spacecowb0y

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1554

Their night just gets worse and worse.

If you want any QC Merch for Christmas you'd better act fast! Deadlines are LOOMING!

Also I will be at this awesome party-time in Austin this weekend! You should come say hi!

Exhausted.

Interviews

• The Chronic Rift interviews Robert J. Sawyer. (via Tor Books)
• Jeff VanderMeer interviews Nicola Morgan.
• Suvudu live chat with Terry Brooks.
• BSC Review interviews Walter Greatshell.

Advice/Articles

• SF Signal Mind Meld: The Best Genre-Related Books/Films/Shows Consumed in 2009 (Part 2).
• Rachel Swirsky on Link to View Atop the Slushpile, and How Not to Imply You Think You Are Your D&D Character.
• Twelfth Planet Press on ahhh newbie writers.
• World SF News Blog on Who Will You Invite to the World Fantasy Convention?
• Mary Robinette Kowal on Fundraiser for Tu Publishing: a small, independent multicultural SFF press for children and YA.
• Rich Horton's Summary: Lone Star Stories, 2009.
• Paul Jessup on Urban Fantasy as Genre (or, more than just vamps and sex).
• Angel Leigh McCoy on The Horn of Plenty. (via SFWA)
• Angel Leigh McCoy on How to Break into Game Writing.
• Rochita Loene-Ruiz on Writing from the Context of my culture.
• NK Jemisin on The new urban fantasy. Same as the old urban fantasy?
• Jo Walton on What Has Gone Before?
• Jon Evans on My aversion to versions.
• Ari Marmell on No, spelled "Y, E, S".
• Janice Hardy on Re-Write Wednesday: Waxing Philosophical.
• Adrienne Kress on The Business of Selling Books.
• John Joseph Adams on Kirk vs. Holmes and Anthology vs. Anthology, or Burns vs. Adams.
• Nicola Morgan on The Right Book...
• Pimp My Novel on Copyright, Schmopyright.

News

• Open Fantasy Magazine Positions.
• The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy, Honorable Mentions, Part 3.
• Vincent Docherty Discusses Online Hugo Eligibility.
• The SFPA has a forum.
• New SFWA bylaws draft posted for review by members.
• The Rappaport Agency, LLC will be closing.
• RIP Christopher Anvil.

Here's another Prime Books release:

Good question.

So here I am drinking with the boys, but given all the gamer talk, I feel more like I'm drinking with my laptop. I actually prefer the douche discussion than the gamer speak :P

Hay, boys and their video games.

---o0o---

On a better note, I got back from my LD retreat this weekend, while I don't feel a lot of changes in me, nothing life altering, but I feel this was a good start for the transformation.

Life ain't easy, and it's good to know we're never alone.

Also I'm glad my Mom "forced" me to go, I met a lot of nice people... okay, so given the day of silence and all, we were barely able to talk, but even in that short amount of time it was very enjoyable. A lot of new found friends, friends of friends and one long lost busmate :P

<3 Thank you Lord :)

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1553

Poor Marigold. She's just not built for the verbal sparring like Faye is. Also, is it weird or just a sign of my obsessive compulsive disorder that I've had Marigold's hairstyle change planned out since I first introduced her?

Don't forget, I'm gonna be in Austin, TX for WEBCOMICS RAMPAGE this weekend!

See you tomorrow!

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1552

gajhluaghluaghl

Every Wednesday, I have an essay or feature article on any topic that catches my fancy!

Last year, I suggested gift items that are tad bit expensive, so this year, let's do the opposite: sale, sale, sale!

Small Beer Press 2009 Christmas Franciscan Fundraiser Sale



Here's the deal: Small Beer Press books are on sale. For every book you buy, $1.00 goes to the the Franciscan Children’s Hospital. If you want to pay full price for the books, also not a problem! The difference goes to the Franciscan Children's Hospital as well. Not only are you getting books and helping an independent press, but you're donating to charity as well!

More info here.

Also consider: Purchasing all of Small Beer Press's 2009 titles. $59.00 bags you:

Greer Gilman, Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales
Vincent McCaffrey, Hound
Poppy Z. Brite, Second Line
Delia Sherman & Christopher Barzak, Editors, Interfictions 2
A Working Writer’s Daily Planner 2010

Electric Velocipede Special Deals

The Hugo-award winning fanzine is on sale. There's a couple of special offers available. You get get Issue 17/18 for just $10.00.

If you want more, more, more, you can try this for $15.00. (Ezra Pines, Richard Bowes, William Shunn, and Robert Freeman Wexler are awesome writers.)

Issue 15/16 (or issue 12 or 13 after 15/16 runs out)

The Sense of Falling by Ezra Pines [Mark Rich; some stories written with Richard Bowes] (chapbook)

An Alternate History of the 21st Century by William Shunn (chapbook)

Psychological Methods to Sell Must Be Destroyed: Stories by Robert Freeman Wexler (chapbook)

Life's Simple Pleasures by John Klima (chapbook; only available through this offer!)

Lastly, you can also go on a Robert Freeman Wexler overdrive for just $5.00:

Psychological Methods to Sell Must Be Destroyed: Stories by Robert Freeman Wexler (chapbook)

The Circus of the Grand Design by Robert Freeman Wexler (novel)

Eos Books Holiday Discount

This one's simple: not only can you browse Eos Books at their website, but until 12/12/2009, just enter the following code in your shopping cart and you get a 20% discount: EOSHLDY09. (Source)

Tor.com's Cthulhu Month!

The stars have come right over at Tor.com with their Tor.com Store Sale. 30% off on the following books:

• H. P. Lovecraft, by H. P. Lovecraft and Peter Straub (Library of America)
• The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, by H. P. Lovecraft and S. T. Joshi (Dell)
• More Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, by H. P. Lovecraft and S. T. Joshi (Dell)
• The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature, by H. P. Lovecraft and S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press)
• Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)
• A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft , by Stuart Gordon, Harlan Ellison, and Thomas Ligotti (Centipede Press)
• The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson: Horriplicating Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos , by William Jones and Steven Gilberts (Chaosium)
• Graphic Classics: H. P. Lovecraft Volume 4 , by Simon Gane, Tom Pomplun, and Pedro Lopez (Eureka)
• H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays Volume 2: Literary Criticism , by H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press)
• H. P. Lovecraft: Collected Essays Volume 5: Philosophy; Autobiography and Miscellany , by H. P. Lovecraft edited by S. T. Joshi (Hippocampus Press)
• Teatro Grottesco , by Thomas Ligotti (Virgin Books)
• The Imago Sequence and Other Stories , by Laird Barron (Night Shade Books)
• Haggopian and Other Stories , by Brian Lumley and Bob Eggleton (Subterranean Press)
• Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred , by Donald Tyson (Llewellyn Publications)
• Necronomicon , by Ed Simon (Avon Books)
• Threshold , by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Ace Roc)
• The Red Tree , by Caitlin R. Kiernan (Ace Roc)

PS Publishing Xmas Blowout

It's three for the price of two over at PS Publishing for all their current titles. No magic buttons to press, it's all automatic with the cheapest item becoming the freebie.

Twelfth Planet Press Silly Season Sale!

Have I mentioned that Twelfth Planet Press is an awesome Australian indie press? They also got a couple of Aurealis nominations. You can purchase their nominated works here. If you're in Aussie, it's free shipping while international orders split the shipping costs.

George R. R. Martin Christmas Special

Here's something for the George R. R. Martin fanboys. Tuf Voyaging, Windhaven, and Inside Straight all for just $57.00 and the author signs them to boot.

Happy holidays!

Ruel S. De Vera has a book launch tonight for the anthology Connecting Flights: Filipinos Write From Elsewhere, an anthology of travel essays, fiction and poetry. It's at 7 pm, National Bookstore, Glorietta Makati.

Interviews

• A Good Addiction interviews Lilith Saintcrow.
• The Agony Column has a recording of the World Fantasy Convention Panel Podcast : Non-Conciliatory Fantasy.

Advice/Articles

• Scrivener's Error on Repent, Harlequin!
• Rich Horton's Summary: Strange Horizons, 2009.
• Mary Robinette Kowal on Is there a Southern style of SF?
• Mark Chadbourn on Fantasy vs SF: Who Let The Dogs Out?
• Mark C. Newton on Why SF Is Dying: The Follow-up Post (In Which The Author Defends Himself).
• Lilith Saintcrow On The Writing of Half-Vampire Puberty.
• Nick Mamatas on The "market" for short stories.
• Douglas Cohen On Black Matrix Publishing and the Genius of John Scalzi.
• Cat Rambo on Finding Markets For Stories.
• John Scalzi on Presumably Final Notes on Rates, Markets and Blah Blah Blah.
• Jim C. Hines on Stop - Drama Time.
• Ann Leckie on Writing Better.
• Marly Youmans on Luck's Child.
• Booksquare on Responding to Nat Sobel, Cranky-Style.
• Editorial Ass on An editor requested my manuscript at a conference. What should my expectations be?
• Adrienne Kress on Why New Adult Interests Me.
• John Joseph Adams on Gandalf vs. Holmes.
• Nathan Bransford on What's In a Name: All About Pen Names.
• The Rejectionist on Terminator Offers Some Lessons for the Salvation of Your Novel.
• The Book Deal on Lighting up your reader’s brain: Can neuroscience teach how to be a better writer?

News

• Urban Fantasy Celebration & Holiday Discount.
• Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl is on Time's Top 10 of Everything 2009.
• Wheatland Press is asking for your help.
• New Pyr Books titles.
• December issue of Apex Magazine is out!
• Electric Velocipede Sale.

And from Prime Books:

... Could've marked the five years we've been together. Instead today marks the 4th year we've been apart.

I just want to plug my book launch tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 December, 3:30 pm, at the Concourse of the New Rizal Library of the Ateneo at Loyola Heights. It's for a nonfiction story I wrote back in 2003.

Interviews

• Stomping on Yeti interviews Daryl Gregory.
• Pyr SF interviews Joel Sheperd.
• Storytellers Unplugged Q&A with Sarah Monette.

Advice/Articles

• Margaret Atwood on Ten Gifts to Give Beginning Novelists.
• Publisher's Weekly on The Funniest Reasons Customers Reject Books.
• Barnes & Noble Book Club on Best Paranormal Fantasy Novels of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009). (via Diana Gill)
• Dean Wesley Smith on How Did We Get Here?
• S. Boyd Taylor On Writing #7: Emotion -- The Tie that Binds.
• Nick Kauffman on Author Solutions Strikes Back, Claims It's Doing It All For YOU.
• Marshall Payne on What is a Story?
• Jim C. Hines on Short Fiction Pay Rates.
• Rachel Swirsky on Bad Credits Will Not Help You Get Published.
• Ann Leckie on So, the scuffle-du-jour is Scalzi's scolding.
• OF Blog of the Fallen on Interesting forum discussion about "fantasy," or more specifically, about a certain list of "fantasy".
• Juliette Wade on Does your story carry a message?
• Jason Sanford on Ebook releases help overall book sales.
• Joan Peskin on The Slow Slog of Literary Education.
• Pimp My Novel on You Can't Spell "MWA HA HAAA" Without "MWA".
• Nick Wood on SF in South Africa.

News

• Strange Horizons looking for First Readers.
• Small Beer Press Fundraiser/Sale.
• Clockwork Phoenix 3 Table of Contents.

And a recent title from Small Beer Press:

Tonight wasn't about the fancy village gates where stationed guards pointed my cab to his house. Tonight wasn't about the security guard they had who opened their gate and made me wait by his post. Tonight wasn't about the quiet foyer where saints and figurines bore witness to pictures and portraits of his family's history. Tonight wasn't about the half smile he welcomed me by without looking into my eyes. Tonight wasn't about the effort he had made in preparing dinner, after all he does enjoy cooking. Tonight wasn't certainly about the Molé he had prepared, a recipe he had learned from his recent South American trip. Tonight wasn't about the great conversation amidst an eerie silence of a lived-in empty house. Tonight wasn't about how we shared common interests and ideals. Tonight wasn't about how we had some things we don't agree on. Tonight wasn't about how he offered to bring me to the train station, and by "he" meaning an extension of his institution through his driver and 4x4, himself not included. Tonight wasn't about the yawn he did as he said goodbye. Tonight wasn't certainly about that. Not at all.

Tonight was about hitting the streets, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green while saying no to children asking if they can hail me a cab. Tonight was about walking up the train station, lining up with the weary masses making their way home. Tonight was about standing in a moderately spacious middle isle of a train car staring at the faces of fellow passengers. Tonight was about getting off EDSA, walking towards the jeepney line and taking the rightmost front seat where the breeze rinsed off the day from me. Tonight was about getting off my street, walking past the baranggay, past the makeshift videoke bars, past children scavenging the daily trash waiting outside, past two lovers entangled under the shadow of a broken lamppost. Tonight was about being opened to by smiling help, and coming home to a lonely piece of KFC left all alone in its grease-laden box. Tonight was about coming home to Sabel ecstatically wagging her tail and kissing my heel. Tonight was about coming home to mom lovingly putting my shirts in my closet. Tonight was about this and more.

Tonight was about the world I live in. Tonight was about the place I belong to. Tonight was about the people around me. Tonight was about the life I lead. Tonight was about home and how it's always nice to have one to come home to.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1551

Jeez, so many (okay, just two) callbacks in this strip. As my archive grows ever larger and more intimidating I'm gonna have to watch out and make sure new strips don't devolve entirely into references to things that happened hundreds of strips ago.

Also you will be pleased to know that in a fit of holiday cheer I have ordered my legal team to allow David Willis' various websites to continue operating even as I pursue legal action against him for his heinous, impertinent theft of my characters. I expect to literally own him by the end of the year, but I figure I might as well allow him the small mercy of pretending he still controls his own fate.

(Before you email me THAT LAST PARAGRAPH WAS A JOKE. Some of you people have no grasp of the concept of sarcasm.)

One last thing: this coming weekend I will be in Austin, TX for WEBCOMICS RAMPAGE! I've never been to Austin before, I hope some of you will show up and say hi. That would be rad.

See you tomorrow!

Congrats to the Aurealis Awards finalists.

Interviews

• Craig Wallwork interviews Stephen Graham Jones.
• Hour of the Wolf interviews Delia Sherman, Genevieve Valentine, and Carlos Hernandez.
• Mary Robinette Kowal has recordings of Jay Lake's audio.
• Odyssey Podcasts has a recording of a lecture from Patricia Bray.
• Suvudu interviews Greg Cox.
• The Mad Hatters interviews Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
• The smallWORLD podcast interviews Cory Doctorow, Annalee Newitz, J.C. Hutchins, Steve Eley.
• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist interviews Robin Hobb.

Advice/Articles

• Rachel Caine on Best thing anybody ever told me in writing...
• Mystery Writers of America on Harlequin Letter in Response to MWA Letters.
• Nick Kauffman on The Plot Thickens.
• Jackie Kessler on Harlequin vs. MWA (1, 2).
• Adrienne Kress on The Self Publishing Debate.
• Sandra Ruttan on The Minefield of Publishing Politics: MWA and Harlequin and Fixing the Book Business.
• Pub Rants on Harlequin Horizons Debacle Revisited.
• Catherynne M. Valente on Short Fiction and You.
• Clarkesworld Magazine on Semiprozines, John Scalzi, and Doing Right.
• Sarah Monette On the Third Hand.
• Clint Harris on What the Rest of Us Get Paid.
• Twelfth Planet Press on Sales at Australian cons.
• Nisi Shawl on Transracial Writing for the Sincere.
• The Harvard Crimson on Taking Sci Fi Into the Classroom.
• S.J. Chambers on Alas, the Poe Bicentennial: Studying Poe with Rob Velella.
• Damien G. Walter on Show me the risk taking writers.
• Rich Horton's Summary: Ideomancer, 2009.
• Gio Clairval on A Tightrope Poet of the Impossible.
• Jesse Bullington on Navigating The Intent of a Fickle Author and Film and Fiction as Partners in an Author's Literary Development.
• Inside Adams on Our bronze doors. (via Booksquare)
• N.K. Jemisin on Fantasy 2035.
• Editorial Anonymous on The Subtle Art of Form Rejections.
• PJ Nunn on 10 Ways to Raise the Bar on Book Promotion.
• Alan Russell on Secret Agent Man.
• Nicola Morgan on Failure to Be Published: Harsh Reality.

News

• UPC SF 2009 Winners.
• Open Fantasy Magazine Positions.

One more anthology:

watched Spelling Bee for the second time yesterday, this time with Toyang and Clair. Pia was supposed to go but a combination of a bad cough and parents kept her. the play was still hilarious. I think the joke that really sold with the audience was whatever word that was that meant something like small person that refuses to relinquish power.


later that night, I had dinner with Crissa, Jayca and Jane at Arya followed by drinks at Chili's to celebrate Crissa's birthday. it was my first time to eat in Arya. the food was good and, thankfully, agreed with my stomach. tentative plans were made to go to Palawan or Boracay next year.

http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1550

This is why you don't see more anecdotes in comics. It leads to walls of text.

See you Monday!

LiveJournal: The First Decade

Just in time for holiday shopping, we're thrilled to announce the release of our ten-year anniversary anthology. Published by Blurb.com, the book showcases a decade of extraordinary talent drawn from LiveJournal users around the world. This must-read compilation features stories, memes, photos, comics, editorials, graphic content, and more, including:

1. Excerpts from Oh No They Didn't (a/k/a ohnotheydidnt), the largest community on LiveJournal, covering celebrity gossip, entertainment news, and pop culture
2. A look at post-Katrina New Orleans from the journal of Poppy Z. Brite
3. Gripping narratives, including a poignant reverie on a blind date
4. Photography that spans the globe, ranging from old-fashioned Polaroids to underwater photography
5. Mouthwatering dishes from food_porn

What began as a late-night inspiration back in Brad Fitzpatrick's college dorm in 1999 has grown to encompass nearly 25 million users worldwide, with journals and communities covering every conceivable hobby, passion, and topic. To get your copy, please visit the Blurb Bookstore. For updates and entries from book contributors, please join lj_turns10.

Tweaks and enhancements

• You can now ban a user from all of your communities and journals at once. To access this feature, hover over the person's userpic and choose Ban user everywhere from the drop-down menu.
• Follow LiveJournal on Twitter!

Give a little to help a lot!

In honor of National AIDS Awareness month, we've added a new charitable vgift. For each red ribbon you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine (we'll cover credit card fees). You can read more about IAVI at lj_cares. While we're on the subject, we raised $740 from our November fundraiser for Love Without Boundaries, which supports emergency healthcare and adoption of Chinese orphans. We thank you for helping us help others.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible pictures from our super-talented LiveJournal photographers. Congratulations to ilya_gorokhov, who is the winner of our very first lj_photophile poll.

We hope you'll continue to post, vote, and comment! A gentle request: Please post only one photo at a time and limit size to 350x350 (so images display properly on friends pages). And now, without further ado, get ready to cast your ballot and view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay safe and snug out there!

Release #59 has a bunch of bugfixes and improvements - here you go!

• Lost password emails can be sent to the current email address on an account *and* the previously validated email addresses for six months after a new address is set. After six months, only the currently in-use email address can receive password reset emails.
• Changes to payment system backend (not user-visible changes)
• You can now page back on the "People & Communities" tab when using the advanced text search (http://www.livejournal.com/search/)
• Fixed some issues in the Userpic Factory so that when and cropping larger pictures works correctly
• Removed "ban user" from hover menu for communities
• Removed the underline from the usericon in some minimalism styles
• Corrected the markup for Writers Block plain text notifications so that usernames are rendered correctly
• Using the "Next" or "Previous" functions now returns the correct entry even when the entries are dated out of order (LJSV-440)
• Converted communities now retain correct security settings
• Corrected the conversion rate for Yandex Money
• Notes now show correctly when viewing a username in the comments section
• If the user is a maintainer of more than one community, the 'ban everywhere' option will display when banning a user
• On geo-location, since some values were displaying "???" for Russian IPs, the Cyrillic values will be displayed in English (temporary workaround)
• Added date and time of post to Recent Entries view in "Cardboard" style
• Removed the * from Notes in header of profile page
• When a Note is updated or added, it now updates immediately on the page being viewed
• When answering the Writer's Block question using Opera, the cursor now appears in the entry field instead of in the question field
• Disabled the ability to modify/overwrite embed IDs after they have been created (LJSV-785)

I have an interview with Jake Black, author of The Authorized Ender Companion, over at SF Signal. (I'm trying to hit 100 interviews this year.)

Interviews

• Punktalk interviews Andy Remic.
• The Agony Column interviews Zoran Zivkovic.
• The Agony Column has a recording of the SF in SF Panel Discussion with S. G. Browne, Jeff VanderMeer and Terry Bisson (podcast).
• Fantasy Magazine interviews Aidan Doyle.
• Grasping for the Wind interviews Natasha Bennett.
• Stomping on Yeti interviews Daniel Abraham.
• Booklife interviews Nathan Ballingrud.

Advice/Articles

• The Year’s Best SF and Fantasy, Honorable Mentions, Part 2.
• Mark Charan Newton on Why Science Fiction Is Dying & Fantasy Fiction Is The Future.
• John C. Wright On Writer's Block.
• Jesse Bullington on Any Genre, Potentially: The Stories of Now.
• Hal Duncan on The Marriage(s) of Science Fiction / Fantasy.
• J.C. Hutchins on Rejection rules! (The “7th Son” story, from podcast to print).
• Liz Gorinsky on Zombie Christmas Redux.
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden on H. P. Lovecraft, Founding Father of SF Fandom.
• Editorial Ass on What Can I Expect of My Agent?
• Justine Larbalestier on Paranormal/Fantasy YA Review Bingo (updated).
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Negotiation Part One.
• Brett Alexander Savory on Three Editing Tips.
• John Scalzi on Aspiring Writer Stockholm Syndrome.
• Nicola Morgan on The Really Very Simple Theory of Being Published.
• Pimp My Novel on (Novel) Pimpin' Ain't Easy: Part 2 of 2.

News

• Fantasy Magazine needs interviewers.
• LA Times reviews Finch (warning: spoilers).
• Google Settlement, Supplemental Notice.

Some Wild Cards love: