SciFi & Fantasy Novels

• 
  SFF World-News

• SFFWorld News – 1/19/10

  18 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

• SFFWorld News – 1/6/2010

  8 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

• Robert Holdstock, 1948-2009

  28 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

• SFFWorld News – 11/16/09

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm

• SFFWorld News – 10/31/09

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:00 pm

• 
  SF Site

• Spellbent by Lucy A. Snyder

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Jessie Shimmer lives with her magical mentor/lover, Cooper Marron and their respective familiars. Lately they've both had nightmares, but Cooper doesn't seem too worried. Unfortunately, during an uncomplicated spell to bring a storm to save the local farming community, Cooper opens a portal to hell instead.

• Babylon 5.1: TV reviews by Rick Norwood

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  The big news in February is the premiere of the sixth and final season of Lost. It was reported that President Obama moved his State of the Union Address so as not to conflict with that much awaited event, which takes place February second.

• The Rapture by Liz Jensen

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  What would you do if someone, who had accurately predicted the dates of a series of natural disasters, told you the date of "the big one"? What if that person were a psychotic teenager who had murdered her mother and whose predictions came as a side effect of Electro-Convulsive Therapy? And what if you were psychically damaged yourself, confined to a wheelchair as a result of a road accident that killed your lover and your unborn baby?

• News Spotlight -- Genre Books and Media: a column by Sandy Auden

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Discovering new authors is one of the pleasures of reading. This month, Mike Shevdon and Jeremy de Quidt talk about their debut novels. Mike Shevdon's Sixty-One Nails takes us on a haunting journey as a man's life is torn apart and rebuilt in unexpected ways; and Jeremy de Quidt's The Toymaker takes our children on a snowy and dangerous adventure.

• The Secret History of Science Fiction edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  This anthology uses Jonathan Lethem's infamous 1998 Village Voice article, "The Squandered Promise Of Science Fiction," as a starting point to discuss literary science fiction. In brief, it posits that 1973 was a potential turning point for science fiction and that if Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon had been awarded the Nebula that year, science fiction could subsequently have been "gently and lovingly dismantled, and the writers dispersed." Obviously, this didn't happen. The editors therefore take it as their mission to prove that the promise of science fiction was not, in fact,…

• 
  SF Scope

• E-books: how much, or how many?

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:25 am

  Determining the pricing e-books will be important, but keeping an accurate count of the number of sales will be a far bigger issue...

• Dark Scribe Magazine's 3rd annual Black Quill Awards winners

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:07 am

  Dark Scribe Magazine, the online publication about horror, announces the winners of its third annual Black Quill Awards...

• 2010 Philip K. Dick Award Judges Named

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:30 am

  The five judges of the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award for best original paperback science fiction novel have been named...

• Last Man Anthology seeking sf stories of "catastrophic literature"

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:31 pm

  Anthology honoring Mary Shelley's The Last Man is seeking stories of "catastrophic literature"...

• BenBella hires Debbie Harmsen as editor-in-chief

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:42 pm

  Travel editor Debbie Harmsen is the new editor-in-chief at BenBella Books, focusing on their general nonfiction line...

• 
  Gray Man Writes

• Passing By Venus -- We Were in the Neighborhood ...

  Gray Rinehart

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:14 am

  Twenty years ago today -- February 9, 1990* -- the Galileo spacecraft flew by Venus in a course-adjustment maneuver on its way to Jupiter. The probe passed about 10,000 miles (16,000 km) above our sister planet. (Venus images from the Galileo spacecraft, taken through violet and infrared filters. NASA image.) The Venus flyby gave the mission team the chance to test out Galileo's cameras and instruments in preparation for its encounter with Jupiter. The "gravity-assist" of the spacecraft swinging around the planet boosted Galileo's speed and set it on an intercept course with ...

• Shuttles and Deltas and Thors, Oh, My!

  Gray Rinehart

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:12 am

  Fifteen years ago today -- February 3, 1995 -- Space Shuttle Discovery launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-63. Astronauts James D. Wetherbee, Eileen M. Collins, C. Michael Foale, Janice E. Voss, and Bernard A. Harris, Jr., along with cosmonaut Vladimir Titov, completed a close-up flyby of Russia's MIR space station. (MIR space station as seen from mission STS-63. NASA image.) STS-63 was the first time a shuttle approached and flew around space station MIR, as part of the preliminary phase of the International Space Station program. Also on this mission, Eileen Collins became…

• If I Were My Own Representative, Part V: A Positive Message

  Gray Rinehart

  31 Jan 2010 | 6:30 am

  This series has been fun for me, like the other fiction I try to write. But I feel that this fiction needs to have a message. So If I Were My Own Representative, I would carry a simple message wherever I went. Whether I got to speak to a Rotary Club or a school or a TV talk show, I would try to take the opportunity to remind people that the U.S.A. is still the greatest nation ever conceived by human beings. (Image from Flickr, by Elaron, licensed under Creative Commons. Click to enlarge.) We're not perfect. We're not likely to be. We have problems, and faults, and failures, and we're unlikely…

• If I Were My Own Representative, Part IV: My Touchstone for Voting

  Gray Rinehart

  30 Jan 2010 | 7:17 am

  A lot of legislation is pitched on the basis of what it is intended to do, and often on the basis of whom it is intended to help. If I Were My Own Representative, my touchstone for voting would be quite the opposite: whom it was likely to hurt. (U.S. Capitol dome, from the Architect of the Capitol. Click to enlarge.) My initial position would be to vote "no" on any bill that had a provision that would hurt some of our citizens, even if it helped some others. I would have to be convinced that the help was worth the hurt; i.e., that the hurt was along the lines as the necessary pain…

• If I Were My Own Representative, Part III: Hearings and Caucuses

  Gray Rinehart

  29 Jan 2010 | 3:19 am

  I've been to a Congressional hearing, watched a few more on TV, and prepared testimony for several. Hearings, in general, are effective for Congress to gather information so it can evaluate alternatives and exercise its oversight. But some of the hearings seem trivial, either in their subject matter or their treatment, and become little more than media events for grandstanding by elected officials and witnesses. If I Were My Own Representative, I could go to hearings on trivial subjects and ask, "Why are we having this hearing? Don't we have better things to do?" Better things like…

• 
  Eric James Stone

• My LTUE schedule

  Eric James Stone

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:21 am

  It’s time once again for BYU’s science fiction and fantasy symposium: Life, the Universe, and Everything. Here’s my schedule: Thursday, Feb. 11 Noon: Mormons in Horror Believe it or not, there are active LDS who read, edit and write horror fiction.  What tensions do they see with their faith and culture and this genre?  How does their belief color what they find “really scary”? (Dan Wells, Eric Swedin, Michael R. Collings, Eric James Stone, Lee Allred (M)) Friday, Feb. 12 Noon: Who influenced me as a writer? (Eric James Stone, Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury, Berin Stephens, Jake…

• Read “The Robot Sorcerer” free

  Eric James Stone

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:54 am

  Whether or not you can nominate stories for the Nebula Award, I’m allowing free access to read my short story “The Robot Sorcerer” until the Nebula nomination period ends on February 15, 2010.  The story was originally published in the December 2008 issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show, and under the transition to the new Nebula Awards rules, it is eligible along with stories published in 2009. Click here to read “The Robot Sorcerer.”

• “Attitude Adjustment” to appear in Year’s Best SF 15

  Eric James Stone

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:53 pm

  My story “Attitude Adjustment,” which was published in the September 2009 issue of Analog, has been selected for The Year’s Best SF #15, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer.  This is the first time one of my stories has been chosen for one of the annual year’s-best anthologies, and I feel very honored.  The anthology should be out in May.

• Total, Whiplash

  Eric James Stone

  6 Jan 2010 | 4:59 pm

  My car is officially totaled. I should find out in the next couple of days how much money I’ll get for it. Woke up this morning with neck and shoulder pain.  Saw a doctor, who said I have “a classic case of whiplash.” He prescribed pain medication, muscle relaxant, and physical therapy, but said I was likely to make a full recovery in time. He also sent me to get my neck X-rayed just in case it was more than whiplash, but fortunately the X-ray results didn’t show anything abnormal. So, while there’s some bad news, it’s definitely not as bad as it could…

• Car crash details

  Eric James Stone

  5 Jan 2010 | 9:28 pm

  At around 9:09:45 AM today I was involved in a car crash while on my way to work. The following is reconstructed as best I can from my memory, the record in my GPS, and hearsay. I was driving eastbound on 700 North in Lindon.  Approaching the intersection with State Street, I could see the light was red so I began slowing from 40 mph.  Before I reached the intersection, though, the light turned green. Across State Street from me, several cars were facing west in the left turn lane, waiting to turn southbound on State Street.  There is no left turn signal for cars in that lane;…

• 
  Fabianspace

• An Unexpected Blessing and a (Nonfiction) Book Contract!

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:37 am

  I had an unexpected blessing happen this weekend.I was looking at my Yahoo groups and came across the post: Looking for a Catholic Writer. I figured if I couldn't help, someone in CWG could, so I replied. It turned out the publisher, Tribute Books, needed an author to write a quick little book about living the Catholic life. They had a book lined up and the author pulled out at the last minute.I looked over the old manuscript and asked a few questions. The format is straightforward, and along the lines of things I'd done before, though not quite in this way. It was something I knew I could…

• My Novel's Journey: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator: Origins

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:41 am

  Since my computer snafu and subsequent loss of Gapman and Discovery, I decided to forge ahead with a novel I started on New Year's Day: Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.I have to credit this novel with The Writers' Chat Room, www.writerschatroom.com. A bunch of writers of all experience levels, genres and interests meet in the chat room on Wednesday evenings to talk writing, answer questions, share news, victories and rejections, and get silly. Get very silly very often.During one of these silly episodes, we somehow got the topic of zombies and cookbooks merged. On that day, publisher Kim…

• 31 Days of Resolutions, Goals, and Organizing Posts

  1 Feb 2010 | 1:05 am

  Each month, I try to make a post a day on Twitter about some interesting topic. I decided to then post them here for those who may have missed a day.1. Did you make New Year’s Resolutions? Here’s mine: http://www.fabianspace.blogspot.com 2. 8 tips for making resolutions that stick: http://psychcentral.com/lib/2002/making-new-years-resolutions-that-last/3. How to make resolutions that matter: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/79/mgoldsmith.html4. Just to tie in with yesterday’s post on resolutions that matter… http://site.despair.com/images/dpage/priorities03.jpg 5. My own way to…

• Closing Virtual Book Tour de Net

  31 Jan 2010 | 3:28 am

  Many of you know that I have had a regular blog, Virtual Book Tour de 'Net, where I posted information about people's books, interviews with the authors and the occasional review. I started it a couple of yeras ago after the first MuseOnline conference. My original idea what I post about a book, and the author in turn would post about one of the books on the blog or about one of mine. However, very few people followed-up on that, and I quickly gave it up as a bad idea and started posting as a service to others.Over the past two years, however, I've found that not only has my blog not garnered…

• W000t! Magic, Mensa and Mayhem Places 4th!

  30 Jan 2010 | 10:54 am

  Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, the first DragonEye, PI novel, placed 4th in the Preditor and Editor Polls for best sci-fi/fantasy novel. W00t! Thanks, everyone!Surely you know about DragonEye, PI, but if not, learn more here. Be sure to register before Valentines' Day--I have a present for DragonEye fans!

• 
  James Maxey

• Technology day dreams

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:25 am

  I played around with an iPod touch a few weeks ago. It was an unsatisfying experience. I navigated to a few of my favorite webpages, or tried to, and was constantly thwarted by my inability to hit the letters I wanted on the tiny onscreen keyboard, even in landscape mode.I feel as if most of the fanciest, flashiest technology these days is being targeted toward 10 year old girls, based on the

• Corporate Political Speech

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:45 pm

  Recently, the Supreme Court threw out about a hundred years worth of restrictions on political speach by corporations and opened the door to unlimited spending on ads by corporations and unions. Obama went out of his way to condemn the ruling during his state of the union, and pundits have generally panned the decision.I, on the other hand, think it's a perfectly good ruling, and should be

• Is Religion to Blame?

  16 Jan 2010 | 5:53 am

  Anyone who's read my blog knows I'm a godless heathen who never misses an opportunity to make fun of religion. This week, Pat Robertson popped up to provide an easy target with his inane assertion that the Haitian earthquake was God's little smack-down for a pact made the the devil a couple of hundred years ago. There's something of a battered-woman syndrome in comments like this. Presumably,

• Tortured Logic

  5 Jan 2010 | 10:40 pm

  Despite my vow last year to cut back on my news consumption, I fear I'm in deeper than ever, listening to talk radio and NPR non-stop while I'm driving, reading a dozen news sites. The idea that I'm actually learning anything new from all this media consumption is debatable. Instead, I feel even more than ever that the same debates just keep being rehashed, with the left and right moving ever

• Greg Hungerford, Part 4: An Atheist Memorial

  30 Dec 2009 | 10:00 am

  I was invited to speak at Greg's memorial service yesterday. I had originally written about five hundred words to read, avoiding the subject of Greg's atheism. I knew his mother was deeply religious, and didn't want to appear confrontational. But, some of the speakers before me framed Greg's life in religious terms, and I realized that it wouldn't really be Greg's funeral without an argument

• 
  Side-Show Freaks

• Odd Jobs—Josh Vogt

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:28 am

  Part of Odd Job's inspiration came from reading another all-dialogue short, They're Made Out of Meat, by Terry Bisson. The format captured my interest: two disembodied alien intelligences discussing humanity's fleshiness and debating whether they should allow us "meaties" into their intergalactic fellowship. I loved how much was conveyed through dialogue alone and fiddled with variations of the style for fun. Most of my stories, whether shorts or novels, are often rooted in conversations characters start having in my imagination. So one day, I typed out the opening line,…

• When Giants Fart…

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:45 am

  …the whole world stinks. Which kind of sums up the atmosphere in the publishing and authorial world for the past week as publishing giant Macmillan and distribution giant Amazon.com square off and try to decide whose bean processing plant is the most odiferous.Without getting into the smelly details (which have been discussed on other sites), the gist of the problem lies in the pricing of e-books. Amazon wants a fixed ceiling of $9.99 for premium (read: popular) titles; Macmillan wants flexibility in their pricing, with premium selections fetching $14.99. Sometime on January 29, Amazon…

• Return To Sender—James Maxey

  28 Jan 2010 | 5:24 am

    "Return to Sender," much like my first story in IGMS, "To Know All Things That Are In The Earth," draws heavily on my experience growing up as a fundamentalist Christian who went on to embrace atheism. My emotional connection to the story comes from my sense of confusion on encountering the outside world and finding things to be not quite as black and white as I had been informed. It's really tough to explain the degree to which I was raised apart from mainstream culture. For instance, when I got to college, one of the many odd jobs I took to help pay expenses was…

• Intergalactic Medicine Show #16 is LIVE!

  23 Jan 2010 | 11:18 am

  Issue 16 went live this afternoon, with stories from James Maxey, Mette Ivie Harrison, Edmund Schubert, and more! Go forth!  Feast your senses on the wonderment!

• The Freak Filter

  2 Dec 2009 | 6:14 am

  Part of being an assistant editor means reading slush. "Slush" is the pile of unsolicited story manuscripts publishers receive from hopeful authors. It's not a pretty name; it's not generally a glorious pursuit. Slush sits in the assistant editor's inbox, dribbling memetic juices all over your mind-space. It occasionally belches, but it doesn't need to. It makes its presence known through sheer virtual weight. That is, Slush is ever-present in your mind as something to do, something that will never get done, a taxing, burdensome, obese thing that drags at your thoughts and threatens your…

• 
  Kathryn Cramer

• Sunshine & 'Brose: 10 seconds of silliness from this morning

  Kathryn

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:23 pm

• Wall Street weighs in on Amazon, declares Borders the winner: AMZN off 5.21%; BPG up 10.47%

  Kathryn

  1 Feb 2010 | 1:24 pm

  Apparently, Wall Street was not amused by Amazon's fight with Macmillan USA. A bunch of the financial articles attribute the Amazon fall to expectations that e-book prices would rise. But that strikes me as nonsense. If that's true, why the big rise in Borders? Perhaps because some think that Amazon is not the future of online retailing and are looking for alternatives? From Google Finance: AMZNAmazon.com, Inc.118.87-6.54-5.21%     BKSBarnes & Noble, Inc.18.00+0.522.97% BGPBorders Group, Inc.0.950+0.09010.47% BAMMBooks-A-Million, Inc.6.51+0.142.20% AAPLApple…

• Now that Amazon has conceded, can they please fix the damage?

  Kathryn

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:49 pm

    I really don't like the 404-Document Not Found message where the Amazon page for the Kindle edition of our Year's Best Fantasy 9 is supposed to be. (Amazon's poorly worded concession in the Amazon-Macmillan dispute is here.)As I said, I personally don't buy e-books. Nor do I own an e-book reader. But this particular book was intended to be published as a book where the e-book edition is primary.

• Lake Champlain, 1/30/10, at -2 F

  Kathryn

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:06 pm

• John Sargent's address to authors about the Amazon situation

  Kathryn

  30 Jan 2010 | 3:47 pm

  This ran as a paid advertisement in a special Saturday edition of Publishers Lunch:To: All Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent communityFrom: John SargentThis past Thursday I met with Amazon in Seattle. I gave them our proposal for new terms of sale for e books under the agency model which will become effective in early March. In addition, I told them they could stay with their old terms of sale, but that this would involve extensive and deep windowing of titles. By the time I arrived back in New York late yesterday afternoon they informed me that they were taking all our…

• 
  Keith R.A. DeCandido

• Stupid History 8 February 2010

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:18 am

  There are a few problems with the story of William Tell shooting an apple off his son's head with a crossbow. William Tell didn't have a son, didn't own a crossbow, and never saw an apple. Why? Because William Tell never existed. The great fourteenth-century hero of Swiss independence was born in the imagination of an anonymous fifteenth-century storyteller.

• Farpoint 2010 schedule

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:10 am

  I will be at Farpoint 2010 this coming weekend. I'll be doing autographings/book-selling at various points throughout the weekend. My only formally scheduled events are Saturday:Saturday11am: Boogie Knights concert (Greenspring 2/3/4)1pm: An Hour with Keith R.A. DeCandido (Dulaney 2)5pm: 2009 Comics in Review (Chesapeake 1)6pm: Comics to Movies (Chesapeake 1)some time after 8pm: Boogie Knights concert at Masquerade halftime (Greenspring 2/3/4)Hope to see many of you there!

• thought for the day

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:57 am

  Stale marshmallows are incredibly yummy.

• Stupid History 6-7 February 2010

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:12 am

  In 1716, the Oxford University Press printed 500 copies of a book titled Translation of the New Testament from Coptic into Latin by David Wilkins. Not exactly a John Grisham novel, it took 191 years to sell all 500 copies.

• Stupid History 4-5 February 2010

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:05 pm

  Even though people still believe you can get lead poisoning from a pencil, you can't. Lead pencils have no lead in them, only graphite.On the morning of February 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter jet. The crew of the B-47 was given permission to jettison its 7,600-pound, 12-foot-long thermonuclear bomb into the Atlantic Ocean off Savannah, Georgia, and that is where the bomb still is to this day.

• 
  Robert J. Sawyer

• Toronto Life profiles RJS

  RobertJSawyer

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:17 pm

  Toronto Life, a glossy newstand magazine devoted to the finer things in Canada's largest city, profiles Robert J. Sawyer in the March 2010 issue; as a subscriber, I received my copy in the mail today.It's a terrific article; I'm absolutely thrilled with it. And it's accopanied by an amazing photo of me in my office. The article is by Sheena Goodyear, and the photo is by Finn O'Hara.An excerpt:Sawyer's fast-paced prose blends adventure and philosophical exploration, riveting readers to implausible narratives populated by talking space dinosaurs; dimension-shifting, bisexual Neanderthals; and…

• Short stories: five years after giving them up

  RobertJSawyer

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

  It was five years ago today that I finished writing my last short story. That story, "Biding Time," was written for the DAW Books anthology Slipstreams, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and John Helfers.I guess I went out with a bang. The story was reprinted in the prestigious Penguin Book of Crime Stories and (after some on-stage drama!) won the Aurora Award. And the film option on it (and its prequel, "Identity Theft") was just renewed for a fourth year.I had a nice little career as a short-fiction writer: 44 stories published (all now collected in two handsome volumes available from Red…

• Just to prove I'm not clueless: see this weekend's TV Jumble

  RobertJSawyer

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am

  TV Jumble by David L. Hoyt is a syndicated puzzle from Tribune Media Services, Inc., that appears in countless newspapers, including The Toronto Star, Canada's largest circulation paper.This weekend's jumble has, as the answer to its puzzle the name of a TV show I'm involved with. The cartoon illustration that's part of the puzzle shows a woman watching a TV set and thinking, "I can picture myself watching this show in the future." And beneath that it says:Clue: This show is based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel published in 2000.How cool is that!Note that this is the TV Jumble dated 7 February…

• FlashForward staff writers

  RobertJSawyer

  5 Feb 2010 | 6:32 pm

  The Hollywood Reporter has now posted a comment from David S. Goyer about him stepping down as showrunner of FlashForward, the ABC TV series based on my novel of the same name: "As my feature projects have started ramping up again, I felt I was being pulled in too many directions. I'm proud of the show and excited about the relaunch. It's in great hands."And indeed it is. FlashForward has a fabulous team of staff writers, all of whom are still hard at work on the show:Byron BalascoScott GimpleIan GoldbergSeth HoffmanTim LeaBarbara NanceQuinton PeeplesDawn PrestwichNicole YorkinLisa…

• Amazon reinstates sales of Macmillan titles

  RobertJSawyer

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:22 pm

  After six days of being unavailable for purchase there, paper editions of Macmillan books -- including Tor Books such as my novels FlashForward, Hominids, and Rollback -- are now back on sale at Amazon.com.Robert J. Sawyer online:Website • Facebook • Twitter • Newsgroup • Email

• 
  John Scalzi

• For the Kodi Fans Out There

  John Scalzi

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:18 am

  Our dog in her natural habitat: Photo by Krissy, who took it whilst I was away.

• Your Science Fiction Award Nomination Suggestions

  John Scalzi

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:05 am

  Hey, kids, look! It’s Hugh, the Hugo-Impaled Headcrab! And he has something he wants to say to us all! Let’s lean in close (but not too close) and listen to what he has to say: “Hello, geeks of Earth! Did you know that this is science fiction awards nomination season? Well it is! Hugo nominations are due within the next month, and for those of you humans who are also members of SFWA, Nebula nominations are due by the end of the week! There’s no time to lose! So don’t just stand there like a headcrab impaled on a Hugo! Get nominating!” What wise and telling…

• There’s Snow Place Like Home

  John Scalzi

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:14 am

  The last two days in LA were really nice and clear and gorgeous, but I am told that more rain is arriving today, so I escaped that… to come back to my house basically being encased in snow, with more snow falling today (and indeed, you can see that falling snow in the picture). To be sure, we’re not getting the same volume of snow the east coast is currently getting, which are historic amounts. But we’re getting our share. School was canceled today, as it was yesterday, and may yet be tomorrow, confirming February once again as “That Month the Kid Don’t Get No…

• Up in the Air: An Open Pimp Thread

  John Scalzi

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:32 am

  Another day of travel for me, back to Ohio, where I am told it will be snowing when arrive, which means my car in the airport parking lot will be a shapeless mass under a huge pile of snow. You can imagine how excited I am by the thought. In any event, as I’m busy hurling myself across the sky, I thought I would throw open Whatever for an Open Pimp Thread, in which you — yes! you! — recommend something for other people to be excited about. Could be a Web site, could be a new book, could be some other sort of awesome project. It could be something you’re doing, or maybe…

• View From the Getty

  John Scalzi

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:27 pm

  The rain stopped Saturday just after I and my friend Natasha arrived at the Getty Museum to wander about. It was the first time there for the both of us, and I think both of us had the same reaction: What a lovely museum, and what a lovely place for a museum, too. I snapped the shot of the horizon at some point; it was nice to finally be able to see the Pacific, which I had not seen since I had been here thanks to cloud cover. And the hills were green thanks to all the rain, a thing (the green, that is), which almost never happens in my experience. In all, a cloudy but gorgeous day.

• 
  Fangs, Fur and Fey

• UNPERFECT SOULS Release!

  markdf

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:38 am

  It's officially out there! Check out the first chapter with links to online sites!

• Populating the world

  Jessa Slade

  18 Jan 2010 | 10:25 am

  For reasons unclear to me at this time (this time being Book 3 Draft 2) this story has spawned a bunch of tertiary walk-on characters.  There's Cyril Fane, the smug angel-possessed trauma scene restoration specialist; Detective Ramirez, the overwhelmed yet handsome-enough-for-future-hero-promotion-possibility Chicago cop; Ms. Mbengue from the Congolese diner; plus another three or six depending on whether you count the tertiaries from Books 1 and 2.They popped in during the hot draft when I am decidedly less critical about what -- and who -- makes it on the…

• Help Haiti

  The Swan

  14 Jan 2010 | 2:42 pm

  I know this isn't the usual kind of thing posted on this comm, but the cause is worthy and the information is, I hope, of interest to some of our watchers.As it has done before, LJ fandom is organizing a charity auction, this time to raise money for organizations responding to the earthquake in Haiti. The community is help_haiti, and there are many offers for original fiction, fanfiction, art, music, editing services, and more.I've decided to try something new with my own contribution: a kind of fanfiction of my own work. If you give me an event or individual in English history, I will tell…

• How much is too much?

  jenniferestep

  14 Jan 2010 | 5:42 am

  So my next book, Spider's Bite, comes out Jan. 26. And, of course, I'm doing tons of promotion for it -- guest blogs, interviews, giveaways, etc. But I have to wonder -- how much is too much? At last count, I had about 15 blogs/interviews lined up with a couple more still in the works. Is there a point where readers get tired of seeing the same author promoting the same book? I try to make each and every blog/interview as unique and interesting as possible, but things like the book synopsis/description aren't going to change that much from post to post. So what's the point at which people get…

• First and Third

  The Swan

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:42 am

  I'm pretty sure we've posted about this topic before, but some things are perennial, right?In my off moments (when not researching Victorian London for my next book), I'm playing around with a new idea. YA, urban fantasy, I don't want to say much more about it because I have this tendency not to talk about stuff in its early stages. But anyway, "playing around" in this case means doing the odd bits of research while writing some exploratory scenes ---- and the damn thing can't decide what point of view it wants to be in.When I started writing, it defaulted to third. I cranked out a couple…

• 
  Foul Papers

• You can’t grief-proof your life, but…

  Shannan

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:42 am

  My grandmother died last week. She got up one morning, made her bed, and sewed a bit on the cloth dolls she was making my niece. Then she laid down for her afternoon nap on the sofa. I imagine the painless explosion in her blood vessels, the pop! as her aneurysm burst. She never woke up. She has been my mentor, my hero, and my friend all my life, so though I knew that this day was coming, it’s been rough. I’ve blogged before about how difficult it was to find out that Grandma was dying so soon after my father died. She was hospitalized and diagnosed in November of 2008, only a few months…

• Blogging will resume next week

  Shannan

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  There’s been a death in the family, so there will be no new blog posts this week.

• February Challenge: Write Every Day

  Shannan

  28 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am

  I’ve been struggling a bit with juggling my writing projects as the semester picks up, so I’m trying something new as I head into February. I’ve been doing really well with making small, ritualized changes and establishing new habits. All that attention I’ve been focusing on Sleep has had a tangible effect, just like when I focused in previous months on getting Organized or Uncluttered. I still have to check in with myself on all those areas, but focusing on creating good habits instead of on one-shot outcomes has really taken most of the effort out of them. I don’t have to think…

• Love sleep? Love your iPhone!

  Shannan

  25 Jan 2010 | 4:00 am

  This is so cool I just had to share. Remember that Sleep Cycle iPhone app I mentioned last week? It’s kind of amazing. This is what my night looked like a week or so ago when the Wild Kingdom were waking me up constantly: Waking up at least once an hour due to hijinks from VERY BAD CATS! This is what it’s looked like – on average – this past week: Look! Look! See the low bits? Those are actual Deep Sleep! Woo! Slowly, but surely, it’s getting better! Seems like the Wild Kingdom is beginning to adjust to the switch at last. I am full of glee. It’s the little things, folks.

• In praise of a good critique session

  Shannan

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:00 am

  This week I had a particularly critique session, and I thought I would share with you some of what made it so helpful. Lorien and I were having a phone conference on Alpha Flyer — well, the current version of it. I don’t think I’ve ever shared the full evolution of the project. It started off as a comedic short story — a writing exercise that I didn’t plan to do anything with. It then evolved into a novella with some serious undertones, and I thought — hmmm, maybe this is something longer. The relationships were beginning to fascinate me. It wasn’t…

• 
  Magical Words

• Snap Thy Holy Fingers!

  Misty Massey

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:47 am

  I love movies and books about the mystical nature of religion. Constantine, Stigmata, The Seventh Seal, The Prophecy…I just cannot resist them. The other day I watched a movie trailer for Legion, in which God sends his angels to exterminate the world’s population. The archangel Michael (played by the wonderful Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. I whispered, “Ooh, I want to see that.” My teenager, sitting next to me, frowned. “If God’s tired of humanity,” he mused, “why go to all the trouble of sending the…

• You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

  DavidBCoe

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:18 am

  I have three stories for you. I’ll give them to you chronologically. 1) My brothers and their families came to visit us for the holidays this year and the brother who is closest to me in age stayed at our house. He and I are very close, and we lead kind of parallel lives. He’s not a writer, but he is a professional artist. We both have two kids, both have wives who make the lion’s share of the household money and who are way smarter than we are. We’re both into photography, birds, butterflies, etc. One morning while he was staying with us, I came downstairs wearing a sweater I got…

• A Rose by any other Name…

  A J Hartley

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:29 pm

  So I was fortunate enough to get a round of notes on my new YA adult novel from no less an author than R.L. Stine (of Goosebumps among many other things) and he pointed out that I had to rename one of my major characters. Her names was Isabella, often simply ‘Bella,’ which, he pointed out, was the same as the heroine of the ubiquitous Twilight series. I had realized the coincidence before, but a better name hadn’t leaped to mind so I had left it as it was. But Mr. Stine was (unsurprisingly) clearly right. I had time to change it, and doing a quick find/replace in my Word document was no…

• 
  Nancy Fulda

• Amazon vs Macmillan

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:40 pm

  My six-year-old wandered in this morning and looked over my shoulder while I browsed Livejournal. He was hoping I'd have time to play with him, but I told him I needed to work.Alex: Reading stuff isn't work!Me: Yes it is. I'm staying informed on what's happening. For example, this weekend there was a big fight between a publisher and an online retailer, and it's good for me to know about that.Alex: So you can stop the fight?Me: Well... this fight is between such big corporations that I don't think I could stop it. They wouldn't listen to anything I have to say.Alex: But you could try. If you…

• One Cobble at a Time

  27 Jan 2010 | 6:49 pm

  Today is my sister's birthday. In addition to being my relative, she's the author of a children's book, an active and inspiring blog, and a story in Julie Czerneda's Ages of Wonder anthology.Sandra's very nice to new people, and over the years she's taught me about everything from childraising to business marketing. If you'd like to meet her, stop by and say hello at One Cobble at a Time.Happy Birthday, Sandra!

• Stories for Haiti

  17 Jan 2010 | 11:29 pm

  Crossed Genres Magazine is hosting a Stories for Haiti campaign to help raise relief funds. In support of that effort, I'm posting a complete story here on my blog.This story first appeared in the June 2009 issue of Jim Baen's Universe. If you enjoy it, or any of the other stories posted for Haiti, please show your gratitude by donating to a charity involved in the Haiti relief efforts. InternationalRed Cross In the Halls of the Sky-Palaceby Nancy FuldaThe clack of castanets tapped out a crisp, clear rhythm beneath the smoky torches of the dining hall. Jeweled fingers glinted in the…

• Magic Phrases

  13 Jan 2010 | 10:47 pm

  Around our house, you have to be very careful how you say things. Our oldest son has a preliminary diagnosis on the autistic spectrum. He communicates wonderfully, but every once in a while we stumble over phrasings that just don't compute. (This is true of every person, I suppose, to a varying degree.)As an example: Asking him to throw balls more softly or play games less roughly seldom had any effect. Asking him to throw or play more slowly worked wonderfully. He'd slow down the physical muscle movements, resulting in a softer throw and gentler play. Similarly, asking him to speak more…

• Reluctant Readers

  8 Jan 2010 | 6:33 am

  I've been thinking about reluctant readers; that subset of school children who do not spontaneously seek out reading experience and whose parents and teachers would like to motivate to read more.As reading is a fundamental skill in our society, is directly related to written and verbal communication ability, and is the cornerstone of education, I highly approve of reluctant reader programs. I've often considered whether it's possible to target books specifically toward reluctant readers, and I keep coming up with the following train of logic:Proposition A: The people who grow up to write…

• 
  No Fear of the Future

• A Carcosa lullaby.

  Jess Nevins

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:48 pm

  For my son, Henry. Goodnight Dead Moon. In the great sacrifice chamber In the high towerIn the basalt castle overlooking Lake HaliThere was a shining trapezohedronAnd a three-lobed burning eyeAnd a picture of–The food beast jumping over the dead moonAnd there were three little shoggoths dining on moths And two little Ulthar kittensAnd a pair of ichor-soaked mittensAnd a little toy slaughterhouseAnd a young mouse And a blade and some hands and a bowl full of viandsAnd a somber yellow King who was whispering "Hush."Goodnight chamber. Goodnight dead moon.Goodnight food beast jumping over the…

• The future of American manned space flight

  Alexis Glynn Latner

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:54 pm

  CAPE CANAVERAL — President Barack Obama proposed a radical shift in U.S. space policy Monday, saying he wanted commercial companies -- rather than NASA -- to take over development and operation of the rockets and spacecraft flying American astronauts. (FloridaToday.com)These are the best of times for the commercial space companies who will be getting government seed money. “During its first turn at bat, the Obama administration really hit it out of the park,” said David Thomson, chief executive of Orbital Sciences Corp. “This is the right time. It’s the right direction for the…

• Ozymandiasovitch

  Chris Nakashima-Brown

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:09 am

  Courtesy of @GreatDismal, Eric Lusito's amazing photographs of abandoned Soviet military bases collected in After the Wall: Traces of the Soviet Empire. Like supersonic Ilya Kabakov installations, ruins of a lost 20th century utopia that you thought you imagined.

• Space Shuttle Atlantis highlights 2010 Nebula Awards Weekend

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:14 pm

  CHESTERTOWN, Md. -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America will descend on Coco Beach, Fla., on Cape Canaveral for the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend May 13-16. The date was chosen to coincide with the scheduled launching of the Shuttle Atlantis on Friday, May 14. The Nebula Awards will be presented at a banquet on Saturday evening, May 15.The Nebulas will be held at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, just 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center. The Friday launch of the shuttle Atlantis will be visible from the beach outside the hotel. There will also be special tours of the Kennedy…

• King of the world!

  Alexis Glynn Latner

  25 Jan 2010 | 4:18 pm

  This is one of the newest buildings in Houston's Medical Center. Seen from Rice University, it looks like a the prow of a ship to me. In fact, it never fails to remind me of the King of the World scene from the movie Titanic. Actually it's Methodist Hospital's new Outpatient Care Center; and I'm fairly sure it's not fated to hit an iceberg and sink.

• 
  Pat Esden

• Trashed and Queried

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:43 pm

   So, I officially started querying SAH today. The excitement and dread of sending a new manuscript out into the world is such a weird mix of feelings. Up until the moment the send button is pushed or the envelope is tossed in the box, it’s easy to pretend the story’s the most glorious thing the universe has ever seen, but once the first query goes out . . . argggg the self-confidence plummets.Wish me luck boys and girls.Why a picture of trash you ask?That’s a box of old manuscript drafts that I hauled out of the writing cave today. It’s good to save…

• Reading as a Writer: THE DEMON'S LEXICON by Sarah Rees Brennan

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:19 pm

   As I’ve said before, I’m a slow reader and even slower when a book enthralls me.  I often will read a chapter, then reread before moving on. That said, I read THE DEMON’S LEXICON quickly—and not because I wasn’t enthralled. This made me wonder why I felt compelled to keep reading instead of lingering over each word. The obvious reason is that the characters themselves are in action, there is not a lot of sitting around in the novel. But more importantly each scene answers a small question or gives a needed detail, which in turn leads to a…

• Pre-writing brainstorming: what do you need to know?

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:56 pm

  Today, a bit of research and some brainstorming by the fire with Gypsy dog gave me what I needed in order to start my pre-writing synopsis in earnest.  Since this project is a sequel I knew most of the characters, but I needed to come up with an  antagonist so I could form the story’s main thread. When I found the antagonist he/she led me to other new cast members and subplots. I knew I wanted the setting close to the main character’s home in order to simplify the back story—and I found a way to do this.  And I got the first line:…

• Reading Manuscripts Out Loud: can you hear your voice or do you need help?

  24 Jan 2010 | 1:20 pm

  As those of you who follow me on Twitter already know, I spent the last week reading my latest manuscript out loud from start to finish--and tinkering as I went. But there is more to the story. I actually read it out loud, record it and played it back.If I’m revising a sentence or two, then recording isn’t necessary. But I tend to not be able to accurately hear longer passages when I simply read them out loud. The other wonderful thing about recording is that I can record two or three versions of a snippet, listen to them one after another, and then choose my favorite…

• Synopsis for sequel: good idea or waste of time for unpublished novelists?

  17 Jan 2010 | 1:24 pm

  I learned the lesson about not writing sequels before the first novel is sold the hard way. All my current manuscripts are standalone. But right now I have nothing on my plate and am tinkering with the synopsis for a sequel to SAH. Am I wasting my time? When publishers buy a debut novel and the sequel, do they want to see a synopsis for the sequel or do they buy it sight unseen?If nothing else I’m getting the idea down and keeping myself from writing anything more than the first few paragraphs. I will resist writing . . . I will, damn it.   

• 
  Something Wicked

• Real love - will you read?

  Angie Fox

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Harlequin has just announced new line of reality based romance stories. The books will be based on real couples and how they met and fell in love. Harlequin will pair the couples with a writer who will pen "their story."Naturally, there will be no paranormals in the mix, but despite that obvious drawback, I find the whole idea fascinating.Who doesn't love the idea of real life happily ever after? Or do you think the reality of romance will spoil the fantasy?

• The Art of Diddling

  Shirley Damsgaard

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:12 am

  Did-dle: To waste time; dawdleLast week I participated in an online interview over at Amberkatze's Book Blog (Angie's there this week!), and one of the questions was-"what's my routine?" I paused for a moment and thought about it then had to confess that a lot of it involves "diddling." Yes, as I've said before, I'm a master diddler! After I 'fessed up to that, my next thought was "why?" Like everyone else, it's not like I don't have enough to do...I'm working on two short stories and a manuscript; I'm short staffed at my day job and working six days a week while we go through the hiring…

• Fictionalizing Real People, With Guest, Kate Carlisle

  Casey

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:33 am

  A lifelong love of old books and an appreciation of the art of bookbinding led New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle to create the Bibliophile Mysteries, featuring rare book expert Brooklyn Wainwright, whose bookbinding and restoration skills invariably uncover old secrets, treachery and murder. Kate is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and Romance Writers of America. She loves to drink good wine and watch other people cook.In Scotland and around the world, January 25th was Burns Night. Copious amounts of whiskey are required,…

• The big LOST leak

  Angie Fox

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  Does everyone know what tonight is? If you're a Lost fan you do. We're heading in the final season in what I think is one of the most brilliantly written shows on television. Not only do you have drama and surprise polar bears, but the characters are brilliant and deep and some are quite sexy as well.And now something very intriguing has happened. Someone at the network leaked the first hour of the show online. Usually this means thousands of eager fans downloading and eager to watch. But the opposite has happened. Nobody wants to spoil the surprise. Fans want the whole episode, tonight, or…

• Trouble Tropes?

  Jess Granger

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:47 am

  Hi everyone,One of the most fun things about writing romance is torturing my characters. I'm a wicked wicked creator, and I put my characters through the bloody wringer. I like thinking of new and interesting ways to push them to the limits of their endurance.As I read romances, I can't help but notice certain "trouble" situations come up over and over again. Here are my top three, and why I think they're so popular in our favorite genre.#1 I'm dying! Dyyiiinggg, cough, cough, sputter.Okay, so there are few things that are as dramatic as death. Death is the ultimate end game, and the one…

• 
  Talking Squid

• Aurealis Awards gallery 2010

  Chris Lawson

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:21 am

  Books, books, books at Pulp Fiction Photograph by Alex of a bookshelf at Pulp Fiction, Brisbane, during author signings. Cat Sparks and Rob Hood, Brunswick St Mall Pre-ceremonial nibbles and drinks are as much a part of the ritual as the awards themselves. Scott Westerfeld wins for Leviathan Scott Westerfeld accepts the prize for Best Young Adult Novel. Paul Haines makes history The shadow of Paul Haines steps up to accept an unprecedented tied win for two of his own stories. Reading Rosaleen Love A great idea from the convenors: between winners, reading short excerpts from great Australian…

• Global Financial Crisis a hoax

  G. 'Cantanker' Jones

  25 Jan 2010 | 3:48 pm

  According to the standard story, the “Global Financial Crisis” caused stock markets to crash in 2008/9. Ideological activists have claimed that the New York Stock Exchange lost nearly half its value from May 2008 to the following March. This story is a lie. Data from November 21, 2008 to January 2, 2009 shows a huge rise in the NYSE index. If the agitators were correct, then this graph should have gone down by 50%. The data set appears after the fold. Please don’t look.

• When all else fails, use logarithms

  Chris Lawson

  9 Jan 2010 | 6:15 pm

  I wrote about this as one of the Five Easy Lies. And now, courtesy of the blog Pharma Analysis, I can show a real-life example. Imagine a drug company marketing an opiate on the basis that it has a long half-life. This is a major selling point because most existing opiates lose effect after 3-6 hours, resulting in breakthrough pain. If a drug can provide a more lasting effect, this would be a huge competitive advantage. The drug company is Purdue Pharma. The drug is Oxycontin. Sounds good, right? But Purdue’s success story has just turned very, very sour as Purdue has agreed to a US$…

• Gate-gate

  Chris Lawson

  28 Dec 2009 | 8:45 am

  An observation on the history of accountability in American politics and media: (Albert Fall’s $100,000 fine would be worth about $1.2 million today.) Addendum: Ack! My brain was getting tired when I saved the picture and I put the Watergate burglary in 1974 and Nixon’s resignation 4 years later. Corrections have been made.

• Fast forward to the past

  Chris Lawson

  28 Dec 2009 | 6:04 am

  I found the Back to the Future trilogy on special; watching it reminds me just how good the first film was. The opening shot is one of the best put to film, the dialogue crackles, the plot runs like wildfire, and it remains one of the very few time travel films that fully exploits its premise. If it was not for the near-ubiquitous imposition of the song “Power of Love,” it would be just about perfect. The second film is a noble failure, and the less said about the third the better. The main source of the comedy in the original film is the cultural frisson between 1985 and 1955.

• 
  theinferior4+1

• Providence at Dusk 4

  theinferior4+1

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:39 am

  [Click to enlarge]The RI Statehouse wears its festive Valentine's Day lighting effects. But the Independent Man statue atop the dome still does not have a date!Posted by Paul DiFi.

• Etc.

  lucius_t

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:01 am

  Yesterday I wrote two poems, or at least the first drafts of two poems.  I'm not ready to show them--they're part of this thing I'm screwing around with, A Bad Man--but I thought the titles were kind of cool:  Glacela of the Faltering Spark Plug and Glacela of the Midnight Bug Zapper.  This is from that mess of dream writing I did a couple years back, for those of you who recall it.  It's now evolved from that mess into a kind of dirt-level fantasy set on an alternate Mexican border that probably will come across as surrealism and concerns itself with the…

• Took Spark in ...

  ljgoldstein

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:02 pm

  for her bandage change today.  She is now blue and white -- she looks a little like a Hanukah ornament.They cut some muscle when they cut out her tumor, and then moved some muscle from somewhere else to replace that, so she's limping around and trying to figure out how to use her front left leg again.  Anyway she's not very mobile, and I had to carry her to the car for her appointment (Doug was at work).  Right now, as you might imagine, she isn't very fond of going outside, so the minute I approached her she resorted to Gandhian passive resistance and went limp -- and she's…

• Various and Sunday

  lucius_t

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:21 pm

   This here's a picture that was made up for a new year's card for the movie I hope I'll be working on later this year or early next in Australia.Kinda neat, huh.   It's about shipwrecks, cannibals, and so on, based on the real life last voyage of a french captain whose failure to return to France helped to bring down Louis XVI, and it stars Viggo Mortensen, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and others. I've got some terrific art from the production design people -- here's one piece.Anyway, this weekend isn't working out as expected.  Got people coming over to watch the UFC fights…

• Clock art

  paulwitcover

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am

  Cousin Liz just sent me a swell book for Christmas--appropriately, slightly belated, from 2006!  Appropriate not only because of the subject, but because I've been working on and off (mostly off) on a book about clocks since that time.  I'm back to work on it now, so this has reached me at an opportune moment. But what prompts this post is the gorgeous cover artwork, from R. W. Symonds's A Book of English Clocks, published in 1947.  Check it out! I immediately looked to see if there was an artist credit, and there is:  it's by a husband-and-wife team, Clifford and…

• 
  Wyrdsmiths

• Newbie Question #16

  tate hallaway

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:31 am

  16. Have you ever doubted yourself while writing? If so, how do you get over it?I doubt myself all the time, just ask the folks in my writers' group. I constantly complain that I don't know what the f**k I'm doing or that my stories suck, etc., etc. I get over my doubt by tapping my support network -- my writers' group and my partner. (Because, if nothing else, my partner will say these magic words: "We need the money." Works for me every time. :-)But I think this is actually a question about writers' block, which is I think a more delicate and harder question to answer.There are a lot things…

• No, the publishers are probably not going away tomorrow

  Kelly McCullough

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 am

  I personally adore reading on a screen—when my publisher shifted to an all electronic work flow for editorial I was delighted—and it's certainly very likely that e-books will become a large part of books sold sooner rather than later. At the same time, I don't think that books are going away any time soon and I'm not at all certain that the shift to CD and MP3 is a good comparison to a shift to e-readers.For one thing, the formats killed off by digital music had much shorter histories and testing periods. The LP lasted what, a bit over 40 years as the primary delivery system for recorded…

• Smart Things & More Amazonfail

  Kelly McCullough

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:39 am

  Jay Lake saying smart things About the life cycle of a manuscript going through publication and all the things a publisher does. This is related to the Amazon Macmillan mess, but would be a smart thing even without that. In the future I will direct my writing students to take a look at this post.Agent Joshua Bilmes talking about e-book royalty structures.Amazonfail links:Snerched from Jay Lake, two posts on Apple's entry into ebooks both of which predate Amazonfail and both of which talk about the disruptive effects of the agency model. One, and Two.Serious smackdown on ebook costs and…

• Friday Cat Blogging on Saturday Afternoon

  Kelly McCullough

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

  Shade cat.Sun catIs this my good side?In another life I was a very large toad.

• In the Absence of Kelly's Cats

  tate hallaway

  6 Feb 2010 | 5:36 am

  Here is one of mine, Ms. All Ball, in her favorite spot on the radiator.

• 
  Lynn Abbey

• Down Time

  Lynn Abbey

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:10 pm

  I pretty much took the weekend off. I cleaned, which I really needed to do; got caught up on some mundane, domestic paperwork; and made a bug… I’ll get back to work tomorrow…

• Stray thoughts

  Lynn Abbey

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:21 pm

  I don’t think there’s been such an interesting (in that proverbial Chinese-curse sense) or exciting time in the publishing industry.  Movable type, maybe, but that didn’t occur against the backdrop of the Internet and it’s possible that the scriptorium monks weren’t all that heartbroken about losing their jobs. I’ve tucked up a half-dozen meaty articles for [...]

• Pronoun Problems (Macmillan Again)

  Lynn Abbey

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:18 pm

  The kerfluffle has gone another round.  John Sargent, CEO at Macmillan, has penned an open letter to Macmillan authors and illustrators, with a CC to literary agents. Already I’m confused.  All agents?  Just those agents with clients at Macmillan?  There is a difference.  But, since I’m definitely a Macmillan author, whose Amazon buttons have yet to [...]

• With apologies to R. W. Emerson

  Lynn Abbey

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:29 pm

  So, I’m still doing the Zumba thing at the Wellness Center.  My knees are handling it, but all that bouncing around has a tendency to loosen my shoelaces. Fortunately, I recalled that less than a month ago, Lifehacker had a post on this very problem…  Ditch the Granny Knot to Tie Your Shoes More Efficiently Complete with [...]

• Adminstrivia

  Lynn Abbey

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:48 am

  I’ve added buttons for a standard RSS feed and a comments feed to to the sidebar…just in case anyone wants to follow conversations as they evolve. And there’s an interesting conversation evolving at; The End of Cheap E-Books is Nigh After Apple Makes Deal With Rupert Murdoch

• 
  Joe Abercrombie

• Weekended

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:16 pm

  I have returned from the SFX weekender, and overall I'd have to say I had a great time, although I freely admit to spending the vast majority of it in the bar, one way or another, blathering with a fine assortment of authors and editors. It was grand the way that common cause was made between the people of Gollancz (including Richard Morgan, Chris Wooding, Tom Lloyd, Justina Robson, John Meaney and Stephen Deas) and the people of Tor UK (including Peter F Hamilton, China Mieville, Mark Charan Newton, Paul Cornell and Adrian Tchaikovsky), even though they had fancy beach-front digs while we…

• SFX Weekender / Gemmell Award

  31 Jan 2010 | 11:34 am

  I have received a schedule for the SFX weekender, taking place at no less a location than Pontins at Camber Sands. Apparently there may still be some changes as the details get ironed out, but for the time being, here is my schedule:Friday, 12.45-13.30 (Main Void) - Gollancz panel, along with imprint stablemates Dave Moody, Chris Wooding, Justina Robson, Tom Lloyd, John Meaney, and Richard Morgan, and who knows, perhaps one or other of the magnificent Ozzes who make it all happen from behind their curtain...Saturday 5th Feb, 10.00-10.45 (Main Void) - David Gemmell Legend Award Panel, along…

• Ebooks, Audiobooks

  23 Jan 2010 | 8:47 am

  I've been getting quite a few emails about the absence of kindle editions of late, which I am now very pleased to announce are available via amazon.com:The Blade ItselfBefore They are HangedLast Argument of KingsBest Served ColdAn audiobook of Best Served Cold has also recently come out from Tantor Media, which is available as a download from Audible or in oldskool physical compact disk form , though one should be aware it is unabridged and therefore somewhere around 30 hours, or 22 cds, in length. Wow, that should keep y'all busy. This is an American version, and though I haven't listened…

• Bristolcon and other Appearances

  21 Jan 2010 | 1:59 pm

  A little heads up, some time in advance, to let anyone who might be interested know that I'll be attending Bristolcon 2010 on November 6th this year. This is an event in its infancy (second year only), and consequently will probably be a reasonably small and intimate affair. One day only, so if you're in the region there'll be no need to shell out for a hotel. Guests of Honour are yours truly and well-known writer of novels, comics, and Doctor Who, Paul Cornell, though I wouldn't be at all surprised if a few other local authors and industry types were to show their faces. The program has yet…

• The New Sword and Sorcery

  14 Jan 2010 | 12:47 pm

  The cover for Swords and Dark Magic, an anthology in which I've got a story coming out in June next year. You'll note the sub-title, "The New Sword and Sorcery". The editors - Lou Anders (who publishes the First Law in the US, among many other things) and Jonathan Strahan - perceived something of a new flourishing of sword and sorcery of late, or perhaps an ascendance of sword and sorcery influences within chunky fantasy, and so they decided to produce an anthology that aimed to present in one volume stories from some of the established masters of the subgenre with some from the newer…

• 
  Dan Abnett

• Clickety-clack (again!)

  Dan Abnett

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:44 am

  Once again, Marvel deadlines have kept me too busy to write the next part of “Dear Ryan”. That’s coming soon. In the meantime, big thanks to Dju, my French translator, for passing along the following news item. It would appear that a certain someone has run mad again...Irishman urinated on French bread in protest at Henry handball, court told

 (ROSCOMMON, IRELAND) A drunken unemployed plasterer who was found urinating on the French loaves section of a large supermarket in protest at the infamous handball incident in the France vs Ireland World Cup qualifier was this week given a…

• Dear Ryan (part two)

  Dan Abnett

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:09 am

  Dear RyanI’m back, and this time I’ve brought a bag full of the bleeding obvious. If you want to write, you’ve got to write (yeah, don’t groan, I said today was Bring A Bag Of The Bleeding Obvious To Work Day, didn’t I?). It’s as simple as that. If you want to be an actor, or a rock star, and you can’t get a part in a play, or an audition for a band, then there are mitigating circumstances for you not acting or rock-starring. Except for “I haven’t got a pen”, there are no excuses for not writing. And even without a pen, crayon, pencil, or lump of dried monkey poo, you can…

• Clickety-Clack! (the sound of my fingers typing faster than Jessica Fletcher's)

  Dan Abnett

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:11 am

  Up to my Nova Corps helmet chin-strap with some Marvel scripting right now, so I'll be back with another chunk of "Dear Ryan" writing tips as soon as (though here's one to be going on with: writing for a living trumps writing about writing for a living). In the meantime, a short but very sweet review here.

• Dear Ryan

  Dan Abnett

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:01 pm

  I got this letter by email the other day. As you can imagine, I get a lot of mail, most of it through this site. A lot of it is positive feedback for my books and comics, which I’m grateful to receive. I try to respond to everybody personally, even if it’s just a casual thank you.Sometimes, people write to take me to task over something and generally tell me how wrong I am, or how bad, or how mistaken, or simply how crap. This is pretty much par for the course in this business we call Write, and I’m grateful for it too, no matter how odd that might sound. It’s not pleasant to be told…

• Black Library Love

  Dan Abnett

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:14 am

  Here's how it's looking, official and timetabled. I believe there are still, like, two tickets left. Run. RUN.

• 
  Ann Aguirre

• Hell Fire Arc Winners

  Ann Aguirre

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:41 am

  I’m announcing eight winners now, but I haven’t reached the 2K goal on Twitter yet. When I do, I’ll give away two more ARCs. So without further ado: EmmaD Lauren Spav Amy Stewart Katee Robert Loves Sam TheBookPimp Sayuri Email your name & mailing address, so I can hook you up with your ARCs. Congrats! (If you didn’t win, don’t despair. If you follow me on Twitter, you’re still in the running for the last two ARCs, but I have to hit 2K first, and if that happens before midnight tonight, I’ll give away that $50 in book money.)

• Killbox cover hotness

  Ann Aguirre

  27 Jan 2010 | 2:02 pm

  Jax gets hotter and more bad-ass with every book. Yum. I’d hit that. Seriously, though, it’s gorgeous. It just might be my favorite in the whole series and I’ve had some amazing covers. I love the suggestion of blood, the composition, the look in her eyes, and the movement of her hair.

• Hell Fire Arc contest

  Ann Aguirre

  22 Jan 2010 | 12:22 pm

  So I have 10 arcs of this fine book. Two of them are reserved for a Twitter contest. When I reach 2000 followers, I’m giving away two of these arcs. So that’s one way you can enter. Then post a comment saying you’ve done so. You must be following me at the time these two ARCs are awarded. That leaves eight others ARCs up for grabs for other people. But I’m combining these contests for simplicity. To enter, simply post this widget in your blog sidebar. If you don’t have a blog, you can Twitter about the contest. You can also post the widget on Facebook and…

• Through My Eyes

  Ann Aguirre

  11 Jan 2010 | 5:38 pm

  I get up. I shower. I work. I answer emails. Later, I go to the grocery store. To get to Superama, I drive up to Pinon and back down Alcanfores. I pass a brightly painted shopping center the right called Plaza Jardins, but I don’t love shopping at Soriana. Their grocery section isn’t as nice. So I take the roundabout up and back down to the back road that leads to the market. This street is wide and has a garden running down the center of it. Fir trees march alongside palm and acacia, bougainvillea and redbud, aloe vera and rubber trees. My drive to the supermarket is,…

• Happy New Year!

  Ann Aguirre

  31 Dec 2009 | 6:45 pm

  I am posting because I desperately need your help. There’s a book on my mind, but I can’t remember enough of it to identify it: It’s epic fantasy, probably written in the late 80s or possibly the 90s. The main characters were a bard and mercenary. They fell in love over the course of the book and had adventures, both together and separately. Because the country was at war, the mercenary (or soldier) did many brave things. He was a bit older, battered and scarred, possibly missing an eye. He was elevated to nobility by the end, and they could not be together officially…

• 
  Colleen Anderson

• A Nasty Tale About Lice

  colleenanderson

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:50 am

  I was born and raised in Alberta, where the summers are hot and dry and the winters are cold and dry. I don’t mean dry as in no precipitation but dry as in the air can make your skin flake like a 10,000 year old mummy’s. And the water is mineralized enough to leave scales on taps and pipes the envy of any dragon. Calgary gets rain (thundershowers), hail (in buckets) and snow that lasts a winter. Or at lease these phenomena were common in my childhood. Because of this you never saw an animal with fleas unless it was in a place particularly dirty or the animal was particularly…

• Kangaroo Kontroversy

  colleenanderson

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:19 am

  Now we’re truly getting down to what the Olympics are all about. The Australian athletes have hung a two-storey flag of the boxing kangaroo outside their residence in the Olympic village. The Olympic village in Vancouver is, like every other Olympic venue, cordoned off and protected by security enough to sink the Bismarck. The only people who might actually get into this “village” are the athletes, reporters, security goons and other bigwigs of Olympic importance. But it is where all the athletes, with their dreams and aspirations are housed. So it makes sense that everyone…

• Traveling in India: Kisses at the Taj Mahal

  colleenanderson

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:07 pm

  It is only be apt that when I was in India I ran into a man intent on kissing me at the Taj Mahal.  Actually, it was while I was walking there, in the city of Agra. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan in the 17th century as a memorial of love after the death of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal. She died in childbirth with their fourteenth child. (That would be enough to kill most people.) The Taj Mahal houses the bodies and sarcophagi of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal and is considered one of the best examples of Mughal architecture as well as being a monument to love. Lovers and scads of…

• Really Dumb Olympic Trinkets

  colleenanderson

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:18 pm

  I wasn’t sure what I would write about today but then I received, with my bank statement, a little blurb about winning some Olympic art, sort of. My bank is VanCity, a local, good reputation bank. But in the statement was this double-sided pamphlet from Citizens Bank. It says, “You could win 1 of 12 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games edition Visa prepaid card collector sets.” Phew. Okay, so first Citizens Bank in my VanCity statement? It makes me wonder what my bank is getting out of it. Then I thought, okay, so I enter to win and then get 12 Visa cards with a prepaid…

• I Don’t Get Religious Coverings

  colleenanderson

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:39 am

  I should title this “I don’t get religious head coverings” but in essence it applies to any covering. Now I imagine this post will probably get me in the bad books of a lot of religions, but let’s just say I’m not against a religious covering in one religion or necessarily all religions. I’ve actually put off writing this for a long time, not out of fear but because I thought I should educate myself more. But there are a lot of religions and no matter how much I read I’m likely to miss some crucial element somewhere. And like every layperson out there…

• 
  Eleanor Arnason

• Snowfall

  Eleanor

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:20 am

  I haven't posted for three weeks. Patrick and I went east to visit relatives -- not for three weeks, for less than a week. We can both job search on the Internet, and apply for jobs by email. But we didn't want to gone for any period, in case we got a call for an interview. The temp at my brother's place -- in Upper New York State -- was around freezing. There was fog, snow and rain. Not good traveling weather, so our plan to putter around New England went by the side. However, we did manage one trip to visit cousins who live two hours from my brother's place. And we got to spend time in the…

• Happy New Year

  Eleanor

  1 Jan 2010 | 9:06 am

  I spent most of my free time in December working on the two books due to come out next year. One project is pretty much complete, though I keep having second thoughts about it -- not the fiction, but the essay and the interview. I really prefer to speak behind the mask of fiction, rather than directly with my own face visible. Patrick says the essay and interview are both good. Maybe I should trust his opinion. Now I have to go back to the other book and give that manuscript a final look.Otherwise, I keep looking for work and finding nothing. I really would like a part time job, for the money…

• Deadlines

  Eleanor

  15 Dec 2009 | 7:36 am

  I have two deadlines in December. One is for a chapbook collection of some of my writing, part of series of chapbooks being done by a small press in the Bay Area. A darn fine small press. Thus far, they have published chapbooks by Terry Bisson and Kim Stanley Robinson.The chapbook editor apparently likes my fiction contribution as is. I just finished updating my 2004 Guest of Honor speech at Wiscon ("Writing Science Fiction during the Third World War"). The editor likes the new version of the speech. He says it's luminous, which is high praise. Nothing remains except an interview. The other…

• Quote for the Day

  Eleanor

  12 Dec 2009 | 7:40 am

  This from Viggo Mortensen, with whom I fell in love while watching The Lord of the Rings:As Howard Zinn has often pointed out, history told from above -- from the standpoint of generals and kings and presidents -- encourages passivity, a sense of helplessness. In this version of history, "great men" make history, not ordinary people. But looked at from below, history has another lesson. Whenever change as happened, it has been through protest, dissent, struggle, social movements, ordinary people picketing, striking, boycotting, sitting down, sitting in. All this means that we make history,…

• More Thankfulness

  Eleanor

  27 Nov 2009 | 7:31 am

  In the interests of not being a churl and grouch, I am going to continue being thankful -- for the sunlight on the red brick buildings across the street, the National Geographic photo of the day, the astronomy photo of the day, a picture of a feathered dinosaur which I saw on Daily Kos this morning, for the essay I have almost finished, and the other writing I am working on, for Patrick and our home, full of lovely things to look at, for friends and relatives, for our hoya which is about to put out more flowers.

• 
  Neal Asher

• Alien Life

  Neal Asher

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:52 am

  I just read an interesting article in the Sunday Mail's Review and decided to do a little search on it over the Internet. Michael Brooks (a consultant at New Scientist) is having his book '13 Things That Don't Make Sense' published this February. The first of those things is (both can be found here): NASA scientists found evidence for life on Mars. Then they changed their minds On July 20, 1976, the Viking landers scooped up some Martian soil and mixed it with radioactive nutrients. The mission's scientists all agreed that if radioactive methane was released from the soil, something must be…

• Conflicts

  Neal Asher

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:32 am

  Here's the cover for Ian Whates upcoming 'Conflicts' anthology: Update:   Just to notify you that, as of late yesterday, the anthology has its own page on the NewCon Press website and is available for prepurchase (indeed, the first copy sold this morning!)http://www.newconpress.co.uk/BookDetail/tabid/57/ProdID/17/RtnTab/70/PageIndex/1/CatID/-1/Default.aspxThe eagle-eyed among you may note a small error in that the 'buy' button claims both editions are 'signed and limited' whereas only the hardback will be (signing sheets are doing the rounds at this moment).  The webmaster has…

• L is for Lee and LeGuin.

  Neal Asher

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:20 am

  STEPHEN LAWHEAD EMPHYRION TANITH LEE HERE IN COLD HELL  HEARTBEAST  ELEPHANTASM  NIGHTSHADES  THE STORM LORD  VIVIA  WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT  VOLKHAVAAR  THE ELECTRIC FOREST  THE BOOK OF THE BEAST  KILL THE DEAD  EAST OF MIDNIGHT  LYCANTHIA  GOLD UNICORN  THE BIRTHGRAVE  SILVER METAL LOVER  CAST A BRIGHT SHADOW  DELIRIUM’S MISTRESE URSULA K LEGUIN PLANET OF EXILE  CITY OF ILLUSIONS  EYE OF THE HERON  ROCANNON’S WORLD BARRY M LONGYEAR MANIFEST DESTINY RICHARD A LUPOFF FOOL’S HILL

• Terry Pratchett's Dimbleby Lecture.

  Neal Asher

  4 Feb 2010 | 5:34 am

  Here's the BBC Iplayer link to that Dimbleby Lecture mentioned: Shaking Hands With Death.

• Anyone Out There?

  Neal Asher

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:25 am

  Regarding the 'Who Reads My Books?' posts I've been putting up on here. I've got one left to post and haven't seen any more. How about more from the men and women out there, like those shown in Mike Rowe's 'Dirty Jobs',  who tighten up the nuts and bolts that keep our civilization running? I'm not saying the previous ones are abnormal, but maybe some are a little intimidating to those who, say, simply work on a production line and enjoy SFF. I'd like to hear from you people - don't kid yourselves that you're not interesting. And don't forget, prior to 1999 I was shovelling shit too.

• 
  Paolo Bacigalupi

• A roundup of Amazon vs. Macmillan. And thank you for the lost weekend.

  Paolo

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:10 pm

  Tobias Buckell talks about the economics of ebooks in the post: Why my Books are no longer for sale via Amazon. Charles Stross describes some strategic aspects in the fight. Amazon, Macmillan: an outsider’s guide to the fight And Scott Westerfeld sums up the battle in clean clear prose, so anyone can understand how–if not exactly why–it came to this: Zinc blinked. Update 11:26pm: Scalzi analyzes Amazon’s media strategy… and finds it hilariously wanting. All the many ways Amazon so very failed the weekend. Lots and lots of other smarts and fun via the twitter…

• Amazon, Kindle and Windup Girl in ebook

  Paolo

  30 Jan 2010 | 3:19 pm

  With Amazon blocking Kindle editions of all Macmillan books, particularly my friends who are Tor authors, I’d like to log a couple thoughts about ebooks. First, some blatant pimpage: The Windup Girl is available for $6, DRM-free, at Webscriptions.net. http://www.webscription.net/p-1121-the-windup-girl.aspx. If you’re into ebooks, it’s pretty much the best deal going. It’s a fair price, and both I and my publisher make some money from it. We all win. In the past, I’ve had differences with Night Shade over whether we should also sell ebooks directly through Amazon…

• Raves for The Windup Girl

  Paolo

  30 Sep 2009 | 2:08 pm

  The reviews on The Windup Girl have been astonishingly good. Here’s the roundup, with links to the originals: Publishers Weekly: (Starred Review) “Complex, literate and intensely felt tale, which recalls both William Gibson and Ian McDonald at their very best… clearly one of the finest science fiction novels of the year.” Library Journal: (Starred Review) East meets West in a clash of cultures brilliantly portrayed in razor-sharp images, tension-building pacing, and sharply etched characters. SF Signal: (Five out of Five Stars) “Disturbing… beautiful, fast-paced,…

• Kyoto Presentation

  Paolo

  25 Aug 2009 | 9:29 pm

  I’ve been invited to speak at a symposium on sustainability in Kyoto, Japan called “Towards the Future of Civilization,” so I’ll be out of the country for the next ten days. I’m planning on speaking about what inspires me to construct the dystopias that I do, the primary trends I’m seeing in the world, and then talking some about how I might imagine a world that breaks those trends. It will be almost Utopian. For me, at least. I’ll also be riding at least one bullet train. Which pretty much makes me go, “Squeeeee!”

• Two Locus Award Wins for Pump Six and Other Stories

  Paolo

  24 Aug 2009 | 1:22 pm

  Meant to post this ages ago, but it’s been a crazy summer. Pump Six and Other Stories picked up a Locus Award for Best Collection, and its title story “Pump Six” won for best novelette. Here two are, flanking the book:

• 
  Steven Barnes

• A Modest Proposal

  Steven Barnes

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:20 am

  I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to say that "Christian mythology" is ruining the planet. I'm saying that it seems that a disproportionate number of those who deny anthropogenic global warming (or the less politically volatile term "climate change") are Christian. Why that might be I don't know. They may be right, in the end. But it still seems strange, unless the argument is that the Bible said to be fruitful and multiply, and we must have faith in God's plan. Why the intellectual clarity to see through what so many scientists claim to believe would cluster in that direction is beyond…

• Congratulations Saints!

  Steven Barnes

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:07 am

  The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.~ Henry Ward BeecherI'm not sure, and the sample is still quite small, but it seems that a disproportionate number of the people who either/both 1) believe that Earth's population can increase indefinitely or2) disbelieve that human behaviors are causing a negative climate change/global warming are specifically Christian. What exactly this means I do not know. But it may be worth considering. Hmmm. We have Obama in the White House because we don't have civics or literacy…

• Addictions

  Steven Barnes

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:18 am

  Somehow, the post I did on "Addictions" vanished. Here it is again:##Q: How can the "Diamond Hour" help me with addictive patterns?A: One thing most anti-drug or addiction patterns miss is that addictions are pleasureable. Lost in all the PC psychobabble about peer pressure is the fact that caffeine wakes you up, nicotine has a great buzz, alcohol creates a warm friendly cocoon, and pot...well, pot is just great stuff. And all of them can interfere with your ability to grow and change and face our lives with courage. During your Diamond Hour, you can clarify the costs of using the substance…

• "The Book of Eli" (2010)

  Steven Barnes

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:39 am

  Woke up feeling fine, but then inquired into T's dreams. She countered by asking about mine. I had a misty memory of a conversation with someone...some female movie star, I think. Sigourney Weaver? Maybe. But that triggered a wave of sadness, and I couldn't put my finger on why. Then a song came to me: "I can't make you love me." You know, the one that starts "turn down the lights, turn down the bed. Turn down these voices inside my head..."Bonnie Raitt, I believe. A sad song about a woman making love to the man she wants, for the last time. And I remembered I'd heard it at DerWeinershnitzel…

• From Punishment to Pleasure: Developing a New Relationship with Exercise

  Steven Barnes

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:14 pm

  For some, our bodies are "black bags" holding unprocessed and negative emotions: fear, anger, grief, loneliness. To lose weight would be to process the emotions. To exercise is to break up the emotional sediment, which can poison you if you cannot filter it effectively. "Laziness" has nothing to do with it. I don't believe in laziness. I believe in people who do not think that a given action will lead to greater pleasure than pain, who do not see a clear way to the light. It is possible to regain our connection with our bodies in as little as five minutes a day. Five times a day, take a…

• 
  Max Barry

• My Kid Says the Darndest Things

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:04 am

  I have a little parenting problem. I need some advice. The other day I was out walking with Finlay (four years old; I know, I can’t believe it either) and an elderly woman stopped to coo over her. This woman was clearly someone’s grandmother. She was matronly. I’m thinking of the word “battleship.” You know what I’m getting at. “So cute,” said the grandmother. I said thanks and Fin said nothing and the woman began to move away. Then Fin said, “She’s got big boobs.” Into my stunned silence, Fin added, “Really big…

• The Lawnmower People

  22 Jan 2010 | 5:02 pm

  I was all set to do a blog about how using Windows is like growing evil tomatoes, then American corporations became real people. They’ve been people for a while, of course: they have the right to own things and sue you and claim they’ve been defamed. Your chair can’t do that. A corporation can, because it’s a person. But they weren’t enough of a person, apparently, so now they have First Amendment rights. In particular, they have the right to spend as much money as they like on political advertising: airing ads in favor of anti-regulation candidates over…

• A Better Max

  23 Dec 2009 | 2:41 am

  Lately my Google Alert emails have become polluted with other Max Barrys. I guess I knew it had to happen. I couldn’t have the web to myself forever. But all of a sudden there are three of us. The first guy to show up was okay. He writes about NFL. I gather that’s some kind of football. Not the good kind. But still. I was just glad he was doing something. I didn’t want some whiny, self-obsessed blogger Max Barry confusing everybody. I have that base covered. But now this third guy. I’ve been worried about the wrong thing. Because this Max Barry, he’s…

• It's Not Me, It's You

  7 Dec 2009 | 7:19 pm

  Another installment in the series: “Max Craps On About Writing.” I’ve written more bad fiction than you’ve read. I’m serious. I’ve done a hundred or so drafts of nine or ten manuscripts, and let’s not even start on the shorter stuff. Read one of my books? Think it could have been better? Well that’s what they published. That was polished. After a decade of wrangling paragraphs for a living, I have decided: it’s always the book’s fault. When your scene won’t quite come together, your novel idea won’t stay interesting, your…

• That Screaming Sound In Your Ears is Feedback

  4 Dec 2009 | 3:34 am

  So I finished Machine Man. And I want to stay all cool and authory about it, but honestly, I feel a little heartbroken. I think because when I tap out THE END on a regular novel first draft, it means I finally have something I can show people. But Machine Man wasn’t a regular first draft: it was an experience, me posting one page at a time and checking the next morning to see what people thought. That was freaking wonderful—terrifyingly wonderful—and now it’s over, I already miss it. I think I will need to do this again. This, or something like it. But my next step is…

• 
  Christopher Barzak

• YA before YA was cool

  Christopher Barzak

  2 Feb 2010 | 5:28 pm

  Last week the famous J.D. Salinger passed away, which lead to an internet riot of people either mourning–some respectfully, some deeply–or people taking pot shots at Salinger and his most famous character, Holden Caulfield. The funny thing is, most of the people commenting on the book really don’t know anything about how the book was received, its context, and why it was a hallmark book, and why perhaps it is disliked by so many contemporary readers.  (My own theory is that many books that are taught in schools are going to be disliked, because a certain amount of students…

• Attention Seattle

  Christopher Barzak

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:59 am

  Attention Seattle readers/writers.  In March, I’ll be in the city in conjunction with Northwest MediaArts to give a reading at University Bookstore on March 12th at 7PM, and a day-long writing workshop at Richard Hugo House from 10-5 on the 14th.  It’s all part of Northwest MediaArts’ Fantastic Fiction Workshops & Salons series.  If you’re interested in the reading, in the workshop, or both, please visit their website for more information. This will be my first time in Seattle.  Looking forward to seeing the city and meeting cool people.

• Farewell

  Christopher Barzak

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:56 pm

  Bon Voyage, Mr. Salinger. You gave it a good run.  And thank you for Holden Caulfield, that upset young man who saw through so much of the phoniness in the world.

• Best Beer Store in the World

  Christopher Barzak

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:23 pm

  Hello, World.  Did you know a Youngstown area retailer/pub is rated the best beer store in the world?  I didn’t until today, when my friend Peter Oresick sent me this link to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s article about Vintage Estates, which is just over the border of Youngstown in Boardman, one of the suburbs.  I certainly knew that it was one of the best places I’ve been to, but didn’t realize it was top in the world.  It’s a cool place: carryout store on one side, with every beer and wine imaginable, along with other kinds of alcohol like mead and various…

• Another recommendation

  Christopher Barzak

  27 Jan 2010 | 6:51 pm

  Over the winter break I had a chance to read more books of my own choosing than I’ve been able to do in a while.  One of them was Ali Shaw’s debut novel, The Girl With Glass Feet.  This novel is a modern fairy tale, set in a faraway land, St. Hauda’s, an icy island that is as remote and strange and wonderful as any fairy tale setting I’ve seen.  The characters are flawed and yet incredibly sympathetic, the plot: how to love in the face of impending death that comes in the form of glass that takes over one character’s body slowly but surely.  There are strange…

• 
  Lee Battersby

• DEEP JOY

  Lee Battersby...

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:33 am

  I missed out on Sunday Youtubing on the weekend, so here's something special.Stanley Unwin.Remarkibold. Goodlilode. Deep joy. :)

• ROUNDING UP

  Lee Battersby...

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:14 am

  MIDNIGHT ECHOWell, (claps hands) that’s that.All the submissions have been read, all the rejections have been sent, and now that the dust has cleared, I’m left with the 12 stories and 3 poems that make up the contents of Midnight Echo #4. Assuming nothing falls over between now and April, it’ll be my delight to present you with stories from the likes of Aurealis Award winners Chris Green and Geoffrey Maloney and international man about town Dan Braum, as well as the first poem penned by the lovely Jenny Blackford in many a long year.I’ve received well over 200 submissions from all…

• SUNDAY YOUTUBERY

  Lee Battersby...

  10 Jan 2010 | 2:19 am

  To finish the week, a spot of self-indulgence on my behalf. My very very favourite Monkees song.Enjoy.

• A WEEKEND MOST PRODUCTIVE

  Lee Battersby...

  10 Jan 2010 | 2:05 am

  It started out well: Lyn rang me on Friday afternoon to tell me she was picking me up a couple of train stops early, because she was at our friend Tehani's place and they'd decided to stay for dinner. And a fab evening it was, too: I committed Australian Man Adultery (cooked on another man's barbecue without his consent), we sat and chatted far past the kids' bedtimes, and Tehani let me borrow her copy of X6, Coeur de Lion's collection of novellas by 6 Australian authors. I'd forgotten just how much I love sitting around and jawing about writing and writers. Part of the reason I've yet to…

• HITTING THE GROUND

  Lee Battersby...

  8 Jan 2010 | 6:04 pm

  It's been a good start to the year.I've lost just over a kilogram in weight. I set myself a loss of 12 kilos for the year, so this represents a good beginning.I've completed and submitted Plot or Pants?, an article on novel planning to WQ, the monthly magazine of the Queensland Writer's CentreI've line-edited the five stories currently in my 'In Progress' folder and submitted the first of them. My plan is to have all five out in the world by the end of next week. Not a big goal, perhaps, but I only saw print twice last year, while I was focussing on Corpse-Rat King, and that's just not up to…

• 
  Jes Battis

• Hanson article

  Jes Battis

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:51 pm

  David Hanson has an interesting article in The Chronicle on welcoming gay faculty. Read in full

• LA Gay and Lesbian Center

  Jes Battis

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:53 pm

  (From The Advocate Feb 2 2010)Los Angeles students in grades 7-12 who experience bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity have a new option to complete their education free of violence and harassment at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. According to the Los Angeles Times,“The school, which serves grades seven through 12, is a collaboration between Opportunities for Learning, a charter school with 34 locations across Los Angeles and Orange counties, and Lifeworks, a mentoring program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth sponsored by the L.A. Gay…

• Green Knight

  Jes Battis

  23 Jan 2010 | 10:24 pm

  Ten reasons why the Pearl Poet's Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Cotton Nero MS, British Library) is the greatest of all fourteenth century texts produced in English:1. West Midland English dialect. Any text that regularly utilizes glottal thorns is, by definition, awesome.2. Alliterative verse. It's pleasing to read and even more pleasing to hear.3. Manuscript illustrations (see above).4. Best arming-of-the-hero scene. Even his helmet gets a verse paragraph.5. His horse is named Gringolet.6. Morgan le Fay is involved in a significant way.7. Bertilak, the Green Knight, exchanges kisses with…

• Caprica

  Jes Battis

  23 Jan 2010 | 5:52 pm

  Jane Espenson is a writer for the new Battlestar spin-off, Caprica, and she says that the cast will include LGBT characters. Espenson is a former Buffy writer, and wrote some of the funniest and most interesting episodes for that show. Read the full interview here.This is Sam (actor Sasha Roiz). Sam is gay and on Caprica. Let's all program our VCRs, or whatever Tivo thingy the kids are using nowadays.

• Covers

  Jes Battis

  23 Jan 2010 | 4:52 pm

  Novel covers are a fascinating hybrid of artistic and advertising impulses. They are the visual lifeblood of the publishing industry, and in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, they can quite easily determine the popularity of a text. Frankly, nobody cares what the cover is going to be on a classic literary text, like Frazier's Golden Bough, or El cantar de mio Cid. But the cover of a new series by an previously unpublished fiction writer, and even a semi-established fiction writer, can make or break a series. Ultimately, if a browsing customer doesn't decide to pick up your book by…

• 
  Elizabeth Bear

• stab a knife in my heart

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

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:35 am

  Bear: Okay, brain. Time to work on Grail now.Bear's brain: But surely we need to do laundry, or schedule an appointment with the appliance repair people, or make bread, or go for a run, or--Bear: No, brain, we did all those things already. Bear's brain: There's a new Hustle to watch!Bear: Work first, play later.Bear's brain: Isn't there some kind of snowpocalypse prep we need to be doing?Bear: We don't need to leave this house until noon on Thursday. Nice try. Work, you.Bear's brain: What if we brush the dog while we watch Hustle? What if--Bear: WORK!Bear's brain: Sure. As soon as I finish…

• and the boys upstairs just don't understand any more

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

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:02 pm

  1023 words on Grail just now, which is wholly respectable. That puts me at 250 pages, which means that when I have finished filling in this thread that I need to write in the front part of the book, I will be more or less at the climax. Which is about how it should work, I think. Because I had just gotten to the first major escalation when I realized I had issues with the first half--no, that's wrong, I knew all along hat I had issues with the first half, but getting to the first major escalation and getting stuck and going to the notecards showed me how to fix them--I should, in fact, just…

• and i fall

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

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:19 pm

  Tonight at the climbing gym while I was waiting for the The Jeff, I had my spinning out and was playing with it (the current fiber is some pewter-black alpaca I love for its long staple length, and because it's the exact same color as my dog) when one of the other climber girls (We'll call her Kate, because that's her name, unless it's Cait or Cate) came up and said "OMG you spin!"I wanted to come home and tell jmeadows all about it, but alas, she seems to be Off The Internets! So I am telling livejournal instead.It turns out Kate is quite the fiber arts diva. She showed me a beautiful…

• We're early!

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

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:11 pm

  The Shadow Unit season premier is live now here.

• he worries about the hermaphrodites.

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

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:12 am

  Speaking of Charlie Stross, via him:Dancing hexapod robots.20082009cooooooooool.

• 
  Greg Bear

• DISCUSSION: The space between Mariposa and Queen of Angels

  31 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

• DISCUSSION: Are You Experimenting With Fantasy?

  29 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

• DISCUSSION: Get yer slate here!.....

  29 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

• DISCUSSION: Evidence of a Post Typhonic Universe? ( a little humor re:City)

  28 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

• DISCUSSION: PTSD treatment links - shades of Mariposa

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

• 
  John Birmingham

• Esther wrote on their own wire:

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:32 pm

  Esther wrote on their own wire: Bingocams : de leukste online bingo site van nederland. http://www.onlinebingowebcams.nl

• onlinegokkasten updated the "Base" information on their profile

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:28 pm

  onlinegokkasten updated the "Base" information on their profile

• Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: Part 8 anaylsis of "The Deliverance of God"

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:10 pm

  Darkcloud wrote a new blog post: Part 8 anaylsis of "The Deliverance of God" Okay everyone, this is the post you’ve finally been waiting on! We are finally into Part 4 of The Deliverance of God where Campbell begins to walk through his alternative reading of Paul. To begin, Campbell asks us to step back and consider the “frame” of Romans. Why was the book written? What prompted Paul to [...]

• journallidzze wrote on their own wire:

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:42 pm

  journallidzze wrote on their own wire: toe redness and pain math cognition test free muscle anatomy video pictures of colonial clothing for men an worksheets for third grade on main idea polygonsquiz o adjectives warlock haste rash on fingers pictures final [...]

• P. C. Ocampo wrote a new blog post: 1184: Everyone Has A Voice, But Who Listens?

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:10 pm

  P. C. Ocampo wrote a new blog post: 1184: Everyone Has A Voice, But Who Listens? Saturday post! It’s rare enough to want to brag about it! I just hope I will still be able to post next week from the off-campus workshop with the incoming president for next school year. @@ http://www.thoughts.com/typedoutloud/blog/978-know-when-your e-doing-something-others-dont-226967/ February 4, 2009 I know one sickness I have (which an exaggeration of saying it’s just a bad habit [...]

• 
  David Bishop

• Who Says Superbowl is Straight?

  COMING SOON:

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:59 am

• Innuendo [and out the other]

  COMING SOON:

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:39 am

  There's a wonderful website that collects THE END screenshots from different films. When you scroll over each image, it reveals the relevant movie's title. Having a grubby mind, I couldn't stop myself from sharing a few of the more innuendo-inducing titles with you. Apologies to all those who expect something less puerile from Vicious Imagery, I'm in a scampish mood today...

• In the new Radio Times: Writer - David Bishop

  COMING SOON:

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:57 am

  Consider me validated. On Wednesday February 10 I'll attain my first TV drama writing credit. My episode of Doctors, A Pill for Every Ill, is due for broadcast on BBC1 at 1.45pm [with a subsequent repeat on the BBC HD channel]. Proof can be found in venerable listings magazine Radio Times, as pictured above. I'll post a link to iPlayer once the episode's aired. It's official - I am a TV drama writer. Now comes the tough part, getting a second commission. Onwards!

• Hurt Locker ties Avatar for most Oscar noms

  COMING SOON:

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:44 am

  The Hurt Locker was my favourite film of 2009. Eleven months ago I was bigging it up to a class of undergrad students on a module about contemporary Hollywood cinema, telling them how advance buzz suggested it would be the first successful modern war film since Bush launched his war on terror. Even showed them the trailer, such was my enthusiasm for the then-forthcoming feature.The Hurt Locker didn't make a fortune at the box office - grossing about $16 million worldwide, against an estimated budget of £11 million. That's small change compared to its main rival at the Oscars, Avatar - the…

• A Pill for Every Ill - it's official!

  COMING SOON:

  28 Jan 2010 | 3:16 pm

  Blimey, the Radio Times website has posted the first listing for my episode of Doctors! Interesting to see how it's been billed. Of course, my first TV drama credit won't seem official until I see the printed version in next week's Radio Times - naming me as the writer. In the meantime, here's the digital billing to preview A Pill For Every Ill:Doctors • Wednesday 10 February1:45pm - 2:15pm • BBC1A Pill for Every IllSimon finds himself out of his depth when treating a woman with extreme PMS symptoms, while Elise invites Immie to spend the night at her house. And Daniel has to apologise to…

• 
  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

• AggieCon 41 in the rear-view mirror

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:46 am

  AggieCon has a proud, yet tumultuous history. Run by students at Texas A&M, it is the oldest science fiction convention in the state and the guest list of years past reads like a Who's Who of genre and comics publishing of the last 50 years. Almost all of the big names have attended at one time or another, and during the 1970s the con was akin to a giant astride the Earth. Being a student organization, however, left it with one major Achilles heel--the inevitability of graduation and younger generations reinventing the wheel over and over again. Still, there were more good AggieCons than…

• Aggiecon or bust

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:00 pm

  Well, by this time tomorrow I should be in the booming cultural Mecca of College Station, participating in what should have been my 20th Aggiecon. It's not, though, because I wasn't invited two years ago, and although I was invited last year, the con com was so unresponsive and slow to deliver information that conflicts arose in the interim and I had to bow out. The guest list is more impressive this year, with Steven Gould, Martha Wells and Ellen Datlow headlining, so that's an encouraging sign. The bad news is that despite assurances from the con com, I have no reading on the schedule…

• Space Shuttle Atlantis highlights 2010 Nebula Awards Weekend

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:17 pm

  CHESTERTOWN, Md. -- Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America will descend on Coco Beach, Fla., on Cape Canaveral for the 2009 Nebula Awards® Weekend May 13-16. The date was chosen to coincide with the scheduled launching of the Shuttle Atlantis on Friday, May 14. The Nebula Awards will be presented at a banquet on Saturday evening, May 15.The Nebulas will be held at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront, just 20 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center. The Friday launch of the shuttle Atlantis will be visible from the beach outside the hotel. There will also be special tours of the Kennedy…

• Friday Night Videos

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:27 am

  I suppose Sheena Easton counts as a guilty pleasure. Unlike my other great musical loves, The Kinks and Billy Joel, I'll not make the argument Easton is an artistic genius. Her most successful singles are lightweight things, and her albums are notorious for being overloaded with crap filler. Her two stabs at upping her game with more substantive material--1982's Madness, Money & Music and 1993's No Strings both flopped miserably, despite being, from my viewpoint, the artistic high points of her career. Still, despite the drek, when Easton gets the right material, her voice simply soars. Case…

• Another photo shoot

  Jayme Lynn Blaschke

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:10 am

  The Wife has gotten so good with her photography skills--she attends conferences and learning seminars with nationally-prominent photographers on a regular basis--that I can often feel like dead weight on her career. I am supposed to be her second shooter/backup for Lisa on Location, but it's no great desire of mine to be a great talent drop-off when called upon to shoot. So every so often I manage to squeeze in a shooting session, to keep those photography muscles lubricated and the mind sharp. It also has the added benefit of giving me a break from all the Chicken Ranch work I'm doing,…

• 
  Gwenda Bond

• Monday Hangovers

  Gwenda Bond

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:53 am

  Dani Shapiro has a depressing but ultimately hopeful essay in the LA Times, "A Writing Career Becomes Harder to Scale": "Every single piece of writing I have ever completed -- whether a novel, a memoir, an essay, short story or review -- has begun as a wrestling match between hopelessness and something else, some other quality that all writers, if they are to keep going, must possess." Read the whole piece. The fabulous Jo Whittemore takes a look at the difference between outsider and insider approaches to writing fantasy (see comments also; I think I'm with the…

• Blitz Tourism

  Gwenda Bond

  5 Feb 2010 | 12:13 pm

  By the way, I'd suggest there are far worse ways to spend your weekend than cuddled up with Connie Willis's spectacular new novel Blackout. Man, oh, man, did I adore this book. Yes, it ends on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait for All Clear to come out this fall, but the entire thing is so perfect that I don't see how you can possibly wait to go ahead and read this one now. Available at fine booksellers from Spectra as of earlier this week, or score one of the limited editions from the ever-fabulous Subterranean Press.It has nail-biting tension, just the right touch of…

• Friday Hangovers

  Gwenda Bond

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:21 am

  There's a new issue of Hunger Mountain full of great things, including a heartfelt tribute to Norma Fox Mazer. I'm looking forward to reading all of it. But in that issue, I especially want to call your attention to Kathi Appelt's wonderful essay "Blurring the Lines," touched off by anonymous comments calling her writing too self-conscious and suggesting her novel The Underneath is more for adults than kids. Seriously, you need to read this if you write for children and young adults, or even just enjoy a fine essay. A snippet I loved, but which is only a side point:…

• Thursday Hangovers

  Gwenda Bond

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:29 am

  Cornelia Funke shows up in the comments over at Roger Sutton's to discuss the collaborative process for her new book. Tune in to the #genderinYA discussion going wildfire today over at twitter, kicked off by Maureen Johnson. Katherine Langrish has a dead interesting post about magical rooms in kids' and YA fiction: "A room of one's own. Many children do not have one. They share with brothers or sisters. They lead lives ruled by adults. A room of one's own, for a child, is a place where it can be in control. It's also a place to start out from: the firm base of…

• Tuesday Hangovers

  Gwenda Bond

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:09 am

  Up to third of children and young adults in the UK believe at least one of their teachers is inhabited by an alien. (Via Sarah) Betsy reviews Rita Williams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer (so awesome!) and highly recommends it. And the Book Smugglers have a rave for N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Laura Miller weighs in on the e-book subject and the latest war with some intriguing thoughts about pricing, e-book readers and the like. Worth checking out. (By the way, as Scalzi points out, Macmillan authors' books are still being held hostage by Amazon, so offer them (and…

• 
  Marie Brennan

• your daily dose of gender rage

  The Swan

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:35 am

  Cat Valente (yuki_onna) is on a roll at the moment, first with a splendid jab at the gendering of deodorant marketing (men get Science! women get Squishy Feelings!), and then with a right hook that takes down Super Bowl commercials.Pretty much all I have to say is, right on. This is why I hate watching TV as it airs; this is why I stay away from sitcoms and comedic movies in general. Because they present me with this awful, appalling world of Bitchy Women and Immature Men and How They'll Never Understand One Another, and then they ask me to find it funny. And not only do I not find it funny,…

• wrong project, but oh well

  The Swan

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:28 pm

  Man, I don't know what it is. All I have to do is decide, "I'm working on Thing X!," and I will without fail come up with ideas for Thing Y instead.In the current instance, that means I decided I would try to finish "The Unquiet Grave" by the end of the month, and promptly put down 1,022 words on "Mad Maudlin" instead. Not really complaining -- I don't care which short story I make progress on, so long as it's one of them -- but I really wish I could find a way to leverage this for novels. As I said on matociquala's LJ the other day, it seems to me like there should be a way to do it.

• first lines meme, completed stories edition

  The Swan

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:31 pm

  I mentioned several stories in my last post which are awaiting revision. I think what I'd like to do here is discuss two categories: stories which I'm not submitting anywhere, and stories I intend to submit once I get the damn things revised.These are the ones I've decided, for one reason or another, to put into the trunk. I thought it might be interesting to line them up and see if any themes emerge. In the interests of avoiding a lot of juvenilia, we're looking only a short stories (and one novella) produced after "Execution Morning," which I consider to be the first short fiction I wrote…

• First lines!

  The Swan

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:29 am

  It seems to be that time of year (or whatever cycle this is on), when writers on my flist do the "first lines" meme. As in, we post the opening lines of our various unfinished stories, sometimes with commentary, in the hopes of maybe prodding one of them forward. In celebration of the new short story, let me go over the stuff I've got sitting around. (Counting only stuff that has at least a fragment written down. If we included things that consist of titles and vague ideas, or vague ideas without titles, or titles without vague ideas, we'd be here all month.)[untitled fairy tale story]"Two…

• GOD I've missed this.

  The Swan

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:16 pm

  2,650 words today, and that's a story. A complete short story, from beginning to end, knocked out in an evening because I just felt like it.I don't remember the last time I managed that. "Serpent, Wolf, and Half-Dead Thing" was similarly an idea that mugged me out of nowhere (rather than coming from my list of unfinished ideas), but it stalled several times on its way to completion. This one sent me to pace the upstairs hallway once or twice, but that was simply a matter of finding the words.This feels really good. I need to find my way back to doing it more often.

• 
  David Brin

• The Admiral as Hero

  David Brin

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:39 pm

   Where is that Predictions Registry, when I need one? Did I holler with joy across cyberspace, back when Adm. Mike Mullen became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs?  People said, "Calm down David, it's not the Second Coming!" But I felt it was damn close to a kind of salvation.You see, I knew that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney held no truck with the United States Navy, the service that had resisted most fiercely their relentless efforts to geld, politicize and even proselytize our military. If an admiral was about to become chairman, then it meant that the recent elevation of…

• Treason Against Conservatism

  David Brin

  29 Jan 2010 | 11:49 am

  I beckon everybody to go visit the blog of one of the most incisive political observers around, Russ Daggatt.  In this posting, Russ points out that the current GOP lockstep-disciplined partisanship has nothing to do with conservatism, or patriotism, or deliberation or governance... or even dogma.   For example, just yesterday, the Republicans in the Senate voted in perfect formation against re-instituting "pay-as-you-go" budget rules that require tax cuts or spending increases be matched by revenue measures that keep the effect debt-neutral.  Or, as Daggatt's put it:…

• Followup on Haiti, Science, Brinstuff and the Enlightenment!

  David Brin

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:12 pm

  Salon Magazine asked to publish as a main article an updated version of my essay about reconstruction in Haiti, wherein I suggest the establishment of clear corridors for every kind of right-of-way, across the capital city -- mass transit,sewer,water, electricity, fiber-optics, even WiFi can go in cheap, if all pathway issues are settled at once -- so that the skeleton and sinew and bloodstream of a vibrant city can arise... leaving all the subsequent details to Haitians.  <b>Drop in and give the essay traffic!  Comment if you like.</b>And hold on till the end for one of…

• Urban Planning from the Ruins

  David Brin

  24 Jan 2010 | 6:06 pm

  In the latest issue of Newsweek, President Barack Obama explains  "Why Haiti Matters," offering reasons -- from moral to pragmatic -- for Americans to care about that unlucky nation. Indeed, were it possible to wave a wand and transform that hellish place into an upward-rising land of hope, health, education, enterprise and opportunity, while re-planting its ravaged hillsides, who wouldn't?  Lacking magic wands, we have another tool -- money -- in limited amounts. That, combined with ingenuity and goodwill, can take care of some short term things.  Stop the…

• A Cornucopia of Wonders?

  David Brin

  9 Jan 2010 | 10:05 pm

  This will be one of my splurges, posting a melange of miscellany for anyone to share, starting with an announcement that... ... four of my books are now released to Kindle! EARTH, The Uplift War, Otherness and The Practice Effect.  In 2 weeks: Startide Rising and Heaven's Reach. (Kiln People and Foundation's Triumph were already available.)Ethics and The Future.  I've been honored to be named a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET).    I was already a participant in the Center for Ethics, shared by UCSD, USD, and SDSU. Both institutions…

• 
  Poppy Z. Brite

• OMFG

  Poppy Z. Brite

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:49 pm

• Inspiration

  Poppy Z. Brite

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:41 am

  I wondered why my husband wasn't in bed at 5:00 this morning, but after reading this, I can hardly complain.

• The Promised Land

  Poppy Z. Brite

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:56 pm

  The fetish is immured in the frozen waters of Lake Pontchartrain-in-my-freezer; the chicken for the jambalaya is transubstantiated into Colt meat; the first beads of the season have been caught (appropriately, from the Pontchartrain parade); the king cakes are purchased, one black & gold, one purple, green, & gold; the house is reasonably clean; the unwashed lucky Shockey jersey is waiting in the dresser drawer; the guest bed is ready for a certain founding member of the Who Dat Mafia; the date is February 7, 2010, it's Super Bowl Sunday, and THE FREAKING SAINTS ARE IN THE FREAKING SUPER…

• Culinary Transubstantiation

  Poppy Z. Brite

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:25 pm

  By the time this former chicken breast is ready to go into my game day jambalaya, it will be Colt meat!Also: Did I tell you I can haz pneumonia? Well, I can haz pneumonia. And duz. But steadfastly refuse to die until after the victory parade on Tuesday, which I will go to, even if marquisdd has to superglue me into his antique wheelchair like Freddy Lounds.[ETA: Well, God dammit, if only I'd made a psychic Super Bowl prediction in November, I could have had this right handy in my freezer. I didn't think I'd ever eaten horse, but I've eaten Dutch "fried fast food snacks" (read: FEBO), so who…

• NSFW

  Poppy Z. Brite

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:21 am

  The Super Bowl fetish that started with the blue My Little Pony from Indiana is coming together nicely.

• 
  Steven Brust

• Watch This Space

  skzbrust

  22 Jan 2010 | 4:15 pm

  Just a heads up: We’re going to be doing some fun things with the blog, and with my web site (dreamcafe.com), so the look will be changing.  One thing we plan on is that the books on the blog will contain a link to discussion space here for each book (this in answer to the request about a discussion of The Rain In Spain), and in general there will be Tons Of Neat Stuff. Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

• New blog post

  skzbrust

  13 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pm

  So, it's starting to look as if the automatic cross-posting from my blog to LJ is never going to be fixed. For now, I've decided to use a BFMI approach. New blog post here. Any discussion should take place there.

• Wordpress Help?

  skzbrust

  11 Aug 2009 | 4:38 pm

     I'm still not having any luck getting my blog entries to show up here on LJ.  sleary had a suggestion for changing the crossposting plugin, which we tried, but no good.  I'm still getting the message "Something went wrong - -32300 : transport error - HTTP status code was not 200."Anyone know wordpress?

• Texas Wisdom #7

  skzbrust

  22 Jul 2009 | 9:28 am

  “When I said you was s’posed to become one with the duck before you pull the trigger, I didn’t mean you was s’posed to shoot yourself.” – Billy-Bob Gautama Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.

• Words Feed problem

  skzbrust

  17 Jul 2009 | 8:52 pm

  Apparently, my last several posts from my blog, Words Words Words, have not been appearing here--getting some sort of weird transport error.  Until we get this figured out, the RSS feed is still working at least.

• 
  Tobias Buckell

• Snowpocalypse

  Tobias Buckell

  6 Feb 2010 | 2:02 pm

  It is an absolutely beautiful day here. There’s a half of a foot or more of snow everywhere, and the day is bright, and cheerful. This is what I always thought winter would be like: not the dreary, snow-less, but cold and cloudy, un-sunfilled grey blah that is usually the Ohio winter.

• Teleread offers a more moderated stance

  Tobias Buckell

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:51 pm

  Chris Meadows chided me in the comments for my representing Teleread as being of one mind or stance, as its a group blog and a large group of readers are represented inside. So he chides me rightly. He also linked a more moderated stance: It’s the kind of misunderstanding that makes it so, so seductive to write a response, because “someone is wrong on the Internet” and you’re just sure that if you make that one more post, say that one more thing, you’ll get through to them somehow. You know beyond any doubt that you’re right, and you’re sure they’d agree too except they’re…

• Joshua Bilmes on eBook author royalties

  Tobias Buckell

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:43 pm

  This is for my readers who are also writers. Some authors have an agreement that specifies their royalties are a percentage of the book’s ‘listed price.’ Most publishers are moving to a system where authors get a percent of ‘net,’ or the money they get from the sale of book.For example, a $10 eBook sale, with 15% ‘list price’ agreement nets the author a royalty of $1.50. Under an agency agreement of ‘net’ at the standard 25%, the author gets 25% of what the publisher gets.With Amazon doing the 70% of book’s price to publisher thing,…

• Why do people want more expensive backlist books?

  Tobias Buckell

  5 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

  So over here at Teleread they’re calling for badly rating books online due to their costs: maybe ‘hurting’ the authors is what we actually need to do for awhile. I don’t mean ‘hurt’ them through piracy or anything ridiculous like that. But we have to get someone to see that this fear of all things digital is costing authors actual sales from people who want to spend legitimate money. If a spate of 1-star Amazon reviews is what it will take to send panicked authors running to their agents and publishers demanding change for us, I say Power to the People.Okay, suppose Teleread…

• The end of the world! Or not.

  Tobias Buckell

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:12 pm

  Cat Valente nails it here, talking about why publishers need to continue to exist. Its a perfect post about it, should be read by all, etc: Funny thing is, if this future came to pass and the market were nothing but self-published autonomous authors either writing without editorial or paying out of pocket for it, if we were flooded with good product mixed with bad like gold in a stream, it would be about five seconds before someone came along and said: hey, what if I started a company where we took on all the risk, hired an editorial staff and a marketing staff to make the product better and…

• 
  Emma Bull

• We're baaaaaaaaaaack.

  Coffee Em

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:17 pm

  The season three premiere of Shadow Unit, "The Unicorn Evils" by Elizabeth Bear and me, is live! Don't forget to look for hidden links...(Stop back by the Shadow Unit site tomorrow; we're posting .pdf, epub, and prc files of the new episode then, for those of you who prefer to read off-line!)

• War Correspondents in the Battle of the Books

  Coffee Em

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:27 am

  I recommend reading Jay Lake's civilized coverage of the issues (and the subsequent comments, which are also well worth thinking about), and Tobias Buckell's gentlemanly and informative view from the trenches.

• And now for some GOOD news.

  Coffee Em

  1 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pm

  Actually, matociquala says it better than I could. So I'll let her tell it.Yep, Shadow Unit Season Three opens with a lovely big bang. Are we rather proud of ourselves? Oh, yes. *g*

• Kage Baker

  Coffee Em

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:30 am

  A brilliant writer, insightful, satirical, sensitive, wry. In person, shy, funny, a wonderful storyteller.I hate having to use this icon.

• Macmillan vs. Amazon cage match

  Coffee Em

  30 Jan 2010 | 11:59 am

  As Jim Hines wisely warns, we don't really know why Amazon has pulled all Macmillan titles--which includes Tor Books, which includes me--from their e-shelves. (Those books are still available at Amazon, but from other sellers.) So I'm not going to spend the weekend being up in arms.But as Jim reprints,"Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books..."I've been saying since the Kindle appeared that e-books shouldn't cost people more than the…

• 
  Stephanie Burgis

• ARC giveaway and Sick Soup

  Stephanie Burgis

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:48 am

  First of all, some excellent news: this month's giveaway of A Most Improper Magick is being held by The Story Siren, a fabulous book blogger. You can enter to win an Advance Readers' Copy of the book any time until next Friday, February 19th. Good luck!(Sadly, this one is only open to US readers, but I promise there will be more opportunities for international readers in other months.)In less excellent news, by 7pm last night I was feverish and miserable with the same bug MrD has been suffering through. Thank goodness, he finally started to perk up at about the same time (the worst part of…

• Life interruptions and a call for help

  Stephanie Burgis

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:43 am

  Poor MrD has been sick the last few days (nothing dangerous, just the usual kind of baby virus), so life has pretty much ground to a halt.. Between sheer exhaustion on all our parts, a cranky, sad toddler who needs full-on cuddles and attention, and the usual round of paranoid (and mostly unfounded) parent fears, I've been feeling lucky to manage 600 words a day. So in other words, Kat3 is Still Not Done (I feel like Aragorn: Still not King!)...which is kind of frustrating but also kind of a relief.It's a weird feeling, coming to the end of a trilogy. On the one hand, part of me feels…

• Sleepy brain, speedy book, scandalous shopping temptations

  Stephanie Burgis

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:05 pm

  OK, I sat down at my computer tonight, called up livejournal onto my screen...and thought, I'm too tired to write an entry tonight. The only problem is, that's what I thought last night...and the night before...and if there's one thing parenthood has taught me, it's how to write even when you're so exhausted, the world is starting to go blurry around you. (When MrD first started waking up every 1-2 hours through the night, I stopped even trying to write fiction, because really...how could anyone possibly be creative on such an insane, tortuous sleep schedule? I figured I'd just wait until it…

• Serendipity, turtle steps, and modified success

  Stephanie Burgis

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:27 am

  Serendipity can be a funny thing. This week I've been re-reading Martha Beck's (wonderful) life/career guidance book, Finding Your Own North Star, for the umpteenth time, and this time, like every other time I've read it, I've come across various bits that are newly helpful for this particular point in my life. But it's never happened with quite such spookily perfect timing, before.I've been reading it pretty slowly, because it's my book for reading while I settle or re-settle MrD into his naps. Yesterday, when I went upstairs to settle him down into a nap (my main writing time, btw, comes…

• Writing caves, glamor, and Regency-era TV fun

  Stephanie Burgis

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:05 am

  Wahhh, our friends are gone...which means it's time to go back into the writing cave! And as we all know, the most vital supplies for trekking through unlit and dangerous writing caves are dark chocolate and Earl Grey tea. (Unless, like Patrick, you prefer Sencha green tea, or, like the pre-baby me, you get to enjoy the intense and decadent luxury of drinking coffee...oops. I may have started drooling on the keyboard there. Sorry about that!) (One more year till I can go back to drinking coffee. Only one more year to go...)Anyway, it was great being social. And yesterday I had one of the…

• 
  Michael A. Burstein

• Going to Boskone!

  mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  Excellent news! Thanks to the assistance of a former student of mine who has agreed to help us out, Nomi and I will be showing up at Boskone this Sunday at around 11 am and will be bringing the girls, so people can meet them. Our plan is basically just to plop down in the Con Suite or some hallway so folks can come by and see us (since carrying two fifteen-pound babies around will tire us out easily).I know it's not really attending the con a lot, but this way we do get to see people.Three notes:1. If you think you'll want to make sure to see us, be in touch with me and and I'll email you my…

• New Hubble Images of Pluto

  mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:53 am

  As reported over on the SP3 blog at Hubble Images of Pluto, yesterday, NASA released some new images of Pluto taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, that reveal Pluto to be "a complex-looking and variegated world with white, dark-orange, and charcoal-black terrain." Pluto's many changes show it to be "not simply a ball of ice and rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes."Follow the link above to other links to NASA's Hubble photos of Pluto, including a video.

• [Announcement] Michael's Birthday - Pareve Purim Party

  mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:23 am

  The day after my birthday is the Jewish holiday of Purim, so Nomi and I are combining the two into one celebration! Come celebrate my birthday on Sunday afternoon, February 28, from 2 pm to 5 pm and enjoy pareve (i.e. no milk) desserts.If you need directions or want to be added to the evite that got sent out, just let me know in comments.

• What A Deal! I Remember the Future on Kindle For Only $2!

  mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:47 am

  In honor of my upcoming birthday this month (at least, that's what I'm assuming is the reason), Apex Publications is making all of their Kindle ebooks available for purchase for only $2.That includes I Remember the Future! Fifteen stories that among them have been nominated for ten Hugos and three Nebulas, along with author afterwords, for only two bucks!Don't own a Kindle? If you own an iPhone, you can download the free Kindle app.Don't own an iPhone? The ebook is still available at Fictionwise and Barnes & Noble for only $4.99.Okay, I'm done now.

• Kage Baker and Me, Five Years Ago Today

  mabfan (Michael A. Burstein)

  31 Jan 2010 | 2:05 pm

  To: Kage BakerFrom: Michael A. BursteinSubject: Fan noteDate: 1/31/05 10:28 AMDear Ms. Baker,As one writer to another, I just wanted to drop you a note to say that I started reading your Company novels recently, and am enjoying them immensely.Sincerely,Michael A. BursteinTo: Michael A. BursteinFrom: Kage BakerSubject: Re: Fan noteDate: 1/31/05 8:50 PMThank you for brightening up a grim Monday! You're one of the Asimov's crew too, aren't you?To: Kage BakerFrom: Michael A. BursteinSubject: Re: Fan noteDate: 1/31/05 10:23 PMAnalog, actually.Glad to hear I brightened your day!I know I've read a…

• 
  Bonnie Burton

• Tweets for the Day

  Bonnie Burton

  9 Feb 2010 | 1:05 am

  Tweets for the Day11:01 Guess who won my pal's Superbowl pool without even watching the game. Yup, ME! twitpic.com/123k07 # 11:04 It's #MandalorianMonday over at @starwars. Tweet your fave photos, videos, art, tattoos, crafts & other Mando links! # 11:12 #SNL Burn Notice Game Show w/ @aplusk. Ironically, more people probably watch @BurnNotice_USA than #SNL. is.gd/7XpGt # 11:41 Bruce Campbell is the bacon of TV. He makes everything taste better! #BurnNotice @BurnNotice_USA # 12:06 Let's see #SNL give a HOW-To on blowing up assassins with a microwave. Popcorn = BAM! I &#9829;…

• Ultradome: Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones

  Bonnie Burton

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:10 pm

• Tweets for the Day

  Bonnie Burton

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:04 am

  Tweets for the Day01:58 RT @qikipedia: Willow trees contain natural aspirin. Hippocrates was using willow bark as a painkiller in 400BC. # 13:04 RT @trentvanegas: twitpic.com/11ss9n - Vader, bitches #starwars # 15:15 RT @eldiablito_72: Me & my friend Gus found a friend from Hoth at Further Confusion 2010. #starwars twitpic.com/11ygsh # 15:17 A thing of beauty... RT @grantimahara: twitpic.com/11yv20 - The (not so) mythical self-serve Guiness tap. # 15:19 #insteadofsuperbowl I'm making Star Wars puppets, toys & art! # 15:20 RT @nerdist: Proudly watching #DoctorWho. Suck it, Superbowl!!!

• Tweets for the Day

  Bonnie Burton

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:02 am

  Tweets for the Day01:18 Just once I wish @BritishMonarchy would tweet "We are not amused." # 01:38 Electric Sheep That Went Undreamt from @Templesmith! is.gd/7NzmJ #comics # 01:56 My Geektastic Dream #23! - RT @neilhimself: I got to introduce @stephenfry to @feliciaday. It gets no better. # 02:30 Giant Robot Baby! is.gd/7NEid (RT @narwilliams) #robots # 14:49 RT @BrianHuberd: @Neilhimself will write #DoctorWho in 2011! bit.ly/9DTLkS # 14:53 Rock out with your Spock out! www.teefury.com/ #startrek (RT @clubjade) # 15:13 Dear Game Designers: invite your girlfriends to dress like this for…

• Tweets for the Day

  Bonnie Burton

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:03 am

  Tweets for the Day11:28 8-Bit Mario Blanket craft! is.gd/7Iq7G (RT @instructables) #crafts #MarioBros #gaming # 11:31 If you like awesome drawings of Ithorians, adorkable vinyl toys & interesting links, you should #FF Sir @NathanHamill. # 11:41 Tonight's #CloneWars written by comics god @Paul_Dini is my fave this season. Tune in for creepy droids & great 1-liners. is.gd/7Md0V # 12:00 Watch the lovely @FeliciaDay play #Xbox Project Natal! is.gd/7MgrI (via @tomzhall) #gaming #adorkable # 12:16 Hey @lucasfilmmouse, R2-D2 is waiting for you at the trap..er I mean rendezvous point...

• 
  Rachel Caine

• DING DING DING!

  21 Jan 2010 | 11:23 am

  Yay, it is with immense relief that I announce that the manuscript has been surrendered, at staggering cost to my sleeping hours, and I am DONE!TOTAL ECLIPSE:90270 / 90000And there was much, very tired, rejoicing.-- Rachel

• I'm not flailing. That's just -- exercise.

  20 Jan 2010 | 5:43 am

  Yes, today is DEADLINE DAY. January 20th. And I have to turn in TOTAL ECLIPSE, the last Weather Warden book.Is it do-able? Yes. I'm making excellent progress this morning, and I plan to write like the wind until noon, then reverse course in the afternoon and go through from the beginning to smooth it out. Hopefully, I will be done by close of business in New York, but if not, it'll be in super-patient editor Anne's mailbox in the morning.Ever notice how finishing a manuscript is like meditating while in a state of total panic?TOTAL ECLIPSE:82000 / 90000Working it ...-- Rachel

• I see the end! Waaaay over there.

  18 Jan 2010 | 9:18 am

  Well, I've been a boring little bee, buzzing endlessly around on TOTAL ECLIPSE. I have literally done almost nothing else. Surprisingly, it's been a great time to initiate my strict diet and exercise regimen, because for some perverse reason having nothing else to look forward to (like yummy meals or, y'know, free time) has helped me really focus in on the storytelling.And yay, I'm losing weight already! Not much, but hey. I'm working the plan.My Wii fitness instructor didn't insult me today. Win!So, to update you on the progress of TOTAL ECLIPSE:68253 / 90000I know, it still looks dire,…

• Happy Birthday, Ter!

  12 Jan 2010 | 6:45 am

  Today is Ter Matthies' birthday. Many of my LJ friends also knew ter369, so I wanted to share the love with you. Ter left us a couple of years ago, but her spirit and influence remain with me, and I just wanted to say that I was thinking about her.I have the manuscript of the novel into which she poured so much passion and work, and I am pledging today that by the end of 2010, I will have that manuscript polished, edited, and published in Ter's name. She was passionate about two things in particular: wolves, and opera. I think she takes care of the opera in the book, but my plan is to partner…

• Weather report: Cloudy, with a chance of completion

  12 Jan 2010 | 6:15 am

  Well, it's been traumatic, again, to the point that I had to take a leave of absence from work completely ... things are just too insane on both sides of my life to properly balance and keep myself sane while I carried out this ultra-ambitious writing schedule.So I feel better, am getting more rest, and the book is coming along! NOT THAT IT IS DONE. It is not. But:TOTAL ECLIPSE52784 / 100000Yay!Now, I just have to do that again, in the next 7 days.Um ... right. Getting back to work now.-- Rachel

• 
  Jeffrey Carver

• Books Back Up at Amazon

  Jeffrey A. Carver

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:32 pm

  The Seven Day War between Amazon and my publisher's parent company Macmillan seems to be over.  Amazon restored the Buy buttons to my books last night, and by all reports to the rest of the Macmillan catalogue as well.  Am I going to restore the Amazon links that I took down from my website?  (I didn't go through my site methodically removing all links, but I did take down the most prominent ones.)  Let me get back to you on that.  It potentially costs me money in the form of referral fees—not a lot of money, but every little bit helps—to keep them down.  But…

• Interview Here, Appearance There

  Jeffrey A. Carver

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:02 pm

  ScifiBookshelf.com has just posted an interview with me. I'll be appearing at a fundraiser at my town library, Robbins Library of Arlington, Mass., tomorrow evening from 6 - 9. They've got a bunch of local authors coming, all bringing books to sign. Should be a fun event. I'll also be at Boskone, the annual convention sponsored by the New England Science Fiction Association, on Feb. 12 -13 (but not on Sunday).

• Amazon Continues to Hit Authors in the Wallet

  Jeffrey A. Carver

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pm

  Although Amazon staff publicly stated they were conceding to Macmillan in the big battle over ebook pricing, they still have not restored Macmillan/Tor titles to their listings. Is this a continued tantrum against Macmillan, to punish them for their negotiating position? Does Amazon care how many authors they're harming? (I think we know the answer to that one.) I am a longtime Amazon customer and Amazon Associate, but I don't plan to send them any more of my dollars as long as they continue this senseless war. Since Amazon is no longer selling new copies of Sunborn, let me post some purchase…

• Has Chuck Jumped the Shark?

  Jeffrey A. Carver

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:27 pm

  Chuck is one of my favorite TV shows, and one that Allysen and I most eagerly awaited the return of. But...but...what have they done with our show? In the first five episodes, the writing has taken a seriously wrong turn, for my tastes. Much of the charm and wit are missing, or at best labored. The plotting makes Chuck seem stupid, rather than endearingly innocent. They brought back Morgan and Big Mike in a ham-handed fashion—and rather nastily, with the summary execution of the Tony Hale character with a bullet through the head. They've fallen in love with the famous guest star gimmick…

• Amazon Blinks First

  Jeffrey A. Carver

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:50 pm

  The war, or at least the battle, between Amazon.com and Macmillan publishers (corporate parent of my publisher, Tor Books) ended Sunday night when Amazon conceded that it would have to accept the new terms for selling ebooks.  Last I checked, my own book still wasn't back up for direct sale, but I trust it will be soon.One of the best (short) commentaries on the matter is on E-reads.com, by Richard Curtis, literary agent and ebook publisher.  (He happens to be my agent and ebook publisher, but that's not why I'm recommending his column.)  He's been in this business for a long…

• 
  Amy Sterling Casil

• More Animal Intelligence: Snowball + Alex's Friends

  ASterling

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:22 pm

  Thanks to my students, now I know about Snowball, the dancing cockatoo. Snowball is a "rescue" cockatoo and belonged to a teenaged girl. He got upset when she went away to college and bit her, and now lives at a...

• Great Teachers Never Die . . . In Memory of Lois Langland

  ASterling

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:31 pm

  There are moments upon which our lives turn. Moments from which we take a step that leads us down a main path in the broad and endless garden of forking paths that are our lives.

• Un Petit Artiste Tres GORGEOUS: Nicolas Gouny

  ASterling

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:43 pm

  Please click and view if you are a children's book editor, author or illustrator. This is the artwork of wonderful French artist and illustrator Nicolas Gouny.

• Animal Intelligence: Parrots

  ASterling

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:23 am

  Alex the parrot shows that many different animals possess intelligence and the ability to learn and communicate. Alex's many years of learning are not comparable to "Clever Hans," the horse who hadn't learned numbers, but instead had learned how to respond to his owner's subtle clues as to how to behave to appear to be counting. However, Clever Hans also learned - simply something different than what his owner and most others believed. The operative word is learned.

• War Over Words

  ASterling

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:33 pm

  Everybody has something to say about Amazon's removal of Macmillan's print and eBooks from its online storefront over the weekend. Computer World's Matt Hamblen interprets the battle as being related to the launch of the iPad. Overall, he gave a...

• 
  Mark Chadbourn

• Stonehenge Continues To Surprise

  MarkC

  7 Feb 2010 | 7:27 am

  A new survey of the Stonehenge landscape reveals the ancient monument once had two encircling hedges that may have been planted to keep secret whatever rituals took place among the stones. Archaeologist and Stonehenge expert Mike Pitts wonders if the hedges might have been to shelter the watchers from the power of the stones, as much as to ward off the observers’ “impious” gaze. The full story is revealed in British Archaeology magazine. A new study of the stones themselves, meanwhile, confirms that the majority of bluestones came from hundreds of miles away, in the Preseli…

• And Another Swords Of Albion Review

  MarkC

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:29 am

  Also one of the funniest: “THE SILVER SKULL, by Mark Chadbourn, is one of the funnest books we have read. Period.” So that would be The Silver Skull in the US, or The Sword of Albion in the UK – same book, different title – just to avoid confusion. Also, I’ve just seen the cover for the US follow-up to this book, and it is truly remarkable. By Christian McGrath once again.

• Destroyer Of Worlds – New Cover

  MarkC

  30 Jan 2010 | 4:04 am

  Here’s the new cover for the mass-market paperback edition of Destroyer of Worlds, Kingdom of the Serpent Book Three: Pretty much the same as the hardback, although the blue is darker, less vibrant. The marketing department felt the more muted tones worked better on the bookshelf. I don’t know if I agree.

• The Meaning Of The 21st Century

  MarkC

  29 Jan 2010 | 1:03 pm

  Further to recent discussions, I wanted to flag up a book – The Meaning of the 21st Century: a vital blue print for ensuring our future by James Martin – which raises many of the big issues facing us, the great opportunities technology can bring, and then ties it all up in a nice, neat bundle. Martin is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated author for The Wired Society which was prescient about much of today’s world. In this one, he interviews lots of experts across a range of disciplines and gives a powerfully-stated overview, which is hard to get in such a complex world. It’s a…

• Time For A New Politics

  MarkC

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:22 am

  For most of my adult life I’ve been involved in various forms of campaigning across a variety of issues. I’ve worked with politicians at all levels, and advised and consulted. But I’m increasingly of the opinion that the politicians we have are part of the problem, not the solution. We face the greatest crises – multiple crises – we have ever encountered, and the vast majority of MPs are simply not up to the job of tackling those great problems. For the last few weeks I’ve only sniped and snarked about this across Facebook and Twitter. But I’m…

• 
  Matthew Cheney

• "Science Fiction Has Given the Umlaut in Upper High German a Run for Its Money"

  Matthew Cheney

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:01 am

  The title of this post comes from a very worthwhile audio interview with Samuel R. Delany at The Dragon Page (you'll have to listen to find out what it means!  The interview is about a third of the way into the podcast).  It was the first time I'd publicly heard the release date of Chip's new novel, Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders, which is scheduled to be releaed in November from Alyson Books, where the great Don Weise, who was the editor for Dark Reflections, is now the publisher.  A version of part of the new novel appeared in Black Clock 7 a few years ago, and…

• William Tenn (1920-2010)

  Matthew Cheney

  7 Feb 2010 | 7:35 pm

  Among the great American satirical fictioneers of the last hundred years or so -- and Americans often tend to be satirical fictioneers, even when they're not trying to be, because it's hard to write about the vast, paradoxical, beautiful monstrosity that is America without delving, at least momentarily, into satire; but few writers can sustain a varied career as satirists, and few who do are truly great -- there are two whose works I hold close to my heart: Kurt Vonnegut and William Tenn.The man who wrote under the name "William Tenn" was Philip Klass, and he has died at the age of 89. I had…

• Bolaño and the Poetic Pose

  Matthew Cheney

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:42 am

  Ron Silliman on Bolaño's poetry:The pose of Bolaño-the-poet may well be more important – and certainly more powerful – than the fact of the poems themselves, but what might be most useful here is to note the whole notion of Bolaño posing. The unifying – indeed distinguishing – element of these poems, written in a post-Beat free verse that might be closest in English to Lawrence Ferlinghetti or Ray Bremser, is the consistency of the pose: the intellectual as tough guy but one who is, at all moments, hard as nails & deeply sentimental. Think of upper limit Jean-Paul Belmondo in…

• Help Paul Tremblay Celebrate the Publication of His Second Novel By Buying It From Somewhere Other Than Amazon

  Matthew Cheney

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:23 am

  Paul Tremblay and I were emailing recently, but I didn't realize until I read his comment on an excellent blog post by John Scalzi that Paul's second novel, No Sleep till Wonderland, is 1.) being published today, and 2.) published by Henry Holt, a subsidiary of Macmillan, which means that for the moment it's not being sold on Amazon.com.  (Yes, there are copies available from third-party sellers -- these are probably review copies, and they send no royalties to the writer.)The first day of a novel's publication should be a day of celebration and joy, not a day when the world's largest…

• Alternatives to Associating with Amazon

  Matthew Cheney

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:11 am

  Every time Amazon flexes its muscle to reveal just how powerful its monopoly is (cf. the latest brouhaha), I grow a bit more uncomfortable making all the book title links on this blog ones that go to Amazon and, through their Associates program, send back some spare change to me.  I mean, I know I'm immoral for using Amazon so much, but I've already admitted to being a pox upon the bookselling body in general.  In most of my choices as a consumer, I'm a pox upon the entire world, a blight of bourgeois indifference, a hemmorhoid on the......  Well, you get the idea.But what…

• 
  John Crowley

• DIY Therapy

  John Crowley

  27 Jan 2010 | 5:35 pm

  The American Psychiatric Association is currently in the process of reevising their current diagnostic manual, nicknamed DSM-IV, to create a new issue, DSM-V.  Among the things that they will incorporate are suggestions from professionals and other users of the manual anent corrections, qualifications, etc., and also new diagnoses or subsets of diagnoses that they might want to include (after thought and research, of course).  I am not a reader of the manual nor a health professional, but I bet I could think up a few new diagnoses that the profession might need to have a complete…

• Oh ho

  John Crowley

  18 Jan 2010 | 9:13 am

  Wonderful outpouring of wit and perspicuity on the palindrome query.  Now the world (that part of it that visits here) has a choice of many alternatives:  Lexel!  Mirrorim! Reflexelfer!  Bon nob!  (My own favorites.)I haven't been posting much -- computer busted, was in San Diego and Santa Monica on a "working vacation" (nice oxymoron), then starting my new semester.  A reading at Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, fine store, all the books you know you want and many you find out you want when you get there (Hi, Patrick, Hi Terry).  I visited Balboa…

• Challenge

  John Crowley

  4 Jan 2010 | 8:58 am

   An anonymous responder to the palindrome entry is saddened that the word for a palindrome (i.e., "palindrome") is not itself a palindrome.  I bet we could bend our collective mind to that problem, and (nice a word as "palindrome" is) come up with a palindromic alternative.

• Time Mirror

  John Crowley

  2 Jan 2010 | 6:14 pm

  A new acquaintance, Thomas Woodrow, producer of the film Bass Ackwards, sneds me a note that today (yesterday for some of you, tomorrow -- maybe -- for some others, is a palndrome day:01022010Nice!  (If meaningless).

• More 3D

  John Crowley

  31 Dec 2009 | 1:28 pm

   I have morte than once referred (in a review of Nicholson Baker's The Fermata, e.g.) to a partly 3D film I saw when I was in college, a very cheap softcore sniggery porn film in which a sort of milktoast character acquires a pair of glasses that allow him to see people without their clothes on.  The audience was instructed to put their glasses on when he put his on, to see what he saw (in bad red/green 3D).  I have long thought that this film was The Immoral Mr Teas, and so identified it in print (gulp) but I was wrong.  Teas is an early  Russ Meyer film, and while…

• 
  John Dalmas

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

  12 Jan 2010 | 10:42 pm

  Thoughts on the subjects

• MERRRY CHRISTMAS

  22 Dec 2009 | 10:31 am

  CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER

• 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

• 
  Ellen Datlow

• Poe wins the third annual Black Quill Award

  ellen datlow

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:18 am

  Black Quill Award Winners AnnouncedFLYNN, SIMMONS TAKE TOP HONORS IN BLACK QUILL AWARDSLONG ISLAND, NY, February 9, 2010 — A master of otherworldly suspense and a literary fiction darling have taken top honors in the 3rd Annual Black Quill Awards, as winners were announced today by DARK SCRIBE MAGAZINE, the virtual magazine “dedicated to the books that keep readers up at night.”Chicago-based author Gillian Flynn snagged the coveted Editor’s Choice award for DARK GENRE NOVEL OF THE YEAR for her sophomore effort, DARK PLACES, while veteran dark scribe Dan Simmons took Readers’ Choice…

• My schedule for Radcon, this weekend

  ellen datlow

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:20 pm

  Fri Feb 12 5:00-6:00: Writing Markets --Ruby What are the current short work markets - magazines, blogs, contests, collaborative? Ellen Datlow, Jane Fancher, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Margaret Bonham, Sue Bolich Fri Feb 12 6:00-7:00 An interview with Ellen Datlow --Bronze Room Ellen Datlow is interviewed by long time friend Eileen Gunn Fri 7:00-8:00:pm Opening Ceremonies --Bronze Room Opening Ceremonies. Dancing, music, comedy, A new and totally unimaginably evil joke on Jay Lake. This is RadCon Opening Ceremonies. An event like no other. Sat Feb 13 10-11:00:am Selling it Twice --Emerald One…

• The Best Horror of the Year, volume one sold to Italy!

  ellen datlow

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:46 pm

  Mondadori has picked up the rights for their Epix, mass market series. Hooray...

• Just in time for Valentine's Day

  ellen datlow

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

  Generate your own candy hearts at the candy heart generator at despair.com, a wonderful site.via Jonathan Carroll

• My Aggiecon Schedule

  ellen datlow

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am

  I'm Editor GOH at Aggiecon this weekend and here is my schedule (although I'll also be signing, but that time hasn't yet been set). I hope everyone in the neighborhood (College Station, Texas) will drop by: http://aggiecon.tamu.edu/My schedule has changed substantially but here it is updated:Friday 5pm:The Laboratory: "Paper or Plastic: The Great E-Reader Debate" - The Kindle, Nook, and e-Books are quickly gaining popularity. Will the written word no longer be written, but typed? Will all our media be read from a screen rather than a page in the future? [Clement-Moore, Sullivan, Rosen,…

• 
  Peter David

• Pro/Con

  Peter David

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Originally published August 14, 1992, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #978 There are no comic-book conventions. And we could really use one. This is an odd realization for anyone to come to, but the comics industry is one of the few that does not have a convention in the traditional sense. Any number of times during my travels—particularly during my days in the Marvel sales department—I would find myself staying at hotels where conventions were being held for various professionals in various industries. Insurance salesmen. Carpenters. Computer programmers. Electricians. Water companies. Pick a…

• This is the place

  Peter David

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:34 pm

  UPDATED FEBRUARY 8th: Having taken the evening to reflect, plus after doing some research, I have decided that the best commercial of the evening was: The Dave Letterman Show ad. It was incredibly memorable. It was laugh-out-loud funny. And apparently they really were all together in the room. It was filmed at the Ed Sullivan studio and kept completely under wraps. The fact that they were able to pull that kind of national surprise in this day and age of spoilers and leaks gives it, as far as I’m concerned, the edge. The place where I’ll be live blogging the commercials during the…

• Yes, I Will Be Continuing the Super Bowl Live Blogging Tradition

  Peter David

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:17 pm

  There was a slim chance this year that I might give a damn about the outcome of the Super Bowl, and then the Jets lost and I’m back to not particularly caring. (Not that I’m especially a Jets fan, or even a football fan, but I have plenty of friends who are, and I wanted to see them happy.) But, as always, I will be doing running commentary on the commercials, which are typically the most interesting part of the game. Feel free to cook up some nachos and join me tomorrow. PAD

• Random Thought for the Day

  Peter David

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am

  If you’re going to Portsmouth, England, you might want to stick to walking or public transportation rather than flagging a taxi. NPR reports that would-be cab drivers are allowed to take the written test in Braille. PAD

• Watchmen 2

  Peter David

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:53 am

  A lot of people are expressing outrage over the prospect of DC using other writers to utilize Alan Moore’s characters in order to produce sequels. On the other hand, Alan Moore used characters created by Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.M. Barrie, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll–not to mention thinly veiled proxies of the entire Charlton line–to produce his own various sequels which were highly praised and supported by those selfsame fans. It should also be noted that there have been plenty of sequels to classic works of literature.

• 
  Stephen Dedman

• Back online!

  Stephen Dedman

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:54 am

  For those of you not regularly on livejournal or dreamwidth, Fantastic Planet has a new domain: http://www.fantasticplanet.net.au

• January

  Stephen Dedman

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:42 am

  January hasn't been a great month, for a variety of reasons (some of which I'd rather not go into in an unlocked post), but it has had some high points. Two cheques (one for my story in Shadowrun: Spells and Chrome), which more than paid for Aussiecon memberships for Elaine and myself. Two cons, which were great fun as well as being profitable for Fantastic Planet. Four submissions - two short stories, a novel, and an outline. One deadline met. And three Creative Writing classes confirmed for first semester.On the down side, two rejections, no new sales, and I still haven't managed to finish…

• How Roleplayers can help Haiti

  Stephen Dedman

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:19 pm

  DriveThruRPG (which I always think of as DriveByRPG, but that's just me) are running a Doctors Without Borders Haiti Earthquake Response Appeal.Donate $20 Dollars and you get $1400 worth of Roleplaying product: PDFs, music files, maps, Diana : Warrior Princess, adventure seeds, the Serenity RPG, etc etc etc. The money goes to Doctors Without Borders (formerly Medecins sans Frontiers) - IMHO, a far, far worthier cause than sending the Haitians homeopaths, Scientologists, or solar-powered talking Bibles.

• Writer's Block: R/evolutionary war

  Stephen Dedman

  17 Jan 2010 | 7:42 pm

  If humanity were to become extinct, do you think another animal species would evolve to take our place? What lessons do you think they'd learn from our successes and failures?Submitted By nightofcydonia View 745 Answers I think it's highly improbable. Apes would still be the most likely contenders: they're social, have hands and good brains, and aren't aquatic, so it's possible that they could master fire and make complex tools (e.g. combining different materials). However, I think that in the time it would take any species on Earth - apes, octopi, rats, dolphins - to evolve into a high-tech…

• Ah, distinctly I remember...

  Stephen Dedman

  1 Jan 2010 | 12:46 am

  Summing up December: four submissions, one acceptance, six rejections, no publications.And from Time, a farewell to what they've called the worst decade in US history since WWII. It seems horrifically apt that it's ended with Blackwater ops apparently getting away with murder.

• 
  A.M. Dellamonica

• East Van sign

  alyx

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:01 am

  DSCN1283Originally uploaded by Alyx DellamonicaYesterday's walk took me past the new East Van sign, which, as Kelly found out, is a light-up version of a gang tag that apparently used to crop up here. I've been wanting to shoot it and yesterday was my first real opportunity, and the skies cooperated by being deep and moody.

• In Search of a Seeing Eye Ape...

  alyx

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:59 pm

  I ran into a volunteer dog-walker for the East Van SPCA on my way to a date with Kelly today. Actually, I ran into three, but this one was on the edge of tears because of this little guy...Why so sad? Because she couldn't take him home herself, and not only is he a young snuggly bandy-kneed ball of adorable, he's blind. Is your heart wrenched yet? No? Well, let me tell you that this little bald divot on his nose......is the spot he bangs when he bumps into shit. Awwwww!So by way of cheering her up, I photopportunistically told her I'd shoot the little guy (whose name she'd been afraid to…

• Pussy Willow

  alyx

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:10 pm

  Pussy WillowOriginally uploaded by Alyx DellamonicaKelly and I walked to Tinseltown to see When in Rome on Saturday, and along with the crocuses we saw these lovely pussy willows in one of the yards along Union Street in Old Strathcona. I know the rain could pour down tomorrow and stay for three months, but it feels like we're having a warm, shortish winter. The fellow who makes my coffee in the morning says the forecast is for sun all week.

• I scree, you scree...

  alyx

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:37 pm

  It was bright and sunny and warm when I hit the UBC campus today, and so I took an amble around at around one-thirty. The sun was behind clouds just when I headed out, making it just dim enough that I wasn't willing to go to Nitobe. That didn't stop me from taking a series of pictures of a couple of seagulls, including this image.

• Rain rain go away

  alyx

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:25 pm

  DSCN1158Originally uploaded by Alyx DellamonicaI can't decide if I like this umbrella or not; it's got some intrigue, but the light on it is really too bright. I don't have much else to show; I've been out with the camera a few times but haven't caught anything I liked, and the shots of my crocuses were to yawn.It's after six and I've been working on a student manuscript; Kelly is at the office late and I've had a couple unproductive weeks, so I thought I'd make good use of her overtime by playing a bit of catchup with my own pile. Soon I'm going to have to do something about dinner, though,…

• 
  Cory Doctorow

• Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?

  Cory Doctorow

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:15 am

  The Guardian

• New column: Why is Ofcom ready to allow BBC DRM?

  Cory Doctorow

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:14 am

  In my latest Guardian column, "Why did Ofcom back down over DRM at the BBC?" I look at how lamentably credulous both the BBC and its UK regulator, Ofcom, have been in accepting US media' giants threats to boycott the Beeb if it doesn't add digital rights management to its broadcasts. The BBC is publicly funded, and it is supposed to be acting in the public interest: but crippling British TV sets in response for demands from offshore media barons is no way to do this -- and the threats the studios have made are wildly improbable. When the content companies lost their bid to add DRM to American…

• New Podcast, “Sensored,” a short-short story about ubicomp

  Cory Doctorow

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:36 am

  "Sensored" is a short-short story commissioned by the UK Open University's computer science department for use in My digital life (TU100), its ubiquitous computing course. It's licensed Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. I'm pleased with how it worked out, and I'm honoured to be a Visiting Senior Lecturer in the OU's comp sci department. Mastering by John Taylor Williams: wryneckstudio@gmail.com John Taylor Williams is a full-time self-employed audio engineer, producer, composer, and sound designer. In his free time, he makes beer, jewelry, odd musical instruments and…

• I’m a Forbes Web Celeb!

  Cory Doctorow

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:23 pm

  Hey, this is cool! I made Forbes's 25 Web Celebs list again -- I'm in the top 10!

• Copyright, companies, individuals and news: the rules of the road

  Cory Doctorow

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:23 am

  The Guardian

• 
  Marianne de Pierres

• Urban Fantasy and stuff

  mdep

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:55 am

  Been having an interesting discussion on my Facebook page about the future of Urban Fantasy. Feel free to get over there and add your opinion.Am also pleased to be back working on my structural rewrite of Trans Space. These characters have been through a lot and I feel like I've been right there with each of them. It will be sad to say goodbye - five years together. Like saying goodbye to friends.In other news, Supanova has a schmick new website which you must check out. I'm pleased to see some familiar, lovely international guests returning this year. Looking forward to re-acquainting with…

• PWF and things

  mdep

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:54 pm

  Trent Jamieson (who has a fab new-look blog), Tansy Rayner Roberts, Cory Daniells and Graham Storrs. But there’s a bunch of other new local talent around as well. Check out Rhonda Roberts, Nicole Murphy, Kim Westwood, Kim Falconer – all Aussies. Also, I will be in Perth for the Perth Writers Festival at the end of February. My list of panels is as follows: Genre is not a Dirty Word Crime, thrillers, mystery … It’s all fiction isn’t it? Michael Koryta, Sara Foster and Marianne Delacourt explore what it means to be a genre writer. Chair: Grant Stone Dophin Theatre Sat 27 Feb,…

• Contemplating...

  mdep

  29 Jan 2010 | 3:44 pm

  Well, I’m back in the seat after surgery, quite weak still but had enough of thinking about it for the moment. Loved all the kind messages on Facebook, so THANK YOU to everyone. Got me through a few bad days. So let’s think about the year instead. Tara Sharp book 2 popping along, and Trans Space will be out in November. Burn Bright rewrite to do as well. Looking forward to having the energy to work again. Supanova, the Perth Writers Festival and World Con to attend. Stalking Daylight to complete. Then a new project to reveal!! So I’ve got plenty to think about and be…

• Bits and Pieces

  mdep

  17 Jan 2010 | 6:51 pm

  Tara Moss is running an interesting feature on Writers’ Desks. You can learn far too much from these pictures! www.taramoss.com There are many fundraisers going on for Haiti crisis at the moment. I’ve chosen ‘Medecins Sans Frontieres’ for my aid donation. I believe they are effective. A reminder that my e-books will be available from May 2010. And a heads up on some great new novels coming out in the next few months: Trent Jamieson – Death Most Definite (Orbit), Tansy Rayner Roberts – Power and Majesty (Voyager), Graham Storrs – TimeSplash (Lyrical…

• LJ query

  mdep

  13 Jan 2010 | 1:38 pm

   Why won't LJ let me cut and paste anything into it? it's driving me NUTS???? I'm thinking of quitting this platform. Any suggestions?

• 
  Andy Duncan

• Random photos from years ago

  Andy Duncan

  14 Jan 2010 | 2:25 pm

  I just rescued from storage a couple of bins of old photographs, and these are among the first ones I saw in the cache.This is me at night in the living room of our house in Northport, Ala., in my natural nocturnal state, sitting and reading.This is Sydney, caught in the act of photographing the master bathroom of our Northport house. We were so proud of the first house we bought together that Sydney documented every room, once it was furnished. We moved in on Memorial Day weekend 2001.I'll spare you most of the room-by-room photos, but this one is worth mentioning because it documents that…

• I make a year's-best list -- twice!

  Andy Duncan

  6 Jan 2010 | 12:48 pm

  Both my 2009 stories -- my PS Publishing novelette The Night Cache and my Dragon Book novelette "The Dragaman's Bride" -- are on the 2009 Recommended Reading List at the group blog Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth. Also making the list are stories by Peter S. Beagle, Ted Chiang, Karen Joy Fowler, Nancy Kress, Margo Lanagan, Kelly Link ... too many to name, but great company, certainly.Rich Horton, meanwhile, reports that "The Dragaman's Bride" is one of "the three stories that I most wished to include and couldn't fit" into The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2010.Thanks,…

• An early review of The Night Cache

  Andy Duncan

  6 Jan 2010 | 12:41 pm

  Jonathan Strahan writes:I love it. ... Duncan has taken a ghost story about geocaching and codebreaking and made it his own just by telling it in his own unique voice. ... Suffice to say that it's perfect for a cold Winter's night. It's certainly a story that will stay with me for a good long while.Read the whole review here, at the fine group blog Not If You Were the Last Short Story on Earth. Thanks, Jonathan!

• The Night Cache is on sale

  Andy Duncan

  6 Jan 2010 | 12:15 pm

  My new supernatural novelette, The Night Cache, is now available for online order at the PS Publishing site, in both signed and unsigned hardcover editions. Here's a taste of Ben Baldwin's fine cover art. A larger version is here, at Baldwin's site.I'm delighted to appear in a catalog alongside Ray Bradbury, Basil Copper, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Zoran Zivkovic, my friends Scott Edelman and Paul Di Filippo, etc.

• Ellen Datlow's photos from the KGB reading

  Andy Duncan

  23 Dec 2009 | 12:46 pm

  At this link are co-host Ellen Datlow's photos from the Dec. 16 reading at the KGB Bar in Greenwich Village. Christopher Rowe and I had a great turnout, a great audience and a great time. Thanks to everyone for the support.

• 
  Hal Duncan

• Meanwhile...

  Hal Duncan

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:19 am

  I got an email in today from my college kid amigo, Beth, to let me know that the committee passed the proposal and so, yes, the University of Chicago Theater Group will be staging the world premiere of NOWHERE TOWN, my gay Orpheus musical. I knew from the emails we've been exchanging that Beth had really gotten a great team of people on board with this, people doing costume and lighting designs,

• New BSC Review Column

  Hal Duncan

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:40 am

  It was Friday night in the city of Writing when the shit hit the fan. I didn’t make it down to the SF Café myself till Saturday afternoon or so, having been off at a gig that Friday night; so when I finally stumbled in, somewhat worse for wear, to grab my daily brunch of coffee and a cigarette over the Twitter Gazette, the kerfuffle was already in full swing. It’s war! people were saying. War!

• Funny or Freaky?

  Hal Duncan

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:08 am

  Fellow GSFWCer Mike Cobley sends me this link to an article in The Independent. Like anything concerning the whole "ex-gay" thing, it's so crackpot that part of you wants to just mock the eedjits. With quacks asking questions like "Any Freemasonry in the family?" in their search for (spiritual) "causes" how else can you react but with derision?(The Elders of Sodom are most miffed at what is

• The Legion of American Watchers

  Hal Duncan

  27 Jan 2010 | 2:12 pm

  Shot down in the skies over Pearl Harbour, leaping from his plummeting P-36 Hawk without a parachute, Captain Steve "Steadfast" Sturgeon can only pray for a miracle. And a miracle he gets! Struck by lightning at that exact moment, he finds himself standing before the Archons of the Cosmos, with a choice between Eternity and Earth. But for Steve Sturgeon, no choice needs to be made. In the

• A Homage to Heroes

  Hal Duncan

  27 Jan 2010 | 11:57 am

  This Hero Factory doohickey is fun. Even if you can't set the name (which is Overman, just so's you know). I mean, "The Pure Avenger" is more of a byline than a name... though as such it's not bad for a hero sent back from the 51st century to escape the Earth's destruction, seeing as his power comes from his "hyper-evolved cells" being able to absorb kinetic energy, and his ultimate goal is to

• 
  David Dvorkin

• The Very Lucky Executive

  David

  25 Jan 2010 | 10:47 am

  There was this man named Hova. Jeremy. He was a remarkably lucky guy. First, he was lucky enough to get a job in awful times. Second, despite lacking any ability, he was lucky enough to be promoted quickly, eventually becoming president of the company. That’s not unusual. It’s even fairly common. Some people just seem to make a good impression. But Jerry wasn’t particularly intelligent or good looking. He lacked charisma and, truth be told, was often unpleasant to be around. He was just lucky. But all of that’s nothing compared to the run of luck Jerry had next. Jerry chose a seaside…

• David’s Definitions for March 2010

  David

  24 Jan 2010 | 5:57 pm

  Ironic When used to refer to an event, it means contrary to what's expected, in a striking or poignant or tragic way. It derives from a Greek word meaning "to lie" or "to be insincere." Here's an example of irony: "The speaker, who was famous for his command of the English language, clearly didn't know the difference between ironically and coincidentally." People do often confuse those two words. Here's an example of coincidence, with nothing ironic about it: "The speaker had a third cousin named Hepzibah. So did the man who introduced him." There's…

• Avatar made me blue

  David

  5 Jan 2010 | 7:07 pm

  Because I wasted time and money watching it. Mind you, it’s not because of the movie’s pinko, liberal, anti-imperialist, fuzzy-minded, bleeding-heart, liberal, tree-hugger message. I’m a pinko, liberal, anti-imperialist, etc. myself. I’m part of this movie’s natural audience. And yet I hated it. Basic story: Alien world has mineral Earth badly wants and needs. Human beings set about strip mining the place. World’s inhabitants, ten-foot tall blue aliens with tails, are upset. Humans create their own ten-foot tall blue aliens with tails, telepathically controlled by humans and…

• Mirror malfunctions

  David

  3 Jan 2010 | 7:39 am

  We’ve lived in this house for just over 38 years, and in general it’s held up fairly well. However, I’ve become increasingly aware that the mirrors are deteriorating. It’s not just the few remaining original mirrors either. There’s something in the house that seems to have damaged the newer ones, as well. When we moved in, the mirrors showed me the man I expected to see. But increasingly, the degraded surfaces have distorted my image, giving me sagging jowls and wrinkled skin, and they seem unable to reflect my full head of hair. I’m also becoming disenchanted with digital…

• David’s Definitions for February 2010

  David

  23 Dec 2009 | 6:25 pm

  Hapless Unfortunate, luckless, unlucky. It comes from an old word, hap, which originally meant luck or chance and then later came to mean good luck. We don't use hapless in modern English, but we do use other words that come from the same root. For example, happen was originally happenen and it meant "occur by hap." If you're happy, you possess hap, good fortune. Haphazard, meaning irregular or disordered, comes from combining hap with hazard, which was a game played with dice. (Will be published in the February 2010 issue of Denver's Community News.) I'm collecting all of these at:…

• 
  Kate Elliott

• Timbuktu

  Kate Elliott

  27 Jan 2010 | 2:01 pm

  I wanted to post or tweet from Tombouctou yesterday, just because it seemed one ought to do so if one could, but after all we were too tired and too hot to walk from the no-wifi hotel to the cybercafe. So I napped, and we had a superb rooftop dinner yesterday evening instead.I am now in Ouagadougou making ready to go to bed after eating some very good pommes frites (french fries). As some wit said, the only things the French left in West Africa were French bread and pommes frites, rather than roads and schools.Mali, by the way, is a very safe country, just fyi. Well, maybe except for the…

• I will be scarce

  Kate Elliott

  14 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pm

  I will be scarce around here for a few weeks.Meanwhile, my thoughts remains with the people of Haiti, and their families elsewhere who may still be seeking word of loved ones.There are many good organizations on the ground seeking to help. As always, I mention Partners in Health. I highlight this organization only because Twin B and I went to hear one of its co-founders, Paul Farmer, speak at UHawaii in Spring 2007, so I feel a personal connection, such as it is, to PiH. There are other excellent organizations like Doctors Without Frontiers and the Haitian Emergency Relief Fund, and many…

• Interview Questions

  Kate Elliott

  13 Jan 2010 | 2:16 pm

  And yet, life goes on.JF, the fabulous Assistant Editor at Orbit Books, has emailed me to let me know that Orbit typically runs an "author interview" at the back of the book with a new series. She wants me to ask and answer 8 - 10 questions, of the sort to be of interest or pique the interest of both the casual and the more dedicated reader. Which means, I suppose, questions of varying types, and some, uh, "local color" type questions. She mentioned that most of the writers start with "what are your influences" and "what are your hobbies" and go from there.If I have to put in an author…

• Haiti -- PiH

  Kate Elliott

  13 Jan 2010 | 12:06 am

  As most or all of you know, there's been a very powerful earthquake in Haiti. Conditions are very bad, and help is needed.Many fine organizations are moving to provide help. One that has been doing excellent work in Haiti for years now is Partners in Health. And they have put out a call for donations to help them in the crisis.

• A Blog

  Kate Elliott

  9 Jan 2010 | 1:28 am

  With permission from the relevant parties (niece and father), I present my niece's blog, her project for the year. She is 11 1/2.

• 
  P. N. Elrod

• My LAST Amazon purchase arrived

  P. N. Elrod

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:53 pm

  Yeah, I know, you're prolly tired of it all, but I have to mention THIS book!I ordered it before Amazon went batshit insane and disabled the buy option for all Macmillan titles.Sorry about that, how was I to know Jeff Bezos would throw a public temper tantrum and punish the writers caught in the middle? Screw Amazon; they've gotten my last dollar.(Dang, that felt good to write!)The book?  A TOTAL MUST-HAVE  FOR DRACULA FANS!It's BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA: A DOCUMENTARY JOURNEY INTO VAMPIRE COUNTRY AND THE DRACULA PHENOMENON edited by DR. ELIZABETH MILLER and it has EVERYTHING.(Okay, it…

• Website Tweaking!

  P. N. Elrod

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:29 pm

  After being soooo grumpy the other day I'm back to my usual cheerful, if combative, self.  My annoyance with Amazon taking my St. Martin titles down sparked a return of the favor. I'm pretty sure I've deleted all my website links to Amazon, replaced with links to B&N, Borders, Booksamillion, Powell's, and Chapters in Canada. (Good day, eh?) They cut into my bottom line--sales.  I have no inclination to point book buyers in their direction.  Dear Jeff Bezos, If you've got a beef with a publisher, find a more professional way of dealing with it than screwing up the sales of…

• Bunches of Books Yanked from Amazon

  P. N. Elrod

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

  .This JUST in: My new Vampire Files story for CHICKS KICK ASS, which features Bobbi Smythe in her very own adventure--VAMPIRES PREFER BLONDS--has been accepted. The collection will be published by Tor Books--an imprint of Macmillan. If Amazon is still arbitrarily throwing its weight around when this comes out (as they have done this week) you won't be able to buy the book through them. Thought you guys should be aware of that! If you are in any way connected to the publishing industry, you'll be aware of the great Amazon/Macmillan pricing war that's been going on.Last Friday, to get Macmillan…

• Why I hate getting haircuts

  P. N. Elrod

  26 Jan 2010 | 1:49 pm

  .Just so you know, I'm fully aware of how PETTY this is, but If I don't vent I'll pop, and there's enough mess in my house.Okay-- I accept that I can't afford to get a decent hair stylist. It just ain't in my budget. I also accept that it is a crap shoot every time I go to the Cheap Cuts at the local MegaMart. C'mon, if they were any good at the job they'd be working at a better joint. (I've gotten lousy cuts at the better joints!)I accept that.Be come ON. When I walk in with THREE pictures front, side, and back of the style I want and the cutter can't seem to come even close, I have a right…

• Hokey smokes! THAT was fast!

  P. N. Elrod

  25 Jan 2010 | 3:05 pm

  The good folk at Buzzy Multimedia must drink as much coffee as I do!I not only got my new T-shirt today, the full cost of which was a donation to Doctors Without Borders, but they dropped in a 10% off coupon for my next purchase.Which will likely be another unabridged CD read by Harry Dresden, I mean, James Marsters.Anyone else get their shirt delivered this quick? Wowsers!

• 
  Josh English

• Slowing Down

  Josh English

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:15 pm

  As I Twittered earlier today, I tried my afterwork browsing one tab at a time, to see how it would feel. Normally I have Gmail, Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, and LiveJournal open, plus various other tabs for the links I decide to follow. Because Facebook can be slow, (and Reader and GMail for that matter) I usually flip back and forth almost at random. I also browse the web using Chrome Portable off my thumb drive, which contributes to the lack of spee.So today I decided to do something different. I slowed myself down. I started with Twitter because it's fast, and after reviewing several…

• Television Transition

  Josh English

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:11 pm

  We are considering dumping cable. The harassing phone calls, delayed acceptance of payments, a large fee to pay over the phone, and a monthly bill that is, I think, a linear function of positive slope, have pushed us over the edge. We should be able to do this cheaper, and not pay for stuff we don't watch (the Golf Channel) and focus on the stuff we want to get.I'm struggling with my luddite tendencies. I always take a while to upgrade to the latest whatever. In fact, I'm usually four or five years behind. I'm still on dial-up, and don't understand how high-speed anything would work from…

• Reclaiming the office, and other rebootery

  Josh English

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

  Here it is, the last day of January, and I think I'm ready to start the new year. Maybe. Dislodging Christmas from the closet cut off my office for a couple of months, but I am back, and unsure of where to go. I recently wrote down the following (probably from Lifehacker or Zen Habits):One Thing at a time.Most important thing first.Start Now.I'd love to, but ....And that's when I know something has gone wrong with my thinking. I have a lot of things I need to do today:1. Write an introductory letter to some church folk2. Send my draft to a fellow vestry member3. Finish a story and submit it…

• Attacks on personal identity

  Josh English

  11 Jan 2010 | 4:25 pm

  Continuing from the conversation in the comment thread for this post: The good news is, I am not a hypocrite. I think.recap: I do not separate the statements "religious belief is stupid" and "I am stupid." That is, attacks on belief are essentially attacks on me. I do separate "your story sucks" and "you are a suck writer." There seems to be a parallel here.Stephanie has helped me sort this out, as anything I discover that reeks of hypocrisy must be rooted out, explained, or changed, for me to be a happy and whole person.My life as a Christian started when I was a babe. Baptized at 8 weeks…

• Two problems here

  Josh English

  8 Jan 2010 | 8:31 pm

  I have two problems with this post that's going around: Beware of Science Fiction | Entertainment | Way of Life Literature. First, as a Christian, I find the idea that faith can only be defended or maintained by hiding from the world offensive.Second, as a SF writer and reader, I am offended that Asimov is listed on this page.Clarke and Sagan were antagonistic towards religion. Asimov wasn't. Yes, he was a humanist. Yes, he understood that religion causes people to do stupid things.He never said religion was bad, it just wasn't for him. He didn't believe, but he didn't think…

• 
  Jennifer Fallon

• Another day in paradise...

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  The outdoor setting is still only half put together, and I discovered the joys today, of asking an electrician what needs to be done in a 100 year old house to make the wiring safe. That's going to cost a lot. Not as much as I secretly feared, but close to the first advance I got, which is a scary thought. Dace and Secondborn planted flowers in the first vegetable plot today. Apparently the flowers keep the bugs off the veges. Not sure if that's true but they sure do look pretty, so what the hell... Still waiting for my desk to arrive so I can knuckle down to some serious work. In the…

• Today's achievments...

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  I put together half the new outdoor setting I signed and sent off some interview reports I was working on before I left Australia. I answered and sent off the questions from the Dutch translator I anwered some fan mail (although it will take a while to catch it all up) I paid some bills (funny how they never seem to go away) I read some proofs I worked on the MS I walked the dogs I took another suitcase upstairs (unpacking it is an entirely different issue) And I found an electrician by randomly picking a name from the local directory and scored the guy who rewired the house. How's that for…

• Well... I'm in New Zealand...

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  Yup... I have moved. I swear, this is the first time I've had time to take a deep breath for more than a week. The house is awesome (although the furniture is still weeks away) and today we went down to the local farmer's market to buy this week's groceries. And in a completely unexpected turn of events, my daughters we're kidnapped by aliens at some point in the move and replaced by exact replicas who like gardening... I should be back to regular blogging soon. Right now I have to answer the questions from the Dutch translator. And I have to start writing for serious or I'm going…

• In which I reflect on the vast gulf between my synopsis and my finished book...

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

  I've been plotting. Plotting so much I've now come up with a completely different path to the ending of the Rift Runners series, than the one I sold to the publisher. This happens to me all the time. I think I know what's going to happen  when I start writing and then I start thinking... but what if this.. and what if that...??? Seriously, I don't think I've ever sent in an MS that had much in common with the synopsis I sold my publishers other the names of the main characters, the ending, (which never changes) and the title (which is a never carved in stone).  And I have to…

• It's Australia Day!

  31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pm

• 
  Mick Farren

• GOLDEN OLDIES AND BLASTS FROM THE PAST

  Mick

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:53 pm

  “Farren had my number years ago.”Although La CityBeat went out of business months ago, I wondered last night, as I idled online, if the website was still up. And yes, it was. There was even a file of my old columns. Click here to check it out. This one about Dick Cheney from 2007 has certainly stood the test of time.“The humorous suggestion has more than once been made that Dick

• SOMEBODY CALL QUALITY CONTROL

  Mick

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:50 pm

  I mean, it is Black History Month.

• DOC'S PAPERBACK CLASSIC'S # 70

  Mick

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:48 pm

  (Image lifted from Brusquelles)

• 8 Feb 2010 | 4:46 pm

  Mick

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:46 pm

  CLICK! (Your dossier grows)

• A TREAT FOR SUNDAY – COLORED DINOSAURS

  Mick

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:40 pm

  Wow! This makes my old monochrome plastic models from the National History Museum so redundant.“Pigments have been found in fossil dinosaurs for the first time, a new study says. The discovery may prove once and for all that dinosaurs' hairlike filaments—sometimes called dino fuzz—are related to bird feathers, paleontologists announced today. The finding may also open up a new world of

• 
  Charles Coleman Finlay

• Grrrr

  C. C. Finlay

  27 Jan 2010 | 5:46 am

  Website down: Day 5My bank doesn't trust a payment request from a Canadian company, even though I've been making payments to them for the past five years. Despite a bunch of phone calls and assurances that this has been/will be resolved, it isn't. If it's not fixed this morning, I'll be back on the phone again.Meanwhile, this may be a good time to freshen up the content.

• Font of Inspiration

  C. C. Finlay

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:54 am

  Earlier this morning while I was lying awake in bed meditating, I started making a mental list of things I would include in a "Best of C.C. Finlay" volume. Not because there's one in the works -- although, publishers take note! -- but because I want to write more of the awesome stuff and less of the crap people hate only slightly less awesome stuff.Maybe it's kind of pathetic a testament to my virtuoso range, but two of the things I would include in a "best of" volume are from the 2008 SFWA elections, my "I come not to rip [Name Withheld] but to praise him" post in the message board election…

• When my family mocks me for ego-googling...

  C. C. Finlay

  13 Jan 2010 | 7:28 am

  ...I point them to things like the journal entry I saw today on Patrice Sarath's website.(And by the way, google alerts make ego-googling so easy it's almost impossible not to do it -- the ego comes straight to my mailbox! Almost as though I were actually the center of the information universe! I'm not too ashamed to admit it.)Patrice has two books out from Ace, Gordath Wood and Red Gold Bridge. While she's working on the third book, she mentions a lesson she learned from my writing: I need to give the reader a sense that the world goes on when the book is closed. The best modern example I…

• The Writing Year In Review

  C. C. Finlay

  31 Dec 2009 | 8:31 am

  2009. It was the best of years; it was the worst of years.At the end of every year, I traditionally go back and look over my writing accomplishments. By any measure, 2009 was my best year yet: three novels published (The Patriot Witch, A Spell for the Revolution, The Demon Redcoat), my first starred review in Publisher's Weekly, and a profile piece in Publisher's Weekly; three award nominations for the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon; two new stories published, two stories reprinted including one in a Year's Best and one in an internationally noticed anthology, and a new translation into Czech;…

• From the Chronicles of Awesome

  C. C. Finlay

  30 Dec 2009 | 6:11 am

  As he promised in the comments on a previous post, Andy McMaster of Newcastle upon Tyne has turned Proctor and Deborah and the other characters from Traitor to the Crown into gaming figures!You can see the whole thing at Andy's blog: http://blog.belisarius.org.uk/2009/12/life-liberty-and-pursuit-of-magic.html. He rewrites the story a bit -- an alternate history of a secret history!Here's a taste of his work -- if you like the taste of rotting flesh: the zombies attack.

• 
  Lynn Flewelling

• It's Autumn Because I SAY It Is, Damn It!

  LynnF

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am

  Beginnings of books are the hardest part for me, and the part that I rewrite the most. I began this new NR with a great heat of summer scene with lots of sweaty imagery and business that I really liked. Then I realized, a number of chapters in, that the timing was all wrong for the action that I'd realized I needed to move the plot forward because of a new plot line I needed to weave in. It needs to be late autumn.Damn. Totally new—and I think better—opening, but gone is the lovely sweaty imagery. Double damn.Ooooooooooooor maybe I can combine the two . . . . . .And the gears turn.I have…

• MultiDimensional TransCultural WhoDat? Weekend

  LynnF

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:30 am

  Saturday: Alternated between rearranging my external physical environment (cleaned the bedroom) and making some major shifts in the new Nightrunner book, which now seems to want to be titled Winter Players. Sunday: Up early and accompanied a professor of religion friend of mine and her students on a field trip to Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights. I'd been there before, but it was nice to see it with a guide. Had to bite my tongue when he'd pose questions about the various symbols and statues "Let the students answer, Lynn . . ." It is a huge Chinese temple and a pilgrimage site,…

• Harmless, Happy, Fluffy

  LynnF

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:41 pm

  Grey rainy day.Delivered editing. One of my clients is a GI specialist at the VA hospital. I now know an awful lot more about stomach stapling surgery and the like than I did on Monday. Not for the squeamish.Doctor's appointment to get post root canal antibiotics that don't make me too ill to work. Retreating to Panera to write. No dogs, TV, internet, laundry, cooking, and all the other things that seem so much more attractive today.Pick up husband at airport. He was one of the last escapees from DC before the blizzard shut everything down. Don't watch the news.

• Having a Look at the Tea Party

  LynnF

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am

  The Tea Party's leadership claims to support neither the Rep. or the Dems, that they're mad at both of them, that they're just middle of the road. OK. What do they want? Who are their leaders? Their influences? I decided to go check out their convention. Here's what I found. Tea Party Statement of Purpose:Who are we? Our members have joined us from all over the nation, from every state and even from foreign countries!Tea Party Nation (or TPN) is a user-driven group of like-minded people who desire our God given Individual Freedoms which were written out by the Founding Fathers. We believe in…

• Title Meme

  LynnF

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:29 pm

  Meme nicked from suricattus LJ "okay, matociquala triggered the first lines meme. The idea is that, by posting the first line of works in progress, they become real and finished. Or you're shamed into finishing them."Good idea, though I only have two. The titles are only the working titles and subject to change.The Winter Players: Seregil hadn't been sure what to expect, or rather, he hadn't expected much.The Dreaming Quarter: Born in the Quarter. Die in the Quarter.

• 
  Eric Flint

• A Mighty Fortress - Snippet 14

  Drak Bibliophile

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  A Mighty Fortress - Snippet 14 “No. In fact, the Bishop Executor and Father Aidryan apparently managed to get out of Manchyr, despite the siege lines,” Baron Larchros answered for Storm Keep. “No one seems to know exactly how they did it, but the fact that they seem to’ve done it suggests ‘Emperor Cayleb’ isn’t quite as infallible as he’d like us to believe!” “Then who –?” “Bishop Klairmant. Or, I suppose, I should say ‘Archbishop Klairmant,’” Larchros said bitterly, and Yair blanched visibly.

• THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 64

  Drak Bibliophile

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  THE CRUCIBLE OF EMPIRE — Snippet 64 “And then what?” Jihan said. “We skulk here and die in perfect peace?” Hadata’s aureole sank. “They are the Ekhat’s enemy,” Jihan continued, “as are we. They might render us aid, if we so requested.” “By the size and design of that monstrous ship, all we know for certain about them is that they are powerful.” Lliant turned in his seat to stare at them with smoldering black eyes. “Power cares nothing for the weak. Whether they detect us or not, they will destroy us too when…

• Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 43

  Drak Bibliophile

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 43 Chapter 24 “This,” said Falkenberg, “is not the kind of country you want to have to cross with siege cannon.” Erik looked at the mountainside and the trail that had wound its way up. It was beautiful country, in a stark kind of way. “It’s certainly not the kind of place you’d want to try and cross if there were hostiles ready to ambush you.” Falkenberg nodded. “Even with a lot of light cavalry scouting for you. There are too many good spots to drop arrows or rocks onto the trail.”…

• Legions Of Fire - Snippet 05

  Drak Bibliophile

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Legions Of Fire - Snippet 05 As for Lenatus, he’d taken his master’s lesson to heart: he pretended he didn’t hear either party to the argument. Corylus had at last gone ahead with his basic drills, despite the audience. He couldn’t order around the family of the man from whom he was accepting a favor. Alphena had colored when he said, “When in Carce, one follows the customs of Carce,” and bowed low to her, however. He’d made the light comment sound more insulting than a tirade from a bearded Stoic philosopher. “Gentlemen of Carce!”…

• Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 42

  Drak Bibliophile

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Much Fall Of Blood — Snippet 42 Chapter 23 The trail was wreathed in mist. It was cold and damp, and it clung and eddied about the riders, swirling around them. For Dana of Valahia it was just the final chapter of this entire terrifying misadventure. Why had mother decided that they had to leave at midnight? She was exhausted, and so was her horse. If they’d left quietly just after complin or even a little before lauds they’d have got just as far from Poienari Castle by now. As it was, it was a miracle they hadn’t been caught. Actually, they had been caught, while…

• 
  Diana Pharaoh Francis

• tea time

  Diana Pharaoh Francis

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:51 pm

  The house is cleanish, the cheese dip made (and tasty and spicy and I may have already burned off my tastebuds). One child is clean, the other . . . hopefully I'll dunk her in water later and get a layer of grit off. Still have to fold kid clothes once they are out of the dryer, but the house is fit to be seen by non-family. Yesterday we went up into the Pioneer mountains and did a geocache. It involved some climbing and rocks and snow and was fun. What was particular fun was that the dogs love snow with a burning passion. They plowed through it, burrowed, rolled, chased, and whatever else…

• watch this

  Diana Pharaoh Francis

  6 Feb 2010 | 2:05 pm

  My students visited this on me. Now I must do the same to you.

• Thus far today

  Diana Pharaoh Francis

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:43 pm

  I got out of bed. That was quite the accomplishment I can tell you. Kept having weird dreams last night and waking up, then going back to sleep and having new and different weird dreams. I take this as a good sign. When I'm dreaming, the writing comes better. How's that for a weird metric? But it's true for me anyhow.A friend of mine, chkeyes , is heading off for her residency in her MFA program.I got to see the schedule of events and now I have envy. There are some really cool ones and I love going to writing related workshops and events because I get juiced up. It's fun to…

• she sneaks in

  Diana Pharaoh Francis

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:21 pm

  This week ended the first block of this semester. Whew. Students wrote some really good stuff and I'm very proud of them. I'm now on the downhill run toward the end. At least I hope so. I don't have very long to get there. I'm also working on the super sekrit project, about which more later when I know something concrete. I also had other good news today that I can't talk about yet, but it made me pretty bouncy. Again, more on that later. Boy, i'm just full of the cryptic today, aren't I?This weekend we have to clean house and get ready for friends coming for the Superbowl. It's an…

• who's ready for a fight?

  Diana Pharaoh Francis

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am

  I'm in the war room for the next few hours. Anybody in with me?

• 
  Dave Freer

• Who needs you?

  davefreer

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:23 pm

  I see I am not the only one wary about the Macmillan 'victory'. http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/07/its-nsfw-because-the-word-fuck-is-in-the-url/On yet another blog I write on (instead of writing novels, which is what I have done most of today, at least) http://madgeniusclub.blogspot.com/ Matapam made a statement I consider to be near fundamental about the entire writing business:"There are two kinds of people who are indispensible to the fiction industry.Writers and readers."She's dead right. And here to add my 2 cents worth (as publishers and retailers often play this game in their wars with…

• e-books and the amazon saga

  davefreer

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pm

  A great deal has been said about the battle between Amazon and Macmillan and the role of Apple's new reader and agency model (which BTW generally leaves authors poorer - and is superficially not good for publishers either.) What hasn't really been said is WHY it's such a big fight. The nearest some people have come is 'it's about control' and 'e-books are growing'. Both of these are true. Both in fact rest on the real reason why this is such a bitter fight which has so much potential effect on books, writers and the entire industry is the fixed cost/variable cost equation, and the effect…

• Return of the prodigal

  davefreer

  22 Jan 2010 | 3:45 pm

  Life is beginning to show some distant, hesitant signs that it may become normal one day in the not too distant future. We're in our house-for-the-year even if the furniture hasn't arrived (it's in Launceston - and we have ferry epics, and as Ian pointed out we're mere mortals in ferry realms. The saga is here http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/Anyway, Sorceress of Karres is out, and got to no 9 in sf/fantasy lists on the Wall Street Journal. Writing continues with some difficulty on the little eee. Amazon's kindle is setting some new benchmarks with the 70% royalty offer to authors (nad…

• writing moving and the world in general

  davefreer

  20 Dec 2009 | 9:40 am

  It''s been a busy, trying, interesting few weeks. Writing has been exceptionally difficult - i do need a 'run' - still we have structured and fleshed a lot so it is coming on. Save the Dragons site has had a few hiccups - my hosting provider had a major disk drive fail we recovered from that but there still some to be issues.I've learned to make cheese and kill chickens... http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/South Africa continues down its interesting path. I really long to be out - but I know I will still care.

• move along

  davefreer

  2 Dec 2009 | 11:59 pm

  Ok it's been a hectic couple of weeks since I posted (as anyone following http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/ knows. But I am managing to write again. The beasties are apparently settled in their kennels ( http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/2009/12/our-animals.html) and we're wading through the finale to leaving. SA continues down its path- I see the young communist league are now calling for ex-Pes Thabo Mbeki to be prosecuted for his AIDS denialism (which - as he refused to acknowledge that HIV caused AIDS and accused anyone who said this was the case of being racists, and accusing black…

• 
  Allyn Gibson

• On Things I Tweeted Today (2010-02-09)

  Allyn

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:52 pm

  The best part of the Super Bowl? Knowing that pitchers & catchers report really soon now # Beer, healthy; soft drinks, not so much — http://reg.cx/1Gv6 # A Hard Day's Bike #sportbeatles # Wicket to Ride #sportbeatles # Great. I can't find out if the office is open today, because the office phone system and e-mail system are down # @DavidAlanMack You may find this article on Obama's inner circle & effect on his governance interesting/depressing: http://bit.ly/bdxZdx in reply to DavidAlanMack # Downloading new #opera pre-alpha # Grandmother watching infomercial on…

• On Health Care Reform and the Republican Party

  Allyn

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:54 am

  Are Republicans genuinely interested in governing? Are they genuinely interested in solving society’s problems? I have to wonder. The Republicans have been saying, all along, that they’ve been frozen out of the health care reform process. That the Democrats are ignoring their ideas. And yet, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post points out that the things the Republican Party wants are already in the Senate bill. President Obama himself has said that the bill pending is Congress is a Republican bill. It’s what Bob Dole and Bill Frist have proposed in the past. The Senate bill is…

• On Blizzardammerung

  Allyn

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:18 am

  On Friday, the world knew, an apocalyptic snowstorm was coming. It was coming up the jet stream, from the south. We could see fifteen inches, twenty-four inches, perhaps even forty inches of snow. A winter storm warning was issued from 10 am Friday to 10 pm Saturday. Some thought the office would be closed on Friday. Some called it, in hushed tones, “snowpocalypse” or “snowmaggedon.” I thought these words over-used. I coined my own neologism — “blizzardammerung.” A touch of the Wagner, really. The snow started to fall about noon on Friday. Lightly at…

• On Things I Tweeted Today (2010-02-08)

  Allyn

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:52 pm

  @daytonward I think Palin will self-immolate, but Andrew Sullivan makes good points re: her political/emotional lure http://bit.ly/bWDNf0 in reply to daytonward # @BLeisner Don't slit your wrists, Bill, not over that Sullivan link. No, this is the one to slit your wrists over: http://bit.ly/aQxydc in reply to BLeisner # I think I could shovel for days and -still- not get out of the house # @daytonward Don't knock Big Lots! You can find lots of cool… umm… crap there! Actually, I love Big Lots. But don't ever buy their pens. in reply to daytonward # @DavidAlanMack The…

• On Things I Tweeted Today (2010-02-07)

  Allyn

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:52 pm

  @BLeisner Sounds like a Mort Weisinger-era story; Supes goes back in time, becomes Trojan warrior, fights Achilles for 4 pages, goes home in reply to BLeisner # Blizzardammerung update: Saturday, 8:30 EST, between 30 and 32 inches of snow # Blizzardammerung update: Saturday, 9:30 EST, cleaned the satellite dish by going out a window # Blizzardammerung update: Saturday 11:40 EST, snow has changed over from fine to big puffy flakes, now estimate 3 feet or more # #nowlistening Orson Welles' Mercury Theater of the Air "The War of the Worlds" # Reading short story; of first twenty…

• 
  Gary Gibson

• Apple Predictions

  gary gibson

  22 Jan 2010 | 8:56 pm

  Steve Jobs may at times (reputedly)  display all the charm of an angry rattlesnake whose tail has just been trodden on when he throws one of his temper tantrums, but it's not hard to see the man is something of a marketing genius. It's difficult to think of any technology company other than Apple capable of generating quite such a level of fevered anticipation as the forthcoming Tablet. I was initially interested in this from the ebook and magazine-reading point of view, although it's certain to be a multi-tasking device primarily oriented towards net-browsing or films and (even better)…

• Books on TV

  gary gibson

  21 Jan 2010 | 3:56 am

  If I had to pick one thing about TV programs about books that annoy me, it's their relentless middle-classness. I just checked out a UK show called TV Book Club and it's just ... irritating in a way that's hard to pin down. Don't get me wrong, I'm  all for books being reviewed on television, and more of it, I say; but does it all have to be so irredeemably cosy? The one show that doesn't necessarily piss me off in this way - at least in the UK, and at least not all the time - is Late Review. It's not just about books, but they get a reasonably interesting range of people…

• On Agents

  gary gibson

  17 Jan 2010 | 10:53 pm

  I was reading this article by Dean Wesley Smith on agents and whether they're required or not, and the various myths that float around them. Some people apparently feel they aren't necessary and you're better off keeping that ten or fifteen per cent to yourself. Despite having several novels out, I'm no expert on publishing. Most of my writing career has taken place at a distance from my publisher of at least several hundred miles. If I meet them at all, it's at the occasional convention. Julie Crisp has been my editor for a couple of years now, and if I can make it to…

• Why I'm Glad We Never Got Our Jetpacks

  gary gibson

  13 Jan 2010 | 6:02 pm

  Even when I was a kid, I had issues with Bladerunner when it came to the flying cars. They looked sort of pretty, but I felt pretty sure that if I lived in a city where one-ton hunks of steel were zooming above me all day long, I'd never go out for fear of  some idiot dropping one on my head. I got thinking about this because over the New Year some news program or other got Jonathan Ross to select a 'tweet of the decade'. The one that won read something like 'Where are our jetpacks? We were promised jetpacks!', as if the internet and the many other technological accoutrements of our time…

• 2010

  gary gibson

  12 Jan 2010 | 8:48 am

  I've become very focused recently on the new book, which is probably why my 'why, look, it's the 2010's' blog entry is likely to be later than anyone else's on the planet, ever. That's whenever I get around to writing it, that is. On the other hand, I've been doing the occasional piece for BSCReview.com and elsewhere, whenever I a)get round to it or b)can actually think of anything to write about. Which is difficult,  given that every time I look at my RSS feeds I seem to be deluged by informed opinion from across the sf publishing world from people who I suspect have a better idea what…

• 
  Laura Anne Gilman

• new story up!

  Laura Anne Gilman

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  If you happen to be looking for something to read w/ your coffee? I have a new story up (free!) on BookViewCafe this morning.It's short and, um... not sweet. Sorry, fakefrenchie! And yes, I'd love to hear your reactions in comments. Yes, even if you hated it. Especially if it's "I hate you you made me [fill in the blank]...."

• And lo, there was a light upon the Wank, and it was Funny

  Laura Anne Gilman

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:18 pm

  Warning: single-spaced but really funny. And if you recognize anything you have only yourself to blame.RT @lilithsaintcrow And now, for your delectation and hilarity, FANDOM GENESIS: http://bit.ly/9qiuv8

• Monday again? Already?

  Laura Anne Gilman

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:47 am

  Superbowl. Good game. Good food. Good booze. Really bad and annoying commercials, as a rule. Dear Advertisers: When you realize that women watch the Superbowl, you will make a lot of money. Until then? Not so much.Meanwhile, it's official -- I'm going to Dragon*Con. woot!And, um, really really busy here. As always, for random comments and fly-by blogging, best to find me on Twitter (@LAGilman).*zoomz off*

• PSA from the meerkat

  Laura Anne Gilman

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:08 pm

  If you're going to walk into my burrow and post a "warning" about something, it would behoove you to DO YOUR RESEARCH beforehand, to make sure that you know what you're talking about. Especially if it's something I happen to know quite a bit about.Otherwise I will have no hesitation in calling you out -- and quite possibly making you look like an idiot.

• this is me, musing.

  Laura Anne Gilman

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:33 am

  I have finally realized why the use of "friend" in "friendslist" and etc really bothers me, to the point of making me actively, if mentally, twitch. It is, no surprise, tied into my "circle of people" theory, which runs:There are people I know (big circle) and there are people I know and enjoy spending time with (acquaintances) and there are people I enjoy spending time with on a regular basis at conventions and whatnot, but would not invite to my home ("playmates") and there are people I would/do invite into my home (friends) and there are people I would move the earth and kill the sun for…

• 
  Bob Greenberger

• My Farpoint Schedule

  Bob Greenberger

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:38 pm

  The 2010 convention season is about to begin for me. Most of the shows I appear at occur between now and July so the calendar fills in quickly. Kicking things off, as usual, is Farpoint down in Timonium, MD. I’ll be there along with writing pals Peter David, David Mack, Mike Friedman, Keith DeCandido, Terri Osborne, Dave Galanter, Alan Chafin, Glenn Hauman and of course, Howard Weinstein. Presuming the northeast is dug out of the weekly snow storm in time, we should be there having a ball. For those, attending, here’s where you can find me: Saturday Bob Greenberger 10:00 AM This is the…

• Great Customer Service

  Bob Greenberger

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:07 pm

  Through the years, I’ve been fairly critical about the state of customer service in the country, using personal examples as cases in point. As a result, it’s only fair that when I get superior service, I should mention this as well. Last week, I noticed a leak under our washing machine. The earliest the repairmen from C&E Appliance could come was yesterday and we were told to expect him between 3 and 6. At 5:50, he arrived and began disassembling the machine. After some poking and prodding, he found the leak. Unfortunately, it was a significant part that had failed, not the usual…

• Attending a Super-Hero Lecture

  Bob Greenberger

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:48 am

  Yesterday, I spent the day in Spring Valley, New York, beginning with a wonderful brunch at my cousin Audrey’s. She’s the youngest cousin in the preceding generation and I continue to marvel at how my mother’s generation grew up so incredibly close and remain in touch with amazing regularity. We then headed over to the small Holocaust Museum and Study Center to attend the opening of the exhibit American Cartoonists: Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. It’s a traveling exhibit assembled by Rabbi Isidoro Auzenberg, curator for special exhibits and scholar-in-residence at The Harriet and…

• Revisiting Riverdale

  Bob Greenberger

  29 Jan 2010 | 1:07 pm

  Back in August, I was very harsh on the first installment in Michael Uslan’s six-part “what if” story, which devoted three issues of Archie to watching Archie Andrews marry Veronica Lodge then three issues watching Archie marry Betty Cooper. At the time, I was frustrated at the characters acting, well, out of character and the lazy thinking that went into this. Now that the final installment is out, I wanted to go back and see if things improved. Not really. The three-parter with Veronica never really explores anything as we rush headlong from event to event. The wedding prep and…

• My First GBRPA Meeting

  Bob Greenberger

  28 Jan 2010 | 9:01 am

  I mentioned a while back that I was continuing my public service by joining the Greater Bridgeport Regional Planning Agency as a Fairfield representative. And what is the GBRPA you wonder? According to the website: “The Greater Bridgeport Planning Region comprises six municipalities that are home to approximately 300,000 residents. The three most urbanized communities (Bridgeport, Fairfield and Stratford) lie along the shores of Long Island Sound, whereas the inland communities to the north (Easton, Monroe and Trumbull) are more rural and residential. Covering 146 square miles, the Region…

• 
  Shannon Hale

• Rapunzel's Revenge book trailer contest: Vote now!

  halespawn

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:44 pm

  Here are the awesome entries in our rapunzel's revenge book trailer contest!  Please watch all the entries before voting at the end of this post. Voting ends February 25. Thanks to all for taking such time and care to produce these beautiful trailers. Alex Rogers Alysa Smith JeReveDesLivres George Ingram Heather Zundel JeReveDesLivres (poem) Online Surveys & Market Research

• Kate's eagles

  halespawn

  2 Feb 2010 | 4:34 pm

  I was just wanting to avoid writing for a minute, and I thought to myself, "I wonder if Kate DiCamillo has a blog." And by golly, she does. Please read this entry with me. Okay, let's get this part out...

• One secret down, one to go

  halespawn

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:46 am

  Alright, so I'm far enough into one of the Super Secret Projects to reveal (the original and, for me, more exciting SSP is still pending). So a little over a year ago, I started writing Daisy Danger Brown, a kick-butt...

• The great balancing act of awareness

  halespawn

  24 Jan 2010 | 8:32 pm

  So...Haiti. I heard about the devastation the day it happened. I was listening to NPR as I drove. I was alone--no kids (rare), so I didn't have anything to distract me from the story. And I cried. Then as soon...

• The refrigerator curse

  halespawn

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:59 am

  Dean and I have said curse. Truly. Was there a refrigerator gypsy we inadvertently crossed on our wedding day? Is there a saint over appliances I can supplicate? I present for you the evidence of our curse. The following stories...

• 
  M. John Harrison

• light & enchantment

  uzwi

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:59 am

  Abandoned answer to an interview question: I mean, clearly, immanence has always had huge issues for me. From the early 80s everything addresses it. Light could be described almost entirely as being a kind of back & forth reveling in those issues. But enchantment has to have a secularity, a materiality. It doesn’t inform or inhabit the world: in some way it is the world. It’s algorithm & structure, a kind of physics, an expression of the constantly folding & acting rule-like structures that make everything moment to moment. I usually give up on articulating…

• strange bedfellows, r/z

  uzwi

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:32 am

  The final tour round my bookshelves, which are now less extensive than many a TBR pile– Mary Renault Paul Reps Joanna Richardson Matt Ridley Rainer Maria Rilke Robert Roberts Henry Rollins Philip Roth Jean Rhys Robert Sabbag Siegfried Sassoon Bruno Schulz Alice Sebold Will Self Joe Simpson Ali Smith Martin Cruz Smith Thorne Smith Stanley Spencer Stephen Spender Robert Louis Stevenson George Steiner Robert Stone Elizabeth Taylor Giuliana Tedeschi DM Thomas Dylan Thomas David Thompson Adam Thorpe Colin Thubron Michel Tournier Joanna Trollope Turgenev John Updike Stephen Venables EH Visiak…

• february

  uzwi

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:50 am

  The light has a warmer quality, which has brought out the biscuit colours of the gable ends along Grove Road. For days the street has been full of children on bicycles taking their proficiency test. Tucked into yellow safety wear & pink helmets, they cycle back & forth with attentive expressions & a careful lack of elan. Points are awarded for the proper use of the hand signal, but this morning I can’t seem to get worked up about that. Down towards the river the street trees are shocking green again, glowing & roaring as they suck in the sunlight to re-emit it at…

• tim @ gasworks, 05.02/28.03.10

  uzwi

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:24 pm

  “Gasworks presents the first solo exhibition in a London public gallery by Tim Etchells, which brings together two works previously unseen in the UK. “… Produced for Manifesta 7, in Italy, Art Flavours sees Etchells organising a meeting between the Italian critic and curator Roberto Pinto and the ice-cream maker Osvaldo Castellari. Pinto was entrusted with summarising art historical practice through four main categories: The Body, Memory, Spectacle and The Archive. Castellari’s role was to translate the concepts into four ice-cream flavours. The video shows the…

• heartbreaking search strings [4]

  uzwi

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:55 am

  ear popping keeps me awake

• 
  Jess Hartley

• In which we ask for your support again...

  jesshartley

  13 Jan 2010 | 3:32 pm

  Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas is an anthology to which I contributed the ghost story, Stigmatized Property. It has been nominated for Best Anthology of the year on the Preditors and Editors poll site. Voting closes tomorrow, and we've slipped from first place to third.I'd really appreciate your support. Voting is easy: http://www.critters.org/predpoll/antho.shtmlMore about Buried Tales:Welcome to Pinebox, a sleepy little East Texas town with more than its share of trouble. Whether it's the snake cultists running the local bar or vengeful spirits haunting the high school boys locker room,…

• jesshartley @ 2010-01-04T16:36:00

  jesshartley

  4 Jan 2010 | 3:36 pm

  Thank you all for so many votes for both Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2009 (610 positive votes as of today! You guys rock!) and for Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas for best anthology.If you haven't voted, I think today is the last day on both.CrittersWired

• In which we are off to a good start...

  jesshartley

  1 Jan 2010 | 5:26 pm

  Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas - a horror anthology to which I contributed the story, Stigmatized Property, has been nominated for an award. You can help by voting here.The voting is open until 1/14, and does not require arduous registration, although you do have to type two words to prove you're a human, and click on an email confirmation to prove you're not ballot stuffing a million votes through the same email address.I, and the other authors of Buried Tales, would be most grateful for your vote.More information about Buried Tales, and other examples of my fiction are available, as always,…

• In which we are flabbergasted...

  jesshartley

  30 Dec 2009 | 9:11 am

  Okay, I'm utterly flabbergasted...Not only did someone nominate me for Wired Magazine's Sexiest Geeks of 2009 (along side the likes of Felicia Day and Zooey Deschanel, and a bevy of bikini-clad beauties) but several hundred people have voted for me.Thanks, gang! Way to make my day!

• In which we share the scare...

  jesshartley

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:26 am

  Instant Antagonists - Just Add Dice! Now available at FlamesRising.com and DriveThruRPG - the first in a series of complete antagonist packages suitable for any modern horror setting. Designed to be portable into any modern horror RPG - World of Darkness, Supernatural, Buffy, Unknown Armies, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, etc. Designed by a team of artists, writers and editors with decades of experience in horror or gaming, and now available to you for only $3.99. Instant Antagonist 1 - Selfish Succubus was written by Jess Hartley and features the art of Jeff Preston. Bring professional horror…

• 
  Angeline Hawkes

• Dark Regions Press First Time Customer Buy 1 book get 1 book free!

  angelinehawkes

  20 Jan 2010 | 7:03 pm

  Buy a book, get a book free!!!  Dark Regions Press special for first time customers. Get a FREE book for buying one book from DarkRegions.com! Here's how it works: Join the newsletter and after confirmation, you'll be e-mailed a code to be used during the DarkRegions.com checkout. Enter this code in the "Discount Code" box. In the Paypal payment note indicate which paperback you want for FREE. Along with my collection, Shades of Blood and Shadow, DRP has many fine books!

• A fabulous day with Daniel...

  angelinehawkes

  26 Dec 2009 | 5:38 pm

  Today was FABULOUS! For starters, Daniel slept from 12 am to 11:30 am!! Wow, what a difference some normal sleep did for mommy and daddy!We took him out on his first outing. The big kids are at their dad's on the weekend, so we had a lazy start to our day and then went downtown to our main street of our little Texas town. We went to our favorite little coffee/antique shop and Daniel "claimed" a plush Ty froggie, then we went to the park.We're not sure if it 's the shoes or the woodchips, lol. He walks very much like a one year old when put in shoes...stomping and such. We've decided…

• For all the mommies & daddies who must endure kid shows...this one's for you!

  angelinehawkes

  25 Dec 2009 | 6:10 pm

• The Daniel Report!

  angelinehawkes

  24 Dec 2009 | 2:05 pm

  Marni and Phil were troopers at the airport and we REALLY couldn't have done it without their invaluable support. Marni and Phil braved the insane Dallas airport with a 3 wk old baby in tow! Wow! We are SO grateful for them! Daniel's airport arrival was pretty terrible. He had just woken up from a nap and there we were. He physically fought Chris for an hour, before we decided to just brave the carseat battle and go home. Thankfully, he got right into the car seat, said bye-bye and fell asleep before we were even out of the parking garage. The poor escort and her daughter were crying and kept…

• Daniel Watch Update: Plane is leaving San Fran on its way to Dallas.

  angelinehawkes

  21 Dec 2009 | 11:07 am

  For those on Daniel Watch: we just got an update from our escort through our agency and Daniel did well on the flight, is "friendly" and "all boy" and "very active". The flight was a bit delayed departing from San Fran but is now shown as having departed the gate. Reason for delay: customer service. Answer to my question: Did he get sick? No. He did great. :) We're getting ready to head to the airport.

• 
  Simon Haynes

• First pic of the Apple Tablet?

  Simon Haynes

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:48 pm

  I know everyone's going crazy about this thing, so I decided to post an exclusive pic:

• New Year Resolve

  Simon Haynes

  27 Dec 2009 | 10:48 pm

  I'm aiming to finish Hal 5, natch. I've been working on other projects for two months now, mostly programming ones, but I'm beginning to feel the pull of the WIP once more.To say I've missed a deadline is an understatement, but I have to write my novels a certain way. First, I get a rough draft together over a period of months. I keep working on it until I'm sick of the thing, and then put it away hoping never to see it again. Two or three months later all memories of the hours, days and weeks of solid writing and plotting have washed away, and I'm able to pick up the draft and tackle it with…

• Big Sky Writers Festival - report

  Simon Haynes

  13 Sep 2009 | 7:34 pm

  Earlier this year I received an invitation to the Big Sky 09 writers festival, to be held by the Geraldton-Greenough regional library over three days in September. Geraldton is a coastal city abour 450km North-West of Perth, Western Australia, and in aussie outback terms 450km is a round trip to the shops. Accommodation & travel were all included, and it sounded like a great chance to meet some fellow authors and participate in panels on writing and science fiction.I just got home last night, and I wanted to write a quick report on the festival while it's still fresh in my mind.I spent…

• Hal Spacejock book 5 - First Readers required

  Simon Haynes

  20 Jul 2009 | 9:37 pm

  If you're interested in being a first reader for Hal Spacejock book 5, you'll find the details hereI'm still writing the second draft, but I thought I should give people a little notice...

• Still writing

  Simon Haynes

  29 Jun 2009 | 7:25 am

  If you're wondering where I am, the answer is ... writing. I set myself a breakneck pace to get the Hal Spacejock 5 draft finished and that leaves little time for other forms of writing - such as email and blogging. (And people wonder why I embrace my twitter account like a drowning man...)Anyway, my Hal 5 schedule looks something like this:By July 3: Finish the rough draft. (Still have 4 chapters to write, one per day)By July 15: Finish the first edit. Much cutting, pasting, chopping, wailing.By July 31: Send the finished second edit+ off to my first readers for commentBy August 15: Complete…

• 
  Jim Hetley

• Perception

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:26 am

  (Not really connected to Younger Son's research in the psychology of perception, except that we all carry optical illusions around in our baggage . . .)There's been a bit of discussion (jimhines  and yuki_onna as two examples) of rampant sexism in the Super Bowl ads, anti-female stereotypes and all.Am I the only person who saw some of them as satire?  Dodging off at an angle (Dodge being one of the Bad Boys), like the "Green Police" ad for Audi?

• Still nothing

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:01 am

  Morning low 24 F, contrasted with a record of -24 F for the date.  We still lack snow -- you mid-Atlantic types are stealing our winter.  Or maybe Vancouver's winter, I see reports of a snow shortage looming over the Olympics.No sighting of Ms. Beak.  Nothing to worry about, just a lack of coinciding schedules.  Got out too early for her yesterday, too late today.

• Ah, the whims of bureaucratic whimsy

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:37 am

  One item of discussion in local news:  Maine* has encountered an 80% cut in LIHEAP (Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program) funding from the Federal Government.  This is due to a recalculation of the formula that allocates funding on a state-by-state proportion.  Gainers?  Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina . . . www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/10895/Default.aspxSend the money where the votes live.*(also New Hampshire and Vermont and other cold/northern states)

• Nothing

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:27 am

  Breezy morning, wan sunshine, air temperature 21 F for the newspaper walk.  No sighting of Ms. Beak.Mildly glad that the Saints won last night, sentimental and underdog-bias choice.  More glad that it was a good game.  I have a hard time getting an emotional connection with highly-paid mercenaries serving the names of cities far away, but enjoy watching difficult things done well.  And I think The Who looked a little less mummified than the Stones . . .(There was a time, back in the Cretaceous, when I actually knew a couple of players in the NFL, had played with and…

• Still not snowing

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:50 pm

  Wife and I just back from a walk (cabin fever attack) -- temperature 25 F and winds gusting to 25 mph.  Wan sunshine.Stopped to apply scritches to Stretch, and acquired a shoulder cat.  I guess we've been adopted.  He's heavy.

• 
  Jim C. Hines

• Real Men

  Jim C. Hines

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:31 am

  Catherynne Valente recently posted two essays about gender issues, both of which are worth reading.1 “If you watch these ads, and mainstream sitcoms, you see this place. This place where men and women can barely stand each other long enough to have mutually unfulfilling sex and procreate. Where women are the sole source of everything irritating and wrong in a man’s life, plus she’s never hot enough, plus you have to, like, interact with her sometimes.” It’s gotten me thinking about masculinity and what it means to “Be a man” in this culture.  The way…

• When to Walk Away

  Jim C. Hines

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:31 am

  Since a number of people said I should go ahead and do it, I’ve created a Jim C. Hines Fan Page over on Facebook.  I blame you all. I found myself in several Internet squabbles last week.  One started on Twitter after one of my #Amazonfail posts.  In that case, the other person and I swapped e-mails, and that was the end of it.  I don’t think we changed each other’s minds, but it gave me another perspective to think about, and I appreciate that. Another didn’t go so well.  This was someone I know not to bother talking to in normal circumstances, but he was…

• A Gathering of Doorways, by Michael Jasper

  Jim C. Hines

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:32 am

  A little while back I received a review copy of A Gathering of Doorways [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] by Michael Jasper.  Mike is someone I’ve known online almost since I started writing.  He’s a good guy, and a very good writer.  (See my reviews of The Wannoshay Cycle and his excellent collection Gunning for the Buddha.) In Doorways, Gil and Melissa and their son Noah are trying to make a living on their new farm, despite the strange, toxic water slowly encroaching onto their land.  One of Jasper’s strengths is his characterization, making Melissa and Gil not…

• Friday Roundup

  Jim C. Hines

  5 Feb 2010 | 6:30 am

  I posted yesterday that I didn’t know when I’d be able to share the cover art for Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon].  The answer, apparently, was “very, very soon.”  I spotted the cover at B&N, then received a cleaner copy from DAW.  Click the thumbnail for a larger version. As noted before, we had to switch artists in mid-series.  This was done by Mel Grant (who also did my goblin covers).  The cover for Mermaid remains my favorite, but I think he did a great job making sure it was recognizable and consistent with the earlier books.

• I Don’t Know

  Jim C. Hines

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:31 am

  I don’t know how much e-books should cost.  I’ve read arguments for sliding-scale prices.  I know lots of people don’t want to pay over a certain price.  I don’t have an answer. I don’t know whether Macmillan’s agency agreement would be better for authors and readers than some other approach. I don’t know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop. I don’t know whether people are going to love Snow Queen. I don’t know where I get my ideas. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post the cover art to Red…

• 
  M.K. Hobson

• Twitter: 2010-02-09

  M.K. Hobson

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:03 am

  Damn you JetBlue. I don't mind doing everything on the Web, but when your site won't do what I need it to do, 25+ minutes on hold is CRAP. # OK, JetBlue, you're back in my good books for waiving the $100 ticket change fee on account of the long (40+ min) hold time. Yay!! # Powered by Twitter Tools Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.

• Twitter: 2010-02-08

  M.K. Hobson

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:07 am

  Copyedits sent off! Hooray! Daughter and I are going to see "Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus" in celebration. # "Dr. Parnassus" was pretty to look at, but it didn't make much very much goddamn sense. # Powered by Twitter Tools Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.

• State of the Cat

  M.K. Hobson

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:14 am

  As expected, daughter has taken the young stray under her wing and is spoiling him rotten. I have told her she can’t let him loose in the house until we’ve gotten him really checked out, but he can come inside in the carrier. So she carried him around with her in the house all morning while getting ready for school (much to the poor cat’s dismay, I imagine.) But she’s coddling him extensively, and is already picking out names, so I’m guessing unless something drastic happens, we’ve got ourselves a new cat. As far as names go, I’m plumping for…

• Twitter: 2010-02-05

  M.K. Hobson

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:03 am

  You know, Pink Floyd's "The Wall" isn't quite the subtle symbolic gem I remember from my college days. # Bob Geldof was pretty cute, tho. # Hahaha. VH1 cut out all the sexy flower animation. Pussies. # Powered by Twitter Tools Originally published at M.K. Hobson | Necrophilatelist. Please leave any comments there.

• Copyediting and Cat Rescue

  M.K. Hobson

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:53 am

  Well, the copyediting is mostly done. It was a quite a bit more grueling than I expected it to be. Sitting down and reading your own work that closely is like examining your face in one of those super-high-magnification mirrors. Pretty ugly. You come across some desperately infelicitous crap. But thank God, you get the chance to fix it. In other news … I found a cat today. Someone had left him in a cardboard box in the park by Clackamette Cove where I often walk Sugar Cookie. They left him with two cans of food and a towel. I don’t know how long he’d been there, but it was…

• 
  Sarah Hoyt

• By Their Cats Thou Shalt Know Them

  sarahahoyt

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:21 pm

  By Their Cats Thou Shalt Know Them Mumble years ago, my husband and I were sitting in a comedy club in Charlotte NC when the poor visiting comedian decided to make a riff on common cats’ names versus common dogs’ names, or such. He started by saying that dogs were given manly names – I don’t remember the examples he gave – while cats got names... and here he made the mistake of pausing and asking who in the audience had cats. Our entire table raised their hands. The comedian might still have saved himself, had he noticed that we looked a little... unusual... He…

• An mp3 reading

  sarahahoyt

  10 Jan 2010 | 9:10 pm

  The three chapters are below, but this is an mp3 of me reading the first two chapters. YES that IS my real accent. (I was born and raised abroad.) No, I don't normally sound like that. Athena made me!http://darkshipthieves.com/audio/darkship1-2.mp3 (warning: 27MB).

• A Sample of Darkship Thieves

  sarahahoyt

  31 Dec 2009 | 9:46 am

  *I know I've done this before, but now that DST is actually shipping from Amazon, here is the opening. And happy New Year, everyone.* One I never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. Never had any interest in discovering the truth about the darkships. You always get what you don’t ask for. Which was why I woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in my father’s space cruiser. Before full consciousness, I knew there was an intruder in my cabin. Once awake, I couldn’t figure out…

• Naming the names -- D'Artagnan Hoyt

  sarahahoyt

  17 Dec 2009 | 3:27 pm

  A post by D'Artagnan Hoyt, the bestest cat in the world (Mommy says so.)She doesn't like it when I call her mommy. Says she'd remember if she'd given birth to me, which is silly, because I don't remember being born, so no reason why she should. The thing is, I'm probably adopted, because I'm handsome and fuzzy and not a pink blob on two legs, like Mommy and Daddy and the sad, deformed bigger-kittens they have. But, you know, they're still the only family I gots. And they feed me and pet me and younger deformed-giant-kitten lets me sleep in his bed at night, which is really warm.So... to make…

• Euclid talks about books and tail and stuff

  sarahahoyt

  29 Nov 2009 | 7:24 pm

  (A guest post by Euclid Hoyt, the patriarch of the Hoyts' tame pride and known in the family as Neurotalon.)Hi to everyone out there. My human, Sarah, says that there are many many people you can reach through this computer thing. I don't know what she means, because I've walked up behind this computer thing -- and coughed a hairball or two on top of it, and let me tell you, it's not touching anyone. But then humans are weird that way. I mean, it's like the whole thing with water. what sane species keeps water in their lair, ready to dump on them at a moment's notice. They could just lick…

• 
  Charlie Huston

• SLEEPLESS Reviewed on All Things Considered

  Charlie Huston

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:59 am

  SLEEPLESS reviewed by Alan Cheuse on NPR’s All Things Considered right HERE.

• SLEEPLESS Review on the Agony Column

  Charlie Huston

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:54 am

  Rick Kleffel’s Agony Column review of SLEEPLESS at bookotron.com is HERE.

• BSC Interview Part Two

  Charlie Huston

  26 Jan 2010 | 2:34 pm

  The second half of my interview with Keith Rawson at BSC is HERE.

• Writing Q&A

  Charlie Huston

  25 Jan 2010 | 12:47 pm

  HHere’s the Q&A on how and what I write. I’m afraid I haven’t credited the inquisitors, as that would have taken a bit of time. But you know who you are, and I thank you for playing. If you don’t see your specific question answered, I probably thought it overlapped with another. I did not proof anyone’s spelling or grammar, including my own. So an even playing field there. -c Q: Really wanted to get some color as to your process. How much you know about a story before you start, how clear a picture you have about point-of-view, timeline, secondary…

• SLEEPLESS Review from Edward Champion

  Charlie Huston

  22 Jan 2010 | 6:33 pm

  Edward Champion’s review of SLEEPLESS on B&N.com can be found HERE.

• 
  Paul Hutchinson

• and in other news...

  hutch0

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:48 am

  I note with increasing bafflement that Locus have put The Push on their 2009 Recommended Reading List.

• also...

  hutch0

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:19 am

  ...`Dali's Clocks,' my last short story of last year, didn't make it into Jetse's Shine anthology, but he's very kindly put it up online at DayBreak Magazine. You'll probably have noticed that I'm usually my own worst critic, but I just read through it again and I don't think this one is too shabby.

• you want to know how absurd the universe is?

  hutch0

  25 Jan 2010 | 1:24 am

  The Push is on the shortlist for this year's BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction. That's how absurd the universe is.

• bury my wounded knee at barnet general

  hutch0

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:58 am

  The knee is still not well. My GP says it should be pretty much healed by now, but it's still weak and sore and I still can't put a lot of weight on it, so he referred me to the orthopaedic clinic up at Barnet General. Who x-rayed the damn thing again, then poked and prodded and twisted it some, and then gave me a leg-brace that's a sort of aluminium/neoprene/velcro version of the calipers you used to see on those child-shaped collecting boxes for the Polio Society and referred me for an MRI.The appointment for the MRI came through today and it's at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, which means…

• it's...!

  hutch0

  20 Jan 2010 | 9:45 am

  I should have done this ages ago, but please, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, roll out the barrel, deck the halls, and pray essay with me the Ancient Semaphore Of Greeting (discovered etched into the glass of the Great West Window at York Minster) for kaz_mahoney and daj42 are among us.Welcome, Karen and Derek.

• 
  Alexander Irvine

• Finches Rock

  Alex Irvine

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:06 am

• Best SF/F v.4 Cover

  Alex Irvine

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:28 am

  Man, I can't wait to read this. I missed a lot of good stories this year:

• Anno Iron Man Continues

  Alex Irvine

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  Here's the cover for my novelization of Iron Man 2, appearing in your neighborhood bookstore on April 1:

• Anatomical Figuration of Amazon/Macmillan

  Alex Irvine

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:36 am

  Bookninja, which is always worth reading, on the Amazon/Macmillan kerfuffle that will determine the course of Western civilization: "Somewhere around the duodenum, Amazon’s foot, which had apparently entered through its own mouth, met Macmillan’s foot which, as we saw yesterday, entered through Amazon’s rectum, and the two are having a kungfu battle amid the half-digested remains of America’s mid-list novelists. Heady stuff."As one of those mid-list novelists (I think), I feel threatened by this image but consider it appropriate.

• 100 Stories for Haiti

  Alex Irvine

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:27 am

  Buy this book when it comes out. Not because I have a story in it ("Snapdragons," reprinted from the Vestal Review), but because it's a good thing to do.

• 
  Ben Jeapes

• Get yer Ben here

  Ben

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am

  Anyone within striking distance of Oxford on May 8 may like to know that The Write Fantastic is holding a 5th anniversary event at St Hilda's College, of which yours truly will be a part.My windows shiver as an ignorant nation bellows: "What is The Write Fantastic?" It is "an exciting initiative by professional authors aiming to introduce fantasy fiction to readers who have yet to experience the genre. Its mission is also to ensure existing readers know the full breadth and depth of current fantasy writing." Said professional authors include such lovely people as Juliet McKenna and Chaz…

• Coming soon: Tarot Trumps

  Ben

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:24 am

  I wasn't sure how to tackle this because I really don't want to jump onto an Internet rumour hobbyhorse that later proves embarrassingly hoaxish. But my source is a level headed individual I know and I respect, and Snopes.com has nothing on it, so here goes:It appears ToysRUs is stocking a toy ouija board. Said board is manufactured by Hasbro. It's aimed at little girls, so it's pink and frilly.This is so far from a good idea that the light from a good idea will take several million years to reach it. And that's just the pink and frilly. I also have deeper objections. The reliable source I…

• Book disposal part 2

  Ben

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:10 am

  This was my core science fiction collection as of 26 June 2006. Exercising ruthlessly stringent criteria I had whittled it down to these four simple shelves. Since then various of its components have come and gone but the quantity has remained the same.Until last night, when it got whittled down by a further two shelves worth. We are inheriting a big kind of dresser-thingy which will take up most of one wall and comes up to the level of the second shelf: ergo, at least two shelves had to go. I was as ruthless as the first time round, with similar criteria honed after a further 3.5 years of…

• 10 types of people

  Ben

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:08 pm

  I was shocked - shocked! - that the winning team on last night's University Challenge can't do binary. St John's Oxford couldn't solve three simple binary sums, like 1100011 divided by 1001*, and express the answer in decimal.Even stranger is that they were obviously using the same method I was using, except that I got it right: work out the value of each column with a 1 in it and add it all together. Not hard.Even more shocking was learning that apparently I'm the only one in the family who could do this. This must be how my father felt when he learnt I can't do long division.It's simplicity…

• Dog fight

  Ben

  1 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  We all want to side with the underdog. When there's a clash of overdog vs uberdog I suppose the overdog's position is still relatively under, so that's why I say "excelsior!" to Macmillan and "ha ha" to Amazon.In the space of 48 hours Macmillan and Amazon went from minor border skirmishes to all-out war, declared by Amazon and lost by same a short while later. Ultimately it all came down to Amazon's vastly inflated idea of its rightful place in the affairs of man, finally clashing with a publisher big enough to say "no". Amazon tried to impose terms on Macmillan, Macmillan weren't having it…

• 
  Trent Jamieson

• Storm

  Trent Jamieson

  29 Jan 2010 | 8:03 pm

  Yesterday, as the storm came in, I started work on a final scene linking the old draft with the new stuff. I’ve added Eight thousand words to the front end of the book. Oddly enough the story features storms, as did that scene, so it helped with some of the detail as dark clouds slid over Brisbane suburbia, and a few hundred birds, parrots in the main, found noisy refuge in the trees behind our place – it’s once an indignant and nervous sort of background noise, all those parrots suddenly in one place.I’m now onto the structural edit proper, but those new words have put what is to…

• Trentonomicon has Moved

  Trent Jamieson

  29 Jan 2010 | 7:59 pm

  I've a shiny new site here. Check it out. I'll be cross-posting for a while. But the new site will have more information about the forthcoming books and whatnot.

• No

  Trent Jamieson

  15 Jan 2010 | 7:03 am

  this blog still lives, though it's heart is beating very, very slowly. I've just finished and submitted book two of Death Works. Managing Death is a different creature to Death Most Definite. But every book is different, and characters change - it's what makes them interesting.Now when I say "finished" I don't mean finished at all. Just one stage is done, there'll be several more before the book sees* print in December. But this is perhaps the most important one. It's me getting the book off, getting other eyes to look at it, and getting some distance. This is the joy of deadlines, if I…

• A Little on Process - Part Two

  Trent Jamieson

  11 Dec 2009 | 4:57 am

  I know. I do go on about this quite a bit, but when you’re at the end of a second book with a lot (I mean a lot) of editing ahead, it does tend to rub your nose in it. And writing’s a kind of nasal gazing activity, and I’ll be teaching the year of the novel at QWC next year, so how I write novels has very much been on my mind. You see, I don’t plan them- not one little bit*. I tend to start a novel with a scene that may be the beginning and may be the middle, and I tend to have an end point, but that’s about it. I write in an extremely non-linear fashion. And it seems to work for…

• For the QWC Blog Tour

  Trent Jamieson

  10 Dec 2009 | 4:43 pm

  Where do your words come from? My head, there’s a long tunnel at the back of it and the words tend to stumble out of there at odd times and with peculiar rhythms. They also tend to come from the past, from dreams and memories, which makes them pretty unreliable, and quick to fade. I’m not that good at catching them, but I get some which is all you can really hope for, I suppose. Where did you grow up and where do you live now? I grew up in Gunnedah, until I was fifteen. It’s a smallish country town in North Western NSW. Then I moved to Lismore in Northern NSW for about six years. I live…

• 
  J.V. Jones

• Journal - Watcher Watch III: Book Reviews

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:45 pm

  One of the problems with writing a long series over the course of a decade is the difficulty of asking reviewers to review the latest book in your series. Book reviewers do a lot of reading. They usually have several books on their docket at any given time and deadlines are always looming.

• Journal - Back to the Present

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:32 pm

  Things appear to be back to normal here. If you visited the website last Friday you found yourself transported back to April 2008 (back in the days when the world’s oldest tree was in California, not Sweden, and no one knew for sure whether or not there was ice on Mars).

• Journal - Cake ‘o’ Death

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:33 am

  What do you do when when your website has time-warped back to April 2008 and a major online retailer isn’t selling your books? You make cake.

• Journal - Space Camp

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:02 pm

  Here I am at WIRO, the Wyoming Infrared Observatory at 9,656 ft, twenty-five miles from Laramie, Wyoming.

• Journal - Watcher of the Dead

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:39 pm

  Thanks to the behind-the-scenes machinations of Paul, Watcher now has its own webpage.

• 
  Vylar Kaftan

• Derailing for Dummies

  Vylar

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:10 pm

  Just ran across Derailing for Dummies, a site dedicating to helping us all squash the opinions of those pesky women, people of color, queerfolk, and other people who ought to know their true place in the social heap.  (Hint: bottom.) Totally funny.  It contains suggested tactics like: If You Won’t Educate Me How Can I Learn You Just Enjoy Being Offended Well I Know Another Person From Your Group Who Disagrees! Mandatory reading if you want to oppress marginalized people and perpetuate social injustice.  Check it out!

• Pseudopod Best of 2009

  Vylar

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:35 am

  Cool, some folks are saying nice things about Break the Vessel at Pseudopod. Not much other news lately.  It’s earnings season, which means I’m swamped with work and squeezing writing into the spare time.

• That’s so meta

  Vylar

  23 Jan 2010 | 6:50 am

  Cat.  With cat-shaped spots on its back. Clearly this should be a LOLcat.  But what’s the caption?

• Plugins Updated

  shannon

  16 Jan 2010 | 3:54 pm

  This is your entirely friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I’ve updated some of the pieces-parts which drive this site. If something looks ungood, comment here and I’ll see if I can mend it.

• A bad week for friends

  Vylar

  16 Jan 2010 | 12:57 pm

  Things are pretty good for me right now. But terrible things are happening to lots of my friends. It’s depressing. So, my friends, tell me–what’s going right in your life? What’s making you happy? What’s really wonderful for you? Help me restore my sense of balance in the world.

• 
  Nicholas Kaufmann

• It's Back to the Slush with Me!

  International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  My good friends leethomas, nihilistic_kid, bev_vincent and a host of others are on the planning committee for the World Horror Convention 2011 in Austin, Texas, and so I gladly told them I'd be up for helping out any way I can. Perhaps I spoke too soon, because they've made me one of the judges for their short story contest!Black Static Magazine and WHC 2011 Short Story Contest:In conjunction with Black Static Magazine, we are proud to announce the World Horror Convention 2011 Short Story Contest. Writers from around the world will be able to submit their most engaging and terrifying short…

• The Trivia King is Supreme!

  International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:03 pm

  First place, mofos! Team Totally Tits is now a six-time winner!As usual, we only did so-so on the first round, the Grab Bag of random questions, good but not great. The second round was a spelling bee, so I told the others on the team to sit back and let me take the reins, since spelling is a strength of mine. We got a nearly perfect score. I only missed "carburetor" and "onomatopoeia," two words I never use anyway.The third round, the visual round, was a map of Central and South America, requiring the names of the countries as answers. I had very little to offer, geography not being my…

• Pre-Order "Chasing the Dragon" in Paperback

  International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  I was very excited to discover this morning that you can now pre-order the paperback of Chasing the Dragon on Amazon. Why wait until March to scour the bookstores for it when you can have the book delivered right to your home? You won't even have to stop playing Farmville, or whatever other nefarious game takes over Facebook in a month's time!Also, marcy_italiano liked it, so you will too!

• Today's Super Fun Time Waster

  International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:29 am

  Make your own Batman and Robin dialogue at Batman and Robin Comic Generator. Seriously, I think this will be my whole Monday!

• Today's Publishing Industry Embarrassment

  International Bon Vivant and Raconteur

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:15 pm

  Remember PublishAmerica, the scam publishing company at the heart of the Atlanta Nights sting operation? You might also remember that as a result of this sting, PublishAmerica decided to label all science fiction authors as vicious tricksters intent on confusing new writers about how publishing "really" work. They're a class act.For those not in the know, PublishAmerica basically accepts any manuscript sent to them for publication, pays the author $1 in order to claim that they're an advance-paying publisher, willfully ignores actual distribution so they can just sell copies to the authors…

• 
  Caitlin Kiernan

• Howard Hughes and the Wretched Crack of Noon

  greygirlbeast

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:50 am

  1. Yesterday, I did 1,107 words on the piece I'm still calling "Untitled 35," but which I hope to find an actual title for (though, on the other hand, I'm rather fond of "untitling" pieces, as I've always felt titles were such strange literary artifices). It's going very well. I may finish it today. I think I've managed to construct a future syntax that's mostly believable and also comprehensible to the present-day reader without resorting to a glossary. It's involved everything from revived 1920s jargon to technobabble neologisms to pidgin French to riffs on Cockney rhyming slang.2. I am…

• "And the bone shall never heal. I care not if you kneel."

  greygirlbeast

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:51 am

  1. I began yesterday's entry with the following line: It's a dream-kill-dream world in here..., which I attributed to David Bowie. Then someone asked which song, in particular, I was quoting, that they'd googled the quote and come up with nothing. I had it in my head the line was from "Get Real," which was originally meant to be part of Outside (1995), but didn't make the cut. Turns out, I was wrong. Indeed, I cannot presently trace the quote to anything Bowie has written— or anything anyone else has written, for that matter —and it's all gotten alarmingly odd. It's used as an epigraph in…

• "13th, Sunday, 5th, March, October, January, October 13th"

  greygirlbeast

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:24 am

  It's a dream-kill-dream world in here... (David Bowie)It's been a long time since I awoke this dreamsick. And a long time since I've had this much trouble shaking it. Those subconscious echoes, those distracting, disarming, intrusive thoughts...these days, they rarely survive longer than half an hour beyond waking. But this morning, they have longevity. As for the dream itself, it's shattered like a rose dipped in liquid nitrogen and then dropped on the floor. I have scenes intact, but the narrative that would make sense of them has been lost.There's very little to be said for yesterday. I…

• "You've gotta have a scheme, you've gotta have a plan..."

  greygirlbeast

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:24 am

  1. A few flurries Outside as I type. This is the north edge of the monster storm that walloped D.C. and Philadelphia yesterday. But we're not even expecting the tiniest bit of accumulation. Go figure.2. The platypus says this is the best possible day on which to order The Ammonite Violin & Others, and being merely a lowly minion of the platypus, I am forced to relay hisherits every message. Remember, the limited edition comes with a FREE chapbook, "Sanderlings," the short-story set in Green Hill, RI, which I wrote back in November. Oh, and I did the cover for "Sanderlings." So, yeah. Do like…

• Entry No. 2,416

  greygirlbeast

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:17 am

  No lists. No numbers this ayem (aside from the entry title). My mind will simply have to cope without itemized lists.Yesterday, I received a copy of Dead Reckonings #6 (Hippocampus Press), which includes a review by S.T. Joshi of The Red Tree. It's one of the finest reviews I've ever received for any book by any reviewer. I'd quote it here, but I think modesty actually forbids. Yeah, who knew I had a scrap of modesty anywhere in me? Anyway, yeah...wow. Maybe I'll post part of it later, once this acharacteristic attack of virtue subsides.I went Outside yesterday, having discovered— thanks to…

• 
  Crawford Kilian

• Getting paid (or not) for webwriting

  Crof

  30 Jan 2010 | 2:52 pm

  I have Google Alerts out for "webwriting" and "writing for the web," and the articles they bring me are really pretty discouraging.One common theme is "make big money writing freelance for websites." This is supposed to be especially attractive for "wahms," which I gather means "work at home moms." If the money is so big, why are people writing "make big money" articles instead of making big money writing real articles for websites?Dianne Jacob, on her blog Will Write for Food, strikes a more realistic note: Is Lower Pay for Web…

• UK: Web Editor, 3 month contract, c.£150 per day

  Crof

  26 Jan 2010 | 5:34 pm

  Via Futureheads Blog: Web Editor, 3 month contract, c.£150 per day (ref j176). Excerpt:We are looking for web editors with significant experience of working on major consumer websites and large-scale web launch or relaunch projects. This is a great opportunity to contribute to the launch of a major new website for a well known organisation in the third sector and to help rewrite their content to work with a new brand and web strategy. Working with content contributors from around the organisation, the Editor will rewrite and edit content in accordance with new brand guidelines, ensuring…

• Online headlines should entice readers

  Crof

  23 Jan 2010 | 5:11 pm

  Via The Editor's Desk, the blog of Andy Bechtel at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill: Guest post: Online headlines should entice readers. The guest is Daniel Bethea, a journalism student. Excerpt:The headline is typically the first thing that a person reads, but a recent study shows just how important online headline writing is. The study found that 44 percent of Google News readers only read the headlines and did not actually follow the link to the publications’ Web sites.  What does this tell us about headline writing for the Web? First, online…

• Arizona job

  Crof

  23 Jan 2010 | 1:36 pm

  Via AZjobz.com: Web Content Writer. Excerpt:Phoenix based corporation it’s seeking a Web Content Writer who has a strong understanding of SEO to help support the Internet Marketing and Writing Department. If your editorial skills can't spot the error in that excerpt, don't bother to apply.

• Webwriting jobs

  Crof

  23 Jan 2010 | 1:22 pm

  I'm starting a new feature: Posting webwriting and web editing jobs as I become aware of them. If a job looks totally awful, of course I won't waste your time with it. But maybe you're just the vampirophile person to respond to this: Twilight News » Help Wanted!

• 
  Kevin Killiany

• word count 038

  kvaadk

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:20 pm

  "Faeries of Firenze" = 400 words.Much of my writing time today was devoted to choreographing a protracted action sequence. Lots of time drawing circles and triangles and arrows on graph paper.

• word count 038

  kvaadk

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:29 pm

  "Faeries of Firenze" = 2300.(Total to date 16,000.)I'd kinda been counting on another 5800-word day; but real life got in the way.

• KeVin disguised as a preacher

  kvaadk

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:24 pm

  As most of you know, I have two favorite colors: floral, which I wear spring and summer, and plaid, which I wear fall and winter. Living in the south, spring and summer take up about nine months of the year so I usually look just like my icon photo.There are occasions, however, when I must pass myself off as respectable. One such occurred a few Sundays ago when I was in the pulpit. A member of the church snapped a couple of pictures of me on the porch: a head and shoulders and a full body. She gave me copies today. The h&s shot shows I'm disguised as preacher; it's behind the cut. The full…

• Buffy vs. Edward

  kvaadk

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:24 pm

  Okay, this has been out for seven or eight months, so I know everyone has seen it before. Except me. I discovered it indirectly through terri_osborne a few minutes ago. Enjoy.

• word count 037

  kvaadk

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:33 pm

  "Faeries of Firenze" = 700 good words.(13,700 words total so far)

• 
  Mindy Klasky

• Here We Go Again...

  Mindy Klasky

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:46 am

  I'm sure you're tired of reading about snow (if you follow the blog of anyone who lives in the Mid-Atlantic States), and I'm sure tired of writing/thinking about it.  We're in for another 10 - 20 inches tonight, going through tomorrow, although with less confidence in the forecast than they had in the last two mega-storms.My biggest complaint right now is the homeowners' association, which has refused to salt or sand our public walkways (because at least one homeowner complained that his/her shoes and car would get salt on them.)  Mark slipped while walking out to the mailboxes this…

• Snowmageddon, by the Numbers

  Mindy Klasky

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:46 am

  ETA: The most important number of all:  Number of inches of snow:  28!Number of plows seen on our street:  1 Number of hours without power:  11Temperature in house when power went back on:  58Number of times heat pump excavated for more efficient operation:  2Number of neighbors' heat pumps excavated for them by us:  3Number of hours of Lost:  Season 1 watched (please, no spoilers!):  5, and countingNumber of calories consumed, to keep up spirits:  GazillionNumber of cars abandoned in front of house after getting stuck in snow:  2, both…

• Still Standing

  Mindy Klasky

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:35 am

  (Or sitting, as the case might be.)  We've officially received 16.5 inches, and we're expecting another 6 - 8.  Unofficially, the snow has drifted well over my knees, at least by the heat  pump, when I went out to clear off the fan out-take unit.  A car is mired in the middle of our street - one of our neighbors with I-believe-to-be-failing mental faculties decided that he needed to head out somewhere.  (Footprints in the snow showed that he made it back to his front door.)We lost power just before midnight last night, and it didn't come back on until 10 this…

• Sheltering in Place

  Mindy Klasky

  5 Feb 2010 | 1:44 pm

  Well, we've got less than an inch on the ground now - fine grain, laughable snow-type stuff.The high-end estimates call for 30 inches by 10 p.m. on Saturday, but most sane estimates top out at 26 inches...  I suspect we'll end up closer to 20. We have a full larder.  Even if we lose power, we've got plenty of food in the pantry - perhaps not the most balanced of meals, but yummy stuff, all the same.  So, signing off before the blizzard strikes...Mindy

• Tap, Tap. Is This Thing On?

  Mindy Klasky

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:31 am

  Oh - two entries, for the price of one, this morning!Have you ever wondered what my voice sounds like?  Well, here's your chance to listen to me in an Internet-radio interview.  Matthew Peterson, producer of the Author Hour, caught up with Mary Pope Osborne (author of the Magic Treehouse Series), Cory Doctorow, Garth Nix, and, um, me.  (Separate interviews for each of us, but all of us are talking about speculative fiction.)  I talk about my roots in traditional fantasy with my Glasswrights series, and also about my current writing ventures.You can check out the interview…

• 
  E. E. Knight

• Life on a one-to-ten scale

  E. E. Knight

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:01 am

  Saw this at booraven22. I'm always stealing stuff from her LJ.This Is My Life, RatedLife: 7.7Mind: 6.8Body: 6.1Spirit: 6.8Friends/Family: 6.9Love: 9.1Finance: 9.1Take the Rate My Life QuizWhile I think self-assessment is useful, I'm not sure how it calculates some of these. I'd rate both body and mind a good deal lower. It must weigh stuff like having a degree more heavily than it deserves -- a degree's more of a test of hoop-jumping and a certain amount of perseverance than fitness of mind. Of course you can't expect the Minnesota Multiphasic from somebody's online quiz. Still, it was a fun…

• Meh

  E. E. Knight

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:38 am

  I feel genuinely bad about the Vikings losing. But this crap about the officiating in OT. Please. If you put 12 men in a huddle after a timeout with one of the best game-winning field goal kickers warming up in the hopes that you'll place the ball for him, you're not going to get so much as a nod of sympathy from me.KNOBS! YOU PUSHED THE TEAM RIGHT OUT OF RYAN LONGWELL'S RANGE. CAN'T YOU FUCKING COUNT TO TWELVE? WILL YOU GET TO THE SUPERBOWL AGAIN BEFORE I'VE GONE COMPLETELY GREY? MY BALLS HADN'T EVEN DROPPED THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN IT. OH THE HUMANITY!That's better.Still, I'll be the…

• Genre lit just lost a big gun

  E. E. Knight

  19 Jan 2010 | 12:20 pm

  Robert Parker, author of the Spenser novels, is dead at 77.http://bostonherald.com.nyud.net/entertainment/books/view/20100119spenser_novelist_robert_parker_dies_in_cambridge/srvc=home&position=6

• Negligence with the blog

  E. E. Knight

  17 Jan 2010 | 11:08 am

  Jeeze, haven't talked here forever.It's just because I'm behind on everything and feel guilty blogging. But I can let you know what's going on.Sprog's great. He's a perfect baby: busy active and good tempered in the day, very sleepy at night.I've been taking some cooking classes and this neat little local cooking school/kitchen supply store. They have a core faculty, but they bring outsiders for special classes. Ferinstance in Feb I'm going to take a class with a French saucier. They do a lot of fun stuff too, like cooking with kids classes, and the other night I did a "Trader Joe's" seasonal…

• I, Wannabe Reality TV Executive Producer

  E. E. Knight

  8 Jan 2010 | 6:23 pm

  Okay, Fox, here's my pitch:The show's called Pole RePosition.It features three veteran pornstars and/or exotic dancers who go to troubled strip clubs and try to execute a business makeover, turnaround, whatever you want to call it. I'm thinking they'd be like ZZ Top's "Eliminator Girls," only a little more weatherbeaten and cougarish. Give 'em a nice pink Jag or something. They'll be directed, rather like Charlie's Angels, by a veteran titty-bar tycoon with a confrontational personality who makes Gordon Ramsay look like David Niven. He'll shout down the gotties while the Eliminator Girls do…

• 
  Mary Robinette Kowal

• This is my 41st birthday

  Mary Robinette Kowal

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:19 am

  I know a lot of people refuse to admit their age, which has always struck me as a little silly since surviving another year is a good thing. Of course, the fact that Grandma is 105 and still sharp does tend to skew my perception of what “old” means. You know, I’m still a decade away from middle age given my family. All in all, 40 was a really fantastic year on the fiction front. Sold 2 novels, 10 short stories, made the Hugo ballot, and my 1st short story collection came out. I’ve been doing less puppetry over the past year, which gives me an identity crisis but…

• Grandma’s 105th birthday party

  Mary Robinette Kowal

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:39 pm

  I spent the day at Grandma’s for her 105th birthday party. It was a lot of fun seeing all the relatives and catching up with folks. Grandma was in good spirits and excited to see everyone. Here she is with her birthday cake. As we were getting ready to go, Mom was getting out of her chair, which is a little slow since she’s got a brace on her leg. Grandma looks at the effort it’s taking and with just a hint of a smile says, “Do you need to borrow my walker?” I love my Grandma.

• In Chattanooga

  Mary Robinette Kowal

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:38 pm

  I had a completely stress-free travel day and arrived in Chattanooga this afternoon. Mom is in really good shape and it is quite clear that the hard part of her healing process will be convincing her that it is okay to sit down and relax.

• What Book Are You Reading Now?

  Mary Robinette Kowal

  6 Feb 2010 | 4:35 am

  Here’s a simple Meme…answer the following questions: What Book Are You Reading Now? Why did you choose it? What’s the best thing about it? What’s the worst thing about it? Here are my answers… Storm Front: Dresden Files #1 by Jim Butcher I’d heard good things and he’s also represented by my agent. The character, Harry Dresden, tells the book in first person. He’s a cynical, damaged man with a sense of humor and gallantry that makes him charming. The magic system feels like it totally makes sense, except for the pseudo-Latin. I don’t…

• Leaving Grand Haven

  Mary Robinette Kowal

  6 Feb 2010 | 2:01 am

  I’m heading out of Grand Haven today, driving to Grand Rapids and then catching flights to Chicago, Charlotte and Chattanooga.  See you later.

• 
  Nancy Kress

• Memoirs

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:56 am

  My reading goes in spurts: a geyser of fiction followed by science non-fiction followed by something else. Lately I have been reading memoirs. There is no particular reason for this, but in the last few weeks I have read Elizabeth Gilbert's EAT, LOVE, PRAY (which is going to be a "major motion picture" next year), and Ayelet Waldman's BAD MOTHER. Next up: Carrie Fisher's WISHFUL DRINKING. Gilbert copes with spirituality, Waldman with motherhood, and Fisher with alcoholism. Apparently you cannot have a life without a theme.The Waldman, although very well written, troubled me. She is a essayist…

• Miscellaneous Updates

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:53 am

  A round-up of miscellany for the interested (the rest of you will just have to suffer through):Amazon.com has caved on the McMillan boycott, so my paperback edition of STEAL ACROSS THE SKY is once more available from Amazon. However, this is just one skirmish in the electronic-vs.-print wars that will be fought throughout the next decade. As Jonathan Sherwood has remarked, "it's the Wild West in publishing right now," and there will be more gun battles until law and order are established.I have read Connie Willis's new novel BLACKOUT, which is the first half of a duology (the second volume,…

• Amazon and Me

  1 Feb 2010 | 7:26 am

  Tomorrow, February 2, is the release date for the paperback version of my last novel STEAL ACROSS THE SKY. It will ship to stores and be available on-line from Barnes & Noble. Not, however, from Amazon.com. If you go to Amazon to order it, you get a statement that this title is not available from Amazon at the moment. The reason is the Kindle.I have a Kindle. I love it. Tomorrow is also the release date for Connie Willis's new novel BLACKOUT, and it is due to appear on my Kindle tomorrow, which I fully expect it to do. So why is Amazon selling hers and not mine, in any format?My…

• Video Games

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:35 am

  Recently I played a video game -- well, part of a video game -- for the first time since Ms. Pac-Man (no, don't add up the decades). This was at Ted and Christine Kosmatka's; they have just moved to Seattle so that Ted can take a job at Valve, the makers of Left for Dead. The game I tried was Left for Dead2.The graphics were amazing, but I was a disaster. In addition to shooting my own teammates, I somehow maneuvered my character to fall out of a window. I kept blundering into walls. Zombies slipped by me like air. I don't think this is a form of recreation I will be repeating any time soon.

• Neil Gaiman

  24 Jan 2010 | 6:01 am

  The January 25 NEW YORKER has a long profile of Neil Gaiman. I was struck in particular by one observation by the author, Dana Goodyear, that Gaiman's children's books bring back the genuine horror that was a part of Victorian kid lit, but had largely been watered down in the decades since.Certainly CORALINE is horrific; the alternate "parents" of the little-girl protagonist seek to gouge out her eyes and replace them with sewn-on buttons. When I saw the movie version of CORALINE, I thought, Parents will take little kids to this? It will traumatize them! I was wrong. The kids, Gaiman points…

• 
  Margo Lanagan

• A belated snipe at some 3-month-old news

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:10 am

  News of Tender Morsels' WFA win was apparently broadcast on 2CH on 8 November last year.The author has responded [to the 'sordid wretchedness' accusation] by questioning the assumption that children have the luxury of an innocent childhood. Her aim, she says, was to equip readers for life by showing them “the sorts of issues other people encounter.” [What I actually said was: "How on earth do people imagine we equip children for life, if we never show them the sorts of issues other people encounter...?"]One of the tragedies of 21st century life is the loss of juvenile innocence we once…

• ABR fave Aus. novel poll

  2 Feb 2010 | 3:11 am

  And, cool! The Australian Book Review's poll of 290 favourite Australian books, voted by the magazine's readers, includes Tender Morsels!

• Locus Recommended Reading List for 2009

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:45 am

  Oh, this is nice! I've got two short stories:"Ferryman", from Sharyn November's Firebirds Soaring, and "Living Curiosities", from Deb Noyes's Sideshowon the list, as well as my novella,"Sea-Hearts", from Keith Stevenson's X6 (and yay to Paul Haines, whose "Wives" is on there, too!)On top of that, Jonathan Strahan's Year's Best (with "Ferryman" in it), and Rich Horton's, with "The Fifth Star in the Southern Cross" (originally published in Jack Dann's Dreaming Again), and Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year, containing "The Goosle" are in the collections list.And among the collections,…

• The NZ juggernaut begins to rumble to life...

  27 Jan 2010 | 10:27 pm

  ...with this article by Laura Kroetsch, who tells you what books to read in preparation for the New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week in March:We are thrilled to be hosting Neil Gaiman, the literary superstar, and Margo Lanagan, the Australian writer whose recent novel, Tender Morsels, has done that remarkable trick of ‘crossing over’ to adult readers. Both Gaiman and Lanagan are fabulous writers and even those who don’t think they like fantasy should give them a goShe doesn't actually tell you that Neil and I will be on the same panel, chaired by Kate de Goldi. I will just sit…

• Causing thoughtfulness

  20 Jan 2010 | 8:19 pm

  Over here, Niall Harrison takes Seven Bites of Tender Morsels, and chews them over thoroughly. I never thought of my blandification of Liga's heaven-world as a swipe at the Grimms' makeover of Stahl's 'The Ungrateful Dwarf', but it could be nothing else:Re-reading “Snow White and Rose Red” once done with Tender Morsels, it is a real joy to discover how clever, and how sly, Lanagan’s revisioning is. The spine of the Grimm tale – two girls, living with their mother in a cottage in the forest, have encounters with a friendly bear and a wicked, treasure-hungry dwarf – is retained in…

• 
  Justine Larbalestier

• Guest Post: Ah Yuan on the Importance of Diversity

  Justine

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:39 pm

  Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much in February. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers. Today we have one of my favourite YA lit bloggers, Ah Yuan, whose blog, GAL Novelty, should be on your blogroll if it isn’t already. I love how no-holds-barred her reviews are. Thoughtful, smart and…

• Guest Post: Sarah Rees Brennan on Movies & Sex

  Justine

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:04 am

  Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for the next week or so. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers. Today we have Sarah Rees Brennan, who is quite mad, which is often quite an advantage for the writing of fine fiction, as you will discover if you read any of SRB’s books. She was last here for…

• Zombies versus Unicorns Cover

  Justine

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:03 pm

  Today mine & Holly Black’s Zombies v Unicorn anthology was featured on EW’s Shelf Life, the press release went out, and the Simon & Schuster’s official Z v U page is officially official.1 Go there to vote Team Zombie—my team—because zombies are superior to unicorns in every way. Over the next few months leading up to the antho’s publication in September I will have much to say about it. But today I wanted to talk about the art because it is so spectactular that I’m still pinching myself. I love it!2 The artist, Josh Cochran, has surpassed…

• Guest Post: Ask Publicist Lauren

  Justine

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:49 am

  Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for the next week or so. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two bloggers. Today we have Lauren Cerand, who is a freelance publicist. I know that many people are confused as to what exactly a publicist does. (I know I frequently am.) It took me ages to realise that there…

• Guest Post: Tansy Rayner Roberts on Reading as a Luxury

  Justine

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:31 pm

  Due to boring circumstances beyond my control, I will not be online much for the next week or so. Fortunately I’ve been able to line up a number of stellar guests to fill in for me. Most are writers, but I also thought it would be fun to get some publishing types to explain what it is they do, teach you some more about the industry, and answer your questions, as well as one or two YA lit bloggers. First up we have a fellow Australian, Tansy Rayner Roberts, who’s not only a fine fiction writer, but her reviews and blogging skills are second to none. After reading this post I was…

• 
  Richard Larson

• "Does New York still inspire you?"

  Richard Larson

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:36 am

  It inspires me just walking around my neighborhood. Walking my dog through Tompkins Square Park, there may no longer be rows of homeless people, but there’s still a sense of vitality and irreverence. The other day, there was a guy there blasting the Pointer Sisters from a boom box, naked except for a tiny pair of shorts. That’s the best part of this city—we’re all misfits from someplace else. It reminded me that this is where I care to do my work. -- Adam Rapp (my East Village neighbor)

• The pleasures of obscurity

  Richard Larson

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:28 pm

  "Nothing is more wonderful than to have no one pay the slightest attention to what you are doing; if you're going to grow, you can grow at your own speed."

• Navel-gazing, the future of literature, etc

  Richard Larson

  27 Jan 2010 | 11:46 am

  I'm not sure if I entirely agree with the first excerpted passage below, or if I agree then I'm not sure that I want to, but it's lifted from an anonymous comment on "The Death of Fiction?" by Ted Genoways, which is a problematic if interesting take on the relationship between academia, literary journals, and aspiring writers: I think literature has long been about "navel gazing," as you put it. One only needs to read Henry James or Thomas Mann to see how deep the gaze has historically traveled. The fundamental difference between today's…

• Modernism, or walking around

  Richard Larson

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:59 am

  If the Victorian era is characterized largely by the manners and politics of interior and often domestic spaces, then modernism is, at least for Charles Baudelaire, a general experience of "going outside," the act of taking life to the streets. Baudelaire's prose-poem, "Windows," for example, reimagines the nature of public and private life and the right of the individual to construct narratives based on observation combined with the imagination, narratives based essentially on reflections drawn by public performance, even if that performance occurs…

• The Other City

  Richard Larson

  22 Jan 2010 | 8:08 am

    I feel that the best way to describe the bogglingly intelligent and imaginative The Other City, a surreal exploration of a fantastic "other" Prague existing alongside and within the real one, written by Michal Ajvaz in 1993 but only recently published in English, is to provide a quote: What was most nauseating in these stuffy and fetid surroundings was not the realization that a strange accidental calamity was occurring with rampant nature devouring the fruits of the human spirit; what gave rise to increasing anxiety was rather the fact that the dreamlike…

• 
  William Leisner

• What This Other Guy Said, Too

  21 Jan 2010 | 6:34 pm

  Snurched from YouAreDumb.netGiving the Democrats a supermajority was like giving a lazy person a treadmill. Sure, they need it. Sure, they could improve things if they use it. But you and I both know the damn thing is going to sit in a corner, buried in piles of Christmas wrapping paper, until it gets carted off in a garage sale. And so it was with the 60-vote supermajority. I won't miss it.

• What He Said

  19 Jan 2010 | 9:20 pm

  Snurched in whole from Daily Kos:Yeah, it sucks that we lost our 60th vote, but really, what did 60 get us last year? It empowered Joe Lieberman, gave cover to Blanche Lincoln, provided excuses to Harry Reid, and gave a free pass to Max Baucus.Now we don't have 60. And like the Republican Senate of the 2000s, if Democrats want to get anything done, they'll have to do it via reconciliation.Given last year's track record in the Senate, it certainly can't make the Senate any less effective.

• You're the Tops

  5 Jan 2010 | 9:26 pm

  Well, over at SciFiChick.com, Losing the Peace has been named as one of the favorite books of 2009, sharing honors with Dave "infinitydog" Mack and the legendary Alan Dean Foster in the media tie-in category.I believe this sensation is called "gobsmacked". I mean, it's one thing to get a generally positive review from someone who has just read the book (as SFChick did this past summer), but to still have the one book stand out six months later? And to be mentioned above so many other books that are no less worthy of such praise? Yeah, I think "gobsmacked" covers it.

• Looks at Books, 2009

  1 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  Yes, it's time for BLOG's Fifth Annual Reading Roundup! Spending most of the year without full-time employment allowed for one of the biggest reading years on record, having consumed 45 books, including two short story anthologies and one short book of non-fiction essays. 2009 also saw a marked drop in the amount of Trek fiction I consumed, due mostly to the end of the original ebook line, and to the fact that I didn't need to power-read half the upcoming year's publication schedule in preparation for my own novel. In 2009, I read a grand total of only eight Trek novels, versus 21 in 2008. In…

• Another Year Over, A New One Just Begun

  1 Jan 2010 | 7:59 am

  I've tried a couple of times to write some kind of end-of-year blog post, but either have been distracted by shiny objects or else just sighed in frustration before flipping over to Facebook to post some silly one-liner.2009 was, for me, a transition year. At the end of 2008, I had just ended a nearly-twenty-year career in the retail and retail support sector. At the start of 2010, I'm at the beginning of what may become a career in financial services. In 2008, I was still building my reputation as a Trek writer; in 2010, I find myself as a critically acclaimed Trek novelist (yeah, okay, the…

• 
  Edward M. Lerner

• Dancing with elephants

  2 Feb 2010 | 2:23 pm

  In a blog about science fiction, written by an SF author, it's hard to imagine not commenting on the conflict that erupted last weekend between Macmillan and Amazon. Macmillan, as in the parent company of Tor Books: the largest American publisher of SF. Amazon, as in certainly one of the largest booksellers around.For the latest news about the business issues and differences of opinion between these two corporate giants, look here. Lost in the noise is how their disagreement impacts authors and readers.  Print and Kindle editions of books by Tor authors remain unavailable from Amazon,…

• Endlessly circling

  28 Jan 2010 | 2:31 pm

  The latest NASA news ... I don't object to maintaining the space station for a few years after we (finally!) finish building it. I do object to aborting the effort to return to the moon. And to writing off the $9B spent on the latest effort at a lunar program. One has to wonder: did humanity peak with the Apollo program?from "SF and Nonsense"

• Live! From New York! It's ...

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:28 am

  Well, truthfully, it's recorded and from Raleigh, NC -- but it is  video.  And (in my not exactly objective opinion) it's something very neat: my first televised interview. Stacey Cochran, the host of the literary show The Artists Craft, and I discussed my recent novels Small Miracles (mostly) and Fools' Experiments, but we also touched on other aspects of my writing.from "SF and Nonsense"

• Year of Science redux

  21 Jan 2010 | 2:41 pm

  2009 was the Year of Science, through the cooperative vision of many leading national science organizations. Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my thoughts about YoS's 12 monthly themes (and if you're curious, check out this tag). All in all, count me as a fan.And so, I was delighted to see that the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science the umbrella group behind YoS, is extending their efforts into the new year. One of the new efforts is The Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, to be held in my (generously defined) backyard, in Washington DC. It's…

• The gang that couldn't program straight

  12 Jan 2010 | 8:47 am

  Among my thoughts about the Christmas underwear-bomber incident was this: won't our government ever learn how properly to develop software? It's inexcusable to hide behind a name misspelled in a database. It's the nature of international databases to have transliterated names -- nothing new. Phonetic comparison software is likewise nothing new. For one example, see Soundex.It's similarly inexcusable to attribute the security lapse to the size of the database in which the adverse entry for  Abdulmutallab appeared (rather than in the smaller No Fly list). 550,000 entries? How many billion…

• 
  David Levine

• Trying not to hyperventilate

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:55 am

  Sorry I haven't blogged lately. I spent most of the first week back just recovering and digging out from under two weeks of email. Much of the time since has been spent working on a Keynote (Apple's answer to PowerPoint) slide show of my trip to Mars, mostly photos -- I'm about three-quarters done with it and I suspect the first draft will take about two hours to present, but once I have it organized and structured I can cut it down. I also have begun outlining a science fiction story incorporating my experiences at MDRS; right now I'm trying to get the orbital mechanics to work with the plot…

• Print-on-demand vendor query

  26 Jan 2010 | 5:07 pm

  I'm going to be making a physical book collecting the five blogs from the MDRS-88 crew. I'd like to use a print-on-demand vendor such as lulu.com, blurb.com, or booksurge.com where I can just upload a PDF and anyone who wants a copy can order it direct from the vendor. Because we are an international crew, it needs to be a vendor who can handle non-US currencies and international shipping. Any recommendations or anti-recommendations? Currently lulu.com is the front-runner.

• Home, but not home

  26 Jan 2010 | 8:02 am

  I'm back from Mars, but my head's still in a strange space. This will probably continue for some time. I've been spending some of my time doing catchup chores, like clearing out my spam traps (I have five, for my various accounts) and unpacking and doing laundry. Most of the rest of yesterday was spent working on a Keynote presentation (Apple's answer to PowerPoint) of my Mars mission. It's going to be mostly photos. I have 2500+ photographs to sort through and in two passes I got them down to the 1000 best and then the 400 best. I really need a 100 best and 30 best for various purposes. And…

• MDRS-88: Habitat tour video posted

  24 Jan 2010 | 12:40 pm

  Now that I'm back on Earth I have the bandwidth to post videos and higher-resolution photographs. Here's the first: a two-minute tour of the habitat and the view from the observatory.

• MDRS-88 sol 15 photos

  24 Jan 2010 | 8:32 am

• 
  Paul Levinson

• House 6.13: Cuddy's Perspective

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:26 pm

  A standalone superb episode 6.13 of House last night - a day in the life of Lisa Cuddy.   With all the talk about a House spinoff, this episode shows that a new show about Cuddy could work very well - except that she would still be needed on House, and House would be needed on Cuddy.The integration of Gregory House into the Cuddy show was done deftly.   We get just snippets of his cases.   In one fine scene, the elevator closes with Cuddy inside, as House continues to talking about his case in the hall.   This captures the essence of the episode, all…

• Heroes Forever

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:03 pm

  A beautiful Heroes finale tonight - definitely of this, the fourth season, maybe of the entire series, though I hope not.   This was written by series creator Tom Kring.  It tied up some powerful lose ends, and brought into being some revolutionizing new ones.Among the highlights -1. Hiro finds Charlie.  The actress, Jayma Mays, is on Glee now, but Hiro finds her in his hospital - very old, and at the end of her life.  Samuel sent her back to 1944.   She never stopped thinking about Hiro.  He can fix this - he can go back to 1944 (the operation restored…

• 24 8.7: More Like 24s than 24, with at Least Five Stories

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:22 pm

  At least five distinct stories proceeding in this episode 7 of Season 8 of 24, at least four of them related.   The one that isn't - at least yet - is Dana and her former boyfriend and his loser partner, who rob a police evidence locker, but stay too long.   This may result in their getting caught, and who knows what may happen to Dana, who was pressured by her boyfriend to provide intel for the lamely executed heist.Meanwhile, our four other story lines are slowly converging.1. Pseudo-Iranian (Kamistanian) President Hassan is going from bad to worse in his hunt for anyone he…

• The Potential for Brilliance in the Difference between Near-Insanity and Insanity in Big Love 4.5

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:02 pm

  Another high octane episode of Big Love - 4.5 - with the incendiary mix of politics and family in Bill's life about as flammable as it gets.In politics, Bill's opponent jumps on the "lost boy" issue to make Bill seem weak on crime.   Then the opponent releases Bill's mug shot, taken when he was a "lost boy" himself and had a brush with the law.  Bill eventually gives a great speech in which he admits to being a "lost boy"  - thrown out of his home, left on the streets by his father -  but that lost boys need and require society's compassion, rather than being scorned…

• Caprica 1.3: Daughters, Missing and Present

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:09 pm

  "53 mentions of your broadcast name today," Daniel Graystone's personal house robot, Serge, tells him when he comes home to his beautiful home on the water in Episode 1.3 of Caprica.  It's something I can relate to - I'm always Googling for mentions of my name.   But this typifies the unusual, original mix that is Caprica - 1940s fedoras, 1980s videotapes, along with maglevs, robots, and now a Cylon - old, recent, near and further future by contemporary Planet Earth standards.   It's an intriguing, reasonable mix for a planet that is not ours.The story, however, is…

• 
  Holly Lisle

• If you’re reading TalysMana, please read this

  Holly Lisle

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:54 am

  What Is A First Draft? I’ve added it to pages for new folks to find. It’s important. Please take a few minutes to read it.

• “Write A Book With Me” Is Moving

  Holly Lisle

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:55 pm

  First, a note. The Write A Book With Me entries are going to be going to the TalysMana weblog after this entry. If you’re playing or following Write A Book With Me, be sure to bookmark the TalysMana weblog now. Pocket Full Of Words will be going back to the essays, commentary on writing, and other [...]

• The NEW TalysMana Artifact (and Upcoming Contest)

  Holly Lisle

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:26 am

  Yesterday Becky posted her first rough concept sketch for what the Fendle Warrior’s Heart would look like. I meant to come in here last night and post the link, but after writing 4000+ words of lesson, I was just too fried. Today, though, I wanted to let you know her sketch is up. [...]

• 4000 words

  Holly Lisle

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:41 pm

  I wrote 4000 words on Lesson 13 tonight, and finished it, but I’m done. Back tomorrow.

• A nice little cliffhanger

  Holly Lisle

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:31 pm

  Since ecto ate my post TWICE now, I’m going to keep this short. Got a spiffy cliffhanger for TalysMana tonight, wrapped the scene, posted it, and some folks may even receive it yet tonight. Most of you who are up to date will get the latest installment on Friday. For everyone else, it’ll be [...]

• 
  L. Lee Lowe

• Short Story for Haiti

  llowe

  16 Jan 2010 | 1:24 pm

  Following a suggestion by Cheryl Morgan, I’m participating in the ‘Post a Story for Haiti’ initiative hosted at Crossed Genres. I’m listing Watershed. Please consider linking to the Crossed Genres page and, most of all, giving to a Haiti earthquake relief fund. My family has chosen to donate via Medecins Sans Frontieres.

• Watershed

  llowe

  6 Jan 2010 | 2:24 am

  Learning to trust oneself is never easy – and for a writer even more difficult in the face of criticism, rejection, indifference, and the accolades (often deserved) awarded to people half your age. Guy de Maupassant wrote, ‘Talent is long patience.’ Katherine Anne Porter said,’ ‘I spent fifteen years learning to trust myself: that’s what [...]

• An interview with Ioan Hefin

  llowe

  27 Dec 2009 | 2:28 am

  click on image to view showreel The Welsh actor Ioan Hefin, who has worked for over twenty years in theatre, radio, and television, successfully completed his one-man show ‘You Should Ask Wallace’ for Theatr na n’Óg in October and will be touring with it in 2010. In addition to several other major projects, notably a BBC [...]

• The Not-Dead and the Saved

  llowe

  22 Dec 2009 | 7:29 am

  My daughter spent two weeks in intensive care back in July and nearly six weeks in hospital. She remembers very little of that time. I do much of the remembering for her. I remember her terrible pain. I remember her seizures. I remember her confusion. I remember her hallucinations. I remember her attempts to escape – lifelines ripped loose. I remember [...]

• You should ask Wallace

  llowe

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:38 am

  When Welsh actor Ioan Hefin isn’t busy recording Corvus, you can find him playing Alfred Russel Wallace, the lesser known co-discoverer of natural selection. Next year there’ll be repeat performances of his one-man show, plus an extensive schools tour from September to December. He will also be lecturing at university and filming several other roles. I [...]

• 
  Jason Erik Lundberg

• the things you plan for

  26 Jan 2010 | 11:30 pm

  1.Anya is now 14 weeks old, or just a smidge over three months. She has gone from an oblivious blob who only eats, sleeps, cries and poops, to a budding consciousness forming connections with the world around her, and discovering how she fits into that world. Who also, still, mostly, eats, sleeps, cries and poops.It's amazing to watch her get the hang of things, even at this young age. She's figured out how to physically grasp things now, and her favorite toys are those with rings she can grip and then shake the hell out of. Her neck muscles are strong enough to hold her head upright now, and…

• hero worship, or how i met the dream king

  24 Jan 2010 | 3:24 am

  The queue stretched a thousand people down past The Arts House all the way to the Singapore River. Each person clutched a precious text: a book, or a graphic novel, or single issues of comics; some hardy souls even carried the massive Absolute editions of his collected works. It was a response the organizers of the festival had not been prepared for, and still seemed somewhat baffled by. And at the very front of the queue, behind a plywood table, sat a literary rock star, the Dream King himself, signing autographs.I stood to the side of the table, trying in vain to catch his attention; he was…

• new fiction: shiftless, hopeless

  23 Jan 2010 | 6:17 am

  My latest contribution to The Daily Cabal went up yesterday, called "Shiftless, Hopeless." The advantage of posting on a Friday means that the story's on the main site page for the whole weekend, so give it a looksee if you have a spare moment.Continuing the Looking Downward series started by "Mini Buddha Jump Over the Wall," "The World, Under," "Androcles Again," and "Look Into My Eyes, You're Under."I've had the idea for Mister Shiftless and Mister Hopeless for about ten years, ever since I picked up a copy of Brian Froud's Good Faeries, Bad Faeries in the late 90s. Among all the different…

• from the keyboard of patton oswalt

  2 Jan 2010 | 12:31 am

  Wise words from one of my favorite comedians:"Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can't, Teach."Bullshit.Yes, there are shitty teachers. There are unimaginative, by-rote educators who take no joy in their profession. Maybe they went in full of idealism and energy and got beaten down. Maybe they never had it. Yes, they exist. But the bulk of teachers -- at least, the ones I've encountered in my life -- teach because they are truly passionate about a subject, concept or discipline. They don't take any pleasure in the amassing of property or finance. I know that must sound like low-grade insanity,…

• 2009 books read

  30 Dec 2009 | 11:27 pm

  It's astonishing to me that today is New Year's Eve Day; this holiday has gone by far to quickly. If they show the fireworks on TV tonight, we'll probably watch that, but otherwise Janet and I (and Anya) have no plans.I've seen some folks doing Year-in-Review posts, but I don't really have the time or energy to do one myself. The biggest thing that happened this year was Anya's arrival into the world, and anything else that might have happened personally pales in importance.However, I have made a tradition of posting the books I've read each year, and will do so here. The list is provided…

• 
  Nick Mamatas

• Life imitates crap

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:06 am

  New Delhi, India (CNN) -- Campaigners fighting for the rights of indigenous peoples have appealed to the makers of the movie "Avatar" to help an Indian tribe protect its home from a real-life threat.London-based Survival International has drawn a parallel between the Na'vi of "Avatar" and the Dongria Kondh tribe in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, who it says are struggling to defend their sacred mountain from being mined by British firm, Vedanta Resources.Yes, but can a white former Marine with access to some brown shoe polish and no knowledge of the local language and customs lead…

• Plenty of time to write something for this contest

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:30 pm

  The 2011 World Horror Convention, to be held in Austin TX, has announced its short story contest. Details are at the link but the big deal stuff is that the WHC attendee winner gets published in the UK's wonderful Black Static magazine (see, it is a world convention) and receives a payment of 5¢ a word. (I believe this is a higher rate than Black Static's normal payout.) Entries must be between 500-4000 words. Submissions start at the end of August, so folks have plenty of time to whip something up.

• Monday quick swipes

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:55 am

  From parttimedriver, the best 12:55 Saturday Night Live sketch of this century (and probably the last)From nick_kaufmann, the Batman/Robin dialogue generator:fengi boils down the meaning of most Superbowl ads:HAVING TO PRETEND THE FUCKHOLE IS HUMAN.DOESN'T THAT SUCK?DON'T BE A GIRL, BUY OUR SHIT.Happy Monday.

• From a street book

  6 Feb 2010 | 11:03 pm

  When walking to meet jsridler for dinner the other night, I came across a box of books on the street. It was the spoor of a would-be writer: John Gardner's October Light, some mass market Shakespeare, a pair of Norton textbook anthologies, and a couple of writing manuals. I took the Gardner and one of the manuals—Writer's Mind: Crafting Fiction by Richard Cohen.I just started flipping through it and found the section on career practicalities. Under the headline "Writing Some Other Kind of Fiction", Cohen writes:This can be an honorable career path or a sleazy one, depending on the kind of…

• Sure am posting a lot this mornin'...

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:25 am

  I liked Vilcabamba by Harry Turtledove. Plain prose and a story we've seen before, but well-detailed where it needed to be (and not where it didn't) and cleverly paced. I often find stories of more than a couple thousand words a slog to read via online scroll, but this hooked me early and kept me happily going to the end. Also amusing, the disgruntled commenters. I wonder if my rejoinder at #20 counts as a collaboration!

• 
  George R.R. Martin

• Not Done Yet

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:06 pm

  Spent the day in the rainwood. 1205 pages. More to come.DANCE has now passed A CLASH OF KINGS to become the second longest volume in the series, though still three hundred pages shorter than the monster that was A STORM WITH SWORDS.

• Tomorrow's the Big Game

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:02 pm

  I'm sorry the Jets won't be playing, but hey, it's still the SuperBowl, so I'll be watching.I kinda sorta like both of these teams, so I have no strong rooting interest. I suppose I'll be pulling for the Saints. New Orleans deserves some good news after all that Katrina and George W. Bush have put them through, the Saints have never won one before, Drew Brees seems a good guy, I liked Jonathan Vilma when he was a Jet and Jeremy Shockey when he was a Giant, and they have that whole underdog thing going for them. When in doubt, root for the underdog.But I won't be distraught if the Colts win,…

• SUICIDE KINGS in Albuquerque

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:34 pm

  By popular demand, we've scheduled another Albuquerque mass signing for the latest Wild Cards hardcover, SUICIDE KINGS (volume twenty in the overall series, and the third and concluding book of the current triad).This time we will be at the Barnes & Noble in Coronado Center, on the southwest corner of Menaul and Louisiana NE in Albuquerque. The event is scheduled for Saturday, February 20, and will run from 1:30 pm until... well, it says 3:00 here, but really, until we run out of people who want us to deface their books with our illegible scrawls.On hand, besides yours truly, will be our…

• Snowing Again in Santa Fe...

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:26 pm

  ... which probably means I should be working on another Jon Snow chapter, but I'm not.Instead I'm floating off the Isle of Cedars, or racing across the sands of Dorne. Warm places, both of them, with nary a flake to be seen. But I'd better not change horses. If I keep on keeping on, I should finish one of those chapters this week. Maybe both.

• Vote Early and Often

  2 Feb 2010 | 6:49 pm

  View Poll: Dark Sword Miniatures

• 
  J.M. McDermott

• Abandoned Fragments of Other Worlds...

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:29 am

  How could she be alive? My daughter was in the back yard as if she hadn't died. She was playing on a swing set as if she hadn't died. She was singing a song as if she hadn't died. My wife was cleaning the dishes, looking out over the yard as if it was perfectly normal for our daughter to be not dead, to be not struck by a train - to be alive and playing in the yard. "Honey," I said. "Yeah, baby?" "Nothing," I said. "Nevermind." "What?" "Just... Don't worry about it." I had been sweeping up the mess in the bedroom where my wife had torn apart our pillows. She had been so angry that she had…

• Oh, yeah, my thing about EVE On-Line is up at the Apex Blog:

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:34 pm

  "I’ve played approximately two days worth of EVE On-line. I had played it a little of it in the past, but it has been a while, and I wanted to get it back under my fingers before writing about it here.Have you ever killed someone over a dull, gray rock? Ever smash your car into someone’s car just to get at the bags of groceries in their trunk? That’s Eve, in a nutshell."Read the rest of it: HEREhttp://www.apexbookcompany.com/blog/2010/02/the-collectors-narrative/

• Ghost Movies for a Friday

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

• Evidence That Authors Are The Least Important Part Of Books

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:02 am

  In the eyes of booksellers and distributors, it seems that authors are not important, because our copyright is apparently not really under our control if it is bad for business, and it seems our careers can get the shaft by devastating the sales figures companies use as a blind guide to buying future books in the name of corporate pissing matches, or embrace publishing models that exploit authors and dilute the quality of the words on printed pages.Nice to know where we stand in the world, considering how our imaginations, sweat, dreams, lost sleep, destroyed health, broken relationships,…

• Miracles

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:32 am

  The scientific method is a powerful tool for the unraveling of the universe's mysteries. Once developed it rocketed our species to the moon and back, through the void that none could pass in safety and freedom by nature alone.But, what will come next, after the scientific method?Science has limitations. In "Fragments of a Hologram Rose", William Gibson wrote about this scientist that could enter a laboratory and, for whatever reason, make this thing work that no one else could make work. This happens every day. Things work that are not supposed to work. Things don't work that are supposed to…

• 
  Robin McKinley

• Pink etc

  Robin

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:45 pm

   I told you I’d show you my floral extravaganza again after I messed with it a little.* Pink. And just in case you think I’ve put all the pink in front to make an impressive photo, this is what it looks like from the other side.   Meanwhile . . . it’s snowing.  It’s not snowing like it’s snowing in Virginia, for which I am deeply thankful, but it’s still snowing. I’ve decided I want a conservatory.  Once I finish recovering** from putting the weight-bearing floor in Third House’s attic I’m going to knock down the sitting-room wall into the garden and start putting up…

• More about bells (sorry . . . )

  Robin

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:00 pm

  It has been way too exciting a day for a woman on no sleep.  Well, not very much sleep.  I went to bed at an acceptable Saturday-night-before-Sunday-morning-service-ring hour but . . . I have all these books on my bed.  I get into bed and . . .  and there are all these books.  And they look at me.  And they make little friendly murmuring noises.  Last night I got involved in a quest for a remedy for an old homeopathic client* and this is research I love and that I don’t do as much of as I would like** and the . . . uh . . . hours fly by and . . . uh.***             So…

• Guest Post by Diane_in_MN

  Guest

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:34 pm

  NATIONAL SPECIALTY (Part 2) Wednesday had no competition events, and we had appointments for both dogs at the cardiac clinic.  But we went to the show site early because of more ribbon duty:  I had to meet with the Top Twenty chairperson to proofread Top Twenty rosettes.  The Top Twenty is an invitational event for the twenty Danes that have done the most winning in Best of Breed competition in the previous year.  As well as recognizing the dogs, this event recognizes the owners, who’ve usually spent megabucks on entry fees, traveling expenses, and probably handlers to get the dog into…

• I Have the Nicest Mods in the Universe*

  Robin

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:13 pm

  I overslept this morning.**  Hellhounds and I got back*** to the cottage after our morning [sic] hurtle and found:  It’s from my mods.  Congratulating me on getting the frelling† corrections on PEGASUS done on time.††    THANK YOU.  YOU ARE WONDERFUL HUMAN BEINGS.††† I was hoping to save some of the wrapping paper which you will note has roses on it, but it’s so damn fragile I’m hoping it’s biodegradable to comfort me for failing.  And while I love the new standard cut-flower delivery thing where they come with their stems in actual water . . . there is the little…

• PEGASUS Thursday

  Robin

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:27 pm

  YES.  IT’S REAL.  I have something like fifteen books out and this moment never gets old.   Looky looky looky what my editor sent me today. And yes, I met my deadline. . . .  by about an hour and a half.  Hey, I made it.  That’s all that counts.

• 
  Stephenie Meyer

• Book, Movie, and Music Recommendations

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:43 am

  Hope your new years have all started off right. A few unrelated things...

• Pre-Order New Moon DVD

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:01 pm

  The DVD is finally available for pre-order. There are currently two different versions to order. Click to find out more.

• Breaking Dawn film rumor

  12 Jan 2010 | 7:30 am

  Just a quick note on the subject of the Breaking Dawn film...

• New Book Recommendation

  28 Dec 2009 | 1:36 pm

  I hope you all are enjoying your holidays! Just a quick update about a book--arriving in bookstores tomorrow!--that I'm very excited about: The Lonely Hearts Club by Elizabeth Eulberg...

• Grammy Nomination

  16 Dec 2009 | 7:48 pm

  A big congratulations to everyone involved with creating the awesome Twilight Original Motion Picture Soundtrack! The Grammy nomination is fantastic and also well-deserved. It is an honor to have such talented artists and bands contributing to the Twilight film. Congrats also to Alex Patsavas for doing such an inspired job of bringing them all together.

• 
  Karen Miller

• More on Kage Baker

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:08 pm

   Here is a lovely tribute to the late, great Kage Baker. It's good to know there are still some books to be enjoyed. I don't know about you, but I've ordered my copies.

• A nice snippet

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:16 pm

  So in my mammoth marathon of getting the mail situation sorted (almost there, almost there) I remembered finally to drop a line to Jeff, the wonderful actor who performed the audiobook version of Wild Space. And much to my relief and delight, he's also doing Stealth and Siege. In fact, he's done Stealth and will shortly be tackling Siege. So that's me tickled pink.But also? He mentioned that the audiobook of Wild Space came within a whisker of being shortlisted for a Grammy. I'm all chuffed now. *g*

• A Quick Reminder for 'In Death' fans ...

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:34 am

   JD Robb, aka Nora Roberts, has a new 'In Death' book releasing at the end of the month. This time it's 'Fantasy in Death'. 30 books in this series now, and it's maintained its high quality fantastically. Not every installment is brilliant - nobody can write brilliantly every single time -- but every single book is entertaining, consistent, true to its characters and gives us something new to think about. Hands down this is one of my favourite ever crime/thriller/romance series and if you haven't found it, I say run run run to your nearest bookshop and buy 'Naked in Death' , the first…

• Seriously? Really?

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:59 pm

  Okay, so here are some very, very funny quotes a good friend sent me a while ago. I'm only getting to them now because, after cleaning out my reader mail file -- well, almost, any rate -- I started on my inbox. I had over 3000 emails sitting there. Most had been dealt with, but ... I don't know. They just kind of accumulated. So now I'm finishing up the tidying thang -- found more reader mail I need to answer, smack me now -- and this. And I had to share. Oh, my lord.I'll put them behind a cut to save on download, but I do urge you to read them. Just make sure you're not drinking anything…

• Because I haven't done these for a while ...

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:27 pm

  see more Lolcats and funny picturessee more dog and puppy pictures

• 
  Sarah Monette

• UBC: The Case for Auschwitz

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:38 am

  van Pelt, Robert Jan. The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.with an assist from:Rosenbaum, Ron. Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of his Evil. 1998. New York: HarperPerennial, 1999.Long, ranting in parts, depressed in others.The Case for Auschwitz is a massive book, 551 pages not counting the index, and larger than an average hardback. I almost didn't buy it when I found it at the used bookstore because it was so intimidating, but I am very glad I did, because I was richly rewarded.This is a book about the…

• oh *yay* :P

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:52 am

  Apparently, I have succumbed to the cold mirrorthaw brought back from Chicago. ("My husband went to Chicago for a week and all I got was this lousy virus.")Also, we have a moderate but respectable snowpocalypse going on.These two things mean that I will not be going to the post office today (still haven't heard from naamah_darling anyway), and the podcast poll will be staying open a while yet. And my hopes of productivity are fading fast.Also? Bleah.

• poll: podcast: short fiction

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:16 pm

  View Poll: Story Hour!Notes:1. I will read up to 10,000 words. Since only two of these stories are 10,000 words long, that means I'll most likely be reading more than one thing. Vote for as many as you like and don't worry about the math. I'll sort that out on this end. otoh, if there's a specific combination totaling 10,000 words (e.g., "Katabasis: Seraphic Trains" and "Sidhe Tigers") that you want to see, cast a vote for each of the stories and then tell me in comments about the combination you have in mind. People are also welcome to second and third suggested combinations.[Dear LJ…

• AUCTION RESULTS

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:21 am

  Thank you to everyone who bid! The winners are:The Bone Key & 5 mss: Megan Arkenberg, $200The Doctrine of Labyrinths, 3-book set: (1) braddr, $250 (2) naamah_darling, $220I have decided to take Brad's suggestion and have both top bidders in this auction win since they both went over $200. Also, as a bonus for being the top bidder in all auctions, and for making that suggestion, Brad will also get a signed hardback of Corambis to complete the set.Mélusine: avidreadergirl, $75The Virtu: arkessian, $60The Mirador: arkessian, $45That's $850 total, which pleases me very much.Megan, braddr,…

• pointers five

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:33 pm

  ONE! The auctions for hominysnark (who, I have learned, named one of her cats Mildmay, hence the icon) are in their final twenty-four hours, and the bidding has reached:The Bone Key and 4 mss (plus a fifth when it ceases to be vaporware): 110 $125 $130 $1603-book set, Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador: $170 $200 $250 and a suggestion that both top bidders be allowed to win, which I am pondering.Mélusine: $60 $75The Virtu: $50 $60The Mirador: $40 $45That's $420 $435 $465 $475 $480 $485 $500 $550 $580 thus far. I said that if we reached $1,000 I'd do a serial podcast of The Virtu.

• 
  Elizabeth Moon

• Tuesday

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:18 am

  Tuesday began at 2 am when I woke up with a ferocious pain from very unhappy sinuses...owie, owie.  Took meds...could rest, but not sleep, after that until 5 am when the alarm went off.  We rose, dressed, at a little, and when M- came over we all piled in the car to drive him down to Leander to the bus terminal.  Then R- and I drove home, and I went flop in the bed, finally sleeping.  M- called from campus at 8:05--no bus breakdown this time--to say he'd arrived safely.  I woke up, but R- got the phone.  By 8:30, I was up again, semi-rested, and found an…

• From Twitter 02-08-2010

  9 Feb 2010 | 1:01 am

  08:23:44: Rain we'd have been jubilant over this time last year will probably make our plumbing unusable. Again.08:28:45: Happy writer = (computer + phone + internet + chocolate) - interruptions-squared/deadlines19:32:21: I did not know I could write a short story in less than three hours. Editor has amazing power over me.Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

• Writer's Block: Single pride day

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:41 am

  We're also one week out from the Great Backyard Bird Count.  I'll be away from home for both.  Guess which I'll miss most.

• From Twitter 02-07-2010

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:01 am

  15:21:30: Saw two plum trees in full bloom in Austin--Shoal Creek just north of Anderson La.19:48:52: No sunshine today--winter returns this week, cold, wet, and gray. Less outdoor temptation, more writing.20:24:25: Sang both services today: Elgar's "Ave Verum" and Stanford's "O For a Closer Walk." 3 weeks away from choir, and I'm rusty.20:26:20: And my throat's a little sore. These anthems aren't hard--I was singing incorrectly, or wouldn't be sore.Tweets copied by twittinesis.com

• My First Movie Review

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:27 pm

  You gotta love an editor who, after you send her a wildly enthusiastic report on a movie you saw, says "Fine...add these bits and we'll put it up on Suvudu, the publishing house blog-site, with a link to your related book."   The movie was Temple Grandin, that I blogged about everywhere I could think of  (see, I sneak in another plug for it.)   That was late Friday, and then Saturday our internet was out, and I didn't think to look last night.   But it went up Saturday before the movie aired. And look at the gorgeous lead-in she gave me before the…

• 
  Lyda Morehouse

• As they say in Wisconsin: Yippie-Skippy!

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:50 am

  Though today I mean "yippie-skippy" in its less ironic/sarcastic form, because last night at 9:00 pm, I finished the rough draft of RESURRECTION CODE. As usual when I write "THE END" I'm nowhere really near being done-done. There's still some actual writing to do. I have to fill-in all the [find another example?]s and [restaurant name]s, etc. I also have to do whatever revisions my readers suggest, as well as write the news articles that appear between chapters. BUT, I finished a few days ahead of expectations, which means I have more time for all of that.Whoot.Mason seems to have survived…

• Updatery

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am

  Mason and I had a crap day on Friday. Well, mostly Mason, though I was mostly responsible for making his day such a bummer. First, we had scheduled his second H1n1 shot for 3:30 pm, so I had to come get him a little early. Turns out, coming early meant Mason had to miss out on "Friday Fun" (which is usually BINGO,) but Friday was SLEDDING... which they've never done before. He was a trouper and held back tears, but I felt really badly that he had to go get a shot instead of sledding with his class.Then, there was a snafu with the gym teacher. They were doing jump roping for heart and I'd…

• Post-caucus tired

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:26 am

  Okay, actually, I was only at my caucus last night long enough to cast my vote for governor and leave, but I stopped to get coffee (thinking it might take longer than it did) beforehand and I ended up staying up until after midnight writing on Mouse.Plus, and I think I've mentioned this before, but Shawn is a sleep talker. Last night... just as I was finally unjittering myself and starting to fall asleep, she WHIPPED on the light and started yelling about how she had to find a peice of plastic that came with the computers. That sounded just reasonable enought that I started asking questions…

• Tired, but Happy

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:45 am

  One thing I forgot to mention is that Shawn has been having migraines on and off for several days again (knock on wood, she seems to be recovering), but so a lot of my franticness has been aggrivated by the fact that my partner has been pretty much down for the count. Last night, though, she was feeling better. We're in the middle of catching up on last season's LOST, which is kind of bad timing because there are spoilers all over thanks to the new season starting this week. Still, I'm really enjoying this very much science fictional show. Time travel? Awesome. Mystical civilizations...

• Monday!

  1 Feb 2010 | 8:39 am

  I thought about titling this post: "Things You Didn't Know People ACTUALLY Did..." because on Friday, when school was out for teacher professional day, I took a friend's kids and Mason to the Children's Museum. We all had an awesome time, because my strategy for dealing with multiple kids with multiple agendas at the Children's Museum is to impose one simple rule: I stand at the door to the gallery. When you want to move to a new gallery, it's your job to round everyone up and convince them to go together.This works suprisingly well. I was also very worried about taking care of these guys, so…

• 
  Nina Munteanu

• Calling all Canadians: Nominate Literacy

  SF Girl

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:38 pm

  You have until February 15th to nominate Nina’s writing guide, “The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now!” for the 2009 Aurora Award, the Canadian Science Fiction/Fantasy annual award in the “Publications in English: Other Works” CategoryLet me tell you a story… When I began to teach college and university biology courses (some years ago…) I was struck by a major observation: many of my students were borderline literate. Many couldn’t spell (I’m one to talk. But even I could see the glaring errors). Many used poor grammar, fragmented and scattered language, and…

• Real Women Don’t Botox

  SF Girl

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pm

  It is love that sees beauty which, in turn, is always loved--John Lane North American women’s obsession with outward beauty has scuttled a daring and creative plan to pay for health care in the United States.I don’t get it…When U.S. Senate majority leader Harry Reid proposed a five per cent levy on elective cosmetic surgeries and procedures to help pay for U.S. Health Care, the loudest outcry came from America’s largest feminist lobby group, NOW (National Organization for Women).I don’t get it…This represents a clear contradiction from that organization’s initial “burn your…

• Toulouse and Nina Go To Whistler (and stay in our jammies)

  SF Girl

  24 Jan 2010 | 9:25 am

  When I was visiting family and friends in British Columbia over Christmas, we had the opportunity to go to Whistler, one of North America’s primo skiing resorts, where my son wanted to check out his brand new reverse-camber skis (unfortunately, they came too late and he had to use his old skis in the park). The drive with my friend Margaret and our two sons was pleasant – I promised not to sing. We met up with Heather, our good friend who’d graciously let us stay at her condo for the small fee of also me not singing… oh… and a dinner out with Toulouse, her new friend.We chose the…

• “The Mozart Effect”, the Power of Music

  SF Girl

  13 Jan 2010 | 6:23 pm

  Music is a holy place, a cathedral so majestic that we can sense the magnificence of the universe, and also a hovel so simple and private that none of us can plumb its deepest secrets—Don CampbellIf, indeed God moves us to express that within us which is divine, then poetry is the language of the heart and music is the language of the soul—Nina MunteanuDon Campbell calls it the “Mozart Effect” in his book of the same name: the ability of music to heal the body, strengthen the mind and unlock the creative spirit.You’ve all felt it—its rhythm resonating with your throbbing heart,…

• Nina and Toulouse Eat Out in Lunenburg

  SF Girl

  6 Jan 2010 | 6:27 pm

  Well... it started with a door. A most beautiful door...Behind every door is a story. And here's mine... or should I say Toulouse's and mine... :)This door belongs to the Mariner King Historic Inn in the charming fishing port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, an UNESCO designated World Heritage town. Lunenburg was settled by mostly German farmers in the mid 1700s. Home to the racing schooner Bluenose II and known for its vernacular architecture, Lunenburg’s charming lanes and dominant hillside setting have remained largely unchanged since the 1700s. A friend of mine described Lunenburg as a…

• 
  C.E. Murphy

• Ted is best!

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:51 am

  I went to the library to try to write today, to see if it would have the same effect as a cafe (ie, lots of words). It went pretty well, with 4800 words, but the amazing part is that when I came home, my husband had: - fixed the washing machine - fixed the dryer - mopped the downstairs - vacuumed - cleaned up the disaster area of an entryway - cleaned the kitchen - cleaned the kitty litter - tucked the garbage & recycling out of the way, the former into a place where it will probably not smell as much, since it’s no longer by the radiator - gone shopping, and - made a steak and…

• argh.

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:18 am

  I have a cold in my nose. I don’t feel too bad otherwise, except I am very, very tired. I do not have time to be very very tired. What I have is Just Barely enough time to finish this damned book before it’s due, and tiredness is entirely anathema to that. I will write one thousand words today. That’s only 500 more. It’s not enough, but it is at least something. Then perhaps I will go nap for an hour or two, and by so doing utterly defeat the cold in my nose and be able to spring up and write 6000 words a day all week long. Yes. That is my plan. *glares tiredly at the…

• Awww.

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:57 am

  Awwww. (Sorry, that’s it. I got nothin’ else.) ytd wordcount: 47,300 (x-posted from the essential kit)

• I am remiss.

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:40 am

  I’m told I am remiss in failing to mention frequently enough that you can find me here on Twitter or here on Facebook, as well as at this blog and at cemurphy.net. There. My duties here are done. :) I remembered at the last possible moment that I needed to do the Art Fact Sheet for SPIRIT DANCES, the sixth Walker Papers novel (due out April 2011; yes, this is way ahead of where you as readers are, since book five, DEMON HUNTS, is out in June), and in a fit of truthfulness, emailed my editor with the following: I forgot about the AFS, I’ll get it flung your way shortly! I…

• sustainable funding models

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

  Somebody in comments asked, more or less, what this “sustainable funding model” thing with the Hot Time novella was, so now that I am feeling less damaged than yesterday (my toe is now wonderfully purple. It doesn’t hurt as much and is healing up fine) I thought I’d try to address it. Gratuitously, though, I’m going to mention at the top rather than at the end of this entry that speaking of this whole topic, Crowdfunding community Rose & Bay is now running their votes for (among other things) best crowdfunded fiction of 2009, and “Hot Time” is on…

• 
  Derryl Murphy

• A Scene I'd Love to See in the Next Star Trek Movie

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:49 am

  INT. - BRIDGE OF THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISECAPTAIN KIRK sits at his chair.SULU and CHEKHOV man their stations, as do UHURA and SPOCK.McCOY stands beside Kirk.Behind Kirk, the turbolift door opens and SCOTTY enters the bridge, followed by another male crew member whose face we do not see.SCOTTYShe'll be ready to go any time you are, Captain.KIRK turns his chair to face SCOTTY.KIRKThank you, Mr. Scott.In the background, we see the other crew member wandering around the bridge, looking at various pieces of equipment and their displays. He has yet to turn towards the camera. For the first time, KIRK…

• Jenny at The Bloggess has a dirty conversation with a Convobot

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:34 am

  The results are very funny. Also a little naughty. Did I mention she's one of my heroes?

• Over 1/3 of New Jersey Conservatives Think Obama Might be (or, Actually, IS) the Anti-Christ

  18 Jan 2010 | 4:54 pm

  Uh huh. "Resentful because they've been left behind" does sound like a decent description to me. Watch the interview here.

• How to Read SF

  18 Jan 2010 | 3:54 pm

  Jo Walton at Tor.com does an excellent job of laying out how to read science fiction and fantasy, and why some people just don't get it. This is a good article to read, for SF fans, of course, but more so, I think, for people like my wife, who normally don't read the stuff.

• The Movies of 2009

  1 Jan 2010 | 9:49 am

  Here I am again, after last year's list and the list from the year before as well.This year I saw 60 movies, as opposed to 51 in 2008 and the possible 39 in 2007 (possible because I wasn't being as anal about keeping track). Of the 60 I saw, 25 were in the theatre, the rest at home. The final number could have been higher, but there were a few periods of time when the numbers fell right off (like leading up to Christmas, when life gets too busy).As I noted last year, we now have a Blu Ray machine and a big screen along with home theatre sound, all of which helps make the home viewing…

• 
  Vera Nazarian

• The Function of Fantasy Literature

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:08 pm

  Here's an excerpt from an ancient interview with me, which must have been recently re-posted on Fantasy Worlds. Much good commentary there, including this classic bit:DL: What do you think is the important function of Fantasy literature?VN: I think fantasy literature is the one true literature of hope and imagination.Now, some writers whom I respect very much, like China Miéville and some others of the New Weird, consider the true role of fantasy to be not Tolkienesque consolation but subversion -- a kind of rebellion from complacency. Yes, I can see what is meant here. And I also see the…

• The Mummies Need Your Help... (And So Do I)

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:52 am

  Everyone,I know, it's me again, asking for your help with boosting the signal and getting the word out on Mansfield Park and Mummies.The book is moving copies, but it is small press, and I have no fan base... And at this time I find it very hard to find not just the time but the energy and human will to self-promote...Plus, there's the old stigma. I feel it on my shoulders like a boat anchor.HOW DARE SHE SELF-PROMOTE?YEAH, THAT ONE. I've been told ages ago by people who simply have no clue and don't understand my desperate situation -- and the subsequent desperate situation of ALL MY BOOKS…

• Calling all SFWAns! Nebulation Time! :-)

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:50 pm

  Attention, fellow Active SFWA members!One of the stories from the critically acclaimed Norilana Books anthology Clockwork Phoenix 2, "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela" by Saladin Ahmed, is now seriously in the running for the Nebula Award in the short story category.I am extremely proud of this story and happy to have published it, and mega-kudos to editor Mike Allen time_shark for selecting it.Having said this, I also feel the story truly deserves your vote!If you are willing to consider it for a nomination of your own (if you haven't done so already), the new reccing process is not all…

• The secret reason why we do this thing...

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:52 am

  And this is the secret one true reason why we become publishers.Your happiness certainly made my day, Kathy Hurley! *beaming*

• Father's Passing - 2nd Anniversary

  1 Feb 2010 | 7:30 pm

  Two years ago, today, my Dad passed away.It still very very strange.In the back yard, a single yellow rose opened.Yellow was Dad's favorite color. His ashes are under the roses.

• 
  Eric Nylund

• Blogger Be Gone!

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:25 am

  Blogger has let me know that in a few weeks they will no longer support ftp accounts on private domains.i.e. THIS blog.So there may be a temporary break in services as I figure out how and where to transfer my blog.The url www.ericnylund.net, though, will always be your way to find me....Stand by.

• German Mortal Coils

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:08 pm

  This is the German edition of MORTAL COILS.I very much like the YA-ish feel of the cover.

• Contest Winners

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:26 am

  I love and hate contests. I love giving my books away. I hate not being able to give them to everyone.The winners are:M. EntrekinA. WigginsJ. CarpenterJ. CarsonJ. XianI’ve notified them my email.Thanks for participating everyone. I’ll be giving away more stuff soon.

• Free Books!

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:37 am

  (I mean “free” as in no cost, and “free” as in liberated from tyrants)I don't have much to add to the tsunami of internet buzz over Amazon v. Macmillan (Macmillan, who also owns TOR books, one of the publishers of my books, btw!)Indeed, words are insufficient.So, I’ve decided to take action--drastic action!To protest all my loyal fans NOT being able to buy the latest, HALO: Evolutions on e-tailer, Amazon… I’ve decide to give away five signed copies of Evolutions--yes, for free!I know that doesn't make any sense… but neither does Amazon’s temper tantrum of de-listing every…

• Tips on Querying Agents

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:02 am

  For people wondering how to query a literary agent, you need to pop over to the blog of literary agent (and all-around nice guy) Nathan Bransford. He has links with all the essentials of doing it right.One post of particular interest details the queries he received over this latest vacation — broken down by genre, length, and other factors… and then shows how many he requested to read.The odds are long in this business (like AC/DC said “it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock ‘n roll…”), but you can substantially increase your chances by educating yourself on what an agent…

• 
  James A. Owen

• Post-Holiday Book Orders Update

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:58 am

  Everything else that was ordered from either Coppervale or from Crossroads Books is shipping out this week.We've gotten a few emails from people either asking if 1) their order got lost; or 2) just wondering why it takes so long to ship a book. And the answers are that 1) no, most of the orders do seem to come through fine, but it's no problem just checking; and 2) it's taking so long to ship a single book, because there are LOTS and LOTS of you who ordered books, and all of them needed to be drawn in and personalized - and up until a week ago last Friday, I was doing eighteen hour days…

• Tell Them

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:03 pm

  SciFi Writer Kage Baker, who died Sunday, to her sister on her last day: "I want you to tell all these people that I wanted more time to spend with them. Tell them I meant to, tell them I wanted to hear what they said and tell them what was on my mind." What else is more important than these things? Nothing. Nothing.

• All Together Now

  31 Jan 2010 | 5:46 pm

  I went and looked at the photo archives, and while it hadn't occurred to me to take a photo of the art wall after finishing HERE, THERE BE DRAGONS, I've done it on completion of the art for all four successive books. Sometimes, I feel as if I haven't been as productive as I should have been in recent years - which is why documenting one's output in this way can be a valuable self-assessment tool. When you consider that not only is there another full wall of art (Book One) to show for in addition to these, but that there were also BOOKS written to accompany the art. And then when you take into…

• Underdrawings & Finished Art

  30 Jan 2010 | 6:13 pm

  I was in a comics store recently with a good friend, who was astonished to learn that in comics work, there are often several artists who contribute to the finished work. The simplest explanation I could offer about the penciler/inker divide is that the pencil artist is often the better storyteller, and the inker is the better finish artist. Reasons and mileage will vary on that. In comics, I'm a one-man show (not surprising when you consider my peers like Jeff Smith, Colleen Doran, Paul Pope, and Terry Moore are as well). Commercially, it's much more common for the artist do do the work solo…

• What Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Two Months Of Committing Art Looks Like*

  29 Jan 2010 | 11:24 am

  *Not including a book revision and copyedits; the last signings of a book tour; the holidays; three freelance art jobs; and, well, things like sleeping, eating, and treehouse repair. But you get the idea.

• 
  Philip Palmer

• This Week on Debatable Spaces

  Philip Palmer

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:09 am

  Tuesday and Thursday - THE BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. (Hey, I mean it.) Wednesday, a lovely treat: SFF SONG OF THE WEEK FROM BLOGGER & CRITIC PAUL RAVEN. NOW: a Philip Palmer guest blog on myth on the luscious website of urban fantasy writer Nicole Peeler.

• The Battle Between Good and Evil

  Philip Palmer

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:08 am

  I've written before on this site about the Battle Between Good and Evil;  and I will do so again.  It's here, it's now, we're in the midst of it. This sounds melodramatic; but it's TRUE. I don't mean global warming, though that's part of it. I don't mean the war in Iraq, though that's a major part of it. I don't at all mean the threat from terrorism - because I honestly believe that for all the flaws of our Western society, Al Qaeda are a bunch of shallow charlatans who have no worthy cause to promote.  They're our enemies; but we're not the bad guys in that particular conflict. But we are…

• Swimming with Selkies

  Philip Palmer

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:56 am

  Hey, I'm not here, I'm over there,  on the site of urban fantasy author Nicole Peeler, talking about myth.

• Reblog

  Philip Palmer

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:06 am

  Here are some blogs which I think are worth a visit, some recent, some not: John Scalzi on Why Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon.  (Brilliant, funny, coruscating.) Nicole Peeler on why Urban Fantasy matters so much.  (A Scalzi connection here - this was a Big Idea on Scalzi's site.) A great roundup of the Amazon scandal from Lilith Saintcrow, with her own cogent thoughts. Plus today's blog from Lili; this is searingly honest and thought-provoking. And, shameless as ever, here's a guest blog I wrote for the Orbit site.

• Astronomy Photo of the Week

  Philip Palmer

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  Mercury, in colour Image courtesy of NASA, and the Messenger spacecraft

• 
  Susan Palwick

• Onset

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  And speaking of mental health, one of my poems has just been posted on the Cell2Soul blog (whence, I believe, it will eventually be collected into an issue of the journal).Friends who've read this have found it creepy and disturbing, so if that kind of thing bothers you, be forewarned.

• Heaven Can Wait, Redux

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:26 pm

  I forgot to mention that my latest column is up at Hope and Healing. This piece was mined from my fuller and longer blog post on the same subject, which some of you will already have read. Happy reading!

• How to Conquer the Cylons

  2 Feb 2010 | 5:54 pm

  Thanks for all the comments on my last post; I'm glad everyone enjoyed that particular bit of whimsy as much as I did! (And inky, we've seen the pilot of Caprica and liked it a lot, but will have to wait until the first season comes out on DVD to see more. We're currently behind on our DVD watching, anyway, because I've been so busy at work.)I didn't even know about the MacMillan-Amazon imbroglio -- Gary filled me in over dinner last night -- but I'm glad it's over.Now, for the important news. Those of you who've been worrying about the Cylon menace, fret no more! We have the answer!Cats!

• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

  31 Jan 2010 | 7:33 pm

  You betcha.Gary gave me this wonderful Cylon Centurion action figure for Christmas. I've been fascinated with scary robots since a series of nightmares about them when I was a kid, and I love BSG, so there you go. Today, puttering around my study, I finally unpacked My Very Own Scary Robot and perched him on a shelf of the new knitting vault. But then it occurred to me that he ought to be doing something.Given his location, it wasn't hard to figure out what his hobby should be. Two toothpicks and a bit of sock yarn later, and voila!I called Gary in to look, and he shook his head and said,…

• Reports of My Falling Off the Planet Are Greatly Exaggerated

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:17 pm

  Yes, I'm alive, and since both my mother-in-law and Claire have expressed alarm at my lack of posts, I thought I should say something.I've just been really really really really really busy, and also haven't had a tremendous amount to talk about. Two weeks into classes, everything seems to be going fine. The department's been busy hosting on-campus visits for candidates in our three searches, though, which means I've been spending a lot of time at job talks and receptions. Healthwise, I'm eh. Still sleeping way too much. (I think the temporary reprieve was a function of jet lag after getting…

• 
  Jennifer Pelland

• Pre-orders galore!

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:15 pm

  Close Encounters of the Urban Kind has just become available to pre-order at Apex. It contains my story "Headlights." It looks like the cover art for the antho might have been inspired by my piece:http://www.apexbookstore.com/collections/frontpage/products/close-encounters-of-the-urban-kind-edited-by-jennifer-brozekAnd Dark Faith is still up for pre-order. The first 500 get a free chapbook as well:http://www.apexbookstore.com/products/dark-faith-edited-by-maurice-broaddus-and-jerry-gordon-pellandThis one has my story "Ghosts of New York" -- my 9/11 ghost story.And it looks like you can order…

• Some news from my agent

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:37 pm

  I just found out from my agent that the publisher that almost bought Machine is currently enjoying reading Chameleon. I'm preparing myself for further heartbreak, because if I let myself be cautiously hopeful, I'll be a wreck if they say no again.

• Lost mini-rant

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:34 am

  Why, Lost, did you feel compelled to introduce so many new characters in your final season? Didn't you have enough? Why couldn't you have wrapped things up with the cast of thousands that you already had at your disposal?Spoilers welcome in the comments.

• Cheap tix to Madison

  23 Jan 2010 | 7:31 am

  Thanks to a heads-up over on the WisCon LJ community, I checked out prices on flights to Madison, and managed to score round-trip tickets for $205. If you haven't made your travel plans for WisCon yet, now would be a good time.

• In the market for a new laptop

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:19 pm

  My nearly-four-year-old Sony Vaio has finally developed a major enough problem that I'm now in the market for a new laptop. I love the Vaio keyboard, but this computer was flaky enough that I don't think I want to replace it with another Vaio. Plus, I'm not digging the options/prices I'm seeing on the Vaio website. I like what I'm seeing at HP, but I hate their keyboard with a passion, and since I'm a writer, it's important to me that I enjoy the sensation of typing. What other Windows brands do people suggest I check out? (I'm not a Macintosh person, so please don't try to convert me.)…

• 
  Steve Perry

• Uneasy Lies the Head ...

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:49 am

  Another visit to the dentist, and yet another poorly-fitted crown that had to be removed. That's three in the last couple of years. Second installed by the same guy, gone since to his reward.This one had a gap that had been allowing bacteria to do things to the remains of the tooth under it; was irritating the gums, and there was deadening, drilling, and paring away of tissue ...I try to stay relaxed as possible whilst in the not-quite-my-size chair, but I usually wind up with a sore neck. I go back in a few weeks for the new crown. And so, as Vonnegut liked to say, it goes ...

• Your Move, Pardner ...

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:16 pm

  Never a dull moment around my house ...

• Tall Tale

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:51 am

  The top floors of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, have been closed for electrical problems. The structure, named for the ruler of the emirate that bailed the builders out on a ten billion dollar loan payment, is 2717 feet (828 meters) high.To put that number in perspective, if you took the Empire State Building and perched the Chrysler Building on top of it, the Burj Khalifa would still be taller, by more than four hundred feet.Not that big, cubic-footage-wise, but it is a skyscraper ...

• Super Bowl Sunday

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:02 am

  Rather than rehash last year's Super Bowl posting and the explanation why we watch this annually, you can read that by clicking here.This year, we have to root for New Orleans. First, because we are from Louisiana and this is the first time the Saints have ever gotten this far. Second, because they are the underdogs. The buzz on the commercials is that they aren't particularly sexy -- even in the GoDaddy.com way -- but on a by-the-second-cost, they are the most expensive things on the air, so it will be interesting to see how major companies blow a couple million bucks to get our attention.

• Tea Party

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:34 am

  Now preaching revolution. I wonder if she knows what the word means? I think the picture captures her, ah ... essence, though ...Hundred grand for a forty-five minute speech. Nice work if you can get it.

• 
  Mike Philbin

• Superbowl ad - THE GREEN POLICE - captive audience

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:17 am

  So, instead of industry gathering together to CLEAN UP ITS ACT and stop POLLUTING this Earth to death and stop RIPPING OFF THE WORLD for profit via corporate wars and global asset grabs, fishing quotas, deforestation, butter mountains, milk lakes, excess in every (tax deductible) form... the corporation says, "It's all your fucking fault."You The People now need THE GREEN POLICE to monitor how much fucking CO2 you're exhaling, how much fucking plastic you pay with and how much fucking banana skin you're not composting. I mean, forget that corporations are RUINING countries and RUINING other…

• Aaron McCollum - Stargate - Gulf of Aden - Yemen

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  In the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, over 300 Naval vessels from friends and foes alike are circled around a deep seabed-embedded StarGate that has activated out over the waters and has visible metallic rings suspended in the sky and which have fully opened up an interdimensional/multidimensional portal through which--the King of Egypt reported to us this AM--large cigar-shaped ships have been transiting. When they come through a stargate they have to momentarily decloak and become visible. [source MARK HUBER]Now, this sounds like CRAZY TALK, but place this alongside corporate media…

• Marlon Brando Interview 1973

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:59 am

  if you have to ask me why I like James Cameron's TRULY RELEVANT film "Avatar", you simply don't GET IT how the corporation and the dredging for profit will erase all humanity on this planet ... given enough time, and enough inertia by You The People.Here's Marlon Brando on The Dick Cavett Show, June 12, 1973; with representatives of the Cheyenne, Paiute and Lummi tribes. Remember, this is just after Sacheen Littlefeather was invited to TURN DOWN the Best Actor Oscar for "the Godfather" in the name of Marlon Brando..."It's the squeaky hinge that gets the grease." gorgeous quote, good call Mr…

• The Eugenicists vs the "go forth and multiply" crowd

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:21 am

  this is gonna be a short one:the Eugenicists:say there are too many people on the planet, so 80% of them now need to die. Now, the only thing that's wrong with this is the Ruling Elite who run the GLOBAL GAME are just having a laugh at your expense. They love their feudal system, they love their lofty position, looking down on the decaying masses. They will NEVER share this Earth with you, they will ALWAYS look at you as Sheeple or Cannon Fodder.the "go forth and multiply" crowd:are merely a misinterpretation of the message to go and spread the "word". What's happened is, mankind's such a…

• 10 Downing Street - The Carbon Disclosure Project

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:21 am

  Man, I'm sick of the debate. You'all know I'm a skeptic and I'll feature anything that POINTS TOWARDS THE TRUTH until it's been disproven to scientific satisfaction. So, come on, PEOPLE, let's have all this out. Mainstream journalists, get on the case already. If it's bullshit, we should string McConnell & Hawkins up by the balls for making up such lies about our wonderful leaders. If it's not bullshit, we should laugh in the pathetic childish face of corporate greed - is that all there is to the pinnacle of the democratic game, just a few more worthless dollars in pocket?Seriously, I'm sick…

• 
  Tim Pratt

• 16200

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:16 pm

  Kid's sick again, though he slept through the night last night, pretty much -- until 5:30 am. As opposed to Saturday, when he was up from 2 to 6:30 am cranky and feverish. He seems to be feeling fine now, so let's hope it was just a brief cold. Glad he didn't pull another all-nighter, since I have to go to work in a couple of hours and write an obituary for Phil Klass (who wrote as William Tenn). I met him once or twice, and he was a brilliant satirist. A great sad loss. Other than the kid feeling poorly, it was a good weekend -- great, even. I had my best writing day in ages on Saturday,…

• Some Days in the Life

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:34 am

  Yesterday I was thinking, "Man, I work a lot," and decided to break it down. So here you go: My average work day: Begins between 5:30 and 7:30, usually, depending on when the baby gets up, and whether it's my turn or my wife's turn to get up with him; 7:30 at the latest. 7:30-8:00: Shower, make coffee, get ready to leave. 8:00-8:30: Go to work. (In the future this will involve "take kid to day care" some days and I'll have to get up and leave earlier.) 8:30-5:30: Day job stuff, which includes a lunch break during which I usually get to read for half an hour, though if I'm up against a…

• Broken Mirrors, Donation Models, etc.

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:28 am

  The response to my straw poll was quite positive. So it looks like Broken Mirrors will happen, though I'm not entirely sure when. I could start writing it as soon as next month, and posting it a month or two after that, depending on how well the writing goes. I've thought about the book a lot -- I mean, I expected to write it last year -- so I don't think it'll be too tough. Still pondering the donations model. Doing it like I did with Bone Shop -- free to read, pay whatever you want -- is certainly easiest. The hostageware thing (where I only post a new chapter if I get paid enough for the…

• Should I Write the Next Marla Mason Novel?

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:14 am

  I'm debating whether or not to write Broken Mirrors -- the fifth full-length Marla Mason novel, which will resolve the cliffhanger in Spell Games -- this spring, to be published online as a reader-funded serial in the summer or fall. If you're interested in reading that (and more importantly interested in donating, so I can actually afford to spend time writing the book instead of hustling up paying gigs), send an e-mail to tapratt@marlamason.net and tell me. I'll put you on a mailing list and notify you when/if the book goes up. (Comment and include an e-mail address and I'll put you on the…

• Good to Get the First Failure of the Year Out of the Way

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:40 am

  I had a sort of kinda halfway goal of writing every day this year, which I managed until yesterday. Got some bad news in the evening (a relative in intensive care back home, not expected to pull through), and that messed up my concentration pretty well -- I sat down to write last night as usual but just couldn't focus on the imaginary lives of those imaginary people that suddenly seemed so trivial. My usual response to failing at a goal is to say "Bah!" and declare that the whole enterprise was futile and a waste of effort and then give up trying, but I'm trying to be a bit more mature (in…

• 
  Cherie Priest

• Technically

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:24 pm

  As of right now, my little brother is 21 years old.* I wish oodles of happy natal felicitations to the lad — who can be found right here online. May he have many, many more gleeful, productive years ahead! And even though the occasion veritably cries out for me to tell embarrassing stories about him as a wee nublet of a boy, I will do no such thing. At this time. * He’s … um … rather significantly younger than me, yes. [Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

• WHO DAT???

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:53 pm

  WHO DAT SAY DEY GONNA BEAT DEM SAINTS???? [:: shakes it ::] [:: shakes it ::] [:: eats a celebratory Krispy Kreme doughnut ::] [:: shakes sticky fingers ::] [:: shakes booty some more ::] [:: collapses ::] [:: shakes it down there on the ground ::] [:: shakes over to the cat who wonders WTF is going on ::] [:: shakes the cat ::] [:: shakes booty to the medicine cabinet for band-aids ::] [:: shakes the band-aid box ::] [:: bootyshakes ::] [:: bootyshakes ::] [:: and I say WHO DAT? ::] [Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

• Links and Updates

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:07 pm

  Boneshaker is back on Amazon.com - thereby indicating that Macmillan and Amazon have reached some kind of detente, I must assume. This is particularly good for Kindle users, who can’t just order books from somebody else. Three such people emailed during the blackout, demanding to know why they couldn’t get my stuff for their Kindle because they were preeeetty sure they saw it available a couple of weeks ago and WTF was up with that? Yeah. Well. Here you go. The Guardian tackles steampunk - including a mention of yours truly as someone doing American steampunk (which totally gave…

• February 5, 2010

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:37 pm

  Here are the recent stats on the Clockwork Century story, “Far-Fetched” — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland: Project: “Far-Fetched” Deadline: February 20, 2010 New Words Written: 2359 (not bad) Present Total Word Count: 8449 Things Accomplished in Fiction: Finished Draft Zero. It’s a little long, and will probably get cut by about a thousand words; and I’m not 100% sold on my ending, but I can set this aside for a few days and come…

• February 3, 2010

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:47 pm

  Lest you folks think I’ve completely forgotten about this project — Here are the recent stats on the Clockwork Century story, “Far-Fetched” — about an apprentice airship engineer named Huojin and his adventures aboard the Naamah Darling, now with Bonus! mayhem in the Shanghai Tunnels of Portland: Project: “Far-Fetched” Deadline: February 20, 2010 New Words Written: 3184 (in a week - terrible) Present Total Word Count: 6090 Things Accomplished in Fiction: Wrote my way to the climax; quit composing in the middle of it (just for tonight). Things…

• 
  Adam Roberts

• YBT on BSFA Award Shortlist

  Adam Roberts

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:41 am

  I'm more chuffed than a chaffinch (who, I assume, are so-called from their enormous capacity for chuffed-ness) that Yellow Blue Tibia has been shortlisted for the BSFA award. Best of all, just look at the stratospheric calibre of the other three titles! That's pretty pleasing company to be keeping, I don't mind telling you.

• ‘Hair’

  Adam Roberts

  2 Jan 2010 | 8:53 am

  Gardner Dozois has selected my story 'Hair' for The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Seventh Annual Collection (due out July 2010). I'm chuffed. 'Hair' originally appeared in Geoff Ryman's superlative When It Changed anthology of original fiction. Why don't you buy a copy?

• A Note on Cheryl Morgan

  Adam Roberts

  2 Jan 2010 | 8:34 am

  Back in the days when she ran Emerald City Cheryl Morgan read and reviewed some of my writing. She didn't like it, for a number of perfectly valid reasons, which is, of course, fair enough. The thing is: for many readers that would have drawn the line under any further encounter with what I do. There's no shortage of books published, after all, and enough great writers (certainly better than I) continue to produce the sort of thing she does like to mean that she could easily have decided never to trouble herself with one of my books again. So when I met Cheryl at Finncon last year, and she…

• Black Static on Scrooge

  Adam Roberts

  2 Jan 2010 | 7:53 am

  Black Static is a fine magazine. Here's what Peter Tennant says about I Am Scrooge in the latest ed: For his latest trick, respected critic and SF author Adam Roberts has great fun producing a pastiche of Dickens's seasonal classic, A Christmas Carol, and the horror afficionado and more general reader will find much to enjoy between the covers of I Am Scrooge, not least the tasteful line drawings of Zom Leech. I'll pass those words on to Zom. He'll be chuffed. At first I found this book rather forced and the language slightly stilted, with an uncomfortable tension between the scenes of…

• Twenty ten

  Adam Roberts

  1 Jan 2010 | 4:05 pm

  What's coming? A couple of things, since you ask. New Model Army is published on the 10th of April. I'd say it is the best thing I have ever written, and by quite a wide margin too. That may, of course, not be saying very much; but it's a big deal for me. I'll be appearing at the Scarborough Literary Festival on Saturday 17th April (at 1 pm to be precise, with Tom Holt and Peter Guttridge; but otherwise just knocking about that fine town). I don't often do festivals or cons, so this is also quite a big deal for me. I'll need to get the train up and everything. A note on my blogging: one New…

• 
  Madeleine E. Robins

• 13s for Common Sense

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am

  Sarcasm Girl (who is not 13), incensed and in her special brand of High Dudgeon, pointed me to an article called Are Your Kid's Books Rated R?. In fact, the author, Tony Buchsbaum, seems to think that if they aren't, they should be. Buchsbaum starts out with a point of view and seems genuinely pleased that people are responding to the article--for a while. And then he starts to get testy and condescending. I suspect he was expecting a groundswell of parents saying "Oh, thank God, I'm not the only one!" Instead he mostly got people saying that he's out of touch with the way teenagers think and…

• Tyop du Jour

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:27 am

  Agnesa finished her honeyed wind and went in to look for Suora Horicula.Wine. Although I spent ten minutes trying to decide what a honeyed wind would be.

• In the Proud Consciousness and all that...

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:47 pm

  I have today:• defrosted the downstairs freezer• wrapped up and put away all the Christmas lights which had been huddled in a pile since I took them down• made pot roast so the house smells yummy• cut up all the gazillions of cardboard boxes left over from Christmas• bought garish fabric for a special project• groomed the Nebula Nominations tally (that is, moved things from the place they oughtn't be to the place they should be, combined nominations on one line, found vexed oddities to rule upon, and so forth...)And am now lying on the hot herbal pack hoping that my back will stop…

• Bloggin'

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:54 am

  Over at Book View Cafe we have a blog where various members write about various things; the Amazon/Macmillan dustup and the Google Settlement mess get a good deal of space. But just as interesting are writers writing about their lives or their enthusiasms, their geekery or cookery, and, of course, about writing.And sometimes the posts quite inadvertently seem to comment on or support each other. sartorias has a nice piece today about using observed emotional responses in writing, and I have a piece on observing oddities in real life as an inspiration or springboard for writing. Serendipity at…

• Twilight Much?

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

  0122001712Originally uploaded by madrobinsNote new repackaging of an old favorite. None of those stodgy old Women in Long Dresses covers for Emily Brontë, no sirree.0122001712aOriginally uploaded by madrobinsI'm a little at a loss to imagine Elizabeth and Darcy in the same world as Emily Brontë's overwrought unpleasant row-manic lovers. Or what Miss Austen would have made of Miss Brontë's novel.But I think they would agree about The Twilight Saga, and be just a little chagrinned at being lumped in, visually at least, with Edward and Bella.

• 
  Benjamin Rosenbaum

• Viva La Pantera!

  benrosen

  31 Jan 2010 | 5:25 am

  All science fiction is destined to become alternate history: This is an issue of the newspaper of the 1990 student...

• Shorter "Where the Wild Things Are" (the movie)

  benrosen

  26 Jan 2010 | 9:36 am

  We are monstrous; we are loved. (I liked it, if you were wondering; more than my kids did, I think,...

• "Irrlicht" in Pandora 4

  benrosen

  25 Jan 2010 | 5:33 am

  My and David Ackert's collaborative short story "Stray", originally published in the December 2007 F&SF, has been translated into German...

• Bus Billboard

  benrosen

  19 Jan 2010 | 8:58 am

  The ancient, hacked-by-me version of MoveableType I use for blogging is sketchy about sending me email when people comment, so...

• Dad's Paper

  benrosen

  18 Jan 2010 | 12:56 pm

  Now that my Dad is retired, he is getting back to physics. He wandered away from the subject of...

• 
  Christopher Rowe

• Group Interview

  Christopher

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:08 am

  A fantasy novel I've written for Wizards of the Coast's Forgotten Realms line, titled Sandstorm, will be out in Spring of next year. Various authors who've written in the line are participating in a round-robin interview, including, starting this week, me. See here?

• Everybody everywhere is just like me

  Christopher

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

  Information wants to be free, but only so long as the information is contained in little boxes made out of oil and rare metals, designed for and marketed to white, middle-class English speakers.

• Storm heaven, Professor

  Christopher

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

  An American hero, Howard Zinn, has passed away.

• Catchy tune

  Christopher

  10 Sep 2009 | 8:39 am

• Singularicat!

  Christopher

  27 Apr 2009 | 7:25 am

  In the five thousand years of recorded human history, and indeed, in all of anthropologically and archeologically knowable human history, it is inarguably true that every single significant technological advance has been rapidly propagated across all cultures and societies, and that every individual human (for it is the individual who holds primacy of place in all human philosophies) quickly experienced profound and positive changes to their lives, physiologies, and psyches because of that advance. What makes these days--these final days, friends--so exciting is…

• 
  Rudy Rucker

• Making a High-Quality Picture Book

  Rudy

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:23 pm

  I’ve been busy making some photo-album books and a new edition of my art book, now with 62 full-size paintings for $29 from Lulu: Better Worlds. As regular readers of Rudy’s Blog will know, I have an interest in creating art books and photobooks, whether for family gifts or for products that I can sell online as print-on-demand books. I first did this in December, 2008, when I designed the first edition of Better Worlds , with only 47 pictures. (As mentioned above, the new version has 62.) At that time I blogged some information about my process, and I wrote some down in a note to myself.

• Groundhog Day

  Rudy

  1 Feb 2010 | 10:16 pm

  Groundhog Day is February the second! I remember living in towns with rough weather—like Geneseo, New York, up near Rochester. And then there’d be a article in the paper every year about the so-called groundhog Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. (What a GROOVY town name!) It seemed like Phil would always predict a heartbreaking six more weeks of Winter. I formed a bitter theory that this so-called groundhog was in fact a fact a robot on rails. I’d discuss this endlessly with my three children, summing up my theory in the slogan: Zzzt—*shine*—zzzt! The first…

• Massacres in Light Fiction?

  Rudy

  30 Jan 2010 | 8:09 pm

  I only have about three more chapters to write on my novel Jim and the Flims. Right now, our hero Jim Oster has been loaded up with ten thousand jiva eggs—the jivas being some nasty aliens who want to invade Earth. The cartoonist Jim Woodring designed the original models of jivas that inspired me. [Image of painting, “Jivas,” by Jim Woodring, 2008, which recently sold for $1200 at the Comic Art Collective.] In the part of my book that I’m writing now, Jim Oster is in Santa Cruz, California, with all those eggs about to pop out of him and find human hosts. The jiva eggs want to get…

• White Noise, Back to Mono

  Rudy

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:09 am

  I just finished reading Don Delillo’s White Noise, which was first published in 1985, and is out in a very nice Penguin Classic Deluxe paperback. [My favorite toy raygun. By the way, my artist friend Paul Mavrides did a great painting, "Peace Dividend" of rayguns in 1997.] Somehow I didn’t read Delillo’s book when it came out, even though there was considerable buzz. Maybe I was bitter and envious that Delillo was getting the lit-crit attention that I wished we cyberpunk SF writers were getting. You can’t really trust writers’ opinions about other writers books—many of us are,…

• Photoblogging

  Rudy

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:59 pm

  This week I’ve been working on the final revisions of Nested Scrolls: A Memoir, my autobiography. I’ve contracted for it to come out in a collector’s edition from PS Publishing in England, and then in a trade edition from Tor/Forge Books in the US. I’m not sure about the publication dates yet, either 2011 or 2012. Today I’m running an excerpt from some material that I just added, a passage about blogging and photography. The photos are mostly from a recent walk on St. Joseph’s hill near Los Gatos. After five and a half years of blogging, I’ve put up some seven hundred posts…

• 
  Brian Ruckley

• MPoaF: JJ Abrams just talking, really

  Brian Ruckley

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am

  JJ Abrams, the guy behind Lost, Cloverfield, the Star Trek reboot and other significant bits of recent popular culture (i.e. easily one of the most important figures in the early 21st century genre-as-mainstream boom), talks about what he does, why he does it the way he does, his grandfather, boxes, magic, all kinds of stuff ... Nothing especially astonishing about it, just a rather nice, well-delivered talk, I thought.

• I Am Not Hard to Please

  Brian Ruckley

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:54 am

  Waking up to find an inch or two of unforecasted snow blanketing the world, and still falling ... colour me happy.

• MPoaF: Making a Book in the 21st Century

  Brian Ruckley

  22 Jan 2010 | 1:00 am

  Well, one way of making a book anyway. The Espresso Book Machine is already installed here and there, including a few bookshops around the world, I think. Is this a possible saviour for a handful of the doomed bookstores I was talking about last week? I'm a bit dubious, but you can see why they'd want to give it a try. Any straw you can get hold of probably looks appealing when you're sinking fast. It is quite clever, I suppose, and it's fun to watch a book coming into existence like that.I'm not sure it really offers much defence against the e-book advance, though. Much as I hate to dwell on…

• My Role in the Demise of the High Street Bookstore

  Brian Ruckley

  14 Jan 2010 | 2:15 am

  In 2009, my answer to the question 'Are bricks and mortar bookshops doomed?' underwent a subtle but significant change. (No one has actually asked me that specific question, by the way - after all, who cares what I think? Well, I do, so I have regularly asked myself the question).Anyway, up until some time in 2009, when pondering an answer to this weighty self-inflicted question, I would have to think about it a bit. Kick a few ideas and scenarios around in my head. Weigh up the exact wording of my response. And end up with: 'Probably.' Which I would then dress up with various caveats and…

• New Year, New Things

  Brian Ruckley

  9 Jan 2010 | 7:40 am

  So, everyone: welcome to 2010. (A week late, I know, but it's the thought that counts, right?) I hope you enjoy it, and that it delivers at the very least a respectable portion of all that you hope for.Starting a new year with a new experience can't be a bad thing, I reckon, so you won't hear any complaints from me about the wintry onslaught that has subjugated the British Isles. There's been no sign of the grass on the lawn outside my window for over three weeks now, buried as it is beneath a gleaming white blanket of snow. Nothing remarkable for many of you, of course, including those…

• 
  Matt Ruff

• The only things missing are the 3D glasses and the neon color palette

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:31 am

  So, Terminator Salvation:Following the tragic murder of his brother, Sam Worthington gets a second chance at life, courtesy of the Sky(net) People. He's sent in the form of an avatar to live among the natives of a world Skynet hopes to conquer, but after winning the affection of a tough warrior chick, he switches sides and joins the resistance. In one key scene, Sam jumps onto the back of a big flying thing; in another, he plugs his body into a network and ends up having a chat with the goddess Eywa Helena Bonham Carter. Finally, after he helps deal Skynet a crushing defeat, Sam -- the best…

• Zing!

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am

  From a full-page ad in today's New York Times for Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto:"Available at booksellers everywhere except Amazon."

• Dollhouse, fini

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:17 am

  So, it's over. Some thoughts:* During the fall hiatus, Lisa and I rented the last disc from the first season and watched the original pilot and Epitaph One. We both loved the OP and agreed that that Dollhouse would have been an awesome show. Pity the network decided to go a different way. Epitaph One is less stellar, but does give you a good sense of what the alt-universe Dollhouse would have been all about. If I were going to make a recommendation to Joss Whedon fans who'd somehow avoided the series until now, it'd be to watch these two episodes, and maybe a few select bits of the…

• Exclusive video of last week's meeting between Amazon and Macmillan Publishing

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:32 am

  It's off a Berlin TV station feed, dubbed in German with no English subtitles, but even if you don't speak the language you should be able to get the gist of it.Steve Jobs shares his reaction to the story here.

• iPad

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:31 pm

  I think we want one. Lisa and I are still discussing whether the extra cost of the 3G would be worth it, since 95% of the time we'd be using it in the house, and if we did bring it along on a trip it'd most likely be to use it as a preloaded reading device.About the name, I've heard the iTampon jokes (my favorite so far is the one about the iPad with wings), but honestly it seems fine to me. Of the two most obvious alternatives, iSlate sounds too much like "Isolate," and iTablet feels clunky, a break with the naming convention of using "i" plus a single-syllable noun.

• 
  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

• The Tower

  Kris

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:44 pm

  The March Asimov’s features a story of mine that’s been in the works for about 8 years. I couldn’t write it until I found a few great books on the history of the Tower of London.  Believe it or not, it took a while to find those books.  Even the information online wasn’t as detailed as I wanted.  Eventually I found all that I needed, however, and wrote “The Tower.”  You can find an excerpt here–and if you want, you can order the issue, as either a print copy or a download.  Enjoy!

• Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Role Models

  Kris

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:22 pm

  Artwork donated by Pati Nagle. The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Role Models Kristine Kathryn Rusch The past few weeks, we’ve had a pretty lively discussion of behavior and the professional freelancer.  If you haven’t done so, go back and read the comments sections in the two posts on jealousy and in last week’s post on courtesy. In addition to those comments, I’ve received great e-mails from folks, some detailing terrible behavior by professionals, and some discussing some absolutely wonderful behavior.  It’s nice to see the upside, considering how egregious some of the…

• Patriotic Gestures in Year’s Best

  Kris

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:14 pm

  Ed Gorman bought my story, “Patriotic Gestures,” for his best of the year volume.  It’s out now from Tyrus Books. And I’ve read the entire volume and will be recommending it in the Recommended Reading column. Good stuff in here, including some of the Edgar nominees and winners.  I’m sure your local bookstore has a copy or go here to order.

• The Thrill of the Hunt–and a column

  Kris

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:25 pm

  My story, “The Thrill of the Hunt,” has just appeared on Baen’s Universe’s website.  This one is dark and fantastic and was fun to write.  You can read an excerpt here–and maybe even download the rest if you like. T Also, my Baen’s Universe column subtitled, “An Amazing Amount of Stuff,” talks about why I don’t participate much in the best of year voting.  I’m overwhelmed by the quantity of things to read!  You can read the whole column for free here. But I’d buy the whole issue, for only six bucks.  It’s got lots of…

• Recommended Reading List December 2009

  Kris

  30 Jan 2010 | 10:12 pm

  I read a lot in December.  Sadly, much of it wasn’t memorable.  I checked my calendar (where I record what I read) to see if I had missed anything for the list—and was startled to see books that I barely remembered reading one week later. I’m also doing some very dishy research, so I’m reading a lot of salacious downmarket books from the 1950s, 60s and 70s.  I’ve about had it with exclamation points!Yes! Honestly! That’s true! I do feel like a gossip maven, even though everyone I have gossip about is dead… Here are the few memorable books I read in December. December, 2009…

• 
  Brandon Sanderson

• Updates + Life, the Universe & Everything Schedule

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:04 pm

  This week I'll be the guest of honor at Life, the Universe & Everything, BYU's annual symposium on science fiction and fantasy. It's basically a convention with a fancier name (but there will be a few research papers presented), though most conventions aren't free like LTUE is. My schedule is below. But first, the weekly updates. The most recent Mistborn 3 annotations cover the rest of chapter 58, the climax to Spook's plot arc: part 2, part 3. And in this week's Writing Excuses podcast, Howard, Dan, and I talk about using role-playing games as storytelling tools. It may not be what you…

• Photoshop Contest—Win a New Tor Book

  2 Feb 2010 | 4:47 pm

  By now you’re probably very familiar with the whole AmazonFail deal that has been going on. Today, Scalzi made a shout-out for author support. I think that was a fine thing to do. Most of the authors involved don’t care so much about ebook pricing either way. They just want people to read their works. In fact, the majority of writers I know care about money only in so much as it allows them to keep writing books. Money is important because without it, we’d all have to be working in a cubicle somewhere rather than creating the art that we love. Some will argue that $9.99 is too low for…

• Amazonfail 2010, Mythmaker Interview, Updates

  1 Feb 2010 | 3:19 pm

  The big story over the weekend was that Amazon temporarily stopped selling all Macmillan books, which includes all my books from Tor, to protest Macmillan's new ebook terms. There's not a lot I have to add to this discussion, except to say that Tor's publicity department thought the illustration accompanying Engadget's article on the affair was hilarious. Still, if you haven't heard about what's been happening, or if you've emailed me asking why you suddenly can't buy my books from Amazon, check out the following links for a thorough rundown. My evil nemesis John Scalzi probably said it best…

• Writing Excuses on MP3 CD + Updates

  25 Jan 2010 | 3:42 pm

  This week's Writing Excuses podcast is about How to Manage Your Influences—in other words, how to avoid letting other people's work creep into your own. And if you enjoy listening to me, Howard, and Dan talk about writing, or want to catch up on our previous episodes, seasons 1 through 3 are now available on MP3 CD from PodDisc, either individually or in a set. The Season 1 CD also has bonus content, including a couple of my essays on writing, desktop wallpapers, outtakes, and Dan's gothic vampire humor novel BLACKER DARKNESS. Speaking of Writing Excuses, I mentioned this earlier in my…

• California real estate/bankruptcy lawyer needed

  23 Jan 2010 | 10:09 pm

  This is a shout-out for help for a friend of mine. A lot of people read my blog, so sometimes I turn to it as a last resort to solve a problem. Anyway, a friend of mine got caught in the housing bubble over a year ago and needs a California lawyer with experience in real estate, foreclosure, dealing with mortgage companies, and bankruptcy, and preferably with manufactured/mobile homes. He would prefer to have someone recommended to him rather than just finding someone random online. He's looking for a lawyer who will actively work to get him out of legal limbo. If you can recommend someone,…

• 
  William Shunn

• Not last night but the night before

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  Occasionally I have vivid nightmares that leave me afraid to go back to sleep. (Probably PTSD from the LDS years.) The night before last, I had the worst I'd had in some time. It was one of those dreams that seems, while it's happening, to go on for weeks or years. It was also populated by a large cast of my friends—except that, in the way of dreams, none of these friends was anyone I recognized from real life.These dozen or so friends and I were living on or visiting a subtropical island or peninsula of some sort. We were having a grand time doing incomprehensible things until a giant…

• Book launch party tonight!

  8 Jan 2010 | 1:54 pm

  Just a quick reminder of my book launch party for Cast a Cold Eye, this evening in Chicago. All the event details are here:http://tinyurl.com/coldeyepartyHope to see you there. The nice checkout women at Trader Joe's gave me free flowers for it this morning (I was there buying lots of wine), and it would be a shame for the bouquet to go unappreciated!

• I'm reading with Paul Witcover in NYC on Tuesday

  2 Jan 2010 | 9:04 am

  Hi, NYC friends! Yes, it's a last-minute surprise to me too, but I'll be reading with the excellent Paul Witcover THIS COMING TUESDAY EVENING, January 5th, as part of the New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series at the South Street Seaport Museum. Doors open 6:30 pm, readings begin 7:00 pm. Suggested donation is $5. See below for all the details, and we hope to see you there.Please note, if you haven't been to a NYRSF reading at the Seaport lately, that the location is slightly different than it used to be.... --> The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings and the South…

• Cast a Cold Eye Book Release Party!

  30 Dec 2009 | 7:33 am

  The problem isn't that Luke sees dead people. The problem is that dead people see Luke.CAST A COLD EYE BOOK RELEASE PARTYw/William ShunnFriday, January 8, 20107:00 to 9:00 pmTime and Again1239 W. Cortland St.Chicago, IL 60614site | mapCome out to Time and Again in Chicago to celebrate the hardcover release of Derryl Murphy & William Shunn's new novella Cast a Cold Eye! Mingle with fellow book lovers, browse unique treasures from the era of the story in an elegant setting, and sit back with a glass of wine while William Shunn reads chilling selections from the book. (Readings begin at 7:30…

• Reading at Essay Fiesta, tonight at The Book Cellar

  21 Dec 2009 | 4:51 am

  Come hear me read tonight, Chicago! I'll be one of several writers reading in the new Essay Fiesta series at The Book Cellar in Lincoln Square.Essay Fiesta features writers reading humorous personal essays, and is hosted by Keith Ecker and Alyson Lyon. The event itself is free, but proceeds from a raffle afterward go to benefit the Howard Brown Health Center. Besides me, tonight's readers include Cameron Esposito, Mike O'Connell, John Loos, and John Newton. Should be a lot of fun.The reading starts at 7:00 pm, but since seating is limited I'd suggest arriving before 6:30. Besides its great…

• 
  Douglas Smith

• Publishers Weekly Review of Chimerascope

  Douglas Smith

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:52 pm

  From Publishers Weekly on my collection, Chimerascope: "Smith’s second collection (after 2008’s Impossibilia) delivers an entertaining selection of stories that deftly span multiple genres, often milking surprisingly original tales out of tired tropes. The Zelazny-inspired “The Boys Are Back in Town” nicely toes the line between quirky humor and pathos. “State of Disorder,” featuring a classic mad scientist out for revenge, is a neat twist on time travel and quantum physics. “Jigsaw,” a young adult tale, is a fun romp involving aliens and continental drift. The best of the…

• "Spirit Dance" picked for anthology of Aurora Award winners

  Douglas Smith

  16 Jan 2010 | 8:41 pm

  My story, "Spirit Dance," has been picked for a new anthology from Nanopress entitled The Aurora Awards – Thirty Years of Canadian Science Fiction. Nanopress is a new small press based in Montreal, and their authors include Elizabeth Vonarburg. Looking back, the road for "Spirit Dance" from birth to a "best of" antho seems like a long and strange one. It was the first story I ever wrote and the first I ever sold. It appeared in Tesseracts6 in 1997, was a finalist for the Auroras in English the next year, and snagged an honourable mention for The Year's Best…

• Nomination period for 2010 Aurora Awards now open

  Douglas Smith

  11 Jan 2010 | 12:38 pm

  The nomination period for the 2010 Aurora Awards is now open. Each year, the Auroras recognize the best in Canadian speculative fiction. This year my story "Radio Nowhere" is eligible to be nominated under "Best Short Form Work in English." "Radio Nowhere" appeared in the excellent Canadian anthology, Campus Chills (October 2009), edited by Mark Leslie. While the nomination period is open, I've put the full text of the story online here: Radio Nowhere (full story) Anyone who is a Canadian citizen (not necessarily living in Canada), or a permanent resident may nominate a work for the Auroras.

• Impossibilia in SF Crowsnest's Top 100 SF&F books of 2009

  Douglas Smith

  15 Dec 2009 | 6:29 pm

  Hey cool! My first collection, Impossibilia is currently sitting at #43 on SF Crowsnest's Top 100 SF&F Books of 2009. If you've read Impossibilia and liked it, please scoot over to the list and vote for it. Or for any book on the list that you enjoyed, for that matter--but, uh, mine would be the preferred choice, preferred by me anyway.Read more

• Additional story in hardcover editon of Chimerascope

  Douglas Smith

  12 Dec 2009 | 11:47 am

  If you order the signed, numbered, limited hardcover edition of my new collection, Chimerascope, you'll be getting an additional story that won't be included in the trade paperback editions. ChiZine Publications will be including "Murphy's Law" (reviews | excerpt) in the hardcover. And an order for the hardcover also makes you eligible for the free book giveaway. Hardcover orders must be placed by Dec 31. See my store for ordering info.Read more

• 
  Greg van Eekhout

• On a routine expedition

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:39 pm

  I hated everyone in the coffee joint today, because they were all selfish and obnoxious and also I didn't like them very much. But there's a park a few blocks away, and it's one of my favorite places. The view is nice, but what I love about it is the sound. The beach is covered with smooth, round rocks, and the clatter they make as the waves push them and pull them is strangely beautiful and a little bit eerie. Also, squadrons of pelicans often soar by, and since they look like pteradons, it's totally Land of the Lost.From San Diego 2010 pics

• On tusk

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:14 am

  Writing a scene involving a mammoth herd today.From Last

• Not telling anyone what to do, but ...

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:11 pm

  I sure do like IndieBound, the merchant arm of the non-profit American Booksellers Association, where you can buy books (print and electronic) from indie booksellers and make wish lists and read book reviews and such without fear of getting gobbled by piranhas.(Piranhas? Amazon? GET IT????)

• Trudy's backpack

  31 Jan 2010 | 11:14 am

  Went to kung fu on Thursday. Went to the gym on Friday. Kicking muscles very, very sore. Upper-body weight-bearing muscles, not so much. Conclusion: Blame kung fu. ***Here's another illustration I did for Kid vs. Squid (note: these don't appear in the book). This is Trudy's backpack. Trudy is a resident of Las Huesas, California, a weird California beach town where odd things are happening, largely due to the presence of the Atlanteans who wash up on the beach every summer. Trudy is sort of a self-styled superhero/detective and has stuffed her backpack with useful items, such as donuts and…

• Choir poll results

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:18 am

  Thanks for clicking on my "Are We All in the Choir?" poll yesterday. As it stands now, 73 people voted. Just a hair shy of 85% of you said you write fiction, and 15% of you said you don't. Some of the "don'ts" commented that they used to write fiction but have stopped, and a few who said they write fiction commented that their fiction comes out in screenplays or role-playing games.What I'm taking away from this is confirmation that a huge majority of my LJ friends and readers are writers. So if I were to, say, write something about the Amazon vs. Macmillan elephant fight, most of you would…

• 
  Catherynne M. Valente

• Hearts

  Mercury's Daughter

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:50 am

  Re-posting this because people were asking me if I had one and I did but posted it a few days back. Valentine's Day rules. Anything Chaucer invented rules. Would that make Valentine's Day like...a windmillpunk holiday? Get your own valentinr

• A New Furry Overlord

  Mercury's Daughter

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:36 am

  Hello to an astonishing amount of new people! I have no idea where I got linked, but my inbox was flooded with new adds this morning, so--hi there! Leave a comment, introduce yourself!I assume that most of the traffic is due to the recent gender posts. Well! I don't always post about such weighty issues.Sometimes I post pictures of BRAND NEW KITTENS.See, if you were to go back to that post I made about the things I wanted in life, you would find:12. Own a Maine CoonAnd what's this? I BELIEVE IT IS WIN CONDITION.Yesterday, a rather large furry bundle arrived from…

• Gender Bowl

  Mercury's Daughter

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:43 am

  So the Super Bowl was an amazing, dramatic game with awesome, daring plays and oh my god Saints. But the advertising.Every other ad was about how horrible women are, and how they ruin everything for men, all the time. The Dodge, Flo TV, and Dove ads come to mind--you can only strike out at those evil women if you buy our product and stick it to them! YEAH. How dare women make you go to work and eat fruit and use soap? Those bitches.The rage, the anger toward women was breathtaking. The cold fury of the men in the Dodge commercial might be comic if it weren't kind of serious. Let's not even…

• Titleist

  Mercury's Daughter

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:50 am

  The Prester John books (there are three, like a good Trinity) are going to be bastards for titles on all counts. We're trying to come up with a title for the over-arching series and in time-honored fashion, I thought I'd put up a poll. Here it goes!View Poll: Prester Who?

• Slider, You Stink

  Mercury's Daughter

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:52 am

  So I went to the drug store yesterday because my deodorant is starting to irritate my skin and I needed to switch brands. justbeast  said: "Oooh! I discovered a new kind that doesn't have aluminum in it, but has silver ions instead!"And then he became extra adorable and explained with excitement that this is how you make water holy in Russia, by sticking a silver cross in it, because silver purifies, and even his mom kept a jar of water with silver coins in it in the house and gave it to him to drink when he was sick and he's like a walking novel, this guy. I entertained…

• 
  Greg van Eekhout

• On a routine expedition

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:39 pm

  I hated everyone in the coffee joint today, because they were all selfish and obnoxious and also I didn't like them very much. But there's a park a few blocks away, and it's one of my favorite places. The view is nice, but what I love about it is the sound. The beach is covered with smooth, round rocks, and the clatter they make as the waves push them and pull them is strangely beautiful and a little bit eerie. Also, squadrons of pelicans often soar by, and since they look like pteradons, it's totally Land of the Lost.From San Diego 2010 pics

• On tusk

  1 Feb 2010 | 11:14 am

  Writing a scene involving a mammoth herd today.From Last

• Not telling anyone what to do, but ...

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:11 pm

  I sure do like IndieBound, the merchant arm of the non-profit American Booksellers Association, where you can buy books (print and electronic) from indie booksellers and make wish lists and read book reviews and such without fear of getting gobbled by piranhas.(Piranhas? Amazon? GET IT????)

• Trudy's backpack

  31 Jan 2010 | 11:14 am

  Went to kung fu on Thursday. Went to the gym on Friday. Kicking muscles very, very sore. Upper-body weight-bearing muscles, not so much. Conclusion: Blame kung fu. ***Here's another illustration I did for Kid vs. Squid (note: these don't appear in the book). This is Trudy's backpack. Trudy is a resident of Las Huesas, California, a weird California beach town where odd things are happening, largely due to the presence of the Atlanteans who wash up on the beach every summer. Trudy is sort of a self-styled superhero/detective and has stuffed her backpack with useful items, such as donuts and…

• Choir poll results

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:18 am

  Thanks for clicking on my "Are We All in the Choir?" poll yesterday. As it stands now, 73 people voted. Just a hair shy of 85% of you said you write fiction, and 15% of you said you don't. Some of the "don'ts" commented that they used to write fiction but have stopped, and a few who said they write fiction commented that their fiction comes out in screenplays or role-playing games.What I'm taking away from this is confirmation that a huge majority of my LJ friends and readers are writers. So if I were to, say, write something about the Amazon vs. Macmillan elephant fight, most of you would…

• 
  Jeff VanderMeer

• Steampunk Reloaded: One Week Left

  Jeff VanderMeer

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:00 am

  I thought I’d just re-post the Steampunk Reloaded anthology guidelines below. We’ve had a really good response so far and have taken several reprint stories submitted during this open reading period. But there’re only a few days left. Please note that it’s probably a little too late to send us a snail mail submission–would rather see only e-submissions at this point. Ann and I are both excited about the stories we’ve taken, and about the anthology as a whole. STEAMPUNK RELOADED, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer and to be published in fall 2010 by Tachyon…

• Everything, Interwoven Together, From Everywhere

  Jeff VanderMeer

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:05 am

  Ann and I had a wonderful weekend at St. George Island, much of which consisted of sitting at the Blue Parrot and sipping margaritas whilst reading for various projects, including the humungous book of weird fiction. In reading the excellent Foundations of Fear edited by David Hartwell, we were curious to discover the presence of either the word “onion” or “opinions” in Clive Barker’s “In the Hills, the Cities”–and simultaneous with that impulse a guy asked us what we were reading, and it turned out in the 1960s and 1970s he’d known Damon…

• Having a Tea Party in Reality Land

  Jeff VanderMeer

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:40 am

  So, some people are having a tea party in Washington D.C. this weekend. It’s very much like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. There are many participants who seem to share genes with the Mad Hatter. Unlike with Alice’s tea party, though, the surreal absurdity on display isn’t harmless. In tough economic times, the potential rise of a far-right political movement—especially one based on lies and on simplifications—is cause for concern. It shifts the consensus reality just a little farther toward the conditions whereby a free state (albeit one beset by…

• The Quickening

  Jeff VanderMeer

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:29 pm

  In the old, tattered photo Sensio has been dressed in a peach-colored prisoner’s uniform made out of discarded tarp and then tied to a small post that Aunt Etta made me hammer into the ground. Sensio’s long white ears are slanted back behind his head. His front legs, trapped by the crude arm holes, hang stiff at a forward angle. The absurdly large hind feet with the shadows for claws are, perhaps, the most monstrous part of Sensio—the way they seem to suddenly shoot from the peach-colored trousers, in a parody of arrested speed. The look on Sensio’s face—the large, almond-shaped…

• Weird

  Jeff VanderMeer

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:16 am

  Just a fraction of our library of strange short fiction–there’re another ten to fifteen shelves not shown. Ann and I are beginning to read for a “big book of weird” we’re editing for Grove Atlantic. It’ll be 750,000 words, covering 100 years. To be published in November.

• 
  Edd Vick

• Books Gone Bad

  eddvick

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:19 am

  My latest story for the Daily Cabal has hair!

• Air Penguin

  eddvick

  2 Feb 2010 | 12:10 pm

  I'll take a dozen!Via pgdf.

• I have a joke for you...

  eddvick

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:40 am

  Happy Groundhog Day!Happy Groundhog Day!Happy Groundhog Day!Happy Groundhog Day!Happy Groundhog Day!Happy Groundhog Day!

• I want my real car to do that, only with me not inside

  eddvick

  27 Jan 2010 | 10:51 am

  New Hot Wheels cars come folded flat. At the touch of a remote control, they unfold and are ready to drive.Via.

• Protagonisty

  eddvick

  22 Jan 2010 | 11:12 am

  David Levine learns a powerful lesson in writing from his stay on Mars.

• 
  S. L. Viehl

• Don't What?

  Lynn Viehl

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Over the years I've been slowly building a nice collection of reference books on quilts and quilting, one I've asked the kids to donate to a public school or place of free learning if they don't want to keep them after I'm gone. My favorites are the books about crazy quilts, because to me they are the elegant renegades of the quilting universe, and probably the most artistic of all quilts.The needlework involved in crazy quilting is advanced and quite extensive; a master crazy quilter can use hundreds of different stitches on the surface of her quilt and never repeat any of the stitch…

• I Heart You Ten

  Lynn Viehl

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Ten Things to Do for Your Valentine(that won't cost you an arm & leg)Auld Lang Snapshot: You've probably got an unused photo album around the house, but you can also pick up a little brag-book album at practically any dollar store. Go through all your pics of you and your darling and make copies of the ones you like best. Write a caption (this can be the date, something funny, or how the picture makes you feel) under each one, put them in the photo album in chronological order, and make the last picture the one you like best along with the caption Happy Valentine's Day.Bath for Two: Set up…

• Arguing with Fortunes

  Lynn Viehl

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Do you ever argue with Chinese fortune cookies? I do, all the time. Here are the ones that came with our last take-out order:Or a warm smile is testimony to the amount of personal pleasure the owner is going to take in screwing you over. The trouble is, they look exactly the same.To forgive others one more time means you didn't learn from the first time you had to forgive them, stupid.You're feeling the need to think longer-term, and you're a writer? Baby, are you in the wrong business.A dream will always triumph over reality, given enough wine, valium or other mind-altering substance.

• Winners

  Lynn Viehl

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:15 pm

  You all mentioned lots of excellent reads for this last giveaway; my BAM shopping list is now two pages long. Thanks to author Larissa Ione for stopping in, too; you made me get all sniffley here. We cranked up the magic hat, and the winners of the Demons and Angels giveaway are:SandyH, who got involved in Duke of Shadows by Meredith DuranAnne Velosa, who needs a new book for her TBRPat L., who couldn't put down Robyn Carr's Forbidden FallsDeeCee, who refused to quit reading A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair.Ilona, who would not set aside Fire by Kirsten CashoreWinners, when you have a…

• CLGs

  Lynn Viehl

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  My quilting guild recently offered a member challenge that really got me where I quilt: finishing and/or selling a project we don't want to part with, aka a CLG (Can't Let Go.)Among my guild, a CLG is usually a large work-intensive project (like a hand-quilted king-size bed quilt), or an especially hideous one (think a hot pink and electric blue tumbling block baby quilt. With Hello Kitty and Bob the Builder embroidery.) Sometimes it's both. Often they come from wonderful ideas that burn so hot they quickly fizzle out (other guilds call such pieces UFOs, but while you can give up a UFO, you…

• 
  Jo Walton

• Saturday breakfast at Boskone

  Jo Walton

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:58 am

  I remember from last year that the hotel breakfast buffet in the Westin is very expensive and full of peppers, so since I'm coming in a car I was thinking about bringing some things from home for breakfast on Saturday. I can't bring meat or fruit, but I could bring bread and croissants and cheese.Would anyone be interested in meeting up for a potluck breakfast on Saturday morning at 08h30 in the Con Suite?

• Rare and exciting card games being auctioned for a good cause

  Jo Walton

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:22 am

  On helptheproject, tool_of_satan is auctioning a set of my storytelling card games to raise money for a good cause. These cards were all beautifully hand-designed by me and carandol in an ancient DOS desk-top publishing program called Avagio, and printed out on a state-of-the-art in 1991 200 DPI printer on thin card stock. They all play the same -- you deal six cards each. The cards have little phrases written on them. You select one from your hand to be your "ending" card to which you try to guide the story. Then you tell a round robin story, each person in turn using one of their cards, and…

• Some actual information about e-books

  Jo Walton

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:32 am

  Farthing was released as a free e-book to promote Tor.com. It did indeed promote Tor.com, which is a successful site and pays me to read books, what more could anybody want? I'm not at all sorry I agreed to do it. But people say (loudly and frequently) that giving away free e-books of the first in a series drives sales of the rest of the series. This turns out not to be the case. As of my November royalty statement, sales of Farthing are almost twice as high as sales of Ha'Penny. Indeed, sales of Ha'Penny in paperback were sufficiently low that Tor haven't wanted to risk a paperback of Half a…

• Sunday morning coming down

  Jo Walton

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:03 am

  Thanks for all the responses and comments to the cake poll. I feel much more confident about what I'm doing now.In other news, yesterday when I got off the bus I felt the fire sun. You have to understand that we have a binary sun system here, much like Hello Summer, Goodbye only slightly less extreme. In summer, we circle a sun made of fire, and in winter, one made of ice. The ice sun is just as bright and shines from a blue blue sky, but emits cold instead of heat. But yesterday, when I got off the bus, for just a second there was no wind and I felt the warmth of the fire sun on my right…

• papersky @ 2010-02-06T09:58:00

  Jo Walton

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:58 am

  View Poll: What should I make for the Boskone Bakesale

• 
  Dayton Ward

• TwitterLitter.

  Dayton Ward

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:10 pm

  Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.08:27 Happy Monday, peeps. To all my friends in the snow-packed East, safe journeys if you have to venture out to work or school today. # 08:30 @KrisKetz Re: 31st & Troost - Happenin' locale today, it seems. # 08:31 @overlordspock Re: the Who - Yeah, they're definitely showing age, but still better than some boy band or American Idol runner up. # 09:08 @jendaby Re: Football. Congratulations! You've taken your first steps into a larger world. :) # 11:15 On the list of things I need to see, a John Edwards sex tape is way down there,…

• I love John Scalzi, and so should you.

  Dayton Ward

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:24 pm

  I think I'm developing a certifiable, raging case of man-crush for John Scalzi.Like many folks, I first heard of him from his award-winning science fiction novel Old Man's War. Once I read that, I learned about all the other stuff he'd written by that point, and that he also had and continues to have a blog that he started in 1998, where he writes about, well, Whatever strikes his fancy on any given day. Since first reading OMW, I've read the other books in that series as well as Agent to the Stars and a few other things here and there. His blog remains required reading for me several times a…

• TwitterLitter.

  Dayton Ward

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:55 pm

  Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.08:06 @Kwamster Re: Snow - If six hours of shoveling didn't limber you up, it might be time for a new spine. Just sayin'. # 08:08 That hurts just to see. RT @jvergara RT @angelchrys: If your jeans are this tight, you need new jeans: tweetphoto.com/10657495 # 08:10 Palin addresses 600 people in Tennessee and folks think it's Armageddon. Folks, my high school graduating class had more than that. Chill. # 08:11 @jvergara If he's not, he should be. # 10:50 On the blog: Star Trek Magazine #24, and all the Klingon and @trekonlinegame…

• Star Trek Magazine #24

  Dayton Ward

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am

  A walk to the mailbox reveals the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine waiting for me. This issue is chock full of Klingons as well as a tasty, in-depth look at the new Star Trek Online game from Cryptic Studios!Several contributions were supplied by various cohorts from the Star Trek fiction cabal, namely:William Leisner (bill_leisner), examining a side of the Klingons that isn't often thought about - their cultural heritage. Lawrence M. Schoen (klingonguy), explaining the benefits of learning Star Trek's own language.David A. McIntee (lonemagpie), assessing just how useful the Klingon…

• TwitterLitter.

  Dayton Ward

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:55 pm

  Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.11:50 RT @OneCoolTribble: The Earthers like these fuzzy things, don't they? twitpic.com/wd8sq # 14:33 I have a follower from Yellowknife, Canada. That's frikkin' awesome. # 14:39 Since @kevindilmore and I are hanging at Stately Ward Manor today, now would seem to be a good time for "Ask Dayton & Kevin." Hit us! # 14:53 "How far from YOUR Batcave to Gotham C?" (via @larrynemecek). 20 mins, with traffic. 2 hrs, if we stop at Hooters for lunch. # 15:14 RT @Kwamster This shoveling shit is like slavery ... with hot chocolate at the end.

• 
  Martha Wells

• 9 Feb 2010 | 6:55 am

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:55 am

  Another neat thing about AggieCon this year was the number of hall costumes. There was a Zombie theme, and a few people came with great Zombie outfits. One of the artists was also doing Zombie face painting Saturday night, so that was very neat. A few people had steampunk outfits with goggles and gadgets, and Saturday night there was also a workshop on SF/F fashion and a workshop for decorating tiny little hats. So by later that night, everybody was stylin'.Convention Links:Patrice Sarath's AggieCon ReviewJayme Blaschke's AggieCon report plus photos from Lisa on Location.A link sent to me by…

• AggieCon Reprise

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:08 pm

  I was really, really glad to see AggieCon come back strong this year because, for one thing, it's always been an important con for young fans in this area. I was 23 when I was AggieCon chairman, and about 95% of the committee (which back then was probably around 75 people) were my age or a couple of years older or younger. Most of the people running AggieCon this year weren't born, or were maybe a few years old, when I was chairman. AggieCon committee members have gone on to work on ArmadilloCon, and the San Antonio Worldcon, and a lot of the other newer cons in Texas; it was AggieCon members…

• 8 Feb 2010 | 10:01 am

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:01 am

  Just a quick note: I found out yesterday that Phil Klass (William Tenn) passed away. The first time I heard him speak was at the Nebula Awards ceremony in 1999 where The Death of the Necromancer was on the ballot, and a few years later in 2004 I sat next to him on a panel at the Boston WorldCon, where he was charming and wonderful to listen to and very nice to me. I wish I'd had many more opportunities to hear him speak.***I'm going to try to do more of a con report later, but in short, AggieCon was awesome and I am stunned with tiredness. I'm just glad the con was held about five minutes…

• AggieCon in progress

  7 Feb 2010 | 7:10 am

  That's me at AggieCon yesterday, doing my special guest reading/question and answer thing in the very large meeting room at the hotel.The con has been really great. This year the con had to move from the Memorial Student Center/Rudder Theater Complex to the Hilton hotel, since the MSC is being remodeled and is completely shut down. I think the involuntary change of venue has really helped it in some ways. When the movie program was at its height, and there were between 1500 and 2000 people coming in every evening to see movies in Rudder Auditorium, the con really needed all the space and big…

• 5 Feb 2010 | 6:56 am

  5 Feb 2010 | 6:56 am

  An addition to my AggieCon schedule: I'll be doing an autographing Saturday, at 11:00 am. But you can ask for me to sign your books after my reading/q&a program at noon, or catch me after a panel, or whenever.I've put a signed hardcover copy of The Death of the Necromancer up for auction in the helptheproject community over there, to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project. There are lots of other wonderful things up for auction. Stories, pottery, autographed books, seductive European cookies, pie in a jar. If I had any spare money, I would be all over the pie in a jar.Links:A neat website on…

• 
  Dave Williams

• The Book of Eli

  davejwilliams

  19 Jan 2010 | 7:25 am

  Post-apocalyptic movies are all about how far after the apocalypse you set your story.  Thirty years after “the war tore a hole in the sky”, we’ve got Book of Eli; in Mad Max terms, that puts it into the Beyond Thunderdome epoch, where basically everybody’s on foot and only a few rich fucks have any gasoline left at all.  But whereas Mad Max was over the top and in-your-face, Book of Eli is stripped down to the bare essentials.  The opening sequence is wordless, chilling, gorgeous.  The cinematography is astounding, and the ambient soundtrack pays dividends…

• Secret Autumn Rain websites revealed!

  davejwilliams

  13 Jan 2010 | 8:04 am

  Well, the cat’s out of the bag now, per my post in Jeff Vandermeer’s Booklife yesterday, which revealed the existence of sites like this one.  Tune in before they cart the whole thing off to Area 51 for further tests. Originally published at autumnrain2110.com . You can comment here or there.

• Predictions for 2010

  davejwilliams

  3 Jan 2010 | 12:34 pm

  Happy new year, folks. When the ball dropped, I was way off the grid: standing in the middle of a field in the foothills of the Appalachians, listening to shotgun blasts echo across the valleys as the locals celebrated the new decade and I mulled over what its first year might have in store. Most of my predictions are fairly pessimistic.  I can’t help that.  Anyone who’s not pessimistic right now about the short to middle term is deluding themselves; indeed, I think that Barbara Ehrenreich is correct that the cult of positive thinking is a large part of the reason we’re in…

• On the Hot List

  davejwilliams

  28 Dec 2009 | 6:45 am

  Pat over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has released his end-of-the-year Hotties, of which BURNING SKIES clocks in at #14. As if that weren’t enough, he’s also tied me with the formidable Jeff Somers for “most improved author” . . . . though last year he had MIRRORED HEAVENS at #20, so said improvement does not mean you get to ignore the earlier portion of my oeuvre, which remains as packed with hijacked maglev trains as ever.  Meanwhile, I’m off to relish my hawtness. Originally published at autumnrain2110.com . You can comment here or there.

• Audio of last week’s appearance on the Ed Morrissey show

  davejwilliams

  23 Dec 2009 | 9:50 am

  Here’s the tape of my appearance last week on the Ed Morrissey show, in which I discuss the next generation of warfare, as outlined in this essay (not to mention my books).  My part begins at 31:53. Shortly after that, feline infiltrator Captain Zoom manages to get into the room and wreak havoc, knocking over half the shit on my desk in the process.  As you’ll hear, Ed was quite gracious about the whole thing, and the dreaded “Zoomerang” failed to stop us from having a great discussion. Originally published at autumnrain2110.com . You can comment here or there.

• 
  Lynda Williams

• Updates

  Lynda

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:32 am

  Slow progress continues with Opus 4. Production date for Opus 4 and Opus 5 is summer 2010. Dreadful long delay getting these two anthologies into production! Partly due to my change in job, partly to changes at Absolute XPress, and partly due to my preoccupation with getting Part 6 and Part 7 of the saga written. Determined to see the anthologies in print this summer. I am very fond of some of the stories, and committed to all of them. Summer is the production slot available with Absolute XPress and David Lott is helping me with contracts and managing payments once the contracts are done.

• Book Pleasures 2006 Review Lappen

  Lynda

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:02 pm

  Found a 2006 review of Courtesan Prince that showed up on a site called bookpleasures. Click the image or title to visit.Paul concludes with: "This is a good piece of society-building. Since this is not the usual sort ofnew world, this novel will require some patience on the part of the reader (ittakes a while to get going). It is also the first of a projected ten-bookseries. It's very much worth reading."The Okal Rel Universe is a science fiction phenomenon related to the ten novel series in progress called the Okal Rel Saga by author Lynda Williams published by Edge Science Fiction and…

• Weekly Newsletter of Cutbanks

  Lynda

  1 Feb 2010 | 7:44 pm

  Okal Rel ads featuring Angela's trivia questions appear in the online version of Tyler Clarke's Cutbanks - the Cutbanks Weekly Newsletter.The Okal Rel Universe is a science fiction phenomenon related to the ten novel series in progress called the Okal Rel Saga by author Lynda Williams published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

• Westercon in 2012

  Lynda

  24 Jan 2010 | 8:03 pm

  Joined the group in support of Bobbie DuFault's bid to have Westercon in Seattle WA in 2012. Bobbie is a masterful con organizer and one of the people I am very proud to have among the readers and supporters of the Okal Rel Universe. I have her permission to share the recent e-mail exchange between us, below.I would love to have you at a Westercon here and I think it would be even more cool to talk about the Saga and all the things you have done with it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the books and world - ok you knew that, but I think sharing it is great fun!!Hugs!Bobbie(The above was sent in response to…

• Neo-Opsis sample

  Lynda

  21 Jan 2010 | 7:10 am

  Magazines Canada has a PDF sample of the non-fiction content of issue 16 ofNeo-opsis. http://secure.magazinescanada.ca/magazines/ex111.pdf (This is oneof the 2009 issues.)A fair number of SF Canada members are mentioned, or have their photo, inthis issue.Karl JohansonThe Okal Rel Universe is a science fiction phenomenon related to the ten novel series in progress called the Okal Rel Saga by author Lynda Williams published by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

• 
  From the Horse's Mouth

• Happy Birthdate Dear Country

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:44 am

  Such excellent news! In a previous post I lamented the deplorable lack of a national birth date of the Netherlands. Three years later, the news reports that our former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers has been asked to lead the celebrations of our country’s Bicentennial in a few years. Not only is it obvious that my blog about the issue has made its way to our Head of State, Queen Beatrix; she obviously has taken my recommendation about the birthdate of the nation to heart, even including the confusion about what date it should be: the celebrations will be held somewhere between 2013 and 2015.

• Let’s See What’s Behind Door …

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:36 am

  I just love game theory. In the final play of a popular Dutch quiz, the remaining candidate is presented with three doors. Behind one of the doors is the Grand Prize. The candidate picks a door. Something happens. The chosen door opens. The Grand Prize is there, or it is not. Few quiz games are more brainless than this*. In fact, both the quiz and the quizmaster were discontinued** decennia back. But the probability calculus mysteries surrounding this straightforward three-way split prompt fierce discussions to this day, sometimes even leading to fights and lifelong feuds. All because of the…

• Miss Noordje 2008

  16 Jan 2010 | 1:50 am

  For reasons beyond my understanding, my niece Nina did not win the title of Miss Noordje 2008 with her ode to growing up in Amsterdam-Noord. music: Tjeerd Oosterhuis, words: Jeroen kleijne

• Somebodies Out There Like Me

  2 Jan 2010 | 10:29 am

  Or at least my stories. In fairly close succession, Deep red ended up in first place in David Steffen’s Best of Pseudopod listing, and Belgian SF fan Hans de Bie enthused wildly about Diamond Sharks (here) and Beans and Marbles (here) in his two AnthologyBuilder reviews. Thanks, guys!

• Dumb Son on Podcast!

  29 Nov 2009 | 6:49 am

  For the price of two empty liter bottles of Coke, my story Dumb Son (TSFKATT, or the story formerly known as Toby’s Trophies) is available for podcast download from Sniplits. Listen to the tale of sweet, mentally challenged Toby, his fascination with pretty coke bottles and human bones, his taste for the dumpling things you can get at the Chinese place, and his confrontation with a very angry man who wants his trophies back.

• 
  All quiet in France

• A small rant

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:10 pm

  And while we’re on the subject of writing in other cultures…. Dear Interwebs (and dear writers/editors/journalists), If you’re going to be using or quoting French words, would you please try to get the accents right? It may not seem like much to you, but witness: -”côte”=slope; “cot“=side -”mat”=matte, Fool trump in tarot; “mt”=mast -”pâte”=dough, “pât“=spreadable paste made with meat, “pate”= a word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary (though “patte” does) I can deal…

• Your obsidian and blood post

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

  Er, wow. Lateral Books reviews Servant of the Underworld here: I was totally knocked over by her deft use of Aztec history and legend to totally rivet me from the opening to the end. It has a fresh and unique feel which is very hard to describe. (…) None of this, however, was the most exciting thing about this book. No, that belonged to the very first page. Where, in the title of the book, it says, Obsidian and Blood – Vol. 1. Vol. 1. That means there’s gonna be more. Thankyou, Angry Robot. They’ve done a great job in unearthing some of the most exciting books of last year, and no…

• Writing cultures: insider vs. outsider

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:26 am

  So, I came back from Vietnam recently; and one of the things that happened was sitting on the sofa and trying to explain stuff to the BF–and seeing how it all came together (or not) for him. That in turn made me think of an exercise I’ve attempted several times now, which is writing stories set in France for the benefit of an Anglophone audience–and of how this didn’t quite pan out the way I’d thought it would. It’s a very different exercise from writing in a culture not related to me, such as the Aztecs (I’ll leave aside China, which is a little more…

• Cultural dissonances

  3 Feb 2010 | 11:48 am

  A brief summary of the Vietnam trip (in terms of what struck me–mostly very shallow. The mindset stuff is going to take more time to process): -Traffic: definitely… different. Circulation is mostly made up of scooters (those cost twenty times less than a car, and consume less fuel), since public transport isn’t very developped or reliable. The scooters are very much family transports, with two adults and a bunch of children on them (I was told you could pile up more people than two adults and two children, but have not personally seen it). It’s also illuminating to see…

• Your semi-daily Vietnam pictures

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:43 am

  Aaand the very last round: Mekong Delta near Can Tho Floating Market near Can Tho (aka get your morning soup) Floating Market near Can Tho (aka vegetables in spades) There was, as it turned out, Internet connection in the Mekong delta, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I’d left the laptop at my grandma’s house… Cross-posted from Aliette de Bodard Leave a comment at original post, or comment here.

• 
  Frothing at the Mouth

• Zen Cart Progress

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:29 am

  I have tried twice in the past to install Zen Cart. During yesterday's install, I remembered why it was unsuccessful in the past. At one point, there are files that need to be made read-only. I know how to do that, but I could never access the UNIX command line to do it. Yesterday, I managed to get into an ugly and clumsy GUI interface that allowed me to do the same thing. Not my preferred way of handling it, but it worked.Now, I'm faced with the daunting task of setting up the store. It is not intuitive, and there are literally scores of settings. I installed with the demo merchandise, which…

• Digitized Future

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:09 am

  Since my meeting with Michael A. Stackpole last friday, digital publishing has been more and more on my mind. I'm in the planning stages of setting up a storefront on www.ricknovy.com. Since there seems to be growing interest in this area, I'll be documenting the experience here for other writers who want to do the same thing. It will leave a trail of bread crumbs for anyone interested in following.Today's task: Install Zen Cart.www.ricknovy.com

• RiNoWriMo a Bust

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:53 pm

  Bad bad weekend for productivity. Weekends are very difficult to use for writing. Distractions, tasks, and more distractions abound. So, not surprisingly, I have totally fallen off the RiNoWriMo wagon. I'm now hopelessly behind.So, how to go forward? Actually, it isn't as bad as it seems. Although I haven't put any new words down since I finished the short story for the Aether Age anthology, I have been thinking about a lot of writing-related activity. Much of that is on the reinvention side.I've been formulating a plan to digitally self-publish all my previously-released short fiction and…

• RiNoWriMo - Day 5

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:20 pm

  Despite this being RiNoWriMo day 5, I did not generate any new word count today. That doesn't mean that I didn't get anything meaningful in terms of writing accomplished. I spent a good hour or so with Michael A. Stackpole discussing digital publishing. For those not familiar with his model, Stackpole uses digital self-publishing as a significant part of his writing distribution portfolio. This is in addition to anything he sells in the traditional manner, and it has provided very good returns for him. He is one of the vanguard authors in this respect and quickly becoming a recognized expert…

• RiNoWriMo - Day 4

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:08 pm

  Ok, so this is not going as well as I had hoped, but I am still making progress and that's a change over last month. Several unusual situations are competing for my time, but I did manage to complete the draft of the Aether Age story today. It finished up at around 4600 words. I'll go over it again tomorrow and do some touch-up. In my defense, it's difficult for me to finish one project then jump immediately into another one. I usually have at least one down day between projects. That's one reason why I tend to write long fiction faster. For some reason, I have always worked faster on long…

• 
  Mostly English

• Just shoot me!

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:07 am

  I think my head may explode!I just received an email from the printer that the price they quoted me for books with a 6" x 9" trim size will actually be trimmed at 5.75" x 8.75" (at no extra cost to me) in order to save them money and paper, and that if I want the actual trim size from the quote the price is actually about 175% of the original quote.EXCUSE ME?????????I phoned, left an angry message, and the statement that I hope I misunderstood their email because their new development is unacceptable. Ahem.

• RIP Phillip Klass

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:38 pm

  SFWA is reporting that William Tenn (aka Phillip Klass) has died.I first met him at the Nebs in 1999 when he was named Author Emeritus, and had the great privilege of sitting and chatting with him at conventions for almost every year after. The man told wonderful stories of the glory days of SF (his tales of Elrond Hubbard alone could make your eyes pop!). And now, those stories are gone. A moment of silence please, for a fine story teller. Thanks, Phil.

• Why am I still awake?

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:06 pm

  It's three hours past my usual bedtime, but I can't seem to sleep. And I had some exercise today (two rounds of shoveling snow -- sans back pain, thank you very much).Any volunteers to come and whack me on the head? Line forms to the left.

• No Chinese Buffet Today

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:09 am

  The title says it all, and it's the worst thing about today's weather.I'm not sure how much snow we've gotten so far, but I'd have to guess somewhere between six and eight inches. I shoveled the walkway at about 7:00 a.m., but it's all filled in again. No sign of the plow-people coming by to plow our driveway yet. I'm a bit depressed because I am expecting many many packages in the mail (last weekend, while Amazon was screwing authors over, I self-medicated by buying used books at abebooks.com and they should have begun trickling in by now, but haven't, so I've convinced myself they'll all…

• Goodbye Back Pain!

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:38 am

  On Tuesday my wife couldn't come to pilates so I went by myself. While there, I was discussing with the instructor a second element of the "core" that I had noticed at the prior session, which led me to ask what the other elements might be. We went through them (apparently there are four) and they all fell into place for me. It was so odd. I felt like I had an entirely different physique. I was having an out of body experience in my own body!When I stood up, I had a completely different posture. Everything was properly supported like it had never been before. I felt like I was a gymnast (but…

• 
  Thus Sayeth the Lord

• IGMS Livejournal

  21 Jan 2010 | 6:27 pm

  Originally posted at Thus Sayeth the Lord...FYI, Intergalactic Medicine Show now has a presence on Livejournal– http://igms.livejournal.com/

• All I Want for Christmas

  19 Dec 2009 | 12:34 pm

  Originally posted at Thus Sayeth the Lord...World peace, end of poverty, reduced carbon emissions, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah… Now for the stuff that I *really* want, deep down in my apologetic consumerist, American capitalist, covetous heart. Game About eleven months ago, as I was taking the pony I was given for Christmas 2008 to the glue factory, I was thinking, “Gee.  A board game is very different than a pony.  A board game would fit much more easily in the basement.  A board game would not require feeding, nor would it require a shovel for the post-feeding exhibition.  A board game…

• Nebula Eligible Short Story

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:12 am

  Originally posted at Thus Sayeth the Lord...FYI, my short story, End of the World Pool, published in May in Intergalactic Medicine Show, is eligible for the Nebula. If you’re a SFWA member, PLEASE nominate and vote for me! How’s that for self-promotion?  Straight forward, honest, and short.  I think I violated a rule or something.

• I’m a Carny…

  2 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am

  Originally posted at Thus Sayeth the Lord...New Assistant Editors to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. Toward that end, I have hired Scott Roberts for one of the assistant editor positions. His primary responsibilities will be setting up and maintaining an IGMS Facebook page, maintaining the IGMS blog, being active in the IGMS forum, and of course reading some of the submissions. Scott is a Writer’s of the Future winner, having attended their workshop and been published in their annual anthology. He is also a graduate of Uncle Orson’s Literary Boot Camp and has…

• Science Fiction Writers Can’t Win

  7 Oct 2009 | 11:22 am

  Originally posted at Thus Sayeth the Lord... Linkfind from Ellen Datlow and Jay Lake. The gist of the article is some Sci-fi ghetto rumbling about how the genre gets no respect from the literati who use genre conventions in their literary masterpieces.  Margaret Atwood: “Science fiction is rockets, chemicals and talking squids in outer space,” Well…sure it is. Here’s where I diverge from the expected path that some other genre authors/editors are taking: I’m not outraged.  Sure, it’d be nice to have the Establishment’s respect.  Everyone wants to be…

• 
  Cat Rambo

• Throwing Things Away

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:54 am

  I keep trying to clear things out of this place, before the clutter achieves sentiency and kills us in our sleep in order to take possession of the condo. With mixed results - I do manage to get the occasional boxload of books off to the Women's Prison Book Project, or a bag or two to Goodwill. But some things I have a hard time parting with because I feel they deserve a good home. I have one such thing on my desk, a Folkwear pattern for a Kinsale cloak. I have had this, literally, since the early 80s, and kept meaning to make it but never have. If you think you would, drop me a note in…

• Writing Backwards

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:46 am

   I wanted to pass this along for fellow writing peeps in Seattle. It's a class called "Writing Backwards in the Year 2010", taking place on 2/14 (yeah, I know it's Valentine's Day, Wayne and I are planning on celebrating this weekend instead and avoiding the restaurant crowds). The teacher is Walter Jon Williams, who is wise in the ways of writing and should present an excellent workshop.

• Things I Tweeted Today

  31 Jan 2010 | 12:03 am

  Today I used my bandwidth to say:15:24 Headed to the SF Shorts Fest, anyone else going? # 18:51 Now being disgraceful and skipping the second half in favor of the oh so aptly named Fatburger. #Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• Things I Tweeted Today

  30 Jan 2010 | 12:03 am

  Today I used my bandwidth to say: 11:08 Apologies for spam but I want to publicize tonight's reading! (this should be last time) www.rasp.cc/ #Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• Things I Tweeted Today

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:04 am

  Today I used my bandwidth to say:08:52 It's a good day when it starts with a new Spiffworld video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDiB4b1wRiw&feature=sdig&et=1264578684.9 # 10:16 Ha! This was many Christmases ago: bigother.com/2010/01/27/look-at-this-fucking-writer-cat-rambo/ # 11:35 WisCon ticket ordered! Debating whether to get a solo room or look for a roommate. #Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

• 
  Discombobulated Pensivity in the Double-Wide of Life

• And Now Something for My Spanish Friends....

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am

  Over here you can see the cover for the Spanish version of Lamentation.  And you can read about it here.So in March, I debut in Spain.  In May, it's France.  Somewhere in my piles of email, I have dates for the German and Russian versions.  But if any of you reading this know those dates off the top of your head or have run across promotional posts about them, please feel free to post in comments.Fingers crossed that the books find warm welcomes in those respective places.Oh, and have you bought a copy of Lamentation yet for that friend of yours?  I know you…

• Très Intéressant!

  2 Feb 2010 | 3:32 pm

  Trailer Boy reporting live from my lunch room where I'm enjoying a late but tasty bite.  I had some interesting stuff to post.For all my French-speaking fans and friends, you can see the first episode of Fantasy Tavern, where Bragelonne's very own Stephane Marsan talks about Lamentation (among other things) over here.   Bonus Cool Points to those of you who want to show off your linguistic skills by translating snippets of his discussion of the book into the comments thread!  Big thanks to Jessica for sending this along.  I'm really excited that they're so excited…

• Table of Contents for Diving Mimes!

  28 Jan 2010 | 7:01 pm

  So for those of you who like my short fiction -- or who've only experienced the novels and want to try the short fiction.... You'll be pleased to know that my follow-up collection, DIVING MIMES, WEEPING CZARS AND OTHER UNUSUAL SUSPECTS, will be out in July from Fairwood Press.  My first collection, LONG WALKS, LAST FLIGHTS AND OTHER STRANGE JOURNEYS, was a finalist for the Endeavour Award, losing to the Gracious and Mightily Talented David Levine.This second collection gathers up some of my latest along with some of the earlier work that didn't make it into the first…

• Aw Shucks.

  26 Jan 2010 | 2:27 pm

  I see this is out on the web now.  And you can see my Dear Friend And Occasional Booze-Shopping Companion gailcarriger 's promo here with the Infamous Jeff Vandermeer and Lovely Locus Fran discussing the merits of octupi.Pixel did a good job on this.  It was a fun experience hanging out with them.In other news, I'm still sick but the story muscle is starting to work again.  The front end of Requiem is starting to play out and I'm looking forward to getting back to it.

• More Recognition for Lamentation....

  18 Jan 2010 | 3:40 am

  After a fabulous trip (though sick) to the beach with jens_fire  and a solid night of sleep, I awoke to good news via one of my Google Search Agents.  I seem to have won an award -- my first since Writers of the Future.You can read about that over here.  I look at the other titles and authors on the short list and I'm humbled.  I am grateful to the folks on the Reading List Council and members of the Reference and Users Services Association for this honor.  I'm glad my first paper child is doing so well in the world.Big thanks to Aimee and Elyn for…

• 
  Princess Alethea Kontis

• Brought To You By The Letter A

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:48 am

  I often get asked where I got the inspiration for AlphaOops. It’s true, it did really come out of a discussion at Orson Scott Card’s Boot Camp, but the seed of the idea has been germinating inside me all my life. If your name starts with “A”, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Those of us whose names start with “A” get special privileges. We get to be first in line. We get picked first to give our reports in school. We’re not shelved first in the bookstore, but that’s okay, because we get called first when the one we ordered comes…

• Dark Futures TOC

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:13 pm

  Nice! “Black Hole Sun” by Alethea Kontis & Kelli Dunlap “For Restful Death I Cry” by Geoffrey Girard “Tasting Green Grass” by Elaine Blose “Endangered” by Robby Sparks “Nostalgia” by Gene O’Neill “Beautiful Girl” by Angeline Hawkes “Father’s Flesh, Mother’s Blood” by Aliette De Bodard “Terra Tango 3″ by James Reilly “Love Kills” by Gill Ainsworth “Memories of Hope City” by Maggie Jamison “Do You Want That in Blonde, Brunette, or Auburn” by Glenn Lewis Gillette “Marketing Proposal” by Sarah M. Harvey “The Monastery of the Seven…

• Nana’s Little Angel

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:28 am

  My Nana always called my sister “Sweetie Pie.” I was “Angel Cakes.” This angel is for you, Nana!! xox Originally published at AletheaKontis.com. You can comment here or there.

• Come On In, The Snow Is Fine!

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:54 am

  It’s like swimming in the MOST REFRESHING POOL, EVER! (click the snowy Princess for more fun pics!) Originally published at AletheaKontis.com. You can comment here or there.

• Princess Alethea’s Magical Elixir

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:49 am

  Princess Alethea’s new reviews are now up at Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show! This month I discuss: Title: The Girl Who Chased the Moon Author: Sarah Addison Allen EAN: 9780553807219 I fell in love with Sarah Addison Allen over a crotchety old woman and an apple tree. The woman was named Evanelle, and if she knocked on your door to hand you a thimble at 2 a.m. it was because you needed it . . . or would need it in the near future. The apple tree’s fruit showed the eater the best moment of his or her life, regardless of whether or not that moment had already…

• 
  Ami Chopine

• Picking up a dropped stitch

  Ami Chopine

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:06 pm

  Nanowrimo was my last post. I got four serviceable stories done before the crush of November with its birthdays fell upon me. I need to confirm, but I suspect there is often a gap in my blog around this time of year. Since then, I’ve gotten the book contract, I’ve managed and enjoyed the holidays, and I’ve sludged through the dreary January. And January is dreary. My worst year of the month. Honestly, I think I’ve got that seasonal sad thing. But don’t tell my editor that. Or my mom, or my doctor. I wrought miracles last year during January. This year…

• Nanowrimo so far

  Ami Chopine

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:52 am

  Well, I haven’t signed up on the site, maybe I should, but I’m getting there. Finished my first story/chapter on Monday, but yesterday was writing group which took up 3 hours, but was still very useful. Will push through today with as much as I can.

• I’ve got a secret

  Ami Chopine

  27 Oct 2009 | 3:43 pm

  Got really good news today that I can’t talk about just yet.

• Old times

  Ami Chopine

  17 Oct 2009 | 7:30 pm

  Our X-box has a few retro games. Just heard a sound of nostalgia: Sega! That tone when you first turn on the Sega machine. The Sega was the first game console we ever bought. We purchased it shortly after we got married. We played Sonic the Hedgehog on it.

• Political outburst

  Ami Chopine

  9 Oct 2009 | 9:34 am

  An idea for health care: If we’re going to go into economic crippling debt for this, maybe can we just bypass insurance companies and have the gov directly build clinics, pay for the education of docs who go into primary care, and pass tort reform? Then at least we’d have something more useful than profit bloated share holders when it all comes down. Oh, and another stim package? Why are they taxing us to save companies who, often because of unethical practices, can’t manage to make their business successful? Oh and guess what? Building clinics gives work to people =…

• 
  My Name Means Flintstone

• Kindle vs iPad: My take after the media blitz

  mynamemeansflintstone

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:59 pm

  So being that I have to eventually salivate over an iPad, but already have a Kindle 2, I’m going to venture this review based on browsing the web, watching Steve Jobs’s introduction of the product and just my general sense. 1) The iPad will be a big hit. 2) The kindle is already a hit and will [...]

• A Marketing Experiment via tweets…

  mynamemeansflintstone

  17 Jan 2010 | 6:34 pm

  With all the SEO experts, social media experts, marketing gurus and whatnot, I thought I’d try something.  I’ve scheduled 4 tweets on peoplebrowser to appear every 5040 minutes, each one about 20 minutes apart about my book, Urtaru.  These will repeat 9 times each.  Given my social network map which I talked about in [...]

• Google and Net Neutrality

  mynamemeansflintstone

  16 Jan 2010 | 7:10 am

  While the phone and cable companies are getting apoplectic on the net neutrality issue I thought that the last line in this article in the WSJ today was really funny…so I dugg it… WSJ.com – FCC Crafts Plan-B for Web Traffic “For its part, Google said net-neutrality rules would “keep the Internet awesome for everybody” although it [...]

• Follow up: Pulse Smartpen and Livescribe Software (specifically handwriting recognition)

  mynamemeansflintstone

  8 Jan 2010 | 9:36 pm

  So as I wrote in my last blog post I was hoping that the files generated by Livescribe were searchable via text (aka OCR my handwriting).   @philbog told me that Evernote does OCR of pdfs and images and then @macktucket said from across the room that the livescribe had an app you could buy. Anyway, [...]

• Pulse Smartpen and Livescribe Software

  mynamemeansflintstone

  7 Jan 2010 | 7:02 pm

  So I got one of these for Christmas, Thanks Honey! Of course the technology is neat, and on that alone I’d at least play with it.  For me it’s not just the technology itself, its how to use it with other stuff. So for the not-so-technical, the pulse pen is a pen with a bunch of electronics [...]

• 
  David Mack

• Analog Tweets for 2010-02-08

  David Mack

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  @feliciaday – re: Farpoint & cold weather – Just stay in the hotel bar and drink w/us writers. That's how we stay warm. :) See you there! in reply to feliciaday 11:48:03 @allyngibson – Yup, you were right. And I didn't think I could be any more depressed about that topic than I already was. [...]

• Analog Tweets for 2010-02-07

  David Mack

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  @wilw "To my fellow gin lovers: Hendrick's is great with a twist" – My wife is a big fan of Hendrick's (I'm partial to single-malt scotch). in reply to wilw 11:20:48 Saw headline on HuffPost: "Democrats Unhappy With Obama's Centrist Shift" — at first I thought it said "Obama's Centrist Shit" Damn right. 11:59:20 @tgiokdi @allyngibson [...]

• Analog Tweets for 2010-02-06

  David Mack

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  @daytonward Can Kevin take that mugshot of you I need for the roast intro clip? Y'know, since he's there sitting on his fat ass, and all. in reply to daytonward 16:25:10 @RealJeffreyRoss "Extremely psyched to see Avatar when it comes out." – What… on DVD? As a homosexual? From the bathroom? in reply to RealJeffreyRoss 17:42:37 @kevindilmore [...]

• Analog Tweets for 2010-02-05

  David Mack

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  Office-visit fee. Blood work. X-Rays. Ultrasound. Sub-Cu fluids. New meds. … My cat's plan to bankrupt me at the vet continues. 11:51:31 Follow Friday: You should follow @Rob_Thurman because she's an awesome urban-fantasy author and a delightfully saucy Twitter-wench. ;-) 11:55:16 Follow Friday: You should follow author @CharlesArdai because he writes awesome pulp-style adventure novels (GABRIEL HUNT) [...]

• Analog Tweets for 2010-02-05

  David Mack

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  It's 1:10am and I'm sitting here wondering if a scene I just wrote goes too far. Ah, the unbridled excitement of the writer's life… 01:12:46

• 
  L. Lee Lowe

• Chapter Twenty-Six

  llowe

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:42 pm

  Print PDF With only one husky, it’s slow going—visibility poor, the ground jagged and uneven beneath the thick layer of snow, the horizon obliterated. A misstep, and they too could slip off the edge of the world. From time to time they catch a glimpse of the moon, and Lev reckons the storm has moved [...]

• Chapter Twenty-Five

  llowe

  28 Jan 2010 | 4:49 pm

  Print PDF ‘It’s getting worse, and we’d bloody well better take some sort of action!’ Pelly sipped from his glass of sparkling water to keep from smiling. Slade was competent enough as a research head, but the squat toad had no clue about PR, and very little about crisis management. Must be fifty-three, fifty-four already. There [...]

• Chapter Twenty-Four

  llowe

  21 Jan 2010 | 4:32 pm

  Print PDF ‘So explain.’ Zach, of course, should have known that Lev has his own idea of what constitutes an explanation. And certainly should have guessed when told to set down his mug of tea. After that it’s a matter of seconds for Lev to power up his little game. Zach’s protest is strangled mid-breath by [...]

• Chapter Twenty-Three

  llowe

  14 Jan 2010 | 4:30 pm

  Print PDF By the time they’d reached the cottage, Laura understood about rigor mortis. Zach put both feet on the ground while she eased herself off the motorbike. Not quite suppressing a groan, she stretched, removed her helmet, and took a few stiff, painful steps through the deep snow. Then she noticed that Zach had [...]

• Chapter Twenty-Two

  llowe

  7 Jan 2010 | 4:02 pm

  Print PDF For the next three days Zach practises a great deal on what could be deemed a clarinet only by a play of his imagination, gradually developing his facility so that, at times, the instrument becomes his own. Lev dismisses Zach’s questions with an infuriating ‘the best learning is self-taught’—admittedly reminiscent of Sean—and as [...]

• 
  Grasping for the Wind

• Because

  John Ottinger III

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:42 pm

  Just dropping a quick note to say I’m sorry for not having much new content of late. I have moved (fourth time in the past year), started a new job that is a major time suck, and just been all around too tired to do much writing. I will be back to full strength again before too long, I promise. Thanks go to Pipedreamer Grey for the round-ups and keeping it fairly lively here. Best to all of you, and thanks for keeping Grasping for the Wind on your must read list! Related posts:Grasping for the Wind Welcomes PipeDreamer Grey In which I am interviewed Geek Media Round-Up: Like or Not?

• Geek Media Round-Up: February 8, 2010

  PipeDreamer Grey

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

  Art Fandomania has posted a gallery of Lost fanart collected from around Deviant Art. Giagantor has posted a gallery of Minimalist Star Wars Galaxy Travel Posters. Six Revisions has posted a gallery of 30 Beautiful Artworks of Robots. Todd Lockwood has posted the amazing cover art for The Ragged Man. Comics Topless Robot picks the The 5 Coolest and 5 Stupidest Superhero Weaknesses. Film Interview: The UK Telegraph interviews director Quentin Tarantino. Film.com wonders, Is Avatar the Oscar Villain? Are people turning against Avatar simply because it’s popular? Looking back at…

• Geek Media Round-Up: February 5, 2010

  PipeDreamer Grey

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:00 am

  Art Gattadonna has a movie poster parody created for the Celebrity Showdown, featuring Olivia Munn. Tor.com takes a look at the creation of the The Fires of Heaven ebook cover by Dan Dos Santos. Film Interview: Geek Tyrant has a transcript of an interview with the director and stars of Shutter Island. Interview: The Los Angeles Times interviews Mia Wasikowska, star of Alice in Wonderland. News: Avatar DVD Screener Leaks To BitTorrent. News: No ‘War Machine’ Solo Movie, Says ‘Iron Man 2′ Actor Don Cheadle. News: Patrick Stewart Unlikely For X-Men First Class; Wants In…

• Geek Media Round-Up: February 4, 2010

  PipeDreamer Grey

  4 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pm

  Art CreativeFan offers 20 Stunning Examples of Beautiful Abstract Fractal Art. Enviromental Graffiti has posted a galley of Evil Fairies Massacre Insects in Mid-Air. Josh Ferrin is selling Star Wars Babies prints over at Etsy shop. Film Interview: Hero Complex interviews Danny Elfman about the soundtrack of Wonderland. NCAC offers A Brief History of Film Censorship in the USA. Tor.com explains Why the Oscars still aren’t giving genre films the love they deserve. Internet @issue Journal has a funny piece on the EU Adopting EuroEnglish. EConsultancy revisits 20+ mind-blowing social media…

• Book Review: The Ruling Sea by Robert V. S. Redick

  John Ottinger III

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:31 am

  My review of The Ruling Sea (known as The Rats and the Ruling Sea outside the US.) by Robert V. S. Redick can be found on page 8 of this month’s issue of San Francisco Book Review. Related posts:New Feature: Social Networking and Sharing (Your opinion needed) Book Review: The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick Suvudu’s Author Chat with Peter V. Brett and Robert V. S. Redick