New horizons.

In San Francisco, one of the things that happens when fog and hills come together is the creation of islands. They're always temporary, only lasting as long as the fog or the low-hanging rain, but for a little while - maybe until mid-morning, or maybe all through tomorrow - you can stand on top of a hill or look out from a window and see the end of the world. Beyond a certain point there's nothing but the fog, with maybe the memory of something having been there once but no indication of that being true now. I always loved those times, the feeling of the known and visible world being so tiny with the promise of other things out there. It was a trick the fog played on me, one that I was happy to fall for every time.

It's raining right now, that steady monotonous overcast gray that comes with late summer rain in the Northeast. I can't see beyond most of the buildings around my room on sunny days, and today I can't see more than three blocks down one of the cross-streets. It doesn't feel exactly like island living, but it's that same sort of feeling. There's a lot of cool water out there, and there's warm tea and music in here; so very, very cozy. It'll be a shame to leave it when the moment passes.

Why I shouldn't be allowed in chat rooms.

In a large-scale chat, the question of small fandoms came up, with someone else mentioning she knew someone who wrote fic for The Star Wars Holiday Special. I responded by asking, "Kevin J. Anderson?"

This got someone else to chip in about Brian Herbert, a third person to come up with Timothy Zahn, and someone else entirely to request some sort of slash pairing. I don't quite remember what happened right after that, but eventually everyone agreed there'd be a Zahn-led BDSM scene with Anderson bottoming and Peter David spying on them with binoculars. This ended up with a weird sci-fi author fandom thing going on, with Gaiman and Pratchett off doing their own stuff, Alan Moore and Ursual K. Le Guin having tea in Northampton, and George Lucas ignoring everyone else, as usual.

Nobody was willing to write it themselves - I think being that close to it kind of scared us all off - but if anyone else wants to run with the idea, or simply pass it along, feel free to do so.