15 June 2005 by Published in: links 2 comments

Holy cow, did an entire week go by without me posting? I’m living the life of the perpetually behind, I guess. Have some links! Pass them around, enjoy them.

The new Mirrormask trailer is out. According to Neil Gaiman’s blog, Sony is going to judge how widely to release the film at least in part by the number of hits on the trailer. So please, as a personal favor to me, go view the trailer. Often. Thanks!

An interview with Jon Scieszka (of The Stinky Cheeseman and Other Fairly Stupid Tales fame) is available at Bookslut. It’s about his new book aimed at boys, and his effort to promote reading to boys. Also there, you can find an interesting gender in spec fic conversation with Lois McMaster Bujold (one of my writing heroes, as I’ve perhaps mentioned once or twice before).

As you know, I spend a lot of my time listening to public radio. There are a number of reasons why I love it, but one of the most basic is that it’s one of the few remaining media news outlets where I can get foreign news. Sure, I can go to foreign papers online and get news that way, but (at the risk of sounding nationalistic and self-centered) I like my foreign news with an American slant, focusing on how it affects my nation. I know I’m in the minority among my countrymen, holding an interest in global news, because public radio is one of the last places I can still get any kind of foreign coverage. Everywhere else the market rules, the mass appeal to the lowest common denominator has taken over, and the people have steadfastly voted against knowing about what goes on outside our borders. In that vein, I also appreciate that NPR rarely covers celebrity events, which I don’t consider news at all, and usually avoids obsessive focus on stories of the week like the Petersen case or that woman who ran away from her own wedding. I relish public radio because it almost never tells me things I didn’t need to know. Many people say NPR is liberal, and many think it is conservative and almost everyone thinks it has biases in reporting. All of this may be true. However, even though the news may slant towards one end or another of the political spectrum, it’s honestly largely non-partisan. It can’t truthfully be said to be a mouthpiece for either of the two major parties. As an outcast of the major parties, I like that about it. However, this may soon change, and I think that would be terrible, and if you do too, I urge you to take action.

Now that I’m reading several blogs from people publishing in the genre of speculative fiction, I’m slowly growing aware of certain tiffs and to-dos, of the type that all smallish communities have. The latest knockdown appears to be that a few renegade authors started an anonymous blog to review other authors because – unless I misunderstand the intent – they don’t like the sorts of things being nominated for the major awards. Lots and lots of differing reactions to that. I’m not really a member of the community, so it feels really weird to be witnessing the accusations and counter-accusations in the blogosphere. It has nothing at all to do with me. However, I am a little intimidated about being embroiled in any of this sort of thing down the road (although thinking about it all seems stupidly premature), and hope that I can keep my head well enough to remain aloof. Not that I ever do, which is why I’m starting on my hope early. I must say I was – slightly – stung by the guy that said writers have no business reviewing things. Is that true? Do I need to stop reviewing things I read by live authors as soon as I get my first submission accepted? I guess we’ll see. Meanwhile, that’s just anxiety I’m displacing from the real worry which is the soon to be shredding of my story “Hindsight” which goes up at Critters this week. It needs shredding. I’ll be glad of it. The part of me that’s not screaming in pain from the paper cuts will be glad of it anyways.

Last two : some of the most beautiful kinetic art I’ve seen. Astonishingly, it’s created by a robot sculptor. I promised someone (perhaps tux?) the link to a page of starmaps for science fiction movies and books.

Comments

Thu 16th Jun 2005 at 2:53 am

actually, i meant that authors should review authors they know and work with in the same genre. you can do it if you want–i mean, seriously, it’s a choice, you know? but if you have anything but good things to say, you end up ruffling your fellow authors, and the spec fic community is one of those places where everyone knows everyone after a while. that results in authors primarily saying only good things about each other, and refusing to say bad things. hence whyt he cabal blog is being anonymous.

Thu 16th Jun 2005 at 3:05 am

er. shouldn’t, not should.

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