On Thursday, a few friends and I took a trip to Mars for dinner. It was me, Eugene Myers, Matt Kressel, E!, and Andrea Kail. While we were there, we made friends with this guy:
This is the bar where the three-breasted women hang out:
It was quite a trip. And I have to say, Earth cuisine just doesn’t seem as palatable after enjoying those wonderful, exotic Martian dishes.
In the blogosphere lately, I’ve come across a number of posts discussing agents: how to get them, what to look out for, etc. Here are some links:
Does anyone have any experience using a sort of “book holder” thing like the one seen here? As I was googling, I came across several different varieties, but I’d love to get some user testimonials if anyone has used things like this before.
Basically, it’s important to me that the holder won’t ruin the book, and that it’ll be easy to turn the pages. I want to get something like this to make it easier to read while riding my exercise bike. I’ve got a table that I can set stuff on and still ride, but I still have to hold the book open. My table actually works great for reading manuscripts since the pages can lay flat (and the table angle can be adjusted), but for books it’s not so great. I figure a holder might be the answer.
Lou Anders has announced a new contest related to Mike Resnick’s forthcoming novel, Starship: Pirate.
Now, if you’ll excuse a tiny spoiler, in Starship: Pirate, one of the characters introduces the crew of the Teddy R. to a wildly popular, presumably alien game called “bilsang,” said to be as “a game that makes chess and toprench look like kid’s games.” Mike describes some of the aspects of the game, but leaves the actual rules up to the reader’s imagination.
Now, because I thought it was a pretty nifty idea last time, we are running some fairly extensive appendices in the back of each of the Starship books. And when I came to the passage about bilsang, I thought, what a good appendix a set of bilsang rules would make.
So, that brings us to the contest.
We’re looking for some brilliant, talented gamers with time on their hands to have a go at creating the rules of bilsang. …
Night Shade Books is having a sale:
Until 11:59pm Friday night (PST), you can get 50% off of your order by using the coupon code NSB0250. In order to take advantage of the coupon, you’ll have to order a minimum of four books. The coupon is good for both in-stock and forthcoming titles.
Oh, this is awesome. The Fantasy Novel Title Generator. Via Adam Stemple via Making Light.
Update: Also, The Plot Twist Generator. Via the On Spec blog.
You scored as Master Yoda. Yoda: The Master.
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Master Yoda |
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67% |
|
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Mace Windu |
|
63% |
|
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Luke Skywalker |
|
58% |
|
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Obi-Wan Kenobi |
|
54% |
|
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Darth Maul |
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50% |
|
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Qui-Gon Jinn |
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42% |
|
|
Count Dooku |
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42% |
|
|
Darth Sidious |
|
17% |
|
|
Anakin Skywalker |
|
13% |
|
|
Darth Vader |
|
0% |
|
|
Random Jedi |
|
0% |
What Force User Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com
The Spoken Alexandria Project has just made a podcast out of Tobias S. Buckell’s “Getting Past Being Joe Blow Neopro” articles, which originally appeared in Speculations.
Science fiction and fantasy author Tobias S. Buckell talks about a much-ignored period in the working writer’s career: after one makes that first major professional story sale, but before he or she has turned that exception into the rule. Buckell discusses “the benefits, the experience, and the dangers of being a Joe Blow Neopro,” along with “some strategies to move out of this stage in of our careers.”
Link.
When speaking of a supercharged something, such as a supercharged engine, why is it souped up instead of suped up? The engine is not comprised of, nor does it have anything to do with soup. If you’re going to contract supercharged, it would make more sense to do so as suped. So, what’s up with that?
I recently wrote a story for SCI FI Wire about Tobias S. Buckell’s excellent first novel, Crystal Rain, but in case you all were too lazy to click over, I just wanted to point out that Toby has the prologue and first 14 chapters of the novel available on the book’s website for free download. Beware: if you go read them, you will be compelled to buy the book.
My review of the book should appear later this month at Intergalactic Medicine Show. But I’ll tell you now: it’s awesome.
