the Little Red Reviewer

while I’m working on a review of Steven Brust’s Athyra, zipping through Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons (which is awesome, btw), here’s some fun stuff to keep you outta trouble for a little bit.

Judith Tarr is doing a kickstarter campaign for her space opera, Forgotten Suns. $5 gets you the e-book,  $25 gets your name in the acknowledgments, and the extras pretty much skyrocket from there.

If you are nominating in The Hugos, you better get crackin’. Deadline is March 10th, that’s like, tomorrow.  Interested in some suggestions?  Here’s what The Wertzone, Fantasy Cafe , A Dribble of Ink, Calico Reaction,  podcasters and fans over at SFSignal are nominating / suggesting as nominations.

I’m starting to come around to Iceberg Ink’s crackpot theory about Clara Oswald.

Not easily offended? Check out hysterical (also, disturbing) retellings of The Silmarillion over at Myths Retold. (NSFW. buckets and buckets of bad words. me likey!)

Win a copy of Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist

Fantasy  Cafe is once again hosting Women in SF&F this April.

And if you live in the US, don’t forget to change your clocks tonight. Or actually, please do forgot, so I’m not the only one running super early/late tomorrow morning.

also in the department of random useless information: Sam Adams Alpine Spring seasonal lager – not so awesome. Decent enough that I’ll finish the 6 pack, but not one I’ll buy again. it’s balanced, but a little too light and fizzy for me.

my newest book pr0n:

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for Robert Jackson Bennett’s AMERICAN ELSEWHERE. And our winner is. . .

Chris (“Salt-Man Z”)

Congrats Chris!  I’ll be contacting you shortly, so watch you e-mail/twitter.  You are gonna love this book!

uugghh, Sunday already? when did that happen?  It’s snowy and wintery and it looks like a Christmas card outside.  I’m still trying to get a snapshot of the squirrel whose always on my balcony and climbs up the screen door.  I know he’s floating around somewhere!

it must be dead of winter if I’m that easily amused. Here’s some more intelligent stuff to keep us amused during these dark winter nights.

Are you involved in an upcoming read along? Looking for one to join? Check out the Read Along calendar over at Dark Cargo.

I have discovered Instructables. Holy crap people. it’s like Make meets Pinterest except stuff is easy and it actually works. and their bookshelves tag?  oh yeah baby, this is where it’s at. Also? fudge.

when you’ve recovered from bookshelf envy and a sugar coma, here is more goodies for you:

Bookworm Blues has a great review of Rapture of the Nerds by Doctorow and Stross.

SFSignal has a massive list of possible Hugo nominations. Who have your favorites been? Can someone tell me the difference between editor long-form and editor short-form?

wonderfully creeptastic (and educational!) essay on Architeuthis, the giant squid.  I kinda want to pet it, don’t you?

the ridiculously quick Lone Ranger spot starring my second husband, Johnny Depp.

Plenty of great book-ish giveaways currently going on -

win a copy of Mind Games by Kiersten White at Unputdownable Books

From SFSignal, win a set of all three Green books by Jay Lake

My Bookish Ways has an indepth interview with Myke Cole, author of the Shadow Ops series, along with a giveaway for the much awaited new novel in the series, Fortress Frontier

is that enough to keep you busy while I’m trying to finish The Aylesford Skull by James Blaylock?

thanks to the help of random.org, the winner  of the 5 book Vintage Scifi Giveaway is

(drumroll please)

llamadean93!

Congrats llamadean93! keep a look out for an e-mail from me, and get prepared to enjoy some excellent old school scifi!

By Sunday morning I managed to figure out the best settings on my camera, so for every photo i post here, there were 10 that caused tears.

Good thing Doctor Who and Captain Jack were floating around, as there was a Dalek invasion:

This was partially animatronic. A guy climbed in a drove it around a bit, to the cheering squeels of little kids.

This one was full of Liquid Nitrogen. In a previous life it had been filled with cow semen. I really wish I was kidding.

Also, multiple Tardises (Tardisii? Tardisae? help please. ) You could climb inside both of these, but alas, they were pretty little inside.

I know what my Sukkah is going to look like next fall!

Tim Thurmond the balloon sculptor was there, and he made a few things. This was the bigger of the things. I think it took him about 2 hours to put it together. I’m not sure if that’s 2 hours of  blowing up balloons, 2 hours of hyperventilating, or two hours of twisting balloons, but apparently they were auctioning off the opportunity to pop it.

it stood up straighter when the door was closed

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Hey peeps, I’m off to ConFusion in Dearborn Michigan, and will be eeeeek!  internet free for a few days. But I do love you, so  I’ve a stunner of a guest post scheduled for tomorrow so you have something to enjoy while I’m cosplaying, listening to panels, stalking Saladin Ahmed and Charlie Stross, drinking, and generally having a crazy good time.

Long story short, if your comment gets hung up in admin pending stuff, I WILL approve it as soon as I see it, I promise.

have a good weekend everyone! And yes, I will post photos and do some ConFusion wrap up posts next week.

Hey peeps,  I’m outta town for a few days, sans laptop (eeek, the horror!!), so I’m writing this in advance so you won’t feel neglected.

I’m currently reading Clifford Simak’s The Goblin Reservation, although I’ll probably wait till January to post the review. Also in my suitcase is Mark Lawrence’s King of Thorns, which I”ll hopefully be quite a ways into by the time I get back to town Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, I found fun stuff for you!

If you ran your own dream bookstore, what titles would you make sure you always had copies of?

Looking for some international science fiction? How about the Afro SF anthology, or the Apex Book of World SF,  or The Book of Madness?

Open Culture is my new favorite place to download educational podcasts.  Or if you’d prefer TED talks instead, here ya go.

Columbus looks like a sweet city to live in. can you say CABS??

I so want to get this book, but it’s sort of a little kid book. Maybe when my niece is born?

Recent Patrick Rothfuss goodies: a guide to his books on Sword and Laser, and go check out this year’s  Worldbuilders program.

The Food Through the Pages blog.  food pr0n, recipes, fantasy books. it makes me want to lick my computer screen. Just click the link already!

I’m getting super excited for Immortal Confusion in January outside Detroit. trying to psych myself up to cosplay Holo the Wise Wolf. this would also include me making a costume, as all I’ve right now is the ears.

Some current giveaways you might be interested in:

Win a signed copy of Redemption by Susannah Sandlin over at She Wolf Reads

The Quillery has an insane giveaway of a signed copy of Amanda Carlson’s Full Blooded, plus swag bag goodies!!  You sign up to win over at My Bookish Ways too!

win a gorgeous boxed set of the first three Culture novels from Iain Banks over at Bastard Books. Actually, don’t enter this one. Make believe this one doesn’t even exist, because I want to win this!!

Rainy Day Ramblings has a copy of Cassandra Rose Clarke’s The Assassin’s Curse up for grabs (I want this book just for the stunningly beautiful cover art!)

This post  was inspired by this post over at Dark Cargo, in which Lady Dark Cargo talks about her new city, Columbus OH. She specifically talks about the Columbus Library system, and the local art museum.  I live in a much, much smaller city than Columbus, but I’m pretty darn proud of our library and museum, and beyond being proud of these places, and happy to pay taxes that support them, I am sincerely and truly thankful for them.

Sometimes the best things in life are free.

observe, my local library freakin’ rocks. A main branch downtown, a handful of neighborhood branches, I can put stuff on hold on their website, do interlibrary loan, read in the park across the street, admire the stained glass, buy old paperbacks in the basement, use the computer lab on the 2nd floor, and chill in the basement lounge that looks three stories up to the rooftop atrium. Also? library is staffed only by cool people.

Sit in the lower lounge and look up. this is what you see. pretty much: rainbows everywhere.

We’ve also got two pretty cool museums. Okay, they are teensy, but pretty sweet. You can get through our art museum in about an hour, but I always find myself taking ages in the lower level, admiring the portraiture collection. Once the security guard had to let me know the museum was closing in 15 minutes. They offer a gazillion classes, but when I could afford the classes they didn’t work with my work schedule, and when I didn’t have to worry about a work schedule, well, I couldn’t afford the classes.  there’s also a ginormous Chihuly blown glass sculpture in the lobby.  Also? The museum is surrounded by a sculpture garden.  Has so much artistic awesome ever been crammed into one small city block? Museum is free, but it’s nice to put a few bucks in the donation box, since I sure can’t afford any of the kitchy stuff in the gift shop.

Ok, so maybe it’s not such a ginormous Chihuly, maybe it’s just a small lobby?

I haven’t got a photo, but we also host a smaller, family museum. Most of the exhibits are aimed toward kids, and my favorite part of the museum isn’t even inside the museum, it’s up by the road in front of the front door – it’s a functioning sun dial, where your shadow tells the time. My Dad things this is the coolest thing ever, and I wish I could that photo of him standing in the sun dial, he’s got this look of utter surprise on his face that the time is accurate.

Now it’s your turn. tell me about something where you live that your thankful for.