Announcements

The winners are: SF Novel: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins) Fantasy Novel: Making Money by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK; HarperCollins) Young Adult Book: Un Lun Dun by China Miéville (Ballantine Del Rey; Macmillan UK) First Novel: Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (Morrow; Gollancz) Novella: “After the Siege” by Cory Doctorow (The Infinite Matrix Jan 2007) Novelette”The Witch’s Headstone” by Neil Gaiman (Wizards) Short Story: “A Small Room in Koboldtown” by Michael Swanwick (Asimov’s Apr/May 2007) Collection: The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories by Connie Willis (Subterranean) Anthology: The New Space Opera by Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (Editors) (Eos) Non-fiction: Breakfast in the Ruins by Barry N. Malzberg (Baen) Art Book: The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Lothian 2006; Scholastic) Editor: Ellen Datlow Magazine: F&SF Publisher: Tor Artist: Charles Vess Congrats to all the winners indeed! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

So, I’ve created a Squidoo lens. You can find it here (or in the sidebar there). I’m new to Squidoo, so if you have any suggestions as to how to improve my little lens, that would be great (especially if you happen to have a lens and have magical, intimate knowledge of how to make a lens look super cool). Feel free to have a look and make suggestions! Thanks! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

An appropriate subtitle would be: Why I Don’t Drink.Apparently the couple that lives in the room next to mine were out drinking tonight and as a result came home at 11:30 PM drunk and making quite a bit of noise. One of the other housemates came out in protest (something to do with working at 2 AM) and the husband went on a rampage. From the security of my room I had made the assumption that it was mostly just screaming, stomping around, and drunken threats (all of which, in my opinion, deserved the same result as what happened in reality). When I went out to get water some time after the altercations had ended I found out that not only had there been yelling, but Mr. Husband had become physical with the person who first protested, with the landlord (or I think so, since he had a huge bump on his arm), and one of the other housemates. The sick fellow in the house was accidentally injured when Mr. Husband threw open a door. The result? The neighbors called the police and Mr. Husband was arrested.Yeah, this is my life. Fun, ain’t it? (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this!)

Okay, I didn’t meet Wintermute exactly. I met his creator: William Gibson. He was at the Capitola Book Cafe last night doing a reading and signing and I was fortunate to be there for it! It was fantastic. Mr. Gibson read the second chapter from his recent novel, Spook Country. It was fantastic to hear him read. His prose is simply stunning in this book!Afterwards he took questions, which resulted in a few clever jokes being said, and then he signed books. There was a huge line and I got a copy of Neuromancer and of Spook Country signed!My friend Jennifer showed up later on and we hung out and talked. Mostly I stood there in complete awe, my two signed books clasped in my hands like tomes of mystical knowledge about the universe. At some point I got the courage to ask Mr. Gibson if I could get a picture with him, and being the cool guy that he is, he said yes!It was fantastic seeing Gibson in person. He’s quite legendary, as you probably know.Gibson wasn’t the only famous person there, by the way. Rick Kleffel of the Agony Column was there as well! If you don’t know who he is you need to get out more. He works for NPR and his column is a fantastic resource of intellectual interviews with authors of all sorts of books, from regular fiction to speculative fiction. And I got a lovely picture with him too! It was a great night indeed!Afterwards, Jennifer and I got something drink, shared a cookie, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Good times indeed!

I know there are some of you expecting more of The Spellweaver of Dern; you’ll be happy to know that I have every intention of continuing with the expansion, creation, and propagation of my fantasy world. When do you say?Well, I think we’re due for a little discussion on that. Firstly, I have to say that I am somewhat ill from the lack of writing over the last few months. The situation has been explained ad nauseum–school was killing me, literally–and so I won’t go into any detail with it. School, however, is almost over. How much time is left? Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 4 PM. That’s when my last essay is due. Then the quarter will be, for all intensive purposes, over. I may or may not take a course over summer, a matter which will be heavily discussed with myself and likely with my girlfriend, who will no doubt have objections to such a conception.That said, everything will be falling back into place. Effective Friday, June 13th, 2008 at whenever I wake up (likely 8:13 AM), all of the following prior personal goals will resume: Write 2,000 words a day or more. Read 100 pages a day or more. Edit two short stories or two novel chapters a month. Submit at least one story a month, preferably more. I expect that the next chapter in SoD will be up the week after next (which would not be the week starting tomorrow for those of us still on the 8th). I intend to write the chapter I have and drive forward with it. Hopefully I don’t stick my food in my mouth. I also think I am going to attempt a rough drawing of a new continent to be put up for your perusal. We’ll see.So that is what I am promising to do, or at least that is what I’m promising myself to do. Yeah!

I just heard from SF Signal that science fiction author Algis Budrys has passed on. I have yet to read his work, but he will be missed nonetheless! (Don’t click the read more, there isn’t any more after this).