About Alyx Dellamonica

Alyx Dellamonica lives in Toronto, Ontario, with their wife, author Kelly Robson. They write fiction, poetry, and sometimes plays, both as A.M. Dellamonica and L.X. Beckett. A long-time creative writing teacher and coach, they now work at the UofT writing science articles and other content for the Department of Chemistry. They identify as queer, nonbinary, autistic, Nerdfighter, and BTS Army.

Funny, the PinBoard

It may actually be required by law in some jurisdictions that if you pin, you have a funny board.

In other news, this cormorant is also funny.
Birds09

Remember when many many people were new to the Internet? Every now and then someone in your life would go through that phase of passing along every single e-mail that came their way that made them giggle. Not to mention hoax virus warnings and the one about how Canada Post was going to start charging us a dime every time we had a naughty thought? And it wasn’t horrible. You like a good laugh as much as anyone else, right? But the four people you’d had to kindly dissuade before this particular mad mailer started hitting SEND had also forwarded all of these exact same silly things when they discovered them, six months and a year and two years and three years ago?

Now this niche has been filled by Tweeting and posting teh funnies to Facebook, and we can set our filters to pay a lot of attention, if we wish, or dial it down to none. I like Pinterest for this, for the simple reason that it keeps everything I find amusing in one easily clickable place.

These are a few of my colorful things

Many of you may already know that I developed a fondness for the Spanish clothing label known as Desigual when Kelly and I were in Sicily in December of 2012. This led to some major dress-buying in Italy, and again at the Desigual store in San Francisco this June when I was on my Blue Magic tour. Then there was a sustained consumer explosion at Christmastime when Angel Vancouver, here in Gastown, started carrying the oh-so-pretty clothes.

This past weekend when I was guesting at Gottacon, I found another dealer in Victoria: Mango’s Boutique.

We are, apparently, in some kind of fashion transition. The spring stuff is only just coming in, and much of what Mango’s had was marked-down winter stuff I’d already pawed extensively at Angel, including their amazing coats. Even so, I did end up finding this dress:

Latest Desigual Dress

Catworld Revision Project #6 – Commercial Code changes to retail businesses

First, to be clear, this is about cats at work. Not cats who work. Don’t be ridiculous.

This is the center of Morgan Worship in the Wonderbucks on Commercial Drive. Note the bottom of a The Province article about who? Morgan! And the brightly colored hand-written FAQ about who? Morgan? This is an excellent example of a feline-centered existence.

Morgan, Duchess of Wonderbux. #cats

Morgan is the 16-year-old cat who drops in for adoration at Wonderbucks every morning, and then swings by the Greek restaurant next door for, one assumes, delicious treats. Morgan’s home is around the corner. She is a neighborhood institution and widely beloved.

Morgan is also one of the dedicated cadre of feline observers who make themselves available to keep one eye turned to what we all get up to on those long days when we vanish from the home and are not available to cater to their every whim. Why aren’t there more? How many businesses take the time to set up an altar like this for their overlords? There should be more, humanity.

The international feline conspiracy will, henceforth, accept the following as valid reasons why your business should not also have a resident cat.

Um… Rock concert levels of noise? That’s about it. Respectful thoughts about feline-hostile environments and your reasons why they shouldn’t just be converted to litterboxes may be considered.

We love hearing about cats in the workplace, and invite you to tell me all your favorite heartwarming stories about same.

Howler Monkeys on the #Buffy Rewatch

Okay, not really. But the essay this week is called: “Mom, the stork brought a howler monkey!”

Gottacon went great and I’ll try to post some photos soon.

Book Trailer and Giveaway: @lvoisin’s The Watcher

I had the good fortune to get to read Lisa Voisin’s first novel, The Watcher, in my capacity as a writing teacher, and I was so pleased when I heard she’d sold it to Inkspell Press. Now there’s a book trailer–so have a look!

The Watcher is a YA paranormal romance. Here’s a snippet of the description from the author’s site:

Millennia ago, he fell from heaven for her. Can he face her without falling again?

Fascinated with ancient civilizations, seventeen-year-old Mia Crawford dreams of becoming an archaeologist. She also dreams of wings–soft and silent like snow–and somebody trying to steal them.


Finally, you may wish to note that Lisa has a giveaway going on her blog right now.