This month’s theme in my life is 이별, or farewells. I spent the last evening in Korea — for this stint, anyway — with a couple of the closest friends I’ve ever had, and saw them off this morning. A few weeks ago, a very different 이별 made entirely of words and of emotions so enormous I cannot speak them in so frail a voice as bodies have. A few weeks ago I wrote of grace, and of having grace in partings and in changes. I wrote lovely words, and strangely I have learned that when one speaks in pretty …

For those keeping track (and I will have to update the site soon, but not today): The Year’s Best SF 26 edited by Gardner Dozois is available as of a few days ago, and contains my story, “Lester Young and the Jupiter’s Moons’ Blues.” My story Pahwakhe also got an Honorable Mention too… (I don’t know if anything else did, I haven’t seen the book yet as I’m all the way over in Korea). (Seeing my name in that list of authors blew my mind… me? On a list with those people, each of which is… wow. Blew my mind. …

Well, I’ve spoken and studied more Korean in the last few weeks than I have in several years. Basically, I got myself a tutor, a wonderful student from past semesters named Young Ah someone suggested to me would be a good tutor for me. One of my favorite phrases from among the ones she’s taught me, in the “free talk” part of our lessons, is “머리에 쥐나다” which translates as “to get a cramp in the head.” Such as, “I studied so hard my head cramped up.” The thing about studying it and using it with my tutor is that …