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Why wait around for the throne or the cash when murder can deliver it immediately?

Five Dangerously Impatient Heirs and Successors

Clarke Award Finalists 2004

Jul. 7th, 2025 10:12 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
2004: Labour spares no effort to liberate Britons from human rights, UKIP's electoral successes surely do not reflect fundamental flaws in the British psyche, and London voters are heartbroken to discover the Livingstone who was just elected mayor isn’t the Livingstone who co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy books.

Poll #33332 Clarke Award Finalists 2004
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?

View Answers

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
15 (62.5%)

Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
2 (8.3%)

Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
8 (33.3%)

Maul by Tricia Sullivan
2 (8.3%)

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
2 (8.3%)

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
10 (41.7%)



Bold for have read, italic for intend to read,, underline for never heard of it.


Which 2004 Clarke Award Finalists Have You Read?
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
Coalescent by Stephen Baxter
Darwin's Children by Greg Bear
Maul by Tricia Sullivan

Midnight Lamp by Gwyneth Jones
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

Shut Up and Dance With Me

Jul. 7th, 2025 12:10 am
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[personal profile] austin_dern

I can now reveal what it is that's had me so busy that I couldn't keep up with the Plopsaland De Panne trip report or the rest of our European vacation, never mind turning my whole blog over to the late Robert Benchley, who'd be hard-pressed to get much later still.

For our anniversary [personal profile] bunnyhugger set off on a road trip, a big amusement park trip that took us to ... let me count this ... eight parks (not all amusement parks) in eight days, with a lot of driving involved. We got in at after 1 am last night, to the lingering smoke fumes of the fireworks attack on the Eastside, and I slept in until, uh, what time is it right this minute? Not quite that but pretty close to it.

Along the way we celebrated our anniversary, had some disappointments, met a relative, learned something mildly surprising about other relatives, and did the both of us reach notable numbers in our roller-coaster-riding histories? You'll see just as soon as I get out of Belgium, an event I hope to be done this week. But that's what we've been up to and is why I didn't have time to keep writing the past week.


I bring you now the final pictures from the Fairy Ball. You get to guess what's coming up next on the photo roll.

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Boxes of the LED-stick glowing stuff they had set up.


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The glowing box looks even better with blurry half-visible figures behind. Not snark; I like how it adds life to the scene.


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Near the end of the night. Finally coaxed [personal profile] bunnyhugger into sitting on the moon throne!


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She looks like a natural here.


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Looking back out over the BMX grounds and the mushrooms and all.


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And hey, transformation hoops just left tossed casually around! Those are dangerous!


Trivia: The Detroit Free Press of 7 August 1860 published an extremely detailed box score of the first defeat suffered by the Detroit Base Ball Club. It had a table listing outs and runs for each batter; another table breaking down the outs per batter into five categories; a third table listing the number and type of outs recorded by each fielder; and a fourth table with each inning's total of pitches throw by the pitcher, foul balls hit, and passed balls, and additional notes were included for details that did not fit on the table, including the one batter who struck out. The only statistic of apparent note not kept was the number of base hits. Source: A Game of Inches: The Story Behind The Innovations That Shaped Baseball, Peter Morris.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

What Was, What Might Have Been

Jul. 6th, 2025 03:54 pm
krpalmer: (anime)
[personal profile] krpalmer
One weekend before I left on my vacation I took a shorter trip, going back to my old university for homecoming. I must not have paid close enough attention to the schedule, because in arriving around noon after a lengthy trip by train and bus I found the homecoming events had closed down and displays for visitors were being packed away. Managing to shrug that off, I wandered around campus by myself and dropped in on the arts library, my thoughts turning to a particular article I’d read a certain number of years ago.
Past mechanics )

Wild Cards checklist

Jul. 5th, 2025 09:35 am
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
This is much easier for Martin's New Voices series....

Read more... )
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Four works new to me. One is SF, two fantasy, and the magazine (which I have not yet looked inside) likely both. Two of the novels are series novels, one does not seem to me.

Books Received, June 28 — July 4



Poll #33326 Books Received, June 28 — July 4
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35


Which of these look interesting?

View Answers

FIYAH No. 35: Black Isekai published by FIYAH Literary Magazine (July 2025)
18 (51.4%)

Aces Full edited by George R. R. Martin (November 2025)
2 (5.7%)

Only Spell Deep by Ava Morgyn (March 2026)
6 (17.1%)

The Damned by Harper L. Woods (October 2025)
3 (8.6%)

Some other option (see comments)
0 (0.0%)

Cats!
29 (82.9%)

james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll


Ninety years after her grandmother's family was stalked by a witch, international student Minerva Contrera's studies land her in a similar position.


The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
austin_dern: Inspired by Krazy Kat, of kourse. (Default)
[personal profile] austin_dern

I must once more beg off writing up the European Vacation in order to tend other matters of great importance. Please enjoy more pictures from the Fairy Ball, though.

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We poked back around the woodland trail in full darkness.


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Here's the sort of path we were following by night.


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And here we emerged onto the Court of the Fae, illuminated only by the overhead lights.


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The Moon Grove looks even more remote in portrait mode.


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They had something or other going nearly all the time, with the drawback being you couldn't avoid missing a lot of stuff.


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Fairy lights in the darkness doing a very good job of being the trail.


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Moon Grove as the wedding dancing was going on and, you can see, they were bringing out the light sabers!


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Meanwhile here's a woman demonstrating fire dancing moves.


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That's an exciting event!


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Swinging the flames around some.


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Yes, there's fire-swallowing.


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And some dancing with the fire.


Trivia: Two of the final projects of Terry Toons were Saturday morning cartoon pilots: The Ruby Eye of the Monkey God, a jungle-adventure cartoon, and Sally Sargent, about a 16-year-old secret agent girl. Source: Terry Toons: The Story of Paul Terry and his Classic Cartoon Factory, W Gerald Hamonic.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

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[personal profile] austin_dern

My days continue to be too busy with matters not yet fit to be shared, so please enjoy Fairy Ball pictures while I hope this situation soon changes.

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They started taking volunteers for a Lion Dance and [personal profile] bunnyhugger joined the first and, it turned out, only group to perform.


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Folks gathered around, getting their parts and getting instructions on what to do.


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As an old marching band hand [personal profile] bunnyhugger was well-equipped to march correctly, unlike other people.


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Here, someone makes off with a set of speakers while everyone else watches the dragon.


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Frame from the middle of my movie of the dragon dancing.


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And here we're near the end, the dragon's final bow.


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Another sword-fighting demonstration, this time by night so everything looks blurry.


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Alternatively, everyone looks really, really fast!


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The end of the demonstration. Seconds gather up the participants.


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And into the night and the wedding reception.


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One of the communal art projects was painting these fairy mushroom scenes on the right.


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Here's one of the completed boards.


Trivia: In the last year of Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz's life (1873) he ran a summer school for natural history, at the seashore on Penikese Island, off the southern shore of Massachusetts. Around 50 to 60 people attended. Source: Yankee Science in the Making, Dirk J Struik. (The island would in the 20th century house a leper hospital and, later, a residential school for troubled boys and is now a bird sanctuary.)

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

Every time I run something

Jul. 3rd, 2025 10:34 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I embrace new tools. In Fabula Ultima, for example, the order in which characters go in combat varies. I found it hard to keep track of who'd gone, so I went out and got poker chips and little round labels. Now, I can just toss the chips representing characters into a bowl once they've gone. Order!

OK, except it turns out I can't tell blue from green under the ceiling light in the room where I DM and the names on the labels need to be bigger.
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Director of the nation formerly known as Canada Quinn Atherton is determined to deliver much mass murder as it takes to achieve peace, order, good government. Why do so many ingrates object?

Blight(Sleep of Reason, volume 2) by Rachel A. Rosen

Turn Me on With Your Electric Feel

Jul. 4th, 2025 12:10 am
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[personal profile] austin_dern

My humor blog has been another week of Robert Benchley and some very slight other stuff. Also a joke based on a thing [personal profile] bunnyhugger has been facing. Want to read all about it? Here we go.


And now let me share a normal amount of pictures from the Fairy Ball last year.

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Swordfighting at the Moon Grove! I don't know if this was merely a demonstration or if it was actually for some prize.


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Much like a small convention they set up things like palm-reading booths and some vendor stations.


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Some of the many signs made and not yet put up even as the event was under way.


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This was a small circle very useful for navigating. The bike stand is on the right, with the Moon Grove below.


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[personal profile] bunnyhugger examines the entry arch. Note the Christmas lights --- the fairy lights --- to line the path inside.


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[personal profile] bunnyhugger composing an ode to the entryway.


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Drum circle that was going on as we went to walk the path through the woods.


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There's the drummers on the right; I can't tell what's going on in the background. Hidden behind the trees was a crepes truck, though.


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And here's the walkway. Those probably aren't actual ghosts draped up in the woods.


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This seems like an unproductive bridge until you remember it's probably a lot of fun to ride a bike over.


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Following the fairy lights through the woods here.


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And we came out the path near the Moon Grove where, it happens, the wedding ceremony was going on, with the exit right behind, like, everybody. So, we stayed back rather than intrude, and maybe appeared as blurry visions in the background of other people's pictures.


Trivia: Greenland ice core studies indicate that between atmospheric lead levels rose from 0.5 parts per trillion to 2 parts per trillion in the first century AD, reflecting Rome conquering Britain and mining the island's lead. Source: Molecules at an Exhibition: The Science of Everyday Life, John Emsley.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

Shock Me Like an Electric Eel

Jul. 3rd, 2025 12:10 am
austin_dern: Inspired by Krazy Kat, of kourse. (Default)
[personal profile] austin_dern

I regret that certain matters not yet ready to be revealed have kept me from completing the next entry in the Plopsaland portion of our European Vacation report. I hope to get the needed time soon but, meanwhile, please enjoy a double dose of pictures from that Fairy Ball.

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Greetings to the fairy court. They were having an actual wedding, as the original plan to have a play wedding grew beyond the original whimsical bounds.


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And here the host explains the rules of things and I think also what the mysterious Court of the Fae mounds were. They were obstacles put up for a BMX racing track that these grounds had been.


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And that's what the opening looked like, fairy court and honor guards and all.


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They had a small horse, too! With everything moving faster than my camera wanted to photograph. Well, a unicorn.


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Slightly better picture of the unicorn, who only hung around a couple hours before going back wherever young unicorns go.


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Back at the Moon Grove, a kid does tae kwan do demonstrations.


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Some more of her moves.


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We went back to the car for something or other and this let me get some pictures of the signs and the ad hoc nature of parking; we were lucky to get there early enough there were normal-ish parking spots available.


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Note the Enchanted Fae Wedding signs look different each time you look at them!


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The proper entrance to the woods. I can't explain the free-standing sink beside it.


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This stand, on a hill bove the Moon Grove, was the stand used to launch BMX bikes into the course.


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You can almost picture riding a bicycle extremely into the Moon Grove, can't you?


Trivia: In 1923 the United States Navy announced plans to fly the airship Shenandoah to the North Pole. It was cancelled by President Calvin Coolidge, who judged the plan too dangerous. Source: When Giants Ruled The Sky: The Brief Reign and the Tragic Demise of the American Rigid Airship, John J Geoghegan.

Currently Reading: Empire of the Sum: The Rise and Reign of the Pocket Calculator, Keith Houston.

My alt-Mummy film

Jul. 2nd, 2025 11:51 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The inspiration being the 1999 Mummy movie is not without problematic elements.

Imagine an Egyptian film company wanting to make a movie about idiots waking a horror in Canada that only the Egyptian lead can resolve.
Read more... )
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The June 2023 Dark Eye Megabundle featuring the English-language edition from Ulisses Spiele of the leading German tabletop roleplaying game of heroic fantasy, The Dark Eye.

Bundle of Holding: The Dark Eye MEGA (from 2023)

Jimmy Swaggart?

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:19 pm
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[personal profile] infrogmation
Corrupt hypocrite televangelist Jimmy Swaggart died at 90. (I keep hearing lots of people just assumed he died years ago.)

https://www.aol.com/news/us-televangelist-jimmy-swaggart-dies-160057339.html


About 1989, some friends had a "Jimmy Swaggart Party" at a seedy motel in a suburb of New Orleans - they claimed the room they rented was one Swaggart used to meet with prostitutes. All attendees were to dress as either televangelists or hookers. The tv set was tuned to a porn channel, with a paper cutout of Swaggart pasted on it so he'd be in every scene.

We had something else we had to do that day, but figured we had to stop by briefly, because the concept was so on point.

2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame Inductees

Jul. 1st, 2025 06:02 pm
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[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
The quotation below is a quotation


CSFFA (The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association) is proud to announce the 2025 CSFFA Hall of Fame inductees.

Clint Budd, fan, convention organizer, modernized CSFFA and created the CSFFA Hall of Fame
Charles R. Saunders, author, journalist, and founder of the “sword and soul” literary genre
Diane L. Walton, editor, mentor, and a founding member of On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

More information here.


Congratulations to the Inductees!

Social Media Note: Hey.Cafe

Jul. 1st, 2025 04:46 pm
dewline: (canadian media)
[personal profile] dewline
Just a reminder that Hey.Cafe exists. It's Canadian-based and Canadian-owned. It's an alternative to Twitter and the rest - however well-behaved they are - just in case.

My account is here:

https://hey.cafe/@dewline

Yes, I plan to try Gander as well once it opens up.
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