Saddened to hear of another favorite author's passing

I had no idea that Judith Merkle Riley passed away last month, on the twelfth of September, but I discovered it poking around Goodreads and was very saddened. Riley wrote books that I cherished for their strong female heroines, who were clever and strong and exceptional. She never took the easy shortcut of plunking down modern women into a historical setting, but instead created women who believably fought their way through the world. Her stories were deeply human and full of a gentle humor that made me think that Riley herself must have been a marvel to spend time with.

My favorite book of hers is The Oracle Glass, based on the real-life story of the Affair of the Poisons, a scandal of witchcraft and poisonings at the court of the Sun King. Genevieve, neglected daughter of minor nobility, escapes a poisonous household to involve herself with things far blacker, with only her water-glass and her wit to guide her. But I also loved Margaret of Ashbury, the little midwife who was such a thorn to poor Brother Gregory, and Susanna Dallet the painter of miniatures and the occasionally dirty alchemical painting, and even Sibille, who possesses an animated, prophetic head in a box, and has to out-stubborn Nostradamus.

I wish Riley were better-known and appreciated, and I wish there could be more of her books, with their rich populations of fascinating characters. Her obituary quotes a person describing her: "She had a wicked, perceptive sense of humor and a native cheerfulness and zest which she kept to the end," and indeed, that's what I cherish most about her writing.

ARRGH of the day

As it was told to my sister on gchat:

me: SPORK SPORK SPORK
Sister: lol
me: a small carnival of errors has cost me 29 bucks in a stop payment fee
Sister: whaaa?
me: I paid my rent, as usual, on the day it was due
my checks still have the old address on them, but I wrote the current address on the envelope. And then we went upstairs to the office because we had to tell them about a drain that was running slow
so I mentioned, "Hey, my check has the old address but I wrote the right one on the outside of the envelope. We cool?"
they agreed that we were cool.
I forget about this.
Two days ago, I get a "we didn't get your rent check pay up loser" letter
I panic
I assume it's because horrible old landlady has chosen now to cash an old rent check from July
and that somehow my overdraft didn't kick in and the check bounced or something
I drive to the office at nine at night and drop off a new check, and phone them the next day and say, "I dropped off a check please don't evict me OMG"
Today...my old check clears.
I call up and they say that they saw the old address on the check, so they sent it to the new landlord of that property, who rightly went WTF and mailed it back
they figured it out and deposited the check, but by that point they had already sent me the letter and I had dropped off the second check
which I had to call the bank and put a stop on.

I have no pithy or witty ending to this story. However, I'm glad it's all frickin' resolved and that I haven't had to threaten anyone with bodily harm to get it done.