I just interviewed Paolo on Amazon. Here’s some Q&A I wasn’t able to include in the feature. This was originally a Conversations with the Bookless interview, but then I discovered–hey, he had a book coming out…

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Woo-hoo! a big stack of the latest volume of Ben Templesmith’s Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse, arrived; it includes my introduction. Also, a new novel from “two talented young women–each only 20 years-old,” Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It’s called Havemercy and begins:

That morning, I awaited my arrest in Our Lady of a Thousand Fans. I wasn’t alone, but it seemed I might as well have been, for the young man in the bed next to me was asleep. He had no particular reason not to be–after all, it wasn’t his future upon which fell the shadow of impending arrest–and though I found that I could not look at him, neither did I begrudge him the repose.

Here’s some detail from the Templesmith!

So I heard an MSNBC show host (a liberal or moderate) take Ted Turner to task for saying that in 10 to 20 years the world’s temperature may go up by 8 degrees and many of us will be dead as a result. He also said that some of the people fighting us in Iraq are the equivalent of freedom fighters–and was taken to task for this as if he was a crazy person.

Okay, so global warming might not occur as fast as Turner was indicating, but it is a threat to civilization as we know it–most scientists agree on this. At the very least, it’s not nuts to suggest it.

And, it is a fact that there are many people fighting the American occupation of Iraq who do not belong to any terrorist groups. (Imagine if in 20 years China occupied the U.S. in the interests of their national security. Anyone resisting would of course be called a terrorist, but would any American, thinking of this scenario, see resistance as “terrorism”?)

This all comes on the heels of the fiery sermons of Obama’s pastor. Apparently it’s not patriotic to question any aspect of America’s foreign policy or history. Apparently if your comments don’t fit easily into a binary system, you’re screwed. I guess the righteousness displayed by commentators in reaction to Turner or Obama’s pastor bothers me much, much more than what they are castigating.

I’m sure Silence Without is either happy or irritated that there’s now a bona fide weird-ass penguin contest going on through the intertubes, given her ground-breaking penguin contest of a couple of months ago…

Bruno G and Miss Leggy Pee engaged in some exquisitely edited creative hijinks. Thanks, Neil!

Jeff

Okay, so this isn’t a book I received, but it is the cover for George Mann’s new steampunk series–and it’s gorgeous!

Here’re the real books received today, a nice mixture of Iron Man, Colorado Review and some power-pop/alternative music by Everything’s Gone Green. Hey–if you send me CDs, I will definitely at least review them on this blog, and possibly find another outlet.

First off, the brave people at Amazon asked me to post about April Fool’s posts (and Antick has a good listing of more.)

A long, thoughtful interview with Scott Sigler.

Jim C. Hines puts up with my silliness talking about his Goblin series (Die Goblin in Germany).

Wondered what K.J. Bishop was up to? She’s working on a Mouseman epic, among other things–and still Refusing to Be the Same.

Kirkus profiles me and the lovely Ann, in their special SF/F issue (chockful of reviews).

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Squidpunk Thoughts…

So, yes, Squidpunk is an April Fool’s joke, but one that we happened upon just in time, given Paul D’s scandalous send-up of us and Mr. Kincaid on Locus. We have, in effect, innoculated ourselves!

Of course, the sad fact remains–I’d love to do Squidpunk (Ann, stop looking at me that way!), but it would be a coffee table book including images from the many rich and various representations of squid by humans over the centuries, mixed in with a few short-short excerpts of various references to squid in nonfiction and fiction. Nothing like a fiction antho (shudder).

Check out all of the Locus pieces, including, ahem, the one about Bravo TV’s new Top Writer series, although I hope I understood “bunk bed” properly as being a two-tiered bed–two separate beds…

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Ann and I are guests at I-CON at Stony Brook University in New York this spring, along with Harlan Ellison, Elizabeth Bear, Charlaine Harris, and a few others. Ann will be there in her capacity as Weird Tales editor and participating in a workshop and panels. I’ll be doing panels and my Ambergris multi-media presentation. More information as I have it.