An aphorism, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment.” I don’t promise that any of the following express true or worthy sentiments, but they are terse. Let’s prepare for the year 2023 with these nuggets of wisdom:

• It is easier to forgive an enemy than forgive a friend.

• Life sends endless gifts of love to Death, who keeps them forever.

• According to the rain, floods are good and just.

• It is easier to fool someone than convince them that they have been fooled.        

• A liar should have an outstanding memory.

• You cannot wake someone pretending to be asleep.

• Stupidity is a terrible opponent to wrestle.

I was ten years old when Santa forgot me. I got up on Christmas morning and rushed down to the tree to see what he had left.

Of course I knew that Santa didn’t exist — or rather, I knew that Mom and Dad were Santa. But since I had a little brother and sister, the magical Santa still came to our house.

I found only one box for me under the tree, which meant it would be especially good. Instead, it was just a hat and scarf set, and not a very good hat and scarf set, or even a color I liked. I felt disappointed and most of all bewildered. For the benefit of the little ones, I acted happy, but I wasn’t.

Soon my mother called me aside and apologized. In the confusion of the holiday, she and Dad had miscounted gifts and realized late the night before that they had nothing for me from Santa, so Dad ran out and got something quick. She hoped I understood, and I did, I really did. Those two little ones sowed constant confusion. I imagined Dad going to the only place open on late Christmas Eve night, which in those days was probably a gas station, and given the limited merchandise, he had made a good choice.

And yet I had to hide tears. I wasn’t unhappy with my parents. I genuinely appreciated the effort. I wore the hat and scarf, and they were warm.

What hurt me was the proof of something I had already suspected but hadn’t wanted to believe: the world had no magic, no guarantees. It was full of human beings who made mistakes. An innocently botched Christmas gift was trifling, but devastating mistakes were possible, too. Given time — and a ten-year-old has lots of time ahead of her — devastating mistakes would happen. I got my proof that Christmas morning.

Sometimes Santa simply forgets.

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I hurried to buy and read this book on the recommendation of a well-known translator (well-known to other translators, that is), and I loved it. I’ve nominated it for a Nebula Award.

As the author carefully points out in a note at the beginning of the novel, this is a fantasy based on historical fact. If you’ve heard of the Opium Wars between China and Great Britain, then you know that it was a dismal time in history for the people subjected to imperialism. Meanwhile, back in Britain, the first industrial revolution meant exploitation, deepening poverty, and misery for the working class.

The author is also a translator, like me, and the book’s magic system turns translation into a weapon for imperialism and economic abuse — an unsettling idea, carefully constructed.

Babel follows the life of novice translator Robin Swift (we never learn his real name) as he discovers his place as a cog in the machine that turns his very thoughts into weapons and will cost him his dignity, what little love he is able to find, and the lives of the people he loves until all that remains is the necessity of violence.

View all my reviews

“To Find a Dress” — This story began as Spanish class assignment to write about the saying, “El hábito no hace al monje,” or “Clothes don’t make the man.” On that same day, I read a Wall Street Journal article about the Washington, DC, Hash House Harriers Red Dress Run, and I decided that maybe you are what you wear. Published in 2003.

Amadis of Gaul, Chapter IX — An excerpt from a medieval novel that I translated. This is how people at the time imagined a dramatic, heroic joust.

“Dogs in Heaven” — Flash fiction with cute animals.

New in Articles:

The First Seven Chicons: A History of Ambition, Tradition, and Entertainment — Each year, the science fiction community organizes an event called a “worldcon.” The first one started sort of by accident. The second one, held in Chicago in 1940, made it into an annual event. This report was written for the Chicon 8 Souvenir Book.

Chicon 8: convention review — The 80th Worldcon went well, but times are changing.

Speculative Fiction: the future happens everywhere — Science fiction translators and some publishers want to make the genre reflect its world-wide authorship. This article was written for the Spring-Summer 2022 edition of The Source, the journal of the Literary Division of the American Translators Association.

Parallel Beauty — What set the standards for beautiful prose in English? The King James Bible, for one thing.

As you may know, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) began 20 years ago as a challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days, specifically during the month of November. Hundreds of thousands of people do it every year, and I wish every one of them success.

I’m not doing it. Why? Mostly because I’m busy. Right now, I’m trying to finish the first draft of the third book, Usurpation, in the trilogy that started with Semiosis and Interference. I’m the kind of writer who struggles through first drafts, and 50,000 words in a month might be tough, especially given the constraints built into the trilogy.

I’m working on some smaller projects, too, and the publisher and I are putting the final touches on my next novel, which is coming out in May 2023, Dual Memory.

Still, NaNoWriMo is a great thing. New writers learn that they can write every day — and that when they show up to work, the muse will be waiting for them. It can seem like magic, and I’ve been living in that enchanted land for a long while. Experienced writers undertake NaNoWriMo knowing they will feel the thrill of creativity shared with an uplifting community.

Will I do NaNoWriMo in the future? Maybe. If you’re doing NaNoWriMo now, keep going! Tell us your story, please.