a stranger here myself

Over the weekend I went out alone to a sushi restaurant and ate delicious food while reading a book.  I've been there a few times now; it's my favorite place when I want to indulge in a good dinner and a quiet read.  When I was done, one of the ladies who works there came over and shyly told me they'd all been wondering about me, and had decided I was a professor at the university, yes?

I was wearing a tattered corduroy skirt over motorcycle boots and a flimsy t-shirt with a Flashdance neck that kept falling off my shoulder.  My hair, which has not been cut in months, is like three feet of curly black exploded sasquatch.  It is not a look I would have expected to make the leap to "boho professional" from "thrift store couldn't-be-bothered", but apparently I am looking more respectable than I feel, these days.  I guess I must have come across as very dignified and intellectual, sitting there so absorbed in literature! 

You guys, the book I was reading was Gossip Girl: I Like It Like That.
 

It sometimes seems like John Scalzi can write a novel in the time it takes me to read one.  This theory was put to the test when he asked me to read and record a chapter of his latest project: "The Sagan Diary".  It's a novella written as the transcribed thoughts of Jane Sagan, my favorite character from his terrific series beginning with Old Man's War, continued in The Ghost Brigades and the soon-to-be-published The Last Colony.  The Sagan Diary is something of a stylistic departure for Scalzi, more poetic than his usual prose, a musing kind of stream-of-consciousness.  It flowed like a dream and was tremendously fun to read.

Scalzi asked me to read my chapter in December; I got it back to him at the end of January.  And I'll bet you that in the intervening weeks, the bastard cranked out another excellent novel or two.

Go here for all the info, as well as audio chapters you can download!

Also lending their lovely voices to this are Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ellen Kushner, Cherie Priest and Helen Smith.