Monday Whatnot

I am reading Michel Faber's novel The Book of Strange New Things, which is about a British cleric being sent to a distant galaxy in order to minister to the natives (they (the natives) asked for a pastor). Which has, I know, some overtones to Mary Doria Russell's 1996 The Sparrow, but Faber's story is, so far, a lot less cerebral. It is also, so far, creepy as fuck. The setting is sinister (what's really going on with the sponsoring company?), the cleric's minder keeps telling him she's told him things before that he doesn't remember, the previous cleric on the project has disappeared ... O_o

We bought Layla a pool today, one of those hard plastic kiddie wading pools that's about five feet in diameter. She. Is. OVERJOYED. :D

Blackmare and I are, indeed, working on the Epilogue to Symbiosis. It is going slowly.