Also due in April is Poison in the Blood by M. G. Scarsbrook. This is a fictionalized memoir of Lucrezia Borgia. I've done the first chapter so far. It promises suspense, murder, romance. Should be an interesting read.

The last project, which is due in June, is Gunnora's Dragons by Carol Dennis. I haven't finished pre-reading it yet (the other two have been getting preference, as they're due earlier), but I'm enjoying it so far. As the title would imply, it's a fantasy novel.

I'm still working on my two extant LibriVox solos: Ten From Infinity (for the SFFAudio Challenge); and Navidad en las Montañas.

In knitting, I've started a new lace shawl. This is my second, and my first in laceweight yarn (my previous shawl was done in fingering weight yarn, which is thicker and therefore easier for a first try). I'm doing the Skywalker Shawl by Laura Nelkin. I came across it when looking at online classes on Craftsy. Even though I've worked with lace a fair bit, I thought I'd try the Mastering Lace Shawls class, because I've never really learned how to do a provisional cast on, and I've always gotten tangled up when trying them. I still got tangled up this time, but I managed to get past that point. Perhaps I'll practice again with a thicker working yarn, instead of laceweight.

We finished Gaslight last weekend. It went really well. The reviewer from the paper practically raved (for him), so I was quite pleased. The audiences also seemed to enjoy it. I was really lucky in the people who came to audition. I lost my leading man three weeks before opening night and had to re-cast, but even then, I was able to get someone really good, who worked his tail off to get all those lines learned. I really doubt the audiences had any idea (unless they were related to the theatre and heard about it through the grapevine) that he'd joined the production over a month after the rest of the cast. Chicago's coming up in a couple of months. I'm thinking of auditioning for it.

Today, many websites around the Internet have “gone dark” to protest against, and raise awareness about some very important proposed legislation in the United States, which could fundamentally alter how the Internet operates: House Bill 3261, The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S.968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

Archive.org (where LibriVox hosts its audio), is going dark from 6:00 am – 6:00 pm PST on Wednesday January 18 (9:00 am – 9:00 pm EST – 14:00 – 02:00 GMT) as part of this important protest. This means that the LibriVox catalog will not be accessible during this time.

Legislation such as SOPA and PIPA directly affects libraries (pdf) such as the Internet Archive — and indeed LibriVox — which collect, preserve, and offer access to cultural materials. Furthermore, these laws can negatively affect the ecosystem of web publishing that led to the emergence of the LibriVox.

These bills would encourage the development of blacklists to censor sites with little recourse or due process. The Internet Archive (and with it LibriVox audio files) are already blacklisted in China. There are real concerns that this legislation could lead to similar blacklists in the United States.

For United States residents, please inform yourself of these issues, and if you think they are important, please take action.

For non-US residents: Sorry for dragging you into this, and if you are willing, you might wish to sign a petition to the State Department to express your concern.

You can visit AmericanCensorship.org for instructions on contacting your senator.

Within the last few months, though, she decided it would be great fun to just jump over and go exploring. Unsupervised explorations are not on my list of allowed activities, though, so I built a little addition to the fence.

This worked for about a month, till she tore the netting and started jumping the fence again. So I tried something sturdier within the frame.

Nice and sturdy, but she decided to just go over it. That fix didn't last more than 24 hours! So now I have to be a total meany and block off her access to the tree entirely.

Still, better a meany than splat-dog in the street.

I took a break from Maisie and Annie's gifts to make something for a co-worker in time for her baby shower. The pattern is called the Eloise Cardigan. It's quite sweet and girly.

I've joined a stitchers group at work. Not just knitters; crocheters, quilters, cross-stitchers, any kind of fiber art. Anyway, we're making a basket for a silent auction and my contribution to it is a couple of pot-holders. They're done in double-knitting, so each side is a mirror image of the other.

I'm making another attempt at socks. My first attempt was a bit of a failure. I used a yarn with a bit of elastic in it. Since I knit at a pretty high tension, it made for very tight stitches and I gave up after the first few rounds. This time I picked a regular yarn, and things are going much better.

I just finished cataloging Anne's House of Dreams at LibriVox. It's a little sad to think that there's only one more book in the series that I can record (Rainbow Valley). My next LV project is called Ten From Infinity by Paul W. Fairman. It's my 6th SFFAudio Challenge book.

I've also just finished Song at the Scaffold by Gertrud Von le Fort for Ignatius Press. It'll be my last Ignatius recording. They've decided not to continue producing audiobooks.

I'm directing my first mainstage show at the WCT (the other shows I've directed have been fundraisers, not part of the main lineup), Angel Street, which is the American title of the play Gaslight (made into a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer). It's been pretty chaotic so far. In the past the show in this slot would have had auditions and maybe a first read-through before the holidays, but wouldn't have started rehearsals till after. This year, the board changed the schedule. The show goes up at the end of January instead of February, so not only am I having to schedule around the holidays, I'm also having to schedule around the two Christmas productions. Ack! At least I was able to get a good cast together.

I got a couple of photos of it with the ribbon, but the ribbon was twisted sideways, so it was hard to get an angle that showed the blouse and the ribbon both.

Nichelle, if you're reading this, in a few weeks time you and Aurelia will be receiving an award winning knitted garment from yours truly.

I found out recently that one of my cousins is having twin girls this October, so I've started work on two more pairs of the Hello Kitty pants and two different, as yet un-chosen sweaters.

I made another of the little hoodies, this time with the alterations I'd considered as I followed the instructions the first time. The little guy is still much too small in it, but his mom got a pic of him wearing it all the same.

I came across a pattern for Hello Kitty pants (on Boing Boing? Epbot? can't remember) and I thought they were adorable. So I made those for another friend's baby.

I made a cardi with a leaf pattern down the button band for another friend.

That was a top-down, raglan pattern. I really liked how the sleeve caps looked when I separated those stitches and continued down the body, so I decided to make another top-down raglan, but in short sleeve (and a pullover, not a cardi).

I'm holding on to this one for a little while, because the HOT Fair is coming up and this is the only completed garment I still have.

I've put a bit more work into the Elizabeth of York jacket in between baby garments, but I'm still only on the first piece. Fingering weight yarn and size 1 needles don't make for a speedy project!

I was offered another series via ACX called the Summer Chronicles. I finished the first of those, Phantom Universe just last week. It's currently in post-processing. The second, Forsaken Harbor, is due to be published at the end of this month, so I guess I'll get to start working on it some time after that.

In the meantime, I've got a bit of a break and I've been able to concentrate on my poor, neglected LibriVox projects. I've finished my SFFAudio challenge book, The Big Time. Just finished cataloging it this morning. My Spanish solo, Angelina is moving along nicely. I hope to finish it before I have to start working on other stuff again (seriously, this poor thing has been going since 2008; it keeps getting pushed aside in favour of other projects). And as I was so close to finishing The Big Time, I decided to start my next English solo. I'm doing the next available Anne book, Anne's House of Dreams. Next available as opposed to next in the series, because, unfortunately, Anne of Windy Poplars is still in copyright, which is a total bummer, because it's my favourite.

I finished my latest project for Ignatius, Poor Banished Children, back in August, but my contact had some vacation time, so I haven't heard when it's due to be published. I've been offered a novella called Song at the Scaffold to read next. It's set during the Reign of Terror. Should be interesting.

I've lots of knitting updates too, but I'll keep those for a separate post, or this will be enormous.