Global Spin » Literature

Click Swiftly to the Swivet (But Don’t Panic!)

Deb — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:45:24 +0000

I have recently discovered The Swivet. It is the blog of one Colleen Lindsay, a self-styled “unrepentant nerd” and a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management.

I am posting the link to her blog since it’s a lot easier than re-posting every link she posts to Global Spin.

In fact, I would like to submit a motion to include Colleen as an honorary member of the Global Spin geek freak squad. She’s lived in San Francisco, has a link to XKCD on her blog and posts things like this and this. So, just a humble suggestion to read her blog, folks.

It’s a Guinea Pig Wedding

Deana — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:14:06 +0000

A gay guinea pig wedding, that is. I just read about a new kids’ book about a little girl whose Uncle Bobby is getting married (it’s called Uncle Bobby’s Wedding), and her big issue is that he won’t have as much time for her anymore. The fact that the wedding leaves her with two uncles instead of one is a definite plus, however.

Legacy has arrived!

Deb — Thu, 10 May 2007 20:21:26 +0000

As you all know, Kerrigan is having her book Legacy published on May 18, 2007. Yesterday, our ten copies arrived and I thought y’all might want to get a first look:

This would be the front cover in the vineyard outside my office at about 6:00 am this morning (isn’t it beautiful?!?).

Here are the side and back views.

Look, you can even open it! It’s so strange to see it on a printed page rather than a computer screen.

Anyway, Legacy will be available soon! If you’d like to see Kerrigan at a book store near you, jump over here and demand it!

Legacy, by Kerrigan Valentine

Deb — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:53:32 +0000

Hello world!

Kerrigan is having her first book published! Hooray! Publication date is May 18, 2007. You can get more info at the following links: Creatrix Books and Kerrigan’s new website!

(much credit and kudos to Chris as creator and webmaster of aforementioned new website!)

Which Sci-Fi Writer Are You?

Deana — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 05:30:08 +0000

I am:

Philip Jos� Farmer

This prolific author brings surprising depths to he-man adventure tales, and broke science fiction’s prudery barrier.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Having never read Farmer, I’m at something of a loss. Perhaps I shall.

Me Two!

Deana — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:20:45 +0000

I am also a big winner, and I finished my story. I shall not hide it because I like attention. It can use a ton of editing, though, and input from people who know more about space science than I do. Anyway,

I hope that works!!

Pratchett recommendations

Chris — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 22:46:40 +0000

(My boss asked me for some Terry Pratchett book recommendations today.� It took a bit of research, so I figured I’d share…)

…or “Where to start?”� There are something like 35 Discworld novels spanning almost 25 years, so there’s a bit of variation.� Pratchett also loves his in-jokes and walk-ons, so you’ll definitely get more out of the books once you’re familiar with the milieu.� (You’ll also get more out of them if you know lots of movie, music, and book trivia.� The guy’s encyclopedic with his puns.)

The very first book you’ll want to read is Good Omens, written with Neil Gaiman.� It’s not a Discworld book, but it has the same kind of style so it’s a good indicator of whether you’ll like Pratchett or not.

He tends to come back to certain sets of characters, so there are “series” of a sort.� (Luckily, they aren’t the plodding-along-with-foreshadowing kind of series.)� The one I’d recommend starting with is the Watch series:

Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!

If that’s a bit daunting, there are others that stand on their own:

Note that I’ve linked to Mysterious Galaxy for these; they’re a great source for backlist Pratchett titles, which are ordinarily difficult to find from any one source.

NaNoWriMo blog team go!

Chris — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 05:39:30 +0000

K and I are going to give National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) a try this year. It goes something like this: starting on November 1st, each of us has to write a 50,000-word (175-page) novel by midnight on November 30th. It’s not as crazy as it sounds; hordes of people finish every year, mostly by lowering their expectations from ‘bestseller’ to ‘will not make someone vomit’ (in the words of one of the organizers).

You can follow our progress along the way by visiting our NaNoWriMo pages; a handy pair of links is included in the sidebar here. I’m not sure exactly what they’ll contain, but at the very least it’ll include up-to-date word counts. If you decide (due to some mad urge) to join us and write a novel of your own, let me know your author URL and I’ll add it to the links.

Awash in a Sea of Other Stuff

Karen — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:35:44 +0000

… finally, I bring you the next installment of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Covers quilt. Yes, it’s a stupid name but it has stuck. So be it. Want to see more? Here’s a quick teaser:

For even more (what? Didn’t that tell you everything you needed to know?), read on.

So, you know you want to see it again:

Skulls! On! Fire! Fayah, baby! (Yes, that is the actual name of the fabric. Minus a few exclamation points.)
Okay, it’s out of my system now. Actually, since we last drifted past one another the quilt has undergone quite a lot. This, for instance:

Many pieces add up to many strips. Ben thought it made a keen maze and wanted to step on it, but Chris wouldn’t let him, so instead he jumped from hole to hole. Ah, it took me years to understand negative space…

Then I put them together, the motley crew of ‘em, into a quilt top (which took a while) and began roping them in with Skulls! On! Fire! Um, actually, ~~sculls~~ skulls on fire became the inner border. And to finish with something totally not nautical, the outer border is Supernovae! Really. See?

Supernovae and Skulls! On! Fire! Warrant well for a newlywed nuptial quilt, don’t you think? I do.

So then I thought, why not show you the whole completed top? Okay.

What’s that, you say? Looks odd? That’s because it’s the underside! Ah ha! This is my exploratory voyage and you don’t get any quickie endings. You have to hang out with me until the end, when it is all quilted and bound and such, before you see the top of the top and the bottom of the bottom. Leviathan, bring it on. Deana and Glen have their love and Skulls! On! Fire! to keep them warm and you at bay. And Supernovae. They are warm too.

Sailing calm waters

Karen — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 21:47:03 +0000

Yes, among many other doings there comes an update to the 20,000 Leagues Under the Covers quilt! (Deana and Glen, there are more photos on my Flickr site.)

The work on this quilt is done in fits and starts, but I think it is really striking when a new stage is finished. Yay! The fishie path is a difficult one, but to those who can keep the faith the reward is quite nice.