I would also like to share an author that many here might like: Catherine Friend. She writes children’s, non-fiction, and lesbian fiction. The non-fiction is about farming; her memoir, “Hit by a Farm” is hilarious, about how her partner realized her dream of farming and how Catherine dealt with it. The fiction is highly entertaining, and she just published “A Pirate’s Heart” a lesbian pirate novel!

Here is her site: http://www.catherinefriend.com/ (And yes, I’ve plugged her before, but many months ago. I figured with the new book, worth repeating and getting the word out.)

The ice was worse the farther south and east you went.
(North was mostly snow and way south and near the coast –like around Boston– was apparently much rain).

The radio reported 36,000 without power in VT, 250,000
without power in Mass (mostly western MA) and 400,000
without power in NH (forget how many in Maine).

Here in Vermont on the Mass border we lost
power at Midnight Thurs night, and its still off
now (Sun evening). A couple days without phones.
(This is me typing at the library.)

(I suspect my local –very rural– area may have been
triaged. We’re dark here, but you don’t have to go
too far to find places with power restored. But my
fear is that after they got “most” of the local areas
back on-line they may have moved on to help in other
areas. Lots of local schools and fire stations have
opened shelters to help folks without power [fortunately
we have a generator]. Likewise, someone told me today
it’s almost impossible to get a room at a local motel
because of the power/phone crews staying there.)

THE TIMES (London) last week named THE ESSENTIAL DYKES TO WATCH OUT FOR among the ten best books of 2008

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article5292105.ece

and this week reviews the book itself, via Melissa Katsoulis

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article5330350.ece

– phrases such as “most skilled and intelligent female cartoonist of her generation” (who’s the man / other in competition, then? **SNARK**), “beautifully drawn”, “radical”, “addictive”, and “incomparable” are lavishly scattered throughout a review that concludes, “No one comes close to Alison Bechdel ad any chronicler of women’s lives, gay or straight, would be a fool to try.”

Let me just reprise my best bit of uranian repartee, again knowing that I won’t meet the AB standard –

“Yeah! What she said!”