nosrednayduj

I went to NYC to be a tourist for a couple of hours* and then ring bells. Amtrak each way. While I was reading the news on the way, I learned of the planned protest in Times Square at 2 PM, but that was when I was scheduled to be getting to Trinity Church, 3 miles away, so I skipped it and didn't do any protesting yesterday. Only about 1000 people did go, according to news on the web. It did seem to me that people were doing fun or other useful things while it was sort of spring-like outside, but I would have expected more.

*Takeout "tofu cupbap" from a ramyeon place in a food court on 32nd Street, eaten at a parklet table on a definitely not broad part of Broadway. Nice exhibit at the Museum at FIT. Jazz trio in a real park. long walk.

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3213/

I mean, half of these are undefined. And your multiplication dots are too low; they look like decimal points.

https://xkcd.com/3213/

ilonaandrews_blog_feed

Posted by Moderator R

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/winners-of-this-kingdom-will-giveaway/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40667

Friday means winners! And today we have three of them for the This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me giveaway.

US Winner – This Kingdom Hardcover Copy

International Winners – 2 ARC pdf copies

and

Congratulations all!

Winners will be contacted from the modr@ilona-andrews.com email. If we don’t hear back by Wednesday, March 4th, a new winner will be drawn next Friday.

A special thank you to the Horde’s creativity for keeping me snorting through the week with over 3,000 comments of the most flooftastic alter egos. The portal fantasy realms would not know what hit them if we landed.

Online safety reminder: please be vigilant for social media scammers. We will never ask you to cover postage costs or have any other money transfer related to these giveaways and will only contact you from the official Ilona Andrews accounts, with the public blog post link as proof that you are indeed the winner.

If your name was not drawn this time, do not despair. There are more prizes and surprises to come, as we’re finally heading into the release month of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me.

Squee and happy weekend!

The post Winners of This Kingdom Will Giveaway first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/winners-of-this-kingdom-will-giveaway/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40667

lauradi7dw

Tiny desk with Buddy Guy, Miles Caton, and band. Age range almost 21 (MC) to 89.5 (BG). I don't know how the Tiny Desk people decide whom to invite, but the timing is good, because it's only two weeks until the Oscars, and both appeared in the much-nominated "Sinners."

Watch on YouTube

If you watch it on youtube, you can click in a sidebar to donate to support Tiny Desk. But if one clicks, a Google login page shows up. Heck no, I'm not telling google my credit card information, although I suppose it makes sense as youtube is part of google. I'll try to figure out some other way to donate.

* as opposed to ice breaking off in Antarctica, the fact that trans people in Kansas have had their driver's licenses revoked with less than 24 hours' notice, the idea that only some slight moral qualms from folks at Anthropic are keeping us from going full Terminator, Cuba is being starved at our hands, we're about to go to war with Iran, that the ridiculous Casey Means even has a chance to become surgeon general...

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3212/

After a lot of analysis, I've determined that they're actually big red dots; they're just very far away.

https://xkcd.com/3212/

lauradi7dw

For reasons that I never learned, despite living here for 37 years, our local town elections are the first Monday of March instead of saving money by bundling them into the November larger area elections. There are three people running for two open slots on the planning board. One of them is very qualified but a number of people in town seem opposed because he is quite young. There has been a good bit of ageism and stay in your lane kind of opposition. I am going to vote for him, gladly. So that leaves a decision of which of the other two to choose. Different friends recommend different ones. If I only vote for the person I really want, does that increase his chances a tiny bit? We're not doing ranked choice, just the top two vote-getters win.

lois_mcmaster_bujold_feed

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26400596-paladin-of-souls-podcast-discussion

Nice in-depth Paladin of Souls podcast discussion turned up here...

https://ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/ta...

There is a certain cadre of reader-reviewers, I have noticed over the *cough*-many years, who seem to be tone-deaf to spiritual issues, blipping over them as if their entire education in comparative (or any) religion had come from playing video games. It's very nice to also find readers who are the opposite, who "get" almost all of what some shrewd wag once dubbed "speculative theology" that I was playing with in these books.

Ta, L.

posted by Lois McMaster Bujold on February, 25

https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/26400596-paladin-of-souls-podcast-discussion

lauradi7dw

I did not watch the state of the union show (speech doesn't seem to cover it, from what I can tell).
Senator Tammy Duckworth on twitter last night
" For all those who didn't watch tonight, allow me to summarize:

The liar lied again."

Instead, I watched "Sunday Best," a documentary about how Ed Sullivan helped integrate TV variety shows and showcase Black talent. According to the Time magazine article below, it was released in the summer, but I had never heard of it before David Bianculli mentioned it yesterday on NPR. Netflix mostly recommends Korean shows to me, plus the top-rated new US stuff. I guess this documentary didn't have the numbers of Bridgerton, for example, which has been hyped lately (Bridgerton is made in the UK but really strikes me as a US show, part of the Shondaland universe. I watched parts of the first episode of this season, then quit).

https://time.com/7304108/sunday-best-netflix-ed-sullivan-show/

A companion playlist for the Ed Sullivan show
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQWND5qZhbj3vIdycOaoDn__-vKmkeCsq

lauradi7dw

I have been following https://adverts250project.org/ for years (mostly on twitter, sometimes at the website). The object is to go through newspapers 250 years ago to find classified ads relevant to slavery - usually either runaways or for sale ads. The idea of selling people has always been appalling, but it's interesting to see what was in the list of qualifications. In this case, I like seeing that he had had measles and smallpox because it means that the fact that he was immune to these diseases was a selling point. A fair number of them mention having had smallpox, but I hadn't remembered measles in previous ones. I'm really worried about measles now. I'm not so worried about smallpox, but I do think that if there are any live samples still in labs that someone should just pour bleach on them.

Edited to add: In the aforementioned "Our Blues," there is a passing mention of two siblings who had died as children "of measles." No elaboration, just a photo on the wall with other family pictures (can a photograph play a character? why not?). Based on the ages of other actors in that fictional family, they would probably have been born in the early 80s, I guess. Was this a tiny PSA to get your kids vaccinated? A tiny historical detail - the MMR shot was introduced earlier than that in Korea, but way more people in that age cohort got the first shot than the follow-up booster,
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5613a3.htm

ilonaandrews_blog_feed

Posted by Ilona

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/solentine-dagarra-handsome-devil/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40657

Solentine Dagarra. Bastard son of a hero margrave, secret head of the Shears, devoted older brother, cousin, and son. Urbane, charming, ruthless. Noble by day, assassin by night, effortless thirst trap on all occasions.

Favorite quote: “Nothing is more annoying than a man who doesn’t have the decency to die after he’s murdered.”

It is said that the male lead belongs to the heroine.* Solentine is not the male lead. He belongs to everyone.

Artwork by Helena Elias

*The Romance of Tiger and Rose, cdrama.

Large files ahead. Click the images to view the artwork in detail.

A small snippet from Solentine’s short story.

A wiry woman charged Sol, swinging a short sword. He leaned back, and the point of her blade fanned his face, cutting only air. He spun past her, stabbing and slashing. She fell, and he kept moving. A tall dark-haired fighter blocked his way. Sol stabbed him twice, once in the kidney and then in the stomach, rupturing the bowels, and kicked his leading leg out from under him. The third man, in his thirties, with his red hair tied back, dropped his club and raised his hands. Sol pointed his left dagger at the wall, where the small man lay, crumpled on the floor. The man obeyed and ran there.

The last remaining fighter swung a long slender blade, drawing an elaborate pattern around himself. Southeastern style. The man was in his mid-twenties, athletic and light on his feet. A pricy haircut, a decent sword. A small medallion embossed with a white sword hung around his neck. Fador had hired himself a mercenary duelist.

The mercenary cut the air with a flourish. “I am Derrein of Garver. I have never lost a fight to the death.”

“I would imagine so,” Sol said. “Or we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?”

“Whom do I have the honor of …”

Sol struck. Derrein saw the attack coming but wasn’t fast enough. Sol’s right dagger slid into his side, lacerating the liver. The mercenary stumbled away, clutching at the red stain spreading through his tunic.

Sol pointed at the door. Derrein fled. If he made it to a healer in time, he’d have a chance to recover, though his ego likely never would.

Promotion, we do it:

BOOKSHOP

The post Solentine Dagarra, Handsome Devil first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/solentine-dagarra-handsome-devil/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40657

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3211/

Oh, and do you have any tips on how to vacuum up copper that's melted into your carpet?

https://xkcd.com/3211/

lauradi7dw

In my Southern childhood it was presumed that a younger person would add "ma'am" or "sir" out of politeness in some contexts. If the elder asked you a question, just answering yes or no would be considered rude, for example. My parents weren't strict about it, but I had teachers who were adamant, and would pointedly say "Yes what?" if one just said "yes," for example. I'm watching the Kdrama "Our Blues" (2022) that has an enormous ensemble cast. In episode 16 a kid says something to her grandmother. Her grandmother repeats it back, in a stern tone, and the kid changes it to the honorific form. I know that people are supposed to use honorifics to old people, but the three-line exchange hit me as exactly like the yes yes what yes ma'am sequence.

If you ever need to know, you can use ma'am or sir that way instead of saying "what."
Like "Laura!' "Ma'am?' My mother's been gone almost four years. I'm not sure I've done that since she died.

ilonaandrews_blog_feed

Posted by Ilona

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-lots-of-stuff-read-this/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40652

It’s Monday and I can’t think of a title, because Sookie Jean woke up at dark o’clock and then proceeded to wander about. I took her outside, thinking this was a bathroom emergency. Sookie walks very, very slowly now. She is of advanced age, and I have to hover in case she wipes out. She is 80lbs, and it takes a bit of strength to get her back up. It was cold, I was in my nightgown outside for about 15 minutes, and when I brought her in, she kept huffing and puffing, and waking me up every time I closed my eyes.

Let’s all hope I make sense. If I don’t, I don’t care. I’m too tired, and I just want to go back to writing. Phhh.

Reactor Preview

Dear Commonwealth and everyone else who could not download a free preview of This Kingdom, Reactor Magazine is running the preview as a serial with illustrations. You can now access it as well.

CLICK HERE TO READ

UK Special Edition

Remember how I said we can announce nothing? Okay, we can now announce this. The UK now has 3 editions.

Previously we had:

And now we also have the Broken Binding edition.

The Broken Binding is signed. That is to mean, we signed way too many pages and sent them back to UK. Waterstones will be signed also. ::slaps hand over twitching eye::

To learn more about the Broken Binding Edition: Instagram Post. To learn more about The Broken Binding: website.

To reiterate for UK, AUS, and Commonwealth: flower edges – regular hardcover, gilded pattern – Waterstones, drezmur and tower – the Broken Binding.

The Tour

When the tour was announced, we did a post, but some of the tickets were not yet available. We had dinner with Jessie Mihalik and Mr. Mihalik last night, and she reminded me that nobody remembers by now that you need tickets to attend the tour stops.

Here is the link to the tour again. The information is always available on the Appearances page. If you want to attend, please RSVP.

BOOK TOUR SCHEDULE

I was going to post artwork today, but this post is already full, so that’s a mission for tomorrow. Love you, I’m out, we have a battle to finish.

The post This Kingdom: Lots of Stuff, Read This first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-lots-of-stuff-read-this/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40652

lauradi7dw

I have seen a few posts based on a prompt with some questions. The last question is something about what's the last time you spent most of the day naked. Is that something people actually want to know about their followers? My immediate thought was of Diane Arbus's photos of folks at nudist camps in the mid 1960s. The one that stands out in my mind is someone sitting on a leatherette sofa. I don't object to nudity but I do object personally to the icky feeling against one's skin of that kind of surface (still true if you're wearing shorts or a bathing suit or whatever - you don't have to be naked). The weather doesn't matter. Hanging around naked all day sounds uncomfortable to me, not fun. So I'm not naked now, but I'm not wearing as many clothes as usual. We are in the midst of a possible blizzard (apparently you can't declare it a definite blizzard until after the fact, because you need at least three hours of a certain measured level of sustained winds). The snow is denser/heavier this time than some of the fluff (even deep fluff) from earlier this winter, meaning tree limbs and wires are at risk. Since it was predicted that many people would lose power, there have been lists of preparations (charging things, etc.). One of them was to turn your heat up so that if you lose power it would take longer to get to a really cold feeling interior. I keep the house at 55 F because of guilt about wastefulness and carbon emissions. This requires wearing layers while I'm hanging around the house. I turned the thermostat up by 10 degrees late last night, to what I gather is normal baseline for some people. I'm lucky (so far) with the electricity so I'm about to turn the thermostat back down. In the meantime, I am wearing just a t shirt on top (not two or three more layers), and when I rowed this morning I was uncomfortably sweaty. I have become acclimated to my indoor climate. I feel overheated in a lot of public places, but I don't spend as much time there, I guess. By contrast, the ringing room at Old North is cooler than my house during the winter. My hands still get stiff and dry in the winter, though.

lauradi7dw

Watch on YouTube

In other animated character skating in real life news, as is always the case during February school vacation week in MA, Disney on Ice is at the Garden. It's always fun to see kids downtown in their Ella or whatever costumes clutching merch. Also, from the ads, Buzz Lightyear does a backflip on ice during his bit, something that has been much discussed during the Olympics.

lauradi7dw

We got 3-4 inches of not fluffy snow last night (better that than the part of Boston that got some sleet. yuck). I spent over two hours after I got home from ringing clearing out so that it will be easier to clear the next storm, which may bring between 6-20 inches of snow, and high winds. I don't need to use the car until Thursday, but I am concerned about bus to subway on Monday morning, and a bit confused by the lack of excitement. The NWS is admonishing us to charge devices (I'm about to start) and not to travel on Monday. OTOH, hardly any schools have declared Monday as a storm day yet. I too hope that the storm will take a dramatic turn out to sea or dissipate in another way, but I'm not counting on it.

https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=MAZ014&warncounty=MAC017&firewxzone=MAZ014&local_place1=Lexington%20MA&product1=Blizzard+Warning&lat=42.4457&lon=-71.2314

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3210/

'If you've eliminated a few possibilities and you can't think of any others, your weird theory is proven right' isn't quite as rhetorically compelling.

https://xkcd.com/3210/

lauradi7dw

Representatives Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie, and Valerie Foushee (one hopes many more) are co-sponsoring a War Powers Resolution to debate and vote on the war with Iran that Trump is about to (illegally) start. They don't have a HR number for it?

https://massie.house.gov/uploadedfiles/iranwpr.pdf

There is a concurrent one in the Senate. I called them all (and the White house) yesterday but will do it again as soon as I get home from jogging. I have been quite remiss in the running about department, but it's above freezing right now and the predicted mess hasn't started yet, so it's the obvious time.

ilonaandrews_blog_feed

Posted by Moderator R

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-will-giveaway-us/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40647

It’s Giveaway Friday, squeee!

House Andrews have witnessed the Horde’s long-suffering battle with our most relentless adversaries, W*iting and P*tience.

To fortify morale, they are gifting This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me: 1 hardcover copy will go to a lucky US winner and 2 PDF ARCs to international winners.

To Enter:

Comment below and let us know:

which country you’re from
what your name would be, if, like Maggie, you would find yourself transported into a book (any book, by any author).

You can use your own name, make one up, or go full fantasy-protagonist and keysmash a lot of “y” and “z” into the usual unpronounceable creations. Have fun, Horde!

Giveaway Admin

This is a blog-only giveaway, only answers in blog comments count.

Winners will be chosen next Friday, February 27th 2026, with the aid of a random number generator.

The international winners will have to sign an NDA before receiving their PDF copies. This is not personal, but standard publishing practice to ensure the file will remain private with the winner. We appreciate your understanding.

For readers who are receiving this post in their newsletter email and don’t know how to get to the blog to make a valid entry comment, you can click here.

Comments are paginated, so the BDH chalance doesn’t break the blog (again lol). If you don’t see your entry, it means it’s on a previous page. Please do not resubmit, it is one entry per person.

Happy weekend and good luck!

Signed: Moderataria Rhae’zalyndrix, First of Her Name,

The Untouched by Sun, Lady of the Soggy Isles

The post This Kingdom Will Giveaway Us first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/this-kingdom-will-giveaway-us/

https://ilona-andrews.com/?p=40647

lauradi7dw

NBC had hyped that they would show the women's hockey gold medal match live. It turns out that they meant live on the USA cable channel, because they are showing figure skating live on the regular NBC network. No doubt they will show a replay of figure skating in prime time too. Meanwhile in a moment of fury, I told the VPN to pretend I'm in Toronto and went searching for a way to watch the CBC stream. I clicked on the sport I wanted. I have been given the Inuktitut commentators. Apparently the word for puck is puck. I just checked and the Korean word is also puck (퍽). Also in French, one of Canada's other languages. I was surprised that to hear the clock time in English. If something is mostly in a language I've never heard before the English parts pop to my ears.

End of the 1st period USA 0 Canada 0

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Page generated Mar. 2nd, 2026 08:02 am

Reading

yesterday

Dental Formulas

Winners of This Kingdom Will Giveaway

US Winner – This Kingdom Hardcover Copy

International Winners – 2 ARC pdf copies

Let's talk about Buddy Guy instead*

Little Red Dots

voter math

Paladin of Souls podcast discussion

What I watched instead

It would be cool to have immunities on resumes

Solentine Dagarra, Handsome Devil

Amperage

yes what? yes ma'am

This Kingdom: Lots of Stuff, Read This

Reactor Preview

UK Special Edition

The Tour

I am not naked right now

KPDH strikes again

moving snow to get ready to move snow

Eliminating the Impossible

USians, call (email) your reps!

This Kingdom Will Giveaway Us

To Enter:

Giveaway Admin

English borrowings

Profile

February 2026

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