Hangovers

• For the first time in as long as I can remember, I have four days off in a row, with no panels or formal obligations of any kind. So… of course I am experiencing the resurgence of the Martian Death Cold. Sigh. But some writing will get done anyway, although it may just be writing for hire. I do really want to kick it into gear on the next novel, though; perilously close to a resolution, that.
• Abigail Nussbaum gives out some special book awards.
• Ted Chiang appreciates Maureen McHugh’s "Frankenstein’s Daughter."
• Ed riffs on genre snobbery, inspired by Matt Cheney’s Literary Fiction for People Who Hate Literary Fiction.
• The NYT apparently hearts the Mutter Museum almost as much as I do. (Via Jenny D.)
• From Jonathan Strahan comes the infuriating pointer to the Sci-Fi Channel bragging about how well they did financially this year, despite their decision to untimely demise SciFiction.
• And behind the cut, two memes for your cut and paste pleasure, via Dave and Hal respectively.

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Friday HangoversRead More »

Otherwise known as the ritual cleansing of the bookmarks…

• Procrastination can be good for you. (Via the Antigeist.)
• Seattle Weekly’s music writers make their best 2005 mixes, including Mr. Matos’ picks.
• Dave Schwartz is fascinating as always on the topic of elephants.
• Read Jeff VanderMeer’s appreciation of Gavin Grant’s awesome "Heads Up, Thumbs Down" over at the ED SF Project, then read his thoughts on SciFiction’s demise. I thought it would last forever too, but instead it turns out this is its last story.
• The Book Standard talks to the awesomest Story Prize finalist ever, aka Maureen McHugh.
• Jeff Ford’s 2005 favorite reads.
• Dodo bone beds.
• James Marcus on editors.
• Despite being incredibly busy (and still beneath a stack of thank you cards for wedding gifts, now dreadfully, rudely late), I’m thinking of sending New Year’s cards. Failing that, I’ll be sending out valentines in Feb. If you’d like one, drop me your address via email or in the comments.

• The neverending holiday has ended. Let all rejoice and drink champagne once the exhaustion has passed.
• I keep forgetting to mention that Scott is now a NYT-approved expert on dogs chewing off faces… or something like that. He extracts the goods for you. Also, Uglies, the book that made him such, made Amazon’s top 10 books for teens. (And Looking for Alaska’s on there too; although, the lack of Valiant is truly scandalous.)
• Relatedly, possible record prime number found.
• Good luck to Didi on his new (ad)ventures. (Scroll down.)
• A little Factsheet Five post at the Esoteric Science Resource Center.
• Another fabulous recipe care of Mr. McLaren, cookies with bourbon. (We have had far too many sweets here at Casa Bond/Rowe, and yet still we immediately devoured chocolates sent by friends as soon as we got home.)
• More MFA talk: Maud has an excellent post excerpting David Hollander in the most recent issue of Poets and Writers on what MFA programs are not looking for (reductively put: in his opinion, writers who knock your socks off need not apply). See also: Maud on Caitlin Flanagan and the inner housewife.
• Holtzbrink, the overlords of Tor, Picador, St. Martin’s and others, have launched a blog and lots of other goodies. Check it out.
• Matt Cheney at Emerald City on "Literary Fiction for People Who Hate Literary Fiction."
• Jeff reveals the ugly truth that Christmas is really all about hippies.
• For full contact sport enthusiasts, Miss Snark is critiquing synopses submitted by her readers. In the response to the first one, she says: The purpose of a synopsis for an agent is, in the words of Lucienne Diver "to make sure aliens don’t arrive on the farm in chapter 14". However, that’s not the writer’s purpose for a synopsis. A synopsis for a writer is part of your arsenal of persuasion. Yes, you write a capsule of the novel but you also make it enticing. You want an agent to read this and think "oh yes I want to read this".

A few tiny things, as the household prepares for the impending apoca–holiday.

• Time magazine’s so smart they put Magic for Beginners on their best of the year list. Whoop! Holla! (Thx, Gavin!) And bonus for inclusion of the fabulous 1491 in the nonfiction list.
• Nicola Griffith is interviewed at Strange Horizons. (Via a smarty.)
• Cassie Claire’s top 10 fictional couples.
• The fabulous Jenny D on things she must do before she dies.

• Literary deaths quiz (via Maud): I got eight out of ten without even guessing, which disturbs me a tad.
• Victoria Garcia on how to helpfully critique writers still in the process of developing mad skillz. (Via Moles)
• New theory: J.T. LeRoy = Alanis Morissette. My evidence? “A hoax? A hoax is what you do to get people to buy a happy meal,” LeRoy said.  (Via #1HS)
• Also from #1HS, list of films ordered by uses of the word fuck.
• Pooks maintains that storm chasing is boring. And she has data points.
• Clare Dudman on the Inky Boys story from Stuwwelpeter.

• Yes, yes, Typepad’s been down all day. I believe all the posts have been magically regenerated. (Now if only future posts had been included in the restoration… that would be something.)
• Watching Nine to Five while blogging. Must call attention to how mesmerizing the hair and make-up are for the principles. Not to mention the wardrobe. Tres magnifique. (Plus, when I was a kid, I always loved the fantasy sequence where Dolly and Lily and Jane each envision their own boss murder scenarios.) I really do have a fair amount of Dolly Parton anecdotes, I’m just now realizing. I choose to believe this is a good thing. (Just added one that’s not my own or a friend’s from IMDB — Dolly apparently memorized the part of every actor in the movie in preparation.)
• Simon Owens over at Bloggasm is posting interviews with many, many SF writers/bloggers. Check it out.
• The word unbelievable becomes meaningless; the exact instant you read this.
• Matt Cheney says it all about Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper. You will love it.
• Jesus vs. Bright Eyes at Tito’s. Tough match-up.
• Eavesdrop on the new Cat Power. Salivate. (Possibly the worst part of the whole car stereo incident is no sat radio in the mobile right now, which means no preview plays of new tracks — except you can hear them at that website.) (Via T-Muffle.)
• Yet another mea culpa: I’m still dreadfully behind at EVERYTHING — email, teeny clean-ups on the GG manuscript, some freelance stuff, etc., and, most importantly, a read for a good friend. I’m swiping at what I can this weekend.
• Tell your best library story at The Valve and win a prize.
• The Watcher’s most memorable 2005 TV moments.
• Finally, Terry Teachout’s home and posting. Color me relieved and happy. Welcome back, Terry, and happy pre-birthday.

• Poppy Brite lists a bunch of worthy charities helping Hurricane Katrina victims that you may not have heard about.
• Glen Hirshberg on show don’t tell. (I’ll bet he’s an excellent teacher.)
• Jenny D raves about Dope by Sara Gran.
• The Antigeist has a classic post on the origin of the cool aunt/uncle.
• The new Richard and Judy list is out — nothing as exciting as last year’s inclusion of The Jane Austen Book Club (to me, anyway), but Geraldine Brooks’ March made it, and Karen recently recommended that in the WaPo end of year list, so, there’s at least that. (Via Matilda.)

• Bookgasm has the goods on a forthcoming anthology from Tor, Elemental, to benefit tsunami relief.
• Rebecca Skloot links to three short pieces she did for the NYT Magazine and goes into more depth on why studying yawning is important.
• Ed’s best of list — this is a good one. He also has an excellent RIP for Robert Sheckley.
• Jonathan Strahan posts his best short fiction list of the year. So much good stuff — in fact, one of the only stories I was surprised not to see on there was Carol Emshwiller’s "I Live With You But You Don’t Know It," which was one of my favorite stories this year.
• John Scalzi turns the 15 things about books meme to 15 things about him and writing. (I’d do this, but I think my books/reading list was mixed up enough with writing anyway … Plus, it took too long to come up with 15.)

• I seem to have a Martian Death Cold now. Am hoping it goes away as the day progresses.
• Booksquare on rules in writing, spinning off the Great MFA Debate of this week (as opposed to last month). The comments raise some interesting questions re: the whole looking-in-a-mirror thing.
• Zakes Mda’s The Whale Caller sounds excellent.
• Turkish Delight is yucky. (Via Jenny D, who also has a list of stellar year-end recs.)
• A bunch of horror and dark fantasy writers talk the talk at Storytellers Unplugged. (Via Weirdwriter.)
• Melville on the Green River makes me happy.
• Hal Duncan on definitions of SF.
• Caroline Alexander on the first entries into Canongates’s new myth series, by Karen Armstrong, Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterson.
• Bicycle street art.

• Abigail Nussbaum on the evil mothers of Veronica Mars and the connection to Hogwarts. (Double sob, no new VM until mid-January!)
• Tito reprints an interview that must be read to be believed. Farenheit 451? It’s about a "repressed firefighter."
• Bookgasm reviews a new book about King Kong.
• Colleen continues making great recommendations, this time with favorite titles from "off-the-beaten-track" of her lit shelves. (Must pick up the NM Kelby!)
• Greg Maguire tackles Gargamel. If only. (Via Sarah.)
• Janni Simner announces that her story "Practical Villainy," originally published in the last issue of Say…, will be on Escape Pod this spring. Yay!
• Ghost Word’s Franny publishes her own best of recommendations and those of some friends.
• Morrow Planet points to Lab Lit. Huh?
• Tod Goldberg makes and collects more year-end recs.
• You’ll want to check out the new group blog Contemporary Nomad; where better to start than Kevin Wignall’s request for undiscovered gems?
• Add your most anticipated titles for next year to this thread below if you haven’t done so already; I’ll break them out into a separate post Friday.