PMS – A fact of life or all in the mind?  Uh…interesting.  Premenstrual distress due to self-policing.  “A woman-centred psychological intervention for premenstrual symptoms… can also allow women to develop more empowering strategies for reducing or preventing premenstrual distress, and to develop an ethic of care for the self, no longer blaming the body for premenstrual anger or depression, rather, looking to life stresses, ways of coping, and relationship issues.”  But… it is my body that’s causing my premenstrual anger and/or depression.  Granted, it’s not its fault, it’s just the way it is.  The hormones go where the hormones will.  On some level, I don’t mind PMS because it signals that all is well with my body.  It’s doing its usual thing.  I also have found a use for that premenstrual anger–my ultimate playing is much improved by it.  As for the depression and anger that I might take out on, say, Eric.  Well, maybe those moments should cause me a little distress later.  It sucks to blow your top and have it land on someone you love.  Sucks for them too.  It’s not fun to lose control in that way.  I can excuse it as PMS, but it’s still not a nice thing.

Anyway, I’m feeling half sick and premenstrually angry, so I should have a good disc game tonight.  I’m all nervous/excited and getting nothing done.  Aside for the occasionally rambling LJ entry.  I need to take some Vitamin I.

Book #11…sort of.

In the land of Nebula nominated fiction, I read seven short stories, five novelettes, and two novellas. After a cut-paste-word-count, that comes to over 125,000 words. Which is longer than the average book I read so far this year. So I’m counting it. Impressions: There’s definitely more ‘horror’ in the speculative fiction markets than I realized. Lots of musings on religion too, which surprised me. I’m also fairly impressed at home much can be done in less than 5000 words. I can’t do it. My shortest fiction in the past five years was more in the novelette region.

Of the novellas I only read “Magic for Beginners” by Kelly Link and “Left of the Dial” by Paul Witcover. I gave “Clay’s Pride” and “The Tribes of Bela” a shot, but they really didn’t catch my interest. “Magic for Beginners” is my favorite of this category, what I read of it. Sometimes it kind of felt like Link was making things up as she went along, adding details on the fly. I got that feeling reading “Faery Handbag” (in the novelette category) too, but “Magic for Beginners” had some really pleasant turns of phrases and some lovely humor.

In the novelette category, I like “Flat Diane” by Daniel Abraham. Great tension. The end didn’t fall that way I thought it would, always kudos for that, and still made sense within the story. I liked “Men are Trouble” by Jim Kelly too, but I think Abraham’s story was tighter.

Short story-wise, I can see why “Singing My Sister Down” by Margo Lanagan is the favored. Very nicely done with no over-sentimentality. But I like “My Mother, Dancing” by Nancy Kress to win. It’s what I think of as science fiction, and it reaches with its concepts and leaves the reader thinking about them.