Gwenda, Author at Gwenda Bond

Fountain Award, Er, Awarded

1 Comment / Scientifiction / By Gwenda / May 15, 2006

The Fountain Award winner has now been announced: Stephanie Harrell for "Girl Reporter" (One Story). Yay!

For those of you who don’t know (hey, the Fountain is newish; this is only the third year), the Fountain Award is given each year to "a speculative short story of exceptional literary quality, chosen from work nominated by magazine and anthology editors." And the winner gets $1,000.

I loved this story a great deal; follow the link above to see some thoughts about it from me and my fellow jurors Carol Emshwiller and Jim Kelly. Being on such a lovely and brilliant jury was a fabulous experience (the other jurors were Mary Anne Mohanraj and Jeffrey Ford). Suffice to say, there were a number of wonderful stories in the running, and many of them are on the honorable mentions list, which you can also see at the link above.

There’s a short interview with Harrell and an excerpt of the story at One Story and you can see a photo of the author’s pirate eyepatch and beautiful blue hair AND hear her read the story at KQED.

I want to single out a few other stories that turned up in my Fountain reading, but which aren’t on the list mentioned above. They are well worth your time to seek out:

"Alienation and Love in the Hebrew Alphabet" by Lavie Tidhar (ChiZine)
"The Belt" by Theodora Goss (Flytrap)
"The Boy Who Was Born Wrapped in Barbed Wire" by Christopher Barzak (Endicott Studio)
"Under the Bridge" by Hannah Wolf Bowen (ChiZine)

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Sunday Hangovers

7 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / May 14, 2006

Cassie Clare went to see the Lestat musical and shares Anne Rice’s bio from the program: The bio of an artist such as Anne Rice (b. 1941) can only be truly understood in the context of the author’s personal testimony—her vast body of work. Each beloved character iridescently animated and virtually manifested before our eyes witnesses their creator’s experience in triumph and in sorrow and in searching for some semblance of Happy Peace. From the pangs of Louis’ utter solitude to Claudia’s untimely demise to Lestat’s wickedly bedazzling smile, the author’s life permeates each page with such ardor one could only blush at being so exposed. But Anne Rice gives herself— her life in full—as a gift to the world in every spellbinding chapter, every carefully turned page, every meaningful word. Mere footprints of a life lived in art. A native of New Orleans now residing in La Jolla, CA, and author of 27 books, which include The Vampire Chronicles, The Witching Hour, Cry to Heaven and Violin, Rice’s latest novel, Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt, is the beginning of her literary contribution to Christian Art. Anne is grateful that these Broadway Giants have adapted her creative endeavor in such a mesmerizing and captivating musical. This adaptation stands alone as a genuine masterpiece!
Liza Palmer recommends the British TV show Green Wing.
Commentary has a wonderful piece on Houdini. (Via Theresa Duncan.)
An excellent post on the fluid relationship of research and story, especially on television, by one of the writers on House. (And I forgot where I saw this. Sorry!)
Mark Twain’s Hawaii. (I highly recommend all Twain’s Hawaii writings; great fun.)
Paul Di Filippo reviews several YA fantasies in the WaPo, including raves for Justine’s Magic Lessons and Scott’s Blue Noon. There’s other children’s book-related stuff too. And there’s a fascinating plagiarism anecdote involving The New Yorker in this column (scroll down).

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Ooh-lala

3 Comments / Memes Upon Memes / By Gwenda / May 13, 2006

Katharine Hepburn
You scored 21% grit, 47% wit, 38% flair, and 14% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You
go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand
head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing
and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or
conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common
sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet.
You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the
screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who
like strong women.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you’d make by taking the
Classic Leading Man Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on grit

You scored higher than 99% on wit

You scored higher than 99% on flair

You scored higher than 99% on class

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

And for gender balance:

Jimmy Stewart
You scored 23% Tough, 14% Roguish, 42% Friendly, and 19% Charming!

You are the fun and friendly boy next door, the classic nice guy who
still manages to get the girl most of the time. You’re every nice
girl’s dreamboat, open and kind, nutty and charming, even a little
mischievous at times, but always a real stand up guy. You’re dependable
and forthright, and women are drawn to your reliability, even as
they’re dazzled by your sense of adventure and fun. You try to be tough
when you need to be, and will gladly stand up for any damsel in
distress, but you’d rather catch a girl with a little bit of flair.
Your leading ladies include Jean Arthur and Donna Reed, those sweet
girl-next-door types.

Find out what kind of classic dame you’d make by taking the
Classic Dames Test.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 99% on Tough

You scored higher than 99% on Roguish

You scored higher than 99% on Friendly

You scored higher than 99% on Charming

Link: The Classic Leading Man Test written by gidgetgoes on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

(Via Literaticat.)

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Sound Reasoning

Books / By Gwenda / May 12, 2006

Laura Miller explains why she didn’t vote in the NYT "Most Distinguished Novel" survey:

My point in objecting was not just some namby-pamby reluctance to make any relative evaluation about literature, because that really is an important thing that critics do: declare that some books are better than others. I have no problem doing that, but I hate imposing a rigidly, atomistic structure on it. Ultimately, novels are so diverse that once they attain a certain level of quality, they really can’t be meaningfully ranked against each other. Some people I discussed this with had a hard time understanding that not wanting to exert an excess of judgment isn’t the same thing as refusing to make any judgment at all. I don’t know why this is so difficult to grasp; it’s like the difference between being decently neat and having obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Well, yes. There’s more.

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Friday Pictorial

1 Comment / Cat and Dog Theater / By Gwenda / May 12, 2006

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Thursday Hangovers

9 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / May 11, 2006

Apologies if I have rudely not responded to your email yet. It’s a large club.
The cinetrix runs a great exchange from film columnist Alan Smithee about which movie adaptations are better than the books they’re based on.
Dave Schwartz on Scandanavian writer Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.
The Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site.
The Slate article about bizarre theorizing that Stephin Merritt is a racist is, well, bizarre. A bit of a misanthrope*? Maybe. (And apparently with good reason.) A racist? Seems like a Plastic Man-caliber stretch. (Via Ed.)
Birnbaum v. David Mitchell.
Disney and the Erotic Art of Dying by Benjamin Buchholz at Identity Theory. (Via Theresa Duncan.)
A story on Carol Emswhiller’s Nebula win, featuring some charming quotes. (Via its generator, the Slush God himself.)
Finally, best news of all: Scott has made the NYT bestseller list for chapter books with the final book in the kick-ass Uglies trilogy, Specials. Let there be great rejoicing. And reading!

*Who knew there was a French Extreme Metal band inspired by Moliere?

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TopChefChat

8 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / May 10, 2006

Okay, so, why not? This is my other favorite show at the moment and we’re up to the reunion special tonight (which Ms. Keane has heard will be a catty debacle) and next week’s the finale. (Photo also snitched from Erin.)

Anyway, my two favorite Top Chef-obsessed bloggers are Erin and the fabulous Liza Palmer. Here’s why.

Liza Palmer: Okay, it’s on – Tom Colicchio. If Harold doesn’t win this bitch I swear…I’m…well, I’m not really going to do much of anything – I mean, I’m not really confrontational or for that matter very motivated or anything…so, it’s more of an empty threat…but, I will seriously be very confused and more than a little angry. For like a couple minutes until someone waves something shiny in front of me and then that would more than likely grab my attention pretty good.

And…

Erin Keane: Further gratuitous Harold commentary: sleeveless black t-shirt? Hot. Though I hope those white shoes were, like, regulation uniform shoes or something. They looked orthopedic to me. I should know. I wore orthopedic shoes until kindergarten. What the fuck, I was pigeontoed. But I never wore them into a sex shop, or paired them with a hot sleeveless number that makes me look like the oldest boy left in high school, the one with the Z-28 and the substitute teacher’s phone number, you know the guy who’d been shaving, or not, for so long he no longer fronted the ratstache just to prove he could, preferring to graduate to a three-o’clock shadow that gave your face a particular flavor of rug burn that betrayed your afterschool activities to your parents who angrily whispered things like "juvie" and "Outward Bound" after they thought you’d gone to bed. God, where did I put my Guns ‘n’ Roses album?

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Wednesday Hangovers

2 Comments / Hangovers / By Gwenda / May 10, 2006

Claire Light on literary maps. I also recommend visiting the Imagination Gallery B Literary Arts (Groucho’s letters!) as a whole and Book Arts.
An excellent cenote site. (Thanks, C.)
Fairhope, Ala.; home to eccentrics and artists?
Agent Jenny Rappaport asks why fantasy is doing better than science fiction at the moment?
The Happy Booker interviews Joyce Carol Oates in the WaPo.

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VeronicaMarsTalk

23 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / May 9, 2006

I’m posting this early in the event anyone wants to make a final guess as to what in the ?!$* we can expect tonight and who was behind the bus crash.

Not Pictured. The second season ends as Veronica, on her graduation day, learns who is responsible for the bus crash. After uncovering the culprit, her life is endangered as she tries to warn those closest to the killer. Also, Wallace learns some surprising information about Jackie, and the seniors celebrate their graduation with a lavish party at the Neptune Grand.

Parting is such sweet sorrow!

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GilmoreGossipCircle

13 Comments / TV Goodness / By Gwenda / May 9, 2006

It feels like the end.

Partings. In the sixth-season finale, Lorelai tries to avoid Luke and ends up pouring her heart out to a psychologist (Melora Hardin) who was invited to dinner at her parents’ house. Elsewhere, Rory tries to avoid the Huntzbergers, particularly Mitchum, as she attends Logan’s graduation and prepares for his inevitable departure; and Taylor’s bothered by an influx of troubadours to Stars Hollow. Mary Lynn Rajskub, Sam Phillips, Grant Lee Phillips, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Sparks and Joe Pernice appear.

At least we have the bands to look forward to.

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