It's still not April first for a while, now, so I can post this without having it mistaken for a prank:

At Norwescon, on Saturday, April 7, from 3 until 6 in the afternoon, you are invited to a Goth House tea party.

There will be tea, little cucumber sandwiches, crumpets and other tea-ish things. There will be Goth House books and merchandise at extra-special party-only discounts. And with any luck, there will be a proof copy of the exciting new 144-page perfect-bound collection, Yellow is the Color of Poison.

Please join us. It will be ever so.

When I was a teenager, my mother and I had terrible fights about clothes.

Mostly, we had these fights when we were in the store buying them, which added a certain exciting public embarrassment factor.

I never knew at the time why the fights were so passionate. It seemed to me that I was trying to be reasonable, and my mother just wouldn't budge an inch on any of her completely ridiculous positions. Maybe she thought the same thing -- I don't even know if she remembers these fights the way I do. I know she knows we had differing opinions, but I don't know if she remembers how ridiculously, outrageously, upset we both got.