News & Updates

I have swam through libraries & sailed through oceans.

, , , ,

Frozen Charles.
© Zach Den Adel

• Stewie, the world’s longest cat, passed away at at the age eight. He was 48.5 inches from toe to tail, and his tail measured 16.34 inches. Wow.
• After seven days, the little boy held hostage in a bunker in Alabama has been freed and his kidnapper killed. The local children called Jimmy Lee Dykes — who believed the government and the mafia were controlling the dog races he bet on — “the scoop man.”
• Shooter Boys and At-Risk Girls, an essay by Molly Crabapple on the culture surrounding school shootings.
• Have you caught up on the Applebee’s scandal yet? Here’s a breakdown with photos.
• I’m still making my way through Moby Dick, and this annotated version has been especially useful.
• This handy list by Mary Robinette Kowal of every word used by Jane Austen, all 14,793 of them, is a great starting point for anyone writing historical fiction. Bonus Mary: How to make entrails!
• Looking for the motivation to write? Written? Kitten! to the rescue.
• Duotrope alternatives, in case you’re still looking: Dark Markets, Bloody Bookish, and Horror Tree for horror writers, and The Grinder for stats and tracking. Bloody Bookish in particular lets you easily add deadlines to your Google calendar.
• Chuck Wendig’s 25 thoughts on book piracy.
• More than $60,000 has been pledged to John Scalzi’s Counteract a Bigot drive. In return, Scalzi commissioned this brilliant piece of art. Shirts may be forthcoming.
• King Richard III’s body has been found beneath a parking lot in Leicester.
• The 256-year-old man, Li Ching-Yuen. He supposedly lived on rice, herbs, and wine and said the secret to longevity was to “keep a quiet heart, sit like a tortoise, walk sprightly like a pigeon, and sleep like a dog.” His age is disputed; Ching-Yuen himself said he was 197. Do you believe it?
• Hey, Amazon? No.


More about Neil’s Calendar of Tales.


Somebody get this guy a wetsuit!

January: A Month in Words

,

A few days late, but here it is. A more comprehensive list of what I read last month, with links to everything available online. You’ll notice the majority come from Daily Science Fiction. That’s not likely to change, but I do hope to add more sources for flash and short stories going forward.

500 Ways to Be a Better Writer by Chuck Wendig
Life After Death by Damien Echols
Twelve Days of Fast Fiction by Lee “Budgie” Barnett
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“Babycakes” by Neil Gaiman
“Unwanted” by Holly Jennings
“Fool’s Gold” by Melissa Mead
“Casting Call” by Alexandra Grunberg
“Downsizing Pluto” by Shane Halbach
“The Wyrd for Water is Water” by Marie Croke
“What to Expect When You’re Expecting an Alien Parasite” by Rebecca Adams Wright
“Little Red Robin Hood” by Melissa Mead
“Draconic Motivation” by Donald S. Crankshaw
“The Exterminator” by Erik B. Scott
“Experience” by Ephiny Gale
“Three Kisses: Defenders of the Crystal Casket” by Henry Szabranski
“Three Kisses: The Mirror of Reason” by Henry Szabranski
“Three Kisses: A Royal Breakfast” by Henry Szabranski

Happy Halloween!

, ,

IT’S ALIVE. And it has a couple more stories under its belt.

Scary reading to cap off the night’s festivities? “Three Strikes” appears in the newest Shock Totem. Get your copy here. The final issue of Dark Recesses, featuring my story “Borderland Fancy,” is available as a free PDF through Cutting Block Press.

NaNoWriMo kicks off today, so I’ll just slink back into the shadows for a while. I’ll tweet my progress and share inspiration for my novel on Tumblr, if you’re interested in following along. And because I’m still in the holiday spirit, I leave you with this. Cheers.

Adventures in Instagram

,

 

So my Blackberry keeled over last month. I made the switch to Android and upgraded to a Samsung Captivate Glide. I’d intended to get the Captivate minus the glide feature since I’d read so many reviews comparing it to the iPhone, which I’m not a fan of. My mom has one. I don’t get the hype. After seeing this one at Wal-Mart, I figured, hey, I text a lot and the extra keyboard will be handy. Turns out I hardly use it. What’s really impressive is the camera. At 8 megapixels the pictures come out almost as nice as the ones I take with my Rebel xt.

 

One of the first apps I installed was Instagram, since I have a happy trigger finger and like the option of updating people with pictures instead of words. Fewer words, anyway. I also use Magic Hour (infinite, custom filters!) and the Vignette demo (because I just can’t justify paying $4 for an app yet). I’m getting a lot more enjoyment out of it than I thought I would, probably ’cause the camera on my Blackberry was horrid even in bright light. Now if only I had more to snap pics of than trees and cats and what’s on my desk.

 

I’m weirdosayswhat. Follow me if you wish. If you don’t have Instagram on your phone, you can still follow my updates on Statigr.am. You can even leave comments if you have a Facebook account. I really want to start posting photo updates again so no sweat; I’m sure a lot of these will make it in there.

If you’re a fellow user, feel free to leave your name below. I need more pretty photos to look at!

It’s my party and I’ll wear what I want to.

, , , ,


Image courtesy the Associated Press

• Jaw-dropping art carved from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and medical journals.
• Fantastic shadow art of severed heads composed from, suitably, taxidermy and trash.
• The 100 best opening lines according to Stylist.co.uk. Looks like they forgot one –

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

• Little libraries! If only I were a carpenter (and lived somewhere else, where something like this would take off).
• Michael Chabon discusses the bias against science-fiction. Love him!
• If you’re of the geek or nerd persuasion and haven’t subscribed to the Nerdist channel on YouTube, you should. Is it weird that the show I’m most looking forward to is Rob Zombie’s?
• Wil Wheaton’s list of things every person should have.
• And I know you’ve seen it by now, but … an excerpt from Wesley Crusher, Teenage Fuck Machine.
• Francesca Lia Block is in a battle with Bank of America over her home. You can stay updated at Save Francesca’s Faerie Cottage. I really hope things work out; we’re facing the same situation and it’s enough to drive anyone mad.
• Steampunk Thing! How cool would it be to have one of these attached (and working, of course)?
• Here’s why Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is the best Disney sequel. I’m still cackling.
• Mark your calendars: The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King (4/24), another tale in the Dark Tower saga, and Railsea by China Miéville (5/15), a salvagepunk retelling of Moby Dick.

I now have two favorite commercials …

Crisis at Cedarhill

,

Dear Friends,

It is with a sad and heavy heart that I must tell you what is going on here at Cedarhill. On Sunday night, February 5, someone broke into the sanctuary. They turned the felv cats in with our 150 uninfected cats. They were found that way the next morning. Rags were stuffed down the toilet to plug it up. A pair of Michelle’s boots were stolen. All fingers pointed toward a former employee. She worked for us a couple of weeks then asked to be admitted to Willowbrook Psychiatric Center. She turned out not to be very stable.

I’ve had to order a whole new set of 90-keyed alike master locks. The cheapest I could find was $18.00 apiece. I am sure that this person had gotten herself a master lock key to the current set of locks. We are currently on high vigil. We have locked the felv/fiv house, the senior house and the big cat house. We are locking the front gate with a chain and pad lock. In our twenty-five years, I have never felt so threatened.

Now, for the tragic news. We were not sure what happened to Oscar. He started to throw up last Sunday night on February 5 and refused to eat. The vet came out Monday and drew blood which was sent to MSU. We gave him fluids, B-12 and a huge dose of vitamins. The next day we got his blood work back and he had tested positive for salmonella and he died that night. We have been feeding the same beef and chicken and knew that was not the cause. Lady, who lived with Oscar, cries and moans all of the time. It just breaks your heat. Oscar, the plumber, is gone forever. Rest in peace, Oscar.

The following week Sonya, another tiger, started showing severe neurological regression. She could hardly walk. We carried her to MSU and we had every imaginable test run on her. From x-rays, spinal tap, spinal milligram and the result they came back with was 96% cancer in her blood work, and she tested positive for Canine Distemper probably carried by raccoons in this area. She was euthanized by MSU on February 16. The staff and I are still in shock.

If that was not enough, Phoebe our 15-year old blind tiger, on February 23, started having severe seizures and passed away a few hours later. Her little body is at MSU for a necropsy. I’m so used to having Phoebe in my back yard that the emptiness is unbearable. She was quite the talker. She was 5 months old when we rescured her and was 15 years old when she died.

For the animals,
C. Kay McElroy & Michelle Cranford

I’m angry. I’m hurt. In the 15+ years I’ve known about Cedarhill, nothing like this has happened. I don’t presume to know what happened to poor Sonya and Phoebe – the timing just sucks. But I don’t think it’s far-fetched to assume Oscar was poisoned. I looked forward to picking up their newsletter each month to read about his shenanigans. It made me smile. Now he’s gone.

I donated $50. It won’t bring any of them back, but it may help with medical costs or locks and keys. It’s not much but it’s something. It’s all I could think to do. You can read more about the sanctuary and all that they do at http://www.cedarhillanimalsanctuary.org. They were featured on Animal Planet’s Must Love Cats in February of last year, which you can view below.

I hope they find whoever is responsible. I hope the guilt consumes her and devours her from the inside out.

ByeDaddy!

So. That took long enough. I registered both my domain and hosting with GoDaddy almost 5 years ago, and I stuck with it for 5 years too long. Through all the spam, the unnecessary messages left on my phone, the ridiculous commercials, this debacle, SOPA … I stuck with it. Not because I supported them or enjoyed their services – their control panel is atrocious and impossible to navigate, and it reached a point where if I couldn’t change something via FTP I just groaned and cut my losses – but because of money. They really are the cheapest and most widely known, and I imagine more people would’ve vacated long ago if they could a) afford the extra couple bucks or b) were aware of the alternatives. I finally sucked it up and shelled out the dough and hauled ass over to Laughing Squid, and so far I couldn’t be happier. I transferred my domain to Namecheap. No complaints there, either. I’ll sleep better knowing that my money isn’t lining the pockets of an ignorant, censorship-supporting elephant killer.

< 1 2 3 4 5 >»