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Living in a world of late-night talk show hosts “interviewing” celebrities and novelty acts, and cable news talking heads “interviewing” politicians and lobbyists, most people aren’t familiar with the art of the interview. For nearly 50 years The Paris Review has been publishing some of the best, most in-depth and insightful author interviews in the English [...] Here’s a half hour doc about maker culture. Makers – A short-subject documentary about the Do-It-Yourself Counterculture (click through to see a larger, higher-res version) Makers – A short-subject documentary about the Do-It-Yourself Counterculture from Brian Boyko on Vimeo. Makers is a short subject documentary, filmed at Austin’s Maker Faire, 2007, about the people behind the do-it-yourself counterculture [...] (Robert Sheckley is one of my all-time favorite writers. This story was published in Galaxy Magazine December, 1952 and the copyright was never renewed so it has fallen into the public domain. The illustration is by EMSH aka Ed Emshwiller. This is a story about carelessly going into so much debt that it will take [...] “Macx is a 21st century animal who eats information and excretes ideas. Ideas are nothing more than the connective spark between the charmed synchronicities of items of data. This is why restrictive societies like to control the flow of information: very few political soil pipes are built to take the pressure of millions of people [...] “Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right [...] More poetry! This from pioneering scientist, attorney general, philosopher, and poet Lord Francis Bacon. When Bacon learned about the European discovery of the lands in the western hemisphere, he wrote The New Atlantis (1627) where he imagined a nation that gave greater rights to women, abolished slavery, eliminated debtors’ prisons, separated church and state, and provided freedom [...] Frederik Pohl has been keeping a blog since the beginning of this year. Most recently he posted about his pacemaker implant, but over the last few months he’s also put up a series of posts about early fandom that are just terrific. I’m a sucker for old SF pulps and stories about the penny-a-word writers [...] Two new treats from two of my favorite SF writers. First, this essay “Design Fiction,” from Bruce Sterling. Sterling is a trailblazer, first on the scene with CyberPunk, SteamPunk, started the Viridian list (which inspired the Worldchangers), writes design theory (Shaping Things), and is currently researching imaginary gadgets (when not creating new gonzo genres of speculative [...] Fun collection of some SF/Fantasy writers in their workspace. (Thanks, JFR!) Here’s Floridian Piers Anthony. Charles Brown, long-time editor of Locus magazine, died last night. “Locus publisher, editor, and co-founder Charles N. Brown, 72, died peacefully in his sleep July 12, 2009 on his way home from Readercon.” Many years ago when I worked in a science-fiction bookstore I relied on Locus to guide me to the best works to order. [...] Thomas Pynchon has a new book coming out in a few weeks. At under 400 pages I might actually be able to finish this one. There are actually only two books by Pynchon I haven’t finished. I’m really looking forward to this one. A very funny, 20-minute tale from Kevin Smith on writing a script for Superman. A mini-webcomic from Warren Ellis. Here’s one panel from Edison Hate Future. One of the great intellectual inspirations of my life has died. By weird coincidence, when I was browsing at Mojo books this afternoon, I thought “It’s been a long time since I read any Ballard, I should keep him in mind as I browse.” Link to White Fungus by Bruce [...] This Thursday, April 16, noted SF author Mike Resnick will be the featured speaker at USF’s Fifth Annual Science Fiction Lecture. “Special Collections has been home to Mike Resnick’s manuscripts and publications for many years. His visit is in some ways a homecoming as well as an opportunity for the community to celebrate his achievements. Join [...] David Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died April 7, 2009. Arneson and Gary Gygax (who died last year) fundamentally altered the pop culture landscape. Arneson met Gygax in 1969 at a gaming convention. They took their shared interest in war games, applied it to a medieval world, and spawned an industry that resonates through every [...] Why the Kindle is not good for intellectual [...] Awesome collection of Vonnegut motivational posters. Inkwood Books will be hosting cookbook author Diana Kennedy Saturday, February 14 at 2 p.m. “Kennedy is universally known for bringing authentic delicious Mexican recipes to the US kitchen, as Julia Child did for French and Marcella Hazan did for Italian. She will discuss and sign her classic book, The Art of Mexican Cooking, which was [...] Donald Westlake dies New Year’s Eve. The full panoply of Mr. Westlake’s books was a spectacle to behold, his friends said. “We were in his library, this beautiful library surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of titles,” said Laurence Kirshbaum, his agent, “and I realized that every single book was written by Donald Westlake, English-language and foreign-language [...] Daily Routines collects information about “how writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days.” T. C. Boyle has my dream schedule and the one I work on trying to achieve (with an emphasis on the trying). “I start with two newspapers: the L.A. Times and the Santa Barbara News Press. Then I re-read what [...] Bill McKeen is now an occasional contributor to Creative Loafing’s Daily Loaf as Bill McKeen’s Book Blog. William McKeen is chairman of the University of Florida’s Department of Journalism and author of several books, including the Hunter S. Thompson biography Outlaw Journalist. Ric Jahna is on tour to support his new book True Kin: Stories. As he travels around the country he is profiling independent bookstores, libraries, and other locally owned businesses and writing about them on his blog – My Book Tour. Last Wednesday he visited Inkwood Books and blogged about it here. (h/t Ybor City Stogie) A few years ago Google began an ambitious program to scan the books of major academic and research libraries and put the digital copies online. When they were working with public domain material this was not a problem. But then Google began scanning books that were in copyright. This brought about a lawsuit from the [...] Here’s some upcoming events at Inkwood Books. The descriptions are abbreviated, click here to get the full scoop. I see that they have Patrick McGrath visiting. I read everything McGrath wrote up until the mid-90s and loved it all. Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:00 p.m. The following is a guest post from JB - Looks like Alison Bechdel, author/illustrator of the 25-year-long comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” has (temporarily, I hope) retired her cartooning pen to pursue other writing projects (http://www.dykestowatchoutfor.com/dtwof-episode-527). I discovered it unexpectedly last night, when I decided to check up on my old pals, Mo and [...] 1962-2008 “Wallace’s wife, Karen Green, found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home at about 9:30 p.m. on Friday, September 12, 2008. He was 46 years old.” Interested in Florida authors? Check out the Florida Authors Wiki. “This is a group project started by the Readers’ Advisory Committee at the Southwest County Regional Library of the Palm Beach County Library System in Boca Raton, Florida. “Our goals are to be as inclusive and as accessible as possible. To that end, we are defining “Florida [...] From a recent press release - “On Thursday, August 14 at 7 p.m., at Inkwood Books, WILLIAM McKEEN, University of Florida Professor of journalism, will discuss and sign his biography, OUTLAW JOURNALIST: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON. McKeen gets behind the drinking and drugs to show the intelligence and influence of the writer [...] |
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