incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

DW, do you have recommendations for really deep-moisturizing lip stuff? Out of nowhere a few weeks ago, my lips got really dry, thickly scaly, and itchy; the only thing that kind of works has more peppermint in it than I would like, and even that is only partly effective.

Edit: already tried: Vaseline/Aquaphor-ish (just sits on top); medicated Blistex and Chapstick (stings, does not absorb); Dr. Bronner's something-or-other and Burt's Bees (inoffensive and ineffective); O'Keefe's Lip Repair (the aforementioned peppermint stuff).

I have a paid job posting up for a small modification to the WordPress plugin Gravity Forms; if you know anyone who might be good at this, please point them there—I'd really like to get some responses that actually show they've read the whole thing, understand what I want, and have a plan.

I need chaptered adventure books for SteelyKid (nearly 7) with female protagonists.

I'm not sure the technical name for the format she's up to--about 80-120 pages, slightly wider than a standard mass market paperback, an illustration every chapter or so. The series we're just finishing, Beast Quest, says 7-10 years on the back, as does the one before that, Underworlds (Tony Abbott).

Natural disasters, secondary-world fantasy, and portal fantasies are the last three sub-genres she's read, I think, and mystery is okay too. And the female characters have to be the protagonists, not the sidekicks, especially not the sidekicks who keep needing to get rescued.

She has a Franny K. Stein book from her teacher, so if she likes that there's more of those. Oh, and she liked the first Creepella Von Cacklefur book, so I'll get more of those.

Ideally the prose would also be non-awful, but I made it through the Underworlds series, so I can make it through some similar non-grammatical and clunky stuff to get her girl action heroes.

(Note age/format limits, please; i.e., don't recommend Tamora Pierce. And if you're going to say "she's the sidekick but she's cool," please don't.)

Hello DW,

I have things to say! About Readercon and Welcome to Night Vale and four versions of "Atlantic City" and the Hugo & Campbell nominees and the kids and traveling to England and Ireland next month, yikes . . . but I came home from Readercon to find that work had exploded in several different directions. So I will clear one thing off my queue with a short request for assistance, and hope to catch up with other things later.

In a couple months, I am going to re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for Tor.com for the lead-up to the BBC series (release date as yet unannounced, but probably near the end of 2014). (I will also re-read The Ladies of Grace Adieu.) Sometime after I finish that, I will also re-read the Temeraire series for the lead-up to the release of the final book. [*]

I have two books on the Napoleonic Wars already: The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction, by Mike Rapport, which I have just started and am appreciating so far, and Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815, by Charles Esdaile. I expect these will suffice for my military history needs for JS&MN, but if you have very strong feelings about this topic, feel free (after you see the note below).

The next thing I know that I need is a social history of the UK that includes this time period, to give me context on JS&MN's handling of class, gender, nationality, and race. Do you all have any suggestions?

And what else do I need that I don't know I need? I'm going to have to go much wider on the history, military and otherwise, for Temeraire, but let's put that aside for the moment because it's further away. Is there history or literature or anything that JS&MN is engaging with, that your knowledge of enhanced your appreciation of the book? What is it, and what should I read to get up to speed on it, if possible?

(Note: I am way more likely to follow up on your suggestion if you explain why it is relevant specifically to JS&MN and provide enough information for me to find the work you are suggesting. And while I can probably get many academic works via Chad, it would be extra-useful for you to indicate how accessible an academic work is to someone not part of academia, i.e., me.)

[*] While I did The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit chapter-by-chapter, JS&MN is 69 chapters long, and the Temeraire series is eight novels long, so, uh, no. I've very carefully divided JS&MN up into 13 parts of approximately equal length that do not violate chapter or volume boundaries—seriously, a spreadsheet was involved, it was kind of ridiculous—and will be using the handy three-volume structure to divide up each Temeraire book.

I am very excited about these projects, so thanks for helping me get started!

(PS: those of you who prompted me to pitch these forthcoming re-read series, back in the day, by noting the relative lack of female authors in Tor.com's rereads may be interested in today's launch of Judith Tarr re-reading Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince trilogy.)

Hey DW,

I've been planning a blog post on the topic "a plea for variety in depictions of pregnancy and childbirth, or, your clichés are boring." It seems to me the big ones in stock portrayals of pregnancy and childbirth are morning sickness; mood swings; food cravings; delivery flat in back in bed; and fathers freaking out. (Let us put aside the tendency to see pregnant bodies as horrific and tools/things to be invaded, for the moment.)

What other major clichés are there about pregnancy and childbirth? What key things would you want writers to remember when writing pregnant characters? And, separately, what big-picture questions should SFF writers think about when doing worldbuilding around pregnancy and childbirth?

(I'm not sure if this should also include newborns; I can't think of any big clichés there, except maybe the cluster of things around breastfeeding, which may be just too complicated.)

Does anyone have a fail-safe source or recommendation for really absorbent cloth rags? As in, the first drop of liquid to touch it will instantly soak in?

We had a bag in the basement, leftover from some home improvement project, that are perfect in this regard. But there's not enough of them, and two different attempts to get more have failed—they looked the same or otherwise equally absorbent, but were not. (A microfiber towel has also proved unsatisfactory.)

On a related note, Chad's blog has my favorite picture of SteelyKid so far.