Prague is the most beautiful city I’ve walked through, and maybe the hardest in which to stay low-carb.
We were in Czechia to attend a wedding, walking down Národní Street on our way to meet the bride and groom, when my kids saw the dumpling shop. You could get dumplings with duck in them, mango, raspberries and cream cheese. Mystery Dumplings.
Each was the size of my fist, and we ate them on a little island in the Vltava while an amateur orchestra played under the bridge, sheltered from the drizzle. Maggie and Ellie didn’t finish their dumplings and gave the rest to me, and that was just five minutes before brunch in Café Slavia. They served Viennese coffee there that was three quarters whipped cream, millet porridge, and croque Madame.
“I’m trying to stay low-carb,” I said pathetically.
“I’m sorry we are…” the groom searched for the right word. “…an obstacle.”
This was the first time any of us had met in person. The bride had read Fellow Tetrapod and invited me to a Discord server. We’d talked once on Zoom. Going from there to Wedding Guest was a little odd for me, but she’d famously met the groom in the comments sections of a youtube video.
We talked about the upcoming wedding, of course, and the dramas of family, the Prague Zoo, and our countries’ respective science fiction communities.
“There’s a lot of Czech science fiction.”
“I know,” I said, thinking of RUR and War with the Newts. “Is there any new stuff?”
The groom escorted us to an enormous bookstore with a long row of new Czech fantastika three shelves high (names include: Blaho, Rachot, Huňová, Bakly, Kyša Šlechta, Neff, Hamouz, Heteša, Bureš, Fabian, Kotouč) as well as some of the most beautiful editions of Pratchett I’ve seen.
“We have a big convention in the spring,” he said. “I know some people there. You should come.” I agreed that I would, wondering why I hadn’t gone to any other local conventions, not even in Sofia.
“My problem is I think out loud,” I said. An excuse. “That makes it hard for me to have a conversation in Bulgarian. I’m trying to make contacts…” I trailed off, tangled up in the desire to not appear afraid.
“My dream — I’ve got to, uh, I have to really improve my Czech.” The bride looked down at her fingers, which she was bending back. “But, um, I want to translate these books into English.”
She spoke like someone who writes more than she talks. With hesitancy, fighting against perfectionism, maybe, but not against fear. This was someone who crossed an ocean to get married with far less assurance than I did. Later, in her wedding dress and dizzy with relief and Toscana Bianco after the ceremony, she would shake hands with me on an editing deal. That’s as much professional networking as I’ve done in six months.
Since the internet soured for me, I’d been trying to ignore it and build real-world connections. “Don’t work with anyone you can’t have coffee with,” I told myself once after a particularly nasty email. It’s an attitude that has handicapped me. But there we were, having coffee (and, later, white wine). There is much we can accomplish if we get out of our own way.
I did some housekeeping this month. Do you know there’s an index of Wealthgiver where you can see all the chapters in order? Do you know about the poll I sent out to readers? With prizes? How about my Discord server? Join it and tell me what you think. There are prizes there, too.
I see other writers giving writing updates. Would you be interested in reading something like that? Here it is: in all the previous drafts, I told myself I’d definitely write that battle scene someday. In May, I finally had no choice but to do it. I had a flash while journaling of an oncoming shell embedded in smoke like a grape in a cloud of cotton. And I wrote that battle. Whew!
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And I read some stuff:
1633* by David Weber and Eric Flint - I liked Island in the Sea of Time and this one is similar: an Appalachian mining town was zapped to 17th century Germany by Alien Space Bats for no discernible reason. There are some interesting characters and a lot of historical details, but this book suffers from the same problem as many alternate histories: the authors playing dollies with their favorite historical figures and political ideologies. Gustavus Adolphus was a good guy. He woulda voted Democrat.
Seize What’s Held Dear by Karl Gallagher - In the third book in the series, our heroes push back the oppressive Censorate and try to figure out what to do with the planet they’ve liberated. The pacing is a little off, but there’s a good balance of high-level military maneuvering and life on the personal level.
Cat Burglar of the Constellations by John C. Wright - This is the third book of the Starquest Series and it goes down like popcorn. Maybe buffalo wings. It’s tighter and more consistent than book two, and does a better job of weaving the big plot arcs around the central story (about a jewel heist). Risking a spoiler: a whole sequence of events I thought was a flashback to the distant past…wasn’t! Awesome.
I spent the month reading some enormously long novels and a draft of an unpublished work that I can’t yet discuss.
Apothecary Diaries - I watched season one with my wife and daughters. It’s fun as a series of little mysteries set in the harem of a fictional Chinese emperor. Yes, there’s lots of sexual innuendo and interpersonal drama. My 12-year-old daughter is very interested.
- I listened to the first several chapters on Youtube, which is not a platform that fits my life. Any chance of getting you to crosspost on Spotify, Trantor? But I kept at it because it’s a good reader and a good story. Far future, humans have become the galaxy’s endangered species, replaced by creatures mostly (but not all) descended from one or another genetic engineering project. Our narrator is an orphan raised by bugs who grows up to rule the galaxy. It’s what I wanted Sun Eater to be.“Food for the Moon” by
- Carter was inspired by ’s “Orbital Authority”: a polity that squats on the ultimate high ground of orbit, dropping tungsten rods on anyone who threatens their position. Carter points out that such a regime would be hellishly tyrannical, and speculates about the revolution that might topple it. Great idea-fodder.“Bone” by
- a short story about a miner on Europa who has a disagreement with his colleague.“In praise of Japanese small” by
- a travel essay about the different things that the builders of Japanese and American cities care about. Arnade is the best travel writer I know of, and always both kind and insightful.“Finland as Germania” by
- in this podcast, Khan connects a pair of recent preprints about ancient DNA to an old question: where did the Germanic-speaking people come from? As always I appreciate his ability to distill complicated data, and clearly communicate the resulting best guess.“Book Review: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids” by
- Scott Alexander is at his best when his feet are on the ground and his tongue is in his cheek. This review was funny enough to make me read it aloud to my wife, and that’s the highest praise I can give. To Scott, if you’re reading this, it does get easier.“REVIEW: Cambridge Latin Course Unit 1” by
- With her usual incisive humor, Psmith lays out the problems of modern language learning, a subject very close to my heart. I agree with her. Although it is better to be fluent and inaccurate than the reverse, if you want to understand and be understood, you have to buckle down and memorize some conjugation tables.
See you next month
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