February 14, 2011 Links and Plugs

Just a heads up that I might not be updating the blog during the week of Feb. 21 ~ Feb. 25 due to work.

Interviews

• The Outer Alliance interviews Mark Allan Gunnells.
• Little Miss Zombie interviews Gemma Files.
• Jessica Strider interviews Jon Courtenay Grimwood.
• Adventures in SciFi Publishing interviews Ferrett Steinmetz (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Christie Yant on Lessons From the Slush Pile: Your Cover Letter and You.
• Laura Anne Gilman on Practical Meerkat’s 52 Bits of Useful Info for Young (and Old) Writers, week 6.
• Marissa Day on The Sex Pt. 3 — Why?
• Dale Spindel on Ten misperceptions about public libraries.
• Juliette Wade on Story Arcs Again: Repetition and Development.
• Janice Hardy on If You Build it, They Will Read: Plotting With Layers.
• Jason Sanford on Why Doesn't Locus Review Daily Science Fiction?
• Mark Charan Newton on The Definitive New Weird Definition.
• Kameron Hurley on "Fearing the Woman in the Dark Alley".
• Mark Chadbourn on Finding Fantasy in The Past - The People.

News

• Laird Barron and Nicholas Kaufmann read at KGB February 16th.

Portents edited by Al Sarrantonio

Review: CD-R King SB-96 7 Inches TFT Multimedia E-Book

CD-R King debuted its eBook reader (view full specs here) during the second half of last year but it wasn't until this month that they finally restocked on this apparently hot commodity (and released a smaller touch screen variant). Now the problem with CD-R King is that the quality and durability of its products vary: it's been my experience that the company's flash drives are sturdy but I've also heard reports of MP3 players dying within the week it was bought. So I thought a comprehensive review of the SB-96 would prove valuable to book aficionados.

The most lucrative aspect of the device is its price point. At P3990 ($90.00), it's one of the cheaper dedicated eBook readers available. What one doesn't quite grasp is how much lower the cost of the product is. The package not only includes the device and a USB connector but a carrying case and charger as well (oh, and earphones for those planning to play other media on it). With regards to the device itself, its output is a colored LCD screen and the user navigates using buttons. When it comes to storage space, it has 2 GB of memory (more than sufficient if we're just talking about books) but if you need more, you can insert a MicroSD Card to supplement it.

On paper, it looks like a "Kindle-Killer" but in practice, it's hardly that. The first thing that comes to mind is the packaging and interface. The SB-96 comes with a pamphlet manual but aside from listing the specs of the device (some of which are contradictory to what's stated in the box), it doesn't really inform the user on how to use the device. The "real" manual is actually one of the eBooks bundled with it. Then there is the CD installer that is packaged with the SB-96 but it's a placebo. On my Windows 7 computer, it didn't do anything (if you peek at the driver contents, it's actually for the Archos tablet). In fact, my computer wouldn't recognize the device as an external storage device until I configured my settings to Windows auto update* (which is annoying on my end but is apparently the standard operating procedure with most of CD-R King's devices). While the buttons on the device is easy to understand (up/down, right/left, back, menu, home, play, zoom), there are times where it's counterintuitive. For example, you can navigate book pages by either the up/down button or right/left. While there are no problems with the former, it's bizarre to be turning to the next page by pressing the left button. It's all these elements combined that makes the product a less than streamlined experience; I can make do with it but it's not elegantly designed.

When it comes to usage, I find the LCD screen to be adequate. It's actually brightly lit so I have no problems reading documents on it, at least as far as lighting is concerned. The second factor that needs to be talked about is refresh rates but I can't go into detail without talking about file formats. Under the hood of the SB-96 is a device manufactured in China that's appropriated by CD-R King. It theoretically "supports" ePub, one of the two popular commercial eBook formats in the US/UK, but here's my experience: the 300 kb ePub files I uploaded to the device took too long to load. I was waiting for 5 minutes with nary a sign that it would work, which is strange considering that the 500 MB video file I uploaded was playing in under 30 seconds. The file format that's optimal for this device are txt and PDF files, and how fast it loads depends on the contents of the file: image-intensive PDFs are slow but those that are mostly text are processed quickly. When browsing through pages, there's a small lag (around one second), noticeable but not long enough for it to be inconvenient.

The interesting discussion here is how the SB-96 supports PDF but not ePub. As a reviewer, I get a lot of PDFs so this is one of those devices that's great for me. However, casual readers who actually plan to purchase books from online vendors are out of luck: Mobi and ePub are the two common file formats when we talk about eBooks, and neither is really supported by the device. I'd like to note, however, that txt and PDF are common formats when it comes to non-commercial eBooks, whether it's pirated downloads or fan fiction.

With regards to the reading experience, it's really going to depend on how the book is laid out and your eyesight. A PDF page is usually scaled to fit the entire screen so one sees the entire page immediately. This is great if the text is legibile for you. In my experience, regular text is visible, but anything small like footnotes or copyright text requires you to use the zoom function. Now there are three levels of zooming in (and as a redundancy, changing the "font" which is essentially the same feature). One is the default, which fits the screen. The other two allows you to zoom in closer, and while I have no problems with the zooming in per se, it does take quite some time to load, and worse, even more time to scroll from left to right (or top to buttom). Let's put it this way, I'm fine with the occasional zooming in (such as reading copyright pages) but if the file requires me to use it too often, I'd give up because I'd be spending more time waiting for the device to load than reading. Suffice to say, as long as your PDF is laid out correctly (and most, if not all, of my electronic ARCs are), then it shouldn't really pose a problem.

When it comes to navigation, the SB-96 is unable to use any of the default bookmarks, but you can easily jump to any page, and have access to six bookmarking slots per eBook. If this was an anthology for example, I'd suggest you use your first slot to bookmark the table of contents, and the second one for the page you last left off. It's hardly an automated experience but it's not so bad either.

Ironically enough, while the SB-96 can be problematic as an eBook reader, it's a great media player. I've thrown .flv and .mkv on the device and playback is just fine without any conversion. Videos usually take a few seconds to load but once it works, it's great. The only negative side to watching videos is that there's no way to bookmark where you last left off. It also has a built-in radio and the reception and audio quality was decent.

The SB-96 could also have been a great comic viewer but it honestly handles images sub-optimally. Photos are viewed horizontally instead of vertically so the scale is off; I could view the image but couldn't read the word balloons.

With regards to the MicroSD expansion slot, I tested out a Kingston 8 GB card (manual says maximum it supports is 8 GB while the box says 16 GB) and it worked out fine. What's great about it is that accessing it is nearly instantaneous and there's no noticeable difference between an eBook or video stored in the SB-96's built-in memory vs. that of the memory card.

Another detail worthy to note is that turning on/off the SB-96 takes around 15~20 seconds, so it's usually best to use the device when you know you're going to use it for a long time, as opposed to guerilla reading during your 5-minute break.

Overall, the buyer should be wary of the SB-96. If you're looking to a cheaper equivalent of the Kindle or Nook, this isn't it. Instead, it's an eBook reading device that works under a different ecosystem (txt and PDF files). If you're fine reading PDF and txt files, then the SB-96 should be adequate for your needs with some qualification. As I said before, it also works great as a media player so there's that added bonus too.

*Kaspersky, my anti-virus, also kept detecting a Qvod.ank worm in the device's OS.

US vs Philippine Publishing

An Advance Reader Copy (ARC) arrived in the mail the other day and it made me realize how different publishing in the Philippines (and other countries) is compared to the US. Below are some examples.

Agents

There are no book agents in the Philippines. With a few exceptions, authors aren't paid that high in the first place (and most of the published authors I know aren't paid advances) nor is the industry that large to support a new profession. If I were to suddenly become an agent tomorrow for example, I wouldn't be able to acquire enough clients or sell enough books to make it worthwhile as my primary income. Hence most publishing deals involve the publisher and the author directly.

ARCs

There are no ARCs in the local publishing industry.

One reason is that printing ARCs actually means that you're doing two print-runs at the very least: one for reviewers (the ARCs) and one for the market. When it comes to the latter, print runs here are relatively small, anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand (there are exceptions of course but those are just that--exceptions). At those numbers, it's not really economical to do another print run whose sole purpose is to promote the book in advance. You're better off printing an excess number of books in your initial print run to account for review copies.

The other reason is that there really aren't a lot of venues that review local books. Blogging is changing that but in the past, you might get reviewed in a broadsheet or magazine if you're lucky. Otherwise, there is no significant or regular "reviewing" industry--at least for books--in the country*. (For similar reasons, there's really little distinction here when it comes to marketing vs. publicity departments).

*Book bloggers in my opinion are the future of book reviews, at least here if nowhere else.

Print on Demand

It's not that we don't have Print on Demand per se, but it's not as sophisticated as, say, Lulu or Lightning Source. One of our most accessible and efficient print-on-demand publisher for example is Central Books, and they require a minimum of 50 books before they do a print run (hardly the "can I just order 10 books package?"). DIY publishing isn't as accessible here as it is in the US, unless you're producing a publication that is reliant on photocopiers (which is the case here with indie comics).

Offset Printing

And then there is the question of offset printing. Suffice to say, printers in other, more developed countries, due to various factors (price of paper, ink, economy, etc.), are able to provide more cost-effective solutions for their respective clients. For example, there was a point in time when it was cheaper to print our company's publication in Hong Kong because not only did they produce better product overall, it was cheaper, even when shipping was factored into the equation.

Another factor, of course, is economies of scale. Because we print less books, the price of each book is more expensive compared to that of a larger publisher.

Distribution also plays a role. A book published in the US will have an easier time getting distributed in other countries like the Philippines, but the reverse is not true.

A concrete example is Dean Francis Alfar's novel, Salamanca. It retails for around $7.00 (if I remember correctly) and compared to other similarly-priced books from the US, the production value isn't that high (we're judging the physical attributes of the book, not the content). The publisher is also selling the book on Amazon (for US customers) but the price gap is huge: from $7.00 to $25.00. I can, of course, understand how the price is inflated that high (i.e. Amazon's cut, shipping, taxes, etc.) but to the casual consumer, it's unbelievable how a book's price can easily quadruple. Nor can a small, 168-page paperback compete with massive hardcovers at that price point.

February 11, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• Rick Klaw interviews Stina Leicht.
• Dr. Grasshopper interviews Gareth Powell.
• Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interviews Jennifer Ouellette (podcast).
• Haikasoru interviews translator Edwin Hawkes.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Karen Mahoney.

Advice/Articles

• Theodora Goss on Folkroots: The Femme Fatale at the Fin-de-Siècle.
• Study Guides: Interfictions 2, Yellowcake.
• Abigail Nussbaum on Women Writing SF: Arslan by M.J. Engh.
• Nancy Jane Moore on News Flash: We Still Haven’t Come a Long Way, Baby.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Beginning Writers Again—Sort of  (Changing Times Part Seventeen).
• Mike Brotherton on Ten Terrific Resources for Writing Space-Based Hard Science Fiction.
• Jasmine Koran on Mercedes Lackey's fiction (via Shira Lipkin).
• Kameron Hurley, Author of God's War, on "Reimagining Revolution".
• Abigail Johnson on 14 Gift Ideas to Give Your Supernatural Sweetheart this Valentine’s Day.
• Janice Hardy on Gender Bending: Writing a Different Gender Than Your Own.

News

• BSC Review March Madness Book Tournament Suggestions.
• Down These Strange Streets Table of Contents.

Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht

Essay: What We Can Learn from Geocities

I’ve been pondering on the now-defunct Geocities, a free web-hosting service that was ubiquitous 15 years ago. It might seem like a failure, at least in light of it shutting down last year (Japan being the exception), but its existence was integral to the popularity of the Internet. Four commodities current users take for granted are free emails, domain names (to a certain extent), storage space, and bandwidth. Without Geocities, the last three wouldn’t be free to this day (which isn’t to say Geocities was the only free web-hosting service; there were several but you can’t argue that Geocities was one of the most popular).

Perhaps one of the reasons Geocities eventually shut down is not because it didn’t innovate (which I’ll get to later), but because it failed in becoming simple and accessible to lay people. The success of sites like Blogger or Flickr for example isn’t that they provided free domain names, storage space, and bandwidth, but that they were easy to use. I could create a coherent and aesthetically-pleasing blog in under five minutes with Blogger. Same goes for photo albums with Flickr. Geocities was too general and too customizable for the non-techie, at least when it competed with the more focused and specialized services. Want a photo blog? Go to Tumblr. Want pure storage space? There’s Megaupload.

Despite that, Geocities did learn from some of its shortcomings. One element I’d like to emphasize is Geocities domain names. Originally, when you signed up for their service, you didn’t get a website like www.geocities.com/charlesatan (this was their eventual epiphany). Instead, what you got was something like www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/0001. In retrospect, Geocities’s naming scheme seems counter-intuitive (I’d like to note that it’s working for Japan though) but it’s understandable why the designers originally planned Geocities to work that way (and why they’re called Geocities in the first place). And it’s a mistake many people make in light of new technologies, such as eBooks:

Creating a platform that’s identical to it’s real-world counterpart (even when it’s not suited for it).

Now in the case of Geocities, they thought that URLs, or web addresses, should be similar to the way we have addresses in the real world. You get a “city” name (Tokyo for all things Japan, Area51 for all things science fiction, etc.), a “district” name (in the case of “Tokyo”, towers, flats, temple, ginza, garden, pagoda, etc.), and a numbered address (0001~9999).

To be fair, this isn’t without its benefits. Just looking at the URL for example, you can tell a lot about the website. Similarly, finding related websites is easy by just changing the variables (the numbered address, district, etc.). In fact, this is how Call Numbers work in a library.

Unfortunately, that’s not how users interact with the Internet. People navigate either through URLs directly or through links. Someone doesn’t think, hey, if I change one of the letters in Microsoft.com, maybe I’d arrive at Apple’s website.  Nor is the inevitable long URL of Geocities memorable (sure, they might remember “Tokyo” and “Towers” if they’re into anime for example, but remembering a four-digit address for your website specifically is asking a bit too much; how does anime fan 1813 distinguish themselves from manga fan 1764?).

So one of the eventual changes they made was that your website url was that of your login name (i.e. www.geocities.com/charlesatan if your login name was charlesatan). This practice has been appropriated by most, if not all, free web services today.

The lesson here is that while real-world analogs can be helpful at times, one shouldn’t be constrained by them. For example, a podcast isn’t simply radio on the Internet (for one thing, you can pause, rewind, and replay podcasts upon demand). Neither are eBooks simply print books uploaded to an electronic device.

February 10, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• A.B. Keuser interviews Sara Creasy.
• The Agony Column Panel Discussion from SF in SF on November 13, 2010, with Terry Bisson, Steven R. Boyett and Dale Pendell (podcast).
• Caitlyn Paxson interviews Anita Best.

Advice/Articles

• Adam Israel on Writer’s Toolkit: Tarot Cards.
• Rachelle Gardner on How to Get Published.
• Laird Barron on I Call Bullshit.
• Rose Fox on In Praise of Black Female Horror Writers.
• Matt Staggs on Magazine Mania at Suvudu: Black Gate.
• Juliette Wade on Foregrounding and Backgrounding Information.
• Pimp My Novel on Anatomy of an Ebook.

News

• Subterranean YA Issue TOC.

Innsmouth Free Press February 2011

February 9, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• The Functional Nerds Podcast interviews Cherie Priest. 
• Science Fiction Awards Watch Hugo Awards Podcast with Brit Mandelo, John DeNardo, and Jonathan Strahan.
• The Dragon Page Podcast interviews Mercedes Lackey.
• Adventures in SciFi Publishing interviews Stina Leicht, Daryl Gregory (podcast).
• Suvudu Take Five with Adam-Troy Castro.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Stina Leicht.

Advice/Articles

• Rachelle Gardner on What are Remainders? 
• Sarah Monette on Fundraising and Self-Publishing: Lessons Learned.
• Juliette Wade on Do you want to consider language change?
• Jeff VanderMeer on Four Years At Sea, No Sign of Shore.
• Nancy Fulda on Critique Groups as an Unreliable Narrator.
• Jeff VanderMeer’s Fantasy in 2010: A Baker’s Dozen of the Best.
• Janice Hardy on What Your Query Says About Your Book.

Bull Spec #4

February 8, 2011 Links and Plugs

Shout-outs to Gavin Grant who has a story (part 1) up at Strange Horizons, and Rich Horton's table of contents for his cancelled anthology Rebooted.


Interviews

• Erin Underwood interviews Matthew Kressel.
• Jiraiya interviews Ellen Datlow.
• Odyssey Workshop Podcasts features Laura Anne Gilman.
• Jonathan Strahan chats with Gary K. Wolfe (podcast). 
• The Outer Alliance interviews Mark Allan Gunnells.
• Jeremy L.C. Jones interviews Dominic Crapuchettes.
• If You're Just Joining Us interviews Alden Bell (podcast).
• International Socialist Review interviews China Mieville.

Advice/Articles

• John Brown on eBooks, Book Contracts, Agents, and Libraries.
• Steven Harper Piziks on Rewrite Etiquette.
• Rachelle Gardner on Sell-in, Sell-Through, Earn-Out.
• The Millions On Bad Reviews.
• Paul Graham Raven on Genre fiction’s cultural cringe; the annual repeat showing.
• Nancy Fulda on Freeing the Statue from the Stone.
• Juliette Wade on Three points make a story arc.
• Adrienne Kress on The Genre Pigeon Hole.
• Janice Hardy on Give Me a Beat: Rhythm in Dialog.

News

• Alpha Workshop for Young Writers.
• Electric Velocipede A Rather Large Announcement.
• RIP Brian Jacques.

 Lightspeed February 2011

Looking Back at 2010

I have vague memories of 2010. it’s not that I don’t remember events, but my chronology is off. I know distinctly what happened in 2009. I also know what happened in 2008, or even as far back as 2005. 2010 seems like an amalgamation of several years; I’m genuinely surprised when I reminisce about a certain event, and realize that it only happened last year, instead of two or three years ago.

I wouldn’t say 2010 was a bad year, but a lot of complications arose which prevented me from doing what I usually do. There is, of course, the day job, but I don’t air my dirty laundry publicly. As far as my personal life is concerned, my parents decided to renovate the house, one room at a time, so most of the year was spent packing books and magazines--and then never unpacking them. I’m sure I lost a lot of books and magazines but recovering them is not worth the effort, between my allergies to dust, and the lack of space in my new room.

There is also my over-commitment to a lot of projects, especially with my increased activity in websites like SF Signal and The World SF News Blog. Suffice to say, finding ways to shave off time here and there helped me cope. I used to copy/paste my daily link list to Facebook. I don’t do that anymore. It might only take three minutes but you’d be surprised how much three minutes each day saves you, especially considering I do most of my ‘net activities all in one go.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t been able to read as much as I usually do in 2010. I have a huge backlog of books to review. There are two reasons for this.

As far back as May, I was suffering from Chronic Blepharitis. Or rather, I was suffering the severe effects of it. My right eye was blurry. Unfortunately, I wasn’t properly diagnosed until December. So in between May and, well, until the end of 2010, it was fuzzyville for me. This mostly affected my ability to read large chunks of text on a screen, and since I prefer my books to be electronic (especially considering my physical books were being packed in boxes at the time), not a lot of reading was done. Hence my reviews stopped being weekly.

The other reason is more selfish. Starcraft 2 was just released, and I don’t want to do things half-hearted. Even as far back as the beta release, I committed myself to being an extremely good player. Perhaps not good enough to play the game professionally (i.e. competing in paying tournaments), but proficient to a point that I could brag. Unfortunately, Starcraft 2 is a complex game to master. To be the best involves various kinds of practice and learning: playing a lot of games on the Ladder, practicing with Practice Partners, learning and observing strategy (Day9’s Dailies for example), watching tournaments, testing out Build Orders, and reviewing your Replays. I didn’t do all six, but I did more than half. And it’s a time-consuming process. By November, I successfully qualified for the Diamond League (highest division at the time) in the US Server (I’m Platinum in Southeast Asia), which is the top 20% of players in that region.

It’s February now and the last time I logged on for Starcraft 2 was in early December. Suffice to say, I’m gearing up to get my reading groove back.

February 7, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• The Ranting Dragon interviews Mark Charan Newton.
• Tracie McBride interviews Nancy Fulda.
• I Should Be Writing interviews Nathan Lowell (podcast).
• Mindcore interviews Paul Di Filippo (podcast). 
• The Rejectionist interviews Clare Bell.

Advice/Articles

• Terri Windling On Editing.
• Patrick Hester on Podcasting 101 Part 1.
• Cacy Duncan on Thumbnails: They Come In Handy!
• Theodora Goss on Love and Squalor.
• Laura Anne Gilman on Practical Meerkat’s 52 Bits of Useful Info for Young (and Old) Writers, week 5.
• Marissa Day on The Sex Pt. 2 – How?
• Sherwood Smith on What’s the Best Fantasy World?
• Dana Kaye on What Type Of Book Buyer Are You?
• Mike Brotherton on The Impact of NASA’s Kepler Mission on Science Fiction.
• Gerard Hourarner On The Importance of Failure.
• Juliette Wade on Social Labels: YA and beyond!
• Janice Hardy on Running on Autopilot: Working With Unconscious Goals.
• Gord Sellar on Jazz and SF.

From the mail:

Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott

February 4, 2011 Links and Plugs

I got to interview Dean Alan Foster...

Interviews

• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Walter Jon Williams.
• I Should Be Writing roundtable discussion with J. Daniel Sawyer, Mur Lafferty, Gail Carriger, and Nathan Lowell (podcast). 
• The Agony Column interviews Dale Pendell (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Eat My Zombie on 20 of the Best Sci-fi Time Travel Movies.
• Ekaterina Sedia on Seeing Through Foreign Eyes.
• Jenny Moss on Fantasy Writer’s Use of History.
• Wendy Wagner on Working out.
• Nancy Jane Moore on Learning by Writing.
• Editorial Anonymous on Quick Answers: Blurbs, Library Credits, and Print Runs.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Beginning Writers.
• Nicola Morgan on Emotions and Writing.
• Cheryl Morgan on Award Season.
• Jim C. Hines on Random Questions.
• Juliette Wade on Critique is about the readers.
• Janice Hardy on Feel the Rhythm of the Words.

News

• Amazon, Macmillan pay authors for books that were never sold.
• Fan Translates 139,000-Word Russian Rewrite of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Clarkesworld #53

Random Quote for the Day

"Creating an eBook is easy. Creating an eBook with great formatting, on the other hard, is a bitch."

February 3, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• Suvudu Take Five with Carrie Ryan.
• Redstone Science Fiction interviews Jonathan Laden.
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast #25. 
• The Agony Column interviews Lisa Desrochers and Karen Joy Fowler (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Reviews of Elmer (Jeff VanderMeer, Larry Nolen, Paul Charles Smith, Omnivoracious).
• Henry Cribbs on Remembrance in Future Things Past: Recall of (and in) some of the best scifi of the 1980’s.
• Rachelle Gardner on Agency Agreements.
• Juilette Wade on Macro- and micro-grounding.
• Theodora Goss on Mythpunk.
• Janice Hardy on Let's Talk About Adjectives.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts on Tender Morsels: Not Bitchy Enough.
• Margo Lanagan on Old, uncertain feet—Bitch Media and Tender Morsels. 
• Abigail Nussbaum on Pull the Trigger 
• Damien G. Walter on Is speculative fiction poised to break into the literary canon?
• The Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List.
• Nancy Fulda on Freeing the statue from the stone.
• Mike Braff on Submissions for NOObs.

News

• Jeff VanderMeer February Fund-Raising Challenge: Make Me Dance, Support Translated Fiction.
• The Great CZP Review Contest.

Apex Magazine #21

February 2, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• Flames Rising interviews Matt Forbeck.
• SFX interviews Andy Hedgecock.
• Beyond Victoriana Lesbian Steampunk Stories — A Roundtable Interview, Part 2.
• Locus It All Started When: China Mieville.
• The Functional Nerds interviews Tim Akers (podcast).
• Fantasy Literature interviews Mark Chadbourn.
• Civilian Reader interviews Sam Sykes.
• Lara Zielinsky interviews Joselle Vanderhooft (podcast).
• The Dragon Page interviews Shawn Kupfer (podcast).
• How to Kill Your Imaginary Friends interviews Aliette de Bodard.
• Matt Staggs interviews Ben Aaronovitch.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Andrew Lane.
• Angry Robot Podcast interviews Lauren Beukes and Aliette de Bodard.

Advice/Articles

• Theodora Goss on Beauty, Meaning, Purpose.
• Nancy Fulda on "But That's Not Realistic!"
• Janice Hardy on Decisions, Decisions: Character Choices That Matter.
• Jeff VanderMeer on Awards.
• Jaym Gates on OMG, did you check out her encyclopedia?!
• Skud on Ebook discussions flying under the radar.
• Edward Gauvin's Report on the 38th Angoulême International Comics Festival.
• Juliette Wade on Do you want to take on dialects?
• Abigail Nussbaum on Women Writing SF: Mary Gentle.

News

• Winners of the 4th Annual Black Quill Awards.
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities…Revealed…

 Never Knew Another by J.M. McDermott

February 1, 2011 Links and Plugs

Interviews

• From Bar to Bar interviews Jeff  VanderMeer.
• Beyond Victoriana Lesbian Steampunk Stories — A Roundtable Interview, Part 1.
• The Skiffy and Fanty Show interviews Lauren Beukes (podcast).
• BBC interviews Ursula K. Le Guin (podcast).
• The World SF News Blog interviews Ekaterina Sedia.
• JoSelle Vanderhooft on Mythpunk Roundtable.
• Paul Goat Allen interviews Patrick Rothfuss.
• The Outer Alliance interviews Mark Allan Gunnells.

Advice/Articles

• Ann & Jeff VanderMeer on Editing Fiction Anthologies (Part 1).
• Wendy Wagner on Market Forces.
• Janice Hardy on Is Doing a Blog Tour Really Worth It?
• Shweta Narayan on Thoughts on perspective, worldbuilding, and erasure.
• Niall Harrison on amimythpunkornot.com.
• Jon Sprunk on Writing What You Don’t Know.
• Steven Harper Piziks on Opening Clearly.
• Juliette Wade on Superpowers of the grammatical subject.

bOt. #1