#Diane Burgis

[ereborne]

1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 15, 17, 20, 26, 32, 44, 46 (weird or genre-defying books), 47, 50

Thank you for so many prompts!! This was so fun to do and now it is so long. I hope it's as good to read as it was to write out!

1) Name the best book you've read so far this year: I answered Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire to digs just a moment ago, but I'm glad you asked too, because honorable mention goes to Inheritance by Nora Roberts. It came out in November, not technically 2024, but time is fake and 2024 is just beginning anyway, so I'm counting it. Inheritance starts pretty slow and for a bit I was wondering how it was going to manage a satisfying resolution, and then I realized she was doing something new! (unfair. she's been building to this since 2015, it's just that now is when it's starting to really click with me) Instead of a trilogy with three couples whose romance arcs each get centered in their own book, this is going to be a trilogy focusing on unraveling the family curse/haunting, with the four main characters growing tighter as a unit (and forming their two romantic pairs, of course) throughout. I really like the characters and I am delighted by the curse/haunt storytelling. Cannot wait to see more.

2) Favorite fantasy book(s): this is so hard. okay, okay, brief rundown. brief. I can do this. bookshelf by bookshelf, I think. we'll take as granted everything by Seanan McGuire, sure. Bayou Moon and Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews. By the Sword and From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Bryony and Roses and Summer in Orcus by T Kingfisher. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane. The Long Patrol-Marlfox-Taggerung by Brian Jacques, which I always read in a shot as if they were one book. Similarly, the Protector of the Small and Magic Circle quartets by Tamora Pierce, and the Icewind Dale trilogy by RA Salvatore. Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham. The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien (really all the LotR trilogy, but even I cannot say I sit and read them all three straight through as if they were one). The Wee Free Men and Thud! by Terry Pratchett.

4) Favorite science fiction book(s): The Ship Who Sang and Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey. Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. Exit Strategy and Network Effect by Martha Wells. The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. Rescues and the Rhyssa by TS Porter (also a favored queer fiction book, but I love the alien worldbuilding so much it has to be here)

8) Favorite queer fiction book(s): Humanity for Beginners by Faith Mudge. Nightvine by Felicia Davin. the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis (also a down-in-one-shot series). Holly and Oak by R Cooper.

12) Favorite horror book(s): I haven't read too many horror books, so my pool is limited here, but The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher both gave me the shudders so bad.

15) Which genre(s) are your favorite? Fantasy! I love all the fantasy subgenres, and especially the magical realism overlaps.

17) Favorite finished book series: How finished is finished? A lot of my serieses are made up of several trilogy/quartet subsets together in a world. hmmmm. The Protector of the Small quartet again by Tamora Pierce, I think.

20) Where and how do you find new books to read? I mentioned in my reply to digs that I'm subscribed to a ton of newsletters, but I feel like I undersold their effect on me. I don't know how many I'm subscribed to--just sat here and off the top of my head counted to eighteen that post at least weekly and I'm so sure I'm missing some--and I love having that regular infusion of book progress and reviews and writing thoughts and commentary. I really do recommend that folks subscribe to their favorite authors.

26) Favorite novella(s): Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews. The Seven Brides-to-Be of Generalissimo Vlad by Victoria Goddard. Jackalope Wives by T Kingfisher.

32) Name your favorite author(s): massive overlap with everybody else I've listed here. who haven't I mentioned? Jennie Crusie, Jayne Ann Krentz, JD Robb (which is a Nora Roberts penname but they've got distinct enough works I want to list them out separate). Patricia Briggs, Patricia C Wrede, Max Gladstone, Gail Carriger, Nalini Singh. And Ed Greenwood, about half the time.

44) The book(s) whose stories have become part of your very makeup: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. Watership Down by Richard Adams. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey. The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard.

46) I like (weird or genre-defying books), recommend me a book to read, please: First thought was the Humans Are Weird series by Betty Adams, though that might not be what you mean. They're intensely fun collections of 'humans are space-orcs' style vignettes. Maybe more directly books that are weird would be the Craft Sequence series by Max Gladstone and Hammers on Bone by Cassandra Khaw. Very toothy complicated magical realism. And my favorite genre-blending books are always the Elemental Masters books by Mercedes Lackey. A Study in Sable for instance is equal parts a Sherlock Holmes story and a retelling of The Twa Sisters fairytale, and also a coherent installment in an ongoing historical fantasy series about elemental mages in early 1900s England.

47) What are the last three books you read? Indexing by Seanan McGuire, Die in Plain Sight by Elizabeth Lowell, Pirate's Honor by Chris A Jackson

50) What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future? This is such a fascinating question. I don't know that there's anything in particular that I've always wanted and never found, but there are things I'm always looking for more and better examples of. I'm extremely picky about soulmate AUs, so a good one especially captivates me. Oh, or a really well-handled impromptu adoption! Child characters and bureaucracy are both tricky to write and things I know a lot about, and when they're done well they hook me so hard.

[levinletlive]

It's over 100°F today and we're 9 unions strong turning up the heat on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.

We are the 4th wealthiest county in California, yet we are one of the worst compensated county workforces in the state! We can't hold onto new hires because we're so understaffed and overworked that they get overwhelmed and leave within a couple of weeks. Our workers go to Solano and San Francisco County to get better pay for the same work.

If you're on public assistance of any kind in California, but especially in Contra Costa County, this is about you too. Our clients' cases get discontinued and benefits get delayed through no fault of their own because we literally don't have enough people to stay in compliance. Tour food stamps could be late this month or next month. Your medi-cal could take weeks to get approved while you sit in the hospital. Even the Public Defenders are understaffed and underpaid, so if you're facing incarceration your representation is at risk. Rent, gas, child care, and medical costs are skyrocketing. Most of us are a paycheck or two from losing our homes.

We have confronted the BoS about this, and their response, verbatim, was "it's not a priority." Not "we can't afford it", not "we can't do it". Fairly staffing and compensating the workforce is not a priority. Therefore, our clients and communities are also not a priority.

Our contracts are up in 9 days. If you are in Contra Costa County or the surrounding area, or even if you just want to give the BoS a piece of your mind, you can contact them here and give them a piece of your mind.

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors

Federal Glover, Diane Burgis, Candace Andersen, Karen Mitchoff, and John Gioia

1 (925) 655-2350

1025 Escobar Street

Martinez, California 94553

Emails and other info here:

When we fight, we win! Tell Contra Costa County to staff up!

[eastcountytoday]

Community Celebrates Opening of BART to Antioch Extension, Opens Saturday

Community Celebrates Opening of BART to Antioch Extension, Opens Saturday

A ribbon-cutting celebration was held today for BART’s newest addition, the BART to Antioch extension.

Elected officials and BART representatives joined hundreds of community members for the ceremony outside of the new Antioch Station, one day before the official start of service.

BART Director Joel Keller receiving a Key to BART.

“East County residents now have an environmentally friendly,…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The 2019 Locus Award nominees: your guide to the best sf/f of 2018

Locus Magazine has published its annual Locus Award finalists, a shortlist of the best science fiction and fantasy of the past calendar year. I rely on this list to find the books I've overlooked (so. many. books.). This year's looks like a bumper crop.

Now that the finalists have been announced, Locus subscribers and others can cast their votes; the awards will be presented in Seattle during a weekend-long event that runs June 28-30, MC'ed by Connie Willis.

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager US; Hodder & Stoughton)

The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)

If Tomorrow Comes, Nancy Kress (Tor)

Revenant Gun, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

Blackfish City, Sam J. Miller (Ecco; Orbit UK)

Embers of War, Gareth L. Powell (Titan US; Titan UK)

Elysium Fire, Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz; Orbit US)

Red Moon, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Unholy Land, Lavie Tidhar (Tachyon)

Space Opera, Catherynne M. Valente (Saga)

FANTASY NOVEL

Lies Sleeping, Ben Aaronovitch (DAW; Gollancz)

Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett (Crown; Jo Fletcher)

The Monster Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson (Tor)

Deep Roots, Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com Publishing)

Ahab’s Return, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, Theodora Goss (Saga)

The Mere Wife, Maria Dahvana Headley (MCD)

The Wonder Engine, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)

Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik (Del Rey; Macmillan)

Creatures of Want and Ruin, Molly Tanzer (John Joseph Adams)

HORROR NOVEL

In the Night Wood, Dale Bailey (John Joseph Adams)

Unlanguage, Michael Cisco (Eraserhead)

We Sold Our Souls, Grady Hendrix (Quirk)

Coyote Songs, Gabino Iglesias (Broken River)

The Hunger, Alma Katsu (Putnam; Bantam Press UK)

The Outsider, Stephen King (Scribner; Hodder & Stoughton)

The Listener, Robert McCammon (Cemetery Dance)

Cross Her Heart, Sarah Pinborough (HarperCollins UK/Morrow)

The Cabin at the End of the World, Paul Tremblay (Morrow; Titan UK)

Tide of Stone, Kaaron Warren (Omnium Gatherum)

YOUNG ADULT BOOK

The Gone Away Place, Christopher Barzak (Knopf)

The Cruel Prince, Holly Black (Little, Brown; Hot Key)

The Belles, Dhonielle Clayton (Freeform; Gollancz)

Tess of the Road, Rachel Hartman (Random House)

Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)

Cross Fire, Fonda Lee (Scholastic)

The Agony House, Cherie Priest & Tara O’Connor (Levine)

Half-Witch, John Schoffstall (Big Mouth House)

Impostors, Scott Westerfeld (Scholastic US; Scholastic UK)

Mapping the Bones, Jane Yolen (Philomel)

FIRST NOVEL

Children of Blood and Bone, Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt; Macmillan)

Semiosis, Sue Burke (Tor)

Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)

The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager US; Harper Voyager UK)

The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

Annex, Rich Larson (Orbit US)

Severance, Ling Ma (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)

Trail of Lightning, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga)

Empire of Sand, Tasha Suri (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

NOVELLA

The Black God’s Drums, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean)

“Umbernight“, Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld 2/18)

Black Helicopters, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tor.com Publishing)

Time Was, Ian McDonald (Tor.com Publishing)

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)

The Freeze-Frame Revolution, Peter Watts (Tachyon)

Artificial Condition, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

The Descent of Monsters, JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)

NOVELETTE

“The Donner Party”, Dale Bailey (F&SF 1–2/18)

“Okay, Glory”, Elizabeth Bear (Twelve Tomorrows)

“No Flight Without the Shatter“, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com 8/15/18)

The Only Harmless Great Thing, Brooke Bolander (Tor.com Publishing)

“The Last Banquet of Temporal Confections“, Tina Connolly (Tor.com 7/11/18)

“An Agent of Utopia”, Andy Duncan (An Agent of Utopia)

“Queen Lily“, Theodora Goss (Lightspeed 11/18)

“Nine Last Days on Planet Earth“, Daryl Gregory (Tor.com 9/19/18)

“Quality Time”, Ken Liu (Robots vs Fairies)

“How to Swallow the Moon“, Isabel Yap (Uncanny 11–12/18)

SHORT STORY

“The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington“, Phenderson Djèlí Clark (Fireside 2/18)

“The Bookcase Expedition”, Jeffrey Ford (Robots vs Fairies)

“STET“, Sarah Gailey (Fireside 10/18)

“A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies“, Alix E. Harrow (Apex 2/6/18)

“Cuisine des Mémoires”, N.K. Jemisin (How Long ’til Black Future Month?)

“The Storyteller’s Replacement”, N.K. Jemisin (How Long ’til Black Future Month?)

“Firelight“, Ursula K. Le Guin (Paris Review Summer ’18)

“The Starship and the Temple Cat“, Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 2/1/18)

“Mother of Invention“, Nnedi Okorafor (Future Tense)

“The Court Magician“, Sarah Pinsker (Lightspeed 1/18)

ANTHOLOGY

The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten, Ellen Datlow, ed. (Night Shade)

The Book of Magic, Gardner Dozois, ed. (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)

The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Worlds Seen in Passing, Irene Gallo, ed. (Tor.com Publishing)

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018, N.K. Jemisin & John Joseph Adams, eds. (Mariner)

Robots vs Fairies, Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe, eds. (Saga)

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year, Volume Twelve, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

Infinity’s End, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Solaris US; Solaris UK)

The Underwater Ballroom Society, Tiffany Trent & Stephanie Burgis, eds. (Five Fathoms)

The Future Is Female!, Lisa Yaszek, ed. (Library of America)

COLLECTION

The Tangled Lands, Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell (Saga)

Brief Cases, Jim Butcher (Ace; Orbit UK)

An Agent of Utopia, Andy Duncan (Small Beer)

How Long ’til Black Future Month?, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean)

Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin (Bantam; Harper Voyager UK)

All the Fabulous Beasts, Priya Sharma (Undertow)

The Future Is Blue, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean)

Starlings, Jo Walton (Tachyon)

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, Jane Yolen (Tachyon)

MAGAZINE

Analog

Asimov’s

Beneath Ceaseless Skies

Clarkesworld

F&SF

Fireside

Lightspeed

Strange Horizons

Tor.com

Uncanny

PUBLISHER

Angry Robot

Baen

DAW

Gollancz

Orbit

Saga

Small Beer

Subterranean

Tachyon

Tor

EDITOR

John Joseph Adams

Neil Clarke

Ellen Datlow

Gardner Dozois

C.C. Finlay

Jonathan Strahan

Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

Sheila Williams

Navah Wolfe

ARTIST

Kinuko Y. Craft

Galen Dara

Julie Dillon

Leo & Diane Dillon

Bob Eggleton

Victo Ngai

John Picacio

Shaun Tan

Charles Vess

Michael Whelan

NON-FICTION

Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, Michael Benson (Simon & Schuster)

Sense of Wonder: Short Fiction Reviews (2009-2017), Gardner Dozois (ReAnimus)

Strange Stars, Jason Heller (Melville House)

Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin, Ursula K. Le Guin (Gollancz)

Ursula K. Le Guin: Conversations on Writing, Ursula K. Le Guin & David Naimon (Tin House)

Old Futures: Speculative Fiction and Queer Possibility, Alexis Lothian (NYU Press)

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, Catherine McIlwaine, ed. (Bodleian Library)

Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, Alec Nevala-Lee (Dey Street)

None of This Is Normal: The Fiction of Jeff VanderMeer, Benjamin J. Robertson (University of Minnesota Press)

An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953-2000, Jo Walton (Tor)

ART BOOK

Yoshitaka Amano, Yoshitaka Amano: The Illustrated Biography – Beyond the Fantasy, Florent Gorges (Les Éditions Pix’n Love 2015; Dark Horse)

Spectrum 25: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, John Fleskes, ed. (Flesk)

John Howe, A Middle-earth Traveler: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; HarperCollins UK)

Jeffrey Alan Love, The Thousand Demon Tree (Flesk)

Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State (Fria Ligan ’17; Skybound)

Shaun Tan, Cicada (Lothian; Levine ’19)

Charles Vess, The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, Ursula K. Le Guin (Saga)

Michael Whelan, Beyond Science Fiction: The Alternative Realism of Michael Whelan (Baby Tattoo)

Dungeons & Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History, Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, & Sam Witwer (Ten Speed)

Lisbeth Zwerger, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling (Levine)

https://boingboing.net/2019/05/07/futures-of-the-past-year.html

[shelby-bach-books]

Ever Afters Reading List

Dear Addison (of Charlotte, NC),

You mailed me a lovely note, asking me to recommend a fairy tale series like The Ever Afters that you might enjoy. I’ve been thinking about how to answer you for a while now. Then I realized you didn’t include your return address, so I am answering you via the internet.

I have bad news: you are asking the wrong person.

(Don’t worry—good news will come later because that’s how I roll.)

Authors aren’t the best at recognizing what books are similar to our own series, mostly because we’re too close to our own books. (Kind of like how a bunch of people will tell you that you look like so-and-so, and you don’t see how you and so-and-so look similar AT ALL, except maybe that you have the same hair color.)

And to be perfectly honest, in the early days of writing The Ever Afters, I would sometimes read what someone said was a lot like my series, and when I started to read them...it didn’t always feel like a compliment. I didn’t finish some of them, because they annoyed me so much.

I have since returned to some of those books, and I’ve realized that they’re realized that they’re not as annoying as I thought. Actually, they’re well-written and highly entertaining. They just weren’t the book *I* wanted to write, but similar enough where reading them could have tugged me a bit off-track, especially if I enjoyed them enough to emulate them.

So, in that way, me getting annoyed was the defense mechanism of my creativity—keeping my mental compost bin clear of influences that weren’t right for The Ever Afters.

So, that brings us to the good news I mentioned before: you may be asking the wrong person, but you’re asking me at the right time. Now, four years after I finished OEAE, I’m better read, and my opinion is less influenced than it was in say, 2012.

Anyway, that said, my answer is: What other books you like depends on what you liked about my books.

Like the Virgo I am, I have compiled an exhaustive list of recommendations (see below). It’s a mix of books I outright loved and books I came to love later on—and possibly a few books I just think more people should read.

With this list, I hope for two things: first, that you actually see this, and second, that you find some solid summer reading out of this list.

Thanks for writing, Addison!

Shelby

—

Straight Fairy Tale Retellings (i.e. one at a time)

- Robin McKinley’s Beauty and Rose Daughter and Spindle’s End (Chalice is also good, and The Blue Sword—but they’re not retellings)

- Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted and Ever (also loved the Two Princesses of Bamarre, but it’s also not a retelling)

- Diane Zahler’s the Thirteenth Princess among others

- Edith Pattou’s East

- Heather Dixon’s Entwined

- Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl

Mash-Up Retellings (i.e. more than one):

Olden Days ReMix:

- Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons series

- Grace Lin’s Where The Mountain Meets the Moon

- Catherynne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

- Neil Gaiman’s Stardust

- Adam Gidwitz’s A Tale Dark and Grimm

Modern-Day Twists (Adult, but I read them first in high school/college):

- Elizabeth Ann Scarborough’s The Godmother’s Apprentice

- Kathryn Wesley’s The 10th Kingdom

- John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things

Romance-heavy, lush and lovely world:

- Marissa Meyer’s the Lunar Chronicles series

- Holly Black’s Tithe and The Darkest Part of the Forest

Well-paced plot of several tangled fairy tales, humor AND mystery:

- Michael Buckley’s The Sisters Grimm

Personal Transformation (ALL THE FEELS):

- Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs

- Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls

- Matthew Kirby’s Icefall

Magical beasties, and also dynamic and believable sibling relationships:

- Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven

- Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi: The Spiderwick Chronicles

Modern-Day DESTINY IS UPON YOU YOUNGLING series, with multiple kids growing up together through friendship and adventures:

- anything by Rick Riordan (but The Lightning Thief is still my fave)

- Suzanne Collins’s Gregor the Overlander series

- Shannon Messenger’s Keeper of the Lost Cities series

- Rachel Hawkins’s Hex Hall series

- John Stephan’s The Books of Beginning series

- Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s The Wildwood Chronicles

Follow Your Dreams, Lena-style:

- Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonsong and Dragonsinger

Austen Retellings:

- funny and magical and middle grade: Stephanie Burgis’s Kat, Incorrigible (plus the other two)

- Funny and rom-com: Shannon Hale’s Austenland

- Beautifully captured, keenly felt scifi world: Diana Peterfreund’s For the Darkness Shows the Stars

Lady Warriors:

- anything by Tamora Pierce, but especially Protector of the Small and the Trickster series

- Kristen Cashore’s Graceling and Fire and Bitterblue

Plot Twists like whoa:

- Jennifer Nielsen’s The False Prince

[antimony-medusa]

For the ask game: K X R? Any or none of them as you please.

K: What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with?

Okay so up until very recently I would have said Extended Coffee Break, as that was literally written out of a "I can make that hurt more" competition on discord, but uh. My superhero AU isn't a single scene to hurt, it's every way I can think of to hurt my guys, stitched together with a fine network of banter.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Now I know my dash looks like it's Tubbo, cause I have written multiple Tubbo Grief fics, but see, that's just me reflecting canon and taking the opportunity to write someone who does not process whatsoever doing grief. Cause, y'know, fun.

When it comes to me just picking someone from a line up to hurt, that would be Technoblade. Man refuses to aknowledge that I'm hurting him, while I grind him into a fine paste. Delightful.

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Okay, so. Hm. I do not know if I know my own writing enough to answer this. I know the authors who I love (you should read Kate Elliot and Erin Bow and Yoon Ha Lee and Diana Wynne Jones and Katherine Addison and Becky Chambers and Aliette de Bodard and Martha Wells and C.L. Polk and Melissa Scott and Diane Duane and Nnedi Okorafor and Nicole Kornher-Stace and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor and Stephanie Burgis and Megan Whalen Turner and and and...) but putting myself in that lineage does not feel fair or accurate.

I am made of every story I have ever read or watched or had told to me. What I actually put on the page I could not tell you. If you can tell me fic writers or authors you think I take after, let me know.

[Fanfic Alphabet!]

[marketprdaily]

Editorial: Re-elect Glover and Burgis as Contra Costa supervisors

Editorial: Re-elect Glover and Burgis as Contra Costa supervisors

Two Contra Costa County supervisors, Federal Glover and Diane Burgis, are seeking new terms in the March 3 election.  Voters should re-elect them.

While neither is ideal, both are far superior to their respective opponents. It’s not a close call.

Few East Bay public agencies have seen as dramatic, and well-managed, a fiscal rebound from the Great Recession as Contra Costa’s county government. A…

[theswordstories]

Screening: Contra Costa Health Services

A free community screening of The S Word will be hosted by the Office of Supervisor Diane Burgis of the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.  A panel discussion featuring director Lisa Klein and Kelechi Ubozoh who is featured in the film will follow the screening.

Attend Event

Date and time: September 17 @ 6 pm - 8 pm

Cost: Free

Location: Board of Supervisors Chamber, 651 Pine Street, Room 107, Martinez, 94553 United States

[eastcountytoday]

Contra Costa to Reopen Outdoor Dining, Pools, Religious Services Contra Costa County residents may again enjoy outdoor swimming pools, outdoor seating at restaurants and dog parks under a new health officer order released today.

[eastcountytoday]

Contra Costa County Census 2020 Phase II Grant Funding Available Martinez, CA - Contra Costa County announces its second phase of Census 2020 outreach grants through a Request for Proposals (RFP).

[eastcountytoday]

Thousands of N95 Masks Repaired and Delivered in Contra Costa County

Thousands of N95 Masks Repaired and Delivered in Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor Diane Burgis this week handed off thousands of new, unused, but expired N95 masks from the federal emergency stockpile, previously stocked in the Contra Costa County warehouse. “It Takes A Village” is an inclusive community of volunteers that create and deliver PPE into the hands of health care workers serving communities in need throughout the San…

[eastcountytoday]

Antioch City Council Agrees in 3-2 Vote to Move Forward with Transitional Housing Plan for Homeless

On Friday, the Antioch City Council continued their city council meeting which the Transitional Housing  Ad-Hoc Committee provided an update of the direction they are seeking the city move towards housing homeless.

This move comes after Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts and Councilmember Lamar Thorpe held a press conference on July 31announcing they were proposing spending $1 million on 32-hotel rooms at…

[eastcountytoday]

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Again Extend Eviction Protections

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Again Extend Eviction Protections

On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors agreed for a second time to extend the eviction protection and rent freeze ordinance.

The extension will now run until September 30, 2020 while the grace period to pay back rent is now January 30, 2021. The Board was also provided with a list of California Statewide billsthat are currently in Sacramento that address eviction protection,…

[eastcountytoday]

Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors Prepare to Place Half-Cent Sales Tax on November Ballot

On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors agreed to have staff bring back an Ordinance after receiving polling data on a potential 0.5% sales tax increase measure that would be on the November 2020 ballot aimed at raising $81 million annually for the county.

The sales tax revenue would help fund community health centers; provide timely fire and emergency response; support crucial…

[eastcountytoday]

Brentwood, Oakley to Hold July 4th 2020 Census Caravan

On Saturday, July 4, residents in the cities of Brentwood and Oakley are invited to participate in the Census 2020 Caravan. The goal is to bring attention to the 2020 Census.

As of June 22, the City of Brentwood had a self response rate of 73.3% compared to the 2010 response rate of 73.5%. In the City of Oakley, they have a rate of 67.5% while in 2010 they had 66.0%.

Overall, in Contra Costa…

[eastcountytoday]

May 9- June 14: Brentwood Police Calls

The following is a sampling of the Brentwood Police Calls over the past month reported between  which focuses on the higher priority call responses.

  Assault

5/14 – Occurred on Sand Creek Rd. . PATIENT ASSAULTING

5/14 – Portofino Dr: RP ADV’G HIS DTR’S BOYF PEPPERSPRAYED HER NEAR THE AM/PM AND THEN THERE WAS A TC

5/21 – Brentwood Blvd: J/O EX GF NEW BF TACKLED RP AND THREW HIM TO THE GROUND. .