Hey, Your Nose is on Fire!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      They're not even staying for supper? Now that's just rude .      Oh, and if you'd like to review the Vapors, mentioned near the top of today's page, may I suggest our 104th storyline, titled oddly enough " The Vapors "?

The Terebinth Story Archive      Finally! Suppertime!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Are there any characters around here who haven't been tempted to join a monastery at one time or another? I mean, yeesh!

"The Memory of Pie":      Is the name of the story in question. I wrote it several years ago now, but no one seemed interested in it.      OK, that's not entirely true. Neal Shusterman in my writing group quite enjoyed it, and a year or so after I'd presented it to the group for comments, he asked if I'd be willing to co-write a story set in his Arc of the Sythe universe. He said he wanted the main character of the story to be someone like the villain in "The Memory of Pie," and since his idea for the story centered around a dog who'd been genetically altered to have human-level intelligence, he figured it'd be right up my street.      So I wrote a first draft, he wrote the second, I wrote a third, and after his final pass, our collaboration "Never Work With Animals" was published in 2023 as part of the collection Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of the Scythe .      Three ...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      We first visited Quetzal's temple on Cloud Forest way back near the beginning of our 52nd storyline, " Scherzando ," and learned more about the place during our 121st storyline, " The Transitive Property ." And now here we are again! It's like this is a serial or something!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Ariadne's actually been to the temple here on Cloud Forest before, popping in on page 30 of our 122nd storyline, " Vermin ." I'm sure she'll remember that any minute now...

The Terebinth Story Archive      The ancient Roman poet Catullus has a poem like this , doesn't he? Well, okay, not exactly, but kinda...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Sounds like they've got their weekend all planned, so let's check back in on Monday and see how things're turning out!      Althought I suppose folks could also spend the weekend reviewing Mab's place in the Daily Grind universe. I'd recommend starting with our 59th storyline, " In Shining Armor ," from this page and moving on till the end of that story, then jumping up to her more recent dealings with Ariadne beginning, perhaps, with the first time they appeared in the same room near the middle of our 98th storyline, " Jurisprudence ."

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      One of the advantages of being a magical arachnid: the quick and dramatic exit.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      It's been much too long since I got to draw Mrs. Teasdale around here!      As for the rest of today's installment, I'm sure this development with have no repercussions whatsoever...

The Terebinth Story Archive      I know I've linked to this stuff several times during this storyline, but let me point folks toward page 747 where Miss Annekke tracks Esther down after the whole eye-gouging thing. There's links on that page to the earlier pages in the their relationship - including the eye gouging - and the next 17 or so pages from all those years ago are really what set up our current melodrama. Feel free to review!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      For my part, I learned today that "cozen" is pronounced the same way as "cousin." I always thought the first syllable had more of a "caw" sound...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Let's all make our inner pedant bristly and unhappy, then meet back here Friday for the next page, shall we?

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Amongst the things that I could honestly say I miss, few of them involve the word "hurtling." Maybe it's just me...      And in case anyone's interested in a recent poem of mine, " All Work and No Play " is up for free reading at Abyss & Apex . It's also been nominated for the Science-fiction and Fantasy Poetry's Association's Rhysling Award in the "long" category. And my short-story-disguised-as-a-poetry-collection, " Two Strikes and I'm Out ," has been nominated for SFPA's Elgin Award in the "full-length book" category . So much going on!

The Terebinth Story Archive      Lamont's so magnanimous! Or maybe that should be ":ignoramus"...      And in case anyone's interested in another recent poem of mine, " All Work and No Play " is up for free reading at Abyss & Apex . It's also been nominated for the Science-fiction and Fantasy Poetry's Association's Rhysling Award in the "long" category. And my short-story-disguised-as-a-poetry-collection, " Two Strikes and I'm Out ," has been nominated for SFPA's Elgin Award in the "full-length" category . So much going on!

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      Some people do have really loud eyes.

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      D'you s'ppose it counts as paranoia when you hide out inside an asteroid for millions of years just in case anyone might be looking for you? Yeah, I reckon so...

They're both from:      The Science-fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association , so one would be correct in thinking that they're both for poetry.      The first is a nomination in the "long" category of the Rhysling Awards for my poem " What Water Says ," published on the Eternal Haunted Summer website back in December. And the second is a nomination in the "full-length book" category of the Elgin Awards for my short-story-disguised-as-a-collection-of-poems, " Two Strikes and I'm Out " that came out from Island of Wak-Wak last summer.      So far, only the Rhysling nomination is showing on their website if you page down to the bottom of the list of finalists. But I assume the Elgin Award one will show up eventually on their page devoted to those lists . We'll all find out together!                     ...

The Daily Grind Table of Contents      We first learned that the Devil's nickname was Zebulon - or at least that the Nulla Lucis called him Zebulon - way back near the beginning of our 24th storyline, " A Long, Long Trail A-Winding ." We didn't get an explanation of what the name referenced until much later, near the middle of the final actual comic in our series here, storyline #114, " A Tickle in the Throat ." And now we get a little talk about it again!

The Terebinth Story Archive      It's been over nine months since page 1.842 and Mrs. Pell's previous ballade. In case people aren't fanatically keeping track of this stuff...