I've been BoingBoinged!

 
Which is about as cool as it gets. The Tumbarumba anthology was posted on this very famous blog site by Cory Doctorow, SF author and uber-geek. The submission came from Ethan Ham, who collaborated on Tumbarumba with Ben Rosenbaum.

Excuse me, I must go lie down and wait for my heartbeat to return to normal.

Another kindly review

 
SFRevu has nice things to say about my story "Everything That Matters," which has the fortune to be in an issue with some superb writing by Jason Sanford, Gord Sellar, and my fellow Villa Diodatian Aliette de Bodard. I don't mind being overshadowed by writers like that...

Vacation snaps

1. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... er, rain.
   The first full day of our Christmas vacation we discovered that our ski suits were no longer waterproof. It is a strange sensation to be soaked, pretty much to the skin, and not be cold. Hooray for modern technology. One can of waterproofing agent later things were much better.
   
2. The Joy of Sechts
   ...couldn't resist that one. Secht is the Austrian version of champagne, and the best ones do have a level of dryness and finesse that is similar to the original. However there is a lot of plonk out there as well, and they are often too sweet. If forced to recommend or purchase it, Henkell is generally a safe bet.
   In addition to the bubbly Austrians also make a wide range of schnapps (however, the Joy of Schnapps is nowhere near as interesting a title). Plum, pear, and apricot are probably the most common, but there are a lot of more exotic and infinitely more interesting ones. Enzianschnapps made from gentian, vogelbeere schnapps made from rowan berry, and himbeere schnapps (raspberry) are my preferred after-dinner shots of choice.
3. Hooray for Austrian trains
   The long-distance trains have plugs for laptops in second class. Even the famed French TGV can't rival this.
4. Vienna for the holidays
   Highly recommended; it's a city that knows how to dress up and celebrate. The streets are decorated, there are Christmas markets all over town, and a zillion little stalls spring up that sell mulled wine, hot chocolate, and other specialties like gammsmilch (spiked milk) and jagertee (spiked black tea), etc. Further proof that for Europeans, alcohol > cold.