December 9, 2008 Links and Plugs

Crap. I'm broke.

• The Barnes & Noble Book Club has a thread on Ender's Exile. Sign in and participate. Until December 11, "Uncle Orson" will be dropping by, answering questions and comments. Here's a random quote: "Science fiction simply isn't needed any more, not the way it was. The tropes of Sci-fi are now available to writers in every genre, including academic-literary fiction. There is no longer a need for a walled-off genre where we can do these social and scientific thought experiments."
• While we're on the topic of science fiction, ever wondered what space beer tastes like?
• Congrats to the finalists of the Aurealis Awards!
• Owning a Moleskine notebook not geeky enough for you? How about owning a Steampunk Moleskine notebook? John Coulhart and Jeff VanderMeer goodness.
• Mary Robinette Kowal on Shopping for a Pet? Consider These Fantasy Movie Creatures. Also doubles as advice column for wizards planning to acquire a familiar.
• The New York Times has a fashion/style article on Book Clubs. How I wish I was like Edward Champion, getting dates at book clubs (alas, all the girls I'm interested in at the Lit Critters have boyfriends).
• Velvet Mafia has an interview with Hal Duncan (pssst, check out "The Toymaker's Grief" at Lone Star Stories). While you're at it, you might want to buy Wilde Stories 2008, irregardless of your sexual orientation.
• One of my favorite reviewers/editors if Rich Horton. He just posted the Table of Contents for his 2009 anthologies and it got me excited. I'm not an expert in science fiction (although seeing names like Ted Kosmatka and Mary Robinette Kowal is full of win!) but his fantasy list looks promising, especially with Christopher Golden's "The Hiss of Escaping Air" and Jeffrey Ford's "Daltharee" (I've been working on my own "best of" list last week and both stories are in there).
• Jim C. Hines has a What Makes A Useful Review post.
• It's the wrong season but hey, in the spirit of The Nightmare Before Christmas (well, not really--just more of the former rather than the latter), here are two short stories: "Daddy Long Legs of the Evening" by Jeffrey Ford and "The Signal" by Paul S. Kemp.

And for your book plug, re-visit the City Imperishable:

Madness of Flowers by Jay Lake