December already?
Posted on: December 1, 2013
Wow. Where did November go? For that matter, where did summer go? This year flew like the devil was chasing it.
Lucky for us, December and her wintery sister months offer some excellent blogosphere and realsphere events. Such as:
On the heels of Rinn’s Science Fiction Month is Carl’s SciFi Experience, at Stainless Steel Droppings which runs during December and January. Over 25 bloggers are already signed up, go check it out!
This week starts The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin read along, hosted by Dab of Darkness, Violin in a Void, On Starships and Dragonwings and yours truly. It’s not too late to sign up if you’d like to get the discussion questions early.
On Starships and Dragonwings has also started a most excellent friday feature, it’s called Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fridays, where bloggers are invited to post links to recently posted reviews of speculative fiction books and give aways.
I’ll be posting my top books of the year later this month. The top three or four are easy. After that, it gets a little dicey.
January brings Vintage Science Fiction Month. 1979 is the magic year, Project Gutenberg is your friend, and I’m on the lookout for Science fiction from 1938. I have some guest posters signed up, but I’m still looking for more. Topics are pretty open, can be books, authors, tv shows, the Moon landing, cover art . . . if it’s science fiction, fantasy, or real science related, and it’s from before 1979, I want you to talk about it here.
January also brings ConFusion, my favorite local Science Fiction convention. Guests at the con include Ian Tregillis, Jacqueline Carey, Cherie Priest, Mike Carey, and many, many more. There’s not much on their website yet, but I’m hoping they’ll post some preliminary programming soon. I’ll be cosplaying as . . . well, if you’re the rightest sort of Right People, you’ll recognize me.
February brings another fun bloggy project, I’m organizing the Book of Apex Volume 4 blog tour. This anthology offers 33 original pieces that were published as part of Apex Magazine (if it counts for anything, my favorite recent story over there was a dark Sesame Street parody by Jim Hines). Let me tell you, this is a great opportunity to read award winning authors such as Catherynne Valente, A.C. Wise, Ken Liu, Elizabeth Bear, Alethea Kontis, Alex Bledsoe, Rachel Swirsky, and more. I’ve gotten positive feedback about this from nearly everyone I’ve e-mailed about this. And I’m kinda curious about how many more bloggers I can get on board. Sooper Speshul stuff awaits the participants! if you’re interested in learning more or getting involved, let me know.
and after all that, maybe I’ll take a vacation. #yeahright
10 Responses to "December already?"
December 1, 2013 at 9:10 am
Oh, how cool that Cherie Priest will be at ConFusion. Would love to attend a con with her as a guest, she is one of my favs.
It is crazy, isn’t it. We blinked and November was gone. Had I not been laid up with a cold this Thanksgiving weekend I’m not sure how much reading I would have gotten done. As it was I read four books in the last four days of the month and am ready to read more contemporary and then classic science fiction.
I’m also getting excited about the year-end posts, those are always fun. I’m pretty sure I know what my favorite novel of the year is and know some of my top ones, but it will be interesting to go back and see what I feel.
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 10:35 am
you know you want to drive to Michigan in the middle of the winter! (ok, maybe not). Can you believe it? i’ve never read any Cherie Priest? but that’s the best part for me, of going to a con to see authors I’ve never read. I always leave the con super excited to read them.
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 3:56 pm
I recently heard (on the Sword and Laser podcast) that Wil Wheaton narrates one of the characters on the audio version of her novel Boneshaker, which was my first experience with her work. I just ordered the audio from the library as I know my wife would enjoy it that way and we both enjoy Wheaton’s narration.
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 11:32 am
Sounds like you have some very fun reading plans coming up! I’m excited for the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms readalong. It’s actually the first book (I think) that I’ll be rereading since starting my blog. You’re in for a treat! 🙂
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 12:34 pm
Every new month I am am amazed it is here all ready… The year really flew by! I was hoping to do The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms readalong but I only have an ecopy and my tablet, which I use as my ereader, needs to be sent away for warranty work. 😦
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 6:14 pm
So agreed, what the heck happened to the fall? It’s just gone, poof D: Thank you so much for linking to SFF Fridays 😀 Also omg just started Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I’m so happy we’re doing this read-a-long 😀
LikeLike
December 2, 2013 at 4:08 pm
What would being part of the blog tour entail? Hosting an author/story? I’m defenitely interested–my short story feature is the most popular thing on my blog right now, and it seems like it would be a good fit 🙂
LikeLike
December 2, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Most blogger are reviewing whatever short stories in the collection strike their fancy, and I’m hoping a lot of the authors will want to be interviewed or maybe do guest posts. I just sent you an e-mail (Apex Blog Tour is in the subject line) with all the super fun details. 😀
LikeLike
the Little Red Reviewer 
December 1, 2013 at 8:24 am
Regarding your vintage sci-fi month, I recently found an online bookshop that sells vintage scifi books at really pleasingly cheap prices. I’m sorted. 😀 For UK residents (not sure of their shipping policy yet, but have a look!) – http://thespacemerchants.co.uk/
LikeLike
December 1, 2013 at 10:33 am
I’ve started hearing about them on twitter, great find!
LikeLike