The Bram Stoker Awards were handed out this weekend. The field was so weak that not even the the StrokerAwards parody twitter account bothered to play along. I was happy to see Mort Castle finally break his Goose Egg Streak (most nominations without a win) with his Anthology Editing win for the Bradbury tribute volume Shadow Stories. Also, Novel went to Caitlin Kiernan's The Drowning Girl, which is well-deserved. I liked Lucy Snyder's short story as well.
Superfan and cover designer Brian Bouncher of Barsoom Design has created a gallery of alternative covers for my forthcoming crime novel Love is the Law. What do you think?
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There are more at the link, so click on it. Brian's always looking for paying gigs if you have design needs by the way.
I enjoyed reading the final interview with Iain Banks. Since his passing, I've been wondering how The Wasp Factory would go over if it were published by an unknown writer today. I almost never re-read books, but I did last week. I have to think the book and author would be roundly vilified in these sensitive times. Likely, The Wasp Factory would have been published by a small POD press and if it gained any traction at all in the marketplace, it would be the ripple effect of a bunch of people who weren't going to buy the book anyway declaring that they'd be boycotting it.
Speaking of that, in a mild way, I sent a reprinted story into a college textbook publisher that is looking for fiction the other day, and the editor responded, " We probably wouldn’t use the story below because we avoid content that touches on suicide, (as well as alcohol, drugs, weapons, religion, etc.)." and asked me if I had anything else that might be more suitable. Uh...I don't think I do!
I've been doing this seven-minute exercise routine in the mornings. I don't have time to do a circuit of two, but I've found it fairly helpful for cardio so far. Check it out! I replace a deep horse stance for wall sits, elevate my feet on the push-ups, and do chin-ups and hangs instead of dips, but it's cool. I had people who blog posts about exercise, but this is a cute little routine that works and can be squeezed in. There's a free android app for it too. I found that somewhere in the comments of the Times blog about the routine.
Finally, Harlan Ellison did too grab Connie Willis's boob. What kind of journalist doesn't follow up on a claim like that?
Superfan and cover designer Brian Bouncher of Barsoom Design has created a gallery of alternative covers for my forthcoming crime novel Love is the Law. What do you think?
There are more at the link, so click on it. Brian's always looking for paying gigs if you have design needs by the way.
I enjoyed reading the final interview with Iain Banks. Since his passing, I've been wondering how The Wasp Factory would go over if it were published by an unknown writer today. I almost never re-read books, but I did last week. I have to think the book and author would be roundly vilified in these sensitive times. Likely, The Wasp Factory would have been published by a small POD press and if it gained any traction at all in the marketplace, it would be the ripple effect of a bunch of people who weren't going to buy the book anyway declaring that they'd be boycotting it.
Speaking of that, in a mild way, I sent a reprinted story into a college textbook publisher that is looking for fiction the other day, and the editor responded, " We probably wouldn’t use the story below because we avoid content that touches on suicide, (as well as alcohol, drugs, weapons, religion, etc.)." and asked me if I had anything else that might be more suitable. Uh...I don't think I do!
I've been doing this seven-minute exercise routine in the mornings. I don't have time to do a circuit of two, but I've found it fairly helpful for cardio so far. Check it out! I replace a deep horse stance for wall sits, elevate my feet on the push-ups, and do chin-ups and hangs instead of dips, but it's cool. I had people who blog posts about exercise, but this is a cute little routine that works and can be squeezed in. There's a free android app for it too. I found that somewhere in the comments of the Times blog about the routine.
Finally, Harlan Ellison did too grab Connie Willis's boob. What kind of journalist doesn't follow up on a claim like that?