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I thought some of you might want to know that my Food History is down, but not out. There are server problems and the server-owner has promised to fix them ASAP. I don't know how soon ASAP is in real terms, but it means that I'll be back online as soon as it's possible, and I have cool posts coming as well. Three of my 17 books are involved in those cool posts.

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I'm partway through several books but have only actually finished one more since yesterday. The one I finished was rather depressing, too. If folktales tell the stories people face and give them narratives to deal with life, then the lives of the Jews in Yemen were layered with sorrow.

Far too many of the folktales start with a king wanting Jewish houses and threatening to throw Jews outside the safety of town walls, but denying them permission to carry weapons. I always thought that one of the world's oldest Jewish communities crossing the desert into safety was sad because they were forced to leave everything behind, but the lives they were leaving were sadder. These folktales miss joy and miss freedom and the stories of trickery are all to do with survival rather than laughter.

I'm reading The Accidental Sorceror and reviewing Lud-in-the-Mist to regain my equilibrium.

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Only one more week for entries into the Conflux short story competition then the judges get to work! (There may be only four of us, but we're in three different countries - this could be fun.)