free e-book
One more cup of coffee for the road…
No time today and OUT. OF. COFFEE.
From Simon Haynes over on Spacejock – SF Novelists Opening Acts: Twenty-five First Chapters from Twenty-five Writers
Every reader knows that the trouble is not finding something to read, but finding something you want to read. Sometimes, it’s something familiar, something known. Sometimes it’s something new, something unexpected. SF Novelists proudly offers you twenty-five teasers, twenty-five first chapters across the spectrum of SF and F. Twenty-five tastes, to tempt your appetite for adventure… to lure you into unknown worlds.
Ed MacLaren of Femme Metal Webzine interviews Hugo Flores and Jessica Lehto from Factory of Dreams:
Hugo:Yeah, the idea was to impress the audience from the very first track “Enter Nucleon” with an explosive and original sound. The initial synth from “Enter Nucleon” is very aggressive and then with the soaring guitars and blown up drums it’s all settled in for the ride!
Sigh…No one ever wants sushi when I do.
SHR Listening Station – sort of like Virgil radio. Listen to (almost) any release from the Suburban Home Records catalog. Very cool.
- Kit
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Guess things happen that way…
The Carl Brandon Society is holding a prize drawing this month for five free eReaders. Tickets are $1 US and you can buy as many or as few as you want. Proceeds will go to the Octavia E Butler Memorial Scholarship. The contest runs from November 5th to November 22nd with drawings for the eReaders on November 23rd. For more information or to purchase tickets please visit the Carl Brandon Society website
The cool folks at Baen Books are giving away not only her new novel, Cryoburn, but all books in the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. Pop over and pick up some or all on CD or one of many E-formats. You can also check out the other free books they have available for download.
Someone needs to remind Stargate Universe writer Brad Wright that if his show is losing viewers it isn’t the fault of Stargate Atlantis fans. We were promised a metaphorically dark and gritty Sci-fi show and instead we were given a show that is just…really dark. Literally. Half the time you can’t see which character is in any given scene or much of the scenery. The actors could be delivering Oscar caliber performances and we would never know because the show is so dark WE CANNOT SEE them. Apparently, in the rush to make a show immune to girl-viewer cooties they instead made a show no one, even the coveted 18-24 year old guys, can watch.
Now I am off to go change the face of television programming through the sheer force of my WILL.
- (super) Kit
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Won’t you read me one more book…
Less than a month till baseball season opens. Yea! The guys are already busy at spring training although I am not sure how ‘spring-like’ it feels. You know, if Direct TV wanted to make extra money from me they would put together a package with one or possibly two Cards games a week and a short recap of the week’s highlights. This, I would buy,
I wanted to mention it is READ AN EBOOK WEEK before it isn’t anymore . I picked up some short stories from the Suvudu free library but looking around there are so many more ebooks available this year than last. A quick search on Google turns up thousands of free ebooks, just waiting to be read.
Found this in my email:
“Your friends at Suburban Home Records want to help you design your next album, website, shirt, ad, or whatever you need help with”.
They offer services such as Album Design, Web Design, Building Vinyl art from CD art elements, T-shirt/merch design, Bio writing, Distribution/marketing advice and/or getting your album registered with Soundscan.
Visit their new portfolio site at http://labelservices.suburbanhomerecords.com to check out past work or send an email to info@suburbanhomerecords.com explaining what help you need.
- Kit
(parts of the Suburban Home Records rec were paraphrased because the original announcement was so massively big)
Knowing how way leads on to way…
I am ramblin round this morning. 
Martha Wells has put another short story up for reading on her website. Reflections is a Giliead and Ilias story (set before The Wizard Hunters) and first appeared in Black Gate, issue #10.
I somehow missed the announcement that after 26 years Reading Rainbow is ending. I disagree so strongly with their reasoning. No amount of teaching how to read is going to help if a kid doesn’t want to read. Reading Rainbow excelled at getting kids to want to read. I watched it with my youngest brother and then again with the ‘Bit. There isn’t anything else like it on television and I will miss sharing it with Scooter.
Poets.org set me a list of the most popular poems to teach. I was happy to see two of my favorites, Dreams by Langston Hughes and The Road not Taken by Robert Frost on their list.
I recently discovered a livejournal version of my old blues blog. After reading some of the entries I vaguely remember I was going to use it as sort of a back up. It only runs a couple of months but it contains posts I lost when I moved my blog from Typepad over to WordPress so I am happy to get the chance to save those posts and stick them in the archives.
Well, Scooter is up so I need to call it a post and go.
- Kit
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I’d have time on my hands…
Well, I survived both my summer cold and a dire lack of sleep.
Things are hopping. We have my in-laws coming in a few weeks, my mom moving to the coast in about a month and we are still working on the renovations in the girls’ rooms. No tomatoes from the garden yet, but we should be getting buckets of garlic this weekend. 
The Cape Jasmine (Gardenia for those not in the South) is blooming. Whatever possessed me to think edging the porch with them was a good idea? I love the spicy fragrance but some afternoons it is so strong we can barely breathe.
Between all this I haven’t been online much but I did run across a few things. Like -
The Element of Fire and City of Bones by Martha Wells are now available for the Kindle. ($3.96 and $5.95) If you don’t have a Kindle, you can still download The Element of Fire for free at manybooks.net.
And - Anthology Recordings, which is the world’s first ever all digital reissue label. Its goal is to provide an online outlet for rare and out-of-print music of all eras, genres and cultures.
- Kit
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Can you remember the times…
Things in my email this week -
A cool music player from Suburban Home Records. – They have several varieties, including band specific ones. I just wish it didn’t break out of the sidebar when I use it. Maybe Virgil could make a skinnier one? (I think I will send off an email and ask)
New stuff from Spectra Books – A nice interview with Alan Campbell. You all can go here to read the first chapter of his new book, God of Clocks.
Lulu is giving me 10% off my next order so if you have something there you think I should read, drop me a note and rec it.
Cool sites I stumbled over this week-
Critical Hits – RPG and gaming blog of Dave Chalker. Funny, geek-ish and a good read. Industry stuff mixed with game logs, reviews and pictures.
Concert Vault – Very cool site. Live concert footage from the 1965 up to 2008. You can stream the concerts for free or download them for a small fee. (this is a legal site – royalties and usage fees are paid)
Oyate – From the About Page -.”
“Oyate is a Native organization working to see that our lives and histories are portrayed honestly, and so that all people will know our stories belong to us. For Indian children, it is as important as it has ever been for them to know who they are and what they come from. For all children, it is time to know and acknowledge the truths of history. Only then will they come to have the understanding and respect for each other that now, more than ever, will be necessary for life to continue.”
Oyate also has a catalog of recommended books, both for schools and personal reading.
- Kit
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Tell me a story, remember what you said…
So I have this problem. I bookmark pages I don’t have time enough to read but then I forget them and find them weeks later. With no memory of -why- I bookmarked them.
Like this one:
Thoughtcrime Experiments is a free anthology of fantasy and science fiction stories and art, published under a Creative Commons license. That means not only is it free but you can download it, play around with it a little and create your own customized narrative. Kind of like the anthology version of sampled and remixed music. The anthology is edited by Sumana Harihareswara and Leonard Richardson.
Since it contains a story by Mary Anne Mohanraj I probably picked the link up on her site. Maybe.
I really liked Daisy by Andrew Willett and Single Bit Error by Ken Liu. I also loved Robot vs Ninjas by Marc Scheff and snagged it to add to my desktop wallpaper rotation.
You can read the stories and view the artwork online or you can download the entire book. It is also available for Kindle and other readers.
- Kit
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Over hill and highway the banana buggies go…
When I was a kid and cable tv was shiny and new, The Banana Splits played on a station from Fort Worth, Texas 
every afternoon at 4pm. Among the songs, skits and cartoons was an adventure serial called Danger Island. I would rush to get my homework done so I wouldn’t miss an episode.
(The ‘Bit’s version of the adventure serial is an imported anime called “Bleach“. Similar format, but with Tivo we record the program so she doesn’t panic if she misses an episode.)
This is not anything new. Books and magazines were often printed as serials with the readers left on a cliffhanger after each installment. Many radio shows were done this way as well.
A couple of weeks ago I found the ultimate online serial. Or rather, online serial service. Daily Lit is a free online reading service where you can get a few minutes of a novel in your email every day. They have different excerpt sizes so you can tailor the service to your time needs. I gave it a try and I really like it. The reading is easy to fit into a busy day and if I miss checking email for a day or two the reading amount is still small enough for me to handle. I am reading Norton’s Time Traders, but they have many genres of books available.
Checking out the site, they also have a blog, writing contests and other offers like a free poem a day. They also have a paid subscription service for newer releases but I haven’t tested it.
- Kit
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- Blurred…
February 12, 2013 | 4:06 pm
I have been trying to write the review for Blurred, by San Francisco singer/songwriter Alex Wise for a few months now but can’t seem to finish it. This is difficult for me to say but I get about halfway through the process and find myself so homesick I just can’t continue. The past few years have been full [...] - Arc & Stones…
February 11, 2013 | 4:53 am
Now that Scooter is back sleeping nights I proclaim this ’dig myself out from under the mountain of un-reviewed music‘ week. Kicking off the week o’reviewing is Arc & Stones, the debut EP from Brooklyn band Arc & Stones. The guys are Dan Pellarin (vocals), Ben Cramer (guitar), Joe Doino (drums) and Eddy Bayes (bass). I had [...] - Telegraph Taboo…
January 21, 2013 | 8:45 am
So, I was in the mood for some blues and whoosh – blues appeared. Other people get coupons, bills and news updates in the mail while I get blues music. Cool new blues music in the form of the debut release Telegraph Taboo from the Chicago-based band Nick and the Ovorols. This is not a pretty album. The vocals on a few tracks [...] -
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