Just thought I’d let you all know that I finished my reviews of The Innocent Mage by Karen Miller and Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Zivkovic. You can find the reviews here (Miller) and here (Zivkovic). I’m reading two other works now, as you can see from the right there.(Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)
This is a huge bunch of links, so you’re in for a bit of a treat, I think. I’m unloading all the links I’ve acquired in the last few weeks both on my laptop and my desktop. I’m going to split it up between several posts. Here goes: Red Meat, an interesting little web comic, has a hilarious strip about God, L. Ron Hubbard, and Philip K. Dick. Read it, it’ll tickle your fancy. (Courtesy of SF Signal) There’s been talk going around of a convention focusing on young adult science fiction and fantasy. You can check it out here. My thoughts? I’m so in. I would love to be a part of this. Planetocopia. What is it? A truly bizarre project that tries to recreate Earth’s that might have existed visually. What would the Earth look like if the poles were tilted? There are various other planets no there too, some real and some science fiction. Truly interesting project. Need a list of old European terms for nobility and titles? Well, here you go. Or, perhaps you’re wanting some real historical perspectives on actual mad men and women that once lived and terrorized people? Here’s a link to an e-book that talks about medieval life and the 100 years war. Also, a pictorial glossary of armor terms (primarily medieval). Dave’s Mythological Creatures and Places is a nice website that gives you quite a bit of information on those subjects. Worldbuilding, of course, is a fantasy writer’s best friend. Most of you have seen this already, but here are Patricia C. Wrede’s worldbuilding questions. Also, Rutgers has an awesome collection of stuff to help develop the background of your fictional world. And, Seventh Sanctum has some articles too. Project Gutenberg. Need free stuff to read? Here’s the place to go. Lots of old books that are now public domain! The Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time. (Courtesy of SF Signal) The Washington Post lists some great scifi for people that don’t like scifi. I think the list is a little antiquated, but in some ways it makes sense. Seems that Anne McCaffery has sold the rights to The Dragonriders of Pern to Hollywood. Maybe we’ll have ourselves some movies! 20 things you didn’t know about aliens! Brilliant list by the way! (Courtesy of SF Signal I think) Every so often someone comes up with a really cool invention that makes something else look even cooler. And here it is. You know those cool sliding doors on Lamborghini’s? Well how about doors that actually fold into the car? No more worrying about parking too close and banging your door on the car next to you! Pullman is writing another book in the same world as the His Dark Materials books. That’s good news for his fans. The moon, apparently, is actually 30 million years younger and more Earth-like. Read about it here. Guess what? The One Ring to Rule Them All actually works. Okay, well not really, but scientists at the University of Maryland have figured out how to cloak very small particles. Sound cool? That’s because it is! This company is apparently working on making hydrogen fuel cells a commercial reality. I’m keeping on eye on them for sure. Anyone think it’s a good investment for the future? By the way, this device now allows me to see you in the shower. Not that I’d use it for that. Actually, it seems to work somewhat like radar, only using an irradiate beam like a portable x-ray machine. So, I probably wouldn’t see much more than bones. The Amish probably don’t know this, but they’ve been referenced a lot in science fiction. Find out where at this link! Want to make your own steampunk candle? Well, it’s not all that hard! Go here to find out how! A. R. Yngve talks about fads and fashions in science fiction. It’s funny, so read it! Justine Larbalestier talks about re-writing. Futurismic brings us the lovely news that oil has hit $100 a barrel, which is a record. Of course, this means that oil companies are lining their pockets with record profits and doing nothing to develop alternate fuel sources. Then again, why would they? They’re rich while the rest of us have to deal with oil prices that are a load of bull. The 100 Year Letter Project! Send an electronic letter to the children of the future! It’s really interesting. Look at things people are already sending. The Universal Digital Library with a million books! Lots of free reading in there. Need something funny? How about this dramatic prairie dog? I laughed my butt off. It’s not funny without the music, but with the music, it’s a riot. Or maybe you’d like to see Bush talking about his plans to fight off the zombies? For something beautiful, check out this video of Bjork’s song “All Is Full Of Love”. I know, it’s Bjork, but watch the video. Heck, turn off the music if you don’t like her and just watch. It’s really amazing what they did for this music video. I can’t remember where I got this, but the lolcat bible. The best way to describe this is if humans didn’t exist, and cats took over the world, what would the Bible look like? Here’s a list of ten cliches to avoid in science fiction. (Courtesy of SF Signal, I think) How much is your blog worth? Mine is apparently worth $25,968.84. Anyone want to buy it? I’m willing to sell for half that! This is ancient news, but Tobias S. Buckell released the cover for his new novel Sly Mongoose set in the same universe as Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin. Needless to say, I’m stoked to read the book! The List Universe has this top ten things you didn’t know the ancients had. Heated indoor swimming pools? Yeah, they had them first.
Alright, I know I’ve been talking a lot about stuff that isn’t really genre related (stuff about me, stuff about shopping, stuff about whatever), so, this will be the last post about ‘me’ type stuff for a while. I am working on a huge list of links I’ve acquired over the last few weeks of stuff that might interest you guys. So here goes the last bit of stuff about ‘me’: I’ve added a post that I placed so it is way in the bottom that is basically information about what I will review and the like. The link is on the left over there at the top, or go here. Basically I wanted to be very clear about what I want to review so publishers or authors or even editors know and perhaps will contact me. I like doing reviews! I have three interviews coming up (I’ve been yapping about them for forever). Dana Copithorne emailed me to let me know she got caught up in some school stuff and that she’s working on things, but I also have submitted questions to Dave A. Law who was one of the editors of The Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction Volume One, and also to Jennifer Rahn who wrote The Longevity Thesis. Hopefully I’ll have those interviews this month. *crosses fingers* I’m going to be starting The Spellweaver of Dern this month at some point. Expect the first chapter by the end of the month. I’m thinking of the best way to start the story right now. I know what’s going to happen in the first quarter, I just don’t know where would be the best place to start–right at the end of the WISB or after some time has lapsed. School starts next Tuesday! I’m somewhat excited and bummed at the same time. I didn’t know that enrollment was open until seven days after, so all the courses I had originally wanted to take were full, and then I discovered too late that there are actually two courses that are on science fiction and I don’t think I can take them because they may not apply to my literature degree, which irritates me. I’m going to talk with a counselor at the university and see if there’s something I can work out with them or with the professors. If there’s some way I could make it apply, whether that be doing extra work or whatever, then I want to do it because both classes sound really interesting. It just figures there are few lit courses on the subject. I have to start thinking about graduate school because I may be getting my BA in December 2008. I am looking for a program that will allow me to study science fiction and/or fantasy literature. If anyone knows of one here in the states or in Canada or the UK, please let me know and give me a link. I’m willing to go out of country for my MA or PhD. The problem is finding the programs, which seem to be eluding my Google searches. I know they exist, but where? Christmas turned out okay after it had happened. I got some nice stuff. Yes, I know, Christmas isn’t about presents, but sometimes you just get some good stuff. Most of my actual gifts occurred after the date when I spent my Christmas money. What did I get? I have pictures to show it!First, I got two pairs of pants and two funny shirts. You should be able to read the shirts okay I think.I also got some books and some movies. The great thing about places like Dimple’s is that you can get movies for dirt cheap (3 or 4 bucks for new movies). The only new movie in the lot is my guilty pleasure–Jackass. The books are awesome too! Oh, and there’s a CD in there that turned out to be pretty decent. I need to listen to it again though. Christmas surely had some downsides to it. My power went out Christmas night. That wouldn’t be a really big problem except that I was going to make a video for my girlfriend and also all my animals happen to require power to keep them warm (I keep lizards). So it was sort of crap. There were some problems the following day too, but things are somewhat sorted. I think that’s sufficient junk about me! Back to discussions and links and other such goodness about speculative fiction!
We’ll start with the bad first, simply because I’d like to end on a happy note anyway. By the way, I am thoroughly convinced that when given the choice of going with the good news or the bad news first, you should always start with the bad. End happy, don’t start happy and go to bad!So, the bad: I don’t have a new place yet. I think the place I just checked out and did an ‘interview’ for won’t be picking me, so I’m still not going to have a place. Which sucks cause that place was really in a great location and a great price. But that’s life. I’m horrendously behind on things I’m supposed to be doing. My girlfriend is approximately 5,261 miles away. I still haven’t a clue what I got in Literary Interpretation because the grade hasn’t been submitted. My country is being absolutely idiotic right now. And the good: I have lots of great reading ahead of me. Paul Genesse just sent me an advanced copy of The Golden Cord (The Iron Dragon Series Book One)! I’m looking forward to it! I’ve listed a whole bunch of stuff on ebay. Go bid and buy my stuff people. It’s for a good cause. I got some awesome presents this year. Yes, I know the holiday isn’t about that, but there’s nothing wrong with being happy for what you got! My girlfriend is amazing. That’s good for obvious reasons. Umm…well I know I have other things that are good, I just can’t remember them right now. So, yeah!
I love when people basically say “I have no idea what you want, so let’s go to the book store and you have a budget”. So it was that over the weekend I had a good $60 to spend on books at Borders. (Yes, I realize my financial situation isn’t all the happy at the moment, but quite honestly, it’s not my money I was spending and my Grandma under no circumstance would let me not have something nice for Christmas because, well, she’s my Grandma and trying to tell her “I’d rather use it to pay for something not so fun” is like saying I’d rather have a vaccine shot for rabies). In any case, I was at Borders perusing the books looking for some titles I had really hoped to get to read in 07 when I started to notice something that just really irritates me. I hate going into a bookstore that carries nothing but new books to find that some of the books are actually in really shoddy condition. What makes it worse is when you find a book you really wanted to read (say, Endgame by Kristin Smith) and you grab it with a big smile on your face and your little heart beating only to find that the cover is mangled, the book curved, etc. I have no problem buying books in used condition…when I’m buying from a used book store. But I think there is an expectation when you go to a book store that carries only new books. You expect that the books will be in very good, if not brand spanking new condition. I understand that mint condition is pretty much impossible considering that the book gets put in boxes and touched and moved around, but is it too much to ask that book stores actually take care of the books? How hard is it to put the book on the shelf without bending it or mangling it? Or, maybe discount the books that are mangled, because I won’t buy them. I see no reason to pay full price for a mangled book. That’s like buying a t-shirt with uneven arm holes and an upside-down pocket for the same price as the same t-shirt with perfect arm holes and a rightside-up pocket. Needless to say I left Borders a little disappointed. I got some other books I wanted and some new books I hadn’t heard of, but I really wanted Endgame (there were some others I saw that were mangled that I wanted, but I can’t remember the titles). But enough of that. Annoyances are short lived anyway. On a side note, I officially have three batches of questions out to authors/editors and now I’m just waiting for responses. Expect three interviews to be coming this January (I hope)
