o Penis Worship, Yo By www.joegage.com Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2020 11:40:33 +0000 Full Article Uncategorized
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o Book Review: STRANGER STILL By hellnotes.com Published On :: Sun, 26 Apr 2020 17:46:33 +0000 Stranger Still Michaelbrent Collings Written Insomnia Press, 2020 Reviewed by Andrew Byers Stranger Still is a stand-alone sequel to Michaelbrent Collings’ horror thriller Strangers, which I reviewed way back in 2013. I enjoyed Strangers a lot, so was very pleasantly surprised to find that after this long hiatus, Collings had returned to that world. In […] Full Article Book Reviews Hellnotes Reviews
o Book Review: THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS By hellnotes.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:07:16 +0000 The Best of Both Worlds S.P. Miskowski Trepidatio Publishing May 1, 2020 Reviewed by Elaine Pascale The Best of Both Worlds is a sequel to The Worst is Yet to Come in the sense that the plot runs parallel and the characters’ story arcs intersect in subtle yet important ways. The Best of Both Worlds […] Full Article Book Reviews Horror Authors / Books Publisher News
o Free National Theatre: FRANKENSTEIN (Cumberbatch Version) By hellnotes.com Published On :: Sun, 03 May 2020 17:26:22 +0000 A new play by Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley. Watch Danny Boyle’s monster hit Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the creature is streaming for free from 7pm UK time on Thursday 30 April. Available on demand until […] Full Article Horror Events Horror Movies Horror News
o Short Film: THE iMOM By hellnotes.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 17:40:33 +0000 Ariel Martin’s “The iMom” explores the future of A.I. and asks who is to blame when technology turns on us. Full Article Horror Movies Horror News
o Short Film: THE STYLIST By hellnotes.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 17:42:16 +0000 A psychopathic hairstylist collects scalps and wears them — in an attempt to escape herself. Full Article Horror Movies Horror News
o The Iron Dragon's Daughter E-Book Only $1.99--MONDAY ONLY! By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 21:05:00 +0000 .More than a quarter-century ago, I was driving to Pittsburgh, with my wife, Marianne Porter, and we were talking about fantasy and about steam locomotives. I made a joke about the Baldwin Steam Dragon Works and Marianne laughed. Then, another mile or so down the road, I said, "Write that down, please."Thus was born the Iron Dragons Trilogy, a trio of stand-alone books, the third of which, The Iron Dragon's Mother, was published just last year.Far more recently, just an hour or so ago, I got an email from my associates at Open Road Media, telling me that The Iron Dragon's Mother, first of the three, will be on sale for $1.99 this coming Monday, March 23.That's one day only BUT this time the sale includes Canada. Which I am very grateful for because the Canadian science fiction community has always been very warm and kind to me.Anyway, here's the boilerplate below, cut-and-pasted from the corporate email:We are pleased to let you know that the following ebook(s) will be featured in price promotions soon. ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL US 2020-03-23 2020-03-23 $1.99 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL CA 2020-03-23 2020-03-23 $1.99 Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears. Newsletter Link Early Bird Books Subscribe Now The Lineup Subscribe Now The Portalist Subscribe Now Murder & Mayhem Subscribe Now A Love So True Subscribe Now The Archive Subscribe Now The Reader Subscribe Now So if you (1) read e-books, (2) don't own a copy of The Iron Dragon's Daughter, and (3) would like to... well, here's your opportunity to do it on the cheap.* Full Article
o The Iron Dragon's Daughter #-Book Sale TODAY ONLY! By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 23 Mar 2020 15:12:00 +0000 .Just a reminder that people in Canada and the US can buy an e-book of The Iron Dragon's Mother, the first book of my stand-alone fantasy trilogy for only $1.99 today. Tomorrow will be too late:Here's the boilerplate: ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL US 2020-03-23 2020-03-23 $1.99 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL CA 2020-03-23 2020-03-23 $1.99 Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears. Newsletter Link Early Bird Books Subscribe Now The Lineup Subscribe Now The Portalist Subscribe Now Murder & Mayhem Subscribe Now A Love So True Subscribe Now The Archive Subscribe Now The Reader Subscribe Now * Full Article
o Didn't We Just Do This? By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 30 Mar 2020 22:06:00 +0000 .And the answer is: Yes, we did. Last week. But Open Road Media is putting The Iron Dragon's Daughter on e-sale again. $1.99 on this Wednesday, April 1, only. I don't have to tell you what holiday that is. But apparently they really mean it.I expect most people who read this blog and wanted an e-copy of that book got one during last week's sale. But I publicize the event for two reasons:1) Writers should always be as cooperative to their publishers as they can stand being.2) Maybe the reason for this promotion is that they're putting a lot of books on sale at once.If you're an ebook reader, you might want to look into the second possibility. Or maybe subscribe to one of the newsletters below.Here's the e-letter they sent me, with all the boilerplate: Dear Michael Swanwick, We are pleased to let you know that the following ebook(s) will be featured in price promotions soon. ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL US 2020-04-01 2020-04-01 $1.99 9781504025669 The Iron Dragon's Daughter Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL CA 2020-04-01 2020-04-01 $1.99 Open Road will promote the feature via social media. We hope you can share the deal with your network as well. You can subscribe to the newsletters at the links below so that you will get the direct link to the deal on the day that it appears. Newsletter Link Early Bird Books Subscribe Now The Lineup Subscribe Now The Portalist Subscribe Now Murder & Mayhem Subscribe Now A Love So True Subscribe Now The Archive Subscribe Now The Reader Subscribe Now Please let us know if you have any questions. We are thrilled to be part of this promotion; hope you are too! Best, The Open Road Editorial Team* Full Article
o The Mysteries of the Faceless King By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 01 Apr 2020 16:32:00 +0000 .Coming soon from PS Publishing is The Mysteries of the Faceless King, the first of two volumes collecting the best of Darrell Schweitzer's short fiction. Beautifully made, with a cover by the estimable Jason Van Hollander.Also, an introduction by (cough) me. Here's how that begins:Once upon a time . . .None of the stories collected herein begin with those words, though some come close. But they might as well. For Darrell Schweitzer writes a very traditional sort of story. His fiction is almost always fantasy, which is a mode nested deep in the roots of Story; usually horror, a mode as old as nightmares; and very often weird fantasy, a much more recent mode but one that is dear to his heart. Most could have been written a hundred years ago—or, with equal ease, a hundred years in the future. This is not a criticism. Timelessness is precisely what he is after.PS Publishing has posted the entirety of the introduction online, preparatory to publication of the book sometime this month. So if you're curious as to what I said, you have only two options. You can buy the book. Or you can read the intro online for free.But if you don't buy the book, you won't get the stories. You're in a quandary.You can find the entire introductory essay here. Or you can just go to the PS Publishing website and wander about, marveling at how many of their books you want by clicking here.And I should remind you . . .The ebook of The Iron Dragon's Daughter, the first of three stand-alone fantasies in the Iron Dragons Trilogy, goes on sale tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1, 2020) for the one day only for only $1.99. That's a good deal. But only tomorrow and only in Canada and the US.* Full Article
o A Message From Chengdu By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Fri, 03 Apr 2020 15:57:00 +0000 .My friend Renne, who works for Science Fiction World in Chengdu, China, gave me permission to share the above video. It was made by the science fiction community in Chengdu. Here's what he says about it:My friends and I made a little something for those we know around the world, and who are forced to stay home for the most part of day. Now that it’s clear that virus knows no borders, we feel like we should do something to counter its move. Of course, this is far from enough, we can never do what doctors and nurses did round the clock. Just maybe this little video would make things a tiny bit cheerful in these strange days.I hope you have fun with this! And as long as I'm talking about China . . .Like pretty much everyone else who has ever gone to China, I fell in love with the country and its people. The people are admirable (the science fiction community particularly so) and the country has sites of stunning beauty. Few who have stood on the Great Wall will ever forget the experience.But my favorite spot in all of China is the Thatched Hut of Du Fu. Fifteen hundred years ago, the great poet, wrote a poem about it and as a result, tourists have been visiting the site for over a millennium. The grounds are as beautifully landscaped as the Chinese can manage, which is saying a lot, and the hut itself has been reconstructed, rebuilt, torn down, and raised back up repeatedly over the years. At one point it was as large as a palace. Now it's a simple hut again. I've visited it several times.Du Fu knew more than his share of sorrow. He lived in a time of war. But he also wrote a poem that contains some of my favorite lines ever:Since water still flows, though we cut it with swords,And sorrow returns, though we drown it with wine,Since the world can in no way conform to our desires,Tomorrow I will let down my hair and go fishing. Which is, I think, profound.* Full Article
o The Best (and Simplest!) Writing Advice You Will Ever Receive By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Sat, 11 Apr 2020 14:54:00 +0000 .Over on Facebook, Samuel R. Delany, answering a question in a post, offered the best and most succinct writing advice anyone has ever codified. Here, in its entirety, it is:Writing advice: Read and reread. Think of a story you have never read but wish you had; then write it as carefully as you can. Finish it, and send it around till it's published.The third sentence, as Chip noted at the time, was a condensation of advice that Robert A. Heinlein offered. So what you have above is the combined wisdom of two of the greatest careers science fiction has ever seen.I could unpack that brief paragraph at enormous length. But, honestly, there's no need. You read it and you understood it. Now you only have to live it.Above: The photo by James Hamilton was lifted from The Nation, where it illustrated a typically thoughtful and enlightened interview with Chip. You can find it here.* Full Article
o Classifying Books: Some Early Lessons Learned By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 13 Apr 2020 22:06:00 +0000 .Flushed with the feeling of success that comes from having cleaned my office to such a degree that the rugs are now visible, I thought today that I would take on the problem of excess books. Surely there are some I don't actually need. So I chose a shelf at near-random (it was one of those actually accessible without moving the boxes of books stacked before it to another location), and started going through both rows (the shelves are double-stacked, of course) to see what they contained.Only to discover that the shelf was stocked with books placed there at seeming random. Mr. Evelyn's diary lies cheek-to-jowl with Gertrude Stein's Picasso. Jeff Danziger's Teed Tales abuts, appropriately enough, a history of Vermont. There is a collection of stories by T. Corgahesson Boyle, Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, a novel by Sean Stewart, and a collection of essays by Ursula K. Le Guin. These last two, by the way, are misfiled since I have a science fiction section arranged almost alphabetically by author and a designated place for stacks of SF criticism and related essays. Which is where Gwyneth Jones' Joanna Russ should be as well.Here's T. H. White's wonderful collection of mythical animals from medieval bestiaries, The Book of Beasts. The Return of Fursey! Mosses from an Old Manse. Flann O'Brien's The Best of Myles reappears from hiding; after I've obsessively reread it a few times, I'll have to hide it somewhere else among my books, if I'm ever to read anything else. Oh, but there's also John McPhee's The Pine Barrens, which some of us persist in thinking his best book. Though it has competition. And here is a battered but charming old hardcover of Charles Fort's The Book of the Damned. I have a biography of Fort around here somewhere, though I doubt I'll find it today. Some few of these I haven't read--Fishing from Earliest Times is one example, though I'm sure I'll get to it soon. But I've read every story in The Corrector of Destinies, Melville Davidson Post's extremely odd collection of detective fiction (sort of), and I'll have to blog about it here someday.There are thirty shelves of books on one wall of my office and my first attack upon the one provided me with nothing to cull, And I've put aside a short stack of books to read or reacquaint myself with. Not have I done much to organize it--but wait! Here, just one shelf below is Damon Knight's Charles Fort. Up it goes, alongside The Book of the Damned, so nobody could say the last hour was wasted. Though it came close.Nor was I able to impose a theme upon the shelf, other than Books I Am Delighted to Possess. But maybe that's enough.In any case, it will have to do.Above: For technical reasons, I'm having difficulty uploading a picture of the wall of books in my office. So here's a pic of part of the wall of books in my bedroom. * Full Article
o Zero Notebook 1: Cover By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 20:51:00 +0000 .Look what I found!Some time ago, I posted every page of the Image Notebook I created to help me imagine the world and people of Industrialized Faerie for The Iron Dragon's Mother. What I didn't mention was that it was actually the second such notebook I'd made. The first notebook I lost--forever, I thought. But as it turned out, it had been misfiled in my office.This is why you should clean your workspace at least once a decade.The Zero Notebook, as I think of it, was begun all the way back in 2009. I pasted images from magazines and newspapers into it, created collages, some of which I altered, sought inspiration from the uncanny but visualizable. The end result is something very close to (but not identical with) outsider art.I'll spare you the bulk of the images. But starting today I'll be posting ten images from the notebook. One on each weekday when I don't have any other news to pass along. This is the first one: the notebook's cover.And what, you ask, does it mean . . . ?The eye, of course, represents the eye of a dragon. It's slashed across the oval to create a zero. The dot to the lower right is meant to suggest that the glyph represents the letter Q., though, of course, not exactly. That's because I wasn't looking for Answers. Just Questions. There are a few (not many) words in the notebook. Here's an entry I ran across that begins with (almost) the cover glyph:Q. What does the Goddess want?A. Wrong question.All of the above carried through into the novel and became a major, if close to undetectable, theme. The Iron Dragon's Mother would have been a very different book if I had started it with a different image.The crinkly stuff is wide transparent tape, used to seal the image onto the cover. If this notebook ever winds up in somebody's collection, that's going to be a major conservation issue. Not my problem.Above: First image. Nine to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 2: Caitlin By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:29:00 +0000 .Here on the inside cover of the Zero Notebook is a first glimpse of Caitlin. It's a photograph of a young Russian doctor and, although it misrepresents Caitlin's ethnicity entirely, it does capture her innate seriousness. Added to which are birds in flight, because flight is in her nature, and a miniature of a painting by Lucian Freud. This last was included for its lack of glossy magazine glamor but also, with a touch of irony, because I knew that the novel would be going deep into Carl Jung territory.And what, you ask, does it mean . . .?It doesn't. The page is a first, fumbling-in-the-darkness attempt to find the heart and soul of the novel.Above: Second image. Eight to go.* Full Article
o A Glorious Review of The Postmodern Adventures of Darger and Surplus By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 07:30:00 +0000 .My Subterranean Press collection, The Postmodern Adventuers of Darger and Surplus, has received quite a splendid review for Locus by Gary K. Wolfe, which has now been posted on Locus Online. Darger and Surplus are, as you probably know, gentlemen grifters in the future civilization that rises from the ashes of our own, after a failed revolution by the Artificial Intelligences we are currently hard at work creating. Humanity mostly won that war and the demons and mad gods were banished to a subterranean infrastructure too widespread and well-defended to be rooted out. But, as a result, the mechanical sciences have languished while the biological ones thrive.All this is spelled out in the review more entertainingly than I have put it here. I encourage you to read it.Meanwhile, here's the pull-quote I'd grab from the review if I were the sort of person who did that sort of thing:As those Hugo voters apparently recognized nearly 20 years ago, Darger and Surplus not only join the small company of SF’s classic rogues, but the world they occupy is as complex, detailed, and morally chaotic as we’ve come to expect from the best of Swanwick’s fiction.You can find the review in its glorious entirety here. Or you can just go to locusmag.com and poke around. Bot Locus and Locus Online make for informative, enjoyable readingAnd as long as you're there . . .Like everything else, Locus is feeling the financial stress of the lockdown. If you can afford it, and if you, like me, value the publication, consider contributing a little toward its survival.* Full Article
o E-Book Sales Sunday and Monday! By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Fri, 17 Apr 2020 21:11:00 +0000 .Open Road Media, my main e-book publisher, appears to be on a tear these days. Maybe because a lot of self-isolated people need books these days and aren't willing to wait for them to be delivered through the mails? I don't know and I haven't asked. I just pass along their promotions to you.On Sunday, April 19th for one day only, my classic Grand Tour of the Solar System novel, Vacuum Flowers, will be on sale for $1.99 in Canada and the US.Rebel Elizabeth Mudlark has a headful of stolen wetware, enemies that want her dead, and a Solar System full of colorful human and posthuman cultures that is far too small for her to hide in. She doesn't want to change everything. But she has no choice...(Vacuum Flowers was written at the height of the Cyberpunk/Humanist wars and was meant to belong to neither camp. But I did throw in a short nod to each camp in the novel. Widely separated, of course.)Here's their chart: ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504036504 Vacuum Flowers Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL US 2020-04-19 2020-04-19 $1.99 9781504036504 Vacuum Flowers Swanwick, Michael ORM - Portalist NL CA 2020-04-19 2020-04-19 $1.99 Immediately after, on Monday, April 20th, my short story collection, ,Tales of Old Earth, goes on sale in the US and Canada for $2.99.Tales of Old Earth contains nineteen of my best and strangest stories, including two Hugo Award winners and I forget how many also-rans. Featuring a planet-sized grasshopper, the train to Hell, an amorous sphinx, the last elves in the world, a civilization inside an International Harvester refrigerator, and much, much more!Here's the second chart: ISBN13 Title Author Promo Type Country Start Date End Date Promo Price 9781504036511 Tales of Old Earth Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL US 2020-04-20 2020-04-20 $2.99 9781504036511 Tales of Old Earth Swanwick, Michael ORM - Early Bird Books NL CA 2020-04-20 2020-04-20 $2.99 Enjoy!* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 3: Jinx By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 22 Apr 2020 21:30:00 +0000 .Excerpt 3 from the Zero Notebook for The Iron Dragon's Mother. Jinx is a pretty neat character. I'm sorry I couldn't find a place for her in the novel. She looks like trouble, doesn't she?And I have to apologize . . .I promised to post these on every day I didn't have news and then got so caught up on writing chores I lost track of the blog entirely. My bad. I'll do better, I promise.For a while, anyway. Above: Third image. Seven to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 4: A Vision of God By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:33:00 +0000 .This is the single most important image in the Zero Notebook. As my scrawled notation says: Her first glimpse/vision of Him. It is an image of God.At this distance, I could not say why I specified Him rather than Her, given that my fictional universe is presided over by the Goddess. Probably I didn't want that fictional level of deniability. Below the picture it also says:To say that the world is a fictionis not the same as to say it is a lie.And to the side:How do you describe what cannot be described?And what, you ask, does it mean . . . ?If I knew, I would tell you. Above: Fourth image. Six more to go.* Full Article
o Citywide Blackout: Steampunk Dragons By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Fri, 24 Apr 2020 07:30:00 +0000 .I've been podcast! Or at least my words have, podded up into an electronic bundle and cast out into the Noosphere. Over on Citywide Blackout, I discuss The Iron Dragon's Mother, worldbuilding, and the novel I wrote with Gardner Dozois--City Under the Stars.It is impossible to exaggerate the influence Gardner had on my life. Over the course of a single evening, he and Jack Dann taught me how to write. He and I and Jack, in various combinations, wrote stories together and routinely sold them to publications like Playboy, Penthouse, and (this always amused Gardner hugely) High Times. Gardner and his wife, Susan Casper, were good friends to me and to Marianne for over forty years.But then Susan died and, a little later, Gardner did too, leaving our last collaboration unfinished. But he'd told me how it would end and so I finished it so all the world could discover that he'd finished on a high note. I wanted one last novel, to stand as a monument to him.You can hear the entire story by clicking here.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 5: Hermes/Fire Sprite By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Sat, 25 Apr 2020 01:00:00 +0000 .Another character that didn't make it into The Iron Dragon's Mother. Industrialized Faerie is a rich world. The three novels I've set in it can only only hint at how rich and strange it is.This image, for a rarity, was hardly altered at all.And where, you ask, did I find this. . . ?The image came from the Body Works show that toured the world some years ago. A large number of corpses were flayed and then carefully preserved, in order to display the wonders of anatomy. The show was controversial at the time because the corpses came from China and there were those who claimed the bodies hadn't been voluntarily donated but those of criminals who had died in prison. The truth of the matter was impossible to ascertain.The show, however, was extremely popular. My son, Sean Swanwick, worked for a summer as a guide when it was displayed at the Franklin Institute and he told me that they had to watch the people touring it like hawks... Every now and then, someone would try to snap off a finger or other appendage to take home as a souvenir.Above: Image five. Five more to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 6: Mother Eve By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Tue, 28 Apr 2020 07:30:00 +0000 .She never appears in person in The Iron Dragon's Mother, but Mother Eve is central to the entire enterprise. Unsettling, isn't she?Judith Berman once told me that most of the First People have Trickster tales. But of the hundreds of tribes in North America, only two--and they small tribes--have a female trickster. The female trickster is, apparently, difficult for people to imagine.So you can imagine my delight when I found one right inside my own culture.But what, you ask, does it mean . . .?Trickster is a strange and difficult character, neither a good guy nor an evil one. She exists somewhere in between, a creator of chaos and a provider of a special Something that it seems human beings require. It might be corn and it might be fire. Trickster gets blamed for a lot of the woes of existence, but it seems that without him/her, we're skunked.I wonder if Pandora was originally a Trickster, before they allegorized her to hell and back? It bears thinking on.Above: Image Six. Four to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 7: Helen By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 29 Apr 2020 19:37:00 +0000 .Introducing Helen. There's more to her than meets the eye.Written upside-down--so they won't necessarily be taken as gospel by any readers are three quick notes scrawled to myself:Mother as Mind SpiderStoryteller as Spider & WeaverChrone as SpiderI apologize for the misspelling of "crone." But I was writing (and thinking) too fast to care much for accuracy.But what, you ask, does it mean . . . ?The influence of Louise Bourgeois is pretty obvious here. Late in life, she created those wonderful, terrifyingly realistic giant spiders with long steel needles at the end of their legs and said that they were all about her mother. Who made a living repairing tapestries, using long steel needles. So it's not the slap in her face it might seem.I liked the spider representing the archetypal woman-as-maker, which fit Helen right down to the ground. I was also fighting a fight all the way through with received archetypal images of women were were almost all pretty or dainty or passive. I wanted to get at that primal fierceness that lurks inside us all.And, ounce for ounce, you don't get much fiercer than a spider.And tomorrow and Friday . . .There will be news.Above: Seventh image. Three to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 8: Frog By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Thu, 30 Apr 2020 21:12:00 +0000 .Originally, this was going to be a character named Frog--one who never materialized in The Iron Dragon's Mother. A wood-fey, obviously, and possibly a marsh-weller.But look at that wistful, lost expression. I think this guy eventually became Fingolfinrhod. I really do.Above: Image Eight. Two more to go.* Full Article
o "She Saved Us From World War Three" By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Fri, 01 May 2020 20:24:00 +0000 .Very few people in the science fiction community ever came face to face with Alice Sheldon, who wrote SF under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr, much less met her tarantulas. One of those very few was Gardner Dozois. When he sold his papers to UC Riverside (the proceeds went to keeping his wife, Susan Casper, alive for several years longer than would otherwise have happened), bookman Henry Wessells became aware of the correspondence between Sheldon and Dozois.Now, Henry has created a chapbook, She Saved Us from World War Three, containing the two most significant letters from that correspondence. The first is from Sheldon, telling Gardner that the secret of her identity was about to go public and that she was not a man but a woman. The second is her relieved response to Gardner's assurance that they were still friends.Which understates how Gardner felt about Sheldon/Tiptree. He was in awe of her as a writer and remained so after the murder-suicide that ended her life.To go with the letters and give them some context, I interviewed Gardner about his friendship with Alice Sheldon and this introduction now forms the bulk of the chapbook.Today is the publication date for She Saved Us from World War Three and it is currently available for sale. It costs $20, which is not cheap for twenty pages of prose but is cheap for a beautifully made limited edition chapbook with fold-out facsimiles of the letters themselves.Those of you who need it know who you are. Me, I already have my copy. I'm going to dig up the oversized paperclip which Sheldon gave to Gardner as a souvenir of their meeting and Gardner gave to me because souvenirs meant nothing to him and keep the two of them together. This is a very meaningful publication for me.You can find ordering information here.Above: The chapbook's cover. Photo by John DeChancie and used with his permission. John is a Mensch. I esteem him highly.* Full Article
o The Postutopian Adventures of Michael Swanwick By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Mon, 04 May 2020 19:38:00 +0000 .Look what came in the mail! My contributor's copies of The Postmodern Adventures of Darger and Surplus. Which I can now honestly tell you are beautiful books. Marianne--owner, reditor, and sole entrepreneur of Dragonstairs Press, remember--especially admired the texture of the endpapers.This is the first Darger and Surplus collection of short, and it collects everything except the two novels. But I should caution you that it is a slim book--five previously published stories, four related short-shorts, and "There Was an Old Woman..." a story written expressly for this collection. Bloated this volume is not.Subterranean Press has created, as I said, one lovely volume. It costs $40, because it's a high-quality collector's item, published in a limited edition of one thousand. But for a high quality collector's item, published in a limited edition of one thousand, that's pretty cheap.Here's the table of contents:Introduction:Mother Goose’s Errant SonsStories:The Dog Said Bow-WowThe Little Cat Laughed to See Such SportGirls and Boys, Come Out to PlayTawny PetticoatsThere Was An Old WomanAppendix:Introduction to Appendix: A Little Smoke and a Mirror or ThreeSmoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes from the Postutopian FutureIf you're interested, you can buy a copy of the book here. Or you can buy an e-book version for $5 here.Oe you can simply go the the Subterranean website and poke around here. Mine isn't the only book there you want. Far from it.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 9: Dragon Skull By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Tue, 05 May 2020 08:30:00 +0000 0Dragons are, as everybody knows, half fighter jet and half fire spirit.Here's the skull of one.Above: Image Nine. One more to go.* Full Article
o Zero Notebook 10: Helen By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Wed, 06 May 2020 13:55:00 +0000 . Our revels now are ended. These our images, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air...But before we go, one more page, the back inside cover to be specific. It contains two more images of Helen. One is a publicity shot from a period she was going to leave out of the autobiography she never wrote, when she made a brief, ill-fated stab at acting. The other is from a dark period in her middle age.She was far better-looking than she'd ever admit to being.And what, you ask, does it mean . . . ?To find that out, you're just going to have to read The Iron Dragon's Mother, now aren't you?Above: Tenth image. Tout finis!* Full Article
o "Paris, a Poem" in SWEDISH! By floggingbabel.blogspot.com Published On :: Thu, 07 May 2020 08:30:00 +0000 .Yet again, something astonishing has arrived in my mailbox. This time, it's a chapbook titled Paris ett poem, containing a Swedish translation (surely the first) of Hoope Mirrlees' modernist masterpiece, Paris, a Poem. Mirrlees, you'll recall, is best known in genre circles for her fantasy novel Lud-in-the-Mist, in academic circles for being on the fringes of Bloomsbury, and in poetic circles for this poem.Ylva Gislén translated the poem, wrote an introduction, provided explanatory notes, and created two collages for inclusion in the chapbook. All of it, clearly, a labor of love.Quite a lovely book. Published by Ellerströms.And Speaking of Good Things . . .The Temporary Culture chapbook assembled by Henry Wessells, "She Saved Us from World War Three," was reviewed by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post. Here's what he said:Besides being one of the stars of “The Booksellers,” Henry Wessells is also the proprietor of the micro-publisher, Temporary Culture. His latest booklet, “She Saved Us From World War Three,” brings together an interview, essay and two letters highlighting the friendship between Gardner Dozois, the longtime editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and Alice Sheldon, the former Washington intelligence agent whose intense, sometimes feminist sci-fi — no one ever forgets “The Women Men Don’t See” — was written using the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. In one letter Sheldon explains that she has pretty much stopped writing because “the stories were getting to hurt too much.”Which is pretty good coverage for a micro-press.* Full Article
o A Last Minute Ten, Nine, Eight … Point Transit Plan By torontoist.com Published On :: Tue, 13 Feb 2018 00:42:16 +0000 The mayor's list of ideas to alleviate crowding offers little relief in the short term. Mayor John Tory announced a ten-point plan to fight congestion and delays on the TTC at a press conference just before Toronto Council began its final debates on the 2018 budget. Through the entire budget process, starting with Tory’s cohort on the TTC Board and continuing through the City Budget and Executive committees, transit has […] The post A Last Minute Ten, Nine, Eight … Point Transit Plan appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article news "John Tory" A to B budget 2018 city hall transit TTC
o Extending the Yonge line will only make crowding worse By torontoist.com Published On :: Tue, 20 Feb 2018 16:32:56 +0000 Line 1 is over capacity—adding more stops isn't the solution. We need to talk about this idea to extend the Yonge line up to Richmond Hill. The Yonge line is already congested. Anyone who rides the subway regularly is aware of this. The immediate plans to address it are, shall we say, unimpressive. The Yonge Relief Network Study done in 2015 for Metrolinx [PDF] focused […] The post Extending the Yonge line will only make crowding worse appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape "public transit" Scarborough subway extension subway extension subways transit Yonge line extension
o Our addiction to driving is costing lives, and more By torontoist.com Published On :: Thu, 08 Mar 2018 14:56:24 +0000 The solution is not to scold drivers but to make structural solutions. I must confess: I was tempted to write a column along the lines of “Yes, it’s a war on the car, and it’s a just war!” But we don’t need a war on the car. What we need is an intervention. We need a serious conversation about our collective, structural addiction to this substance, […] The post Our addiction to driving is costing lives, and more appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape cars cycling cyclists Driving parking pedestrians pollution transit vehicles war on car
o Civic Tech: Hackers! To Your Stations! By torontoist.com Published On :: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 21:00:49 +0000 For those who care about data, the City’s new Open Data Master Plan is about to change everything. One Saturday afternoon earlier this month, more than 100 people gathered at the Toronto Public Library for an annual gathering called CodeAcross, the city’s annual open data and civic tech event. This year, the theme was the Future of Work. One of the challenges centred on the City of Toronto’s freshly approved Open Data Master […] The post Civic Tech: Hackers! To Your Stations! appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape
o Toronto’s Long-Term Financial Plan: The Bill is Due By torontoist.com Published On :: Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:12:54 +0000 As his parting gift to Toronto Council, City Manager Peter Wallace spells out the effect of years of promised new services and infrastructure unmatched by revenue to build and operate our dream city. Toronto Council is good at making promises, voting for better services, new transit lines, a revitalized expressway, but too many of these promises depend on money the city does not have. At budget time, city staff work their magic and trim spending to fit the available dollars. Programs are stretched to make do with less […] The post Toronto’s Long-Term Financial Plan: The Bill is Due appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article news
o Introducing: Another Glass Box, a new weekly architecture feature By torontoist.com Published On :: Sun, 18 Mar 2018 21:34:12 +0000 Keesmaat’s Next Venture, Shitty Architecture Men, Mod Squad, Presto Problemo, Bench Press, and more in this debut edition. Another Glass Box is a weekly roundup of urban design news in Toronto (and occasionally beyond), in bite-size pieces. It’s curated by Dan Seljak, who’s done marketing and communications work for architecture and construction companies for the last seven years—and who still loves this city enough to line up for brunch. Content warning: some of the […] The post Introducing: Another Glass Box, a new weekly architecture feature appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article news "affordable housing" "urban design" Another Glass Box Architecture bench cityscape DTAH Jennifer Keesmaat modernism newsletter Presto sitTO
o Has Toronto Become a City of Instagram Photo Ops? By torontoist.com Published On :: Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:28:32 +0000 Food, art, even public space now seems to revolve around aesthetic value as judged by the social network. Whether it’s a small new restaurant or a major art gallery exhibition, it seems Toronto’s cultural institutions must cater to the “like” seeking set. The price of success today is a sacrifice made at the altar of Instagram. Of course, to some, it’s not viewed as a sacrifice at all, especially when it boosts business […] The post Has Toronto Become a City of Instagram Photo Ops? appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape AGO instagram Toronto Toronto food toronto restaurants
o Our One Chance to Fix Yonge Street By torontoist.com Published On :: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 15:22:59 +0000 The re-imagining of the city’s main artery must look to the future, not the past. It’s clear that Toronto is changing; it’s not so clear that our political leaders have noticed. The debate about the revitalization of Yonge St. in North York Centre, where the cityscape is now dominated by residential towers, highlights the problem. ‘RE-imagining Yonge’, a city initiative covering the area between Sheppard and Finch Avenues, goes to […] The post Our One Chance to Fix Yonge Street appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape cars City Council city hall cycling Reimagining Yonge Urban Planning vision zero yonge street
o Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition By torontoist.com Published On :: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 23:40:48 +0000 Mayoral foibles, Google's urban charm offensive, finalists for George Brown's new wood building, and how many avocado toasts will you need to give up? 1 Please don’t poke the mayor – Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson found himself criticized in light of calling George Bemi’s award-winning Ottawa Library a “Stalin-ist bunker”. Watson’s rebuke wasn’t so elegant, but the following debate explored how contemporary ideas of wellness and accessibility requires real investment in restoration and renovation. Here in Toronto, Mayor John […] The post Another Glass Box: The Stalinist “Bunker” Edition appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape "urban design" Another Glass Box Architecture avocado toast George Brown campus Jim Watson Ottawa Public Library Sidewalk Labs timber wood wood buildings
o Habitat: Environmentalists eye city’s investment policies By torontoist.com Published On :: Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:37:51 +0000 Divestment is “more urgent” in Toronto than NYC A growing list of large institutional investors around the world – state and provincial pension funds, university endowments, and most recently, New York City itself, have been aggressively divesting from fossil fuel investments so as to do their part in mitigating against climate change. Here in Toronto, it’s been a different story. Prominent institutional investors, […] The post Habitat: Environmentalists eye city’s investment policies appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article politics "Municipal Finance" "New York" divestment environmentalism fossil fuels habitat pension funds Toronto
o Civic Tech: We tried to get a copy of the Sidewalk Toronto agreement By torontoist.com Published On :: Thu, 12 Apr 2018 14:18:03 +0000 Why all the secrecy? If you follow the news in Toronto or if you’re interested in technology, you’ve probably heard of Sidewalk Toronto by now. It’s a joint project of Sidewalk Labs, a sister company of Google, and Waterfront Toronto. This is the tech giant’s first foray into urban development and infrastructure, with Toronto hosting the pilot project. In […] The post Civic Tech: We tried to get a copy of the Sidewalk Toronto agreement appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article cityscape
o Torontoist has been acquired by Daily Hive By torontoist.com Published On :: Wed, 06 Feb 2019 15:48:33 +0000 In 2008, a few friends in Vancouver recognized that a voice was missing from reporting in our country. National news was increasingly international in nature. Provincial was disappearing. And, local seemed out of touch with its audience. So, they started writing the kind of content they wanted to read. Hyperlocal stories aimed at helping people […] The post Torontoist has been acquired by Daily Hive appeared first on Torontoist. Full Article news
o AP Sportlight By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 15:15:20 +0000 AP Sportlight for May 10, 2020 Full Article other
o Mixed feelings around hockey about holding NHL draft early By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 15:46:14 +0000 Mixed feelings around hockey about holding NHL draft early Full Article nhl
o Jeff Hardy takes on Cesaro to highlight WWE Money In The Bank Kickoff Show By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 16:03:11 +0000 WWE Money In The Bank Kickoff begins at 6 pm ET/3 pm PT on Sunday, May 10. Full Article wwe
o Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, May 8, 2020 By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 16:16:00 +0000 Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, May 8, 2020 Full Article wwe
o Wisconsin asks Alvarez, Chryst, Gard to take pay cut By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 16:29:52 +0000 Wisconsin officials believe a plan of reducing compensation to highest-earning employees should help save the athletic department about $2.8 million. Full Article wisconsin
o Becky Lynch racks up most total days as Raw Women’s Champion in history By Published On :: Sat, 09 May 2020 16:36:27 +0000 Becky Lynch has become the Superstar with the most total days as Raw Women’s Champion, surpassing Alexa Bliss. Full Article wwe
