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Friday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 9, 2006

Some back and forth at Hannah’s about a story at Strange Horizons, that spins off into talk of assumptions about the race/gender of protagonists and why they should be examined. And, why yes, Meghan McCarron is rocking this dicussion. (Via Chance.)
Jeff Ford opens up some slipstream discussion. Most of which can be found in this earlier post’s comments.
Ms. Erin Keane sums up the whole don’t call me Mrs. anything feeling, and she does it beautifully. Brava!
Alan DeNiro has posted a story by his lovely and talented wife Kristin Livdahl, "The Saga of the Raiding Team," which we loved so much we published it in Say…* awhile back. (*Yes, the new issue is still coming; we’re working on it. June is NUTS for both of us, but it’ll be out soonish. And FABULOUS.)
The one and only Lauren Cerand wants to send you mail.
Coffee and Ink rounds up a Wiscon panel (which was reportedly quite awesome) about the wages of reading trashy fiction.
Elizabeth Bear on POV.
International Horror Guild nominations have been announced and, man, that’s a fabulous list.
The Watcher’s summer TV round-up. (I DVRed the first episode of Hex last night, and will report back.)

Quietly Exhilarating Reminder

2 Comments / Uncategorized / By Gwenda / June 8, 2006

The point is, work. If anyone is still reading this blog for writing insights, there is no better or more important one I or any writing teacher or coach you will ever have can offer you. Clock’s ticking. Days are passing. You’re going to have sunlit, silent rooms sometimes. I hope you will, because they do help. But you also have subway rides, lines at the post office, lunch breaks, sweetly exhausted evenings. Want to be a writer?

And other stuff. And next he promises to talk about why the window-dressing (or lack thereof) can also be important.

But this one I thought worth pointing to, because I needed it, and maybe you do too.

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Lost Voice

Books / By Gwenda / June 7, 2006

A remarkable story in the WaPo about a tape of a 1966 Pablo Neruda reading that was missing for 40 years before someone started looking. It’s been found:

But what the poet read at the Library of Congress was quick and almost simple when compared with the rich and long version Neruda presented for the IDB. Holding tight to the IDB tape, Dorn said, "It’s much better than what he read at the library."

In the summer of 1966, she was a 20-year-old who had just come to work at the library. That June day, Neruda did his reading, had lunch with poet Stephen Spender, then returned to Dorn’s office and asked, she said, "Can I see the papers of Walt Whitman?"

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Wedneday Hangovers (updated)

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 7, 2006

(Sorry for the proliferation of hangovers this week, but I’m busy, busy, busy. I do plan a reading update and some other things for the weekend… she said, noncommittally.)

Two posts in one week: Welcome to the apocalypse. Christopher announces his big Wild Cards news. UDPATE: Make that THREE posts; he’s just put up a PDF of the first halfish of his new story "Another Word for Map is Faith," which will be in the August issue of F&SF.
Meanwhile, the lovely and stylish Erin Keane is having what looks to be an utterly fab release party tonight for her new poetry chapbook The One-Hit Wonders. I am so, so sad that we are lame and can’t go out on school nights to Louisville. If you live there, or close by, get thee to this party. And bring a mix tape/CD.
There’s a brand new Temeraire (the Dragon) short story up on Naomi Novik’s web site, "Feast or Famine," set between His Majesty’s Dragon and Throne of Jade. Subscribe to the Temeraire newsletter while you’re there. Novik also confirmed on her blog that she’s just reached a deal with Del Ray for three more books, to come at the rate of one per year (what no one per month, indefinitely? wah! but sane…).
Daniel Handler knows the pain of having a more famous alter ego/pseudonym. (Via Bookninja.)
Transhumanists in Slate.

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Tuesday Hangovers

1 Comment / Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 6, 2006

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That Dave Itzkoff

2 Comments / Scientifiction / By Gwenda / June 5, 2006

= A Pretty Smart Guy, after all. Yay!

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Best X3 Post Ever

1 Comment / Uncategorized / By Gwenda / June 5, 2006

Bennett Madison nails why I enjoyed the hell out of this movie despite its shortcomings. Perhaps even making it safe for me to see it again(!) without shame. Here’s a taste:

The bottom line is that if you can’t see the beauty of a man in a Styrofoam catsuit delivering ham-fisted lines with a giant, shit-eating grin, you should really not be watching a comic book movie in the first place.

(Did one of us cheer when the Beast first came onscreen? Well, yes. And I thought Kelsey Grammar and the costuming lent a certain Grandpa Muppet quality that was very comforting; comforting like a big, blue, furry marshmallow.) Now go read all that post. Bennett Madison is so a superhero day job name anyway.

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Monday Hangovers

Hangovers / By Gwenda / June 5, 2006

Stop by supercouple Alan DeNiro and Kristin Livdahl‘s new blog on all things pet-related, 1 Tough Puppy, where the costs of pet ownership are currently under discussion.
Evil Editor. (Via Holly Black.)
New horror column debuts in the NYT (haven’t had a chance to read this yet). Some related commentary at Contemporary Nomad by John Nadler.
A new edition of Scott Esposito’s The Quarterly Conversation is out.
Russian kittens. (Via Literaticat.)
I was actually pretty surprised at the breadth of blog reaction to the top 25 novels included in the NYT round-up of same.
Jeff VanderMeer posts some excellent thoughts on the importance of having/giving yourself permission to fail (jumping off Kelly’s risky proposal): I would have said to those high school students: Whatever you do from now on, don’t feel that it has to always be successful. To be successful, to be as good as you can possibly be in whatever field you choose, you need to have permission to fail.
Hal Duncan on cultural appropriation: Don’t get me wrong; writing the Other has it’s own set of issues. I just can’t see what it has to do with "cultural appropriation". A fictive representation of a culture is not that culture itself. Having a painting which contains an image of a "dreamcatcher" on your wall is not the same as hanging some New Age trinket of string and feathers, made by and for white middle-class hippies, over your bed. Writing a 5-page scene in a novel which portrays a voudon ritual is not the same thing as setting yourself up as a practicing "babaloa" in Bognor Regis. Representation is not appropriation. The map is not the territory. And there’s lots more where that came from. Also, "Dionysus Knows No Nations" would make a great T-shirt.
MP3s of Tolkien singing and reading from TLOTR. (Via Need Coffee.)
Book Nerd with her long-promised post on the future of bookselling.
Finally, I’d be less than delighted if my own neighborhood had been invaded by Paris Hilton. But Caitlin shouting, "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!" at Paris and Nicole makes me pretty freaking happy. Just on general principle.

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Good Good

4 Comments / Nattering / By Gwenda / June 3, 2006

First off, Emma the dog is all antibioticed and doing just fine, to all you who have inquired. She already seems much better. Of course, ouch, $200-plus vet bill right after Wiscon, but so it goes.

Things learned from the Internet, # 14,501: Ants HATE ~~baking soda~~, whoops, make that BABY POWDER. Scares them right off.

Now we eat chicken sausages stuffed with feta and spinach and watch probably crapish movies (Casanova, Flight Plan, something else). Should be a nice evening. Hope yours is too.

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Stubborn Science

1 Comment / Science Project / By Gwenda / June 2, 2006

I completely forgot to point to this bizarre story I happened across in the Blood-Horse the other day when I was looking for some Barbaro news. The headline says it all, really: "Cloned Mules to Square Off in California Fair Race". Now, I didn’t know there even was competitive mule racing, let alone with cloned mules. Actually, the headline doesn’t even come close on this one, since it neglects to get across that these mules are cloned from the same genetic material, that of retired world champion Taz. Um, yeah.

But the best part is the article’s ominousish closing:

Jacklin said he has had "quite a few confidential inquiries" from Thoroughbred horsemen interested in the cloning process. "There has been a lot of interest," he said. "I predict we’ll see significant changes in the next few years as organizations begin to address clones. But wouldn’t it be great to see a cloned Cigar race a cloned Funny Cide or another John Henry? I believe it will happen in the future."

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