Randonymity

• ‘Tis true – Chaos is going to be 11 on Sunday. You can scroll to the bottom of the post to see what he thinks about that. 😉 Here are a few posts with kitten pictures.

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a copy of Forged by Desire by Bec McMaster. Closes September 27. US & Canada.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and AAR (romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• It’s Banned Books Week. Read about ten 21st century bestsellers that have faced being banned. Great quote from Judy Blume about censorship.
• “Romance and the ‘Meaning of Life’“.
• Some thoughts from Dear Author on the possibility of malicious book links.
• Becky Black on why authors shouldn’t fall in love with their characters.
• A Christian blogger has rewritten Harry Potter…
• “How to tell if you’re in a MFA workshop story“. (via ninjaboots)
• Intensity at the library.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• If your phone was borked by the iOS 8.0.1 update, here’s how to roll it back. Or you could give iOS 8.0.2 a try.
• Many adjunct professors don’t even make minimum wage. (via emmaseasall)
• The physics of space battles. (video) (via The Mary Sue)

Cookity

• Pumpkin pie spice.
• Kale and potato gratin.
• 15 vegan comfort food recipes.
• Pumpkin buttermilk biscuits. (via blue–spruce)
• Honey apple mini bundt cakes.
• S’mores nachos. (via The Kitchn)
• Baked apple chip dessert nachos. (via The Kitchn)
• Chai sweet potato cupcakes.
• 10 cakes for anytime.

Gluten Free

• Bacon jalapeno cornbread.
• Bierocks.
• Apple gingerbread snack cake.
• Apple butter.

Crafty

• Knit a sweater with a pattern of spinning wheels in the yoke. (via chrisallenriley)
• Basic crochet for knitters.

Cool

• The Dragon Building in Wat Samphran, Thailand.
• LEGO Mal Reynolds, Han Solo, and Peter Quill.
• 8-bit game version of The Matrix.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark remixed as a black-and-white silent film. (via Gizmodo)
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• “Poke-A-Pixel” wafflemaker.
• Build cardboard furniture for your short-term lodging needs.

Wha…?

• Poots.
• Metal blood bag flask.
• Craft beer jelly.
• Caramel apple coated with Caramel Apple Oreos.
• Orange-flavored Halloween milk.
• Pumpkin spice hummus.
• Scented duct tape. (Fragrances = asthma and migraines for me, so this is a horrible development from my perspective.)
• Kansas is declaring October to be Zombie Preparedness Month.
• Setting up your Christmas patio.

LOL

• Oh Canada.
• Generic surprise birthday party.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey as a 60-second cartoon.

Teh Cute

• Snow leopard and baby! Lioness and baby! Baby leopard! Hummingbirds! Baby cheetahs! Red panda! Black kitten!

Reading Update
London Falling (Shadow Police #1) by Paul Cornell. Very good urban fantasy about three police officers and an analyst who find themselves able to see the unseen as they pursue something murderous throughout London. It took me a couple of chapters to get drawn into this, in part because it starts so mundanely and with a lot of names to suddenly remember. After that, I was immersed – so immersed that I didn’t even realize it was written in third-person omniscient until well past halfway.
The Severed Streets (Shadow Police #2) by Paul Cornell. Pretty good urban fantasy, but not nearly as good as the first book – this was definitely a sophomore effort, suffering some times from self-consciousness and at others from trying too hard. While I enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s initial brief appearance in the book as a clever cameo, I found his reappearing and having a significant part to play in the narrative much less enjoyable. It felt as if a line was crossed, if that makes any sense.
Thicker than Water (Felix Castor #4) by Mike Carey. Good installment of the series in which Felix finds out altogether more about demons than he really bargained for. Very intense read, this. Definitely reading the fifth and presumably last book (since it was written five years ago) immediately.
The Naming of the Beasts (Felix Castor #5) by Mike Carey. I believe this is the final Felix Castor book, unless the author decides to begin a new story arc in the future. Felix ends up roughly where the series began, trying to fix what he broke three years ago. Many of the faces will be familiar from the previous books, as everything swirls down to a final confrontation.
Hard Spell (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation #1) by Justin Gustainis. Ok urban fantasy from the point of view of a cop in the Scranton, New Jersey, Police Department’s paranormal division.
Evil Dark (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation #2) by Justin Gustainis. Ok addition to this series about a cop who investigates paranormal crime in New Jersey. These are an enjoyable enough distraction, but not exactly involving or compelling reads.

---

“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos