Summer Vacation Blog Hiatus

Grrr. I suppose the Spanish are due congratulations, and my Azzurri got much farther in the tournament than I expected, but still. Grrr.

Now the pundits are having the conversation of whether this Spanish side is the greatest national team in the history of the sport. I don't know about that, but they did trounce us yesterday, even without Villa or Puyol. I don't think there will ever be a team better than the Brazilians of the 70s, but this Spanish side may be a close second. If they win the next World Cup it will be hard to argue.

Anyway, as you probably noticed from the title of this post, I'm going out of town, and the blog will be shut down until at least Wednesday July 11th. Or maybe I'll try to schedule something for Tuesday the 10th, so I can get two queries in that week, we'll see.

In the meantime, since I know you'll miss me, I wanted to point you to some things you can read, in case you haven't had enough of me already. And seriously, there's no need to read all this crap today, just come back if you need a QQQE fix while I'm gone.

Some of you who've known me longer have probably seen a lot of this stuff, but some of my new readers may not have:

Creative Writing:

Lake Argo, a Fantasy/Sci-Fi vignette, which was published in the Vine Leaves Literary Journal Issue One

The Deafening Silence, a bit of Contemporary Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Cubic, a Fantasy/Horror short which was published by Underneath the Juniper Tree

Babysat by the Man in the Moon, a Flash-Fiction memoir, which is unpublished

Dragon on my Back, a piece of Horror Flash-Fiction, which was published in the anthology: Literary Foray, from Static Movement Press

Older Interviews and Guest Posts:

Interviewed by Jessica Bell at The Alliterative Allomorph

Interviewed by A.B. Keuser at her self-titled blog

Gender & Publishing, a guest post for Justine Dell

Best Old Posts:

How I showed a Facebook Scammer what's up

Hold on to 16 as Long as You Can, or Why I Write YA

I should probably stop linking now. Even I'm getting bored. But do me a favor, if you see one you've never read, and you want to visit, be sure to follow the blog it's on, and be sure to leave a comment, a few of those posts are hurtin' for comments!

And have a great week and a half, I'll miss you all dearly!

Hope Solo, Megan Rapinoe, and Abby Wambach for Queens of the Universe

I watched all 123+ minutes of the US women's soccer team's game versus Brazil yesterday, and it was one of the most exciting, breathtaking, infuriating, inspiring, incredible matches I've ever born witness to. The American side conducted themselves with dignity and creativity and in spite of the referee getting far too involved in the match, and playing 10 against 11 since the 66th minute, they persevered, and are going through to the semi-finals on a dramatic penalty kick shootout win.

That's poetic justice if you ask me because Brazil tied the game on a penalty kick after a red card. It was one of the most ridiculous calls I've ever seen. The original red-card wasn't that bad. Anytime a penalty in the box interrupts a goal scoring opportunity, a red card is almost required. But the first penalty shot was blocked by the US keeper, Hope Solo, one of the most beautiful women to ever play the game. The physics involved in blocking a penalty shot mean that it's almost impossible to do. I can't even really properly articulate how hard it is for a goal keeper to block a penalty shot, but she did it, and I was jumping out of my seat, thrashing around and screaming when she did.

Yet the referee got involved, beyond any expected level, and gave a second PK to the Brazilians for what all the experts agree, was no reason. The FIFA "law 14" says that the goalkeeper can move side to side on the baseline, as long as she does not step forward. The video below proves that there was nothing wrong with Hope Solo's poetic defense of that first penalty shot.



To be asked to defend a penalty kick twice is like ... well I have no idea exactly what it's like, but it isn't right.

And yet the US women played on, down a woman, and held Brazil into extra time. All seemed lost when the Brazilians scored in the first period of extra time, and then began to do everything they could to delay the match. Including at one time having a defender flop onto the ground as if she was hurt, wait for the medical staff to carry her off the field on a stretcher, where she immediately hopped off the thing, and trotted back onto the pitch. She wasted no less than four full minutes, and if you don't know Soccer, I can tell you that is a huge deal, because the clock never stops.

I wish I could find a video of that, because it's almost funny. It would be hilarious, in fact, if it weren't so infuriating. In the end it didn't matter though, because Megan Rapinoe came up with one of the greatest crosses from the left corner I have ever seen, in Men's or Women's Soccer, and the lovely Abby Wambach, the elder stateswoman of US Women's Soccer, headed it in, and sent the game to a shootout. Here is the latest goal ever scored in Women's World Cup Soccer, for your viewing pleasure:



Feel free to watch that a few times. I've been watching it over and over myself. The best part of the whole experience though? I watched the whole game with both my daughters, and afterwards we switched to sportscenter. I can't tell you how good it felt to have those ESPN talking heads discussing a women's sport for once.

You go girls!