Hangovers

• The Hugo nods are out. Naomi Novik is the lone woman in a fiction category: For shame. There are still some fine, fine works on the ballot though, and some excellent peoples. Bonus: Ben Rosenbaum responds to his nom.
• Ed considers hobbits, controversially.
• The lovely and recently hot-book-dealed Sarah Prineas posts about setting goals as a writer and has already inspired lots of people to do the same. I’m sure I’ll post more on this when I get a chance.
• Betsy at Fusenumber8 renders her verdict on the various Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows covers that are circulating. I can’t agree more with her assessment on the middle one — National Lampoon indeed! She also points out that getting your teeth carved into fairies is CREEPY.
• The world’s first known case of semi-identical twins. (Via Jenny D.)
• Colleen Mondor posts a round-up of some highlights from Margo Rabb’s blog tour (which is just finishing up), in case you’ve missed them. Rabb’s book looks utterly fab.
• Ysabeau on Diana Wynne Jones’ excellent and hilarious and recently reissued Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
• Ed has links to the Best American Fantasy stories that are online.
• Leila at Bookshelves of Doom has the scariest Wizard of Oz dolls EVER. I don’t get the doll thing either.
• Paul Collins on the incredibly long-lived Lee Merriwether.
• Congratulations to The Millions on four years!
• Erin joins the chorus of recommendations for Then We Came to the End.
• In case you’re wondering, I haven’t posted about the exhumation controversy over Harry Houdini because I’ve decided he would HATE it. He may have been a showman, but he had more class than this publicity stunt for a bad book and Bess’s family agrees. If you want to read a book about Houdini, start with Kenneth Silverman’s Houdini!!! The Career of Ehrich Weiss (although his Poe biography is even better). Tidbit of the day from the Silverman book: Houdini had an affair with Charmian London, Jack’s wife.
• Meanwhile, in happier news, Carrie Frye, the original tingler in the alley, has returned.

• Guys, STILL woefully behind on e-mail and that may not get remedied until Saturday. This week is catch-up and taxes. Please forgive the rudeness.
• Megan Whalen Turner (of The Genius) interviewed by the Slush God about her Norton-nominated The King of Attolia. I heart these books.
• The fabulous Patrick Samphire just got accepted into the Vermont College MFA in Writing for Children and YA (the one I’m in) — go congratulate him!
• Jeff Ford on being asked to give too many blurbs and not having enough time: With a Ford blurb, though, the benefits are much more nebulous. I can see a guy standing in Barnes and Noble, scanning the publicity on the back of a book. He sees my name attached to a blurb and thinks – “Who is this nimrod? Oh, yeah, he wrote some mess about a planet made of ice cream and Mrs. Shadook in the Glass. Good Christ. I’ll wait till it comes out in paperback.” Very rarely, but sometimes, blurbing a book is better for the blurber than it is for the blurbee. I got asked once to give a quote for a novel by Gene Wolfe. Wolfe needs my blurb like he needs a hole in his pocket, but I dug the opportunity to give one – I won’t deny. (Bonus: Christopher blurbs the post.)
• 2006 NYPL Books for the Teen Age list, with more great stuff on it than you can shake a stick at.
• Moles gathers some comments from the ongoing SFWA Presidency Debate.
• Finally: Get well wishes to John Green. We missed the deadline to send in photos, but the video of those who did is amazing.

• The contents of Best American Fantasy have been released; it looks like a very exciting collection of stories.
• My pal Toni McGee Causey‘s forthcoming debut novel, Bobbie Faye’s Very (very, very, very) Bad Day, gets a starred review in PW. I’ve read it and can confirm that it is an absolute confection of hilarity. Yay!
• Is a scientist beauty queen really worth this much ink?
• The Agony Column has the first review I’ve seen of Kelley Eskridge’s collection (due in May) Dangerous Space that I’ve seen and, unsurprisingly, is wowed–an ARC just landed in my mailbox, so I imagine I’ll have more to say soon.
• Lawrence Schimel is posting excerpts from his new poetry collection Fairy Tales for Writers.
• Joe Schreiber writes some back of the book reading guide questions.
• Maureen Johnson has a pointer to one of the best produced videos I’ve ever seen on YouTube–and it’s based on her recent blog entry about how to write a novel. Do not miss.
• Jen Robinson muses on the recent flood of post-apocalyptic stories.
• The 10 most amazing trees in the world. (Via Ed.)
• Guest blogging over at Ysabeau’s, Paul Witcover announces a new blog called the inferior4+1 featuring himself, Liz Hand, Paul Di Filippo and Lucius Shepherd.
• The final installment of Justine’s Magic or Madness trilogy, Magic’s Child, has hit the shelves. You know what to do. And I am happy to confirm that it is just as lovely an ending as you’re expecting.

• My apologies for the general level of suck around here this week. My Devil Bug of Doom has been a persistent foe, striking at will for the past several days, all while I try to make it to work, write new novel pages, make sure our familial houseguests are taken care of, and enjoy Puck and Emma playing with each other (and keep Puck from chasing the cat, until he’s ready to be chased), etcetera. No e-mail catch-up as planned, but if you’re waiting for a response I’ll get to it this weekend. Promiso. Right now, I’m going to curl up on le couch and watch last night’s Bones. This is less of a hangovers post and more a bunch of mini-posts slammed together sort of thing. Fair warning.
• If you’re a writer-type (or a discerning reader-type) and you don’t read J.L. Bell’s Oz and Ends, you’re really missing out. I just realized I have four of his posts starred to link and it’s gotten to the point where I’m intending to link everything he posts. So just read the blog entire.
• The indefatigable Cynthia Leitich Smith interviews the Readergirlz.
• Colleen Mondor asks where the YA science fiction is and notes that recent examples she can name aren’t labeled as such by their publishers; agent Barry Goldblatt responds in the comments that "Unfortunately, "science fiction" is still basically a curse word in YA publishing. While fantasy has overcome the geek/nerd association, science fiction is still firmly saddled with it." His entire response is well worth your time. Ever since I’ve been paying attention to this issue, I’ve heard various editors and agents say they would love to get more good science fiction submissions, but just don’t see much. I have to say that I really have less of a problem with fear of the label, as long as stuff is getting published–BUT I will also say that I’ve run into some puzzling attitudes lately that only regard as SF things that are called such by publishers. That includes works of both science fiction and fantasy, so perhaps the shyness to call an alien an alien (or whatever) may hurt in the overall "let’s stop pretending realism is all there is or somehow innately superior and SF is for nerds only" wars. It also says to me that beneath the fear of the term there is an underlying realization these are excellent books that deserve wide audiences, and it’s hard to quarrel with that.
• Any Brotherhood 2.0 that includes urban exploration is automatically THE BEST INSTALLMENT ever. This is why YA is the awesomest: NBA winner Tobin Anderson committing crimes on tape. I ask, will you see Richard Powers doing this? I think not. Also, I want to see the post office with the forest inside.
• Justine asks: Great editing or great publicity from your publisher (assuming you can only choose one)? I’d have to go with editing, because I think a really fabulous editor is worth their weight in gold and also can be an advocate on the inside. A really, really fabulous editor will even care about your career and not just the book in question. And that’s what sending boxes of champagne to the PR staff is for, right? Or, you know, hiring a freelance publicist and working your butt off. That said, I realize this is more complicated than that and also that if you really do only have one of these things, you probably obsess over how you wish you had the other one too. I dream of puppies, kittens, publicity teams and editrons. In the end, it’s about the work and, paraphrasing the immortal words of John Banville, time is the best judge.
• Andy Duncan: Does he work for WD-40? Somehow I’ve lived my adult life without ever needing this stuff. (Jinx!)

• Chris McLaren on the hard-won Rules of Drinking, tossed out the window on another continent on a birthday.
• The Twelth Carnival of Children’s Literature is up.
• Susan Beth Pfeffer gets interviewed by the Slush God about Life as We Knew It: Pfeffer got the idea for the novel after watching the 1979 movie Meteor, she said. "It got me thinking about how the people who have the most to lose if the world comes to an end are kids, and the next thing I knew, I was working out all the details," she said. She also reveals that she just finished a companion book called The Dead and the Gone, about a "lower-middle-class teenage boy in New York City" and how the same meteor changes things for him.
• For everyone who thinks those irritating, look-down-your-nose opinions of SF don’t exist anymore, two links: Sam Jordison’s post that starts with the declaration "At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I’m beginning to think science fiction’s actually quite good" and Andrew Wheeler taking the NYT to task for its note about Jonathan Lethem that "some may recall that early in his career, Lethem was often pegged as a sci-fi writer himself." I like George at Bookninja’s take on Jordison best: It’s a stretch for him to consider Vonnegut, Ballard and Pynchon SF. I guess that’s the key here. He’s heard of “sci-fi”, but hasn’t quite grasped “SF”.
• Please, let’s all stop now.
• The one and only Theo Black made up some posters for the Scalzi campaign.
• You can win one of 15 copies of Liz Hand’s new novel Generation Loss at the Great American Book Giveaway. I haven’t gotten a chance to finish it yet, despite my best efforts (it’s the next on my Books for Adults list For Sure), but what I have read of it is AMAZING. And I may go crazy if I don’t get a chance to finish it soonest.
• Lisa Yee meets Carol Burnett and Burnett looks so very cool.
• More cute puppy pictures. After taking these, C handed me the camera and said, "That it, no more cute pictures of dogs." I had to explain that you can’t just go cold turkey on something like that.

• Still dreadfully behind on e-mail, but if I owe you a response it should pop up in the next couple of days.
• Gavin wants you, yes you!, to join in on this new-fangled Howard Waldrop craze.
• The new Weird Tales cover is hot. And with Ann VanderMeer at the helm, I think we can look for even more exciting developments on the content side.
• And speaking of VanderMeers, Jeff has a thoughtful post about the value of broad taste and the sometime misinterpretation of that. Oh, and check out his collaboration with Cat Rambo, "The Surgeon’s Tale."
• Are you a nerd fighter yet?
• I should have stuck with the Fantasy Book Spot Tournament of Books; but you can still go play.
• Terri Windling on the work of artist Mark Ryden. I also adored the monkey paintings she posted a couple of days ago.
• Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast has an interview with M.T. Anderson.
• Like The Watcher, we give Raines two thumbs up.
• Three words I truly never thought I’d have a reason to say: Scalzi for President.

Your Klutziness (aka me) managed to fall like the proverbial ton of bricks in an alley last night, right after a random encounter with a guy who was peeing in someone’s yard and whose date was toothless and giggling into her plastic cup (ah, spring in the city). Let this be a lesson about laughing at those who didn’t notice peeing guy or drunk lady. You will not see big hole in street. You will go boom. I emerged with road rash on my palms, a gashed knee (my favorite jeans survived intact, though, which I’m counting in the Wins column), and an extremely achy left shoulder, arm and knee. AND I have a packet due Wednesday night. All by way of saying, expect sporadic sketchiness here for the next day or so at best.

On Wednesday, Jon Armstrong of the lovely debut novel Grey (complete with a blurb by Michael Chabon) will be here to class up the joint and entertain you. In the meantime:

• The dazzling Craig Gidney reviews Liz Hand’s Illyria over at The Mumpsimus.
• Justine on mean Amazon reviews and a phenomenon I have much-puzzled over, which is apparently called "online disinhibition effect": So next time you’re starting to add something cranky to a comment thread or on amazon or wherever perhaps you should ask yourself if you would say what you’re about to share with the greater online universe to the person’s face. If you wouldn’t then don’t post it. This has been my online code for years, and I’m thoroughly annoyed by people who are bullies on the Web and kittens in real life. The "say it to your face" principle never hurt anybody. The "say it to her back" principle, on the other hand, is a cold-blooded killer.
• J.L. Bell on the Encyclopedia Brown books. I adored these as a kid, and am now a tiny bit less afraid to go back and give them another try. They sound (as if they’d still be) interesting.
• Ysabeau is working on revising the sequel to Flora Segunda, which she divulges has: Well…dragon-horse cars; earthquakes; ruined bath-houses; extremely loud rock bands; Hotspur-Sober-Now-A-Stickler-For-Rules; deserter sisters; more rangers; a horrible secret hidden deep beneath the City’s crust; a riot; bear-headed girls; phosphorescent bullets;  revolutionaries; oubliettes; Udo’s new hat; and, of course, snacks.
• The Millions has a reply to n+1 being catty about book blogs.
• The WashPost remembers a Baghdad bookseller killed by a car bomb.

• Piz is joining the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off. Hmmm… Could this be trouble for VM? I’ve become resigned to the idea that this is the last season, which is unfortunate on many levels. I hope I’m wrong.
• Teens are buying lots of books. (Via everybody.)
• Niall riffs about standalone eps versus serial eps on television.
• I think all publishing houses should start leaving manuscripts on benches at bus and train stations.
• The Millions has the NBCC winners, including the fabulous Julie Phillips’ Tiptree biography, with excerpts.
• Colleen interviews Scarlett Thomas.
• The ALA’s top 10 most challenged books of 2006. (Via Fuse.)
• Scalzi interviews Jon Armstrong, whose debut novel Grey is just out, and who will be guest blogging here next Wednesday.
• Good weekend, all.

• Maureen McHugh has an excellent post on writing and accessibility at the Eat Our Brains group blog (which has been full of excellent posts all week): In the end, I guess I think writing is hard enough that the only way to write well is to be selfishly personal. I write like an oyster makes pearls. Some piece of grit bothers me and I keep coating it in nacre and coating it in nacre until it’s smooth and it doesn’t anymore.
• Ysabeau on the origin of the word geas.
• Maud on the release of When I Was a Loser, which I snagged a copy of at AWP and can’t wait to dig into. People’s teen school pictures are the Rosetta stone of funny.
• Alan thinking about arty stuff as only Alan can do.
• J.L. Bell on the issues involved in translating Harry Potter.
• Terri Windling on shapeshifters.
• This is why I love teenagers. You go, girls. (Via Jeff.)

• Great piece on the enduring charm of Buffy.
• Bruce Sterling told you so in the WashPost.
• Twenty-Three Small Disasters featuring a whole bunch of kick-ass writers. And it’s purty.
• There’s a preview of Cecil Castellucci’s The PLAIN Janes up at DC and its first (glowing) review is out.
• Andrea Seigel weighs in on Planet Tyra Takes Over the World, or the next season of ANTM.
• Audrey Niffenegger gushes with love for Kelly Link stories in the Guardian.
• The Best American Fantasy recommended reading list (can’t wait for the full TOC). Jeff read from the introduction at our panel and it sounds utterly fabulous.
• Ann Coulter gets the Maureen Johnson treatment.
• Colleen has compiled the mother of all recommendation lists for coming of age novels. I’d have chimed in, but most of the books I’d have nommed had already been mentioned; it’s a great list.
• Laura Miller gives China’s new one a big thumbs up. It’s next in my queue.
• Maud on how obscene works become classics.
• Terri Windling recommends Steve Berman’s Vintage. Want!
• An Ed Park novel is coming; let the rejoicing begin. (Via Jenny.)
• Exquisite posters at BibliOdyssey, including several circus ones.
• Joe Schreiber on knowing the rules.
• A profile of Chris Adrian.
• You see what happens when I take off for a few days? I think that’s enough for now.