Autumn continues apace, though the weather here in Cincinnati has still been positively summery most of the week. Leaves are falling, though they haven’t changed color much; we never do get especially spectacular fall colors here, but they are usually prettier than this. It’s slightly disappointing, especially after this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. Still, it’s not awful.

I’ve been working on getting back into the healthful routines that were working for me so well back before I broke my foot a couple years ago, which means calorie counting (still a work in progress), cardio, walking and daily Duolingo practice (I’m up to 46% fluent in German now!). I’m doing a terrible job of quitting energy drinks, but I’m getting there, and I did bake like twelve dozen cookies (five spice snickerdoodles and chocolate chip, yum!) yesterday, which is not healthy, but the fact that I have the energy for baking is kind of a good sign. Huzzah for mild-to-moderate lessening of my depression!

This week, I reviewed the excellent Laksa Media anthology, Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction & Fantasy. I also continued my coverage of Star Trek: Discovery, which sadly took a turn for the worse, and wrote about the first episode of the new season of The Shannara Chronicles, which was surprisingly decent. It wasn’t as much as I’d hoped to write, but it was better than last week. The new routine, even if I’m not sticking to it perfectly, is already helping my mood and energy levels immensely, and while I didn’t write as much as I wanted to this week, the writing itself went easier and faster than it has in a while.

If you’re looking to read more diversely and don’t know where to start, there’s a new subscription box you should check out: Afrofuture Books.

The next installment of Sarah Gailey’s The Fisher of Bones is up at Fireside: “Discovery.”

I haven’t read it yet because I’m waiting for the book, but Hodderscape has an excerpt up from Becky Chambers’ next book, Record of a Spaceborn Few.

Alex Wells’ sequel to Hunger Makes the Wolf has a cover and title, Blood Binds the Pack.

You can also read an excerpt from Gluttony Bay, Matt Wallace’s penultimate Sin du Jour novella.

Paul Semel interviewed Spencer Ellsworth, author of the excellent Starfire: A Red Peace and its upcoming sequel, Shadow Sun Seven.

Elizabeth Bear wrote about the Big Idea in her new novel, The Stone in the Skull.

Kristin Cashore kicked off a whole series on how she wrote Jane, Unlimited.

There’s a new Ann Leckie interview at Skiffy and Fanty.

There’s a great interview at SPECPO with Uncanny Magazine‘s new poetry editor, Mimi Mondal.

N.K. Jemisin, Annalee Newitz and Cory Doctorow talked about Writing the Fantastic in 2017 at Science Friday.

Ann Leckie and N.K. Jemisin talked about what makes a classic at NYCC.

Tor.com covered Tamora Pierce in conversation with some of the authors she’s inspired.

Twitter says they’re definitely going to do something about their Nazi problem now. I’ll believe it when I see it.