2011 Grand Prix Final

7-11.12.2011
Quebec City, Canada

Full Results

Men

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Patrick CHAN	CAN	260.30	1	1
2	Daisuke TAKAHASHI	JPN	249.12	5	2
3	Javier FERNANDEZ	ESP	247.55	3	4
4	Yuzuru HANYU	JPN	245.82	4	3
5	Jeremy ABBOTT	USA	238.82	2	5
6	Michal BREZINA	CZE	218.98	6	6

Ladies

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Carolina KOSTNER	ITA	187.48	1	1
2	Akiko SUZUKI	JPN	179.76	2	3
3	Alena LEONOVA	RUS	176.42	3	4
4	Elizaveta TUKTAMISHEVA	RUS	174.51	5	2
5	Alissa CZISNY	USA	156.97	4	5
WD	Mao ASADA	JPN

Pairs

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY	GER	212.26	2	1
2	Tatiana VOLOSOZHAR / Maxim TRANKOV	RUS	212.08	1	2
3	Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV	RUS	187.77	4	3
4	Dan ZHANG / Hao ZHANG	CHN	182.54	3	4
5	Meagan DUHAMEL / Eric RADFORD	CAN	170.43	5	5
6	Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN	JPN	164.42	6	6

Ice Dance

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SD	FD
1	Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE	USA	188.55	1	1
2	Tessa VIRTUE / Scott MOIR	CAN	183.34	2	2
3	Nathalie PECHALAT / Fabian BOURZAT	FRA	169.69	3	3
4	Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE	CAN	166.07	4	4
5	Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI	USA	160.55	5	5
6	Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV	RUS	157.30	6	6

2011 Bolero - Alexei Yagudin - Songs of the New Russia

Scifientland 2010/2011 Virtual Anthology

On his blog, Scifientland, Mircea Coman proposes us a virtual anthology made of 15 texts published in between March 2010 and February 2011. My little story "In Lack of Time" is included. The other writers in whose company I'm honored to be are Ciprian Mitoceanu, Ladislau Daradici, Cristian Mihail Teodorescu, Aron Biro, Balin Feri, Laura Sorin, Leni Jalabier, Diana Alzner, Ben Ami, Antuza Genescu, Adrian Buzdugan, Lucian Vasile Szabo, Marian Dumitraşcu, Leonard Ancuţa. Now if we could only make this project happen...

10.12.2011 update: Compiler Mircea Coman announced on his blog that Millennium Books has offered to publish Scifientland virtual anthology. :D I couldn't be any happier right now, my baby is in good company and it will be presented to the world by a great cover. *proud smile*

Look, Mom, I'm on Facebook!

I've been doing some research on social networking for writers lately, and it appears that the general opinion is that you just have to be well represented on Facebook for people to even know that you exist.

Now I've had a Facebook account for a few years, but my friends can testify that I'm hardly ever there and I mainly use it to post links to my blog posts. With regret I must announce that today I gave in to the social pressure and created a Facebook page dedicated to my writing activities:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorIoanaVisan

25 people better Like it fast so I can change the URL to something more manageable, because there's no chance in hell anyone will ever remember that link the way it is now!

My usual ramblings will still go here, on the blog, though. The page is strictly reserved for writing related topics. Of course, right now the page looks more organized than the blog, which irks me a little, but well, one can't have it all.

Apparently you also must have a Twitter in your own name so this is where I draw the line. Maybe when my first novel gets published on paper I'll change it, but until then I'm keeping my @weirdvision account. There.

2011 Bolero - Alexei Yagudin - Hallelujah

Nice, fluent moves, but a little too much agitation for such a slow song. And I would have preferred Leonard Cohen's version.

Story: Camouflage

Advanced Christmas feel-good pressie:

Camouflage

Enjoy! :)

Update: There's a nice review of the story in Gazeta SF.

And another one on Scifientland.

2011 November Reading List

Brilliance of the Moon by Lian Hearn – Good conclusion for the trilogy, decent as a whole. 3/5 stars

The Dark Tower: Waste Lands by Stephen King – I liked the second book better. 3/5 stars

Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead – I was down with a bad cold for an entire week and this is what I read. In my defense, it reads better than Twilight. :P 3/5 stars

Story: Navigating Through Fog

It's time for another story. The action is taking place in Shanghai and... well, you'll see.

Navigating Through Fog

This one is part of the SRSFF monthly contest, so please read, comment and vote. Thanks.

Update: Reviews in Nautilus and SRSFF.

2011 Rostelecom Cup

24-27.11.2011
Moscow, Russia

Full Results

Men

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Yuzuru HANYU	JPN	241.66	2	2
2	Javier FERNANDEZ	ESP	241.63	4	1
3	Jeremy ABBOTT	USA	229.08	1	5
4	Michal BREZINA	CZE	226.35	3	3
5	Artur GACHINSKI	RUS	221.43	5	4
6	Andrei ROGOZINE	CAN	197.85	7	7
7	Sergei VORONOV	RUS	197.19	8	6
8	Konstantin MENSHOV	RUS	192.68	9	8
9	Brandon MROZ	USA	185.49	6	9

Ladies

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Mao ASADA	JPN	183.25	1	1
2	Alena LEONOVA	RUS	180.45	2	2
3	Adelina SOTNIKOVA	RUS	169.75	3	3
4	Sofia BIRYUKOVA	RUS	166.07	4	4
5	Kiira KORPI	FIN	160.92	5	5
6	Haruka IMAI	JPN	154.76	6	6
7	Agnes ZAWADZKI	USA	149.38	7	8
8	Amelie LACOSTE	CAN	148.48	9	7
9	Rachael FLATT	USA	147.63	8	9
10	Christina GAO	USA	117.77	10	10

Pairs

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SP	FS
1	Aliona SAVCHENKO / Robin SZOLKOWY	GER	208.69	1	1
2	Yuko KAVAGUTI / Alexander SMIRNOV	RUS	197.84	2	2
3	Stefania BERTON / Ondrej HOTAREK	ITA	168.02	3	3
4	Ksenia STOLBOVA / Fedor KLIMOV	RUS	149.66	4	5
5	Katarina GERBOLDT / Alexander ENBERT	RUS	148.94	7	4
6	Ashley CAIN / Joshua REAGAN	USA	138.02	5	6
7	Brittany JONES / Kurtis GASKELL	CAN	136.54	6	7

Ice Dance

FPl.	Name	Nation	Points	SD	FD
1	Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE	USA	179.06	1	1
2	Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE	CAN	161.18	2	2
3	Ekaterina BOBROVA / Dmitri SOLOVIEV	RUS	156.83	3	3
4	Ekaterina RIAZANOVA / Ilia TKACHENKO	RUS	132.73	4	5
5	Isabella TOBIAS / Deividas STAGNIUNAS	LTU	130.47	5	4
6	Pernelle CARRON / Lloyd JONES	FRA	126.04	7	6
7	Ekaterina PUSHKASH / Jonathan GUERREIRO	RUS	124.53	6	7

It was nice to see Hanyu, Fernandez, Brezina, Asada, Leonova, Savchenko/Szolkowi, Davis/White again. And now we get a two weeks break until the Grand Prix Final.