SciFi & Fantasy Novels

SFF World-News
SFFWorld News – 10/31/09

30 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm
MERLIN Book Signing at Forbidden Planet UK

21 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm
Coming Soon TEMPEST RISING

8 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm
How Victorious is the Victorious Parasol?

6 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm
In Their Own Words: K.J. Parker on The Company

1 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

SF Site
Babylon 5.1: TV reviews by Rick Norwood

1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

Rick has been thinking about the state of SF on TV and who writes the series. He also gives us a list of what SF is on TV in November.
Rundog by J.O. Quantaman

1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

This a the story of a Norwegian/Japanese girl who escapes from sexual slavery to taken in and trained by ninja-enforcers for a utopian co-op. If that doesn't grab your interest, what if you learned it was self-published? But before you pass, read the first paragraph.
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

The kingdoms of Hallandren and Idris have been estranged from one another for 300 years over political and religious differences. The kingdom of Hallandren is ostentatious, colorful and worships its "returned" as living gods. They make use of a biochromatic system of magic that utilizes colors along with their life force, which they refer to as Breath, to produce magical effects. In stark contrast, is the humble kingdom of Idris. They lead simple drab lives of devotion and do not believe in the using their breath to produce biochromatic magic and feel the Hallandren's use of breath to be…
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes

1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

The gap between the haves and the have-nots has spread to a Grand Canyon sized gulf. Set in the near future of South Africa, it follows the interweaving story of four very different kinds of people. In each perspective, the person is somehow controlled or subsumed by the technology society has come to rely on, bringing to mind visions of how claustrophobic and wired life could eventually become.
Nekropolis by Tim Waggoner

1 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

Matt Richter is good at doing favors for people. A former cop, he's good at finding things out and making people talk. He's also very, very dead. As the only self-willed zombie in the alternate dimension where the haven city of Nekropolis is built, he's something of an oddity even among the strange, weird, dangerous, and creepy citizens that make their home there.

SF Scope
Jedi Warriors on Earth, training Obi-Wan—The Men Who Stare at Goats

6 Nov 2009 | 8:12 pm

They don't claim it's speculative fiction, but The Men Who Stare at Goats is a wonderfully speculative—and funny—look at some outre military projects... (Warning: this review contains some spoilers.)
Ashes to Ashes—Fringe's "Earthling"

6 Nov 2009 | 3:38 pm

Modifying old ideas can make for new and wonderful television, as this episode does... (Warning: this review contains some spoilers.)
Falsification—FlashForward's "The Gift"

6 Nov 2009 | 3:15 pm

An episode that dramatically and effectively asks—and answers—a question careful viewers have been wondering about since the debut. But now what?... (Warning: this review contains some spoilers.)
KingCon to be Brooklyn's own comic convention, this weekend

6 Nov 2009 | 2:48 pm

KingCon will feature comic creators from Brooklyn...
Realms of Fantasy's February 2010 content

6 Nov 2009 | 1:11 pm

The February 2010 issue of Realms of Fantasy will feature Harlan Ellison's first new story in a decade, as well as fiction by Ann Leckie, Aliette de Bodard, Leah Bobet, and Euan Harvey...

Gray Man Writes
Strategic Space Symposium, Day Two

Gray Rinehart

5 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am

(Abbreviated from the full entry in the Space Warfare Forum.) The second day of the 2009 Strategic Space Symposium was just as good as the first, and in some ways better. Highlights: NGA Director VADM Robert Murrett, discussed NGA's partial reliance on commercial satellites like GeoEye I found myself slowly becoming an ORS convert, as the vision explained was different from the old "rapid space reconstruction" idea I was pleased to learn that the ORS program will probably call for launching stored spacecraft before they become obsolete, which will be important for developing and…
My Day at the Strategic Space Symposium

Gray Rinehart

4 Nov 2009 | 4:24 am

Coming to Omaha for the 2009 Strategic Space Symposium seemed like a good time to revive the Space Warfare Forum, so yesterday I posted a long report about day one at the symposium. I made some good contacts with company representatives and saw some of my old colleagues, so it was a good day at the symposium. Highlights: The symposium is extremely well-run (in large part by one of my former students): good facilities, exhibits, and speakers NE Governor Heineman mentioned their "Nebraska Advantage" program to bring military contractors to the state ... I'll investigate it when I get…
In Space History: a Pioneer Approaches Jupiter, and Atlantis Launches

Gray Rinehart

3 Nov 2009 | 3:38 am

Thirty-five years ago today -- November 3, 1974 -- while on approach to its December flyby of Jupiter, the Pioneer-11 spacecraft sent back the first polar images of Jupiter, according to this NASA site. (First image of Jupiter's polar region, by Pioneer-11. NASA image from the National Air & Space Museum.) We'll have more about the Pioneer-11 flyby in December, when it made its closest approach to Jupiter. And 15 years ago today -- November 3, 1994 -- the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-66. (STS-66 mission patch. NASA image.) U.S. astronauts…
Space History Sadness: First Astronaut Fatality

Gray Rinehart

31 Oct 2009 | 5:25 am

On October 31, 1964 -- 45 years ago today -- NASA astronaut Theodore Freeman died when his T-38 crashed at Ellington Air Force Base, Texas. He had been selected in October 1963 as one of the third group of NASA astronauts, and was the first astronaut or astronaut-trainee to lose his life. (Theodore Freeman. NASA image from Wikimedia Commons.) Freeman's official astronaut biography is here. You can also read about him at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.
Lunar Landing Research, 45 Years Ago

Gray Rinehart

30 Oct 2009 | 3:25 am

Forty-five years ago today -- October 30, 1964 -- NASA pilot Joseph Walker took off from the South Base area of Edwards Air Force Base on the first flight in a Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). (LLRV in flight. NASA image ECN-506, from the NASA Dryden photo collection.) Walker flew the vehicle three times that day; his total flight time was just under 60 seconds, and he reached a peak altitude of about ten feet. That may not sound too impressive, but think about how difficult the thing must have been to fly: Quote: Built of aluminum alloy trusses and shaped like a giant four-legged…

Genes and Demons
Last Post

4 Nov 2009 | 9:50 am

I always knew this blog was a temporary experiment. It's been a year and a half now, and the experiment has lasted a lot longer than I originally intended. While it's been a lot of fun, I realize that it's probably time to bring this journal to a close. Things are about to get very busy for me in some wonderful ways, and it's highly unlikely that I'll have much free time to blog. I did enjoy it though. If you've stopped by here over the last year and a half, thank you. :)Cut and pasted from March 19th, 2008:First Post!What you are reading, my friends, is a genuine, honest-to-goodness very…
Game writers interviewed

2 Nov 2009 | 8:53 am

Video game writers talk about the creative process. An excellent article.
Flu avoidence.

30 Oct 2009 | 8:34 am

I don't usually bother getting vaccinated against things like the flu. This is partially because I hate going to the doctor's, and partially because I don't tend to get sick anyway. (Injured yes, sick no.) It was different when I was a kid though. Looking back, it's like I was always sick, and often badly so. (I even had spinal meningitis once) I've often wondered if I can blame my adult good health on the fact that I've pretty much already caught everything.I've decided to get vaccinated against H1N1 though. My breathing is still not right from when I dropped the weights on my chest, and I'm…
Yet another post on my favorite gene

28 Oct 2009 | 10:28 am

Long-time readers of this blog know I have a fascination with the 7-repeat allele (7R) of the human dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4). I've written of it often and will no doubt continue to do so until this blog is prised from my cold, dead fingers. I make no apologies. In terms of genetics and cognition, this gene is where the rubber hits the road; it's been suggested to play a role in everything from personality to population movements-- and in addition to being of a more personal interest to me also sits at the center of two very different schools of scientific inquiry; the first into the nature…
I wonder what Carl Jung would say.

28 Oct 2009 | 5:45 am

That's two consecutive nights that I've dreamed of nuclear holocaust. I was standing on a hill, watching as Chicago disappeared into a fiery mushroom cloud. I was doing the math in my head, trying to figure out if I was close enough to die of radiation poisoning.

Eric James Stone
A new role and a new sale

Eric James Stone

2 Nov 2009 | 9:18 pm

Edmund Schubert, the editor of Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, called me the day before I left for the World Fantasy Convention to offer me a position as assistant editor. After thinking about it for a day, I accepted. I’ll mainly be helping to read stories submitted to the magazine, choosing which to pass along to Edmund. Since IGMS has been a very good market for me, I’m excited by the opportunity to work behind the scenes. On returning from the convention, I found an acceptance letter from Analog for my novelette “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made.” …
“Accounting for Dragons” on Podcastle

Eric James Stone

16 Oct 2009 | 5:58 pm

Apparently I never mentioned on my blog that the audio fantasy podcast PodCastle bought my story “Accounting for Dragons,” which first appeared in InterGalactic Medicine Show. Anyway, if you want to listen to the story, it’s here. (It’s free.) Steve Anderson did a great job with the reading.
Happy Release Day to Becca and John

Eric James Stone

13 Oct 2009 | 8:27 am

Today is the release day for two first novels by good friends of mine: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick and Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. Becca is one of my writing friends I’ve known the longest. She and I were in an online class together back in 2002 and then in an in-person writing group for a couple of years until she moved to Colorado. I read the earliest version of the novel that would eventually become Hush, Hush—back before the character of Patch was a fallen angel—and I’ve always thought Becca had a great writing voice for Young Adult novels. I also admire…
Debunking the Shroud of Turin

Eric James Stone

5 Oct 2009 | 9:05 pm

Some scientists in Italy claim to have done so by showing how the image might have been produced using 14th-Century technology. Of course, there was no need to go to all that trouble. There’s a much more authoritative source which debunks the Shroud of Turin. From the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter 20: 6. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7. And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. [Emphasis added.] According to the Biblical account, the…
Now’s a good time to subscribe to Analog

Eric James Stone

29 Sep 2009 | 6:57 am

The January/February 2010 issue of Analog will be the 80th anniversary issue. And my favorite story I’ve written, “Rejiggering the Thingamajig,” will be in that issue. If you subscribe now, then you won’t have to hunt the issue down on the newsstands. You’ll also get tons* of great science fiction by authors who aren’t me. *Not literal tons: the issues don’t weigh hundreds of pounds apiece.

James Maxey
Be careful what you wish for

28 Oct 2009 | 6:54 am

The big development this week in the health care debate is that it looks like the senate will move ahead with a public option, i.e, a plan via which the federal government will offer medicaid or medicare like insurance to anyone willing to pay the premiums. Presumably, these premiums will be priced well below premiums of private insurers, since the government doesn't need to worry about running a
Early morning thoughts on money

22 Oct 2009 | 9:18 pm

I just got back from Washington, DC, where I stayed with my friend Mr. Cavin and his lovely bride Sunshine. They were courteous hosts for me and Cheryl, and we definitely saw parts of DC with them that we wouldn't have found on our own, like ass-kicking Ethiopian food, a trapeze school, and the Red Bull art exhibit at Union Station. (I think it was Union station... everything is a blur at this
Actually, this might increase the peace in the world...

19 Oct 2009 | 6:05 am

After my anti-Obama peace prize rant of two weeks ago, this morning I wake up to discover that Obama is issuing a directive telling federal law officials not to pursue prosecutions of pot-smoking patients in states that have legalized medical marijuana. (Details are here.)This isn't quite the first thing I've agreed on with Obama. I thought he was correct to raise the federal restrictions on
The Myth of Darwin as a Prophet

12 Oct 2009 | 9:12 am

This weekend at Capclave, I'll be on a panel discussing Darwin. The panel description reads:Darwin was born 200 years ago. Why are his ideas still controversial? Is the voyage of the Beagle the prototype for sf missions of scientific discovery? Why aren't there more books about Darwinism?It's been a while since I've had a science post, so I'm going to do a little warm up for the panel with a gut
Jumping on the Obama bashing bandwagon

9 Oct 2009 | 6:38 am

I hurt my hand at work yesterday, pulling one of my flexor tendons in my left hand. I was told to try to lay off using the hand until it heals, including no (or very little) typing. Obviously, I was worried about not being able to work on my latest novel, Greatshadow, and I also thought about not being able to blog. How is the world ever going to get by without my banal, scatter-brained ramblings

Side-Show Freaks
Welcome to Two New IGMS Assistant Editors

1 Nov 2009 | 10:51 am

I'm very excited to announce the addition of two new assistant editors to the IGMS staff. My goal is to significantly improve the speed of the response times for all submissions, as well as increase our online/social networking presence. I also realized over this past summer (as I was recovering from surgery on my left shoulder) that things could get out of control pretty quickly, and with a second surgery coming up in a few weeks I wanted to make sure the magazine would keep moving forward even if I wasn't.Toward that end, I have hired Scott Roberts for one of the assistant editor positions.
Free IGMS Reading

28 Oct 2009 | 6:56 pm

Another hearty congratulations to Greg Siewert, whose story, "The Absence of Stars" won this year's WSFA award for Best Story of 2008. "The Absence of Stars" is a novelette that was published in two parts, in issues 10 and 11. Also, congratulations to James Maxey, whose story "Silent As Dust" from issue 7 was one of the other finalists for this year's award. James' story was also selected for inclusion in The Year's Best Fantasy and Science Fiction 2009 edited by Rich Horton. To celebrate, IGMS is making both of these stories free for everyone to read until the end of 2009. Dive in and enjoy!
IGMS Story Wins WSFA Award for Best Short Story of 2008

19 Oct 2009 | 9:56 am

Congratulations (again) to James Maxey, who got an Honorable Mention at the WSFA Small Press Awards for his story "Silent As Dust," and an extra-large congratulations to Greg Siewert, who was the winner for "The Absence of Stars - Part One." There was an ongoing humorous bit after the award was handed out, when people kept asking Greg when he was going to write part two. I say humorous, because the story was already complete; I sent the whole thing in to the committee when I nominated it. But because part one was published in the last issue of 2008 (the year being considered for the award)…
CapClave 2009

15 Oct 2009 | 2:54 pm

Heading up to Rockville, MD for CapClave; Oct. 16 - 18. It's a great literary SF convention -- no games, no costumes, no TV or movie stuff; just authors, editors, publishers, and the occasional agent. Also home of the WSFA's small press award ceremony, for which there are two IGMS stories on the list of finalists for best short story of 2008. For full convention details, see the CapClave website. My own schedule is as follows: Capclave 2009 Fri 7pm Plaza ‐ Alternate Dogcatchers Participants: Jim Freund (m), Harry Turtledove, Tom Doyle, Michael Flynn, Edmund Schubert What makes a good…
Pretidigitation - by Philip Powell - IGMS issue 14 audio

2 Oct 2009 | 10:19 am

Prestidigitation - A Tale of Stolen Fingers Written by Philip PowellIllustration by Tom Barker Performed by Philip Powell, Tommy Trull, Melanie Wallace, Jim McKeny, Billy Christiansen, Tom BarkerVerse bored me. It was my dirty little secret. E-Gads! My snobby friends would have shunned me. By randomly quoting snippets of Moliere I avoided their suspicion. But internally, verse made my eyes roll. Until, I read "Le Bete" by David Hirson, wonderful play written in the late 80's that had rhyming verse. What was different? It was a modern playwright who had written something for a modern audience.

Kathryn Cramer
The strange hunt for an Icelandic woman in Plattsburgh, NY

Kathryn

6 Nov 2009 | 8:24 am

For a couple of days I've been following a series of creepy news stories in the Plattsburgh, NY Press Republican. In the first one, there were helicopters over Plattsburgh looking for a fugitive. On the afternoon of November 3rd, they posted the story headlined, Helicopter search on in Plattsburgh. It was very brief but suggestive of the possibility that something deeply unpleasant was going on: PLATTSBURGH — Helicopters were searching the area around Route 3 just outside the City of Plattsburgh’s West End Tuesday afternoon. State Police and Homeland Security helicopters were…
Cat portrait: Ambrose

Kathryn

3 Nov 2009 | 4:29 am
World Fantasy Con photos

Kathryn

31 Oct 2009 | 5:14 am

David has been posting his photos from World Fantasy Con to my Flickr account. You can see them HERE.(I am not at the convention, unfortunately. I'm not the woman in this photo. I'll have to ask my husband about the blonde showing him her mathematical tattoos! Update: That's Karen Burnham.)
migrating geese on Lake Champlain at Westport

Kathryn

30 Oct 2009 | 4:56 am
A view through the orchard this afternoon

Kathryn

27 Oct 2009 | 2:06 pm

Keith R.A. DeCandido
Schott's Miscellany 5 November 2009

6 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am

Art Garfunkel born (1941)MITHRIDATIZATIONMithridatization is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering nonlethal amounts. The word derives from Mithridates VI (c.163-132 BCE), the King of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses in the hope of developing immunity. Having been defeated by Pompey, Mithridates attempted to kill himself with poison--but his mithridatization proved too successful, and he was instead compelled to order a mercenary to stab him to death.What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been…
quote of the day

5 Nov 2009 | 10:32 pm

"That's the blues, ain't it? A whole lotta fuckin'."---Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Cadillac Records
see the roast on Facebook!

5 Nov 2009 | 8:24 pm

But only if you're a friend of Dave Mack (infinitydog). He's put up select video clips from the comedy roast of self at Shore Leave this past summer, but the only way to see them is to be Dave's friend.It's okay. He won't bite. Much. Check him out...........*grin*
irons in the fire update

5 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

StarCraft: My work for Ghost Academy Volume 1 is done. It's due for publication in early 2010. What I've seen of Fernando Furukawa's art so far is stellar. I just turned in a second draft of Spectres, and I'm awaiting Blizzard's notes. That's currently due for publication in fall 2010, last I heard.Supernatural: Working right now on revisions to Heart of the Dragon, which is still due out in February 2010.Farscape: I've written the first five issues of the new ongoing series, with #6 due in the next week or so. The first issue is due to ship on 25 November. Will Sliney's done the art for the…
Schott's Miscellany 4 November 2009

5 Nov 2009 | 10:51 am

The machine gun was patented by American inventor Richard Jordan Gatling (1862)SPORTING HAT TRICKSIn sporting terms, hat trick was originally a cricketing term for the feat of taking three wickets in three successive balls. There is some debate as to the origin of the phrase--some claiming that the bowler was given a new hat by the members of his team; others claiming that the bowler's hat was used as a receptacle for an informal "passing of the hat." Either way, since the 19th century the term has escaped the boundaries of the cricket pitch, and is generally used for any kind of triplet in…

Robert J. Sawyer
On Rochester, NY, NPR station on Friday

RobertJSawyer

5 Nov 2009 | 10:23 am

I'll be interviewed about my novels Wake and FlashForward on 1370 Connection with Bob Smith, the noon (Eastern time) show on AM 1370, the NPR station in Rochester, New York, this Friday, November 6, 2009. You'll be able to listen live here, and I'll be on for most of the hour between noon and 1:00 p.m. (then it's off to Astronomicon, Rochester's SF convention, where I'm one of the guests).Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com
Five years of working on the WWW books

RobertJSawyer

5 Nov 2009 | 9:22 am

Holy cow! It was five years ago today -- Friday, November 5, 2004 -- that I wrote the first words of what went on to become my WWW trilogy. Back then, it was only going to be a single book (to be called Webmind). I began writing that first book at a Write-Off writing retreat sponsored by Calgary's Imaginative Fiction Writers Association (IFWA). The first words I wrote were:Cogito, ergo sum.I had no idea what those words meant the first time I encountered them. I didn't even know that they were words. I knew nothing of language, or even of communication, for communication requires an other --…
Come see prize-winning Sawyer script performed

RobertJSawyer

3 Nov 2009 | 11:37 am

On Friday, November 27, 2009, Robert J. Sawyer's television pilot script for Earthfall will have a staged reading by professional actors at the National Film Board of Canada's Theatre at 150 John Street, in the Entertainment District in downtown Toronto.I wrote Earthfall as a pilot for an hour-long episodic science-fiction TV series; it's not currently sold to anyone, but I'm proud of it. The pilot episode is called "Vanguard," and here's a little synopsis:Toronto cop Hannah Wong arrives on the scene of a hit-and-run, unaware that the victim’s body houses an alien being that has been on…
Guest Editorial in On Spec

RobertJSawyer

31 Oct 2009 | 9:57 pm

I've long been associated with On Spec, English-Canada's leading SF magazine. My short story "Just Like Old Times" first appeared there in 1993 (and went on to win both the Aurora Award and the Crime Writers of Canada's juried Arthur Ellis Award for best short story of the year, as well as being reprinted in the best-of anthology On Spec: The First Five Years), and for three years (1995-1997), my "On Writing" column ran in the magazine.This is On Spec's 20th anniversary year, and I am very proud to have been called upon to write a Guest Editorial for the Fall 2009 issue. For the time being,…
Rollback gets a FlashForward boost

RobertJSawyer

31 Oct 2009 | 9:14 pm

It's always nice when a novel goes into a new printing. My most-recent mass-market paperback is the Hugo Award-nominated Rollback (which had a very successful run in hardcover prior to that). Tor Books has gone back to press for another printing -- which gave them the chance to mention that I'm also the author of FlashForward, the novel behind the ABC TV series of the same name.More about Rollback."Above all, the author's characters bear their human strengths and weaknesses with dignity and poise. An elegantly told story for all libraries; highly recommended." --Library Journal (starred…

John Scalzi
Away With Me!

John Scalzi

6 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am

Events of the day conspire to keep me from conversing with you via transmission of electrical particles through this system known as “Teh IntarWeebs”! And what events are these? And do they involve tapioca pudding, a polka version of the hit song “Head Like a Hole,” and between two and six stoats and/or ferrets? I cannot say! What I can say is I’m likely to be out for most if not all of the day. Try to get along without me for as long as you possibly can. And when you can’t, well, maybe I’ll put something on my Twitter feed. Maybe. I make no promises.
My Tech Life

John Scalzi

5 Nov 2009 | 2:40 pm

I am occasionally asked to give recommendations for tech/software, based on my own usage. I don’t know that I would necessarily follow my own example in terms of tech usage if I were not me, but for everyone who is curious, here’s the hard-and-software I currently use, and the short form reasons why. Primary Computer: PC from iBuyPower, featuring Intel i7 3.066 GHz quad core processor, dual ATI 4890 graphics cards in Crossfire mode, Creative X-Fi sound card, 6GB onboard memory, and 3.5 TB total storage, with Dell 24″ monitor. I’ve got a fairly tricked out system, for a…
Hey

John Scalzi

5 Nov 2009 | 8:09 am

I’m doing an interview about communities online. Which means I’M TOTALLY TALKING ABOUT YOU.
The Big Idea: Jeff VanderMeer

John Scalzi

5 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

Jeff VanderMeer returns to his weird, fantastical city of Ambergris in his new novel Finch, but as he explains in this Big Idea, there’s more going on in this stand-alone tale than just the rich vein of fantasy he’s previously explored in this world. Finch has more on its agenda, and the idea that more is merrier when it comes to genres. Is he right? Let’s see if he convinces you below. JEFF VANDERMEER: Sometimes a Big Idea is about combining several different big ideas in such a way that they create what you hope is A REALLY BIG-ASS IDEA. If you do it right, these ideas…
Wanted: Directors

John Scalzi

5 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

This week over at AMC, I’ve put together a list of the 10 film directors who haven’t directed a science fiction movie, but should. It has names on it which you probably expect (such as Spike Jonze, above) and also at least a couple I’m almost certain you don’t, unless you live inside my head. And if you do, why don’t you dust in there for once? The place is a mess. As always, feel free to leave comments over on the AMC site. Because I know you’ll have them.

Deep Genre
Fifteen Days of Deverry Interviews: Writers and Creativity

Sherwood Smith

6 Nov 2009 | 8:19 am

QUESTION: Let’s talk about the meta part of writing. When we were young, it was all about the story. As we get older, we not only look harder at the material, but at ourselves as writers. How have you changed as a writer? KIT: I hope, quite simply, that I’ve gotten better. I think I have. When I look at DAGGER- and DARKSPELL, I am bitterly aware of flaws that I don’t see in the later books. I’m not impressed with the craft in BRISTLING WOOD and DRAGON REVENANT, but at least it doesn’t make me cringe! By TIME OF EXILE I feel I was hitting my stride. One thing I do…
Rocket Boy, Geek Girls, and A New Publishing Venture

Madeleine Robins

2 Nov 2009 | 6:35 pm

Almost a year ago a bunch of writers got together and, to borrow a line from some 1940s musicals, said, “Hey, we have a barn! Let’s put on a show.” Translation: twenty or so of us decided that, with our various talents, our backlists, and our increasing concern about the shape of publishing and our place in it, we were going to try something new. Thus, Book View Cafe was born: a website where readers can find short and long fiction by name authors, for free or for a nominal fee. In the nearly one year since then, the Cafe has added some authors and gained almost 1500…
Halloween!

Constance

30 Oct 2009 | 7:50 pm
Interview with Kit

Sherwood Smith

28 Oct 2009 | 8:49 am

Question: First, how does it feel to be done? Kit: Very very odd, and at root, anti-climactic, which is partly why I am so deeply pleased that you and my other friends are putting together this Deverry “party”. I finished the last of the page proofs and thought to myself, “Well, that’s over. No more Deverry.” And I had the neurotic feeling that no one would particularly care, either. But it was definitely time for the series to end. Because it -was- over. Even though on some theoretical level I could have followed the stories of various characters and of the…
Deverry Contests’ Details and Rules

Constance

28 Oct 2009 | 7:37 am

Contests’ Dates and Prizes: LiveJournal Contest: October 29 – November 3 (Winner will be announced November 7th). DeepGenre Contest: November 5-10 (Winner will be announced November 11th). The Samaen “contest”: a one-day contest which works in a slightly different fashion; the rules for it will be posted at deverry15 as part of the contest announcement there on Friday evening (US time zones). Prizes for both the LiveJournal and DeepGenre contests are: The Winners receive an autographed hardback DAW edition of a Deverry novel; the Runners-up receive an…

Fangs, Fur and Fey
Tension vs. scares

Jessa Slade

6 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pm

I just read a review that panned an upcoming movie but reluctantly admitted "it had a couple good jump-cut scares." Because I'm currently working on a monster fight scene, that comment made me wonder about creating -- and experiencing -- terrifying moments in words.I consider Dean Koontz one of the best at creating on-the-page terror. Whenenver I sit down with one of his books, I block out an entire afternoon so that I can 1.) finish in one sitting, and 2.) finish before the sun goes down. His stories are wonderful examples, I think, of breakneck pacing and high-ratcheted tension.A Koontz…
Topic of the Week/Month - Do Not Go Gently into that Big Sleep

Jeri Smith-Ready

2 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

(Dylan Thomas + Raymond Chandler = subject line win)Happy Belated Halloween! I hope everyone''s holiday was safe, fun, and spooky (not necessarily in that order).As you might know, today and yesterday mark many cultures' observance of the Day of the Dead (El Dia de Los Muertos), which made me think of a weighty topic we've never discussed, one of life's two inevitables (the other being taxes).Or is it inevitable? In fantasy literature, death is not always a one-way trip. Characters can be resurrected by any number of means and are often transformed into something more powerful…
NaNoWriMo, Anyone?

Laura Bickle

31 Oct 2009 | 6:42 pm

I'm getting ready for National Novel Writing Month. I've stocked the kitchen with leftover Halloween candy, cleaned out my office, and have a shiny new journal ready. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in the month of November, and it goes quickly! I'm going to be working on the sequel to DARK ORACLE (writing as Alayna Williams, in case anyone wants a buddy over at NaNoWriMo!). It's about a criminal profiler who uses Tarot cards to solve crimes, with a nice dollop of X-Files science fiction intrigue. DARK ORACLE was last year's NaNoWriMo book, so it seemed only fitting to do the…
Fangs, Fur, and Fey Happy 3 Year Anniversary contest!

Jeaniene Frost

30 Oct 2009 | 7:38 am

As everyone knows, tomorrow is Halloween. What most people might not know is that September 27th marked the three year blog anniversary of Fangs, Fur, and Fey. Yes, we're a little late in celebrating that anniversary, but we have a way to make up for it that we hope you like :).Fangs, Fur, and Fey is holding Happy 3-year FFF Anniversary contest! Here are the prizes:Grand Prize - One (1) lucky winner will receive a Kindle Reader, retailing for $259.00, more info here:…
A Game of Telephone

Ann Aguirre

29 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm

So today on Twitter, I confessed the following: "My cell phone has been uncharged since August when I visited my agent, Laura Bradford, in San Diego. Now it's charged up again, but I had to Google how to turn it on." People seemed to find that super-amusing. That makes me sound like some kind of Luddite, I know. But the truth is, I just hate the phone. I adore computers, both laptop and desktop. I love how much faster I can do my work. (I wrote my first novel on a typewriter at age 15, and before that, I was scribbling stories in…

Foul Papers
The Daily Show covers the latest war

Shannan

2 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

The staffs of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report really do the most amazing things with argument-through-editing. I’m thinking of incorporating some of their techniques into my lectures the next time I teach. Here, Jon Stewart brilliantly skewers the supposed “war on FOX News.”
Joining the cult

Shannan

28 Oct 2009 | 6:00 am

So I believe I left you with an iceberg analogy – something about stocking the life-boats before the next disaster? I’m going to have to say goodbye to that analogy now. There’s no way I can say all I want to say and make it nautical/survival-oriented and keep a straight face. Especially since the first change I made to make my life more disaster-resistant was joining an (organization) cult. I consider myself fairly creative, but even I can’t figure out a way to make that life-boat-relevant, so you’ll have to live with plain, old-fashioned exposition. I’m kind of embarrassed to…
I shoulda become a lighthouse keeper

Shannan

14 Sep 2009 | 6:00 am

Graduation Yup, still crazy busy. Be back soon!
Here and gone again

Shannan

26 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am

This has been one hella crazy week, folks. I have a couple of posts half written to build on my last one, but they’re not quite ready to see the light of day yet. So here I am waving hi and telling you I haven’t forgotten you, but it’ll probably be another few days before you get the rest of the story. Since you clicked on over, though, I figure you deserve a nerd-girl treat. Welcome to the life of a dissertator. Our desires are simple.
Iceberg ahead! Living between crises

Shannan

17 Aug 2009 | 6:00 am

Image uploaded on April 5, 2006 by TerryMcTCrises are always lurking on the horizon, whether we see them coming or not. They’re sneaky, like icebergs. If you follow my twitter feed, you probably already know that earlier this month was the one year anniversary of my father’s death. It wasn’t a bad day, all things considered. I spent it with people who loved him, and we spent it remembering him. But this anniversary thing has had a profound effect on my month as a whole. I’ve been reflecting a lot on the way this last year turned out versus what I expected it to be on the morning of…

Magical Words
Words, words, words.

A J Hartley

6 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am

Let me begin by thanking the Magical Words core—Faith, Misty, David and Catie—for inviting me to be a regular contributor to this excellent site. I’m honored. In that spirit, I thought it appropriate to lay my cards on the table by way of introduction, so here goes: I’m a word guy. I love them. All of them. Big words, small words, obscure words, common words, new words, old words, pompous words, understated words, vague words that sweep an impression, precise words that work like single shot target pistols, pin-pointing one thing and nothing else so that you know exactly what they…
Writing is a Solitary Business

Faith Hunter

4 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

Most people think that writing is what we do at the PC or laptop or with pad and pen. That we live inside our heads and only when actively pounding away at the keyboard or scritching madly on the pad. The writers among us know that is simply not true. Our minds get caught up in the lives of our characters and suddenly we are writing all the time—driving, eating supper, walking the dogs, paddling a particularly good river (okay that one is mostly just me,) and worst of all, while having a conversation that is important to our mates but not so much to us. Or maybe that one is just me, too? I…
Ordinary People

Misty Massey

3 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

“I wonder if its possible, to write a ripping good yarn with a hero, or heroine, who was ordinary in every way.” A reader emailed and asked me this question a few days ago. It’s a good question. Why do fantasy novels tend to be about unusually skilled people in extraordinary circumstances? Why do they have tortured pasts? Why are they always better-than-average looking? What about middle-aged Jim Johnson, the married car salesman who lives on the corner? Why can’t he be a fantasy hero? When I read a book, I want to be transported. I want to enter a world I can’t…

Nancy Fulda
Salvaging

28 Oct 2009 | 3:34 pm

Six-year-old Alex has developed a keen interest in all things electrical; especially in taking them apart. So far we have dissected a flashlight, a hand microscope, a remote control caterpillar, and an electronic alien-in-a-car with a broken wheel. He squealed with glee when we connected the caterpillar motor to a battery and it started spinning. I find I enjoy both the time spent together and the excuse to get rid of items that I otherwise would have kept. It's hard for me to throw away electronic toys even if they have stopped functioning. This way, I can chalk their destruction up as a…
Randomness

27 Oct 2009 | 12:37 pm

Hexes and Tooth Decay is now up at Darwin's Evolutions.Toilet Paper Wedding Dresses. Gosh. Wow. I don't know whether to be entranced or appalled.Schlock Mercenary books can now be ordered from local game stores. Makes me wish I had one nearby so I could pester the manager to put more copies on the shelves.By the way, the bargain hunter in me just noticed that the Schlock Store has a clearance section. Just in case you're a cheapskate like me who cares more about the book's content than about whether the spine has a crease.
Does reading require more effort than watching a movie?

17 Oct 2009 | 4:23 am

The generally accepted knowledge -- at least among booklovers -- is that reading is a far more active experience than watching television because you have to imagine what everything looks like.I find myself wondering whether that's actually true.Books leave more room for the reader to visualize the situation, I'll concede that. But what about complex tasks like extrapolating characters' motives, predicting what they'll do next, or wondering what that mysterious man in the black overcoat is up to? Books often hand that information to you cut-and-dried, where as movie-watchers, unable to read…
Servant of a Dark God

15 Oct 2009 | 2:00 am

The first book in John Brown's trilogy was released this week. John is very cool, and is also one of the judges for the AB Writing Contest. Yes, he's going to be reading finalist stories during the first month of his book's release, bless him.Random Coolness: On the Amazon page for this book, four of the 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought X' links are also written by someone I know.
Things Writing Can Do That Movies Can't

14 Oct 2009 | 1:58 pm

When I watched Moulin Rouge I experienced a moment of utter despair. (It happened to occur during the rotating aerial view of the golden elephant room, but really, it could have happened anywhere in the movie.) The combination of imagery, music and story was so powerful, so omnipresent, so... so... cinimatic that it made me long to write a story that could do all the same things. And I knew I couldn't. If you want music, imagery, and raw power, cinema has literature outclassed. Cinema has a direct link to our primary senses -- sight and hearing. Writing doesn't.I moped around for several days…

No Fear of the Future
Nomadology

Chris Nakashima-Brown

2 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am

Courtesy of the awesome team at Strange Horizons, I have a new story up today about hand-knit his and hers sensory deprivation hoods, golf course detention camps, strip small suicide bombers, improvised homeless shelters, and other flotsam of the Zeitgeist bobbing around in our collective consciousness. "Nomadology" — check it out:What a fucking awesome party. Talk about "obscene enjoyment." Who knew the mujahideen assassins would have even better reefer than those Scythian priests camped out on top of the parking garage doing their blood bowls? The whole thing was like a post-apocalyptic…
Day of the Dead

Alexis Glynn Latner

1 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

This year had exceptionally fine Halloween decorations. In my part of town I was particularly taken by a black bat with a six-foot wingspan and glowing red eyes; several yards transformed into nicely creepy graveyards - one of which was crowned by a glittery banner hung from the second floor of the house that announced FANGTASIA! - and a new house by Braes Bayou that had two big furry spiders stalking up the front steps. As to the last, the spiders, plus some skeletons and cobwebs, amounted to a nice scare, but the really scary thing is the adjacent bayou. The house has such a high and…
Turkey City post-mortem

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

26 Oct 2009 | 11:58 am

Well, another Turkey City writers workshop has come and gone, and near as I can figure it, there were no fatalities this time around. Indeed, it was one of the lowest-key Turkey Cities in recent memory (although by my reckoning, I've missed the last two held). In addition to myself, the other writers involved in this unique form of self-immolation included Bruce Sterling, Meghan McCarron, Elze Hamilton, Caroline Joachim, Paul O. Miles, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Lawrence Person, Jessica Reisman, Fred Stanton and Jen Waverly. Don Webb was originally supposed to attend, but injured his back and…
COEXIST

Alexis Glynn Latner

24 Oct 2009 | 3:32 pm

You’ve seen it. Everybody in the urban United States has, and I have no doubt it’s scattered across the world. It’s the blue COEXIST bumper sticker where the white letters are, respectively: the crescent and star of Islam; the Peace symbol for “o”; a male-female-equality “e”; a Star of David for the “x”; an “i” topped with a Pagan Pentacle; an “s” adapted from the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol; and a “t” that’s a Christian Cross. Though there are many variants, this is the classic. There seems to be some controversy over the copyright of the classic design.
Turkey City off the port bow

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

20 Oct 2009 | 6:40 am

There's a venerable writers' workshop of ill-repute, semi-permanently situated in Austin, known as Turkey City (for the sticklers to tradition, the full and formal name is the Turkey City Writers' Workshop and Neo-Pro Rodeo). Writers of note who've braved this august meat grinder on occasion include Howard Waldrop, Steven Gould, Lisa Tuttle, George Alec Effinger, George R.R. Martin, Connie Willis, Jeff VanderMeer... well, the list is long and impressive. It's held irregularly these days, often coinciding with Bruce Sterling's whirlwind trips through town, and this coming weekend just happens…

Pat Esden
Freedom, Booyah! and Bats

6 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am

My husband left at midnight for his yearly Canadian vacation. Yay! I have eight days of writing freedom. Well, I still have my normal job to do, but no worrying about dinner or staying quiet because he goes to bed early--lots of loud music and tea. Best yet, I finished an updated outline and now have a final outline for the last chapters of SAH.By the way, I used to think I liked bats, but the last chapter I wrote made me realize how uncomfortable they make me.Here's a tease:Quickly, Ella pointed the MagLite's beam down the passageway to double check that she hadn’t…
Query Dissection

4 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

Mary Kole of Andrea Brown has begun announcing the winners of her query contest. She will be posting and dissecting the winners (well their queries, that is) all week. Check it out. The queries will blow your socks off, and Mary Kole's comments are straightforward and insightful. http://kidlit.com/
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

31 Oct 2009 | 8:37 am

We're having a wild day around here. A pig--a large pink pig--just ran through the traffic light in front of the store. A bunch of men are now chasing it past the bakery and a hay wagon full of kids in costumes. Rural Vermont at its finest :)
Costume Countdown

30 Oct 2009 | 5:00 am

A while ago I promised to match marshallpayne1 's lovely class photo with one of my own. The trouble was I couldn't find my old photos. I finally have, but now Halloween seems much more important ( though less scary than class photos). This is me as a young werewolf. I'm not sure how old I was, but I recognize the heating grate as being in the gym of the school I attended in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Back then we gathered pillowcases of candy without fear, except that Mom would find out how much we'd gathered and insist on freezing part of it to eat later. I…
Reading as a Writer: THE THIRTEENTH TALE by Diane Setterfield

29 Oct 2009 | 5:28 am

I read THE THIRTEENTH TALE with a notebook beside me, jotting down lines I wanted to think about and passages I wanted to go back and reread—and still, my enjoyment of the story was not lessened. The novel is simply amazing and deserves a slow, thoughtful read.The characters and mystery at the beginning of THE THIRTEENTH TALE drew me in immediately, but when I hit the chapter ‘Arrival’ (page 37) I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller and hooked for the duration. What hit me at this point was Setterfield’s use of setting. Not only could I…

Something Wicked
Competing in the new world.

Lori Devoti

6 Nov 2009 | 12:51 pm

So, things are changing. Ebooks are getting bigger and bookstores are dying. Authors are more and more thinking about selling directly to consumers and with this new ease of publishing, there are more and more books on the virtual shelves. As an author this can be scary because how will you stand out? As a reader it can be scary because how will you know if a book is decent? I mean we can bitch about NY and gatekeepers, yada yada but those gatekeepers do give us some baseline of quality. But in a new digital age, that just may not exist....What will we do then? (Which isn't to say a…
I Heart Pro-Animal Heroes!

Angie Fox

5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

Something Wicked would like to welcome Marcia James! She's one of ten authors who donated short stories to the Berkley anthology, Tails of Love, which has raised $10,000 since June for an Ohio no-kill animal shelter. In "Rescue Me", Marcia's contribution to this fundraising book, ex-quarterback Adam "Nuke" Baumgardner saves a starving stray, and the Chinese crested hairless dog returns the favor by reuniting him with his lost love, veterinarian Claire Mendelsohn.Here's Marcia in her own words:I love reading love stories featuring four-legged characters. Yes, shape-shifters are sizzling hot,…
Winners & Sayonara

Ann Aguirre

4 Nov 2009 | 7:21 am

Hey, everyone. By the time you're reading this, I will be on vacation in Acapulco. First, I have a winner to announce. JenB, come on down! I need you to email your full name, address, and book choice to ann.aguirre at gmail.com. Since I'll be gone (and I'm not taking my laptop or my cell phone), your book will be sent out on the 9th. But never fear, I'll attend to it as soon as I'm on the clock again. Second, I'm saying farewell here at Something Wicked. I'm having to pare down my commitments because I want to make sure I have the time I need to write my books. I'm rather obsessive about…
Welcome Jennifer Lyon!

Angie Fox

3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

Hi, we'd like to welcome Jennifer Lyon to the blog today. She's the award winning author of Soul Magic, the latest in a fantastic series from Ballantine Books. While she's here, Jennifer has graciously offered to answer any questions we may have (we'll try to be gentle).Can you tell us a little bit about Soul Magic?It's the second book in the Magic series after BLOOD MAGIC.Sutton West knows he's close to giving into the curse and going rogue. If that happens, he'll start killing innocent witches to harvest the power in their blood and lose his soul. Worse, Sutton has touched the blood of a…
New Cover Awesomeness!

Jess Granger

2 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

How could I not show this off?I'm so thrilled to announce that the sequel to Beyond the Rain, will be released May 4th, 2010.Beyond the Shadows is an intense, heart-stopping read. I really loved writing it, and I can't wait for it to hit the shelves.Honestly? I can't wait to hold that hot cover in my hands.Here's the blurb.A man of deception. A woman of justice. Can their fragile trust be strong enough to prevent a war? Commander Yara knows perfect leadership requires perfect control and discipline. She has spent years living without the distraction of caring for anything—or anyone. It’s…

Talking Squid
Answers to recently asked questions

Chris Lawson

5 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

One of the delights of publishing a blog is seeing the strange hits that search engines send one’s way. Talking Squid attempts to answer some of the more unusual queries to enter our stats collector. Q: talking squid Yes, that’s us. Q: do millions of people have IQ 160 Take these calculations with a grain of salt, but an IQ of 160 is supposed to represent the top 0.00063% of the population. Out of the whole world that’s about 424,000 people, roughly the population of Portland, Oregon. That’s a lot of people, but not millions. Q: i want to make a toy squid So do I.
Margo Lanagan, Shaun Tan win World Fantasy Awards

Chris Lawson

2 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm

In parochial news, Margo Lanagan’s novel Tender Morsels tied with Jeffrey Ford’s The Shadow Year for Best Novel and Shaun Tan was awarded Best Artist at the World Fantasy Awards. Neither was at the ceremony to collect their awards. Shaun was too busy working on a film and Margo had decided to stay home on the argument that turning up to awards seemed to be the best way to lose them. Looks like she was right. Other winners: Ellen Asher and Jane Yolen for Life Achievement, Kij Johnson’s “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” for Best Short Story, Richard Bowes’s…
A scam for the really, really stupid

Chris Lawson

31 Oct 2009 | 5:20 pm

I know that one shouldn’t be surprised at anything found on the internet, but even so one occasionally trips over a new level of idiocy that one had previously thought unachievable. And so I came upon an advertisement that promised thousands of dollars in grants from the Australian government. And here is the photo of the cheque allegedly received… As someone who has received actual cheques from the Australian government, I can assure readers that this looks nothing like the real thing. Notice, if you will, the amateur photoshopping that placed an Australian flag on the cheque.
Size and scale: the wonder

Chris Lawson

29 Oct 2009 | 10:26 pm

This is just too gorgeous to resist: a visualisation of scale from coffee bean to carbon atom, courtesy of the Genetics Science Learning Center at The University of Utah. Now if only someone would create a version that slides from the observable universe to Planck length… Hat tip: Making Light
Old Testament Zombie Army

Chris Lawson

28 Oct 2009 | 2:05 pm

Seriously. Here’s Ezekiel 37:1-10.1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, thou knowest.” Again he said unto me, “Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, ‘O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.’ Thus saith the Lord GOD…

theinferior4+1
don't goATS!

lucius_t

6 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm

The Men Who Stare at Goats is not a very good movie. Just went to an early showing and was seriously let down, because I wanted this to be cool. It's one of those flicks where almost everything funny is in the trailers, and it can't seem to decide whether it wants to be whacky or make some kind of statement about war--thus it comes off a goofy comedy with too few good parts. It's very slight. Be warned.Now back to the cabin in the hollow....
New Sofanauts Podcast

theinferior4+1

6 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am

Visitors to Tony Smith's fine site can now hear Peter Watts and I rambling conversationally across many topics, in the latest SOFANAUTS PODCAST.http://sofanauts.com/Posted by Paul DiFi.
Cousin Paul to the Rescue!

paulwitcover

6 Nov 2009 | 5:18 am

When Liz is in trouble, I am not slow . . . Damn, what a gorgeous cover!! Click to embiggen, as DiFi would say . . .
Ft. Hood

paulwitcover

6 Nov 2009 | 4:37 am

The title of Liz's last post made me think about the frustration involved in trying to separate the wheat of solid information from the chaff of rumor and speculation yesterday in the wake of the horrible shootings at Ft. Hood, not only on TV but on the internets. Glenn Greenwald has some interesting points to make here, though it's hard to see how news organizations are likely to exercise, of their own free will, any sort of responsibility in the current environment of 24-hour cable feeding-frenzy, and the idea of government stepping in to impose restrictions is abhorrent. Maybe…
The Traditional Shooting of the Televisions

lizhand

6 Nov 2009 | 3:17 am

I was SO bummed that I was out of state a few weekends ago, when Carolyn Chute held her annual mustering of the Maine Militia — I really wanted to go. I had a fair idea of what to expect: based on reading her last novel, it sounded like the sort of thing you'd find only here in Maine (or maybe only in a Carolyn Chute novel). I comforted myself with the thought that my good friend and neighbor Andy O'Brien (former frontman of punk band The Deported, now member of the Maine State Legislature) would be there taking notes.Alas, Andy couldn't make it either,…

Wyrdsmiths
Friday Cat Blogging

Kelly McCullough

6 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am

That cat-carrier's not here for moi, is it?Groovy napping hereNothing this cute should ever have to go to the vetFor Meglet it's always casual dayI don't think I should have eaten the whole turkeyIs my inner beauty shining through again? Sorry if I blinded you.
The Future is Not Now

tate hallaway

4 Nov 2009 | 7:51 am

I'm back to writing science fiction, and yesterday I wrote a scene in which our hero completely botches a rescue to the point of the whole thing becoming physical comedy. I find myself wanting him, in his sarcastic internal dialogue, say, "Willy E. Coyote to the rescue!" There are so many reasons why I can't.The biggest is the most obvious. This is the future. My son only knows about Willy E. Coyote because he's been watching the DVDs of the Warner Brothers cartoons via Netflix (which he finds hilarious, btw.) There's no reason, however, to assume that these cartoons will be consumed by the…
Smart Things

Kelly McCullough

2 Nov 2009 | 9:29 am

My friend Pat Rothfuss: Everyone Hates Their Job Sometimes.Kate Astres posts: The Unpublished Author’s Guide to Convention Schmoozing. I am not in total agreement with this post, but it's mostly good advice and it's also funny.Kristin Nelson on Macmillan's new move to pay authors less for e-rights. And why that might not be the best idea they've ever had.Speaking of contract grabs, how about this language: "edited, in all media, throughout the universe, in perpetuity." from America's got talent, via the the Wall Street Journal.John Scalzi on Amazon's new dumb idea for digital rights…
Monday morning WIP thread

Kelly McCullough

2 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

I'm home for a while after being gone for 3 weeks of October. I've got a proposal that needs writing, a trunk novel to finish resurrecting, a sink and countertop to install and blogging to catch up with. Friday cat blogging for example as well as trip blogging and car blogging to do, plus maybe even a little writing blogging, oh and smart things so I can close a bunch of tabs. How about y'all?
Note to Editor

Bill Henry

1 Nov 2009 | 3:14 pm

"Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split."—Raymond Chandler

Joe Abercrombie
Uncharted 2

5 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

It doesn't feel like long ago at all I was talking of Uncharted, speaking of its high qualities and hoping it would be the start of a long and beautiful series. I really liked that game - not spectacularly original, but well implemented across the board, nicely plotted and bursting with charm. It seems like about a week later, and here's the sequel, and man, it's really, really good. Everyone's saying that - finally a reason to own a PS3 and yada, yada. But it really is good. Really good.There's the same mixture of exploration and rapid-fire gunplay, of mystery and quality voice acting, but…
The Shield Season 7

28 Oct 2009 | 12:30 pm

Ouch.I need to say that again. Ouch.I loved the first couple of series of the Shield. It was tough, hard, morally ambiguous in a way I hadn't really seen in cop shows before. Had a killer twist in the very first episode. And featured a superb, eye-poppingly angry and dangerous central performance from Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackie. "Are you the good cop or the bad cop?" a suspect asks him. "I'm a different kind of cop," he replies, before beating a confession out of him with a telephone directory. This was my kind of show.It's a bit of a shame in a way that it was rather eclipsed for me…
Swords and Dark Magic

20 Oct 2009 | 2:26 pm

So I've dropped a couple of hints that I'd have a short story in an anthology coming out next year. Its co-editor, the very wonderful Lou Anders, has now posted the table of contents so I feel free to reproduce it, because it is a doozy, and you are going to want a piece of this, oh yes you are:"Introduction: Check Your Dark Lord at the Door" - Lou Anders & Jonathan Strahan "Goats of Glory" - Steven Erikson "Tides Elba: A Tale of the Black Company" - Glen Cook "Bloodsport" - Gene Wolfe "The Singing Spear" - James Enge "A Wizard of Wiscezan" - C.J. Cherryh "A Rich Full Week" - K. J. Parker "A…
Serving Suggestion

13 Oct 2009 | 12:50 am

Rugged frontiersman Anton Vuorilheto sent me this photo of him getting closer to nature with his Best Served Cold. Watch out for that waterfall, Anton!How do you eat yours?
Fantastyval

5 Oct 2009 | 4:39 am

So I'm off to be a guest of honour (I know, stop laughing, they are clearly using 'honour' in its broadest possible sense) at Fantastyval, a fantasy festival (No!) in Holland from 16th-19th October. The schedule shall be:Saturday 17th11.30-11.50 Reading13.00-14.00 Lecture (Probably about expectations in epic fantasy)15.30-15.50 Reading16.30-17.30 Informal chat, Q&A, and signingSunday 18th11.30-11.50 Reading13.00-14.00 Panel "Writing across borders"15.00-15.20 Reading16.00-17.00 Informal chat, Q&A, and signingSo a lecture (which I have given before but *ahem* some members of the fantasy-buying…

Dan Abnett
I Hate Dan Abnett

Dan Abnett

22 Oct 2009 | 1:38 am

Wonders will never cease. The marvelous Mark Charan Newton, author of "Villjamur", read "Triumff", and liked it so much that he has written a few words to inspire others to read it too. What a very fine chap he is. Take it away Mr Newton.Enough has been said about the plot already, so what I most of all want to add is this:I hate Dan Abnett. Why? Because having proved himself the king of noir-infused miltary SF, it takes quite a talent to move easily to something completely different - and this really is a triumffant leap in style. Such transitions really are difficult to pull off, and you…
Just a little reminder of dates for the Scottish tour!

Dan Abnett

14 Oct 2009 | 5:41 am
Something for the weekend.

Dan Abnett

9 Oct 2009 | 2:07 pm

Forbidden Planet beckons, and Nik tells me that I've worked too much again, this week, what with more books in the mind-mill for AR and BL! So, this is just to say that we both admire Matthew Farrer beyond anything that we can adequately express in a couple of sentences. We are beyond delighted that he has read and reviewed "Triumff", and here are his thoughts.TRIUMFF - Her Majesty’s Hero, by Dan AbnettIt’s raining. It’s pouring. London is very much the worse for water, and as the little tour that opens Triumff shows you how bad things are there it also shows you what sort of London…
Forbidden Planet signing.

Dan Abnett

6 Oct 2009 | 2:40 am
Day of Days!

Dan Abnett

1 Oct 2009 | 3:28 am

It has arrived! My day of days, and my comp copies of "Triumff"! I'm going to take this opportunity, if I may, to introduce a new guest blogger. I know, I know, you've read a review of "Triumff" already, you might even have read two, but, frankly, I can't get enough of people saying nice things about this book. It's my baby, and it has been for a very long time, and I can't think of anything nicer to do, today, than revel in praise for it!I was seriously considering have a competition for best review of "Triumff", but they've all been so darned marvelous that it'd be impossible to choose just…

Ann Aguirre
Ultimate Winners & places you can win

Ann Aguirre

2 Nov 2009 | 10:09 pm

The Nook Winner = Riles Buy.com Winner = RKCharron Book certificate Winner = Sonya Allstun A Drop of Red Winner = Maered Bone Crossed Winner = the book girl Arc of Waking the Dead = Tiffany Email me your names and addresses to collect your winnings. Note; I am going on vacation on Wednesday, so if I don’t have your info tomorrow, it will be the following week before we can wrap up prize delivery. Congrats to everyone. Y’all were great. ETA: There are four five places you can win Skin Game right now. (If you know of more, let me know and I’ll add the links). Romance Bandits…
Ultimate Skin Exposure

Ann Aguirre

26 Oct 2009 | 12:07 pm

This is it, the last week leading up to the release of SKIN GAME, and I need your help to launch it in a big way. How can you do this? (1) Twitter about the book. Not random “buy it!” spam. Mention what you liked about it in 140 characters or less. If you haven’t read it, say why you want to read it. Use the #SkinGame hash tag so people can find what you have to say about the book. Talk about it with people you follow. Be my buzz-leaders! (2) Post the cover on your blog, MySpace or Facebook page, along with the blurb. (3) Tell people about the book by whatever means you feel…
2nd Week Orgy Winners

Ann Aguirre

23 Oct 2009 | 6:32 am

Like last time, if you guys don’t email me your addresses within a week, then I keep the book money and taunt you with the books I bought for myself instead. And so without further ado, here are our winners for the week: Mandi – Set the Dark on Fire Sara M – Bitter Night Jonathan – Norse Code Julie D – ARC of Finding the Lost Congrats, people! The sooner you email me, the sooner we can send your prizes to you. On Tuesday, we begin our final week of celebrations leading up to the release of Skin Game — with a special mystery prize along with the book orgy.
2nd Skin Game Book Orgy

Ann Aguirre

19 Oct 2009 | 9:27 am

So here we are, just over two weeks before release. Are you guys excited? I need y’all to be revved up about this book, as it’s my first romance and my first release as Ava Gray. That’s why we’re having another week of the book orgy. There are more awesome books up for grabs this week. To win, all you need to do is show up. The more you comment, the better your chance to win because I’ll be picking my winners through a random number generator. As always, no spamming, no random links. Here’s who I have in store for you this week: Jill Sorenson I’ve had…
Orgy winners

Ann Aguirre

15 Oct 2009 | 10:05 pm

Wow, that sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Anyway, I am allotting the books to winners in order names were drawn. Here we go: Quatrain – CC Gateway – Mishel The Last Will of Moira Leahy – Laurie F Wicked Enchantment arc – Pam K Y’all need to Email me your names and addresses. If I don’t hear from you within a week, then I’m keeping this book money for myself. Mwahahaha! And I will taunt you with the books I bought. On Monday, we’ll have the second week of the orgy with more books and arcs. Yummy.

Colleen Anderson
Vancouver Goes Puritan Over Booze

colleenanderson

6 Nov 2009 | 11:11 am

Port cities are often more cosmopolitan that interior cities. This has been an age-old pattern, common where sailors and merchants from many lands came to sell exotic and unusual wares. People of various races as well as different customs would mingle in such a city and tolerance for difference was greater. It was true in the 8th century, the 15th century and is true today. Vancouver, being a port city is more liberal in many things and culturally mixed for various reasons. You might almost expect it to be European in sentiment. By European I mean the easy laissez-faire of open patios,…
Welfare: For Freeloaders or Desperados

colleenanderson

5 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm

The history of social welfare has been long and varied, being part of the Roman, Islamic and Jewish empires. It has covered different groups with different criteria but overall it was for the poor and needy, for the elderly, widows and people with disabilities. Canada has had a welfare system since the Great Depression. Part of a social welfare system, in Canada’s case includes health care, education and supporting the underprivileged. It can vary from province to province as to what specific criteria are. There is also the specific welfare part of welfare, which is helping those who…
When Were Women’s Hats in Fashion?

colleenanderson

4 Nov 2009 | 3:27 pm

I’ve been asked this question and let’s say women’s hats have been in fashion for centuries. If I limit this to Europe (because various regions developed headdresses as different times) then we can look at it a bit more specifically. Headdresses might be a better word than hat since what we see in modern terms as a hat is not the same as a head covering. This could cover everything from a kerchief to feather and bone to felt and straw. If we look at earlier civilizations, head ornamentation covered metal crowns, coronets and helmets for war. These can be seen in Egyptian,…
Why Protest the Olympics

colleenanderson

3 Nov 2009 | 3:41 pm

There are people out there wondering why anyone would protest the Olympics while others are happy to protest anything for the sake of protest and anti-disestablismentarianism. Recently as the torch relay began in Victoria, pre-emptive strikes were taken by the organizers to ferry the torch bearers in a van around protestors. According to other media reports the protestors and police both met their mandate without violence or arrests. Yet these torch bearers were cosseted away so that the protestors couldn’t protest the relay. Now I don’t know what exactly this group of protestors…
The Importance of Art

colleenanderson

2 Nov 2009 | 10:47 am

There has been some brutal slashing of arts funding in BC, not to mention Canada. However, the BC government slashed funding quietly, in the background and almost to nil for most things. Magazines and performance groups that have continued for many years have suddenly found themselves out of business. We already know that Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes artists stand around in elite galas sipping champagne and hobnobbing. Well let me put into perspective why art is important, and to do that for our local governments I’ll talk about it in a way they can recognize. First, why does…

Eleanor Arnason
November

Eleanor

6 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

Today is bright and sunny. Patrick and I are going up to Duluth to watch the Arthur Anderson -- Pat's favorite lake boat -- come in through the shipping canal.I have trouble with November, because the days are getting short and there is a fair amount of overcast weather. The darkness tends to pull my mood down. This week has been difficult, even though it's sunny today. Pat and I have both been unemployed for six months, and neither of us is seeing any good job prospects at the moment. I had an awful job interview on Tuesday. The job was not what I thought it was, and I left the interview…
A Rainy Day

Eleanor

29 Oct 2009 | 1:07 pm

Yesterday was gray. I stayed inside and read: Valiant by Holly Black, which I liked, and Old Man's War by John Scalzi, which I did not like, though it's a page turner. I read right through to the end.I am not a fan of military sf, except for The Forever War. I don't like generic bad aliens. Too many of Scalzi's aliens ate humans, which is the behavior of trolls and bogey men. How likely is it that a bunch of unrelated alien species will all find humans edible and tasty? I had the sense that Scalzi might be planning a twist or surprise, but it didn't happen in the first book, and I don't feel…
Weather Report

Eleanor

28 Oct 2009 | 6:53 pm

Autumn is progressing. A lot of leaves have fallen and some trees are entirely bare. The leaves that remain are muted. We had a warm September and a cold, rainy October, not good for colors. There have been several snow falls, none lasting in the Cities. I continue to look for work and work on my writing -- a new Lydia Duluth story, the Wiscon essay and the sequel to Ring of Swords. I have a job interview next week, after a long dry spell.
Hoya

Eleanor

28 Oct 2009 | 6:50 pm

Our hoya is blooming again -- four clusters of flowers this time.
Mid October

Eleanor

15 Oct 2009 | 2:58 pm

It's cold and grey in Minnesota. There was mixed rain and snow in the morning, turning to rain. The snow that fell on Monday is gone.I exercised this morning, then got my flu shot, then came home and made baked apples. I am now making baked winter squash. Patrick is going to the annual meeting of a homeless shelter. Last year the shelter gave an award for the outstanding participant in their family program. The award went to a six year boy, homeless with his family. He got up and gave a speech on how the shelter taught him that if he did well in school, then he would not have to be homeless.

Steven Barnes
More Racial Fun!

Steven Barnes

6 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

Some good conversations about race, triggered by the racist publisher. My thoughts, in order, to the subjects raised?1)I see no problem with Blacks assimilating as Americans. I DO see a problem with Whites considering this "White." In other words, they see themselves as the standard to which all others must measure themselves. Since they cannot look white (even if they try to lighten skin, get plastic surgery, straighten their hair (women) or shave their heads (men)) they MUST remain second-class citizens as a group. It is a subtle and insidious problem--and precisely the unconscious intent…
Soldiering On

Steven Barnes

5 Nov 2009 | 8:40 am

Well, I had a telephone conversation with the person who had the actual information about that science fiction publisher with the little race problem. Yeah, it was true. You know, I look at stuff like this, and realize that the man was one of the most powerful people in the field. Some would say "most." And John W. Campbell, often considered the most important early figure in the field, had the same attitudes. And people wonder why there are so few black writers in the field. What a terrible, terrible joke. Apparently, he didn't mind Oreos but didn't like being around "real" black people.
Omega Men

Steven Barnes

4 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am

"What about the Omegas?It may sound flip, but it's a serious question. Especially with the Alpha/Beta paradigm, I imagine it would be hard to ignore the people whose lot in life is to be abused by the Alphas and the Betas (strangely appropriate to the blog title, ehIt seems to me that this is a group that is in desperate need of instruction on how to get out of the hole they've found themselves in."I am unfamiliar with this term. If the writer will explain, I'll try to see how it fits into my world view. The intent of the project is to create a road-map for anyone who wants to become an…
Rites of passage

Steven Barnes

3 Nov 2009 | 8:31 am

"I think few men, or women, really, are across the board alpha. Most of us are situationally alpha at most."This actually touches on what I believe, and am verifying through interviews (and those interviews have been fascinating!) is that a HEALTHY person can play either Alpha or Beta, depending on the situation. But the term in general applies depending on the percentage of time that the person is in one or the other role. A "pure Alpha" who is healthy can still play Beta--for instance in a military or other hierarchical situation, it is necessary to follow for the good of all. In other…
Revenge of the Nerds

Steven Barnes

2 Nov 2009 | 8:41 am

Facebook is so much fun. Had a series of messages with an old friend who used to be a managing editor at a major, major SF magazine, arguably the leader in the field. She asked if I'd had any problems with the magazine, and I said that we'd been frustrated that we couldn't get reviews for GREAT SKY WOMAN and SHADOW VALLEY. She said that she had recently attended an SF convention, and ran into a staffer on the magazine, and in conversation, the topic of the Publisher's "enemy list" came up...and I was on it.Seems that years back, the former editor and the Publisher had a difficulty, and he…

Max Barry
Machine Man Word Cloud

28 Oct 2009 | 5:57 am

I discovered a word cloud generator, so naturally enough I pasted Machine Man into it. It looks like this: Image courtesy wordle.net That’s pretty awesome. I love the big Lola. I’m disappointed “just” is so big, though. I have to stop using that. Possibly I am overdoing the similes, too, with a “like” of those dimensions. But the scattering of body parts is nice.
Big Brother Is Actually Not Watching You At All

15 Oct 2009 | 4:06 pm

Nine girls were trapped in a big house in Turkey, their every move filmed for the titalation of their captors. Not recently. This was about a month ago. I’m only mentioning it now because a month ago my brain wasn’t working. Back then, I just thought, “That… irony… blog.” That’s as far as I got. But I’m feeling better now, thanks for asking. So the interesting part is that the girls thought they were on Big Brother. According to reports: …the women were not abused or harassed sexually, but were told to fight each other, to wear bikinis,…
Zombies Are For Grown-Ups: Why Banning Video Games Makes Them More Violent

11 Oct 2009 | 9:15 pm

I’m a parent. I also like to slay zombies. Lately, my wife and I have spent nights side-by-side, mowing down hordes of gibbering undead with automatic weapons. Sometimes we blow them up with pipe bombs, or set them on fire. We don’t go looking for them. They rush at us out of darkened city alleys. They break through doors. It’s us or them. I’m talking of course about the computer game Left 4 Dead. It has a sequel, due out next month, which looks similar—so similar, in fact, there is a protest by Left 4 Dead fans that it should be a free update, not a new…
A Short Story Broke My Brain

5 Oct 2009 | 2:13 am

You might be wondering what happened to that live short story. I did it. I just haven’t written about it because I lost the ability to form coherent sentences. I knew it would be tough. Turning up at the Melbourne Writers Festival with a laptop, plugging into the big screen, and writing a short story from scratch while people watch: that’s not the recommended writing technique. I think that’s the opposite of what you’re supposed to do, which is something about forgetting the rest of the world exists. It’s hard to be creative and self-conscious. But that was half…
Stranged

27 Aug 2009 | 12:34 am

One morning recently I climbed the stairs to my study, coffee in hand, and found a pile of books on the top step. There was a Swedish Jennifer Government, a Polish Company, and four or five others. The front panel of my computer case was missing: I eventually found it inside the roofspace, along with my Richmond Tigers scarf. I went back downstairs and confronted my daughter. “Have you been moving my things around?” She grinned, one of those ridiculously beautiful ear-to-ear smiles, and said: “I stranged your room.” Since then, Fin has stranged my study several more…

Christopher Barzak
A repeal

Christopher Barzak

4 Nov 2009 | 10:23 am

I hereby repeal my obviously premature congratulations to the state of Maine, which I gave out all too naively this past May. Now, instead, I’d like to say good luck to those Mainers who want a better, inclusive, love-supporting culture in which to exist for their and their children’s futures. I feel sorry for everyone, even for those who voted in the spirit of exclusion and inequality. I really do think they don’t understand what they are missing. They see their decisions as a protection and defense, but all they are defending are walls that separate people, rather than…
Amazon Top 10

Christopher Barzak

2 Nov 2009 | 9:07 pm

The second volume of Interfictions releases today, and just tonight I learned that the anthology has been selected by Amazon.com as one of the top 10 SFF books of 2009! You can see the whole list by clicking here. I can’t wait to hear what readers think of the selection of stories Delia and I pulled together. I think the book has great range. Happy reading, if you give it a go.
Gettin’ Interstitial with the BBC

Christopher Barzak

28 Oct 2009 | 10:50 am

As mentioned in a previous post, I did an interview with the lovely Jamillah Knowles of the BBC this past Sunday about the second volume of Interfictions, which I co-edited with Delia Sherman, and now it’s available as a podcast. Here’s a link to it, but, just so you know, it’s a conglomeration of subjects she’s covered. My interview comes in around just over the halfway mark, if you want to skip ahead. Happy listening.
Love it or hate it?

Christopher Barzak

26 Oct 2009 | 4:54 pm

The other night, pre-viral infection, I was in a bookstore and was stopped in my tracks by a book I’ve looked at too many times in too many similar covers: Wuthering Heights. It was face out and had a beautiful cover design, full of color, with a Tim Burton-esque rendering of Cathy on the front cover. I took it down off the shelf to see the wraparound from back to front, a whole landscape of the book done in the same style really, and was really toying with the idea of buying the book just for that cover. I put it back, though, and then suddenly, five minutes later, found myself…
Running in the shadows

Christopher Barzak

25 Oct 2009 | 9:30 pm

An article from the NYT on the rise of teenaged runaways over the past few years, as the economy has worsened. It’s sad and, for me, recognizable. One of the things I encountered every now and then when I was going around reading from my first novel, One for Sorrow, after its release a couple of years ago, was the occasional reader who would come up to me afterward to say how much they liked the book but found something about the running away that the narrator, a fifteen year old from rustbelt Ohio, slightly fantastical. I would laugh because it has ghosts in the book, but it was…

Lee Battersby
SCENES FROM A MALL..... OR FROM A WRITING DAY, TAKE YOUR PICK

Lee Battersby...

1 Nov 2009 | 3:10 am

The problem with being part of the internet generation: it makes the whole "You hang up, no you hang up..." part of the conversation look ludicrous! And they were never seen again: Four children who have never watched Blood Beach wander away to play while we work.Biffie! Pip! The view is over here, guys! No, really, I mean it. You hang up!
NANOWRIMO DAY ONE

Lee Battersby...

1 Nov 2009 | 2:51 am

Day one of Nano completed, and a couple of hours down the foreshore with Lyn, her best friend Terri, and the sort of view out the cafe window that people in ludicrously large sunglasses who call themselves names like 'Pip' and 'Biffie' spend millions trying to find, and.... well, it's a start anyway. After over a year working on Corpse-Rat King, especially when I'm so close to the end, shifting gears to starting a fresh work that's so completely different is a wrench and a half, but I churned out some wordage, and, well, weeeeeeee.November's a birthday-heavy month and the desire of my…
MOVING ALONG

Lee Battersby...

31 Oct 2009 | 6:45 pm

Fine, thanks. How are you? Corpse-Rat King is lurching towards a conclusion. I've completed 95 000 words and have one longish section towards the end to knit togvether and the first draft will be completed. Say another 2 or 3 thousand words tops, and then I can let it stew until January before I go back and begin carving it up into tiny little pieces and painting them different colours. Oh, and I've joined Nanowrimo again this year. The project this time round is a novelisation of my TV script Cirque, which garnered some positive comments from last year's WA Film Corporation script…
PORTRAIT OF THE ARTISTS AS A FOUR YEAR OLD BUTT

Lee Battersby...

31 Oct 2009 | 6:37 pm

Question: What do you get if you give the kids the camera to amuse themselves while you’re sitting in the car waiting for their Mum to come out of the house?Answer: This. Lots and lots of this.
RAMSEY CAMPBELL TO JUDGE THE NAMELESS COMPETITION

Lee Battersby...

31 Oct 2009 | 6:21 pm

The AHWA and 'Nameless' competition director Stephen Studach are thrilled to announce that the ‘Nameless’ competition will be judged by multi-award winning master of dark fiction Ramsey Campbell.In honour of Mr. Campbell’s involvement, the competition’s deadline has been extended to the 13th of March, 2010.Read the story here. Come up with a conclusion and a title! Make your $10 donation and enter the competition here.Competition prizes include a $500 winner’s cheque, and a prize pool of horror goodies:• A manuscript version of the story signed by as many of the writers involved…

Jes Battis
Dickson Film 1894

Jes Battis

3 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pm

And an older, classier version, made for the late nineteenth-century kinetophone.
Torchwood Season One

Jes Battis

3 Nov 2009 | 6:21 pm

Sigh.
OSI Book 3

Jes Battis

26 Oct 2009 | 9:48 am

Inhuman Resources, Book 3 in the OSI series, is now available for pre-order from Amazon
Private Practice.

Jes Battis

18 Oct 2009 | 9:09 pm

Season 3? Why is it so good? How has it sucked me in for yet another year? Madmen Season 3: Strong and getting stronger. I love Peggy Olson's narrative. Glee: Last episode was underwhelming, but it is still going strong.Cougartown: Why do I keep watching? Watching it is a perfectly neutral experience.
Inhuman Resources (forthcoming Spring 2010)

Jes Battis

15 Oct 2009 | 3:43 pm

I should get a few ARCs for Inhuman Resources soon, Book 3 in the OSI Series. I am waiting to post the cover art until it appears properly on Amazon. Suffice it to say, it involves stained glass, wings (which may be on fire), and a pretty sweet lanyard badge hanging from Agent Corday's neck. Once again, Timothy Lantz has crafted something really beautiful, and I'm happy to have it grace the cover of my books.

Elizabeth Bear
the money you've been drinking was the last that we had

it's a great life, if you don't weaken

6 Nov 2009 | 9:34 am

Because I take pity on you, there are links to the photos of my mashed-up toenails, rather than images!One dead toenail and one purple one, plus a lingering white spot from a grown-out hemotoma.And a rather spectacular purple toenail.That's why I gave up early on Wednesday.
don't talk back. just drive the car.

it's a great life, if you don't weaken

6 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am

The odds are pretty good that the House Affordable Health Care for America Act (HR 3962) will go to a vote before the week is out.As a self-employed individual without health insurance, who works extremely hard and is nevertheless considering taking on a fourth job to obtain some kind of coverage, I urge you very strongly to call your congressthing and express support for this bill, which is rather better than the Senate bill.Healthcare is a human right, and the people being denied it are disproportionately poor, non-white, and/or women. We're talking about basic human decency and…
matociquala @ 2009-11-06T06:47:00

it's a great life, if you don't weaken

6 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

Just a reminder that I will be at Pandemonium Books in Cambridge MA tonight between 7 and 9pm, reading and signing things. It'll be fun! Come hang out!
the small flightless birds that you failed to protect

it's a great life, if you don't weaken

5 Nov 2009 | 5:44 pm

Dear Cat:Please do not stand on that book, as I am currently attempting to read from it.Love,your Monkey.
how could it come to this? i'm really worried about living.

it's a great life, if you don't weaken

5 Nov 2009 | 11:27 am

I ordered tea from Upton on Tuesday, and it arrived today, as tea from Upton will. (They're only one state over, you see.)Anyway, I am usually immune to the temptations of fancy display teas, but this one struck my whimsy, and lo, I did order it.While I was unpacking the rest of the tea, I infused a cup.It starts like this:And at first, it floatsbut once the hot water (a little below boiling) is added, it begins to ooze bobbles and uncoil its tender tentacles:until it sinks, and uncoils, revealing the "butterfly" and flower within.It looks like Cthulhu, and it's quite tasty. The liquor has an…

Greg Bear
NEWS: Mariposa: Second Printing Before Publication

4 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm
DISCUSSION: A Way MMO

28 Oct 2009 | 6:01 pm
DISCUSSION: Excerpt for Project

26 Oct 2009 | 6:01 pm
DISCUSSION: Palancar Momerath re-release

26 Oct 2009 | 6:01 pm
DISCUSSION: Halo and Greg Bear Games

20 Oct 2009 | 6:01 pm

John Birmingham
Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: Arthur Koestler

6 Nov 2009 | 11:37 pm

Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: Arthur Koestler It is 5:26 PM Friday evening in the flow of existence. I had a normal Friday. Nothing happened to be upset about. I already know the world is going to hell. Our oldest son Caleb Jon called this afternoon and we talked for over an hour. Caleb is newly married and living in Boston Mass working [...]
Bernice Olona and jennifer26 are now friends

6 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pm

Bernice Olona and jennifer26 are now friends
Bernice Olona and Milcah Umali are now friends

6 Nov 2009 | 7:40 pm

Bernice Olona and Milcah Umali are now friends
lingqyfl created a new blog: Ugg WOMENS Classic Cardy

6 Nov 2009 | 6:24 pm

lingqyfl created a new blog: Ugg WOMENS Classic Cardy
Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: the Parable of the Wedding Banquet

6 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pm

Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: the Parable of the Wedding Banquet “1: And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, 2: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, 3: And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. 4: Again, he sent [...]

David Bishop
New Home Office rules ban graphic novelist

David Bishop

2 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Comic artist Nikhil Singh, illustrator of the acclaimed graphic novelSalem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers has been held in South Africa for five months - unable to attend his own book launch - due to new Home Office rules that deem him 'underqualified'.South Africa-born Singh has been a resident of London for three years, but cannot return due to the Home Office's decision not to renew any Artists' Visas. This means international artists whose visas have expired must reapply for a Tier One Highly Skilled Worker Visa which cannot be obtained without a degree or similar proof of tertiary…
Art for Hearts charity auction

David Bishop

1 Nov 2009 | 2:05 am

Normally I don't plug charity events on this blog unless they're to do with some form of cancer research [I've lost too many good people to the big C]. But this appeal from regular Vicious Imagery reader Ian Stacey sounds like a good cause to me... ART FOR HEARTSI’m currently organising an auction to raise funds for research done by the transplant team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This is a cause very dear to my family - our son’s life was saved by a heart transplant four weeks after birth. The auction is original art and signed digital prints by children’s illustrators. I know this…
My journey with 'Doctors'. so far

David Bishop

26 Oct 2009 | 1:06 am

Nope, I'm not at this year's Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham. Wish I was, especially now the event's closer to the town centre, but commitments elsewhere precluded me attending. I've papers to mark for the creative writing MA, lectures to plan, a script to polish, and pitches to develop for Fantomen and Doctors. Instead of talking about writing, I'll actually be writing. So, for all those people who wish they could be at SWF 09 but aren't, here's a behind the scenes peek at the long process by which I got my first TV drama screenwriting credit. Way back in 2002 I met a writer who was…
Going on location with Doctors

David Bishop

21 Oct 2009 | 12:30 am

It's been a madcap few weeks, and I can't see things slowing down for a while yet. Since this is one of my rare days at home without a screaming deadline [plenty of deadlines, just none of them screaming yet], thought I'd say hello and tell you what I've doing lately. Teaching, lots of teaching. Writing, plenty of that too. Polishing my submission for the Scotland Writes opportunity, especially.But I spent the weekend away, most of it in That Fancy London. Had a reunion dinner with almost everyone from the Lighthouse TV drama team writing project, lovely to catch up and see how people are…
Belated happy birthday for this blog

David Bishop

12 Oct 2009 | 12:07 am

Vicious Imagery turned four on Saturday and I forgot. Too busy engaged with manual labour elsewhere - totting that barge, lifting that bale. Got the aches and strains to prove it, too. Bent over like an enfeebled question mark as a consequence. Being a writer prepares you for many things in life, but physical labour isn't one of them. Still, I should recover by the end of today.This blog was launched as an online journal for the screenwriting MA I'd just started at Screen Academy Scotland. By happy coincidence I spent Friday night socialising with several students from my academy days. Each…

Jayme Lynn Blaschke
Friday Night Videos

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

6 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

Hall & Oates were really, really big by the time I started high school, but with their album "Big Bam Boom" they broke away from the strict blue-eyed soul sound they were known for and rocked a bit more. Their video for "Out of Touch" was (and still is) pretty darn impressive, and it actually gives viewers a bonus song, opening with the instrumental "Dance On Your Knees." Great stuff. Enjoy!Previously on Friday Night Videos... Ray Parker, Jr..Now Playing:
Politics as unusual?

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

4 Nov 2009 | 7:16 am

There's been a lot of commentary in the media over this off-year election cycle, referring to the results as a "Referendum on Obama." Republican candidates captured the governor's office in purple Virginia and solidly-blue New Jersey, and GOP commentators are spinning this as the nation turning its wholesale back on Obama and the Democrats.Or not. It's possible, just possible, the Republican gubernatorial candidates were the better candidates in these elections. In Virginia, the popular McDonnell led Deeds pretty much wire-to-wire and was expected to win, whereas in New Jersey, incumbent…
Bloom County

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

2 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

Ain't It Cool News is a mixed bag at best for me these days, what with its crudity and self-importance, but every once in a while they come up with well-written content that reminds me why I bookmarked them a decade ago and have been a regular visitor ever since. Today they have a new interview up with Scott Dunbier, editor of the new Bloom County: The Complete Library.My love affair with Bloom County dates back to 1983, before I'd ever read a single strip in any newspaper. Growing up as a book-loving kid, Columbus was a virtual wasteland. No bookstores, unless you count the best-selling…
Night shoot

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

30 Oct 2009 | 1:21 pm

Even though I've been doing a lot of photography work lately as a poorly-paid assistant to The Wife, I haven't actually done any photography for my own amusement in quite some time. That includes work with models or infrared, which is unusual. My work on the Chicken Ranch book, and the Turkey City workshop story took up a lot of time and energy, yes, but shooting the Strutters reunion for Texas State and various wedding events are more to blame, I believe. In light of that, and The Wife's upcoming photoshoots where I'll be a busy assistant but doing little in the way of actual image capture…
Friday Night Videos

Jayme Lynn Blaschke

30 Oct 2009 | 7:08 am

Here I was, all ready to treat viewers of Friday Night Videos with the Toyes' notoriously subversive parody of "Monster Mash" titled "Monster Hash" when to my dismay, I discover there isn't a single decent video to that song extant. Not even a tolerable fan video. So if you want "Monster Hash" for Halloween, you'll have to hunt it up on your own. Instead, I'll follow the path of least resistance: Here's Ray Parker, Jr., before Huey Lewis successfully sued him for ripping of "I Want A New Drug," doing his thing with the Ghostbusters theme song: Previously on Friday Night Videos... Electric…

Gwenda Bond
Saturday Hangovers

Gwenda

24 Oct 2009 | 9:06 am

Catching up on LJ friendslist after a few days edition. Just read this Jeff Ford gem; it is to laugh. Cyn has an affecting remembrance of Norma Fox Mazer (there are so many out there). I had no idea that Norma Fox Mazer wrote the novelization of the Supergirl movie. Jo gives an update on the Montgomery County book censorship situation, which is just enraging on every level. And speaking of censorship, Adam Selzer's How to Get Suspended and Influence People* is now getting the enraging treatment. The subjectivity of reviews by way of the subjectivity of how Tessa Gratton feels about…
Monday Hangovers

Gwenda

19 Oct 2009 | 12:20 pm

Laurie Halse Anderson on the basics of writing picture books. The sad news began circulating over the weekend that Norma Fox Mazer had passed on after battling invasive brain cancer. She will be remembered and celebrated throughout the week over at the VCFA children's/YA alum blog, Through the Tollbooth. Meghan has some great writing quotes. More love for Whip It! Which you really must see if you haven't. And, semi-related at least, Betsy tosses out some children's lit-themed roller derby names and asks for more. (See also: The more general ones in the comments on this post.
The Lessons of Despair

Gwenda

15 Oct 2009 | 11:13 am

Junot Diaz has an excellent short essay in Oprah Magazine about the trials and tribulations of writing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for ten years:That's my tale in a nutshell. Not the tale of how I came to write my novel but rather of how I became a writer. Because, in truth, I didn't become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a…
Nationally Booked

Gwenda

14 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

The NBA nominations are out and the Young People's Literature category is rocking it: Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt) Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.) Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic) Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins) LAINI! WOOT! RITA! WOOT! I actually haven't gotten to Lips Touch: Three Times (Amazon | Indiebound), but I know I will love it because Laini Taylor is an amazing…
Hearted

Gwenda

12 Oct 2009 | 8:07 am

Whip It is such a fun movie, and with a heart as big as Drew Barrymore's seems to be. What's not to like? I am sad that our local team's season just ended.But, hey, let's come up with derby girl names anyway. I'm liking Candy Carnage and Erin Breakovitch at the moment.

Marie Brennan
Took the damn thing long enough.

The Swan

6 Nov 2009 | 3:56 am

I spent a stupidly long time wrestling with the last paragraphs of this bloody thing -- write two grafs, delete one, write another, delete both, write one, delete it, replace it with the two previously deleted, wipe the first one out but leave the second, etc -- before I finally hit something I was willing to hit "save" on.But "Serpent, Wolf, and Half-Dead Thing" is finally complete, at 3100 excessively difficult words. I suspect there's some interesting theme buried in there, that I can try to unearth when I go back to revise, but for now, we'll call that a draft.
now seems like a good time to ask

The Swan

5 Nov 2009 | 5:53 pm

Well, I think it's past midnight in the UK, so I missed the perfect window by a few hours. But:If I were to read only one book on the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which book should it be?
back up

The Swan

5 Nov 2009 | 1:31 pm

If you tried to access the Sirens Conference website before and couldn't get through, it's back up now.
Look! It's, like, actual short story production!

The Swan

5 Nov 2009 | 1:17 am

1663 / 4000I miss the Zokutou meter. <sniff>If I weren't getting sleepy, I might try to finish "Serpent, Wolf, and Half-Dead Thing" (the story I blame mrissa for) tonight. But I've done more than 1300 already, and I suppose it's just as well to spend a little extra time pondering just what Hel might say to Loki, especially while there's a snake dripping venom on his face.(Or more to the point, while there's a snake dripping venom into the bowl above his face. Because Sigyn's going to be sitting there during this whole conversation. And won't that be interesting.)But hey. It's like…
Sirens site now up

The Swan

3 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pm

As I mentioned before, I will be one of three Guests of Honor at next year's Sirens Conference, along with Holly Black and Terri Windling. They've launched their new site, so go take a look; you can register, submit a proposal for programming (academic or otherwise), or just browse what's already there. Everything I've heard about the conference has sounded utterly fabulous, so I hope to see some of you there.

David Brin
Contemptuous Memes Part II: "Cycles of History"

David Brin

1 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pm

Last time we looked at one enticingly seductive mind trap that we all fall for, now and then -- because it (a) flatters our own egos and (b) nearly always seems so well-justifed. Contempt for the Masses seems to come as naturally as breathing. And you (or I) never happen to be one of the innumerable fools, out there. You (or I) are in the know! Now we'll move on to another silly notion that folks routinely seem to love to fall for. That history runs in patterns and even predictable cycles. Here's the second half of that infamous "Tytler Quotation" we…
Contempt for the Masses - a modern curse?

David Brin

28 Oct 2009 | 1:05 pm

I want to riff upon some common drug-highs that most people partake-of. One is the alluring condition of despising our pitiably stupid neighbors. Another is the temptation to believe that history comes and goes in "cycles."first some news... Looking for something to help you through the long commute? Or to listen-to while basking under the sunlamp? Recorded Books has just issued the full book-on-tape version of BRIGHTNESS REEF read by George K Wilson. This will soon be followed by INFINITY'S SHORE and HEAVEN'S REACH. H+ asked…
Surrogates -- substituting for good story

David Brin

19 Oct 2009 | 4:40 pm

Okay, time for a commentary that many of you have been waiting for -- my thoughts about the recent Bruce Willis movie, Surrogates. I've been (as you might expect) getting a lot of mail about it, so let's start with some facts. The film is based upon a comic book by Robert Venditti that appeared some years after my novel KILN PEOPLE. Also worth noting, for purposes of a timeline, is the screenplay for KILN PEOPLE that was created by the great scriptor Leslie Dixon (Overboard, Mrs.Doubtfire, Pay it Forward). It circulated some years ago at Paramount Studios and far beyond, so…
Jiu Jitsu in Afghanistan

David Brin

16 Oct 2009 | 12:32 pm

All right, here's the deal. I 'm paid to point things out that others haven't noticed. Not all the under-examined concepts that fizz out of my contrary-cracked mind prove right or even sane! But I am pretty good at showing that this or that twist should at least be put on the table, and dismissed properly. And so, I'm going to toss something out there. It is far from the most preposterous alternative I've come up with. In fact, this idea should work! Even though it hasn't a prayer of being tried. Let the Taliban take over Kandahar and parts of Pashtunistan. Yes, it…
Cool Science Reminders We're Living in The Great Renaissance

David Brin

13 Oct 2009 | 9:34 pm

I’ll be posting my long-delayed appraisal of the movie Surrogates, shortly. But meanwhile, here’s a raft of links and other cool items that remind us that -- despite efforts to turn civilization toward know-nothing foolishness, we still live in an era of enlightenment and wonders.See Shawn Otto -- one of the driving forces behind the science Debate 2008 endeavor to lift the national and worldwide awareness of science as a driver of public policy, address the 2009 Nobel Conference. See a marvelous series of cartoon satires of “caveman dire-warning sci fi” --…

Poppy Z. Brite
Amsterdam

Poppy Z. Brite

6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

I am going to make more time and effort to come here. It just makes me too happy not to. I love coming alone and will always treasure the memory of that first independent trip, but having Chris here with me is the best thing of all. I'm too tired and happy to go into specifics. Just walking around, hanging out together, seeing a couple of friends, eating lots of wonderful food (I've developed a taste for waffles on this trip - not American-style hot waffles with syrup but the crunchier Dutch ones you can eat hot or at room temperature, and that come coated in every permutation of chocolate,…
Happy Halloween!

Poppy Z. Brite

31 Oct 2009 | 5:11 pm

Not doing much this year because I need to finish cleaning up. Housesitters arrive tomorrow, and we leave on Monday! I have the pumpkins lit, though, and am giving out candy. Frankie helped me greet the last bunch of kids. I picked him up for them to pet, and one of them -- ten years old at least -- said, "I never petted a cat before." This made me sad.If I'd known the smiley one was going to come out looking so much like Ernie, I'd have gotten a football-shaped pumpkin and made a Bert one too. Or is it just me?
C.O.O.T. Update

Poppy Z. Brite

25 Oct 2009 | 11:01 am

I would like to announce the Cannabis-Oriented Old-Timers' official slogan: "Hey, kid, get off my grass!"
C.O.O.T.

Poppy Z. Brite

24 Oct 2009 | 11:19 pm

I thought of a better name for my upscale-cannabis-tourism advocacy group: Cannabis-Oriented Old-Timers. Far superior acronym.
Codgers On Cannabis

Poppy Z. Brite

24 Oct 2009 | 9:37 pm

I'm sitting on the sofa buried in cats, preparing to unearth myself so I can go make a cat chart for our cat/house sitters. Do you see a pattern here?While exploring this tantalizing site, I learned that the Netherlands' current, conservative government apparently wants to make it illegal for the coffeeshops to sell cannabis to foreigners. There's a stereotype of the typical pot tourist: they're usually young males from the UK or another European country; they come for the weekend, stay in a cheap hostel, get wasted on beer and cannabis, maybe have sex with a prostitute, and go home without…

Tobias Buckell
The finances of freelancing: some gritty systems details for the geeky

Tobias Buckell

6 Nov 2009 | 11:54 am

Recently I purchased a $234 solid state hard drive. I’ve been waiting for almost three months to buy it. Before that, I knew I didn’t have the wiggle room. I knew I wouldn’t have it for another month, unless one of a handful of promised windfalls due to fiction writing would show up. The windfall showed up, I got to get it early. When I left my job in 2006 I threw myself into freelancing and writing with a sort of white-hot energy. And that elbow grease paid off. By 2008 I was posting big numbers every month. I made enough I could travel as needed to promote books, I lead a…
It’s a big world out there, but screaming in all caps makes it feel safer for some

Tobias Buckell

5 Nov 2009 | 8:39 pm

I’ve come to a conclusion that the internet is a scary and confusing place for a lot of people. A lot of these same people are apparently unintentionally secret admirers of e.e. cummings and often the CAPS key as well…
Solid state hard drive: the true potential of your computer unlocked

Tobias Buckell

4 Nov 2009 | 12:50 pm

Last night, after taking apart the bottom of my computer, slapping in a new hard drive, and putting it back together, I leaned back with satisfaction after reinstalling my operating system and hit restart. The next words out of my mouth were something along the lines of ‘holy shit, really?’ Ever since reading Anandtech’s Anthology article on understanding solid state hard drives and which ones were the real thing and worth buying, I’ve lusted after a solid state hard drive. No, I take that back. Since I first saw a MacBook Air I’ve wanted one, but $1,000 extra…
[Ego] A Working Title interviews me

Tobias Buckell

2 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

A Working Title has an interview up with me, as well as a review of Crystal Rain. That’s all…
Thank goodness the weekend is almost over

Tobias Buckell

1 Nov 2009 | 5:28 pm

After our esteemed houseguest left, I was looking forward to a slow weekend of catching up on things. Including playing a little Forza Motorsport and researching the purchase of an SSD hard drive, as on all my laptops my platter hard drives seem to die with alarming regularity, and I thought I’d head that off at the pass (I think it’s my habit of sleeping the laptop and dragging it all over the place, tossing it into the car, etc, I’m hard on stuff) and get all the responsiveness that an SSD brings. But the weekend had other plans than relaxing. Thalia ran a scary fever and…

Emma Bull
Create or...don't.

Coffee Em

2 Nov 2009 | 6:25 pm

Lots of good stuff in this essay: Justine Musk on why you might not want to put your art at the center of your life.
No Christmas videos before Halloween!

Coffee Em

30 Oct 2009 | 11:17 am

But this one's different. Because, really, don't you need to start training now? Think how many relationships are riding on a good performance!
Are you a Midnight Girl early adopter?

Coffee Em

28 Oct 2009 | 4:07 pm

Will Shetterly has posted a beta version of his new YA novel, Midnight Girl, on the intarwebz, and you can help turn it into Version 1.0. Any volunteer proofreaders out there? Please go, read, and note errors in the comments! If your comments help root out typos, your name will be included in the acknowledgments.Edited to add: I forgot to include the way cool cover, which I meant to do! Here it is:
Free stories!

Coffee Em

12 Oct 2009 | 7:23 pm

You can read a whole bunch of my stories for free on the web!"Silver or Gold""Joshua Tree""What Used To Be Good Still Is""De La Tierra""The Princess and the Lord of Night"And some poetry/song lyrics:"The Last of John Ringo""Man of Action"And stories by Will Shetterly, too!"Secret Identity""Oldthings""Taken He Cannot Be""The Princess Who Kicked Butt""The People Who Owned the Bible"Hmm. Maybe I should put a link to that page in the sidebar here.
eBay auction reminder

Coffee Em

8 Oct 2009 | 5:24 pm

In case anyone was thinking of checking out those auctions I mentioned earlier, but had forgotten to put them on your eBay watch list, there is but one day to go on the auction for the Olympus camera and the Elvis watch. What? Nobody wants that cool li'l camera? Now it's all sad. Poor camera...The Ovation guitar and the Charles Hoffman guitar are down to two days left. Oooh, the suspense! (I love eBay auctions. That last hour or two is always pretty exciting.)

Stephanie Burgis
A shockingly unusual circumstance

Stephanie Burgis

6 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm

Tonight I did something bizarre and shockingly unprecedented: I sat down with Patrick, and we watched a TV show. WHOA. It's been......hmm. It's actually been a really long time since we last watched a TV show together. The last time I can remember even trying to do that was way back in the middle of January, and at that point, we finally decided it just wasn't practical to watch TV together with a baby in the house (especially a baby we're trying NOT to allow to watch television*).Well. We finally, finally have (I'm almost scared to say this out loud, in case I jinx it!) a routine where MrD…
Treats?

Stephanie Burgis

2 Nov 2009 | 10:37 am

This last week has been full of lots of good things, but it's been an awfully tired week for me, as I've been slammed with post-move exhaustion at the same time as a new phase of teething has hit poor MrD. So even though lots of good things have been going on, I've been feeling kind of bleagh.Being me, of course, my natural solution to any dilemma, no matter how large or small, is: read a book! ;) Luckily, this time my favorite strategy has actually been working. Right now I'm reading Martha Beck's The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life, and even though I'm a little wary of most…
Halloween, disillusionment, and good recipes

Stephanie Burgis

31 Oct 2009 | 5:53 am

Happy Halloween, everybody! For the first time in years, it actually feels like a real Halloween to me, because we're finally living in a neighborhood with lots of kids who trick or treat. (Two of them already arrived, fully costumed, last night, so we're expecting even more tonight, on the day itself.) It's been over ten years now since I experienced a real Halloween, since I moved to Vienna when I was 22 - no trick or treat'ers there - then to a neighborhood in Pittsburgh that was full of Russian immigrants who hadn't adopted that particular piece of American culture. England has, by and…
Today's blog entry...

Stephanie Burgis

26 Oct 2009 | 10:40 am

...is actually over at SFnovelists.com. It's called "The Scary Bits", and I hope you'll check it out. Please do comment if anything strikes you!
Writing tips for teens

Stephanie Burgis

25 Oct 2009 | 10:12 am

Whew. We've been settled in our new house for a few days now, and it's finally starting to feel like home. Our neighbors have been really friendly - there's a lovely feeling to the community around here - and today is the first day I haven't been to my favorite coffee shop. (I needed to take a day off to protect myself from their gorgeous vegan brownies. CANNOT RESIST!!!!)So...in other words, it's time to get back down to writing again!I actually had a really wonderful experience related to my writing in the last couple of days. I got a pair of emails from a very cool twelve-year-old girl and…

Michael A. Burstein
Unpack Boxes for Food

mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

4 Nov 2009 | 10:14 am

Nomi and I have almost gotten the kids' room done, but we still have some boxes we need to unpack and sort through to finish setting up the room.Anyone willing to help us out this Sunday afternoon? We'll provide some sort of dinner afterwards...Edited to Add: We're looking at 1 pm to about 5 pm or so, with dinner after. We want to bring food in (either pizza or Chinese food), but it would help if someone coming had a car...
Contacting Your Town Meeting Member: Four Suggestions

mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

3 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

Special Election Sign in Brookline Today is Election Day across much of the country, but not in Brookline, Massachusetts, where our next election isn't until December 8 – the primary for the special election to fill the vacant senate seat. So while our friends in Boston and Newton choose a mayor today, those of us in Brookline get to relax and watch.However, just because we don't have an election today doesn't mean that there's no politicking going on. Brookline's representative Town Meeting, of which I am a Member, meets the week before Thanksgiving, and this year the big issue seems to be…
One Year Ago and Nineteen Years Ago

mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

2 Nov 2009 | 9:00 am

It's been a few weeks since I've managed to blog here; as I hope people can imagine, the kids still take up a lot of time in our lives. Nomi and I continue to enjoy being parents, and I find myself torn between wanting to post every update about the kids and not wanting to deluge the readers of this blog with all those details. I would post about other things going on in my life, but as I noted recently on Twitter and Facebook, there's not much else going on.Well, that's not entirely true. We're working, of course, and I'm always trying to make progress on some writing project or other. We're…
Mom's Birthday

mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

15 Oct 2009 | 11:15 am

My younger brother Josh called from Seattle, where he's away for meetings, to remind me that today was Mom's birthday. If she were still alive, she'd be 73 years old.I am sad to say that I had forgotten. But I'm sure Mom would have forgiven me. :-)For those interested, the kids slept very well on Monday and Tuesday night, probably because we did our best to help them get used to the idea of going to sleep. Yesterday we went out to a meeting of the New England chapter of the MWA to hear a police officer talk about her experiences in law enforcement. It was a fascinating talk, but that meant…
Joshua Burstein: "Jewish Review Extremely Relevant"

mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

9 Oct 2009 | 10:20 am

My younger brother Joshua lives with his wife and three children in Eugene, Oregon. Earlier this year, he entered a writing contest sponsored by The Jewish Review, a local community newspaper that serves all of Oregon and southwestern Washington and is devoted to Jewish issues. The theme of the contest was “Why do community newspapers such as the Jewish Review remain important for their readers and for the communities they serve?”Josh was one of the two winners of the essay contest.In his essay, Jewish Review Extremely Relevant, he talks about our father's devotion to justice and how that…

Bonnie Burton
Tweets for the Day

Bonnie Burton

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Tweets for the Day10:57 Joan Jett Doll! Barbie WISHES she was this cool! is.gd/4OrRT (via @entearth) # 11:26 Free @Pixies EP? Hell yes! awe.sm/7JP1 (thanks @iancr!) # 11:55 Hey Barbie! I think it's about time you ditched Ken for a sexy space pirate, don't you? is.gd/4P4mX #starwars # 12:18 Adorkable AT-AT Dog Costume! bit.ly/2RxKM5 (RT @starwars @spladow) #Starwars #crafts # 12:38 The Good, the Bad, the Godzilla -- excellent movie monster blog! is.gd/4P61U #horror #scifi #monsters #godzilla # 13:00 Fan-Made Replicas of Sci-fi's Favorite Land Vehicles! bit.ly/2sxcnL (RT @clubjade @starwars) #…
Giant robots attack Uruguay!

Bonnie Burton

6 Nov 2009 | 7:07 pm
Rap recap of Terminator 2!

Bonnie Burton

6 Nov 2009 | 1:10 pm
Happiest AT-AT Ever!

Bonnie Burton

6 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm
Tweets for the Day

Bonnie Burton

6 Nov 2009 | 1:05 am

Tweets for the Day14:54 Velvet Paintings of Ackbar, Elvis Yoda, Chewie, @wilw, @williamshatner and more! is.gd/4OhQb #starwars #startrek # 15:19 RT @dividepictures: Watching Star Wars #CloneWarsDVD Season one. (amazing) Thanks @bonniegrrl. # 16:04 Inside the Back to the Future De Lorean is.gd/4OkNA (RT @geektrooper @laweekly) #fluxcapacitorday # 16:17 Batman & Robin fight crime..with love! is.gd/4Olg4 # 16:19 Swine Flu Robot! bit.ly/C2LHw (RT @tara) #robots # 16:27 The infamous Tauntaun Sleeping Bag is also avail at StarWarsShop.com: is.gd/4OlCG (RT @starwars) #adorkable # 16:36 "Is…

Rachel Caine
Bob the spider and other tales of terror

4 Nov 2009 | 5:56 am

So, if you're reading FADE OUT, you will encounter the character of Bob the spider. I like Bob. Bob is just ... cute.Well, I now have my very own Bob the spider. Not that I keep him as a pet, no, it's more that Bob is a giiiiiinormous orb spider -- seriously, his BODY is bigger than most entire spiders I've ever seen -- who's set up shop in the bush next to my driveway. Bob ambitiously built a web that stretched halfway into the driveway, the first day; we discussed, I amended his design with a stick, and he bounced up and down in his web and was visibly upset by my edits.But by golly, he's…
MV7 - FADE OUT - Quote of the Day!

2 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am

SO EXCITED! Tomorrow is THE RELEASE DAY for Fade out, and I am just on pins and needles. I always get so nervous before a book comes out, waiting for the responses to come back. I told you I'd give you some drama. Here's some with Myrnin!-------------------Myrnin sounded very weak; Claire could hardly believe it was really him. “I do love you. I always have. Please stop this. You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re not well. Let me help—” He broke off with a strangled gasp. Ada had just hurt him, and it took a lot to hurt Myrnin.
MV7 - FADE OUT QUOTE OF THE DAY

1 Nov 2009 | 3:13 pm

Happy Sunday! ONLY TWO MORE DAYS (for those who haven't already found FADE OUT on the shelves ...)----------------------“So,” Michael said, not looking up from the frets as he tried out a complicated new flood of sound, “I’m thinking of going electric. What do you think?” Claire sighed. “Eve dumped me. I’ve been best-friend dumped.” Michael’s playing stuttered, then smoothed out again. “Huh. I’m guessing that’s a no?”
MV7 - FADE OUT QUOTE OF THE DAY

31 Oct 2009 | 7:49 am

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY!You'd think I'd go as a vampire, right? No. I'll post a picture later. :) But I figured that I'd also feature for you something from the Morganville Fan Gallery ... A lovely anime-style Eve as the Avenging Angel of Caffine, courtesy of Anita (Warrior Goddess)!So ... in honor of that lovely work ... how about a little more Eve to set the mood? ----------------------------“I am the force that holds this lie of a town together,” Ada said, and glided closer, so close Claire could feel the cold chill generated by her image projection. “As far as Morganville is…
MV7 - FADE OUT - Quote of the Day!

30 Oct 2009 | 10:06 am

Just a breath less crazy than I was yesterday. Momentarily, anyway. So here's today's quote, and YAY, FADE OUT IS OFFICIALLY COUNTING DOWN: Official release is on November 3! -----------------------The house lights went down, and Michael walked onto the stage, to a sudden rush of applause, and he wasn't the Michael that Claire knew -- he wasn't the one who hung out in the living room and played video games and noodled around on his guitar and picked terrible westerns for movie night.This was someone else.Someone almost frightening, the way he grabbed and held the spotlight.

Jeffrey Carver
Snow? On October 18?

Jeffrey A. Carver

18 Oct 2009 | 11:49 pm

Yes, indeed. I was driving to the store in the rain—and it didn't really even feel that cold out—when I noticed that some of those raindrops were falling too slowly, and splatting too big on the windshield. By the time it was over, we had a steady fall of inch-and-a-half wide snowflakes. (Two to three centimeters, for you metric folk.)Just a little joke the warming globe is playing on us, I guess. Or not. (This is not disproof of global climate change, by the way. One of the predictions of the warming of the Earth is that climate patterns may behave in unexpected ways.) For all I know,…
Tale of the Novels: Star Rigger's Way

Jeffrey A. Carver

17 Oct 2009 | 12:03 am

Picking up the thread I began a couple of months ago, I'm going to continue spinning out some of my recollections of the writing of each of my novels—how they came about, what sticks in my memory of the creation process.I talked before about my first novel, Seas of Ernathe, which was also my first novel of the Star Rigger universe—but not the first story set in that realm. That was "Alien Persuasion," a short story that I sold to Galaxy magazine and which appeared in 1975, prior to the novel. (Jim Baen, years before he went on to found Baen Books, bought my second published story.) That…
Joe Haldeman Update: Good News

Jeffrey A. Carver

16 Oct 2009 | 11:03 pm

Things are looking much better in Joe's recovery. According to his wife Gay, he's out of intensive care and in a rehab facility. He's able to sit up, eat a little, talk a little, and—according to Gay—smile a lot. I'm guessing he's really happy to be alive and kicking, and surrounded by his wife and friends. I expect he has a ways to go on the road to recovery, but it's all just so much more hopeful now.Meanwhile, I'm settling into the business of teaching a university class, and continuing to enjoy working with the students there. Next week, they'll be handing in rough drafts of their…
MIT SF Writing Class

Jeffrey A. Carver

29 Sep 2009 | 10:25 pm

Today the paperwork rolled for me to become Visiting Wizard at MIT, and I met for the first time with Joe Haldeman's SF Writing class. (Actually, my title will be "temporary lecturer." But Visiting Wizard is so much more motivating, don't you think?) The class went well, considering that I jumped in midstream, and was trying to fill Joe's shoes without too much sense of disruption. The students pitched right in and participated, and I found them to be a bright, interesting, and likable bunch. Good insights, and a lot of enthusiasm. I enjoyed meeting them all and look forward to reading their…
Flashforward Flashes

Jeffrey A. Carver

26 Sep 2009 | 11:35 pm

It isn't often that any of us get to see our work turned into film or TV, and even less often that it's done well. When my friend Rob Sawyer sold his novel Flashforward to ABC for a new series, I was happy for him—but not necessarily optimistic about what the results would be. Well, so far, I call it a major success story!We watched the first episode of Flashforward last night, and I thought it totally rocked. Well written, engrossing, good acting with likable characters. All told, I was left eager to see how this series will develop. This is one of Rob's books that I had never gotten…

Amy Sterling Casil
Rob Lowe: Too Late to Say Goodbye

ASterling

6 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm

Thanks to Jillian, Dorothy and Steve (again) . . . Rob Lowe was on the Channel 11 news this a.m. promoting his new TV movie "Too Late to Say Goodbye" based on Ann Rule's book about the murders of Jennifer...
Phishing Fail . . .

ASterling

6 Nov 2009 | 6:58 am

Received this a.m. from my trusted partners at Banok of America. Your Bank of America ATM & Account Informations Dear Valued Customer We recently noticed some changes in your bank account informations. How ever, we like you to log into...
I'm a Turkey!!!

ASterling

5 Nov 2009 | 10:44 am

Beyond Shelter's 2009 Thanksgiving Turkey picture - FIRST LOOK. Stay tuned . . .
Vote 4 The Leader of the Post-2012 World - 11 White Guys!

ASterling

1 Nov 2009 | 8:49 pm

Eleven people, I'm guessing viewers or fans, are competing for the fake internet title of "Leader of the Post-2012 World" sponsored by Roland Emmerich's soon-to-be-released film 2012. So, all 11 are white guys, and it looks like their ages range...
Perfect Stranger in Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls

ASterling

1 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

The first all-Book View Cafe/Book View Press anthology is live now. You can download the Kindle version for $4.99, and it's also available at Book View Cafe. Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls (Sarah disavowed the title, and I honestly...

Mark Chadbourn
Swords Of Albion US Launch

MarkC

5 Nov 2009 | 9:59 am

The Silver Skull US Edition It’s worth noting for US readers of this blog that the first Swords of Albion book is now available at the usual outlets across America. Elizabethan spies vs Faerie, in a line. UK readers have to wait a few weeks – and I hope they do wait. If everyone rushes to import the US edition, my UK publisher (Bantam) isn’t going to be very happy. It’ll be worth the wait – for once, the UK and US versions may be quite different. For one, the UK version probably won’t be called The Silver Skull (although that’s not yet definite).
“The Universe Knows It Is Being Watched”

MarkC

28 Oct 2009 | 8:32 am

University of Vienna Professor of Physics Anton Zeilinger is working on quantum experiments that demonstrate the influence of observers in shaping reality. He believes physicists have only scratched the surface of something much bigger and says, “Maybe the real breakthrough will come when we start to realise the connections between reality, knowledge and our actions.” Zeilinger and others working in the field have shown that widely separated particles can somehow have quantum states that are linked: by observing one, the outcome of the other is affected. But as New Scientist…
Large Hadron Collider Fires Up

MarkC

26 Oct 2009 | 1:08 pm

Things may soon start to get interesting.
Police Officer Sees Aliens At Crop Circle

MarkC

24 Oct 2009 | 11:30 am

Courtesy of Warren Ellis, the first item relating to the previous blog post, herewith known as “the pattern”. For your consideration: the Daily Telegraph is reporting a British policeman had a close encounter of the third kind at a crop circle near the standing stones at Avebury in Wiltshire. His description of the figures he observed – more than six feet tall with blonde hair – is of a recurring type which UFO watchers have christened “Nordics”. The police officer said: “They ran faster than any man I have ever seen. I’m no slouch but they were…
Countdown To 2012

MarkC

22 Oct 2009 | 6:23 am

If you haven’t heard of the 2012 meme gathering pace around the world, you will soon, thanks to a new movie by Roland Emmerich. According to various sources, December 21 2012 is supposed to be either a) the end of the world as a result of a collision with a comet or asteroid/a collision with a rogue, unidentified planet/a geomagnetic reversal/a black hole/some as-yet-unidentified source or b) the end of the world as we know it, caused by a shift in human consciousness, or perhaps, a spiritual awakening leading to a long foretold golden age. Part of this belief is based on the Mayan Long…

Matthew Cheney
Jury, Meet Peers

Matthew Cheney

6 Nov 2009 | 10:43 am

Lizzie Skurnick:"I just want to say," I said as the meeting closed, "that we have sat here and consistently called books by women small and books by men large, by no quantifiable metric, and we are giving awards to books I think are actually kind of amateur and sloppy compared to others, and I think it's disgusting." (I wasn't built for the board room.) "But we can't be doing it because we're sexist," an estimable colleague replied huffily. "After all, we're both men and women here."But that's the problem with sexism. It doesn't happen because people -- male or female -- think women suck. It…
Eric Schaller and the Art of Illustrating VanderMeer

Matthew Cheney

5 Nov 2009 | 6:07 pm

New Hampshire is a small state, so we only have a few daily newspapers. We're most notorious for the Union Leader, but the state paper that's won a Pulitzer (among other awards) is the Concord Monitor.And today the Illustrating VanderMeer exhibit that I helped put together at Plymouth State University got a big feature story in the Monitor, with a particular focus on New Hampshire's own Eric Schaller.The web version has the full text, but I was blown away when I opened up the paper and saw it was almost the entire front page of the arts section:And just a reminder that Jeff and Eric will both…
Zunguzungu

Matthew Cheney

2 Nov 2009 | 8:05 pm

I had promised myself I would not blog again until I had finished x, y, and z, and while x and y are finished, z (an essay about J.M. Coetzee's memoir-novels) is beating me up and winning.But I'm going to pause in the fight for a moment and break my self-promise because today I discovered Aaron Bady's astoundingly excellent blog Zunguzungu via a marvelous post Bady wrote at The Valve about Chinua Achebe and the African Writers Series (a post that previously appeared on Zunguzungu). It's been a long time since I last encountered a blog where the excitement of discovery came from finding…
Rude Words and Piracy: A High Wind in Jamaica and the Child Reader

Matthew Cheney

10 Oct 2009 | 7:21 am

Richard Hughes's first and most famous book, A High Wind in Jamaica, is one of the strangest novels I've ever read, which is really saying something. It's both delightful and disturbing in the way it presents -- in an unfailingly light tone -- children as amoral aliens. The novel is rich with irony, and it's not a satire so much as a relentless attack on sentimental notions of childhood. The possible interpretations of the novel are likely endless, but in many ways the book itself is about interpretation -- about the futility of trying to interpret a child's experiences and thoughts through…
Life of Book, Sound of Finch, Meer of Vander

Matthew Cheney

8 Oct 2009 | 3:52 pm

Jeff VanderMeer has posted a picture of copies of the actual Booklife, which excites me very much, because it's a neat book (yes, I still say "neat"; deal with it) and includes a little essay-thing I wrote at the end (alongside various essay-things by more interesting and less conflicted writers than I). Full contents here. I'm planning to keep a stock of extra copies of Booklife always on hand to give to the various aspiring and aspired writers I encounter, because it really does get at some stuff that I haven't seen elsewhere, and, well, I kind of had an addiction to writers' guides for a…

John Crowley
Poepoepoepoe

John Crowley

28 Oct 2009 | 6:25 pm

Git on over to Liz Hand's post on The Inferior 4 community -- community.livejournal.com/theinferior4/ -- and read all about our Poe appearance at the Bowker Auditorium at the University of Massachusetts. Here's more info: www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf
crowleycrow @ 2009-10-28T21:11:00

John Crowley

28 Oct 2009 | 6:13 pm
Apparent plagiarism

John Crowley

25 Oct 2009 | 3:54 am

Here's an interesting blog-post that would imply I'd extracted a key paradox in my own work from an earlier work in a similar vein. karolsapple.blogspot.com/2009/10/further-in-you-go.html To me it rather suggests that the idea (or joke) is available to all who are thinking or feeling along the same lines. This seems the more convincing to me than plagiarism as a despcription, because I've never read the Narnia books. I wonder if those of you who DID read the Narnia books knew about this all along and were too polite to mention it.
Bible tells me so (and Webster)

John Crowley

22 Oct 2009 | 5:46 pm

More Biblical linguistic oddness. The Foundation for American Christian Education (FACE) urges use of the 1828 Webster's dictionary over later and more pusillanimous/relativist versions. Click through to find their reasons. www.face.net/203638.ihtml This does make a lot of sense, especially for home schooled children. Parents could keep an eye on the kid --when they want to look up "chromosome" or "helicopter" or "reverse cowgirl" they could use a good modern dictionary, but for the important words turn to the Webster…
Noveltoons

John Crowley

20 Oct 2009 | 6:02 am

Many responses to the made-up-comics-in-books question, with many people noting the presence of imagined comics within comics, either created by comic-artist heroes or read by characters ("Fearless Fosdick", thanks for that one). But far fewer comic strips appearing in regular books made of just words. One not noted is in my own Aegypt series -- the Gnostic comic "Little Enosh -- Lost among the Worlds," whose content is drawn directly from Mandean gnostic writings, with some Sophia matter thrown in. Sometime not long ago there was discussion in the…

John Dalmas
HEALTH REFORM AND THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT (Sept 21, 2009)

23 Oct 2009 | 10:29 pm

Thoughts on the subjects
CREATIVE WRITING 101, PART ONE

1 Oct 2009 | 7:24 pm

Reviews, Reviewers, and Writing Fiction
newsletter #3, Aug 12, 2009 (revised)

24 Sep 2009 | 12:47 am

an update
LESSONS IN ECOLOGY (Aug 21, 2009):

24 Sep 2009 | 12:24 am

"The Honey Bee Die-Off and the World at Large
IN THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND, by Michael Flynn

11 Aug 2009 | 12:02 am

Book Review

Ellen Datlow
Good round up of Poe influence and current anthos about the master

ellen datlow

5 Nov 2009 | 5:04 pm

In praise of Poe by Edward Pettit Pettit is the Philadelphian Poe expert
And....

ellen datlow

5 Nov 2009 | 10:10 am

within hours of returning home I was hit smack bang with a hacking(cough), sneezing, nose running cold. At least that's what I'm assuming as I've got no temperature or aches and pains or nausea, etc. I hope I didn't give it to the Locus crowd, with whom I visited Tuesday (no symptoms then)...I will be hibernated as much as possible for the next couple of days-drinking hot water, lemon, ginger, and honey; tea. Taking cough meds, cold meds, and stuffing vicks up my nose and on my chest. And keeping a BIG box of tissues next to me.
Home and some stray reviews

ellen datlow

4 Nov 2009 | 10:14 pm

Horror world reviews TWISTS OF THE TALE (you'll have to scroll down for it). Some choice quotes:"If there’s one thing Ellen Datlow knows how to do well, it’s put an amazing anthology together. From The Year’s Best Horror to Poe to The Dark, she has never failed to capture the essence of the concept she set out to accomplish. The best stories are always chosen, not the most well-known authors, which results in nearly flawless products for both seasoned horror fans and those who just might be browsing....Highly recommended – even for those who prefer dogs."And a great review in Green…
Saaaan Francisco

ellen datlow

2 Nov 2009 | 11:12 am

I'm staying with friends for today and tomorrow and we've finally fixed the wireless problem (couldn't get online on my machine last night or this morning)-I've been hooked directly into their cable network downstairs. Yay!So as you must all know, I lost the WFA to Paper Cities, edited by Ekaterina Sedia and published by my friend and colleage (KGB) Matt Kressel. I'm delighted for them. Of course, I'd have loved to have won the award for one of my two anthos but I'm honored for the last YBFH and The Del Rey Book of SF&F to have been in the running. (particularly because the latter was NOT…
off to San Jose

ellen datlow

28 Oct 2009 | 9:06 am

Email's down again today although hopefully it'll go back up to give me time enough to download and read all messages before leaving. Back the 4th. Online maybe. (I will have laptop and free wireless at hotel).

Stephen Dedman
Taking Off

Stephen Dedman

7 Nov 2009 | 1:28 am

Flying out to Hong Kong tomorrow night to give some lectures, then to Tokyo for a short break, so I'm not likely to be online much for the next week (not that the difference will be immediately obvious to readers of this page, I admit).I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I finished enough of the marking that I started writing a new story on Thursday. Today, though, was spent revising and updating my thesis for a publisher. I sent that off this afternoon, and also did the line-edits on my story 'Wetwork' for the Shadowrun anthology Spells & Chrome. Oddly enough, that does count as a day…
Bibliography Update

Stephen Dedman

14 Oct 2009 | 7:00 am

Just received my author's copy of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #41, featuring my story 'Sleep No More'.I'd probably be more excited about this if I hadn't realized, after looking at the Aurealis Award Nominated Works yesterday, that it's only the second new genre story I've had published this year.
Nameless here for evermore...

Stephen Dedman

10 Oct 2009 | 9:58 pm

Ramsey Campbell to judge the 'Nameless' competitionThe AHWA and 'Nameless' competition director Stephen Studach are thrilled to announce that the 'Nameless' competition will be judged by multi-award winning master of dark fiction Ramsey Campbell.In honour of Mr. Campbell's involvement, the competition's deadline has been extended to the 13th of March, 2010.Read the story here. Come up with a conclusion and a title! Make your $10 donation and enter the competition here.Competition prizes include a $500 winner's cheque, and a prize pool of horror goodies:A manuscript version of the story signed…
I will not read your 8-point type. I want to bash you with a pipe!

Stephen Dedman

24 Sep 2009 | 6:59 am

Jim C. Hines on reading slush, in the style of Dr Seuss.
Interview

Stephen Dedman

18 Sep 2009 | 5:25 pm

Randolph Carter interviews me about role-playing games and writing. The page also links to interviews with other writers.

A.M. Dellamonica
A quick one about January Courses

alyx

5 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

I am teaching two online courses next quarter--my introductory SF/F/H course, Creating Universes, Building Worlds and Writing the Short Story: An Intermediate Workshop, wherein you workshop two stories and then revise one of them. Both are open for registration now; the SF course fills particularly fast. Let me know if you have any questions!
Bits and Stuff

alyx

4 Nov 2009 | 2:33 pm

In the excitement and flurry over INDIGO SPRINGS, I've neglected to mention that PASSING FOR HUMAN, a beautiful limited-edition anthology edited by Steven Utley and Michael Bishop, and featuring my "Cooking Creole" as well as Jessica Reisman's incandescent "Nights at the Crimea," has finally arrived here at Chez Dua. It is a lovely, exciting and multi-layered group of stories, and I commend it to you all wholeheartedly.Speaking of INDIGO SPRINGS, it is a staff pick over at the McNally Robinson Bookseller's site.Have I told you all there's going to be a book launch the novel at the UBC…
Fantasy Literature Review

alyx

30 Oct 2009 | 3:16 pm

Four out of five stars, and a snippet...I remember watching the Dungeons and Dragons movie in the theater and being completely disappointed in it, and then seeing Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon shortly thereafter and thinking, “This is what Dungeons and Dragons should have been.” While reading Indigo Springs, I kept thinking, “This is what The X-Files movie should have been.”
Vancouver kitteh needs a home

alyx

28 Oct 2009 | 2:45 pm

233Originally uploaded by Alyx DellamonicaThis came to me from Peter Watts--I have contact info for the person at the shelter who sent it out:Bobbie is a healthy 12 year old male white and tabby cat that arrived a couple of months ago at the a shelter (www.saintsrescue.ca) . His owners told the shelter that now that their kids were grown up they wanted to travel and that they didn’t expect the cat would live that long.Not surprisingly Bobbie has had a hard time adjusting to his new circumstances and has been hiding in his little cat house a lot. Now that he starts to know people better he…
Released into the wild!

alyx

27 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

I haven't seen a copy on bookstore shelves yet (confirmation, even pictures are welcomed!) but the pre-order phase is over, folks--you should be able to buy INDIGO SPRINGS today.

Marianne de Pierres
Stafford signing

mdep

5 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pm

Well, yesterday was the official release day, so I'm hoping to see Mirror Space in the wild somewhere this weekend. And just a reminder that I'll be signing at the Stafford Angus and Robertson store from 11am to 1.30 pm tomorrow.I'll be there by myself for this one, so I'm looking to bribe anyone who might come down with lollies and bookmarks.
New Nylon Angel review

mdep

2 Nov 2009 | 8:37 pm

I always get excited when Parrish gets introduced to someone new. Review here.
Walker of the Worlds, Earth to Hell, Siren Beat

mdep

2 Nov 2009 | 5:55 pm

Don't forget that Mark Chitty at WOW is running a competition where you can win the first three books of the Sentients of Orion series. And while you're on his site check out the reviews. If you want to know what's happening in the world of SF books, this is the place.And speaking of books (hah hah hah), here are two great recommendations for your xmas present list.Kylie Chan's Earth to Hell, released mid December. People are going to breaking their necks to get this one. And...Tansy Rayner Roberts' Siren Beat (one half of…
Join us

mdep

1 Nov 2009 | 3:20 am

on the Parrish Plessis and Tara Sharp facebook fan page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Parrish-Plessis-and-Tara-Sharp/168148911946?ref=mf
It's Friday...phew...

mdep

29 Oct 2009 | 4:00 pm

Wow, it's Friday already! This is a last reminder that Kylie Chan and I will be at the Arana Hill's library tomorrow for a Brookside A&R signing and author talk (31st October, 12 – 1.30). For enquiries or bookings please ring: Angus and Robertson Brookside (07) 38551612 0r Pam or Karen at the library (07) 33513401Also, Tara Sharp’s whodunnit posts for the week will be in the Fully Dead section of www.tarasharp.com or the NOTES section here, later today. We’re getting close to finding out who set Toad up for a murder rap, and what Nick Tozzi is hiding.Had a…

Andy Duncan
Let's all scare the tourists

Andy Duncan

27 Oct 2009 | 6:47 pm

The Haunted Arkansas site set up by the state Department of Parks & Tourism is a fine example of the Chamber of Commerce types nationwide embracing once-shunned local legends of ghosts and monsters -- because people like me will pay good money to see those places, even if no ghosts or monsters actually turn up. One term for this growth industry, "ectotourism," has been around for years, judging from this 1997 article in San Francisco's Examiner, but I don't much like the word. It looks like a typo for "ecotourism." We can do better.That not every Chamber of Commerce is thrilled with this…
Our correspondent in Shanghai

Andy Duncan

27 Oct 2009 | 6:26 pm

Sydney's cousin Megan Wilkes, formerly of Harrisonburg, Va., moved to Shanghai this fall and is reporting on her adventures in a fine blog, with many photos, titled Anything Goes In China ... Almost. One thing that doesn't go, Megan reports in her first post, is any mention of the "3 T's." I quickly guessed what those were, and I bet you can, too.
"Never underestimate the power of a good story"

Andy Duncan

27 Oct 2009 | 6:13 pm

Greg Frost alerted me to this fine commercial, via YouTube, for the French pay channel Canal+, a.k.a. "Canal Plus."
National Solar Tour 2009

Andy Duncan

2 Oct 2009 | 2:01 pm

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow -- Saturday, Oct. 3 -- our house will be part of the American Solar Energy Society's 14th annual National Solar Tour, coordinated locally by Big D Electric in Cumberland, Md. Details, including the specs of our system, are here. Y'all come!
Cat Rambo's new book

Andy Duncan

26 Sep 2009 | 4:10 pm

This week the mailman brought a hardcover copy of Cat Rambo's new collection Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight (Paper Golem, $26 hardcover, $14 trade paper). On the front cover is a marvelous Carrie Ann Baade artwork; on the back cover are blurbs by other writers, including this one from me: "I am inspired, these days, by Cat Rambo, and after reading these stories, you will be, too."In between the covers is a fine collection, and I commend the book, the author and the publisher to your attention.Is this the first time I've been quoted in a cover blurb? Maybe so. The other blurbers, in…

Hal Duncan
The Scruffians Project: How a Scruffian Starts Their Story

Hal Duncan

6 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am

The Story So FarIf you know the score, you can skip ahead to the New Release heading. If not...So I decided to try out an experiment in direct distribution: offer a story in pdf form to anyone who donated an amount at their discretion via PayPal; and should the story reach a target of two-thirds SFWA pro rates (five cents a word), said story would be put on general release for free download.
BSC Review Column

Hal Duncan

5 Nov 2009 | 7:16 pm

A bit later than the start-of-the-month date intended, (hey, I had drinking with Finns and French to do,) but better late then never, me latest column is now up at BSC Review.It's about vampires. This may have been a terrible mistake, but it's about vampires.
Busy Busy Busy Busy

Hal Duncan

2 Nov 2009 | 10:38 am

Got back from Nantes late last night, slept most of today and am currently playing catch-up with emails. Will be blogging shortly about it all, though I can't promise *how* shortly. Still got a column for BSC Review to finish too. And "Jack Scallywag" just broke the secondary target, which means getting another release lined up.So in the meantime, have some Lego Sweeney Todd. It's awesome.
With Halloween on the Way...

Hal Duncan

28 Oct 2009 | 3:40 pm

How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son
Home from Helsinki

Hal Duncan

27 Oct 2009 | 2:52 pm

And too whacked to say anything more than how awesome it was, and that from now on I am to be known as Moominhal. Cause trolls can be Scottish too, right? Or do I have to move to Finland to qualify? Cause, yanno, I didn't want to leave. There were tears at the airport; I shit you not. Ask Moominhanna.Anyway, before I crumble into bed and sleep for... well... all the time I have before

David Dvorkin
David’s Definitions for December 2009

David

22 Oct 2009 | 6:30 pm

Moot To bring something up for discussion. At one time, moot could also refer to the discussion itself. This usage no longer survives in ordinary English, but it's still used in law school, where a moot court is a simulated court proceeding, part of the training of law students. Originally, a moot question was one that could be debated or was subject to argument. At some point in the 19th century, it came to mean a question that was no longer worth discussing, or one that had no practical application outside the realm of debate. The word traces back to 12th century England, when it referred…
Hate mail

David

19 Oct 2009 | 1:13 pm

In response to this essay on our Web site: I read your mindless 'manifesto' (sounds SO euro-for the people!) You liberals are such wandering and aimless idiots. Your ultimate goal is nothing short of eradication of all the moral values of TRUE Americans, those who pattern themselves after the original revolutionaries who established this great country. Your only hope is in sheer numbers, since you fail miserably in moral fiber, original ideas and true partisanship. You fools have no idea what it takes to build UP a country, only what it takes to tear one down. …
Basal on my shoulder

David

15 Oct 2009 | 5:11 pm

Makes me unhappy. Basal on my shoulder Makes me frown. The song John Denver never sang. I have a basal carcinoma on my shoulder, which will be cut out on November 3. This might affect my weightlifting regimen. Such as it is. It’s supposed to be the least dangerous kind of skin cancer, fortunately. Once again, I wish I could go back in time and lecture my boy self about the sun and sunburn. Of course he wouldn’t have listened to some weird, old guy. Kids those days!
A Public Fine and Private Place

David

15 Oct 2009 | 6:46 am

The story is now visible to the world at:http://theferalpages.com/issue1/?page_id=30
A Fine and Private Place

David

7 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

Title of a ghost story of mine, taken from the marvelous poem “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell (a poem which, I once read, has provided more titles than any other, and no wonder). It will be published in the new online magazine The Feral Pages, in the October/November issue. Thanks to Chris Holm for alerting me to the magazine, which has also acquired a story of his. The editor wrote the following to me. (If I had a smaller ego I’d be embarrassed. If I had any shame, I wouldn’t reproduce his words here.) This is a marvelously complex piece with which I am still peeling back the…

Kate Elliott
Seemingly Unrelated Things Make a Post

Kate Elliott

5 Nov 2009 | 8:41 am

Nicholas Kristof on why, yes, we do need health care reform. Gacked from suricattusFrom Tehran Bureau, Fariba Pajooh--Still in Jail, lest we forget. You know, the more I think about it, the more I reflect on how condescending toward the Iranian people those early "reports" and suppositions were that the whole post election protest (and its subsequent manifestations, which I try to follow) was merely a CIA deep cover operation, as if Iranians are some kind of dupes rather than educated, civilized, sophisticated people perfectly capable of speaking out at last on their own behalf. Their courage…
Deverry Heroes: Hottest Edition

Kate Elliott

2 Nov 2009 | 11:43 pm

I post over on deverry15: Which Deverry Hero is the Hottest? Your STRONG opinions are solicited. Because I mean, really, who can have a lukewarm opinion on such a crucial topic?
World Fantasy Convention

Kate Elliott

2 Nov 2009 | 10:38 pm

I won't make a long list of names of people I hung out with, although they were utterly fabulous, or the people I met for the first time, although they were utterly fabulous (you see the trend here). This WFC had a very different and interesting vibe from other WFC's I've attended and I'm not quite sure what it was (besides the dry air that made many people get scratchy throats and which certainly sent me spiraling into some kind of allergic or cold reaction) except that people seemed very present, panels and readings seemed unusually well attended, and all in all it felt like people were…
WFC

Kate Elliott

31 Oct 2009 | 8:59 am

Exhausted. Air is so dry that my throat and sinuses are now in full revolt. I slept horribly last night. Headed down for breakfast now.What I really want to say is:I love the sff community. What an awesome fabulous wonderful group of people.More later. If I have the energy.
We Knew Her When

Kate Elliott

23 Oct 2009 | 1:26 pm

When we moved to Hawaii in 2002 we were advised frequently to avoid the public schools here. In the years since, we are not infrequently met with surprise when we mention that our children attended public schools here. I admit, we chose to live in Mililani in part because it has a reputation for having a particularly good set of neighborhood schools. Was the middle and high school here perfect? No, not by a long shot. Did my children have a few mediocre teachers? Yes.But they also had excellent teachers.Like this one (the twins' senior year AP English teacher):Mililani High School teacher…

P. N. Elrod
Check it out--a NEW Vampire Files audiobook!

P. N. Elrod

6 Nov 2009 | 11:26 pm

.So this is what happens when I don't pay attention. Blackstone Audio releases the second Vampire Files audiobook, LIFEBLOOD!Check out the nifty/cool cover!Listen to samples on the page!There is a chunk of irony here. I found out about this one via a pirate download site.Yup. Before I have even gotten my author's copy from Blackstone, some pin-headed thieving MORON uploaded the book so he could either spread a computer virus or get points so he can download more porn into his useless, how-dare-you-breathe-my-air existence.He sure wasn't doing me any favors. Whoever you are,…
Guest blog! Prizes!

P. N. Elrod

30 Oct 2009 | 7:25 am

So--have you lot rushed over to read my guest blog at The Knight Agency yet??http://knightagency.blogspot.com/Jack Fleming and I have another one of our "enjoyable" little talks. Remember-- LEAVE A COMMENT and you are in a drawing for a FREE BOOK from me. Anything I have in stock. Signed!Even if you have all my titles, maybe you'd like a prezzy for a friend?It gets better! If you get all five questions right in the scavenger hunt you could win a $50 Visa card!!!!Trivia questions on each of this week's guest writers are posed at the end of each blog. The…
Vamps on BBC Radio!

P. N. Elrod

29 Oct 2009 | 9:48 am

Vamps invade BBC Radio in this 30-minute look at bloodsuckers in books, TV, and films:http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nds0m/Front_Row_28_10_2009/I'm a touch chagrined that no one made mention of *my* sequel to Dracula (Quincey Morris, Vampire), but they have some funny stuff to say about Buffy, True Blood, and Being Human.They made an accurate job of covering the origins of vamps in literature, and some of the remarks at the end are a decided chuckle, especially concerning Ryan Kwanten being nekked in every episode of True Blood. (I'm all for that, but I'm sure his mum has other…
FREE BOOKS! And a guest blog!

P. N. Elrod

28 Oct 2009 | 9:43 am

The great folks at The Knight Agency are having a special Halloween guest blog week! (My literary agent works there!)http://knightagency.blogspot.com/Just go there, leave comments each day, and you're in the pool to win FREE BOOKS by each writer who's posted for that day.I will be guest blogging on the 30th, so drop by. You'll have a choice of books -- in case there's one of mine you don't have. But if your collection's full, you can pick one out as a gift for a friend.Signed, of course!!What's my blog about?Have a sample.....Once again through the magic of time travel, writer P.N. Elrod…
I'm not sure which one is hawter...

P. N. Elrod

19 Oct 2009 | 4:34 pm

..Which is hawter----?Lusty youthful wine or the refined stud stuff that's gained much with a bit of aging?We have Mark Harmon during his Flamingo Road days....or Mark Harmon now.Hell, I'll have them BOTH. . .at poolside. . . with a cold chocolate martini, please. Tell Mr. Peabody I need his WABAC Machine for a few days.

James Enge
Startling lines heard on the Halloween episode of "Castle" included...

29 Oct 2009 | 9:21 pm

"Crow may have drawn us a roadmap to Morlock.""The crows would never do that!" I shouted at the screen. "Morlock and them have a deal!" Then I realized... different Crow... different Morlock.
Three Things, Not Too Wild

28 Oct 2009 | 10:06 pm

1. Belated but unbowed, I posted a sort of review of the movie Where the Wild Things Are at the Blog Gate.2. The Sci Fi Guys Book Review guys interviewed me a while ago for one of their periodic podcasts, and it's up, now. It was a pretty good conversation, I thought.3. I partook in the latest round of discussions about sf/f, respect and respectability at SF Signal's Mind Meld feature.
Sun Day

25 Oct 2009 | 10:23 pm

1. A new Babel Clash post, this one about the perils and pleasures of live storytelling.2. An insanely beautiful day today. It was that kind of autumn day you remember wistfully from childhood, thinking, "I must be making that stuff up. No day was as wonderful as that." But today was, smashing my face with gold-leafed glory every time I stepped outside. I was on the bike trail in the hour before sunset, and as I came down the final stretch I was rolling through cool blue shadow while the reddish leaves above me blazed in red sunlight, gilding their unrefined gold.
Clash on the Barrelhead

22 Oct 2009 | 9:43 pm

Babel Clash: Are we living in a pop Golden Age or a Silver Age--and, more importantly, what's the exchange rate?
Of Mainstream and Slushies

21 Oct 2009 | 10:39 pm

New Babel Clash: Respectobiggles of the Mainstream. (Actually, respectobiggles don't come up, but now I wish I'd thought of them. Maybe the next time this perennial topic comes up.)

Josh English
NaNoWriMo. Day Five

Josh English

5 Nov 2009 | 9:27 am

I'm not posting every day, because I'm writing (w00t!), and I'm feeling good about what I've written. This morning I got to write a statistics scene, and that got me thinking about my stats on this novel. I love stats, and it's a problem, because number crunching is really not that useful of a tool and yet I keep turning to it. This year I tried to rely only on the NaNoWriMo update page to keep track of my progress, and there's a FaceBook app that will draw my daily progress on chart, so I managed to go four days without a spreadsheet. I made one yesterday. It's simple: Day, Word Count,…
NaNoWriMo begins

Josh English

1 Nov 2009 | 5:15 pm

I am not convinced I have all of novel plotted out. In fact, I know I'm missing a few chunks, but I think I'll find a way to shove them into the plot where I need them.Today I wrote 3095 words. I have a small pile of 46 note cards. Each card isn't really a scene, but a plot beat. I could probably make them scenes, but that feels like padding in some cases. Three cards were consumed by the day's effort.While I was writing, I got hit with a few moments of "this is boring to write," I don't think it's boring to read. It's all inciting events and important to lay down the themes of the…
I'm a math guy, I should know better than to fall for this

Josh English

27 Oct 2009 | 5:18 pm

We went shopping yesterday, and I foolishly decided to waste our weekly snack budget on the news Giant Cheeto Puff Things. Big mistake.First, like most people who grew up in suburbia in the 70's, I suffer from a delusion that cheese is a) day-glo orange and b) comes in powder form. Second, anyone who eats Cheezy-poofs of any kind eats them for this bizarre, simulated, "advanced food-like" product, not for the corn puff that might actually bring a skosh of nutrition to what is essentially an empty calorie. Okay, lots of empty calories.So why would I think GIANT CHEEZY POOFS…
NaNoWriMo Warmups

Josh English

19 Oct 2009 | 9:53 pm

Last night I laid out the novel plot beats, each on its own 3x5 color-coordinated card. I put down the main plot in blue, the love story in pink, the business story in green, and the distraction story in yellow.And I'm still missing things. I've got a couple of places where I know where my narrator goes, but not how he gets there. There is a lot more story world to explore, and a huge consipiracy I don't even delve into yet.I've got what, 12 days, to figure this out.
Coding Sprint Wrap

Josh English

19 Oct 2009 | 9:38 pm

Well, it failed. That is, there was a lot more to learn than I was able to learn, and everything I did learn sent me back to the drawing board to figure out how to deal with it. I really want this, it's better than manually surfing a bunch of sites for links and downloading them, yeah? I mean, what's the use of being a geek if I don't spend months working on a program to take care of something rather mundane?

Jennifer Fallon
I've been shopping...

31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

You know how it goes... You're on holidays, wandering through a hardware store and you see a really sexy lawnmover that you just have to have, even though you're in a foreign country and you don't actually have any lawn at home... So naturally, you buy it... And then you get it home and discover this is New Zealand and they have these really cute lawn mowers, even though you're still in a foreign country and you don't actually have any lawn at home... So you buy that one and call it Maudette... And then you decide Maudette is going to be lonely out there eating the grass you don't have, so…
When I got up this morning....

31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

I looked out the loungeroom window.... And then sat down for breakast... What's even funnier is that I downloaded the voice of Darth Vader for my GPS, who announced as we arrived here: "Your journey to the dark side is complete." LOL
I'm in NZ....

31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

This place is insanely pretty... I may have to move here. Sheep are cute. This is the view from Sonny Whitelaw's dining room window... she has her own lake! Oh, and a ram called Dexter:)
Quote of the day...

31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

You must have chaos within you to be able to give birth to a dancing star. Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher
Today I am in Melbourne...

31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

I am staying at my son's house. He has his own cinema. We've just watched the new Star Trek movie in it. It rocks. I'm going to have to sell my house and buy another one now, so I can have a cinema at home, too...

Mick Farren
FROM BLOCKBUSTER TO OBSCURE

Mick

6 Nov 2009 | 8:19 pm

Yesterday my cool was impugned because I expressed mild anticipation regarding John Cameron’s Avatar. So here’s a movie that going to be real hard to find. It’s supposedly a true story, so I can even raise some trepidation that the guys pictured above might be the founders of “the next great American religion.” Don’t we have enough goddamned religions already? There’s a showing of The Object on
FANCY PAGEANT GLOATIN’

Mick

6 Nov 2009 | 8:11 pm

As you all may have probably realised by now, I have zero tolerance for dumb-as-a-post beauty queens who figure it’s a double-plus, super-ace celeb-making career move to sashay their cute bikini asses into extremist homophobe bigot-rousing. Thus, when the execrable Carrie Prejean’s political career was fatally impaled by a recently surfaced, commercial-porn, masturbation-for-camera video, with
DID I EVER TELL YOU I LOVE PAPER AIRPLANES?

Mick

6 Nov 2009 | 8:06 pm

No? Well check out the way cool video. Maybe you will too. Click here.
6 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

Mick

6 Nov 2009 | 8:04 pm

CLICK (Gotcha!)
AVATAR? (No thanks, I’m trying to give them up.)

Mick

5 Nov 2009 | 4:56 pm

Up to now I’ve been ignoring it, but, as someone who has the TV perpetually mumbling on the other side of the room, I have now watched a few commercials for James Cameron’s upcoming megaflick Avatar, and they were sufficiently compelling to send me to IMDb to watch the trailers. I don’t have any overflowing sympathy for corporate franchise movies that cost more than the GNP of multiple third

Charles Coleman Finlay
Buckeye Book Fair

C. C. Finlay

2 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

Heads up, book lovers in Ohio and surrounding states!The Buckeye Book Fair is this Saturday in the fair city of Wooster. A hundred authors all in one spot, and everything from kids books to genre to history to non-fiction. Yours truly will be one in a hundred.The event is organized by one of Ohio's truly exceptional independent book stores, the Wooster Book Company. And 10% of the revenues are donated to support non-profit literacy programs, public libraries, and books in schools.Come buy all your Christmas presents early. A signed set of the Traitor to the Crown books will make an excellent…
Even Legolas Couldn't Do This

C. C. Finlay

29 Oct 2009 | 6:45 pm

Her name is Lilia Stepanova. But her friends call her Awesome-sauce.
Where I Write

C. C. Finlay

29 Oct 2009 | 4:57 pm

I had the chance to meet photographer Kyle Cassidy, aka kylecassidy today, which was neat for a couple reasons. First, Kyle is the author of Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes. Some years ago I did work as a researcher for a book on the history of the Second Amendment, and one of the things I came away with is the understanding of how deeply embedded guns are across American culture and how none of the stereotypes -- good or bad -- apply. Kyle's book is a great illustration of that culture and that diversity. Awesome stuff. Don't take my word for it: go look for yourself.
QFT

C. C. Finlay

15 Oct 2009 | 5:57 pm
But are you thankful for Columbus?

C. C. Finlay

12 Oct 2009 | 6:29 am

A very Happy Thanksgiving Day to all my friends in Canada! Here's to family, t(of)urkey, and that weird kind of football that you play up there.

Lynn Flewelling
Shadows Return from Audible.com

LynnF

5 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am

I'm happy to report that Shadows Return will be available from Audible.com on November 24th! The narrator is a gentleman named Adam Danoff.
She Speaks!

LynnF

4 Nov 2009 | 7:16 pm

Recorded the intro for the Audible.com Shadows Return audio book today. Sound guy comes to my house and we're done in 20 minutes! Got it in two takes I am that good. :D
The Tyranny of the Majority

LynnF

4 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am

It is tempting to say that I am ashamed to be a Mainer today, but that's not true. That would be a slap in the face to the thousands of good people from all walks of life, like Phil Spooner, whose speech I shared with you yesterday, who worked so hard to preserve the equality and dignity of ALL Maine's citizens. To those people I say, "Good job. You'll get it next time. Or the time after that. But this will happen." Because it will. It has to. But sitting here in California in the wake of Prop 8, looking at the triumph of Prop 1, I can only imagine how angry, hurt, perhaps even frightened the…
The Gay Marriage Vote In Maine Is Happening NOW

LynnF

3 Nov 2009 | 3:20 pm

I just wanted to share a clip of an 86-yr old Maine gentleman, Phillip Spooner, a WWII vet from the same neck of the woods I grew up in, and the father of a gay son, speaking out about the kind of America he fought for. It will bring tears to your eyes.
Cabin Fever and Hedonism

LynnF

1 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

Doug's distemper seems to be a bad cold rather than H1N1. I have a touch of it, but not as sick as I feared I was going to be. Both of us were going stir crazy yesterday, so we packed up and went to LA for the afternoon. My mission was to find the Flax Pen to Paper shop, and visit the American Tea Room/Le Palais Gourmet, whose teas I sometimes review. Flax Pen to Paper This is a nice shop near Wilshire Blvd in LA. Prices are list, but at least you get to handle and test drive the wide selection of fountain pens. After much deliberation, testing, and dithering, I settled on a Pelikan Souveran…

Eric Flint
THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 24

Drak Bibliophile

5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 24 Grijo arrived early, but the Hall of Decision was already close-crowded. The Hallkeepers, a tiny elian of only three, had done their duty, lighting the space brightly so that the colored woods with their attendant carvings showed well. The silent Boh faces gazed down within, a reminder of what they had lost. Everyone was painfully aware that the ancestral spirits could not find the Lleix in this alien place. As had been true since their initial diaspora, they were alone. All the elian were represented, Childtenders, Waterdirectors, Groundtillers,…
Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 03

Drak Bibliophile

5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 03 It was as luxurious a boudoir as Manfred had been able to contrive. She had taught him a great deal, reflected Francesca, and not just about sex or politics. Whether the knowledge of fabrics and cushions was really essential to a man who might one day yet rule the Holy Roman Empire, and definitely would rule the rough Celtic halls of Brittany, was another matter. Francesca de Chevreuse had no doubts about it being of value. Both politics and sex were enhanced by such things. How many pointless wars were born, accidentally, out of a poor night’s…
THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 24

Drak Bibliophile

5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

THE SORCERESS OF KARRES — Snippet 24 Chapter 12 The Central Museum of Historical Nikkeldepain housed a collection of artifacts from the first settlers. The room Goth chose had their Charter of Rights displayed, signed by the first councilors on display. And for good measure the Mayoral Chain of Nikkeldepain City too, a relic of old Yarthe itself, if the label was to be believed. It looked like a trumpery bit of stuff to Goth. She’d seen more real-looking fakes in Wansing the Jeweler’s shop. But it had an impressive high security glass case. Goth slipped into no-shape and…
TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 56

Drak Bibliophile

5 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

Since the Dead Tree version has been delayed, snippets will continue. (Drak acting for Eric) TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 56 “Ha!” Jeremy jeered. “Forgot about the Erewhonese, didn’t you? They’re not that many generations removed from outright gangsters, Hugh. And all that happened when they ‘went legit’ is that their money-laundering skills got even better. Had to, of course.” He looked out the window at the lush landscape three stories below. “All we have to do is set the problem before them — Walter Imbesi, that is, we…
TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 55

Drak Bibliophile

3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

TORCH OF FREEDOM — Snippet 55 Chapter Twenty-Two “I’m glad you decided not to get hardnosed about it, Jeremy,” said Hugh Arai, as he lowered himself into a chair in the War Secretary’s office. “Lowered” was the proper term, too. The chair didn’t look all that sturdy, and Hugh massed slightly over two hundred kilos. That weight was calculated Earth-normal, true, but Torch’s gravity wasn’t that much lower. Certainly not enough to make a difference. Jeremy watched the delicate process with a sardonic smile. “You really…

Diana Pharaoh Francis
the day that was

Diana Pharaoh Francis

3 Nov 2009 | 9:35 pm

So i did the live blogging thing over Bitten By Books. Thanks to all of you who came to visit. Okay, I'm still officially there for awhile longer, but yanno. You get the point. There was a bit of other excitement today. My son came running inside this afternoon upset over a hurt bird. He could hardly talk. So I went outside. A small bird of prey had taken down a collared dove and though the dove was dead, the bird of prey was injured. There was some blood on his neck and he was wallering around hurt. Luckily I know a bird guy, the same one who helped me so much with goshawks in the Path…
live blogging and interview and contest

Diana Pharaoh Francis

3 Nov 2009 | 10:11 am

I'm over at Bitten By Books today live blogging and answering questions. There's an awesome contest also and an interview, so come by and visit!
revising and drafting simultaneously, or why I want to kill myself

Diana Pharaoh Francis

2 Nov 2009 | 12:33 pm

First, I want to say this about Halloween. We got few trick or treaters, though the night was warm (for Montana--be reasonable). There are a lot of either empty houses around this year or else non-participants in the candy giving. However, don't think for a moment that the kids didn't make out like bandits.I took boy and girl out (she's 5, he's 9) and we were with a friend and we did some looting and then boy wanted to come home. So we did and girl demanded Dad take her out for the second shift. So they went. They came back with some serious loot. Add to it all the leftover stuff we have, and…
sunday wars

Diana Pharaoh Francis

1 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pm

I'm in the war room if anyone is up for a few hours of warring.
Contest, interview and Release Party

Diana Pharaoh Francis

31 Oct 2009 | 8:39 am

Bitten By Books is hosting a Release Party with a Character Interview and Contest on November 3. You could win a $75 and $50 Amazon gift card. If you go now and RSVP, you can get an extra chance to win! (that means you have to show up on the 3rd and ask a question). So, go now and enter. And spread the word! Originally published at www.dianapfrancis.com. You can comment here or there.

Dave Freer
newnew

davefreer

5 Nov 2009 | 10:14 am

www.NewNewForum.com if you have any bright ideas you want to talk about. It's run Dr Andrew Burt the founder of Critters.org as a reaction to his experience with old-boys club sites.http://savethedragons.nu has a write up there.
Crab bucket

davefreer

5 Nov 2009 | 9:39 am

Because crabs don't often escape from traps: "Self-made ghettoes are hard to get out of."Sir Terry Pratchett (interveiw -http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427326.000-terry-pratchett-fighting-to-keep-the-fantasy-alive.html )The man is a genius. I'd have made him a bleedin' Emperor, not a mere Knight. That so describes so much of SA's situation. This ought to be one the richest countries on earth with the lowest GINI co--efficient, and the most wonderful vibrant human rights culture. It had every ounce of the potential. But the crabs climbed into the bucket after the smelly bait-remains…
proofs in and a stick in the eye, and kids exams, and furkid worries

davefreer

4 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am

Tired and stressed out, Proofs for Sorceress of Karress are in, waiting on new quotes for quarantine and transport of the dogs and cats. If you haven't got around to supporting http://www.savethedragons.nu/ and can and want to... now would be a good time. B has a sore eye from getting a stick in it. We're a bit in the wars... http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/ for the expanded version.Worrying about the kids too of course - it's exams coming and they've had a bit of torrid time, with their Gran (who seemed I think as eternal as rock and unchanging) and with parents and their old way of life…
Agender

davefreer

1 Nov 2009 | 1:23 am

A piece I read this morning brought up the whole sexual stereotyping thing in my mind again. Back when my older boy was in I think grade 4 or 5 they had a class on gender stereotypes. Teacher held forth about how bad it was. My kid grows increasingly puzzled. Asks teacher for clarification. "Well your mommy always has to cook supper..." giggle. "My mom doesn't cook, dad does that." (true. We did start by alternating, but I like to cook and detest washing up. B would rather wash a mountain than have to boil an egg)"Well, your dad always drives..." "Not if mom is in the car. Never!" (true, B…
Inheritance and nanny

davefreer

30 Oct 2009 | 5:31 am

I was interested to see a UK law commission has produced a position paper on what they see as potential law-changes with regard to inheritance and people who die intestate. They're proposing that marriage no longer be pre-requisite for someone to inherit the estate. If you've been together for two years the surviving partner gets half the estate, and at 5 becomes the heir.Blink.Is this same bunch who said lifetime spinster sisters who live together cannot enjoy family status (ie when one dies the other must sell their home to pay inheritance tax)Now the logical answer - to me - is don't be a…

Allyn Gibson
On the End of the Baseball Season

Allyn

5 Nov 2009 | 6:49 pm

Anyone can have a bad century. Spring training isn’t so far away. There’s always next year.
On Story Submission

Allyn

5 Nov 2009 | 8:45 am

At 11:25 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, the short story left the nest. It had grown this morning to 2,296 words. Okay, okay, enough of this faux-baby announcement stuff. I rewrote some of the story on the train this morning. Several new paragraphs were added in the middle. A one-sentence paragraph was expanded into something more substantial. The ending was significantly reworked. I wasn’t unhappy with the final sentence, but it was limp. I tried to build something better leading to that sentence, and found that what I put before it worked better as the story’s final thought than the…
On Completion

Allyn

4 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pm

And at 11:34 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, a short story was born. The short story entered the world at 1,971 words, following a gestation of several weeks filled with false starts and blind alleys. The short story was finished with a final push of 1,498 words. The short story has been put to bed for the night, and it will be reviewed in the morning. It may gain words or lose words when morning comes. The short story does not have a name as yet, though its proud parent has several possibilities he is considering. Welcome to the world, short story!
On Linguistic Oddities

Allyn

4 Nov 2009 | 5:03 pm

Dear Microsoft, “Peckish” is a word. It means “hungry.” I use it in regular conversation. Okay, maybe twice a month. If I’m lucky. But certainly more than five or six times a year. About “peckish.” Word not only flagged it as a misspelling, but Word also tried to change it to “puckish.” I may use the word “puckish,” but in this particular case, in this particular sentence, my protagonist is hungry. He’s not a prat. Thanks for not noticing, A Surly Writer
On Last Night’s Elections

Allyn

3 Nov 2009 | 7:29 pm

Yesterday was, in some parts of the country, Election Day. I’ve sat down to read about elections in Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and Maine. I’ve not even had my coffee yet. It’s still brewing. The Democrats were crushed at all levels of state government in the Old Dominion. The Republican candidate for governor pulled it out in New Jersey. The bizarre 3-way race in New York (which I wrote about a few days ago) went to the Democratic candidate. The marriage equality amendment in Maine failed. Of the first three, I’ve found some bipartisan analysis about what this…

Gary Gibson
I go chop your dollar

gary gibson

31 Oct 2009 | 12:28 am

While reading Misha Berry's fascinating book 'McMafia' on the globalisation of crime since the early Eighties, I discovered that Nigerian 419 scammers have their very own anthem 'I go chop your dollar' about the joys of conning rich suckers out of untold quantities of cash, most spectacularly Nelson Sakaguchi of a major Brazilian bank to the tune of $245 million dollars. Naturally, I just had to google it.Don't ask me what he's singing - I can't make out a word - but upon a further google, it becomes clear the lyrics refer to a certain exuberance on the part of some Nigerian con-artists come…
Playing around with online publishing ideas

gary gibson

29 Oct 2009 | 11:43 pm

I'm thinking of trying a small publishing experiment when I have the time. First, some background.About twenty years ago, a fellow author, member of the Glasgow SF Writer's Circle (from whence came myself, Hal Duncan, William King and Michael Cobley amongst others) and one-time contributor to Interzone known as Fergus Bannon wrote a pretty decent sf thriller called Judgment.He sent it off to a couple of agents or publishers, got it sent back, then shelved it forever. He hasn't written anything since. There's nothing wrong with his writing - he'd been published, as I say, in Interzone, and I…
New post on BSCReview.com

gary gibson

29 Oct 2009 | 11:37 pm

And this time it's a rant about DRM and ebooks and piracy. It started out as a post on a website, but a thousand words later I realised I had the solid bones of an actual article:"There are many pro writers out there worried by piracy, who see the internet as the greatest illegal intellectual land-grab of all time. Here’s the deal: if you’re worried enough to want to stop it, you’re not only going to have to stop people’s internet connections, you’re also going to have to ban photocopiers, computer scanners, OCR software, and computers. At the least. The vast majority of those books…
Nice place to visit, shame about the UN ranking

gary gibson

7 Oct 2009 | 3:59 am

Interesting to see the UN's latest chart of countries according to quality of life, with Britain ranked all the way down at No. 21 with Norway, Australia and Iceland taking the top three positions. Interestingly enough, Ireland comes in at No. 5. Maybe I should go and live in Dublin instead of Glasgow. It's only a boat ride away, and they have tax breaks for writers (or did last I heard). Hmmm ... and it's not like we'd lack for people coming to visit ...Two mildly annoying caveats about the list: it would have been nice to see Scotland in there, since I'd be interested to know how its…
New column

gary gibson

5 Oct 2009 | 8:43 pm

I got asked a while back by Jay Tomio of BSCreview.com if I fancied writing for his website, and the first of my Burn After Reading columns is now up. Writing for your own blog is one thing, but writing for someone else's website - especially one that gets considerably more hits - is another. I'm going to try to get something up there every four or five weeks if I can. One result of this will be a lowered frequency of posting here, apart from the usual bits and pieces of news or stuff that wouldn't fit into BSC. I will, however, make a point of posting the first few paragraphs of an article…

Laura Anne Gilman
Two Things

Laura Anne Gilman

6 Nov 2009 | 11:53 am

1. As some of you know, the Magnificent (Genre) 7's best supporter has been April, she who manages the Johnson City/Binghamton (NY) Waldenbooks, and manages it quite splendidly. Alas, that Walden, despite its splendidness, is slated to be among the many bookstores closed in January, as Borders tries to reorganize itself.The Mag7 has a signing in that store on December 5th. A risky but brave gesture on April's part, to try and sell BOOKS at a time when most stores are pushing the gifty "extras" that take shelf space away from books. And we think it would be a swell thing -- for all the…
In-the-Wild Sighting Winners:

Laura Anne Gilman

6 Nov 2009 | 6:54 am

in no particular order or judgment of your photographic abilities:EverbardNikkiShawn CBetsy VElektraScott ZMollyklingonguymzipserKeithI didn't get any snaps of the digital version. You guys can download a file but you can't do a ascreen cap? Oh the techy shamefulness of it! Winners, please send me your mailing address, or if you're going to be at Philcon I can hand your corkscrew over there...
My parents have squishy brains...

Laura Anne Gilman

5 Nov 2009 | 6:12 pm

How the HELL did November and December get booked up already? What was I thinking?Seriously, January? I'm gonna lock the doors and not come out.To do before Monday:- e-copyedit for THE HUNTED (the next Anna Leonard paranormal romance)- author letter for HARD MAGIC- final pre-editor polish on VINEART 2- revisions to MUSTANG- revisions on "Dusted" oh yeah, and the signing in Ledgewood, NJ on Saturday. And I promised to go to the Interfictions soiree tomorrow night.Wheee?Time for more Archie and Nero Wolfe.*no, really. They participated in a survey for Parksinsons' patients and got those…
Breathe deep, hold,...okay, now let it out... let it out, I said!

Laura Anne Gilman

5 Nov 2009 | 5:48 am

Someone just told me that we didn't need health care reform because anyone who worked had access to it via their employer. I asked him where that left someone like me, a freelancer, or someone who worked under contract terms. He told me I should "get a better job." Dear Universe, why do willfully stupid people still breathe? And why does their stupidity not keep them from managing their way around a voting booth? (at last he didn't tell me to marry someone with health care -- I would have had to ask him what gay freelancers should do, then)Here. Have a moment of zen. I'll be in the corner NOT…
it's hard being a social liberal in a social liberal town...

Laura Anne Gilman

4 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm

I keep getting e-mails and pings to call my 'critter to ask if s/he's going to support health care reform this week, when it comes down to the vote.My rep is Eliot Engel (D-NY-17). From his website:Since it is unacceptable that a country that spends $1.9 trillion has sixteen million uninsured citizens, Rep. Engel is co-sponsoring H.R. 1200, the American Health Security Act of 2007. This bill sets up a single payer system providing health care coverage to all Americans regardless of ability to pay, requiring each state to prohibit the sale of health insurance that duplicates the benefits under…

Shannon Hale
Punzie's tricks and treats

halespawn

5 Nov 2009 | 10:37 pm

A movie I'd been looking forward to opens this weekend in NY, UT, CA, TX, FL, and MD. Gentlemen Broncos is the latest from the Hesses, who did Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, and this film focuses on a young...
Pumped up about a pumpkin

halespawn

3 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm

I'll be at All Tucked In bookstore in Bountiful, Utah this Thursday at 6 pm. While in DC, I filmed an interview with the wonderful Reading Rockets. These ladies are fabulous, and it's always so invigorating to meet people so...
The Secret (that there is none)

halespawn

30 Oct 2009 | 2:31 pm

Nathan Hale's Yellowbelly is interviewing Dean (love of my life, apple of my eye) this week. Check it out--special Halloween episode! We're working hard to finish up Stage 1 of Der Secret Project before November. It takes up a lot...
Squeetus exclusive: Sara Zarr

halespawn

22 Oct 2009 | 2:03 pm

Today I'm proud to host fellow Utah writer Sara Zarr! Sara's writing career got off with a bang when her first novel, Story of a Girl, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She followed that with the award-winning...
Typing as I run out the door...

halespawn

21 Oct 2009 | 10:51 am

I'll be on VoiceAmerica radio program Thursday. You can see the website for details. The program's theme is Strong Women Characters and the other guests are Meg Cabot, Kristin Cashore, and Diane Gabaldon. Meg has a great post about it--love...

M. John Harrison
bad move

uzwi

4 Nov 2009 | 1:21 am

Watching environmentalism wrong-foot itself to this degree is sad. Now they’re just rolling about on the floor with all the other “narratives”. When everything’s a clash of fantasies, nothing ever gets done. Will postmodernism ever end ? Probably not–too useful to the legal, political & religious professions. But on a more optimistic note, at least string theory (“postmodern physics”) seems to have given up on itself. The universe can go back to being inelegant. Reading: Irene Nemirovsky, All Our Wordly Goods. Life doesn’t get much better…
reader, I wrote her

uzwi

3 Nov 2009 | 3:20 am

“What’s your book about, Carlos ?” “It’s about the romance & holiness & mystery & paradoxical matter-of-factness of all books. & it’s about my struggles with this book, my book, the one you hold in your hand. & it’s about women, the romance & holiness & mystery & paradoxical matter-of-factness of women, & about my struggle with this woman, the woman you–” “Next.”
the booklover angle

uzwi

2 Nov 2009 | 1:37 am

My boredom benchmark for Euro-Lit mysteries in which the writing, translation, publishing, selling & curating of books is cleverly interwoven with philosophical puzzles, mild sex & Real History, is Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier, a novel in which almost nothing happens except book-chat, & of which Isabel Allende said, “A treat for the mind”, an assessment I still find puzzling. So far, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Angel’s Game isn’t anything like as boring as that. It’s an amiable meander over the same kind of territory as The Shadow of the…
how mass can be relevant to you

uzwi

1 Nov 2009 | 2:30 am

Discoveries would include the God Particle, a tiny entity also called the Higgs Boson, which is believed to give objects – including people – their mass. Don’t you just love the grammar of this, that wonderful “also called” ? Followed swiftly by the reminder that mass is important because “people” –ie, Observer readers like us–have it, & peopleness is what underwrites the project of science, after all ? Is there anywhere else in the world where middle class journalism feels it has to do this particular form of mealy-mouth ? Is there anywhere…
all hallows

uzwi

31 Oct 2009 | 4:26 am

Yesterday I walked past a shop with a sign in its window, “Buy your complete Halloween outfit here!” & realised I was almost insane with boredom. Everything we have as a society–everything we do–is completely fucking spineless & irrelevant. It’s a “world” with no connection to the world, held in place by the biggest military deployment the world has ever seen so that 35 year old kidults can wear plastic witches’ hats on a Saturday night. People say: science fiction is over because reality caught up with it. I say: by the same token,…

Jess Hartley
In which we are thrilled!

jesshartley

25 Oct 2009 | 1:00 pm

THE ROOF IS DONE!For those of you who haven't been following along - The Viking and I bought our house here in Bisbee knowing it would need a new roof. We bought it in October of 07, just a few months after moving here. In October of 08, after comparing estimates from various roofing companies, we made the decision to re-roof the house ourselves. The decision was multi-fold. The house is low (one story) and long (1950s ranch style). The roof pitch is very shallow, and even for folks who aren't crazy about heights, it's about the easiest roof you could imagine for…
In which we run a contest... no, no, wait... TWO contests!

jesshartley

19 Oct 2009 | 11:29 am

One Geek to Another is Two Months Old! In 60 days, my online geek advice/etiquette column has gone from a passing thought to a syndicated column carried on several awesome websites and one fantastic magazine! And I couldn't have done it without your help! Many of you have taken the time to write in with your questions on geek etiquette, to suggest topics for One Geek columns, or to suggest geekalicious sites that might be interested in carrying One Geek to Another. I've been stunned by the awesome response, and as a way of saying thanks, I'm going to run a contest! Aw, why stop at one? Since…
In which we stay busy...

jesshartley

5 Oct 2009 | 7:51 am

This is becoming a habit, this occasional blitz posting when I get a chance to breathe for a few minutes...One Geek to Another - My advice/etiquette column for geeks is doing great. We're now syndicated on two remote sites (Pen and Paper Games - www.penandpapergames.com and Ideology of Madness - http://ideologyofmadness.spookyouthouse.com/) as well as being featured in upcoming issues of Big Iron Vault (http://www.bigironvault.com/ - a quarterly gamer lifestyle magazine). This week's issue addresses a letter from one of our readers about how to deal with pressure to take a relationship…
In which we are proud and pleased!

jesshartley

29 Sep 2009 | 9:29 am

Want to write for games? Think your art is ready for professional publication? Long to be a part of the game industry, but not sure how to get your foot in the door? Freelance writer/editor/game creator Jess Hartley shares her secrets for using conventions as an entry point into the professional game industry. This product was inspired by a series of articles presented on Jess' website to offer her experiences and advice to potential freelancers looking to make the best use of their time during the summer 2009 convention season.The response was overwhelming, and encouraged Jess to…
In which we hope you're coming to RinCon!

jesshartley

25 Sep 2009 | 12:31 pm

Today is the absolute last day to register online for RinCon '09

Sara M. Harvey
Back in the swing...or swing and a miss?

Sara M. Harvey

10 Oct 2009 | 8:42 pm

Life can be a cunning little minx. Especially with long-awaited honeymoon vacations in Ireland involved. I left a few days after I made my last post and returned about a week ago- 4 days of that spent dragging myself through jetlag and attempting to convince my body that we are in Tennessee now, not Ireland. A hard-won victory. And a bitter one at that because it means I am no longer in Ireland. Not that there's anything wrong with Tennessee, I love living in Nashville. It just isn't Ireland, savvy?So this weekend was the first attempt in almost a month to get back in the writing rhythm. So…
D'oh!

Sara M. Harvey

18 Sep 2009 | 11:58 am

Oh, neglected blog is neglected.Let's see, since spewing my venom about Old Navy, they gave me my discount and a $20 gift cert. I see more shopping in my future. ^_^Plus, a shiny apology from a manager over their credit division.At school, midterms rolled into registration into finals and I am ded.Thusly, little work has been done on Music City.I am currently sitting at Crema, my coffeeshop of choice, staring out the front window from my favorite seat, watching clouds and traffic and trying to clear my mind enough to work on something. Had a busier morning than intended with much dog-drama-…
My email to Old Navy

Sara M. Harvey

2 Sep 2009 | 1:20 pm

Dear Sir or Madam,I am writing in concern to the service I receiving calling the Old Navy card customer service line. I understand that they are technically a separate organization run by GE Money, but they are still representing your company and doing a great disservice to you.I have a busy and ever-changing schedule and I missed a payment on my card. This has happened very few times in the last several years that I have had this store card. I usually pay off my balance in full as soon as I get the notice that it has posted to my account.On Monday, August 31 at 10:48am, I got a call from a…
Not always an adventure

Sara M. Harvey

15 Aug 2009 | 11:40 am

So, at last entry, I had just gotten back from carousing about the Music Row area, taking pictures, and generally being silly.Over the last two weeks I have been using those pictures as reference when describing the witch's recording studio and the surrounding buildings. I needed to check these places out for myself because sometimes, looking at pictures is just no substitute! Especially since no one seems to really know where "Music Row" really is.In addition to looking at all the pretty pictures I took, I also researched a lot about the O'Neill family. I found a great Geocities page that a…
A shiny new blog feature!

Sara M. Harvey

3 Aug 2009 | 9:32 pm

This poor neglected blog!But I had an idea. Many people love to ask me about my ideas and how I work and etc. So I thought I might use this as a place to sort of live-blog writing my newest novel, the working title of which is "Music City."So let's begin.I'll keep this part brief and to the point:June- around the middle of June, late one night, lying in bed- my husband and I are dozing off and chatting. We are talking about book ideas. He says, sleepily, "You know what would be cool?" And proceeds to give me the most awesome idea kernal I have had in ages. A banshee comes to Nashville looking…

Angeline Hawkes
Target Registry for Daniel Kiddo#3 and Pumpkin News

angelinehawkes

31 Oct 2009 | 10:30 am

Good news! Daniel's paperwork is making its way through the Korean immigration system now. Barring any unexpected complications, we're looking at a probable arrival date of anywhere from 4 weeks to the end of December. The way things have been moving, we're hoping for somewhere around Thanksgiving! Many people have asked so, since his impending arrival now seems like it's ACTUALLY GOING TO HAPPEN instead of the waiting waiting waiting, I broke down and did a gift registry at TARGET.com. I'm assuming it shows up at the actual brick and mortar stores too. I haven't registered at…
Nostradamus' Fate & other Dark Prophecies anthology Announcement

angelinehawkes

11 Oct 2009 | 5:40 pm

It's coming! My horror story, "Virgin of the Sun" will appear along with the other fabulous writers mentioned in the new Dark Regions Press anthology, Nostradamus' Fate and Other Dark Prophecies.Stay posted for release date and information.
It's Almost Halloween...hey! Where's your copy of Shades of Blood & Shadow??

angelinehawkes

11 Oct 2009 | 9:04 am

It's almost Halloween....everyone needs a bit of fright on Halloween night! Shades of Blood and Shadow is just waiting to fill that void! Paperback's on Amazon. Hardback from the publisher. And, while I'm talking with you...in our adoption news, the next stage of the game we were waiting on, is now past. We received our I-600 application approval this week and are also logged into the National Visa Center! I'm hoping for more good news this week! Now we're waiting on the Korean Emigration Permit and to be logged out of the National Visa Center.Send those prayers and good thoughts and…
Shades of Blood and Shadow paperback and Other News

angelinehawkes

4 Oct 2009 | 1:12 pm

Okay all of my crazed and fabulous readers! The paperback version of Shades of Blood and Shadow is now available on Amazon! It begins shipping very soon! Fabulous illustrations by the talented Tom Moran and 13 delicious tales of terror to tickle your fancy! JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN and Samhain! Here's the backcover copy: The palette of history and horror mingle in the hues of crimson blood and blackest death. The ghosts of the past mourn for lives unfinished, vengeance unfulfilled, and loves lost. The heart beats in a cacophony of anticipation and fear, echoing…
FenCon Schedule and Other Such Updates

angelinehawkes

15 Sep 2009 | 9:33 am

This weekend is once again time for that most fabulous of all conventions, FENCON!! Here's my panel schedule:Friday 6:00 pm Addison Lecture Hall Love me, love my neck! Description: What is behind the Renaissance of the Vampire? From Novels, to TV & the Movies. Some said it was a fad, but it's still going... ___________________________ Saturday 12:00 noon Trinity 1/2 Meat And Blood Description: From Zombies and Vampires, people's fascination with the taboo diet in film and print. You might think twice before bringing your lunch with you to this one...

David Herter
Reviews and Reactions to October Dark

David Herter

26 Oct 2009 | 6:24 pm

Highlights of the first wave. . ."Ambitious in scope and execution, October Dark is a love letter to Bradbury, Star Wars, Halloween, and the special effects masters of the cinema, most prominently Ray Harryhausen and Willis O'Brien, the latter a character in the story. Herter mixes fact, fiction, and fantasy seamlessly, and it's often difficult to separate the three. (I was fooled in many instances. For example, don't go searching for certain titles or you'll be greatly disappointed.) The more you know about the life and work of folks like O'Brien and Bradbury, the more enjoyment you'll get…
News and Interviews

David Herter

25 Oct 2009 | 8:35 am

October Dark continues through post-production. Though it's already been distributed to twenty venues for review, via a slickly-produced ARC, the ms. hasn't been officially copy edited until now. While waiting for the results, I've been busy with discrete trimming and tightening (though in a couple instances, rather extensive final revision), and of course vetting the filmic details in the manuscript. OD is set to emerge sometime between Halloween and Christmas, appropriate since the book begins on Halloween and ends on Christmas. Meanwhile, I've received the amazingly cool introduction to…
From Brian Stableford's introduction to One Who Disappeared

David Herter

13 Oct 2009 | 7:44 pm

"One Who Disappeared is the third volume of a trilogy, which began with On the Overgrown Path and continued in The Luminous Depths. There are, of course, numerous ways to concoct a trilogy; many are merely three-decker novels, others follow the N-shaped trajectory favored by script-writing theorists, in which a set-up phase is followed by a phase in which everything goes wrong, in order that the concluding phase can take the form of a soaring ascent. The most ambitious and most appropriate way to plan and build a trilogy, however, is the inverted pyramid."The inverted pyramid begins with a…
First Review of October Dark

David Herter

10 Oct 2009 | 2:40 pm

From Library Journal. . . Herter, David. October Dark Earthling. Dec. 2009. c.560p. ISBN 978-0-9795054-7-8 $50This book has a distinctive premise. So-called movie magic is real, the special effects masters are its practitioners, and it’s the only thing protecting the world from unspeakable evil. The novel tracks back and forth between Halloween 1931 and that of 1977. For movie buffs, that year could only mean Star Wars, and the film plays a major role here. Amateur filmmakers Will Travers, 13, and his best friend, Jim, capture something on a roll of Super-8. Their search for answers leads…
A Terror-ific Offer

David Herter

8 Sep 2009 | 8:44 am

October Dark — being a Halloween book — deserves a trick or a treat to mark the publication. I'm not quite sure which this one is. But here goes.To anyone nice enough to purchase a copy, I and Earthling Publications — upon request — will include an insanely scribbled-up manuscript page from October Dark. Marvel at the illegible scrawl. Compare your page to what's in the book (or have fun trying). Puzzle out that sentence curving along the corner of the paper. And what the hell did Herter mean by these arrows and stars and circles? Is that a grocery list on the bottom margin? What's…

Jim Hetley
Blustery day

6 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am

Oh, bother.Gray again, temperature 38 F, wind 15 MPH gusting to near 30. Naturally, went for a neighborhood walk. Crows and gulls flying sideways. Also the Life Flight helicopter doing a little sideways jig on takeoff from the hospital -- bet the pilot offered a few choice words . . .
"Dragon's Bones" exists!

6 Nov 2009 | 8:37 am

(Don't all hit the website at once -- wouldn't want to bring down the internet . . .)www.srmpublisher.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.aspYou can now add the latest installment of the Stonefort Stories to your collection!
Meanwhile, back at the sandbox . . .

6 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am

About half of the Maine National Guard will be deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. For the second time:www.sunjournal.com/node/432348/Weekend warriors . . ."Never get involved in a land war in Asia."
The swine flu is coming! The swine flu is coming! To arms!

6 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am

Except the arms can't get the vaccine . . .H1N1 now reported from all Maine counties:www.bangordailynews.com/detail/128391.html
Dusting

6 Nov 2009 | 5:23 am

Maybe a quarter of an inch of messy snow on the cars, less on the grass, few slippery spots on the pavement. Temperature 31 F for the newspaper walk.Sun coming out now.EDIT:Other areas (rolanni and kinzel , to be specific) report 5" of wet sticky white.

Jim C. Hines
Friday Updates

Jim C. Hines

6 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

• As insane as this week has been at work, it’s been a very good writing week. I just found out that my German publisher is picking up both Mermaid’s Madness and Red Hood’s Revenge. Excellent! • Also exciting, Red Hood’s Revenge is up for pre-order on Amazon! I’m told it’s been there for a few weeks, which shows how distracted I’ve been. Normally my obsessive surfing habits would have uncovered that much more quickly. • Neil Gaiman has given me permission to make T-shirts of my 20 Neil Gaiman Facts. All that remains is to decide…
The Enchantment Emporium, by Tanya Huff

Jim C. Hines

5 Nov 2009 | 6:50 am

Happy news!!! The Mermaid’s Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] was the #1 paperback bestseller at both Mysterious Galaxy and Uncle Hugo’s–two wonderful and well-known SF/F bookstores–for the month of October! I just finished reading The Enchantment Emporium [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] the latest novel by Tanya Huff. I consider myself a pretty big fan of Huff’s work. She was doing awesome urban vampires when Stephenie Meyer was still learning to type. I love her Keeper series, her military SF … yeah, I’m a fan. In many ways, The Enchantment…
Annual Roundup of Humorous SF/F

Jim C. Hines

4 Nov 2009 | 5:31 am

October kicked my ass, but man, what a ride. The Mermaid’s Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] came out at the start of the month. I did my first-ever guest of honor stint at Icon. There were signings and readings. I also did a final revision on Red Hood’s Revenge, which I turned in on Sunday (woo hoo!) I’m probably going to be playing catch-up for a while longer, but wanted to talk about one of the panel discussions we had at Icon, about humor in science fiction and fantasy. I’ve thought about this a fair amount, having published a number of rather silly stories…
Deadline Crunch

Jim C. Hines

30 Oct 2009 | 6:19 pm

Red Hood’s Revenge is not done yet. Red Hood’s Revenge needs to be done. Ergo, I will be unplugging (mostly) until this sucker is turned in. I probably should have done this a few days ago, but ah well. Have a great Halloween, all. In the spirit of the holiday, have a haunted house, courtesy of Starwarsboy5. Click the pic for the full set, as usual. Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
Moderation Policy

Jim C. Hines

29 Oct 2009 | 4:20 pm

Apparently it's time to clarify the moderation policy here.Some of the things I post about can be touchy, whether it's sexual assault or copyright debates.I don't expect everyone to agree with me or with each other. I do expect that sometimes people will get angry, and that discussion can become rather passionate.I also expect people to treat one another with some respect.When that respect is gone, and when people are no longer listening but just calling each other bitches or assholes, and generally just trying to prove mine's bigger than yours is, I tend to…

M.K. Hobson
Vandermeer reading in PDX on Friday

M.K. Hobson

4 Nov 2009 | 4:01 pm

So Jeff Vandermeer is reading/signing with Cat Rambo, Jeff Johnson and Jay Lake at the Press Club (2621 SE Clinton) this Friday. The readings start around 5:30 p.m., according to Underland Press publisher Victoria Blake, and there will be a party with DJ after. I’m going to be there, any other PDXers going as well? Sounds like a good time. Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.
My Hallowe’en Costume

M.K. Hobson

3 Nov 2009 | 1:49 pm

Yes, the photos are starting to roll in now. Here’s a couple from Matt Kressel, publisher of the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology “Paper Cities”: Yes, that is a bustle. Yes, I did sew it all myself. No, I don’t know why I look so exasperated in the second shot. And yes, I did swan around like that all night, fan and lips a-flappin’. I don’t get dressed up all that often, but when I do, I’m insufferable. Thanks to everyone who indulged me with good humor (said good humor being exemplified by N.K. Jemison in picture #1) Matt’s posted a ton…
Twitter: 2009-11-02

M.K. Hobson

2 Nov 2009 | 11:04 pm

Almost to PDX!! And I got SO MUCH writing done, despite having Jim Fiscus over my shoulder the whole time # Home! And I seem to have brought the California weather back with me! # Powered by Twitter Tools Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.
Congrats to World Fantasy Award winners!

M.K. Hobson

2 Nov 2009 | 8:54 pm

I twittered a congratulations to Ekaterina Sedia on her World Fantasy Award for “Paper Cities”, but I also want to send a special shout out to winner Richard Bowes, who won for his story “If Angels Fight”, which originally appeared in F&SF. As you can see from the picture on the right (where we share an intimate moment tete-a-tete) Rick and I are like *that*. (Seriously, though. Congratulations, Mr. Bowes, and to all the winners!) A more full con report will follow, hopefully with photos (if I can collect them.) I am simply too fashed at the moment, and too busy…
Twitter: 2009-11-01

M.K. Hobson

1 Nov 2009 | 11:06 pm

Hey, I scored a spare ticket to the WFC banquet! Catch me, swingin' from the higher vines. # Congrats to all WF Award winners, especially Ekaterina Sedia for Paper Cities!! Yay!! # Waiting to catch the train home. There will be much writing. WFC has inspired me! # Powered by Twitter Tools Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.

Charlie Huston
Best Reader Email Ever?

Charlie Huston

19 Oct 2009 | 9:57 am

You decide… “…the joe pit books are like lord of the rings for people who like seriously fucked up shit.” Thanks, Brian G.
This Place Doesn’t Fit in My Ass

Charlie Huston

15 Oct 2009 | 11:47 am

Despite not fitting in my ass, this website is still deeply embedded there. And I don’t have too many ideas about how to get it out. When you get a lightbulb stuck in your ass and you go to the emergency room, legend has it they insert a suction cup dart from a kid’s gun into your ass, stick it to the (hopefully) intact lightbulb, and gently withdraw. There may be muscle relaxants involved. I wouldn’t know. There may be a similar procedure for getting a website from your ass, but I can’t find it on Google. I’m trying, folks, I’m really trying, but I’m…
Doing Hard Things

Charlie Huston

15 Oct 2009 | 11:15 am

Oh, hey, I had a new book come out on Tuesday, The fifth and final Joe Pitt casebook, MY DEAD BODY. I can’t honestly say it slipped my mind, but it did fall down the priority list of things to think about. Which is just plain weird. Spend about five years of your life writing a long story in five volumes and then kind of not have time to reflect on the publication of the last volume and you’ll feel how weird it is. And I’m still not reflecting. I expect this is going to be one of those delayed reaction things. I’ll be doing something else, or just sitting and enjoying…
Appearances Update 10/12/09

Charlie Huston

12 Oct 2009 | 11:51 am

Here’s what’s currently on deck. October 18th.MY DEAD BODY The release party. We have a venue change from the last few release parties. Dave and David of Secret Headquarters are mad bastards and have opened a record store. And when I say “record store,” I’m not just revealing myself as a fusty old man who refuses to say CD store. I mean they opened a fucking record store. So, in the spirit of selling dead media, we’re having the party there. Vacation Vinyl 4679 Hollywood Boulevard LA, CA 90027 323-666-2111 What Will Happen: At 7:00pm I’ll read very…
Snagged by Edges

Charlie Huston

16 Sep 2009 | 11:36 am

Getting stuck sucks. I’m not talking writer’s block here. When I imagine writer’s block, I have visions of a vast balloon inflated in the middle of my brain, squeezing all thoughts against the inner surface of my skull until they are flat, two dimensional and useless. I’ve never been hit with anything like that. (NOTE: yes, that is the sound of me knocking wood in the background.) But getting stuck is another matter. I get stuck on little things, tiny things, inconsequential things that I should not be stuck on, hook me and keep me frozen. That whole dialogue thing I…

Paul Hutchinson
in which i go aht west

hutch0

6 Nov 2009 | 5:42 pm

I don't get out to West London for work very often. Partly because it's a drag to get there and back from the office, and partly because there isn't very much `there' there. I did recently do a piece for the London Diary about the fiftieth birthday of the Chiswick Flyover, but I cobbled it together from published sources and what I've seen from the car. You'd be surprised at how much journalism is done by remote control these days. The one place in West London I seem to go to quite a lot is the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, mainly because half the office seems to be on their mailing list and…
kuron

hutch0

1 Nov 2009 | 9:57 am

I just want to say many thanks to everyone for their best wishes; it really is very kind of you all. Things have been quite strange here since last weekend. He'd been with us for the best part of ten years, and I keep expecting to hear him howling for something or other, or find him sitting on the bed in the morning. It's still hard to say how Dougal and Kasia are taking it. Kuron and Dougal came to us together - they were presents bought for the daughter of one of Bogna's co-workers by her boyfriend, and when the couple split up the kittens went home with her. Her father didn't like cats at…
lionel davidson

hutch0

1 Nov 2009 | 9:21 am

Most of you will probably never have heard of Lionel Davidson, who died a few days ago aged 87, and that's a shame, because he was an absolutely cracking writer. His last novel, Kolymsky Heights, is far and away one of the best thrillers I've ever read. It seems to me that, though his fans and the critics were well-aware of his considerable strengths as a writer, he never received the success and public acclaim he deserved. But he was very, very, very good.
another dispatch from the islands of lost feet

hutch0

1 Nov 2009 | 9:15 am

After quite a while without any activity, it seems that things are jumping again on the Sneaker Coast, with another disarticulated foot being found in a sneaker on a beach in British Columbia. This makes seven, one of which has been identified and four of which have been matched up into two pairs. The Telegraph covered this most recent discovery, and miscounted, saying the latest foot is the eighth. It seems, though, that this is not over yet.
rotten boroughs

hutch0

1 Nov 2009 | 9:07 am

I'd like you to imagine for a moment, if you will, that you work for a company that makes left-handed blivets. It's a big company and you've been there quite a while and you've risen to management level.You've been scrupulously careful with your taxes all the time you've been with BlivetCorp. You've stayed within the rules the whole time. Of course, you're allowed to claim various business expenses against tax, but when you've done that you've always checked first with the company accountant and, if necessary, with HM Revenue & Customs. You did that when you bought your new three-piece suite.

Alexander Irvine
My Public School Gay Sex Indoctrination

Alex Irvine

4 Nov 2009 | 8:28 am

One of the primary reasons given for their opposition to marriage equality by the 53% of the Maine electorate who voted yes on Question 1 yesterday was the boogeyman of gay marriage being taught in school as part of a larger effort on the part of those conniving 'mos to indoctrinate our innocent offspring. This is of course despicable fearmongering, but it also got me thinking about an event that took place waaayyy back in the misty fall of 1981, when even Liberace was still pretending to be straight. I was in my 8th-grade algebra class at West Middle School in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where…
Txtmsgsp33k and 50s Poetry

Alex Irvine

3 Nov 2009 | 9:08 am

See, what I'm wondering is how come people are reinventing the language for the channels of SMS and Twitter when all you need to do is look at the correspondence between, say, Olson and Creeley to note that a perfect shorthand was already there? I will always prefer 'yr' to 'ur.' Just saying.
This and That, with Extra Ultraman

Alex Irvine

15 Oct 2009 | 7:15 pm

These are some interesting things I saw today between teaching and working on final revisions on the novelization of Iron Man 2.In the LA Times' Hero Complex blog, Tim Powers talks about the optioning of On Stranger Tides for use in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie.A biologist has found a way to put small animals in a sort of suspended animation by poisoning them.If you're in New York City tomorrow, you can go see naked girls reading banned books.And Japan's recently ex-premier Koizumi has reaped the most excellent benefit a former officeholder could imagine: a prime voiceover role in…
New Archive for Old Sci Fiction

Alex Irvine

2 Oct 2009 | 4:47 pm

I saw someone tweeting about this and now cannot remember who, but the upshot is that Sci Fiction, the most excellent online original (and classic reprint) fiction venue edited by the most excellent Ellen Datlow from 2000-2005, is now archived here. This means that you can again find all kinds of outstanding short fiction that has been sadly absent for a while. (Or at least I had a hard time tracking it down.)Among those stories are two of my own, "Volunteers" and "Jimmy Guang's House of Gladmech." And if that doesn't satisfy your appetite for free online Irvine short fiction, you can find…
Tough Choice

Alex Irvine

2 Oct 2009 | 9:40 am

The National Book Foundation wants you to vote on the best work of National Book Award-winning fiction. Quite a slate, with the following authors having made the final ballot:Only two of the finalists are novels, interestingly, so you're either voting for a career or a single work depending on which author you choose. This would cause a problem for me if I was under any illusion that my vote would make a difference...although I'm still going to vote on the off chance that I win some tix to the NBA banquet.

Ben Jeapes
22 not out

Ben

3 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

Twenty two years ago today, 3 November 1987 (a Tuesday), I started my first real job. As I'm now 44 that means I have been working for half my life. (This ignores the fact that I was then 22.75, give or take, so the second half will be completed when I'm 45.5, next August.)I knew I wanted to get into publishing in some way, even though I didn't know much about it. I knew that adverts with bold headings like "BREAK INTO PUBLISHING!" were actually aimed at getting cold calling fodder in to work on business directories, so they were to be avoided, as was anything to do with Foyles (its act has…
News of the screws

Ben

2 Nov 2009 | 1:52 pm

The door of a kitchen cupboard came away in Best Beloved's hand. Diagnosis was easy, the cure even easier. The two screws that hold it to the top hinge had worked loose and didn't grip the wood. They just went round and round and round. It wasn't hard to find two similar screws in the jam jar full of loose screws left over from this job and that: similar but longer, so they do actually dig into the wood but not so long that they go all the way through.Job done.Yet now I find myself thinking of that jam jar. I have never consciously cultivated a screw collection, but there the jar is, full of…
The Mole had been working very hard all the morning ...

Ben

30 Oct 2009 | 6:12 am

I have a case of seborrheic keratosis. Before you exclaim "you filthy beast!" or "serves you right", it's another way of saying what looks like a mole suddenly appeared one day, but it's all right, the condition is benign and temporary. It's also part of growing old, which sadly isn't temporary and invariably fatal, but that's the long-term prognosis.I discovered the mole simply by scratching my abdomen one day and there it was, with a slight drop of blood where my nail caught it. "It's been traumatised," said the doctor examining it. Well, I'm sorry but how did it think I felt? And I refuse…
No one but the pure in heart can find google.co.uk

Ben

28 Oct 2009 | 2:00 pm

Or, for the benefit of the search engines, "How to change the default search engine in Firefox".Have you ever known someone reasonably well, got on okay, even ventured beyond that into a rewarding friendship ... but every now and then you find a hangup in their lives that just defies all rational explanation?Like convincing Firefox that you'd like it to use Google.co.uk as a search engine rather than Google.com. So easy, surely? And not likely to be a rare requirement: so, something Mozilla would have slipped in right up front. They are friendly and cuddly and not Microsoft so they love you…
For he himself has said it, and it's greatly to his credit

Ben

23 Oct 2009 | 4:45 am

I didn't watch Nick Griffin on Question Time but I'm relieved to get the general feeling, from those who did, that he didn't exactly emerge victorious. I'm still in two minds as to whether the whole thing should have gone ahead. Con: his odious ilk deserve no publicity or credibility, implied or other, whatsoever. Pro: no one ever became a fascist (or indeed communist) out of perversity: when people vote that way of their own volition it's in response to genuinely felt needs that the mainstream politicians are not addressing. Its not enough for the mainstreamers to dismiss these concerns as…

Trent Jamieson
A Link of Neatness

Trent Jamieson

5 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

Storms have raced through Brisbane. We missed the worst of them here, though the lightning was spectacular.I've had a slowish day writing wise. Just a bit under six hundred words, but they were important words. I'm glad I took it easy, I'm actually quite anxious to hit the novel tomorrow. I've that deep desire to push ahead and take my characters with me, which I certainly didn't have today - though I now have a relatively clean fishpond, and a replacement pump for the one that died*. So, hey, the fish are winners and I'm hungry to write.Talking of writing there's a fab interview with Angela…
Oh, and I'll also be doing this

Trent Jamieson

1 Nov 2009 | 5:57 am

Digital Pizza7-9pm Tuesday 3 November - A cross-platform Writing Race with beginner, emerging and published authors. Held simultaneously at QWC and AWMonline, come on your own or grab your writing buddy, and join in this fun and productive casual writing group to boost your NaNoWriMo word count or just get your Write On for 2009!Special guests: Writing Race Captain Kim Wilkins, online Captain Trent JamiesonTo get involved in Digital Pizza at QWC, call to book on 07 3839 1243(cost: $10 on the door, towards pizza and goodies).
Wake up, Trent!

Trent Jamieson

1 Nov 2009 | 5:28 am

It's been a while since I've updated this blogs details. I mean, I didn't even have a link to Orbit in my linkage section, nor a reference to the Death Works books in my bio. Now that's just not on, I mean, talk about shooting yourself in the foot!So, just in case you don't know. I have novels coming out in the next eighteen months. Three of them. They're about Death. Death in Australia. They're fast, they're funny, and people die in them. Lots of people. You can't write about Death, and not have death - well, you could I suppose, actually that would be a story in itself. They also contain;…
Reviews

Trent Jamieson

1 Nov 2009 | 4:49 am

I've had a couple of stories out of late, which is nice because with the novels coming out next year I've not had a lot of time (well, no time) to write short stories. So my story in Aurealis and my novella in X6 are about the only fiction of mine that is likely to see the light of day until late 2010 - that said, I do have a few shorts on the backburner and they may get some work done on them after I finish book two this month, or I may just collapse in one corner of my study and stare blankly into space for a month.Both stories have gotten some nice reviews over at Not if You Were the Last…
Tomorrow

Trent Jamieson

27 Oct 2009 | 6:06 am

is a big day. The death march for Death Most Demanding's structural edits. I know it's as good as I can get it, but there's always that desire to do a little more (Tempered by the feeling that every sentence is clunky and every character's motivations suspect) and fear that I haven't done enough - or, conversely too much.I'm itching to get Managing Death finished. I love my protag. Steven de Selby is fun to write, but you can spend too much time in a single character's head, and I've spent most of 2009 in Steven's head (or he's spent it in mine). I worry about him a lot. He's not a hero in…

Vylar Kaftan
Google logo

Vylar

5 Nov 2009 | 2:50 pm

Today’s Google logo makes me very happy.
Letter to the San Jose police

Vylar

3 Nov 2009 | 1:25 pm

Over the weekend, a young woman was raped either in or near the San Jose Fairmont Hotel. I’m fairly certain she wasn’t associated with the con. I saw the police officers handling the case, and I felt they treated the victim poorly. I wrote a letter to the police department and the mayor’s office, and here’s what I said. If they write back, I will post a follow-up. Dear Chief Davis and Mayor Reed: I’m a Bay Area resident who visited San Jose last weekend. I’m writing because I was appalled by a police/victim interaction I witnessed in your city. On the…
Mystery solved

Vylar

27 Oct 2009 | 6:49 pm

I found out what happened with the dead guy in the carport. One of the tenants actually knew him; he was their best friend’s brother. Possibly he was at one of the many parties which happen in this complex at strange times. As I’d guessed, he died of an overdose — a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol. He was 23 years old.
Car colors

Vylar

25 Oct 2009 | 1:08 pm

Dear internet, I’ve noticed something odd. Cars used to come in many colors. Red, blue, green, black, white, silver, gold, and so on. Cars still come in lots of colors, but the frequency has changed. I’ve been paying attention here in the Bay Area, ever since Shannon and I went car shopping in January. And this is weird. Fully 40% of the cars around here are silver–yes, almost half. And another 30% are neutral–mostly white, a few black, and a handful of brown-gold. Meaning that 70% of the cars around here are neutral-colored. And that’s not even counting the…
And now we sing!

Vylar

23 Oct 2009 | 7:33 pm

I’m at the Pizza Hut. (what?) I’m at the Taco Bell. (what?) I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

Nicholas Kaufmann
Never Before Has a Missing "N" Been So Badly Missed

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

6 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

From an ad for "The Chainsaw Sally Show" in the October issue of Rue Morgue Magazine:Proofreading: It's not just for fun.
Flashback Thursday

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

5 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm

Another oldie but goodie, and timely too! I didn't hear this one until I was in college, even though it came out in 1985.Well, I live with snakes and lizards And other things that go bump in the night 'Cuz to me everyday is Halloween I have given up hiding and started to fight I have started to fight Well, any time, any place, anywhere that I go All the people seem to stop and stare They say "Why are you dressed like it's Halloween? You look so absurd, you look so obscene"Oh, why can't I live a life for me? Why should I take the abuse that's served? Why can't they see they're just like…
I Guess Some Families Are More "Needed" Than Others

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

5 Nov 2009 | 11:59 am

Another glorious sign fail spotted in the wilds of New York City!I pity the poor families that are less needed. Where will they get their "can" goods? Perhaps they are hidden in the invisible space between "In Need!" and "Thank You" or locked away in one of the missing periods.All I know is, all my questions will now end with an exclamation point. I think that sounds great, don't you!
V

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

4 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pm

Like many pilot episodes, last night's premiere of V featured exaggerated character traits, clunky dialogue, and emotions that were slightly too big for their contexts. It also featured a heck of a lot of potential, though, and in time these "pilot errors," as I'm starting to think of them, will probably get evened out, as they often do in subsequent episodes of TV programs. So it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.I have fond, if vague, memories of the original V that aired in 1983. I was 14 at the time, so I don't remember much about it except that I had a mild crush on the female…
The Abominable Dr. Phibes vs. Theater of Blood

International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

4 Nov 2009 | 8:01 am

The horror-comedy The Abominable Dr. Phibes was on Turner Classic Movies on Halloween. I recorded it on DVR and watched it Monday night. Then, last night, a bunch of us--me, my girlfriend, awv2006, jwirenius and some other friends--went to the Film Forum in lower Manhattan to see the horror-comedy Theater of Blood. Watching both films back to back like that, it quickly occurred to me that they're actually exactly the same movie. The evidence:The PlotPhibes: Vincent Price stars as Dr. Phibes, a musician and theologist who is driven mad by the death of his wife and plots to kill the doctors who…

Caitlin Kiernan
Steinbeck on "the Common Touch"

greygirlbeast

6 Nov 2009 | 4:26 pm

Someone's comment to this morning's entry, and my response to it, made me track down this quote again:What is the common touch that it is supposed to be so goddamned desirable? The common touch is usually an inept, stupid, clumsy, unintelligent touch. It is only the uncommon touch that amounts to a damn. (John Steinbeck, 1949)
Notes from my Bubble (5)

greygirlbeast

6 Nov 2009 | 8:24 am

A sunny, cold day here in Providence. I want nothing more than to go back to bed and read House of Leaves (it's sort of become my November book). Yesterday there were clouds.It was the sort of day that swallows light, permitting nothing but a pervasive grey. You turn on lamps to try to brighten a room, and the light is immediately diluted and lost, canceled out by the grey.There's nothing to report, so far as yesterday is concerned. We're on the sixth day of the month already, and I've been unable to get the proposal for the Next New Novel written or even make a good beginning on a piece for…
"The Belated Burial," Shaharrazad and Kalií, Second Best Rocks, and Arcana

greygirlbeast

4 Nov 2009 | 10:54 am

Four very cool things:1) My latest "yellow house" story, "The Belated Burial," is now online at Subterranean Magazine.2) My interview with WoW.com is also now online. I'm very pleased with the screencaps. It's official. I am an uber-nerd.3) On Monday, Amazon.com published their Top Ten List of F&SF Books from 2009. Cat Valente's Palimpsest took the number one slot, but I was very, very happy with landing the second place slot with The Red Tree. Also, two anthologies that made the list include my fiction, Peter Straub's American Fantastic Tales ("The Long Hall on the Top Floor"), at fourth…
"...and I can see that it's a lie."

greygirlbeast

2 Nov 2009 | 8:18 am

I have often said that I write too much. Of course, what I really mean is that I have to write too much, in order to be paid enough for everything I write in order to keep the bills paid. But, in some sense, the why of it is irrelevant. Drop the explanation and stick to the fact: I write too much. And sometimes I am made acutely aware of how much too much I write.Yesterday, for example, smallpinkfish asked about the provenance of the following passage, which comes from The Dry Salvages, which I wrote in 2003, and which was published in 2004:"’And still’” she said, “’we do not see…
"We're just a million little gods causing rainstorms, turning every good thing to rust."

greygirlbeast

1 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

And here it is November, again.Much to my surprise, Narragansett Beer has acknowledged The Red Tree. It's a weird, weird world. But weird is my friend.A quick note to Sirenia Digest subscribers. #47 should be going out to subscribers this evening, only a day late. So, watch your inboxes. And the skies. Always keep watching the skies.A strange weekend, and the strangeness really had nothing to do with Samhain or Halloween. I was so under the weather all week, and as Friday evening rolled around, I was feeling a bit better. Dusk found us at the Steel Yard, for the annual Iron Pour. But there…

Crawford Kilian
'Fakeosphere' latest Web trap for consumers

Crof

5 Nov 2009 | 12:12 pm

Via Jerz's Literacy Weblog: 'Fakeosphere' latest Web trap for consumers. Bogus blogs are now being used as advertising gimmicks.I've seen a few in Flublogia, where some sites are clearly trying to part visitors from their money in exchange for "cures" for H1N1 and other ailments.
The Fake AP Stylebook

Crof

5 Nov 2009 | 9:31 am

Anyone who writes for the online news media will welcome the Fake AP Stylebook (FakeAPStylebook) on Twitter. This may be the best collective translation effort since the committee that produced the King James Bible.Now we can await web text that rigorously follows the new style.
Happy birthday, Internet

Crof

29 Oct 2009 | 9:46 pm

Via the Globe and Mail: The Web at 40: How the world got wired. Excerpt:Oct. 29, 1969, 10:30 p.m., Pacific Time The Internet is born ... and promptly crashes. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency were trying to figure out a way to combine physically distant computers into one virtual network. Exactly 40 years ago today, the first such network - called Arpanet - was established between machines at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Stanford Research Institute. The first message transmitted was supposed to be the word…
How not to write for the web

Crof

21 Oct 2009 | 8:54 pm

I have a Google Alert for "writing for the web," and it's turned up a depressing number of trivial tips ("Keep it simple"). But this evening Google has brought me this item from a site called Writing Tips: Web Writing – A Succedaneum to the Usual Terms of Living. It's clearly an attempt at irony, but irony works poorly in webwriting. Excerpt, followed by comments:An efficient way to lend support to the inflow of cash in your quotidian life can be attributed to the concepts of web writing. Millions of websites are available at your fingertips to provide a…
Worst government website in the world?

Crof

20 Oct 2009 | 4:41 pm

At my flu blog H5N1, I link to a lot of government health websites, but I spare my visitors the shock of the Indian government's Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.At first glance you might think it was a relic of the 1990s, last updated perhaps in 1997. But it's up to date, more or less, with a crawling banner about swine flu that will take you to a site that looks completely different--and is not quite as up to date as it should be. Click on links to other sites, and you wouldn't know they were all part of one ministry.Given that India has a flourishing high-tech…

Kevin Killiany
The Republican war against America

kvaadk

6 Nov 2009 | 11:45 am

Okay, yesterday was a new low. What had been the radical right fringe of the Republican Party was embraced by the party's leadership. Racism is now an official plank of the Republican platform. Yes, this is a rant. Last week Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann announced on Fox News that she was organizing a protest rally against fair, equitable, and cost-effective healthcare. The insurance industry propaganda agency "Americans for Prosperity" filled 25 to 29 (depending on news source) busses with paid protestors and the whites defense organization FreedomWorks reportedly supplied up to 15 more…
the plot was not meant to involve tme travel

kvaadk

6 Nov 2009 | 10:24 am

In working on my current Lex Atreus e-book I wanted to be sure I wasn't conflicting with an earlier work, so I reread "The Dragons of Despair." And discovered my story was unstuck in time. Y'see, each chapter begins with a date stamp and, well.... For unexplained reasons mid-novel it remains 23 October for three days in a row (despite the fact that dialog establishes a week has passed between 23 Octobers #2 and #3), then it becomes 24 October, then it jumps back to 19 October, then 23 October for another day before resuming normal chronology. Never mind me not noticing and the editor not…
KeVin's first ever T&A post

kvaadk

5 Nov 2009 | 6:05 am

It's a sneaker commercial. With T&A. Perhaps the single most exploitive non-beer ad I've ever seen.Is anyone else ticked off by this?
Social networking questions

kvaadk

3 Nov 2009 | 8:33 am

Stole this survey from popfiend1. What are your social networking tools?2. How and why did you end up using those networks?3. How do you use them?My answers:1) LJ and LinkedIn2) I came for the waters. ("Waters? There are no waters here. We are in the middle of the desert." \ "I was misinformed.")3) LinkedIn was supposed to be my professional networking tool. I've forgotten my password, but whenever I remember it, I'm sure I'll be professionally connected to lots of people in publishing or mental health (two mutually exclusive fields). LJ I read to keep up with my friends -- both real and…
Another bit of archeological fun

kvaadk

3 Nov 2009 | 6:37 am

The largest pyramid on earth, in Mirador.Love this stuff.

Mindy Klasky
Wishful Thinking Wrapup

Mindy Klasky

6 Nov 2009 | 2:53 pm

Remember that short story that I wrote, set in the same world of HOW NOT TO MAKE A WISH? The one that consists of 20 chapters, each chapter containing 500 words? The one that has cliff-hangers at the end of every chapter (until the last?) The one that introduces you to genies, and to the sometimes-troublesome way that they grant wishes?Well, all 20 chapters are now posted online. *You* can now go read them, straight through, without any annoying breaks for weekends, or for late postings, or any of those little online annoyances!Here's the…
November Website Update

Mindy Klasky

5 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am

Just a quick reminder - I've updated the website for November. As a practical matter for you, that means that you can:1. Enter this month's contest: http://www.mindyklasky.com/contest.html2. Send me your wish for inclusion on the site: http://www.mindyklasky.com/makeawish.html3. Read the first chapter of HOW NOT TO MAKE A WISH: http://www.mindyklasky.com/chapter_hownotto.html3. Reload the pages endless times, to see some of the incredible wishes that people have already sent me. Read them! Reload! …
Home, Sweet Home

Mindy Klasky

5 Nov 2009 | 8:43 am

Hello there! Remember me?I'm back from World Fantasy Convention, in San Jose. Everyone else has already posted their con reports, and I don't want to bore you by repeating the many wonderful things that others have said. Suffice to say:The ConCom was wonderfully organized, and I got all my information as I needed it (or well before that point in time.)I have enough reading material to last through the next millennium.I remembered much more about San Jose, from Worldcon, than I thought I did. Alas, the Borders bookstore that I remembered is no longer.This con was…
Scarcity - Past, Present, and Future

Mindy Klasky

27 Oct 2009 | 7:11 pm

Hey, folks! Sorry that I've been so scarce around here - I've been juggling a *ton* of writing deadlines, mostly of the freelancing variety (and one, self-imposed, of the Super Secret Project variety). It feels good to clear things off my plate, but I am totally beat - this is the most physically tired I've been from writing in a long, long time.I'll be scarce for another week - I'll be on the road.For those who will be at World Fantasy - I'll only be there on Saturday. I *know* that I'll be joining a group of people in the bar at 4:00 on Saturday afternoon, and I've got…
How Long Does It Take To Write A Book?

Mindy Klasky

22 Oct 2009 | 2:56 pm

On another list I frequent, authors are talking about how long it takes them to write a book. I remember clearly the day that I received my first offer. My agent said, "They want to know if you have a sequel (to THE GLASSWRIGHTS' APPRENTICE.) I told them you had two.""Er, great," I replied."They want to know when you can deliver the first sequel."::counting on fingers:: "Well, it took me three years to write APPRENTICE, but I learned a lot doing it. I think that I can write a sequel in, oh, about two…

E. E. Knight
Teaching today

E. E. Knight

5 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm

Started my "Writing the Genre Novel" class at the Off-Campus Writer's Workshop up in Winnetka. They have a great group up there in John Hughes country, though it looks like they draw from all over Chicago. Close to 40 people attended.I'm a bit sore-throated and shagged at the moment. I'm not used to talking for two hours (and those of you who know me know that while I don't mind doing presentations, it's not my comfort zone). I'll be doing this two more Thursdays but I'm looking forward to it. From what I've seen of the group's prose so far, they have some talented writers. They're also a…
Halloween parade

E. E. Knight

1 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

Well, we didn't go out trick or treating, the little guy is just too young, but we did walk in Oak Park's annual Halloween Parade for the first time. It's a nice event for the real little kids, and their parents. We walked up Oak Park Avenue to one of the shopping districts and the kids got to go in and out getting candy.I thought his carseat looked kind of like a cockpit.Chats in the parade. We were near the back.The gal just to the right of Chats is our friend Lynne.An opportunity shot of some Oak Park fall color as we left.
Baby's first costume!

E. E. Knight

31 Oct 2009 | 7:35 am

Like there'd be a doubt about how I'd dress him up. . .The Force is strong in this one...Stay on target! Stay on target!Easier that hitting Womp Rats in Beggar's Canyon!
My Windycon Schedule

E. E. Knight

30 Oct 2009 | 2:56 pm

I received my WindyCon schedule. It's just Saturday stuff (I'm looking forward to wearing my Steampunk costume, it's inspired, even if I do say so myself). Sunday I'm doing the traditional Windycon Writers Workshop, but that's a private thing.Saturday 12:00 noon-1:00 p.m. Junior Ballroom B: Roots of Steampunk Panelists discuss the masters of Victorian adventure literature such as Verne, Haggard, Wells, and their successors such as Burroughs. J. Blaylock, B. Dunbar, C. Garcia, E.E. KnightSaturday 1:00-2:00 p.m. Hallway: Autographings by P. Eisenstein, J.Helfers, E.E. Knight, J.L. NyeSaturday…
Mike, Kevin and Bill on Titanic

E. E. Knight

29 Oct 2009 | 1:10 pm

Everyone has guilty pleasures, and one of mine is Cameron's Titanic.I'm a bit of a Titanic buff, going back to an elementary school reading of Lord's A Night To Remember (thank you, forgotten Washington Elementary Librarian for recommending it to me when I asked for books about disasters like the Hindenburg). Cameron throws in lots of little hat tips to Titanic historians.On the rare occasions we watch it, I cry; Chats rolls her eyes. Which sounds weird, but should be no surprise to those of you who know us personally. But heck, I'd watch Kate Winslet pick her teeth with a Cosmo subscription…

Mary Robinette Kowal
Tired after WFC and puppetry

Mary Robinette Kowal

3 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am

The puppetry workshops went well today but wow, am I tired. I could fall asleep typing.
Scenting the Dark: outstanding debut short story collection from Mary Robinette Kowal, exploring our relationship to technology and each other – Boing Boing

Mary Robinette Kowal

2 Nov 2009 | 12:06 am

Cory Doctorow, at Boing Boing, has given my short story collection a seriously amazing review. Here’s the first paragraph. “Scenting the Dark,” Mary Robinette Kowal’s debut short story collection is slim and spare and eminently satisfying. Kowal writes science fiction that uses our relationship to technology to expose our relationships to one another. Kowal is one of science fiction’s most celebrated new writers, a winner of the Campbell Award for best new writer and a current Hugo nominee, all on the strength of her short fiction (she has two novels…
World Fantasy, last day

Mary Robinette Kowal

31 Oct 2009 | 11:55 pm

World Fantasy is one of my favorite conventions because of the high density of people that I know and like. Yes, there’s business, but mostly it’s wonderful to sit around and talk shop, or not, with people who get it. This one was a little different for me because SFWA had a presence here, so I was being all “official” as the Secretary. The only thing that it really changes is that I have one more hat to wear and, of course, that I had to take notes at the business meeting. I keep getting back to the room and feeling incapable of forming coherent sentences to describe…
Train to San Jose

Mary Robinette Kowal

28 Oct 2009 | 1:14 pm

I’m heading to the train station, where I will catch the train to San Jose for World Fantasy. I’m looking forward to the ride and having the quiet down time to just focus on writing and reading. I’m taking Tobias Buckell’s Ragamuffin for the trip.
Grants make my eyes cross

Mary Robinette Kowal

26 Oct 2009 | 10:53 pm

I spent today looking at support materials for a grants panel I’m sitting on tomorrow. In many ways, it’s like reading slush but generally better written. Or at least shorter. Tomorrow, I’ll spend locked in a room with other panelists talking through each submission which should be interesting. I’m sure there are going to be things that all of us likes and things that only one of us likes and the other folks think is insane. Makes me miss being on the Shimmer editorial board, it does. In cat news, Marlowe seems fine although we are still on the lookout for…

Nancy Kress
What Was I Doing?

6 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am

Two weeks ago Western Washington University released a study on "inattentional blindness," which means you don't see something because you're paying attention to something else. Specifically, they wanted to know how much talking on a cell phone "blinds" you to other sensory input. Test subjects were in one of four states: talking on a cell, walking in pairs, listening to music on an MP3, or just walking along without benefit of electronic or human companionship. The cell phone users were far more "blind" than the other subjects. Three-quarters of them failed to notice a clown on a unicycle…
Wolves

2 Nov 2009 | 6:04 am

Much SF is concerned with environmental issues, from dead oceans (e.g., TIMESCAPE) to calorie shortages (most of Paolo Bacigaluppi), to global warming. In the best of these books -- unlike most SF movies, which goes for simple disaster -- attention is paid to the need to balance the concerns of various forces. You can't change one part of the environmental equation without affecting other parts.A real-life version of this is playing out right now with regard to wolves in the West. Since their reintroduction into Yellowstone Park in 1995, wolves have multiplied to about 1600 in a three-state…
Patterns

29 Oct 2009 | 3:35 pm

Tuesday was my last class in this particular session of teaching at Hugo House, and an interesting question came up in class. One story, extremely well written, did not seem to come together at the end as a complete story. Or maybe it did. A few students said yes, a few said no, some waited to see what I would say.What I said was this: Different literary genres, as well as different readers, expect different degrees of pattern. All art imposes some pattern on life, or else you end up with something like Borges's story in which a man decides to make a map. He puts in so much detail that the…
MileHiCon, Day 3

26 Oct 2009 | 8:58 am

The final day of MileHiCon began in the con suite, which was having a kerfuffle with the hotel over serving hot food. But there were donuts and bagels and coffee and conversation. Barbara Hambly and I caught up on who is writing what. Her new book, HOMELAND, a mainstream Civil War novel, is just out. Here is Barbara, wishing she had a copy of the book to display:After breakfast, down to work. I did a curious program item called "An Hour With Nancy Kress." I'd been told that during this hour, previous guests of honor had sung, danced, done a magic demonstration, and generally proved…
MileHiCon -- Day 2

25 Oct 2009 | 7:04 am

Conventions are fun. They are also exhausting. I did three panels today, one of which was "The Nancy Kress" panel, during which I discovered how embarrassing it can be to sit there while four other people discuss your work and tell anecdotes about you. More comfortable was the "Writing as Craft" panel, when established writers gave advice to aspirants. Everybody loves to give advice.MileHiCon has all the usual con attractions, including an art show, kaffeeklatsches, dealers' room, con suite and people wandering the halls dressed as if attending gatherings in the past, future, or other…

Margo Lanagan
Long and thoughtful TM review

6 Nov 2009 | 11:13 pm

Over here.
No, no, NaNo

5 Nov 2009 | 12:03 am

Everyone in the world seems to be doing NaNoWriMo this year, and I'm enjoying the blog posts by participants and by sage advisors like Maureen Johnson and Justine Larbalestier.I'm not nano-ing, though. If NaNoWriMo had been August–September, I would have, but now I've got (count them!) 70,000 words of selkie goodness that require more in the way of poking, prodding, resculpting and spakfilling than they do whole extra arms of plot development.Which is what I've spent today doing. I wrote maybe 5 pages, but I covered some tens of pages of manuscript with tiny-tiny green corrections as well.
The Russian translation of 'mudwife'

4 Nov 2009 | 12:12 am

The Russian translator of Tender Morsels and I have been in conference—hi, Nadia! She wanted to know what a mudwife is:First I looked into every dictionary possible and searched the web all over, but then read half a dozen interviews with you as well as a number of articles on TM and other pieces ("The Goosle", in particular) and Muddy Annie's profile became quite clear. Still, I would like you to clarify this word a bit more. Could you please explain what's the difference between a mudwife and an ordinary witch? What is special about her? Must a mudwitch necessarily be old and muddy/dirty…
NZ capers to come

3 Nov 2009 | 11:56 pm

And then, upcoming in March, there's this! Joan London and Gil Adamson and I will be attending the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week, along with 19 international and 3 New Zealand writers, including, you know, Neil and Si and Richard and all my mates. We will wow Wellington.
How Boofle!

3 Nov 2009 | 11:45 pm

Then, this! Which arrived yesterday - 2 copies. I don't know what made me think it would be trade-paperback size. It's one of those neat small format hardbacks. A really nice production, with my 'A Dark Red Love-Knot' buried in the middle of it. Oh dear oh dear oh dear, not a happy story.

Justine Larbalestier
NaNo Tip no. 6: Emergency Unstucking Techniques

Justine

6 Nov 2009 | 12:27 pm

One of the most frequent complaints I’m hearing from those down the NaNoWriMo word mines is that they keep getting stuck. As it happens I have already written a post on how to get unstuck. It is rather lengthy, however, so here’s a quick and dirty version of what you should do when you get stuck: Dance. That’s right, get up from the computer, turn whatever music you like up loud, and shake it! Dance! Dance! Dance! Do it till you’re sweating. Then dance some more. Run around the block. For some of us dancing is just not our thing. But we can run. Or shoots some hoops.
Tour Almost Over + Gorgeous Art

Justine

4 Nov 2009 | 11:10 pm

Today (yesterday) I had my last school events of the Liar tour at Joliet West High School and Glenbard South High School in the outer suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The students at both schools were amazing and asked many smart, engaged, funny questions. It was a total pleasure to meet you all. Thank you. In other news Cristina Hernadez posted her midterm project for her painting class on her blog and I was so impressed I asked if I could share it with you here. Remember, Cristina? She’s the one who photoshopped a very disturbing version of Maureen Johnson’s Suite Scarlett.
NaNo Tip no. 4: Word Count is Not Everything

Justine

3 Nov 2009 | 9:49 pm

I know that NaNoWriMo is set up with a specific word count in mind. And word counts are, indeed, a useful way to keep track of you progress. However, do not get obsessed with them. The world will not end if you don’t meet your daily word count. Nor will it end if you don’t have 50,000 words at the end of November. I’m seeing too many people stressing out about word counts and beating up on themselves when they fall short of them. Cut yourself some slack! Here’s why: NaNoWriMo is meant to be a fun, companionable way to try your hand at novel writing. That means that…
Chicago Events

Justine

2 Nov 2009 | 9:06 pm

Don’t forget to look out for Scott’s NaNo tip today. And here’s where I’ll be in Chicago today and tomorrow: Tues, 3 November, 7:00PM B&N Skokie 55 Old Orchard Center  Skokie, IL Wednesday, 4 November, 7:00PM Anderson’s Bookshop 5112 Main St  Downers Grove, IL Same deal: if all who turn up have read Liar then I will tell you what really happens at the end. Hope to see some of you there!
NaNo Tip No. 2: The Zen of First (Zero) Drafts

Justine

2 Nov 2009 | 8:24 am

This is the most important tip of all: It’s only a first draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You know what that means? You can relax. A first draft can be bad. In fact, it will be bad. Don’t worry about it. Plow on. Don’t even think of it as a first draft. That’s too much pressure, not to mention insulting to first drafts, think of it as your zero draft. That’s what I do. I get a lot of people asking for tips for dealing with writer’s block. I don’t get writer’s block. But only because I’ve learned not to be bothered by writing…

Richard Larson
Madness!

Richard Larson

6 Nov 2009 | 9:30 am

From "The Madness of Art," by Joyce Carol Oates: Those of us (how many of us!) who have given our souls to the activity of writing are obviously engaged in a lifelong quest. Perhaps, though we experience ourselves as individuals, our art is communal, like our language and our histories. We write in order not just to be read, but to read -- texts not yet written, which only we can bring into being. Is this quest quixotic, perverse, or utterly natural? Normal? Do we have any choice? Henry James, one of our exemplary beings who understood the lure of the grotesque, the skull beneath…
Architecture and Evelyn Waugh

Richard Larson

4 Nov 2009 | 8:07 am

In Evelyn Waugh's Helena, when the titular character first explores the world outside of her kingdom, she does so with a learned enthusiasm for discovery; "so foreign, the gate to a new life, the starting point of the road ... to Rome, and whither beyond" (p. 44). But as her ambitious new hsuband, Constantius, explains to her the plans for a wall around the Roman empire, she realizes that the world outside is just more of the same. "Must there always be a wall?" she asks (p. 47), to which Constantius answers: "... I love the wall. Think of it,…
Review of House of Windows and Slights

Richard Larson

19 Oct 2009 | 2:05 pm

My review of John Langan's House of Windows and Kaaron Warren's Slights, two solid debut horror novels, is now up at Strange Horizons.
Writing New Things:

Richard Larson

16 Oct 2009 | 1:39 pm

When it became clear to me I might finish my first novel I was already thinking that I wanted my second one to be as different as possible from my first. Then I wanted my third to be as different as possible from my second. Mainly because— not because of ambition— I just didn't like the idea of always writing the same novel. There are authors I love who always write the same novel, like Ernest Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy. I mean they might not feel that way, Hemingway might have been like, what are you talking about? But from an aesthetic point of view, he was writing the same book…
Kakutani on Chronic City

Richard Larson

15 Oct 2009 | 7:42 am

From Michiko Kakutani's review of Jonathan Lethem's Chronic City:“The Fortress of Solitude” demonstrated that the gifted Mr. Lethem did not need to rely on the postmodernist pyrotechnics and cutesy special effects that had animated much of his earlier work, and that when he dispensed with these framing techniques, he could write vividly and movingly about regular people — about fathers and sons, about friends who grow apart, about people trying to grapple with the thorny issues of race and class and social change. Is this a jab at Lethem's earlier science fiction works? Is…

William Leisner
Counting blessings

1 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pm

Sometimes, even when the universe kicks you, it exercises some restraint.On Saturday, in an effort to avoid the apartment complex rugrats thumping up and down the halls knocking on doors, I decided I would head up to Half Price Books and see if there had been any cool additions to their stock since last week. Driving along on the highway, I notice something in the road ahead, that from a distance initially looked like a shallow pothole. Once I got close enough -- i.e. too close -- I realize that it's actually a hefty chunk of concrete. "Oh, I probably don't want to drive directly over that,"…
Poetry Spam Slam

29 Oct 2009 | 5:37 pm

This showed up in my email this afternoon. I have no idea what it means, or what it's trying to sell, but I still thought it needed to be shared. Dig it:Despotism was unknown, and even the chieftain, in the proper sense of the word, had no existence.Hello, i am Ursula ConnellyTry it for the well-beingYou have not yet seen my husband. Oh, you damned dandies. Deep, man. Deep.
Say Uncle V

12 Oct 2009 | 9:53 am

Welcome to the world, Kyle William, born this morning to my sister Teri and her husband Steve, their third child and first son.
Did I Fall Asleep? Yep, I Sure Did...

26 Sep 2009 | 9:10 am

I was one of those folks who, earlier this year, both looked forward to Joss Whedon's new SF series, and dreaded Fox's inevitable cancellation of the show before its time. Then I watched the first few episodes of Dollhouse, and wasn't particularly taken by it. But, I knew that the Fox suits, in their infinite wisdom, had dictated changes to the pilot and early episodes, and read online that after episode six, things would shift. So, I decided to stick it out. And while there were some interesting bits and pieces in those later episodes, they were just bits and pieces, not enough to overcome…
Ego-Boost

21 Sep 2009 | 7:19 pm

defcons_treklit has posted a new review of Losing the Peace at Unreality SF, and it's another good'un! Money quote:Overall, a strong novel and a good comeback for TNG-branded novels after the decidedly sub-par Greater Than the Sum. After A Less Perfect Union and Losing the Peace, I certainly look forward to more novels by William Leisner. Woo and hoo!

Edward M. Lerner
Trope-ing the light fantastic (Earths)

6 Nov 2009 | 9:28 am

That's Earths, plural. Obviously Earth itself exists and can hardly be a trope.But what about the many Earthlike planets in SF? (How often does the starship Enterprise encounter a solar system without an "M class" planet or moon?) Are Earthlike worlds realistic or a trope? Our native solar system has but one Earth, of course. Real-life searches for extrasolar planets best spot large, massive, and close-to-their-primary objects. The observational methods are not yet sensitive enough to spot Earthlike planets (see current list of extrasolar planets here). IIRC, the smallest…
Future shlock

3 Nov 2009 | 6:30 am

Today is Election Day in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Yup, we're one of the two states -- not, you will note, that we call ourselves a state -- with regularly scheduled statewide elections this year. (New Jersey is the second.) In theory that's so state elections go unaffected by national political tides. The Law of Unintended Consequences remaining in force, it really means the national political parties focus on these two states, making the electoral process here (a) a referendum on the national balance of political power and (b) a dry run for methods to be tried in the following…
Are we alone? How about now?

29 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pm

How does life emerge from lifelessness? How does intelligence emerge from totally instinctive life? Science's answer to both questions has been, "don't (yet) know."There's a business-school axiom, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." The scientific version is, in essence, "If you can't reproduce it, you don't understand it." Or, at least, you can't know that you understand it. And so, synthetic biologists want to move from describing what nature has offered to building organisms from scratch. When we can build cells totally from inanimate material (and assemble DNA, not…
Capclave

25 Oct 2009 | 2:27 pm

I spent much of last weekend at Capclave 2009. Capclave is the annual DC area SF con. I don't always make it, but this was my fifth time there. Like the dodo logo? That's the Capclave symbol, befitting their slogan, "Where reading is not extinct!"Capclave is a small, intimate con -- about 200 attendees in a typical year. It draws lots of local writers, including MAFIA.MAFIA? That's "Making Appearances Frequently In Analog." We're a wacky enough bunch even to have buttons.This year, the mafioso in attendance included Harry Turtledove (authorial guest of honor) and -- switching to…
Rock of ages

20 Oct 2009 | 6:30 am

No one minds me calling a billion years an age, do they? Earth, the third rock from the sun (I loved that show), is ~4.6 billion years old, the sun a bit older. (Exact estimates vary, of course.) In that time, lots has happened. The sun grew about 30% hotter (and it's not done). The Earth cooled from the heat of collapse as it coalesced out of the primordial material of the pre-solar system. Oceans and atmosphere formed. Life emerged. In time, oxygen-producing life evolved and totally changed the atmosphere.Interesting things keep happening. Radioactive decay keeps the core…

David Levine
World Fantasy Con

6 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

I attended my first World Fantasy Convention in Seattle in 1989, when a friend was running Hospitality and needed people to help. I didn't really enjoy it -- it's basically a professonal conference for writers, editors, and agents and has little for the fans. That was before I was writing fiction professionally. Today it's one of my favorite conventions of the year. The convention started out a little shaky. Our Southwest Airlines flight from Portland to San Jose was running about a half-hour late, and we were just starting to wonder what was up when I got this rather strange email on my…
"horrorhouse" now available at DayBreak Magazine

6 Nov 2009 | 2:12 pm

You can now read my story "horrorhouse" online at DayBreak Magazine. Enjoy!
Ozzy ozzy ozzy, oi oi oi!

5 Nov 2009 | 9:11 am

We've got our tickets for Australia! The original plan was to buy economy-class tickets, upgrade to business class with miles, and stop over in Singapore on the way. That plan fell through when it turned out that Singapore's in a different "region" and the stopover would turn the trip into three separate legs. Then it turned out that upgradeable economy class tickets were insanely expensive (not as bad as business class, but more than twice the non-upgradeable fare). But it was possible to buy enough miles to obtain business-class tickets outright. Also, looking at the itineraries of the Star…
If you've been to Australia...

27 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pm

What were your favorite things? The things you wish you'd done more of, or that you regret having missed?
Good news in the mail

26 Oct 2009 | 3:05 pm

A surprising amount of good writing-related news has arrived in the last week. While I was in Albuquerque I received an email acceptance from Escape Pod for a podcast of "Wind from a Dying Star," which was my first professionally-published story. It should appear on the podcast early next year. I came home to find in the paper mail a contract from Analog for my short story "Pupa." This was the story I was working on during RaceFail, with a protagonist of color. I'm pleased to say that I finished it, sent it to my critique group, revised it, sent it out, got a couple of rejections, got a…

Paul Levinson
Soviet Dust: A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6

5 Nov 2009 | 10:55 pm

Never underestimate Soviet science. In reality, they got out into space before we did in the 1950s. In the intersections of science and science fiction, the Soviets experimented with mental telepathy and all kinds of things. Who knows what they may have accomplished, or what strange forces walked through the doors they opened.Tonight's Fringe 2.6 considered one of them - actually, a possibility that the U.S. was concerned about, regarding our own astronauts. They were quarantined at first, to protect us from any exotic organisms they might have brought back home from space.This was the the…
Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot

5 Nov 2009 | 8:30 pm

Well, I've often said that truly good combinations of mystery and comedy are as scarce as hen's teeth, and none do it better than Bones, as tonight's episode 5.6 about a murder in a chicken coop so tastily shows.The chicken part led to fine puns, which I'll just let simmer without pulling apart. And there was also a pig in this episode - not the male chauvinist kind, but a real pig - which provided the emotional foundation of the story.Angela, who was been abstinent for months, is channeling her pent up emotions into concern for the plight of pigs. She asks Bones to contribute to save one -…
FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ...

5 Nov 2009 | 7:35 pm

The sweeping winds of November brought as an episode of FlashForward - 1.7 - that may be better then even the pilot.It starts with a scene which in part is actually close to the end of the episode - that is, the end of the piece of the present we are seeing unfold each week. We also saw a significant part of the past, and of course some flashforward time in the future. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.That opening brings a woman with two children on a beautiful morning. She finds an invitation on her windshield, which tells her she is not alone. We soon learn that she is being…
V Returns to TV

3 Nov 2009 | 7:48 pm

Kenneth Johnson's original 1983 mini-series V - along with its 1984 sequel V: The Final Battle - was oddly one of my favorite television shows. Actually, it still is. But I say "oddly," because although the story was trite - aliens landing on Earth, claiming they want to help us, only to eat us - the media savvy and political implications were compelling.Damon Knight's 1950 short story "To Serve Man," adapted into one of the most enduring Twilight Zone episodes in 1962, told the story best. Aliens land, cure our illnesses, bring peace, want happiness for us - because they view us as…
Dexter on the Couch in 4.6

2 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

Poor Dexter was on the couch in 4.6 - the shrink's couch, brought there for couples counseling by Rita, concerned about their lack of communication. She of course doesn't know the tenth of it, and when things work out just fine at the end of the episode - Dex is moving his stuff into a shed right next to their house - she's as clueless about Dex's dark side as ever.I'm a little worried, though, that Dex's trophies - the slides with blood samples - will sooner or later get discovered. Their hiding place in the air conditioner is by no means completely immune from detection. We'll…

Holly Lisle
My Own Moonlight Sonata

Holly Lisle

4 Nov 2009 | 9:04 pm

There was this guy in a music store once. I was about nineteen. Dude was about halfway to seven feet tall, shaved head, black-coffee complexion. I was trying out guitars, and he came in, pulled a five string electric bass off the wall, plugged it into an amp, sat down and began [...]
Creaking Knees

Holly Lisle

3 Nov 2009 | 8:06 pm

It was a tiny detail for which I had no plans. I simply noted that the man in my bit of scene tonight had knees that creaked when he walked. I’ve heard knees creak, heard the sound bone makes on bone when weighed down by muscle, skin, sinew, and fluid. It’s [...]
Bouncing a story off an assumption

Holly Lisle

2 Nov 2009 | 8:50 pm

I’d sent my heroine, Aleksa in one direction yesterday—and I thought it was a pretty good one. But today as I was re-reading my last couple of paragraphs, I discovered that I was missing an opportunity to make her life miserable—as if having people trying to kill her wasn’t enough. I deleted the last two [...]
Aleksa’s Demon

Holly Lisle

1 Nov 2009 | 8:45 pm

I worked tonight on the decidedly un-supernatural demon of memory, and Aleksa’s violent past. Her approach made sense to me, as did the place she went inside her mind when she knew she was in danger. Tomorrow, I start writing Lesson 3 for HTRYN, and my beta testers start the course. I’m excited about [...]
Saturday Write A Book With Me

Holly Lisle

31 Oct 2009 | 8:04 pm

Trying to get back into a writing schedule again—Sunday through Thursday on, Friday through Saturday off. So I took the night off. I hope you had a Happy Halloween—the kid was a Ghostbuster, and didn’t trick or treat, but did hand out candy. We hung out with family, and had a good time. If you wrote, how [...]

Jason Erik Lundberg
appeal for a sold book

3 Nov 2009 | 10:42 pm

Before Janet and I moved to Singapore in March 2007, I sold or gave away almost a thousand of my books to lighten the load and set free the ones I didn't think I would read again. More than a few of them I have regretted letting go, and every so often I reach for a book I think I still own. However, I find myself now really missing my copy of The Norton Book of Science Fiction (edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery), especially as I have been given the task of constructing the six-week science fiction unit for Secondary Two Language Arts next year. It was the main text used for my…
new fiction: in jurong

31 Oct 2009 | 9:20 pm

Yesterday I tweeted that my novelette "In Jurong," had sold to Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. What I didn't mention is how completely surprised I was to sell it to them; it's very obviously a fantasy (whereas QLRS, being a respectable literary review, seems to normally only publish mimetic fiction, although I haven't read every issue, so I may be wrong about that), not to mention that it's told in second-person POV, which is tough sell anywhere. But the story does have local appeal (it's basically an alternate world where the Jurong Birdpark has taken over all of Singapore), and they…
new fiction: the world, under

28 Oct 2009 | 5:25 pm

My latest contribution to The Daily Cabal has gone up today, called "The World, Under."I wrote this story grenade the night that Janet gave birth to our daughter Anya. Taking Tim Pratt's own experience with the birth of his son River as inspiration, I wanted to see if I could still write a coherent narrative on very little sleep. I guess whether it's coherent or not is up to you, the reader, but I think it works. It's the setup for the larger story to come, but hopefully it still reads well on its own.This piece marks my first conscious attempt at continuing a series (prologued by "Mini…
rejected hint fiction

20 Oct 2009 | 11:09 pm

I submitted the following pieces to the forthcoming Hint Fiction anthology edited by Robert Swartwood and published by Norton, but sadly none of them got picked up. Still, I think they're not bad, and at least they're very short, so here you go:ESSENCEThe bomoh sold me the Essence of Chicken, but it transfigured me into one of his clucking brood. I just wanted to ace my exams.HIDDEN IN THE LEAVESI stared into the dark center of the banyan tree, and the arboreal spirit awoke and followed me home. We chatted. It liked my lemonade.BUDDHA'S TOOTHI placed the Buddha's tooth in my mouth, expecting…
anya sophia lundberg, b. 15 October 2009

15 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

Introducing Anya Sophia Lundberg, born at 5:53 p.m. Singapore time today on 15 October. She's 49cm long, 3.25kg in weight, and one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Today, Janet and I officially became parents. All three of us are exhausted beyond measure.(Although I will say that I somewhat passed the Tim Pratt Writing After Birth Test; I didn't write a very long story, but I did start and complete my next Daily Cabal entry, which continues the adventures of a curious little Eurasian girl also named Anya.)I just left Janet in the hospital room and Anya in the…

Nathalie Mallet
What’s happening in the publishing industry?

23 Oct 2009 | 12:34 pm

Well, quite a lot, actually. Check out this in-depth article by agent Nathan Branford. Here.
Grocery Store Wars

13 Oct 2009 | 5:15 am

May the Farm be with you. ;)
O Príncipe da Prisão Dourada

9 Oct 2009 | 5:29 am

The Portuguese version of The Princes of the Golden Cage—O Príncipe da Prisão Dourada—has just gone on sale! I’m very excited about that! It's the fourth book in a fantasy collection for YA called T.E.E.N., an acronym for Tonifica E Estimula os Neurónios (in English: Tones up and Stimulates Neurons). Hey, I’m all for that! :)The cover, which I adore by the way, is in keeping with other books in the collection. The publisher is Saida de Emergencia, and if you browse through their website you’ll find authors like George R.R. Martin, Charlaine Harris, Guy Gavriel Kay, Harry…
SF Creatives

7 Oct 2009 | 7:59 am

Lynda Williams and I will be hosting another SF Creatives meeting, Thursday, October 8, at Books and Company. I invite readers and writers to drop in and share their favourite books with us. Each person gets a turn and takes part in discussion about other people's choices. Informal, friendly and fun, with a focus on science fiction and fantasy, we start at 7 pm.
The Genre Fiction Generator

7 Oct 2009 | 7:47 am

Perfect for those who are creatively challenged! More.

Nick Mamatas
Are we all excited for tomorrow night's fights? (Free Idea Friday edition)

6 Nov 2009 | 7:17 pm

Strikeforce is going to have a MMA show on CBS tomorrow. The main event looks to get pretty interesting—Fedor vs. Brett Rogers. This could mean a lot to the #2 MMA promotion in the country, though the product needs to be slicked up a bit. The UFC, for example, will use subtitles for many of their pay-per-views, like "Ill Will" or "Bedlam" or "The Comeback." Strikeforce doesn't really differentiate their shows in such a way. Too bad too, as the main event is rich with thematic possibilities.Strikeforce on CBS: Four-Dollar Haircut Night
This will end in LOLs

6 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am

Any designers out there looking for a job? Check this "ad" out from our design mavens at Realms of Fantasy:Applicants should include "references and links to your work. We are looking for someone that can hand in the finished layout and design in seven days from when they receive all materials. If you're the kind of person who needs extensions or is uncertain whether you could handle this sort of deadline, don't bother applying. Being late with the work is not an option. We would like to hire someone who is willing to maintain the current look of the magazine. Some creative tweaks are…
Stupid flu

5 Nov 2009 | 1:29 pm

I've got the stupid flu now. And I had things to do this evening! You can make me feel better by going here: http://www.haikasoru.com/And leave a comment or two on one of the recent entries. Then I can pretend I'm working by approving them.Thanks.
New, for illiterates!

5 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

My novelette The Uncanny Valley is now live on the audio magazine Escape Pod. This is the immediate post-Singularity murder mystery, originally published in an issue of Polyphony and is now available in You Might Sleep... You know, for those who want to think about the story while on the commode, but who don't want to worry about possibly dropping their iPod.Having a story published in one of the Escape Artists magazines is always great fun, as the regulars on the forum like to flip out constantly over the communiqués from the Reds they spot in their morning bowls of Alpha-Bits. And since…
Quote of the Day

4 Nov 2009 | 5:16 pm

From an AIM conversation:Well, it can get very heated between the people who think Bigfoot is an alien who can teleport and the people who think bigfoot is an alien who can project the illusion of teleportation into your mind.I am not making that debate up.

George R.R. Martin
Dublin Days

6 Nov 2009 | 3:57 am

And here we are in Dublin. Ireland has been exciting but exhausting. We had a huge turnout last night for the signing at Eason's, with a queue that seemed to go on forever, but I finally scrawled everyone into submission, and afterwards I signed all the stock as well. If you missed the signing, or happen to live a thousand leagues away, you can still get an autographed copy of the SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH hardcover or any of the Ice & Fire paperbacks by phoning, emailing, or dropping by Eason's on O'Connell Street. They even have a few trade paperbacks of DREAMSONGS.Afterwards we adjourned to…
Belfast At Last

1 Nov 2009 | 10:55 am

Late, wet, and bedraggled, but I'm here.Tomorrow heads will roll. Well, one head, at least.
Moving On

28 Oct 2009 | 7:20 am

The Scottish filming is done, and cast and crew are packing up today for the big move to Belfast and its Paint Hall, where the shoot will resume. So far, so good.Parris and I are moving on as well. She'll be headed over to Ireland tomorrow to spend Samhaim with friends, while I linger here in Scotland a few more days to visit with Lisa Tuttle. We converge again in Belfast in November. Today we swung by the HarperCollins warehouse outside Glasgow, where I signed five hundred hardcovers of SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH. Ask for one at your favorite UK bookstore, they will be going all over the…
Feeling Guilty

26 Oct 2009 | 12:50 am

I've met Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner (and their charming moms). They're terrific, bright and beautiful and bursting with enthusiasm, excited to be a part of this.And now I'm having pangs of guilt about all the horrors that they're going to have to go through in the months and years to come, thanks to me.I'm going to have to rewrite the books so only nice things happen to Arya and Sansa. Might change the story some.Also ran into Ron Donachie, Jennfier Ehle, and Kit Harington, and all of them were great The rest of the cast is around here somewhere too, but we haven't bumped into them…
Jetlagged in Scotland

23 Oct 2009 | 6:36 pm

We're here in Edinburgh, safe and sound but jetlagged. A grueling trip, three flights, Albuquerque to Houston, Houston to Newark, Newark to Edinburgh. I can't sleep on airplanes, so as usual I arrived exhausted, and collapsed as soon as we hit the hotel. Sleep until midnight, then woke, ate a room service meal, and will soon go back to sleep in hopes to waking tomorrow and getting into sync with the time here.Glad to see so much enthusiasm about the cast. Gnight again.

J.M. McDermott
While I am busy, may I suggest reading a motherf***ing book?

5 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

I just f***ing love this song.Brush yer goddamn teeth.
Hey All You Halloweenies...

4 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm

Eating all that on sale candy after Halloween?Well, have I got a superhero for you:
Official blog policy around these parts...

3 Nov 2009 | 2:36 pm

It is official blog policy here that we support whole-heartedly the equality of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered individuals.I have been crossing my fingers for Maine all day, and I hope the voters push to support the state's correct marriage laws by popular vote.I'm a grad student in Maine, after all, and I'd hate to travel out of the Bible belt in January for an education to a place that refuses to leave the dark ages.Go Maine, Go! Go Maine, Go!
After WFC... Sleeping in...

3 Nov 2009 | 4:10 am

I slept in until 6:30 today, because I'm still recovering from the Absinthe and late nights (11:30 on the East Coast is, apparently, deadly for me). I couldn't make it to midnight to participate in the Weird Tales Midnight Invocation on Halloween, alas. I hope it went well.Thoughts about World Fantasy...Sharon Mock's husband, Zack, has an amazing beard that makes me feel like less of a man. In fact, when he was also wearing a T-Shirt with a burly bear on it, I actually shrank four inches, temporarily. As soon as we parted, I had to load up on Sharon's wonderful, homemade cookies to fuel my…
For All You Teen Writers Out There

27 Oct 2009 | 4:07 pm

Any of you a teenager with aspirations of greatness in the realms of speculative literature?Shared Worlds is for you, and they are open for registration.The thing about writing classes isn't that you can learn "how" to write. It's that an experienced writer can guide your own self-taught writing style down a path that will help you find your next level of written quality.

Robin McKinley
Sacrilege

Robin

6 Nov 2009 | 4:34 pm

I missed sacred home tower bell practise tonight. I missed it. I didn’t mean to. I hauled myself up off the sofa at the mews post-hellhound-hurtle (to the hellhounds’ considerable annoyance: it’s only been about twenty minutes, they said. We’re supposed to have at least half an hour on the sofa. You promised) and humped all of us and various bits of paraphernalia (chiefly concerning supper) back to the cottage (Peter being so inconvenient as to be playing bridge tonight), climbed the endless stair to the cottage’s front door . . . thought, that endless stair thing is a…
Bells and whistles

Robin

5 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pm

This just in from my editor: I wanted to let you know that we will be doing a blast to all the bookstores promoting FIRE and the new edition of WATER, with the fabulous* new material. That will go out either this week or next. We will also be doing a Skyscraper ad on PW DAILY that is an email that goes to EVERYBODY in the business – bookstores, librarians, publishers, etc. That will be impossible to miss. That will happen on or around 11/30. For all of you who’ve written or posted in bewilderment about the WATER reissue, there’s your answer. And this is me saying, Whew. For those of…
Guest post by Diane in MN

Guest

4 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pm

AN OLD-STANDBY GARDEN TOUR We live in a not quite rural area because, with multiple Great Danes, we wanted more land than a quarter of an acre in a subdivision. We have almost three acres, but probably about half of it remains scruffy second-growth woods enhanced by a swamp. The fenced area behind the house doesn’t really count as garden; it’s all lawn—or as much lawn as I can get, given shade, hillsides, and Great Danes. That leaves me with front and side borders and beds, which are more than enough for one person to manage. Over the years I’ve replaced what the builder’s…
Robin is on Twitter

Blogmom

4 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am

You can follow Robin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robinmckinley Technology is our friend. – Blogmom
Tales of a Strangled Cat

Robin

3 Nov 2009 | 4:19 pm

It’s late again*; I’ve been working late; it’s now one lousy cramped poky short fortnight before PEGASUS goes in for my editor’s final judgement—I’m still assuming that it’s on for publication next autumn but we won’t know for sure till my editor reads it again and inexorably points out that oh, hmmm, let’s see . . . the plot doesn’t work. My plots never work. If you want to hurt my feelings, tell me that my heroines are weak and passive.** But the good news, speaking of my editor, is that she’s going to fix the dedication page. Huzzahs…

Stephenie Meyer
TV Appearance Announcement

6 Nov 2009 | 8:05 pm

You know I've been doing the hermit thing this last year, in so far as media is concerned, and I'm not changing that now, but I am making an exception. I'm doing this for a good reason: I am so pleased and amazed and thrilled with what Chris Weitz has done with New Moon that I want to talk about it, and to show my support for him. And since I'm only doing one interview, better make it big. Really big. So....I will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, November 13th...
New Moon Soundtrack Announcement

13 Oct 2009 | 8:28 pm

Atlantic Records has moved up the release date of the soundtrack. We also have an exclusive image of the fold out poster included with the physical CDs.
New Titles/Editions going on sale

5 Oct 2009 | 2:57 pm

Stephenie's publishers asked me to remind everyone that there are a few new editions and titles going on sale in the next few days:
The Host to be made into a movie!

23 Sep 2009 | 6:46 am

Hey guys, great news! The Host is on its way to the big screen...
Soundtrack Artists and Songs

21 Sep 2009 | 11:31 am

We are excited to announce all of the songs on the New Moon soundtrack...

Karen Miller
Reluctant Mage wordcount

6 Nov 2009 | 5:25 am

Another chapter down ...72982 / 130000 words. 56% done!Keep on lighting those candles for me, guys ...
Grrrr!

5 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pm

So, did I really need to lose half of yesterday to getting 3 new tyres and a wheel alignment on the car so it could be pink slipped so I could go and pay for the green slip so I could go and sit at the RTA to pay for another year's registration??????Well, yes, actually, if I want a driveable car, but on the other hand ...Nooooooooooo!So anyhow, I've downsized my projected wordcount. It's going to come in somewhere between 130 and 140 k for the primary draft and will bump up for the final draft but frankly, I'm feeling a bit demoralised what with the wasting time with the car and with the…
Reluctant Mage wordcount

3 Nov 2009 | 4:56 am

Yeah. Another day that didn't quite go to plan. Can I stop having those now please?????But here we go.61194 / 140000 words. 44% done!In passing ... congrats to the superstar stayer Shocking, who won the Melbourne Cup today. Stand out