Christmukkougatsu Solstice falls wherever you feel like it.

No one felt like hauling the fake tree up and getting the ornaments out for just one day, so I made a Christmukkougatsu Solstice display out of this lamp, my dollhouse-sized fake Christmas tree, the menorah, my Chinese zodiac rooster ornament (rooster's the only one I have), and some tangerines Mom bought. We will probably open the presents after dinner this evening; they only got wrapped today.

I keep putting these really unpleasant personal updates here.

Today's is "I may have found a palliative for my elderly cat's chronic diarrhea." I gave her a couple of teaspoons of pumpkin puree with her food today, and I just examined her litter box and found an almost normal-looking little poop in there. We're both very happy about this; or at least, I assume that she's happy. Maybe she likes having diarrhea. Maybe her greatest joy in life is the sound of my melodious voice mumbling curses over the grinding of the steam cleaner. Maybe she doesn't like my slippers. I can understand that, they're Crocs.

I'm now trying to figure out how to make this into an easy-to-follow regimen, if her digestion hasn't gone back to its old ways after a day or two of this. Maybe I could mix up a big batch of pumpkinized cat food and freeze it in portions in an ice cube tray.

A thought about Kate Elliott.

I'm halfway through Jaran and maybe thirty pages into Cold Magic right now*, and I think I've pinned down why Elliott's Crown of Stars manages to be so wrenching. It's because Elliott's base narrative, the one that comes to her organically, is one in which people respect each other, enemies treat each other fairly, most people are pretty okay, and pretty okay is probably good enough to keep the world sane. There are situations in Jaran which, in almost any other book, would be a source of constant tension between the protagonists, but Elliott sails past them or cuts them out, because the story she wants to tell there is about people who can get along and apologize when they hurt each other's feelings.

A lot of the conflicts in Crown of Stars are very basic fantasy-novel things - unsuitable heir to the throne, star-crossed romance, evil wizard enslaves a girl. There are writers who deal with this stuff very neatly, like laying cookies in a pan. For Elliott, though, it's viscerally wrong - people who love each other are hurting each other! They're acting stupid! I think she doesn't like it, and that comes through. It's unusually humane.


* Reading five books at a time is healthy. It means I'm... flexible.