Other blogs, and spring might actually be arriving...

Thanks to Neil Gaiman - see April 13 entry - for linking on his blog (and bringing to everyone's attention in North America who read his blog!) to this post overseas for a Vote for Your Favourite SF and Fantasy authors of all time, here , you can click and go vote for your favourite too. I'm having problems choosing my favourite five, because I always look at as not just my favourite authors, but ones I feel have contributed to their respective fields in some way. So far I have Tolkien, Frank Herbert, and Ursula K LeGuin (who has done more to make SF/fantasy respectable reading than almost anyone, single-handedly). After that, I am stuck, I have 8 - no, more! - authors to choose from! See if you have any better luck than I do at narrowing it down.

Andi at Andilit has an interesting post from last Wednesday. I've linked you to it. She asks (she got it from Nathalie Goldberg, a writer whom i have almost everything she has done): what don't you remember? Write for 10 minutes about what you don't remember. It's a writing prompt for writers, but I think it's interesting for all of us. Please go to her site and leave your comments there, because she came up with the idea! and I left my answers there too :-) She also has an interesting one for today : Living Responsibly and asks what we are passionate about.

What else? Well, some of you got through my long meme yesterday, I didn't know it would turn out so long!!! thank you for getting through it! I did have fun with it!
And.....the sun is shining, and we reached 12c and almost all the snow is gone!!!! The ice is still on the river and the water is high - streets in small towns along the Ottawa River have flooded, but here in Ottawa so far, only one street has been flooded and the water is receding. Where I live in the west end, we are still waiting for the water to finish rising - we're not in danger, but houses a few blocks away could be if the water rises from melting snow up north. Mostly, though, the sun is shining, daffodils and crocuses are emerging (not in bloom yet), and buds are at last forming on trees and bushes. I'm so happy!!! Spring is coming!! I can start planning what plants to buy for the garden! It does look like I have to cut my rose bush right down to the crown, but it looks like the main part survived the snow. My daughter was saying yesterday she hoped the roses would be red again this year! It's so wonderful to go outside without a hat and gloves, with just a vest and sweater on!!! though, the air still doesn't smell yet....the geese are flying north too, always a good sign that warm temperatures are coming to stay.

Carl has the most beautiful picture of two fairies on his site today. Go see it. Plus assorted other fabulous artists are promoted, some of the artwork is gorgeous. I'll have to start downloading some of the Tor covers. And now I have another new book to get (you have to go to Carl's site and see if you can guess which one it is! amazing cover!!!).....I'm so glad I joined the book blogging world. Some of my cravings for fantasy and horror and book-talking and meeting great, really fun people are getting met! You all deserve congratulations for blogging, because it is work even if terribly fun and addictive. I don't feel so alone in my passion for books, now!

I meant to review Robin Hobb, but I will save that for tomorrow and do a proper post for it. "Shaman's Crossing" deserves it!!

Happy reading, everyone!