Jeff VanderMeer

(copyright Heidi Estey)

First off, the awesome artist Heidi Estey is having an art show called “Old Growth: Heidi Estey’s Collected Works” at Cafe Racer in Seattle (5858 Roosevelt Way NE; 206-525-JAVA). Check out more of her work here. (I also know she’s open to cover art assignments. Hint hint.)

Other interesting stuff…

On Omnivoracious, the following ran last week:
– An interview with Richard Morgan about Steel Remains, guest-blogged by that magnificent bastard Will Hindmarch.
– An interview by Laird Barron of Ellen Datlow about the antho POE, including Laird’s thoughts on Poe.
– Paul Tremblay tells me a little bit about his reaction to the reaction to The Little Sleep.
– For Graphic Novel Friday, I go on a bit about the differences between the movie and comics versions of Waltz with Bashir.

I’ve been immortalized as a pirate of sorts…

The Tangled Bank, a new antho of fiction on evolution, is looking for submissions.

Sir Tessa is back to book reviewing after a break, with cool pieces on The Fourth Circle by Zivkovic and Little Brother by Doctorow. I pretty much agree with her entirely on Little Brother–that review along with Matt Cheney’s covers much of anything I would’ve had to say. I do think Matt might be giving Doctorow a little bit of a pass on the novel as a novel, though.

Virushead has a cool post on the value of constraints on communication.

An interview on a Polish website about City of Saints. (Looks like two more of my books just sold there, btw.)

Angela Slatter’s stray thoughts on long sentences.

Er, and the dragons-real/not-read debate continues over at Omnivoracious, too:

I love dragons very much.I’m a #1top fan of dragons even they don’t exist and I mean it!No matter what it takes i don’t care how big the task is I’ll even save the last dragon and die if I have to!Iread every single page of dragons information and facts in every book I can find about them.My favorite dragons are the European dragons,waverns,and chinese lung dragons.But still,I like all of them.Hmmm,it’s hard to choose witch dragon is actully my favorite.But good news DRAGONS EXIST!The only dragon that were found by people was the “komodo dragons”.But I’m sure that more dragons can be found only by the people who REALLY believe in dragons.Same as other creatures.Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you that I’m looking for a european dragon egg to raise.I’m a dragon rescuer NOT a hunter!hunters kill and sell creatures for money.P.S.I LOVE DRAGONS AND THEY EXIST!!!

Finally, Payseur & Schmidt is having a book sale. Details below…

We here at Payseur & Schmidt remember keenly the difficult years of the Great Depression, when the cost of ink and paper very nearly stopped our presses. Wisconsin winters were cold back then, and all we could hope for was that the fiery heat of the words in our books would warm hearts and minds, if not frostbitten toes. Plus, binding glue made a pretty good soup base in a pinch.

The current economy is biting us all in some mighty sensitive areas, and we want to do our part to ease the sting. We know our books are a bit pricier than the crappy, disposable paper blocks you can buy at big box stores. Everything we publish–from authors and artists like Nicola Griffith, John Clute,Paul Di Filippo,Jim Woodring, and more–is meant to be a work of art that you will give a place of honor on your bookshelf. But tough times call for extreme measures. So, we hereby announce…

The Payseur & Schmidt Mailing List-Only New Deal Book Sale!

Take a nice chunk off our regular retail prices from now until midnight on tax day, April 15th, 2009. The following deals can be had:

Cosmocopia, by Paul DiFilippo/Jim Woodring
Reg. Price: $65 + $10 shipping
SALE Price: $40 + $10 shipping!

And Now We Are Going to Have a Party, by Nicola Griffith
Reg. Price: $50 + $7 shipping
SALE Price: $35 + $7 shipping

The Darkening Garden, by John Clute
Reg. Price: $35 + $5 shipping
SALE Price: $25 + $5 shipping

Here’s how to take advantage of our insanity:
1. Visit our web site: to remind yourself why you fell in love with Payseur & Schmidt the first time.
2. If you’re interested in any of the sale items (listed above), send the appropriate amount of moolah (including shipping – domestic listed above, international may be extra) directly via paypal to orders @ payseurandschmidt.com. We, as of yet, have not mastered the internets and have no easy way to implement sales via our website – please forgive.
3. You will get a confirmation from us and we’ll ship out a delivery of bookish awesomeness to you pronto.
4. Sit back and wait for the goodness to arrive on your doorstep.

It’s that easy. Give yourself the gift of words, art, and music to slake your thirst for something great. Take care, and don’t forget that when the whiskey’s all gone, Payseur & Schmidt stand strong.

As always, any questions can be sent to orders at payseurandschmidt.com as well.

Happy Recession/Depression from the kids at Payseur & Schmidt

Alice Schmidt
Therese Littleton
Jacob McMurray

Any cool linkage I should be pimping? Put it in the comments thread.

(Also, just a minor programming note: We’ve bowed out of our appearance at the Steampunk conference in Riverside. However, it looks like Ann at the very least will be going to WorldCon in August.)