Earlier in the summer, my classmate Guy sent out a couple of links (the first, the second) to webpages hosting stories that have been published in Nature‘s “Futures” column, a short story section at the back of the magazine. Well, today I didn’t get much time in the library today, but just enough to discover that the Uni does indeed have a subscription to Nature. I suppose I’ll be in the library half a day tomorrow just checking out the Futures stories… and maybe thumbing through the odd article that catches my interest. It’s just across campus, so it’s convenient …
Category: REVIEWS
Enjoyable Things…
Here I am, waiting for the travel agent to get back to me about tickets to Australia, and I’m sitting her stuck at home, and since I wrote two and a half flash pieces yesterday, I’m feeling, well, not quite like working on fiction at this moment. So I thought I’d post about some media things (books and movies) I’ve enjoyed lately, in reverse chronological order: Dil Se.., directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Shahrukh Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Manisha Koirala, and my unfathomably favorite Bollywood star, Preity Zinta. When I came back from India, I returned with a bunch of …
Singularity! – A Tough Guide to the Rapture of the Nerds
So Charles Stross is also sometimes a funny man. Go and see. I especially enjoyed the AD&D-styled stats.
The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
During Clarion West, the inimitable Shawn Scarber shared with us, his classmates, the wonderful reference source that should be available to all writers of genre fiction, especially those working in the short form — though the tips found within the guide may well work for longer works. Yes, my friends, it’s the The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot. Brilliant.
RevolutionSF’s Clarion, Schmarion Contest
My Clarion Workshopmate Shawn posted about RevolutionSF’s Clarion, Schmarion: A Fiction Contest. Heh.
‘Nother Sterling-Holic Lurking on Campus?
So I was digging through the open stacks at the library today, trying to find some stuff on/by Ursula Le Guin and H.G. Wells, and you’ll never guess what I found. Yeah, the majority of Bruce Sterling’s books. The only things missing were Involution Ocean, The Artificial Kid, Mirrorshades, and The Difference Engine. Oh, plus Zeitgeist and the new collection of short stories and his nonfiction books (which, for all I know, maybe be shelved in some other section). But everything else is there: Globalhead, A Good Old Fashioned Future, and all the novels from Schismatrix to Zeitgeist. Okay, so …
// ahree lee / me
Ahree Lee’s “me” is one of the weirder experimental films you’ll run across online: weird because it hypnotizes you and also, at the same time, says something about how we change over time, and how we do not change. Great, fascinating, and available for viewing at Atomfilms. Update: Oh yeah, I found it on Gpod.
Neil Gaiman’s “I Cthulhu”
Amusingly, earlier this summer one of my instructors suggested I should try writing crazy things when I am working on short stories. One of this suggestions was a story from the POV of Cthulhu. Looks like that one’s been done, by Neil Gaiman, in fact. For the record, I assumed comedy would be the only way to go, too.
Clarion West 2006 Instructors and Awards
Both Paul Park and Ian R. MacLeod are up for this year’s Sidewise Award, and it’s a very nice thing to see two such talented individuals being recognized, especially for an award for work in a subgenre I myself enjoy so much — alternate history. And in very big recent news, Paul Park is also up for the World Fantasy award 2006 for the novel format.
Bibliomemetics
This one thieved from Ritu’s LJ. It’s a bunch of questions and answers about books. Books that changed your life? 1. David Brin’s Earth (though it may surprise those who know me well). It set me up to see SF as something that could have relation to our world, and could have a massive scope. I had (and continue to have) issues with some parts of the book, but as a kind of recapitulation of John Brunner’s masterpiece Stand on Zanzibar, it’s a great first SF novel to read as an adult. 2. Maureen McHugh’s China Mountain Zhang then convinced …