Category: Recommendations

  • Ever wonder what happens at Spec-fic Conventions?

    Read the witty and insightful and sober essay, I Like Writing But Hate Being a Writer, by Richard Bowes.

  • Finding voices

    One of the things I love about the internet is being able to access so many interviews, speeches, debates, lectures and articles by so many authors, artists and thinkers around the globe.  When I recall life pre-internet, and how these items seemed further away and took more time and energy to seek out and find…

  • Strindberg and Helium

    Edited link:  Thanks for the fix, Maureen! If you’ve never experienced viewing the videos about Strindberg and Helium, you must watch them now. They make me laugh at myself whenever I become nihilistic or misanthropic. Click here and enjoy.

  • The Orphan’s Tales

    Fellow Ohioan and fellow exile from the land of the rising sun Catherynne Valente has released the concluding volume of her Orphan’s Tales today.  The first book was a really beautiful artifact, so I’m excited to see how Cat follows it up and brings the stories to a close.  One of the things I like…

  • Datlow’s issue of Subterranean

    I’m reading the Ellen Datlow edited issue of Subterranean lately, and am having a really good time. The magazine could easily be the core of an awesome horror anthology, which is of course one of Ellen Datlow’s specialities, so it’s no surprise to find exciting, well-written and disturbing stories in this issue. Here’s the lowdown…

  • Light

    If you haven’t read the new Kelly Link story that’s in the new issue of Tin House, you should read it now.  I think it’s totally different than anything she’s written before, and it’s really awesome.  It’s a little long to read online, but I couldn’t pull myself away from it.  If the computer is…

  • Telling Lies to the Young Is Wrong

    I came across this poem in the comments section of Justine Larbalestier’s blog, posted there by Chris McClaren, and had to steal it to post over here as well.  It’s just too good, and sums up my feelings in recent years about how we should teach our children and ourselves to look at the world.…

  • Choux Pastry Heart

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0gpaRHBLSk] I am a sucker for this song for more than one reason. 1.) I’ve been sucked in by Corinne Rae Bailey’s bluesy voice, and I love bluesy voices. And 2.) The way I was introduced to her was just the other day when my friend Paul forwarded me this video because it has part…

  • Realms of Fantasy

    Doug Cohen, slush reader for Realms of Fantasy, is having an ongoing discussion over a series of posts on his livejournal about the status of speculative short fiction magazines, focusing on the one he knows best, the one he works at, which has led from a post about the slow death of short fiction venues…

  • You can stand under my umbrella

    A return to a mood I have not felt in a while. Recently I have been sort of obsessed with the song “Umbrella” which is sung by the very popular Barbados-born Rihanna. And when I say popular, I mean popular. You go to this woman’s myspace page and look at how many “friends” she has.…