Just dropping by...

[alanajoli]

It was a wacky week, with Bug's baptism this past Sunday. The ceremony involved the baptism gown that I wore when I was a baby, and my sister wore when she was a baby, and now my daughter has also worn. It also involved the christening bowl from Twostripe's side of the family, which has been used now over the course of three centuries, with the first baptism taking place in, I believe, the 1880s. Three adults were also baptized in the same service, and all of the candidates had water poured over their heads with sea shells. It was quite lovely.

The biggest joy for me was having my family out to visit from Michigan/Chicagoland. They visited for nearly a week, and it was great to have them. It did impact my ability to get writing done, of course, so there's not much to report for KSC this week.

I do have some sooper sekrit news, though, which I'm hoping to announce soon. I never get to be the writer with sooper sekrit news, so it's totally exciting to post that! One hint: it involves pictures. Vague enough?

But here's the reason for my post today: there's a fantasy cage match going on that features two awesome duos: Alanna of Tortall vs. Meliara of Tlanth/Remalna and Aerin from The Blue Sword vs. Astrid from Rampant. Man, talk about tough choices between heroines I admire! Go visit and see the other duels -- and vote!

Edit: Just found out that Aerin was withdrawn from the competition by the author. Congrats to Astrid (whose author is dpeterfreund) on the default progression. (I'm assuming y'all know that Alanna's author is tammypierce and Mel's author is sartorias.)

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

How lovely that your daughter was baptized in the robe you wore! We were able to do that for our children too.

Do you have any photos (are there any on Facebook I should go look at?)

And yes! Your secret is vague enough :D

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

They're not up yet -- niliphim took them on her spiffily awesome camera, so once she gets them back to me, they'll be there!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Pssst... photos are up at facebook. ;)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are *lovely*!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I love that your daughter was baptized in your robe!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I put pictures up on facebook -- and then sent you a friend request, in case you want to see them. :) (I didn't realize we weren't connected there!)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I don't actually use Facebook--I set it up mainly to keep relatives quiet. (Though if someone asks to friend me, I always say yes, and then never look again.)

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Ha, I know a couple of people who use facebook exactly the same way. :) I do post a lot of photos there that are locked for friends-only, and that's most of how I use it these days. (The far away relatives have to see Bug pictures!)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Of course! It makes total sense.

It's like, we have such limited time, I have to draw the line somewhere, and there is an awful lot of just empty babble on Facebook.

[dpeterfreund.livejournal.com]

I think that is a great tradition, too. How beautiful.

Also, can I just say I'm a little shocked at all the folks on that cage match thingy saying awful things about Astrid? It's not her fault Aerin's not available. I mean, I know she's getting trounced in round two by either Katniss or Tally anyway (especially since there's no sign of a unicorn around, and she's a far less violent person than either of them, and has never ONCE been violent towards another human), but yowza!

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's awful! I haven't been reading the comments -- the admins did a kind of nifty job with write-ups about the match offs, which is why I shared it around. I never quite understand why the internet gives some folks the idea that they have permission to be nasty. :(

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Man, Diana Peterfreund lived downstairs from me in college. It still hurts my brain every time she comes up in publicity or on someone's writing blog. You should ask holmes_iv about her if you haven't already; he's got some stories. :)