne tonight–celebration enough for me!

P.S. Just to whet your appetite (hopefully), the next issue of QSB Magazine will likely include articles on afternoon tea, board games, bees, books, planets, and much more. Stay tuned.

It’s November but I’m not NaNoWriMo-ing

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For those of you who are attempting to write 50,000 words this NaNoWriMo (November for National Novel Writing Month), I salute you.  Best wishes!  I’m going to focus my writing intentions this month on getting the next long-awaited issue of QSB out into the world.  The plan (fingers crossed) is to have the new issue go live during Thanksgiving week.  Good luck to all of us as we keep on writing.

NaNoWriMo-2013-Power-Up-Flyer

We’ve Lost Barbara Mertz

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The author of one of my favorite mystery series passed away this morning. Barbara Mertz wrote the Amelia Peabody books under the name “Elizabeth Peters.” Loved those books; I might have to revisit some of my favorites soon. Here’s an obit from USA Today. Her “Barbara Michaels”  books are good reads too.

Two More Years

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I just extended the hosting and domain name registration for Quarterly Speed Bump for another two years. Guess there will be magazine issues again soon(ish). How’s your summer going? Got any plans for the next two years? 🙂

Hello Bandwagon

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Place on hold list for The Cuckoo's CallingThis morning when I finally got around to reading the news, I rushed to my library’s website to put J.K. Rowling’s new mystery on hold. I’m not anywhere near the beginning of the line but 82 people will have a longer wait than I. Although they already own 7, my library system has ordered an additional 45 copies of the book–wonder if they’ll have to wait for a new printing?

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, NPR explains.

Summer Daze

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You may have noticed (I hope you noticed) that spring came and went without a new issue of Quarterly Speed Bump Magazine. And, summer is marching on. What can I say but that the writer’s block is just starting *knock wood* to melt away a drop at a time. My block is/was made out of ice, you see, and I have been frozen in front of the keyboard.

A long vacation with The Taste Tester helped. And, I’ve been reading a ton–replenishing the well, I guess.

Here’s some street art I ran into the other day (I had to look way up) and appreciated. Perhaps you will too. Climbed any utility poles lately?

birdhouses on utility polebirdhouse signI’ll be talking to you again…hopefully sooner rather than later.

All Quiet on the Blogging Front

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Confession: I am battling one of the worst cases of writer’s block that I’ve ever had.  Not really sure what the cause is but you notice the result is few-to-no blog posts.  Still working on the next issue of the magazine (Spring!) and one hopes it will come out while it still is spring but not yet sure of the exact date.  Watch this space!  How’s your spring going?  Any tips for battling ye olde dreaded writer’s block?

Happy Spring!

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 Jack Rabbit

Do you have plans for the season ahead?  We’re planning to finish the Spring 2013 issue of QSB Magazine.  No date set yet but we’ll let you know.

Foodie Fangirl Moments

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The Winter 2012/2013 issue of the magazine took a lot more time than usual (have you seen it?) and I fell behind on my perusal of forthcoming books.  Allow me to jump with joy and excitement for a moment (*sPrOiNg*). New books are coming out by some of my favorite authors:

Michael Pollen’s Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation and Deborah Madison’s new cookbook, Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, both arrive next month.

What books are you looking forward to?